Disappointed due to my extremely high expectations yet I still left satisfied. I'd rank this game in the higher middle of my rankings of all the Final Fantasy games.

The fatal flaw with Final Fantasy XVI is the way it's structured causing the pacing to screech to a halt at certain points during the story. I think this game would have been much better if they had just limited it to the linear stages, similar to the Devil May Cry games. The semi-open world, while great to look at, is not fun to explore and doesn't offer much in content either. The side quests are in them selves very boring but the padded out dialogue makes them an utter slog at times.

The story isn't great which is a shame as I expected something greater from this game in that regard. The first half feels like something inspired by Game of Thrones or the Witcher and I feel like that's when the game is at it's peak. After the main villain is introduced, the quintessential Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts nonsense dialogue start. For some reason Clive starts to become obsessed with "wills" in the later half. Speaking of the villain, I found Ultima to be a very uninteresting villain, partly because he is not human and never has any development or change. His motivation is very generic and he speaks like a robot too.

While I have been very negative so far, the reason I would still give this game a high score is simply that the boss fights in this game are nothing short of extraordinary and worth playing the game for alone. It's true that it doesn't offer much in challenge (maybe it does in Final Fantasy mode but I have yet to try it) but the cinematic spectacle is the by far the best I've seen in any game. The scale of some of the boss fights is just a joy to play and watch. The music adds a lot to these fights too with the booming orchestra and sometimes interesting genre choices. Unfortunately though, I feel as if it's only the battle musci that shines in this game.

Last but not least, the combat is very fun and I love how it rewards switching to different eikons to deliver optimal damage. I still think I prefer Final Fantasy VII Remakes combat because it retains some of the turn based elements as well as spell casting and control of other party members however that's more subjective and I think both are great. It allows feels great to perfect dodge or parry an enemies attack and the stagger system is great too.

I hope that whenever Final Fantasy XVII comes out or whatever genre it is, it improves on some of the lacking elements of this game but keeps those unforgettable grand scale moments. When it comes to PC I will definitely play again and 100% it.