OK so I just beat FFXVI. I don't feel good.
FFXVI is the reason I bought a PS5 while it was still very scarce. I didn't buy it from a scalper, but I put a lot of effort into buying at MSRP. And well.... The only reason I don't regret the purchase is because I got to play Cyberpunk 2077 on it after Stadia shut down.
There's been a lot of discourse on the game and how it's not a JRPG (and how JRPG is not a thing anymore), but you're here to read my opinion, and I think mine does not align with the general public's.
The short of it is that I will, more likely than not, skip the next roman-numbered entry in the franchise.
For some reason the suits at Square-Enix decided that the only reason people "settled" for turn-based RPGs was because we thought "action" was a technological wonder beyond our console's capacity. It seems that from day one, they were afraid we'd realize there have been action, and action-adventure games in existence since before FFI existed.
Maybe that's why the named it "Final Fantasy". Maybe they thought "That's it, we're finished, players have realized that they don't need a menu to attack. This will be our final game. We can't compete against Double Dragon."
I chose DD for this amusing bit, not only because it was released on the same year as Final Fantasy, but also because it's of the same genre as FFXVI; a beat-em-up.
The game's core gameplay mechanic is repeatedly hitting things with a sword, and occasionally pulling a special move previously withheld by a charge bar or a cooldown timer. Sure, you can squeeze more out of the game if you learn to chain those moves together, but the game does not reward you for it, and every other beat-em-up does it way better anyway. One thing that could have easily made the beat-em-up mechanics more interesting was never given a chance; Just imagine if combat was influenced by status ailments, elemental affinities, and party synergy. Somehow, I failed to notice this during the Morbol (I see now why they renamed the Malboro) fight in the demo.
Why would I play FFXVI for the combos if Bayonetta 3 still exists? Why, for the same reason fans chose to play Final Fantasy when Double Dragon already existed back in 87! Wait, what? They took that away too? Aw maaaan...
Turns out they took away what made FF special all along! The inspiring fantasy setting, the memorable music, the silly monsters, the strategizing, the battle complexity, the resource management...
Spoilers ahead!
The developers have made no efforts in hiding that their game is a blatant Game of Thrones rip-off. But it's not even a good one. Sure, the game does political intrigue and all that jazz, but the whole thing is rushed towards the franchise's typical deicide plot reveal. You know, when the evil king/emperor guy is revealed to be a puppet of an otherworldly being bent on destroying the world? The thing is that once the game reaches that point the politics have long stopped to matter and are thus quickly forgotten. The game telegraphs this early on, so there's no incentive to engage with the politics and worldbuilding at all. All that matters is getting to Ultima.
The bad GOT influence doesn't stop there. Like the average middle-schooler, the developers assumed "mature" means using foul language and showing skin that doesn't add anything to the game.
One thing that made GOT popular was the death of beloved characters. And while FFXVI makes it a point to explain to the audience that you can't bring back someone from the dead with magic, no one really dies. Everything that Clive loses during the prologue comes back: His dog, his chocobo, his adopted sister/lover, his brothers, his brother's secret servants. The only one who dies for sure is his dad and a handful inconsequential NPCs. Also, hundreds of nameless people.
About halfway through there is another death, this time Cid, but just like before, everyone else (who matters) survives a catastrophe.
I think this would have been a great opportunity to introduce Fire Emblem style permadeath, but that would require being able to take multiple units to battle.
In XVI You only really control Clive. Up to two characters and a dog (but even my kids realized early on that the dog is a gameplay mechanic, not a character) can join you, but they literally disappear into the background.
Now's a good time to remind the audience that this company produced FFXV and FFVII Remake, two excellent action RPGs (you thought I just hated action RPGs, didn't you?) where the protagonist's companions are always part of the action and the story. And before that there was FFXII and FFXIII where players could focus on the main characters while the rest of the party's moved independently while still following your leadership.
