Final Fantasy XVI: Predictions

[Loony BoB]

What do you think we're going to get for FFXVI? When do you think they'll announce it? When do you think it'll be released? What kind of setting? What kind of characters? Open world or linear? Throw your predictions down in this thread. I'll make another for what you want.

[Fynn]

HIROYUKI ITO

PLEASE

[Freya]

They'll probably announce it and we wont get it for another 10 years

[Shauna]

The announcement for the Announcement^Announcement will be soon

[Freya]

"Please be excited"

[Wolf Kanno]

I imagine they won't bother announcing it until we get closer to the VII Remake release. As it stands, nothing is going to really capture player's attentions until that "elephant in the room" is released. Even then, I imagine it will get a real announcement around the time Episode 2 is close to release and nothing short of a "yeah we're working on it" will be detailed until then.

What it's going to be like will be another story and will largely come down to who is directing it. I imagine it will be handed to Toriyama since his team isn't doing anything at the moment, and SE doesn't usually let the same director go twice in a row anymore, so people worried about XV's director working on it can breathe a sigh of relief. There is also the possibility they may tap a new person to work on the title, which I would prefer but that's a double-edged sword in itself. Sadly, I'm getting more and more pessimistic that any of the old guard (Ito, Kitase, Tokito, and Kawazu) will ever direct a main entry again. I feel SE is trying to move the creative side of things to a new generation.

Since the games have a bad tendency lately to whiplash back and forth from extremes in style, I imagine XVI will be a much more story driven and linear experience with a convoluted, but ultimately simplistic battle system tacked on in order to "win back the fans" who hated FFXV's open world Action-RPG shenanigans. That's assuming no new gaming trend doesn't take the world by storm in the intervening years that ends up capturing the style they want to go for.

[maybee]

• FFXII open world
• Female main lead that's like Lightning 2.0
• a battle system that's closer to Turn Based, but not quite Turn Based.
• medieval setting
• episode DLC for characters like FFXV

Or they go the Dark Souls/ Skyrim path.

[Mercen-X]

XVI will be an MMO. Four years from now. For the PS Pentagram.

[Loony BoB]

Doubt XVI will be an MMO, but I wouldn't put it past XVII.

[Psychotic]

Won't be out until 2023.

[Fox]

I'm just gonna go straight there: I don't think there will be a Final Fantasy XVI. Unless it's a replacement for XIV a long way down the line, but I think we've seen the last big budget single player Final Fantasy.

- For revenue, they have XIV.
- XV was successful enough that they think this is how you're supposed to make games now.
- XV was too much of a risky sunk cost to ever repeat. They're still making that game.

As bad as the XIII series was, it was at least an obvious misstep. Just 'don't do it like that again' is a pretty low risk way of fixing the issue. But XV? Lots of people liked XV, but lots of people hated its guts as well. It wouldn't have taken much to tip the balance unfavorably, and then it would have been a catastrophe. I don't see them taking such a high stakes gamble again.

[maybee]

I'm just gonna go straight there: I don't think there will be a Final Fantasy XVI. Unless it's a replacement for XIV a long way down the line, but I think we've seen the last big budget single player Final Fantasy.

FFXVI could be online ? FFXV is still being milked and it looks like they won't stop till about 2020- 2021. Then the remake of FFVII is coming out and it looks like it won't be completed till at least 2030. By that time FFXIV would be outdated and Square might need a "backup " just in case the FFVII remake flops bad.

Square might hope that we will concentrate on FFXV, the remake and KH 3 this decade instead of continuing the FF Saga. Which would suck.

As bad as the XIII series was, it was at least an obvious misstep. Just 'don't do it like that again' is a pretty low risk way of fixing the issue. But XV? Lots of people liked XV, but lots of people hated its guts as well. It wouldn't have taken much to tip the balance unfavorably, and then it would have been a catastrophe. I don't see them taking such a high stakes gamble again.

Japan loves Final Fantasy XIII though. They even have commercials with Light and Snow selling cars over there. In Japan FFXIII was a big success. FFXIII was a misstep in Western eyes, but in Japan ? Not even.

[Aulayna]

FFXVI, announced at E3 2019 for the PlayStation 5. Released in 2027 for the PlayStation 6.

On a serious note, I have to kinda say, I really don't feel that bothered about the prospect of a mainline numbered installment any more. I don't think the franchise is ever going to meet my expectations or desires again, and SE currently seem bent on pursuing the "games as a service" model and pumping out mobile title after mobile title. I guess it's just not really my jam.

I'll probably be the first one aboard the hype train once it does get announced, but eeeh, for now, I no longer feel like I "need" a next installment in my life.

[CimminyCricket]

"Please be excited"

"Please clap."

[Fox]

Japan loves Final Fantasy XIII though. They even have commercials with Light and Snow selling cars over there. In Japan FFXIII was a big success. FFXIII was a misstep in Western eyes, but in Japan ? Not even.

Well there are two things about that. First - I'm not convinced Japan really loves XIII all that much at all. I can absolutely believe that they like it more than the west, and that Square Enix could delude themselves into thinking it was truly beloved by the Japanese, but I don't think it was anything like as popular over there as some have claimed. Plus is "big success" = "selling fewer copies than X-2," I think the bar is probably a bit low. Fair enough more people had a PS2 in 2003 than a PS3 in 2009, but still.

Secondly - even if it was a Japanese darling, that's not good enough. This is an international franchise that needs international success. When your North American and European markets are telling you your game is garbage (especially after the two sequels...) it becomes very clear that you can't go down that road again.