Final Fantasy XVI Developer Interview – New Engine With No Forspoken Tech, Arcade Mode, Global Leaderboards

wccftech.com:

In the second half of our hands-on preview with Final Fantasy XVI, we had the pleasure of sitting in on a group interview between myself and The Verge's Ash Parrish along with three of the lead designers on Final Fantasy XVI with Michael-Christopher Koji Fox assisting in interpretation. Among those present were Producer Naoki Yoshida, Director Hiroshi Takai, and Combat Lead Ryota Suzuki for an intimate forty-minute session digging into some of the lore and story choices as well as what both RPG and hardcore character action fans can look forward to in Final Fantasy XVI.

Ash Parrish (The Verge): In an interview with IGN, you addressed Final Fantasy XVI’s struggle with diversity. In that interview, you said the homogeneity was chosen on purpose because of the isolated nature of the politics and the world in itself and that was the kind of story you wanted to tell. You wanted to focus on this isolated place [where] people all look this same. We respect that that’s the kind of story that you want to tell but from that interview, there have been a lot of concerns and comments from fans of color that feel a [certain] way about it, thinking that because this place [Valisthea] is based on European history, that automatically defaults it to an ‘All-White’ setting. I wanted to know if you had the opportunity to hear that feedback and what you might want to say to fans of color who are turned away from the game. 

Naoki Yoshida: This is a very difficult question and it deserves great care with words and phrasing and nuance. It’s something that means a lot to different people and it can be very nuanced in how different people interpret the situation. I believe that with Final Fantasy XVI, we’ve weaved together a variety of peoples