Current Events > Final Fantasy XVI news - not open world, AI controlled party members, and more

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This brings us to Final Fantasy XVI. While the Sony State of Play game trailer showed familiar summons that have become icons in the franchise, it showed little else that felt like players were about to enter a Final Fantasy game. The slower, more methodical turned-based combat system is gone in favor of something that looks ripped straight from Devil May Cry. The fantastical setting is gone too, in favor of a more realistic medieval setting with dark undertones akin to a Souls game.

Working on the project is Naoki Yoshida, a producer first brought on to salvage developer Square Enixs critically panned venture into the MMORPG genre, Final Fantasy XIV, and who is often cited as saving not just FFXIV, but potentially the entire franchise. With this latest series entry, he said hes had to balance fan expectations with innovation.

When youre thinking about the future of the Final Fantasy franchise, you have to aim at that generation of players that have never touched a Final Fantasy before, Yoshida said in an interview with The Washington Post. Maybe they think the series is too old, too classic. [So you] create something that shows them that this could be an exciting game.

But I dont want you to think that Im abandoning those veterans players and fans of the series, because were definitely not. We want to create something that everyone feels is epic.

Square Enix has been struggling with an identity crisis with the series for more than a decade. A tumultuous production cycle plagued 2006s Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy XIIIs pivot to a more action-based combat system polarized fans, and Final Fantasy XV, which strayed even further from turn-based combat, featured a convoluted narrative that unfolded across several DLCs, a spinoff beat-em-up style game, an anime miniseries and amovie.

When FFXIV initially released in 2010, it was heavily criticized for its lack of content, numerous bugs and server failures. Yoshida, an avid MMORPG fan himself, was brought on to lead a team that would essentially rebuild the game entirely. The result was FFXIV: A Realm Reborn in 2013, a much more streamlined experience that fixed bugs and provided rich content that not only spoke to newcomers but longtime fans desperately seeking signs of the franchise they once knew.

Yoshida, now the producer of FFXVI, which is set to release in 2023, is incorporating the lessons hes taken away from FFXIV into FFXVIs design philosophy. The combat system of FFXVI is a prime example of this: Its action-oriented, emphasizing flashy combos and read-and-react combat that the Final Fantasy series has been trending toward since FFXII, but attempts to incorporate elements longtime fans will recognize.

Fighting wont be a solo experience, contrary to how it appears in the trailer. The main character, Clive, will be accompanied by several AI-controlled party members who will banter and connect throughout the game, similar to past Final Fantasy games. Yoshida also teases that there will be a faithful buddy that Clive can give specific commands to during the combat, despite the majority of player control focusing on Clive.

While specific details of the combat will be revealed at a later date, Yoshida is confident in the direction the system is taking. He believes that Square Enix, now with titles like Final Fantasy XV, Final Fantasy VII Remake and the Kingdom Hearts series under its belt, finally has the expertise to create a compelling action combat system that players, regardless of their familiarity with the series, will enjoy.

The Kingdom Hearts team at Square Enix has been especially helpful in contributing to those real-time combat and boss battles, Yoshida said. It can be said that the battles in FFXVI are in some ways a culmination of the companys past experiences.

The team, led by Battle Director Ryota Suzuki, formerly of Capcom, who helped design Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Devil May Cry 5 and Dragons Dogma, feels similarly confident, according to Yoshida. Issues that plagued previous games in the franchise around battle animations, combat fluidity and messy UIs have all been streamlined thanks to Suzukis guidance.

Yoshida also believes that the games story which he says is not going to be a happy tale, and includes a setting, Valisthea, that is much darker than previous entries will have overarching themes reminiscent of what fans of the series have come to expect.

One of the main themes thats explored in Final Fantasy XVIs narrative deals with a clash of ideals. What is right and wrong? Should the people live the life that was chosen for them, or should they have the right to choose the path that they walk? Yoshida said.

Square Enix made sure that one of the first screens that loads up when playing Final Fantasy XV was a message that said the game was A Final Fantasy for Fans and First-Timers. Yoshida believes that Final Fantasy XVI will also capitalize on that message.

Personally, I think all games should be like that, he said. You can see the same thing in Final Fantasy XIV. So our foundation [for Final Fantasy XVI] is to build something thats going to be enjoyable for veteran fans as well as new players.

GI: Throughout the trailer, there are a number of health bars on the top of the screen, both in human vs human fights and Eikon vs Eikon battles. Whats going on with these, and are they meant to be reminiscent of fighting games?

Yoshida: Regarding the health bars and the UI, I saw a lot of comments on social media after the trailer released about how the UI is kind of reminiscent of a fighting game. When we started developing the game, and we had our Clive versus smaller enemies or our Eikon versus Eikon battles, when we were first developing them we did them with almost no UI on the screen at all. But we found that through playing this that it was just a little bit too little information we needed more information. That said, we didn't want the screen cluttered and so after a lot of back and forth and trying a lot of different things, we came to the designin the trailer, and that it just happens to look like a fighting game is just something that ended up happening.

