154-692: The Chocobo ( Japanese : チョコボ , Hepburn : Chokobo ) is a fictional species created for the Final Fantasy franchise by Square Enix (originally Square ). A galliform bird commonly having yellow feathers, they were first introduced in Final Fantasy II (1988), and have since featured in some capacity in nearly every Final Fantasy title, usually as a means of transport. Chocobos or chocobo-themed characters have played story roles in multiple titles, notably in Final Fantasy V and XIII . A recurring Chocobo also acts as protagonist of
308-404: A "Story" mode that offers accessories to simplify combat and strengthen the characters, and a normal mode. After completing the game, new options are available including New Game+ which carries character statistics and equipment into a new game, and a harder "Final Fantasy" mode which increases overall difficulty and changes enemy placements. There is also an arcade mode which grades players using
462-457: A Bearer and blessed with some power from the fire Eikon Phoenix. The brothers live with their parents Duke Elwin and Duchess Anabella, with Jill as their ward. The brothers accompany Elwin to a ceremony to awaken Joshua's powers when they are ambushed by Sanbreque soldiers. Elwin's death triggers Joshua's destructive awakening as the Phoenix, and an Eikon named Ifrit emerges moments later and kills
616-637: A benefit from the in-group to the out-group) means "[I/we] explained [it] to [him/her/them]". Such beneficiary auxiliary verbs thus serve a function comparable to that of pronouns and prepositions in Indo-European languages to indicate the actor and the recipient of an action. Japanese "pronouns" also function differently from most modern Indo-European pronouns (and more like nouns) in that they can take modifiers as any other noun may. For instance, one does not say in English: The amazed he ran down
770-635: A book credited to Joshua recording the game's events. Post-release downloadable content expansions Echoes of the Fallen and The Rising Tide expand on the Motes of Water, a persecuted tribe associated with the Eikon Leviathan. In Echoes of the Fallen , fragments from an artificial Mothercrystal created by the Fallen are distributed on the black market. Clive, Joshua and Jill go to the Sagespire,
924-413: A chick at a festival market and formed a strong bond with it. One day while he was away at school, his parents decided they could no longer care for it and gave it to a neighbour who kept chickens. Ishii was very upset when he found out, and kept the memory of the chick into his adult life. All through development of Final Fantasy , Ishii wanted to create an animal companion character. A challenge to himself
1078-686: A chocobo character called Alpha in a questline surrounding a machine called Omega, with its design referencing Itahana's artwork and its inclusion being a homage to Chocobo's clashes with Omega within the Chocobo subseries. Within Square Enix's library, chocobos also saw playable cameo appearances in Tobal 2 , Legend of Mana , and Dragon Quest X . It also cameoed beyond the company in Everybody's Golf , and Assassin's Creed Origins as part of
1232-594: A complex system of honorifics , with verb forms and vocabulary to indicate the relative status of the speaker, the listener, and persons mentioned. The Japanese writing system combines Chinese characters , known as kanji ( 漢字 , ' Han characters') , with two unique syllabaries (or moraic scripts) derived by the Japanese from the more complex Chinese characters: hiragana ( ひらがな or 平仮名 , 'simple characters') and katakana ( カタカナ or 片仮名 , 'partial characters'). Latin script ( rōmaji ローマ字 )
1386-409: A crossover with Final Fantasy XV . Chocobo merchandise has been released, including a rubber duck , a plush baby Chocobo, and coffee mugs . Square Enix designed a chocobo character costume for the release of Chocobo Tales . The Chocobo has been referred to or considered to be a series mascot by fans and journalists since its introduction, becoming synonymous with the series's visual identity. In
1540-483: A dedicated self-titled Chocobo subseries. Beginning in 1997 with Chocobo no Fushigi na Dungeon , a spin-off of the Mystery Dungeon franchise, the series spans nearly twenty entries across game consoles and mobile platforms within multiple genres. While one of the most prolific Final Fantasy subseries in terms of games released, relatively few have been published outside Japan. Final Fantasy XIV featured
1694-414: A distinct language of its own that has absorbed various aspects from neighboring languages. Japanese has five vowels, and vowel length is phonemic, with each having both a short and a long version. Elongated vowels are usually denoted with a line over the vowel (a macron ) in rōmaji , a repeated vowel character in hiragana , or a chōonpu succeeding the vowel in katakana . /u/ ( listen )
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#17327796611471848-548: A feature on the series for Retro Gamer , Samuel Roberts referred to the Chocobo as an iconic creature since its introduction in Final Fantasy II . Anthony John Agnello, writing for The Escapist , praised the Chocobo as an adorable mainstay within both the main series and its spin-off series and media. In a feature for The Guardian , the Chocobo was 9th in a list of 18 video game animal characters. In 2008, Boco
2002-419: A glide /j/ and either the first part of a geminate consonant ( っ / ッ , represented as Q) or a moraic nasal in the coda ( ん / ン , represented as N). The nasal is sensitive to its phonetic environment and assimilates to the following phoneme, with pronunciations including [ɴ, m, n, ɲ, ŋ, ɰ̃] . Onset-glide clusters only occur at the start of syllables but clusters across syllables are allowed as long as
2156-466: A hideout, acting as a hub to talk to non-playable characters (NPCs), track Clive's relationships with different characters, interact with different shops such as potion sellers and blacksmiths to make and upgrade equipment, and accept side quests ranging from character requests to monster hunts. Information on locations, characters and terminology is stored in a database dubbed Active Time Lore, accessible to players at any time. Combat takes place in
2310-484: A listener depending on the listener's relative social position and the degree of familiarity between the speaker and the listener. When used in different social relationships, the same word may have positive (intimate or respectful) or negative (distant or disrespectful) connotations. Japanese often use titles of the person referred to where pronouns would be used in English. For example, when speaking to one's teacher, it
2464-407: A long time on Final Fantasy XIV , which used multiple styles and paid homage to the entire series, Soken had trouble adjusting to composing for a single-player with a central narrative and musical theme. The music was the last element to be put in place, after the narrative and gameplay were set. One recalled episode from the music writing was a bardic song performed both in spoken and sung form by
2618-527: A lunch break, imagining chocobos as a near-constant companion players would connect with, similar to the horse Thunderbolt from Kōya no Shōnen Isamu . When Ishii presented the chocobo concept to series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi , they were initially rejected, but Sakaguchi eventually included them in Final Fantasy II in the much-reduced role of temporary mounts. Ishii was annoyed by their reduced role both in II and III (1990). This anger prompted him to include
2772-499: A point system for combat, with harder Ultimaniac Mode challenges within that. In these modes, Clive can further upgrade his weapons, upgrade accessories in Final Fantasy mode, and challenge trials which place limits on Clive, such as only using one Eikon power in battle. Final Fantasy XVI is set in the fictional world of Valisthea. Scattered throughout the two continents of Ash and Storm are colossal magical crystals, known as
2926-542: A quest to destroy the nations' Mothercrystals, which are causing the Blight by draining aether from the land. They infiltrate Sanbreque's capital, but within its Mothercrystal are faced by a being called Ultima, who mortally wounds Cid before the Mothercrystal is destroyed. Ultima attempts to possess Clive. Joshua, who survived Ifrit's attack due to the Phoenix's powers, stops and contains Ultima within himself. Hugo, who
3080-516: A questioning of the crystal's role of bestowing power on humans. The Eikons were based on established and popular summons from across the Final Fantasy series, with Ifrit given a prominent role to contrast his earlier portrayal as a summon for beginners. Rather than using CGI, the story was told using real-time cinematics and in-game dialogue. The cinematics were handled by veteran series CGI director Takeshi Nozue. Masayoshi Soken served as
