Poll: How Do You Feel About Final Fantasy 16?

In Yoshi P I trust

Very much looking forward to the more Action orientation! I played the 7th instalment recently, the PS1 version and although an awesome game, the tit for tat style fighting wasn’t as good as I remember it. Devil May Cry is one of my most favourite games series, so if there was combat like that, Wow!!!

I feel like FF7 Remake did a great job of modernizing Final Fantasy combat without losing the things that made it feel like Final Fantasy in the first place.

I can't say the same here: this looks like a grimdark character action game with some Final Fantasy elements tossed in.

It may or may not be a good game, but it's not what I want from the series at all.

Games looking great and definitely looking like a game of the year contender, along with hogwarts legacy and probably zelda for the top prize.

Its giving me souls like vibes but I'm hoping they don't go for a souls like difficulty though.

I haven't been this excited for a Final Fantasy game since the old Versus XIII days XVI looks like it could be one of the best FF games ever so mega excited ^__^

@themightyant lol I am almost certain it will be a buggy mess at launch knowing Bethesda.

im all in, trying to avoid video.

i would prefer turn based coz that is FF to me.

i enjoy DMC, my slight worry is it will lean to much to it action wise

As a huge fan of ffxv despite its shortcomings, and someone who didn’t really take to the linearity of Remake, I’m a bit saddened/concerned by the change in direction, but I get why they are going that route based on general sentiment

Super hype, can't wait for it, digital version day one

I don't care about the game being an action RPG or a turn based RPG. What I do care about is that it's actually an RPG, and not a linear action game with RPG-lite elements.

That's really my major worry here. Everything we see about it and hear about it, and every time Yoshi-P speaks I get the feeling these people hate RPGs and just want to turn FF into a linear narrative driven action-adventure game like GoW instead of an RPG at all. His definition months ago about what FF is had to do with graphics and narratives, and not at all genre. That concerned me. People non-stop praise him, and I don't really get why, he really seems to be someone that actually hates the franchise and wants to just just make some unrelated game he wants to make and spend FF project budget to do it.

Let's all be honest, if they didn't say this was "FF" the discussion around it would be entirely different. Both from skeptics, and from enthusiasts.

@themightyant they're not heading in their own direction free from constraints they're cloning existing popular action games. and gluing an FF skin to it from what we've seen without playing it. What good is making "FF" a must-play series if it's a totally different series that copypasted the name FF on the box? I can do it, too, just get me some glue and glitter and I can make the GTAV box say FF, and we can praise the success of FF at the top!

It looks like a really dark yet also shiny game. I don't have strong feelings about it in any way. I really liked Remake and literally thought XV was the worst AAA game I played last gen.

Admittedly I am not a FF fan. If people like it I'll play someday.

I'm skeptical because i genuinely thought Devil May Cry's gameplay loop was extremely boring, where combat was its one trick alongside Linear corridors to do nothing more than mash buttons in patterns over and over and over again.

I worry in adopting that combat they may also adopt the linearity and shallow level of exploration. For there are hints in the interview statements and absolutely in gameplay b roll that certainly suggest a more linear experience. I hope that what was stated about exploration and some larger areas being still present is true, however I am concerned to hear a trimming of side content, which also suggests linearity. Without side dungeons or locations, it seems like side missions will be less about exploration, but perhaps instead just fetch quests and "go to that place, button mash that thing to death, and come back."

I am all for shaking the series up a bit, however they pretty much have done that with nearly every title in the last many years because they have little in continuity in whom leads development on the specific titles. Which is interesting but has also resulted in some pretty lame titles.

I do hope that aside from all that, this shakeup doesn't completely change the genre of FF, because that is likely not what people want from FF whom already have love for the series . I would even agree with certain assessments: that without the FF ip logo and the inclusion of the reworked old summon chsrachters , if one were to watch this tailored b roll, you wouldn't necessarily even recognize FF dna in it.

I'm cautiously optimistic, however this isn't a shakeup reminiscent of GOW, in which they added more depth to the hack and slash foundation it began as. This is instead looking like a complete shift in the hope to make the game more appealing to gamers that may not enjoy FF (directly stated by Yoshi that this was the intent), and in so doing there is absolutely potential and some worry that they lose the magic of the IP in the process regardless of whether or not the game is good merely to land a hit from the western gamer base. It certainly is a risk, and I applaud that to some degree, yet I cannot help but wonder if what is most at risk is alienating the already present fanbase in favor of what really amounts to sellinging out to our very over saturated western game market and its cookie cutter designs consisting of very scripted "play a long-drawn-out movie" style of gameplay. Especially form Sony studios. I mean QTE's and pointless scripted Godzilla battles? Sure, it looks cool, but really? Not to mention the reports from previewers mentioning how extremely easy the combat is WITHOUT the crutch items you can equip. IT would certainly be a letdown to have super easy and flashy combat WITH a narrower world design and lack of side content. As then nearly everything rides on the combat being engaging, complex and progression focused enough alongside the story to get through there stated 30+ hr runtime without feeling as stale and repetitive as devil may cry 5. Easy combat makes that essentially a failure no matter how. Many buttons push special moves and skill trees they tacked on.

Time will tell, we haven't seen much. The next showing, focusing on exploration will really make or break my hopes for the title. However, I cannot deny that I thought FF15 was terrible and cringeworthy, so anything that deviates from that unfinished BROmance mess is welcome.

I feel like I need it now

This has been my most anticipated game since the first announcement.

Really hoping the action combat turns out well and I’m confident it will. I’m also envisioning a future where the FF series embraces this combat for some titles while also using the FF7R combat for some. Would love if the inevitable FF9 remake keeps the turn based combat of the original.

I'm looking forward to it honestly. I like the action Final Fantasy games as much as the turn-based ones and this one seems really fun. I've played many RPGs and I think I'm okay with FF16 being a full-on RPG.

I'll wait for the demo before deciding on whether to get this game. It sounds good but I need to play it first. This will be my first Final Fantasy Game, unless I get the Remake of Final Fantasy 7.

@themightyant Absolutely. At the point where I'm able to accept this game for what it is instead of judging it for what it isn't, I'll likely pick up a controller, if and when I get a PS5. Which might be sooner than later, depending on how good FF7 Rebirth ends up being.

