Last week, Final Fantasy XVI producer Naoki Yoshida and director Hiroshi Takai revealed a new trailer for the game, titled Ambition. In this PS blog post, they briefly touched on the gameplay and also shared more information about the two newly revealed characters.
After this reveal, we had even more questions. So today you are going to dive a little deeper into the world of Valistea, Dominantes and Eikons. Joined by Creative Director Kazutoyo Maehiro and Localization Director Michael-Christopher Koji Fox, this interview covers the creators' take on their story, world building, key player motivations, and more.
"Le monde de Final Fantasy XVI n'est peut-être pas particulièrement gentile ou doux. Cependant, I thought that nous avons réussi à dépeindre comment son peuple vit sans abandonner ; comment ils se battent, comment ils restent forts et comment ils continuent à to live."
- Hiroshi Takai, CEO
playstation blog What did you want to accomplish with this story that hasn't been done before in Final Fantasy?
Hiroshi Takai, General Director of Final Fantasy XVI. I would say that in the beginning, the Final Fantasy series was about creating pure fantasy worlds and telling rich stories about the inhabitants of those worlds. The series gradually built from this starting point, at times experimenting with elements closer to science fiction and delving into the coming-of-age stories of its young characters. Coming to Final Fantasy XVI, just as we players seem to have grown, the years have also taken their toll on our developers. The world hasn't always been kind and we've learned that you can't expect things to work out for you. And things don't always go well in the world of Valistea either, in the different senses of the word. All its inhabitants carry their loads. This was the world we wanted to show. And so the world of Final Fantasy XVI may not be particularly kind or gentle. However, I think we managed to portray the way its people live without giving up. how they fight, how they stay strong, and how they survive. So I want as many people as possible to discover the world of Valistea. (And it's certainly not all catastrophic!)
Can you walk us through the early stages of designing this world? It starts with the iconic elements you want to include, like crystals and summons, then explores the unique perspectives of the dominants, then organically leads to warring nation states, etc.
Kazutoyo Maehiro, creative director and original script, Final Fantasy XVI. From the beginning of the project, we decided that Final Fantasy XVI would focus on the Eikons. Summoning is an important part of the Final Fantasy series as a whole, so I thought that if we were to introduce Eikons, we should make sure they were properly integrated into the story rather than just being spells or abilities.
That's what got me thinking about the question. "Suppose there is a world where the Aikon actually exist; what kind of world would that be? It would have to be a world where it would be natural to see the giant summoning with your own eyes, and there would be a story to match." .
The following steps are mostly about how I personally approach creating a story. I started by creating a map of the world and from there I built the environment of the world: the flow of winds and rivers, ocean currents and the location of cities. With this as a base, I added iconic elements from the Final Fantasy series, including crystals and elements unique to Final Fantasy XVI that flowed out of its overall structure as it wrote the world's history. With all of that done, we finally get to the original story. After that I created a story that Clive (=player avatar) will always keep in his link. I made sure he really felt like a main character, not just a character in a lot of stories.
"Yoshida-san's core design concept for XVI has always been a 'roller coaster', so a mix of slow climbs and builds followed by exhilarating free falls is a good way to describe how we're trying to present the story" .
– Michael-Christopher Koji Fox, Localization Director
Were there lessons from FFXIV Heavensward's story, character structure, and writing that you brought to the build of FFXVI?
Michael-Christopher Koji Fox, localization director for Final Fantasy XVI. Yes and no.
First of all, FFXIV Warrior of Light with a silent main character had a huge impact on the scene writing. For this reason, most cutscenes in XIV have other people talking to you, and the responsibility for conveying important information falls almost exclusively on the NPCs. For XVI, having Clive as an active participant in every conversation changes a lot the way we can communicate information to the player. The short scenes are definitely more dynamic in this regard. Adding high-quality face capture to many scenes also allows us to convey emotion and meaning through expression rather than actual dialogue.
Gender differences also influenced our approach.
With an MMO like XIV, it's about creating a story that you can stretch over the two-plus years of an expansion cycle. In the case of a standalone game, the resulting story should be a bit more compact and straightforward. When this indie game is very action-oriented (as opposed to a slower-paced traditional RPG), the pacing of the story becomes doubly important. While political intrigue can be exciting, it tends to be convoluted and requires a lot of explaining, which can slow things down. Over-reliance on plot and complexity sometimes makes you lose sight of the big picture and gameplay can suffer. When creating something interactive, we wanted it to have a good balance. Yoshida-san's main design concept for XVI has always been "roller coasters", so a combination of slow builds followed by interesting free falls is a good way to describe how we try to present the story.
