Final Fantasy XVI: Once More Into the Peak

When words came around that Square Enix had intended to release a sixteenth main title in what is probably the most acclaimed and storied JRPG franchise of all time, the gaming world was put on notice. Outside of FFXIV the series had been in creative freefall for the better part of two decades, with the last unanimously "good" title (FFXII) coming out in 2006. Mishap after mishap, poor writing decisions combined with development issues meant that the legendary series was spiraling towards creative mediocrity. What began in the late 1980's as a dream to keep a fledgling gaming company alive had morphed into a worldwide phenomenon quicker than one could anticipate. Some of the greatest moments, songs, and stories were born by Squaresoft in the 90's and early 2000's. Final Fantasy VI through XII are universally individually respected as some of the greatest titles of all time across any genre. With XVI there were questions, how would the series evolve past XV? XV has its fanbase and their opinions are to be respected, but largely it was panned and unappreciated as it fell victim to a nightmare development cycle and DLC was required to fulfill the true ambitions of the story.

Here comes Final Fantasy XVI, I remember hearing the initial rumors revolving around it and I almost couldn't believe it. I don't remember the exact verbage as some serious time has passed, but the word on the street was that its production was to be helmed by none other than Naoki Yoshida of Square Enix' Creative Business Unit III, and combat was to be done by the man in charge of Devil May Cry 5's action, the most silky smooth the character action genre had ever seen. As a longtime fan and subscriber of the MMO Final Fantasy XIV I was almost in shock, how would Yoshi-P have time to develop an acclaimed and incredible adventure in XIV and then have the time and energy to resurrect the mainline series from its effective grave? I purchased a Playstation 5 in anticipation of this, after the initial trailer rollout and website were released for the game, because I knew of all people that I could trust Yoshida in making a lasting memory out of the FF series. He is a man, with the rest of CBU3 (Koji-Fox and Soken included,) who I trusted more than anything to create a well rounded Final Fantasy experience.

Now for the game itself... though I had initial reservations about playing the demo because I wanted to avoid spoilers, I loaded in and embarked on the two or so hour adventure that serves as the beginning of the game. Initially weary about audio issues and performance on the PS5, my concerns were very quickly waned as I met Clive, Joshua, and Lord Rosfeld. The Game of Thrones influence clear very early on in FFXVI, not only just in the aesthetics and world that Valisthea exists in, but in the approach to quality of realizing a believable and livable low fantasy setting. WIth the demo completed, and my mind absolutely melted at the way it ended, I laid in anticipation of the full game arriving just a few days later... and arrived it did.

What I got in Final Fantasy XVI was genuienly the greatest meld of action, storytelling, music, environmental presentation, and character writing that I could have ever asked for. Beginning with the world, Valisthea is a masterfully constructed dual-continent with its histories carefully created to give each and every nation-state and their peoples their own culture and approach to political and social goings-ons. Reading the FFXVI website before the game actually had come out was a tremendous help to the rich lore within the title, as it lays out the political makeup of Rosaria, Waloed, The Republic of Dhalmekia, the Crystalline Dominion, and most importantly the Holy Republic. Each of these powers are wildly different in the way that they are run administratively, some as a Duchy, others as a loosely allied Republic, and another as a Holy Empire. While these countries are also vastly different in size and makeup, they are privy to a state of Mutually Assured Destruction as a result of beings called Dominants. These Dominants are individuals in the royal families who posses the ability to call upon Eikons, mythical figures of immense size and power who can effectively end conflict in a fell swoop. This is also the fire that begins the conflict of the game as our protagonist Clive Rosfeld does not possess the Dominant of Fire, the Phoenix as the eldest sibling in Rosaria is meant to do. Each of these Dominants are powerful in different ways that bring nuance to their interactions with other nations and combat maneuvers. Surely Titan is the largest and strongest eikon in the Twin Realms... but he is not mobile and deploying him requires a large amount of care. Surely Bahamut is immensely powerful, but can his destructive magicks match the agility of Ifrit? It's with these questions and interactions between the nations of Final Fantasy XVI that such an interesting world is created. These powers differ in how large they are, in how strong their ground millitaries are, but they are at a stand still in their perpetual conflicts because of the power at the fingertips of their royal families. This is what felt so Game of Thrones to me, each country so unique (and a lot of these mirror those in GoT,) but so fragile in the manner of which they combat and invade... I could go on and on about how good of a job CBU3 did in setting this world up, but its already so late and I have more to write about!

