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Sometimes you see a character and experience such a profound sense of disgust that it can only be summarized with the words, “ABSOLUTELY NOT.” Ultima, the villain from Final Fantasy XVI, is one of those characters. With his creepy, sunken eyes, thin lips, and voice that sounds like someone thrashing against the sides of an enormous cheese grater, Ultima is an extremely unpleasant character to spend time with. This is part of the reason why he works so well as a foil to our best boy, Clive Rosfield. 

As an ardent lover of Final Fantasy XVI (except for you, Ultima, screw you), I spent the majority of the Magic: The Gathering x Final Fantasy panel today wondering what the cards from the most recent entry in the FF franchise were going to be. Seeing how gloriously villains from previous entries in the franchise were rendered by artists like Tetsuya Nomura and the GOAT, Yoshitaka Amano, I was looking forward to seeing how Ultima would be rendered in card form. Because I’ll admit, when I’m playing against someone, I want to always incorporate an element of psychological warfare. By throwing down Ultima, I can let my opponent get lost in his disgusting, soulless eyes. Or perhaps start speaking in his cheese grater voice for maximum impact. 

But alas, no dice. No Ultima. Just our two heroes, Jill and Clive, and a variant of the game’s version of Cid - all of whom I’ll never complain about seeing. Without an Ultima card, I suppose it will be up to me to start conversations in the real world about all the ways that Ultima psychologically scarred me while I was playing Final Fantasy XVI. What a Herculean task. 

Anyways, there’s a very good reason as to why Ultima isn’t in the Magic: The Gathering crossover. The development team over at Wizards of the Coast have been developing this crossover set for four years. Final Fantasy XVI came out in 2023, so the devs had to try to play through as much as they could and as quickly as they could when the game was released, in order to get ideas on how to incorporate elements of it in their set. As the newest mainline game in the franchise, XVI hasn’t had the chance to gain iconic status quite yet, though I’ll happily talk anyone’s ear off about how lovely Clive is. Or how gorgeous the score is. I’ll freaking do it, Square Enix, even if it means spending more time looking at Ultima. 

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