Final Fantasy 16 May Be Breaking One Longstanding Tradition, and It Should

gamerant.com:

Not much is known about Final Fantasy 16, though fans are expected to learn more sometime this Spring. When that showcase or event takes place is still anyone’s guess, but there has been a lot of speculation based on Final Fantasy 16’s one trailer thus far. A lot of this deals with Joshua’s fate, the role of certain characters and countries, the identities of certain Dominants, and so on. However, one thing was notably missing in this trailer.

When Final Fantasy 16 showed off its combat, it was impressive—seeming like an impressive combination of Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Final Fantasy 15. There was one major change to this combat that many fans may have picked up on early: Clive was alone. A vast majority of Final Fantasy games revolve around parties and job systems, like the recent Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, but Final Fantasy 16 could be breaking away from this and it should.

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There are a couple of reasons why Final Fantasy 16 should drop the party system, but at the same time, not enough has been shown to say if it actually has one way or the other. The trailer doesn’t show much, and it’s clear that older Clive does have comrades—although they don’t appear to be companions, as they seemed too generic. It could be that the next news reveal does show more characters who will join Clive on his journey, and it would make sense given the franchise’s history.

However, as it stands now, it seems thatFinal Fantasy 16’s Clive is on a quest for revenge. There are some bigger worldbuilding events going on, obviously, what with a plague, clearly a war, and some betrayals going on. But Clive wants to kill someone for some reason, presumably for Joshua’s death.