Filmmaker Reacts: Final Fantasy XVI ENDING 

What is your theory on the Ending of Final Fantasy XVI? Subscribe here and Follow me on twitch.tv/philiphartshorn Watch my new film HERE: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-hfevXdazXyg.html Follow my Twitter: Twitter.com/philipharts

FF16 was amazing and the best screenplay written for an FF game. Best quote of the series "It's who we are...We fight. We survive. We endure. We don't need a reason. We are imperfect creatures. When we stumble, we reach for a shoulder to lean on. When we fall, we stand back up. We see the horizon, ever out of reach, and still we march on...certain the answers lie just beyond it. Because that is our way..."

FFXVI is a masterpiece. Another memorable mainline FF title.

I heard that Ben Starr’s dad recently died. Like right before recording and the pain you hear in his VA is all real. What a guy.

gotta admit props to Ultima so chill with his dying words "Fine. Enjoy dying on your shitty planet, idiot." hahaha

Hands down, one of the best final boss fight i ever seen.. that punch in the end was so satisfied to watch

Clive also narrates the story at the beginning and at the end. Thats another hint he wrote the book

Ultima + Mythos = Final Fantasy

This game is 16/10!

The look of absolute pure joy on your face repeatedly… what an ending of epic proportions!

This video dropped 🤌 exactly when I emotionally needed it. Bless up @Philip !

this was epic to experience live!

Cannot wait to watch your take on this!

No pre-rendered stuff here sir. Thats all the power of the PS5. According to the devs the only pre rendered scene in the game was the large scale war with Titan at the very beginning. Squares higher ups want to cut down on the number of pre rendered cutscenes in games to save money and due to consoles now being powerful enough to push near pre-rendered quality visuals. Takai said he had to beg and show the execs why it was necessary to have even just that one pre rendered scene due to the technological limits of not being able to have that many characters on screen at one time, along with all the other stuff that was also happening in screen. The fact that the graphics in these games are so good now that they fool you and many other people, makes me happy because we’re almost there, where you won’t be able to tell pre-rendered from realtime and we’re maybe only 1-2 gens away from realtime photo realism 😄😄😄

Kazutoyo Maehiro who wrote the script for the game mentioned in interview that he lift the ending opening to interpretation and will not give an answer if Clive is dead or alive... as for the events of the game they did happened, so you are not playing a character in book, that explanation for the post credit very weak base on the new lore book for FF16 (Ultimania) .. you have 700 pages about the history of the world of FF16, include the backstory of Cid - Dion - Benedikta - Hugo - Barnabas - Mid - Anabella..., i'm not going to spoiler it for you... as for what i think : I'm pretty sure Joshua is dead, here why : 1.when Joshua give Clive the phoenix in the end he said :"this body far gone" ,"i'm proud to call you my shield", "thank you for being my brother, now the world need you" that sound like a long goodbye. 2.when Clive try to heal Joshua after he beat Ultma, you have Clive closing his eyes and remembering the blessing of the phoenix and when Joshua was born, this is Clive coming to term with Joshua death... 3. Clive line after the flashback : "it seems Ultima's power was too great for this vessel all along", i took it that with all Ultima's power he can't bring the dead back... *also if you remember when Clive visit the hideaway and put a flower (after killing Titan) he said to Gav : "live has a beginning and an end, even the phoenix can't bring the dead back to life".. IF JOSHUA IS DEAD then who wrote the book i can think of 3 possibility, let me start with the negative ending : Clive is dead, so that leave Jote and the undying who wrote the book under Joshua name... positive ending : Clive is Alive and he who wrote the book, if you add the side quests near the end : harpocrates give the soles quill to Clive in hope that he write his tale, and the other side quest with Jill where SHE SAID the line : "no matter how terrible the night dawn will always come that you will alwyas come for me clive", Jill line is the end scene : she crying all night after she sees the red star stopped glowing red thinking that clive is dead, but when the sun rise she stops crying and smille, the camra cut to black and clive say "THUS OUR JOURNEY ENDS"... if you play the game end scene in other languages Clive says : "our quest of destroying the mothercrystals is done" instead of "our journey ends", i think that the red star is the mothercrystals.. the last possibility : this is my crazy theory : Jill was pregnant with a child, named him Joshua and he who wrote the book about his father tales and name the book "Final Fantasy" by Joshua Rosfield... Gav last line : when the kid is born he said : "you free" how did Gave know that Clive beat Ultima and the magic is gone just from seeing Jill Crying ???, and if Jill took the red star as a sign that her wish is not coming true and that Clive is dead, that also can means that Clive lost to Ultima ??? the only thing that make sense to me : "Red Star = Mothercrystals", that what i think, here is why : 1.the game opening scene with the camera focus on the moon and the red star with Clive voice over talking about the mothercrystals... 2. and the end scene when the red star stopped glowing red and Jill start to cry thinking that "Clive is dead" until sunrise then she stop crying and smile, then the camara cut to black with Clive saying : "thus our journey ends"...the last line in the game from Clive "thus our journey ends" if you play the game in other languages : Clive say : "our quest of destroying the mother crystal is done"... as for why Jill and Gav thinks Clive is dead, most likely when Joshua explain the tapestry of Ifrit being Ultima, they took it as if Ultma dies that means Clive dies as well because Ifrit host (Clive) is just Ultima vessel 'Mythos'... BUT WHY I THINK CLIVE IS ALIVE because he evolve beyond 'Mythos' and become "Logas"...

