I remember the first time I had seen FF16 was back in 2022 with the playstation state of play, this action adventure RPG had my interest peaked IMMEDIATELY. Skipping to late 2023, I was on a hunt for PS5 games to buy, (with my new knowledge that I would be getting a PS5 for christmas of course) and FF16 came up once again! Although I was frankly afraid to try the game out due to me perceiving the game as a souls-like game, so I wasn’t sure of how much I would enjoy this action adventure rpg. However! After a year of trying new games out, I put my big girl pants on and boy am I sure glad I went through with experiencing this one – and no it’s nothing like a souls-like.
After admiring the gorgeous artwork in the title screen, the player is thrown right into a massive battle between yourself and another giant monster known as ‘dominants’ in the game. However luckily for the player, only 2 button inputs are needed, and on top of that, it was just a vision. The game really begins as Clive, a slave, is on a mission under orders to hunt axis forces. Here the game gets to introduce us to the world we will be inhabiting, basic movement mechanics and where I realized that this game was not shy from gruesome deaths and blood. We gotta love realism folks.
Getting over the shock of seeing a game character brutally die; the story sets us back in time when Clive was a teenager, learning his royal background and getting to experience his motivations and past, along with playing through the unfortunate way of how Clive ended up where we last saw. Here the game also gives us a proper tutorial on how to …uh…well… play the game. Fortunately to players around the world, players are provided with many controller layouts perfect to meet anyone’s needs.
One thing I love when video games do, is when they give us an immersive tutorial. Slow and steady, and one mechanic by one mechanic till we’re comfortable. Thanks Square Enix, you’re very considerate.
Once completed, Clive is sent off to do a few missions so the player can get comfortable with controls. In between missions we get to progress through the story and sometimes encounter seriously funny scenarios. Such as Clive’s BIOLOGICAL mom absolutely despising Clive simply because he didn’t inherit being the phoenix dominant; while treating her youngest son like an absolute sweet baby because he did! Talk about youngest sibling preference. And by the way! Clive does have a dominant, just not the phoenix. I just couldn’t help but laugh every time Clive’s mom rolled her eyes, and treated him like some unwanted adopted child, because it’s so dramatically unnecessary!!
After getting to experience how Clive ended up the way he did, the game does a time jump to the present where we run into grown old friends and meet new ones. From here we join a movement to make the lives of slaves equal. Being a slave in the world of FF16 is just horrendous, subverting expectation, magic users are the oppressed in this world. This game has probably one of the best depictions of slavery and it’s heart-breaking. Although in some parts of the countries they are treated slightly more respect; Practically everyone treats the slaves like simply tools, they’re treated less than people. And unlike Clive, these slaves are only able to use their magic to siphon out the magic from crystals, mined from the mother crystal; A set of ginormous mountains made from magic crystals that each country uses for pretty much their entire infrastructure. And what makes it worse is that if overused these people die a slow death as their body slowly turns into rock.
Even those who do have dominants are treated no more than weapons of war if not willing to give themselves to their countries’ cause. At first I was baffled at how the people that can transform into giant magical monsters could even be enslaved!
From the point of being back in the present the story continues on with a consistent form of story progression, conflict, mission, big boss, small cooldown and sorta repeat, with a few time jumps thrown in. Me simplifying is not doing it justice however, so believe me when I say, everytime there’s something new and possibly crazier; I literally could not put a finger on what was next . The narrative in FF16 has many layers, dealing with loss, romance, war, slavery, racism, friendship, community, selflessness, selfishness, greed, and so much more. There have been plenty of times where my jaw was on the floor due to the disbelief of what was going on and times where I was kicking my feet like a little girl because of some serious romantical tension.
Now let’s move on to one of my favorite aspects of FF16, the gameplay. OH MY GOSH, do I LOVE the gameplay! Although the game is not one I’d recommend to a baby gamer, it’s definitely not exclusive to vets. FF16 is so insanely balanced and flowy, I feel like the coolest piece of butter playing. The game controls with its main mechanics being switching through your different eikons unlocked throughout the story to utilize their eikonic abilities via L2 to switch to different eikons and assigning your abilities to square or triangle and holding R2 to activate them. While your basic melee is square and triangle is your magic melee. Although it can be tricky to juggle for some; the game starts with only one eikon and progressively allows up to a maximum of 3 that can be swapped between per player preference.
