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[Myths]

The game might give "MMO vibes" because the director and people from FFXIV worked on it.

Negatives/Lack:
- Stagger mechanic
-Barebone rotation, no environmental strategy or field objects (disappointing for an action game with movement)
- Status Effects/Element
- Character progression (Sphere Grid/Crystarium/Points Distribution/Redistribution isn't actually a balancing act of constraints
- "Instanced" areas/level design, lacking useful optional paths, content, or worthwhile replayability
- On-rails MSQ, nothing stimulating, puzzling or engaging to level design and progression

That said, they aren't going backward. Some of ya'll want every damn game out of JP devs to be strictly another DQ/prototypical "JRPG" from the 90s. That's what their side games are for.

 

[Hashassin]

The game might give "MMO vibes" because the director and people from FFXIV worked on it.

Negatives/Lack:
- Stagger mechanic
-Barebone rotation, no environmental strategy or field objects (disappointing for an action game with movement)
- Status Effects/Element
- Character progression (Sphere Grid/Crystarium/Points Distribution/Redistribution isn't actually a balancing act of constraints
- "Instanced" areas/level design, lacking useful optional paths, content, or worthwhile replayability
- On-rails MSQ, nothing stimulating, puzzling or engaging to level design and progression

That said, they aren't going backward. Some of ya'll want every damn game out of JP devs to be strictly another DQ/prototypical "JRPG" from the 90s. That's what their side games are for.

You say they aren't going backwards and also list how nearly every aspect of this game is lacking. That leaves just the cinematic boss fights, which are cool, but that won't cut it.

In my opinion it's a severe step back in all areas. That's why they invented "character action" game, so if we see this labeled on any future game, we'll know it's complete mandril mucus.

 

[simpatico]

The Final Fantasy team will never get action combat right. The only way forward is ATB turn based.

 

[Kvally]

I loved it.

 

[clem84]

Purchased this game after enjoying the demo. Clearly I've been duped. This game is a cutscene fest full of filler dialogue, a very slow plot, pointless fetch quests and extremely mundane gameplay.

Main reason why I stopped playing. This game doesn't respect your time.

 

[Andrew Evenstar]

First FF main stream game I haven't played at launch since FF4 USA release. Most people I hear say it's just ok, then with a few saying it was great, and others saying it was boring and uninspiring. I'll play it one day.

 

[PurePlatinum]

It is really bad, but damn the eikon battles are something else.

This is one of the games that made me lose faith in reviewers. It has like an 80 something aggregated review score. Should be like a 60.

 

[Labolas]

I hear people complaining that 16 is not an RPG enough. How does it fare as a character action game, then?

 

[Lambogenie]

I hear people complaining that 16 is not an RPG enough. How does it fare as a character action game, then?

Also average.

Like I said, you have better bosses in Bayonetta, GOW it big and fancy is required.

 

[NahaNago]

The game was meh. I think the only thing I enjoyed at times was the big boss kaiju battles. I wish they went more of the ff14 side quest routes. Like give me a whole carpenter or archer storyline. This was just a barebones ff14 game.

 

[CompleteGlobalSaturation]

I hear people complaining that 16 is not an RPG enough. How does it fare as a character action game, then?

Badly. The move set is so limited. The combat is simply not fun or engaging. Besides, there is nothing fun with fighting bullet sponges.

 

[Gonzito]

If you look for the word boring in the dictionary, you'll find a picture of Clive Roswell

 

[Bungie]

Not a bad game but didn't deserve to be the next numbered FF game.

 

[TerribleAtThisGame]

Never picked it up because even my gaming friends who buy every fucking thing and like most of it unanimously said this game is lame.

 

[seb85]

My second favorite FF game after 7

 

[PeteBull]

The game might give "MMO vibes" because the director and people from FFXIV worked on it.

