Final Fantasy 16 - Review

Genre: Action RPG.
Developer/publisher: Square Enix.
Platform: PS5
Official Site: https://na.finalfantasyxvi.com/
Release date: 22-6-2023.

 

Okay so it is here, the latest installment in the FF series!

If I had to be honest I did not really like the vibes the game gave off at first

but I the story really managed to grab me to the point I delayed finishing digimon CS.

There won't be any story spoilers in this post but I will share a few screenshots of my journey!

 

Pro's

- A good storyline with a great cast of characters.

- Music and Graphics.

- Battle system is fun but it might take a bit for it to reach its full potential.

- A decent amount of optional content.

Con's

- A lack of a minimap, seriously why isn't there one? a lot of areas could benefit from this.

- Why is there no sprint button? Clive only occasionally sprints after running normally wtf...

- This game can at times be a bit much, its may need an acquired taste.

More ramblings after the jump!

 

FFXVI is a dark fantasy action RPG game that has heavy influence from game of thrones

wew and here I thought tsuitsui was the last game I'd play with GoT/dragon prince influence.

 

Graphics wise it is a pretty game, it might not be the best ever but it was still good, it does

have very high quality looking grapes so if someone says the graphics are bad they're wrong. 

They're of better quality than in FFXIV...

The cutscenes were also very good but at times it felt more like I was playing a movie...

and well it may as well have been since it felt like I did more watching than playing at times.

Still the game has a super fun combat system so its not like there is no gameplay.

Music was great and fit the scenes more often than not so there's nothing more to say.

Of course you get to ride a chocobo too! which really helped because there is no sprint button

and Clive will only sprint when walking for a little in the open field... wtf?! come on

I swear this plus the fact there is no minimap are the real stinkers.

 

Gameplay... well I picked story mode which gave me rings since story is what I am here for!

however I unequiped those rings to get a better feel of the combat which felt limited

but that is because it is based on eikon's so the more of those you fight the more you grow

and get better skills, there was a skill tree which you use to improve combat skills as well

but it didn't seem like I was going to be able to master any of those till later on in the game

as the points recquired were simple too much. Battle felt like it was from devil may cry or something

which wasn't my cup of tea but I don't think I was too bad at it without those rings either

and thought besides the story, combat was the best part of this game but it took

too long before you even unlock its full potential and at times it became repetitive.

Its actually over 60k but okay...

The eikon battles... while they're no doubt epic some of them were too long

and I was like ugh when will it end of which Titan was the biggest offender, the last phase

of that was SO unnecessary, should have just been a QTE without the extra health bar. -_-

The titan fight is easily my least favorite primal/eikon fight in the game because of that

stupid spinning in the last phase, ugh I was like wtf is this? i'm tired.

Anyway on to better things!  the best gameplay feature obviously was the fact

you can pet the dog Torgal! he's a good boy! 

 

The story was good and like I said it grabbed me quickly enough

but it was kind of linear at first but considering previous FF games like 10 or 13

its not really something new for the series as they've always been story focused

no matter if you can wander the worldmap in even older games like 7,8 or 9.

This game did open up in a nice way at some point and it was nice exploring all of it.

Moving on the s tory did have a good execution, its far better than FF15 but idk it just lacked

the vibes that were carrying that game, oh well you win some and then you lose some aspects huh?

still the tone of both games are vastly different so don't mind me rambling

i'm just glad that FF16 is able to deliver on the lore and story front instead of losing

half of it because it tried to be a multi-media project forcing you to watch this or that

to get the full picture, so don't worry FF16 has you not do that and you'll actually

get the full story right from the beginning. Its just and I seriously will admit it...

I had a hard time in the beginning hours as it felt pretty hard to chew through or so to speak.

This game did have humor and sometimes it made me laugh but it was mostly just

sarcastic stuff and I didn't really enjoy some of that. So its not like they can't make jokes...

Me neither, care to elaborate?

Characters, the MC was good! I think the prologue helped a lot to set up the relation and such

between Clive, Joshua and Jill.m My favorite characters were probably Cid or Dion... its hard

to choose but Cid was such a chad and Dion oh boi even though he's gay I love him SO MUCH.

Clive and Jill had such good chemistry I was shipping them while petting Torgal, lol.

