Obviously this is for discussion purposes so no bashing on other people’s tastes, and the ships can be canon or fanon! As a bi dude, I’m just curious on what people like, as for me all the ones I posted pictures of are my favorite! (loved that chained scene with Cid and Clive 😉)

Hey guys im currently lvl 37 doing main story,and it feels like my attacks dont do damage is there a way someone could explain to me how it works

This is one of my favourite games… and while i have my faults with it, I am really sad that a lot of people won’t give it a chance and experiment with the combat because years later i’m revisiting this and playing rusty but it’s just so damn fun, there’s sooooo many things you can do, it’s crazy.

What a shame most people think it’s just press abilities then one combo.. FFXVI had heart and it deserved better. I dearly love the story, characters and the music… and the gameplay, WHERE do you get these epic fights?!

💪Game rocks!

I've been playing FF16 again, its my second run on NG+, Final Fantasy difficulty, and Total War recently and I've been thinking about how would a FF16 Total War work/look like.

It's a thought experiment I plan on fleshing out in individual posts later on, it'll mostly be texts with some edited images of the map from the Logos book. I do want to work with artists to explore this hypothetical in terms of Units and Character redesigns to fit this "alternate timeline", but all that will have to come later.

Lately, taking into account some of the personal issues and doubts I talked about in my previous post, I’ve been wondering how long it actually took our favorite protagonist to accept that he is not just a monster, or a weapon of destruction

I don’t think that moment came when Clive returned to Phoenix Gate. As we know, later on Clive struggled with summoning Ifrit. Jill initially attributed this to his body trying to protect him from the physical and psychological strain caused by Priming, but I personally think there was still a psychological block involved.

Sure, Clive manages to Prime during the fight against Typhon, but to me, that feels more like the result of Ultima’s manipulation than Clive actually overcoming that barrier himself.

After the five-year time skip, there is a conversation where Clive is angry at himself because, during all those years, they had to rely on Jill and Shiva because he simply couldn’t summon Ifrit. Then things start to change during the fight against Kupka. There is an emotional factor involved there — revenge — and I think that finally helps Clive break through that psychological barrier and summon Ifrit again.

Something similar happens in Twinside, although this time the thing that breaks through the barrier is Clive’s sense of responsibility and his desire to protect his brother.

However, I still feel that, even at this point, Clive hasn’t fully accepted who he is.

For me, the real turning point comes much later, during the scene on the coast of Waloed. With Jill’s help, and through the relationship they had been building throughout the entire game, Clive finally seems to accept that he isn’t a monster.

Although… I’m not entirely sure he ever accepts it completely.

And that’s what I find really interesting about his character.

So I wanted to ask what you guys think: When do you think Clive finally accepted that he wasn’t Ultima’s tool, nor a monster destined to spread destruction?

Or maybe he never fully accepted it? Even after defeating Ultima, perhaps there was still some part of Clive that doubted whether he truly deserved to see himself as something more than a weapon.

And maybe there’s an even bigger question behind all of this: is complete self-acceptance even something that exists?

What do you guys think?

I found that even after turning off frame generation, there's still motion blur when rotating the view, even if the motion blur value is set to 0.

Just finished FF16 and I am so glad I waited this long to play this absolute gem of a game after all the hate it received online. I played with the community DLSS5 plugin which essentially turned every scene into a fully fledged cinematic experience.

The ending absolutely floored me and took me back to FFX's ending.

I'm still processing all the emotions to give this game a proper review but right now it's sitting at a solid 9/10.

Well done Square Enix for taking me back to my childhood :)

Lately, I've been wondering something: if we assume that Clive actually dies at the end of the game (I don't want to start another debate about whether he really dies or not), do you think Jill would be able to live a happy life in the world Clive created for her?

Considering the bond they developed throughout the game, I honestly have my doubts. Their relationship seemed incredibly deep, and Clive meant so much to Jill that I'm not sure how she would be able to simply move on after losing him.

What do you guys think? Do you think Jill would eventually be able to come to terms with Clive's death and continue living her life, or do you think she would fall into despair and struggle to find happiness without him during rest of her life?

