I could have left everything to the end and served to create a huge expectation until the outcome of this text, but sometimes it is preferable to get to the point: I recommend Final Fantasy XVI. Just like that. However, within this recommendation there are many nuances, since the game has its loose seams that make the work is good, but could have given much more of itself to become excellent.
Because Square Enix’s new release came with the promise of being one of the most anticipated works not only of this 2023, but of the last few years. The team that made up the production was one of those “dream teams” that one rarely encounters: within the vaunted Creative Business Unit III of Square Enix, figures such as Naoki Yoshida as producer (the architect of the rebirth of Final Fantasy XIV), Ryota Suzuki in gameplay (combat director of the incredible Devil May Cry 5), Masayoshi Soken as composer (Final Fantasy or Drakengard, among many other works) and Hiroshi Takai and Kazutoyo Maehiro as directors.
A high-flying plot that hinted that Final Fantasy XVI would be a huge work from afar, but when we have it in front of us it turns out to be a very good work, but not impressive. Because Final Fantasy XVI makes its greatest virtue also its defect: the combat system.
The combat in this installment is spectacular. More typical of a hack & slash than an Action RPG -you don’t steal Capcom from Suzuki by chance-, the amount of combos that can be chained between skills, hits and more allow the playable loop of each fight to be very addictive (even ignoring that most enemies hardly present a challenge). However, this is also its biggest “weak” point: everything introduced as an RPG is of little importance.
The leveling up, weapons, etc., is quite vacuous, to the point that if it had not been present, perhaps it would have been even better. By betting so much on the hack & slash genre, the game is dominated more by the player’s skill than the stats themselves. Here this writer has killed bosses 10 levels above by the simple fact of being used to play this genre. Therefore, the Action RPG component is relegated to a second or even third plane, where it does not shine and becomes anecdotal.
This combat, in turn, also affects the very pace of the game. With frenetic and fun battles, the moments of interlude become heavy. We are not talking about secondary missions that are almost entirely insubstantial (some are worthwhile, but they are few), but those main missions that are really secondary missions in disguise.
The problem that Final Fantasy XVI suffers is that these are dilated in time, so that something that should be fast to not slow the pace becomes at a certain point in tedium. And that is a problem, especially because in turn also makes the work does not shine at times in the jumble of nations and political conflicts that treasures the plot.
We are not going to go into it for logical reasons -spoilers- and because the basic information can already be found here, but it may be the delivery that has the best worldbuilding of all. There is a lot of care put into creating cities, towns, kingdoms and everything that revolves around them. There is so much information that even two characters in the game work as a “Bible” to collect all the data. But sometimes the game itself is self-destructive, imposing a slower pace that cuts the narrative.
And among all this, an important detail: the game runs very smoothly at a technical level. While it is true that in performance mode there are drops of 60 frames per second, it never drops below 30 frames per second. Having this as a lower limit, it is easier to look up. In addition, in the almost 50 hours that it has lasted a total of 0 bugs have been found. Literally ZERO. In these times of huge patches, it seems almost a chimera to find a video game like this.
Final Fantasy XVI is a good game that perhaps falls short of what was expected. It is a title more than recommended (the soundtrack is a real marvel), but always taking into consideration all these points already mentioned. If you get into the game’s playable loop and accept its faults, you’ll be inside it; if you find them more uncomfortable than they seem, it will throw you out of the adventure.
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