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Nicolas Cage Met Hideo Kojima and Now Fans Are Convinced He Will Cameo in Death Stranding 2

Fans are convinced Nicolas Cage will appear in Death Stranding 2 after series director Hideo Kojima posted a picture of him standing with the actor in his Tokyo studio.

Cage recently made his first foray into video game acting by way of a cameo in the survival-horror game Dead by Daylight, in which he plays a somewhat exaggerated version of himself.

During a surprise appearance at Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest live show, the actor explained the cameo gave him the chance to “meet a whole new audience,” while Keighley jokingly suggested that “maybe he’ll be in a Hideo Kojima game” next.

Well it seems that there may have been more to that offhand comment than everyone first thought, because Hideo Kojima just posted a picture of himself posing with the Hollywood legend alongside the Ludens statue in his Japan-based studio.

Naturally, Kojima fans are now convinced the actor is set to join the cast of the Death Stranding sequel, a notion which would be more absurd if it weren’t for the director’s penchant for recruiting celebrities to cameo in his games.

Many predicted Cage may make a cameo appearance as one of the lonely survivors, also known as preppers, who have chosen to live alone in the post apocalyptic digital world following the cataclysm known as the Death Stranding.

For his 2019 game, Kojima assembled an eclectic cast of celebrities to voice these quest givers, including comedian Conan O’Brien, horror artist Junji Ito, movie director Edgar Wright, and, of course, Kojima’s old buddy Geoff Keighley.

Others got a little more specific with their predictions, with some suggesting the actor could portray a version of himself in Death Stranding 2. From there, the suggestions got less…predictable.

Some even suggested the cult actor could take on the role of a villain alongside Troy Baker’s character in the upcoming sequel, which was revealed during The Game Awards 2022 live show, and accompanied by a cryptic trailer that seemed to confirm the return of Norman Reedus as series protagonist Sam Porter Bridges.

Regardless, the idea of a Nicolas Cage-infused Hideo Kojima title seems to be a hit among fans, many of whom pledged to pick up the Death Stranding sequel on launch day, assuming the actor actually features in the game.

Of course, it’s also perfectly possible Kojima simply invited Cage to tour his offices in the hope of recruiting him as a guest for a potential second season of his Spotify podcast Brain Structure, or that, god forbid, he simply wanted to meet a fellow creative. The one thing that we can take away from Cage’s surprise visit is that his interest in the video game world didn’t suddenly end with his appearance in Dead by Daylight.

Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer

Star Ocean: The Second Story R Remake Leaked

A logo for Star Ocean: The Second Story R has leaked via Square Enix’s support website.

Spotted by RPG Site, the banner with the logo was found on Square Enix’s official support site, but it has since been taken down. The link that leads to the logo now shows a box with the words “no image”.

Star Ocean: The Second Story is the second game in developer Tri-Ace’s Star Ocean series, which is published by Square Enix. The game was released for the original PlayStation in 1998. An enhanced version of the game, Star Ocean: Second Evolution, was released in 2008 for PlayStation Portable.

In 2008, Square Enix remastered the first game in the series for PlayStation Portable, called Star Ocean: First Departure. In 2019, the game was re-released for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch as Star Ocean: First Departure R.

The latest game in the series is Star Ocean: The Divine Force, which is the sixth mainline title. In IGN’s Star Ocean: The Divine Force review, we said: “Star Ocean: The Divine Force isn’t the best in the series, but a revamped battle system and a charming cast of characters at least make it feel like a return to form.”

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He’s been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR, and Variety.

When not writing about video games, George is playing video games. What a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey

Phantom Liberty Director Will Lead Cyberpunk 2077 Sequel

Director of Cyberpunk 2077’s Phantom Liberty expansion Gabe Amatangelo will also direct the full sequel from CD Projekt Red.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Amatangelo said he’ll be moving onto the sequel once development on the long-awaited Cyberpunk 2077 expansion is complete. Given Phantom Liberty launches on September 26, this should be within the next three months or so.

Little else is known about the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, codenamed Orion at CD Projekt Red, but the developer promised it “will fully unleash the potential that this universe offers”.

Development hadn’t begun as of October 2022 as CD Projekt Red focused on building a whole new North American studio for the game, consisting of 350 to 500 developers between teams in Boston and Vancouver. With Amatangelo looking to move over when Phantom Liberty is done, however, development should be kicking off soon if it hasn’t already.