3234-637: A second large-scale project. Takai, who had also worked with Yoshida on Final Fantasy XIV , was picked as main director for his experience on the series, his popularity among the development team and his experience on visual effects . Full production on Final Fantasy XVI began in 2016 following Patch 3.4 of Heavensward , when Takai and Maehiro had found replacement staff for the next expansion Stormblood . The team received development support from Tai Yasue's Kingdom Hearts team in Square Enix Creative Business Unit I , and
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#17327796611473388-408: A sentence need not be stated and pronouns may be omitted if they can be inferred from context. In the example above, hana ga nagai would mean "[their] noses are long", while nagai by itself would mean "[they] are long." A single verb can be a complete sentence: Yatta! ( やった! ) "[I / we / they / etc] did [it]!". In addition, since adjectives can form the predicate in a Japanese sentence (below),
3542-428: A single adjective can be a complete sentence: Urayamashii! ( 羨ましい! ) "[I'm] jealous [about it]!". While the language has some words that are typically translated as pronouns, these are not used as frequently as pronouns in some Indo-European languages, and function differently. In some cases, Japanese relies on special verb forms and auxiliary verbs to indicate the direction of benefit of an action: "down" to indicate
3696-540: A slow start filled with worldbuilding and unfamiliar terminology. Iain Harris of GamesRadar+ described the setting as a throwback to early series games and noted its environmental themes, but noted some poor dialogue. Eric Van Allen, writing for Destructoid , noted the story's ambition but felt some of its themes were poorly resolved. Eurogamer ' s Edwin Evans-Thirlwell praised Clive's storyline and
3850-452: A standard edition and a "Complete Edition" with both DLC expansions. A demo covering the game's opening section was released alongside the port's official announcement in August. The port was produced by the same team as the main game, with new expanded graphics and performance options included to account for different PC setups. Takai later commented that the port's release was delayed both by
4004-514: A statement requesting those who had early copies not to spoil the game. After release, the game was patched with additional camera, control, and graphical options, and some graphical issues were corrected. In September 2023, Yoshida confirmed that two paid DLC episodes were in development, as well as officially confirming ongoing production of a PC version. Alongside this, a further update was released featuring new costume appearances for Clive, Jill, and Torgal. The first major DLC episode, Echoes of
4158-404: A team at PlatinumGames led by Takahisa Taura. When creating both the world design and story, the team took criticism from Final Fantasy XV (2016) into account, specifically its open world design and story delivery problems. Takai's main goal for the game was an action-based combat that was easy to use, and a mature dark fantasy narrative that would tackle difficult themes. Yoshida wanted
4312-399: A trained singer and actor that would change depending on Clive's position in the story. The songs proved difficult as they needed localizing in several languages and recording a cappella , which resulted in issues with the pitch and tempo. A problematic track to include was the recurring "Chocobo" theme, which had an established light tone at odds with the setting. Rather than a full track, it
4466-610: A typical chocobo design, reused colors from the Amano artwork. Due to his workload at the time, he had no memory of his chocobo design. Across the series, chocobos are portrayed as galliform birds , often with yellow feathers but also coming in other colors such as black. Their primary role, particularly in earlier titles, was acting as transportation for the party across the world map. From Final Fantasy VII onwards, Chocobos have appeared in more substantial roles within racing minigames, and as summoned monsters. Other pieces of media within
4620-486: A wider market than the "sleek" designs of Chocobos from the main series. His early attempts to make a more monster-like version did not work due to the planned tone, which focused on a light-hearted story. He also created versions of Chocobo that had him wearing Final Fantasy job outfits . Recurring artist Yoshitaka Amano created a concept for the Chocobo summon from Final Fantasy III , though this design differed markedly from its usual appearance. The in-game sprite, while
4774-624: Is compressed rather than protruded , or simply unrounded. Some Japanese consonants have several allophones , which may give the impression of a larger inventory of sounds. However, some of these allophones have since become phonemic. For example, in the Japanese language up to and including the first half of the 20th century, the phonemic sequence /ti/ was palatalized and realized phonetically as [tɕi] , approximately chi ( listen ) ; however, now [ti] and [tɕi] are distinct, as evidenced by words like tī [tiː] "Western-style tea" and chii [tɕii] "social status". The "r" of
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4928-572: Is Clive Rosfield, firstborn son of Rosaria's ruling family who is passed over as successor when his younger brother Joshua becomes the Dominant of Phoenix; Clive can acquire and wield the power of multiple Eikons. A future companion of Clive's is his childhood friend Jill Warrick, the eventual Dominant of Shiva who spends much of her life as a political hostage. During his travels Clive is joined by his hound, Torgal; and Cidolfus Telamon, Dominant of Ramuh who provides shelter for Bearers and Dominants, and
5082-755: Is a 2023 action role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix . The sixteenth main installment in the Final Fantasy series, it was released for the PlayStation 5 in June 2023, with a Windows version released in September 2024. The game features segmented open environments and an action-based combat system involving melee and magic-based attacks. There are recurring series features including Chocobos for area travel, and summoned monsters called Eikons, which are both fought as bosses and used through channelling their power in combat. Final Fantasy XVI
5236-486: Is a stage adaptation of the game by the Takarazuka Revue 's Cosmos Troupe, set to premier in 2024. The game was a timed exclusive for PS5 for six months following its release. While a Windows version was rumored based on that, Yoshida denied knowledge of such a port. He later confirmed a Windows version was planned, but would not appear quickly. The Windows version released on September 17, 2024. It came in
5390-448: Is also seen in o-medetō "congratulations", from medetaku ). Late Middle Japanese has the first loanwords from European languages – now-common words borrowed into Japanese in this period include pan ("bread") and tabako ("tobacco", now "cigarette"), both from Portuguese . Modern Japanese is considered to begin with the Edo period (which spanned from 1603 to 1867). Since Old Japanese,
5544-527: Is also used in a limited fashion (such as for imported acronyms) in Japanese writing. The numeral system uses mostly Arabic numerals , but also traditional Chinese numerals . Proto-Japonic , the common ancestor of the Japanese and Ryukyuan languages , is thought to have been brought to Japan by settlers coming from the Korean peninsula sometime in the early- to mid-4th century BC (the Yayoi period ), replacing
5698-643: Is an agglutinative , mora -timed language with relatively simple phonotactics , a pure vowel system, phonemic vowel and consonant length, and a lexically significant pitch-accent . Word order is normally subject–object–verb with particles marking the grammatical function of words, and sentence structure is topic–comment . Sentence-final particles are used to add emotional or emphatic impact, or form questions. Nouns have no grammatical number or gender , and there are no articles . Verbs are conjugated , primarily for tense and voice , but not person . Japanese adjectives are also conjugated. Japanese has
5852-496: Is an incarnation of a recurring Final Fantasy character . Other prominent characters include Barnabas Tharmr, king of Waloed and Dominant of Odin; Benedikta Harman, a Waloed spy and Dominant of Garuda; Hugo Kupka, key political figure in the Dhalmekian Republic and Dominant of Titan; and Dion Lesage , crown prince of Sanbreque and Dominant of Bahamut. In his teenage years, Clive serves as Joshua's bodyguard, being
