I’m an individual who typically struggles with huge, world-spanning fantasy tales. I simply can’t preserve observe of all the folks and locations and different correct nouns that make up the world. The result’s that I spend lots of time studying wikis to assist me get via issues like The Lord of the Rings or The Witcher — however that’s not very useful within the second once I’m watching a pivotal scene unfold. However Remaining Fantasy XVI, which simply launched on the PS5, has a useful device to make it a complete lot simpler to comply with its complicated story.
The characteristic known as Energetic Time Lore — a pleasant play on the Energetic Time Battle fight system of previous video games — and it’s form of just like the X-Ray device supplied by Amazon Prime Video, just for a online game. It really works like this: at any time throughout a cutscene, you’ll be able to pause and hit the touchpad, mentioning an online of all of the necessary characters, areas, and occasions associated to the present scene. So when you have no thought who, say, Ramuh is or the significance of The Kingdom of Waloed, you will get a quick refresher.
This was particularly helpful throughout the early hours of the sport when characters name one another issues like “Dominant” or “Bearer” as when you have any thought what they’re really speaking about. What’s nice about it, although, is that it doesn’t take you out of the expertise for quite a lot of seconds. As an alternative of pulling out my telephone to learn a wiki (and possibly getting distracted by some type of notification), I can simply shortly compensate for issues with out leaving the sport. The pace and seamlessness assist preserve me immersed within the story whereas nonetheless having the ability to, you recognize, perceive what the heck is occurring.
It could sound small, however it dramatically modified the best way I interacted with FFXVI’s narrative. Different video games have built-in lore instruments and such, in fact, however Energetic Time Lore made me want different fantasy epics had such a slick approach of protecting issues straight. The start of Remaining Fantasy XII would’ve been a lot simpler to know with this device, and I most likely wouldn’t be rewatching season 2 of The Witcher in anticipation of subsequent week’s premiere if Netflix had one thing comparable.
Associated, the latest Remaining Fantasy additionally has a really enjoyable twist on the lore bible that has develop into a regular characteristic in these sorts of video games. As an alternative of being one other a part of the principle menu, the bible is as a substitute a personality of kinds. Within the sport, you spend lots of time at a hideaway that serves as a house base, full with a restaurant charmingly referred to as the Fats Chocobo. Inside, you’ll discover a man named Harpocrates who’s recording the world’s historical past in a e book referred to as The Thousand Tomes. Each time Clive, the protagonist, speaks to him, he regales Harpocrates along with his newest adventures, and the historian, in flip, data all of that in his e book. As an alternative of only a listing of beasts and other people and locations, it seems like a dwelling doc you’ve gotten a component in creating.
Put these two issues collectively, and I’m discovering myself invested in Remaining Fantasy XVI in a approach that’s uncommon for me. I normally love the characters and battles and worlds of those video games, however now, I’m really digging into the lore and historical past in a approach that feels utterly pure.
