‘Final Fantasy XVI’ feels like the series drank a dose of ‘Game of Thrones’
This is sensible. In the role-playing sport style, the Final Fantasy series is king as a result of it creates big-budget fantasy cleaning soap operas. It’s simply that in the previous, it has centered on youthful characters: Games critic Joshua Rivera as soon as noticed that the Final Fantasy series is young adult novels brought to life with stylized Japanese fantasy visuals. The grandiose set items in “Final Fantasy VII” in 1997 had been a milestone in online game storytelling.
“Final Fantasy XVI” — which The Washington Post performed for a four-hour preview in Manhattan this month — breaks its sample of teenage heroes. Instead, it facilities on Clive Rosefeld, a 30-something soldier overwhelmed down by the weight of expectation and tragedy. He’s blessed and cursed with the bloodline of an Eikon, a magical godlike being who controls the components, and there seems to be a battle for energy amongst a number of factions. The plot beats appear to hinge on political palace intrigue. A tragic starting sounds like a rote solution to start any fantasy epic, however this one additionally feels infuriating, due to sudden, dynamic shifts in Clive’s relationship with these closest to him. Modern Final Fantasy video games are inclined to meander in the preamble, however “XVI” begins with explosive set items and drama.
For the uninitiated, each Final Fantasy sport is a new. unrelated storyline with totally different characters in several realities, with just some shared thematic components, similar to the magical gods and spells, and oftentimes the animals, together with the Chocobo, massive birds that perform like horses. Like Clive’s heritage, this disconnection is each a blessing and a curse: The series stays on the innovative of innovation however is maddeningly inconsistent.
In the sixteenth title, we additionally see the most drastic change in gameplay in a long time. It nearly utterly sheds the role-playing foundations it popularized since the first sport in 1987. Gone are the sluggish, methodical, menu-driven methods — what we’ve in 2023 is as a substitute a pure motion sport. The new fight designer is Ryota Suzuki, who labored on the celebrated character motion sport “Devil May Cry 5” by writer Capcom. I performed 4 hours of “XVI,” and I’d typically neglect I wasn’t taking part in a Devil May Cry sport. Clive even hurries up his run the longer you progress, much like Devil May Cry’s characters.
In 2005, Square Enix produced the movie “Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children,” which continued the story of the hottest title in the series. The film’s struggle sequences are nonetheless heralded immediately as some of the most fantastically choreographed in 3D filmmaking, and Final Fantasy’s creators have been chasing that very same excessive in its video games. Several video games in the franchise have experimented with battle methods that replicate that movie’s highflying, balletic battles, generally at the price of participant interactivity. Meanwhile, the Devil May Cry series had been creating such kinetic sequences in video video games for years, so it made sense to lastly merge that design philosophy into Final Fantasy.
All this has been an try and broaden audiences for the Final Fantasy series, which often units a excessive bar for presentation and graphics constancy however doesn’t match it in the case of gross sales figures. Expectations for this new undertaking had been heightened after Square Enix tapped producer Naoki Yoshida, famously known as Yoshi-P, to steer it. Yoshida famously rescued the on-line sport “Final Fantasy XIV” from catastrophe, remaking the complete sport after it was initially pulled from retailer cabinets on account of a horrendous launch and reception. Now, “FFXIV” boasts 20 million lively gamers a month, making it the greatest on-line role-playing sport in the world.
“Final Fantasy XVI” goes even additional to appease the informal participant. From the very begin of the sport, gamers are given the possibility to make use of particular bracelets that, after they’re deployed, flip the expertise into an basically self-playing motion sport. One bangle lets Clive pull off dozens of fancy assault combos once you merely press a single button, whereas one other lets him keep away from virtually each assault with out even touching the controller. I used all of these bangles as half of my preview, and it does certainly make proceedings simple and breezy — I started to nod off throughout battles.
But ultimately these coaching wheels are eliminated, which makes the battles partaking, crunchy and busy once more. Button combos make the sport really feel nearer to “Street Fighter 2” than a conventional Final Fantasy sport, permitting strings of assaults with magic, Eikon powers and sword slashes. All of that is embellished with the Final Fantasy signature of colourful particle results, turning each encounter into a fireworks present.
“Final Fantasy XIII” is the most controversial of the series, largely due to its linear gameplay. Most of the 2009 sport’s world design consisted of straight hallways, with nearly no solution to deviate off the foremost story. Its poor vital reception despatched the series into a decade of uncertainty. The fifteenth title, from 2016, opened up its world for extra exploration — however was lambasted not only for its haphazard plot construction, but additionally its unengaging, simplistic fight. It’s surprising that “XVI” is once more simplifying the world and the motion.
The sport funnels gamers down linear paths, accessed by way of markers and nodes on a bigger map, making it extra like “Super Mario World” than any fantasy sport. But to acknowledge its open-world roots, the sport options “field area” nodes, bigger taking part in areas with secrets and techniques, tucked-away monsters and tales. There was just one obtainable throughout my four-hour session. It was nice, with a lilting, melodic tune that recollects the series legacy of memorable musical scores. It had the most enjoyable fights, partially as a result of I stumbled upon them by myself. It additionally helped that this was the solely part of the sport with different characters combating alongside you, managed by AI.
“Final Fantasy XVI” is reportedly about 35 hours lengthy. I’m wondering how the sport strikes the steadiness of specializing in linear fight hallways whereas attempting to remain true to the series legacy of massive, explorable worlds. But at the very least, its story guarantees to maneuver quick and hit arduous, all the whereas wanting like the prettiest online game cash can purchase.