This is gonna be on the long side of a review which isn't too far off from what I normally do, but there's a lot of context and such needed to be given to explain some of the stuff I'm gonna talk about. So, let's stop wasting time and get started.
Okay...for starters, I had VERY little interest in the concept of Final Fantasy XVI, before they showed the first trailer for the game, I was already getting the main character Clive confused with Stranger of Paradise protagonist Jack. I thought Jack was supposed to be the main character and then when the medieval setting was being explained to be the backdrop, my interest was at a point where I kinda didn't care about the game much. Luckily as time passed, I played Stranger of Paradise and loved it, and realized I had the protagonists confused with each other, but that still left the issue of me not being a fan of medieval fantasy.
Stranger of Paradise plays an important role to this as well, because my faith in SquareEnix to make a good Final Fantasy game was also on the decline. I may like some of these games I mention, but I realize the issues behind them. FF13 was a storied mess and put into a trilogy that while I liked, I recognize it was extremely polarizing to most the fans. FF14 v1.0 was an absolute disaster from what I hear, I never got to play it, but I hear nothing but bad things from it and despite it panning out extremely well from 2.0 and on, it's still a scar on the company that needed severe healing and time. then FF15 which cost the company a lot of time and money just to become a slightly better than average game that needed story pieces patched and DLCed in a few years after release. And lastly FF7 Remake is being sold in pieces, no matter how great it becomes, it's still taking too much time for "a game" as it was touted to be originally, no idea what it is now. So add all that "good will" SquareEnix has been doing over the years and you can see why I hesitated to be optimistic for FF16.
All that backstory out of the way, let's get into the actual game.
I said before that I really don't like medieval settings in mostly RPGs but really any kind of game, so that's was something the game was gonna have against it from the start, but I'll be honest, I honestly forgot about that setting a few hours in. The landscapes, the monsters, the people, everything looked amazing and I really was able to connect with the world and how it worked. Never once did I grow tired of exploring or finding things because the world felt open despite it not being super open, but open enough to feel like there's plenty to see.
The Music was something I honestly wasn't sure what I was gonna think. I'm someone who's really big on synth and bass drums, sooooo what was I gonna do with a game that was gonna have heavily orchestrated music? I...loved it! I actually liked every track in the game, and honestly the amount of songs doesn't seem that big, but it didn't repeat and they all sound so vastly different and fitting that it never bothered me and I loved the game for it.
I usually don't comment much on voice acting unless it's really bad or is important to the experience and in this case...it's one of the best things for the game. The voice acting and direction is amazingly done and I love how every character sounds as if they were real people and always fit every scenario.
Speaking of...let's go to the story. I went into this game almost completely blind, I knew NOTHING about the story of the game and as I said earlier I didn't know who Clive was supposed to be or looked like...so my only prior knowledge of the game was the setting and something to do with the iconic Final Fantasy summons, that's it and I'm glad that's all I knew because it was an amazing story and I loved EVERY SECOND of this game and as someone who has been a fan of main Final Fantasy characters such as Noctis, Lightning, and Warrior of Light (FF1 Dissidia version)...Clive blows all the other main protagonists out of the water as a character, yes even your FF14 character who let's be honest only has two dimensions of "canon" personality of being driven or resentful but little else, is beaten by Clive, that's all I'll say there.
As for the gameplay, I really like the choice, I think it's the natural evolution that the series was trying to go for and it feels natural to play and easy to catch on after a few battles. If you're not familiar with the playstyle, it's often compared to Devil May Cry, but I never hear anyone be more specific and say that it plays much closer to DmC: Devil May Cry (the reboot), possibly because I'm in the minority that actually likes that game, but I digress. It's a very nicely paced battle style and the exploration is pretty decent, it could use a bit more as far as faster moving speed or more things to find, but at the very least it did a great job of keeping the crafting system very simple.
After all that praise let me go into the few issues the game has...
- This topic has been talked about ALOT, and it is worth mentioning, but the way people put it is what causes it to be a bigger issue than it is...the game isn't too easy, the game IS very accessible to people no familiar with the playstyle of an action game. I'm not great at the action style of DMC and I had no problem with the game.
- To go with the above issue, there is a "harder" mode unlocked after the game is beaten and I agree that should have been an option at the start or should be something that can be turned on or off at points.
- Any party characters you had, felt like they weren't there most of the time during combat, I'd often forget I had a party, because the A.I. is so passive.
- I feel like the game re-explains the same story beats almost two or three times when it's really not needed, and when I mean re-explain, I mean it literally tells you exactly what just happened in a cutscene right after it happened, and it sometimes happens back to back.
- There's a weird pacing issue the game kinda has...I feel like at times I'd see a cutscene for 30 to 45 mins, then do a few battle for like 5 to 10 mins then back to another cutscene, this happens so often I at times would play for like 4 or 5 hours and realize I'm tired and got nowhere because the game felt like a movie a HUGE amount of the time, I almost felt I was watching more than I was playing sometimes.
Whew, this was a long review and I probably missed some stuff, but this has been an amazing experience of a game, and FF16 is absolutely my favorite modern Final Fantasy mainline (non-MMO) game. This has me excited for what they do with DLC, or if Clive shows up in spin-offs, and what's in store for FF17.
