Note: this article may loosely describe certain combat abilities unlocked in Final Fantasy XVI after a period of playing. If you have not played the game yet, please keep this in mind.

Prelude

On June 3rd 2022, the X (formerly Twitter) account @finalfantasyxvi published a list of notable development staff who were working on Final Fantasy XVI. Much of it was as you would expect – Naoki Yoshida (FFXIV) was producing the game, Masayoshi Soken (FFXIV) was providing the soundtrack, and the full list included various other directors who’d previously had experience with the mainline RPG series in one way or another. However, there was one individual in the list who did not have Final Fantasy games credited to them. His entry on the tweeted list read:

Combat Director: Ryota Suzuki
Devil May Cry 5
Dragon’s Dogma
Marvel vs. Capcom 2

In any other series, this might have been a cause for concern – but after hearing other people talk about Final Fantasy XVI – and the trajectory of the mainline Final Fantasy series in general, many considered it a cause for celebration. More than a year later, having now completed the game myself, I have to commend the decision to bring Suzuki on board. Not for the first time, we find that when you hire the experts you can get fun action gameplay out of your RPG franchise.

Hire the experts – and make FFXVI a joy to play

Final Fantasy XVI has layers of RPG staples throughout – the experience points and levels, the unlockable skills, a lot of gear customisation, a job system (of sorts), chatty NPCs, vendors and a central hub, plenty of sidequests and areas to loot, and a story that takes place across an expansive world map with diverse regions to explore. Take away the combat and how it plays out, and what you’re left with is recognisable as a modern RPG template – and so I don’t think it’s strayed too far from its genre roots. Instead, the biggest change is felt when Clive swings his weapon. As we’ve seen modern Final Fantasy games lean towards action-oriented gameplay in Final Fantasy XV and Final Fantasy VII Remake, we’ve come to accept that traditional RPG combat is at risk of being left behind in this series. So when Final Fantasy XVI has action game talent informing its combat, we get to see this transformation in a form that immediately feels polished and satisfying.

On the surface, nothing seems that extraordinary – there is a melee attack, a button to shoot projectiles (these have an elemental property based on the Eikon – this game’s equivalent of Espers or Summons – that is equipped), a lock-on, a jump. However, as Clive proceeds through the game he obtains more Eikons to “equip” – each of these Eikons has a unique action that can be performed at any time, a skill tree where more abilities can be unlocked, and two “slots” where those abilities can be bound to controller shortcuts. What makes this special is that a lot of the abilities don’t feel like the kind of commands you would select in a battle menu during a traditional RPG – instead, it feels more like the Eikons are fighting game characters and you’re unlocking special moves to bind to your shortcuts. Even as I played through the game, I found myself mentally referring to particular abilities as “the uppercut move” or “the gamma wave” – a special move from Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Just like special moves in 2D fighting games have applications for certain circumstances, there are a lot of combat abilities in Final Fantasy XVI that allow you to dictate the way these battles in 3D space are played out.

Hire the experts – but be sensible

RPGs have always enjoyed making the player feel powerful in new ways – every time you recruit a new party member in a modern Persona game, one of the first things you’re keen to know is what their persona’s full skill list looks like. In Final Fantasy XVI, it feels like each of the obtainable Eikons are as much of a party member as Jill, Torgal, or anyone else who might join Clive on his journey, and they definitely elicit the feeling of wonder as you’re keen to unlock each ability and work it into your combos somehow. When you hire the experts you can end up with memorable action experiences, but the gameplay structure is still sensible enough to stagger each Eikon acquisition so that you’re not overwhelmed with options. By the end of the game, you will have come up with some favourite abilities anyway (abilities can be upgraded for more potency, and even bound to ability slots of other Eikons) – consequently, you’ll already have decided what options are right for you.

So it’s taken this long for Square Enix to modernise the combat in one of its beloved RPGs? Not quite – because I feel like we have been here before. Just like Capcom talent revitalised combat in a new Final Fantasy, a lot of my time spent with Clive and co. led to me thinking about how Nier reinvented itself. The 2010 game had serviceable combat tied to some awkward pacing and dull sequences – several years later, another decision was made to seek action specialists (this time PlatinumGames) for Nier Automata, and it resulted in a spectacular 3D action vessel that still respected the roots of the original. And whilst it may simply be because Final Fantasy XVI is fresher in my mind, I daresay that it is even more accomplished than Automata was. Obviously we don’t need every 3D RPG to follow this evolution (Atlus is doing just fine with conventional turn-based combat, and even Yakuza managed to make it work for their own re-invention.) However, if real-time combat is a focus for an RPG developer, it helps to hire the experts.

Final Fantasy XVI is available now for Xbox Series, PlayStation 5 and PC. Nier Automata is available now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC and Nintendo Switch