I voted for FF7 Remake combat as a direction I'd like to see going forward, but NOT because it's action based. I chose it because of the extreme slow mo you get when selecting from the menu and the space it gives you to breathe and plan, but most importantly the controllable party members you can both command and switch to. I think it is an extremely well done marriage of action and ATB-feel combat. One of my biggest gripes of 16 was the complete lack of meaningful party member control and variation. Clive was great, but it was always Clive regardless of what Eikon you were using. In FF7 Remake, controlling each party member felt completely different. Aerith controlled completely to Tifa, who was completely different to Cloud etc. The ability to give each character different materia/accessories to enhance or cover any weakness their particular combat style had was really fun for me and something I missed in 16. As someone who had to make use of at least 1 Timely Accessory, the fact that you were "punished" for needing them by restricting your ability to use the regular more interesting accessories just felt bad. I wish they'd just been options in the settings menu tbh. I enjoyed 16 a lot, but I just loved the game design for FF7R more.
FF7R combat is the best action RPG system I’ve ever played. That should def be the way going forward if they refuse to ever do some sort of turned based at all
Part of the reason I prefer the Remake combat system, which can be classified as action-based, is that it still involved strategy and required players to learn the system. As you and others have said, 16 can feel at times like you just mash square and you’re good no matter what. I played 16 1.5 times (the standard action-based mode, and started FF difficulty) and stopped about halfway through because even on that mode the combat wasn’t really that challenging. There is some strategy to how you select your eikon skills, which ones you should invest in heavily to mix and match, but it didn’t feel like it took me long before I was in a groove and destroying higher level hunts without dying once still. Hard mode on Remake however, was different because it forced you to learn your materia and weapons and swap them out depending on who or what you would be fighting. Monitoring your MP closely, or just redoing your weapon points to maximize certain aspects you wanted to bring out in each character. Things like that, sadly, were missing to me in 16. And there are ways to do it for that system, with a single playable character however I think because it was their first time working so much in that type of system, it just couldn’t be fully developed. Remake’s system is more developed, because it’s essentially an iteration of Final Fantasy XIII’s system, which many also did not love at the time and had its own issues (like losing if your party leader went down, even if the rest of your party was fine). I think both can continue on to do well if Square chooses to do something along those lines (make an FF with some type of Remake system, followed a few years later with an iteration of the XVI system). However, it has to fit the story better. I loved most of the story of XVI, it was far and away my favorite part of the game BUT…the combat didn’t fit with anything they were trying to convey with the story. If it was something like Clive taking a solo journey across Valisthea, meeting these characters and battling these enemies and then moving onto the next place to meet different people and battle different enemies, it could work. But you’re trying to show he’s not alone, and have these themes of found family and overcoming evil with the help of everyone you know and love by your side, including the brother you thought you murdered…and you fight everyone essentially by yourself. Including people that should have had moments carried out by other characters (looking especially at Jill at Drake’s Breath, I know people bring up the ending but THIS should have been her moment before any other). It just felt very disjointed. Over the past few months after playing the game, I think that’s what’s stuck with me the most, especially in why I didn’t love the combat. It was fun, but it didn’t feel as deep as Remake, but it also didn’t fit the rest of the game well either because of the story they were trying to tell and those little moments that should have belonged to many of Clive’s companions just as much as they belonged to him, felt empty because they were never really involved. It took me out of the game, because I would think, “why the hell am I fighting Liquid Flame when this is supposed to be Jill’s fight? Plus I have fire, she has ice! Wind really shouldn’t help at all. This doesn’t make any sense.” Rather then feeling like, “Wow! This is incredible! I’m fight as Jill for this battle and her kit is cool and we’re gonna wreck this monster and destroy these Iron Kingdom *******!” That and the unintuitive AI that was controlling them. At least let me unleash their eikonic powers on the actual enemy! Remake had that too, though, if you weren’t in control of someone. I do commend the dev team for branching out and trying new things with the game. We all love different aspects of Final Fantasy, but these games wouldn’t have gotten to this many entries if the people behind them weren’t taking the chance to try something new with each of them. That’s how they stay creative and want to stay involved in making those games and the amount of detail they put into many things was amazing! Hopefully they learn from this, and whatever CBU3 ends up working on in the future (whether it’s a chance at 17, their own IP, or another MMO) I’m sure they’ll improve the things many of us didn’t like, as well as many of the things we did, and make an even better game!
I completely agreed with everything you wrote until you said the timely accessories should've been menu options. I really don't think that would make sense since the timely accessories are effectively the game playing itself. In a game that is already extremely easy, an accessory that makes you automatically dodge or automatically heal without having to do anything at all *should* cost you an accessory slot. That's the trade-off you make for easy mode.
I completely agree. FF7R battle system is the better choice, especially when it comes to party members, but also still having some semblance of strategy elements. XVI system in comparison feels like a weird copy of DMC. I like DMC, but I wanted to play FF...
When I heard that the combat director consider this his magnum opus I was incredibly excited. After beating the game I struggle to see why he thinks that since DMC5 has such a better combat system and I felt constantly constrained being locked out of roughly 70% of my kit since you can only equip 3 eikons and 6 abilities. I also really wish I could juggle bosses like in dmc5.
Also, it should be noted FFXIV had these problems since the beginning. Cutscenes were good but lengthy, and at least for a 2023 player trials and raid are fun but effortless when before it was complex and fun. The writing was always on the wall, and FFXIV was the proof.
Not to mention the cooldown system in an action game, they genuinely thought it was a good idea Getting powers for waiting just isnt exiting or good for the high speed flow of the combat, not to mention it limits your already small movelist
Wasn't this the same guy that worked on a lot of the Platinum Games combat as well? If it is, I'm shocked, because FF16 combat does fall short compared to games like Astral Chain and Bayonetta.
What dropped this game from fantastic to good for me was late game combat. Early on I was engaged by cutting my dodges to the last moment to capitalize on counter attacks, changing up my sword and magic burst and Torgal combos to extend them as far as I could. But by late game enemy HP had ballooned relative to your attack damage that it felt like everything that wasn't eikon abilities was just a way to kill time until the cooldowns had elapsed. It was no longer worth it to try and perfect dodge a risky attack because counter attacks just weren't impactful anymore. Long animations like megaflare or ones that impacted visibility like garudas ult broke the flow of combat and had me just holding my controller not pressing anything. This all played against the strengths of an action combat system with such finely tuned character controls. Eikon abilities that complimented your existing non-eikon kit and felt good to use, like phoenix shift, or rook, were difficult to justify equipping over long animation ults that did several times more damage during a stagger window.
I totally agree! There’s a point in Final Fantasy mode that Normal attacks are nearly useless, unless you have the most powerful weapons. The battle becomes a game management of eikonic skills and charged Zantetsukens.
totally agree with this, norma attacks feel like paper towel hits, I love the FF franchise to death but I can’t be biased about stuff like, it’s why I was blown away when I played spiderman 2, of course the abilities are strong but my friend who played it barely used the abilities and was able to still feel impactful
By the end I was REALLY starting to feel the absence of things like status ailments, elemental weaknesses/resistances, and unique equipment properties. All of those things can have a massive impact on how you approach engagements and change how you play the game. The combat system in FF16 starts to feel thin when you realize that there really isn't any more complexity beyond dodging/parrying and waiting on cooldowns.
I fall in the 2% age tier (over 45) from this survey and I feel kind of slighted that us older gamers that took part in the survey got overlooked in most all of these categories lol. I was so curious to see how us old timers ranked everything compared to these yougin's since chances are we have been playing these Final Fantasy games for 30+ years.
@@TruckDrivinGamer Cheers, I am 55. Oh well chances are our age bracket and the lessor involvement from 45+ people taking the survey probably threw everything out of skew anyway. I for one loved 16's story and the combat system and it seemed like most people half our age did nothing but complain it wasn't turn based prior to launch lol. Sure the side quests needed some work but many of them were really good and worth trudging through the crap ones to get to. I wonder how many younger players just gave up on doing them early on lol.
I agree, I'm 51 and I was curious to see how my fellow "elder" gamers rated this game. I personally really enjoyed FF XVI, the characters, story and music is top notch. Some of the side quest could have been better, and I would have loved to be able to chose different party members in battles and not just Clive alone all the time. I did rate the FF VII Remake the best battle system mainly for this reason. All in all FF XVI is a solid game in my humble opinion.
Ahh, so you guys are the ones causing all the deviations In these graphs! lol jus joking. It's awesome to see and hear the OG's who played the earliest days of final fantasy still enjoy its latest iteration literally 36 years later. I think there was a lot of good things done in FF16, especially Story themes. I do wish I had more classic Final Fantasy mechanics like control of a party, a return of some min-maxing stats, and better side quest content (mini-games or like a triple triad from FF8 / Gwent from the Witcher game) or end game content (better hunts, challenging sevret bosses that are lore/quest related, meaningful/mechanic-changing legendary gear to craft)
Same. I assumed the number of responses in our market segment was too small to be statistically significant. Still would have been interesting though. Especially given that playing the early titles as they came out set the expectations for the franchise and I’m really wondering how that has persisted over the last 35 years.
When I first began my FF16 playthrough, I loved it. Thought it was great, but approaching half way I was really getting bored and by the time I beat it I was just glad to be done with it, felt like I was putting something within myself out of its misery
This is the same exact thing that happened to me. The first few hours into the game I was thinking this will easily be my favorite FF. Near the end, my opinion did a 180.
Damn thanks for the review.... I was planning to get one because the 11.11 promotion made it cheaper but now don't feel like getting it... Yes I know the feeling of enjoying the game but felt like it was getting boring halfway
@@notme6753 Really? Based on one comment? I'd reckon it gets way more exciting and fun to play throughout the entire story. I loved the damn thing, begin to end, and it is so clear that most people who hate it cannot stand the changes to the status quo of the franchise, even though the very basis of this franchise is to change the status quo with each game. If that's your speed, don't buy it, but maybe do some actual research before making that choice.
I loved 16 as a whole, my only complaint was that I wish there was a bit more variety to the gameplay of the side quests beyond fetch quest or go to place and fight thing there, and I hope in the dlc we get leviathan powers
Yeah, especially they should learn from Genshin impact but instead they focused on borrowed other games like devil, may cry borderlands and asura wrath
@@kevingame3198why would they “learn” from a gacha game that is free to play and has a completely different combat system. This is like saying Outback Steakhouse should learn from McDonald’s. There’s no correlation.
@Erikthedood playing genshin for atleast 6 months is a bit slow compared to ff16 is much faster pace game what genshin can't do parry no air attacks but what you can do is dodge attacks
I wish there was more variety in many elements of it, but I thought the story and presentation were absolutely top notch. More Jill would have been nice, and idle banter between party members would have helped things feel more organic. Overall, I honestly loved this game, and I’ve been around since FF1.
My main problems with this game was how they strung together each set piece. The main set pieces was fantastic, but once you’re back in control it was all “go here, talk to that guy, go back and tell another guy what guy 1 said”. I was like “what? Why not put them in the same room?” It just felt really fragmented and the whole pacing didn’t flow properly. Also, the items was pretty much useless and every weapon and accessory was just to boost stats. There was literally no reason to explore or to grind.
While I do agree with this, it seems since FF XIII the game flow much more linear and instead of allowing more freedom of the player they throw in quests and give huge amounts of cutscenes instead. I did love this story though and how it centred on the brothers relationship right to the end.
I think the problem with the side quests was they felt very MMOesque. Go here and do this thing. If they were a bit more meaty they probably would have been better.
Game was lead by the MMO guy. Makes sense when all you've really been working on for a decade now is a MMO. Honestly, has a FF game ever had a quest system/line that wasn't MMOesque? I do not recall any FF game having quests like The Witcher or Mass Effect.
@@RazielTheUnborn Most had implied quests where someone hints that they want you to do a thing, and you get a reward if you do it but there's no quest log or anything and they were far less numerous.
@khinzaw77 It basically changed to holding the players hand and pointing us in the right direction for everything, but they tend to be more detailed in their stories. They just make games easier in that regard now.
I hear this sentiment a lot, but nothing about any alternatives. Like to me the side quests felt the "same" level of interaction as the FF7Remake, but there are "a lot" more quests in FFXVI. I am feeling that "side quests" in general seem to be getting bland for every game now that we have done them soo much. Or am I mistaken? Is there design on side quests that I am missing context for that make them engaging? Well, besides quests to do "mini-games" which I do feel FFXVI needed and could had implemented even in the serious tone of overall narrative.
And not being able to play with other characters. I also missed that a lot. If those things you said + more playable charaters had been added it would have made it better.
With how often we go back to the Hideaway, I thought for sure we would have gotten a Base Management mini-game to play throughout. Something to do other than the combat. Something to use all of these crafting materials on. Missed Opportunity.
@garitobee7541 I agree. I don't think you use 99% of the crafting materials, right? Just the rare ones only found from hunts? I don't need every item to be for something. But therw is way too much useless stuff.
That's because it's not final fantasy anymore. It's devil may cry now. I own them all up to 15 and I just can't do it anymore. 12 was the last final fantasy ish game. They need to go back. FFvii is a mockery now. Anyway enjoy it if you enjoy it but it's not for me anymore.
I don’t think the extended voice cast gets enough credit. Their breath taking performances. No game has ever had me so emotionally devastated as this game did. Replaying it now after beating it at launch with the dlc and replaying it with new eyes has been amazing
Hopefully Square Enix uses FF7R battle system moving forward. FF7R was a perfect balance between Real Time Combat and Turn Based, you can either choose full Real Time, full Turn Based or simply mix both of them together...it was perfection.
