Final Fantasy 16 is the most strayed from its traditional RPG roots of any mainline series to date. It’s an action game with added RPG elements rather than an RPG with action combat, but at the same time boasts all the elements associated with great Final Fantasy titles. The character-driven story is epic and engaging, the fantastical world-building is amazing, and it deserves some glorious battles. Again, it’s a bold new direction for the beloved series, but it’s also the best mainline single-player Final Fantasy game since 12. And there are things that fall short of that.
Granted, the incredibly divisive 13 and 15 didn’t exactly set the bar high, but 16 feels like Final Fantasy has been brought back into focus. It’s a project with a clear vision, and that’s reflected in the impressive cinematic quality of the storytelling and a very good combat system. When the credits rolled, we felt like we had been on a memorable emotional journey and were sad to see it come to an end. That’s how I feel when I complete a Final Fantasy game.
On this extraordinary journey, you find yourself in the tragic position of Clive Rosfield, a noble-born swordsman tasked with guarding his throne-bound brother. In this world, a select few, including Clive’s brother Joshua, are born with inherent demigod powers within them. Some countries use these “Akon” for war, others worship them. These all-powerful beings are central to the game’s story, and it’s hard not to be overwhelmed whenever Eikon appears on stage, whether in eye-popping cutscenes or heart-melting boss battles. not available.
The story of Final Fantasy 16 is a lot of down-to-earth political intrigue (all very reminiscent of Final Fantasy 12) and crazy Akon-based chaos with magic, crystals, and superhuman feats. It’s an intricate mix that doesn’t feel out of place in Final Fantasy 12. dragon ball z. Somehow, the plot of this game manages to blend all of this without causing a tonal whiplash. That’s probably because most of it is perfectly scripted. In fact, the localization team deserves a lot of credit here. Because they’ve taken a Japanese script and transformed it into something that feels completely natural and finished with great voice acting.
When fans get screwed, and it happens many times, Final Fantasy 16 tells a truly compelling story. It has some of the most emotionally charged plots in modern games, and is further enhanced by cinematic action sequences that make God of War 3 blush.I’ve never seen a sight like this before length As time goes on, as the story develops, it only becomes more and more obsessed with putting itself a step ahead in terms of “is this actually happening?” scale.
Now, given its penchant for lengthy cutscenes, you might be sitting there worried that Final Fantasy 16 is more of a movie than a game. If you’ve ever dabbled in a demo featuring the title’s cutscene-heavy prologue, that’s quite a concern, but thankfully, combat and exploration are just as prevalent as the big story moments. There’s no question that this is first and foremost a cinematic experience, which is exactly what Square Enix wants you to see in its trailers and select presentations. Still, most of your playthrough will be spent slaying beasts and wandering the vast environments.
Structurally, the game alternates between “dungeons” with a very linear storyline and whole chapters where you can freely roam open areas to progress through side quests and get to know secondary characters. increase. The pace of Final Fantasy 16’s plot is so intense that it’s nice to have some downtime once in a while. So we finally found ourselves welcoming the opportunity to get out and do what we love for a little while.
I say “eventually” though, because some of the side quests (especially the early ones) are dauntingly boring. The overall drop in quality between the main story and these optional tasks can be jarring. Because charming camera angles and full motion capture are replaced by static character models and flapping mouths, spewing out the kind of completely forgettable quests you’d find in an MMO. (This makes some sense, given that the game is led by a Final Fantasy 14 developer).
The problem is, it’s long gone that modern RPGs have to chew through such brooding side quests. At a time when titles like The Witcher 3 and Horizon: The Forbidden West redefined what to expect in branching activities, Final Fantasy 16 is no different than the PS2 release in terms of quests. maybe.some quests do It helps flesh out the world and provides insight into the finer points of the lore, but the accompanying gameplay literally finds NPCs with marked goals to listen to their insane chit-chat one after another. Summarized in tilting, you can’t help but feel: Your time is wasted.
