Square Enix invited our team to Seoul, South Korea to showcase more content from their upcoming RPG Final Fantasy XVI including an interview with Director Hiroshi Takai, with Localization Director ​​Michael-Christopher Koji Fox acting as the interpreter.

Disclaimer: The screenshots in this article are from a special version made for the media to experience, and the contents may differ from the final version.

Final Fantasy XVI Director Hiroshi Takai started work at Squaresoft working on the Romancing SaGa game as a graphics designer and supervisor. He would later join Naoki Yoshida’s team in Creative Design III as the Assistant Director for Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn, and Heavensward before working his way up to director of the latest mainline Final Fantasy.

Koji Fox got his start translating many of Square’s classic titles including Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of The Lion, and each new expansion of Final Fantasy XIV. Like Takai, he was brought on from XIV to bring XVI to life.

While our first interview with Producer Naoki Yoshida gave us more insight into the battle system and general vision for the game, Takai spoke more about the story and the game’s inspiration both from prior Final Fantasy titles and other works.

Inspiration From Game of Thrones

Since FFXVI was announced many have compared the game’s setting and tone to that of Game of Thrones. We asked Takai if the Game of Thrones franchise was an inspiration and he confirmed that it was, but it wasn’t the team’s only inspiration.

“We wanted to give the game that kind of dark fantasy feel like you see in Game of Thrones so there is definitely inspiration there, again because we wanted it to feel more like an adult type of fantasy, more based on reality”. 

“As for other types of media that we got inspiration from, it’s very hard to pick one because I think our team is filled with people who love fantasy, fantasy movies, fantasy literature, anime, manga, tokusatsu, etc. There is going to be a lot of stuff that people are going to see and think “That really reminds them of this one seen from this tokusatsu program and then maybe they’ll realize that’s where they got the inspiration from”. 

I myself have actually caught one of these inspirations, as I noticed that the game’s design for Garuda is very similar to Sirene, a villain from the classic manga Devilman.

Inspiration From Final Fantasy V

In terms of gameplay, Takai also cited Final Fantasy V’s innovative job system as one of the main inspirations for the game’s Eikon customization mechanic.

“This is not really the setting of the world this is more of the battle combat but one thing we can say we drew a lot of inspiration from was with the battle system and Clive being able to customize his abilities based on different eikons. We took that directly from FFV and the job system, we got a lot of inspiration from that. That was the core of what became the Eikon ability system in FFXVI”. 

Takai also notes that most of the development staff grew up playing Final Fantasy I-VI and the influence from those early games can be seen throughout the new title.

“Again, it’s very hard to mention exact things cause we all grew up playing FFI to FFVI those more classic games. You’ll find a lot of names, monsters, and character inspiration from those games in FFXVI”. 

“Another thing that Yoshida-san has mentioned is that at the beginning of the game, you play through two hours of the game, finish the prologue, and then you finally get the title screen. That we lifted from the first Final Fantasy because we were inspired by that cinematic experience. There’s a lot that players are going to find familiar if they previously played Final Fantasy I-VI”.

The Active Time Lore System

One of the most important parts of any RPG story is really making sure that players don’t get lost. With the multiple characters, kingdoms, and terms, a player can easily lose track of who’s connected to where and what their agendas and goals are.

The FFXVI devs have attempted to mitigate this with a new mechanic called the Active Time Lore system. When certain phrases or characters are mentioned, the player can click a button to see a brief description of how they connect to the story.

“To keep players engaged in the story, and to make sure they know what is going on, there is the Active Time lore which gives them quick access to their story”.

“We explain a lot of stuff in this game, but we know that as the game progresses some people are going to forget some of those important things so players might be watching a cutscene and they’ll think, “Wait a minute, what was going on here again”, and we didn’t want that player to be frustrated at this point. We wanted to give them that reminder”.

Takai says that there are around 2000 different lore entries that will help the player depending on where they are in the story. He says it was “hard work” cataloging it all but that they believe it will be useful. Considering I’ve personally had these sorts of issues with some RPGs (FFXII, in particular, comes to mind) it’s not a bad idea to give players a refresher on what’s going on especially if they put down the game for long periods of time.

The More Mature Dialogue

The next question was actually for Koji Fox, the Localisation Director for Final Fantasy XVI and interpreter for the interview. He was asked for the team was able to stay true to the Japanese script while also adding in the flares of the English language for the localization, particularly with all the swearing in the game.

Fox first said that they went with the darker tone because Yoshida-san and Takai-san had a story they wished to tell and didn’t want it to be restricted by lower age ratings. A big part of this story was that it would feel more mature and that would be shown through the dialogue.