6006-440: Is appropriate to use sensei ( 先生 , "teacher"), but inappropriate to use anata . This is because anata is used to refer to people of equal or lower status, and one's teacher has higher status. Japanese nouns have no grammatical number, gender or article aspect. The noun hon ( 本 ) may refer to a single book or several books; hito ( 人 ) can mean "person" or "people", and ki ( 木 ) can be "tree" or "trees". Where number
6160-701: Is associated with comedy (see Kansai dialect ). Dialects of Tōhoku and North Kantō are associated with typical farmers. The Ryūkyūan languages, spoken in Okinawa and the Amami Islands (administratively part of Kagoshima ), are distinct enough to be considered a separate branch of the Japonic family; not only is each language unintelligible to Japanese speakers, but most are unintelligible to those who speak other Ryūkyūan languages. However, in contrast to linguists, many ordinary Japanese people tend to consider
6314-466: Is better documentation of Late Middle Japanese phonology than for previous forms (for instance, the Arte da Lingoa de Iapam ). Among other sound changes, the sequence /au/ merges to /ɔː/ , in contrast with /oː/ ; /p/ is reintroduced from Chinese; and /we/ merges with /je/ . Some forms rather more familiar to Modern Japanese speakers begin to appear – the continuative ending - te begins to reduce onto
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6468-509: Is correlated with the sex of the speaker and the social situation in which they are spoken: men and women alike in a formal situation generally refer to themselves as watashi ( 私 , literally "private") or watakushi (also 私 , hyper-polite form), while men in rougher or intimate conversation are much more likely to use the word ore ( 俺 "oneself", "myself") or boku . Similarly, different words such as anata , kimi , and omae ( お前 , more formally 御前 "the one before me") may refer to
6622-417: Is important, it can be indicated by providing a quantity (often with a counter word ) or (rarely) by adding a suffix, or sometimes by duplication (e.g. 人人 , hitobito , usually written with an iteration mark as 人々 ). Words for people are usually understood as singular. Thus Tanaka-san usually means Mx Tanaka . Words that refer to people and animals can be made to indicate a group of individuals through
6776-556: Is known of the language's prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from the 3rd century AD recorded a few Japanese words, but substantial Old Japanese texts did not appear until the 8th century. From the Heian period (794–1185), extensive waves of Sino-Japanese vocabulary entered the language, affecting the phonology of Early Middle Japanese . Late Middle Japanese (1185–1600) saw extensive grammatical changes and
6930-755: Is less common. In terms of mutual intelligibility , a survey in 1967 found that the four most unintelligible dialects (excluding Ryūkyūan languages and Tōhoku dialects ) to students from Greater Tokyo were the Kiso dialect (in the deep mountains of Nagano Prefecture ), the Himi dialect (in Toyama Prefecture ), the Kagoshima dialect and the Maniwa dialect (in Okayama Prefecture ). The survey
7084-420: Is often called a topic-prominent language , which means it has a strong tendency to indicate the topic separately from the subject, and that the two do not always coincide. The sentence Zō wa hana ga nagai ( 象は鼻が長い ) literally means, "As for elephant(s), (the) nose(s) (is/are) long". The topic is zō "elephant", and the subject is hana "nose". Japanese grammar tends toward brevity; the subject or object of
7238-498: Is preserved in words such as matsuge ("eyelash", lit. "hair of the eye"); modern mieru ("to be visible") and kikoeru ("to be audible") retain a mediopassive suffix - yu(ru) ( kikoyu → kikoyuru (the attributive form, which slowly replaced the plain form starting in the late Heian period) → kikoeru (all verbs with the shimo-nidan conjugation pattern underwent this same shift in Early Modern Japanese )); and
7392-411: Is set in the twin continents of Valisthea, currently divided between six nations who hold power through access to magical Crystals and Dominants, humans who act as hosts for each nation's Eikon. Tensions between the nations escalate as a magical drought dubbed the Blight begins consuming the land. Clive Rosfield, guardian to his younger brother Joshua, witnesses his kingdom destroyed and becomes involved in
7546-402: Is the version of Japanese discussed in this article. Formerly, standard Japanese in writing ( 文語 , bungo , "literary language") was different from colloquial language ( 口語 , kōgo ) . The two systems have different rules of grammar and some variance in vocabulary. Bungo was the main method of writing Japanese until about 1900; since then kōgo gradually extended its influence and
7700-471: Is used for the present and the future. For verbs that represent an ongoing process, the -te iru form indicates a continuous (or progressive) aspect , similar to the suffix ing in English. For others that represent a change of state, the -te iru form indicates a perfect aspect. For example, kite iru means "They have come (and are still here)", but tabete iru means "They are eating". Questions (both with an interrogative pronoun and yes/no questions) have
7854-405: Is why some linguists do not classify Japanese "pronouns" as pronouns, but rather as referential nouns, much like Spanish usted (contracted from vuestra merced , "your ( majestic plural ) grace") or Portuguese você (from vossa mercê ). Japanese personal pronouns are generally used only in situations requiring special emphasis as to who is doing what to whom. The choice of words used as pronouns
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#17327796611478008-569: The Chocobo spin-off series. The chocobo was created by designer and artist Koichi Ishii , inspired by childhood memories of raising a chick to adulthood. In Final Fantasy III it was going to be part of a trio of mascot characters alongside the Moogle , but the third planned mascot was scrapped. The chocobo has gone through multiple redesigns for each entry, with a notable contributing artist being Toshiyuki Itahana. In addition to Final Fantasy ,
8162-476: The Heavensward scenario, only starting full work in 2016. The initial narrative drew inspiration from the early seasons of Game of Thrones , with other inspirations including classic and contemporary anime being used to prevent there being too many similarities. Maehiro created the initial script, which was checked and completed by Michael-Christopher Koji Fox. The game's dialogue was written before any of
8316-569: The Ivalice universe. The producer, Naoki Yoshida , worked on Final Fantasy XIV as both producer and director. The main director is Hiroshi Takai, known for his work on the SaGa series and The Last Remnant . Kazutoyo Maehiro acts as creative director and lead writer. The lead gameplay designer was Ayako Yokoyama. Yusuke Hashimoto, a former design engineer for Level-5 , was lead system programmer. Hiroshi Minagawa acts as art director, while
8470-517: The Japonic language family, which also includes the Ryukyuan languages spoken in the Ryukyu Islands . As these closely related languages are commonly treated as dialects of the same language, Japanese is sometimes called a language isolate . According to Martine Irma Robbeets , Japanese has been subject to more attempts to show its relation to other languages than any other language in
8624-514: The Philippines , and various Pacific islands, locals in those countries learned Japanese as the language of the empire. As a result, many elderly people in these countries can still speak Japanese. Japanese emigrant communities (the largest of which are to be found in Brazil , with 1.4 million to 1.5 million Japanese immigrants and descendants, according to Brazilian IBGE data, more than
8778-738: The United States (notably in Hawaii , where 16.7% of the population has Japanese ancestry, and California ), and the Philippines (particularly in Davao Region and the Province of Laguna ). Japanese has no official status in Japan, but is the de facto national language of the country. There is a form of the language considered standard : hyōjungo ( 標準語 ) , meaning "standard Japanese", or kyōtsūgo ( 共通語 ) , "common language", or even "Tokyo dialect" at times. The meanings of
