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FINAL FANTASY XVI |OT| Ifrit Bleeds We Can Kill It

Are you playing in Quality or Performance mode?

  • Quality

    Votes: 274 59.8%
  • Performance

    Votes: 184 40.2%

  • Total voters
    458

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Like I said, I haven’t unlocked the hunts yet, and I figured that would help some. The side quests in the hideout have been pretty terrible though.
To me its no different any other JRPGs I played, they are some good quests and they some boring ones....in fact the first quests you do in Dragon Quests XI is to find a cat, which you also do in FFVIIR.

FFXVI has its own twist on it.
 
So far I haven't really noticed pacing issues too much. Not sure how far I am

I'm on my way to assassinate Kupka after cutting off the fucker's hands

But it's been alright so far in terms. I think the larger problem is that the "open" areas are kind of generic compared to the scripted areas event areas. You have generic swamp area. generic forest / meadow area and generic desert area.
You're probably 50% done, give or take.
 

FoxMcChief

Gold Member
To me its no different any other JRPGs I played, they are some good quests and they some boring ones....in fact the first quests you do in Dragon Quests XI is to find a cat, which you also do in FFVIIR.

FFXVI has its own twist on it.
I don’t play too many JRPG’s these days, outside of Persona and SMT. Where’s there’s plenty to do. Dragon Quest never did much for me and I always drop off super quick. FF15 was good at pacing in my opinion. Tons of stuff to fill in the down times. Don’t knock fishing as a side thing.
 

gow3isben

Member
What skills are you using?
I got half that if I remember correctly, lol and I was proud of those rookie numbers.
Same level or close.

Skills I am using are:
Phoenix: Rising Flames (just love this, lol), Pile Drive (Rahmu)
Titan: Wind-up, Upheaval
Odin: Mesmerize (Shiva), Heaven's Cloud

I was level 30 or something until I figured out that you could use other Eikon skills with different Eikons, haha.

So when the enemy is close to stagger I put on the fire skill that has many tiny flames circling you as they each add to the multiplier
I have ignition also from flame. I have windup from Rock. I have Bahamut's beam. I have the extra powerful thunder attack. And I have the level 5 Odin attack already lined up ready to use. I do windup and ignition first and then bahamut's beam as they are multi-hit and the thunder and Odin attacks aren't as many hits but they do a lot of single damage with the 1.5 hit multiplier.
 

Raonak

Banned
I thought Titan would be the peak of the game. I didn't think they could top that level of pure insanity.
....
...
...
I gotta take it back.
...
I just finished bahamut and holy fucking fuck. That was the most amazing sequence over ever seen in a game. I can't really describe it. The graphics, characters, the setting, the music, the pure hype of a battle, the choreography, the way they just keep ramping the stakes higher and higher. And the plot twists in the story during, before and after the fight. Wow wow wow 😳

WOW. Absolute fucking masterpiece. I don't know how you could execute that whole chapter any better. Now I'm 100% sure they can't top that.

I'm shocked how fucking good these eikon fights look. Like seriously they fully look like full blown CGI.

Like I'm not even upset that the game has downtime when the highs are this fucking high.
 
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DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
I think I'm at least close-ish to the end. I think I'm close to fighting Odin I'm in the tower part, at the top of it.

I think I'm far enough in to give a mostly full opinion on the game. I've settled on that it's a well made game that I don't like very much. I liked FF15 more than this and I wasn't huge on FF15. This just isn't my kind of game. I've found it a total bore to play for everything aside from the epic end of chapter sequences, and even some of those I find bogged down by QTE stuff at times. I'm just trying to get through to the end, I started skipping all non main story dialogue and skipping all non main story cutscenes.

But I'm happy others are liking it, it just isn't for me at all really. But it did get me chomping at the bit to dive into a more traditional style RPG after this.
 
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KimDongHwan

Member
I just noticed that The Witcher 3 was released on 2015! I think FF16 would have benefitted a lot by reducing the number of sidequest and just using the budget to create 4-5 super good Witcher style sidequests.
 

