I downloaded the Final Fantasy XVI demo yesterday morning before work.
It was around 5AM, and I was watching that download percentage slowly tick.
6%… 10%…24%….
It was moving too slow, and work was inching its way towards me as the morning sun crept over the horizon.
I wasn’t going to play the demo originally.
I wanted to focus on Dragon Quest V and wait for the initial full release of the game.
But the community’s overwhelmingly positive reaction to the demo set me on the course of installing and playing the mental game all day while washing dishes at work.
And a mental game it was.
My PS5 at home in Rest Mode, a demo for, potentially, one of the biggest game releases of all time waiting to be opened. It started weighing down on me and the anticipation ate at me constantly.
When I got off, I had to wait for my wife’s daily phone call, as well as tidy up my house as I wait for her to get home from work. When she got home, we made a shopping checklist and hit the local Sam’s Club and Walmart for some groceries. After all of that, we ate dinner together at Waffle House.
Needless to say, I was very busy after work and wasn’t able to immediately play the demo.
It wasn’t until around 8:30PM last night where I was finally able to sit down and start it up.
This will be my thoughts on the trial version of Final Fantasy XVI, and it will contain spoilers from the demo. Thanks for reading…
Disclaimer: I don’t want this post to be an in-depth review of a demo. You won’t see any review scores out of 10 here. These are just MY personal thoughts on my experience.
First off, I want to say that I am by no means a “Final Fantasy fan”. What I mean by this, is that I have no significant ties or history to the series. I didn’t grow up on it, I haven’t played many of the games, and I don’t make my entire life and personality FF.
What I do know, is that I love JRPGs, and I have a massive mutual respect for this franchise.
Dragon Quest still clears, though.
Audio/Visual
The very first thing I did when I booted the game was fix all the settings.
You don’t get that many settings. It’s very straightforward.
I opted to have the game play itself for me by choosing Story difficulty and using the special in-game Ring items that help you with combat.
This was mainly so I can focus on the story, as well as get used to the controls and flow of a new game. I haven’t played that many action-JRPG and am admittedly bad at maintaining my HP mid-combat, so any help was welcome.
I also chose to prioritize framerate. My gaming monitor is only capable of handling 1440p at 144fps, so graphically demanding games like this will see me always prioritizing that 60fps. It won’t look that beautiful to me without a 4K screen, and games tend to look better with higher framerate anyway.
I noticed right away that it was a very quiet game, dialogue-wise. I tried turning my PlayStation 5 and headset volume to max, but it seemed like the audio balance between music and dialogue weren’t enough. I struggled to hear the voices but the music was always right there in my ears. This is a setting I’ll have to fuck with immensely once the full game is out.
The game opens up with a massive Eikon air battle between the Phoenix and the Fire Eikon.
I immediately noticed just how huge and gorgeous the game is, and I immediately thought back to how the summons on PS1 and PS2 looked back in the day. I smiled from ear to ear at how crazy and huge these Eikon were as I did my best to mash triangle and evade incoming attacks.
I remember immediately thinking, “so this is next-gen! This is the PlayStation 5”! because this game is the first true PS5 game I’ve really played, built from the ground up to squeeze every ounce of exclusivity and graphical capability out of the system. And it really looked like we were there. So much was happening all at once on screen and it was only just the beginning.
The music of Final Fantasy XVI is both new, yet classic. It has that “old-school” Final Fantasy vibe, with completely new tracks composed by Masayoshi Soken. And by God, the music is beautiful.
Most Final Fantasy music IS gorgeous, and that’s something that’s maintained throughout the series. From Final Fantasy XIII’s “The Promise” to the nostalgic tunes heard in VII Remake, the series has damn near PERFECT music quality.
XVI’s soundtrack completely delivers in every scene, and one of my absolute FAVORITE things about the game is the orchestrated “Victory Fanfare” that plays after you’ve defeated a tough boss enemy. It’s a creative and powerful blend of new and old Final Fantasy, and I’m absolutely fucking here for it.
Gameplay/Controls
After the opening cutscene of Final Fantasy XVI (demo), you take control of Clive Rosfield, our main hero, as he travels behind the scenes of an ongoing clash between two opposing forces — each with their own Eikon.
Immediately, I noticed how absolutely shitty it felt to control Clive. It was my very first nitpick of the game.
You’re forced to run, as terrain and debris fall and fly around you and your fellow warriors Clive is traveling with. It feels like you’re slipping and sliding everywhere.
It’s hard to describe, but the movement did not feel “grounded” at all. It felt like I was on-the-rails and the game was moving for me as I slide side-to-side.
I would move the analog stick left, then right, while pressing forward [to run], and Clive would zig-zag back-and-forth in the most uncomfortable, unnatural, way. This was only made worse when the game would occasionally have you jump, slide, or climb obstacles as it reminds you that you’re playing a video game rather than watching a flick.
After the timeskip introduces Clive, you’re then sent back to an earlier segment as a younger and inexperienced Shield of Rosaria.
You are then immediately thrown into the tutorial where you learn to fight, use magic, evade, and counter. This was when I had an even bigger issue with Clive’s movement patterns.
https://youtube.com/shorts/iQRbiniFG_E?feature=share
The way he felt slippery and “light” on the ground felt massively different than that of Final Fantasy VII Remake’s Cloud Strife, where you felt grounded and heavy, and could feel the weight and power of the Buster Sword as it bashes everything in your path.
I was almost moonwalking like a medieval Michael Jackson with how bad the movement controls felt, but as my friend told me, I would soon get used to it.
