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Thank god someone else agrees with me regarding this game, people are calling this goty and saying all ff games should be like this going forward. No fkin way man
It'd be cool to hear why you like FF8 so much Ralph. Personally it was my first final fantasy game and the draw, junction system was so cool. Plus the GF mechanic having story implications was amazing
Odd for the creator to say that gamers these days won't tolerate turn based combat due to their attention span, but then make a game that's 75% cut scenes
They should be teaching people to maintain their attention span instead of trying to adhere to it. Brain dead generation is ruining the natural flow of games
Yosheep finally getting real criticisms. FFXI/xiv 1.0 players have been saying it for a while.... but this business unit 3/under this current producer isnt really all that great when it comes to game design. I mean he still gets praise for ARR from 10 years ago... and even that I think he just manages time/money more then he makes a good game. Most of the good stuff in XIV was build on backbones from the original team... But the current era of players always praise anything and everything he touches. This game is just proof and the actual criticisms can be herd about what this team lacks.
@@KurosuKirieif they ever remade FF9 they would tear it to pieces and rebuild it into kingdom hearts, just like FF7R and every other game they make these days
@@extinctbaryonyx almost like those are 2 different groups huh? It's really a mystery why that happens. Sarcastic enough or should I explain it to you like an AI being asked "explain it like I was 5 years old"?
i dropped it after the titan fight. i just couldn't force myself to boot it up anymore. every aspect of it is just god damn boring. from story to world to characters. every cool character either dies or leaves early. so you are left with generic stoic hero dude, his dog and jill the woman that happens to be also there. the mediocre and easy combat didn't help much either. even once you unlock more skills and finally have the ability to string combos together it doesn't come close to the greats of the character-action genre.
I'd like to say that I really appreaciate the community you've fostered, everywhere else I see constant fight between different 'fanbases' about what's good and what's not, fights about the average reviewer rating, etc. It's nice to read very respectful comments even from people who are very much enjoying the experience, it's something I hardly ever see these days.
yeah the only disrespectful thing you might see is someone calling him "shillup" but most of the time its memeing and if someone means it unironically they get clowned on.
@@johnciano3524I’m personally loving it as well. I think this is just another Lost Judgment situation where we don’t really see a game in the same way. It doesn’t break XVI for me, but it would have been nice to see a few minigames to break things up a bit, but their importance has really varied game to game.
@@doneatthetuna1342 I completely agree, but with the outrage at the couple of 6/10s this game got, it’s very apparent that a lot of people these days get upset when reviews don’t validate their opinion.
Its pretty hilarious knowing that FF16 was produced with such a cynical mindset towards turn-based gameplay but then months later, Baldur's Gate 3 came out and completely outshined it EDIT: And Baldur's Gate 3 won 6 out 10 awards at the VGA, including best of RPG and Game of the Year 2023 lol
When you try to make a game for everybody, you make a game for nobody. FF16 dumbed down every aspect of the game to appeal to as wide of an audience as possible, and ended up being a pretty shallow experience.
Stranger of Paradise already outshined XVI and most FF fans dismissed that game because one guy said "Chaos!" too much when in reality, it's a much better designed game than XVI and is more closer to the FF feel than XVI is.
1 year later, skillup is one of the few reviewers I trust, in part because of this review. The balls to go against the circlejerk and give honest, critical opinions is commendable. And after playing the game I ended up agreeing with all of them, and still don't understand the level of hype and love behind this game.
As someone who bounced off of Final Fantasy XV pretty hard, I'm kind of enjoying just having a linear, cinematic experience. The combat is fun and I'm really invested in the story, so I'm having a good time. Only eight hours in though. I guess we'll see if it holds up.
Ben Starr suffered the loss of his father during acting for 16, and used that to help convey Clive's emotions through the game. Many developers from Final Fantasy 14 were involved in Final Fantasy 16. This is because other teams at Square Enix are busy (Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Kingdom Hearts 4 and Dragon Quest XII) To Devil May Cry 5, featuring the same combat director and similar fast-paced, high-action gameplay. Yuna's whistle from Final Fantasy X gets used in a prologue cutscene by Clive. The end credits feature a segment dedicating the game to Stephen Critchlow, Byron's first voice actor, and Square Enix NA's Head of Marketing Kevin Kraff (who passed away in July 2022). The production staff have cited Game of Thrones (specifically the earlier seasons of the show) as a major inspiration. A minor key rendition of the overworld theme from Final Fantasy plays during various scenes exploring the history and lore of Ultima, first popping up in the chapter "Cloak and Dagger." Stephen Critchlow, who died two years before the game's release, is listed alongside Ewan Bailey in the credits as one of Byron's voice actors. * Ben Starr has been a fan of the franchise since Final Fantasy VIII. He first auditioned for a minor role under a code-named script to keep the work a secret, but was asked to read several other lines for the character that would become Clive. After a few days he was told he won the lead role, but it wasn't until another week later that he found out it was for a new mainline game in his favorite series. To him, becoming Clive was “an overwhelming honor and a terrifying privilege” and the worst part was keeping it a secret for years. * Stewart Clarke (Dion) is a fan of the series and said he felt privileged to have his character join the ranks of other complexly written dragoons like Kain Highwind and Estinien Varlineau. A PlayStation 4 version of the game was planned around the time the Awakening trailer for the game was shown, but was cancelled due to the technical limitations of the console. This is also the first mainline single-player Final Fantasy game whose English voice acting was recorded exclusively in the United Kingdom, following in the footsteps of fellow JRPG franchises like Dragon Quest and Xenoblade Chronicles. Final Fantasy XII was primarily dubbed in the UK with some additional recording done in the USA, while Final Fantasy XIV started out being dubbed in the US before the production moved to the UK beginning with the Heavensward expansion. * This is the third Final Fantasy game to receive a Mature rating by the ESRB, behind Final Fantasy Type-0 and Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, the first to receive an 18+ rating by PEGI and the second to receive a D rating by CERO, behind Stranger of Paradise. * This is the first Final Fantasy game to feature a plot-important openly gay character in Dion, the Dominant of Bahamut.note Dion even shares a kiss with his lover Terence, which is shown on-screen during one cutscene. This scene ended up getting the game banned in Saudi Arabia when Square Enix refused to remove the characters or the kissing scene.
40 hour game, 30 of it watching fucking cutscenes. The rest of it fighting easy fights with no danger if you understand the basic mechanics of the game. Long bullet sponge fights with no danger. Just big health bars. No status magic, no character customization or builds outside of stat sticks. Snoozefest of a game. How again is this an RPG? Where's the fun? Why is there no hard mode at the very least? I feel insulted when I play this game, because of how dull it is, from a roleplaying/immersion standpoint. I'm just watching Clive, but I never feel sucked in to the character. Really sad. The world building looks phenomenal, from the backgrounds to the music, it all looks stellar. But what does that matter if the game itself is a slog?
Looking back on 2023, I’m so glad BG3 came out the same year as FF16. It shows how wrong Yoshi P was about what gamers want and what can succeed in this day and age.
For real. Bothers me to no end when developers say stuff like that without any solid data or research to back it up. Turn based RPGs still rock and will always have a massive core audience that grew up with them, and a new one that discovers and loves them. I mean, look at the new Pokemon that came out this year. Turn based, very flawed, game, and yet, it's the 2nd best grossing game in the franchise, (and one of the top sellers of the year). Not to mention BG3 as well.
I DEFINITELY didn’t expect this take from you, however, it’s just another reason why I truly respect and eagerly await your reviews. You never seem swayed by the mass opinion or hype attached to any potential title. You always so eloquently and professionally detail everything you experienced, and you are absolutely one of the best reviewers today. I absolutely LOVE this game though, granted I’m early, so that could change. Well done sir.
I think video game criticism still lags way way behind criticism of other art forms, and part of it is I feel it has this sort of rote functional role. there's this feeling that it a game is well-made a reviewer is basically obligated to give it a positive review, but that's not how art works. if last of us part II were a movie it probably would have had polarized reviews to reflect the messy, challenging, and polarizing story, but while the audience response was like that, skill up was the only reviewer I can think of who said the story didn't click with him and therefore he didn't like it
@@GeeeEmmm I distinctly remember Skill Up preferring the real-time Persona 5 Strikers to the original turn based game though. He uses Persona 5 as a positive example of turn based combat in this game, but he enthusiastically said the sequel that ditched that style was more his thing
Just finished the game last night. I started off really enjoying it, but by the end I couldn’t wait for it to be over. I think Ralph gave a completely transparent review of this game. I have all the same thoughts.
Finished it today and have the exact same feeling. At first the game was incredibly amazing for me, but by about 3/4 of the story I was dying for the game to end. Writing became more and more cheesy for me as well which made the entire thing even harder to go through.
@@kheops101Right, the writing just kept getting worse. So many cringe interactions, politics, plot holes, things that make no sense. I'm at around the 80% mark and I still wonder how destroying all the crystals will make things better.
I am 43 hours into the game, and that's about 70% complete. And I am completing 100%. The more I play, the lower my review score keeps getting. After beating Titan, my score dives even lower. It's supposed to be a spectacle but it's just a lot of fast cuts and nonsense attacks, things flying everywhere that doesn't actually make any damn sense. Trying to copy God of War just to be big in scale? I don't get it. When it plays out like crap, who gives a damn. Life to the empires are all about the crystals, but when they "vanish" no time is spent on it. The foundation of the world is irrelevant. It's baffling. Summon fights are one of the worst things in this game. They clearly had no idea what to do with them. And to make it worse, limit breaks are dead. This game isn't an RPG at all. I keep thinking that me going out and farming, leveling up, and looking at every corner of each map will pay off in any way. But it hasn't. I'm not having much fun anymore. I started to skip conversations from my side quest people just yesterday. Nothing interesting happens, nor do you get anything interesting. S rank hunt? Easy and I didn't get anything. I hope there is something more before the journey ends. There are a million games like Final Fantasy 16, but before there were almost no games like it prior to even FF13 (which was bad). They just keep changing FF into what they think will sell, not make it to what FF actually means and having people want what FF they make. Nintendo doesn't change their games at all, not Zelda, not Pokemon and they don't give a damn. You put out a game that is fun, and what do you know? People will buy it and enjoy it even if the game direction isn't what is mainstream or deemed the best route. You will find it interesting what people will gravitate towards. Final Fantasy has always been about heavy RPG elements. It's not about turn based combat like FFX, or ATB. Variations of gameplay. It's about the entire package. The RPG aspect of those identities is much larger. FF16 so far, 43 hours into it has thrown it all away. Who told these guys we want Final Fantasy to not be an RPG game anymore? Who says that we and younger kids whom are the "future" want instant gratifying games where you just hit everything? Why hasn't anyone been paying attention to actual trends. Final Fantasy doesn't need to follow a trend. It is a trend. It's chasing games that have two or three entries max and then die off. Final Fantasy used to be about creating what they dreamed of, what didn't exist. Now they are chasing what's already there. Devil May Cry? Bayonetta? These bomb games are the sales that they are chasing? It doesn't make any sense to me. My rating of FF16 right now. Graphics 9/10 Dialogue 7/10 Combat 4/10 Story 7/10 Systems 2/10 Character Design 5/10 World Design 8/10 Extra Content 2/10 Overall - 7/10
I understand your points, but I don't think giving Nintendo praise is a good thing when there's tons of indie, single, and double AA companies that "put out a game that is fun" without all the scummy stuff they've done to the fans. Giving more attention to Nintendo only exacerbates the problem and weakens any potential boycott towards them.
Agreed. The total absence of RPG elements in 16 and the shallow gameplay with almost 0 replayability made the game a total disappointment for me. It's just another shallow action adventure game with very little unique/memorable component.
@@mr_smiles4213 Well game scores, in general, are more or less inflated, a 5/10 is like objectively a bad game (like tons of bugs, the game is clearly incomplete, and the controls have a literal second or two delays i.e. Balan Wonderworld for the PS5 to a 51 on Metacritic and that game was terrible or at best mediocre by all measures), which FFXVI isn't. FFXVI, though flawed, is more or less complete, performs overall pretty well despite the performance issues, and the average player is unlikely to encounter any game-breaking bugs. A 7/10 is more appropriate for such a review as Skill Ups or the OPs review.
I doubted u when I first saw this. I come back to this review 130+ hrs later and shillup summed up my thoughts exactly. Moments that r like no other but falls short in so many other aspects.
Honestly kind of surprised you didn't mention the soundtrack. Regardless of how you feel about the gameplay changes, the soundtrack was just freaking phenomenal. There were a couple of moments where the soundtrack crescendoed with the story or action on screen perfectly and as corny as it sounds I actually had to pause and just kind of process it because it was SO good
I feel like that cynical stance towards the playerbase and turn based combat sadly permeates the entire game. There's no meaningful depth to the combat, and no consequences to any choices the player makes. Neither punishment nor reward. My guess is that dealing with the MMO playerbase for a decade has worn down Yoshi-P and conditioned him to avoiding any elements that might alienate some players or make them feel like they can't play "the way they want". As a result, the game is just bland and uniform.
I’ve returned to this review 2 months on and 40 hrs later. Skill Up was right in his assessment and courageous in going against the grain here. FF16 sucks. Its combat is ok, it’s action set pieces are a spectacle - but everything else is dated and tedious. The demo was great but unfortunately everything went downhill from there. Towards the end, I skipped through all side quests, skipped all the cutscenes and dialogue just to fast track myself to completion. It was a chore. I’ve since deleted the game from my PS5 and never intend to return to it. Skill Up - you may have taken a short term hammering for this review. But in the long term - your credibility as a reviewer will be enhanced from your brutal honesty. Compared to other reviewers - I actually believe you sunk in the hours - and as a result, similar to myself - wish you could have them back.
@@vivifell so to qualify yourself as a reviewer you need to do a juggle? are you actually being serious here? anyway irrespective of if he learnt air combos or not - or played on final fantasy mode or not - bottom line is that many of his observations were correct.
" your credibility as a reviewer will be enhanced from your brutal honesty." Then goes on to give Immortals of Aveum a recommendation over FFXVI. L M A O. The guy's opinion is trash.
@@occiderisaethiopissa3702 never heard of that game. But maybe it is better. You may think it’s not, but that’s your opinion. Regardless his criticisms on FF16 still stand.
Why do I have 700 sharp fangs Why am I finding useless items and 2 gil everywhere Why are my new weapons being replaced 5 mins later Why are the side quests so boring and back ended Why are there cutscenes every 10mins Why cant I min max stats or build clive to fit a certain style i.e. why does gear exist and give the eikons more depth Where did game of thrones go.. Why is this game soo confused as to what it wants to be Why cant we switch party members like in FF7r? Why am I fighting the same birds and wolves everywhere Why are there no cactuas in the desert? Why are there no secret dungeons?
I disagreed with you at first (Before I beat the game) But now I think everything you've said was 100% Facts the game for me went from a 9/10 to a 7 to 6/10 by the end of it.
I’m 90% through the game. And the longer I played, the lower my score. There are epic scenes. But the game is absolutely drowned in side missions and pointless dialogue.
