Final Fantasy XVI’s Combat Director Says The Game Is His Personal Masterpiece

Ryota Suzuki, combat director for Final Fantasy XVI, stated that the next mainline entry in the legendary RPG franchise is his personal masterpiece in his 25 years of making video games. The statement comes from the Japanese live letter for FFXVI where Suzuki-san expressed his thoughts on the action of XVI and the approach taken by the team working on this project.

I’ve been making action games for the past 25 years in my career, and I truly think this game is my own personal masterpiece.”

Final Fantasy XVI is taking a whole new direction with its pure action gameplay that marks a new, much-needed franchise evolution after almost four decades of turn-based combat. Ryota Suzuki joined Square Enix sometime after his work on Devil May Cry 5 was done. Having worked on Dragon’s Dogma and the fifth entry in the Devil May Cry series, getting Suzuki-san onboard for XVI was a power move by Square Enix.

The core of this combat system is based on how the team has approached action in Final Fantasy XVI. According to Suzuki-san, their approach to gameplay prioritized people who are not well-versed in action games and wanted them to be able to understand the appeal such titles have to offer. As we have seen from gameplay presentations and demos, this approach hasn’t sacrificed skill for the sake of accessibility.

While FFXVI’s gameplay is shaping up to be a profound achievement based on the demo’s feedback, there is a certain percentage of people that still believe this isn’t the real Final Fantasy. In the past, Yoshi-P has expressed how he feels about the franchise and how it has lost that flair the series is known for. He hopes to bring the franchise to a must-buy status with Final Fantasy XVI.

After the release of Final Fantasy VII Remake, players believe that Square Enix is capable of making great action games. With Ryota Suzuki working on Final Fantasy XVI’s combat, not only are fans of the franchise drawn to the title but players who enjoy action games and other works of Suzuki-san will also be coming in to try out the new Final Fantasy. This can allow the series to reach a broader audience.

Despite struggling with its pre-order numbers due to severe competition from the likes of Capcom‘s Street Fighter 6 and Blizzard‘s Diablo 4, with the release of the demo, the number of pre-orders seems to be on the rise.

Final Fantasy XVI hits the shelves on June 22, 2023, for the PlayStation 5.