For the combat, I would have preffered Clive learn new melee combos on top of Eikonic abilities to spice it up.

@yatoyaboku4296

Жыл бұрын

That would have been rly good. I also think that the Ultimates for each Eikon are pretty boring and should be reworked

@Vagabond_01

Жыл бұрын

I kept leaving pauses in my square combo out of habit expecting new combos to play out XD

@OfficialDjTalksick

Жыл бұрын

Might be controversial but I was hoping the eikons each had their own combo sets and fighting styles Like make titan give you slower heavier tanks that stun and send foes flying Or Garuda makes a beast at aerial combos having a 5 hit combo or something Or ramuh let’s you do magic chain attacks

@diegeticfridge9167

Жыл бұрын

I would’ve preferred each eikon having its own melee combos…. Like with titan you can punch…. They did it with Odin and his sword… but Clive already uses a sword 😭

@diegeticfridge9167

Жыл бұрын

@@OfficialDjTalksickthis is exactly what I wished the game was…

I really adore this game, but one major letdown for me was that no city is explorable except for when it's a dungeon and gets destroyed. I really wished I could explore Oriflamme and many of the other places you see in cutscenes. Visit some shops, do side quests etc. Actually get a connection with a city before it gets destroyed.

@mikev8746

Жыл бұрын

Yeah indeed, man even FF14 has cities in each expansion.. And this world has some of the coolest cities one could want.. why not explore them 😂

@Lonewolf1987

Жыл бұрын

Hopefully we get to do that in DLC but I agree 100% that’s my only gripe tbh

@neobluemage

Жыл бұрын

Same sentiment. I really wanted to explore Oriflamme and Twinside (Crystalline Dominion, hopefully in the DLC or XVI-2? But maybe we’re headed to the Outer Continents next.

@mikev8746

Жыл бұрын

@@neobluemage Still baffled me they didn't do that. The game feels a bit lacking because of it. Its still an amazing game. But it didn't each that Witcher 3 or Red Dead Redemption 2 levels of scope because of that. But yeah one can hope..

@hayrogarciga924

Жыл бұрын

cries in lost wing

the delivering food side quest at the beginning has a purpose Clive is a stranger he doesn't know anything about Cid or his goals. but delivering food to bearers lets him get to know what their life is like and what a place like Cid's hideaway means to them.

@nesoukkefka1741

11 ай бұрын

Having to search some wood to a carpenter litterally on the room few step away however, now that was the early dumb sidequest that have me very worried.

@jstewart4381

11 ай бұрын

These should have been mini games. Would have accomplished the same story beat but more engaging for the player. Have Clive cook the food and chop the wood.

I think my biggest issue with the game is the pacing. Things really slow down after every Eikon battle, which while I do think was necessary, it takes just a little too long for things to pick back up again. People say Final Fantasy 7 Remake had pacing issues and I disagreed as I feel remake just has really bad level design that get reused, making the slow parts really feel SLOW, when in actuality, most of those parts can be blasted through in like 15-20 minutes. 16 's slow parts feel much more drawn out. Other than that, there are very few issues I have with the game that can't be fixed with a few patches. When compared to the recent entries, 16 came out pretty quickly, hopefully 17 will be here soon. Much love brother!

@jannemakela8107

Жыл бұрын

Main story itself feels kinda good paced, its the side quests which slows it down unnecessary when we have to go and pick some apples and other dumb stuff.

@GuyDandy

Жыл бұрын

​@@jannemakela8107I loved most of the side quests, because there's really really good stuff there. But... The biggest example for me was the HUGE amount of amazing side quests all right before the final dungeon. It's like a massive press on the breaks to an otherwise good run.

@mhiggs8001

Жыл бұрын

I was annoyed with some pacing things before, but had managed to not focus on it too much. However, all that went to hell after i defeated Titan and then was immediately sent to gather fuckin star dust right after. The game gets in its own way a lot by building up the set pieces so much only to have things like this happen afterwards. The whole time with the dust I was in disbelief that of all the people in the hideaway, including the companion you were allowed to bring, could’ve done that because Clive has special skills and it was just so inefficient to have him be the one to do that. It seems stupid but it killed my suspension of disbelief and it made me feel like the devs disrespected my time or something. Send the people who can’t kill gods to gather dirt, Mid.

@DE123456123456

Жыл бұрын

The structure of the story progression even of the sidequest is similar to FF14 It seems u didnt play ff14, for me as personal review its the best structure build up for me

@Radriar___9946

11 ай бұрын

@@DE123456123456 I have 1000+ hours in 14 and I feel every expansion had parts that felt real slow, even with Shadowbringers. Specifically the part in Ahm Areng right before Malika's Well was a really slowdown in an otherwise brilliantly paced story. Another real let down in 16 is how a lot of the locations were just FF14 dungeons instead of explorable zones. I understand it would be impractical to make places like Oriflamme and the Crystaline Dominion into fully explorable cities but IDK. I remember back in 2020 when they dropped the FF16 website and seeing that art for the Crystaline Dominion and thinking to myself 'wow I'm actually going to get to explore that.' It made me a little sad that it was a 30 min dungeon with very little exploration. I know I'm kind of doomposting, but I really do love FF16, they best single player FF in over a decade imo.

Nice review! Really hoping Ben Starr gets some award nominations/wins his way for his voice performance as Clive Rosfield. And as you say the bar is set pretty high because of such performance.

I think they made an update to the potion thing. At least for me, if you die in a free roaming area you no longer get your potions restocked.

@deedoubs

Жыл бұрын

doesn't apply to most story fights and never to the long dungeon sections that are part of arcade mode, but you've never had potions restocked during free-roam parts. The only time you'd ever need them though is for S-rank marks.

@HateSonneillon

Жыл бұрын

@@deedoubs They were restocked during free roam before as you could get endless free potions to sell to make tons of money. Now that exploit is gone. I never used it for that myself. I just wanted to restock my potions before the next part of the drake's fang quest and it didn't restock.