“Now, we have a god to kill.” just summarizes a lot of FF 😂

I'm sad we don't have videos for Titan, or Bahamut, or Odin. There's a huge gap between your last FF16 video and this one, and the VODs going back that far are no longer on Twitch.

I'd like to see a spin off with the hopes of Jill and Clive's child.

Cannot wait for the two upcoming dlcs coming out for this.

Absolutely loved watching your playthrough - to me, this game is a masterpiece. I had the same criticism as you, I just wanted more of the characters lmao. The ending for this game is brilliant in it's ambiguity and how the entire narrative plays into it, there is *so much* rich foreshadowing and theming behind it, even in item descriptions or the missives. I've found a second playthrough/rewatching scenes was incredibly rewarding with context. My personal take, looking at the presentation of the ending and the themes of fighting fate, living on your own terms, hope and faith (specifically in Clive to save himself - Joshua's last words), his promises, and the final sidequests that talk about writing, truth and belief and honouring the dead through books, I really do believe Clive lived to make it back to Jill. I think Jill as the focal point of the ending is super important, because she represents exactly what humanity is facing in the new world Clive made - when Metia fades, she loses her safety net that she's relied upon her whole life (magic), but that doesn't mean there isn't still a reason to hope. "No matter how terrible the night, dawn would always come. You would always come for me."

My take on the ending is this: Clive didn't heal Joshua, he cleaned him so he didn't have to lie there looking bloody anymore, as he deserves better than that. After this Clive used his power to erase magic from the world and ended up on the beach. As Jill is looking out at the horizon, magic dies, and she can no longer sense Clive, causing her to think he has died. We only ever see Clive's one hand turn to stone, but we don't actually see him die. He merely loses consciousness there on the beach and eventually finds his way back home. He eventually moves on, and writes his tale (the quest involving Harpocrates where he tells Clive to do just that is foreshadowing, and hinting at, this happening, and if the book told the entire story of the game, including the battle with Ultima, then Clive would have to be the one to write it, since only he saw that part). He uses his fallen brother's name as his pen name, to honour his memory, and to make sure no one ever forgets that he existed. This story is passed down through the ages and eventually becomes legend. But Clive has at least ensured that his brother's legacy, and the legacies of all of those people he loved, will be known by many, many people, even if they do just consider the story to be a fairy tale.

@6:20 “ It’s amazing.” I’m like, “sameee” Beautiful scene.

Dammit I thought I could finally put away my thoughts for the game months after I completed it but I’m more than happy to revisit the end again with your reaction. I love the game but not enough can be said about both Clive as a protagonist but also his relationship with Jill which felt so real. As for the ending, because of how locked away the last side quest is where harpocrates gives Clive the pen to write a book, it’s obvious to me Clive survives and writes the book but pens it under his late brother’s name. Also based on what we have seen of the curse, just turning to stone doesn’t immediately mean death. I think after he expended his last magic and his hand turns to stone, that should be it.

I hope a DLC with Cid's history and extend the other characters' history as well

Will you play FF mode?

