Final Fantasy XVI had potential, but not a single one of them was properly executed.
I really wanted to like this game, but it made it so hard for me. So, so hard. The pacing in this game is probably one of the worst things I have ever experienced. After the 5 year time skip, it gets SO formulaic. After each big event, everything gets downhill, because you have to talk to Otto and do a shitload of mandatory side quests, fetch quests disguised as main quests.
I played on action-focus and the game was easy from the very beginning to the very end. There was one little exception, that was an S rank hunt where I died once. Other than that, way too easy. And even dying once doesn’t mean it was hard, unexpectedly strong would be more fitting.
I don’t mind simple combat systems as long as they’re fun, but I used to get burnt out from FFXVI’s combat system after gaining either Ramuh or Titan, because it had no interesting mechanics whatsoever. For example, the materia system in FFVII made the combat and gameplay and VII so much more interesting. The quartz system in Trails, the Monado or Blade system in Xenoblade, all of them are interesting mechanics within the combat or gameplay, but there’s nothing like that in XVI. But I guess the Eikon battles are highlights, they’re fun.
The characters are as flat as they are boring, with Cid and Mid (how ironic) as the only exceptions. Clive is one of the most boring protagonists I’ve ever seen, Jill is FF’s most boring love interest, I hate how one-dimensional she is, she deserved so much more (at least her beautiful design makes up for it a smidge), Barnabas aka Fake Malos just wants to f his mother, Kupka just wants to f Benedikta, Ultima is just a very poor version of Zanza, Joshua seems to be a huge Kingdom Hearts fan, returning from the “dead”, running around with a hood and acting all mysteriously and all the other side characters in the hideout aren’t even worth mentioning. There are also no character dynamics. You always talk to the characters alone. For example, you go to Vivian, she explains you the current state of the world, then you go to the in-game loremaster to ask things, instead of gathering the characters in one place, so they all talk to you and with each other. No party, no dynamic. It feels so lifeless.
The side quests are absolutely horrendous, optional or mandatory. There are about three side quests with an interesting or a surprising plot, but all the others are just MMO fetch quests, which is not surprising with Yoshi-P as the supervising producer. Please don’t let him touch another FF game ever again (except for MMOs).
The soundtrack… is a bit more complicated. The songs are fantastic. They’re of high production value, they sound great. But they also sound so similar. You will never recognize a song by the first tunes like you do with One-Winged Angel, Cosmo Canyon, Prelude, Aerith’s or Tifa’s theme, Zanarkand, Otherworld, Auron’s theme, Waltz for the Moon and so on. They’re all just loud and pompous orchestrated songs with choirs.
I also hate how there’s no run button. Give us a dedicated run button for this slow fuck, god fucking damnit. This is absolute hell with all these fetch quests (and yes, I completed all quests and hunts). And there are way too few quick travel spots as well! It made me furious.
There’s lots of world building and lore in this game, which is appreciated, but also worthless if you’re doing nothing with it in the game. The world has nothing to offer. You can’t even VISIT the capital cities of each country, they only let you visit some uninteresting and unimportant rural village near the capital with more uninteresting but influential characters that give you a seal every time, so the locals know that these characters trust you. It happens in each of these rural villages. Formulaic, I told you. Imagine being able to visit the capitals, exploring specific districts, finding secrets, some shops, some cool quests, mini games like Chocobo racings, arenas, card games and whatnot, nice places with beautiful views. But nope. Nothing. The world of Valisthea has nothing to offer at all. At best some treasures with new accessories that give you half a second less cooldown for one specific skill (what the actual fuck).
The story is alright. It’s not a disaster, it’s between mediocre and good, I can live with that. Haven’t expected much more anyway. The ending kinda sucked, but I didn’t care anymore at that point anyway.
The visuals are great most of the time, but the animations in side quests, mandatory or optional, are pretty stiff, but oh well.
This rating is a bit generous, but I can’t say I regret playing this game, so I will stick with this rating. Thanks to Mid, she’s awesome and one of the better Final Fantasy characters overall, although not an S tier character, maybe A tier. Cid is an S tier character and probably one of the best Cids this series has to offer. So this game does have some redeeming qualities that justify my generous rating. I’m glad I’m done with this game, though, so I won’t be getting the platinum.
