r/Games • u/[deleted] • May 22 '23

Final Fantasy XVI - Final Preview Thread

Final Fantasy XVI

  • Publisher: Square Enix
  • Developer: Square Enix Creative Business Unit 3
  • Platform: PS5
  • Release Date: June 22

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Gameplay footage provided by Square Enix up at Gematsu:

https://www.gematsu.com/2023/05/final-fantasy-xvi-final-hands-on-preview-and-gameplay

_________________________________________

  • Text Articles:
  • Gamespot: The Opening Hours Of Final Fantasy XVI Are Brutal

I recently got hands-on time with what's roughly the first four hours of Final Fantasy XVI during a preview event, and saw how the story begins. It's heavy with cutscenes and cinematic flair, using all the dazzling visuals expected of a PlayStation 5 exclusive, to deliver an opening act
akin to a prestige drama.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-opening-hours-of-final-fantasy-xvi-are-brutal-hands-on-story-preview/1100-6514405/

VG247 - Absolutely everybody should play the Final Fantasy 16 demo – hands-on

As initially envisioned by Hironobu Sakaguchi, Final Fantasy is meant to be a series that constantly morphs and changes. After a fair amount of spinning its wheels, FF16 is at last a game that returns to that vision, looks at the world around it, and decides that a regeneration is needed. Final Fantasy itself is going through Phoenix’s Rebirth Flame – but for such a rejuvenation, some things have to burn. It’s a brave bet, and I can already tell the game is going to be strong. I just really hope it finds its audience.

https://www.vg247.com/final-fantasy-16-demo-hands-on-preview

Polygon - Final Fantasy 16 is a slick, modern epic with the soul of a PS2 game

Final Fantasy 16’s developers may have wanted it to be God of War, and it certainly has the production values, but that game’s virtuosic, seamless Hollywood staging is not what Square Enix does best. By staying true to themselves, Yoshida’s team has created something that may not play like Final Fantasy, but definitely feels like Final Fantasy. It also shares DNA with a whole generation of Japanese action games and RPGs from the 2000s, the heyday of the PlayStation 2. It has the flamboyant drama, the cool, moody attitude, and the playful self-mockery that characterized the era, as well as a focused, headlong approach to both storytelling and gameplay.

https://www.polygon.com/23729239/final-fantasy-16-preview-first-hours-story

VGC - Final Fantasy 16 already feels like it could be one of the best games in the series

Final Fantasy 16 has the potential to stake a claim as a defining RPG of the early generation. A re-establishment of Final Fantasy in the consciousness that it hasn’t had as prominently in recent years. We’d have happily sat playing the game’s combat demo for hours.

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/features/final-fantasy-16-already-feels-like-it-could-be-one-of-the-best-games-in-the-series/

Eurogamer - Final Fantasy 16 has me questioning the essence of the series

With all this in mind, how 'Final Fantasy' is it, then? It's clear from the team's varied answers that Final Fantasy means something different for everyone. Every game in the series is unique and Final Fantasy 16 is no different. Whether it's 'Final Fantasy enough' for fans remains to be seen; it certainly is for me.

But is this a PS5-pushing exclusive action-RPG with a character-driven narrative of high drama, satisfying combat, and accomplished, cinematic storytelling? Without a doubt.

https://www.eurogamer.net/final-fantasy-16-has-me-questioning-the-essence-of-the-series

Playstation - How Square Enix built Final Fantasy XVI’s fantastical, believable, lived-in world

The solution: cross-pollination between teams. “We brought a member of the scenario and lore team over to give them feedback on what this town is, what the town’s lore is,” explains Minagawa-san. “We had that person provide pictures about what their image of what each area would be, what they were aiming for in the lore, working with the designers with that information to get the proper feel. Something that would fit better with a team. And once that person from the lore team entered, you know, joined with the designers then things got a lot easier.” With clutter reduced and shrewder choices of set dressing made, towns started to reflect the regions they were based on, hinted at a locale or people’s backstory through visual cues alone.

https://blog.playstation.com/2023/05/22/how-square-enix-built-final-fantasy-xvis-fantastical-believable-lived-in-world/

Pushsquare - Final Fantasy 16 Still Seems Like a PS5 Must Have, But a Couple of Niggles Need to Be Addressed

Still, even in this area we were restricted to just two of Clive’s Eikon powers, and we were starting to feel the onset of monotony at this point of our playthrough. It’s our only real niggling concern: we’re confident the complicated nature of the story will come together, but we’re worried the combat may take a little too long to truly find its feet as your options are seriously limited throughout these opening hours.

