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[Hot5pur]

I am talking about FFXV, FFXVI and FFVII Remake.

Graphically I think they are all excellent and have high production values.
Gameplay wise, I also think they all have decent enough systems, and personally I like 16, 7 and 15 in that order, being a more action oriented person.

What I have a problem with is the writing/characters/cinematics. FFVII is borderline braindead. The VA is average, the constant grunting, the paper thin characters, and constant cinematics, slow walking, and other distractions.
The level where

Spoiler: minor spoiler

Cloud has to dress up as a girl and pretend to a be a prostitute of some sort is outright bonkers

The story itself is also extremely slow and boring, barely anything happens. I got to chapter 13 and I couldn't take it anymore.
On the plus side I really like Aerith. I know Tifa gets a lot of praise but her character is an idiot, albeit with comically large breasts.

FFXV I probably got 3/4 through before giving up. The dialog and characters were also fairly cringe, though no where as bad as 7 remake.

FFXVI in the first 10 minutes it's clear the characters have a lot of depth and they are well acted. It feels like a return to sanity of sorts.

All of these games however have very linear levels, and I'm not sure why they are even called "RPGs" as there are hardly any choices or character builds (perhaps 16 does, I am still fairly early on).

Having played Veilguard recently, I think it easily dunks on all of these in terms of being an action oriented RPG, except I'm finding the writing of 16 more compelling.

Again, I'm looking at FFVII remake meta scores, and though it has fun gameplay and nice graphics, everything else is absolutely atrocious. I think I just needed to vent a bit and see where other people were at.

PS. Is rebirth any less cringe than the first part?

 

[Hrk69]

FFXVI was decent but nothing amazing. It's a 6/10 game for me.

Me during the big bad boss fights:

I haven't played the other recent entries

 

[West Texas CEO]

Hot garbage.

 

[TintoConCasera]

Tried the demo for the remake of VII and thought it was kinda shit.

Almost fall asleep with XV while driving the car.

No interest on XVI whatsoever, although I might get it on a sale. Seems like a sort of braindead action game with spectacular visuals and I can see myself being in the mood for that.

 

[ShadyAcshuns]

Very meh.

 

[jshackles]

Like Rebirth a lot, but didn't care for XVI

XV was decent, fight me

 

[Lokaum D+]

Vanilla XV was the one i played, best implementation of summons ever, game its OKish.

FFXVI amazing game with a lot of FF14 love, and since i put over 5k hours on 14 i just loved 16, imo is the best FF since FFX.

FF7Re too bloated for my taste, too many good story lines hiden behind awfull and boring minigames, it was a sore to finish.

 

[Lorianus]

If square would get rid of chocobos, shiva, bahamut and ifrit there would be nothing final fantasy left anymore, they innovated the final fantasy out of their games.

 

[tommib]

I never really played any until XVI came out which had a spectacular demo with hot characters, amazing graphics and a mature vibe to it. I loved the whole game and couldn’t get enough of it but don’t care about any other entry including Rebirth.

I’m the odd one out. I was the specific target audience for XVI but very far from the classic traditional entries.

 

[Lokaum D+]

If square would get rid of chocobos, shiva, bahamut and ifrit there would be nothing final fantasy left anymore, they innovated the final fantasy out of their games.

U didnt play 12 did you ?

 

[cash_longfellow]

If square would get rid of chocobos, shiva, bahamut and ifrit there would be nothing final fantasy left anymore, they innovated the final fantasy out of their games.

What does this even mean?

 

[MISTER INVEIGLER]

Rebirth is a step in the right direction. FF16 was terrible, It's not a FF game. FF16 is more like a single player FF14 fetch quest mess with less rpg elements.

 

[Madflavor]

It's not dead, but it kinda feels dead at this point. Even if I really liked Rebirth and thought it was the best Final Fantasy in decades (barring XIV), the fact that it really underperformed financially shows how far the series has fallen. 10 years ago nobody could've imagined a remake of the FFVII would do so poorly, yet here we are.

