See A New Generation In The Epic Final Fantasy 16 First Look
A new trailer gives us an extended look at gameplay from Final Fantasy 16.
This article is more than 2 years old
A new Final Fantasy 16 trailer just dropped, and it features plenty of wonderful content, including the elements of the storyline, the world, and lots of medieval fantasy. The new trailer dropped after disappointing news about the franchise distancing itself from the open-world gaming setting, which could work in its favor, and a crushing delay that saw the game pushed back to 2023.
According to Polygon, the new Final Fantasy 16 trailer, titled Ambition, dives into the backstory of Valisthea and its various monarchies and factions vying for power and domination, as well as Dominants — individuals with the power to perform spectacularly looking summons called Eikons. The backstory supports the narrative of the game’s protagonist and his younger brother, who wields the power of the Phoenix. Of course, there are other powerful giant beasts as well, including the mainstays like Ifrit and Garuda.
The new trailer for Final Fantasy 16 actually opens up over the map of Valisthea, which is dying as its crystals — a famous part of the franchise’s lore — are fading away. Additionally, while the massive beasts we mentioned moments before do play a crucial role in the upcoming game’s narrative, the storyline is incredibly charged with political and diplomatic elements regarding the in-game war that has been ravaging the entire realm. And it’s all intertwined.
The appearance of crystals signals that Square Enix is going back to its roots, perhaps in a similar fashion to which Ubisoft made the upcoming Mirage. That means we’ll see a lot more iconic Final Fantasy imagery in the upcoming Final Fantasy 16, despite the differences between the current and previous titles — which mostly revolve around action-oriented combat. As for the massive summons, the trailer showcased Ifrit, but we only got glimpses of the Phoenix.
With every kingdom having its own summon, we can expect other Eikons in any of the future trailers for the upcoming game. As previously stated, the kingdoms are at war, which means that we would eventually see the giant summons clashing against each other while the ruling factions fight over the fading light of the aforementioned crystals that hold Valisthea in existence. Unfortunately, the known elements of the narrative aren’t enough to deduce the entire story, but the game’s producer, Naoki Yoshida, stated that the game and its narrative wouldn’t be a Final Fantasy theme park.
Final Fantasy 16 was first revealed in 2020 as the latest entry in one of the longest-running gaming franchises in gaming history — it was actually first released in 1987. The game is set in a medieval era and was scheduled to release in the springtime of 2022, but Yoshida apologized to the fandom after it was revealed that the game would be delayed until 2023. Final Fantasy 16 is currently scheduled to release for PlayStation 5 as a timed exclusive, after which it should be eligible for release on other platforms.
This may or may not include Sony’s competitor console, the Xbox, but its most likely to include PC, and perhaps even Nintendo Switch.
