Final Fantasy 16 Review
“Devil May Clive” Written by: Hunter (ReaperHunter23)
My interest in the Final Fantasy series has been through ups and downs over the years. Before the remake of Final Fantasy 7 back in 2020, my interest in the series had been waning for quite some time. Then in the later part of 2020, Final Fantasy 16 was announced and I found myself feeling rather excited. The grandiose world and the seemingly improved action gameplay both served to make me believe that Final Fantasy 16 would be worth my attention. And now after a couple years and far too many trailers, Final Fantasy 16 has been released. So let’s take a look to see if my renewed excitement was warranted.
Image Credit: Square Enix
Final Fantasy 16 has the newest iteration of the more action centric gameplay that the series has been trending towards for the past several years. I found the combat to be enjoyable, if a little simplistic at the start. I think that it really clicks into something entertaining as more of the systems get layered into it.
Clive’s base moveset works well enough as a foundation. He gets a melee combo on the ground and in the air, a lunging stab maneuver, and a charged attack among other things. On the magic end of things you can do a ranged casting attack, either in quick succession, or as a charged spell. If you time the magic button to follow immediately after a physical strike it will do this cool magic burst attack before Clive moves onto the next hit in his combo.
What really opens the combat up into being a joy to partake in are the various Eikon abilities. You eventually get access to your choice of three ability sets and that is when the combat starts to truly become satisfying. Each Eikon has two slots for cooldown abilities. For example the Phoenix powers you start off with give you a fire spin maneuver as well as a launching attack. On top of the cooldown abilities each Eikon power also gets a skill that is more for utility. Such as a teleport, a dash, or a parry.
I had a lot of fun dabbling with each Eikon and seeing what the best use case for each of them was. Some of them were good for damage output, some of them would reliably stagger the larger enemies, and some were just generally useful. On top of this, a lot of the Eikon skills would reward you for being mindful of when you were using them. Granted, it was still viable to just spam all of your cooldown moves and do your basic attacks while you wait for them to recharge, but many skills would reward you for having a bit more precision. Whether it is stopping one move’s attack meter in a sweet spot for maximum damage, or perfectly timing a dodge skill so that it becomes a counter attack, there was an abundance of moves like this that I rather enjoyed making use of.
Another element that can feel pretty rewarding is being mindful of how the abilities combo into each other. For example having a move that sucks enemies towards you combos really nicely with the Phoenix’s Fire spin move. There’s a kind of totem move where you can set down a rod that will do damage every time it is hit. That one combos nicely with this little satellite turret that Clive can summon. If you do that combo on something that is staggered, it results in a nasty amount of what is essentially passive damage.
The big bombastic moments in Final Fantasy 16 usually come accompanied with a crazy Eikon battle. These turned out better than I thought they would. The first couple are kind of shoulder shrug inducing as far as how they play. But after that, they start layering on systems that mirror Clive’s standard moveset which makes them much more palatable. They manage to be crazy spectacles while not dragging on so long as to make you feel like you have to slog through controlling some kind of slowed down version of the standard gameplay.
Final Fantasy 16 has an abundance of side content to partake in. Each town that you visit tends to have quests that will end up calling you back to the area in question periodically throughout the game. I did every quest I came across and felt rewarded enough for doing them. The actual action in the side quest could get a little repetitive sometimes but they were always contextualized with enough cool story tidbits to make it worth it for me. Hunting rare creatures is a side activity that returns in Final Fantasy 16 as well. I liked how they are handled in this game. You can go to the hunt board at the hideaway to get clues for finding the marks, but it is also possible to just happen across them and it makes for a rather nice surprise when coming across a mark organically.
Image Credit: Square Enix
I thought the story of Final Fantasy 16 was fantastic. The game makes a lovely return to the realm of medieval fantasy. We follow the story of Clive Rosfield’s journey throughout the world of Valisthea. The story does a great job at making the plot immensely personal for Clive while also making the world itself feel expansive and rich with history.
One of the major standouts in the story of Final Fantasy 16 for me was its tone. It was rather fascinating to see some of the more outlandish aspects of the series be played completely straight by the story and characters. That’s not to say that there aren’t moments of levity, but a lot of it comes from more subtle character interactions than it does from scenes that are deliberately trying to be silly. I think the strength of this choice of tone is how much it makes the more human moments resonate. For as much as I love the wild and crazy set pieces present in the game, the moments that have stuck with me are the quieter moments of introspection from the characters.
