PS5 Final Fantasy XVI

[Final Dream]

Ed io che pensavo ci fossero nuove info dalle interviste ed invece ancora a discutere sul discorso di ieri.

 

[Munba]

Ed io che pensavo ci fossero nuove info dalle interviste ed invece ancora a discutere sul discorso di ieri.

Tiè, è appena uscita la traduzione completa di quella di Famitsu che mancava.

Spoiler

How Takai and Maehiro were brought onto the project

• Yoshida mentions the feedback to the previous round of interviews, covering topics such as the game not being open world and the expectations of the FF fanbase. He says the team received a large number of understanding responses, which has helped relieve pressure on the team.
• Takai comments on how it came about that he was appointed as director for the game: During an evaluation meeting, Yoshida asked him if he would be interested in directing the next FF game. Opportunities to direct a FF don’t come too often, so he thought he should take it up. At the time PBR (Physical Based Rendering) was becoming a keyword in game development, and Takai thought to himself he might have a hard time directing, but on the behalf of the development staff he had to move forward with it.
• Takai and Yoshida joke that Takai isn’t the sort of person to want to direct a FF game
• Maehiro says he can’t remember much about how he was brought onto the project - only that he treated Yoshida to Yakiniku, and the Yakiniku was delicious… Yoshida chimes in and says the two of them have had so much work to do since then that he can’t remember either.

Deciding on the game’s core concept

• The interviewer asks what the devs decided was most important at that early stage of development. Takai says not fundamentally changing what was decided on at the start, and taking care that the game coalesces into something fun.
• Maehiro says that not just for FF, but in general he’s always thinking from the player perspective about how players can have fun playing the game - in understanding the story, controlling your character, etc.
• Yoshida says that his requests at the early stage were: Featuring the Summons, Mothercrystals, that it should be an action game, and that it shouldn’t be open world. He and Takai say they weren’t particularly worried about what they decided.
• Maehiro says the thing they were worried about was adding Chocobos. Yoshida explains that at one point there was a conversation about whether Chocobos and Moogles fit into the setting. However, he says from his perspective as producer, with how iconic they are it wouldn’t be good to exclude them. Even with CBU3 making the game, without Chocobos and Moogle it couldn’t be seen as a FF game.
• The interviewer asks if the setting fell into place when the concept was decided on. Maehiro says that Summons are part of the story and concept of the FF series. This time the concept is that the Summons aren’t just a part, but tightly interwoven into the entire story, so it took some time to fill out the setting on the basis of that concept. While there weren’t at any stage other options considered for how the setting should be, the current setup did undergo several revisions.
• Maehiro says that it is important for the game’s story and mechanics to come together. For this reason when writing the plot a point that was paid attention to is the timing of when you get certain summons, when you go to a new dungeon, etc.
• He also says that when creating the setting he had to pay mind to the cost of implementing so many locations. Yoshida says that at one point he even thought they should have reduced the number of countries by one. Takai adds at that point in development removing that one country would actually have increased costs, so it stayed.

Reasons for making the game 18+

• Takai says that in order to be able to express the realism that is possible and often requested in games these days, it was decided to escape the restrictions of an all-ages rating. For example, it can feel immersion breaking when you cut an enemy down and there is no blood. While he understands that the FF series has usually been all ages up until now, taking into account the current gaming landscape and the age demographics of the target audience, they decided to go for more flexibility in terms of the rating.
• Yoshida mentions the age rating restrictions are stricter than they used to be. So the decision to go for a higher rating wasn’t because the devs necessarily wanted to include depictions of brutality, but with FF14, he keeps bumping up against the increasingly strict restrictions. For example, you can’t have an arrow piercing into a character’s body… Maehiro adds that with an all ages rating you can’t even have something like a character stepping on a defeated character and letting out a war cry.
• With its somewhat less realistic art style FF14 manages to find ways around some things, but with FF16’s high quality graphics these workarounds would no longer be accepted.