SCB3

Member
I just noticed that The Witcher 3 was released on 2015! I think FF16 would have benefitted a lot by reducing the number of sidequest and just using the budget to create 4-5 super good Witcher style sidequests.
I agree the Witcher 3 was a perfect length and everything you did felt meaningful

My biggest issue here is the story, I'm not sure why but the story is not sticking with me a lot outside of the main big Missions, if it had been more of them, then it'd flow a lot better than it does currently

I'm not saying its a bad game, far from it, but a bit of tightening up in some areas would benefit it greatly
 

Madflavor

Member
Just to be clear on where I'm coming from, having downtime in an RPG is absolutely necessary. You can't have nonstop excitement and action because it becomes tiresome and you grow numb to it. Having slower moments where you can take a breather, take in the story, setting and characters, is an important part to any good narrative. The issue comes from how FFXVI handles the downtime.

You spend much of your downtime in FFXVI going back to the Hideaway, talking to NPC after NPC after NPC, going to a location on the map, talking to NPC after NPC after NPC, go kill something, return to Hideaway for more talking, so on so forth. Most of these cutscenes during this time are handled the same way. Clive and the NPC stand statically in front of each other, and exchange long winded dialogue. You do this for about 3-5 hours depending, before you get to the next heavy story section of the game. This is where higher quality cutscenes kick in with good camerawork, directing, facial and body animations. A dungeon is involved, and it all leads to a few boss fights including a big set piece fight. After this, you repeat the same exact cycle of downtime, with the same approach to how it's executed. The high octane action and set pieces of FFXVI are on the complete opposite end of the spectrum of the very slow and heavy dialogue sections of the Main Story. To add, let's say you need a break from all the talking and just want to explore. Exploration is very limited, there's not much to do outside of Sidequests which take the same approach to the Main Story downtime, and you can only unlock 2-3 Hunts at a time by progressing the story. So then you very quickly circle back to continuing with the Main Story once you realize how barebones the side content is.

All of the above is what shines a light on the pacing in FFXVI for many folk. Look at the Prologue of FFXVI. There's way more cutscenes and talking than there is gameplay. But look at the way the dialogue and cutscenes are handled during those first two hours. It looks like a movie. Scenes are shot in ways that are interesting, there's a lot happening on screen, and you're moving from one location to another. Now juxtapose that with the rest of the game where so much of your time is spent in the Hideaway with Clive and an NPC standing in front of each other, always using the same camera angles, and dialogue that goes on longer than it should.

I'll close out with this. Look at Final Fantasy X, another entry in series that is linear. You have lots of quiet downtime moments in that game, but observe the way those moments are handled. You're always in a new location than you were before, you're always learning more about the world of Spira and the characters you travel with, and there's always a point to them. Those moments say far more, using less time. And if you like the way FFXVI handles the downtime then god bless. I don't want to rain on your parade if you enjoyed everything about the story. As someone who likes FFXVI but has issues with it, I'm just trying to elaborate why the pacing of the game is a big issue for people.
 

SCB3

Member
Just to be clear on where I'm coming from, having downtime in an RPG is absolutely necessary. You can't have nonstop excitement and action because it becomes tiresome and you grow numb to it. Having slower moments where you can take a breather, take in the story, setting and characters, is an important part to any good narrative. The issue comes from how FFXVI handles the downtime.

You spend much of your downtime in FFXVI going back to the Hideaway, talking to NPC after NPC after NPC, going to a location on the map, talking to NPC after NPC after NPC, go kill something, return to Hideaway for more talking, so on so forth. Most of these cutscenes during this time are handled the same way. Clive and the NPC stand statically in front of each other, and exchange long winded dialogue. You do this for about 3-5 hours depending, before you get to the next heavy story section of the game. This is where higher quality cutscenes kick in with good camerawork, directing, facial and body animations. A dungeon is involved, and it all leads to a few boss fights including a big set piece fight. After this, you repeat the same exact cycle of downtime, with the same approach to how it's executed. The high octane action and set pieces of FFXVI are on the complete opposite end of the spectrum of the very slow and heavy dialogue sections of the Main Story. To add, let's say you need a break from all the talking and just want to explore. Exploration is very limited, there's not much to do outside of Sidequests which take the same approach to the Main Story downtime, and you can only unlock 2-3 Hunts at a time by progressing the story. So then you very quickly circle back to continuing with the Main Story once you realize how barebones the side content is.

