‘Final Fantasy XVI’ ending, explained

Final Fantasy XVI ended on a very ambiguous note, so if you find yourselves in the ranks of players who didn’t really understand what happened to major characters like Clive and Joshua Rosfield, Dion Lesage, Ultima, or even Jill Warrick, then we’ve got you covered.

The sixteenth installment in the Final Fantasy saga came out a little over a month ago to acclaim from critics and consumers. Gamers are heaping praise on XVI for its amazing story, character progression, and a combat system that only keeps getting better and better the more you move through the main campaign.

In our very own review of the game, we applauded Square Enix for getting so many of these crucial game design elements right and blending them together to create a visceral and memorable experience, and that certainly carries itself all the way through to the game’s climactic confrontation, where you not only decide the fate of Valisthea, but also the main ensemble of characters who have accompanied you in this long journey.

And the journey was certainly long. Boasting a campaign that lasts up to 40 hours without side quests and up to 80 hours with, you won’t exactly find it easy to reach the finish line, and when you do, the game concludes everything in a very confusing manner. The ending is obviously meant to be vague and open to interpretation, but if you put two and two together, it amounts to a very rough sketch of the future for Valisthea and its citizens. So, let’s get into it.

What happened at the end of Final Fantasy XVI?

Now, that question would be very telling indeed. In the game’s final act, Clive teams up with his brother Joshua and the crown prince of Sanbreque, Dion Lesage, to assault Ultima’s fortress. Dion turns into his Eikon, Bahamut, and flies to Origin, with Clive and Joshua piggybacking him to the skies.

Once they reach Ultima, Clive and Joshua also prime into their Eikons, and the three Dominants engage the godly being in a fierce battle. Ultimate overpowers all of them and manages to best Dion in a one-on-one fight. The prince seemingly falls to his death, but if there’s one rule in fiction that we’d do well to remember, it’s that a character isn’t dead until you actually see a body. (Of course, since Clive destroys Origin by the end of the fight, it’s highly unlikely that Dion survived the explosion.)

Joshua and Clive regroup after Dion’s death, and decide to take on Ultima one last time. When they reach the main chamber, Ultima reveals that he intended them to destroy the Mothercrystals, allowing his kin to prepare for the ultimate rite that destroys humanity in their wake.

With Ultima reuniting with different parts of his psyche, Joshua learns that he can no longer keep him concealed inside the Phoenix. The little brother then uses his final moments to give Clive the tip he needs to defeat Ultima. And much like Jill, Joshua bestows the last of his powers onto Clive, allowing him to merge with the Phoenix and bring together the two Eikons of fire.

When Joshua dies, Clive flies into a rage and engages Ultima, which kickstarts the game’s final boss battle. You fight Ultima in three stages, but eventually manage to defeat him. Upon the villain’s death, Clive steals Ultima’s power and uses it to destroy Origin — the last Mothercrystal — thus stripping the world of magic forever.

Before destroying the place, however, Clive uses his newfound powers to expunge Joshua’s body of wounds, even if it doesn’t seemingly accomplish anything. He then ends up on a shore and learns that the curse of the Bearers (turning “Akashic”) has caught up with him, hinting at his own demise.

Final Fantasy XVI then cuts away to Jill and Gav in the Hideaway, who are waiting for Clive’s return. Jill sees the red star of Metia fade away, and breaks down into tears, another hint that Clive might have just perished. Even Gav breaks down crying, saying to the newborn baby of the villager woman they saved that the world is now theirs to explore and live in.

Jill and Torgal grieve together until dawn arrives, and with it, the promise of a new day. Jill looks at the horizon, and the camera zooms on her face as it breaks into the semblance of a smile.

The game’s credits scene then depicts a world without magic, but one where the story of Clive and Joshua has endured and turned into myth. The game shows us a book titled “Final Fantasy” written by Joshua Rosfield before it cuts to black one last time and the game comes to an end.

Now, what does all of this mean? Well, we have reason to believe that it was Joshua who indeed perished on Origin, with his brother Clive living to see another day, and here’s how we came to this conclusion.

Joshua is most likely dead, while Clive is most likely alive

While the game plays around with the idea of Joshua being alive — first through Clive healing his wounds and then that book at the end — it’s safe to presume that the Phoenix indeed perished in the story’s final chapter, “Of Gods and Men.”

For one thing, there’s a side quest with Harpocrates where Clive reveals his intention to put down his sword and put to words what he and the rest of the characters have lived through. And considering the fact that he has no qualms about picking up someone else’s identity, it’s safe to assume that he could’ve been the one who wrote “Final Fantasy” for future generations. In fact, it would be just like Clive to write under Joshua’s name and give credit to Phoenix as the true hero of the story.

The developers have repeatedly told us that Final Fantasy XVI is ultimately Clive’s story, and since the game opens and ends with his monologues, then perhaps he really is the mystery writer of the post-credits scene.

As for that scene involving Jill and Torgal, it is a common belief in Valisthea that Metia grants wishes to those who glimpse it in the night sky. When Metia fades away at the end, Jill sobs and Torgal howls, but perhaps we’re taking away the wrong impression. What if those are tears of joy, and that is a howl of victory?

That’s not to mention another side quest named “Priceless,” which clearly foreshadows the breaking of dawn and Clive’s safe return. At the end of that quest, Jill tells Clive, “I realized, no matter how terrible the night, dawn would always come. That you would always come for me.” Well, isn’t that basically what happened?

What was Ultima’s plan?

In XVI’s final act, it is revealed that Ultima came to Valisthea when his own place of dwelling was taken over by the Blight. Ultima devised a plan to save his kind, but needed a vessel strong enough to channel large quantities of magic, or Aether as it is otherwise known. That’s when he came up with the solution, and that solution was humanity.

In Square Enix’s fictional world, Ultima is essentially the creator of mankind, and the purpose of that creation has been to cultivate Mythos, embodied in Clive, who would be able to channel unlimited amounts of Aether. Ultima planned to use Clive to remake the universe and rid it of the Blight, but in his brave new world, there would be no place for humanity and the defiant “will” that they’ve developed over millennia. As for these petulant children, Clive and the rest of our heroes decide that they won’t go down without a fight, and that it’s up to humanity itself to augur its fate.

Even though they’ll still have the Blight and its monstrosities to contend with for many years — and without magic, it’s going to be an almost impossible job — Clive believes that it’ll still be a better world if they just move past this transition period. (Yes, the climate analogy is very on the nose through the course of the game.)

In the end, Ultima couldn’t help but see humanity as a lesser life form, so Clive and Joshua had no choice but to rid the world of his influence. And they managed to do that, even if at a high cost.

What will the future of Valisthea look like?

Without magic to rely upon, the civilization will definitely regress back into a more elementary state. It might even take the realms hundreds of years to recover from this loss, but at the same time, they won’t have to vie for the control of Mothercrystals and the powers they grant.

What’s more, there won’t be any Bearers or Branded in this new world. These were people of natural magical aptitude, who lived through centuries of repression and slavery at the hands of rulers and people of better means. Now, with Clive destroying any trace of magic, there won’t be any Bearers, and everyone will walk the world in equality.

And even if our main character was dead — which is highly unlikely considering everything we mentioned in this article — the Outlaws at the hideaway would still continue to fight the good fight and help the people move past this desperate season.

Indeed, while the events of that ending were catastrophic in nature, we can safely say that the future of the world looks bright in spite of all the discouraging outcomes, and it has certainly been left in good hands.