Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Developed by: Square Enix
Published by: Square Enix
Release Date: 22nd June 2023

Final Fantasy is one of the longest running series in gaming. Arguably it’s one of the best out there, with high expectations of each release. The cut-scenes and gameplay almost always hit hard. There appears to be no expense spared when it comes to story-telling and gameplay across the series as a whole. Onto the latest entry, Final Fantasy XVI makes a return with a medieval fantasy theme, throwing politics into the mix and an in-depth narrative.

Narrative

When first approaching Final Fantasy XVI, the narrative throws a lot at you at once. The land of Valisthea is teeming with lore and Square Enix holds no punches when throwing an awful lot of it your way as soon as you begin this campaign. Fortunately, during cut scenes, you can hold the touch bar in the middle of the PS5 controller, allowing you to open a menu with characters and references from the scene you’re in, and read up on the current lore. It’s a fantastic quality of life feature that I wish more narrative-rich games would include. It’s incredibly easy in this title to forget who certain characters are in the early hours, especially as many reign from different countries and towns from within. There’s a large political spectrum to keep up with, as well as personal relationships and history, it can be overwhelming at times.

It’s hard to talk too much about the narrative without spoiling much, as it feels like it kicks off into high gear immediately, and before you know it, it’s like you’re at the end of “Season 1” moving into the next part of the show, with fast-paced action and events taking place and moving the story forward. It’s incredibly compelling throughout, with characters manoeuvring the political landscape and world changing as the story progresses.

The overall lore of Valisthea and the twin continents it comprises of is that the countries are governed by Kings and Queens, with the typical arche-types you expect throughout a medieval landscape. There are holy Kingdoms, ones lead by arms, and others that are more neutral overall. Regular humans populate the continent, some born with the ability to wield magick and cast spells. These are named “Bearers” and considered second-class citizens throughout most of the continent, being treated like slaves and often a bit of a stain on society, despite them being useful when it comes to war and other laborious tasks. There are fewer who are endowed with the incredible ability to transform into what’s known as an Eikon. These utilise the traditional Final Fantasy “Summons”, but are highly regarded in their home nations, often being royalty or taking high positions in Government. They are known as “Dominants” and are naturally the strongest about. The region is overlooked by monolithic crystals known as Mother Crystals, which offer valuable crystals as resources for magic and are thought to bless the nearby area.

The main crux of the narrative follows our protagonist, Clive Rosfield, who is born into Royalty and is the elder son of the family, however is not considered for the throne, due to him not being chosen by the Phoenix Eikon. Instead, his younger brother Joshua is endowed with the blessing, leading Clive to be resented by his own Mother, who sees him as nothing more than a second-class Bearer. A dark blight begins to spread across the continent, starving the land it touches of life. Clive sets off on an adventure to destroy the Mother Crystals, knowing he’ll be cast as an outlaw for doing so, but with hopes to return the realm to its natural, life-giving state.

Overall the narrative delivers an enthralling story, with Clive being one of my all-time favourite protagonists, not just in Final Fantasy, but of all time. There’s a fantastic cast of characters that surround him and add layers to the narrative, driving motivation and emotional connections throughout, with just a tickle of that typical Final Fantasy humour that keeps things light hearted at times. Although one of my main issues with the game overall is that this is not a party-based JRPG, and therefore it’s a rather solo-adventure for Clive, but the consortium of companions he makes along the way does help alleviate this to a degree. As you approach each boss fight in the game, the narrative turns to eleven and tells a spellbinding story that keeps you captivated, despite some of my grievances with the gameplay.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Final Fantasy XVI takes a turn for the series, being the first mainline entry that focuses entirely on action combat, leaving any semblance of strategy behind. And this was a mistake. Final Fantasy VII Remake employed an innovative way of meshing action and turn-based tactics, in such a way that still felt like it had the root of Final Fantasy in its mechanics. It’s incredible that Square Enix neglected to evolve on this and carry it over to Final Fantast XVI, especially as Rebirth was in development at the same time and seemed to not only do what FFVII Remake did, but improve on it.

