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aestivalis) wrote2026-04-01 03:12 pm
aestivalis) wrote2026-04-01 03:12 pm
oh shit it's clive final fantasy
I need to talk about Final Fantasy XVI now, because I actually can not stop thinking about my favourite character. I am EARLY in this game. Being unspoiled for all but the MAJOR events of XVI (it is what it is), I'm trying to be a bit coy about what I say outside of cut with regards to where I am so far. But let's see... we just had a boss fight with an angry wind lady, and then Clive suffered very beautifully. Is that clear and yet vague enough? Clive, Cid and Torgal are now departing Enemy Stronghold, no great amount closer to their goal of finding the Fire Dominant. sad trombone.
So how about that Final Fantasy XVI so far!
XVI is inherently more catered to me than several of the most recent offerings in the Final Fantasy franchise simply because it veers back into sword and sorcery Ye Olde Medieval type aesthetics and I am an incredibly basic bitch for such things. I do not dislike science fiction, but I tend to prefer it as a genre blended in alongside other fantasy elements. Final Fantasy XIII was closer to my default preference than Final Fantasy XV, for example. XV is very close to feeling like urban fantasy to me in a lot of ways, and that just isn't my jam all in all.
XVI is nobility, and castles, and giant fuck-off elemental monsters! It is politics, and bloodlines, and training yards, and little boys in frocks! It is entirely my jam! Sheerly in terms of the trappings of the setting, it is entirely my bread and butter with jam slathered all over it. In this way, it has a strong position to start from!
That said, I've had a distant impression of the game as something that isn't going to appeal to me much from a Final Fantasy perspective. It's a game that doesn't really have a party system, even more so than the last several installments (that had you only controlling a given character but very much had a regular motley crew of participants). It's more action-based than ever, which is something I fear I simply have to accept at this point as being the path that Final Fantasy has taken and does not intend to come back from. I do not dislike all these battle systems! XII was theoretically interesting but practically extremely dull (for me). Final Fantasy XIII is sort of the same, but a little bit better. I suppose FFXIII-2 was probably a better battle system than XIII but I bounced off the narrative and vibe of that game so hard I don't really remember. Lightning Returns had a GREAT battle system in terms of marrying the turn-based/action gameplay styles together, or else I just like that game way too much all things considered and I am simply too fond to be objective about it. Final Fantasy XV presumably had a decent battle system, but none of my memories of that game involve any combat so you sort of have to assume it wasn't much of a draw for me.
FFXVI has a... cool enough battle system? I suppose? I just got my first game overs, and I'm not about to lose sleep over it. I am not the savvy gamer I once was, I am not going to remember than pressing square and ex while in the air is going to let me do this kind of strike, while pressing square at a certain angle of approach will result in that kind of momentum, and have you considered using *button combo* when *thing* to combo into *this*. It is probably very rewarding to do well! But that simply is not me. That said, I am excited at the implication that Clive will now be able to cycle through elements with their own unique special moves and techniques? Cool! Look forward to testing it out!
I have equipped the accessory that automatically guides Torgal, but that's it for now. If the game loses me, I'll put on other overpowered freebies and get crazy with it. But so far, it's fun enough to play! Extremely cinematic, and I don't just mean in the sense of having a lot of cutscenes. It is not a visually static game. It is frenetic even in cutscenes. I am bad at explaining this. Perhaps I will the words I'm looking for as the game moves along?