Amatangelo spoke to IGN during our Summer of Gaming to outline what fans can expect in the expansion (and therefore, perhaps, what will be a focus in the sequel). Phantom Liberty is set to change several aspects of the base game too, even adding a new ending.

Vehicular combat, a Cyberpunk: Edgerunners inspired cyberpsychosis feature, and a clever nod to The Witcher are coming too, though at the cost of upping the game’s PC requirements.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Starfield 30fps Debate Has People Talking About Virtual Sandwiches

As IGN exclusively revealed during Summer of Gaming, hotly-anticipated space epic Starfield runs at 30 frames per second on Xbox Series X and S. The news sparked a vociferous debate about the performance of Bethesda Game Studios’ next big title, and challenged the expectation from some that big first-party games should run at 60fps on Xbox Series X no matter what.

But why does Starfield run at 30fps? In an interview with IGN, BGS boss Todd Howard said the development team decided to lock Starfield at 30fps on console to ensure “consistency” of performance.

“I think it’ll come as no surprise, given our previous games, what we go for,” Howard said. “Always these huge, open worlds, fully dynamic, hyper detail where anything can happen. And we do want to do that. It’s 4K in the X. It’s 1440 on the S. We do lock it at 30, because we want that fidelity, we want all that stuff. We don’t want to sacrifice any of it.

“Fortunately in this one, we’ve got it running great. It’s often running way above that. Sometimes it’s 60. But on the consoles, we do lock it because we prefer the consistency, where you’re not even thinking about it.

“And we don’t ever want to sacrifice that experience that makes our games feel really, really special. So it feels great. We’re really happy with how it feels even in the heat of battle. And we need that headroom because in our games, really anything can happen.”

Anything can happen? What about hoarding a basketful of sandwiches in your spaceship? Well, that’s exactly what we saw is possible in Starfield’s extended video preview, continuing the rich tradition of BGS games letting players collect all manner of nonsense, pile it high in their home, then counting down the seconds before a crash.

Now, as the dust begins to settle on the Starfield 30fps debate, these sandwiches have become the unlikely focal point, with some experts claiming it’s exactly this kind of gameplay that means 30fps is the correct choice.

John Linneman, from video game analysis specialists Digital Foundry, took to Twitter to explain exactly what’s going on.

“While it’s used as a gag in the video, this sandwich pirate concept highlights one reason why 60fps would be tough to achieve,” Linneman explained.

“Like prior BGS titles, it seems that Starfield tracks the location and position of arbitrary items in the world. Given the scope this stuff begins to add up. The player has so much freedom in this regard that it becomes, presumably, impossible to keep the frame budget below 16ms. Lowering the resolution would not make this possible.”

Some have called on BGS to add a performance mode to Starfield, one that would let players lower the resolution or the fidelity of the visuals in favour of higher fps. But according to Linneman, doing so wouldn’t make much difference.

Starfield, like previous BGS games, are unique in many ways, including how objects are tracked. “You can take a random item out of your inventory and set it on a table,” Linneman said. “You can set dozens of items and more down. The item position will be retained for the rest of the game. I can’t think of many other games that attempt this.”

Meanwhile, Dannie Carlone, senior staff environment artist at God of War developer Sony Santa Monica, chimed in to similarly defend BGS’ decision to go with 30fps for Starfield.

“It’s not a sign of an unfinished game,” he said in a tweet. “It’s a choice. 60fps on this scale would be a large hit to the visual fidelity. My guess is they want to go for a seamless look and less ‘pop in’. And of course your right to dislike the choice.”

Then: “It doesn’t need to be 4K ( which is expensive) it could be 1080p at 60 or another variable resolution at 60. They want to keep it locked at 30 4K and push the visuals to a high level on this scale.”

It seems likely the 30fps debate will follow Starfield all the way to release. Either way, assuming Starfield does release on console with a locked 30fps performance, it will be the smoothest, most consistent game Bethesda Game Studios has ever released at launch.

In case you missed it, here’s our Xbox showcase roundup, and here’s everything shown during the Starfield Direct.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

F1 23 Review

After roughly 940 million kilometres, the Earth has reached the point on its 12-month celestial march around the sun where it’s time for another Formula 1 game. Fitting, perhaps, considering I feel like I’ve driven roughly 940 million kilometres in this series over the past decade-and-change. Jokes aside, it’s a testament to the incredible robustness of Codemasters’ brand of open-wheel motorsport magic that climbing back into the cockpit each year remains a pleasure, and F1 23 is no exception. Alongside noticeably improved handling for the new-era cars, F1 23 also adds the next chapter of the Braking Point story mode introduced in F1 2021 – plus a new reward-based progression system with daily, weekly, and seasonal goals. The result is plenty to keep us busy, even if your personal mileage may vary substantially depending on your taste in both curated, solo campaigns and live service-style game modes.