The combat in battle ranged from exciting and engaging in both large and smaller boss fights, to completely trivial and boring during regular encounters out in the field. It’s easy to juggle regular opponents with spells, rendering them almost completely unable to attack and making the battles feel almost pointless. Any time I was heading toward a main objective, I felt as though I didn’t really need to focus that much on field encounters, and I really didn’t want to bother with them. I just wanted to press on, because I knew I would be met with more compulsory trivial battles as I worked my way through the main quest at hand – and they’d always help me retain a good level to be on par with boss fights.

Stronger enemies have a stagger bar, that once depleted will stagger the enemies, and these were inconsistently interesting. Some were engaging and really heightened my senses, feeling like I was coming up against a real challenge, having to learn the moves, dodge in time and counter as required… others just felt like sponges. I would attack, attack, attack and the health would slowly deplete, but they didn’t do much to me either. What’s the point? I just wanted to get through these to get back to the good bits.

Most of the bosses however, were finely crafted and tuned from a development perspective, that they felt like the challenge you deserved for trudging your way through the mindless battles. There’s a key sense of satisfaction through defeating these, with some having multiple phases and creating a spectacle of a battle. Some you simply beat as Clive Rosfield, others you beat as he realises his potential and summons his own Eikon, Ifrit, as you clash with other Eikons in Kaiju inspired interactions, smashing your way through cinematic cutscenes, with occasional quick-time-events. At times they outstay their welcome, and begin to feel like they should have finished a couple of minutes earlier, but overall these are some of the best experiences the game has to offer.

Between the larger events of the game that were gripping and had me begging for more, I was getting whiplash from the comfort of my own sofa, where the game slowed to a halt immediately after. After an intense boss-fight and the game throwing everything at you, often the very next main quest in the game lands on something so mundane that it would be offensive to a “fetch quest” if I were to put it in the same category. I’d be thrown from pillar to post, speaking to different NPCs and setting off on quests to obtain mundane items for whatever big event was building in the story. Sure, it would often be roadblocked by combat, but that would also vary from the previously mentioned trivial battles, with some more formidable enemies peppered in. It got to the point where everything felt epic, on the grandest of scales, that I would dread the following forty minutes of gameplay, as I knew exactly where the loop would be taking me. From adrenaline and endorphins rushing through my body – to being bored to tears of the next quest afoot.

Fortunately, the highs of the gameplay far exceed the lows of it. I could easily push through the boring parts of this title because I knew the reward was worth it. Due to the volume of main quests that felt like sub-par side quests, I felt like I didn’t want to even touch the actual side quests in the game. They vary in quality but felt as though they padded the game out more in many cases. They are usually identified with a green exclamation mark (!), but side quests that actually improve your load-out, provide important new weapons, or increase inventory slots are marked with a green plus sign (+), which was incredibly appreciated. I didn’t have to carefully check each and every side quest at the fear of missing something important. I could just rush to those that actually vastly improved my loadout.

Final Fantasy XVI includes “open zone” areas rather than an open world, which are cropping up more in modern day video games, and I’m here for it. The areas are crafted to a fine niche and never feel bloated or too large. They’re accessibly explorable and feel much less daunting than an actual open world. FFXVI also employs a crafting system for weapons and various armours, which I frankly didn’t care for. It felt like unnecessary bloat, and I didn’t feel the need to check my inventory to see if I had everything I needed. Often, I’d approach the Blacksmith and see what I could create or improve. Otherwise I’d go to the shop and see what I could buy. Perhaps to its credit, I didn’t feel like I had to go out and waste time hunting down supplies for crafting, I usually had found what I needed at the time. But that begs the question – is it necessary? I have no doubt there were better items I could have crafted, if I felt like I wanted to put the time in, but I didn’t. If the main quests didn’t suffer from the metaphorical whiplash I previously mentioned, I’d feel more inclined to indulge in the crafting aspect. But I just didn’t care. Crafting mechanics are becoming too commonplace in games that don’t need them. Final Fantasy XVI would lose nothing if you removed these.

