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[Chukhopops]

I haven’t finished it yet, so far it’s better than I expected.

The best part of the game is Clive. Maybe it’s because of the promotional material, or maybe it’s because of the Clive avatars on this board but I expected some Shadow the Edgehog variation. Turns out he’s really interesting personality wise. It helps that the VA is excellent. Game is also really pretty.

But yeah the game is full of flaws, too easy, equipment does nothing, party members might as well not exist, lots of filler content, terrible performance mode. I also find the Eikon vs Eikon fights kinda boring to play and to watch. They’re also waaay too long.

8/10 so far.

 

[StueyDuck]

To me this is all the games this year. We've had some really good games. Jedi 2, hogwarts, totk, ff16, starfield etc...

These are really good games but they all are really extremely iterative of what came before, they haven't really pushed any boundaries or have done anything interesting, they all have
Worthy criticisms but they are also fun and anyone coming with takes like they are bad or awful, as well as they are basically the second coming of Jesus are being a bit disingenuous.

The only game I can't talk about is BG3 because I was in early access ages ago on steam and haven't put the time yet in the final game, but I feel I'm going to have the same opinion on that if I did also.

It's a year of really good games and we should all have fun and also be open to criticism on these titles too.

 

[peish]

It has great art, great music.

SPOILERS


I think it needs remake, or re-editing parts of the story.

I wish Clive can double jump, add some vertically to world exploration.

As much as critics ding on the side quests, i dont think they are that different from other games. They could reduce the number of quests, remove the automation and fast travel, drawn out the quests i guess

 

[Virex]

I actually like 15 more than 16. And I didn't like Final Fantasy 13 as much as the games that came before it, when it released, but I recently replayed it and enjoyed a lot. It's more Final Fantasy than 16 can ever be. I did replay Final Fantasy 13 recently and I don't know if it's because I'm older, but I actually enjoyed it more than I did when it released. I did like 13-2 a lot. Lightning Returns was just shit.

 

[UnNamed]

I've played just for few hours, but it seemed to me more like a Devil May Fantasy than an actual Final Fantasy.

 

[DenchDeckard]

It's like a good 6 out if ten or maybe a 7 if you're feeling nice.

Terrible side content, shits itself half way through after an amazing opening where it planted seeds of political intrigue and warring nations, and turns into typical end of the universe tropes.

It literally is the sine wave of video games. Build up to boss fight...drop off and do the same mundane crud as you slowly advance to the next anime big bombastic fight with cutscenes. Rinse and repeat.

Just serviceable combat too.

FFVIIR looks so much better. Can't wait for that but ffxvi was a let down for me.

 

[Hohenheim]

I didn't bother with any of the side quests. Thst stuff is always terrible in these games. Some of the main quests was really boring as well, but the epic set pieces and the highlights made up for it.
First half of the game is great, but some serious pacing issues in the later part of the game.
Overall a solid step up from the snozefest that was FF7 remake.

7,5/10

 

[Heisenberg007]

It has a few small flaws, but overall it's a fantastic banger game unlike anything we have! 9/10.

 

[BbMajor7th]

Not a fan - I think I managed about 20 hours and then lost interest. The combat got repetitive quick, the RPG elements were window dressing, the quests were linear AF and the writing was pretty dismal. Cid had a sense of humour and a bit of personality, but the rest - particularly Clive - we're 2D character cut-outs propped up with cliches.

Feels like SE wants the Final Fantasy franchise to be anything but Final Fantasy these days.

 

[IAmRei]

It is not everyone cup of tea, i see.

 

[GymWolf]

It has a good first half.

Then It gets soo anime cringe and unchallenging and shitty paced that i got bored 5 hours before the finale and never completed it

6,5 game, maybe a 7 if you really enjoy big setpieces with limited gameplay (the highs of the game)

The choice of having easy mode as the only mode available for the first run was moronic to say the least.

This yoshi p dude better work on mmorpg and nothing else from now on.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

The game is good enough and I like the gameplay, but for some reason I still haven't finished it.
Maybe because my gf bought me FFXIV Endwalker and that got me distracted, along with Wayfinder.