@themightyant @KundaliniRising333 My feeling for the game is that it may well be a really cool new action series. But my feeling for the INTENT of the series, is coupled with Squares typical unachievable sales goals. My sense is they don't think FF is popular enough anymore, but carries a significant market and brand awareness. They wanted to create a new western blockbuster action game in the vein of Sony's popular games so they could hit those unachievable sales goals once and for all, and then decided that skinning it in some FF clothes and calling it FF would be able to guarantee success by pulling the large but not large enough series fans in to buy, while instead really selling a new series to a new market, without having to take the risk and low sales of launching an actual new IP. Then spinoffs can come from there.

So basically a new series that should be more profitable than their old series, cannibalizing the legacy of the old series to buy guaranteed minimum sales thresholds and avoid new IP teething. But by all rights should have just been a new series.

I think people that wanted it to be the next great FF will convince themselves it is, even if it isn't. People that may have loved both a new real FF and this new series will end up feeling disappointment and viewing the game more negatively than it deserves because it isn't the game it says it is on the box.

All produced by a guy that seems to really dislike the actual series it says it is and is turning into his own personal Kojima based on success of a game that's more JRPG than the JRPGs he claims to dislike.

I don't think the game will be bad. But I think the choice to pretend a new IP is part of a series it's not is going to both fuel the people frothing at the mouth that it HAS to be the greatest thing ever, and also dim the view of an otherwise good game for what it is, among a newly split fanbase which will make the community a terrible, toxic place for the next 20 years.

Ironcially everything I hear about this sounds more like GoW (not an RPG, a linear action game), and less like Horizon (an actual WRPG more or less) as they try to take their classic JRPG and tune it for western tastes.

Might be the first FF I buy in my 45 years of gaming so they must be doing something right as far as I’m concerned

I'm looking forward to it. Really curious to see more.

I get a lot of people don't like the direction the IP is taking with a more focus on action, but we always have other places to go to get our JRPG fix.

What I've seen looks good but maybe not must buy. I have zero problem with them going full on action provided they commit to that idea unlike something that goes half way like the dragon age sequels. However what I've seen about the combat only looks average so far. Can't say I wanna jump right in and play quite yet but that could play once I actually get my hand on it.
I like the more medieval setting and the more mature tone which complements it.
Much like going action focused I have no problem with the lack of open world and limited exploration. I love exploring games but not every game needs it as a focus.
I guess story could make or break this for me. I like that it spans decades but I can't say I'm attached to anything they've shown so far yet.
Wair for reviews I think- at the very least I'll probably wait until post Zelda if I go for it.

@NEStalgia Considering what he has done with FFXIV I would strongly disagree with you. He definitely loves the franchise.

Final fantasy 16 does look excellent.more games the better.word up son

I'm feeling great about FF16. And it feels good to say that because I've had very mixed feelings about the series' shifts in direction from 11 onwards. Still, I'm glad to see those creative risks. Final Fantasy doesn't have to be a set in stone brand, and I'm glad Square Enix knows that.

I've been hyped since it was 1st revealed and that train hasn't slowed down in the slightest. To me the game looks the closest Final Fantasy has ever been to a 3D FF Tactics, Tactics Ogre, Vagrant Story, FF11,12 and 14. And that's only a good thing. I haven't seen a single thing in any of the trailers that doesn't scream FF to me

I don't prefer one or the other between action based combat and turn based. And I don't mind whether SE chooses to focus on one as long as the end result is good. And so far they haven't let me down. 7R has great combat, XV has some short comings but ultimately combat was fun. And 16 is looking the best in that area yet

I like yoshi-p and the MOST of the big names behind this, and I’ll definitely play the demo
And I’m sure it will be successful.

But the DMC combat worries me, the lack of party members worries me (Clive isn’t appealing to me for some reason).

And the lack of optional dungeons worries me

I’m sure the story and music and presentation will be right up my street, but the gameplay ouch.

I hated dmc5 a lot.

Luckily I have ff7 rebirth so even if I don’t like this I have a ff game I’m looking forward to

So here's the thing. I'm hype as hell for it cuz it simply looks great and we could definitely use more stylish action type games but on the other hand I don't exactly wanna see everything become a hack n slash either. Part of me would've liked if this game also used 7remakes combat system. I think that system does a great job with action and strategy. It doesn't allow you to just mash away. You gotta utilize your party to overcome which is great.

I'm not a fan of turn based combat but I really do enjoyed valkyrie profile and Indivisible's combat where a character is assigned to a face button and you press that butt9n to attack. I'd love to see FF use a system like that too. But either way I'm still hype for this

I've never played a Final Fantasy game, never found them interesting enough, not a fan of JRPG or of the turn based combat used in the older games.
But this one seems like it could be the first.
And seeing that they are making it full on ARPG now, it got me even more interested.
I have to go with "I need to see more" before I go in, looking forward to the Reviews.

I am hyped for it and I have a feeling the story will be peak Final Fantasy, but I am sure the DMC combat will piss off many turn based purists.

I'm not sure the full-on Devil May Cry action combat is my thing yet, seeing as I haven't really played too many games of that type, but I'm willing to give it a try. i very much enjoyed FF7R's combat. That being said, the darker direction is fine. Every FF is different and I have no issues there. I think the most hilariously appealing thing about it is how straightforward the release is. There aren't any movies, or prequel games, or books or other cross-media involved. It's just a game. Thank goodness for that. The team seems very confident in their ability to tell a story and that gives me a lot of hope.

Very excited. Hope it lives up to the 18 on box art. Love a good dose of dark fantasy.

I've always respected the fact that Final Fantasy has never been afraid to change things up a bit, even if it doesn't necessarily appeal to me 100% of the time.

I like both turn and action based RPGs so I'm in on FF16. Plus considering how hard they are leaning into action RPG I'm happy to see they hired the right man for the job of combat design. DMC is the pinnacle of action combat so I don't think they could have been better prepared to develop an entry like this.

Trails and Persona have become my go to series for my turn-based fix so Final Fantasy can go ahead and experiment on the action side of things. Looking forward to FF16 for my Action RPG fix and Trails into Reverie for my Turn-based RPG fix this summer.

