Multiple FFXVI interviews with Naoki Yoshida popping up

Neutron · Jun 22, 2022

In regards to the "it's closer to FFXIII than FFXV" translation, my take on that is:

FFXVI is going to have a lot of set-piece moments. Pulling the details out of my ass here, but instead of FFXV where 99% of the game is just standard sequences in the open world or dungeons, I think FFXVI is going to have a lot of sequences (like XIII or IX or VIII) where say you're in a castle being chased by guards, and the castle is being bombarded by enemy airships, and then you run on to the roof of the castle and Jill transforms into Shiva and rips the airships apart, and then Clive jumps off the roof onto an airship and makes his way inside to rescue Joshua, etc.

Like the battle between the gardens in FFVIII, or the eidolon battle over Alexandria in FFIX. Or most of what was happening in XIII. Linear set-piece sequences that aren't "open" in any way, you're playing through an interactive movie, but give those kinds of memorable moments that a purely sandbox game can't give.

But while XIII was lacking the rest of the equation (a world to explore and go off and do your own thing in your own time), it sounds like XVI will have that. Regions and towns and sidequests etc.

Kyzer · Jun 22, 2022

Were there people who thought 16 was going to be the first FF to not have party members? Or were we specifically hoping to have them playable, unlike 15? Not seeing much to be excited about in them being "in but AI controlled" unless there was legitimate concern that based on the trailers it was going to be the first solo character FF (I didn't follow along in other threads)

Personally I don't care toooo much either way, as long as the game is good. But games like 7re and Tales of Arise where you can control a variety of characters and styles is way more fun

Dreamboum · Jun 22, 2022

As a list

Party members are there but AI-controlled, they will rotate as the story progresses
Some characters might be playable but for small segments of the story
It will not be open world but feature a lot of areas, four large areas are especially large
The game will feature a monster hunt system, sidequests, hideouts, and such
The story is said to progress at the speed of a rollercoaster
You can explore and take your time or beeline through the story
There will be a skill tree, as I understand it will have one for each Eikon and you can respec to find the build you want
Summon fights will be varied, 3D shooter game, pro wrestling match, a battlefield. They are also fully playable
FFXVI's themes will be around the clash of values and ideals and the bonds between people
You will have friends on your journey and have important conversations with them, they will also fight alongside you
There is a buddy system where you can give them directions in battle, potentially your dog/wolf Torgal
The game will be complete at launch, no movies, but there is reading material in the game if you want to learn more.
Yoshi-P says fans told him the series was becoming static (stale?) in their vision, which is why they want FF16 to be different
The KH team helped to the combat and boss battles.
Clive will fight Eikons in his human and eikon forms, seems to hint that we might control more than Ifrit
Valisthea had a super-technological civilization that collapsed 1500 years ago, think FFXIV allagans or FFXII Ivalice. Ruins will show up
Dominants transforming into eikons comes with sacrifices and serious risks, but you can transform back into human
Clive will go through three stages of life: teenager, twenties, and thirties
Story Mode with accessories to slow down time, auto-combo and other buffs
Action mode for action fans, but they can still use these accessories, however the game will show that you use it in the UI (perks)
Hard Difficulty mode after beating the game
It will have a score system for beating stages possibly like DMC (boss fights or specific levels into the game I wager)
95% of the second trailer was real time
Photo mode included
FFXVI started with 4 people including Heavensward and they worked on it until they decided on everything, then start full development
Yoshi-P says he has to accept FFXIV 1.0 and base FFXV hurt the series reputation
Says he saw people saying they won't even watch FFXVI's trailer because FFXV was bad
He wants to make something different and amazing to show FF can be many things and guarantee the future of FF to aim for new directions

Kuro · Jun 22, 2022

Neutron said:
In regards to the "it's closer to FFXIII than FFXV" translation, my take on that is:

There was no such translation, that was just someone in this thread's assumption.

Zeal543 · Jun 22, 2022

FFXVI will have a hard difficulty mode after you beat the game.

