FFXVI - Am I crazy?

It's a part of my most hated trend in the video game industry: video games that are ashamed to be video games so they try to fool you into thinking they're a more "respectable" art form like TV shows or movies. The mainstream hype we're seeing is probably that it's popular with Naughty Dog fans rather than Final Fantasy fans.

I wish these types of games would at least consistently ape more interesting TV shows and movies. Alan Wake seems like the only one that didn't aspire to be something forgettable. I don't even like Twin Peaks but at least it's an identity.

This game is okay enough that I'm probably going to eventually finish it but I don't think I'd ever feel tempted to start it again even if somehow every other option available to me were objectively worse because at least some of what's left would be memorable enough to care about.

In general, the graphics are roughly the same as FFXIV.

The graphics are apparently deceptively good. Not immediately jaw-dropping for us lay people like the series is known for but more of a technical quality. I thought it was underwhelming on first glance but I admit I enjoy the things that video brings up now that I've started paying attention to them.

Ff16 is the first final fantasy game I’ve played (so I can’t compare to the others like you can) and at first I felt like this but now that I’m 17 hours in, I get it. It’s just how this game is, it’s not open world. Each area is it’s own thing that you take in.

Games are like an interactive movie and there’s a ratio of moviness to gaminess and this one leans heavier on the moviness side.

Idk just thinking out loud.

This. The reviews never seem to add up for the FF series. I thought the same thing about 15. Not sure who all these mega fans are nowadays, but it’s not those of us were playing FF2 on snes back in the day and whatnot. I’ve wondered about review manipulation on Square Enix’s part though I could just be majorly out of touch. It is possible that people genuinely are seeing something there that I’m not.

I disagree. This is the first game I'm rating over 9/10 since divinity original sin 2.

I specifically like the map style over contemporary, pseudo big(copy pasted), generic open world.

The story is the best I can think of in epic RPGS, maybe throne of Baal or kotor were similarly interesting for me but they are very old so there's some nostalgia.

Only 2 complaints I have are difficulty, there's no reason to hide the hard mode, action is too easy. And side quest design, almost all involving combat.

I haven’t gotten too far (a bit after you unlock your second element abilities) but I agree the reviews seem odd. I think the story so far is decent. The new combat style is not what I’d expect from ff (I miss turn based) but I still enjoyed it. However I think the combat has some depth the game just doesn’t incentivize because encounters are so easy. I read people mention you could do different strategies and playstyles and rack up combos to enemies, but i never found myself using any of that because the combat is so simple you can just do your regular basic attack over and over for every fight and there’s no reward/incentive for not doing that. There’s no items or paths for making a build or strategizing fights. The gameplay feels linear and kind of filler between cutscenes of story. Leveling and gear increases stats but it doesn’t really make a noticeable difference because the game is linear and scales with you.

I wouldn’t say it’s a bad game, but I’m also confused by the super high scores. Also, allegedly they fixed this, but I found myself awkwardly trying to navigate while never using the right analog stick because the camera blur was so bad. Like maybe the graphics are good but I never saw them because every time I moved it was a watercolor painting.

• Yeah, vocal animations for side quests are off, some are saying this is the aftereffect of the pandemic. They also didn't lipsync for Japanese dub, so you might want to stick with that
• As per overworld map, it's similar to FFX
• Side quests are very sparse around the beginning of the game, by the end of the game I was complaining at how unevenly distributed they are that they just drop large number of them before endgame. They are there to flesh out the side characters
• Not sure about graphics, but the music is by same composer Masayoshi Soken
• Is it really Kingdom Heart's combat? I played 90% of KH games and DMC games, and I'd definitely say that it's more DMC combat than KH, considering they hired Ryota Suzuki who designed the combat system for DMCV and Dragon's Dogma as the combat director

If you've played FFX, XIII, 7Remake, Crisis Core, then you'd be less shocked by how linear it is.

I love FF, played them all and generally liked every one to varying degrees. I am about there with you overall on XVI. I liked my time with FFXVI well enough, but in my overall series hierarchy it is basically smack dab in the middle. I thought it was good but it didn't blow me away like a lot of people are raving about. I certainly don't regret playing it, but I also wouldn't want to see this be the direction they take the series from now on.

I liked the characters a lot more than I expected. Story had pacing issues but overall it was good. Music was more atmospheric but generally quite well done, though thinking back to it now I can't really recall any of the music.

Gameplay-wise though, it felt like it was lacking a lot of RPG elements. I don't mind action combat at all, I am not a turn-based purist and I loved FF7R, but the combat in FFXVI seemed like a big step back. There really wasn't any itemization, levels didn't feel that impactful, and even unlocking nodes on the skilltree felt very low impact. About halfway through the game I had unlocked everything I would use until the end of the game, so skill points really ceased to matter. There were no resistances or elements, so even though the game makes a big deal about learning different magic-types (which are all 100% the same as each other), you can approach every single fight exactly the same. The big bombastic kaiju fights people loved were actually my least favourite part though. You were basically given a simplified version of the character you normally play, and they were all about 30% too long. They were a spectacle but weren't actually all that fun or interesting to play.

this is my first Lemmy post and I'm still not sure if there are spoiler tags and such, so I'll try to avoid spoilers as much as possible.

anyway, I don't like this game.