8932-806: The de facto standard Japanese had been the Kansai dialect , especially that of Kyoto . However, during the Edo period, Edo (now Tokyo) developed into the largest city in Japan, and the Edo-area dialect became standard Japanese. Since the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853, the flow of loanwords from European languages has increased significantly. The period since 1945 has seen many words borrowed from other languages—such as German, Portuguese and English. Many English loan words especially relate to technology—for example, pasokon (short for "personal computer"), intānetto ("internet"), and kamera ("camera"). Due to
9086-527: The 1.2 million of the United States ) sometimes employ Japanese as their primary language. Approximately 12% of Hawaii residents speak Japanese, with an estimated 12.6% of the population of Japanese ancestry in 2008. Japanese emigrants can also be found in Peru , Argentina , Australia (especially in the eastern states), Canada (especially in Vancouver , where 1.4% of the population has Japanese ancestry),
9240-482: The Chocobo character. Boco was referenced through a Chocobo character within Final Fantasy IX , which featured multiple callbacks to earlier Final Fantasy titles. Another notable Chocobo character is Chocolina from Final Fantasy XIII and its sequels XIII-2 and Lightning Returns . Originally a chocobo chick bought as a pet by character Sazh Katzroy , she is granted the ability to take human shape by
9394-613: The Eikons and related gameplay and story scenes, was ready that March. Due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine the previous month, the team decided to hold off releasing the trailer due to the game's portrayal of warring nations. Yoshida recorded a message to preface the trailer to separate it from world events. A third trailer, featuring more gameplay content and the release date, was published in December at The Game Awards 2022 . The game
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#17327796611479548-516: The Fallen , was released on December 7 and followed Clive's exploration of an ancient tower. The second, The Rising Tide , was released on April 18, 2024, and features the lost Eikon Leviathan. A simultaneous patch offered further control and graphical options, and a new combat challenge. The DLC was directed by Takeo Kujiraoka, who had previously worked on Final Fantasy XIII and the Dissidia subseries. While originally less focused on narrative,
9702-795: The Goddess Etro, and takes on the role of a merchant and quest giver. The chick was originally going to play a role in combat in Final Fantasy XIII , but this was scrapped. The Eidolon Odin, who serves Final Fantasy XIII protagonist Lightning , is put in the form of a chocobo during the events of Lightning Returns , with Lightning able to ride him in one of the game's areas. The developers did this to allow players to see Lightning's emotional connection with Odin. Both Boco and Chocolina were featured, alongside other chocobo-related characters, in World of Final Fantasy . Chocobos also feature in
9856-486: The Japanese language is of particular interest, ranging between an apical central tap and a lateral approximant . The "g" is also notable; unless it starts a sentence, it may be pronounced [ ŋ ] , in the Kanto prestige dialect and in other eastern dialects. The phonotactics of Japanese are relatively simple. The syllable structure is (C)(G)V(C), that is, a core vowel surrounded by an optional onset consonant,
10010-638: The Kingdom of Waloed which dominates the Ash continent, and the neutral Crystalline Dominion sitting between Ash and Storm. An outlier is the Iron Kingdom, an isolated nation off the coast of Storm overseen by the Crystalline Orthodox. In the backstory an ancient people, humanity's ancestors the Fallen, once dominated Valisthea before a cataclysm destroyed their civilization, leaving ruins across
10164-593: The Mothercrystals, which provide aether energy to the various populations and drive civilization with shards mined for commercial use. There are also humans that can use magic without crystals known as Bearers who are subject to prejudice and slavery, their overuse causing them to gradually petrify. A powerful force in Valisthea are the Eikons, magical creatures of incredible power that are utilized by hosts called Dominants. There are eight Eikons, one for each of
10318-736: The Old Japanese sections are written in Man'yōgana , which uses kanji for their phonetic as well as semantic values. Based on the Man'yōgana system, Old Japanese can be reconstructed as having 88 distinct morae . Texts written with Man'yōgana use two different sets of kanji for each of the morae now pronounced き (ki), ひ (hi), み (mi), け (ke), へ (he), め (me), こ (ko), そ (so), と (to), の (no), も (mo), よ (yo) and ろ (ro). (The Kojiki has 88, but all later texts have 87. The distinction between mo 1 and mo 2 apparently
10472-561: The Phoenix, with Clive swearing revenge. Anabella, who despises Clive's lack of blessing and betrayed Rosaria to preserve her bloodline, has him enslaved to Sanbreque's army. Thirteen years later, Clive is sent behind enemy lines during a fight between the Dhalmekian Republic and the Iron Kingdom to assassinate the latter's Dominant, revealed to be an enslaved Jill. He deserts to free her, and the two are rescued by Cid, who agrees to help Clive search for Ifrit's Dominant. Tracking word of an unknown Dominant, they fight Benedikta, from whom Clive takes
10626-488: The Ryūkyūan languages as dialects of Japanese. The imperial court also seems to have spoken an unusual variant of the Japanese of the time, most likely the spoken form of Classical Japanese , a writing style that was prevalent during the Heian period , but began to decline during the late Meiji period . The Ryūkyūan languages are classified by UNESCO as 'endangered', as young people mostly use Japanese and cannot understand
10780-478: The United States, the game was the second best-selling title behind Diablo IV . During its first week, Final Fantasy XVI sold over three million units. Reports and statements from Square Enix noted that despite strong sales the game did not meet the company's higher expectations, with this and other factors contributing to the company's share value falling. President Takashi Kiryu blamed slow adoption of
10934-543: The addition of a collective suffix (a noun suffix that indicates a group), such as -tachi , but this is not a true plural: the meaning is closer to the English phrase "and company". A group described as Tanaka-san-tachi may include people not named Tanaka. Some Japanese nouns are effectively plural, such as hitobito "people" and wareware "we/us", while the word tomodachi "friend" is considered singular, although plural in form. Verbs are conjugated to show tenses, of which there are two: past and present (or non-past) which
11088-416: The archetypes of princes of darkness and light respectively. Crystals, a recurring feature in the series, were portrayed as an analogy to depleted fossil fuels , while Dominants and Eikons acted as analogies for weapons of mass destruction. A recurring marketing tagline, "The legacy of the crystals has shaped our history for long enough", was meant to symbolise both a break from the science fiction style and
11242-400: The bird-like Chocobo and monster types, appear in the game. Following a story-driven prologue section, Clive is able to travel to different parts of Valisthea. The world is split between enclosed dungeon environments, town environments, and wider open fields, all selected from a map via a fast travel menu. Travel within open zones is done either on foot or via Chocobo. Clive's home base is
11396-428: The cast enjoyable, and IGN ' s Mitchell Saltzman was highly positive about the story and characters, and lauded the lead performances. Game Informer 's Wesley LeBlanc enjoyed the wider narrative, and Edge noted the grand scope of the narrative despite it being at odds with the game structure. Jordan Middler, writing for Video Games Chronicle , found the story well told and its cast likeable after
11550-411: The character has made cameo appearances in other video games. The chocobo has remained an icon of the series, recognised and noted by journalists and fans. The chocobo was created by Koichi Ishii , an artist and game designer who worked on the original Final Fantasy (1987) and Final Fantasy II (1988). The origins of chocobos came from Ishii's childhood. When he was at elementary school, he bought
11704-591: The characters are designed by Kazuya Takahashi. The logo, portraying the Eikons Phoenix and Ifrit in battle and tying into the game's themes and story, is designed by long-time illustrator Yoshitaka Amano . Concept work for the game began in 2015 after Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda approached Yoshida to develop the next mainline Final Fantasy . Yoshida, who was finishing up production on the Final Fantasy XIV expansion Heavensward , understood
