Amidst all the chaos of E3 2023, Square Enix released another trailer for Final Fantasy 16, and launched its long-awaited demo for the soon-to-be-released RPG.
We've known a Final Fantasy 16 demo would be coming to PS5 for some time now, with producer Naoki Yoshida confirming so ahead of the game's June 22 launch. Now, you can finally download it to your console and explore much of Final Fantasy 16's opening chapters. Best of all, your progress will carry over to the full game, so there's no reason not to dive in right now if you're excited for the upcoming game.
The Final Fantasy 16 demo clocks in at around 18.65GB on PS5, which is fairly large as far as demos go. The demo is split into two parts. The Playable Prologue will let you play the earliest sections of Final Fantasy 16, and features over two hours of playable content.
There's also the Special Battle Demo, which features a powered-up Clive kitted out with Eikonic abilities you'll find later on in the game. Likely, this mode is here to give players a taste of protagonist Clive's full potential. I'm sure plenty of jaw-dropping combo videos will be making their way online soon enough as a result.
Final Fantasy 16 is spearheaded by Square Enix's Creative Business Unit 3. That's the same team that heads up development on Final Fantasy 14 Online. Both games share notable team members including Kazutoyo Maehiro, who was also a lead writer on Final Fantasy 14's award-winning Heavensward expansion.
He's joined by localization lead Michael-Christopher Koji Fox and composer Masayoshi Soken. Ryota Suzuki serves as the game's combat director, too, having previously worked on the Devil May Cry and Marvel vs Capcom series, as well as beloved fighting game Capcom vs SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium.
It's a pretty well-rounded roster of accomplished developers, then, which leads me to believe Final Fantasy 16 is in very capable hands. Hopefully, the demo will further cement that with a taste of the game's story, soundtrack and combat.
In other anticipated game news coming from E3 2023, it's been revealed that Bethesda Game Studios' Starfield will not only launch with a limited edition controller and headset, but also a bespoke smartwatch bundled in the game's Constellation Edition.
