Blood, sex, chainmail knights, and a kingdom torn by turf wars. Will there be a surprise new season of game of Thrones just published? It’s not about final fantasy 16, the latest in the homonymous saga, released on June 22. Tech&Co was able to play it and gives you their non-exhaustive opinion on the game.
Square Enix returns to heroic fantasy in this game that seems much darker and more mature than previous titles. We follow the story of Clive Rosfield, descendant of the Archduchy of Rosalia and brother Joshua, the heir to the throne. As Rosalia prepares to go to war, Clive watches his brother and his father die under the blows of an unknown deity and vows to avenge them.
a torn kingdom
At the same time, the kingdom of Valisthéa, where the adventure takes place, is hit by the Black Scourge, an unknown evil that is destroying the flora and fauna of the two continents that make it up.
As a result, the nations of Valisthea are torn apart by their mother crystals, the giant crystals that the various nations depend on for their daily lives, particularly magic, which allows them to have water, heat, etc. The first victims are the Caretakers, humans capable of using magic without crystals and reduced to the status of slaves to these powers. Each nation also has its Emissary, humans capable of summoning Primordials, very powerful deities. Joshua, Clive’s brother, is also the Emissary of the Fire Primordial, Phoenix.
Throughout his “epic”, as the game presents it, Clive will be accompanied by various acolytes with more or less endearing personalities. The supporting characters, such as Cid, Jill and Gab, are particularly likable and well-constructed, punctuating Clive’s adventure in a welcome way. The evolution of the main character is palpable in his encounters and adventures, and it’s easy to appreciate seeing him smile from time to time in the midst of all this chaos.
Because chaos, there is, in this medieval epic. The return to heroic fantasy is one of the most beautiful promises of this final fantasy 16, and above all one of the most successful. The team behind the game has never made a secret of it and has also explained that it was inspired by the hit series. game of Thrones.
If it offers few surprises throughout the adventure, the setting is no less fascinating and keeps pace for more than thirty hours of gameplay. The relationships between the characters, which are built throughout the adventures, are strong and complex. Square Enix also inaugurates its first explicit gay relationship between two characters, a bias that has earned him banishment from Saudi Arabia.
lighter fights
After a lean period in the early 2010s, softened by the critically mixed release of final fantasy xvit is obvious that the saga Final Fantasy He tries to reinvent himself with this latest work. The project can be summed up in one word: accessibility. In order to appeal to a new and wider audience, the game and especially its combat system has been greatly simplified.
What did the singularity of Final Fantasy, with turn-based team battles and characters evolving at the player’s will, has been greatly reduced. Now, the fights are more conventional, responding to the classic western RPG codes; the team behind the game describes it as “the franchise’s first 100% action RPG”.
The combats take place, therefore, in real time, with the traditional buttons dedicated to blows and magic, as well as a more or less varied combo system. It should be noted that the game is quite simple: the journalist who has put her hands on him cannot finish a Dark soulsand found almost no difficulty in beating the spectacular bosses of this final fantasy 16. However, the fights are dynamic and certain bosses give off an impression of power that isn’t actually unpleasant.
The game is ambitious (perhaps too much, at times) with huge battles between the Old Ones, these specific deities of the saga. Final Fantasy and that they are, here, in the heart of the plot. Impressive in terms of action and spectacularity, some fights are a bit long anyway, notably one particular fight against the Titan deity that lacks dynamism and turns out to be really repetitive – it will be one of the only ones in this case throughout the adventure.
Very little customization
In addition, despite a welcome desire for renewal, we regret having access to little customization in the combat and equipment systems, which are quite impoverished. Therefore, the player will only control Clive’s character throughout his adventure, and will never have the chance to evolve his friends. Even though a forge system still exists, we also regret a real lack of challenge in the gear and weapons Clive can equip, as the various bosses and enemies don’t have a “weaknesses” system based on the items used in combat.
Having learned from their mistakes, Square Enix did not wish to repeat the open world experience, proven in final fantasy xv and having brought to light many title flaws. The game’s creative team has also changed radically between the 15th and 16th centuries. The result is a journey that is more reminiscent of a God of War than classic JRPGs, with a story many times millimetric, despite a certain freedom in the management of secondary missions.
The latter are also quite exciting: they rarely fall into repetition, and a good part of them give rise to sometimes moving dialogues. It should also be noted that all side quests are optional, you might miss out on certain pretty essential story elements like acquiring a mount.
In addition, these side quests are essential to truly discover the kingdom in which the plot takes place: we will quickly visit only a part of the world map if we miss certain quests, and that is a pity, because we must admit that the kingdom of Valisthéa is excellent .
Nations and their landscapes are varied and really have their own identity. There are medieval castles, desert, waterfalls and lush forests. Some towns, on the other hand, lack originality in general, but the characters that inhabit them come to revive everything.
The music is composed by Masayoshi Soken, who had previously worked on final Fantasy XIV, and delicately takes up certain main themes of the saga composed by Nobuo Uematsu. Sometimes discreet, she is magnificent when we go through certain landscapes, in particular the lands of Rosalía, whose theme is truly charming. The music during boss fights is also up there with spectacular. However, true fans will lament the absence of the Chocobos theme.
One of the anecdotal but really appreciable strengths of the game is that throughout the plot, the NPCs, non-playable characters that populate the world map, will evolve in their speeches and dialogues. If a nation falls, word will spread quickly and conversations will evolve throughout the experience. The credibility of the game and its setting is really solidified.
However, on the dialog side, this is where the problem can sometimes hurt. if the saga Final Fantasy he has never hidden from sometimes giving “good feelings”, about friendship, love, hope and consorts, the scenes (almost 11 hours throughout the game!) are sometimes too long, due to the dialogues little listened to and the lack of dynamism. Certainly, the construction of the characters is complex and evolves a lot throughout the adventure, but it would also have been done leaving aside some sometimes naive speeches.
The game offers three voiceovers: French, English, and Japanese. At Tech&Co we play with the French dubbing, which is very appreciable, especially the voices of Clive and Cid.
Our opinion
Finally, final fantasy 16 is a game that keeps several promises: that of offering a more “accessible” title, with a very simplified combat system and in real time. If the purists of Final Fantasy you will be a bit disappointed, newcomers and non-regulars alike can easily get the title.
Also, the restored link to heroic fantasy is a real hit on all levels, and allows for a deeper, more mature title with a breathless setting. identity Final Fantasy Doesn’t Suffer: Fans will find plenty of founding mechanics and elements of the series, without losing the uninitiated.
Source: BFM TV
