Having played through pretty much all of the mainline games thus far besides FFXI, FFXVI has quickly become top 3 in the series for me personally. The devs at CBU3 are huge fans of the series, especially the pixel era of Final Fantasy. One of my favorites was always FFIV, and I see a lot of references to that game in 16 among many other classic titles. FFXVI may not be for everyone, but I’m very glad CBU3 gave us an FF that harkens back to a lot of classic FF vibes and themes while providing something new as well. Im looking forward to see what this team does next!
Spoilers ahead: That character death was one of the most well done and emotionally impactful character deaths I’ve ever experienced in a video game. The treatment Joel should have got
My main problem with Final Fantasy XVI is that you can't visit any of the big cities (the ones built around the Mother Crystals). Everytime you get close to one of these cities, you're like "are they doing it? can we finally visit an urban area?" but you can only get glimpses of it during cutscenes. For example, The Holy Empire of Sanbreque. It looks so amazing, but you can only actually run around a field outside of the city, and the only time when you can walk around in it is to fight.
While it would have been cool, I suspect that they didn't do so because explorable cities like those are extremely expensive. And considering FFXVI already cost a lot to produce anyway, especially with the Eikon battles, explorable cities were most likely just not viable to do.
@@dmurray2978That’s absolutely what it felt like. I was so excited to visit the cities showed off in the trailers. All we got is a two minute walk at the beginning of the game through the Kingdom of Rosaria capital, and afterwards, absolutely nothing. Just green fields, forests, and deserts.
@@OnaSotoyea i dont even think its unrealistic expectations either. just more time in the oven was needed and thats how ive felt about a couple of the recent FFs.
That was my main problem too. I'm not asking for a city of the size of a city in Assassin's Creed but just a portion to let you see what is the life like in there and have some interesting encounters with people living there. Besides I like the medieval setting but there were very few details interesting in the "towns". Like that well producing water out of a crystal, that is the kind of world building I wished to see more.
On a technical level, Clive is the most polished character I’ve ever controlled in an action game. Animation flow, style, hit boxes, collision, the physics, variety, EVERYTHING works (like unique Garuda pull on bosses, parrying fancy boss moves), animation cancels, sound design, endless combos, graphical prowess while still being grounded, it was just insane. when people compare it to rebirth having multiple playable characters, I just realize how much this effort went over most players’ heads. I imagine in the future that they will not consider so much polish/effort on one character to be worth it… but that’s a shame.
@@BrittanyFox That’s actually a very good point and one that I wholeheartedly agree with. No HD FF game has the level of polish when it comes to hit boxes and animations. The one thing I always hated in the remake games, for example, was how annoying the “action” side of things can be at times. Dodging, hit boxes, and animations can be pretty annoying depending on the character you’re playing. The actual real-time action is much better in 16 than any game in the series, and I appreciate that they go all in on making it a true action game here.
I think they will, which is why they recruited Ryota Suzuki. If he wasn't there, most ( if not the entirety) of Clive Tech wouldn't exist. I think Yoshida said that if he wasn't there, they'd take a long time to figure it out, and it wouldn't be any better than what they did with Ryota Suzuki.
It went over people's heads because the "character action" combat system in 16 is rather shallow compared to character action games made by experienced developers from that genre. I don't blame just the system itself but the overall balancing in the game, especially enemies. While the system was designed by Ryota Suzuki, he clearly wasn't "the entire" DMC5 system by himself. Those games seem simplistic but there's a lot of thought and balancing that goes on making a game like Devil May Cry, Metal Gear Rising or Bayonetta.
This game still has the most impressive boss fights I’ve ever seen in gaming the Bahamut boss fight was a masterpiece the set pieces, the music, and the build up to the fight everything was perfect
I love this game and the boss fights are very cool but also a little bit to easy for my taste, especially the icon fights. I have to play the leviathan dlc though ^^
I think one of the things that ff16 did extremely well was show a great love story that had a lot of maturity and was handled with the delicate care the characters needed. To date, it’s definetely in my top 3 love stories of all the games and showed much more emotional depth than almost every other one in the series. I do wish they fleshed Jill out more but speaking just purely about the love story, it’s top tier.
My only true problem with Final Fantasy XVI was that it felt like it could have been something bigger and better. For instance, the world is pretty well built with kingdoms, armies, and political conflicts throughout Valisthea, BUT we are not part of it at all. What we are is just a group of people branded as "bandits/heretics" basically, and we spend most of the time either running away from these people or trying to go ninja on them by killing their leader. In that way, I feel we are missing great opportunities for story-building. Let me give you an example of what I mean. Remember the dude who forced Jill to commit off-screen atrocities? Yeah, when I encountered that person in that Volcano island, I didn't even know who he was and Jill was going ape shit about how she wanted to kill him, and I was "Oh, okay, cool". There is no feeling, no build-up for that. You need to read records or reports to know what's going on, and there are SO many examples of this throughout the game that feel like massive missing opportunities. Another problem I forgot to mention, is that they could've added more towns, it feels like the game is just like 3 minor towns, and the Holy Empire and the other very big cities are just places designed for a one-time-only quest. Other than that, the game looks good, music is fantastic as expected, and the main cast is developed really well alongside secondary characters such as Gav who are stellar.
@@MoonlapseOpethianyup, afraid so. They did the same thing with FF15 and FF12. They just aren’t it. They never learn from their mistakes. They have a creative cap that they have maxed at, only capable of creating good enough games. Nothing all timer/masterpiece worthy since FF10. Final Fantasy’s true greatness died the moment Enix took over Soft. All the games we get now are hella incomplete rushed out mids, smh.
"BUT we are not part of it at all." Looks like we played different games. Clive literally changed the world. Have you played all the sidequests? Yes there are fetch quests, but there are also many sidequests that helps with the world building.
Flawed as it is, there is still a lot to love and celebrate about FF16. I would like to see where they can take this style of Final Fantasy game because Creative Studio 3 are passionate about what they do. XVI and Rebirth really restored my faith in Square Enix as developers.
Imho every FF is flawed in one way or another but to me personally speaking. Compared to other FF games past 12, 16s flaws are extremely minor by comparison. Hell I'll even say at worst it's sidequests for example are average for the individual quests but it's quest chains are really good imho. I don't personally think that 16s flaws are as big as people make them out to be.
@@phuklyyve8941 calling DMC combat awful is certainly a confusing take. You can say that you don't understand the appeal of the combat system but calling what is widely considered the best combat system in gaming awful is just......weird?
@@bearcavepro8832 lol i must not understand because if i did understand it id like it? its tedious, button bashing. Dont care that you like DMC. It cant hold a candel to the depth off the ff7 remakes, and if it were so good this game wouldnt be largely critised for it? Just because you like something doesnt make it objectively good, why take this personally? "largely considered the best combat in gaming" Fucking stop lying haha, find me the article or reddit post or whatver that says this lol
i think about this game almost everyday since i blindly played the demo. I’ve never had a game or any other type of entertainment leave such an impact on me
I still believe Leviathan should’ve been in the base game. And that leaving it out because it would cuz it would diminish Leviathan in XV was an absolutely atrocious thing to do
@AICW No evidence it was ever male. It didn’t have a speaking role or a declared gender until late on in the series. Leviathan is based on a female sea serpent from the Old Testament.
I doubt any game for awhile can recapture the experience and magic I had with FFXVI. Epic, Emotional, Adrenaline Fueling, Melodramatic, Beautiful, Sense of Adventure and most of all powerful. It’s not even the most complex and varied game in terms of Design and Mechanics except for the combat but it such a memorable game that’s carried by Masterful performances, Music Composers and Storytellers that’s basically soap opera the video game. Great video! Like to see you do more of these for other games as I always loved critiques especially you’re energy for the games we all love.
@@Jylstin I’m definitely interested in making more videos like this, but it won’t be frequent as these are longer videos that take a long time to make lol. But I’m very glad you enjoyed it because this game does mean lots to me as well!
I'm not even a Final Fantasy fan but I was addicted to this absolute kino. Here's hoping for a PC port cause the PS5 visuals definitely dropped quite a bit in many aspects.
This video you made truly was beautiful. I can see why it took longer to make than expected, it's very well crafted, with lots of your great points, arguments and personal feelings being put out in it, as well as having great edits, in a very inspirational way (approve of your soundtrack samples). Like you, I share the same sentinments of FF16, while far from perfect, and good god, is any game truly perfect (maybe some that are near to perfection or some that the highest highs outweigh any potential lowest lows), it's still a game I would confidently have in my top 3 or top 4 favourite FF games, alongside FFX, FFVI and FFIX. It's an experience I'll never forget.
@@madkaiser4887 Thank you, that means a lot! And yeah, it’s far from perfect, but of course, no game is truly, undeniably perfect. Regardless, this a game that has become very special to me. I understand it isn’t a game for everyone, but that’s also a given with an anthology series such as Final Fantasy. At the end of the day I have my experiences, and I will always cherish them.
This is the absolute best review I've seen on the game. Extremely great work here! I'm in the same camp as you, when it comes to the ending. It's very fitting of Clive to finish the book Joshua began towards the end of the game, and then use his name as the author. Also, like you said, he was the narrator for the entirety of the game. Almost as if he was reading the book to us.
I remember seeing Ben Starr for the first time in the series You, and when I heard him as Clive, I had to pause immediately upon starting this game to check the wiki. He has the range, darling
The game is full of Shonen Tropes actually, I mean the main reason the hero beat the bad guys is basically because of the power of friendship... now I'm not saying this makes it bad not at all, but these tropes are still there, they do however avoid the bad ones (like the hot sources scene for instance), but to be fair while they follow typical Shonen narrative I can't recall of any FF old or new that use these kind of tropes like the Persona or Tales games does for instance.
@@ashleycornwell67 You didn't even play the game. Ultima wasn't an Alien. He was apart a an ancient race of magical beings which 100% fits the medieval fantasy trope. LOTR, GoT, hell even previous final fantasy games had that
That's one of the most reliable videos I've ever seen on Final Fantasy XVI. In 40 minutes you were able to fully summarise and explain what this game truly is. I've already shared your video and given a big like. Like you said, a Final Fantasy isn't tied only to the gameplay. But also to the story, the themes, the characters, the soundtrack and, of course, the CIDs. Thank you again for your video, and happy 1st anniversary to Final Fantasy XVI, my 2023 GOTY ❤
What a great video! Thank you. You captured my feelings on the game almost entirely. I didn't mind the weaker pacing and side quests as I was appreciating how strong the game was when it was telling it's main story. I loved the more mature themes when compared to more campy Final Fantasy characters and stories from other games. The music is probably the thing that elevated this game to my favourite Final Fantasy and one of my favourite games ever. All the best games have incredible music, for me it's a defining feature to draw me into the emotion of the story. The score on show is absolutely beautiful. I don't think there is a weak piece of music in the lot. Greatest music of any video game. I've also often found the turn based combat of older Final Fantasys the weakest part for me. It's the part that makes it difficult for me to go back to anything before XII. Probably why XII was my favourite Final Fantasy when it came out for it's more action focused battle system. I just love this game and hope more and more people can come to appreciate how great of a game it is.
So glad to see such a nuanced take on the game. People seem to feel the need to jump to extremes when it's alright to like a game despite it's flaws or dislike a game while acknowledging what others might like about it. Personally, I absolutely adore Final fantasy 16. Clive is an incredible protagonist. The world of ff16 tests him at every step of the way. He experiences so much tragedy and see's humanity at it's absolute worst. He breaks down, he cries, he feels unsure of himself. He is all of the things that make us human wrapped up in one package, our weakness and our strength. The characters all reflect that too. I know the quests can be tedious but honestly? The reward was worth it imo. You learn so much about these characters and it fleshes them out a lot. If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't have grown to really appreciate and love characters like Goetz and Charon. Final fantasy 16 is just one of those games you gotta experience at least once.
@@mysticalakatsuki4818 Yeah, it’s as you say most people lean so far on one side that they refuse to acknowledge how others feel. I love the game, but I can definitely understand why it is not for everyone. Yet despite its problems m, it still perfectly embodies what I look for in a Final Fantasy, in its story, themes, characters, and bringing a fresh take to the series once more. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea but that can be said with literally any game in the series.
You’re right that people jump to extremes but you just kinda did that as well. To me this game is weird because for everything it does exceptionally well it does something very poorly. Clive is an incredible protagonist but he has probably the weakest antagonist in all of FF. The soundtrack has some of the best themes but a lot of it is repetitive and forgettable. The supporting characters are very strong but it has the worst party system of all final fantasy games. The budget for the cinematics seems huge but it seems incredibly cheap when you’re fighting the same old enemies in the same old zones I so much. The main story is intriguing and gripping up until Barnabas, yet the optional content is the worst in the series. It has the hottest opening quarter in modern RPGs and one of the slowest most slogfest third quarters in all of gaming. It’s like you give it a point then you have to take it away, over and over. Perhaps it just needed more time in the oven.
@@jaybee4288 That's totally fair. I get what people don't like about it. Just because I can overlook the flaws and find the enjoyable parts doesn't mean I think everyone else has to too. Jumping to extremes would be unwilling to accept any critiques about it. I gush because I really like the game, not because I think it's perfect.
@@afrocloud3238 Thank you, my friend! It definitely is unbelievable how fast the year went by, I still remember being beyond hyped when, especially after the demo. Its one of the best gaming experiences I’ve ever had.
@@MoreLimitless_ Yeah. Me too, man. It seem like yesterday when I first put this game into my PS5. And I never took it out until I finished my first playthorugh. This game delivered on our hype and exceeds expectations. FFXVI is truly one of the best gaming experiences of my life!
I'm playing FFXIV with this video in the background and the sound you use for the chapter title cards just makes me look around the game wildly. "I didn't que for anything!"
If you like stoy focus narrative games, then i recommend you Judgment or maybe Yakuza series if you have time. Definitely one of the best story game that i've ever played. If you decide to go for yakuza, you can start from Yakuza 0 (one of my favorites besides Yakuza 7)
After watching the amazing video breakdown and reading the top comments , the only disappointing thing for me is that it feels like because of the loud backlash and online criticism of this game - the praise for the game seems to always have to be framed in that first "while it's far from perfect..." "given all of its flaws...." etc. I agree that some criticism is very valid and the game isn't perfect or for everyone - I just hate to see what I personally consider to be an AMAZING game and final fantasy entry for all the reasons you laid out constantly framed in a negative light. Also some comments saying it needed more time in the oven - it wasn't like it was a broken game on launch - which is becoming more of an issue and to your point - more dev time and fleshing out of walkable cities would have just meant that much higher of an already high budget. Anyways, I digress - loved your breakdown on this!
@@tmart2308 It didn’t need more time in the oven given that it was pretty much the first mainline game in years to come out fully complete, bug free, and highly acclaimed at launch; that in itself is an achievement. I also agree that while the game does have flaws I hate seeing comments starting with “my only complaint” “what disappoints me” “while the game isn’t perfect” I understand more than anyone this game isn’t perfect, but it almost feels like people are forced to say these things to conform to other people. Fuck that. If you like a game, forget what some other people are saying. Let me hear what you liked about the game rather than what disappoints you all the time. It’s okay to voice your criticisms, for sure, but I hate when people make that comment it’s entire identity.
