Final Fantasy XVI (2023)

Cry all you like. There's no one to save you now.

FF16 has a feature called “the thousand tomes”, which I am kind of obsessed with. It’s like the datalog in FF13 except more successfully integrated into the game. Also, it’s curated by a certain Harpocrates II Hyperboreos, who is an icon.

Yes, it’s another FF16 post. I’m effectively in the final stages now: all sidequests are done, just trying to get through marks and chronolith trials to the best of my ability before partaking in the time-honoured Final Fantasy tradition and going off to kill God.

lissajous has forbidden me from talking to him about FF16 in great detail because he plans to play the game someday and doesn’t want to be spoilered; so the only option I have is to ramble on here about why I love absolutely every character in this game. They are all so good. Fair warning, this post is just undiluted enthusiasm from start to finish and mostly just consists of me saying “I love” a lot; I’m too thrilled by all these people to find varied ways of expressing myself.

In an effort to be current for once in my life, I played the first couple of sections of the FF16 demo tonight. Still not sure if I’m going to buy it at launch and continue being current, or force myself to finish FFs 13 and 15 first and then probably get to this one in … like two years … but we’ll see depending on how the rest of the demo goes, I guess.

You’re going to say something about Jaime Lannister and you shouldn’t.

Posh people range from SSBE to more traditional RP. This includes the Rosarian Shields, who don’t have Rosarian accents. Clive and his ilk are towards the RP end of the spectrum (although note Clive’s pronunciation of “either”!); the Sanbrequois nobility take this further. Waloed is an exception (geographically isolated).

Not for the first time, the FF16 update that came out this weekend was supposed to include the correction of “minor text issues”, but no official source has been kind enough to specify what those issues actually are, much to the chagrin to those of us who are obsessively trying to archive all the written content in the game (or is that just me? Surely not …). I always wonder if they’ve gone through and fixed the various tomes typos, but I checked one of the ones I remembered and it’s still there, so I guess not. I do see, however, that they’ve changed the spelling of Harpocrates’ surname: previously Hyperboreos, now Hyperboreios. I assume the latter is more in keeping with whatever Greek source this actually comes from, but it makes me wonder how long these changes will go on. Think of all those resources that now have the name in the “wrong” spelling! This game’s been out for nearly six months; how long are they going to keep tweaking it? Isn’t there a point at which you just have to accept the inaccuracies, come up with some in-world explanation for them, and let the game live its own life?

Please note: like other parts of my site, these pages contain spoilers.

A lot of Final Fantasy, but also Sonic, Pokémon, and others.

Dion and Terence return to Twinside after the news of Olivier’s accession.

When it comes to the recruitment of his knights, His Highness has some dealbreakers.

After Dion is gravely wounded, Terence decides he needs to reveal his feelings.

Dion and Jill talk at the remembrance ceremony.

Byron buys Dion a drink. Dion remains convinced he is [spoiler].

Dion and Terence venture out to tame a wyvern, but get more than they bargained for.

Terence worries about his prince, and finds himself doing so even after Dion returns.

Using those abilities makes Clive look like [spoiler].