“The legacy of the Crystals has shaped our history for long enough.” That line, spoken in the first Final Fantasy XVI trailer back in 2020, was a real attention-grabbed. The more we learn about the next mainline entry in the beloved series, it seems increasingly likely that it doubles as meta-commentary on Square Enix’s ambitions for the game. Square Enix and producer Naoki Yoshida have said again and again that Final Fantasy XVI represents a different take on the beloved series than we’ve ever seen before. Yoshida revealed surprising news about how the game approaches exploration recently, and it could be as much of a throwback as it is an innovation.
