Final Fantasy XVI (2023)

Ack, another disappointing Final Fantasy. So much to like!... yet it all buckles under the weight of its own tedium.

The character action gameplay only begins to shine about a third through the game when you've unlocked enough powers, but even then sword slashing is much improved with some of the very final abilities at about the 80% mark. At that point you can start to do some actually cool combos, but it's never as expressive as say, Devil May Cry. Eikon fights (read: kaiju boss battle) are usually a fun time, but they suffer from an uneven approach to gameplay. Sometimes you get to control so little of the fight which makes me wonder why I'm not watching a Godzilla film instead.

Music is generally good with a couple standouts, though even this feels uneven. Almost entirely, I'd say character designs are kinda plain, but I guess the graphics are cool at times. And the writing, oh the writing. the writing would be good if an editor trimmed about a third of the conversation from most cutscenes. This presentation gives the whole game a slightly prettier than FFXIV vibe, but with less heart somehow? I'm surprised I just typed that.

Did I cry for the last 40 minutes of cutscenes? Yes, of course. Did I eventually come to like many of the characters? Absolutely. Do I wish I hadn't doubled the game's length by playing dozens of side quests? Ugh.

Pro tip: If a character doesn't look like a main character in some form, don't do that side quest! I read the same advice before playing, and like a fool, I did every side quest because I guess I'm obsessed with Final Fantasy. Indeed, I would have missed a few kinda neat quests with alright stories, but it's not worth the huge amount of time necessary. For most people, I promise you, you'll have a much better time mainlining the story.

If you like a lot of the vibe, check out Tactics Ogre or the FF Tactics remaster. Do you want a sick character action gameplay with a surprising amount of heart? Check out Devil May Cry 5, or I don't know, Nier Automata. I mean, the VII remakes are killer so far go do that. Do I usually make recommendations at the end of my reviews? I'm typing this while experiencing the end credits (which are so so so so long, like every cutscene in this entire game). Anyways, go play something else. And listen to this games soundtrack. Actually the soundtrack is pretty good. Later!

This is not a bad or a perfect game. In fact it's pretty good. It starts with a banger and story captures you. The gameplay is fun. But there are somethings i really didn't like. For me playing on PC, there were crashes after every 10 mins or so and the main battle cutscene will give me black screen of death. Took me 20 hours of playthrough to figure all this out and after that it was smooth sailing.

The side content is okei, but you have to do some of it to access the dlcs, which is a bummer. So unless you are looking at a walkthrough you can miss it. Doing so many things till the game finally reaches its conclusion, that would have been better if the combat mechanics were more complex, even like the 2018 God of War felt more satisfying combat wise.

The gameplay is pretty easy compared to any other action games i have played of this type. Only had issues with the leviathan boss in the dlc because it was a bit higher level. The eikon battles are just cinematic, there is no actual combat depth to them. Still i enjoyed the game a lot, but by the time i was reaching the final mission, i just wanted this to be over.

A very good game, which might bore you if you play it too long given the combat simplicity.

I have a confession to make. Though I am by no means a new hand at Final Fantasy games in general, this is the first FF game I have actually finished. I first started with VI all those years ago, but never actually managed to finished it, or VII, or VIII. Not because any of them were boring, or I did not like them. Far from it, I was captivated by each in turn, but circumstances, or a lack in attention span, always conspired to pull me away.

Because of this, I judge XVI as one might an independent game, rather than one in a long and storied series.

First and foremost, what I enjoyed the most about this game is, I think, the sense of spectacle. Every scene was beautifully scripted and executed, every aspect almost always on point. It was this that ensured I got invested in the characters, and tugged me along despite the story sagging a little by the middle point.

I dearly wish the story had stuck to its early themes without the need to introduce the rather bland antagonist we got. Ultima, unfortunately, is very boring, and honestly does a disservice to the themes of the game. I think it would have been so much better if someone firmly human, or maybe a dominant, had been the ultimate villain. Perhaps the Emperor. Perhaps Anabella. Perhaps someone else.

Cid specially was wasted on that early death, considering how charismatic he was and how much he carried the first act. I think if it had not been for Cid I would not have stuck to see the landing. I get why he dies, from a narrative point of view, but again, a more interesting solution could have been found.

I also wish the game wasn't so... easy. There are, by my reckoning, four fights where I struggled: Benedikta's first boss fight, the Behemoth in Stornhyr, Barnabas, and Ultima's first boss fight. At the same time, however, perhaps this is for the best, as the battle system can be a bit annoying. I specially hated the inability to switch Eikon's mid-battle. I mean, I get it, it would kind of defeat the point of cooldowns if you could switch the eikons you can use for those you can... but I am sure some solution could have been found for that issue. As it is, fights get a little bit boring when everything you have is on cooldown. Combine that with how spongy and unreactive some enemies can feel and... it might just be for the best most fights go away quickly.

I also did not appreciate that we could only control Clive directly. I get that Clive is the star, and Ben Starr does a marvelous job with him, but as a character Clive from the usual stoic main character bullshit. Then again, in that regard I find most characters to be woefully underutilized: Jill, Dion, Joshua, Cid, Mid. I feel like every mothercrystal could have been used to shine a spotlight on someone from the cast: The game kind of does this with Jill and the Crystalline Orthodoxy, except it comes across as half-hearted.

Man, so many qualms. And yet the truth is the game simply tugs you along. The cutscenes are just that good, the performances are just that good, the ambiance of the different stages you visit are just that good. The story, though it does not stick the landing, is still mostly that good.

It might not be the most Final Fantasy, but I reckon it is still a very good, if flawed game.

Final Fantasy is my favorite gaming series of all time because of the stories, characters and soundtrack. This is my first review for a game because of how amazing Final Fantasy XVI is to me and I want to give my honest thoughts about it. I think that Final Fantasy XVI is the best Final Fantasy game and best PS5 game. The story, characters, soundtrack, graphics and gameplay are all 10/10 to me. I did not expect that the game will top over Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy XIII Trilogy for me.

Clive Rosfield's story beings with him being 15 years old and it ends when he is 33. Clive grows so much though the game and I haven't seen such character growth in a Final Fantasy protagonist. He went from seeking revenge for his brother and hating himself to saving Valisthea from evil, but he doesn't save the world by himself. Clive is very introverted, serious, but is also very kind and good. He has the help of his friends and allies that he meets along the way through his journey, but one person is always there with him as his equal. That person is a woman named Jill Warrick, his best friend from childhood and who is his true love. Their love is so true and deep, the way they care for each other, help each other confronting their traumatic pasts, the way how they go to such lengths to save each other from trouble and how they work together to save Valisthea. It's not a typical romance trope at all. As for Jill, a lot of people complain about her not doing anything in the game, but she actually does. She's very introverted, quiet, kind, good, struggles with self hatred just like Clive does, but she is only fully open with Clive and Clive is everything to Jill. I have never seen such deep and true love in any media before. Clive and Jill are my top two favorite characters from Final Fantasy XVI.

The Eikon battles are amazing, especially against Titan, Bahamut and Leviathan. The normal battle system is so fun and kinda reminds me of Kingdom Hearts. The soundtrack in the game is so amazing and I listen to it a lot. Top 5 songs are My Star, Find the Flame, Away, Shattered and Land of Eikons. The story is so deep and amazing, that without spoilers I can say I was blown away all the time while playing the game and the ending brought me to tears. I don't think any video game will be able to top Final Fantasy XVI for me.

This is pretty cool so far! I just reached The Hideaway. The combat feels a bit light on options at this point, which is especially noticeable since I'm playing through Devil May Cry 4 at the same time, but it feels good to play and I'm sure more stuff will be coming further in.

