Technologies

Final Fantasy XVI: Review, Release Date and Everything Else You Should Know

The latest Final Fantasy is a solid game with an intriguing story, but it’s not the must-play experience some of its predecessors were.

Not since Final Fantasy X all the way back in 2001 has Square Enix made a new Final Fantasy as ambitious as Final Fantasy XVI. As the PS5-exclusive game’s grand-yet-focused story unfurls over 50 hours, players will experience a reimagining of Final Fantasy’s RPG roots. Not all of Square Enix’s lofty ambitions are realized, however, resulting in a game that, while exhilarating, won’t thrill you quite like previous Final Fantasy games have.

There is certainly a lot to love about Final Fantasy XVI — but you’ll need some patience to see it.

Square Enix generated buzz earlier this month releasing a demo consisting of Final Fantasy XVI’s opening two hours. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. The game does indeed start with a bang: You’re witness to a dazzling clash between two Eikons, powerful superbeings known in previous Final Fantasy games as Summons, and your toe is gently dipped into the ocean of lore that Square Enix crafted for the world of Valisthea.

You’re also introduced to main character Clive, playing through a crucial childhood experience that involves Clive transforming into an Eikon and ends with tragedy befalling his brother Joshua.

Yet these spectacles obscure one of Final Fantasy XVI’s central flaws. From a combat and gameplay perspective, the first 15-20 hours are slow going. Clive eventually amasses a varied repertoire of abilities, but the majority of these are learned through story events that happen in the second half of the game. You’ll spend a lot of the first half mashing the square button to perform generic combos.

If you want true power, you gotta earn it.

final-fantasy-16-screenshots-playstation-blog-20230417-04 — Final Fantasy XVI’s combat is beautiful to look at, but isn’t particularly deep.

Square Enix

The level and world design doesn’t help. Final Fantasy XVI is a linear game. Not every game needs an open world, but Final Fantasy XVI feels restrictive. This is especially true in the first chunk, in which levels are thinly disguised corridors. Clive finds himself in a battle area where he dispatches low-level foes, runs through a narrow hall or jungle path to the next battle area where there’s a boss-esque enemy. Wash, rinse and repeat.

It’s not bad. But it’s not terribly exciting, either. The story carries a lot of Final Fantasy XVI’s weight during these opening hours, with Square Enix hoping the narrative power will help propel you along. And to its credit, Square Enix largely succeeds at creating a compelling universe — if you have tolerance for high fantasy with a dash of anime melodrama.

Final Fantasy XVI does an admirable job of keeping the narrative tight. The game starts with Clive searching for answers about his brother and, like all fantasy epics, ends with the entire world at risk. One of Final Fantasy XVI’s biggest strengths is how it escalates gradually, with each quest bridging to another with slightly higher stakes, such that you can slowly imbibe the lore of Valisthea as the scope of Clive’s story expands.

Though there’s a lot going on in Valisthea — nations at war, land destroyed by mysterious blight — Clive’s quest motivations are always clear. That helps the story to always feel focused in spite of its frenetic grandeur.

The cost is that this is a cutscene-heavy game. Plus many quests, even late in the game, can be drab affairs: Transport to this location, talk to three villagers and then, because you’re there, fight some generic bad guys. These down moments are usually done to establish a piece of the narrative puzzle, helping to keep the story cohesive until it all connects together, but they do slow momentum.

And there are a lot of pieces to this puzzle. Final Fantasy XVI features something called «Active Time Lore,» which, if you hold down the center button, brings up journal entries on the relevant on-screen happenings. If Clive is talking to his brother Joshua in their family castle, for instance, ATL will throw up reports on who Clive is, who Joshua is, and one on their home nation of Rosaria. It’s the digital equivalent of an encyclopedia on your lap — one you’re likely going to need to refer to again and again.

ff16-interview-02-28-23 — Clive with Cid, the game’s best character.

Square Enix

Part of why ATL is necessary isn’t because the story is complicated per se, but there are just so many moving parts. There are countries, magic crystals and characters to remember, plus the relationships that bind them all together. It doesn’t help that characters, instead of referring to Valisthea’s six nations by their distinguishing names like «The Empire of Sanbreque» and «The Dhalmekian Republic,» use more interchangeable terms like «the empire,» «the republic» and «the kingdom.»

If you want to understand Valisthea, you gotta work for it.

The story is a win, but with an asterisk. As the need to regularly familiarize yourself with lore suggests, you’ll be turned off if you don’t have a taste for high fantasy. And since the story is the foundation of Final Fantasy XVI, an allergy to the genre is reason enough to stay away. That’s because Final Fantasy XVI the game is good, but not extraordinary.

