Final Fantasy XVI, the upcoming new mainline entry in Square Enix’s long-running franchise and helmed by Final Fantasy XIV’s Creative Business Unit III, has had a bit of a starring role around recent US events like GDC and PAX East, with plenty of glimpses at visuals or tidbits of info appearing online.
One big source of new looks at the game has been an hour-long panel at PAX East, amusingly titled “Yes, You Can Pet The Torgal” and presented by the game’s legendary producer Naoki Yoshida and its Localisation Director, Koji Fox – who opens the presentation with a sly little reference to his constant mixing up of the titles of Final Fantasy XVI and XIV, something we were lucky enough to experience first-hand in our recent chats with the CBU3 team in Tokyo.
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These two industry heroes came together to give the lengthy talk, which you can watch in full here and starts with the same presentation we saw behind closed doors last month before following it up with a bold rebuttal to some of the concerns fans had following those media previews. Things like the dark, cramped area that the bulk of the previews took place in or the lack of noticeable RPG elements.
Yoshi-P and Koji Fox keenly attempt to quell those fears with fresh looks at the game that show the other side of affairs – huge, bright and varied environments, an expansive world map, the game’s hub area, accessibility features, Eikon battles and of course, Torgal petting.
The whole thing is a great watch with a heap of brand-new footage of the game in action, and plenty of amusing commentary from the pair:
Don’t forget to check out our in-depth hands-on preview of the game, or any of our other features following our visit to Square Enix last month.
Final Fantasy XVI launches for PS5 on June 22nd, 2023. Amazon has the cheapest pre-order price at $83 with free shipping.
