Square Enix changed Final Fantasy 16’s user interface after fan feedback, and then changed it again

Final Fantasy 16’s user interface was temporarily changed due to online feedback, before Square Enix decided to undo the changes and restore the original design.

In an interview with Final Fantasy FederationProducer Naoki Yoshida was asked if the team changed the game’s user interface based on online feedback, particularly regarding damage numbers.

Yoshida replied, “We definitely listened to the feedback when we released the first trailer and people saw the user interface, and then they gave a lot of feedback about how it might have been more like a fighting game.” “It was very sci-fi, and it just didn’t fit the style of the game.

“We heard that and went back and revamped the UI and made it into something that fit the style a little bit better, but we found it blended in so much with what was going on it was hard to see.

Ultimately, Final Fantasy 16 is an RPG and the action is very fast, things move. And so you need those numbers and graphics to pop or you’ll lose them in the heat of the action.

“And if they’re too integrated and they fit into the world so well, you won’t be able to see them and you won’t be able to tell what’s going on. So we decided to go back to what we had originally because that fit the best.

And we found that, yeah, the first time you see it, it freaks you out. But the more you see it, the more you get used to it and the more you realize it really fits with what’s going on.

“So we hope players will realize that as well, the more they play with it.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Yoshida noted that a PS4 version of the game was planned, but was ultimately canceled when it was decided that an additional year or two of development was needed to run it well enough.

Final Fantasy 16 will be released on PlayStation 5 on June 22nd.