Active Time Lore Is The Best Part Of Final Fantasy 16

Final Fantasy XVI has been on my wish list for a long time, but I heard about the new Final Fantasy XV. Game of ThronesI was worried that I would get overwhelmed with dense fantasy literature. Worldbuilding is not just about creating characters or cities. Some creators go deeper, creating pantheons with gods, centuries of conflict and war, even whole languages. It can make the world seem more real, but it is also incredibly confusing for the audience, who are then thrown into an ocean of unknown proper nouns before getting to know characters. Luckily for me, Final Fantasy XVI developers anticipated the problem and created a workaround: Active Time Lore.

During cutscenes in FFXVI you can use the DualSense Controller’s touchpad to bring up a list of character descriptions and definitions that are relevant for the moment. You can use it when you’re forgetting a character or need to remind yourself which country is which. It’s easy to understand and digest because the glossary only covers terms that are relevant at that particular moment.

If you activate active time lore outside of cutscenes, it will give you important details regarding your current location in the story.

By associating images with certain facts about FFXVI’s Valisthea world, active time lore also helped me remember them. The subtitles are always on, even though I do not have hearing difficulties. This is because it helps me to process places and names much easier if I know how the words are spelled. Active Time Lore allows you to take this concept a step further and look up the fantasy word in question.

Even though it’s only been a couple of hours, I was able to make the connection between some countries and their primary flag colors. The characters’ faces are also always shown, making it easier for people with trouble associating their names and faces to remember who they are.

Active Time Lore would be helpful if you were to take a long break from playing the game. You can quickly refresh your memories on characters and important events, whether you’ve bounced back or simply got distracted by other life issues.

To get even deeper and discover story details you missed, visit Harpocrates’ Thousand Tomes, which is located in Cid’s Hideaway. Harpocrates will update his archive with the information you provide him as you interact with him during your journey. It is possible to look up any Active Time Lore article, and it provides suggestions of other articles you should review. The entry “Eikon”, for example, might lead you to the entries “Magic”, “Dominant” and “Crystal.”

Theoretically, I could have just googled all of the nouns that you needed a reminder on. But, it’s better to not do so. This is much more convenient. It would take me a couple of seconds to pull out my smartphone, but I prefer to have everything at my fingertips, since I won’t need to try to remember how to spell words that I made up. There are many spoilers on the internet. When you enter a character’s name in a search engine, it will usually immediately suggest plot twists and death scenes. Active Time Lore automatically updates the entries in the book as you advance through it. Sometimes, even characters that you haven’t yet met are added.

It is important to note that this Active Time Lore System is an entirely optional mechanism. More power to you if this is your thing! Active Time Lore can be used at any time, even if you don’t need it. It is there in case your memory fails and you lose track of which country is which. The story can be understood without exposition, and the writers have more space to develop the plot.

Active Time Lore, while not a huge deal to some people, is my favourite thing about Final Fantasy 16 and an example of how I enjoy experiencing stories via video games. The interactive aspect of video games allows me to better understand the story. It’s not a great story that happens in video games, it is a good story because it occurs in videogames. Make no mistake – I’ve enjoyed Final Fantasy 16 a lot more specifically because of this mechanic. Knowing every character’s name and their allegiances really helps me skip past the lore barrier I was afraid of and properly get invested in the plot.

Now I just need to figure out how to convince From Software to add this mechanic to Elden Ring…