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[DeceptiveAlarm]

It was the first Final Fantasy that I thought didn't suck. I loved it. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

 

[Moochi]

10 houres in and I really like it. I got out of my way to get into combat just to try various combos and tricks. The story is an excellent streanlined reinvention of the FF mythos. The world building is mostly non intrusive except where I want to be blown away by cutscenes.

Clive doesn't have a lot going for him other than plot necessity. Like, he has no quirks or interests beyond his very narrow driving incident.

Other than that, yes, I agree I love more open ended exploration adventure final fantasy games and this one is designed differently, but I have no fear they will not explore that kind of game again soon.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Best new final fantasy game in the last two decades

I can understand people not liking it if you want more of a classic RPG style, but im also a fan of action titles so it really wasn’t bothersome to me that it was RPG lite

I do enjoy the contrast of the more mature tone and I hope they continue it and lean more on it in some future games (not all, but some). Variety is nice

 

[FoxMcChief]

Is that the current Sony CEO Shawn Layden?

 

[Paulistano]

This game is too serious business, you don't have neither a minigame nor a chocobo racing and where is the card game? You don't even have elemental magic in it.

8 years making a barebones game that is more like a dmc clone.

 

[adamsapple]

Is that the correct Sony CEO Shawn Layden?

I liked the literal mic dropping Jack Tretton.

 

[flying_sq]

I didn't last more than 10 min into the demo then uninstalled it. I'm sure it's great for people who like those kinds of games, but I'm just tired of some vaguely 18-26 year old looking protagonist being the key to everything in the world.

 

[Judge Magister]

Is that the current Sony CEO Shawn Layden?

Sorry I didn't understand well your question. Is an old gif of Shawn Layden with a up to date quote. He works for the chinese now.

 

[LordOcidax]

Is just sad what FF games have become . Bring back Turn Based Combat Square.

 

[Doom85]

-story was kind of eh, Clive’s character arc was just an inferior ripoff of Velvet’s character arc from Tales of Berseria (they even copied a massive twist but managed to completely fumble the execution), Cid was the only character who was that interesting (and…..well, that was disappointing), and the worldbuilding was awful

-RPG elements…what RPG elements? Leveling barely made a difference, only one weapon type, stat upgrades made minimal difference, no party member stats or such, and despite having elemental attacks there’s still no elemental weaknesses or resistances, for fucks’ sake does this team know what series this game is in?!

-exploration is a joke in the game, hope you enjoy getting two gil or a few crafting materials you already have way too much of than you need

-disagree about the acting, it’s pretty good but not amazing (save for Cid’s voice who slaps)

-music is solid, that’s the one true strength the game has (though not best of the year)

Hopefully a few of the development team being there when Baldur’s Gate 3 won GOTY (and assuming they heard Elden Ring won last year) serves as a reminder to them: people want their RPG series to keep the things that made it a RPG. But nah, Final Fantasy XVI wanted to be the Paper Mario: Sticker Star of the series

 

[ProtoByte]

Looks like I underestimated just how lame this game would come off (I will keep rubbing this thread in the face of the glazers: https://www.neogaf.com/threads/final-fantasy-xvi-and-next-gen-gameplay.1656805/)

I guess the lesson is that MMORPG teams can't suddenly become premiere SP studios.

 

[Grildon Tundy]

Agreed. I lost interest after the first act playing it on the PS5 on release. Every story hook I was interested in went in a direction I wasn't. Sold it to a pawn shop.

 

[Ceadeus]

It's the worst game I bought since battlefield 2042.

 

[analog_future]

I’m about 25 hours in on PC and I absolutely love it. My favorite FF game to date.

 

[hussar16]

Thts what i felt luke just watvhing the trailers seemed like a generic story .not my thing. I just replay old ff like 10 or 9 .much better world and intresting

 

[hussar16]

FF series is washed up and has entered a sonic cycle like era

FF game announced —> screenshots look good—> cool trailer at a press conference—> “this will finally be the good one” —> “we wanna go back to our roots” —> it’s revealed that it’s not turn based —> enthusiast press hypes it and gives it good reviews —> game comes out —> people pretend to like it for 2 weeks —> the dust settles and everyone says it stinks —> restart the cycle

Ff needs to go to english devs. Japanese just have washed ideas.

 

[CityHunter1981]

There are some people who like it, but for me, although I finished it, it was the weakest game in the series. Everything just felt like a “okay game”, but I didn’t get the feeling I play a great JRPG, like in the other games in the series.

