View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGh7Ti0b_bY&lc=UgzUril1WInT2ePA8Z14AaABAg
Game Maker's Notebook is essentially a podcast where game devs interview industry peers about the craft, their process and stories of how they got started. I posted a thread about the Nier Automata Retrospective that PlayStation's Shu Yoshida did with Yoko Taro and Square Enix producer Yosuke Saito a while back here.
A NieR Retrospective with Yoko Taro, Yosuke Saito, and Keiichi Okabe | Game Maker's Notebook Podcast
The Game Maker’s Notebook is a podcast that features video game industry veterans like Insomniac CEO Ted Price or indie composer Austin Wintory interviewing various game designers, writers, composers from across the industry to talk about the indepth creative and business process that goes...
www.resetera.com
This time Yoshi-P of PlayStation interviews Yoshi-P of Square Enix about the development of Final Fantasy XVI, and the latter's Journey from working on Dragon Quest X to reviving FFXIV into a global success, how he has ultimately handled the weight of both the position of producer and director of a massive MMO, and be asked by former Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda, as far back as the release of Heavensward to make a mainline Final Fantasy game. It's an interesting little interview for some insight, some that might already be known to most people who's seen the Noclip documentary but worth watching all the same.
Notes by Ishaan
Conceptualisation:
Talk of FF16 came up right after FF15 released, and around Heavensward
Yoshida was part of the team that decides what to do with SE's flagship games
Yosuka Matsuda asked if CBU3 would like to take a crack at FF16
Yoshida asked Hiroshi Takai, who agreed to direct, provided he could start small
The initial team was Hiroshi Takai, Kazutoyo Maehiro, and Naoki Yoshida
All three had lead positions on FF14, so discussions took about 1.5 years
Talks began with the story
FF15's story had been poorly received, so there was added pressure to deliver
This manifested in the form of wanting to ensure that FF16's story felt complete, and to give it the cinematic flair FF is known for
Yoshida felt "realism" is a theme that the younger generation is already in tune with, and that kids today are growing up in an environment where they are constantly exposed to the complexities and evils of the world
As a result, the team opted for a more mature, grounded story that would depict human beings with all their complexities, and this would ultimately make themes like family, self-sacrifice, and unity (as in, uniting to battle a great evil) stand out even more
Early on whilst discussing the story, the team decided they wanted FF16 to be an action RPG with next to no loading screens, so the player could feel they were always in control
FF15 had already taken a step towards action, and the team wanted to commit further to that idea since they were aware that it was the only way for FF to reach players that would never touch a turn-based game
Also, since FF7R was considered the ultimate expression of the concept of a turn-based game, the team wanted FF16 to feel different from it
After the story had been decided upon, Takai brought up the question of whether the game should be open world or not, and what committing to an open world would mean
It was ultimately decided that an open-world game would take focus and resources away from the game's story-heavy focus
Yoshida felt avoiding an open world was the right choice, but was also aware that when they were asked about why it wasn't an open-world game by younger members of the team and even players, they would need to have a good explanation as to why
The idea was that the game was to be a start-to-finish look at Clive's life specifically
Because it was exploring the full scope of a single person's life, it was also decided to focus the POV and action exclusively around Clive
Yoshida was part of the team that decides what to do with SE's flagship games
Yosuka Matsuda asked if CBU3 would like to take a crack at FF16
Yoshida asked Hiroshi Takai, who agreed to direct, provided he could start small
The initial team was Hiroshi Takai, Kazutoyo Maehiro, and Naoki Yoshida
All three had lead positions on FF14, so discussions took about 1.5 years
Talks began with the story
FF15's story had been poorly received, so there was added pressure to deliver
This manifested in the form of wanting to ensure that FF16's story felt complete, and to give it the cinematic flair FF is known for
Yoshida felt "realism" is a theme that the younger generation is already in tune with, and that kids today are growing up in an environment where they are constantly exposed to the complexities and evils of the world
As a result, the team opted for a more mature, grounded story that would depict human beings with all their complexities, and this would ultimately make themes like family, self-sacrifice, and unity (as in, uniting to battle a great evil) stand out even more
