As I was going though Final Fantasy XVI, struggling not to fall asleep, I kept asking myself – how could this happen? How did they manage to make a game that has genuinely good writing and premise, yet such a boring story? How did they finally nail the mix of hack and slash and turn-based combat in Final Fantasy VII Remake only to then go back to the Final Fantasy XV combat and make it even more uninteresting? How did they make a game with so much potential to be fresh and exciting to be so much of a slog to play? Yet I continued my playthrough, as I always do with Final Fantasy games, and wondered if the game will end up being something that can be recommended or not.
Since some might be unfamiliar with the idea, Final Fantasy games might share the same name, but they are almost never direct sequels of one another and instead rely on recurring themes, character archetypes, names, titles, systems and other elements to keep the series consistency. And ever since Final Fantasy XII (or, technically, XI, which was an MMORPG) the franchise wanted to move more into the direction of real-time, more action-heavy combat. The transition finally happened with Final Fantasy XV which played far closer to a hack and slash action RPG (like the Ys titles of the time), than what the series were known for before. Still, the combat was very animation and command input driven, being somewhere in-between the turn-based concept and realtime, so a lot of your moves had a delay and commands could queue up. Square Enix would revisit this idea, but from a different perspective in Final Fantasy VII Remake, which played like a very responsive hack and slash, but also had a commands-driven magic and special attack system neatly integrated on top.
Final Fantasy XVI decides to go a different direction – more towards a typical hack and slash action RPG, with focus on combos, responsive inputs, dodging and blocking, using special moves via shortcuts and that kind of stuff. Yet… the way this is done is so simplified and limited, I fail to understand the reasoning behind the move. You get one basic combo, a dodge (including perfect dodge) a few typical hack and slash moves like juggling enemies in the air or rushing towards an enemy with an attack and these don’t change for the entirety of the game. No new basic combo moves or anything like that. Instead you get special elemental power moves on a timer and as the game progresses, you get more elements and thus more special moves. But, you can only use 2 (out of a total of 4) per power and have 3 elemental powers equipped at the same time when in a battle… With some of them being, basically, a complete waste of a slot.
But they can be powerful and helpful against normal enemies. Except, normal enemies are never a problem anyway, the issue lies with tougher enemies and bosses, who have a lot more health and a return of a “stagger” mechanic from previous games. Basically, the game wants you to not just deal direct damage to such enemies, but first deplete a different meter, so they stagger and fall over, after which they get increased damage and you wallop them with all your special moves. The issue here is that – they always have so much health, you get bored way before you feel any sort of challenge or difficulty from the fight. Bosses do get some variety in their moves as their health gets smaller to keep you somewhat entertained. But they last way too long, despite the fact that most of the combat in the first 4 hours of the game plays exactly like combat in the last 4 hours of the game.
At least the world, characters and storytelling is mostly extremely good. The premise is not very novel, but solid, characters are genuinely well done and the move to a more “down to earth” dark fantasy (that the developers themselves mentioned was inspired in part by A Song of Ice and Fire) is interesting for the franchise. Not entirely new, as even Final Fantasy II had similar vibes, just done on a very very impressive and very “modern” level of quality. The issue here is that it’s so… unexciting and dark by design, that it becomes quite tedious to go through. There are a couple of moments where the game realises that it copied quite a lot from Devil May Cry already anyway and goes nuts with its presentation and gameplay. One of the big gimmicks here is the transformation into “Eikons” and huge grandiose battles with some of the bosses. But it almost never happens and most of the time, it’s characters half-whispering to each other some sad truths about the dying world and being sad. Which simply lacks any contrast to give you a good emotional rollercoaster. Especially since the story itself is extremely straightforward.
I did like the approach to the world design in general – it’s a mix of open world-ish regions in the style of FFXII mixed with story-driven linear stages, as it allowed the game to mix its strong storytelling with your more typical exploration and side questing. Side quests, while not super inventive, are usually tied to character stories and expand the world and relationships in a meaningful way. Some are even permanently changing the layout of the world, which was unexpected and nice. Visually the game is extremely well presented and despite going for a more “realistic” feel it includes a nice variety of locations, almost comparable with FFXII. Sadly, just as with XII, the monster selection is very limited, however. The soundtrack is mostly exceptionally good too.
Yet, there was one thought that was bothering me throughout the entire game, which was – this feels as if someone wanted to make a remake of Final Fantasy VIII, but decided to make a new game instead. The game flow and world structure would’ve been a perfect fit for one. Several scenes and character narrative themes are almost a direct reference to VIII… Sure, the combat would still need to be made better as even the original FF VIII was far more exciting and varied, despite being turn-based (well ATB, but you get what I mean). But wow… This game would’ve been straight up better if it was a remake of VIII, because that classic had a far more exciting story already.
There are two DLCs that are… odd. Echoes of the Fallen is a short action stage that provides a tiny bit more history on an aspect of the game that, frankly, didn’t need more story. But it has some cool moments and the final boss fight is neat. The Rising Tide is more like a small additional region of the main game, which is alright. But it tries to overcompensate for the fact that the game combat is boring by violently punishing you for any mistakes during boss fights. While the game expects you to perform very precise things, while giving you really bad camera angles or poor tells for what is even happening. This story is a bit more relevant, but I can’t say playing the DLC is worth it. Than again – if you do like the main game, I suppose, you might as well get both DLCs. Which you can easily grab late – both of these become available right before the final stage and have zero influence on any prior events anyway.
Leaving us with the question of – should you even bother with this game? The writing is genuinely good. It really is. If the story wasn’t so constantly dour and was at least sometimes exciting, maybe it could’ve been enough to ignore the boring combat. But it’s not and the combat system is, genuinely, simply tiresome and tedious. So… you could check the demo of the game and if you feel like you don’t like the combat, don’t bother. Or if you think “I wonder how this combat system will evolve to be more interesting” – it won’t, it is what it is for 35+ hours. I don’t regret finishing the game, but then again – I just play all main FF entries anyway, so it’s hardly a recommendation.