Final Fantasy XVI Uses a Creative Business Unit III Developed Engine; Luminous Engine Was Ruled out Early On

wccftech.com:

While the Final Fantasy XVI development speak spoke at length about many of the game's features, they haven't been exactly forthcoming about the engine that powers the next entry in the series. Now that we are less than a month away from release, director Naoki Yoshida finally opened up on the matter.

Speaking with Spanish publication Vandal during a recent hands-on event held in several different countries all over the world, Naoki Yoshida confirmed that the game is using a game engine developed by Creative Business Unit III, the studio responsible for the development of Final Fantasy XVI as well. This engine, apparently, doesn't have a name yet.

As for why the team went with a new engine built from scratch, Naoki Yoshida confirmed it was kind of a necessity, despite the challenges, as the other engine developed by Square Enix, the Luminous Engine, which powers Final Fantasy XV and Forspoken, was ruled out early on. When development of the sixteenth main entry in the series started, the development team of the previous game was still focused on working on the game's additional content, so they had not yet created a manual for the engine, nor could provide any support. As for why the team didn't go with the Unreal Engine, Naoki Yoshida didn't say.

No matter the engine that powers the experience, Final Fantasy XVI is setting out to be an amazing game. While the full-on action battle system could turn some fans off, they will still find plenty of familiar features, as the game may not be lacking when it comes to traditional RPG elements, as highlighted by Kai in his latest preview.

Being able to finally see the townscapes and dabble around in side quests, as mundane as delivery fetch quests can be before an introduction, does