FF Origins Stranger of Paradise combat is peak, but what do you expect from the creators of Nioh 2, the best soulslike game in existence. But onto the point , FF7R combat made me quit the game, because pausing every time I wanted to use an ability, which was very often since you have two other party members, makes for a very disjointed and unsatisfying combat experience.
I'm now studying data analytics and this video couldn't have come at a better time. I had forgotten I took this survey but it's nice to see the results.
Thanks for doing this. I Took the survey myself. The game was very clearly a labor of love, and a step in a new direction. I've played every entry to date and did enjoy my time in the world of 16, but I don't think I'll buy the next one if this is the direction they want to take the series going forward. The story, music, and characters are fantastic! However, the Genre and gameplay just isn't what I come to Final Fantasy for. No hate towards anyone that liked it, just not for me gameplay wise.
I stopped halfway for this reason. I said it in another comment, but this is a game that was less than the sum of its parts for me. I really liked the characters as individuals, the art design, and a few other things, but when putting it all together I found it just kind of not what I was looking for. I'd rather have a better RPG or, frankly, a better action game. I feel like this hits a kind of weird unhappy medium.
The game bored me due to no status effects, didn’t matter if you used lightning, fire, ice whatever as enemies had no elemental weakness or resistances. Just seemed pointless and way too simplistic. FF is straying way too far from what once made it great. First FF game I ended up detesting.
I just started it and just in the Jill fight in the beginning alone her moves are way stronger. Took me longer than I thought to beat her. Can't wait to keep going. Feels like that should be the default mode honestly
Congratulations on this survey, its analysis and this video, this must have required a huge amount of work. Also, thank you for using very distinct colours for the graphs, instead of the 50 shades of blue from the previous video. As for the results of the survey, there aren't any real surprises, most people seem to agree on what the game's strengths and weaknesses are.
I liked it and the characters. The music was very beautiful and I have plenty of them saved in my music library, loved the romance between Clive and Jill and loved the brother relationship with Clive and joshua throughout the game especially the bahamut fight. Beautiful game and I’m glad I got to play it.
My biggest gripes with the game were: - It dumped RPG elements to be an action game, but it was pretty mediocre for an action game in terms of gameplay. - It kept the worst aspects of RPGs with boring fetchquests and meaningless crafting. - It shoehorned in "mature" content to get an M rating, but the story was just the same old tropes with none of the series' trademark charm or levity. It just felt like, "We have Game of Thrones at home," but in video game form, with a Final Fantasy wrapper. I genuinely hope that if this is the direction the series is going, that they learn from these mistakes.
@@StriderZessei I think they lost their magic in storytelling and characters development since Sakaguchi left. That "same old trope" you mentioned is why fans loves FF, but in this one, I feel like they're trying to be something else, which is came out like "game of thrones at home" feels. I completely agree with that one.
Big disagree on the last point. It definitely is "Game of Thrones at home" but it is the only piece of media to attempt that same game of thrones style while actually understanding the purpose of those adult elements. At no point did the sex or violence feel like it was there just to be edgy or adult. It all served the greater purpose and tone of the story without needing to go overboard or make a huge show of it. It is all executed with restraint and intent.
It was fun. A bit simple/straight forward with not a lot of proper side stuff to do. Not much replayability in my view either. Combat was alright, but I found that limiting the number of skills you could use, had me using the same setup the majority of the time while never using other abilities. I'd argue that Royal Edition FF15 had much better/enjoyable combat once you could control all of the bros. Story was good. But it needed much, much more Benedikta.
The FFXVI combat system is unexplored to it's potential by most people and is generally misunderstood. I dont know how people can dislike XVI's mechanics but enjoy VIIR's battle system- is there really much of a difference between waiting for an ATB gauge to charge and waiting for an ability to cool down?
Lmao fr 16 handled abilities WAY better. The atb system leaves you completely defenseless and offenseless unless you resort to just spamming square,whereas the abilities being on a cd makes you have to pay attention to combat as well as manage resources,then you add in the dlc ring that makes you regain move cd when you dodge and its even better
There is no way you typed this. 7 Remake/Rebirth’s combat system is not really action based. And things like elemental weaknesses, buffs/debuffs, status ailments etc are a thing and matter in the game. All of which are absent in FF16. Add to that the ability to control party members. Your ATB can be used to do a special attack, use magic or use an item. How is that the same as waiting to come of cooldown. Like are you serious?
@@dammyoyesanya4656 i also am quite puzzled as to why you have typed such a response. Lets look at the core loop of ff16: use ability, switch icons, attack via combos until ability has cooled down, repeat. Now lets look at ff7's combat loop: attack via combos and build ATB until abilities are earned, use ability, switch party members, repeat. Yes there are slight nuances between these games but the very core of the combat isnt as different as you think, it performs the same steps essentially, albeit in different order, which was my point. I have platinum'd both titles including FF7R and you can progress both games without getting deep into the mechanics such as min/maxing ability efficiency in XVI or getting into buffs and debuffs for ATB efficiency in VII. If you can't see the similarity between these systems then i will not try to further convince you, but it was immediately apparent to me that it was a different "spin" on what is essentially the same gameplay loop.
@@dammyoyesanya4656 The core gameplay loop is the same, just ordered slightly differently. FFXVI: Use abilities, switch eikons, attack until abilities are available again FFVII: attack until atb is available, use abilities, switch characters
Happy to see these results as I really love the surveys you guys do. 14,000 is a huge number of participants and would be considered more than a representative sample of the number of the player base. On another note, I felt that FFXVI lacked enemy variety which made replaying on Final Fantasy mode less appealing
Considering over 3 million people bought and played the game, I would say 14,000 isn’t even close to representative of how most people that played it felt about it. It’s more accurate to say it’s *how the hardcore FF fanbase felt about it*
Quantitatively, it is definitely a representative sample. But, I agree, I wouldn’t say the results are representative of general gamers. Since the survey mostly reached hardcore FF fans, that is who’s opinions are reflected in this data. From a survey ran by FF fan page that should be expected
@@ErikthedoodIf you get representative sample, something like 200 responses would be more than enough to get a good idea about how people overall liked the game. If you get strongly biased sample, 1 million responses could still result in a very biased survey. I think estimating how biased the survey was, the "was this your first FF game" was pretty good proxy.
@@naaruriver8875 In quantitative analysis which it seems you are unfamiliar with. The US population is 330 million but you don’t need 33 million + responses to get a representative sample. FF Union’s survey has 14k respondents & most surveys of the US population (A far higher number than people who played FFXVI) have less than 14k respondents. The video even mentions this.
Loved Final Fantasy XVI. So bummed I missed out on this survey. At any point, I’m just so grateful this franchise is still around for us to even discuss it.
@TheGreatAmarant72 we're getting another 7 title and 14 is still doing numbers. The franchise aint going anywhere just because one game decided to experiment
@@parsashirali8957 most 14 players are struggling due to no content update and 7 is the biggest risk of them all. Changing the story is one thing but changing the prequel is another, Zack is the biggest red flag unless they pull a “fixed timeline” thing where Zack once again had to accept he’s going to die or the universe will implode. Or more likely Zacks alive again just to die at some point for cheap tears. Aerith and Zack meet up again in the lifestream it’s already pretty poetic but then there’s the big big question…..are they going to cut the most famous death scene in gaming?
I loved the game and got the platinum trophy. It has its flaws (like many other FF games) but it's an enjoyable game. Battle system was fun. I got my money's worth.
Gorgeous game, great story, excellent combat, a new experience in a new Final Fantasy universe. The way people are eager to prove this game is bad only shows more of its glimmer. I'm not talking about this video or the content in it, but instead I'm talking about every comment section in media trying to review the game.
I agree, sometimes I wonder wth are people playing with some of the complaints they have. The only thing I can understand is disappointment in the story. It made some plot decisions I thought weren't good payoffs like 2/3rds in. Then certain things start to get messy. But there's simply too much fun in this game to not like. Even the combat is so much deeper than people are giving credit for. Like if they could've fixed of few things with the plot, and had a party system and more of a magic system it would even solidify it even more as a classic. There's just a few details they could've added that would push it even higher though.
Every time I play a new Final Fantasy, I always go back to my big brother popping the 1st one in the NES. So I will have a biased opinion about anything with Final Fantasy. It's hard to believe in a world without it for me. Thank you for the hard work you all do for this channel!
I think the core of final fantasy is that base feeling of turning on a game for the first time and just being totally amazed. Most if not all FF’s intro scenes are exhilarating with the most cutting edge graphics in the industry. The way FF made me feel as a kid no other game could achieve, and I still find that to be the case. I’m playing FF1 now and I love it, I see exactly how the magic started
9:15 This chart is exactly why everyone calls Final Fantasy 16 "A really beautiful movie", denigrating its status as a video game. All of the film elements were at the top. All of the gameplay elements were at the bottom. Personally, I couldn't play past about 10 or 15 hours. Just wasn't fun, and the story just didn't grab me.
The voice acting is definitely great. Couple that with the music and I'd say the sound design was probably XVI's biggest strength. It really helped set the tone they were trying to achieve. I didn't love the story or the combat personally.
@@jayonnaise6105 The music was made by FF14 sound director and all around music gigachad Masayoshi Soken. He is the goat and fought cancer and won to bring us epic music. Man's a saint and a legend.
@@meitomiyazaki9848 Wow. Yeah, kinda hard to disagree with you there. I've been playing through Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line lately and noticing how good XIV's soundtrack was in particular, even though I haven't played XIV myself.
Wonderful work. My workplace does surveys about what we enjoy, dislike, and how we can improve. I always feel so engaged and seen when they use that method. Thank you for presenting the voice of the community through actual data in the same way.
fyi this game is currently on sale for black friday for $40 instead of $70. and there’s also a demo (at least on ps5, idk about anywhere else) if you’re on the fence. i finished the demo earlier today and instantly ordered a copy once i saw it’s 40% off lmao
I like the story of the game. I like how it delves into issues like classism and empirialism. I like the ability system where you unlock elemental abilities with ability points. I like all the side quests and side content that help you delve deeper into the universe and let you know what's going on. (To me, the most powerful side quest was the one outside of Moore Village where the rich man tried to feed bearers to the dog. It's so sad that he thought that his son's entertainment was more important that the life of a bearer. I like when side content is relevant like that.) Graphics and soundtrack are great. There is one problem, though, and it's kind or the elephant in the room: battles are too easy. Most of the battles can be done by mashing the square button. It doesn't really present much challenge that way. If that problem had been fixed, it would be a spectacular game. Overall, it's a good game.
Yeah, the combat was fun, but way too easy. The fights are only difficult when you intentionally fight higher level enemies with lower power gear. Hopefully the 2 DLCs can add some more combat challenge.
I think gender breakdowns on this survey would have been interesting. I have a strong feeling the character favorability would be very different on each category.
I really enjoyed Final Fantasy 16. The story was great in my opinion, and gave me the feels. I felt really immersed in the world of Storm. It was a nice change showing more dark tones and pain, where people can relate and feel for the characters. Great game. Been playing final fantasy games for over 30 years now, and see the change from ff4 to now is something special
I am not a stats person but I do love the ones you guys do. It is so interesting to see how people feel about games. More people should do it this way.😊
Music, story and characters were pretty much amazing. I like that the side quests all tied into their own narratives. The gameplay was not phenomenal but it was satisfying. The only “problem” I had was the bad guy being boring. That being said, I like the theme of people learning to stand on their own two feet and become independent. My favorite moment is definitely Clive’s literal battle with his inner demons.
To be honest I think Baldur's Gate 3 might have cooled Square's idea to turn their flagship RPG franchise into a cheap DMC action knockoff and cutscene simulator. While Yoshida was at the media tour stating that turn-based/ATB combat is dead and the future is ungabunga action, Larian chadded the entire industry by shipping the best RPG in the last 20 years, and it's an honest to gods RPG with turn-based combat.
While I grudgingly accept the mainstream move towards action combat, I hope that doesn't completely close the door for turn based variations in the FF family, even if it relegates them to minor releases. It might be an interesting case study to look at how Yakuza titles are doing since they kinda went the other direction.
Turn-based combat is, if anything, in a bit of a renaissance right now. I actually think FF is going the wrong direction on this, not because I'm a die-hard turn-based supporter (i've always like tales and star ocean and so on) but because, as seems par for the course with SE over the last decade, I think they're out of line with what the public kind of wants right now. Between the persona games, BG3, and a variety of other throwback classic RPGs and things of that sort, turn-based is big. I feel like the industry as a whole of late over the last 5-10 years is coming to realize that a lot of the things that we did in the first few gaming generations simply because of tech limitations were actually really fun (2d fighting games, 2d platformers, turn-based combat, top down shooters, etc, etc) and don't need to be abandoned because now we can do photo-realistic 3d digital worlds, but absolutely deserve to continue alongside those newer genres as their own thing with masterpieces like Mario Wonder and Persona 5 as examples, along with the proliferation of indie games and such.