On not making the game open-world or turn-based

• Takai says when it comes to creating an open world, there’s the problem of development costs. If you have a large map, but don’t fill it with things to do, all you end up with is a wide empty space. Taking into account the nature of past FF games, he considered that players would prefer a game with a story with solid development, so he insisted that the game should not be open world.
• Regarding turn based combat, Takai says while SE has the Kingdom Hearts series, overall they’re not known for action combat. Thinking of the current worldwide market, he felt that there are many players who would prefer to control their character’s actions directly.
• Yoshida mentions that even within the development staff there are some members with different preferences for FF, some prefer turn based and others action. He felt that if he didn’t make clear in advance that the game would not be turn-based or open world, the team might not be able to come together. He took responsibility as Producer to say the game will not be like this, which makes the work of the development staff easier.

Battle system

• Takai explains the 3 combat types:

1. Human vs Human. This also includes human-sized monsters. It might be easy to understand this battle type as one where you can fight without affecting the terrain.
2. Human vs Large enemies, which is befitting for boss battles. The idea is being able to freely control Clive facing off against huge monsters.
3. Summon vs Summon. These are fights ignoring all the usual regulations of the combat system, and all all designed to be unique one-off fights. It could be the summon you’re controlling is around 20m tall, vs enemies 100m tall. There are various locations such as in the sky or the crevasse of a glacier.

• On where the battles take place, there are 2 types of battle arena in the game: Ones that are specifically designed for that battle situation, and more open fields where you can move around freely.
• Takai also mentions seamless transitions from human vs large monster boss battles, to summon vs summon battles.

New story details in the Ambition trailer

• Maehiro explains the process for a new Dominant emerging when the former Dominant has been petrified. He says that there are various conditions for the next Dominant to be born - it could be straight away, or it could be 100 years. However, the rule is there can only be 1 Dominant at a time for each element. He confirms that this means there were times in the world’s history when there were no Dominants, but the current era is one where a large number of Dominants have assembled. He also confirms there is no rule that each country can only have one Dominant.
• The interviewer mentions that the new trailer was bookmarked with the opening and closing of a book. Is this just for the trailer, or…? Yoshida says this is something he is keeping a secret for now. He does mention there is a system in game for learning about the world’s history.
• Takai hints we may be surprised when we play the game and find out the truth of the voice of the woman in the trailer.
• Regarding the themes of the game, Yoshida says that there are characters that think positively of themselves, and other characters that right to the end cannot see themselves that way. How this ties into each character’s story is something Maehiro thought would be an interesting theme to explore.
• Maehiro adds: “it can be such a painful thing to accept yourself, I wanted to convey that conflict. There might be someone out there in the world who loves you.” Yoshida also says there aren’t that many people who can love themselves 100%, and there are many cases of people trying to bluff about themselves… these emotions are depicted in the game’s characters aswell.
• On the Blight, Maehiro explains that these are areas that cannot receive the protection of the Mothercrystals. Using magic, the Mothercrystals release the all-purpose energy ‘Ether’ which allows plants to grow, but since there is no ether in the Blight regions, nothing can grow there. The visual is one of a black wasteland going on and on. The Blight is gradually encroaching on the habitable regions. For example, on the Wind continent to the west of Valisthea, around 20% of the landmass has been consumed by the Blight.
• Maehiro says that the better comparison for the Blight regions might be the Moon’s surface rather than a desert. They are completely empty places. He also says these regions cannot return to how they were before.
• Takai says the game’s atmosphere can be compared to Heavensward
• Maehiro explains that when he starts writing a story, he does not start with the characters - he starts with the themes and the setting. The first thing he created for FF16 was the world map. Elements such as the character of Clive were created after the world map. He says that someone told him he was crazy when they saw the world map he had made.
• Maehiro says when it comes to creating the characters, he pays attention to the player experience of how they will interact with and battle with these characters. For example, with Dion, as a the contrast to Clive’s motive of living for revenge, the idea for his character was born from the concept of a Orthodox prince. And Barnabas was made in contrast to Dion - if there’s an Orthodox prince, how about a king full of mysteries?

