The announcement of Final Fantasy 16 during Sony's most recent PlayStation 5 event came as a huge surprise to fans of the series. While the title has been rumored for years, actually seeing the reveal trailer and ambition in the game's dark fantasy style is more refreshing than ever coming off of this year's Final Fantasy 7 Remake and 2016's Final Fantasy 15, two games which make heavy use of more science-fiction visual motifs. Thankfully, the nearly 5 minute long trailer left fans with lots to think about given that the next piece of information will not be coming until 2021, however, we may already have an idea of how far the game is into development.
One thing that can be sure of Final Fantasy 16 judging from what we have seen so far is that the game seems to have already had a few years of development behind it, with the trailer sporting a consistent tone, world, and character designs. This is because, according to a job listing on Square Enix's website, Final Fantasy 16 has already completed "basic development." According to the job listing, "We have already completed basic development and scenario production, and are continuing to create large-scale resources and build boss battles while expanding our various development tools."
One thing to be sure of is that, while the game has seemingly already surpassed some major development milestones, this does not mean that development of Final Fantasy 16 is reaching its conclusion. The same job recruitment page that lists this information also features positions for level designers, staff that can work on "large-scale cutscenes", and character animations, plus, as the previous quote mentions, the team is already continuing to design the game's boss battles. All of this is a good indication that Final Fantasy 16's development is powering ahead steadily.
More importantly, what fans can take away from this information is that Square Enix's announcement of Final Fantasy 16 last month has been strategically positioned to avoid any long-term delays and open development struggles that games like Final Fantasy 15 or even Final Fantasy 7 Remake fell victim to during their development cycles. With this type of announcement structuring, fans can rest assured that Final Fantasy 16 will release within the next decade as opposed to Final Fantasy 15 which, including its original title of Final Fantasy Versus 13, took 10 years to release after its initial announcement.
Final Fantasy 16 is the first number entry to be announced since the release of 2016's Final Fantasy 15, it is being developed by a team lead by Final Fantasy 14 director Naoki Yoshida and directed by The Last Remnant director Hiroshi Takai. The game's art style returns to the franchise's high fantasy roots with some inspiration seeming to have come from CD Projekt Red's The Witcher series. The game's combat is being directed by Devil May Cry 5 and Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen designer Ryota Suzuki.
Final Fantasy 16 is currently in development as a PlayStation 5 console exclusive.
Source: Gematsu