@@PenguinsAreColdish BG3 is a dnd turn-based, I get your point, but we don't need to look that far, even Persona 5, an honest to god classic turn-based which released more than half a decade ago is still one of (if not) the most popular JRPG out there, even today. SE going in this direction I think it's not because they think turn-based is lame and oudated, but they're trying to get a wider audience but kinda neglecting the fanbase that they've built since the beginning.
p5 is popular on social media, its actual sales are lower than any FF so it's not a good example. bg3 sold like 4 times as much as ff16, and is also just a way better game than p5 or ff16@@plipplop728
What an effort, thank you! The most interesting data that stood out to me is that even for 35-44 age bracket, only 25% wanted a return to traditional ATB system. And that overall the younger audience liked the game more. Seems like Yoshi-P and his team did succeed on the overall aim of appealing to the younger audience even if they universally didn't hit the mark with side quests and story pacing etc.
The two things that stood out to me were that 1. More money spent indicated higher enjoyment (was it cope or did those who spent more know they were going to enjoy it more?) and 2. That the younger group liked certain antagonists more than older groups (was it related to reduced exposure to certain tropes?) Aside from that, I'm glad this game was made, and it is a really good I've, but I think it will ultimately fail to leave the life changing impression that earlier games like 6, 7, or 10 did.
It’s not just sunk cost; they probably are a different set of Final Fantasy fans who either do not care about what came before or do not know what came before.
Would say those who spent more knew they were going to enjoy it. Might not translate to everyone that did, but could've thought it was a good experience overall.
As someone who uses statistics on a daily basis, I love the way you presented the results. Clearly stipulating what the data shows and indicating when an inference is being made. I appreciate the great care in usage of language.
I think when I did the survey I talked about how side-characters read in terms of arcs and development, with particular focus on Jill and dynamics within the cast? It's been a bit. If I did make a comment I'm sure it was really verbose. General feelings now are that I could tell a strong effort was being made, but I think the story was too lean on interactions between characters who were not Clive (ex. Mid and Jill, Byron and Joshua, Gav and Dion). I also think romantic relationships that were either established or teased felt like they hinged more on the idea of a relationship than seeing how both characters bounced off of each other as individuals. Romance should be garnish on a relationship that is already really interesting without it imo. There were also some really key moments that just were not present, like Joshua coming to terms with being beaten near-to-death by Ifrit or either brother coming to terms with the reality of their mother. Learning how evil she was isn't quite the same I think. I wanted to see a little addressing the feeling of having a positive parental figure killed by the other and knowing however much either son might have wanted Anabella to be a different kind of mother--the mother they dreamed of was dead too. Mourning that hope I think would have meshed well with overall themes regarding creators/creations, rulers/subjects, parents/offspring, etc. Closest thing that came to a moment of that was Clive mentioning in Torgal's hideout that he'd at one point wished for a mother who loved him. Anyway. If there wasn't going to be a consistent party system like other Final Fantasy games, I think having really strong dynamics within the cast becomes even more important. The camaraderie and foiling off of one another have been pretty big deals in the series imo, but felt mostly absent for XVI. Still enjoyed the game but think that could have been stronger. They're on the right path but I'd like to see them improve on this further.
People talks about the direction of the gameplay, but I think what dissapoint me the most so far is the writing elements like you said. I feel like they don't have the magic of storytelling like they did in Sakaguchi era. One of my favorite FF is actually XII because of the gameplay mechanics, but I can't deny the writing and story was shite compared to its predecessors.
@@plipplop728I haven’t played XII myself so can’t offer any opinion there, but in fairness I don’t think XVI was bad. It took some reflection for me to get my thoughts together and I do think the cast dynamics need work for sure, but it wasn’t that it was abysmal. Seems to me like the developers didn’t know how to create chemistry tbh. Not for romantic pairings or within casts. I can see places they sort of tried, and I do think they had really cool ideas thematically. I don’t think they knew how to pull off varied personalities and the ways they bounce off of each other-let alone distinct motives/perspectives. It felt like I was examining the seams in someone’s work particularly whenever stuff came up with Jill. As if someone gave the devs a checklist for backstory, motive, personal memories/tics, etc. and the devs made a point of including those elements, but they didn’t actually know how to fit them together naturally or in relation to other cast members. I don’t think there was full awareness of how each character needs to bring something unique to the table personally, philosophically, and thematically-much less explore interaction between those differences.
@@janedoe885 I was talking about XII, I don't think XVI was THAT bad either like people out there make it out to be. But yes, the chemistry between characters are lacking. Also, I don't know how to put it, but I think newer FFs also lacks in.. melancholy? They're good or at least decent overall, but felt kinda flat emotionally.. maybe it's just me, idk
My biggest takeaway from this game is that it's the first mainline Final Fantasy game I have literally no interest in going back in and playing through a 2nd time, whereas I'm probably on my 4th playthrough of FFX, and I've lost track of my Tactics playthroughs (not mainline, I know). It's not because I thought it was a bad game, but it just didn't feel like Final Fantasy, and I generally don't playthrough action games more than once. I also feel like I've seen all there was to really see, which again, is not normal for Final Fantasy games. There's also very little reason to try different builds in the game, unlike others, since you essentially play with the battle system until you find the combo you like, then only use that combo. So, it was good, but not my cup of tea as far as Final Fantasy. They should have gone closer to a FF7: Remake battle system, which kept the party dynamics and combined action and RPG more successfully.
I can't fault you for that, I did feel like it was final fantasy for me. For the most part but there would be times in this game where Square is very clearly trying to force the M rating and it's jarring when it happens. Not enough that it ruined my experience, but enough to where I can't just ignore it either. I'm also of the opinion that they need to move away from this and focus more on either Final fantasy 7 remake's combat or just tradtional turn based combat in general. I'm tired of having to defend this part now and I want them to stop hyper obssesing over realisim and action. I did love 16 and I'll replay it, but I'm also at the point now where I just don't want this to be the future of the franchise. Not when other rpg's are still showing how effective turn based combat can be and being innovative with it too.
@@Cloud-dt6xb I suppose that you could have replaced Clive with Dante and everyone would be talking about this as a bad DmC game and not a good Final Fantasy game. If you removed the chocobos and changed the names of the skills, no one would be able to really tell it was a final fantasy game. Sure, the crystals are there, but that's just the MacGuffin in the story, honestly. Easily replaced with any other MacGuffin.
@@usnairframer I did really enjoy Clive and the story as a whole, in terms of stories of final fantasy games I can definetly rank it high. And I also loved the idea of taking inspiration fron Devil may cry to help fuel combat, and while as I said I did enjoy the gameplay my issue is the focus on hyper realisim and especially the forced M Rating. Did make it feel a bit too much like Devil May cry at times and in a bad way much more like the DMC reboot actually.
Y'know, I'm tired of the whole "its not final fantasy" shtick. FF has always changed the formula to a degree. That's why the fanbase is so split on which games are good and bad. You got those who will only play the retro games and consider anything past that not final fantasy. You got those who only play 7 and refuse to acknowledge any other FF. You got those who enjoyed it up to 10 and tapped out.. You get my point. It's weird to me. No offense, of course. Lore wise everything that makes Final Fantasy is in there, just presented differently like they tend to do. It's also Yoshidas first time making a single player game, which I wish people would give more credit to since he's been on the mmo side of things and stopped 14 from tanking the brand further and made it explode in popularity from the online gamer side of things.
It’s not really that strange for people to tap out. As tastes change, people adapt or move on. While I love FF16’s combat, I just didn’t love the world or characters. Rather than adapt my taste to something that has lost that sense of humor or joy, I’d rather just move on to something like the Tales series. Something was lost in the transition to dark and gritty, and people adapt or move on. I plan on playing FF7 Rebirth because it looks like it’s more fun for my tastes. But this one was lost on me.
The game definitely felt better in the beginning than in the end. At a certain point you simply get the feeling, that the game no longer cares and that's when it drops like 20 boring side quests on you immediately, the combat stops evolving, the difficulty drops off a cliff and you can brute force through every encounter, hunts just stop, you run out of areas to traverse, even the story ends in a similar fashion. Most shockingly, I realized that I liked FF15 more overall, mostly due to it feeling like a proper adventrure, what Final Fantasy was always about for me. It just feels like their priorities weren't well suited for what a Final Fantasy game should be and even the priorities they stated haven't exactly materialized (like the combat is definitely not even close to the level of DMC5).
Definitely some interesting data, but remember, a lot of this data suffers heavily from participation bias! The likelyhood these polls were only done by the hyper enfranchised or people with something to prove is very high. A good example of why this data may be misleading: for the part about being excited about the future, 12% of fans being less excited is actually *terrible* if you're to weight the poll as being done by mostly ff fans. You don't want 1/10th of your playerbase feeling despondent about the game. As I said, this poll is probably largely enfranchised or passionate people, meaning someone less enfranchised is more likely to be less wowed by final fantasy intrinsically. Obviously there are many many variables and factors to consider with any data point, but the most safe and important conclusions we can come to are: 1. Older fans tend to like change less 2. Younger fans tend to like the more sort of melodramatic or "hype" choices made in the game 3. Final fantasy fans like final fantasy
FFXVI was truly amazing and enjoyable but i wouldn't want the future of Final Fantasy to be like XVI. I hope they continue with what they are doing with FFVII Remake as i think Square Enix Mastered the ATB and Action Combat blended together. The battle system in FFVII Remake is truly the best in the whole series. I remember playing FFXIII-2 and enjoying the ATB combat system while also enjoying the FFXV combat. But both mixed together in FFVII Remake was truly a masterpiece.
I was so excited for thee ff7 remake. Played it for maybe 2 hours and never touched it again, I hated the fights. The combat itself was fine but EVERYTHING is just a damage sponge. Cut all the enemy HP in half and Id like it a lot more because the combat isnt challenging at all, its frickin boring lol. Sucks xause I reallly wanna like it but 5 minute long fights with no challenge where you just do the same thing way too many times in a row just isnt fun
I'm the opposite, i want them to pursue in this style but better : less green quests,more rpg mécanics, better combat, but with similar storytelling, music, Dynamic, pacing
I really hope that FFXVI has given some humbleness to Yoshida's rabbid fanbase. I grew tired of them saying how this game would "save the series", while conveniently ignoring the existence of FFVII-R. But in the end, Remake was more well received, and brought more people to the series than FFXVI ever did.
I'm curious if you think that the users who took the time to take the survey might already be on a more biased front. I'm curious to know how that user based looks like in a multivariable approach. For example, obtaining results based on if they are a long time final fantasy fan, if they decided to drop FFxvi midway through instead of continuing to finish, etc.
About the points that could be improved, it's good to keep in mind that the most voted option represents a more vocal necessity, but it doesn't mean the other points shouldn't be reviewed. To me, personally, every one of those points are valid topics for improvement, specially the game's pacing after the first part of the story
While I would also prefer turn based, I'm relieved that at least people prefer FF7R's action system where you control more than just one character, is till command based and has the ATB system, over FF16's fully action system.
This game was such a disappointment for me (One of many this year). It's become even more so after playing Star Ocean 2 R. I don't even like pixel art. I would much prefer It have FFXVI's graphical style, but I'm willing to sacrifice graphics for gameplay and actual rpg elements. Also the sense of discovery when combing through a map to find chests that actually contain something useful that I don't have thousands of...... It also reminded me of how important whimsy is in fantasy tales. There needs to be some light-hearted moments to break up the all of the doom and gloom. That is the thing that was most lacking in the game and the reason I loathe the ending. I didn't want to save this miserable world. What's the point? Everything sucks. No one outside of Byron and Gav had any fun. I'm willing to wager that's why they're so beloved. They were a light in all of the misery. I would have liked to see "Whimsy" in the survey as an option for what was lacking and see how much that correlated with people's enjoyment of the ending and story. I've played every mainline Final Fantasy and several of the spinoffs. I've been playing rpgs since Dragon Warrior on the NES in the early 90s. This game did not feel like a Final Fantasy to me and it had nothing to do with the combat.
This is pretty amazing you all were able to gather this much data, I was happy to do the survey and am enjoying seeing the results. This is so cool, thank you for doing this.
I been dragging my feet to pick it up cuz of this very same idea I've heard so much. From the side quests to the combat and no party members to manage. It doesn't sound like it should be a mainline entry.
My biggest question is how favor towards XVI correlates with love of XIV. I feel like XIV and CBU3 have their own culture that doesn't always line up with fans of the mainline entries. Given how much XIV informs the design of XVI, I feel that info would be very insightful.
Well im only one person, but I adore 14, have played since 2.0, go to Fanfest and orchestral concerts of it, and was absolutely disappointed in 16. It’s an empty, hollow, facade of a game, in contrast to 14’s rich and soulful world. Most of my friends on 14 haven’t played 16.
It is noted that Dan Floyd, a fan of FFXIV who has played through FFXVI, finds it middling and finds that it weirdly toes that line between being a masterpiece and a weird, disjointed mess that is held together by the fact Clive is the hero and savior of Valisthea. And that was him trying to find good stuff about the game. Then he just ended up recommending different Final Fantasy games, proving that FFXVI is not a good, standout game. It is also noted that he also compared 14 to 16, and how eventually 14 got to the point of masterful storytelling and storytelling/gameplay synergy, things that 16 lack in spades (but it should also be noted 14 had all the complaints 16 had until Stormblood, and did not perfect its stuff until Shadowbringers).
Researcher within Video Games publishing here :). I applaud the energy and time you have directed at this. The methodology is sound - just be careful to Nat Rep where possible. The vocal minority online in and around forums are typically unlike the majority of players of a title. These are the core of the core cohort and will absolutely skew findings, particularly if you are interested in new, casual or lapsed players. Apologies if you have taken steps to mitigate this and I have missed the explanation. I'm happy to help in future research, should you look to continue this fascinating approach.
