Final Fantasy XVI Producer on the Series's Future

At Anime Expo 2025, Anime News Network got the chance to sit down with Final Fantasy XVI producer Naoki Yoshida to discuss how the series will progress in the future, as well as what he'd like to accomplish in the next several years.

With the recent release of Final Fantasy XVI on Xbox and the launch of Switch 2, have Square Enix's future launch plans changed? Final Fantasy XVI was a launch exclusive on PS5, so will you go fully multi-platform for future Final Fantasy titles?

For sure, this was also announced by our president and CEO, Takashi Kiryu. Our Square Enix strategy is that we want to go multi-platform for our future titles. As you have seen, in terms of titles released from our Creative Studio III, we announced that Final Fantasy Tactics Ivalice Chronicles will be releasing on September 30, multi-platform. It is safe to assume that we will strive for multi-platform release moving forward.

There's a game called Claire Obscur: Expedition 33 that has a lot of critical acclaim and successful sales. One of the things that stood out about the game was its turn-based combat. Expedition 33 was inspired by games like Final Fantasy and Persona. I know that you said in the past that Final Fantasy XVI's more action-based combat was sort of a natural progression, or way of keeping up with modern gaming.

But with the success of Expedition 33, do you think that possibly mainline Final Fantasy games could go back to being turn-based, as that seems to be something that players have an appetite for?

With this question of turn-based versus action, it tends to isolate the gameplay to just the battle system. That doesn't take into account what kind of game the creators want to deliver to players. For example, based on a certain graphical quality we want to present to our players, or the narrative we want to deliver to our players, it relates to how we set up the game's systems around it. This includes the battle system, game design, and gameplay feel. It's not a clear-cut answer, whether it will become all turn-based, or if it's going to become more action-based.

[I'm] not necessarily going to be on Final Fantasy 17, so we also don't want to obstruct or limit our future director or whomever will be producing the games like 17 or even 18. We don't want to put them on a rail.

What plans do you have for FFXIV after Dawntrail last year? Where do you want to take the game, or what are some thematic ideas you'd like to explore?

To share about our creative process, the team and I usually plan very far in advance. Right now we're in expansion 7.0 Dawntrail, but we already have a general idea of plans up to 10.0. We're working towards a framework that we have built for ourselves. That being said, we also have our story from the original 1.0 Final Fantasy XIV through our previous Endwalker expansion, 6.0, and that's not going away. That's still going to be there.

From a general perspective, we will take Dawntrail as our next roller coaster. There's going to be a lot of ups and downs and exciting stories that you can expect out of this and future releases as well.

During your panel, you cited a bunch of movies, TV shows, and manga that you were inspired by. Do you have any books that you're inspired by that aren't manga?

In the fantasy category, I remember when I was in middle school and I read through the Lord of the Rings series. I mentioned Mr. Amano's artwork and the illustration that he did for Vampire Hunter D. That was for the novel series written by Hideyuki Kikuchi, and that's another title that I read even to this day.

I love mystery novels. I tend to lean towards Japanese mysteries, but from those that are known in the West, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes is a great series. I've read all of the Agatha Christie mysteries. I would highly recommend those authors.

Aside from Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and most recently, Fantasian Neo Dimension, are there any other Square Enix IPs that you'd like to work with?

I don't have any specific IP to actively pursue. It might be because of my work style. If the company requires me to work on a certain title or franchise, I will give it my all.

That said, if I were to explore other options, perhaps creating an original IP might be interesting. We recently announced Killer Inn, but Final Fantasy XI and XIV are our primary online games. I want to explore another online game that's not Final Fantasy XIV.

What lessons did you learn from the development and release of Final Fantasy XVI that you can take with you to the next Final Fantasy game?

There's a lot, but if I were to pick one, we were able to learn how to produce a high-end video game. There were a lot of learning points through that, and I feel like we gleaned a lot of know-how through the process. I want to challenge myself or apply to future works on how we can swiftly produce something of high quality and minimize the development period without lowering the quality.

I've read an interview with Hideo Kojima where he reflected that he might only have a few games left in him. Where do you see yourself in the next 10 years? What do you want to accomplish before you leave Square Enix or leave the video game industry altogether?

I never really envisioned myself having that sort of aspiration, “Oh, where do I see myself in 10 years?”

I'm a big fan of Studio Khara. You see Hideaki Anno or Kazuya Tsurumaki, and they're older than me. Hayao Miyazaki is much older than I, but he's still creating. They're still producing works. Another example would be Ridley Scott. He's 87 years old, and he's still working. Compared to them, I am still very green. I still have a lot more to go. I will continue to work as I can't think of retirement or leaving the games industry.