I still can't understand what people see in this game. It's bad at being an RPG, it's bad at being an action game. The closest it gets to being good at anything is as an interactive movie, but the dialogue is so over-dramatized and hokey it's not great at that, either. I own it, have tried to grind through it three times now, it's just not very good.
Hopping in here almost a year later because that's how long it took me to beat the game as I was having a hard time staying interested, you hit most everything on the head. Just gonna say, when you start the game there is a brief splash screen with Clive and the words FINAL FANTASY XVI and every time I saw in the latter half the game I would like raise an eyebrow because it just did not feel like a Final Fantasy game to me.
I finished this game last week, and as a huge FF fan, I'm still extremely disappointed by it. Forget the "is this a Final Fantasy" discourse, this is just straight up not a good video game, FF or not. I agree with most of the review, although I wasn't even impressed with the locations. Very bland game, admittedly with some spectacular scenes sprinkled in. No RPG elements, no humor, no fun. This ain't it. I hope that future FFs won't be like this. At least Rebirth is coming, which will be on a completely different level (like Remake already was).
Your belief that the upcoming installment will be of high quality, despite the elementary school level writing in the previous one, speaks volumes about your standards for what constitutes "quality."
I just got to the part he's talking about and he's downplaying it greatly. The "vendor" is one of the central characters who plays a big role in the story, especially if you do the side quests
@kar12894 you wouldn't need to in order to understand she's a central character, but the sidequests in the second half of the game have major story additions and are absolutely worth it.
@@kar12894 correct. The part where he's a teen and a young adult, most stuff doesn't count at that point, but once you unlock the second hideout and take up a certain name, things start to open up and actually have substance behind it - since you can't go back to the previous timelines
Interesting take from Yoshi P on going away from turn based combat, yet Yakuza took the direct opposite mentality of going from instant action to turn based for the first time and it ended up working.
@@Bahamut998Data shows that the sales of the franchise went from 14 millions to 17 millions after releasing Like a Dragon, most Yakuza games before sold 1 or 2 millions. So Yakuza like a dragon sold more
I knew from the moment I finished the demo that this game was going to be divisive. I love this game. But I can definitely see why some people wouldn't. If you're a bigger fan of the more traditional Final Fantasies, this one's going to rub you the wrong way. But I do appreciate how accessible this game actually is, and I think that was part of the point in the game's direction.
@@gloominaati3105 and what form would that be? a stripped down action game thats a mile wide and an inch deep? im upset i bought it, i thought there would at least be some actual rpg systems, interesting gear, strategy etc. instead we got babys first action game. i want my money back.
FF16 open world is pointless because they streamlined the rpg elements. Whats the point of exploring and gathering when there is not much to craft or equip. They really poured their budget into their story and force you to drag yourself throughout. Open world gives you a break from story but its empty and pointless...i was literally skipping cutscenez at end just to feell rewarded by getting new powers from bosses. I was exhausted from story pace
I’ll be very curious to see how XVI ages. It’s enjoying a groundswell now, due to the lengthy runup and plentiful teases but will that momentum hold for another few years? When we’re waiting on XX, it will be interesting to see the various “Best FF” or “FF Games Ranked” lists and see where XVI lands.
I think if we mixed FF 16 with Stranger of Paradise we'd get SkillUp's favorite game. For real though, Stranger of Paradise has pretty much everything that he feels is missing from this game.
It feels like a game for nobody. The open world and side quests? They feel like a weak attempt at chasing something like The Witcher 3. The RPGnesss? Crafting and items are pretty useless, just serving to make your current thing have a bit of a higher number than your last one. There's no strategizing. The combat? I mean it's pretty flashy and cool but it has no depth so if they were trying to chase the DMC crowd they fell flat on their arse there.
THANK YOU. People giving this 9's are crazy. This is a 6/10 game, with 10/10 cutscenes once in a while. Parts of this felt like playing a PS2 game at worst, and a PS4 game at best. And it sucks that things like elemental weakness doesn't exist anymore. All magic does exactly the same damage to every enemy. And I hate how exploration is basically pointless in the open areas. Any item you find is worthless garbage.
6/10 is generous, more like 4/10. PS2 game at worse and PS4 game at best? Buddy, most PS2 games were at the very least fun and worth your time, this game ain't. (Maybe you're talking about graphics?) Also glad I'm not the only one who noticed elemental weaknesses aren't a thing in this game, a game centered around the iconic elemental summons of the series no less.
Why would you want the combat to be the same as FF7R? We have 2 more games in that series coming. I think the combat in 16 is awesome, though the cinematics are a bit exhausting
@@KyngD469 yeah, that was a major oof.... not just by him but most RUclips reviewers. That game is the reason why I watch gameplay before buying, regardless of what any reviewers say.
@@KyngD469I don't understand when people bring this review up, because I used his footage to make fun of the bugs lmao He really showcased all the problems the game had, on the platform he was offered (at the time, PC only)
@@KyngD469 but he was honest back then too, he only had the PC copy and he pointed out all mistakes the game makes. He didn't know how bad the console releases were.
I've played every mainline FF game since 7 and enjoyed them all, 15 wasnt great but it was still fun in parts and still felt like a FF game. Having enjoyed Skillup content for a few years now and appreciating his reviews I held off on picking up this game on release. However 10 months later, FF16 is on sale so I thought I'd give it a shot. @skillup you have never been MORE RIGHT in a review. This is not only the poorest FF game i've ever played but at best it is an extremely mediocre action game. Aside from the striking and polished visuals and the world setting I have no warm feelings towards this game. I'm slogging my way through the story for the first half in the hope it would get better and now only continuing as I feel i have to finish it so I dont feel I've totally wasted 30 hours. So so disappointed.... Moral of the story? Keep listening to @skillup, he knows his stuff.
He seems really vindicated with the review. XVI had tons of hype on release, and it no doubt has a lot of players who love the game. But overall its reception has been very middling, particularly in the FF fandom. Skill Up was the first prominent voice, at least as far as I know, that was negative on it.
@@jonathanlgillhe received a lot of ridiculous hate and personal attacks as well at the time, but as time has gone by I’ve seen more and more agree with him. He wanted to love this game. He met and interviewed Yoshi p, interviewed and liked Ben Star, but even so, was not afraid to give his honest opinion and experience, even knowing the reaction he would get.
Thank you Skillup for your, yet another, extremely based game review despite the hype and noise of the people. You are THE ONLY game reviewer i trust. Ever. I always recommend your channel to my friends. I really appreciate all you and your team does. You are the only, and last reliable game reviewer.
It's almost like a character action game isn't conducive to superfluous RPG mechanics that only bloat the player experience and add nothing of real value to the gameplay.
I don't think things will set in with gamers till more people finish it. It's heavily cinematic comparable to something like MGS4 where there's more cutscenes than there is gameplay. Sadly there's no endgame dungeon or superbosses at the end either and the sidequest are the same as most games. Combat is very fun but yes there's some negatives Edit - It's not a bad game I'm a fan of both the FF series and Devil May Cry but this isn't the perfect mixture of both titles. It's missing alot of elements that's known within the series and before anyone says "well yeah that's because it's an action game" It's still a mainline FF title and one can't help to expect certain things from that. It's very restrictive with what you are able to do. It's an action rpg and I've seen God Of War Ragnarok handle being within that genre far better.
@@bigwig252I believe the point is it's flawed more so than what people are currently willing to realize. It's a good game but it's one step forward in terms of combat and steps back regarding everything else
27:22 In regards to *Heatwave* , the projectile counter/parry that takes up an Eikon ability slot: you don't actually need to use it as a parry ALL the time and in fact it does very decent damage, has fast cooldown and has a deceivingly wide hitbox that'll knockdown medium/small enemies around Clive. IF you use it as a parry not only is it one of the coolest-looking and best-feeling moves but it also pretty much DELETES even bosses' will meter AND it stops time so they actually won't be able to avoid it (try it on Benedikta's flying projectile attacks that avoid even the magic precision counter and it'll freeze her in place lmao). All this to say nope, it's not a waste of a slot even if you don't like parrying.
I like how he says "There are wery few enemies that throw projectiles" when it is simply bullshit. Almost every single boss if not every one throws projectiles, a lot of mini-bosses throw projectiles, a lot of normal enemies throw projectiles.
All that is kinda irrelevant if the combat is braindead easy, though. So you're making a useless nitpick. It's fine if you like the game, but it's hard to argue that the combat has any meaningful depth.
@@A.H.M.Ktoo bad depth doesn't really matter when you can melt all normal enemies by just dumping two maybe three cooldowns. Unless they are those spongey stagger meter enemies. Which are mostly just longer fights. There is zero strategy necessary.
I disagree with almost every point you made. Your story critique applies to FF Tactics, FFXII & XIV & I adore all those games so I love what you have problems with. What I agree about is that some starting side quests are bad but damn do they get incredible later. One even made me cry. What I don't get is you stating that Clive's comlanions aren't interesting characters. Also disagree that Eikoj battles are simplified combat & easy. Did you play later eikon battles & hard mode? And your critique on combat & its depth I understand even less. Combat is absolutely incredible & has so many layers. Did we play the same game?
I do agree with a lot of his point. The open world sections are bland, nothing really to discover. Feels like a map from 2002. No elemental strategy at all, which is weird because you literally wield different elements, missed opportunity. Side quests are boring and super simple. Walk here. Quest over. Fight 2 bandits that give no challenge. Quest over. At least give us waves of enemies and a unique boss that you wouldnt see unless you did this specific side quest ya no. That all being said, I am still really enjoying this game and I think the combat is so fun and sexy
I really liked FF Tactics on PS1... everything since then has been less interesting. i did enjoy FF XV more than most people but I had a strong feeling XVI would be another step in the wrong direction.
I can already hear the negativity and I’m enjoying the game quite a lot. I’m easily influenced unfortunately so I’ll have to come back to this one later Ralph. Thanks
A bit late to the party here, but I 100% agree with everything this reviewer says. Such a disappointing terrible boring game, and I speak as a 32 year old who has loved this franchise their whole life.
I had hoped that I wouldn’t find myself agreeing so much with this review; but now, having played 16, All of the criticisms leveled here are accurate and kind of damning. The clincher for me was when I realized they were really going to re-use the same “meet with the town leader, do quests for them so they give you a badge in order to get through a gate”. This lack of creativity in the MAIN QUEST design is awful.
While usually watching most of Skill Ups content right away, I avoided this one (and also other reviews) to get my own first impression of the game outside the demo. But now that I'm 2/3 through the game, I felt the urge to finaly watch this "controversial" review and hear some actual criticism for a game that earned so many 9/10 ratings. A rating that it didn't earn in my opinion. I'm at a point in the game where I started avoiding sidequests, because the mainquestline almost feels a long string of pointless, uninspired quests between interesting political developments, extremely epic battles and a "quite alright" story for the main character. The world is the highlight of the game, while exploring it is rather pointless. The characters are fine. Functional for the plot. But no highlights on that front for me. Developments within this world are interesting and I want more of them, but then I'm forced to gather stuff or investigate something to progress with the story. I will probably finish FF16 just for the epic moments and to see how the main storyline will conclude. After that I will remember the game as a giant missed opportunity, an overrated product in a pretty good year for games in general, but definetly not as an RPG or something that glued me to my screen for its content. Until then I can only agree with SkillUp and pretty much everything he said in this video.
I'm not sure how sad I should feel about the fact that people are making videos on you trying to debunk you when this is clearly the most unfortunate final fantasy game in the series.. Well actually maybe second to 15 but still. Not only is this not final fantasy but it's a crime against game design and what came before it
Looking back on this game, it's honestly baffling that it got such high reviews. The only thing it excels at is spectacle and boss fights. Story is average, characters are bland (except Clive), art direction is uninspired, combat is too simple, exploration is boring, there's no customization, RPG mechanics are mostly absent and side content is straight garbage.
@@Soniman001most probably didn't finish it or didn't dive deep enough with it's mechanics. It does give you a good impression in the first 10 hrs or so.
@@amolbhatia1449 real time with pause is the way to go, they could've tried that instead of dumbing it down. And the fact that there's no companions or bros traveling with you seems to me this is not really a FF game anymore, though all of that could be manageable if not for those empty uninteresting flat maps in the world.
@@creed22solar123 For me personally that’s fine because I’m not really a FF guy. It’s okay to do something different and except at it. See how RE switched between RE2 remake and RE4 remake that capture the very different essence of each game and then the brilliant RE7 which is pure and unadulterated horror. Or Zelda which has gone through a few transformations. For people like who find turn based combat grating and at times had to drag themselves through even the quite good FF7 remake this direction is exciting. And having seen the reviews to be fair it seems not all FF fans fall into the seem category as Shill Up.
@@amolbhatia1449 the problem is that its not even an rpg, its an action game. the series completely jumped genres when it could have just been an action rpg
Im about a dozen hours (maybe more) into the game and I'm still wondering if it gets better. I cannot focus on this game for more than 5 minutes at a time.
I initially disregarded your review when the game came out, I thought I'd play the game and find out for myself and... I agree with everything you had to say about it, especially with regards to how pointless exploration is. I really wanted to like FF16 because It's my favorite franchise but it left me feeling so disappointed.
I didn't mean it in that sense, I don't mind a game not having multiple things to complete or towers to conquer, but when you go through the trouble of reaching a certain place you should be rewarded for it, there was absolutely no sense of accomplishment for anything in this game. You killed a tough enemy? Here, 2 meteorites... Oh look a treasure chest! Another meteorite. They keep giving you useless stuff, it's like they built the world and forgot that you had to play through it. I loved the story and how crazy the fights can be, Clive is an amazing MC but it just left me feeling disappointed because of what could have been...
Same. This is my biggest regret purchase of 2023. I would pay someone to make me forget how much time this game made me waste. Worst side quest design and absolutely worst pacing of the year.
@@StriderZessei after 16 i gave the Ff series one more chance by watching OG VII gameplay and started playing remake and i loved it and platinum the game now I'm playing rebirth 15hrs in Kalm and im loving it
didn't want to watch this before getting into the game cause i was worried it was going to be brutal. but boy, 30 hours in and...what a disappointing experience. the level design of the game is so FLAT. for a game that was supposed to be "story driven", the "story" in between each boss fights were such a drag. appreciate your honest review Skill Up! must've gotten brutal feedback but you keep being you. cheers
IMO, FF16 is a game for people who play games for the story and graphics and are not interested to see how far the medium can go. My replies are now open for all your hate comments.
I disagree. I don't care at all for story or graphics and got 16 cause of its combat. It may not be as deep as DMC but there's still a lot of cool combos to pull off.
@@Merk1387 I’m not saying it’s a bad game. It’s just not deep, and for a 30-40 hour game it becomes repetitive. I don’t think we’ll hear many people talking about FF16 in 10 years the way people still talk about DMC3 or FF7. From a mainline Final Fantasy we should expect more, especially now that they take 7 years to make.
