Final Fantasy XVI almost gets it completely right. It continues the franchise’s recent trend of action gameplay and moving further away from its turn based roots. The developers have chosen to make Final Fantasy XVI more in line with other AAA third person affairs in hopes of finding a larger fanbase. It largely succeeds at that but not without making some pretty major missteps.
A tale of Fire
The plot of Final Fantasy XVI is a dark and twisted tale of the world of Valisthea. You take on the role of Clive Rosfield, crown prince to the kingdom of Rosairia. His brother, Joshua, is the Dominant of Phoenix. In this world the summons we’re familiar with from the franchise dwell in certain individuals and they are their respective country’s nukes, so to speak. Because Clive can use magic without being a Dominant, he is what is called a bearer. Bearers are treated as if they are less than human, the same mutants are treated in the X-Men.
In the prologue, Rosairia is attacked by one of the neighboring nations and we see Clive’s father killed and his country left in ruin. From there, Clive is branded so that the rest of the world can see that he is a bearer.
The story takes some interesting turns, with some side quests touching on subject matters you wouldn’t expect. The cast that you meet during this epic journey is filled with so much personality and character. There were moments where I legit would have to hold back tears. I had gotten to know these people for over 80 hours and I felt both their pains and their joys.
Now, the story wouldn’t have as much impact if it wasn’t for the strong presentation. I’m talking about the visuals, the performances, and the music. Creative Business Unit III, the division of Square ENIX that does FFXIV, put their all in making sure this tale would be an unforgettable one. If you any love for anime at all, you’ll feel right at home. The marketing before release was touting inspiration from western fantasy juggernauts. Unfortunately, that’s not my thing. Fortunately for me, however, it was a very Japanese take on those influences. That means big over the top fights and melodrama galore.
Since the driving force of the story is titanic beasts, you have to expect some epic stuff happening. There are moments that felt ripped right out of my favorite shonen manga. The story is even structured like one. The game is separated into multiple arcs each with its own story and villains. The various foes you face have their own reasons for doing the things they do. One look at the key art for Final Fantasy XVI will have you think that Clive is a brooding and emotionally distant character. That’s true actually but he’s not as social awkward as cloud was in Final Fantasy VII. He actually holds conversations with people, expresses emotions, and even smiles. The only major drawback, narrative-wise, is that FFXVI can be a bit too serious. Its not as narratively balanced as other games in the franchise.
No longer turn based
Final Fantasy XVI continues SQUARE ENIX’s trend of pushing the franchise into a more cinematic and action packed experience. And here is where FFXVI This game is a straight up action adventure game with light role playing elements. It has way more in common gameplay wise with Sony’s first party output than games in the franchise that came before. Combat is like a simplified version of Devil May Cry’s combat. I found the action gameplay fun in the beginning but it doesn’t really have enough depth to carry an 80 hour game. You get all of your basic combos at the start of the game and that’s it. Each Eikon has a set of moves you can equip but it’s only just two at time. During the endgame, I found myself avoiding combat because it just felt tedious.
Once you get deep into the combat, it becomes more about managing your cooldowns from your Eikonic abilities of different elements. So wind, fire, water, and so on. The elements don’t really play a role in combat so you can play with whatever you like. Since you’re not forced to use certain Eikons, you may find yourself with a load out early on that’s adequate at wiping out whole squads. The problem with that is it’s easy to fall into the rhythm that lead to my boredom of battles.
Is it Final Fantasy
Other players have been arguing if this game is RPG enough to call itself a mainline Final Fantasy. I would actually argue that the franchise doesn’t have the strongest mechanics in the genre. A lot of Final Fantasy titles have very basic role playing elements. That being said, however, Final Fantasy XVI is actually missing some of those elements.
One thing I feel like Final Fantasy has handled well since the beginning is party members. You know, your traveling companions who help you throughout your journey. Except here, you have no options over them except your faithful hound, Torgal. There’s no finding cool armor or spells for them. My favorite thing to do in Final Fantasy endgames is to hunt for everyone’s ultimate weapons. Unfortunately, you can’t do that here because you can’t change your party members’ gear.
Also, there’s crafting because what’s a AAA RPG without crafting, right? Again, since everything revolves around Clive, it doesn’t really matter too much. You craft swords or accessories that add slight advantages in battle. Every treasure chest you open contains some kind of crafting materials and because I didn’t interact with it, I finished the game with a ton of materials that I never ended up using.
Final Recommendation
Is this my favorite Final Fantasy? It could’ve been but no. There are so many nitpicks with design choices they made that prevent that for me. I don’t even mind that they hued close to Sony’s first party way of designing games. For me personally, I just wish there was more there to add variety to my eighty hours of gameplay. Fun minigames, dungeon puzzles, something to give me more to do in the game besides just mashing the square button.
The other question is would I recommend Final Fantasy XVI and the answer is yes. It’s a great game if you can accept it for what it is. There are pacing issues after the halfway mark, for sure. Im talking a full on Naruto style filler arc in the middle of the main story arc. But if you can forgive it for that and the things I mentioned, you’ll be treated with one of the best scores this year, epic boss fights, and a gut wrenching story. What more could you want from a video game?
Final Fantasy XVI is available exclusively on PS5.
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