11858-457: The characters memorable, but praised the overall lore. A point raised by some critics was a perceived lack of ethnic diversity and representation . Higham praised the graphics and cinematics as adding to the overall story and design, and both Edge and Wilkerson lauded the detail and variety of the game's graphics. Middler lauded the overall visual design, but noted some stilted animation for side characters in some cutscenes. Talking about
12012-412: The chocobo as a non-vocal character, communicating through its movements and thus being true to its feelings. Going forward, the chocobo sported a distinctive "Kweh" call. A recurring element in games featuring the chocobo is a titular musical theme, created for Final Fantasy II by Nobuo Uematsu and remixed or redone in subsequent entries. For the remixes he chose, Uematsu always selected a genre which had
12166-463: The chocobo in its intended companion role in the debut Mana title Final Fantasy Adventure (1991), which was the first project where he had creative control. He considered that version to be the original Chocobo, which appeared in other properties around that game. He was originally going to make the chocobo one of a trio of mascot characters alongside the Moogle and a third animal creation that ended up being scrapped. Ishii originally envisioned
12320-420: The choice as Creative Business Unit I had begun work on Final Fantasy VII Remake , but he needed to balance his work between Final Fantasy XIV and XVI . To lay the groundwork, Yoshida assembled a small planning team made up of himself, Maehiro and designer Mitsutoshi Gondai. Yoshida decided to become producer as his duties as both producer and director for Final Fantasy XIV were too time-consuming to take on
12474-463: The collaboration, as each was a fan of the other's work. Rumors emerged in late 2019 about Final Fantasy XVI due to reports that Creative Business Unit III had finished groundwork for a major new title. The game was officially announced in September 2020. The trailer used real-time footage instead of pre-rendered cutscenes to show the game was well into development and not too far from release. The second trailer, released in June 2022 and showcasing
12628-427: The concept of Eikons having prominence, Maehiro created the world map and based the nations around their local geography before creating the story around that setting. Yoshida always considered the game as Clive's story and the relationships he forms with different people through the warring nations. The story's central theme was the clashing of values. Clive and Dion were designed as aesthetic opposites, built around
12782-578: The effect of changing Japanese into a mora-timed language. Late Middle Japanese covers the years from 1185 to 1600, and is normally divided into two sections, roughly equivalent to the Kamakura period and the Muromachi period , respectively. The later forms of Late Middle Japanese are the first to be described by non-native sources, in this case the Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries; and thus there
12936-573: The elements – Phoenix (fire), Shiva (ice), Ramuh (thunder), Leviathan (water), Titan (earth), Garuda (wind), Odin (darkness), and Bahamut (light); a seemingly impossible second Eikon of fire, Ifrit, drives the main plot by disrupting this balance. The core nations of Valisthea are the Grand Duchy of Rosaria, the Holy Empire of Sanbreque, and the Dhalmekian Republic on the Storm continent,
13090-453: The ensuing fight, Ultima kills Dion and rips his fragment out of Joshua, mortally wounding him. Joshua sacrifices himself to give Clive his Eikon. After killing Ultima, Clive heals Joshua's wounds and destroys the final Mothercrystal within Origin to remove magic from Valisthea. A post-credits scene in Valisthea's future, where magic is considered a myth, shows a family living in peace and owning
13244-442: The exclusivity deal, and the fact that optimising for both PS5 and PC would have been an "impossible" workload for the team. Final Fantasy XVI received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic . According to OpenCritic , 92% of 163 critics recommend the game. Regarding the story, Michael Higham of GameSpot praised the writing for its handling of darker themes and found
13398-412: The final sequences. During the first half of development, an Eikon-based job system was intended for Clive, but it was dropped due to its restrictions on Clive's in-game appearance. Classic Final Fantasy jobs were used as a design inspiration for enemies and some NPCs. Yoshida brought Maehiro on board due to liking his writing style and world-building. While he accepted, Maehiro was also busy working on
13552-423: The first appearance of European loanwords . The basis of the standard dialect moved from the Kansai region to the Edo region (modern Tokyo ) in the Early Modern Japanese period (early 17th century–mid 19th century). Following the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853, the flow of loanwords from European languages increased significantly, and words from English roots have proliferated. Japanese
13706-420: The game design was finalised. The script was written first in Japanese, then translated into English for initial dialogue and cutscene recording. The traditional medieval setting and style was chosen due to the team liking that style from classic Final Fantasy games, along with shifting away from the science fiction elements of more recent entries that was felt to be making the series "static". Working from
13860-402: The game to cater to neither children or adults but rather something that will reach "players of all generations". He also wanted to separate the game from commonly associated stereotypes such as an anime -inspired art style and a story focusing on teenagers. It was initially developed as a PlayStation 5 exclusive, with a PlayStation 4 version being considered but abandoned so as not to limit
14014-434: The game was supported by a variety of downloadable content , including story-focused campaigns and smaller patches to include new features and in-game items. Final Fantasy XVI is an action role-playing game in which players take control of protagonist Clive Rosfield and a rotating party of AI-controlled companions through segmented open areas across the continents of Valisthea. Recurring Final Fantasy elements, such as
14168-503: The game's combat system, Yoshida conducted surveys within the Final Fantasy community, finding a division between fans of action-based and more traditional turn-based combat. After considering the potential impact on sales and modern gaming trends, he opted for a real-time action-based battle system. Yoshida admitted that this approach alongside other gameplay decisions risked polarizing series fans, but believed that trying to please every fan by incorporating every element possible would "run
14322-626: The game's version of recurring Final Fantasy summoned monsters . Clive can switch between different Eikon abilities during battle, stringing them together into different combo attacks. A core mechanic of combat is "Stagger", where the party deals specific types of damage which build up a stagger meter to stun an enemy for a short time and make them vulnerable to more attacks. During certain story sections, Clive has battles with Eikons that have dedicated mechanics. After defeating them, Clive gains access to powers and fighting techniques themed around them. The game starts out with two difficulty settings:
14476-609: The genitive particle ga remains in intentionally archaic speech. Early Middle Japanese is the Japanese of the Heian period , from 794 to 1185. It formed the basis for the literary standard of Classical Japanese , which remained in common use until the early 20th century. During this time, Japanese underwent numerous phonological developments, in many cases instigated by an influx of Chinese loanwords . These included phonemic length distinction for both consonants and vowels , palatal consonants (e.g. kya ) and labial consonant clusters (e.g. kwa ), and closed syllables . This had
14630-408: The growing conflict between Valisthea's nations and a secret power driving the war. Beginning concept development in 2015, the staff included Naoki Yoshida as producer, Hiroshi Takai as main director, artists Hiroshi Minagawa and Kazuya Takahashi, Kazutoyo Maehiro as creative director and lead writer, Masayoshi Soken as composer, and Capcom veteran Ryota Suzuki as battle designer. Yoshida's aim
14784-432: The in-universe isolation of Valisthea's lands. He admitted potential representation issues, but foresaw problems with both breaking player immersion in the setting, and problematic stereotypes being associated with protagonists or antagonists. The team ultimately decided to focus on the characters' personalities and narratives over their appearance. In a follow-up, he noted the game's world was inspired by cultures from around