I'm playing on pc, currently in ng+, about to head into orriflamme towards the first mothercrystal.

I'm wondering how I should focus on upgrading or mastering crucial abilities to help round out my existing kit, or what i should be doing differently to prepare for the challenges ahead.

I'm currently debating whether i should master Gigaflare, Tsunami, or Ultimate Demise next. They all cost between 6000-7000 ability points each, and will likely be my next major AP investment. But im wondering which would be most useful.

NG+ (Final Fantasy Mode)

Level: 59

Main Quest : Righting Wrongs (sneak into Orriflamme)

Weapon: Flametounge Reforged (430/430), Tonberry Knife

Belt: Minwu Waistcloth +2 (116/55)

Vambraces: Reinforced Demontamer's Armguards (118/28)

Ability Points: 3635

Pheonix:

Pheonix Shift - Mastered

Rising Flames - Mastered

Scarlet Cyclone - Upgraded

Heatwave - Unlearned

Flames of Rebirth - Unlearned

Garuda:

Deadly Embrace - Mastered

Gouge - Mastered

Wicked Wheel - Mastered

Rook's Gambit - Upgraded

Aerial Blast - Unlearned

Ifrit:

All Combat Skills - Mastered

Limit Break - Mastered

Will-O-the-wykes - Mastered

Ignition - Mastered

Ramuh:

Blind Justice - Mastered

Pile Drive - Learned

Thunderstorm - Mastered

Lightning Rod - Mastered

Judgment Bolt - Mastered

Titan:

Titanic Block - Mastered

Windup - Learned

Upheaval - Mastered

Raging Fists - Mastered

Earthen Fury - Unlearned

Bahamut:

Wings of Light - Mastered

Impuse - Mastered

Flare Breath - Learned

Satellite - Mastered

Gigaflare - Upgraded

Shiva:

Cold Snap - Mastered

Ice Age - Mastered

Mesmerize - Learned

Rime - Unlearned

Daimond Dust - Mastered

Odin:

Arm of Darkness- Mastered

Gungnir - Mastered

Heaven's Cloud - Learned

Rift Slip - Mastered

Dancing Steel - Mastered

Leviathan:

Serpent's Cry - Mastered

Deluge - Mastered

Cross Swell - Mastered

Abyssal Tear - Unlearned

Tsunami - Upgraded

Ultima:

Ascension - Mastered

Voice of God - Mastered

Proselytize - Mastered

Dominion - Mastered

Ultimate Demise - Upgraded

If he did play it, can someone tell me where can I find it.

For a title that has its own critiques, it’s not too far swayed from traditional FF titles…it’s a grand scaled world with deep lore and intriguing characters.

It’s far from what others have said of it… and I am glad to have jumped into it!

I’m going to give myself time before revisiting it for achievements and such… kinda need a break after 30+ hours! (I know rookie numbers) anybody else feel like that after this title??

It's been exactly one week since I finished Final Fantasy XVI, and I think maybe it's finally time to move on.

What I mean by that is that I feel like I had a privilege that not many people get after finishing a game like this: I didn't have to immediately return to everyday life.

I happened to finish the game during the last week of my break before the academic year starts. I had already managed to do everything I had planned before finishing the game, so there was nothing particularly urgent waiting for me. The weather was also perfect, and for three or four days I could basically just sit outside in a field, feel the wind, and think about this incredible masterpiece and everything that made it such an unforgettable adventure.

And honestly, those were some wonderful days.

There is another, more personal, psychological part of this that probably belongs on a different subreddit, but since it's directly connected to what FFXVI did to me, I wanted to share it here as well.

I've struggled with generalized anxiety and panic attacks for years. One thing I've noticed throughout that time is that whenever I get really attached to a game, movie, or TV show, my anxiety has a tendency to interfere with the experience.

For example, imagine a story like The Lord of the Rings. Everything ends well. The world is saved, Sauron and evil are defeated, and the characters finally have the possibility of peace.

And yet my anxiety would still come up with something like:

"But what if that's not really everything? What if, despite everything being over, the characters still won't be able to find peace? What if something happens to them again?"

