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[samoilaaa]

FF16 recieved alot criticism and most of it is valid , the combat isnt deep enough , the rpg elements are very shallow , exploration is useless because there is nothing interesting to find , alot of people complained about the action combat , me personally i enjoy action combat but i can see how it can be a problem for most rpg lovers

But the game does shine in terms of storytelling , you can really see the difference between FF16 and FF15/7 remake , they succeeded to give us a great story , great characters with great voice acting and a superb soundtrack

If this game had deeper combat and exploration it would have been one of the best FF games ever made

I really hope that 17 will have that same level of maturity and storytelling

 

[LakeOf9]

God no, the story in FF16 is garbage. It starts out well by setting up an intriguing world and some serious stakes for characters, then proceeds to do fuck all with it. Ultima is an awful villain, Barnabus and Benedikta are completely wasted, the story gives up its fantasy political "trappings" to just become about attacking and dethroning god... like fuck no, if future FF games followed the FF16 template, I would flat out completely give up on the franchise.

More games like Rebirth is what the FF franchise needs.

 

[RagnarokIV]

XVI was awesome.

 

[Lorianus]

Sorry but half the storylines just fizzle out halfway through and great characters either have no satisfying end or die to early before anything happens, not to mention that the whole last arc shits on the attempted "game of thrones" story from the first 2/3rds of the game.

 

[Lokaum D+]

give me the lvl of storytelling of E33, FF16 is full of pacing problems and anime tropes, dont get me wrong, i think 16 is the best FF since X, but its not even close to E33 when we talk about world building and storytelling.

 

[Shifty1897]

I dunno, IMO what 16 got right was graphics and action set pieces, the characterization is weirdly only good for the male characters, the female characters are all erratic or one dimensional. The character who only exists to lore dump and push the story along sucks. I didn't like it.

 

[Power Pro]

I pretty much agree. Honestly, I'm a little surprised at the amount of hate that it gets. Yes, I will not deny it has it's faults. Actually playing it was probably the weakest part for me.

That being said, the rest of it...the game was kinda amazing to me. I actually really like the writing in it. The dialogue did not have that anime feel, and felt like real people talking a lot. The subject matter was also really thought provoking at times, especially with how certain segments of humans were being treated as lower than animals. Not to mention the graphics. God damn it was gorgeous in spots.

If it played liked Clair Obscur Expedition 33, I think it would've been beloved by fans.

 

[Punished Miku]

Personally I hated the story and thought it had major problems. I don't want to shit on it too hard in a thread going for a positive angle, but it didn't work for me at all.

The game script needs an aggressive editor with a large black marker. Probably literally 80% of the dialogue is just nonsensical rambling trying to sound sophisticated but saying literally nothing. It's like Persona but with a British accent. I was speed reading and just skipping over and over and over. Talk, talk, talk, talk but nothing is said. This isn't even covering the actual content of the plot points they eventually do get to, or the stink of pseudo plagiarism all over the whole project from Game of Thrones, DBZ, or Lord of the Rings.

 

[Chukhopops]

FF16 has kinda average storytelling, it's never clear if it wants to be a shonen story with the transformations and fights or a political / war chronicles story.

It has a few decent characters (starting from Clive himself) and kinda good writing - or at least not as bas as most JRPGs.

It's just that storytelling is a lesser flaw compared to everything else: difficulty, level design, build variety, etc etc.

 

[samoilaaa]

God no, the story in FF16 is garbage. It starts out well by setting up an intriguing world and some serious stakes for characters, then proceeds to do fuck all with it. Ultima is an awful villain, Barnabus and Benedikta are completely wasted, the story gives up its fantasy political "trappings" to just become about attacking and dethroning god... like fuck no, if future FF games followed the FF16 template, I would flat out completely give up on the franchise.

More games like Rebirth is what the FF franchise needs.

rebirth had a better story ? i didnt play it but alot of people complained about remake and rebirth's story

 

[samoilaaa]

Personally I hated the story and thought it had major problems. I don't want to shit on it too hard in a thread going for a positive angle, but it didn't work for me at all.

The game script needs an aggressive editor with a large black marker. Probably literally 80% of the dialogue is just nonsensical rambling trying to sound sophisticated but saying literally nothing. It's like Persona but with a British accent. I was speed reading and just skipping over and over and over. Talk, talk, talk, talk but nothing is said. This isn't even covering the actual content of the plot points they eventually do get to, or the stink of pseudo plagiarism all over the whole project from Game of Thrones, DBZ, or Lord of the Rings.

dont worry about shitting on it , i dont mind

i guess the fact that it sounds sophisticated helped a little bit

 

[Punished Miku]

dont worry about shitting on it , i dont mind

i guess the fact that it sounds sophisticated helped a little bit

Sorry lol. And honestly I admire you for admitting the second part. I think that's 90% of what people love about FFXII and FF Tactics is just the vibe of being sophisticated. I do get that on some level, but they really let the gabbing go overboard in XVI.

