Final Fantasy XVI Is Action-Oriented, Features Story-Focused Mode

When they say action, do they mean they are using the same snooze-fest that was FF15, or a new system?

NINJA SKEPTICAL

Define Mature?

Sounds like FF7R, normal and hard mode for action, easy mode for those who just want the story. I can live with that, its not exactly groundbreaking but it was a lot of fun.

@BloodNinja Don't worry this won't like FF XV garbage the combat director of DMC V is handling the gameplay for this it'll be like a character action game no Tabata crap here

@Areus

I think it's like getting your braces off mature.

I'd like my story mode with a huge dollop of gambits please.

Since when did final fantasy "story mode" become something they will add for people who like it, what the hell? When was FF not about story....
So they basically telling us this will be some devil may cry scrap rip off, story mode popped in for the sake of it

I really hope it's more like ff7 remake combat, the combat is already perfect

@Keyblade-Dan Really? That's intriguing. When I played 15, I felt like I could press anything and essentially just mash through any combat encounter. And I played the game on it's hardest difficulty. After playing games like DMC or Dark Souls, I just can't tolerate stuff like 15, where it's just vague button presses.

Thanks for the info, though. I'll keep an eye on it!

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I'm very interested in the idea of a mature Final Fantasy game. Dark fantasy is something I always thought would've been a no brainer for the franchise to tap into and the closest I'd say they came before was probably the second half of FFVI after Kefka turns the world into Ruin

Need to get a PS5 to play it on first...Haha.

I have been wanting the Final Fantasy games to go into a more mature setting. I am not a fan of young people being given tasks with things such as protecting the world.

@BloodNinja Yeah XV was originally supposed to have full on Kingdom Hearts 2 style combat but when Tabata took over the project he dumbed down the combat because to quote him "I don't like frantically pushing buttons" that's why XV's combat was so terrible

Ugh-I’m worried about this. The series has just been mediocre at best (for me) for like 15 years.
I’m more excited for SE’s other rpgs coming down the line...the mana games, Project Triangle Stategy, and Bravely Default 2.

@Keyblade-Dan Yikes! What a guy! LOL

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@AdamNovice Which is a huge shame, because it's one of the most gorgeous looking games I've ever seen, story is fairly engaging, too. Some of the character voices are pretty grating, though.

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Right... So what about those of us who want the RPG "gameplay".

The storylines are not what made me love this series and it certainly wasn't the high octane action. This series is so lost.

Personally prefer XV over this generic, muddy looking game, but I'll definitely give it a shot if the reviews are favourable.

hopefully dragon quest will change to hack and slash too

I hope they don't make it mature for the sake of making it mature like adding unneeded blood and gore and swearing

@AdamNovice That's cause there's not much point in exploring.

Im very interested to see where they go with this. The quotes have me a little concerned. Im not buying final fantasy to play Devil May Cry after all - but i dont mind the game being more action focussed. The combat in 15 was fine, and they nailed it in 7R in my opinion.

But i wont stand for another Final Fantasy that sacrifices plot. As much as i enjoyed 15, there were massive plot holes, and a huge lack of narrative pulling everything together. Characters would literally show up with no context or obvious motivation.

FF hasn't told a particularly gripping story since 10. 12 was ok i guess, but fairly forgettable, and vaan and penelo are completely pointless, 13 was enjoyable enough but, again, forgettable with really two dimensional characters (13-2 was an improvement). 15 had everything it needed to tell an amazing story, but failed by cutting chunks out for dlc or extend universe stuff. 7R was obviously brilliant, but built on the foundations laid by the original game.

Lets see where it goes. Expecting big things Clive!

@Jackpaza0508 I doubt it will unless the director of FF14's story expansion have usually had that.

@Onigumo no thanks, let it keep its identity.
It's interesting cause FF and DQ are case studies in how to develop storied franchises in opposite ways.
DQ is arguably always too similar to itself, while FF is almost unrecognizable from game to game.

@BloodNinja ffXV was definitely terrible for combat. Ff7 remake basically felt like a more complete version of what XV had tried. I consider 15 like a beta, 7 is the alpha, and whatever comes next, I imagine will have nailed it. 7 remake was a huge improvement, in that 15 felt broken/incomplete and bland, but looked good, and 7 feels fun, and still looks good (but less "combros")

@Rob_230 I cannot agree with everything that you say any more than I already do. You got it spot on!

