‘Final Fantasy XVI’ devs were ‘required’ to watch ‘Game of Thrones’

Elden Ring isn’t the only video game influenced by George R.R. Martin‘s words. The developers behind Final Fantast XVI were told to learn something from Game of Thrones in hopes to create a more engaging video game experience in the upcoming JRPG title.

Final Fantasy XVI director Naoki Yoshida spoke with Eurogamer about this game’s development and mentioned the game’s strong influences from Western media like Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. Yoshida stated that he liked the fantasy genre that’s based more on reality and that these two films resonated with people. So in order to capture that feeling for the upcoming game, he bought a box set of Game of Thrones and told his team to they were required to watch it.

“As I’ve grown older, I’ve found that I like my fantasy based more in reality. We wanted to create something that really resonated with a lot of people. And when we saw how Game of Thrones, and before that the Song of Ice and Fire series, has really resonated with players, we knew that this was something that we wanted to do as well. When we first started creating the game, we had our core team of about 30 members very early on buy the blu-ray boxset of Game of Thrones and required everyone to watch it, because we wanted this type of feel.”

And it’s not just the game’s story and gameplay. Final Fantasy XVI‘s art director, Hiroshi Minagawa revealed that he wanted the art style to be similar to that “western feel.” He also pointed out that this type of inspiration couldn’t be found in Japan, hence why they look towards what’s made overseas for inspiration.

“If we want to create something that has that kind of western feel, we have to look to the west for that kind of inspiration. And so things like Game of Thrones are things that we look to, because that type of stuff does not exist where we live in Japan.”

Based on what’s seen in the game’s trailer, you can tell that they’ve done their homework. The world has those strong, medieval, but gritty and realistic details that are more commonly found in Western media. At the same time, it still kept what made the Final Fantasy franchise great with its monsters and magic. Hopefully, the game developers learned the mistakes Game of Thrones’ final season.

Final Fantasy XVI will be released for PlayStation 5 on June 22, 2023.