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[GateofD]

an rpg with no party where stats and equipment barely matter. I just stop thinking it's a ff and just think of it as a movie

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

Not only do the sidequests suck, they also give you the most useless rewards. Usually it's some crafting materials that you literally have thousands of already and nothing to spend them on.

You can practically see their thought process when they designed this turd.

"It's an RPG, we need some big areas to explore"

"We need give the player some reason to explore, let's dot the landscape with little shiny dots that give you 3 Gil"

"We need some content for the player to consume in these open zones, let's add lots of sidequests"

"We need some rewards for completing quests, let's throw in a totally pointless crafting system so we can have crafting materials for the quest rewards"

"Well shit, we need something to craft. Let's make a bunch of weapons/armor where each one is a tiny stat increase over the previous one, since we never planned for any kind of loot system or strength/weakness tradeoffs"


It totally feels like they just took some action game and then quickly cranked out a bunch of generic MMO filler so they could turn it into an "RPG"

 

[GinSama]

I didn't like at all the game, combat was super easy, at begining was so good, but after a few hours it doesn't matter I was just spamming square button , not that its bad but I was just bored with the lack of challenge ... And really bad RPG mechanics

Was expecting some nice exploration of towns and people, after one of the first cutscenes only to be put into a big empty areas that try to give us the illusion of a massive open world where actually doesn't matter just go forward.

Also the story it kept me interest the first few hours and that's it, I personally didn't like the characters at all.

 

[Hudo]

That's what their side games are for.

Their side game, Stranger of Paradise, is a far better action RPG than FF16, tho.

 

[Leopold]

I loved it, but I got really invested in it. I know it isn't a good FF, but for some reason it really caught me. Many shortcomings, obviously.

 

[SkylineRKR]

Their side game, Stranger of Paradise, is a far better action RPG than FF16, tho.

Gameplay, yes. It has tons of different weapons, a party, job system. Its pretty cool having the correct skills and magic at your disposal and nuke your enemies.

It looks hideous though. But okay, its a lower budget game. Square could incorporate this gameplay and equipment system in FFXVI and build a decent adventure around it.

 

[Hudo]

Gameplay, yes. It has tons of different weapons, a party, job system. Its pretty cool having the correct skills and magic at your disposal and nuke your enemies.

It looks hideous though. But okay, its a lower budget game. Square could incorporate this gameplay and equipment system in FFXVI and build a decent adventure around it.

FFXVI-II with those kinds of gameplay systems would be neat.

 

[mdkirby]

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.

I didn't really care about them being an RPG, action RPG, action game etc. I just wanted a great story with an interesting world that invited you to explore it, and rewarded you for doing so. They built large and somewhat asthetically interesting worlds in both games, but gave no reason to explore them, no intrigue, no mystery, no loot or pointless loot, incredibly boring characters, and dull side quests, they fleshed them out with various steps and dialogue, but they were so so so so dull. Rebirth in particular was also subject to the worst elements of Ubisoft open world design with incredibly frustrating map design and traversal mechanics. A lot of this was fixable, they build a great world and dropped the ball on so much critical stuff. For loot and exploration they needed some people from Elden ring, and quest design and story telling, I don't know where to start, half the time it felt like it was written by an intern, or programmers had thrown together a questline. People complain about ai not being a great writer or lacking soul, but I done and seen far far more interesting stuff from ai than the slop these supposed professional writers were paid for for these games.

 

[Hideous Snake]

I prefer it over XV but yeah, the game is just not it. Good boss fights and that's about it

 

[tamago84]

it was cringe. Trying to set mature tones was retarded as hell. Refunded after seeing the fake titan bird lady humping

 

[Minsc]

I didn't really care about them being an RPG, action RPG, action game etc. I just wanted a great story with an interesting world that invited you to explore it, and rewarded you for doing so. They built large and somewhat asthetically interesting worlds in both games, but gave no reason to explore them, no intrigue, no mystery, no loot or pointless loot, incredibly boring characters, and dull side quests, they fleshed them out with various steps and dialogue, but they were so so so so dull. Rebirth in particular was also subject to the worst elements of Ubisoft open world design with incredibly frustrating map design and traversal mechanics. A lot of this was fixable, they build a great world and dropped the ball on so much critical stuff. For loot and exploration they needed some people from Elden ring, and quest design and story telling, I don't know where to start, half the time it felt like it was written by an intern, or programmers had thrown together a questline. People complain about ai not being a great writer or lacking soul, but I done and seen far far more interesting stuff from ai than the slop these supposed professional writers were paid for for these games.

