“Awakening” trailer takes flight.
Final Fantasy XVI producer (that’s right, just producer) Naoki Yoshida here. How did you enjoy the trailer? The exclusive footage, comprised of both battles and cutscenes running in real-time, represents but a fraction of what our team has accomplished since the start of development on this, an all-new Final Fantasy game. In that span, the team’s size has grown from a handful of core members to a full-fledged unit that continues to polish and build upon what they have created so far, all to provide players an experience unmatched in terms of story and gameplay.
Our next big information reveal is scheduled for 2021, so in the meantime, I expect everyone to have fun speculating, as we have a lot in store—not only for Final Fantasy XVI, but for Final Fantasy XIV, too. Needless to say, I’ll be working hard on both!
— Final Fantasy XVI Producer, Naoki Yoshida
When Final Fantasy I was released, I was just another player─a young student with big dreams. By the time Final Fantasy V was in the works, I had earned myself a seat at the developers’ table… albeit at the very end. From there, I moved “online” leaving my mark on both Final Fantasy XI and XIV.
And now…XVI.
From the establishment of an all new development environment, to learning the ins-and-outs of the PlayStation 5, the team and I have taken on countless challenges during our journey to bring you the sixteenth chapter in the storied Final Fantasy franchise. And though we’re pouring our hearts and souls into this project each and every day, it may still be some time before we can get it into your hands. However, I promise it will be worth the wait!
— Final Fantasy XVI Director, Hiroshi Takai
LET’S GOOOOO
nice! looking forward to FF16
Ohhh my god the trailer was so good. It was edited perfectly and the audio throughout the entire showcase was movie theater quality. I’m shocked it’s exclusive to PS5 (and PC). Sony was holding out on us, they MURDERED Microsoft.
Probably timed exclusive – still good for Sony :)
Nah. Who will want to downgrade their games to run on series s afterwards? There are literally 20 Square Enix games that came to multiple platforms this year EXCEPT Xbox.
@andrewsqual
Uhh…who said anything about playing on the Series S? I mean if people have the choice between S and X I mean I’m choosing X lol and most of the “exclusive” games Square made, made their way onto Xbox One, with Nier and Dragon Quest XI being their most recent, Not to mention every FF game from 7-15 and the whole Kingdom Hearts collection.
We’ll see when there’s more info, but right now at the end of the trailer it says ** Not available on other platforms for a limited time after release on PS5 ** which to me says it’s a timed exclusive and MAY appear on Xbox down the road.
@xmiketheripper So is FFXIV on Xbox One? I wasn’t aware. /s
@xmiketheripper It will be interesting to see how real-world performance plays out. XBox X has more terraflops, but slower RAM (see how that worked last generation) and a significantly slower drive (PS5 is about 2.2x faster). 20% more terraflops won’t be as big a difference if the CPU and GPU spend time waiting for the RAM or drive to pass what they need. I don’t want to see the specs – I want to see side-by-side performance on games optimized to take advantage of each platform. From what I’ve heard, the PS5 will do a LOT better than average people seem to think.
That’s even ignoring “addons” like the true haptic controller and dynamic triggers – which, if developers use them, could be a huge difference.
It’s too early to pick one or the other based on what will play multiplatform games better. Not too early to pick based on exclusives, though!
Looking good! I’m interested in learning more about the story and battle system in the future.
I’m interested :D
Awesome trailer! I can’t wait until 2028 when it comes out on PS6!
First of all the good things. It’s not set in modern day Arizona and no Tetsuya Nomura in sight (thankfully).
But…it looks like a FF XV reskin with the same 2 button easy mode Kingdumb hearts combat, not a Final Fantasy game or even an RPG… The character designs are like presets in a f2p MMORPG character maker and pretty boring/forgettable. Will we get a non human non white non male non 12-22 year old character in a Final FANTASY game ever again?
Remember when Final Fantasy games were something to look forward to as you knew it was high quality ? I know the PS2(1) was a while ago, but it would be good to have that again.. 😜
Please don’t tell me you actually think that KH games are easy, lol. They’re harder than any FF game ever released, FF games are never hard games outside of secret bosses.
The most difficult thing about a Kingdom hearts game is working out how the plot makes any kind of sense. 😁
Complains about Tetsuya Nomura and then says “The character designs are like presets in a f2p MMORPG character maker and pretty boring/forgettable” :/
Well I mean, if it was Tetsuya Nomura they’d still be as forgettable, just all be 15 year old boys with fluffy hair.
Final Fantasy needs Amano back already, or just someone with ideas.