The first descriptor of 16 that comes to my mind is "shallow". The gameplay is smooth, but there's just so little to it, and I yearned so much for proper RPG elements. The simple action would be forgivable in a shorter game, but it's just not engaging enough for a 40+ hour experience. The game kind of dented my opinion of Yoshi-P. 14 has been getting simpler for years, but in an MMO context, I can sympathize with that design decision even if I disagree with it. High skill floors make it harder to depend on other players to do their jobs, and mechanical customization is often wasted as players will simply copy the numerically optimal builds. But that same simplification carried over to 16, where those reasons don't apply. The game basically refuses to reward or punish players in any meaningful way, and it just makes it so dull. It's like "What if a player doesn't want to use a different eikon? Or explore? Or do side quests? That's fine, they won't be any worse off for not doing any of that stuff." It feels like the game is terrified of alienating anyone so it ends up not giving much reason to do anything. The game was made efficiently and it's very polished, but it's almost soulless. I hope future titles don't continue down the same path. FF7R was a pretty damn good balance of RPG and action. Who's clamoring for Final Fantasy games that aren't RPGs at all? I can at least say I enjoyed it more than 13 and 15 though, but it's a far cry from 4, 6, 7, 9, and 10. Sad to think that it's been 22 years since there's been a mainline, single player FF game that I felt was genuinely great. (In case you're wondering, I'm 33, so you can lump me in with the other old farts who don't like the gameplay)
I promise you, give it 10 years and people will start saying that this game was fantastic all along. I feel like everyone becomes hypercritical of new games and if it's not 100% perfect, we give it a bad score. Remember though - it doesn't matter what someone else thinks. It matters what YOU think. You can use their opinions as guides, but you should never base your decision to play a game solely on reviews. I am having a blast with the game, and this is a game where I am actively trying to do all of the side content as well, which is a rarity for me. I just want to remain in this world, as I find it fun and engaging, and the story is also great.
I'm quite shocked about how many people would like to have this type of combat in future FF games. For me FFXVI was a prime example of how this type of combat simply doesn't fit the Final Fantasy franchise.
I never got to grade the game because the very first question in the survey forced a bias on the answerer. It did not give an option for "i did not end up liking the game" and so i couldn't give my honest opinion. I'm not trying to complain, just remind the poll creators to be extra careful not to introduce accidental bias into your surveys
Maybe I missed this...but why wasn't there a question about single character control vs party member control? That was one of the biggest disappointment of the game...not being able to control a full party in combat.
All the data presented is biased in favour of the game and making excuses for things that should be criticised. FF16 fans desperately want this game to be considered a success but the reality is it sold poorly and most real FF fans didn’t like it.
@@kjh4496 Game sold decently well and was fairly well received. It that's not a success, I don't know what that is. Even most who played FF before seemed to enjoy. And you are already making a fallacious statement by pretending that there is such a thing as a "real" FF fan.
@@kjh4496Ever heard of a no true scottman fallacy? You're doubling into it. But let's try this again. Why don't you start by defining what a real FF fan is?
I honestly really like it, story, art and gameplay is great. The bosses have waaaay too much health though, constantly mashing attack buttons on staggered enemies and doing 0.2% damage is boring.
For some clarification, I voted for 'all of the above' in the 'what do you think was missing category' but it would be far more accurate to say everything _but one,_ in that I agree strongly with _nearly_ all factors but I disagree strongly that 'open world' should be one of them.
I'm baffled by these survey results, I rate the game at maybe 65%. The first bit of the game, until you kill Garuda, it's 80%, but after that it starts to shows how shallow the game is. I will agree the voice performances are good. But the game story is too formulaic, invade territory, fight boss, get new icon times 7. No rpg elements to build out your character, no real progression, shallow gearing options, no FF rpg systems.
I really liked the game but i do think we can do exciting turn based combat for 17? I think BG3s success paved the way for people being more open-minded about it again...i didnt mind the action combat either though...but i want more rewarding exploration and in general more stuff to get side tracked
Personally I believe FF going forward should adopt the FF7Remake battle system with more upgrades. That was the perfect blend of free action and strategy/turn based. Or somehow blend the FF15 system with FF7R system. That would be amazing.
Still haven't finished the game due the dreadful pacing in this game. It's actually the first FF i haven't finished, and i've been like the biggest fan of FF all my life. On paper i loved the idea that the game was gonna have a "DMC-like combat", cause i'm also a huge fan of the DMC games. But sadly, it just didn't work for me in this game. It felt too restrictive. I wished they'd gone all out on the combat in a DMC manner, if they were really going for this half-assed combat. It just made it shallow in the end, and not very fun. I also skipped most of the side quests cause they were copy pasted MMO garbage. Add that to the awful pacing and lack of many characters, makes the journey eventually stale. Which ended my playthrough of the game at around 70% (according to playstation home screen). I don't think i'll ever revisit even, it was just not my cup of tea. Even though i was waiting for this game for so long thinking it'd be the ultimate final fantasy. Looks like i was dead wrong. I'm happy for the people who enjoyed it though! More power to you guys.
Same here, this game has INCREDIBLE highs, some of the best iv ever seen in video game. But when those segments are over then the lows are .. excruciating. I'm still trying to finish the game but I can't help but constantly ask when it's going to end
@@Senayoshy 16 completely lost me when it had the literal main bad guy exposition dump on the MC with his backstory, motives and plan because no one bothered to try an organically integrate his plans effectively. Ultima literally has to tell you his plans because it was so obscured and poorly integrated into the story that it had nowhere else to go lol.
I enjoyed my first blind playthrough of XVI and just immersed myself into the story, then in the 2nd playthru I started to really intake the flaws you mentioned, it was super fun playing as Clive, but sadly you only play as him, aside from Joshua but it's like a TINY segment compared to the rest of the game :( I despised ALL side quests with the side characters, couldn't stand how maddeningly boring they were and some you had to do if you wanted to upgrade your carry pouch or increase potions or some dumb shyte! The pacing was insane, going from 100 with the Eikon bosses, back to 0 having to constantly reurn to the Hideaway (which I alsoi despised) in order to progress the story. I would have loved to know what the main characters were up to in those 5 years since Cid died, but we just get a LAZY-AASED time skip with nothing significant ever being mentioned :(
@@yodoleheehoo90 Yeah man, i completely agree with the points you made too. If it wasn't for the really bad pacing for me personally, then i probably would have played it til the end and enjoyed it quite a bit. But the down slopes was VERY far down that i just can't seem to bother to push through cause im not enjoying it. Ugh
My biggest issue is that while you have many abilities with the Eikons in the end I ended up using the same ones in the same order. Every time. There's no strategy involved at all.
I don't entirely agree with your conclusion on future gameplay systems. Speaking for myself and choosing FF7 Remake, part of the reason I liked that system is it still *felt* in line with the spirit of turn based. It felt like a true evolution of FF12; a fast paced yet tactical system, but now with the flashiness we expect of a Final Fantasy game. With the success of Baldur's Gate 3 and the large amount of people voting for Hiroyuki Ito as a developer, I think my line of thinking may be more what the survey data shows rather than a desire for action in itself.
Wow. Great video. Also regarding voice acting getting acclaimed, we’re only talking about English. I speak Latino Spanish and I tried the game in that language and it was really damn good too. Specially as it is the first time I’m aware of Square including that language option in a major release.
It's surprising to me that so many younger people participated in the poll. Not only that, they also reviewed it higher. My generation/age group is 35-44, and we grew up in the "golden era" on PS1. We seem to be a bit harsher on the game lol. We're getting old and grumpy lol. Personally I gave the game a 9 out of 10.
I’m 33 and FFX got me into gaming, despite the fact that I didn’t understand a word in English, and to this day it’s one of my favourite games, so as a fan, I really didn’t like what Yoshi.P said about trying to appeal to the wider audience by making the game action focused, and that turn based gameplay is outdated, how many times we heard that before in media? He didn’t make an effort of updating turn based combat, he completely got rid of it, and judging by baldur’s gate’s success he was wrong, he gutted rpg elements, etc. fans are important, you can’t just take a well established franchise and change it to your liking because it may sell better. I respect the man for what he did with FFXlV, but he fumbled hard on this one. You can change up things, like resident evil 4 did, completely changing the way the game plays, yet it still was very much a resident evil game, same with GoW 2018, plays differently but feels very much like a gow game, so, they needed to absolutely nail it, but they didn’t in my extremely humble opinion.
Based on all the data in this video it seems like Square should offer more difficulty options from the beginning not only focusing on easier ways to play but also harder ways to play. They also need to find a way to improve the side quests and map designs.
Love that you guys put the effort into these surveys. I wish there had been more questions about exploration, that was my biggest disappointment personally. Also at the start of the video it says the majority of respondents were between 25 and 44, but the graph shows 52% under 25.
Imagine if the game had a gambit system? I think it would have incorporated well. Instead all I found myself doing was smashing buttons. Don't get me wrong, the combat is good, just not fluid to me. The side quests were usually quite lame. It's almost like this game is the foundation, and the DLC will be the truely fun stuff...how much is the DLC going to cost ...hmmm...I think we all got hustled
For the poll for the future combat systems I think you should've just put turn based as an option and not specifically ATB because not all the turn based games used ATB like I, II, III, and X. That might've factored into it. I just want turn based. It doesn't have to be the ATB system.
At 3:40, you said the majority of respondents were between age 25 and 44, but the chart you're showing says the majority were under 25. (Under 25 = 52%, 25-34 = 16%, 35-44 = 30% 16%+30% is less than 52% ) I'm guessing the chart is wrong and the audio is correct?
My criticism pertains to the combat system. I associate Final Fantasy games with tranquility and story. I want to be able to take a break in the middle of a fight, make a coffee and contemplate which spell to cast on the enemy while I'm preparing my coffee. I wish to return to a turn-based combat system.
While I am fine with either action or turn-based combat, Active Time Battle I find somewhat stressing given I’d have to be navigating menus before the enemy kills my characters.
Amazing job, this must have taken SO much time and effort and I'm glad I could be a part of it 😀
I voted for FF7 Remake combat as a direction I'd like to see going forward, but NOT because it's action based.
I chose it because of the extreme slow mo you get when selecting from the menu and the space it gives you to breathe and plan, but most importantly the controllable party members you can both command and switch to. I think it is an extremely well done marriage of action and ATB-feel combat.
One of my biggest gripes of 16 was the complete lack of meaningful party member control and variation. Clive was great, but it was always Clive regardless of what Eikon you were using. In FF7 Remake, controlling each party member felt completely different. Aerith controlled completely to Tifa, who was completely different to Cloud etc.
The ability to give each character different materia/accessories to enhance or cover any weakness their particular combat style had was really fun for me and something I missed in 16. As someone who had to make use of at least 1 Timely Accessory, the fact that you were "punished" for needing them by restricting your ability to use the regular more interesting accessories just felt bad. I wish they'd just been options in the settings menu tbh.
I enjoyed 16 a lot, but I just loved the game design for FF7R more.
FF7R combat is the best action RPG system I’ve ever played. That should def be the way going forward if they refuse to ever do some sort of turned based at all
Part of the reason I prefer the Remake combat system, which can be classified as action-based, is that it still involved strategy and required players to learn the system. As you and others have said, 16 can feel at times like you just mash square and you’re good no matter what. I played 16 1.5 times (the standard action-based mode, and started FF difficulty) and stopped about halfway through because even on that mode the combat wasn’t really that challenging. There is some strategy to how you select your eikon skills, which ones you should invest in heavily to mix and match, but it didn’t feel like it took me long before I was in a groove and destroying higher level hunts without dying once still.
Hard mode on Remake however, was different because it forced you to learn your materia and weapons and swap them out depending on who or what you would be fighting. Monitoring your MP closely, or just redoing your weapon points to maximize certain aspects you wanted to bring out in each character. Things like that, sadly, were missing to me in 16. And there are ways to do it for that system, with a single playable character however I think because it was their first time working so much in that type of system, it just couldn’t be fully developed. Remake’s system is more developed, because it’s essentially an iteration of Final Fantasy XIII’s system, which many also did not love at the time and had its own issues (like losing if your party leader went down, even if the rest of your party was fine).
I think both can continue on to do well if Square chooses to do something along those lines (make an FF with some type of Remake system, followed a few years later with an iteration of the XVI system). However, it has to fit the story better. I loved most of the story of XVI, it was far and away my favorite part of the game BUT…the combat didn’t fit with anything they were trying to convey with the story. If it was something like Clive taking a solo journey across Valisthea, meeting these characters and battling these enemies and then moving onto the next place to meet different people and battle different enemies, it could work. But you’re trying to show he’s not alone, and have these themes of found family and overcoming evil with the help of everyone you know and love by your side, including the brother you thought you murdered…and you fight everyone essentially by yourself. Including people that should have had moments carried out by other characters (looking especially at Jill at Drake’s Breath, I know people bring up the ending but THIS should have been her moment before any other). It just felt very disjointed. Over the past few months after playing the game, I think that’s what’s stuck with me the most, especially in why I didn’t love the combat. It was fun, but it didn’t feel as deep as Remake, but it also didn’t fit the rest of the game well either because of the story they were trying to tell and those little moments that should have belonged to many of Clive’s companions just as much as they belonged to him, felt empty because they were never really involved. It took me out of the game, because I would think, “why the hell am I fighting Liquid Flame when this is supposed to be Jill’s fight? Plus I have fire, she has ice! Wind really shouldn’t help at all. This doesn’t make any sense.” Rather then feeling like, “Wow! This is incredible! I’m fight as Jill for this battle and her kit is cool and we’re gonna wreck this monster and destroy these Iron Kingdom *******!” That and the unintuitive AI that was controlling them. At least let me unleash their eikonic powers on the actual enemy! Remake had that too, though, if you weren’t in control of someone.
