Lock your Chocobos into attack position and set your Phoenix Downs to stun: Square Enix has released recent details about the PC port of Final Fantasy 16 , which is set to launch on September 17. They’ve also shared some details about why it took so long — the (generally decent) action-RPG landed on PS5 over a year ago, when I was still a little muddy freelancer playing on console.
According to director Hiroshi Takai, it would have been “impossible” to make a PC and PS5 version at the same time, even if Square Enix weren’t bound by a timed exclusivity clause. He also believes that the Final Fantasy series isn’t currently at “existential risk,” despite lower-than-expected profits from both Final Fantasy 16 and, judging by Square Enix’s latest financial reports, the newer and currently PS5-only Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.
Final Fantasy has a history of fashionably arriving overdue to PC—Final Fantasy 7 Remake, the first of the FF7 reboots, took over a year to hit the Epic Games Store after its PS4 launch. As for Final Fantasy 16 specifically, Square Enix had to work around a six-month exclusivity deal with Sony and the PS5 after its initial June 2023 launch. Producer Naoki Yoshida also indulged in a bit of bait-and-switch with reporters, jokingly denying that Square Enix had ever announced the game for PC. I suspect the spotty communication has less to do with trolling and more to do with the unpredictable nature of game development.
“The reasons vary for each title, but in the case of FFXVI, it’s mostly because the original game was adapted to PS5 in a lot of different ways, and it couldn’t be done at the same time as all the optimization work that was needed for the PC version,” Takai told me over email when I asked why this and other Final Fantasy games tend to come to PC later. He wasn’t able to tell me anything about the specifics of the PC version’s development, other than it’s the same team that made the original PS5 version.
So what do Final Fantasy PC players get for their patience? For starters, the port will be accompanied by the Complete Edition, which includes two DLC packs, Echoes Of The Fallen and The Rising Tide. I haven’t played either of them, but they seem pretty juicy. Echoes Of The Fallen’s offering includes a recent final dungeon, while Rising Tide adds a recent region, an endgame mode, and recent abilities for this version’s protagonist, Clive Rosefield—“Devil May Clive,” as I boisterously call him in the pub, forgetting that all my friends were already ailing of that joke over Christmas.
Square Enix has also added a bunch of recent graphics and performance settings, as you might expect. “Since PC gamers have different machines with different specs, we’ve provided extensive configuration options to maximize flexibility,” Takai told me. “We’ve increased the frame rate cap to 240 fps, and you can choose from a variety of scaling technologies, including NVIDIA DLSS3, AMD FSR, and Intel XeSS.”
Argh, so many letters and numbers! Where’s James, the hardware editor who’s supposed to translate? Oh shit, he must have gone to Gamescom. I think Final Fantasy games should have their own jargon for graphical features, combining third-party terminology with the series’ own naming conventions. Every PC RPG can brag about scaling support, but only a Final Fantasy game could afford something like Fabula Nova CrystaLSSIII or AMD Fenrir Shiva Ragnarok.
Square Enix has been vocal about expanding beyond consoles recently. In May of this year, the publisher promised “aggressive” expansion to other platforms, perhaps in lightweight of the fact that FF16 did not meet the company’s expectations for PS5. They said they wanted to “capture PC users in particular.” With that in mind, I asked Takai if Square Enix thought the audience for Final Fantasy games was significantly different between consoles and PC. “That’s a tough question!” he said, before answering it very directly.
“To be honest, there’s not much difference between PC and console gaming right now, so I don’t know if there’s a real difference when it comes to FF fans,” Takai commented. “But more people have access to PC, so I hope we can get the game into the hands of a wider audience of gamers with the PC version.”
The company has not yet announced sales information for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, which launched on PS5 in February, but reported a decline in overall game sales year-over-yearwhich is offset by relatively steady profits from the subscription-based MMO Final Fantasy 14. Still, Takai doesn’t feel the Final Fantasy series has become unsustainable and needs a major rethink, especially with Square Enix constantly rethinking it.
“While it’s always important to balance development costs with sales, I don’t think there’s any existential risk to the franchise,” he told me. “As creators, we just have to make what we think is fun — and if players think, ‘This time, they went in a new direction, but it was still fun,’ then maybe that’s all the dramatic change we need.”
If you’re curious about FF16 on PC, I’ve saved the best for last: a demo is now available Couple and Epic Games Store.
