Final Fantasy XVI Review

Final Fantasy XVI is a game made by the studio Creative Business Unit 3 from Publisher Square-Enix. Directed by Hiroshi Takai (Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward), Written by Kazutoyo Maehiro (Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward) & Michael-Christopher Koji Fox (Final Fantasy XI & Final Fantasy XIV), Composed by Masayoshi Soken (Final Fantasy XIV), Combat Directed by Ryota Suzuki (Devil May Cry V & Dragon's Dogma), and was Produced by Naoki Yoshida (Dragon Quest X & Final Fantasy XIV).

In the English version it stars Ben Starr (Midsomer Murders & Knightfall) as Clive Rosfield, Susannah Fielding (Kill Keith & Death on the Nile) as Jill Warrick, Jonathan Case (Undergods & Simon Godwin's Macbeth) as Joshua Rosfield, and Harry Lloyd (Anthropoid & BBC's Robin Hood) as Ultima.

Final Fantasy XVI is the current mainline entry of the Final Fantasy series, and was propped up & partially funded by Sony Computer Entertainment as an exclusive to the Playstation 5 Console during it's initial launch, as a way to encourage sales of the consoles. After the exclusivity deal ended it was released on Software developer Valve's Steam platform on PC and was made compatible with Valve's Steam Deck. This review was played on the Steam Deck in it's entirety.

Final Fantasy XVI lays out it's story in chapters in a way that seems designed with the mindset for the player to create their own "episodes" to which they will go about the story & sidequests at their leisure, save at a satisfying portion and then return at another time. It's big design philosophy for the gameplay loop seemed to be "Story portion > Quest gathering > Travel and lore dump > gameplay > Quest conclusion and if applicable, long cutscenes as a reward to the player for their efforts". Overall it's a decent gameplay loop to have and it's fairly satisfying to play. No complaints really.

The bigger issues are the decisions made for the presentation of style & gameplay choices. A big majority portion of the Final Fantasy fanbase is usually divided between two subsections, "Medival Fantasy" & "Modern Fantasy" with XVI being firmly in the Medival Fantasy style much like it's bigger brother Final Fantasy XIV to which the majority of the staff comes from. The bigger issue inlies where to appeal to a broader audience they went with a style for the beginning portion of the game to be in line with popular TV at the time of development starting in 2017; which was Television company HBO's Game of Thrones. And the Game of Thrones style of negative dirty gritty Medieval Fantasy clashes with the more positive hopeful medieval fantasy of older Final Fantasies like Final Fantasy IV or Final Fantasy VI. And really that's a reflection of society at the time of development for both and highlights a broader issue within the industry. Games like Final Fantasy IV & VI were made within a year start to finish, and so the temperaments of the stories fit within the hopeful nature of society at the time in the 1990s. XVI however took a period of 6 years from start of development in 2017 to it's release in 2023 and a lot changed in temperament in society in-between that time. We went through a whole period from people reveling in despair with shows like Game of Thrones to actually living in despair during the COVID-19 pandemic. With 2023 the temperament changed where people want hope, they want goodness in the world. And so a game that starts out in a way to make you sad, didn't leave good impressions on people at the time.

Over time however in the story, it lightens up and tries to instill in the player, as this is a theme throughout the game, that you can overcome great trials in your life within your own power and that by working together with your loved ones can you become a greater you. It frames this however in an unfortunate A-typical Chaotic Shinto-istic way of portraying the creators of the World as ones with ill intent. Not that it isn't what the antagonists are, they are indeed ill intended individuals, but it's become a tired trope even within the franchise of fighting against "gods" so humanity can stand on it's own. It's a common theme seen in very popular games like Shin Megami Tensei: Persona, Final Fantasy Tactics, Elden Ring, & Mortal Kombat. A contrast to other games where "gods" or God is there to aid the heroes like Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy XI, & Oreshika. Fighting the in-lore deities reflects the overarching theme of Final Fantasy XVI which is slave breaking free from the chains of their masters, akin to a very popular game that came out at the start of development in 2017, the highly acclaimed Persona 5; which it's famous tagline when it debuted as "Do you want emancipation?".