I do commend the dev team for branching out and trying new things with the game. We all love different aspects of Final Fantasy, but these games wouldn’t have gotten to this many entries if the people behind them weren’t taking the chance to try something new with each of them. That’s how they stay creative and want to stay involved in making those games and the amount of detail they put into many things was amazing! Hopefully they learn from this, and whatever CBU3 ends up working on in the future (whether it’s a chance at 17, their own IP, or another MMO) I’m sure they’ll improve the things many of us didn’t like, as well as many of the things we did, and make an even better game!
I completely agreed with everything you wrote until you said the timely accessories should've been menu options. I really don't think that would make sense since the timely accessories are effectively the game playing itself. In a game that is already extremely easy, an accessory that makes you automatically dodge or automatically heal without having to do anything at all *should* cost you an accessory slot. That's the trade-off you make for easy mode.
Honestly, if they don’t move forward with FF7R as their template then square is messing up.
I completely agree. FF7R battle system is the better choice, especially when it comes to party members, but also still having some semblance of strategy elements. XVI system in comparison feels like a weird copy of DMC. I like DMC, but I wanted to play FF...
When I heard that the combat director consider this his magnum opus I was incredibly excited. After beating the game I struggle to see why he thinks that since DMC5 has such a better combat system and I felt constantly constrained being locked out of roughly 70% of my kit since you can only equip 3 eikons and 6 abilities. I also really wish I could juggle bosses like in dmc5.
Marketing. He's not going to say "after all it's said and done, it's not bad" lol
Also, it should be noted FFXIV had these problems since the beginning. Cutscenes were good but lengthy, and at least for a 2023 player trials and raid are fun but effortless when before it was complex and fun. The writing was always on the wall, and FFXIV was the proof.
@@foxmccloud6438 No one asked, back to the void with you bot.
Not to mention the cooldown system in an action game, they genuinely thought it was a good idea
Getting powers for waiting just isnt exiting or good for the high speed flow of the combat, not to mention it limits your already small movelist
Wasn't this the same guy that worked on a lot of the Platinum Games combat as well? If it is, I'm shocked, because FF16 combat does fall short compared to games like Astral Chain and Bayonetta.
What dropped this game from fantastic to good for me was late game combat. Early on I was engaged by cutting my dodges to the last moment to capitalize on counter attacks, changing up my sword and magic burst and Torgal combos to extend them as far as I could.
But by late game enemy HP had ballooned relative to your attack damage that it felt like everything that wasn't eikon abilities was just a way to kill time until the cooldowns had elapsed. It was no longer worth it to try and perfect dodge a risky attack because counter attacks just weren't impactful anymore. Long animations like megaflare or ones that impacted visibility like garudas ult broke the flow of combat and had me just holding my controller not pressing anything.
This all played against the strengths of an action combat system with such finely tuned character controls. Eikon abilities that complimented your existing non-eikon kit and felt good to use, like phoenix shift, or rook, were difficult to justify equipping over long animation ults that did several times more damage during a stagger window.
Yep. Eikon cooldown abilities should not have been cds in the first place, and been regular combo moves balanced with that in mind damage wise.
I totally agree! There’s a point in Final Fantasy mode that Normal attacks are nearly useless, unless you have the most powerful weapons. The battle becomes a game management of eikonic skills and charged Zantetsukens.
totally agree with this, norma attacks feel like paper towel hits, I love the FF franchise to death but I can’t be biased about stuff like, it’s why I was blown away when I played spiderman 2, of course the abilities are strong but my friend who played it barely used the abilities and was able to still feel impactful
By the end I was REALLY starting to feel the absence of things like status ailments, elemental weaknesses/resistances, and unique equipment properties. All of those things can have a massive impact on how you approach engagements and change how you play the game. The combat system in FF16 starts to feel thin when you realize that there really isn't any more complexity beyond dodging/parrying and waiting on cooldowns.
I agree with you... the boss fights were the only fun parts of the combat by the end of the game
I fall in the 2% age tier (over 45) from this survey and I feel kind of slighted that us older gamers that took part in the survey got overlooked in most all of these categories lol. I was so curious to see how us old timers ranked everything compared to these yougin's since chances are we have been playing these Final Fantasy games for 30+ years.
I share your feelings. I'm 51 and was already 15 years old when Final Fantasy came out on the NES, bought it day 1 and have loved FF games ever since.
@@TruckDrivinGamer Cheers, I am 55. Oh well chances are our age bracket and the lessor involvement from 45+ people taking the survey probably threw everything out of skew anyway. I for one loved 16's story and the combat system and it seemed like most people half our age did nothing but complain it wasn't turn based prior to launch lol. Sure the side quests needed some work but many of them were really good and worth trudging through the crap ones to get to. I wonder how many younger players just gave up on doing them early on lol.
I agree, I'm 51 and I was curious to see how my fellow "elder" gamers rated this game.
I personally really enjoyed FF XVI, the characters, story and music is top notch. Some of the side quest could have been better, and I would have loved to be able to chose different party members in battles and not just Clive alone all the time. I did rate the FF VII Remake the best battle system mainly for this reason. All in all FF XVI is a solid game in my humble opinion.
Ahh, so you guys are the ones causing all the deviations In these graphs! lol jus joking.
It's awesome to see and hear the OG's who played the earliest days of final fantasy still enjoy its latest iteration literally 36 years later. I think there was a lot of good things done in FF16, especially Story themes. I do wish I had more classic Final Fantasy mechanics like control of a party, a return of some min-maxing stats, and better side quest content (mini-games or like a triple triad from FF8 / Gwent from the Witcher game) or end game content (better hunts, challenging sevret bosses that are lore/quest related, meaningful/mechanic-changing legendary gear to craft)
Same. I assumed the number of responses in our market segment was too small to be statistically significant. Still would have been interesting though. Especially given that playing the early titles as they came out set the expectations for the franchise and I’m really wondering how that has persisted over the last 35 years.
When I first began my FF16 playthrough, I loved it. Thought it was great, but approaching half way I was really getting bored and by the time I beat it I was just glad to be done with it, felt like I was putting something within myself out of its misery
This is the same exact thing that happened to me. The first few hours into the game I was thinking this will easily be my favorite FF. Near the end, my opinion did a 180.
Same haha 💀
Damn thanks for the review.... I was planning to get one because the 11.11 promotion made it cheaper but now don't feel like getting it... Yes I know the feeling of enjoying the game but felt like it was getting boring halfway
@@notme6753 Really? Based on one comment? I'd reckon it gets way more exciting and fun to play throughout the entire story. I loved the damn thing, begin to end, and it is so clear that most people who hate it cannot stand the changes to the status quo of the franchise, even though the very basis of this franchise is to change the status quo with each game. If that's your speed, don't buy it, but maybe do some actual research before making that choice.
I felt the exact same, so much so that I couldn't even bring myself to finish the game
I loved 16 as a whole, my only complaint was that I wish there was a bit more variety to the gameplay of the side quests beyond fetch quest or go to place and fight thing there, and I hope in the dlc we get leviathan powers
Yeah, especially they should learn from Genshin impact but instead they focused on borrowed other games like devil, may cry borderlands and asura wrath
@@kevingame3198why would they “learn” from a gacha game that is free to play and has a completely different combat system. This is like saying Outback Steakhouse should learn from McDonald’s. There’s no correlation.
@Erikthedood playing genshin for atleast 6 months is a bit slow compared to ff16 is much faster pace game what genshin can't do parry no air attacks but what you can do is dodge attacks
@@kevingame3198genshin is trash
I wish there was more variety in many elements of it, but I thought the story and presentation were absolutely top notch. More Jill would have been nice, and idle banter between party members would have helped things feel more organic. Overall, I honestly loved this game, and I’ve been around since FF1.
LMAO they don't even talk to each other? we solved that in literally every other game that has two people together
@@beechteethyeah games only do that because they dont wanna let you enjoy the silence
My main problems with this game was how they strung together each set piece.
The main set pieces was fantastic, but once you’re back in control it was all “go here, talk to that guy, go back and tell another guy what guy 1 said”. I was like “what? Why not put them in the same room?”
It just felt really fragmented and the whole pacing didn’t flow properly.
Also, the items was pretty much useless and every weapon and accessory was just to boost stats. There was literally no reason to explore or to grind.
While I do agree with this, it seems since FF XIII the game flow much more linear and instead of allowing more freedom of the player they throw in quests and give huge amounts of cutscenes instead. I did love this story though and how it centred on the brothers relationship right to the end.
I think the problem with the side quests was they felt very MMOesque. Go here and do this thing. If they were a bit more meaty they probably would have been better.
Game was lead by the MMO guy. Makes sense when all you've really been working on for a decade now is a MMO. Honestly, has a FF game ever had a quest system/line that wasn't MMOesque? I do not recall any FF game having quests like The Witcher or Mass Effect.
@@RazielTheUnborn Most had implied quests where someone hints that they want you to do a thing, and you get a reward if you do it but there's no quest log or anything and they were far less numerous.
I had that feeling with FF XII and forward.
@khinzaw77 It basically changed to holding the players hand and pointing us in the right direction for everything, but they tend to be more detailed in their stories. They just make games easier in that regard now.
I hear this sentiment a lot, but nothing about any alternatives. Like to me the side quests felt the "same" level of interaction as the FF7Remake, but there are "a lot" more quests in FFXVI. I am feeling that "side quests" in general seem to be getting bland for every game now that we have done them soo much.
Or am I mistaken? Is there design on side quests that I am missing context for that make them engaging? Well, besides quests to do "mini-games" which I do feel FFXVI needed and could had implemented even in the serious tone of overall narrative.
The lack of strategy in battle (such as elemental weaknesses, status effects, equipment buffs) is the worst part of the game to me.
And not being able to play with other characters. I also missed that a lot. If those things you said + more playable charaters had been added it would have made it better.
With how often we go back to the Hideaway, I thought for sure we would have gotten a Base Management mini-game to play throughout. Something to do other than the combat. Something to use all of these crafting materials on.
Missed Opportunity.
@garitobee7541 I agree. I don't think you use 99% of the crafting materials, right? Just the rare ones only found from hunts? I don't need every item to be for something. But therw is way too much useless stuff.
And the fedex side quests were something I thought they understood we don't like. Picking flowers, what a dumb concept.
That's because it's not final fantasy anymore. It's devil may cry now. I own them all up to 15 and I just can't do it anymore. 12 was the last final fantasy ish game. They need to go back. FFvii is a mockery now. Anyway enjoy it if you enjoy it but it's not for me anymore.
I don’t think the extended voice cast gets enough credit. Their breath taking performances. No game has ever had me so emotionally devastated as this game did. Replaying it now after beating it at launch with the dlc and replaying it with new eyes has been amazing
Hopefully Square Enix uses FF7R battle system moving forward.
FF7R was a perfect balance between Real Time Combat and Turn Based, you can either choose full Real Time, full Turn Based or simply mix both of them together...it was perfection.
No
No
If square wants to continue down the action RPG route they should take inspiration from the soulsborne games not FF7R
FF Origins Stranger of Paradise combat is peak, but what do you expect from the creators of Nioh 2, the best soulslike game in existence. But onto the point , FF7R combat made me quit the game, because pausing every time I wanted to use an ability, which was very often since you have two other party members, makes for a very disjointed and unsatisfying combat experience.
you can just use shortcuts for most of them@@veselinrankov7322
I agree with you, going from FF7R to FF16 just didn't hit the same. The combat in 7R just feels so good and fun to play and never gets boring.
I'm now studying data analytics and this video couldn't have come at a better time. I had forgotten I took this survey but it's nice to see the results.
Before I watch this I just wanna say I loved this game and I'm playing it again on new game plus rn.
Nice work on the survey results 👍 I do this type of work in the tech industry and fully appreciate what it takes to present this type of info.
Thanks for doing this. I Took the survey myself. The game was very clearly a labor of love, and a step in a new direction. I've played every entry to date and did enjoy my time in the world of 16, but I don't think I'll buy the next one if this is the direction they want to take the series going forward. The story, music, and characters are fantastic! However, the Genre and gameplay just isn't what I come to Final Fantasy for. No hate towards anyone that liked it, just not for me gameplay wise.
That's exactly how I feel about it.
I stopped halfway for this reason. I said it in another comment, but this is a game that was less than the sum of its parts for me. I really liked the characters as individuals, the art design, and a few other things, but when putting it all together I found it just kind of not what I was looking for. I'd rather have a better RPG or, frankly, a better action game. I feel like this hits a kind of weird unhappy medium.
The game bored me due to no status effects, didn’t matter if you used lightning, fire, ice whatever as enemies had no elemental weakness or resistances. Just seemed pointless and way too simplistic. FF is straying way too far from what once made it great. First FF game I ended up detesting.
@@Carfilliot for me personally all it ended up accomplishing was delaying more work that could have gone into FF14 instead.
