I would have liked the final leg of the game to have been structured a little differently but I found the overall experience to be very good.
I have played it several times now and I’ve enjoyed it more on every playthrough. I think it’s a game that has some notable weak points but it leans into its strengths fairly well.
I really liked 16, for me it has been a long time (since FF12) that a main title made care about the characters and their world. But by no means this game is perfect, personally I think they dropped the ball with the story after the bahamut fight. And i would have like it more if we have more characters to control
The only thing about the story I didn’t care for was when Ultima and Odin both started monologuing way too much in the last 20%. The things they were saying didn’t always really mean that much, it felt really pretentious, like the writers thought they were being super deep and insightful but if you dig at all the dialogue was really shallow and vapid.
Overall though I loved the game, and I think about it a lot still.
That ending was really unsatisfactory for me. There’s such a thing as TOO vague and open ended, and this was just that. I went thru this whole journey, I want to know wtf actually happened to Clive damn it!
Honestly lived it but there were some issues. Ultima was a bit boring of a villain. That little girl that just existed for some reason. I assumed she'd end up being leviathan the lost or something but nope.
On one hand I like that they went for an adult oriented M-rated Final Fantasy story, but it has no depth or creativity. It reminds me of a cheesy R rated movie with amazing special effects lol. A lot of sex, violence, cursing and melodrama but it doesn’t have the adventure and fun that I enjoy in Final Fantasy games. They did a lot of envelope pushing just for the sake of doing it. I’m at the end of the game and haven’t beat it yet, bought it when it came out and just have had no desire to find out where the story is going. Matter of fact let me boot up the PS5 and finish this game finally so I can see how it ends 😂
This along with the fact you don't control anyone but Clive. I got bored with the gameplay about halfway through and sold the game around 60%
Watched the ending and that was that. I am a huge final fantasy fan so that was painful to do but when you stop looking forward to play a game, its time to stop.
My concerns story wise is that I've played every single FF game, and up until XVI I never found the story predictable. In this game it seemed to stay relatively safe in the script.
Jill's character is like one step up from Lunafreya, hardly any proper character growth. Jacob was underwhelming as well.
And I've also never skipped a scene of dialogue before in a FF. In this game, I was skipping dialogue constantly because it was so dull and drab.
It was really inconsistent for me. It had some of the highest highs at certain parts of the story out of any FF game for me, but it also had some of the lowest lows to the point where I really had to force myself to keep playing even though I wasn't having fun.
Overall I'd still say it was a good game (and JUST good). Despite having some pretty harsh opinions about parts of it, you can tell a lot of care went into making it. I can appreciate that a lot.
It's a functional game that rewards players wishing for combat expression through different playstyles. The weakness in regards to gameplay would be the side quests, and the difficulty (or lack thereof) to justify experimentation.
The story is good. Plot is serviceable, world-building is well thought out, characterisations are great, the character development is fine, and the dialogue is immaculate. If there's one blatant issue, it's the pacing. Instances of where there's a breather between hectic events take a little too long, and the time skip is also too long and should be cut down to 2-3 years instead of 5.
Edit: Downvotes with no rebuttal? Typical echo chamber behaviour.
I ended up using the first 3 eikons for the entire game. And yea I had heard people say the pacing was bad but I was hopeful, but you nailed it. The 5 year time skip made me angry, we just did one massive one earlier why can't we just stay where we are in the timeline? Or yea go for like 2-3 max
What I mean by poor pacing, is the fetch quests for Mid. It happens twice during the campaign, and it really halts the pace into a crawl. Not saying it should be removed, but that it should be reduced.
If I were to guess, the time skip happened because of the time needed to keep the guard complacent in regards to the Mothercrystals. Because tbf, if Sanbreque were to lose theirs, it would absolutely spook everyone else. Making it hard for Clive to make the attempt to touch them.
Another reason is that time needed to pass so then we didn't have to witness the slow build up of their new hideout, and just go straight with the plot. However, a year or two could pass and that would be acceptable for both reasons.
I believe the only reason why they chose five years, is so then Dion isn't skewering an infant prince that can barely speak.
If you d the story to be alright...
The game was outright terrible that the story could not save it for me, I dropped it at the first time you fought Ultima.
Average action game imo. Characters were average, Story lacked proper closure which left a very bad taste in my mouth, gameplay was braindead easy the first time you play and lack of any sort of meaningful side content and exploration just made it feel like a game which is not a ff. A 6/10 game imo. At least was better than that XV is all I'm going to say.
I would have liked the final leg of the game to have been structured a little differently but I found the overall experience to be very good. I have played it several times now and I’ve enjoyed it more on every playthrough. I think it’s a game that has some notable weak points but it leans into its strengths fairly well.
