Final Fantasy XVI is a wonderful game with many flaws. One of the most subtle is a dirty, dark pink sky that dwarfs the world near the end of the game. It can make completing all the side quests and monster hunts become really depressing. Luckily, players get a much-needed one Vacation from ugliness when the Leviathan expansion rolls out in the spring.
Final Fantasy XVI Fans who paid close attention to Square Enix RPGs two-part DLC announcement last week noted that the second part, called “The Rising Tide”, had a surprisingly azure sky, although it presumably took place late in the game, after the realm of Valisthea fell victim to a magical solar eclipse.
There was entire message board threads dedicated to what exactly was going on. Players postulated that the DLC must take place in a new part of the world that has since been unaffected by the solar eclipse, like the one already released Echoes of the Fallen DLC, takes place before the end of the game. In fact, this theory appears to have been correct, as recently confirmed by the Final Fantasy XVI Development team in an interview with Famitsu.
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In an interview with the Japanese magazine, game director Hiroshi Takai, producer Naoki Yoshida and DLC director Takeo Kujiraoka went into more detail about the new content and game features that are emerging. As translated and summarized by the Japanese blogger aitaikimochiThe protagonists Clive, Jill and Joshua will finally “travel together under a blue sky”. It also sounds like a new photo mode option will allow players to replace the dark pink sky with a blue one in the end game, regardless of whether they explore the region from the DLC or not.
I can’t really put into words what a relief that was. For someone who spent an extra 15 hours in the dark to complete everything in the game, the late game aesthetics were a huge burden. It immediately felt like a huge weight had been lifted as I started over with New Game Plus and was able to enjoy it again Final Fantasy XVI‘s beautiful, detailed art direction in bright, clean sunlight.
I’d still love an actual option in the settings menu to turn off endgame darkness entirely, worldbuilding be damned. I compartmentalized and overlooked the terrible handling of the roleplaying game Women And slavery to prevent someone from ruining my time. Players enjoying clear blue skies even during the end of the world would be the least of the game’s narrative problems.