Luckily, we can forgive the title’s (obviously optional) missteps when the next story beat kicks in and we’re back on the roller coaster. The aforementioned “Dungeon” represents the pinnacle of the game’s core, with Clive running through a series of stunning locations interspersed with near-perfectly placed encounters and surprising boss fights.
Alongside the story, it’s the combat system that holds it all together. Familiar and flashy, but also with interesting depth, Final Fantasy 16 is a bit like a streamlined Devil May Cry. Input is relatively simple Devil’s Learn more as you gradually start experimenting with more advanced techniques such as parrying and attack canceling. On a basic level, it feels great to play with responsive controls, smooth animations, and satisfying sound design.
The more important battles, those against enemies that can’t be launched into the air and driven into oblivion with combos, revolve around dodging incoming attacks and retaliation at the right time. Except for a handful of specific battles, largely With too much graphics, the visual cues, the way enemies finish their attacks and unleash special moves, are very well designed. This leads to a difficulty curve that is often incredibly rewarding, and over the course of lengthy battles you learn to pinpoint your opponent’s abilities and how to make the most of them.
Combined with Clive’s standard sword swing and magical projectiles, you’ll definitely have access to various Eikon-driven elemental abilities that operate on individual cooldowns. After unlocking the above abilities with points earned in battle, you can assign them to your combat bar and start building your own playstyle. Some abilities are earth-shakingly powerful, balanced by long cooldowns, while others are much more versatile, adding their own quirks to how you approach different types of enemies. . Again, the system itself is easy to understand, but discovering how to link everything together is where the mechanics start to sing.
Coming back to difficulty levels, in Final Fantasy 16 there is only one difficulty level that can be made easier by equipping a special accessory granted at the start of a new game. It’s a weird method, but we think it works in that you don’t have to rebalance the entire combat system for any given setting. However, experienced players of action games probably You will crave greater challenges. That’s where the advertised “Final Fantasy” hard mode comes into the equation.
Final Fantasy mode also lets you unlock level caps while making enemies stronger, remixing different encounters, and adding new items and equipment. catch? After beating the game, it will only be playable through New Game+. Final Fantasy mode is designed to add replay value to the package. This is why we join Clive’s journey once again and push the combat system to its limits.but it is teeth Having the harder difficulty concept anchored behind a full playthrough is a bit of a kicker. The playthrough already he could last more than 70 hours if you want to complete everything.
That’s a pretty minor gripe, though. Despite its unwavering focus on story and combat (which eschews series tradition and has no minigames at all), Final Fantasy 16 feels robust and accomplished as his package of action games. From hunting Clive to track down and slay particularly dangerous monsters, to the ability to replay your favorite dungeons, including boss fights, through a dedicated arcade mode, this title fully incorporates a lovingly crafted combat system. .
The PS5 has been received in a similar fashion, with ridiculously fast load times (in fact, it takes less than 10 seconds to transition from the console’s home screen to gameplay) and the magic of haptic feedback, making the overall very well implemented in
But is it a technical showcase for Sony’s system? Its cutscenes certainly match, and sometimes exceed, the standards set by PlayStation Studios, but they don’t. very Overall, it’s on the level of a first-party blockbuster. Generally speaking, the visuals are quite impressive, aided by great art direction and environmental design, but as I wrote earlier, things can look grainy outside of the main story, with distracting wooden animations. is the biggest problem.
And there is also the frame rate, which drops quite regularly when using performance mode. The dips aren’t enough to bother you enough to recommend graphics options. Instead, the graphics option is capped at 30 frames per second. a bit Visual quality has improved, but it’s a real shame that an action game this sophisticated can’t maintain a smooth 60fps. It’s also worth noting that, at least at launch, there’s no option to disable the title’s aggressive motion blur effect. That said, I dare say you’ll get used to it.
Of course, no Final Fantasy review would be complete without mentioning the music. Simply put, the score is outstanding. An absolute journey of orchestral magic that enriches every cutscene, every location, every battle. In short, huge.
