As the highly anticipated June 22 release of Final Fantasy XVI draws near, fans of the iconic franchise eagerly await what promises to be a new and thrilling addition to the beloved series.

I was lucky enough to go hands on with Final Fantasy XVI, and even had the opportunity to interview some of the key members of the development team. After my time with the game, I came away with a deep appreciation for its many strengths, and am convinced that it will become an essential PS5 title.

One thing is certain, Final Fantasy XVI has assembled a stellar line-up of creators, each with a proven track record of delivering unforgettable gaming experiences. Leading the project is producer Naoki Yoshida, widely regarded as one of Square Enix’s most beloved figures and the mastermind behind Final Fantasy XIV, which he transformed into a massively successful title. Yoshida has brought with him key members of his XIV team, including Masayoshi Soken, the composer responsible for XIV’s soaring score, who will create the soundtrack for XVI, and Michael-Christopher Koji Fox, the mastermind behind XIV’s intricate lore, who will oversee localization, writing, culturalization and lore for the title. Ryota Suzuki, the Capcom veteran responsible for Devil May Cry 5’s satisfying combat, heads the combat department, while art direction is provided by Hiroshi Minagawa, whose credits include Final Fantasy XII, Tactics, and XIV. At the helm of this all-star team is Hiroshi Takai, a Square Enix veteran known for his contributions to the SaGa series and The Last Remnant. With such a talented group of creators, Final Fantasy XVI promises to be an unforgettable gaming experience that fans won’t want to miss.

Below, I’ll share some of the standout aspects of the title that left the greatest impression on me, and that I believe will make this game an unforgettable experience for fans of the series and newcomers alike.

The thrills of real-time combat and high-octane Eikon fights

In Valisthea, nations are safeguarded by Eikons, enormous and potent creatures each harnessing an elemental power. These mighty beings reside within Dominants, mortal hosts blessed with the ability to summon their respective Eikon’s incredible strength. As nations clash, Eikon fights make for bigger-than-life combat. Channeling Japanese Kaiju culture from the likes of Ultraman, Evangelion, and Attack on Titan, boss battles will see grand showdowns between Final Fantasy’s Titan, Garuda, Shiva, Ifrit, Phoenix, Bahamut and more, each battle entirely unique in their setting, movement, and gameplay.

And when these colossal creatures aren’t engaged in battles, the protagonist Clive Rosfield is equipped with a range of combat abilities he learns as the story progresses, peppering them in fights to execute impressive combos. 

“We drew a little bit of inspiration from the Final Fantasy V ability system in the sense that Clive learns abilities from the Eikons he encounters on his journey, and can combine them in countless unique ways to create a powerful arsenal of techniques,” says Ryota Suzuki. 

With this Devil May Cry 5 veteran leading the way and Final Fantasy XVI departing from turn-based battles to focus on real-time combat, the gameplay felt fast-paced, intricate, and incredibly exhilarating.

A high skill ceiling yet accessible gameplay experience

Perhaps one of the things I found most impressive and exciting about XVI’s combat system is how the title does away with difficulty settings. No need to choose between easy, normal or hard at the beginning of your playthrough: you will have two options: action-focused or story-focused. Behind these two options, there’s in fact a singular experience, with enemies just as ferocious in the story-focused mode as they are in the action-focused one, with the single difference that picking story-focus grants players access to a particular set of accessories from the very start of their playthrough.

To make the game more accessible to players who may be less familiar with action gameplay, Final Fantasy XVI features a variety of helpful accessories. There are five to choose from, each offering unique benefits and picking the story-focused setting will let you equip two from the get go. One accessory slows down time to make it easier to perform perfect dodges, while another fully automates the controls of Torgal, Clive’s loyal canine companion. One accessory automatically uses potions when your health is running low, and another automatically dodges incoming attacks for you. 

