Final Fantasy XVI is the latest formal numbered installement under the Final Fantasy franchise and introduces players to the world of Valisthea. This game also marks the first massive shift in the combat system, presenting itself as an action RPG like the two most recent games: Final Fantasy XV and Final Fantasy 7 Remake. But this time with a twist, unlike vanilla XV, XVI’s central charactell will be the only playable character you have for the entirety of the game. By this point, fans of the series have either accepted this paradigm shift in how a Final Fantasy game is played or have been critical of the move away from turn-based systems, but far greater than that has been the perception of Final Fantasy losing its position as the once-box office game title that it once was.
With games like Elden Ring and Breath of the Wild commanding such great reverence from the gaming public, Final Fantasy has seemingly lost its place as the once crown jewel of the JRPG world. But producer Naoki Yoshida, famously known for his work with Final Fantasy XIV who now helms this new game, has come out and stated that he wants to return Final Fantasy to “must-buy” status.
In this review, I’ll share with you as much as I can about the game but will focus mostly on the new combat system as well as the presentation of the game whilst only sharing tidbits regarding the plot. For the most part, this is best experienced first-hand via the Final Fantasy XVI demo which is available on the Playsation store which would give you a better idea of how the combat will feel especially the Eikonic challenge mode.
Read on for my spoiler-free review of Final Fantasy XVI.
Note: the Final Fantasy XVI demo covers most of the first act of the game with the Eikonic Challenge showcasing a partial taste of how the Eikon ability system works. You can pick-up directly where you left off on the actual game via the demo save file.
Plot
Final Fantasy XVI’s main plot revolves around how crystals have run the world and the geopolitical climate which is always on the edge of war. The game starts out with our main character, Clive Rosfield and Joshua Rosfield. Clive is the main protagonist of the game and serves as a shield to his brother, Joshua who is the Dominant of the Phoenix. Together, a young but ill-stricken Joshua is groomed for the throne of Rosaria while his older brother Clive serves as his protector.
The first act of the game opens us up to a rich tapestry of the nations of Valisthea and the Twin continents, commonly referred to as the Twins. We’re also introduced to the blight that has stricken the world, slowly depriving life on everything it touches and has pushed nations to conquer territories as they lose more to the blight.
Much of chapter 1 is a flashback of Clive’s younger years wherein he’s treated to the harsh reality of crown politics and betrayal. Everything has been taken from him by the start of the game. His father, his brother, his friends and his home. Now living his life as an Imperial Branded, people who can conjure up magick (game spells it that way) without the use of a crystal and are treated with utter disgust, he serves the Holy Empire of Sanbreque.
After this, the game follows multiple time skips at its sets-up the world and its decay into a larger problem than who owns more grain and land. For the most part, its a story about loss and living a better life than finding an honorable death. In a world where beggars won’t even spit at Brandeds, the intense discrimination towards this kind as well as the machination of a power far greater than kings pushes Clive to rid the world of the source of their problem once and for all.
Final Fantasy XVI’s main plot is a rich political drama that will have Game of Thrones fans commenting on the similarities, but for those that can’t make out the parallels, Final Fantasy XVI is still a Final Fantasy story thru and thru: a story of rebellion from man, fate and one’s own self-doubt. If you’re coming Final Fantasy XV, then the fragile politics may be more familiar but if you’re not into these kinds of things, Final Fantasy XVI introduces the Active Time Lore, a help system designed to give you information as you interact with characters in real-time. It allows insights into related characters, their current state as of that point in the game and other related information, easily called-up by holding down the touchpad.
And this is a smart decision, Final Fantasy XVI’s story gets really convoluted really quick. With 5 nations, and a ton of characters brought up, its hard to keep track of them all. A further help system is also given to the player later in the game.
If there’s one thing that would really captivate most players, its Clive’s story and how he goes from lost soul driven by revenge to his heroic leader role by the end of the game. All of this drawn on a background of royals, warriors and commonfolks whose personal stories you may either care for or ignore completely, the choice is up to you how you progress thru the story because ultimately, you can only go thru with the main quests or do sidequests for EXP and Gil. More on that by the end of this review.
