The next main installment into the Final Fantasy franchise comes in the form of Playstation-exclusive Final Fantasy XVI. Taking on a much darker direction than the series’ past, the story focuses on Clive Rosfield, a man hell-bent on finding the beast responsible for killing his younger brother, Joshua, and getting revenge. In addition to finding his brother’s killer, he must contend with a brewing war between nations.

Final Fantasy XVI is a 2023 action RPG developed and published by Square Enix and is available as a console exclusive on Playstation 5 and PC.

Editor’s Note: Spoilers for Final Fantasy XVI’s story and the grander mythos for the Final Fantasy franchise may be present within this review.

Clive Rosfield is a man among giants in Final Fantasy XVI.

Final Fantasy just had its 36th anniversary (if you go by the release of the first game), and one of the ways Square Enix is celebrating is through the release of a ton of Final Fantasy content, including the next mainline entry. Following Clive Rosfield, he was once the guardian of his younger brother Joshua, who was said to be the Eikon of Fire, a legendary beast destined to save the world. However, during an invasion of their home, Joshua is seemingly killed by a mysterious monster that also can control fire. As time passes, Clive goes on a journey that sends him to hell and back in search of his brother’s killer.

Witness a battle of beasts in Final Fantasy XVI.

THE GOOD: The story begins with Clive Rosfield, a royal who acts as the guard of his younger brother Joshua, who is the Eikon of Fire, a beast said to save the world. One night, Clive’s home is invaded by an enemy faction leading to the appearance of an enormous monster that attacks and seemingly kills Joshua. Several years have passed, and Clive has been forced into being a soldier in the Sanbreque army. During a battle between Titans, Clive reunites with his childhood love interest Jill whose Eikon powers have been weaponized, after fighting and saving her another Eikon known as Cid takes Clive to his base where they heal Jill’s wounds. Cid informs Clive of everything with Sanbreque since his mother betrayed his family and joined them.

Clive, Cid, and Jill work together to fight off Sanbreque forces and destroy giant Mothercrystals with pieces used by Bearers who possess some magical properties. Bearers are often captured and used as slaves because of their gift of magic, and Cid thinks getting rid of the crystals will cease much of the abuse they suffer. Clive and Co encounter Benedikta, an Eikon willingly working for Sanbreque who is a former ally of Cid. Clive defeats her in battle, and she goes into a rage after being attacked by bandits while in a weakened state and transforms into an uncontrollable Eikon. Clive transforms into Ifrit, another Eikon of Fire like Joshua’s Phoenix. Following Benedikta’s defeat, Clive realizes he’s the beast attacking and killing Joshua.

While out destroying Cid is forced to sacrifice himself leading Clive who has been given the ability to absorb the abilities of Eikons to not only absorb Cid’s power but take on his identity. Five years later, Clive now going by Cid, Jill, and Torgal (his and Jill’s loyal pet) continue Cid’s mission as Sanbreque continues to gain power. Hugo, an Eikon who was in love with and in a relationship with Benedikta blames Cid/Clive for her death & spirals into an emotional breakdown. Ultima a god-like being who had previously attempted to attack Jill and Clive only to be stopped by Joshua manipulates Hugo transforming him into a raging Titan. Clive gains full control of Ifirit and defeats Hugo in battle, later absorbing his Eikon powers and destroying the next crystal. Joshua had been working within the shadows to stop Ultima from gaining the power of the Eikons to have control of the universe.

He finally reveals himself to Clive and the two now work together alongside their other allies to end Ultima once and for all. Joshua convinces Dion, the Prince of Sanbreque to raise a coup against Clive’s mother Annabella who left Clive’s family for his own to maintain power. In a scuffle, he accidentally kills his father and becomes a raging version of his Eikon Bahamut. Sometime after their battle, Dion joins forces with Clive, Joshua, and the others for the final fight against Ultima. It’s revealed that destroying the crystals had been Ultima’s goal all along as it made it easier for them to possibly possess Clive. Joshua learns that humans are meant to be sacrificed for the resurrection of Ulitima’s full power. Clive, Joshua, and Dion work together to defeat Bahamut but fail leading to Dion sacrificing himself to give Clive & Joshua a second chance for attack.

Clive now using Dion and Joshua’s Eikon powers faces Ultima one last time and defeats them at the cost of his own life. Before his death, he heals Joshua’s mortal wound before falling on a beach near his home. In the future, magic is now regarded as a myth but humanity seems to be living in peace.

Final Fantasy XVI continues the action-style gameplay left behind by XV.

