It’s becoming that within the yr of the thirtieth anniversary of the unique PlayStation, two of the console’s greatest franchises — Tekken and Final Fantasy — are collaborating as soon as extra. The 2 names are almost synonymous with the PlayStation model, and greater than that share a improvement historical past not many learn about.
“I assume we will speak about [it] now since a lot time has handed. Back round Tekken 3, quite a lot of our workers left the group and really went to Sq.,” Tekken government producer Katsuhiro Harada reveals in a sit down interview with IGN. Given Tekken 3 was in improvement throughout 1995 and launched a yr later, there have been possible a number of ex-Tekken workers lending their 3D improvement expertise to what would possible have been the one Final Fantasy recreation in manufacturing round then: the seminal PlayStation RPG, Final Fantasy 7.
“We’re each titles that have been synonymous with PlayStation and likewise the sort of high-level 3D graphics [both series had] on the time have been comparable,” Harada continues. “And though we have been making completely different video games at that time, (*16*) have been nonetheless our pals and folks we labored actually carefully with. So [at the time I thought] it might be attention-grabbing if we may work collectively once more someday sooner or later. It simply turned out that it took much more time than I initially thought.”
So right here we’re, many years later and the Tekken and Final Fantasy manufacturers are going head-to-head on friendlier phrases. Clive Rosfield, the protagonist of Final Fantasy 16, would be the newest visitor character becoming a member of the Tekken roster. He’s solely the second Final Fantasy character to ever be part of Tekken, following after Final Fantasy 15’s Noctis, who made an look in Tekken 7.
You is likely to be stunned to listen to that this collaboration between Final Fantasy 16 and Tekken 8 started a lot sooner than anticipated. So early, in reality, that Final Fantasy 16 was nonetheless in the course of improvement when Tekken collection producer Katsuhiro Harada reached out to FF16 producer Naoki Yoshida a couple of potential collaboration. Yoshida invited Harada and Tekken 8 director Kohei Ikeda to Sq. Enix to play an in-development construct of the sport and the foundations have been laid for the crossover.
Developed by the group accountable for the massively in style Final Fantasy 14 MMORPG, Final Fantasy 16 is a stark departure for the collection so far as gameplay goes, eschewing any sort of turn-based fight in favor of real-time motion the place Clive can wield his sword and chain combos collectively. Final Fantasy 16’s extra action-forward route meant that Clive may match seamlessly into Tekken. His combo-heavy assaults and skill to channel the powers of various “Eikons” — highly effective familiars like Ifrit, Phoenix, and Titan — ensures a reasonably numerous equipment for his Tekken 8 look..
“We needed to make it possible for the entire Eikons have been obtainable indirectly whereas enjoying [as Clive in Tekken 8],” says Ikeda. Count on to see Clive use varied elemental talents akin to wind, lightning, ice, hearth, and extra.
Whereas followers of Final Fantasy 16 will discover Clive has entry to quite a lot of the identical talents in Tekken as he does in his personal recreation, there have been some modifications made to the character. Specifically, his character mannequin.
“The director of the Final Fantasy group instructed us that he would love us to regulate Clive’s body a bit as a result of our characters are fairly beefy,” Ikeda remembers. “So we did modify his legs and decrease physique to make him extra in step with our fighters once they’re each on the identical display screen on the identical time.”
So Clive hit the fitness center for Tekken, however in fee for these new pecs he did should make some sacrifices elsewhere. “It’s humorous that though he’s gotten extra muscular, his sword has shrunk in dimension as a result of in a combating recreation, it might give him manner an excessive amount of of a bonus if the sword was as large as it’s within the authentic recreation,” Harada provides.
So I assume which means no likelihood of Cloud and his colossal Buster Sword becoming a member of Tekken, then? Properly, don’t assume so quick. In keeping with Harada, the Tekken group will not be restricted to only one character from Final Fantasy. He says it “is likely to be cool if we had two,” however for now it’s not one thing within the playing cards.
It’s been fairly the journey to see video games like Tekken and Final Fantasy evolve alongside one another, and now to see them crossover like this. Whereas neither franchises are strictly unique to PlayStation anymore, their affiliation with the model means each Tekken and Final Fantasy characteristic prominently in our Prime 100 PlayStation Video games of All Time listing.
So after all we needed to ask the Tekken builders: “What’s your favourite Final Fantasy online game?”
“I truly realized Japanese by enjoying via the Japanese model of Final Fantasy 7. I feel my girlfriend on the time hated me for asking me so many questions on stuff,” joked producer Michael Murray. “But when I needed to choose one with recollections and every part concerned, it’s most likely [Final Fantasy] 11 as a result of I feel it was round Tekken 4 everybody on the group would get up early and never go to work but and we’d meet up on-line in FF11 and play for a bit.”
For Tekken 8 director Ikeda, he says his favourite is Final Fantasy 4 as he loved feeling the collection change to be “extra narrative-based. It adopted the principle character Cecil and his transition from the Darkish Knight to a paladin.”
For Harada, Final Fantasy 4 can also be a favourite however, from a private perspective, there’s simply no comparability to the enduring entry: Final Fantasy 7.
“There’s so many scenes within the recreation I can nonetheless keep in mind to today,” Harada says. Maybe his colleagues engaged on that title helped make that connection really feel even stronger, and with the ability to return the favor with Clive in Final Fantasy XVI is thanks for these recollections.
Matt Kim is IGN’s Senior Options Editor. You may attain him @lawoftd.