Contrary to a previous statement made by the Final Fantasy 16 development team, there will be a Day One patch for the RPG. However, the patch itself seems to be smaller than other AAA games and recent releases. Earlier in May, director Hiroshi Takai confirmed that Final Fantasy 16 was intended to have no day one patch at launch, with the team confident in the game's release build. Moreover, both the director and producer of the game recognized that not everyone might have access to Internet, with big day one patches requiring players to download a lot of data. According to the developers, this day one patch will be a minor one.
This was confirmed in a special pre-launch stream for Final Fantasy 16. The stream had the developers playing through the game, demonstrating its active lore system, showing off some of the cutscenes, and walking around the town as Clive. The developers also went over various aspects outside the game, including the reception towards the demo. Near the end of the stream, the team revealed there will be a day one patch after all, while going over its contents.
Final Fantasy 16 producer Naoki Yoshida noted this update would be available for those who purchase a physical copy of the game, while digital owners should expect it to be a part of the pre-load period or at least be downloaded and ready before launch. It's stated that this patch would be minor, and it wouldn't technically be required to play the game. Regardless, the stream did go over the contents of this patch, though it might be bigger when the game launches.
Final Fantasy 16 Day One Update Patch Notes
- Fix a control flag issue that can make progress impossible under very specific circumstances.
- Fix an issue wherein the game close unexpectedly under very specific circumstances.
- Optimize performance in several places
- Fix some minor text errors
The team and Yoshida apologized to the fans for previously stating that there wouldn't be a day one patch, but assured fans that it's not required and is done as a rapid fix. He promised that those who don't have an Internet connection to download this or won't get it in time will still be able to play the base game. He also stated that the update will come before the day one release, where fans who already downloaded the digital version of Final Fantasy 16 will be able to download it automatically.
Based on the patch notes, the update is rather minor in the grand scheme of things, where certain conditions would cause the game to crash unexpectedly or progress impossible. It's possible these triggers won't be encountered unless the player does something very specific, based on the confidence of the team. The other fixes are for optimization and text purposes as well, so it's likely Final Fantasy 16 players wouldn't notice unless it was a glaring issue.
Final Fantasy 16 launches June 22 for PS5.
Source: mp1st