@JoasXCloud

Жыл бұрын

Same for me, the restock thing stopped for me after the update or during my ng+ FF mode

@TeoS69

Жыл бұрын

The problem for me is that is really hard to die…

@alonzoweaver7948

26 күн бұрын

@@TeoS69why are you obsessed with dying? Seek help my friend

If FFXVI had a sort of 'materia' system (some kind of collectible and selectable mcguffin that tangibly affected gameplay beyond simply skill power/cooldown) and it hid those mcguffins behind exploration chests and sidequests, the game would have been perfect.

Is the game perfect? Nah. But god damn did it make me ugly cry when I finally beat it. I felt connected to the characters and world on level that I feel is rarely seen in video games.

@clearsingularity

Жыл бұрын

I haven't seen one stream who at least didn't tear up at the ending. I watched someone else play the ending and I teared up again :D.

@fattiger6957

Жыл бұрын

Agreed 100% I felt way more connected to Clive and company than I have with a FF cast in over 20 years. I just wanted to see Clive and Jill live happily ever after. Even in the beginning, I really liked teen Clive and kid Joshua and I was sad when the story played out the way I was pretty sure it would since I saw that first trailer.

@OmegaArtist54

Жыл бұрын

no it was perfect.

@g-alicenine

Жыл бұрын

This! I loved some of the characters so much, to see the ending of their story just gave me so many feelings. Even if the ending was positive. The writing of characters was really good.

It almost feels like SE was trying to prove a point about story and put doubts to rest. The game was completely laid out for the player to get dragged into a story. The journey of characters and their development was outstanding. The story itself was very good with decent surprises. While it didn't have the mind-blowing twists that some of the titles before it had, the connection to the world and the characters was firmly established. I didn't miss a single side quest. I can't say this is my favorite FF, but it's up there now, and I'm very happy with what I bought lol. I got the great journey I wanted with context, and the exact ending I wanted from a story with a guy goes on an epic grand adventure across the countryside wielding awesome powers. A beautiful journey but it cannot end well.

@Alexriga

Жыл бұрын

Me too. I need dlc dose.

I haven’t been able to find the right words to describe my experience with this game. Somehow, you’ve managed to describe it perfectly. Thank you.

The only thing I didn't like was the dungeon design in this game and also how there were no optional dungeons. Even tho the story in FF15 was lacking, the dungeons were designed very good

@kimlee6643

Жыл бұрын

I am slightly mind boggled by anyone describing XV's dungeons as "very good". One of them (or maybe like three of them?) is a series of cavernous dark tunnels with cockatrices in its chambers. Some had interesting ambiance and created a sense of wonder, sure, but so did the fishing. The worst dungeons in XV are incredibly abysmal meaningless grinds. If XVI's optional dungeons were to be an iteration on XV's, we should be happy they wasted zero resources on them. Fishing would have priority over that.

@Eversoul12

Жыл бұрын

​@@kimlee6643better than a game with zero dungeons and the same 8 enemies reskinned the entire runtime. 15 was ass, but 16 is the shit inside that ass

@kimlee6643

Жыл бұрын

@@Eversoul12 I dunno what to say to that, actually. Though when distinct people state that XVI would've been a better 20h action game than a 45h "RPG", you know something's up.

@jayman6615

Жыл бұрын

@kimlee6643 I agree that I would've like to see more side content like fishing or chocobo racing. But concerning dungeons, what I meant was that I didn't like how they were nothing more than long hallways. It's not surprising that they were designed that way since the team that made FF16 also made FF14 and the dungeons in that game are also just long hallways. I just liked how in FF15 that there were alternating paths that made it feel like a proper dungeon.

Finally someone that acknowledges the flaws, and at the end of the day acknowledges that it doesn't fu&king matter, the game is still an all timer. Absolutely in love with all aspects of this beautiful masterpiece.

Haven’t obsessed over a game as much since GOW PS4/Ragnarok. It recaptured my slumbering passion for the franchise and while i do have critiques they are genuinely good spirited constructive aspects that can be easily fixed and expanded on as it is right now rather than a complete overhaul from the ground up with rewriting and what if’s. The best way I can articulate my feelings is that It’s everything we wanted and needed….we just need MORE 🤤

I've really enjoyed my time with FFXVI. Engaging story with a lot of heart and an entertaining, if sometimes repetitive, combat system. They're hard to pin down, but I think my main issues with the game come down to two things. One, the lack of good rewards --- not only from sidequests, but stuff that you can make and buy. I feel like crafting system was pretty barebones, and only a handful of sidequests gave me any useful upgrades. I would have liked a bit more depth there. The other thing for me is the simple fact that the plot is so heavily structured around Clive being this chosen one character. I don't mind having a single main protagonist, but I think the fact that he HAS to be the center of everything because he's basically the most important character in the universe takes away from other characters I would have liked to spend more time with and learn more about. Dion is really the only major character in the game who seems to exist on his own wavelength. Everyone else has to serve Clive in some way, and it doesn't always feel authentic to me. Supporting characters get sidelined left and right, even when the reason is contrived or in some cases, non-existent. I also have some issues with the villains, but I won't go into that here, since I could write an essay about it, lol. The game is still enjoyable though, and I consider it a worthy entry in the FF series. I think for such an ambitious game, it goes far and packs a pretty big emotional punch at times.

The fact that CBU3 is the first division in Square Enix to make a totally functional and good game engine is incredible.

@fattiger6957

Жыл бұрын

To be fair, the engine they used is the Luminous Engine. Heavily modified, but still the Luminous Engine nonetheless. But I'm not sure if Square will continue to use it (in games other than FF14) or if they will move to UE for everything from now on.

@Kingdom850

Жыл бұрын

@@fattiger6957 You mean crystal tools? Only luminous studio used the luminous engine.

@deedoubs

Жыл бұрын

>totally funcitonal and good game engine This shit chugs in performance mode though.

@artoriapendragon1972

Жыл бұрын

​@fattiger6957 it's a different engine for FF16

@RokkouA1

Жыл бұрын

​@@Kingdom85014 uses the base of Luminous but is heavily modified

Very fair review touching the flaws and praise alike. It's nice to see something that's not hyperbole. A lot of the problems this game has are the same as the FF14 ones funny enough. I hope this translates to feedback used on both but who knows? FF always seems to course correct massively when it comes to fan reaction.

