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dkirschner's Final Fantasy XVI (PS5)

[August 17, 2026 09:37:43 AM]

What a difference from FFVII: Rebirth. It’s interesting how Final Fantasy games can be so unique from one another. Whereas the last one I played was long, open-world-ish, and had you controlling a party of characters, including managing all their gear, materia, and move sets, this one is much more straightforward, shorter, and linear. I would even say it’s an action RPG. You control one character, there is no decision-making about equipment (you just put on the things that make numbers go up), magic is simplified, and you get the typical (nowadays) action RPG/soulslike combat controls, complete with dodging and parrying. Whereas I felt that FFVII: Rebirth was overly long and complicated, FFXVI falls on the easy and overly simple side. I enjoyed them both for different reasons.

One thing I certainly liked better about FFXVI was the mature tone. The contrast makes FFVII even more cringy than I already thought. FFXVI could fall into stoic practicality, but usually did a good job balancing that with subtle humor. Cid was reliably funny, as was Clive’s uncle, and a couple other characters (the dude with one eye going “Fuuuuuuck!” whenever something bad happened). The only character who could have fit in FFVII was Mid, but she was still mild compared to, say, Yuffie. Maybe that big guy too, the arms dealer’s pack mule. Okay, some silly characters, but they weren’t that bad.

The tone is supported by a solid story that mixes tense Game of Thrones style political/military drama with a videogamey end-of-the-world crisis. I love the way it incorporated the Final Fantasy summons (here, called Eikons). Here’s the gist of the story. In this world, there are several major kingdoms. The kingdoms are centered around giant crystals, which are the source of the world’s magic. Some people are born with magic, while most aren’t. Magic users (called Bearers) are generally discriminated against, seen as dangerous, and in some kingdoms made slaves. However, a very few Bearers have the power of Eikons awaken in them. Eikons are badass entities (gods, basically). Those select Bearers can turn into their Eikons. They are extremely powerful and influential. Despite widespread discrimination against Bearers, the Dominants (those people who can turn into Eikons) are prized. They are part of royal lineages, or military leaders, key advisors, or whatever. They are important in the constant Game of Thrones style warring because they can decimate a battlefield.

So, that’s the backdrop. You play as Clive, the brother of the Dominant of Phoenix and his protector. Early in the game, bad stuff happens and the Dominant of Phoenix is murdered by a new Dominant that no one thought should be able to exist. Clive goes off in search of this Dominant to get vengeance for his brother. That sets the main story off, which ends, as I said, with a threat to the whole world. It takes place over a couple decades. Political allegiances shift, wars happen, major events occur, characters age and come and go, etc. It’s pretty epic. Definitely a strong point of the game.

One funny thing about the story…Clive (your character) is a Bearer. Bearers get tattoos on their faces to stigmatize them. That’s how the pompous elites know to talk down to you. It was consistently hilarious how xyz fat, stuffy nobleperson treated me like dirt when I was obviously extremely powerful, wearing the finest armor and sporting the sharpest, most intricate sword in the entire world. There was a funny side quest where a nobleman begs me to save his son from wolves. When you go to the son, he is there with his pet wolves and sics them on you. This was all entertainment for the nobleman and his son to kill Bearers for sport. But, Clive is, as I said, obviously a well-equipped badass. Why would you pit your wolf against this hero? Clive easily slays the wolves, the boy cries and runs to his father, who yells and screams at you for killing the boy’s pets and upsetting him. The father and son get another wolf to train, but alas, the wild wolf kills and eats them. Satisfying. Also, as time goes on in the story, Clive and lots of other Bearers have their tattoos removed. But they all have giant Brearer tattoo scars on their faces. It’s like no one can see the scars. The pompous elites, who still have Bearer slaves and who are still horribly discriminatory, for some reason cannot see that Clive ever had a tattoo. I have a big fucking scar! No one suspects a thing. Makes no sense.

