Hello Dear, Reader. It feels like forever since the last time I wrote something and it’s been weighing on my mind, that itch to create to put words to page. And while I have a lot of other things happening in my life personally that this blog is known to hold, captivate and release onto the web for you sometimes. Today I find myself reminiscing and reflecting on a series that has long held sway on my upbringing and informing my love of games and stories in general. I speak of Square Enix’s Final Fantasy series. A series that has brought us numerous entries of critical acclaim globally but also given us the fans moving, charming, and memorable moments that have stayed with me since I was young in this long-time series.
Which is what brings me here today. To review the latest entry into the series Final Fantasy XVI or Final Fantasy 16. Now I don’t review games on here often, actually, if I’m not mistaken I believe I have only reviewed one other game here and it was made by the same company and even some of the same design team too. Their influence was definitely felt by me from certain boss designs as well as the bare minimum in party design.
Okay so let’s start!
First of all, there are a few caveats that need to be mentioned. And it’s weird because having seen a review from one of my favorites YouTube reviewers SkillUp I very much understand how you have to approach how you review this game differently if you are of the same opinion as I and him are. So I will start off that this review is for fun and that these opinions are my own because I want to, as I mentioned before, create something that elucidates my ideas on a nostalgic representation of a franchise that has been with me for years and I expect will be with me for a long time to come still.
FF16 is a change in direction from its previous entries, director Naoki Yoshida wanted to reinvent the series. To give some context previous FF (Final Fantasy) series’ have been doing okay. The problem being a lot of new players are wary of purchasing and playing previous entries because there is a stigma on the entry of the FF series that being the difficulty, culture, and general gameplay that has to be overcome to start playing final fantasy games. And I get it, a lot of FF games can be intimidating to start and can be quite a big investment in both mechanics and time in general to play. So a reinvention isn’t a bad idea, especially with the video game climate becoming more like cinema in the idea of big investments are a gamble, and triple AAA games are expensive to produce and take time, so if it isn’t incredibly successful it can be a serious drop in profits and affects the next entry in the series in both being produced as a possible problem but mostly as a micro-climate in house of how the new game is produced and what design choices are made in the hopes of attracting larger audiences.
And I think this is the duality of FF16. It’s trying so hard to reinvent the wheel that it’s lost a lot of what makes it an FF entry.
FF16 places you in the shoes of Clive Rosfield, a royal of the empire of Rosaria, and his journey that follows a dark, twisting, and adult path where hard choices are made and the atmosphere of the game reflects a more Game of Thrones mature audience. Now I have gripes with FF stories as these games can be 80 hours to complete and often have stories that are winding and long-winded and FF16 suffers from this as well but to be fair at this point it wouldn’t be a Final Fantasy game if it didn’t have this so I don’t really mind, I will say that the maturity of the story does add more intrigue than previous entries but due to the stories very political nature, of this house going to war with another house or this person double crossing this one, it is very easy for a player to skip cutscenes of which there are a lot. Basically, it starts to become white noise, and as a veteran player who is used to this and who never skips cutscenes proving to myself that I’m a “true” Final Fantasy player even I found myself tuning out and glossing over a lot of the cut scenes. But I think in large part this is due to the divide between story and side quest content.
Again a lot of games, specifically RPG (role-playing games) suffer from this. And I don’t think any big studio has completely found the solution to this yet so I don’t fault FF16 for this. However, the problem becomes that the side quests, where the time you spend with a lot of the side characters and where you get to know them more intimately, don’t equate to caring or connecting more to them which is a problem because more screen time should mean better connections but ironically in this case I think it hurts the characters rather than helps them. And outside of a few end-game side quests whose writing is well done and makes you feel for the plight of these characters, by that point because of the nature of the side quests, a lot of those being fetch quests, the time you spend, and to emphasize ~ it’s a lot, has the opposite effect. Instead of making the characters endearing, you start to gloss over and start to want to skip character conversations to get to more gameplay instead of the reoccurring go there, fetch this, fight this enemy, and bring back this item. This is a shame because you can see a lot of effort was placed into the plot of the game to create a new kind of Final Fantasy atmosphere which I do think a new audience would appreciate more and would be comfortable with these days, compared to previous entries as shown by the success of morally grey characters in tv and cinema these days.