I'm a long time final fantasy fan, have played every game in the franchise and am incredibly hyped for this release. I am more than happy with the move to action based gameplay so long as it has been done for the right reasons. 15 and 7R worked well so im sure it will make sense here

They are doing so much right with 16. Those trailers have been excellent, and im pumped for a new game in a way i haven't been since 10 (excluding 7 remake). 12, 13, and 15 all missed the mark in some way. I really didnt get on board with the battle system in 12 and disliked the story. 13 didnt seem to go anywhere (and i actually liked 13, particularly the phenomenal soundtrack), and 15 required far too much investment in extended universe content. You couldnt just play the game and get a complete experience. You needed to invest in a movie, a book, dlc, and an anime. It was insulting, and was a shame because the world they built was genuinely brilliant, and i liked the road trip dynamic

I just hope they remember to inject some humour and fun into the game. So far it all looks incredibly serious and dark, so whilst that suits the story they are going for, i do want lighter moments in my FF (probably why 9 is my favourite)

@NEStalgia @Ralizah l don’t mind action games, but this isn’t remotely FF to me. They can keep the turn based stuff in DQ but why can’t they have this look a little more like a fantasy game and less like, well I can’t tell what it is b/c it’s too dark. Not adult dark, dark like this planet has no sun and the humans haven’t invented fire yet. The fact that you only play as 1 player, not a party, well why not call Forspoken FF, or Elden Ring, or The Witcher? That last dlc area in TW3 would be a great location setting for an FF game, they have daylight and color there.

I may play this, it may be good, but it’s more of a spin-off than Crisis Core in my mind. FF as JRPG is done. 🤷🏻‍♂️

If I had a choice, I'd like FF to go back to the turn-based roots, but there's no denying there are countless games to fill that niche and this looks insanely polished. I'm looking forward to it!

I'l check the demo out but i'm not feeling anything for this.

Day 1 purchase. I'm excited for this game as I think Final Fantasy is in desperate need for a refresh. Every game after FFX has had a fragmented fanbase with XII, XIII, and XV getting some things right, but overall being inconsistent.

For all the hate it gets i think XIII had a really good turn based system. I think its fine that they leave it behind bc we can get that fix elsewhere like Octopath, I Am Setsuna type games.

As someone who hates turn-based games and derivatives thereof, this is the first FF game I'm actively planning to play.

The last good final fantasy was 10 since then the series has lost its magic and rapidly gone downhill.

Not a buy from me unfortunately !

I am a huge fan of the series!!
The poll misses the option "I won't see anything I will just buy the game when I can afford it or have time to sink to it".
I have not watched any trailer or any impressions video. I may only play the demo myself.
I did the same with 13 and 15 and from the 7 remake I saw only the generic trailer where Cloud and Barret fight the first boss

@rjejr Yeah, that's exactly my sense! FF needs to be....fantastical. That's part of what's missing. It has castles, but Game of Thrones isn't FF. Dragon Age isn't FF. This isn't FF. It's just endlessly dark and bloody.

And the "solo protagonist" I think is really a key thing that ends it being a JRPG. Maybe it could still be a WRPG which has no parties, but as they keep talking about having no player agency, focusing on the main story, removing optional locations, etc, it really sounds like they're describing an action adventure, not an RPG. They don't talk about anything that makes Bioware, or Bethesda, or Obsidian, or Larian, or CDPR, or even RGG games RPGs. No. Everything the describs sounds like God of War, Uncharted, and Tomb Raider. And I like them all, but none of them are FF. Or FF-like. Or anything that you buy a game called FF to be.

The sheer number of people saying "I never liked FF but I'm excited for this" identifies the problem. When you have a series that is identifiable as a series that's something other than what someone likes, then the new entry suddenly appeals to them, that's a clear note that it's NOT a part of that series. Looks like a fine game. For a new IP not called FF.

@themightyant What rulebook needs ripping up? What has remained unchanged in FF since 1999? The "rulebook" stopped when the PS2 launched. Why is it that any time anyone talks about this one being different there's always this defense of "TURN BASED IS OVER". Who's talking about turn-based anything? Few are saying it needs to be turn based. FF hasn't been turn based since 13. Nobody says KH, a JARPG isn't an RPG. Nobody says Yakuza (before it was turn-based) wasn't an RPG. Nobody says Bioware and Bethesda and CDPR don't make RPGs, and none of those are turn-based. The part that's worrying is everything described about this game sounds like it's less RPG than Horizon which officially is just an "open world adventure" but is much much much more RPG than anything described about the newest entry of what used to be the #1 RPG.

Maybe it's really an RPG and all the interviews and footage just don't convey it well. But I think we're mostly worried because visually, thematically, structurally, and contextually everything we've seen is a different thing than FF. Doesn't mean it looks like a bad game. It just looks like a game that is not FF while calming to be FF for marketing purposes.

Edit: It all goes back to that interview with Yoshi-P about what FF is and he talked about cutting edge visuals and storytelling. He never once talked about pillars of game design or themed. It was all about stories and graphics. Blockbuster attributes that make action adventures, not RPGs. That's just it. We expect an RPG from FF. Whether it's WRPG, JPRG, ARPG doesn't matter so much, but we expect a fantastical RPG. This seems like yet another grimdark action adventure game from what we DO know without touching it.

I don’t feel anything particular about the game to be honest. Not a huge fan of the franchise but I’ve enjoyed a few FF titles in the past. FF16 looks fun and I’m all for a great game so what the heck, let’s go!

Seeing this preview just made me so daym happy..can't wait for June

Im crossing my fingers for this one.
And i also consider waiting a good while before playing it. Too many big games like these get lots of patches and ease of life fixes in their first year of launch, making them a better and more rich experience.
FF15 at launch Vs ff15 1 year later is a great example. You can actually play with every characters which you couldn't at launch and its a game changer.

Provided square keeps making games that use traditional turn based and ATB systems then I don’t care. This throws away a lot of what makes a final fantasy game for me but that doesn’t make it bad necessarily.

@NEStalgia "The sheer number of people saying "I never liked FF but I'm excited for this" identifies the problem."

Yeah, I noticed that too. I'll die on the hill that Starfox Adventures is by and far and away the best Starfox game, b/c it is, also the best Gaemcube game and that includes 1 of my favorite series Pikmin, b/c Starfox is just that good. It's like 20 years later and I still don't think Nintendo itself has caught up to that amount of voice acting in a game. Don't think BotW had as much. BotW is probably better but it's like 20 years later as well, but I prefer Starfox Adventures from a graphically and linear story driven adventure.

