Final Fantasy XVI
MSRP $70.00
“Final Fantasy XVI delivers when it comes to spectacular action, but dated design and shallow RPG systems drag down a promising blockbuster.”
Pros
Strong opening
Excellent fight
Incredible Eikon battles
Impressive visuals
Cons
Uneven story
Disappointing character arcs
Dull sidequests
Shallow RPG methods
Clive Rosfield has an issue. Final Fantasy XVI’s broody hero is determined to begin a brand new life, one unburdened by the errors and trauma of his bloody childhood. No matter how arduous he tries, although, he can’t totally escape the historical past weighing him down like an airship’s anchor. He’s not the one one combating that; one in every of his companions, Jill, is preventing that very same battle.
“I want to live on my own terms,” she tells Clive halfway by their journey, “but first I must come to terms with my past.”
It’s a line that sticks with me as I play by Final Fantasy XVI, a sport coping with its personal model of that id disaster. Square Enix’s newest charts a brand new future for the long-running RPG franchise, confidently stepping right into a extra cinematic, action-packed territory that’s all the fad in Western video video games as of late. However, it may possibly’t totally divorce itself from that previous; its RPG instincts are nonetheless in its blood. Those two instructions conflict throughout the uneven fantasy epic like two towering summons duking it out.
Final Fantasy XVI delivers on the “action” aspect of its action-RPG components. A fierce and fast-paced fight system makes for the sequence’ most fun stab at real-time swordplay but, whereas its blockbuster Eikon fights rank amongst a few of gaming’s most awe-inspiring battles. But there’s a basic flatness surrounding these exhilarating highs, as shallow RPG hooks and dated design go away a promising evolution for the sequence caught up to now.
Game of Crystals
Set on the remoted continent of Valisthea, Final Fantasy XVI chronicles the story of its hero, Clive Rosfield, over a number of many years. In the primary leg of his story, Clive is a bright-eyed younger grownup with loads of accountability: His royal household has sworn him to guard his youthful brother, Joshua, who’s the dwelling embodiment of the Phoenix. The gripping opening act ends in tragedy, paving the way in which for a darkish revenge story that nearly performs out like Kill Bill with godlike “Eikons” (or summons, as we’ve recognized them in earlier installments) rather than assassins.
The story works finest when working at its farthest extremes. The private story of Clive making an attempt to maneuver on from a failure that outlined his childhood provides the journey a number of thematic weight, asking how we transfer on and reclaim our lives after trauma. On the opposite hand, its monumental Eikons make for thrilling self-mythology, turning long-running Final Fantasy staples like Ifrit and Shiva into real Gods. It’s a Greek fantasy seen by the lens of Hollywood blockbusters and ingenious RPG worldbuilding.
A promising setup … fights for display screen time with boring quests and indistinguishable characters …
It’s the area in between these two concepts that Final Fantasy XVI struggles in most — and that’s sadly the place many of the story takes place. After round eight hours of following Clive’s quest for revenge, the narrative takes a left flip to dig right into a grander, however extra drab story about Valisthea’s warring kingdoms and the large mothercrystals that rule over them. The growth staff behind the sport hasn’t been shy about explaining how Game of Thrones formed the story, and that exhibits. If you couldn’t see the affect in lengthy soliloquies about political conflicts, you’ll definitely see it within the drained tropes it hoists upon its few, embarrassingly dealt with feminine characters.
It doesn’t assist that Final Fantasy XVI has a boring strategy to storytelling, with the majority of its worldbuilding executed by lengthy conversations with dead-eyed NPCs. Sidequests particularly strike out on that entrance, delivering boring content material that appears uncharacteristically weak for a staff that’s answerable for the beloved Final Fantasy XIV. The glut of aspect tales listed below are as by the books as they arrive, repeating the identical few mission constructions that herd Clive from NPC to NPC. Close to a dozen of the sidequests merely ask me to speak to somebody, communicate to 3 NPCs stiffly standing round a city, after which return to the quest-giver for extra lore. Others have me fast-traveling someplace to combat a battle that’s typically over in as little as 30 seconds earlier than throwing me into one other prolonged chat. Rinse, repeat.
