The Final Fantasy 16 release date has narrowed to summer 2023, according to PlayStation’s most recent State of Play livestream. We also got to see an exciting new trailer for the RPG game, and it’s clear that developer Square Enix is going big on duels between the series’ famous summoned monsters.
The trailer, which you can view below, shows some of Final Fantasy’s most enduring pocket monsters – called ‘Eikons’, this time round – facing each other in both cinematic sequences and new gameplay. In the latter, they sport health bars and the camera angle flits between side-on and dramatic third-person perspectives. At times it looks like something between a fighting game and a hack-‘n’-slash action RPG, but with enormous, dramatic monsters. Ramuh, Ifrit, Phoenix, Shiva, Garuda, Odin, and Titan are all confirmed so far.
Scurrying around beneath the stomping boots of all these giants are the humans of the story, who get much less airtime by comparison, but it’s clear there’s going to be a “child of fate” and at least one callous emperor who cares nothing for collateral damage.
It’s all par for the course for Final Fantasy, but it’s never looked this good before, nor been realised at such a dramatic, impressive scale. Take a gander:
A new blog post from PlayStation confirms that “high-octane battles” will be core to the gameplay, in which protagonist Clive Rosfield will wield “a full arsenal of attacks unique to the game’s many Eikons (summons)… not to mention epic clashes between the Eikons themselves.” It also confirms the return of beloved series composer Masayoshi Soken.