Remaining Fantasy XVI situates itself inside a backdrop of swords, sorcery, and political turmoil, as its picturesque world of Valisthea is stuffed with inhabitants complicit within the upholding of slavery. All through the land, the place lush evergreen forests, dank underground ruins, and rolling dunes are frequent sights, magic reigns supreme. Channeled by means of prodigious crystalline landmarks referred to as Mothercrystals, magic is the cardinal useful resource by means of which all empires–private and political, native and nationwide–are constructed. Beneath the floor, a resistance slowly builds its ranks, led by a noble turned slave turned outlaw in search of to unburden the world from the crystals, and the oppressive methods of slavery their existence has enabled for therefore lengthy.
Actual-world inspirations for Remaining Fantasy XVI’s injustice
That is the backdrop in opposition to which the narrative of Remaining Fantasy XVI performs. It’s an alluring setup that brings into focus why the event workforce was concerned with creating the primary mainline sport in franchise historical past to be rated Mature, one influenced by the political intrigue and grim violence of Recreation of Thrones. Whereas the sport definitely succeeds at evoking the high-wire, world-ending melodrama you’d anticipate from a Remaining Fantasy title, I discovered that it completely fails at delivering on the promise its worldbuilding units up in telling a nuanced story about enslavement and resistance.
(Observe that this piece discusses parts of Remaining Fantasy XVI in some element.)
On the planet of Valisthea, anybody has the random probability to be born with the power to wield magic. These magic customers are referred to as Bearers. In contrast to in lots of tales of fantasy, nevertheless, magic-users, by and huge, aren’t those in energy. As a substitute, most Bearers are “Branded,” tattooed with ghastly marks that disfigure their faces, distinguishing them from common folks and marking them as slaves.
In Remaining Fantasy XVI’s world, humanity progressed solely by means of the functions magic offers, which may be drawn from fragments chipped away from the Mothercrystals scattered throughout the land. As an illustration, somebody with out magic potential themselves may nonetheless use a crystal to prepare dinner a meal, or conjure some contemporary water. The opposite mode of development is thru the enslavement of Bearers who’re compelled to make use of their magical skills till their very life power is weaned away. In Valisthea, a Blacksmith doesn’t fireplace their forge by means of flint and iron, however by means of crystal or the compelled labor of Bearers.
From the beginning of the sport, it’s clear that XVI’s tackle slavery is impressed by real-world historic occasions, most notably that of Black slaves in the USA, in addition to points of Jewish expertise throughout World Conflict II, with the branding of Bearers serving an analogous perform to that of the yellow badges Jews had been compelled to put on in Nazi Germany.
These are daring decisions that some could discover commendable. It’s clear the FF XVI workforce was very eager on telling a narrative that’s within the human value of resistance, the atrocities of conflict, and the impression of slavery. Nevertheless, whereas the sport tries desperately to present the dehumanizing nature of enslaving Bearers, there’s a hesitancy to completely discover the debilitating toll that its existence has on human life. The sport is snug exhibiting the violence Bearers endure, in addition to the aftermath of violence, however we not often get to see how their enslavement impacts them in different, extra delicate, psychological and sociological methods. A world constructed on mass slavery suggests a social depravity that’s a lot higher than the bodily violence showcased within the sport. Sadly, whereas the enslavement of Bearers presents an intriguing backdrop for the emotional story the sport units out to inform, it’s clear its extra concerned with being a personality research of main man Clive Rosfield than in exploring or indicting the evils of slavery.
Clive: an actual human being and an actual hero
General, Clive is an extremely likable and pretty well-realized character, one who exhibits extra layers of persona and lived expertise than many Remaining Fantasy protagonists of the previous few years. However the methods through which the sport situates Clive because the savior of this world really feel a bit misguided. Whereas the story is split into three distinct eras of Clive’s life, exploring varied pivotal moments that formed him as a one-of-a-kind Bearer who is ready to channel the facility of any of the land’s Eikons (highly effective elemental entities and this sport’s model of the FF collection’ conventional summons), it might be extra broadly divided into two distinct narrative arcs. The primary half offers with the plight of Bearers and the efforts to liberate them undertaken by Clive’s band of freedom fighters, and the latter half with the quelling of a world-ending menace that bears a private connection to Clive and his youthful brother, Joshua.
