In a world where some people are born with the innate ability to conjure magic, they are branded and made slaves on whose backs the various kingdoms of Valisthea base their power. Apart from these branded and regular people, there are also the Dominants—a select few who do not just have the ability to use magic but summon the iconic Eikons like Shiva, Phoenix, and Bahamut, naturally ending up as the most deciding factor in global power.

Players control Clive Rosfield, who is brother to the Dominant of Phoenix, which then focuses the story on the political games between the Dominants and their respective kingdoms, to eventually a greater threat—and what the existence of magic granted by the series’ iconic Mothercrystals means for their world.

Very importantly, much of the story is conveyed by lengthy cutscenes. This can be quite a nuisance, given it frequently breaks up the pace of high-energy combat sections while also leading to some droughts where a lot of time is just spent with Clive hopping back and forth listening to various NPCs with very little input from the player. 

Personally, I did not mind such during the main story; however, towards the last third of the game, sidequests were starting to stretch a little thin. Nevertheless, the game features very strong writing for just about all characters—which is uncharacteristic for the franchise given the last few titles and FF's general tendency to dramatize its stories: Characters who sacrifice themselves only to miraculously survive, or prose that is otherwise more akin to a second-rate action manga; instead, Clive, Jill, and even the various ‘villains’ are amazingly human in their interactions.

For example, a later optional side quest has Clive reminiscing about his childhood—his perceived shortcomings regarding his troubled family, and contrasts this with highly emotional development between him and the characters that rely on him. All of this is expertly relayed to the player not just by what he says, but also the tone of his voice, and his body language. This sort of presentation offers an immense amount of gravitas to the story.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3336202254

To reiterate, both the main story at large—Clive’s goals—and the progression from warring kingdoms to world-ending supernatural threats are well done, and so is the characterization of everyone in that world. In fact, many games with more grounded settings often struggle with exactly this sort of worldbuilding, though XVI does make a large effort in making it presentable to the player. At any time players can pull up a glossary that is specific to the quest they’re on. In each hub, there are NPCs diegetically chronicling the timeline of events alongside a mindmap detailing how each character is related to one another. It is one of the most well-designed ways to offer such information to the player I have seen.

It is a very tightly designed narrative-focused experience, which is also something the producer of this particular mainline FF is very well-known for due to his work with XIV. 

While it still has typical RPG elements such as attributes, level-ups, and equipment, XVI is the first proper Final Fantasy to largely abandon its strategy-RPG roots in favor of spectacle combat. Controlling Clive means having access to a single string of melee attacks, a basic magic attack designed to be woven into that combo, and a series of active skills unlocked through the various Eikon skill trees acquired throughout the game.

As players progress, they get access to up to three Eikon sets at a time and can fluently switch between them during combat, which offers unique ways to develop Clive. For example, I ended up using a build that was centered around an accessory that gave me higher damage during a Stagger-Combo and then built my Eikons all around multi-hit attacks. Combat also includes minor, almost unfailable QTE’s, which serve more to keep the player engaged with mid-combat cutscenes than as a genuine mechanic of their own.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3336477423

Regrettably, gearing aside from accessories is very straight-forward and hardly worth mentioning. No equipment gives any more complex stats than HP and Defense. And neither do Clive’s swords offer anything but damage and stagger-damage. Stat-increases via level-ups are more of a facade than anything else, as the increases are so marginal, it pales in comparison to the skill-tree management in terms of usefulness.

While the overworld is amazingly detailed, it, too, suffers from some linearity. As such, exploration is unrewarding and mostly unnecessary, as side content will eventually lead the player to those untouched corners of the map. Pick-ups usually only ever consist of crafting materials, which I always had in abundance.

Despite this criticism, combat is very close to what I would consider perfect for this type of action-RPG mix. And it extends to the Kaiju-esque Eikon fights, for which this game in particular is more known. It isn’t as in-depth as the likes of Devil May Cry, but it is easy to approach while not sacrificing the ability of the player to truly tailor their playstyle around its various mechanics.

XVI looks stunning, and there is no way around that. The game looks fantastic in its environment and excels during the most bombastic combat sequences. There is an insane amount of detail in every character's expressions, and it works well to support the superb character writing.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3336201829

Music, as per usual with the series, is also fantastic. Featuring noticeably remixed tracks like Prelude, to mirror the new themes of the story. While the voice acting in both English and Japanese is also great, it is noteworthy that the game features a distinctly different script for each. Meaning, if you are playing the game with Japanese voices and English subtitles, they will noticeably mismatch.

I had few issues with the game, though a lot of reviews are reporting otherwise. XVI ran stable throughout my 45-hour playthrough, including each DLC. I experienced no bugs, glitches, or crashes of any kind. I did, however, experience some occasional choppiness during the FPS-limited cutscenes.

This was on the below-specified hardware:

Z790 UD AX
i7-13700K
GeForce RTX 4070
32 GB DDR5 

Final Fantasy XVI is fantastic. It has easily become my favorite spectacle fighter and ranks high among other Final Fantasy titles in regard to its story. The presentation, frankly, is unrivaled, and it is blatantly obvious how every little iota of this game has been developed and included with clear intent as to how it improves the title at large. That being said, there is very little left of classical Final Fantasy, and I can’t help but be a little disappointed that there aren’t systems similar to FFVII’s Remake to allow you some semblance of party management or similar. Ostensibly, it feels like a Spin-Off title rather than a mainline FF, but if this is the kind of quality going forward, maybe this direction isn’t as bad as many people may view it. 

Follow our Curator page, Summit Reviews , to see more high-quality reviews regularly.