@JCNL871 It's plenty deep, especially with the new accessories and eikons the dlc gives you. But I agree it's definitely repetitive on first playthrough since the game slowly drip feeds you new moves. Hack and slash games should always be around the 10-hour mark to beat so you can unlock everything and replay right away. FF7 and DMC3 are classics, so it's hard to top those. At the very least, FF16 was a much better experience than the jumbled mess that was FF15.
@@Merk1387 In my opinion, judging it as an action game, I don’t like the perfect dodge because it is too powerful. It’s a universal solution to any attack, it very easy to pull off and it buffs your attack. I also don’t like how the abilities are on cool-down timers. There’s no skill in that, you press a button and then you have to wait. I also didn’t like that there was just one weapen, the longsword. Also, I didn’t like the stagger bar because enemies would barely react to my attacks, it mostly felt like I was just mashing sandbags. So, in short, I didn’t like it as an action game because it didn’t make you engage with action game fundamentals like spacing, framedata, hitboxes and enemy states which made it feel shallow for me. But I’m glad you had fun though 😊
@JCNL871 Yeah, the game definitely needed more weapons or, at the very least, more combo attacks for your main weapon. I wish every eikon changed your moveset like Odin did, and they did do that with Leviathan and Ultima eikons, but I still would have liked more than just the basic moveset you're stuck with. Regarding the cool-down for your abilities, you can actually reduce it by parrying enemy attacks so you can get them back faster and incentivizes aggression. As for the simple controls for abilities, I don't mind it, but I totally understand if it's too simple for some players. I love DMC and similar games like Ninja Gaiden, but it's always hard for me to memorize every attack, so I appreciated the easy controls. Perfect dodge is definitely strong. I would have liked it to be tighter to pull off, but it doesn't bother me much, especially with how hard Ultimaniac difficulty is. Stagger is okay, but I do feel a lot of action games rely on it too much now. Would like to move away from that. I love 16, but there's a lot that could be done to improve the combat imo.
This was one of the best, most honest reviews I have ever heard. I spent last night trying to explain my issues with this game to my wife. You just explain how I feel perfectly. Im enjoying the game, but every point you made is exactly how I feel about it. Very impressive review 👍
@Cund Yes, no shit Captain Obvious. Do you have a point or are you just butthurt that other people aren't simping for your vidya game as hard as you are?
I saw this when I was first starting the game and loving it, and I didn't really get what you were saying as my experience was being so different. I had such high expectations for FFXVI and the first hours were crazy good to me, but as the game dragged on I saw these high highs and abysmally low lows. By the end, I didn't care at all about the story and was burned out by the terrible pacing. Combat felt endlessly boring by the end, it felt like the game had random encounters as you would take two steps and be bombarded by unnecessary enemies and bosses over and over again. I'm still heart broken, I was so sure this game was going to be a 10/10 for me and for sure it had the potential to be so, but I ended up having a mediocre experience.
I’m at the point where the main quests have become as garbage as the side quests, it’s the ff14 msq all over again. This game encapsulates everything I hate about modern games: too many god damn cutscenes and a bland boring world filled with the most garbage mmo quests that would make ff14 blush, I think chatGPT could make better quests than the ones in this game
yes as a lifelong FF fan this game ain't for me. But I'm an old man pushing 40. Happy for the youngsters who love it, and I realize this isn't a series made for me anymore. At least I have remasters, the FF7r games to look forward to.
@@notimportant8643 what is it about old quest structure in video games that appeals to you? Or the worlds? Is there something they have that this doesn't? Don't bother replying if your answer is "good writing"
Not liking it but still understanding and respecting those who like it, and honestly explaining the points you didn't like is the most amazing thing about your text.
Tbh the preface shouldn't be necessary. It should be common sense that a review is a single opinion and doesn't control your life. Everyone's so damn fragile, it's ridiculous.
@@JTSuter so why did you say "that much is obvious" and "it's hard to get into a bad game" as a response to me saying many people could say the same for elden ring and persona 5?
I like my man Shill Up™ but listening to this review after I've beaten the game, it sounds to me that he skipped a LOT of stuff where it amounts to this review having up to 50% of information factually wrong. I wish he could take the time to properly devote attention to the game in order to give it a fairer shake but alas he is a game reviewer and the bar is pretty low these days. The game isn't perfect, it's not terribly innovating in many areas for sure but the combat, story, voice acting and music elevate it to a much higher plane than it would usually deserve. I love the game in spite of its flaws but I don't think it will get game of the year, especially with TotK releasing a few months ago.
Bro thank you, i thought i was going nuts since it seemed i was the only one that had issues with this game. Your video echoes my own sentiment of the game perfectly.
exploration is downright being punished.... Bloody Hides, sharp fangs, Magicked ash are THE ONLY things i keep finding and i can do nothing with it. i remember finding a mythril braclet in the volcano ... and that was a main mission!! that was the only item that i got that was better than what i had in like 30 hours... i fougth a notrious mark and got a meteorit in the chest behind which i can buy!!! and yeah dont need it anyway. there is nothing to craft besides the stuff you get after boss battles.... what were they thinking? is this realy what the new generation likes? i am dumbfounded.
I feel you man, I doubt they even bothered designing the reward system - it feels like there is nothing left except the flashy combat, which quickly becomes boring due the lack of variety and limited choices
@@NotARealPerson12345there’s plenty of variety and choices. You need to go further in the game to unlock said things and then apply yourself to use them. If you’re not gonna take advantage of the move sets or try to do combos why play this game lol.
@@Manthathasspiderlikepowers I did apply some small combos and it was fun, but that's really not enough. A game can have 100 options but if it doesn't provide the drive for players to discover then then it's useless. The combat has combos but it if doesn't require any tactical decisions - want to attack fire with fire? Yeah go ahead, the same damage... Use ice to attack fire? Well, same amount of damage... There's no penalty if you make bad choice. You can dodge infinitely without worrying about stamina, which doesn't exist. All you gotta do is wait for CDs and unleash your big moves to bosses. Yeah, certainly the game gives you a lot of options but the game wasn't designed well to drive you to discover them.
So far I’ve really enjoyed it. However, I miss having a party, I miss being able to slow down at times and think. I still think ff7 is the best hybrid they’ve ever created, but I can’t help but to miss the slow technical gameplay of 9 or 10.
@@Y0PPS Honestly my dream would be for the FF16 team to create the world, lore, characters, and tone, but for the FF7R team to create the combat. The music could go either way, both are very good. And for the level design and exploration, well, I think they just might have to get someone from outside of Square Enix, lol.
Pretty bold move to take a beloved RPG series, claim it needs to be modernized, only to “modernize it” into a 2012 action game. Obviously seems like the majority enjoy it, but to me it’s like my favorite metal band dropping a pop album.
While I am really enjoying the game myself, I can definitely agree with your criticisms in regards to lack of RPG elements. I think it would have been nice to have enemies that give you status effects; the death blossoms for example could poison you and thus you can use antidote to heal but nada. It would have been nice to know what you thought of the soundtrack overall, as that is one thing you didn't tackle whatsoever in the review.
I’m honestly a bit surprised by the unanimous praise for the game. You had an absolute gem in FFVIII Remake which didn’t get as much praise, but now you have DMC with a FF sauce over it, and people are blowing their load. It seems very odd to me that FF fans are okay with their RPG being turned into an action game. This is the first negative sound I have heard, and I feel like this game should be a lot more divisive. Great for players who want another GoW, not so great for fans of the series.
@@darthmandalore409they’re not okay, they just get 1 game every 7 years and will get over the honeymoon phase eventually, just like from soft fan did with Elden ring
@@TheTinyTimmyTimTim The fact the honeymoon phase certainly exists and that more criticisms will eventually come up doesn't mean fans, largely, are not going to be ok. You talked about Elden Ring as if every From fan hates it now, which, as a fan that's active in the community, is plainly false. Elden Ring wasn't more divisive than Dark Souls 3 or Sekiro (maybe you'll be surprised to know how many fans didn't like or weren't even interested enough to play those tittles), just on a much bigger scale because...well, the game was fucking fire so everyone was playing it, thus multiplying the number of opinions and takes. Yes, a lot of people are not going to like FF16, and more negative reviews are surely coming. But the largely optimistic take on the game will not magically vanish with time. FF13 and 15 never got to have ''honeymoon phases'' because they were divisive (and trash) from minute 1.
@@darthmandalore409 To be fair.. it went the action route a long time ago, specially in XV THAT game didnt even have good combat, it was a one button smasher all the way.
I wasn't expecting Stranger of Paradise to feel like more of a Final Fantasy game than 16, with its elemental weaknesses, a more useful party, more strategic itemization, and respect to legacy 😢
I really like strangers in Paradise! Haven't had a chance to play 16 yet because I'm a PC gamer but I still want to try it out. Wasn't a huge fan of 15 but we'll see.
I just recently played the first hour of that game and couldn’t continue. I even prepared myself for a corny experience but the voice acting, pacing and costume designs were just too much lol
i fn love stranger of paradise..just hit the ending yesterday..bout to jump into endgame..was thinking about getting this but now I can see they are nothing alike
@@ronniewhitedx I am still going to play 16 for sure. I was originally going to get it for my birthday butI am just gonna wait till it hits $30 or so now.
@@gamerforlife3946Okay you're fucking high..... Like someone should make sure you never are a decision maker in life ever and if you already have that position your employees should quit
Funny how a buncha rabid fans coming into the video and being mad over somebody having a nuanced opinion instead of total blind approval of everything in the game Edit: Funny when people are talking about blind disapproval or being disingenuine when they are coming in after watching an out-of-context reddit clip and then refusing to watch the full review to understand a nuanced view that finds both things he likes and dislikes.
Its likely majority are from reddit or other echo chambers but they can't affect real discourse here with downvotes and popularity lol... They are like whinging children.
The issue I think most people have is that his review isnt very genuine and he misrepresents some huge things about the game in this review. Sometimes you can just tell when people want to hate something and this review (from the bits I heard) reek of that. Tbh you talk about blind approval, this felt like blind disapproval.
Love that Ralph isn't afraid to go against the tide and say "hey. lots of people are going to love this, and I understand I'm opening myself to a lot of hate. But SOMEBODY has to point these shortfalls out"
FF7 remake is definetely a priority for Square over this thing. Hopefully FF17 will be an improvement but I won't hold my breath. Looks like the series heydays are simply over.
It’s like you people don’t understand that both games were made by two entirely different teams. Let me break it down to you. Both games are published by Square Enix. That’s were the similarities end. The teams are different just like how Tango gameworks and ID software are both under Bethesda Softworks, but different teams.
@@dammyoyesanya4656nothing in his comment indicates that he/she isn’t aware that both games were made by different teamms.. He says he prefers remake. He hopes FF 17 will not continue with some of the choices that 16 took. He is doubtful. That’s a fair comment and he can still be aware that different teams made the games. Who are “you people”? That just sounds like projecting on people who disagree with you.
Fun fact: The gearing system in FF14 is very similiar. Gear is just stat sticks with nothing intersting to them. The secondary stats matter so little that you feel no difference with same-itemlevel gear with different secondary stats - unless you use a parsing tool.
Gear in ff14 has a visual aspect and materia. For example you can choose to increase your critcal damage vs base damage vs skill speed. As well as being able to choose what clothes you wear visually. You can't do that in 16 you have a 'damage go up' stat, and you can change the visual look of your sword but that's it. You can't even change the colour of your sword or clothes in this game.
@Derekmeetsworld everyone in 14 just melds based off off the balance anyways. If you're not doing endgame content (extreme at minimim) there isn't even a point in melding
I'm really enjoying this game but your take on this is kinda like my take on Breath of the Wild where the rest of the gaming landscape was losing their collective minds over it but I thought it got too experimental to the point where it lost the series identity, so I get where you're coming from.
@@MajorasThoughts I think the difference is that Zelda is a great game and FFXVI its not. I dont care if they "feel" like the other games on the franchise. Zelda it's a masterpiece on its own and FFXVI its average at best.
@@vivifell Yeah selling half of FF7 Remake and FF15 is really "highest selling PS5 game in Japan ever"....rofl. Yoshi-P cultists lie to themselves and everyone else. 😄
I really don't understand all the dislikes. Why? The guy gives a very honest and objective review, so even if you don't agree on some (or all points), why would you go as far as to down-vote it?
Because there's a sizeable population of gamers that are abandoning a discerning, rational view of the game and forcing themselves to like it simple because it's Final Fantasy.
I loved it for about 15- 20 hours or so, but then it was kind of.. is this it? what really killed me was realizing that all of these cool looking cities we in cutscenes are no access able outside of story moments. And honestly while the open zones look pretty, they are just empty there is very little to reward exploration and no hidden dungeons to go into it. Its by no means a bad game but i honestly couldn't give it higher than 7.5 out of 10 as honestly there is a lot lacking. I also think locked the harder difficulty behind NG+ was a really dumb move, after awhile the game just play itself really and the same combos work on 95% of enemies. (No i am not using any of those rings that make the game easier.)
same thing for me! loved the first 15 or so hours, minus the dips in the story pacing- but the rest of the game just slowly diminished my opinion more and more. It went from an obvious 10, to down tl an 8 at most for me. Funny to see someone had a similar experience.
Same. I’m 80% just got to reverie. I’ve been asking myself whether I’m enjoying myself for the last 25 hours or so tbh. It has some awesome moments but it is… lacking.
I was in a similar boat due to is being an action game with very tacked on rpg mechanics. Level ups and gear do so little they might as well be removed. I think RPG's can get these long lengths and hold interest is due to character progress, with your hard (or maybe just time consuming) levels really making you feel more powerful. The gear and stats just do not do that in this game. There is a reason action games aren't 60 hours long, you get burnt out from it like I was in the later half of this game.
same when they first showed off the world and seeing all the huge major cities with the mothercrystals i was so hyped to get to explore them.... and now half way thru the game realizing you NEVER get to actually go to the cities lol at most this game gives you little roadside villages and nothing more....
When I started the game, I was like "I don't agree with SkillUp at all"... Now I've finished the game - "Dude is 100% spot on". I don't know why but when I got through half of the game I enjoyed it, Second half, got repetetive, uninspired, less cinematic, story started dragging on, pacing was awful and when I heard "Our Choice" every 10 seconds, I wanted to turn off the game. Combat is so barebone that I'm shocked that it comes from the same guy that made Devil May Cry combat... That ability spamming reminded me of Babylon's Fall. When I attacked Fireball with Fire I was shocked it deals damage... How is this a final fantasy game...
I think most of these issues come from a fervent desire to make the game as accessible as possible, that it can be anyone's first final fantasy. No party management, no items, no leveling, no weapon swapping, no resource management, straightforward sidequests, linear levels, easy combat.
@@sidew8ys thank you both for reiterating exactly what I just said. "They're not particularly fleshed out, but they're there." My point was simply that OP's wording makes it seem like they don't exist as features at all.
Do you think this is one of those situations where outside of the franchise it would be a great game? I know a common sentiment is AC Odyssey is awful if you expect a traditional AC game but if you see it as a standalone Ancient Greek rpg it’s great.
