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[pleaseinsertdisctwo]

I just went over the 100 hour mark,

And you’re still on a forum posting about the game. That excuse is very tired and has been used to hand wave criticism since the dawn of the internet

 

[JayK47]

So another FF12 then? Sounds like similar criticism I have for FF12. Would be funny if I enjoyed this game while considering FF12 to be a slog that did not value my time.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

So another FF12 then? Sounds like similar criticism I have for FF12. Would be funny if I enjoyed this game while considering FF12 to be a slog that did not value my time.

A speed up button saved XII. A speed up button for the side quests might save this game in a decade.

 

[M.W.]

I think I'm done with the game, for now. I might pick it back up next year or somefin'.

 

[xellos2099alpha]

Reading this makes me sad when I see games such as the Phantasy Star games, going back to 1987, which managed to understand this from the very first game in the series. You could even decide to spend your money in an optional vehicle to go through the desert, rather than investing in new weapons. Everything was expensive so money had real value.

As much as I like phantasy star. Some of the design is completely stupid. How would anyone know you need to purchase secret 3 time for the road pass back in 1988? Where to get mirror shield in uzo island. Where is the damned secret door under governor office. Can kill last boss faster with with laser gun then with laconian weapon

 

[fart town usa]

Didn't notice while playing, but it does sound similar. Mass Effect had a great soundtrack.

Got that real melancholic vibe and sense of mystery.

 

[cireza]

As much as I like phantasy star. Some of the design is completely stupid. How would anyone know you need to purchase secret 3 time for the road pass back in 1988? Where to get mirror shield in uzo island. Where is the damned secret door under governor office. Can kill last boss faster with with laser gun then with laconian weapon

We were talking about choices in JRPG, I talked to you about the original Phantasy Star series, and you moved on totally unrelated issues of the games. Well, obviously, I wasn't saying that these games were perfect. But they offered meaningful choices...

 

[SF Kosmo]

I will give you that. Gil is worthless beside for the music scroll. I only use it for some crafting equipment that require 100 shell or something. Most of the equipment that offer better stat are the sidequest one and one that require A rank S rank hunt for material.

I don't think I have ever even had to purchase a crafting materials.

Yes, in the last 25% of the game there are a handful of items you can only craft by doing unique hunts, and I did find that stuff fun. But it feels like overall the RPG elements have been backgrounded to large degree. They're there but you're spending a lot less time interacting with them and they have a much lesser impact compared to almost any other RPG I have played.

 

[xellos2099alpha]

We were talking about choices in JRPG, I talked to you about the original Phantasy Star series, and you moved on totally unrelated issues of the games. Well, obviously, I wasn't saying that these games were perfect. But they offered meaningful choices...

Actually when I think about the Land rover is not optional.... don't you need it to get pass those unavoidable sand dune in Motiva?

 

[The Fuzz damn you!]

the story gives up and turns into predictable and formulaic JRPG nonsense.

There is plenty to criticise about this game, but this one I do not understand. Honestly, if the last third of the game bothers you, why the fuck are you picking up a Final Fantasy game at launch (or, really, at all)? I’d be much more concerned if that kind of ludicrous plot development wasn’t there.

 

[LakeOf9]

There is plenty to criticise about this game, but this one I do not understand. Honestly, if the last third of the game bothers you, why the fuck are you picking up a Final Fantasy game at launch (or, really, at all)? I’d be much more concerned if that kind of ludicrous plot development wasn’t there.

While I dont agree with the person you are quoting I do need to point out that this game was advertised on the basis of its "mature Game of Thrones style" story, and on being a departure from what people usually expect from FF

 

[SF Kosmo]

There is plenty to criticise about this game, but this one I do not understand. Honestly, if the last third of the game bothers you, why the fuck are you picking up a Final Fantasy game at launch (or, really, at all)? I’d be much more concerned if that kind of ludicrous plot development wasn’t there.

Again, my criticism isn't about the existence of "ludicrous" or over-the-top plot elements, it's the fact that it's the same done-to-death crap, and that story becomes shallower as it goes on, and loses all of its interesting character conflicts.

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

While I dont agree with the person you are quoting I do need to point out that this game was advertised on the basis of its "mature Game of Thrones style" story, and on being a departure from what people usually expect from FF

I'm actually a bit happier knowing that the game eventually does get weird and over-the-top ludicrous... because GoT is the worst franchise in the universe for FF to emulate.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

I did the Titan fight which was the first boss that wasn't essentially a cutscene but just can't be fucked to play 5 hours of filler for another 10 minute boss fight surrounded by 20 minutes of cutscenes. The story didn't capture me at all which obviously doesn't help. I doubt I will even bother watching the end on YouTube.