You can really tell they wanted to flex that M rating, lol. It feels a bit forced at times but I appreciate how they've been using gore thus far.

Bueno, a ver, me acabo de pasar este juego y tengo muchas cosas que decir. Así que para no pensar mucho en la semántica de esta mierda, me voy a limitar a hacer una lista de puntos e ir desarrollando poco a poco.

Lo bueno:

• Empecemos por lo básico, lo que entra por los ojos, los gráficos. Es un sinsentido lo de este juego. Es un constante abre bocas. Espectacular tanto los diseños como los efectos de partículas y demás. Que vengo de pasarme el juego del Wukong hace nada que es el portento gráfico de este año y este juego me sorprendió mucho más que ese. Además de que acompaña un apartado artístico que para mí es de los mejores de la saga. El diseño de personajes me recuerda al del Final Fantasy 12 pero con un setting medieval europeo. Sin duda alguna este es el que más me gusta en cuanto a diseños de la saga, junto con el 15 y el 9.

• La música, una sacada de rabo. Es cierto que no destaca mucho ni es tan variada como la de otros Finals (como el 7 o el 15) pero tiene unos temones que me los pase tarareando todo el juego y cuando el juego varía entre lo épico y el drama, la música no defrauda y acompaña de puta madre.

• El combate; es el alma de este juego, es lo que motiva a jugarlo. Lo que me hizo pasarme 95 horas con este jugo para hacer el 100%. Es muy divertido y fácil de comprender. Al inicio parece simple, pero a medida que avanzamos va creciendo en complejidad y las pocas opciones de combinación de habilidades es lo que motiva a estar cambiando entre habilidades hasta hallar el equilibrio perfecto de bajar la barra de ímpetu del enemigo lo más rápido posible y el hacer el mayor daño posible. Cuando das con la tecla y los combates se vuelven un espectáculo y no un tedio con enemigos esponjas, fue cuando me hizo clic y sabía que lo iba a completar al 100%. Me gusta que se enfoque solo en 3 cosas y no se le dé una complejidad innecesaria. Los jefes son muy buenos y, en su mayoría, supusieron un reto guapo. He de decir también que me pasé el juego con un mod de aumento de dificultad donde los enemigos me hacían más daño. Esto en parte también lo cambio todo, ya que el juego hasta ese momento estaba siendo un paseo donde no usaba casi nada de lo que me ofrecía el sistema de combate, era solo un machaca botones más. A raíz del mod fue que empecé a tomarme en serio el combate, haciéndome las secundarias para obtener armas raras o anillos bufos. Dándole uso a las pociones y demás. No descarto que sin este mod el juego que hubiera parecido un paseo y me lo habría pasado sin pena ni gloria solo para ver la historia. Pero bueno, esta es la magia del PC, la comunidad de moders.

• La historia; empieza muy bien, con una gran presentación del mundo y los protagonistas. En un mundo medieval oscuro lleno de politiqueo y conspiraciones a lo Juego de Tronos. Al final acaba siendo la típica historia japonesa de la saga de la humanidad contra un poder superior. No me disgustó, tiene un elenco de personajes (tanto villanos como principales) que son de los mejores de la saga, y no son pocos; Cid, Jill, Dion, Clive, Kupka, Barnabas, Benedikta, La guarra de Anabella, etc. Hasta al puto perro le coges cariño. Tiene el que es para mí (sin haber jugado aún el FFX) el mejor romance de la saga que es el de Jill con Clive. Ayuda mucho el tono adulto y que no sean dos adolescentes como en todos los otros juegos anteriores. Aunque no se escapan de la japonesada de turno. Ya me dirás tú como dos adultos que se pasan 8 años juntos en todo momento y con una clara tensión sexual se besen por primera vez en pantalla a las 50 horas de juego. Tiene muchos altibajos, que ya expandiré en la parte negativa, pero las partes altas de la historia... Jesús bendito. Son espectaculares.

Lo Malo:

• El ritmo. Siguiendo con la historia, la parte negativa de esta es el pésimo ritmo que tiene. La historia empieza "In medias res" en unos de los momentos más épicos que tiene, y después retrocede y va poco a poco hasta llegar ese momento. Todo ese tramo y poco más adelante (hasta la muerte de cierto personaje) es espectacular. Son todo presentaciones del mundo y personajes y tramas y subtramas guapas con mucho lore. De ahí en adelante pega un bajón importante hasta casi la parte final del juego. Con misiones secundarias obligatorias entre las partes guapas de la historia que no vienen a cuento. Entiendo que son para dar un poco de calma antes de la épica, pero lo hubieran hecho mucho mejor. No puedes mandarme a buscar unas semillas no seque o unos ajos después de haber tenido uno de los combates más épicos de la saga. La mayorias de estas partes entremedias son un coñazo y son en varias partes de la trama.

• Las misiones secundarias. Aquí no me voy a extender mucho porque es una tontería. Las hice todas y como en todos los juegos hay misiones que son un mojón, que son la mayoría, las hay buenas y las muy buenas que amplían el Lore y los personajes. Lo realmente malo es que te metan las misiones de mierda en la trama principal y no las buenas.

• No hay casi contenido secundario. Aparte de las misiones secundarias de recadero, solo están las cacerías de escorias, que son combates contra jefes bastantes guapos y desafiantes. Eché en falta algún minijuego o evento secundario de calidad que le dé vidilla a la exploración. Ya que el juego cuenta con mapas bastantes abiertos, se sienten vacíos en contenido (muy bonitos, eso sí). Es cierto que la historia y el tono no invitan a estar haciendo el tonto por el mundo, pero algo se les hubiera ocurrido. Como las mencionadas carreras de chocobos o pequeñas misiones con el perro o los Eikons o vete tú a saber. Algo que le dé vida al mundo y no sea solo un espacio para andar y combatir.

En resumen. Me gustó mucho el juego, de los modernos es mi favorito junto con el 15 y lo recordaré siempre con cariño por los personajes, el combate y la ambientación. No es perfecto, pero las partes buenas tuvieron más peso en mi balanza de preferencias, por la cual me parece un putísimo juegazo. Si este es el fututo de la saga, estoy tranquilo.

Just finished with "The Rising Tide" DLC and it definitely is a must have for all FFXVI fans. The side story is very good and the two new sets of abilities are amazing. It also has tonberries and a nice set of optional quests with great boss fights.

The fight against Leviathan can be frustrating but it's also very intense and exciting. The new "roguelike" inspired game mode is also great.

Not at the point yet where i was in my previous playthrough, but some things so far:

• Side quests are mostly abysmal, these are like MMO fetch quests, and really shows this game was developed by the MMO department of SQE. This really feels like a downgrade coming back from FF7Rebirth's sidequests.
• The main story is good (so far anyway), interesting characters and it's not too convoluted yet. Locations feel almost FF13-level of corridored in though, there's not much exploration at all.
• I'm a bit on the fence on the combat, it's very smooth but it also feels... dull in a way, sometimes i feel like i'm playing DMC-light instead of FF combat, it's just mash square, dodge and wait for eikon ability cooldowns. Getting hit by a Marlboro breath and just taking some damage and nothing else just feels wrong on more levels than i can count. At least it gets more interesting over time with the different eikons.
• Music is fantastic, i feel like Soken really had a lot more room for creativity here compared to FF14.
• The game looks absolutely gorgeous in graphics mode, lots of variety in the scenes too.