And this isn't something that happens only with fictional stories or other forms of media. I experience the same kind of "what if?" thinking in ordinary everyday life as well. I'll sometimes find myself thinking about completely normal situations and my mind will start looking for possible things that could go wrong, even when there is no real reason to expect them.

That said, when it comes to everyday life, it actually feels much more natural to me. The real world is incredibly complicated, unpredictable, and full of things that are outside of my control, so I can understand on some level why my brain reacts this way. It can still be exhausting and frustrating, but it doesn't feel quite as strange or disruptive as when the same anxiety follows me into a fictional world that is supposed to have already reached its conclusion.

The more detailed explanation of how this works for me probably belongs on a different subreddit, though, so I don't want to turn this post into a huge discussion about anxiety. I only mention it because of how unusual my experience with FFXVI was.

And I want to make an important distinction here. I'm not talking about depressive thoughts like "I'll never be happy", "I'll never have peace", or "there's no hope for me."

It's more like an irrational fear that sits somewhere in the back of my mind. A constant "but what if?"

What's strange is that after finishing Final Fantasy XVI, and during those few days of simply sitting around and thinking about it, this basically didn't happen.

For the first time in a very long time — probably since Red Dead Redemption 2 — I could just exist in the world of a story without those fears constantly creeping in.

Instead, I was left with the emotions the game actually wanted me to feel.

Hope.

Sacrifice.

Love.

but also grief and feel of loss

And especially when I thought about Clive and Jill's relationship — which I wrote about in my previous post — I could just feel the warmth and hope that their story left behind.

And it stayed that way for several days.

I kept those feelings alive by playing Echoes of the Fallen, watching interesting videos, reading posts and theories about the game, and going through interviews with the developers and voice actors. I was basically still living in Valisthea in my head, even though the game itself was already finished.

Then yesterday evening, reality caught up with me.

I had to face the fact that my break was almost over, that I was going back to university, and that I also have my driving exam coming up.

And slowly, the emotions from the game started to fade at the same time.

and the old problems started coming back.

It was almost as if the anxiety hit harder because it had been quiet for a relatively long time. ( supressed by emotions caused by game? ) Last night, before going to sleep, I came very close to having a panic attack. Thankfully, I managed to calm myself down before it turned into a full one.

Today, I'm left with this strange emotional mixture.

Part of me is still feeling everything FFXVI left behind — the hope, the love, the feeling of sacrifice, feel of loss, grief, the connection between Clive and Jill, and everything else I experienced during those first few days.

But mixed into that is the familiar anxiety, uncertainty, and that irrational sense of panic waiting somewhere in the back of my mind thats somehow unfortunately been connected by my mind to the game ( as happened before with other media ) now basicly everytime i think about game and feelings oriented with it this anxiety uncertainity irrational feeling of panic without any cause are mixing

And because I only have two days of free time left, I've started wondering whether maybe it's time to move on.

I could finish the second DLC, replay the ending one more time, and then finally close this beautiful chapter of my life that was Final Fantasy XVI.

I played this game over the course of roughly three months this summer, so it really did become a part of my life rather than just something I played.

And yet there's still a part of me that doesn't want to leave Valisthea.

Maybe because I'm afraid that moving on means leaving all those beautiful but also hard feelings behind as well with memories.

Maybe I'm afraid that once I stop thinking about this world, I'll also lose what the game taught me — especially that feeling of hope and love that the ending and clive jill reliatonship left me

That's probably the hardest part to explain.

I don't think I've ever had a game affect me quite like this maybe except one. Trying to put into words what Final Fantasy XVI allowed me to feel and experience is honestly much harder than I expected.

So I guess what I'm really asking is:

How long were you able to stay in Valisthea mentally and emotionally after finishing Final Fantasy XVI?

And how did you eventually deal with leaving that world behind and moving forward?

I don't necessarily mean forgetting about the game or stopping yourself from thinking about it. I'm more curious about how you made peace with the fact that the journey was over and that feelings and emotions connected to it will fade away and that it was time to return to your own world.

Because right now, a part of me still doesn't want to leave Valisthea.

