A New Eikon Approaches | Final Fantasy 16 Reviews

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Final Fantasy XVI

Published by: Square Enix | Developed by: Creative Business Unit 3

Platforms: PlayStation 5 & PC

*Code provided by publisher

I have a confession to make. Of the 15 previous mainline Final Fantasy games I have played like 5 of them. And worse yet, of those 5 I only liked 2 of them. So when I tell you that Final Fantasy 16 is an epic, bombastic, high fantasy indulging, and satisfyingly snappy action game that extends far beyond anything you’d expect to see from the series, you know I mean it. Once again, the Japanese staple has reinvented itself, this time in the form of “long-winded dragons may cry”. A character driven action-rpg that lacks much of the traditional RPG elements of previous entries, opting once again out of turn-based combat in favor a exhilarating combos full of explosive special moves. Flying in the face of its past, Final Fantasy turned me into a fan with excellent storytelling, incredible voice acting, fun combat and some of the most insanely entertaining boss fights to date.

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At its core, this game wants so desperately to make you enjoy its combat they basically just made a Final Fantasy version of Devil May Cry. A linear action game that is surprisingly robust and perhaps more surprisingly shines above anything else here. Enemies come at you from all sides, forcing you to rely on mobility and timing to find the perfect flow for your combo. Unfortunately, an overload of semi-open world design, boring traversal and a truly unhinged amount of cut scenes makes an otherwise cracking story feel sluggish. Don’t get me wrong, there are some absolutely great side quests in this game. Many of which are fetch quests, but a few indicated by a plus mark, are well worth the time and give out much needed rewards. That being said, when you put in full on “down-time” segments it really feels like padding to reach the run time so to speak. When the story does hit, the themes and explosive set pieces work wonders. You can really feel this growing conflict of a world beset by GODS, who have been ruining their own world with magic crystals and abusing those very Eikons chosen vessels for power, greed and brutality. As more and more war distresses the countries you feel the toll this ever-escalating conflict takes on the normal people just trying to make do. “The Legacy of the crystals has shaped our history for long enough”, a recurring phrase the emphasizes a somewhat muddy environmental message that doubles as a verse on freewill.

From his gentle beginnings of a lavish albeit slightly oppressed life, Clive Rosefield sees the Eikons as a gift for man-kind, his brother the Dominant of fire in the form of the Pheonix, here to help his countrymen through any strife. The rollercoaster this man goes on is insane, starting as a revenge driven man, out only to avenge his loved ones death, bleakly falling against a backdrop of political strife and savage slavery. All magic users, or bearers are subject to be abuses, used and sold to highest bidder. A subject that I feel the team over at Creative Business Unit III were not prepared to tackle. No new ground is broken and at points they even seem to struggle to just say, “Slavery bad.” While the social commentary is lacking here, the political intrigue will pull you in as, double crossing royalty and ensnared love triangles form straight from the notes of Game of Thrones. Which is when the story is at it’s best, dropping the weird slavery conversation in favor of more broadly evil things, like the big crystals causing some kind of blight to set in that is killing and corrupting everything in it’s wake. This is where the story shines best and where my favorite improvement to this series comes into play. You see, usually Final Fantasy voice acting sounds like robot approximations of speaking. But, Final Fantasy 16 is the first game in the series that didn’t give me secondhand cringe just listening to it. While the story plays close to the nonsensical writing of Kingdom Hearts, the actors sell every beat of it, from the rag-tag team out laws such as Cid and Jill to the overly dramatic villains like Barbarous. Everyone gives 100% and it’s refreshing to not be filled with anime grunts ever 10 seconds.

