Unexpected, but not too much, Final Fantasy XVI revealed himself to the public during the last live streaming event "PlayStation 5 showcase“, And he did it with a 4-minute trailer. The video immediately aroused the amazement and dismay of the public, and the few names working on this project made people talk perhaps even more than the trailer itself. But let's proceed in order. Let's go through this trailer together, analyzing its highlights, and then digging together into what the global reaction was, the whys and wherefores of a journey just starting.
Analysis of the trailer: doubts and references from the "past"
The trailer begins with a bonfire, where we see the first characters. Those who know Final Fantasy have already understood that this is something that concerns the saga from the double F. Of the knights are talking about a mission, and from the character design we can already guess that the much hated (often for sins not his) Tetsuya Nomura has not signed this game. Close up of what the leader of this group looks like. Definitely reminiscent of Cor Leonis from FF XV… and here some of us have already raised our eyebrows slightly. And speaking of the fifteenth chapter of the saga in question, the engine used is undoubtedly the Luminous Engine. But let's move on. The style of armor and weapons is very reminiscent of another Square Enix title: The Last Remnant. We will discover later that the director of FF XVI is right Hiroshi takai, the same name that signed the X-Box title just mentioned.
The group talks about a mission, to find and eliminate a woman, one "Dominant", which the official subtitles show us how "Herald".
The "Heralds" are nothing more than people who apparently act as catalysts for the evocation of the Eikon, another way of calling the evocations typical of the Final Fantasy saga. Eikon it is a name we have already heard in the past, it is in fact an alternative name in which a particular tribe calls the Primals, the evocations of Final Fantasy XIV.
A battle follows and we see warriors with clothes and weapons that immediately refer us to the imagination of the nomadic peoples of the desert. These warriors fight while riding on Chocobos. By now all doubts have been dispelled: we are facing a final Fantasy… But we're watching live and we don't know yet WHICH Final Fantasy. He appears in the battle Shiva, one of the most iconic glacial divinities of the saga. Shiva's appearance and adornments can remind you of Final Fantasy XIV again. His character design is also incredibly similar to that of the Shiva introduced in Refulgence, in the Eden Verse quest series present in the latest patches of the fourteenth FF.
To counter the Ice Goddess, the counterpart summons Titan, and here the clear reference to Final Fantasy XV returns. Titan is almost identical in design as well as in animations. Even the plain where the clash takes place seems to be the same that we see in some areas of FF XV. Continuing with the trailer we see a young man, who perhaps will be one of the protagonists, and then a dog. The latter drove a good part of the audience crazy because it looks like a lot of Umbra as a puppy. Umbra, to remind those who haven't played him, is one of the two dogs we often see in FF XV, a very important element for the development of certain parts of the main plot. The recalls are really starting to be too many.
We see a young boy, son of the archduke and named Joshua. The reference goes instantly to the figure of Jesus, but for longtime fans also to a character of the same name from a game set in a world typical of some Final fantasy: Ivalice. But in that particular IP it was apparently unrelated to the double-F saga. I'm talking about Vagrant Story, the PlayStation title released in 2000 and Squaresoft's swan song on the first Sony console. Joshua Corrinne Bardorba was in fact the son of an archduke even in the old title Square.
Continuing we see a girl laughing with young Joshua. Then what appears to be the boy's mother or rather a guardian intervenes and calls him back to court. The idea that they seem to want to convey to us is that the young nobleman often runs away from the castle to go play and chat with the people who are inside the courtyard inside the walls.
An important element is that the boy appears to have healing powers with which he heals a person, and flames seem to be spewing from this action. Also this gesture strongly recalls some scenes already seen in Final Fantasy XV where Luna, noble of the house of Tenebrae, healed the people with her unique healing powers.
Subsequently a narrator, probably of the boy seen before and perhaps the protagonist, reveals that he is "Joshua's shield". We therefore have a new evident reference to Final Fantasy XV where Gladio, one of the 4 protagonists, was literally the shield of Prince Noctis, since being the "shield of the king" was the task of his house since the foundation of the kingdom. Proceeding we see some 1 VS 1 gameplay phases in which the boy seen previously fights with sword and fire magic.
The setting, the animations, the visual aspect. Everything refers to Final Fantasy XV, or worse still to the Comrades multiplayer DLC of the fifteenth chapter of the saga. But fortunately it also refers to the excellent The Witcher III. We see other characters talking about politics and intrigue. The setting is clearly a medieval fantasy of the more "realistic" ones that leave no room for other intelligent races besides humans and (perhaps) mythological creatures such as dragons. Yoshida had often talked about how in the future he would like to try his hand at a title with a similar setting.