Think I'm halfway through. Should get back to it.

 

[Lethal01]

FF13 had more fun combat

 

[sigmaZ]

I just beat final fantasy xvi last night, and it made me realize a lot of posts on here (including my own in the past) claim it’s a bad game.

Let’s get it right out of the way — the game has issues, but some of these complaints are within other games this year that are getting far more praise. Oddly enough I think those complaints are blown way out of proportion but in context this is a game of its parts and not the overall package that shines.

Issues consist of:
- Awful Side quests. Only a few have some great writing and add to the overall story package. Too many are generic mmo filler. The complaint added to this issue is you often go to point X and stand as two characters just talk to each other…. You mean like in BG3 and Starfield? Difference here is it isn’t a giga close up in first person of awkward facial expressions.

- The game has poor pacing. After playing through all of it , no, it doesn’t. It DOES if you do all the side quests definitely because the game is back loaded. Final two chapters will dump 20+ on you when earlier game would maybe have 3 at most. They needed to be spread out more. The actual story is very well paced and knows how to keep a good roller coaster effect of highs and then chill a little to build back up.

- The game has piss easy combat. Yep. There’s no doubt the combat is flashy and to me was fun, especially once you get more eikon powers to tinker with, but at no point is anything remotely challenging. Even on final fantasy mode in NG+ it is all a joke. Not everything needs to be dark souls difficulty but I would’ve liked a couple bosses or hunts to give me some game over screens.

- The game has no real progression. It’s all on rails progression, and with how easy it is none of the upgrades you get actually matter.

- There is no reason to explore. Chests off the beaten path give you 10 scales for crafting. It’s a lot of empty vistas with a few enemies sprinkled throughout.

- The game could use visual changes to gear equipped not just your swords. Different armors, gauntlets , etc to change up Clive’s look.

- Square needs to stop putting 60% of the lore into books and notes you can read in these games.

————-

That’s the negatives. On paper it seems bad right ? But for me the good outweighs it by a metric mile. You have a game that has a wonderful story, cast of characters that shine, terrific voice acting and music(holy shit that soundtrack slaps) , fun combat to the credits, and some of the highest highs I’ve experienced in a game with boss fights. The sheer scope dwarfs prior attempts like God of War games.

I’ll also add the visuals are top notch, and as someone who loathes 30fps I promise you the quality mode with VRR forced is the ONLY game I’ve ever played where 30fps was buttery smooth. I wish more devs if they do 30fps modes would steal this voo doo magic and used it so it isn’t choppy and weird.

I prefer this game over 15&13, but I don’t think it trumps anything FF12 and prior. It DOES have my favorite protagonist with Clive, and I don’t think any FF game has presented a story better, but other FF have overall better packages. Like mentioned, it’s a sum of its parts.

There’s plenty to improve on here and all reasonable to do that FF17 could be a no brainer GOTY contender when it hits.

What did GAF think ? I dropped the game at the second time skip, but when I came back to it I was hooked and couldn’t put it down. Kupka onwards took the game to 11/10 status, but ultimately the game is a 9/10 for me in a year filled with superb titles like Zelda, BG3, etc.

I encourage anyone who dropped it to come back and finish it when the mood strikes. It’s worth the story payout and to experience the epic boss fights first hand.

-Started out pretty strong, but fell apart not long after the demo.
-Story points/mechanics were awkwardly handled at times breaking immersion on my end and the horribly quests only made the game feel more like a slog. Dion's story was the one exception. Due to his arc's great plot action and narrative being told mainly through cutscenes, his story resonated with me the most and was the only character I really cared out.
-The battle system felt good mechanically, but as an RPG there was very little depth or interesting abilities to be had. Some open world games have better abilities to unlock in the sense of variety.
-Transversal was garbage-tier. No proper run button. Boring field design with little purpose in exploring due to abysmal use for items and equipment. Mostly bland environments didn't help in this regard either.
-Graphics looked good in some respect. The particle stuff, especially on the Bahamut battle looked really in HDR as did any glowy crystals in darker areas. However, the overall world look pretty drab and uninspired outside of certain backgrounds. The character models too outside of the main cast I found pretty off putting. Felt too close to the FF14 character designer for my lighting. I hate all the ugly, ill conceived facial marks and such as well. I played this directly after Horizon 2, so there was definitely some things that stood out more in my case.
-Music had some highlights like Away, but overall it didn't impress me much. Just kind of felt like it was there. There were even a few tracks that felt out of place, which is something I don't ever remember experiencing in an RPG (well maybe those vocal tracks in FF13).
Overall I enjoyed small parts, but it definitely wasn't the highlight of this year as I had hoped it would be. When all is said and done I got far more enjoyment out of Baldur's Gate 3, Octopath Traveler 2, and Tears of the Kingdom.

