“Final Fantasy XVI” Review

The mainline Final Fantasy series has seen quite a bit of turmoil as of late, and it makes sense. After all, we’re talking about the series that always has been the marquee series of the JRPG genre. A lot of…

The mainline Final Fantasy series has seen quite a bit of turmoil as of late, and it makes sense. After all, we’re talking about the series that always has been the marquee series of the JRPG genre. A lot of people would argue that the mantle has been reclaimed by Dragon Quest, or taken over by Persona–or if you’re us, the Trails games.

That’s just where we are at this point, and while the latest entry in Final Fantasy XVI is amazing in so many ways, it doesn’t really do anything to reclaim its title as the defining series in the genre… but it also doesn’t have to, and that’s kind of a resounding theme in this game’s plot and mechanics: we don’t have to.

Final Fantasy XVI is extremely plot heavy, so I won’t delve too far into it, but you play as Clive Rosfield, the firstborn son of Roselia’s Archduke Elwin Rosfield. Though he’s the firstborn, he’s not next in line for the throne–it instead will go to his younger brother, Joshua Rosfield, who’s also set to inherit the Phoenix Eikon. If you’re familiar with Final Fantasy lore, you’ll know the Phoenix as a “summon,” but in FFXVI‘s universe, the summons are all “Eikons” that are tied to various characters in the game. Ifrit, Shiva, Odin, Ramuh, Bahamut — they’re all Eikons tied to different people in the game from varying families of varying ranks.

Varying families of varying ranks? Yep, Final Fantasy XVI brings the series back to a medieval setting, and it really doubles down on the setting as it’ll draw countless comparisons to Game of Thrones. From the mentions of various houses, realms, cursing, and out of nowhere sex, FFXVI‘s comparisons to Game of Thrones are more than warranted. It does take a lot of these aspects over the top, but it’s clear the developers really wanted to make this entry more mature, even though they didn’t have to.

This brings us to perhaps the most controversial thing about the game, the battle system. While Final Fantasy XV received scrutiny for essentially leaving the turn-based system behind, it got a pass because the game wasn’t initially planned to be a mainline entry. So when it was announced that Final Fantasy XVI would truly be fully action-based, many considered it to be Square turning their back on the original fans, even with the game mainly being produced by much of the staff behind the popular and still relevant Final Fantasy XIV Online. To say Final Fantasy XVI caused a rift between the fandom wouldn’t be unfounded.

I was actually part of the fandom that felt sort of betrayed by this, of course ignoring the fact that I actually found Final Fantasy XV enjoyable. What changed my mind was the demo. The demo included the introduction and first few chapters in the game, really giving you a feel of the person Clive is, in addition to the action-based battle system. Heck, it starts with a heavily cinematic battle between the Phoenix and Ifrit that felt like it was taken out of Star Fox because it was essentially a railshooter with quicktime events. All this and more made it the best demo I’ve ever played in my life, and as soon is it was over, I knew I was sold.  I needed more. I really wanted to know what would happen to Clive, and the story and themes totally worked for me as a Game of Thrones fan.

Hate it or love it, the game’s action-based battle system is as robust as we’ve ever seen out of the genre. Developed by a combination of teams at Platinum Games and the team behind Kingdom Hearts, fights take place in the environment you’re playing in with no transitions, and you’re in complete control of Clive. Strikes with your sword, dodges, and various abilities tied to different icons are mapped to their own buttons, and items like potions are tied to your D-Pad. Combining these abilities to stagger your enemies for more damage really make everything feel quick and snappy, and it feels great having total agency of your character.

