Final Fantasy XVI completely hit PlayStation 5 final June, and as its one-year anniversary approaches in just some months, with a second DLC out this spring centered across the Leviathan Eikon known as The Rising Tide, I spoke to producer Naoki Yoshida and DLC director Takeo Kujiraoka concerning the recreation’s reception, Clive Rosfield as a protagonist, unfastened ends, and extra.
You can learn my unique preview of The Rising Tide DLC right here, and I’ve received a narrative about the way you should not count on extra DLC right here and one other concerning the lastest replace to the PC model’s growth right here, too. Below, nevertheless, is my retrospective dialogue about Final Fantasy XVI with Yoshida and Kujiraoka.
Looking Back At Final Fantasy XVI, Nine Months Later
Game Informer’s Wesley LeBlanc: How do you’re feeling about Clive as a protagonist? I ask as a result of I feel he is rapidly climbed the ranks of Final Fantasy protagonists for followers – individuals love Clive! Did you count on him to land within the Final Fantasy group in addition to he did?
Naoki Yoshida: First and foremost, once we noticed the reception and feedback from followers about Clive as a personality and an individual, some individuals truly noticed themselves as Clive. And seeing that type of reception as the event staff, we have been extraordinarily comfortable.
While writing the story for Final Fantasy XVI, we needed to make it about Clive Rosfield […] and his life. We needed to make it possible for we depict the start to finish of his life and story. And it is not simply the story – there’s additionally how we battles, how he talks with individuals, Clive leaping round, and likewise, Clive being free. So should you take all of that and compile it collectively, wanting again at it, I feel 80 % of the event sources have been spent on Clive. So clearly, for us as the event staff, we actually love him.
But on the identical time, we have been a bit involved with how he regarded towards the start as a result of he is not likely the flashiest; he has a moderately darker tone of clothes as a result of he is alleged to mix in with an assassination staff, and he does a unclean job, too. We needed that mirrored within the visuals of how he regarded. We felt like it will most likely be a 50-50 likelihood of him being well-liked with the followers or not. But it seems, the followers do like him in order that’s actually nice to see.
Naoki Yoshida
Game Informer: What’s the largest lesson discovered from growing Final Fantasy XVI?
Yoshida: The largest studying expertise the staff received was that for Final Fantasy XVI, the PlayStation 5 was the primary console launch for it. And due to that, we had the chance to create the sport with high-quality graphics and never only for the world, however the characters, the atmosphere, all the pieces was prime notch. What that meant was we needed to assume and ensure we have been sustaining that top high quality whereas reaching milestones on time. We did not need to drag on growth for too lengthy, so we needed to ensure we weren’t being too gradual with growth. And to take care of that stability, we have been type of at midnight at first as a result of we did not have prior expertise with the PS5 platform earlier than.
We have been capable of take Final Fantasy XVI to the end line ultimately, however getting there was, not a continuing – not a wrestle – however a continuing battle of attempting to take care of the top quality and the event timeline on the identical time. So in essence, it was a problem; it was very troublesome to take care of throughout growth, but it surely was additionally enjoyable – the expertise of coping with the cutting-edge and new expertise of the PS5.
As a director, I feel that is one thing that may be taken to our subsequent undertaking. It’s not likely one thing we discovered due to it being a mainline Final Fantasy recreation or as a result of it was an motion recreation – it was actually extra to do with the expertise and the way huge the size of the title was.
Takeo Kujiraoka: As you already know, this is applicable for each the DLC and the principle recreation [and as Yoshida mentioned earlier], there have been quite a lot of areas we have been type of at midnight, in a means of determining quite a lot of issues. As it went on, every of the event staff members have been capable of coordinate communication with one another intently and we did our greatest to make sure that we delivered the best high quality doable. So with the ability to try this in such a brief span of time, I feel was a terrific studying expertise for us.
Separate from that, I’ve a bit extra of a private opinion as a recreation designer [Editor’s Note: Kujiraoka led development on the Eikon battles throughout the base game]. In quite a lot of methods, it was type of outlandish [because we were able to] spend quite a lot of prices and sources on Final Fantasy XVI that may be unimaginable for every other regular online game title. I used to be capable of go all out with that. In a type of sentiment of what I discussed earlier, [I learned a lot] by way of tips on how to make our growth environment friendly and pace up the method whereas sustaining high quality. That’s clearly very helpful constructive perception that I can make the most of for our subsequent undertaking.
There’s additionally the reception and response we acquired from the followers doing one thing so huge and outlandish [in battles]. I feel these sorts of issues are undoubtedly one thing that may be fed into our subsequent undertaking.
Takeo Kujiraoka
Game Informer: If The Rising Tide is presumably the final piece of Final Fantasy XVI content material gamers can count on, how do you each really feel concerning the recreation coming to a detailed? Are there any unfastened ends you needed to handle however could not?
Yoshida: During growth of Final Fantasy XVI, there have been quite a lot of challenges the event staff took on [to develop] the latest mainline title of Final Fantasy. Naturally, that got here with quite a lot of, I do not need to say “struggles,” however there have been some troublesome occasions throughout growth. There have been some components we weren’t too certain of, however after launch, we noticed that many individuals performed the sport, happily. Like you talked about earlier, quite a lot of followers from the group love Clive Rosfield as properly, and the reception of the sport went very well. So, as a staff, I really feel that we type of did what we are able to and I feel we’re content material with what we achieved.
We are eager to take our learnings and the expertise we received from growing Final Fantasy XVI to the brand new title, the brand new undertaking that we are going to create as Creative Business Unit III. I feel there are going to be Creative Business Unit III tastes inherited into that subsequent undertaking as properly. We need our gamers to look ahead to our new initiatives.
Kujiraoka: I need to echo what Yoshida talked about. With Final Fantasy XVI, we took upon ourselves quite a lot of new challenges for this title. To identify a number of, we needed to make it possible for each aspect of the sport meshed properly with the situation and the narrative; it was going to be the primary full-action recreation [in the mainline Final Fantasy series]; and there is going to be quite a lot of Eikons that transfer round in a approach that hasn’t been depicted in previous Final Fantasy video games. Everything was new for us.
It’s been nearly a yr because the full launch of the sport and we’re conscious of feedback from gamers mentioning what they felt Final Fantasy XVI was missing in sure areas. While I agree with these sentiments, on the identical time, I feel that it’s totally significant for me and for the staff that we received to expertise and create this recreation collectively and actually put our say out into the world and obtain all these constructive sentiments as properly from our gamers.
For those that skilled Final Fantasy XVI and loved it, I need to prolong my honest gratitude to them. I’m wanting ahead to taking what I discovered from Final Fantasy XVI and contributing to our subsequent undertaking.
For a lot extra concerning the recreation, head to Game Informer’s Final Fantasy XVI protection hub for unique behind-the-scenes options, video interviews, and extra. Read Game Informer’s Final Fantasy XVI evaluation after that.