All of the above is what shines a light on the pacing in FFXVI for many folk. Look at the Prologue of FFXVI. There's way more cutscenes and talking than there is gameplay. But look at the way the dialogue and cutscenes are handled during those first two hours. It looks like a movie. Scenes are shot in ways that are interesting, there's a lot happening on screen, and you're moving from one location to another. Now juxtapose that with the rest of the game where so much of your time is spent in the Hideaway with Clive and an NPC standing in front of each other, always using the same camera angles, and dialogue that goes on longer than it should.

I'll close out with this. Look at Final Fantasy X, another entry in series that is linear. You have lots of quiet downtime moments in that game, but observe the way those moments are handled. You're always in a new location than you were before, you're always learning more about the world of Spira and the characters you travel with, and there's always a point to them. Those moments say far more, using less time. And if you like the way FFXVI handles the downtime then god bless. I don't want to rain on your parade if you enjoyed everything about the story. As someone who likes FFXVI but has issues with it, I'm just trying to elaborate why the pacing of the game is a big issue for people.
Hit the nail on the head here, when this game does those big moments, its unrivalled, but its the downtime between them, even FF7 Remake has these and its done a lot better
 

Madflavor

Member
Hit the nail on the head here, when this game does those big moments, its unrivalled, but its the downtime between them, even FF7 Remake has these and its done a lot better

Having recently replayed both 7R and XVI, 7R handles it's padding and side quests way better than XVI and I won't hear otherwise. 7R offers far more variety in it's approach to padding. Some of it is awful, some of it is okay, and some of it is pretty awesome. And the moments that are awesome you probably don't realize it's padding because it's so engaging and entertaining.

FFXVI has one way it approaches padding out it's Main Story. So you better like the way it does it, because if you don't, you're going to really struggle.
 

FoxMcChief

Gold Member
Hit the nail on the head here, when this game does those big moments, its unrivalled, but its the downtime between them, even FF7 Remake has these and its done a lot better
I can agree with that. Even with its padding, I feel like the moments between huge story points were handled a lot better.

But again, I’m still early on.
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
Same, I do the side quests before moving on to the main story, I do this with EVERY RPG…..EVER. I don’t understand what’s wrong with that.

I mean I fucking LOVED Xenoblade and that game can give you 20-30 side quest at once, even at beginning of Colony 9.

if that’s considered “pacing issue” then most of you guys have issues with 99% of all JRPG.
Side quests in Xenoblade series are really excessive but they (sort of) work because you have a huge open world filled with cool vistas, unique monsters, tons of stuff to collect, and lots of hidden paths. The side quests give you reasons to explore and stuff to do while you’re exploring. If they all sent you back to the same small boring barren zone you’ve already fully explored, they would be unbearable.

XVI’s side quests are also fully voiced with slow dialog delivery + unnatural pauses after every line. This makes them especially irritating because you know it’s all a bunch of pointless backstory leading up to “….so that’s why I need you to go out into the wilderness and find 5 coeurl testicles” or whatever.
 
I took a small break after my first playthrough, but I finally started Final Fantasy mode. I'm skipping all cutscenes and I turned down the voice volume and music volume to zero.

I now just hear the peaceful sounds of fire, armor, the wild, the winds, and clashing swords. Everything around me is also way more deadly. It feels like I've started my Souls run.

dark-souls-bonfire.gif
 

The Fuzz damn you!

Gold Member
It does, and it will trigger the special after charging, however it still relies on your own positioning and dodging so you can’t just sit there once it’s activated.

Also spamming abilities from cooldown is not quite how it works, at least not late game. It is looking for the most optimal combo in order to do two things: get you an S rank and kill all enemies as quickly as possible. It is much like a tool assist. Assuming you equipped it early in the game and you are giving it only one power to go by, phoenix, then it will try it’s best with what you’ve given it. So it will look only slightly better than your own performance with such little to go from.

