The 'basic development' for Final Fantasy 16 is already done, giving further reason to believe it won't keep us waiting nearly as long as Final Fantasy 15 did.
The update on the game's development comes from a recruitment page on Square Enix's Japanese career site. It was spotted by Japanese gaming site Game's Talk and then translated by Gematsu.
“We have already completed basic development and scenario production, and are continuing to create large-scale resources and build boss battles while expanding our various development tools,” the listing says. “Also, most of our staff are carrying out their work remotely.”
The listing is specifically looking for staff to help finish out work on the world of Final Fantasy 16, including parts of the world and the extensive cinematic cutscenes for which the series is known. It sounds like the main path of the game is set, and now Square Enix is working on building it all out from there.
This might not be as notable for other game series, but the Final Fantasy series has earned a reputation for, uh, extended development timelines in the last decade or so. Final Fantasy 15 began life as Final Fantasy Versus 13 in 2006, changed to Final Fantasy 15 in 2012, and finally came out in 2016. Final Fantasy 7 Remake was announced in 2015 and came out earlier this year (but only the first part)
On the other hand, Naoki Yoshida helped oversee the revival of Final Fantasy 14 and three big, story-filled expansions in the last seven years. Hopefully he'll keep that punctual output going now that he's the producer of Final Fantasy 16.
See what else is on the way with our guide to the upcoming games of 2020 and beyond.
Final Fantasy 14's funniest speedrunning beef continues as runner who lost a world record to its original champ in just 1 day returns, beats record, is promptly dethroned again
Sony finally managed to pry Final Fantasy 7 away from Nintendo thanks to a "schmoozer" of a former employee who hung out with Square Enix executives at his parties, according to one former PlayStation boss
