Is FF16 a ‘real Final Fantasy game’? Of course it is – but there is something to this incredibly stupid debate

As I sit down to write this article, we are precisely a week away from the release of Final Fantasy 16, just under a week away from the review embargo (which will have passed and our FF16 review will be out by the time you read this), and the game It’s trending on Twitter. Click on the trend and yet what do you find? A lot of bloody nonsense about if it’s a final fantasy game Or not.

It’s nonsense from all sides too, by the way. On one side, you have those who aren’t strictly taking what FF16 is leaving behind. These people do not like the tone and style of the game, which is very different from the previous games, and therefore they say that it is not a FF game. On the other hand, you have fans who are well prepared for FF16 and notice how different each FF game is from the last. And here I am, with the full game at 100%, desperate to tweet and digitally slap both sides. But I can not. So here I am, in the past, writing to you in the future, when I’m finally allowed to talk about the game.

So let’s start with the big dumb question, yeah? Is Final Fantasy 16 a Final Fantasy game? Well of course it is, silly, shut up, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t. complicated.

What I mean by that is: Final Fantasy is what Square Enix says it is. The company appoints key personnel to act as franchise managers, and these people craft an artistic vision of what should be the newest entry in the series. So it has always been, and so it will always be. This is the only way it can become an expensive piece of art that requires hundreds of people to make.

However, are some completely wrong when they say that FF16 doesn’t feel like Final Fantasy to them? After the better part of 45 hours with the game, I’m here to tell you that they definitely aren’t.

I mean, for one, those feelings are subjective. But second, let me lay out a theory here for a second, Final Fantasy is actually less radically transformative than people think it is.

Picture in your head for a moment a graph with the X and Y axes labeled 1 through 10. Here’s my theory: Final Fantasy has moved a lot compared to most video game series, but it’s also moved more or less. least completely on one axis. So on the X axis it’s been at a 10, a one, and everywhere in between; but on the Y axis, it moved between 1 and 3, and didn’t really travel much beyond that.

This formed a comfort zone. The series had a truly sea-change when it introduced a punky, tech-infused world with FF7, for example, but featured the same gameplay concepts from the previous games, keeping it grounded. In a post-FF7 world, the series experimented more with different mechanics, but the series was generally based on a mood, a vibe, characterized by a particular character look, world, story, and delivery.

This, I think, is what sets FF16 apart. It’s not that it’s an action game, it’s that the typical tone and vibe of an FF that can be trusted no matter the setting or mechanics, is really different for the first time in 20 years. People like to make the comparison to FF12 and Tactics, but I honestly think those games have more in common with “typical” FF, better typified by FF6 and FF7, than they do with FF16.

This has happened for many reasons. Fans have to admit that Final Fantasy has faded in importance. When FF7 was released and sold 10 million copies, it was one of the biggest games on the market. More than two decades later, FF15 was the best-selling entry in history, and yet in its lifetime it barely managed to surpass 10 million, despite the massive expansion of the video game market. Meanwhile, a pair like The Witcher 3 have now surpassed 50 million sold; and even Cyberpunk, with its disastrous launch, has doubled the sales of FF15. In a sense, the series has stalled, at least commercially.

FF16 is radical for this reason. He’s looked to games like Game of Thrones and God of War for inspiration, and he’s offering something new. No matter what fans like to say and snarl about how FF changes, make no mistake, this is the most radical change the series has ever made, and if you don’t like it, that’s okay. After all, FF7 Rebirth will be much more traditional and it’s just around the corner.

However, all of this is not to say that FF16 doesn’t feel a lot like FF. As the story progresses, it begins to cautiously tiptoe into some more typically ‘FF’ tropes and story beats. Masayoshi Soken’s score pays homage to several classic FF tunes of yesteryear, highlighting several from the first game in particular. And there are a handful of familiar enemies and concepts. Summons play a prominent role and are perhaps the biggest thread that ties this to the other games.

In the same way, however, it’s clear that FF16 is treating its origins and history with a bit more suspicion than previous titles. The bestiary has around 50 creatures, for example, but summon aside, only a handful of them are classics from the series. There is no Tonberry or Cactuar, for example. Many typical enemies like Goblins and Gigas have been given a look that I would say is less like the lore of the series and closer to typical western fantasy designs. And there are very traditional fantasy orcs, which is the first in a series in the franchise’s single-player arm.

There are Chocobos, of course, but when you assemble one there’s a little two-bar jingle that triggers the Chocobo theme and that’s it; quite different from other games, which have felt the need to exploit the theme triumphantly every time you’re mounted. Money is called Gil in menus, but NPCs usually refer to it as Talents, Gold, etc. While there are ‘party members’, you only control Clive and honestly the party is pretty useless in battle. Where the party structure shines is in what its talk brings to the narrative.

Quite often, the more typical FF elements are filtered through ‘The Fallen’, an ancient civilization long extinct. The Fallen clearly had airships, for example. With The Fallen long gone and only FF’s signature ruins remaining, in a fun way this positions FF16 as a post-FF FF game. The people of this world have built something new, something more traditional Western fantasy, on the hollowed-out ruins of something else FF.

To some extent, FF16 feels appropriately adolescent. Remember when you were 16 and your parents, your family, and your history were vaguely embarrassing? FF16 feels like she’s suffering because of it. Every once in a while he has to wear some sweater he inherited from an older brother, and sometimes you practically feel the game wince as it grudgingly does so. Other times, when it’s kind of cool even in this new shade, 16 takes the inheritance with gusto. But that dichotomy is an important part of growing up; that period shapes and changes us, and it doesn’t change that we are ultimately where we came from. Such is the case here.

Like I said, as the game progresses, despite feeling like it resists looking too much like its predecessors, FF16 starts to intrude on its predilections. This is especially true when the narrative transitions slowly from personal vendetta, political intrigue, and nations at war to an epic of gods and monsters.

However, the tone is still very different. This is a horrible and gloomy world. People die in terror, drenched in blood, with their eyes open. The characters mutilate the bodies of the dead to settle accounts with those who loved them; and the heroes do not have clean hands in this regard either. The characters curse constantly and colorfully. Innocents are cut up, tortured or cremated simply for existing. Terrified characters slit their throats in full view of the camera rather than face a worse fate, which is sometimes the wrath of our protagonist. Not even Ivalice was like that, and that’s okay.

It’s all good, you know? It’s okay to love this. It’s okay not to. It’s nice that Square Enix did this. It’s better than acceptable, in fact it’s great, that the company is experimenting and taking some risks with one of its biggest games.

FF16 fans should realize that when someone says the game doesn’t feel like a typical Final Fantasy to them, it’s not necessarily pejorative. Denying how different this game is denies reality and understates the big and bold change Hiroshi Takai’s team has made with this game.

What they have offered is very, very different, but it enhances the richness of textures in the FF series as a whole. And if you don’t like it, there is always the next game. After all, that has always been the promise of Final Fantasy.