 

[kittoo]

Damn right it's a good game. Enjoyed my time with it very much.

 

[FunkMiller]

It’s fine for a linear, simple, action game.

It‘s dog shit for a Final Fantasy game.

 

[Three]

I also personally really enjoyed it, I replay it immediately after finished my fist playthrough so yeah it was great game in my opinion even if most dont agree with me.

Most actually agree with you, just look at the user and critic reviews for the game. There is just a very loud minority.

 

[GymWolf]

It’s fine for a linear, simple, action game.

It‘s dog shit for a Final Fantasy game.

Way too bloated and easy for an action game tho, you give this pace and challenge to the next dmc\bayo and players around the world are gonna commit sengoku.

 

[The artful mincer]

I had more fun watching the rebirth trailer than FF16

FF16 is an odd game for me. I enjoyed playing it but don't want a main FF team to touch this formula with a 10ft bardge pole ever again.

Take Ryo Sususki and do a spin off action game or something.

It completely changed my view that FF can be whatever the creators want it to be blah blah and all that guff.

Bollocks it's a long running franchise sorry certain things need to be there. If you want to change it too much just make a new IP!

 

[Robbit_80]

My thoughts pretty much.

Overall I enjoyed the game but fuck those side quests, they are terrible and almost game ruiningly boring. The crafting/loot aspect is also laughable, there is barely anything to craft!

The main story is solid with great voice acting, decent graphics, good battle mechanics and absolutely EPIC Eikon battles.

The game is way too easy though. I played without any cheat rings on action focused and the only real challenge was the Chronolith trials, even then a few of them I did 1st try (Garuda, Titan). Just starting my platinum run for the last 2 trophies in FF mode and hopefully can now just focus on the awesome main story and epic boss fights and skip all the filler.

Overall a good game but could have been a banger. 8/10

 

[Zathalus]

Biggest disappointment of the year for me.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

I had high hopes for it, especially with Yoshi-P on board but it was just trash. The demo offered the best the game had to offer after that it got worse and worse.

Only praise I can give it is it has the best Cid in the series.

 

[gaming_again]

The only thing I remember is how gorgeous Clive’s mum is.

 

[Raonak]

Its a great game. Its also inconsistent.

But the highs more than make up for the flaws.

 

[Virex]

My thoughts pretty much.

Overall I enjoyed the game but fuck those side quests, they are terrible and almost game ruiningly boring. The crafting/loot aspect is also laughable, there is barely anything to craft!

The main story is solid with great voice acting, decent graphics, good battle mechanics and absolutely EPIC Eikon battles.

The game is way too easy though. I played without any cheat rings on action focused and the only real challenge was the Chronolith trials, even then a few of them I did 1st try (Garuda, Titan). Just starting my platinum run for the last 2 trophies in FF mode and hopefully can now just focus on the awesome main story and epic boss fights and skip all the filler.

Overall a good game but could have been a banger. 8/10

To be honest, Final Fantasy mode isn't much harder. Enemies just have more HP and hit a little bit harder. I just rushed through it as fast as I can for the final trophy to get the platinum

 

[TheAssist]

I totally understand some of the criticisms but for me the game was a lot of fun. The combat, the characters, the world building, the music. A really good package. I didnt mind the side quests as much, because the game came out at a tme where I often could only play for like an hour, so this was perfect for just getting some side quests in.