I wouldn’t say FF is dead, because I loved Rebirth a lot, but XVI is just a cheap copy of Game of Thrones without a soul.

 

[The Cockatrice]

Yeah kinda shitty what SE pulled with the demo and its clear this will be what other developers will do in the future. The DEMO is literally the only adult/mature thing about the entire game and then it just spirals down to absolute garbage with the exception of boss fights which were cool, but this aint a boss rush game and those alone cant make up for the rest.

 

[mayham2199]

I thought I heard all the complaints in the book abt this game but you think the performances are lifeless? These are easily up there as the best performances of any JRPG in existence

Yea I thought that was a weird perspective to have.

 

[hussar16]

There are some people who like it, but for me, although I finished it, it was the weakest game in the series. Everything just felt like a “okay game”, but I didn’t get the feeling I play a great JRPG, like in the other games in the series.

I wouldn’t say FF is dead, because I loved Rebirth a lot, but XVI is just a cheap copy of Game of Thrones without a soul.

I could see that throught its trailers. Seemed very generic. Chocobos check ,giant monsters check, actual intresting characters or story or lore none

 

[Merkades]

I don't agree. It is not my favorite FF nor close, but it is interesting enough to me to want to see how things will play out. I am ~38 hours in, so I doubt my opinion will change by the time I finish it. /shrug

 

[Durin]

Sidequests were indeed bad quality, along with lackluster challenge in the first 1/3 of the game, but it does get better, and the story I enjoyed. Eikon fights some serious high points.

I liked it more than the all over the place quality of FF15.

 

[yansolo]

for me the final fantasy games lost their soul after the ps2 era, the huge success of the mmo hasnt helped either

 

[adamsapple]

Sidequests were indeed bad quality, along with lackluster challenge in the first 1/3 of the game, but it does get better, and the story I enjoyed. Eikon fights some serious high points.

I said this in the OT as well, but it was such a bizarre move to hold actually meaningfully side quests until the final acts of the game, the first 85% of the game only has MMO style fetch quests, which really kill the pacing and deter you from doing them.

 

[Hugare]

Greatest demo bait in recent memory for me.

Demo is legit fire. The game, well, not so much.

This

I was hyped af when the demo ended, but I wasnt able to finish the game.

The first 10-15h were fire. Until that happens. To that point, pacing was good. Linear yes, but in a good way.

Then the game becomes a slog. It becomes an entirely different game. MMO quests, terrible pacing, story that goes nowhere ...

It really felt like they've wasted 80% of their budget on the first 15h, then they had to think on a bunch of filler stuff to fill the game with between bosses.

 

[rkofan87]

more unjust hate for ff16 just stop

 

[Raven117]

It has its moments.

I liked it. Didn’t love it. I feel like if it executed on its original promise in the first few hours… it would have been much better.

 

[sigmaZ]

Yeah. This game put a real bad taste in my mouth. If BG3 wasn't there as rebound game, I may have taken a long break from gaming. The demo didn't blow me away, but I liked to story setup.
The actual game had so many little annoyances that at the end of the experience, I just wanted it all to be over.

Things I loathed:

• The acting while good still rested upon bland scenario writing. A lot of the story beats felt off and awkward and sometimes even just being there to be like GoT or Final Fantasy.
• I hated the mangled use of British English just for the sake of sounding British.
• Everybody loves Cid, but outside a few quips, I didn't find anything remotely interesting about him and his voice sounded like nails on a chalkboard. Also didn't like his character theme.
• Felt like some of the music was poorly mixed and awkwardly placed. At times I felt like the composed just made a whole bunch of random songs and they fit them in after the fact.
• Exploration was dull and boring as was the cutscenes and the bloated dialogue of the NPCs. (Will never forget the talk to ten people sidequest).
• While the controls were good, the gameplay felt super stale and repetitive after a while. Boss battles just became an endurance battle for my hands.
• It didn't happen so often but sometimes it the heat of battle I would go out of bounds and the enemy would walk off and fully recover. Felt extremely amateur and indicative of other poor design decisions the game had.

In the end, the game felt like it just completely relied on spectacle and what the devs thought was cool from western and Japanese media. The only part of the game that I remotely enjoyed was the Dion arc. It was mostly proper cutscenes and plot action driven and felt well-handled up until the Bahamut fight, whereafter the game got really boring and I had to take a week off to muster the will to finish it.

