Since announcing Final Fantasy 16 halfway through 2020, Square Enix has been almost completely silent about the upcoming RPG. About a year ago, the Japanese company stated that several updates and announcements on the upcoming PS5 exclusive would be shared throughout 2021– but 2021 has come and gone and those updates remain elusive as ever. So what’s going on with the game?
Producer Naoki Yoshida recently shared a message with fans via the game’s official Twitter page, apologizing for the lack of updates in 2021, and explaining that complications arising from the ongoing pandemic have “delayed the game’s development by almost a half year.” Interestingly enough, a couple of months ago, it was stated that development on Final Fantasy 16’s main scenario had nearly wrapped up, while side quests had made significant progress as well.
Yoshida explains that Final Fantasy 16’s development team – a “sizeable team composed of talented creators from around the world” – has been having to work remotely in a decentralized manner, which has “hampered communication”, which in turn has led to complications like delays, or even cancellation of delivery of assets from outsourcing partners.
However, Yoshida says that much of 2021 has been spent tackling the issue, so that the Final Fantasy 16 development team can focus on the task at hand as it moves into the new year. The team seems to have identified several key areas that it’ll be focusing on, Yoshida explains. Namely- “increasing graphic resource quality, putting the finishing touches on cutscenes, and conducting overall graphical optimization.”
“Our primary goal now is to be as hands on with the game as possible in order to see it fully polished,” Yoshida writes.
Delivering a polishing product is something the game’s development team has spoken of on multiple occasions. Meanwhile, where the aforementioned cutscenes are concerned, the developer has previously revealed that unlike previous games in the series, Final Fantasy 16 is prioritizing British English voice recordings and performance capture, with Japanese dubbing following later. English voice overs had also almost been wrapped up by July 2021. Additionally, shortly after the game was first announced last year, Yoshida stated that its visuals would be improved and optimized further before launch.
So what exactly does that all mean for Final Fantasy 16 and when we’ll finally be able to see it? Well, it shouldn’t be long. Yoshida says a big reveal is planned for Spring 2022.
“I am happy to announce that the current plan is to conduct our next big reveal in spring of 2022 as we seek to build excitement leading up to the game’s eventual release,” he wrote in his message.
As for when that eventual release will be, that remains to be seen. Whenever it launches, Final Fantasy 16 will be exclusive to the PS5.