The overall game design for these Eikon versus Eikon battles, however, is meant to be unique and in fact, we dont actually use the same exact system twice. Each battle is completely unique in its playstyle and so were doing something thats kind of crazy.

For example, maybe one Eikon versus Eikon battle, if you have Eikon A versus Eikon B, that battle will be reminiscent of a 3D shooter. Whereas another Eikon versus a different Eikon, its more like a pro wrestling match, and then maybe even a third with one Eikon versus another Eikon will transform an entire area into a battlefield. And so again, we didnt reuse these systems and each one of these Eikon versus Eikon battles is unique and will change with each battle. Because of that, and because the battles are so different in nature, the UI has to change for each battle. And so you will see slight differences in the UI between these battles. However, we ended up having to cut a lot of that from the trailer because it ends up being story spoilers and we didnt want to have that.

Then you ask, well if youve hidden some of the UI, why didnt you hide all of the UI like those HP bars? Why did you leave those? and that was simply because if you remove all of the HP bars and all of the UI, then people start saying, oh, thats just pre-rendered, thats not running in real-time. We wanted to show that what you saw in the trailer was in real-time so we made a decision to leave a little bit of that UI in.

Instead, Yoshida says, Final Fantasy 16 will focus on area-based design in a manner that sounds similar to Pokmon Legends: Arceus, which was likewise assumed to be a pure open world world game when it was first announced last year. But while Final Fantasy wont be a traditional open world game in itself, Yoshida does say that it will take a lot of inspiration from triple-A open world RPGs, though he doesnt name any specifics.

I feel like this has been the goal since after 10 and its never worked, and will likely continue to not work.

I just wish they had a side franchise that focused solely on turn-based

I get why people like the direction of action rpg, I just wish they had a side franchise that focused solely on turn-based. It's become so common to have action rpgs these days, and they used to be the kings of turn-based games.

Not good news. Hopefully XVII will be better.

I've been clinging to this broken dream since X-2

I've been clinging to this broken dream since X-2

When youre thinking about the future of the Final Fantasy franchise, you have to aim at that generation of players that have never touched a Final Fantasy before, Yoshida said in an interview with The Washington Post.

I feel like this has been the goal since after 10 and its never worked, and will likely continue to not work. Just make something to excite the fans you do have first.

Good news to me, I'm sick of this open world craze. Do you all really enjoy running around empty landscapes mashing the pickup button on a bunch of random plants?

I've been clinging to this broken dream since X-2

The amount of people I've met in FF14, the game Yoshi-P makes before 16, that have never played a Final Fantasy game is surprisingly high. So if anyone can make it work, it'd be him.

One of the main themes thats explored in Final Fantasy XVIs narrative deals with a clash of ideals. What is right and wrong? Should the people live the life that was chosen for them, or should they have the right to choose the path that they walk?

I find it weird they're not just copying FFVII Remake's combat system.

Each Eikon fight will differ? So Nier games then?

This weird pining for the "classic Final fantasy" has been going on for over decade. It's time to let go, bros.

I'm in for the changes given the hands the game is on.

I'll just come out and say it... Square-Enix sucks at making action rpgs.

The only thing that I don't like is the AI party members. Everything else sounds pretty good, and like they're making up for how bad XV was. Still don't like Clive as the protag, but everything else looks like it's being polished pretty well.

Yoshi-P says this himself in one of the interviews lol. He said beyond the Kingdom Hearts games, Square basically isn't that great at them.

Yeah, this sounds terrible but I'm used to terrible for mainline FF games at this point frankly.

SE is horrible about profit chasing without actually considering what people want OR how to actually make the games properly. FF series has been in the shitter for literal decades at this point sadly

Not counting the MMOs which are obviously a different beast entirely we've had: FF pretending to be a single player MMO (FF12), FF but the lead dev's waifu gets to star in 3 games (FF13 trilogy), and FF single player MMO RETURNS (now featuring Kingdom Hearts combat): The Boy Band Road Trip (FF15)

When youre thinking about the future of the Final Fantasy franchise, you have to aim at that generation of players that have never touched a Final Fantasy before, Yoshida said in an interview with The Washington Post.

I feel like this has been the goal since after 10 and its never worked, and will likely continue to not work. Just make something to excite the fans you do have first.

Forspoken is out in a few months if people are desperate for an open world action RPG from squeenix

"When youre thinking about the future of the Final Fantasy franchise, you have to aim at that generation of players that have never touched a Final Fantasy before," Yoshida said in an interview with The Washington Post.