The sport goes to nice lengths to decorate its scenes with imagery suggesting the unfair remedy of Bearers on the planet. Coming into settlements, you’ll discover retailers scolding their Bearers. As you stroll alongside cobblestone streets you’ll see a plethora of menial duties that Bearers are compelled to finish like retaining fish chilled, utilizing their magic to chop hedges, retaining a forge lit for a blacksmith, and working errands between settlements for his or her masters. All of it screams, “Have a look at how the Bearers are poorly handled!” All of this feels a bit like window dressing although, like getting into a Disney experience stuffed with animatronics. Slavery on loop.
This imagery signifies to us that the Bearers have difficult lives. And whereas the builders had been capable of think about a plethora of grounded methods through which the magic of Bearers might be exploited, they typically fail to current the identical degree of consciousness in serious about the psychology of slavery, each on the a part of the enslaved and the enslavers.
After an distinctive prologue chapter that units up Clive and his relationship to his brother Joshua, we’re introduced into the center portion of Clive’s life. It’s right here that we be taught he’s now Branded, compelled into navy service beneath an elite squadron referred to as the Bastards. It’s additionally right here that it turns into clear what the story of Remaining Fantasy XVI is actually concerned with.
Whereas the sport painstakingly imagines how a world run on magic may function on a superficial degree, the choice to omit the 13 of enslavement Clive experiences after his household’s kingdom was overtaken reveals the sport’s refusal to look too intently at its personal narrative conceit. As a substitute, we discover Clive on this part on, unbeknownst to him, his remaining day of enslavement earlier than being freed by means of happenstance by encountering Jill, his childhood pal, and Cid, the chief of a contingent of escaped Bearers making an attempt to create a unique world.
It’s a wierd alternative for a sport that’s ostensibly so invested in unpacking the struggles of Bearers. Clive exists inside a novel place; he’s from a noble household, falls from grace into enslavement beneath a rival kingdom, and in the end turns into an outlaw in search of to free the world of its chains. That is an extremely fascinating backdrop for his character. Nevertheless, we by no means get to embody the truth of what enslavement appeared like for Clive. We by no means get to see, psychologically, how this sort of life would impression him, each within the second and years after. By foregoing exhibiting us the struggles Clive skilled throughout his 13 years of servitude, the sport does the participant a disservice, lowering what needs to be the supply of Clive’s and the sport’s ethical outrage right into a mere plot level gamers can work together with in a encyclopedia entry.
And I get it. There’s one other model of this sport that’s extremely pedantic, lecturing at gamers for hours on finish, and no person needs that. However what we get right here is the sport’s message being neutered to easily a bland, mild-mannered “Slavery is dangerous,” with out the perception, anger, and conviction that would have come from extra intently illuminating the expertise of Clive in servitude and the financial and social methods of Valisthea that assist slavery. Whereas I want I may say that slavery’s elementary evil is a common fact all of us agree upon, I’m not that naive. This surface-level engagement with the lived realities and horrors of slavery ends in a a lot much less fascinating story and creates a sense that Clive–somebody who has been a slave for many years–is simply now coming to grips with simply how dehumanizing and insidious slavery really is.
The issues Remaining Fantasy XVI doesn’t see
What fascinates me in regards to the world of Valisthea, one thing that’s by no means actually explored regardless of the quite a few facet quests you possibly can undertake that contact on the lives of Bearers and their masters, is the thought of complicity that most of the “good” guys have within the plight of Bearers. Whereas its clear from the opening hours of the sport that Clive has some discomfort in regards to the enslavement of Bearers in Rosaria, I’d have beloved to see extra of his evolution in considering on these topics. There’s a resistance, too, to presenting any of the “good” guys as something however that. The sport goes to nice lengths to position the participant in a world that feels grounded, a world the place folks reside advanced, tough lives, one the place selecting to reside–particularly in opposition to the established order—is a revolutionary alternative. Whereas that is an admirable message, I feel it will be additional bolstered by presenting characters like Clive inside an arc that leaves room for uncertainty, errors, and progress.
