Final Fantasy XVI

[Swnem]

People have been doing some digging and it looks like the game may be a late 21/early 22 release and its been worked on since Heavensward came out with many people who left the FFXIV team after that working on this including Heavenwards writer. Which is a damn sight more exciting to me than whatever crazy whispers style OC Nomuras cooking up in his 7 dungeon.

That would be amazing, but i really doubt it would come out that early.
FFXIV got an xpac coming next year too.

Do you have a source for that btw? Would like to see.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

That would be amazing, but i really doubt it would come out that early.
FFXIV got an xpac coming next year too.

Do you have a source for that btw? Would like to see.

Only thing I've heard has been rumors.

Personally, I think 2021/2022 is pretty likely. We'll probably get FFVII Remake Part 2 in 2022 and Project Athia in 2023, with FFVII Remake Part 3 in 2024. Square probably doesn't want to compete with itself, so I'm thinking that FFXVI will either launch in 2021, or it will share 2022 with FFVII Remake Part 2 but launch 6 months apart from it.

Mike from the Resonsant Arc podcast observed that the announcement for FFXVI didn't say that it was a Playstation 5 exclusive, just a Playstation exclusive. Furthermore, Square Enix has emphasized that they aren't developing any games for next gen right now. Given that FFXVI looks to have the same graphical quality as FFXV, it is possible that it might also launch on the PS4, which makes sense because launching as a PS5 exclusive wouldn't be very lucrative at the moment, because the install base for the PS5 during its first year would be low compared to the massive PS4's install base. It takes year for people to migrate to the next console, at which point developing exclusively for the current console becomes lucrative.

The argument against a 2021 FFXVI launch is that the 4th FFXIV expansion will almost certainly launch in late 2021. FFXIV doesn't have much customer overlap with a mainstream game like FFXVI, so a FFXIV expansion and FFXVI can launch close to each other and that won't be a problem for sales. The problem will be that they're both being developed by the same studio, Creative Business Unit 3 (or CBU3). Given that in normal AAA development, dev teams crunch during the final few months leading up to launch, CBU3 launching two games within a few months of each other would be incredibly hectic and exhausting on CBU3.

[Easo]

I mean, if the game has been in works since... 2015? And comes out after 6-7 years, that's good news? It is a significant development time, much less likely to be rushed like the annual CoD/EA sports game copies.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I mean, if the game has been in works since... 2015? And comes out after 6-7 years, that's good news? It is a significant development time, much less likely to be rushed like the annual CoD/EA sports game copies.

The project appears to have begun pre-production in 2016, and didn't enter full production until around 2018-2019.

[Easo]

The project appears to have begun pre-production in 2016, and didn't enter full production until around 2018-2019.

Bro, why you have to hurt me so?

But yeah, this is considerably less time.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

According to Yoshida during a FFXIV livestream, a FFXVI website will launch at the end of October with some info on the characters and the setting.

[RobertoCarlos]

According to Yoshida during a FFXIV livestream, a FFXVI website will launch at the end of October with some info on the characters and the setting.

Let's hope it's not like 15 and has its story spread across movies, TV mini series, books, cards/who the fuck knows.

The game definitely suffered for it because they wanted to create a world people live and breathe it

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Let's hope it's not like 15 and has its story spread across movies, TV mini series, books, cards/who the fuck knows.

The game definitely suffered for it because they wanted to create a world people live and breathe it

Bear in mind that FFXV was in development hell for 13 years. Nomura's vision kept changing and he thus kept continually developing and scrapping the game over and over until Square booted him off the project and put Tabata in charge, then gave Tabata a hard deadline of two years to release a game. Tabata did a remarkable job given the constraints, but it's just impossible to make a game of the scope he wanted to. So Square took the opportunity to commercialize the parts of the story that Tabata wouldn't have the time or resources to put into the game, such as the backstories of the band or the fall of Insomnia.


The FFXVI team isn't under those constraints. They're making the game they want at the pace they want. The FFXIV folks working on FFXVI have a lot of clout at Square. Yoshida got promoted on the board of directors for saving FFXIV. And, given how they've handled FFXIV, I trust FFXVI's story to be handled well. In FFXIV, pretty much the whole story is in the game, with only a few short stories on the official website and nothing important is in the short stories that wasn't already in the game. There is an enclyopedia for the setting like Warcraft Chronicle, but it doesn't tell you any new story important stuff, only expands upon trivial lore like how a Limsan pirate admiral chopped off a merchant's thumb and had it cast as a mold so it could be used as the basis for a measuring system, or how Sharlayans spend all their time studying so they eat stale bread because they can't be bothered to set aside time to actually cook something good, etc.

- - - Updated - - -

Also, so far Square hasn't been milking the VII remake. Well... yes, the remake is milking the VII iconography and brand name recognition, but they're not like selling books that resolve the story or releasing an anime series with the character's backstories or anything. You buy the game and that's it. Outside of Kitase's fantasies, I think Square is now out of the Compilation of FFVII/Fabula Nova Crystalsis/Kingdom Hearts "everything must be a vast multi-media franchise milked as much as possible" phase. This isn't the Square that was flailing around in the wake of Sakaguchi's departure during the 2000's and mid 2010's; I think Square has their act together now.

