Ultimate Fantasy is <a href="https://www.gameinformer.com/2022/04/29/ranking-every-mainline-final-fantasy-game" goal="_blank" rel="noopener">one of many longest-running franchises in all of gaming</a>. From its humble 1987 Ultimate Fantasy I beginnings to this yr’s upcoming tentpole launch, Ultimate Fantasy XVI, the sequence has, not directly, form, or type, remained outstanding for many years. A part of its success possible comes from how simple it's to get into any new mainline sport, which is to say each new entry stands alone (save for the few direct sequels). Ultimate Fantasy II isn’t a direct sequel to Ultimate Fantasy I, similar to Ultimate Fantasy VII isn’t one to Ultimate Fantasy VI.
Phrases, mechanics, and generally even names is likely to be acquainted – there are mainstays like chocobos, magic, Cids, and extra – however every new entry options its personal forged of characters, world, story, and lore. It’s a part of what makes Ultimate Fantasy such a captivating franchise to cowl and be a fan of. It’s continually altering, and consequently, so is our definition of a Ultimate Fantasy. For me, it’s develop into a “you already know it once you see it” franchise, and that is still true with FFXVI. Regardless of a brand new protagonist, a brand new world, a brand new fight system, and extra, after I see acquainted mainstays, I do know it’s nonetheless Ultimate Fantasy.
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A Sport Of Thrones And Crystals
I spoke to among the lead builders behind Ultimate Fantasy XVI to debate what goes into creating a brand new title, the place the workforce begins, and extra to find out how these video games are made. Unsurprisingly, it begins with the world.
“Proper across the begin of the sport’s growth, again after we’re in that early interval, is true about when [Season 4 of Game Of Thrones] was airing,” FFXVI producer Naoki Yoshida tells me inside the Tokyo, Japan, workplace of Sq. Enix. “We had seen it develop into this tv present that was beloved world wide, not simply by older generations however the youthful era as nicely. So we purchased the Blu-Ray field of Seasons 1, 2, 3, and 4, and made everybody on the workforce watch it mainly to get throughout to builders that that is what’s trending on the planet, that is what persons are having fun with, and that that is the kind of fantasy that folks like.”
However Yoshida says the workforce took nice warning to maintain FFXVI from feeling like a carbon copy of Sport of Thrones, and after taking part in and viewing the sport for roughly 5 hours, whereas its inspirations are clear, it’s its personal factor. Plus, with every little thing else happening within the sport – particularly the Eikon vs. Eikon fight – the workforce drew on different sources of inspiration like Assault on Titan, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Godzilla, Ultraman, and extra.
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Ultimate Fantasy XVI Producer Naoki Yoshida
Whereas laying the inspirational groundwork, Yoshida labored with a core group of growth results in additional lay out what FFXVI could be. This included director Hiroshi Takai, artistic director Kazutoyo Maehiro, and artwork director Hiroshi Minigawa, and every had essential roles in creating what would develop into FFXVI’s Valisthea.
“Again after I was first approached by the producer and requested to be the artistic director and write the state of affairs for Ultimate Fantasy XVI, I advised him I wished to take the sport to one thing that befell in these medieval occasions and have that prime fantasy really feel,” Maehiro says. “As a result of, mainly for me, Ultimate Fantasy has all the time been about that prime fantasy…exploring these forms of worlds and people historical civilizations.”
With that in thoughts, Maehiro began creating the world map, which right now is a superbly rendered 3D tilt-shifted map in-game. He did this to determine the place to place mountains, seas, rivers, and different options, considering much more minutely about issues like which means the wind is blowing and the way it would possibly have an effect on this or that. These choices inform the local weather, the local weather informs the village, city, and metropolis make-up, and that make-up informs the forms of civilizations that decision this place house.
