Final Fantasy 16 The Rising Tide is almost here, and in preparation for the eagerly-anticipated DLC developer Square Enix has dropped a comprehensive new FF16 update. Not only have we received the usual slew of balance adjustments and bugfixes, but top-tier quality-of-life additions have also been implemented in FF16 1.31. Most importantly for this writer, though, are the buffs to petting Clive’s best friend in the whole of Valisthea, Torgal.
Square says that it has “made adjustments to when Torgal can be petted and lowered time before re-petting” in the hit RPG game. Though I don’t quite know how the former change is going to materialize – hopefully it means I can feel the warm fur of my frost wolf homie whenever, wherever – the latter is groundbreaking, and dare I say game-changing.
As it stands, there is already a low cooldown between the end of a petting animation and the option to give Torgal more fuss reappearing in the PS5 exclusive – barely a second, from my extensive testing. However, going a second without being able to give the goodest boy a delectable treat or a belly rub is like going a second without air – thank you, Square, for literally saving my life.
In an ideal world, we won’t even have a cooldown between petting Torgal – I could easily put another 50+ hours into simply having Clive activate petting mode permanently, soaking up the precious dopamine I so desperately crave while I watch.
Elsewhere in the patch notes, there are some other important tweaks and changes. For example, a “Quick Complete” function has been added to questing. Now, you can warp directly to a quest-giver after you’ve completed a quest’s final objective. This will certainly save several minutes of flitting about in FF16’s major social hubs over the course of a playthrough – speedrunners everywhere liked this.
Most notably, the new “Custom” controller type will let you “freely assign functionality to the buttons on your controller,” which sounds perfect when combined with the five savable, quick-swappable skill sets you can now set up. Indeed, we’ve been treated to a major update to one of the best games of last year, and I’m elated to see Square continue to give FF16 the love it deserves.
You can check out the full patch notes here.
For more of the latest news on the best PS5 games, check out the new Mortal Kombat 1 Twitch drops palettes that pack a purple punch. Additionally, peep the Elden Ring player who’s managed to defeat Malenia using the power of Morse code.