My relationship with the Final Fantasy franchise is synonymous with a brief summer fling and a follow-up booty call. It all started in the late 90s, when pre-teen me discovered Final Fantasy VII. It wasn’t like anything I’d played before and will always hold an exclusive and very precious place in my heart. The characters, the soundtrack, the plot….Sephiroth, all good. All VERY good. But for some reason, that I honestly can not recall, we didn’t keep in touch. Final Fantasy games continued to be released, and I continued to not play them. Until sometime in the early 2000s when I was feeling nostalgic and decided to give Final Fantasy X a try. Again a gaming experience I would never forget, complete with my new in-game crush, Auron.

Those eyes, though

That’s the last Final Fantasy has ever heard from me. I feel like we left things on good terms and I have had nothing but good memories and a passing desire to jump back into the franchise every so often. But with Kratos, Joel and Ellie, Aloy and various killers in Dead By Daylight taking up so much of my time (also a lot of Korean dramas, let’s be honest), I haven’t found my way back to Final Fantasy. However, the trailer for Final Fantasy XVI has ignited my interest once more.

I’m a sucker for a doggo

Maybe I was unwittingly in an emotional state already, but the glimpse into Valisthea, the characters, the soundtrack and the combat that the trailer provides honestly made me tear up a little. I can’t wait to go on a revenge quest as Clive with my loyal wolf-dog companion, Torgal, and find out how everything unfolds. I look forward to openly weeping as I play what will no doubt be another tragic and heart wrenching game with beautifully written relationships and potentially some of the best combat provided by any final fantasy game to date. The fact that it isn’t open world also appeals to me in the wake of some very time-extensive games sparking my completionist needs and sucking away far too much of my life. The novelty of haptic feedback features still hasn’t worn off for me and they have supposedly been used to their full potential throughout the game, which I anticipate to be the cherry on top of everything else I may uncover in Final Fantasy XVI.

Clive certainly has new in-game crush potential

With the release date being in my birthday month, I can’t deny the stars seem to be aligning and it might be time for me and Final Fantasy to give this thing another try and maybe… just maybe a real go of it this time. Wish us luck. xxx

By Saskia- Our social media team leader, whose love of gaming was kindled by 90s point and click adventure games. By day you'll find her creating reels, endlessly snacking, and gazing at pictures of Gong Yoo. By night you'll find her decorating cakes, sewing costumes, gaming with friends or trying out whatever new hobby/money-sink she's discovered.