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[Sleepwalker]

So I can already tell I will want to play more final fantasy after this. This will be the first final fantasy I complete aside from tactics advance.

So... what should I play? I own FFVIIR but I bounced off it pretty quickly last time.

 

[GHG]

So I can already tell I will want to play more final fantasy after this. This will be the first final fantasy I complete aside from tactics advance.

So... what should I play? I own FFVIIR but I bounced off it pretty quickly last time.

Stranger of paradise seems like the next logical step, in particular if you like the combat system here.

 

[Dr. Claus]

So I can already tell I will want to play more final fantasy after this. This will be the first final fantasy I complete aside from tactics advance.

So... what should I play? I own FFVIIR but I bounced off it pretty quickly last time.

Strangers of Paradise is a NioH-like Final Fatnasy game based on a reimagining of the first game. Its great fun for what it is. Other than that, I would say FFX or the Pixel Remasters.

 

[Sleepwalker]

Stranger of paradise seems like the next logical step, in particular if you like the combat system here.

Strangers of Paradise is a NioH-like Final Fatnasy game based on a reimagining of the first game. Its great fun for what it is. Other than that, I would say FFX or the Pixel Remasters.

Looks like I get to kill Chaos next then

Are the pixel remasters available on PC? Might be nice on the deck.

 

[Lokaum D+]

I don’t know, I don’t have much issues with its side quests, especially compare to game like original Xenoblade that can give you 20 - 30 fetch quests at once and in original Wii release it wouldn't even track those quests.

Also after Clive inheriting Cid name he gonna need help put we short on men after what Titan did to last hideout.

So to me those side quests make sense.

I really dont think "The Cid" would do that kind of job since he delegate those little quests for other ppl as we can see he doing with Gav.

I dont mind side quest, but put something in there, i understand that Clive wants to help but c'mom put some work on that quests.

Deliver 3 apples ? Really ? No one else could do that ? I understood the quest but c'mon

 

[Northeastmonk]

So I can already tell I will want to play more final fantasy after this. This will be the first final fantasy I complete aside from tactics advance.

So... what should I play? I own FFVIIR but I bounced off it pretty quickly last time.

If you liked Tactics/Ivalice, play XII. It has hunts like XVI and it’s part of the Ivalice Collection. The dialogue and English dubbing is very good.

 

[Danjin44]

I really dont think "The Cid" would do that kind of job since he delegate those little quests for other ppl as we can see he doing with Gav.

I dont mind side quest, but put something in there, i understand that Clive wants to help but c'mom put some work on that quests.

Deliver 3 apples ? Really ? No one else could do that ? I understood the quest but c'mon

Cid himself wouldn't do it but i get the impression Clive is pushing himself little too hard since he feels guilty what happened to last hideout and after what when people blamed his for making their lives even harder.

 

[EviLore]

Difficulty is there, in NG+ and NG++

A huge design flaw. 50+ hours invested by the player to get to the game worth playing? Don't have time for that.

Side quests are the average side quest in any RPG, but it focuses on depth of character and lore building over prettifying a fetch quest/Travel quest like Elder Scrolls or Witcher 3 does.

MMO-style busy work, but without the MMO operant conditioning structures to keep you engaged. The progression/reward currencies in FFXVI are largely pointless, and there is no interesting storytelling, interesting characters, interesting player action or player choice, interesting enemies to defeat, or interesting rewards in all but a handful of the side quests here. And no, good RPGs aren't just "prettifying" fetch quests. They are creating mini scenarios that either take you on a separate adventure or tie into the world meaningfully. Effort is spent to craft them. No matter what form they take, whether they're mysterious and difficult-to-uncover threads in Elden Ring or massively branching scenarios catering to player choice in Fallout: New Vegas or compelling stories that leverage amazing worldbuilding in Witcher 3 or epic journeys to the edge of the world in Elder Scrolls or loyalty missions in Mass Effect 2 or any of dozens of other examples, good side quests operate in an entirely different universe of design than XVI's bullshit waste of time MMO fetch quests.

 

[BlitzerRadic]

Got the game about 10-15 hours in if I gave the game a rating right now it would be between a 7.5-8.0.

Combat trash mobs/boss fights: mostly good/decent still have no idea why the game doesn't give you any other launchers outside of the hold Square for charge flame move, the phoenix upper cut and the garuda cyclone glade enemies have some what bloated health as compared to the demo.

