Current Events > Honeymoon phase is over, what's the verdict on Final Fantasy 16?

(+) Yeah! (+)

It's almost time for me to play it

just beat it last night.

7.3/10 game, IMO.

I've not finished it, I don't think I'm even halfway through, but I would also say it's a 7/10.

I have enjoyed it well enough so far, took a break from it awhile back and been meaning to go finish it before something else catches my eye in a month or 2 like starfield or something. I think I am about halfway through if going by the number of elements I have unlocked is any indication.

boxoto posted...

7.3/10 game, IMO.

That seems about right. It does some things incredibly well (especially voice-acting/storytelling and the environments), you can feel the great effort they've put in. However, the gameplay and various RPG elements are lacking a bit. It hasn't convinced me on action-focused Final Fantasy.

Its fine. Not the best in the series, but good.

It has some insanely high highs, definitely moments that will go down in FF history for sure, which 11-15 all lacked (although 15 does have some points that get remembered, like Leviathan and the ending)

A lot of the sidequests are absolutely trash tier though. Oh can you go check this place thanks here is a crafting material. Characters stand there talking to eachother , like Bethesda game. Long dialogues about who knows what because you naturally drown it.

Combat is usually simple. Very simple. I think the game would have benefited from a grading system, or a larger combo counter. Simple mobs suck and take no thought. Scripted fights are always much better, and the bosses are really great. The Eikon battle are obviously the highlight, and really reminded me of Asuras Wrath.

Music is great, a lot of it could have fit in during the snes days.

Characters are mostly meh. Clive is a straightman. It actually feels like his battle dialogue was written by someone different, because his field and battle dialogue feel different from story dialogue. Like when he pets the dog, he is suddenly lively and childish, but in cutscenes he is usually serious, or thrown off guard. Jill is ok. Her scene at the fire crystal was cool. Cid was great. I liked most of the villains. I dont think anyone besides Cid will godown with characters like Cloud or Cecil.

Its a game that comes soooooooo close to being one of the best in the series, but it feels like it was afraid to reach further, and fell on its face. Thankfully, it was capable of getting back up and had some great moments.

It is worth playing. Everything works fine. Story is fine, combat is fine. Little bits of amazing, but 75% of the time it is just fine.

I was really wondering if FF16 was going to be what pushed me to finally upgrade from PS4 to PS5 but I dont think it will be.

boxoto posted...

just beat it last night.

7.3/10 game, IMO.

Why the .3 and not .0 or .5?

boxoto posted...

just beat it last night.

7.3/10 game, IMO.

Careful, that sort of talk can get you harassed by fanboys. Although its not a Nintendo game so maybe not.

_____Cait posted...

Oh can you go check this place thanks here is a crafting material

Speaking of crafting materials, I still have not found a use for them. There's no point in upgrading weapons or armor because the blacksmith consistently offers brand new gear that's much better than what you have. And the recipes for the new weapons cost virtually nothing save for one specific item that seems to usually be a reward for a side quest or one of the bounties.

I probably have like 500 sharp teeth at this point and I don't think I've used one.

I'd give it a 10.

Good action. good RPG, delivers on what you'd expect of a full ass Numbered Final Fantasy. None of that FF13/15 BS, it has the same energy that puts a First Party into Second Place.

Only one game this year is better, and everything else is certainly on a lower tier.

i loved it. played it solidly for about 2 weeks/72 hours and enjoyed every minute.

PowerOats posted...

Why the .3 and not .0 or .5?

I'm not sure.

I felt it was an 8.5 for a good deal of the game, but then I ended up subtracting points when I experienced more and more issues.

I usually go by .5, though.

Dark_Arbron posted...

Careful, that sort of talk can get you harassed by fanboys. Although its not a Nintendo game so maybe not.

I am sorry to disappoint them

Cid in this game has become one of my favorite video game characters. I love Clive's character development. It's so good.

First half of the game was way better to me, but I think it's because of my desire to finish all side quests before I do main story that hindered me the most from enjoying the late game. The like 3 hours of side quest dump before the final mission was a bit.... I dunno, but the feel of the game changed a lot there for me and I stopped looking forward to the side mission stories.

Also who's fucking bright idea was it to have such a fantastic looking game dampened by keeping the fucking purple cloud cover filter on 50% of the god damn game

Solid 4/5, with it losing half a point for the inconsistent framerate in performance mode. The characters are strong, the combat system is great, the game looks fantastic, the story is good, the lore and worldbuilding is deep without mandating a trip to the codex (as in 13) and the music is beautiful.

The only downsides imo are the sidequests are straight out of an MMO and the RPG systems are pretty light for an RPG. I've heard it's better on Final Fantasy mode, but that is not the experience anyone will have on the first run through.

If you have a PS5, you should get this game.

its a good game but has the same problem KH3 had. It's so trivially easy it degrades the gameplay

Great game. Really enjoyed my time with it. Did all side quests and hunts and beat it around 60 hours. I have no regrets. 8.5/10

Just get it next year for $20 or less when no one cares about it at all anymore....

