The producer of Final Fantasy 16 clarifies a previous statement he made regarding how the franchise might ditch numbered titles for future installments. The highly anticipated sixteenth entry in the long-lasting franchise will launch later this month, currently exclusive for the PS5 console. Fans have been receiving plenty of info about the game as it approaches its release, much of that coming from its producer, Naoki Yoshida, or Yoshi-P. Yoshida has done quite a lot to hype up the upcoming game in various interviews, along with discussing the future of Final Fantasy.In a previous interview from earlier in May, the Final Fantasy 16 producer suggested that the Final Fantasy series could do away with numbered entries in the future. It was reported that he was discussing the possibility of dropping numbered entries for future games with Square Enix, though it would be out of his hands. The interview also said that he understood why the numbering convention would be confusing to newer fans, who might believe they need to play the other games to start the next one. Yoshida has recently come forward to clarify that this is not what he actually said during the interview.In an interview with Weekly Ochiai, a Japanese news YouTube channel, the Final Fantasy 16 producer states that he did not say he wanted to remove numbers, with journalists suggesting he did. Yoshida says that he was asked if he thought about removing the "16" from the game's title and states that he did have that discussion before. However, it was twisted into the idea that he wanted to remove them from future entries, which isn't true.
Yoshida clarifies further, stating that if Final Fantasy removed its number from the titles, they could be mistaken for being a completely different game or a spin-off title of the long-running franchise, which there are already a lot of. As such, he felt it would not make any sense to remove the numbers from Final Fantasy games.
In addition, Yoshida states that the fans themselves also have a strong affinity to the legacy of Final Fantasy, with the numbers also being important to each game's identity. He feels it would be too difficult to remove the numbering from the mainline games, which is why the entry has a "16" in its title. He also couldn't think of many game franchises that had as many numbers in their titles, with The King of Fighters franchise being the only one he could think of that reached the high numbers similar to Final Fantasy. He was amused that the initial reports spun his statement into something that he didn't completely mean but was glad to clarify things.
Final Fantasy 16 will launch on June 22, exclusively for PS5.
Source: YouTube