Ok the game doesnt really do a good job of explaining but there more ways to launch besides the stuff you mentioned lol.

Torgal, Aerial burning strike, charged shot can all launch too and you can even chain them together to get some pretty ridiculous heights.

 

[Danjin44]

MMO-style busy work, but without the MMO operant conditioning structures to keep you engaged. The progression/reward currencies in FFXVI are largely pointless, and there is no interesting storytelling, interesting characters, interesting player action or player choice, interesting enemies to defeat, or interesting rewards in all but a handful of the side quests here. And no, good RPGs aren't just "prettifying" fetch quests. They are creating mini scenarios that either take you on a separate adventure or tie into the world meaningfully. Effort is spent to craft them. No matter what form they take, whether they're mysterious and difficult-to-uncover threads in Elden Ring or massively branching scenarios catering to player choice in Fallout: New Vegas or compelling stories that leverage amazing worldbuilding in Witcher 3 or epic journeys to the edge of the world in Elder Scrolls or loyalty missions in Mass Effect 2 or any of dozens of other examples, good side quests operate in an entirely different universe of design than XVI's bullshit waste of time MMO fetch quests.

Most of your complain about side quests can also applied in games like Dragon Quest XI and yet that game is also very much loved.

Also I love Elden Ring and it has interesting lore but if you tell me I actually care about any of its character I would say I dont, since most of the NPC do nothing more than lore dump, this is exactly why Sekiro is my favourite FROM because it has better characters compare to FROM's other Souls games.

Also I never ever never want this game be like Witcher 3 or any other WRPGs, in my opinion most of them have horrible and janky combat system and RPG mechanics, if thats "standard" for RPGs, then I dont want it.

 

[Myths]

It’s amazing how (endgame stuff ahead)…

Spoiler

The interdimensional Rift fits in quite well with their drawn inspiration of FFV. Worth noting more is the Floating Crystal spawning shortly after the events with Ultima - a nod mostly likely to FFIII where the Surface World suffers from the Flood of Darkness (the Blight in XVI). At first I thought Waloed would be another Floating Continent (FFIII) but instead it ended up being encased in Crystal.

Have to love the classic endgame where the bad guy idles in their abode waiting for the party.

 

[EviLore]

Most of your complain about side quests can also applied in games like Dragon Quest XI and yet that game is also very much loved.

Also I love Elden Ring and it has interesting lore but if you tell me I actually care about any of its character I would say I dont, sine most of the NPC do nothing more than lore dump, this is exactly why Sekiro is my favourite FROM because it has better characters compare to FROM's other Souls games.

Also I never ever never want this game be like Witcher 3 or any other WRPGs, in my opinion most of them have horrible and janky combat system and RPG mechanics, if thats "standard" for RPGs, then I dont want it.

Haven't played DQXI so I can't comment on that part. It's totally fair to not want JRPGs to be like western RPGs though. But a lot of the side content here has design language taken from MMOs rather than JRPGs. Personally I don't want MMOs in my life in any capacity--they don't respect your time and aim to addict you and draw things out as thinly as possible to stretch your hours played.

Anyway, impressions point to things generally getting better later on so I'll try to get some more time in with XVI before commenting further.

 

[Pasta la Vista]

Strangers of Paradise is a NioH-like Final Fatnasy game based on a reimagining of the first game. Its great fun for what it is. Other than that, I would say FFX or the Pixel Remasters.

I'm going to give that game a shot eventually, I got real tired of the loot grind in NioH towards the end though.

 

[Danjin44]

Haven't played DQXI so I can't comment on that part. It's totally fair to not want JRPGs to be like western RPGs though. But a lot of the side content here has design language taken from MMOs rather than JRPGs. Personally I don't want MMOs in my life in any capacity--they don't respect your time and aim to addict you and draw things out as thinly as possible to stretch your hours played.

The way I see it games like Wtcher or most Bethesda games can have most involved side quests but if I'm not enjoying act playing them because I hate combat system then I'm not gonna enjoy that game regardless.

I played LOTs of JRPG and the reason I'm not bothered by side quests because most JRPGs have this type of side quests, Dragon Quest has them, Xenoblade games has them heck even Persona 5 has them (which you get from text massage). But when comes to moment to moment gameplay and combat I can easily say I enjoy JRPG way more than WRPG.