But Starfox Adventures is pretty much considered by everyone, including myself, to not be a Starfox game. But it's still much more of a Starfox game than FF16 is an FF game. 😝

@KaijuKaiser @pharos_haven See, this I don't get. People have this blind faith in a guy, who at every interview gives the impression that he really just doesn't get, or much care about, what people are looking for in an FF game, based on a career almost exclusively revolving around rescuing an MMORPG that was originally created by someone else, by mostly better managing the project. An obsessively grindy MMORPG that plays like a PC game from the late 90's, which for some reason people rave about mainly just because they like the story. Which goes right back to the exact same worries. A position he picked up mostly after being a big fan of OTHER MMORPGs, and time spent trying to learn Western game design ideas at Western studios then abandoning the Western style soulsborne clone he was working on in order to move over and save the troubled XIV project.

I agree that that game does "Feel very FF" in terms of tone and theme, more than the last several mainline FFs, but that wasn't really his direction, it's one he inherited for a title he was brought in to reorganize. But it's also clear it's not the game he wanted to make, himself being largely an MMO/online gaming fan of western games.

I don't doubt he's capable of making quality games, or games that appeal in the West, but I'm not sure FF is the right franchise to include his project into when it could/should have been more of a Forspoken kind of separate project (for better or worse) while someone else made an FF that wanted to actually be FF. I see him as being like the guys that eventually left to found Monolith (Xenoblade) - they wanted to work on something else of their own (Xenogears) but instead the management told them they HAD to make FF. So they left. In Yoshi-P's case, I just feel like instead of leaving he just learned to work the system and say "yeah, sure, it's FF, see there's a moogle there, now GTFO and let me make my Game of Thrones game."

He's not a Todd Howard or a Warren Spector or Peter Molyneaux, that after many great hits written by that individual you have a feel of what they're visions are and what they're capable of (or the failures). His fame revolves around rescuing someone else's troubled MMO successfully and suddenly he's untouchable.

@rjejr yeah, I mean I kind of thing of it translating to music somewhat. Lets take, say, Wynton Marsalis, and imagine somebody saying "oh, I hate jazz and I normally would never buy a Wynton Marsalis album, but oh, hey, he has al album of Bach concertos, now this I'm excited for!" That doesn't mean the album made them suddenly like jazz or that the classical record is a logical continuation of the jazz albums, it's just a completely different genre! If somebody is not a fan of a series but a new entry is so radically different that it's now appealing, that's not a good thing, that's a bad thing if you're not trying to lose the audience.

It'll be frurstrating though because the sales tactic worked. No matter what, it WILL sell like hotcakes because it's called FF, and the true believers will stop at nothing to declare how it was proven to be the right direction for FF. While FF will just be not FF anymore, and the new game series won't have a chance to prove itself as a new game series and will be chained to pretending to be FF.

@Ralizah Amen. Thought I was alone in that aspect. It may be a good game in it's own right, but my opinion is Final Fantasy hasn't been Final Fantasy since VII and before. It's something else entirely. To the point, everyone gets giddy when seeing any old reference, or easter egg, to the games that were the definitive Final Fantasy series I-IVII (in my book.)

@Grimwood Blasphemy. LOL. Maybe the first good FF game since VII, but we'll see.

Art must evolve and change to stay relevant. Final Fantasy is evolving and changing, and that’s okay. There are missteps , for sure, but also chances for greatness that may not have happened without taking a risk. I’m staying positive for this one.
Also you can’t please everyone. 🤷🏻‍♂️

I'm very hyped for it! I love the directions the games have been heading into but I do miss turn based FF too.

Would be nice if they could also make some smaller games that still do turn base

A must-buy. Starting saving money now.

I finally realized a few years ago that, outside of a couple of very specific examples, I just do not care at all about this type of Fantasy.

I'm totally on board with the combat system and the summons being a huge part of the game, but I watch the trailers and see extremely generic looking characters talking about their duty to protect their kingdoms and uphold their honor and f'ing blah blah blah and...nope...I'm 100% out.

Basically anything that's about a bunch of people either fighting over land or trying to convince each other to unite their lands...good God, I could not possibly care any less.

@tselliot Even VIII - XII, as different as they were, still had party control, and maintained a sort of JRPG charm that made the series what it was.

This just feels like Square-Enix's stab at a dark, narrative-driven action game. If you showed me footage and didn't tell me what it was, I'd have never guessed it was supposed to be a Final Fantasy game. Not in a million years.

@NEStalgia @rjejr This sort of thing is why I'm DREADING the reveal of Dragon Quest XII, which they've already said will have a more 'adult tone.' It's not about incorporating serious storytelling: DQ games are already well-known for having some downright harsh twists and plot beats. What they mean is that they want to drain the color, joy, and charm out of it so that it'll sell better to Western gamers.

@Ralizah Definitely don't disagree with that. I hope the game is good but I haven't seen one thing either that makes it a Final Fantasy game.

The fact that Yoshida is leading is enough for me. I'm itching to find out what he came up with.

@Ralizah Yep, exactly! And it doesn't even seem like a bad attempt at a narrative driven action game. Just start a new IP and don't just glue it to the FF brand for sales.

I, too am dreading DQ.... I'd rather they just kill these series with dignity and say there's just not enough market for them than torture their legacy like this. Squeenix is the Activision of Japan.

I'm amazed at all the positive reception though, "YES! A game that looks like every other game I've ever played! Now I can finally buy into FF!"

And so the dance begins anew. We all get excited for a new Final Fantasy only for it to be disappointing when it actually comes out.

@NEStalgia Maybe, we’ll see. I don’t find FF’s identity in the combat, and plenty of the games have been fairly linearly. So if it retains identity outside of combat, I’ll be fine with it

It's the first NON-MMO Final Fantasy game to have the real crew making it since Final Fantasy IX

so I'm pumped.

As an old guy gamer, I've been playing final fantasy since it started , I feel it needs to modernise after the same turn based, waiting for a bar to load gameplay for over 20 years . There are retro alternatives if you still need the turn based game like octopath traveler, 2d-hd version of earlier final fantasy games, dragon quest and recently like a dragon. I am a massive fan of recent DMCV and played a big chunk of ff14- still need to do shadowbringers dlc at some point . Hopefully ff16 success will also help Final fantasy 7 remake part 2

Definitely in. This is my first PlayStation since PS2 so I want to try out every thing.

