Final Fantasy XVI

• 1. A World Built on Crystals

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  Final Fantasy XVI arrived on the 22nd of June 2023, carrying the weight of a franchise that had defined Japanese role-playing games for nearly four decades. The sixteenth mainline entry in one of gaming's most storied series, it made an immediate declaration: the colossal magical crystals called Mothercrystals, which had powered civilization across Valisthea's twin continents of Ash and Storm, were also slowly killing it. That contradiction sits at the heart of everything the game does.

  The world of Valisthea is split between six nations, each holding power through access to a Mothercrystal and through a human host called a Dominant, who carries one of eight Eikons inside them. Phoenix governs fire, Shiva ice, Ramuh thunder, Leviathan water, Titan earth, Garuda wind, Odin darkness, and Bahamut light. A ninth Eikon, Ifrit, a second fire creature that should not exist, drives the plot by disrupting this carefully maintained order.

  For civilians without Dominant status, the crystals provide aether for daily life. But for Bearers, humans who can use magic without crystals at all, the arrangement is brutal: overuse petrifies them. Bearers face prejudice, enslavement, and death across every nation in Valisthea. The game's recurring marketing tagline, "The legacy of the crystals has shaped our history for long enough", was designed to signal both a narrative break from the franchise's science fiction period and a direct critique of who actually benefits from power structures built on a finite resource.

  The Blight, a magical drought slowly consuming the land, forces every nation's hand. With aether depleting, war becomes the only option anyone can imagine. Clive Rosfield, a Bearer himself despite being born to Rosaria's ruling family, will spend the entire game learning why that framing is wrong.

• 2. Clive's Long Road

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  Clive Rosfield begins the story as a teenager serving as bodyguard to his younger brother Joshua, who carries the Phoenix Eikon and holds the birthright Clive was passed over for. Their father Duke Elwin is killed during an ambush by Sanbreque soldiers, which triggers Joshua's violent awakening as Phoenix. Then Ifrit appears, kills the Phoenix, and Clive swears revenge without yet knowing he is the very creature he hunts.

  Their mother Anabella, who despises Clive's limited power, betrays Rosaria and has Clive enslaved to Sanbreque's army. Thirteen years pass. When Clive is sent to assassinate a Dominant behind enemy lines, he recognizes the target as Jill Warrick, his childhood friend who had spent her life as a political hostage. He deserts to free her, and the two are taken in by Cidolfus Telamon, Dominant of Ramuh, who shelters Bearers and Dominants outside the nation system.

  Cid pushes Clive toward the truth about Ifrit. In a fight with Benedikta Harman, a Waloed spy and Dominant of Garuda, Clive takes her Eikon's power after defeating her. When Benedikta transforms into a raging Garuda, Clive involuntarily becomes Ifrit and kills her. The revelation that he killed Joshua, and is himself Ifrit, breaks Clive briefly before Cid encourages him forward.

  Clive's arc runs across five additional years of story after Cid's death, during which he takes on the name Cid himself and continues destroying Mothercrystals to stop the Blight. By the final act, he and Joshua assault Ultima's sky fortress of Origin, where Ultima kills Dion and mortally wounds Joshua. Joshua sacrifices himself to give Clive his Eikon. Clive defeats Ultima, heals Joshua's wounds, and destroys the final Mothercrystal to remove magic from Valisthea entirely.

• 3. Building the Combat System

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  Ryota Suzuki, a veteran of the Devil May Cry series at Capcom, was brought in as battle designer after Square Enix realized it had little internal experience with action combat outside the Kingdom Hearts team. The combat Suzuki built was designed around the idea of translating Final Fantasy V's job system mechanics into real-time action, with each Eikon granting Clive a distinct set of abilities that could be chained into combos.

  The Stagger system became the core combat loop: building up a meter through specific damage types until an enemy is stunned and becomes vulnerable to heavier attacks. Clive is the only player-controlled character; other party members, including his hound Torgal, are driven by AI. Torgal responds to commands for special attacks or healing, giving limited tactical input without complicating the primary controls.

  The Eikon setpiece battles each had unique mechanics that were not reused in any other fight. One of the earliest completed examples was the Garuda battle, whose basic structure remained mostly unchanged through the entire production. There were no loading screens during these sequences, with gameplay and dialogue blended into the final compositions. An Eikon-based job system was planned during the first half of development but was dropped because it restricted Clive's in-game appearance too heavily.

  Yoshida conducted surveys within the Final Fantasy community early in development and found a divide between fans of action combat and traditional turn-based systems. He chose real-time action knowing it risked polarizing the audience, stating he believed that trying to incorporate every element possible would create a half-baked compromise. Two difficulty settings launched with the game: a Story mode with simplifying accessories, and a normal mode. New Game+, a harder Final Fantasy mode with changed enemy placements, and an arcade grading mode unlocked after completion.

