Final Fantasy 16 Producer Naoki Yoshida said that he thinks “Maybe it’s time to remove the numbers” from Final Fantasy games. In an interview with GQ, he talked about the burden that inevitably comes with having a 35-year-old series that will soon have 16 main titles (not counting sequels and spin-offs, I might add), and the confusion it continues to create with new players. “Every numbered title we release in the series, we have to look at it like, ‘It’s fine, you don’t need to play the rest,'” he said, and removing them is “something I’ve discussed.” with the superiors.” It’s probably an understandable problem, although I think I’d be pretty bummed if the numbers disappeared entirely. As long as they don’t pull a Mortal Kombat and back to 1but we are fine.
Maybe it’s time to take the numbers out of the name,” he told GQ. “For example, you have Final Fantasy 14. You get a new player and it’s like, “Wait, why do I have to play Final Fantasy 14 when 16 is out?” Why don’t we just call it Final Fantasy Online – just get rid of the number altogether and it’ll make it easier to understand.”
He emphasizes that, in fact, no one has yet made a decision to withdraw the numbers. “Whether or not Final Fantasy 17 or Final Fantasy 18 should have a number is up to whoever develops the game and whoever is in charge of the branding, so that’s their problem, not ours!” he said.
Yoshida went to great lengths to emphasize just how newcomer-friendly Final Fantasy 16 is in Sony’s special State of the Game presentation last month (embedded above). Not only RPG have several ring accessories that his character Clive can equip to extend actions like parries and dodge windows, but you can also enable an automatic single attack signal that will allow Clive to perform flashy sword swings without having to deal with overly complicated button presses . What’s more, these rings will be automatically equipped by Clive if you select Story Focus mode at the start of the game.
Unfortunately, there is still no word on when Final Fantasy 16 will be released on PC, only that Square Enix wants to bring it to PC “at some point”, which makes me sad. That said, I’m looking forward to playing it on PS5 when it comes out on June 22nd, so I apologize in advance for the inevitable wave of FF16 fan posts. You have been warned.
Do you think Final Fantasy should ditch the numbers and move on Stranger from paradiseinstead of subtitles? Answers on the postcard (in the comments).