Characters of Final Fantasy XVI
Final Fantasy XVI, an action role-playing game developed, published, and released by Square Enix in 2023, is the sixteenth mainline entry in the Final Fantasy series. The game's world design was a collaborative effort between producer Naoki Yoshida, co-director Hiroshi Takai, co-director and lead writer Kazutoyo Maehiro, and art director Hiroshi Minagawa. The characters and Eikon summoned monsters were designed by Kazuya Takahashi, while Michael-Christopher Koji Fox handled localization and helped with writing.
The plot revolves around a resource war in the world of Valisthea, with magical beings dubbed Eikons and their human hosts−Dominants−playing key roles in the conflict. The main protagonist is Clive Rosfield, a son of the Duke of Rosaria who sets out on a quest for revenge after he is betrayed and becomes host of the mysterious Eikon Ifrit. His main companions are Jill Warrick, a former princess of the Northern Territories and Dominant of Shiva; and Cidolfus Telamon, a fighter for abused magic users and Dominant of Ramuh. Other major characters are Joshua Rosfield, Clive's younger brother and Dominant of Phoenix; Hugo Kupka, Dominant of Titan and key political figure in the Dhalmekian Republic; Barnabas Tharmr, king of Waloed and Dominant of Odin; Benedikta Harman, a Waloedan spy and Dominant of Garuda; and Dion Lesage, crown prince of Sanbreque and the Dominant of Bahamut.
The goal was a mature dark fantasy storyline, focusing on themes of love, the interdependence of good and evil, and clashing values. Maehiro created the world first based on the Eikons' central role. The team drew early inspiration from the television series Game of Thrones, alongside classic and contemporary anime. Takahashi's character designs, which are noted for having a light style, were adjusted to be darker and fit the world's aesthetic. The game's dub prioritized European voice actors over American ones, with English recording and motion capture coming before Japanese. Reception of the cast has been positive, with praise often going to Clive's character development and the English performances. Criticism has focused on the portrayal of its story themes. There was additional discussion on both the perceived lack of ethnic diversity in the world and cast, and its inclusion of LGBT characters.
Creation and development
The concept and setting of Final Fantasy XVI was created by producer Naoki Yoshida, co-director Hiroshi Takai, co-director and lead writer Kazutoyo Maehiro, and art director Hiroshi Minagawa. In contrast with recent Final Fantasy titles, which featured science fiction elements, Final Fantasy XVI returned to a high fantasy and medieval setting. Takai wanted a mature dark fantasy narrative that would tackle difficult themes. Yoshida wanted the game to cater to neither children or adults, but rather reach "players of all generations". He also wanted to separate the game from commonly associated stereotypes such as an anime-inspired art style and a story focusing on teenagers. Maehiro's world and narrative design drew inspiration from Greek mythology.The earliest decision was to feature the Eikons, the game's version of recurring Final Fantasy summoned monsters, in a central role. With this in mind, Maehiro created the map of Valisthea first, basing the locations of Eikons and nations around those elements, and then writing Clive's story to place within these events and areas. Using two Eikons of fire referenced early Greek ideas of the original life being in fire, with the Eikons Phoenix and Ifrit designed as a contrasting pair. Crystals, a recurring feature in the series, were portrayed as an analogy to depleted fossil fuels, while Dominants and Eikons acted as analogies for weapons of mass destruction. A recurring marketing tagline, "The legacy of the crystals has shaped our history for long enough", was meant to symbolize both a break from the science fiction style of recent entries and a questioning of the crystal's role of bestowing power on humans. While the recurring Final Fantasy mascots Chocobos and Moogles were omitted from the initial design, staff protests prompted Maehiro to adjust his world design to allow for their inclusion.
The initial narrative drew inspiration from the early seasons of Game of Thrones. Other inspirations, including classic and contemporary anime, were used to prevent too many similarities to Game of Thrones. The Eikon battles were inspired by the large-scale battles of Ultraman and Neon Genesis Evangelion. Maehiro created the initial script, which was checked and completed by localization lead Michael-Christopher Koji Fox. In addition to the scenario, the game's dialogue was written before game design was finalized. Despite the overall story being dark in tone, the staff chose to also include light-hearted elements. When creating world design and story, the team took criticism from Final Fantasy XV into account, including its fragmented delivery of the story. Due to the game's large scope, the team frequently considered cutting one of the two continents, but kept both to avoid disruptive rewrites; however, Takai and Maehiro described the effort of making the two continents work as "hell". Compared to other recent Final Fantasy titles, there was no plan for "tertiary content" such as downloadable content and books, instead having the entire story told within the game. Due to the game's positive responses, a dedicated team created DLC exploring background elements to the narrative related to the Fallen civilization and the Eikon Leviathan.
