Final Fantasy XVI Review (Spoiler Free) - An Action-Packed Upgrade for a Beloved Franchise
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- Опубліковано 24 чер 2024
- Final Fantasy XVI Review: An Action-Packed Upgrade for a Beloved Franchise (No Spoiler)
Final Fantasy XVI Review: In this Final Fantasy XVI Review, we’ll be taking a look at the latest entry to the Final Fantasy series which is developed by Creative Business Unit III and published by Square Enix. What does this game have to offer, what makes it stand out among the other Final Fantasy games, what is the gameplay, and what are the things you can do for both side and post-game content? We’ll answer these and cover your other questions in this Final Fantasy XVI Review.
Genre: Action Role-Playing Game, Adventure
Developed by: Creative Business Unit III, Square Enix
Published by: Square Enix
Release Date: June 22, 2023
Platform/s: PlayStation 5
Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Price at the time of Review: USD 69.99 ~ 99.99
Timestamps
0:00 - Final Fantasy XVI Review (No Spoilers)
0:34 - Story and Setting
2:45 - Gameplay Exploration
5:53 - Gameplay Combat
9:29 - Gameplay Side & Post-Game Content
9:59 - Design, Audio, and Visual
6:23 - Xbox Series X Performance
12:30 - Replayability and Pricepoint
13:38 - Final Thoughts
14:10 - Review Score
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#finalfantasyxvi #finalfantasy16 #squareenix - Ігри
The active time lore is really cool and I dont think enough people mention it. Being able to pause a cutscene and learn more about a character and their motives or who they are and where they fit in the greater story is really helpful.
Dont know where you are and how it relates to what you are doing? Pause the cutscene and read about it.
Who is that guy and why do they matter? Read about it.
It keeps exposistional dialogue from being too lengthy or exhausting.
Its solves the problem of "Clive lives here, why is he asking a question about something he should aready know about?"
You dont really need characters, like mimir for example, expositing lore at you. You choose when to engage with the minutae of the world.
Its really great!
It’s crazy how well this system works. I’m so invested in this story
I really like Mimir though. Yeah he's really just with Kratos for exposition but he tells it all through his own personality so it's always entertaining to listen to. He's probably my favorite character from the last two GOW games
@@Karlach_ let me be clear. I really like mimir too! I was just using him as an example. Mimir is probably the best version of a character whos main purpose is to spew expositional dialogue.
I just like that ff16 doesn't feel the need to constantly explain itself. If you have a question, just pause the game and read about it.
Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best.
@@locke2517 I agree. I hope all games with deep lore start doing the same thing as FF 16
I keep forgetting about it! It's so cool.
Cid’s English VO is Lorath’s from D4!! That’s cool
Yeah, that's Ralph Ineson ( it's nice to hear a Yorkshire accent in games)
I’m almost positive he’s in the Witcher 3 as well
His voice is so deep it makes me feel uncomfortable!
Was in GoT too
Oh that’s why it’s sooooo low
The exploration reminds me of XII's, which is my personal favorite. Explorable small zones but not an entire shallow world. Ironically makes the world feel bigger and more mysterious because you only see a fraction of it in detail.
Love final fantasy 12
12 is my baby, I remember countless hours of grinding back in high-school on a ps2 lol
15 definitely failed on that, open world felt so empty and unnecessarily big. So I'll definitely take this over that.
A fellow ff12 lover ❤
I just wished they would bring back gambit system. Especially for ff7r and 16. The side characters stand around. but in 7r once you take over, the enemies track that character so if you're smooth you can switch and combo all day but while your not they need some incentive to move around and attack. 16 I just wish you could preprogram them to do what you want even though you can't switch
Came for the elden ring, stayed for the production quality. Honestly the precision you deliver your facts/information is the best ive seen. The balance of giving enough useful info but not rambling is brilliant. You've set the bar high long may it continue. 👏
If you're into RPGs ARPGs...fextra is like the best channel on youtube
Likewise
@13:57
Yes sir, that demo changed everything for me. So pumped for this game.
