Final Fantasy 16’s Summons Brought The Series Back To Its High Fantasy Roots

During a recent hands-on preview with Final Fantasy XVI (read my thoughts about it after playing two hours here), I was able to participate in a group interview of the game’s producer, Naoki Yoshida, its director, Hiroshi Takai, and its combat director, Ryota Suzuki. One question asked was about why the game returns to the series’ high fantasy roots, and why it has such a different tone compared to recent Final Fantasy games. 

Takai claims that it all began with summons. 

“So when the project started, I was one of the first people that [Yoshida] came to first and he said, ‘Okay, we have this project called Final Fantasy XVI. Will you be director?’ and his orders at the time of creating the game, he had this very big idea that he wanted to focus on the summons,” Takai says through a translator. “And not only on the summons, but have a system where the summons could fight other summons. And his other order was basically that the Final Fantasy series, its fanbase is getting older, and they’ve been with the series for a long time.

“We wanted to create a story and a narrative that resonated with the older fans, fans that have been around for a long time. The third was to get more people involved in the series, beyond the RPG and series fanatics. And to do that, make it into an action game, believing that would be able to get us that audience that we haven’t tried before.” 

Takai states that once the three main pillars had been decided, Takai suggested it was about gathering a core group of people who would be responsible for developing these concepts over the course of about one year. First came the story and the main scenario, which the team decided that to integrate Yoshida’s summon wishes into it, a high fantasy setting might work best. After that, the team began to work on the game’s gameplay. It will have more open spaces than a fully open world. This small core group did all this in the first year of the game’s development, Takai says. 

The three were then asked about what’s required in a new Final Fantasy game to ensure it still fits into the series as a whole. The three of them had different answers. 

YoshidaFinal Fantasy must have a deep story. The game must have a rich and complex experience. You must have an original battle system. Final Fantasy 16 boasts great graphics and sound. “I think that we have created something that is almost Final Fantasy-like, at least to me.”

Takai“A Final Fantasy to me means that it must have an engaging storyline. The other thing you need to do is make the most of what technology is available and push it as much as possible. Final Fantasy 16 is a great example. Final Fantasy, to me, is all about trying something different. Each Final Fantasy challenges one thing [and] tries something new. We’ve certainly done it here, I believe. The final thing to mention is that every magic name must remain the same across all media.

Suzuki“When I was young, Final Fantasy II was my favorite game. Final Fantasy III was my favourite. These are the games I was most familiar with and played in real-time. But again, with such a large audience, it’s a series that spans over so many years, and because the game world’s setting changes with each one, depending on where you start, and what your first Final Fantasy is, everyone’s going to have a different opinion of what makes a Final Fantasy.

It’s the same story, even though I grew up playing Final Fantasy II and III. The story is what it’s all about. The beautiful graphics must be the focus. It’s also about the technology at the moment. It’s the challenge of doing something completely new. Final Fantasy 16 was a unique game in that it switched from turn-based combat to action combat. This allowed us to try new things and challenge the norm.