Final Fantasy 16 producer Naoki Yoshida has revealed that the development team had to watch Game of Thrones for inspiration.
Since the first trailer for Final Fantasy 16 was released, there have been comparisons to western fantasy — particularly the hit HBO series — mainly due to the game’s medieval themes.
When asked about this in a recent interview with Eurogamer, Yoshida explained that as he’s grown older, he’s found that he likes “fantasy based more in reality.”
“We wanted to create something that really resonated with a lot of people,” Yoshida said. “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.”
Art director Hiroshi Minagawa added that the team wanted to create something with a western feel, saying, “…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.”