@@healer_btw5606 Same, 14 clearly got shafted because of 16, and it pisses me off because it wasn't worth the trade off.
I thoroughly enjoyed the game doing all the side quest and everything. Looking forward to trying Final Fantasy mode.
I just started it and just in the Jill fight in the beginning alone her moves are way stronger. Took me longer than I thought to beat her. Can't wait to keep going. Feels like that should be the default mode honestly
Congratulations on this survey, its analysis and this video, this must have required a huge amount of work. Also, thank you for using very distinct colours for the graphs, instead of the 50 shades of blue from the previous video. As for the results of the survey, there aren't any real surprises, most people seem to agree on what the game's strengths and weaknesses are.
I liked it and the characters. The music was very beautiful and I have plenty of them saved in my music library, loved the romance between Clive and Jill and loved the brother relationship with Clive and joshua throughout the game especially the bahamut fight. Beautiful game and I’m glad I got to play it.
My biggest gripes with the game were:
- It dumped RPG elements to be an action game, but it was pretty mediocre for an action game in terms of gameplay.
- It kept the worst aspects of RPGs with boring fetchquests and meaningless crafting.
- It shoehorned in "mature" content to get an M rating, but the story was just the same old tropes with none of the series' trademark charm or levity. It just felt like, "We have Game of Thrones at home," but in video game form, with a Final Fantasy wrapper.
I genuinely hope that if this is the direction the series is going, that they learn from these mistakes.
-agree
-agree
-big disagree
@@SuperPatinator how so?
@@StriderZessei I think they lost their magic in storytelling and characters development since Sakaguchi left.
That "same old trope" you mentioned is why fans loves FF, but in this one, I feel like they're trying to be something else, which is came out like "game of thrones at home" feels. I completely agree with that one.
@@plipplop728 I don't know, I still enjoy most FFs after 9, even 13 and 15.
16 just feels too much like Game of Thrones.
Big disagree on the last point. It definitely is "Game of Thrones at home" but it is the only piece of media to attempt that same game of thrones style while actually understanding the purpose of those adult elements. At no point did the sex or violence feel like it was there just to be edgy or adult. It all served the greater purpose and tone of the story without needing to go overboard or make a huge show of it. It is all executed with restraint and intent.
It was fun. A bit simple/straight forward with not a lot of proper side stuff to do. Not much replayability in my view either. Combat was alright, but I found that limiting the number of skills you could use, had me using the same setup the majority of the time while never using other abilities. I'd argue that Royal Edition FF15 had much better/enjoyable combat once you could control all of the bros.
Story was good. But it needed much, much more Benedikta.
The FFXVI combat system is unexplored to it's potential by most people and is generally misunderstood. I dont know how people can dislike XVI's mechanics but enjoy VIIR's battle system- is there really much of a difference between waiting for an ATB gauge to charge and waiting for an ability to cool down?
Lmao fr 16 handled abilities WAY better. The atb system leaves you completely defenseless and offenseless unless you resort to just spamming square,whereas the abilities being on a cd makes you have to pay attention to combat as well as manage resources,then you add in the dlc ring that makes you regain move cd when you dodge and its even better
There is no way you typed this. 7 Remake/Rebirth’s combat system is not really action based. And things like elemental weaknesses, buffs/debuffs, status ailments etc are a thing and matter in the game. All of which are absent in FF16. Add to that the ability to control party members. Your ATB can be used to do a special attack, use magic or use an item. How is that the same as waiting to come of cooldown. Like are you serious?
@@dammyoyesanya4656 i also am quite puzzled as to why you have typed such a response. Lets look at the core loop of ff16: use ability, switch icons, attack via combos until ability has cooled down, repeat. Now lets look at ff7's combat loop: attack via combos and build ATB until abilities are earned, use ability, switch party members, repeat.
Yes there are slight nuances between these games but the very core of the combat isnt as different as you think, it performs the same steps essentially, albeit in different order, which was my point.
I have platinum'd both titles including FF7R and you can progress both games without getting deep into the mechanics such as min/maxing ability efficiency in XVI or getting into buffs and debuffs for ATB efficiency in VII.
If you can't see the similarity between these systems then i will not try to further convince you, but it was immediately apparent to me that it was a different "spin" on what is essentially the same gameplay loop.
Both are poop. Not final fantasy. More like endless fantashit.
@@dammyoyesanya4656 The core gameplay loop is the same, just ordered slightly differently.
FFXVI: Use abilities, switch eikons, attack until abilities are available again
FFVII: attack until atb is available, use abilities, switch characters
My biggest let down was not seeing what happens to the hideaway crew
Happy to see these results as I really love the surveys you guys do. 14,000 is a huge number of participants and would be considered more than a representative sample of the number of the player base.
On another note, I felt that FFXVI lacked enemy variety which made replaying on Final Fantasy mode less appealing
Considering over 3 million people bought and played the game, I would say 14,000 isn’t even close to representative of how most people that played it felt about it. It’s more accurate to say it’s *how the hardcore FF fanbase felt about it*
Quantitatively, it is definitely a representative sample. But, I agree, I wouldn’t say the results are representative of general gamers. Since the survey mostly reached hardcore FF fans, that is who’s opinions are reflected in this data. From a survey ran by FF fan page that should be expected
@@ErikthedoodIf you get representative sample, something like 200 responses would be more than enough to get a good idea about how people overall liked the game. If you get strongly biased sample, 1 million responses could still result in a very biased survey.
I think estimating how biased the survey was, the "was this your first FF game" was pretty good proxy.
@@richardl.jenkins6091 in what world is ~0.4% a representative sample.
@@naaruriver8875 In quantitative analysis which it seems you are unfamiliar with. The US population is 330 million but you don’t need 33 million + responses to get a representative sample. FF Union’s survey has 14k respondents & most surveys of the US population (A far higher number than people who played FFXVI) have less than 14k respondents. The video even mentions this.
Loved Final Fantasy XVI. So bummed I missed out on this survey. At any point, I’m just so grateful this franchise is still around for us to even discuss it.
that's the issue...it's not around if its just a devil may cry clone
@TheGreatAmarant72 we're getting another 7 title and 14 is still doing numbers. The franchise aint going anywhere just because one game decided to experiment
@@parsashirali8957 most 14 players are struggling due to no content update and 7 is the biggest risk of them all. Changing the story is one thing but changing the prequel is another, Zack is the biggest red flag unless they pull a “fixed timeline” thing where Zack once again had to accept he’s going to die or the universe will implode.
Or more likely Zacks alive again just to die at some point for cheap tears. Aerith and Zack meet up again in the lifestream it’s already pretty poetic but then there’s the big big question…..are they going to cut the most famous death scene in gaming?
I loved the game and got the platinum trophy. It has its flaws (like many other FF games) but it's an enjoyable game. Battle system was fun. I got my money's worth.
Gorgeous game, great story, excellent combat, a new experience in a new Final Fantasy universe. The way people are eager to prove this game is bad only shows more of its glimmer. I'm not talking about this video or the content in it, but instead I'm talking about every comment section in media trying to review the game.
I agree, sometimes I wonder wth are people playing with some of the complaints they have. The only thing I can understand is disappointment in the story. It made some plot decisions I thought weren't good payoffs like 2/3rds in. Then certain things start to get messy. But there's simply too much fun in this game to not like. Even the combat is so much deeper than people are giving credit for. Like if they could've fixed of few things with the plot, and had a party system and more of a magic system it would even solidify it even more as a classic. There's just a few details they could've added that would push it even higher though.
Every time I play a new Final Fantasy, I always go back to my big brother popping the 1st one in the NES. So I will have a biased opinion about anything with Final Fantasy. It's hard to believe in a world without it for me. Thank you for the hard work you all do for this channel!
I think the core of final fantasy is that base feeling of turning on a game for the first time and just being totally amazed. Most if not all FF’s intro scenes are exhilarating with the most cutting edge graphics in the industry. The way FF made me feel as a kid no other game could achieve, and I still find that to be the case. I’m playing FF1 now and I love it, I see exactly how the magic started
As someone who loves seeing graphs...
THANK YOU.
This is fantastic work, and all of you who processed the data did a great job.
9:15 This chart is exactly why everyone calls Final Fantasy 16 "A really beautiful movie", denigrating its status as a video game. All of the film elements were at the top. All of the gameplay elements were at the bottom.
Personally, I couldn't play past about 10 or 15 hours. Just wasn't fun, and the story just didn't grab me.
I loved 16. I really enjoyed clives story arc and how good his voice actor was, and the combat.
The voice acting is definitely great. Couple that with the music and I'd say the sound design was probably XVI's biggest strength. It really helped set the tone they were trying to achieve. I didn't love the story or the combat personally.
@@jayonnaise6105 The music was made by FF14 sound director and all around music gigachad Masayoshi Soken. He is the goat and fought cancer and won to bring us epic music. Man's a saint and a legend.
@@meitomiyazaki9848 Wow. Yeah, kinda hard to disagree with you there. I've been playing through Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line lately and noticing how good XIV's soundtrack was in particular, even though I haven't played XIV myself.
Wonderful work. My workplace does surveys about what we enjoy, dislike, and how we can improve. I always feel so engaged and seen when they use that method. Thank you for presenting the voice of the community through actual data in the same way.
fyi this game is currently on sale for black friday for $40 instead of $70. and there’s also a demo (at least on ps5, idk about anywhere else) if you’re on the fence. i finished the demo earlier today and instantly ordered a copy once i saw it’s 40% off lmao
This game made me feel so many emotions and for me, thats what made the game amazing.
I like the story of the game. I like how it delves into issues like classism and empirialism. I like the ability system where you unlock elemental abilities with ability points. I like all the side quests and side content that help you delve deeper into the universe and let you know what's going on. (To me, the most powerful side quest was the one outside of Moore Village where the rich man tried to feed bearers to the dog. It's so sad that he thought that his son's entertainment was more important that the life of a bearer. I like when side content is relevant like that.) Graphics and soundtrack are great. There is one problem, though, and it's kind or the elephant in the room: battles are too easy. Most of the battles can be done by mashing the square button. It doesn't really present much challenge that way. If that problem had been fixed, it would be a spectacular game. Overall, it's a good game.
Yeah, the combat was fun, but way too easy. The fights are only difficult when you intentionally fight higher level enemies with lower power gear. Hopefully the 2 DLCs can add some more combat challenge.
@@foxmccloud6438you cant even compare these games😂
@@J-manlihonestly I'm hoping the dlcs add a boss on the level of difficulty of Malenia from elden ring 🤣 or even sister friede from DS3
I think gender breakdowns on this survey would have been interesting. I have a strong feeling the character favorability would be very different on each category.
the fact that I didn't buy a console just to play it, shows how much i care about it
I really enjoyed Final Fantasy 16. The story was great in my opinion, and gave me the feels. I felt really immersed in the world of Storm. It was a nice change showing more dark tones and pain, where people can relate and feel for the characters. Great game. Been playing final fantasy games for over 30 years now, and see the change from ff4 to now is something special
I am not a stats person but I do love the ones you guys do. It is so interesting to see how people feel about games. More people should do it this way.😊
Music, story and characters were pretty much amazing. I like that the side quests all tied into their own narratives. The gameplay was not phenomenal but it was satisfying. The only “problem” I had was the bad guy being boring. That being said, I like the theme of people learning to stand on their own two feet and become independent. My favorite moment is definitely Clive’s literal battle with his inner demons.
story and characters sucked
To be honest I think Baldur's Gate 3 might have cooled Square's idea to turn their flagship RPG franchise into a cheap DMC action knockoff and cutscene simulator. While Yoshida was at the media tour stating that turn-based/ATB combat is dead and the future is ungabunga action, Larian chadded the entire industry by shipping the best RPG in the last 20 years, and it's an honest to gods RPG with turn-based combat.
While I grudgingly accept the mainstream move towards action combat, I hope that doesn't completely close the door for turn based variations in the FF family, even if it relegates them to minor releases. It might be an interesting case study to look at how Yakuza titles are doing since they kinda went the other direction.
Turn-based combat is, if anything, in a bit of a renaissance right now. I actually think FF is going the wrong direction on this, not because I'm a die-hard turn-based supporter (i've always like tales and star ocean and so on) but because, as seems par for the course with SE over the last decade, I think they're out of line with what the public kind of wants right now.
Between the persona games, BG3, and a variety of other throwback classic RPGs and things of that sort, turn-based is big. I feel like the industry as a whole of late over the last 5-10 years is coming to realize that a lot of the things that we did in the first few gaming generations simply because of tech limitations were actually really fun (2d fighting games, 2d platformers, turn-based combat, top down shooters, etc, etc) and don't need to be abandoned because now we can do photo-realistic 3d digital worlds, but absolutely deserve to continue alongside those newer genres as their own thing with masterpieces like Mario Wonder and Persona 5 as examples, along with the proliferation of indie games and such.
bg3 was the most popular game this year as well as game of the year, hopefully that shows square that turn based doesnt equal unpopular
@@PenguinsAreColdish BG3 is a dnd turn-based, I get your point, but we don't need to look that far, even Persona 5, an honest to god classic turn-based which released more than half a decade ago is still one of (if not) the most popular JRPG out there, even today.
SE going in this direction I think it's not because they think turn-based is lame and oudated, but they're trying to get a wider audience but kinda neglecting the fanbase that they've built since the beginning.
p5 is popular on social media, its actual sales are lower than any FF so it's not a good example. bg3 sold like 4 times as much as ff16, and is also just a way better game than p5 or ff16@@plipplop728
Turn-based if done well is just as compelling as action combat. I like both mediums, and neither is inherently better, just different.
