Party’s over
There has been a lot of talk during the run-up to (and, as we type this, in the immediate aftermath of) the release of Final Fantasy XVI about whether it really qualifies as a Final Fantasy game at all. With an increased focus on fastpaced action that recalls nothing so much as the Bayonetta series (the news that PlatinumGames was involved in development seemed, in hindsight, to be a rather obvious revelation), it’s been suggested that the game might have strayed too far from its RPG roots. But this ignores that just about every Final Fantasy has been distinct from its predecessor. True, FFXVI takes things to new levels, but this is a series that is at least partly defined by the differences among its many incarnations. As such, given the wholesale changes to combat, structure and tone, you might even say that in a way it is quintessentially Final Fantasy.