As a long time Final Fantasy fan, I started with IX and expanded with 8, 7, 10, 6, 4, 13, 15 and a bunch of spinoffs, and I've been with this series for nearly 25 years. As with many long time fans, the spirit within is a flop of a movie. It's interesting to see how much was built up for this. I was skeptical, I was laughing at people who paid for it on release, I was a genuinely a dick about it at a point but after another point, I decided I wanted to give this a fair chance and received as a present.

I feel so bad for my friend who bought it for me for Christmas. This wasn't their fault, how could have they've known.

Final Fantasy XVI is less of a game and more of cutscene heaven. Most of the engagement in this game is story only and gameplay is limited to map exploration (of a hallway disguised as an area with towns, akin to Final Fantasy X but more disconnected) or boss fight movies with minimal button presses. What story is told requires you to invest a lot of energy and time into it to believe it. If you can't bite the hook, you're not going to ever truly reengage unless you can suspend disbelief to believe how a plot like this can be interesting. It can succeed with how flashy and huge it gets, has one of my favorite boss fights despite it being cinematic because it does something that was interesting.

However, the story tells one of repentance and the idea to choose your own fate than let fate choose your path and it fails a lot. Its initial conflict is all political and built around 4-5 nations to try to take over the world (that I can't remember the name to in all honesty) for power. It's a clear power struggle and an attempt to rule over the nations and it is neat. Each nation having a dominant to hold upmost power and characters like Gav, Byron, and Dion all having unique directions as the minor cast has more personality and interesting plots than the main cast.

It's not even that Jill or Jotchua (What I've Been Calling Joshua) at blame. It's Clive. Now don't get me wrong, I do like Clive but Clive is the problem of why Final Fantasy 16. For comparison to say 7's story now that's that's relevant. Clive is this story's Sephiroth. An all powerful force driven to be tied to an all powerful being that has a singular purpose. That's not the most important part though. Clive and Sephiroth lead to an underlying mystery and the world is warped around them. That's the problem. The story is warped around Clive. The moments in the story that's not relevant to Clive? Those do exist but they don't exist unless they tie back Clive in some way.

The story starts with Clive, unsure who killed Jotchua, chasing a hooded man to solve this mystery of who done it. However, the mystery of Jotchua, while interesting, is warped a lot on what can make Clive a good character and not writing it in favor of having Clive just be a character, regardless of character's writing. If I would to rewrite this story, I would kill Clive. I would kill him. I want that fucking man dead. I don't think he should be living, but that's brings up a question about Ifrit? How about if Jotchua dies, Jotchua is the protagonist trying to solve a mystery of who's Ifrit and there's Ifrit murdering other Dominants and who would be next or who could be Ifrit. A mystery at hand with Jotchua, living in the shadow of his brother and chasing him down, much like how FF7's cast chase down Sephiroth while living in his shadow.

In the shadow of Ifrit's power and might, Jotchua, aka Phoenix, needs to figure out who he is. The political intrigue would still exist bc Jotchua would be presumed dead and missing but be working with Cid to make the world better.

I didn't even talk about the gameplay but the gameplay is boring. Barely any customization, the skills and set up is very limited, there's no real interesting way and I felt like I was just mashing Square/X to win. Cutscenes have button presses too in boss battles. It's boring.

This is also just framed like a single player MMOs. The design is lazy and a lot of the UI and typeface doesn't match the setting, it just feels mostly lifted from FF14.

FF16's cardinal sin is just being so boring after the fight in Twinside. It doesn't do anything to hook you and like I said, if you weren't invested it in at a certain point, it's just okay to drop trying it. Can you believe this game is $70, and where I live, plus tax? It's easily one of my least favorites but in my haze, I want to like it. I wanted to like everything more.

God, this game pisses me off and all I can do is talk about it. This is how Dawntrail can still win this.

UPDATE:

I have more to say:

• No Minigames makes no god damn sense, just like, even with the story direction they were taking, a simple ass game of poker goes a LONG way at the hideaway while planning the next move. We didn't need Blitzball, but we needed something.
• People talking about it being mature and serious, I don't agree. Final Fantasy is supposed to be goofy and charming at times. There hasn't been a single moment like that in 16 that I can think of than Clive scolding a girl over her dead slave while the fanfare plays (yes, that's a side quest that happens). Compare to FF7 that has a whole marching parade minigame into seeing Hojo on the beach then you go to Corel to learn about what happened to it in a serious manner, where then you go to the Gold Saucer that's silly and goofy, only then to get further into Barret's backstory built on Shinra's manipulation and genuine steer for control of the world that's 100% dark and serious.
• Graphics suck in an asethetic sense. They're pretty. They cast is too pretty. No one looks ugly, or gross, or fatigued, or bad. Everyone is pretty. I hate it. It's too over-realistic. Compare that to Rebirth where it's realistic but in the stylized sense.
• The role of Women in this game is to suffer for a man's pain or develop because a man tells them to. It's a tired comment but it's true. Jill takes a backseat at Clive's whims, Benedikta is only purposefully utilized to drive Hugo's conflict with Clive, Mid only exists under Cid's situation, Jode for Jotchua, Annabelle's like the only woman who does thing because she's a bad bitch who don't quit.
• The Slavery Message would matter more if it wasn't reduced to nothing in favor for a God vs God plot that has absolutely nothing going for it.

1.5

This was just a dreadful experience. This is Final Fantasy in name only, as it feels like the development team wanted to make a Game of Thrones WRPG-style action game and threw in Moogles, Chocobos, and summons to point and say, "See? It's Final Fantasy!!" It tries to be an action game, an RPG, a grimdark low fantasy, and somehow a big dumb kaiju brawl all at once - it succeeds in none of these areas. I saw all the red flags when this game was coming out and I saw all of those "Medieval Europe" comparisons in articles. Despite that, there was a lot of hype when the demo and game finally came out, and a friend of mine liked the game, so I went in with tempered expectations. It was still terrible.

The plot seems like it's compelling in the prologue, with careful political machinations getting set up. Then, somewhere along the way, some staff member yelled "BORING" and banged two action figures together going "pow pow pow pow" for 56 minutes. Every single character is either a bumbling gruff guy or a sarcastic woman. I like the Song of Ice and Fire books, but the Game of Thrones TV show just had to go and ruin fantasy adaptations and now JRPGs also. Ugh. Some plot points and characters are just outright ripped off from GoT, and it's painful.

The battle system sucks. You have exactly one character to control and bosses are just damage sponges that take too long to kill, making combos and finishes not even remotely satisfying. Aerial combat just doesn't work, and various Eikons can somewhat change your strategies, but the outcome is the same. Fights are super repetitive and bosses simply take too long and most of them have WAY too many phases, just leaving you exhausted. It's supposed to feel epic and climactic, but it's the equivalent of someone just dangling candy in front of someone for an hour.

The dungeon design is just like FF13 - my least favorite in the series. Great. Every dungeon is a hallway. Just walk straight to the next nav point. Watch a long boring cutscene. Walk straight to the next cutscene. Fight a boss that takes too long. Fight a bunch of henchmen that soak up time and pad the dungeon. Watch a cutscene. Walk straight through the hallway. Do a fetch quest! Scroll through a map and click the next place with an exclamation point. Rinse and repeat until it's all over.

I gave a 1.5 instead of a 1 because I think the side content is largely worth doing. Many side quests give better character development than any of the main story sequences. My positives are I like the accessibility options given to players, and Joshua was decent. Cid's theme also kinda owns. Everything else was just dreadful. While not my least favorite mainline FF, it is incredibly close.

