Hogan Reviews

I wasn’t sure about Final Fantasy XVI for a while, I knew I wanted to play it but I wasn’t sold on the visual setting and the more “gritty” style so I waited until it was a bit cheaper and I had the time to dedicate to it. Now I’ve played the game all the way through I have to say that it’s an odd one. There were times when I was thinking of either giving it up or just running through the main missions, then by the end I did every side quest and monster hunt available before hitting that final chapter, so it got its hooks into me at the end, but if someone were to say to me they gave up half way through I’d understand… Want more detail? That’s lucky, I’ve written a whole review, so let’s take a look at it!

Background:

Fighting a large Coeurl, which I always struggled to pronounce until finding out it was just “curl”.

Final Fantasy XVI was released exclusively for the PlayStation 5 on June 22^nd 2023, with a PC port coming at some point next year.

Its decision to switch from action RPG with some classic Final Fantasy elements ala FF XV to straight up action RPG with full on Platinum-games-like crazy and varied movesets was met with some trepidation (and in some cases full on anger) I was fine with it though, it still feels very Final Fantasy in setting and with the heavy use of summons and magic, but I do get the whole argument of “if it’s not an RPG is it Final Fantasy?” My experience so far of the core series is 6, 7 (and all its iterations), 8 and then 15 and 16, so I don’t really have too deep an affection for the traditional RPG days (though I do plan on fixing that via the Pixel Remasters when they drop in price a bit…)

Gameplay:

Protecting an NPC from harm… by slaughtering a bunch of other people.

As mentioned the game is an Action RPG but in this case its very heavy on the action and light on the RPG, think how Fallout 3 onwards are Action RPGs but are first person shooters, that sort of thing but with Devil May Cry / Bayonetta style action combat. Your basic attacks like a striking combo, jumping slash, a charged strike, that sort of thing are all available but you also have access to Eikon Powers starting with Phoenix and then more and more Summons from previous games get added to your moveset as time goes on and give you access to four special moves and an innate ability each, though each Eikon only has two move slots and you can only have three at a time so you have to pick and choose. The innate ability is only accessible by putting that Eikon on one of your three Eikon slots but the other moves can be “Mastered” and then added to any Eikon’s move slot meaning while you can only have three innate abilities you can have any number of different Eikon abilities in the rest of the slots. This was handy because two of the innate abilities are kind of must-haves, the Phoenix has “Phoenix Shift” which allows you to basically teleport toward your opponent and strike (think FF XV’s main moveset) while the Garuda innate ability allows you to pull down stunned enemies so they’re open to attack longer. I can’t imagine taking on some of the tougher enemies without either of these abilities, honestly. The rest range from “quite handy” to pretty useless…

Still though all the many moves not only make for fun gameplay but when things start to feel a little samey there’s more than enough room to try out some new moves while still keeping your go-to moves on hand (a move called “Flames of Rebirth” was extremely handy, it roasted everything on the battlefield at the same time and restored any health that was able to be regenerated immediately) As for actual foes well I’ll get to the other type of combat next but fighting traditional map enemies and bosses using the Eikon moves and regular attacks isn’t just mashing into enemies until they die, well apart from the low-levels enemies, as they have a stagger gauge that when it reaches halfway it leaves the enemy stunned (and able to be pulled to the ground if you have Garuda equipped, as mentioned earlier) and get the meter all the way to the bottom and they’ll be “staggered” and down for as long as it takes for their meter to refill, giving you ample time to attack them. Later on you get a “Limit Break” where you transform into a human-hybrid of lead character Clive’s main Eikon Ifrit, giving you greater attack power for a short time. Add to this a dodge move that if timed correctly allows you to counter attack and counter attack with even more damage if you get a “Perfect Dodge”, and its an extremely fun game to actually play and I think that’s what eventually got me hooked, the more powers I got the more fun I had taking out masses of generic enemies and having epic fights with large bosses.

Ifrit attacking on Titan, if you know what I mean.

