Final Fantasy XVI will release on June 22nd, 2023. Naoki Yoshida appeared on stage at The Game Awards last night to introduce a brand new trailer called Revenge, which showed more story, new gameplay, and announced the launch date.
The trailer’s title, Revenge, is one of protagonist Clive’s motivations as the story unfolds. “Revenge is a weapon” he says in the trailer. We flash back to Clive, then rather clean cut and neat, send his younger brother, Joshua, who we’ve seen in previous trailers, to safety as danger approaches. Both Clive and Joshua are the sons of the Archduke of Rosaria, hence Joshua being referred to as “Your Highness”. Joshua is cornered and bloodied, and we then cut to Clive fighting in the game’s fast-paced action combat style.
Later, Clive appears, now motivated by that revenge, he has longer hair and looks different. Time has passed, and he ponders, looking out across battlefields and at attackers and summons that he's facing, if the revenge is under his control or if it is, in fact, controlling him. The Final Fantasy summons we know and love are back, this time known as Eikons, each wielded by people known as Dominants. Joshua has been the Dominant of the Phoenix, Eikon of Fire, and Clive’s revenge will involve Ifrit, dark Eikon of fire.
We get to see Ifrit and the threat, along with a series of other Dominants using their summon powers and both the revenge that drives Clive and the threat to peace in the world of Valdisthea. While Clive confronts Ifrit and also restates his determination, there’s much more to encounter, and now we know that it will be June when we can do that.
Square Enix also opened up preorders for the game after the presentation, with standard, deluxe, and a collector’s edition available.
For more, head to Final Fantasy XVI.
