At a time when Nintendo is making magic over in Hyrule, the absence of a sense of exploration in Final Fantasy XVI is conspicuous. Crates and tables don't break when you swing at them as they do in other action games, making the world feel dead and static. Quests instruct you to find a person or item, but lead you directly to them in a way that makes everything feel small. Invisible walls are everywhere, in the form of logs Clive can't jump over or doors he can't smash through. Though the visuals are beautiful, environments often feel more lifeless than they should. World and level design are the biggest issues. It's the digital equivalent of an encyclopedia on your lap - one you're likely going to need to refer to again and again. If Clive is talking to his brother Joshua in their family castle, for instance, ATL will throw up reports on who Clive is, who Joshua is, and one on their home nation of Rosaria. Final Fantasy XVI features something called "Active Time Lore," which, if you hold down the center button, brings up journal entries on the relevant on-screen happenings. These down moments are usually done to establish a piece of the narrative puzzle, helping to keep the story cohesive until it all connects together, but they do slow momentum.Īnd there are a lot of pieces to this puzzle. Plus many quests, even late in the game, can be drab affairs: Transport to this location, talk to three villagers and then, because you're there, fight some generic bad guys. The cost is that this is a cutscene-heavy game. That helps the story to always feel focused in spite of its frenetic grandeur. Though there's a lot going on in Valisthea - nations at war, land destroyed by mysterious blight - Clive's quest motivations are always clear. You'll spend a lot of the first half mashing the square button to perform generic combos. Clive eventually amasses a varied repertoire of abilities, but the majority of these are learned through story events that happen in the second half of the game. From a combat and gameplay perspective, the first 15-20 hours are slow going. Yet these spectacles obscure one of Final Fantasy XVI's central flaws. You're also introduced to main character Clive, playing through a crucial childhood experience that involves Clive transforming into an Eikon and ends with tragedy befalling his brother Joshua. The game does indeed start with a bang: You're witness to a dazzling clash between two Eikons, powerful superbeings known in previous Final Fantasy games as Summons, and your toe is gently dipped into the ocean of lore that Square Enix crafted for the world of Valisthea. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Square Enix generated buzz earlier this month releasing a demo consisting of Final Fantasy XVI's opening two hours.
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