22nd June, 2023. That's the big day for Final Fantasy fans in the year ahead, as Final Fantasy XVI remains locked in to its summer release date. We've got close to seven months before it arrives, but Square Enix is wasting no time in getting the ball rolling. In a straight-to-the-point social media post, the developer reiterates the aforementioned launch date, and promises "a lot of information" in the meantime. Some lovely new artwork is included.
We get that it's a fairly innocent statement, but let's be real: the marketing budget for this game will be colossal — and that's without factoring in PlayStation's involvement with its timed exclusivity deal. You're going to be seeing a lot of Final Fantasy XVI over the next few months as we ramp up to the promised date. Assuming it doesn't get delayed, of course!
It's not like Final Fantasy XVI has been kept locked away since its announcement a few years back — we got loads of information on the game last year — but we still have a lot of questions. Many have been left wondering about how the title handles exploration, for example, because just about every trailer we've seen either has an emphasis on story or combat. We'd love to see some uncut gameplay footage.
We're sure that Square Enix will start going into that kind of detail soon. But until then, what do you want to know about Final Fantasy XVI? Do you still need convincing, or are you already on the hype train? Summon your own Eikon in the comments section below.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 33
It’s really nice to be excited for a FF game again, I am trying to remember if I was looking forward to FF15 as much. The demo they gave with Type-0 killed a lot of that hype for me.
Already pre-ordered. Just biding my time now. Can’t wait, but at least Forspoken is out this month.
i'm super excited for ff16 the only question is does rebirth come out in 2023 ? or do they hold it off till jan/feb 2024.
It's genuinely the only game i'm truly excited about.
I will get it at launch and play it, bypassing my whole backlog.
@twitchtvpat I think it will come out then as their next FFXIV expansion is set to come out like february of 2024. I don't think they want them to clash. If so, they will delay it for several months.
9 was the last truly good FF for me (and my favorite game of all time) but this seems to be a lot closer to what I believe FF should be. Preordered and pretty excited despite the battle system being 100% Devil May Cry. I can deal with it though if the story is solid and classic exploration/menus/parties etc are present. I'm a tad bit worried about those things still.
@Nem if that happens i'd say that works out perfectly , a good amount of time in between games , and we don't have to wait around forever to play it.
Like you guys, I'd like to see more gameplay in regards to exploration, as part of the fun for me for any FF game (and most RPGs to be honest) is finding all the new towns and secret areas. But even without that, FF16 is probably my most anticipated game of 2023, with the possible exception of Spiderman 2
@twitchtvpat personally I'd say rebirth gets delayed until early the following year. But I certainly wouldn't say no to 2 major ff games in 1 year
I don't need anymore convincing this'll be game of the generation but I'd still like to see more of the game anyway cause the wait is unbearable. Especially more of the exploration and doing side quests and all that. From the way they described it in interviews, the game is at the very least more open than ff7r which, while still an amazing game, was very linear
I just hope towns aren't relegated to gas stations like in ffxv or mundane camps like Xenoblade 3
@Batesy125s haha same , i'm excited for both of them.
As soon as the release date is locked in, as much as they can be in this day and age, I'll be booking a week's leave for this.
Totally stoked to see what Yoshi-P has done.
It's been 23 years since FF9. I really was hoping for another Medieval-themed FF. That's basically the entire length of Gen-Z it's been that long.
Don't get me wrong, hyped as Heck for this game, but FF is losing the "Fantasy" with every iteration imo.
I just hope they don't screw this up. FF deserves better than what it's been getting.
@Lorcan When i said "like", it's around there. There is no way they can release it later than that. There is such a thing as how long an mmo can go without a new patch. The current raid is already 2/3 complete. I imagine the last part will come out in the next 5 months. The next expansion can't go at worst 8 months after that.
Endwalker released in december. Next december will be 2 years. I cannot imagine them stretching it more than 2 months. People will be mad.
@kyleforrester87 I'll fully admit I partially preordered FF Type-0 HD just for that FFXV demo, and it disappointed me so bad that I never picked up the game's eventual release and only just booted up Type-O HD a couple days ago (not a fan thus far).
I think that demo, in conjunction with the sheer disappointment I experienced over XIII years before, permanently tanked my ability to trust Square-Enix with new entries in this series.
FFXVI may very well turn out to be excellent, but pre-release footage has left me feeling pretty cold to date.
@Ralizah yes the demo was very disappointing. It was a technical mess, too, versus the promotional stuff until that point. Very sad. I will say the “stand by me” launch trailer was really good though, even watching it now - go see - gets you in the mood to play the game.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eu9BTuyT-x0
Bottom line is I had a good time with the game in the end, though, despite its major problems.
As for Type-0, I really, really enjoyed it. Surprisingly so, for sure. The combat is a lot of fun (I played as the girl with the whip and the one with the hand guns mainly, as far as I can remember, I liked it more than the combat in 15) and the story gets really quite cool toward the end.
Preordered and waiting
@kyleforrester87 Maybe I should give Type-0 more time. I'm only a couple of hours in so far. The combat just felt so janky during that opening mission, and I'm hoping the whole game isn't filled to the brim with traumatizing chocobo deaths, lol.
@Ralizah I would encourage you to give it some time, I have to be honest it’s been years since I played it now but I remember the combat being a lot of fun - quite simple yet rather kinetic once you got to grips with it. I certainly favoured some of the characters to others - I also enjoyed the card guy and the fencer. I think that’s Ace and Queen but I maybe wrong.
@Ralizah Don't worry, you'll have other kinds of trauma
@Lorcan It is way too long of a content drought and there is no more excuse now that we are past covid. If one gets delayed, it will be FF7. FFXIV is a sub based game. It can't stop.
I just checked. The japanese fan fest is in early january. I stick by my prediction of february at worst for ffxiv next xpac.
I've learned my lesson from previous titles. As hyped and excited for the game as I am, will be waiting for launch reviews and gameplay first before I buy it.
just doesnt interest me very much far more interested in final fantasy 7 rebirth
I'll take it, I'm so excited ! Forspoken also <3
I've just re-subbed to FFXIV so I've got 4 expansions to get through on that. I think I'll be playing this Final Fantasy for a long while yet.
I really WANT to be excited about XVI, and the combat obviously looks incredible, but...man...watching the trailers I already absolutely hate the writing.
I can already tell it's just going to be a firehose blast of nonsense proper nouns and THEEs and THOUs and all the horrendously overplayed Fantasy tropes that completely turns me off the genre. The story bits they've been showing in the trailers just do less than nothing for me.
@AgentMantis
FFVII Remake was brilliant. It finally married the classic “feel” of the ATB Final Fantasies (4-9) with real time battles.
It was a bit too linear and drug out. But man every single fight was insanely entertaining.
The first boss you fight in the game could be most games’ final boss.
@GeneJacket
I’ll probably be playing it with Japanese audio.
That said, FFVII Remake’s dub was spectacular. So maybe it’ll be ok.
@OrtadragoonX I agree the gameplay was great and the story was decent up until the final third when they drove it over a cliff with all the cringe Kingdom Hearts fates nonsense. It killed any excitement for the follow up for me.
@OrtadragoonX It's not the quality of the writing or performances, it's entirely the style in which it's written. With rare exception, I do not care for capital "F" Fantasy, and it looks like that's exactly what they're going for with XVI.
@AgentMantis
That’s Nomura lol.
The dude always goes off the deep end in the third act in any game he has control over.
@GeneJacket
Ah I got ya. So sort of like Dragon Warrior on NES. Those went way overboard with Elizabethan English.
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