Last season’s sweeping regulation changes ushered in a field full of brand-new F1 cars, and with their bigger wheels and tyres they were the best-looking cars the sport had seen in some time. However, they were also the heaviest cars in the championship’s history. In F1 22 this translated to a model that made manhandling that additional bulk quite tricky. Relearning the limits of these new cars was admittedly an absorbing challenge, but it wasn’t always a fun one; there was definitely a fickleness to the way the cars had a tendency to both understeer coming into corners and oversteer while trying to throttle out of them.

Driveability has improved dramatically.

In F1 23, driveability has improved dramatically. There’s still a sensation of bulk here in the hefty new-era cars, but they feel considerably more cooperative; grippier and more stable, especially clipping kerbs. Better still, for those of you without a wheel there’s a truly excellent intuitiveness to the game pad controls this year. This was most evident to me while navigating slow corners in narrow street circuits and snapping out of early slides when getting on the throttle a little too hard. I don’t know if I’ve ever really been able to catch oversteer so effectively on a humble analogue stick in any F1 game, ever. F1 23 is easily the best the F1 series has ever felt on a traditional controller. The cars feel lively and dangerous, but they respect your commands. It’s like walking an obedient Dobermann through a butcher’s shop.

Brakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo

Braking Point 2 is the continuation of the story Codemasters kicked off in F1 2021 and, despite the fact its 17 chapters ultimately only lasted me a few sessions over a couple of days, it’s definitely my favourite part of F1 23.

For the purposes of a good yarn, Braking Point 2 adds a fictional eleventh team called Konnersport to the grid (much like we’ve been doing ourselves in My Team mode since F1 2020). The upshot here is that it seems to have resulted in a story with a bit more substance this time around. Emotion and conflict both run a little higher than I would suspect might have been possible within the bubble of an existing team with real-world sponsors. Also, while Braking Point 2 may move to a predictable enough conclusion, I was pleasantly surprised to be caught unawares by at least a couple of unexpected developments.

While Braking Point 2 may move to a predictable enough conclusion, I was pleasantly surprised to be caught unawares by at least a couple of unexpected developments.

While the original Braking Point concentrated on the chalk-and-cheese driving pair of rookie Aiden Jackson and retiring Dutch journeyman Casper Akkerman, Braking Point 2 broadens its lens. The focus here is really the whole Konnersport team, from the drivers (Jackson and his long-time nemesis Devon Butler) to likeable team principal Andreo Konner. Also in the frame is Davidoff Butler, Devon’s father and the CEO of Konnersport’s primary sponsor – plus up-and-coming F2 driver Callie Mayer, who’s being managed by Akkerman.

As with the original Braking Point, the events in Braking Point 2 are a mix of scenarios with specific challenges to achieve as Jackson, Mayer, and even Devon Butler himself. Some events are full races but most are mid-race situations where you may find yourself asked to finish ahead of specific drivers or teams, salvage or defend your position after dealing with some bad luck, or capitalise on some smart strategy. Overachieving this time around can earn you bonus objectives, and doing so ranks you up within the story mode to unlock new responses to press questions and internal staff queries, but it doesn’t change the overall story – just minor side stories and conversations along the way. That said, I really like the structure; I appreciate the variety and I enjoy having goals. Make up so many spots. Don’t finish behind so-and-so. Maybe I just like being bossed around.

Perhaps surprisingly considering his role in F1 2021, Jackson takes a bit of a backseat in Braking Point 2. This actually may be for the best as I found him even harder to warm to this time around, although some of that may be to do with the fact he’s still probably the least fleshed-out character. We learned very little about Jackson in the first Braking Point and we learn even less here. The spotlight instead has shifted to the ambitious Mayer and the smarmy Devon Butler. Intriguingly, while his stint as Braking Point’s heel continues, Devon easily emerges from Braking Point 2 as its most interesting and layered character.