Yeah, just strong disagree then, the gameplay matters a lot to me, and Rebirth at least had a fun party/battle system that leaned into RPG elements, where that was missing entirely in XVI.

Exploring in Rebirth also yielded worthwhile rewards, like the story elements from the Gilgamesh, and also Queen's Blood, which was fantastic, possibly the best side game in a FF to date.

I also loved the end of the game, it felt a lot stronger than Rebirth. Exploring the Temple of the Ancients, the first dungeon that was actually fun and reminded me of a real FF dungeon. Plus getting the dark back stories to each party member at the end was great too.

Definitely felt the second half of Rebirth was super strong, the water chocobo was also fun to fly around with and explore. Where the 2nd half of XVI I was pulling out my hair for.

 

[mdkirby]

Yeah, just strong disagree then, the gameplay matters a lot to me, and Rebirth at least had a fun party/battle system that leaned into RPG elements, where that was missing entirely in XVI.

Exploring in Rebirth also yielded worthwhile rewards, like the story elements from the Gilgamesh, and also Queen's Blood, which was fantastic, possibly the best side game in a FF to date.

I also loved the end of the game, it felt a lot stronger than Rebirth. Exploring the Temple of the Ancients, the first dungeon that was actually fun and reminded me of a real FF dungeon. Plus getting the dark back stories to each party member at the end was great too.

Definitely felt the second half of Rebirth was super strong, the water chocobo was also fun to fly around with and explore. Where the 2nd half of XVI I was pulling out my hair for.

Never made it to the end, sank in a huge amount of time about 2/3rd through. Then kinda bailed out.

The sad thing was that your right, it did have the best combat/gameplay of them, and most the characters themselves were actually good/interesting and well designed. Some key story beats were good too. It was just everything in between that drained all the life out of it like a vampire.

 

[Valonquar]

I feel like if they had intentionally left out the accessories that made combat completely trivial and forced people to learn the controls it would have been a VERY different experience for a lot of folk. Still pretty easy, but not the cakewalk it was for most people that played it.

 

[stn]

I really enjoyed it but I get the criticism. I would have preferred if they removed 95% of the side quests and replaced them with a few deeper quests (instead of MMO-like fetch quests).

 

[MetalFreak]

I'm like 15 hours in and I'm enjoyed it.
The downside so far is that the side quests are a bit shit but the main story has kept me intrigued.

 

[Mercador]

Any tips for going forward? Is the later bosses worth the grind? I'm not even sure I'll ever finish it, that would be my first FF that I don't finish (it was the first I didn't purchase day 1 because it was on a console I don't have).

 

[Tqaulity]

I actually just yesterday finished my 100% completion of this including all 100% of trophies across the main game and both DLCs. For those that have played it, you know that includes 2 full playthroughs (including one on the Final Fantasy difficulty), obtaining every weapon, all marks, all Eikon abilities, all Chronolith challenges, a full Kairos Gate etc. All in all, I've put nearly 200 hours into the game which says it all. I was pretty high on the game from my initial playthrough but the longer I played on my second playthrough, the worst it felt to me. That said, my time for gaming is pretty limited and I don't have much patience to play though many current games that are bloated time sinks. The fact that I even willingly put that much time into this to complete it says A LOT.

The game is extremely flawed with very limited RPG elements and much removed from traditional FF games. The pacing is horribly slow at times, the animations janky throughout, environments felt pretty flat and lifeless, crafting system includes so many wasteful items, and the rewards for exploration and side quests are a joke to say the least. Yet, there is something about the gameplay that hooked me and I thoroughly enjoyed. Overall I give the game a 7/10 at best but I don't regret the time I put into it. That said, I have absolutely zero desire to put anymore time into it. I've had more than my share of FFXVI for a lifetime

 

[.Xeno]

I did enjoy FF16 platinumed it on PS5 but I would like to see them try a going back to a turn based battle system or try something similar to FF Rebirth combat.
I really missed the RPG elements and most of all the playable party members.