Final Fantasy XVI Producer Naoki Yoshida on the Game’s Anime Influences and Design Philosophy

Final Fantasy XVI is a major departure from the Final Fantasy games of old. We had the chance to talk with Final Fantasy XVI producer Naoki Yoshida about why this is and how various anime served as inspirations to the final game.

The Final Fantasy XVI universe seems dark and very adult, perhaps more than usual for this license. Is this the case and if so, what motivated this choice?

It was always there from the very initial stages of development, we set out that we wanted to have a more mature feel than the series had seen before. We felt that to have moments of light and hope, and for those to resonate, you need to have darker moments too. The game is set during a time of nations at war. We didn’t want to shy away from the brutality of war and to depict what battles and war mean for people on the ground or caught up in a conflict.

Final Fantasy XVI is highly anticipated. Do you feel any particular pressure to work on this new canonical opus? Especially from the community who were disappointed with Episode XV?

As you know, the Final Fantasy series is a unique series, with 35 years of history, and we’re now up to number XVI, but every game is different, with different characters, a different story, and a different world.

With Final Fantasy XVI, the main area we wanted to focus on was to keep the story all in the game and for it to be self-contained. With XV, there was a story told outside of the game, and with DLC that was announced, but then canceled, so we wanted to take lessons from that and keep everything in the game.

For Final Fantasy XVI we wanted to focus on a story that worked for all audiences, to grow the series, that works for those who have played previous FF games, as well as older players that maybe played earlier games in the series but haven’t played the recent FF games. We researched before we started development on current players, previous players, and those who had never touched an FF game before. From that research we had confidence in our story and concept and direction we wanted to take, as our thoughts were mirroring lots of the feedback, we were seeing about the series. Many players were commenting on the science-fiction feel of more recent entries. They were hoping for us to return to a high fantasy feel of earlier entries so that gave us confidence in our initial concept.

Did feedback on Final Fantasy XIV help you on Final Fantasy XVI?

Having played and worked on Final Fantasy XIV for such a long time, it’s allowed me to travel around the world meeting fans and journalists and talking about the game and Final Fantasy in general. From speaking with so many people as well as a lot of research we conducted about Final Fantasy we have a good idea of what people think about the series, what they like, what they don’t like, and what they want to see more of. With Final Fantasy XVI, I wanted to create a game that would appeal to FF fans and a broader audience and that a wide range of gamers from different generations would be happy to play.

What were the influences (artistic, narrative) to create the world of Valisthea and its history?

For the look and feel we were inspired by things from our youth in Japanese culture because it’s ingrained in our DNA our love for that entertainment. As you play Final Fantasy XVI, especially in the Eikon battles, you’ll see little nods to the entertainment that inspired us, such as Kamen Rider, Ultraman, Evangelion, Attack on Titan, Gundam, Godzilla, and more.

Very early after development started, when there were no more than about 30 members on the team, I told everyone in the team to watch the BluRay box of Game of Thrones. It was only up to about season 4 of the show at that time, but I made everyone on the team watch it. I said this is the type of tone, look, and feel we want to achieve with XVI.

We were also inspired by lots of the things we enjoyed as we were growing up. Lord of the Rings, Legends of King Arthur, and things like those. I looked at what fantasy is popular right now in the world as mentioned when we looked at Game of Thrones, here was a series being enjoyed by a worldwide audience that may not always enjoy fantasy series, but due to the realism of the series and a grounding in reality with the world and characters, as well as the more modern language used throughout the show, we felt it matched what we wanted to achieve with XVI, especially in making high fantasy accessible for a mainstream audience, by realistically presenting fantasy as much as possible that makes it more relatable to people today.

Why did you choose a more action-oriented gameplay and how was the collaboration with Ryōta Suzuki (Devil May Cry V, Dragon’s Dogma, etc.)?

First, I want to let everyone know that we’re not against turn-based games. We’re fans of them too. But for the story we wanted to tell, the look of the game and a feeling of dynamic, non-stop action felt best suited to the story and what we wanted players to feel. We decided that turn-based or a mix of turn-based with action interrupts the flow, it didn’t feel right.

In making that decision, we spoke to teams and people who had experience in making action games to get their input and advice. Then, it just so happened that the game’s Director, Hiroshi Takai, said that he’d met someone from CAPCOM who had a lot of action game experience and Suzuki-San asked if that would be something useful for any of our games. So that was the perfect result that Suzuki-San joined us and brought all his experience and expertise to XVI.

By being the first real-time action game in the series, we also wanted to ensure that players who aren’t confident in action games can still enjoy the game. So, we have items that can help aid the player in combat with Timely Accessories, which are items that can be equipped to Clive to give players an advantage, and as they become more confident in their ability, those items and aides can be removed or swapped out.

The game has over ten hours of cutscenes, did you use the usual studio?

Everything you see in the game is in-engine. We wanted to keep the players in the world at all times, and not have to break from the action or immersion.

What is your vision of the evolution of the JRPG in recent years and what do you see for the future of this genre?

The beauty of Final Fantasy is that each development team is free to bring their own ideas and philosophy to each installment. So there are no rules that it has to be a certain way.

Something that was told to me about Final Fantasy by the father of the series, Sakaguchi-san, and carried on by Kitase-san for Final Fantasy VII, they both told me the same thing—each Final Fantasy is created to be the best and what each director and development team consider to be the best it can be at that time.