World and level design are the biggest issues. Though the visuals are beautiful, environments often feel more lifeless than they should. Invisible walls are everywhere, in the form of logs Clive can’t jump over or doors he can’t smash through. Quests instruct you to find a person or item, but lead you directly to them in a way that makes everything feel small. Crates and tables don’t break when you swing at them as they do in other action games, making the world feel dead and static. At a time when Nintendo is making magic over in Hyrule, the absence of a sense of exploration in Final Fantasy XVI is conspicuous.

Then there’s the combat. It’s fun to look at, and many of the boss battles are outstanding. But the hack-and-slash combat system lacks depth or any strong incentive for creativity. You can mostly get by with basic combos and a decent evade skill. Abilities help you cut through enemies faster, but you don’t need to use them tactically to win. Really, there aren’t many tactics to employ. Though you’ll learn different flavors of magic, there’s none of the elemental strategy of games in the franchise’s past. Doing an ice attack on a fire-powered creature, for instance, yields no extra damage.

It’s one of the many ways Final Fantasy XVI has been de-Final Fantasied. Also gone is the party system of yonder. Instead of controlling different members of a party, each with their own specialized skills, you’ll have a changing cast of characters accompany you on missions, a la Disney luminaries in Kingdom Hearts. And instead of the idiosyncratic progression systems the franchise is known for — the Sphere Grid in X, the License Board in XII, the Materia system in VII — Final Fantasy XVI features a more generic skill tree.

But there’s a lot of Final Fantasy here to charm fans. I mean that literally. This is a big game, with lots to do. The main campaign will take you between 40 and 60 hours, and there are plenty of side quests to expand that playtime. Post-game content is promising, especially with a bounty board that allows you to hunt increasingly tough enemies that are satisfying to topple.

The changes Square Enix made to Final Fantasy XVI have sparked debate about what precisely it is that makes a Final Fantasy game. But apart from any specific gameplay system, Final Fantasy made its name by being on the cutting edge of roleplaying games. Final Fantasy XVI is good — but it’s not that. It’s a solid action game with a memorable story.

Nothing more, nothing less.

When does Final Fantasy XVI come out?

Final Fantasy XVI comes out on Thursday, June 22, and will cost $70 (£70, AU$115) for the standard edition and $100 for the deluxe edition.

Preorder Final Fantasy XVI $70 at Sony

Sony will also release a Final Fantasy XVI PS5 bundle on June 22 for $560. The bundle comes with a standard PS5 console with DualSense Wireless Controller and a Final Fantasy XVI game voucher.

Preorder Final Fantasy XVI PS5 Bundle $560 at Sony

What platforms will get Final Fantasy XVI?

Final Fantasy XVI is a PlayStation 5 timed exclusive. Naoki Yoshida, Final Fantasy XVI’s producer, told ASCII last month that there are plans for a PC version of the game.

Will there be any DLC for Final Fantasy XVI?

Yoshida told Game Informer last month that there are currently no plans for downloadable content for the game.

Is there a Final Fantasy XVI demo?

Yes, it’s currently available for download in the PSN Store.

What’s the story of Final Fantasy XVI?

Final Fantasy XVI takes place in the world of Valisthea, where nations battle each other over magical Mothercrystals, which provide magic energy to the people of the nation. A powerful force in the nations are magical creatures called Eikons who are controlled by human hosts called Dominants.

Players control Clive, the son of the Archduke and First Shield of Rosaria. His role is to protect his younger brother Joshua, who is the Dominant of Phoenix. The game explores the turmoil Clive goes through following an attack on his home nation.

What’s different in this Final Fantasy?

Each mainline Final Fantasy game is unique in its own way, and Final Fantasy XVI makes some big changes to the series formula by making the combat more of an action RPG rather than a turn-based party game. This means players will only control Clive, who uses both physical and magic attacks to take down enemies. Other characters will join Clive in the fight, but they’ll act on their own. The exception to this is Torgal, Clive’s four-legged companion, who can attack and heal via quick commands.

Another big change in Final Fantasy XVI is the mature rating. The US Entertainment Software Rating Board rated the game M due to its depictions of violence, partial nudity, blood and strong language, which is the first time a game in the series received this adult rating.

The adult themes and medieval setting led to comparisons to HBO series Game of Thrones, which members of the development team confirmed they were fans of and noted some similarities.

Technologies

Lemon8 and TikTok Could Be Banned. Here’s How the Apps Are Different

TikTok and Lemon8 are owned by the same parent company, but they offer different experiences.

TikTok faces another sale deadline Saturday, and unless a US buyer intervenes — or President Donald Trump extends the deadline again — the app could disappear for US users. If the ban goes into effect, TikTok wouldn’t be the only app to disappear: TikTok’s sister app, Lemon8, could be caught in the crossfire.