So while I do think the game is engaging in certain aspects the real question I want to broach in this review is “Is this a Final Fantasy game?” and the answer for me personally is no. There was so much lost in an appeal to bring in a newer audience and I think ironically that’s actually a good thing in terms of business but as a long-time fan of the Final Fantasy series it hurts. So why do I say this? Well for me Final Fantasy has always been a combination of story, strategy, visuals, and characters. And let me just say this the visuals in this game… WOW, seriously amazing draw-dropping quality. The story as previously mentioned is a good direction if lacking a bit of polish in quest design to really connect the characters to the story. So where does that leave the last two?
Well, Strategy is probably the biggest letdown for me personally. The game plays like a basic RPG / Fighter and while there are a lot of options in terms of build load out, a lot of the moves end up doing the same thing so you end up with flashy combos that could be done in a bunch of different ways with no impact. To add to that equipment has almost no effect outside of stats and items really only heal you that’s about the extent of item variation. Now I must give a shout-out to the team for allowing you to reset all your abilities over and over to try different builds and load outs, it definitely encourages variation and it’s a solid foundation like a good trunk of a tree but there’s no extension from there it’s branches are few and bare which is unfortunately then compounded by the lack of a party. The game is single-character based only with “party” members joining here and there that are really just uncontrollable NPCs bar one that literally does almost nothing save being an adorable mascot both having little to no impact in combat. This is a shame because for me characters in the Final Fantasy series are memorable precisely for their variation in skills and in their personalities, which is seen from the game allowing you to literally step into their shoes and understand them from a base level because you can play as them. This idea is then expanded by more variation from equipment load out and item effects creating tactics and strategy for your own party that the Final Fantasy series is known for. Your party may play differently from someone else’s party and depending on the Final Fantasy this could be vastly different or a little different but the means to allow this variation is there and that’s what is important.
So what about character? Well, this is a mixed bag. The story itself in its surrealistic elements and dialogue allows for realistic and believable growth in its characters during the narrative. You understand and empathize with a lot of the characters over the 80-odd hours of the campaign. But again I think connecting and liking can be two different things. I think a lot of the time the character’s themselves are a matter of taste and I found the tone quite consistently moody which is fine but that’s usually where interesting, funny, or even challenging side quests start to show up to break that darker tone for the players. So while I understood and followed these characters over the whole storyline it never really felt like I wanted to cheer for them like I did for Tidus or Yuna or conversely wanting to take revenge and stop Kafka for his misdeeds, it just had the feeling of morally grey, which unfortunately then tends to not have clear cut characters and stories you want to cheer for.
What I will say is that the voice actors did an outstanding job bringing the different characters to life and I was never irritated or confused by their performances or voices used. And again while I have my own opinion on this particular iteration of this game it is by no means bad and I would still recommend it to anybody who has never tried or has wanted to get into Final Fantasy before. It works well as a gateway into the other games in the franchise and it was exactly what the creators wanted to get from it, a Final Fantasy that played differently but still had recurring elements of previous entries.
So after all I’ve had to say about my time spent with Final Fantasy 16 I just want to say that while I had my qualms about the game, it still captured my awe and excelled at creating an atmosphere of scale never before seen in another Final Fantasy game, and for that I am grateful to have experienced it. I fully understand how hard it is to create and publish video games and I cannot thank the people at Square Enix enough for their dedication and hard work on a franchise that has been with me since childhood you truly are makers of wondrous games.
So while I may not have considered this particular iteration of FF my cup of tea I look forward to the next!
signed,
an undying fan.
Milkshake Thoughts 