From Stranger to Shield | Final Fantasy XVI [PC] Review

Out of the darkness of Cornelia and into the crystalline views of Valisthea; PhantomZ2 ventures into their first, mainline, Final Fantasy experience. Thank you to SQUARE ENIX for providing Source Gaming with a review copy of FINAL FANTASY XVI (via Steam) and Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin (via Epic Games) in 2022.

Prologue

In 2022, I took my first step into the world of FINAL FANTASY through STRANGER OF PARADISE: FINAL FANTASY ORIGIN, and what a fitting title for my situation. While I may not be a stranger to the franchise as a fan of KINGDOM HEARTS, experiencing the cultural impact of FINAL FANTASY VII through osmosis, and owning the FINAL FANTASY XIII series, STRANGER OF PARADISE was my first time playing a FINAL FANTASY. I got to experience small, inspired environments inspired by each FINAL FANTASY, ultimately leading to a story that could recontextualize the origins of the series’ first title.

While this experience no longer makes me a stranger to the franchise, I can’t help but feel attached to the title – that it’s still true. Although a FINAL FANTASY title, STRANGER OF PARADISE is not a mainline entry; thus, I am still a Stranger. Where it wanted to highlight the mainline series… My duty as Stranger is to do just that — to experience the rest of what the FINAL FANTASY franchise offers. And what better way to start than not just the latest release, but one that happens to have similarities to my origins within the series? FINAL FANTASY XVI…

Into XVI

In September 2020, Sony began their Playstation Showcase by revealing the next mainline title in SQUARE ENIX’s legendary JRPG franchise: FINAL FANTASY XVI; a dark fantasy that would follow a tale of revenge, reveal the legacy of the Crystals, and put the franchise’s iconic summons into the hands of a chosen few. To this day, the AWAKENING Reveal trailer stays in my head due to how well the music builds up – especially once the halfway mark hits. The heavy voices singing, chanting, cascading into the roars of Ifrit as the softer melody of violins and vocals settles the message, a call for you to follow your destiny, to play FINAL FANTASY XVI! To buy a PS5!

Although not a blow to my interest in the title, the fact that footage for the trailer was captured on a PC did not change the fact that FINAL FANTASY XVI would be heading to PS5 first as a console exclusive and would not see a home anywhere else until after the year of 2023. There was no doubt about what to do: be patient. Waiting for four years to play a game that came out nearly a year and a half ago, it’s time to see if it was worth the wait.

From Stranger to Shield

[From this point, this review will cover a range of spoilers.]

This is Valisthea, often referred to as the Twins. A region separated into several major realms, most of them sporting what’s to be known as a Mothercrystal: large bejeweled monuments through which the power of Aether flows through its shards, the land, and to a certain few people. The breakdown is as follows:

The Holy Empire of Sabreque, home of Drake’s Head, as ruled by his Radiance Sylvestre; The Iron Kingdom – home of the Ironblood, the Crystalline Orthodoxy, and Drake’s Breath; The Dhalmekian Republic – a kingdom of fortunes and home to Drake’s Fang; the neutral non-aggression zone and capital of the land, The Crystalline Dominion – home of Drake’s Tail; The Kingdom of Waloed – an isolated Kingdom on the Easter land of Valisthea, home to Drake’s Spine; and The Land of Rosaria seated by Archduke Elwin Rosfield. Although not home to a Mothercrystal, Rosaria is the home of Clive Rosfield, his brother, Joshua, and Jill Warrick, a young princess raised alongside Joshua as his sister.

In addition to being the protagonist of our story, Clive and his family are royalty; his father and mother are the dukes of Rosaria. Little brother Joshua is also blessed as the Dominant of the Eikon, Phoenix. Unlike previous FINAL FANTASY titles where iconic summonses such as Bahamut or Leviathan would be individual entities; in the world of XVI, they’re known as Eikons with world-destroying powers that only select individuals can call upon. Though Clive is firstborn, he was passed over for succession thanks to Joshua’s Eikon. However, he stands by him as the First Shield of Rosaria, a knight dedicated to protecting his Kingdom and his Eikon-bonded Brother. In turn, Clive receives the blessing of the Phoenix, allowing him to command its magic without a crystal.