So many better games have come out since, so I've mostly forgotten the experience now. Trying to play the PC demo just reminded me of how bad the experience was so I couldn't make it even 10 minutes in.

 

[NeptuneCL]

I agree, the game is just a snooze-fest.

 

[genesisblock]

Worst game in the series.

No way, worse than FFXIII?

 

[Jigsaah]

I'm not very far in, but the fights on PC on M&KB make this game way too easy. I'm not mad I bought it as I really like the cutscenes and story so far...but I can see where OP is coming from. The instanced missions kinda blows. The equipment so far is uninspired. I almost feel insulted that there are accessories in the game to make it easier. Granted, not everyone has the same gaming ability, so I kinda get it...I guess I just hope it gets much harder. I'm past garuda.

 

[Stu_Hart]

I agree with what you said. I did managed to beat it, but I dragged myself to do it. I sold the game afterwards. Even the best parts of the game, which are the eikon battles, felt very on-rails. Why the f did you buy it again? Better graphics and frame rates are not going to magically make the game any better.

 

[Madflavor]

Game has plenty of issues, but "lifeless performances" aren't one of them. That's just a shit take. Clive, Cid, and Benedicta in particular were really good. Ben Starr probably delivered the best performance for a lead in a Final Fantasy game to date.




I've ranted about the game plenty, but to sum it up, it's a 15-20 hour game stretched out to a 50 hour one. I mean you can point out to every single individual problem with the game, but most of those problems stem from FFXVI trying to be a Character Action game, but also a 50+ JRPG. The lack of RPG elements, mini games, exploration, party members, would've not been an issue if it were just a linear 15+ hour action game taking you from one story and set piece moment after another. Because at least then you know what the game is trying to be, and it keeps the story and the gameplay moving along. As much as I love FFXIV, FFXVI proved to me that CBU3 should never touch another mainline FF game again, or any Single Player game for that matter. What's confusing to me is that I know that many of them, especially Yoshi-P, do play other video games. So they should know what makes a Single Player game good. Having long 4-5 hours stretches of MMO style quests, slow dialogue, and static conversations with barely any action, inbetween the actual story and set pieces, was one of the most baffling decision choices I've ever seen in a game.

FFXVI had every reason to be good. It was Game of Thrones with Kaijus, with a revenge quest as it's center piece. But they completely fucked it up with a couple of really retarded design choices with it's gameplay loop.

 

[FeastYoEyes]

So the rest of the game really isn't like the demo? That demo was amazing and had me wanting to play more then I saw the reviews and was happy I didn't end up buying it.

 

[Little Chicken]

So the rest of the game really isn't like the demo? That demo was amazing and had me wanting to play more then I saw the reviews and was happy I didn't end up buying it.

The demo is actually the best hour of a mainline FF in two decades. The actual game is very boring.

 

[FeastYoEyes]

The demo is actually the best hour of a mainline FF in two decades. The actual game is very boring.

Shame

 

[clem84]

it justs feels like I am watching cutscene after cutscene with a combat that has no challenge or variety.

That was my experience as well. It's poorly paced. Not much fun to be had. This is the first main line FF I'm not enjoying very much.

 

[Madflavor]

Shame

Yeah Little Chicken hit the nail on the head. Never before had I felt so tricked by a video game lol.

 

[SenkiDala]

Man I want to like this game but I just can't. I bought it first on ps5 and gave up after 10 hours. At first I thought well maybe I am just going through a weird period in my life and maybe I can't enjoy this type of game now. I'll wait to play it

And with the release of the game on pc I bought it again to enjoy it with a high framerate and better visuals but I am again struggling to find any fun or enjoyment. There are some moments where the game seems to be really exciting but then, all of a sudden, the next part becomes a boring mess with atrocious mmo generic sidequests. It doesn't help either the pacing of the cutscenes, the performances are so lifeless and slow, sometimes, I want to slap the characters and scream "Wake up motherfucker!". The gameplay is so basic, there is no exploration or anything, it justs feels like I am watching cutscene after cutscene with a combat that has no challenge or variety.

I love Final Fantasy in general but this game is just doesn't feel like it belongs to the franchise, it doesn't the magic from the older games. I feel like it doesn't have a soul

Well I am glad I let it out, I think I'll stop playing this and accept that is not for me. Please tell me I am not crazy papitos

Well I agree... I'm a huge FF fan, I loved all of them, defended all the hated ones such as FFVIII, XIII, XV, I always enjoyed them.

