Final Fantasy XVI - Review | A Realm Reborn
Final Fantasy 16 was a risk, it had a darker tone, no turn based attacks and went back to a Medieval setting. We're glad to say that this risk has massively paid off for Final Fantasy XVI. It's a great game with fun combat, great characters, easy to use mechanics and an entertaining ride. I sat down with Iain Harris who's reviewed it for us.
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00:00 So, Ian is reviewing Final Fantasy XVI for us.
00:10 Now Ian, I'm going to ask you a tricky question.
00:12 Try and sum up Final Fantasy XVI in one sentence.
00:14 It's definitely the most approachable the series has been.
00:18 I think it kind of gets back to being whatever the developer feels a Final Fantasy game needs
00:23 to be.
00:24 I think as a lot of people have sort of seen from the demo, it's still very much a Final
00:28 Fantasy game.
00:29 So they have, the thing that people are worried about is they have managed to meld it being
00:33 a Final Fantasy game and it being easy to access and easy to play for the average person
00:38 who isn't used to turn-based or the more complex side of Final Fantasy.
00:41 They've actually managed to marry that together.
00:43 Yeah, so it kind of goes beyond the simple design decision of trying to make action more
00:50 akin to sort of something like Devil May Cry that's sort of more appealing.
00:53 For example, there's an accessory that means whenever somebody attacks you, you'll just
00:58 sort of flawlessly dodge each time.
01:00 Or if you want a bit more challenge but you still want it to be a bit easier than the
01:03 main game, there's an accessory that kind of gives you a more generous window to parry.
01:08 Okay, so if you know either your weaknesses in games like this or your play style, very
01:15 early on they give you the opportunity to customise that basically to a certain extent.
01:19 When you play the main character, Clive, you're supposed to feel like a badass and if you're
01:23 someone who can feel like a badass through intricate combos and kind of freely expressing
01:27 yourself, you can do that.
01:28 So for example, there's another accessory where if you just press the square button
01:32 which is to attack, it'll kind of just do the combos for you.
01:35 So just by mashing the one button, you can pull off these really cool combos that make
01:39 you feel really great.
01:40 But then you can also swap them out.
01:42 So once you've got the parry window down, you can basically swap it out for maybe a
01:45 more powerful one which makes the game harder but you're used to it now but gives you more
01:49 opportunities to do other things.
01:51 I think it's a kind of approachability that leans towards the story as well.
01:55 I think sort of to an outsider, Final Fantasy can sort of appear a little bit impenetrable
02:00 because one, there's 16 of them, do I need to play the other ones?
02:05 Which I think most people know you don't but even so, it's sort of like these big intricate
02:09 stories.
02:10 And even from the trailers, you can see that they're talking about things that are either
02:15 ethereal or there's giant titans and things involved and you're like, "Whoa, hold on,
02:19 this seems like a lot."
02:20 Crystals, crystals, crystals.
02:21 Exactly.
02:22 Speaking of which, how is the story?
02:24 The story is really good.
02:25 It's new and familiar at the same time.
02:28 It very much kind of goes back to the kind of more earlier Final Fantasies that are very
02:32 much entirely medieval.
02:34 Obviously as everyone sees, there's definitely an appreciation of Game of Thrones on show.
02:39 I think Yoshida admitted in an interview that he got everyone to watch it the first four
02:43 seasons of Game of Thrones because that was the kind of tone they go for.
02:47 These grand spectacular fights but obviously the fighting on the ground between the soldiers
02:52 is very bloody.
02:53 There's lots of that around.
02:54 The tone is very kind of a little bit muddy and murky and I think within minutes, sort
02:59 of a more heated sexual scenes.
03:02 You can see it's pretty evident and clear what's inspired the team, right?
03:07 There's always that question where- Which is fine.
03:08 Being inspired by Game of Thrones is not like a bad thing.
03:10 We're not bashing this at all.
03:11 It's just- Oh yeah.