Square needs to do some serious soul searching in regards to the future of the series. The fact that Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D looks to be outperforming XVI and Rebirth says a lot. They need to scale back the budgets and go back to their humble turn based roots with the next entry, and release it on more than one platform. If they just continue on with huge budgets and revamping the gameplay once again, I don't see a future for Final Fantasy. XIV can't keep them afloat forever.

 

[StereoVsn]

I found XV to be alright after patches and watching anime episodes for the bros. Not a top notch title and it dropped the ball in second half, but I liked it well enough.

XVI I didn’t even bother with as it just didn’t makes sense to me as a numbered Final Fantasy.

I loved VII Rebirth despite it having some bloat and some issues with the ending. It was a great game.

 

[Kurotri]

I played FF7 Remake back when it came out having never touched an FF before, I was completely enarmoured with that game. Right up my alley, there was something in that game that felt special to me. Afterwards I jumped into FF14 with a friend and we played from the beginning of A Realm Reborn and finished everything with Endwalker. It was an incredible journey and one of my fav games of that gen if that makes sense, even with its MMO nature.

Afterwards I got FF16 and while I enjoyed it, especially some boss fights and the music as well as Clive as the main character, I have to admit that it didn't really hit all the boxes for me. There were multiple issues that I couldn't bring myself to ignore, like the side quests or how the story just completely goes bonkers and basically delivers a worse version of what FF14 already did in a much better way. You can really see that it was made by the same team.

I'm looking forward to playing FF7 Rebirth once it drops on PC as I don't have my PS5 anymore, and I'm hopeful that with FF17 they return to something that's closer to the remakes instead of continuing with the FF16 template. Until then I'm probably gonna go play some older games in the series that are deemed as classics, like FF 10. Overall I hope FF continues to stay relevant and be a big name for ages to come. I'm not sure if it's correct or not, but from what I can infer the series overall isn't really doing too hot in recent times sales wise, be it with 16 or the remakes or even the Dawnwalker expansion for FF14. I'm guilty of this too, as I didn't really see a point in going back after Endwalker.

 

[wyvern_bloodfist]

Enjoyed XV, Through XVI was ok, hate VII Rebirth.

 

[Caffeine]

hmm well Final Fantasy XV was kinda all over the place with transmedia outside of the game supplementing its duct taped nature of whatever the fuck they made. This is me speaking about the launch edition which was pretty barebones and didnt have all the supplimental changes and dlc's that royal edition had which makes it a fairly decent game. I think overall xv worked it just need better pacing in story telling and overall what was even going on outside of the gang. I think by the end of the royal edition it was whole heartedly a good FF. The combat was actually fluid once u actually delved into the magic system and started using buffs and debuffs. It wasn't just mindless mashing.

I should bring 14 a realm reborn all the way of the endwalker in this as its a great single playing experience for an mmo. Maybe a tad too easy on the gameplay side of things, but the music and story is pretty incredible a lot will skip over it cause its an mmo but it generally is a love letter to the franchise with easter eggs from the franchise sprinkled through-out. You have a lot of decaprio pointing at the tv moments.

I cant speak on 7 rebirth as I dont have a ps5 but I will enjoy it once it arrives on pc. Although I can talk about remake and it was a good refreshing expierence I also enjoy the combat system in both normal way and slowdown I think this is a respectful way to continue future games combat systems.

xvi i'm still half way through and its not my ideal final fantasy there has been some holy shit moments but there has been some where boring slog to get to those moments. It's kinda been all spectacle with deep lore but no real substance. The combat system just is not it chef.

