The world setting of the upcoming Final Fantasy 16 is by all accounts an original one. Its themes, however, hearken back to previous FF games.

Contrary to the initial expectations of fans, Final Fantasy 16, the latest installment in the Final Fantasy JRPG franchise, takes place in a brand-new fantasy setting and isn't a direct sequel to any other previous Final Fantasy titles. The trailers and press releases for Final Fantasy 16, however, display core themes, narrative tropes, and symbolism that make the game a spiritual successor to more recently released titles like Final Fantasy 15 and Final Fantasy Type-Zero – games featuring nations built around crystals of immense magical power and magical champions who summons ancient spirits to fight in wars for and against imperial powers.

It's said back in 1987, developers at Square gave the first Final Fantasy RPG, revisited in Strangers Of Paradise, its iconic name because their studio was on the brink of bankruptcy at the time. Regardless of the truth behind this legend, the original Final Fantasy was a huge success on the Famicom and Nintendo Entertainment System. Subsequent sequels pioneered and refined gameplay conventions that became iconic parts of the Final Fantasy franchise as a whole: a library of magical spells with names such as Fira and Cura, open worlds navigated via airships or chicken-like steeds called Chocobos, and pantheons of divine spirits player characters can summon to assist in battle.

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Currently, developers at Square Enix tend to alternate between publishing Final Fantasy games set in science fantasy worlds where magic coexists with modern technology and Final Fantasy games with classic medieval fantasy settings. Final Fantasy 15 took place in a wold with skyscrapers, sports cars, and robotic soldiers, while trailer footage for the upcoming Final Fantasy 16showcase a world with medieval-looking knights, soldiers, and monarchs. Though Final Fantasy 16's setting is original, its narrative of war-torn nations hearkens back to spin-off titles like Final Fantasy Tactics, while its tropes of power crystals and spirit-bonded warriors seems to evoke the themes and the tropes of the connected Final Fantasy sub-series called Fabula Nova Crystallis.

Of all the spin-off from the main Final Fantasy series, Final Fantasy Tactics is a particularly beloved title thanks to its unique art style, grid-based tactical gameplay, and a narrative very much about the harsh costs of war. In the Kingdom of Ivalice, beset by strife between oppressed commoners, war-hungry nobles, and a corrupt church, a former noble squire turned mercenary named Ramza Beoulve fights to save his war-torn land from a demonic invasion even as the powers that be persecute and paint him as a villainous heretic. Besides being a game of fantasy adventure and battles, one that got Square making many clones, Final Fantasy Tactics is, thematically, a cautionary tale about the destructive potential of an a power-hungry aristocracy who views the subjects they rule with contempt.

Final Fantasy Type-0, released back in 2011, took the anti-war themes of Final Fantasy Tactics and transplanted it to a setting that explores the horrors of industrial war. In a world full of kingdoms built around giant power-granting magical crystal, an expansionist empire (led by an evil version of the Cid character archetype) launches a war against the kingdom of Rubrum with devastating military machines and magic-jamming devices. As a class of military cadets immune to the magic-jamming fields leads the defense of their kingdom, they're brutally confronted throughout Final Fantasy Type-0 by the suffering and mass destruction made possible by modern military technology and god-summoning magic.

Related: Why Final Fantasy 16 Isn't An Open World Game

Recent trailers for Final Fantasy 16 paint a picture of a world blending elements from both Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy Type-0. Like in Type-0, the land of Valisthea is divided between realms build around massive crystal formations filled with magic siphoned by mages for military purposes. Similar to Final Fantasy Tactics, the culture and technology level of Final Fantasy 16 is decidedly medieval, and many of the game's realms seem to be ruled by out-of-touch aristocrats with a naked contempt for the welfare of the lower classes they rule (in the recent FF16 State of Play trailer, one of the monarchs shamelessly expounds on how "for every citizen that falls, another can be bred"). True to the spirit of Type-0 and Tactics, the gameplay footage for Final Fantasy 16 doesn't shy away from the harshness of war or the sheer destruction the spirit-bonded warriors called Dominants can unleash; the scenes are awesome and spectacular, to be sure, but do not depict situations any sane person would want to experience in real life.

Starting from the Final Fantasy 13 series, the more recent games in the Final Fantasy franchise have belonged to a sub-franchise referred to as Final Fantasy: Fabula Nova Crystallis in some circles. The settings of each game within this series generally take place in different worlds, but share certain world-building details in addition to the unifying aesthetic of the best-selling Final Fantasy franchise in general. As the series titles suggests, crystals are an important plot device in these games, with nations, kingdoms, and empires seeking to take control of giant crystal formations and the magic power locked within them. Another distinct trope in Fabula Nova Crystallis games like Final Fantasy 15 is the existence of major protagonist who are magically bonded to a powerful Summon like Ifrit, Odin, or Bahamut, and have the ability to call on their power to turn the tides of battle.

In the world of Final Fantasy 16, the chosen heroes who can summon/transform into "Eikons" are called Dominants and are desperately sought out by the nations of Valisthea in order to strengthen their magical and military might. Repeated use of their abilities, according to certain press release, causes Dominants to mutate and take on the characteristics of the Eikons they channel, slowly but surely divorcing them from the humans they chose (or are forced to) protect. As living weapons, Titan and Garuda's Dominants in Final Fantasy 16 are terrifying to behold, and such Dominants are present at the front-lines of every battle in the game, wreaking massive amounts of destruction in order to serve the interest of their nations. A mysterious voice in the latest trailer, however, urges Dominants from all nations in common cause, using their city-wrecking powers to bring an end to the strife between tyrannical nations.

Next: Final Fantasy 16's Biggest Mystery Right Now May Be Ifrit

A Chicago-based Writer, Author and freelance translator. Looking to prep his readers for the next renaissance or apocalypse, whichever comes first. Write and publishes web fiction under the pseudonym Aldo Salt on Inkshares.com.