I have to agree about Nomura. As much as I love his work in FF7 and especially original Kingdom Hearts, I can’t help but think we’ve already seen everything he has to offer… YEARS ago.
I mean.. Sure the plot in KH games sucks, but that has nothing to do with difficulty. I play every action game that’s difficult and never had as much trouble with those games as I had with the KH3 DLC Data bosses. Those are harder than anything else I’ve done. And I’ve beaten hardest mode Sekiro.
These games are not made for you “Princess”, they are made for a particular audience, a young male Japanese audience. The characters are not white, they are Japanese and have always been. Again the MC is always young to relate to said audience. If you don’t like a game because its characters don’t suit your western liberal agenda, then why don’t you play one of the F2P MMO games you mentioned? you can make your character whatever you want.
Game looks great, will play if they finally get on top of 60 fps on consoles.
So is wanting more than the same boring character design is considered a “liberal” issue in the deep south US now? I mean I guess everything is, so that’s not shocking. Hopefully not all the US players want just the same bland crap and don’t take personal offense to anyone who doesn’t feel the same.
By the way, the “young male Japanese audience” don’t really care about FF games anymore. These games are made to cater for “western tastes”, which is why they include “western game” elements rather than “Eastern” JRPG things (though ironically the JRPGs genre started from copies of a western game, and basically all of those “western” games are actually either made in or copies of games made in “the East”, but things usually make no sense).
Oh and all those “f2p MMOs” are made in the East, so my “western (btw not “western”) agenda” wouldn’t be helped. 😂
Had no real desire to respond to any of this, but it’s amazing to know that I’m not alone in my awkward feelings towards this trailer. I couldn’t exactly put my finger on it, and I literally just had this conversation with a friend of mine.. It just failed to “hook” me in the same way that versusXIII(XV) did, years ago.
Nevermind if XV turned out to be a disappointment or not.. I even remember studying every XV trailer, religiously.. So much hype and anticipation. Yet for some reason, XVI simply isn’t doing it for me, this time.
It looks like a slice of an MMO, almost like a section sliced out of XIV. Which I suppose is less surprising, considering Yoshi-P has been selected to produce this. The characters aren’t really that innovative-looking, either. Don’t get me wrong, I’m aware of this being an introduction trailer, and ultimately, this game should boil down to its story elements(among other things)..
But it just feels like.. “this” has been done. Again, and again, and again.. What I really liked about this series growing up, is how Hironobu Sakaguchi was never afraid to push the boundaries of this franchise. Some story elements were reused, but the game experience was fresh with a new twist.. and it worked. Worked so well..
I just don’t feel many interest vibes with this particular project. Feels like.. Ive played this before, if that makes.. sense. I’ll wait for a story-trailer. If we are to judge this, prematurely, maybe waiting for a story-based trailer would better serve this project. My first impression, however.. I’m not all that impressed.
Did your team learn nothing from 15 and 7 Reboot?
They obviously didn’t learn anything from the 15 debacle.
I have been following FF games for decades and even though I liked FF7-R, it was kind of a meh game all things considered.
As for FF15, it was a truly mediocre disappointment. A lifeless, empty game with a battle system that’s neither fun, nor engaging.
It seems we’re headed that way again, sadly.
I will buy it once it’s discounted for 20 dollars like I did with 15, so my disappointment won’t expensive, at least.
FF7 remake? The one that is many people game of the year? You crazy? It’s okay if you didn’t like it. Doesn’t mean your opinion is a fact or the vast majorities. They did learn and applied. They just didn’t apply what YOU wanted. Combat director is the person that worked on DMCV also a game that is on everyone’s goty list. Also SOKEN and Noshida (mic drop)
YOSHIDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just love it!
Getting all those great feelings from the FF1-FF9 feelings, feeling again like the kid that used to watch the FF9 cut scenes for hours :) keep the good work up all at FF!
Nice, Yoshida, badass. No wonder it looked like FFXIV and on PC. Sonething he whipped up real quick for the showcase. Those final PS5 visuals are gonna be insane.
I was extremely excited for finally seeing some good ole’ fantasy, until the trailer started showing some ridiculous hack ‘n slash action. Now I’m just disappointed.
Yesss. FF is an RPG, so make it an RPG, not a witcher clone with 2 button mash combat.
I share your disappointment.
I liked the FF7R action combat a lot. It was way deeper than it initially seemed.
