Final Fantasy 16 Review

 

Boycotting video games never works and people always want to complain about one thing or another. When it comes to Final Fantasy, i've always been a casual fan. I often enjoyed the music but started getting into the games in my early high school years. I didn't care about the massive lore behind them or anything but I often enjoyed the RPG and action elements in the games. 

Final Fantasy 16 is a brand new experience for many Final Fantasy players. It's the first game in the FF series to be released in the original line on the PS5. It's a big game too, with 100 GB of space to download. So make sure like me you've got a spare SSD around to play it. Despite reports for some, i've had no issues with the game running on my PS5. I've actually been enjoying it quite a bit.

I didn't mind Final Fantasy 15 (the previous entry). But this game is very different in the series, as it's more of a darker and serious tone than many ones i've played before. Think in the style of Game of Thrones meets Harry Potter or something.

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For once, Final Fantasy 16 is not a completely open-word experience as you may expect. In fact it's more linear than previous entries. But that's OK. I sometimes get tired of the same old open world video game format. Sure, there's things we've seen in other open world games over a hundred times before like Titans and stuff like that, but the game's epic scale battles and cinematic cutscenes are quite impressive. The combat mode is actualy very good and works well here (much better than the button mashy type combo of Sonic Frontiers, for example).

 

 

 

The story evolves around a warrior called Clive who serves as the bodyguard as Joshua, the first shield of Rosaria. His goal is to be protected and you also have the power of the Phoenix to help guide your way through battles and adventuring.

I feel this bold new direction for Final Fantasy works really well. The story this time round is well done, quite captive and emotional somewhat. The royal stuff can be annoying (consider me not a fan of royal society or culture whatsoever). But other wise, the game is played out like a movie. There are cutscenes, and lots of them, that make up a lot of the time on the game, but you also do get a lot of great game play mixed in between.

 

I feel like this game in the series is also very welcoming for new fans. It's easy to jump in and start from the beginning without needing to know much. Thankfully the combat mode was very similar to FF15 that I enjoyed. I've played other FF games besides 15 though. While never being a big fan on FF7 like everyone else, I still had some favourites in the series, like 5 and 8. Didn't mind X even if the story for that game was a bit cringe. 

Some Final Fantasy games do have cringe stories, but this one at least is a lot more engaging with a darker format. The dialogue is also very entertaining especially when or if an enemy shows up by surprise.

 

 

Graphics wise the game is visually impressive. I play it on Graphics mode on a PS5 with a 4K UHD TV and it's a very enjoyable experience. I also love the design of the open areas and places in the game, and looking at the backgrounds in the far off distance is really fun.

Final Fantasy 16 is a great and bold new installment of the series. It's a nice change of direction that I welcome, and I enjoy the easy to navigate UI and battle control methods,  making it also a good game to play if anyone is a newcomer to the series. Despite it not being open world, it's a nice change as a lot of open world games do tend to feel tedious after a while.

Final Fantasy 16 is out now on PS5.