cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/4549425
Square Enix has officially announced a PC version of Final Fantasy 16 is in development, in addition to two pieces of paid DLC.
More details will be shared on Square Enix’s plans for Final Fantasy 16 for PC before the end of the year, it said.
Final Fantasy XVI producer Naoki Yoshida shared the news during a PAX West panel on Saturday, along with news that a significant update has released for the PlayStation 5 version.
“It’s been just over two months since Final Fantasy XVI’s release and we’ve received an enormous amount of feedback from players around the world,” Yoshida said via a pre-recorded video.
“The development team and I have also been watching your videos and streams, paying special attention to what everyone thinks of Final Fantasy XVI. We put our all into creating this game, so it’s a real joy to see so many different reactions.
“And so as an expression of our sincerest gratitude, we are releasing a free update available for download today.”
The full patch notes for the new update can be found embedded below. Yoshida highlighted the fact that it’s added new controller layouts, a weapon skin feature allowing players to change the appearance of Clive’s weapon, and alternate outfits for Clive, Jill, Torgal, Ambrosia and Joshua.
“As I mentioned earlier, we’ve seen so many opinions and reactions from our community of Final Fantasy XVI players,” Yoshida continued. “But one thing that came through particularly strongly was how people wanted to see more of Valisthea’s story and spend more time with her inhabitants.
“To accommodate, the development team has started work on two instalments of paid DLC.
“Finally, while Final Fantasy XVI was released as a PlayStation 5 exclusive, we are aware that many of you have been asking for a PC version. So allow me to take this opportunity to officially announce that development on a PC version is currently underway.
“I hope to be able to give you more information on both the DLC and the PC version before the end of this year, so please stay tuned.”
Final Fantasy 16 was released for PS5 in June, and Square Enix claimed that it would remain exclusive to Sony’s console for at least the remainder of the calendar year.
Prior to the game’s release, Yoshida said he’d like to see a PC version of the game released “eventually”.
“First of all, it is true that Final Fantasy 16 is a six-month limited time exclusive on the PS5 platform,” he told the Japanese PlayStation Blog. “However, it is a completely different story that the PC version will be released in half a year. I will make it clear, but the PC version will not come out in half a year.
“This is because we spent a lot of time and money optimizing the PS5 platform to deliver the best gaming experience. Of course, I would like to release a PC version at some point so that everyone can play as many games as possible.
“However, even if we start optimizing the PC version after the PS5 version comes out, we won’t be able to optimize it in half a year, so it won’t come out in a short span of half a year. I would like to release it eventually, and I think I will, but I am not at the stage where I can say when.”
So how are folks finding the game? I’ve only played the demo on my PS5 and thought it was pretty neat but does it hold up overall?
Played through the entire game, started on NG+. I really enjoyed it, the story was definitely a Final Fantasy story, much better than XV.
My one gripe is the lack of mini-games, which apparently was intentional on the part of the devs. All side content is still combat focused.
You can get through most of the game not truly mastering combat, but NG+ is a different story. Overall, a solid 8/10 game.
I’ve played and finished every mainline non MMO FF game and hated everything after 10, so I wasn’t exactly hopeful that I would enjoy it.
It’s the 5th best in the series for me after having finished it a couple weeks ago. I used to think the loss of Sakaguchi is what killed my love for FF but now I realise it was the lack of well written likeable characters that did it.
I will say one thing though, while a great game it’s not much of an rpg. There’s pretty much no variety in how you build Clive.
I’ve not played it myself, but I’ve heard the final act jumps the shark pretty bad.
I had the same experience and was also curious how the rest of the game holds up. I had big issues with 15 due to repeatable side quests (I like to clear all sides quests before moving on to the next area) so I was super overleveled the entire game.
I’m 2/3rd of the way through the game… I put it on hold for BG3 and AC6. I’ll finish ff16 eventually.
Overall, I’ve enjoyed myself with 16. My biggest complaint is that the game “gets in its own way” so much. I think I’ve spent more time in cutscenes than I have playing the game. (It’s pretty telling that I have a friend that’s skipping through all of the cutscenes in NG+ and he’s having a blast.)
The story is alright. I’ve had fun with it (though I wish the cutscenes were shorter or less frequent). My biggest complaint is that it takes waaaaayyyyyy too much inspiration from Game of Thrones. There were plenty of moments where it became distracting.
Gameplay is fun. If you played through the second section of the demo, you should have an idea of how it feels for most of the game. There’s decent flexibility to it and i feel like it hit a good balance of letting me put together combos that felt strong but not too broken.
