Summary
- A Final Fantasy 16 Pocket Edition with Chibi-style characters and a simplified story could provide a more whimsical and humorous take on the game.
- A Pocket Edition would allow a wider gaming audience, including mobile and Switch players, to experience the FF16 story before potential future ports to other platforms.
- The lighter tone of a Pocket Edition could turn the more somber and tragic aspects of FF16 into brilliant parody, while still addressing serious themes such as slavery and bigotry.
The presentation of Final Fantasy 16 outshines all prior entries in the storied RPG franchise, but there is an undeniable appeal to the prospect of a less graphically intense Final Fantasy 16 Pocket Edition. Two years after the release of Final Fantasy 15, a simplified mobile version was released. The FF15 Pocket Edition was later ported to PC and consoles, including the Switch, which remains the only version of FF15 playable on Nintendo’s hybrid. Final Fantasy 15 Pocket Edition featured “Chibi” style characters with cartoonish proportions and stylized features, a pared down battle system optimized for mobile play, and a truncated version of the FF15 story.
Where the original Final Fantasy 15 had a truly surreal grandeur, juxtaposing modern looking cars and cell phones with magic and monsters, the Pocket Edition came across as a more whimsical parody. The ironic humor of pairing a silly presentation style with adult themes and drama has proven consistently amusing across a wide variety of media. Prince Noctis’ ally, Gladiolus, is a muscular but reasonably proportioned character in the original FF15, but Pocket Edition stylizes him with a massive torso and arms and relatively tiny legs. While FF16’s Hugo may be a tragic character in the core game, a pocket edition might render his physique as hilariously top-heavy.
More Gaming Fans Could Access A Multi-Platform FF16 Pocket Edition
There is a functional purpose for a hypothetical Final Fantasy 16 Pocket Edition, certainly, as the actual FF16 game is exclusive to the PlayStation 5. The details of the exclusivity agreement with Sony are not fully known, but an FF16 Pocket Edition could be a realistic workaround to allow a much wider gaming audience to experience the FF16 story sooner. While a PC port of the game is something of an inevitability, given the similar port of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake, it is unclear if Xbox Series X fans will be able to play FF16, and the Switch certainly could not support such a graphically demanding title.
A simple, mobile-style Pocket Edition of FF16 could allow mobile gaming fans to experience the story in advance of future ports, and it could also allow Switch owners a taste of the newest entry in the series. There are other Final Fantasy games with subject matter just as dark as FF16, but none that have approached it with such unflinching starkness. A re-imagining that presents the same story with Chibi characters and an abbreviated story could be even more amusing for those who have already completed the PS5 version. All the sorrow and gravitas of the original FF16 could transform into a brilliant parody, if handled properly.
FF16 is certainly not as graphic in its depictions of sexuality as The Witcher 3 and other titles. However, it does lean at least closer to its Game of Thrones inspiration in showing the unhealthy obsession of Hugo for Benedikta, or the disturbing bedroom interactions between the mad zealot king Barnabus and Ultima. Clive and Jill have a healthier romance, which culminates in a more overt sex scene than is typical for the Final Fantasy series. Showing these scenes with cartoonish Chibi characters could lend a Pocket Edition the absurdist vibe of Team America: World Police. Bleaker aspects of the story could also take on a different tone.
A Pocket Edition Would Let The Grim Final Fantasy 16 Laugh At Itself
The tragic death of Cid has a distinctly different vibe if a big-headed cartoon version asks for one last smoke to be placed against a face with a fixed expression. The otherworldly menace of Ultima might be laughable if the deific menace had classic Cherubic Chibi proportions. There are certainly some aspects of the FF16 story that are simply too serious to play for laughs, particular the game’s unflinching focus on the evils of slavery and bigotry. Other aspects of the game could shine in Pocket Edition form, as a Chibi version of Torgal the wolf could be even cuter than the original.
Is it too early to tell if such a game is even a remote possibility. Given that Final Fantasy 15 Pocket Edition did not release until two years after the original, it is too early to rule out a similar de-make style project for FF16. A Final Fantasy 16 Pocket Edition might be bizarrely great, since it would let a wider audience experience a form of the story, while letting the most serious, somber iteration of the series laugh at itself.