Read more: A VPN Alone Probably Won’t Bypass TikTok Bans. Here’s Why

Lemon8 is owned by ByteDance, the same parent company that owns TikTok. It’s one of the top Lifestyle apps in Apple’s App Store, and it has more than 10 million downloads in the Google Play store.

«Lemon8 is a lifestyle community focused app powered by TikTok, where you can discover and share authentic content on a variety of topics such as beauty, fashion, travel, food, and more,» the app’s description reads in both stores.

Here’s what you need to know about Lemon8.

Note: I reached out to ByteDance for this story, and the company did not respond for comment.

What is Lemon8?

Lemon8 is a video- and photo-sharing platform that eschews the vertical-scrolling format of TikTok in favor of a Pinterest board-style format. But what Lemon8 and TikTok do have in common is that both have Following and For You tabs to show you posts from creators you follow and posts the app thinks you will like.

Lemon8’s content is split into six topic tabs, plus a seventh tab called All. The other tabs are Fashion, Beauty, Food, Wellness, Travel and Home. These tabs can be found across the top of your screen, and tapping into these tabs shows you recommended and suggested posts.

Posts can be swipeable photo collections like in Instagram, or TikTok-style videos. Some creators add text to their photos to label clothing or a product. Some will also include the price of the item in the text.

How is Lemon8 different from TikTok and other apps?

Lemon8 is different from other apps in terms of what is posted and how it’s presented.

Lemon8 has a lot of influencer ads and product recommendations. It’s difficult to tell what is and isn’t sponsored content, and this appears to be the norm across the app. TikTok also has sponsored content, but usually these are marked as such in the bottom-left corner.

There aren’t a lot of memes or jokes on Lemon8 compared to other apps, either. You can find memes on Lemon8, but various hashtags associated with «memes,» like «funnymemes» and «catmemes,» have fewer than 1 million views (as opposed to hundreds of millions on Instagram). This could be because Lemon8 is still catching on in the US, but my suspicion is Lemon8 isn’t meant for memes. It’s meant to be more of a guidebook to help you achieve a certain lifestyle or aesthetic.

There’s also a lot of writing in Lemon8. For example, post captions might include instructions for a recipe or a deeper breakdown of an outfit. TikTok captions can have useful information, but those captions are more about connecting posts to hashtags to get more views and don’t necessarily add new information to the TikTok post. Lemon8 uses captions in a similar way to Instagram posts, but Lemon8 captions have one key difference from Instagram: templates.

Lemon8 lets you use templates for your posts to help you quickly format and to give you an idea of what to caption your post. There are caption templates for fashion, shopping finds, beauty, food and travel.

Lemon8 reminds me of a mashup between the magazines Martha Stewart Living, Muscle & Fitness and Travel + Leisure. You can find some useful tips in Lemon8 to help you achieve a desired aesthetic or find some vacation inspiration, but it’s not clear what is and isn’t an ad.

What are people saying about Lemon8?

People’s reaction to Lemon8 is seemingly positive so far. One TikTok creator posted a video calling Lemon8 «Pinterest, but interactive.» Another said Lemon8 is a combination of Pinterest, Instagram and TikTok.

However, this positivity could be artificially inflated. ZDNet reports that many TikTok posts about Lemon8 have described the app with similar language, making some believe ByteDance paid these creators.

And some Lemon8 creators’ claims make this theory sound more viable. One Lemon8 creator told Insider that ByteDance paid them to post on the app. Two other Lemon8 creators showed Insider emails that outlined the app’s payment structure.

Who owns Lemon8?

ByteDance, the Chinese tech company that owns TikTok, also owns Lemon8. According to ZDNet, ByteDance is positioning Lemon8 to be an Instagram rival as more users stop using, or abandon, Meta’s app.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a leaked internal memo from Meta showed that Instagram engagement was declining. ByteDance executives could be hoping to capitalize on this by giving Instagram users an alternative app in the form of Lemon8. And while Lemon8 was released globally in 2020, the app’s recent growth might show ByteDance’s gamble is paying off.

Will Lemon8 be banned alongside TikTok?

Since Lemon8 is owned by ByteDance, which also owns TikTok, it’s possible that the app will be banned alongside TikTok on April 5.

The law requiring the sale of TikTok could be applied generally to other apps that are owned and operated by ByteDance and its subsidiaries. When TikTok shutdown operations in the US in January, Lemon8 was shutdown alongside the app. If TikTok shuts down again, Lemon8 likely will as well.

Should you download Lemon8?

Even with a shutdown looming, Lemon8 is free, so you can download and try the app now before the sale deadline. Just know the app’s posts resemble instructional guides more than memes to share, and many posts feel like advertisements.

What’s Lemon8’s privacy policy?

Most of Lemon8’s privacy policy seems standard for social media apps. It states Lemon8 collects personal and location information to provide you with a better app experience. Some collected information includes your IP address and browsing history. But part of the app’s privacy policy might raise eyebrows.