With the more Eikon abilities equipped, the more it will shine in performance and really show you some combos you might have not known existed. There were times it even held skills until certain conditions were met, like finding a way to put you in the air first with your abilities, or waiting until after you precision dodged.

Lastly, it does not auto-dodge as that is another ring. However, when you have both rings combined the gameplay pretty much looks like one of those tool assisted Devil May Cry runs where everything is 99% perfect and it’s fun to look at. Also with both rings equipped it will try and go for more parries as it somehow knows you will auto-dodge if needed, so the risk factor is below an acceptable threshold at that point.
Interesting, thanks for the detailed breakdown. On my NF+ now and using the focus ring to just power through those side quests. Might give the other one a go.

Oh, and by ability-dodge I was referring to Coldsnap.
 
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This game is all about the super low’s and then super high’s, then back to the super low’s. I get that pacing in a big game can be difficult, but do the moments in between the epic icon stuff not be so boring? I think this is the issue with the game being so linear.
This is the only reason I kept playing the game as long as I did: chasing those high points. There were maybe half a dozen high points in my two dozen hours played. I wasn’t exaggerating when I said my last play session was around nine hours, and in that time, there was only one really good part. The rest was a slog of quest dialogue and running from A to B.
 
Interesting, thanks for the detailed breakdown. On my NF+ now and using the focus ring to just power through those side quests. Might give the other one a go.

Oh, and by ability-dodge I was referring to Coldsnap.
Oh Coldsnap, yes it will use that skill in the most optimized way to dodge, yet also put you in a situation where you can deal good damage with the next attack.
 
The level design, combat, and questing is on par with Crisis Core Reunion. Had to drop it after titan, can’t believe you go from that to the fetch garbo you do after, like, really?
 

Kumomeme

Member
despite the complaint over the side quest design, one things i appreciate is that each quest has a follow up with it later. even simple fetch quest, in story or worldbuilding wise. for example the apple collecting quest at beginning of the game. there is follow up later in another quest related to the npc that already passed away and expand the mood and character interaction in new hideaway later. i appreciate those quest not just existed without a reason. make me wonder what kind of quest player could missed and not unlocked later if they skip some of quest at beginning.

there is high and low over these side quest but On The Balance is my favourite side quest in the game.

show


it is hillarious to see Clive trying to act cool infront of kids without realize he failed spectacularly
 
Alright, I'm done. 100% completion, including all sidequests and hunt marks. Total playtime was 64 hours.

Now that I think about it, Final Fantasy has not had a great last 20 years. FFXIII wasn't that great. FFXV was just plain bad. FFXII was good, and FFXI and FFXIV were both well regarded but are also MMO's.

So on the one hand, I'm being very sincere when I'm saying FFXVI was the the best FF game since FFX, but I'm also aware that I'm not actually saying as much as I should. But this isn't damning with faint praise. XVI wasn't just the best FF since X, it's the first FF since X that lives up to what used to be expectations for what FF is supposed to signify (excluding the MMO entries).

Currently it's at the top of the shortlist for my GOTY and I don't really know what else coming this year will be better than it.
 

GrouchyGamer

Neo Member
I forgot one more wish for the eventual PC port, in addition to making the entire map traverseible and allowing for turning off the pink sky, I hope like FF XV we get native 32x9 Ultrawide support.
 

Rea

Member
My issue with this game is mostly the sleep inducing mandatory side quests between each story main quest. Just let me play the fucking story.
 

Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
Just to be clear on where I'm coming from, having downtime in an RPG is absolutely necessary. You can't have nonstop excitement and action because it becomes tiresome and you grow numb to it. Having slower moments where you can take a breather, take in the story, setting and characters, is an important part to any good narrative. The issue comes from how FFXVI handles the downtime.