14938-485: The land. By the game's events, Valisthea is suffering from a depletion of aether dubbed the Blight which withers all life, driving the nations into conflict with each other. Because of their ability to manifest Eikons, Dominants play a key role in the nations' politics and military. Depending on where they are born, Dominants are hailed as political leaders, tolerated due to their power, or suffer abuse and are either killed or used as weapons of war. The game's protagonist
15092-458: The languages of the original Jōmon inhabitants, including the ancestor of the modern Ainu language . Because writing had yet to be introduced from China, there is no direct evidence, and anything that can be discerned about this period must be based on internal reconstruction from Old Japanese , or comparison with the Ryukyuan languages and Japanese dialects . The Chinese writing system
15246-449: The languages. Okinawan Japanese is a variant of Standard Japanese influenced by the Ryūkyūan languages, and is the primary dialect spoken among young people in the Ryukyu Islands . Modern Japanese has become prevalent nationwide (including the Ryūkyū islands) due to education , mass media , and an increase in mobility within Japan, as well as economic integration. Japanese is a member of
15400-427: The large quantity of English loanwords, modern Japanese has developed a distinction between [tɕi] and [ti] , and [dʑi] and [di] , with the latter in each pair only found in loanwords. Although Japanese is spoken almost exclusively in Japan, it has also been spoken outside of the country. Before and during World War II , through Japanese annexation of Taiwan and Korea , as well as partial occupation of China ,
15554-476: The lead composer for the game, with additional compositions by Takafumi Imamura, Daiki Ishikawa, Saya Yasaki, and Justin Frieden, who also arranged many of Soken's compositions alongside Yoshitaka Suzuki, Ryo Furukawa, TomoLow, and Keiko. Soken had worked with Yoshida and Takai on Final Fantasy XIV , and was brought on board due to his familiarity with Yoshida, Takai and Maehiro's world design style. He described
15708-441: The music as having a singular direction inspired by the overall dark fantasy setting, contrasting it against the variety and lighter tunes for XIV . Initially asked to provide 140, the game's final total was over 200 songs, including variations on established character themes. He attributed the large number of songs to the wide variety of characters and situations, wanting to avoid repeating the same music too often. Having worked for
15862-417: The narrative's examination of series themes, though noted a tone of "wanton backstabbing and ambient misogyny" among the supporting cast. Similarly, Zach Wilkerson of RPGFan found the female characters underdeveloped, though praised the narrative and the cast overall. Giovanni Colantonio of Digital Trends found the story lacking after shifting away from Clive's revenge quest, additionally finding few of
16016-609: The only country where it is the national language , and within the Japanese diaspora worldwide. The Japonic family also includes the Ryukyuan languages and the variously classified Hachijō language . There have been many attempts to group the Japonic languages with other families such as the Ainu , Austronesian , Koreanic , and the now-discredited Altaic , but none of these proposals have gained any widespread acceptance. Little
16170-425: The only strict rule of word order is that the verb must be placed at the end of a sentence (possibly followed by sentence-end particles). This is because Japanese sentence elements are marked with particles that identify their grammatical functions. The basic sentence structure is topic–comment . For example, Kochira wa Tanaka-san desu ( こちらは田中さんです ). kochira ("this") is the topic of the sentence, indicated by
16324-410: The opening parts and combat system, but complained that the pacing slowed in later parts. Evans-Thirlwell noted the wide variety of special abilities and customization elements to complement the basic combat mechanics, while LeBlanc called the battle system "[his] favorite action combat system to date" despite pacing issues. Saltzman highlighted the focus on staggering enemies and prioritizing combos as
16478-470: The out-group gives a benefit to the in-group, and "up" to indicate the in-group gives a benefit to the out-group. Here, the in-group includes the speaker and the out-group does not, and their boundary depends on context. For example, oshiete moratta ( 教えてもらった ) (literally, "explaining got" with a benefit from the out-group to the in-group) means "[he/she/they] explained [it] to [me/us]". Similarly, oshiete ageta ( 教えてあげた ) (literally, "explaining gave" with
16632-415: The particle wa . The verb desu is a copula , commonly translated as "to be" or "it is" (though there are other verbs that can be translated as "to be"), though technically it holds no meaning and is used to give a sentence 'politeness'. As a phrase, Tanaka-san desu is the comment. This sentence literally translates to "As for this person, (it) is Mx Tanaka." Thus Japanese, like many other Asian languages,
16786-529: The power of her Eikon Garuda. A disturbed Benedikta is then attacked by bandits and transforms into a raging Garuda, which in turn triggers Clive to transform into Ifrit and kill her. While Clive briefly despairs at the fact that he is Ifrit and the one who killed Joshua, Cid encourages him to keep searching for the truth behind his transformation. After Clive and Jill see the full oppression inflicted on Bearers and their sympathizers in occupied Rosaria, they join Cid in
16940-511: The power of her Eikon Shiva, Clive manages to kill Barnabas and destroy Waloed's Mothercrystal. Joshua's research into Fallen ruins reveals that Ultima's people seeded Valisthea with the Mothercrystals to siphon aether for a resurrection spell after succumbing to an earlier Blight. The Fallen and their human descendants were created to breed a vessel powerful enough to cast the spell. Clive, Joshua, and Dion assault Ultima's sky fortress of Origin, where Ultima's fragments merge to complete their plan. In
17094-486: The process accidentally kills Sylvestre and is transformed into a raging Bahamut by Olivier, who is a vessel for Ultima. Clive destroys the Dominion's Mothercrystal and reunites with Joshua, helping him defeat Bahamut. Dion then kills Olivier, causing an unhinged Anabella to kill herself. Barnabas later confronts Clive and reveals Ultima's plan to shape Clive into "Mythos", a vessel for Ultima to inhabit. After Jill gives him
17248-481: The proposed larger Altaic family, or to various Southeast Asian languages , especially Austronesian . None of these proposals have gained wide acceptance (and the Altaic family itself is now considered controversial). As it stands, only the link to Ryukyuan has wide support. Other theories view the Japanese language as an early creole language formed through inputs from at least two distinct language groups, or as
17402-400: The risk of creating a half-baked compromise of a game". During the game's early production, the growing team had a system of designing gameplay tests and completely scrapping those that did not work, with Square Enix's upper management getting frustrated with the team's slow pace. The team decided against an open world, as it would have extended development time beyond a practical limit. Clive
17556-423: The same area players navigate, entering battle once the enemy sees the party. Clive is the only controllable character, with other characters being AI-controlled and having their own attack and magic abilities. Another common companion is the dog Torgal, who responds to Clive's commands to perform special attacks or heal. While in battle, Clive can use normal attacks, a dodge, and use elemental abilities from Eikons,
17710-399: The same number of syllables as "chocobo". Though Ishii never intended the chocobo to become a mascot, positive fan reception caused it to become a fixture in the series going forward. It underwent multiple redesigns based on the setting of each game, such as Final Fantasy XV (2016) where it was designed to appear realistic while still having exotic flourishes. They were initially left out of
17864-459: The same structure as affirmative sentences, but with intonation rising at the end. In the formal register, the question particle -ka is added. For example, ii desu ( いいです ) "It is OK" becomes ii desu-ka ( いいですか。 ) "Is it OK?". In a more informal tone sometimes the particle -no ( の ) is added instead to show a personal interest of the speaker: Dōshite konai-no? "Why aren't (you) coming?". Some simple queries are formed simply by mentioning
