Final Fantasy XVI
is a 2023 action role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix. The sixteenth main installment in the Final Fantasy series, it was first released for the PlayStation 5, with a Windows version released in September 2024, and an Xbox Series X/S version released in June 2025. The game features segmented open environments and an action-based combat system involving melee and magic-based attacks. There are recurring series features including Chocobos for area travel, and summoned monsters called Eikons, which are both fought as bosses and used through channelling their power in combat.
Final Fantasy XVI is set in the twin continents of Valisthea, currently divided between six nations who hold power through access to magical Crystals and Dominants, humans who act as hosts for each nation's Eikon. Tensions between the nations escalate as a magical drought dubbed the Blight begins consuming the land. Clive Rosfield, guardian to his younger brother Joshua, witnesses his kingdom destroyed and becomes involved in the growing conflict between Valisthea's nations and a secret power driving the war.
Beginning concept development in 2015, the staff included Naoki Yoshida as producer, Hiroshi Takai as main director, artists Hiroshi Minagawa and Kazuya Takahashi, Kazutoyo Maehiro as creative director and lead writer, Masayoshi Soken as composer, and Capcom veteran Ryota Suzuki as battle designer. Yoshida's aim was for a dark fantasy storyline that would have broad appeal and reinvigorate the series. Its production and promotion were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and later by the Russo-Ukrainian war.
The game was praised by critics for its story, graphics, music, and gameplay. Criticism focused on its lack of role-playing elements, technical issues and side quest design. The game sold over three million units during its first week after launch, but failed to meet Square Enix's expectations. After release, the game was supported by a variety of downloadable content, including story-focused campaigns and smaller patches to include new features and in-game items.
Gameplay
Final Fantasy XVI is an action role-playing game in which players take control of protagonist Clive Rosfield and a rotating party of AI-controlled companions through segmented open areas across the continents of Valisthea. Recurring Final Fantasy elements, such as the bird-like Chocobo and monster types, appear in the game. Following a story-driven prologue section, Clive is able to travel to different parts of Valisthea. The world is split between enclosed dungeon environments, town environments, and wider open fields, all selected from a map via a fast travel menu. Travel within open zones is done either on foot or via Ambrosia the Chocobo. Clive's home base is a hideout, acting as a hub to talk to non-playable characters, track Clive's relationships with different characters, interact with different shops such as potion sellers and blacksmiths to make and upgrade equipment, and accept side quests ranging from character requests to monster hunts. Information on locations, characters and terminology is stored in a database dubbed Active Time Lore, accessible to players at any time.Combat takes place in the same area players navigate, entering battle once the enemy sees the party. Clive is the only controllable character, with other characters being AI-controlled and having their own attack and magic abilities. Another common companion is the dog Torgal, who responds to Clive's commands to perform special attacks or heal. While in battle, Clive can use normal attacks, a dodge, and use elemental abilities from Eikons, the game's version of recurring Final Fantasy summoned monsters. Clive can switch between different Eikon abilities during battle, stringing them together into different combo attacks. A core mechanic of combat is "Stagger", where the party deals specific types of damage which build up a stagger meter to stun an enemy for a short time and make them vulnerable to more attacks. During certain story sections, Clive has battles with Eikons and their wielders that have dedicated mechanics. After defeating them, Clive gains access to powers and fighting techniques themed around them.
The game starts out with two difficulty settings: a "Story" mode that offers accessories to simplify combat and strengthen the characters, and a normal mode. After completing the game, new options are available including New Game+ which carries character statistics and equipment into a new game, and a harder "Final Fantasy" mode which increases overall difficulty and changes enemy placements. There is also an arcade mode which grades players using a point system for combat, with harder Ultimaniac Mode challenges within that. In these modes, Clive can further upgrade his weapons, upgrade accessories in Final Fantasy mode, and challenge trials which place limits on Clive, such as only using one Eikon power in battle.
Synopsis
Setting
Final Fantasy XVI is set in the fictional world of Valisthea. Scattered throughout the two continents of Ash and Storm are colossal magical crystals, known as the Mothercrystals, which provide aether energy to the various populations and drive civilization with shards mined for commercial use. There are also humans that can use magic without crystals known as Bearers who are subject to prejudice and slavery, their overuse causing them to gradually petrify. Key to Valisthea's current politics are the Eikons, magical creatures of incredible power that are utilized by hosts called Dominants. There are eight Eikons, one for each of the elements – Phoenix, Shiva, Ramuh, Leviathan, Titan, Garuda, Odin, and Bahamut ; a seemingly impossible second Eikon of fire, Ifrit, drives the main plot by disrupting this balance.The core nations of Valisthea are the Grand Duchy of Rosaria, the Holy Empire of Sanbreque, and the Dhalmekian Republic on the Storm continent, the Kingdom of Waloed which dominates the Ash continent, and the neutral Crystalline Dominion sitting between Ash and Storm. An outlier is the Iron Kingdom, an isolated nation off the coast of Storm overseen by the Crystalline Orthodox. In the backstory an ancient people, humanity's ancestors the Fallen, once dominated Valisthea before a cataclysm destroyed their civilization, leaving ruins across the land. By the game's events, Valisthea is suffering from a depletion of aether dubbed the Blight which withers all life, driving the nations into conflict with each other. Because of their ability to manifest Eikons, Dominants play a key role in the nations' politics and military. Depending on where they are born, Dominants are hailed as political leaders, tolerated due to their power, or suffer abuse and are either killed or used as weapons of war.
