Final Fantasy 16 | Review

Initial Release Date: June 22, 2023

Platform: PlayStation 5

Engine: Proprietary Engine, Unreal Engine 4

Composer: Masayoshi Soken

Developers: Creative Business Unit III, SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD.

Genres: Action Role-Playing Adventure

Mode: Single-Player

SPOILERS THROUGHOUT!!

Introduction

I admit I was a little late to the Final Fantasy party starting with Final Fantasy 7 back in 1997. Since then, I have played through to credits every mainline single player Final Fantasy game except for Final Fantasy XII.

Over the years I have learned to except for better or worse development studios choices in regards to changing or scrapping major core gameplay mechanics in their games. Final Fantasy 16 doesn’t have turn based combat or interchangeable party members at your command.

In comes ex Devil May Cry director Ryota Suzuki with a focus on “Stylish” combat action gameplay mechanics similar to Devil May Cry. Now I get it, I really do. Change can be difficult when it comes to videogames. Then there are times when change can be, is good.

Final Fantasy 16 is the latter. I’m not saying make Final Fantasy 17 action oriented with one controllable character. I hope the next Final Fantasy is turned based with controllable party members. History repeats itself and all of that.

What I am trying to type is, sometimes you just have to go with the flow when it comes to game developer’s choices. Okay, enough of this shit. Let’s get into my review for Final Fantasy 16 and why it’s the best single player Final Fantasy 16 I’ve played in years.

Presentation

Final Fantasy 16’s presentation is overall great but with a mixed-bag if that makes sense. Let’s start with it’s negatives. What the hell is up with the performance mode? It ran like shit. It was cluttered with stutters, floaty frames and a blocky static “feel”.

Performance Mode didn’t hit a smooth sixty frames ever with the minimal time I spent with it. I tried the latest patch in performance mode. It didn’t improve much from what I could see. The Latest patch did add more controller types, a chromatic slider and a few other quality of life options like more action camera follow options.

I highly recommend playing Final Fantasy 16 in quality mode. I tried playing in performance but just couldn’t stomach it. It was that shitty. Quality Mode was pretty much locked at thirty frames per second and in this case was the best experience for playing Final Fantasy 16.

Final Fantasy 16 is a Playstation 5 exclusive. Why doesn’t it run at a smooth sixty frames is beyond me. Bugs and glitches were very few and far between and mostly involved the camera while fighting groups of enemies getting backed into corners getting stuck in wood boxes.

The latter are the negatives and yes they are important negatives especially in regards to it’s performance mode concerns. With that said let’s get into the masterclass brilliance of Final Fantasy 16’s presentation which I will will delve deeper into below.

The story of Clive Rosfield was stuff of great dark fantasy novels. I don’t read fantasy novels but I’ve watched all of the Game of Thrones, Lord of The Ring and Hobbit movies. Final Fantasy 16 to me had the best story that was understandable and impactful from start to finish.

I’ll go as far to say it had the best story of any Final Fantasy game I have played. Take Final Fantasy 7, it’s story was odd to me no matter how many times I played through it. Final Fantasy 16 from beginning to end I understood everything from character arcs, to plots and it’s ending.

Action set-piece gameplay sequences while battling Dominants (Eikons such as Ifrit etc) were the best so far in 2023. Music and voice acting were superb. Gameplay albeit wasn’t super difficult on action mode was very Devil My Cry-ish and fun.

I heard NG+ is where the real challenge starts. The green side quest exclamation markers in the final quarter of the campaign got annoying as hell to look at. They were everywhere. It was clear Final Fantasy 16 wanted to be different. It’s the most cinematic game I played in 2023 up to June.

I love Final Fantasy 16 but also respect the guys and gals who don’t jive with it’s different approach. Below I’ll dig deeper into Final Fantasy 16’s story, gameplay, visuals, sound design and give some tips and tricks before my final verdict. So keep reading chumes!

