Last Fantasy XVI situates itself inside a backdrop of swords, sorcery, and political turmoil, as its picturesque world of Valisthea is full of inhabitants complicit within the upholding of slavery. All through the land, the place lush evergreen forests, dank underground ruins, and rolling dunes are widespread sights, magic reigns supreme. Channeled via prodigious crystalline landmarks referred to as Mothercrystals, magic is the cardinal useful resource via 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 looking for to unburden the world from the crystals, and the oppressive techniques of slavery their existence has enabled for therefore lengthy.
Actual-world inspirations for Last Fantasy XVI’s injustice
That is the backdrop in opposition to which the narrative of Last Fantasy XVI performs. It’s an alluring setup that brings into focus why the event group was enthusiastic about creating the primary mainline recreation 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 count on from a Last 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.
(Notice that this piece discusses parts of Last Fantasy XVI in some element.)
On the planet of Valisthea, anybody has the random probability to be born with the flexibility to wield magic. These magic customers are known as Bearers. Not like in lots of tales of fantasy, nonetheless, 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 individuals and marking them as slaves.
In Last Fantasy XVI’s world, humanity progressed solely via the functions magic offers, which will be drawn from fragments chipped away from the Mothercrystals scattered throughout the land. As an example, somebody with out magic skill themselves would possibly nonetheless use a crystal to prepare dinner a meal, or conjure some recent 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 hearth their forge via flint and iron, however via 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 US, in addition to features of Jewish expertise throughout World Warfare II, with the branding of Bearers serving the same operate to that of the yellow badges Jews have been compelled to put on in Nazi Germany.
These are daring selections that some could discover commendable. It’s clear the FF XVI group was very eager on telling a narrative that’s within the human value of resistance, the atrocities of battle, and the influence 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 hardly ever get to see how their enslavement impacts them in different, extra refined, psychological and sociological methods. A world constructed on mass slavery suggests a social depravity that’s a lot better than the bodily violence showcased within the recreation. 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 enthusiastic about being a personality examine of main man Clive Rosfield than in exploring or indicting the evils of slavery.
Clive: an actual human being and an actual hero
Total, Clive is an extremely likable and pretty well-realized character, one who reveals extra layers of character and lived expertise than many Last 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 recreation’s model of the FF sequence’ conventional summons), it could possibly 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 therapy of Bearers on the earth. Getting 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 preserving fish chilled, utilizing their magic to chop hedges, preserving a forge lit for a blacksmith, and working errands between settlements for his or her masters. All of it screams, “Take a look at how the Bearers are poorly handled!” All of this feels a bit like window dressing although, like coming into a Disney experience full of animatronics. Slavery on loop.
This imagery signifies to us that the Bearers have difficult lives. And whereas the builders have been in a position to think about a plethora of grounded methods through which the magic of Bearers could possibly be exploited, they usually fail to current the identical degree of consciousness in eager 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 study he’s now Branded, compelled into navy service underneath an elite squadron known as the Bastards. It’s additionally right here that it turns into clear what the story of Last Fantasy XVI is actually enthusiastic about.
Whereas the sport painstakingly imagines how a world run on magic would possibly 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 carefully 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 via happenstance by encountering Jill, his childhood good friend, and Cid, the chief of a contingent of escaped Bearers attempting to create a special world.
It’s a wierd selection for a recreation that’s ostensibly so invested in unpacking the struggles of Bearers. Clive exists inside a singular place; he’s from a noble household, falls from grace into enslavement underneath a rival kingdom, and finally turns into an outlaw looking for to free the world of its chains. That is an extremely attention-grabbing backdrop for his character. Nevertheless, we by no means get to embody the fact of what enslavement appeared like for Clive. We by no means get to see, psychologically, how this sort of life would influence 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 must 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 recreation that’s extremely pedantic, lecturing at gamers for hours on finish, and no person desires 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 carefully illuminating the expertise of Clive in servitude and the financial and social techniques of Valisthea that assist slavery. Whereas I want I might say that slavery’s elementary evil is a common reality 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 attention-grabbing 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 Last 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 lots 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 might have cherished to see extra of his evolution in pondering 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 put the participant in a world that feels grounded, a world the place individuals dwell complicated, tough lives, one the place selecting to dwell–particularly in opposition to the established order—is a revolutionary selection. Whereas that is an admirable message, I feel it might be additional bolstered by presenting characters like Clive inside an arc that leaves room for uncertainty, errors, and progress.
Clive, whereas clearly a great 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 executed deplorable issues to remain alive. Not solely was Clive a slave, however the implication of his duties throughout his enslavement recommend his work helped perpetuate slavery onto others. To me, that could be a very emotionally resonant identification to exist inside, however the recreation hardly ever plunges into the ethical compromises many people make in an effort to dwell inside oppressive societal techniques.
Take Clive’s father, Elwin, as an illustration. 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 attention-grabbing rigidity for his characterization, one which hints on the way more nuanced and three-dimensional character he might have been. However by the top of the sport, it’s revealed in a letter that he was looking for another. Whereas that’s nice, it additionally feels a bit like the sport saying, “No, for actual, he’s a great man!’ When, in reality, it’s way more attention-grabbing if he’s merely a great man to some.
For the reason that recreation 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 study in regards to the struggles of Bearers predominantly via facet quest content material that’s by no means given the identical degree of care and a focus that the bombastic principal story quests are, particularly as soon as Ultima–the world-ending menace–is launched halfway via the sport.
All of those features are a query of perspective and affordances, what the event group needed to give attention to and what appeared to be secondary. There are definitely some great moments within the facet content material of the sport, however by putting nearly all of the storylines surrounding the experiences of the Bearers there, the sport tells us that, really, their experiences don’t matter–in reality, you possibly can skip all of them collectively and nonetheless perceive the message we try to convey.
Depicting slavery in video video games is a tough factor to drag off. Why? As a result of the fact 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 Last Fantasy XVI to be solely about enslavement and the releasing of slaves, however I’m asking why extra care wasn’t positioned into this key worldbuilding component of the sport. It seems like a missed alternative. The methods XVI conveys the lived actuality of Bearers dwelling 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 trade, it’s about capitalism and colonization. However the recreation’s techniques aren’t geared up to really interact with the economics concerned on this side of slavery and the way this stuff 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 problems 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 isn’t 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 individuals. 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, Last Fantasy XVI’s narrative aspirations buckle underneath their very own weight.
Defeating slavery was simply coaching to battle God
Whereas nearly each Last 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 collapse. Certain, the set piece Eikon battles are extraordinary (can we discuss 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 forged apart for a fairly rote extraterrestrial villain. It feels as if the group wasn’t assured of their skill to completely unpack what they’d spent so lengthy constructing.
To me, it is a failure of creativeness. Making a god-like being who threatens the livelihoods of all individuals in Valisthea is the simple route, however what XVI nods at once in a while with out ever absolutely 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 way more complimentary to Clive’s quest for vengeance, reconciliation, and a special world for all individuals.