Perhaps the most visually striking accessory, however, lets you dish out a series of powerful combos and finishers based on your available cooldowns at the (repeated) press of a single button, showcasing the full breadth and intricacy of the combat system for virtually none of the price, and making for a flashy experience. With these accessories, Final Fantasy XVI is designed to be accessible to a wide range of players, regardless of previous experience with action games.

However, action gamers – do not fret. The skill ceiling is even higher in the third setting you’ll get to pick once you finish the game. Aptly named ‘Final Fantasy’, the New Game+ mode will provide players with an extra challenge should they be up for it, not only increasing the strength of enemies but also their placement throughout the game as well as providing players with full-on different battles.

A narrative landscape of high fantasy and political intrigue

Unlike its predecessor, which ventured into more modern territory, XVI takes us on a journey back to the roots of the franchise, immersing us in a world of high fantasy that draws inspiration from medieval Europe. The realm of Valisthea is built around powerful Mothercrystals that provide aether, the magical force that has been a staple of the Final Fantasy universe since its inception. As nations form around these crystals, each developing its own customs and philosophies, a delicate balance emerges, punctuated by periods of precarious peace. But when the aether starts to drain, tensions rise, and deep political conflicts threaten to tear Valisthea apart.

Against this backdrop of uncertainty, players will embark on Clive’s journey, a tale of revenge with his own personal, unique motivations. And of course, he won’t be traveling alone. 

According to Naoki Yoshida, individual stories will be essential. “We have a vast ensemble cast,” says Yoshida. “Each character is unique in their backgrounds and motivations, and each has their own unique arcs that play out through the story. And while the main focus of this story is on Clive Rosfield, as he seeks vengeance for the loss of his family and nation. Through his journey, players will witness the fates of many other characters as well.”

To support this rich narrative, Final Fantasy XVI will feature a brand-new system called Active Time Lore, or ATL for short. 

“Our story is deep and focuses on the characters, but we wanted to make the world feel alive and give reasons for why things are happening,” says Michael-Christopher Koji Fox “We created a history that goes back over 1500 years, which influences the story.” 

This very in-depth feature is integrated throughout and will allow you to pause the game at any point, even mid-cutscene, and get tailored lore prompts to refresh your memory on a character just mentioned, a nation’s history, or a particular event that took place. 

“We have hundreds of entries available,” Koji Fox continues, “but players can also choose to ignore them and enjoy the game without feeling bogged down.”

Technical prowess fuelled by PS5’s hardware

Final Fantasy XVI sets a new standard in technical achievement that cannot be ignored. Its vast and beautiful world can be explored with ease, seamlessly transitioning between battle, exploration, and cutscenes without any pesky loading times. Thanks to the incredible speed of the PS5’s SSD, players can immerse themselves in a non-stop rollercoaster ride of gameplay. But that’s not all either, the DualSense wireless controller adds a whole new level of immersion with its impressive range of haptic feedback. 

“In terms of the haptic feedback, we take the sound effect data from our cutscenes and transfer it into vibration data,” says Hiroshi Takai “While an explosion will obviously create a big vibration, it’s the smaller sounds and subtle variations in vibration that really stood out to us. It’s like going from one generation of controllers to the next.” 

The portion of FFXVI that I had the opportunity to play was a vertical slice of the main questline, which took place a few hours into the game. During this segment Clive Rosfield was accompanied by Hugo Kupka and Torgal as we tracked down one of the dominants. In this pursuit, we ventured through a castle and encountered numerous enemies, culminating in two thrilling boss battles. It’s important to note that the version of the game that I experienced is still in development and may undergo further changes before its final release on June 22, 2023.

In Midgar, the slums bustle with people, mako reactors smolder, and the soil turns to dust; carried by breezes flowing through smog-filled air. The whole place could use a good hose down. Through the fog, a new hero emerges, clad in blue, wielding… a powerwasher. 

