Final Fantasy 16 gets new details from YoshiP in PlayStation Blog interview

Square-Enix published on June 22, 2022 via the Japanese PlayStation Blog, a new Final Fantasy 16 interview with Naoki Yoshida aka YoshiP, revealing new development details on the upcoming PS5 JRPG.

The core staff of Final Fantasy XVI is indeed in the plural: Masayoshi Soken of Final Fantasy XIV fame composes music. The game is directed by Hiroshi Takai, who worked on the combat graphics of the romance saga games, and was notably the director of Last Vestigewhich was a great Saga game in all but name. (Particularly thanks to its PC version which greatly improved the game compared to its original Xbox 360 version.) In addition, Final Fantasy XVIThe battle director is Ryota Suzuki, who worked on Devil May Cry V and Dragon’s DogmaCapcom’s combat systems.

However, the cornerstone of Final Fantasy XVI development team is undoubtedly its producer, Naoki Yoshida, who is also the producer and director of Final Fantasy XIV. Much like many producers in Japanese media (and in Idol culture), Yoshida’s name is often shortened with a P for “Producer”, giving him his nickname YoshiP. I’ve translated the biggest highlights from his new interview on the Japanese PS blog below.

• READ MORE – Why Forspoken Isn’t an Isekai – Origins of Anime’s Most Popular Genre Explained

Final Fantasy XVI: Naoki Yoshida Reveals New Early Development Details

When Naoki Yoshida and his Creative Business Unit III were asked to create the next mainline Final Fantasy game, he was honored but did not immediately accept. He felt that it would negatively affect his work if he became the director of Final Fantasy XVI in addition to being already a producer and director of Final Fantasy XIV. So he chose someone else for the job.

Be a FF manager is stressful, and YoshiP wanted to make sure he picked the right person. He ultimately chose Hiroshi Takai. The development of Final Fantasy XVI first started with four members, including Naoki Yoshida and Hiroshi Takai, and they decided on the basic game concepts, battle system, themes, and lore. After that, they formed a small team to work on the combat system and graphics with a scrap and build approach until they found what worked best.

YoshiP’s main concern during FF16the initial development of ensured at all times that FF14the development of was not affected, picking only a very small amount of FF14 core staff to work on FF16.

YoshiP also mentioned that there is a hidden meaning behind Final Fantasy XVIof the logo he can’t talk about yet. And reconfirmed that, as usual, the logo was designed by Yoshitaka Amano.

• READ MORE – Our theories and speculations about FF16’s Ifrit story, logo and summon

YoshiP: We have one year left to finish Final Fantasy 16

At present, FF16 is playable from start to finish but there is still a lot to do. YoshiP explained that they are currently recording the dub for some languages ​​other than English and Japanese. They also adjust game difficulty, improve cutscenes, debugging, and more.

When asked how he balances his workload between FF14 and FF16YoshiP explained that there were several project managers and assistant producers helping him out and making sure he wasn’t overworked with a crazy schedule.

The Final Fantasy XVI The OST is not finished yet and Masayoshi Soken is still working on it. He also has his own personal manager to make sure he doesn’t overwork himself.

YoshiP mentioned his favorite Summon overall FF is Bahamut and that’s one of the reasons why he played a big role in FFXIV. He did not answer which is his favorite summon in FF16 but to avoid fueling fan speculation.

YoshiP also explained that thanks to his development for PS5, Final Fantasy XVI Not only will it have amazing graphics, but it will also deliver a smooth experience, thanks to its story, direction, real-time combat system, and PS5’s lightning-fast loadouts.

That’s it for the interview. Keep in mind that this is just a brief summary I made after reading it. An official English version of the interview will probably be published in a few hours on the PS English blog.

By the way, the interview tweet was posted 12 hours earlier by Japanese blog PlayStation Twitter, which mistakenly scheduled it for midnight instead of noon JST. We all had to wait 12 hours until the interview was actually available.

Final Fantasy XVI will be released on PS5 in the summer of 2023. If you’re not in the North, that should mean between June and September 2023.