For me the real GOTY of 2023, beautiful game. 200 hrs later a platinum and the best experience so far on the PS5, the boss battles, the OST, the graphics, just art, Final Fantasy 16 is why we can call videogames the superior art format.

Only cons is the boring sidequest, especially in the desert area. xd

I want more devil may fantasy games with a berserk game of thrones lore like. If you like this, play Asuras Wrath with all the DLC

Man.

Typing this directly after finishing the game. Me and Final Fantasy 16 started rocky. I was enjoying the game but the lacking combat options early game, the lacking QoL in terms of area traversal, and the design of some of the side quest felt like a slog to get through in-between the incredible highs the game gives you.

But then it clicked. I hit a point in the game where I fell in love with the characters. I felt close to them. Side quests started to get interesting as I got deeper into individual quest lines. I met new characters just as interesting as ones before them. They all had a story and as Clive develops, they become the reason Clive fights to protect the world and it's future.

The themes of Enslavement vs Freedom go through-out the entire game. People enslaved literally, by their past, by their circumstances, by obligation. The game is all about breaking those bonds, leading to an AMAZING penultimate showdown with the reason behind everyone's suffering.

Great game, the lows brought me down, but this was definitely a "man." game. Really liked it.

Final Fantasy XVI channels the emotive, operatic qualities that made entries like Final Fantasy X and VII a huge hit, but introduces enough "mature themes" and political intrigue to power a television series. After the borderline technical and narrative disaster that was Final Fantasy XV, it seems Square overcorrected in bringing in FFXIV's CBUIII and Devil May Cry's combat designers to produce a totally slick triple-A Final Fantasy that at first blush is the most stable new entry in the franchise since FFXII. (Not counting the still-superior FFVII Remake.)

You can tell 2018's God of War reboot was on the mind of the development team, not only in this game's sweeping cinematics, but also in the moment-to-moment combat and the way the skill tree (or wheel, as it were) unfolds. But Final Fantasy strips down even these meager RPG elements, and indeed even on "Action Mode" (as opposed to "Story Mode") the gameplay has a borderline hack-n-slash quality to it. Like previous Square ARPGs Kingdom Hearts 3 and Final Fantasy XV before it, FFXVI is just too darn easy. Perhaps the biggest misstep in its combat was the decision to avoid elemental affinities (despite each move having one) which could have made combat much more engaging. From beginning to end, encounters largely feel the same as a result, and the game encourages you to essentially stick with what works for you rather than trying out different movesets.

What makes the FFXVI work is also sort of what holds it back. The MMO-style quest delivery, which is rightfully disdained, must have been easy to implement for the team, but it lacks character. The combat is very fluid and fun, but you don't ever get the privilege of grooming a core team, like you did in past Final Fantasy titles (even FFXV). It feels a little too polished, to the point that it's often boring. The story is punctuated by truly awe-inspiring, anime-inflected moments that almost feel like they belong to a different game compared to the by-the-numbers subplots that await you if you choose to dive deep into the sidequests (I did).

Does the game have that "Final Fantasy feel"? I would say so. Even though it sticks with only one playable protagonist, it's clear that there is an AI-driven party system of sorts that makes sure you don't feel alone at major moments. The story pays tribute to all of its great characters, major and minor and some frustratingly in-between. Even without a FFXV-style "open world" the different biomes provide ample space to explore (if not quite motivation to do so) which gives the game an epic scale without reducing it to yet another Ubisoft clone.

Ironically, playing this so close to when I played FFXV, it's hard not to see this game as having the exact opposite problems as that game. The engine here is buttery-smooth, the cutscenes are copious, the lore is extremely thought-through (and delivered in a way that is very accessible). But FFXV, for all its unfinished jank, also offered a more impressive array of play styles with its four party members, and more organically integrated character moments that didn't have to be delivered during a 1-hour cutscene break. In FFXV, you actually benefitted from the use of skills like Libra in analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the enemies, who responded to different elemental affinities and weapon types. It trying to make FFXVI a smooth and accessible experience for everyone, the developers filed away at many of the elements that would have made the game a more memorable and more "Final Fantasy" experience.

Played digital version on PlayStation 5. Completed all side quests, hunts and trophies save for the Final Fantasy Mode and mastering every ability ones. Plan to revisit at some point in the near future for a second playthrough.

Boy, it's real nice to give a damn about Final Fantasy again. (Spoilers abound—I'm not holding anything back. Be warned.)

It's been a minute since I've really felt invested in this series—personally, I think XII was the last "great" single-player entry in the franchise (I've not and will never play the MMOs, and while VII Remake had amazing combat—probably the best in the modern-day series—its story and characters remain as uninteresting to me as they were in 1997). XIII has, for me, the worst characters and story of the ones I've played (with pretty solid combat, however), with XV being close behind—the plot holes, the camp, the dude bro-iness of it all... ugh, not for me. In fact, outside of X, which I think is pretty all right, I've generally felt down about every Nomura-designed entry in the series. His characters and designs are not to my liking, and the stories he's worked on, across all series he's touched, have bordered on incoherent, with late-game god-creature reveals and characters you'd like to see shoved out an airlock and left to die in the vacuum of space.

FFXVI feels, to me, like a mostly excellent return to form. I say mostly excellent because as much as I genuinely love this game—it's currently fourth in my ranking, alongside XII, VI, and Tactics—it does have its pitfalls. The two biggest are, in my opinion, the combat and the slavery angle. The latter I'll touch on at the end of this review. To the former... Honestly, I'm not a character action–game person. Never have been. I get it, I can figure out the combos and make my way through, I just find it deeply uninteresting. I'm much more a tactical person when playing a role-playing game. Basically, I feel like Gita Jackson's Polygon review of the game is the opposite of where I land (FTR, I like and respect Gita, but I also know she gets a lot of undue online hate, so if you're reading this and thinking it an excuse to dunk on her and her excellent work, walk the fuck on—I don't want to hear it): While I was bored silly by 99% of combat encounters (and left with vertigo at times, which made it difficult to focus on what was happening), I was really drawn into the story, the world, and especially the characters. Are there better fantasy stories out there in fiction? Oh god, yes, absolutely. Are there better Final Fantasy-specific stories? Yes, but not many, and of those none have characters written with this much depth or emotion. So that's where I land on this, wishing to compare it to others in the series and not the grander fantasy genre. Because in terms of the larger fantasy genre, RPGs have always lagged behind books especially. But as an entry into this specific series, it's right near the top and is, to me, the top when it comes to character specifically.

One thing I come away from this game still thinking about is its sincerity and lack of tongue-in-cheek campiness. Generally, outside of the horror genre, I'm not one for camp, which is usually all over the place in FF. In fact, even within the horror genre my tolerance for camp is really touch and go (I still don't get why people like Sam Raimi films). Yes, it's still as melodramatic as FF can get, but there's a heart here that just isn't present in most games in this franchise, and not to this extent. A heart, and a genuine affection for its characters and its world. It's not afraid to show platonic friend love, queer love, and genuine romance (and yes, it does "bury its gays," but I refuse to accept that Dion is actually dead and am waiting for him to pop up in some future DLC, along with the missing Leviathan eikon, presumed dead). In fact, my favourite thing, I think, is how unlike other FF protagonists Clive is. He's compassionate, not spiteful; open-hearted, not brooding. He walks through the world wanting to leave it a better place than when he found it, and it shows, especially in the (way too many) side quests throughout. A lot of critics have slammed the side quests for being too samey, and while I agree that in terms of action they all feel very similar, I really loved doing them because that is where some of the best and most interesting character development happens. Not to mention some of the most caring moments (the Torgal side quest before the final encounter kinda wrecked me, as did the quest for the silver chocobo feather—such small, unexpectedly kind moments).