I honestly just don’t really understand why it’s a game. It doesn’t utilise the medium in any way. The story is good and seems to be the main focus to the point where I wonder why they didn’t just make it an Anime or a TV show.
@@amysteriousviewer3772 so a game with a strong story should become an anime or tv show? wtf u talking about 🤣 I love Samurai movies/anime and Ghost of Tsushima finally gave me the wish fulfillment that only games can offer. The demo of FF16 is excellent. they are GAMES not interactive movies like Detroit become human there’s a difference. FF16 belongs as a game! Its SO Awesome the combat is mindblowingly fantastic to play FUN
@@Teja That’s not what I said. What I said is that it doesn’t utilise the medium in any way to tell its story. The gameplay, no matter how fun it may be in a vacuum, is completely separate from the story and is merely used as padding between cutscenes. Other story focused games like God of War, Last of Us and, as you mentioned, Ghost of Tsushima manage to intertwine storytelling and gameplay in a way that enriches both aspects. FF16 doesn’t do this at all.
I find it also a very cynical statement from Yoshi P that "those kiddies only play COD". What about those "kids" that played FF in 90s, then grew up a bit, and now still play video games? Square Enix forgets a whole generation of gamers. After finishing 7Remake recently, and really liking it, i was looking into if i would like XVI. I think i would not. I was HOPING to like it. But i know myself and the things i value are just not in XVI.
@@TheCyclicGamer bought it on sales and holyshit making builds is fun (currently maining a swordsman/ monk rush assult build) as fuck there's alot of things to combine and make, all class are good aswell, it's a better diablo game than diablo 4 lmao and a better FF game than 16. It's super grindy though.
@@playername9391 If by grindy you mean leveling up jobs, here's some tips to quickly cut down the grind; You can level up jobs by just having their affinities equipped onto you, you don't even have to have the jobs themselves equipped, just their affinities. You can also use anima shards and anima crystals to level jobs fast too.
@@TheCyclicGamer talking about min max for builds grinding crest ect. Leveling jobs is easy. took 10 hrs of grind to finish my first build and now running labrynth.
@@playername9391 Oh ok. Here's a tip: There is a mission in the Shrunken Shrine where you can farm both Dragon Treasures and Manikin Materials, it's the one where you have to slay both a Marlboro and Gigas together. Put the trials all the way to max, and use Berserk to knock both of them into the water which kills them instantly, you get like 10,000 Dragon Treasure per run, and the mission itself doesn't take you more than five minutes to do.
After actually playing I agree. I always get nervous when I hear "modernize" when it comes to long running series. Sometimes it turns out that by "modernizing" a series they completely disregard what made the series great and turn it into a game that's hard to differentiate from any other game in the genre. It sad but kind of true FF16 is like every other action adventure game we have all played a thousand times. Final Fantasy was always a pallet cleanser for me, but I'll have to find another. All that said if you do love FF16 that is awesome and super glad that it seems many enjoy it.
I'm not familiar with this franchise so I can't say much about it, but hasn't the franchise taken this direction a long time ago? Because if so, then why assume that this is something that only started happening *now?* I know that the recent FF7 Remake should have made it even more obvious that this was going to be the case with this game, not to mention the heavy marketing and demo.
@@Leee275 Well in the mainline series number 15 was the first to switch from turn based. 15 still had a lot of RPG elements though. 16 feels like they completely ditched those elements making it feel like another action adventure game to me, which isn't inherently bad, just not what I prefer from a Final Fantasy game. Kind of like how a lot of people don't like the newer Assassin's Creed games because they kind of ditched everything that made the earlier games interesting. The new games aren't necessarily bad games just not what those fans expect from assassin's creed. That said it's a very delicate dance. It's difficult for long running series to evolve without alienating at least some of it's fans I get that.
I honestly expected a very different, much more favourable review given the coverage from you up until this point 😅 but I love that you're putting out something that's true to your experience instead No doubt some people will get really upset at some of your points, given how much hype there is around this game right now, but I really hope it's not going to be too much, because honesty is what I come to this channel for in the first place Really wish I could play the game for myself, the story and combat seem like they would be up my alley
Facts I’m not into the series but the single character and hack n slash with long cut scene is my jam and I’m enjoying it a lot, but damn he is bashing it 😅 and usually I follow his input, this is the first time I disagree with him
@@bartsimpson8330yeah same, I'm surprised how much he disliked the game lol. It's my first not my first attempt at final fantasy, I tried 14 and hated it, trying 7R and it's ok. It's a departure from the super anime final fantasy, and I'm all for it.
@@typhon1861yeah I'm not sure why everyone loved 7R in comparison to this, the combat was ok in that and the story was complete nonsense. Personally I'm happy they changed it up after 15 games.
@@bartsimpson8330 I just bought the game and am gonna start it tonight. I usually agree with skillup's opinion on a lot of stuff but there have been notable times where I haven't, the big one being the last of us 2, which I absolutely loved. I'm hoping this is gonna also be one of those times.
I've played final fantasy 12 zodiac age, 13 trilogy, and 15 royal edition. and I feel like final fantasy 16 is probably 2nd place between the 4 based on how much I enjoyed it? 12 > 16 > 13 trilogy > 15 (Maybe I'm too nice, because there hasn't been a game that I have not enjoyed) I like ff12 (I think it's still controversial in the community because gambits, not turn-based, etc.). I also like ff13, which was controversial for being linear and it plays itself almost (just need to manage paradigms) What even is a "role playing game"? We play the role of Clive in 16, and even though combat is very action-y, even though the cutscenes and gameplay don't blend well together (in like storytelling and stuff like what was mentioned in the video), I still enjoyed the story and the ROLE it put me in and the ROLE I experienced in the world. I've also played ff14 (until Shadowbringers but got busy), The ups and downs, the good and bad of ff16 is pretty similar to ff14. Some side quests can be hit or miss, but when they are good they are really really good (like A Realm Reborn questing)
Yup, because of Yoshi P's involvement maybe that's why the sidequests in ff14 and ff16 have a similar feeling of hit or miss but ff14 probably could get away with it because it was an open world MMO However, I still enjoyed 16 a lot 😄
Yoshi P's response to why it can't be turn based is absolute nonsense. Kids play Pokémon. Kids play the Pokémon tcg. WTF are you smoking? What universe do you exist in?
I have an admission to make. 40 hrs in and I’m bored. It’s true the pacing burned me out. I decided I’ll take a break by playing sth else from my back log and chose Bloodborne, now I’m probably never going back to final fantasy 16. I really like it at first but now that I made the mistake of stopping and playing Bloodborne, I find myself playing a far more engaging and superior game on all fronts. So yeah even tho Skill Up exaggerates the bad in this video, I’ve finally come to see the shit side of this game as well and now I’m playing sth else and not even thinking about ff16
I’m having a ton of fun so far, but I get what he’s saying. Though I can’t help but wonder how he would feel about this game if it were divorced from the Final Fantasy name and all the baggage it brings. It’s such a storied franchise that means so much to so many people, myself included. During the review I couldn’t help but think that Ralph’s view of “what Final Fantasy should be” was probably giving him a stronger negative reaction then he might have had otherwise.
@@kathleengrouper8596 Having just finished it, i really don't agree with that sentiment, it has a gripping story with stellar characters. He says they're all shit, but Cid is the best side character i've ever seen in a FF game, he felt so human, so real. Not goofy or unrealistic of a normal person, even by fantasy standards. My biggest issue is the mundane shit the game has you doing. It's very obvious a dev team that has been making an mmo for 10 years made this game. Cut the mundane shit and the game is a 20-25 hour really intense story.
Thank you Eureka Ergonomic for sponsoring this video. Click eurekaergonomic.com/SkillUp and use code SkillUp to get 12% off site wide non-promotional items for the next 30 days
6 hours ago 😎
Review TREPANG2
I friggin love this game so much. Im half way through
Thank god someone else agrees with me regarding this game, people are calling this goty and saying all ff games should be like this going forward. No fkin way man
It'd be cool to hear why you like FF8 so much Ralph. Personally it was my first final fantasy game and the draw, junction system was so cool. Plus the GF mechanic having story implications was amazing
Odd for the creator to say that gamers these days won't tolerate turn based combat due to their attention span, but then make a game that's 75% cut scenes
They should be teaching people to maintain their attention span instead of trying to adhere to it. Brain dead generation is ruining the natural flow of games
@@acking1502 well said
PS gamers love cut scenes
Meanwhile Persona proves that statement wrong
Yosheep finally getting real criticisms. FFXI/xiv 1.0 players have been saying it for a while.... but this business unit 3/under this current producer isnt really all that great when it comes to game design. I mean he still gets praise for ARR from 10 years ago... and even that I think he just manages time/money more then he makes a good game. Most of the good stuff in XIV was build on backbones from the original team... But the current era of players always praise anything and everything he touches. This game is just proof and the actual criticisms can be herd about what this team lacks.
Thanks for including the scene where you punch a chocobo in the butt to death for like, 10 seconds straight at 24:25 Excellent review.
"One... Thousand... Years... Of... DEAAAAAAATH!"
The 5 + 3 BLOODY HIDES are just * chef's kiss* divine.
lol he ripped that chocobo a new one indeed
Oh my god, I was just about to post this, absolutely hilarious!
Ah, so that's where the M rating came from.
I do like how, similar to FF9, summons are treated as weapons of mass destruction and the consequences of using them are explored.
@@KurosuKirie As if that's ever going to happen x)
@@KurosuKirieif they ever remade FF9 they would tear it to pieces and rebuild it into kingdom hearts, just like FF7R and every other game they make these days
@@Ronbotnik which is great. turn base FF is ass anyway
FF went action : Waaaahhhhh This is not FF
FF Stayed Turnbased : RRRreeeee why wouldnt they evolve. Turnbased is so Boring and oldddd
@@extinctbaryonyx almost like those are 2 different groups huh?
It's really a mystery why that happens.
Sarcastic enough or should I explain it to you like an AI being asked "explain it like I was 5 years old"?
I can’t tell whether or not I’m enjoying the game or that I’m TRYING to enjoy the game simply because I paid for it.
yeah same, i spent so much on it because the demo convinced me it'd be a certified banger but i just couldn't keep pushing through it
i dropped it after the titan fight. i just couldn't force myself to boot it up anymore. every aspect of it is just god damn boring.
from story to world to characters. every cool character either dies or leaves early. so you are left with generic stoic hero dude, his dog and jill the woman that happens to be also there. the mediocre and easy combat didn't help much either. even once you unlock more skills and finally have the ability to string combos together it doesn't come close to the greats of the character-action genre.
I forced myself into finishing this...😅
Like, it wasn't bad-bad but I always felt burned out
@@NuniPikachu I can respect that. I don’t think it’s bad bad either but forcing myself to play something I should be eager to play is just no good.
@@GojoStiglitzI get that but you have to get your $70 worth, I was burnt out at the home stretch of this game.
I'd like to say that I really appreaciate the community you've fostered, everywhere else I see constant fight between different 'fanbases' about what's good and what's not, fights about the average reviewer rating, etc.
It's nice to read very respectful comments even from people who are very much enjoying the experience, it's something I hardly ever see these days.
Skillup’s a brave man
Comment filters and blacklisted words must be working overtime
Where are you looking lol. I’m all over ACG, Gameranx, David Jaffe’s channel, GmanLives, etc… and the comments are always quite amicable bruv.
yeah the only disrespectful thing you might see is someone calling him "shillup" but most of the time its memeing and if someone means it unironically they get clowned on.
@@customizablemilk353 bruh we all call him shill up and NO ONE means it seriously. I don’t think a single person actually means it these days
Even when it looks like our opinions differ on a game I’m always eager to hear your thoughts.
I agree I love his reviews but really disagree here this games is awesome combat is amazing
@@johnciano3524I’m personally loving it as well. I think this is just another Lost Judgment situation where we don’t really see a game in the same way. It doesn’t break XVI for me, but it would have been nice to see a few minigames to break things up a bit, but their importance has really varied game to game.
agree. I don't agree with everything he says but I love listening to his opinions for some reason lol
I mean the point of a game review is someone's opinion on a particular game. It's not to make the reviewer's point of view the same as everyone else.
@@doneatthetuna1342 I completely agree, but with the outrage at the couple of 6/10s this game got, it’s very apparent that a lot of people these days get upset when reviews don’t validate their opinion.
Its pretty hilarious knowing that FF16 was produced with such a cynical mindset towards turn-based gameplay but then months later, Baldur's Gate 3 came out and completely outshined it
EDIT: And Baldur's Gate 3 won 6 out 10 awards at the VGA, including best of RPG and Game of the Year 2023 lol
When you try to make a game for everybody, you make a game for nobody. FF16 dumbed down every aspect of the game to appeal to as wide of an audience as possible, and ended up being a pretty shallow experience.
Stranger of Paradise already outshined XVI and most FF fans dismissed that game because one guy said "Chaos!" too much when in reality, it's a much better designed game than XVI and is more closer to the FF feel than XVI is.
Lol no one agrees with u ff16 was very well received and highly praised
Even final fantasy 7 remake was a blend of turn based and action, and people loved it.
Tf? Did you set a reminder on your phone to edit your comment after the Game Awards?
1 year later, skillup is one of the few reviewers I trust, in part because of this review. The balls to go against the circlejerk and give honest, critical opinions is commendable. And after playing the game I ended up agreeing with all of them, and still don't understand the level of hype and love behind this game.
I just finished the demo and this review makes so much sense now.
As someone who bounced off of Final Fantasy XV pretty hard, I'm kind of enjoying just having a linear, cinematic experience. The combat is fun and I'm really invested in the story, so I'm having a good time. Only eight hours in though. I guess we'll see if it holds up.
You just scratched the surface my friend!
My feelings exactly.
I'll bet you're also into being {redacted} by a they/them.
It seems like the ending is divisive, but I hope you enjoy the game
8 hours in is huge. Some game are only around that long. If you're enjoying it I think its time and money well spent
Ben Starr suffered the loss of his father during acting for 16, and used that to help convey Clive's emotions through the game.
Many developers from Final Fantasy 14 were involved in Final Fantasy 16. This is because other teams at Square Enix are busy (Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Kingdom Hearts 4 and Dragon Quest XII)
To Devil May Cry 5, featuring the same combat director and similar fast-paced, high-action gameplay.
Yuna's whistle from Final Fantasy X gets used in a prologue cutscene by Clive.
The end credits feature a segment dedicating the game to Stephen Critchlow, Byron's first voice actor, and Square Enix NA's Head of Marketing Kevin Kraff (who passed away in July 2022).
The production staff have cited Game of Thrones (specifically the earlier seasons of the show) as a major inspiration.
A minor key rendition of the overworld theme from Final Fantasy plays during various scenes exploring the history and lore of Ultima, first popping up in the chapter "Cloak and Dagger."
Stephen Critchlow, who died two years before the game's release, is listed alongside Ewan Bailey in the credits as one of Byron's voice actors.