Early on whilst discussing the story, the team decided they wanted FF16 to be an action RPG with next to no loading screens, so the player could feel they were always in control
FF15 had already taken a step towards action, and the team wanted to commit further to that idea since they were aware that it was the only way for FF to reach players that would never touch a turn-based game
Also, since FF7R was considered the ultimate expression of the concept of a turn-based game, the team wanted FF16 to feel different from it
After the story had been decided upon, Takai brought up the question of whether the game should be open world or not, and what committing to an open world would mean
It was ultimately decided that an open-world game would take focus and resources away from the game's story-heavy focus
Yoshida felt avoiding an open world was the right choice, but was also aware that when they were asked about why it wasn't an open-world game by younger members of the team and even players, they would need to have a good explanation as to why
The idea was that the game was to be a start-to-finish look at Clive's life specifically
Because it was exploring the full scope of a single person's life, it was also decided to focus the POV and action exclusively around Clive
Development:
After that point, it took a while to find resources to work on FF16, since FF14 and FF7R were already taking up a lot of the HD development staff
The team was aware that it was going to be making a non-traditional Final Fantasy, and so decided early on to heavily feature the Eikons as a familiar FF motif, and have them play a greater role
Yoshida felt that having the characters themselves transform into Summons would allow them to be given added characterisation and personality
The Eikon battles were internally referred to as "mega kaiju battles" and were inspired by Ultraman, Kamen Rider, Evangelion, Godzilla, and so on
The team wanted not to re-use any concepts between different Eikon battles, and have each one feel like a unique experience
For example; Ifrit vs. Garuda was conceptualised as a "pro-wrestling match," whilst in the case of Ifrit vs. Titan, the idea was to make even Ifrit seem tiny in comparison to an enormous opponent
Meanwhile, Bahamut was conceptualised more like a shoot-em-up
The difficult part about this process was making sure that the game could flow from cinematic sequences into playable ones seamlessly, and the animators, engineers, and battle designers would need to come together to make it happen
In the end, they had two lines--two smaller groups who divided the Eikons up between themselves, and alternated whilst working in parallel
Throwing more people at the problem wouldn't have helped, since these developers needed a certain level of skill to be able to pull it off, which is why development took as long as it did
The team was aware that it was going to be making a non-traditional Final Fantasy, and so decided early on to heavily feature the Eikons as a familiar FF motif, and have them play a greater role
Yoshida felt that having the characters themselves transform into Summons would allow them to be given added characterisation and personality
The Eikon battles were internally referred to as "mega kaiju battles" and were inspired by Ultraman, Kamen Rider, Evangelion, Godzilla, and so on
The team wanted not to re-use any concepts between different Eikon battles, and have each one feel like a unique experience
For example; Ifrit vs. Garuda was conceptualised as a "pro-wrestling match," whilst in the case of Ifrit vs. Titan, the idea was to make even Ifrit seem tiny in comparison to an enormous opponent
Meanwhile, Bahamut was conceptualised more like a shoot-em-up
The difficult part about this process was making sure that the game could flow from cinematic sequences into playable ones seamlessly, and the animators, engineers, and battle designers would need to come together to make it happen
In the end, they had two lines--two smaller groups who divided the Eikons up between themselves, and alternated whilst working in parallel
Throwing more people at the problem wouldn't have helped, since these developers needed a certain level of skill to be able to pull it off, which is why development took as long as it did
Dropping PS4 and COVID troubles:
FF16 was originally planned for release on PS4 as well, but partway through development it was decided that the game would be made exclusively for the higher-powered PS5 because trying to eliminate loading screens from the PS4 version involved compromises to the art that made it look lower-spec than FF15
Yoshida approached the Square Enix higher-ups and negotiated to let the team make FF16 exclusively for the PS5
FF16 was put together much earlier than its release date--about 2.5 years prior to release--and a little over 1.5 years were subsequently spent on polish, including deciding where and how to use the DualSense controller's haptics
The back half of the game's development happened during the COVID pandemic