But XVI... Those fucking shit MMO style quests... as main quests... This story badly written, the characters badly written, a bad soulless soundtrack, in a FF game... Yeah that was a disappointment at every level. I plat'd it on PS5 because well, it's a FF, I wanted to get it again when the Xbox version releases because I want to like it, but I just can't.

 

[Draugoth]

The stiey is good but gameplay is boring, FFXV was better

 

[Jigsaah]

So the rest of the game really isn't like the demo? That demo was amazing and had me wanting to play more then I saw the reviews and was happy I didn't end up buying it.

From what I can say, the fights get better compared to the demo so if you don't mind the difficulty options or lack thereof then I'd say you still might enjoy it

 

[EverythingsOverrated]

I only played the demo on PC, but this game, to me, is the definition of hot garbage.

Top notch production values and impressive set pieces aren't enough for me to spend $50 of my money and 60 hours of my time on.

The general consensus being that the opening couple hours are the best tells me that I won't be giving this another shot anytime soon.

 

[tmlDan]

Man dont remind me of that game too, what a disappointment it was. I have nightmares just thinking about the Atreus sections

god, you have terribly atrocious taste. I feel bad for you lol

 

[ArtHands]

well this is one of the best PS5 games ever released

 

[lh032]

it is.

its not a really good game.

Stun > combo > stun > combo > stun > combo.

Thats the whole game.

The shopping and crafting system is a scam. Its an obvious last minute feature.

Side quest are nice but rewards are awful.

 

[FoxMcChief]

well this is one of the best PS5 games ever released

That’s sad.

 

[LavitzSlambert]

I think it's a good game overall (not a great game, but good) and a bad Final Fantasy. It's DMC with repetitive, bland MMO structure, tacked on RPG elements, and a huge budget to fuel the spectacle. The style as well as the story and soundtrack are great, and I would argue if they went with gameplay like FF7R (not even Rebirth, the more linear style of Remake) it would have been ranked as a return to the glory days of FF. Unfortunately it dropped the ball on the most important aspects of a mainline FF game, and just continues the trend of disappointment that has been prevalent after FFX. It's 2024 and the franchise has been trying to recover its acclaim for much longer than it was ever top dog in the JRPG scene, so I really don't understand what Square-Enix is trying to do. The direction for this game was decided long ago, so I can only hope they learn their lesson and pursue the direction FF7R took.

 

[Myths]

And then when FFXVII or FFXVIII releases, suddenly this game will be good in hindsight.

What’s lacking is the missed opportunity to incorporate more strategic elements such as status effects. Perhaps then would the pace be under more scrutiny, encouraging players to exercise better discretion at balancing burst action against action plan.

If this game didn’t suffer from terrible optimization on PC, I would love it because I enjoy the world and the combat system, which is one of the best I’ve experienced in a JRPG. However, I haven’t played many Final Fantasy games except for X, the VII remake, and XVIII, which I also loved for its combat.

After finishing XVI, I’m planning to play either IX or XII. What do you guys recommend?

I would placed them both near each other, they’re my top 2. Work your way back I would say.

 

[Fbh]

I thought the performances were one of the few strong points. This is one of the few modern JRPG's that I enjoyed playing in English because the acting was pretty good and the writing, while far from perfect, wasn't pure anime cringe.
It's a shame the story goes to shit towards the end though, if it had remained as consistently good as during the first third of the game it would have done a lot of heavy lifting in making me appreciate the game more

But yeah it's a dull game.
Dead and empty world with empty levels that have nothing to do or find in them and feel incredibly dated in their design (legit Ps3 era stuff)
The action part of the game is passable but needed more weapon types, deeper combos, better bosses and not forcing you to play on super easy on your first playthrough to actually be good (I mean Stranger of Paradise blows it out of the water in this regard)
The RPG part of the experience is literally a 4/10, I actually can't think of modern AAA game that presents itself as an RPG and has worse RPG mechanics than this.
The story starts of strong and gets progressively worse as it goes on.

And then when FFXVII or FFXVIII releases, suddenly this game will be good in hindsight.

Just as predictable as the traditionalists…

??
XIII and XV are still shit though.
I guess XIII has better combat and music than XVI but the rest of the experience is even duller so I'd probably still take XVI over it.

 

[FoxMcChief]

when I try my second attempt at this game, I hope it keeps my attention. I rented it the first time. I bought it back in May on a sale.