You spend much of your downtime in FFXVI going back to the Hideaway, talking to NPC after NPC after NPC, going to a location on the map, talking to NPC after NPC after NPC, go kill something, return to Hideaway for more talking, so on so forth. Most of these cutscenes during this time are handled the same way. Clive and the NPC stand statically in front of each other, and exchange long winded dialogue. You do this for about 3-5 hours depending, before you get to the next heavy story section of the game. This is where higher quality cutscenes kick in with good camerawork, directing, facial and body animations. A dungeon is involved, and it all leads to a few boss fights including a big set piece fight. After this, you repeat the same exact cycle of downtime, with the same approach to how it's executed. The high octane action and set pieces of FFXVI are on the complete opposite end of the spectrum of the very slow and heavy dialogue sections of the Main Story. To add, let's say you need a break from all the talking and just want to explore. Exploration is very limited, there's not much to do outside of Sidequests which take the same approach to the Main Story downtime, and you can only unlock 2-3 Hunts at a time by progressing the story. So then you very quickly circle back to continuing with the Main Story once you realize how barebones the side content is.

All of the above is what shines a light on the pacing in FFXVI for many folk. Look at the Prologue of FFXVI. There's way more cutscenes and talking than there is gameplay. But look at the way the dialogue and cutscenes are handled during those first two hours. It looks like a movie. Scenes are shot in ways that are interesting, there's a lot happening on screen, and you're moving from one location to another. Now juxtapose that with the rest of the game where so much of your time is spent in the Hideaway with Clive and an NPC standing in front of each other, always using the same camera angles, and dialogue that goes on longer than it should.

I'll close out with this. Look at Final Fantasy X, another entry in series that is linear. You have lots of quiet downtime moments in that game, but observe the way those moments are handled. You're always in a new location than you were before, you're always learning more about the world of Spira and the characters you travel with, and there's always a point to them. Those moments say far more, using less time. And if you like the way FFXVI handles the downtime then god bless. I don't want to rain on your parade if you enjoyed everything about the story. As someone who likes FFXVI but has issues with it, I'm just trying to elaborate why the pacing of the game is a big issue for people.
As I was saying, everyone should just skip all side quest and do only those to progress the story - they're also very bad so just skip through all the dialogue and save some time. At this point it is the only way for making the pacing of the game somewhat better and do only good stuff, but then you have to deal with the shallow combat... and you can't do anythiong about that, unfortunately.
 
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NeoLed

Member
SSa
What is the highest damage any of you got in one round of stagger?

I am nearing the end and unloaded 145k damage on a hunt at level 47.
Saw someone in youtube reach 1M damage in training mode using shiva's manual freeze + rift slip to stop time and stagger bar. No story enemy even have that much HP
 
SSa

Saw someone in youtube reach 1M damage in training mode using shiva's manual freeze + rift slip to stop time and stagger bar. No story enemy even have that much HP
Being able to stop the stagger bar was likely not intented by the devs but it's still wild to see people pulling 1.2 million damage staggers because they have like 5 minutes of stagger LMAO
 
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Raonak

Banned
I keep thinking about how this game really nails the power fantasy when I first saw a summon animation when I was a kid. Wondering how cool it would be to actually control a summon and have a real summon vs summon fight.

FFX did it in a subdued way, but this game just takes it to the next level with this the way the whole game is centred around it. Its really satisfying to see a FF game out its summons front and centre again, as I think many would agree that summons were one of the best parts of many FF games and were the things that made FF feel like a FF game.

Still buzzing about that bahamut fight.


Just did the Typhon fight in NG+. I had the music from the last phase stuck in my head since I heard it, but couldn't remember where it played! So good.

The music in the game is soooo good. I've been listening to the eikon battle theme and phoenix themes on repeat.

Having never played FF14, he's impressed me quite a bit with the 16 ost
 

Roufianos

Member
Finished the Odin section, so really coming towards the end. The more I play this game, the more in love I am with the soundtrack.

Combat is definitely getting a bit more challenging though that doesn't excuse how mindless its been for much of the game.

The more I think on it, I actually think this game would have been better as an open world, and I generally dislike them. I think a lot of the downtime and dialogue could have been played out travelling to and from locations, as opposed to awkwardly running around the base and talking to characters for 30 minutes every time you beat a boss.
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
I'm passed bahamut and doing the filler quests again. How much longer do I have left? I think I'm pretty much done with it.

