In terms of pure action and variety, Final Fantasy 16 is shaping up to be an incredibly promising entry in the long-running RPG series. The game looks to take full advantage of the PS5’s hardware to truly bring its brutal and chaotic game world to life.
What immediately stands out about Final Fantasy 16 on PS5 compared to older titles in the franchise is the approach to combat. The action is fast and the enemies don’t stop coming. It’s clear that the console’s NVMe SSD technology and powerful GPU are hard at work to pump out stellar visuals at a rapid-fire pace to keep up.
A recent hands-on with Final Fantasy 16 from the PlayStation Blog has deep-dived into exactly why the RPG will become: “an essential PS5 title”. This can be evidenced through encounters with the Eikons, which are essentially giant monsters that you’ll have to face throughout your journey. Inspired by Japanese Kaiju, you’ll be taking on all manner of larger foes to see what you’re made of. From the early gameplay revealed, it’s looking to have more in common with something like God of War Ragnarok than your everyday JRPG.
The combat appears to have taken influence from Devil May Cry 5 in terms of the sheer scale and cinematic flair. So, if you’re a fan of fast-paced spectacle fighters, Final Fantasy 16 should cater to you with the lengthy combos that can be pulled off and special Eikon-themed moves that are only a cooldown away.
For a game that’s this fast-paced, it’s no surprise that the PS5’s internal was required. The console uses NVMe Gen 4.0 technology and can be expanded with one of the best SSDs for PS5 if you’re running out of room on the system. This will mean a seamless game world without loading times, as some of the best PS5 games can go from menu to gameplay in less than 5 seconds. You won’t be having to wait around for long when entering new areas, fighting through random encounters, and watching cutscenes.
Though it hasn’t been detailed extensively, there has now been confirmed support for the DualSense’s haptic feedback. Little information is out there as to what role, if any, the adaptive triggers will play, but you should be able to get an immersive experience through the localized HD rumble. That means everything from explosions to more subtle movements will be captured as accurately as possible.
A world split
Everything I’ve seen from Final Fantasy 16 looks incredibly promising. As someone who isn’t really into turn-based JRPGs, I definitely appreciate the more action-orientated tone that this upcoming release has in its approach to monster battles.
The concept of standing there and waiting for my time to strike never really sat right with me. Surely if a giant beast came down from the sky and started tearing things up, the last thing it would do would be to wait patiently before reducing the population to charcoal.
Other entries in the series have certainly experimented with real-time combat. We saw this with Final Fantasy 15’s Active Cross Battle System, and later with Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s Active Time Battle gauges. However, Final Fantasy 16’s combat looks faster and more dynamic than its predecessors and seems to offer a big step up for players. Instead of slowing things down, the action looks to be tight and focused, and will hopefully make for far more engaging, and challenging encounters.
