Unexpected Choice of Engine for Final Fantasy 16

Square Enix has recently revealed a technological breakthrough for their upcoming AAA RPG, Final Fantasy 16, with a choice of the engine made early on in its development. As part of their latest marketing effort, key officials divulged several details, such as the fact that the cutscenes for Final Fantasy 16 are more lengthy than the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy combined.

Square Enix has displayed a lack of loyalty to a single game engine when it comes to the Final Fantasy franchise in recent years. During the past decade, the company released Final Fantasy 14, operated by their Crystal Tools engine, and Final Fantasy 15, which ran on the self-made Luminous Engine, later seen in Forspoken. Additionally, they also released two Unreal Engine 4 titles, Final Fantasy 7 Remake and a remastered version of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7.

Recent interviews with YouTuber Skill Up have confirmed that Square Enix’s upcoming RPG Final Fantasy 16 does not use either Unreal or Luminous Engine. The company declined to give more details on the matter and instead suggested they will provide more information on the game’s technologies closer to its launch. Additionally, the same interview during which the Final Fantasy 16 producer expressed his dislike of the term “JRPG” which is often associated with Square Enix’s games.

The sequel to Final Fantasy 15 is estimated to be released after nearly seven years, pending no further delays occur. In this day and age, due to the complexity of modern video games, development cycles have become longer, so it is not inconceivable that Final Fantasy 16 is being developed with a new internal engine, which may account for the protracted span between the two mainline titles of the renowned franchise.

Square Enix’s decision of which engine to use has the potential to influence the porting times of Final Fantasy 16. It is not likely that the game will be available on platforms beyond the PS5 in the foreseeable future. Naoki Yoshida, the producer of the game, has expressed his wish to bring it to other systems eventually, yet he has also recently stated that it will take a long time for the game to be released on PC. This is because Sony and Square Enix have agreed on a period of exclusivity for the PS5, although the architecture of the console being similar to PCs might not complicate the porting process.

The highly anticipated Final Fantasy 16 will be available on June 22, exclusively for PlayStation 5.