Clive, whereas clearly a very good individual, has benefitted from the work of slaves in his youth–I’d like to have seen him ruminate a bit on that. He exists inside a muddy positionality as a royal turned indentured soldier who has undoubtedly achieved deplorable issues to remain alive. Not solely was Clive a slave, however the implication of his duties throughout his enslavement counsel his work helped perpetuate slavery onto others. To me, that could be a very emotionally resonant identification to exist inside, however the sport not often plunges into the ethical compromises many people make as a way to reside inside oppressive societal methods.
Take Clive’s father, Elwin, for example. He’s offered as heroic all through the sport, and but because the Archduke he seemingly would have had the facility to liberate the Bearers in Rosalith however he hasn’t. This creates an fascinating stress for his characterization, one which hints on the far more nuanced and three-dimensional character he may have been. However by the top of the sport, it’s revealed in a letter that he was looking for an alternate. Whereas that’s nice, it additionally feels a bit like the sport saying, “No, for actual, he’s a very good man!’ When, in actual fact, it’s far more fascinating if he’s merely a very good man to some.
For the reason that sport maintains such a detailed lens round Clive’s experiences, omitting these years of his life through which he skilled slavery firsthand implies that we should be taught in regards to the struggles of Bearers predominantly by means of facet quest content material that’s by no means given the identical degree of care and a spotlight that the bombastic foremost story quests are, particularly as soon as Ultima–the world-ending menace–is launched halfway by means of the sport.
All of those points are a query of perspective and affordances, what the event workforce needed to deal with and what appeared to be secondary. There are definitely some fantastic moments within the facet content material of the sport, however by inserting the vast majority of the storylines surrounding the experiences of the Bearers there, the sport tells us that, really, their experiences don’t matter–in actual fact, you possibly can skip all of them collectively and nonetheless perceive the message we are attempting to convey.
Depicting slavery in video video games is a tough factor to tug off. Why? As a result of the truth is that boiling down slavery to it simply being dangerous doesn’t do justice to the true magnitude of its evil. I’m not asking for the story of Remaining Fantasy XVI to be solely about enslavement and the liberating of slaves, however I’m asking why extra care wasn’t positioned into this key worldbuilding component of the sport. It looks like a missed alternative. The methods XVI conveys the lived actuality of Bearers residing in servitude suggests a failure of understanding as to the real-world, financial machinations of chattel slavery.
Inside chattel slavery, the slave is legally rendered as the non-public property (or chattel) of the slave proprietor. Slavery is about labor and business, it’s about capitalism and colonization. However the sport’s methods aren’t outfitted to truly interact with the economics concerned on this side of slavery and the way these items bleed into the general understanding of the dehumanization these practices trigger. The primary verb of XVI is fight (extremely enjoyable fight, to be clear), and with that constraint comes quite a few issues in unpacking the concepts it units forth.
In a world the place turning into a Bearer isn’t a given and even one thing that may be anticipated, in addition to a world the place not solely the Aristocracy however everybody who will not be a Bearer themselves has a possibility to personal slaves to do their bidding, you’d assume that there could be extra care supplied for these folks. That is very true given the truth that sources from the Mothercrystals are depleting quickly–particularly after Clive and co. start destroying them.The worth attributed to anyone Bearer would solely develop as magical sources continued to vanish. By failing to acknowledge the financial drivers of slavery inside society, Remaining Fantasy XVI’s narrative aspirations buckle beneath their very own weight.
Defeating slavery was simply coaching to struggle God
Whereas nearly each Remaining Fantasy title finally ends up being about saving the world from a cataclysmic occasion, I can’t assist however really feel that when XVI shifts its focus to Ultima, the sport begins to disintegrate. Positive, the set piece Eikon battles are extraordinary (can we speak about Titan Misplaced and Bahamut?) but it surely’s all a bit disheartening how rapidly the desk setting within the first half round freedom and revolution will get solid apart for a reasonably rote extraterrestrial villain. It feels as if the workforce wasn’t assured of their potential to completely unpack what they’d spent so lengthy constructing.
To me, this can be a failure of creativeness. Making a god-like being who threatens the livelihoods of all folks in Valisthea is the straightforward route, however what XVI nods at on occasion with out ever totally committing to it’s the truth that the enslavement of Bearers is additionally an existential menace. One that’s immediately extra relatable, and in addition far more complimentary to Clive’s quest for vengeance, reconciliation, and a unique world for all folks.