Speaking of epic fights with large bosses another key part of the game is Eikon Battles, where you fully transform into Ifrit and have to fight one of the other Eikons in a Godzilla-style showdown. These are normally half a fight like the regular battles (but with Ifrit’s moveset) and half cutscenes with occasionally entirely pointless QTE prompts. Now I thought about 10 years ago everyone agreed that QTEs were completely pointless and stopped them, you know have me watch a big cutscene or have me fight, no point in having me watch a cutscene but suddenly have to press a button otherwise I take damage or at worse have to watch the cutscene again. Luckily FFXVI’s QTE give you so much time to press the required button that it becomes even more pointless because it’s impossible to fail them (unless your really bad at tapping Square anyway) so I just don’t understand, some of these cutscene battles left me breathless due to how full of energy and action they are back with an epic soundtrack, having to press R1 within six seconds really didn’t add anything… Still, they were often good fun overall, it just felt oddly old fashioned to see QTEs return like that. I also have to mention that status effects aren’t a thing either, so you’ll get hit by poisonous breath or the classic “Doom” spell by iconic FF enemies but all you’ll do is take damage and fall over. It’s a really weird decision because losing health via timed poison damage and being able to stop it with an antidote potion would fit very easily with this gameplay style (see: Final Fantasy VII: Remake) but hey-ho.

Lastly in terms of traditional combat stuff you do gain XP and level up, your stats increasing each time and you have points you can put into the different Eikon moves to make them stronger or be able to assign them to any Eikon slot, though to be fair if it didn’t have that then it really wouldn’t be an RPG! You do often have Party Members but they’re entirely AI controlled, no switching or even giving commands (apart from your dog Torgle, he has three commands but he’s perfectly fine being AI controlled), they just do as they please, but they also can’t die or even be KO’d, so there’s that (though for balance reasons they also don’t do much damage…) There is a large map with lots of areas of interest but its not a big seamless open world, instead it works a bit like an MMO where you enter each area via either fast travel or by walking off the edge of one map to the other. In fact I know a lot of people behind the FF XIV MMO game were behind this one and beyond the map thing there were lots of stuff that made it feel quite MMO-like, including a menu where NPC conversation appeared like a chat window (I turned that off immediately) and a lot of bosses exist in really obvious wide-open circular arenas and have telegraphed area-of-effect attacks that you can only dodge by standing in the right place in time (or trying for a perfect dodge but that’s often not worth the risk…) Again, doesn’t hurt anything, so long as you turn the ugly NPC chat off, but I felt I had to mention it.

It’s a good thing some of these bosses make it extremely obvious where they’re going to hit…

Outside of combat is where I feel the game takes a slight turn for the worse. You have all the classic tropes like buying items and weapons from shops, plus an upgrade system for weapons and armour, but with the exception of the final sword or two you literally upgrade your sword to the next one with material you gained from the previous boss, meaning your sword and armour essentially levels up with you so long as you remember to visit the blacksmith at your hub area as you’ll always have enough materials. Side Quests are a drag a lot of the time, a few of them have really interesting characters and plot where I actively looked forward to seeing the green tick the right area of the map, but a lot of them were “I’m making a potion and need these specific plants, can get some for me?” and instead of saying “I’m in charge of a large force of rebels I’ll send one of my men who is already going to that area” Clive of course just says yes and does everything personally. When I thought I was in the final mission I actually ended up back at the hideout and suddenly 10-15 new Side Quests popped up which took me by surprise, not to get too spoilery outside of the right area of this review but the fate of the world was on the line and several characters mentioned how delaying the attack would allow the main enemy to gather strength so it felt very odd to instead stop and dick around searching for flowers and having a good old chat instead of trying to save the world…