The fact that in a first trailer they show us a political discourse like this one again brings to mind the first two titles set in Ivalice: Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy Tactics, whose narrative was mainly based on these aspects. In the Final Fantasy XVI trailer, they do not beg for information and the importance of a "Mother Crystal”Without which there can be no defense against a mysterious plague that would afflict this kingdom.
Once again Final Fantasy XV makes its way into our thoughts like a demon-possessed quarterback. We are seeing a Molboro practically identical to that of the fifteenth FF, in appearance as well as in the animations, in the attack patterns and in the environment in which it is located. Our protagonist even uses projections to lash out at the enemy just like Noctis in Final Fantasy XV, and all this while other characters speak of Mother Crystals, a fundamental element of the lost Final Fantasy Versus XIII (which later became XV) and of PIAGA, a key threat and fulcrum of the whole plot of that title.
In some lurks the doubt that this Final Fantasy is somehow connected to the fifteenth FF, but it can't be because that chapter is now closed and forgotten for Square Enix. A title of very strong impact and undoubted value despite its countless defects (value in economic terms but also of approaching the saga by the new public). However, the fact remains that FF XV is a title that Square Enix has clearly closed, as demonstrated by the abandonment of the project on the second season pass that would have concluded the story in favor of a simple novel, as demonstrated by the abandonment of its Director Hajime Tabata, as demonstrated by the new project of Luminous Production, a team founded on the ashes of the one who worked on FF XV. In short, that title is without a shadow of a doubt a closed chapter. So why all these delays?
It has already happened that in the FF saga characters, names, places or plot hints were self-quoted, but here we are talking about a 4-minute trailer that seems to trace the fundamental elements of its predecessor, so having doubts is far from illegal . These keep getting stronger, when we see other gameplay sequences in which a Dragoon (class of the FF tradition, whose movesets are mainly made up of jumps and aerial combos and whose weapon is always a spear) has the exact same moveset as Final Fantasy XV's Dragoon: Aranea. Same animations, frame by frame. From the dialogues that follow it even seems that the enemy is an "empire", exactly like in FF XV… look a bit. By now the paranoia is overcoming reason.
Gameplay scenes - or rather, combat scenes - continue and the protagonist has changed, and it seems to be what we see at the beginning of the trailer, albeit in red clothes. All the game sequences shown to us are of 1 VS 1 fights. An element that not everyone has initially noticed but which I consider worthy of attention, since the apparent lack of a party seems to be one of the predominant elements in the set of concerns of the public after watching the trailer.
The shots we see in the combat sequences seem to exploit the power of the Eikon, and those who know the Final Fantasy saga well will surely have recognized the fire shots with the wing of Phoenix (Phoenix), the claws of Garuda (evocation of the wind element seen several times in FF XIV, with which it also shares the teal color). Later we will also see the fists of Titan that they will remember how I use some moves from the latest Devil May Cry. Having thought about the Capcom title will find justification in discovering later that the person responsible for the combat system of Final Fantasy XVI seems in fact to be Ryota Suzuki, designer of Devil May Cry V and Dragon's Dogma.
In the following scenes in the trailer we see the Archduke being murdered in front of his son Joshua, who is covered in his father's blood. This scene is very important because it confirms the crudeness of the setting of this title, as well as the return of the blood, an element deliberately removed in more recent titles such as Final Fantasy VII REMAKE, in order to accommodate a wider and more permissive PEGI. A courageous choice on the one hand but almost obvious if you think that the producer at the top of the pyramid of this title is Naoki Yoshida, who in his FF XIV certainly does not give himself to savings when it comes to showing his audience the horror of violence.
In the final sequence of the trailer we finally see the young Joshua who is about to be hit by enemies when suddenly seems to leave room for anger. His eyes pulsate with a golden light and from his screams emerges the Eikon of which he seems to be the herald: Fenice. So Joshua summoned Phoenix, but at the same time he seems to morph himself into a more adult-looking figure, charred and on fire, with eyes injected with fire. This figure then turns into another Eikon: Ifrit. A violent clash ensues between the two divinities who share the same element, while a voice yells at the boy now apparently transformed into Ifrit, to wake up.
Finally we see first the younger protagonist, of the first gameplay sequences, then the more adult one, who could always be him years later as well as another character who for who knows what reason looks a lot like him. First one and then the other will pronounce the sentence "I'll kill you, even if it's the last thing I do" looking the viewer in the eye, to point out how raw and violent this new chapter of the saga is.
And here is formed the splendid logo of Final Fantasy XVI, again and again by the master Yoshitaka Amano.