Characters
The game's protagonist is Clive Rosfield, firstborn son of Rosaria's ruling family who is passed over as successor when his younger brother Joshua becomes the Dominant of Phoenix; Clive can acquire and wield the power of multiple Eikons. A future companion of Clive's is his childhood friend Jill Warrick, the eventual Dominant of Shiva who spends much of her life as a political hostage. During his travels Clive is joined by his hound, Torgal; and Cidolfus Telamon, Dominant of Ramuh who provides shelter for Bearers and Dominants, and is an incarnation of a recurring Final Fantasy character. Other prominent characters include Barnabas Tharmr, king of Waloed and Dominant of Odin; Benedikta Harman, a Waloed spy and Dominant of Garuda; Hugo Kupka, key political figure in the Dhalmekian Republic and Dominant of Titan; and Dion Lesage, crown prince of Sanbreque and Dominant of Bahamut.Plot
In his teenage years, Clive serves as Joshua's bodyguard, being a Bearer and blessed with some power from the fire Eikon Phoenix. The brothers live with their parents Duke Elwin and Duchess Anabella, with Jill as their ward. The brothers accompany Elwin to a ceremony to awaken Joshua's powers when they are ambushed by Sanbreque soldiers. Elwin's death triggers Joshua's destructive awakening as the Phoenix, and an Eikon named Ifrit emerges moments later and kills the Phoenix, with Clive swearing revenge. Anabella, who despises Clive's lack of blessing, betrays Rosaria to preserve her bloodline and has Clive enslaved to Sanbreque's army.Thirteen years later, Clive is sent behind enemy lines during a fight between the Dhalmekian Republic and the Iron Kingdom to assassinate the latter's Dominant, revealed to be an enslaved Jill. Upon recognizing her, Clive deserts to free Jill, and the two are rescued by Cid, who agrees to help Clive search for Ifrit's Dominant. Tracking word of an unknown Dominant, they fight Benedikta, from whom Clive takes the power of her Eikon Garuda. A defeated and disturbed Benedikta is then attacked by bandits and transforms into a raging Garuda, which in turn triggers Clive to transform into Ifrit and kill her. While Clive briefly despairs at the fact that he is Ifrit and the one who killed Joshua, Cid encourages him to keep searching for the truth behind his transformation.
After Clive and Jill see the full oppression inflicted on Bearers and their sympathizers in occupied Rosaria, they join Cid in a quest to destroy the nations' Mothercrystals, which are causing the Blight by draining aether from the land. They infiltrate Sanbreque's capital, but within its Mothercrystal are faced by a being called Ultima, who mortally wounds Cid before the Mothercrystal is destroyed. When Ultima attempts to possess Clive, Joshua−who survived Ifrit's attack due to the Phoenix's powers−redirects Ultima into himself. Hugo, who was in love with Benedikta, is manipulated by Barnabas's agents into seeking revenge against Cid for her death. Five years later, Clive, now using the title of "Cid" and carrying on Cid's mission, destroys the Iron Kingdom's Mothercrystal with Jill, who takes revenge on her enslavers. With Sanbreque having occupied the Crystalline Dominion for its Mothercrystal, Anabella has Dion replaced as heir to the throne with Olivier, her son by Sanbreque's emperor Sylvestre. Hugo invades Rosaria to lure out "Cid", prompting Clive to mutilate Hugo in a fight and reveal himself as Benedikta's killer. Desperate for revenge, Hugo transforms into a raging Titan. Having gained full control of Ifrit, Clive kills Hugo and destroys the Dhalmekian Mothercrystal.
Under Joshua's advice, Dion stages a coup against Anabella, but in the process, Dion inadvertently kills Sylvestre and is transformed into a raging Bahamut by Olivier, revealed to be a vessel for Ultima. Clive destroys the Dominion's Mothercrystal as he reunites with Joshua, helping him defeat Bahamut. Now aware of Ultima, Dion kills Olivier, causing an unhinged Anabella to kill herself in despair. Barnabas later confronts Clive and reveals Ultima's plan to shape Clive into "Mythos", a vessel for Ultima to inhabit. After Jill gives him the power of her Eikon Shiva, Clive kills Barnabas and destroys Waloed's Mothercrystal. Joshua's research into Fallen ruins reveals that Ultima's people seeded Valisthea with the Mothercrystals to siphon aether for a resurrection spell after succumbing to an earlier Blight. The Fallen and their human descendants were created to breed a vessel powerful enough to cast the spell. Clive, Joshua, and Dion assault Ultima's sky fortress of Origin, where Ultima's fragments merge to complete their plan. In the ensuing fight, Ultima kills Dion and rips his fragment out of Joshua, mortally wounding him. Joshua sacrifices himself to give Clive his Eikon. After killing Ultima, Clive heals Joshua's wounds and destroys the final Mothercrystal within Origin to remove magic from Valisthea. A post-credits scene in Valisthea's future, where magic is considered a myth, shows a family living in peace and owning a book credited to Joshua recording the game's events.
Post-release downloadable content expansions Echoes of the Fallen and The Rising Tide expand on the Motes of Water, a persecuted tribe associated with the Eikon Leviathan. In Echoes of the Fallen, fragments from an artificial Mothercrystal created by the Fallen are distributed on the black market. Clive, Joshua and Jill go to the Sagespire, the source of the crystals. They discover the merchant Famiel is selling crystals taken from the Sagespire. Clive and his party fight an artificial Eikon dubbed Omega and destroy the tower's Mothercrystal. In The Rising Tide, Clive, Jill and Joshua travel to the land of Mysidia with Shula, current leader of the Motes and Famiel's sister. They learn that the Dominant of Leviathan, a baby called Waljas who shares family with Shula, was forced to awaken his powers and imprisoned with magic to shelter and enrich Mysidia. The party weaken the spell, which releases the raging Leviathan. Clive pacifies it, and Shula takes in Waljas to raise in her own.