The characters are... characters! That exist! I do not dislike anyone, but I am also not passionate about anyone (except...) and occasionally find characters a little difficult to tell apart. I want my Final Fantasy characters to look ridiculous, darn it! Even you, Brian the NPC! (I do not think I have met a Brian, but in this game it is entirely possible that I actually have. EVEN YOU, BRIAN.) Clive is decently visually unique, though nothing too exhilarating. Clive, Jill and Joshua as children had nice visual distinction, but :')
I think Jill has a nice design but I don't know for sure because we saved her from a life of enslavement and then put her in a room off-screen and I haven't seen her since? COME ON FINAL FANTASY YOU ARE KILLING ME HERE. Instead it has been the Clive and Cid show, with bonus How The Fuck Are You Even Here Am I Really Supposed To Just Accept This Coincidence doggie dog Torgal. I AM HAPPY TORGAL IS HERE DO NOT GET ME WRONG. But I said to Fel "unless they tell me Cid rushed to the Phoenix Gate immediately after the events of the flashback and found Torgal among the wreckage, this is bullshit" and they did not tell me Cid rushed to the Phoenix Gate, so. Giant shrug, I guess. Cid is cool enough? He's one of those SO COOL characters that can be super off-putting to me a lot of the time, but the fact that he is apparently a rampant bisexual who has slept his way across the entire continent helps endear him to me. He is absolutely going to bone Clive. This does not mean I ship it; he is absolutely going to bone everyone if he hasn't already done so. It is simply the way it is.
I'm having a decent amount of fun with the setting, although I don't feel like I've really pinned down all the different factions yet. I kind of love how easy it is to access the glossary, and the fact that it evolves in real time based on whatever you've recently learned. So many RPGs seem to have all this extensive side-reading built into them these days, some of which is almost mandatory to really understand the plot and world-building. This game making it so conveniently accessible (even during cutscenes!) has actually encouraged me to regularly check and read it in a way I usually never would without becoming frustrated. Also, the five Mothercrystal mountains is a fucking sick concept and I love it.
So anyway, my beloved character is Benedikta. I am a bit annoyed about this, because I am suspicious of how the game is going to treat her pretty much any time she's on screen. Learning that she is banging the Titan guy, but also King Barnaby of Midsomer, but ALSO used to be (and indeed, apparently still is) in love with ex-Lord Commander Cidolfus, whew. She is BUSY. And, like, I am okay with this? It is weird for my Final Fantasy game to have so much sex and nudity and swearing and it's not ideal that one of the only major female characters is apparently getting places in the world by ~using what she has~, but also it is a character type I enjoy greatly so I am willing to overlook the concerns.
I have been thinking about her a LOT for the last two days. When Clive suddenly took Garuda from her, to the astonishment of all parties involved, OOOOOOH good shit. Clive doesn't mean a huge amount to me as a character but he does suffer very very beautifully* and I do hope this trend will continue. But yes, when this happened I sort of assumed they were about to kill Benedikta off (and indeed, had been assuming that since the start of the boss fight), but surprisingly that wasn't the case! Her very lovely second-in-command got her out of there alive! She's going to have to live with the consequences of what Clive has done! She has had her power torn from her and now she must contend with it! I am THRILLED. I hope she copes TERRIBLY. I hope she screams and cries and tears things apart and kills people. I hope she yearns to die because she's useless now. I hope she finds herself again. I hope she maybe ends up joining the party? I hope she maybe stabs Clive to try and get Garuda back? I hope she and Cid never get back together but she continues to have extremely messy and complex feelings about him?
*the scene where Ifrit tore Phoenix apart while Clive powerlessly watched and wailed was a) horrible, b) melodramatic as fuck (VERY COMPLIMENTARY), c) extremely sexy. Love me some trauma, love me some grief, love me some powerlessness, always love me some extreme melodrama. Heheheheh.
I realised that she reminds me of Rideaux (anything to survive, look out for yourself above all else, delight in being sadistic, unduly hung up on someone who left them behind and now wants to love them/kill them (shut the fuck up rideaux/julius is canon)), which is probably why I am going from 0 to 100 on her right now. Here's hoping she does actually stick around in the story! Hopes And Prayers, team.
So that's where I'm at with it so far! Also wow I guess this can be my April update? HOW DOES SHE DO IT. A beautiful miracle...
So how about that Final Fantasy XVI so far!
