Final Fantasy 16 has a different tone from many of the previous Final Fantasy RPGs thanks to the inspiration it draws from other works of fantasy media, particularly Game of Thrones. The acrobatic combat system and terrain-shattering boss fights of Final Fantasy 16 owe a lot to games like Devil May Cry, while the dark, grim plot of the game draws direct inspirations from the politics and shock of the Game of Thrones TV series. Certain characters and story beats in FF16 are near identical to specific characters and plot twists in Game of Thrones.
[Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Final Fantasy 16.]
The music for the menu screen of Final Fantasy 16, a more militant, minor-key version of the classic Final Fantasy game theme, sets the tone for the game's dark, relentless plot line. The land of Valisthea, the setting of Final Fantasy 16, is dominated by six warring nations, each built around giant Mothercrystals that grant magic to their populaces. When one of these nations, the Grand Duchy of Rosaria, is betrayed and destroyed, the fallen prince of that nation, Clive, survives and swears vengeance against those who took everything from him, much like a certain Stark child from Game of Thrones.
10 Clive's Revenge Is Similar To Arya Stark's
Clive Rosfield, as a child of royal blood and Dominant who can channel the power of the fiery Eikon known as Ifrit, shares some elements (literally and figuratively) with Daenerys Targaryen and the dragons she commands. The tempo of Clive's story in Final Fantasy 16, however, owes more to the arc of Arya Stark, who watches her father die and swears an oath of revenge while training to be an unstoppable killer with supernatural powers. They even wind up saving the world from a godly, non-human entity that wants to destroy humanity - Ultima in the case of Clive, and the Night King in the case of Arya.
9 Clive Has Many Jon Snow Parallels
The parallels between Clive and Game of Thrones' Jon Snow are also hard to ignore. Like Jon Snow, Clive Rosfield grows up being the unfavorite child of his mother figure, while still retaining the love and respect of his father. Clive, like Jon, also winds up becoming part of a military group composed primarily of criminal convicts. The big differences between Clive and Jon are centered around their respective mother figures; Jon is scorned by Catelyn Stark for being a bastard child, while Clive, the biological son of Anabella, is scorned for not having grand magical power.
8 Anabella Is Like Cersei Lannister In FF16's Prologue
Though she's married to Final Fantasy 16's equivalent of Eddard Stark, Elwin Rosfield, Anabella is more like Cersei Lannister than Catelyn Stark. Besides being a blond woman, she's also ambitious, elitist, and willing to betray her own husband in order to raise up her favorite child and attain the power she thinks she deserves. The pitiful yet well-earned fate of Cersei in Game of Thrones also rhymes with the fate of Anabella in FF16. Falsely assuming that ruthlessness is the same as pragmatism, both women repeatedly betray and alienate their allies until they have nothing left.
7 Elwin Is Final Fantasy 16's Eddard Stark
In the prologue of Final Fantasy 16, the Father of Clive, the archduke known as Elwin Rosfield hits many of the same plot beats as Eddard Stark from Game of Thrones - an honorable, kind, beloved ruler who is betrayed, overthrown, and decapitated to show viewers that they're not experiencing a fantasy story where good always wins. At the same time, the trust and faith that gets Eddard and Elwin killed also makes them fundamentally better rulers than their fellow aristocrats, who get thousands killed in their power struggles and ultimately wind up ruining the kingdoms they so dearly wish to rule.
6 The Good Guys Frequently Die In Final Fantasy 16
Notionally, the plot of Final Fantasy 16 is supposed to be anti-violence, showcasing the terror, death, and heartbreak caused by power unchecked (as personified by the Dominants). By drawing heavy, explicit inspiration from the later seasons of Game of Thrones, though, Final Fantasy 16's combat mechanics and story do at times indulge in measuring the worth of characters by their willingness to inflict violence. When characters like Eddard or Elwin choose peace, they get betrayed and murdered, while characters like Clive only win by suring the bad guys in violence.
5 Anabella's Betrayal Mirrors The Red Wedding
The end of the prologue in Final Fantasy 16, a flashback showing how Clive was enslaved by the empire that destroyed his home, is gut punch after gut punch of disasters - a castle sacked, a father killed, a brother incinerated, a mother who sells her own son into slavery. This heart-wrenching and sudden, tragic event accomplishes the same feat as the Red Wedding and other sudden tragedies in Game of Thrones (and the original A Song Of Ice And Fire book series) - shocking the hearts and consciences of readers, viewers, and players while also grabbing their attention.
4 FF16's Torgal Resembles Game Of Thrones' Dire Wolves
Torgal, the faithful canine companion of Final Fantasy 16 that accompanies Clive throughout his journey, is a dead ringer for the direwolf companions associated with the children of House Stark in Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire. Besides being faithful wolf friends who (mostly) accompany their human friends through thick and thin, both Torgal and the direwolves of GoT have strange magic attached to them: Starks like Bran can share the senses of their direwolves and even possess them, while Torgal can level up in FF16, transform into a giant monster form, and even cast ice magic.
3 The LeSages Are FF16's Lannisters
The LeSages, the royal family who rule the expansionist Holy Empire of Sanbreque in Final Fantasy 16, and the Lannisters, who rule King's Landing in Game of Thrones, have more in common than just the L at the front of their names. The heads of both families (Tywin and Sylvester) see themselves as Machiavellian political masterminds with the foresight and strength of will to make the hard, yet necessary sacrifices (of their kingdom's subjects). Ultimately, though, these pseudo-cunning patriarchs wind up ruining their own kingdoms, destroying their own families, and dying at the hands of their own sons.
2 Cid's Hideaway Blends The Brotherhood Without Banners & The Wildlings
In Game of Thrones, the Brotherhood Without Banners are a group of knights turned outlaws who act as merciless champions of justice, exacting blood retribution upon nobles who've murdered and abused the smallfolk (i.e. the commoners) of Westeros. Final Fantasy 16's Cid and his Hideaway rebel faction are also an outlaw group that looks out for the little guy, though their approach of finding an isolated wasteland to live free of oppression and kingdom-sanctioned servitude is more like the lifestyle of the Wildfolk who live beyond the Wall in Game of Thrones and consciously reject feudal social structures.
1 Ultima Is Like Game Of Thrones' White Walkers
In more optimistic fantasy sagas, supernatural evils like the frosty undead White Walkers in Game of Thrones or the civilization-corrupting Ultima in FF16 would be seriously taken threats that monarchies would dispatch armies and Warriors of Light to combat. In GoT and Final Fantasy 16, however, the major powers of the worlds are too distracted with their ambitions of conquest and nigh-genocidal military campaigns to realize that world-ending threats are metaphorically on their doorstep. Thematically, though, the motifs of the arrogant entity known as Ultima and the fey-like White Walkers are very different.