Final Fantasy 16 is making its final run of console previews earlier than it launches subsequent month, although sadly we can’t be taking part in it on PC anytime quickly. Extra worrisome, nonetheless, is one thing Yoshida advised GQ UK in an interview right now: there have been talks “with the upper ups” at Square Enix about eliminating the Final Fantasy collection numbers as a result of they are often complicated for brand new gamers. .
“A variety of gamers are going to return in and they are going to see it as a comic book that it’s important to learn from the start to seek out out what is going on on now,” Yoshida stated. “It is laborious for advertising and marketing as a result of each numbered title we put out within the collection, we have now to take a look at it like, ‘Okay, you do not have to play the remainder.’
I get it, 16 is a reasonably large quantity. It takes years to be taught to depend that top, and the concept that there are 15 different numbers it’s important to consider earlier than you get to 16? Fairly intimidating. There’s additionally the problem issue of the Roman numerals. We use easy numbers right here at PC Gamer, however formally the sport Final Fantasy XVI. How are youngsters imagined to play this now M-rated collection if they can not even learn the identify?
Yoshida additionally moderately argues that persevering with to record every new recreation within the collection may trigger issues for his at the beginning love, the MMO Final Fantasy 14. Do I’ve to play Final Fantasy 14 if 16 comes out?’” he imagined. “Why do not we simply name it Final Fantasy On-line? Simply eliminate the quantity fully, and that may make it simpler to know.”
Except for the truth that that is an unforgivable delete from Final Fantasy 11, I sympathize with the purpose. However to this I current my indeniable counterpoint: a historical past of Square Enix online game names that No simply depend on a quantity to speak that it is a new entry in a long-running collection.
- Stranger from Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin
- Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue
- Bravely Second: Finish Layer (to not be confused with Bravely Default II)
- Final Fantasy Kind-0
- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darkish Lord
- Cerberus’ Dirge: Final Fantasy VII
- Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intergrade
- Star Ocean: integrity and infidelity
- Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
- Warfare of Visions: Final Fantasy Courageous Exvius
This is not even mentioning the atrocities Square has dedicated with non-sequels like The Quiet Man, Numerous Daylife, and SINoALICE. Square Enix makes use of phrases as a weapon like few different recreation publishers within the enterprise. I refuse to learn to pronounce “SINoALICE” or “Exvius” and I can not think about what the subsequent Final Fantasy could be known as if the numbers dropped. I have already got a long time of apply saying “seventeen.” Don’t inform me it was for nothing!
And , as ridiculous as all these names are, they’re no worse than Western recreation studios’ obsession with rebooting collection, which makes it exhausting to google or focus on every model:
- God of Warfare (2005) and God of Warfare (2018)
- Dying (1993) and Dying (2016)
- Dam (2006) and Dam (2017)
- Tomb Raider (1996) and Tomb Raider (2013)
- Mortal Kombat (1992) and Mortal Kombat (2011) and Mortal Kombat 1 (2023)
Each time one other recreation collection drops the numbering, likelihood is good we’ll find yourself seeing one in every of these generic subtitles as a substitute:
- legends
- Infinite
- Rising
- origins
- Estimate
- Revolution
- launched
Eww.
Immediately I thank Capcom for the robust and pure Avenue Fighter 6 as a substitute of Avenue Fighter Legends or Avenue Fighter: Unleashed. And I thank Final Fantasy 16 for not being known as simply Final Fantasy. Google search is already hanging by a thread. Don’t go breaking the web, for everybody’s sake, Square Enix. Simply maintain these numbers the place they belong.