Square Enix
What’s usually missing is a range of thought, and that’s one thing that’s even mirrored in its characters. In the lead-up to the sport’s launch, reporters pressed the sport’s artistic staff about the truth that Valisthea appeared to solely be populated by white folks. Producer Naoki Yoshida defined the choice, noting that regardless of being a fictional nation, it was very a lot primarily based on European historical past. That reasoning doesn’t fully add up within the last undertaking contemplating that one in every of its kingdoms attracts from Africa for design inspiration. But even in case you purchase that as a smart clarification, it doesn’t clarify why practically each character I meet has the identical physique sort and speaks in the identical monotone, English droll. There’s little persona to the sport’s solid, which makes it arduous to distinguish its flat characters from each other.
That’s in the end the place the story loses me. A promising setup that expertly contrasts the non-public with the mythological fights for display screen time with boring quests and indistinguishable characters that at instances really feel like Square Enix sneaking a few of its AI testing in to pad out the runtime with filler. As a personality advised me throughout one subquest, “If no one is listening to what you have to say, you may as well not say it.”
Eikonic motion
While the story is uneven, its motion is far more constant. For practically 20 years, the Final Fantasy sequence has experimented with find out how to totally transition its turn-based RPG fight to a contemporary real-time motion system. Final Fantasy XV and Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin would attempt to push that additional with middling outcomes, whereas Final Fantasy VII Remake would begin to crack at a satisfying system that also paid tribute to the sequence’ turn-based roots. Final Fantasy XVI presents probably the most assured strategy to hack-and-slash fight we’ve seen from the sequence but.
In addition to some primary sword combos and a splash, Clive can equip three completely different units of magic, which could be combined and matched. For occasion, wind magic is essentially constructed round quick aerial attacking, whereas Earth magic has him winding up heavy assaults with a little bit of button timing. Each magic set has two assault slots they usually function on a brief cooldown, bringing in a little bit of the event staff’s MMO experience. With six spells to rotate between at any given time, Clive can chain collectively flashy assaults at a fast tempo that make him management extra like Dante from Devil May Cry than Cloud.
Square Enix
That system is additional deepened by every magic set’s distinctive energy, which might actually let gamers construct a playstyle that matches them. With hearth magic geared up, urgent circle will trigger Clive to sprint ahead, letting him shut the hole on enemies and observe up with that magic set’s extra close-ranged expertise. Earth, alternatively, turns circle right into a block button that may parry enemy assaults when timed proper. That leaves a secure window for Clive to cost up and land these slower rock assaults. I spent loads of time throughout my journey looking for the right combination of magic units and expertise that might all synergize with each other, letting me carry out all six of my spells in a single astonishing chain.
Some of the sport’s flat design choices do influence that robust system. Missions are inclined to repeat the identical few enemy sorts and even recycle bosses with relative frequency, particularly in aspect missions. Not loads of enemies outdoors of optionally available, high-tier bounties require a lot technique to beat. I largely spammed spells the identical approach throughout nearly each combat, without having to modify issues up. There’s a superb purpose that a number of the finest character-action video games wrap up in 10 hours. Still, fight is so trendy and gratifying that I’m hardly ever upset about getting extra alternatives to see how briskly I can get a giant enemy’s stagger bar down.
Almost each Eikon battle right here might be a candidate for one of many high 10 finest online game bosses of all time.
The most extraordinary piece of its fight, although, comes from its Eikon brawls. Throughout the story, Clive awakens his personal interior demon and goes toe-to-toe with kaiju-sized monsters in jaw-dropping cinematic battles. These fights make up all of Final Fantasy XVI’s finest and most diverse moments. An opening combat in opposition to Ifrit has me controlling Phoenix in a Panzer Dragoon-like shoot-’em-up. A later combat with Titan has me zipping round a halfpipe like Sonic the Hedgehog, avoiding flying boulders alongside the way in which — and that’s only one part of an epic, ever-changing 30-minute encounter.
Each battle tells its personal distinctive saga by spectacular motion, displaying that the artistic staff has a real reward for visible storytelling. Were this a targeted 10-hour motion sport that largely constructed as much as that handful of fights, it might be one of many sequence’ crowning achievements. But there’s 40 extra hours of sport round that … and it isn’t practically as gripping.
