We’re a month away from the release ofFinal Fantasy 16, and Square Enix has given The Gamer our first good look at actual gameplaycourtesy of a media demo. Our own Meg Pelliccio said that Final Fantasy 16 was “simply brimming with history,” but she might not have known how right she was.
While her comment was aimed at all the wonderful callbacks FF16 has for past Final Fantasy titles, the game’s fanfare goes back much further. Speaking toEurogamer, localization director Michael-Christopher Koji Fox revealed that FF16’s fanfare will feature lyrics for the very first time. And those lyrics will be sung by a choir in ancient Greek.
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“[Composer Masayoshi] Soken came to me one day and he was like ‘ok, we’re gonna do this, I think it needs lyrics’,” explained Fox. “The first thing I thought of is, if we’re going to have lyrics, if it’s going to be English, I thought it would sound kind of cheesy, especially if it’s being played a lot. And then it could sound very gimmicky, and I didn’t want it to sound gimmicky.
“But we don’t want it to just become some nonsense language. So what can we do? I decided on Ancient Greek. And there’s a reason behind this, but if I explain the reason it becomes a spoiler,” he added. “Then we got the chorus to sing them. And the meaning actually has very deep meaning that pertains to pretty much the whole story and Clive’s journey as well.”
Fox wrote the lyrics in English before getting them translated to ancient Greek, but we won’t have that translation anywhere in the game. Someone will need to record the fanfare lyrics and then present them to someone fluent in old languages to determine what they mean.
We almost got that translation from Fox, but he was cut off by producer Naoki “Yoshi-P” Yoshida. We’ll have to wait for the game’s arrival on June 22 to learn more.
You won’t have to wait to learn more about the world of Valisthea, however. Fans have been pouring over everything Square Enix has revealed for months, including a map of Valisthea posted to the official website. While the text is written in tiny stylistic cursive, one Final Fantasy fan went over each line with a microscopeto transcribe what it says.
What stands out is just how much the world has been consumed by the Blight–an unknown scourge that poisons the land and kills all life, leaving only monstrous creatures to fight over the scraps. Much of the north and south of Valisthea have already been consumed, but there are parts that remain habitable. That’s perhaps the big reason why the Kingdom of Rosaria was invaded by the Dhalmekian Republic so many years ago.
Next:Final Fantasy 16 Preview - Shaping Up To Be Something Truly Eikonic
