2025-04-30 01:30:37

The cutscenes in this game are fucking insane. First Final Fantasy game i've ever played and might be the best I ever play

2025-04-27 22:07:11

Where do I even start with this game.

Final Fantasy 16 (FF 16) is one of the most polarising Final Fantasy games I have played, and I played all of them at this point besides 11. The highs of this game are some of the best in any game I have played. And the lows constantly make me wonder if I really want to play another minute of it. Lets get into this long review:

[h2] Positives [/h2]

[h3] Cutscenes, big fights and music [/h3]

This is the crowning achievement of this game. The game is practically a movie with the amount of cutscenes it offers. The quality of these cutscenes varies. Sometimes characters just talk with literally nothing happening. But other times the game decides to provide you with some of the best scenes ever put out in a video game. Any time an Eikon appears its always a joy to watch. But even the smaller more emotional scenes pack an impact when the game tries. All of this is backed up with some incredible orchestral music and voice acting, some of the best in any FF game, which is saying a lot since the music and acting is always good in these games. FF has always tried to push graphics and cinematography as far as possible. And this game is no exception. If there is any reason to play this game its probably those incredible scenes.

[h3] Polished action [/h3]

The combat is insanely well animated and offers a wide variety of tools. Its fun seeing the crazy combos or dodging a really intense attack. Especially big boss fights end up having really cool attack patterns. I originally thought the Eikon battles would be purely cinematic, but they offer a really fun change of pace and are interesting in fight execution. That variety is sorely lacking at times.

[h3] Lore [/h3]

The game puts an insane amount of effort into making each part of the world feel alive and filled with characters that could be relevant. All of it gets an insane amount of attention and if you ever feel lost you can press the pause button during cutscenes to get a write up on a subject or person.

[h3] DLC [/h3]

Both DLCs do everything that I wish this game did earlier. The quests are more compact and offer more variety. Rewards actually feel rewarding. Areas look unique. And they both offer more of those incredible fights without having to deal with annoying roadblocks. The ability you get from rising tide is insanely fun and I wish the game was designed more around powers at that level. My only complaint is that these DLC are only available right before the end of the game, giving you less time to play around with the new things you get. If you are willing to play through FF 16 then these are a must buy with the game.

[h3] Performance [/h3]

I genuinely don't even know if this is a positive or a negative to me. Overall the game runs fairly well and I had 0 issues for 98 % of the game. The main problem I had with the performance are that certain cutscenes just lag for 0 reason, and the game crashed multiple times throughout my play through. I believe the crashes are due to a memory leak because it always only happened after playing for a very long time. The game constantly auto saves so the crashes aren't the end of the world. But there was 1 moment it crashed and set me back about 1 hour due to a specific game mode I was playing. Overall the game looks gorgeous, runs well and has very little loading times, its honestly really impressive how well it performs even with the few issues mentioned. Especially as Square Enix goes, its probably one of the best ports coming from them.

[h2] Negatives [/h2]

[h3] Difficulty [/h3]

The game is way too easy. You start with 2 difficulties, easy and normal. The 3rd difficulty only unlocks after beating the game and restarting the game on new game +. There is no way im replaying an 80 hour game just to finally experience some semblance of difficulty. Normal enemies die in 1 ability. Big enemies can get perma staggered extremely easily. The only difficulty I ever faced was from doing optional fights that were 10 levels higher, and even then I would often 1st time clear them just from how simple it all feels. Its disappointing to see 0 superbosses, something that has been in the series since FF 1, pretty much just not be here at all.

[h3] Pacing, formulas and side quests [/h3]

While I love the story. There are so many moments where you as a player are excited, and then out of nowhere the game will conjure up some completely minor roadblock that is going to end up costing you multiple hours of time to resolve. This happens so often that at some point it all becomes predictable. You start with a lecture about the enemy, go into a new area, do side quests and explore the new area, face a minor road block and more side quests, before finally getting to fight a big boss fight and repeating it all over. This game easily could have done without all of those roadblocks.

