Final Fantasy XVI Will Feature An Arcade Mode With Devil May Cry-Style Combat Scores

gameinformer.com:

Final Fantasy XVI is the most action-forward mainline Final Fantasy game in the series yet, and that’s in no small part due to the person behind its action: combat director Ryota Suzuki. After nearly 20 years at Capcom working on combat for games like Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Devil May Cry 4, and most recently, Devil May Cry 5, Suzuki decided he was ready for something new. 

That «something new» turned out to be FFXVI. The game’s director, Hiroshi Takai, and its producer, Naoki Yoshida, offered Suzuki a role at Creative Business Unit III, leading FFXVI’s combat design. And now, on June 22, players will be able to feel what I felt during a recent hands-on preview of the game: it’s very Devil May Cry meets Final Fantasy, in the best way. 

While playing, one thing I noticed was that FFXVI doesn’t really grade your performance in combat like Devil May Cry, despite feeling like the kind of action game that would. That’s intentional, according to Takai. 

“You maybe didn’t realize it, but while you’re playing the game, the game is actually telling the score in the background,” he says. “The reason we don’t show this all the time goes back to that core concept of making this game not just for the hardcore players, but making it for everyone. 

“When someone’s playing a game, and they feel like they’re doing well…they think, ‘I’ve tried my best’ and then get Rank 6. We look at that as a demotivator for some players and we didn’t want that.”

However, for the action players that do want to see how they performed in combat, Final Fantasy XVI will have a special unlockable mode just for that. It’s called Arcade Mode and will be accessible from a special in-game hub after it’s unlocked by progressing through Clive’s story. 

“In this mode,