What is a fun activity though is the Hunt board, where you track and defeat larger or different-coloured versions of tough sub-bosses or bosses for special rewards and XP. Given the actual combat is by far the most fun thing about the game then it comes as no surprise I enjoyed them! There are also special trials where you have to fight specific foes with a specific moveset and “Arcade Mode” where you can replay any section of the game without cutscenes and get a letter grade based on your performance (now that’s very DMC!) If you find the game or parts of the game too hard there are several things you can do as well, like rings that you start with that will make you do big combos with the press of a button or one that will give you a longer dodge window, that sort of thing. I ended up not using them but I had in my mind that if I did have a hard time I’d use one, so I’m not here to judge if you end up doing it. Likewise there’s a “Story” option in the difficulty which makes combat even easier and far more simple for those who just want to experience the story. On the flipside of that is “Final Fantasy Mode” which is unlocked upon completing the main game once, and it makes things harder with more classic FF enemies at higher levels, among other challenges. Replaying something on a harder difficulty has never been my thing but nice to know it’s still there for those that do. Lastly if your getting lost in the story there are two NPCs that can fill you in on the overall lore and the story that’s happening at the moment, with the later able to be activated at any point (even in cutscenes) by pausing and selecting “Active Time Lore”.

*Phew!* There’s a lot to it and not all of it good, but as I mentioned in the end the gameplay is great, and that was enough to get me pass any of its flaws.

Graphics and Sound:

A beautiful day to kill some monsters.

As I always say with modern games: it goes without saying that the game looks great. Detailed surfaces, amazing lighting, crazy draw-distance and hair strands blowing in the wind independently of each other. Very lovely indeed.

Sound-wise? Well, the voice work is good (lots of regional UK accents, which were fine for me but I do wonder how those outside of the UK felt about it, though at least they’re not as OTT as the Xenoblade voicework… ) and the soundeffects are great as well but the standout is soundtrack. A frankly stunning OST that mixes various different styles perfectly including some bosses having several different phases of music as the battles go on, it’s great. I was not shocked to find out it was composed by the same man who did FF XIV’s soundtrack, Masayoshi Soken, as although I haven’t played that game I have played Theatrythm: Final Bar Line (to DEATH) and so I’m more than familiar with his work there and this had the same epic vibe. Looking forward to the FF XVI DLC pack for Final Bar Line so things can go full circle!

Story:

Our main trio during the good old days… or maybe the “Not as bad as later days… days”.

The story is set in the land of Valisthea which is split between the Grand Duchy of Rosaria (good guys), the Holy Empire of Sanbreque (rich snobs with holy knights), the Dhalmekian Republic (deserty rebel types), the Kingdom of Waloed (stereotypical bad guys), and the neutral Crystalline Dominion (who get taken over by Sanbreque before you really see anything) and each of these lands have massive crystal structures that give out the ether that allows people to use magic known as the “Mother Crystals”. The focus is mainly on slavery and, well, how bad it is. You see most of the population don’t have access to magic naturally and instead have to use smaller crystals, whereas those who can naturally use magic are literally branded and called “Bearers” (or sometimes simply “Branded”), and used as slaves and in some countries as disposable resources. You’d think people who can naturally use magic would be able to rise up but there are a lot more “normal” people, so I guess there wasn’t a chance. The other thing of note in terms of world building is that there are several powerful Eikons (summons, as previously mentioned) that attach themselves to people, who then become known as “Dominants” as they can wield their power and transform into them (think the special Titans from Attack on Titan) These Dominants are either heralded or just used as weapons in war.

This brings us to our leads: Clive Rosfield, Joshua Rosfield and Jill Warrick. Clive was the first born son of the royal family of Rosaria but he didn’t become the Dominant of the Phoenix, a sign that he was the next in line to be king, so instead his young brother Joshua became the dominant and Clive became his “shield” as he could naturally wield magic and was given some of Phoenix’s powers. Jill on the other hand is from the not-seen lands in the North and was taken prisoner to use as a bargaining chip but ended up befriending the two Rosfields. Sadly this all comes to a crushing conclusion when the royal family is attacked and the King killed all thanks to the Queen Anabella, who made a deal with Sanbreque to jump sides. During the invasion Joshua transforms into the Phoenix but is seemingly killed by a second Eikon of fire (something thought impossible) called Ifrit, whereas Clive is captured and branded, then spends many years as a disposable Bearer Sanbreque soldier. Eventually though he happens to meet the Dominant of Shiva and it turns out to be Jill, who was captured and mistreated by the religious zealots of the Iron Kingdom, a small island off the coast of where Rosaria used to be (but its now part of Sanbreque) Clive and Jill are saved by Cid, the Dominant of Ramuh, and he shows them a hideaway he runs where he tries to free Bearers and give them a regular life away from the prejudice they face.