What doesn't help is that there is nothing to break up the pace. Side quests and hunts are the main way to do something other then combat and story. But all they offer is more combat and story, often at a more boring level then the main story. So many of the side quests end up being: Talk to 3 people or/and fight 1 or 2 basic enemies. All hunts are reskinned fights. I miss a gold saucer area like FF 7, a card game like FF 8, I can't believe im saying this but I miss something like fishing or photography from FF 15. There is pretty much nothing similar that allows a break from the main gameplay.

[h3] Rewards [/h3]

The main game does not reward you very well. 99 % of rewards in the game are crafting materials you will never use. Ability points end up not mattering after about half the game. Gil is useless. And accessories usually give such minuscule and boring buffs like 10 % damage on a long cooldown skill, that it all just doesn't feel fun or rewarding. The most fun thing the game can give you are new abilities, but there were a lot of moments where those felt irrelevant because they didn't fit my playstyle or ended up just being worse then what I already had.

[h3] Customisation [/h3]

There is practically 0 functional customisation besides your eikon abilities, and its honestly really disappointing. One of my favorite parts of any final fantasy game is customising gear, trying to figure out how to use a party member, facing interesting bosses that require creativity. None of that is here. Every fight is linear and beaten in the same exact way of dodging and using stagger breaking attacks and then spamming all your abilities when the enemys bar breaks. Party members can't get customised at all. Your own gear is customisable but it never really matters since there is always a very clear upgrade you can go for without having to pay any costs at all. Changing up eikon abilities is fun but I never really felt the need to think about what is optimal.

[h2] Conclusion [/h2]

Its clear a lot of time and attention was given to this game. FF 16 is an ambitious game from every angle. Its beautiful cinematics, wonderful music, energetic combat, magical eikons and detailed lore are all incredibly praise worthy and some of those aspects are top of the line what you would expect from a real modern AAA game. Its a really good game and I overall enjoyed my time with it, but at times it feels like a 20 hour game stretched over 80 hours. I do sometimes wonder why the combat is this easy and the RPG elements have been reduced this much, this game is coming from the same Square enix that gave you Kingdom Hearts data battles, some of the best fights in any action game that also offer a good amount of RPG strategics, its disappointing this game has nothing even close to that.

Its a true FF game filled with innovation and the flaws that come with that innovation. It is a fully finished and polished FF game that offers something completely different from anything else in the series. Overall I recommend FF 16 but with the caveat that you should know what ur getting into.

2025-04-27 05:31:27

Just finished this game. The story is good, not great. The combat and fight are amazing, especially Eikon battles (Bahamut, Leviathan & Titan). The graphic and music are top tier. Characters are great ( Both Cid & Dion are goated fr). Both DLC are great (Hot take but Echoes of Fallen > Rising Tide). Definitely worth to buy at discounted prices. The side quests are kinda meh.
HM: Ultima English VA is the same as Victor (Arcane) VA.

2025-04-24 11:02:43

As someone who is a long time fan of Final Fantasy franchise... This is a complete contrast on what Final Fantasy should be because of the darker and mature side of the story. Also, this game is underrated because of platform exclusivity, it lost its hype too fast.

Gameplay:

- This game is action based. Compared to older Final Fantasy titles that people knew as turn based/active time battle, you might want to give it a try. If you know your skill rotation and your reflexes, this game is easy to cheese especially when tackling bosses and enemies. I find it refreshing and challenging for someone who explored the play styles, especially when obtaining multiple Eikons and skills through them.
- The flexibility through the use of multiple Eikons are appreciated for action players that loves to rotate and juggle through different enemies. However, it feels limiting if you have not mastered the skills offered for every Eikon.
- Damages through the skills do not involve elements. Huge absence on tackling elemental affinities, in my opinion. In this case, enemies don't have certain elemental affinities to further optimise builds for certain bosses when needed so.
- Dodging too early/too late tells you that timing is everything when it comes to balancing offense and defense and utilising skill rotations. Some enemies have this pattern.
- I noticed palette swaps and skill variations when it comes to some enemies. This tradition is mostly observed for every Final Fantasy titles. If you know their movesets, it should be easy for you to dodge once you're familiar with their telegraphed skills.
- As you explore through the towns and regions of Valisthea after progressing through the main quests, the sidequests in towns gets repetitive once you notice the pattern. (e.g. Solve town issue, be acquainted by the town leader, sidequest available)
- The convenient way of finishing side quests help save time through teleportation, but when the NPC is near before the conclusion of the sidequest, it becomes redundant in a way because you can approach the NPC faster or teleport near to the NPC.
- Some of the side quests allows you to learn more about the lore of Final Fantasy XVI and the characters in general.
- Cinematic battles by controlling Eikons are epic. That's one thing I really appreciate for an action-oriented game.
- New Game Plus might be too cumbersome for some people due to the nature of additional content when it comes to sidequests and hunts instead of focusing on the main quest.
- No need to swap characters unlike in Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy and Final Fantasy XV which can add more complexity to the gameplay.
- This game can feel like a [b]rhythm[/b] game if you're not used to action-focused gameplay.