• 4. Production Under Pressure

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  Concept work for Final Fantasy XVI began in 2015 when Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda approached producer Naoki Yoshida, who was finishing the Final Fantasy XIV expansion Heavensward. Yoshida assembled a small initial team of himself, creative director Kazutoyo Maehiro, and designer Mitsutoshi Gondai. Full production began in 2016 following Heavensward's Patch 3.4, once Takai and Maehiro had found replacement staff for the next XIV expansion Stormblood.

  The COVID-19 pandemic forced the team into remote work and pushed production roughly half a year behind schedule, creating communication problems with Square Enix's head office and with outsourcing partners. By late 2020, core development and game scenarios were complete, but large-scale work on boss battles and development tools was still ongoing. By April 2022, the team was finalizing side quests. Full playability from start to finish arrived in June of that year, at which point the focus shifted to polish and voice recording across multiple languages.

  A second disruption came in early 2022. The second trailer, which showcased the Eikons and related gameplay, was ready in March but was held back following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The team felt the game's depiction of warring nations made the timing inappropriate. Yoshida recorded a personal message to preface the trailer's eventual June 2022 release, separating the fiction from world events.

  The game was initially planned as a two-disc physical release but the team managed to fit everything onto a single disc, lowering production costs and simplifying mastering. Development support came from Tai Yasue's Kingdom Hearts team within Square Enix and from a PlatinumGames team led by Takahisa Taura. Following the June 2023 launch, the production team disbanded into other projects.

• 5. Music and Voice

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  Masayoshi Soken composed the game's score after working with Yoshida and director Hiroshi Takai on Final Fantasy XIV. He described the XVI soundtrack as having a singular direction shaped by the dark fantasy setting, a deliberate contrast to XIV's variety of styles. Initially asked for 140 tracks, the final total reached over 200 songs, including variations on character themes. Soken attributed the count to the sheer number of characters and situations, wanting to avoid reusing the same pieces too often.

  Additional compositions came from Takafumi Imamura, Daiki Ishikawa, Saya Yasaki, and Justin Frieden, with arrangements by Yoshitaka Suzuki, Ryo Furukawa, TomoLow, and Keiko. A bardic song that changed depending on Clive's position in the story was performed by a trained singer and actor, requiring localization in multiple languages and a cappella recording, which created pitch and tempo challenges.

  The recurring Chocobo theme, a franchise staple with a famously light tone, was handled carefully given the game's dark setting. Rather than a full arrangement, it appeared as a short jingle. Vocal lyrics were written by Michael-Christopher Koji Fox at Soken's request, with Fox also translating some lyrics into Ancient Greek to create a sense of otherness without inventing a fictional language. The main theme, "Tsuki Wo Miteita - Moongazing", was written and performed by Kenshi Yonezu. Both Yonezu and Yoshida described mutual enthusiasm for the collaboration.

  Localization was directed by Fox, with casting and recording handled by the UK branch of audio company Side. All English voice work used European actors, a deliberate choice to target the North American market. The script was written in Japanese first, then translated and motion-captured in English. This meant no Japanese lip syncing existed, and an automated system to match the Japanese dub to character animations was ultimately unsuccessful. Ben Starr voiced Clive and Ralph Ineson voiced Barnabas Tharmr, with both performers later receiving awards nominations.

• 6. Release, Sales, and Reception

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  Final Fantasy XVI sold over three million units in its first week after launch, making it the best-selling retail game in Japan during that period with just over 336,000 physical copies sold there alone. In the United Kingdom it led first-week sales, though physical numbers ran notably below Final Fantasy XV. In the United States it was the second best-selling title in its first month, behind Diablo IV. Despite these figures, Square Enix's own expectations were higher: reports noted the sales fell short of targets, contributing to a drop in the company's share value. President Takashi Kiryu attributed part of the problem to slow PlayStation 5 adoption, and in May 2024 confirmed that XVI and other major titles had not met long-term sales expectations.

  Critics gave the game generally favorable reviews. On OpenCritic, 91% of 205 critics recommended it. Praise concentrated on the story's handling of darker themes, the graphics, Soken's score, and the combat's variety. Criticism focused on the lack of traditional role-playing elements, uneven side quest design, and pacing issues in later sections. Several reviewers compared the Eikon setpiece battles favorably to sequences from God of War III and Asura's Wrath. A real-life replica of Clive's sword, created by blacksmith Tod Todeschini, was exhibited at the Royal Armouries collection at the Tower of London from June 20 to July 19.

  The game was refused classification and banned in Saudi Arabia because Square Enix declined to alter a portrayal of a relationship between two male characters. It carried high age ratings across other major release regions. The Windows version released on the 17th of September 2024, with expanded graphics and performance options. An Xbox Series X/S version followed on the 8th of June 2025.

  At The Game Awards 2023, the game was nominated for Best Narrative, Best Score and Music, Best Performance for Ben Starr, and Best Role Playing Game. The 24th Game Developers Choice Awards nominated it for Game of the Year, Best Audio, Best Technology, Best Visual Art, and the Audience Award. A crossover event with Final Fantasy XIV ran from April 2 to the 8th of May 2024, and the DLC expansion The Rising Tide, released on the 18th of April 2024, introduced the lost Eikon Leviathan.