Man I hate when they do this shit, just let me play hard mode upfront, this is FF I already know normal mode is going to be way too easy, especially coming off the non-ex/savage/ultimate content from FFXIV

happydeer · Jun 22, 2022

shancake said:
Our interview is live here too:

Final Fantasy XVI Interview: The Legendary Naoki Yoshida Speaks About Final Fantasy XVI's World, Combat And Fearsome Eikons

Final Fantasy XVI Interview: The Legendary Naoki Yoshida Speaks About Final Fantasy XVI's World, Combat And Fearsome Eikons

press-start.com.au

Breakout pieces:

Final Fantasy XVI Will Let Players Respec Their Unlocked Skills At Any Time

Final Fantasy XVI Will Let Players Respec Their Unlocked Skills At Any Time

press-start.com.au

You Won't Be Summoning Final Fantasy XVI's Eikons, You'll Be Transforming Into Them

You Won't Be Summoning Final Fantasy XVI's Eikons, You'll Be Transforming Into Them

press-start.com.au

Yoshi-P Came Up With Final Fantasy XVI's Big Eikon Battles After Fighting Crowds At Tokyo Game Show

Yoshi-P Came Up With Final Fantasy XVI's Big Eikon Battles After Fighting Crowds At Tokyo Game Show

press-start.com.au

Respeccing is in? That's so awesome.

Neutron · Jun 22, 2022

Kuro said:
There was no such translation, that was just someone in this thread's assumption.

I'm basing my statement on this:

4Gamer:.
Is it correct to say that the progression of the game will be linear like FFXIII, rather than free exploration like FFXV?

Mr. Yoshida: Yes.
Yes. The game is more like a super high-speed roller coaster. However, it is not the case that all the fields are small, and about four of them are quite large. In the fields, there are subquests that help you learn more about the world, "mob hunts" in which you are asked to defeat hidden boss-like monsters, and crafting of weapons and armor by procuring materials from the monsters.
However, since the story pulls strongly, you may not feel the tension to go aside during the game. The story is super straight forward, but instead it is a sharp game experience that moves forward with crossbow speed and excitement. The development team, led by director Takai, has been hard at work on the final push and finishing touches.

Hikari · Jun 22, 2022

Dreamboum said:
As a list

Party members are there but AI-controlled, they will rotate as the story progresses

Some characters might be playable but for small segments of the story

It will not be open world but feature a lot of areas, four large areas are especially large

The game will feature a monster hunt system, sidequests, hideouts, and such

The story is said to progress at the speed of a rollercoaster

You can explore and take your time or beeline through the story

There will be a skill tree, as I understand it will have one for each Eikon and you can respec to find the build you want

Summon fights will be varied, 3D shooter game, pro wrestling match, a battlefield. They are also fully playable

FFXVI's themes will be around the clash of values and ideals and the bonds between people

You will have friends on your journey and have important conversations with them, they will also fight alongside you

There is a buddy system where you can give them directions in battle, potentially your dog/wolf Torgal

The game will be complete at launch, no movies, but there is reading material in the game if you want to learn more.

Yoshi-P says fans told him the series was becoming static (stale?) in their vision, which is why they want FF16 to be different

The KH team helped to the combat and boss battles.

Clive will fight Eikons in his human and eikon forms, seems to hint that we might control more than Ifrit

Valisthea had a super-technological civilization that collapsed 1500 years ago, think FFXIV allagans or FFXII Ivalice. Ruins will show up

Dominants transforming into eikons comes with sacrifices and serious risks, but you can transform back into human

Clive will go through three stages of life: teenager, twenties, and thirties

Story Mode with accessories to slow down time, auto-combo and other buffs

Action mode for action fans, but they can still use these accessories, however the game will show that you use it in the UI (perks)

Hard Difficulty mode after beating the game

It will have a score system for beating stages possibly like DMC (boss fights or specific levels into the game I wager)

95% of the second trailer was real time

Photo mode included

FFXVI started with 4 people including Heavensward and they worked on it until they decided on everything, then start full development

Yoshi-P says he has to accept FFXIV 1.0 and base FFXV hurt the series reputation

Says he saw people saying they won't even watch FFXVI's trailer because FFXV was bad

He wants to make something different and amazing to show FF can be many things and guarantee the future of FF to aim for new directions

appreciate everything here. I'm ridiculously hyped. After Xenoblade 3 this will be my most anticipated game. Still dont get why FFXV people that were turned off would not watch FFXVI trailer though. That seems like a overreaction.

clockstrikes · Jun 22, 2022

Glad to see Yoshi-P acknowledge KH team's exceptional work, those Remind superbosses are legit best in the genre.

On the other hand, I didn't expect him to openly dunk on XV like that lol

Zeal543 · Jun 22, 2022

Dreamboum said:
i shat out everything i could find that was very relevant in this thread https://twitter.com/Dreamboum/status/1539445507126435840

They decided against open world because they didn't want to spend 15 years working on it, and based on the strength of their studio, they decided against it to make sure the story is in focus.