Negatives/Lack:
- Stagger mechanic
-Barebone rotation, no environmental strategy or field objects (disappointing for an action game with movement)
- Status Effects/Element
- Character progression (Sphere Grid/Crystarium/Points Distribution/Redistribution isn't actually a balancing act of constraints
- "Instanced" areas/level design, lacking useful optional paths, content, or worthwhile replayability
- On-rails MSQ, nothing stimulating, puzzling or engaging to level design and progression

That said, they aren't going backward. Some of ya'll want every damn game out of JP devs to be strictly another DQ/prototypical "JRPG" from the 90s. That's what their side games are for.

Plenty more flaws than that, bro, im ff series fanatic, so i still give this game an 8, but its significantly worse from ff15.
Major flaws u forgot to mention is terrible party mechanic/ lack of party control, really cringe dialogues, unbelivable story, and at many points in the game 30min+ cgi or/and in engine/ingame rendered sequences, usually before/right after some serious fights/major story points. Some are even ingame run and not skippable, not joking here, long few minutes long unskipable sequences combined with even longer but at least skippable ones...

 

[danklord]

One day it will be remembered for what it truly was, but for now it is in the post-launch hate spiral.

IMO....

A jaw dropping ride that broke so many rules while preserving main core themes of Final Fantasy as a franchise.
A bold, streamlined, and unique vision that fully realized the grandiose cg scenes of the PSX era in a playable, real-time format.
A confidently produced and executed FF after the bloated and incomplete XV.
A perfect balance to Final Fantasy 7 Remake's sprawling open-world zones and dynamic party combat.

That's a quad-a title bros.

 

[p_xavier]

It's my favourite Final Fantasy though The Rising Tide DLC is the worst. It's so stupid that it kinda ruined the main game.

 

[HRK69]

This is my mandatory FF16 'But we've got this song' post!

 

[Efren is G.O.A.T.]

I liked the story, combat system although I want a return to turn-based and music but the side quests were brutally awful for me.

 

[sigmaZ]

I agree but play Infinite Wealth and get to chapter 6 and you will get something worse.

What?! Must've played a different game.

FF cycle is real

FF gets announced with cool trailer —> fans say this will be a return to form, finally a good one —> it's announced there will not be turn based combat —-> media praises game —-> game comes out —-> people say it's good —-> honeymoon phase ends —-> the game stinks —-> restart the cycle

This is common for any game that sells itself on its name or spectacle that are actually functionally dysfuctional. People hype themselves up but eventually reality is like "Hello, bitch!"

One day it will be remembered for what it truly was, but for now it is in the post-launch hate spiral.

I think it's opposite rather. People forced themselves to like it and push forward on release do to the hype around the game but over time their actual disappointment and buyer remorse turned into bitterness towards the game.

IMO....

A jaw dropping ride that broke so many rules while preserving main core themes of Final Fantasy as a franchise.

What rules did it break? This series has done nothing but break its own rules?
I guess it broke the rule of not being boring, but even 15 has the edge in that category.

A bold, streamlined, and unique vision that fully realized the grandiose cg scenes of the PSX era in a playable, real-time format.

Bold? You mean borrowed. Streamlined? You mean minimal and reductive. Unique? You mean Game of Thrones, Castlevania Lord of Shadow, and God of War inspired? The CG is impressive in places like the Bahamut fight, but does the whole series rest on "Ooooo. Sparkly"

A confidently produced and executed FF after the bloated and incomplete XV.
A perfect balance to Final Fantasy 7 Remake's sprawling open-world zones and dynamic party combat.

It is confidently reduce...er produced compared to XV. But XV wasn't original ever meant to be a mainline title.

That's a quad-a title bros.

 

[Arachnid]

Loved the story, boss spectacle, and the music.

Hated everything else. Awful gameplay, which isn't what you want from a video game. 4/10.

 

[Moochi]

Combat...

One of the dumbest things 16 does is taken straight from 14. There are different element spells, but no elemental weaknesses. Air is identical to fire, etc. There are buffs and debuffs, but no reasons to use them. The combo multiplier is easily capped, which lowers the skill ceiling to knee height.

