Sony is hosting a new State of Play event this week, headlined by Final Fantasy XVI. In a tweet, PlayStation confirmed over 20 minutes of new gameplay from Square Enix’s highly-anticipated dark fantasy game. The event will be live across PlayStation’s official YouTube and Twitch channels on April 14 at 2:30am IST in India, and April 13 at 2pm PT in the US. The company did not elaborate on whether we’ll get to see any new announcements as well, as seen with the previous State of Play showcase where Sony unveiled five new PS VR2 games. Final Fantasy XVI went gold last month and will be out exclusively on the PS5.
With Sony having pulled out of E3 in 2019, these digital-only State of Play events seem to be PlayStation’s preferred destination to present upcoming games. Considering the cancellation of E3 this year, there’s no telling what else Sony has got planned for its summer-time reveals.
After a developmental setback due to COVID-19, Final Fantasy XVI finally settled for a June release, beginning a six-month exclusivity of the game on the PS5. The PC version was originally planned for release right after, but back in February, producer Naoki Yoshida confirmed that it’s not enough time for optimisation. “I would like to release it eventually, and I think I will, but I am not at the stage where I can say when,” he said in a Japanese PlayStation blog post (translated by Google).
Set in the medieval-inspired world of Valisthea, Final Fantasy XVI has you take control of warrior Clive Rosfield, First Shield of Rosaria, who must navigate a world split into two continents — Ash and Storm — and thwart summonable monsters called Eikons. The depletion of aether (an energy source) has thrown the six royal factions into conflict with each other, which the player must curb by allying with a rotating party of companions and fighting through segmented areas across the world. Final Fantasy 16 is also the first instalment to break away from the franchise’s turn-based combat system and opt for a more real-time action-oriented and flashy approach.
An interview from last month revealed that Final Fantasy XVI would take nearly 70–80 hours to fully complete. “ FF16 is a story-driven game that will take you on a roller coaster trip. You’ll see the entirety of Clive’s way of life, and the game will probably take about 35 hours to clear. If we include side content, it can be double that amount,” game director Hiroshi Takai told Famitsu (translated by Twitter user @aitaikimochi). Producer Yoshida originally planned for the main story to end in about 20 hours, but more content kept getting added during development.
There’s a big chunk of cutscenes as well — about 11 hours, not including the cinematics during moments in battle or side quests. FFXVI also comes with a New Game+ mode, letting you carry over all equipment and stats over to a second run with increased enemy difficulty.
Final Fantasy XVI releases June 22, exclusively on the PS5. The State of Play event is scheduled for April 14 at 2:30am IST in India, and April 13 at 2pm PT in the US.