 

[LakeOf9]

rebirth had a better story ? i didnt play it but alot of people complained about remake and rebirth's story

No, Rebirth barely has a story, but how it approaches and tells the story is a lot better than how 16 does it. 16 is dour, self serious, and one note. Rebirth at least has multiple well developed characters with great banter and party dynamics, which is crucial to FF, and its tone can get as goofy or serious as necessary.

Rebirth with an actual proper story would be the ideal storytelling format, but as things stand now, even Rebirth with barely any story is preferable to the garbage we get in FF16

 

[samoilaaa]

FF16 has kinda average storytelling, it's never clear if it wants to be a shonen story with the transformations and fights or a political / war chronicles story.

It has a few decent characters (starting from Clive himself) and kinda good writing - or at least not as bas as most JRPGs.

It's just that storytelling is a lesser flaw compared to everything else: difficulty, level design, build variety, etc etc.

yeah the story is the only thing that doesnt completely suck , the 1st time i played i kept trying to find some secret areas , interesting loot , i was very disappointed

 

[LakeOf9]

BTW OP, you are a good sport with this discussion, I may disagree with your take, but I appreciate the conversation

 

[BlackTron]

Every time this game gets brought up all I can think of is the unbelievable high horse of its director, even by modern gaming standards

 

[corgiix3]

FF16 is a game i really enjoyed that has since soured in my mind. I like the story but it wasnt anything that left any real huge impact. 8/10 game imo

 

[duck_sauce]

FF16 recieved alot criticism and most of it is valid , the combat isnt deep enough , the rpg elements are very shallow , exploration is useless because there is nothing interesting to find , alot of people complained about the action combat , me personally i enjoy action combat but i can see how it can be a problem for most rpg lovers

But the game does shine in terms of storytelling , you can really see the difference between FF16 and FF15/7 remake , they succeeded to give us a great story , great characters with great voice acting and a superb soundtrack

If this game had deeper combat and exploration it would have been one of the best FF games ever made

I really hope that 17 will have that same level of maturity and storytelling

Im pretty sure you mean FF VII and FF VIII

 

[Sebastian1295]

Ff16's storytelling and characters couldn't even sniff the asscrack of this masterpiece. They need to go back to the fantasy style settings and stop the medieval and realistic bullshit they keep spewing.

 

[rubik's dude]

I loved XVI at first, I thought the story and characters were great. They fumbled both big time though towards the second half. Ultima shouldn't have been the final villain, it should have been Barnabas. They set him up perfectly as the big bad, and both him and Clive had mommy issues. But they didn't expound upon that, or any of the other characters really.

In the end, for me, it went from a 10/10 down to a 6/10. I agree that I'd like more in this style, but they'd need to do better.

 

[Baemono]

God no, the story in FF16 is garbage. It starts out well by setting up an intriguing world and some serious stakes for characters, then proceeds to do fuck all with it. Ultima is an awful villain, Barnabus and Benedikta are completely wasted, the story gives up its fantasy political "trappings" to just become about attacking and dethroning god... like fuck no, if future FF games followed the FF16 template, I would flat out completely give up on the franchise.

More games like Rebirth is what the FF franchise needs.

Come on I bought FF XVI based on the setup of the demo, don't tell me it falls appart

 

[LakeOf9]

Come on I bought FF XVI based on the setup of the demo, don't tell me it falls appart

The demo is the best part of the game lol

 

[RoboFu]

no it was too much cutscene fluff. Not interesting at all. I wish they would do story telling on the level of FF6 again. All the little stories bound together by kefka's actions.

 

[Raven117]

I wish it had the same level of storytelling as Expedition 33

 

[Zeusexy]

You settle for little. XVI is hot garbage compared to, let's say, IX. So I wish the next one goes for at least IV's level of narrative quality. It would still be something, considering the absolute state of Soy Enix. But I wouldn't hold my breath.

 

[Metnut]

It started out with a lot of promise but fell off hard as the game went on.

If you want to see a medieval politically charged storyline executed to perfection see KCD2. A true master class. FF16 seemed like it was trying to tell a more fantasy style version of this in the first half which was promising but then abandoned it for the worst of FF tropes in the second half.

Give me FF7Rebirth style storytelling without the "fates" nonsense and they'd be on to something.

 

[Paulistano]

16 is just a poor 15... in terms of story.

Even Forspoken is better, 16 is just... meh.