I guess the idea was to keep things simple so that players of all skill levels would be able to finish the game, but what it actually does is disincentivises players who enjoy a challenge. Fights are either over within seconds or they take a length of time that cannot be shortened by skill.

The one exception to this might be the damage increase from successive dodges. I'm uncertain if there's a cap on its bonus.

I think the reason so many people are frustrated with the combat is because it could have been great with a few changes, but seems like it was intentionally neutered.

 

[Noctis0Caelum]

yeah like op and many others, i didnt like 16 that much. only bosses, actually only esper bosses, some locations were good, but EVERYTHING else is just so lame and bland.
Characters are mostly boring, also the story itself doesnt have any potencial, combat is fun but later too repetive...also the music is overall just okay, the boss/battle themes are really good but cutscene or enviroment music are forgetable. this game disappoiunted me so much, like no one other at the end of the game.

 

[SkylineRKR]

Combat...

One of the dumbest things 16 does is taken straight from 14. There are different element spells, but no elemental weaknesses. Air is identical to fire, etc. There are buffs and debuffs, but no reasons to use them. The combo multiplier is easily capped, which lowers the skill ceiling to knee height.

I guess the idea was to keep things simple so that players of all skill levels would be able to finish the game, but what it actually does is disincentivises players who enjoy a challenge. Fights are either over within seconds or they take a length of time that cannot be shortened by skill.

The one exception to this might be the damage increase from successive dodges. I'm uncertain if there's a cap on its bonus.

I think the reason so many people are frustrated with the combat is because it could have been great with a few changes, but seems like it was intentionally neutered.

The bonus damage on evasions is a good mechanic in theory but in this game its wasted by regular melee doing nothing at all against any non trash mob. Even after 30 or so successive evasions I still did zero damage to an elite or boss health bar. The game is all about using specials that stagger more quickly, and then use the most powerful specials once the stagger damage is 1.5.

The problem is, if you run a deck of abilities that stagger faster (like the projectile reflect), you will lack DPS during stagger. I never really found a setup I was happy with. And the worst, its not because the game is hard otherwise. Its just because these braindead fights take far too long. So you're either taking ages to stagger enemies, or you're taking ages to finish them off.

Its just bad. Let alone the static cooldowns, there is pretty much no way to gain a cooldown bonus by for example parrying, evading or keeping a combo. I ended up starting with Diamond Dust etc, so that they were available when I really needed them. There is zero point in doing melee in this game.

This game could've been far better if they increased the damage by 100%, added elemental weaknesses (which would for example shorten cooldowns and increase rate of stagger), bigger bonuses on evasions making melee viable as well, being able to launch non trash mob in stagger state, having more ability slots (for example 2 primers for stagger bar, and 4 damage abilities or something) and allowing for specific builds by armor and accessories.

Even FFVII R does this fairly well. It has different weapons that compliment different builds (you can make Cloud a pure melee, tank or battlemage depending on weapon and passives). You can end fights relatively fast by exploiting weaknesses and buffing your party.

 

[xcalibersa]

Reminds me that I still need to finish this rubbish game

 

[Novaex]

Yeah, I picked it up two weeks ago and while I loved it at the start I'm having motivation issues right now (I'm about 25h in). Story is still interesting so I try to keep going but I'm thinking if I should just watch a youtube video at this point as I'm not enjoying the combat and the progression system is so barebones that it could be just an action game,
But what really frustrates me are the random boring fetch quests during the main story. I gave up on sidequests as they are as bad as expected from Yoshi P, but he really didn't have to implement them into the main story from time to time. I don't need these kind of slowdowns and the main story being 20h instead of 35 or however long it is, would be better imo.
But I playd FF XIV for several years so i probably shouldn't be surprised about Yoshi P's obsession with filler content. I just assumed he realized this isn't an mmo and he doesn't have to strecth the playtime.

 

[FoxMcChief]

It's ok at best. Definitely a let down.

 

[danklord]

I think it's opposite rather. People forced themselves to like it and push forward on release do to the hype around the game but over time their actual disappointment and buyer remorse turned into bitterness towards the game.

