SPOILER WARNING: This Article Contains MAJOR Spoilers for Final Fantasy 16The opening of Final Fantasy 16 does a little work to set up a budding relationship between protagonist Clive and his childhood love interest Jill. However, while Jill does join the party not long after the thirteen-year time skip, that romance between her and Clive doesn't quite reach the same highs as other Final Fantasy relationships, like the one between Tidus and Yuna in Final Fantasy 10.
This lack of chemistry mostly comes from the fact that the love story isn't front and center in Final Fantasy 16 the way that it is in titles like Final Fantasy 8 or FF10. Even with the caveat that the narrative isn't as about the love story as previous it was in previous games, Clive and Jill still aren't developed enough to compare with Tidus and Yuna.
Romance Baked into Final Fantasy
One difficulty in comparing the love story between Tidus and Yuna against the one between Clive and Jill is that the two narratives they first arrived from go about telling their story in completely different ways. The entire conflict of Final Fantasy 10 comes from the perspective of Tidus coming into the new world of Spira before falling in love with and following Yuna. This sets every major moment through the framing of their relationship, with major moments like Seymour's proposal and marriage to Yuna all happening in conflict with the love story being told.
In addition to the romantic conflicts happening, the motivations of Tidus and Yuna to find a new way to defeat Sin is guided by their ongoing love story. Yuna, fully believing from the beginning that Tidus wasn't from Spira, keeps the fate of her pilgrimage from him to spare him the heartache of always pushing her toward her own sacrifice. The contrasting point is how Tidus, upon learning about the sacrifice needed to collect all of Final Fantasy 10's Aeons and beat Sin, is crushed to find that he'd been unknowingly guiding Yuna to her death. This drama is built directly into how they care about each other, and that emotional connection is a necessity of the story being told.
This is where Final Fantasy 16 differs greatly from some of its predecessors, with the romantic subplot being something that appears in the background and crops up across a few infrequent moments. While the love between Clive and Jill is hinted at from the very beginning, it takes a backseat to the overarching plot of hunting down the Mothercrystals and building a world that no longer oppresses Bearers. The pieces for a great childhood sweethearts love story is there, but barely just.
Clive and Jill as a Symptom of Final Fantasy 16's Deeper Problem
There is a deeper problem that comes with how Clive and Jill's love story fails to really come together throughout most of the game. Outside a handful of Jill focused moments, the character doesn't get too much time to develop onscreen, with Clive's connections to his male companions like Cid and Gav getting more focus. While there are powerful scenes, such as when Jill hands over the power of Shiva to Clive, there is far too little time dedicated directly to her growth apart from her connection to her love interest. In internet terms, Jill fails at both the Bechdel and Mako Mori tests.
It's this inability to give Jill her own time to shine, either through moments of strength as a dominant or emotional strength, that holds her and the relationship with Clive back. Even in the final moments of Final Fantasy 16, when she realizes that Clive has died by watching the red star that represents him and his Eikon fade, she isn't the character given the proper focus. Instead, the player gets to watch Gav cry over his dead friend while Jill disappears out of the room, the camera refusing to follow her in what should be an iconic moment.
Final Fantasy 16 is available now for PS5.