* Ben Starr has been a fan of the franchise since Final Fantasy VIII. He first auditioned for a minor role under a code-named script to keep the work a secret, but was asked to read several other lines for the character that would become Clive. After a few days he was told he won the lead role, but it wasn't until another week later that he found out it was for a new mainline game in his favorite series. To him, becoming Clive was “an overwhelming honor and a terrifying privilege” and the worst part was keeping it a secret for years.
* Stewart Clarke (Dion) is a fan of the series and said he felt privileged to have his character join the ranks of other complexly written dragoons like Kain Highwind and Estinien Varlineau.
A PlayStation 4 version of the game was planned around the time the Awakening trailer for the game was shown, but was cancelled due to the technical limitations of the console.
This is also the first mainline single-player Final Fantasy game whose English voice acting was recorded exclusively in the United Kingdom, following in the footsteps of fellow JRPG franchises like Dragon Quest and Xenoblade Chronicles. Final Fantasy XII was primarily dubbed in the UK with some additional recording done in the USA, while Final Fantasy XIV started out being dubbed in the US before the production moved to the UK beginning with the Heavensward expansion.
* This is the third Final Fantasy game to receive a Mature rating by the ESRB, behind Final Fantasy Type-0 and Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, the first to receive an 18+ rating by PEGI and the second to receive a D rating by CERO, behind Stranger of Paradise.
* This is the first Final Fantasy game to feature a plot-important openly gay character in Dion, the Dominant of Bahamut.note Dion even shares a kiss with his lover Terence, which is shown on-screen during one cutscene. This scene ended up getting the game banned in Saudi Arabia when Square Enix refused to remove the characters or the kissing scene.
40 hour game, 30 of it watching fucking cutscenes. The rest of it fighting easy fights with no danger if you understand the basic mechanics of the game. Long bullet sponge fights with no danger. Just big health bars. No status magic, no character customization or builds outside of stat sticks. Snoozefest of a game. How again is this an RPG? Where's the fun? Why is there no hard mode at the very least? I feel insulted when I play this game, because of how dull it is, from a roleplaying/immersion standpoint. I'm just watching Clive, but I never feel sucked in to the character.
Really sad. The world building looks phenomenal, from the backgrounds to the music, it all looks stellar. But what does that matter if the game itself is a slog?
it's no an rpg it's a chracter action game.
@@megamike15character action games have more depth than the disappointment that is FF16
@@ghhgafzan whitch is sad as therre are alot of overlap wih chracter action games and japanese apgs. kingom hearts for example.
square keeps doing this.. building epic looking games then making them way to damn easy the gameplay is just boring
Looking back on 2023, I’m so glad BG3 came out the same year as FF16. It shows how wrong Yoshi P was about what gamers want and what can succeed in this day and age.
For real. Bothers me to no end when developers say stuff like that without any solid data or research to back it up. Turn based RPGs still rock and will always have a massive core audience that grew up with them, and a new one that discovers and loves them. I mean, look at the new Pokemon that came out this year. Turn based, very flawed, game, and yet, it's the 2nd best grossing game in the franchise, (and one of the top sellers of the year). Not to mention BG3 as well.
yoshi-p is a huge fraud for sure, will never touch a game directed by him again
@@PenguinsAreColdishHe isn’t a director. He didn’t even direct this game.
@@magnificmango336 he is the director
@@miz6294 The director is Hiroshi Takai. Google is your friend.
I DEFINITELY didn’t expect this take from you, however, it’s just another reason why I truly respect and eagerly await your reviews. You never seem swayed by the mass opinion or hype attached to any potential title. You always so eloquently and professionally detail everything you experienced, and you are absolutely one of the best reviewers today. I absolutely LOVE this game though, granted I’m early, so that could change. Well done sir.
I think video game criticism still lags way way behind criticism of other art forms, and part of it is I feel it has this sort of rote functional role. there's this feeling that it a game is well-made a reviewer is basically obligated to give it a positive review, but that's not how art works. if last of us part II were a movie it probably would have had polarized reviews to reflect the messy, challenging, and polarizing story, but while the audience response was like that, skill up was the only reviewer I can think of who said the story didn't click with him and therefore he didn't like it
oh a sony peasant
His opinion isn’t even unique😂 it’s the same shit every final fantasy die hard who doesn’t want to see the series change is saying
@@QGfk1so like Totk right?
@@GeeeEmmm I distinctly remember Skill Up preferring the real-time Persona 5 Strikers to the original turn based game though. He uses Persona 5 as a positive example of turn based combat in this game, but he enthusiastically said the sequel that ditched that style was more his thing
Just finished the game last night. I started off really enjoying it, but by the end I couldn’t wait for it to be over. I think Ralph gave a completely transparent review of this game. I have all the same thoughts.
Finished it today and have the exact same feeling. At first the game was incredibly amazing for me, but by about 3/4 of the story I was dying for the game to end. Writing became more and more cheesy for me as well which made the entire thing even harder to go through.
I deleted it after I finished it
I didn’t even finish the game, I fell off around the 45% mark
@@kheops101The dialogue between Clive and Ultima boils down to a tedious repetition of -I will do X! -No, because I will do Y instead!
@@kheops101Right, the writing just kept getting worse. So many cringe interactions, politics, plot holes, things that make no sense.
I'm at around the 80% mark and I still wonder how destroying all the crystals will make things better.
I am 43 hours into the game, and that's about 70% complete. And I am completing 100%. The more I play, the lower my review score keeps getting. After beating Titan, my score dives even lower. It's supposed to be a spectacle but it's just a lot of fast cuts and nonsense attacks, things flying everywhere that doesn't actually make any damn sense. Trying to copy God of War just to be big in scale? I don't get it. When it plays out like crap, who gives a damn. Life to the empires are all about the crystals, but when they "vanish" no time is spent on it. The foundation of the world is irrelevant. It's baffling. Summon fights are one of the worst things in this game. They clearly had no idea what to do with them. And to make it worse, limit breaks are dead. This game isn't an RPG at all. I keep thinking that me going out and farming, leveling up, and looking at every corner of each map will pay off in any way. But it hasn't. I'm not having much fun anymore. I started to skip conversations from my side quest people just yesterday. Nothing interesting happens, nor do you get anything interesting. S rank hunt? Easy and I didn't get anything. I hope there is something more before the journey ends.
There are a million games like Final Fantasy 16, but before there were almost no games like it prior to even FF13 (which was bad). They just keep changing FF into what they think will sell, not make it to what FF actually means and having people want what FF they make. Nintendo doesn't change their games at all, not Zelda, not Pokemon and they don't give a damn. You put out a game that is fun, and what do you know? People will buy it and enjoy it even if the game direction isn't what is mainstream or deemed the best route. You will find it interesting what people will gravitate towards. Final Fantasy has always been about heavy RPG elements. It's not about turn based combat like FFX, or ATB. Variations of gameplay. It's about the entire package. The RPG aspect of those identities is much larger. FF16 so far, 43 hours into it has thrown it all away.
Who told these guys we want Final Fantasy to not be an RPG game anymore? Who says that we and younger kids whom are the "future" want instant gratifying games where you just hit everything? Why hasn't anyone been paying attention to actual trends. Final Fantasy doesn't need to follow a trend. It is a trend. It's chasing games that have two or three entries max and then die off. Final Fantasy used to be about creating what they dreamed of, what didn't exist. Now they are chasing what's already there. Devil May Cry? Bayonetta? These bomb games are the sales that they are chasing? It doesn't make any sense to me.
My rating of FF16 right now.
Graphics 9/10
Dialogue 7/10
Combat 4/10
Story 7/10
Systems 2/10
Character Design 5/10
World Design 8/10
Extra Content 2/10
Overall - 7/10
Fully agree
I understand your points, but I don't think giving Nintendo praise is a good thing when there's tons of indie, single, and double AA companies that "put out a game that is fun" without all the scummy stuff they've done to the fans. Giving more attention to Nintendo only exacerbates the problem and weakens any potential boycott towards them.
A 7/10 is a good game lmfao you mean like a 5?
Agreed. The total absence of RPG elements in 16 and the shallow gameplay with almost 0 replayability made the game a total disappointment for me.
It's just another shallow action adventure game with very little unique/memorable component.
@@mr_smiles4213 Well game scores, in general, are more or less inflated, a 5/10 is like objectively a bad game (like tons of bugs, the game is clearly incomplete, and the controls have a literal second or two delays i.e. Balan Wonderworld for the PS5 to a 51 on Metacritic and that game was terrible or at best mediocre by all measures), which FFXVI isn't. FFXVI, though flawed, is more or less complete, performs overall pretty well despite the performance issues, and the average player is unlikely to encounter any game-breaking bugs. A 7/10 is more appropriate for such a review as Skill Ups or the OPs review.
I doubted u when I first saw this. I come back to this review 130+ hrs later and shillup summed up my thoughts exactly. Moments that r like no other but falls short in so many other aspects.
Honestly kind of surprised you didn't mention the soundtrack. Regardless of how you feel about the gameplay changes, the soundtrack was just freaking phenomenal. There were a couple of moments where the soundtrack crescendoed with the story or action on screen perfectly and as corny as it sounds I actually had to pause and just kind of process it because it was SO good
🤣🤣🤣
It might sound corny, but I feel you dawg. It's makes me genuinely tear up and moves me, that's how good that is.
A soundtrack, no matter how good, only supports the gameplay. It does nmt make the game.
A good soundtrack is like a cherry on the cake. If the cake is underwhelming the cherry won't matter much, no matter how great a cherry it might be.
@@AngladaFrankFrankyvaperegardless,it does play a role in the gaming experience and can make or break the experience/immersion.
I feel like that cynical stance towards the playerbase and turn based combat sadly permeates the entire game. There's no meaningful depth to the combat, and no consequences to any choices the player makes. Neither punishment nor reward. My guess is that dealing with the MMO playerbase for a decade has worn down Yoshi-P and conditioned him to avoiding any elements that might alienate some players or make them feel like they can't play "the way they want". As a result, the game is just bland and uniform.
I’ve returned to this review 2 months on and 40 hrs later. Skill Up was right in his assessment and courageous in going against the grain here.
FF16 sucks. Its combat is ok, it’s action set pieces are a spectacle - but everything else is dated and tedious. The demo was great but unfortunately everything went downhill from there. Towards the end, I skipped through all side quests, skipped all the cutscenes and dialogue just to fast track myself to completion. It was a chore. I’ve since deleted the game from my PS5 and never intend to return to it.
Skill Up - you may have taken a short term hammering for this review. But in the long term - your credibility as a reviewer will be enhanced from your brutal honesty. Compared to other reviewers - I actually believe you sunk in the hours - and as a result, similar to myself - wish you could have them back.
@@vivifell so to qualify yourself as a reviewer you need to do a juggle? are you actually being serious here? anyway irrespective of if he learnt air combos or not - or played on final fantasy mode or not - bottom line is that many of his observations were correct.
@@vivifell"he didn't juggle review bad"
Lol stfu fanboy
All Jrpgs are "dated" and "tedious". Have you ever created anything?
" your credibility as a reviewer will be enhanced from your brutal honesty." Then goes on to give Immortals of Aveum a recommendation over FFXVI. L M A O. The guy's opinion is trash.
@@occiderisaethiopissa3702 never heard of that game. But maybe it is better. You may think it’s not, but that’s your opinion. Regardless his criticisms on FF16 still stand.
Why do I have 700 sharp fangs
Why am I finding useless items and 2 gil everywhere
Why are my new weapons being replaced 5 mins later
Why are the side quests so boring and back ended
Why are there cutscenes every 10mins
Why cant I min max stats or build clive to fit a certain style i.e. why does gear exist and give the eikons more depth
Where did game of thrones go..
Why is this game soo confused as to what it wants to be
Why cant we switch party members like in FF7r?
Why am I fighting the same birds and wolves everywhere
Why are there no cactuas in the desert?
Why are there no secret dungeons?
nail on the head being that there is so many little mistakes it piles up to one massive one
The next Final Fantasy will be a first person shooter at this rate.
Lol that's so true it hurts.
I would genuinely play that if it was any good
If they went the FPS route theyd have to be MGS level of visionary lol
Actually I'm morbidly curious to see how it would look like
🧂
Probably more like a rail shooter....or a giant 50 hour Cutscene with qte
Wish I'd watched this before I brought the game. Even at a 50% discount, I still feel like I was ripped off. This is not a final fantasy game....
I disagreed with you at first (Before I beat the game) But now I think everything you've said was 100% Facts the game for me went from a 9/10 to a 7 to 6/10 by the end of it.
The game really kills its momentum with the stupid loop of returning to the hideout... Especially in the latter stages.
I’m 90% through the game. And the longer I played, the lower my score. There are epic scenes. But the game is absolutely drowned in side missions and pointless dialogue.
I still can't understand what people see in this game. It's bad at being an RPG, it's bad at being an action game. The closest it gets to being good at anything is as an interactive movie, but the dialogue is so over-dramatized and hokey it's not great at that, either. I own it, have tried to grind through it three times now, it's just not very good.
Hopping in here almost a year later because that's how long it took me to beat the game as I was having a hard time staying interested, you hit most everything on the head. Just gonna say, when you start the game there is a brief splash screen with Clive and the words FINAL FANTASY XVI and every time I saw in the latter half the game I would like raise an eyebrow because it just did not feel like a Final Fantasy game to me.
I finished this game last week, and as a huge FF fan, I'm still extremely disappointed by it. Forget the "is this a Final Fantasy" discourse, this is just straight up not a good video game, FF or not. I agree with most of the review, although I wasn't even impressed with the locations. Very bland game, admittedly with some spectacular scenes sprinkled in. No RPG elements, no humor, no fun. This ain't it. I hope that future FFs won't be like this. At least Rebirth is coming, which will be on a completely different level (like Remake already was).
@@vivifell if they were comic relief they failed
@@vivifell No. Byron had one funny scene in the tavern and that's it. That's the only mildly amusing scene in the whole game.
@@vivifell Perhaps you're easily amused. Good for you!
@@vivifellno way you actually think Byron was a good and funny character. 💀
Your belief that the upcoming installment will be of high quality, despite the elementary school level writing in the previous one, speaks volumes about your standards for what constitutes "quality."
"They roped the vendor in" I died
I just got to the part he's talking about and he's downplaying it greatly. The "vendor" is one of the central characters who plays a big role in the story, especially if you do the side quests
@@Xorital yes but what sick degenerate would want to do the sidequests in this game
@kar12894 you wouldn't need to in order to understand she's a central character, but the sidequests in the second half of the game have major story additions and are absolutely worth it.
@@Xorital when does this second half come in? im at the part where he gets to the second hideout...is this halfway of the game?
@@kar12894 correct. The part where he's a teen and a young adult, most stuff doesn't count at that point, but once you unlock the second hideout and take up a certain name, things start to open up and actually have substance behind it - since you can't go back to the previous timelines
Interesting take from Yoshi P on going away from turn based combat, yet Yakuza took the direct opposite mentality of going from instant action to turn based for the first time and it ended up working.
" it ended up working."
99% of Yakuza fan base hated that change and found it inappropriate.