18018-602: The scale and spectacle of Eikon battles to setpieces from God of War III and Asura's Wrath . Recurring criticism was focused on the lack of mechanical depth, and uninteresting side quest design. Final Fantasy XVI was the best-selling retail game in Japan during its week of release, with just over 336,000 physical units being sold. In the United Kingdom, the game was the best-selling title during its first week, but had notably lower physical sales than Final Fantasy XV . During its first month on release in
18172-428: The series, including Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within , have featured chocobo imagery in some way. Several spin-off titles including Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy XIII-2 have included chocobos as playable or support characters. In Final Fantasy XI and XIV , chocobos were included in player-focused activities, featuring them as both pets and means of transport. A notable narrative use of Chocobos
18326-465: The site Anime News Network regarded the caring for chocobos as an appealing sidequest due to the benefits that come from it and thus wanted the remake to have it. Japanese language Japanese ( 日本語 , Nihongo , [ɲihoŋɡo] ) is the principal language of the Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people . It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan ,
18480-424: The source of the crystals. They discover the merchant Famiel is selling crystals taken from the Sagespire. Clive and his party fight an artificial Eikon dubbed Omega and destroy the tower's Mothercrystal. In The Rising Tide , Clive, Jill and Joshua travel to the land of Mysidia with Shula, current leader of the Motes of Water. They learn that the Dominant of Leviathan, a baby called Waljas who shares family with Shula,
18634-817: The state as at the time the constitution was written, many of the elders participating in the process had been educated in Japanese during the South Seas Mandate over the island shown by the 1958 census of the Trust Territory of the Pacific that found that 89% of Palauans born between 1914 and 1933 could speak and read Japanese, but as of the 2005 Palau census there were no residents of Angaur that spoke Japanese at home. Japanese dialects typically differ in terms of pitch accent , inflectional morphology , vocabulary , and particle usage. Some even differ in vowel and consonant inventories, although this
18788-481: The street. (grammatically incorrect insertion of a pronoun) But one can grammatically say essentially the same thing in Japanese: 驚いた彼は道を走っていった。 Transliteration: Odoroita kare wa michi o hashitte itta. (grammatically correct) This is partly because these words evolved from regular nouns, such as kimi "you" ( 君 "lord"), anata "you" ( あなた "that side, yonder"), and boku "I" ( 僕 "servant"). This
18942-427: The strongest part of the combat system. Wilkerson praised the customization available to expand the combat options for new and experienced action game players, but felt the difficulty too easy overall and noted a lack of enemy variety. Middler praised the action combat, positively noting its brisk pace and lack of unnecessary filler would allow players to speed through the campaign. Several reviewers positively compared
19096-409: The team decided to focus the expansion scenarios on exploring hidden or unexplained elements of Valisthea prior to the game's ending. The two scenarios, one revolving around the Fallen civilization and one around Leviathan, were hinted at in-game but left unexplained in case post-launch content was approved. A crossover event with Final Fantasy XIV ran from April 2 to May 8, 2024. Also in development
19250-491: The team's ambitions. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic , the staff needed to move to remote working, and production ended up half a year behind schedule due to communication issues with both Square Enix's head office and outsourcing companies. By late 2020, basic work on development and game scenarios was complete and work was continuing on "large scale" resources like boss battles and development tools. By April 2022, development
19404-494: The throne with Olivier, her son by Sanbreque's emperor Sylvestre. Hugo invades Rosaria to lure out "Cid", prompting Clive to mutilate Hugo in a fight and reveal himself as Benedikta's killer. Desperate for revenge, Hugo transforms into a raging Titan. Having gained full control of Ifrit, Clive kills Hugo and destroys the Dhalmekian Mothercrystal. Under Joshua's advice, Dion stages a coup against Anabella but in
19558-560: The topic with an interrogative intonation to call for the hearer's attention: Kore wa? "(What about) this?"; O-namae wa? ( お名前は？ ) "(What's your) name?". Negatives are formed by inflecting the verb. For example, Pan o taberu ( パンを食べる。 ) "I will eat bread" or "I eat bread" becomes Pan o tabenai ( パンを食べない。 ) "I will not eat bread" or "I do not eat bread". Plain negative forms are i -adjectives (see below) and inflect as such, e.g. Pan o tabenakatta ( パンを食べなかった。 ) "I did not eat bread". Final Fantasy XVI Final Fantasy XVI
19712-419: The two consonants are the moraic nasal followed by a homorganic consonant. Japanese also includes a pitch accent , which is not represented in moraic writing; for example [haꜜ.ɕi] ("chopsticks") and [ha.ɕiꜜ] ("bridge") are both spelled はし ( hashi ) , and are only differentiated by the tone contour. Japanese word order is classified as subject–object–verb . Unlike many Indo-European languages ,
19866-577: The two methods were both used in writing until the 1940s. Bungo still has some relevance for historians, literary scholars, and lawyers (many Japanese laws that survived World War II are still written in bungo , although there are ongoing efforts to modernize their language). Kōgo is the dominant method of both speaking and writing Japanese today, although bungo grammar and vocabulary are occasionally used in modern Japanese for effect. The 1982 state constitution of Angaur , Palau , names Japanese along with Palauan and English as an official language of
20020-480: The two terms (''hyōjungo'' and ''kyōtsūgo'') are almost the same. Hyōjungo or kyōtsūgo is a conception that forms the counterpart of dialect. This normative language was born after the Meiji Restoration ( 明治維新 , meiji ishin , 1868) from the language spoken in the higher-class areas of Tokyo (see Yamanote ). Hyōjungo is taught in schools and used on television and in official communications. It
20174-426: The variety of ability combinations possible later into the game. Colantonio was pleased by the scale and spectacle of Eikon fights and enjoyed the combat despite it being driven by the story; he hoped the series would continue refining these elements in future installments. Allen called the gameplay "flat out good", while Harris called it potentially divisive but still enjoyable due to its action focus. Edge enjoyed
20328-407: The verb (e.g. yonde for earlier yomite ), the -k- in the final mora of adjectives drops out ( shiroi for earlier shiroki ); and some forms exist where modern standard Japanese has retained the earlier form (e.g. hayaku > hayau > hayɔɔ , where modern Japanese just has hayaku , though the alternative form is preserved in the standard greeting o-hayō gozaimasu "good morning"; this ending
20482-501: The visual effects used in battles and Eikon setpieces, Harris felt they sometimes obscured the action for players. LeBlanc noted a lack of detail or variety in NPC designs and felt the visual effects got in the way of gameplay at times. Both Saltzman and Higham noted an unstable frame rate . Soken's score for the game met with high praise. Higham described Final Fantasy XVI as the series' most drastic gameplay shift to date, praising
20636-435: The world design of Final Fantasy XVI (2023), but staff protests prompted scenario writer Kazutoyo Maehiro to incorporate them. The most notable version features in the long-running Chocobo spin-off series, which share a protagonist in the form of a male Chocobo. This incarnation of Chocobo was designed by Toshiyuki Itahana, who created a more cute design that would fit into a roguelike game design while also appealing to
20790-407: The world, acknowledging that some might disagree with their approach. There was a similar response inspired by Yoshida's reluctance to classify the game under the "JRPG" moniker, as he was uncomfortable with negative associations historically attached to the term. Final Fantasy XVI was released worldwide on June 22, 2023. It was notably given high age ratings in major release regions. The game