In concern with Gil, i think the only reason to spend it is to collect Orcastration Rolls, if you care about that. Otherwise, I also think the dark themes and setting of the game makes the light hearted moments shine brighter.

@fattiger6957

Жыл бұрын

Yeah, not much to spend money on in this game. Especially since the best gear is almost always gotten through crafting. Pretty much all I spent gil on was music and potions.

@mhiggs8001

Жыл бұрын

I didn’t even buy the orchestral things, I don’t do that in XIV either. I ended my game with around 250k. I ended up buying things just to justify having Gil at all. Item economy, or lack there of, was a massive let down for me in this game.

I read the title and immediatley liked it. Yep. Excellence meets Imperfection.

@hotcoldman77

5 ай бұрын

Lol imagine calling this turd excellence!! Hahahahahaha smh for you fanboys

I finished this game on Sunday morning. Its now Tuesday afternoon and I feel like im finally over that ending. What a game!

A game is the result of its development team, so I'm glad this game had CBU3 at the helm, because I know they don't have the ego to avoid constructive criticism. For a team that had near 0 experience making a single-player title, the end result was plenty comendable. And the best part is that whatever they do next is 100% garanteed to be of a higher level.

I've still not seen anyone mention the oversight not allowing wade and Joshua to interact later on >

It was worth the wait, great review, I’m with you on everything. Haven’t noticed the potions “respawn” because I never died. This game was really easy 🙈. But at the end of the day, great story, great characters played by amazing actors, perfect music and incredible visuals put this game on my top tier list.

Excellent review my guy, im hoping we get a spoiler heavy review on your thoughts about 16s ending and what the DLCs might be about in the future.

This is a great review, I have been following your content for a while and this is what I was expecting from your opinion about the game, fair and objective review all around, great job!

I've been waiting for your review, and I think it's very good. For me, the many flaws in the game tipped the scales even further away from excellence than they did for you, but I do appreciate the effort put into this game. It was clearly made with so much passion. It's just a shame they game play systems couldn't quite match the caliber of the presentation. Great work as always, friend.

I agree with you here NSP, one of the largest oversights from the developers for the difficulty of the combat is that the player does not feel no penalty at all for not being able to take down the bosses. Now granted I know were not in the days of the classic NES that completly destroyed the player for getting a game over, halfed your gil, loss of level progression, made you have to walk miles of terrain to get back to the point you left off because of only one warp point, etc.... but still this is probably the easist hand holding experience I have ever seen when it comes to boss encounters in Final Fantasy.

I think a great idea would be mixing the excellent character and story work found in FF16 with the combat in the FF7 trilogy. As for the sidequests, something new would be nice since both 16 and Remake lacked in that department.

Let's hope this game will be starting point for more solid pipelines for FF titles. 14 and 15 were total chaos production-wise so Naoki Garland did fine job to bring some order back to it.

adored this game, even the slower paced sections, which I know objectively aren't great - but I always enter this zen-like state just soaking in the world while doing the this and that's (though I'd agree some can go on for just a bit too long, even for my overly patient ass). Music and boss fights are phenomenal, story and characters are also great - with Clive instantly in the running for favorite FF protag. World exploration is really the only major complaint I have, and don't get me wrong, it came as a great relief to open the map and not see a hundred icons with useless trinkets to collect or copy/paste enemy forts to check off but just a little extra spice would of gone a long way - maybe an optional cave or two in each region to dive into and a chocobo mini-game like a race in each region or treasure hunting. Wouldn't want a ton mind, just a few extra things to chase in the in-betweens.

@inthebeginning4751

Жыл бұрын

Imagine a monster arena (ff10) in the dim at that ancient door that no one can open. That woulda been a cool spot to figure out with a hidden key somewhere in the game.

Great review NSP! I think one of the things I love about this game as a creative in the entertainment industry is seeing how things are placed that gives some environmental storytelling. The amount of merchant stall designs in this game is staggering and really shows me what the team values the most in their games. Which to me, are the people in this world. It also ties into why there are just SO many side characters in this game that I love. I even like the lady back in the hideaway that always has eyes for a different guy each time you talk with her. lol . I can't wait to see how DLC and future games improves from what they've learned from this game. Sure there are flaws, but for me, I just loved the memories I have with the game.

Yeah the gil issue, I never thought about gil and just purchased what I needed. It raises the question of the purpose of the economy system. And player perception is important. If the average player won't have to think about the currency then go for an unlock system instead, or something else. It's really annoying and so many games mess this up. I like when you have to choose and prioritize. And even in games where it's easy to earn or farm more currency it at least feels like a reward for your work. Even if it makes the game easier it's usually fun because you made that happen and get to feel more powerful. Nothing in FF16 was a reward, the game just gave it to you.

This is a great game plagued by flaws. Hope the DLCs can address these issues and the missing Eikon.

my critique for the combat: if people wanna play the best FF hardcore action rpg game, play Stranger of Paradise instead.

A stand-out for me is the area design. Absolutely incredible landscapes and architecture. There's also something rather unique to FF that started with XV, the way huge landscapes scale and are implemented really makes it feel immersive and visually impressive.

The game is fantastic. Hope 17 is released by the end of the generation.

@fattiger6957

Жыл бұрын

Would be nice, but I doubt it. If this gen is about as long as usual, PS6 will come out around 2027. I can't imagine Square being able to make a FF game in 4 years, even if they use Yoshi-P's super efficient team again.

@austinhudson5349

Жыл бұрын

@@fattiger6957 They would have had to already start on it. I wouldn't be surprised if XVII is in pre-production, considering they started pre-production for XVI before the release of XV. My only thing is who at Square do they have to make it right now? Division 1 is tied up with 7R, Division 2 just got cannibalized because Luminous just imploded, and Division 3 just released XVI and are always working on XIV. What team would be making it?

@blue-phoenix115

Жыл бұрын

17 in at least 5 years.