@@Bahamut998citation needed? It’s got an equal or higher rating than Yakuza 6 on metacritic.
@@KefkaJr I never said the game was bad. It was well received overall. But yakuza fans prefer the old system.
@@Bahamut998Data shows that the sales of the franchise went from 14 millions to 17 millions after releasing Like a Dragon, most Yakuza games before sold 1 or 2 millions.
So Yakuza like a dragon sold more
@@Jambonlololol yet the new games are not turn based combat anymore lol
I knew from the moment I finished the demo that this game was going to be divisive. I love this game. But I can definitely see why some people wouldn't. If you're a bigger fan of the more traditional Final Fantasies, this one's going to rub you the wrong way. But I do appreciate how accessible this game actually is, and I think that was part of the point in the game's direction.
This I never was interested in final fantasy until this game
Yeah... I kinda hated it. Makes me really sad.
my girlfriend loves it. babies first rpg. yoshi p thinks we cant handle a little strategy any more, i guess
Disagree, i love the old turn based style and this game is a return to form imo
@@gloominaati3105 and what form would that be? a stripped down action game thats a mile wide and an inch deep? im upset i bought it, i thought there would at least be some actual rpg systems, interesting gear, strategy etc. instead we got babys first action game. i want my money back.
FF16 open world is pointless because they streamlined the rpg elements. Whats the point of exploring and gathering when there is not much to craft or equip. They really poured their budget into their story and force you to drag yourself throughout. Open world gives you a break from story but its empty and pointless...i was literally skipping cutscenez at end just to feell rewarded by getting new powers from bosses. I was exhausted from story pace
I’ll be very curious to see how XVI ages. It’s enjoying a groundswell now, due to the lengthy runup and plentiful teases but will that momentum hold for another few years? When we’re waiting on XX, it will be interesting to see the various “Best FF” or “FF Games Ranked” lists and see where XVI lands.
Why would it? This game is another one and done. There’s literally nothing else after beating the game. No replay value at all
This is the most cinematic and spectacle an FF has ever had. Yes it’s going to last smh
We're in the honeymoon phase but it's got forgotten energy all over it. It will probably be near the bottom of every list
@@ArtcadeShowCinematics aren't everything. It's a game, not a movie.
@@cheesemuffin8129 I hate that argument lol, Last of Us, lasted a long time too, and it was cinematic experience.
Baldurs Gate 3 really proved that guy wrong about turn based combat 😅
I think if we mixed FF 16 with Stranger of Paradise we'd get SkillUp's favorite game. For real though, Stranger of Paradise has pretty much everything that he feels is missing from this game.
Which is hilarious as that is marketed as an action game, and this is marketed as an RPG
It feels like a game for nobody.
The open world and side quests? They feel like a weak attempt at chasing something like The Witcher 3.
The RPGnesss? Crafting and items are pretty useless, just serving to make your current thing have a bit of a higher number than your last one. There's no strategizing.
The combat? I mean it's pretty flashy and cool but it has no depth so if they were trying to chase the DMC crowd they fell flat on their arse there.
I loved this game to absolute death
THANK YOU. People giving this 9's are crazy. This is a 6/10 game, with 10/10 cutscenes once in a while. Parts of this felt like playing a PS2 game at worst, and a PS4 game at best.
And it sucks that things like elemental weakness doesn't exist anymore. All magic does exactly the same damage to every enemy.
And I hate how exploration is basically pointless in the open areas. Any item you find is worthless garbage.
6/10 is generous, more like 4/10.
PS2 game at worse and PS4 game at best? Buddy, most PS2 games were at the very least fun and worth your time, this game ain't. (Maybe you're talking about graphics?)
Also glad I'm not the only one who noticed elemental weaknesses aren't a thing in this game, a game centered around the iconic elemental summons of the series no less.
Why would you want the combat to be the same as FF7R? We have 2 more games in that series coming. I think the combat in 16 is awesome, though the cinematics are a bit exhausting
Oh dear…
This must of been a challenging script to write SkillUp, we thank you for the huge effort and your honesty 👍
Love how honest he always is.
@@riptide772 except when he recommended Cyberpunk 2077 lol
@@KyngD469 yeah, that was a major oof.... not just by him but most RUclips reviewers. That game is the reason why I watch gameplay before buying, regardless of what any reviewers say.
@@KyngD469I don't understand when people bring this review up, because I used his footage to make fun of the bugs lmao
He really showcased all the problems the game had, on the platform he was offered (at the time, PC only)
@@KyngD469 but he was honest back then too, he only had the PC copy and he pointed out all mistakes the game makes. He didn't know how bad the console releases were.
I've played every mainline FF game since 7 and enjoyed them all, 15 wasnt great but it was still fun in parts and still felt like a FF game. Having enjoyed Skillup content for a few years now and appreciating his reviews I held off on picking up this game on release. However 10 months later, FF16 is on sale so I thought I'd give it a shot. @skillup you have never been MORE RIGHT in a review. This is not only the poorest FF game i've ever played but at best it is an extremely mediocre action game. Aside from the striking and polished visuals and the world setting I have no warm feelings towards this game. I'm slogging my way through the story for the first half in the hope it would get better and now only continuing as I feel i have to finish it so I dont feel I've totally wasted 30 hours. So so disappointed.... Moral of the story? Keep listening to @skillup, he knows his stuff.
He seems really vindicated with the review. XVI had tons of hype on release, and it no doubt has a lot of players who love the game. But overall its reception has been very middling, particularly in the FF fandom. Skill Up was the first prominent voice, at least as far as I know, that was negative on it.
@@jonathanlgillhe received a lot of ridiculous hate and personal attacks as well at the time, but as time has gone by I’ve seen more and more agree with him.
He wanted to love this game. He met and interviewed Yoshi p, interviewed and liked Ben Star, but even so, was not afraid to give his honest opinion and experience, even knowing the reaction he would get.
if its genuinely worse than ff15, then i might not buy it on steam. haven't played yet and have been pretty excited for sep 17
Reading new comments daily is now my favorite past time for this review. The divide is amusing to me.
Thank you Skillup for your, yet another, extremely based game review despite the hype and noise of the people. You are THE ONLY game reviewer i trust. Ever. I always recommend your channel to my friends. I really appreciate all you and your team does. You are the only, and last reliable game reviewer.
It's crazy to think that the recent Assassin's Creed games now have more RPG elements than freaking Final Fantasy... What a time to be alive!
Exactly what I was thinking as well. Currently playing Odyssey and that is more RPG than FF16. Crazy...
Or that World Tour mode in Street Fighter 6 is more stat heavy than FF16.
It's almost like a character action game isn't conducive to superfluous RPG mechanics that only bloat the player experience and add nothing of real value to the gameplay.
This is a bad thing - the assassins creed series is DEAD!
I don't think things will set in with gamers till more people finish it. It's heavily cinematic comparable to something like MGS4 where there's more cutscenes than there is gameplay. Sadly there's no endgame dungeon or superbosses at the end either and the sidequest are the same as most games. Combat is very fun but yes there's some negatives
Edit - It's not a bad game I'm a fan of both the FF series and Devil May Cry but this isn't the perfect mixture of both titles. It's missing alot of elements that's known within the series and before anyone says "well yeah that's because it's an action game" It's still a mainline FF title and one can't help to expect certain things from that. It's very restrictive with what you are able to do. It's an action rpg and I've seen God Of War Ragnarok handle being within that genre far better.
I think for an experiment sure but I hope they don't ever make another FF game this restrictive again tbh
Ng+ is your friend for difficulty, same with ff7 remake
I've always played FF games more for the story than the combat.
I disagree. I think most people will decide they love it. Skillup is probably in the minority here.
@@bigwig252I believe the point is it's flawed more so than what people are currently willing to realize. It's a good game but it's one step forward in terms of combat and steps back regarding everything else
27:22 In regards to *Heatwave* , the projectile counter/parry that takes up an Eikon ability slot: you don't actually need to use it as a parry ALL the time and in fact it does very decent damage, has fast cooldown and has a deceivingly wide hitbox that'll knockdown medium/small enemies around Clive. IF you use it as a parry not only is it one of the coolest-looking and best-feeling moves but it also pretty much DELETES even bosses' will meter AND it stops time so they actually won't be able to avoid it (try it on Benedikta's flying projectile attacks that avoid even the magic precision counter and it'll freeze her in place lmao).
All this to say nope, it's not a waste of a slot even if you don't like parrying.
I like how he says "There are wery few enemies that throw projectiles" when it is simply bullshit. Almost every single boss if not every one throws projectiles, a lot of mini-bosses throw projectiles, a lot of normal enemies throw projectiles.
Thank you his opinions are suspect at best, it’s like he’s looking for things to dislike for no reason. I have no trust left for this guy. I’m done
All that is kinda irrelevant if the combat is braindead easy, though. So you're making a useless nitpick. It's fine if you like the game, but it's hard to argue that the combat has any meaningful depth.
@@lesfrisbees I’m sure you haven’t played the game enough because there is alot of depth to the combat actually especially the more abilities you gain
@@A.H.M.Ktoo bad depth doesn't really matter when you can melt all normal enemies by just dumping two maybe three cooldowns.
Unless they are those spongey stagger meter enemies. Which are mostly just longer fights. There is zero strategy necessary.
I disagree with almost every point you made. Your story critique applies to FF Tactics, FFXII & XIV & I adore all those games so I love what you have problems with. What I agree about is that some starting side quests are bad but damn do they get incredible later. One even made me cry. What I don't get is you stating that Clive's comlanions aren't interesting characters. Also disagree that Eikoj battles are simplified combat & easy. Did you play later eikon battles & hard mode? And your critique on combat & its depth I understand even less. Combat is absolutely incredible & has so many layers. Did we play the same game?
Eikon battles are easy if you think they're hard you are bad at games period.
This review is weird because I feel like Skill Up played a different game than I've been playing.
right?
How? I think he’s spot on
He had expectations that's the issue here. Reviewers should just review the game for what it is not for what it could be.
I do agree with a lot of his point. The open world sections are bland, nothing really to discover. Feels like a map from 2002. No elemental strategy at all, which is weird because you literally wield different elements, missed opportunity. Side quests are boring and super simple. Walk here. Quest over. Fight 2 bandits that give no challenge. Quest over. At least give us waves of enemies and a unique boss that you wouldnt see unless you did this specific side quest ya no. That all being said, I am still really enjoying this game and I think the combat is so fun and sexy
@@MrCaw77 Ghostwire Tokyo also had elemental spell and didn't do anything with those aside from power and speed attributes which is pretty barebones.
I really liked FF Tactics on PS1... everything since then has been less interesting. i did enjoy FF XV more than most people but I had a strong feeling XVI would be another step in the wrong direction.
Couldn't agree more
I can already hear the negativity and I’m enjoying the game quite a lot. I’m easily influenced unfortunately so I’ll have to come back to this one later Ralph. Thanks
Is it hard being so weak?
@@intellectic9155 yes.
@@intellectic9155yes.
A bit late to the party here, but I 100% agree with everything this reviewer says. Such a disappointing terrible boring game, and I speak as a 32 year old who has loved this franchise their whole life.
I had hoped that I wouldn’t find myself agreeing so much with this review; but now, having played 16, All of the criticisms leveled here are accurate and kind of damning. The clincher for me was when I realized they were really going to re-use the same “meet with the town leader, do quests for them so they give you a badge in order to get through a gate”. This lack of creativity in the MAIN QUEST design is awful.
While usually watching most of Skill Ups content right away, I avoided this one (and also other reviews) to get my own first impression of the game outside the demo.
But now that I'm 2/3 through the game, I felt the urge to finaly watch this "controversial" review and hear some actual criticism for a game that earned so many 9/10 ratings. A rating that it didn't earn in my opinion.
I'm at a point in the game where I started avoiding sidequests, because the mainquestline almost feels a long string of pointless, uninspired quests between interesting political developments, extremely epic battles and a "quite alright" story for the main character.
The world is the highlight of the game, while exploring it is rather pointless. The characters are fine. Functional for the plot. But no highlights on that front for me.
Developments within this world are interesting and I want more of them, but then I'm forced to gather stuff or investigate something to progress with the story.
I will probably finish FF16 just for the epic moments and to see how the main storyline will conclude. After that I will remember the game as a giant missed opportunity, an overrated product in a pretty good year for games in general, but definetly not as an RPG or something that glued me to my screen for its content.
Until then I can only agree with SkillUp and pretty much everything he said in this video.
I'm not sure how sad I should feel about the fact that people are making videos on you trying to debunk you when this is clearly the most unfortunate final fantasy game in the series..
Well actually maybe second to 15 but still. Not only is this not final fantasy but it's a crime against game design and what came before it
I yelled an audible “YES!” When I saw this video up as I poured my morning coffee.
I would say the same if I wasn’t 10+ hours in🤣🤣
SkillUp has the best videos to watch whilst having breakfast
Lol that’s sad
You may be yelling NOOOO by the end
Looking back on this game, it's honestly baffling that it got such high reviews. The only thing it excels at is spectacle and boss fights. Story is average, characters are bland (except Clive), art direction is uninspired, combat is too simple, exploration is boring, there's no customization, RPG mechanics are mostly absent and side content is straight garbage.
Good games tend to get good reviews
@@Soniman001 it's not a good game
@@playername9391 then why did it get good reviews?
@@Soniman001most probably didn't finish it or didn't dive deep enough with it's mechanics.
It does give you a good impression in the first 10 hrs or so.
That's a shame because I know you were so excited for this! I found myself surprised that I'm loving the action combat
I reckon it’ll the the same for me since I abhor turn based combat. For who need that like Skill Up it will not gel. But I’m glad for it.
I love the whole game. Story is great so far maybe the end will be shit like game of thrones
@@amolbhatia1449 real time with pause is the way to go, they could've tried that instead of dumbing it down. And the fact that there's no companions or bros traveling with you seems to me this is not really a FF game anymore, though all of that could be manageable if not for those empty uninteresting flat maps in the world.
@@creed22solar123 For me personally that’s fine because I’m not really a FF guy. It’s okay to do something different and except at it. See how RE switched between RE2 remake and RE4 remake that capture the very different essence of each game and then the brilliant RE7 which is pure and unadulterated horror. Or Zelda which has gone through a few transformations. For people like who find turn based combat grating and at times had to drag themselves through even the quite good FF7 remake this direction is exciting. And having seen the reviews to be fair it seems not all FF fans fall into the seem category as Shill Up.
@@amolbhatia1449 the problem is that its not even an rpg, its an action game. the series completely jumped genres when it could have just been an action rpg
Im about a dozen hours (maybe more) into the game and I'm still wondering if it gets better. I cannot focus on this game for more than 5 minutes at a time.
it doesn’t, don’t waste your time
I initially disregarded your review when the game came out, I thought I'd play the game and find out for myself and... I agree with everything you had to say about it, especially with regards to how pointless exploration is. I really wanted to like FF16 because It's my favorite franchise but it left me feeling so disappointed.
