The long wait for the next mainline entry in the Final Fantasy franchise is nearly over. On June 22, PS5 players will finally get their hands on Final Fantasy XVI, seven years after the last mainline entry. There are a lot of reasons to be excited for the game. Famed producer Naoki Yoshida is in charge of the project, the medieval fantasy setting is a throwback to the old school titles, and the action-oriented combat looks exhilarating. Looks can be deceiving, however, and after some disappointing entries in the franchise, players are right to be skeptical. Can Final Fantasy XVI truly deliver the next whimsical Final Fantasy experience? We recently got to go hands-on with Final Fantasy XVI and experienced the opening hours, its action-focused combat and its near final presentation to see how the final game is shaping up to be a homerun for Square Enix.
Final Fantasy XVI takes place in the world of Valisthea where six nations control the land’s Mothercrystals. The Aether from the crystals manifests into eight Eikon’s representing different elements with each Eikon bonding to a human dubbed a Dominant. These Dominants are able to utilize their Eikon’s magic and even manifest the Eikon when desired. They may also grant some of their powers to non-Dominants. Enter protagonist Clive Rosfield, the older brother and protector of Joshua, the Dominant of Phoenix. Players take control of Clive at the age of fifteen before the story picks up thirteen years after tragedy strikes involving the appearance of a second Eikon of Fire, Ifrit.
A game’s opening hours are its most important as it sets the tone. It’s where players get a feel for the story, their first taste of gameplay and form their general thoughts about the game. Openings have, unfortunately, been an area where recent Final Fantasy games have struggled, whether it be general pacing issues, a slow start to the narrative, an overwhelming feeling of linearity or a lack of depth in the initial gameplay. Final Fantasy XVI's opening effectively navigates around this through equal injections of spectacle, character building, story intrigue and thrilling combat.
The first two hours of the game are an excellent start. Within the span of the prologue, you’ll witness breathtaking battles between Eikons, witness political intrigue, get wrapped up in an intriguing plot, explore, learn the basics of combat and battle against several bosses. It’s a jam-packed opening, but one that works well in setting up the world, the stakes and the mechanics. That formula continues into the main stretch of the journey with the game continuously delivering new intrigue, combat scenarios and locations to explore.
The story Final Fantasy XVI weaves isn’t all that different from some older entries. There are crystals that provide power at a cost and kingdoms battle for them. What makes Final Fantasy XVI unique is how it tells its story. Much like A Song of Ice and Fire, the story binds its events to political intrigue and grounds itself in morally-questionable characters. While players are tied to the point of view of Clive and his quest for revenge, the story is not left wanting for great characters. In just a few short hours, we got to meet the scheming Benedikta, cruel Hugo and charming Cidolfus, all with their own hidden agendas and schemes. It’s an intriguing story told at a great pace that left us engrossed and excited to unravel what comes next and what schemes the remaining cast are plotting.
Of course, Final Fantasy XVI is a video game and can’t just rely on a story to provide a great experience, it also must provide an engaging game experience. The franchise has slowly but surely been adding in more action elements since Final Fantasy XII, and XVI fully embraces the action-RPG genre. Pulling heavily from the stylish action of Devil May Cry, Final Fantasy XVI allows players to chain together combos and special attacks to deliver some mesmerizing and deadly blows. At least, you can later in the game.
Final Fantasy XVI’s combat begins tame by giving players a basic combo and slowly building from there. You’ll quickly learn how to intersperse magic into the combos and utilize abilities granted by the Eikons. From there, the prologue is about mastering these abilities to defeat a series of bosses. Where the gameplay gets truly interesting is with the Eikon’s abilities. Later in the game, Clive is able to acquire the abilities of the different Eikons. To demonstrate how useful they are, we were able to jump a bit ahead to a point where we had both Garuda and Titan’s abilities. It’s the moment you gain more Eikonic abilities that the game’s true potential starts opening up. Final Fantasy XVI goes from basic combos and Pheonix abilities to hot swapping between the different Eikon’s to maximize their abilities and deliver hard-hitting combos. It’s an exhilarating system with untold depth once all Eikonic abilities have been acquired.
Gameplay does extend beyond Clive with players able to control Eikons for massive Eikon v Eikon battles. These battles are enormous spectacles that, while not game-changing, do offer up variety outside the core gameplay loop. If anything, they’re impressive showcases for the presentation. What don’t fare so well are the heavy use of quick-time events. A blast from the past, these ‘Cinematic Actions’ frequently pop up during boss fights with players either needing to press buttons to attack or defend or mash a button to win a duel. Winning quick-time events nets you an advantage like bonus damage or a vast increase to an enemy’s Stagger Gauge. Fail and you’ll take a penalty. QTEs aren’t the end of the world, but it’s odd to find such an antiquated system in a game filled with so many modern mechanics.
Final Fantasy XVI hearkens back to the originals in another way. Unlike the more recent Final Fantasy XV, XVI operates off a world map with players selecting and traveling to specific locations. While you won’t control a character on the world map like older games, it's functionally the same. The choice to not go open world is a smart one, allowing the game to remain more story focused. That’s not to say there aren’t any side quests or open spaces. One area we got to run through was a decently-sized open area that allowed for exploration and side quests, but without losing any of the focus. Players will also have the ability to revisit certain sections, although we were unable to experience this feature firsthand.
On the flip side, there are plenty of linear, story-based dungeons to explore, like the Greatwood. Beautiful to run through, its linear nature may bring back nightmares of Final Fantasy XIII’s pretty but linear corridor level design. Thankfully, Final Fantasy XVI takes more inspiration from X than XIII by doing a better job at interspersing story and character moments into the proceedings. It also helped that The Greatwood section never outstayed its welcome, clocking in at around thirty minutes compared to the two hours needed to get through XIII’s Gapra Whitewood.
In terms of presentation, Final Fantasy XVI is a looker with excellent texture work, detailed models and unbelievably good effects work. It’s a beautiful game to behold and a good demonstration of the PS5’s capabilities. Performance-wise, the game holds up considerably well, a miracle given the broken state many games seem to launch in these days. There were a few problems areas, specifically in town areas where the number of NPCs drops the framerate, but overall the game holds up well in the sections we played. Hopefully, that level of performance will hold up at launch.
Final Fantasy XVI is shaping up well. Even though we only had the opportunity to play the opening hours, the beginning has us hooked in a way recent entries in the franchise never did. The story is intriguing, the combat engaging, the setpieces awe-inducing and performance solid. While we’ll have to reserve judgment for the final product, Final Fantasy XVI is off to a great start right out of the gate. Now comes the hard part: sticking the landing through an entire game. Thankfully, we won’t have to wait too much longer to experience Final Fantasy XVI.
Final Fantasy XVI launches June 22 on PS5.