@blue-phoenix115

Жыл бұрын

@@KH-nk8ry bout the time it takes for someone to finish Middle School and High School

@lypexiii8018

Жыл бұрын

I think we won't get 17 for a long while, 9 Remake, 7Rebirth and X remake should be the Focus now with some remasters and maybe Drakengard/Nier alongside them

Been disliking the Game of Thrones comparisons myself. It’s way better to call it Berserk meets Asura’s Wrath.

@fattiger6957

Жыл бұрын

I think people just associate dark, grim fantasy with GoT nowadays due to its popularity.

@stanm4410

Жыл бұрын

It's hard not to compare FFXVI to Game of thrones when Yoshi P asked his team to watch the show in order to draw inspiration. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. The original Final Fantasy was heavily inspired by Dungeons and Dragons and popular Western CRPGs at the time.

Definitely not perfect and If CBUIII has another go I'm very confident they'll do even better. Nonetheless my experience with the game was great and despite the low lows of this game, the highs were extremely high and their were times in the game where I couldn't believe what I was playing and for that alone I rate it very high just off of these many high moments, voice acting, gameplay and the music were all top tier. Quest and level design is where I feel this game suffers the most but all in all a great experience.

@Eversoul12

Жыл бұрын

Im not. FF14 has been steadily on a decline since shadowbringers in terms of developing content. Its turned into nothing but copy/pasting and reskinning. Even the music is getting egregiously recycled now. FF16 suffers the same issue. It has the most egregious examples reskinning of enemies and lazy or dated game design philosophies ive seen in a long while. CBU3 really needs to knock 7.0 out of the park to gain alot of faith back. alot of the feedback on the latest patch has people saying if they just do the same thing but less of it again then endwalker will be their last expansion. Im right there with them to be honest.

I hear a lot of people talking about “dull” moments. I am just curious about what this even means. I don’t think I’ve played a single game that could keep the highs that this game has. Could it just be a function of the highs being so high that normal or average content just feels worse?

Thank you for this insight full video review!!

I'm at about 90% of it, and I think it's a great game, although some of the criticisms I have would be that the "party" aspect feels almost non-existent. Running around with Clive feels lonely, because the other characters hardly talk between each other outside of main story cutscenes (I would even forget Jill was accompanying me through most of the game), they're completely silent in all sidequests, and when they talk, their interactions are almost always directed to Clive, and not with the others in your party (I really wanted more interactions between JillxCid, JillxGav, TorgalxAnyone and other more spoilery ones), making things feel less like a group of friends and more a "main charater with bots". Something I always felt was part of the FF identity, was this feeling of being part of a group, and this one is very weak in this sense.

Very well put. This is without a doubt my favorite FF since 9, but there was definite room for improvement. You hit most of those on the head, although I will admit, I found myself reading ahead and skipping dialogue toward the end in some of those late-game Dalmekian quests specifically. CBU3 writes great dialogue, but damn, sometimes NPCs just keep rambling long after the point's been made clear.

@Artimes.

Жыл бұрын

In terms of the story and visuals, yes. but with the gameplay systems absolutly not lol. There is some serous refining that needs to be done on this game. I hope the company can listen to people's feedback about this and if were lucky, alot of these things may be addressed in future dlc's and patches.

Such a good review - thank you. And great to hear someone else loving the VA talent. It's so, so good. Even the ancillary characters are crafted with love.

For the combat I think what would've really helped is having different basic movesets for each Eikon. For 6 out of the 7 Eikon's when your cooldowns are used, you're still doing the same basic 4-hit combo until they're back up. Only Odin changes it up. I also don't think you should've been able to mix and match eikonic abilities onto different Eikons. I personally think they should've implemented elemental weaknesses as well. I don't think it should've been more damage if hitting a weakness, but instead do more stagger bar damage. So there is a benefit to going for weakness, but you wont feel as punished if you don't. Also I think each Eikon's "ultimate" skill should've just been the limit break with that Eikon set, and "Ifrit Trigger" should've just been on Ifrit.

Honestly, if the Final Fantasy mode added a Will bar for Clive (working similar to Sekiro) and/or force a mandatory healing animation like Souls game, it would've been so much harder. To make the combat "fair", they may need to tone down the effects or at least add a colorful ennemy silhouette when there is a lot of effect. You can't see jack sh*t when a boss or mini-boss is inside a Tornado 💀. For the Eikon fights (at least for the first playthrough) I don't think it had to be difficult because if it was and people were dying, I think it would made a disservice to the spectacle. Like having that awesome high RollerCoaster momentum just to be get a few game overs stopping the fight would kill the momentum. Those scene are more like a playable Advent Children like movie that you don't want to pause to immerse yourself completly imo. But yeah, other boss fights would be better if they were more difficult. As you said, I also think the game might have been better is it was shorter and if they cut the "lows". The demo really hooked me up and one of the reasons if because it legit felt like a movie, I was really immersed. But as soon we got in the Hideaway and I saw the C tier NPC sidequest dialogue and animations, it break the immersion. I think thats why games like GoW and TLOU don't have that much NPC standing face to face chat. Horizon Forbidden West was a big upgrade in this regard compared to Horizon Zero Dawn. Anyways, still GOTY for me 🔥 FF7 Rebirth summons might be underwelming after experiencing those Eikons fights. 😅

The combat its weird because it does get repetitive when cleaning off random mobs but when it clicks while figthing a boss and you are dodging and pulling combos off it feels really really good Action games usually add more types of weapons to give it a bit more variety they tried that with the eikons here but most dont have very interesting abilities

FFVII remake still has a superior combat system, blends turn based and action almost perfectly. I don't understand why enemy weakness werent added to combat, if I change my eikon to Ramuh or Shiva why doesn't my elemental attack with my sword become lighting and ice, instead it stays fire regardless of what eikon is selected, this would have added more strategy to combat. There was also a bit too much copy and pasting in the enemy variety, no cactuars, no tonberrys... Just alot of colour change enemies

@inthebeginning4751

Жыл бұрын

Very good points.