From the first minutes of the video, I had a big smile on my face and thought "yeah, this guy gets it". I understand why some people might have been disappointed with XVI and having certain expectations not met, my sympathies, but I think the highs we got outweigh the lows by a landslide even if it's not a perfect game. FF XVI lives rent-free in my mind because of its memorable characters and inspiring story and I was very happy when it won best soundtrack last year because Soken really deserves the recognition. He worked through cancer to give us some of the best evolutions of classical music in existence today. Small note about the ending (I agree with your take): The lore entry for Ultimalius reads "When Origin was buried beneath the earth in order to absorb the aether it would need to rebuild the world, a great shrine was placed in the sky above it, from which humanity could be looked down upon." I believe that refers to Metia being the mothership which Origin detached from when Ultima first arrived from their dying world. It's always been a bit strange to see a star not moving from its place in the sky to the lower left of the moon no matter its phases, obviously isn't how a star should appear in the sky. Its light fades away too quickly when Ultima's magic finally fizzles out of existence, hinting that it's probably much closer than it appears to be. And last but not least, this wouldn’t be the first time that a Square Enix game featured a red star that the ignorant populace revered, which wasn’t really a star at all.
Recently on a mainline final fantasy marathon and bought this one yesterday. I'm currently finishing FFX so still a few more games to go, but as a guy who only played (and loved) ffvii and nothing else back in the day, god damn what a fun ride has been. I'm looking forward to XVI in the near future.
@@vincentoni. Thank you so much, Vincent! This really means more than you know I’m sure you’ve heard this many times, but you did a phenomenal job, along with the rest of the cast. Thank you for bringing Clive Rosfield to life with your amazing performance!
''Mythos and Ultima translates to Final Fantasy'' Holy shit... you just blew my fucking mind with that one. Final Fantasy 16 was my first true Final Fantasy experience apart from 14. I didn't know anything about it at all and I went into the demo completely blind. This game has one of the best and most effective demos I have EVER seen in a video game. From the first second I was instantly hooked. The story, cinematic cutscenes, the epic scale boss fights and the music make this game truly unforgettable. Bahamut and Titan are definitely my favorite fights. I also really love Clive as character and I loved seeing how much he progressed as the game went on. That being said, this game does have its flaws as you pointed out. My biggest disappointment was the fact that you never actually get to explore any of the main cities despite them being the most prominent points of interest on the map apart from the mothercrystals. Some characters like Jill, Benedikta, Hugo and Barnabas also felt a little underutilized and they definitely could have done more with them. But apart from that, it's definitely up there with one of my favorite games of all time! ❤
The writing, dialogue, and character performances are just next-level not for the franchise, but videogames in general. It can't be understated how this felt like the first true next-gen PS5 game (in that, it had no base PS4 development, it had no back ports, it wasn't constrained by it at all).
I hard disagree, the writing and dialogue were really basic, and the performances are similar to FF14. I truly do not understand how you can say all of this.
Final Fantasy XVI WAS amazing as a story but as an rpg within what this franchise is SUPPOSED TO BE, it missed the mark when it came to content. While the side quests are “nice” and add a lot of levity to the themes of the story there needed to be more in terms of minigames (like Gwent from Witcher or Triple Triad from Final Fantasy VIII), chocobo minigames like maybe leveling up Ambrosia would unlock her as a party member, using her in battle other than just riding on her back. There also felt like a lack of explorable dungeons not tied to just the story. I like the tutorial area in XVI cause even though it was a basic dungeon it was an area that had a particular theme of goblins. I wanted XVI to have more areas like that but I was happy with what we did get in terms of the story dungeons. The main thing I wish for XVI was that there was some kind of resolution to the mystery of Dominants and bearers, we get a quest that talks about how bearers were once at the top of society and then the roles were reversed. It made me want to see how normal humans and bearers could interact now that the magic that kept them from accepting them was gone. But who knows maybe XVI will get a spin off or sequel someday.
Ff12 and ff16 are the best ones I've played so far🤷 The only thing i would have loved to see in ff16 would be been a more flushed out magic/effects system. Like the basic spells in other ff games couldve been added as weapon effects
@@jackplisken4738Shut dude, he likes what he likes and its not anything perverse or despicable. You don’t have to insult his tastes because they don’t align with your own.
I never expected anything from a final fantasy because I'm not interested in a turn based, when I decided to try this game is not only the game that I love the most to this day, Clive really is now my favorite fictional character. Since I finished it, I have never felt the same experience and level of emotion again. It is very nice to think how something that you didn't expect can make you very happy. Nice video ❤
"I never expected anything from a final fantasy because I'm not interested in a turn based" I need you to know that fans of this franchise are not happy with the company catering to you.
I think you misinterpreted my message, said I wasn' t interested in any final fantasy because turn based isn't my favorite type of game, with that I didn't mean the other games were bad, in fact I decided to try ffix and ffx and I loved both. Personally, I can understand why there are people who don't like this game or rebirth due to are very different from the old ones and its other gameplay, but it also ends up being a way to find people like me who might be interested in the franchise and give a chance to the other games
@@ZephyrFatetotally agree, have been a huge fan of final fantasy for 30+ years and FFXVI is my favourite, and FF7R hard mode has been incredible to play, tried a turn based game recently and it’s just boring now, I hope we have seen the back of it. Long may this new style continue
Definitely explained this passionately to the point I can understand you’re understanding but also can give constructive criticism without a bias. Definitely looking forward to seeing more videos of you breaking down games I played, loved, hated or in the middle about. Earned a sub 💯💪
7 месяцев назад+7
Final Fantasy XVI is my favorite game of 2023 and I'm confident it's in my top 5 FF games, weaknesses aside. Great video, man!
16 is definitely better praised than was 15 15 had so much riding on it that it fell flat to most fans I was one of those I love all the work and improvement that were made to 15 and I like 15 now as a game But the long wait from the first trailer up until its release The hype of it living up to Versus 13 The development hell it went to The massive PR push and advertising and multiple source of media that was given to 15 just for a solid game was what led to its downfall 16 felt like a natural release It came out 3 years after it’s first trailer The development was smooth It was advertised well and it was a solid game but it was overhyped
This game is the reason I have a ps5, to this day it is still peak ff to me, only time I got so invested on a ff was ff12 my first game on the ps2 and then the mythical trailer of versus, I still watch yearly.
This is a really great video man! I think you really captured a lot of what I think is both loved and criticized about this game in a really good way that allows for discussion and open ended thoughts. Superb work.
It was a solid game. The boss fights,story,music, and main character were great. But the gameplay could’ve been a little more deeper like dmc, no real magic spells and once you get 3 icon powers and level up it did get too easy
I really enjoyed this game. yesterday My jaw completely dropped during the 2024 game awards because Clive will appear as a DLC guest character in Tekken 8 and face against the best of the best like Jin, Kazuya and many other challengers awaiting for him. Still I wanted Tifa though but oh well 😢 Regardless BEST EARLY CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER
Beautifully put together! FF16 did have its flaws, but I still get chills thinking about its peak moments, characters, and breathtaking soundtrack. Definitely in the upper echelon of FF titles for me. +1 subscriber 👍
Thank you! Yeah, this game quickly became one of my favorites in the series. Everything from it's gameplay, story and characters is everything I look for in a game. I love the emotional maturity of the characters, especially Clive and I think he's an incredible protagonist that represents FF well and shares many similarities to classic FF titles. Some of the moments in this game have some of my favorite moments in gaming ever, and for that FF16 will always be top 5 in the series.
The Holy Empire of Sanbreque... I just stand there until it ends. Lion and the Hare too. Never got tired of Indomitable once the aetherflood happened either. Loved this game for what it was instead of hoping it was something else.
Clive and the boss fights were literally the only things that they did well with in the game, but everything else was just a mess. The game was very lazy and repetitive. I especially felt bad for all of the other characters because of how very disrespected they were treated. They got no time and it's like they all only existed as tools for Clive and not even as their own character, including Joshua. They all had so much potential especially Cid, Dion, Benedikta, Jill, and Barnabas.
@@phoenixblossom2167 I personally loved most of what the game offered myself, but of course I also see its flaws too. They all had more potential aside from Clive who was the star of the show, but I personally didn’t feel like any of them were bad characters in the slightest, even the weakest characters. The lack of screen time and further development of certain characters was the result of this being a Clive centered story. However, despite this, I believe what they were given in the story was still good, characters just needed more.
I think the quest system and loot were not fleshed out perfectly but honestly as far as action games go it’s among my favorites of all time. The Eikon fights were exhilarating and glorious and the combat was so much fun. I’ve played this game 3 times and I am already on a 4th to try to get the platinum. This game feels criminally underrated.
I completely broke down at the end of FFXVI, sobbing like a baby. That final cutscene paired with the music is the most beautiful ending I have ever seen in media. I have never cried so hard. My girlfriend was reading a book next to me and she was startled and started hugging me lol. No game has given me such a memory. What a game. Even dispite its flaws it might be my favorite singleplayer game ever. The characters and acting is on another level.
The thing about final fantasy is that the combat in each game is unique especially for the newer ones it’s rare to see a system return, u want classic turn based then play 10, u want a faster paced turn based then play like 8 or 9, u want action play 16, as someone who’s recently been grinding out games like sekiro elden ring and ds3 it’s so exhilarating to play 16 even more so than i feel with dmc4
This is probably my favorite ff in terms of gameplay i liked the combat better than 7/rebirths. I love that you can freely choose and put together combos rather than waiting for ATB charges
Actually in this game all you do is waiting for charges, because base attacks are a joke ) Imho, they already had better action combat systems, in KH or even in SoP. I like 16 for the story, lore and characters. But the gameplay is NOT a best part of it. It's a cheap copy-paste from DMC5, broken by cooldowns, without any sensible role-playing system, depth, mini-games, or in general any of JRPG elements.
@@pyccku212so what's the difference? In the first case, final fantasy have never been a very complex game that need you push 10 buttons at the same time. If you don't like it then just piss off
Clive's uncle is easily one of the best characters in the game. He's a laugh riot, he knows how to party, and he's a wonderful foil to the very serious and haunted Clive. He's also a loving family member who could have easily turned on him when he realized he was alive. My favorite scene in the game is still when Clive recites the play in front of his uncle to reveal who he really is. I had hoped that the game had been more of an RPG, as a long time FF fan, but I still really enjoyed it (though I do think the back half of the game felt kind of truncated).
It cleanse my soul everytime I watch someone speaking good things about a Final Fantasy game while also acknowledging where it is lacking without treating it like a total failure (I love FF13 and 15 so you must get where I am coming from lol) - 16 is far from being my favorite of the franchise but I had an absolute blast playing it and what I felt during the Bahamut fight I probably will never feel again in my life
@@cynthiadiniz419 I believe every Final Fantasy has its many strengths and weaknesses. Being able to recognize this, I think, is not only fair to the game but the developers. No FF is truly perfect, they have flaws, and I think now more than ever the fanbase is so quick to hate and point out negatives about the game and totally disregarding what the game does right. When people get so caught up in the flaws of a game without acknowledging it’s strengths, I think that does a huge disservice to developers, the game, and I don’t believe anything should be totally one sided when you’re doing an analysis or review of said game. FF16 has become one of my favorites personally, but I don’t just talk about why I love it. As a fan of 16 who’s played it numerous times, I will be the first one to come to terms that it is not a perfect game by any means, and I think recognizing those flaws and coming to terms with that has only emphasized why the strengths of FF16 are so special to me personally.
@@MoreLimitless_ Yesss that’s so true, loved your analysis! No Final Fantasy is like the other, you’re entitled to like more the latest, the first you played, the remake, the original or whichever resonates more with you without disregarding the rest, and honestly being this unique in each new entry is the greatest strength of the franchise to me, and I’ll always be thrilled to see the next number
Final Fantasy 11 was my absolute LIFE for a while. That game held me for so long and will forever be one of the most special games of my entire life... the memories that game made will never be forgotten....
My main gripe with the game design wise is the lack of meaningful side content, which is weird coming from me as I normally b-line things as im a story enjoyer before anything else. But with the extended downtime between major arcs in the game feeling like the bad kind of side content, the lack of any dungeons, puzzles, or meaningful extensions of combat really make b-lining 16 the only enjoyable way to play. I get the the side quests mainly aim to give more lore and perspective but given that I played every side quest but found only like 5 out of the 76 be enjoyable, it kinda makes the other 71 pointless. Not to mention that non-super abilities don’t scale well into higher difficulties. I hated how easy the game was so when I went into Final Fantasy mode, it was disappointing that the combo abilities didnt feel good at all and the only setup that stays viable is lightning rod, will o wykes, and filling the rest of your slots with supers (which i find boring and i think we should have been limited to 1 super at any given time). Story wise my enjoyment took a dip after the second time skip, everything felt too on the nose and it lost a lot of its urgency along with expecting us as the audience to care for all of the filler side characters while sidelining the main cast. I like Jill anytime she’s actually on screen, but since thats like 15% of the game she just feels like an after thought. I don’t mind that she can’t fight all the time because she’s ill, but not that that means she doesn’t get anything to do at all. Which is my last major thing, as much as im all for each numbered entry being its own thing and not being pigeon-hold to specific mechanics, there being no real party gameplay wise destroys the final fantasy of it all. Even in vanilla 15 you still interacted with the rest of the boys and actively fought with you but you can barely even see your teammates in 16 much less feel any impact from them at all. As much as i disagreed with the, “this isnt final fantasy” discourse, there being a lack of a party really made it feel generic and, “not final fantasy” for me. That being said, I remember enjoying 16 from minute 1 to 2nd time skip like it was the greatest thing ever and I still love the game to bits for it. But the last half is where my patience wore thin both gameplay and story wise.
@@jaybee4288exactly. They were epic no doubt, but I found some of them dragged on for too long. A world as depressing as this is bound to have some fun places like Wall Market in FF7. In fact, we come across a place that probably would be like it, but they don't let you go in and engage with it.
It feels like they made a really fun, bombastic, badass 15-20 hour long action story game then realized that it’s a Final Fantasy game so they had to stretch it to 50 hours and put hours and hours of “”open world RPG”” gameplay in between the major story beats. It just leads to a wildly inconsistent experience
I also am at a complete loss at how the game is 50 hours long yet I felt like I still barely knew anything about the world of Valisthea. If you asked me what happened in between hours and hours of downtime in between the occasional huge badass story beats I legitimately couldn’t tell you. All these cool cutscenes and a bible of lore about the different empires but it feels like the game doesn’t actually let you engage with any of it. Do you even go into any of the big cities in this game? All I remember is empty fields and sparse villages that blur together
Huge text incoming. I don't expect anyone to read, but hey.. I had the time and I like to wrinte, so here it goes: I have a lot of problems with XVI when it comes to gameplay and level/world design. The game has a good story and while the true villain and "big mystery" is cool and works, it's also somewhat of a trope in stories where fantasy/scifi mix. The characters are great, the cutscenes and boss fights are superb. I'll start with the combat. You're right that the combat system itself is mostly fine, what brings everything down is the systems around it. Not only generic enemies are too weak to incentivize skillfull play and combos, the ability system heavily inventivizes the incessant spam to destroy encounters in seconds. Then, when "elite enemies" and bosses show up they committ a huge sin in the "character action" genre, which is to create artificial difficulty by removing mechanics from the combat system. For example, most of the Elite enemies and bosses can't be juggled and have super armor, powering through your moves and punishing you for trying combos (which also incentivizes just using your openings to use Abilities instead of moves), that alone instantly kills 70% of the depth of the system. Hence why ability spam and parrying are the best strategies against bosses... because they're also pretty much the only strategy. The combat system itself is okay but even though it was made by Ryota Suzuki, it became pretty clear that just one man doesn't make and entire game. While the game has all the core systems (cancelable animations, i-frames, parries, juggles, etc), it lacks deeply in character moveset. Clive having just one melee weapon moveset and one ranged weapon moveset really throws a wrench on the system. One might argue that the Eikons are the "weapons", but they trully aren't, they're "unlockable abilities". Now the worst part of the game, the level and world design. I won't hold back the words here, it's just miserable. XVI feels like a PS3 game, and no I'm not talking about graphics, of course. I'm talking about the fact that the absurd amount of invisible walls in the open world areas and lack of exploration is very baffling. It sounds cruel to say this about a Final Fantasy game but this is the "most open, linear game" in the market. Clive can't jump over anything, even the smallest ledges, the itemization of the game is so bad that the rewards of exploring 99% of the time isn't worth it. And what is heartbreaking is that the biggest argument against XVI, is 7 Rebirth, which is the precise opposite of this. You can jump almost everything, there are usually means of traversal that makes you cross bodies of water or climb hills. That makes me feel, not angry at XVI, but almost sad about it. Almost as if it was set up to fail with all of it's budget allocated to 7 Rebirth. Which leads me to the dungeon level design, this one is inexcusable. Square Enix is a good 14 years behind when it comes to dungeon level design. I'm not kidding nor exaggerating, it's comparable to PS2/PS3 games. Every dungeon is made up of corridors that lead to elevators that leads to another corridor that leads to simple 2 way path, with one usually leading to a dead end making you go back and just take the other path. It's terrible, it's Tartatarus (Persona 3) levels of simplistic, it just looks a billion times better. Note that this isn't just an issue with XVI, pretty much every FF game is still stuck in the FFX/FFXII level design. They are completely out of touch in this aspect. Conclusion: I would say that XVI is a game that tries to appeal to everybody and ends being for no one. I'm not saying "No one likes XVI", but I am saying that when you think about playing XVI again, there are usually much better games depending on which specific aspect you want to experience. If you want the combat, you can play Devil May Cry, if you want the exploration you can play Rebirth. The only "unique" aspects of the game is the story (you simply can't replace story.. you either like it or you don't) and the boss fights. The game has little to no RPG elements, it's combat system although good, can't compete with action games made by Capcom, Platinum or Team Ninja, the world is not that fun to explore and most side quests aren't interesting. The result is a game that would've been a lot better if it had 50% or even 60% of it completely cut from the final product. I say this because this is a 50 hour long "Devil May Cry" game, except there's a reason games like Devil May Cry are usually short (like 10 hours long) and very replayable. To me personally, XVI would be better if it was structured like a DMC game, meaning "cutscene at the start of a mission, walking around a bit killing enemies, boss fight, cutscene, end of mission". Straight to the point. Which is interesting because that's EXACTLY what the demo was, like... that castle/tower section that leads to the Garuda fight was (by coincidence or not) a perfect slice of what a "Final Fantasy May Cry" could've been. Instead those sections are like 20% of the game with most of the game being just fetch quests, and filler content between major story moments (you know what I'm talking about) that you desperately wanted to skip to get to the next big set piece moment. I would say 40% of XVI is a 8.5/10 character action game but the other 60% is the most bland and boring 5/10 action RPG I've played. There is a great game underneath all the rubble and as funny as it may sound, a Director's CUT with most of the game completely removed would end up being a better product. Actually, the "time attack" mode that unlocks after you beat the game is pretty fun for this exact reason.
@@phoenixblossom2167 Yea.. honestly, it’s baffling that Square Enix is making meetings to figure out why FF hasn’t been selling well lately. And it never crosses their mind the fact that they’ve been going against fan feedback for more than a decade. Nobody liked 13, they went and made 2 sequels. Not only people didn’t like the direction 15 went, the game itself was incomplete at release. And now this is the FF16 we got. Remake and Rebirth are good games but the FF brand is in shambles at this point. Nobody has any faith in it.
@@Ocean5ixBeing compared to a ps2/3 game is great in my book. I prefer the linearity of the world and simple dungeon design since I just want to fight enemies. It's much better than the open world slop we have today. And I do agree it'd be much better if it was structured like a DMC game cause the fetch quests are boring. I have to disagree with you regarding what you said about just playing DMC if you want the combat, though. I tend to view 16 as a much more chill version of DMC. It may not have as much depth compared to it but there's still some pretty cool spectacles you can pull off without having to do crazy inputs whereas if I want something more technical with more skill involved I'll just play DMC. It just depends on my mood.
@@Merk1387 Oh for sure, can't argue against preference. It's just that for a game that marketed itself as at least "semi open world" with the devs mentioning God of War 2018 and Ragnarok as inspirations, the game was very disappointing. I also agree that a lot of times, comparisons with PS2 games are great. A good example is the Yakuza franchise, which still has that PS2 feel/jank to it that makes us remember the PS2 days. That said, I think when it comes to dungeon level design there's no way to justify how simplistic it is in 16. It feels like Square never learned how to make 3D dungeons in these games because it's not just the PS2, the PS3 13 games also had this problem, the 7 Remake also has this problem. Their dungeons not just lack in level design, they also lack artistic design to hide how linear they are. I can agree with your combat argument. It's easier to look cool in 16 than it is in DMC5.
Imagine owning Final Fantasy…. Final Fantasy.... and coming out with “we want it to be like god of war and devil may cry”. Final Fantasy shouldn’t be trying to be something else, other things are trying to be final fantasy. Imagine if the God of War guys came out with “I want God of War to be more like final fantasy”. Or GTA deciding they want to be a bit more Sekiro. Final fantasy will sell well the moment they put out a trailer/demo of a final fantasy game. Not an alternate universe “remake”, not a devil may cry clone, not Crisis Core with updated graphics. Give us a new game with varied zones like Costa del Sol and Balamb garden, with a cast of 6-8 characters we get to customise and control, with a soundtrack that includes memorable themes for each character, with cities we can visit and systems we can use and secrets we can find. And it will sell. Baffles me that the people making final fantasy don’t seem to like final fantasy beyond its summons and monsters.
@@Ocean5ix What exactly do you want out of the dungeons? They're DMC or character action style levels minus the pointless platforming. They're there for you to engage with the combat and nothing more, straight to the point and the game is confident in it's combat system and so much better for it. Imagine adding platforming in a Doom game... oh wait... Uhh, imagine adding tons of pointless boring mini games in your action RPG... oh shit. FF7 Rebirth gets shit on for its mini games and Doom Eternal for the bad platforming that doesn't belong there. Also just to add a little context I agree with everything else you said, I find the combat mostly shallow and the balance is a joke, not just difficulty but abilities as well. Once you're halfway through the game you'll never have any reason not to just spam ultimates on rotation and ultimaniac mode while tough is so poorly slapped together and also requires 2 playthroughs to get to anything even remotely challenging. The game has a DMC foundation with all the nuance removed and replaced with God of War 4/Ragnoraks and it does not work for me. Maybe the dungeons would work better for you or more people if the combat was more engaging.
My only major gripes with the game truth be told were the side quests and the ending which is more of a personal matter rather than an objective one. But being objective about things for the 50 hours I got out of the game I'd argue its an absolute kickass blast that lets you handle it almost any way that one could want with there only being one character, who plays like multiple different ones at the same time making your options feel almost endless when it comes to picking out Eikon abilities. My main issue was just that I couldn't be bothered to go around and deal with all the small side quests that boiled down to "Ermm hey Clive, I need these dingleberries from this specific plant on the Dalmekian coast can you get them?" Wherein you just fast travel to the location or as close to it as you can, fight the handful of enemies it spawns for you, pick up the items, then return back to wherever the quest giver is and collect your reward. And this wouldn't be an issue.. if it wasn't every single side quest in the game with there only being a select few I actually liked like the one where you reunite with Ambrosia. I will however say that the main story aside from one instance where they had you fast travelling around all of Valisthea to talk to people and do some small fights was absolutely amazing, from the music, the characters, the emotions, the motivations all of it comes together to make what is seriously one of the best action story games I've ever had the joy of playing. I literally just call the game "hell yeah" simulator because the Eikon battles are just that, you screaming hell yeah as you literally fight on the edge of space vs a dragon shooting literal death lasers at you.
I miss being able to talk to random NPCs and exploring cities like in X and XII. Everything feels just dead or zombified. The combat is great at the beginning but by the end you are just spamming the same abilities. It's both a good and bad game.
I disagree with the combat. Sure, you can spam abilities but this is a stylish character action game that wants to to experiment. Practicing combos and getting creative, playing at a high level is where the combat shines. You can certainly just ability dump through the game, but really, where is the fun in that. It is why I say the combat is a reflection of the player pretty much like any action game. You get what you put into the combat and if you spam and ability dump then that's simply a choice in a number of other different ways you can get creative and play at a higher level. This is speaking from someone who's been practicing with the combat since release.
I just started this game but wish I played it sooner. I get there are some criticisms but this game is essentially the love child of Game of Thrones, Devil May Cry and Godzilla with the usual Final Fantasy charm. What’s there not to like?
I really loved FFXVI. I didn’t mind the fully action-based battle system. I don’t get the “isn’t an rpg” thing, but I guess that means something different to each person. My favorite thing about FF is the difference between the titles-what makes each game unique. My biggest issues with the game were the lack of enemy variety and the poor loot/treasure systems. I feel that improving these two aspects would have nullified a lot of other complaints in the game. I played the DLC and loved it. Makes further playthroughs that much more worthwhile. Can’t wait to replay on PC and hopefully XBOX. My favorite track in the game is Control btw.
I agree for sure. It is still an RPG, however, it lacks depth in those systems that people are used to in other JRPGs. Exploration, looting, and enemy variety in mechanics were all dumbed down so that people could focus on the story, and that, imo, was a bit overdone. Still though I loved the game despite it's problems and no game is really perfect at the end of the day.
Those criticisms you mentioned are part of the rpg criticisms. If it’s not going to be an rpg then don’t put in those half assed mechanics and stretch the story/barebones combat out over 50 hours
Starting to watch this. Before I do, I'll just say I vastly preferred the battle system in the FF7R games, those games perfectly and brilliantly translated the turn-based ATB system into real-time (which filtered a bunch of people who wanted an action game), while XVI attempted an actual action game but to me lacked BOTH the systemic depth of an RPG and the tight execution depth of an action game like DMC5. To me XVI tried and failed to take a FF game into real-time, while FF7R beautifully succeeded even if it went so hard at that idea it got misunderstood by many players, with XVI trying for a more mass appeal but failing to execute on it. That's my general take on the combat system without going deeper into it.
I have to disagree there and I go further into that in the video as to why I feel that its a great combat system. I respect your thoughts on this though.
I just finished the game and to say im mixed is an understatement. The plot just stops trying and really goes in a direction I dont care about. Nearly all conflicts are just resolved after a few filler quests and bossfights. What was a phenomenal setup in the 1st half turns into a slog near the end, all mystery and intrigue and twists n turns are just gone. It was just...dissappointing. Awesome bossfights, love cid, but clive and jill were not characters I got invested in. I feel no motivation to play the dlcs.
@@flymasterkyle1277 I dont like the music tho, and im tired of spectacle bossfights. Maybe in the future. And I love sokens work in FF14, but I remember none of the music in 16 and aside from the titan theme all of it is orchestral movie music, which I am personally not a fan of.
im so happy to have been trought the game without getting spoiled on anything, what includes the powers and dominents. rlly gave the game a diff feeling, not knowing whats going on or whats coming
The Funny part is that FF 16 really is the most LOYAL one to the really classic era of final fantasy, if you could make final fantasy 1 and 2 in current realistic graphics those games would totally look like FF16, and i´m talking about everything, the protagonists, the villains, the towns, the world, the weapons, etc., the "medieval" look of FF started with FF 1 and 2, also they gave a big important to swords in those first 2 games, the excalibur and the blood sword, they kept the importance of the sword in "Seiken Densetsu" their first final fantasy action rpg for the gameboy., final fantasy 4, tactics, 11 and 14 kept the serious medieval look, 9 was more in line with 3 and 5, with that cartooney medieval look, i still miss the turn based because i like to think in strategies, and i´m not a fan of action rpgs but FF16 was really a very throw back to the roots of the franchise for sure,
Agreed. I feel like most don't actually realize how much 16 pay homage to classic FF in some of it's narrative. Perhaps the most classic feeling game we've had for years, and you can tell a lot of the blood from the first 5 FF entries, and even Tactics are woven into the feel of the world, how the story presents itself at times.
I wish it also took some elements from IV like temporary playable characters akin to Yang or Tellah, Dion and Cidolfus were way too cool to simply be... Kingdom Hearts' assist characters.
This may not be the best Final Fantasy, but this is my Final Fantasy game. Similar to those who love 7, 10, 9, 4, and others I didn't mention. A lot of people can reasonably argue that we haven't had a truly great entry in the series since 10 on the PS2. This game is incredible and I will always love it.
Watching this makes me think we didnt play the same game. Combat felt like i just button mashed til the ability cooldowns reset and then i walked forward until i got to the next arena. It felt small in scope and could have been Vagrant Story 2 and no one would know the difference. Outside of Cid, no other characters clicked with me so the story never really hit. Which was a shame because the demo really felt great and tightly written but everything after just kinda drug on. Im glad people liked it but it didnt feel like a final fantasy game to me.
@@davehoffman515 Some people have different experiences, and what I believe makes up an FF game will be different from someone else’s opinion of what an FF game is. As I mentioned in the video, FF to me is not just gameplay-it is a perfect combination of so many different art forms that culminates into FF. Every title will be different and as long as it holds to similar themes of the series (which in my experience it does very well) than it is FF to me. But I respect that it won’t be for others and that is absolutely fine, but that was not my experience and I enjoyed this Final Fantasy entry.
I guess I’ll go against the grain here and say that I found this game pretty disappointing. This is coming from someone who spent the past few years getting hyped for it to be one of the first games I got on ps5 when I could finally afford one. I want to really love it but I just can’t, it’s just okay. Everything about it just feels like wasted potential to me. Clive is badass, amazingly acted, the story and presentation when it’s firing on all cylinders is absolutely insane, but man… once you get out of the first few hours you realize that the highs come with low lows. For every insanely badass 15 minute boss fights that blow you off your feet and remind you that this is next gen you get 5 straight hours of absolutely dreadful game design with boring open world/design that has you just walking around empty fields and villages with Clive’s character model robotically staring as an NPC drones on and on telling you to go do something. I feel like this game would have been so much better if it just embraced being a 20 hour linear story based action game like a God of War or something. It’s clear that’s what they wanted to do. But instead it feels like it’s trying to do that and be a Final Fantasy RPG and it just leads to both sides being lukewarm to me. if you’re going to go full action mode then go all fucking in, balls to the wall, make it like devil may cry. Instead it feels like baby’s version of Devil may cry… you can do a FEW cool chains here and there but none of it is necessary… if you want to the game is completely fine letting you sleepwalk through it doing the basic square triangle square triangle combo you learned in the first 5 minutes. I had to go out of my way to learn the few combos I could just to keep myself from getting bored, not because the game encouraged me to. Even when you pull something off it feels frustratingly… shallow? Like knowing that’s it, the iceberg doesn’t go deeper. It’s just not satisfying at all for a game that’s trying to be a 50 hour long RPG. It doesn’t hold up for that long. I’ll put it this way, DMCV combat had like 5x the combat depth but it’s 5x shorter in total. I’m not saying it HAS to be like DMCV, but point being you can’t take a combat system that barely changes or grows outside of the first 2 hours and stretch it into 50. That would barely hold up for the 10 hour brawler action game. ALSO I find it really fucking annoying that the game is so easy it feels like every combat encounter by the time you get into the zone and start popping off with combos the fight is basically already over. that definitely does not help its case at all. Then in the boss fights you can’t do a lot of the juggling combos. It leads to pulling combos off feeling like some cheap trick just to do for fun rather than something that’s actually helpful. It’s usually just more efficient to spam perfect dodges and whatever eikon ability you have up next. I feel so conflicted because the world is so fucking cool, I love that it’s finally a darker grittier medieval setting, and the opening makes you think it’s going to have Game of Thrones scheming and stuff, but no… it feels like you’re just scratching the surface. On one hand I look at mechanics like the active time lore, the one table in the hideaway that has breakdowns, timelines, character trees, but then on the other hand it feels like they put more effort into that then actually making a fleshed out rpgs, better quest design, progression or loot that feels rewarding, or even just making an action game where you don’t feel like you’ve learned everything there is to the combat system in the first 2 hours. It’s like how people always circlejerk about the parkour in AC Unity watching RUclips clips of how cool the animations look but in game it’s extremely frustrating and inefficient to pull off and that doing the basic holding R2 and running straight up every wall is going to be faster and less obtuse every single time. Sounds overly negative but I’d say the game is like a 7 to me, I struggled to play through it in the second half which is just a terrible sign for me
What bothered me the most is Joshua's role in the later game. Where was he this whole time? Why didn't he contact Clive for all this time? Why does Clive never ask him this stuff. They keep insisting that he is sick and dying but he goes ALL out multiple times with no consequences. By the end I was convinced that Joshua was Ultima posing as Joshua, or that he created a fake, because Joshua obviously died. But it turns out to be some unexplained miracle, like they took a U turn mid production and decided to revive him but didn't bother explaining why. It just cheapens Clive's resolve and the meaning of his back story. I mean he live in excruciating pain for what he did for such a long time, and that is what made his character, but oops! Turns out his pain was pointless and Joshua was just chilling and learning history, even though we know Joshua knew that Clive was alive. I screamed at the screen "ASK HIM WHERE HE'S BEEN ALL THIS TIME", but Clive just seems happy enough he is there, no questions asked....
The reason he was avoiding Clive, and his reason for being away in general was to keep Ultima away from Clive and by extension keep Ultima in check. It was also explained how he survived and what he was doing all that time when you visit Tabor to meet up with Jote. Joshua explains that he was saved by the undying, a secret group that serves under Rosaria that only a few higher powers know of. In that time Joshua learned about Ultima and his plan for Valisthea and the Eikons. The way I see it, he only separates himself from Clive because he thinks that he can handle that burden himself which is in line with his character. The way I interpret Clive not asking Joshua where he has been is that he already knew that Joshua was also in search of Ultima after the events at Drakeshead. And later in the story at Tabor, they fully explain what Joshua was up to. I think ultimately when they meet up, Clive was just relieved to see his brother again, and wanted to focus on how to stop Ultima rather than catching up on the past, since the game naturally gets there anyway when you learn about the undying.
@@MoreLimitless_ Thanks for the detailed explanation! Something about the circumstances makes me have a hard time taking some of the explanations given by the game seriously. Like Joshua being saved by some new group no one knew about feels a bit cheap after we saw Ifrit rip him apart limb from limb. Joshua being frail in the first place just makes this pretty unbelievable to me. It feels that reviving Joshua was a decision made much later in production and these feel like convenient excuses to have it make sense. I'm not sure if Ultima thought that Clive was dead but surely he was aware that he is Ifrit. Whether Joshua letting his brother live with the guilt of murdering his brother is worth it to keep Ultima away from him seems like a very avoidable dilemma by the writers. I admit the Phoenix+Ifrit combo to defeat Bahamut was reaaaally badass but in some ways I feel the game's narrative could have been stronger without Joshua ever making a return, however bitter that may seem. But you know, this is just a one mans' opinion and I appreciate you giving me the explanations.
The idea of the fire brothers is always the backbone of the game, so never thought Joshua's survival was a later decision, and the entire plot from Benedikta was all because Joshua lives, removing him would've changed the whole plot or narrative less logical. But I understand your opinion, I think Joshua's story after PG is underutilized, how he survived is only mentioned in a few un-voicing dialogue when you have a conversation with Cyril before Origin (make sure completed Undying side quest), besides in Ultimania (guide book published only in Japan) Joshua wasn’t chill, he was in a coma for 5 years, and spent years to fully healed, practicing swordsmanship so he could protect himself. Joshua only knew that Clive was alive 3 years before the events of the game, and during that time Undying planned about assassinating Clive by suspected him of being Ifrit and Joshua stopped them. According to Maehiro, they cut out Joshua's and Dion's pov storyline, so a lot of details were left to side content. About Joshua’s alive is cheapen Clive's backstory or make his suffering pointless, I have different view. In those 13 years Clive believe it wasn’t him the murderer, he just failed protect Joshua and Clive also couldn't find a chance to desert so hatred was what gave him reason to survive, if Joshua appeared, it meant that the truth about Ifrit would be exposed. Knowing that he was Ifrit that Clive has to face his true sins, not only for killing Joshua (almost actually) but also he killed his mentor and many others at Phoenix Gate, as well as destroyed lives of others, including Jill. And so, Clive still has to face his sins, fight his shadow, as Joshua's forgiveness was never difficult for him, he just didn't dare to face himself.
What a fantastic step in the right direction. Final fantasy has felt so lost for so long, but I feel like the combat, characters, voice acting were maybe my favorite ever. I feel like quests and exploration are more easily fixed than something like a combat system
FF 16 is the best final fantasy since the SNES/PS1 era. It was the first time as an adult it just made me lose myself in a story and world, with new combat and characters. Fantastic game, and maybe one of those most amazing looking games ever made. The story pulled no punches, too.
I wish they would add a new mode to this game that increases the difficulty and allows us to have 4 Eikon slots. This is the best game I have played since Shadow of the Colossus. I really wish for more content in the future.
Despite XVI not being a perfect game, I can confidently say that Clive is my favorite FF protag of all time (followed closely with the 7R version of Cloud), he really is the highlight of the game for me along with the Summons
Fantastic video. Thank you for sharing such a well structured and thoughtful review of what makes this game special. One of my favourite games of all time, and… the music! Just phenomenal. Let us not overlook one incredibly important part of this game which isn’t mentioned here… Torgal. Truly, the finest of hounds 😀
I feel it's a missed opportunity to not make characters like Jill or Joshua* playable, or at least more engaging. It would've played better with the theme of working with others in XVI. This is where I will give points to XV. *Yes, there are points in the fame you play as Joshua, but they are very few and arguably negligible.
1 year since my favorite game of all time is crazy. I’ve followed it since its reveal. Most hype I was ever for a game. I’m so happy I got to experience this masterpiece. From beginning to end.
@@PostParodyClarity I don’t think it will tbh man and I hate that for y’all. Your best bet is to either get a PS5 for it or wait until it comes to PC. Console exclusivity is outdated but it’s still where we are.
Man, what an excellent video! 👏🏽 Beautifully crafted but I had to skip the DLC chapter for the vid tho. You inspired me to finally go and finish it. I did the Echos DLC but not the Tide yet. 1 year Anniversary,.. what better time than now.
I'm still not a big fan of the ending, the main villain, how some characters were handled, the lack of rewarding exploration and rpg mechanics, the MMO style fetch quests that added very little beside stopping the pacing to a halt, Clive's standard sword moveset being so limited, Ifrits moveset being *even* more limited, and the use of a mechanic as unengaging as cooldowns in a fast paced hack n slash game. Most people say i dislike the combat because it is an action game, but rather its the opposite, i dislike it because it's not action *enough* . No amounts of skilled play will get the cooldowns back any faster, getting rewarded for waiting just isn't very exciting, the moveset being limited to only 6 abilities at a time doesn't help either. But i agree with you that that combo potential is still very large, i myself did have the most fun styling on enemies and swapping between builds despite my gripes with the limitations. And i can admit it is a well made game that succeeded at a lot of things it tried to do, even if i wasn't particularly a fan of them. I liked most of the characters and the boss fights were some of the most hype thing ever, some real Asura's Wrath energy there. I’d say better than XIII and XV as in its a complete game , but the complete game itself it’s aggressively middle of the road both as an action game and an rpg. Making you pay $25 DLC for a $70 game also rubbed me off the wrong way, just because it is normalized in modern gaming didn't make it any better, especially since it added such little content compared to some of the other games from Square Enix themselves, i expected them to be better than this. My first two playtrough were the most fun, unlocking more abilities and experimenting with all kinds of different combos, its only on the third playtrough i started noticing all the flaws. Despite all that i do believe this is a very high quality game that a lot of people would enjoy.
YES. Thank you! In terms of combat and gameplay complexity it feels like a demo or proof of concept of a Devil May Cry game that got stretched out to 50 hours. The sense of progression is horrible, you learn pretty much everything is to combat in the first two hours besides adding in 2 different color eikon attacks every 5 hours. The game is so easy that you aren’t even encouraged to actually learn and engage in the combos. I had to go out of my way to force myself to learn some because I was so bored of the same exact “dodge, dodge, square triangle square triangle square triangle” loop over and over again that I had learned in the demo. Even then by the time you get some stuff going the enemies are usually dead anyways. A *real* action game like DMC5 has 5 times the gameplay depth while jam-packing it into a game that’s 5 times shorter. Thats what makes it fun. As opposed to this game where you spend 30 minutes walking around an empty valley to find 4 random soldiers to pull maybe 2 combos off before it’s over.
Wish listed, waiting for the initial reviews for the PC port before buying. I realllly wanted to play it when it launched and have been waiting for the PC release since then. But like any PC ports, I always, always wait to see if its at least somewhat optimized. I would be surprised tho if SquareEnix (almost typed Squaresoft, damn I'm old) gave us a bad port.
Imma be real, I feel like Jill was the most compelling and well written character next to Clive. Imo she has more development than people give her credit for, and she still has direction and an arc that goes somewhere following through right to the end of the game, it's just relatively subtle and told through little moments/dialogues rather than another big setpiece like the Iron Kingdom. I keyed into so much more during my second playthrough, her writing is actually really good and she's much more of a three dimensional character than even Joshua. Unfortunately she suffers the most from the writing issues in the third act, and there are some big issues with her execution ofc. I think if she had just that little bit more she would have landed better overall. Show her curse, emphasize it and her need to start taking care of herself by having her fight Titan with Clive instead of what happened at Rosalith, dig a little deeper into her relationship with Shiva, etc.
@@f-b420 That is exactly how I feel about her character. She’s a good and well written character that intertwines with Clive nicely, however, she lacks direction going into the latter half of the game. Instead they choose to focus more on only Clive and Joshua and Jill was just not given enough material, but she still has her moments as well.
I am sorry but I feel abject apathy towards her. She is just so uterly uninteresting to watch, she is a paper character, the writer im sure tried and had a clear goal but imo it just wasnt well realized.
Love this video man, doubt you see this comment but it meant alot to me. This game meant alot more to me then other FF titles before, and is by far one of my favorite ones so far. Thank you
Cid and Mid gotta be my favorite characters from this game. Their voice actors did a really amazing job at making the characters charismatic and memorable.
if u legit think that u shallow, bro. 😂 but I love 16 too... Just wish Cid wasnt discarded like shit, the sidequests had any depth and the plot could've been Game of Thrones or Attack on Titan level shit! Cmon... Lets be honest here
"Haters gonna hate" sure sounds condusive to a healthy discussion. Why cant people share a negative experience that they genuinely had without being "haters".
I love FFXVI but it wasn't perfect. My main complaints.. First the battle system. It became repetitive and not because of the eikons or how the battles flowed but because the system of weakness/strength, buffs/debuffs was completely gone. They could have implemented this easily enough. I never died during my entire playthrough. Even worse my set up didn't change much from the beginning of the game to the end game. Second, the side missions were repetitive. SE needs to take notes from CDPR and the way they made side quests in The Witcher 3. That game was a masterclass in side quests. So much so that if you play that game every other game with side quests after will more than likely disappoint you. The exploration. It just wasn't there. And finally, the pacing. Definitely was an issue. Aside from that, I loved everything else. The story, the plot, the characters, the soundtrack. Definitely up there with the best entries in the series. Definitely a hell of a lot better than the abomination that was FFXV.
Having played through pretty much all of the mainline games thus far besides FFXI, FFXVI has quickly become top 3 in the series for me personally.
The devs at CBU3 are huge fans of the series, especially the pixel era of Final Fantasy. One of my favorites was always FFIV, and I see a lot of references to that game in 16 among many other classic titles.
FFXVI may not be for everyone, but I’m very glad CBU3 gave us an FF that harkens back to a lot of classic FF vibes and themes while providing something new as well. Im looking forward to see what this team does next!
It’s been an entire year since we got the best version of Cid in the entire franchise
Literally the goat
I feel like I am the only one who wasn't bothered by him lol. I never liked him that much in this one. Can't quite put my finger on why.
Spoilers ahead:
That character death was one of the most well done and emotionally impactful character deaths I’ve ever experienced in a video game. The treatment Joel should have got
And the best Waifu (Gav)
More gay comments incoming...
My main problem with Final Fantasy XVI is that you can't visit any of the big cities (the ones built around the Mother Crystals). Everytime you get close to one of these cities, you're like "are they doing it? can we finally visit an urban area?" but you can only get glimpses of it during cutscenes. For example, The Holy Empire of Sanbreque. It looks so amazing, but you can only actually run around a field outside of the city, and the only time when you can walk around in it is to fight.
While it would have been cool, I suspect that they didn't do so because explorable cities like those are extremely expensive. And considering FFXVI already cost a lot to produce anyway, especially with the Eikon battles, explorable cities were most likely just not viable to do.
They showed castles and cities and crystals in the trailers but left us with empty fields with those things forever in the distance.
@@dmurray2978That’s absolutely what it felt like. I was so excited to visit the cities showed off in the trailers. All we got is a two minute walk at the beginning of the game through the Kingdom of Rosaria capital, and afterwards, absolutely nothing. Just green fields, forests, and deserts.
@@OnaSotoyea i dont even think its unrealistic expectations either. just more time in the oven was needed and thats how ive felt about a couple of the recent FFs.
That was my main problem too. I'm not asking for a city of the size of a city in Assassin's Creed but just a portion to let you see what is the life like in there and have some interesting encounters with people living there. Besides I like the medieval setting but there were very few details interesting in the "towns". Like that well producing water out of a crystal, that is the kind of world building I wished to see more.
On a technical level, Clive is the most polished character I’ve ever controlled in an action game. Animation flow, style, hit boxes, collision, the physics, variety, EVERYTHING works (like unique Garuda pull on bosses, parrying fancy boss moves), animation cancels, sound design, endless combos, graphical prowess while still being grounded, it was just insane.
when people compare it to rebirth having multiple playable characters, I just realize how much this effort went over most players’ heads. I imagine in the future that they will not consider so much polish/effort on one character to be worth it… but that’s a shame.
@@BrittanyFox That’s actually a very good point and one that I wholeheartedly agree with. No HD FF game has the level of polish when it comes to hit boxes and animations. The one thing I always hated in the remake games, for example, was how annoying the “action” side of things can be at times. Dodging, hit boxes, and animations can be pretty annoying depending on the character you’re playing. The actual real-time action is much better in 16 than any game in the series, and I appreciate that they go all in on making it a true action game here.
I think they will, which is why they recruited Ryota Suzuki. If he wasn't there, most ( if not the entirety) of Clive Tech wouldn't exist. I think Yoshida said that if he wasn't there, they'd take a long time to figure it out, and it wouldn't be any better than what they did with Ryota Suzuki.
Idk it didn't really feel any better than every single other AAA action game
@metacube9913 yeah these people are lost. This game is VERY watered down kingdom hearts gameplay.
It went over people's heads because the "character action" combat system in 16 is rather shallow compared to character action games made by experienced developers from that genre. I don't blame just the system itself but the overall balancing in the game, especially enemies. While the system was designed by Ryota Suzuki, he clearly wasn't "the entire" DMC5 system by himself. Those games seem simplistic but there's a lot of thought and balancing that goes on making a game like Devil May Cry, Metal Gear Rising or Bayonetta.
This game still has the most impressive boss fights I’ve ever seen in gaming the Bahamut boss fight was a masterpiece the set pieces, the music, and the build up to the fight everything was perfect
I love this game and the boss fights are very cool but also a little bit to easy for my taste, especially the icon fights. I have to play the leviathan dlc though ^^
You will really enjoy that dlc.
Clearly u never played Asura Wrath before that game more than 10 years ood mind you
The Bahamut boss fight was the first boss battle I had that I thought "why wont this dude die already"
I was getting chills with the music and boss fights over and over
nothing will beat that ending cutscene after the final boss man
I think one of the things that ff16 did extremely well was show a great love story that had a lot of maturity and was handled with the delicate care the characters needed. To date, it’s definetely in my top 3 love stories of all the games and showed much more emotional depth than almost every other one in the series. I do wish they fleshed Jill out more but speaking just purely about the love story, it’s top tier.
great love story is kinda crazy
I pray to everything that this game gets higher sales number so Square Enix sees that this game was truely amazing and we want more of it
@@XioXioli No sales report as of now, but it’s safe to assume the game is nearing or already well over the 5 million mark currently
My only true problem with Final Fantasy XVI was that it felt like it could have been something bigger and better. For instance, the world is pretty well built with kingdoms, armies, and political conflicts throughout Valisthea, BUT we are not part of it at all. What we are is just a group of people branded as "bandits/heretics" basically, and we spend most of the time either running away from these people or trying to go ninja on them by killing their leader.
In that way, I feel we are missing great opportunities for story-building. Let me give you an example of what I mean. Remember the dude who forced Jill to commit off-screen atrocities? Yeah, when I encountered that person in that Volcano island, I didn't even know who he was and Jill was going ape shit about how she wanted to kill him, and I was "Oh, okay, cool". There is no feeling, no build-up for that. You need to read records or reports to know what's going on, and there are SO many examples of this throughout the game that feel like massive missing opportunities.
Another problem I forgot to mention, is that they could've added more towns, it feels like the game is just like 3 minor towns, and the Holy Empire and the other very big cities are just places designed for a one-time-only quest. Other than that, the game looks good, music is fantastic as expected, and the main cast is developed really well alongside secondary characters such as Gav who are stellar.
I feel like this is a design philosophy that Square is never going to abandon
@@MoonlapseOpethianyup, afraid so. They did the same thing with FF15 and FF12. They just aren’t it. They never learn from their mistakes. They have a creative cap that they have maxed at, only capable of creating good enough games. Nothing all timer/masterpiece worthy since FF10.
Final Fantasy’s true greatness died the moment Enix took over Soft. All the games we get now are hella incomplete rushed out mids, smh.
It had a really really really hot opening. One of the hottest in gaming. It felt like game of thrones the game. Then it fell off quickly.
Agreed, I was looking for something more akin to Final Fantasy Tactics
"BUT we are not part of it at all."
Looks like we played different games. Clive literally changed the world. Have you played all the sidequests? Yes there are fetch quests, but there are also many sidequests that helps with the world building.
Flawed as it is, there is still a lot to love and celebrate about FF16. I would like to see where they can take this style of Final Fantasy game because Creative Studio 3 are passionate about what they do. XVI and Rebirth really restored my faith in Square Enix as developers.
I loved the exploration in that Final Fantasy. A lot of emptiness and nothing. It was brilliant.
Imho every FF is flawed in one way or another but to me personally speaking.
Compared to other FF games past 12, 16s flaws are extremely minor by comparison.
Hell I'll even say at worst it's sidequests for example are average for the individual quests but it's quest chains are really good imho.
I don't personally think that 16s flaws are as big as people make them out to be.
the combat is just awful though, extremely shallow, repeatitive with next to no choice brings this game massively down
@@phuklyyve8941 calling DMC combat awful is certainly a confusing take.
You can say that you don't understand the appeal of the combat system but calling what is widely considered the best combat system in gaming awful is just......weird?
@@bearcavepro8832 lol i must not understand because if i did understand it id like it?
its tedious, button bashing. Dont care that you like DMC. It cant hold a candel to the depth off the ff7 remakes, and if it were so good this game wouldnt be largely critised for it? Just because you like something doesnt make it objectively good, why take this personally?
"largely considered the best combat in gaming" Fucking stop lying haha, find me the article or reddit post or whatver that says this lol
i think about this game almost everyday since i blindly played the demo. I’ve never had a game or any other type of entertainment leave such an impact on me
Play tales of Berseria
it's average, that means you haven't played games way better than this hahaha
@@gethermedel3620 Bait
Which ones?
me too. Really loved the story. The gameplay was decent, but this is by far the best story of all of FF.
I still mourn Final Fantasy versus 13
Still hurts to this day!
KH 4 will be our time of happiness if done correctly.
@@SomnusShinra it won’t be the same and you know that
@@SomnusShinraMy time of happiness would be me playing Final Fantasy Versus XIII
😢
I still believe Leviathan should’ve been in the base game. And that leaving it out because it would cuz it would diminish Leviathan in XV was an absolutely atrocious thing to do
From what I know they ran low on budget to fit Levi into the game so they wrote the story of the base game in a way that didn't have need for him.
@@MoreLimitless_ does it need him? You can't constantly talk about the eight elements and then exclude one of those elements the entire game
@MoreLimitless_ Leviathan is traditionally female (I think 🤔)
@@rd6416 No, Leviathan is traditionally male. FFXV was either only the first or second time in the entire franchise it was shown to be a female.
@AICW No evidence it was ever male. It didn’t have a speaking role or a declared gender until late on in the series. Leviathan is based on a female sea serpent from the Old Testament.
I doubt any game for awhile can recapture the experience and magic I had with FFXVI. Epic, Emotional, Adrenaline Fueling, Melodramatic, Beautiful, Sense of Adventure and most of all powerful. It’s not even the most complex and varied game in terms of Design and Mechanics except for the combat but it such a memorable game that’s carried by Masterful performances, Music Composers and Storytellers that’s basically soap opera the video game. Great video! Like to see you do more of these for other games as I always loved critiques especially you’re energy for the games we all love.
@@Jylstin I’m definitely interested in making more videos like this, but it won’t be frequent as these are longer videos that take a long time to make lol. But I’m very glad you enjoyed it because this game does mean lots to me as well!
I'm not even a Final Fantasy fan but I was addicted to this absolute kino. Here's hoping for a PC port cause the PS5 visuals definitely dropped quite a bit in many aspects.
This video you made truly was beautiful. I can see why it took longer to make than expected, it's very well crafted, with lots of your great points, arguments and personal feelings being put out in it, as well as having great edits, in a very inspirational way (approve of your soundtrack samples). Like you, I share the same sentinments of FF16, while far from perfect, and good god, is any game truly perfect (maybe some that are near to perfection or some that the highest highs outweigh any potential lowest lows), it's still a game I would confidently have in my top 3 or top 4 favourite FF games, alongside FFX, FFVI and FFIX. It's an experience I'll never forget.
@@madkaiser4887 Thank you, that means a lot! And yeah, it’s far from perfect, but of course, no game is truly, undeniably perfect. Regardless, this a game that has become very special to me. I understand it isn’t a game for everyone, but that’s also a given with an anthology series such as Final Fantasy. At the end of the day I have my experiences, and I will always cherish them.
a year later its still my favourite modern final fantasy game.
This is the absolute best review I've seen on the game. Extremely great work here! I'm in the same camp as you, when it comes to the ending. It's very fitting of Clive to finish the book Joshua began towards the end of the game, and then use his name as the author. Also, like you said, he was the narrator for the entirety of the game. Almost as if he was reading the book to us.
That was an amazing video. Thank you for reminding me of how truly wonderful this game is!
I remember seeing Ben Starr for the first time in the series You, and when I heard him as Clive, I had to pause immediately upon starting this game to check the wiki. He has the range, darling
Ben Starr was incredible as Clive. He should of won best actor at the game awards in my opinion.
The best Final Fantasy since the PS1 era. No Multiverses, no split timelines, no annoying shonen tropes, just a straight up medieval fantasy game
It's my favorite single player FF since FFX
Rebirth isnt any of those things either, imo. I think 7r is more like zanarkand in 10, a dream world.
The game is full of Shonen Tropes actually, I mean the main reason the hero beat the bad guys is basically because of the power of friendship... now I'm not saying this makes it bad not at all, but these tropes are still there, they do however avoid the bad ones (like the hot sources scene for instance), but to be fair while they follow typical Shonen narrative I can't recall of any FF old or new that use these kind of tropes like the Persona or Tales games does for instance.
Yes, the straight up medieval fantasy with an alien God. Lol
@@ashleycornwell67 You didn't even play the game. Ultima wasn't an Alien. He was apart a an ancient race of magical beings which 100% fits the medieval fantasy trope. LOTR, GoT, hell even previous final fantasy games had that
That's one of the most reliable videos I've ever seen on Final Fantasy XVI. In 40 minutes you were able to fully summarise and explain what this game truly is. I've already shared your video and given a big like.
Like you said, a Final Fantasy isn't tied only to the gameplay. But also to the story, the themes, the characters, the soundtrack and, of course, the CIDs. Thank you again for your video, and happy 1st anniversary to Final Fantasy XVI, my 2023 GOTY ❤
No problem, my friend! I'm glad you enjoyed the video and thank you for sharing it, that means more than you know. Happy 1st anniversary!
What a great video! Thank you. You captured my feelings on the game almost entirely.
I didn't mind the weaker pacing and side quests as I was appreciating how strong the game was when it was telling it's main story. I loved the more mature themes when compared to more campy Final Fantasy characters and stories from other games.
The music is probably the thing that elevated this game to my favourite Final Fantasy and one of my favourite games ever. All the best games have incredible music, for me it's a defining feature to draw me into the emotion of the story. The score on show is absolutely beautiful. I don't think there is a weak piece of music in the lot. Greatest music of any video game.
I've also often found the turn based combat of older Final Fantasys the weakest part for me. It's the part that makes it difficult for me to go back to anything before XII. Probably why XII was my favourite Final Fantasy when it came out for it's more action focused battle system.
I just love this game and hope more and more people can come to appreciate how great of a game it is.
So glad to see such a nuanced take on the game. People seem to feel the need to jump to extremes when it's alright to like a game despite it's flaws or dislike a game while acknowledging what others might like about it. Personally, I absolutely adore Final fantasy 16.
Clive is an incredible protagonist. The world of ff16 tests him at every step of the way. He experiences so much tragedy and see's humanity at it's absolute worst. He breaks down, he cries, he feels unsure of himself. He is all of the things that make us human wrapped up in one package, our weakness and our strength.
The characters all reflect that too. I know the quests can be tedious but honestly? The reward was worth it imo. You learn so much about these characters and it fleshes them out a lot. If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't have grown to really appreciate and love characters like Goetz and Charon. Final fantasy 16 is just one of those games you gotta experience at least once.
@@mysticalakatsuki4818 Yeah, it’s as you say most people lean so far on one side that they refuse to acknowledge how others feel. I love the game, but I can definitely understand why it is not for everyone. Yet despite its problems m, it still perfectly embodies what I look for in a Final Fantasy, in its story, themes, characters, and bringing a fresh take to the series once more. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea but that can be said with literally any game in the series.
You’re right that people jump to extremes but you just kinda did that as well.
To me this game is weird because for everything it does exceptionally well it does something very poorly. Clive is an incredible protagonist but he has probably the weakest antagonist in all of FF. The soundtrack has some of the best themes but a lot of it is repetitive and forgettable. The supporting characters are very strong but it has the worst party system of all final fantasy games. The budget for the cinematics seems huge but it seems incredibly cheap when you’re fighting the same old enemies in the same old zones I so much. The main story is intriguing and gripping up until Barnabas, yet the optional content is the worst in the series. It has the hottest opening quarter in modern RPGs and one of the slowest most slogfest third quarters in all of gaming.
It’s like you give it a point then you have to take it away, over and over. Perhaps it just needed more time in the oven.
@@jaybee4288 That's totally fair. I get what people don't like about it. Just because I can overlook the flaws and find the enjoyable parts doesn't mean I think everyone else has to too. Jumping to extremes would be unwilling to accept any critiques about it. I gush because I really like the game, not because I think it's perfect.
Awesome video, my man! I have similar feelings to the XVI as you do. Well done! Still can't believe it been a year!
@@afrocloud3238 Thank you, my friend! It definitely is unbelievable how fast the year went by, I still remember being beyond hyped when, especially after the demo. Its one of the best gaming experiences I’ve ever had.
@@MoreLimitless_ Yeah. Me too, man. It seem like yesterday when I first put this game into my PS5. And I never took it out until I finished my first playthorugh. This game delivered on our hype and exceeds expectations. FFXVI is truly one of the best gaming experiences of my life!
On June 22nd, I celebrated the game's 1st year anniversary with Soken and Koji Fox at Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY.
That's awesome!
I enjoyed FFXVI enough to get the Platinum Trophy + all trophies from both DLCs as well. Truly a masterpiece.
I'am a new pc player, any tips if i should hop into final fantasy mode right away?
I'm playing FFXIV with this video in the background and the sound you use for the chapter title cards just makes me look around the game wildly. "I didn't que for anything!"
Beat this game yesterday. One of the most focused narratives. never feels as grand as other final fantasy games. It's all around solid
If you like stoy focus narrative games, then i recommend you Judgment or maybe Yakuza series if you have time. Definitely one of the best story game that i've ever played. If you decide to go for yakuza, you can start from Yakuza 0 (one of my favorites besides Yakuza 7)
Thank you for replaying this masterpiece.
🤣🫵ruclips.net/video/W1eGrBdyO7g/видео.htmlsi=91ZKOkozORTHFBPl
After watching the amazing video breakdown and reading the top comments , the only disappointing thing for me is that it feels like because of the loud backlash and online criticism of this game - the praise for the game seems to always have to be framed in that first "while it's far from perfect..." "given all of its flaws...." etc. I agree that some criticism is very valid and the game isn't perfect or for everyone - I just hate to see what I personally consider to be an AMAZING game and final fantasy entry for all the reasons you laid out constantly framed in a negative light. Also some comments saying it needed more time in the oven - it wasn't like it was a broken game on launch - which is becoming more of an issue and to your point - more dev time and fleshing out of walkable cities would have just meant that much higher of an already high budget. Anyways, I digress - loved your breakdown on this!
@@tmart2308 It didn’t need more time in the oven given that it was pretty much the first mainline game in years to come out fully complete, bug free, and highly acclaimed at launch; that in itself is an achievement. I also agree that while the game does have flaws I hate seeing comments starting with “my only complaint” “what disappoints me” “while the game isn’t perfect”
I understand more than anyone this game isn’t perfect, but it almost feels like people are forced to say these things to conform to other people. Fuck that. If you like a game, forget what some other people are saying. Let me hear what you liked about the game rather than what disappoints you all the time. It’s okay to voice your criticisms, for sure, but I hate when people make that comment it’s entire identity.
From the first minutes of the video, I had a big smile on my face and thought "yeah, this guy gets it". I understand why some people might have been disappointed with XVI and having certain expectations not met, my sympathies, but I think the highs we got outweigh the lows by a landslide even if it's not a perfect game. FF XVI lives rent-free in my mind because of its memorable characters and inspiring story and I was very happy when it won best soundtrack last year because Soken really deserves the recognition. He worked through cancer to give us some of the best evolutions of classical music in existence today.
Small note about the ending (I agree with your take): The lore entry for Ultimalius reads "When Origin was buried beneath the earth in order to absorb the aether it would need to rebuild the world, a great shrine was placed in the sky above it, from which humanity could be looked down upon." I believe that refers to Metia being the mothership which Origin detached from when Ultima first arrived from their dying world. It's always been a bit strange to see a star not moving from its place in the sky to the lower left of the moon no matter its phases, obviously isn't how a star should appear in the sky. Its light fades away too quickly when Ultima's magic finally fizzles out of existence, hinting that it's probably much closer than it appears to be. And last but not least, this wouldn’t be the first time that a Square Enix game featured a red star that the ignorant populace revered, which wasn’t really a star at all.
Absolutely adored 16. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since I beat it tbh 😂 great vid man 🙌
Recently on a mainline final fantasy marathon and bought this one yesterday. I'm currently finishing FFX so still a few more games to go, but as a guy who only played (and loved) ffvii and nothing else back in the day, god damn what a fun ride has been.
I'm looking forward to XVI in the near future.
That's awesome! I hope you enjoy it when you get to it!
Great Breakdown! A truly heartfelt labor of love! Thank you! - German VA of Clive Rosfield
@@vincentoni. Thank you so much, Vincent! This really means more than you know
I’m sure you’ve heard this many times, but you did a phenomenal job, along with the rest of the cast. Thank you for bringing Clive Rosfield to life with your amazing performance!
@MoreLimitless_ It has been my biggest honor to date 🫶 It was a pleasure!
''Mythos and Ultima translates to Final Fantasy'' Holy shit... you just blew my fucking mind with that one.
Final Fantasy 16 was my first true Final Fantasy experience apart from 14. I didn't know anything about it at all and I went into the demo completely blind. This game has one of the best and most effective demos I have EVER seen in a video game. From the first second I was instantly hooked. The story, cinematic cutscenes, the epic scale boss fights and the music make this game truly unforgettable. Bahamut and Titan are definitely my favorite fights. I also really love Clive as character and I loved seeing how much he progressed as the game went on.
That being said, this game does have its flaws as you pointed out. My biggest disappointment was the fact that you never actually get to explore any of the main cities despite them being the most prominent points of interest on the map apart from the mothercrystals. Some characters like Jill, Benedikta, Hugo and Barnabas also felt a little underutilized and they definitely could have done more with them.
But apart from that, it's definitely up there with one of my favorite games of all time! ❤
The writing, dialogue, and character performances are just next-level not for the franchise, but videogames in general. It can't be understated how this felt like the first true next-gen PS5 game (in that, it had no base PS4 development, it had no back ports, it wasn't constrained by it at all).
I hard disagree, the writing and dialogue were really basic, and the performances are similar to FF14. I truly do not understand how you can say all of this.
Final Fantasy XVI WAS amazing as a story but as an rpg within what this franchise is SUPPOSED TO BE, it missed the mark when it came to content. While the side quests are “nice” and add a lot of levity to the themes of the story there needed to be more in terms of minigames (like Gwent from Witcher or Triple Triad from Final Fantasy VIII), chocobo minigames like maybe leveling up Ambrosia would unlock her as a party member, using her in battle other than just riding on her back. There also felt like a lack of explorable dungeons not tied to just the story. I like the tutorial area in XVI cause even though it was a basic dungeon it was an area that had a particular theme of goblins. I wanted XVI to have more areas like that but I was happy with what we did get in terms of the story dungeons. The main thing I wish for XVI was that there was some kind of resolution to the mystery of Dominants and bearers, we get a quest that talks about how bearers were once at the top of society and then the roles were reversed. It made me want to see how normal humans and bearers could interact now that the magic that kept them from accepting them was gone. But who knows maybe XVI will get a spin off or sequel someday.
Ff12 and ff16 are the best ones I've played so far🤷
The only thing i would have loved to see in ff16 would be been a more flushed out magic/effects system. Like the basic spells in other ff games couldve been added as weapon effects
I definitely think of 12 and 16 together because they are like spiritual follow ups to the mmos
weird ff taste bud
@@jackplisken4738Shut dude, he likes what he likes and its not anything perverse or despicable. You don’t have to insult his tastes because they don’t align with your own.
@@emmarod8746 the only insult here was coming from you . i love guys like you . tik tok brainrot in full force
@@jackplisken4738 If you just really meant that they had a kooky or peculiar taste, its my bad then that I overreacted in my response.
Probably my favourite gameplay.
Loved the idea of switching/customising Eikons
I never expected anything from a final fantasy because I'm not interested in a turn based, when I decided to try this game is not only the game that I love the most to this day, Clive really is now my favorite fictional character.
Since I finished it, I have never felt the same experience and level of emotion again.
It is very nice to think how something that you didn't expect can make you very happy.
Nice video ❤
"I never expected anything from a final fantasy because I'm not interested in a turn based"
I need you to know that fans of this franchise are not happy with the company catering to you.
I think you misinterpreted my message, said I wasn' t
interested in any final fantasy because turn based isn't my favorite type of game, with that I didn't mean the other games were bad, in fact I decided to try ffix and ffx and I loved both.
Personally, I can understand why there are people who don't like this game or rebirth due to are very different from the old ones and its other gameplay, but it also ends up being a way to find people like me who might be interested in the franchise and give a chance to the other games
@@MisterAlerion Lmao, bullshit. "Fans" of this franchise love the action direction that is being taken. FF7 Remake series and XVI are fantastic.
@@ZephyrFatetotally agree, have been a huge fan of final fantasy for 30+ years and FFXVI is my favourite, and FF7R hard mode has been incredible to play, tried a turn based game recently and it’s just boring now, I hope we have seen the back of it. Long may this new style continue
@@ZephyrFate i hate ff16 direction which i hope they dont continue prefer ff7 remake better
Definitely explained this passionately to the point I can understand you’re understanding but also can give constructive criticism without a bias. Definitely looking forward to seeing more videos of you breaking down games I played, loved, hated or in the middle about. Earned a sub 💯💪
Final Fantasy XVI is my favorite game of 2023 and I'm confident it's in my top 5 FF games, weaknesses aside. Great video, man!
Thank you! And it's definitely one of my favorite gaming experiences ever.
16 is definitely better praised than was 15
15 had so much riding on it that it fell flat to most fans
I was one of those
I love all the work and improvement that were made to 15 and I like 15 now as a game
But the long wait from the first trailer up until its release
The hype of it living up to Versus 13
The development hell it went to
The massive PR push and advertising and multiple source of media that was given to 15 just for a solid game was what led to its downfall
16 felt like a natural release
It came out 3 years after it’s first trailer
The development was smooth
It was advertised well and it was a solid game but it was overhyped
This game is the reason I have a ps5, to this day it is still peak ff to me, only time I got so invested on a ff was ff12 my first game on the ps2 and then the mythical trailer of versus, I still watch yearly.
This is a really great video man! I think you really captured a lot of what I think is both loved and criticized about this game in a really good way that allows for discussion and open ended thoughts. Superb work.
Thank you so much, my friend!
I'm just glad this game stuck with its core mechanic. FE7 Rebirth had way too many minigames that I became burned out from it after I had beaten it.
It was a solid game. The boss fights,story,music, and main character were great. But the gameplay could’ve been a little more deeper like dmc, no real magic spells and once you get 3 icon powers and level up it did get too easy
I really enjoyed this game. yesterday My jaw completely dropped during the 2024 game awards because Clive will appear as a DLC guest character in Tekken 8 and face against the best of the best like Jin, Kazuya and many other challengers awaiting for him. Still I wanted Tifa though but oh well 😢 Regardless BEST EARLY CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER
One of the best surprises of the night for me personally
Beautifully put together! FF16 did have its flaws, but I still get chills thinking about its peak moments, characters, and breathtaking soundtrack. Definitely in the upper echelon of FF titles for me.
+1 subscriber 👍
Thank you! Yeah, this game quickly became one of my favorites in the series. Everything from it's gameplay, story and characters is everything I look for in a game. I love the emotional maturity of the characters, especially Clive and I think he's an incredible protagonist that represents FF well and shares many similarities to classic FF titles. Some of the moments in this game have some of my favorite moments in gaming ever, and for that FF16 will always be top 5 in the series.
The Holy Empire of Sanbreque... I just stand there until it ends.
Lion and the Hare too. Never got tired of Indomitable once the aetherflood happened either.
Loved this game for what it was instead of hoping it was something else.
To Sail Forbidden Sea uses the same melody as the boss FATE music in FF14.
Clive and the boss fights were literally the only things that they did well with in the game, but everything else was just a mess. The game was very lazy and repetitive. I especially felt bad for all of the other characters because of how very disrespected they were treated. They got no time and it's like they all only existed as tools for Clive and not even as their own character, including Joshua. They all had so much potential especially Cid, Dion, Benedikta, Jill, and Barnabas.
@@phoenixblossom2167 I personally loved most of what the game offered myself, but of course I also see its flaws too. They all had more potential aside from Clive who was the star of the show, but I personally didn’t feel like any of them were bad characters in the slightest, even the weakest characters. The lack of screen time and further development of certain characters was the result of this being a Clive centered story. However, despite this, I believe what they were given in the story was still good, characters just needed more.
I loved FF16 so much. It has some of my favorite characters in the whole franchise so far
I think the quest system and loot were not fleshed out perfectly but honestly as far as action games go it’s among my favorites of all time. The Eikon fights were exhilarating and glorious and the combat was so much fun. I’ve played this game 3 times and I am already on a 4th to try to get the platinum. This game feels criminally underrated.
I completely broke down at the end of FFXVI, sobbing like a baby. That final cutscene paired with the music is the most beautiful ending I have ever seen in media. I have never cried so hard. My girlfriend was reading a book next to me and she was startled and started hugging me lol. No game has given me such a memory. What a game. Even dispite its flaws it might be my favorite singleplayer game ever. The characters and acting is on another level.
I can't blame you. That story and especially the ending are some of my favorites in the entire series.
The thing about final fantasy is that the combat in each game is unique especially for the newer ones it’s rare to see a system return, u want classic turn based then play 10, u want a faster paced turn based then play like 8 or 9, u want action play 16, as someone who’s recently been grinding out games like sekiro elden ring and ds3 it’s so exhilarating to play 16 even more so than i feel with dmc4
This is probably my favorite ff in terms of gameplay i liked the combat better than 7/rebirths. I love that you can freely choose and put together combos rather than waiting for ATB charges
you only need to smash one button the entire game. this is not final fantasy.
Actually in this game all you do is waiting for charges, because base attacks are a joke )
Imho, they already had better action combat systems, in KH or even in SoP. I like 16 for the story, lore and characters. But the gameplay is NOT a best part of it. It's a cheap copy-paste from DMC5, broken by cooldowns, without any sensible role-playing system, depth, mini-games, or in general any of JRPG elements.
@@pyccku212 just like the old games? Just press one button the whole time to choose an attack, use item, or anything else
@@pyccku212so what's the difference? In the first case, final fantasy have never been a very complex game that need you push 10 buttons at the same time. If you don't like it then just piss off
Well FF7 rebirth combat is the mix between turn based and action so it's either a miss or hit.
Clive's uncle is easily one of the best characters in the game. He's a laugh riot, he knows how to party, and he's a wonderful foil to the very serious and haunted Clive. He's also a loving family member who could have easily turned on him when he realized he was alive. My favorite scene in the game is still when Clive recites the play in front of his uncle to reveal who he really is.
I had hoped that the game had been more of an RPG, as a long time FF fan, but I still really enjoyed it (though I do think the back half of the game felt kind of truncated).
I will say this game is such a emotional damage game
It cleanse my soul everytime I watch someone speaking good things about a Final Fantasy game while also acknowledging where it is lacking without treating it like a total failure (I love FF13 and 15 so you must get where I am coming from lol) - 16 is far from being my favorite of the franchise but I had an absolute blast playing it and what I felt during the Bahamut fight I probably will never feel again in my life
@@cynthiadiniz419 I believe every Final Fantasy has its many strengths and weaknesses. Being able to recognize this, I think, is not only fair to the game but the developers. No FF is truly perfect, they have flaws, and I think now more than ever the fanbase is so quick to hate and point out negatives about the game and totally disregarding what the game does right. When people get so caught up in the flaws of a game without acknowledging it’s strengths, I think that does a huge disservice to developers, the game, and I don’t believe anything should be totally one sided when you’re doing an analysis or review of said game. FF16 has become one of my favorites personally, but I don’t just talk about why I love it. As a fan of 16 who’s played it numerous times, I will be the first one to come to terms that it is not a perfect game by any means, and I think recognizing those flaws and coming to terms with that has only emphasized why the strengths of FF16 are so special to me personally.
@@MoreLimitless_ Yesss that’s so true, loved your analysis! No Final Fantasy is like the other, you’re entitled to like more the latest, the first you played, the remake, the original or whichever resonates more with you without disregarding the rest, and honestly being this unique in each new entry is the greatest strength of the franchise to me, and I’ll always be thrilled to see the next number
for people watching this video now: PC version ccoming Sept.17th
Final Fantasy 11 was my absolute LIFE for a while. That game held me for so long and will forever be one of the most special games of my entire life... the memories that game made will never be forgotten....
My main gripe with the game design wise is the lack of meaningful side content, which is weird coming from me as I normally b-line things as im a story enjoyer before anything else. But with the extended downtime between major arcs in the game feeling like the bad kind of side content, the lack of any dungeons, puzzles, or meaningful extensions of combat really make b-lining 16 the only enjoyable way to play. I get the the side quests mainly aim to give more lore and perspective but given that I played every side quest but found only like 5 out of the 76 be enjoyable, it kinda makes the other 71 pointless. Not to mention that non-super abilities don’t scale well into higher difficulties. I hated how easy the game was so when I went into Final Fantasy mode, it was disappointing that the combo abilities didnt feel good at all and the only setup that stays viable is lightning rod, will o wykes, and filling the rest of your slots with supers (which i find boring and i think we should have been limited to 1 super at any given time). Story wise my enjoyment took a dip after the second time skip, everything felt too on the nose and it lost a lot of its urgency along with expecting us as the audience to care for all of the filler side characters while sidelining the main cast. I like Jill anytime she’s actually on screen, but since thats like 15% of the game she just feels like an after thought. I don’t mind that she can’t fight all the time because she’s ill, but not that that means she doesn’t get anything to do at all. Which is my last major thing, as much as im all for each numbered entry being its own thing and not being pigeon-hold to specific mechanics, there being no real party gameplay wise destroys the final fantasy of it all. Even in vanilla 15 you still interacted with the rest of the boys and actively fought with you but you can barely even see your teammates in 16 much less feel any impact from them at all. As much as i disagreed with the, “this isnt final fantasy” discourse, there being a lack of a party really made it feel generic and, “not final fantasy” for me. That being said, I remember enjoying 16 from minute 1 to 2nd time skip like it was the greatest thing ever and I still love the game to bits for it. But the last half is where my patience wore thin both gameplay and story wise.
I think they just spent all their money on cinematics. I really think that was it.
@@jaybee4288exactly. They were epic no doubt, but I found some of them dragged on for too long. A world as depressing as this is bound to have some fun places like Wall Market in FF7. In fact, we come across a place that probably would be like it, but they don't let you go in and engage with it.
It feels like they made a really fun, bombastic, badass 15-20 hour long action story game then realized that it’s a Final Fantasy game so they had to stretch it to 50 hours and put hours and hours of “”open world RPG”” gameplay in between the major story beats. It just leads to a wildly inconsistent experience
I also am at a complete loss at how the game is 50 hours long yet I felt like I still barely knew anything about the world of Valisthea. If you asked me what happened in between hours and hours of downtime in between the occasional huge badass story beats I legitimately couldn’t tell you. All these cool cutscenes and a bible of lore about the different empires but it feels like the game doesn’t actually let you engage with any of it. Do you even go into any of the big cities in this game? All I remember is empty fields and sparse villages that blur together
I'm thoroughly impressed with your video quality, in spite of your small channel. Beautifully structured, articulated and narrated. Bravo.
I really appreciate that! Thank you!
Huge text incoming. I don't expect anyone to read, but hey.. I had the time and I like to wrinte, so here it goes:
I have a lot of problems with XVI when it comes to gameplay and level/world design.
The game has a good story and while the true villain and "big mystery" is cool and works, it's also somewhat of a trope in stories where fantasy/scifi mix. The characters are great, the cutscenes and boss fights are superb.
I'll start with the combat. You're right that the combat system itself is mostly fine, what brings everything down is the systems around it. Not only generic enemies are too weak to incentivize skillfull play and combos, the ability system heavily inventivizes the incessant spam to destroy encounters in seconds. Then, when "elite enemies" and bosses show up they committ a huge sin in the "character action" genre, which is to create artificial difficulty by removing mechanics from the combat system. For example, most of the Elite enemies and bosses can't be juggled and have super armor, powering through your moves and punishing you for trying combos (which also incentivizes just using your openings to use Abilities instead of moves), that alone instantly kills 70% of the depth of the system. Hence why ability spam and parrying are the best strategies against bosses... because they're also pretty much the only strategy.
The combat system itself is okay but even though it was made by Ryota Suzuki, it became pretty clear that just one man doesn't make and entire game. While the game has all the core systems (cancelable animations, i-frames, parries, juggles, etc), it lacks deeply in character moveset. Clive having just one melee weapon moveset and one ranged weapon moveset really throws a wrench on the system. One might argue that the Eikons are the "weapons", but they trully aren't, they're "unlockable abilities".
Now the worst part of the game, the level and world design. I won't hold back the words here, it's just miserable. XVI feels like a PS3 game, and no I'm not talking about graphics, of course. I'm talking about the fact that the absurd amount of invisible walls in the open world areas and lack of exploration is very baffling. It sounds cruel to say this about a Final Fantasy game but this is the "most open, linear game" in the market. Clive can't jump over anything, even the smallest ledges, the itemization of the game is so bad that the rewards of exploring 99% of the time isn't worth it. And what is heartbreaking is that the biggest argument against XVI, is 7 Rebirth, which is the precise opposite of this. You can jump almost everything, there are usually means of traversal that makes you cross bodies of water or climb hills. That makes me feel, not angry at XVI, but almost sad about it. Almost as if it was set up to fail with all of it's budget allocated to 7 Rebirth.
Which leads me to the dungeon level design, this one is inexcusable. Square Enix is a good 14 years behind when it comes to dungeon level design. I'm not kidding nor exaggerating, it's comparable to PS2/PS3 games. Every dungeon is made up of corridors that lead to elevators that leads to another corridor that leads to simple 2 way path, with one usually leading to a dead end making you go back and just take the other path. It's terrible, it's Tartatarus (Persona 3) levels of simplistic, it just looks a billion times better. Note that this isn't just an issue with XVI, pretty much every FF game is still stuck in the FFX/FFXII level design. They are completely out of touch in this aspect.
Conclusion: I would say that XVI is a game that tries to appeal to everybody and ends being for no one. I'm not saying "No one likes XVI", but I am saying that when you think about playing XVI again, there are usually much better games depending on which specific aspect you want to experience. If you want the combat, you can play Devil May Cry, if you want the exploration you can play Rebirth. The only "unique" aspects of the game is the story (you simply can't replace story.. you either like it or you don't) and the boss fights. The game has little to no RPG elements, it's combat system although good, can't compete with action games made by Capcom, Platinum or Team Ninja, the world is not that fun to explore and most side quests aren't interesting. The result is a game that would've been a lot better if it had 50% or even 60% of it completely cut from the final product. I say this because this is a 50 hour long "Devil May Cry" game, except there's a reason games like Devil May Cry are usually short (like 10 hours long) and very replayable. To me personally, XVI would be better if it was structured like a DMC game, meaning "cutscene at the start of a mission, walking around a bit killing enemies, boss fight, cutscene, end of mission". Straight to the point. Which is interesting because that's EXACTLY what the demo was, like... that castle/tower section that leads to the Garuda fight was (by coincidence or not) a perfect slice of what a "Final Fantasy May Cry" could've been. Instead those sections are like 20% of the game with most of the game being just fetch quests, and filler content between major story moments (you know what I'm talking about) that you desperately wanted to skip to get to the next big set piece moment.
I would say 40% of XVI is a 8.5/10 character action game but the other 60% is the most bland and boring 5/10 action RPG I've played. There is a great game underneath all the rubble and as funny as it may sound, a Director's CUT with most of the game completely removed would end up being a better product. Actually, the "time attack" mode that unlocks after you beat the game is pretty fun for this exact reason.
@@phoenixblossom2167 Yea.. honestly, it’s baffling that Square Enix is making meetings to figure out why FF hasn’t been selling well lately. And it never crosses their mind the fact that they’ve been going against fan feedback for more than a decade. Nobody liked 13, they went and made 2 sequels. Not only people didn’t like the direction 15 went, the game itself was incomplete at release. And now this is the FF16 we got.
Remake and Rebirth are good games but the FF brand is in shambles at this point. Nobody has any faith in it.
@@Ocean5ixBeing compared to a ps2/3 game is great in my book. I prefer the linearity of the world and simple dungeon design since I just want to fight enemies. It's much better than the open world slop we have today. And I do agree it'd be much better if it was structured like a DMC game cause the fetch quests are boring. I have to disagree with you regarding what you said about just playing DMC if you want the combat, though. I tend to view 16 as a much more chill version of DMC. It may not have as much depth compared to it but there's still some pretty cool spectacles you can pull off without having to do crazy inputs whereas if I want something more technical with more skill involved I'll just play DMC. It just depends on my mood.
@@Merk1387 Oh for sure, can't argue against preference. It's just that for a game that marketed itself as at least "semi open world" with the devs mentioning God of War 2018 and Ragnarok as inspirations, the game was very disappointing.
I also agree that a lot of times, comparisons with PS2 games are great. A good example is the Yakuza franchise, which still has that PS2 feel/jank to it that makes us remember the PS2 days. That said, I think when it comes to dungeon level design there's no way to justify how simplistic it is in 16. It feels like Square never learned how to make 3D dungeons in these games because it's not just the PS2, the PS3 13 games also had this problem, the 7 Remake also has this problem. Their dungeons not just lack in level design, they also lack artistic design to hide how linear they are.
I can agree with your combat argument. It's easier to look cool in 16 than it is in DMC5.
Imagine owning Final Fantasy…. Final Fantasy.... and coming out with “we want it to be like god of war and devil may cry”. Final Fantasy shouldn’t be trying to be something else, other things are trying to be final fantasy. Imagine if the God of War guys came out with “I want God of War to be more like final fantasy”. Or GTA deciding they want to be a bit more Sekiro.
Final fantasy will sell well the moment they put out a trailer/demo of a final fantasy game. Not an alternate universe “remake”, not a devil may cry clone, not Crisis Core with updated graphics.
Give us a new game with varied zones like Costa del Sol and Balamb garden, with a cast of 6-8 characters we get to customise and control, with a soundtrack that includes memorable themes for each character, with cities we can visit and systems we can use and secrets we can find. And it will sell.
Baffles me that the people making final fantasy don’t seem to like final fantasy beyond its summons and monsters.
@@Ocean5ix What exactly do you want out of the dungeons? They're DMC or character action style levels minus the pointless platforming. They're there for you to engage with the combat and nothing more, straight to the point and the game is confident in it's combat system and so much better for it. Imagine adding platforming in a Doom game... oh wait... Uhh, imagine adding tons of pointless boring mini games in your action RPG... oh shit. FF7 Rebirth gets shit on for its mini games and Doom Eternal for the bad platforming that doesn't belong there.
Also just to add a little context I agree with everything else you said, I find the combat mostly shallow and the balance is a joke, not just difficulty but abilities as well. Once you're halfway through the game you'll never have any reason not to just spam ultimates on rotation and ultimaniac mode while tough is so poorly slapped together and also requires 2 playthroughs to get to anything even remotely challenging. The game has a DMC foundation with all the nuance removed and replaced with God of War 4/Ragnoraks and it does not work for me.
Maybe the dungeons would work better for you or more people if the combat was more engaging.
My only major gripes with the game truth be told were the side quests and the ending which is more of a personal matter rather than an objective one. But being objective about things for the 50 hours I got out of the game I'd argue its an absolute kickass blast that lets you handle it almost any way that one could want with there only being one character, who plays like multiple different ones at the same time making your options feel almost endless when it comes to picking out Eikon abilities.
My main issue was just that I couldn't be bothered to go around and deal with all the small side quests that boiled down to "Ermm hey Clive, I need these dingleberries from this specific plant on the Dalmekian coast can you get them?" Wherein you just fast travel to the location or as close to it as you can, fight the handful of enemies it spawns for you, pick up the items, then return back to wherever the quest giver is and collect your reward. And this wouldn't be an issue.. if it wasn't every single side quest in the game with there only being a select few I actually liked like the one where you reunite with Ambrosia.
I will however say that the main story aside from one instance where they had you fast travelling around all of Valisthea to talk to people and do some small fights was absolutely amazing, from the music, the characters, the emotions, the motivations all of it comes together to make what is seriously one of the best action story games I've ever had the joy of playing. I literally just call the game "hell yeah" simulator because the Eikon battles are just that, you screaming hell yeah as you literally fight on the edge of space vs a dragon shooting literal death lasers at you.
I miss being able to talk to random NPCs and exploring cities like in X and XII. Everything feels just dead or zombified. The combat is great at the beginning but by the end you are just spamming the same abilities. It's both a good and bad game.
I disagree with the combat. Sure, you can spam abilities but this is a stylish character action game that wants to to experiment. Practicing combos and getting creative, playing at a high level is where the combat shines. You can certainly just ability dump through the game, but really, where is the fun in that. It is why I say the combat is a reflection of the player pretty much like any action game. You get what you put into the combat and if you spam and ability dump then that's simply a choice in a number of other different ways you can get creative and play at a higher level. This is speaking from someone who's been practicing with the combat since release.
I just started this game but wish I played it sooner. I get there are some criticisms but this game is essentially the love child of Game of Thrones, Devil May Cry and Godzilla with the usual Final Fantasy charm. What’s there not to like?
I really loved FFXVI. I didn’t mind the fully action-based battle system. I don’t get the “isn’t an rpg” thing, but I guess that means something different to each person. My favorite thing about FF is the difference between the titles-what makes each game unique.
My biggest issues with the game were the lack of enemy variety and the poor loot/treasure systems. I feel that improving these two aspects would have nullified a lot of other complaints in the game.
I played the DLC and loved it. Makes further playthroughs that much more worthwhile. Can’t wait to replay on PC and hopefully XBOX.
My favorite track in the game is Control btw.
I agree for sure. It is still an RPG, however, it lacks depth in those systems that people are used to in other JRPGs. Exploration, looting, and enemy variety in mechanics were all dumbed down so that people could focus on the story, and that, imo, was a bit overdone. Still though I loved the game despite it's problems and no game is really perfect at the end of the day.
Those criticisms you mentioned are part of the rpg criticisms. If it’s not going to be an rpg then don’t put in those half assed mechanics and stretch the story/barebones combat out over 50 hours
Starting to watch this. Before I do, I'll just say I vastly preferred the battle system in the FF7R games, those games perfectly and brilliantly translated the turn-based ATB system into real-time (which filtered a bunch of people who wanted an action game), while XVI attempted an actual action game but to me lacked BOTH the systemic depth of an RPG and the tight execution depth of an action game like DMC5. To me XVI tried and failed to take a FF game into real-time, while FF7R beautifully succeeded even if it went so hard at that idea it got misunderstood by many players, with XVI trying for a more mass appeal but failing to execute on it.
That's my general take on the combat system without going deeper into it.
I have to disagree there and I go further into that in the video as to why I feel that its a great combat system. I respect your thoughts on this though.
I just finished the game and to say im mixed is an understatement. The plot just stops trying and really goes in a direction I dont care about. Nearly all conflicts are just resolved after a few filler quests and bossfights. What was a phenomenal setup in the 1st half turns into a slog near the end, all mystery and intrigue and twists n turns are just gone. It was just...dissappointing.
Awesome bossfights, love cid, but clive and jill were not characters I got invested in.
I feel no motivation to play the dlcs.
Play them. The Rising Tide is fire and the final boss music is so worth it
@@flymasterkyle1277 I dont like the music tho, and im tired of spectacle bossfights. Maybe in the future. And I love sokens work in FF14, but I remember none of the music in 16 and aside from the titan theme all of it is orchestral movie music, which I am personally not a fan of.
@@flymasterkyle1277then just listen to it on RUclips why pay money to listen to the music
im so happy to have been trought the game without getting spoiled on anything, what includes the powers and dominents. rlly gave the game a diff feeling, not knowing whats going on or whats coming
The Funny part is that FF 16 really is the most LOYAL one to the really classic era of final fantasy, if you could make final fantasy 1 and 2 in current realistic graphics those games would totally look like FF16, and i´m talking about everything, the protagonists, the villains, the towns, the world, the weapons, etc., the "medieval" look of FF started with FF 1 and 2, also they gave a big important to swords in those first 2 games, the excalibur and the blood sword, they kept the importance of the sword in "Seiken Densetsu" their first final fantasy action rpg for the gameboy., final fantasy 4, tactics, 11 and 14 kept the serious medieval look, 9 was more in line with 3 and 5, with that cartooney medieval look, i still miss the turn based because i like to think in strategies, and i´m not a fan of action rpgs but FF16 was really a very throw back to the roots of the franchise for sure,
Agreed. I feel like most don't actually realize how much 16 pay homage to classic FF in some of it's narrative. Perhaps the most classic feeling game we've had for years, and you can tell a lot of the blood from the first 5 FF entries, and even Tactics are woven into the feel of the world, how the story presents itself at times.
I wish it also took some elements from IV like temporary playable characters akin to Yang or Tellah, Dion and Cidolfus were way too cool to simply be... Kingdom Hearts' assist characters.
This may not be the best Final Fantasy, but this is my Final Fantasy game. Similar to those who love 7, 10, 9, 4, and others I didn't mention. A lot of people can reasonably argue that we haven't had a truly great entry in the series since 10 on the PS2. This game is incredible and I will always love it.
Watching this makes me think we didnt play the same game. Combat felt like i just button mashed til the ability cooldowns reset and then i walked forward until i got to the next arena. It felt small in scope and could have been Vagrant Story 2 and no one would know the difference.
Outside of Cid, no other characters clicked with me so the story never really hit. Which was a shame because the demo really felt great and tightly written but everything after just kinda drug on.
Im glad people liked it but it didnt feel like a final fantasy game to me.
@@davehoffman515 Some people have different experiences, and what I believe makes up an FF game will be different from someone else’s opinion of what an FF game is. As I mentioned in the video, FF to me is not just gameplay-it is a perfect combination of so many different art forms that culminates into FF. Every title will be different and as long as it holds to similar themes of the series (which in my experience it does very well) than it is FF to me. But I respect that it won’t be for others and that is absolutely fine, but that was not my experience and I enjoyed this Final Fantasy entry.
I agree with this.
I guess I’ll go against the grain here and say that I found this game pretty disappointing. This is coming from someone who spent the past few years getting hyped for it to be one of the first games I got on ps5 when I could finally afford one.
I want to really love it but I just can’t, it’s just okay. Everything about it just feels like wasted potential to me. Clive is badass, amazingly acted, the story and presentation when it’s firing on all cylinders is absolutely insane, but man… once you get out of the first few hours you realize that the highs come with low lows. For every insanely badass 15 minute boss fights that blow you off your feet and remind you that this is next gen you get 5 straight hours of absolutely dreadful game design with boring open world/design that has you just walking around empty fields and villages with Clive’s character model robotically staring as an NPC drones on and on telling you to go do something.
I feel like this game would have been so much better if it just embraced being a 20 hour linear story based action game like a God of War or something. It’s clear that’s what they wanted to do. But instead it feels like it’s trying to do that and be a Final Fantasy RPG and it just leads to both sides being lukewarm to me. if you’re going to go full action mode then go all fucking in, balls to the wall, make it like devil may cry. Instead it feels like baby’s version of Devil may cry… you can do a FEW cool chains here and there but none of it is necessary… if you want to the game is completely fine letting you sleepwalk through it doing the basic square triangle square triangle combo you learned in the first 5 minutes. I had to go out of my way to learn the few combos I could just to keep myself from getting bored, not because the game encouraged me to. Even when you pull something off it feels frustratingly… shallow? Like knowing that’s it, the iceberg doesn’t go deeper. It’s just not satisfying at all for a game that’s trying to be a 50 hour long RPG. It doesn’t hold up for that long. I’ll put it this way, DMCV combat had like 5x the combat depth but it’s 5x shorter in total. I’m not saying it HAS to be like DMCV, but point being you can’t take a combat system that barely changes or grows outside of the first 2 hours and stretch it into 50. That would barely hold up for the 10 hour brawler action game.
ALSO I find it really fucking annoying that the game is so easy it feels like every combat encounter by the time you get into the zone and start popping off with combos the fight is basically already over. that definitely does not help its case at all. Then in the boss fights you can’t do a lot of the juggling combos. It leads to pulling combos off feeling like some cheap trick just to do for fun rather than something that’s actually helpful. It’s usually just more efficient to spam perfect dodges and whatever eikon ability you have up next.
I feel so conflicted because the world is so fucking cool, I love that it’s finally a darker grittier medieval setting, and the opening makes you think it’s going to have Game of Thrones scheming and stuff, but no… it feels like you’re just scratching the surface.
On one hand I look at mechanics like the active time lore, the one table in the hideaway that has breakdowns, timelines, character trees, but then on the other hand it feels like they put more effort into that then actually making a fleshed out rpgs, better quest design, progression or loot that feels rewarding, or even just making an action game where you don’t feel like you’ve learned everything there is to the combat system in the first 2 hours. It’s like how people always circlejerk about the parkour in AC Unity watching RUclips clips of how cool the animations look but in game it’s extremely frustrating and inefficient to pull off and that doing the basic holding R2 and running straight up every wall is going to be faster and less obtuse every single time.
Sounds overly negative but I’d say the game is like a 7 to me, I struggled to play through it in the second half which is just a terrible sign for me
What bothered me the most is Joshua's role in the later game. Where was he this whole time? Why didn't he contact Clive for all this time? Why does Clive never ask him this stuff. They keep insisting that he is sick and dying but he goes ALL out multiple times with no consequences.
By the end I was convinced that Joshua was Ultima posing as Joshua, or that he created a fake, because Joshua obviously died. But it turns out to be some unexplained miracle, like they took a U turn mid production and decided to revive him but didn't bother explaining why.
It just cheapens Clive's resolve and the meaning of his back story. I mean he live in excruciating pain for what he did for such a long time, and that is what made his character, but oops! Turns out his pain was pointless and Joshua was just chilling and learning history, even though we know Joshua knew that Clive was alive.
I screamed at the screen "ASK HIM WHERE HE'S BEEN ALL THIS TIME", but Clive just seems happy enough he is there, no questions asked....
The reason he was avoiding Clive, and his reason for being away in general was to keep Ultima away from Clive and by extension keep Ultima in check. It was also explained how he survived and what he was doing all that time when you visit Tabor to meet up with Jote. Joshua explains that he was saved by the undying, a secret group that serves under Rosaria that only a few higher powers know of. In that time Joshua learned about Ultima and his plan for Valisthea and the Eikons. The way I see it, he only separates himself from Clive because he thinks that he can handle that burden himself which is in line with his character. The way I interpret Clive not asking Joshua where he has been is that he already knew that Joshua was also in search of Ultima after the events at Drakeshead. And later in the story at Tabor, they fully explain what Joshua was up to. I think ultimately when they meet up, Clive was just relieved to see his brother again, and wanted to focus on how to stop Ultima rather than catching up on the past, since the game naturally gets there anyway when you learn about the undying.
@@MoreLimitless_ Thanks for the detailed explanation! Something about the circumstances makes me have a hard time taking some of the explanations given by the game seriously. Like Joshua being saved by some new group no one knew about feels a bit cheap after we saw Ifrit rip him apart limb from limb. Joshua being frail in the first place just makes this pretty unbelievable to me.
It feels that reviving Joshua was a decision made much later in production and these feel like convenient excuses to have it make sense. I'm not sure if Ultima thought that Clive was dead but surely he was aware that he is Ifrit. Whether Joshua letting his brother live with the guilt of murdering his brother is worth it to keep Ultima away from him seems like a very avoidable dilemma by the writers.
I admit the Phoenix+Ifrit combo to defeat Bahamut was reaaaally badass but in some ways I feel the game's narrative could have been stronger without Joshua ever making a return, however bitter that may seem.
But you know, this is just a one mans' opinion and I appreciate you giving me the explanations.
The idea of the fire brothers is always the backbone of the game, so never thought Joshua's survival was a later decision, and the entire plot from Benedikta was all because Joshua lives, removing him would've changed the whole plot or narrative less logical. But I understand your opinion, I think Joshua's story after PG is underutilized, how he survived is only mentioned in a few un-voicing dialogue when you have a conversation with Cyril before Origin (make sure completed Undying side quest), besides in Ultimania (guide book published only in Japan) Joshua wasn’t chill, he was in a coma for 5 years, and spent years to fully healed, practicing swordsmanship so he could protect himself. Joshua only knew that Clive was alive 3 years before the events of the game, and during that time Undying planned about assassinating Clive by suspected him of being Ifrit and Joshua stopped them. According to Maehiro, they cut out Joshua's and Dion's pov storyline, so a lot of details were left to side content.
About Joshua’s alive is cheapen Clive's backstory or make his suffering pointless, I have different view. In those 13 years Clive believe it wasn’t him the murderer, he just failed protect Joshua and Clive also couldn't find a chance to desert so hatred was what gave him reason to survive, if Joshua appeared, it meant that the truth about Ifrit would be exposed. Knowing that he was Ifrit that Clive has to face his true sins, not only for killing Joshua (almost actually) but also he killed his mentor and many others at Phoenix Gate, as well as destroyed lives of others, including Jill. And so, Clive still has to face his sins, fight his shadow, as Joshua's forgiveness was never difficult for him, he just didn't dare to face himself.
What a fantastic step in the right direction. Final fantasy has felt so lost for so long, but I feel like the combat, characters, voice acting were maybe my favorite ever. I feel like quests and exploration are more easily fixed than something like a combat system
This is one of my favorite games ever.
Put over 500 hours into it
Hell yeah, man. This entry is top 3 for me.
@@BaderAldin69 Tell em!!
FF 16 is the best final fantasy since the SNES/PS1 era.
It was the first time as an adult it just made me lose myself in a story and world, with new combat and characters.
Fantastic game, and maybe one of those most amazing looking games ever made.
The story pulled no punches, too.
I wish they would add a new mode to this game that increases the difficulty and allows us to have 4 Eikon slots. This is the best game I have played since Shadow of the Colossus. I really wish for more content in the future.
Great writing, editing, delivery. Fair and measured criticism and praise, get this man more subs!
I appreciate that sm!
Despite XVI not being a perfect game, I can confidently say that Clive is my favorite FF protag of all time (followed closely with the 7R version of Cloud), he really is the highlight of the game for me along with the Summons
Fantastic video. Thank you for sharing such a well structured and thoughtful review of what makes this game special. One of my favourite games of all time, and… the music! Just phenomenal. Let us not overlook one incredibly important part of this game which isn’t mentioned here… Torgal. Truly, the finest of hounds 😀
@@MichaelChristianDurrant Best boy Torgal ❤️
FFXVI is one of my all time favorite Final Fantasy. It’s incredible ❤
After your video I really want to return for the story and soundtrack
0:14 i'm queueing in ffxiv while watching this and thought my queue popped lmao
I just had to keep my fellow 14 players on their toes
I feel it's a missed opportunity to not make characters like Jill or Joshua* playable, or at least more engaging. It would've played better with the theme of working with others in XVI. This is where I will give points to XV.
*Yes, there are points in the fame you play as Joshua, but they are very few and arguably negligible.
1 year since my favorite game of all time is crazy. I’ve followed it since its reveal. Most hype I was ever for a game. I’m so happy I got to experience this masterpiece. From beginning to end.
I was not sure if you wrote this or me. 😂 Those are my sentiments exactly.
@@MrRedskin0007 I’m just glad to know there’s others who feel the same as me
Waiting for it to come to series x
@@PostParodyClarity I don’t think it will tbh man and I hate that for y’all. Your best bet is to either get a PS5 for it or wait until it comes to PC. Console exclusivity is outdated but it’s still where we are.
Man, what an excellent video! 👏🏽
Beautifully crafted but I had to skip the DLC chapter for the vid tho.
You inspired me to finally go and finish it.
I did the Echos DLC but not the Tide yet.
1 year Anniversary,.. what better time than now.
Absolutely! The Rising Tide is a fun little piece of content, and if you enjoyed the base game, you'll love this DLC.
I don’t like it because it’s a character action game not a party based rpg
That's completely valid. I myself really enjoy it as a character action game fan myself, but it's all subjective
29:00 --- The music is really something else... So happy they made some of it available as orchestrion rolls in FF14 ^.^
I'm still not a big fan of the ending, the main villain, how some characters were handled, the lack of rewarding exploration and rpg mechanics, the MMO style fetch quests that added very little beside stopping the pacing to a halt, Clive's standard sword moveset being so limited, Ifrits moveset being *even* more limited, and the use of a mechanic as unengaging as cooldowns in a fast paced hack n slash game.
Most people say i dislike the combat because it is an action game, but rather its the opposite, i dislike it because it's not action *enough* . No amounts of skilled play will get the cooldowns back any faster, getting rewarded for waiting just isn't very exciting, the moveset being limited to only 6 abilities at a time doesn't help either. But i agree with you that that combo potential is still very large, i myself did have the most fun styling on enemies and swapping between builds despite my gripes with the limitations.
And i can admit it is a well made game that succeeded at a lot of things it tried to do, even if i wasn't particularly a fan of them. I liked most of the characters and the boss fights were some of the most hype thing ever, some real Asura's Wrath energy there. I’d say better than XIII and XV as in its a complete game , but the complete game itself it’s aggressively middle of the road both as an action game and an rpg. Making you pay $25 DLC for a $70 game also rubbed me off the wrong way, just because it is normalized in modern gaming didn't make it any better, especially since it added such little content compared to some of the other games from Square Enix themselves, i expected them to be better than this. My first two playtrough were the most fun, unlocking more abilities and experimenting with all kinds of different combos, its only on the third playtrough i started noticing all the flaws. Despite all that i do believe this is a very high quality game that a lot of people would enjoy.
YES. Thank you! In terms of combat and gameplay complexity it feels like a demo or proof of concept of a Devil May Cry game that got stretched out to 50 hours. The sense of progression is horrible, you learn pretty much everything is to combat in the first two hours besides adding in 2 different color eikon attacks every 5 hours.
The game is so easy that you aren’t even encouraged to actually learn and engage in the combos. I had to go out of my way to force myself to learn some because I was so bored of the same exact “dodge, dodge, square triangle square triangle square triangle” loop over and over again that I had learned in the demo. Even then by the time you get some stuff going the enemies are usually dead anyways.
A *real* action game like DMC5 has 5 times the gameplay depth while jam-packing it into a game that’s 5 times shorter. Thats what makes it fun. As opposed to this game where you spend 30 minutes walking around an empty valley to find 4 random soldiers to pull maybe 2 combos off before it’s over.
Wish listed, waiting for the initial reviews for the PC port before buying. I realllly wanted to play it when it launched and have been waiting for the PC release since then. But like any PC ports, I always, always wait to see if its at least somewhat optimized. I would be surprised tho if SquareEnix (almost typed Squaresoft, damn I'm old) gave us a bad port.
Imma be real, I feel like Jill was the most compelling and well written character next to Clive. Imo she has more development than people give her credit for, and she still has direction and an arc that goes somewhere following through right to the end of the game, it's just relatively subtle and told through little moments/dialogues rather than another big setpiece like the Iron Kingdom. I keyed into so much more during my second playthrough, her writing is actually really good and she's much more of a three dimensional character than even Joshua.
Unfortunately she suffers the most from the writing issues in the third act, and there are some big issues with her execution ofc. I think if she had just that little bit more she would have landed better overall. Show her curse, emphasize it and her need to start taking care of herself by having her fight Titan with Clive instead of what happened at Rosalith, dig a little deeper into her relationship with Shiva, etc.
@@f-b420 That is exactly how I feel about her character. She’s a good and well written character that intertwines with Clive nicely, however, she lacks direction going into the latter half of the game. Instead they choose to focus more on only Clive and Joshua and Jill was just not given enough material, but she still has her moments as well.
I am sorry but I feel abject apathy towards her. She is just so uterly uninteresting to watch, she is a paper character, the writer im sure tried and had a clear goal but imo it just wasnt well realized.
Love this video man, doubt you see this comment but it meant alot to me. This game meant alot more to me then other FF titles before, and is by far one of my favorite ones so far. Thank you
I absolutely hated it, but im glad someone liked it
Cid and Mid gotta be my favorite characters from this game. Their voice actors did a really amazing job at making the characters charismatic and memorable.
Haters gonna hate. Best FF since FFX. And Clive's possibly THE best protagonist of the entire franchise.
if u legit think that u shallow, bro. 😂
but I love 16 too... Just wish Cid wasnt discarded like shit, the sidequests had any depth and the plot could've been Game of Thrones or Attack on Titan level shit! Cmon... Lets be honest here
I don't think it's the best ff, but Clive sure was a gigachad protag. One of the best for sure.
"Haters gonna hate" sure sounds condusive to a healthy discussion. Why cant people share a negative experience that they genuinely had without being "haters".
I love FFXVI but it wasn't perfect. My main complaints..
First the battle system. It became repetitive and not because of the eikons or how the battles flowed but because the system of weakness/strength, buffs/debuffs was completely gone. They could have implemented this easily enough. I never died during my entire playthrough. Even worse my set up didn't change much from the beginning of the game to the end game.
Second, the side missions were repetitive. SE needs to take notes from CDPR and the way they made side quests in The Witcher 3. That game was a masterclass in side quests. So much so that if you play that game every other game with side quests after will more than likely disappoint you.
The exploration. It just wasn't there.
And finally, the pacing. Definitely was an issue.
Aside from that, I loved everything else. The story, the plot, the characters, the soundtrack. Definitely up there with the best entries in the series. Definitely a hell of a lot better than the abomination that was FFXV.
@Garrus-w2h never used any of the assists. Never died once. I'm also a souls vet so this game was a walk in the park.
Gaoted game