Final Fantasy XVI (PS5) Review

One dark fantasy.

 

 After much anticipation, the next entry in the (really long) Final Fantasy series is finally here! Final Fantasy XVI is taking the series back to a medieval setting with a grand story and action-packed gameplay. Focusing on the story of a lone man out to avenge his brother's killer, it's a very dark tale. While Final Fantasy XV's tumultuous development left many fans sceptical, FFXVI aims to recapture the glory days and become one of the year's standout hits. I was excited when Square Enix announced the game and was actively avoiding trailers in anticipation for the it. Now after finally experiencing the adventure, how does the latest entry fare?

 In the dying world of Valisthea, six nations are fighting over resources after a mysterious plague known as the "Blight" has claimed much of the land, leaving it in ruins. The story follows former prince Clive Rosfield, whose out to avenge his young brother Joshua after he was killed by Ifrit, a magical being known as an "Eikon" wielding the power of fire. Along the way, he'll meet and befriend a bunch of new faces while getting caught up in the political climate of the land. Without spoiling much, the game is more than a simple revenge tale as it transcended into a world-saving adventure-- as expected from a FF game.

Clive's journey is a tragic and engaging one.

 Unlike past games, however, FFXVI goes for a mature direction with themes of war and slavery being prevalent as well as lots of swearing and violence, which is nice change of tone. Sure, Clive may seem like your brooding FF protag initially, but his tale was sympathetic and I quickly grew to like him over the course of the game with his unwavering attitude. The supporting cast were great with Clive's caring childhood friend Jill, his loyal pet wolf Torgal, innocent young brother Joshua, and charismatic mentor Cid, all ended up being standouts. Even the side-characters that you'll meet during the journey were likeable with their own pasts to share and I found myself caring about them a great deal.

 Final Fantasy XVI is an action-RPG that has you controlling Clive as you fight enemies, explore the world, and level up. Clive can slash enemies with his sword as well as shoot fire at a distance, while also triggering his Limit Break that offers him a temporary attack boost. Gameplay leans more on the action side with you being able to switch up your abilities and upgrade them, dodge, parry, and string combo attacks akin to the Devil May Cry games. As you progress through the story, Clive will obtain new Eikon powers such as ice, lighting, and earth, each offering different attacks and skills to use. You can equip up to three Eikon powers and it was fun trying-out abilities that suited my brute-force play-style.

The gameplay was great and the Eikon powers were fun to use.

 

 

 Additionally, enemies have shields in addition to their health that you'll need to deplete, which will leave them staggered briefly so that you can bash them with attacks to bring them down more quickly. With the right Eikon combinations, you can easily steamroll most enemies with ease. That said, I would've liked the ability for Clive to change classes like going from a knight to a mage or dragoon, similarly to what Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin did to diversify its gameplay.

 Sadly, the party system was underwhelming as you can't control party members, equip them with gear, or issue commands to them (except for Torgal), which made them pointless in combat. Towards the end, I even got bored playing only as Clive when you have other cool characters like Jill and Cid in your party. There wasn't any playful banter between the cast when you're moving around like in XV, which sucked too. Fortunately, the boss fights are the game's biggest highlight as they're plenty, challenging, and offer some neat spectacles. At times, you'll even transform into an Eikon and duke it out in all sorts of flashy manners with the fight against Titan and Bahamut being the most fun I've had a while. The action sequences got way too chaotic by the end that you'd swear that it looks like something from an over-the-top anime.

The large-scale boss fights were one of the game's highlights.

 The game is linear compared to its predecessor as it lacks a massive open-world. Instead, the game features large fields that you can explore, talk to villagers, hunt for enemies, and search for chests. While I loved the open world of FFXV, I did enjoy exploring around Valethisa's condensed but interesting lands. I only wished that most side-quests had depth to them as they're simple fetch ones and while they offered nice insight to the world, they were pretty boring. I did enjoy a couple like "All bark", "Playthings", "Priceless", and Torgal's side-quest. All in all, the adventure took close to 60 hours to beat with me doing all side-quests, hunting all bounties, fully exploring the map, and playing the challenge trials.

Explore some pretty cool locales.

 Square Enix has a habit of unleashing a visually-stunning Final Fantasy every generation and such is the case with Final Fantasy XVI. From the stunning cinematics (especially the opening battle sequence) to the neat character and Eikon designs to the varied backgrounds, FFXVI is easily one of the best-looking games this gen. However, there are tech issues like frequent frame-rate dips on performance mode. The voice-work was fantastic, packing many terrific performances all-around. It shouldn't come as a surprise, but the soundtrack was phenomenal as well. My favorite were the battle theme, boss theme, hideout theme, and ending theme, to name a few.

Aside from tech issues, the game looks
 stunning and sounds great.

 Overall, Final Fantasy XVI was a pleasant surprise and solid entry in the series. The story was great, characters were likeable, gameplay was amazing, and presentation was stunning. Granted, it does have its share of issues, yet it remained a fun adventure that I enjoyed a lot. While many long-time fans may scoff at the action-focused gameplay, it's still a fun game that's worth plaing at least. Newcomers and action fans alike will find much to enjoy in Final Fantasy XVI.