I didnt go in with super unrealistic expectations, since the pre release info on the game by the devs made a pretty good picture of what the game is gonna be and I think they delivered on that.
It was a really cool roller coaster fantasy adventure with action combat. And I like that.
I am also someone who doesnt subscribe to the theory that you can only like one thing. For example I can like a turn based FF game and an action based FF game. Fuck, I'm currently starting to really like FF 7 Ever Crisis and I have never played a gacha game before.

So yeah, I liked my time with it and I wanted to keep playing when the credits rolled after 50 hours. Thats already more than many games can deliver.

 

[SantaC]

It has a good first half.

Then It gets soo anime cringe and unchallenging and shitty paced that i got bored 5 hours before the finale and never completed it

6,5 game, maybe a 7 if you really enjoy big setpieces with limited gameplay (the highs of the game)

The choice of having easy mode as the only mode available for the first run was moronic to say the least.

This yoshi p dude better work on mmorpg and nothing else from now on.

It is funny because before the games release it got celebrated that it was made by the FF14 dudes.

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

I agree with all the criticisms and yet I still think it's a solid 8.5/10 game. It was great. Thoroughly enjoyed it from beginning to end.

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

As with most modern games, too many outlets where people voice their opinions and make you think its a terrible game. As if games from the past haven't been plagued by shitty frame rates, bad sidequests and terrible controls. The main difference is you had a handful of forums to post about it. Now some "influencer" on twitter says its a bad game and they already bury the game before it comes out. For example Starfield...as soon as 30fps was mentioned, there were 5 threads here even though nobody got to play the game as if it was the only game on next gen with 30fps.

In the same way people were screaming and hailing certain games which I bought because of "positive feedback" only to realize what a shit waste of time they were without story. Always base your own opinion on a few reviews and your personal desires. If the game has clunk or terrible controls thats one thing, if someone is pissed off there is no green color available for hair option and make 10 threads about it, just means that one person doesnt like it. A bad sidequest for you might be an awesome experience for another.

Also what are they comparing it to....FF7 that came out decades ago, are you going to tell me compared to today, how those games had some deeper story or great gameplay lol. It was barebones and you used your imagination to fill in the gaps in the story.

 

[kikii]

That's an incredibly low bar.

i hope u have this on >>

 

[SCB3]

It was fine, definetly in my own top 10 of FF games (though keep in mind I've not played Xii or Viii yet) and in my top 10 this year for sure, its biggest issue however is FF7R being a thing, a game that easily surpasses it in every way, Clive is great but the story is almost non sensical at times UNLESS you read the logs/notes, the story catch up thing they did was fantastic though but it needed to be more told in story, hell there is one point where Jill gives you her Ice Eikron but its not clear what the fuck happens to her, did she die? Nope she just appears during a big battle on a Ship, did Benedickta die? Yep fully as did everyone else whose Eikron you gained. The biggest problem is that it was too happy to kill off Cid, whose relationship with Clive was actually interesting off far too early rather than letting them breath and explore more of the world first.

Thats the stories main issue, you covered the rest, the side quests lore is actually really interesting at first but then every quest in a new area almost boils down to "go here, click switch, then another, then another, go back to the quest giver" and the game repeats this loop at least 5 times, I can see where the MMO lite aspect is coming from.

 

[ProtoByte]

All the mechanical critiques I put forward about this game turned out to be totally correct.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Loved it and still continuing my journey with the game after pumping 65 hours into it by pumping hours into the soundtrack.

Day 1 with both DLCs when they drop and I'll replay it on PS5 Pro or PS6.

 

[SkylineRKR]

Atmosphere, tone, characters, VA, music and setting is all good. But what kills it for me is the gameplay and the lack of incentive to explore or grow your character.

I didn't even beat it. I just stopped playing as the pacing issues rear its head after the halfway point. By then I realized the game wouldn't change, but only gets worse.

