Final Fantasy 16’s Endgame: New Game+, Ultimaniac Mode, And More
During our Final Fantasy XVI cover story trip, I played a few hours of the game much of the press experienced. But I was also given an exclusive tour of FFXVI’s endgame and other supplementary content by creative director Hiroshi Takai and combat director Ryota Suzuki.
It’s safe to say there’s plenty to play, especially if you enjoy chasing numbers in combat.
FFXVI features an Arcade Mode, allowing players to run through stages they’ve already completed, this time with an on-screen score calculator and combat grader. But a New Game+ playthrough opens up two additional versions, and both are more difficult than the game’s base Story Mode and Action Mode difficulties. It’s important to note you can play through New Game+ on one of these base difficulties if you’d like, but you’re missing a lot of features intended for New Game+. If you’re after treasures you missed or PlayStation Trophies you didn’t collect, Stage Replay might suit your needs better. And if you’re after some combat training or a speedy, destructive action fix, there’s a special training mode, accessible through a statuesque Arete Stone within Clive’s main hub.
New Game+ lets you play through FFXVI with all of your previously unlocked abilities and gear from the jump, but the highlight is Final Fantasy Mode. This increases the game’s difficulty, changes monster placement, and remixes which enemies might appear in combat.
“The main design philosophy is that the first playthrough is about learning Clive, learning the controls, and then enjoying the story,” Suzuki says. “The second playthrough, we want to shift that focus – because the story hasn’t changed – to the action. For example, in Story Mode, while players may encounter waves of enemies, a lot of
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