2023-03

After previewing Final Fantasy XVI for roughly two hours, which you can read about here, I’m left most interested in the different styles of combat happening throughout the game. Clive has his own style of Devil May Cry-esque combat, party members controlled by A.I. up the ante, Clive’s dog Torgal can attack enemies, Clive can fight Eikons, and there are even Eikon vs. Eikon fights. It’s a lot for one game to juggle, and after my relatively short preview, I feel that the team is confident in this balancing act.  But I wanted to learn more, so I asked FFXVI producer Naoki Yoshida, director Hiroshi Takai, and combat director Ryota Suzuki how the team manages so many unique combat experiences.  “With regular Clive battles…this is the type of battle that players are going to be experiencing the most, and...

In today's New Gameplay Today, your hosts Wesley LeBlanc, Kyle Hilliard, and Prima Games' Jesse Vitelli discuss Final Fantasy XVI after going hands-on with it during a recent preview. In this specific segment, you'll see protagonist Clive exploring a castle in search of Benedikta. Along the way, Clive runs into plenty of enemies to take down, some minibosses, and one big boss at the end. Enjoy! As you can see, Final Fantasy XVI is looking to be the most action-heavy mainline game in the series. But traditional Final Fantasy mainstays like magic, potions, and, of course, Cid are still part of the formula. For more, you can read Wesley's full Final Fantasy XVI preview thoughts here. And you can read Jesse's thoughts over at Prima Games here.  For more previews and discussions of some of the biggest games of...

Final Fantasy XVI is the most action-forward mainline Final Fantasy game in the series yet, and that’s in no small part due to the person behind its action: combat director Ryota Suzuki. After nearly 20 years at Capcom working on combat for games like Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Devil May Cry 4, and most recently, Devil May Cry 5, Suzuki decided he was ready for something new.  That "something new" turned out to be FFXVI. The game’s director, Hiroshi Takai, and its producer, Naoki Yoshida, offered Suzuki a role at Creative Business Unit III, leading FFXVI’s combat design. And now, on June 22, players will be able to feel what I felt during a recent hands-on preview of the game: it’s very Devil May Cry meets Final Fantasy, in the best way.  While playing, one thing I noticed was...

The Final Fantasy series’ numbered entries haven’t been turn-based RPGs for quite some time. With each new game, the series moves further away from its classic turn-based roots toward a more action-oriented combat system. Combat has never been further from being turn-based in a Final Fantasy game more so than in Final Fantasy XVI, which is the most action-based game in the mainline franchise yet. I recently played about two hours of the game to dive deeper into the combat system’s mechanics, and you can read my preview thoughts on that here.  But after playing some of the game, I spoke with the FFXVI producer Naoki Yoshida, director Hiroshi Takai, and combat director Ryota Suzuki about this continued shift to deep action and whether Final Fantasy will ever return to its turn-based roots. As for why the series has moved...

I recently previewed Final Fantasy XVI, the new mainline single-player Final Fantasy game coming to PlayStation 5 this summer. You can read my full thoughts on what I think of the game after going hands-on with it for about two hours here. But during this preview, I was also able to participate in a group interview of FFXVI producer Naoki Yoshida, the game’s director Hiroshi Takai, and its combat director Ryota Suzuki.  One facet of FFXVI’s development I was especially interested in is how Creative Business Unit III, the internal studio behind the upcoming game, is able to balance creating this new title while continuing to develop its extremely successful MMO, Final Fantasy XIV. Yoshida, who is FFXIV’s producer and director, says it’s not as different as you might think.    “It’s probably not as different as you’d expect creating an ongoing [game like...

Fans itching to watch Illumination’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie have two fewer days to wait. The animated film has been bumped up, releasing April 5 instead of April 7. Why is the movie being moved up? It's unclear, but we're not complaining. The new date applies to over 60 global markets, though the Japanese premiere is set for April 28. For those curious, April 5 lands on a Wednesday.  Wahoo! The #SuperMarioMovie is moving from April 7 to April 5 in the US and in more than 60 markets around the world. The movie hits theaters in additional markets in April and May, with Japan opening April 28. pic.twitter.com/CjlikfC3cu — The Super Mario Bros. Movie (@supermariomovie) February 28, 2023 Promotion of The Super Mario Bros. Movie has amped up, including Illumination releasing a new commercial and plumbing website for Mario and Luigi....

During a recent hands-on preview with Final Fantasy XVI (read my thoughts about it after playing two hours here), I was able to participate in a group interview of the game’s producer, Naoki Yoshida, its director, Hiroshi Takai, and its combat director, Ryota Suzuki. One question asked was about why the game returns to the series’ high fantasy roots, and why it has such a different tone compared to recent Final Fantasy games.  According to Takai, it all started with summons.    “So when the project started, I was one of the first people that [Yoshida] came to first and he said, ‘Okay, we have this project called Final Fantasy XVI. Will you be director?’ and his orders at the time of creating the game, he had this very big idea that he wanted to focus on the summons,”...

I recently previewed Final Fantasy XVI, going hands-on with the upcoming game for roughly two hours. I learned a lot about the game, which is due out on PlayStation 5 this summer, including how developer Creative Business Unit III approached accessibility in FFXVI.  You won’t find difficulty settings like easy, medium, and hard. Instead, there’s a story-focused mode and an action-focused mode. The story-focused mode will be easier, while the action-focused mode appears to be the default difficulty setting. And within each of these modes, there are special accessories that can be equipped to tailor the difficulty of combat to your liking. I was able to use five – I’m not sure if there are more  – and I liked how easy it was to swap them in and out, and the effects on my in-game combat actions were great....

Epic Games has revealed that Adonis Creed from the Rocky sequel series, Creed, will be added to Fortnite later this week, just in time for this weekend's premiere of Creed III.  More specifically, the Adonis Creed outfit will be available for purchase in the Item Shop starting Thursday, March 2, at 7 p.m. Eastern. If you don't want to wait until then, though, you have a chance to earn the outfit early by competing in the Creed Cup on March 1.  Special "Creed Quests" will go live on March 2 at 9 a.m. ET and will last until 9 a.m. ET on March 9. Completing these quests will reward XP, and if you complete five of them, you'll earn the Creed's Gloves Spray.  In terms of the Adonis Creed outfit, you'll have the non-Main Event and Main Event styles. Plus, you can select...

I recently went hands-on with Final Fantasy XVI, the next mainline entry in the long-running series due out on PlayStation 5 this summer, to play roughly two hours of the game. Most of that playtime consisted of me controlling Clive as I battled alongside ally Cidolfus Telamon (always a Cid, right?) through a castle dungeon. However, toward the end of my preview, I was able to fight Garuda, one of the game’s Eikons, while controlling Ifrit, another Eikon.  At this point in the game, roughly five hours in according to FFXVI producer Naoki Yoshida, Clive has little control over Ifrit. A special few in the world of FFXVI are Dominants, meaning they can tap into the power of an Eikon and even transform into them. Cidolfus, for example, can become the Ramuh Eikon. Clive, however, is not a Dominant (but...