 

[TheKremlinBossMan]

A huge design flaw. 50+ hours invested by the player to get to the game worth playing? Don't have time for that.

MMO-style busy work, but without the MMO operant conditioning structures to keep you engaged. The progression/reward currencies in FFXVI are largely pointless, and there is no interesting storytelling, interesting characters, interesting player action or player choice, interesting enemies to defeat, or interesting rewards in all but a handful of the side quests here. And no, good RPGs aren't just "prettifying" fetch quests. They are creating mini scenarios that either take you on a separate adventure or tie into the world meaningfully. Effort is spent to craft them. No matter what form they take, whether they're mysterious and difficult-to-uncover threads in Elden Ring or massively branching scenarios catering to player choice in Fallout: New Vegas or compelling stories that leverage amazing worldbuilding in Witcher 3 or epic journeys to the edge of the world in Elder Scrolls or loyalty missions in Mass Effect 2 or any of dozens of other examples, good side quests operate in an entirely different universe of design than XVI's bullshit waste of time MMO fetch quests.

Not sure how far into the game you are but all of this is addressed as you progress through the game. All of it.

 

[Dynasty8]

What standards?

I’ll bite, what RPG does it better?

Since you're asking about the "standards", I'm going to compare games weather you guys like it not. Here are some examples where the game can improve by taking inspiration from other games.

Level Design - FFXVI's dungeon consist of going in a straight line with no reason to go off the beaten path, no reason to explore and provides no tension or threat. Take the first "dungeon" of Caer Norvent where you fight Benedikta. The boss fight itself is very fun and epic, loved it...but everything leading to that is a bore. You run into easy mobs that you can one shot with endless Eikon abilities and go to the next door. Run up some stairs, then another door. Another room full of easy mobs, then another door. Nothing to explore, all doors are locked, no danger lurking anywhere, or secret items to discover, cool things to encourage you to stray off to another path. And this is where most people will get triggered....are you ready? Let's compare this first dungeon to Stormveil Castle, Elden Ring's first real dungeon. I can already feel the rage of people saying "yOu sHouLdn't bE coMParInG da 2 gAmezz!!!11". Very different games, I know, but XVI could do some stuff similar in a more grounded way to make it more exciting. Hopefully some of us can at least agree on that. A cool castle with different routes you can take, cool secrets to discover, hard enemies and mid bosses to find deep below the dungeon for example that you can fight now or come back to later, rewarding loot to find in well hidden places, shortcuts to unlock instead of the game holding your hand with endless checkpoints.

World / Exploration - Here one example: Star Wars Jedi Survivor that came out 2 months ago... Koboh was fun to explore and was NOT open world. You can leave the small town, find a distant hidden cave, ruins, mines enemy bases, etc enemies to fight, loot to collect and more. There would also be NPC's you find randomly (not constant waypoints on map) that would give you better and more interesting side quests, which afterwards you can recruit back to your base. Some of the explorable hidden areas required light puzzle solving as well to take a break from all the action and cutscenes. Again, I am not asking for open world, just a larger explorable zone with some more innovation than what we got here. XVI's "world" feels very miniscule for such an amazing world (storywise) that they built here. It would have been awesome to see more interesting aspects of Rosaria, Sanbreque, Dhalmekia and more. As it currently stands, it feels like the world map is just a stage selector from an action game.

Side Quests/Mini Games, etc - FF7's Gold Saucer was amazing back in the day... chocobo races, FF8's triple Triad card game was awesome and collecting new cards felt rewarding, FFX's Blitzball also had me playing for hours and my personal favorite, Gwent from Witcher 3. But those are just mini games and side distractions, but even certain side quests are just much better done in these other games. The FF14 DNA is very present in 16's side quests. It really is majority fetch quests with some of them having interesting story pieces to them. For example on the ones you do for Otto later on was actually very interesting and helped build his character a bit more. Some other ones earlier on in Sanbreque with the psycho little girl Lisette was also interesting storywise...but all it turned out to be was go to this blatant waypoint we provided to you. Your reward? Here's some Gil and a Sharp Fang crafting item you are NEVER going to use. It just doesn't feel rewarding at all. The side content that I do enjoy are the hunts, HOWEVER, with the game being as easy as it is, those have become even a push over and cakewalk too. I did a hunt where I was 6 levels below the boss and had half the amount of potions and still easily won that fight on my first try.