As usual, excellent review Cas. Ty!
mention of customizing allies gear for effectiveness got me to realize they did not have to make these compromises for an action focused game. You can customize ally behavior and gear and still button mash away. They chose to disregard that bit of potential gameplay. Even if you don't have party members you can directly control, you could still manage them.
You can manage torgal in combat
@@dragocrafterr8286what you're talking about is not the same.
You can tell the dog to do 3 things.
He's talking more something like equipping party members. Choosing their combat style. Maybe a gambit system like FF 12.
Stranger of Paradise did it perfectly
Though admittedly I do enjoy the set strategy and healing tactics that Tales of Arise had.
Already playing the game! Got through all the demo bits now and got Garuda.
Really love the bosses so far, especially the tower fight with the lady.
There's gotta be like an average of to bosses an hour. 8 hours in I think I've fought like 15.
@@locke2517 yeah dude. Kinda reminds me of FFXIV tbh. 2 packs of mobs, then a boss. Just your average dungeon run haha.
Pretty fun so far ngl
“Open World” is the most overrated trend for games in recent times. Not every game needs to be open world to be considered great. In fact a lot of open world games fall short in almost all other aspects and make the games not fun to play. Give me a non-open world game with great story and mechanics any day and it will be more enjoyable.
This game could have benefited from open world. It’s soooo boring and you’re hand held the entire game through. It feels like such a lazy game
English VO was done first this time, which is likely why you found Japanese dubs mismatched. Apparently there were even some story beats that were re-written based on performances from the English cast.
Glad to see this getting a good review.
New to this channel, i really like the graphics used at the end to categorize different features and give them all ratings, better than ones like IGN where they just talk, then at the end its like 9/10, then video done. I like this way of reviews more and i cant wait to play ff16 in about 4 hours. in the meantime, i'm going to do a few runs on Risk of Rain 2. Have a good day anyone reading this. ❤❤❤
How much ability points do you get from leveling up? And do you get points from other sources?
Not sure if you're planning anything, but I would love a fextralife combat guide and build/eikon loadout suggestions
Have a beginner guide coming
Just finished it. Fantastic game. Absolutely loved it.
I love the Action. Beats the stale chess o vision combat of the older FF games by light years. My favorite FF game. 🎉
I am thinking if i should start my ps5 final fantasy journey with this or 7 remake… my only final fantasy experience is the original 7 and the 6. So which one should i buy for my ps5???
It is quite thoughtful of the devs to carry the save file from the demo into the main game, so that players do not have to repeat the beginning. But I appreciate the direction and storytelling of it so much, that I have every intention to see it all multiple times, on my way towards the impressive Final Fantasy mode and Plat the game.
Thank you, my most reliable source of information
It's good but zero replayability for me.
It's been a while that I am looking forward playing a new games. FF16 is one of few that gave me that motivation.
Thanks for the review, I am so hyped, great breakdown as always!
I'm glad you mentioned playing it in performance mode. It makes such a big difference to me - especially since my couch is 8 feet away from the TV and I can't really see any improvement on resolution mode unless I'm a few feet from the tv.
You can see those frame drops tho.
@@phant0mdummy lmao
@@phant0mdummyI can tolerate frame drops, more than I can tolerate an overall choppy experience.
Really good review !
Amazing review!
What's up with the brightness?
I gotta say I think I disagree with you and agree with digital foundry's choice that the game should be played in quality mode and not performance mode as a ton of cutscenes are locked at 30 fps and their dynamic resolution options in framerate mode has abysmal stability. It's 60fps in battles only (and even then not always) and everywhere else it's borderline 45 fps on average. In their words, it becomes jarring jumping framerares constantly whereas quality is straight locked 30fps 99 percent of the entire game. Other than that nitpick great review as always
Edit: I still find myself wanting to play in framerate mode now tho...hope they stabilize it, would be my preference
Subscription for your nioh2 stuff. You were my go to for builds man. Can't believe I wasn't subscribed before
Man I just started playing today and couldn't put it down for 8 hours straight.... so amazing so far.