 

[Big Baller]

 

[Punished Miku]

16 had potential but dropped the ball in multiple nearly unforgivable ways. It really makes me question if they are capable of ever turning it around if that was considered a satisfactory product. Gear is meaningless. Combat was riddled with simplistic damage sponge enemies, no elemental weakness or tactical depth of any kind, 1 weapon type for the entire game, weak and uninspired level design, OST not recorded with live instruments, terrible and completely nonsensical story with about 50 hours of padding. Mostly looked nice graphically but you can tell its still tied to the XIV PS3 engine in some places, particularly lower level NPCs and animations. Probably my least favorite in the series. So many core design elements felt shamelessly copied from Game of Thrones and DBZ to the extent that it was shocking; Two Towers also, and more.

XV was interesting, unique, ambitious, but the story was a mess, items for magic and super bizarre auto-attack combat were incredibly strange decisions.

I played the demo for VIIR and didnt finish it. Looks like the best of the 3 but using CBU1 for a slow motion decade long triple remake instead of new games will go down as one of the worst decisions in the history of SQEX.

Triangle Strategy, Stranger in Paradise, Star Ocean, Octopath 2 and many more games from SQEX have been solid though.

 

[AngelMuffin]

 

[IDKFA]

I consider FFXV to be one of the greatest RPGs ever made and the best FF game to date. However, I'm yet to play XVI so this might change.

 

[Ulysses 31]

 

[nikos]

I consider XIII and newer "recent" for some reason.

Took me a while to finish XIII but I ended up really liking it in the end.
Had some really great times in XIV. I return every now and then.
XV is one of my favorites.
XVI was fantastic. The combat system was a lot of fun. Didn't think I'd like it as much as I did.
Loved VII Remake, waiting for Rebirth on PC.

The series doesn't miss for me, except for XII but I sort of want to give it another chance.

Regarding your spoiler, it's also in the original game. Back then it felt more like "lol wtf is this goofy shit" rather than an eye-roll moment.

 

[bender]

I've only played the demo of XVI which seemed...fine? I hate finished Final Fantasy VII Remake earlier this year and gave up Rebirth in chapter 4. I really hate what they did to expand the story and I'm not really a fan of the combat.

 

[Hawk The Slayer]

I thought FFVII Remake Intergrade was alright but Rebirth is pretty good. Looking forward to Part 3 cause I feel like I'll like that one even more than Rebirth. Not too interested in FFXVI as I'm not into it's art style.

 

[BennyBlanco]

FFXV - trash
FF7 Remake - trash

Haven’t played XVI or Rebirth and have no plans to because of the first part of this post.

 

[rkofan87]

i love 16 to death easy 10 for me ff7rebirth i did not play but watched a 100% lets play that is 10 as well.

 

[Loomy]

FF15 is a tough one for me. I hyped it up in my head for 10 years. Parts of the game - before they patched it - were downright awful to play. Years later I went back and played it all the way through and I was able to enjoy it without FFv13 being on a pedestal in my head. Still one of the best ending sequences of any FF game.

FF7 Remake/Rebirth. I wish this was max 2 games. Combat is fine and most of the OG leaders who worked on the original game being on the project means the world and characters still feel like FF7. Feels dragged out at this point though.

FF16 was also fine. I would like to see the same combat system brought back but applied to a party of 3 where one is an archer or dragoon, one is a caster, and one is a warrior. Aside from that, open up the world like FF7 Rebirth, and hire a better quest designer.

 

[NeverYouMind]

They lost me at XIII. Versus XIII was going to herald my return to the franchise but it never materialized.

 

[Aion002]

Rebirth is my current goty.

FFXVI was my last year goty.

I enjoyed the Remake a lot.

And I liked XV at launch and with the dlcs the game got even better for me.

 

[AmuroChan]

I liked Rebirth. 15 was ok, but not great. 16 I did not like.

 

[rkofan87]

I've only played the demo of XVI which seemed...fine? I hate finished Final Fantasy VII Remake earlier this year and gave up Rebirth in chapter 4. I really hate what they did to expand the story and I'm not really a fan of the combat.

on the combat same that why i watched a lets play.

