This review contains spoilers
Final Fantasy XVI is an ambitious and bombastic title, taking players on a large-scale, cinematic adventure with a rich combat system and engaging story premise while pushing the series tone and scope to levels to a level not before seen in the series. In a world of political intrigue and powerful magic, Clive Rosfield, the shield of the heir to the throne of Rosaria, seeks revenge on a dominant for the tragedy that changed the course of his life forever. What follows this story outline is a spectacle-focused action title that attempts to balance a slick and fast-paced combat system with a large divided series of open world areas, whether that be for better or for worse.
To briefly explain the core gameplay in Final Fantasy XVI, Clive, the game's protagonist can wield a growing assortment of magical abilities taken from powerful Eikons, god-like monsters who certain people in the world (known as dominants) can call upon in battle. Some of the dominants in the game are Clive's allies and others are his nation's political enemies, but one thing that's consistent with all of them is their affinity for elemental magic. Through either being given abilities or outright taking them throughout the story, Clive is able to combine his seasoned sword fighting skills with these powers to unleash devastating and long-winded combos, with the player's understanding of how to properly blend close-range and long-distance attacks being essential to survival in the game.
The game's combat system was designed by Ryota Suzuki, a veteran action-game developer known for his work on the combat systems in later titles of the Devil May Cry series, some of the most richly crafted and deepest fast-paced action games ever made, and he brings his experience to this title through the quick and efficient means you can swap through three pre-selected rows of special abilities, as well as basic permanent combo strings you can achieve with your sword and basic magic alone. These rows can be changed between combat and can each hold three special attacks, one of which for whatever base Eikon you designate the row to and two you can freely choose between from either that Eikon's abilities or any other you "mastered", which you can do by spending experience points earned through defeating enemies. This customisable approach to the way you fight allows for solid player expression and good cause to experiment with all the powers you're provided with throughout the story.
On the topic of story, this instalment in the Final Fantasy series takes a much darker route than the usually somewhat whimsical tone of previous entries, closer resembling a season of Game of Thrones with its focus on international conflict, gritty violence and slow-burn character exploration. There's a lot of depth given to the world building and motivations of each nation as the player is placed right into the heart of a large political chessboard where many leaders and influential figures all have their motives in mind and the story is constantly shifting with the balance of power because of that, making for an incredibly enthralling series of events on top of an already strong starting central revenge plotline. With all the nations and characters quickly thrown in the player's face, it's easy to get overwhelmed and it seems the developers at Square Enix knew this because during any point in gameplay, you can pause to view the "Active Time Lore" menu, an encyclopaedia of characters, locations and terminology used throughout the game to refresh yourself or fasten your understanding of the goings-on around you. The more you progress in the game, the more options emerge in this menu with any major story event specifically bringing up a menu when paused highlighting only the relevant items, making for a very quick and easy means of staying up to date on the story.
The Active Time Lore menu is just one of the many ways the game achieves accessibility for a wider player-base, as the player also has the option to select a variety of objects seamlessly incorporated into the game that each streamline a certain aspect, such as combat and healing, for players that find themselves overwhelmed by the scope of the game's intricate combat. There is also no punishment for using these abilities nor any requirement for commitment, as you can easily switch back and forth between them at any time, something I applaud the game developers for even if I personally didn't use it. As games grow in size, budget and scale, accessibility for more players shouldn't be a tall ask for large AAA titles and any step forward for making games playable for a larger audience is one that should be taken where possible, so I hope the Final Fantasy series continues this in future entries.
To delve deeper into the gameplay, the game follows a linear main story quest that'll bring you to a myriad of large explorable locations as you progress, each containing various optional side stories as well as enemies to fight to gain some additional experience from. Most of the content available to you in these open areas can be easily ignored by simply running to the next waypoint on the map telling you where to go to continue the main plot, but the game rewards the completion of side quests with experience, items and equipment with varying degrees of usefulness. Unfortunately, between the sparse and small crowds of enemies scattered through the world and a largely uninteresting selection of side quests, doing most of these feel like a chore that doesn't particularly make the reward at the end worth it compared to the repetition of the actual tasks, especially when the powerful combat system at hand makes such short work of almost anything these quests throw at you. A vast majority of these quests also fail at adequately adding anything interesting to the experience, often just feeling like going in circles rather than learning more about a character or the world around you, save for rare exceptions. The quick and chaotic style of combat that better fits taking down waves of enemies in the more linear story missions ends up being at odds with most of the side content due to just how basic and underdeveloped most of it is and its just really not a fun experience for any players curious enough to want to invest more time into this world.
