The sixteenth part of “Final Fantasy” seemed unable to surprise. Square Enix has long been blown away as a publisher, and the studios under its wing release safe projects – they cost three kopecks, find a niche, bring some money and go into oblivion. But Final Fantasy 16 broke this vicious circle and deserves to go down in the history of the gaming industry as another legendary entry in the franchise.
So that the reader does not build illusions – I have always been extremely biased towards Final Fantasy. I didn’t understand the hype (and I don’t understand) about the seventh and ninth parts, in spite of the community I love Final Fantasy X and sympathize with Final Fantasy XV with caution. From the new part, I did not expect anything, and the introduction from the demo increased suspicions. Until recently, I couldn’t believe that I could fall in love with the series again. Spoiler alert: Final Fantasy 16 has become one of those games that have taken a place in the heart, despite the shortcomings and roughness.
“Movie by Sony”
Like any other part of Final Fantasy, the sixteenth starts in a new universe with its own rules and regulations. Valistia, the local islands, are divided by five factions fighting for territory – each has a personal Mother Crystal, which is a shrine for all the inhabitants of the world. The cause of wars and strife is the pestilence, which destroys the lands – draws the last forces out of it, turns the soil into lifeless and it is almost impossible to live in such territories.
The protagonist is Clive Rosefield, the son of the Duke of Rosary. The latter is a descendant of the dominant Phoenix – a deity whose power is inherited among the children of the clan. On Clive, nature recouped, and the power of the dominant went to his younger brother Joshua. Nevertheless, the brothers love each other, and the father appoints the elder as the Shield of the younger – a personal bodyguard and the closest person. Mother, on the other hand, loves more than her youngest, because he is not defective, like Clive – and she values the purity of blood.
And this starting plot is dust on the book of intrigue and ups and downs that await players in Final Fantasy 16! Each character that appears on the screen will play a role in the story of Clive Rosefield and show the consequences of his decisions. The scriptwriters were inspired by the “Game of Thrones” – this can be seen with the naked eye. But they easily surpassed George Martin and the writers of the series.
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The Empire is plotting against the Kingdom of Valud, the Republic of Dalmecia is at war with the Ironbloods from the far islands, and in the midst of this, the themes of slavery, equality and brotherhood are being promoted! And not in the forehead, as the modern Western media industry likes, but carefully – making it clear the motivations, the essence of conflicts, to see different sides. Damn it, even a strong female character is not uncommon here, but the girls here are not at the behest of the heel of the “progressive community”. They prove it on the screen with actions – they go into battle, stop civil wars, take on difficult cases and do everything for the common good! This is the “message” we approve.
Final Fantasy 16 is a brutal and mature game. Favorite heroes are killed here, there is nudity and sex, smoking and swearing! None of the parts before this did not allow itself to do this, turning every dialogue and scene into either a mediocre anime or a stupid children’s fairy tale. Everything is wrong here – the scriptwriters are not afraid to put the characters in difficult situations, deprive them of something, force them to sacrifice something and arrange bloodbaths right in the middle of cities filled with residents. At the same time, the feeling of a fairy tale, where the heroes will win and evil will be punished, has not gone away. It’s a pity Final Fantasy 16 cruelly manages such expectations and will make players cry in the finale.
The plot is also accompanied by such beautiful cinematic videos and staged scenes that sometimes it seems that you are watching a movie. During the passage, for the first time in the years the PS5 entered the market, I wanted to exclaim: “Yes, this is a nextgen!”. The realism of lighting and materials in the frame, the facial expressions of the characters and the thoughtfulness of the environment – all this immerses you into the atmosphere of the world no less than a great story.
Music also helps in this – the composers of Final Fantasy 16 created a divine soundtrack that sets the right tone and mood for every battle and every scene. And no wonder – Masayoshi Soken and Nobuo Uematsu worked on the tracks for the game. The latter is the author of the soundtracks for the entire Final Fantasy series, as well as the games Lost Odyssey and Chrono Trigger.
But, unfortunately, it was not without its drawbacks. And fillers are to blame for everything – in anime, this is what series or arches are called, the only purpose of which is to artificially stretch the timing. Square Enix, as a Japanese studio, did not disdain to take them about 10 hours from the entire plot. The walkthrough for the review took 75 hours – with the completion of all side tasks, hunting and crafting the best weapons.
At the same time, the main problem of these fillers is not even their presence, but their complete stupidity. Collecting materials for the ship’s engines for two hours is the height of impudence! While most of the side missions are much cooler than these pointless cutscenes and reveal the characters, their thoughts and goals are much better than walking through brothels and assembling engines.
Even if the side quests, from the point of view of the gameplay, do not favor variety – go, talk, find, kill, bring (underline as necessary) – but they reveal the secondary characters and the relationship between the main characters even deeper. And you follow each story with interest, because you become related to the heroes, become part of Valistia and the world of Final Fantasy 16. Therefore, side missions do not become a stuffy routine – over time, you start to type them in batches, while the main storyline is waiting in the wings.