Story/Characters:

- Like what I have mentioned before, you can learn more about the character lore of the game once you take certain sidequests in the later part of the game.
- Some of the characters' lore are fleshed out during the later part of the game.
- As someone who played the demo, I got the impression that the story is darker compared to its lighthearted themes in previous Final Fantasy titles (excluding 13 trilogy onwards).
- The theme is so mature, you can actually relate to the quotes delivered by the characters in the story.
- The story can be emotional at times because of the backstory and the plot.
- Final Fantasy XVI went on a medieval setting compared to its predecessors because the previous installments usually involve sci-fi elements (e.g. FF4-FF10).
- If you are a long time fan of Final Fantasy, you will notice a lot of references through the older titles. When you see it, you'll get what I mean.
- I haven't played the DLC yet but it only appears through the final segment of the game. I'm planning to touch on this once I have the time.

Music:

- The music blends with the theme of the game, it really matches the medieval setting of the game.
- In cinematic battles, this gives you the feeling of immersion because of the musical score (e.g. Metaphor: ReFantazio)

[b]Comment regarding the PC Port: I noticed that the game crashes on unexpected moments, which can lose a huge chunk of progress for some users because there is no AUTO SAVE between cutscenes.[/b]

Overall, if you really want to give this a try as someone who loves action games, feel free. I believe that this is actually a successor to Final Fantasy XV. However, don't set your expectations too high for a triple A game.

2025-04-19 16:47:16

fox game 10/10 graphics 10/10
story 10/10
the ending made me cry

2025-04-19 04:51:22

If you like epic boss battles and DMC combat this game is for you. My first FF game that i've played to end credits and loved the story. Side quests are a bit dull and the game pace can be a bit of a lull at times but the highs more than make up for it! Solid 8/10 for me as a whole

2025-04-15 18:41:20

bahamut fight was a Kaiju dragon ball fight in space - nice

you can pet the dog - nice

a woman actually loves you - nice

good game, only complaint is a few final fantasy staples are missing, such as: jobs, fully customizable party, and accessories that do more than just stat pad

I recommend picking it up on sale if you are a final fantasy fan or like action rpgs

horth

2025-04-14 10:40:43

Final Fantasy is a lot about the narrative and story for me. And this is the best new Final Fantasy game I ever played. FFXVI feels incredibly cinematic and like the story. I found the story of previous newer entries, such as FFXIII, confusing and eventually lost interest. Not the case here. Combat isn't super gripping other than the cinematics, but collecting the more intense powers is cool.

2025-04-12 19:25:56

It's a very confused game. It's an Action RPG that adds some JRPG elements while trying to be a movie. The game has a lot of really excellent components, but it's pieced together very poorly and overall just ends up not being that fun or interesting.

The Good:
Excellent combat system. Easily the highlight of the game. It's really fun and you feel like badass. The later the game goes the more you just spam abilities, which sort of overshadows the excellent base combat system, but it's still fun even then. Really wish they focused much more on this, and had a lot more Eikon combat.

The music is fantastic, as per usual.

The art and graphics are great, though my PC could only just barely play it on medium-low settings. Overall though the designs look great. Some things, like NPCs and some mundane objects are kinda lame though.

The Average:
The characters are hit or miss. Some I really liked, and some I found incredibly annoying.

The story has some good and bad points. It ends up with some disgustingly generic 'Power of Friendship' BS though so overall it's a miss. It had the potential to be cool though.

