I love Final Fantasy 16’s low-poly dog

Sure there have been many low points for Final Fantasy as a series since the halcyon days of the PS1 Final Fantasy era. As soon as FF12 was released, the series began to falter, weighed down by its own legacy, so desperate to reinvent itself and re-establish its place as an industry leader that it continually made promises it couldn’t keep.

This tween identity crisis manifested itself most clearly in the Final Fantasy 13 trilogy, where Square Enix did its best to develop a game worthy of the series’ name, but ran into one problem after another, all underscored by the Crystal Tools engine. . , an incomplete and inefficient platform that hampered both Final Fantasy 13 and the doomed initial release of Final Fantasy 14.

It’s rumored that so much time and money went into making this engine work that Square Enix decided it needed to squeeze as much juice out of Crystal Tools as possible once it was (finally) up and running. Hence the Final Fantasy 13 trilogy was born. It was all a bit of a farce, culminating in Final Fantasy 13: Lightning Returns, a game built in 18 months with a really good battle system at its core, but little else to stand out outside of it. that.

The game was something of a dichotomy; On the one hand, you had lush environments, amazing pre-rendered cutscenes, and systems that seem to be actively apologizing for the duology of previous games. On the other hand, you have… this dog. The result of making an engine that is not designed for an open world game is… an open world game. This dog wasn’t just a background asset that was only fun if you got close enough to really question him, like the cheering crowds at racing games. No. This dog took center stage. He can be found in a center. There was a whole search revolving around it.

This PS1-style little dog was a central asset in Lightning Returns and became something of a lightning rod (no pun intended) for overall gameplay quality. In this unique canine creature, rushed development and an apparent lack of care for Square Enix’s cherished franchise was exalted. Poor.

So why the history lesson? Well, because Final Fantasy 16 also has a low-poly dog. The beagle has landed, again. But, compared to Lightning Returns, this low-poly dog ​​looks a lot better, and it really represents how far the company has come. Instead of being a PS1-looking dog in a PS3 game, our barking friend in FF16 looks more like a PS4 dog in a PS5 game. That’s an improvement from three full console generations!

A more disposable asset than the one in Lightning Returns, this new dog is a better fit for his world. Sure, it’s a less healed creature than Torgal (below), but you only see this lop-eared creature a few times in the game; he is not a companion that you have by your side at all times. It doesn’t look out of place and doesn’t break your immersion; Just as much care and attention has gone into this dog as the grapes you come across early in the game.

Final Fantasy 16 is easily one of the most polished and well-rounded games we’ve seen at launch in a long time. Better yet, it’s a technical showcase that really describes what this current generation can do. It’s an expensive, well-executed example of what big-budget games can and should do in 2023.

And it’s fitting that a small, low-poly dog ​​has the power to showcase that. Good Guy.

Final Fantasy 16 is out now on PS5 and is coming to PC at a later date. Probably. You can read our 4-star FF16 review at the link.