As for these main story events, it's through the more linear action sequences that sees the player combing through single-path stages with waves of enemies in each new section where the game shines, as a mix of the intriguing storyline and the expanding combat options push the player forward through treacherous bosses and armies of enemy monsters or human soldiers. What makes these big event stages elevate even higher are the game's signature boss fights whenever you face a major antagonist, one of the aforementioned "Dominants" who are capable of transforming into colossal Eikons. With a powerful Eikon of your own, Clive can transform into Ifrit, a monster with fire abilities in large-scale fights that, in exchange for temporarily simplifying the combat, are undoubtedly the game's biggest spectacles, pitting you against all manner of incredible opponents enhanced by the game's phenomenal soundtrack composed by Masayoshi Soken. These battles are far and away the most memorable aspect of the game and likely the element that this title will be remembered for from years to come, with each one for the better part of the story feeling like an active attempt from the developers to top the last in how over-the-top they can take them.
Unfortunately, while the story mostly presents an incredibly tight and engrossing narrative with exceptional bosses and combat in the first two thirds, the game starts to crumble in the third act as the plot takes a radical direction that dramatically simplifies the stakes and damages the intrigue for something that can only be described as overdone and cliche for both the Final Fantasy series and the greater JRPG genre, as much of the dark identity the game has established to this point is broken away for narrative beats that are fun to look at in the best of times and insultingly cheesy and dull at worst, culminating in a high-spectacle but ultimately less-engaging confrontation against a final antagonist considerably less threatening or memorable than their predecessors. This isn't helped by the game's ending, which while I will refrain from detailing specific details, ultimately leaves more questions than answers in a way that less so inspires thought and more just weakens any investment I had further.
Final Fantasy XVI is a game that, as I said at the start of this review, presents many ambitious ideas and themes both in its story and gameplay that showed a lot of promise and at times, truly delivers something great with it, but ultimately a conflict of interest between game mechanics and a decline of inspiration in the story leads to an instalment in this series that, while I would still call a mostly enjoyable addition to the series, is ultimately lesser than the sum of its parts.
To briefly explain the core gameplay in Final Fantasy XVI, Clive, the game's protagonist can wield a growing assortment of magical abilities taken from powerful Eikons, god-like monsters who certain people in the world (known as dominants) can call upon in battle. Some of the dominants in the game are Clive's allies and others are his nation's political enemies, but one thing that's consistent with all of them is their affinity for elemental magic. Through either being given abilities or outright taking them throughout the story, Clive is able to combine his seasoned sword fighting skills with these powers to unleash devastating and long-winded combos, with the player's understanding of how to properly blend close-range and long-distance attacks being essential to survival in the game.
The game's combat system was designed by Ryota Suzuki, a veteran action-game developer known for his work on the combat systems in later titles of the Devil May Cry series, some of the most richly crafted and deepest fast-paced action games ever made, and he brings his experience to this title through the quick and efficient means you can swap through three pre-selected rows of special abilities, as well as basic permanent combo strings you can achieve with your sword and basic magic alone. These rows can be changed between combat and can each hold three special attacks, one of which for whatever base Eikon you designate the row to and two you can freely choose between from either that Eikon's abilities or any other you "mastered", which you can do by spending experience points earned through defeating enemies. This customisable approach to the way you fight allows for solid player expression and good cause to experiment with all the powers you're provided with throughout the story.
On the topic of story, this instalment in the Final Fantasy series takes a much darker route than the usually somewhat whimsical tone of previous entries, closer resembling a season of Game of Thrones with its focus on international conflict, gritty violence and slow-burn character exploration. There's a lot of depth given to the world building and motivations of each nation as the player is placed right into the heart of a large political chessboard where many leaders and influential figures all have their motives in mind and the story is constantly shifting with the balance of power because of that, making for an incredibly enthralling series of events on top of an already strong starting central revenge plotline. With all the nations and characters quickly thrown in the player's face, it's easy to get overwhelmed and it seems the developers at Square Enix knew this because during any point in gameplay, you can pause to view the "Active Time Lore" menu, an encyclopaedia of characters, locations and terminology used throughout the game to refresh yourself or fasten your understanding of the goings-on around you. The more you progress in the game, the more options emerge in this menu with any major story event specifically bringing up a menu when paused highlighting only the relevant items, making for a very quick and easy means of staying up to date on the story.