But would I?
One of the first things you learn in the game is how to utilize magic for distance fighting as well as combos. By pressing triangle at range, Clive can shoot fire spells at his target, and later on, he can press triangle mid combo to add a bit of magic flare to his swordplay.
One of my absolute favorite things about this was that magic was completely OPTIONAL.
Fuck no, I’m not going to shoot spells at you, and fuck no, I’m not going to press triangle mid combo to flicker you with some fire.
My interest was the sword. And I used it the whole demo, hacking away at whatever enemy I was fighting. I didn’t much care to look at my abilities or anything like that, I enjoyed mashing square and evading when the game prompted me to for that sweet perfect-dodge bonus damage. Call me basic, but any time a game lets me play the way that I like to play, I give it a thumbs up.
Of course, once you finish the main demo, you’re prompted to experience a second demo, where you’re placed several hours into the game with all abilities unlocked.
I didn’t care to use the fire or wind abilities much at all, so someone may have had a different experience with the combat than I did.
But what I did find was something that fit me entirely, and that was the Titan abilities.
https://youtu.be/7VZyziabuAY
The Titan has the option to block incoming attacks, and since I love playing as sword/shield heroes, this was the closest thing that Clive Rosfield has to a shield. Being able to block with the Titan arm was the first thing I liked about the Eikon abilities.
What eventually became my bread-and-butter, was perfectly timing a block with the Titan fist, and being able to follow up with a devastating counter-attack. This is something I used for the entire remainder of the demo — wash, rinse, and repeat.
Someone may think that’s a boring way to play a game that lets you claw air-slash combo and blow things up with fire, but you have to understand that this playstyle fits ME specifically. In my mind, it was perfect and I loved it. I can’t wait to play like that the entire game.
At the press of a button, you can swap your interface buttons to use cooldown Eikon abilities. I used the Titan abilities to do devastating heavy damage to bosses to hurry the fights up. I plan to use this, mainly, through the entirety of my Final Fantasy XVI experience.
The combat and cutscenes were the major part of the demo. The developers really wanted you to experience the combat and story of the game. Exploration was very limited and NPCs could not be talked to. When exploring, I found basic items like potions, money, and hi-potions, which automatically came to Clive as he walked by them. I didn’t like this feature because picking up items myself is part of the gameplay to me. I also didn’t like that he automatically consumes whatever items you pick up and replaces them if you have 4/4 items. I wish you could hold x99 of an item, but then again, this could change with the full version. I hope it does.
Since it was just a demo, I will cut it some slack, but my biggest verdict for the gameplay was that it felt very streamlined and cookie-cutter. Combat was oversimplified, exploration felt designed to just push you forward to the next cutscene, and the only thing memorable about the fighting segments was the boss fights (which were fucking awesome — especially the dragoon knight).
Once the full game opens up, I’m hoping I feel more “in control” of Clive, and that the world becomes mine to get lost in.
I’m desperately hoping the full version of the game isn’t designed to just fight, watch several cutscenes, and move to point A to B with little to do in-between.
Games like Final Fantasy VII Remake and Tales of Arise nearly perfected action JRPG combat, and unfortunately in my honest opinion, FFXVI doesn’t seem to do anything better to improve upon it. I had trouble with the lock-on feature and fighting groups of enemies at once felt a bit unnatural as well. But I will admit that I got used to the feel and flow of how combat works after I started using the Titan arm ability.
I’m sure this slight nitpick will dissolve as I play the rest of the game.
The Story
The story of Final Fantasy XVI is going to be incredible, but I have to admit that it’s actually VERY similar to Dragon Quest V in many ways.
It was proven that the developers are taking inspiration from Dragon Quest V for the story of FFXVI, and I could immediately tell that was the case.
I’m currently trying to finish Dragon Quest V before next week is here, but I can already tell you that the segments where a young hero meets his young animal companion, has something tragic happen to his family, is captured by the enemy and forced to work for them, and is later reunited with a much older version of that same animal companion, is JUST LIKE Dragon Quest V. And that’s actually fucking incredible to me. I love just how important and influential the Dragon Quest series is to Japanese people, and how it’s STILL influencing their media and inspiring new games TO THIS DAY.
Dragon Quest has become such an important and integral series to them, AND TO ME, and it’s just great to see.
I’m very excited to see the rest of the story unfold as I play more. The cliffhangers left me in anticipation for more to come, and the demo ended exactly where it needed to.
The story of Final Fantasy XVI is going to be monumental for all of us.
My Final Thoughts
In conclusion, I think Final Fantasy XVI is ringing all the bells for both fans of the series and JRPG fans alike.
It has MANY references, callbacks, and easter eggs to past titles that would make any hardcore fan happy.
It’s also the perfect place to start for newcomers to the series, and the marketing team is even trying to persuade newcomers to start here, which is exactly what they should be doing.
If someone has never played a Final Fantasy game before, they should start here. There’s so much love and care being put into this title, and I think this game will be the one that puts the series back on the map.
It’s my very first Final Fantasy game that I’ve ever played at its launch, and I’m very grateful for the opportunity to experience this game for the first time with all of you.
It’s a visually stunning and emotionally impactful video game (demo), and although it may not seem to bring anything new or special to the gameplay and combat segments, I am still very excited to spend a weekend no-lifing a brand new Final Fantasy game with the gaming community.
The movement will need getting used to, sure, and I’m hoping the exploration truly opens up.
But in the end, this game is going to be something truly special.
I hope you will enjoy it with me.