Braking Point 2’s cutscenes are a big improvement over the original and the facial performance capture in particular is far stronger. The interview sequences make for some clever script segues but I do wonder whether it would’ve benefited from a more documentary-style, fly-on-the-wall approach to the dramatic scenes also. The inability to prod the mode with the team you actually chose in the original is a minor miss, but it seems like it would’ve been an easy win for immersion’s sake. As it stands, the Braking Point 1 recap has Jackson and Akkerman wearing Alfa Romeo gear – in my game two years ago they drove for Haas.

The World is Now Enough

The other big new addition in F1 23 is F1 World, which is a standalone mode that appears to be built on the bones of the naff, lifestyle and apparel focused F1 Life mode from F1 22. You could probably describe F1 World as a secondary career mode where, instead of taking on traditional championship seasons, you complete a range of daily, weekly, and seasonal goals and races to earn rewards and upgrade your F1 World car.

I don’t really know what to make of F1 World, but I do know I keep bouncing off it. I can certainly appreciate the appeal of a mode more suited to dipping in and out for short bursts of F1 action than the more time-consuming full race weekends in the normal career mode, but I’m just not attracted to the upgrade loop that comes alongside it.

Upgrades in F1 World come in the form of miscellaneous and eccentric parts and performance boosters, like brakes that will make my tyres last a tiny bit longer – but only on North and South American racetracks. Or a bloke called Robert who will make my engine more powerful for 60 seconds after I make a pitstop, like some kind of motorsport warlock.

There’s an elegance in having what’s essentially an evolving quick play mode all housed under a single umbrella that rewards you for time spent, but there’s a mobile game tone here that I’m just not sure I have the constitution for. If you’re in the same boat, the traditional career and My Team modes remain present. Just know they’re essentially the same as last year, only with some extra tracks: Lusail and Las Vegas. It’s hard to say what kind of race the Vegas Strip street course will make for in real life this November but it’s a cracking-looking track in F1 23, daubed in a busy neon background and brimming with verticality just beyond the track boundaries. It’s extremely eye-catching.

10 Things Diablo 4 Doesn’t Tell You

Diablo 4 is full of more demons than ever before, and its expansive regions can be both dangerous and confusing to explore. Whether you’re looking to tweak the difficulty, get help in combat, or understand its various mechanics, materials, and currencies, we’ve compiled the biggest things Diablo 4 doesn’t always tell you outright.

1 – When Can I Get That Mount?

As soon as you finish the Prologue tutorial and arrive in the main city of Kyovashad, you can try to interact with the stables where Lorath got a horse, only to find you aren’t able to purchase one as well. Even if you’ve bought special editions of the game or purchased cosmetics from the in-game store, you still won’t be able to have a mount of your own just yet.

Instead, you’ll need to progress through the Main Story’s multiple Acts for quite a bit of time. Though you’re welcome to undertake Act 1, Act 2, and Act 3 in any order you like, all of them must be completed before you can start Act 4 — where completing the second main mission, A Master’s Touch, will finally unlock a Priority Quest to visit the stable for your very own horse.

Mounts in Diablo 4 will allow you to traverse large expansive regions at a much quicker pace, and can be customized with various cosmetics that can either be unlocked in game or bought as microtransactions. You can’t exactly attack while mounted, but you can perform a leaping special move to dive straight into combat!

2 – Unlock More Clothing Options

As you start obtaining more and more gear, you may find some outfits look better on you than others. Luckily there’s a way to customize your look, as long as you know what to do with your old gear.

Head to the Blacksmith in any town (not to be confused with the Armorer who sells gear nearby), and you should find that several pieces of gear in your inventory have a pickaxe symbol on them. By clicking on the larger pickaxe symbol in the Blacksmith’s menu, and then clicking on the gear you want to Salvage, you’ll not only get materials in exchange, but you’ll also unlock that gear’s look. If you head to the Wardrobe in the large tavern just above the main town square, you can change the look and color of your currently equipped gear to any piece you have salvaged – including both armor and weapons!

3 – Don’t Sell Your Rare Items – Salvage Them

While speaking to merchants, it can be tempting to just sell extra Rare gear you happen to find as you level up for some easy Gold, but don’t be so quick to sell them away. The Blacksmith that can salvage gear for new looks can also salvage Rare items for a good chance at earning Veiled Crystals.

Using this material, you can upgrade your currently equipped Rare gear into Legendary armor and weapons at the Occultist. This is done by imprinting Aspects – which are gear modifiers you can earn by completing dungeons all across the open world. Be sure to check the list of Aspects and find the Dungeon that holds one that benefits your class, and then use the Veiled Crystals gained from salvaging extra Rare gear to make your own Legendaries!