Loved this game so much, one of my fav FFs. I hope this team gets another chance on perfecting their craft. This was their first console game in a long long time since 12.

God, sooo epic doooooood

Joshua does not survive. Its mentioed in the game lore somewhere that the phoenix can mend the flesh, but not the soul. Clive wrote the book, in Joshuas name to honor him as he honored Cid. There is a side mission for Harpocrates at the end where they talk about Clive wanting to become a writer after all is said and done. Yes, Clives hand turns to stone, but so did Cids, and he continued to live for a while after. But HEY! Thats juuuust a theory, A GAME THEORY!!!

The ending is absolutely heartbreaking. Clive spends the entire game fighting for others and ultimately dies completely alone.

About the ending, you must know that Clive, Joshua AND Dion died. No one survived that night. A lot of copium theories say that Clive wrote the book or that Joshua died or what not but the fact is that no one survived and I have the anwser about who truly wrote the book: Dion obviously died you saw what happened Joshua Obviously died too since Clive and Joshua said that phoenix can't bring people back to life and Clive having ultima's power don't change anything since if it was the case Ultima would be immortal and would revived his kin without having to do all his big plan with the mother crystals. So yeah Joshua died. Clive died and its crazy how many thing in the game prove that any theorie hinting his survival got debunked by the in-game event itself. First off, Clive's goal was to create a world where people could live AND DIE in their own term. But to create such a world you have to live that type of life yourself and you see him doing just that throught the whole game. Struggling to live in his own term: as a human against people who deny him that right (the higher up and Ultima) and he died in his own term. In his case he LITERALLY setup his own death terms when he destroy Origin (he said: I'll destroy ultima's legacy... "Even if it's mean the end of me... That is our TERMS"). See? He choose how he wanted to live and Die, choice that he want to give the whole humanity. That's why him dying make perfect sense because that's what he wanted and the reason why you got SO MANY death flag during the pre-final battle scene the man knew he wasn't going out of there alive. That is the choice he believed in and choose for himself. And remember Jill did told him to BELIEVE in his own choice because she does believe in his, that's why in the ending, when the sun goes up, Jill stop crying because by seeing the dawn she understand that it was Clive choice to die for creating this new world, and her crying would mean that she deny his choice for her desire to be with him, and that would be a betrayal to everything she told him during the beach scene and the pre-final battle scene. So she stop crying, accepting Clive choice and believing in it. Clive being dead is what give real weight to the ending, that 's what complete the story perfectly. Also the man got his ENTIRE arm in stone in second during the ending, couldn't move a finger like he obviously died due to the curse. Torgal howling is a BIIIIG giveaway too. Remember during Torgal last side quest: Torgal searched Clive during 13+years after the Phoenix gate incident, cause he knew the man wasn't dead even tho he had no proof since he did not saw him . Torgal couldn't know that Clive was Ifrit and did not saw Clive getting jack up by the imperials. So he instinctly knew that Clive was out there. Here in the ending Torgal doesn't even bother searching for him he just cry and howl to mourn his master EVEN THO the situation in Torgal perspective is the same as during the Phoenix gate incident. So that mean Torgal KNOW when Clive is dead or not. Here Torgal knew that he died so he didn't bother consoling Jill or telling her in his manner that Clive survived he just cry with her because he KNOW that Clive is dead. Also in a interview it was said that during our first encounter with Lord Byron, the reason why he say that Clive is a bad liar is because he's terrible at it, like you can see through his lies like you see through glass. And that the reason Jill bow her head during the Pre final Battle scene when Clive promise that he'll come back to her is because she see through his lie. Him saying that he'll come back for sure is a lie because he don't believe it himself but since he want to reassure her he say it anyway. Another hint toward Clive knowing he won't come back alive from that Final Fight. For the message the game want to transfert to the player and also the human in the FF16 world to have real weight, Clive have to die. So that the human who knew him start to live and display his way of life to the entire world like he did to passed down his legacy, A.K.A passing down to humanity how to live and die in your own terms, like he said during his talk in the balcony with Joshua and during his discussion in Dhalmequie with Lord Byron just before the Titan fight in Dhalmequie, when he said he wanted to share with the people the way his dad was living, passing through his dad legacy that merged with his. Everyone played