I find this one hard to believe, but Final Fantasy XVI is almost done. This isn't some crazy rumor or anything, this comes from Naoki Yoshida himself. Then again, I guess I can believe it. This is the man who took the reins of Final Fantasy XIV and saved it, along with some awesome staff he motivated. It's just so rare to see a Square Enix game announced and then released not ten years after the fact. Final Fantasy XVI is still shrouded in mystery but fans are still excited to get their hands on it. After all, Yoshida's track record is spectacular. Now, Naoki Yoshida says Final Fantasy XVI is almost done!
The game was originally delayed when all the staff were forced to work at home. This seemed to affect communication between everybody working on Final Fantasy XVI. Apparently the game fell about six months behind schedule because of this, which forced Yoshida to share the sad news.
“This has unfortunately hampered communication from the Tokyo office, which, in turn, has to lead to delays in—or in extreme cases, cancellations of—asset deliveries from our outsource partners. That said, we have spent much of 2021 addressing this issue and hope to see its impact to a minimum by the new year, allowing us to better focus on the tasks at hand: increasing graphic resource quality, refining combat mechanics, fleshing out individual battles, putting the finishing touches on cutscenes, and conducting overall graphical optimization. Our primary goal is now to be as hands-on with the game as possible in order to see it fully polished.”
This newest update comes courtesy of @alberich_ff14 on Twitter, who shared some pictures of the magazine the interview took place in. The quote was translated by VGC and revealed to say “Development of the latest title, Final Fantasy XVI, is in its final stages."
Final stages!
We've heard before the next big update would come in Spring 2022, and we're heading into Summer now. I can only assume some announcements are imminent. I'll certainly be keeping my eye out on any Final Fantasy XVI news! In the meantime, I can keep enjoying Final Fantasy XIV.