There's no gambit, paradigm, or blindside system in place, they just do their thing, adding a negligible bit of damage to battles. You don't get to find better equipment for them. You don't need to heal them. Worse of all, they all get left behind when you get to the final boss. Quite literally every character but Clive is an NPC.
I personally didn't play FF in 1987 because I was too busy playing Double Dragon. I was a child. I wasn't into games that required reading. Somehow Square-Enix thinks we're maturing the other way around, Benjamin Button like.
Now with all the Game of Thrones meets Double Dragon business going on, you'd think there's very little room, for Final fantasy, and you'd be correct. There are only a few vestiges of the franchise left.
Spells? Some NPCs cast them, sure.
Summons? You get "dominants."
A vast world to explore? Kinda. Fast travel is mandatory, and both ignored by the narrative and used as a plot device.
Airships? You get a groan-worthy fakeout.
Cactuars? They're mentioned. Come to think of it, most FF staples are reduced to being mentioned by an NPC or as props that kinda look like one. Like the Black Mage scarecrows and Mid's White Mage doll. An actual FF game making FF references like they don't own the franchise. Sure, they replaced horses with chocobos, that's easy enough, right? Nope, they still call them steeds. Also get ready for dead chocobos and zombie chocobos. Nothing is sacred anymore. There's no cheerful music to make riding a joy either, you only get one chocobo and it has an edgy eyepatch. To be fair, Moogles are reduced to plushies in many modern entries, and I was delighted to see a live one here.
But before I get carried away; No, there is no definite checklist of requirements on what makes a game Final Fantasy. VII went cyberpunk while still feeling like part of the franchise. Then the Ivalice Alliance games made a whole sub-franchise work. Then XV gave you a car and American Express, Coleman and Cup Noodle product placement. Look at other Square-Enix games like Bravely Default and Octopath Traveler. They feel FF without being FF.
And that's the thing. XVI feels less FF than non-franchise games, and it all comes around to the two major sins of this game; trying and failing to both be GOT a beat-em-up.
Besides all that, what's up with the stiff motion capture? It's so bad I think the voice actors assumed a stiff monotone speech pattern to match the screen. It's bad when Clive laughs or even tries to sound happy. I have seen more emotive Muppets.
What's up with the silly quick-time events? Why did they suddenly become afraid of long cutscenes?
What's up with the 4-character cap? The 3-Eikon cap? Can't the PS5 handle more?
Fine. I guess some stuff I liked.
The visuals were overall pretty, even knowing they stole the aesthetics from GOT. The flashiness of combat does a great job at hiding how shallow it is (see Morbol note above). I loved Cid as a character. The story was enough to motivate me to finish the game.
I liked the accessibility items, to an extent.
The Ring of Timely Strikes lets me automate the beat-em-up. I used it whenever I knew I had to plow through waves of minions, or traverse large areas with random encounters, and whenever I unlocked new abilities that felt complicated to use but I wanted to see in action. After a while it felt like cheating and I would swap it out for the Ring of Timely Assistance, which only automates Torgal.
I tried the Ring of Timely Focus on for about half of the game, which slows down the game to dodge attacks, because the Ring of Timely Evasion felt like cheating. Then I decided dodging is not something I want from an RPG, so I left Timely Evasion on until I finished the game. It allowed me to focus on watching the cooldowns and gauges, and afforded me the luxury of being occasionally distracted, a major selling point for turn-based games. Also, it made the Ring of Timely Healing unnecessary, freeing up an equipment slot.
What would be perfect (I have it on good authority that everyone at Square-Enix subscribes to Downcast, you guys can have this for free, it should be easy to patch). Would be a ring (let's call it Ring of Martial Mastery) that automated Clive's weapon attacks and positioning, but still left the eikonic special moves to the player, much like FFVII Remake did.
In the meantime, I have the ultimate FF machine, the Nintendo Switch. I can just go to the eshop and grab a remastered copy of pretty much every game in the series until XII. I think I'll grab XII as a palate cleanser.
