“An epic dark fantasy world where the fate of the land is decided by the mighty Eikons and the Dominants who wield them. This is the tale of Clive Rosfield, a warrior granted the title “First Shield of Rosaria” and sworn to protect his younger brother Joshua, the dominant of the Phoenix“

When Cloud Strife was added to Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, that was my introducted to the Final Fantasy series. I may have heard about FFVII being considered one of the greatest games ever made but that was the extent of my knowledge. Cloud’s introduction eventually led me to beat FFVII Remake on PS4 into Intergrade on PS5. I had really enjoyed my experience with the game, and when I heard that FFXVI was announced to be an action styled RPG opposed to the tradtional turn-based, I was intrigued.

I was almost intimidated about jumping into the world of FFXVI. The last big RPG I decided to jump into with no knowledge of was Xenoblade Chronicles X, and that didn’t turn out well. Each FF game is its own story and world that takes tons of hours to beat. It wasn’t until I attended PAX East 2023 with some friends and attended the FFXVI global showcase that I was hooked. I completed FFXVI in November, clocking in at 42 hours. So how would I sum up my experience?

FFXVI is by far the most impressive I currently have on my PS5 visually speaking. I found myself in quite a few scenarios, slowly panning the camera around looking at the details on castles with lighting at different times of days, and I was amazed. I played the game using performance mode. Outside of a few rare hiccups in framerate going into small towns and cutscenes being rendered in 30fps, the visuals still looked great. The soundtrack has a super catchy title theme, battle theme, and chill vibes for the locales spread across Valisthea.

Clive Rosfield is a good protagonist, accompanied by solid side characters and villains (except for Mid – I do not like you). The story had me on the edge of my seat after a hard hitting intro, and I loved what a ride it was…for most of it. Unforuntately, the game does go on for too long in the third act before the final boss, and I don’t think the final boss made enough of an impact to change my mind on that aspect. The ending is a bit a tear jerker luckily.

Now the combat in FFXVI is very smooth, but one of the game’s biggest selling points (no pun intended) is the Eikon Battles. These are essentially giant anime fights, or something Godzilla vs King Kong, but in the world of Final Fantasy. They are intense, the music is banging, and they look so good. The first Ifrit vs Phoenix, then Titan and Bahamut are wow. Just wow.

One additional downside of the game is that side quests are lacking. There are a few designated with a “+”, and comepleting these will get you a Chocobo to travel faster, bigger inventory slots for potions, etc. There aren’t very many of those, however, and the other side quests to complete are not worth it. Gold is not hard to come by in FFXVI, so I recommend only focusing on the main story.

1 DLC pack dropped in December, another will drop later in 2024, and I will definitely jump back in to play them. I’m super glad I decided to play FFXVI, because it truly was an exciting experience. I just wish the story didn’t stick around longer than it needed to.