Once you start to reach higher levels, imbuing Aspects will cost more than just Veiled Crystals, and you’ll have to salvage spare Legendary Gear of each type to be able to make more Legendaries of your own.

4 – Spend Your Murmuring Obols

When exploring the different regions, you’ll usually come across several different types of World Events, which are quick challenges that any nearby player can take part in. Completing these will award you a chest with loot (and even better quality if you complete an optional objective), as well as a handful Murmuring Obols. Depending on where the event takes place (outdoors, in cellars or dungeons, or Legion Events that require lots of players), and if you complete the Mastery objectives, you can stand to earn a lot of Obols for each Event you complete.

This type of currency can only be spent at a Curiosities Vendor in town, and you can buy unidentified items that may turn out to be Rare – or even Legendary gear (or just common vendor trash)! You can also purchase Whispering Keys, which are needed to unlock strange locked Silent Chests that can be found randomly in the world, so it’s worth always having a few on you. Since you can only hold a maximum amount of 500 Obols (which can be upgraded slightly over time by increasing your Renown in a region or finding Altars of Lilith), it’s always worth spending them before you hit the cap, and stop earning more from other Events you complete!

5 – Emotes Are Important

Diablo 4 allows you to call out to other players by pulling up a radial menu with several sections to choose emotes that convey thanks, greetings, and more. However, these emotes have multiple functions in Diablo, as they are needed to solve a variety of puzzles and side quests.

If you happen across strange weathered statues with barely legible inscriptions that hint at certain actions, you can perform the indicated emote to earn temporary buffs to help you in your adventure. Similarly, certain Side Quests will often pose riddles that are actually tied to emotes – like the Secret of the Springs. When they say you need “patience”, what they actually mean is try using the “wait” emote!

6 – Tweak the World Tier Difficulty

Diablo 4 mentions world tiers only in passing early on, so it can be easy to forget that you can tweak the risks and rewards associated with difficulty if you want to. Each of the major cities in each region has a large statue near the town square that you can interact with to change the World Tier Difficulty.

By default, you should start at Tier 1, which is balanced to provide a decently challenging experience for newer players. However, if you want the chance at slightly better loot and experience, you can turn things up to Tier 2 to fight monsters that are about 20% more difficult. Once you beat the main story and all of its Acts, you can start working your way up to Tier 3 and beyond for even more difficult encounters, unlock exclusive dungeons and events, and get better chances to earn the rarest of gear.

It’s worth noting that while Tier 2 claims to offer more experience against harder monsters, those looking to level as fast as possible may want to stick with Tier 1, as the time it takes to defeat these tougher monsters doesn’t always equate to earning experience at a faster rate!

7 – Strongholds Hide Multiple Unlocks

Each of the main regions in Diablo 4 contains multiple Strongholds, which are difficult and challenging events that act like outdoor dungeons. They consist of multiple objectives and very tough boss fights, but the rewards are more than you may expect.

Once you’ve completed defeating all the enemies within a Stronghold and conclude the event, you’ll get a bunch of gear rewards, but you may also find that the site of the Stronghold will be converted into an active settlement as villagers return to build up the area into a liveable place. This means you’ll now have a new place to use as a base camp, including various merchants to sell at, a fast travel spot – plus the potential addition of new Side Quests to undertake, and sometimes you may even uncover Dungeons that aren’t accessible otherwise.

8 – Potions Offer More Than Stat Boosts

It can be easy to overlook that your inventory has multiple tabs – and one of them is for consumables like potions, which are often given to you as quest rewards, but can also be brewed by visiting an Alchemist in most towns, if you’ve found the right materials when exploring.

The effects of early potions aren’t all that amazing, but what is important to note is that pretty much every potion you can craft or get from rewards also increases the amount of experience you gain by a decent amount. Even better, this effect lasts for 30 minutes, making it great to use before you set off into a Dungeon or undertake a larger part of the main story quests. Try to keep a potion effect going as much as possible unless you’re planning on spending time in town browsing shops or choosing your next skill point placement.

9 – Get Out of Dungeons Faster

Once you complete lengthy Dungeons — either by exploring the world or delving into story-related ruins and caves, you may not want to waste time having to trek all the way back to the entrance. Luckily, there are two options to make the trip home a lot easier.

The first option is to simply open up your radial menu, which can be done on PC by holding E, or on consoles by holding Up on the D-Pad. Among the Emotes you can use is an option to simply “Leave Dungeon”, which will take you right back to the entrance located in the open world region. Use this option if you’ve still got places nearby to explore, need to meet someone outside, or still have plenty of inventory space left.