So yeah, I loved the story of the side quests more than the gameplay of them. But for me, gameplay is secondary in this sort of game to giving a shit about what I'm doing and why. And seeing as this cast of characters was always engaged in their surroundings and with each other's well-being, the "why" was never far from my mind. That said, I do have some issues with the story. Chief among them, I wish, for once, they'd ditched the god angle to all of this. I know, I know, it's a Square Enix RPG so at some point you're gonna kill god or a god or something tonally representative of god (who in this game, seeks a very American Christian kind of desire to see everyone made "the same," to flatten out human existence into something easily understood by fearful idiots, by turning them all Akashic). Honestly, I wish Barnabas had not been literally convinced by god but only thought that he was. Big fan of the evil-of-man as being a driving force without it needing to be something impossibly grand all over again. That said, they handle the introduction of Ultima here so much better than they've handled the intro of the all-powerful super being in other games (looking at you, FFIX, and your "whoops, here's the god you didn't know existed to fuck up your shit at the very last minute" twist). Ultima feels like part of the plan from the beginning, which is much better than they've done in the past (though I also liked Venat's "guiding hand" approach in XII—like a whisper in the ear of the main villain and not the true surprise villain itself). And the fight against them in the end is wonderfully absurd in a very "SSJ2 Gohan vs. Cell final duel" kind of way.

Other random things:

-I like that they gave Jill agency to gut her own demons, and that Clive never once tried to play the part of the rugged hero who won't let the damsel in distress sully her soul—no, he lets her do what she needs to in order to heal, even if that means skewering this game's motherfucker of a pope.

-The soundtrack is fittingly epic—top five, easy, in the running alongside VI, XII, Tactics, and probably the all-time best of the series, IV (if for nothing else, the "Battle with the Four Fiends" music is still the best boss music they've ever done).

-The fight with Titan is—and I mean this in the most positive way I can—fucking hysterical. I mean, you're just freefalling from orbit for, like, seven minutes or so. What's not to love? The only thing to best it, IMO, is the three-on-one eikon fight leading into the final encounter. Such joyful ridiculousness.

-Good god, between Cid and Joshua, there's just... so much coughing blood into palms.

-So... the hooded man from the beginning, the one that's -not- Magrace/Joshua... is that just a spectre to Clive? Is that his imagination conjuring an image of Ifrit as if he's seeing himself? Or is that a shadow of Ultima? That's maybe the one thing I come away from feeling uncertain about, in terms of story.

-Some of the set pieces are gorgeously directed. Of these, the ones that really stand out are the Dalimil Inn (the way the camera moves between rooms the first time you're in there), the on-sea confrontation with Odin, and the final slate of farewells before you make your way to Origin.

-Visually, the game is astounding. This is the first PS5-only game I've played, and it shows. The world is lush and beautiful, and actually feels lived in. The only thing I wish I could have done more of is enter random homes and buildings—something I miss from the older games, which allowed for more exploration.

With everything above said, I promised I'd get back to the aspect of the game that is most uncomfortable, and that's its slavery narrative. Which, in defense of those for whom this was a dealbreaker, does run throughout the -entire- game. It's always present, and always treated with severity (well, as much severity as a FF has treated anything such as this), so it's understandable that for many, it's a bridge too far.

I do commend the creative team for trying to make a FF that's actually -about- something, and not just another tale of good vs. evil (vs. god). Very few games in this series have attempted to put forth a thesis the way this game does. That said, however, touching on something with such distinct real-world parallels is always a risk. I can't say how this story landed in other territories, but it makes all the sense in the world that it has met with some resistance here in North America. Right off the bat, I do think it was a mistake to appropriate imagery such as slave auctions, and to feature a cast of primarily white-appearing characters at the core of it—despite the creators' intentions to be "true" to a specific European look and feel, which is bullshit because people of all ethnicities lived throughout Europe, even in the middle ages. There's a disingenuous feel to it all as a result. It's also a bit difficult because what few characters of colour exist in this game seem to occupy different extremes of this—either they are victim to the more visible and violent and cruel anti-bearer racism in the game (L'ubor), or they are seeking to uphold the status quo and "protect" the truth about anti-bearer racism from ever getting out (the Executor you meet in a late-game side quest, who tries to steal from you a book that shows with transparency the corruption at the heart of the church's decision to treat bearer's like cattle). Additionally, while parts of the story manage to handle discussions about the racism bearers face with some measure of subtlety if not nuance, others make it seem like a single heartfelt conversation is all it will take to get people generations deep into their hatred to see the light and grow in unison. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the resolution to L'ubor and Dalimil's storyline. It treats the anti-bearer racism as a thing easily bested, where once a threat has passed all will hug and sing together in the spirit of peace and harmony. Not a bad desire for the world, but it does feel out of place when it happens so quickly in this game's world.

So yeah, while aspects of this game are a massive win for me, the final package comes with an equally massive asterisk next to it. It doesn't completely fuck up how it handles aspects of its slavery storyline, but neither does it handle them with as much care and depth as it could have had they consulted on this story with people directly impacted by the narrative at play here. And the demographics of it are certainly an issue, there's no getting around that. That's been an issue with FF since the dawn of time, but with this particular story, the almost-entirely all-white cast stands out that much more.

This is, for my money, the best FF since 2006, and one of the best of the lot that I've played. I won't be forgetting these characters as quickly as I did Lightning, Snow, Noctis, Prompto, and... uh, whatever other names exist in either of those two games, both of which I consider to be absolute franchise low points. It has definite, unavoidable issues baked into its world and narrative, and a combat system that I wish I could do without, while at the same time having some of the best music, set pieces, and characters in the entire series. It's a deeply imperfect game that I love a great deal, but that love comes with caveats and an understanding that this game will not be for everyone.

Personal ranking, best to worst (of only the entries that I've played):

FFXII FFVI FF Tactics FFXVI FFIV FFX FFVII R FFVII FFIX FFV FFXV FFVIII FFX-2 FFXIII

Not being a huge fan of turn-based combat, this is actually the first mainline Final Fantasy I was able to finish. I played a decent chunk of 7 and 9 back in the day, but that's about the extent of my experience with the series.

So, I'm not sure how this game landed with fans of the franchise. I quite liked it. The combat isn't very deep or difficult (at least for someone coming from a more action-oriented background, turn-based peeps might have some issues), but it's flashy and fun enough that it never got stale for me.

The story was surprisingly good. Like seemingly every Final Fantasy and a lot of anime it ends with you killing god, but I was surprised how well they tied that thematically to the first half of the game that was more about bearers and slavery. Like the actual PLOT of the game almost completely changes, but what the game is ABOUT remains consistent the entire time. Freedom to live and die on our own terms. Or in the immortal words of Zack De La Rocha, "fuck you I won't do what you tell me." You can't convince me someone on the team wasn't a fan of Rage. One of the achievements is called "Fistful of Steel." I loved pretty much all the characters, and the voice acting was top notch, especially Clive and Cid.

Some negatives are that the world is kind of shallow, there's really nothing to find or explore and there's these big open spaces for kind of no reason. There's not really any RPG systems to speak of. And just overall the whole experience is a little bit, well, shallow. From the combat to the world itself to how you interact with people.

But what really brought the game down for me were the sidequests. Not even necessarily the quality of them, but the raw number and how they were doled out. The issue is many of them ARE worth doing, with unique cutscenes and important character moments for your crew, but there's really no way to know which those are without just...doing all of them. Which I did. Many of them are little more than filler. Which even THAT isn't SO bad for me.

