The year has come forFinal Fantasy, Square Enix’s flagship franchise, to add another installment to its impressively long list of titles. Fans have been waiting forFinal Fantasy 16for a long time, and after a series of production hitches and delays, Square Enix has given an official release date for the highly anticipated action RPG. Selecting a release date can be difficult, and even industry giants like Square Enix are not exempt from the permutations that come with every new addition. Publishers need to find a window of peak interest for their product to bathe in the limelight of media attention, and with the release date ofDiablo 4so close to that ofFinal Fantasy 16, the eagerly awaited title might have chosen its window poorly.
Gaming release schedules are a tricky thing to navigate for even the most experienced publishers in the business. Seemingly random factors like matching a horror game’s release with Halloween and anniversary dates are always in play, so the scope of release dates is ever-changing as publishers look for ways to boost their games' publicity. This effort can result in games being delayed, like howThe Day Before’s release datewas pushed back recently. Square Enix appears confident inFinal Fantasy 16’s hype, however, taking no such measures with its release and placing it only two weeks after that ofDiablo 4.
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Final Fantasy 16’s Protagonist and New Features Bring a Fresh Spin
Square Enix has a lot of reasons to be brazenly confident about itself.Final Fantasy 16comes nearly seven years after the last edition and that alone should generate sufficient hype for the newest entry. With the prospect of the new protagonist, countries, and the Valisthea universe as a whole, gamers have enough material to keep them fixated on theFinal Fantasyfranchise.Final Fantasy 16intends to explore the medieval world similar toGame of Thrones' Westeros, employing Gothic-styled architecture and old-fashioned knights.
Clive Rosfield promises to be a compelling and layered protagonist, with Square Enix giving players control over the character in his teens, twenties, and thirties. It’s not often gamers get to witness a character’s story from its early years, and players can expect to experience several key events in Valisthea through the lens of Clive. Additionally,Final Fantasy 16is set to play a pioneering role for the franchise, as it becomes thefirstFinal Fantasytitle to receive the M for Mature ratingin North America.
Square Enix’s host of changes to traditionalFinal Fantasyfeatures is unsurprising, as the developer attempts to restore some of its lost luster with a release that is in vogue with the times. While the new additions are exciting,Square Enixwould have been better off selecting a different release date to prevent a window clash withDiablo 4, which is sure to grab the attention of the RPG audience when it drops.Diablo 4has been more than a decade in the making, and if reported features are anything to go by, it could be one of the more successful releases of 2023.
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Diablo 4’s Release Date Could Spell Trouble For Final Fantasy 16
It’s only fitting that a well-loved franchise returns with a bang after a long silence, and developer Blizzard has put the building blocks in place forDiablo 4to do just that. Most notably,Diablo 4will let players choose if they want to follow the story modeor dive headfirst into the open world activities. There has been growing sentiment that open world games don’t always need main narrative campaigns, and the latest entry to theDiablofranchise will be one of the first to test this notion.
Diablo 4takes place after the events ofDiablo 3: Reaper of Soulsand is bringing a new villain to the franchise. Cultists loyal to Mephisto have brought his daughter, Lilith, back to the mortal realm.Diabloplayers are not unfamiliar with Lilith, as the Daughter of Hatred has played a significant role as the creator of Sanctuary in the franchise’s lore. Despite her influential contributions, Lilith has been on the back burner for much of theDiabloseries, but Blizzard decided to make the Daughter of Hatred the antagonist here. Gamers got the first glimpse of Lilith inDiablo 4’s cinematic trailer reveal, and the improved graphics add to her macabre aesthetic.
Details aboutDiablo 4’s storyline have not been particularly forthcoming, as Blizzard keeps its cards close to its chest ahead of the highly anticipated release. However, inferences can be drawn from the fact thatDiablo 4is a sequel, asDiablo 3: Reaper of Soulshad a few loose ends such as thePrime and Lesser Evilsgaining their freedom. Each new entry to theDiabloseries has added a notable story element, soDiablo 4can be expected to pick up the ropes fromReaper of Soulsand add unique narrative directions. With the new villain, the latest installment should have little trouble generating fresh content for fans.
With so many improvements slated to grace theDiablofranchise in terms of graphics and gameplay, as well as the return of several fan-favoritecharacters,Diablo 4has good cause to grab fan attention in the RPG category for a solid timeframe.Final Fantasy 16, despite being a new addition to a popular franchise, will have a ton of media work to do to ensure successful numbers at launch because of the stiff competition. While the release window might make things a bit more complicated for Square Enix, the buffed-up content featured inFinal Fantasy 16should get the publisher over the line.
Final Fantasy 16will be released on June 27, 2025, for PS5.
