When prodded over whether this other playable character would work in a similar way to Final Fantasy 12’s Reks, Maehiro said that was “a good understanding”. Reks was FF12 protagonist Vaan’s older brother, who you played as during the game’s prologue. Producer Naoki Yoshida also clarified in the interview that, despite what trailers have shown so far, Clive will have a posse of sorts. This party will fight alongside Clive, but they’ll be controlled by AI, much like Noctis’ boy band pals were in Final Fantasy 15. Square Enix haven’t had a great time promoting Final Fantasy 16 so far. They generated some controversy earlier this month when Yoshida essentially said it was okay for the game to be culturally homogeneous because it’s set somewhere geographically isolated “in an age without airplanes, television, or telephones”. Final Fantasy 16 is set to arrive in Summer 2023, although it will likely hit PC a bit later than that. A recent PlayStation marketing video revealed the JRPG will be a PS5 exclusive for six months when it launches, so we’re probably looking at a Winter 2023 release on PC at the earliest. Fingers crossed we’re not left waiting until 2024. I’ll let you know when the clouds have lifted and a shiny PC release date appears.