@NEStalgia While I'm not going to type out a a 20-page essay to respond to this. It only takes some time with the game to understand that while yes it was placed into his lap and it wasn't what he initially created you can't take away from him the work he has done to improve it and make it one of the best FF games available whether you like the playstyle or not. No one says you have to agree with everything he does but having a hate boner for his idea on a game none of us have played seems weird.

@KaijuKaiser If 13, the poorly regarded entry that the devs said was not an rpg is the defense you're kind of agreeing though...

@pharos_haven I never said I hate this game or that or looks bad, I'm saying it looks like a new ip or spinoff and doesn't look like it should be a main line entry of the FF series it doesn't seem to be part of.

@Jaz007 I don't totally disagree there. Though what we've seen so far I'm not seeing it outside either. Some tributes but only skin deep. We'll see...

As a long time FF fan I really miss the turn base gameplay and having to micro manage your party but times have changed.

I have faith that Yoshi P will deliver! He turned FF11 around and created a masterpiece. I don't mind combat being a long the lines of DMC as long as it's focused and engaging.

It's funny, that if this had gone back to being an old school turn based FF, with the same budget as they have, it would've really stood out from the million other action RPG's out there. It would've drawn in the old FF fans from the ps1/ps2 era too I believe. And turn based games are successful, look at Pokemon for example.
It looks good for what it is, but it just looks like the 20 bazillion other action RPGs, though with very nice visuals.

@KaijuKaiser action is not the reason most of us don't feel it's ff though. I've said a few times I don't care if it's turn based, action, or jrpg or wrpg. But it at least needs to be an RPG. The worry here is nothing seems like an rpg or connected to the thematic cohesion of all other ffs. I don't think it's gate keeping to expect a series to at least be consistent in genre. If the next cod was a tactical strategy game and the next gta a linear narrative adventure, fans of those series would be rightfully disappointed as well.

Again I often mention that interview where he defines ff based on graphics and story, never mentioning gameplay pillars, design concepts or anything. What he describes is a naughty dog game basically, not anthing that could define ff. I really don't know why people treat him like the second coming of kojima based on a single mmo. It's a strange phenomenon.

If you ask Todd Howard what makes TES guaranteed he'd talk about player freedom to interact with the world and create whatever narrative they wish, the open ended skill class,etc. Gameplay and design pillars that make the series special. Not "graphics and story."

I’ve been rocking my PC and PS4 Pro for the last few years, but Final Fantasy XVI and Spider-Man 2 might just get me to finally upgrade to a PS5 later this year. Plus I still really want to play Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart!

No need for questions, insta-buy for me the moment the 1st trailer was released

It lost the feel years ago. Once it moved to hack n slash it stopped being FF games and really was a new franchise.
People can say things have to move on and so on but o, those things are what the franchise was grounded on, and to turn it into devil may dry with spells just stopped it being FF. Add to that, they don't even look different or unique any more. The last few games have been so generic looking that I would never have calledthem FF. Every older FF game had its own unique style, these just look like every other game. I don't think I will ever buy or play an FF game again.

Don’t really care one way or another

@KaijuKaiser That's a very weird and broad definition of an RPG where did you find that?

By that definition, GoW, Uncharted, Bioshock, Doom Eternal, and Spyro are all RPGs. It's a definition so broad and abstract so as to encompass almost everything sort of competitive and puzzle games, and arguably includes most modern sports games so as to be a meaningless definition.

I think we can start by identifying games that are broadly categorized as RPGs from DQ to Yakuza to Jade Empire to Cyberpunk to Diablo and reduce from there, no?

I'm not a FF fan and even i'm very excited for it.

hate this direction. lost its magic completely
I like FF9/10, this is just Forspoken mixed with DMC...all it needs is a witty talking sword

@themightyant Final Fantasy stopped being the driving force behind RPG’s years ago. It’s honestly just playing catch-up to other RPG’s Amat this point. I would argue that Persona has had a larger impact on the JRPG scene than Final Fantasy has in the last 10 years or so.

@themightyant I don’t think it can. These changes might help it gain new fans, but it’ll also alienate a lot of the old ones. And as I said it’s largely been playing catch-up to other popular RPG’s and Japanese action games. You can’t become pack leader if you’re playing catch-up.

I'm actually playing through FFIX at the moment. I enjoyed bits of Final Fantasy 7: Remake but a lot of it was not for me.

The battles were kinda cool but I just really, really prefer the turn based battles of old.

I was hoping for something that would be more in the style of FF14 or FF9. I'm not a fan of this western dark (!) medieval action games at all. I've become a Final Fantasy Fan because it was entirely different from that but still on a cinematic level.

Looking forward to FF7 Rebirth and the possible FF9 remake that was leaked some time ago.

I love everything about FF16. I can't wait!

I'd prefer it if XVI was final fantasy but even though it's nothing like it it looks absolutely amazing and I want to play it right now.

I’m totally fine with action RPGs as long as the game is well-made.

I grew up with FF and Dragon Warrior on NES, and then every RPG I could find as a kid through the SNES, PlayStation, and up. Even though I enjoyed turn-based gameplay, I saw it as being a limitation of what could be done in order to tell a bigger story, and we had to use our imaginations to fill in what the hardware and graphics of the time couldn’t do.

Today’s games are very much what I imagined when I would play Dragon Warrior 4 on NES, but now they are fully realized.

My older brother still says that RPGs should only be turn-based, and he really likes nostalgia-inducing games. I get that, but I like to play new stuff too.

I'm honestly depressed. I've played the series since the very start. 13 and 15 changed from my ideal format, and this one has stripped the game of just about everything that I like it seems. I'm worried that the slow paced, party rpg is all but dead. This is not the game that I want.

Combine that with the news about Dragon Age Dreadwolf, and it's been a rough month.

As long the combat is better than FF15 and FF7R it will be good for me... Hopefully the story and protagonist aren't a let down like in FF15!

I'm a huge turn-based RPG fan. I play some ARPGs, but vastly prefer their slower cousins. I've lost all interest in playing FF (haven't finished one since XIII-2 & haven't even played one since Lightning Returns).