To the back right is “Gav”, your top scout who I could never take seriously as he’s called “Gav”.

Clive and Jill soon join him on his noble quest, while we’re introduced to some of the big shots in the other Kingdoms, like Prince Dion the Dominant of Bahamut in Sanbreque and his corrupted father (who is now married to Anabella), Barnabas Tharmr the King of Waloed and the Dominant of Odin and Hugo Kupka, the Dominant of Titan and the most influential man in Dhalmekian Republic. We also find out that the land is slowly turning into a black and barren mess thanks to overuse of the Crystals in what is referred to as “The Blight” so Cid reveals his biggest goal: destroy all of the Mother Crystals and therefore stop the Blight, even if it means cutting off regular people’s access to magic via crystals. Clive and Jill agree to the plan and they soon head off to the old Sanbreque capital (it was moved to the capital of the Crystalline Dominion) to put their plan into action. I should also say that by this point Clive knows he was the other dominant of fire and now has control of Ifrit, so that’s a trio of Dominants!

*Spoilers from here until the next bolded sentence!*

Clive, Jill and Cid attack the crystal and during the assault see a vision of the being later identified as Ultima, who wishes to claim Clive’s body but he’s pushed back by Cid at the cost of his life. We then do another timeskip of several years where Clive has become the new Cid and restarted the Bearer freedom network and hideout and the majority of the game falls into a loop of unlock new area, travel to new city where a Mother Crystal is, fight another Dominant, destroy Mother Crystal, get a little glimpse into Ultima’s aim, repeat. During this you find out that Joshua is alive and is actively seeking for a way to stop Ultima (including locking a part of it within himself at the cost of his health) and eventually Anabella kills herself after Dion kills her new son who turned out to be controlled by Ultima. She was one nasty piece of work, for the record. Proper Cersei from Game of Thrones vibes…

Ultima ponders on, well, pretty much everything all the time. The git.

In the end Ultima rises and creates a floaty crystal base, Clive and Jill confess their love for each other and Clive, Joshua and Dion fight Ultima and the latter two die in the process, before our hero beats the God-like being because he has attachments to others that keep him strong where as Ultima long since discarded such things, so it was a literal “power of friendship” ending… Clive uses Ultima’s powers to reverse the damage he did to the world and stop the apocalypse but it seemly cost him his life as well, as he lied dying on a beach.

*Spoilers End Here!*

Honestly while it had a few good moments the story wasn’t up to much. It tried to be Game of Thrones in presentation and tone (right down to glowing blue-eyed zombie like creatures amassing as the story went on…) but a lot of the characters and storylines weren’t that interesting and it really dragged in the middle when a predictable pattern emerged. I enjoyed the fight with Dion / Bahamut and the final fight itself but there’s a lot of story to get through before you reach those points!

Downloadable Content:

Pulling a Behemoth down by the horns, as the phrase goes.

Thanks to hitting sales targets its been announced that two DLC packs will be released in the future for the game, but as of this writing no idea when or what they’ll be about. As a celebration a piece of free DLC containing a classic gold sword was made available.

Thoughts Now:

Taking care of a bunch of generic creatures in one fell swoop!

Final Fantasy XVI started off as fun, then became a bit dull, then was tedious to the point where I wondered if I’d bother finishing it, then suddenly it all clicked and I became addicted, completing every Side Quest, Hunt and Main Mission I could because I didn’t want to stop having fun with the actual combat. At just over 50 hours I do recommend it if you like action games but if you tap out part the way through due to the early slower pace then I can’t say I’d think less of you for it.