The difficulty is fine. Overall the game is pretty easy, but that's not really a bad things in this context. There are some fairly challenging fights every once in a while.

The Bad:
The game does an almost impossibly bad job of getting you acquainted with the characters early on in order to feel an attachment to them. If they had expanded on the early game and done more early with the characters stories then the game would have been like 50% better. As it is you get a very brief time with the characters early before it asks you care deeply for them, which just doesn't work. It also misses out on what could have been some of the coolest scenarios in the game. A full 25% of the game probably should have been Clives' younger days and time as a soldier.

The pacing is atrocious. The pacing should have been much faster, or much slower. It the story were cut down and the JRPG elements were removed, this would have been a great action RPG. It they slowed things down a lot then it would have been a great JRPG. If they made it into a 3 hour movie, it would have been a good movie. They didn't do any of these things though and it just feels awkward the entire way through.

The loot is terrible. The whole item/crafting system shouldn't even exist as it currently is, it just gives you false expectations that it might actually end up interesting. Getting the same common crafting drops at end game as early game just feels like a meme.

The side quests, and some of the main quests are awful. They feel straight out of FF14; just generic fetch quest nonsense. Their only purpose generally seems to be to force you to explore the maps, which to be fair the maps are nice, but unfortunately the quests are boring and pointless. I did like 4 sidequests the entire game and just skipped the rest. It didn't make any difference.

The amount of Quick Time Events at pivotal moments is egregious. All of the most awesome fights end with you just spamming X during a QTE. Like bro, just let me play it out. The cut scenes are cool and all, but they strip away all feeling of actually beating the enemy yourself. The fights without QTEs felt much more satisfying (e.g the Hunts).

The absolute worst part of this game, is if you're playing with JP audio and EN subtitles. I have very rarely been so offended in my entire life. I would assume the EN subtitles match the EN Audio, which is fine, but when paired with the JP audio it's literally like following 2 entirely different stories at the same time. It was so bad that I just stopped reading the subtitles altogether and just followed along with the Japanese as best as I could, which I could get like 70% of what was being said. If they had made subs specifically for the JP audio that actually matched what was being said somewhat closely, I might have recommended the game. As it is though, it was one of the most jarring and insulting experiences I've ever had in a game. The JP audio is already pretty cringe, having to read the extra cringe EN audio telling an entirely different story at the same time was brutal.

Overall the game is a giant missed opportunity. It could have been legendary, but the lack of a clear direction just ends up making it annoying. I had to push myself to keep playing it, and I ran through it as almost as fast as I possibly could (don't note my hours, like half was me just leaving it running while I took a nap or something). I only finished the game since I'm a LONG time fan of the series and wanted to say I played it all the way through, otherwise I would have dropped it early on.
This feels very similar to FF15, where the bones of an incredible game were there, but they got overly ambitious so it just turned into something incredibly mediocre. At least in FF15 the first act felt like a completed game before it fell off a cliff. This game just kind of spreads the feeling of disappointment throughout the whole thing.

I'd say just watch a playthrough instead of buying the game, but since like 75% of the enjoyment is playing the combat, so that's not even really a great option. The small areas of fun aren't enough to justify the overall slog of playing this game.
I came in with really low expectations though, and it was only a bit worse than I expected. If you have time to waste, or just want the experience, and the game is on a steep sale, it might be worth a playing. There are some really fun moments to be had.

2025-04-11 06:08:16

I really wanted to like this game but it doesn't feel like a final fantasy game.
When you actually get to play the game is fine, even if the combat is repetitive.
At many points of the game I found myself in a minutes long cut scene only to be dumped out on a linear path where you run in a straight line to the next cut scene.
You only control the main character and are not able to control your companions or equip them.
Even for yourself the weapon and equipment are linear, there is a some variety with the accessories of which you can equip 4.
The last main problem I have is that there is nothing to find in the world. 99% of the items you find are crafting materials you will never use and the occasional weapon which inevitable has slightly better stats than the weapon you currently have. On top of that you can only hold a set number of potions "4"

to sum up, no equipment, no items, no team, no freedom, no fun