XVI is inherently more catered to me than several of the most recent offerings in the Final Fantasy franchise simply because it veers back into sword and sorcery Ye Olde Medieval type aesthetics and I am an incredibly basic bitch for such things. I do not dislike science fiction, but I tend to prefer it as a genre blended in alongside other fantasy elements. Final Fantasy XIII was closer to my default preference than Final Fantasy XV, for example. XV is very close to feeling like urban fantasy to me in a lot of ways, and that just isn't my jam all in all.
XVI is nobility, and castles, and giant fuck-off elemental monsters! It is politics, and bloodlines, and training yards, and little boys in frocks! It is entirely my jam! Sheerly in terms of the trappings of the setting, it is entirely my bread and butter with jam slathered all over it. In this way, it has a strong position to start from!
That said, I've had a distant impression of the game as something that isn't going to appeal to me much from a Final Fantasy perspective. It's a game that doesn't really have a party system, even more so than the last several installments (that had you only controlling a given character but very much had a regular motley crew of participants). It's more action-based than ever, which is something I fear I simply have to accept at this point as being the path that Final Fantasy has taken and does not intend to come back from. I do not dislike all these battle systems! XII was theoretically interesting but practically extremely dull (for me). Final Fantasy XIII is sort of the same, but a little bit better. I suppose FFXIII-2 was probably a better battle system than XIII but I bounced off the narrative and vibe of that game so hard I don't really remember. Lightning Returns had a GREAT battle system in terms of marrying the turn-based/action gameplay styles together, or else I just like that game way too much all things considered and I am simply too fond to be objective about it. Final Fantasy XV presumably had a decent battle system, but none of my memories of that game involve any combat so you sort of have to assume it wasn't much of a draw for me.
FFXVI has a... cool enough battle system? I suppose? I just got my first game overs, and I'm not about to lose sleep over it. I am not the savvy gamer I once was, I am not going to remember than pressing square and ex while in the air is going to let me do this kind of strike, while pressing square at a certain angle of approach will result in that kind of momentum, and have you considered using *button combo* when *thing* to combo into *this*. It is probably very rewarding to do well! But that simply is not me. That said, I am excited at the implication that Clive will now be able to cycle through elements with their own unique special moves and techniques? Cool! Look forward to testing it out!
I have equipped the accessory that automatically guides Torgal, but that's it for now. If the game loses me, I'll put on other overpowered freebies and get crazy with it. But so far, it's fun enough to play! Extremely cinematic, and I don't just mean in the sense of having a lot of cutscenes. It is not a visually static game. It is frenetic even in cutscenes. I am bad at explaining this. Perhaps I will the words I'm looking for as the game moves along?
The characters are... characters! That exist! I do not dislike anyone, but I am also not passionate about anyone (except...) and occasionally find characters a little difficult to tell apart. I want my Final Fantasy characters to look ridiculous, darn it! Even you, Brian the NPC! (I do not think I have met a Brian, but in this game it is entirely possible that I actually have. EVEN YOU, BRIAN.) Clive is decently visually unique, though nothing too exhilarating. Clive, Jill and Joshua as children had nice visual distinction, but :')
I think Jill has a nice design but I don't know for sure because we saved her from a life of enslavement and then put her in a room off-screen and I haven't seen her since? COME ON FINAL FANTASY YOU ARE KILLING ME HERE. Instead it has been the Clive and Cid show, with bonus How The Fuck Are You Even Here Am I Really Supposed To Just Accept This Coincidence doggie dog Torgal. I AM HAPPY TORGAL IS HERE DO NOT GET ME WRONG. But I said to Fel "unless they tell me Cid rushed to the Phoenix Gate immediately after the events of the flashback and found Torgal among the wreckage, this is bullshit" and they did not tell me Cid rushed to the Phoenix Gate, so. Giant shrug, I guess. Cid is cool enough? He's one of those SO COOL characters that can be super off-putting to me a lot of the time, but the fact that he is apparently a rampant bisexual who has slept his way across the entire continent helps endear him to me. He is absolutely going to bone Clive. This does not mean I ship it; he is absolutely going to bone everyone if he hasn't already done so. It is simply the way it is.