Man, amazing work with the survey and results, great vid, better than I expected, very thoughtful and interesting :)
I know they've addressed it and don't have plans for it, but i really wish they would return to a turn based/ATB system. I miss it.
They have plenty of other games that have the old FF feel. Bravely Default series being some of the best. I'm ok with FF moving on personally.
What an effort, thank you! The most interesting data that stood out to me is that even for 35-44 age bracket, only 25% wanted a return to traditional ATB system. And that overall the younger audience liked the game more. Seems like Yoshi-P and his team did succeed on the overall aim of appealing to the younger audience even if they universally didn't hit the mark with side quests and story pacing etc.
I'm not surprised that the players who liked it were young and without experience with FF and RPGs.
I’m 28 and have a ton of experience with FF and RPGs and FF16 is my second favorite game of all time behind Elden ring so idk 🤷♂️
The two things that stood out to me were that 1. More money spent indicated higher enjoyment (was it cope or did those who spent more know they were going to enjoy it more?) and 2. That the younger group liked certain antagonists more than older groups (was it related to reduced exposure to certain tropes?)
Aside from that, I'm glad this game was made, and it is a really good I've, but I think it will ultimately fail to leave the life changing impression that earlier games like 6, 7, or 10 did.
Sunk cost.
It’s not just sunk cost; they probably are a different set of Final Fantasy fans who either do not care about what came before or do not know what came before.
Would say those who spent more knew they were going to enjoy it. Might not translate to everyone that did, but could've thought it was a good experience overall.
I would like to eventually get around to playing FFXVI but real life doesn't really like to give me the time.
As someone who uses statistics on a daily basis, I love the way you presented the results. Clearly stipulating what the data shows and indicating when an inference is being made. I appreciate the great care in usage of language.
I think when I did the survey I talked about how side-characters read in terms of arcs and development, with particular focus on Jill and dynamics within the cast? It's been a bit.
If I did make a comment I'm sure it was really verbose. General feelings now are that I could tell a strong effort was being made, but I think the story was too lean on interactions between characters who were not Clive (ex. Mid and Jill, Byron and Joshua, Gav and Dion). I also think romantic relationships that were either established or teased felt like they hinged more on the idea of a relationship than seeing how both characters bounced off of each other as individuals. Romance should be garnish on a relationship that is already really interesting without it imo. There were also some really key moments that just were not present, like Joshua coming to terms with being beaten near-to-death by Ifrit or either brother coming to terms with the reality of their mother. Learning how evil she was isn't quite the same I think. I wanted to see a little addressing the feeling of having a positive parental figure killed by the other and knowing however much either son might have wanted Anabella to be a different kind of mother--the mother they dreamed of was dead too. Mourning that hope I think would have meshed well with overall themes regarding creators/creations, rulers/subjects, parents/offspring, etc. Closest thing that came to a moment of that was Clive mentioning in Torgal's hideout that he'd at one point wished for a mother who loved him.
Anyway. If there wasn't going to be a consistent party system like other Final Fantasy games, I think having really strong dynamics within the cast becomes even more important. The camaraderie and foiling off of one another have been pretty big deals in the series imo, but felt mostly absent for XVI. Still enjoyed the game but think that could have been stronger. They're on the right path but I'd like to see them improve on this further.
People talks about the direction of the gameplay, but I think what dissapoint me the most so far is the writing elements like you said. I feel like they don't have the magic of storytelling like they did in Sakaguchi era. One of my favorite FF is actually XII because of the gameplay mechanics, but I can't deny the writing and story was shite compared to its predecessors.
@@plipplop728I haven’t played XII myself so can’t offer any opinion there, but in fairness I don’t think XVI was bad. It took some reflection for me to get my thoughts together and I do think the cast dynamics need work for sure, but it wasn’t that it was abysmal.
Seems to me like the developers didn’t know how to create chemistry tbh. Not for romantic pairings or within casts. I can see places they sort of tried, and I do think they had really cool ideas thematically. I don’t think they knew how to pull off varied personalities and the ways they bounce off of each other-let alone distinct motives/perspectives. It felt like I was examining the seams in someone’s work particularly whenever stuff came up with Jill. As if someone gave the devs a checklist for backstory, motive, personal memories/tics, etc. and the devs made a point of including those elements, but they didn’t actually know how to fit them together naturally or in relation to other cast members. I don’t think there was full awareness of how each character needs to bring something unique to the table personally, philosophically, and thematically-much less explore interaction between those differences.
@@janedoe885 I was talking about XII, I don't think XVI was THAT bad either like people out there make it out to be. But yes, the chemistry between characters are lacking. Also, I don't know how to put it, but I think newer FFs also lacks in.. melancholy? They're good or at least decent overall, but felt kinda flat emotionally.. maybe it's just me, idk
as a final fantasy fan since the 90s, i loved this game. X is still my favorite but i loved this game
Just bring back party members for gods sakes.
It’s stunning to me how the people running this franchise don’t understand that this is fundamental.
Were the colors of the age graph messed up? The majority according to the graph were under 25, while the audio indicated a majority were 25-44.
My biggest takeaway from this game is that it's the first mainline Final Fantasy game I have literally no interest in going back in and playing through a 2nd time, whereas I'm probably on my 4th playthrough of FFX, and I've lost track of my Tactics playthroughs (not mainline, I know). It's not because I thought it was a bad game, but it just didn't feel like Final Fantasy, and I generally don't playthrough action games more than once. I also feel like I've seen all there was to really see, which again, is not normal for Final Fantasy games. There's also very little reason to try different builds in the game, unlike others, since you essentially play with the battle system until you find the combo you like, then only use that combo.
So, it was good, but not my cup of tea as far as Final Fantasy. They should have gone closer to a FF7: Remake battle system, which kept the party dynamics and combined action and RPG more successfully.
I can't fault you for that, I did feel like it was final fantasy for me. For the most part but there would be times in this game where Square is very clearly trying to force the M rating and it's jarring when it happens. Not enough that it ruined my experience, but enough to where I can't just ignore it either. I'm also of the opinion that they need to move away from this and focus more on either Final fantasy 7 remake's combat or just tradtional turn based combat in general. I'm tired of having to defend this part now and I want them to stop hyper obssesing over realisim and action. I did love 16 and I'll replay it, but I'm also at the point now where I just don't want this to be the future of the franchise. Not when other rpg's are still showing how effective turn based combat can be and being innovative with it too.
@@Cloud-dt6xb I suppose that you could have replaced Clive with Dante and everyone would be talking about this as a bad DmC game and not a good Final Fantasy game. If you removed the chocobos and changed the names of the skills, no one would be able to really tell it was a final fantasy game. Sure, the crystals are there, but that's just the MacGuffin in the story, honestly. Easily replaced with any other MacGuffin.
@@usnairframer I did really enjoy Clive and the story as a whole, in terms of stories of final fantasy games I can definetly rank it high. And I also loved the idea of taking inspiration fron Devil may cry to help fuel combat, and while as I said I did enjoy the gameplay my issue is the focus on hyper realisim and especially the forced M Rating. Did make it feel a bit too much like Devil May cry at times and in a bad way much more like the DMC reboot actually.
Y'know, I'm tired of the whole "its not final fantasy" shtick. FF has always changed the formula to a degree. That's why the fanbase is so split on which games are good and bad. You got those who will only play the retro games and consider anything past that not final fantasy. You got those who only play 7 and refuse to acknowledge any other FF. You got those who enjoyed it up to 10 and tapped out.. You get my point. It's weird to me. No offense, of course.
Lore wise everything that makes Final Fantasy is in there, just presented differently like they tend to do. It's also Yoshidas first time making a single player game, which I wish people would give more credit to since he's been on the mmo side of things and stopped 14 from tanking the brand further and made it explode in popularity from the online gamer side of things.
It’s not really that strange for people to tap out. As tastes change, people adapt or move on. While I love FF16’s combat, I just didn’t love the world or characters. Rather than adapt my taste to something that has lost that sense of humor or joy, I’d rather just move on to something like the Tales series. Something was lost in the transition to dark and gritty, and people adapt or move on. I plan on playing FF7 Rebirth because it looks like it’s more fun for my tastes. But this one was lost on me.
I'd call this game final fantasy: tik tok. A collection of 6 second snippets of what a final fantasy game could be.
The game definitely felt better in the beginning than in the end. At a certain point you simply get the feeling, that the game no longer cares and that's when it drops like 20 boring side quests on you immediately, the combat stops evolving, the difficulty drops off a cliff and you can brute force through every encounter, hunts just stop, you run out of areas to traverse, even the story ends in a similar fashion. Most shockingly, I realized that I liked FF15 more overall, mostly due to it feeling like a proper adventrure, what Final Fantasy was always about for me. It just feels like their priorities weren't well suited for what a Final Fantasy game should be and even the priorities they stated haven't exactly materialized (like the combat is definitely not even close to the level of DMC5).
Definitely some interesting data, but remember, a lot of this data suffers heavily from participation bias! The likelyhood these polls were only done by the hyper enfranchised or people with something to prove is very high. A good example of why this data may be misleading: for the part about being excited about the future, 12% of fans being less excited is actually *terrible* if you're to weight the poll as being done by mostly ff fans. You don't want 1/10th of your playerbase feeling despondent about the game. As I said, this poll is probably largely enfranchised or passionate people, meaning someone less enfranchised is more likely to be less wowed by final fantasy intrinsically. Obviously there are many many variables and factors to consider with any data point, but the most safe and important conclusions we can come to are:
1. Older fans tend to like change less
2. Younger fans tend to like the more sort of melodramatic or "hype" choices made in the game
3. Final fantasy fans like final fantasy
FFXVI was truly amazing and enjoyable but i wouldn't want the future of Final Fantasy to be like XVI. I hope they continue with what they are doing with FFVII Remake as i think Square Enix Mastered the ATB and Action Combat blended together. The battle system in FFVII Remake is truly the best in the whole series. I remember playing FFXIII-2 and enjoying the ATB combat system while also enjoying the FFXV combat. But both mixed together in FFVII Remake was truly a masterpiece.
7 remake is far from the best combat system in the series it's way too slow and clunky.
I was so excited for thee ff7 remake. Played it for maybe 2 hours and never touched it again, I hated the fights. The combat itself was fine but EVERYTHING is just a damage sponge. Cut all the enemy HP in half and Id like it a lot more because the combat isnt challenging at all, its frickin boring lol. Sucks xause I reallly wanna like it but 5 minute long fights with no challenge where you just do the same thing way too many times in a row just isnt fun
I'm the opposite, i want them to pursue in this style but better : less green quests,more rpg mécanics, better combat, but with similar storytelling, music, Dynamic, pacing
I really hope that FFXVI has given some humbleness to Yoshida's rabbid fanbase. I grew tired of them saying how this game would "save the series", while conveniently ignoring the existence of FFVII-R.
But in the end, Remake was more well received, and brought more people to the series than FFXVI ever did.
There’s no hope if people rated this battle system so high. 😢
I'm curious if you think that the users who took the time to take the survey might already be on a more biased front. I'm curious to know how that user based looks like in a multivariable approach. For example, obtaining results based on if they are a long time final fantasy fan, if they decided to drop FFxvi midway through instead of continuing to finish, etc.
I wish you had added the ctb battle system from 10 to the poll. I think its the best in the series by far
LOL now I want to see a FF directed by Yoko Taro. That would be a real head-trip.
Honestly, didn’t have expectations for this video but turns out data is just interesting in general
Really hope for more of these!
About the points that could be improved, it's good to keep in mind that the most voted option represents a more vocal necessity, but it doesn't mean the other points shouldn't be reviewed. To me, personally, every one of those points are valid topics for improvement, specially the game's pacing after the first part of the story
Hmm disappointing to me that people want more action and less turn based. Maybe I'm just an old now. Oh well maybe I'll like the next one more
While I would also prefer turn based, I'm relieved that at least people prefer FF7R's action system where you control more than just one character, is till command based and has the ATB system, over FF16's fully action system.
This game was such a disappointment for me (One of many this year). It's become even more so after playing Star Ocean 2 R. I don't even like pixel art. I would much prefer It have FFXVI's graphical style, but I'm willing to sacrifice graphics for gameplay and actual rpg elements. Also the sense of discovery when combing through a map to find chests that actually contain something useful that I don't have thousands of......
It also reminded me of how important whimsy is in fantasy tales. There needs to be some light-hearted moments to break up the all of the doom and gloom. That is the thing that was most lacking in the game and the reason I loathe the ending. I didn't want to save this miserable world. What's the point? Everything sucks. No one outside of Byron and Gav had any fun. I'm willing to wager that's why they're so beloved. They were a light in all of the misery. I would have liked to see "Whimsy" in the survey as an option for what was lacking and see how much that correlated with people's enjoyment of the ending and story.
I've played every mainline Final Fantasy and several of the spinoffs. I've been playing rpgs since Dragon Warrior on the NES in the early 90s. This game did not feel like a Final Fantasy to me and it had nothing to do with the combat.
This is pretty amazing you all were able to gather this much data, I was happy to do the survey and am enjoying seeing the results. This is so cool, thank you for doing this.
True FF fans don't think about 16 at all because it's a cinematic action adventure and not an RPG.
I been dragging my feet to pick it up cuz of this very same idea I've heard so much. From the side quests to the combat and no party members to manage. It doesn't sound like it should be a mainline entry.
I would have liked to know what % of players used the rings, and how that correlated to how they viewed the difficulty.
I don't know how much that'd affect anything. I didn't use them and I found the combat a boring, button-mashy mess
@@xrichie7924Every game requires you to mash buttons
@@Azizam1212 that is literally wrong though? Try mashing buttons in counter strike and just... see where that gets you.
My biggest question is how favor towards XVI correlates with love of XIV. I feel like XIV and CBU3 have their own culture that doesn't always line up with fans of the mainline entries. Given how much XIV informs the design of XVI, I feel that info would be very insightful.
Well im only one person, but I adore 14, have played since 2.0, go to Fanfest and orchestral concerts of it, and was absolutely disappointed in 16. It’s an empty, hollow, facade of a game, in contrast to 14’s rich and soulful world. Most of my friends on 14 haven’t played 16.
FFXIV fan here, I dislike XVI.
It is noted that Dan Floyd, a fan of FFXIV who has played through FFXVI, finds it middling and finds that it weirdly toes that line between being a masterpiece and a weird, disjointed mess that is held together by the fact Clive is the hero and savior of Valisthea. And that was him trying to find good stuff about the game. Then he just ended up recommending different Final Fantasy games, proving that FFXVI is not a good, standout game.
It is also noted that he also compared 14 to 16, and how eventually 14 got to the point of masterful storytelling and storytelling/gameplay synergy, things that 16 lack in spades (but it should also be noted 14 had all the complaints 16 had until Stormblood, and did not perfect its stuff until Shadowbringers).
Researcher within Video Games publishing here :). I applaud the energy and time you have directed at this. The methodology is sound - just be careful to Nat Rep where possible. The vocal minority online in and around forums are typically unlike the majority of players of a title. These are the core of the core cohort and will absolutely skew findings, particularly if you are interested in new, casual or lapsed players. Apologies if you have taken steps to mitigate this and I have missed the explanation. I'm happy to help in future research, should you look to continue this fascinating approach.
The first descriptor of 16 that comes to my mind is "shallow". The gameplay is smooth, but there's just so little to it, and I yearned so much for proper RPG elements. The simple action would be forgivable in a shorter game, but it's just not engaging enough for a 40+ hour experience.
The game kind of dented my opinion of Yoshi-P. 14 has been getting simpler for years, but in an MMO context, I can sympathize with that design decision even if I disagree with it. High skill floors make it harder to depend on other players to do their jobs, and mechanical customization is often wasted as players will simply copy the numerically optimal builds. But that same simplification carried over to 16, where those reasons don't apply. The game basically refuses to reward or punish players in any meaningful way, and it just makes it so dull. It's like "What if a player doesn't want to use a different eikon? Or explore? Or do side quests? That's fine, they won't be any worse off for not doing any of that stuff." It feels like the game is terrified of alienating anyone so it ends up not giving much reason to do anything. The game was made efficiently and it's very polished, but it's almost soulless.
I hope future titles don't continue down the same path. FF7R was a pretty damn good balance of RPG and action. Who's clamoring for Final Fantasy games that aren't RPGs at all?
I can at least say I enjoyed it more than 13 and 15 though, but it's a far cry from 4, 6, 7, 9, and 10. Sad to think that it's been 22 years since there's been a mainline, single player FF game that I felt was genuinely great.
(In case you're wondering, I'm 33, so you can lump me in with the other old farts who don't like the gameplay)
NAW BECAUSE IM 19 AND IVE NEVER AGREED WITH A COMMENT MORE- HONESTLY EVEN 13 AND 15 FELT LUKE THEY HAD MORE OF THAT FINAL FANTASY SOUL IN THEM THAN 16
I promise you, give it 10 years and people will start saying that this game was fantastic all along. I feel like everyone becomes hypercritical of new games and if it's not 100% perfect, we give it a bad score.
Remember though - it doesn't matter what someone else thinks. It matters what YOU think. You can use their opinions as guides, but you should never base your decision to play a game solely on reviews.
I am having a blast with the game, and this is a game where I am actively trying to do all of the side content as well, which is a rarity for me. I just want to remain in this world, as I find it fun and engaging, and the story is also great.
I'm quite shocked about how many people would like to have this type of combat in future FF games. For me FFXVI was a prime example of how this type of combat simply doesn't fit the Final Fantasy franchise.
I never got to grade the game because the very first question in the survey forced a bias on the answerer. It did not give an option for "i did not end up liking the game" and so i couldn't give my honest opinion. I'm not trying to complain, just remind the poll creators to be extra careful not to introduce accidental bias into your surveys
Maybe I missed this...but why wasn't there a question about single character control vs party member control? That was one of the biggest disappointment of the game...not being able to control a full party in combat.
All the data presented is biased in favour of the game and making excuses for things that should be criticised.
FF16 fans desperately want this game to be considered a success but the reality is it sold poorly and most real FF fans didn’t like it.
@@kjh4496 Game sold decently well and was fairly well received. It that's not a success, I don't know what that is. Even most who played FF before seemed to enjoy.
And you are already making a fallacious statement by pretending that there is such a thing as a "real" FF fan.
@@SteelTiamat real fans grew up with it and not jump on the bandwagon
@@kjh4496Ever heard of a no true scottman fallacy? You're doubling into it.
But let's try this again. Why don't you start by defining what a real FF fan is?
I honestly really like it, story, art and gameplay is great. The bosses have waaaay too much health though, constantly mashing attack buttons on staggered enemies and doing 0.2% damage is boring.
For some clarification, I voted for 'all of the above' in the 'what do you think was missing category' but it would be far more accurate to say everything _but one,_ in that I agree strongly with _nearly_ all factors but I disagree strongly that 'open world' should be one of them.
I'm baffled by these survey results, I rate the game at maybe 65%. The first bit of the game, until you kill Garuda, it's 80%, but after that it starts to shows how shallow the game is.
I will agree the voice performances are good.
But the game story is too formulaic, invade territory, fight boss, get new icon times 7. No rpg elements to build out your character, no real progression, shallow gearing options, no FF rpg systems.
I really liked the game but i do think we can do exciting turn based combat for 17? I think BG3s success paved the way for people being more open-minded about it again...i didnt mind the action combat either though...but i want more rewarding exploration and in general more stuff to get side tracked
Personally I believe FF going forward should adopt the FF7Remake battle system with more upgrades. That was the perfect blend of free action and strategy/turn based. Or somehow blend the FF15 system with FF7R system. That would be amazing.
I didn't get into this one as much as previous entries, I felt that the story wasn't engaging for some reason.
XVI was great. 1st main FF I've loved since X.
Still haven't finished the game due the dreadful pacing in this game. It's actually the first FF i haven't finished, and i've been like the biggest fan of FF all my life. On paper i loved the idea that the game was gonna have a "DMC-like combat", cause i'm also a huge fan of the DMC games. But sadly, it just didn't work for me in this game. It felt too restrictive. I wished they'd gone all out on the combat in a DMC manner, if they were really going for this half-assed combat. It just made it shallow in the end, and not very fun. I also skipped most of the side quests cause they were copy pasted MMO garbage. Add that to the awful pacing and lack of many characters, makes the journey eventually stale. Which ended my playthrough of the game at around 70% (according to playstation home screen). I don't think i'll ever revisit even, it was just not my cup of tea. Even though i was waiting for this game for so long thinking it'd be the ultimate final fantasy. Looks like i was dead wrong. I'm happy for the people who enjoyed it though! More power to you guys.
Same here, this game has INCREDIBLE highs, some of the best iv ever seen in video game. But when those segments are over then the lows are .. excruciating. I'm still trying to finish the game but I can't help but constantly ask when it's going to end
@@Senayoshy Totally dude, one of the highest high's ive ever experienced myself. But the downs are just not worth it. The game is completely bipolar
@@Senayoshy 16 completely lost me when it had the literal main bad guy exposition dump on the MC with his backstory, motives and plan because no one bothered to try an organically integrate his plans effectively. Ultima literally has to tell you his plans because it was so obscured and poorly integrated into the story that it had nowhere else to go lol.
I enjoyed my first blind playthrough of XVI and just immersed myself into the story, then in the 2nd playthru I started to really intake the flaws you mentioned, it was super fun playing as Clive, but sadly you only play as him, aside from Joshua but it's like a TINY segment compared to the rest of the game :(
I despised ALL side quests with the side characters, couldn't stand how maddeningly boring they were and some you had to do if you wanted to upgrade your carry pouch or increase potions or some dumb shyte!
The pacing was insane, going from 100 with the Eikon bosses, back to 0 having to constantly reurn to the Hideaway (which I alsoi despised) in order to progress the story. I would have loved to know what the main characters were up to in those 5 years since Cid died, but we just get a LAZY-AASED time skip with nothing significant ever being mentioned :(
@@yodoleheehoo90 Yeah man, i completely agree with the points you made too. If it wasn't for the really bad pacing for me personally, then i probably would have played it til the end and enjoyed it quite a bit. But the down slopes was VERY far down that i just can't seem to bother to push through cause im not enjoying it. Ugh
My biggest issue is that while you have many abilities with the Eikons in the end I ended up using the same ones in the same order. Every time.
There's no strategy involved at all.
I don't entirely agree with your conclusion on future gameplay systems. Speaking for myself and choosing FF7 Remake, part of the reason I liked that system is it still *felt* in line with the spirit of turn based. It felt like a true evolution of FF12; a fast paced yet tactical system, but now with the flashiness we expect of a Final Fantasy game. With the success of Baldur's Gate 3 and the large amount of people voting for Hiroyuki Ito as a developer, I think my line of thinking may be more what the survey data shows rather than a desire for action in itself.
This game made me physically get up from my seat after a big boss fight and be like "holy shit that was awesome"
It was fantastic, just need a little bit more time on the combat.
Hopefully a possible sequel can fix that.
Ohh gosh please no!
As much as I’d like there being more games in the setting, the ending kinda makes sequels really unlikely. I’d expect a prequel before a sequel.
@@paulnewhouse5126 The cycle continues...
Wow. Great video.
Also regarding voice acting getting acclaimed, we’re only talking about English. I speak Latino Spanish and I tried the game in that language and it was really damn good too. Specially as it is the first time I’m aware of Square including that language option in a major release.
It's surprising to me that so many younger people participated in the poll. Not only that, they also reviewed it higher. My generation/age group is 35-44, and we grew up in the "golden era" on PS1. We seem to be a bit harsher on the game lol. We're getting old and grumpy lol. Personally I gave the game a 9 out of 10.
I’m 33 and FFX got me into gaming, despite the fact that I didn’t understand a word in English, and to this day it’s one of my favourite games, so as a fan, I really didn’t like what Yoshi.P said about trying to appeal to the wider audience by making the game action focused, and that turn based gameplay is outdated, how many times we heard that before in media? He didn’t make an effort of updating turn based combat, he completely got rid of it, and judging by baldur’s gate’s success he was wrong, he gutted rpg elements, etc. fans are important, you can’t just take a well established franchise and change it to your liking because it may sell better. I respect the man for what he did with FFXlV, but he fumbled hard on this one. You can change up things, like resident evil 4 did, completely changing the way the game plays, yet it still was very much a resident evil game, same with GoW 2018, plays differently but feels very much like a gow game, so, they needed to absolutely nail it, but they didn’t in my extremely humble opinion.
Based on all the data in this video it seems like Square should offer more difficulty options from the beginning not only focusing on easier ways to play but also harder ways to play. They also need to find a way to improve the side quests and map designs.
I love watching your videos because its quite clear to see how deeply the FFU team loves FF ❤️
Love that you guys put the effort into these surveys. I wish there had been more questions about exploration, that was my biggest disappointment personally. Also at the start of the video it says the majority of respondents were between 25 and 44, but the graph shows 52% under 25.
Thank you for the survey, as a longtime FF fan. I loved FF16 journey and can’t want for the upcoming DLCs ❤
Imagine if the game had a gambit system? I think it would have incorporated well. Instead all I found myself doing was smashing buttons. Don't get me wrong, the combat is good, just not fluid to me. The side quests were usually quite lame. It's almost like this game is the foundation, and the DLC will be the truely fun stuff...how much is the DLC going to cost ...hmmm...I think we all got hustled
For the poll for the future combat systems I think you should've just put turn based as an option and not specifically ATB because not all the turn based games used ATB like I, II, III, and X. That might've factored into it. I just want turn based. It doesn't have to be the ATB system.
At 3:40, you said the majority of respondents were between age 25 and 44, but the chart you're showing says the majority were under 25.
(Under 25 = 52%,
25-34 = 16%,
35-44 = 30%
16%+30% is less than 52%
)
I'm guessing the chart is wrong and the audio is correct?
Yes, sorry about that! The ordering on the left is correct, but the colours are wrong. It's meant to be 16% Under 25. ~Darryl
@@FinalFantasyUnion Good to know. Also, thanks for the response and for putting this together. All very interesting information!
My criticism pertains to the combat system. I associate Final Fantasy games with tranquility and story. I want to be able to take a break in the middle of a fight, make a coffee and contemplate which spell to cast on the enemy while I'm preparing my coffee. I wish to return to a turn-based combat system.
While I am fine with either action or turn-based combat, Active Time Battle I find somewhat stressing given I’d have to be navigating menus before the enemy kills my characters.
@@pablotomasllodra4423turn based Is trash
Gay