You’d have to go back over two decades for the last Final Fantasy game that wasn’t considered to be divisive, and Final Fantasy 16, appropriately enough for the franchise, is also a game that has divided the fanbase. For our money, there’s a lot more to like here than there is to dislike, but there are notable areas of the experience to point out in both those groups. Here, that’s exactly what we’ll be doing, as we talk about a few things that we love about Final Fantasy 16, and a few that we don’t.
LOVE: THE COMBAT
Final Fantasy 16’s combat is probably the game’s biggest highlight. That’s likely something that even most of its detractors will tell you. Eschewing the series’ long-held tradition of command-based combat systems and instead adopting a fully real-time, action-driven approach, Final Fantasy 16 arms the player with a massive and ever-increasing pool of abilities, attacks, and endless combinations that they can be used in. Each of its moves is flashy and bombastic, and the end result if a high-flying combat system that remains an absolute blast no matter how much you play the game.
LOVE: THE BOSS FIGHTS
Fights even against the lowest of the grunts and trash mobs are a lot of fun in FF16, but the boss fights are where the combat really sings. As you’d expect from any Final Fantasy game, there’s long list of bosses that you clash swords with in FF16, coming in a variety of shapes and sizes, and almost every single one of them feels uniquely memorable. Some are obviously more challenging than the others, but almost all serve as stellar exhibitions of the game’s excellent combat mechanics. The best of the best, meanwhile, also go hand-in-hand with some of the game’s most jaw-dropping moments. Speaking of which…
LOVE: THE SCALE
Final Fantasy as a franchise has always been associated with stories of epic scale and scope, but 16 takes that to even greater levels. In the lead-up to the game’s launch, its developers said that they took a lot of inspiration from the older God of War games, and in particular the scale of their boss fights and set pieces, and that influence is clear to see time and again in Final Fantasy 16. The Eikonic battles in particular are showpiece sequences that hold nothing back, and both from a visuals and mechanis perspective, they serve as some o the game’s best moments.
DON’T LOVE: SHALLOW RPG SYSTEMS
We’ve sung a lot of praises of FF16’s combat here (and elsewhere), but as well-deserved as all of that adoration is, the game also does deserve criticism for some of its ancillarly systems. At the end of the day, this is an RPG, but the actual RPG side of the experience is disappointingly shallow. You level up, spend ability points on, well, abilities, and equip Clive with new or upgraded gear- and that’s about it. That may not have been a problem if the few RPG systems the game has did provide enough depth, but even the the systems that do exist are quite shallow in their implementation, to the point that, for the vast majority of the experience, you barely even need to engage with them in any meaningful way.
DON’T LOVE: LEVEL DESIGN
Final Fantasy 16 has been oscillating between different design philosophies over the years, swinging from linear to open world and back again. Both of those have had good examples and bad examples, and Final Fantasy 16, sadly, is one of the series’ more underwhelming outings with the more linear style. The game focuses almost exclusively on combat – which is great, because the combat is great – but that means that exploration is de-emphasized, and a lot of the sections end up being collectings of linear rooms and corridors. There are some large, open areas in the game that do have more room for exploration, but even those feel fairly pared back, especially when compared to some of the series’ past efforts.
DON’T LEVEL: THE SIDE QUESTS
Side quests continue to be a particularly hard for thing for most developers in the industry to get right, as they have ever been, and Final Fantasy 16 feels like a bit of a letdown in this area too, as many of its predecessors have. Though a few of the side quests do occasionally hand out valuable rewards, or have interesting narrative insight to share about the world or some of the side characters, the vast majority of them very much feel like they follow the MMO school of design (which is appropriate, given the fact that this is made by Square Enix’s CBU3). Sure, FF16’s side quests are a good excuse to engage with the combat more, but sadly, they never really try to be anything more than that.
LOVE: THE WORLDBUILDING
For as long as we can remember, the one thing Final Fantasy games have excelled at is transporting players to their worlds and thoroughly immersing us with their unique, rich lore and worldbuilding. Even when the tone and aesthetic of those worlds have radically varied, they’ve always been excellently realized. The same is true for Final Fantasy 16– in fact, it might be truer for FF16’s world than it is for most of its predecessors. The world of Valisthea is an incredibly strong setting, and learning more about its history, its many kingdoms and their unique cultures, their different beliefs and ideologies, and the many conflicts all of that leads to always remains captivating.
LOVE: THE STORY
Even though the series fumbled with its storytelling in FF15, Final Fantasy games tend to come with high expectations for their story, and it’s fair to say that FF16 matches those expectations. Taking a much more mature and grittier outlook on its traditional medieval fantasy setting, Final Fantasy 16 weaves a grim tale that deftly uses its excellently crafted world in consistently surprising and captivating ways. Many would argue that the story goes off the rails towards the end, and those arguments aren’t exactly without merit- but the good definitely outweights the bad here.
DON’T LOVE: THE BEGINNING
By the beginning, we don’t mean the very beginning, because the opening couple of hours of Final Fantasy 16 are excellent, and serve as a great introduction to its world, characters, story, and gameplay mechanics. After that beginning though, the pacing grinds to a halt, and it doesn’t really get going against until 5-6 hours after that point. Sure, once it does get going again, it doesn’t ever stop, and game goes consistently uphill from there, but that slow beginning can be a bit of a chore to get through.
LOVE: THE CHARACTERS
We’ll end on a high note, because even when those opening hours of Final Fantasy 16 might feel like they’re plodding on a little bit, the game boasts an excellent cast of characters. Clive Rosfield is an excellent protagonist, and seeing his growth throughout his life remains massively engaging throughout the experience. Crucial characters who surround him, including the likes of Cid and Jill, also make a strong impression, and continue to get better as the story lends them more depth. Even the less significantly ancillary characters who have a recurring role throughout the story, like your crew in the Hideaway, are well-developed and well-written.