their part, living with Clive's legacy which is his way of life, that lead us to the after credit scene where we saw the book. So yeah CLIVE IS DEAD 100% if not then the ending lose everything the game built. Now for the book: The one who wrote it is obviously Gav. The man was choose by Clive to be the Third Cid, as such he have the DUTY to fufill the previous Cid's wish/will. And Clive wanted to wrote a book about their adventure. Gav would know about it since he took his room as the 3rd Cid, and in that room you have the Quill Harpocrates gave to Clive to wrote the book, also harpocrates could have told him. Gav CAN wrote the book since he does have EVERY event of the game and EVERY intel on every character of the game in deck due to Viviane and Harpocrates respectively (in the game Viviane give you intel on event and Harpocrates give you intel about character or countries and the more you see him the more you fill up his book). For the event of the Final Battle, he does have every intel he need: -Clive Joshua and Dion went to Origin - They won since Origin got blasted and he would know about it since Origin was visible from the hideaway - Everybody died that night since nobody came back alive Those are the only fact of this final battle and from his perspective for the message he want to pass through to the future generations that is ALL HE NEED TO KNOW. How Joshua and Clive died, how the final battle exactly went as we player saw it are just details to him that he can change however he want since that is not more important that the 3 fact I stated earlier. Kinda like during wars the winner can write whaterver he want about how things happenend but the truth maybe different if you take the loser point of view, but the fact the the winner won is immuable. Here it's the same Gav can say whatever he want about what hapened during the final fight but the fact that they won and that the 3 chads died that night is immuable. So yes Gav could and did write that book it was his duty as the 3rd Cid to do it. The only interpretation worth noticing is the Joshua Rosfield name on the book. My guesses here is that it was a way to say to the player that the story was real since Joshua Rosfield did existed. They did that since the Mother in the after credit scene says that the book is a fairy tale aka saying that everything that happenned in the game was a fairy tail so to reassure the player that it was not the case they put Joshua's name on the book. It could also have been due to Harpocrates advising Gav to do so since Joshua was an historian and Harpocrates was impressed by his knowledge even tho he was young, so that book would be Joshua first historian book, kinda how how Mors, Harpocrates master wrote the book that Joshua's personnal guard had that talked about Ultima and the religion that followed him, religion which Banabas mother was attached too. For the "Final Fantasy" title for the book, could have been a coincidence It's not because Clive said the Final Fantasy thing that he have the right on it Gav could give whatever name he want to the book. And for that matter Gav could have know about the Final fantasy line since during the final Fight you counld hear everyone's voice during the Eikon clashes, with Clive saying "HOOWAY CLIVE!" and stuff. So that mean he was there in spirit, like Jill, Cid and the others. In that case Him naming the book Final Fantasy make sense since he was there to hear Clive's line. In spirit of course but still. But that said it's only an interpretation. So yeah the real only interpretation is about Joshua's name and the Final Fantasy title one the book. Aside from that the game made it pretty clear that Dion Joshua and Clive died that night and that is straight fact. Hope that message clears things up for you. that ending is truly a masterpiece the ending music killed me.

“Film maker”’😂😂

Had a blast with the game.

Hoping to live long enough to play a final fantasy game where you either: 1) You get to play as the "bad" guy 2) The main MC lives and gets the girl (on screen) 😂😂😂

a few moments of a dopamine rush wrapped in a 50+ hour boring mess of a game doesnt make a good game unfortunately

It's not in the future. FFXVI was a fairy tale. Imagine the authors of a book about a story, they want the readers to feel that the story is/was real. That's what is FFXVI. Really cool ending. Final Fantasies are always neverending in our hearts :)

I liked the ending, its kinda what i was expecting. But i didn't feel the romance clive had with Jill, it felt like they didn't have chemistry.

I liked the game, but it failed the meet the mark I really thought that it was gonna hit for quite a few reasons. Time gating so many of the fetch quests and making them so numerous and boring. Also, the most singular, uninteresting and annoying villain I've ever seen in any JRPG ever. The guy was a snoozefest every time he opened his mouse I wanted to icepick my ear canal's. There was a moment of self clarity in the game where Clive even says to him "are you STILL talking?" and I was like YES DUDE even the devs knew it was shit when they where writing his script so why did it make it into the game! Where did all the interesting villains go!