Ultimately, Final Fantasy XVI’s plot is tough to tackle without discussing details but if you like political drama, there’s more to enjoy here otherwise, the linear nature of the story lends itself nicely to folks who just skip the main narrative altogether although skipping cutscenes require a two-step process so you can’t just X your way to the end.
Graphics & Audio
Final Fantasy XVI runs on an undisclosed engine which allows the game to be fully rendered in real-time including cutscenes. That means all CG in this game has a consistent look and will jump freely from cutscene to in-game with no transition. This allows Final Fantasy XVI to have cinematic QTE which requires players to perform action during cinematic clashes similar to God of War.
The art direction does affect how detailed the characters are and with Final Fantasy XVI drawing heavy inspiration from Final Fantasy XIV, it features much less detailed characters in terms of skin textures versus FFXV and FF7R. It does make up for it in sheer detail of the characters as Clive’s facial and dirt is decently well-rendered and the iconic Final Fantasy-style J-rock hairstyles are still in full effect albeit much more toned down. Regardless, the game takes full advantage of the PlayStation 5 and its lush settings allow for a very detailed environment.
That said, despite the rich graphical detail, the game’s actual lore means that much of the game isn’t that busy and even the busiest location can only have so much people in it. That means that while market districts and city centers contain nicely designed locations, there’s not much going on and really gives an abandoned feel to all locations but whether intentional or not, it leaves a drab feel to the game and the slow movement speeds means that this atmosphere plus the pace of movement really means you’re stuck at a slow for much of the story.
But as mentioned, where Final Fantasy XVI shines the best is with its Eikons; this game’s summons. Heavily marketed to feature Ifrit, Phoenix, Garuda, Shiva, Titan, Ramuh, Bahamut, Odin plus one more (one Eikon for each Element, Ifrit is an aberration) and FInal Fantasy XVI renders them as beautifully as it can. In the demo version, the opening Eikon fight will actually push the Playstation 5 to its limits and I’ve observed minor stuttering in both the demo and the actual game during this Eikon fight. This is unique to both fire Eikons as they feature heavy particle physics in their arena. Having played thru the game, not even the massive Titan has pushed the game to stutter although in plain combat, combination of certain Eikon abilities will also have a slight effect in graphical performance. Which leads us to the in-game options of having the game run at Graphics mode or Frame Rate mode.
Game Performance Modes
Comparison: Standing
Comparison: Movement
To be completely honest, I barely see a difference with both in my 48″ screen at 10ft. away from the screen. What I do notice is the fidelity, which means I do prefer keeping the game in Frame Rate mode as much as possible but for the majiority of this review, all screenshots are taken using Graphics mode.
I do have a complaint about Frame Rate mode and that in cutscenes, the game drops back to its slower frame rate. But the bigger issue is during combat where the game just feels like its on fast-forward when Frame Rate mode is used. This isn’t felt in regular play and moving about but once in combnat, the entire game just feels like its running at twice the speed, not just the fidelity. Well-versed players who probably are used to the combat system will feel the pace awkward but ultimately better and easier to the eyes but players who may not be as used to the faster pacing will feel that game feels faster somewhat.
Talking about audio, I’ve kind of leaned on saying earlier that the game feels boring sometimes and the music does contribute a lot to that feeling. The game has a lot of sin in terms of audio starting of with the location music. Up until writing this part of the review, I’ve refrained from checking but as I remember, there’s a music at the game’s jukebox to disable music altogether at least in the heroes’ base of operation. This is even made worse by the lack of Chocobo music firing up when riding. While it may be a bug or a lore choice, the atmosphere just feels really heavy throughout the game.
Which is then finally compounded by the lack of banter and voice lines during regular gameplay. If there is one thing that attaches one heavily to the FFXV gang of Noctis, Prompto, Gladiolus and Ignis, its their banter. Walking around feels much less of a chore when you have useless smalltalk keeping you entertained as the gang quips on things from the sight to Chocobos. Our Final Fantasy XVI cast has a massive lack of that.
