With all honesty, this game was not worth buying a PS5 for.
It's by no means a bad game nor a bad Final Fantasy, but it definitely is one of my least favorite Final Fantasy games. Throughout my entire playthrough I struggled to see what people saw in it, and believe me I really wanted to see the hype considering it's the reason why I bought a PS5.
My biggest gripe with the game was the writing. I felt like the initial premise fell apart a lot. The story feels like two different plot points trying to meet only they missed the margin. It definitely didn't help that this game was marketed as a Game of Thrones styled Final Fantasy which is just absolutely a horrible marketing idea.
I did enjoy the boss fights a LOT however. One of the very few games I've played where I get excited to fight a boss. If there's one thing this game is a masterclass of its the boss fights.
One definitive trait about Final Fantasy is that it has never been shy to allow men to feel and display emotions and be sensitive, even from their tougher looking and criminally behaved characters; so its no surprise FFXVI takes it up a notch. The healthy and endearing display of vulnerability in masculinity was something I adored a lot in this game that quite honestly could've gone for more! I absolutely loved seeing the boys in this game express genuine love for each other. Just sucks that the game kind has some bad writing on women. It's not the worst I've seen in a game, but in this day and age it just doesn't age well at all.
Anyways, there's an elephant in the room that I have to point out. It's lack of fan service. Square created another generation of lovable and memorable characters with a fleshed out world filled with lore, yet they really did not give them much opportunity to do fan service like other FF games have (i.e. FFVII Golden Saucer date, FFIX cast members marrying each other like Vivi and Quina, or like literally any thing and event from FFX-2). It may not seem like a necessary addition to the game, but if they spent all this time creating a fleshed out world filled with an emphasis of lore it'd also be nice to see the cast just doing things on their down time for fun or shits and giggles. I feel like my experience with the game would be improved, but I acknowledge its not a necessity so do with this criticism as you will.
There is no denying it, Final Fantasy XVI is a Final Fantasy game through and through. To the naysayers who say it isn't a true Final Fantasy they really haven't been paying attention to what Final Fantasy is about: romantic epic tales about overcoming oppressive entities and deities and discovering what it means to be and other existential concepts. I just wish the writing in this game felt more coherent or at least engaging as I have tuned out way more than I would've liked to with the pacing feeling like a slog, and also again more fan service.
It's by no means a bad game nor a bad Final Fantasy, but it definitely is one of my least favorite Final Fantasy games. Throughout my entire playthrough I struggled to see what people saw in it, and believe me I really wanted to see the hype considering it's the reason why I bought a PS5.
My biggest gripe with the game was the writing. I felt like the initial premise fell apart a lot. The story feels like two different plot points trying to meet only they missed the margin. It definitely didn't help that this game was marketed as a Game of Thrones styled Final Fantasy which is just absolutely a horrible marketing idea.
I did enjoy the boss fights a LOT however. One of the very few games I've played where I get excited to fight a boss. If there's one thing this game is a masterclass of its the boss fights.
One definitive trait about Final Fantasy is that it has never been shy to allow men to feel and display emotions and be sensitive, even from their tougher looking and criminally behaved characters; so its no surprise FFXVI takes it up a notch. The healthy and endearing display of vulnerability in masculinity was something I adored a lot in this game that quite honestly could've gone for more! I absolutely loved seeing the boys in this game express genuine love for each other. Just sucks that the game kind has some bad writing on women. It's not the worst I've seen in a game, but in this day and age it just doesn't age well at all.
Anyways, there's an elephant in the room that I have to point out. It's lack of fan service. Square created another generation of lovable and memorable characters with a fleshed out world filled with lore, yet they really did not give them much opportunity to do fan service like other FF games have (i.e. FFVII Golden Saucer date, FFIX cast members marrying each other like Vivi and Quina, or like literally any thing and event from FFX-2). It may not seem like a necessary addition to the game, but if they spent all this time creating a fleshed out world filled with an emphasis of lore it'd also be nice to see the cast just doing things on their down time for fun or shits and giggles. I feel like my experience with the game would be improved, but I acknowledge its not a necessity so do with this criticism as you will.
There is no denying it, Final Fantasy XVI is a Final Fantasy game through and through. To the naysayers who say it isn't a true Final Fantasy they really haven't been paying attention to what Final Fantasy is about: romantic epic tales about overcoming oppressive entities and deities and discovering what it means to be and other existential concepts. I just wish the writing in this game felt more coherent or at least engaging as I have tuned out way more than I would've liked to with the pacing feeling like a slog, and also again more fan service.