Final Fantasy XVI Producer Naoki Yoshida Reveals the Core Elements of a Final Fantasy Game - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 July 2022 / 2,463 Views
Final Fantasy XVI producer Naoki Yoshida in a new interview with PlayStation Blog has revealed some new details on the upcoming JRPG, as well as revealing what the core elements of a Final Fantasy game are.
"I’d say the core elements of a Final Fantasy game are a deep story, deep gameplay, cutting-edge graphics and cutting-edge sound… as well as chocobos and moogles, of course," said Yoshida.
"n the 35-year history of the Final Fantasy series, it’s always been the guiding policy that each new installment has to be the very best game that the director at the time can put together, no matter how the game world, the characters, or the battle system might change. Because of this, gamers and Final Fantasy fans around the world have very different ideas of what a Final Fantasy game should be—but to me, it’s those elements I mentioned.
"When it came to deciding what to do with Final Fantasy XVI, I thought back to when I played the original Final Fantasy, and remembered how I felt like I was playing the leading role in a motion picture. I wanted to recapture that feeling in XVI, but with state-of-the-art game design and the latest in modern technology.
"The whole development team, under the directorship of Hiroshi Takai, has come together to make that dream a reality, so I hope you all look forward to it."
Yoshida revealed the game is fully playable from start to finish, but the team has a lot of voiceover to record in multiple languages. They are also doing playtesting to fine-tune the difficulty levels, finishing up the cutscenes, and debugging.
"Right now, the game is fully playable from start to finish, but we have a lot of voiceover in several languages that still need to be recorded," said Yoshida.
"Final Fantasy XVI is a very action-oriented game, so we’re also doing a lot of playtesting to fine-tune the difficulty levels, as well as putting the final touches on the cutscenes, and going through a full-scale debugging process. A year is a short time in game development, so we’re all straining at the bit to get it over the line."
The music in the game is not all finished yet, revealed Yoshida. Composer Masayoshi Soken does like to "repurpose parts of the in-game soundtrack in trailers." Some of themes in the final game were in the trailers.
He said the power of the PlayStation 5 means the graphics in the game can be even better than with older consoles and the faster loading due to the SSD is nice.
"With the boost in processing power, we can obviously make the graphics even richer than we could before, but it’s the super-fast loading times that really impress me," he said.
"In Final Fantasy XVI, you jump straight from story cutscenes into real-time battles and back again without any loading times, making the gameplay flow at a breakneck pace. It’s only thanks to the power of the PlayStation 5 system that we can make Final Fantasy XVI the roller-coaster ride that it is."
Final Fantasy XVI will launch for the PlayStation 5 in summer 2023.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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This is a nice interview but generic things he listed, what game (modern big budget at least) doesn't need those 4 things he listed?
I like what I'm hearing even if it is more action oriented. And I agree that what I expect of FF is that each is the best they can manage to do.
This girl there in that picture looks far more interesting than a lot of character designs from many many many other games of these modern times. Simple but effective. I really like this design a lot. Wonder who she is and what kind of role she plays.
Edit: After looking at her for ten minutes straight I think I have a crush.
I expect this to be better than every mainline FF post 12 but not expecting it to return the magic to the series it lost post IX.