The world itself that Clive finds himself is a grim one, and it's here that I would call upon another title that gave me the stark depressing feeling that FFXVI did in its traversal: The Witcher. Now, much of what Clive is doing is trying to restore a hope to a people that are oppressed (more to come on that later,) but the impetus of much of the conflict of the game between the nation states is that a remarkable blight is moving upon their continents, killing their crops and the destroying the homes of those within the affected areas. Like the world that Geralt calls home, much of FFXVI is dark tonally, the medieval setting is already grim as slavery is abundant and there is a remarkably large amount of displaced peoples and families affected by the violence of the heads of state. You are a man who is not respected by much of the world you are interacting with, many of the ruling classes look upon Clive as an outlaw beneath the common man. As he grows and matures, he embarks on a quest with Cidolfus to free the bottom class from their chains of malice that have been placed upon them by the ruling classes. In the world of FFXVI, the oppressed lower class that you spend much of the game assisting and freeing are called bearers, as they naturally have the ability to cast magicks without using crystals for assistance. Its with this prejudice that they are abused, mistreated, tortured, and killed, as the bearers are viewed as freaks and not worthy of being considered as human. Clive, a bearer himself leads a ragtag group of ambitious rebels, along with his ally Cid, to create a world in with the bearers can live as people amongst those not blessed with magic. Thus the conflict within Final Fantasy XVI's story is born, Clive now abandoned from his former state and people by his wretched mother, must unite the world of the Twins under a common banner, as humans. His quest is simple, to remove all from the shackles of class and culture that bind them to hatred. A world in which the bearer is not subhuman.

The writing in FFXVI is careful and deliberate. I've already touched upon the way the world is set up, but the avenue that the story goes through it's extensive runtime is constructed such a way that few games of recent can hold a candle to. I don't like to divulge spoilers are per usual, but I everyday that I wrapped up playing the game I would message my friends who were of similar progress about the twists and turns that the narrative had left us with. This game will make you angry at its villains, tear up with its heroes, and feel general angst at the suffocating world at large. Game of Thrones did a superb job in creating despicable characters from the get go who were easy to hate, and FFXVI picks up on that to the T. You have a general disgust for Anabella, for Hugo, for Barnabas, their motives laid bare for the player to pick apart and challenge. Clive is an impressive protagonist, and a refreshing one in the realm of Final Fantasy as he's finally an adult character. Sure you spend the initial sequence as an adolescent, and it's hard to truly drive home, but it was SO refreshing to have a character this mature in a JRPG that is willling to express love and hate to such a degree. He's a grizzled himbo, a true boy-toy, but he's not willing to depart from nuanced discussions with his foes and turn them into bouts of true malice. There is an eloquence in writing protagonists to be more diplomatic in their dialogue with the antagonists (Cloud in FFVII for example,) but it was marvelous to hear Clive conscious of his guilt, of his actions of violence. In a world as dark as the one in Valisthea, it's not possible to take the road that appeases all. Clive is aware of the blood that was required to be spilled to realize his dream of uniting the land under a common social norm. It is here that my comparisons with the Witcher continue, in true Geraltian fashion Clive doesn't shy away from the tough decisions he has to make, there is no "happy ending" and he is aware of that. There are moments in which he bursts into a fit of rage (one early on in the demo for example,) and you as the player cannot help but empathize with the amount of anger you would likely have in that situation as well. This is unique in my now storied history with Final Fantasy as a franchise, this was the first time I could see a protagonist truly come to terms with the tragedies of the dark reality their world was now engrossed in. Clive does what he can to help those in need, but he's not afraid to combat those who are actively bringing the world down. He is compassionate and respected amongst his peers and friends like Jill, Gav, Cid, and Charon, but a nightmare in waiting to his enemies.

The cast outside of Clive were crafted into a resounding success, beginning with the Archduke of Rosaria, Elwin Rosfeld himself who is one of the first characters you meet, all the way to the minor characters you meet and leave right before the game ends. There are a plethora of NPC's both in the villages you pass through (Martha and Lu'bor for example) that will stick with you and interact with Clive multiple times throughout the story, as well as his own group of outlaws that journey with him and share the same hideout. These characters like Tarja, Midadol, Otto, Charon, Gav, Jill, and Harpocrates to name a few will stick with you throughout a treacherous and longform journey. These aren't just people that stick around you and interact with you for their various gimmicks (Charon is the shoplady, Harpocrates the loremaster etc,) but occasional party members and frequent requestors of Clive's aid. They don't all just have one sidequest either, often multiple through the long journey which helps make them feel a real member of the family. Much like Mass Effect and its loyalty mission in ME2, FFXVI has a questline for seemingly every NPC Ally that Clive has, which can seem like it simply just inflates the runtime, but rather produces a believable relationship between player character and his constituents. I felt an actual connection to everybody that calls the hub home and helps Clive along on his mission, and for a game this long and in the weeds, that is a huge +1 to its overall composition. Without going into it too much, it's revitalizing to have a character like Jill in a Final Fantasy game. Their "romance" is written so well, and in true Final Fantasy fashion she is FAR from a damsel in distress. She quickly became one of my favorite female characters in a video game that I've played, and the emotional maturity and power in her story had me clutching my tear strings at a few points.