Visuals and Audio

Visually, Final Fantasy XVI is a masterpiece in parts. With beautiful landscapes throughout the continent and stunning cutscenes, it’s almost always pleasing to the eyes. Square Enix have a habit with Final when rendering some cutscenes on an almost humorous level when it is just a conversation set in the middle of a gameplay segment. Character faces don’t really have expressions, despite occasionally talking about upsetting or exciting topics. It can be jarring, and although these are few and far between, it’s always disappointing when the “main” cutscenes are often a visual spectacle.

There are some boss fights that have certain set pieces where a lot is going on visually, with lighting and possibly hundreds of models at once, where frames drop occasionally. It’s hardly noticeable and otherwise not a stain on the overall performance of the title. It never impacts gameplay in a meaningful way.

The score in Final Fantasy XVI is a nostalgic symphony of medieval themes that make you really feel at home in a Final Fantasy game. With epic choruses, the iconic “level up” sound being sung and instrumentals that add to the intense boss fights, the soundtrack is bound to give you goosebumps.

Controls

At first, the controls felt mildly awkward to use. The R1 bumper button was dodge, which felt unnatural and I kept failing dodges. Thankfully the game has multiple button layouts to choose from, and in a most recent update, you can freely map the buttons to wherever you find most comfortable. Most of the combat requires you to only use the same few buttons, and there are some combos that you can utilise for better damage output, but it’s nothing too complicated. Everything feels smooth and precise, and if you need to tinker with the layout, there’s no doubt you’ll find something that suits.

Does it respect your time?

Final Fantasy XVI is a big game, and one of those that constantly had me thinking about my certification for this game. To start with, there’s a lot of cutscenes. Sometimes a cutscene will end, you’ll walk a few steps and trigger a conversation. If you’re sitting down and strapping in for a few hours of gaming, you can be sure a lot of that time is going to be consumed by these. For the most part, they are important, epic and play a huge part of the story. Some feel unnecessarily padded, with extra conversational parts that felt unnecessary and add to the above-mentioned pacing issues the game has as a whole. On the flip-side, I appreciated that cutscenes can be paused at any time. If you do accidentally find yourself in a long sequence of events, it’s easy to just pause and throw your PlayStation 5 into sleep mode. Of course – you also run the risk of a power-outage losing you a good ten or twenty minutes of gaming time on this basis.

The narrative itself can be confusing at times, especially early on, as I mentioned in the early part of this review. It feels like there’s so many characters, lore, locations and relationships all thrown together early on, and it can be extremely overwhelming. The game fortunately allows you to check the lore through the cut-scene pause menu, which is an incredibly under-rated feature. There’s also a character aptly named Harpocrates Loresman, who can provide you with an in-depth entry on almost any lore surrounding the world of FFXVI. It’s great that he’s there, but no one really wants to spend their hard earned gaming time reading entries just to get a good grip on the story and what’s going on. I can’t help but feel Square Enix overall could’ve made the lore and the narrative a touch easier to follow.

With the complex narrative in mind, I can’t imagine putting the game down for an extended period of time. I think a couple of weeks away from FFXVI would lead to me picking the title back up, being confused with who’s doing what – and why’s this country now on the naughty list? Believe me – it felt like a new country was popping up here, there and everywhere when I was playing.

Summary

It may sound as though I’ve been harsh on the gameplay and narrative overall. There are faults, and the sluggish slumps are dreadfully boring. The rest of the game carries the weight of this on its shoulders, through its compelling narrative and the parts of the gameplay that are genuinely incredible. If you’re looking for a traditional Final Fantasy in the gameplay sense, don’t come looking here. You will be disappointed. If you like action RPGs, or want to see how Square Enix can shake up the formula of Final Fantasy, I implore you to play this title. Although I have my complaints about it, I don’t regret much of time with this game at all. After I finished, I felt the void of not having it in my life. It’s not a perfect Final Fantasy title, but a compelling game nonetheless.

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