Game is nearing completion

• Takai confirms the game is about 95% complete. The current status is each day they play through the game, smooth over the flaws and improve the performance and graphical quality. Bug fixes too. Yoshida says since the game is large-scale the bug fixes will take some time.
• About the UI, the team is implementing Maehiro’s final feedback, though he doesn’t expect that it will change too much from what we’ve seen.
• On the release date, Yoshida hopes to be able to reveal this within this year. We shouldn’t be worried that it will be delayed past the Summer.
• Yoshida also mentions that there are factors such as having to print the finished game onto discs and distributing these. People might ask him to release the game very soon when they hear it’s 95% complete, but there are other factors.

 

[Final Dream]

Ottimo.

Comunque per l'anno prossimo sinceramente non comprendo quando dicono che ci sarà silenzio dopo il trailer di inizio anno, e prima del rush finale del marketing.

Hanno detto che ad inizio 2023 ci sarà il trailer con focus sul gameplay e poi riprenderanno a tre mesi dal lancio. Se il gioco uscirà a giugno vorrebbe dire ripartire per marzo e per cui 1/2 mesi massimo di stacco.

Non mi sembra tutta questa pausa comunicativa.

 

[Rufy21100]

 

[Giamast]

Quindi dopo 6 mesi su PC (tempistiche del porting permettendo)

Mr. Jim Oak

 

[Ventus]

Quindi dopo 6 mesi su PC (tempistiche del porting permettendo)

Mr. Jim Oak

E no Xbox?

 

[izumi1988]

E no Xbox?

Dipende da che tipo di accordi hanno Square-Enix e Sony (vedi FFVIIR)

 

[zaza50]

Prendendo sempre con le pinze le tagline (che vengono il più delle volte scritte da stagisti ubriachi): Collima con quello che disse 2 anni fa questo Analista di Ampere (che dice di aver parlato con i PR di Sony).



6 Mesi di Full Exclusive
12 Mesi di Esclusiva Console

Realisticamente (port permettendo, e assumendo esatta la tagline): Giugno 2022 PS5, Dicembre 2022 PC, Giugno 2023 Xbox. Salvo che ci siano intromissioni nel contratto (cosa accaduta con FFVIIR).

 

[Mr. Jim Oak]

Quindi dopo 6 mesi su PC (tempistiche del porting permettendo)

Mr. Jim Oak

La tempistica perfetta per stare male e non sapere cosa fare, se svenarsi per una PS5 o aspettare nella sofferenza.

 

[Soyre]

Prendendo sempre con le pinze le tagline (che vengono il più delle volte scritte da stagisti ubriachi): Collima con quello che disse 2 anni fa questo Analista di Ampere (che dice di aver parlato con i PR di Sony).



6 Mesi di Full Exclusive
12 Mesi di Esclusiva Console

Realisticamente (port permettendo, e assumendo esatta la tagline): Giugno 2022 PS5, Dicembre 2022 PC, Giugno 2023 Xbox. Salvo che ci siano intromissioni nel contratto (cosa accaduta con FFVIIR).

A giudicare dal report di oggi e dalle prestazioni di alcuni giochi, penso che finalmente si siano resi conto che i contratti di esclusiva che hanno firmato hanno danneggiato molti loro prodotti.

 

[zaza50]

A giudicare dal report di oggi e dalle prestazioni di alcuni giochi, penso che finalmente si siano resi conto che i contratti di esclusiva che hanno firmato hanno danneggiato molti loro prodotti.

Mi fido pochissimo di ciò.

 

[Soyre]

Mi fido pochissimo di ciò.

Magari non sarà un passaggio repentino come Capcom, ma hanno scritto di voler puntare maggiormente sul multipiattaforma e sappiamo per certo che soprattutto le esclusive Epic (che dovrebbero essere state contrattate tutte insieme anni fa) sono state un disastro.

 

[Bubu]

Secondo me è un messaggio subliminale che vogliono più soldi

 

[zaza50]

Magari non sarà un passaggio repentino come Capcom, ma hanno scritto di voler puntare maggiormente sul multipiattaforma e sappiamo per certo che soprattutto le esclusive Epic (che dovrebbero essere state contrattate tutte insieme anni fa) sono state un disastro.

