Two of the most anticipated games coming to the PS5 happen to share a striking similarity, beyond their obvious action RPG-centric gameplay mechanics. Both Guerrilla Games' Horizon Forbidden West and Square Enix's Final Fantasy 16 are set to revolve their plots around mysterious blights. Despite limited details regarding either phenomenon, ahead of a potential future reveal for Final Fantasy 16, it's already possible to predict how the blights will be similar in effect and origin.

In the real world, a blight is described as a disease or pestilence that specifically targets, damages, and kills plant life over a period of time. In high fantasy and science fiction-inspired settings, like those seen in Horizon Forbidden West and Final Final Fantasy 16, it can take on a much grander ecological presence, and can even directly influence other organic life, machines, and magic. On the surface, this narrative trope appears to be the main driving force of the plot in each game, however there's evidence in both circumstance that suggests the blight is more a symptom of two unseen threats.

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Horizon Forbidden West's Red Blight

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From the handful of trailers that have released so far, it's clear Horizon Forbidden West's blight is a recent phenomenon that's sprung up after the events of the first game. Dubbed the "Red Blight" because it takes on a red tendril-like appearance, the disease has rapidly devastated the west coast of the United States by the time Aloy arrives in San Francisco. Decimating crops, starving animals, and setting groups of humans against each other as they desperately scramble for resources, this version of the blight appears to operate similar to real-life plagues during the Middle Ages. What's striking is the fact that it doesn't appear to be spreading in isolation, as superstorms are happening in conjunction with its appearance, suggesting some unseen power is manipulating both events.

The lore in the first Horizon has already established a chain of events that makes it possible to piece together a potential explanation for where the blight came from. The soundest theory revolves around the titular Zero Dawn project, which was designed to repopulate the world following the Faro Plague robotic apocalypse. At the center of the process was an artificial intelligence named GAIA, tasked with terraforming and preparing the Earth so it could thrive again. At an undetermined point after the AI successfully completed its mission, an unknown signal activated and granted one of supercomputer's alternate modes, HADES, a will and intelligence of its own. Much of the original Horizon Zero Dawn followed Aloy's attempts to prevent the failsafe from eradicating all organic life for good. There's reason to suspect this was only the start of its plans, however, and that the blight might be its backup scheme.

During that original journey, Aloy forged an uneasy alliance with a mysterious individual known as Sylens, who is later revealed to have assisted HADES in the aftermath of its reactivation. Having played a part in ending the AI's attempts to restart the Faro Plague, Sylens is later seen rendezvousing with it, before pledging to uncover who sent the signal that started the chain of events. This cliffhanger ending sets up Horizon Forbidden West's blight considering Sylens was shown to be on the scene in the game's initial reveal. HADES' original function as a final resort failsafe means there's a chance that the blight ravaging the world is just one of tools in its arsenal. What's less clear is weather or not Sylens is the one puling the strings, or if he's once again misplaced the murderous machine and allowed it to fall into the hands of others.

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Final Fantasy 16's Blight

Some fans believe that joshua will turn out to be the antagonist of final fantasy 16

By comparison, the plot of Final Fantasy 16 is more unknown, considering there's less material to pour over and each installment in the franchise operates as its own standalone adventure. The presence of a blight can still be strongly felt throughout the game's 'Awakening' announcement trailer, however, and is clearly set to play a pivotal role in directing events and characters. On Square Enix's website, the blight is teased as being a threat that will leave the world in ruin if left uncontested. With all signs pointing to some form of time jump being an element of the game's plot, there's a decent chance this is a deliberate prophecy.

Just like Horizon Forbidden West's 'Red Blight,' Final Fantasy 16's also appears to be targeting crops and resources. In one of the scenes where leading man Clive can be seen fighting a grotesque Malboro, the landscape appears to have been devastated and turned into a swamp, which blights and plagues have historical done in other fantasy media. Whenever the game releases and spills its secrets, it won't be the first time an installment in the franchise has tackled the trope either. As recently as Final Fantasy 15's Starscourge, plagues have been menacing the franchise's protagonists.

In that game it was revealed there was more to the plague than it being just a random force of nature. The comparisons with Guerrilla Games' sequel continue into this department as well, as it appears both will also pull a similar bait and switch. Similarly to the storms ravaging the background of Horizon Forbidden West, Final Fantasy 16 appears to have a concurrent problem with Eikons and Dominants, as well as a large multinational war for control of the Crystals that power the world.

It's not hard to imagine both events could be linked to the blight, either as a direct symptom or indirect consequence of it. The question of what force is behind the phenomenon is, and their motivation for doing so, is perhaps the biggest narrative point both games will need to answer.

Horizon Forbidden West is in development for PS4 and PS5. Final Fantasy 16 is in development for PS5.

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