Final Fantasy XVI

I love every one of these people, is that such a crime

Originally posted on Dreamwidth, 2023-07-09.

lissajous has forbidden me from talking to him about FF16 in great detail because he plans to play the game someday and doesn’t want to be spoilered; so the only option I have is to ramble on here about why I love absolutely every character in this game. They are all so good. Fair warning, this post is just undiluted enthusiasm from start to finish and mostly just consists of me saying “I love” a lot; I’m too thrilled by all these people to find varied ways of expressing myself.

• Clive: oh man he suffers so much. And yet he is constantly a lovely person and just loves helping people (I mean, if I wasn’t doing every sidequest I guess that wouldn’t be the case, haha), and everyone respects him so much in turn. I love his little lines to Torgal like “time to go home, boy” and the like. He is so precious.
• Jill: like Clive, can be summed up with the words “posh” and “traumatised”, and like Clive, I fucking love her. (I guess this can be read as “I love her, like I love Clive” or “I love her, like Clive does”, and … both, I suppose.) She is just so great. Also love the extremely slow pace of her romance with Clive – the scene where they almost kiss in the infirmary is like a massive cliché but I fucking lapped it up.
• Cid: absolute icon. I could see his death coming, but the whole sequence with that and Joshua’s intervention and the hideaway being attacked was nonetheless Peak Sadness. The first thing I did at the new hideaway was go over to the orchestrion and change the BGM to the music from the old one, because I wasn’t ready to let go of him. Also destroyed by the fact that Clive takes on his name and swears to continue his work and avenge his death.
• Gav: I love this man. Love how his role is just being a sneaky shit, and being really competent (as excellently demonstrated at Rosalith Castle) but staying behind the scenes at the same time; also love how he just takes no shit and says what he means. Also I have an obvious fondness for characters who lose their right eye, ahem.
• Wade: fell in love with him from the moment I saw him, idk why but it was a good decision. I was so thrilled to see him back eighteen years later, and what’s more, head of the Guardians of the Flame. What a career move, love this for him.
• Byron: what a lad. I love how his solution to everything is just “give people loads of money”. The scene where he pays off the barmaid in Dalimil is, once again, a huge cliché but nonetheless great. Also, the part where Clive convinces him of his identity using Dramatic Arts made me emotional. I can’t put my finger on why, but that is exactly the kind of thing posh people would do.
• Mid: love how she just orders Clive around. Also love how she knows so much about engineering and tries to explain it all to Clive and he’s always just like “… what.” Being like “… what” is a big part of Clive’s aesthetic and I respect that.
• Harpocrates: he’s Maechen and I love his hat.
• Vivian: career goals tbh. Also hot.
• Owain: naming this extremely minor NPC because he literally uttered the phrase “proper job”, which once again confirms that there is a fantasy Cornwall in this universe, which I am so extremely here for. (On a similar note, the Iron Kingdom is clearly inspired by Wales and Scotland, which is equally great to see! Celtic representation in FF, yes.)
• Dion and Terence, oh my fucking god, an unmistakeable canon M/M relationship in a mainline Final Fantasy game … this means so much to me. When they kissed I almost cried; when I read Terence’s updated lore entry and it just said outright “He and Dion are lovers.”, I almost cried again. Also … that scene was so up my street. Terence tenderly bandaging Dion’s wrist; Dion getting angry and lashing out physically; Dion calling Terence and him just immediately responding; also the fact that it’s a master/servant relationship – seriously, who read my mind and wrote this scene?? (Also, again … I have to admit this ship has very Auron/Braska vibes for me, beyond just the general master/servant qualities, in that Dion is a Dominant and Terence is a knight of some kind … Terence even looks like young Auron, minus (alas) the ponytail. Not to tinhat (Ha, As If), but this gives me slightly more hope for if they were ever to announce a FFX prequel, as in, maybe A/B could actually be a thing.)

Anyway, I’m sure most or all of these people will succumb to horrible and tragic deaths … but I love all of them so much along with every other character in this game, thanks for your time.