The world of Valisthea is a great setting for the events of Final Fantasy 16. Its an expansive world with five major kingdoms that all feel unique to each other. The empire of Sanbreque’s culture feels different to the Dhalmekian Republic, which feels different than Rosaria and so on. On top of that the way the game handles the magic and summons in this game is fascinating. It admittedly isn’t anything that hasn’t been done before, but I do think that themes present are executed really well.
As previously mentioned, I feel like the story provided in the sidequests make them worth doing. There are various one off quests that do a great job at painting a more full picture of what life in Valisthea is like. In addition to the one off quests, each town you visit has their own ongoing subplot that you check in with every so often after progressing the main story. I found each of them to be really well done, and by the time I reached the end of a particular side plot, I ended up liking the characters they centered around way more than I was expecting to.
The characters in Final Fantasy 16 are superb. Clive is my favorite protagonist in the series. The game did such a great job at making me believe what he’s going through. The story very early on, establishes the events that changed Clive from the optimistic, yet burdened youth, to the disenchanted adult that we play as for most of the game. For every moment of confidence and triumph there are just as many moments of believable vulnerability. His dynamic with everyone else is fantastic as well. From Joshua and his father at the start of the game, to characters like Cid and Gav later on in the game.
The other characters present in the game are great as well. Jill and Torgal serve as great companions that accompany Clive throughout a majority of his journey. I enjoyed Jill’s story quite a bit. They manage to avoid the trap of simply making her a satellite character to Clive. She has her own goals and desires that expand beyond just being there for Clive and that was refreshing to see. This game’s Cid is the best Cid in the series. He’s got an infectious charisma about him. There’s a moment early on where an enemy has him on the ropes, and he’s still sitting there smirking as if it's all a part of his plan. His rapport with Clive, Jill and all of his subordinates is really solid as well.
Even down to the lesser characters like Harpoctrates, or Martha, or even some of the guys you meet in the prologue like Elwin, I thought they were all really well done. The fact that they managed to just keep introducing people and getting me to like them all throughout the game's run time was one of the most impressive things about the game’s writing to me.
Image Credit: Square Enix
Final Fantasy 16 is a visually stunning game. They put a lot into the Eikon battles as these crazy moments of spectacle for this game. I think it worked out rather well. The game does a good job at making the action in those confrontations grandiose in scale while still keeping everything really easy to follow. These fights were pretty brutal at times too. Eikons would have limbs ripped off or chunks torn out of them with great frequency.
The design of the world is excellent as well. All of the major cities look distinct from each other with equally unique areas surrounding them. The royal meadows surrounding the Empire’s capital city of Oriflamme look vibrant and stunning. Which is perfectly contrasted with Clive’s home region of Rosaria, where the capital is dilapidated and the lands surrounding it are blighted and grey.
The character designs in this game are stellar. They do a good job at giving the notable characters looks that are at home in the medieval fantasy setting, but have been tweaked just enough to make them look distinctly Final Fantasy. Clive’s red leather chest piece looks really good against the black of the rest of his outfit. Cid’s all leather outfit is perfectly suited to his swashbuckling persona. Dion’s predominantly white and regal design is a really cool visual foil to Clive’s. There were plenty of other character designs that were visually interesting as well.
All of the game’s grandiose moments were underscored by an impeccable soundtrack. Whether it's the epic and bombastic nature of Find The Flame, or the more relaxed and comforting feelings inspired by something like the hideaway theme, the music was always top notch. The rest of the game’s sound design is fantastic as well. I was noticing things I wouldn’t even be expecting to hear. Such as: Cid’s leather outfit squeaking here and there as he walks, or the aggravated chittering of the giant spiders when you engage them in combat.
The performances in this game are the best in the series so far. So many characters were backed up by stellar performances. Ralph Ineson portrays Cid’s smooth charisma perfectly. Logan Hanan believably portrays all the trauma and burden that Joshua experiences in the prologue. Christina Cole’s every inflection made me hate Anabella in all of the ways that I was supposed to. And of course Ben Starr as Clive plays every aspect of the character so well. There’s a world of contrast between how he sounds as teenage Clive and how he sounds as an adult Clive who’s essentially been going through the motions for thirteen years and it all comes off naturally.
Image Credit: Square Enix
Summary
If the things that you like about Final Fantasy are the same things that I like about Final Fantasy then Final Fantasy 16 is a must play. The action becomes more engaging the longer you play it. The world is layered and interesting. The wild and spectacular moments punctuate a great story. And at the core of all of that were characters that I couldn’t get enough of. All of these elements come together to make Final Fantasy 16 one of the best games I’ve played this year, and one of the best games in the series.