I don't know if you can speak for all people, I absolutely loved it and have seen many folks online echo the same sentiment. It's ok if it subverted your expectations too hard, new things are hard to understand at first.

What rules did it break? This series has done nothing but break its own rules?
I guess it broke the rule of not being boring, but even 15 has the edge in that category.

Becoming a DMC inspired single character game certainly seems to break typical Final Fantasy standards, especially for a game as prestigious as Final Fantasy. This game needed to feel fresh and distinctly different from the FF7R trilogy.

Bold? You mean borrowed. Streamlined? You mean minimal and reductive. Unique? You mean Game of Thrones, Castlevania Lord of Shadow, and God of War inspired? The CG is impressive in places like the Bahamut fight, but does the whole series rest on "Ooooo. Sparkly"

Definitely meant bold . The boss battles in this game are unlike any encounter in any Final Fantasy, and they raised the bar for cinematic gameplay. It is inspired because you are actually playing the vision established by their groundbreaking summons in FF7. A playable realization of a spectacle that captivated a generation executed masterfully.

It is confidently reduce...er produced compared to XV. But XV wasn't original ever meant to be a mainline title.

An interesting bit of historical trivia, but the resulting product is the product . XV cost 150 million to make, 16 was developed faster and cost significantly less to produce.

That's a quad-a title bros.

 

[Moochi]

The story really isn't interesting. It doesn't even satisfy the basic requirements for a character arc, even for Clive. He goes from zombie to reluctant to determined, but none of it is earned. He doesn't seem to really care about Cid's goals to free the bearers. Then, there's the problem of what Cid is actually accomplishing by destroying the Mother crystals. Like, what does it actually do? Destroying them doesn't seem to have any effect on the world or plot at all. I can hypothesize based on reading the stupid lore entries that in a world with these rules the economy of the countries that own the crystals would be ruined and it would break their up their societal abuse, but we never see any of that in game.

Instead of focusing on anything with nuance, Clive's personality conflict is entirely,

Spoiler: Spoilers

"I will hunt the monster who killed my brother!" But there's zero intrigue to it because the cutscene make it obvious that Clive turned into Ifrit. For the last half of the game, Clive is tortured by the fact that he IS a monster, but it's undercut by the pointless survival of Joshua. And what viable reason does Joshua have for sneaking around and keeping his existence hidden from Joshua for like a decade? He saw a mural. Ultima is so stupid and unnecessary--it wrecks the possibilities of the story to be a story about empires and thrones and slaves and turns it into typically JRPG trash with the worst pseudobabble dialogue you've ever heard delivered by I SWEAR TO GOD the voice actor who did the Mooninites Aqua Team Hunger Force.

 

[Myths]

Like I said, even FF13ms Stagger system had depth with different roles contributing to it in different ways. FF16's is mostly one dimensional padding. This goes broadly for its combat.

This game could've been far better if they increased the damage by 100%, added elemental weaknesses (which would for example shorten cooldowns and increase rate of stagger), bigger bonuses on evasions making melee viable as well, being able to launch non trash mob in stagger state, having more ability slots (for example 2 primers for stagger bar, and 4 damage abilities or something) and allowing for specific builds by armor and accessories.

If you played the game on PC, you could easily adjust the damage and stagger multipliers (which is what I did). Maybe in the future, people will modify the code of the mechanics to include elemental stats.

The game doesn't offer enough to keep rotations balanced with its action. It's the same thing with Lightning Returns where that downtime is just a stand still while "cooldowns" (in this case ATB replenishment) takes place. No field elements to hide behind like trees, boulders, or better yet launching them as projectiles.

 

[SkylineRKR]

Like I said, even FF13ms Stagger system had depth with different roles contributing to it in different ways. FF16's is mostly one dimensional padding. This goes broadly for its combat.




If you played the game on PC, you could easily adjust the damage and stagger multipliers (which is what I did). Maybe in the future, people will modify the code of the mechanics to include elemental stats.

