Despite Final Fantasy XVI being less than a year away, we’ve had surprisingly little news about it from Square Enix. Normally this would be cause for concern, but every time a trailer drops the game looks extremely impressive and this time is no different. This trailer is called “Ambition” and shows us the five main factions that will come to blows during the story. It also gives us an estimated release date, although it’s frustratingly vague.
We have the Grand Duchy of Rosaria, which seems to be your traditional fantasy kingdom, very traditional where the sun is always shining. The Holy Empire of Sanbreque, who live in the icy region and seek domination. The Dhlamekian Republic, who live in the harsh desert. The Iron Kingdom, whose name sounds just as evil as their throne room looks. Finally, the Kingdom of Waloed seems to be shrouded in a bit of mystery.
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JRPGs are no strangers to having several warring nations, but to have five plates spinning all at once is a narrative challenge. The Final Fantasy series is no stranger to ambitious narratives, so it’ll be interesting to see how everything comes together, and how the politics of this world will unfold.
Still, enough about politics, flashy over-the-top battles between beings with godlike powers are what we’re all here for. In this case, several of the key figures in this world are able to summon “beasts of great might” to power themselves up with various elements in battle. Although, the trailer also suggested that using these powers is slowly killing those who do.
Either way, it’s bound to lead to some cool boss battles, as the trailer gives us a few glimpses of what’s in store as we face off against these overwhelmingly powerful foes. It seems we will be focusing a lot more on one-on-one battles, rather than making the most of our party’s abilities like in FF15. Visually, the effects are absolutely stunning, and if the gameplay is even half as good as it looks, we could be in for one of the all-time great Final Fantasy games.
On top of that trailer, we got word from the game’s director, Hiroshi Takai, that the game is close to being finished. “The team has turned its full attention to debugging and final adjustments” he says, “Now that things are starting to come together, the game is sizing up to be something truly special”.
We’re going to have to wait a while longer to see just how special it is though, as the trailer ended with the announcement of a Summer 2023 release date.
Written by Ryan Woodrow on behalf of GLHF.
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