Final Fantasy XVI - General News Thread

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Bazztek

Keyblade Master
May 26, 2014
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Unless the game only has 2 years or less left on production I have to full on disagree with this. SE PR has had a history of revealing stuff far far too early. The last thing any logical person wants is another FFXV level PR disaster.
I think the game YoshiP's division is making, which is very likely XVI, is much further in development than most people would think, and that game started development before Project Athia which has already been revealed, and even that is also further in development than most people would think since that started development in 2018 with its pre-production and began production proper in 2019. Ever since after Heavensward released in 2015 5th BD (now 3rd division) have had a team in that division working on the new project in pre-production separate from the FFXIV stuff, and which started "full scale development" last year too.
This was back in April 2019, which itself was just something that was posted on the first day of the new fiscal year and could have been something that happened internally at an earlier point.
"The project has already completed its initial development, has finalized the development environment and is now moving into full scale large scale development.”
https://www.jp.square-enix.com/recruit/career/BU-BD/3BU/
It's been 1 year and 5 months since then, almost 1½ years of actual "full scale large scale development" after a pre-production phase had ended, even if we look at XV that had 3 years of actual "full scale large scale" development after its pre-produciton phase ended in 2013 by the time it released, only difference is when XV was revealed to the public in 2013 that was at the very end of its pre-production "prototype" phase and right before the full scale large scale development phase. If the 3rd Divisions new project/XVI were to be revealed now, it's already been in "full scale large scale" development for about 1½ years, and it wouldn't have the baggage of having like 7 years of pre-production stuff shown to the public before hand like XV did. They could very well show its first ever trailer, be it a CGI trailer now and with gameplay shown later, or even a trailer interspliced with CG clips and gameplay clips, and it could even very well release around 2022.

You know the FFXV TGS 2014 trailer? That entire trailer and everything shown in it was made from scratch only starting July 2013 onward, so that was around 1 year and 2 months of work from the point of actual "full scale large scale" development on it began from scratch. Now imagine if that was the first ever trailer for FFXV ever put out, and then the game released 2 years later. Essentially if XVI were to be revealed now, if it really does turn out to be 3rd Divisions new project then it should already be at a showable and presentable state much like FFXV was at in 2014, so XVI releasing sometime in 2022 doesn't really seem that farfetched to me.
 

Bazztek

Keyblade Master
May 26, 2014
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I'm not against MMO's or anything, it's just that it being another mainline FF that's an MMO when there already was one felt like a waste at that time, if it was just an FF MMO that wasn't treated as "the next mainline" then I wouldn't have felt any disappointment when it got revealed, and even though I don't particularly like XIV I'm interested to see what the devs can do by making an actual single player game from scratch.
 
Oct 26, 2017
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More about that Final Fantasy XVI rumor, via ResetEra.

APZonerunner, Features Editor at VG247.com RE the various comments from ZhugeEX, Kagari, Navtra etc going back and forth on if the game was 'meant to be' at the previous PS5 showing alongside Athia... my take is this, based on the knowledge I have: in the grand scheme of things, this game was absolutely meant to be part of Sony's 'June drop' -- but this was the plan at the start of the year, before covid, when things shown at a Sony June media drop could then go on to have a presence at E3 and other major shows (presence could be simply having staff/spokespeople on stream and available for media interviews - doesn't necessarily mean playable).

So at the start of the year, that was to my knowledge absolutely the long-term plan. What I don't know and can't answer is how that changed in the face of Covid and the cancellation of in-person events; that impacts development but also any intended plans for promotion, right?

Anyway, what I'm saying is it's absolutely possible for both sides to be right in this: Zhuge says it was never gonna be at Sony's June event, Navtra says it was. I can say the original plan was a June reveal followed by elaboration in the following months, but that was pre-covid - it's very possible that as the virus took hold plans changed and it was never intended to be at the replacement, socially-distanced stream event.

This has happened a lot, I think. Everybody - Sony, MS, Nintendo, third parties - seems to be sitting on games that would've been announced in June so that they could put producers and directors in front of media at E3 or Gamescom or whatever. The cancellation of physical events has scattered announcements to the wind, which is fair enough. The perfect example is Nintendo & Mario, where Nintendo's E3 was gonna be led by Mario 30th celebrations, including presumably the game announcements... they held on to those announcements for another three months. For SE, it's not even just about covid, either - the start of the year was turbulent with FF7 and Avengers delays, which surely shifted their calendar around.

