"In case you haven't noticed, the god-fearing people of this realm and their pious leaders, care for but one thing - themselves. And they'll do whatever it takes to hold on to power. The rest of us are just a means to an end. The moment you raise your voice against them, you're decried as an outlaw, clapped in irons and sling into a cell to rot. [...]
No... this isn't a battle you can win with words. Believe me, I've tried... But nothing ever gets through. The world is simply not ready to listen. So to hell with talking. If they won't give us a say, we'll decide out fates another way. You can't blame a man for wanting to bring and end to all this, can you?" - Cid Telamon
You know, this game definitely has its heart in the right place and it was a passion project for everyone involved for sure.
The theme of freeing the Bearers and creating a better, free world for the exploited and oppressed stays throughout, even when things seem to get more mythical and "less grounded". (The Big Bad is shown midway through though, so it shouldn't really come as a surprise). What I like most about this is, that it doesn't even pretend, that the oppressed could talk their way out of this, but instead points out how on the one hand violence is necessary and so is building an alternative community on the other. The whole world of Valisthea is being eaten away by the Blight (let's be honest, it's climate change caused by the powerful) and so you try to survive in the little Hideaway, build an alternative community and even try to find new technologies, that aren't destroying the earth. Especially the characters in this Hideaway really shine, be it because they get interesting sidequests (more on that later) or be it because they change their dialogue after every major story event. You will help a gardener to grow new seeds and fruits, you can follow how an illiterate person goes from learning to read, to eventually writing a book if their own and you form bonds throughout that really make you feel, how this community grows slowly but surely. On the other side you topple the powerful or at least take their source of influence and power mostly by violent means (in grandiose, epic boss battles). In this sense, this game really feels very leftist in ideals.
Sadly, it does have some short comings. Many of the Bearers seem a bit passive and I would have wished more of them took an active or rather more meaningful roles, just like the oppressed do in reality. No revolution ever waited for saviour, you know? A lot of critic has been made that this is a story, where white people just decided that slavery was bad and I think that's a bit unfair. I don't even think this game was meant to make for racial metaphors like many would think, when they hear the word slavery. Maybe it would have been better, if the developers had modeled the oppressed rather after serfdom as it seems to follow more of a caste system of oppression and exploitation, rather than a racialized one. It also doesn't help that in some sidequests the strictness of revolution gets a bit blurry, when all it take is a couple of not-oppressed people on your side, that often will take the helm for change to be put in motion. It can also sometimes be a bit comical how often the Bearers are treated really badly, not only in sidequests, but also in casual dialogue.
Many people have been critical about FFXVI from the get-go, cause supposedly it's "too western" or "too action". But I really believe the developers just made a game they really wanted to make, instead of sticking to any conventions for a particular genre.
In fact I don't think I've ever played a game were I could see it's diverse influences so clearly. The grandiose setpieces (even including quick time events) from God of War (but more like the old trilogy) and other single-player AAA-Games, the political intrigue from Matsuno's games (Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story Final Fantasy XII) and Game of Thrones (never watched or read it, but I've been told some of the world-building seems almost lifted from that) the combat a mixture of Devil May Cry and Kingdom Hearts (honestly, why is nobody mentioning KH? This game plays like Birth by Sleep and DMC had a love child that got put into the Witcher environment!).
And then there is a lot of CBU3 design philosophy from FFXIV directly put into this game. Big areas, that are a bit empty and that only get more meaningful, when a side quest/ hunt takes you to some of the more memorable places. Dungeon-like missions, that are not only replayable, but that even follow the structure of FFXIV dungeons to a tee: action packed corridors broken up by three boss fights. I know many people lament the "missing RPG elements" or the poor crafting system, but I think it does it's job, keeps out the bloat (except for an over-abundance of materials maybe) and you get a new, most of the time cool looking sword every couple of hours. Kinda reminded me of KH1 actually. The exploration is a bit lacking because of that though, and especially in the later half I would only go out to explore, when I had sidequests or hunts to do.
Talking about sidequests. In the beginning they're are mechanical really simple and mostly serve to flesh out the world-building, in the later parts however they will be more more about the outcomes of certain side-characters and their arcs, making them sometimes even have a cool cutscene or two. In general they stay rather basic though, and especially towards the ends there can be so many, that the pacing of the story really suffers if you do all of them (though I think it's worth it). Otherwise I don't think the pacing ever gets bad if you stick to the main plot, usually it comes in nice 2-3h bites, that you can even do, when you're a busy grown-up.
"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck" - Clive Rosfield
Grown-up is also what this game wanted to be, being the first FF game with an M rating and a 30-something protagonist. In the first couple of hours, this can feel a bit jarring, cause there is so much profanity and violence that seems to be here onky for the sake of it. But this gets better, even if sometimes you might wonder if the developers just really enjoyed, that they could use swearwords now as much as they wanted.
