- Joined
- Jul 27, 2018
I beat Final Fantasy XVI this week after 63+ hours... the best way I can summarise theexperience is a brilliant Final Fantasy Story stuck within a poorly made game!
The games structure ishorrible for an RPG (Certainly for 2023). Rather than navigatethrough areas after a scenario ends you are given a Map Menu to whereyou have to select the next area - even if there is only 1 areas togo to... The problem with this structure is that it condenses thetraversal element to an RPG & diminishes the sense of adventure! It's more like experiencing a condensely edited movie. Where inprevious FF games it's experiencing the parties journey which givesus the time to engage with them.
Second point is the combat. It is terribly basic. I found once I unlocked Lunge & aMonsters Ability to topple an enemy over when their Stagger Bar ishalf-way I could beat all encounters without thinking. There was anormal enemy pattern & a Boss pattern, that was it. Sadly the gamedoesn't incorporate elements into the Battle System, so there reallyis no depth at all.
Sidequests... Geez! The game is full of the most monotonous side material you can think of.Most are just generic fetch quests for random NPC's you don't carefor - A couple worked for world building and presenting slavery inthe world but the lack of budget and variety left this to feel likechores - Got burnt out after 3 hours of sidequests one evening. Thegame has Monster Hunts but they're boring too as they're ALL re-skinsof enemies you've already seen appear 4-5 times in the game - Really, you'll encounter a Boss in the Story Route & it will appear again& again in the story routes for the game.
So... what's to like? The story is VERY compelling! The world and it's peril is very wellrealised. I don't typically like Medieval Fantasy settings but thestory was well presented - even if heavily inspired by Game ofThrones. Clive is a decent FF protagonist & like all good FFgames carries a well crafted character-focused story on his back. Youfeel for his past and later I was engrossed and keen to support himon his quest. The other characters aren't quite as interesting butthey make for a good posy and assist the journey. I won't go intospoilers but it is very well paced (Unless you go through all thesidequests...) and engrossing for start to finish.
Soundtrack is also a highlight! Much more memorable than the last games and genuinelyexhilarating.
So... while I found every second of the actually story a delight, I simply did not enjoyplaying the actual game... which is an odd polarizing experience tofeel. Usually I am more for having a good story within a game but thegameplay is so unremarkable & side content so tedious that ireally brings the overall experience down. If playing I would avoidmost side content - You can tell the important ones as they have a +icon on the map, beyond that right at the end of the game there are afew character focused ones which are decent but i regret wasting somuch time on games poor side content.
The games structure ishorrible for an RPG (Certainly for 2023). Rather than navigatethrough areas after a scenario ends you are given a Map Menu to whereyou have to select the next area - even if there is only 1 areas togo to... The problem with this structure is that it condenses thetraversal element to an RPG & diminishes the sense of adventure! It's more like experiencing a condensely edited movie. Where inprevious FF games it's experiencing the parties journey which givesus the time to engage with them.
Second point is the combat. It is terribly basic. I found once I unlocked Lunge & aMonsters Ability to topple an enemy over when their Stagger Bar ishalf-way I could beat all encounters without thinking. There was anormal enemy pattern & a Boss pattern, that was it. Sadly the gamedoesn't incorporate elements into the Battle System, so there reallyis no depth at all.
Sidequests... Geez! The game is full of the most monotonous side material you can think of.Most are just generic fetch quests for random NPC's you don't carefor - A couple worked for world building and presenting slavery inthe world but the lack of budget and variety left this to feel likechores - Got burnt out after 3 hours of sidequests one evening. Thegame has Monster Hunts but they're boring too as they're ALL re-skinsof enemies you've already seen appear 4-5 times in the game - Really, you'll encounter a Boss in the Story Route & it will appear again& again in the story routes for the game.
So... what's to like? The story is VERY compelling! The world and it's peril is very wellrealised. I don't typically like Medieval Fantasy settings but thestory was well presented - even if heavily inspired by Game ofThrones. Clive is a decent FF protagonist & like all good FFgames carries a well crafted character-focused story on his back. Youfeel for his past and later I was engrossed and keen to support himon his quest. The other characters aren't quite as interesting butthey make for a good posy and assist the journey. I won't go intospoilers but it is very well paced (Unless you go through all thesidequests...) and engrossing for start to finish.
Soundtrack is also a highlight! Much more memorable than the last games and genuinelyexhilarating.
So... while I found every second of the actually story a delight, I simply did not enjoyplaying the actual game... which is an odd polarizing experience tofeel. Usually I am more for having a good story within a game but thegameplay is so unremarkable & side content so tedious that ireally brings the overall experience down. If playing I would avoidmost side content - You can tell the important ones as they have a +icon on the map, beyond that right at the end of the game there are afew character focused ones which are decent but i regret wasting somuch time on games poor side content.