The Active Time Lore menu is just one of the many ways the game achieves accessibility for a wider player-base, as the player also has the option to select a variety of objects seamlessly incorporated into the game that each streamline a certain aspect, such as combat and healing, for players that find themselves overwhelmed by the scope of the game's intricate combat. There is also no punishment for using these abilities nor any requirement for commitment, as you can easily switch back and forth between them at any time, something I applaud the game developers for even if I personally didn't use it. As games grow in size, budget and scale, accessibility for more players shouldn't be a tall ask for large AAA titles and any step forward for making games playable for a larger audience is one that should be taken where possible, so I hope the Final Fantasy series continues this in future entries.
To delve deeper into the gameplay, the game follows a linear main story quest that'll bring you to a myriad of large explorable locations as you progress, each containing various optional side stories as well as enemies to fight to gain some additional experience from. Most of the content available to you in these open areas can be easily ignored by simply running to the next waypoint on the map telling you where to go to continue the main plot, but the game rewards the completion of side quests with experience, items and equipment with varying degrees of usefulness. Unfortunately, between the sparse and small crowds of enemies scattered through the world and a largely uninteresting selection of side quests, doing most of these feel like a chore that doesn't particularly make the reward at the end worth it compared to the repetition of the actual tasks, especially when the powerful combat system at hand makes such short work of almost anything these quests throw at you. A vast majority of these quests also fail at adequately adding anything interesting to the experience, often just feeling like going in circles rather than learning more about a character or the world around you, save for rare exceptions. The quick and chaotic style of combat that better fits taking down waves of enemies in the more linear story missions ends up being at odds with most of the side content due to just how basic and underdeveloped most of it is and its just really not a fun experience for any players curious enough to want to invest more time into this world.
As for these main story events, it's through the more linear action sequences that sees the player combing through single-path stages with waves of enemies in each new section where the game shines, as a mix of the intriguing storyline and the expanding combat options push the player forward through treacherous bosses and armies of enemy monsters or human soldiers. What makes these big event stages elevate even higher are the game's signature boss fights whenever you face a major antagonist, one of the aforementioned "Dominants" who are capable of transforming into colossal Eikons. With a powerful Eikon of your own, Clive can transform into Ifrit, a monster with fire abilities in large-scale fights that, in exchange for temporarily simplifying the combat, are undoubtedly the game's biggest spectacles, pitting you against all manner of incredible opponents enhanced by the game's phenomenal soundtrack composed by Masayoshi Soken. These battles are far and away the most memorable aspect of the game and likely the element that this title will be remembered for from years to come, with each one for the better part of the story feeling like an active attempt from the developers to top the last in how over-the-top they can take them.
Unfortunately, while the story mostly presents an incredibly tight and engrossing narrative with exceptional bosses and combat in the first two thirds, the game starts to crumble in the third act as the plot takes a radical direction that dramatically simplifies the stakes and damages the intrigue for something that can only be described as overdone and cliche for both the Final Fantasy series and the greater JRPG genre, as much of the dark identity the game has established to this point is broken away for narrative beats that are fun to look at in the best of times and insultingly cheesy and dull at worst, culminating in a high-spectacle but ultimately less-engaging confrontation against a final antagonist considerably less threatening or memorable than their predecessors. This isn't helped by the game's ending, which while I will refrain from detailing specific details, ultimately leaves more questions than answers in a way that less so inspires thought and more just weakens any investment I had further.
Final Fantasy XVI is a game that, as I said at the start of this review, presents many ambitious ideas and themes both in its story and gameplay that showed a lot of promise and at times, truly delivers something great with it, but ultimately a conflict of interest between game mechanics and a decline of inspiration in the story leads to an instalment in this series that, while I would still call a mostly enjoyable addition to the series, is ultimately lesser than the sum of its parts.