2023-06-21 14:00:58
Final Fantasy 16: A breathtaking start
The troop from the beginning of the game is also dressed in dark colors, but unlike the characters from Final Fantasy 15, their outfits are not reminiscent of a boy band.
Final Fantasy 16 doesn’t hesitate, but starts with its greatest strength: Den visually stunning esper fights. After a few meaningful off-screen words, I watch the two Kaiju monsters Phnix and Ifrit fight each other with claws and claws, and following a few particle explosions in the rain of flames, I get the reins in my own hands to shoot Ifrit out with continuous fire Keep phoenix feathers at bay and dodge when he gets too close. There follows an extreme scene change to Clive and his fellow mercenaries around the campfire and the information that I am in the year 873 and in the rock-covered Nysa Gorge in the Republic of Dhalmekia.
Two names that I can’t relate to following a few minutes of play, of course – they’re a good example of what to expect from the complex story, which, in terms of the number of characters and factions, makes no secret of the fact that it is mixed with fantasy epics like Game of Thrones wanting to compete. While the names of the developers flicker across the screen, those of my comrades-in-arms initially remain a secret, but with the words “Shiva” and “Dominus” at least the aim of the small elite group is clear. Of course, as a Final Fantasy fan, I know Shiva – it’s not easy to forget the elegant Ice Witch – but I only know Dominus because I’ve dealt with the previous marketing.
The duel between Shiva and Titan at the beginning of the game is a good foretaste of the intense combat that awaits me in the rest of the game.
Without explaining to myself who or what Shiva’s Dominus is and how to approach the leather and iron-clad members of my less emo-gothic-punk-seeming boy band than in the previous one, I’m already steering the well-styled protagonist, who I’ll later call Clive Rosfield is introduced. It is a immediate entry, according to the motto: Before we plaster you with world building, names and concepts, take your first steps in Valisthea. When the time comes, explanations will come. Accordingly, I have no idea which of the two parties in the dusty battle, which I witness shortly followingwards as a passive spectator, smash their heads in with blood-soaked xten and blue-hot magic balls.
With the help of the compendium, I can look up characters or factions at any time if I’m not paying attention or if the pace of the story is getting too fast for me.
There follows a change to political negotiations, in which war is no longer waged with weapons but with words, and where the previously advertised compendium (originally: Active Time Lore) is used for the first time: a feature that I provides context for characters, locations and factions in cutscenes at the touch of a button and that, at least outside of the introduction, is never necessary but always helpful. Here I also find out that a dominus is a person who houses an esper – i.e. one of the godlike beings like the Shiva mentioned at the beginning or the brute titan, whose dominus in the form of the beefy Kupka is right in front of me. Exactly how the events shown here fit into the larger picture of Final Fantasy 16 remains to be seen – for now, the game has me with its stunning start but also completely hooked without context.
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From my first paragraphs you can already guess that Final Fantasy 16 in terms of story and world building big ambitions hat: There are plenty of political parties, each with many more characters, and all of them have different dreams and motivations. Even if the introduction is immediate and tells me little more than that two factions are at war and one is seeking the support of a third, this initially only superficial introduction works and leaves you wanting more. Luckily there are plenty of them: the advertised “10+ hours of cutscenes” were no empty promise and ensure that characters and political events that appear as the story gets enough breathing room.
Rosalith, the capital of Rosaria, is a tranquil place to soak up the medieval atmosphere. This is where Clive has spent his life so far.
Before the game plunges me deeper into the trials and tribulations of Valisthea’s politics, let me first Time jump into the past, where I meet a young Clive and aristocratic surroundings. Raised in Rosalith, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Rosaria and the son of Grand Duke Elwin Rosfield and Duchess Annabella Rosfield, the up-and-coming warrior lives here with his younger brother Joshua, the war minister Jill Warrick and the cuddly puppy Torgal. Although Clive is the firstborn of the two brothers, his younger sibling Joshua was chosen by the phoenix to be Dominus, earning our hero his mother’s contempt. In order to make up for the lack of esper skills at first and to protect his weak but beloved brother, Clive blossoms into a skilled swordsman and first shield of Rosaria and is given at least part of the Phoenix powers by Joshua for this task.
Grand Duke Elwin and his family are introduced with drums and trumpets. The ruler Rosarias is much more devoted to his son Clive than his wife Annabella.
As such, he is also portrayed as being kind when dealing with the so-called porters: the people kept as slaves, who are the only people besides the Domini who can work magic in Valisthea without crystals, are despised by most of the inhabitants of the realm for their gift. The fact that those who are born with special powers are not worshiped but exploited creates an exciting concept for the overarching conflict of good and evil, from the upper and lower classes – even if the Domini are an exception. Those blessed by the Espers are not only dangerous on the battlefield, but also exert political pressure through their destructive power. A destructive force that I can already feel in the visually stunning first half hour of Final Fantasy 16, when Shiva and Titan play with the soldiers as if they were ants, and which gives the Domini power and influence. That the power struggle for the status quo mostly flickers across the screen in black and white and that only a few nobles who are well-disposed towards the wearers provide moral gray spots – for free.
Thus, in addition to the family tensions at court, early cross-national problems introduced. In addition to the carrier slaves, the flashback also tells me regarding the mother crystals: As one of five ruling factions in Valisthea, Rosaria fights just like the remaining four for the coveted resource, which represents the last bastion once morest the so-called Fule. Wherever the ether runs dry, the basis for survival for people and nature also disappears. Because Rosaria does not have her own mother crystal, the duchy is at war with the iron kingdom in the boiling seas where the crystal dubbed Dragon’s Breath soars.
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