I finished the demo for Final Fantasy XVI, and I was sufficiently excited to play more than I plunked down the 70 bucks for the full game when it comes out in a few days (while 70 bucks feels like a lot, given that I remember paying 60 bucks for N64 games in the late '90s, I can't exactly complain about a 10-dollar price hike after 25 years - it's more surprising that it's taken this long).
I'm going to be talking spoilers and speculation here, so there'll be a cut:
Drawing unabashed inspiration from Game of Thrones, XVI's protagonist bears a little resemblance to Jon Snow, largely in that he has a younger sibling who is lined up for a more prestigious future than he has, and also that he gets sent off to a painful and brutal life despite growing up in a palace.
We start the demo when Clive is part of some elite military unit going to assassinate the Dominant of Shiva - basically the human who contains the powerful "Eikon" (the latest name for the classic FF Summons) within them. At 28, Clive is practically geriatric for a Final Fantasy protagonist, though as someone who recently turned 37, I find this refreshing.
But we soon cut back to 13 years earlier, and we see that Clive is training to be the Shield to his younger brother Joshua. Joshua is the Dominant of the Phoenix, and thus is lined up to be the next Archduke of Rosaria (their father was also skipped over - I think their grandfather was the previous Dominant). Clive's father seems very Eddard Stark in that he's honorable but out of his depth when it comes to the intrigue and duplicity in the world. Rosaria is likely going to war against another power in order to secure a Mother Crystal (whose role is not immediately obvious). Clive, after a brief quest to a village slaughtered by goblins, joins his brother and father at an outpost called Phoenix Gate, but shortly thereafter, assassins enter the castle and begin killing the Rosarian soldiers.
Clive is separated from his family while his father tries to get Joshua to safety, but the Archduke is slain in front of the young Joshua, and in his terror, Joshua transforms into the Phoenix Eikon, a massive, kaiju-like creature of destruction.
While this is going on, Clive has a vision of some hooded figure, and then a man made of fire, and then... kind of disappears when the demonic-looking Ifrit arises - another Eikon of Fire, who then battles the Phoenix and, ultimately, appears to slay the Phoenix/Joshua.
In the aftermath, an unconscious Clive seems to be the only survivor of the Rosarians, but it also appears that his own mother was behind the betrayal, and even nearly has him killed before choosing instead to send him to essentially become a slave-soldier (with the tattoo we see in the opening a sign of this status).
So, things are bad. This intro is a real downer, giving us Game of Thrones-style betrayals and violence while also giving us massive monster battles and FF-style over-the-top fantasy action.
It seems to me very likely that Clive is, in fact, the Dominant of Ifrit (which seems supported by the trailers). Indeed, the young Jill we see back at the Rosairan capital, who seems to be the childhood friend (and maybe hostage, like Theon Greyjoy,) might be the Dominant of Shiva, and likely becomes your second party member (though the gameplay seems to have you primarily only control Clive).
So, we're left with a bunch of questions: first, did he mean to kill Joshua? Is Joshua actually dead? Why did his mother betray them? (Notably she did not seem to want to harm Joshua, but probably wanted to control him). With all the factions at play, what is everyone trying to actually accomplish?
I'll confess I'm intrigued by all of this, hence my purchase.
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