What really chafed my nads is the way sidequests unlock. Basically after every one or two main missions 3-6 sidequests unlock. This continues right up until the end of the game. At a certain point the story has reached a crescendo point where all I want to do is finish it, but the SAME number of sidequests keep unlocking. The game just has NO feel for pacing. Near the end of the game sidequests need to either stop happening entirely or winnow down significantly because the player wants to finish the actual main story, they are in the final act and the plot is emotionally propelling them forward and you shitting out 8 sidequests at me in the 11th hour is working against that. They should've been WAY more frontloaded than they were. I had the most energy to do sidequests in the first half of the game when the game was newer and more novel to me and I was still just enjoying the combat for its own sake, by the end I just wanted them to stop.

This game is great visually and the story is great (although the world building and side quests can be a drag with too much meaningless conversation) but the gameplay and combat is lacklustre.

They cut major corners on gameplay and it’s missing a lot of RPG staples like weaknesses/resistances along with gear being basically railroaded and abysmal. This leaves for more of a just sit back and enjoy the visual ride rather than demanding strategy. Because of this the game IMO is the easiest final fantasy I have ever played, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

The combat turns into button mashing while mixing in eikonic abilities. There are some additional attacks you can do like a lunge attack or a heavy attack but it does not add much variety. Boss’s can be a slog as they have a lot of health but aren’t hard so it takes awhile to kill them, same with some normal enemies.

There’s a lack of characters you bring with you and honestly I failed to get attached to any, in-line previous instalments where the additional characters felt like secondary main characters.

All in all I give the game a 7/10 because it’s still visually amazing and the main story is great. I can appreciate what they were trying to do but the game needed another year atleast in dev time to atleast flesh out the gear system instead of throwing something in there just for the sake of having it and also making the gameplay better and more engaging.

Hopefully the next game goes back to their roots, if they stay with action gameplay it should be similar to FF7 remake, that combat and game was amazing.

So I just completed Final Fantasy XVI, and it left me petrified with my mouth open during the entirety of credits, so yeah, let's talk about it. My review contains some spoilers, but they aren't too specific, or detailed (unless I marked them). This will be long as heck, so get yourself a b̶e̶e̶r̶ tea.

FFXVI is the newest entry from the legendary series of Japanese RPG games developed by Square Enix. As much as I wouldn't call myself a diehard fan of the series, because I played just a fraction of these games, I will eventually become one, because I absolutely love them. If you are new to the series, every numbered installment is something entirely new, with some core aspects from the previous games, they aren't connected (some numbered titles have prequels, sequels and spinoffs, tho) and you are free to start with XVI.

So yeah, as I just said, every numbered installment is different, and they went for the controversial decision to make XVI a slashy action RPG with a rotating party of AI companions. A lot of people disliked the idea, but as one of the biggest enemies of hack and slashes, I liked the gameplay of FFXVI. It's simple and not too ambitious, but it works for a variety of reasons. For starters, you get to use Eikon abilities (iconic to the series, God-like beings). How cool is dropping some of the most iconic skills from the most iconic monsters in the franchise? Insanely cool, throwing a frickin Gigaflare, or Zantetsuken is as cool as it gets. For me, part of the fun was the curiosity about the next Eikons. I was excited to find out what abilities did they prepare for me to try next, as a huge fan of these God-Like monsters and their designs, it was a real treat for me. The combat is flashy as f***, particles everywhere, slow-motion, cool combos and cinematic animations, it's just visually pleasing. It's easy to learn, but it takes a while to master, doing sick dodges and putting combos together to maximize your damage output is pretty engaging. Lastly, a lot of people say the combat is boring, but it's really up to You. The game lets you change your kit at any time, without any cost. You can just google the best abilities and get bored to death, or keep changing them to keep things interesting. I changed my abilities often, sometimes even just for the immersion due to story reasons, sometimes just to keep things fresh, and never got bored.

While we are still talking about the gameplay, tougher enemies, or mini-bosses, all have creative move sets, and they make fights engaging, with a lot of flashy AoEs to avoid. Clashing with enemies is a show, a spectacle. Some of these mini-bosses have better execution than actual bosses in another games. When it comes to actual bosses, FFXVI easily has the best bossfights ever made, and trust me, it's something you have never seen before. You actually feel like fighting God Entities, every major boss feels like a separate movie about a legendary clash of two legendary fighters. There are many phases, jaw dropping cinematics, crazily good ideas, kaiju fights, and it gets better and better. FFXVI made modern God of War look bad, and I'm saying it out loud. After playing XVI, I feel like GoW could have done better, like... So much better. To be completely honest, I can't describe how good it is, everyone just has to experience it on its own. Every single bossfight has that one moment, that makes you act like "no way, just no way that's happening". The clashes are just wonderfully creative, so yeah, get your spacesuit, because FFXVI is getting you into space, and that's just one of the things to experience. I literally replayed some long-ass chapters, instead of continuing the story, just so I could show my IRL friends how cool the bossfights are. I played the Titan chapter 2 times in a row, because guys on discord kept coming, and I wanted all of them to witness it. Some players claim, that bossfights get worse with time, but I couldn't disagree more. I loved all of them for different reasons. I was prepared for the final boss to be underwhelming, but I loved the last fight, and it left me petrified with my jaw on the floor.

Some thoughts about bossfights, full spoilers ahead, leaving it mostly for people who completed the game, but still felt like reading this:

Odin gets a lot of hate, and I totally get why. He's the next one after Bahamut, which is no contest - the best. That said, I enjoyed his mechanics a lot. I think the fact, that you have to lose to him two times, was a pretty fresh and cool idea. I think he was the best gameplay-wise, 1 vs 1 sword fight between two masters of the blade was very fitting. Bahamut was also full Kaiju mode, so regular clash was very pleasing for Odin. I also enjoyed how Barnabas used his Eikon during the fight, while you were still in human form. Ultima wasn't disappointing at all in my opinion. I think the cooperation and sacrifice was needed to take down an Evil God, to truly show his power level. I liked how he used every Eikon's abilities, and Clive mirrored them, but he used them better, because after all, he mastered the powers throughout the game. The sequence with Clive shifting to all Eikons was amazing, and he dropped some of the best one-liners I've ever heard during that fight. As much as Bahamut was the best, and that's what you call a damn spectacle, I really missed a human fight with Dion, master of Dragoons. Titan fight was my favorite, human clash with Hugo was just epic, I didn't expect cutting his arms at all. The running sequence and then fighting a living mountain was jaw dropping, and the end was some JoJo level fist fight. Garuda was also amazing to me, Torgal segments were super exciting, Benedikta going mad worked extremly well, it was fun gameplay-wise, and the Ifrit section set the bar really high for the rest of the game. Typhoon was also a very pleasant spectacle, with cool music and amazing Ifrit gameplay, but it's massively overlooked by the rest of the fights. Liquid Flame had some of the coolest attacks in the entire game, but it's design is extremely forgetable, and so is his fight, they should've let us play as Shiva. Lastly Phoenix was a pretty nice intro, to showcase what's coming for us later in the game.

Another controversial decision, but a damn good one, was making FFXVI mature. Tough story involving slavery, persecution and political intrigues, sex and nudity, curse words (I can't believe how much I needed them in FF lmao), and even a little gore. It just has a serious tone, and I love it.