The game doesn't offer enough to keep rotations balanced with its action. It's the same thing with Lightning Returns where that downtime is just a stand still while "cooldowns" (in this case ATB replenishment) takes place. No field elements to hide behind like trees, boulders, or better yet launching them as projectiles.

FFXIII LR is one of my fave battle systems actually, esp for a 1 character game. You can still perfect block (which is the actual weakness of some mobs), and you can use Overclock. This game is severely underrated, esp. the X-enhanced version is good as far as consoles go.

 

[Myths]

FFXIII LR is one of my fave battle systems actually, esp for a 1 character game. You can still perfect block (which is the actual weakness of some mobs), and you can use Overclock. This game is severely underrated, esp. the X-enhanced version is good as far as consoles go.

Yep. LRFF13 is top tier and hopefully it finds its way as a Party system in future FFs. With two more members, the ability to switch between seamlessly and maybe a modified passive Paradigm Shift system, it could be amazing as a combat system in a mainline entry.

 

[PeteBull]

First FF main stream game I haven't played at launch since FF4 USA release. Most people I hear say it's just ok, then with a few saying it was great, and others saying it was boring and uninspiring. I'll play it one day.

I can tell u are series fan(atic), so best u play it urself, full disclousure if u going to play on pc u will need either to play in 1080p60 or have some high-ish rig, game is demanding af.

 

[Gordon Fearman]

The story really isn't interesting. It doesn't even satisfy the basic requirements for a character arc, even for Clive. He goes from zombie to reluctant to determined, but none of it is earned. He doesn't seem to really care about Cid's goals to free the bearers. Then, there's the problem of what Cid is actually accomplishing by destroying the Mother crystals. Like, what does it actually do? Destroying them doesn't seem to have any effect on the world or plot at all. I can hypothesize based on reading the stupid lore entries that in a world with these rules the economy of the countries that own the crystals would be ruined and it would break their up their societal abuse, but we never see any of that in game.

Instead of focusing on anything with nuance, Clive's personality conflict is entirely,

Spoiler: Spoilers

"I will hunt the monster who killed my brother!" But there's zero intrigue to it because the cutscene make it obvious that Clive turned into Ifrit. For the last half of the game, Clive is tortured by the fact that he IS a monster, but it's undercut by the pointless survival of Joshua. And what viable reason does Joshua have for sneaking around and keeping his existence hidden from Joshua for like a decade? He saw a mural. Ultima is so stupid and unnecessary--it wrecks the possibilities of the story to be a story about empires and thrones and slaves and turns it into typically JRPG trash with the worst pseudobabble dialogue you've ever heard delivered by I SWEAR TO GOD the voice actor who did the Mooninites Aqua Team Hunger Force.

You can actually edit out all of the cutscenes of political stuff and the plot makes just as much sense, it's hilarious. The Phantom Menace isn't that bad. This why I say it's just a Kingdom Hearts story with a GoT aesthetic.

 

[viveks86]

This makes me want to remove it from my backlog. Why was it rated so high? Where's the disconnect?

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

I hear people complaining that 16 is not an RPG enough. How does it fare as a character action game, then?

I've said from the beginning that it's a failure whether you look at it as a JRPG or as a character action game.

Most of the time the enemies literally don't fight back. They just stand there like training dummies while you pound away at them, slowly chipping away their health and cycling through your moves off cooldown.

Some of the hunts might give you a bit of challenge, but for the most part the combat is piss easy, spongy, and repetitive.

This makes me want to remove it from my backlog. Why was it rated so high? Where's the disconnect?

I ask myself the same thing. Absolutely no idea how this thing has an 87 Metacritic.

I guess it makes a very good first impression.

 

[KillerKowalski]

Meh...i liked it

 

[kur07]

I was bored before the demo ended, for all the reasons listed in the OP. But mostly because of the combat, which lacks any player agency or danger.

 

[Klosshufvud]

I'm at the forest area with Cid and so far the game has failed pretty hard to offer an engaging narrative or a coherent world. Most cutscenes feel like the writer just dumping useless dialogue on you and gameplay thus far is just spamming attack while attack for the powerful cooldown spells to recover while occasionally dodging some attacks. This is everything I assumed about the game beforehand but I will still try to push on because finishing Final Fantasy games is almost like a duty by now.