@freeweights101

Жыл бұрын

If ff7 have some kind of turn base I'm not buying it. I don't have the patience for that

@mhiggs8001

Жыл бұрын

Agreed for sure! I actually expected the sword to be imbued with the corresponding eikon element. I just wish they’d had weakness and resistances, status effects etc. it felt so wrong to be attacking a bomb with fire magic lol that’s years of conditioning out the window! Haha

@inthebeginning4751

Жыл бұрын

@@mhiggs8001 This is true. Not sure why they let that simple aspect go. It seems it would be easy to implement. Ff16 was still a great game imo. I enjoy both turn based and action games. Im looking forward to BG3.

@Leonhart_93

Жыл бұрын

The problem is that not everyone wants to play something turn based. I never play them, aside from maybe chess.

The Chloe Quest and How Otto Joined Cid was my favorite Side quest.

@deedoubs

Жыл бұрын

Storywise I get liking the Chloe quest, but mechanically it's one of the weakest sidequests in the game. It's literally 'talk to NPC, talk to NPC, find corpse'.

Just beat it yesterday! Literally!! And OMG!! ONE OF THE BEST FF GAMES EVER!!! ONE OF THE BEST GAMES OF THIS YEAR!!

Great review, I really liked the game as well but there are a bunch of issues with the game and you hit the nail on the head with the negatives and critiques. I hope they learn from these mistakes for possible dlc or future games.

I had a friend ask me to share my thoughts on the game since he knows I'm a FF fan and was playing the game. I told him. As FF fan. I shouldn't like this game but I do. I just beat the game a few days ago and still gather my thoughts and feelings on the game. There are highs and lows and it will change from person to person. For me. To keep it short. I wish the game had more depth, RPG are so light, I wish we could've built our home base and recruit people, just like Suikoden II. More depth in exploring, crafting, quest, and more. Pacing off, side quest are pretty bad, they do get a little better near the end because they enhance side characters. The highs for me where the boss battles. I loved them. I liked many of the characters and a few grow on me as you continue and do side quest. I liked Jill, Gav, Cid, Clive, Mid, Baryon, Benedikta, Joshua, Dion, Otto and martha grow on me through side quest, wish his voice actor wasn't so blend or maybe its the writing, which could be said about many of the characters. I really loved the music. I enjoyed the main story. I enjoyed Ultima as a villain. I like the thames in the game. I'm biased here but I love the medieval settings. Like already said. I wish it was more fun exploring. I wish we got to understand Anabella more because she had a lot promise. Like I said. My thoughts are all over the place since I just beat it. I can understand people both hating or loving this game. For me. I enjoyed it way more then FF15 or FF13. Overall I enjoy the game but it does have faults.

I really loved this game. My main gripe though was that a large amount of the side quests just felt like filler to me. Yeah there was some that were pretty integral to the story but when you are on your 4th quest of seeing what's wrong with Blackthorne it just got a bit like groundhog day. Also I found the game probably a bit too easy. Don't wanna take too much away from the game though, I still enjoyed it.

@fattiger6957

Жыл бұрын

Yeah, a lot of the side quests were filler, but some of them were actually really well written. Like that one where you harvest the apples in the 2nd hideaway. I felt a surprising amount of emotions over a side quest dedicated to a dead character I had only spent a few minutes with previously.

@mithrillis

Жыл бұрын

I think it really doesn't help that the side quests are really formulaic. Almost all quests are either kill x enemies or deliver items / messages. Even the already formulaic quest prototypes like escorting, eavesdropping, solving puzzle, etc. are entirely missing. And I don't remember any quest NPC actually leaving their post and becoming your temporary follower outside of cutscenes. It feels like the side contents are put together with a very restrictive toolset.

I hate how basic slash attack mean nothing. End game normal enemies take like 100 slash to kill 1 of them.

I’m glad square Enix has managed to bounce back after the Ls of games like forespoken, ballan wonderworld and marvels avengers. Final fantasy XVI is a masterpiece and I do hope creative business unit 3 comes back for a new entry in the series.

The only thing i want that is missing is sprint button and FULL CHOCOBO THEME SONG while riding.

Square Enix (Japanese) has published a survey to add content to the game (FF16)!

While I did enjoy this game for what it was; calling it a Final Fantasy game is a bit of a stretch (IMO). I missed the party dynamics found in other games and while it was nice having helpers they rarely turned the tide of battle. The combat system might be a decent fit for this game but I hope it doesn't ever come back. I was disappointed by the lack of buff/debuffs and other strategic elements. As for the whole just die for a free refill thing, what kind of gamer just gives up in a fight to get freebies? That was the best part of being low on health with no potions as it drove you to play properly/skillfully to defeat the challenge ahead of you (this strategy doesn't really work in Final Fantasy mode as potions don't refill though checkpoints still apply). I'm a retired FF11 player that dabbled a bit in FF14 (before and after ReBorn) and while I loved the characters and story in 14 the gameplay was trash as was the gameplay loop. I was a bit nervous that CBU3 was making 16 and while the game is great in its own right it's highly flawed. I feel the game was basically like a convoluted pro-wrestling match constantly funneling you from one big spot to another without much time to rest. Another thing that I found frustrating was that the talking segments just went on if you heard/read them or not with no way back if you missed something and I did... a lot. Overall, despite what I've said here I did enjoy the game more than it frustrated me but ultimately it feels a bit more like a polished FF15, especially in its combat.

For the music when the FF14 Madness Soken shined through first was the Titan Lost fight. That was just Soken LB 😀

Great review, Nsp!

I wholeheartedly agree about the side quests, and it's actually not as big of a hot take as you think. I noticed quite a few people mention that they really appreciated the world building and character arcs housed within them, despite their sloppy design. I feel like the Trails and Xenoblade fans would feel right at home here.

Only thing i really disagree on is the side quests i felt them to be extremely boring and the fact they all have a cutscene both starting and ending them really made them annoying to play with a few exceptions

Things I think this game really missed: 1) Mini-games! No fishing? No card game or board game? Those things are also quintessential to the RPG experience. 2) Elemental weaknesses, it doesn’t really matter which Eikonic ability you use against whatever enemy because they’re all equally as effective. Would have been cool and challenging to have to optimize Eikons based on elemental strengths and weaknesses of enemies and in certain environments. Otherwise, a superb game and is def top 3 FFs for me.