“This is a world with war, with strife, it’s a world with adults and violence and to have everyone speaking in colorful flowery language wouldn’t fit. In our everyday lives, we swear all the time, because that’s natural for us, and it’s natural for a lot of players as well, especially players like myself that are maybe in our 30s or 40s, we understand that world can be a dirtier place. 

However, he also said they didn’t want to go overboard with the swearing either. The main thing was using the correct terms when appropriate for the character and place in the story.

“You know some games get a mature rating and they’re like “Every other word is going to be motherfucker or something like that” and we didn’t want to do that either. It comes down to which characters are going to be using those types of terms and what situations are going to have those characters say those terms”. 

Is There Too Much Information

One concern with Final Fantasy XVI has been the marketing. Some fans feel that Square Enix has shown too much of the game which may ruin the magic of playing through it on launch. Takai says that he understands the concern but feels that it’s necessary to show a lot of the game to get people interested.

“Yeah, I get asked that quite a lot by staff members saying “Are you sure we aren’t showing too much” but we also understand that there are so many games out there we need to get players interested in wanting to pick up this game and play it themselves. We need to show what’s in the game and what we’ve created so that we can get players hooked”. 

“And there are just some things that we want the players to see and show what we’ve created. If we keep everything a secret, there’s gonna be a lot of people wondering “Is this game really for me, I dunno if I want to play it or not” so you have to draw the line”.

He does say that there will still be plenty of surprises even with all the publicity.

“Again, we’re showing a lot, but there’s still a lot that we haven’t shown you yet. Especially regarding the story, while we’ve been showing a lot of different scenes, there’s a lot you don’t know about the story so players will still be able to get that excitement by playing through it”. 

More Eikons?

Speaking of content that hasn’t been seen yet. We’ve noticed that on the key Yoshitaka Amano art for Final Fantasy XVI, there seems to be an extra summon that looks like Leviathan, despite it previously being stated that there are only eight eikons in the game. We asked about this, and the devs laughed amongst themselves a little and then said this.

“Yeah we just talked about not revealing too much but with that Amano art, there are some things in there that if we told you now would be a big spoiler that we don’t want to reveal just yet”. 

“But regarding the Eikon battles, there’s still a lot that we haven’t shown yet so that should be something for players to look forward to. There are also a lot of portions in the trailers where you assume things are going to happen one way but you may realize it’s something completely different. So there are still lots of secrets, don’t worry”.

The Side Quests

One thing we learned more about with the new demo was the game’s sidequests. In the interview we asked Takai if the sidequests can in any way affect the main storyline and the answer was a clear no but playing through them might make the main story more immersive.

“The sidequests will not affect the main story, whether you play them or don’t play them, they will not affect the main story. That being said, the side quests do give you a better view of the world and the characters and how they’re thinking. Approaching a new scenario in the story having played the sidequests vs not having played the sidequests, players are going to feel different because they’re going to know more about what certain characters are thinking and why they’re acting in certain ways. Playing the sidequests is not required to complete the main scenario but playing those sidequests I think will make the main scenario more enjoyable”. 

He also says that completing the sidequests can help with main story battles but they are not required to beat the game.

“There are also special sidequests that unlock certain things. For example, there’s a sidequest that can unlock certain recipes which will let you make more powerful weapons and gear which will make you stronger. The difficulty level is not to the point that you have to do those quests to complete the main scenario but they do make things easier”.  

Balancing Action and RPG Mechanics

We ended the Final Fantasy XVI interview by asking Takai about the balance of action mechanics and RPG mechanics. RPG fans tend to prefer building characters with stats and equipment while action fans when to focus on skill and combos. He said he thinks the team found a “good balance between the two”.

“We have action combat but we still have those RPG elements. Players will gain experience through battles, and as you level up your attributes will get better. They’ll come across new gear that Clive can equip to get stronger, and his weapons will get stronger. This is like most RPGs, you get stronger via your characters”.

“But again those action gamers won’t need to focus too much on leveling up their characters or gear because they’ll be able to also play the game based just on their skills. The one thing we do want from those players is to really get in and try customizing their character’s abilities because I think that’s where a lot of the fun of the game comes from finding that perfect build that’s gonna fit your skill level”. 

“I think what we’ve created in FFXVI is this really good balance, it was something that was created with RPG gamers and action gamers in mind and we have this system that is hopefully going to please both sides and that’s how we went into it. We wanted to do the impossible and create something that is going to satisfy both players”.

Final Fantasy XVI

Final Fantasy XVI is just under a month away from launching and it’s fascinating to hear about all the new mechanics and influences that have been incorporated into the title in this interview.

We’re very thankful to Takai and Koji Fox for speaking to us. Now, we wait to see Clive’s story of revenge come to light next month.

Final Fantasy XVI will launch for the PS5 on the 22nd of June.