@Jackpaza0508 every character just says "s##t" or "f##k" in place of punctuation:

"S##t, Clive, we got bandits fu##ing incoming. F##k!... S##t"

Pretty mature, I'd say 😉

Ugggh....so....let me get this straight. An action-oriented "Final Fantasy", focusing even more on depressing emo adolescent angst, in a darker setting without the FF charm.

Yeah....so when's Mana, DQ12, and anything not this coming out, again? Heck, this quote half convinced me to buy Bravely Default 2. And I can't stand Bravely Default......

I think most of my hype for this game just vaporized, unless I see some gameplay that makes me really reevaluate.

@J2theEzzo The f#####g legacy of the f#####g crystals has shaped our f#####g history for long enough. Holy s##t clive, we need to save the kingdom from evil! * slices a goblin's face off as loads of blood and organs fly into his face *

@Jackpaza0508 @J2theEzzo Your interpretation of "Adult Final Fantasy" is less interesting and much more realistic than my own.....

Loved 7R and hope this one continues the greatness! I never played a FF game until this year and am slowly making my way through the post 2000 entries. I played most of XV, but couldn't find the motivation to finish. I'm really enjoying X so far, though!

I've only ever played ff7, on PS1, last summer. It was sitting in a bag with my console in the attic for about 20 years! I absolutely loved it and it got me back to gaming - one positive of the pandemic.
I still have ff9 for the PS1 in the same bag. I see you can get all the games now on PS4 so I'm tempted. I'm definitely getting FF7R at some stage. It looks like 8,9,10 and 12 are the ones worth getting, by general consensus, would that be right?

The story seemed a bit edgy in the reveal trailer, but we'll see. I'm not sold on the "mature" aspect nor does his growing up analogy make make any sense for that kind of "mature." I'll keep my eyes on it, but it just didn't grab me yet.

@Keyblade-Dan That's a real shame. I love FFXV, but felt the comabt was a weak point and would have much rather preferred that as opposed to holding a button down, which feels very very unnatural. A FFXV PS5 and PSVR2 remake with better combat would be amazing. They already have the first person view, so I think it would be a great fit. Try and make motion sick FFXV, try it.

@bluedex haven't played 12, yet, but with the rest you can't go wrong!

@J2theEzzo Still yet to try 7, I'm not sure I want to until it's either released on PC or well, completely finished.

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@bluedex Get 4, 5, and 6 as well. Avoid the PC/mobile ports, emulate them, if possible. 4 is great for the fun, light-hearted story. Worth at least one playthrough. 5 has A LOT of party customization with the class system, and hilarious story. 6 is a great all-around game, fantastic story, though a little on the easy side for an RPG. Still worth at least one playthrough for the story alone. It also has a lot of great party customization with the Esper system.

12 seems mixed. I hated it, felt too hands off and the story made me vomit (not literally.)

X was great, bad voice acting warning. 8 is hot garbage. 9 seems to be very well received, though I've never played it.

That's my two cents!

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As of now this game hasn’t got an ounce of FFXV’s charisma and I can’t even remember the main character face but a good combat system can sell me anything. It just seems really bland in terms of art direction

This game has me sold already. That trailer alone had a more intriguing plot than any other JRPG out in a while except maybe ffxiv which is made by the same people lmao

And good lord the art. As usual the art is absolutely fantastic. I don't need any convincing that this game is going to be great. But I'd still love to see more info and trailers just to ease the pain of having to wait for it to release

@Uromastryx It's literally just talking about an easy mode.

@Keyblade-Dan Hmm, I feel the exact opposite about the combat! In fact, for the past 4 years, I've been trying my darnedest to like Kingdom Heart's gameplay (like trying reeeeally hard to like it), but I can't tell you how many times I've said to myself, "this is the worst game I've ever played" while playing KH1-3.

There's just so much frustrating stuff, like the camera flying all over the place, getting hit by enemies jumping in from off-screen (because the camera is too close), losing almost all of my life from getting stuck in hitstun, the inability to configure the controls ("X" for attack will never be natural), and interacting with the environment to pull off tricks always feels accidental. That's not even to mention the agonizing Gummi Ship battles which are sooooo long and don't seem to add anything to the rest of the game, and the haphazard way that levels are designed (fight regenerating mobs, wander around until you find a random trigger event, repeat).

