De release van Final Fantasy XVI ligt inmiddels enkele maanden achter ons en velen hebben in die tijd het epische avontuur van Clive Rosfield mogen ervaren. Producer Naoki Yoshida was aanwezig op PAX West 2023 en sprak daar tijdens een panel over de game en hoe de voorbije maanden voor het team gelopen zijn en wat we in de toekomst kunnen verwachten.

Tijdens dit panel werden enkele aankondigingen gedaan: allereerst bedankte hij de fans en gaf hij mee dat het team luistert naar de feedback van de spelers. Vervolgens gaf hij mee dat we vanaf nu een gratis update voor de game kunnen downloaden die wat nieuwe content met zich meebrengt. Zo zal je nu het uiterlijk van je wapens kunnen aanpassen en zijn er nieuwe outfits verkrijgbaar voor zowel Clive, Jill, Torgal, Ambrosia en Joshua.

Daarnaast bevestigde Yoshida ook dat het team momenteel hard aan het werk is aan de beloofde pc-versie van de game… én ook zijn er twee premium DLC-pakketten in de maak. Initieel waren er geen plannen voor DLC, maar gezien de positieve ontvangst van de game door de fanbase werd beslist om ons toch meer tijd te laten spenderen in de wereld van Valisthea. Een releasedatum voor deze DLC’s werd nog niet meegegeven.

Bekijk hieronder een trailer die de nieuwe update in de schijnwerpers zet, alsook het volledige PAX West panel. Lees daaronder ook de precieze veranderingen van de update na.

Let op: de trailer bevat lichte spoilers voor het verhaal

This update:

  • Adds an Appearance feature to the Arete Stone in the hideaway.
    • This allows you to change the costumes of several characters, including Clive.
    • It also allows you to change the appearance of the weapon Clive wields to that of any weapon previously obtained.
    • This feature is unlocked after progressing to a certain point in the story, and is not available at the start of a New Game+ playthrough until the same point is reached.
    • Please note that this feature is disabled in some scenes in order to maintain loading speed.
  • Awards each player an onion sword, which can be claimed by accessing Redeemable Items from the System menu.
    • This allows Clive to wield the favored blade of the Warriors of Light, heroes of Final Fantasy III.
    • The Redeemable Items feature is unlocked after progressing to a certain point in the story.
    • The onion sword has the same attributes as the other downloadable weapons, Braveheart and the blood sword.
  • Reduces the time after a successful parry at which Eikonic abilities can be activated.
  • Increases the time small enemies remain vulnerable to follow-up attacks after being lifted into the air by the player, allowing for easier aerial combos.
  • Adds ability cooldown times to the relevant Details pages in the Abilities menu, including information on how these are affected by currently equipped accessories.
  • Makes the following changes to the training options menu in the Arete Stone’s Hall of Virtue:
    • Adds several options regarding Torgal’s behavior.
    • Adds an option to restart the simulation from the original settings.
    • Fixes some text issues.
  • Makes the following changes to Arcade Mode:
  • Adds a time limit to each stage.
    • This change is intended to correct an issue wherein certain abilities could be used to continually amass points over time, allowing for scores greater than envisioned.
    • You can continue to play as normal after the time limit is exceeded, but any further actions will not add to your score.
  • Reduces the scores awarded by the abilities Rime and Gouge.
    • Please note that in this and future updates, we plan to adjust the scoring system in order to reward the creative chaining of multiple abilities. We will continue to assess how scores in Arcade Mode are calculated in order to maintain its challenge.
  • Introduces a new leaderboard for players who have this update installed. Players who do not install the update can continue to view and record their high scores to the old leaderboard.
    • After installing this update, you will no longer be able to view or record high scores to the old leaderboard. However, scores recorded to the previous leaderboard will not be deleted. We plan to make previous leaderboards visible to all players in a future update.
  • Makes the following changes to the System menu:
    • Adds an Adaptive Triggers option to the Game Settings menu, which allows you to turn the wireless controller’s trigger effect function on or off.
    • Adds a Target Cycle option to the Game Settings menu, which allows you to choose one of four different methods of changing targets while locked on to an enemy.
    • Adjusts the functionality of the Player Follow (Attack) option in the Camera Settings menu, in order to correct an issue wherein the camera position would reset after some attacks even when this option was turned off.
    • Adds a Controller Volume option to the Sound Settings menu, which allows you to adjust the volume of sound effects played through the wireless controller’s speaker.
    • Adjusts the functionality of the Visual Alerts option in the Sound Settings menu, so that a preview of the alerts is displayed when the setting is turned on, and a confirmation dialog appears when the setting is changed.
    • Fixes some text issues.
  • Fixes the following issues:
    • An issue wherein enemies’ actions did not trigger correctly in boss encounters under certain conditions.
    • An issue wherein the collision detection threshold could be crossed in boss encounters under certain conditions.
    • An issue wherein certain characters’ actions did not trigger correctly.
    • An issue wherein notorious marks did not appear under certain conditions.
    • An issue wherein notorious marks appeared in different locations to that indicated on the hunt board. – An issue wherein holding down the touch pad button would display the local map when the Wireless Controller Layout option was set to Type F.
    • An issue wherein certain weapons could not be crafted in Final Fantasy mode, as the materials required to craft them were not available in that mode.
    • A multi-language issue wherein certain entries in The Thousand Tomes could not be found using the Search by Name function.
    • An issue wherein game progress was not correctly carried over when transferring save data from the demo version to the full version.
    • Several minor text issues.