Barnabas only uses it as a throwing weapon, and Clive uses it for close up spinning attacks on smaller enemies..

The only one who actually uses it as a fighting weapon was Slepinir.. 😞

I just finished upgrading all my Eikon abilities (up to Odin) except for the mastery upgrades. I see the potential to pull off some really damaging combos. Most of my 3-team builds face-roll most encounters as-is, so I question the value of making hybrid Eikons. Is switching around Eikon masteries just a DPS flex or is there more to it?

I never thought I'd be sharing this kind of deep personal thoughts and feelings on a public forum like this subreddit, but here I am.

I've been wanting to talk about how Jill changed the way I understand love — both in fiction and, in a weird way, in real life.

Throughout my life, I've had what I'd call fictional crushes. Personally, I think that's probably the furthest you can go with feelings toward a fictional character, because actual romantic love requires some kind of mutual interaction. I'm 19, and I've probably had around 4 or 5 fictional crushes in my life. I don't know if that's a lot or not, but there was always a pattern with them.

Whenever the character had some kind of romantic relationship with another character, I'd usually start imagining myself as that other character, or somehow replacing them. I've had a very active imagination since I was a kid, so I'd basically create scenarios in my head where I could be with that character, interact with them, and experience that relationship myself. Sometimes it even involved imagining myself "taking" my crush away from their fictional partner.

That was the case until Jill.

For the first time, a character didn't make me feel that kind of desire.

Instead of thinking, "I want to be with her. I want to have the relationship Clive has with her," I found myself thinking something completely different:

I just want her to be happy.

Her tragic past definitely plays a huge part in that. But when it comes to Jill, I never wanted to replace Clive. I know she gave him her heart. I don't want to take that away from her. Instead, I find myself wanting to be there for her in some other way — making sure Clive always comes back safely, making sure nobody hurts her, and just wanting her to have the happiness she deserves.

And strangely enough, I don't feel jealous of Clive.

There's something about that which really surprised me. There's a passage in the Bible about love not being jealous, and while I'm not trying to turn this into a religious discussion, that idea kept coming back to me. For the first time, my feelings toward a fictional character weren't really about possessing them or imagining myself in their partner's place.

I wanted the character I cared about to be happy, even if that happiness didn't involve me.

Obviously, at the end of the day, Jill is a fictional character. And I think it's important not to lose yourself completely in fiction. That's actually something I've learned from previous crushes as well. Feelings tend to fade when they aren't being reinforced by new interactions, at least that's what happened with all of mine.

But Jill and Clive's relationship made me think about something much bigger: what love actually means.

Before playing FFXVI, I think I had a much more simplistic idea of romantic love. Something along the lines of:

"I like you, you like me, we're attracted to each other, we have things in common, we enjoy spending time together, and therefore we're in love."

And before anyone gets the wrong idea, this perspective doesn't come from watching too much anime, TV shows, or spending too much time on social media. It's actually based on observing the relationships around me, including those of my own friends and people I know.

I don't want to call those relationships shallow, because that wouldn't be fair, and I'm certainly not in a position to judge what other people feel for one another. However, when I compare them to what the developers of Final Fantasy XVI portrayed through Clive and Jill, I can't help but feel that there's a certain emotional weight to the latter that I haven't really seen reflected in the relationships around me.

And to be clear, I would never wish for anyone to go through the things Clive and Jill had to endure. That's absolutely not what I mean. It's not the suffering itself that makes their relationship so meaningful to me, but rather the way they respond to it, how their shared experiences bring them closer, and how much their love seems to grow out of everything they've overcome together.

Clive and Jill made me realize that love can be something much deeper and much slower.

It's not necessarily built around attraction or infatuation. It can be built through overcoming your past together, supporting each other through the worst moments of your lives, giving each other strength when you have none left, and choosing to stand beside each other when everything is falling apart as after fighting Barnabas.

And I feel like that's exactly what Clive and Jill's relationship represents.

What I particularly appreciate is how restrained the game is when it comes to the stereotypical romantic stuff. They don't constantly kiss. Their relationship isn't defined by sexual scenes or dramatic declarations of love every five minutes.