If you need to head back to a town to sell, you can instead press T to activate a Town Portal, and warp directly back to your last major town you’ve visited. The Town Portal will remain in town to take you back should you want to return, but if you leave town by other means, the portal will disappear.

10 – Rewards Can Carry Over

While there are lots of loot and other prizes to earn as you defeat demons and delve through dungeons, certain activities will reward you with perks that aren’t just limited to your current character. There are some actions you can take that will benefit both your current character, and any others you create on that server — regardless of if they’ve already been created or not.

The open world regions of Diablo contain dozens of statues called Altars of Lilith, and interacting with one will either raise your stats, or increase the max amount of Murmuring Obols you can carry, but will do so for all of your characters. Any Legendary Aspects you are awarded by completing dungeons will also be stored in your codex and can be accessed by any character, even if your current character class cannot make use of it. Finally, by undertaking tasks in each region of the game, you’ll earn Renown that raises up to several tiers, and will give awards to both the current character, and benefit others you create as well, like extra skill points or healing potion charges. Even if you create a level 1 character at a later date, they’ll immediately start with extra skill points to allocate and a boost to their health potions, making leveling up new characters even easier!

More Diablo 4 Guides

‘My Favorite Final Fantasy!’ Final Fantasy 16 Devs Give Their Top 3 – IGN First

Of course, the developers themselves are players and fans of the Final Fantasy series too, and finding out their favorite Final Fantasy games may offer a few hints as to the inspirations behind the new game. So during a visit to Square Enix’s Tokyo HQ, we asked six members of the dev team to tell us their Top 3 Final Fantasy games. Let’s take a look!

Naoki Yoshida (Producer)

“I’ve been a player since the NES days, so for me the original Final Fantasy was a huge deal. Partly because of (Yoshitaka) Amano’s illustrations, I was mesmerized by the game’s strong sense of fantasy. Above all, the timing of where the game’s title logo appears had a great impact on me. It only appears after you finish the first part of the story: While the characters are crossing a bridge, the title logo finally appears. It made me feel like I had just watched the prologue of a movie. The game’s cinematic approach to storytelling and presentation was very inspiring. It’s still a huge milestone that indicates what the series strives to be.

“The next title I would want to mention is Final Fantasy III. The player controls the four Warriors of Light, and their names have not been decided. Thanks to the job system, you can customize your own characters. It was also the first iteration of the Active Time Battle system. To me, Final Fantasy III solidified the series’ systems. The world is of a grand scale, and the game’s difficulty was something to remember as well. I think this title showed me that Final Fantasy is a series that needs to have both a great story as well as well designed systems.

“I also love Final Fantasy VII. This one is not about your own roleplaying experience, but a roleplay experience in which you stand in the shoes of the unique characters that are Cloud and his friends. The graphics had a great impact on me, and the game’s volume of content was almost unbelievable at the time. It had three discs, and the amount of mini games it included is almost reminiscent of the amount of content you find in an MMORPG. You can feel the incredible power of Square’s developers at the time, eager to put every interesting idea they had in there.

“Final Fantasy XVI is developed by Square Enix’s Creative Business Unit III. The Final Fantasy games that have stayed with the members on this team tend to be the titles they played when they were young. In that regard, I guess you can say that the worldbuilding of the more classic Final Fantasy games until VI or VII are by far the strongest original experiences for us.”

Hiroshi Takai (Director)

“In third place, I would like to choose Final Fantasy X. I think it was a high quality, very well made Final Fantasy.

“Final Fantasy VI gets my second spot. It was the last Final Fantasy to use sprites. The vibrant sprites really show Square’s development skills at the time. This one was also very well made, especially when you take into account that it was made for the SNES.

“My No.1 is Final Fantasy V. This was also the first Final Fantasy I worked on as a developer, and I love its battle system. I think within the Final Fantasy series it is an unshakable No.1.

“As for whether any of the traits of these titles live on in Final Fantasy XVI, I think my best answer would be that creating your own character build by choosing from a set of abilities is reminiscent of Final Fantasy V.”

Kazutoyo Maehiro (Creative Director)

“It’s a bit weird to say with Takai sitting next to me (since Takai worked on the game), but for me too, Final Fantasy V is No.1.