Exploration being pointless is a good thing actually - we need to move away from the checklist activities of ubisoft.
I didn't mean it in that sense, I don't mind a game not having multiple things to complete or towers to conquer, but when you go through the trouble of reaching a certain place you should be rewarded for it, there was absolutely no sense of accomplishment for anything in this game. You killed a tough enemy? Here, 2 meteorites... Oh look a treasure chest! Another meteorite. They keep giving you useless stuff, it's like they built the world and forgot that you had to play through it. I loved the story and how crazy the fights can be, Clive is an amazing MC but it just left me feeling disappointed because of what could have been...
First time ive gone against your advice and bought a game and...yeah, you were right bro.
I deeply regret buying this game at full price...
@@anaguma90 same here and this is my first game into FF series
Same. This is my biggest regret purchase of 2023. I would pay someone to make me forget how much time this game made me waste.
Worst side quest design and absolutely worst pacing of the year.
@@princedmarvel3719 don't let it discolor your opinion of the series; they're usually much, MUCH better.
@@StriderZessei after 16 i gave the Ff series one more chance by watching OG VII gameplay and started playing remake and i loved it and platinum the game now I'm playing rebirth 15hrs in Kalm and im loving it
didn't want to watch this before getting into the game cause i was worried it was going to be brutal. but boy, 30 hours in and...what a disappointing experience. the level design of the game is so FLAT. for a game that was supposed to be "story driven", the "story" in between each boss fights were such a drag. appreciate your honest review Skill Up! must've gotten brutal feedback but you keep being you. cheers
i don't know what is it with this game, the narrative started so strong it's so *chef kiss* good, but fell flat about midway through the game..
IMO, FF16 is a game for people who play games for the story and graphics and are not interested to see how far the medium can go.
My replies are now open for all your hate comments.
I disagree. I don't care at all for story or graphics and got 16 cause of its combat. It may not be as deep as DMC but there's still a lot of cool combos to pull off.
@@Merk1387 I’m not saying it’s a bad game. It’s just not deep, and for a 30-40 hour game it becomes repetitive. I don’t think we’ll hear many people talking about FF16 in 10 years the way people still talk about DMC3 or FF7. From a mainline Final Fantasy we should expect more, especially now that they take 7 years to make.
@JCNL871 It's plenty deep, especially with the new accessories and eikons the dlc gives you. But I agree it's definitely repetitive on first playthrough since the game slowly drip feeds you new moves. Hack and slash games should always be around the 10-hour mark to beat so you can unlock everything and replay right away. FF7 and DMC3 are classics, so it's hard to top those. At the very least, FF16 was a much better experience than the jumbled mess that was FF15.
@@Merk1387 In my opinion, judging it as an action game, I don’t like the perfect dodge because it is too powerful. It’s a universal solution to any attack, it very easy to pull off and it buffs your attack. I also don’t like how the abilities are on cool-down timers. There’s no skill in that, you press a button and then you have to wait. I also didn’t like that there was just one weapen, the longsword. Also, I didn’t like the stagger bar because enemies would barely react to my attacks, it mostly felt like I was just mashing sandbags.
So, in short, I didn’t like it as an action game because it didn’t make you engage with action game fundamentals like spacing, framedata, hitboxes and enemy states which made it feel shallow for me.
But I’m glad you had fun though 😊
@JCNL871 Yeah, the game definitely needed more weapons or, at the very least, more combo attacks for your main weapon. I wish every eikon changed your moveset like Odin did, and they did do that with Leviathan and Ultima eikons, but I still would have liked more than just the basic moveset you're stuck with. Regarding the cool-down for your abilities, you can actually reduce it by parrying enemy attacks so you can get them back faster and incentivizes aggression. As for the simple controls for abilities, I don't mind it, but I totally understand if it's too simple for some players. I love DMC and similar games like Ninja Gaiden, but it's always hard for me to memorize every attack, so I appreciated the easy controls. Perfect dodge is definitely strong. I would have liked it to be tighter to pull off, but it doesn't bother me much, especially with how hard Ultimaniac difficulty is. Stagger is okay, but I do feel a lot of action games rely on it too much now. Would like to move away from that. I love 16, but there's a lot that could be done to improve the combat imo.
This was one of the best, most honest reviews I have ever heard. I spent last night trying to explain my issues with this game to my wife. You just explain how I feel perfectly. Im enjoying the game, but every point you made is exactly how I feel about it. Very impressive review 👍
I'm still chipping away at it, trying to beat it. If I didn't spend 70$ on it, I would have dropped it by now.
@@maineman5757your fault for not knowing what you got yourself into
@@Cund no shit Sherlock
@@maineman5757 really? "no shit" yet you said in another comment that you played the demo and even told people that it was ass
@Cund Yes, no shit Captain Obvious. Do you have a point or are you just butthurt that other people aren't simping for your vidya game as hard as you are?
I saw this when I was first starting the game and loving it, and I didn't really get what you were saying as my experience was being so different.
I had such high expectations for FFXVI and the first hours were crazy good to me, but as the game dragged on I saw these high highs and abysmally low lows. By the end, I didn't care at all about the story and was burned out by the terrible pacing. Combat felt endlessly boring by the end, it felt like the game had random encounters as you would take two steps and be bombarded by unnecessary enemies and bosses over and over again.
I'm still heart broken, I was so sure this game was going to be a 10/10 for me and for sure it had the potential to be so, but I ended up having a mediocre experience.
I’m at the point where the main quests have become as garbage as the side quests, it’s the ff14 msq all over again. This game encapsulates everything I hate about modern games: too many god damn cutscenes and a bland boring world filled with the most garbage mmo quests that would make ff14 blush, I think chatGPT could make better quests than the ones in this game
yes as a lifelong FF fan this game ain't for me. But I'm an old man pushing 40. Happy for the youngsters who love it, and I realize this isn't a series made for me anymore. At least I have remasters, the FF7r games to look forward to.
@@notimportant8643 what is it about old quest structure in video games that appeals to you? Or the worlds? Is there something they have that this doesn't? Don't bother replying if your answer is "good writing"
So the combat felt like every turn based game in the world by the end? Nice, they must have tried that on purpose
Couldn't relate more. I'm near the end but just don't have it in me to finish it.
The game will not age as well as this review will.
Nonsense
Why cant we just get a modern turn based FF game...
Not liking it but still understanding and respecting those who like it, and honestly explaining the points you didn't like is the most amazing thing about your text.
Tbh the preface shouldn't be necessary. It should be common sense that a review is a single opinion and doesn't control your life. Everyone's so damn fragile, it's ridiculous.
@@halkon4412 you'd think so but this comment section says otherwise.
If a game feels like a chore to play and you have to force yourself to try to like it (like this game), then it's a bad game.
Or maybe you're not into the game...I mean, shit, you know how many people would say the same for persona 5 and even elden ring at certain times?
@@Cund Well, that much is obvious that I'm not into the game. It’s hard to get into a bad game.
@@JTSuter you're calling persona 5 and elden ring bad games?
@@Cund No, those are some of my favorite games ever. I'm talking about Final Fantasy XVI
@@JTSuter so why did you say "that much is obvious" and "it's hard to get into a bad game" as a response to me saying many people could say the same for elden ring and persona 5?
When a guy who likes Destiny 2 says a game is not very good, I KNOW I’m about to play the game of the year!
Ya I'm amazed even one person likes destiny
I like my man Shill Up™ but listening to this review after I've beaten the game, it sounds to me that he skipped a LOT of stuff where it amounts to this review having up to 50% of information factually wrong. I wish he could take the time to properly devote attention to the game in order to give it a fairer shake but alas he is a game reviewer and the bar is pretty low these days. The game isn't perfect, it's not terribly innovating in many areas for sure but the combat, story, voice acting and music elevate it to a much higher plane than it would usually deserve. I love the game in spite of its flaws but I don't think it will get game of the year, especially with TotK releasing a few months ago.
He probably got tired and jetlagged from his flight from LA, so can’t be bothered to make a proper review.
Bro thank you, i thought i was going nuts since it seemed i was the only one that had issues with this game. Your video echoes my own sentiment of the game perfectly.
You’re not the only one
The sales tanked. I think it's a general consensus now. We just had to get past brain dead RUclipsrs drooling over it.
Blame identity politics for all these biased reviews. Politics being the current consoles war
Same feeling mate, I could not understand how FF fans were totally happy with the game.
@@palladiamorsdeusi’m pretty sure some of those youtubers got paid or some sort of deal. No shot they all love it that much
exploration is downright being punished.... Bloody Hides, sharp fangs, Magicked ash are THE ONLY things i keep finding and i can do nothing with it. i remember finding a mythril braclet in the volcano ... and that was a main mission!!
that was the only item that i got that was better than what i had in like 30 hours...
i fougth a notrious mark and got a meteorit in the chest behind which i can buy!!! and yeah dont need it anyway. there is nothing to craft besides the stuff you get after boss battles....
what were they thinking? is this realy what the new generation likes?
i am dumbfounded.
I feel you man, I doubt they even bothered designing the reward system - it feels like there is nothing left except the flashy combat, which quickly becomes boring due the lack of variety and limited choices
@@NotARealPerson12345there’s plenty of variety and choices. You need to go further in the game to unlock said things and then apply yourself to use them. If you’re not gonna take advantage of the move sets or try to do combos why play this game lol.
@@Manthathasspiderlikepowers I did apply some small combos and it was fun, but that's really not enough. A game can have 100 options but if it doesn't provide the drive for players to discover then then it's useless. The combat has combos but it if doesn't require any tactical decisions - want to attack fire with fire? Yeah go ahead, the same damage... Use ice to attack fire? Well, same amount of damage... There's no penalty if you make bad choice. You can dodge infinitely without worrying about stamina, which doesn't exist. All you gotta do is wait for CDs and unleash your big moves to bosses. Yeah, certainly the game gives you a lot of options but the game wasn't designed well to drive you to discover them.
So far I’ve really enjoyed it. However, I miss having a party, I miss being able to slow down at times and think. I still think ff7 is the best hybrid they’ve ever created, but I can’t help but to miss the slow technical gameplay of 9 or 10.
I hope 17 is made by the same team as 7R
@@Y0PPS Honestly my dream would be for the FF16 team to create the world, lore, characters, and tone, but for the FF7R team to create the combat. The music could go either way, both are very good. And for the level design and exploration, well, I think they just might have to get someone from outside of Square Enix, lol.
@@MarkHogan994final fantasy 8 remake with the two studios yeah that would be sick.
@@MarkHogan994 Create a world that is not alive like this one? Stop
@@MarkHogan994 And the characters of this game are so bland btw
Oh my god the stupid in that 'gamers these days don't want turn based gameplay' comment needs to be slapped out of that developer so hard
Pretty bold move to take a beloved RPG series, claim it needs to be modernized, only to “modernize it” into a 2012 action game. Obviously seems like the majority enjoy it, but to me it’s like my favorite metal band dropping a pop album.
While I am really enjoying the game myself, I can definitely agree with your criticisms in regards to lack of RPG elements. I think it would have been nice to have enemies that give you status effects; the death blossoms for example could poison you and thus you can use antidote to heal but nada.
It would have been nice to know what you thought of the soundtrack overall, as that is one thing you didn't tackle whatsoever in the review.
it slaps so hard
I’m honestly a bit surprised by the unanimous praise for the game. You had an absolute gem in FFVIII Remake which didn’t get as much praise, but now you have DMC with a FF sauce over it, and people are blowing their load. It seems very odd to me that FF fans are okay with their RPG being turned into an action game. This is the first negative sound I have heard, and I feel like this game should be a lot more divisive. Great for players who want another GoW, not so great for fans of the series.
@@darthmandalore409they’re not okay, they just get 1 game every 7 years and will get over the honeymoon phase eventually, just like from soft fan did with Elden ring
@@TheTinyTimmyTimTim The fact the honeymoon phase certainly exists and that more criticisms will eventually come up doesn't mean fans, largely, are not going to be ok. You talked about Elden Ring as if every From fan hates it now, which, as a fan that's active in the community, is plainly false. Elden Ring wasn't more divisive than Dark Souls 3 or Sekiro (maybe you'll be surprised to know how many fans didn't like or weren't even interested enough to play those tittles), just on a much bigger scale because...well, the game was fucking fire so everyone was playing it, thus multiplying the number of opinions and takes.
Yes, a lot of people are not going to like FF16, and more negative reviews are surely coming. But the largely optimistic take on the game will not magically vanish with time. FF13 and 15 never got to have ''honeymoon phases'' because they were divisive (and trash) from minute 1.
@@darthmandalore409 To be fair.. it went the action route a long time ago, specially in XV THAT game didnt even have good combat, it was a one button smasher all the way.
I wasn't expecting Stranger of Paradise to feel like more of a Final Fantasy game than 16, with its elemental weaknesses, a more useful party, more strategic itemization, and respect to legacy 😢
I really like strangers in Paradise! Haven't had a chance to play 16 yet because I'm a PC gamer but I still want to try it out. Wasn't a huge fan of 15 but we'll see.
I just recently played the first hour of that game and couldn’t continue. I even prepared myself for a corny experience but the voice acting, pacing and costume designs were just too much lol
@@LupercaliaXVI I understand that but as a kingdom hearts fan I've learned the role with the brain rot.
i fn love stranger of paradise..just hit the ending yesterday..bout to jump into endgame..was thinking about getting this but now I can see they are nothing alike
@@ronniewhitedx I am still going to play 16 for sure. I was originally going to get it for my birthday butI am just gonna wait till it hits $30 or so now.
This game was a huge disapointment. I played the demo, LOVED IT.
It crashes pretty quickly after.
What a weird timeline when street fighter have more rpg elements than a mainline final fantasy game
whoever at Capcom pitched making world tour a Yakuza game that teaches people to play a fighting game deserves a bonus and a promotion
Dude Street Fighter 6 deserves a GOTY nomination more than FF16. Not kidding
@@gamerforlife3946Okay you're fucking high..... Like someone should make sure you never are a decision maker in life ever and if you already have that position your employees should quit
Funny how a buncha rabid fans coming into the video and being mad over somebody having a nuanced opinion instead of total blind approval of everything in the game
Edit: Funny when people are talking about blind disapproval or being disingenuine when they are coming in after watching an out-of-context reddit clip and then refusing to watch the full review to understand a nuanced view that finds both things he likes and dislikes.
Its likely majority are from reddit or other echo chambers but they can't affect real discourse here with downvotes and popularity lol... They are like whinging children.
The issue I think most people have is that his review isnt very genuine and he misrepresents some huge things about the game in this review. Sometimes you can just tell when people want to hate something and this review (from the bits I heard) reek of that. Tbh you talk about blind approval, this felt like blind disapproval.
@@kys125gives me the impression that he doesn't like when games try a new style, look at sonic frontiers for example
@@kys125what a load of bs
@@kys125from the bits you heard tells me you didn't even watch or listen the video. That's blind disapproval.
Love that Ralph isn't afraid to go against the tide and say "hey. lots of people are going to love this, and I understand I'm opening myself to a lot of hate. But SOMEBODY has to point these shortfalls out"
FF7 remake is definetely a priority for Square over this thing.
