When talking or viewing Final Fantasy XVI’s combat, it’s difficult not to think of other action combat games, such as Capcom’s Devil May Cry series. And if the combat reminds you of DMC, it’s probably because FFXVI’s combat director is Ryota Suzuki, who worked on Devil May Cry 4 and Devil May Cry 5. He did, however, contribute to Marvel vs. Capcom 2.
While the DMC influences in FFXVI’s combat are obvious, Suzuki revealed that Marvel vs. Capcom 2 inspired aspects of FFXVI’s features as well.
“There’s actually something from Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 that we took and put into Final Fantasy XVI, which is, as you may or may not know, in Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, we had the Assist system where you could give orders to your partner in battle,” Suzuki explains. “And by implementing that system, we were able to create the sense of multiple people fighting at the same time, resulting in this very frenetic battle system.”
“We brought some of that knowledge into creating the system with Torgal [Clive’s companion dog, which can be commanded in the battle to do different things] and being able to give the pet commands where you’re by yourself but still working together.”
That Assist mechanism was developed by him and the Capcom team 22 years ago. You command your combat partner there. By doing this, an inaction period for the main character is produced. He claims that in order to avoid doing that in Final Fantasy XVI, Creative Business Unit III eliminated the feature of the Assist system.
“[That way], when the player gave that order, the player would be able to continue to act, so it’d create more types of frenetic battles where both the partner [Torgal] and the player could still be playing and participating in the battle even though the commands are being given.”
Furthermore, Suzuki mentions that unique actions in FFXVI’s combat were inspired by Marvel vs. Capcom 2. When you time specific orders well, it will unlock even more special types of moves in real-time, which players acquainted with combinations in Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 will recognize.
“[These special moves] are something we wanted to implement early on that wasn’t necessary, but players, if they have the skill, would be able to pull off in one of those base foundations,” the developers said.
