The more I reflect on Final Fantasy 16, the more I realize it had no lasting impact on me.
Don’t get me wrong—I love the Final Fantasy series, and while I genuinely enjoyed playing as Clive Rosfield in the magical lands of Valisthea, I can’t shake the feeling that XVI didn’t offer much beyond being just another Devil May Cry-like action game.
In this opinion piece, I’ll discuss my minor grievances with Final Fantasy XVI and why it ultimately fails to push the series forward.
Combat Is Monotonous
While Final Fantasy 16’s combat is undeniably fast-paced and flashy, it didn’t feel essential to the full gameplay experience. I expected something closer to Devil May Cry, where Clive would switch between multiple Eikon styles, but I was disappointed to find that you can only use three at a time.
Even worse, the combat relies on a cooldown system that makes little sense. It limits combo potential and feels counterintuitive to the game’s supposed fast-paced nature, resulting in a much slower, more methodical approach rather than the fluid, non-stop hacking and slashing I anticipated. It’s a baffling design choice, to be honest.
The Politics Bored Me
Final Fantasy 16’s world is rich with life, and the lore behind each of its nations is intriguing, with each having its own set of reverence to the Eikons. But for some reason, the political narrative was pushed aside in favor of the final boss’s presence. Once you reach the game’s final moments, there’s no grand political conspiracy—just narrative padding that leads nowhere.
The game had the potential to tell a Game of Thrones-esque story, but instead, it fell back on another over-the-top, world-ending plot. A wasted opportunity.
The Boss Fights Are Tedious
Before you grab your pitchforks—I loved the boss fights in Final Fantasy XVI… the first time around. But after multiple playthroughs? Not so much.
The Eikon battles are undeniably cinematic, but that’s all they are. There’s little depth beyond dodging at the right moment and mashing the attack button over and over again. The only truly engaging boss fight was Odin, which felt like a genuine skill check and proved FFXVI was capable of more. Even the final boss felt barebones.
Watching playthroughs of players battling Titan, Phoenix, or Bahamut is visually impressive, but actually playing through those fights again? It’s tedious, drawn out, and relies too heavily on cinematic spectacle rather than compelling gameplay.
Post-Game Content Should Have Been in the Base Game
One of my biggest issues with Final Fantasy XVI is its lack of narrative cohesion, largely because Square Enix chose to complete the story through post-game updates. I expected a fully realized narrative, but instead, the game felt incomplete—split in half and sold separately.
Including this content in the base game would have significantly improved my experience, especially given the absence of Leviathan in Clive’s original journey. DLC should expand a game, not consist of content that was clearly meant to be there from the start.
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Even the game’s true ending is locked behind the final DLC—another questionable choice by Creative Business Unit III.
A Final Fantasy That Lacks Identity
I really wanted to love Final Fantasy XVI, but in the end, it felt like just another entry that failed to innovate. It struggled with its identity—its combat, political story, and pacing never fully came together.
As much as I enjoyed the main characters—Clive, Joshua, Jill, and, of course, the goodest boy, Torgal—none of them truly stuck with me. Final Fantasy 16 felt like a stripped-down version of what the series is capable of, and because of that, it left little lasting impression. At least the soundtrack is fire.