Chocobos might be the single most iconic element of the 35-year-old Final Fantasy franchise. Don’t worry, the cute bird-like critters will be in Final Fantasy XVI too — and you can mount them.
During my playthrough of the first three hours of the game, however, I noticed something unusual. In the Japanese version, the game characters refer to Chocobo as “uma,” the Japanese word for “horse.” This is a first for the series, and it struck me as a surprise. So, I asked the development team at Square Enix about it.
“Initially, neither I nor the director (Hiroshi) Takai were thinking about including Chocobo as steeds in the game,” says Kazutoyo Maehiro, Creative Director and Scenario Writer on FFXVI, adding, “When thinking about the story, the worldview, and a feeling of reality, a horse just looks better as a silhouette when straddled.”
“When you’re building a world based on European medieval gothic fantasy, horses are obviously much better documented,” adds Producer Naoki Yoshida.
“In reality, horses are animals that can build strong partnerships with humans,” continues Yoshida. “We share a long history with them. Weapons involving horses also appear more realistic. Especially with the improvement in graphics being so remarkable, there is a chance that it becomes difficult to lie or deceive viewers, in a good way, and as a result, may impair the sense of immersion. Chocobos are based on birds, which first of all means they don’t stand on four legs, and that makes them more difficult to mount. When compared with a horse it might not feel as stable to ride a chocobo, and their wings aren’t big and strong enough to take you to the sky, either.”
Based on Yoshida’s explanation, it’s easy to see why Maehiro and Takai thought horses, and not Chocobos, would be the more obvious pick for Final Fantasy XVI’s beasts of burden. However, while acknowledging the issues a Chocobo might present, Yoshida nonetheless instructed the team to include Chocobo in the game, no matter what. After all, what would a Final Fantasy game be without them?
“If you’re going to be faithful to Final Fantasy elements, then yes, chocobos should be picked over horses,” Maehiro agrees.
Chocobo weren’t simply included for the sake of it, but Maehiro made sure that they had a long history within Valisthea in which they had formed partnerships with its people. According to Maehiro, the goal was to create something that is culturally familiar.
“However, in Japanese we sometimes refer to a car as ‘legs’, or not having a car as ‘having no legs’; and in the same way, the people of Valisthea refer to chocobos as ‘horses’. Which means that there might be actual horses somewhere in the world of FFXVI… But at least in Valisthea, Chocobos function as the equivalent of horses.”
While Final Fantasy XVI itself is set in the land of Valisthea, based on Maehiro’s explanation, the game’s world might exist beyond it. Eikon summon Odin aside, it seems that somewhere out there, real horses may exist. It will be interesting to see whether the full game’s story or lore reveal anything about faraway lands with horses.
It should also be noted that for the English translation, Localization Director Michael-Christopher Koji Fox decided not to refer to chocobos as horses.
“I remember seeing it in the script and remarking, ‘You’re saying ‘horse’ here. You’re sure that’s OK?’ But Maehiro said, ‘Yes, this is what we wanted to do.’ In English, we never really wanted to use the word horse, because chocobos and horses are entirely different. It just sounded weird to us in that sense. But we do use words like ‘steed’, and I think ‘courser’ as well,” says Fox. (“Courser” is a medieval word for a warhorse.)
For more on Final Fantasy XVI, check out how the development team were inspired by FromSoftware and Dragon Quest V, and why they chose not to implement mini-games.
Esra Krabbe is an editor at IGN Japan. He thinks Chocobos make the world of Final Fantasy XVI all the brighter.
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