For those eager to know yet more about the much-anticipated Final Fantasy XVI, your wait is over.

Like us, you’ve likely pored over every piece of text, every screenshot and trailer since the game was originally announced back in 2020. We’ve had the first information about its world and characters, and most recently, a closer look at gameplay as well as that all-important release window. Producer Naoki Yoshida has guided us through all three here on PS.Blog.

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Now, we’re able to quiz Yoshida-san to pull back the curtain (a little) on the game’s development. Here, we get his personal perspective on, amongst other things, answering the call to create the latest mainline Final Fantasy title, developing for PlayStation 5, and his favorite Summon. Let’s get to it.

Naoki Yoshida, Producer of Final Fantasy XVI

PlayStation.Blog: What do you think are the core tenets of a Final Fantasy game? Did the development team look to past titles in the series for guidance or inspiration when building FFXVI?

Naoki Yoshida: I’d say the core elements of a Final Fantasy game are a deep story, deep gameplay, cutting-edge graphics and cutting-edge sound… as well as chocobos and moogles, of course.

When it came to deciding what to do with Final Fantasy XVI, I thought back to when

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