Now that I've covered the story, world, and characters, I would like to get into the fun parts! Oh my GOSH is this game beautiful. Unfortunately brought down a peg by its jail sentence on the PS5 30 FPS, this game in its entirety is eye candy... from the characters to the fights to the environment itself. Now with the investment that this game probably gets from Sony and Square Enix, a budget to make all this possible isn't too surprising, but this game contains a vast amount of cutscene time done in the legendary Square visual fidelity fashion. Characters are downright beautiful, portrayed in a way (much like FF7R) that they feel and look real. Anytiime I got a closeup of Jill, Clive, or Cid I held my hand on the screenshot button waiting to take a visual imprint of their beautiful faces. I don't know if this habit will ever die, but I'm still shocked by games nowadays and how far they've come in their portrayal of characters. Not only did they look good from a clarity standpoint, but the design choices in making each character stand out from one another was a resounding success. I loved Dr. Castlevania Clive, and the azure clothing that Jill wears. Cid dons a regal outfit befit of a Chad, Gav a orange/grey shirt that works great for a mysterious rogue, Dion a beautifully piece of armor and long robe to match his suave and regality. Outside of the characters, the fights were a thing of beauty. Multiple times during the eikon battles and Clive 1 on 1s I had to pause and let out an audible "Holy S***" at what I was looking at. Games have come so far, but Square realized this to the best extent in FFXVI. The world, grim as it may be, was visually striking as well. In the cities and the hub world, I found myself just simply strolling along with no end quite a few times to the world and beautiful Masayoshi Soken soundtrack. Be it Uematsu, Hamauzu, Shimomura, or Soken, this series has been blessed to have such a rich group of talented composers. Again as a fan of FFXIV, I knew Soken would do a good job scoring XVI, but I was blown out of the water by his soundtrack at multiple times... all the way to the end credits. This title is a home run and a half for so many reasons.

The day has finally come, from the evolutions begun in FFXII, into making Final Fantasy a series with a pure action game. From 2006's beloved entry on, Square has toyed and shifted more and more into making Final Fantasy no longer a turn based ATB action series, but one where the fighting got faster and faster with each title. FFXIII was a vast mis-step, effectively able to be played by only pressing the space bar, FFXV another step toward action with some unfortunate funk to it, and FF7R even more action intensive with a cool pause menu to select spells and items. All this considered, the series had never completely made the leap until it tapped DMCV combat director Ryota Suzuki to be in charge of crafting a captivating combat system for the sixteenth game in the Final Fantasy franchise... and lo and behold he did it to an absolute success. This game plays a lot like a DMC or Bayonetta, but with even more tools at your disposal that fit that of the FF Intellectual property. You need to make use of parries, perfect dodges, and quick attack windows to stagger your opponents and rack the damage up when you can. Clive not only has his sword and trusty pup Torgal in every encounter, but is able to utilize the power of the eikons he claims along his journey. Beginning with that of the Phoenix, Clive can use fire spells as part of his combos. This never gets old, even after playing north of seventy hours of the game. I loved mixind and matching the eikons I used, the spells that come with said eikons, and the combos you can craft by simply feeling out the game. I would love to go into greater detail about which eikons make for the best combat experience, but that would include spoiling the story content. I will say, in most titles that have them I don't find myself going outside of my general wheelhouse to fight super bosses or optionial hunt targets, however I managed to clear every single one in FFXVI. I didn't care if I was twelve levels down, I was having such a fun time with the combat system of this game that I wanted to play with it as much as I could. I would scream in joy after defeating the S Rank hunts with how far removed from the recommended level I was. This game just feels so smooth and the tough battles are beyond rewarding when you are done with them. Combat was so DMC down to the Devil Trigger button, that I could simply not give it up.

As a fan of Devil May Cry, as a Game of Thrones, as a fan of the Witcher, as a fan of Final Fantasy XIV, as a fan of Final Fantasy, and lastly as a fan of good video games... Final Fantasy XVI is one of the greatest video games I've ever played. A frontrunner for GOTY of 2023 quite easily for me, and an instant inclusion into my personal Top 10, I am still in disbelief that it is over. For anyone with a PS5, and anyone with a PC when it inevitably launches there, I strongly recommend Final Fantasy XVI.

PS: I apologize at the likely high amount of syntax and diction errors in writing this review. I almost always do my writeups immediately after completing the game and this one was long and it's very late at night here! This is probably one of my weaker writing jobs from a skill standpoint, but I have so much to talk about and so little patience to wait to do it!