But, as soon as these promising ventures begin, they too quickly end. When a traitor amongst the ranks lays waste to the Rosarian knights and brings eternal slumber to the Archduke before his youngest son, the Phoenix awakens. Engulfed in rage, sorrow, and fear, Joshua ignites the world around him, soaring into the sky as the Phoenix. As Clive catches wind of the situation, aiming to call out to his brother, a mysterious figure appears. It casts further flame to the land as a pillar of fire erupts, awakening a second being of fire, Ifrit. With eyes set on The Phoenix, the two erupt in an earth-shattering battle that leaves Clive crying out for his brother’s life, only to be given no mercy. Ifrit takes The Phoenix by the heart, destroying everything in its path in a volcanic eruption. Joshua is dead, The Kingdom of Rosaria has fallen, and Clive barely survives as he’s taken by invading knights…

Thirteen years later, as an Imperial enslaved Knight referred to as Wyvern, Clive is put on a mission to capture, from a rival warring nation, the Dominant of Shiva. As the mission draws to a close and the Dominant is unable to call upon their Eikon’s power, Clive recognizes them as his childhood friend Jill. With this in mind, Clive turns on his Imperial Commanders to protect her, and while he succeeds in their defeat, he’s not enough for the remaining soldiers who commanded Jill in the first place. Cornered, lightning strikes down covering the area in dust and leaving the soldiers unconscious; a charming man named Cid ushers the two to safety, returns to Clive the recognition of his name, and a new path to take.

While I may have gone on, that only covers the first three hours of FINAL FANTASY XVI. We’re just setting the stage. This isn’t to say I’m done with covering the story, there is still plenty more that I want to talk about – especially when it comes to my critiques. But now that we’ve found our footing alongside Clive, let’s get into the core gameplay.

To Arms

Touted as the first action RPG in the franchise, FINAL FANTASY XVI sees you going blade-to-blade/fist/tentacle/spear/and more as you traverse through the different locales and Kingdoms in Valisthea. Rather than an entire world at your constant fingertips to explore, Clive and co. pick their next mission or quest by selecting the corresponding area on the world map. From that point, that specific area is for you to explore, including return trips when the story calls for it. Across your travels, you’ll fight many monsters and other soldiers of a world at war, but Clive’s main targets of interest are other Dominants and Crystals.

This is where gameplay and the story of XVI further intertwine Clive and the game’s cast of Dominants. Thanks to having received the blessing of The Phoenix from his younger brother, Clive can tap into part of its power and cast different abilities that put him a mile above any normal warrior. Along with experience points, you’ll gain ability points to unlock and upgrade other abilities. All of this allows you to rival the Dominants that you’ll face on your journey. Fierce battles against Primed Opponents feature cinematic clashes as you wind up tearing them down a peg by taking a piece of them.

Indeed, the bounds of Clive’s power are ascended not just by his own merits but by the merits of others. With the strange power to take a fragment of Eikonic abilities from the other Dominants, the player can use them to truly express how they want to control the flow of battles. As for myself, I prefer combining multiple passive AoE abilities with melee-rush attacks that quickly bring enemies into a repetitious stagger. Due to the type of abilities that Clive acquires by the end game, this playstyle ends up incredibly powerful. For a future playthrough, I can see myself doing something extremely different, as the amount of abilities truly allows for a variety of player expression and personal replayability challenges. You could choose to use zero Eikonic abilities, but I can’t imagine who would be so masochistic to do that.