Story

At it’s essence and most simplistic means Final Fantasy 16’s story is about a God named Ultima who’s lonely. This same God created humanity including main protagonist Clive Rosfield. Like him or not Clive’s tale of tragedy and hardship was told better than any other Final Fantasy protagonist in my opinion.

Before I dig deep into Clive let’s go over some story themes in Final Fantasy 16. The game’s story starts out with Clive and Cidolfus “Cid” Telamon (first leader of Hideaway) helping “bearers”. Bearers were born with latent magic powers who are treated like slaves in Final fantasy 16’s world called Valisthea.

To free the slaves you basically have to destroy these giant Mothercrystals throughout the lands that are all important to people who aren’t bearers situated in royal capitals. As Clive destroys Mothercrystals he confronts Dominant Eikons. And defeats them.

Dominants are chosen humans who been blessed by the Gods to wield powerful God-like beings such as Titan, Ramah, Ifrit, Phoenix etc. Throughout Clive’s adventures Ultima is secretly hoping Clive destroys and absorbs all Eikons to fullfill his masterplan for the Origin and Nexus.

Another theme of Final Fantasy 16 is about letting people help you and not being alone. In the prologue Clive loses his younger brother Joshua who’s the dominant of Phoenix. Thirteen years later Joshua returns to Clive to defeat Ultima. Clive’s story takes place over twenty something odd years.

During this time you witness Clive lose his father Elwin. His mother who’s a racist bitch named Anabella. His dear mentor and friend Cid. People say the story is Game of Thrones’s-ish. I think the story was just well written high fantasy.

Ultima’s plan was to create a blight that would kill all humans (his creations) off and start anew using Origin at the Nexus. The God manipulated Odin’s dominant Eikon King Barnabas Tharmr who Clive eventually slays. As much as I hated Ultima I really respected his “behind the scenes” manipulation and destruction of Valisthea.

Another thing I couldn’t believe about Final Fantasy 16 was how great every character is in terms of story and how they were all written. I haven’t played a game like this where I cared about every single character. Even the bad guys were well written and relatable.

Take Beneditka who’s a Dominant. She get’s killed early on. Benedikta has a backstory with Cid and only wanted to be truly loved. She was often called a whore by Anabella. Hugo Kupka who’s the Dominant of Titan lived and died for Beneditka’s love.

You see? Characters are all connected and well written. Even lovable useful Torgal Clive’s rare frost wolf. We find out he’s actually Jill’s protector Fenrir. Jill and Torgal were close even as kids in the prologue sequence.

Jill is Shiva’s Dominant Eikon and connected to Fenrir the ice wolf. I could go on and on with dozens and dozens of great characters and their connections in Final Fantasy 16. To make a longer story short with the help of his friends Clive defeats Ultima and makes a deal with the Nexus. That deal will probably be shown in future DLC.

Gameplay

Final Fantasy 16’s gameplay is predicated on role-playing via Dominant Eikons of Ifrit, Shiva, Titan, Garuda, Phoenix and Bahamut. Each Eikon has a separate skill tree with separate abilities attached. I played using all Eikons and they are very different and useful in combat. Some Eikons feature special attacks that do mass destruction. Elements are all different.

Some Eikons feature gauges that fill up to unleash powerful attacks like Odin’s Arm of Darkness. Each Eikon has different dodge types. For instance Garuda does a grab attack and Phoenix does a phase shift-like dodge. Shiva’s leaves a trail of ice when you dodge freezing the enemy.

You can collect various swords and gear. You upgrade your weapon and armor via the Hideaway’s Blackthorne who has his own gear recipe quests. As for the feel of combat it features a parry, counter and dodge mechanics system.

There are regular Clive abilities he can unlock that aren’t Eikon specific like a Dante Devil May Cry sword lunge and jump stomp sword attack. Point is, no two people will play Final Fantasy 16 the exact same. It is a role playing game just like 1997’s Final Fantasy 7 is in my opinion.

