Final Fantasy XVI

There are now more Final Fantasies than traybakes

Originally posted on Dreamwidth, 2023-06-13.

In an effort to be current for once in my life, I played the first couple of sections of the FF16 demo tonight. Still not sure if I’m going to buy it at launch and continue being current, or force myself to finish FFs 13 and 15 first and then probably get to this one in … like two years … but we’ll see depending on how the rest of the demo goes, I guess.

I’ve played up to the part where Clive leaves Rosalith to go and fight the goblins: here’s a handful of first impressions, some more developed than others.

• Picked story mode because I’m a big noob. I was actually thinking earlier about how some FF games use side quests really well to allow players to prioritise either story or combat in the way that suits them: you can be the big completionist and do all the sidequests and level up in a sort of incidental way, or you can go straight for the boss rush and leave out all the optional content but then have an extremely challenging time. I normally try to stay away from anything explictly labelled as “easy mode” because it feels like a copout, but I do like how this game doesn’t frame it that way and doesn’t presuppose that one of the two modes is in any way secondary to the other. (I also turned the subtitles up to “large” … I miss having satisfactory eyesight.)
• Got to say it: when you live in Northern Ireland, seeing the phrase “Republican Army” onscreen hits different.
• One of the lads in the first scene says “These Ironblood are more beast than man.” In my WIP just a few weeks ago I wrote the following:

“That Jecht is more fish than man,” [Braska] remarked once he made it inside, brushing some of the rainwater off his robe.

Clearly I have been plagiarised here and I will be taking this up with the relevant authorities forthwith.

• Harriet Benedikta Harman is hot. I’m sorry but I can’t not call her Harriet Harman, because UK politics from approximately ten years ago lives rent-free in my head.
• I love how the game merits its 18 rating in so many different ways within a few minutes. People getting brutally, bloodily killed by large boulders; a sexual moment in the corridor between HH and Large Man; a man saying “fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck” (with subtitles); and, worst of all, people standing around in a room … smoking.
• On the subject of subtitles, if there’s an option to turn on characters’ names with those I’ve missed it. If someone is speaking and the screen isn’t currently showing a well lit closeup of their face, I probably have no idea who it is, sorry.
• Thirteen years earlier: everyone is so cute and pure. Clive looks like an emo teen but he’s actually a really lovely teen. I love how his mother hates him: some good family trauma right there. Also very much appreciate how Joshua is a sickly child too pure for this world, big Beth March energy.
• Things I love also include the almost parodically huge role of social class in this society. Look, I just really love heavy-handed exploration of class differences in media, almost as much as I love including it in my own fic. The posh people have posh accents, and the others have regional accents, chef’s kiss! The fact that everyone is British is also somehow less jarring than I anticipated.
• TORGAL. i luv him
• I can’t take any character with the name Rodney seriously because it’s just … idk, the name of some old guy who wears a flat cap and plays bingo. That said, the Rodney in this particular piece of media is definitely fucking Elwin and I’m here for it. (Classic tobli picking up on a potential master/servant ship right there … so predictable.)
• I discovered an NPC with a westcountry accent and immediately started going around the whole place looking for more of them. I am so delighted that fantasy Cornish people exist in this universe (my dad would almost certainly tell me their accents are Wrong in some specific way that would make them not actually Cornish but from somewhere several miles east of the border, but gwra gara dhebm cowas an onen ma, mar pleg!). In fact, if Rosaria is a duchy, that means it’s basically Cornwall anyway. No further questions, etc.
• Ok so I’m very intrigued by how people seem to cover their mouths but barely lower their voices when they say something they don’t want third parties to hear; both Clive’s parents do it on separate occasions. It’s very possible that I’m reading something into this that simply doesn’t exist and that it’s just a slightly clunky element of the animation – I mean, people playing without subtitles clearly need to understand what’s being said, so it could just be that. But on the other hand it could be a major plot point of great significance, so, you know.
• The man who just stands outside Clive’s room telling him his inbox is empty … what a job. My notes: “Is this man mognet??”
• Sir Wade has a Look about him that screams “1960s pop group”. I think he may be at least three of the Beach Boys.
• I’m excited to learn more about the magic/crystal lore in this universe! The way magical energy is used to keep plants growing and water flowing is very intriguing, and clearly has a lot of potential for Human Suffering. And it’ll be interesting to see the kinds of emotionally harrowing things Clive gets up to that lead to him becoming or at least appearing to become one of the Bearers.