Okay, so, you might not be able to cleanse the world of the Shinra scourge, but you can just straight up cleanse the world! Whilst Avalanche deals with Shinra, you’ll deal with the fallout. The only power struggle you’re tasked with is keeping hold of that washer.  

We are proud to have worked with the Final Fantasy VII team to transport PowerWash Simulator players to one of gaming’s most recognisable cities, in a fresh and authentic way. Players will fall in love with it once more in the new Midgar Special Pack, releasing March 2.  

Free to all owners of PowerWash Simulator, the expansion features five filthy new maps to wash and explore, including iconic locations, vehicles and mechs. I’ll pass over to some of FuturLab’s designers, who worked on the Midgar Special Pack, to provide a closer look at the inspiration behind two of the levels, the Scorpion Sentinel and Seventh Heaven. 

The Mighty Scorpion Sentinel 

One of the most memorable boss fights in Final Fantasy VII is without a doubt the Scorpion Sentinel, making it a perfect job for the Midgar Special Pack. The player will encounter the Sentinel before its deployment against the members of Avalanche, and here it is seen to have been put through a series of tests by Shinra to evaluate its various defensive capabilities. 

We’ve represented a variety of scratches and projectile ricochet marks via a new Battle Damage dirt type. Additionally, the Scorpion Sentinel bears the consequences of a test with one of Professor Hojo’s specimens, as seen from the splats of bio residue present all around the machine from this creature’s attacks. As the Sentinel is powered by Mako energy (my favourite new dirt type), we have deposited it in key areas to illustrate how the Sentinel had been pushed to its limits. The rest of the dirt is mostly grime that accumulated during the various trials the Scorpion Sentinel underwent. 

---

“When recreating the iconic Scorpion Sentinel in PowerWash Simulator we really wanted to make the Sentinel feel alive, so various animations such as its roving eye and claws and can be seen. We also wanted to be able to interact with it, so players can move the Sentinel’s arms to get different angles for cleaning.”

– Federico D’Apote, Designer 

---

The Charming Seventh Heaven 

For the Midgar special pack, we absolutely knew we had to tackle the best bar in Sector 7 and home of Avalanche, Seventh Heaven. Not only does it give players the opportunity to hear from beloved FFVII characters like Cloud and Tifa (while also being able to clean some of gaming’s coolest weapons like Barret’s gun and Cloud’s buster sword) but our first-person perspective also offers the opportunity to take a closer look at Tifa’s decorating skills and explore areas of the bar players couldn’t see as easy before. 

---

“Bars, especially dystopian fantasy ones, are often bursting with environmental storytelling and attract a variety of dirt. Tifa has had to teach Don Corneo’s disrespectful lackeys a lesson. So, we’ve completely covered the floor in footprints, splattered food and drink stains on the tabletops and walls, along with some general age and neglect build-up in those hard-to-reach places. This results in a very satisfying cleaning experience with a uniquely Final Fantasy finish!”

– Sam Jenkins, Designer 

---

Alongside the Scorpion Sentinel and Seventh Heaven, you will also spray down the Hardy Daytona and Shinra Hauler, the Mako Energy Exhibit, and the formidable Airbuster. 

Whether you’re a dirt detailer or a chaotic cleaner, each map will afford you the time and space to appreciate the captivating city and some of Shinra’s finest tech as never before… you know, as it’s not attacking you this time.  

Whilst the fate of the city may be muddy, perhaps you can help clear a path for a few plucky heroes. The Midgar Special Pack for PowerWash Simulator releases on March 2.

Hello everyone, this is Masashi Takahashi, producer of Octopath Traveler. If you’re reading this article, it means that you have at least a bit of interest in Octopath Traveler II… and if that’s the case, I’m delighted!

This game marks the first time the series has been playable on PlayStation, so I thought I should introduce the series for those of you who haven’t encountered it before. So read on, and I’ll tell you everything you need to know about Octopath Traveler II.

