Yoshida/Square Enix have discussed ditching numbered Final Fantasy titles

[Lulcielid]

How Final Fantasy 16 reinvented a "stale" 35-year-old franchise

Reinventing Final Fantasy for the Game of Thrones era, Final Fantasy 16's Naoki Yoshida and Hiroshi Minagawa tell GQ how they tackled three decades' worth of expectations head on.

www.gq-magazine.co.uk

Taken from the end of the interview:

The numbers must be difficult, though.

Yoshida: A lot of players are going to come in and they're going to look at it like a comic book where you have to read from the beginning to know what's going on now. It's hard for marketing because every numbered title that we release in the series, we have to go into it like, “It’s OK, you don't have to play the rest of them.”

Do you think you’d ever just ditch the numbers entirely? We’ve seen big franchises like God of War reboot with no numbered entries

Yoshida: That's actually something that I've discussed with the higher-ups. Maybe it's about time we removed the numbers from the title. For example, you have Final Fantasy 14. You get a new player coming in and it's like, “Wait a minute, why do I have to play Final Fantasy 14 if 16 is out?” Why don't we just call it Final Fantasy Online – just get rid of the number altogether, and that'll make it easier to understand. Whether Final Fantasy 17 or Final Fantasy 18 should have a number or not – that's going to be on whoever has to develop that game and whoever's in charge of the branding, so that's their problem, not ours!

 

[ForceStealer]

lol, in saying something I don't agree with, he circled back to something I do. FF14 (and 11) should have been "FF Online"s and not roman numeral'd titles.

As for dropping them in general, I would find that sad. Also, imagine the inane subtitles we'd be subjected to.

 

[null]

Are the numbers really that confusing? Maybe I just live in a bubble where this has never been a problem.

 

[Lulcielid]

Appearently an one minute Google search is too hard.

 

[Tetsujin]

I respect FF for still keeping the numbers going. They're iconic, I hope they never ditch them.

Someday, there needs to be an FF XXX.

 

[cold_spirit]

Do I need to watch Super Bowls I to LVII in order to understand Super Bowl LVIII?

 

[Lex]

I like the numerals and hope they stay, but I would like to see XI and XIV re-branded at some point.

Ideally they release single-player versions of XI and XIV (remakes of each story) and *those* can have the numerals, then rebrand the online versions to something else.

 

[looneymoon]

eh fuck the numbers tbh

counting is overrated

 

[Ghost X]

Who are these people who get confused about the numbered titles, thinking they have to buy all the earlier games? Shame shame shame *bell sound*.

If people are confused about the numbered titles, keeping the Final Fantasy title itself, and replacing numbers with subtitles, I'd have thought that would also have people similarly confused. "It has Final Fantasy on the front, does that mean I have to buy that different subtitled game as well, as it might be a continuation of the story!? Ohnoes!"

 

[Ite]

Ironically, it’s the ones with obnoxious subtitles that indicate that they’re ancillary, sequel, crossover, etc… whereas a plain number is usually a beacon for me in an endless storm of titles.

 

[ForceStealer]

I appreciate Yoshida's work and perspective off course, but I won't be missing his hot take-laden interviews after this game is out

 

[null]

Wonder what they’d be called if they were never numbered. Like, what the fuck would we call VI if it wasn’t VI. “Final Fantasy: Life Sucks, Wear A Cup”

 

[Strangelove]

ngl i would not understand roman numerals if it weren't for being in final fantasy titles. that's why i don't know the ones for like 50 or 100, because they've not made that many main series games yet

how will i ever learn if they don't keep making them with the numbers. read a book? fat chance

 

[Redfang]

Appearently a one minute Google search is too hard.

Yes, yes it is. *my eyes they doth roll* Maybe they are trying to cater to those who walk into traffic while texting. They can’t be arsed to figure out what them funny letters mean.

 

[Theozilla]

I while I would prefer that the numbered roman numeral titles be kept, I could accept them dropping the numbered naming convention (only after FFXX/FF20, as that’s a missed opportunity for like doing a “double cross” play on words (since X is also sometimes used to mean cross in Japanese).

 

[Theozilla]

Interesting, apparently Yoshida feels some of the journalists misrepresented his comments

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1664290173906206721

 

[cold_spirit]

I don't know if it's my hyper fandom making me sensitive, but I feel like news sites are going out of their way to obfuscate the buzz around XVI.

There's this, Kotaku's misleading article on the active time lore feature, the "JRPG" debate... I swear Remake did not generate this much clickbait.

 

[Makoeyes987]

Naw, it's definitely not just you

 

[Theozilla]

Part of it might have been Yoshida initially starting off on the wrong foot/shooting himself in the foot (in regards to goodwill) with his original piss-poor “justification” for why the game wouldn’t really feature any racial diversity in regards to non-white characters (or more specifically black characters I guess, because I’ve seen some say that there are brown/West Asian analogous characters in some of the nations?). And then it maybe snowballing off from there? (along with cultural misunderstandings/stuff lost in translation)

 

[Wol]

I think Kotaku hasn't been invited to SQ playtests anymore for some reason, so they're salty. That's what Ive heard at least.

 

[Nandemoyasan]

I'm getting to a point in my life where I am taking a hard look at it, and I've realized I don't just want Final Fantasy back, and I don't just want my NES back, I want the time before I played FF1 back (aka my youth), which is something nobody can ever provide, manufacture, give, or sell me. It ain't coming back, in other words.

There is a point of diminishing returns with nostalgia; eventually it loses its flavor, just like if you drink chocolate milk every day, it starts to taste no different than water, and you may as well just drink water cuz it's better for you. FFXVI is starting to sound like a lot more of what came before, where they set up a cool story, and then it falls apart into meaningless drivel at the end. That's really all I needed to hear.

If I somehow end up playing this, it's not gonna be for a long while.

 

[Leafonthebreeze]

I'm getting to a point in my life where I am taking a hard look at it, and I've realized I don't just want Final Fantasy back, and I don't just want my NES back, I want the time before I played FF1 back (aka my youth), which is something nobody can ever provide, manufacture, give, or sell me. It ain't coming back, in other words.

There is a point of diminishing returns with nostalgia; eventually it loses its flavor, just like if you drink chocolate milk every day, it starts to taste no different than water, and you may as well just drink water cuz it's better for you. FFXVI is starting to sound like a lot more of what came before, where they set up a cool story, and then it falls apart into meaningless drivel at the end. That's really all I needed to hear.

If I somehow end up playing this, it's not gonna be for a long while.

I would say that a ton of people over at the discord are playing it and loving it, I'm not very far in but having enough fun with it that if the ending ends up stupid I won't be sorry that i played the rest of it. I wouldn't write it off based on one review.

 

[ForceStealer]

having enough fun with it that if the ending ends up stupid I won't be sorry that i played the rest of it

Hey that sounds like me and VII Remake!