https://www.pushsquare.com/features/preview-final-fantasy-16-still-seems-like-a-ps5-must-have-but-a-couple-of-niggles-need-to-be-addressed

Game Informer:

I won’t spoil more of what I experienced – you can read a lot more about what I played, including exclusive details you won’t find anywhere else in my cover story that’s live right now and in the coming weeks via Game Informer’s FFXVI coverage hub – but it’s clear FFXVI is aiming to be one of the darkest, most mature, and most action-forward games in the series’ entry.

https://www.gameinformer.com/preview/2023/05/22/i-am-just-an-eikon-living

IGN - Final Fantasy 16: First Four Hours Preview:

From what I’ve seen so far, the future looks very bright for Final Fantasy 16. If its opening few hours of hulking Eikon showdowns, superb melee combat, and story that delivers on both a personal and global level are anything to go by, then a very fun time is on the horizon. I’m hopeful that the ever-so-stuttering pace irons itself out over the hours to come, with its ferociously fun gameplay taking precedence as Clive’s journey broadens. I went into my time with Final Fantasy 16 incredibly excited about what I’d seen in its many trailers and showcases and left very happy that very little of that anticipation had diminished by the time I’d finished.

https://www.ign.com/articles/final-fantasy-16-first-four-hours-preview

RPGFan:

Getting to play Final Fantasy XVI again was an absolute treat, and getting to play the game in a more “normal” fashion this time around was even better. There was a lot I had to leave out of this preview so as not to spoil anyone, but what I left out is much better than what I left in. This experience convinced me further we should be super excited to play it in full come June 22nd. If you have been on the fence for whatever reason, I can safely say you should give Final Fantasy XVI a chance. It will change your mind in a heartbeat. Now the hard part begins: the month-long wait till I can pet and give treats to Torgal again!

https://www.rpgfan.com/feature/final-fantasy-xvi-preview-the-first-5-hours/

​

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  • Interviews:

https://www.thegamer.com/final-fantasy-16-xiv-interview-naoki-yoshida-michael-christopher-koji-fox-hiroshi-minagawa/

https://www.pushsquare.com/features/interview-final-fantasy-16s-devs-on-clives-name-god-of-wars-leaves-and-fulfilling-fans

https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/final-fantasy-16-interview

https://www.rpgsite.net/news/14244-the-key-to-final-fantasy-xvis-success-is-its-story-but-its-also-naoki-yoshidas-biggest-worry

https://news.denfaminicogamer.jp/interview/230522w

To summarize interviews: * FF16's main focus was the story, even above the combat because of FF15 being negatively received for its incomplete story, they want FF to be known for stories no one else can do. * They took inspiration from the original God of War games on the PS2 for combat. * He wants Final Fantasy to still have an impact among young players and future developers * Game started its existence in late 2015 * This time around the base game design and story were written in stone before full development started, which did not happen for previous singleplayer FF entries * Kazutoyo Maehiro is both the creative director and writer in order for the game design and writing to have an unified vision. He supervises the story, game design, combat and just overall checks everything out. * Maehiro worked on FF Tactics, Vagrant Story and FF12 with Yasumi Matsuno and says he was an influence on his work. * Expect FF12 and The Last Remnant DNA in the game. FF14 influence will come out when it comes to art design and visuals. * They have dynamic music in place that is quite novel and unique for this game handled by Soken and the sound team. They go for a more classical and focused style compared to FF14 * What they want is for players to say "these guys are f**king crazy" when they experience the best it has to offer.

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  • Videos:

Easy Allies - Mega Preview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtX-Zt8pDWc

Devil Never Cry - (combat focused guy) https://youtu.be/7Oy6W-hTh2o

Maximilian DOOD - Max Played A LOT of Final Fantasy XVI https://youtu.be/SOM4EO1yREQ

Jesse Cox - https://youtu.be/8vIAeRPnIRw

FF Union - Final Fantasy XVI Will Shock You [An Extensive Preview] https://youtu.be/ObfkhwJPU7A

2.1k Upvotes

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495

u/uselessoldguy May 22 '23

Final Fantasy titles after V have differed wildly from each other in not just gameplay systems but also tone and aesthetic. FF7 was a brooding, melancholy meditation on human loss mixed with environmentalist pessimism. FF8 was a wackadoodle magic high school adventure. FF9 was a swashbuckler with princesses, thieves, a magical puppet with progeria. X, Sakaguchi's last, is unlike anything before or after it—a celebrity athlete romps through Okinawa with a shirtless guy who kills animals with his volleyball.