Eh non sono così convinto che siano troppo onesti, considerando la loro apertura ad innesti esterni persino nei loro studi (e nessun innesto esterno arriva libero da condizioni)... Ho la fortissima sensazione che SQEX navighi totalmente a vista, soprattutto quando si tratta di AAA(A).

 

[Soyre]

Eh non sono così convinto che siano troppo onesti, considerando la loro apertura ad innesti esterni persino nei loro studi (e nessun innesto esterno arriva libero da condizioni)... Ho la fortissima sensazione che SQEX navighi totalmente a vista, soprattutto quando si tratta di AAA(A).

Io comunque parlo più che altro di apertura a Steam, non tanto multipiattaforma totale. È talmente importante come piattaforma che non possono continuare a ignorarla, soprattutto visto che al contrario del mercato console è in crescita anche in giappolandia.

 

[zaza50]

Io comunque parlo più che altro di apertura a Steam, non tanto multipiattaforma totale. È talmente importante come piattaforma che non possono continuare a ignorarla, soprattutto visto che al contrario del mercato console è in crescita anche in giappolandia.

Sì sì be' su Epic hanno fatto naufragare valanghe di progetti non penso vogliano replicare (non ora almeno). Il mio scetticismo deriva dal fatto che l'attuale dirigenza tiene un po' il piede in 2 staffe... Procede con l'apertura multipiatta ma al contempo sono aperti ai "soci esterni"... Lo stesso progetto Remake è ormai chiaro che sia stato lasciato sotto l'egida di Sony a suon di "assegni", il che gli ammortizza probabilmente molti costi (non voglio neanche immaginare quanti milioni gli stiano dando).

Ho la sensazione che sui progetti più grossi/enormi navighino molto sul "noi puntiamo al multipiatta, ma se ce li finanziate adeguatamente, be'...".

 

[Alby-91]

Eh non sono così convinto che siano troppo onesti, considerando la loro apertura ad innesti esterni persino nei loro studi (e nessun innesto esterno arriva libero da condizioni)... Ho la fortissima sensazione che SQEX navighi totalmente a vista, soprattutto quando si tratta di AAA(A).

Ma infatti Sony investirà in Square-Enix, e ne sono certo proprio come lo ero con FromSoftware

 

[zaza50]

Ma infatti Sony investirà in Square-Enix, e ne sono certo proprio come lo ero con FromSoftware

Un investimento settoriale (come fatto con FROM) per assicurarsi una presenza nella società, dei vantaggi, ma evitando di "acquisirla", penso sia una strategia plausibile sì.

 

[Munba]

Ed ecco infine la traduzione completa dell'intervista di Gamewatch.

Spoiler

Interviewer: In the new trailer, we were shown Dion, the prince of Sanbreque, and Barnabas, the king of Waloed. Would you mind sharing the concept behind these two?
Maehiro: The protagonist Clive lives a life saddled with many responsibilities, whereas Dion is sort of this perfect prince who wants for nothing. Clive is a prince, too, of course, but he casts a shadow. So I’ve sort of created this imagery of a prince of light and a prince of darkness.
The concept behind Barnabas is this ominous king about whom not much is understood. As the Dominant of Odin, he possesses incredible power, and is the king of a country ruled by war. He seems to have a streak of wickedness and is preoccupied with something or other. Moreover, he has this inscrutable expression on his face, which lends to his eerie nature. That’s the sort of image I was going for when I made his character.

Interviewer: Dion is the Dominant of Bahamut, right? Historically with this series, Bahamut has a reputation for being the strongest. Would it be correct to say the strength of each Eikon is dependent upon the strength of their Dominant?
Maehiro: The strength of the Eikons essentially balances out. But at the core of those Eikons you of course have human beings, so naturally their fighting styles will change depending on the physical experience and acquired knowledge of the humans that harbor them. Some will push ahead with brute force while others will make skilled use of magic. I think you’ll see strengths and weaknesses with each Eikon’s power as they make the best of their unique characteristics.
Yoshida: For instance, the Gundam is a Gundam because Amuro is in the cockpit. If some ordinary soldier tried to pilot it, they’d be shot down in an instant. It’s that sort of situation, if you catch my drift [smiles wryly]. In the same way, the power an Eikon demonstrates will vary dramatically depending on its Dominant’s ability, mental fortitude, and familiarity with combat. There are size discrepancies that cannot be avoided, so it comes down to each one making good use of their abilities. These size differences mean they must be attacked in different ways, and then there are other discrepancies, such as Eikons that can fly and ones that can’t.

