New final fantasy 1610/30/2023 ![]() Taken as an experiment in how far Final Fantasy’s already loose format can be stretched without losing sight of the series’ traditions, XVI is a success. The uneven results of its tonal approach aren’t due to a fundamental incompatibility between the spirit of Final Fantasy and its dismal subject matter. Still, if part of Final Fantasy XVI’s goal is, as producer Naoki Yoshida told WIRED earlier this year, to “ the players that the series can have more potential” than stories about “teens going out and saving the world,” it’s definitely accomplished that. Its maturity in this area doesn’t run much deeper than a flash of naked skin. XVI’s view of sex-even if more graphically represented-feels informed more by juvenile stereotyping than an attempt to create truly complex characters of all genders. This ranges from minor touches, like a world map that resembles the dioramas of the show’s opening credits, to overly familiar story beats, character writing, and even the cultural geography of its continents.) One result of this approach is that XVI treats the women in its cast astonishingly poorly, pulling from stock archetypes of dark fantasy scheming shrews, manipulative seductresses, and constantly available, virginal targets of romantic affections. (The inspiration it takes from Game of Thrones specifically borders at times on creative theft. On the other hand, XVI draws heavily from prestige fantasy books and TV in ways that replicate the outer trappings of their stories without giving much thought to the implications of those narrative choices. Though not entirely dissimilar from the flashy menu-driven battles of other recent Final Fantasy games, it’s still a significant departure in style that lends an appropriate sense of immediacy to the fights. Clive’s swordplay and magic attacks, growing in complexity as he gains new powers throughout the game, combine colorful anime kineticism with a weighty, impactful trading of blows between protagonist and enemy. Though Final Fantasy has experimented with action-heavy battle design before, XVI’s fights more closely resemble the button-annihilating thumb workouts of series like Devil May Cry or God of War than any other game from the series. They’ll also do so through a style of combat further departed from the series’ turn-based RPG roots than any entry to date. It may be more willing to show a bare butt or a pile of maimed corpses than past games, but XVI is not deeply concerned with the deeper dramatics of the occasional sex and prevalent violence that runs throughout its narrative. When the present-day plot resumes, it hardly lets up. Among the bloodied chocobos of this flashback, there are also soldiers cut down in splashes of gore, political intrigue, and a pivotal scene punctuated by heaving sobs and guttural cries of torment. It does so by exploring a formative, traumatic moment from his teenage years. And yet, once players have grown accustomed to the game’s grimmer tone, Final Fantasy XVI demonstrates that beneath a patina of blood and brooding, it bears striking similarities to past Final Fantasy games.Īfter establishing the basic layout of its fictional world through the viewpoint of Clive, hard-bitten member of a magical special forces team on a battlefield assassination mission, XVI flings itself back in time to fill in the protagonist’s backstory. It may seem, at first, like a labored, Happy Tree Friends–style exercise in “maturing” a series whose main entries typically abstract, sanitize, or simplify the cause and effects of warfare for a young adult audience. ![]() ![]() ![]() Brutal and nostalgic in equal parts, it seems possessed of a self-conscious drive to dramatically separate itself from its predecessors’ lighter tones with a thick coating of grit and spilled viscera. That first chocobo death is a good example of XIV’s tone. Far from their prior appearances as kart-racing cartoon characters or as chirruping livestock bred in convoluted mini games, the chocobos of XVI are feathery warhorses, as likely to provide characters with rides across the game’s battle-scarred landscapes as they are to end up victims of the story’s frequent massacres. The Final Fantasy mascot screams a horrible avian scream as it dies, collapsing in a gout of blood and flapping its wings in pitiful death throes. During a scene early in Final Fantasy XVI, the latest entry to Square Enix’s long-running series of fantasy role-playing games, one of the iconic oversize birds is suddenly struck down with a sword. I have seen a chocobo killed in high definition.
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