An SSD is “a must” for Final Fantasy XVI on PC, says game director

In a nutshell: Using a solid-state drive is increasingly becoming a necessity for modern games. Those who’ve played Final Fantasy XVI on the PlayStation 5 won’t be surprised to learn that, according to director and producer Naoki Yoshida, an SSD is “a must” in the upcoming PC version.

In a translated interview with Famitsu alongside Hiroshi Takai and Takeo Kujiraoka, Yoshida told Final Fantasy fans getting ready for the latest entry to land on the PC that “I would like you to prepare an SSD.”

While Yoshida said details of the required PC specs would be released in due course, he did reveal that “Even if we did our best to adjust the GPU, in FF16 – a game where loading speed is critical – using the HDD would be a pain.”

“Of course, we will do our best to optimise as much as possible,” Yoshida added, “but we cannot overcome the hardware barrier alone, so please consider that an SSD is a must. We will announce the exact recommended specifications on another occasion.”

The epic story of Final Fantasy XVI moves ever onwards.

Echoes of the Fallen is out today and The Rising Tide launches in Spring 2024. Grab the expansion pass for a special discounted price. #FF16 pic.twitter.com/o1JN5Q91sQ

– FINAL FANTASY XVI (@finalfantasyxvi) December 8, 2023

The faster storage hardware in modern consoles has been part of the reason why many PC games either require or highly recommend an SSD these days.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Baldur’s Gate 3, Forza Motorsport, Starfield, and Cyberpunk 2077 (following the update) are just some of the games that require an SSD. Expect this to become the standard for most titles in the future; we already know that the upcoming Stalker 2 requires 150GB of free SSD space.

The exact PC specs will likely be unveiled when Square Enix announces the release date for the PC version of Final Fantasy XVI. Yoshida said his team was “carefully developing” the port, so here’s hoping it will be more like the Resident Evil 4 remake and less like Jedi Survivor at launch.

Thankfully, the prices of SSDs have dropped considerably in recent times, pushed even lower by an oversupply of DRAM and NAND in South Korea this year. Make sure to check out the Best Storage of 2023 feature to see our picks for the best desktop SSDs.

Final Fantasy XVI is quite a departure for the series, moving ever closer to God of War-style all-out action and further away from the RPG/party management elements of the earlier games. That hasn’t stopped it from being well-received by most critics and players – this writer enjoyed it – earning the game a Metacritic score of 87 and a user score of 8.1.