And about Yoshi P. I was happy his team took on the next FF too. But turns out I was naive. Their forte is MMO. For an MMO its pacing issues and quest design could've been overlooked but not here. In fact, I think FFVII R is actually much better than FFXVI. Its combat is more fun, more challenging, there is build variety, a party to control, just many things to experiment with and side quests while bad have much more meaningful rewards at least. And there really aren't many.

 

[Thirty7ven]

It’s an incredible action game, masterpiece almost, but a very poor RPG.

 

[SkylineRKR]

The game sold itself as a Revenge Story, swept up in a world that was basically Game of Thrones with Kaijus. The whole game should've been like that, instead of the crystals and Ultima shit. Aside from that, what absolutely killed the game for a lot of people in my observations boiled down to three main things:

• The Pacing is atrocious. Some of the worst I've seen in gaming. It typically goes like this:
  • 60 - 90 minutes of well written and well directed storytelling cutscenes, followed by a dungeon crawl that's basically straight hallways with battle after battle, followed by an amazing set piece fight.
  • 5 - 6 hours of MMO quest design that basically involves you going from NPC to NPC to NPC to NPC, talking to them. There are rarely any proper cutscenes during this time, it's basically just Clive and an NPC standing statically in front of each other exchanging dialogue. You occasionally are told to go kill something which takes all of 5 minutes, before it's back to more dialogue.
  • 60 - 90 minutes of the good stuff.
  • Back to 5 - 6 hours of the bad stuff.
  • Rinse and repeat.
• The game is completely lacking in any meaningful RPG mechanics. There is no good reason the game couldn't have Elemental Damage, Buffs/Debuffs, Gear sets that provide passive bonuses and effects to your attacks/spells, party members with separate skill trees, and command bars with cooldowns for their skills. Think how it was handled in GoW: Ragnarok with Atreius and Freya.
• There is nothing to do outside of the main story. Killing monsters and poorly designed side quests. That's it. No mini games, no explorable dungeons/caves, no nothing. The world is empty and boring.

They easily could've trimmed a lot of fat and brought the game length down to 15-20 hours, added more RPG mechanics, and FFXVI would've been received a lot better. I think it's a fine 7/10 game, that had every right to be a 10/10 if smarter people were making the decisions over at CBU3. There was a lot about FFXVI that sounded great on paper. Some of it they executed very well. Some of it they completely shit the bed on.


After watching the FFVII: Rebirth trailer, I think that game is REALLY going to shine a light on FFXVI's problems even further. Rebirth has so many going for it. A huge variety of environments to explore, an in-depth RPG combat system, mini-games galore, tons of places to explore, party members, etc.

Last thing I'll say is FFXVI had what I consider to be a Top Tier opening. The Prologue is some of the best, more riveting storytelling in the entire series. I'd like to know wtf happened, because the rest of the game was nowhere near the quality of it's first two hours. FFXVI had one of the best demos in gaming history (if you think about it, it really did). It was also one of the most deceitful.

I agree. The pacing is my biggest issue. Also, every big city is being dodged. They are crammed into a cutscene, and then funnel you to like the most terrible dungeons ever. They are completely uninteresting with nothing to find, no puzzle to solve, no hidden rooms.. nothing. There is no reason not to rush them. And typically the game funnels you out of that city after you beat the boss and you can't access it ever again.

The downtime is terrible, and gets worse over time. I felt it was bearable during the first part but after some point you have to collect a dozen of things for a ship an NPC is going to use, which leads to a goose chase to retrieve her. From there I struggled to continue.

Also the Eikon battles. I hate them. They take over 30 minutes, and all you do is some meaningless damage until the game takes over for a stupid QTE to advance it. I feel like inbetween it doesn't matter what you do. God of War 3 did these epic battles far better and that was a PS3 game.

They should've wisened up and create a 20 hour game out of this, purely focus on the narrative. Because there is no way this horribly easy and repetitive combat without any combo modifiers and different weapon sets is going to hold out for 40 hours. Because this game is so long and repetitive with such bad pacing I can't see myself ever replaying this. FFXVI was better off being a more focused 15-20 hour game you would replay a few times such as NieR Automata.