The difference compared to the older FF games is the lack of turn-based and party swapping gameplay which is big for some fans. I get it. I really do. I just understand it’s easier to go with the flow of gaming developers instead of leaving the hobby because of a choice they made to a gaming franchise.

With that said, I love Final Fantasy 16’s core gameplay mechanics. Then again, I love the stylish action gameplay of Devil May Cry. Clive can perform Limit Break special attacks when you press both R3 and L3 at the same time.

Limit Break was easy mode for parrying enemies. You gain EXP from completing main quests, specific side quests, special hunts and slaying monsters. Said EXP points go into leveling up Clives Eikon powers. You can equip three separate Eikon powers each having three separate attack types which two you can choose from.

You can also mix and match. Say You want Titan’s Wind-Up attack but with Ramah’s Judgement Bolt. You can do that. So to the gamers saying Final Fantasy 16 isn’t a REAL RPG stop lying. One of Final Fantasy 16’s most impressive gameplay attributes comes in the form of it’s Eikon battles.

I was like “sure sure whatever” watching the pre-release media of Final Fantasy 16 in regards to Eikon battles. But yea, Final Fantasy 16 has the best boss fight action set-piece gameplay sequences in 2023 hands down so far. Eikon sequences were choreographed so well and kept improving upon the past one culminating in Ultima’s final Battle.

The best boss fight action set-piece gameplay sequences go to Final Fantasy 16 this generation so far. They were simply stunning and improved as the game went on. As for gameplay feel it’s fast and stylish similar to Devil May Cry.

You dodge, slash and parry. Using accessories (not the one’s that play the game for you) are good assets. Accessories can help improve potions, Eikon special abilities, defense, attack power etc. Like I said I loved the gameplay but it’s very different to past turn based games. You been warned.

Let me get this out the way. Final Fantasy 16 isn’t open world but features separate connected open maps littered with various monsters and side quests. Some areas are linear like Lost Wing and Martha’s Rest which act as villages with merchants etc. The castles are dungeon areas that feature the mothercrystal quests.

Graphics/Visuals

I loved the mature tone and art direction of Final Fantasy 16. Every character in every cutscene conveyed a dark mature tone. Hey I am a generation x gamer. It’s blasphemy to admit this but I was close to tearing up during the Clive holding Joshua remembering his little brother the day he was born as he died.

Point is, the art and visuals conveyed emotion. My playthrough consisted of 90% Quality Mode and the rest Performance Mode. Quality mode had amazing texture and lighting and ran at a stable thirty frames per second. Monster designs were really good with a darker tone.

Even the Chocobos had a mature distinct look. Environments were really well made especially the Mothercrystal dungeons. Not shitting on past Final Fantasy games art direction as it’s all subjective. But I really loved Final Fantasy 16’s visual presentation.

Sound/Music

Composer Masayoshi Soken did a bang up job bringing The Eikon battles, boss fights and cutscenes to life through with his orchestra’s performance. All Final Fantasies have great music tied to them one way or another and Final Fantasy 16 is no different. I really dug the high fantasy music during certain emotional cutscenes and Eikon fights.

Tips and Tricks

Do the Side Quest (forgot it’s name) to get the Berserker Ring early in the campaign. It let’s you do powerful counter attacks. Always visit Blackthorne first after completing a dungeon to craft a more powerful sword than the one sold at Charon’s Toll.

In order to increase inventory for potions and to increase their potency do green side quest exclamation points first. As you progress, more will pop up increasing your inventory and potion strength. Upgrade gear by collecting materials by slaying monsters.

Final Verdict

Final Fantasy 16 isn’t perfect but it’s my favorite video game so far this year even beating The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Resident Evil 4 Remake. Creative Business Unit III and SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. accomplished something I haven’t seen in a video game in a very long time.

A dark mature high fantasy story with characters I care about from all spectrums. I get all of the changes and people not liking the direction. That’s fine. That’s called an opinion. An opinion like how I think Final fantasy 16 is a top game of the year contender half way through 2023. Thank you for visiting JVGS. Later – Jason