Meanwhile monolithsoft releases them in 4 years, don't know why square continues to struggle with open world or open world-esque games

Linus815 · Jun 22, 2022

Zeal543 said:
Meanwhile monolithsoft releases them in 4 years, don't know why square continues to struggle with open world or open world-esque games

because theres a gigantic difference in fidelity.

Moara · Jun 22, 2022

Zeal543 said:
Man I hate when they do this shit, just let me play hard mode upfront, this is FF I already know normal mode is going to be way too easy, especially coming off the non-ex/savage/ultimate content from FFXIV

But if it's anything like DMC, Hard mode is balanced around the idea that you have your full kit and experience from the beginning. Starting off on something like Son of Sparda or higher difficulties right off the bat would be a miserable experience for anyone but the most die hard DMC players

TaleSpun · Jun 22, 2022

Kyzer said:
Were there people who thought 16 was going to be the first FF to not have party members? Or were we specifically hoping to have them playable, unlike 15? Not seeing much to be excited about in them being "in but AI controlled" unless there was legitimate concern that based on the trailers it was going to be the first solo character FF (I didn't follow along in other threads)

Personally I don't care toooo much either way, as long as the game is good. But games like 7re and Tales of Arise where you can control a variety of characters and styles is way more fun

Other than a couple of very vocal posters, I think what most people were concerned with was the possibility that the narrative would be very solitary and Clive wound spend most of his time alone. But Yoshida pretty clearly states here, this story is really about Clive's personal growth and the shifting ideologies of himself and the other dominants through the game, and bonds he forms with those characters.

This is a video game, but in this way it's no different from any other medium. You don't need a party to center a story around a strong core cast of characters. The latter is what most people really want.

Chaos2Frozen · Jun 22, 2022

Okabe said:
DMC IS BACK!

This is the true DMCVI

Spehornoob · Jun 22, 2022

Zeal543 said:
Man I hate when they do this shit, just let me play hard mode upfront, this is FF I already know normal mode is going to be way too easy, especially coming off the non-ex/savage/ultimate content from FFXIV

I wonder if it'll be more like VII Remakes hard mode, with the whole game balanced around an endgame build.

Zeal543 · Jun 22, 2022

Linus815 said:
because theres a gigantic difference in fidelity.

and there's a gigantic different in budget/manpower to accommodate for that, outside jrpgs we also have games like witcher 3 that accomplish that

Moara said:
But if it's anything like DMC, Hard mode is balanced around the idea that you have your full kit and experience from the beginning. Starting off on something like Son of Sparda or higher difficulties right off the bat would be a miserable experience for anyone but the most die hard DMC players

I hope so, but going off the history of FF and FFXIV, I doubt that

OskarXCI · Jun 22, 2022

The "Mob hunts" sounds a lot like the optional Monster Contracts in The Witcher 3. The open zone structure as well.

Overall, everything Yoshi-P says is just what I want from a new singel-player FF game released in the current post W3 RPG market. Old-school fans may not care about it but SQE wants FF to compete with the big games from the west. The target audience is the mainstream as well as the RPG crowd.

The M / PEGI 18 rating will be a first. Should help the game stand out even more from the rest of the series.

Izanagi89 · Jun 22, 2022

Spehornoob said:
I wonder if it'll be more like VII Remakes hard mode, with the whole game balanced around an endgame build.

I wonder what that means for super bosses. I'd be okay with hard being unlocked after the main game if it means we get to tackle optional super bosses on hard. I do like the idea of building a character towards a hard mode end goal but I'd like there to be more of a reason to do so instead of "play the entire game again but just everything is more difficult".

TaleSpun · Jun 22, 2022

Zeal543 said:
and there's a gigantic different in budget/manpower to accommodate for that, outside jrpgs we also have games like witcher 3 that accomplish that

I hope so, but going off the history of FF and FFXIV, I doubt that

XIV? Savage/Extreme fights are as varied and interesting as FF gets, in terms of difficulty though…

GoGo Nabrai · Jun 22, 2022

Kyzer said:
Were there people who thought 16 was going to be the first FF to not have party members?

Do you consider Larsa in XII to be a party member even in the Zodiac Age where you have more control?

I don't.

Nothing really says party members like jrpg party members. Where their inclusion is a mechanic. Where party management is a thing and they have their own character progression.

Jonathan Lanza · Jun 22, 2022

Dreamboum said:
Summon fights will be varied, 3D shooter game, pro wrestling match, a battlefield. They are also fully playable

KAMIYA SHOOTER/MINI GAME SECTION CONFIRMED

WE HAVE TRULY ENTERED ACTION GAME TERRITORY

Kuro · Jun 22, 2022

Neutron said:
I'm basing my statement on this:

Didn't see this one but it seems like they are just reiterating that the game doesn't let you access most of the areas off the beaten path away from the main story like XV did and the story follows a set path through the environments. Its a bit... tricky to compare to XIII the progression since the game was one long narrow hallway with an completely empty "open" area thrown in near the end with inconsequential side hunts piled on.

