Shocking Revelation: Final Fantasy 16 May Abandon Numbered Titles for Good

The producer of Final Fantasy 16 has addressed a misunderstanding regarding his previous statement about the potential removal of numbered titles in future installments of the franchise. With the highly anticipated sixteenth entry set to launch exclusively on the PS5 console later this month, fans have been eagerly absorbing any information they can get about the game, much of which has come from producer Naoki Yoshida, also known as Yoshi-P. In various interviews, Yoshida has been building excitement for the upcoming release while also discussing the franchise's future.

However, in a previous interview from May, Yoshida appeared to suggest that the Final Fantasy series could move away from using numbered entries for future games. He reportedly discussed the idea with Square Enix, but emphasized that it was not within his control. Additionally, Yoshida acknowledged that the numbering convention could be confusing for newer fans who might feel obligated to play previous games in the series before starting a new one. Recently, Yoshida has clarified that his comments were misinterpreted and that he did not actually suggest removing numbered titles from the franchise.

During an interview with Weekly Ochiai, a Japanese news YouTube channel, the producer of Final Fantasy 16 clarified that he did not express a desire to remove numbers from the game's title, despite what some journalists had suggested. In fact, the producer had only discussed the possibility of removing the "16" from the game's title specifically, and not from future entries in the franchise. He went on to explain that removing the numbers entirely could lead to confusion among fans and could make the games appear as spin-off titles instead of main entries in the series. Therefore, he ultimately decided that it would not make sense to remove the numbers from Final Fantasy games.

Yoshida acknowledges that Final Fantasy fans have a deep connection to the numbered titles in the series, which have become a defining characteristic of each installment. He expresses that it would be challenging to eliminate the numbering system from the mainline games, which is why the upcoming entry bears the title "16." While considering other game franchises with high numbers in their titles, Yoshida only recalls The King of Fighters as a comparable example. He found it amusing that his initial comments were misinterpreted, but is happy to provide clarification. Final Fantasy 16 is set to release on June 22, exclusively for the PS5.

Source: YouTube