I’m saying this not because this seems to be anything like it (it doesn’t) but because I believe the teams at Square are capable of making things fresh and fun at the same time :)
I hope they are looking to Final Fantasy VII Remake for inspiration. This has me concerned that its a single character game and moving away from the party of old. So long as the story is rich and the character development well executed, with game play that is fun, engaging, and not a slog. I’ll be all about this game. I like the high fantasy, just hope it doesn’t abandon the Sci-Fantasy we’ve come to expect from the FF series. I like how this turns the core of FF on its head a bit. Sounds like a rebellion against the crystals.
As 11 out of 16 games are Fantasy Fantasy (1-6 9, 11-12 14 and 16) it’s still a Fantasy series more than anything. Even on the PS3 and PS4 it was evenly split between classic and “future” (13/14 and 14/15).
I’m just glad they abandoned the junky FFXIII/XV universe.
Looks like they’re trying for a war of the lions vibe with the storyline, unfortunately since it’s in the mainline series I doubt they’ll make it as complex and convoluted enough to rival FFT though, the greatest video game storyline ever told.
Final Fantasy Tactics is SERIOUSLY so underrated! Incredible story! T^T <3
It looks very similar to FFXV. Still excited to play this in 2025!
OOOOHHHH YEEEEEAAAAAHHH BABYYY!!!
Exclusive to playstation T_T
most likely time limited
I hope this is releasing on late 2021, early 2022
Coming 2025 😂😂😂
Composer?
Hamauzu?
SOunds like Soken. Boss battles are going to be insane with combat and music!
This game already looks so far into development, really exciting.
I am glad that you we finally see a new main Final Fantasy game, after the previous ones announced so long ago and as much I love Final Fantasy VII Remake I was afraid that we won’t see a new main game until the project ended.
can’t wait to get my hands on that.
A little dissapointed at the evolution of this game from turn-based rpg to action based now… Still beautiful graphics!
This is great news, I’m ready to start gaming on the new PlayStation, I’ve been waiting patiently for Final Fantasy 16 and have played every FF since I fell in love with the game with FFX, thank you all so much for your gaming talents, they have helped me on my personal journey and with my imagination. #PS5
this is going to be EPIC!! I hope the US version comes with the artwork for once. That Pheonix vs Ifrit art is to great. I just hope the game isn’t 3-5 years away :D
I’d like to see a system where summons are easier to use and control. Just more usage in general. I’m hapoy it’s just not online to start though
Honestly? As a massive FF fan, I was highly disappointed. Graphically It looked like an early PS4 game, even look at the close up shot above just looks like the warriors of light from XIV, but barely updated graphics. Not only that but SE seems to be stuck on this same art style where it wants to look real but hasn’t quite got it right.
Some of the best games in the franchise was when it went a little wild and got brave with the art style and character design. Look at Zidane with his tail, Kimari and all those other wold designs.
Now it’s just generic anime face number 5 and 6 teaming up.
What happend too the wild days?! Now you just play is safe with muted colors and generic characters and I don’t really know why.
Pretty sure the two faces at the end are the same person. Have the same earing.
also the are style is similar to FF14’s (arguably one of the best ff even if it’s mmo story wise) because it’s the same team.
The graphics looks like a game 15 years ago, it’s evolving, just backwards, don’t tell me it’s a next generation game
On the one hand I’m hyped for another FF, on the other I’m quite dissapointed that apparently Western made RPG’s still set the tone for what once was THE standard for JRPG’s. A dark and grim world full of fast paced action combat? Check! If one would’ve said I had been looking at a Witcher 4 or Dark whatever trailer I’d believe ’em straight away…
What happened with being original? What happened to the colorfull worlds of earlier FF’s? Even FF XIII looked better than this trailer if you ask me. Still, I’ll probably buy, play, and be dissapointed anyway.
With that attitude you will be.
I’ve felt the action-based gameplay that’s been in the more recent FF games would be a great fit for a game with a single protagonist (rather than a full party). Crisis Core has been the only action-based FF game I’ve enjoyed. Will XVI have just the singular playable character? If so, that’d be fantastic!
Man, I cannot tell ya how happy I am to hear we are finally going to get a new mainline FF entry into the series. While in my opinion it cannot be as big of a disappointment as what FFXV turned out to be, I will be praying that this breathes life back into one of my favorite series of all time!!
As a huge FF fan this is easily my favorite thing they showed this whole presentation!
The story and visuals look great so far. IFRIT LOOKS AMAZING!!
The only critique I have is that the playable characters look kind of plain, almost like NPC. Hopefully they make them look cooler closer to launch.
FFXIV is probably one of my most played games on PS4 (and PC) so having Takai-san and Yoshida-san working on this fills me with confidence that it’ll be good.