20944-548: The world. Since Japanese first gained the consideration of linguists in the late 19th century, attempts have been made to show its genealogical relation to languages or language families such as Ainu , Korean , Chinese , Tibeto-Burman , Uralic , Altaic (or Ural-Altaic ), Austroasiatic , Austronesian and Dravidian . At the fringe, some linguists have even suggested a link to Indo-European languages , including Greek , or to Sumerian . Main modern theories try to link Japanese either to northern Asian languages, like Korean or
21098-552: Was a real-life replica of Clive's sword, created by blacksmith Tod Todeschini and exhibited at the Royal Armouries collection at the Tower of London from June 20 to July 19. The team wanted to deliver the game without the need for a software patch at launch, but ultimately the game received a patch to fix minor gameplay bugs and optimize performance. Copies of the game leaked a week prior to release, with Square Enix releasing
21252-501: Was announced in December 2022. Compared to other recent Final Fantasy titles, there was no plan for "tertiary content" such as downloadable content (DLC) and books, instead having the entire story told within the game. Some Western media outlets criticized the team's explanation for the game's lack of ethnic diversity. Speaking on the portrayal of ethnic diversity in the game's world, Yoshida stated that its relative lack of diversity fitted into both its Medieval European setting and
21406-539: Was based on 12- to 20-second-long recordings of 135 to 244 phonemes , which 42 students listened to and translated word-for-word. The listeners were all Keio University students who grew up in the Kanto region . There are some language islands in mountain villages or isolated islands such as Hachijō-jima island , whose dialects are descended from Eastern Old Japanese . Dialects of the Kansai region are spoken or known by many Japanese, and Osaka dialect in particular
21560-463: Was confirmed to have gone gold at the end of March 2023, and a demo covering the opening sequences and a later dungeon area was released on June 12. The localization was directed by Fox, with casting and recording handled by the UK branch of audio company Side. While the script was written in Japanese, in contrast to earlier entries it was translated and motion captured in English. Due to this, there
21714-472: Was creating a character that could not speak but would still be capable of creating an empathic connection with the player. The chocobo's design was inspired by the middle stage of his chick before it matured into a chicken. The name "Chocobo" was inspired by the Chocolate Ball, a popular confection in Japan created by Morinaga & Company . He created the first Chocobo designs in ten minutes during
21868-422: Was designed around the idea of turning the mechanics of Final Fantasy V into a real-time battle system. The Eikon battles all had unique mechanics that were not used again in-game. One of the earliest completed Eikon battles was with Garuda, with its foundation remaining mostly unchanged throughout production. There were no loading screens related to these setpiece battles, with gameplay and dialogue mixed into
22022-524: Was for a dark fantasy storyline that would have broad appeal and reinvigorate the series. Its production and promotion were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic , and later by the Russian invasion of Ukraine . The game was praised by critics for its story, graphics, music, and gameplay. Criticism focused on its lack of role-playing elements, technical issues and side quest design. The game sold over three million units during its first week after launch, but failed to meet Square Enix's expectations. After release,
22176-560: Was forced to awaken his powers and imprisoned with magic to shelter and enrich Mysidia. The party weaken the spell, which releases the raging Leviathan. Clive pacifies it, and Shula takes in Waljas to raise in her own. Final Fantasy XVI was developed by Creative Business Unit III, a development division within franchise developer and publisher Square Enix . The staff includes members from the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Final Fantasy XIV , and multiple veterans of
22330-735: Was imported to Japan from Baekje around the start of the fifth century, alongside Buddhism. The earliest texts were written in Classical Chinese , although some of these were likely intended to be read as Japanese using the kanbun method, and show influences of Japanese grammar such as Japanese word order. The earliest text, the Kojiki , dates to the early eighth century, and was written entirely in Chinese characters, which are used to represent, at different times, Chinese, kanbun , and Old Japanese. As in other texts from this period,
22484-456: Was in its final stages, with the team finalising side quests. It was fully playable from start to finish by June of that year, with development focusing both on polishing the game and voice recording for different languages. Initially planned as a two-disc release, the team managed to fit the game onto one disc to lower production costs and issues with mastering. Following release, the production team disbanded into other projects. When choosing
22638-480: Was in love with Benedikta, is manipulated by Barnabas's agents into seeking revenge against Cid for her death. Five years later, Clive, now using the title of "Cid" and carrying on Cid's mission, destroys the Iron Kingdom's Mothercrystal with Jill, who takes revenge on her enslavers. With Sanbreque having occupied the Crystalline Dominion for its Mothercrystal, Anabella schemes to replace Dion as heir to
22792-429: Was in the opening section of Final Fantasy Type-0 , where a chocobo was gunned down and their owner was unable to save it, setting the game's darker emotional tone. Some chocobos have acted as individual characters. The first was Boco, a chocobo from Final Fantasy V who accompanied the protagonist Bartz. Ishii was pleased with this interpretation, feeling that the developers of V had understood his intentions with
22946-473: Was included as a short jingle. Vocal lyrics were written by Fox at Soken's request, with one of the vocal pieces being the victory theme. To create a sense of otherness without using a made-up language, Fox translated his lyrics in Ancient Greek . The main theme song, "Tsuki Wo Miteita – Moongazing", is written and performed by Kenshi Yonezu . Both Yonezu and Yoshida expressed pleasure and enthusiasm at
23100-474: Was lost immediately following its composition.) This set of morae shrank to 67 in Early Middle Japanese , though some were added through Chinese influence. Man'yōgana also has a symbol for /je/ , which merges with /e/ before the end of the period. Several fossilizations of Old Japanese grammatical elements remain in the modern language – the genitive particle tsu (superseded by modern no )
23254-533: Was made the only controllable character, with other party members driven by AI to simplify the player's control needs, though commands were included to allow for limited control. Outside the Kingdom Hearts team, Square Enix had little experience designing action combat. Yoshida sought out Ryota Suzuki, a Capcom veteran who had worked on the Devil May Cry series, as battle designer. The combat
23408-472: Was no Japanese lip syncing, though the team unsuccessfully tried using an automated system to match the Japanese dub to the characters. Yoshida stayed away from the recording process both due to company policy and out of "respect" for the writers. All the English voice work was done by European actors, a non-standard approach to appeal to the North American market. The English and Japanese voice cast
23562-540: Was refused classification and consequently banned in Saudi Arabia due to Square Enix's refusal to alter the game's content to suit the country's guidelines, namely the portrayal of a relationship between two male characters. The game had digital and physical Deluxe and Collector's Editions available for sale through Square Enix's online store, featuring additional in-game items and accessories such as an art book and steel case with unique art. A notable cross-promotion
23716-547: Was voted by Joystiq as the 20th most desired character to be placed in the Final Fantasy fighting game Dissidia: Final Fantasy . In 2007, the Chocobo was listed by IGN as one of the most likely Square Enix characters that could appear in the Super Smash Bros. series, comparing them to the Slime from Dragon Quest and saying that "the Chocobo could be an excellent enemy for Yoshi". For Final Fantasy VII ,
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