Final Fantasy XVI: news, and "old" news
Then a Final Fantasy XVI is reality. It was presented to the world, not with a simple logo reveal or with a short teaser accompanied after years by the first trailer as Square Enix has accustomed us by now, but with a trailer full of details that is 4 minutes long.
So is something changing or has it already changed within the poor marketing management seen in recent years by Square Enix? Maybe. Or maybe not. Maybe what we perceive as change is simply the consequence of CHI is managing this project. Maybe it's all thanks to YoshiP, as everyone now seems to believe.
These days I have studied in depth the reactions of the public to the announcement and the trailer of this new Final Fantasy and I must say that they are more varied than usual. But even in the contrast between the pros and cons, this time everyone has an arrow in their bow.
Final Fantasy XVI inevitably picks up the legacy of its predecessor, which it is not 7 REMAKE, but FF XV. A heavy legacy then, because as I have already said, although the fifteenth chapter of the saga is still an excellent product, the criticisms and the dragging of its production history have left a very deep wound in the public and in the software house itself. A wound that led to further corporate reorganizations, which seem to have finally ended after years, in the foundation of the latest development teams, such as Luminous Production or the Creative Business Unit III which manages FF XVI together with everything that it already managed previously, such as FF XI, XIV and the Dragon Quest Builders series.
Final Fantasy XVI presents itself to the public with some great news, or rather of the old news. The return to a medieval fantasy is the first thing you notice and it is also the first that has been talked about. Good for everyone it would seem. After all, the remake project of the seventh chapter takes care of the more technological aspect of certain settings of the saga.
So the return to fantasy is a move that everyone likes, apparently, but watch out: because I have the distinct impression that many are falling into a self-inflicted trap. This type of fantasy is not at all the so-called "classic final fantasy", where I personally find it ridiculous to talk about classicism considering that the setting changed drastically from the very first chapters (especially in the West that the first chapters were FF I, then IV and VI ). Anyway, returning to the setting of FF XVI, the setting so raw and so medieval as we have seen belongs more to titles like Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story, respectively spin-off the first and an IP apparently in its own right. . So back to the "classic Final Fantasy" (I hope I don't have to write it anymore because it is a term that I personally don't understand) in truth there is little and nothing. And perhaps this is the real news. There is no candor, there are no cute creatures. Only knights, war, blood and, it would seem, revenge.
Final Fantasy XVI is developed with the good "old" Luminous Engine. But not the ultra-evolved next-gen version we were recently shown with Project athia, but the dear good OLD Final Fantasy XV Luminous Engine I'll tell you… it looks even worse in certain scenes. Initially a message is shown warning that these sequences are being run emulated on PC, and not on a PS5, of which FF XVI will be temporary exclusive. However, this does not justify the "bad" visual impact of the title.
Because if on the one hand the honesty of not showing a CG trailer created ad hoc by the talented Visual Works team is appreciable, in favor of an honest and (too) realistic graphics in real time, on the other hand they seem almost admit that the next Final Fantasy, for the first time since 1987, will not be the graphic spearhead not only of the Tokyo software house, but of the entire JRPG genre, if we can still talk about that genre by now. And beware, I'm not saying that graphics are more important than state-of-the-art storytelling or gameplay, but the graphic impact is ALWAYS status of the highest level in the so-called "numbered titles" of the Final Fantasy saga. The series has always been synonymous with first-rate storytelling and graphics, and Final Fantasy XVI not only falls short of Square Enix's latest projects like Kingdom Hearts III or FF VII REMAKE, but it is even inferior and not a little. Not to mention that it definitely doesn't feel like a next-gen game, and was unveiled with no upcoming release date for PlayStation 5.
We cannot ignore this fact if we have to talk about the next Final Fantasy, an important title not only for fans of the saga or the genre, but for the entire videogame industry. Sure we can talk about the initial stages of production, but are we really believing it? Square Enix has always presented its titles long before actually having them in production, often showing footage passed off as realtime, this is true. But things have changed, and above all even when operations of that type were made, what was shown was always and in any case the state of the art. So why not this time? Maybe they sacrifice the graphics for a narrative and gameplay so vast that it sucks up every resource? In a game that so far appears to be 1 VS 1? Had it been the next FF online it would have been a plausible reasoning, but in a single player Final Fantasy these justifications are not applicable.
We all hope we are wrong, but a cold analysis of this trailer suggests a policy that we have also seen in other recently announced Square Enix productions, such as Kingom Hearts Melody of Memory, which reuses very old assets by recycling engines that have been outdated for years, and ago in a spin off that, as usual, has nothing of a spin off, forcing fans to buy a game that seems to be placed there as a place holder, waiting for the time to mature for more substantial projects. The impression is that of listlessness.
