After previously stating that the game would not require a day one update at launch, something the team wanted to avoid by making sure it was “finished” well ahead of time, Naoki Yoshida has revealed during a recent Japanese livestream that Final Fantasy XVI will have a release-day patch after all.
Though the team stresses that the game is still very much ready-to-play for anyone who can’t access the update for one reason or another, they ultimately decided to drop an update for the game to address a rare and very specific hard crash and progression issue, and to further optimise the game’s performance in some areas.
The list of issues being addressed by the patch are:
- Fix a control flag issue which can make progress impossible under very specific circumstances
- Fix an issue where the game could close unexpectedly under very specific circumstances
- Optimise performance in several places
- Fix some minor text errors
The team at Creative Business Unit III has reportedly also listened to player feedback following the release of the game’s lengthy demo, regarding camera behaviour and motion blur, and has promised that a toggle to switch motion blur off as well as more camera adjustment options will be implemented in a future update.
Here is the message in English from Koji Fox.
He says it is a minor issue fix and it is not needed to play the game. You can play the game without the Day-One patch. pic.twitter.com/1yLDedvHTG
— Genki? (@Genki_JPN) June 17, 2023
It sounds like there’ll be plenty of time for CBUIII to fix and tweak things before players finish up with the game, with Final Fantasy XVI reportedly running anywhere from 35-70 hours for a single playthrough and the platinum trophy requiring a second playthrough on its harder, unlockable Final Fantasy difficulty.
Final Fantasy XVI releases on June 22nd exclusively for PS5. Amazon has pre-orders for $84.99 with free shipping.
For more on Final Fantasy XVI, check out our introduction to this new mainline entry’s dark fantasy world, or read about how it’ll cater to both longtime fans and brand-new players alike.