The pandemic hit very close to when work was starting on the game's cutscenes, and the team was told preparations to navigate lockdown would take a month or two, which brought everything to a sudden halt
In addition to the pandemic, certain aspects of the gameplay and story were still being tweaked, which led to certain cutscenes having to be redone over and over again, causing delays to pile up
At this point, Yoshida jumped in as a game designer himself and began helping decide what level of detail needed to be depicted in various scenes, and the specifics of how those scenes would ultimately look in the final game
Every day involved a Zoom call involving 80 people going through every single cutscene in the game, from the start to finish, figuring out what tweaks or changes needed to be made
The game's dev team largely worked from home, with the exception of the combat team, which needed to work from the office for the final push
In terms of promotion, Yoshida felt the game shouldn't be shown to the public until the team could show a real-time gameplay demo, rather than pre-rendered visuals
Therefore, the game was shown for the first time in 2020
Yoshida also wanted to be conscious of the game's marketing budget and how to effectively advertise it as close to release as possible, which resulted in marketing being withheld for closer to release, and culminating in the demo
Yoshida approached the Square Enix higher-ups and negotiated to let the team make FF16 exclusively for the PS5
FF16 was put together much earlier than its release date--about 2.5 years prior to release--and a little over 1.5 years were subsequently spent on polish, including deciding where and how to use the DualSense controller's haptics
The back half of the game's development happened during the COVID pandemic
The pandemic hit very close to when work was starting on the game's cutscenes, and the team was told preparations to navigate lockdown would take a month or two, which brought everything to a sudden halt
In addition to the pandemic, certain aspects of the gameplay and story were still being tweaked, which led to certain cutscenes having to be redone over and over again, causing delays to pile up
At this point, Yoshida jumped in as a game designer himself and began helping decide what level of detail needed to be depicted in various scenes, and the specifics of how those scenes would ultimately look in the final game
Every day involved a Zoom call involving 80 people going through every single cutscene in the game, from the start to finish, figuring out what tweaks or changes needed to be made
The game's dev team largely worked from home, with the exception of the combat team, which needed to work from the office for the final push
In terms of promotion, Yoshida felt the game shouldn't be shown to the public until the team could show a real-time gameplay demo, rather than pre-rendered visuals
Therefore, the game was shown for the first time in 2020
Yoshida also wanted to be conscious of the game's marketing budget and how to effectively advertise it as close to release as possible, which resulted in marketing being withheld for closer to release, and culminating in the demo
The Future of Final Fantasy:
Creative Business Unit III wanted to continue working FF14, as well as use the experience gleaned from FF16 for a different game
Yoshida feels it's time for someone new to work on Final Fantasy 17--a younger generation with more youthful sensibilities
Yoshida says he feels the point of each Final Fantasy is to
Yoshida's advice to future Final Fantasy directors is to weigh the pros and cons of all the ideas they have, and make their decisions based on whichever sets of pros and cons they would prefer to find solutions for
Yoshida feels that Square Enix had (and may still have) a poor reputation when it came to action-oriented games, and that he would like for the company to use the experience gleaned from FF16 and FF7 Remake to continue challenging itself and make something it isn't made yet in the action genre, with even greater storytelling, emotion, and impact
Yoshida personally would like to keep pursuing this at Square Enix as well
Yoshida feels it's time for someone new to work on Final Fantasy 17--a younger generation with more youthful sensibilities
Yoshida says he feels the point of each Final Fantasy is to
Yoshida's advice to future Final Fantasy directors is to weigh the pros and cons of all the ideas they have, and make their decisions based on whichever sets of pros and cons they would prefer to find solutions for
Yoshida feels that Square Enix had (and may still have) a poor reputation when it came to action-oriented games, and that he would like for the company to use the experience gleaned from FF16 and FF7 Remake to continue challenging itself and make something it isn't made yet in the action genre, with even greater storytelling, emotion, and impact
Yoshida personally would like to keep pursuing this at Square Enix as well
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