For people that aren’t too fond of action-based combat, there are items you can equip available as soon as the beginning of the game that’ll allow Clive to automatically dodge incoming strikes and abilities, automatically have your dog act for you, use the right attack so that all you have to do is tap square the whole time, and a whole slew of other things that’ll make battles feel more accessible. All this said, the game, on its normal difficulty, is actually on the easy side as long as you’re able to pay attention to everything happening on screen. That admittedly is easier said than done, but the good thing is the game doesn’t punish you for using these “easy mode” items. The annoying thing is that while you’ll usually have a couple other party members fight alongside you, it doesn’t feel like they actually do anything but it doesn’t matter because you don’t actually have to worry about them either. For some reason, they don’t die.

Earlier I mentioned a Star Fox-like battle between the Phoenix and Ifrit at the beginning of the game. It was beyond epic, and it’s absolutely nuts thinking about how much money and resources were spent with all the game’s set pieces and cutscenes. While Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is probably still the best-looking game on the PS5 for me, it really doesn’t get much better than Final Fantasy XVI. Square has been known to set the standard for what PlayStation hardware is capable from a video and audio standpoint, and there’s no arguing how impressive Final Fantasy XVI looks and feels when it comes to everything especially when it’s time to have an Eikon battle. I won’t spoil anything more than its extraordinary intro, but know that battles aren’t limited to the typical action we just talked about in the preceding paragraphs. Hearing the choral cover of the Final Fantasy victory theme also adds to the experience and makes it all feel earned, because you only hear it after a significant boss battle.

Now if there’s something to really complain about, it’s the fact that Final Fantasy XVI isn’t an open world game. While the game isn’t entirely level-based, the plot primarily moves forward when you choose various required points on a map and from there it takes you to a fairly linear plane. The game does open up considerably as you progress, but if you’re expecting that wow moment from yesteryear in the form of alternative transportation taking you anywhere in the map you want–I’ll spoil this: that doesn’t happen.  You can choose wherever you want to go for any reason. This won’t excite too many people, but we’re also hot off the heels of Tears of the Kingdom, so it really isn’t that big a deal. Early fast travel can be a breath of fresh air.

That being said, because the realms and towns in the game aren’t really “connected”, you can argue that it doesn’t really feel like an RPG. That couldn’t be any further from the truth. There’s still some min-maxing to do, although that’s also very linear, but you still level up and you still have agency over the Eikon abilities you eventually learn. FFXVI‘s user interface is really simple too, so while people will argue that God of War: Ragnarok feels more like an RPG in comparison, know that FFXVI has the far superior user experience here. There’s also sidequests, a lot of sidequests.

The sidequests in the game are marked by green exclamation points throughout various places on the World Map, and while they aren’t the most enjoyable parts of the game (especially as they get overly dense towards the end of the story), they actually do offer a lot of background for world building as well as making Clive an admirable character. FFXVI’s story takes place over 18 years, and seeing the way Clive and his compatriots mature over the game’s events is quite the treat. If you somehow don’t care about all that, doing all the sidequests and completing all the hunts (essentially FFXVI‘s bounty system) gets you a lot of experience and items that you can use to forge the best gear in the game.

Another feature that I felt compelled to go over was the game’s codex labeled as the “Active Time Lore” system.  I had to take a break in the middle of the story because I had some remodeling to do at home, so when it came time to come back, I was sort of lost.  Thanks to the Active Time Lore system, that can be accessed simply by pausing the game or meeting with your crew’s historian, you can stop and read about not only the importance of what you’re doing at the moment with an explanation of every comrade’s intentions, but you can also go over everything you did in the story prior to that moment. A bunch of games have their own way of doing the “while you were gone” thing, but Final Fantasy XVI really does go the extra mile, and it didn’t have to.

All this being said, as a sum of all its parts, Final Fantasy XVI is a fantastic game and easily one of my most favorite experiences this year. It certainly came as a surprise with how robust its action-based combat is in combination with its darker story made even better by an amazing voice cast (led by Ben Starr as Clive) and its exquisite soundtrack that does its very best to and succeeds at retaining the Final Fantasy feel.  Let’s put this all to rest–not only is Final Fantasy XVI a great game, it’s a great Final Fantasy deserving of its namesake, and it didn’t have to be.