«The personal information we collect from you may be stored on a server located outside of the country where you live,» the policy reads. The company has servers around the world, according to the policy, so your information could be stored in any of them.

This is different from how Lemon8’s sister app TikTok stores some user’s data. The company stores US-based user data in Oracle servers. TikTok CEO Shou Chew said ByteDance employees in China can access this data, but with «robust cybersecurity controls and authorization approval» overseen by a US-based security team.

For more on the TikTok ban, here’s what to know about the Supreme Court’s decision, here’s what could happen next and here are other apps users are flocking to.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for April 4, #193

Three of the four categories are especially tough today. Here are hints and the answers, for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, No. 193, for April 4.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

I only solved one of the four categories for today’s Connections: Sports Edition on my own, so if you need help, you’re not alone.

The yellow category was pretty simple, but after that I couldn’t make any connections. It might help if you know a lot about a certain NBA player’s resume. Read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its debut on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9. That’s a sign that the game has earned enough loyal players that The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times, will continue to publish it. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but now appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can continue to play it free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Do better.

Green group hint: March Madness.

Blue group hint: Six-time all-star.

Purple group hint: Think Wimbledon.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Not meeting expectations.

Green group: Teams in the Women’s Final Four.

Blue group: Teams Kawhi Leonard has played for.

Purple group: Ends in a piece of tennis equipment.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is not meeting expectations. The four answers are bust, disappointment, dud and failure.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is teams in the Women’s Final Four. The four answers are Bruins, Gamecocks, Huskies and Longhorns.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is teams Kawhi Leonard has played for. The four answers are Aztecs, Clippers, Raptors and Spurs.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ends in a piece of tennis equipment. The four answers are bracket, eyeball, horseshoes and internet.

Quick tips for Connections: Sports Edition

#1: Don’t grab for the easiest group. For each word, think about other sports categories it might fit in – is this a word that can be used in football, or to describe scoring options?

#2: Second meanings are important. The puzzle loves to use last names and even college names that mean other things, to fool you into thinking they are words, not names.

#3: And the opposite is also true. Words like HURTS might seem like a regular word, but it’s also the last name of at least one pro athlete.

Technologies

Skip Your iPhone’s Lockscreen: Here’s the Hidden Flashlight Trick You Need to Know

A couple of taps can really make a difference on your iPhone.

Not long ago, your iPhone’s lockscreen would only allow two app shortcuts that you couldn’t change: camera controls and a flashlight toggle. However, iOS 18.2 allows you to customize these shortcuts to almost anything you might want. This small but impactful change is one of many ways iOS 18 supercharges customization for iPhone and iPad users. But what if you still want an easy-to-access way to toggle your flashlight without unlocking your phone?

Apple introduced an accessibility feature in iOS 14 that, once enabled, allows you to perform actions by just tapping on the back of your phone. The feature is called Tap Back and it remains a sleeper feature that’s sneakily hidden away in your settings menu. Enabling Tap Back essentially allows you to create a button on the back of your iPhone to perform an action without needing to take up any space.

Once you have Tap Back enabled, it doesn’t take long to see how much of a game-changer it can be with its added convenience. Below, we’ll show you how to set it up so a couple of taps on the back of your iPhone will let you launch just about anything you want.

For more, check out what’s in the latest iOS 18.4 release.

How to set up Back Tap on iPhone

Whether you want to link Back Tap with your flashlight, camera or launch a different iPhone app, the path through your iPhone settings begins the same way.

On your compatible iPhone (iPhone 8 or later), launch the Settings application and go to Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap. Now you have the option to launch your action (in this case, your flashlight) with either two or three taps. Although two taps is obviously faster, I would suggest three taps because if you fidget with your phone, it’s easy to accidentally trigger the accessibility feature.

Once you choose a tap option, select the Flashlight option — or a different action if you prefer. You’ll see over 30 options to choose from, including system options like Siri or taking a screenshot, to accessibility-specific functions like opening a magnifier or turning on real-time live captions. You can also set up Back Tap to open the Control Center, go back home, mute your audio, turn the volume up and down and run any shortcuts you’ve downloaded or created.

You’ll know you’ve successfully selected your choice when a blue checkmark appears to the right of the action. You could actually set up two shortcuts this way — one that’s triggered by two taps and one that’s triggered by three taps to the iPhone’s back cover.

Once you exit the Settings application, you can try out the newly enabled Back Tap feature by tapping the back of your iPhone — in my case, to turn on the flashlight. To turn off the flashlight, you can tap on the back of your iPhone as well, but you can also just turn it off from your lock screen if that’s easier.

For more great iPhone tips, here’s how to keep your iPhone screen from dimming all the time and canceling all those subscriptions you don’t want or need.