Fans of the Final Fantasy franchise have been eager to hear more about the next mainline title since 2020. One doozy of an announcement trailer was revealed alongside the PlayStation 5, but news has consisted of only small blips on the radar since then. In January, Final Fantasy XVI was strangely absent from Square Enix’s 2022 lineup. Thankfully, the game’s producer Naoki Yoshida has finally shared some very good news.
As the Final Fantasy series celebrates its 35th anniversary, plenty of brands are jumping on the celebratory bandwagon. One such store, the apparel retailer Uniqlo, just released a new line based on the Square Enix juggernaut. A free Final Fantasy magazine is being given away at Uniqlo locations in Japan, and an interview with Yoshida can be found within. In said interview, the man himself finally said the words we’ve all been waiting for, prompting renewed hope that we’ll be playing the sixteenth entry sooner rather than later.
“Development of the latest title, Final Fantasy XVI, is in its final stages,” Yoshida said.
“Final Fantasy XVI aims to integrate the story and the gaming experience into a single-player game. Unlike online, which portrays multiple players simultaneously, Final Fantasy XVI focuses on the individual,” Yoshida continued. “This makes the story more immersive. It’s a very dense story.
As an adult, I learned about society and said to myself ‘reality is not as easy as a video game’. I hope that those who once left Final Fantasy will remember how exciting their passion for video games was back then.”
In a January message, Yoshida promised that more news about XVI would be coming in Spring 2022 after development on the game was pushed back almost half a year due to the pandemic.
Final Fantasy XVI does not yet have a set release date, but this recent development has many speculating that the title may still arrive in late 2022. In October 2021, it was announced that the game’s main scenario had been completed.
