Final Fantasy 16’s Summons Brought The Series Back To Its High Fantasy Roots
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Throughout a latest hands-on preview with Last Fantasy XVI (learn my ideas about it after enjoying two hours right here), I used to be capable of take part in a bunch interview of the sport’s producer, Naoki Yoshida, its director, Hiroshi Takai, and its fight director, Ryota Suzuki. One query requested was about why the sport returns to the sequence’ excessive fantasy roots, and why it has such a unique tone in comparison with latest Last Fantasy video games.
Based on Takai, it began with summons.
“So when the mission began, I used to be one of many first those that [Yoshida] got here to first and he mentioned, ‘Okay, we’ve got this mission known as Last Fantasy XVI. Will you be director?’ and his orders on the time of making the sport, he had this very huge concept that he wished to concentrate on the summons,” Takai says by a translator. “And never solely on the summons, however have a system the place the summons may struggle different summons. And his different order was mainly that the Last Fantasy sequence, its fanbase is getting older, and so they’ve been with the sequence for a very long time.
“We wished to create a narrative and a story that resonated with the older followers, followers which were round for a very long time. After which lastly, the third level was that we wished to herald extra folks into the sequence than simply the usual sequence followers and the usual RPG followers. And to do this, make it into an motion recreation, believing that might be capable of get us that viewers that we haven’t tried earlier than.”
As soon as these three foremost pillars have been determined, Takai says it was then about getting collectively a small core group that might work on growth for a couple of 12 months to create these ideas. First got here the story and the primary state of affairs, which the group determined that to combine Yoshida’s summon needs into it, a excessive fantasy setting may work greatest. Then, the group labored on gameplay, determining it is going to function open areas relatively than a full open world, and extra. This small core group did all this within the first 12 months of the sport’s growth, Takai says.
The three have been then requested about what’s required in a brand new Last Fantasy recreation to make sure it nonetheless suits into the sequence as a complete. All three had a unique reply.
Yoshida: “For me personally, Last Fantasy has to have that deep story. It has to have that complicated recreation expertise. It has to have a novel battle system. Nice graphics, nice sound, after which chocobos and moogles, and Last Fantasy 16 has all of these. So I believe we have made one thing that appears like a Last Fantasy, at the least for me.”
Takai: “For me, the definition of a Last Fantasy is that you need to have that participating storyline. One other factor is, is that you simply’re all the time getting probably the most out of the know-how out there on the time, you are all the time pushing the know-how that you’ve got. And I believe we did that in Last Fantasy 16. Additionally, I believe Last Fantasy is about difficult one thing new. Every of the Last Fantasies challenges one thing [and] tries one thing new. I believe that we have carried out that right here as properly. After which lastly, a bit of factor is that each one magic names need to be the identical all through.”
Suzuki: “After I was a baby, I used to be enjoying Last Fantasy II and Last Fantasy III. And people are those that I grew up enjoying in actual time. However once more, with such a big viewers, it is a sequence that spans over so a few years, and since the sport world’s setting adjustments with every one, relying on the place you begin, and what your first Last Fantasy is, everybody’s going to have a unique opinion of what makes a Last Fantasy.
And so once more, me having grown up with Last Fantasy II and III, it is just about the identical. It is obtained to be in regards to the story. It is obtained to be in regards to the lovely graphics. And in addition it is in regards to the tech on the time. And once more, that problem of attempting one thing new. And I believe that with Last Fantasy 16, we did strive one thing new in transferring the sport from turn-based to motion combat-based and we have been capable of problem one thing that no different Last Fantasy has carried out.”
