Clive “Mine’s Bigger” Rosfield is the himbo hero Final Fantasy needed. I just wish the story and themes built up around him weren’t held together with elmers glue and scotch tape. In lieu of any well-articulated thoughts (DeviousJinjo’s writeup and the Insert Credit episode on this capture my feelings nicely), please partake of some stray notes:

There’s still some quintessential FF-ness here—I felt it most in the spirit of the cinematics and the moments when pretty people say pretty things to one another while rapturous music accompanies them—but I found myself sorely missing a substantial party dynamic or sense of exploration

From a character/writing standpoint, every single woman in this game was a mess of squandered potential (Mid being the possible exception—and aided by her distance from the spotlight)

The combat’s good fun but feels stretched thin over the game’s runtime; however, the boss-to-scrub-encounter ratio was seriously impressive

The villain is such a snoozy bag of nothing, but there's an amazing part where he affectlessly says "such foul attaint may not be sublimed through gainstanding" while going super saiyan...I don't think even Joyce could keep up with this guy

And to end, a dumb analogy:
Cid : FFXVI’s story :: a mother crystal’s heart : the rest of the mother crystal