 

[Zuzu]

I just finished Final Fantasy 12 for the first time yesterday and its combat system is so much deeper than FF16’s. The difference is huge.

 

[Mayar]

FF15 - ok
FF7 Ramake - meh
FF7 Rebirth - meh
FFXVI - The worst modern FF by far

 

[MagiusNecros]

Doesn't know what it wants to be and is a stagnating IP that relies on past works to keep itself afloat. Ever since the push to suck out RPG elements and go full Action RPG the franchise just isn't the same as it once was.

Bravely series of Square RPGs(originating from a subseries FF: The 4 Warriors of Light) is the real Final Fantasy many know and love. Octopath is IMO great too but I much prefer Bravely as the niche spiritual successor of the Old Generation Final Fantasy games.

15 suffered from long dev time, announced too early, original plot scrapped, DLC scrapped.

FFVIIR I think had a strong start but it's clear that it's mostly a episodic visual novel with occasional combat and a bunch of minigames. Worst summon system in a FF game ever. This 3 part FFVII-2 Marvelverse fanfiction story also suffers from being too Kingdom Hearts but also being locked in Exclusivity Deal Limbo. At which point if you are smart you just wait for the full version with all DLC if any to come out and see if the game is actually good or if it was all style and no substance.

FF16 is taking all the RPG elements, removing them, having meaningless gear and rewards and taking everything bad from XIV's game design philosophy and making it into a game with a focus on fidelity and a long 50 hour crawl before it let's you play hard mode. And making a mainline entry that has always been a RPG and turning it into a "just ok" DMC clone with a Kaiju Battle Simulator is poor treatment of a iconic RPG franchise. The game isn't bad in itself. But as a Final Fantasy game? It's awful. Even more awful if you come from a FF14 background and just see the glaring flaws staring at you in the face.

FF14 had a bad start, was saved with the 2.0 turnaround and ran strong(from a profit standpoint it still is running strong) until around Shadowbringers/Endwalker where first the combat started to get gutted(Shadowbringers primarily but there were hints of this in Stormblood and Machinist players know this)) and then it was the pacing and shift in storywriting in both Endwalker and Dawntrail. On top of this the variety of content and the amount of content to do per expansion gets less and less. XIV has made the IP the most money but they've gotten too comfortable and instead of putting everything they have to make it great they only do the bare minimum at this stage in XIV's life. Only seeking to lure in a newer audience through streamlining and homogenization. Like the game is fine but it has stopped progressing and everything is boring or not living up to it's usual standard of quality.

The sad part about XIV is if they gave it a chunkier budget instead of funding all the other garbage it probably would be a much better game then what it is now. Which is just a WoW clone chasing after WoW.

If they made high fidelity games designed like Octopath or Bravely Default I'd argue they would do better then they currently are.

But I'm on the fence of make RPGs with deep characters, fantastic stories and have great art direction instead of relying on cinema, realism, high end graphics.

More games like SaGa 2 and Visions of Mana please. If they announced Bravely Third I would be there day 0. But Final Fantasy? I tend to be skeptical and pessimistic if it will be any good.

Rant over. TLDR Current Final Fantasy is trash.

 

[kunonabi]

They're all shit.

 

[panda-zebra]

WoFF is the only good one since X.

 

[lifa-cobex]

I do not enjoy anything after 12.

 

[XXL]

I wish they would add pixelation to them.

The PS5 Pro ruined FF7 Rebirth.

 

[Crayon]

Remake and Rebirth are tits. It's the kind of good where there are flaws but they've also got some things that others don't.

 

[Irobot82]

FF has had an identity crises since 10.

I would love to see either a Dragon's Dogma or a Souls-like game set in FF world.