There was so much spectacle in that bahamut fight that I was just numb. Its like I'd rather watch it as an anime sometimes. There's just so much going on I think they should have dialled it back a bit and it would have been so much more effective.

Incredible soundtrack though. Absolutely amazing.
 
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I thought Titan would be the peak of the game. I didn't think they could top that level of pure insanity.
....
...
...
I gotta take it back.
...
I just finished bahamut and holy fucking fuck. That was the most amazing sequence over ever seen in a game. I can't really describe it. The graphics, characters, the setting, the music, the pure hype of a battle, the choreography, the way they just keep ramping the stakes higher and higher. And the plot twists in the story during, before and after the fight. Wow wow wow 😳

WOW. Absolute fucking masterpiece. I don't know how you could execute that whole chapter any better. Now I'm 100% sure they can't top that.

I'm shocked how fucking good these eikon fights look. Like seriously they fully look like full blown CGI.

Like I'm not even upset that the game has downtime when the highs are this fucking high.

They don’t top it. But you still got some great fights coming up, including the most intense Behemoth fight in the series. Enjoy fren.


I just completed the Semi Prime Titan fight and it was crazy good. Attempted no hit run but he's quite fast. After reading all this I can't express how hyped I'm right nowwww...
 

Raonak

Banned
I just completed the Semi Prime Titan fight and it was crazy good. Attempted no hit run but he's quite fast. After reading all this I can't express how hyped I'm right nowwww...

Loved that fight, reminded me of the DMC3 fight with vergil where he had beowulf equipped.

I have to say that pretty much every boss fight in the game is a banger, and there's a real wide variety of them too.
Even the ones with basic designs (e.g. necrophobe lol) have such great movesets.
 

Nankatsu

Member
I'm about 75h hours in (partially because I've been doing all the side content that pops up).

I'm now getting to Kraven region and mid-way I think the game starts cliff diving itself.

It's one of those cases that I think you're better of by just clearing the main quests and leaving the sidequests behind, because they are such a drag and always play the exact same way. It's either item fetch or wave battling enemies. Not even the writting can save the sidequests, it's rather bad if you ask me.

There's legit no originality in the sidequests. Not even a damn chocobo race. Beat all you want on FFXV, but at least it had chocobo racing and some dungeons to explore.

Lately I turn on FFXVI, do about 1 or 2 sidequests and stop there.

Game is an insane cinematic experience, with fantastic boss battles, good narrative and combat system, but the content between each major boss battle could clearly have been better designed, specially in terms of variety.
 
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Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
What brainless idiot it was that though during development - You know what should we do? After each cool story mission we'll send the player back to the shitty hub with terrible NPCs, make them do boring af fetch quests and force them to backtrack to old locations, sucking out all the fun out of enjoying the story and completely destroying pacing and momentum.

disappointment-disappointment-sigh.gif


Literally each time it happens you're like - No-o-o-o-o-o-o-oooooooo! I don't want to go back to this fuckin' shithole! Let me see the story and only good parts of the game!
 
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ebevan91

Member
What brainless idiot it was that though during development - You know what should we do? After each cool story mission we'll send the player back to the shitty hub with terrible NPCs, make them do boring af fetch quests and force them to backtrack to old locations, sucking out all the fun out of enjoying the story and completely destroying pacing and momentum.

disappointment-disappointment-sigh.gif


Literally each time it happens you're like - No-o-o-o-o-o-o-oooooooo! I don't want to go back to this fuckin' shithole! Let me see the story and only good parts of the game!
This is my one major complaint about the game. We already have over 100 side quests and now you want me to do MANDATORY “side quests” too?
 
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DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
I'm about 75h hours in (partially because I've been doing all the side content that pops up).

I'm now getting to Kraven region and mid-way I think the game starts cliff diving itself.

It's one of those cases that I think you're better of by just clearing the main quests and leaving the sidequests behind, because they are such a drag and always play the exact same way. It's either item fetch or wave battling enemies. Not even the writting can save the sidequests, it's rather bad if you ask me.