That said, there's two things I keep in mind. The first is that not every game is going to be up my alley. That's fine. FF & I had a long run - it's the series that got me into gaming! Second, this has been Square's goal for decades - I remember them talking about making this type of RPG since the 80's - it's just taken them some time & technology developments to finally achieve it. There is a definite cool factor (imo) in their sticking to accomplishing this vision! I wish Square luck & hope ARPG fans enjoy the game.

I'll be over here playing Baldur's Gate III & Broken Roads.

@themightyant Fantastical - yeah, I wasn't precise there. Obviously espers and the like are "fantasy" elements, and dark fantasy is fantasy. I said fantastical, but I think what I really was trying to convey was a sense of wonder. Every environment of FF to date, even the odd 15, even the odd metal world of 13, had a sense of awe, and wonderful, a sense of fantastical places to it. That was maybe the defining hallmark of FF vs even other popular JRPG series including DQ. It was an otherworldly escape to a place of awe and wonderment. A truly fantastical alien land. This is, grimdark castle scapes, the opposite of the sense of wonderment every entry to date has offered. That's a cosmetic criticism to a point, but it's one that's, specifically for FF above almost any other series, more vital than it seems at a glance. It has the same effect as if a SMT mainline title were bright and bubbly.

I'd push back on the push back. Mario 64 did not change genres at all. It expanded the existing genre, literally into a new dimension, with the addition of a Z-axis. But did did not change the core fundamentals of Mario or a Platformer. It was additive, not transformational change. And that continues up through today, with the newest entry of Mario, Odyssey, being additive, but not fundamentally transforming the core structure of the original NES title. The gameplay loop remains fundamentally recognizable through the entire series.

The same can also be said of Zelda. From the NES entry through BotW (so far.) Details have changed, the Aonuma subgenre to the Miyamoto subgrene (Miyamoto meaning 1, 2, 3 and partly BotW), but the fundamentals have been steady throughout with the lone exception of 2, the one that's an actual RPG, and the one Miyamoto described as the worst game he's made.

At a certain point a SERIES has to represent something. Tentpoles that represent why someone that likes that series would continue to support that series. Yoshida's take on FF is that "any game we feel like making as long as it's max budget with max graphics, and a great story is an FF game" more or less. You're kind of baking that view, but that's nonsensical. That's why numbered sequels exist. To inform people a game is connected in terms of what it offers to other games of that series. It doesn't represent "another game from the same studio they believe is the same quality as the other ones" which is more or less what he suggests FF is, just "any new Square game that fits the quality standards of prior Square games" without identifying tentpoles that says "this is why this game is part of this series, because this series offers this set of elements."

Expanding: Yakuza/Lad switched battle systems entirely from an action game to a turns based game, yet it's still very clearly a Yakuza/LaD title. The structure, art design, gameplay loop, questing structure, themes, etc are all in tact. Only the battle system changed. It even incorporates fantastical (thugs turning into DQ monsters) but it doesn't change the core tentpoles still.

Similarly Xenoblade, like FF, is very different in every game, but carries certain tentpoles in terms of structure, design, and approch to the world and the gameplay, even the wildly different X, is clearly recognizable as an XC title by appearance and gameplay structure.

I don't think FF needs to have a certain battle system or environment to retain being FF, but it needs a certain set of characteristics that separate why this is FF, and not Mana, Chrono, Nier, or anything else. TBH from the surface this game would belong more to the Nier franchise than the FF franchise, short of the story not connecting, if we were to approach this Nintendo style of "design the game, then assign an IP it best fits with."

"In my view, as a fan, it has been living off rehashing the same tropes and themes for too long and that is tired. You may feel differently."

If that's really where you are and Yoshida is and Square-Enix is then the better option is to say "hey, we've run the course on FF, it's been a great 30-some years, but we're out of new ideas for how we can improve FF beyond the 15 mainline titles that have existed. It's been a great run, thanks for playing, please look forward to our new grimdark cashcow action rpg series coming in 2023!" You don't make Star Wars 10 a zombie apocalypse film to change direction to modern tastes because the old format is stale and doesn't have an audience anymore, you end/retire the series and build a new franchise.

The only reason that's not happening here is money, not creativity. If they have no ideas on how to continue FF, then they can start a new series. And that's basically what they're doing here. But they're latching onto the FF brand because it'll sell. Which then makes one question if FF is really so stale it has no audience if it still has such a command that Marketing won't let it go?

Overwhelming sentiment was positive on Forspoken and XIII as well. And pre-launch No man's Sky. And Halo Infinite. Anything fueled by raw hype seems to have tones of overwhelming sentiment in previews. I'm not going to read much into that yet.

This may all be for nothing and the demo will show that it's actually all great. For now we can go on only the concerns we see and hear.

I'll have to come back to those "pillars" and my issues with them another time though

@themightyant One thing I'd add, though, based on your reply to rjejr, and it's puzzling to me, but I also don't think you're unique in it, the idea that if a series completely jumps genres, themes, art styles, concepts, and gameplay loops such that it's a totally different game entirely, not related to anything regarding a series, but jumps to peak commercial success, then it "adapted with the times" and "drew new fans into the series." No it didn't. They created a new popular series for someone else, left the series you're a fan of in the dustbin and slapped the name on it so that you'd fork over you cash as a "fan", regardless, without questioning it.

If they make TLoU Part 4, but name it Knack III, should Knack fans be happy at finally getting a sequel that's praised and popular? Finally the world appreciated Knack with tons of new fans brought into the series for the first time? Or is it just a different game for a different market cynically labeled part of a series it's not because business reasons?

If Musk names his newest most expensive luxury car the "Edsel" does it finally redeem the Edsel's legacy? No, it's just a new, different car with a legacy name slapped on it.

I'm interested in the game, FF is no longer what I used to love (thankfully that role has been filled by Persona and Like a Dragon 7) but I still enjoy the tropes that are still carried over. I do love that Yoshi P is bringing a lot of things back, like moogles (still annoyed that FF7 Remake only "reference" to moogles was a kid on a suit...)

I wont be buying it day one, will most likely wait for a sale. Got plenty on my backlog to keep me busy the entire year already, so I likely can wait for a Black Friday sale. Then again... I remember feeling the same way about Final Fantasy 12 and succumbing on my drive home from work, stopping on a store and buying a copy day one... that I didn't play for perhaps 7 years...