@fattiger6957

Жыл бұрын

Yoshi-P had actually addressed the lack of minigames. The dev team was pretty much laser focused on the core game that they didn't want to divert any development time and effort away from it. It is noticeable, but I feel like minigames could be patched in (or added with DLC) later.

@inthebeginning4751

Жыл бұрын

When i saw morbol didnt inflict status in the demo with the breath attack, i had a bad feeling about the depth of status effects and magic levels.

@carlosnazariopr

Жыл бұрын

​@@fattiger6957too late I wanted all that experience in my first playthrough

@carlosnazariopr

Жыл бұрын

A good game with just a thin hair of rpg

Incredible review brother! I 100% agree with you! I also like music in FF14 more than here & 14's story remains unrivaled by any game, specifically Shadowbringers & Endwalker. But 16 was pretty great still. I also agree about VA in it being the new standard for future FF games. And you're 100% right about characters like Benedikta being killed too fast. Barnabas too didn't get enoguh screen time but seemed to have so much potential. They didn't have the time to get fully realized characters arcs.

@elpisdynamis1617

Жыл бұрын

Whats better about the music in 14?

@elpisdynamis1617

Жыл бұрын

I love both 14 and 16

My biggest issues with this game is that 1. The combat is way too easy, I played without all the auto assist items and i did all side quests and hunt fights and I ended up over leveled for most of this game. 2.) Most of the the side quest in this game are terrible, this is mostly in reference to the side quest before the last 3rd of the game. Clive runs around as a delivery boy, detective,peacekeeper and just some general muscle for many of the early side quests. It's quite bland when you go from slaying god to playing detective/political peacekeeper. That being said the + side quests are mostly very fun and engaging, they develop many of the side characters that aid clive on his journey. 3.) The games presentation when you're not dealing eikon fights, or prerecorded cutscenes is just very stiff and poor some times. As you mentioned in the review a lot of the ingame scenes from the quest you do just have stiff models and changing camera angles which is jarring sometimes. Also I would have like for FF16 to have smooth transitions from cutscenes to in game models/scenes and vice versa like god of war ps4 and god of war raganarok did. God of wars cinematic presentation was so buttery smooth going from cutscene back to being in control of kratos, everything was planned and curated with easy transitions in mind in god of war and in FF16 you just cut from one scene to the next or from gameplay to a different scene, it makes the cinematic presentation choppy for FF16 sometimes. 4. The story was way too basic, there wasn't many curve balls. This is probably one of the most basic final fanatsy stories in a long time. Theres nothing wrong with being straightforward, I just thought it could've used more time to cook and explore other avenues. Also many characters don't get to really get developed because they get killed off so fast, it just feels like a lot of the cast is wasted. That being said I LOVE FF 16 and this was my second most anticipated game of the year. It's not a perfect game by any means but it is amazing. 8.5/10

I think you made the game easy for you by training the demo beforehand. I don't have previous Devil May Cry experience and didn't do side content in this game and at the end of the game I had a hard time! Just to give another view to the conversation

Great Review nsp, hopefully we get a dlc focused on Cid and get little more of Benedikta with him she died way too early

Glad to see someone who loves darker stories as well, one of the reasons I was able to finish this game and love it, unlike Every single other FF I tried, Except VI, that one shamefully is too old for me, but the story is GREAT.

I waited to watch the review until I had time to beat this. I agree, too easy but overall agree with the side quests and how you you said is how a game impacted you, that is profound and I really enjoyed it! Hope it continues to sell!

very concise review - tbh I was expecting more like a fan boy take, but really liked how you explained your perspective. thumbs up! I have similar feelings. I love this game but I can also see many of its flaws . At the end of the day, most of the great games are like this… they are not perfect but they move you in a singular way.

@PerfectEclipse

Жыл бұрын

HIs take was absolutely a fanboy take. FF XVI from a story perspective was very lacking. All spectacle but no substance, like a Michael Bay movie. Flat boring characters, with very little to no character development, the most boring villain I've seen in any media in a while, and tons of Deus Ex Machina powerups with explosions for Clive during the "Spectacle" battles between the Eikons. *Spoilers* On top of that there are tons of plotholes that never get explained. Like, how did Joshuah survive exactly at Phoenix gate ? Why did Barnabas so effortlessly beat Clive, only to get manhandled moments later for no reason except plot contrievance by a Clive who had all his Sinew cut, apparently, and regrown in the span of no time since the last battle. How could Clive and Joshuas Eikons merge (never explained) Or, Why did Ultima need Clive/ Ifrit, so he could be his host exactly, when at the end he makes an Ifrit avatar out of nothing for the last boss battles. And all the women get shafted. Clive's mother is cruel, selfish and evil for no reason, and she'd rather kill herself than have a character moment. Jill is just a boring, stoic support for Clive the entire game, who gives away her Eikonic powers for nothing and plays no role in the end. I mean, come on. As for gameplay, when compared with Devil May Cry, the gameplay isn't that great as there's not much nuance to it. When considering this is an RPG, it looks like and plays like any third person game with RPG elements from the past 20 years. No complexity to speak of in the upgrades. On top of that the gear and weapon choices are gone, elemental weaknesses are gone, the status effects are mostly gone, and what you have left is a simple game that gives you a Dopamine rush because you get to see big numbers appear on the screen with explosions. It's atrocious.

I would love for the setting of Final Fantasy 17 to be in a post apocalyptic world.

I loved a lot about the game, from the potential of the combat system and the world design, to the music and the late-game sidequests. With that said, however, I feel like the third act somewhat lost me a bit near the end, if only because I felt like a certain party member was shafted multiple times in the story to make room for other characters. Granted, I enjoyed the cycling party, so to speak, but to have a character sit around doing nothing and then being cast aside before the endgame was really disappointing to me. Still, the final boss was a big highlight, and I do want to go through the game on New Game+ to get a better understanding of the combat and hopefully find some challenge that the first playthrough forewent.