This too is not the limit of Clive’s powers… nor was it the limit of Benedikta’s. In a moment of weakness, her traumatic state calls upon Garuda, the Eikon of Wind, casting hazardous gales and a tornado-like no other parting the land. As a figure looms in the winds, Clive rushes forward to the fate that lies ahead. A battle with Garuda, and the truth that he is the one who he’s been looking for. He is Ifrit, the second Eikon of Fire…

With this truth revealed, FINAL FANTASY XVI hits the peak of its efforts to combine action gameplay with cinematic spectacle. XVI’s Eikonic Battles see two or more Dominants in Kaiju-sized fights, causing ignited ground, shattered terrains, soaring beyond the skies, and severing of bodies. As Ifrit, you dish out ferocious strikes and keep at the enemy’s tail with the Wildfire ability. You feel the impact of every attack, not just of your own, but of the enemy’s with how much time you need to recover to keep the violence going. The amount of fun I had from these instances is what makes me unsure if I wanted more of it. Due to their limited instances, they serve as the most impactful parts of the game’s story and visual creativity thanks to cinematic direction and ideas for the unfolding combat.

Connections

At this point, let’s lean back into the angle of me as a relative newcomer to this series. As I concluded my time with FINAL FANTASY XVI, I found myself comparing it to my first venture into FINAL FANTASY: Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. It’s not because I never expected this to stand on its own; I was excited to sink my fangs into it from the start. No, it was because after playing, I couldn’t help but feel that Stranger of Paradise did a few things better as an action game. And their both being the most notable action games from one of the kings of JRPGs begs a comparison.

To start, here are the basic comparisons. Both titles see you sporting a player character with the ability to obtain, combine, and master multiple abilities. You use these to combat enemies, often with a team of two allies. If you need to heal or call upon assistance, you use your D-Pad inputs to combine your attacks with an ally or utilize a potion. Additionally, if an enemy is downed, you can dish out a cool-looking killing blow before you continue your onslaught. Although XVI supplies a hub area before you venture out into your next mission, both titles see you choosing your next destination on a map and then venturing out within that area of the world from start to finish, with a big boss at the end to cap it all off. However, whereas SoP only sees a bit of backtracking, XVI often sees you returning to some areas for missions to progress the story. And a lot, often to the point where I was constantly thinking, “How much more before we get a move on, I feel like I’m close to endgame?”

There are other differences in which XVI comes out worse. In SoP, your healing is limited to a small amount of potions you have shared across your allies in addition to healing skills, and while XVI also limits the number of potions you can have at a time, Clive’s the only one who uses them. Additionally, while solitary healing skills are lacking in XVI, Clive’s Limit Break regains healing with each attack dealt. My problem is about how these games treat healing after instances of loss. In SoP, if you lose, it’s back to right outside the chamber of the boss fight, but you begin with all your healing items replenished. In contrast, XVI sets you at a checkpoint within the boss fight while also maxing out your healing items, even if you began the fight with zero. What would be a challenging fight, up to and including the Final Boss, loses any sense of difficulty.

While I did say you could call upon assistance from your allies for both games, the scope regarding XVI is incredibly limited. In SoP, even though you couldn’t switch to controlling them, you could not only customize the kits of Ash, Jed, and Neon, but you could command them to be more resilient in their attacks. Additionally, casted status spells will also affect your allies when in range. In contrast, XVI lets you command Clive and Jill’s trusty hound Torgal. While this does allow for the ability to chain together very satisfying air combos, Torgal is the only character you have limited command of. You cannot manage the equipment of your fellow allies nor choose how they will support you in combat, nor will you ever receive the chance to play as them except for INCREDIBLY RARE instances, and not even as the characters I believe would serve best from it. Furthermore, due to the lack of status-based skills, your actions in combat hardly affect your allies in any manner. As you progress through the game’s narrative, it becomes so obvious that Clive’s journey is not just one that rests on his shoulders, but the gameplay treats it as such and thus feels detrimental.

