Final Fantasy XVI - Release 22nd June 2023

Since we don't have a thread for it, I guess I'll do it.

So, Sony's September 16th PS5 event last night opened with a trailer for the next mainline FF game, XVI.



It's currently billed as a console exclusive for Playstation 5, likely only temporarily, much like Final Fantasy VII Remake. Unfortunately there is no release date billed, but there are a few things that we do know about the game. Things that lead me to be very interested.

Who's actually making it?

So, this game is being built by Square Enix's "Business Unit III", which after the recent reshuffle is the unit currently charged with Final Fantasy XI upkeep, and ongoing Final Fantasy XIV development. It's also headed by one Naoki Yoshida. Yoshida, or Yoshi-P as he's often known as, has become something of a legend in the Final Fantasy fanbase for his role as the replacement director and producer for Final Fantasy XIV. When XIV first launched it was a shitshow that had real potential to sink FF as a brand. As a result, they brought in Yoshi as damage control and he managed to not only rebuild the game into the relaunched 2.0 version, "A Realm Reborn", but he did it while simultaneously keeping the original 1.0 updated and progressing for a very significant portion of that development time. In effect making two MMOs at the same time.

7 years later and the latest expansion for XIV, "Shadowbringers", is widely regarded as the best piece of Final Fantasy content in 20+ years.

While he's not directing this game, due to his ongoing commitments to XIV, it has been confirmed that he is working as the producer for XVI.

twitter.com/FF_XIV_EN/status/1306327636226928646

What this means is that, while Yoshi probably won't use the same time management systems he needed for XIV because that was insane, he at least knows how to run a project to schedule, so we shouldn't need to worry about the same levels of delays that other recent FF games have been subjected to.

As for the director: that seat is being filled by Hiroshi Takai, who directed The Last remnant, as well as being assistant director on ARR. I personally don't have as much familiarity with him, so I couldn't say one way or the other if the man knows his stuff.

I also can't confirm one way or the other now, but people more versed in music than me have said that Masayoshi Soken, the composer for FFXIV, was the one who scored the trailer, and from what I can tell, that seems likely. Which is absolutely fine by me, the man makes bangers.

Gameplay

Following on from who's making it: recently Square Enix managed to headhunt a Capcom developer who has worked on Devil May Cry as a battle designer. While it's not confirmed Ryota Suzuki is working on this game, the gameplay definitely looks like it could be a good place to put him. It looks very much like XV and VIIR, but even from just the snippets of gameplay we saw in the trailer I could see perfect dodges into parries, combos into ranged finishers, what is essentially a stinger, launchers, aerials, different abilities tied to eikons (presumably). All in there's real potential for this to have a very robust combat system, and if it follows from the work that 7R did it should be really good.

All in, this should have a really good team behind it, and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how it ends up.

Please don't strawberry float this up.



Anyway, feel free to talk about how Final Fantasy hasn't been good since X, or VII, or was never good, or how Emet-Selch did nothing wrong, etc.


Edit:

Trailer from the Sony State of Play June 2022:



Edit:

Release date trailer from the Game Awards 2022

Not saying I'm not interested in it, but of all the big games last night, this was probably the least next gen looking of the lot. No doubt it'll improve in the two or three years it takes to release, but I'm surprised they showed it off in that state.

Just been reading Eurogamer and this may only be exclusive on PS5 for 6 months and then will get released on PC, 6 months after that on xbox. Not bad if true.

The setting really doesn't do anything for me but I really ruddy loved 7 Remake as my very first FF experience so I'll probably be all over this for the combat alone

It's refreshing to see a new direction for a mainline FF again. I have full faith in the XIV team to deliver something special. Bringing on the combat designer from DMC and Dragons Dogma means they're not messing around. I've see folks point out the visuals, but that's something that gets polished more closer to release.

A new FF is always great news, not sure what to make of it yet as know doubt it'll be a good 2-3 years away/

I completely zoned out on this one during the PS4 showcase, I just don't seem to have much interest in Final Fantasy these days. I'm not sure what it is specifically but I haven't really been taken by a game in the series since FFX way back on the PS2.

Not much, and not hard confirmed, but looks like this is going to be an 18.

twitter.com/RedMakuzawa/status/1310013389742075904

It definitely did seem to be going pretty hard in the trailer.

Also, to assuage people's fears that this isn't going to drop until 2030 even further: Jason Schreier has said that the game is due out sooner than expected and has been in development for 4 years already. I can personally vouch for this as a few years ago there was a bit of buzz in the XIV community because Yoshi put out a recruitment drive for a new project he was working on.

I don’t think I’ve been this excited for a new FF since FF8, but unlike that, this one probably isn’t going to be a huge disappointment.

I just want Square’s marketing team to keep their hands off. The team has earned a free rein on this.
Don’t infect the project like they did with FF12

I like the return to a more medieval setting and a whole gaming in one package. I played most of FFVII but stopped before the climatic build up so currently have the experience of running back and forth etched into my memory.

