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This Week in Games
Final Fantasy XVI's Goodest Boy

by Heidi Kemps,

Hey everybody! After last week's influx of big, BIG news, things are (thankfully) a bit quieter this week. I did a review of Sonic Origins over at GameSpot, where I was extremely nitpicky Nintendo launched a new Direct broadcast, but not the big, multi-game showcase we were all hoping for, instead focusing on showing off the much-anticipated Xenoblade Chronicles 3.

I haven't actually watched the whole thing myself – If I'm really looking forward to a game, I actually try to limit my preview media consumption so I can go in with fewer expectations and more surprises. It's a bit harder to do when you're writing a weekly column like this and are expected to have A Take on everything, but I'm going to allow myself to stay in the dark about this one.

But that also ties in with an important announcement: My time here at This Week in Games is coming to a close.

No, I'm not ending my involvement with ANN entirely -- I'll still be writing articles here and there, as well as freelancing at a bunch of other places. But I've taken on a new gig that's going to be taking up a lot more of my time, however, so I can't really commit to a weekly column on here anymore. I'll be writing for a couple more weeks, and then I'll be passing the column along to the next writer. We've already got the next TWIGmaster lined up, and they're a person ANN readers likely know well already, so things will be in good hands.

…Wow, I wrote this column for almost five years. That's a pretty great run! I'll have more details on the changeover in the coming weeks, but I wanted to give you all this information now, so my departure won't be a massive shock.

Also, I'm really hoping Nintendo gives me at least one traditional Direct to report on before I go. As grueling as those writeups can be, they're also pretty special. I'm going to miss ‘em.

MORE FINAL FANTASY XVI DETAILS EMERGE IN NAOKI YOSHIDA INTERVIEWS

After the new State of Play trailer from earlier this month, folks are chattering about Final Fantasy XVI once again. While Square-Enix has only shown gameplay in very small snippets, numerous major websites were able to talk to producer Naoki Yoshida: PlayStation Blog, GameSpot, IGN, even the Washington Post, among many others. (Gematsu has a full list of links across multiple languages collected in one handy place.)

Obviously, there's a lot of information to be learned from these varied interviews, but a few key points stand out: combat will be real-time, the environment will not be an open world, the story will take place over decades in the life of protagonist Clive, and the spectacular Eikon-versus-Eikon battles we caught a glimpse of in the last trailer are going to offer unique and varied gameplay for each fight.

Let's talk about that first point a bit. We've all known that numbered Final Fantasy has been gradually moving away from turn-based combat, but it looks like FFXVI is going to be the biggest break from tradition yet. You'll be in control of one character – likely Clive – while other party members will be AI-controlled. (How much control you'll have over their AI patterns is still unknown.) Clive is a Dominant, a person who can host and control Eikons – the monstrous beings seen as summoned monsters in other FF titles – and his battle abilities will be derived from the Eikons whose power he's currently borrowing. Eikon skills (both active and passive, I assume) will be unlocked through a skill tree using points in battle. This kind of sounds like a job system, but instead of putting points into classes you're putting them into monsters. Hey, I'm down with it.

Also, this lil’ dude is named Torgal and I love him and want to give him pets and treats. Who's a good boooooy

Yoshida says to expect the next big trailer drop this fall, so until then, these interviews will have to be your summertime fix for further FFXVI details. Between FFXVII and FFVII Rebirth, Square-Enix is going to be keeping the Final Fantasy hype train rolling for a while yet.

FIGHTING GAME NEWS ROUNDUP: QUICK, WE NEED A DISTRACTION

Y'all want to see a Twitter ratio? Get a load of this:

Yes, that's an announcement for… King of Fighters-related NFTs, officially licensed by SNK. Supposedly. Crypto bros spouting bullshit to lure in marks isn't new… but SNK doesn't always make great licensing choices, and I'm sure their current ownership isn't helping that any.

Licensed or no, launching anything crypto-related will always draw ire, especially right now with markets crashing hard. After being overwhelmed by Twitter dunks, the account went private for a bit, only to re-emerge a couple of days later with generic crypto jargon and no further mention of KoF.

Maybe SNK saw the backlash and are getting cold feet? Well, the timing of the new King of Fighters XV DLC trailer release seems to indicate some attempt at damage control. Time for the Orochi boys (and gal) to make a comeback just in the nick of time! (and also Kof98 Ultimate Match Final Edition for good measure)

Also, DNF Duel is out this week… if you live somewhere that broke street date. Otherwise, you're going to have to wait until next week to give the game a spin. From day-one footage, it definitely looks like it's got that DNA that makes Eighting-developed fighting games noteworthy. Which is to say, “people are already finding entertainingly broken and grimy tech and this game's going to be totally busted in a couple weeks.”  That's not necessarily a bad thing, either – it just depends on if it's boring-busted or highly-entertaining-busted. Guess we'll see how things fall during events over the next couple months.

And speaking of events, CEO is this weekend! As one of the biggest non-EVO majors in the US, there's going to be plenty of hype and possibly further announcements to go around. I predict at least one official Street Fighter VI character reveal, but the whole thing should be fun to watch regardless.

ASSORTED NEWSBITS

This week, there's a lot of news that's worth reporting but for which I don't have much commentary to offer. Let's run them down:

  • Famed developer Treasure is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. The usually-quiet Twitter account tweeted something about an announcement regarding “that game” people have been requesting. Intriguing!
  • Ys X has been announced with some teaser images. It looks… neat! Not much to go on, but it's something, at least.
  • The full English cast of Soul Hackers 2 has been revealed via a new trailer! Lots of great names in here:
  • Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival will be coming to Switch in September. The Taiko series in known for including a lot of fun anime and game music in its song selection list, with picks from Attack on Titan, Evangelion, Sailor Moon, and Dragon Ball in the base track list – plus more in the “Taiko Music Pass” subscription service. A physical edition with a mini taiko drum controller is also available for pre-order.
  • Sega and Creative Assembly's “Super Game,” HYENAS, was unveiled via a trailer drop. I'm surprised and pleased with how colorful and cheeky it looks – definitely not what I was expecting, in a good way. It looks like it may have some not-so-thinly-veiled social commentary, as well, so I predict another round of “politics in games” whining in the future.
  • Mega-popular mobile game Ensemble Stars! has launched in English, and despite heaps of advertising and promotion, the publisher apparently decided to run the Japanese text through Google Translate and call it a day. I mean, just look at this. What am I even reading?
    Hopefully the vocal EnStars fandom can yell loud enough to make a difference. It worked for Fate Grand Order, whose early English localization was atrociously bad (and still lingers in the early parts of the game – please fix that, Aniplex). Y'all have been waiting for this for a long time and you don't deserve a sub-par product.

And we're done for this week! You know… I think I'm going to miss trying to think up ways to get you all to post in the forums every week. Not to mention I'm going to miss reading all of the replies and comments… agh, I'm already feeling sad, and I haven't even departed yet! But yes, if you've got thoughts about this week's gaming news, you know what to do – click that link below and get postin’. Thanks as always for reading, and I'll see you for a couple more weeks… sniff…


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