There's legit no originality in the sidequests. Not even a damn chocobo race. Beat all you want on FFXV, but at least it had chocobo racing and some dungeons to explore.

Lately I turn on FFXVI, do about 1 or 2 sidequests and stop there.

Game is an insane cinematic experience, with fantastic boss battles, good narrative and combat system, but the content between each major boss battle could clearly have been better designed, specially in terms of variety.
I think it would’ve been cool if they made all the side quests about going around recruiting people to join you at the hideout, and having it grow and unlock new features kinda like Xenoblade or Suikoden.

That would fit in so well with the theme of the game and wouldn’t be so immersion breaking. Much better than having lazy assholes standing around waiting for you to pass by so they can ask you to do some pointless chore halfway across the continent.
 

hyperbertha

Member
What brainless idiot it was that though during development - You know what should we do? After each cool story mission we'll send the player back to the shitty hub with terrible NPCs, make them do boring af fetch quests and force them to backtrack to old locations, sucking out all the fun out of enjoying the story and completely destroying pacing and momentum.

disappointment-disappointment-sigh.gif


Literally each time it happens you're like - No-o-o-o-o-o-o-oooooooo! I don't want to go back to this fuckin' shithole! Let me see the story and only good parts of the game!
Here's my theory- this is a low budget game overall. They only had budget for about 10 or so hours of mocapped cutscenes, and were forced to significantly scale back the story as a result.
It's evident from just how underdeveloped most of it's characters are. It's ridiculous to think a professional writer would put characters so half baked into a game. They had a vision regarding grant politics, with an ensemble cast ala got, and then had to pivot midway to focus entirely on the existential threat villain storyline leaving the kingdoms, the side villains underdeveloped. Even the main villains are kinda generic and forgettable.

So with a 10-13 hr story in their hands, and a lack of budget left for anything else, they padded out another 40 or so hrs with last minute side quests that wouldnt require much writing or animation work.
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
The scene: me, sitting in my cubicle, when all of a sudden my boss’s boss walks by….

“GOD DAMMIT, I hate using this stupid trackpad. What am I ever going to do?….Oh hey Martin! I’m so glad to see you in the office today. You see, a couple weeks ago my mouse broke so I’ve been stuck using the trackpad and I hate this thing!

“It’s so hard to find office supplies nowadays what with the pandemic and all. I finally ordered a mouse on eBay but it’s been sitting at some USPS facility for two weeks, lord knows if it’ll ever arrive!

“But wouldn’t you know it, the other day my friend up in Kenosha said the Walmart over by him had one in stock. So I HATE TO BOTHER YOU but I really need you to drive up to Kenosha and find that mouse!

“You’ll do it? Oh thank the gods!! So I don’t know if my friend was talking about the Walmart on Green Bay Road or the other one on state road K. He works at the Culver’s over there on route 11 just off the interstate, you can start your search by talking to him. You have no idea how much this means to me!”
 

hyperbertha

Member
The scene: me, sitting in my cubicle, when all of a sudden my boss’s boss walks by….

“GOD DAMMIT, I hate using this stupid trackpad. What am I ever going to do?….Oh hey Martin! I’m so glad to see you in the office today. You see, a couple weeks ago my mouse broke so I’ve been stuck using the trackpad and I hate this thing!

“It’s so hard to find office supplies nowadays what with the pandemic and all. I finally ordered a mouse on eBay but it’s been sitting at some USPS facility for two weeks, lord knows if it’ll ever arrive!

“But wouldn’t you know it, the other day my friend up in Kenosha said the Walmart over by him had one in stock. So I HATE TO BOTHER YOU but I really need you to drive up to Kenosha and find that mouse!

“You’ll do it? Oh thank the gods!! So I don’t know if my friend was talking about the Walmart on Green Bay Road or the other one on state road K. He works at the Culver’s over there on route 11 just off the interstate, you can start your search by talking to him. You have no idea how much this means to me!”
Quest reward - handkerchief recipe(craftable)
 
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