RPG Depth - It's just crazy to me that franchises like God of War and Assassins' Creed feel more like an RPG than a mainline Final Fantasy game. XVI has some of the best uses of elements with the Eikons, yet they don't mean shit. As far back as I can remember, the Bomb enemies in FF games had elemental weaknesses and would get health when being attacked by fire and Malboros (morbols) would cause status effects that would require different play styles, builds, items, etc. Weapons and armor in previous games were also more meaningful with extra/different Materia slots in FF7 and permanent abilities you can learn in FF9. Other games added intrinsic traits and different elements, stat buffs, etc. None of that really exists here, there's really no incentive here other than a small percentage bump for a rather easy game. XVI feels very shallow with no depth. People can use the excuse "appealing to the masses" as much as they want, but this is NOT an "evolution", it's simply dumbing down the game.


And before anyone thinks I am completely hating on the game, this franchise is my favorite gaming franchise ever. Story and characters in XVI are some of my favorite and I am enjoying that aspect. Even with the change to a more action based combat is totally fine for me, I never had no issue with that. It's the rest of the stuff I listed there that is seriously lacking. If people want to pretend that FFXVI has good level design, more power to you....

 

[EviLore]

Not sure how far into the game you are but all of this is addressed as you progress through the game. All of it.

Shortly after 4 icons.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

A huge design flaw. 50+ hours invested by the player to get to the game worth playing? Don't have time for that.

MMO-style busy work, but without the MMO operant conditioning structures to keep you engaged. The progression/reward currencies in FFXVI are largely pointless, and there is no interesting storytelling, interesting characters, interesting player action or player choice, interesting enemies to defeat, or interesting rewards in all but a handful of the side quests here. And no, good RPGs aren't just "prettifying" fetch quests. They are creating mini scenarios that either take you on a separate adventure or tie into the world meaningfully. Effort is spent to craft them. No matter what form they take, whether they're mysterious and difficult-to-uncover threads in Elden Ring or massively branching scenarios catering to player choice in Fallout: New Vegas or compelling stories that leverage amazing worldbuilding in Witcher 3 or epic journeys to the edge of the world in Elder Scrolls or loyalty missions in Mass Effect 2 or any of dozens of other examples, good side quests operate in an entirely different universe of design than XVI's bullshit waste of time MMO fetch quests.

A lot of the complaints about side content can generally apply to most games, even ones heralded as some of the best titles this gen by metacritic. I'm trying to think to a game that had meaningful side content equivalent to what you would get in a single player mission and the only games that come to mind may be God of War Ragnarok (that huge end game level was probably the best side content in any game I've experienced), and the Witcher (not for gameplay, but for story engagement).

Unfortunately, the progression/reward currencies flaw also extends to most games (inclusive of titles like ToTK). Souls games do it pretty well and I consider those to be top tier in that regard (though, there's also a LOT of garbage you can churn through such as the dungeons in ER had pretty abysmal rewards for how frequent they were). I consider it a flaw of FFXVI for sure, but one that I think isn't too dissimilar from other popular titles and I can't think of too many titles that truly stand out in this regard. I may have to go back to ancient JRPGs for some of this.

But strong disagree on some of the other points being. The storytelling is some of the best in any modern title I've played in the last decade, the characters are all quite interesting with the exception of maybe Jill (Clive, Cid, Joshua, Elwin, Anabella, etc are all fantastic), and the enemies have all been very interesting/engaging and feature some of the best designs in gaming right next to Souls titles. Player choice is more of a personal taste; frankly, I think choice waters down the experience with little consequence in general and prefer a more directed approach.

Level Design - FFXVI's dungeon consist of going in a straight line with no reason to go off the beaten path

This is typical of JRPGs. I concede that this could be improved, and I'm thinking of how awesome it would be to have FFXVI's battle system in an ER open world with intricate dungeon like level design. That would be pretty rad. But outside of Souls games, level design in MOST games leaves a LOT to be desired.

I'm going to skip commenting on Open World, because it's tied into level design. And I've already commented on side stuff above, so no need to clarify.

RPG Depth - It's just crazy to me that franchises like God of War and Assassins' Creed feel more like an RPG than a mainline Final Fantasy game.