Even Final Fantasy XVI, with a plot with too many references to the lore of Final Fantasy XV or to other titles of a "remote" past, too many animation recycles, too many low-detail models and almost worse graphics than its predecessor (a game 2016, let's remember), it almost seems to be done "just for". A place holder waiting for the second chapter of Final Fantasy VII REMAKE or the next Kingdom Hearts, as if they had thrown in the towel at the evidence that "commercial" titles really matter more, and therefore it is not worth investing more than a certain amount of resources in new projects. I repeat, I hope I'm wrong, but the impression is really that.
"His" mind as a panacea
So why are many, including myself, still happy and as they say "in hype" for Final Fantasy XVI, if the premises are so negative? Simple: the producer is Naoki “YoshiP” Yoshida. But who is this figure, and why does his name as a producer reassure us about all our more than justified fears about it? We could fill page after page just talking about him, and I will therefore try to summarize in a few points why this man is considered by many a semi deity who has come to the rescue not only of Square Enix, but of all of us.
Naoki Yoshida or as fans know him, YoshiP, is the one who managed to turn one of Square Enix's biggest failures since "The Spirits Within" into one of, if not IL biggest success of the Tokyo software house in the last 10 years. In fact, Final Fantasy XIV originally released in 2010, while inheriting the great success of the first MMORPG from Square Enix FFXI, was a real failure across the board: poorly optimized graphics engine, disastrous connections and the not small amount of bugs contributed to break sales and subscriptions as early as the second month of the title's life.
It was then decided to replace the then project manager Hiromichi Tanaka with Naoki Yoshida, who had previously worked on FF XI and some titles in the Dragon Quest series. However, Yoshida's curriculum was not astonishing on a strictly professional level, but more so on that of gamer. It is indeed difficult to find an online game from the last 20 years that has not been played by our YoshiP.
Perhaps the increase in budget and resources on FF XIV helped improve the disaster, but YoshiP was entrusted with a drastic and very difficult decision to manage: FFXIV had to die and then be reborn from its own ashes. And so it was. The so-called 1.0 ceased to exist in 2012, with an incredible CG video, the same one that a few months later was the intro to the masterpiece that is still played every day by millions of people today: Final Fantasy XIV a realm reborn. Not an expansion or an update, but a new game, which declares to the world that it is ready to compete with the most played MMORPGs by the general public.
Now in its third expansion entitled Shadobringers, which has decreed its worldwide success once again and expanding its catchment area even further, we can say that Naoki Yoshida's incredible and impossible mission succeeded perfectly: Final Fantasy XIV has risen from its ashes stronger, better in every respect, to the point of becoming for millions of people the best Final Fantasy of all time.
Yoshi P is this: the hero who saved Final Fantasy. A director respected and followed by his audience and his collaborators, including Hiroshi Takai who, as I said, has already collaborated with him in the direction of FF XIV, and now holds the reins of the sixteenth chapter of the saga coming to PlayStation 5. YoshiP is producer this time, not director. But the history of the company and more, teaches us that producers and directors often exchange opinions, opinions and suggestions on the game they are developing, especially when the relationship of mutual esteem creates an excellent working chemistry. YoshiP is loved by the public because he is an unblemished and fearless knight, the warrior of light who brought hope and pride back to fans of the saga, and he did. presenting himself in Cosplay to the Fan Festivals that take place every year around the world. He did it singing the songs of his game on stage. It does this periodically when plays with his fans, at events such as Gamescom or The Tokyo Game Show. He does it with the seriousness and joy with which responds to fans during his Live Letters, the fixed appointments that present the news of the various patches, always constantly updated. He does it in his shy but outgoing way of appearing to the public, Always smiling, with her Vivienne Westwood designer rings. He does so in the interviews he gives, and I can confirm this myself as last year I had the pleasure, the honor and the good fortune to interview him.
in short Yoshi P is the person any fan would want to drive their favorite game. That's why, despite all the troubling flaws or alarms that we can find in the 4-minute Final Fantasy XVI trailer that was shown to us, the confidence in this title, with such a man at the helm of the project, doesn't even falter. for a moment.
And just as Final Fantasy XIV rose from its ashes, Phoenix rises from that same fire together with the fiery Ifrit, and their clash ignites not only the Final Fantasy XVI logo but also and above all the flames of the expectations of all of us.
Final Fantasy XVI is a fire that burns with passion, and it took 4 minutes and a name to understand it.