Can’t wait to learn more!!! :)
All them characters are wearing to much hair gel, I wonder why🤔😉
They really ought to start making these characters more lifelike. They look far to clean🤦♂️
What about Russian?
Looks really similar to FFXV, which is worrying given how stale that game was after all those years of waiting. I’m glad Nomura isn’t working on this given that I suspect the few bad changes made to the FFVII story were his idea (the inter-dimensional fate ghosts). I am also glad they’re returning to the medieval inspired settings, but the character designs so far look a little…underwhelming. The anime look really works in 2D animation, but in high resolution 3D animations they look quite out of place.
Who knows, maybe when we get our hands on this it’ll be a great addition to the franchise. I hope so.
Looking forward to this :)
吉田さん、高井さん、頑張ってください！お楽しみにしていますよ！
I for one am really excited about Final Fantasy XVI. I have absolute faith in Naoki Yoshida and Hiroshi Takai who have worked on XIV and XI respectively. I’ve been playing XIV since 2010 and witnessed it’s rebirth through Naoki’s leadership; becoming one of the most successful MMORPGs in the market. I’ve even had the pleasure of taking a picture with Yoshi-P in the first Final Fantasy XIV fanfest :) Final Fantasy XI was my first MMO online experience. It has forever influenced me. I have dedicated large amounts of time to both these games and to me, XVI is just lightning in a bottle with these two great minds working together. I can understand how some may feel disappointed in the art and gameplay direction. But Final Fantasy has always gone through radical changes and risks. And XVI is no different. In recent years, I’ve really enjoyed “From Software” games, namely Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro. So to me, XVI is looking like it will draw some influence and inspiration from modern-day RPGs while still sticking to its roots and rich history which is the Final Fantasy franchise. To which I say, dev on Naoki and Hiroshi. I know you both will take Final Fantasy to new heights :)
“Final Fantasy has always gone through radical changes and risks.”
But is this? It’s not really doing anything different or new that hasn’t been done countless times before. Even the “action combat” isn’t new or different to the FF series.
The characters, generic medieval setting and guy who looks like basically 70% of SE characters for the last 10 years aren’t exactly pushing the boat out either. If they’d removed the title and asked people if it was the Last Remnant 2, FF XVI or FF XV-2 and no one would honestly know.
FF XIV has it’s own identity. This really doesn’t. I mean, can you spot 1 single unique new element (or character design) not seen in a previous game? I know I can’t.
You have to remember the Witcher/Dark Souls/Kingdom hearts/Skyrim/Bloodborne/Sekiro/Nioh/etc/etc/etc aren’t actually RPGs. They’re action adventures with “RPG elements” (basically just equipment and stats).
Fantastic comment. You actually hype me even more. Thanks for your insight.
Extremely disappointed in this trailer. Might as well have just shown the DMC trailer and left it at that. FF is, tragically, a dying series.
Meh, I lost interest in the mainline games since FF13 and I don’t see anything in the trailer that tickles my fancy (maybe that will change over time when more info comes out though), but at the very least it is seriously good to see a return to a more “classic medieval” setting instead of continuing with a “modern” one like the previous installment.
By far the most anticipated game in my mind. I have a fantastic memories with medieval FF games. To see it make a re-entrance in XVI on PS5 is a dream coming true. Super excited to know more about the characters, story, and combat which looks really seamless and more responsive—oriented towards full-fledged hack-n-slash action). Count me in.
Opposite for me as I don’t really like the medieval, western looking ones. To each his own :)
I kinda want to play ff13 again. It was my first ff game and got me into the series and genre. But Im waiting on ff7r to complete before I try any other ff. Hate the long wait.
Oh and stop with the timed exclusives, so annoying.
The trailer looked so deep. I also thought it looked a little throw back more knights and dragons. Very exciting
Hmm, mixed feelings with this new entry. Though I like the touch of DMC action gameplay, the world reminds me of FF XIV , somewhat.
Will wait closer to release date and see if something comes out of it.
Thanks.
I think it’s being made by the guy who was responsible for FFXIV.
I can’t wait for this game!!! Exclusives like this is why Playstation is the right choice for me!!!!
I loved FFXV and absolutely adored FF7 remake, but personally don’t really like the darker, more western (knights etc.) look of this. Always loved the more sci-fi oriented FF’s like 7 and 8.
Also, I pity the people who play this (or watch anime) in dubs instead of original Japanese.
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I’m very pumped for this and Harry Potter in 2021. I need to finish the last couple Final Fantasy games though. Always been a fan. And the remake of FFVII was beautiful !