Okay...for starters, I had VERY little interest in the concept of Final Fantasy XVI, before they showed the first trailer for the game, I was already getting the main character Clive confused with Stranger of Paradise protagonist Jack. I thought Jack was supposed to be the main character and then when the medieval setting was being explained to be the backdrop, my interest was at a point where I kinda didn't care about the game much. Luckily as time passed, I played Stranger of Paradise and loved it, and realized I had the protagonists confused with each other, but that still left the issue of me not being a fan of medieval fantasy.
Stranger of Paradise plays an important role to this as well, because my faith in SquareEnix to make a good Final Fantasy game was also on the decline. I may like some of these games I mention, but I realize the issues behind them. FF13 was a storied mess and put into a trilogy that while I liked, I recognize it was extremely polarizing to most the fans. FF14 v1.0 was an absolute disaster from what I hear, I never got to play it, but I hear nothing but bad things from it and despite it panning out extremely well from 2.0 and on, it's still a scar on the company that needed severe healing and time. then FF15 which cost the company a lot of time and money just to become a slightly better than average game that needed story pieces patched and DLCed in a few years after release. And lastly FF7 Remake is being sold in pieces, no matter how great it becomes, it's still taking too much time for "a game" as it was touted to be originally, no idea what it is now. So add all that "good will" SquareEnix has been doing over the years and you can see why I hesitated to be optimistic for FF16.
All that backstory out of the way, let's get into the actual game.
I said before that I really don't like medieval settings in mostly RPGs but really any kind of game, so that's was something the game was gonna have against it from the start, but I'll be honest, I honestly forgot about that setting a few hours in. The landscapes, the monsters, the people, everything looked amazing and I really was able to connect with the world and how it worked. Never once did I grow tired of exploring or finding things because the world felt open despite it not being super open, but open enough to feel like there's plenty to see.
The Music was something I honestly wasn't sure what I was gonna think. I'm someone who's really big on synth and bass drums, sooooo what was I gonna do with a game that was gonna have heavily orchestrated music? I...loved it! I actually liked every track in the game, and honestly the amount of songs doesn't seem that big, but it didn't repeat and they all sound so vastly different and fitting that it never bothered me and I loved the game for it.
I usually don't comment much on voice acting unless it's really bad or is important to the experience and in this case...it's one of the best things for the game. The voice acting and direction is amazingly done and I love how every character sounds as if they were real people and always fit every scenario.
Speaking of...let's go to the story. I went into this game almost completely blind, I knew NOTHING about the story of the game and as I said earlier I didn't know who Clive was supposed to be or looked like...so my only prior knowledge of the game was the setting and something to do with the iconic Final Fantasy summons, that's it and I'm glad that's all I knew because it was an amazing story and I loved EVERY SECOND of this game and as someone who has been a fan of main Final Fantasy characters such as Noctis, Lightning, and Warrior of Light (FF1 Dissidia version)...Clive blows all the other main protagonists out of the water as a character, yes even your FF14 character who let's be honest only has two dimensions of "canon" personality of being driven or resentful but little else, is beaten by Clive, that's all I'll say there.
As for the gameplay, I really like the choice, I think it's the natural evolution that the series was trying to go for and it feels natural to play and easy to catch on after a few battles. If you're not familiar with the playstyle, it's often compared to Devil May Cry, but I never hear anyone be more specific and say that it plays much closer to DmC: Devil May Cry (the reboot), possibly because I'm in the minority that actually likes that game, but I digress. It's a very nicely paced battle style and the exploration is pretty decent, it could use a bit more as far as faster moving speed or more things to find, but at the very least it did a great job of keeping the crafting system very simple.
After all that praise let me go into the few issues the game has...
- This topic has been talked about ALOT, and it is worth mentioning, but the way people put it is what causes it to be a bigger issue than it is...the game isn't too easy, the game IS very accessible to people no familiar with the playstyle of an action game. I'm not great at the action style of DMC and I had no problem with the game.
- To go with the above issue, there is a "harder" mode unlocked after the game is beaten and I agree that should have been an option at the start or should be something that can be turned on or off at points.
- Any party characters you had, felt like they weren't there most of the time during combat, I'd often forget I had a party, because the A.I. is so passive.
- I feel like the game re-explains the same story beats almost two or three times when it's really not needed, and when I mean re-explain, I mean it literally tells you exactly what just happened in a cutscene right after it happened, and it sometimes happens back to back.
- There's a weird pacing issue the game kinda has...I feel like at times I'd see a cutscene for 30 to 45 mins, then do a few battle for like 5 to 10 mins then back to another cutscene, this happens so often I at times would play for like 4 or 5 hours and realize I'm tired and got nowhere because the game felt like a movie a HUGE amount of the time, I almost felt I was watching more than I was playing sometimes.
Whew, this was a long review and I probably missed some stuff, but this has been an amazing experience of a game, and FF16 is absolutely my favorite modern Final Fantasy mainline (non-MMO) game. This has me excited for what they do with DLC, or if Clive shows up in spin-offs, and what's in store for FF17.