During the currently ongoing Tokyo Game Show 2021 showcase, Hironobu Sakaguchi and Naoki Yoshida (Yoshi-P) had a special panel to discuss “the appeal and potential of RPGs.” Still, Sakaguchi wanted to take this conversation a step further than expected and intended to ask Yoshida about the current state of the still elusive. Final Fantasy XVI.

As it turns out, Final Fantasy XVI ended up being discussed. Thanks to Dreamboum on Twitter, a compiled and digestible list of notable remarks made by Yoshida during this conversation has been made.

Perhaps the most notable news is that the main story development for the title is complete, and the team is currently completing the side quests, models, and general polish. Dreamboum pointed out in his Twitter thread that Yoshida prioritized planning and story writing during the early stages of game development with a smaller team.

This decision was made on purpose early on to avoid the unnecessary juggling and other complications that would have arisen by working with a larger team from the start. Once he and the then smaller team felt the story was in a sufficiently complete state, work really started on a large scale from that point on with a larger team.

Credit to Dream boom to compile this information.

You can see the Tokyo Game Show 2021 panel between Hironobu Sakaguchi and Naoki Yoshida below: