Final Fantasy XVI Full Review
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- Опубликовано: 6 сен 2024
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I have a brother with special needs and the fact your wife works in Special Education and you guys adopted two kids with special needs of their own made me admire and respect you even more! All the best, Death!
"Special Needs" is offensive. It was messed up for him to describe using that and its not cool here either.
Special Education even shouldn't be calling that.
And this isn't me who "knows someone who is", but rather the person who "is" what you're talking about
It wouldn't be a Death review if we didn't have the Costa del Sol music in the background
Ahhh, so peaceful.
Nailed it! I was 100% with you. Great experience first time through but the game is dying for complexity in its gear and progression systems. Thanks Death!
This is definitely the best review of FFXVI I’ve seen so far along with Gamingbrits. Comprehensive and addresses most perspectives on the game, with good faith criticism across the board. Very well done
Just finished XVI a few days shy of the new year. I really don't know how, but I somehow didn't get spoiled during that time and have been waiting months to return here and watch this video! Thanks for the review and the passion. Happy New Year!
Excellent review, and it was a blast watching you play FF16. As someone who has seen GOT, imo, how FF16 is to GOT is pretty similar to how FF12 is to StarWars. You can clearly see the influence, but definitely not a copy.
There were heavy copies at times, the one that made me actually cringe was the part where kupka lost his hands and got the big iron ones and then gets angry cause he can't use them, it's like a scene for scene copy of Jamie Lannister who loses his hand which also signifies him losing his identity. The early segments have much more GOT influence, the constant switching of locations to see what people are doing, the classic "meanwhile...", the world map is also a nod to the opening credits in GoT, not to mention the influence the Red Wedding has on the start.
to be fair, every FF has been different and varied. But it's NEVER been so cinematic and action at the expense of RPG mechanics before.
I loved this game. I'm not ashamed to admit I shed a few tears at the end. I wish it had some more RPG elements like weapons/armour/accesories being more varied and impactful gameplay-wise beyond "more basic damage or defence". That lack of build and character variety is a key missing element of a proper FF, but the voice acting, character design/development, environmental design, cinematics, and the story were fantastic. The gameplay is just too basic to make this a classic, and you won't replay this game 15 times like you would other FFs, but as a sort of cinematic game it's excellent.
Im at my 7th playthrough so I jus disagree man.
I love this game sooo much
@@sheercold26 No probs man, I get it, I have particular games I love too and have replayed over and over again and always find something new or some new way to enjoy it. Or I just love experiencing the story, music and characters and it brings me peace. I'm happy for you man and don't let anyone take your joy away from you.
@@od1401what a lovely conversation
Crazy to think the mainline FF series has become the testing & proving grounds for new ideas and not a compilation series like 7R. Feels like it should be the other way around.
Im early so i figure maybe youll see this. Just wanna say thank you for all the ff7 vids. I loved that game as a kid and thanks to your videos i was able to see how in depth and amazing ff7 is. Thanks to you ive fallen in love with the game as an adult and put countless hours into it. Never forget the first time i beat ruby because of your video. Much love brother.
Man, I totally agree with your thoughts on first impressions. I wasn't super hyped about 16. I was gonna wait until reviews or a sale to pick it up. But after playing through the demo....I needed it day 1, I HAD to know what happened to Clive next. And, as someone who also enjoys action games, I really liked the combat in the demo, especially the Eikonic challenge they added in there. The demo was a great move by SE.
Same here with the demo. I wasn’t really that hyped for the game and I was gonna wait to see what people thought about it but then I decided to try the demo and I was hooked immediately. Bought the game as soon as I finished the demo.
Id like the mention that the game has ZERO GLITCHES.
I havent encountered a SINGLE BUG and ive played theough the game 3 times already
Hey I've just watched your entire play through of Final Fantasy 7 (1997) and I am hooked to your channel. Thank you for making such great videos about my favourite game 😊
love ya 4-8, hope you are doing well brother , thanks for the video review
The one obscure gripe i had with the game that i found truly weird... Was no super boss. I played through so readily and excited for what ever super boss id i have to test all this intresting combat out on and just blam nothing. Was really disappointed. Feel awkwad not having a super boss in FF
bro i loved ff16 but i totally agree. i had that moment too. definitely needed a super boss to feel like final fantasy
Very true even Omega is no superboss just a mildly hard Soulsborne like boss in Ultimaniac
FF superbosses should be above and beyond Soulsborne bosses as they used to be
Fair play death. It's hard to argue with any points you raised here. For me I loved the story and got swept up in it but upon looking back, all your points regarding equipment etc really hit home.
I wish the death-respawn component was a timely accessory option instead of a core feature. A ton of the fun of many of those bosses on the first playthrough was lost when on death it simply placed me back at the very end with full health and items. The lack of death consequences (or what is essentially a very very long perma-reraise animation) encouraged me to simply stop trying.
i mean everyone knows the real playthrough begins in new game plus hard mode just like it did in ff7 remake. hard mode in both games is incredible.
Yes. That's true
If we look and actually read interviews... Final Fantasy always wanted to be a live Acton game. The tech just didn't exist. So, we got... turn based battle. You are the only source for this game. I've been waiting for this. I truly love XV but I have been so cautious with how to perceive this FFXVI. I still don't know how I feel, but because of your review, I will purchase when on PC. my concerns are the action loop. But I keep reminding myself, of how much fun I had, playing XV and NiEr Automata. You helped me maintain an open eye. Thank you.
I had an absolute blast playing this game and never felt at any point that it wasn't Final Fantasy. I've played a bunch of the games and to me it has always been about the characters and how they come together to take on the threats of their world and this game has it in spades. I 100% the equipment system is awful, I upgraded my weapon the first time and it was immediately outclassed making finding materials seem trivial. The only other complaint I have is the pacing of the sidequests being waaaaaaay too backloaded and needed to be more evenly distributed throughout the story. Overall I loved the game and it shows promise for the next entry in the series.
