My only gripes are:
> Feels like it needed something to add agency to the progression. Most of the time, I felt like just I'm going through the motions to get to the end - which may be by design because, yknow, insect. Still felt kinda inert.
> Ends too soon! Some wild bio-mechanical stuff here. I want more.

Side note: Love that some of the worlds looked like cross-sections of cells or mitochondria from my high school biology textbook - memories unlocked wow.

First off, kudos to the group of independent translators that made this game possible for a wider audience. Never had I heard about it until this year.

And what a treat.

The sprite artwork is great, with super emotive animation - some of the best I've seen on the SNES. That and the dioramas reminded me a little bit of Super Mario RPG. (Bonus: although all the characters mostly share the same skill pool, some characters have different battle animations for the same skill. How cool is that!)

Story-wise, you can expect much of the typical JRPG fare, but the characters and fantasy/sci-fi setting offer a ton of distinction that elevate it above many other games.

The tactics battle system has a bit of a learning curve, but once realized, is super rewarding. Other than that, the inventory system is pretty frustrating and could use an overhaul.

I'm just so glad I got to experience this lost gem and I encourage other folks to do the same!

Been a minute since I played an old school Final Fantasy, I kinda forgot how hard these are! That final dungeon is a test of patience for sure.

Still, I loved it. Even more than when I first played it back when I was a wee sprout. I love how quirky the story is and how impermanent your party is. Boss battles are tricky and sometimes feel like a puzzle - status effects MATTER! It's got some of the best music in the entire series, and some of the best characters designs thanks to Amano's timeless vision.

It's a treat to play and play again, but man, it requires some of that old school patience, but worth it.

I'm pretty disappointed, but not fully. I do think there's some to like here. The story, at least the first half, is engaging. And the the music is superb. (I believe Soken is a worthy successor to Uemastu) There's also a lot of frustrating choices and "cheapness" that sully the experience. And I don't think the "mature" themes are gracefully articulated.

But I got to get the worst out of the way: quests. I guess Yoshi P thought that MMO quests were the way to go. The whole game runs on them. The quests continue the miserable trend that XIV, FFXV and FF7R helped popularize: Lifeless NPCs enthusiastically asking us to gather-a-thing or kill-a-thing or kill-a-thing-to-gather-a-thing for (mostly) meager rewards. XVI does inject some interesting story bits into their side quests, but it still doesn't elevate the mindless chores you need to do to get there. (Everything is marked for you. Just go through the motions.) Both side quests and main story quests are guilty of this. There's no difference in how they operate. Worse still, the general populace of NPCs all look like they belong in a renaissance faire, not Final Fantasy. It's just so jarring.

Compounding this problem is the lack of variety in things to do. Before this we had the Golden Saucer, Triple Triad, secret dungeons with optional goodies, Chocobo Racing, blitzball, even an auction house! In XVI we get... a hunt board. What do these Fable outcasts do in their free time besides drink and fuck? Do they play cards, do they write music, do they have underground chocobo fights?

Other things that bother me that I won't get into: Crafting is half-baked and shouldn't even be in this game. Dungeons are just like FFXIV dungeons (i.e. not good) - hallways with gauntlets of enemies and bosses, with a big bad at the end. The world feels pretty unimaginitive - every explorable location outside of the hideaway just looks like a generic village or field.

Battle system is fun, but once you lock down a set of abilities that can do 100k+ stagger damage, there's nothing to dissuade you to do anything else. The lack of complexity begets repetition, despite the polish. That said, XVI has a lot of bosses and S Ranks that keep you on your toes and are a thrill to fight. It's just the in-between stuff that feels a bit stale. I wish there were loadouts you can switch around for different scenarios, like a set for mobs and a set for bosses.

Eikon fights are full-blown spectacle. Take the Bahamut v. Alexander battle in FFIX and crank to to ELEVEN. Absolutely insane sometimes.

Better than XV at least. There's no American Express logos in this one. Flawed in many ways, but hopefully pivots the series in a more artistic direction.

Pretty impressive near 1:1 remake. Wish this was how FF7 remake was treated TBH - still bitter about that one.

Beat this with Faith Moonlight Sword with backup #blessed Mace build.

I miss some of the atmosphere from the PS3 days, but I still had a great time with this. Just good old school level and boss design before Soulsborne was a thing.

I really enjoy the lore and setting. I even enjoyed the combat sometimes. But first impression is, man, the main character designs are so lame. Bigger issue still, is the pacing - many times I feel the multi-media approach to the story hurts the overall experience. It would have been great to play some of those events that lead up to the actual beginning of the game. Y'know, like a prologue. I also think some linearity was needed. The grand openness and incentive to wander around and quest stripped the game of any agency. Nothing felt dire. It felt like a vacation. Most egregious is how much contemporary culture pollutes the fantasy aspect - cell phones, selfies, product placement, NPCs all break the immersive experience I long for in a Final Fantasy game. Don't we see enough of this shit in real life that we want to get away from it?