The latest chance to get hands on withFinal Fantasy 16has given fans a view of everything the game has to offer, from the more action-based combat to the darker storyline. However, the Active Time Lore system is a hidden gem withinFinal Fantasy 16’s demothat improves the game’s storytelling enough that it should be made a staple of the RPG genre entirely.
Given that the narrative story of a world and the characters that fill it are one of the key aspects of RPGs,Final Fantasy 16including a new way to engage with that content is an impressive step forward for the genre. It’s a simple retool of something that has already appeared in story-focused games for a long time, but it’s the new way that Square Enix is introducing and implementing the concept that is game-changing for RPGs moving forward.
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Active Time Lore Adds Context to Cinematics
One of Square Enix’s biggest strengths when developing iconic RPGs is its ability to craft incredible cinematic moments that show off stellar action, as well as tell a compelling story. However, as was the case with its predecessor, it can be difficult for a title with as manyimpactful characters asFinal Fantasy 16to keep the narrative lively and compelling while also properly introducing players to these NPCs. This is where the Active Time Lore succeeds, giving players the option to add context to the scenes they’re watching by quickly pausing to read a quick excerpt about the major characters, places, and politics at play.
These character and faction descriptions are already a common way to introduce lore into narrative games likeFinal Fantasy 16, but including them during cinematics can help add context in real-time. The sudden introduction ofa character like Joshuawithout a name card and a few words of description can be clarified with the press of a button. This then allows the story to move forward without having to introduce characters, and instead give those characters the chance to interact with each other.
This is a concept that may have even come out of a complaint from previousFinal Fantasytitles, especiallyFinal Fantasy 15where characters would appear and disappear without ever really being introduced. If that is the case, then the Active Time Lore system is an impressive solution to a problem that countless RPGs have previously struggled with. In fact, the system is revolutionary enough that it should be cemented as a staple ofRPG gameplay, especially as the modern genre continues to blend action and narrative into each other.
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Contextual Glossary Updating in Real-Time
The Active Time Lore system is obviously similar to any other in-game glossary of text entries and character dossiers found throughout a number of narrative focused games. However, these glossaries tend to have a wide breadth of effects from player to player, either being left unread until the end of the game, stopping and reading each entry as they appear, or being entirely ignored. While Active Time Lore doesn’t remove this aspect of player behavior, it helps toclarifyFinal Fantasy 16’s storywhile the narrative is unfolding.
To add an extra level to the benefits of the Active Time Lore on gameplay, opening this submenu doesn’t just give a massive glossary to read through. Instead, it only offers information related to what is currently happening within the story, such as the characters that are present and the location they are in. This has a way of stripping down the massive amounts of information needed to know about theworld ofFinal Fantasy 16’s Valistheato what is relevant at any given moment.
Final Fantasy 16is set to release on June 22 for PS5.