Qvoth · Jun 22, 2022

Dreamboum said:
Summary

Thanks

Modest_Modsoul · Jun 22, 2022

The AI party members reminds me of vanilla P3 & FES.

While I don't mind them, I also wish it has traditional controllable party members, like VII Remake. 🤷‍♂️

Mikch85 · Jun 22, 2022

All of this sounds really great. I'm relieved Clive won't be alone in his journey, that was my biggest fear.

Zeal543 · Jun 22, 2022

TaleSpun said:
XIV? Savage/Extreme fights are as varied and interesting as FF gets, in terms of difficulty though…

that's what I mean, the extreme/savage/ultimate content is great but everything aside from those is braindead, which is why I want hard mode unlocked from the start

GasProblem · Jun 22, 2022

Give me this game now.

Can't wait to piledrive Ifrit.

Linus815 · Jun 22, 2022

Zeal543 said:
and there's a gigantic different in budget/manpower to accommodate for that, outside jrpgs we also have games like witcher 3 that accomplish that

yes, and witcher 3 was one of the worst crunches in the industry, with huge portion of the team leaving after completion....

big open world games at the current fidelity standard take 5-6 years at least. There are companies like ubisoft that can do it faster, because they've been doing it for so long, and have amazing toolset for it + lots of assets to reuse. FF16 would have to be built from the ground up

0xe0x · Jun 22, 2022

Zeal543 said:
and there's a gigantic different in budget/manpower to accommodate for that, outside jrpgs we also have games like witcher 3 that accomplish that

and even then you have the Cyberpunk situation.

There's also that Square Enix threw everything to save FFXIV and that has impacted the development of some of their games, even a mainline title like FFXV. We know things have gotten better at least.

ze_ · Jun 22, 2022

Linus815 said:
yes, and witcher 3 was one of the worst crunches in the industry, with huge portion of the team leaving after completion....

Witcher 3 is also a game that does a lot with little when it comes to available assets and animations—and this includes combat, where bosses would recycle animations from generic enemies (I'm thinking of the grave hags and a certain group boss late in the game). XVI is shooting beyond that, just based on the descriptions Yoshida has provided here. I'd say this is also evident in the latest trailer.

Village · Jun 22, 2022

jett said:
I expect purely gimmicky bullshit from those Eikon battles.

What a sad mistake after how it was beautifully handled in FF7R.

how is it a mistake? It doesn't play like ff7r, itsa different game. Maybe it works better like this we don't know really

Zeal543 · Jun 22, 2022

Linus815 said:
yes, and witcher 3 was one of the worst crunches in the industry, with huge portion of the team leaving after completion....

big open world games at the current fidelity standard take 5-6 years at least. There are companies like ubisoft that can do it faster, because they've been doing it for so long, and have amazing toolset for it + lots of assets to reuse. FF16 would have to be built from the ground up

I believe SE has the resources to do so, they had a groundwork set up with xv albeit with a different engine, they need the proper direction/management

0xe0x said:
and even then you have the Cyberpunk situation.

There's also that Square Enix threw everything to save FFXIV and that has impacted the development of some of their games, even a mainline title like FFXV. We know things have gotten better at least.

CP's issue was that CDPR saw GTA's money, got dollar signs in their eyes, and shifted the direction of the game, the open world wasn't the issue. It's been a long time since they had to jump start FFXIV again and the game has made them more than enough money to compensate for it.

Morrigan · Jun 22, 2022

LightKiosk said:
I'll spoiler tag it as the image is large, but looking at the updated world map from the website you can get an idea of how they'd section out the open areas from the larger world.

The left part reminds me of Quebec + Labrador lol

Neutron · Jun 22, 2022

GoGo Nabrai said:
Do you consider Larsa in XII to be a party member even in the Zodiac Age where you have more control?

I don't.

Nothing really says party members like jrpg party members. Where their inclusion is a mechanic. Where party management is a thing and they have their own character progression.

We don't really know anything about this though, how interactive they'll be.

It's entirely possible we'll be able to select their equipment and abilities, prioritize how they behave.

Or maybe not, we've only had the very first mention of party members. A few hours ago many thought the game was totally solo. It's up in the air.

Mung · Jun 22, 2022

Great that it's open zone. Much prefer that to open world games.