New Devil May Cry?
The gameplay matches perfectly with what is happening on the screen. From tactical, turn-based and team action Creative Business Unit III went towards slasher – and it was the right decision to keep the momentum.
Final Fantasy 16 is not as deep as the current Devil May Cry titles. But the tools presented by the developers are enough to fight beautifully. The combat system only on commercials looks like an attempt to cut huge monsters with a toothpick – in fact, it feels much faster and even bosses will eventually begin to die in a couple of minutes.
The combat mechanics are not revealed immediately – initially, Clive has a very limited number of abilities and skills. The first five to ten hours the player is carefully slipped new opportunities, taught to understand the controls, combine several elements and combine them into colorful tricks. And only at the turning point of the plot, about 40% of the story, the combat system is revealed. Three elements become available to the player, and in the future more, which can be combined in battle as you like and in any order.
Each element has a main skill and two attackers. Only three elements can be active at the same time – and that’s nine abilities at a time. Not counting sword link attacks, magic strike links, dash, top-down strike, weapon charge with fire. And from all this, the player builds the battle the way he wants – this is the basis of any slasher. Ryota Suzuki, one of the DMC5 developers who worked on Final Fantasy 16’s combat system, called the game a “masterpiece” among action games for a reason.
Side activities, like hunting and secondary quests, you do with pleasure just because of the combat system – you want to participate in battles more and more, cut computer idiots and not stop. It’s a pity that the content of the world failed – it’s too standard for the genre and it’s pointless to explore locations without quests, because the player will not find anything but a couple of chests.
The more abilities you unlock, the deeper you dive into combinations and the essence of the combat system, the more you begin to see the depth of gameplay and balance. Even closer to the end of the story, when you think that nothing will surprise you, you get an ability that works according to completely different rules. Light strikes with a minimum of damage that gain the scale of the super attack, and it destroys everything that the player sees on the screen with one click of a button. And you sit and do not understand: “Is this even legal?!”.
The developers also made the most correct pumping, which can only be in the genre. You can pump abilities without fear of losing experience points – the invested resources allow you to return and redistribute for experiments with new techniques. The only complaint is that the initial descriptions of the skills are too laconic. You need to press the “triangle” on the gamepad to read all the details. And at the same time, learn that the rank of the “Master” ability allows you to use this skill in any element! It is desirable to do this not in the middle of the passage, as I do.
At the same time, if you are not familiar with the genre and dynamic video games in general, the developers from the start give the player difficulty modifiers – special rings and amulets. They will help you dodge all attacks, make combos at the press of one button – there are enough modifiers to facilitate the gameplay. If you want to feel the real combat of Final Fantasy 16, you do not need to use them.
The equipment, crafting, and collecting of small items that are typical of the jRPG genre have remained in their infancy. Items for crafting are more than poured out, and only the sword “Death of the Gods”, as well as the set of “Ouroboros”, had to be collected resources. Not to grind, which is important, but to complete additional tasks and complete hunting quests – for rare and unique components. All the rest can be bought more than in any store, as well as consumables. And the player has so much money that at the end of the passage more than three hundred thousand gil have accumulated – there is almost nowhere to even spend them. Unless you buy new music at a local hub.
Exclusivity saved the game
As mentioned above, the project fascinates with a picture. There is no more beautiful game in the industry today. And perhaps this is thanks to the PlayStation 5. More precisely, the game has been released so far on only one platform.
The developers overcame downloads – transitions between locations from the global map take a couple of seconds at most. Yes, the world itself is semi-open and consists of several regions. But one game country has a large location, albeit linear in some parts. All this is loaded with great speed.
At the same time, in the “Quality” mode, only in a couple of places I observed a decrease in frame rate to 24-26. The rest of the time the game runs at a steady 30fps and looks amazing. I won’t add anything new about the “Performance” mode – lowering the image resolution and a ragged frame rate are present. And it’s not worth it to sacrifice great graphics for a couple of dozen frames – enjoy the picture.
Diagnosis
Final Fantasy 16 is not without flaws. It’s not a perfect product, it’s not Sony’s greatest exclusive, and it’s unlikely that it will claim prestigious awards. The game has problems: with a sagging middle of the story and stretched plot points, with a cardboard filling of a semi-open world, with protruding offshoots of old jRPG systems. But the story and characters, side missions and immersion in the atmosphere, the new combat system, the beauty of the world of Valistia, music and staged scenes – all this did not let go for 75 hours.
And after the end of the plot, there is only one desire – to wipe the mean male tears from the final cut-scene, severely press the “New Game +” button and go through Final Fantasy 16 again, but on the “Final Fantasy” difficulty. Not all projects are able to evoke such feelings – and therefore more valuable than any modern “masterpieces”.
Pros
- The plot and stories of the characters
- Storytelling in side quests
- Stage staging
- Combat system
- Graphics and beautiful world
- Music
Cons
- Filling the world
- Fillers and sagging plot in the middle
- Unnecessary jRPG systems
- Side mission game design