How FFXVI Is Already Better Than FFXV
Many Final Fantasy fans lament that their beloved franchise "hasn't been good since Final Fantasy X" or an earlier entry. In that time since FFX, the most highly regarded Final Fantasy mainline has been Final Fantasy XIV — an MMORPG. Yet every time a mainline Final Fantasy releases, hope swells that this will be the Final Fantasy mainline that challenges for the crown of best Final Fantasy game.
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The most recent mainline entry was Final Fantasy XV. While beloved by plenty of Final Fantasy fans, FFXV also has its fair share of detractors. FFXV has fueled hesitation for the impending release of Final Fantasy XVI. However, there are plenty of reasons to believe that FFXVI has avoided the mistakes of FFXV and could very well be the game fans have long been waiting for.
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10 Development Went More Smoothly
FFXV wasn't originally FFXV. It was a spinoff known as Final Fantasy Versus XIII, thematically based around the Fabula Nova Crystallis sub-series along with Final Fantasy XIII. Over the course of ten years between announcement and release, FFvsXIII would reach a series of development snags resulting in development shifting to a new team and it being rebranded as FFXV.
By comparison, FFXVI's development has gone silky smooth. FFXVI began development in 2015 before being formally announced in 2020. Much of the known complications in FFXVI's development stem from juggling FFXVI with the continued development of FFXIV and adjusting to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
9 New Console Generation
As time progresses so, too, does technology. FFXVI greatly benefits from the power of the PlayStation 5, whether it's the gorgeous new visual engine, that it isn't FFXV's Luminous Engine, or its fast load times.
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FFXV did later receive performance updates, making it no visual slouch, but FFXVI looks even better thanks to being native to the PlayStation 5. FFXVI's Performance mode has a native resolution of 1080p that's scaled up to 1440p, while its Quality mode is native 1440p that's scaled up to 2160p, or 4K. Performance mode targets 60fps while Quality targets 30fps.
8 Naoki Yoshida
Naoki Yoshida, known affectionately as Yoshi-P, has a massive weight on his shoulders. Yoshida has been working with Square-Enix since 2004 as a designer for Dragon Quest X. Years later, Yoshida was tabbed to save the struggling FFXIV. FFXIV's later reboot and its subsequent success were due in large part to Yoshida's leadership and vision.
FFXIV has a growing number of fans who believe it has one of the best mainline stories to date, despite being an MMO. Yoshida and his team led the development of FFXVI, which should give Final Fantasy fans confidence in its story and universe.
7 Story And Lore
One area where Yoshida's influence is already evident is the lore — not just story lore, but the little things. Items have in-depth descriptions similar to FFXIV and other games such as Elden Ring. Small details like this help make the world of Valisthea feel more alive. Add in Active Time Lore (ATL), which makes relevant lore accessible with a press of the touchpad, and it's clear FFXVI's developers put so much heart into its world.
FFXV's overall story and lore are fantastic, but the way it's presented still leaves many players lost and confused. FFXV didn't do the best job of making its world interesting up front, leaving many players to have to consult Wikis or discussion threads in order to understand and appreciate FFXV's world.
6 No Expanded Media
Perhaps the biggest flaw of FFXV was Square Enix's insistence on creating an expanded universe comprised of content from different mediums. There were story DLCs, a multiplayer game, a short web anime, a feature-length movie, a book, and so on.
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All of these together make up the overall story of FFXV, which was a controversial choice among fans as this made the base game feel incomplete. It also makes experiencing FFXV a hassle as players have to reference a list to see what to watch or play when. Thankfully, FFXVI avoids this by being a story that's entirely contained.
5 A More Diverse Party
One area that FFXV saw immense praise for was its main party. Noctis, Prompto, Gladiolus, and Ignis make up a team of long-time friends, which went a long way to perfectly sell FFXV's road trip theme. However, many fans felt the extended cast was underutilized, and having a party of four human male characters lacked the variety seen in previous Final Fantasy parties.
FFXVI will only allow players to play as Clive while also being able to command his dog, Torgal. However, Clive will frequently be joined by other characters such as Cid and JIll, which helps provides a more diverse cast compared to FFXV's "boy band" that should continually keep things fresh throughout.
4 Not One Big Open World
Square Enix took the criticism for FFXIII's linear hallways and general restrictiveness to heart as FFXV takes place in a mostly open world. In some ways, FFXV was a little too open, as some players complained that FFXV's world felt empty. FFXV also has a jarring shift in its second half, where areas become linear, and the story becomes streamlined.
FFXVI does have open areas, but none to the scale of FFXV. Yoshida and his team sought to balance openness with linearity to ensure the narrative isn't compromised by creating awkward moments where the party isn't meandering about and fishing while a massive war is going on.
3 More Varied Environments And Locations
FFXVI isn't a true open-world game, allowing Clive to travel to a vast array of different locations and environments. FFXVI's towns and cities provide more variety to FFXV's middle-of-nowhere rest stops and the occasional city like Lestallum.
FFXVI is composed of different regions with different kingdoms. Clive will be able to see and experience each region's different landscapes and cultures. This is different from FFXV, where Noctis and his friends spend little time outside of Lucis, with Altissia being the only city outside of Lucis to explore.
2 Deeper Combat
Another common complaint about FFXV was that its combat was too simple and easy. FFXV's combat is far deeper than holding and mashing a single button, but there's little incentive to explore that depth because players could spam items to avoid dying. That made FFXV's difficulty trivial.
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FFXVI's combat was designed by Ryota Suzuki, who previously worked on the Devil May Cry series. FFXVI's combat is every bit as flashy as FFXV's but with much more satisfying depth. FFXVI also has two difficulty settings with accessories that allow players to tune the difficulty just right. On top of that, there's a harder difficulty setting, fittingly called "Final Fantasy," only available in New Game+, which increases level caps and rearranges enemy placements.
1 Better Summon Mechanics
Summons have become just as integral to Final Fantasy as Moogles and Chocobos. Summons are at the heart of FFXVI's gameplay and narrative. FFXVI's summons, Eikons, are woven into FFXVI's combat as Clive can utilize their abilities seamlessly in battle. FFXVI also contains epic kaiju-like Eikon vs. Eikon boss fights.
This is a big step up from FFXV. FFXV's summons, Astrals, are a major part of its narrative. However, summoning in battle is conditional and amounts to a cutscene that kills every enemy. While those scenes are amazing to watch, players have no control over which Astral gets summoned, and they offer little utility other than destruction.
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Source: CBR - Comic Book Resources