This is a tradeoff though. The game trades STAT DEPTH with MECHANICAL DEPTH. It's a different approach. God of War has good combat, but Assasin's Creed has ABYSMAL combat. The core gameplay itself NEEDS to be deep and satisfying. Stat manipulation/builds isn't necessary like core mechanics are. And instead of tweaking your stats, this game forces you to experiment and tweak your abilities and playstyle.

Could it integrate more stats and build variety? Certainly, but it may have been at the expense of a cohesive combat system. I'd argue that peak Souls combat is Bloodborne, a game that had a fairly narrow range in comparison to Elden Ring. Eventually if you veer too far into the build variety game, you risk breaking the game entirely and it's extremely difficult to balance well.

I guess bottom line is that there really isn't any "standard" being set here by certain games. They all do certain things well, and have some pros/cons to their approach. What FFXVI sets to achieve with storytelling, set pieces, characters, enemies/bosses, and combat variety it absolutely knocks it out of the park. For some people that's what they want. For others they may want more systems to play around with and I totally get that, but I don't see that as a flaw insomuch as it's a direct design choice.

 

[ChiefDada]

Pretty cool how the desert environment constantly switches from shade to bright as the sun goes in and out of the clouds. Nice touch.

 

[SaniOYOYOY]

So I can already tell I will want to play more final fantasy after this. This will be the first final fantasy I complete aside from tactics advance.

So... what should I play? I own FFVIIR but I bounced off it pretty quickly last time.

13

 

[Meicyn]

I’ll be frank, the game has gotten boring for me. I love the combat, but the story and characters are why I’m here. The pickpockets/get-the-pass-back arc was particularly dreadful, but now, after the hilariously anime Gogeta versus Bahamut fight, it’s back to being mundane again.

The highs are awesome, but the lows are really bad. I went from long stretches of nonstop playing to “eh, I’ll pick it up again tomorrow” because I am no longer as invested. I said it before and I’ll say it again. The game fell off big time the moment Cid died. There hasn’t been a strong character equivalent to fill in the gap and it’s hurting the game. I just got Joshua back and he sure as shit isn’t gonna step up. I literally turned the game off for the night after Clive snapped at him for remarking that this was the first time the four of them were together in 18 years. Was completely out of character for Clive and made zero sense given how obsessed he was with his brother, and how he has never snapped like that to anyone he cares for. I don’t understand what purpose that was supposed to serve.

 

[Hestar69]

man i want to enjoy the game but it seems to run sluggish and the motion blur legit gives me motion sickness. why isn't the patch out to turn MB off out yet

 

[Valonquar]

New Game + \ Final Fantasy mode is NOT harder to be honest. It's the standard "let's give enemies a billion HP and call it hard" type of hard. Got about 75% through NG+ today blasting enemies with Zantetsuken like it was going out of style.

 

[Dr. Claus]

New Game + \ Final Fantasy mode is NOT harder to be honest. It's the standard "let's give enemies a billion HP and call it hard" type of hard. Got about 75% through NG+ today blasting enemies with Zantetsuken like it was going out of style.

Harder enemies in new locations, new moves during boss fights, and they are much more aggressive. This is a noticeable step up in difficulty from the base mode.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

RPG Depth - It's just crazy to me that franchises like God of War and Assassins' Creed feel more like an RPG than a mainline Final Fantasy game. XVI has some of the best uses of elements with the Eikons, yet they don't mean shit. As far back as I can remember, the Bomb enemies in FF games had elemental weaknesses and would get health when being attacked by fire and Malboros (morbols) would cause status effects that would require different play styles, builds, items, etc. Weapons and armor in previous games were also more meaningful with extra/different Materia slots in FF7 and permanent abilities you can learn in FF9. Other games added intrinsic traits and different elements, stat buffs, etc. None of that really exists here, there's really no incentive here other than a small percentage bump for a rather easy game. XVI feels very shallow with no depth. People can use the excuse "appealing to the masses" as much as they want, but this is NOT an "evolution", it's simply dumbing down the game.

This is one thing that does bother me for sure - it doesn't seem to matter what element of magic I use against the bombs for example, fire seems to do the same as air, etc... just odd choice.

 

[CrustyBritches]

Royal Meadows outside of North Reach is probably the most expansive area for exploration I've come across so far. Some of these quests are generic, but some are really great. I did Lisette's quest and it had a nice twist. "She's not dead, she just turned into a rock."

