Final Fantasy 16 interview: The Rising Tide, PC porting, and why Leviathan was lost
Plus, what lessons they've learned from making the 16th Final Fantasy.
We're closing in now on a year since the launch of Final Fantasy XVI, the most recent (non-remake trilogy) entry in the long-running RPG franchise. Its second DLC, The Rising Tide, is just around the corner, and a PC version is on the docket too.
Final Fantasy XVI received a fairly warm response at launch, though its more action-oriented framework has certainly been the topic of fervent discussion since then. For what it's worth, I enjoyed it, and am admittedly in the target demographic for what's coming next: a new DLC framed around Leviathan, my personal favorite Final Fantasy summon, with more story, quests, and more.
At PAX East 2024, we got the chance to sit down with the upcoming Final Fantasy XVI content drop and its leads: DLC director Takeo Kujiraoka, producer Naoki Yoshida, and localization director Michael-Christopher Koji Fox. There were a few questions on my mind, ranging from their perspective on XVI thus far and what they still felt they could add to the RPG, to what the future might look like beyond the PC.
I also just wanted to know how big the sea-serpent fight would be. And the good news is, it sounds like it's pretty big.
Reclaiming what's lost
When it came to how the team feels now, almost a year removed from the initial launch of Final Fantasy XVI, feelings seem positive. The goal was to bring something new to the series, while also taking it back to some fantasy roots; Yoshida noted that recent Final Fantasy games had leaned a bit into the science-fiction side of things.
"There was a lot of pressure on us," said Yoshida. "But with the launch, seeing the feedback, seeing the player response, seeing how people really connected with Clive's story, and really kind of fell in love with Clive and these new characters, we were very relieved at that."
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A future on a new platform
The Rising Tide isn't the only XVI project in the works, though. Square Enix is also currently working on a PC port of Final Fantasy XVI, which Yoshida says is "going smoother than we thought it would," from the team's perspective. Currently, one project the team is working on is figuring out where its optimization and technical specs will land, taking the loading speed of the PlayStation 5 into account.
"It creates that seamless type of gameplay that we had as one of our main concepts," said Yoshida. "We want to have no breaks in the game, we want everything to be seamless. And so, to replicate that is the thing that we're working on right now. And so to replicate that on PC, you're going to need a pretty high-spec PC. So right now, what we're doing is we're testing the game, and our current optimization, on a lot of different systems to see, again, what are going to be those minimum specs for playing the game in a way that is similar to the PS5 experience."
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