[Graeham]

Apparently there's a high chance that the game might be rated for adults only. I hope the rating sticks since FFXIV always felt like it wanted to be more dark and gritty than it was but always had to pull back at the last minute due to limitations based around the rating system. I'm not terribly surprised, either, given the shower of blood and decapitation in the trailer.

[Ashleyxoxo]

Apparently there's a high chance that the game might be rated for adults only. I hope the rating sticks since FFXIV always felt like it wanted to be more dark and gritty than it was but always had to pull back at the last minute due to limitations based around the rating system. I'm not terribly surprised, either, given the shower of blood and decapitation in the trailer.

Moar decapitation!

[Edge-]

Apparently there's a high chance that the game might be rated for adults only.

In Japan it may be Cero Z/Pegi 18, but it ain't gonna be AO in North America. They usually end up T in North America so if anything it'll bump up to an M, cause AO games don't sell.

[dope_danny]

In Japan it may be Cero Z/Pegi 18, but it ain't gonna be AO in North America. They usually end up T in North America so if anything it'll bump up to an M, cause AO games don't sell.

Tell that to all the kids that conned their parents into getting them gta or resident evil back in the day.

[Edge-]

Tell that to all the kids that conned their parents into getting them gta or resident evil back in the day.

...what about it? Those were all rated T/M in the US.

[Tech614]

Tell that to all the kids that conned their parents into getting them gta or resident evil back in the day.

Both M rated. AO games aren't stocked by stores or allowed to be sold on PSN so...

It's FF with a dark story and blood, this already happened it was called Type 0 so look at its ratings to compare. It will ofc be rated M at most. The "adults only" shit doesn't mean a literal AO rating from the ESRB but a CERO Z rating which is 18+ in Japan and lots of games get this rating. I'd bet my ass it only gets a CERO D(17+) rating though unless it has nudity, might even get by with a CERO C(15+) if the blood and gore isn't over done.

[dope_danny]

...what about it? Those were all rated T/M in the US.

Really? Man, Vice City was a hard 18 in the UK and in the post tipper gore era of 'think of the children' i am amazed if that got a more lenient treatment in the US.

[Edge-]

Really? Man, Vice City was a hard 18 in the UK and in the post tipper gore era of 'think of the children' i am amazed if that got a more lenient treatment in the US.

PEGI 18 is the equivalent of M in North America, those games are still sold in stores and allowed on consoles. AO is unique to NA in that few, if any stores will stock any AO game (I doubt many even get manufactured), and no console maker approves the games for their console.

As for Tipper Gore, that shit was decades ago and given everything that's released since then you're kinda tilting at windmills. It'll be M at "worst", no major publisher is going to take a flagship brand and a game representing tens/hundreds of millions invested and functionally kill it for the entire North American market.

[Icelin]

I didn't think the trailer looked that bad. I like the timeline, the feel, etc. What I am worried about is when I seen glimpses of what looks to be the party. I didn't see any females on the team. It makes me extremely disappointed. As it is tradition for there to be a female in your team even from the very first game in this franchise.

Final Fantasy was one of those very few games you actually had some neat female fictional characters let alone playable. FF15 wasn't that bad. (Somethings I didn't mind out of it.) I just wish they didn't make LunaFreya (Nice bizarre mix up name btw --; ) not apart of your party. I remember seeing clips for FF 13 versus btw. Which most definitely she looked playable at that time. Instead they re hauled and went this boy band Kpop route for 15.

I wish Square Enix wouldn't continue this trend of dis-including neat female characters on your team. I was talking about this with another and they advised me, "Well maybe it's to appeal to women more because throwing lots of attractive guys on a team." I was like would you play an all female game?(to be fair they did this with FF X-2, which I played but still..and I mostly wanted to see Tidus again anyways. 10 ended pretty rough. I do know of some guys that played it too but still..) "Well I would feel awkward and no I didn't play FF X-2" Ok, you can understand where I am coming from.

Personally I love both and the romance. Everything in between that makes it a great franchise.

[LemonDemonGirl]

In Japan it may be Cero Z/Pegi 18, but it ain't gonna be AO in North America. They usually end up T in North America so if anything it'll bump up to an M, cause AO games don't sell.

Maybe they'll tone down the blood? That might push it to T a little bit more

(M rated games aren't my thing, so I think I'll skip this one and just read about what happens in it when its out )

[Fahrenheit]

Let's hope it's not like 15 and has its story spread across movies, TV mini series, books, cards/who the fuck knows.

The game definitely suffered for it because they wanted to create a world people live and breathe it

Wouldn’t mind more player characters coming into the party. Hated that about FF15. Having a large cast of characters to choose to have in your party like FF6, 7, 9, 10 makes the game more enjoyable for me.

[Icelin]

Having a large cast of characters to choose to have in your party like FF6, 7, 9, 10 makes the game more enjoyable for me.

I know right?

Having a big variety of team members made it overall a lot of fun for sure. Not only that in certain games there would be times you would have to divert/divide your party properly. That was always pretty fun too.