03:12 I think it's just one of those things where sometimes people are kind of influenced by
03:18 like the more obscure things you haven't heard about.
03:21 Whereas when it's sort of bigger and obvious like Game of Thrones and everyone can kind
03:24 of see that connection.
03:27 It's not a shadow that looms over the game.
03:29 There are kind of one or two moments where you're like, "Okay, yeah, I can probably see
03:32 that."
03:33 But then you can kind of move on from it.
03:34 You can probably see plenty or at least a little bit of like the Witcher as well.
03:38 Clive's a very kind of brooding sort of character and has the ability to sort of wield magic
03:46 without a crystal and the people who can do that in the game are called bearers.
03:51 Much like how Witchers are viewed in that world.
03:53 They're not respected, scared of, don't like, but won't begrudge you because they know you're
03:58 powerful.
03:59 He can also turn into an icon, which is basically different towering beasts of varying size
04:06 and power and supremely powerful and fun to battle with.
04:09 It looks amazing.
04:11 Does it feel different when you're playing as them?
04:13 Does it look great?
04:14 Does the frame rate keep steady?
04:16 What is that like?
04:17 Aside from a few stuttering though, the game runs really great.
04:19 The icons are sort of a little bit of a slow burn.
04:24 They do kind of represent the spectacle that the game offers.
04:27 When you kind of see them battling in the cut scene, that's very good and it's very epic.
04:32 When you're actually controlling them, they have their own ability set and as the game
04:36 goes on, the icon that you fight as kind of gains more ability.
04:39 So it kind of gets more like there's more means to express yourself in kind of the combat
04:43 there.
04:44 The one thing for me though that really was a thrust behind the icons was the story.
04:49 This one fight that stood out for me because it's very much kind of a character who feels
04:53 wronged by Clive's sort of mentor and it's kind of then you kind of come into a battle
04:59 with this person.
05:00 And without getting into the story, when you get to the moment, it's just the sense that
05:04 you just have two dudes who just absolutely hate each other.
05:08 It's just kind of like, no, I just really hate this person.
05:10 I really just want to like smash him up.
05:13 You finish the main story quest line.
05:15 How long roughly does that take you and is there much to do afterwards?
05:18 Is there like a multiplayer element?
05:19 Is there a new game plus?
05:20 Is there stuff to do around the world?
05:21 Obviously I did the majority of the content and that was about a good 40 hours.
05:27 I think the estimate that Square Enix gave is that if you absolutely turn over every
05:32 stone and try everything, it could easily go up to 100.
05:35 Okay.
05:36 And there's still stuff to do after the main quest and stuff?
05:38 Yeah, you get like a new game plus.
05:40 How is that?
05:41 Is it pushing you?
05:42 I think it depends on your background.
05:43 For me, I'm having a blast of it.
05:45 I very much kind of grew up with things like Devil May Cry.
05:50 Obviously the combat director of Final Fantasy 16, as plenty of people know, came over from
05:54 Capcom and had worked on Devil May Cry and is obviously bringing a lot of that.
05:59 So for me, it's very much just like...
06:01 You're enjoying the punishment.
06:02 Yeah, it's the stuff I grew up with.
06:04 So obviously it's just kind of like, yes, let's go.
06:06 Nice.
06:07 So with all that in mind then, what score have you given out of five?
06:10 In the end, I kind of settled on 4.5 stars out of five.
06:15 Okay, great.
06:16 And it comes out on the Thursday the 22nd of June.
06:19 Yes.
06:20 Well, hopefully that's informed you about Final Fantasy 16 and if you want to buy it,
06:23 I'm glad that it hasn't been a disappointment because when we first saw this, there was
06:26 a lot of people that went, "Oh, this could be a risk."
06:29 So I'm glad that the director's vision that he's been allowed to do something different
06:34 has actually worked out because hopefully that will mean that we get some more different
06:37 Final Fantasy games and flesh out the world a bit, which would be fantastic.
06:40 So thank you Ian and can't wait to start playing it.
06:58 (sighs)
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