I have a couple of questions: is Fenrir in the game as an Eikon? And can you go full weeb and use a katana? I saw one of the dlc weapons was some sort of katana.
I enjoy the game but my main critiques are the combat needs an extra layer like introducing elemental weakness and the lack of how you can build Clive. The only variation to building are the eikon abilities. Along with the enemies are too passive which bring downs the combat.
Maybe this changes in NG+? Enemies being passive I mean
Subbed to this channel back when Elden Ring came out, glad I did so I could watch this great review. Great job talking through the gameplay changes since that was my main concern. I enjoy both action and RPGs, but not a huge fan of them blending together. Even though I miss the old turn-based RPG days (and not a huge fan of the them leaving that style behind), I'll purchase it.
Play Baldur's Gate 3 when it releases in August if you want to play a game that focuses on old turn-based RPG gameplay and story
@thebouldertakesissuewithth4574 thanks for the recommendation, I'll check it out
Gotta put daiblo 4 on the back burner for a bit to play this. Im so excited
Same
love the new direction that the FF is going, 8/10 for me after playing the demo only issue is the combat although good in general it is still lacking
I can even compare the combat to capcom's dragons dogma 2012 to be even better
The combat’s pacing is absolutely perfect imo. Starts out really simple so you can get deeply acquainted with every aspect of your move set and gets exponentially more complex the further along you get. Some of the late game powers get pretty complicated, and they make sure to give you enough time to gradually incorporate the new stuff into your rotation so that when you reach NG+ and unlock Final Fantasy mode, you have a chance to kick ass straight out of the gate
I just hope you can explore the open world between places like in 7. Not open world but driving around and looking for hidden areas.
Is this a continuation of any previous FF games?
Quality or performance is better for this one?
I was wondering how the gameplay is with graphics vs performance, based what I heard here doesn’t seem like that much of a deal breaker -I’ll try both. I only wanted to play the demo once in graphics mode and I really enjoyed it. I figured they developed it for the PS5 it should be safe to play in either one.
720p and close to 60-ish fps when in combat. 1080p and 40-ish fps when roaming around
Is there an option to turn parts of the hud off
Not in the Demo. I doubt they’d have that option at launch
Great in depth review
This is going to be a nice addition to the PS5 games library. Game looks insane!!
As if they needed any more this year. In all seriousness, this looks great.
@@zomorion9183 apart from God of war and horizon there is nothing else worth in ps5.
The new ratchet and clank was really good. Also returnal
@@joshbullard2939also demon souls remake
Zelda 96 metacritic ff16 88…. Guess safe to say this ain’t winning goty this year…starfield you’re are last hope
What engine this game uses? Interview said the developers using neither Luminous nor Unreal Engine but yet the fight, skill/ability wheel and display very much look alike to FF7R or Jedi Fallen Order both of which use UE4
This game uses a heavily modified version of FFXIV's engine, and borrows some of the particle effect work from Luminous Engine.
great review as usual :)
i thought i had aged out of Final Fantasy and that the series no longer appealed to me but i have been having so much fun with this game.
That MC vs titan fight was god dam insane
nice overview, thank you for the effort. However I never enjoyed to be forced into combos to prevail in a game. SO this is a clear dealbreaker for me, but I wish everyone who enjoys this a good time with the game. =)
Yeah the graphics especially on performance mode is a strong 7 for me. Terrible antialiasing, texture pop-ins from 10 meters away, and internal resolution dropping to almost 720p at times coupled with the fps barely hitting 45fps out of battle. Its not a deal-breaker by any means but with such texture issues, I would have rather had worse graphic but hit the stable 60fps mark. Great game though, i rate 8.7/10
The games is good and I think you hit the nail on the head with it's strong points are the combat, story telling, visuals. I do feel it being to linear is a drawback as you only have to press up on the analog stick to get to most places, couple that with it being way too easy also makes things between the amazing cut scenes sometimes boring. 8/10 personally
I hope they return to making final fantasy games with the next one. I mean this is better than 15 but considering 15 was a steamy pile that's a low bar.
