Square Enix’s next big thing final fantasy The game is finally here, and it’s been a while since going through crystals. final fantasy 16 Announced back in September 2020 for the PlayStation 5, developer and publisher Square Enix has been mum on the game for fear of leaking too much information or setting unrealistic expectations.
Right now, though, the game has a “Summer 2023” release window, which was confirmed via a gorgeous new Dominance trailer at the State of Play event in June. Since the announcement, we’ve started to see a lot more about the game — and some interesting insights into what the final product will actually look like.
One of the most interesting bits of information about the game came from a recent IGN interview, in which producer Naoki Yoshida noted that the game won’t be open world – although it will draw inspiration from recent open world games.
“We found in our extensive user research that many younger generations of gamers have never played Final Fantasy or have any interest in the series,” he told the site.Resonates not only with our core fans but with the new generation, we play a lot of games ourselves so yeah, in [Final Fantasy 16] You’ll find inspiration from recent AAA open-world RPGs,” says Yoshida.
What does he mean? The Witcher or something that comes to mind, the most recent Assassin’s Creed title, maybe Pokemon Legends Arceus. Then, of course, there’s Elden Ring and Souls-like games. Given that we’re seeing Devil May Cry 5’s combat director working on Final Fantasy XVI’s combat — and the game is eschewing the party system in favor of a single protagonist — does that mean we’re going to see more Souls-like Action-RPG Challenge Final Fantasy? Well, not really.
“In order to bring a story that spans the entire planet and beyond, we decided to avoid open world designs that limit us to a single open world space, and instead focus on a standalone area-based game design that provides players with more A good feel for the true ‘global’ scale,” Yoshida said.
Will this damage the vision of the game, or make it unrecognizable by Final Fantasy veterans? Not necessarily; after all, Yoshida has been working on Final Fantasy 14 for years, which is widely regarded as one of the purest interpretations of FF. If anyone knows the series and what it means, it’s Yoshi-P.
“Over the course of the Final Fantasy franchise’s 35-year history, the world, the characters, or the combat system may change,” he told the PlayStation Blog. “Because of this, gamers and Final Fantasy fans around the world have very different ideas about what a Final Fantasy game should be – but for me, it’s exactly the elements I mentioned: deep story, deep gameplay Gameplay, cutting-edge graphics and editing – fringe sound…and of course Chocobo and Moogle.”
Final Fantasy XVI will be available in summer 2023. So far, it’s only been confirmed for the PS5 – although there’s speculation it’ll be coming to PC six months after the PS5 and other consoles a year later.
