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Initial Release Date: June 22, 2023
Engine: Proprietary Engine, Unreal Engine 4
Platform: PlayStation 5
Mode: Single-player video game
Composer: Masayoshi Soken
Genres: Action Role-Playing, Fighting, Adventure
*SPOILERS WARNING*
After fully completing Final Fantasy 16’s demo I came away REALLY Impressed. It’s Great! Off the bat were the visuals and tone of the story. It’s like Game of Thrones back when Game of Thrones’s story piqued. Early on, I really dug it’s mature and dark tone.
As a guy who’s been completing Final Fantasy video games since the mid to late 1990’s I was surprised by Final Fantasy 16’s bleak and graphic tone early on. I loved it. The demo starts out in the year 873 when protagonist Clive Rosfield is in his twenties.
For 95% of the demo you play as Clive when he was in his teens (aged 15) during the year 860. Think of the FF16 demo as a showcase for the story’s history more than anything. It’s a flashback into Clive’s past world.
The graphics were impressive as hell. The lighting and texture work during the opening Titan and Shiva Eikon fight was “current gen” for sure. I played using the performance mode and quality mode. I did notice with my old eyes the quality mode did look quite a bit better visually than performance.
Performance mode ran at sixty frames but with a few framerate hiccups during battles which surprised me. It is a demo so who gives a shit. But yea, for the most part quality mode and performance did what they were designed to do. I can’t understate how impressive Final Fantasy 16 looks in either mode. You win either way.
Gameplay-wise Final Fantasy 16 felt better than Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth and Final Fantasy 15. Granted, I couldn’t parry for shit in the demo but everything else felt natural. Phoenix Shift, dodge, magic, healing, lock on and attacking are all very easy to grasp and felt good and looked stylish.
I unlocked a few abilities for Clive like Burning Strike which adds fire to Clive’s sword. Charged Shot adds a more powerful form of Clive’s basic fire magic attack. Lunge does a DMC Dante lunge like strike with Clive.
Swift Recovery keeps Clive on his feet when getting knocked back by larger enemies. You can also unlock Taunt. Which let’s you taunt enemies. I thought all of the abilities I unlocked were easy to grasp and implement into battle quickly. You can chain and juggle in Final Fantasy 16. Just sayin.
Enemies in Stillwater which was a marsh-like area consisted of Goblin Muggers, a Giga and a Boss Fight with a Morbol. Tutorials while fighting were explained in a way that’s easy to understand. Final Fantasy 16 to me has a cinematic action RPG style gameplay.
Final Fantasy 16 sure in the hell ain’t turned based strategy. Gameplay is similar to Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s just faster, prettier and more cinematic. I have to be clear. The demo doesn’t go deep into gameplay mechanics yet you can use deep gameplay mechanics if that makes sense.
You have some on foot combat and a Eikon action set-piece fight at the end of the demo. Active Time Lore or “ATL” is a simple menu idea of maybe five or six pieces of current pertinent information for the player to understand exactly what is going on at any given moment
Think of Active Time Lore as a “right now” snapshot of important dates, characters, locations or a particular current mission objective all on one menu screen that’s easy to see. Like why haven’t I seen this idea in role playing video games before?
As for the story, lore and characters it’s a blend of mature themes, dark, dramatic, despair and hope. I already read how gamers are throwing around games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story after playing this demo. I kinda have to agree. The tone is similar and the story elements early on do scream dark, mature, dramatic and depressing.
The only thing the demo really lacked was combat gameplay in my opinion. I wanted to fight more. Granted, I loved the action set-pieces, cutscenes, walking segments, NPCS etc. All of the latter fits 2023 AAA mega block buster molds. I believe Square Enix wanted us to play as a young Clive Rosfield for a reason.
The reason being it’s a tiny part of the combat gameplay overall. We’ll most likely be playing most of the game as the twenty and thirty year old Clive for 90% of the time. I bet my bottom dollar older Clive will be totally stacked with different combat mechanics. Basically, this demo was a tiny slice of combat which I’m cool with.
The music in the FF16 demo was amazing and quite possibly the best I heard in any Final Fantasy videogame. I haven’t had the pleasure to meet Mr Masayoshi Soken who is the composer for Final Fantasy 16. Let’s just say he killed it throughout the demo.
As for Clive Rosfield before playing the demo I thought he was a generic Final Fantasy protagonist. I stand corrected. The man has depth to his character. You can see and feel his pain, his wants, his desires throughout the demo as a young teen.
Clive Rossfield is all heart wrapped in stoicism, darkness, despair and pain. Clive is the type who will die fighting for what he believes in. I love Clive as a protagonist for Final Fantasy 16 already. Thanks demo!
The demo also did a great job early on showing the scale of war in Valisthea between the warring factions of the Iron Kingdom and Waloed which takes place when Clive is in his 20s. Soldiers as well Eikons battle in epic proportions for dominance of Valisthea’s Mothercrystals (my guess).
Final Fantasy 16’s demo isn’t perfect but it gave me more than I hoped for. I now have many of of my questions answered. The demo showcased a great presentation for Final Fantasy 16. It was great just needed more combat gameplay sequences. Thanks for visiting – Jason
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