Fate Will Fall: A Final Fantasy XVI Review

So... When I made my last announcement on this site nearly a month ago, I promised that I would have some new posts soon. At that moment, I started work on a piece about my new favorite MMO, CBUIII's Final Fantasy XIV, and that piece ever remains a pain in my ass to write. Every time I sit down to work on it, my thought cloud ends up turning into a thought supernova and I just get so scattered; it feels like it's impossible to put everything I want down on paper. That post torments me. Great game.

Regardless, that post has been put on an indefinite hold with the launch of Final Fantasy XVI, also known as: The game that finally convinced me to buy a PS5. That's right baby! After over a decade of being away from console gaming, I'm making a grand return to team Sony. And first up on the PlayStation-exclusive chopping block is CBUIII's brand new single-player Final Fantasy game.

Final Fantasy XVI is Square Enix's first mature rated mainline game, and has been described as their take on a heavier dark fantasy game, being inspired by the likes of HBO's Game Of Thrones. The story was written by a Kazutoyo Maehiro, the same mind behind FFXIV's Heavensward expansion, which still remains one of my favorite campaigns from across all of the MMOs I've ever played. With that context, my expectations were high going into the world of Valisthea and thankfully, I was not disappointed.

One thing that I've always loved about RPG games is when the world-builders truly put time and effort into making the world and its people, conflicts, etc. feel real, and Valisthea does exactly that. The 6 nations of Ash and Storm all vary in organization and ambition, but they all have the same motivations that make their desperation feel real, given the circumstances.

A brief synopsis: This game's story revolves around magic and class struggle. Valisthea's residents rely on magic to survive, using it for just about everything, from creating fresh water to stoking fires hot enough to smelt steel. Magic can be channeled in two ways: either through expensive crystal shards mined from the mothercrystals, or via bearers— humans born with the innate ability to cast magicks. As bearers are more abundant than crystals, they are usually branded and enslaved at birth, then sold to noblespeople for their utility. One band of outlaws believes the destruction of the mothercrystals to be the only way to liberate the bearers and create a free world, and as they start falling one by one, the conflicts that ensue between nations seeking control over the remainder is what drives most of this game's narrative.

Now, it's clear to see that there are some parallels between XIV's world and XVI's. For example: The desert nations being commercial superpowers, theocratic nations housing the dragoons, et cetera. But Valisthea is also different enough in regards to its characters and conflicts to still feel like a unique and enthralling world.

And a world would be nothing without its inhabitants, right? Luckily, Valisthea is filled with a wide array of wonderfully written characters. Clive has easily become one of my new all-time favorite RPG protagonists, with Ben Starr's stellar voice acting really taking him to the next level. Every dominant in the game has their own struggles with their powers and relationships, and Maehiro's writing makes you despise, yet simultaneously feel sorry for many of them. And let's not forget all of Clive's companions in the hideaway and beyond that give him their undying loyalty and aid during his various escapades. (We love Uncle Byron!) Every character works together to tell a grand story of discovery, loss, struggle, and revenge that is truly a spectacle.

Now, one of my favorite things about this game is just how in-depth all of its concepts are, and furthermore, all of the many ways this information is presented in game. In addition to learning about concepts via NPC dialogue, XVI also has several built-in tools to educate players on the world, which collectively act as an in-game wiki of sorts. Don't know what the Akashic are? Tomes has an entry for that. Forgot what parties were in conflict at a given battle? Vivian has a battlefield map that shows who was there and what they were doing. Forgot what Joshua's relationship to Elwin was? Vivian also has a spiderweb of characters that describes each of their relationships with one another and how those relationships develop over time.

The accessibility of information in the game really makes wrapping your head around the world and its politics a lot easier, but surprisingly enough, those aren't even what I think is the best lore-related tool in the game!

Active Time Lore is a mechanic where at almost any time during a cutscene, holding down on the pad in the middle of the controller will bring up an array of concepts relevant to the scene that's occurring. XVI's writing loves to do this thing where they just casually discuss complex concepts without ever introducing them first, and being able to instantly pull up ATL to figure out what they're talking about is extremely useful. ATL is awesome, and should honestly be standard in pretty much every game with a major narrative from now on.

Story and lore aside, lets talk about how the game plays, starting with combat.