A lot of people say the game is like Game of Thrones, and I have to agree. Unfortunately, it is exactly like Game of Thrones, which means that interesting story regarding political intrigues eventually gets replaced with cheesy save the world theme, but it's FF after all. Thankfully, while in GoT it was unbearable and horribly executed, it kind of worked in this game. It was still fun and engaging, I just think the political aspect was better and unfortunately a little underused. So yeah, the final act is the weakest, but in my opinion, still good. While we are at comparing XVI to other media, it has some visible inspirations from Attack on Titan, and is generally a solid mixture of different RPGs, a lot of different RPGs.

The game is really well-written. While it has some plot holes, stupid decisions, slower moments, underused characters, and cheesiness... Everything does. The world is incredible, and so is its lore. The game wants to tell you an epic tale, and it totally does by getting you through astonishingly spectacular scenarios. I don't want to spoil too much, but you will experience so much cool stuff in this game, that it's beyond me, you will ascend to the stars, fight a living mountain, explore a forbidden continent, visit the bottom of the sea, and I didn't even get started. FFXVI is a spectacle, it's an experience, it's a ride, and it's a wild one. There is a time-skip in the game, that pretty much changes the status of your character, and it really changes your perspective on some things, just an awesome move to showcase how problematic is class based discrimination in Valisthea. Generally, the world changes with actions in the game, which is pretty dang cool, people react differently, locations change and different monsters spawn. The main protagonist's name is Clive, and he's pretty awesome. He's likable, reliable, and badass yet tempered. Secondary characters are also extremly good, for the most part, I can't remember the last time, I liked the entire crew so much. There is a hub in this game, and it's just full of well-written characters. Your Smith, or vendor, actually have personalities with quests and backstories, and a lot of NPCs are like that, how cool is that? I remember most average NPCs from the hub, not only their names, but their bios and backstories. I want to admire, the fact, that we have cool side characters, that are just normal. You know, they don't look like stand users, they don't have shiny armor, weapons from monsters, or godlike abilities. They are like the average Joe, but they have their part in this game, and they actually add to the story. You will also meet a lot of antagonists along your journey, and they are all pretty awesome. Sadly, due to the big number of them, every new one has a harder job of meeting your expectations, so the last few ones turn pretty underwhelming. That said, even the blandest FFXVI antagonist is still pretty decent, and often better, than an average antagonist in an average RPG game. I feel like these guys are worth describing, so if you completed the game, here are my thoughts about most of them.

Huge spoilers about some characters:

Barnabas seemed like the biggest badass in the world, and to be honest, he was, but he felt to me like a religious character written by an atheist. As much as they nailed his character, insanely strong master of the blade, conqueror of worlds, self-made king, that lost his mind, his motive was just laughable. Benedicta was remarkable, but she was barely in the game, criminally underused, but at least she made Hugo even better, and he was just breathtaking, and easily my favorite antagonist. Ultima was just OK for an Evil God type of character. Anabella was the most interesting antagonist, with true GoT vibes, but they just cut her down, so they could proceed with "save the world" theme, easily the most disappointing part of the game. Thankfully, on the good side of things, we have characters like Clive, Joshua, Cid and Dion, which are right there at the top of the whole franchise, Jill which is a little worse than your average FF best girl, but still fun, and tons of smaller characters like Gav, which are just amazing. I actually can't believe how much screen time they gave to smaller characters like Gav, Mid, Otto, Blackthorne, Byron and others, and how well-written they are.

Side quests in this game are just incredible, but for some reason extremely tedious at the beginning. After some awfully boring fetch quests, that are here for literally no reason, you get to the good stuff. That said, side quests in XVI serve as a tool to world building, their gameplay isn't too engaging, but they're a must-play just for their stories. They masterfully showcase you how dark it is to live in this world, how hopeless are the slaves, how cruel is class based discrimination, and trust me, it hits hard. There are also massive quests that tell you more about side characters, they show you their backstories, the backstages of their organizations, often relations with other people, or connections with world politics. Some characters really flash out in side quests, as they get full arcs with impressive closures. There are also tasks that give you cool information about locations or the whole world. We also have quests where you have to pick up f***ing cabbage and deliver it to a farmer, God knows why. That said, the majority of side quests are worth your while, they're not too fun gameplay wise, but they are worth it for the lore, I would have been upset if I skipped them.

The game presents beautifully done levels with breathtaking visuals and a lot of action, some of them might get a little corridory, tho. We also have some open-world locations, and they are just alright. You will go through different biomes with different monsters, fractions, people and policies. The world changes a little during the game, which is pretty cool. Every part of the world had its mood and I especially liked the last one, which is massively disliked by people, because they misunderstood it.

Big spoiler with explanation:

So the last location is the Kingdom of Waloed, and it's a land completely sacrificed by its King to fulfill demands of his God. Waloed is f***ing empty, but that's because pretty much no one survived. I love how depressing is this location, with its unsettling hopeless music, areas completely overrun by monsters, with some of the most disturbing side-quests being located there. It masterfully showcases how crazy and indoctrinated was Barnabas, he sacrificed not only the strongest empire, but the entire continent of people's lives.

So yeah, if you read my previous long-ass paragraphs, at this point, you know, that FFXVI has a ton of lore. There are dozens of important characters, a lot of twists, thousands of events to remember, backstories of characters, backstories of the world, descriptions of organizations, fractions, kingdoms and their agencies, tons of it. To help you process all of this, XVI came up with just an incredible idea - Active Time Lore. You can pause the game at any moment, and if you click the designated button, a lore menu will show up, with handy information about all the stuff, that's important at the current moment. They talk about some guy, and you totally forgot who the hell he is? No problem, you open that menu, and you can read about him, check how he looks, and suddenly you remember everything. You put your head inside a bag of chips, your girlfriend listens to annoyingly loud music, and someone just delivered food? Oh no, because of all of this, you are totally lost in that one crucial cutscene? No problem, you boot that menu, and you can read about the event, involved characters, location and sides of the conflict. Every game should have something like that, and to be honest, FFXVI is so big, that I would be completely lost without it. There is also an NPC with lore archives, where you can read hundreds of pages with cool information and fun trivia, I actually read all of it. There is another NPC with relations between characters on a fricking timeline, and important events showcased on a map, also on a fricking timeline. Just imagine how big is this world and its story, if you need so much stuff to not get lost in it. Alright, it's not that deep, but the lore of this game is rich, absurdly rich, and that works.

It doesn't need to be said, but this game still feels like a Final Fantasy game. All things iconic to the series are there, and they don't feel forced. Well, maybe, except that one thing. There is a Moogle in this dark hopeless world, and he feels pretty out of place, he gives you hunting missions. They actually decided to put a Moogle in this world, but they didn't include Cactuars or Tonoberries, just what the F***?

Let's talk about the audiovisual part of the game. FFXVI is a beautiful game, with a lot of shockingly stunning moments. Once again, I don't want to spoil anything, but some bigger fights, are not only creative, or amazing gameplay-wise, they are just visually stunning. Unfortunately, sometimes there is so much stuff going on, that you barely see what's going on. Thankfully, it's a really small portion, but it had to be said. Other than that, 3d models are insanely detailed, with a lot of creativity in their designs. Particles are well-done, and they add a lot to the epicness of the fights, but sometimes there is just too much of them. Locations and levels are beautifully done, especially levels during some bigger events are very immersive. There used to be awful motion blur, but after an update, you can turn it off. Cutscenes are right there at the top, with some blockbuster animation movies quality, but it's nothing new in the series. I would also love to add, that I was very pleased with the diversity of enemies and their models, but it's a big game, so they eventually started repeating. Yeah, another Final Fantasy is pretty, shocking. Music is once again so good, it feels unreal. Some of these tracks are left engraved in my memory, till the end of my days. I genuinely think, that the most talented composer on Earth worked on this game, Masayoshi Soken, you did this again. All the tracks hit really hard, and they blend incredibly well with corresponding events, XVI often sends chills down your spine, and it wouldn't do it without that perfect music. A lot of tracks repeated, but it's a long game, they still provided a ton of 10/10 quality music. I played the game in English, because English voice acting is always amazing in FF, and to no ones surprise, it's once again excellent. It's the only JRPG series, I play in English. Voices are well paired with characters and voice actors gave them their all, hats off to them. I bet Japanese voice acting is just as good, if you prefer it. Dialogues and conversations are also amazingly written, with some of the best one-liners I've heard for an exceptionally long time.

