In the movie industry, a common problem causes plenty of frustration among moviegoers. No, it’s not the lack of originality in Hollywood, though obviously, that’s a problem too. Instead, we’re talking about how movie trailers intentionally try to show as much as possible so that you’ll be drawn into seeing the whole thing. The intention is understandable, but sometimes it means that key moments of the film are spoiled even before you get to theaters. Game trailers can be the same way if developers aren’t careful. Thankfully, for those who want to enjoy Final Fantasy XVI with too many spoilers, you don’t have to worry as much.
That might be a bold thing to claim, given that we haven’t played the game in full, but Producer Naoki Yoshida seems confident that this is the case. During a special talk about the game that you can see below, he noted how the trailers and gameplay footage that you’ve seen before haven’t scratched much of what Final Fantasy XVI has to offer:
“I think it’s better for you to focus on playing the game without really knowing much about it beforehand. I know some people have been calling us out and saying we’re showing way too much in all these trailers we’re releasing, but you’ve barely seen anything at all…”
So, is Yoshida overselling things here? Perhaps not. First, he is the game’s producer, so he would know if something within the trailers was a massive spoiler. Another thing to think about here is that everything we’ve seen is possibly from the beginning of the game. RPGs are famous for having long campaigns that can go dozens of hours. Then there are ones like from a certain Atlus franchise that can go over 100 hours if you do things right.
Regardless, if they showed things in the trailers from only the opening few missions of the game, then by default, we haven’t seen what’s coming in the rest of the title.
Furthermore, given that this game has a more mature adult-style story mixed with more action-style gameplay, it would benefit them not to highlight everything you’ll see and do in the game so that plenty of surprises are coming down the line.
It honestly doesn’t matter if there are major or minor spoilers in what we’ve seen so far. What matters is whether the game plays well when it comes out later this month, as many are hoping it’s a title that breathes new life into the franchise.