Final Fantasy 16 follows the story of Clive Rosfield, whose journey started with the demise of his brother Joshua, learning who he really was and what he was fated to do, all the way to fighting against the very god that created them. There is a lot to unpack with how the events of the story played out and ended, so read ahead as we explain the ending of Final Fantasy 16, what its post-credits scene implies, and what can be expected of the game’s future.
Brief Summary of FF16’s story
The story revolves around Clive Rosfield and his brother, Joshua Rosfield, who are both Dominants of Fire and can control the powerful creatures known as Eikons. Unbeknownst to Clive, who was expected to bear the Eikon Phoenix, he is able to summon Ifrit instead, an Eikon later known to have the ability to obtain the other Eikons’ powers. A siege from a warring kingdom awoke both brothers’ Eikons, but they ended up fighting each other, which resulted in Joshua’s “death”.
Driven by guilt but caused by trauma, Clive believed that Ifrit and its Dominant were Joshua’s killers and made it his mission to kill the Eikon instead. Through his mission, Clive meets other allies like Cid, the Dominant of Ramuh, and Jill, the Dominant of Shiva and the Rosfield brothers’ childhood friend. Clive also learns and accepts the fact that he was the one who killed his brother, but then he gets reunited with Joshua, who survived through the power of Phoenix.
Clive then learns about the Mothercrystals and seeks to destroy them in order to stop the blight from further destroying the lands. This task is made difficult by the other Dominants who get in his way. Ultima, a god-like being and the last of an ancient race of creatures, also appears to stir up the chaos in Valisthea and gets in Clive’s way from time to time, working with an ulterior motive that only gets revealed in the final act of the story.
FF16 Ending Explained
We start off the explanation by understanding what Ultima’s goal was. Ultima was part of a race of beings who created the magic that is seen being used in the game. But the use of magic came with a cost, and it caused the blight to run rampant in their world. Being too powerless to stop it, the remaining of their kind fled to Valisthea instead. However, this didn’t stop the blight from following them, as it’s part of the nature of using magic—at least for this physical world.
As a final resort, the beings decided to create a new world, one where the blight could not exist. Creating this new world would require tremendous amounts of magic, so Ultima and his kind went into hibernation and became Mothercrystals that would harvest large amounts of Aether from the world. Before doing so, they also created humanity in the hopes that after many generations, a human known as the Mythos would be born. This Mythos would then serve as their vessel, as it would be strong enough to harness and wield the magic that they needed to create their new world.
Humans were made to be subservient to Ultima and its kind, but after being neglected due to the beings’ hibernation, humans slowly gained free will and started to think for themselves instead. These humans also learned how to use magic on their own, hence the existence of the Bearers and the Dominants. The world then progressed, or regressed, to its current state in the game, until one day, Ultima’s hibernation was disrupted because of Clive and Cid’s actions.
Fast forward to the final encounter, and Clive, being the Eikon of Ifrit and the mythical Mythos that Ultima was waiting for, finally realizes what he was born for. Clive also realized that the reason Ultima was throwing all the challenges in his way was to test him and make sure that he was prepared to become their vessel. This spells trouble, as once Ultima fully reawakens with its kind and the spell to create a new world begins, all of humanity will be wiped from existence.
After an epic battle against Ultima and winning against the god, Clive is left with all of the Eikons’ powers in him, including Phoenix’s that Joshua gave up before dying upon Ultima’s reawakening. With the threat of the blight still present and the unfair mistreatment towards magic bearers still plaguing the land, Clive decides to banish all magic in existence and sacrifices himself to do so, but not before healing his brother’s injury using Phoenix’s power, albeit it was not shown whether Joshua was actually revived from the act. The story ends with Jill lamenting Clive’s loss after sensing that he’s already gone.
FF16 Post Credits Explained
After the credits roll, the scene shifts to two kids who resemble a young Clive and Joshua playing outside their house. The older kid then gets called by his mother and is asked to help by lighting the fire pit. The kid then exclaims that he wishes to have the power of the Eikons so that he could just start a fire without too much effort. His mother then replies that he and his brother have been reading too much of their fantasy book.
The scene then pans to the desk as the kid heads back outside to play with his brother. The book on the desk is titled “Final Fantasy,” written by Joshua Rosfield. The scene then ends by showing the brothers playfully roleplaying the “War of the Eikons”.
This post credits scene suggests that a couple hundred years have passed since the events of the game’s story, and that magic and everything related to it have now been reduced to something that only exists in mythical stories. As for the book, it’s not fully certain whether or not Joshua actually lived and wrote the book as a way to document the events, or perhaps the author of the book just took his name as a pen name.
Future of FF16 stories
The ending of FF16’s story pretty much seals off any possibility of it getting a sequel, especially now that its main character is dead and Valisthea is now magic-less. It’s not a first for the Final Fantasy franchise to have a sequel-less game anyway.
However, this may not be the last time that we see Clive or the rest of the crew, as there is still a chance that they will show up in spin-off titles, such as any Dissidia-like game that may come out, or in mobile games like Brave Exvius. If ever Square Enix decides to come up with some sort of DLC for the game, it may as well happen along the same timeline as the main story but from a different character’s perspective.