Sony kicked off this week’s PS5 Showcase event in a huge, surprising way by revealing Final Fantasy XVI, the next mainline installment in the storied Japanese RPG franchise. The reveal trailer showcased the game’s fantasy elements and combat, and it looks like it’ll be a next-gen only title.
You play as a bodyguard to Joshua, the son of the Archduke of the region the game is set in. There seems to be some sort of blight taking hold of the land around you, bringing with it all sorts of dangers. Combat was shown off, with many nods to both Final Fantasy XV and the more recent Final Fantasy VII Remake, which released on PS4 earlier this year.
The “fantasy” in this particular Final Fantasy looks like it’s inspired by something akin to Game of Thrones, meaning that it looks quite different from past games in the series. Some fans have also noted similarities to Square’s PlayStation 1-era RPG, Vagrant Story. There’s also quite a bit of one-on-one combat in the trailer–it remains to be seen what FF XVI’s party system will look like.
You can watch the trailer above. Square Enix notes that it’s captured on PC hardware, but has been designed to emulate the PS5 experience.
Square Enix shared some additional details about Final Fantasy XVI in a PlayStation Blog post. The game is being directed by Hiroshi Takai, who previously worked on Romancing SaGa and The Last Remnant, while Final Fantasy XIV director Naoki Yoshida will serve as XVI’s producer.
This marks the first new mainline installment in the series since the aforementioned Final Fantasy XV, which originally launched back in 2016, but the series has seen many releases in the interim. Final Fantasy VII Remake launched on PS4 earlier this year, and follow-up games are in the works.
The series’ MMO entry, Final Fantasy XIV, has also received an ongoing stream of content. Its big Shadowbringers expansion launched back in July 2019, and since then it has received numerous updates, the most recent of which–patch 5.3–arrived last month.
No release date for Final Fantasy XVI was shared, but the game is slated to release in 2021. Sony announced that the game will be a console exclusive on PS5, suggesting that it will not be coming to Xbox Series X or Series S.
That certainly wasn’t the only news to come out of the PS5 Showcase. You can catch up on all the biggest announcements and reveals in our PS5 event recap. For more information on purchasing the console, refer to our PS5 preorder guide.
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