Clive as a protagonist doesn't really feel as revolutionary as a 30 year old protagonist in a FF game sounds at first though. The plot and his life go dark places, but I can't really say that I found him to be all that exceptional. Might be because I was always drawn to final fantasy because the male protagonist seemed way different from what I was used from western media and Clive seems more like Shepard or Geralt, but more emotional, nothing too emotional though and still very classically masculine.
Masculinity in general is a bit of a problem here. Not because the game is full of macho man - they're all very varied, but rather that the important women of the plot get cast aside rather quickly. Benedikta never gets to fulfill her potential as a character and Jill - the main heroine - and Clive's love interest is comically undercharacterized. She gets a really good moment about halfway through but especially afterwards she feels more like support for Clive above anything else. Sure, she is competent, but I kinda feel like she is missing her own motivation, that so many heroines in FF before her had. Yuna and her pilgrimage, Dagger wanting to find out why her mother changed this much, Tifa fighting for avalanche and only hanging onto Cloud because she notices something is wrong with him or Ashe wanting to free her kingdom. It's not even like XVI is missing good female characters. I think Annabelle is a great minor antagonist, Charon, Derys, Tarjay Mir and Eloise are all really cool characters, but they're more of supporting cast and not really Clive's "party members". In general I feel it's a bit weird how much of the plot focuses around Clive. Of course, FF always had their main protagonists, but a lot of things things here seem to be for the sake of Clive and that's not really something I like in a game in general. "Chosen one" story kinda bore me and I prefer more of ensembles usually. To be clear, there are other important characters, but the limelight really is on Clive and stronger than on previous protagonists in the series
All in all this is a good game and a good Final Fantasy game, as wel. I really like it and Final Fantasy always took from different sources of influence often western in nature. FFIX's aesthetic is directly modeled after the movie the Dark Crystal. FFVII started as a game about a detective in New York and the original FF emulated DnD as well as early western RPGs. Square always just wanted to make an RPG.
I think it's kinda silly, that so many people think this game is totally different from past FF, when in reality it's the FF Tactics reimagining, I kinda wished for. Too bad they didn't implement a more classical job system, even though the mixing and matching of Eikon abilities comes really close. I really like it, but I don't think it makes my top five. Just hope that when CBU3 makes another single player title that they improve on what they have here and maybe get a woman as a main creative - like Natsuko Ishikawa. You know the women who wrote parts of Stormblood, but more importantly Shadowbringers and Endwalker. Shit would sell like hotcakes.
"You cock" - Benedikta Harman
No... this isn't a battle you can win with words. Believe me, I've tried... But nothing ever gets through. The world is simply not ready to listen. So to hell with talking. If they won't give us a say, we'll decide out fates another way. You can't blame a man for wanting to bring and end to all this, can you?" - Cid Telamon
You know, this game definitely has its heart in the right place and it was a passion project for everyone involved for sure.
The theme of freeing the Bearers and creating a better, free world for the exploited and oppressed stays throughout, even when things seem to get more mythical and "less grounded". (The Big Bad is shown midway through though, so it shouldn't really come as a surprise). What I like most about this is, that it doesn't even pretend, that the oppressed could talk their way out of this, but instead points out how on the one hand violence is necessary and so is building an alternative community on the other. The whole world of Valisthea is being eaten away by the Blight (let's be honest, it's climate change caused by the powerful) and so you try to survive in the little Hideaway, build an alternative community and even try to find new technologies, that aren't destroying the earth. Especially the characters in this Hideaway really shine, be it because they get interesting sidequests (more on that later) or be it because they change their dialogue after every major story event. You will help a gardener to grow new seeds and fruits, you can follow how an illiterate person goes from learning to read, to eventually writing a book if their own and you form bonds throughout that really make you feel, how this community grows slowly but surely. On the other side you topple the powerful or at least take their source of influence and power mostly by violent means (in grandiose, epic boss battles). In this sense, this game really feels very leftist in ideals.
Sadly, it does have some short comings. Many of the Bearers seem a bit passive and I would have wished more of them took an active or rather more meaningful roles, just like the oppressed do in reality. No revolution ever waited for saviour, you know? A lot of critic has been made that this is a story, where white people just decided that slavery was bad and I think that's a bit unfair. I don't even think this game was meant to make for racial metaphors like many would think, when they hear the word slavery. Maybe it would have been better, if the developers had modeled the oppressed rather after serfdom as it seems to follow more of a caste system of oppression and exploitation, rather than a racialized one. It also doesn't help that in some sidequests the strictness of revolution gets a bit blurry, when all it take is a couple of not-oppressed people on your side, that often will take the helm for change to be put in motion. It can also sometimes be a bit comical how often the Bearers are treated really badly, not only in sidequests, but also in casual dialogue.
