Final Fantasy XVI, the next big mainline entry in the storied franchise, is approaching its release in mid-2023 as eager fans are slowly drip-fed new information and looks at the game. Most recently, the world was treated to the new Dominance trailer that gave us our best look yet at the game’s combat as well as the unique relationship between the game’s setting of Valisthea and the series’ staple summon creatures – here called Eikons.
We had the chance to speak to none other than the game’s producer and a major figure in the world of Final Fantasy, Naoki Yoshida, about Final Fantasy XVI – in particular how some of the gameplay shown off in trailers is going to work. While chatting about the new real-time combat system and protagonist Clive’s unique abilities, Yoshida-san divulged to us a little added detail about how Clive will gain skills over time.
While Yoshida-san wasn’t willing to spoil anything by explaining to us exactly how it comes to be in the game’s narrative, he revealed that Clive will be able to claim the power of Final Fantasy XVI’s fearsome ‘Eikon’ summons to unlock special combat abilities in a menu, where players can also further enhance those abilities as they gain experience. Crucially, we also learned that players will have the option to respec Clive’s unlocked abilities at any point and as many times as they want, which is both a welcome feature and an indication that there’s probably going to be quite a few options to choose from.
In Yoshida-san’s own words:
“After claiming an Eikon’s power Clive will be able to unlock that Eikon’s abilities in what we can call an ‘ability tree’. And then Clive will earn points during regular battles and can use those points to further unlock abilities within that tree.
We want players to be able to use this system to customise their character to their own play style, to use these points to purchase abilities that they want to use or power up the abilities that they really enjoy using. That said, we also want players to be able to decide on something that really fits them and so, rather than having those those point decisions be final, we’re going to allow players the opportunity to refund those points at any time and as many times as they want so they can experiment with different builds until they come to one that suits their playstyle best without having to worry about starting over.”
If you’re keen to know more of what we learned from the interview with Naoki Yoshida about Final Fantasy XVI, you can read the full thing here.