 

[Thaedolus]

This game is 100%

 

[Shifty1897]

OP, your post nailed my thoughts on the game. Well done. The highs are some of the best highs in gaming, the lows are so low that the game feels like a minimum wage job without the pay.

Game isn't going to win GOTY but I'm going to fight like hell from here until January that it should win best original soundtrack.

I really want to learn to mod games so I can change the eventual PC version to just skip the bad main quests and streamline the game into a full on action game, and make it harder.

 

[Elios83]

I'm on the second run to get platinum.
It's a great game with a really fun combat system, fantastic and epic boss bottle, great story and graphics, music.
It has some limits and flaws that prevent it from being a masterpiece and many were highlighted in the OP.
The side quests are just super boring fillers, some of them are important to get specific items, a few have a nice story behind them (especially towards the ending) but overall they're just boring.
Lack of explorable big cities (replaced by scripted set pieces in them) hurts, even FFXV had one! Here zero, when it became apparent that Oriflamme was destined to remain just a background it was a disappointment moment for me.
It's clear the game was made while being conscious of a bugdet (time and money).
The feeling is that Square Enix doesn't have the resources or the budget to justify a fully fledged AAA rpg with multiple cities unless they're doing splitted parts like FF7 Remake.
It's also quite easy even on the high difficulty setting because at that point you're well equipped and leveled up. More challenge would have benefited the game but probably they were worried to scare an audience not used to play action games.

Overall it was a 8/10 game for me.

 

[Madflavor]

I’m curious to see what they do with the two upcoming DLCs. I’m hoping one day I might go back and appreciate XVI a bit more. But I said this before, I think Rebirth is really going to shine a light on the things XVI does wrong, and it may make it look even worse in retrospect.

 

[X-Wing]

It's an awesome game. Fuck the haters.

 

[TMLT]

It had its faults but yeah, overall I liked it a lot. Some really cool epic moments, solid combat, good music, good voice acting and some memorable characters. I also liked the overall dark depressing tone to the world.

 

[GymWolf]

It is funny because before the games release it got celebrated that it was made by the FF14 dudes.

Never played that one so for me it was just square trying to redeem itself after the shitshow that was ff15.

 

[squarealex]

I haven’t finished it yet, so far it’s better than I expected.

The best part of the game is Clive. Maybe it’s because of the promotional material, or maybe it’s because of the Clive avatars on this board but I expected some Shadow the Edgehog variation. Turns out he’s really interesting personality wise. It helps that the VA is excellent. Game is also really pretty.

But yeah the game is full of flaws, too easy, equipment does nothing, party members might as well not exist, lots of filler content, terrible performance mode. I also find the Eikon vs Eikon fights kinda boring to play and to watch. They’re also waaay too long.

8/10 so far.

FF16 is a good game despite so many cons.

But the "fanbase" loving bashing the game because "iS nOt a jRpG"...
The same fanbase waiting FF7 Rebirth, after whinning all days for 10 years on forums for wanting this fking remake after PS3 tech Demo.

Now Square Division 1 working for 15 years on FF7 Remake instead of a new entry, new universe etc.
And after the succes, This will reinforce Square Enix to do FF8, FF9 and FF10 remake.

Congrat "Final Fantasy Fans"...

 

[Brock2621]

People keep acting like it’s a garbage game. It’s a GOOD game, flirting on the brink of great.

 

[Myths]

Feels like FFXII’s cousin in some ways.

Side note, my favorite animation is the additional kick he does when enemies are on the ground (as well as the quirky sound effect).

 

[Minsc]

I just beat final fantasy xvi last night, and it made me realize a lot of posts on here (including my own in the past) claim it’s a bad game.

Let’s get it right out of the way — the game has issues, but some of these complaints are within other games this year that are getting far more praise. Oddly enough I think those complaints are blown way out of proportion but in context this is a game of its parts and not the overall package that shines.

Issues consist of:
- Awful Side quests. Only a few have some great writing and add to the overall story package. Too many are generic mmo filler. The complaint added to this issue is you often go to point X and stand as two characters just talk to each other…. You mean like in BG3 and Starfield? Difference here is it isn’t a giga close up in first person of awkward facial expressions.