In the field against enemies and bosses after learning their patterns the gameplay just becomes so seamless, hitting combo after combo, the developers made it easy for anyone to look like they’re pros with the help of making every move look stunning to perform. It’s just so satisfying. And for those who might be interested in a more easygoing gameplay, there’s a story focused option for those looking for something more laidback.
Another thing I must give FF16 credit for is how they respect your time. The game knows it’s not short, about 50 hours for the average player, which may seem long, however, I’m 61 hours in and only a bit past half way but I’m a bit of a completionist so we’ll let that speak for itself. The dev’s also understand that not everyone is going to be playing 24/7 and because of that they’ve implemented 2 things I think EVERY game should have. And that’s that you can catch up to where you last left off in the story and a practice mode .I’m the type of player to take longggg breaks between game sessions so these helped me out tremendously throughout my time playing for keeping up with my skills and what’s happening so I LOVE both of these options so much.. I’m sure having these options make the game so much easier for many to pick back up instead of being intimidated by being thrown back into the wolves. FF16 also offers an Arcade Mode where you can replay mini bosses and bosses to get higher scores. Along with stage replay where you get the opportunity to grab any missed items and replay the stage without past stage restrictions. And a new game plus mode for a higher difficulty after beating the game.
Ok, ok, there’s a lot to love about this game, so let’s take a pause and cover some, not so great parts of FF16.
Npc side quests, they kind of suck. They’re boring and although they let you interact with the day to day people getting a better feel of your world, most of them are simply uninteresting. There were very few of these side-quests that I found to spice it up for these activities. Because the majority is just you searching for a missing person or being someone’s personal pickup boy. I remember once I was getting so frustrated because the character marker broke once, so as soon as I would get close to the objective it would just disappear instead of relocating to the character I was meant to talk to. Now, there are other sidequests such as monster posters hung on billboards for you to hunt, having a difficulty grade and generally being treated as minibosses. And giving credit where credits are due, these can get seriously challenging!
Another issue I can point out is for the most part after every major boss battle the story slows down, and it feels like you’re in intermission. “Hey, do some smaller objectives to push the story along before we give you more!” which is totally fine and in fact it definitely fleshes the characters and story out more however about half of the time it can get a little stale. However, thankfully they dont leave you in it for too long before everything starts kicking back up again!
Getting back to the goodies, FF16 being an RPG, also has a skill tree! Which can make every playthrough unique, and the player can spice up their abilities anytime they please outside of active battle. And players are welcome to choose from a variety of different controller layouts as well.
Graphics and Audio in this game are just pure eye/ear candy. I’m sure you’ve noticed how absolutely stunning these visuals are in the provided photos. I mean in-game, cutscene, whatever all look beautiful. Now with that being said you might be wondering of any graphic settings, considering this game releasing on the PS5. Well unfortunately, there’s only one switch that prioritizes either graphics or frame rate. Even sooo, I really did not notice much of a difference, yes graphics looks sligghhttllyy better however for the smoothest play I would just choose to play on the frame rate option because the game can get fairly fast paced and there’s not enough of a cut that the average player would notice. And the music in this game ranges to soft instrumental really immersing you in the world you’re in, to- OH MY GOSH THIS IS SO HYYPPPEEE. And let me just say, the voice acting? 10/10 and for the ladies, Clive has such a sweet buttery voice, he might be your new Leon Kennedy.
Overall, I love this game and there’s so much to love about this game. As I mentioned in the beginning FF16 is my first entry into the Final Fantasy series, and I would recommend this game to anyone and everyone. Literally, If you care for a deep story or not or if you care about addicting gameplay or not , I must say this game is literally for everyone. A gorgeous music score, talented actors, and a game that just has passion poured into it, Final Fantasy 16 is solid all around. And as a final note, another big reason as to why this game is great, is because of its hint of good ol’ 2000’s edge. What’s not to love about that?