Oh where to begin. Final Fantasy is a franchise that I got into in 2020 with FF 7: Remake and it has become of of my favorite franchises and I am happy to say that this game did not disappoint.

Starting with the good, I loved the combat. I loved performing perfect dodges, timing magic bursts, and creating my favorite combo of Eikonic abilities. Especially late game when the abilities are fully upgraded and I have all this freedom to use whatever abilities I wanted, Rook's Gambit and Satellite being my favorites. The boss battles were epic and the Eikon battles were just as good, especially Titan! I know people had mixed feelings on the story but I just loved it. I loved the darker tone, I loved seeing villages fall and be rebuilt and especially loved our main characters. Gotta mention the music because it was also fantastic. Of course the boss themes were epic but there were also very pretty pieces that I fell in love with, My Star being and Find the Flame were my favorites.

I've gushed about what I love but there were a few issues I had with the game. By late game I was having a blast customizing my Eikonic abilities, but the combat itself was getting pretty repetitive. For example, there are four major area to explore in FF 16: Sanbreque, Rosaria, Dhalmekia, and the most dangerous, Waloed. The problem is when we get to Waloed, almost all of the enemies and bosses are just stronger reskins of enemies we've already fought. There was also little reason to change Eikons. In many Final Fantasy games there may be a specific item or party member that makes a boss fight more bearable, but in 16 there's almost never a reason to for example, swicth from Phoenix to Bahamut, I vastly prefer Phoenix and there's never a boss where I just GOTTA use Megaflare.

The side quests also got very repetitive by the end. I really wanted to experience everything this game had to offer but by the end I was forcing myself to do side quests because they all became the same thing: NPC needs thing/protection, you fight thing, you fight stronger thing, you talk to NPC again. You do this for every side quest EVERY SINGLE TIME: over and over and over and over and over etc. I just wish there was more variety and there were less enemy reskins.

Overall, fantastic game, I loved it, just got pretty repetitive by the end. Will def 100% at some point.

I also wanted to rank the Eikonic abilities for fun. Ranked based on each unique ability:

7. Ramuh: Blind Justice slows the combat to a halt, I need my fast paced battles.
6. Bahamut: Similar issue, but you can still perfect dodge while charging Megaflare with Wings of Light.
5. Odin: Charging Zanetsuken is actually pretty fun, but most of time I felt like I was forcing myself to use Arm of Darkness rather than wanting to use it.
4. Phoenix: I actually really like Phoenix Shift, it's fast paced and satisfying, but it's a bit simple to go higher than 4.
3. Garuda: Deadly Embrace is so fun to use on boss fights, it's super cinematic and fun.
2. Shiva: I'm biased toward ice abilities, also timing cold snap to freeze a bunch a enemies for a while is amazing.
1. Titan: Titanic Counters are the most satisfying thing in this game I LOVE it.
P.S. I'll add Leviathan when I play Rising Tide.