I can understand some people thinking this is a 10/10 but I probably think there are a lot more people that think this is a 7/10 which makes the Metacritic average all the more unbelievable - people swept up in the hype maybe or more willing to ignore terrible design choices in Japanese games for some reason? If this was a Ubisoft game with so much filler it would be rightfully roasted by a good chuck of the gaming press.

If they are happy completely removing any RPG elements they should have made a shorter and tighter action game and focused on the bits of the game that were actually fun.

My pet theory is that this started off as a spinoff title that was a linear DMC style action game. Then they decided to expand it into a mainline numbered title. All the exploration zones, item creation, side quests etc are just there so they can justify calling this an RPG.

Consider:
- the story missions are all linear action game-type levels, they’re not even connected to the zones where you explore

- all the weapons and armor are just small stat increases over your previous ones and have zero impact on how you play the game. They might as well not even exist

- there’s barely anything to craft, and the stuff you can craft is again just small stat increases

- all the side quests and hunts reward you with useless stuff and crafting materials

- obviously the very large quality gap between story missions and everything else, like the zones are only there because they felt exploration was mandatory, and all the side quests, hunts, and main quest objectives are only there because they needed to fill those zones with shit for you to do

 

[cash_longfellow]

And you’re still on a forum posting about the game. That excuse is very tired and has been used to hand wave criticism since the dawn of the internet

At least quote the person I was replying to. You are taking one sentence out of context without looking at what I was replying to.

 

[The Fuzz damn you!]

Again, my criticism isn't about the existence of "ludicrous" or over-the-top plot elements, it's the fact that it's the same done-to-death crap, and that story becomes shallower as it goes on, and loses all of its interesting character conflicts.

Yeah, fair enough. No doubt that the end was far less interesting - a shame particularly because the setup provided so much potential.

 

[phant0m]

My pet theory is that this started off as a spinoff title that was a linear DMC style action game. Then they decided to expand it into a mainline numbered title. All the exploration zones, item creation, side quests etc are just there so they can justify calling this an RPG.

Consider:
- the story missions are all linear action game-type levels, they’re not even connected to the zones where you explore

- all the weapons and armor are just small stat increases over your previous ones and have zero impact on how you play the game. They might as well not even exist

- there’s barely anything to craft, and the stuff you can craft is again just small stat increases

- all the side quests and hunts reward you with useless stuff and crafting materials

- obviously the very large quality gap between story missions and everything else, like the zones are only there because they felt exploration was mandatory, and all the side quests, hunts, and main quest objectives are only there because they needed to fill those zones with shit for you to do

all true except the "all side quests are useless" comment, since

Spoiler

the quest to get your chocobo mount is a side quest that i mistakenly ignored for like 3+ hours of gameplay since i was blowing most of them off

still having a blast playing through it and beating the absolute piss out of the enemies

 

[Guiding Moonlight]

Well I just finished it. Previous comments about too much filler still stand but the last 20% is solid and hits home emotionally. If you can endure a lil filler I'd recommend anyone on the fence.

 

[thelurkinghorror]

I thought I loved this game when I started it but the more I play it the less I like it

Combat is great and the bosses are amazing, but everything else is terrible. The fact that 80% of the game is MMO side quest caliber fetch questing would be bad enough but I’d be able to put up with it if it at least continued to do what the game is supposed to be good at, which is the storytelling stuff. But holy shit, the production quality of these quests is so bad. Like I just did these quests back to back

Spoiler: mid game story quests

I had to hunt down a bunch of stuff for Mid so she could build her airship, which was already really annoying, but then I had to help Goetz find his lost pass

And these quests are so bad! They don’t even have proper cutscenes or VA, it’s just canned animations!

The actual quest design is bad too. It’s always “talk to this person, go to this place, talk to this person, go to this place, combat encounter”. There’s no variation. It’s all very fetch questy and when the story side of things becomes bad, then there’s nothing left to make up for it since the quests themselves are so bad

Like, I get the concept of having down time in a story, I don’t mind it if it’s done well. I love persona 5 and red dead redemption 2, both of those games are pretty much just down time. But you have to do it well and FF16 doesn’t. And it just comes off as a badly paced mess that I am losing interest in playing as more time goes on. People criticized Ragnarok’s slow sections and I get that, I agree with the criticism but at least they were well produced to help convey the character moments they wanted to show (the character moments sucked, but that’s a problem of concept not execution). Here it’s literally a mid budget ps2 era game with how some of these MAIN STORY QUESTS are.