Everything they have shown has been very dark which is very worrying. I am worried about my beloved cactuars I think they will be sat in a corner with a black hoodie on cutting themselves with there own needles! The change in combat doesn't bother me I think its the medievil setting and lack of colour, it feels its going after the souls look.

@Jammsbro I would suggest FF14 it has a long free trial to it.

@themightyant A Platinum-style QTE-riddled boss fight that doesn't lean on character build? Sounds like an RPG all right I mean even skill-based Souls leans into your character build somewhat.

For their day and age, "desert, water, forest, snow" worlds were fantastical, and FF's take on it was always a uniquely breathtaking world in scope, relative to what the hardware of the day could actually demonstrate, of course.

The real problem is, all the speculation either way aside, we can take those other games and look at them and say "that looks like the same game but with changes I don't like" ME2, Skyrim, etc, you don't look at them and say "nothing of this resembles anything anybody expects from this series." It's clearly the same series, it's just with controversial changes to the formula or basics. The problem with at least what we've seen of XVI is that, after SIXTEEN ENTRIES in a series spanning 35 years, if you can not recognize a single thing that would indicate that the game is a part of that series other than the logo on the box, it's very, very worrying.

If Yakuza 9 takes place on a space station and you control Heinrich Stefano, famed bounty hunter, with an isometric grid based game....I don't want to see conversation about "it needs to change with the times, but it's still clearly Like a Dragon, I mean see, there's a Smile Burger spacetaurant, and a mahjong parlor on Bertrax IV, it's clearly still Yakuza. There's even a frieghter called "FDS Kamurocho", clearly a nod to the series roots!

@themightyant I'm going to ignore a bunch of that b/c I don't know who Yoshi-P is so I'll let you and NES hash that out.

I do think Mario was a really poor choice of example though. Mario is Mario, and every Mario game has 3 base colors, red, blue and green. That's about it. All the 2D and 3D Mario games look like Mario games. There are no Mario games that only take place at night where everything is too dark to see using photo realstic graphics from the Unreal 5 engine.

OK sure, the vry 1st 2D run back and forth in the pipe Mario game looks different, but every 8 bit game looked like that. From Gameboy color forward and SNES forward he's red & blue and Luigi is green.

When they make Mario: Grand Theft Auto, let me know. Or better yet don't. 😂

"it's what Elden Ring did recently"

OK, I'll bite, what did brand new IP "Elden Ring" do recently? B/c while it may be a FromSoftware game it isn't called Dark Souls or Demon Souls or Bloodborne, it's called "Elden Ring". A new game series. If Squenix wants to make a game called "Summoning of the Gods" and not put a 16 or FF in the tile like FromSwoftware did w/ "Elden Ring" I'm all for it.

"It's gatekeeping"

I'd argue it's not, it's logical consistency. Know how Mario, getting back to your earlier reference, has all of those sports games, and the Paper Mario games, and the handheld story driven games w/ Luigi which I have no idea if they have a genre, maybe they're "RPG" follow-ups? Well everybody knows Mario is in those games, but whenever you see a list of "Mario" games you see either a list of his 2D games or his 3D games, maybe both, but you rarely see those RPG games mentioned, b/c they are considered spin-offs.

If they called this "Final Fantasy: Summoning of the Gods" I'd probably be ok w/ that too, but they called it FF16. Mainline FF games have always had a PARTY. Not a dancing, booze and merriment party, a group, whether you controlled all or 1. FF15 started as 1 but eventually you could choose, but they were all there, all important - well if you watched the webisodes series beforehand. This is 1 player running around. It's "Crisis Core". Crisis Core is more of an FF game than this is, but no number. B/c back then they knew it wasn't a mainline FF game. Now it's just all about the $. 🤑

If this is a mainline numbered FF game, what's next, FF17 the match 3 mobile game?😝

Do you know what FF16 is? It's a follow-up to this old and forgotten FF game, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers. I played it, it's trash. Not numbered, not mainline. 🤷‍♂️

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_Crystal_Chronicles:_The_Crystal_Bearers

You and NES may have covered all this already, who can read all that, but I think I made my point. It can be FF, but it can't be a numbered mainline game w/ only 1 player, needs a party. I was about to say some color would help but it certainly didn't help that Wii game. 😩

@Ralizah "Dragon Quest XII"

Well that sucks. I don't like the turn based play anymore, last great new turn based game I played was Grandia 2 on the Dreamcast, but the cast and graphics and color were so good in DQ11 I even played the post game, up to the boss kicking my butt, then I stopped.😝

Oh well, at least Xenoblade came along to scratch the JRPG itch. And I haven't opened Tales of Arise yet. Playing Horizon Forbidden West now, which I guess according to Squenix is more of a JRPG than Final Fantasy. 😂

@NEStalgia "While FF will just be not FF anymore"

Waiting for the new 3D Mario game on Switch 2 to appeal to the GTA fans, "Super Mario Audacity". See post #114 above.

@rjejr Yoshi-P is the internet handle of Naoki Yoshida, the game's director. The fandom has assigned him Hideo Kojima-like godhood who can do no wrong because he managed to save the FFXIV MMO that already existed from failure when he was assigned to it and rebuilt it. That's really the only thing he's majorly known for. I have no idea how "in Yoshi-P we trust" became a thing that somehow the game is guaranteed to be a great FF game because a guy that saved a failing MMO is running it. It's a weird thing from the FF fandom, but I should expect weird things from the FF fandom more.

I think Mario may be a better example than we thought though. Imagine if Super Mario Bros: The Movie were actually Super Mario Bros 5 (the game.) That's basically FFXVI.

Spot on with Elden Ring as a new IP though! It's not Dark Souls 4, fan's just call it "Souls." Just as Elden Ring 2 would not be Dark Souls 5, and Demon's Souls was not Armored Core 5 because it's the same devs with the same concept of quality.

Let's also not forget with XV, when people say "but XV was different", XV wasn't originally intended to be a mainline FF game either, it was meant to be a XIII spinoff that they then just declared to be the next mainline entry when they realized they spent almost a decade in development hell making a spinoff for a game that was poorly received and didn't even have a numbered successor to replace it. And it was still more of a mainline game than this.