This guy named this review the "Rough D̶i̶a̶m̶o̶n̶d̶ Crystal", but there is barely any criticism, what's going on? Let's talk about the parts, where FFXVI doesn't deliver.

First and foremost, performance in this game just isn't good. I know it's stunning, I know there are particles everywhere, but it's a next gen title (we don't get many of them lmao). **FFXVI works fine in fidelity mode, where you get to enjoy the best graphics in 30 fps, performance mode is just awful. So called 60 fps mode runs in like 45 fps with constant drops to 30, and sometimes it feels even slower. After an hour of performance mode I was done with it, and I enjoyed the rest of the game in fidelity mode, that was totally fine. I got used to the 30 fps cap pretty quickly, and it never dropped, not a single time. That said, even though I'm a graphics guy, this is a dynamic game, that would benefit a lot from smooth 60 fps gameplay, that you will literally never experience. If you want to put performance mode like that in your game, don't do it at all.

Another flaw of FFXVI is the pacing. I want to defend it a little, because the game is action packed as hell, and I really enjoyed some slower moments to release the tension, but they take too long, and often seem pretty cheesy. I'm not even talking about building the tension again, there are just some really boring moments from time to time, to let you breathe after epic fights. People who want constant action will be very angry with these segments. It's worth to add, that FF series has absurdly long cutscenes, and I don't have anything against it, if you care about the story, you will be pleased with them, but sometimes you have to put the controller down, and act like you're watching a movie, it's definitely a dealbreaker for a lot of people.

Another con, that got on my nerves, is the fact, that your party barely talks. I loved party banter in FF games, and in XVI your teammate will say three words after 20 fights. "Good Job, Clive", well no shit. They also never comment to anything, unless it's scripted for the story. Nothing, but a huge let-down, the party in FF should feel like your family, and be full of banter and chit-chat.

The last funnily bad part of the game is how they literally abandoned some mechanics. Crafting in this game straight-up shouldn't exist. There is literally not a single point in the game, where crafting something from items dropped by monsters is better than your gear at the time (you get gear from the story). Not a single time. Why even bother to add thousands of useless drops if crafting is literally never worth it. You eventually get items from side-quests, that let you craft something powerful, but if it's from side quests, couldn't they just give it as a quest reward? Shopping is almost as useless as crafting. Weapons and armor from the shop will never be better than your gear from the story, so just like with crafting, they're completely useless. At least you can get talismans from vendors, and together with music scrolls (songs for your hub), these are the only things worth your money in that game. Exploration is another forgotten mechanic in the game. Open world locations are cool, but there is no reason to explore them. You can take that long-ass path on the side, fight 10 monsters on your way, and finally get to that chest at the end, but why bother, when it contains a common material from a common monster, that you will never use, because crafting is dead. Exploration isn't rewarding at all, and it's not worth your time. It's just like they wanted some of these deep RPG mechanics, but XVI isn't a deep RPG. That's it with this game, it's mostly an action hack and slash, with spectacular moments to witness, linear narration and a good story, if you're looking for hardcore character customization, gear management, or deep RPG mechanics, you will be terribly disappointed.

Another thing is NG+, or so-called Final Fantasy mode. It isn't bad, but enemies are super spongy. I just wanted it to be a little better, because I loved the NG+ mode in FFVII Remake. I preferred it to my first playthrough, it actually demanded some planning, saving resources, strategy and skill.

Lastly, the story sometimes gets cheesy, it slows down, it has plot holes, or is inconsistent in its beliefs, and the last act is weaker, than the rest, but it's really massive, and the vast majority of it is extremely good.

Alright, I have nothing more to say about FFXVI, let's get to the conclusion. Final Fantasy XVI is a brilliant game, it's a spectacle, that will leave you with at least half a dozen of memories, that you probably won't forget for a long time, and nothing will top it, when it comes to epic moments in games for just as long. If someone asked me to make a Youtube video about top 10 gaming moments, I could pick at least 5 moments just from FFXVI. It offers a great story with mature tone, fun and engaging gameplay, memorable characters, amazing graphics, rich world and out of this world boss battles. While the game certainly isn't perfect, and it needs some time to truly get started, nothing in this game is particularly bad, just underused. While this might not be the best game of the year, this is my favorite game of 2023, and I placed it in my favorites with pleasure, and while not truly worthy of the title, I root for it at the game awards this winter, for the GOTY award. That's because FFXVI made me replay a chapter two times in a row, just after finishing it, just so I can show it to my friends, because it was just incredible. Everyone should play XVI, everyone should face Titan, Bahamut and the rest of the Eikons, everyone should explore Waloed, everyone should see the lore of Valisthea, everyone should drop a Gigaflare followed by Zantetsuken, everyone should fall in love with Clive and the rest of the crew, everyone should pet Torgal, and everyone should hear these badass one-liners from Cid, Gav and Clive, and if you for some reason choose not to, I just feel sorry for you.

If you just decided to buy FFXVI, I'm jealous of You, because you have around 60 hours (so pretty much the time it takes to read that review) of epic journey ahead of You.

Ah, and a message to Square Enix, Yoshi P, and the gang. Since you have proven You have the balls to do it, give me a space opera in FFXVII. I just can't wait to see, what's next for us, the players. FINAL FANTASY IS BACK.

9/10

"The only fantasy here is yours. And we shall be its final witness!"

~Wo

Gameplay: 9/10

Presentation: 10/10

Story: 9/10

Overall Score: 9.3/10

Gameplay= Mechanics, gameplay options (freedom), repetition, goals, difficulty

Story= plot, engagement, characters, world-building

Presentation= graphics, animation, environment/character design, Art direction, Script, music

Overall the game was amazing music, graphics, engaging combat, and really well-done boss fights. Really just amazing work. It however is not without various flaws. I would say side questing and general level layout being its greatest flaw. I did just about every side quest up until the last fourth of the game. The pacing of the sidequests is drastically different from the main story making the game feel incredibly slow to get anywhere exciting.

Many sidequests follow this forumla which is extrutiatingly boring. First you talk to the quest giver. Then you are told to talk to three more people. Then you go back to the quest giver to tell them what they said. Then the quest giver will send you to an entirely different location to fight one group of enemies that take about a minute to kill. If it is a kind quest (which often it is not) you wont have to then go back to talk to the quest giver again.

From the little I have played of any other Final Fantasy games so far this kind of is a style choice I believe. There is usually a slower pacing very story-driven focus to everything, but when you only get a couple hours to play and all but 3 minutes of that is the core combat experience of the game it seems something is lacking in the sidequest design. Some of this could have been largely alleviated if there were a more center location similar to a bounty board to grab and turn in these quests. Leaving talking directly with characters maybe as an optional system. Don't get me wrong I love games with strong character and world building but the design and pacing for sidequests is brutal.

The other flaw is the performance. Though quite smooth where it mattered most. During open-world travel on performance or graphics settings, it would be an inconsistent choppy frame rate.