 

[Arsic]

Putting this games story into perspective now that E33 exists… it's subpar. It's good for final fantasy offering but it is abysmal when you compare it to E33 or other genres story driven games.

I loved Clive, liked the ending, enjoyed a variety of the cast, etc. I think everything 16 did is a great ground basis to expand upon to make a really good game. Right now it's good. An 8/10 for me, maybe a 7.5.

E33 is a 33/10 otherworldly.

The issue final fantasy as a franchise struggles with for every entry is square Enix always puts a new team together. An old team is never working on the next entry so they can take what they did and fix issues, expand, refine , etc. So nothing is learned. This exception seems to be FF7 remake 1&2, because they did to some extent fix remakes issues but went far into the other direction for some and created totally different problems for players. Both are flawed games.

Final Fantasy is stuck until they can find a passionate core team to work on 3-5 entries in a row before passing the torch.

 

[peronmls]

FF stories are typically uninteresting. They have an interesting foundation though when making a story. The dialog/script is vomit. I can never connect to anything they are saying. I don't ever care for what they have to say a lot of the time. Not all of them are like that. Crisis Core was a lot more interest than 7 especially with the script.

 

[samoilaaa]

Ff16's storytelling and characters couldn't even sniff the asscrack of this masterpiece. They need to go back to the fantasy style settings and stop the medieval and realistic bullshit they keep spewing.

i didnt play the games older than 12 , i tried but the graphics are too low , im a graphics whore

even with 12 i struggled a bit

 

[Hideous Snake]

What storytelling?! It was utter garbage.

 

[Sebastian1295]

i didnt play the games older than 12 , i tried but the graphics are too low , im a graphics whore

even with 12 i struggled a bit

FFX and its remaster still look great to this day. You gotta try it man!!! You're missing out on some classics like ff7 original, ff8, and ff9 too.

 

[Arachnid]

I hope it'll have the storytelling level of Expedition 33.

EDIT: Lmao @ this exact sentiment popping up multiple times already, and we're not even out of the first page. Get fucked FF. Clair Obscur the GOAT

 

[StueyDuck]

16 will be remembered as the best game in the franchise when 17 is announced and comes out.

That's just how the reactionaries do things.

It was a great game with terrible filler and side quests (I made a thread about the yapping).

But in terms of visuals and plot points, aesthetics, etc, the game was rad.

Also, im surprised we still can't come to terms with the fact that the franchise reinvents itself with each entry, it's literally done that since the second entry and especially more so with 7 onwards.

It will never be that favourite entry of whoever, recreated again. That will never be the Final Fantasy franchise, and those who hold on to that will always be disappointed with every entry that isn't their favourite.

 

[samoilaaa]

I hope it'll have the storytelling level of Expedition 33.

EDIT: Lmao @ this exact sentiment popping up multiple times already, and we're not even out of the first page. Get fucked FF. Clair Obscur the GOAT

i really have to play Expedition 33 , everyone praises it , it makes me curious

after i finish rogue trader i will try it

 

[Fbh]

I thought the actual story was rather underwhelming.
At first I was really into it, but IMO it starts falling apart around the middle when you meet back up with Joshua.

I do think the storytelling was a step up for the franchise though. The dialogue, while not perfect, lost a lot of that anime cringe that plagues most JRPGs (except for Barnabas, who talks as if Nomura snuck into the office at night and rewrote his dialogue).
I also really like that sort of dynamic "encyclopedia" where you could basically pause any cutscenes and get context specific info about the characters, locations and concepts they were talking about. If there's one thing I wish games would copy from FFXVI, it's that.

 

[LakeOf9]

I also really like that sort of dynamic "encyclopedia" where you could basically pause any cutscenes and get context specific info about the characters, locations and concepts they were talking about. If there's one thing I wish games would copy from FFXVI, it's that.

Yeah this is a fantastic feature that every game with a Codex should have. I think Metaphor's was similar, so it seems to be catching on!

 

[L*][*N*K]

people not differentiating "cinematic" from "story" is really infuriating, I loved FF16 but it really didn't have the greatest story

 

[Fbh]

people not differentiating "cinematic" from "story" is really infuriating, I loved FF16 but it really didn't have the greatest story

I don't know if it was the intention of OP, but personally I also make a distinction between "Story" and "storytelling".
IMO a lot of JRPGs have interesting stories but poor storytelling. With poor dialogue and repetitive writing where characters basically talk in circles repeating the same concepts and ideas again and again.

In that regard I actually do think FFXVI was a step up compared to other recently AAA games from Square. The problem is that the actual story itself just wasn't very good.

 

[The Cockatrice]

If you mean the first half, sure. The last half? Lmao no.