There are two interesting contrasts to how story is presented. First, on the one hand, you have the main quests, and on the other hand, the side quests. The main quests are epic. Boss fights (the big ones that involve Eikons) are kaiju clashes. They are some of the coolest looking battles I’ve ever seen in a game. Multiple phases. Bosses yelling insane things at you. You’ll fight normally, then you’ll semi-prime (half turn into Eikons), then you’ll prime and be hurling house-sized fireballs and shooting laser death rays at one another. The side quests, in contrast, are MMO city. They are generally boring and yield shit rewards. Most are not worth doing for rewards, though I did a handful of low-hanging ones, accepting them all and then completing the ones that were in town or didn’t require me to travel. They are all “go here, kill monsters, fetch item, return” or “talk to three NPCs in town” type quests. So, there are exciting highs (main quest) and dull lows (side quests). But, I eventually realized that (1) there are different types of side quests, some of which provide really helpful rewards, such as the ability to ride a chocobo (I cannot imagine accidentally skipping this one) and massively increased potion space, and (2) if you pay attention to the side quests, they’re actually really good narratively. They flesh out side characters and do a good job with world-building. They’re just boring to do.

The second contrast is between any type of gameplay and cut scenes. I mean, this is normal to convey narrative through cut scenes. But, like I said (and was surprised) that FFXVI is more of an action RPG, and it’s also more of a movie. There must be 15 hours of cut scenes in this thing, no joke. I bet a quarter to a third of my playtime was watching cut scenes. There were a lot in FFVII: Rebirth too, but my play time was 2.5 times longer. I lifted a lot of weights and did a lot of sit-ups and squats while playing.

I said that FXVI is linear. Aside from choosing to do side quests, this is true. You can go straight through the main quest line. There is scant to explore in the world save finding some special monsters to hunt. The game was easy to streamline from the beginning. You go from point A to point B. When running around in the world, there are items to find. But, I realized that (a) they seem to replenish themselves and (b) they are mostly just basic crafting materials (of which you will have hundreds extra) or (no joke) like 2 gil (I ended up with like 200,000, so 2 is…not motivating). At first, I scoured maps to find all the items. Then, I got tired of fighting a group of enemies at every item, so I ran from item to item avoiding confrontations. Then, I stopped searching for items at all. You don’t need them. You’ll have plenty of money to stock your limited health potion capacity in towns. You will want to craft and upgrade weapons, but you’ll generally have the one special material to craft the special sword or whatever (later, you will need special materials from hunts), and then you’ll likely have enough other materials to upgrade things. Even if you don’t, though, it doesn’t matter. You won’t be under-powered. Stats and leveling up are all just kind of for show. When you get 50 HP for leveling up (out of your 3000 total), that level doesn’t seem too important. When you get +3 HP (literally) and +5 defense (out of 250) for spending rare crafting ingredients to upgrade your belt, it doesn’t seem to matter. I ended up skipping tiers of gear upgrades in a row until I was far enough behind that I could get meaningful stat bonuses. I was disappointed that there was no thought whatsoever to gearing up. Even your accessories require little thought. Early on, there are some useful ones, like getting +10 defense (out of 100; that’s 10%!). Later, though, when your defense in 300, that +10 is pretty pointless. Most accessories just augment your special Eikon abilities by 10% or something like that, which is simply not that useful. I equipped one for most of the game that lets the game automatically control your wolf companion during battle. He can heal you and do a couple special attacks. But, I realized that his heals (if he even ever did it) were negligible, as was having his attacks be automated. I just…never gave him commands, and he was fine. You usually have one or two other companions with you too. You cannot give them commands in any way, no equipment, no stats, nothing. They are just there.

The only thing that, maybe, is worth managing is the Eikon abilities, though I just used the first three Eikons I got and never bothered with the rest. So…I didn’t even manage those. Maybe it’s more important on harder difficulties. This is emblematic of the ease of combat though. You don’t need to do too much. Repeat your basic combo, dodge/parry as necessary, and spam Eikon abilities on cooldown rotation. Call upon your Eikon when that meter fills up. Keep an eye on your health. That’s it. Of course, there is strategy in choosing the order of your Eikon abilities, and in using some of them situationally, but like I said, the fact that I was just fine with the first three Eikons I got shows me that pretty much any strategy will work to whittle down enemy stun and health bars. By the end of the game, you are one-shotting regular enemies with Eikon abilities, and bosses become pretty easy to keep stunned.

I definitely enjoyed this one. I’d come for the story and the epic boss battles. Combat is fun, if simple. Cut scenes are long, and in that it flirts with overstaying its welcome. The whole experience is linear. If you want an open world and lots of side content, this isn’t the game. But if you want to be guided along for an experience, this might be worth checking out.