Square Enix has done a round of interviews with Japanese press on Final Fantasy XVI, and we’ve learned the game is nearly complete.

The new interviews (via Famitsu, 4Gamer, Dengeki) confirm not only is the game nearly complete with development, they’re planning both a playable demo and to announce its release date, soon.

Final Fantasy XVI director Hiroshi Takai confirmed the game is 95% complete, and when asked if we’ll get a release date, producer Naoki Yoshida said that will be confirmed soon.

“We are planning to release information again before the end of the year, so I think I can tell you at that time,” Yoshida said to Famitsu. It won’t be over the summer, so I think it will be fine (laughs).” In the other interview with 4Gamer, the producer said a release date is coming by the end of 2022, and that we’ll get more details by then, too.

Yoshida also talked up how quickly Final Fantasy XVI had progressed through development, when compared to his other baby, Final Fantasy XIV.

“I was a little surprised that we got to gold master the game so quickly, since I have been used to the online game development environment for the past few years (laughs),” Yoshida said. “When you think about producing the physical discs and shipping them around the world… it still takes several months of physical time after going gold. When you say that the development status is 95%, some may say, ‘Release it right away,’ but that is the situation..”

He added, “Currently, even if the director or creative director says, ‘I really want to fix this part,’ we can no longer accommodate them. The rest is just debugging and optimization, and the sound team led by Soken is in the process of screaming, so I think it will be completed when their screams die down (laughs).”

Final Fantasy XVI was previously confirmed to launch sometime in summer 2023 for PlayStation 5. In case you missed it – you can find the most recent trailer for the game here.