 

[Imru’ al-Qays]

The beginning part of the game, the part showcased in the demo, is actually really good, but it follows through on basically none of the promise. The story initially seems like a return to the more mature, sophisticated storytelling we got from Matsuno in FFT, Vagrant Story, and to a certain extent FFXII, but it devolves by about the halfway mark into absolutely execrable anime trash.

 

[Salz01]

Big problem with the game is that there are no Waifus.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

They said they were making Game of Thrones for FF.

Well, then they gave up on that idea less than halfway through. That would have been a lot better.

Easily the worst RPG title I have played. A classic example of why 'more' is not better. This game feels 30 hours too long.

Sadly, yeah, the RPG aspect of this game is absolute garbage. No idea why they decided to abandon RPG elements in their flagship RPG title.

The demo is definitely not representative of the rest of the game, or the full experience, whatever you want to say.

 

[Hollywood Hitman]

I like what I've played so far, its way better than 15... That shit was hot garbage I felt. But 16 isn't bad I just haven't given it the full plow yet

 

[Mercador]

Same here OP. I would have to force myself to finish it though because I would like to purchase FFVII remakes, but not until I complete this. I paid full price for that, I'm utterly disappointed. I read before purchasing that the best part of the game was the demo content and I agree (though, I'm near the half I think).

 

[SkylineRKR]

Same here OP. I would have to force myself to finish it though because I would like to purchase FFVII remakes, but not until I complete this. I paid full price for that, I'm utterly disappointed. I read before purchasing that the best part of the game was the demo content and I agree (though, I'm near the half I think).

It sort of is.

Because you expect a prologue not to fully show all its cards yet, right? You have only a few moves and there are no party and RPG mechanics, but its the opening chapter.

Problem is FFXVI stays like this throughout. You do get Eikons who basically do fuck all because there is no weakness. Every magic shot is the same. The eikon abilities are.. well Garuda has this grab thats near useless but can stomp enemies down at 50% stagger bar build up. They did nothing with this ability whatsoever, there is no traversal or puzzle solving built around it. Imagine you had to traverse some spots with Garuda, destroy ice walls with Phoenix. Essentially making the world more interactive to explore. But then there is the most useless loot ever designed anyway. There is literally no need to scout the map, ever.

Pretty much everything has been made so that everyone with half a brain can beat it, there are no roadblocks, no puzzles, no rewards. Even the limit break is just a powered up version of the protag without extra moves besides button bashing attacks.

The much hyped Eikon battles are just scripted battles in which you barely do significant damage and they hold no challenge whatsoever but you have to sit out cooldowns to use abilities that bring you to the next damage treshold for a QTE to do the actual damage.

 

[Dirk Benedict]

I think I might try FF16 after I get my Huntress to 90 in poe2 and finish up TLOU2 on PC. It feels like it would be the perfect chill game if you wanna be lazy while getting bare minimum gameplay with immersive audio and graphics.

Normally I"d dunk on that with backboard breaking authority, but I'm getting old and sometimes I just like a game that is both engaging and relaxing.
Original SH2 is kind of like that.

 

[mdkirby]

Yerp. 30% of the main quest was arguably interesting, the rest tho, and all the side quests would have literally been better written by ai.

Edit: rebirth is also pretty fucking bad, and I'll never understand the praise it received.

 

[Myths]

Biggest letdown was thinking the theme was based on Salem Witch Trials from the first trailer, only to be told it was a GoT/AoT derivative.

 

[Minsc]

Yerp. 30% of the main quest was arguably interesting, the rest tho, and all the side quests would have literally been better written by ai.

Edit: rebirth is also pretty fucking bad, and I'll never understand the praise it received.

Rebirth is subjectively bad as an RPG, XVI is objectively bad as an RPG. That's the difference.

Once you don't care if the game is an RPG, all bets are off.