Final Fantasy XVI: all the latest on the darkest FF yet – The Verge

A new PS5 update is here to address Final Fantasy XVI bugs

2024-09-20T11:35:42-04:00

On Friday morning, Sony released a system update for the PlayStation 5 that may help with graphical bugs and crashes reported by Final Fantasy XVI players after the last PS5 firmware update.

Sony says today's update (version 24.06-10.01.00) simply improves "system software performance and stability" and doesn't mention any specific fixes for the game. But a post shared on the official Final Fantasy XVI X account earlier today says it's been released "in response to the crashes and graphical bugs" reported by players.

[Notice] PlayStation®5 version of FF16

In response to the crashes and graphical bugs that were occurring on the PlayStation®5 …

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Final Fantasy XVI producer wants y’all to be chill about mods

2024-09-17T13:10:49-04:00

Final Fantasy XVI is out today on PC, and its producer is asking players to be chill about it. In an interview with PC Gamer, Naoki Yoshida has woefully underestimated the collective horniness of the internet by requesting that fans not create mods for the game that are "offensive or inappropriate."

Good luck with that one, buddy.

PC gaming conventional wisdom dictates that once a game is out on PC, it's only a matter of time before clips start circulating of all sorts of modding shenanigans. Of course, Yoshida probably isn't talking about the kinds of mods where you turn one of the main characters into a giant baby. Rather, he's more conc …

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Final Fantasy XVI launches on PC in September

2024-08-19T12:30:42-04:00

Square Enix has finally shared a release date for the PC version of Final Fantasy XVI: September 17th, 2024. The single-player RPG first launched on PS5 in June 2023, with two DLC chapters following in December (Echoes of the Fallen) and April (The Rising Tide).

You can now preorder Final Fantasy XVI on Steam and the Epic Games Store, and there are complete editions that include both DLCs available for preorder, too. You can also check out a demo for the game from both stores, and your progress from the part of the demo that covers the opening section of the game will transfer to the full version.

Since Final Fantasy XVI first launched, Sq …

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Final Fantasy XVI’s next DLC gets a trailer and a release date

2024-03-23T12:18:41-04:00

Yesterday, Square Enix released a trailer for The Rising Tide, the next paid DLC for Final Fantasy XVI, and gave the expansion a release date: April 18th. The update to the PS5 game will be available as a single purchase add-on or in the $24.99 Final Fantasy XVI PlayStation Store Expansion Pass. And besides adding the eikon Leviathan to the game, other content introduces a game mode as well as new weapons and abilities.

For no good reason, I haven't played a new Final Fantasy game in years, but I trust Ash Parrish's conclusion that the Leviathan being missing has been an error in need of correction. PlayStation's blog post says in addition …

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How one British actor landed starring roles in two of 2023’s biggest video games

2023-07-01T11:00:00-04:00

Ralph Ineson is 2023's video game "it" guy. The English actor, who's made a sizable career out of supporting roles across television and film, managed to nab leading roles in two of this year's biggest games, Diablo IV and Final Fantasy XVI.

The games released within two weeks of each other, and Ineson is front and center for both of them, playing the gravelly voiced Lorath in Diablo IV and the equally gravelly voiced Cid in Final Fantasy XVI. Eagle-eared listeners noticed the overlap immediately, wondering how he managed to score roles in back-to-back summer gaming blockbusters.

In an interview with The Verge, Ineson told me the story.

…

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Final Fantasy XVI’s accessibility features come at an unfortunate cost

2023-06-26T15:16:31-04:00

With Final Fantasy XVI's new, action-focused combat scheme comes a new suite of tools that assist with making that combat easier. These tools were billed as the game's accessibility features but weren't tied to a menu setting; rather, they were special rings you could equip that were already in your inventory at the game's start. When equipped, each of the five rings assisted with one facet of the game's combat.

I loved this approach to Final Fantasy's combat. Though the series hasn't featured turn-based combat since Final Fantasy X, a lot of players - myself included - have been slow to adjust to the series' action-RPG pivot. These rings, …

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Final Fantasy XVI’s lack of diverse characters makes a huge world feel small

2023-06-23T13:08:44-04:00

Early in Final Fantasy XVI's marketing cycle, producer Naoki Yoshida was asked about the apparent lack of inclusion of people of color in the game. His answer wasn't great, essentially stating that including people of color would violate the narrative boundaries established by the fantasy world the developers created.

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to follow up with Yoshida about that answer, asking him if he had the opportunity to hear the response to his words and if he had anything to say to the fans of color that he upset with them.

"I believe that with Final Fantasy XVI, we weave together a variety of peoples and cultures s …

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Final Fantasy XVI is so fucking edgy

2023-06-22T13:00:00-04:00

It's no secret that Game of Thrones has been a major influence on Final Fantasy XVI - the developers have said as much. "When we first started creating the game, we had our core team of about 30 members very early on buy the Blu-ray boxset of Game of Thrones and required everyone to watch it, because we wanted this type of feel," producer Naoki Yoshida told Eurogamer earlier this year.

And man, does it show.

The first few hours of the roleplaying game feel designed to show you just how edgy Final Fantasy can be. The previous entry was a wholesome road trip about friendship, told through things like photography and cooking. This game goes i …

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An infamous Final Fantasy XIV monster returns in Final Fantasy XVI

2023-06-22T11:51:14-04:00

Final Fantasy XVI, out today, is stuffed with neat little homages and references to the Final Fantasy games that came before it. One of the game's menus features sprites of Clive, Jill, Torgal, or whoever else is in your party if you're nostalgic for the old pixel art from the game's early days on the NES. When you speak to Harpocrates and have acquired enough lore, the old victory fanfare plays. But there's one homage that's more likely to inspire fear than warm fuzzy feelings.

Red Comet is back, and he wants his revenge.

Come with me back in time to 2020 when critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV released patch 5.35 for the Shado …

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Final Fantasy XVI has a neat trick to help you follow its epic story

2023-06-22T09:30:00-04:00

I am a person who often struggles with vast, world-spanning fantasy stories. I just can't keep track of all of the people and places and other proper nouns that make up the world. The result is that I spend a lot of time reading wikis to help me get through things like The Lord of the Rings or The Witcher - but that's not very helpful in the moment when I'm watching a pivotal scene unfold. But Final Fantasy XVI, which just launched on the PS5, has a helpful tool to make it a whole lot easier to follow its complex tale.

The feature is called Active Time Lore - a nice play on the Active Time Battle combat system of past games - and it's sort …

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