It’s a completely standalone game

Firstly, don’t worry if you haven’t played the original Octopath Traveler – there’s no continuous narrative between that game and Octopath Traveler II!

This is an entirely standalone game set in an entirely new world with entirely new characters. Even if this is your first time with the series, you’ll be able to enjoy all of its elements. 

It uses a beautiful HD-2D art style

Do you enjoy pixel art games? Many of you may find yourselves drawn to this game due to its graphics. Octopath Traveler II uses ‘HD-2D’ visuals – a unique graphic style that combines pixels with 3D CG. It looks good in screenshots and video, but it’s something you really have to experience first-hand by actually moving around the game with your own hands.

It creates a captivating effect that feels both modern and nostalgic at the same time! It’s particularly appealing on PlayStation, thanks to silky smooth 60FPS gameplay that makes it feel as good to play as it looks.

You can play as eight heroes

You don’t get to choose just one hero in Octopath Traveler II – you get to choose between eight!

Each of the Travelers is unique, and once you pick your first character, you’ll be able to encounter the others, add them to your party and experience their adventures too.

So, who are these brave adventurers?

Hikari the Warrior – a young prince with a kind heart. After a coup leads his kingdom down a warpath, he sets off to find a path to peace.

Agnea the Dancer – a talented dancer who delights the locals in her small village with her performances. But she dreams of bringing smiles to more people and inspired by her mama, sets out to become a star.

Partitio the Merchant – a young merchant with an uncanny nose for commerce. After experiencing the decline of his hometown, he’s determined to find a way to save people from the pain of poverty.

Osvald the Scholar – framed for the death of his wife and child, this brilliant magical mind is muzzled and sent to prison. He vows to escape and find the man responsible for his suffering.

Throné the Thief – a talented member of a thieves’ guild trapped in a seemingly endless cycle of crime and death. She sets out on a journey to find the leaders of the guild and break free from this life of misery.

Temenos the Cleric – a laid-back Inquisitor for the Order of the Sacred Flame. An investigation into tragedy in his church leads to an exploration that will change his life.

Ochette the Hunter – a talented young hunter living a peaceful life on a remote island. In order to prevent an incoming catastrophe, she sets out on a quest to find the three Creatures of Legend.

Castti the Apothecary – a mysterious healer found drifting at sea. With no memory of who she is, she embarks on a quest to recover her memory.

Each of these heroes has their own distinct personalities, motivations, talents, and abilities that help them in and out of battle. Speaking of which…

Break and Boost combat system

Octopath Traveler II’s world of Solistia is full of dangers as you’ll regularly have to face off against monstrous foes. Combat is fast-paced and deeply strategic thanks to the ‘Break and Boost’ system.

The key to success is ‘breaking’ enemies. By exploiting their weaknesses, you can reduce your foes’ Shield Points to zero and stun them for a turn. What’s more, all your attacks do critical damage!

Boosting adds another tactical edge to combat. Each turn you earn boost points, which can be spent to take multiple actions on a turn, strengthen attacks and more. Knowing when to use your points and when to save them is just one strategic decision you’ll have to think about as you fight.

Using these features, along with a massive range of attacks, magic spells, special abilities and more, makes combat feel consistently engaging and satisfying.

Path Actions let you interact with the world and its people

The eight travelers don’t just have awesome attacks to unleash in battle, they also have abilities that let them engage with people in towns and cities. These are called ‘Path Actions’ and they let you do some really fun things.

Every character has two Path Actions – one they use during the day, another at night, and there are often different ways to achieve the same objective. For example, if an NPC has an object you want, you could either use Partitio to splash the cash and buy it from them, or use Osvald at night to mug them and just take it.

And that highlights another key feature of Octopath Traveler 2 – it’s your adventure. It’s all about letting you explore the story and gameplay systems at your own pace and allowing players to discover their own unique experiences.

I hope this rundown makes you consider playing Octopath Traveler II. The game releases for PS5 and PS4 on February 24.

