After the first demo of Final Fantasy XVI I was cautious, the second convinced me

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The community manager Irina Moritz was able to play the second demo of Final Fantasy XVI, which revolved around the story and game world of the RPG. Many of their worries were alleviated or even eliminated as a result.

To be honest, although I’ve been a long-time FF fan, I was initially skeptical about FFXVI. The team behind the game is solid, the gameplay footage actually looked good, nothing to complain about at first glance.

But you know it yourself: You don’t want to get your hopes up too much because it could end up being somehow disappointing. That’s why, despite all my optimism about FFXVI, I was cautious.

This was also due to the fact that the focus of the presentation was placed on the combat system for a long time. It was featured prominently in trailers and even the first demo was 100% a combat demo. At some point it got a bit too much for me.

In contrast to the fans of turn-based combat, I have nothing to complain about the combat system itself. But at some point I asked myself the question “Where are the RPG elements in your RPG now?”. What about the quests and crafting? What are the areas like? And the most important thing for me: How will the story of the game be?

As a longtime Final Fantasy enthusiast, for me the story is what determines whether I like the games or not. This is where the whole FFXVI stands or falls and the developers are very aware of that. With the second demo they answered exactly these questions.

Final Fantasy XVI launch trailer

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When you don’t want to put the controller away

The setting for the second demo was a flashback from the protagonist Clive’s past. As the firstborn son of the Duke of Rosaria, he should have inherited the power of the phoenix, but didn’t. Instead, his little brother Joshua inherited the ability to transform into the Firebird. Clive, on the other hand, is now being trained as his protector.

The flashback follows the events that set off the main storyline of FFXVI. The demo showed how Clive ended up becoming a mercenary and separated from his loved ones. And the story made me want more.

As a youth, Clive was taught swordsmanship so he could later serve as a shield for his brother Joshua.

I was so engrossed in the story that I actually forgot the time. The plot is exciting right from the start and brings with it many a plot twist. It’s all about the “Dominants,” people like Joshua who have the power of incantations.

These characters are introduced right from the start, with a bombastic demonstration of the destruction they are capable of in their Eikon form. They can single-handedly wipe out entire armies, leading to some bloody scenes in FFXVI.

In general, the game is not squeamish when it comes to adult content such as violence and even sex. In our interview, the devs said that the development team didn’t want to make FFXVI cramp gloomy. Rather, it is the result of wanting to depict reality.

Violence and brutality were already seen in the first trailers for FFXVI. Especially the young Joshua gets a good deal.

Horrible things happen in a war and you can see them live and in color as you play in FFXVI. One of my quietest fears was that the devs were putting blood and murder in here just to look “somber”.

The story sections in the demo definitely didn’t come across that way. The brutal scenes had their right to exist and didn’t seem like they had been slapped away.

In the end I really wanted to know how it went on and in between I thought about bribing the lovely people at Square Enix to let me play a little longer. Or alternatively, how many of them will be necessary to tear me away from the controller. But I digress.

“Fortunately this is not an open world”

I have to tell you honestly: I can’t watch huge open-world games anymore. After a flood of games of this kind in the past few years, I’ve become oversaturated. Accordingly, I was damn happy to hear that FFXVI will not have an open world.

According to director Yoshida, the world should be structured similarly to the new God of War: Ragnarök. There will be a hub from which to explore and travel to new areas. You could also see a part of it in the second demo.

This was a welcome change from the cramped and tuberous fortress they thrashed through in the first demo. You could visit a nice open area, kill monsters there, gather resources and complete a quest that couldn’t have been more boring.

Final Fantasy XVI: Story trailer promises a new mega RPG for fans

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But I still enjoyed exploring the area and kept thinking to myself as I explored, “Luckily this isn’t an open world.” It was almost refreshing not to be overwhelmed by tons of icons on the map in a big game. However, some concerns remain:

  • The side quest featured in the demo was “Run from A to B”. While quests like this have a right to exist somewhere, I really hope FFXVI has more to offer. Deep and continuous questlines like Ghost of Tsushima would be great.
  • Side content in general hasn’t received a lot of attention until now. In interviews, director Yoshida mentioned hunting rare monsters (like in FFXII), but that sounded a bit shallow.
  • The interesting discoveries on open maps were rather limited in the demo. There were a few ruins and treasure chests here and there, but they didn’t reveal anything terribly interesting. Hopefully that will change in the finished game.
  • The fights of the Eikons are still a problem child in my eyes. Even with the fight between Phoenix and Ifrit, it was difficult to see what was even going on. It was chaotic, very dark and poorly visible. It’s a shame, because the Eikon fights actually give a bombastic feeling – if you see something.

    • Incidentally, my colleagues from GameStar and GamePro have written very detailed reviews of FFXVI:

    Does FFXVI iron out FFXIV’s problems?

    But where would we be if I didn’t mention the MMORPG FFXIV in an article on Final Fantasy XVI? It’s no secret that both FFXIV and FFXVI are being developed by Creative Business Division III. In the first demo of FF16, which was presented in February, I was able to discover tons of parallels between the two games.

    That made me excited on the one hand, but also a bit worrying on the other. If teams take on the positives of FFXIV like bombastic Eikon fights, what about the negatives?

    While FFXIV’s story is often showered with praise, it is not without its weaknesses and problems. The creative director for the story of FFXVI, Kazutoyo Maehiro, was already responsible for the addon Heavensward. So my fear was that the development team might carry these issues over to the new game. But I was very pleased that the second demo addressed exactly that.

    One of the big criticisms of FFXIV is that it starts very slowly. The plot at the beginning is generic, not very exciting and takes time to get going. In FFXVI, that’s definitely not the case. It wasn’t even 20 minutes before I was like, “Okay, that’s pretty damn exciting.”

  • The central characters are introduced elegantly, so that I immediately thought about their backgrounds and motivations. I just wanted to know more about her.
  • Subtle plot points are immediately sprinkled throughout that hint at more than meets the eye and piqued my curiosity.
  • Despite the quick introduction, the initial situation of the game is clearly explained. You learn who the characters are, how they relate to each other and what the backgrounds are that have led to the current situation you are in. It didn’t strike me as a lesson or lore dump that hits you right at the start.

    • In short: you don’t have to wait forever for things to get exciting. I know it sounds trite, but that’s the experience you get in FFXIV. The story’s climaxes are absolutely fantastic, but during the quieter parts and especially in the beginning, it can drag like an old gumball.

    I was cautiously optimistic after the first demo, but the second pushed my expectations up quite a bit. From FFXVI I now expect a first-class and very emotional story with many intrigues, but which is compactly packaged and has no gap fillers.

    So, FFXVI team, please impress me. I know you can.

    At Square Enix, there has been a change in management in the meantime:

    New Square Enix CEO Plays Final Fantasy XIV: “My Wife Gets Annoyed When I Walk The Wrong Direction”

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