This was a great and nuanced review thank you for the video! 😁
The equipment matters.
If you equip weaker equipment battles DEFINITELY take longer and enemies hit harder.
The stats on the equipment matter
Just because I'm a massive Mardek fan (Best indie RPG I have ever played), I have to mention about the equipment system that it gets really engrossing late game due to the balance of stat buffs, their impact on various stats in predictable amounts, elemental resistance and weaknesses, and can be balanced against your Passives to make combos. Hope one day you'll dig further into that game, it's crazy what you can do when you're up to over 10 playable characters.
Oh, and uhh, great review, Death
Almost 100% agree with you. Especialy about gameplay. But I feel differente about scenario and caracters. The scenario doese not keep is promise and the stakes drops a lot after kupka's defeat. No more politics, no more love interest juste a clash of will, first with odin and next ultima, figths with caracters repeating themselves they have bigger will than the others... Poor stakes. About caracters, really good one left to early and they are not replaced in terms of interest, I mean cid and benedicta. And more importantly I' m deaspointed about caracters development. Put on a list their evolution Clive is a good guy and... that's it. Compare to previous heroes it hurts ! And it is almost the same for the others who are monolytic. You can describe them quickly they do not change. Thanks for your work. An hello from France.
Greetings to France! Thanks for the insight
I'm 36, playing FF since end of 90s. FF was my first big series and my "entry drug" into RPGs and JRPGs. This is and will be my most beloved series of all time. There were many mixed bags called FF since FFX, but nevertheless I enjoyed them as they are and I still could recognize FF in them.
Now to XVI. This is a game I did enjoy at the start, but the more I progressed the more I was confused and sometimes even stopped playing just to make sure this thing is really called FF on the cover. I finished everything, 100% with the exception of the second run, as I always do with any FF and after watching the credits I just uninstalled it. That's it, I was done with it for ever. This game may have some terminology and characters from FF, but in its core, its design, it is just a mediocre mix-up of too many ideas that don't fit with each other. They wanted to go down the GoT route with the story, but couldn't make the last few steps. This story is half baked and becomes pathetic after the big bad boss comes into play.
The gameplay is a pathetic and slightly FF flavored copy-paste of DMC, there is nothing else to say about it. Those Kaiju battles are glorified QTE cutscenes mixed with Naruto UNS-style hype battles, but done much worse. Everything in this game attempts is just a worse copy of the original it has taken inspiration from. It does not improve on any of those things and the sum of those flawed parts make it mixed bag of pure disappointment. If I had to describe this game with one word, it would be disappointment. This is also what I said to my brother after finishing it.
Solid review, 8/10 is very fair! I’m still reeling from the story (in a good way) but 100% agree with the rpg mechanic comments
Great review❤ only thing I would add is that the color palate was really muted the whole time.... would have liked some more vibrant colors
Great review and Great insights Death!! these are Eh-Zack-Lee the thoughts I had on my playthrough. Looking forward to your Ever Crisis thoughts!!
I’m about ready to see you do some ffx. Love your stuff by the way. I was very on the fence about this game and your video has helped me make a decision. I won’t be picking this up. I think I fall in the older ff style category
Great review, always honest and to the point, without leaving out what a FF fan might or might not find in this one. Really appreciate that you can see what SE wanted to go for, but what didn't work as well. I liked the political story but admit that the blansness of some sidequests killed the pace and intensity for me at times. The VA was really good, and I agree that Anabella, Joshua and Cid are excellent characters. The Eikons battles cinematography made up for their length, for me. Again a great review, thx Death
First FF16 review i agree with 100%. Nothing to add, nothing else to say. Good job Death.
Same Dev team as 14, you'd think they'd understand the importance of fun side content to keep the player engaged both during and after the story content. Noruma's team is great at this stuff, the 14 team need to take notes.
I like how you didnt jump on the review straight away, i like to sit back and think about it after playing a game like this. Imo this is the best one they have made since ff10, love the storyline love the characters the combat kinda grew on me throughout the game. Defo now in my top 5 ff's
The Dude abides this review
I was not aware of the public discourse! Thank you for sharing this and great review overall!
i agree with ur review in most ways, but i feel that the neglect of party members also contribute to that lesser feeling of RPG. There is no strategy to be had at all, and beyond ur skill, there not much u can alter without the aid items.
Amazing take on the accessibility btw! Fell kinda ashamed that i never even thought about it, but rly happy to take that into future! is important info
Well spoken, fair and balanced review. I too gave the game an 8/10, though I feel I was more harsh on the games over all story ( a bit weak in some areas imo) and less critical of the core gameplay loop. I fully expected an action game when Square told us that they were hiring the DMC V combat creator and that is exactly what I felt we got. Combat via combos and execution is what I wanted, its what we got so it didnt bother me that there were some missing RPG elements. Overall a solid showing for a main stay title. Not as good as the VII remake imo, but better than ANYTHING from a mainline entry since 10.
Loved the review. Thanks a lot for that and for the whole series
My personal issues with Jill:
(SPOILERS AHEAD)
-She gets imprisoned 3 times : Once at the first time jump / Once by Kupka in the middle of the Coeurl fight / Once by being one shotted by Barnabas.
-In her revenge chapter, her only contribution to the boss battle is to create a wall to protect Clive from the Lava and, after the boss, enchanting Clive's sword so he's the one destroying the Crystal (Cid was allowed to destroy one)
-She is said to be weak numerous time in the game because of the Curse, but on that beach scene, there's no sign of her turning to stone like Cid was.
-Once her revenge chapter is over, she felt to me like a cheerleader mostly.
In short, way better than Luna, but not Yuna, Garnet, Tifa, Aerith level.
Yeah that makes a lot of sense. Also the review was getting long so I didn't mention it, but that scene where Kupka kidnaps her is god awful on so many levels.
I wish SE would take a page out of their Star Ocean dev's book and give us post-game content. The Cave of Trials/Maze of Tribulations style stuff would have been great.
At least a dungeon or super boss, or both. Hell, go the SO3 route and have another 40+ hours of content after finishing the game.
Definitely agree it's strongest aspect is it's first play through. My immediate reaction to playing FF16 was to play FF12 right after. They are, in many ways similar, but I think 12 has something that 16 could have really used, in fleshing out the entire world, having rewarding collectables and interesting side content.
I’ve been waiting for this day
I liked it. I paid 60 bucks and got my 60+ hours of entertainment. That's better than 3 movies in the theaters... or damn near any other hobby. But is it the best FF? No. It's good. The story and characters are what compel me for sure, but I have to agree that the 'game' elements are... shallow. It's pretty and fun for a short time, but... after a while it gets tiring. All of this applies to the side-quests too. Great plot, meh gameplay, and high points in both that are amazing.
Impeccable timing, I just finished the game earlier today myself! Personally I really loved the game, the only gripes I had with it were a) the absence of a mini-map on your HUD and b) while I really enjoyed how much the side quests added to the overall narrative there were definitely points where they laid them on a bit too thick and it really slowed the pace down more than it should have particularly towards the end.
The industry needs us to love and hate this game. In a peaceful but hard love, manner.
yea, the RPG mechanics wouldve felt way better if the weapons or armour had some sort of choice in terms of what other things they could buff other than just being "higher stat sticks"
So the Garuda sword could buff garuda spells more or Titan sword buffs titan abilities etc,
or if the player had the choice of crafting a garuda sword with garuda strengthening and crafting the Titan armour so they could mix and match more to what they need.
I agree with many of the points you have made, yet my final verdict on FF16 is far more negative than yours is. As soon as you started the segment on the equipment system I was like: YES, 100%. Yet this alone holds so much weight for me that I wouldn't even call this game "good".
As for the story, I won't say that it is bad, but I do remember that I was at times a little annoyed at how individual scenes played out (Spoilers ahead). It has been a few weeks since my playthrough, but I still remember that one scene where Joshua and Clive travel to Waloed and Joshua just hits Clive in the face, because he is angry that Clive had absorbed Jill's Power. Nothing that had happened so far made me think that Joshua would act like this, and therefore that scene felt very forced and rather cliché to me. It probably was supposed to make me feel something, but instead it made me roll my eyes.
Another example of (imho) sloppy execution was this side quest where you help Quinten. I don't remember every detail, but it was about this personal grudge that Quinten held against some really bad guy. This could have been cool, setting up a minor antagonist, but then the climax of this little revenge plot just happens off screen: you follow Quinten to a mansion where he believes the bad guy is, you fight some random enemies, and next thing you know, Quinten tells you that he has dealt with the bad guy. Ok, still haven't met this fella, but fine, let's go home I guess ...
Also, I found the Eikon battles entirely too long even on the first playthrough (which I should mention was my only one). Yes, they were impressive visually, but the gameplay during these sequences was just a drag. Take away all build customization options from the normal battle system and there you have your Eikon battles. Now hit the attack button for half an hour while using your two special abilites on cooldown (and sometimes dodge).
One more thing I'd like to point out is the fact that about half way through the game some magic ritual of the big bad guy just puts clouds over the whole world. While this was an important moment in the story, I thought that this was such a shame in terms of the visuals, because from then on up until the end of the game every area you traversed just looked miserable, as in: Please, I just wanna see the sun again!
Overall, I think I'd put FF16 on one level with FF15, which is below any other main entry in the series (that I have played). The music is top tier, though 🙂
Very well said. As a die hard ff fan. I definitely think the game is a must play. And your right this is definitely a cornerstone in the direction the game goes in the future. I personally think that's what the story was trying to tell us. The company taking back their IP trying to get away from the "mother crystal" and bring ff into the future. Combat worked for the style they wanted, I don't see a way they could possibly add a status system with how FAST they wanted the game to be, and honestly you were right it was so divergent from the series I'd almost forget I was playing FF, but it really reigned you back in with the story, the story is so uncannily final fantasy, while it does take inspiration and some more explicitness, it's still true to the telling of a final fantasy. The game worked and didn't in some regards but I think the future is bright, we will have to see what they take from here and if the rumored leaks of 9 remake and something new from 10 and what they get from 7 rebirth. Hopefully they can take all of what they learn from these up and comings and make 17 a true master piece
I agree that the game is lacking in RPG elements. I too kept saying that the equipment system is just make number go big without anything special. The game is fun but adding depth to equipment and stats in general would have improved and made it even better.
The other thing I felt was lacking is a mini game. Even FFXV had one. This is not a big gripe but mini games are a staple of the series and usually add a lot. Triple Triad is probably the best example as it was both fun and useful for power creep.
Again, a pretty good game, but some things are lacking and I think talking about it is important, like you said. Good job on the review!
I started playing FFXVI 2 months back but sort of just stopped. It didn't really hook me. It's not a bad game per se but it just feels bland to holy hell. The difference between 16 and the FF7 Remake are night and day. 16 seems like the developers were given a chore to do and begrudgingly did it and FF7R seems like they had a blast working on it.
I've never played XVI or the two mmo but this one, since from the trailers I'm avoiding (0 reasons to buy a ps5 just to play this game) and saying, why is it called FF? You could rename to w/e name you have in mind and release as an action/hack slash game. Glad to see someone reviewing with the nerve to call this out also glad to finally understand why I had so many unsellable itens in FFXV from the beginning that gave 0 dmg to the char etc...
I loved the video. Very balanced review. You touched on all the important criticisms (all of which I agree) while also showing genuine excitement for the parts you liked. I personally had this feeling while playing it that something was off, that the game mechanics were rushed and they blew their whole budget on story, graphics, animation (except the side quest cutscenes) and music. But man, they’ve nailed all of these and overall I had a blast with the game. I just wish they went the extra mile and put just a little more work into it.
I strongly disagree with your opinion on the beginning side quests not having any weight to the story. They served to show Clive what life in the hideaway was like. It opened his eyes.
Yeah that is a good point the quests in the hideaway, although really boring, definitely setup Clive's change. The side quests outside of the hideaway though, those are pretty terrible until around the halfway mark.
You have my love sir! I loved this about your family that you and your wife have created. I apologise if created is the wrong word. I really Loved your Mario story with your son. You connected this so well and a Perfect example of ff16. It isn't diffult but its also for people who may not be capable to play. Fantastic
Thank you for making this important review!
Great Review! Looking in the Camera would make a huge difference. It might be wired but it is just how we are wired.
I think I finally realized what bugged me with Square Enix games after Final Fantasy 10. It seems the cooperation of different teams like Combat, Gameplay, even UI and the "creative" Teams like Art, Narrative, Direction etc. is getting worse and worse.
What is no surprise with the huge increase in team size required on this day. But if it would be fixable with a change in workflow, a multi billion company would have already done that.
Final fantasy 16 wants you to focus on doing fun, crazy things with your Eikon loadouts.
Thats where the focus went
I simply can not understand how there was controversy, or even confusion regarding the Timely accessories.
I would understand if the accessories did not clearly state what they do in regards to gameplay, but they do. Clearly. When utilizing them. I also do not consider them accessibility items as accessibility should be ultimately transparent to the game as a whole - not something you need to purposely equip. Look at a game like Control - this allows you to toggle Immortality or One-Hit Kills from the settings menu, but you're free to customize the rest of the experience as anyone else would. The rings are there as helper items, like the white tanooki suit in Super Mario 3D World. They're completely optional to use, so why was there a stink about it at all?
I don't really like the idea that Final Fantasy is only allowed to be in a specific mold either. It almost seems like gatekeeping at this point. There never was a "to be a Final Fantasy, it has to do X, Y, Z" outline, so there shouldn't be any issues with the game trying to do something different, or take things in a different direction. I understand wanting a familiar experience, but we have had at least 12 main line FF games that offer something extremely similar to turn based combat. I'm not saying turn-based is bad - I'm saying that you can only utilize a formula so many times before it becomes repetition and "oh, just another one".
We need to understand that Squeenix is trying to make those fat stacks, like any good company would. Yes, in a perfect world, money wouldn't matter and we'd make games that speak to specific niches, but that's not the real world. So, make a game in a storied franchise with a rich history, make it accessible to pretty much anyone, and make it fun and bombastic to have it dig its hooks into you. Make money, get tonberries.
The main issue I'm seeing is that this is "Not MY Final Fantasy", when the series was never any one individual's in the first place. Gatekeeping like this is immensely frustrating, as there is still a fun game here, but just because a name is on it, it's suddenly bad. Remember, the name Final Fantasy has been attached to many different genres of game, but they're still Final Fantasy games. I digress.
I will agree the Weapon/Armor/Accessory system is very shallow, but to be honest, I simply love this. This is something I feel is what hurts a lot of people trying to get into these games, as they just want to play the game and not have to worry about setting up the perfect items, balancing effects, the right and wrong magic spells, MP management... Sometimes, we just want to go through and just play a game.
That being said, sure - it would have been nice if there was a way to incorporate this into a different difficulty mode, where these numbers actually meant something, but hey, what we got is fine. It's not "bad" - its just something the devs said "ya know, maybe rather than spending 45 minutes in a menu trying to create specific loadouts of specific equipment that will make your character so OP and broken that the game becomes a massive joke ISN'T something we want". I may be wrong, but I feel that the weapon system was intended to be basic from the start.
I am very happy with how this game turned out. It's fun. It's exciting. It's nice to be able to pick up and play. It's not anything more than what its trying to be, which is a fun game.
Please note - if Death can express his opinions on the game, I should be allowed to express mine, even if they don't align with his. No one has to agree with me. But I'm sure some people out there do on some of the points I'm making.
Amazing job, thanks for doing this Mike
I very much loved the game. For 17 I would love to see an intentional throwback to the series roots. "Modern" turn-based battles, 4 character party, crystals, medieval setting, the whole 9 yards. It would be like how FF9 was a return to form for FF
But ofc thats just wishful thinking
old school final fantasy fan for years since 6/7...I played through FF16 w/ the timely assist that warns you a strike is coming because the game was so easy already that getting perfect dodges all the time was just SUPER PRETTY, this game was so visually stimulating w/ in-combat cut scenes that the perfect dodges just added to it...and I loved it! Story and lore were awesome
I whole heartedly agree with you and share a staunchly similar perspective with this game. I love the game in what it does well and miss the things it left out. This game is a 10/10 in some aspects for me and a bad/10 for rpg mechanics and the general final fantasy feel. A party and some status effects go a long way. Another thing i wish the game had were more enemy types. There were alot of skin variants (old ffs do this too) but having more enemy types to learn and also adding weaknesses would be huge.
I agree with most of your review. My final number is 8.5/10. I wish the world was abit more interactive and seamless between zones, crafting and items was better, side quests more engaging and unique, and more challenging for us veterans. All in all I still think it was a success but unfortunately not a masterpiece. Let’s see maybe DLCs can bump it up to a 9/10.
Yeah I think the zones being more seemless would have helped the world a lot, I hate to say it but more like FFXV's world.
FF16 definitely has some FF14 influence. I put over 14k hours into FF14 and can 1000% confirm the sidequests lacking variety until midway, consistent fetch quests, the streamlined equipment system ( with the exception that you can meld materia in FF14 but only for increased stats ), the checkpoints when you die during a boss fight, the lack of elemental damage weakness bonuses and status effects for debuffing. All these things operate in FF14 in these ways by design. The difference is FF14 is an MMO, so it plays much different, is a MUCH bigger game and fits more of how that game plays in general, even if I don't like some aspects of it. It was built for multiplayer, as MMO's are. But FF16 is a single player game and they had no reason to impose such limitations on gameplay and player choice other then maybe they felt it would be too much thinking required or that it might overwhelm some players. FF16 is a good game. Its not bad, but its not great either as a FF game. They did a lot of things right but got a few things wrong, and I believe if they keep the good things they managed to pull off while fixing the things that were on the weaker end and redesign those aspects of the game then FF17 could be really promising. Lastly on another note, I would LOVE a DLC where we get to play as Cid and experience some of his past before he found clive, maybe show off how he ran into Torgal, a deeper look at his relationship with Benedikta, and maybe his first attempt at going to take out the first mothercrystal that ended in failure would be pretty awesome.
Excited to hear your take! I got halfway through the game but lost steam. Too much fluff, combat feels repetitive, story gets goofy.
Biggest 3 things I liked:
1. Accessibility in both gameplay and lore. I didn't use any of the easy mode rings and rarely used the ATL, but I like their inclusion in games where the story is the main focus where you don't want people to get roadblocked. The lore entries having a related topic and search function was helpful too.
2. Boss fight design. Within the limits of the system, I think they designed most bosses and hunts quite well, in terms of being able to recognize and learn brand new mechanics and moves quickly. Most moves are telegraphed well enough to dodge perfectly the first time you see them. Obviously certain Eikon fights go crazy with the spectacle as well, and some of those could be considered "all-timer" boss fights across all of video games.
3. Voice acting. The entire voice cast did a great job, and their performances significantly boosted my enjoyment of the story and sidequests.
Biggest 3 things I hated:
1. Gameplay variety. 1 character with 1 sword with 1 set of combos. No elemental affinities, no status ailments, no party control, no mini-games, "The worst crafting/equipment system of all time", and a very limited number of enemy types and ability slots. This is a 10 hour action game spread across a 50+ hour game, with almost every fight working exactly the same, with no changes or strategy involved, just your reflexes. DMCV was a much shorter game but at least gave you 3 different characters to use that felt very different to play. When doing all sidequests and hunts, I was extremely bored about halfway through the game (with no accessibility rings) and was basically in pain all throughout NG+ which doesn't change much at all (unlike FF7R that changed a decent amount in its Hard Mode). The Eikon fights were the most fun but that's probably only because they were rare. This lack of gameplay variety massively hurt sidequests and exploration, as there was basically no reason to do either from a mechanical perspective.
2. Villain trends. Here's a description for you: A handsome noble gifted with supreme magical power, a hot love interest he's known since childhood, and a beautiful transportation vehicle, is led around by an omnipresent omnipotent villain on a quest to intentionally make the noble more powerful, removing most obstacles from his path, until such time as he's arbitrarily powerful enough to kill the villain. Which game did I describe? Well, at least both XV and XVI. The last part applies to XIII as well. The cynic in me is convinced they've written the last couple games as childish fan fiction inserts of themselves into the "Chosen One" main character, or at least expect the player to instantly identity with them. When your villain has full control over your protagonists actions from the very beginning, it lessens the experience and makes them look weak and uninteresting. Clive does exactly what the villains want him to do, over and over again, intentionally and unintentionally, and it only works out because the villain willed it so. Maybe one game like that would've been fine, like I thought Ardyn was pretty interesting and charismatic as a villain despite how weak it made Noctis look, but while the political side of XVI was copied from Game of Thrones, the Final Fantasy side was copied from XV, while the gameplay was from DMCV, making it seem like the least innovative FF of all time.
3. Story and theming inconsistencies. We are shown several times the theme about "Don't try to do everything alone", but then Clive goes and does everything alone. It's rammed down our throats about the Bearers being oppressed, so what's the ultimate solution? Magically forced homogeneity! Wait, that doesn't seem very applicable or relatable. Mid shows up like everyone knows and loves her (including the player), and even shows up in Clive's dream, when she's mainly just been a quest giver, suggesting there were establishing scenes of her beforehand (maybe at the first hideaway). "8 Eikons for 8 Elements", Ultima sowed seeds for Mythos to collect the powers of the 8 elements, and proceeds with his plan without "Eikon not appearing in this story", which seems pretty dumb on his part. Before Clive deals with his internal struggle, the game shows us Joshua alive and well, so that whole sequence felt overly dramatic, not to mention the promotional material showing him say "Come to me Ifrit!" Was all of this enough to make me hate the story? Not in the moment, but it does make it not hold up to any kind of scrutiny when thinking about it afterwards.
Overall I thought it was like a 7/10 game. Eikon fights were highs, presentation was good, but it was stuck between 2 genres and wasn't brave enough to go all the way (cutting all RPG elements and sidequests), and didn't have the budget or time I guess to flesh out the RPG parts. I liked it overall better than XV, but it ranks pretty low in the series to me. Did it try new things? Maybe for a mainline entry, but not in the scope of video games or the series as a whole, so it can't even take that much credit for experimenting. The Resonant Arc podcast summed it up well when they described it as going to a restaurant and they stopped serving your favorite dish and replaced it with something else that other restaurants make better. Sure it might be tasty, but it's not why you went there, and you could get, in this case, flashy action games with more variety and less padding elsewhere.
One of the best reviews. Good balance of objective and subjective points. Doesn’t need to be exhaustive wasting audiences time, as touches on key points
Agree key issues including lacking core RPG/party mechanics and veering too far away from what makes it a FF game
That aside I think the story itself is just OK with the latter sections falling off from highs w Cid portions. Wish characters were more fleshed out
Combat not my cup of tea. I’m more keen on visceral mechanical physics heavier combat like souls or crunchier gameplay like sekiro/wo long
No game has ever made me feel the way this game did, especially the ending. For that reason alone it is a 10/10 for me. We all tend to be highly critical, especially towards those special film trilogies, prequels, sequels, TV series, Video game series because we hold them dear but often we forget to address or critique via our emotional response.
Did the game have a ton of annoying things and components less fleshed out than others? Sure. But heck, that was one hell of a ride and I was a mess emotionally for a while after. No other game has ever evoked a response like that so whilst thinking purely with the head is great, ignoring that feeling in your heart is highly questionable.
I feel sorry for anyone who couldn't ignore some or all of the negatives because they likely robbed themselves of a truly great experience. Sometimes it's better just to let it go.
Glad to hear you loved the game so much! Just because this is a review and I'm obviously going to give all the criticisms I feel warranted to give, that doesn't mean it can't be a 10/10 for you personally 👍
@@4-8Productions I definitely agree with a lot of your points and this was by no means a shot at you as I know you're trying to be as objective as possible. More aimed at some of the ridiculous hate it's garnered online for basically not being Final Fantasy 7 part 3.0 haha.
this game is good... no doubt about that.
BUT... we knows (old fans) Square Enix can do better.
Maybe when they see the GOTY 2023. Square Enix marketing people ask for a FF Turn based RPG
DLC has to include Leviathan the lost, which I think (if they do DLC with it) that girl who rescued DION.
i only used the 5th timely item, where the doggo acts on his own, didn't really made it easier imo, the doggos heal, at least on my end, wasn't big enough to have any impact, and the damage was never enough to save me anyways. that said, yeah the game is pretty easy, but i had my fun with it :3 probably as much fun as i have with DMC which ... isn't surprising i guess xD
I like your review. I mostly rejoin you on your points, but there some things I want to comment on:
For the side quest, i'm not entirely agree. The side quests you get early in the game are actually good for the most part. The thing is that you always get something interresting out of it plot wise: you understand how Cid helped the bearer, how the bearer used to live, how they help each other during these trying times, and see how Clive react to that. It help you feel more attach to Clive and the environnment of the game and attach to the plot because those side quests hit on a personnal level due to the fact that you are actually talking to people it's not a part of a lore someone tell you. The rewards are trash for sure but it balance out with what you learn about the game. The later Quest are as you said even better. Really in its globality the side quest are really good as you stated.
For the equipment, I think that objectively it's fine. It's a VERY simple equipment system. The new weapon are stronger than the previous one (the weapon you get at Lesage is special so it being stronger than multiple weapon after obtaining it is okay), the new equipment are better than the previous one, the accessories does have an effect (as little as it may be for the most part XD but in Final Fantasy mode the max upgraded accessory REALLY do have in impact on the damage/survivability you get), it make sense and there is no issue on how most of the weapon having the same stat or being weaker than the previous one. It's really just a simple/basic equipment system and objectively it has no flaws since it work as intented and does make your character stronger. Now as a gamer I believe they drop the ball too like you said they should have implemented more things to it, but that's just our feeling to us in how we see equipment system in a rpg, not an issue/flaw from the game itself.
The game does feel like an rpg A LOT. and it's because of the Eikons system. You gain skill point defeating monster or with quest/side quest, buy new skill, and then if you want to unlock more skill, you go grind like in the older FF when you run in circle to grind level. It's literraly the same thing. I find myself doing night session just grinding these and the pay off is amazing because advance skill really do have an effect in game. And mastering it even more you gain so much freedom in how you tackle your battles. Really you got mostly eveything that make a Final Fantasy game with it's focus on character development and "cinematic" scene, you got the FF mythology, The romantic development very well made, the character fighting with you do matter in fight since they pull out of your shoulder the mobs that could sneak attack you from behind (for the most part because some times there are so many that they can't aggro everyone), even if you don't play them It really feels like you have a party with you and that is impressive. Even if the tone is VERY different with less bright/joke moment and joke character like Zell, Barret, the Tantalas crew in FF9, ect... it's really still feel like Final Fantasy. I also think Playing Final Fantasy Tactic help seeing thing that way since the two have a lot of similarities, especially with the tone of the game. Like FF Tactic as a AAA game would also be a +18 rated game.
I think it's all I wanted to say the rest you already said it in your review. Objectively I honestly think the game as no flaws but as a gamer (aka subjectively) I/we can point out a lot of things that could have been better or enhance even more our experience. But it's always easy to think that way when we are only those who experience the thing and not those making it.
That said for me the game is a 10/10. It's not that everything is 10/10, but there is no flaws and the experience the game share us is unique, as in no game give that level of experience, especially due to the Eikons fight, the charaters and their interactions, the satisfiying fights, the ost and the world building, and Ultima who is a FREAKY ASS VILLAIN! He really is a top 5 FF vilian but the issue with him is that it's hard to empathize for him like we do with Ardyn, Kefka or Sephiroth because he is actually a God and we can't understand God ourself. And also the multiple message the game share to the player that are more clear here than in any Final Fantasy game:
Even if they kill God in the game, it's not a message about being a non-believer is the way to go, it's about showing people that as a human, living creature of that world, you have the right to live and die like you want, and nobody should have the right to deny you that freedom (even if they can in some capacity by killing you for exemple), not even your parent who created you, not even God who created the world. And that to gain that freedom you have to fight for it, even if it mean hurting people around you, but even if that is the case, because we all know what pain brings and how it make us feel, we learn how to be compasionate to each other, ultimately bringing us together to a brighter future, Like a beautiful Dawn ultimately showing up after a horrible night.
This game to me is the best FF ever made, even tho it play very differently to other FFs. It propose the best experience out of any FF I played (that's just me okay don't start killing me for it XD).
Excellent review 👍 As the author of the comment re timely accessories I'd like to thank you for explaining rhe context to why it's an issue. If I may add why I was compelled to post it, at that point in the playthrough and stream, it got more and more heated and repetitive. It became too big of an issue and a distraction, especially with chat adding fuel to the fire.
Listening to you now, I fully understand why it's become an issue and I agree with you. I wish those who ampilfy their negativity and lack of common sense about the accessories purpose would wise up, but it's 2023 and that ain't going to happen. So to your point SE should have forseen this and put in a few simple steps to make the purpose and impact of equipping the accessories super clear.
Once again, thank you for the brilliant playthrough and review. Here's to the next installment!
It is a side effect of people entering my stream mid run and asking about it, I have to repeat myself since not everybody heard it the first time. But I hear you and will try to do better to just talk about things at length one time during a playthrough. Thanks for your support!
My issue is that people refer to this game an an RPG! I don't care about the difficulty of the game, and I think the game was beautiful, and the story was terrific, but there were no customization options and no decisions left up to the player. The player was able to choose 4 of 6 magic styles, and that's about it. The leveling is automatic, there was no exploration outside of designated areas for side quests. The character could upgrade their weapons & equipment but it's all just handed to the the player after a specific quests either via shop inventory or very cookie cutter side quest. I agree with that there's no excuse for the fans of the older FF games to act like morons and threatening SqEnx employees, as they're trying to make a game that's going to sell. However, I do think we need to we need to call out FF16 for lacking (practically) all of the RPG elements that have made the franchises so engaging.
Technically a Final Fantasy, but hardly an RPG 👍
This was the first FF I finished and not went back on it again. Not a bad game, but the story is heavy.
46:00 yes to that
Great video, death! Let me preface this by saying I haven't played the game yet. All I've seen from it was on your stream. It did look very interesting however, it felt it might be a bit too much like "Game of Thrones". The soundtrack did the job but didn't stand out and some of the cutscenes felt weird... Nevertheless it looks like a solid and entertaining game.
Looking forward to try it!
Many good points. All of the issues aside, I think this is the best Final fantasy since 10.
I can easily say that FF XVI’s story has been one of the best and most consistent in the series in regards to mainline single player intensive games. I even felt something personal in it in regards to Clive’s and Joshua’s dynamic as brothers (I won’t spoil obviously, but the ending was personally cathartic to me for personal reasons…)
As for gameplay, I wish they kept some conventions from past Final Fantasy games and has more attention to detail and control with your party members. For examples, I wish we could command Jill or Cid to perform their unique skills for combos, or hell even have Clive do a tag attack with party members with the LB gauge or an “MP Gauge”. Despite the missed opportunities, I still thought the gameplay was solid and different enough to fit its tone and pacing.
And of course… speaking of Cid, he’s the best Cid since FF7 Cid (as a party member and a character!)
i've been looking at final fantasy and saying "meh" for years while just playing 7, 8 and 10
I'm definitely one of the guys who complains about the game being WAAAYY too easy and I never touched the timely accessories. I was a little confused why they even added them, when the game really is just SO easy by default and the problem is worsened by the fact you can't access Hard mode until you beat the game. I wish my second playthrough in NG+ was my first, felt like I was watching a movie and just pressing buttons in between cutscene's.
I feel like my second playthrough is spoiled also, because although the bosses finally have even a little bite to them, now I have all the experience, skills and equipment's I attained from the first playthrough and the game is ultimately, STILL TOO EASY!! I love the story, graphics and spectacle but it's really hard to enjoy the gameplay when there's no challenge, which is such a shame because as a DMC fan I think the combat systems are awesome.
I think this game could have benefitted from some actual superbosses or side missions that are scaled to be WAAYY more difficult. The main story can remain as it is for the story and spectacle, but man, not even the current side content really scratches that itch for any challenging gameplay at all. The best I can do is do self-imposed challenge runs, but that just feels too artificial to me.
I really thought the gameplay was a discount version of Devil May Cry. Not even a good style of combat. It really is insanely easy and really shallow at least imo.
Pretty much agree on everything. That's nuts. Really good action-movie game. Not a RPG and not a Final Fantasy game in terms of gameplay.
Idk if square tops Atlus in music but great review all in all
I agree with most of your points, except for the music. It seemed "off" to me. It wasn't epic at right times, it wasn't melancholic at the right times. It felt like someone messed up the ordering of the tracks by one.
Cid was the best:)
Id like to disagree o the lack of a post game.
The game has new game +, Final chronolith trials, online leaderboards, etc.
Seems like a fair review
Great review Death 😊❤
How a game journalist does a reviews: played 2 hours on easy mode.
How 4-8 does reviews: 0:01
"I agree that this game is not similar to the Final Fantasy mold, but that was SE's choice so you are not allow to complain about this online" What? I think if a game dev takes an old beloved IPs name and uses it sell unrelated games that you as a fan dont enjoy that you have been abandoned and have legitimate criticism. Saying that, "well other people like the game" or "the devs told us not to equip those items in blog post #137" is just gas lighting.