I'm having a decent amount of fun with the setting, although I don't feel like I've really pinned down all the different factions yet. I kind of love how easy it is to access the glossary, and the fact that it evolves in real time based on whatever you've recently learned. So many RPGs seem to have all this extensive side-reading built into them these days, some of which is almost mandatory to really understand the plot and world-building. This game making it so conveniently accessible (even during cutscenes!) has actually encouraged me to regularly check and read it in a way I usually never would without becoming frustrated. Also, the five Mothercrystal mountains is a fucking sick concept and I love it.
So anyway, my beloved character is Benedikta. I am a bit annoyed about this, because I am suspicious of how the game is going to treat her pretty much any time she's on screen. Learning that she is banging the Titan guy, but also King Barnaby of Midsomer, but ALSO used to be (and indeed, apparently still is) in love with ex-Lord Commander Cidolfus, whew. She is BUSY. And, like, I am okay with this? It is weird for my Final Fantasy game to have so much sex and nudity and swearing and it's not ideal that one of the only major female characters is apparently getting places in the world by ~using what she has~, but also it is a character type I enjoy greatly so I am willing to overlook the concerns.
I have been thinking about her a LOT for the last two days. When Clive suddenly took Garuda from her, to the astonishment of all parties involved, OOOOOOH good shit. Clive doesn't mean a huge amount to me as a character but he does suffer very very beautifully* and I do hope this trend will continue. But yes, when this happened I sort of assumed they were about to kill Benedikta off (and indeed, had been assuming that since the start of the boss fight), but surprisingly that wasn't the case! Her very lovely second-in-command got her out of there alive! She's going to have to live with the consequences of what Clive has done! She has had her power torn from her and now she must contend with it! I am THRILLED. I hope she copes TERRIBLY. I hope she screams and cries and tears things apart and kills people. I hope she yearns to die because she's useless now. I hope she finds herself again. I hope she maybe ends up joining the party? I hope she maybe stabs Clive to try and get Garuda back? I hope she and Cid never get back together but she continues to have extremely messy and complex feelings about him?
*the scene where Ifrit tore Phoenix apart while Clive powerlessly watched and wailed was a) horrible, b) melodramatic as fuck (VERY COMPLIMENTARY), c) extremely sexy. Love me some trauma, love me some grief, love me some powerlessness, always love me some extreme melodrama. Heheheheh.
I realised that she reminds me of Rideaux (anything to survive, look out for yourself above all else, delight in being sadistic, unduly hung up on someone who left them behind and now wants to love them/kill them (shut the fuck up rideaux/julius is canon)), which is probably why I am going from 0 to 100 on her right now. Here's hoping she does actually stick around in the story! Hopes And Prayers, team.
So that's where I'm at with it so far! Also wow I guess this can be my April update? HOW DOES SHE DO IT. A beautiful miracle...
no subject
Clive suffers so beautifully, this much is true.
no subject
I mean, I don't own it b/c console problems. But I was watching my SO play it, then he stopped. I forget why atm. He did, unintentionally, spoil me on something and i don't remember how far I saw T_T
I might end up just finding someone else who's played it, but. IDK. A game like that is something I want to get my hands on and do myself b/c of the playstyle.
Same breath, all the tragedy throughout has me going, "But IDK how it ENDS-ENDS, so IDK????" b/c while I am there for some suffering, I need the healing from the suffering of things.
And oh yes, I remember her. Tho I don't remember all - it was so long T_T; so many things... have happened. Wah.
I mostly remember the voice actors between her, Clive, and Cid being HILARIOUS on twitter with each other in videos. A must watch if you enjoy silly things like that.