Final Fantasy XVI is a very conflicting game for me. As a massive fan of the Final Fantasy franchise, a lot of the decisions when it comes to the direction of this franchise does not interest me all that much. Final Fantasy XVI features a lot of the extremes of those negatives for me. Especially in the combat department.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake, to me, is this action based combat style at its best. Final Fantasy 16 is this style at its worst.
Combat is so not fun. It's so tedious with battles oftentimes feels way too dragged out. You do get some powers that help make things move a bit quicker, with a lot of these powers having their own pros and cons for enemies.
The biggest problem with these powers though is your limitations in equipping them. You're only able to equip three at a time. Unfortunately, I found myself oftentimes being in a big boss battle or sub boss battle where one of my powers was just not the best for the enemies' patterns. This is a problem because during combat you aren't able to swap these out with others. It just feels like a silly restriction that would free up combat and make experimenting with combos and power up sets a lot easier.
The end result for me was just a ridiculous amount of button mashing and controller stress testing. Even when you're leveling up, this is a constant feeling and issue. Near the end I was having less issues with this but it wasn't enough.
The action heavy focus and negative shift compared to the previous attempts at this just make the game overall feel like an RPG in name only.
The game story wise though is still very much Final Fantasy with a whole bunch of crystal talk and massive summons.
The game is gorgeous which helps with some of the normal Final Fantasy summons. The scale and scope may be the biggest its ever been here in Final Fantasy with action moments consistently being way over the top. The final boss in particular is one of the most insane battles I've maybe ever had given some of the cutscenes and action moments.
The soundtrack does a lot of the heavy lifting in this as well. The music in Final Fantasy 16 is some of the best the series has ever had. It adds so much and fits so perfectly with the world and visual style.
The story is pretty good. It feels convoluted at times and character development is very hit or miss. Thanks to some great VO performances, Starr being one of them, the overall game does enough for me to be pretty pleased and make up for some of the story and character issues.
The world map and setting in general are also not good. The setup and functionality of the world map just aren't very good and the towns and locations aren't all that interesting.
The highs are really high but the lows are also pretty low. It makes for a frustrating at times experience but the end game stuff was enough to get it up to a 3.5. Unfortunately, combat being what it is though, that is enough to hold it back from anything higher than that. It's a head scratching end result.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake, to me, is this action based combat style at its best. Final Fantasy 16 is this style at its worst.
Combat is so not fun. It's so tedious with battles oftentimes feels way too dragged out. You do get some powers that help make things move a bit quicker, with a lot of these powers having their own pros and cons for enemies.
The biggest problem with these powers though is your limitations in equipping them. You're only able to equip three at a time. Unfortunately, I found myself oftentimes being in a big boss battle or sub boss battle where one of my powers was just not the best for the enemies' patterns. This is a problem because during combat you aren't able to swap these out with others. It just feels like a silly restriction that would free up combat and make experimenting with combos and power up sets a lot easier.
The end result for me was just a ridiculous amount of button mashing and controller stress testing. Even when you're leveling up, this is a constant feeling and issue. Near the end I was having less issues with this but it wasn't enough.
The action heavy focus and negative shift compared to the previous attempts at this just make the game overall feel like an RPG in name only.
The game story wise though is still very much Final Fantasy with a whole bunch of crystal talk and massive summons.
The game is gorgeous which helps with some of the normal Final Fantasy summons. The scale and scope may be the biggest its ever been here in Final Fantasy with action moments consistently being way over the top. The final boss in particular is one of the most insane battles I've maybe ever had given some of the cutscenes and action moments.
The soundtrack does a lot of the heavy lifting in this as well. The music in Final Fantasy 16 is some of the best the series has ever had. It adds so much and fits so perfectly with the world and visual style.
The story is pretty good. It feels convoluted at times and character development is very hit or miss. Thanks to some great VO performances, Starr being one of them, the overall game does enough for me to be pretty pleased and make up for some of the story and character issues.
The world map and setting in general are also not good. The setup and functionality of the world map just aren't very good and the towns and locations aren't all that interesting.
The highs are really high but the lows are also pretty low. It makes for a frustrating at times experience but the end game stuff was enough to get it up to a 3.5. Unfortunately, combat being what it is though, that is enough to hold it back from anything higher than that. It's a head scratching end result.