Sixteen instalments in, developers of any series would struggle to retain the element of surprise – bearing in mind that deviations from established formulae risk upsetting fans. On the surface, Final Fantasy XVI appears to be a rather conservative return to the series’ high-fantasy roots, in the same vein as the revered ninth entry. After the turbulent development of its predecessor, it’s also in the safest possible pair of hands. Producer Naoki Yoshida, still hailed as the man who turned FFXIV from catastrophe into the publisher’s most profitable title to date, heads up a core team of veterans including director Hiroshi Takai, whose history with the series stretches back to 1992’s Final Fantasy V. So it’s only once we’ve finished a demo created especially
