Square Enix U-turns on Final Fantasy 16 day one patch

Square Enix has confirmed it will release a day one patch for Final Fantasy 16, despite previously stating it would not need to do so.

Confirmed during a pre-release live steam on Saturday, the game’s development team said the update would fix progression and crash issues, as well as making performance improvements in different parts of the game.

Producer Naoki Yoshida added during the stream that the framerate improvements are mostly related to scenes in which a lot of characters are on screen simultaneously, such as city segments.

The development team has also listened to feedback regarding motion blur and will add the ability to turn it off in a future update, Yoshida said, as well as the ability to adjust camera movement.

Here is the message in English from Koji Fox.

He says it is a minor issue fix and it is not needed to play the game. You can play the game without the Day-One patch. pic.twitter.com/1yLDedvHTG

— Genki✨ (@Genki_JPN) June 17, 2023

Final Fantasy 16 will be released on PlayStation 5 on June 22.  A playable demo for the game was released on the PlayStation Store earlier this week.

Ahead of the official release date, physical copies of Final Fantasy 16 reportedly made their way into public hands this week, according to several social media users who’ve begun posting images and details of the game.

This has led to Square Enix publishing a spoiler warning on its social media channels and asking all users who manage to get the game early not to share media or story details.

In a Final Fantasy 16 preview published last month, we said the game has the potential to be one of the best titles in the series.

“Final Fantasy 16 has the potential to stake a claim as a defining RPG of the early generation,” we wrote. “With production values that are off the charts and music that will knock you off your feet, the game left an incredibly strong impression.”