The fact that the Dominants are treated differently depending on their nation, whether they are respected or forced to be weapons of war, creates rich narrative potential. What influenced your development and your choice of how each nation views and uses their dominants?
Koji Renard. Each nation's attitude toward the dominant allows us to examine how certain things are seen through different lenses; something that is especially important at a time when there is a tendency to divide things into black and white, how to do it right or wrong. After all, since the Dominants live and breathe, how they are treated by their nations becomes a pretty accurate reflection of how those nations treat their populations. A nation that treats its ruler like a hostage is likely to see its own people as hostages that must be sacrificed to save the most important parts. A nation that fears its overlord is more likely to attack all magic users (overlords and wielders), while a nation that respects its overlord is more likely to treat its people as equals.
"The way the Dominants act on their human will, even after the Eikons manifest, can be quite different from Final Fantasy XVI."
- Hiroshi Takai, CEO
Bahamut and Odin are two iconic characters from the Final Fantasy mythology who have been portrayed differently in previous games. How does the team differentiate the FFXVI releases from previous titles?
Takai: This doesn't just apply to Bahamut and Odin, but I would say that a distinctive aspect of Final Fantasy XVI compared to previous episodes in the series is how the humans (Dominators) display the Eikons within them. Dion, who is Bahamut, and Barnabas, who is Odin, each carry their own burden in the story, and I think one of the fascinating things about Final Fantasy XVI is how the monstrous forms that the overlords display look a bit like the human characters. when you look at them. For the current look of the Eikon, instead of creating an entirely new design, we deliberately opted for shapes that can be easily imagined from previous iterations. When you think about it, the way the Dominants act on their human will, even after the Aicons manifest, can be quite different from Final Fantasy XVI.
The Eikons may be all-powerful, but their actions are at the behest of their masters and, by extension, the nations they fight for. All the characters (not just the dominant ones) believe that what they are doing is correct. How do you feel playing morally complex characters?
Maehiro: Not everyone treats dominants the same way. There are many different opinions and beliefs about human beings. Dominants in one country may be treated with great respect, as guests of high honor, while in another they are treated like slaves. And if there are those who fight for justice, there are those who will only act for their personal benefit, as well as those who for one reason or another are forced to serve against their will. You might think that Dominants should be able to do whatever they want with the immense power of Eikons, but using this power has the downside of hardening the Dominant's body. This leads to anxieties faced by Dominants who are unable to do what they want, as well as build relationships with their countries and the people around them. Each Dominant's character is created by describing the situation they find themselves in, their personal will and ideology, and the conflict that arises from these factors.
"When [FFXVI composer] Masayoshi Soken heard the lines sung, he and his team decided to manually create a backing vocal for each one...despite the additional work involved for them because we were recording the acapella songs and the rhythm and the tone were complete... The place."
– Michael-Christopher Koji Fox, Localization Director
Which FFXVI character was your favorite to write and why?
Naoki Yoshida, Producer, Final Fantasy XVI. There are many characters in the game and they all have their own life and destiny, so it's very difficult to choose one... I think the answer will be the same as mr. Maehiro, who wrote the script, but I have to say that Clive, the main character, is very special. With him as the protagonist, the entire development team unites with all their might to push Clive forward. How are we going to focus on it? How are we to weigh his words? Along with Mr. Maehiro, I went through each section and asked multiple times for things to be corrected. As a result, I have a special bond with Clive.
Takay . It hasn't been announced yet, but I love that Byron's character comes in the middle of the story. He is an extremely nice character, very cheerful and generous. So I hope many players like it as much as I do. Unfortunately I can't go into too much detail as this could become a spoiler, but the scene where he first appears really moved me. When I first used the screen controls, I laughed out loud in spite of myself. I think they will announce it in future promotional material, so when you see it in the game, think of this interview, haha.
Maehiro: My favorite character would have to be the main character, Clive. Of all the characters I've written so far, he was the one that caught my attention the most, so much so that I'm not sure I could write a better character. In fact, there are many characters in the game that I really like, but I can't talk about them right now. If I get a chance to interview again after the game releases, I'll mention it in my answers, yes.
Koji Renard. There are so many unique characters in XVI that it's hard to choose (especially when I can't talk about them much here because it would spoil the story). So entering a, say, closes the period after that
Final Fantasy XVI will be released on PS5 in 2023.