Final Fantasy 16 Is Going To Age Terribly
Final Fantasy 16 is an excellent game. However, it’s also a game that’s trying to be so many different things that it never quite solidifies its own identity. Naoki Yoshida made it clear he asked the entire development team to watch Game of Thrones during production, so there was a nuanced understanding about the sort of characters, atmosphere, and world the RPG hoped to depict. Square Enix seeked to create a game with global appeal that honored the series’ history while aiming to provide an experience that capitalised on the status quo.
In so many of its components, Final Fantasy 16 wants to be considered alongside the likes of God of War Ragnarok or The Witcher 3, and even bears the emotional storytelling of The Last of Us in its familial ties and strikingly mature approach to sex and violence. Instead of playing with its toys in the corner of the room, Final Fantasy has burst forth with an eager attitude and determination to hang with the cool kids. But is this new mindset sustainable?
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We’re now over a month from the game’s release, and I’m not so sure. While fans have all fallen in love with the characters of Clive Rosfield and Jill Warrick, along with a reasonable crush on the ludicrously attractive Cid, far less praise is being placed on the narrative ideas Square Enix tried so hard to sell as mature and groundbreaking.
Aside from its high points which very easily sit among the series’ best moments, it often comes across as plodding and slow with a world building intrigue that sadly never quite justifies itself. Inconsistency proves to be a frequent obstacle as you explore the same environments before being set loose in presumably sprawling cities that turned out to be little more than linear corridors.
I wanted to be set free, to lose myself in the culture of Valisthea instead of hurryingly grinding along the rails of each major region while only ever really being given free rein in the countryside. Its exploration pales in comparison to similar RPG greats, a glaring flaw which doesn’t work in the game’s favour a month removed from release, let alone several years.
We’ll talk about it with mountains of praise in regard to its combat and characters, but just as much critique will be thrust at how it tries to be The Witcher or God of War but only ends up feeling boring and overlong. Final Fantasy 16 is a far stronger 20 - 25 hour character action game than a 45-hour RPG, but it will forever be judged as the latter and suffer as a consequence. It deserves much better.
Final Fantasy has always thrived on its individuality and a desire to stand out against what anything else in the medium has to offer. Each new entry was different by design as it only carried over select archetypes and themes, with battle systems, worlds, and characters all entirely unique each time. We looked forward to each new Final Fantasy, but not once did fans know what to expect from them.
It became a tradition to appreciate and dissect how each game was so different, deliberately aiming to subvert expectations and develop the series’ identity in service of a future that remained unknowable. 16 is different because it’s clear that from the very beginning it didn’t want to be Final Fantasy, but a compelling mixture of different inspirations while hanging onto whatever dregs of its own history fell neatly into place. It’s both an unparalleled triumph and a huge disappointment.
Knowing what it desired to be during development and what it eventually became, I don’t look at Final Fantasy 16 in the same way as its predecessors, and doubt I ever will. While the game is filled with fantastic set pieces and heart-wrenching characters, it’s lacking the melodramatic charm that kept the flawed yet ambitious Final Fantasy 15 afloat and in the hearts of fans for several years. It was downright rubbish in some places, but despite all shortcomings still had oodles of heart. Final Fantasy 16 doesn’t always have that quality.
Time will tell how Final Fantasy 16 will be looked back on in the years to come, but deep down I can’t help feeling we’ll be referring to it as ‘the game that tried to be like Game of Thrones’ instead of possessing any distinct features of its own. It’s grandiose, touching, and sports production values that are unrivalled across the entire genre, but much of it leaves me feeling empty with only a few weeks of distance. It’s a great game held back by its desire to mimic fellow fantasy media it would be so much stronger for simply avoiding.
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Source: TheGamer
