So it seems Final Fantasy finally caught on the trend of making the whole English cast British, huh...
So it seems that I have played one of the greatest action game ever made but at the same time the worst RPG wannabe of the decade, this is an amazing game that everyone should play but I don't think it should bare the Final Fantasy name onto it.
Before everyone gets angry at the usual "It's not a final fantasy game" discourse, let me explain my line of thoughts.
What people usually say about the "It's not final fantasy" thing is usually about the graphics, I remember when this game got announced and people compared it to Elden Ring due to the fantastic medieval setting with a darker tone, but I'm here to talk about the RPG elements that make a Final Fantasy game in the first place and how they tried but unfortunately failed at making it work in this title.
Alright, so something we all noticed was how the gameplay felt exactly like something in-between modern and old God of War mixed with Devil May Cry. This, this is the greatest mix of inspiration sources you can get when you want to make a good Action game and by god, they pulled it out- they made one of the greatest action game ever made but it feels like they realized after making the combat that they had to add levels and stats to make it like "Final Fantasy".
Unfortunately, in this case, it didn't work out quite well, by playing the game you can notice how useless the level are, you could be killing a level 10 enemy or a level 20 enemy they all feel the exact same damage sponges that are really fun to kill, so that makes me wonder why they bothered with the leveling system if at the end of the day it just feels like I'm playing God of War 3, killing the enemies placed in front of me.
Next up would be the armor and weapon upgrades, these feel like soulless ripoffs of the crafting system in God of War 4 and 5 which already were soulless fake RPG ripoff of other game with useless crafting mechanism which turns this topic into an endless rabbit hole of modern game design where everyone tries to do the same thing because they want to appeal to everyone but who the fuck is the person that needs crafting mechanism in every game.
And who says crafting also says useless crafting items, of course, this game is filled with junk that you collect by opening wooden boxes in the wild or by completing quests and enemy encounters but again, same as modern God of War, we don't care! Who is happy to gain 3 wooden thingamajigs to craft the sword of the holy whatever just to get +2 attack, why not just let the player purchase the swords in the stores or by doing side quests or rewarding extra dungeons instead of making fake crafting mechanism! Final Fantasy 1 did exactly what I said, making armor and weapon only available in stores or by finding them in dungeons, and you know who else did it too? Final Fantasy 2, and 3, and 4, and 5, and so on! Square Enix, you keep making wonderful experiences but why do you want to stay at this dirty low level of self-esteem when making a game, why do you want to appeal to every customer, and why do you think that every normal people wants crafting mechanism in Final Fantasy 16, if anything the video game market for normal people doesn't care about what's in a game they just play what they buy and that's it, they have no opinion on the matter and you should make games like you used to! I hate being the "old good new bad" but SQEX really needs to look back at what they previously made and learn from what they created.
Now that I've tackled the worst part of modern video games, I'll go over my second main issue about the game. This issue is based on the mission structure and overall pacing of the game by our new producer, Yoshi P.
Alright, so I doubt that I'm the only one that felt like most quests that were not dungeons resolved to "go to one point of the map, talk to an NPC, kill X enemy and go back to said NPC" exactly like if you were playing a slow MMORPG, an MMORPG like Final Fantasy XIV, that was directed by Yoshi P... Yeah, that makes much more sense now.
So yeah, Final Fantasy 16 has this awkward mix of quest design in the likes of an MMORPG and in my opinion, is the worst part of the game and what really keeps this game out of being the perfect action game. It's just impossible to care about what happens during most of these quests, the on-foot walk speed is just boring, you can't even run in town areas, and going back and forth every 10 minutes get really annoying, it really just feels like these quests were made to be filler so that Final Fantasy 16 get that 40 hours+ lengths on how long to beat to make them say "This is a Final Fantasy game because it's unnecessarily long!"
Sometimes it's just better to cut the fat and even though it might make the game shorter it will just be better in the long run because imagine if DMC or God of War did that too, I can't imagine playing God of War 3 and just suddenly being forced into talking with NPCs, ruining the pacing of that sweet god-killing action just because they wanted the game to be 30 hours long and not 10. (Ironically speaking this is what they did for God of War 4 and 5, lol.)
The same could be said about Bayonetta or Devil May Cry, people love these games because they let you straight into the action, you don't need filler to make the experience longer, and you don't want the player to feel bored because they made the game so fun to play that the filler moment really highlight themselves and makes you think "What the fuck am I doing here" and you just want to go back to that sweet feeling you get from those delightfully crafted boss fights and dungeons.
That's it, I'm done complaining, this wasn't really a full review of the game and more like a highlight of what the game failed to do and how they could improve it if they want to continue this type of gameplay for the next entry.
I wish this game was a standalone game and not the Final Fantasy 16 that I was waiting for, it's definitely one of the greatest action games I've played, but it's not what I wanted out of my final fantasy.
So thanks? Yoshi P, but I wish you would keep your MMORPG gimmicks in your game and avoid spreading them in other media.