“I played it as a student. The battle system is great, and at the end of the game pigeons fly through a scrolling overworld. It made use of Mode 7, a graphics mode of the SNES. After seeing that scene of flying pigeons I said to myself, ‘I’m going to make games one day too’. The overall game was just so well made, and it really inspired me. It is indeed an unshakable No.1.

“It might sound a bit self-flattering, but my No.2 is Final Fantasy Tactics. While not a numbered title, it was the first big game I got to work on as a game designer. Through this title, I decided what type of game developer I was going to become, and that hasn’t changed since. It’s a title near and dear to my heart. Final Fantasy V is included in the Pixel Remaster series, but Final Fantasy Tactics can be difficult to play today. I hope to be able to resurrect it someday.

“My No.3 is Final Fantasy XII, which – again – sounds like self flattery. I have worked on a number of Final Fantasy titles and worked in a different position each time. For XII, I was the Combat Director. Creating a new type of combat while making a Final Fantasy true to my own vision is something I won’t forget.”

Ryota Suzuki (Combat Director)

“My No.3 is Final Fantasy V. I really loved the battle system. There is a job type called Freelancer, which allows you to keep the traits and statuses of other jobs. This is something that lives on in Final Fantasy XVI, as you can take mastered abilities to other builds. In that sense, I think that Final Fantasy V greatly inspired our battle system.

“Final Fantasy X is my pick for second place. When X was released, I was already working as a game developer, but I got totally lost in the game’s world and lost track of time. I don’t think there’s been another game in which I wanted to see what happens next in the story as much as in Final Fantasy X. I think that Final Fantasy XVI’s story is just as appealing.

“Final Fantasy III is my No.1. It was the first Final Fantasy I played, and it gave me a huge appreciation for the RPG genre as a whole, and it encouraged me to delve into titles like Final Fantasy II. Final Fantasy III’s job system allows you to change jobs. For me, it’s the most iconic RPG out there. I think I was in elementary school at the time. I fondly remember wanting to play it as soon as I got back home from school.”

Hiroshi Minagawa (Art Director)

As a player, I like older titles such as Final Fantasy III and V. I entered the video game industry right after I moved to Tokyo, and Final Fantasy III was the first Final Fantasy I played after I started working. As a young developer, I was astonished by what the team had accomplished on the NES. Before that I was just a student, so I was only enjoying games as a player, and didn’t really realize how technically impressive they were. In that sense, Final Fantasy III showed me what I lacked as a developer at the time. I bought it right away and played it at the studio I worked at until late in the night.

“With its job system and abilities, for me Final Fantasy V established my idea of what the Final Fantasy series is.

“If I had to mention another title, I guess it would be Final Fantasy XII, a game I worked on myself. It was very challenging to develop, both in good ways and bad ways. It gave me a great sense of accomplishment, and I have a lot of memories from that title.”

Michael-Christopher Koji Fox (Localization Director)

“My favorite Final Fantasy of all time would have to be Final Fantasy V. It wasn’t the first one I played: I’ve been playing them since the first one came out in America. But V was the first one that really blew me away. Growing up in the United States, there were a lot of violent cartoons, but nobody ever died in them, at least not in the media that I consumed when I was young in the 1980s. But in Final Fantasy V – spoilers – there’s a point in which a main character dies. That got me thinking: You can do this in a game? From that point I thought this is the series that I want to stick with.

“The next one on the list for me would be Final Fantasy XI. That was the game that got me into Square Enix. I was up in Hokkaido teaching English, and when I came home at night I needed a release, which was playing Final Fantasy XI. I started playing with the beta version and I fell in love with it. It was while looking for tips for Final Fantasy XI that I found out that Square Enix was looking for localization staff, and so that’s how I got into the company. They were looking for someone to translate. I had fallen in love with Final Fantasy XI as a gamer and then was able to work on it, which was very exciting for me.

“Then I think the third title would have to be Final Fantasy XIV, just because of the natural progression of working on Final Fantasy XI and then XIV as well from the beginning. A lot of my ideas were incorporated and are still being used. I was excited to enjoy a game both as a player and a developer.

“We are using a lot of the terms of lore and terminology that we came up with in XI and XIV for XVI as well.”

As Yoshida points out, the team’s most popular Final Fantasy games are often the ones they grew up playing with. It was also interesting to learn the memories some of them shared about the titles they helped bring to life themselves.

With votes from five out of these six developers, Final Fantasy V is the team’s most popular title. Final Fantasy III gets three votes, while Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XII come in at joint third place with two votes each.