I understand why XVI, at least within its base game, limits the player to commanding one playable character. From my memory, I think the highest count of characters that you have as allies at once is four to five. Because this switches so often as characters have their roles and instances of when they will and won’t be immediately present within the story, you would ALWAYS have an alternating party. It isn’t like Kingdom Hearts where an ally is always at your side, even more within different realms. Like Stranger of Paradise and Kingdom Hearts, FINAL FANTASY XVI’s story is about the bonds that strengthen the motivations or end goals of the protagonist. Clive’s power comes from rivaling and allied Dominants, support from allies like Guv and his Uncle, the motivation to continue and fight to live from Cid, the hope of being able to see his brother Joshua again, and Jill, the person that’s continuously by his side throughout almost everything in this journey. FINAL FANTASY XVI is just as much about the people around Clive as it is about him. But despite that, the weight of everything in its near entirety falls solely upon his shoulders and thus doesn’t allow the other characters to shine where they could – especially for a character like Jill. She sacrifices so much for Clive, but even in the instance where it’s supposed to be her big moment, the impact of it all is so weak due to the constant repetition of saying that, “she needs to be where Clive is,” rather than being allowed to bear the brunt of the responsibility. Playing as her, or at least showing a stronger emotional connection to her goal, would make her feel more impactful to the story as intended.

To continue my criticisms of XVI’s story, I think the way it treats the theme of Bearers as slaves is also quite flippant. For instance, there’s a certain point in the story where Clive comments on how Bearers were treated under Rosaria. Although I could see the intent as early within the first 20 minutes of the game as he acts kind to a bearer as a child, the fact is that the game literally calls their owners SLAVEMASTERS. There’s also another instance where, I believe Cid, says Clive may have been a slave but that he’s a free man now. While that’s true… we only experience Clive as a branded soldier of the Imperial Kingdom for about 30 minutes. There may have been a several-year gap within the game’s narrative, but as that is not something we experienced; the aim to portray Clive as anything but a royal that still has ties to his royalty and the blessing of the Phoenix falls flat.

My earlier Kingdom Hearts mention doesn’t come from nowhere. Before FINAL FANTASY XVI’s release, the development team thanked the KH Team and Platinum Games for their help on this title. You can see pieces of their involvement most strongly in the gameplay, but there were many points in the story where I found similarities, though I don’t know how intentional that was. Intentional or not, Final Fantasy XVI ends up as a game where I’m thinking a lot more about the titles that influenced it, all of which were stronger and better executed in displaying its themes.

In Vision

To return to more positive thoughts and critique, despite my flawed experiences playing FINAL FANTASY XVI, I was able to fully experience the quality of how this game looks and sounds. With the introduction of the main cast, I immediately fell in love with the color coordination and layer of outfits as designed by Kazuya Takahashi.

The music, as composed by SOKEN, is very interesting in a mostly good way. While there are some tracks that I felt don’t fit the setting of XVI in any sort, they’re few and far between from the tracks that I fell in love with. And if you love Final Fantasy’s prelude theme, prepare to hear it many times in different ways. I want to say there were about 20 instances of it appearing within XVI’s tracks, but I’m pretty sure there was more than that.

Additionally, this has been the first time in a while that I’ve been incredibly WOWED by a game’s voice cast. I can’t single out any one actor as everyone’s performances were stellar, but there was one instance that synchronized me with Clive where both he and I happened to say, “Oh, fuck,” at the same time. Things like that helped connect me to the game’s cast.

As you’ve seen through this entire review, I’ve been playing FINAL FANTASY XVI at the lowest settings possible on a laptop that doesn’t fully meet the minimum graphics card requirements. Given a patch released amidst the writing of this review to address some graphical concerns, I think SQUARE ENIX intends to address these issues quickly. Still, given previous instances with their PC-published titles, I can’t say for sure. I hope they will be though, for the next time I play FINAL FANTASY XVI.

A Finale To This Fantasy

Despite my critiques of FINAL FANTASY XVI, I think it’s a fun time. I completely avoided sidequests and as this review copy didn’t include the DLC, there will be a lot for me to return to in a future playthrough. However, I’m not sure exactly how long I’ll wait until that next playthrough. The positives of XVI are strong but so are its negatives and even after beating it, I felt a tad unsure of my overall satisfaction.