So it seems that I have played one of the greatest action game ever made but at the same time the worst RPG wannabe of the decade, this is an amazing game that everyone should play but I don't think it should bare the Final Fantasy name onto it.
Before everyone gets angry at the usual "It's not a final fantasy game" discourse, let me explain my line of thoughts.
What people usually say about the "It's not final fantasy" thing is usually about the graphics, I remember when this game got announced and people compared it to Elden Ring due to the fantastic medieval setting with a darker tone, but I'm here to talk about the RPG elements that make a Final Fantasy game in the first place and how they tried but unfortunately failed at making it work in this title.
Alright, so something we all noticed was how the gameplay felt exactly like something in-between modern and old God of War mixed with Devil May Cry. This, this is the greatest mix of inspiration sources you can get when you want to make a good Action game and by god, they pulled it out- they made one of the greatest action game ever made but it feels like they realized after making the combat that they had to add levels and stats to make it like "Final Fantasy".
Unfortunately, in this case, it didn't work out quite well, by playing the game you can notice how useless the level are, you could be killing a level 10 enemy or a level 20 enemy they all feel the exact same damage sponges that are really fun to kill, so that makes me wonder why they bothered with the leveling system if at the end of the day it just feels like I'm playing God of War 3, killing the enemies placed in front of me.
Next up would be the armor and weapon upgrades, these feel like soulless ripoffs of the crafting system in God of War 4 and 5 which already were soulless fake RPG ripoff of other game with useless crafting mechanism which turns this topic into an endless rabbit hole of modern game design where everyone tries to do the same thing because they want to appeal to everyone but who the fuck is the person that needs crafting mechanism in every game.
And who says crafting also says useless crafting items, of course, this game is filled with junk that you collect by opening wooden boxes in the wild or by completing quests and enemy encounters but again, same as modern God of War, we don't care! Who is happy to gain 3 wooden thingamajigs to craft the sword of the holy whatever just to get +2 attack, why not just let the player purchase the swords in the stores or by doing side quests or rewarding extra dungeons instead of making fake crafting mechanism! Final Fantasy 1 did exactly what I said, making armor and weapon only available in stores or by finding them in dungeons, and you know who else did it too? Final Fantasy 2, and 3, and 4, and 5, and so on! Square Enix, you keep making wonderful experiences but why do you want to stay at this dirty low level of self-esteem when making a game, why do you want to appeal to every customer, and why do you think that every normal people wants crafting mechanism in Final Fantasy 16, if anything the video game market for normal people doesn't care about what's in a game they just play what they buy and that's it, they have no opinion on the matter and you should make games like you used to! I hate being the "old good new bad" but SQEX really needs to look back at what they previously made and learn from what they created.
Now that I've tackled the worst part of modern video games, I'll go over my second main issue about the game. This issue is based on the mission structure and overall pacing of the game by our new producer, Yoshi P.
Alright, so I doubt that I'm the only one that felt like most quests that were not dungeons resolved to "go to one point of the map, talk to an NPC, kill X enemy and go back to said NPC" exactly like if you were playing a slow MMORPG, an MMORPG like Final Fantasy XIV, that was directed by Yoshi P... Yeah, that makes much more sense now.
So yeah, Final Fantasy 16 has this awkward mix of quest design in the likes of an MMORPG and in my opinion, is the worst part of the game and what really keeps this game out of being the perfect action game. It's just impossible to care about what happens during most of these quests, the on-foot walk speed is just boring, you can't even run in town areas, and going back and forth every 10 minutes get really annoying, it really just feels like these quests were made to be filler so that Final Fantasy 16 get that 40 hours+ lengths on how long to beat to make them say "This is a Final Fantasy game because it's unnecessarily long!"
Sometimes it's just better to cut the fat and even though it might make the game shorter it will just be better in the long run because imagine if DMC or God of War did that too, I can't imagine playing God of War 3 and just suddenly being forced into talking with NPCs, ruining the pacing of that sweet god-killing action just because they wanted the game to be 30 hours long and not 10. (Ironically speaking this is what they did for God of War 4 and 5, lol.)
The same could be said about Bayonetta or Devil May Cry, people love these games because they let you straight into the action, you don't need filler to make the experience longer, and you don't want the player to feel bored because they made the game so fun to play that the filler moment really highlight themselves and makes you think "What the fuck am I doing here" and you just want to go back to that sweet feeling you get from those delightfully crafted boss fights and dungeons.
That's it, I'm done complaining, this wasn't really a full review of the game and more like a highlight of what the game failed to do and how they could improve it if they want to continue this type of gameplay for the next entry.
I wish this game was a standalone game and not the Final Fantasy 16 that I was waiting for, it's definitely one of the greatest action games I've played, but it's not what I wanted out of my final fantasy.
So thanks? Yoshi P, but I wish you would keep your MMORPG gimmicks in your game and avoid spreading them in other media.