To preface, this is the 1st Final Fantasy game I've ever played, so I did not have any attachments to the previous game's gameplay loops and direction. The combat is fun, using and combining the different Eikons abilities for stylish combos and high damage. The boss battles are a highlight for me as well as you take on other Eikons over the course of the main campaign, the spectacle and scale are a sight to behold.
The game was recommended to me as an RPG, however after playing, it felt to me more akin to a God of War style action-adventure hack n' slash. As I love Kratos' series of games, it felt familiar to me while also being distinctly Final Fantasy in its presentation and music. The score is phenomenal, and the voice acting is great, the standout being Ben Starr as main character Clive Rosfield. The story for the most part was entertaining, and I appreciated the active time lore that I can check when I pause the game, notably when certain plot points and character appearances are glossed over in cutscenes.
Now on to a couple of nitpicks, I did every side quest before tackling the final mission and I was not a fan of certain side missions, as they were there to just pad the length of the game, instead of enriching the lore and truly building the world of Valisthea. Certain missions make Clive the cliche video game errand boy of whatever town he is in instead of establishing genuine connections with the townspeople. These tasks come across as boring and there were a couple of times where I got the feeling of either turning the game off and coming back to it later or just skipping it for the main story. To me, it messes with the pacing of the game to go from an epic Eikon battle to a long quest of fetching materials or saving a character you've never interacted with prior, which stops my excitement of the main storyline to a screeching halt.
The best side missions in my eyes are towards the end of the game, where Clive has purposeful missions with the ones closest to him in his party and those in the hideaway. Without spoiling, these missions along with the hunt board are the side content that I enjoyed the most in my playthrough.
Another issue I had with the game was I feel they time jumped too quickly where we could have had more meaningful interactions with characters that had little screen time. Each stage of Clive's life could have been extensive arcs to play through, comparable to the seasons of Game of Thrones that I believe Square Enix was inspired by for this game. For example, instead of jumping from teenage Clive so quickly after the incident at Phoenix Gate to the present, there could have been more time spent with his father Elwin, uncle Byron, and even his mother Anabella whom he has a strenuous relationship with to further show their very different relationship dynamics. This would help humanize Clive further than what we got in the first few hours of the game. You could have even seen some of the time Clive spent with the Bastards, the group of Bearers he was stationed with years after the incident, as his team could have offered different side stories to tell as well.
It's interesting they decided to condense the game in this way, as looking up Final Fantasy as a series and deciding which ones to play first, I see Final Fantasy X has a second game, VII has Crisis Core and the remake is being split into two games, and XIII has TWO direct sequels. All this to say maybe FF XVI could have benefitted from being split into 2 games or more as well, so we could have had more time to fall in love with these characters in the game's world.
Overall, I did enjoy my time with Final Fantasy XVI, with a fluid and responsive combat system, with bombastic boss fights, a beautiful score and sublime voice acting. Clive's story is an epic of pomp and circumstance akin to a season of Game of Thrones that I wished had more story beats to watch his character grow up in and establish more personal connections with the vast cast of side characters. Seeing how others feel about this game, especially the debate between action combat versus turn-based combat, I'm interested in playing other games in the series and seeing how this game holds up to them, because I have heard some incredible things about other entries.
8.5/10
The game was recommended to me as an RPG, however after playing, it felt to me more akin to a God of War style action-adventure hack n' slash. As I love Kratos' series of games, it felt familiar to me while also being distinctly Final Fantasy in its presentation and music. The score is phenomenal, and the voice acting is great, the standout being Ben Starr as main character Clive Rosfield. The story for the most part was entertaining, and I appreciated the active time lore that I can check when I pause the game, notably when certain plot points and character appearances are glossed over in cutscenes.
Now on to a couple of nitpicks, I did every side quest before tackling the final mission and I was not a fan of certain side missions, as they were there to just pad the length of the game, instead of enriching the lore and truly building the world of Valisthea. Certain missions make Clive the cliche video game errand boy of whatever town he is in instead of establishing genuine connections with the townspeople. These tasks come across as boring and there were a couple of times where I got the feeling of either turning the game off and coming back to it later or just skipping it for the main story. To me, it messes with the pacing of the game to go from an epic Eikon battle to a long quest of fetching materials or saving a character you've never interacted with prior, which stops my excitement of the main storyline to a screeching halt.
The best side missions in my eyes are towards the end of the game, where Clive has purposeful missions with the ones closest to him in his party and those in the hideaway. Without spoiling, these missions along with the hunt board are the side content that I enjoyed the most in my playthrough.
Another issue I had with the game was I feel they time jumped too quickly where we could have had more meaningful interactions with characters that had little screen time. Each stage of Clive's life could have been extensive arcs to play through, comparable to the seasons of Game of Thrones that I believe Square Enix was inspired by for this game. For example, instead of jumping from teenage Clive so quickly after the incident at Phoenix Gate to the present, there could have been more time spent with his father Elwin, uncle Byron, and even his mother Anabella whom he has a strenuous relationship with to further show their very different relationship dynamics. This would help humanize Clive further than what we got in the first few hours of the game. You could have even seen some of the time Clive spent with the Bastards, the group of Bearers he was stationed with years after the incident, as his team could have offered different side stories to tell as well.
It's interesting they decided to condense the game in this way, as looking up Final Fantasy as a series and deciding which ones to play first, I see Final Fantasy X has a second game, VII has Crisis Core and the remake is being split into two games, and XIII has TWO direct sequels. All this to say maybe FF XVI could have benefitted from being split into 2 games or more as well, so we could have had more time to fall in love with these characters in the game's world.
Overall, I did enjoy my time with Final Fantasy XVI, with a fluid and responsive combat system, with bombastic boss fights, a beautiful score and sublime voice acting. Clive's story is an epic of pomp and circumstance akin to a season of Game of Thrones that I wished had more story beats to watch his character grow up in and establish more personal connections with the vast cast of side characters. Seeing how others feel about this game, especially the debate between action combat versus turn-based combat, I'm interested in playing other games in the series and seeing how this game holds up to them, because I have heard some incredible things about other entries.
8.5/10