Development of Final Fantasy 16 is approximately 95% complete.
On the occasion of a new media tour dedicated to Final Fantasy 16 producer Naoki Yoshida again confirmed in the columns of the Japanese magazine Famitsu that the development would very soon come to an end and that an unexpected delay is unlikely:
As I’ve gotten so used to the online game development environment over the past few years, I was a little surprised at how quickly we had to go gold. If you look at producing physical discs, shipping them around the world…all of that takes months of preparation time after achieving gold status. So when we say development is 95% complete, some might say it needs to be released immediately, but that is the reality of the situation…
『#FF16』開発 スタッフ インタビュー。 プロデューサー 吉田 直樹 氏 、 メイン ディレクター 高井浩氏 クリエイティブ ディレクター ディレクター/メインシナリオ 前廣 和 豊氏 に 観 や ストーリー 詳細 を 訊く 訊く 訊く 訊く 訊く 訊く 訊く 訊く 訊く 訊く 訊く 訊く 訊く 訊く 訊く 訊く 訊く 訊く 訊く 訊く 訊く 訊く 訊く 訊く 訊く 訊く
・裏テーマは“自己肯定”
・開発状況は9割5分。年内に発売日を発表予定#FFXVI
https://t.co/R63HmYSNkb pic.twitter.com/W2emfNEcSX— ファミ通.com (@famitsu) November 4, 2022
Same story with Hiroshi Takai who adds that the teams of the Creative Business Unit III division do what is necessary to ensure that the experience is optimal from its launch:
Right now we are playing the game day by day, ironing out issues and fixing some performance and rendering issues. After that there are the bug fixes.
Final Fantasy 16 release date will be announced before the end of the year
After the vague “summer 2023” for Final Fantasy 16 on PS5, the Japanese publisher Square-Enix should be more precise in a few weeks:
We plan to release even more information before the end of the year, so I think we’ll be able to give you a release date then. It won’t be later than summer, so don’t worry.
Final Fantasy 16 will be playable via a demo before release
Game director Hiroshi Takai also spoke to a few media like 4Gamer, Dengeki, IGN and EveryEye on the lifespan of Final Fantasy 16. The main adventure is estimated between 35 and 40 hours without side quests and other optional content. . Otherwise, it will take at least 70 hours. Note that lovers of difficulty will be able to restart the game with reinforced enemies via the New Game+ mode. On the side of Naoki Yoshida, it was also said that a playable demo of Final Fantasy 16 would be planned sometime next year in order to have the first feedback from players, an increasingly recurrent concept at Square Enix. in order to make adjustments at the right time.
Creative differences between Final Fantasy XIV and Final Fantasy 16
In the PlayStation Blog, Michael-Christopher Koji Fox, Director of Localization for Final Fantasy 16, returned on the writing of this new opus :
First and foremost, FFXIV’s Warrior of Light was a silent protagonist, which greatly influenced the writing of the scenes. As a result, most cutscenes in FFXIV featured OTHER characters talking to YOU. It was almost exclusively up to the NPCs to carry out the daunting task of conveying important information. For FF16, Clive actively participates in all conversations. The way we can relay information to the player is therefore totally different. In this sense, the cutscenes are much more dynamic. Also, the implementation of facial captures in many scenes gave us the opportunity to communicate emotions and feelings through expressions rather than dialogues. The differences in video game genres also had a major impact on our approach. With an MMO like XIV, the goal was to create a story that could last over two years using expansions. With a standalone game, the narrative approach should be more compact and streamlined. When a standalone game is all about the action, unlike a slower-paced traditional RPG, the narrative tempo becomes twice as important. The political intrigues may be captivating, but they often turn out to be complex and require long explanations which can slow down the pace. If we rely too much on plot and subtleties, we risk losing sight of the purpose of the thing. As a result, the game may suffer. As we create interactive content, our goal is to provide a good balance. The intrinsic concept of Yoshida-san’s design for Final Fantasy 16 reminds me of a roller coaster, a mix of slow climbs, followed by heart-pounding free-falls! It’s really a great way to describe how we tried to present the narrative aspect.
