Interesting story parallel [Arcadion & FF16 spoilers]

When I played through Arcadion and learned the dirty secret of the sport, it reminded me of something similar from Final Fantasy XVI, a game which Yoshi-P also directed.

Specifically, Psychonekrosis reminds me of the Bearer's Curse from FFXVI.

In FFXVI, if a Bearer uses magic too much, or a Dominant invokes his/her Eikon too much, they will begin to petrify, a condition that is eventually fatal. Likewise, if an AAC competitor uses feral souls too much, they will develop Psychonekrosis, with onset only a few short years into their career. Like the Bearer's Curse, Psychonekrosis is inevitably fatal. Once symptoms start showing, it is only a matter of time.

Given that FFXIV and FFXVI were directed by the same guy, I can't help but wonder if the parallel was deliberate.

I kinda doubt it was an intentional parallel and more just two very similar ideas from the same creative team. They're both essentially fantastical examples of 'performance enhancers lead to horrible side effects', but while FFXVI to my knowledge uses it as something of a broad tragic destiny (I haven't played it and don't plan to, so someone else can confirm), in the Arcadion it's a hidden horrible truth that, going by the context it's in, is probably more an analogue to steroid abuse and long-term injury. It's a natural expectation of the industry they're in that has debilitating side effects that people just don't talk about, and instead quietly hide away the people who are victims to it.

Hell, it's a very common general trope in Japanese action media, I can think of a few examples of 'every time you use The Cool Power you get a little bit closer to death'. I always think of the Dark Chips in the Mega Man Battle Network series, partly because I grew up with them, but their angle of 'every time you use one you lose one max HP forever' is a great piece of story-gameplay synergy, the toll it takes is always staring you in the face.

Possibly, had a feeling the use of beast souls would have adverse effects on purer souls.

What gets me is that Sphene must have known this, since the citizens can use feral souls for work related duties, like when that one elezen NPC was showing us how it works. Even in moderation it seems it will prove fatal to the bearer.

Yoshi-P did not direct Final Fantasy XVI, he acted solelyas producer for the project. The director was Takai Hiroshi.

Anyways, the concept of "using too much of this augmentation will eventually 'curse' you into slowly dying" is a very common trope, both in sci-fi/cyberpunk and fantasy settings.

Tbh I'm not really surprised since DT and FF16 were developed at relatively same timeline. The GoT-type of story of FF16 and competition going on for DT. While the plot are totally different, the direction are quite the same.