‘Final Fantasy XVI’ hands-on gameplay preview: Turn-based no longer

Special edition for media experience, contents may differ from final edition.

final fantasy xvi is ready to drag the famous RPG series from Square Enix into the future.Or, at least, the future we all agree on devil may cry very.

After spending a few hours playing the latest installment in the 35-year-old franchise and talking to some of its creators, I was equally fascinated and impressed. The developers of Square and Creative Business Unit III have created a lightning-fast, over-exciting action game that seeks to please both fans of the genre and those who prefer more traditional, tactical games. bottom. Final Fantasy experience.

Bringing these two different audiences together is a tall order, final fantasy xvi What I’ve played with is that this bone may have real meat.

of final fantasy xvi Demo experience

The first trailer was released two and a half years ago, but you can forgive yourself for not knowing what kind of game it is. final fantasy xvi There is actually. After all, this is a series that constantly reinvents itself. Thirteen is almost perfectly linear, XIV is a large-scale online game, XV It was an open world adventure.

The little bits I played with help shed light on that particular issue. but final fantasy xvi It’s not an open world game like its predecessor. The sequences I saw were fairly linear, with a bit of freedom to explore siderooms for items.

Here’s an overview of the basic combat methods: FFXVI works.

castle combo

The demo begins with the protagonist Clive Rosfield, his trusty hound Torgal, and a lightning-imbued sidekick named Cidolfus (because he calls him Cid, of course) hanging out in a castle dungeon. started. Their goal is to find prisoners, reach the top of the castle tower, and survive.

Right off the bat, the biggest change from before Final Fantasy The only thing that matters in the game is direct control of Clive. While you can use the PS5’s directional buttons to issue simple attack and recovery commands to Torgal, Cid and the other party members you meet on Clive’s journey act on their own during battle.

The good news is that Clive is a lot of fun to work with. He can mash up basic melee combos, dashes, jumps, and use a seemingly vast variety of magical abilities that he unlocks throughout the game. These abilities are associated with his Eikons, the mysterious demigods who appear in the story (I didn’t get to talk much about them in the demo, so I won’t go into them here). Clive can equip up to three of his Eikons at once, and each Eikon comes with a few flashy abilities, two of which his Clive maps onto the face button, allowing him to use in combat. You can make it easily accessible.

The basics of combat are devil may cryprecise tuning FFXVICombat is what made it work in the demo I played. just The right gives you a brief explanation BayonettaA moment of counterattack. The blockbuster’s landing feels powerful, and Eikon’s movements add visually stunning animation to the mix.

Not to mention, unleashing massive combos that include ferocious claw swipes, fiery bird wings, and heavy stone fist slams to the ground feels pretty awesome.

It can also be equipped with optional accessories that make the game easier for those unfamiliar with this kind of game. One of them greatly increases the time needed to fend off an attack.

around the boss

Against normal enemies, these mechanics are combined, as in any action game. I was able to spam my best abilities until each room in the castle was empty, quickly dodging and teleporting (a nifty eikonic power) around dark dark gray environments. However, in boss fights, you have to use your brain a little more.

Anyway, as much as you can.the boss of FFXVI Aggressive and leaves little room to plan tactics without pausing the game. Your goal against bosses (and some stronger regular enemies) is to deplete the enemy’s stagger meter by cleverly dodging, attacking, and parrying. This requires diligent study of attack patterns. When fully lowered, the boss will sit still for a few seconds so you can whine.

The bosses I fought included two winged sentries in the castle’s chapel and the main story characters on top of the tower. tons of health to work on. Stagger is important not only for stopping attacks, but also for giving them a chance to actually do damage. You’ll need to manage your ability cooldowns to get everything ready for this stagger window for maximum damage output.

This is clearly a different kind of tension than you get from classic turn-based games. Final Fantasy game. It’s not about carefully planning tactical battles, it’s about reading and reacting to what happens very quickly. It’s important to know which of the many Eikonic abilities do the most damage to a particular boss, but for the most part it’s just a matter of surviving and picking where to do damage.

how final fantasy xvi trying to make you like action games

To tell the truth, I still don’t know if anyone prefers more deliberate combat in older games. Final Fantasy what the game picks up XVI I am unloading. However, I spoke with some of the game’s top creators, including producer Naoki Yoshida (maybe known as Yoshida-P), main his director Hiroshi Takai, and Combat his director Ryota Suzuki. At least we know their intentions. Popularity of action games.

Unlike most other people working on FFXVI, Suzuki is not a Square Enix veteran. He just joined after his 20 years at Capcom, dragon’s dogma and (you guessed it) devil may cry 5Suzuki told me that designing combat like a big RPG needed to take a different approach. Final Fantasy.

“of [DMC5], I want to have a stylish battle. That’s the most important thing,” said Suzuki. “The most important thing for me is final fantasy xvi This means that we need to create systems that give access to different types of playstyles… for players who want to be more technical, stylish, and for those who don’t do much action. “

In that sense, the ability to unlock and equip a huge amount of different abilities is for fans deeply interested in character development and customization. I compared changing a character’s class in older versions. FF title.

“We cannot alienate [longtime fans]You also need something to keep them hooked,” Takai said.

Likewise, these accessories that make gaming easier are like training wheels for action game beginners. Even if you equip Evasion Timing 1, you still need to press the button. you have more time to do it. That means even the most action-averse players need to actually play the game. There are some nifty avenues of entry to make it easier for them.

As the producer of this game, Final Fantasy XIVexpressed an interest in gaining new fans who had never played Final Fantasy before.like all Final Fantasywhich is narratively independent, so you don’t need to play someone else.

But Yoshida understands that word of mouth is needed to pitch the game to skeptics, and it will take many classic games. Final Fantasy The atmosphere that sells this game to the audience on the first day.

“We don’t have to have everyone in the game on day one. We want those people [who do] It’s about getting the buzz off and getting people excited about the game,” Yoshida said. “We must have enough Final Fantasy Feel in the game to confirm those players [who play at launch] Not only do I get excited because it’s a great game, Final Fantasy“

And for action game veterans, those with a keen eye for endless combo opportunities, Suzuki (remembering working on some of the best action games in recent memory) I’ll leave you with what I said.

“I think what I created final fantasy xvi It’s the best action game we’ve ever made,” Suzuki said.

Big words, sure.

Final Fantasy XVI launches on PlayStation 5 on June 23rd.

Special edition for media experience, contents may differ from final edition.

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