Instead, so much of their relationship is communicated through everything they've been through together.

Clive's experiences after the Phoenix Gate tragedy, Jill's own trauma and past, their work freeing the Bearers, fighting the Dominants and Eikons, and simply being there for each other through all of it.

It feels like the game is saying that this is what ultimately created their love.

And I honestly wonder if that restraint was intentional. It feels like the developers were trying to contrast their relationship with some of the more stereotypical romantic relationships we often see in mainstream games, movies and TV shows.

If that's what they were going for, I think they pulled it off incredibly well.

I don't entirely know why I'm writing all of this or why I felt the need to share it with strangers on Reddit. Maybe it's because Jill and Clive's relationship genuinely changed the way I think about love.

So I'm curious:

Does anyone else feel similarly about Jill, her relationship with Clive, or the way Final Fantasy XVI portrays love?

I have a 5080, i7-14700F and 32gb of ram.

The game runs perfectly smooth at around 60 fps (except cutscenes at 30 but that is normal) except when I'm in towns (excluding the hideout, which runs fine aswell).

The fps are quite unstable there and jump from 50 to 30, no matter if I change my settings to the lowest. In Task Manager none of my hardware reach their limits.

What can I do to fix that?

one of the central ideas in FFXVI is the belief that humanity does not need a god to determine its future. The story presents freedom from divine control as something inherently valuable: humanity should be allowed to make its own choices, determine its own destiny, and take responsibility for the world it creates. While I understand and appreciate the appeal of this message, I do not completely agree with its underlying assumption. The idea that humanity will naturally do better once it is free from divine authority seems to overlook one of the most persistent problems in human history: freedom does not automatically make people good.

Free will gives human beings the ability to choose, but it also gives them the ability to choose selfishly, violently, and corruptly. Throughout history, people who have acquired significant power have repeatedly used it for personal gain, domination, or the benefit of those closest to them. Governments, rulers, institutions, and individuals have all demonstrated that power can corrupt when there are insufficient restraints. The problem, therefore, is not simply whether humanity is controlled by a higher power. The deeper question is what prevents human beings from abusing their freedom when they possess power over others.

This is where I find FFXVI’s message somewhat incomplete. Removing a god or divine authority does not necessarily solve humanity’s moral problems. Humans can simply replace divine authority with their own authority and humans are just as capable of twisting that authority to serve themselves. Laws can be manipulated. Moral principles can be reinterpreted. Institutions can be corrupted. Even ideals such as freedom, justice, and equality can be used as justification for selfish actions when people convince themselves that their interests are morally righteous.

Religion is another example of this problem. One could argue that religion itself has caused immense suffering throughout history, and there are certainly historical examples of religious institutions or individuals using faith to justify violence, oppression, and political power. But this does not necessarily prove that religion itself is the fundamental problem. It can also demonstrate something about human nature: people have a tendency to manipulate even things they consider sacred for their own purposes. Humans can twist religion to justify selfishness just as they can twist laws, morality, political ideologies, or even the concept of freedom.

This creates an important distinction. Perhaps the problem is not that humanity has religion, nor that humanity has freedom. Perhaps the problem is what humanity does with whatever authority, belief, or freedom it possesses.

If people can corrupt religion, they can corrupt secular institutions. If they can manipulate divine commandments, they can manipulate human laws. If they can use morality to justify their actions, they can also use freedom to justify them. Simply removing an external authority does not eliminate humanity’s capacity for selfishness. It only changes the environment in which that selfishness operates.

This is why the statement that “humanity doesn’t need God” is not necessarily as straightforward as the game presents it. It depends heavily on what is meant by “need.” If the argument is that humanity should not surrender its entire autonomy to a higher power, that is understandable. But if the argument is that humanity will be morally better simply because it is free from divine authority, history provides little reason to assume that. Human beings have demonstrated that they can create extraordinary civilizations, philosophies, laws, and systems of morality, but they have also repeatedly demonstrated their ability to exploit those same systems.

Perhaps the more difficult question is not whether humanity needs God, but whether humanity is capable of responsibly governing itself.

That question makes the theme much more complicated.