Sq. Enix and Ultimate Fantasy XVI developer Artistic Enterprise Unit III have been open in regards to the sport spanning many years of protagonist Clive Rosfield’s life for years. It’s an fascinating facet of this story as a result of it speaks to how broad its horizons is perhaps. What begins as a revenge story will develop into one among warfare, its results on folks, and finally, Valisthea’s place in a battle between Eikons, Dominants, and extra over crystals.
It additionally means we’ll be seeing plenty of Clive’s life. Throughout my cowl story journey, I performed just a few of FFXVI’s opening hours, a lot of which befell prior to now, when Clive is simply 15 and his youthful brother Joshua even youthful. I discovered lots about their relationship with one another in addition to with their dad and mom, and extra I gained’t spoil right here. However I additionally flashed ahead to a 28-year-old Clive to meet up with him years after a deeply traumatic childhood occasion, and CBUIII and Sq. Enix say we’ll go even additional into Clive’s life, into his 30s.
![](https://www.gameinformer.com/sites/default/files/styles/body_default/public/2023/05/15/933c254c/past.jpg)
I requested FFXVI artistic director Kazutoyo Maehiro in regards to the resolution to have the sport span many years of the protagonist’s life and the challenges that include it. To my shock, he stated there weren’t many.
“General, I don’t assume there have been too many challenges when writing Clive’s story,” Maehiro says. “I knew the place I wished to take it and was in a position to create the story pretty shortly, specializing in that revenge however then additionally exhibiting the remainder of this life.”
Maehiro stated the true problem was writing about issues that take a very long time in real-life, like wars, that are central to FFXVI’s story.
“The story ended up being one thing that may happen over a protracted time frame,” he says. “In a novel, that’d be very straightforward to do since you simply write about it and then you definately go to the following chapter and 10 years have handed. However whenever you’re doing that in a sport, and also you need folks to play this stuff, that requires creating property and creating issues for the top sport, and that takes growth prices and time as effectively.
“And so most likely the most important problem was taking this story that spent so a few years and reworking it and translating it into one thing that gamers may play in real-time, but additionally get the sense that point has handed at low dev prices.”
![](https://www.gameinformer.com/sites/default/files/styles/body_default/public/2023/05/15/ab72f4b9/titan.jpg.jpg)
He says that creating one mannequin – say, Clive’s youthful mannequin – may take anyplace from one to 2 years. And FFXVI has a minimum of three Clive fashions. Add in all the opposite characters that age over time , and people hours begin to add up.
![](https://www.gameinformer.com/sites/default/files/styles/body_default/public/2023/05/15/4d19b87d/clive.jpg)
I didn’t get to see any of Clive in his 30s, however I’m excited to see how he differs each as a story character and a controllable one in comparison with the youthful variations of himself. Thankfully, we now have just below a month to go as a result of FFXVI hits PlayStation 5 on June 22.
For extra, remember to try Recreation Informer’s unique FFXVI protection hub by clicking the banner beneath.