Final Fantasy XVI takes place in a high-fantasy setting, having drawn comparison to big-budget series like Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings. And while it’s true that most of the action takes place amid warring kingdoms with armor-clad knights, producer Naoki Yoshida revealed there’s more to the world that may blend elements of high-tech fantasy or sci-fi as well.
Yoshida told GameSpot via translator that the team simply prefers high fantasy as a setting, but “we’re not completely avoiding that type of advanced technology from a past civilization. There is actually a little bit of that in the game. It’s just that we haven’t introduced it yet in our promotion.”
Yoshida explained that one story element in Final Fantasy XVI involves an advanced, sky-faring civilization that existed 1,500 years before the game takes place. Some kind of calamity that people simply call “The Fall” happened to that civilization that caused it to collapse, both figuratively and literally, and all of its advanced technology came crashing to the ground. The remnants of that ancient society are scattered across the world, and the protagonist, Clive, will find pieces of it and learn more about their history and what happened to them.