FINAL FANTASY XVI

[Parrylakks Neko Samurai Find all posts View Profile Close Parrylakks]

Release is less than a week away; is anyone else as excited as I am to dive into the new entry?

[TazzMission Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close TazzMission]

The only one i ever played was 8 on the original ps. A friend of mine at church is all about ff. I cant get into it. Assassins creed however is more my franchise

[Andrew NDB Shot Caller Find all posts View Profile Close Andrew NDB]

I've played about 2 hours of it. So far, I'm hoping I'm still in some kind of extended prelude/prologue and soon the game will let me explore freely because so far this is ridiculous. It's been like 95% watching a movie, 5% actually doing anything. And the battle system seems identical to XV's, complete with jump button and all. This is pretty far from Final Fantasy to me.

On the plus side, I like the characters much better than the ones in XV.

[Parrylakks Neko Samurai Find all posts View Profile Close Parrylakks]

I'm about 60% through the story, and I've gotta say that the story is probably the best we've seen since FFXII, imo. The combat is definitely another evolution towards action, like FFXV was -- I'd even go so far as to say its leaning into Devil May Cry territory at this point, but I'm okay with that. It's not old school FF, sure, but it's not bad. There are definitely a lot of cutscenes, but it's FF so that is to be expected, and I actually quite like it. At least the prologue cutscenes weren't so long as to justify itself as a releasable movie like FFXV's was (seeing as Kingsglaive was just the prologue of that game presented as a movie instead of in game). Overall, I really like it so far. I'll give a more thorough update once I've beaten it.

[Andrew NDB Shot Caller Find all posts View Profile Close Andrew NDB]

Maybe 10 hours into it now and I'm NOT happy with it. Again, it's just a semi-interactive movie with occasional hack'n slash action. It's like it has a much better story and non-annoying characters unlike FFXV, but at the same time it doubles and triples down on the worst aspects of it. There is like ZERO freedom in this. 80% I'm just sitting the controller down to watch more FMV. Also the side quests are a JOKE. "Go walk over there and get me some wood." Wow! So expansive.

And what happened to the party system? Now it's just you solo, with occasionally an NPC or two. So, so terrible.

[Parrylakks Neko Samurai Find all posts View Profile Close Parrylakks]

I'm 97% through the main story and have completed every side quest and hunt. I'm pretty sure the next main quest is the last, and so I'll have the game beat here soon (my progress has been stunted by my PS5 controller having severe stick drift in both analog sticks, making playing games a but of a nightmare, and since I don't have the budget to get a replacement, I've just sort of been making do). I definitely think they've done a great job telling a story with interesting characters and high stakes. I also quite appreciate the effort to keep the genre solidly in the realm of epic high fantasy, rather than steampunk, modern fantasy, or sci-fi. One such instance may irk some fans, I think, but I actually quite appreciate it, and it actually results in a nice nod to the older games, but yeah.

It's definitely cutscene heavy, as some people have criticized, but even with high end estimates of 20 hours worth of cutscenes (which I disagree with as they include all the conversations in that calculation, and I think that's silly), that would put me at about 40 hours game time (as I'm at about 59 hours total right now), and that's quite a bit more than a lot of other games -- not just in the genre, but in general -- and I haven't even touched any of the stone activities aside from the Ramuh challenge stone (which is one of seven such stones, and then there's the main stone in the hideaway that has a bunch of other stuff I haven't touched). 40 hours for a game is pretty standard for single player games these days, and that's including cutscenes, so 40 hours of actual gameplay plus 20 hours of cutscenes is actually quite a bit more than most. And the gameplay is actually really good. Yeah, its another evolution towards hardcore action, but you better be keeping aware of what's going on and use your items wisely, or you're gonna get killed pretty quick in some of the encounters, so its not like its just a button masher.

Anyway, I'm really liking it all things considered. Once I finish the final mission I'll come back with my final thoughts.

[Parrylakks Neko Samurai Find all posts View Profile Close Parrylakks]

Just beat it today, and I'm gonna go ahead and say its my new favorite Final Fantasy game.

It has the best and most pure fantasy story of any entry, and the post credit ending makes it the first in memory to really earn the name of the franchise. Furthermore, while none of the characters quite crack my top 5 favorite characters (though Torgal comes really close), the entire cast is incredibly solid, and the romance between Clive and Jill is hands down the best love story the franchise has ever seen. Cid and Mid are also my favorite rendition of the Cid character, though I wouldn't argue with anyone who may claim Cid Highwind is better, if only because I like any and all Highwinds in the franchise. Speaking off, that leads me to my only two complaints.

1. The imperial family should have been named Highwind, seeing as Prince Dion is the Bahamut dominant and leader of the dragoons.

2. There was no one in the game named Biggs or Wedge (in my opinion, Gav and Otto should have been given these names).

But really, that just goes to show how great I thought this game was. When the only two realy complaints are name related -- being purely based on franchise norms -- you know they've done something right. Then again, not everyone shares my opinion, but such as it is.

I think it was great and definitely worth the 60 hours it took to beat.