Former Devil May Cry dev dubs Final Fantasy 16's combat his "personal masterpiece"

The single most interesting thing you could tell me about Final Fantasy 16 is that it will have actually good combat. One of the developers has just said that, as of course they would, but not just any dev: we're talking about Devil May Cry 5 design lead Ryota Suzuki, who's dubbed FF16's sword-slinging his "personal masterpiece".

I don't take that at face value, but it has given me my first pangs of regret over selling my PS5. Those who didn't sell their PS5 for travel money get to play in a few days, while PC players are in for an indefinitely long wait.

Suzuki is FF16's combat director, which is cool and good, though "personal masterpiece" might be pushing it when you're talking about work done by dozens of people. He made the claim in a recent developer live stream, as spotted by VGC, where he also said he and his team have prioritised "designing this game's battle system to appeal to those who previously have not played or are not well versed in action games".

You can watch the combat in action above, and sure, I see the DMC-ey-ness. Lots of flips, pulling enemies in, knocking them back, whacking 'em a dozen times in the air before zipping off to bash another poor sod. That's not unlike the one Final Fantasy I've played, with the car and the boys, but it does seem like there might be more heft here. People have been wildly enjoying the FF16 demo, though I'm a bit suspicious because people also seemed to like Final Fantasy 15, which I immediately bounced off of because the combat felt floaty and unsatisfying.

We'll see! Though not within the next six months, as Square Enix have confirmed. The PS5 launch is on June 22nd.

Last month, Final Fantasy 16 producer Naoki Yoshida publicly mused about dropping numbers from the end of future Final Fantasy games, which I am adamantly against. Commit to the bit, you cowards.