When Square Enix announced Final Fantasy 16 last year, its combat immediately caught attention. Previous mainline Final Fantasy titles have all had some variation of the Active Time Battle or ATB system. But Final Fantasy 16 appears to be completely real-time.
Producer Naoki Yoshida spoke about this in a recent radio broadcast, as tweeted by Nova Crystallis senior editor Tony Garsow. He noted that the game was “action-oriented” but the development team is also making effort to support players who are less skilled at action titles. It’s also working hard on the story.
There are many ways to interpret this, like Final Fantasy 16 having options that make combat less stressful for those not used to action games. It wouldn’t be all that different from Final Fantasy 7 Remake whose Casual mode made fights easier while ensuring players could hang back and let the ATB gauge fill. Whether this is the intent or not, and how the developer intends to implement it, remains to be seen.
Final Fantasy 16 is currently in development for PS5. It was also announced for PC, which was later removed (though it’s rumored to be exclusive to Sony’s console for year).