“3s are better than 2s,” is a term every coach has grown to hate in the modern-day game of basketball. Yet, it’s a quote that, statistically speaking, remains true. Unfortunately, unless your starting five consists of four Steph Currys and a Reggie Miller who just got dissed by a heated Spike Lee (I swear I’m going somewhere with this), that tactic rarely works. “Offense wins games, defense wins championships,” as many NBA coaches will tell you. In (some) video games, however, a lot of offense can work beautifully and is exactly the tactic I take whenever I dive into any third-person action game. It’s why I adore games like Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Bayonetta, Bloodborne, Astral Chain, and more recently, Black Myth Wukong and Final Fantasy XVI. Games that reward you for being quick and staying consistently on the offensive. A shield, to me, is worthless unless I can use it to bash an enemy’s face in because my approach when tasked to down a big baddy in any third-person action game has always been: “Kill ‘em before they kill me.” Every one of the games I’ve listed above does a great job of allowing this particular playstyle to flourish. However, one of them stands as a little more contentious than the rest.
You see, a lot of hubbub was made when Square Enix revealed the official gameplay trailer, somewhat unexpectedly, for Final Fantasy XVI a little over two years ago at the 2022 summer State of Play. Much of it positive, as fans like myself became giddy at the sights and sounds of the dark fantastical lands of Valisthea and its residents. The heart-pounding orchestral choir backdropped a flurry of character moments giving their best imitations of a Game of Thrones cast, inter-spliced with bursts of flashy gameplay segments that showcased the brand-new combat system. However, it’s the latter that had diehard Final Fantasy fans take a little pause. Admittedly, I also had reservations when seeing all remnants of the classic turn-based systems removed, but wanted to wait until I played the game before forming an opinion. Having finally gotten around to stepping into the leather boots of Clive Rosfield through the exceptional PC port from last month, I can confidently say that though I understand the qualms my fellow Chocobo-riding chums have with the game going full Devil May Cry, I am of the mind that Ryota Suzuki and all developers over at Square and Creative Business Unit III have created a combat system that rivals even the best character action titles–a system that, even after fifty hours in, I’m finding endlessly fun.
Final Fantasy is one of the longest-running JRPG franchises of all time. A franchise whose first ten mainline games featured a traditional turn-based combat system. A system that the franchise arguably – alongside Dragon Quest – popularized in the late 80s. That is until the series would take a turn into the world of MMOs with their eleventh installment. Sure, spin-offs from the mainline series like Dirge of Cerberus and Crisis Core would deviate with starkly different systems, but turn-based was still the bread and butter of Final Fantasy up until the eleventh game; after which we began to see a clear lean towards a more action-focused approach. The writing may have been on the wall well before this, however, as even with the series’ adored seventh entry did we begin to see inklings of a change with its “Active Time Battle” system. XII would go on to take the MMO mechanics and make use of them in a mainline, single-player experience; XIII would then revert to an aesthetically turn-based system, albeit one that revamped it to a much more modern playstyle; then XV would effectively be the first game in the series to completely forgo the classic turn-based system altogether.
This now brings us to XVI. Where the last few entries into the series had been teasing and tinkering with a system that melds both old and new, Suzuki, Ayako Yokoyama, and producer Naoki Yoshida effectively said, “f*ck it” and have gone full character-action with this latest entry–unashamedly so. Final Fantasy XVI revels in its action; its spectacle. It urges you to extend your combos, switch out abilities on the fly in the middle of a string of sword swings to perfectly execute that diabolical finisher, and do so without giving a second thought to the term “defense.” Though every medieval soldier you meet along your journey has a shield, Clive is wearing far too much leather and a shield just wouldn’t compliment the edgy look he’s going for. As such, your only option during combat is to attack. Sure, there’s a dodge button, but frankly aside from the somewhat rare “perfect dodge” now and again, I’ve simply used it as a way to get a better angle to keep up the pressure on an enemy with Clive’s arsenal of awesome abilities. And boy, are these abilities awesome.
XVI starts you off with just a sword and one Eikon – Phoenix. This remains the case for the first three to four hours of the game. Frankly, the experience in these opening hours is quite boring and I was beginning to worry that Square had made a terrible mistake in ridding their tried and true turn-based systems. However, as soon as you get your second and especially third Eikon, you begin to see the combat flourish. After forty hours and once you’ve unlocked the full set of eight Eikons and each of their five abilities, mastering them to allow for even further customization, you’ll begin to see just how incredible the system these developers have devised truly is. Pulling off a Deadly Embrace into a Wicked Wheel and finishing with a deadly ground pound of Upheaval will become second nature. Or maybe you’re a long-distance fighter and would prefer to start off with Ramuh’s Blind Justice and Bahamut’s Impulse, then while your foes are blind and getting battered, you finish ‘em off with a 2x charged Giga Flare.
Whatever your fancy, FFXVI allows you to play without restrictions; combining abilities every which way and swapping out entire Eikon sets for different occasions. Even classic systems like exploiting the elements of enemies – a staple in past Final Fantasies – are gone in favour of full-blown action that focuses on keeping combos going without having to think about whether or not you’re using the “right” Eikon, because such a thing doesn’t exist–use them all in whatever way that makes you happy (and looks the most badass). With all that said, I will admit that I do miss one aspect from the recent Final Fantasy VII Remakes: switching characters. XVI is very much Clive Rosfields’ game, both in narrative and in gameplay. Even though you’ll sporadically have other members join your party, they exist merely as support NPCs. Customizing your party and finding unique ways to best utilize them during combat was (and continues to be) a fun mechanic in traditional JRPGs. This system was retained for Square’s modern Final Fantasy VII’s and done so in a way that felt incredibly fresh. Doing a sword combo with Cloud, then switching to Tifa for a flurry of melee’s, then to Barret for some long-distance gunning, all on the fly felt incredibly satisfying.
XVI doesn’t have such a system, instead putting all of its eggs into Clive’s basket. Though the result has been some of the most fun I’ve had with a third-person action game, I do wish there were ways to integrate Jill or Joshua more robustly within Clive’s barrage of combos. Nevertheless, Creative Business Unit III should be proud of the electrifying combat system they’ve pulled off with XVI. A system that tickles my “all offense, all the time” bone in all the right ways.