I will also say I think the game made less sense at that June event once the parameters seemed to settle on it being an event to more strictly showcase PS5's technical ability, thus the impressive Ratchet/Horizon demos etc. In that sense, Athia fit better, as Athia is SE's forward-looking, visually mindblowing project on new tech more-so than the next FF, which afaik will use a tried-and-true existing engine.
 
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SonOfEtro

Warrior of Light
May 2, 2016
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More about that Final Fantasy XVI rumor, via ResetEra.
In regards to that quote, Athia is the one using a pre-existing tested engine in Luminous. And I doubt they'd go back to older engine tech like Crystal Tools which was six kinds of headaches for them with XIII, XIV and Versus/XV.
 

Bazztek

Keyblade Master
May 26, 2014
719
1,890
In regards to that quote, Athia is the one using a pre-existing tested engine in Luminous. And I doubt they'd go back to older engine tech like Crystal Tools which was six kinds of headaches for them with XIII, XIV and Versus/XV.
I think what APZ means is that for Athia with Luminous Engine the team focused more on advanced tech and very high end graphical fidelity using more cutting edge tech within the game itself, while XVI's focus is not that and instead whatever tech is in the game, even if still aiming high, itself isn't aiming as high as what Athia is, and is likely using something like UE4, which while itself being capable of some high end advanced tech much like Luminous is, in fact their feature set is practically identical, it's usually just not the focus in games made on it, and even to this day I don't think there is a single released game made with UE4 that is pushing the same level of technical features than what XV has.

I guess akin to how FFXV and FF7R, where XV is much more advanced tech wise and graphically wise, and pushes the hardware way more with far more things going on behind the scenes, while 7R uses more simplified, less demanding methods which is apparent even in just level design, in-game animation and its lighting, even resorting to 2D background images for pretty much every location instead of actually rendering backgrounds in realtime, those sort of shortcuts 7R used lessens the strain because it's not pushing as much, which in turn has its own benefits for things such as performance, but that's all relative to the hardware anyway. Just something like real time global illumination and dynamic weather systems in an open world pushes much more than using baked lighting solution in sectioned off linear areas. I don't think XVI will be hallways like 7R but I think it will still use primarily baked lighting in large zones instead of fully dynamic real time GI etc in an open world like XV, or like what Athia is also likely going to use too.
 

SonOfEtro

Warrior of Light
May 2, 2016
1,036
1,192
I think what APZ means is that for Athia with Luminous Engine the team focused more on advanced tech and very high end graphical fidelity using more cutting edge tech within the game itself, while XVI's focus is not that and instead whatever tech is in the game, even if still aiming high, itself isn't aiming as high as what Athia is, and is likely using something like UE4, which while itself being capable of some high end advanced tech much like Luminous is, in fact their feature set is practically identical, it's usually just not the focus in games made on it, and even to this day I don't think there is a single released game made with UE4 that is pushing the same level of technical features than what XV has.

I guess akin to how FFXV and FF7R, where XV is much more advanced tech wise and graphically wise, and pushes the hardware way more with far more things going on behind the scenes, while 7R uses more simplified, less demanding methods which is apparent even in just level design, in-game animation and its lighting, even resorting to 2D background images for pretty much every location instead of actually rendering backgrounds in realtime, those sort of shortcuts 7R used lessens the strain because it's not pushing as much, which in turn has its own benefits for things such as performance, but that's all relative to the hardware anyway. Just something like real time global illumination and dynamic weather systems in an open world pushes much more than using baked lighting solution in sectioned off linear areas. I don't think XVI will be hallways like 7R but I think it will still use primarily baked lighting in large zones instead of fully dynamic real time GI etc in an open world like XV, or like what Athia is also likely going to use too.
That would fit in with some of the job applications related to Unreal or other engines from SQEX recently.
 