I'm really glad you pointed out how low the lows are in this game because it felt like a lot of glowing early reviews really glossed over them. Final Fantasy will probably always be my favorite series. Even though I also loved FFXVI, the large amount of really dull content soured the overall experience for me.

I finished it last night - it took me three months because between the game’s major set pieces, it REALLY feels like filler most of the time, and I was never that excited to sit down and keep going. But having completed it, I appreciate it very much, it had some VERY high highs and I can’t deny how beautiful and cinematic it was; the final fights were everything I could have hoped for, too. This and Tears of the Kingdom made some pretty powerful experiences in 2023.

I have finished the game on the first week and absolutely loved this game. However, I can’t stop thinking why this game has some obvious flaws that is easily fixable when they said the games was almost complete 1 year before release. At the end of the day, I blame the director for this oversight. Directors are responsible for the overall vision of the game and the fact that some obvious flaws are overlooked, I hold the director responsible.

Great analogies! Bottom line is that it’s totally worth the $70 and time to have a good after taste to appreciate the producers

@Alexriga

Жыл бұрын

Preorxered, never regret. It kicks your nuts hard sometime, maybe yoi neednpause before ballbusting continues. Definately back on track for me, first amazing numbered ff game since ff12 for me. But i loved ff7r a lot too.

I've played a lot of Castlevania Curse of Darkness on my xbox original so I don't think I for one will not complain on playing this.

I loved the story of the side quests, just not the actual activity you have to do during them. Great game in the end though, I would buy story DLC for this.

Great review, tho I prefer my FF games to be long. I do agree that this world needed more life to it. Times I was at Martha's Rest, with nowhere to rest. Why do I have to quick travel to the Hideaway? No Inns??? Usually go 1 place for everything. The quick travel and instant call to Ambrosia no matter where you're at. I really love this game, but it makes me appreciate the things FFXV have, that XVI lacks. Story and music and graphics and characters are fire, but Man all these new FF games are backed up with limitations that make us imagine a real Final Fantasy game for these days. I could rant forever but I love the direction. FFXVII is next.

The game is a lot more challenging on FF mode. The first playthrough is surprisingly easy but I think that was done with the intention of being more accessible to more people. If a player wants more of a challenge they can just play it again on FF mode and again on Ultimalius mode which is insanely hard. The challenge is there just not necessarily on your first playthrough.

Just finished the game, It was alright, combat and set pieces are epic. Often feeling like an anime arc. Only downside to that is after each arc the game winds down to fetch quests, long pieces of dialog and these sections could be a few hours at a time. This wouldn't be so bad if the exploring was better or of the side quests werent also fetch quests. But the set pieces really do make up for it when you get there and there are multiple peak moments within the game. I also really enjoyed the characters. This game holds my favorite version of cid, i really enjoyed clive and jills relationship. Clive is really the most interesting MC weve had since cloud. I enjoyed the part joshua played in the story and it had some memorable minor characters Gav really felt like a really old reliable feiend throughout most of the story. I give it a 7/10 with a recommendation to try it out because there is a very good chance you might enjoy the story more then i do. But what really brings the experience down is how cinematic the game is,the set pieces are great but even during the downtime there are alot of long winded cutscenes that are mostly dialog and might not add much to the overall story. I simply got to use to putting the controller down or checking my phone. But depending on how much you enjoy the story, the characters and if you happen to really like cinematic games This has a good chance at being your favorite entry to the franchise. Because the overall story told is indeed epic.

Forgive me for not understanding your rating system but what is an ice cream scoop out of a cone equate to?

@TheNightSkyPrince

Жыл бұрын

It's not meant to be understood, it's a gag lol.

I agree with your review. Personally, I think if they removed the lows of the main quest and put those resources into meaningful gearing and crafting, mini games, getting rid of invisible walls, then it would have worked better for me.

I enjoy the game but the side quests were so unneeded (except I loved the notorious monster hunts). The world looks great but just way too much was not able to be explored due to the linearity. It felt so devoid of life to me. I would give it a 7/10

What was that song at the end of the video?

Pro tip NSP. You actually never need to only tap square to do non cooldowns attacks. Even without aerial moved your optimal ground combo is actually lunge (then hold down Square) into a magic follow up (then hold down triangle) then you release Square for the charged melee then release triangle for the charged magic attack. All these need to be unlocked and upgraded but it's a great thing to have for off cooldowns

@LogosSteve

Жыл бұрын

Works as Ifrit too

Literally just beat the game and freaking loved all 90 hours of it. Bout to start the New Game + for the platinum.

To me, it's a 7.5/10 Not bad, but not great either. Story was the one thing I expected to be amazed by but saddly, it's not as good as I wanted it to be. I have too many unanswered questions. Cid was an amazing character tho, Loved everything about him. Kill saddly became the usual FFCheerleader once her one chapter was finished. I wanted more from Dion... also the ending, while it will work for many, didn't for me. Gameplay was not deep enough, it's a bit too simple and it's too easy to fall into a pattern that works and repeat until victory. Again, not a bad game, but not one I fell in love with. Better than XIII and XV for sure, but I enjoyed Xiii-2 more,

Pacing and lack of difficulty are the game's most glaring flaws, but even then I am still enjoying it a lot.

I prefer the easier combat. I don't want to be stuck on a boss forever and lose interest

Great game, becomes redundant midway. Side quest feel thin and linear. Unmotivated to follow the long-winded cut scenes, not to take away from the great story told.

For the battle system I really feel you have to step up your combo game, you are only utilizing the basics. You are pushing your eiconic abilities out at once, then mashing square until the cooldown is rdy again, instead of doing the basic combo + eiconic ability + circle for leaping upwards + basic combo again + eiconic ability + fire sword etc. There are endless possibilities to manage your cooldowns more efficiantly. Also I never see you do any Air Combos or utilizing Torgal. I also feel the difficulty of NG+ should have been standard, but seeing how much problems people have with the combo system in normal mode I‘m not so sure anymore. Aside from that good review!