According to director Takai, one thing should be noted when looking at these rankings.

“Final Fantasy XVI was obviously excluded in these rankings. If we were to include it, it would be the No.1 for all of us, which would be boring, right?” Takai says with a chuckle.

Final Fantasy XVI releases for PlayStation 5 on June 22.

Esra Krabbe is an editor at IGN Japan. His favorite Final Fantasy game is Final Fantasy X.

Star Wars Outlaws Dev Explains Why It’s Set Between Empire and Jedi

Star Wars Outlaws developer Massive Entertainment has revealed why it set its open world, galaxy-spanning adventure between the Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

Speaking to IGN, Massive Entertainment creative director Julian Gerighty explained that, while this time period was chosen in part because his colleagues are all huge fans of the original trilogy, there’s a very specific reason relating to its scoundrel-led story.

The time between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi is a lull for the Rebellion, meaning not just the Empire is running rampant, but the Outer Rim’s festering crime organisations are too.

“When we were starting off the discussions with Lucasfilm, it was very clear that the one year period between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, that’s where the Rebels aren’t part of the picture,” Gerighty said.

“The Empire’s taking more and more control, but the syndicates, they’re taking more power, they’re exploiting all of these weaknesses. So it really is a moment where the underworld is thriving and there’s no better situation for an established or a rookie scoundrel to cut their teeth than this particular moment.”

Ubisoft’s open world Star Wars game was finally revealed as Star Wars Outlaws at the Xbox Games Showcase on June 11, with a gameplay reveal following soon after at Ubisoft Forward.

Star Wars Outlaws follows Kay Vess as she embarks on a scrappy adventure around the galaxy, using her wits (and a blaster bolt or two) to navigate the fearsome underbelly of the Outer Rim.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Assassin’s Creed Codename Jade Enters Public Testing Later This Month

Sandwiched between Nexus and Mirage at today’s Ubisoft Forward event, we got a longer look at the upcoming mobile Assassin’s Creed Codename Jade, which is preparing to enter a public testing phase ahead of launch.

Codename Jade is being made in partnership with Tencent’s Level Infinite publishing division, and is a mobile-first Assassin’s Creed game that takes place in China. It’s set during the Qin Dynasty, just after the Warring States period, and between the events of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Origins.

One notable feature shown off was the character customization. In a series first, players can fully customize the look and style of their assassin character, including gender, clothing, and other features.

During the presentation, we learned that Codename Jade is “making great progress” since it was first revealed almost a year ago, and has just wrapped up a technical alpha on iOS. Ubisoft is opening up pre-registration today for a public testing phase before the game releases on iOS and Android at a later date.

In the same presentation, we also got a look at Assassin’s Creed: Nexus for VR and Assassin’s Creed Mirage, which is out this October. For this and all things Summer of Gaming, keep an eye on IGN for the latest trailers, news, and interviews.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Phil Spencer Insists His Xbox Games Showcase T-Shirt Did Not Tease a New Hexen Game

If you watched the Xbox Games Showcase event yesterday, you might have noticed the t-shirt Phil Spencer was wearing was a print of the box art for Hexen: Beyond Heretic, a 90s fantasy FPS shooter. While many wondered if Spencer was teasing an impending announcement, sadly, those suspicions are not true.

Well, so he says.

In an interview with Polygon, Spencer insisted he was not teasing a revival for the game. “That wasn’t me trying to pre-announce it,” Spencer said. “But it was me recognizing the importance of some of the games in our portfolio.”

Spencer went on to explain a bit more about how Hexen was a game he “loved”, noting how the shirt was more for nostalgia with no hidden underlying meaning beyond that.

“So for me, wearing the [Hexen] shirt wasn’t as much about a tease forward as it was just about nostalgia,” Spencer explained. “I recognize that as our portfolio grows, we’ve got important [games] that we have to kind of protect and nurture and maybe bring back at some point.”

Hexen: Beyond Heretic, developed by Raven Software and published by Doom creator Id Software, was released back in 1995.

With Microsoft buying Id Software and the rest of the ZeniMax Media properties back in 2020, Xbox now owns the rights and could make another Heretic or Hexen game.

And if Xbox manages to acquire Activision-Blizzard, perhaps the company could tap Raven Software to develop it (again). We can only dream.

In case you missed it, here’s our Xbox showcase roundup, and here’s everything shown during the Starfield Direct. Check out our Summer of Gaming 2023 schedule to find out what’s coming next.

Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.