Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in. Let me tell you a tale, good readers. Nearly a year ago, I had just arrived in Portland, Oregon for some virtual production training for work and was looking forward to relaxing with some Balatro in the evening hours. It was a perfect and delightful plan, where I would work all day, and play an addictive video game card game at night. What in the world could go wrong with such a simple plot? What could ruin this plan so easily?
I received a DLC code for Final Fantasy XVI the first night I was there.
I asked our FFXVI resident reviewer if he was interested in the DLC, and he declined due to working on other projects. Will Silberman was/is a workhorse of a reviewer, so I knew he wasn’t bullshitting me. So, I did the most idiotic thing in the world…I went ahead and redeemed the code to start reviewing it.
Silly me, I was almost sure that I could jump right into the DLC and take care of it quickly. I had about 10-15 hours of playtime with FFXVI, so this seemed like an easy jump. A no-brainer! What could go wrong with this plan?
That’s where the humor arrives.
I quickly learned that I had to go through 55 hours of the main game to open up the DLC. My poor Balatro would have to wait. My poor dinners out would have to wait. My entire Portlandia fantasy would have to be put on hold. In short, my days in Portland were spent learning virtual production, and my nights were spent racing through FFXVI. It was a journey.
In the end, I was aces at virtual production and built a class around Unreal Engine so that I could teach VP properly. As for Final Fantasy XVI, it was one of the greatest and quickest 55-hour experiences I had with a game in a long time. It told a wonderful tale about failure, regret, and ultimately redemption. A true good versus evil battle on multiple levels, even when some of that evil lives within one’s mind. Both VP and FFXVI were my best memories of that December trip to a 90s town.
As a side note, that DLC lasted like two hours. Still worth it.
Anyway, all this gibberish thrown at you for the mere mention that I got to go through Final Fantasy XVI and now it’s back on the PC. What I found this time out was the same great story, the same superb action that is chaotic as it is spectacular, and a very upgraded graphical experience that is like no other Final Fantasy before it.
So, sit back, relax a bit, and let me tell you the tale of my PC review experience with this superb game, and let’s get this review going.
Whale of a tale
If you aren’t familiar with Final Fantasy XVI’s story, then let me throw a synopsis at you. You play as a Bearer named Clive Rosfield, who is a sworn protector of his ‘little brother’ Joshua, a Dominant, who can change into a large Phoenix that is as powerful as it is destructive. While on patrol one night, Clive’s kingdom is raided by an army called the Sanbreque, who bring down the kingdom’s bloodline with a swift and destructive cut, and eventually end up killing Joshua while he is in his Dominant form.
Driven by revenge and sentenced to life on the frontlines of an ever-lasting Sanbreque war, Clive does what he can to survive, as he carries the burden of regret for his failure with Joshua and is driven by his need for revenge against the monster that ruined his life and took his Dominant’s. Along the way on Clive’s revenge tour, he meets his long-lost childhood love and friend, Jill, who had been captured and lived a life as a slave since Clive’s kingdom fell. And Clive eventually crosses paths with a stranger named Cid, who is also a Bearer, and offers to help Clive get his revenge.
As the story gets deeper, Clive’s need for revenge soon turns into a need to save Bearers, as he discovers eventually a Bearer will turn petrified from using their power too much. Clive also takes up Cid’s struggle with saving the world they live in by destroying the power of every mighty monster that is fed by giant crystals called the Mothercrystals. By destroying those, he gives his kind a chance and eventually wants to bring out the very monster that has haunted him since the night he lost Joshua.
There is far more to the story than this, but, damn, that is a good story. The big piece driving part of this game is how well-developed the characters are and how connected you will feel to their story and their pain. The characters are so well done that they almost feel human and what drives them is believable. While the story is grounded in magic and monsters, the emotional scars and suffering the characters must overcome are more real than they are fiction. There is nothing in this world better than a good story with compelling characters. And this story drives this game.
Story with a side of gameplay
The story in Final Fantasy XVI is astounding and will carry the experience for years to come. It’s just that good. The gameplay that accompanies it? It’s very good but can’t overshadow the story. That’s not a bad thing, at least in my opinion.
The gameplay in Final Fantasy XVI is driven by the story and characters and makes controlling them a seamless action experience that is relentless in its pursuit to deliver beautiful chaos to the player. The seamlessness of the game from story to action is bridged by simplified controls.