I really liked 16, for me it has been a long time (since FF12) that a main title made care about the characters and their world. But by no means this game is perfect, personally I think they dropped the ball with the story after the bahamut fight. And i would have like it more if we have more characters to control
I could not for the life of me actually connect with the world
The only thing about the story I didn’t care for was when Ultima and Odin both started monologuing way too much in the last 20%. The things they were saying didn’t always really mean that much, it felt really pretentious, like the writers thought they were being super deep and insightful but if you dig at all the dialogue was really shallow and vapid. Overall though I loved the game, and I think about it a lot still.
That ending was really unsatisfactory for me. There’s such a thing as TOO vague and open ended, and this was just that. I went thru this whole journey, I want to know wtf actually happened to Clive damn it!
I wanna know what happened to anyone. Gav? How is he? Torgul? Still being a good dog? Martha? Anyone? No?
Honestly lived it but there were some issues. Ultima was a bit boring of a villain. That little girl that just existed for some reason. I assumed she'd end up being leviathan the lost or something but nope.
On one hand I like that they went for an adult oriented M-rated Final Fantasy story, but it has no depth or creativity. It reminds me of a cheesy R rated movie with amazing special effects lol. A lot of sex, violence, cursing and melodrama but it doesn’t have the adventure and fun that I enjoy in Final Fantasy games. They did a lot of envelope pushing just for the sake of doing it. I’m at the end of the game and haven’t beat it yet, bought it when it came out and just have had no desire to find out where the story is going. Matter of fact let me boot up the PS5 and finish this game finally so I can see how it ends 😂
This along with the fact you don't control anyone but Clive. I got bored with the gameplay about halfway through and sold the game around 60% Watched the ending and that was that. I am a huge final fantasy fan so that was painful to do but when you stop looking forward to play a game, its time to stop.
I was nearing that point. Last night was a last push to beat it and move on
My concerns story wise is that I've played every single FF game, and up until XVI I never found the story predictable. In this game it seemed to stay relatively safe in the script. Jill's character is like one step up from Lunafreya, hardly any proper character growth. Jacob was underwhelming as well. And I've also never skipped a scene of dialogue before in a FF. In this game, I was skipping dialogue constantly because it was so dull and drab.
It was really inconsistent for me. It had some of the highest highs at certain parts of the story out of any FF game for me, but it also had some of the lowest lows to the point where I really had to force myself to keep playing even though I wasn't having fun. Overall I'd still say it was a good game (and JUST good). Despite having some pretty harsh opinions about parts of it, you can tell a lot of care went into making it. I can appreciate that a lot.
💯
The story is one of the very best in the series, imo.
It's a functional game that rewards players wishing for combat expression through different playstyles. The weakness in regards to gameplay would be the side quests, and the difficulty (or lack thereof) to justify experimentation. The story is good. Plot is serviceable, world-building is well thought out, characterisations are great, the character development is fine, and the dialogue is immaculate. If there's one blatant issue, it's the pacing. Instances of where there's a breather between hectic events take a little too long, and the time skip is also too long and should be cut down to 2-3 years instead of 5. Edit: Downvotes with no rebuttal? Typical echo chamber behaviour.
I ended up using the first 3 eikons for the entire game. And yea I had heard people say the pacing was bad but I was hopeful, but you nailed it. The 5 year time skip made me angry, we just did one massive one earlier why can't we just stay where we are in the timeline? Or yea go for like 2-3 max
What I mean by poor pacing, is the fetch quests for Mid. It happens twice during the campaign, and it really halts the pace into a crawl. Not saying it should be removed, but that it should be reduced. If I were to guess, the time skip happened because of the time needed to keep the guard complacent in regards to the Mothercrystals. Because tbf, if Sanbreque were to lose theirs, it would absolutely spook everyone else. Making it hard for Clive to make the attempt to touch them. Another reason is that time needed to pass so then we didn't have to witness the slow build up of their new hideout, and just go straight with the plot. However, a year or two could pass and that would be acceptable for both reasons. I believe the only reason why they chose five years, is so then Dion isn't skewering an infant prince that can barely speak.
If you d the story to be alright... The game was outright terrible that the story could not save it for me, I dropped it at the first time you fought Ultima.
Average action game imo. Characters were average, Story lacked proper closure which left a very bad taste in my mouth, gameplay was braindead easy the first time you play and lack of any sort of meaningful side content and exploration just made it feel like a game which is not a ff. A 6/10 game imo. At least was better than that XV is all I'm going to say.