 

[MISTER INVEIGLER]

especially when they do NG+ Final Fantasy mode.

I'm done with game, I'm in new game+ and FF mode.

If you like more sponge enemies, I guess it's good.

Look, my list of negatives for this game is so large, but I don't want to discuss too much negativity while others are still enjoying the game. I'll come back here give my final thoughts once more people finish the game.

 

[Dr. Claus]

I'm done with game, I'm in new game+ and FF mode.

If you like more sponge enemies, I guess it's good.

Look, my list of negatives for this game is so large, but I don't want to discuss too much negativity while others are still enjoying the game. I'll come back here give my final thoughts once more people finish the game.

They really aren't though. You should have enough power to knock them out quickly as in Normal, assuming you know how to actively use your abilities, maximize stagger damage, and keep up the DPS.

 

[SaniOYOYOY]

I think it’ll be looked upon even more favorably after the honeymoon phase

The 'this is my first ff' crowd will be there and they will look at 16 more fondly than some of us here looking at 6/7/8/9

 

[Northeastmonk]

Not looking to get spoiled, but does this have a secret optional super boss?

I’ve skipped a bunch of conversations that didn’t feel like amounted to anything really. I don’t honestly feel like I missed much. I can always read the summary later.

 

[jorgejjvr]

Loving ff16, just wish i could turn off motion blur, its nauseating. My screen would also flicker with this game, had to turn VRR off. Hoping a patch solve those 2 things

 

[iorek21]

Is it me or Hugo Kupka draws some inspiration from Thanos?

Spoiler

He’s madly in love with someone, like comic Thanos; in Rosaria he waits for Clive while sitting in the stairs and not the throne (Thanos does this in Infinity War); some of his attacks project fists that vaguely resembles the Infinity Gauntlet. Also, he looks like Thanos, obviously.

 

[Northeastmonk]

Is it me or Hugo Kupka draws some inspiration from Thanos?

Spoiler

He’s madly in love with someone, like comic Thanos; in Rosaria he waits for Clive while sitting in the stairs and not the throne (Thanos does this in Infinity War); some of his attacks project fists that vaguely resembles the Infinity Gauntlet. Also, he looks like Thanos, obviously.

He reminded me of Sandman from the Spider-Man 2 movie.

 

[rofif]

In GAF many people consider Witcher 3 as “one of the best RPG” and yet in my opinion it has one of the worst combat system I ever seen in RPG……people have different taste.

If that’s so called “standard” for good RPG then no thank you.

By some standards, rpg must have terrible but “tactical” combat and a shitton of items.
Ff games rarely have that many items or dialogue options/choices. These do not follow the usual rpg tropes and do their own thing.

 

[FoxMcChief]

Fuck me! Deleting and reinstalling didn’t get rid of the high pitch noises.

 

[MISTER INVEIGLER]

They really aren't though. You should have enough power to knock them out quickly as in Normal, assuming you know how to actively use your abilities, maximize stagger damage, and keep up the DPS.

I'm early new game+ FF mode, but so far it's just level scaling. I still haven't felt threaten by anything in the game and I rarely have to use a potion.

 

[rofif]

Fuck me! Deleting and reinstalling didn’t get rid of the high pitch noises.

It is strange. I don’t have the issue.
Have you tried changing ps5 audio settings?
I use linear pcm and av amplifier or whatever as audio device type even though Injust use tv speakers

 

[Raven117]

Pieeeerreeee Gaaaaasssslllllyyyyy

(Let’s see who’s has other interests)

 

[rofif]

The game is making a mess out of my right stick drift. I love that there are no dead zones and game is very responsive to control but my launch controller is showing signs of very tiny drift. Enough to cause movement. I would love to get new controller but I’ve heard the white controllers don’t have new thicker r2 springs?

 

[samoilaaa]

Since you're asking about the "standards", I'm going to compare games weather you guys like it not. Here are some examples where the game can improve by taking inspiration from other games.