Many people have been critical about FFXVI from the get-go, cause supposedly it's "too western" or "too action". But I really believe the developers just made a game they really wanted to make, instead of sticking to any conventions for a particular genre.
In fact I don't think I've ever played a game were I could see it's diverse influences so clearly. The grandiose setpieces (even including quick time events) from God of War (but more like the old trilogy) and other single-player AAA-Games, the political intrigue from Matsuno's games (Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story Final Fantasy XII) and Game of Thrones (never watched or read it, but I've been told some of the world-building seems almost lifted from that) the combat a mixture of Devil May Cry and Kingdom Hearts (honestly, why is nobody mentioning KH? This game plays like Birth by Sleep and DMC had a love child that got put into the Witcher environment!).
And then there is a lot of CBU3 design philosophy from FFXIV directly put into this game. Big areas, that are a bit empty and that only get more meaningful, when a side quest/ hunt takes you to some of the more memorable places. Dungeon-like missions, that are not only replayable, but that even follow the structure of FFXIV dungeons to a tee: action packed corridors broken up by three boss fights. I know many people lament the "missing RPG elements" or the poor crafting system, but I think it does it's job, keeps out the bloat (except for an over-abundance of materials maybe) and you get a new, most of the time cool looking sword every couple of hours. Kinda reminded me of KH1 actually. The exploration is a bit lacking because of that though, and especially in the later half I would only go out to explore, when I had sidequests or hunts to do.
Talking about sidequests. In the beginning they're are mechanical really simple and mostly serve to flesh out the world-building, in the later parts however they will be more more about the outcomes of certain side-characters and their arcs, making them sometimes even have a cool cutscene or two. In general they stay rather basic though, and especially towards the ends there can be so many, that the pacing of the story really suffers if you do all of them (though I think it's worth it). Otherwise I don't think the pacing ever gets bad if you stick to the main plot, usually it comes in nice 2-3h bites, that you can even do, when you're a busy grown-up.
"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck" - Clive Rosfield
Grown-up is also what this game wanted to be, being the first FF game with an M rating and a 30-something protagonist. In the first couple of hours, this can feel a bit jarring, cause there is so much profanity and violence that seems to be here onky for the sake of it. But this gets better, even if sometimes you might wonder if the developers just really enjoyed, that they could use swearwords now as much as they wanted.
Clive as a protagonist doesn't really feel as revolutionary as a 30 year old protagonist in a FF game sounds at first though. The plot and his life go dark places, but I can't really say that I found him to be all that exceptional. Might be because I was always drawn to final fantasy because the male protagonist seemed way different from what I was used from western media and Clive seems more like Shepard or Geralt, but more emotional, nothing too emotional though and still very classically masculine.
Masculinity in general is a bit of a problem here. Not because the game is full of macho man - they're all very varied, but rather that the important women of the plot get cast aside rather quickly. Benedikta never gets to fulfill her potential as a character and Jill - the main heroine - and Clive's love interest is comically undercharacterized. She gets a really good moment about halfway through but especially afterwards she feels more like support for Clive above anything else. Sure, she is competent, but I kinda feel like she is missing her own motivation, that so many heroines in FF before her had. Yuna and her pilgrimage, Dagger wanting to find out why her mother changed this much, Tifa fighting for avalanche and only hanging onto Cloud because she notices something is wrong with him or Ashe wanting to free her kingdom. It's not even like XVI is missing good female characters. I think Annabelle is a great minor antagonist, Charon, Derys, Tarjay Mir and Eloise are all really cool characters, but they're more of supporting cast and not really Clive's "party members". In general I feel it's a bit weird how much of the plot focuses around Clive. Of course, FF always had their main protagonists, but a lot of things things here seem to be for the sake of Clive and that's not really something I like in a game in general. "Chosen one" story kinda bore me and I prefer more of ensembles usually. To be clear, there are other important characters, but the limelight really is on Clive and stronger than on previous protagonists in the series
All in all this is a good game and a good Final Fantasy game, as wel. I really like it and Final Fantasy always took from different sources of influence often western in nature. FFIX's aesthetic is directly modeled after the movie the Dark Crystal. FFVII started as a game about a detective in New York and the original FF emulated DnD as well as early western RPGs. Square always just wanted to make an RPG.
I think it's kinda silly, that so many people think this game is totally different from past FF, when in reality it's the FF Tactics reimagining, I kinda wished for. Too bad they didn't implement a more classical job system, even though the mixing and matching of Eikon abilities comes really close. I really like it, but I don't think it makes my top five. Just hope that when CBU3 makes another single player title that they improve on what they have here and maybe get a woman as a main creative - like Natsuko Ishikawa. You know the women who wrote parts of Stormblood, but more importantly Shadowbringers and Endwalker. Shit would sell like hotcakes.
"You cock" - Benedikta Harman