- The game has poor pacing. After playing through all of it , no, it doesn’t. It DOES if you do all the side quests definitely because the game is back loaded. Final two chapters will dump 20+ on you when earlier game would maybe have 3 at most. They needed to be spread out more. The actual story is very well paced and knows how to keep a good roller coaster effect of highs and then chill a little to build back up.

- The game has piss easy combat. Yep. There’s no doubt the combat is flashy and to me was fun, especially once you get more eikon powers to tinker with, but at no point is anything remotely challenging. Even on final fantasy mode in NG+ it is all a joke. Not everything needs to be dark souls difficulty but I would’ve liked a couple bosses or hunts to give me some game over screens.

- The game has no real progression. It’s all on rails progression, and with how easy it is none of the upgrades you get actually matter.

- There is no reason to explore. Chests off the beaten path give you 10 scales for crafting. It’s a lot of empty vistas with a few enemies sprinkled throughout.

- The game could use visual changes to gear equipped not just your swords. Different armors, gauntlets , etc to change up Clive’s look.

- Square needs to stop putting 60% of the lore into books and notes you can read in these games.

————-

That’s the negatives. On paper it seems bad right ? But for me the good outweighs it by a metric mile. You have a game that has a wonderful story, cast of characters that shine, terrific voice acting and music(holy shit that soundtrack slaps) , fun combat to the credits, and some of the highest highs I’ve experienced in a game with boss fights. The sheer scope dwarfs prior attempts like God of War games.

I’ll also add the visuals are top notch, and as someone who loathes 30fps I promise you the quality mode with VRR forced is the ONLY game I’ve ever played where 30fps was buttery smooth. I wish more devs if they do 30fps modes would steal this voo doo magic and used it so it isn’t choppy and weird.

I prefer this game over 15&13, but I don’t think it trumps anything FF12 and prior. It DOES have my favorite protagonist with Clive, and I don’t think any FF game has presented a story better, but other FF have overall better packages. Like mentioned, it’s a sum of its parts.

There’s plenty to improve on here and all reasonable to do that FF17 could be a no brainer GOTY contender when it hits.

What did GAF think ? I dropped the game at the second time skip, but when I came back to it I was hooked and couldn’t put it down. Kupka onwards took the game to 11/10 status, but ultimately the game is a 9/10 for me in a year filled with superb titles like Zelda, BG3, etc.

I encourage anyone who dropped it to come back and finish it when the mood strikes. It’s worth the story payout and to experience the epic boss fights first hand.

Sometimes in these write-up I think it should be required reading that one compares FFXVI's gameplay to DMC 5. I keep hearing FFXVI is go great from people and I wonder if they've seen something that many say does what this game set out to do but better in every way and without overstaying its welcome.

I've yet to play DMC 5 myself, but I found the action elements of FFXVI to be very shallow and I imagine next to DMC 5 that would stand out even more. But yes, I do think there's a reason the two games keep getting compared against each other, and I've yet to see a single person say they prefer how FFXVI does it over DMC 5.

 

[Hugare]

The first 15h were 9/10

After that, the game got so mediocre with its main quests that I would rate it a 5/10

What you said about the pacing is not true. Its probably the worst paced game that I've ever played. I was only doing main quests and I still got bored out of my mind.

Ita the only FF that I never finished. I've finished XV 2 times, ffs.

I will complete it eventually, but in a year with so many great games, putting 50H into a game that doesnt respect your time is too much for me.

 

[Pedro Motta]

Biggest disappointment of the year for me.

As much as it pains me to say it, I feel the same. I enjoyed it either way, but man it could have been so much more.

 

[Low Moral Fibre]

Like a 6/10 for me, maybe even lower as it takes a lot for me to not finish a FF game but I will never finish this.

Some interesting bits and some nice looking fights but otherwise an empty, shallow, easy, mechanically simple, boring game. The undoubtedly paid for influencer reactions are laughable in hindsight what with Starfield catching so much flak for feeling dated (valid points) while this feels like someone stretched a PS2 hack and slash game to 10x the length it should be.