What is the essence of Final Fantasy?
Final Fantasy 16
Amusingly, they all had different answers.
I have to challenge something and try something new as well'".
So what is the Final Fantasy feel?
Is it the characters?
Is it the monsters?
Is it the dialogue?"
“There are things that are different every time.
But when you play a Final Fantasy, you know it’s a Final Fantasy”.
And why is that?
And that truly cinematic experience, it separates itself from other games and makes it like a movie.
And so in Final Fantasy 16 we pretty much did the same thing, we were inspired by that.
So you play the game for the first around two hours.
He hopes that will change once the game is out.
Playing through the game myself, I wanted to consider these different takes on the series.
Combat director Ryota Suzuki is a Capcom veteran who designed the combat ofDevil May Cry 5.
Combat is calculated and - dare I say it - Dark Souls-esque.
“We wanted to create something that really resonated with a lot of people.
“As for Lord of the Rings, I remember reading the novels when I was in junior high.
But now that you mentioned it, it really does look [similar].”
Accessibility is also an area in which the team is experimenting.
Yoshida explained that the team didn’t approach accessibility “any differently than we had approachedFinal Fantasy 14”.
So, what about those classic Final Fantasy elements that Koji Fox mentioned?
Final Fantasy 16 has Chocobo.
It has Eikons to summon and powerful crystals.
It has familiar spell names.
A battle against a Morbol, complete with Bad Breath attack.
And it’s a distinctive, individual experience that pushes the series on, while sensitively referencing the past.
There’s no need for FMVs in 16.
It seamlessly shifts from exploration to combat to real-time cutscenes and back again in impressive fashion.
Almost every shot is screenshot-worthy, and there’s a (slightly limited) photo mode too.
And while the world of Valisthea is grim, it’s lightened by humour.
These aren’t just characters but relatable humans with depth, feelings, and torrid relationships.
Puppy Torgal is also adorable.
What I really wanted to see in this demo were more of the RPG and customisation elements.
There’s every chance this will all still be present later in the game.
With all this in mind, how ‘Final Fantasy’ is it, then?
It’s clear from the team’s varied answers that Final Fantasy means something different for everyone.
Every game in the series is unique and Final Fantasy 16 is no different.
Whether it’s ‘Final Fantasy enough’ for fans remains to be seen; it certainly is for me.
