My first contact with Final Fantasy XVI was anything but good. The new blockbuster from Square Enix opens with a prologue in medias res that grabs the player by the scruff and plunges him unceremoniously into a spectacular action sequence. When he still hasn’t recovered, she grabs him by the neck again and transfers him, without giving him a shred of context, to an incomprehensible meeting between top brass. Finally, when the player is completely disoriented, allow them to start moving. Where? In the middle of a battlefield, between armies, titans the size of mountains, and a collapsing stage.
The gimmicky formula with which the new installment of this saga with 35 years of history begins, which hits stores this Thursday exclusively for PlayStation 5, did not seem wrong at all to me. After all, you have to win the attention of the player. It was what came after those intense fifteen minutes that made my first few hours with this highly anticipated title one disappointment after another. An old-school tutorial, environments with which you can barely interact, a linear structure to the point of saying enough, combat (still) very limited, eternal cinematics… It was no use to me that the scenarios seemed sublime postcards, during the first few hours of Final Fantasy XVI seemed to me decorated with papier-mâché.
Until I met Cid. With the appearance of this character, who plays the role of the protagonist’s teacher, a certain Clive Rosfield, the game gets rid of the need to sell you all its benefits, it begins to show his true cards. Both characters are clichés on legs, archetypes that seem like something out of an outdated version of Game of Thrones—indeed, the whole game has a cheeky Game of Thrones whiff—but, even so, there’s something magnetic about it. Thus, with doubts but with an open mind, I began my journey through Valisthea, the fantasy world in which this sixteenth Final Fantasy is set, a completely new story for which – don’t worry – it is not necessary to have played any of the fifteen previous deliveries.
As I said, I’ve been getting into the game little by little, because Final Fantasy XVI is a title that grows and expands as it progresses in its more than 50 hours of epic adventure. The stages, initially corridors worthy of a couple of generations ago, widen to form semi-open areas of great beauty. The protagonist’s abilities expand as he faces new dangers. The story conquers you progressively. Without going into too much detail, it is about a world addicted to an energy source that is about to run out, about a world in the middle of the Cold War between nations with high destructive power, about a world that is withering, about a world that mistreats to those who are different. Indeed, the story of Final Fantasy XVI has to do with things that, unfortunately, we know well.
A fact that has been talked about a lot since the game was announced in September 2020: Final Fantasy XVI is the first installment in the franchise to receive a PEGI 18 rating, that is, it is a title recommended for adults. It is not a minor detail. The general tone of the story is a bit darker and the violence more stark. However, what has surprised me the most in this regard is the crude portrayal that the game makes of the genocide exercised from power over a specific part of the population whose special powers pose a threat. I wouldn’t dare say that it’s a more mature Final Fantasy –in the end everything ends up being a fantasy of power in which everything is solved by sword blows–, but its tone is more adult and interesting.
Speaking of swords. Another of the most notorious changes proposed by this new iteration is the definitive jump to combat in real time. Historically, the franchise had been characterized by the classic turn-based system, but in recent years it has been turning towards more direct ways of understanding the action and capable of appealing to a larger audience. The game’s director, the veteran designer Hiroshi Takai, who already worked on Final Fantasy V in the early 90s, has compared this new installment with God of War, and the truth is that he is not without reason. Both the linear structure of the game and its direct combat in the hack and slash style are clearly reminiscent of the latest adventures of Kratos, although, of course, with all the character of the great Japanese productions, its stylized characters, its vibrant visual aesthetics and a soundtrack as delicate as it is bombastic.
The music is provided by the Japanese composer Masayoshi Soken, who, like a large part of the team, comes from Final Fantasy XIV, the reborn online game that has helped him learn about the iconic leitmotifs of the franchise. The soundtrack is of crucial importance in any Final Fantasy and even more in this one, since it serves to emphasize the emotions of the player. Neither the numerous combats that Clive has to face, nor the huge confrontations between the eikon summons, would be the same without the epic and the nerve that the orchestra and the choirs provide. None of its different settings would be so dreamy without these excellent compositions –around 200!– that transport the player to the territory of fantasy.
There’s something endearing about the design of the locations in Final Fantasy XVI. Its fortified cities, with some of the most imposing castles ever seen in a video game, are a mindless pastiche of influences from Romanesque and Gothic architecture added to other styles. They are scenarios that seek to recreate a certain authenticity, the daily life of its inhabitants, with its establishments, inns and markets. Exotic and distant places, impossible and overwhelming constructions, forests and lush fields, lava caverns… It is not an open world game as it is so common nowadays; instead it is made up of separate rooms that the player can access via a map. It is an interesting decision, since it allows these places to be of great beauty, although it also affects how it presents its history.
The fact that Final Fantasy XVI doesn’t take place in a large open world makes the narrative much more linear and controlled. However, this less freedom of movement also makes the structure of the game much more corseted. The main missions maintain the narrative pulse very well with their cinematic sequences, as abundant as they are well done, but the secondary missions falter in their design, too basic and guided. It’s funny because, despite the fact that I didn’t like his side missions, I ended up doing them all. It’s not something that happens to me often, and I think it’s explained by Valisthea’s wealth and the charisma of her characters.
As the hours have passed I have realized that, despite all its flaws, I wanted to stay in this world created by the Creative Business Unit III, the Square Enix team led by producer Naoki Yoshida. For each cinematic scene with the labials out of sync, I found an interesting line of dialogue (the localization of the Spanish subtitles is very good); with each filling secondary mission, a small detail of those that make you smile; with each Quick Time Event little, an amazing ability from Clive… I could go on, Final Fantasy XVI is one of those games in which the heart and mind come into conflict and, although I am aware that my first contact was not the best , the overall experience has been memorable.