Level Design - FFXVI's dungeon consist of going in a straight line with no reason to go off the beaten path, no reason to explore and provides no tension or threat. Take the first "dungeon" of Caer Norvent where you fight Benedikta. The boss fight itself is very fun and epic, loved it...but everything leading to that is a bore. You run into easy mobs that you can one shot with endless Eikon abilities and go to the next door. Run up some stairs, then another door. Another room full of easy mobs, then another door. Nothing to explore, all doors are locked, no danger lurking anywhere, or secret items to discover, cool things to encourage you to stray off to another path. And this is where most people will get triggered....are you ready? Let's compare this first dungeon to Stormveil Castle, Elden Ring's first real dungeon. I can already feel the rage of people saying "yOu sHouLdn't bE coMParInG da 2 gAmezz!!!11". Very different games, I know, but XVI could do some stuff similar in a more grounded way to make it more exciting. Hopefully some of us can at least agree on that. A cool castle with different routes you can take, cool secrets to discover, hard enemies and mid bosses to find deep below the dungeon for example that you can fight now or come back to later, rewarding loot to find in well hidden places, shortcuts to unlock instead of the game holding your hand with endless checkpoints.

World / Exploration - Here one example: Star Wars Jedi Survivor that came out 2 months ago... Koboh was fun to explore and was NOT open world. You can leave the small town, find a distant hidden cave, ruins, mines enemy bases, etc enemies to fight, loot to collect and more. There would also be NPC's you find randomly (not constant waypoints on map) that would give you better and more interesting side quests, which afterwards you can recruit back to your base. Some of the explorable hidden areas required light puzzle solving as well to take a break from all the action and cutscenes. Again, I am not asking for open world, just a larger explorable zone with some more innovation than what we got here. XVI's "world" feels very miniscule for such an amazing world (storywise) that they built here. It would have been awesome to see more interesting aspects of Rosaria, Sanbreque, Dhalmekia and more. As it currently stands, it feels like the world map is just a stage selector from an action game.

Side Quests/Mini Games, etc - FF7's Gold Saucer was amazing back in the day... chocobo races, FF8's triple Triad card game was awesome and collecting new cards felt rewarding, FFX's Blitzball also had me playing for hours and my personal favorite, Gwent from Witcher 3. But those are just mini games and side distractions, but even certain side quests are just much better done in these other games. The FF14 DNA is very present in 16's side quests. It really is majority fetch quests with some of them having interesting story pieces to them. For example on the ones you do for Otto later on was actually very interesting and helped build his character a bit more. Some other ones earlier on in Sanbreque with the psycho little girl Lisette was also interesting storywise...but all it turned out to be was go to this blatant waypoint we provided to you. Your reward? Here's some Gil and a Sharp Fang crafting item you are NEVER going to use. It just doesn't feel rewarding at all. The side content that I do enjoy are the hunts, HOWEVER, with the game being as easy as it is, those have become even a push over and cakewalk too. I did a hunt where I was 6 levels below the boss and had half the amount of potions and still easily won that fight on my first try.

RPG Depth - It's just crazy to me that franchises like God of War and Assassins' Creed feel more like an RPG than a mainline Final Fantasy game. XVI has some of the best uses of elements with the Eikons, yet they don't mean shit. As far back as I can remember, the Bomb enemies in FF games had elemental weaknesses and would get health when being attacked by fire and Malboros (morbols) would cause status effects that would require different play styles, builds, items, etc. Weapons and armor in previous games were also more meaningful with extra/different Materia slots in FF7 and permanent abilities you can learn in FF9. Other games added intrinsic traits and different elements, stat buffs, etc. None of that really exists here, there's really no incentive here other than a small percentage bump for a rather easy game. XVI feels very shallow with no depth. People can use the excuse "appealing to the masses" as much as they want, but this is NOT an "evolution", it's simply dumbing down the game.


And before anyone thinks I am completely hating on the game, this franchise is my favorite gaming franchise ever. Story and characters in XVI are some of my favorite and I am enjoying that aspect. Even with the change to a more action based combat is totally fine for me, I never had no issue with that. It's the rest of the stuff I listed there that is seriously lacking. If people want to pretend that FFXVI has good level design, more power to you....

you are totally right , once again gamers are just mesmerized by beautiful cutscenes and flashy combat and fail to see that the game has no depth , the story is great but thats about it

 

[Palabragrís]

These kind of commercials have always made me less interested in the product they are adverticing. I remember them doing the same thing with XIII.
Does anybody feel enticed to buy something after an ad like this one? And I'm asking in general, not just about FFXVI.

 

[samoilaaa]

In GAF many people consider Witcher 3 as “one of the best RPG” and yet in my opinion it has one of the worst combat system I ever seen in RPG……people have different taste.

