That downtime is what sinks the game though. No I'm not advocating for constant nonstop spectacle and action. But even downtime should be fun. And the downtime in FFXVI is very bad. The side quests are terrible, there's WAY too much talking, there's nothing to explore and discover in the world, the crafting system is very barebones, and there are no minigames. What makes it worse is the downtime usually lasts 3-5 hours, and much of it is required to progress the story.
8 hours of this game is incredible. There are 10/10 moments. But between those 10/10 moments are extremely boring sections that drag on and on. By comparison FFX had lots of downtime and slow sections compared to the big set pieces. But at no point does FFX waste its time. Every moment is either enriching the characters you're traveling with, or expanding the world and its lore. And it does it in far less time than XVI. All those moments have those characters in new and interesting locations, meeting new people, and teaching you more about Spira. FFXVI takes the opposite approach where instead of "less is more", they go with "more is more." And unfortunately the writing isn't good enough to justify the excessive dialogue. Its downtime moments are all the same. It's just Clive statically standing in front of an NPC while the camera keeps switching between the same two angles of the characters, as they talk on and on and on.