Random: Final Fantasy 16's PS5 Performance Mode Made Moogles Look Like Hedgehogs | Push Square
As Final Fantasy fans well know, Moogles are a mainstay of the series (introduced in Final Fantasy III), and are as iconic as they are capricious. The little blighters made life difficult during the development of the imminent Final Fantasy XVI, too, according to some amusing anecdotes from the game's developers.
In a new interview, XVI producer Naoki Yoshida, art director Hiroshi Minagawa, and localisation director Michael-Christopher Koji Fox (three class acts we had a chance to talk to recently) sat down to discuss what players can expect come launch day. The specific Moogle thing arose as humourous interaction between Yoshida and Minigawa, and led to the technical tidbit:
«Probably the greatest challenge, on a fundamental level, was the Moogle,» Yoshida said, interjecting as Minigawa was explaining an aspect of XVI's graphics. Minagawa agreed, confirming: «The biggest moogle problem arose when we were implementing performance mode towards the end of development. Performance mode alters the appearance of the polygons slightly, and we particularly struggled with the moogle…it just ended up with less fur. It kind of ended up looking like a hedgehog! We were like: 'Is…is this a moogle? Hmmm...'»
Tragically, we don't have an image of the monstrosity in question to share (that's Good King Moggle Mog from Final Fantasy XIV above), but the problem was resolved eventually. Yoshida recalls being concerned about the furry little fluffballs fitting with XVI's grittier, more grounded setting, and said: «Our assistant producer was like, ‘I don’t care, just put them in the game!’ In the end, we took her advice and put one in the game but it was a lot more work than we expected.»
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