Combat goes hard. Combat director Ryota Suzuki mentioned in an interview that this game's combat is his "personal masterpiece" and I believe him wholeheartedly. I haven't had this much fun trying to piece together combos since I played Capcom's Monster Hunter: World when I was back in high school.

Like most action games, XVI's combat is based off of two buttons and a trigger, and while the small number of combat-related buttons may seem like a detriment to the uninitiated, XVI's skill ceiling goes through the roof. Combat takes into consideration timings, past moves, and other contexts that allow for the execution of some pretty flashy combos.

For example: Holding square can charge up your blade with fire, and jumping while releasing square executes an aerial slash, pulling other light enemies airborne with you. There you can slash and stomp off of them to extend your airtime, before pressing triangle and square together to do a downslash, dealing tick damage to anything caught in it and exploding when it touches the ground.

And that's only scratching the surface. There's also magic bursts, lunging, dodging, taunts, charged magic, and limit break to round out your basic kit. And as if that wasn't versatile enough, things get much more interesting once you take your eikons into consideration.

The eikonic feats and abilities are a ton of fun, with their flashy graphics and wide array of utilities. You've got big hitting abilities like Phoenix's Rising Flames and Titan's Windup. You've also got rapid hits with Garuda's Gouge, stagger-building abilities like Ramuh's Lightning Rod, crowd control with Shiva's Mesmerize, and then just pure eye candy with Odin's Arm of Darkness or Bahamut's Gigaflare.

And if button mashing isn't your thing, the game gives every player a set of "timely accessories" at the start of the game that players can optionally equip to make the game easier or more accessible if they're new to the action game genre. Need a bit of extra time to evade? Equip the Ring of Timely Focus! Need help with combos? The Ring of Timely Strikes has your back. (Funnily enough, most of the reviewers that claim that combat is too simple fail to realize they have this one equipped!)

Put everything together, and you've got some exceptionally addictive and visually pleasing combat that's accessible to veteran and newcomer alike.

I don't think I could ever capture gameplay that would do the combat justice, so it's at this point that I'll just refer you to the roughly minute and a half of combat footage in the game's State of Play from a few months ago.

Now, if you were listening very closely during that video, you'll probably realize that Masayoshi Soken is a musical fucking genius and he absolutely knocked it out of the park with this game again. That battle theme is SO good, with the FFXIV Stormblood Eureka motif making a reprisal as part of the violin's melody. And that's not all! Each of the character's themes is astounding in their own way, with callbacks to their FFXIV motifs as well. The brass of Garuda's battle theme plays the same melody as Fallen Angel, the voices in Titan's theme sing the same guitar riff from Under the Weight, etc. This entire soundtrack is a huge nod to FFXIV fans like myself.

And even if you're not a FFXIV player, there's still a wide array of genres here that could interest you. While the game was reportedly inspired by classical music, you can expect much, much more. Every single boss theme is a banger, varying from your typical epic orchestrated video game music, to rock, to techno, to whatever kind of classical music Bahamut's third phase is. Everything about Soken's music, I just adore. I cannot wait for the OST to officially drop next month.

The game isn't open world, but I think that actually works to its benefit. The four free roam areas of the game are large yet dense, housing a wide variety of side quests that help you get a feel of what life in Valisthea is like. The main quests are also unreal, with stunning environments, unique and challenging mini-bosses, and absolute spectacles of boss fights that each feel like they could have been the final boss of any other game.

All of this is to say that Final Fantasy XVI is a work of art, and is one of the only games that I would personally and wholeheartedly say justifies its next-gen pricetag on day one. Even if you don't have a PS5 yet, I would absolutely pick it up when the game comes out on PC next year. This game is some of the most fun I've had playing an action RPG in a while and has easily become one of my all-time favorites, up there with the likes of Monster Hunter and Yakuza. I'm already 45 hours in and I cannot wait to finish the story over the next few days, then do it all again in hard mode for the platinum trophy.

As of now, Final Fantasy XVI is a solid 9/10 from me.
Great work, keep it up Yoshi-P!

I'll update this post once I finish the campaign, in case anyone's interested in my thoughts. Till next time!

Final Fantasy XVI is a PlayStation exclusive, which can be purchased for $70 on their store. Physical copies are also for sale at major retailers. This game was reviewed on a PlayStation 5.