Met wrote:Not much, and not hard confirmed, but looks like this is going to be an 18.

twitter.com/RedMakuzawa/status/1310013389742075904

EDIT: just saw you said this!
I think it was Jason Schreier who said on a podcast that the game has been in development for four years so the game's release date is nearer than what people think.

twitter.com/aitaikimochi/status/1310234650820796416

Also, Yoshi addressing why he chose an in-game trailer, and talking about how it might not look as fancy as a bunch of other games being shown. Basically saying "If we only showed a pre-rendered trailer people would expect to see it in 15 years. And yes, graphics are being polished."

And the site for the game with more detail is going live next month, and then the next big info drop is next year.

This was more or less what I expected. The graphics are usually the last thing to tweak and polish by the end. It's because folks are so used to FF being crazy with their visuals. I'm glad they've let go of that obsession with trying to have the best looking game possible.

Yoshi and the XIV team of all people know how stupid graphical obsession can be.

Never forget the flower pots.

Jason Schreier has said it will release sooner than people are expecting it to as it's been in development for a few years: https://screenrant.com/final-fantasy-16 ... ease-soon/

Safe to assume they're in the final phase of dev, but Covid most likely held things back. I'm still going to guess this will be 2022 tho.

twitter.com/RPGMoogle/status/1310183585375191040

Love the sass.

Met wrote:Not much, and not hard confirmed, but looks like this is going to be an 18.

twitter.com/RedMakuzawa/status/1310013389742075904

It definitely did seem to be going pretty hard in the trailer.

Also, to assuage people's fears that this isn't going to drop until 2030 even further: Jason Schreier has said that the game is due out sooner than expected and has been in development for 4 years already. I can personally vouch for this as a few years ago there was a bit of buzz in the XIV community because Yoshi put out a recruitment drive for a new project he was working on.

so its going to be needlessly graphic?

full frontal nudity and a guy whose every third word is "strawberry float"

Depends on how you define "needless". Shadowbringers, for instance, has a scene at the start where a character turns into a Sin Eater (basically a light-aligned zombie demon) in front of you, and it's pretty graphic for a 16 rated game. You could feel the team wanted to go harder, but we're limited by the tech they were dealing with, as well as the age rating. But it was absolutely a powerful tone setter for the upcoming expansion, for the world in which it's set, established the motivation and growth for one of the characters, and is pretty universally hyped up as the best moment of early ShB. It being less graphic would absolutely not have the impact it ended up with.

For a mechanical one, the reason Yoshi cited for the Rathalos crossover not having severable tails was because playable dismemberment wasn't covered in their rating, and adding it would have bumped their rating up in some areas. The crossover suffers as a result of it, while the Behemoth in MHW is pretty great as you can beat on it like anything else.

Also, not related to here, but I've seen people complaining that FF16 is looking to be darker than previous ones. Are we forgetting that the catalyst for FF4 is Cecil looking at a girl he orphaned by burning her village down and going "Y'know, maybe warcrimes aren't all that great". 6's early act has Kefka poisoning an entire castle's water supply causing Cyan to have to watch his family die in front of him, and the midpoint is Kefka winning and pretty much destroying the world, with the character you play as directly afterwards contemplating suicide because she's lost all hope. 9 has Vivi and all the existential crisis that entails. 10 is about taking your girlfriend to her ritual sacrifice to postpone inevitable doom.

FF has always been kinda strawberry floated up, and only really limited in what they depicted based on tech available.

Met wrote:Depends on how you define "needless". Shadowbringers, for instance, has a scene at the start where a character turns into a Sin Eater (basically a light-aligned zombie demon) in front of you, and it's pretty graphic for a 16 rated game. You could feel the team wanted to go harder, but we're limited by the tech they were dealing with, as well as the age rating. But it was absolutely a powerful tone setter for the upcoming expansion, for the world in which it's set, established the motivation and growth for one of the characters, and is pretty universally hyped up as the best moment of early ShB. It being less graphic would absolutely not have the impact it ended up with.

For a mechanical one, the reason Yoshi cited for the Rathalos crossover not having severable tails was because playable dismemberment wasn't covered in their rating, and adding it would have bumped their rating up in some areas. The crossover suffers as a result of it, while the Behemoth in MHW is pretty great as you can beat on it like anything else.

Also, not related to here, but I've seen people complaining that FF16 is looking to be darker than previous ones. Are we forgetting that the catalyst for FF4 is Cecil looking at a girl he orphaned by burning her village down and going "Y'know, maybe warcrimes aren't all that great". 6's early act has Kefka poisoning an entire castle's water supply causing Cyan to have to watch his family die in front of him, and the midpoint is Kefka winning and pretty much destroying the world, with the character you play as directly afterwards contemplating suicide because she's lost all hope. 9 has Vivi and all the existential crisis that entails. 10 is about taking your girlfriend to her ritual sacrifice to postpone inevitable doom.

FF has always been kinda strawberry floated up, and only really limited in what they depicted based on tech available.

well the tone rarely bothers me only ever the graphic stuff. usually im just there thinking "is this entirely necessary?"