PlayStation State of Play event to showcase Final Fantasy XVI gameplay: Details

Sony is hosting a new State of Play event this week, headlined by Final Fantasy XVI. In a tweet, PlayStation confirmed over 20 minutes of new gameplay from Square Enix’s highly anticipated dark fantasy game. The event will be streamed live on PlayStation’s official YouTube and Twitch channels on April 14 at 2:30 a.m. IST in India and April 13 at 2 p.m. PT in the US. The company hasn’t said whether we’ll see any new announcements as well, as seen with the previous State of Play showcase where Sony unveiled five new PS VR2 games. Final Fantasy XVI went gold last month and will be released exclusively on PS5.

With Sony pulling out of E3 in 2019, these digital-only State of Play events seem to be PlayStation’s favorite destination to showcase upcoming games. Given the cancellation of E3 this year, it’s unclear what else Sony has planned for its summer reveals.

After a development setback due to COVID-19, Final Fantasy XVI finally settled for a June release, beginning a six-month PS5 exclusive of the game. The PC version was originally slated to release right after, but in February producer Naoki Yoshida confirmed that there wasn’t enough time for optimization. “I would like to release it eventually, and I think I will, but I’m not at the stage where I can say when,” he said in a Japanese PlayStation blog post (translated by Google) .

Set in the medieval-inspired world of Valisthea, Final Fantasy XVI puts you in control of warrior Clive Rosfield, First Shield of Rosaria, who must navigate a world divided into two continents – Ash and Storm – and thwart summonable monsters summoned Eicons. Depletion of Ether (a source of energy) has brought the six royal factions into conflict with each other, which the player must curb by allying with a rotating group of companions and fighting in segmented areas worldwide. Final Fantasy 16 is also the first installment to break away from the franchise’s turn-based combat system and opt for a flashier, real-time action-oriented approach.

A interview from last month revealed that Final Fantasy XVI will take nearly 70-80 hours to fully complete. “FF16 is a story-driven game that will take you on a rollercoaster ride. You’ll see Clive’s entire lifestyle, and the game will likely take around 35 hours to complete. If we include secondary content, it can be double that amount,” game director Hiroshi Takai told Famitsu (translated by Twitter user @aitaikimochi). Producer Yoshida originally planned for the main story to end in around 20 hours, but more content was added during development.

There’s also a hefty chunk of cutscenes – roughly 11 hours, not including cutscenes during battle or side-quest moments. FFXVI also comes with a New Game+ mode, allowing you to carry over all gear and stats to a second run with increased enemy difficulty.

Final Fantasy XVI releases June 22, exclusively on PS5. The State of Play event is scheduled for April 14 at 2:30 a.m. IST in India and April 13 at 2 p.m. PT in the United States.

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