What a disappointment this game is

As a movie, is sufficient.
As a game, is pure trash

 

[thatJohann]

The game just won’t end. It’s boring me to death. Finish already!

 

[_Justinian_]

I quit Final Fantasy XIV after finishing the main story in the Endwalker expansion because I was completely burned out. With this game which feels very similar, I went about 6 or 7 hours in and started feeling burned out the moment I started doing a couple side-quests and stopped playing. The boss encounters and combat can be exciting, but everything else is such a drag. I don't know if I'll pick this game back up again.

 

[cireza]

Actually when I think about the Land rover is not optional.... don't you need it to get pass those unavoidable sand dune in Motiva?

You can complete the game without buying it. If I remember correctly, you can arrive at another location on Motavia later in the game with Hapsby. You can skip all laconian items as well.

However you cannot skip the icedigger. And this is another vehicle that you have to buy.

 

[samoilaaa]

When the game came out, everyone was praising it and now...all I see is cpmplaints about pacing and how boring it is. So which one is it?

well thats what happens when the hype runs out , people see the game for what it really is

 

[DenchDeckard]

If you do side quests I guess this game is like 70 to 75 percent filler in total?

Seems about right?

 

[10101]

Loved the story, but totally agree with the pacing comments in this thread. The highs were great, but the side quests were meh at best. Also, the RPG elements were too dumbed down, the crafting especially felt pointless to me - I think I ended up with half a million magicked ash

 

[Barakov]

The team behind was involved in mmo, maybe it explains the mmo style.?

It'd explain the walk animation scenes after a conversation ends. It works in FFXIV but not so much in a PS5 action rpg.

 

[NahaNago]

I was beginning to feel like I was just a jaded gamer since I didn't think this game was a 9 out of 10 and hearing all of the love this game got from reviewers. I can't say if FF15 was better than 16 since I haven't beaten either game. I do feel like 15 was a lot more ambitious and thought out.

Yes, this definitely feels like an offline ff14 game. What's worse is that 14 had some great cutscenes and cg from the original release that I feel blow this game out the water(even with as goofy 14 can be).

I'm getting burnt out hating on this game but I want to see the game through to the end. I really hope I can finish the game this week.

 

[Boneless]

Yes but she’s cute

Agree, when she keeps her trap shut.

 

[Hayabusabruh]

I started to feel like this too. Almost like I got bamboozled by the demo. All of a sudden every mission was a fetch quest and hand animated. I found myself skipping those scenes. Shit started looking like Mass effect after awhile. Luckily there were still enough quality cut-scenes and missions in it. This is what prevented it from being GOTY for me.

 

[KrazyKrelian]

I'm only about midway through. Does battle ever get more interesting than just cycling through Eikon abilities? Right now all I have to do is use them one time each and if anyone is left just begin the cycle again.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

I'm only about midway through. Does battle ever get more interesting than just cycling through Eikon abilities? Right now all I have to do is use them one time each and if anyone is left just begin the cycle again.

If you mean does the game ever really challenge you to be more wise and strategic about your ability usage? No. It's an option if you want to but far from required.

 

[CanYouFlyBobby?]

i cant imagine it being more trash than ff15..

 

[SF Kosmo]

Man, Yahtzee is spot on with this one

 

[xellos2099alpha]

You can complete the game without buying it. If I remember correctly, you can arrive at another location on Motavia later in the game with Hapsby. You can skip all laconian items as well.

However you cannot skip the icedigger. And this is another vehicle that you have to buy.

Ah yes, the lamas tree.

 

[Ozzie666]

The pacing is even more so of an issue when you consider the pretty strong ending. The final 2 segments are pretty good and informative, plenty of payoffs. The ending made things more palatable, but it's still such a flawed game. I love how the FFXIV team drops some hard rock into their Primal level fights, you know the one I mean. The spectacles are worth the price of admission. Better than FF15, not sure the combat is on par with FF7 remake/party members. Still worth the purchase, I can't stress that enough, still a good time to be had even if its divisive.

