A Return to High-Fantasy
The most obvious thing right from the get-go that most people picked out from Final Fantasy XVI’s announcement trailer is the return to a more high fantasy-like setting.
Between all three Final Fantasy XIII games, Final Fantasy XV and all of its DLC, Final Fantasy VII Remake, and probably other spin-offs I’m forgetting, the series has largely rooted itself in modern locales for the majority of the last 10+ years. There are some exceptions, of course. The biggest exception being Final Fantasy XIV. More on that in a bit.
While high fantasy is, obviously, not new to Final Fantasy, we haven’t seen Square Enix go in that direction, full blast, with the graphical power they now have powering their single-player games. So the initial trailer showcasing all of that was cool to see.
What the trailer made me think of was Game of Thrones. Not because of any premature comparisons to the setting or story or anything like that, but rather the reason it reminded me of it is because Game of Thrones always wowed me with its beauty if nothing else.
That Final Fantasy XVI trailer was also very gorgeous and I’m looking forward to a whole game that looks like that.
