Final Fantasy XVI: Final phase of development

Naoki Yoshida (better known by his nickname Yoshi-P), the current director of Final Fantasy XIV and producer of Final Fantasy XVI, recently participated in an interview for the Japanese magazine of the clothing brand Uniqlo to commemorate the launch of the Final Fantasy franchise t-shirt line that will be released in the coming months of this year.

However, the greatest novelty has come from the underlined words that he used during this intervention, where, as several Reddit and Twitter users have previously pointed out, the producer would have ensured that Final Fantasy XVI was already nearing completion of its production.

This is more than welcome news given the game's prolonged silence following the latest revelation of a minor delay that may have pushed its release date from 2022 to next year.

Yoshida's full passage specifically states: "Right present, the development of Final Fantasy XVI is in its final phases. We want to connect the story and gameplay even further as a single-person game.

Games that you play as an individual person change in terms of immersion in the plot in a completely different way than games that everyone plays online at the same time.

For those who have grown up, entered society and the world of work, and concluded that life is not as simple as a video game, and therefore parted ways with Final Fantasy, we wish to remind you of your childhood devotion. We're designing the game with this in mind."

Unfortunately, we still do not have confirmation not just of its particular date, but also of its debut window. And it is without a doubt one of the best exclusives that the Sony system will receive in the near future, among the already-dated God of War Ragnarök, Howards Legacy, or Forspoken, and Dragon Ques XII, all from the Japanese developer.

So, we'll have to wait until the next big State of Play event, which is expected to take place in the early summer, to fill the void left by the now-canceled E3 2022.