FFXVI Confirms AI-Controlled Party Members, No Open World, and More

The awaited Final Fantasy XVI interviews have appeared and provided us with a lot of interesting new details and answers to questions we’ve had ever since the previous trailer.

Probably the most important information comes from the interview with IGN, in which Naoki Yoshida addressed the question of party members.

Final Fantasy XVI will have AI-controlled party members who “participate in battle, as well as trade banter with Clive.”

So while it sounds like there won’t be other controllable characters, fans who were mainly concerned about the lack of a party for story reasons should be pleased to know Clive won’t be a solo adventurer after all.

We’ve already speculated that Benedikta and Hugo might be party members, but another possibility is the puppy shown in the first trailer. According to Yoshida, the puppy is “more wolf than dog” and is named Torgal. He wouldn’t say if Torgal is a party member or not but said we’ll have to “wait and see.”

Curiously, a detail from the interview with Famitsu, translated here, is that you will have a “buddy” in every battle with you who can be issued commands. Right now, Torgal seems to be the best candidate for that role.

One more important answer from IGN’s interview is that Final Fantasy XVI is not open world. Instead it has an “area-based game design,” which for me brings to mind the sort of games I prefer, ones that aren’t fully open but still have large areas to explore.

Now, some story details came from GameSpot’s interview, which revealed that Final Fantasy XVI will follow Clive in his teens, in his 20s, and in his 30s. Due to these time skips, details about the world will be revealed through side quests and an in-game compendium. Final Fantasy XVI will be “a complete experience so that no other tertiary content will be required to enjoy or understand it.”

This interview also touched upon the M rating, which Yoshida said is basically so that they can explore mature themes without feeling limited.

Meanwhile, the interview with Game Informer revealed that the one-on-one Eikon battles we saw in the trailer will actually be quite unique, with each of these battles having its own system.

As examples, Yoshida suggested one Eikon versus Eikon battle might be “reminiscent of a 3D shooter,” while another could be “like a pro wrestling match,” and a third might “transform an entire area into a battlefield.” These battles all have their own UI, which was hidden in the trailer to avoid spoilers. So the Eikon battles sound like they might be quite interesting and unexpected.

The Game Informer interview also mentioned that a third trailer will be out this fall.

Finally, the PlayStation Blog interview revealed that the game is “fully playable from start to finish” and the remaining time is required for voiceovers, playtesting, and debugging.

There is a lot of information spread across all these interviews, and I didn’t cover it all, only the pieces that stood out to me the most. I’m happy to know we’ll have at least an AI-controlled party and that it isn’t an open world game. What do you think about the latest Final Fantasy XVI details?

(Meanwhile, there was a Nintendo Direct today focused on Xenoblade Chronicles 3, which I didn’t watch since I don’t want to see too much of the game ahead of time, but I did see that it’ll get a story expansion DLC like Xenoblade Chronicles 2 did. If it’s as good as Torna, that’s fantastic news!)