Interview: Ah, okay, I get it.
Yoshida: So I’d like it if everyone would keep an eye out for how their experience varies depending on the unique attributes of each Eikon in the game.
Maehiro: And if I might add, there’s also solid lore behind why these Eikons are balanced in terms of strength.

__________

Interviewer: So Valisthea is the name of this world where humans are being punished for having challenged God. Is it safe to assume God and the Eikons are completely different entities?
Maehiro: That’s a matter that’s very much at the root of this story, so it’s a little difficult to answer your question … [laughs].
Yoshida: But I think that’s a keen line of questioning, so please hold onto it. Why the world is the way it currently is—why Eikons regularly emerge one per element and who created Valisthea’s current rules in the first place—are some very major points. I can’t elaborate more until we reach the finish line, but I hope you’ll keep an eye on these things as they drive at the foundation of the story.

Interviewer: Have I perhaps touched on the “logic” of this world?
Yoshida: The logic of the world is something Maehiro has been very particular about from the beginning, and Valisthea has been constructed and animated based on this logic. I’m sure that if you play the game through to the end, you’ll come to understand the logic by which Valisthea moves and was constructed.
So it’s not simply that God and the Eikons are arbitrary backplot. What we have is a world Maehiro has devised with a solid structure in mind, and I think this is one of its pillars.

Interviewer: In the material we’ve seen so far, eight Eikons have appeared, yet there are only five nations. It would appear there’s one Dominant per nation, but the numbers don’t add up. Is this also touching too much on the “logic” of the world?
Maehiro: There’s no rule that there has to be one person per country.
Yoshida: That isn’t part of the logic of the world.
Maehiro: For a few minutes now we’ve had a couple of grown adults unironically saying “the logic of the world” over and over again. What a great gathering this is [laughs]. I’m listening on the sidelines here trying not to giggle.
Yoshida: But that’s what you wrote here [laughs]. Well, anyway, a nation is something people gather together and choose to form, so it isn’t really a rule of the world. And it’s not like only five countries are allowed to exist—that’s just the number of nations that humans, as living organisms, have decided to separate themselves into currently. In the past, there may have been seven or eight, or, conversely, there may have been some period when there were fewer than five.

Interviewer: Ah, okay, I see now.
Yoshida: There are rules regarding the birth of Dominants, but a Dominant may decide to move to some other country, or they may be forcibly captured and taken elsewhere. As such, there is no rule that there has to be one Dominant per country. That’s how we think about it, at any rate.
Maehiro: Dominants possess incredible power, so in the eyes of their nations they’re like treasures that can be used however they wish. They can be used as a deterrent or to wield influence. They’re very important, and so the more of them a country has, the greater that country can become. So the numbers eight and five aren’t related to any rule.

Interviewer: So you’re saying you can have a country that’s locked down several Dominants in its territory.
Maehiro: In terms of “logic,” that would just be humans being crafty.

Interviewer: Moving on, could you tell us about the role of the Mothercrystals in Valisthea? I’d also love to know what connection the Dominants have to them.
Maehiro: You can think of them as power plants. The idea is that the Mothercrystals emit aether, a familiar FF energy source with which they’re brimming. And people cast magic by using smaller crystals carved from the Mothercrystals. It’s kind of like having a power plant and a terminal to access it, and as you would imagine with electricity, this magic enriches people’s day-to-day lives. For that reason, countries have been built around these Mothercrystals. That’s the basic concept.
All the inhabitants of this world live their lives founded on magic. Even making fires is accomplished by magic, and so people are oblivious about how to make fires the ordinary way. That’s because magic is something that’s there from the time they’re born. Right now, I can’t tell you how the Dominants tie into such a world, because it’s too bound up with the logic of the story [laughs].