 

[JeloSWE]

FF13 - Amazing looking game, I loved the art style, and has perhaps the best battle theme of any FF. Unfortunately, it takes too long to unlock all the aspects of its battle system and the game is almost at the end before it becomes complete and really fun. And mape design and towns could have been better.
FF13.2 - I guess overall a better game from battle system but it's not as visually fresh and striking as the first part was.
FF13.3 - I didn't like the predominantly black and white checkered design of the game and it felt weird playing Lightning solo. I don't think I finished the game but got really far nonetheless.
FF14 - Never played it.
FF15 - Finished it and had a decent time with it but it felt like a missed opportunity, it seemed rushed and incomplete with lots of potential things that were cut or reduced. I always felt like it was on the verge of something great but never reached far enough.
FF16 - Blurry performance mode, and I won't play a game at 30fps where reaction is part of combat so the game was just impossible to enjoy on the PS5. Incredibly strong demo wich made me buy it but then it just became so bland, and weapon upgrades were just a joke. I dropped the game just before it opened up with quests in waiting for PS5 Pro or PC, but now that both are available to me I'm not feeling the urge to pick it back up.
FF7 Remake - Absolute loved it.
FF7 Rebirth - The demo on PS5 was an absolute blurry mess, which was a chock considering how good the Remake looked at 60fps. I'm now waiting for it's release on PC so I can play it at 120fps on my 4090. OR will I? perhaps their inevitable negligent optimizations will be yet another Stutter Engine fest with non loading textures, frame pacing issues and shader compilation as is so common with so many UE PC ports these days. At least then I can buy it on Pro.

 

[cireza]

XV was a lot of fun.

XVII and XVI look so bad I am not touching them.

 

[KimDongHwan]

I wonder if they will ever try to do a turn based RPG again with enough budget to make it worthwhile. I feel that Persona and Metaphor might have kick-started a discussion internally about this

 

[Paltheos]

15 is an interesting exercise, which should tell you how much I think of it as a game. There are elements to it that I think are really cool though, but my approach to it was from the start to perform an autopsy.

16 I didn't play but I did watch a ton of it, and it looks like a disaster. Boring, tedious, and with horrendous writing.

I'm in a similar camp with a lot of other people here. 12 is the last great game in the series, and 10 is the last game in the series that inherited the wildly creative spirit of the classics while also being good. Considering both of these examples are near or over 20 years old, I think the series has been in the dirt for a long time now.

 

[PatientGamer]

Haven't played the remakes yet. But loved most components of FFXV & FFXVI.

FFXVI is the best FF since X, no contest for me personally.

 

[rofif]

XV was fantastic. I was really surprised how much I liked it after initial 1-2 hours of weirdness. And the ending brought me to tears. Best music ever too.
XVI was a rollercoaster. Stunning game. Really well done. had a great time with it. Maybe my fav game last year? or in top 3
Remake was great too. Loved everything about it outside of stupid changes to make it "not a remake"
Rebirth - same as remake + more bloat. These should just've been real remakes and not the stupid timeline plot fuckery.

In summary - XV is the best. It's a special game. Maybe because I finally played it only in 2021 and everyone was saying how bad it is.

 

[PurePlatinum]

FFVII Remake is a simple game, but ultimately a good one that's carried mostly by it's spectacular production values and arguably the greatest soundtrack in video game history.

Rebirth's open world is a bit of a flop, but it expanded successfully on the formula that Remake established. I love both of these games. It's just a vast, luxurious feeling, incredibly polished and fun game.

XVI is maybe the most disappointed I've been in a game since the original Assassin's Creed. It just flat out sucks, outside of the prologue and the eikon battles (and even some of the eikon fights aren't all that, like Odin or Titan). Bahamut in XVI is the most audio/visually spectacular thing I've ever seen in a game, bar none.

I suppose I was just shocked at how uneven it was. People talk about the side-quests being bad, but there are a sizable portion of the main-quests that are JUST as bad as the side quests.

 

[Davevil]

Who would have ever said that Final Fantasy 9 was truly final fantasy?

 

[Cornbread78]

This is all I'm taking outta this OP: