Observations from the 16 panel

So I will preference this with spoilers of the lightest degree so

<Very vague spoilers>

I was watching the PAX panel yesterday and was impressed with the scale and size of the landmass they created but then noticed a lot of that shared similarity to dawntrail. I know they both use the same engine but it does in this instance sort of show a hand in hand developing from one benefiting the other. Even one of the boss fights in that floating rubble section reminded me of the heavensward section when you go to find Nidhogg. There is a lot of dense jungles and ruins which screams a lot of what dawntrial is going to be showing here so hey if you can make assets that scale well between both why not. Also for anyone playing FF7 rebirth.. I know that game is fully open compared to 16s zones etc but god damn does 16 environments look way more impressive then what rebirth showed off.

Also noticed the director was someone else who seems to be quite experienced making me wonder where the original 16 director has gone maybe back to 14 or onto a new project. Also interesting that they say ‘young blood’ but the guy is 42 lol like I feel very young in comparison lol.

Anyway bring on the panel later today :)

As you said, they're using the same engine and there is certainly evidence of features they made for 16 also being added to 14. For example, decisions they've made in recent years with improving the quest system were also in 16 and the "eating stuff" we've come to see a lot of lately in 14 seemed like it came out of the work on 16.

You will see most of the evidence of Dawntrail assets in Endwalker's patch content, actually. For example, expect that some of what you see in variant dungeons like Aloalo Island and Island Sanctuary will be part of the Dawntrail MSQ. Remember all the trees and plants in those? Remember all the green, plant-like enemies and reskins? Usually these are used both for patch content and the expansion they're working on, so they cleverly make the patch content incorporate a theme that will be part of the expansion. They've always done it.

I personally think that Rebirth is more impressive-looking than 16, but both have had a lot of work put into them to make them look realistic. It is just unfortunate that Unreal 5 came out and made an average person able to create those sorts of graphics and animations on their own.

As for their age, older people usually like to create a narrative that their age is young. But I am honest. I am in my 30s and I'm getting old! That doesn't mean that people in their 70s and 80s aren't often still going cycling, running and shopping. They do! But that doesn't mean they're young. :D