Final Fantasy 16 – would you have been happy to wait a bit longer if it meant getting Final Fantasy 16 on PS4? (Picture: Square Enix)

A new interview with Final Fantasy 16’s producer explains why the team gave up on a PS4 version and why they’ve stuck with an unpopular UI.

It may have been announced as one of the first PlayStation 5 console exclusives, but it turns out Final Fantasy 16 was originally considered as a cross-gen title, with plans to launch it on PlayStation 4 as well.

This is according to the game’s producer Naoki Yoshida, who was asked about when Sony became involved with Final Fantasy 16’s development.

While Yoshida couldn’t speak too much on Sony’s involvement, he did explain that plans for a PS4 launch were abandoned since it would have required another couple of years’ worth of development time.

‘We originally had a plan to possibly release the game on PlayStation 4,’ he told YouTube channel Final Fantasy Union.

‘During development, we realised, that to get it to a level that we were gonna be proud of we would have needed at least one or two more years of development to do that.

‘And so I had to make a decision at that time. It’s like, okay, we don’t want to extend it that long. Let’s go PS5 only.’

In the same interview, Yoshida also touched upon the game’s user interface, which was met with criticism when the first trailer dropped for being ‘too sci-fi’ and looking like it belonged in a fighting game, especially with damage numbers popping up all the time.

Yoshida admits that the team took that criticism on board and tweaked its design to fit better with Final Fantasy 16’s aesthetic but wound up going back to the original design anyway.

‘We redid the UI and made it into something that fits the style a little better, but we found that it blended too much with what was going on,’ he explains.

‘Final Fantasy 16 is an action RPG and the action is very fast and things are moving. And so you need those numbers and those graphics to pop out or you’re going to miss them in the heat of the action.’

Although it may prove unpopular with some players, Yoshida thinks it’s more helpful this way and hopes that people will grow accustomed to it in the long run.

Final Fantasy 16 launches for PlayStation 5 on June 22. A PC version will launch at a later date.

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A new interview with Final Fantasy 16’s producer explains why the team gave up on a PS4 version and why they’ve stuck with an unpopular UI.