There's NO Mini Games in Final Fantasy XVI?!

Channel:

Peter Bytes

Subscribers:

3,590

Published on May 8, 2023 5:15:00 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MehfUT7hoCk

Game:

Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020)

Category:

Discussion

Duration: 5:04

812 views

42

A discussion on the lack of minigames in FF16 and the design philosophy behind the dev's decision to not include minigames

00:00 - No Minigames in Final Fantasy XVI?
00:49 - Developer's Reasons for no Minigames
02:17 - The Side Content 16 Will Feature Instead of Mini-games
02:34 - My Final Fantasy XVI Minigames Wishlist
03:09 - Keep Mini Games Optional
04:02 - What Mini Games do you want?

💎Twitter: https://twitter.com/Peter3pg
🔔 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpStbJ2ZipCSWcK_JWmRMYw/?sub_confirmation=1

#FinalFantasy #FinalFantasy16 #FinalFantasyxvi

I am very hopeful for Final Fantasy XVI - I just did a video on it. But in my opinion there's one thing sorely missing from 16, and that's mini-games. 16 will have some side content I'll talk about but no mini-games. Sure a Final Fantasy can be a massive success without mini-games but most of my favourite Final Fantasy do have mini-games and to me mini-games are a small part of the identity of Final Fantasy and they're just fun. Minigames can range from short little gimmicks to indepth systems that exist across the entire game world and sometimes they're even integrated into the story, like when you take part in a Tetra Master Tournament in 9 or Blitzball in 10.

So in interviews with 16's Director and Producer, they were asked about mini-games and they stated there wouldn't be any minigames because they're trying to tell a dark story with countries at war and quote - "characters couldn't have Blitzball matches going on with people killing each other". Basically they want to strive for realism with their story and to be honest I disagree with their philosophy on this point. We've had countless Final Fantasy's with world-wide horrific wars going on and we still managed to fit in the mini-games, these games don't need to be super serious all the time.
It's funny that Blitzball is used as an example because Blitzball was a part of the story of Final Fantasy X and big Blitzball tournaments were used as a way to bring peace and excitement to the average person so they could escape from the horrors and bad memories of the ongoing war and slaughter with the huge monster, Sin. Even during the big Luca match, in the back of peoples' minds they were afraid that so many people gathering in one location would attract Sin.
I think they could easily intergrate Mini-games into 16 without detracting from the realisim, and Blitzball is a great example of that. There's half of a match you have to play for the story and it's completely optional after that.
In Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade we play Avalanche who are a war with Shinra, but we still got the re-imagined Fort Condor mini-game and I love it, to be honest it might have been my favourite part of Intergrade and it extended my game time by several hours.

So Final Fantasy XVI has been confirmed to feature some side-activities but they're all around the game's combat system. You'll have bounties, arena like challenges, and generic side quests. We may not be getting mini-games but finger's crossed there will be some good side content to take it's place.

If you ask people what their favourite Final Fantasy minigame is they usually say - the card game Triple Triad. I have been dieing to see another a card game in Final Fantasy since Triple Triad and Tetra Master and would it really cost that much to develop? The cards would just feature pictures of the characters or monsters models, very little art would need to be designed.
There are Chocobo's in 16 and I'd love to see some kind of Chocobo Racing with progression and different Chocobo colours. But most of all I would have loved a card game, and I think the Witcher 3 had great implementation of one too.

I can totally acknowledge that not everyone likes mini games so if they were added - they should be optional. I can understand that having some of the games' content locked behind mini games can be a little annoying, like in 9 where you needed to grind for hours at Chocobo Hot and Cold to acquire a Golden Chocobo to just unlock the ability to fight the game's super boss - Ozma. I think mini-games should have their own rewards but they can suck when you've gotta play them to get things like Ultimate Weapons in 10, I didn't really like having to get a perfect score in the Chocobo Trials or dodge 200 lightning strikes in a row to unlock Ultimate weapons.
While at the other end, 8's Triple Triad could be used as a slower but alternative form of progression, if you level up your Summons you can use their abilities to convert cards into useful items. I believe everything you can earn from Triple Triad you can earn elsewhere in the game, so you didn't feel forced to play Triple Triad.
So I think that's somethings to bear in mind when implementing mini games.

Are there any mini games you'd like to see in 16? Or would you prefer to just focus the story and not have any mini games at all? Let me know in the comments.

Other Statistics