At Resolution Games, we love tabletop roleplaying games just as much as anybody. Maybe even more! After all, you don’t make a game like Demeo without spending a few hundred nights around the kitchen table rolling dice and battling bugbears. 

Yet for every tabletop gaming fan out there, dozens of tabletop-curious gamers are keen to try out the hobby but feel overwhelmed by the tomes of text and rules they’d need to parse through. And that’s before even creating a character sheet! Demeo was made for tabletop gamers — but it was made for the tabletop-curious, too. 

In short, Demeo is a tabletop fantasy game for everybody.

To make the pen-and-paper RPG experience more approachable, we focused on the fundamentals of what makes these games great: challenging monsters, unique class-based abilities, narrative intrigue, and playing with friends. With this as our starting point, we designed Demeo to present these elements in a way that’s easy to understand and keeps the game moving. (Strategy is important, but there’s nothing worse than waiting 15 minutes for the nth-level wizard sitting to your left to finish their turn!)

In an effort to make actions intuitive, available choices for each party member are presented on cards that can be played on their turn. Rather than needing to remember a dozen possible actions a player can take (or memorize spell lists, or recall which perks have been bestowed upon a character by magical weapons), every possible action is presented in a clear, easy-to-understand card that keeps the game moving at a solid pace.

Some of these cards, like the Hunter’s Arrow, are replenished on every turn and act as the standard action for a class. Most, though — from the Sorcerer’s massive Fireball to healing potions and repeating ballistae — are one-time-use cards that add a crucial layer of strategy. Sure, you could use that “Scroll of Charm” to coax an Elven Archer to fight for you right now; but maybe you’d rather save it until you can convince an Ice Elemental to do your bidding in a crowded room full of spiders?

There’s an element of luck to tabletop games too, and Demeo is no different. Rather than a bag full of different-sided dice that determine hits, damage, and more, Demeo’s approach streamlines the rolling experience. A single die with three possible faces determines if a player misses, hits, or crits — and you guessed it: if you’re playing on PlayStation VR2, it feels just as good to roll the die virtually as it would with a real die in your hands.

In fact, thanks to the capabilities of the PS VR2, the Demeo experience is tactile in ways that simply haven’t been possible until now. Haptics in the PlayStation VR2 Sense controllers make it so that picking up your miniature actually feels like picking up your miniature. And if your hero happens to be downed or killed by one of the many monsters, the PS VR2’s headset vibrations will make sure you never forget it.

The social experience of game night is faithfully recreated through gameplay that benefits from table-talk and collaborative strategy — but Demeo is an experience that plays well for solo gamers too. As any TTRPG fan will tell you, sometimes the greatest challenge is just getting everybody’s schedules to line up for game night. Demeo lets players scratch their tabletop itch even when nobody else is around. In fact, one of the biggest compliments we get comes from Game Masters who tell us they’ve turned to Demeo as a replacement game when someone is missing from their group that week. Instead of running a one-shot so that they don’t advance their tabletop campaign without all their regular players in attendance, they run Demeo. And that continues to knock our socks off. 

Demeo features a richly detailed world filled with different settings, monsters, and scheming, corrupted villains — but as a player, it’s a world you get to immerse yourself in rather than build out moment-by-moment. There’s no need for a quick-thinking dungeon master to juggle the rules, monsters and everything else that a player could throw at them. And while there are five complete adventures included, Demeo allows players to make the adventuring experience entirely their own. Every session in one of these pre-made adventures is unique, thanks to randomly assembled levels, random monster and treasure distributions, different action cards in play, and the ability to mix different heroes together in any configuration you’d like. 

We’ve always loved a good dungeon crawl — that’s why we designed an experience that lets you dive right into it, even if you’ve never rolled a D20 in your life. If that sounds like your kind of fun, we can’t wait for you to join us in the world of Gilmerra! Demeo is available now on PS VR2.