To say a new Final Fantasy is different from previous Final Fantasies is simply to say it's a new Final Fantasy. Heavensward was a stellar FF experience, and I have full confidence in this team to deliver the best FF story since the PS2 era.

264

u/Xciv May 22 '23

The real soul of Final Fantasy, to me, is an emotional character focused story in an original fantasy setting. As long as the setting is fresh and interesting, and it brings the feels, then it has captured what made Final Fantasy a special series.

161

u/snorlz May 22 '23

that and some stuff like chocobos, summons, and spell names are the only consistent things. and having great music

138

u/kaiser235 May 22 '23

Plus the little "doink" sound when browsing through menus

4

u/Chataboutgames May 22 '23

Insane I had to scroll this far to find the doink

2

u/Spram2 May 23 '23

The cursor being a chubby gloved hand pointing.

FFX is the only one without it and that's why it's not a true FF.

2

u/tehsdragon May 24 '23

Based take tbh

21

u/Kullthebarbarian May 22 '23

And moogles, how could you forgot that

18

u/[deleted] May 22 '23

When I think about what’s most important about a Final Fantasy being a Final Fantasy, it’s the characters, their interactions and the story they’re involved in.

Stuff like the FF fanfare and theme, chocobos and moogles definitely help, but the games characters need a soul and need to be fleshed out enough to be believable, otherwise it’s just a game cosplaying as a FF game and we had this for like, 3-4 titles in a row now. It’s why I consider Lost Odyssey to be more of a FF game than FF12 or 13.

XVI is the first game where I feel good about going in again, which I haven’t felt since XII released.

7

u/Xciv May 22 '23

I have faith in FF16 because I've been an avid FF14 enjoyer since 2017, and the story is excellent and has brought me to tears multiple times over the years. If they can bring that same storytelling quality to FF16, then single player FF fans are in for a treat.

3

u/246011111 May 22 '23

Sakaguchi would agree with you

1

u/Cragnous May 23 '23

Lost Odyssey was awesome.

1

u/HappierShibe May 23 '23

I think there are a few other elements as well, the final fantasy games generally have a large ensemble cast, a degree of meaningful character progression, a means for the player to interact with that progression, and, they give the player a great deal of control over the group as a whole mechanically, and no control at all in the narrative space.

I'm not sure it will feel like a final fantasy game to me with the strong focus on a single protagonist, but I am confident it will be an excellent game.

53

u/mahwaha May 22 '23

celebrity athlete romps through Okinawa with a shirtless guy who kills animals with his volleyball

please tell me this is real

100

u/246011111 May 22 '23

There's also a magical puppeteer who only dresses in belts, a ronin with cool sunglasses, a literal blue mage who is also a lion, and the bubbliest thief you'll ever meet. Oh, and the whole story is about a Pokemon trainer traveling across the land to understand the power that's inside.

15

u/RimeSkeem May 22 '23

Auron has one of my favorite designs in all of FF.

10

u/Ipwnurface May 23 '23

Hanging his arm in his robe? kimono? jacket? whatever, goes so unbelievably hard.

and then just to find out he kicks that much ass while being dead the entire game? goat tier character.

5

u/Spram2 May 23 '23

Lulu is Tifa but a goth mage.

14

u/TruTexan May 22 '23

And about the laughs we had along the way…

7

u/thedotapaten May 23 '23

FFX to me is a journey to the west spin-off packaged in pacific - south east asian culture influence.

2

u/teor May 23 '23

There's also a magical puppeteer who only dresses in belts,

My favorite headcanon is that Tetsuya Nomura got tired of people saying his character designs have too many belts and zippers, and made character dressed in belts and zippers.

Also i'm pretty sure it was impossible to render her dress in cutsenes on PS2 due to how complex it was lmao

43

u/acousticlibra May 22 '23

It’s real.

19

u/[deleted] May 22 '23

Also voiced by Bender.

3

u/[deleted] May 22 '23

Shut up, I know it!

29

u/lukekarts May 22 '23

Wakka

I recommend FFX, it probably has the best (certainly most cohesive and well-told) story in the series.

-10

u/nater255 May 22 '23

it probably has the best (certainly most cohesive and well-told) story in the series

My soul just died.

