Your enjoyment of Final Fantasy 16 will largely boil down to what the longstanding JRPG series means to you.
If Final Fantasy means turn-based battles, chibi character sprites and meticulously managing a party, you'll likely find yourself disappointed with Square Enix's latest. However, if Final Fantasy means embarking on an ambitious tale, engaging in thoughtful combat, and having a beautiful location in which to experience it all in, you'll be more than elated.
Because while previous Final Fantasy entries have arguably struggled to find an identity since the transition to HD, Final Fantasy 16 is an excellent realignment of where the franchise should be headed.
The first thing to mention is just how grand in scope Final Fantasy 16 actually is. Before the title card has even drops you’re thrown into a world full of intrigue, multiple warring factions, and several interpersonal family dynamics that continue to have ramifications throughout the entirety of this 30-hour action-adventure. It’s clear that Square Enix and the team at Creative Business Unit III have left nothing on the table with regards to ambition for this PS5 exclusive. To the extent that, at times, the journey of Clive Rosfield’s feels like bingeing a 25-episode season of a prestige fantasy TV show.
Final Fantasy 16 does all this while being refreshingly linear. You see, unlike the unbelievably empty and vapid open-world location of Final Fantasy 15 before it, Clive and the crew are encouraged to always press on in a way that allows the spectacle-fuelled action to flourish. Segments where you get to explore and venture off the beaten paths are reserved for hub-like areas, often packed with detail and side missions to undertake; it’s a far better alternative compared to the vast endlessness Noctis and his boyband companions were forced to traverse.
It helps that Valisthea earns a place as being one of the most thoughtful medieval locations ever to appear in a Final Fantasy game. Be it the stone ruins found at Phoenix Gate, or the marshes, stone mines and open fields you get to explore later on, never once did I question that this was a world suffering from the effects of an ongoing large-scale conflict. In almost every new area of Valisthea. Clive is met by inhabitants struggling to get by, environments ravaged by blight, and a subset of folk known as bearers being prejudiced against for their ability to use magic. I often found myself asking: is this even a world capable of being saved?
Of course, Clive’s primary way of trying to do so is via combat, and it’s in this area where long-time Devil May Cry fans will feel right at home. Former Capcom designer Ryota Suzuki’s involvement in Final Fantasy 16 has been well documented in the months leading up to launch, and I’m pleased to say that his influence can well and truly be felt in the moment-to-moment skirmishes. Whether against a basic underling enemy out in the world or the next sky-high titan, combat is deep, dazzling, but (crucially) uncomplex. Clive’s basic and combo-driven sword slashing does well to keep foes at bay, but at any time he can pepper them with ranged magic attacks and Eikon abilities to further help even the odds.
As this Final Fantasy’s version of summons, every equippable Eikon is assigned a different element that Clive can use to his advantage in battle. Beginning with the fire-based Phoenix Eikon, unleashing a flaming uppercut slice is as easy as holding down R2 and then selecting the skill via the assigned face button. All Eikon abilities are tied to a cooldown bar that varies depending on how powerful they are. Having to wait for these abilities to recharge grates in the early hours when you only have a limited number of Eikons available. However, once the narrative progresses enough that Clive can switch between three on the fly, the screen can descend into a jamboree of colourful devastation – all of your own making.
Without giving too much away, there are moments in Final Fantasy 16’s story where Clive is afforded the ability to, shall we say, transform into a much larger being. And while – much like the basic combat – attacks can be dealt out in real time, these titan fights work more like on-rails set pieces, designed to wow you with the on-screen spectacle and scale, rather than challenge your ability to overwhelm a boss. Fighting giant beasts as plain old human Clive is far more exciting by comparison, and constantly forced me to think about my timings, placement, and which Eikon abilities to dish out in a way that felt thrilling.
As someone who could never quite click with Devil May Cry or Bayonetta’s combo-driven bouts, Final Fantasy 16 somehow manages to take all the best parts of the fast-paced combat featured in those games and make it accessible without removing any of the depth. Eikon switching is far more satisfying and straightforward than Final Fantasy 7’s character switching and real-time pausing too, rewarding your creativity of how to act in between ability charges while keeping the tempo of the action high. I know that certain long-time fans still have mixed feelings about Final Fantasy making real-time combat the standard over turn-based, but this is a balanced approach.
I’m hesitant to dive too deeply into the story for fear of ruining any surprises. Just know going in that there are plenty of twists in store, some of which I was happy to see revealed early on, seeing as I called a few of them ahead of time. However, just as much as any Earth-shaking turn of the plot, what sticks with you throughout Final Fantasy 16 are the depiction of the characters themselves. Clive himself is a little bland to begin with, being on a simple quest for revenge, but by playing witness to a large portion of his life, the path he ends up on quickly becomes one of acceptance and self-discovery. Carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, it’s refreshing to see his personality subtly shift as his mission to save Valisthea does so alongside.
Special mention must go to the supporting cast too, though. Particularly Ralph Ineson’s Cid who – as well as playing an important mentor figure to Clive – imbues what otherwise could be an oh-so serious take on medieval fantasy with some very welcome gritty attitude. I would go so far as to say that his arc is almost as engaging as Clive's, if only for how it lends a further perspective to the lives of more regular folk that sit outside Clive’s regal beginnings. The likes of Clive’s brother Joshua, Jill, Benedikta and this entry’s version of Ultima all have the potential to be thought of as memorable all-timers as well, with Final Fantasy 16 taking appropriate time to flesh out its ensemble of heroes and villains.
Final Fantasy 16 brings a pleasingly polished and confident approach to the idea of what a Final Fantasy game should be in the modern era. Rather than double down on the open world issues present in Final Fantasy 15 in the effort to keep up with trends elsewhere, the story of Clive Rosfield is instead very much its own thing, offering avenues to explore and be inventive (primarily through combat) but never at the cost of telling a deep and engrossing story filled with characters I care about and grew to love greatly.
Whether this is your first or sixteenth Final Fantasy, this is an instalment primed to inspire and delight on several fronts.
