We finally got our first word on Final Fantasy 16's promised PC port since its initial announcement in September. Speaking with Famitsu (spotted via Genki_JPN on Twitter), FF16 developers Hiroshi Takai, Takeo Kujiraoka, and Naoki Yoshida (affectionately called Yoshi-P by fans) briefly touched on the PC version in a long interview about the game.
"Details will be announced in due course," Yoshida replied to a question about recommended PC specs for the game. "However, I would like you to prepare an SSD… In FF16, a game where loading speed is critical, an HDD would be difficult to use.
"Of course, we will do our best to optimize as much as possible, but we cannot overcome the hardware barrier alone, so please consider that an SSD is a must."
That makes plenty of sense: fast storage and the war on load times has been one of this console generation's genuine technological leaps, and fast, cheap, high capacity SSDs are everywhere now. I built my last PC with a 256 gig solid state boot drive and a 1TB Western Digital Blue hard disc for storage, and that practically sounds like something your old grandpa would get in a reverie about in today's bonanza of 2TB M.2 drives.
Really, it's just kind of nice to hear anything at all about FF16's PC port, which otherwise seems to have gotten lost in the mail. At this late date, Square Enix and Rockstar seem to be the only major third-party publishers left that insist on delaying their PC ports relative to the console release dates.
We've made no secret of our disappointment at these publishers' intransigence on Grand Theft Auto 6 and FF16's PC versions, while this frustrating practice soured Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's otherwise-stunning reveal for me.
Despite it all, I'm still excited to play the damn things eventually. One other interesting tidbit from the Famitsu interview is that Square Enix doesn't currently have plans to continue FF16's story after its two DLC packs. "The development team for FF16 has been disbanded, except for the DLC team," Yoshida stated. "We don't imagine that we'll create a sequel or spin-off to FF16."
That's not to say there won't be a Final Fantasy 17, of course—certain laws of nature must always be observed—we'll just be deprived of the FF16 equivalent to Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy 7.
Final Fantasy 16 isn't on PC yet, but you can get the full Clive experience in FF14 right now by wearing his clothes and riding his dog, via the new crossover event
Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail is having server queue issues months before it's even out, as Square Enix's online store crashes under the weight of pre-orders