Hopefully FF17 will be an improvement but I won't hold my breath. Looks like the series heydays are simply over.
It’s like you people don’t understand that both games were made by two entirely different teams. Let me break it down to you. Both games are published by Square Enix. That’s were the similarities end. The teams are different just like how Tango gameworks and ID software are both under Bethesda Softworks, but different teams.
@@dammyoyesanya4656nothing in his comment indicates that he/she isn’t aware that both games were made by different teamms..
He says he prefers remake. He hopes FF 17 will not continue with some of the choices that 16 took. He is doubtful. That’s a fair comment and he can still be aware that different teams made the games.
Who are “you people”? That just sounds like projecting on people who disagree with you.
Fun fact: The gearing system in FF14 is very similiar. Gear is just stat sticks with nothing intersting to them. The secondary stats matter so little that you feel no difference with same-itemlevel gear with different secondary stats - unless you use a parsing tool.
MMOs have a significantly better excuse for this though, balance is much more important
Gear in ff14 has a visual aspect and materia.
For example you can choose to increase your critcal damage vs base damage vs skill speed. As well as being able to choose what clothes you wear visually.
You can't do that in 16 you have a 'damage go up' stat, and you can change the visual look of your sword but that's it. You can't even change the colour of your sword or clothes in this game.
@Derekmeetsworld everyone in 14 just melds based off off the balance anyways. If you're not doing endgame content (extreme at minimim) there isn't even a point in melding
@@Derekmeetsworld in 14 there are literally just 1-2 common builds per job and that is it, as basic as you can get
And yet you can do that in ff14 but you can't in ff16
I'm really enjoying this game but your take on this is kinda like my take on Breath of the Wild where the rest of the gaming landscape was losing their collective minds over it but I thought it got too experimental to the point where it lost the series identity, so I get where you're coming from.
Agreed bro!! BOTW was an all-time great game, but I can name 5 better Zelda games. It didn't feel like Zelda at all to me.
Zelda is ten times better game than this.
@@MajorasThoughts I think the difference is that Zelda is a great game and FFXVI its not. I dont care if they "feel" like the other games on the franchise. Zelda it's a masterpiece on its own and FFXVI its average at best.
Yoshi-P should probably take a look at how well Baldur's Gate 3 is doing. Turn Based combat isn't out of style yet.
@@vivifell Of cause there are nobody play the game in japan. The game does not have japanese version yet -.-"
Even Honkai Star Rail lol turn based is alive and well
@@deepmoistIt never will because it doesn’t appeal to Tojo
@@vivifell seems like no one is playing FF16 in japan also considering the sales...rofl
@@vivifell Yeah selling half of FF7 Remake and FF15 is really "highest selling PS5 game in Japan ever"....rofl. Yoshi-P cultists lie to themselves and everyone else. 😄
I really don't understand all the dislikes. Why? The guy gives a very honest and objective review, so even if you don't agree on some (or all points), why would you go as far as to down-vote it?
I see alot of dislikes but no comments to back them up. So they're just angry ps fanboys
Yoshi P *gargling noises*
Because there's a sizeable population of gamers that are abandoning a discerning, rational view of the game and forcing themselves to like it simple because it's Final Fantasy.
They spend a lot of money to influence influencer this time around…
I don't think I've ever agreed with a review more. Mirrors my own thoughts exactly!
I loved it for about 15- 20 hours or so, but then it was kind of.. is this it? what really killed me was realizing that all of these cool looking cities we in cutscenes are no access able outside of story moments. And honestly while the open zones look pretty, they are just empty there is very little to reward exploration and no hidden dungeons to go into it. Its by no means a bad game but i honestly couldn't give it higher than 7.5 out of 10 as honestly there is a lot lacking. I also think locked the harder difficulty behind NG+ was a really dumb move, after awhile the game just play itself really and the same combos work on 95% of enemies. (No i am not using any of those rings that make the game easier.)
same thing for me! loved the first 15 or so hours, minus the dips in the story pacing- but the rest of the game just slowly diminished my opinion more and more. It went from an obvious 10, to down tl an 8 at most for me. Funny to see someone had a similar experience.
Same
Same. I’m 80% just got to reverie. I’ve been asking myself whether I’m enjoying myself for the last 25 hours or so tbh. It has some awesome moments but it is… lacking.
I was in a similar boat due to is being an action game with very tacked on rpg mechanics. Level ups and gear do so little they might as well be removed. I think RPG's can get these long lengths and hold interest is due to character progress, with your hard (or maybe just time consuming) levels really making you feel more powerful. The gear and stats just do not do that in this game. There is a reason action games aren't 60 hours long, you get burnt out from it like I was in the later half of this game.
same when they first showed off the world and seeing all the huge major cities with the mothercrystals i was so hyped to get to explore them.... and now half way thru the game realizing you NEVER get to actually go to the cities lol at most this game gives you little roadside villages and nothing more....
You were honest in how you felt about the game and that's commendable. It's the reason why I've been watching your channel for all these years.
When I started the game, I was like "I don't agree with SkillUp at all"...
Now I've finished the game - "Dude is 100% spot on".
I don't know why but when I got through half of the game I enjoyed it, Second half, got repetetive, uninspired, less cinematic, story started dragging on, pacing was awful and when I heard "Our Choice" every 10 seconds, I wanted to turn off the game.
Combat is so barebone that I'm shocked that it comes from the same guy that made Devil May Cry combat... That ability spamming reminded me of Babylon's Fall.
When I attacked Fireball with Fire I was shocked it deals damage... How is this a final fantasy game...
It's not FF just a imposter with the name
I think most of these issues come from a fervent desire to make the game as accessible as possible, that it can be anyone's first final fantasy. No party management, no items, no leveling, no weapon swapping, no resource management, straightforward sidequests, linear levels, easy combat.
Have you played it? It has items, levels and new weapons/upgrades. They're not particularly fleshed out but they're there.
@@VicViper1984 they are barely there.
@@VicViper1984they are so bare bones they might as well not be there. Coming from someone really enjoying the game
@@sidew8ys thank you both for reiterating exactly what I just said. "They're not particularly fleshed out, but they're there."
My point was simply that OP's wording makes it seem like they don't exist as features at all.
Do you think this is one of those situations where outside of the franchise it would be a great game? I know a common sentiment is AC Odyssey is awful if you expect a traditional AC game but if you see it as a standalone Ancient Greek rpg it’s great.
I honestly just don’t really understand why it’s a game. It doesn’t utilise the medium in any way. The story is good and seems to be the main focus to the point where I wonder why they didn’t just make it an Anime or a TV show.
@@amysteriousviewer3772 so a game with a strong story should become an anime or tv show? wtf u talking about 🤣 I love Samurai movies/anime and Ghost of Tsushima finally gave me the wish fulfillment that only games can offer. The demo of FF16 is excellent. they are GAMES not interactive movies like Detroit become human there’s a difference. FF16 belongs as a game! Its SO Awesome the combat is mindblowingly fantastic to play FUN
@@Teja That’s not what I said. What I said is that it doesn’t utilise the medium in any way to tell its story. The gameplay, no matter how fun it may be in a vacuum, is completely separate from the story and is merely used as padding between cutscenes. Other story focused games like God of War, Last of Us and, as you mentioned, Ghost of Tsushima manage to intertwine storytelling and gameplay in a way that enriches both aspects. FF16 doesn’t do this at all.
I find it also a very cynical statement from Yoshi P that "those kiddies only play COD". What about those "kids" that played FF in 90s, then grew up a bit, and now still play video games?
Square Enix forgets a whole generation of gamers. After finishing 7Remake recently, and really liking it, i was looking into if i would like XVI. I think i would not. I was HOPING to like it. But i know myself and the things i value are just not in XVI.
They're milking from ff7 fans like you while making new mechanics in the upcoming Final fantasy.
I really wish I'd listened to this review. This is not a good game and I spent 80 bucks on a digital copy.
Strangers of Paradise at least got bombs right
Stranger of Paradise got A LOT of things right compared to this game.
@@TheCyclicGamer bought it on sales and holyshit making builds is fun (currently maining a swordsman/ monk rush assult build) as fuck there's alot of things to combine and make, all class are good aswell, it's a better diablo game than diablo 4 lmao and a better FF game than 16.
It's super grindy though.
@@playername9391 If by grindy you mean leveling up jobs, here's some tips to quickly cut down the grind; You can level up jobs by just having their affinities equipped onto you, you don't even have to have the jobs themselves equipped, just their affinities. You can also use anima shards and anima crystals to level jobs fast too.
@@TheCyclicGamer talking about min max for builds grinding crest ect. Leveling jobs is easy. took 10 hrs of grind to finish my first build and now running labrynth.
@@playername9391 Oh ok.
Here's a tip: There is a mission in the Shrunken Shrine where you can farm both Dragon Treasures and Manikin Materials, it's the one where you have to slay both a Marlboro and Gigas together. Put the trials all the way to max, and use Berserk to knock both of them into the water which kills them instantly, you get like 10,000 Dragon Treasure per run, and the mission itself doesn't take you more than five minutes to do.
After actually playing I agree. I always get nervous when I hear "modernize" when it comes to long running series. Sometimes it turns out that by "modernizing" a series they completely disregard what made the series great and turn it into a game that's hard to differentiate from any other game in the genre. It sad but kind of true FF16 is like every other action adventure game we have all played a thousand times. Final Fantasy was always a pallet cleanser for me, but I'll have to find another. All that said if you do love FF16 that is awesome and super glad that it seems many enjoy it.
We still have Dragon Quest 12 to look forward to, they also said they were going to take the action route, let's see if they can make it better.
@@Ungli2.0i genuinely don’t understand how you can hate this as a game without the old final fantasy player bias. It’s just incomprehensible to me
I'm not familiar with this franchise so I can't say much about it, but hasn't the franchise taken this direction a long time ago? Because if so, then why assume that this is something that only started happening *now?* I know that the recent FF7 Remake should have made it even more obvious that this was going to be the case with this game, not to mention the heavy marketing and demo.
@@Leee275 Well in the mainline series number 15 was the first to switch from turn based. 15 still had a lot of RPG elements though. 16 feels like they completely ditched those elements making it feel like another action adventure game to me, which isn't inherently bad, just not what I prefer from a Final Fantasy game. Kind of like how a lot of people don't like the newer Assassin's Creed games because they kind of ditched everything that made the earlier games interesting. The new games aren't necessarily bad games just not what those fans expect from assassin's creed. That said it's a very delicate dance. It's difficult for long running series to evolve without alienating at least some of it's fans I get that.
@@joshrogers6669 That makes more sense, I guess it's like a DMC game then.
I honestly expected a very different, much more favourable review given the coverage from you up until this point 😅 but I love that you're putting out something that's true to your experience instead
No doubt some people will get really upset at some of your points, given how much hype there is around this game right now, but I really hope it's not going to be too much, because honesty is what I come to this channel for in the first place
Really wish I could play the game for myself, the story and combat seem like they would be up my alley
Facts I’m not into the series but the single character and hack n slash with long cut scene is my jam and I’m enjoying it a lot, but damn he is bashing it 😅 and usually I follow his input, this is the first time I disagree with him
@@bartsimpson8330yeah same, I'm surprised how much he disliked the game lol. It's my first not my first attempt at final fantasy, I tried 14 and hated it, trying 7R and it's ok. It's a departure from the super anime final fantasy, and I'm all for it.
@@bartsimpson8330 Aww yeah, glad to hear you're having a good time with the game
@@typhon1861yeah I'm not sure why everyone loved 7R in comparison to this, the combat was ok in that and the story was complete nonsense. Personally I'm happy they changed it up after 15 games.
@@bartsimpson8330 I just bought the game and am gonna start it tonight. I usually agree with skillup's opinion on a lot of stuff but there have been notable times where I haven't, the big one being the last of us 2, which I absolutely loved. I'm hoping this is gonna also be one of those times.
I've played final fantasy 12 zodiac age, 13 trilogy, and 15 royal edition.
and I feel like final fantasy 16 is probably 2nd place between the 4 based on how much I enjoyed it?
12 > 16 > 13 trilogy > 15
(Maybe I'm too nice, because there hasn't been a game that I have not enjoyed)
I like ff12 (I think it's still controversial in the community because gambits, not turn-based, etc.).
I also like ff13, which was controversial for being linear and it plays itself almost (just need to manage paradigms)
What even is a "role playing game"? We play the role of Clive in 16, and even though combat is very action-y, even though the cutscenes and gameplay don't blend well together (in like storytelling and stuff like what was mentioned in the video), I still enjoyed the story and the ROLE it put me in and the ROLE I experienced in the world.
I've also played ff14 (until Shadowbringers but got busy), The ups and downs, the good and bad of ff16 is pretty similar to ff14. Some side quests can be hit or miss, but when they are good they are really really good (like A Realm Reborn questing)
Yup, because of Yoshi P's involvement
maybe that's why the sidequests in ff14 and ff16 have a similar feeling of hit or miss
but ff14 probably could get away with it because it was an open world MMO
However, I still enjoyed 16 a lot 😄
Yoshi P's response to why it can't be turn based is absolute nonsense. Kids play Pokémon. Kids play the Pokémon tcg. WTF are you smoking? What universe do you exist in?
I have an admission to make. 40 hrs in and I’m bored. It’s true the pacing burned me out. I decided I’ll take a break by playing sth else from my back log and chose Bloodborne, now I’m probably never going back to final fantasy 16. I really like it at first but now that I made the mistake of stopping and playing Bloodborne, I find myself playing a far more engaging and superior game on all fronts. So yeah even tho Skill Up exaggerates the bad in this video, I’ve finally come to see the shit side of this game as well and now I’m playing sth else and not even thinking about ff16
I’m having a ton of fun so far, but I get what he’s saying. Though I can’t help but wonder how he would feel about this game if it were divorced from the Final Fantasy name and all the baggage it brings.
It’s such a storied franchise that means so much to so many people, myself included. During the review I couldn’t help but think that Ralph’s view of “what Final Fantasy should be” was probably giving him a stronger negative reaction then he might have had otherwise.
Agreed. And since I haven't liked a FF since 10 for me this is nice
That’s kinda the point though isn’t it? It’s a good game. But not a good final fantasy.
Well, but it's not. In a franchise with over 30y of history, u can't just toss away so many of the fundamental elements that make it unique
I mean he specifically mentions that its a pretty middle of the road game that is outdated if you take away the Final Fantasy element.
@@kathleengrouper8596 Having just finished it, i really don't agree with that sentiment, it has a gripping story with stellar characters. He says they're all shit, but Cid is the best side character i've ever seen in a FF game, he felt so human, so real. Not goofy or unrealistic of a normal person, even by fantasy standards.
My biggest issue is the mundane shit the game has you doing. It's very obvious a dev team that has been making an mmo for 10 years made this game. Cut the mundane shit and the game is a 20-25 hour really intense story.
Even a year later people in the comments are very divided. This is truley a rare love or hate game.