I ship Clive and Jill too! they deserve the world and more but they probably

don't even want that atleast not literally.

My most disliked character? uh that would be Harbard the umehara character!

he was just off-putting but fighting him at some point was satisfying and fun

that it is easily my favorite boss in the whole game next to the bahamut fight.

Also Barnabas was a piece of work and I didn't like him at all

or even the main villain for that matter.

 

Side quest were okay I guess? at their best they add to the lore of places you visit
and some had funny dialogue but more often then not they were bland.
Hunts were good, it reminded me of FF12 and they give good reason to go explore
some of the old fields on a chocobo (if you have it) to trying to find them.

My favorite one was Svarog and the red chocobo one... which I am going to have

to send a receipt to cuz it destroyed my inventory, thankfully no last elixers were lost.

Not this shit again...

BTW there was this one side quest I regret doing, I guess they were kinda sus

but the after dialogue just made me regret everything of even doing it. I hate it here!

Then again there were fun ones like this one below! Clive's mood is on point with that one

and it has the funniest quest rejection in the whole game.

I absolutely super duper recommend doing the side stories ones centered on key characters

like the doggo, Jill,Joshua or Martha etc as they really REALLY bring closure to the characters.

I can't say this a lot so I mean it that the side stories especially

those that get sequels are actually worth doing...

I still don't really like trading places 2 because that one made me say the F word 20 times.

I kid you not this one broke me completely... as well as the ending of FF16 in general.😭😭😭😭😭

FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK x9000

Final thoughts?

I will say more often than not I just sat there appalled, FF16 wasn't exactly

light-hearted and it wasn't advertised at such which was fine! its just

I wish there were like skits or something to lighten the mood more since

at times it was all so heavy... the first few hours were especially hard to chew through

but it got better and eventually I actually started to enjoy the game more???!

I am still not really fond of violence or gore like in this game or the yakuza games

but that doesn't stop me from trying to enjoy the story and characters!

 The story was long and I wouldn't be surprised if some dropped it along the way

cuz even my attention span was wavering at times. Maybe it was the game or maybe it was me...

I know they had a good plot going so that's what I kept coming back for which was good I guess

and honestly it  got better a few hours in and I think that overall this game really delivered

more than FF15 did which had some terrible execution in its storyline but good ideas.

FF16 was overall pretty well-rounded and I even did side quests and hunts along the was

some sidequests were kind of boring at first but the final ones revolving around key characters

Jill/Joshua/Marta etc were actually worth doing as they provide a lot of closure, so its

actually worth it to just go and do subquests as the worth is endingTM.

 I know in some games I don't always do this but with this game it just felt right.

The gameplay wasn't really for me but even that I started to enjoy, after the typhon

fight I considered using the evade ring but I didn't and just equipped the berserkers ring and

some exp/gil accessories, that ring was so rewarding for actually trying to dodge I had no regrets.

I did all hunts and my favorite was probably svarog! I know its just another dragon but

the fight was really fun and I felt really accomplished taking it down.😁

I'll admit that while the overall story and even the ending was good, it didn't really

make me happy, in fact I thought the ending was lacking something.

If they're planning DLC I wouldn't mind if we got something with leviathan the lost

or some extended epilogue story with Jill. She made it extremely obvious she wanted

to spread her wings and I think it would make sense for her journey to continue atleast for a little.

Its just as is the ending itselfs was a bit to be desired and left a lot open to interpretation

and does little giving the player concrete answers which might be disappointing to some.

I think FF10 did a better job at its ending than FF16...  but hey! that's just my 50mira on the matter... still even if there's nothing more I still think FF16 was a good game and don't regret buying it

and playing it from day 1 this is another one of those games that really has

a beginning, a middle and an ending... whether or not you like the execution of the ending.

You won't need to watch a movie, some anime shorts or read a lightnovel to fill in the holes!

but you may need to do all of the last chapter's side quests for it to feel better.

8.5/10

While I enjoyed my time with it, this game may still not be for everyone

and I find that one may need an acquired taste or need to have a certain level of maturity

for it to be fully appreciated. This is mostly because of its contents.

Okay enought rambling, I fully recommend this game if you like dark fantasy type of stories!

next game will probably be 9 R.I.P.