It makes sense that these mercenaries would want to target such a person, too - they'd hold immense power. The squad of mercenaries talk of targeting "Shiva's Dominant" - which seems pretty clear cut to us as an in-univers name for the person who controls Shiva.
In 3D Final Fantasy, summons have almost always played a more significant role than simply being powerful equippable magic, and that certainly carried through to the Final Fantasy XVI trailer, which featured clear-as-day glimpses of Shiva, Titan, Phoenix, and another fiery beast that appeared to be a new design of Ifrit.Īs mentioned, it also seems humans can have some sort of intimate connection with summons in this world. The FF16 protagonist looks like he gains abilities from Summons It seems fair, looking at the rest of the trailer, to suggest some summon-related shenanigans when younger end up changing this protagonist's life.
The start of the trailer seems to suggest he might be part of some group that's hunting summons - and his squadmates share the same facial tattoos.
In the trailer we also see both characters use a special move that seems to summon a Phoenix wing (more on this in a moment), indicating they likely have the same move and skill set.īased on this, and also based on their extreme physical similarity, it seems to us as though these two men are the same character - one younger, one older. While the voice-over of differs a little - the older version is gruffer - it certainly sounds like the same person. We also see both at the very end of the trailer, where they share a line of dialogue. This older character is actually the first one we see in the trailer, with a distinctive facial tattoo shared with some others we catch a glimpse of. These characters are that black-haired young man and a slightly older man, also with raven hair. One character takes center stage in the trailer, and that's the raven-haired young chap whose name we don't yet know - he only identifies himself as 'Joshua's Shield', referring to his sworn duty to protect the young lad we see in the trailer who appears to have a touch of a summon about him.īut what's interesting is that if you pay closer attention to the trailer, you'll see that there are combat sequences with two distinct characters. For now, keep it on Shacknews, as we continue to follow everything that is announced, as well as a lot of stuff that isn't, during a very busy E3 2021 season.FF16 looks like it might take place in two time periods We'll keep our eye out for the latest updates. The exact answer is a mystery, but as one of the biggest titles on Square Enix's upcoming catalog, its whereabouts shouldn't be a mystery for too long. With all that in mind, what's happening with Final Fantasy 16? The answer could be that it's being saved for a future PlayStation State of Play event or it's being saved for this year's Tokyo Game Show. This will be co-developed by the folks at Team Ninja, who will inject a much more action-focused formula into the game. Instead, the publisher went in a different direction, revealing a brand new title called Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy. It looked like Square Enix would go heavy on Final Fantasy 16, especially with Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 looking like it's coming much farther down the road. The game was announced as a PS5 console exclusive, which will also release on PC. It introduced a brand new storyline, never-before-seen characters, a more medieval style of setting, and more of the action-RPG style of gameplay that was first introduced in Final Fantasy 15. What happened?įinal Fantasy 16 was first unveiled back in September during the PlayStation 5 Showcase livestream for that month. Even though Final Fantasy 16 is one of the publisher's most anticipated titles, it was not present at this show. Because of that, there was an expectation for Final Fantasy 16 to show up during Sunday's Square Enix Presents showcase for E3 2021. Square Enix and Final Fantasy are practically synonymous.