It’s been two weeks since Final Fantasy XVI was announced with a flashy, substantive trailer, and now producer Naoki “Yoshi-P” Yoshida has provided a little clarification on the footage.
Yoshida appeared on a special livestream segment for Final Fantasy XIV as part of the Tokyo Game Show 2020. He was joined by Yoko Taro and Yosuke Saito, fellow producers at Square-Enix in charge of the NieR series.
At the start of the stream, Taro and Saito playfully pestered Yoshida for more information on Final Fantasy XVI. Yoshida went on to explain that the ‘Awakening’ trailer was partially impacted by fan reactions. He wanted to show something more substantial than a logo and a brief prerendered scene.
“If we released a pre-rendered trailer, they would say, ‘Alright, see you in 2035!’ or something,” Yoshida said. “I’ve seen those kind of comments from America. So we really wanted to show something that was actually in-game.”
However, this may have some side effects. The trailer has received some negative reactions online for not looking as spectacular as other PS5 titles shown in the same showcase. Yoshida touched upon this vaguely, saying, “I wanted to use resources that were moving in-game, in real-time, but the timing wasn’t the best for it.” (Notably, the trailer begins with a footnote, claiming the footage was captured on a PC emulating the PS5 experience.)
This may fly in the face of speculation that the development is farther along than anticipated. We’ll know more next year, as the development team has promised much more information next year.
In the meantime, an informational website for Final Fantasy XVI should go live in October, presumably with some basic background on the game’s setting.