I really liked my time with Final Fantasy XVI. It's world is really captivating to witness and the intricate worldbuilding of the first half is one of the strongest aspects of the entire game. It's a little sad this aspects gets phased out in the latter half of the game, but the replacement is interesting enough.

The only thing that really bothers me about this narrative is that it's a thematic mess sometimes, musing about free will and opression on the one hand and about (the rightful inheritance of) nation states on the other, which leads to sometimes contradictory results. The game also falls back to the most tropey version of a "chosen one" narrative at times, although it tries to paint the idea of Clive as the chosen one as something to be abolished. But that portrayal is also kinda inconsistent. Final Fantasy XVI doesn't exactly know what it wants to say, it mostly gestures in a general direction and that mostly works. The emphasis is on "mostly" here though, because it sometimes really doesn't. Prime example: They did Jill as a character really dirty. I won't go in depth here for the sake of spoilers, but the game really tries to push most of the female characters into that "mother/healer/partner" role and it succeeds at such a high cost to the narrative. At least the men get to cry on occasion!

But those are all the things that bug me about the game. The rest is really good! Especially the Eikon are really powerfully staged and a joy to witness. It just feels very polished in general, most cutscenes are beautifully shot and the voice acting is really superb on all fronts. And also, dunno, the vibes are just really bangin' sometimes. Oh and active time lore rules!