Mikch85 · Jun 22, 2022

The way Yoshi-P describes it, "open zones", not open world, that's basically FFXII (without PS2's limitations.) That makes me very happy.

Abominuz · Jun 22, 2022

Im conflicted, the not open world (hopefully big explorable areas) and no controllable party memeber and no summon but Eikon batles dont have me hyped at al but rather dissapointed. On the other hand the story and combat and everything else sound great. Guess i need to let go that old school jrpg's are dead. But i am a lot less hyped then i was, but that is only because of personal preferance.

Neutron · Jun 22, 2022

Abominuz said:
Im conflicted, the not open world (hopefully big explorable areas) and no controllable party memeber and no summon but Eikon batles dont have me hyped at al but rather dissapointed. On the other hand the story and combat and everything else sound great. Guess i need to let go that old school jrpg's are dead. But i am a lot less hyped then i was, but that is only because of personal preferance.

One thing - the open world he's referring to is the Skyrim/FFXV-style sandbox, it doesn't really have anything to do with the old-school JRPG way of doing things.

The most traditional JRPG of the present, Dragon Quest XI, uses the structure that it seems FFXVI is using.

OskarXCI · Jun 22, 2022

Dreamboum said:
- Yoshi-P says fans told him the series was becoming static (stale?) in their vision, which is why they want FF16 to be different
- He wants to make something different and amazing to show FF can be many things and guarantee the future of FF to aim for new directions

In other words, Final Fantasy is not Dragon Quest and SQE wants the brand to compete with the current big games from the west.

0xe0x · Jun 22, 2022

Zeal543 said:
I believe SE has the resources to do so, they had a groundwork set up with xv albeit with a different engine

CP's issue was that CDPR saw GTA's money, got dollar signs in their eyes, and shifted the direction of development, the open world wasn't the issue.

....of course it was an issue. I'm not sure why you want to handwave it like that. Do you want other examples?

BoTW took 5 years.
Since BOTW 2 might come out in 2023, 6 years.
Persona 5 took 5 years.

It's been a long time since they had to jump start FFXIV again and the game has made them more than enough money to compensate for it.

Money enables more assistance, but it's not an elixir. Please look at current delays hitting games by publishers that makes millions a year.

and there's a reason why I added We know things have gotten better at least. They are recovering, even after the Covid bottleneck.

Mung · Jun 22, 2022

Open zones work much better than open world for narrative and character driven games IMO.

Chasing · Jun 22, 2022

Dreamboum said:
The game will feature a monster hunt system, sidequests, hideouts, and such

The monster hunt system is definitely Maehiro's thing lol.

Nakenorm · Jun 22, 2022

Holy shit this all sounds absolutely fantastic 😍

Philippo · Jun 22, 2022

Well there it is Tornak , I did say "non-human" companions back then but people assumed I was talking about other races lol

Still, I hoped they kept the Torgal reveal for a trailer, he looks so badass :(

Zeal543 · Jun 22, 2022

0xe0x said:
BoTW took 5 years.
Since BOTW 2 might come out in 2023, 6 years.
Persona 5 took 5 years.

BotW and BotW2 are open world with the same dev time as XVI. P5 has a smaller dev team and the game is completely different in its "world" design so it's not even comparable

Abominuz · Jun 22, 2022

Neutron said:
One thing - the open world he's referring to is the Skyrim/FFXV-style sandbox, it doesn't really have anything to do with the old-school JRPG way of doing things.

The most traditional JRPG of the present, Dragon Quest XI, uses the structure that it seems FFXVI is using.

Oke that gives me a bit of hope, my main concern is not so much open world but the exploration and side quests and secret bosses etc. If they can do this im happy.

DimitriLH · Jun 22, 2022

Eh...while I trust in Yoshi P making a good game, still bummed out at no controllable party members. Sure they are controlled by A.I., but its fun discovering your playstyle and characters of choice to main.

Here is hoping DLC happens I guess

Diogo Arez · Jun 22, 2022

Weird that teammates aren't controllable directly but still hope it's good.

Slatsunus · Jun 22, 2022

Zeal543 said:
BotW and BotW2 are open world with the same dev time as XVI. P5 has a smaller dev team and the game is completely different in its "world" design so it's not even comparable

"BOTW 2 is pretty obviously using almost all of BOTW's assets and its taking just as long as something made from the ground up" Isnt really helping your case

Jonathan Lanza · Jun 22, 2022

It will have a score system for beating stages possibly like DMC (boss fights or specific levels into the game I wager)

But seriously, they're really going in on that action game life.

Multiple FFXVI interviews with Naoki Yoshida popping up

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