Final Fantasy XVI is a solid attempt to try a multitude of directions for both spin-off and mainline material for the Final Fantasy franchise. Like XV with the action RPG attempt that I was personally okay with, but it wasn’t for everyone, especially long-time fans. This time around XVI wants to tell a much more mature story compared to past entries full of gore, violence, war, and even a little sex. That’s fine when you look at it through the lens of Square thinking it may be time for the franchise to grow up with its fanbase. And honestly, unless those types of themes feel grotesque to you when mixed with certain IP you like it doesn’t offend by being too overbearing with it. Keep in mind, that Final Fantasy has been in an experimental phase for quite some time and they’re trying a bunch of new things.

Not necessarily trying to see if it sticks, but just for the simple curious and creative pleasure of it. At least that’s the vibe I’m getting from this recent trend Square has been going with the series. And before anyone says, yes I’m aware Final Fantasy Origins was a mature game. But, it’s a mainline game with a huge asterisk as it’s more or less a slight retelling of the first game with some original story sprinkled in. I remember the first reactions the game received when marketing material first went out. It was pretty polarizing and anyone who owns a Playstation 5 or PC waiting to get in on the experience that still feels that way is more than valid in being on the fence. More so than those who had their reasons for not giving XV a chance I’d argue. However, as a product on a presentation level, I think XVI does a very solid job of keeping its promise of being a unique experience for the series.

So what exactly has changed with Final Fantasy XVI gameplay-wise? Well if you’re coming from the aforementioned Final Fantasy XV or to a lesser extent Final Fantasy VII Remake not that much. The action RPG formula for combat is back and at least for now with three games in seems to be sticking around. You have the normal attacks, a dodge mechanic, and the Eikon powers which act like the otherwise usual magic spells. You can chain your Eikon powers together for unique combos and use them against certain enemies weak to elementals such as fire, wind, lightning, etc. Traditional level-up and stat-increasing returns and experience points gained can be used to unlock new, more powerful Eikon abilities.

Accessories such as armor, bracelets, necklaces, etc are used to further prop up stats such as attack and defense. You can find and make these items through crafting, additionally, weaponry can be found throughout the world & crafted as well. Healing and resistant items can also be used in battle to help gain an advantage over enemies. Your party members are once again uncontrollable but can team up with you for powerful combo attacks at the right opportunity. Something a bit new to the series is the Stagger mechanic. Stagger can be activated by breaking an enemy’s metaphorical armor after depleting their stagger meter allowing for a few seconds of stunning the enemy to do powerful combos and attacks before it rebuilds.

The main thing that Final Fantasy XVI wants to sell you on is the Kaiju-style boss battles as Eikon which is the in-universe version of summons from the more traditional games in the series. While these were admittedly few in number most of them were pretty satisfying to experience. They’re usually tied to the bigger more impactful moments of the story so in that regard the limited numbers made sense. Not every boss fight is a Kaiju one though, as most of the time you’ll be encountering big monsters and humanoid enemies at ground level. There are side quests in the game such as minor story content and bounties to hunt for monster bosses for more powerful and rare crafting materials.

Clive gains much more powerful abilities based on the summons he acquires.

THE BAD: One of my biggest issues with Final Fantasy XVI is that the difficulty curve felt non-existent. No matter what style of play you choose to use the game just doesn’t get too much harder until you go after a few bounties twice your level. Even so, you could get by that difficulty gap if you play smart there’s New Game+ that adds difficulty as well as a Final Fantasy mode that further increases difficulty but it rarely feels present in the base game. Many side quests in the game have some of the biggest instances of creative effort I’ve seen in quite some time for an AAA RPG, but others have that same lazy, repetitive nature that annoys me like crazy. Fair enough, they’re called side quests for a reason, but often time people use side quests for quick level up & material farming so there should at least feel like an incentive where you want to do them beyond a personal means to an end. There are some technical and graphical issues in early post-launch builds of the game that have mostly been patched out.

I experienced a few crashes and glitches that stopped my playthrough dead while but never broke my save thankfully. That being said I know some people who reported way worse usually did suffer from game-breaking glitches.

XVI features a much darker and gorier story than Final Fantasy fans are used to.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Final Fantasy XVI is another attempt at branching out the franchise with different approaches and directions. On a surface level the idea of a much darker, mature Final Fantasy should raise at least a few eyebrows, but we have to remember that people grow up and out of their fandoms. Not to say that Final Fantasy is merely “getting with the times”, but I do like that the folks at Square aren’t so creatively bankrupt that they aren’t willing at least to risk these types of changes a couple of times or so. Besides we’ve seen Final Fantasy get a little dark before not quite like XVI, but enough to where we could have at least pictured the idea. As a product though, Final Fantasy XVI is serviceable