The combat really begins to click near the end, but by that time it's sort of too late. Unless you are gunning for New Game+.

 

[Moon Grape Donut]

So, it was made by the FFXIV team - one of the most overrated games of all time. FFXIV also has awesome bosses (trials and dungeons), an amaaazing soundtrack. And that's it. Quest design in that game is abysmal, no idea how critics don't talk about that way more often.

 

[Revolutionary]

So, it was made by the FFXIV team - one of the most overrated games of all time. FFXIV also has awesome bosses (trials and dungeons), an amaaazing soundtrack. And that's it. Quest design in that game is abysmal, no idea how critics don't talk about that way more often.

It's so weird to me how the reviews for XIV are almost never about the actual gameplay, and mostly focus on the story. Sure, XIV's story is pretty good (for an MMO) but the gameplay and progression has been stagnant for the better part of a decade, and the reviews gloss over it every expansion.

 

[Moon Grape Donut]

It's so weird to me how the reviews for XIV are almost never about the actual gameplay, and mostly focus on the story. Sure, XIV's story is pretty good (for an MMO) but the gameplay and progression has been stagnant for the better part of a decade, and the reviews gloss over it every expansion.

That is true. It is always about the story, which has some cool parts, but it also takes foreeeever to get going (just look at Realm Reborn, Stormblood, the bunny-guys in Endwalkwer... never again). Nobody talks about how you have to walk everywhere, the terrible, terrible sidequests, terrible combo based gameplay for melee classes, not enough customization for classes (if you play a black mage and I play a black mage, they will work the same. No talents like in WoW, for example). That game, ugh... I fucking hate it, lol. The OST, however - one of the best in gaming.

 

[RavageX]

A different take for me is, if they worked on MMOs maybe make a co-op FF. I feel like a lot of RPGs now don't fully commit to proper story telling, resulting in basic fetch quests meaning nothing. The FF7, remake feels cut and paste in a lot of areas to me instead of well thought-out and detailed .

 

[sigmaZ]

So, it was made by the FFXIV team - one of the most overrated games of all time. FFXIV also has awesome bosses (trials and dungeons), an amaaazing soundtrack. And that's it. Quest design in that game is abysmal, no idea how critics don't talk about that way more often.

Telling it like it is. I got pulled into the hype a few years ago after having have had my fill back when the game was new and so I chased the dragon all the way up to end of Shadowbringers and I while there were certain social aspects that I enjoyed, I felt like it was totally overhyped overall. As you say the boss battles and maybe some of the aesthetics of certain dungeons were pretty nice but the story was like the bad parts of FF16. Lots of dialoguing and prodding, while the time gating would hit like a wall anytime you got into the flow of the story. The quests as you say are out outdated and abysmal, just having you go from A to B to C to A for so reason other than to time gate.

 

[TMLT]

So, whic his better FFXV or FFXVI?

16 is easily the best not online/remake FF since 12 imo.

 

[MagiusNecros]

It's so weird to me how the reviews for XIV are almost never about the actual gameplay, and mostly focus on the story. Sure, XIV's story is pretty good (for an MMO) but the gameplay and progression has been stagnant for the better part of a decade, and the reviews gloss over it every expansion.

Because story is all XIV has to go on. The gameplay has become stale. Only things mildly interesting are Fishing and Blue Mage. And given the quality of storywriting is plummeting fast I've lost interest.

I hope 7.0 can revive XIV but I remain doubtful.

 

[muno]

I stopped playing because it was genuinely not fun to play. I will be skipping this one and maybe downloading it on PC when it comes out. Was an easy choice to make since there are too many games to play.

I also unsubbed from FF14 for the same reason. Not fun anymore. Shadowbringers was that game’s peak.

 

[Kokoloko85]

If you think this has bad pacing then you havent played FF6 or many many other JRPGs

 

[Kokoloko85]

Which is better 15 or 16 ?
I've only played 15 and i could not believe how short it was 25 hours then done.

16 by far

 

[DenchDeckard]

Man, Yahtzee is spot on with this one

 

[MH3M3D]

I agree 100%. It started great, thinking the plot will get crazy from there, instead it falls flat. The combat gets too easy. I died only once in like 30 hours of playtime and the sidequests and some of the main missions are super boring. I NEVER skipped dialogue in a FF game on the first playthrough, but now I just want to beat and dump this game from memory.

Oh and the framerate sucks ass.