The story flow of the game seems to be broken up into 3 parts. The intro which tries to connect you to the characters done in it's Game of Thrones style through Chapters 1-3, then the middle portion which explains the lore done in a style like a mix between Final Fantasy Tactics & the TV show Babylon 5 in chapters 4-6, the final chapters 7-10 is very much finally trying to be it's own Final Fantasy; trying to truly instill in the players the deep emotional connection with big moments like prior Final Fantasies do. One might think the climb up the Crystalline Tower in a late chapter of the game where you fight Bahamut is trying to instill the same feeling people had with prior FFs like VII's fight against the Weapons as a test of knowledge of the game's mechanics, X with the fight against Yunalesca and fighting as an undead, or XIV's fight against Nidhogg dealing with Ank Mohrn pillars of flame. XVI does it's best to present it's bosses as memorable events that try to stick in your mind and it succeeds in that. The big problem is that it takes a certain mindset to feel the motivation to even get there. As the opening chapters do nothing to instill in the players a sense of hope or goodness. It's very demotivating.

Another thing that was demotivating about the game with the choice of combat mechanics. Having brought in the prior mentioned Ryota Suzuki, the game was made with an Action RPG style. A game style made for quick reflexes and situational awareness that is reflective of other games at the time and now that are adrenaline pumping like the Souls genre or the prior mentioned Devil May Cry. And while there is optional accessories in game to equip that make it easier for the non-action game enthusiast to enjoy it, it doesn't take away the broader issue. That this game would have been better served as a Turn-Based RPG like it's older siblings in the final Fantasy series. There were many times throughout the game that I felt this game would have been better served as a turn-based one. And it's not like the genre of Turn-Based RPGs are dead. As one of the most popular franchises in general is one, Pokemon; as well as other acclaimed & highly sold games like Persona, Like A Dragon, & FFs sister series Dragon Quest. It's an example of the divide in philosophy for certain developers and it's audience.

All of this combined is what led to the game unfortunately not being that big of a hit at a supposed 3.5 Million sales. Unlike XVI's bigger brother VII which was able to move more Playstation 1 consoles sold, XVI was unable to encourage sale of the Playstation 5. Now there are broader issues at play with the Playstation 5 such as the Pandemic, the artificial inflation of chip prices, the rise of digital currency such as bitcoin, as well as a recession for people just trying to survive. But Final Fantasy also has a larger problem in and of itself in regards to development. Starting with Final Fantasy XII, the development time of the games stretched longer and longer from a 1 year turnover to multiple years. Final Fantasy 1-11 all came out between the years of 1987-2002 a time of 15 years, Final Fantasy XII-XVI from time of development to release was 2002-2023; only 5 entries in a span of 20+ years (with one entry in particular XV, taking the greater part of 10 years to make). There's an entire generation that did not get enough mainline entries of Final Fantasy to grow attached to it like the prior generation did. So there's less people caring about the franchise, and thus less people caring enough to buy an entire console just for XVI. This led to weak sales in terms of making a profit from development costs and thus made the game considered an unclaimed failure by the company. Forcing them to lean on it's live service games like it's mobile division and XIV to cover the profit for the company. Making the eventual PC release a nice gesture to allow people to finally play it, but not making it a World wide hit the franchise is expected to be. This is partially why the company is leaning so heavily in it's sequel series of it's most popular entry VII with the "Remake" trilogy.

While XVI failed to deliver on a lot of fronts, it's still an enjoyable game. There are things to become attached to, and a lot of content to draw out of it. But unlike some of the more quality games of the past few years like Balatro, Street Fighter 6, or Yakuza: Like A Dragon; I don't think I'll be revisiting this game.

In my personal tiering of Final Fantasies (not what I think the average consumer feels), it strikes above average. A good effort that unfortunately came out too late for people to care. Bellow is my current rankings of the franchise.

Great
V
VI
XIII-2
XIV Stormblood
XIV Heavensward
XI Chains of Promathia
IV The After Years
XIV Shadowbringers
Tactics Advance
Lightening Returns XIII
XI Wings of the Goddess
XI Seekers of Audolin
XI Rhapsodies of Vana'diel

Good
XIV Endwalker
Type-0
XIV A Realm Reborn
X-2
IV
XI Treasures of Aht Urghan
X
VII Crisis Core
III
XI Rise of the Zilart
XV Comrades
XV
XVI

Average
XI The Voracious Resurgence
XI
I
IX
VII
XIV Dawntrail
Ehrgeiz
II Soul of Rebirth
II
XIII
IV Interlude
A King's Tale XV
Tactics

Bellow Average
Crystal Defenders
Tactics Advance 2
VII Dirge of Cerberus
XII Revenant Wings
VIII
XII


I've yet to finish: VII Remake, VII Rebirth, I Stranger of Paradise