I feel like we undervalue “soul” in modern game reviews. You know that extra something? The “heart”? Idk how to describe it, but it’s more then the stories, characters, charm and all that. But it’s that’s extra special umph that’s gonna make this a huge nostalgia trip to reexperience a decade from now. This might be subjective, but for me FFXVI has that “it” factor, I’m not a professional critic, I’m not a reviewer, man I just loved this game and enjoyed it so much. Could they have done more? Probably if I started thinking about it, but I don’t need more, I really appreciate the game I got, I can tell the staff loved their project, it doesn’t feel like a money grab, the game feels genuine and I love it. Very glad I got to play it.

The credit song…. Wished it was in english vocal 😪 I dont believe they make a mistake or forgot… I believe they intentionally made the game without what we expected to be there

I loved the game, flaws and all. Even WITH the Damn flaws it’s still my third favorite final fantasy with only tactics and 14 coming out ahead. I NEED MORE IN THIS WORLD

I don't need a game to be perfect to enjoy it. I played the game that i felt closest to perfection with xenogears. I just want fun memorable experiences. And ffxvi does that in spades. Haven't yet beaten it, but my god is it fantastic. It is beautiful as fuck. I do not find this battle system to be easy but not hard either. Its challenging enough. I only died a handful of times. But i also don't try to use potions, i don't use abilities unless they are the bigger monsters and up. I use torgal for healing as well as limit breaks. Also Yoshi-p did mention they did not want this to be anything like a soulsborn game. They do not find enjoyment from repeated deaths that those games do. And i agree with that. I do not enjoy soulsborn games. Theyre cheap. Its not hard just cheap. And there is a point to exploring. theres about 3 weapons you get from exploring, about 5 armor pieces, and at east 10 accessories. Plus there are music scrolls in a couple of them. Not to mention the chronoliphs or however its spelled is only found by exploring. The game only gives you just 1. You need to find the rest. And only after you found them all can you do them. So you do need to explore. And yes you also need to explore to get the hunts. This is all exploration. So plenty of exploring to be had.

@Artimes.

Жыл бұрын

Those days are long gone lol man. I blame it on technology really. Now a days its immpossible to achieve the kind of depth and volume of gameplay content and story telling that the PS1 was capable of or i guess that sort of conventional design, even though it was on 32bit hardware and didn't look as life like as modern games do. But there lies the problem, its feasible a garguant task to recreate something on that scale on the PS5 so certain modern games that use photo realistic visuals Have to find ways of translating an epic story like FF tactics into a sizable game that has enough content to provide dense enough of a story and even then I don't think developers have been able to master that yet. Which is why ALOT of companies still use more traditional designs like persona 5 or tales of or octopath traveler, etc. As technology grows, it really shackles and limites our visual expression in a game when combining both naratives and world scale.

Finally Night Sky Prince's FF 16 review is here! I have been waiting eagerly for this, and can't wait to hear your thoughts on it. And also, I much appreciate the fact that you've played through it 100% before giving out your thoughts on it!💕🙌🏽⭐😁

@DE123456123456

Жыл бұрын

What does he mean ice on cone rank thingy!!!!? In number or medal color please 🙏🏻

This game has so many unique things about it, such a good level of quality throughout. It's the cracks inbetween that make it a great game and not a masterpiece. But one can only imagine how this game could look if it got the FF15 DLC treatment. Likewise I think the uniqueness of this game from the Eikon fights, the grounded worldbuilding and so forth. Those all make for a compelling addition to ones game collection. A game that stands out inbetween the others you love. Instead of blending in for the sake of fitting a certain mold.

They overcorrected on story and setting and realized as modern FF since X that if you want an impactful story you need to sacrifice openness. Its on the right track and Rebirth is going to run with it. My main qualms were 1st playthrough difficulty, fetch quests left a lot to be desired and the Dungeons were done way too quickly with little interaction with the environment. Slight qualms weapons/equipment should have had slots for crystals or imbued to give you Eikonic feat buffs. The accessories and crafting should have allowed to merge you're favorites with materials from monsters across Valisthea. This game felt like the story urgency of FFX with world elements from 12 and a new take on combat. Wish side quests were not so easy and required more interaction with environment like Witcher 3 where you just stumble on folks in need out in the world. The battle system was good and the story was fantastic and the Eikon fights were fantastic. World, Setting, Music were great. I disagree with side quests the main hubs North reach, Lost Wing, Dhalamek, Rosaria/Marthas rest were actually main quests and the fetch this or fight that got too formulaic. Id give it 4.3/5.0 even with the flaws the sum like FF7 remake are greater than its parts. Now last nit pick Drakes Breath was too quick we should have had to go to the Island nation meet Jills friend obtain a special key that unlocked drakes breath allowing us to get a scope of Jills sorrow. They could have added at least an hour or three by doing that and making Jills revenge feel earned it kinda rung hollow because we didn't know much about the islanders or the religion and its practices that Jill was forced to participate. Outside that maybe one more mission with Cid for a few hours as after Jill woke up and joined the party it back seated Cid and it would have had more emotional heft if Clive and Jill had slightly more time to marinate with Cid before the dagger. Also a few more dtory quests in Waloud would have been awesome, such a big area on par in size to Storm, Ash felt wasted. A more involved story saving the last few Walouders whom were not okay with becoming Ackhasic would have been awesome. Ash had so much potential to show Clive the opposite mindset to his with a lot of Waloud wanting to sacrifice themselves to Ultima. They could have really had Clive questioning if taking their will away from their own desires much like Ultimas Ultimate plan. I was happy with what we received but the second playthrough shown me how Drakes Breath and Ash were kinda sped through when we needed more context.

GREAT REVIEW!

Doesnt surprise me that 16 had the most character deaths. The writer still holds the record for killing big characters in 14 too. And I'm not talking just villains. I'm talking heros, commoners, and villains. Three of the biggest character deaths of heros happened in this, including one still regularly used to grief the community.

Great review, got me nodding and agreeing with literally everything, all the pros and flaws!