Medieval Origins
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Ultimate Fantasy XVI Artistic Director Kazutoyo Maehiro
From right here, Maehiro indulges in historical past to create extra of Valisthea. If a nation depends on its proximity to water to thrive, Maehiro scours historical past for real-world examples of countries and societies that do the identical to tell his writing. Doing this helps Maehiro notice that not each nation in Valisthea needs to be a kingdom, and extra selection between how these nations work is required.
“Once you look again at lots of [medieval history], you’d have lots of kingdoms,” he tells me. “Whereas we wished to have kingdoms as nicely, after we knew we had been going to choose 5 named nations in Valisthea, having all of them be kingdoms meant every little thing was going to be the identical; you’d all the time have a king making the selections and every little thing trickling down from there.
“And when telling the story, that turns into actually one-sided. We wished one thing that gave the story somewhat extra depth to make it extra attention-grabbing for gamers and for us writing it as nicely. We began out considering we wished to do one thing completely different for every one, perhaps having one be a democracy and one other being a kingdom in order that we are able to write from the views of these completely different governments.”
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The Iron Kingdom of Valisthea
Establishing how these nations are ruled helps Maehiro and the workforce write the forms of lives folks inside every place stay, too.
Valisthea’s Visuals
Whereas Maehiro created Valisthea’s map, figuring out how its intermingled nations would possibly work in the identical area, Minigawa labored with Takai and Yoshida on the sport’s visible type.
“After I joined the workforce and spoke with Takai-san concerning the total look of the sport, we had that broad stroke [that] we wished to have one thing that’s going to have that Sport of Thrones really feel, that form of pure customary excessive fantasy that you just’d see in that sort of program and visible medium,” Minigawa says. “We additionally had the character artist, Kazuya Takahashi, that designed all of the characters, and he had not solely designed the characters however had taken the time to attract artwork for among the areas as nicely.”
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Ultimate Fantasy XVI Artwork Director Hiroshi Minagawa
Minigawa says Takahashi’s environmental artwork was brilliant, clear, and exquisite, however given the sport’s mature tone (and mature ranking, too, a primary for the mainline sequence), the workforce needed to rework it to suit the bigger narrative. That vibrant artwork nonetheless exists inside FFXVI, however it’s simple to see how what was conceived as a beautiful and thriving panorama is likely to be decimated in-game (that tends to occur when Eikons conflict).
By way of artwork, Minigawa says the workforce aimed for one thing between illustration and actuality with out being “essentially photo-realistic.”
“We wished extra emphasis on that unique artwork that we had from Takahashi and discovered a approach to base it off this nice artwork and make it actual, however not make it photo-real, and discover that excellent place in between.”
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By way of inspiration, Minigawa cites northern England and its distinctive rock formations that, to him, outline darkish fantasy. He additionally cites Iceland’s barren rocky landscapes, Slovenia, the Center East, and Africa, particularly in relation to Valisthea’s Dhalmekian Republic, and even different elements of Ultimate Fantasy, like Ultimate Fantasy XII’s Dalmasca.
Bringing The Motion
Whereas Yoshida, Minigawa, and Maehiro tinkered with the world and visible type of Valisthea, Takai labored with the workforce to resolve the problem of fight.
“The primary issues that we selected had been one, that we weren’t going to make an open world sport, and two, that we weren’t going to go turn-based and that we had been going to go full real-time motion, and as soon as we had that, the third factor was finishing the state of affairs and realizing what sort of story we wished to inform,” Takai tells me. “As soon as we had these three determined, we determined so as to add folks and begin bringing them onto the workforce.”
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Ultimate Fantasy XVI Director Hiroshi Takai
Desiring to create satisfying real-time fight, the groups set to work. However about two years in, Takai and Yoshida realized the workforce wanted somebody to hone within the fight and make it shine. And that’s when Ryota Suzuki, a former fight designer for Satan Might Cry 4 and 5 and Marvel vs. Capcom 2, joined the workforce.