Most of what you get with the game are easy-to-understand controls, where you’re swinging your sword, causing melee damage, and unleashing giant, magical attacks that are destructive as they are chaotically stunning to see in motion. When I previewed this game a year or so ago, that was the first thing I noticed – its simplicity. I’m not a complicated gamer, I don’t need a thousand magical abilities and onscreen stats to tell me how great I’m doing. I just need swinging, hitting, and destroying. Those are my three goals in an action game. Also, in MLB The Show.
Final Fantasy XVI delivers that simplicity and also adds in destructive magical abilities by simply holding down a trigger and then selecting how you want to go about destroying an enemy through one of the controller’s buttons. Combos are easy to pull off, multiple devastating blows are fun to watch, and the action just seems so seamless and high sensation in its delivery. You feel like you’re doing right by Clive and just watching him get his revenge bit by bit through simplified and seamless controls is something to behold. It’s fun, it’s magical, it’s revenge-filled action!
My point, it’s incredibly easy to get into this game and get right to the action. You could not ask for an easier learning curve in an action role-playing game. It’s a pickup-the-controller-and-go type of deal. It’s the best way to make an action game. And this is how the gameplay works for the most part. You’re in the scrum when you’re not in dialogue with characters. You’re exploring and taking down creatures and enemies as you pursue Clive’s goals, and there’s nothing complicated about this process. It’s just easy and fun.
Now, some branching narrative moments in the game change things up. People talk to you, you answer, and if you answer correctly, then you get some dialogue and minor story shifts. It’s a good way to take a break from sword swinging and visual delightfulness. The story drives this portion of the gameplay, and it helps make sense of the action and its necessity. I mean revenge is a nice reason to start kicking enemy ass all day long, but having a more grounded view of surrounding characters with real-world oppression helps to expand Final Fantasy XVI’s world and make the destruction so much more meaningful. In a way, the action and story remind me of George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, where the action is gorgeous, but the characters and their situations are so well-defined through a strong story that it becomes more than just another dumb action flick. Both action and story should exist within a single experience.
Beyond action and drama, the gameplay also features a clever skills tree that is massive. I mean, it’s massive. It starts tiny but as you progress through the story, and defeat enemies to acquire ability points, you begin to open magical abilities that allow you to tap into power that is driven by magical creatures. The creatures range from a fiery phoenix to a brutally tall wizard that is electrifying from afar. There are multiple circles of abilities in the skills tree, and each represents a specialized creature that carries its unique abilities. As you unlock each magical circle of abilities, this adds to the easily switchable abilities you can use in battle. Overall, there are a lot of options you can move and strategize with to find the best fit during fights. This tree will motivate you to keep finding creatures, gathering ability points, and fighting like a revenge-driven madman. Or a guy named Clive.
All this makes up the gameplay of Final Fantasy XVI.
Now, while the world is beautifully big in the game and the action easily accessible, the game itself is driven by the main quest and many side quests. The latter of the bunch keeps the gameplay going and offers meaningful story branches that help to build upon Clive’s world. There are many of these side quests, and they range from simple tasks to tracking lost residents who have gone missing. There are good and meaningful tasks that keep the adventure going and make the world much bigger than it sometimes feels.
Anyway, overall, the gameplay is just wildly easy to get into and understand. While it is led by a thoroughly thought-through story and make no mistake the story is the star of this game, it still does action right and fits right in with everything that Final Fantasy XVI wants to become.
In short, the gameplay is quite good and works well with the backend construct, as well as with its strong story.
About that PC port
The PC port of this game is gorgeous. It’s the best version of the game and it doesn’t take too much power to get a good frame rate, some raytracing, and insanely detailed visuals that bring Final Fantasy XVI’s world to life. While reviewing this game, I ran it on these specs:
- i7 13700K (CPU)
- RTX 3070 (GPU)
- 16GB of DDR5
The game ran quite well on this hardware setup and certainly outperformed my PlayStation 5 by leaps and bounds. I didn’t run into any issues with the game, no crashes or stutters. It just ran smoothly. I did try this on a more recent i7 machine with a 4070 and 32GB of RAM, and it ran considerably smoother, but the fact that my older machine didn’t have any issues speaks volumes about how this game was ported.
It was impressive.
Anyway, let’s wrap this up.
Conclusion
Final Fantasy XVI from Square Enix is a marvelous experience that brings strong characters, a passionate and fiery revenge-driven story, and simplistic action that is just as easy to pick up and go. It’s one of the best Final Fantasy games in the series, and certainly a solid option for PC gamers.
