If we want to leave no stone unturned in the next installment of Square Enix’s iconic franchise, it will be impossible to do it in a weekend…

Naoki Yoshida, aka Yoshi-P, isn’t just the producer of Final Fantasy XIV, as he’s also holding a similar position on the new traditional entry on top of the MMORPG installment. His interview with the Japanese Famitsu magazine was translated into English by @aitaikmochi on Twitter, so thanks to the translation, we learned that it would take 70-80 hours to complete 100% of Final Fantasy XVI (and that probably doesn’t even include the Platinum trophy…)!

“When the game development was just starting, I had the idea that gamers these days are busy with other things, so I wanted them to be able to at least aim to complete the story. I thought making the game something you can complete in about 20 hours would make sense, but more and more just got packed in. For this game, we wanted the player to be able to experience the story from start to finish. If the plot is too long, it might get tiring to play. That’s why we want Final Fantasy XVI to feel like a roller coaster experience where just when you think you can see the road ahead of you, you’re pulled into another direction.

As a result, the game is genuinely packed with stories, battles, etc., and if you do not skip any cutscene, it’ll take about 35 hours to understand the meat of the story and complete the game. Now, if you want to master and level up all abilities, gather all accessories, do all the side quests, and fight all the monster hunts, you’re probably looking at about 70~80 hours of gameplay. Not only that, but we also included an insanely difficult New Game+ mode that allows you to carry over all your stats called the “Final Fantasy Mode.” That’ll probably add even more gameplay hours,” Yoshida said.

There will also be online leaderboards where you can compete against others, presumably for scores and by completing specific missions and boss fights in what was designed to be a non-open world game: it would have taken a decade and a half (!) to make with that design, according to Yoshida. Final Fantasy XVI, which will be similar to the two new God of War titles (large areas to explore, similar action and RPG ratio), will be released on PlayStation 5 on June 22 and possibly on PC before Christmas.

Source: WCCFTech