It’s been a torpid begin to the technology. Years into the lifespan of each the Xbox Series X/S and the PS5, it seems like there hasn’t actually been anyone sport that’s juiced the {hardware} for all it’s value – that’s actually put the pedal to the steel and gotten drunk on the facility of all of the SSDs and GPUs crammed into these ready machines. Demon’s Souls, Horizon Forbidden West, Forza Horizon 5, Halo: Infinite, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart… they’re all good, first rate video games in their very own proper, however none actually really feel like the correct watershed second for new-gen gaming.
Final Fantasy 16 does. Whether it’s within the fight or the elegant graphics, Square Enix’s newest sport seems like the brand new technology that we have been promised a lifetime in the past, again earlier than the times of Covid, after we have been all poring over spec sheets and leaked ideas of the brand new consoles, questioning what the hell Sony and Microsoft have been considering as they assembled these unpleasant monoliths.
In a few of the most spectacular facial mocap I’ve seen in a sport, in battles that by some means thread the road between Hollywood-level motion setpiece and Devil May Cry boss combat, in environmental rendering that makes even Elden Ring look outdated hat, Final Fantasy 16 is really one of the vital promising video games on the market in the meanwhile – the form of sport that makes me really grateful I received a PS5 from a scalper on eBay again at launch (look, I had a job to do, OK?)
The demo I received to play at a behind-closed-doors occasion just a few weeks in the past has lived lease free in my head ever since. The motion started within the claustrophobic corridors of a Middle Ages-style citadel, all flagstones and cobbles, as we minimize by way of garrison after garrison of troopers in pursuit of a rival nation state’s chief – who simply so occurred to embody the facility of the Eikon, Garuda. Dim torchlight glinted off swords, eldritch inexperienced magic mirrored off breastplates as wind magic sliced by way of enemy formations, heavy wooden smashed and disintegrated towards partitions within the melee.
The oppressive stone walkways and ramparts gave technique to a gap on high of a tower, the place we’d pushed Garuda right into a nook. Or so we thought. In a dramatic, anime-level cutscene, our quarry wretched and writhed and sprouted wings and talons and fangs. And a really sadistic smirk. Here, the console actually kicked into high gear: Garuda darted across the tower, honing in on us in sharp dives and lengthy sweeps – all of the whereas, squalls of inexperienced magic whipped up round her. The display screen was busy, hectic, adrenaline-inducing, however all of the whereas it was crisp and clear and simple to know what, precisely, was happening.
Ordering protagonist, Clive, to combat again with all his value, the battle raged on. Fanning the proper set off cycled by way of a sequence of imbued Eikons – Ifrit, Garuda, and Titan – and allowed totally different God-like skills as you channeled every divine beast. Some strikes felt like Dante’s ‘Stinger’ from Devil May Cry – speeding in and shutting distance with a strong slam. Another grabbed and dragged (like Nero’s Devil Arm), bringing the motion to you and resetting the momentum in your faovur. As you wait in your godly skills to chill down, you’ll must time time combos – sword-sword-magic-sword, or magic-sword-sword-magic, and so forth. Each chain, replete with distinctive animations, hitboxes, and hurtboxes, connects and explodes with the PS5’s 3D audio by some means speaking precisely the place the blows are touchdown. You can hear Garuda woosh previous your left ear earlier than manically cackling in your proper as you eat a face filled with rending talon.
In your hand, the DualSense conveys that swords and sorcery gripped in Clive’s fist – particular haptic suggestions per spell, and a satisfying and instantly recognisable rumble everytime you parry Garuda’s assault and reply in sort. The framerate doesn’t dip as her wind magic cuts the sky open and rain begins pelting the battlefield. Thunder, and lightning, and flashes of the motion between dodges and flips and parries. It’s extra just like the motion from Advent Children than it’s from every other Final Fantasy sport; cinematic, rapterous, unbelievable.
In an interview with the builders, producer Naoki Yoshida advised me that “[the team] desires this sport to really feel like a rollercoaster.” There was even a slide of a rollercoaster on a presentation, to essentially drive this house. I wrote this off as PR speak, a canny line laid down by the advertising and marketing masterminds at Square Enix to flavour the protection they’d get out of this activation. But I used to be mistaken; within the hour-plus Final Fantasy expertise I received to play, ‘rollercoaster’ is precisely proper. Because, after this combat – and seemingly clipping Garuda’s wings – issues received much more wild. This was the fake-out, the sluggish little bit of observe earlier than you’re unceremoniously dumped, screaming, into the climax of the experience.
Garuda wasn’t useless. Just pissed off. I gained’t spoil the story right here, however one factor result in one other and instantly you’re fist-to-fist with a demi-God as you Hulk out into an Eikon your self, a kaiju combat on the highest of a mountain that’s being torn aside by a maelstrom. Yoshida described this combat like “a powered-up professional wrestling match” and he’s proper – seeing Garuda wrap her wings round your hips and bend over to slam you right into a mountain is a delight. Huge slabs of rock, lashings of scree, 1000’s of tiny pebbles all come free. Flames lick round your mouth as your haggard respiratory intensifies, Garuda smirks and comes at you once more, however you block it with a large clawed fist and push her again earlier than launching into one of the vital brutal onslaughts I’ve seen in a Final Fantasy sport. Pounding her face in, ripping her arms off, holding her face within the filth together with your flaming fists as the warmth eats away at her pores and skin… and you’ll see all of it, rendered in crisp 4K HDR. It’s obscene, it’s hypnotic.
The combat ends, with much more ludicrous, over-the-top motion that I gained’t spoil right here. Clive lies exhausted and spent in a crater of his personal making. Garuda – again in her human type, bloodied and nonetheless – lies off to the facet. The display screen fades out. I shoot a glance to the individual taking part in to my proper, who was watching my display screen: all extensive eyes and mouths agape. My FitBit asks me if I’m figuring out.
Final Fantasy 16 must be seen to be believed. It’s the PlayStation 5 sport I’ve been ready on for the previous few years, after which some. The trailers and screenshots and movies don’t do it justice – you want it in your arms to really feel it, to know the guarantees of Square Enix, a minimum of from what I’ve seen to date, are all being delivered on. Final Fantasy is again, and it could be higher than ever.
Final Fantasy 16 will launch on June 22, 2023 for PlayStation 5.