The story focus was main protagonist Clive Rosfield and the relationships he forms with different people through the warring nations. The story's central theme was the clashing of values held by different people, alongside the choice of whether to accept or resist a given fate. Two other themes outlined by the team were the interdependence and ambiguity of good and evil, inspired by Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Trilogy, and different forms of love, be it for a nation or a person. While the early plot focused on Clive's quest for revenge, the story later shifted to political rivalries and then focusing on self-identity, reflecting Clive's evolving view of the world. Clive and Joshua's fate, along with the authorship of a history book seen in the post-credits sequence, were left deliberately ambiguous. Speaking on the portrayal of ethnic diversity in the game's world, Yoshida stated that its relative lack of diversity fitted into both its medieval European setting and the in-universe isolation of Valisthea's lands. He admitted potential representation issues, but foresaw problems with both breaking player immersion in the setting, and problematic stereotypes associated with protagonists or antagonists. The team ultimately decided to focus on the characters' personalities and narratives over their appearance. In a follow-up, he noted the game's world was inspired by cultures from across the world, acknowledging that some might disagree with their approach.
The world's visual design was inspired by Game of Thrones, with Minagawa drawing direct inspiration from the landscapes of Northern England, Slovenia, the Middle East, Africa, and Dalmasca from Final Fantasy XII. The characters and Eikons were designed by Kazuya Takahashi, who is known for his work on Final Fantasy XIV. Minagawa described blending Takahashi's light illustration style with the dark tone of the game as his biggest challenge when finalizing the art design. Classic Final Fantasy jobs were used as a design inspiration for enemies and some NPCs. The Eikons were based on established and popular summons from across the Final Fantasy series, with Ifrit given a prominent role to contrast his earlier portrayal as a summon for beginners. Their established physical characteristics and possible styles of combat informed their design. They were inspired based on older sprite art versions from early Final Fantasy titles. Two of the Eikons, Ifrit and Phoenix, were featured in the logo illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano, and was designed based on the game's story and themes.
While the initial script was written in Japanese, Fox both localized and rewrote the script to work in English, then the final Japanese script was adjusted to match the English version. In contrast to earlier entries, the cutscenes were motion captured in English. Due to this, there was no Japanese lip syncing, though the team unsuccessfully tried using an automated system to match the Japanese dub to the characters. The performance director was Hannah Price. Yoshida stayed away from the recording process both due to company policy and out of "respect" for the writers, as he would likely contradict their decisions and cause issues. English voice work was done by European actors, a non-standard approach done to appeal to the North American market. The character accents were chosen to communicate locality for different characters, with a cited example being using a Geordie accent for people from the north of Valisthea. Voice recording and motion capture work began in 2019, with the roles being kept secret using scattered recording schedules and character code names.
Main characters
Clive Rosfield
Clive Rosfield is the main protagonist and primary playable character of Final Fantasy XVI. He is the firstborn son of the Duke of Rosaria, but is debarred following his failure to awaken to the Dominant Phoenix. As compensation, he trains as a swordsman and becomes the First Shield to his younger brother Joshua, who inherits Phoenix's power. Joshua also shares some of Phoenix's power with Clive, who can use magical powers. As a teenager, Clive's mother Anabella betrays Rosaria to Sanbreque and he witnesses the Dark Eikon Ifrit seemingly kill Joshua. After being enslaved in Sanbreque's army, he vows revenge on Ifrit. He ends up defecting to rescue his childhood friend Jill and joins the rebel Cid. After learning that he manifested Ifrit, his goal changes to destroying Valisthea's Mothercrystals and end the Blight, after Cid‘s vision. After Cid is killed, he takes on his name and continues working with Jill, developing a romance with her. He is revealed to be the planned "Mythos", a vessel for the alien being Ultima who can fulfill his people's planned resurrection. Clive, instead embracing his alternate fate as the rebellious "Logos", destroys Ultima and the final Mothercrystal, removing magic from Valisthea. He is last seen lying on a beach as his hand begins to petrify as a result of overusing his powers, leaving his fate ambiguous.Clive's design was based around the archetype of a prince of darkness. Takahashi created his armor and clothing around the design specification of a country with little power, with his muscular build meant to appeal to the Western market. He was initially intended to have silver hair, which Takahashi changed to black to reflect the game's dark tone. Clive's design was a collaborative effort between the art team and the CGI team, with the latter helping make Clive's in-game model more realistic and natural. His name was chosen due to Yoshida liking its sound. Clive is voiced by Ben Starr in English, and in Japanese by Yuma Uchida as a child and Yūya Uchida as an adult. Starr initially auditioned for a different minor character, but both the English and Japanese staff were impressed by his voice and decided to recast him as Clive. Starr was unprepared for the size of his role, and noted the difficulty with some of the recording, as they had no other version to reference. He drew inspiration for his portrayal from Justin Theroux's character in The Leftovers, referencing Clive's "warped masculinity" and unwillingness to cry. Clive later appeared as a guest character in Tekken 8, via downloadable content released in December 2024.