Where XVI shines brightest for me are the characters. What a stellar cast this game has! Clive is honestly one of my favorite FF protagonists in recent memory. He’s seen some shit and done even worse, but there’s a charming boyishness to him regardless. He will fight fiercely and without mercy to protect the people and ideals he holds dear, but he’s also emotionally vulnerable and wears his heart on his sleeve. He’s as gentle and kind as he is bold and ferocious, and it’s just very refreshing. I am a fan of strong, masculine characters who aren’t afraid to cry, and Clive has delicious tears. His design is also quite eye-catching, and I’m personally very much enjoying this recent trend of RPG protagonists being absolutely stacked. More pecs, please.
A main character is nothing without his supporting cast, though, and they’re all just as fun. Cid is the standout for me, with a roguish persona and looks to boot. All the men in this game are just wonderful eye candy, and I am eating well. He’s got charisma for days and the strength to back up his convictions, and not only because he’s the Dominant of Ramuh. Charon and Blackthorne are both cantankerous old coots with personality for days, and Charon especially leaves quite the impression. In a game bursting at the seams with burly men, she has the most big dick energy of them all. Jill is more subdued than the Hideaway crew, but her quiet positivity and belief in Clive make her a steadfast companion. As the Dominant of Shiva, she has also seen some shit and done even worse, much like Clive, and that trauma informs her personality in ways I found atypical for most RPG leading ladies. I like her. She’s also just too cute for words. As for Clive’s enemies, I am particularly fond of Barnabas, the Dominant of Odin and King of Waloed, but I found all of them compelling in their own ways.
The world building in XVI is fantastic. There are three distinct groups of people who live in Valisthea: regular folks, Bearers, and Dominants. Most of the populace are your ordinary humans who cannot use magic and rely on crystals mined from the Mothercrystals to perform any sort of spell casting. Crystals are used in almost every daily activity, from filling wells to lighting fires to drying clothes. Bearers are humans who are born with the innate ability to use magic and who do not require crystals. Bearers are considered less than human in most of Valisthea’s countries, and once a child manifests the ability to use magic, they are taken from their homes, branded on the cheek with a poisonous tattoo, and sold into slavery as human work horses, expendable soldiers, and disposable healers until they die agonizing deaths. This is assuming they live that long and aren’t just butchered for sport.
Dominants are Bearers who embody the full might of an Eikon. Unlike Bearers, Dominants are mostly treated with dignity, though this isn’t universal. There are eight in total, each controlling a fundamental element: Joshua Rosfield, the Dominant of Phoenix, Warden of Fire; Jill Warrick, Dominant of Shiva, Warden of Ice; Cidolfus Telamon, Dominant of Ramuh, Warden of Lightning; Benedikta Harman, Dominant of Garuda, Warden of Wind; Hugo Kupka, Dominant of Titan, Warden of Earth; Dion Lesage, Dominant of Bahamut, Warden of Light; and Barnabas Tharmr, Dominant of Odin, Warden of Darkness. How there came to be a second Dominant and Eikon of Fire with Ifrit is one of the game’s central mysteries.
The plight of Bearers is a pivotal focus of XVI’s story. Clive, himself, is a branded man who spent the majority of his life enslaved by the Sanbreque Empire as one of their soldiers. It’s only by the grace of Cid that he manages to escape that life, and begin to forge a path for himself that isn’t determined by anyone else. Free will and making a life for yourself are not new story beats for RPGs, but they don’t need to be, so long as they’re told well, and I really enjoyed XVI’s story. The fates of men and kingdoms alike should be determined on their own terms and not dictated by the will of others.
The sidequests offer some really rich worldbuilding and are all thematically relevant to the main story, which I found quite nice. Everything supports the general thesis of “living for yourself” in whatever way that manifests for each individual character. The smaller cast size allows for some good character growth through these sidequests as well, and you do start to feel like you know the locals. If anything, I thought some of the sidequests should have been main quests because of how often they change the status quo of the world around Clive, but the game is almost hyper-focused on its main plot – for better or worse – to the point where even these meaningful quests feel like it would have ruined the pacing.
That is the biggest downside to XVI for me, though. I like the story here; I like the world and characters. But a lot of that rich worldbuilding is hidden inside menus. One of the game’s features, the Active Time Lore, allows you press the touch pad at any point in time – including during cutscenes – to get a rundown of all the major players in a given story beat, as well as prominent locations and important terminology. This is a really neat feature, but it feels hampered by the fact that some of these facts are only available if you use this feature, or go out of your way in the Hideaway to talk to Tomes. This is one of the major problems I also had with Final Fantasy XIII and its worldbuilding. I don’t mind having extra information inside bestiaries or glossaries, but it often felt like important, establishing information was hidden away in menus rather than offered naturally through the main story and character dialogue. It was never so bad as to be confusing, but it did end up making the main narrative feel rushed and incomplete.
Along those lines, there were several story beats that I felt ended up going nowhere or were dropped entirely. The last third of the game felt undercooked completely, and not enough time was spent with the main villain to justify their actions. It feels as though XVI suffered from rewrites or schedule issues that forced certain story beats to be dropped or truncated. It’s weird to say this of a game I spent upwards of 50 hours on, but I really feel like it needed another 10 hours to flesh out the latter parts of the game to meet the much stronger introduction. This also had the unfortunate side-effect of muddling the game’s otherwise stellar themes of self-actualization and helping each other. There was one distinct point where I was like “wait, what?” because the character took a sudden 180 in motivation and dynamics. Again, this wasn’t enough to ruin the experience, but it did fumble the landing. On the other hand, I haven’t stopped thinking about this game since I finished it, so even with some bungled thematic delivery and a lackluster back third, I can’t say XVI didn’t resonate with me.
To end on a positive note, I would be remiss to not discuss the music and sound design. Once again, Masayoshi Soken knocks it out of the park. The standouts here are “Ascension,” “Titan Lost,” “Find the Flame,” “Away“ and “All As One,” but honestly there’s so many good songs packed into this game you can’t go wrong with any of them. Soken and his team have a real finesse for capturing epicness in music, but the sounds of battle are also really good, with satisfying clangs, swishes and grunts to add to the weighty combat feel. Torgal especially feels impactful here, both in and out of combat, with his varied howls, growls and woofs. Once again, Torgal is the best boy. The whole cast does a good job at voicing their characters, though. I played in both Japanese and English, and they’re both overall enjoyable. The game was originally voiced in English and the dialogue written with the English actors in mind, but the lack of matching lip flaps for any other language is still a letdown, even if it doesn’t detract from the performances themselves. I just have nothing but praise for the music and sound design, and it’s another notch in Soken’s cap to add to his fantastic work on XIV.
At the end of the day, Final Fantasy XVI is an ambitious attempt to iterate on the series’ combat and story formulas, and for the most part is largely successful. Battles are frenetic and fun, with a combo system that feels simple to use but offers plenty of customization through Eikonic abilities. The world is unique and interesting, with varied character motivations and complex political landscapes. While darker than most of its predecessors, XVI‘s themes of acceptance, self-actualization and friendship resonate just as strongly as anything the series has offered thus far, and this is one of the strongest casts in recent memory. There’s a lot to love here, despite some of the game’s shortcomings and rushed ending. If nothing else, it’s given me a lot to think about, and for me, that’s well worth the price of admission.
Final Fantasy XVI is currently available on PlayStation 5 consoles for $70.
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Review copy was provided by the publisher.
