Final Fantasy XVI’s PC launch is right around the corner, but you can try it now

digitaltrends.com:

Final Fantasy XVI is finally making its way to PC. The official X (formerly Twitter) account announced Monday that the former PlayStation 5 exclusive will release September 17 on Steam and Epic Games Store.

You can wishlist or preorder the game now on both platforms, and there’s a free demo also now available that lets you play through the opening section and a special Eikonic Challenge mode just for the demo. If you preorder, you’ll get a few bonuses: the Cait Sith’s Charm, the Sixteen Bells Orchestrion Roll item, and the Brave Blade weapon. You can get the base game standard edition for $50 or you can pay $70 to get the Complete Edition, which comes with the two released DLC: Echoes of the Fallen and The Rising Tide.

The last few mainline Final Fantasy games have gotten PC ports a year or two after launch, although where they’ve been available has varied. Final Fantasy XV Windows Editionreleased on Steam, but the PC port of Final Fantasy VII Remake was only available on Epic Games Store for a few months before hitting Steam. Final Fantasy XVI, thankfully, is hitting both Epic Games Store and Steam on the same day.

Players have been on the lookout for this announcement since producer Naoki Yoshida revealed to Game Informer (via IGN) in March that the PC port was in the “final stages of optimization. “When we can release the PC version might be dependent on that — the system requirements and specifications for PC that players will need, so we’re trying to figure that out. Naturally, [the PC specifications] are looking to be somewhat high,” Yoshida said.

While the PC port will be huge — 170 GB according to the Steam store page — the recommended system specs aren’t terrible considering this is a giant Final Fantasy game. Players should have at least an AMD Ryzen 7 5700X or Intel Core i7-10700 CPU and an AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT or Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080.