WeArePowerAddicts spoke with the producer and director of Final Fantasy 16 a few weeks before the PC version was released and this is what they told us. Read more in this article!
We’re just weeks away from Final Fantasy 16 making its triumphant debut on PC. On September 17, 2024, Steam and Epic Games players will be able to experience what those of us on PlayStation 5 have been saying for a long time: that it’s a great game and one of the series’ fundamentals.
But with a PC port on the horizon, we had a lot of questions that we wanted to discuss with the brains behind the beast. So, we interviewed Naoki Yoshida, aka Yoshi-p, and Hiroshi Takai, the game’s producer and director respectively. Yoshida directed Final Fantasy 14 and then produced Final Fantasy 16, while Takai is a veteran of the gaming industry, having been involved in the production of games like FF14, Legend of Mana, and more. This was his directorial debut. Now, without further ado, the questions:
How big a challenge was it to bring the PS5 game, with just one SKU, to hardware like PC that has different configurations such as: CPUs, GPUs, and other variables?
Hiroshi Takai: “In addition to getting the game to run on a wide variety of PC configurations, one of the biggest challenges was determining how much we could lower the minimum requirements to still get the game to perform as we had originally intended. Of course, it would have been easier to ask for higher minimum requirements, but we wanted as many people as possible to enjoy the game, so we pushed the limits as far as we could.”
One of the things that surprised me the most when playing on PS5 was the use of the SSD and how there were no loading times, not even when teleporting from one area to another. How is this achieved on PC? Is it possible to play it without an SSD?
Hiroshi Takai: “First of all, we don’t recommend playing the game without an SSD. If you have one, it should be a very similar experience to the PS5 version. Also, we’ve already released a demo on PC , so for anyone who is worried about performance, you can try the game before making a purchase.”
Considering how involved the development teams are between FFXIV and FFXVI, we understand that the team as a whole is more than capable of delivering amazing games on PC. Will we be able to use a mouse and keyboard? Will we be able to utilize the capabilities of the DualSense when using a PS5 gamepad on PC?
Hiroshi Takai: “Yes, there is mouse and keyboard support! You should be able to play without any issues. Haptic feedback is also available if you use a DualSense controller.”
Will the PC version have any kind of mod support? Will we be able to equip more outfits to our characters? Will there be any official support for the mod community?
Naoki Yoshida: “There are many players within the FFXVI development team who love mods, including myself. However, as we are transitioning to other projects, we have no official plans to provide tools to the mod development community. With that said, we welcome fans to create their mods and play with them, as long as they are not offensive or inappropriate! ”
Considering the vast amount of new content and abilities Clive gains during the DLC, which will be available on PC right from the start, we noticed that during the ending there is no mention of how Clive now also controls Leviathan and Artema during their final battle. Will this change in the future, perhaps with an epilogue or a different ending?
Hiroshi Takai: “I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but the PC version doesn’t have any new stories or cinematics. We also don’t plan on changing the ending in the future. By this, I don’t mean to say that we won’t add anything anymore, but there’s no information we can share at this point.”
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