Somber

SOLDIER Second Class
Nov 22, 2013
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Ikkin

Warrior of Light
Oct 30, 2016
1,099
1,705
I think what APZ means is that for Athia with Luminous Engine the team focused more on advanced tech and very high end graphical fidelity using more cutting edge tech within the game itself, while XVI's focus is not that and instead whatever tech is in the game, even if still aiming high, itself isn't aiming as high as what Athia is, and is likely using something like UE4, which while itself being capable of some high end advanced tech much like Luminous is, in fact their feature set is practically identical, it's usually just not the focus in games made on it, and even to this day I don't think there is a single released game made with UE4 that is pushing the same level of technical features than what XV has.

I guess akin to how FFXV and FF7R, where XV is much more advanced tech wise and graphically wise, and pushes the hardware way more with far more things going on behind the scenes, while 7R uses more simplified, less demanding methods which is apparent even in just level design, in-game animation and its lighting, even resorting to 2D background images for pretty much every location instead of actually rendering backgrounds in realtime, those sort of shortcuts 7R used lessens the strain because it's not pushing as much, which in turn has its own benefits for things such as performance, but that's all relative to the hardware anyway. Just something like real time global illumination and dynamic weather systems in an open world pushes much more than using baked lighting solution in sectioned off linear areas. I don't think XVI will be hallways like 7R but I think it will still use primarily baked lighting in large zones instead of fully dynamic real time GI etc in an open world like XV, or like what Athia is also likely going to use too.
An interesting implication of this is that it means that FFXVI almost certainly isn't using UE5, which would put it as a late 2021/early 2022 game rather than something further out than that. A game that was able to take advantage of Nanite and Lumen certainly would seem forward-looking and mindblowing.
 

SonOfEtro

Warrior of Light
May 2, 2016
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1,192
An interesting implication of this is that it means that FFXVI almost certainly isn't using UE5, which would put it as a late 2021/early 2022 game rather than something further out than that. A game that was able to take advantage of Nanite and Lumen certainly would seem forward-looking and mindblowing.
Feels weird, thinking back on Square/SQEX's past. They managed three mainline FFs in a generation (Famicom, SNES, PS1, PS2), then all the dev problems happened, we just got XIII and XIV on 7th gen, then we only got XV for 8th gen. It's almost sad. Mind you, I'd rather they take their time and produce something worth having than...say...grind one out year on year on year until their team implodes and/or their tech grows stale. That wouldn't be right.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow, anyway.
 

Skye

Red Wings Commander
Sep 26, 2013
112
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Guys, if this is finally it, then this is the beginning of a new era. We've lived with Lightning, Noctis and co. for almost 15 years now. It's such a weird feeling:(
XIII/Versus XIII/Nomura-Tabata XV is a really depressing era! Glad to look forward to Final Fantasy XVI!! New beginning new era!!
 

Storm

Warrior of Light
Oct 26, 2013
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Switzerland
Feels weird, thinking back on Square/SQEX's past. They managed three mainline FFs in a generation (Famicom, SNES, PS1, PS2), then all the dev problems happened, we just got XIII and XIV on 7th gen, then we only got XV for 8th gen. It's almost sad. Mind you, I'd rather they take their time and produce something worth having than...say...grind one out year on year on year until their team implodes and/or their tech grows stale. That wouldn't be right.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow, anyway.
Well, I suppose having the same core team and director leading the franchise is what led to steady developments and releases. In those eras, the formula didn't change much either.

Look at the waiting for FFXII. Complete different structure than FFX, and the changes only got more drastic from there between FFXII, FFXIII, and FFXV and in some ways, FFVIIR. Because the staff and vision and tech (like engine used) is different for each, which adds to the development time.
 

Bazztek

Keyblade Master
May 26, 2014
719
1,890
An interesting implication of this is that it means that FFXVI almost certainly isn't using UE5, which would put it as a late 2021/early 2022 game rather than something further out than that. A game that was able to take advantage of Nanite and Lumen certainly would seem forward-looking and mindblowing.
I don't think UE5 has been given out to devs yet, I thought that was happening next year. I remember Epic saying something like it'll be easier to migrate from UE4 projects to an UE5 build, but that remains to be seen, as it is now even migrating from one build of UE4 to another UE4 build is a huge pain, so much that you are basically forced to save different versions of UE4 just so you can run projects properly saved on specific versions, and have to retool everything if you were to migrate to a different or newer UE4 build.

Maybe with the Nanite and Lumen tech they can directly use full spec Visual Works assets in engine and have it look as close as possible to how they'd light it in CG.