In Final Fantasy 16 we get companions, an AI buddy and a ‘gigantic array of abilities’

We were able to elicit all sorts of information about Final Fantasy 16 from producer Naoki Yoshida in an interview.

We had to wait a long time for new information about Final Fantasy 16. At Sony’s last State of Play, the game finally showed itself with a release period and a new trailer including gameplay. At the same time, however, it also raised some questions that GamePro was able to ask the FF16 producer Naoki Yoshida in the Germany-exclusive interview.

Changing companions and a buddy for Clive

The latest trailer has given us our first glimpse of the action-packed combat in Final Fantasy 16. What is striking here is that we see the main character Clive fighting alone, instead of with group members at his side as in other FF parts. Accordingly, the question of whether we are actually only playing solo in the game was burning under our nails. And it wasn’t just us, as Yoshida’s answer shows:

However, there should not be a fixed group of companions, rather the individual characters will come and go, depending on where the players are in the story. Yoshida promises that there will be teasing within the group and that the individual characters will be important to the main story as well as have their own story arcs.

Meanwhile, we cannot control our companions directly; instead, they are taken over by the AI. The reason for this is that players should concentrate fully on controlling Clive. At least we get a kind of “buddy” at our side who supports us in the fight and accompanies a large part of our journey:

Exactly what this buddy is hasn’t been revealed yet, but the description is a little reminiscent of the cute feline Palico companions Monster Hunters. Who knows, maybe we’ll get a Moggle by our side?

You can watch the final trailer for Final Fantasy 16 here:

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Final Fantasy 16 reveals many summons and release windows with trailer

A huge number of skills

In the fight itself, Clive should not only use his sword, but also be able to use magic and abilities. He gets these abilities from the game’s Espers, the giant godlike beings that can only be summoned by one person at a time:

As the story progresses, Clive will meet other Espers and at some point will also be able to unlock and use their abilities, swapping them in mid-battle and [bei Angriffen] to line up. […] Each Esper comes with a skill tree; As you fight, Clive earns points that you can use to upgrade your skills or unlock new ones, allowing you to customize your character to suit your playstyle.

We can redistribute the points we spend on upgrading at any time. So if we want to completely reskill Clive and try a new fighting style, we can do that as many times as we want. But we can’t completely convert him into a magician or ranged fighter, after all, Clive is still a swordsman. But he should at least get a huge selection of skills, so that we can focus primarily on the use of magic or the skill attacks he gets from the Espers in the fight.

Speaking of Espers, not only does Clive get his abilities from them, he can also battle them – both in human form and with an Esper of his own. We will have more about this and its importance for the story for you in the second part of the interview.

Until then, we want to know from you: What do you think of this new information?