The real FF timeline goes something like: Sakaguchi made XII and then left. The members of the team that did know what to do with it also left, and founded Monolith. The remaining team had NO idea how to make FF without him, so they made XIII and did a totally different thing with it and it wasn't very well received in a lot of ways. Then they basically had no idea at all what to do with their cash cow, made 2 sequels that tried to "fix" what was wrong with it, dragged the parallel spinoff out forever in development until they just decided to give it a mainline number and roll with it (and strip out a lot of the FNC garbage that everyone rejected), and now here we are with XVI being, basically "Dragon Age 5 Versus" but without a party" because nobody at square actually knows how to make an FF game or can even agree on what FF actually is supposed to be while Sakaguchi's living it up in Maui making mad money on Apple laughing at them from the distance while his former bosses sell off half the company to get out of the red, as he contemplates retiring. He's interested in VR and AR though. It would be funny if the REAL FF13 is an Apple, Occulus, PSVR2 exclusive as the farewell game from the real FF creator.

That's kind of the part people keep glossing over. The last well received "real" FF game was 12. The last "real" attempt at a numbered sequel was 13 and it was not well received. Now they've basically decided to wipe the slate and create a new IP but pretend it's the 16th installment of a series it doesn't resemble. The thing is, what they're trying to do is kind of a "reboot" but while giving it a chronological numbered name which isn't how reboots work normally, and reboots are normally after an IP is dormant for ages to bring it back for new audiences, not while they're still in the middle of releasing a trilogy remake of the classic IP.

7R is the real 16. Forspoken is an FF spinoff. FFXVI is a Dragon Age game they didn't want to pay EA to make merged with a Dragon's Dogma game they didn't want to pay Capcom to make, but with the Tomb Raider gameplay design they forgot they sold the rights to and aren't allowed to make anymore but still use in their power washing simulator..

Is it really a Final Fantasy game in anything but the title? Not convinced, so far.

@themightyant I don't hate what I've seen. Well at least what I can see in the dark. I did see 2 lit torches in 1 scene so at least the game isn't completely in the dark, but it just isn't a main line FF game to me. Though I do finally realize that shipped sailed w/ FF11 being an MMO so I don't know why NES and I are giving you are hard time about it anyway. FF is a brand now, like Coke, Diet Coke, Cherry Coke, Cherry Vanilla Coke, Coke Zero, it's all Coke, isn't it. It has to be better than FFX-2, 1 of the worst mess of a game I've ever played, worse than FF:CC:TCB even, and that's saying something. (But in my head FF16 isn't FF. 😁)

@NEStalgia XIII spinoff

I think some of the people on here are still waiting for "FF Versus XIII" to release. 😂 Also, first post. 😎

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2012/08/square_enix_updates_final_fantasy_versus_xiiis_status

Well Yoshi-P does kind of sound like a K-pop star name. 😝

That's a pretty good timeline. That "Monolith" is the guys who made the Xenosaga trilogy right? Not to be confused w/ the guys who made the Xenoblade games, MonolithSoft, that Nintendo bought a decade ago, but everyone forgets so keeps calling the XC games 3rd party. 🤷‍♂️

@rjejr I was playing a psvr game "light brigade", it's a rogue like shooter with stats and upgrades and xp in a souls like format. It takes place in a world where the light has been lost and it's a permanent dark, snow covered world, with only the ground and trees and all having been lit in the fog. My first thought with "OMG it's FFXVI beta!"

11 and 14 may be mmos but they're at least RPGs and not walking simulators like this. And they have parties, towns, and npcs. Even if the parties are other humans.

Xenosaga (square enix), xenogears (bandai/monolith), Xenoblade (Nintendo/monolith) is the same guys . They started at square, worked on several of the classic ffs, made xeno, square management wanted them to just work on more endless ff, so they talked to a friend at bandai and left and started monolith. Made xenogears the continuation of saga. Then sold to Nintendo. There's a reason Kos-Mos is in xc2.

So yeah, Xenoblade is made by part of the old ff team. Sakaguchi himself went on to found mistealker that made 2 xb exclusives, a Wii exclusive and now 2 Apple exclusives. Interestingly Nomura (of kh and ff7 fame that's still at square) actually worked with monolith on the xc2 Torna (organization) designs.

That's the problem with ff. Almost anybody that knows anything about ff left and makes better games elsewhere. And the few left that do know are working on 7R. So "16" gets the mmo team and luminous engine.

There was another monolith out there, monolith productions that used to make the aliens vs predator games

@themightyant A handful of trailers and a lifetime of experience with Square-Enix.

I mean I like dragon age and dragons dogma. I'm not sure anyone was asking to merge those with Bayonetta and TLoU but here we are...

Dante Age & Knuckles

@pharos_haven Why? It's just more hack n slash. If I wanted that I could play hack n slash. FF games are not FF games anymore. They are something else. Just change the name already.

@Jammsbro FF14 is not a hack n slash you must be thinking of FF15. 14 is an MMO

@NEStalgia “snow covered world”

If there’s snow somewhere in FF16 it would be an improvement over what I’ve seen.❄️

Thanks for the history lesson. I knew the parts but usually don’t see them connected like that. Do you know who inside Squaresoft did “Vagrant Story”? That game was so hype when it released but it was horrible. My wife is still mad at me for watching me play it all. It was supposed to be the next big thing from the FF company but it was just this bland brown game w/ 1 guy running around in the dark killing bats. If they had called it FF11 then FF16 would make sense.😝

Kos-Mos should be in everything b/c she is everything. I still hear that woman’s voice in my head when I read the name, she was so sweet. I did know she was in XC2 for that reason but nobody in my house ever unlocked her, and we tried.🥲 I’d buy her amiibo. KOS-MOS FOR SMASH!!! Ahem.

@rjejr vagrant story was the ff tactics and ogre battle team actually. I have no idea what we've wrong they're though supposedly the team had terrible turnover so I assume bad business environment lead to bad game was the scenario.

Lol, I always think of project x zone with kos mos. That series was great

@NEStalgia
IDK, this VS trailer looks like the FF16 trailer to me. Very dark, fire & a sword.🤷🏻‍♂️

@rjejr LOL, that's no joke. FFXVI is Vagrant Story 2, confirmed!

.....not the reassuring image we needed in our heads