Naoki Yoshida went on a panel with localization director Koji Fox at the recently concluded PAX East to share information on Final Fantasy 16.
We have decided to spotlight the Hideaway as one of the highlights of this talk. We will discuss the Hideaway and details about it below.
The Hideaway is a special place that Clive Rossfield can go to while taking breaks from the main story campaign. In Final Fantasy 16’s lore, the Hideaway is run by Sid, but Clive will have to meet him first before he can access it.
The Hideaway isn’t quite Clive’s main base of operations, but you can think of it as a hub, or a safe area, where Clive doesn’t have to worry about fights, and the player can chill while they plan their next moves.
There are also different facilities in the Hideaway, for Clive to buy, collect, build, etc in preparation for upcoming levels and battles.
The first shop Naoki and Koji shows is Charon’s Toll, run by an old woman named Lady Charon. Lady Charon will sell you weapons, armor, materials, and potions. On the side, you will find your pet Torgal sleeping by Lady Charon’s side while you’re in the Hideaway.
A short distance away from Charon’s Toll is the forge, run by Blackthorne. As the master blacksmith, Blackthorne can upgrade your weapons or even build you new ones. You will need to find the materials for upgrades or new weapons, and of course, pay the man yourself.
The Hideaway will allow you to access side quests, which you can see in the area as exclamation point alerts that you have to go to. There are side quests in other areas as well, but most of them will come up in the Hideaway.
Deep in the Hideaway is the Arete Stone, a monolith that allows you to access other modes. For example, the Hall of Virtue is your combat training room, and there is an Arcade Mode where you can compete with other players for the highest score in completing an entire level. In Arcade Mode, you will have a select amount of resources at your disposal, so this is not a mode you will just flood into with every high level gear you can find to just dominate the charts.
You can also access a Stage Replay mode, which will allow you to collect whatever loot you find and keep it. This is the grinding mode, and its existence in the game does hint that you can’t just go back to earlier levels to replay them. That’s probably because of the game’s story premise, that may itself have a timeskip element.
There’s one more mode in the Arete Stone marked with question marks. For now, Naoki won’t share what this mode is. Maybe it’s a New Game Plus mode or a similar end game content? There will be only one way to find out, of course.
Final Fantasy 16 will be released on the PlayStation 5 on June 22, 2023. A PC port is also expected to be announced in the future. You can learn more by reading this post about the panel, which will also link to other articles based on it.
