Final Fantasy has been a staple in the gaming world for many years now and each rendition has attempted to push the curve a little further, to try new things, while remaining nostalgic and to be more cinematic and immersive than the last. Final Fantasy 16 is no different in this regard and has broken through the ceiling of my expectations in nearly every aspect.
Find out how below.



You play as Clive Rosfield of the Duchy of Rosaria, serving your father, the King, and his brother Joshua, who is the Dominant of the Eikon of the Phoenix.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3368512819

All is well in Rosaria until one fateful night when chaos erupts on a journey to the keep of Phoenix Gate, where Joshua was to commune with their ancestors for their blessing for their people to go to war.

A rival armed force has secretly ensconced into the keep and immediately begins fighting and killing the soldiers guarding it, which in turn forces Joshua to explode in fury and unleash the power of the Phoenix.

But another Eikon arrives shortly after…

Clive is forced to watch helplessly as his brother is viciously attacked by another Eikon, and the story begins to unravel from there.

This all takes place during the prologue tutorial and only barely skims the surface of the events. Final Fantasy 16 has one of the best plot lines in the franchise and is written sensationally well to really immerse the player in the world and develop connections with its cast of characters very quickly. I cannot stress enough that this is truly a must-play story experience.

Final Fantasy 16 is a fairly standard action-based JRPG. Clive can attack by sword or by magic, dodge attacks, utilise items, and is given the ability to use Eikonic skills that become more diverse and effective as the game progresses.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3368516309

Gear also plays an important role in this game, improving Clive’s stats with each improvement to its quality and can offer some game-changing effects, especially with the higher tier equipment. These help diversify your character builds on top of the enormous quantity of combinations that your skill trees already allow you. Understanding what combinations work best is more or less a trial-and-error system, but it isn’t necessary to complete the game.

The map of Final Fantasy 16 is enormous despite being somewhat linear in its design. There’s a level of freedom to it but within the confines of a set area. But even with these restrictions in place, there is still a lot to explore and find. Many of the best items in the game come from hard-to-reach and well-guarded areas that you might not come across by normal means.

Hunts are a great way to encourage exploration and have been implemented well in this game. They are unmarked missions that have you hunting down rare and powerful creatures, providing significant rewards for their completion, but finding them can be tricky as you are only really given some riddled information to go on and locate them with.

Boss fights are the last major gameplay factor to take into account here. And are sure to not disappoint. These encounters are cinematically intense story experiences that provide a surprising complexity in terms of mechanics and vary greatly from one to the next.

While the general game is beautiful in its own right, with its wide-open vistas and stunning landscapes to help keep you immersed as you explore, it does nothing to detail how exceptionally stunning the cinematics are as a whole. They take this entire experience to another level entirely and truly bring a level of intensity that would be impossible with just the in-game engine.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3368512107

The audio quality is of a similarly high quality, if not better. Truly one of the best soundtracks I have ever heard in a video game and genuinely captivated me even while just exploring the world. To perfectly couple the stunning music that seemingly evolves as you delve deeper into the regions and world, the voice acting and animation audio are perfectly complementary and do nothing but bolster the entire experience.

Unfortunately, this amazing game loses its points purely because this port is very poorly optimised. While running this game on my old 3080-era PC, I struggled to maintain even 20 FPS in many sequences and continuously had tearing and visual effects issues while exploring the world.
🟨 Poor optimisation that resulted in consistently low FPS even under low strain.
RAM: Kingston Fury Beast 64GB 6000 MHz DDR5
CPU: Intel Core i9 14900K 24 Core
GPU: MSI Gaming X GeForce RTX 4090 24GB

Review chart here.
Despite being one of the best games I’ve played this year and likely the best Final Fantasy game I have ever played, I can’t in good conscience give this game a higher rating. Exceeding in story, visual style and mechanical complexity, and was drastically let down by its horrible port optimisation that saw frame dips after numerous patches and a newly built PC. A real shame too because this game had the hallmarks of a 10/10 experience that truly captivated me from start to finish. I recommend this game wholeheartedly but be warned that it might still have these issues at your time of purchase.

The Eikons have awoken from their slumber! Head to Hell, Purgatory and Paradise for the power to stand against them and bring peace to the twins.