Despite those sins, I still praise the amazing voice acting of this game which could’ve been made profound by giving more character exposition through random banter and voicelines during regular traversal. Final Fantasy XVI is an English-first script and features mostly British theatre actors and actresses for the cast. This gives them more depth and commitment to their lines and the delivery and interaction delivered to the best effect. While theatrical, it keeps up with the setting of the old Medieval Europe-like setting, similar to The Witcher series.
But only in cutscenes do this actors and actresses shine as they’re relegated to murmuring set pieces in actual play. I’m not sure if its just the timeskip or the pre-launch patch but Clive has had his attack callouts reduced as I was playing as he kept uttering a line annoyingly during combat which has lessened after the pre-launch update.
Visually, Final Fantasy XVI is a beautiful game visually but the acting done well but its color grading of choice as well audio sins mars this game’s potential.
Gameplay
Final Fantasy XVI’s main gameplay revolves around combat and Eikonic abilties allow players to performance strings of attack with various traits. But at its core, Clive’s 3-string combo is his bread-and-butter, aided by items that increase his attack and stagger damage. In its raw form, mashing square □ will cause clive to do his basic combo, pausing after each string. But that won’t give you that Smokin Sexy SSSSSSStyle combo that you see on the trailer, you need to add in the Eikonic abilites and Torgal. Up until this point I refrained from mentioning Torgal as he is key storywise but he is present in the demo and is an important part of Clive’s arsenal. Stringing combos with Eikonic abilities and Torgal’s Sic and Ravage attacks lengthens Clive’s combo strings and allows juggle potential to add in more hits.
Enemies can have stagger meters which when depleted, leaves them open to attack. A staggered enemy is open to massive damage especially when you have the right Eikonic abilities plus access to Clive’s Limit Break. Final Fantasy XVI’s Limit Break system is not a special move but rather a powered-up state, increasing Clive’s damage as well. It doesn’t have any action but is simply a powered-up status increasing damage only. What can be referred to as a Limit Break is any one of the 4th Eikonic abilities access throughout the ability grid which is unique to each Eikon, currently absorbed by Clive.
The Ability grid visual resembles the ascension grid of FFXV’s but it functions much simpler. FFXVI’s ability grid is just a visual list of the skills Clive has access to and can purchase using ability points. Some skills will have an upgraded tier and a mastered tier. A skill upgrade adds certain traits to the ability, increasing damage or adding an effect, etc. The ability point cost increases as one reaches master tier where a mastered skill can be slotted on the any of the 6 available skill slot. By default, an Eikonic ability can only be attached to one of the two skill slots of an Eikon accessed by press R2+ square □ or R2+triangle △. Eikons can be swapped anytime in-game by pressing L2, also switching the their equipped skills. With a mastered skill, Ramuh’s skill can be slotted onto Phoenix’s slot which can help manage combos especially if you want to streamline your Eikon switches e.g. 3-string combo, Sic, (Phoenix) R2+ square □ R2+triangle △, L2, (Garuda) R2+ square (Ramuh Skill) □ or R2+triangle △ (Titan Skill), Sic, L2, (Titan) R2+ square (Phoenix finisher) □ or R2+triangle △ (Garuda finisher), Limit Break, *stagger, repeat combo.
While heavily inspired by Devil May Cry, the similary is purely cosmetic because while Clive can dash to his enemies like Dante’s Trickster or block like Royal Guard or even grab them like Nero’s devil bringer, the combo depth is severely lacking and leaves combat very repetitive. Because of the cooldown in this game, skills aren’t as effectively usable as they are in Devil May Cry which draws out fights even on throwaway enemies. This makes “beat X enemies” quests and sidequests to feel like a chore and they do get repetitive in certain points in the game.
And speaking of repetitiveness, there is a serious lack of enemy diversity in this game. Nearly all areas and nations in this game will have a pallette swap of a certain archetype meaning that goblin grunts and goblin bigs will have human versions for each location of the game. This extends to the game’s bestiary which are very much a recolor of and every other beasts of their species. And trust me there’s so few, you’ll have them memorized in no time.