Any tips on how I can enjoy these games better? I feel like I'm playing these games wrong, lol, and any time I bring this up to KH fans they're always like, "F-you dude, these games are 10/10!" I'm planning on giving it another go sometime this year, and starting with Birth By Sleep. Maybe it'll finally click one day...

Ugh, I'm out, RIP what gave final fantasy it's name and standing, been a few titles now that have lost the path

The bad side of ffxv was story and characters, the gameplay is not bad but is also not good. Next gen rpgs need to have hack and slash like nier automata ( but with more rpg and less hack and slash). I think xvi will be a good ff

let's leave the turn based for indie and retro games

@BloodNinja how dare you lol. 8 is a masterpiece!

@zimbogamer My deepest condolences LOL

I’m kidding, I know that 8 is pretty split within the fan base. I got to the second disc and just couldn’t continue, it wasn’t for me. Great looking game for its time though!

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Storywise im not expecting anything great like ff4, 6, 7 or 9 but let it have decent combat, an airship with cid, secret locations and some endgame dungeons and i will be happy.

@Jackpaza0508 can't wait

@BloodNinja games are, generally in my experience, better played when they're finished. It's true.

I'm hoping I won't have to wait another 5 years to play through part 2. Hoping, I say...

Ugh.

Yeah, I'm even more worried now. A focus on action. A "mature" storyline.

This is yet another series entry that's going to completely lack the charm and focus on narrative and character that made the older Final Fantasy games great, I feel. This time with DMC-style combat, which likely means a focus on party dynamics is out, too.

It was a bad sign when I watched the first trailer and couldn't tell anyone apart.

I agree with others. FF7R had amazing combat, and it was also very much the right direction for the series: modern, with classic FF charm and really spectacular set-pieces and presentation.

Well, at least we'll be getting FF7R Part II at some point.

@BloodNinja With XV It was the lack of the action bar. Whatever its called. Just healing whenever and hacking away made it very trivial once you got to grips with it.

Though I seem to be in the minority who vastly preferred XV to the 7 remake overall.

A more mature Final Fantasy is fine with me. An action game with the Final Fantasy named tacked on isn’t but this is where the series has been heading for years now. Maybe it’s just time to accept FF isn’t for me anymore, it’s no longer the RPG I grew up loving.

In Takai and Yoshida we trust.

The story will be emotionally mature, prepare to get overly attached to characters and invested in their successes and heartbroken at their failures.

As I get older I have less patience for turn-based combat so I'm happy about it being more action based, my only real concern is the lack of party members so far.

The music had the sound of Masayoshi Soken to me and if it is then we're in for a treat OST-wise.

Anyone who is a FFXIV fan probably has faith in this project.

I really wish square would make a traditional old school turn based final fantasy again. It doesn't even have to be a mainline one, just a spinoff or something.
Turn based is hardly dead, persona and dragon quest have kept to it and they are doing just fine.
Even final fantasy still uses it on mobile phone (albeit gacha ridden).

“Mature” doesn’t necessarily automatically mean blood and guts, swearing and angst in a charmless world. It could mean well developed political intrigue, emotionally layered complex relationships or just a generally less romanticized version of reality infused fantasy with characters who are perhaps less morally black and white.

The latest God of War was far more mature than prior games, with half of the “mature” content and twice the charm found in the original run of games. I haven’t been this intrigued by a Final Fantasy in years.

@Starkei I think while your opinion is probably unique, it’s still valid. I ended up preferring neither. Downloaded the demo for 7, still haven’t played it. Don’t think I ever will. Kinda not in the mood for recent Square titles.

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@J2theEzzo I’m expecting it to be done when we hit around PS7.

I can't remember the last time I was less enthusiastic about a ff game, really hope it surprises me.

@Areus Manure?

@Keyblade-Dan DMC combat that's actually a bad thing, mostly hardcore fans of FF are worried about that game combat director, hopefully not and surprise us with new combat gameplay.

@Keyblade-Dan I'll believe it when i see it. Every final fantasy that isn't turn based has been horrible, IMHO. Easy for me not to get too excited about this because they've let me down so often. Dragon Quest & Persona have happily filled that void, tho.

@Sladey69 exactly the same for me.