In the long-awaited Final Fantasy 16 demo, players that encountered a specific foe noticed references to past Final Fantasy games such as Final Fantasy 14 when fighting them. The references were further gleaned on social media, where one fan pointed out the homages that Final Fantasy 16 paid to the series with just one enemy alone.The hype surrounding Final Fantasy 16 has recently amplified with the release of the demo on the PlayStation Store. Though the demo only features the first two hours of the game, the darkened tone in the cutscenes and the fast-paced action combat are made abundantly clear from the start. While Final Fantasy 16 was marked as a departure from longtime series conventions for those same reasons, that has not stopped fans and newcomers from enjoying all that the demo had to offer. Some of the enjoyment took the form of pointing out any subtle references that the demo made to the Final Fantasy series' history.After playing the demo for herself, Twitter user aitaikimochi noted down that one of the demo's bosses, the Knight of the Blinding Dawn, was an homage to the Dragoons featured in two Final Fantasy numbered titles. When the Dragoon first appeared on camera, the leg-raised pose that he took was a nod to the logo from Final Fantasy 4, which featured the Dragoon called Kain Highwind. In addition, the Knight of the Blinding Dawn had a few nods to Final Fantasy 14, which is also developed by Creative Business Unit 3 alongside FF16. The title that the Dragoon bears is similar to the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, the secret society that the player character and several main cast members are part of in FF14.
In addition, aitaikimochi pointed out that the Knight's voice sounds similar to Estinien Wyrmblood, the Azure Dragoon from FF14, in both Japanese and English. Given the fact that Creative Business Unit 3 is in charge of both projects, it stands to reason that some overlap was intended when recording dialogue for Final Fantasy 16. While neither Square Enix nor the voice actors in question have commented about the Dragoon's references, it remains to be seen who will get credit for the role when the game is released and players see the credits screen.
With a bevy of new features and homages to the Final Fantasy series, Final Fantasy 16 seeks to honor both the legacy of its predecessors while forging a new path for the series to take. Only time will tell how successful it will be on those fronts.
Final Fantasy 16 launches on June 22 for PS5.