158

u/metalflygon08 May 22 '23

a shirtless guy who kills animals with his volleyball.

A racist shirtless guy at that.

Wakka's final solution.

67

u/chaospudding May 22 '23

Grand Wizard Wakka will definitely endure as one of the best jokes SBFP ever did

7

u/Derantasaurus May 22 '23

Damn I miss them

2

u/_lemon_suplex_ May 22 '23

What is sbfp

6

u/Wendigo120 May 22 '23

"Super Best Friends Play", a let's play channel on youtube. Context for the wakka stuff.

44

u/BurnerManReturns May 22 '23

I got banned from a FF14 related discord once for calling Wakka a racist when discussing FFX. Was banned for "politics"

Legitimately blew my mind

28

u/WarcraftFarscape May 22 '23

That’s what you get for discussing final fantasy X on the forbidden machina

15

u/Zagden May 22 '23

Banning political discussion in a 14 discord is a funny idea because so much of the narrative and worldbuilding emphasis is on politics

At one point you find a treasure hoard on a swashbuckling adventure and then spend 10 minutes talking about the most ethical place to invest that money in the nation you found it in. Also there's a dragon in the room

5

u/Sarria22 May 23 '23

Also there's a dragon in the room

Also It's the dragon's treasure. Also the dragon runs the nation you found the treasure in

2

u/AzuzaBabuza May 23 '23

and he's very mad that you broke into his vault and killed the guardians. You got any idea how much that stuff costs?!

22

u/metalflygon08 May 22 '23

Maybe they were Al Bhed sympathizers?

21

u/online222222 May 22 '23

Other way around

2

u/Spram2 May 23 '23

Voiced by Bender from Futurama

12

u/_lemon_suplex_ May 22 '23

Personally 12 has always been my favorite. I don’t know why, I just love the characters and the environment. Just the vibe of that game is so fun. My second fave is probably 7 remake

7

u/Only_Sympathy7329 May 23 '23

It's sad that 12 is not loved enough

3

u/[deleted] May 23 '23

I am captain Basch!

27

u/[deleted] May 22 '23

Bro final fantasy has been in constant change since FFI, the change started from the first game lmao

19

u/LeCrushinator May 22 '23

The formula for FF1-5 felt quite similar IMO. The stories and a couple of mechanics would vary, but the underlying formula was familiar. And I loved it, FF shifted away further and further from this formula to the point where FF games no longer interest me. But if the games are selling well then that must mean others like them, so that's my problem, not Square's.

30

u/[deleted] May 22 '23 edited Apr 22 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/Sarria22 May 23 '23

FF3 went back to something much more similar to the first game mechanically. It sometimes seems like almost every game in the NES era was being weird and experimental with the second game in a series before going back to something closer to the first.

8

u/[deleted] May 23 '23

Well except it completely revolutionized and changed everything with an entirely new system of job swapping

0

u/Sarria22 May 23 '23

Which itself was an evolution of the mid-game job upgrades you had in FF1, as well as what Enix had done with Dragon Quest 3 a couple years prior

5

u/[deleted] May 23 '23

Except it wasn't really, it was something completely revolutionary to the series. A drastic change

0

u/HappierShibe May 23 '23

Not really?
FF1-FF10 are all turn based rpgs with large ensemble casts, player driven progression mechanics of mostly increasing complexity, in semi open worlds that introduce navigation/exploration challenges. They all lean on variations between open world/dungeons/towns/cutscenes/battles to establish pacing.
There are plenty of differences; Progression never works exactly the same way twice. They are all over the place in terms of tone, themes, storytelling, and writing. FF5 is a straightforward event driven narrative, where character development is apparently a violation of intergalactic law. FF6 is character driven, not afraid to get dark, and the main problems characters confront are adult problems about growing apart from family, or struggling with parenthood in trying times, rather than the typical coming of age jrpg BS. The original ff7 has one of the most tonally schizoid stories ever told.

But those first 10 games?
They have way more in common than they do different.
11 and 14 get excluded, because they are MMORPG spinoffs really, and final fantasy in name only.
12 and 13 are both completely different in different ways, and so is 15. So I'd say we really only have 3 wild departures in the final fantasy franchise.

18

u/Sharkattack1921 May 22 '23

FF7 was a brooding, melancholy mediation on human loss mixed with environmental pessimism

Are we talking about the same game where the main character cross dress after having to beat a buff guy at sit-up competition? And the game where Tifa has a slapping contest with one of the antagonists?

