Final Fantasy 16 looks great, according to all the trailers we've seen, and that's in no small part to the PlayStation 5. While what we've seen so far is likely Final Fantasy 16 at its best quality, there were apparently some slight problems when Square Enix tried to make a performance version of the game.
"Probably the greatest challenge, on a fundamental level, was the moogle," said FF16 producer Naoki Yoshida in a new interview. While his statement seemed to be a humorous interruption of art director Hiroshi Minagawa explanation of Final Fantasy 16's graphics, it turns out there really was a problem with getting moogles to look right.
"The biggest moogle problem arose when we were implementing performance mode, towards the end of development," Minagawa explained. "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...'"
Minagawa eventually gave moogles specific processing on performance mode to ensure that their fur looked right. This came in direct contrast to Final Fantasy 16's morbol, which everyone was "delighted by."
But beyond their weird fur, Yoshida was concerned that moogles just wouldn't fit into the grittier narrative of Final Fantasy 16. "But 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."
Another challenge with Final Fantasy 16's graphics, according to Minagawa, was getting everyone's faces right. "Those of us that worked on the in-game assets found it really challenging to depict their expressions, which were more realistic than what we’d previously worked on. In the end, we managed to achieve a good visual style, thanks to the help and cooperation of the team working on pre-rendered scenes."
He added, "Overall, I would say that the most significant challenge was combining photorealism and a more illustration-like feel with the increased power we had to present things - finding the right balance and making sure it didn’t look unnatural."
Final Fantasy 16 arrives on June 22 only for the PlayStation 5, but fans might be able to get their hands on the game slightly early. A demo appeared in the libraries of several fans who'd pre-ordered the game, and though it wasn't yet available fort download, it has sparked speculation that there will be some early access announcement soon. Perhaps at the Final Fantasy 16 launch celebration on June 11.