Final Fantasy XVI

Final Fantasy XVI is the first main-line Final Fantasy title I have ever completed. This may be where one could split hairs, on whether Final Fantasy VII Remake can be treated as a main-line entry or can only live as a remake or as a spin-off considering all that Square Enix is offering the title. The only other title to claim from this series to story completion is Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII. Now, games like classic Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy X, and Final Fantasy XV all have some hours put into them, some much more than others, and the likes of VI, VIII, IX, and XII have all intrigued me. There’s just one major hang-up for me.

Turn-based combat has never been my forte. Something about it has always felt like combat dragged on. With this, I have admittedly beaten very few Pokémon games; while games such as Yakuza 7: Like a Dragon and Persona 5 intrigue me for many reasons the combat just does not grip me in the same way. Persona 5 is close with enough hands-on during fights with the Baton Pass and trigger pulling and Yakuza 7 with its constantly shifting battlegrounds or environmental interaction if an attack is close enough to a sign or other enemy. Action-focused combat has always been the preference on some level. Not every game needs to be Devil May Cry, I’ve finished the three sequentially numbered Kingdom Hearts titles. Active engagement in combat outside of menus, maybe, is the best way to put it. The combat in Final Fantasy XVI is engaging for the most part. Overall, it wasn’t the combat that sunk its teeth into. It was the characters and plot of Final Fantasy XVI that kept me going even when I wanted to be done.

It was made obvious that Game of Thrones was an influence on Final Fantasy XVI and its locale of Valisthea. While Game of Thrones has nothing as blatantly MacGuffin-like as the Mothercrystals, its influences of civil wars, bloody violence, and dark fantasy loom large over Final Fantasy XVI. There is adult language, there are adult relationships, and themes the likes I’ve never heard of from the series. While this may be the only game I’ve finished in the series, I have been a part of the video game zeitgeist for decades, and not many games touch on the same themes as Bearers do. Bearers are seen as slaves born with the ability to use magic without an igniter by way of crystals; bearers upon birth are just as likely to be ripped from their parents for servitude as they are to be killed immediately. The protagonist Clive’s main quest is to free Bearers. However, it isn’t so obvious at the start, but as the quest progresses from destroying Mothercrystals, banks of magic, to killing God, Clive’s motivations always ring true. Save the Bearers from their shackles by removing magic from the world. That’s the summary of Final Fantasy XVI in a nutshell.

Characters like Clive, Joshua, Jill, Cid, Gav, or Martha, all give the player a sense of family or kinship the likes that Fallout or Elder Scrolls games never could. For as talkative and choice-driven as those titles are, a sense of self is often lost as the player is too worried about what cave or city to explore next and how to best spec their character or build. When a character dies, both hero or villain, the ramifications and emotions immediately, and that feeling can either be sadness, vengeance, or something in between. From beginning to end, Clive grows as a character as he carries relationships with his brother, uncle, girlfriend, and all those under his tutelage. As a player, Clive is one of the best and truest characters I feel has graced the world of video games while the only thing holding him back is his shouty nature. But, when a man carries the burden of the realm and tries to fix all that is wrong in the world, it’s easy to see what could make him so angry.

As a player, one of the only things that made me angry with this title is that it is simply too big. There is too much game. Per the Playstation 5’s counter, 66 hours is where the game closed. This is with all the side quests completed, all hunts completed, and never engaging with the combat trials on offer. Really, that’s okay that I skipped those, that would have been too much on top of everything else. By the end, I was ready to be done with the game because it had been all I had played really since release; my wife was tired of seeing the game as I normally would oscillate a bit more between titles. I was driven to complete this game not only to claim a Final Fantasy entry but also because I wanted to see how this story ended. I don’t know if any game that a Hideo Kojima title had me drawn to tears as much as Final Fantasy XVI did come the closing hour. God of War Ragnarök got close.

Now, too much game also wasn’t just pure sarcasm. Truly, most of the zones in the game are too big and labyrinthian. It is bad when Hideaway, the central hub of the game, feels like it could have used at least three additional fast-travel posts from where the player initially spawns. Several side quests send the player from one side of this map and back to the other. It grows tedious as the hours grow, guessing by the end exactly how many of those hours were spent just trying to navigate what should have been the simplest and smallest maps of them all. It is this that likely drove me away from Final Fantasy XV, the map is simply too large to navigate. Final Fantasy XVI in its final chapters does one final massive dump of hunts and side quests that are great in their story closures but infuriating as at the point most players are excited to close the game out in a big finale. This is a good smattering of returning to each large zone; most of these zones do have decently spaced fast travel points. Of course, not every player has a “checklist brain” where everything needs to be done. However, I do. Now, I know my claims of game size may seem bereft as I have beaten a number of Bethesda titles a couple of times each, finished all of the shrines in Breath of the Wild, and aimed to do so again in Tears of the Kingdom; my argument against this is that for the most part, the zones in those games don't feel as wide and vacant as many of those in Final Fantasy XVI. There is almost always something happening in those titles that the wide-open world of Valisthea is oft to be missing.

A number of other reviews and fellow players out there told me to do all of the side quests. Many of these feel mundane and inconsequential in the moment, but I assure you that come the closing chapter each of these quests tie themselves up nicely with character growth and plot development. While a complaint lies heavily on doing all of these simply due to zone size or mundanity, it is clear that the developers come the end wanted the player to experience these. One notable key mechanic is hidden behind these side quests and it makes me wonder if they are missable.

It would be remiss to just ignore combat, especially with the earlier lamenting of turn-based combat the series has been known for. Final Fantasy XVI combat feels buttery smooth. While I may not be a fan of its basic combo system, the Eikon powers make Clive feel like a powerhouse of elements. Fire is the entry fee, but through story progression, many more become available through wind, air, or ice. Combat encounters by the end felt somewhat like a routine when the player figures out their preferred methods of enemy execution. A number of the Eikon powers can damage multiple enemies at once these felt easiest to cling to as a means of fighting off the numbers that get thrown at Clive by the end, or for even felling larger enemies. Sorry, to double back, routine may come off as harsh or as a boring label, but the spectacle of combat never grew old and, as stated, Clive feels so powerful and fun to control that as I grew to enjoy the combat more as each new power became available. My final line-up of three Eikons held the last one in its gauntlet.

It is the same spectacle of combat that made the Eikon battles so magnificent. These fights are impossible to ignore the words “kaiju” or “Godzilla” and “King Kong” in their scope. There have been very few combat encounters that I have played that match the excitement of an Eikon battle between figures too large for the screen without panning or zooming out. The game does open with what feels like a separate genre from the main combat and my wish would have been for more of these moments, something against the norm of basic combat. However, if that’s the only complaint for these battles then they are still a win and a feat for game alone. These fights would have never been possible on prior console generations.

Overall, Final Fantasy XVI is a solid four out of five. Personally, I feel like with ten hours shaved off and the number of side quests quartered, this would have been perfect for me. Maybe I have myself to blame wanting to do most of the content, but if the game didn't want that to be the case it wouldn't be in the game. I will gladly now say that I have beaten a Final Fantasy game, and while it hasn't inspired me to go back through and play the prior titles, it has claimed me as a fan going forward if this is the direction the series will go for combat.