If that’s so called “standard” for good RPG then no thank you.

witcher 3 is my fav game of all time and not even i dont consider it to be a proper rpg , there are no classes , there are no stats , there are no different meaningful builds ( sure you can put some points in different signs but its not much ) , everytime you play the same character , it has leveling and a little bit of choice and consequence so its considered an rpg

compare witcher 3 or final fantasy 16 to games like Wasteland 3 , divinity original sin 2 , pillars of eternity , baldurs gate 3 and see the difference between a proper rpg and an action adventure game

 

[Doomtrain]

I'm gonna go against the grain and say that I'm really disappointed in this game, and my disappointment is only growing worse the deeper in I get.

For the record, one more time: I've played every mainline FF, largely in order of release, and I don't have an issue with the series changing and evolving. It's what FF does. And because of that, not every entry is going to resonate with everyone. I'm glad most people here are digging this one, but I don't think it's doing it for me. There are so many things that aren't working for me.

The world feels so empty. I did the desert area last night, and I made it a point to explore every nook and cranny of the field. My efforts yielded exactly nothing interesting of note. Then I got to the desert city, and the same thing happened. No good treasure, no merchants selling new gear, nothing interesting to engage with outside of a couple of bland sidequests that yielded negligible rewards.

The Eikon fights feel like hollow spectacle. These are so scripted that I'd barely call them gameplay. They're a weird mashup of QTE's, button-mashing, cinematics, and sluggish combat where the numbers get fudged under the hood to make sure no one gets left behind. I think they're incredibly tedious.

Even the story and characters aren't doing much for me. Everything feels so joyless. I do like that Clive's visual design is a little older and more adult than the typical pretty-boy teen FF protagonist, but personality wise, he's pretty one-note. Jill is even worse. I did enjoy a lot of Cid's dialogue, so it's not a total loss.

I'm not even really liking the combat anymore. It can be satisfying in the moment -- lining up a parry or a precision dodge feels great, and there's definitely something satisfying about staggering a boss and going to town on it. I just don't feel like I'm making very many interesting decisions. None of the enemies require distinct strategies. None of my gear matters. I never feel like I'm working towards anything with my abilities or my character build.

It feels like such a huge missed opportunity. Stranger of Paradise, a spinoff game that wasn't even made by Square, did Final Fantasy as a character action game just last year, and it managed to do it while incorporating a job system, a full party of characters, and a vastly more complex gear system. Alongside FFVII Remake, it's obvious that FF can have a strong focus on action without sacrificing its RPG depth, so I'm not sure why they felt the need to over-streamline things so much here.

Oh well. I'll keep pushing through because I'm a huge sucker for FF. As always, I'm open to changing my mind and I genuinely hope I do. I'm just starting to think maybe this one isn't for me.

 

[Touch fuzZy. get BizZay]

Alternate thread title

"I need your clothes, your boots, and your FFXIII Shiva that can turn into a motorcycle"

 

[CrustyBritches]

Just finished the mission at Drakes Head. The battle against Typhon was fucking awesome. Love the look of the Demon Wall spell. The music was great, too.

 

[Zheph]

Just finished the mission at Drakes Head. The battle against Typhon[\ISPOILER] was fucking awesome. Love the look of the Demon Wall[\ISPOILER] spell and the music was great.

I am always happy to see the Demon Wall in any FF, it looked pretty good there

(how do you guys just blur text instead of having the SPOILER button showing?)

 

[Pasta la Vista]

Just started trying the Chronolith trials today, having lots of fun with those.

 

[CrustyBritches]

I am always happy to see

Spoiler

the Demon Wall

in any FF, it looked pretty good there

(how do you guys just blur text instead of having the SPOILER button showing?)

Inline spoiler tags. Inside of “[ ]” brackets you put “ISPOILER” before and inside “[ ]” brackets you put “/ISPOILER” after.

I commonly get the forward slash and back slash mixed up and since I’m too lazy to hit preview it messes it up.

 

[Zheph]

Spoiler around Drake's Spine (late game)
Odin's skills are insane, I am spamming Zantetsuken 5 Bahamut had nice skills but this is different sauce..!

 

[Yoshichan]

Fuck me! Deleting and reinstalling didn’t get rid of the high pitch noises.

Are you talking about the sounds that come when you’re playing with Jill?