I initially found the combat very fun but mostly flashy. Later on as I got more eikons and I slowly found something that was efficient for me towards the end, I had very little reason to go back and switch up but I appreciated the flexibility. The problem was that all fights essentially went the same way, and it ended up feeling like the combat system wasn't deep enough. I really liked the hunts, however. And there was a particular boss battle that I think was truly executed perfectly.

Outside of combat, gameplay is dire. It's not really worth exploring outside of the critical path - the loot is worthless. Way too many "talk to this person"-style sub quests with, more often than not, little payoff.

The plot is, I think, abysmal. The whole slave story is handled extremely poorly, and seeing how dumb the approach to this theme is, it's not surprising that they flat out refused to include any black people. The outrage would've been too much. Fortunately (?) this whole slave stuff is forgotten halfway through, so you won't really see more of it unless you focus on the side quests. Which... yikes. Some of the worst writing in the game can be found on the side quests. I initially was excited when Vivian was introduced, as I love me a good Map with Floating Heads of Key Players Where I Learn about the State of the World Sequence... but my god it all amounts to nothing but very convoluted ways of saying stuff like "the army moved to this location". Incredibly tedious, and disappointing. As much of a bummer as this whole world is imo.

And speaking of bad writing, all the female characters of the main cast were done a disservice here. Jill during the Iron Kingdom boss fight was especially done dirty.

I have played every single FF from IV till XV (excluding the XIII series), and I don't think this series will be for me anymore if it continues on this direction. I wish this game hadn't disappointed me as much as it did. Spectacle isn't enough to carry a game for me, and while I was not expecting something extraordinary I did expect something more thoughtful than this.

Oh well at least there is still Xenoblade.

Welcome to AAA game reviews. Where every major studios games must receive a high score, or they won't get review copies for the next game from that studio. With rare exceptions.

I mostly liked it but ended up giving up 2/3rds of the way through.

Combat wasn't really changing other than new flashy skills occasionally. I was fighting the same way in hour 5 that I was in hour 50. No new weapons in a game trying to be a bit of DmC meets Final Fantasy was a miss for me. Gear was basically useless as well.

I get this is personal opinion, but Clive and Jill were immensely boring to me as leads. The story was good, but had pacing issues where it was obvious they padded for time and designed it the same way they do FFXIV expansions.

I've been really enjoying it so far, but there are certain aspects that could use more polish. Like some textures in scenes that could use more love, or when the end of a quest boots you to the overworld map but you only have one location you can choose. In that instance it should just load you into the next area rather than put you on a map with a bunch of crossed out areas. That being said, I don't mind the overworld map as a mechanic at all.

Past that, the combat is fun and the world feels very "Final Fantasy" which I haven't felt in a while (other than FFXIV). I've never played Kingdom Hearts but I've played most of the FF games and I don't mind that they chose to go full action in this one. It feels like it fits the game well, at least in my opinion. There are definitely periods with less/no side quests but in those instances, just play through the story. It's not going to compare to the amount of quests FFXIV had, and that's okay.

The graphics are certainly similar to FFXIV, but for the most part I think they look better. Same with the music, I haven't examined each track and compared it to FFXIV but while playing it felt familiar but new. I didn't notice any similarities with animations, but that could just be me.

I have not finished the game yet, but am looking forward to playing through it. Furthermore, I plan to play through New Game + as well, which is rare for me personally.

When the first trailer for this game came out I basically went media blackout on it until the game demo was released. I find I've been doing this more and more with games and movies lately, it makes the whole experience better. No overhype, no pre-orders, no spoilers, less disappointment.

It may not be 10/10 but in my opinion it's damn close.

I love FFXVI, and I understand the pacing and sidequest criticisms. I'm nearing the final boss battle, and let me tell you, the pacing gets worse as the game goes on.

The sidequests feel like all the budget was funneled towards the huge setpiece moments (which are cool), and then everything else was tacked on as an afterthought. They're just so flat and boring. I do recognize the need for quiet moments in between the huge bombastic scenes, and sidequests sort of do that in the beginning, but they just drag. On. So. Long.

It's hard to understand when there's 5 high-octane boss battles in a row in between two 4-hour fetch quest sessions.

I do really enjoy the story and characters overall, though I have some criticisms here, too. (Like Jill being relegated to "useless damsel".) I enjoy the reflection of the slavery themes in both the beginning and end of the game, the fact that the characters want to overthrow oppressive systems for the good of all (and are allowed to! Refreshing!), the dark tone, the political focus. I find Clive an incredibly endearing protagonist. I think the deciding factor for if you enjoy the game is whether or not you like the story, since it's what holds everything together.

I really like XVI, but could do with a different combat system. I’m really not great with super fast-paced, twitchy button mashers, so combat in XVI has been kind of frustrating for me. I might need to step back and revisit XII for a breather when I finish this game.