__________

Interviewer: From what we’ve glimpsed in the trailers, it seems like the story will center quite a bit around the Dominants. Could you once again tell us how the protagonist Clive will play into all this?
Takai: At the beginning of the game, Clive himself isn’t involved in the world all that deeply. He’s living his life in pursuit of a goal, and the story unfolds around him achieving that goal. However, as we approach the midway point, he becomes entangled with the Dominants and swept up in the turmoil of the world at large.

Interviewer: The key phrase this time is the “War of the Eikons,” and I feel the words themselves impart a real sense of climax. Is this War of the Eikons something that occurs frequently throughout the actual game, or is it more like an event that really only happens at the end of the game, when all of the Eikons suddenly clash at once?
Yoshida: With RPGs, you usually have a fitting boss that serves as a capstone for each area. I think you can safely assume that clashes between the Eikons will pretty much occur with that pacing.

Interviewer: But Clive isn’t a Dominant, is he? Even though we have these Eikon-on-Eikon battles, Clive himself won’t be turning into an Eikon, right?
Everyone: [Exchanges glances]

Interviewer: Oops… did I overstep there?
Yoshida: I’m sure the answer will come out as more promotional material is released, but for now I’d say people should just enjoy themselves by watching the video and wondering what kind of situations could give rise to these battles and the types of things they’ll be able to do in them [laughs].
In any event, I don’t think there’s any point in controlling a character you can’t empathize with, so we’ve made sure everyone will feel strongly enough that they grip the controller in their hands with a sense of excitement. So I hope you’re looking forward to that experience. I think that sense of wonder at how things unfold is a pretty big highlight of the game.

Interviewer: Will this game feature any party members who are involved with the main story?
Yoshida: Yes, of course. This time, the action aspects are strong, and in the trailer so far, the action scenes with Clive, the main character, have been shot in a way that’s easy to understand. This has made it appear that he’s doing everything solo. However, for the majority of his journey, Clive is accompanied by teammates whom we can call party members.

Interviewer: It’s been my assumption that even if we can have party members, they’ll be non-playable characters.
Yoshida: As I just mentioned, Clive has teammates who participate in his operations. The characters who fight alongside Clive in these situations are called party members, and they’re AI-driven, meaning the player need only focus on controlling Clive. Party members tag along with Clive and do all their fighting automatically while engaging in conversation.
Maehiro: In the very beginning of the game, you might even control a character who isn’t Clive.

Interviewer: Kind of like the part with Reks in FFXII?
Maehiro: That’s right. I think that’s a good way of thinking about it.

Inoltre la versione Hi-Res della nuova mappa aggiornata del mondo.

Spoiler: Update Worldmap HD

 

[Soyre]

zaza50 Forse le interviste danno più senso al marketing del gioco, ed i numeri. Stanno A) Hypando tantissimo il protagonista del gioco, che nei main trailer hanno tenuto praticamente nascosto. B) Tenendosi le informazioni video più importanti (gameplay, sistemi di gioco, esplorazione).
Dalle varie risposte sappiamo che i main trailer sono costruiti per accompagnarci alla release e dedicati ai Core fans per intrattenerli con la speculazione. Il marketing vero e proprio (ad, banners, clip, quant'altro) è previsto per inizio 2023 e la maggior parte delle info arriveranno tre mesi prima del lancio.

Penso che i trailer xiv-style che abbiamo avuto siano davvero dedicati solo a noi, e che stiano preparando le informazioni perché creino hype ed aspettativa il più vicino possibile al lancio per non dilatare il momentum. Quindi in teoria abbiamo a fine anno il trailer con data di uscita e presumo l'apertura dei preorder, a gennaio l'ultimo main trailer con il gameplay e poi a marzo/aprile inizieranno a fare come stanno facendo con Forspoken. Demo (stampa e poi utenti), numerosi video di gameplay promossi tramite ads, presentazione del protagonista etc.

E in effetti ha molto più senso di far vedere un gameplay esteso 8-10 mesi prima dell'uscita.