[h1]”It wasn’t a good death we should be fighting for, but a better life.”[/h1] [h1]Introduction[/h1] Final Fantasy has been a staple in the gaming world for many years now and each rendition has attempted to push the curve a little further, to try new things, while remaining nostalgic and to be more cinematic and immersive than the last. Final Fantasy 16 is no different in this regard and has broken through the ceiling of my expectations in nearly every aspect. Find out how below. [table] [tr] [th][b]🟩 Positives[/b][/th] [th][b]🟥 Negatives[/b][/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]🟩One of the most visually impressive cinematic story experiences in gaming to date. It is an exceptionally well-written plot that continuously grows more and more epic right until its final moments. 🟩 Character building is surprisingly complex in this game, but not entirely mandatory. All skills effectively defeat enemies and bosses, but well-thought-out combinations can do exceedingly high damage with very little plateauing. 🟩 There is a diverse range of enemies to fight, and some intense boss encounters that range in phase quantities, mechanics and abilities to test your skills and reflexes as the story unravels. 🟩 I cannot emphasise enough, how genuinely gorgeous the audio to this game is. The voice acting and animation effects are astoundingly high quality, really develop the immersion, and are perfectly coupled with the complimentary soundtrack that submerges every region and sequence in emotion.[/td] [td]🟥 I could barely run this game on my previous PC, hitting low frames even on medium settings with a 3080-era gaming rig. I had no issues after upgrading but still had a terrible time with it on what was still a decent build. [/td] [/tr] [/table] [table] [tr][th]🏆Achievements[/th][/tr] [td]The story doesn’t provide many achievements, but as it unfolds you will gain access to abilities that are needed for many of the unlocks, other than these, the only achievements that will cause you any major time investment are the ones related to the second playthrough.[/td] [/tr] [/table] [h1]Story[/h1] You play as Clive Rosfield of the Duchy of Rosaria, serving your father, the King, and his brother Joshua, who is the Dominant of the Eikon of the Phoenix. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3368512819 All is well in Rosaria until one fateful night when chaos erupts on a journey to the keep of Phoenix Gate, where Joshua was to commune with their ancestors for their blessing for their people to go to war. A rival armed force has secretly ensconced into the keep and immediately begins fighting and killing the soldiers guarding it, which in turn forces Joshua to explode in fury and unleash the power of the Phoenix. But another Eikon arrives shortly after… Clive is forced to watch helplessly as his brother is viciously attacked by another Eikon, and the story begins to unravel from there. This all takes place during the prologue tutorial and only barely skims the surface of the events. Final Fantasy 16 has one of the best plot lines in the franchise and is written sensationally well to really immerse the player in the world and develop connections with its cast of characters very quickly. I cannot stress enough that this is truly a must-play story experience. [h1]Gameplay Analysis[/h1] [h3]Come then, show us your strength of will.[/h3] Final Fantasy 16 is a fairly standard action-based JRPG. Clive can attack by sword or by magic, dodge attacks, utilise items, and is given the ability to use Eikonic skills that become more diverse and effective as the game progresses. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3368516309 Gear also plays an important role in this game, improving Clive’s stats with each improvement to its quality and can offer some game-changing effects, especially with the higher tier equipment. These help diversify your character builds on top of the enormous quantity of combinations that your skill trees already allow you. Understanding what combinations work best is more or less a trial-and-error system, but it isn’t necessary to complete the game. [h3]For your trouble[/h3] The map of Final Fantasy 16 is enormous despite being somewhat linear in its design. There’s a level of freedom to it but within the confines of a set area. But even with these restrictions in place, there is still a lot to explore and find. Many of the best items in the game come from hard-to-reach and well-guarded areas that you might not come across by normal means. Hunts are a great way to encourage exploration and have been implemented well in this game. They are unmarked missions that have you hunting down rare and powerful creatures, providing significant rewards for their completion, but finding them can be tricky as you are only really given some riddled information to go on and locate them with. [h3]Does the lion take care when he chases the hare?[/h3] Boss fights are the last major gameplay factor to take into account here. And are sure to not disappoint. These encounters are cinematically intense story experiences that provide a surprising complexity in terms of mechanics and vary greatly from one to the next. [h1]Audio and Visual[/h1] While the general game is beautiful in its own right, with its wide-open vistas and stunning landscapes to help keep you immersed as you explore, it does nothing to detail how exceptionally stunning the cinematics are as a whole. They take this entire experience to another level entirely and truly bring a level of intensity that would be impossible with just the in-game engine. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3368512107 The audio quality is of a similarly high quality, if not better. Truly one of the best soundtracks I have ever heard in a video game and genuinely captivated me even while just exploring the world. To perfectly couple the stunning music that seemingly evolves as you delve deeper into the regions and world, the voice acting and animation audio are perfectly complementary and do nothing but bolster the entire experience. [h1]Performance and Specifications[/h1] Unfortunately, this amazing game loses its points purely because this port is very poorly optimised. While running this game on my old 3080-era PC, I struggled to maintain even 20 FPS in many sequences and continuously had tearing and visual effects issues while exploring the world. 🟨 Poor optimisation that resulted in consistently low FPS even under low strain. RAM: Kingston Fury Beast 64GB 6000 MHz DDR5 CPU: Intel Core i9 14900K 24 Core GPU: MSI Gaming X GeForce RTX 4090 24GB [h1]Final Thoughts - Very Good [/h1] [url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2529084785]Review chart here.[/url] Despite being one of the best games I’ve played this year and likely the best Final Fantasy game I have ever played, I can’t in good conscience give this game a higher rating. Exceeding in story, visual style and mechanical complexity, and was drastically let down by its horrible port optimisation that saw frame dips after numerous patches and a newly built PC. A real shame too because this game had the hallmarks of a 10/10 experience that truly captivated me from start to finish. I recommend this game wholeheartedly but be warned that it might still have these issues at your time of purchase. [quote]The Eikons have awoken from their slumber! Head to [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/43064204/] Hell, Purgatory and Paradise[/url] for the power to stand against them and bring peace to the twins.[/quote]