Good game with some half baked mechanics and pacing issues (almost like an mmo team made it) that wouldve benefited from either a. completely committing to the action game route instead of slapping in clearly last minute rpg mechanics or b. a delay to further develop said mechanics

also performance mode still has some insane frame rate dips, so I played it through on graphics mode, which was honestly fine and I feel like was the intended mode to play on considering the spectacle. Performance mode, like the rpg mechanics, feels like something they tried to put together last minute and probably shouldnt have launched as a choice

Solid 8/10. Best FF since X.

I don't know how far I am, but since I have always valued story more than gameplay in games like this, I'm finding it really fucking good. The voice acting is incredible, you can hear bits of the young mans personality Clive used to have when he's talking to people he trusts while still feeling like the personality of the man he currently is. And good lord was that intro one HELL of a hook!

I am incredibly invested in this!

It's good but yeah after a certain point the game really loses steam.

It has a lot of issues with it but overall it's still solid. I think I'd respect it more if it just embraced being an action game and didn't bother with the half assed RPG stuff.

Solid 8/10 so far for me. Could go higher or lower once I finish it.

It's my personal GotY and the first time a Final Fantasy game has clicked with me in years. It's not perfect by any means, but whenever I was doing main story stuff, I was completely enthralled.

Good game with some incredible moments, solid gameplay and voice acting. Story does lose some steam towards the end. Overall not amazing like some were hyping it up to be at launch, but I wouldn't say it's bad either. I'd recommend it.

Xenogears15 posted...

Solid 8/10. Best FF since X.

In terms of mainline single-player ones, this.

Good, solid game. 8.5/10 overall, with some moments of the game being some of my favorite in gaming. Just wish the world was more interesting/vibrant because the towns and locations can get pretty samey by the end of the game.

One of the first games in a bit that really pulled me in

8/10 Amazing combat, fantastic story (up to a point then it's trash), too many trash mobs, RPG aspects are too barebone. Not a GOTY contender for me

If they fixed up the sidequests, had more meaningful party members, and had way more meaningful RPG elements/exploration, and made the game moderately harder, it would've been a 10. As it is, it's about an 8/8.5.

like 14, it's structured very rigidly and that structure makes little sense when contrasted against the urgency of the events in the story. the sidequests range from bad to okay and game would've been better if they'd cut 75% of them and put more effort into the remaining ones

normal encounters are kinda bad, basically only two enemy types with one being a sandbag and the other requiring you to hit the dodge button every now and then. bosses are mostly good but you can tell the people who designed them work on an MMO as their day job

story was great even if it peaked around the halfway point, music is incredible and the VA is by far the most impressive thing about the game. 16 and GoW reboot have been the only games where i felt voice acting elevated the experience for me

i hope the next game is more rpg-y, or if they're going the action route, go all in instead of band-aiding a bunch of superficial rpg systems onto the game as what was pretty clearly an afterthought

I would give it a 9/10. Combat system was fun and engaging, albeit a little simplistic. I think they didn't want to scare away new players. I haven't played it on the hardest difficulty so I can't really say for sure if that adds the challenge I would like.

The narrative and characters were great. As someone with a brother, the connection between Clive and his brother was something that I hadn't really experienced before in a Final Fantasy game. Their relationship had nuance and felt quite realistic to the trials and tribulations they were going through. This game's Cid is amazing and charismatic and the right kinds of goofy at times. The villains were all fairly strong, though some I think were not utilized as well as they could have been.

The political intrigue in the first half of the game was quite interesting, and when it takes a back-seat later it feels missed. I wasn't as interested in the later half of the game, despite some of the best combat scenario's coming from there.

The combat is fun but I feel like it's just missing something that gives it that extra oomph that justifies how long the game is.

Something like more weapons or elemental strength or weaknesses. The strategy never really evolves beyond crown control or managing your abilities around the stagger bar. It wasn't until I got the final Eikon I felt like I was doing something a bit different with that Draw ability.

Combine that with the lack of gameplay variety in general and it really drags on in that second half.

My favorite game of the year so far

7/10, it's ok I guess. The story falls apart once it forgets that it was supposed to be about political intrigue and the gameplay is unbelievably repetitive, but there's nothing bad about the game per se besides the side quests being straight out of an MMO circa 2000.

you know how something is good as a sum of all it's parts? this is the opposite for me. aside from sidequests (which most big rpgs have issue with) and still no actual towns, i can't really say there's much about the game i dislike on paper. but i don't like actually playing it. i naturally quit after getting the chocobo and i don't really care about finishing it. and i'm not even playing anything right now, just waiting for sea of stars.

It's good. Like a 7.5/10 at worst.

~Fun gameplay, though I feel like they could've done more with it.
~Great story, but it peters out in the third act and gets a shit ending, so that largely impacted my score overall.
~High percentage of likable characters, though I wish they all got more to do by the end of the story. Carried by some amazing voice acting.
~Good music.
~Two of the best boss fights I've ever played in a video game.
~Great graphics. Easily the best FF has ever looked. Though it sits on its own nuts with the pink sky putting an ugly filter over everything for the third act + postgame.

It was ok