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Visually, I think Final Fantasy XVI is a stunning tapestry of gorgeous vistas, stunning sets and excellent character design, that really props up the whole medieval times aesthetic they were going for. From pristine water fronts, to scorching deserts right down to its beautiful jungle foliage, every environment feels like a fully realized and lived in space. Towns dot the semi-open areas full of NPCs just living their lives. But between them is a vast uninspired landscape that does little to dredge up any semblance of originality or interesting locals. When everything comes together the UI, art direction and orchestration make scenes exhilarating and pulse pounding. Unfortunately, there are plenty of times when bad camera control, poor target acquisition and sometimes tedious dealing with enemies break up the flow of the otherwise excellent gameplay. And speaking of breaking up the flow, if 50% of your game is walking around or riding chocobos, you should probably make it one of the most fun things in the game because nothing killed the pacing of story more than the tediously slow speed at which Clive and friends run. Just Saying.

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I’d say the most baffling thing about Final Fantasy 16 IS that it’s such a great action game, complete with ultimate moves and combos. Where is the RPG in this supposed role-playing game? I mean, the tropes of its past are here. I spent countless hours unintentionally picking up hundreds of different crafting materials, none of which I know what they did because I literally didn’t craft anything other than the unique swords found at the start of each chapter. These swords are the only obvious choice for combat. Not that there is even any variety to the tools of the fight because one sword is all you’ll ever get. Your party also means little, you have no agency in their growth or how much or little they help in combat.

Clive shows the one strength of this RPG-lite experience in the form of Eikon powers. As Clive defeats other dominants throughout his campaign his unique ability allows him to siphon off a portion of their power. Granting him limited access to their incredible abilities. Fearsome lightning called down to fry enemies, chilling ice blast creating frostnovas and even a full-on dragon blasted laser beam. These skills are fun and certainly put on an excellent show as they are leveled up, but it feels exceedingly limiting that each acquired eikon power only grants you two unique moves and not a whole new range of things to style on your opponents with. Very little about the games’ design screams to be experimented with and even less gives you cause to seek them out. I did love creating unique trios of God-tier powers, like my favorites Pheonix to bahamut to Shiva. Granting me a combo worthy of the fire and ice branding this game was clearly leaning towards. You can even slightly augment the effectiveness of your loadout by equipping different types of accessories as you have in past Final Fantasy games. These will usually offer buffs to power, or reductions to cooldowns. I can’t help feeling that even with this system feeling engaging and overall fun, there is a missed opportunity to make deeply customizable combat flow that would have made replaying the game more worthwhile. Everyone’s experience will result in more or less the exact same weapons and tools being accessed and there isn’t even really very much variety in their use.

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Now I’m going to do a sick flip and full on gush about how important it is to have the quieter more normal moments in this game despite complainging about it at the top. It’s my review. I do what I want. Clive and his merry gang of outlaws find themselves constantly in state of desperation, taking literaly titans and Gods in a ploy to make a better world for tomorrow. Perhaps these collasal stakes are why the very human down time missions of like checking on your friends or helping someone move in are so important. These lighter, more mundane moments remind Clive of what it is he is fighting for. Freedom and a better tomorrow for everyone not just the Royal elite. Sure they slow the story down but that’s the point and I have to give credit to the team for even bothering to take a moment and breath in a game this epic. Because going from hair raising, goose bump inducing awe-inspiring scenes of Godly visages clashing above pristine locals to Clive and friends gathering wood for a local carpenter or something is such a brief reprieve that it really sells the whole world as just a place that doesn’t stop when the fighting does. I didn’t find these main story down time missions boring, but more so charming even when it meant I wasn’t getting to fight like 6 spiders.

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From its epic opening moments Final Fantasy XVI transcends the branding to become something new, something exciting. When that soundtrack hits it send you reeling into this fantasy epic full of Gods and monsters struggling for power, for freedom and for a world all their own. Sure, the story takes a bit of left field turn towards the end but it’s goofy, suitably bombastic and told with an experts touch in most cases. I loved my 60+ hours with this game and despite its flaws it has quickly become one of my favorite in the storied franchise. I give Final Fantasy XVI a 8. When I remember this game at the end of the year, I’ll look back fondly on Clive and friends galivanting for a better world and our struggle to kill the very powers that bind it.

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