Great Review!
honestly this video so succinctly summed up most of my gripes with this game that its hard to think of anything else meaningful to add. I guess the one thing that I can say about my experience with it is the characters. You did mention that the female characters in this game feel powerful, but all I can say is that I don't really feel like it was enough. This game came from the team that made ffxiv, and in that game we had some of the best written characters in gaming, for both genders, and here it seemed like they put all of that talent for character writing on clive and clive only and made all the side characters pretty simplistic in comparison. of course they are still great side characters, but none of them came any close to how detailed clive's story is, and thats not a very final fantasy thing to me. ff7 is entirely about cloud, but all the other characters are interesting enough that you can see them starring in a game of their own, and here i can only say the same about joshua and cid. i also disagree with the people that compare this game to game of thrones because they are clearly more inspired by ff tactics. imo the story is kind of a worse version of tactics, because like tactics it too tried to juggle weird world ending alien threats and politics, only this game kinda flips flops between the politics and the world ending threats in a not so graceful way. it feels like they tried to do the dual main character narrative that tactics did with ramza and delita but with clive and joshua, but we see so little of joshua that the story feels half incomplete and somewhat disjointed. as forthe villain... i cant believe this game's villain was written by the same team that made shadowbringers. i just dont get why they would make the villain so uncompromisingly evil without any sort of justification or attempt at making them sympathetic, because i cant think of any ff villain after 3 that is as one dimensionally evil as ultima. well, maybe ultimecia actually, funny how they have similar names huh?
I think that there is enough mystery to other characters in other games too. Like Tifa's training, or Barret's creation of Avalanche, we would love a dive into those stories because we get hints of them throughout ffvii but we don't get to see them first hand. What would we get with a Jill game, her being locked up all those years? That is all she does between when we see her as a child and when we find her again.
@@4-8Productions I suppose I can get quite biased with how much extra content there is to flesh out characters in ff7 haha, maybe I had unrealistic expectations as to how much story they can cram into the game. I'm sure if there's extra material out there to flesh out Jill the way tifa got, my opinions would change a lot. What we did get in the game though felt quite abrupt, as we kinda just went to her abuser's lair and beat him up until he died. You did mention in your video that there's a lot of expressiveness in the movements that went into the cutscenes, and as someone that isn't as well read on that perhaps I didn't pick up on a lot of these things.
I really appreciate your thoughts and how you expressed them in this review. This game was a 9.5/10 for me so I didn’t specially agree with your personal score but I really loved how you articulated everything you said. The accessibility conversation in the beginning was truly heartwarming as well, my dad had a stroke so these accessory worked well for him also with his reduced hand mobility. Appreciate you!
I was never hyped for this game and its my favorite franchise in gaming. I usually get a physical copy of the game, i saw 1 or 2 trailers and i was like what is this? Still bought it because its named FF, but defo didn't feel like i was playing one.
I thought it was leaps and bounds over everything post 10. And i do prefer the protagonist in 16 over 10's protagonist.
one of the best FF, and clive is top 3 FF protagonist for me
To me FF16 feels like saying goodbye to the stuff that made FF back in the day, in terms of crystals, similar lores etc.. while marching in a new direction to something entirely new if FF17 arrives years from now. at least that's what i think...
I loved the game and don’t get the hate many people have. I played every game in the franchise and think this is my third favourite final fantasy right behind 8 and 10. 8 will always be my favourite 😁
Personally, I didn’t care about the stagger bonus. It felt superficial to me because you’re basically doing the same thing you did to get the stagger bonus to get the numbers up and that’s simply just using the two types of attacks but now it’s reduced to one type.
The battle mechanics demand nothing but use an ability to stagger and then do damage. There’s no point in most of these battles that tell you your offensive attacks are a poor choice with the obvious exception of large monsters who’ll constantly attack until staggered. It’s weird because it’s an action game that has this weird western action game approach where turning your brain off during a fight while being visually entertaining is the standard when it simply doesn’t suit Final Fantasy. A FF game should not encourage players to turn their brain off and just eat eye candy.
You know what recent Square JRPG has better battle mechanics than FF16? Valkyrie Elysium. Not a great game, but it actually has better itemization and battle mechanics than FF16, and it’s a budget title.
A LOT of really good points here... but I have a lot of disagreements. I think that's a good thing.
This game suited a lot of people well... but I don't think it committed to a specific idea or group of gamers. My biggest gripe was the lack of pay off for exploration. Yes there are a few chest and you get the "ultimate" gear from exploring, but it just never felt worth it and more tedious than anything IMO.
I appreciate you're views and can't wait for more videos.
But what about those 2 gil pickups tho
Greetings ...
I´ll make it short and I´m not going into everything... yes, the equiptment was very poor and that you have big areas and find nothing special at all in hidden corners at all was disappointing. In FF9, which I played recently again, the equipment system is a joy. You can steal powerful equipement, you can forge them, find them, you can learn abilitys from them, they had special effects...
But for the cinematic-first playthrough experience? It was something. It was big and epic. And the bossfights and the Music and Benedicta and Annabelle and CId and Joshua and one of the biggest, coolest boss-fights ever. Bahamut ist just an experience.
So I recommend to everyone to play at least the mainstory. About 40 hours. 40 big hours.
But I can´t really recommand the full 100% besides the Mainstory and for me there is not much replay value. At least not in the next few years.
But it was not bad. It was not bad at all.
It´s just ...
It could have been even better...
First playthrough: 8.5-9/10 (really good, but not magical like FF7 or FFX)
I think this game was the final nail in the coffin for this series, for many fans.
Prediction: ff17 sales will do poorly and it will get a score of 9 regardless of its quality.
Fun fact: This game was made in the mold of what was very popular at the time (Game of thrones).
So this game came from the idea of appeal to as many people as possible, not from a persons vision. That is not what I consider as art.
I bought a ps5 and an oled tv just for this game. I couldn't wait for it to be over so I could free up that precious storage space. When footage of the game first came out I had a fear that unfortunately turned out to be true: ultra polished graphics, voice acting and animation, and a big shallow nothingburger for a story. Sad times for the fans.
"It isn't anger -- it's passion"
YES