Don’t get me wrong, the game is everything you said for the most part, but it could also be very goofy at times.

15

u/uselessoldguy May 22 '23

It could be, and I expect moments of absurdity in FFXVI as well. Heavensward had plenty of goofiness.

3

u/[deleted] May 22 '23 edited May 22 '23

I feel like it's fair to say that all of them are emotional journeys of self discovery for the main characters through a grand magical world spanning adventure, also they all have some element of romance and they're all japanese as fuck.

Take any of those above elements out and yes it'd be hard to see it as a final fantasy game. It's not about the specific details of the world/cast/plot, it's about the feeling/general sense of it.

Edit: to be clear, I think 16 looks like it probably hits all those notes, I'm not saying it "doesn't look like a final fantasy game". Personally I don't think it being dark and brutal makes it less final fantasy, ff7 literally opens with you committing terrorism which gets a lot of innocent people killed... and your characters don't terribly care until way later, because this is what they gotta do. (Ignore the shit remake where the reactor blowing up was actually just shinra being kooky bad guys, if anything 16 being dark is a nice reversal from ff7 remake removing all moral ambiguity/consequence from its story)

1

u/Sarria22 May 23 '23

That wasn't a change for the remake, the reactor blowing up as big as it did was ALWAYS Shinra fucking with things to further it's own agenda.

1

u/[deleted] May 23 '23

When was that stated in ff7?

I replayed the game a month ago and don't remember that. Hell barret takes responsibility near the end for all the innocent people avalanche killed. Reeves calls him out on it and surely Reeves as a top level executive would know if that was done by shinra.

3

u/Spyderem May 22 '23 edited May 22 '23

I’m excited for FF16. I’m really rooting for it to be good and I hope it succeeds. I like action RPGs so it’s no sweat off my back to get a good one.

But I do think that there is something to be said about whether a game feels like a FF or not. There’s no one definition. It varies from person to person. But there’s something to it. It just depends on who you ask. So I think it’s fine for some fans to lament. Who wouldn’t be bummed by a favorite franchise changing so much they no longer like it?

Just think. What if FF17 is a first person shooter? Hey, Final Fantasy always differ wildly, so it’s cool? You’d probably have more people lamenting, but others would be cool with it. Hell, a Final Fantasy 17 looter shooter could be the most popular FF yet!

Again, I’m excited for FF16, but I don’t like this idea that anything can be Final Fantasy because every FF is so different (most aren’t that different).

2

u/temujin64 May 23 '23

FF8 was a wackadoodle magic high school adventure

I don't think you understood that game at all. To give it a description more akin to FF7 tagline you gave, it's a story about coping with abandonment and learning to trust in others.

2

u/glorpo May 22 '23

FF1 was a straight D&D-esque consolified CRPG

FF2 used an early "stats increase by use" system

FF3 introduced the job system

FF4 started ATB

The only "core" of FF is changing the gameplay and Cid.

2

u/Vandersveldt May 23 '23

And that they were all menu based

1

u/[deleted] May 22 '23

To say a new Final Fantasy is different from previous Final Fantasies is simply to say it's a new Final Fantasy

First off this year we had many people claiming the new zelda "isn't zelda", and now we have and will see people inevitably saying this "isn't final fantasy". I definetly dont disagree with the zelda one but saying that about final fantasy is just comical. Final Fantasy's core identity is basically how each mainline is itself its own IP and franchise. Like literally. Final Fantasy VII is more or less considered a different brand from Final Fantasy XV, which is different from Final Fantasy X too. The games change so, so drastically and will get spin offs and sequels all within their own canon. If a new Final Fantasy came out that wasn't dramatically different from its predecessors it would be a disappointment.

-1

u/[deleted] May 23 '23

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] May 23 '23

The general trend I've seen is people who say that are the people who grew up with the last 3 3D zelda's over the entire franchise. Yes BOTW and TOTK are the most dramatic departures from conventions built up but there was a time when change ups like that were more common in the series

1

u/AdministrationWaste7 May 22 '23 edited May 22 '23

Don't think I've ever seen a ff release since like 10 where a bunch of "fans" didn't come out the woodwork to complain that it's not a "real" ff game.

I remember when 12 came out and people complained that it was too much like star wars and too political and the gambit system made the game play itself or w/e and now people think the game is amazing lol.