Random: Final Fantasy 16’s PS5 Performance Mod Looks Like Made Moogle Hedgehogs

As Final Fantasy fans well know, Moogles are a mainstay of the series (introduced in Final Fantasy III), and are as iconic as they are charming. According to some amusing anecdotes from the game’s developers, the little blighters made life difficult during the development of the upcoming Final Fantasy XVI.

one in New interview, XVI producer Naoki Yoshida, art director Hiroshi Minagawa, and localization director Michael-Christopher Koji Fox (three class acts we recently had the chance to speak with) sat down to discuss what players will be up to on launch day. What can you expect? The particular Moogle thing arose as a humorous conversation between Yoshida and Minigawa, and led to the technical tidbit:

“Perhaps the biggest challenge, at a fundamental level, was the mogul,” Yoshida said, explaining an aspect of the Minigawa XVI’s graphics. Minagawa agreed, confirming: “The biggest mogul problem arose when we were applying performance mode at the end of development. Performance mode changes the appearance of polygons quite a bit, and we particularly struggled with the mogul. Did…it just ended up with less fur. Looked like a hedgehog! We were like: ‘What…is that a moogle? Hmmm…'”

Sadly, we don’t have a picture of the monstrosity in question to share (that is Good King Moggle Mog from Final Fantasy XIV above), but eventually the problem was solved. Yoshida recalls being concerned about the smaller fluffballs fitting with XVI’s grittier, more grounded setting, and said: “Our assistant producer was like, ‘I don’t care, just put them in the game!’ In the end, we took his advice and put in a game but it was a lot more work than we expected.”

Are you glad that Square Enix made the extra effort to properly implement at least one moogle in Final Fantasy XVI? How badly do you want to see the hedgehog’s dream fuel, which we have to imagine was immediately destroyed or locked away in a safe place? Let us know how you feel in the comments section below.