The PlayStation 5 will get a special release date for "Final Fantasy XVI" on June 22, 2023, specifically because of its portrayal of violence.
Because of this, Square Enix invited us to London, where we were among the first journalists in the world to play the action RPG Valisthea. We will of course tell you about it in our sample report below.
Clive and Cid are on the lookout for a secluded area.
Clive Rosfield is the main character in "Final Fantasy XVI." We follow him through different stages of his life, first as a young adult in his 20s, then as a seasoned warrior in his 30s.
Our protagonist meets, among others, Benedikta Harman, a dwarf who controls the wind and is the ruler of Garuda, a god of the wind. Like its predecessors, the upcoming action RPG lives above all from its narrative, which you should rather experience for yourself and of course.
The visual delights in Final Fantasy XVI were actually audiovisual highlights, as well as the visually stunning collisions between Clive and some monsters.
Lupes that are both enthralling and crushing
Ryota Suzuki, a real expert on board as Combat Director, has been involved in the action fireworks "Devil May Cry 5," among other things, in addition to producer Naoki Yoshida, or Yoshi-P, gave us a brief introduction before the tough fights that even action game professionals should demand.
Nonetheless, those of you who have little experience with tight action games will not have fun with the fantasy adventure. There are several help options that will assist you, such as simplifying dodging, blocking, and even complex combos and reducing them to a keystroke or automating quick-time events.
Clive and Cid pushed us into a situation that we should only get to after a few hours of gameplay in the finished game. However, those who created it have already unlocked several abilities for us in the demo that we will not be able to access in the full version at this time in time.
Clive's move repertoire is already promising: normal assaults, dodges, parries, as well as special attacks and commands for his wolf, who was with us for most of the faceoff; we could also give him simple commands like "attack."
In that regard, first impressions are quite positive, and Ryota Suzuki's impact is evident. However, there is still room for improvement. For example, there is the possibility to permanently target opponents via lock-on, but we were unable to quickly switch back and forth between several targets during battles.
Moreover, we were already permitted to utilize various magical powers and special attacks to heat up the opponents effectively at the end. However, it is unknown how complex "Final Fantasy XVI" will become in the end. Action game professionals shouldn't be able to let off steam as with the two demon hunters Dante and Nero at the moment.
Except for a few nice screenshots during the presentation, other aspects of the action role-playing game were unfortunately neglected.
The titans' struggle
A few gameplay highlights included a monster duo against the usual Yoshi-P players, as well as a melee against the aforementioned Benedikta. These skirmishes were enjoyable and certainly a bit more challenging than the regular combat scenarios, although they were not as difficult as Yoshi-P suggested, as such.
There was also a chance to compete in an Eikons match! These well-known items do indeed exist in the "Final Fantasy XVI" universe, as special characters act as so-called Dominants, in short they were born with the ability to host Eikons like Ifrit or Odin.
As Yoshi-P reveals, there will be different fights between Eikons throughout the story, and each one will be different from the previous. We were allowed to fight as Ifrit with Garuda, as well as devastating flame attacks with the fire monster. All of this was a pretty fantastic wrestling match that turned out to be very powerful.
Final Fantasy XVI: New Information
A graphically excellent current-gen picture
Final Fantasy XVI is a stunning action role-playing game. There's plenty of atmospheric lighting and cool particle effects, especially when Clive unleashes his special attacks.
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On the downside, the demo sections were lacking in grays, browns, and reds. It's also a shame that the intro version had to deal with screen slowdowns occasionally. However, there should still be time to iron out such minor issues before the release on June 22, 2023.
The English synchro was excellent with the characters and the gloomy tone of the game world, which is inspired by the European Middle Ages. The music by Masayoshi Soken ("Dawn of Mana") also impressed us.
After our time with the first demo version of "Final Fantasy XVI", we are sure that the action RPG is impressive, not only due to its very dark atmosphere, but also because it became apparent that Square Enix's development team for Creative Business Unit III had already invested a lot of time and effort.
So far, nothing has been revealed or played about the rich and varied gameplay in PlayStation 5. You should expect a real PlayStation 5-exclusive highlight in the summer.
Final Fantasy XVI: More information
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