Split priorities
Playing Final Fantasy XVI, I get the sense that I can really feel precisely the place the undertaking’s funds went. Those unbelievable Eikon battles, introduced with a number of the most astonishing visuals we’ve seen on the PlayStation 5 up to now (although not with out some efficiency hiccups), stand in sharp distinction to dated characters and barren world design. That final half is particularly a drag, as all main quests happen in utterly linear areas that reuse property from empty room to empty room. The extra open-field areas don’t fare a lot better, as there’s nearly no purpose to discover an space’s nooks and crannies. It’s simply further area that’s barren till the best subquest triggers, giving the phantasm of exploration. Loads of these issues have been sticking factors of Final Fantasy VII Remake, however the issue is worsened right here.
If it didn’t have a beloved model hooked up, would the undertaking have practically the identical gravitas?
The extra I performed, the extra I started to query why so little was partaking me outdoors of Eikon battles. Not too lengthy into my journey, I’d discover that loads of my issues got here again to at least one factor: shallow RPG hooks. Though Final Fantasy XVI is being positioned as an action-RPG, the latter half of that style hybrid is severely overstated. There’s leveling up, stats, and some gear slots, however loads of its methods are a placebo hiding a completely restrictive strategy to energy. For occasion, Clive has six stats, however look intently and also you’ll notice that three of these aren’t actually stats in any respect. Strength, for example, is definitely simply Clive’s assault stat mixed with an additional buff he’s getting from geared up gear. It’s smoke and mirrors that hides the truth that Clive’s energy development is pretty static from begin to end.
That thought is current in all of its methods they usually weaken a number of different elements of the sport because of this. For occasion, Clive can purchase, forge, and improve new weapons to extend his energy and protection all through the sport. There’s not likely a lot selection right here, although. There’s all the time one sword or belt that’s objectively higher than the whole lot else out there at that second. There’s no purpose to spend a lot gold or waste the glut of sources Clive earns all through the story. By the tip of the sport, I ended up with extra money and supplies than I may ever hope to spend. And guess what the reward for exploring fields or finishing these boring sidequests often are: gold and crafting sources.
Square Enix
So what purpose am I given to have interaction with many of the content material right here? With a continuing conflict chest of gold and a whole lot of fangs that I’ll by no means have a purpose to make use of, a lot of the sport finally ends up feeling like busy work. I did each sidequest out of the identical mind dependancy that has me checking off map actions in open-world video games I don’t even take pleasure in. Only 10 or so sidequests truly yield any reward price acquiring, like chocobo driving or elevated potion capability, so why hassle with the remainder simply to get extra dry worldbuilding that grinds the story’s momentum to a halt? It’s all air within the potato chip bag.
Large elements of Final Fantasy XVI really feel like they have been designed extra out of obligation than something. It’s as if the builders needed to make a pure character motion sport, however feared that it might be a drastic change that longtime followers couldn’t settle for. It all makes for a sport that without delay seems like a daring new future for the sequence and a dated step again that performs like 2010’s Nier minus the ahead-of-its-time storytelling that’s allowed it to stay on as a cult traditional.
Considering how lukewarm — hostile, even — gamers have been on a few of Square Enix’s authentic IP up to now yr, all of this has me working a sequence of “what if” situations by my head. If it didn’t have a beloved model hooked up, would the undertaking have practically the identical gravitas? Or wouldn’t it float by like The Diofield Chronicles earlier than it? I maintain making an attempt to image what the dialog could be proper now if this was revealed on a Sony State of Play with the title Eikonic Legacy as a substitute of Final Fantasy XVI. I may care much less about whether or not or not it is a “true” Final Fantasy sport; the one factor that’s constant in regards to the sequence is its shapeshifting nature, in any case. By that very same token, although, I can solely decide this way fully by itself phrases. And no matter its title and the legacy it holds, this installment is rife with structural points that I can’t wipe away with model identify nostalgia.
Square Enix
Despite these grievances, I do assume there’s a vibrant future for the sequence on this reworked format. The world of Valisthea is wealthy with intriguing mythology, the robust fight system makes up for a number of the customization misplaced within the weak RPG hooks, and virtually each Eikon battle right here might be a candidate for one of many high 10 finest online game bosses of all time. Just as Clive yearns to shut the e-book on his previous and begin anew, I hope Final Fantasy can do the identical and evolve right into a assured, targeted motion sport unburdened by any expectations hooked up to the sequence or its RPG label.
Let the Phoenix die, for it’ll all the time rise once more anew.
Final Fantasy XVI was reviewed on a PS5 hooked as much as a TCL 6-Series R635.
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