“After I joined the workforce, they had been nonetheless very early in creating the fight,” Suzuki says. “It was just about on the level the place the essential controls had been carried out, so urgent sq., you get sword, urgent triangle, you get magic, doing them collectively, you get combos, and that was just about it. It had lastly simply began working across the time I joined.
“At the moment, the stuff you see within the present construct you performed – issues akin to Eikonic feats and Eikonic skills – none of those existed but. And any of the advanced interactions didn’t exist both. Principally, you hit an enemy and their HP goes down, and that was about it.”
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Ultimate Fantasy XVI Fight Director Ryota Suzuki
Extra apparent issues, like FFXVI’s Eikon vs. Eikon fight, guided the workforce in additional growing the motion however so did the sport’s state of affairs.
“As a result of we knew that Clive isn’t only a swordsman – by means of the story, Clive progresses and meets these completely different dominants and absorbs their energies, and we knew this from the story, so we wished to determine a approach to convey this into the battle system,” Suzuki says. “From there, we introduced within the feats and the talents and that basis of the system that now we have.”
Suzuki says the workforce merely aimed to create enjoyable motion that appears like a pure match for Ultimate Fantasy. And after taking part in the sport a number of occasions throughout varied previews, I can attest to that. It’s fairly completely different and arguably probably the most fast-paced fight the sequence has ever seen, however it works and, extra importantly, feels nice.
The Sound Of Valisthea
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Ultimate Fantasy XVI Composer Masayoshi Soken
The ultimate piece of this simplified puzzle is arguably some of the essential: the rating. Music in Ultimate Fantasy has remained one of many highlights of any new sport. There are acquainted melodies in typical tracks just like the Prelude and Victory Fanfare, however every composer on a sport has the prospect so as to add their mark to the sequence’ historical past. I spoke with FFXVI composer Masayoshi Soken, who has composed FFXIV’s rating with CBUIII, in his recording studio about his first steps into a brand new sport. From the skin wanting in, his job inside the sport’s growth sounds extra demanding than most.
“As a result of our work is predicated on what’s created by the event workforce, we’re working proper as much as the tip,” Soken tells me. “We’re the final ones to normally end and so had been working proper as much as grasp and sure, the sport has been mastered, however after mastering up and going gold, there’s nonetheless lots of issues left for the sound workforce to do.”
He says post-gold work primarily consists of making and remixing his FFXVI rating for trailers and different types of publicity main as much as the sport’s launch. As for the work earlier than that, Soken says it started with the concept from Yoshida, Maehiro, and Takai that the rating ought to have a “very grand classical really feel” and really feel “very, very severe and direct.” He additionally says that in comparison with different composers, he suspects he does issues fairly in a different way in the case of writing a rating: he performs the sport first.
He likes to play by means of a state of affairs or scene earlier than scoring it to grasp what that appears like from a gameplay perspective in order that he can formulate the kind of music to match it. Whereas he prefers this course of, Soken says it provides stress to his work.
“This type of composing, this type of labor, generally is a two-edged sword,” Soken tells me. “[It] means despite the fact that the workforce will know very early on what sort of scene they need to make, it’s nonetheless not carried out but. They must make it, which implies I can’t begin engaged on a music till they’ve accomplished their work, however lots of occasions, lots of their work isn’t accomplished till proper on the finish of the event section, which implies all my work comes proper on the finish.
“I’ve to make all these lots of of songs in solely a matter of months, and that may be very tough.”
I solely spoke to this handful of builders behind FFXVI, and I can think about that everybody on the workforce, in their very own means, is simply as busy. Talking with these leads additional emphasised how a lot goes into making a sport. It’s years of labor, and it’s clear nothing is extra useful than a stable base to begin with. If what I’ve performed of FFXVI for this cowl story is any indication, that core basis has led to growing one thing uniquely acquainted for the Ultimate Fantasy franchise. Hopefully, we’re only a few weeks away from discovering out if that’s certainly the case.
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