Perhaps on a basic level, Final Fantasy XVI is a cinematic experience with bits of gameplay sprinkled in for good measure, though when you look at the 35-hour campaign and the experience as a whole, it’s not difficult to come to the conclusion that this might have been the only way to go about it.
But Square Enix has put a lot of trust into its writers’ room, and subsequently, its animation team, to keep us at the edge of our seats during all these cutscenes. In any other case, we might have called that a fundamental flaw in the design a misguided approach to game development, even. And who knows? Square Enix is probably counting on you to lose yourself to the rhythm of the dance without realizing it, and given how much thought they’ve put into every aspect of this game, it’s highly likely that you will. And so, before we get into the nitty gritty of what Square Enix gets right and what it gets wrong, let’s make one thing absolutely clear: Final Fantasy XVI isn’t here to revolutionize the gaming industry, nor introduce any crazy new gameplay mechanics - it’s here to tell you a deeply human story using all the tricks from the design playbook that you can probably recite in your sleep by now.
Rather, what Final Fantasy XVI does well, and mostly gets right, is taking all those cues from other genres and games, and blending them into an experience that makes you forget you’ve actually done all of this many times before.įinal Fantasy XVI is a none-too-innovative amalgam of numerous other titles, but the reason it has managed to garner critical acclaim - and the reason why we’re inclined to say that it’s one of the best games to come out in recent years, and one of the best entries in the franchise to date - is the fact that it’s a study in precise game design philosophy that goes into creating these expansive worlds from scratch.
Sure, it does challenge the established Final Fantasy formula in subtle ways - which we’ll properly dive into further on - but that’s as far as Square Enix’s ambitious hands extend themselves for this particular installment in their long-standing franchise. Well, let me just say right off the bat that Final Fantasy XVI is, in no way, experimental.
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