I really wanted to like this game, but it made it so hard for me. So, so hard. The pacing in this game is probably one of the worst things I have ever experienced. After the 5 year time skip, it gets SO formulaic. After each big event, everything gets downhill, because you have to talk to Otto and do a shitload of mandatory side quests, fetch quests disguised as main quests.
I played on action-focus and the game was easy from the very beginning to the very end. There was one little exception, that was an S rank hunt where I died once. Other than that, way too easy. And even dying once doesn’t mean it was hard, unexpectedly strong would be more fitting.
I don’t mind simple combat systems as long as they’re fun, but I used to get burnt out from FFXVI’s combat system after gaining either Ramuh or Titan, because it had no interesting mechanics whatsoever. For example, the materia system in FFVII made the combat and gameplay and VII so much more interesting. The quartz system in Trails, the Monado or Blade system in Xenoblade, all of them are interesting mechanics within the combat or gameplay, but there’s nothing like that in XVI. But I guess the Eikon battles are highlights, they’re fun.
The characters are as flat as they are boring, with Cid and Mid (how ironic) as the only exceptions. Clive is one of the most boring protagonists I’ve ever seen, Jill is FF’s most boring love interest, I hate how one-dimensional she is, she deserved so much more (at least her beautiful design makes up for it a smidge), Barnabas aka Fake Malos just wants to f his mother, Kupka just wants to f Benedikta, Ultima is just a very poor version of Zanza, Joshua seems to be a huge Kingdom Hearts fan, returning from the “dead”, running around with a hood and acting all mysteriously and all the other side characters in the hideout aren’t even worth mentioning. There are also no character dynamics. You always talk to the characters alone. For example, you go to Vivian, she explains you the current state of the world, then you go to the in-game loremaster to ask things, instead of gathering the characters in one place, so they all talk to you and with each other. No party, no dynamic. It feels so lifeless.
The side quests are absolutely horrendous, optional or mandatory. There are about three side quests with an interesting or a surprising plot, but all the others are just MMO fetch quests, which is not surprising with Yoshi-P as the supervising producer. Please don’t let him touch another FF game ever again (except for MMOs).
The soundtrack… is a bit more complicated. The songs are fantastic. They’re of high production value, they sound great. But they also sound so similar. You will never recognize a song by the first tunes like you do with One-Winged Angel, Cosmo Canyon, Prelude, Aerith’s or Tifa’s theme, Zanarkand, Otherworld, Auron’s theme, Waltz for the Moon and so on. They’re all just loud and pompous orchestrated songs with choirs.
I also hate how there’s no run button. Give us a dedicated run button for this slow fuck, god fucking damnit. This is absolute hell with all these fetch quests (and yes, I completed all quests and hunts). And there are way too few quick travel spots as well! It made me furious.
There’s lots of world building and lore in this game, which is appreciated, but also worthless if you’re doing nothing with it in the game. The world has nothing to offer. You can’t even VISIT the capital cities of each country, they only let you visit some uninteresting and unimportant rural village near the capital with more uninteresting but influential characters that give you a seal every time, so the locals know that these characters trust you. It happens in each of these rural villages. Formulaic, I told you. Imagine being able to visit the capitals, exploring specific districts, finding secrets, some shops, some cool quests, mini games like Chocobo racings, arenas, card games and whatnot, nice places with beautiful views. But nope. Nothing. The world of Valisthea has nothing to offer at all. At best some treasures with new accessories that give you half a second less cooldown for one specific skill (what the actual fuck).
The story is alright. It’s not a disaster, it’s between mediocre and good, I can live with that. Haven’t expected much more anyway. The ending kinda sucked, but I didn’t care anymore at that point anyway.
The visuals are great most of the time, but the animations in side quests, mandatory or optional, are pretty stiff, but oh well.
This rating is a bit generous, but I can’t say I regret playing this game, so I will stick with this rating. Thanks to Mid, she’s awesome and one of the better Final Fantasy characters overall, although not an S tier character, maybe A tier. Cid is an S tier character and probably one of the best Cids this series has to offer. So this game does have some redeeming qualities that justify my generous rating. I’m glad I’m done with this game, though, so I won’t be getting the platinum.