TL:DR; It's a game of extreme highs and lows. The 1st half is one of the best games ever made, but the second half throws it away and makes KH2 seem well written.
Gameplay 4.5/5: It starts off strong, though there are issues. First of all, the game is very easy.
Basic enemies barely attack, so really only enemies with a stagger gauge pose a threat (minibosses/bosses). The issue is that these enemies cannot get launched or juggled, so you're not doing fancy combos on them. You're waiting to dodge/block and then hitting them for a 3 seconds until their gauge breaks and then you dump your abilities. Bosses don't have hitstun; so your hits don't feel impactful.
Clive also is in desperate need to have a more varied moveset with either additional normal moves or different weapons. As it is, his basic toolset is the same across 30 hours of playtime all that changes is your eikon abilities (which are great). Outside of eikons Clive just plays like an extremely gutted Nero from DMC V.
Still though combat is fun, it just sucks that you aren't able to use most of what Clive can do (which is still not a lot for a action game) in actual boss fights.
Music 6/5: This is Soken. He's among the best, and that's still the case here. FF16 has a really, really good soundtrack.
Side content 2/5: Easily the worst part of the game. There are a handful of good side quests but most are generic fetch quests. The rewards for these suck (a handful of xp, and very minimal gil) though FF16's gameplay system doesn't really allow for good rewards.
While I didn't 100% the game, I didn't notice anything like Superbosses or Secret dungeons either. Even FF15 had those.
This is underwhelming because we're hitting a time in RPGs where the side content can actually be solid. Yakuza 7, Octopath 2, Xenoblade 3 are all examples of games that have very rewarding side stuff.
Exploration/Map-Design 2.5/5: Very pretty areas, but even the "open areas" are REALLY empty.
Story 3.5/5: Lets just say FF16 joins the modern halls of Tales of Arise and Xenoblade 3 in "you can tell certain aspects of the story got screwed by COVID". Shame too because the 1st half is one of the strongest. Also much like those games the villains are really lame for the most part.
I still enjoyed it, but I can turn off my brain. The story just becomes a vehicle for the fights.
Spectacle 10/5: It's like FF had a kid with KH2, Dragon Ball Z, Naruto Shippuden, Asura's Wrath, and Bleach.
Gameplay 4.5/5: It starts off strong, though there are issues. First of all, the game is very easy.
Basic enemies barely attack, so really only enemies with a stagger gauge pose a threat (minibosses/bosses). The issue is that these enemies cannot get launched or juggled, so you're not doing fancy combos on them. You're waiting to dodge/block and then hitting them for a 3 seconds until their gauge breaks and then you dump your abilities. Bosses don't have hitstun; so your hits don't feel impactful.
Clive also is in desperate need to have a more varied moveset with either additional normal moves or different weapons. As it is, his basic toolset is the same across 30 hours of playtime all that changes is your eikon abilities (which are great). Outside of eikons Clive just plays like an extremely gutted Nero from DMC V.
Still though combat is fun, it just sucks that you aren't able to use most of what Clive can do (which is still not a lot for a action game) in actual boss fights.
Music 6/5: This is Soken. He's among the best, and that's still the case here. FF16 has a really, really good soundtrack.
Side content 2/5: Easily the worst part of the game. There are a handful of good side quests but most are generic fetch quests. The rewards for these suck (a handful of xp, and very minimal gil) though FF16's gameplay system doesn't really allow for good rewards.
While I didn't 100% the game, I didn't notice anything like Superbosses or Secret dungeons either. Even FF15 had those.
This is underwhelming because we're hitting a time in RPGs where the side content can actually be solid. Yakuza 7, Octopath 2, Xenoblade 3 are all examples of games that have very rewarding side stuff.
Exploration/Map-Design 2.5/5: Very pretty areas, but even the "open areas" are REALLY empty.
Story 3.5/5: Lets just say FF16 joins the modern halls of Tales of Arise and Xenoblade 3 in "you can tell certain aspects of the story got screwed by COVID". Shame too because the 1st half is one of the strongest. Also much like those games the villains are really lame for the most part.
I still enjoyed it, but I can turn off my brain. The story just becomes a vehicle for the fights.
Spectacle 10/5: It's like FF had a kid with KH2, Dragon Ball Z, Naruto Shippuden, Asura's Wrath, and Bleach.