And now that leads us to the best part of the game when it comes to gameplay, and its the Eikon fights. Seriously, given the at Eikon fights are like the Wrestlemania moments of Final Fantasy XVI, I am puzzled why the developer chose to drag them out in formulaic sequences leading up to the Eikon. But when you do get to the Eikon, you know its going down. Admittedly, Eikon fights are restricted to a few buttons and Ifrit can only only do a simple combo, but the cinematic aspect as well as the scale and stakes hanging on that fight is very thrilling. We’re talking Eikons that have millions of HP but can do 500k damage in a single combo. Eikons that can erase your character in a single move. This is the payoff of all that mindless hack and slash that Clive has to go through. And yes, it is worth it.
Final Thoughts – Final Fantasy XVI Launch Version
I’d have to preface this segment with the highlight that this is for the launch version. With games like Final Fantasy XV receiving massive overhauls throughout its life, Creative Business Unit III can do so as they please but there doesn’t yet to be any reason to do although with games like Horizon Forbidden West patching out things like Aloy’s frequet voice lines when picking up items, Final Fantasy XVI can do so as well. And that’s just at the smaller scale.
Regardless, continuing with our review and answering the question: is Final Fantasy XVI a Day 1 Must-Buy? Unfortuantely there’s no easy answer. Which makes it harder for me.
As evident in this review, I am disappointed by many things in Final Fantasy XVI but I am also pleased by certain experience in the game. But once the main story is over, arcade mode isn’t something draws me to comeback leaving all the weight of value of this to be weighed against its story. And I admit, I love the story of this game. A mature, political drama set in a fantasy world with well-portayed characters. But is Clive Rosfield and the rest of the cast as lovable as the ones before them? And I am afraid they’re not. As bold as Square Enix Creative Business Unit III believes that Final Fantasy XVI is, if your characters does’t leave an impression in the first 3 seconds they’re on screen, they’ll be skipped to death so with the exception of Benedikta Harman, Hugo Kupka and Cidolfus Telamon, Bahamut and Odin’s Dominants’ makes them very 1-dimensional despite the fact that Bahamut’s Dion Lesage is certainly daring character. Barnabas Tharmr, Odin’s Dominant, ultimately becomes a predictable enemy by his introduction. That and the other criticism I have for this game leaves me to recommend Final Fantasy XVI primarily to those who like Final Fantasy games regardless of the combat system and also those that enjoy Final Fantsy XV specifically. Because while 2023 Final Fantasy XV is a different system altogether, FFXVI and FFXV bore heavy resemblance in terms of story delivery.
For those who have never played a Final Fantasy game before, this is actually a good first dip into the series as it introduces the core elements of the franchise in a grand way from the summons to the characters. The single-character combat also removes the need to familiarize one’s self with complicated dynamics and in-game mechanics. Also, there’s some handholding in Final Fantasy XVI as the game comes with accessories that basically allows auto-combos to occur by simply pressing square. While it removes the combat depth that the game has, it allows players to breeze thru combat without having the learn the mechanical dexterity required to cycle thru different Eikons for a flowing combo.
For Final Fantasy fans who swear by turn-based action, I’m really sorry but this is the future of Final Fantasy especially with Final Fantasy VII Remake perfecting its party system combat, games following Final Fantasy XVI will most likely stick to the action RPG format. This does leave the question on why Final Fantasy XVI opted to not go with the same system that Final Fantasy VII Remake had. It allowed faster, fluid combat and a team-based system that fully realizes the visions laid out by Advent Children nearly 20 years ago.
With that said, Final Fantasy XVI is definitely a different take on a Final Fantasy game. A game with a strong story with some creative misssteps, Final Fantasy XVI still holds up as a solid title, the first mainline numbered Final Fantasy release on the PlayStation 5. A good start for those looking to get into Final Fantasy without the complex history of Final Fantasy VII Remake or the confusing status of Final Fantasy XV, Final Fantasy XVI is big step for the future of Final Fantasy with its intense Eikon fights and I hope future patches improves the game along with more content.
