Final Fantasy XVI Review

The pitch is clear and the execution is committed. This is an action game with a Devil May Cry veteran on combat design, one controllable character, no party management and no meaningful build variety, and it is unapologetic about that. What you get in return is a story with real weight, a world of crystal dependency and enslaved Bearers where the political cruelty is stated plainly rather than implied, and Clive's arc across three decades of his life carries genuine grief.

Ben Starr's performance is the best voice work the series has had. The Eikon battles are the spectacle argument, fights the size of weather systems that change genre mid encounter, and nothing else looks like them. The costs are structural. The side quests are a long parade of fetch errands, the world is a set of corridors rather than a place, and the combat lacks enemy variety and defensive pressure, so late fights become long rather than hard. Magnificent in its highs, conventional in its connective tissue.