Is Cid's voice the same as Lorath? AKA the guy from The VVitch
Yes.
I love this game. Doesn't really have any immediate replay value with it's NG+ but I'll play this one again for the story in a year or so for sure.
Quentin is 100% roose bolton correct???
Pre-ordered after playing the demo.
only issue for me is there should be hard mode from start
I will definitely check this out when it comes to PC.
may grab it when it eventually drops on pc
I wish this was more of an rpg with armor and weapons
Awesome review, as always. Excited to play this new FF!
so does anybody make old style turn based rpgs anymore?
i wonder if they will do events similar to the chocobo moogle festival in FFXV in this game
Only issue I have is that EVERYTHING has become an action rpg. I was hoping if anyone could take an innovative approach on turn-based games it would have been square enix but it feels like every rpg is kinda of conforming to be the same game with different skins/story.
cool detail about the voice acting - they lip synced to the english recording, Japanese version is the dubbed version!
I agree with almost everything, but I just wish the game had some RPG elements. Like interesting gear and some sort of skill progression.
I think they went too far into the character-action genre, as now we're in a world where God of War has deeper progression mechanics than a Final Fantasy game.
It's still a very good game. But overall, I think it's hard to consider it "an upgrade" over the franchise as a whole.
I just bought Diablo 4 and started using your builds, now I’ve got to find the money for this now 😆
Ralph Ineson is busy this year, appearing in 2 of the biggest video game releases of 2023
Is the performance fixed from the demo?
nop, worse than ever, one of the ugliest next gen games iv ever played
It's my understanding that the game was actually natively recorded in English so the lip syncs were set to the english dialogue
Now we need a tears of the Kingdom review
All the marketing failed to hook me…until I just tried the demo and WOW. As a person that’s played FF since the NES FF16 has that “specialness”
Looks good but I won’t be putting Diablo 4 down any time soon ha. It all looks awesome but the battle system doesn’t look great… I wish they would do another turned based battle system. But once I’m down with Diablo I think I will get it. Thanks for the review!
finally a game that tempts me to buy a full price $70 game at launch but i'll think i'll wait for a few months for a price drop to $40 lol
With how the game might sell well. The price might take a few years to drop
Meanwhile I bought Crisis Core for $50 and didn't play it past the first chapter FML
I doubt it will have any sales for quite some time. But for you I hope it does, cause this game is shaping up to be an amazing one.
@@0miy0 nah, maybe digital but disc games usually go on sale a lot quicker.
I am a huge fan of huge worlds but I really like the small linear open worlds because it feels less empty and more important
they somehow managed to make the smaller worlds feel emptier than ever wtf are you on about. there is literally no discovery
FF15 as an open world game was a mistake in my experience, it always feels so dead and empty to me, all that traveling around and you barely have anything to do. I'm glad this one is more story driven and focused to the areas that actually matter.
Same here. I loved the character moments in 15 but I'm glad they learned their lesson from the mistakes in the game.
Packed/Linear Experiences > Open World.
Rarely does an open world game hold my attention.
An open world FF game can't imagine...
Then again FF could just go back to being FF instead of desperately chasing after other franchises like DMC.
You are entitled to your opinion but I personally thought 15 was an excellent game albeit the last half of it, is mostly linear.
It was also a mistake because the luminous engine is horrible for making open world games. You want to make an open world, use UE 4 or 5
Compared to some other reviewers, this review is very objective, thank you!
Just for not perfect Replayability no 10/10 ?
3-5 hrs?
This looks like Devil May Cry but with chocobos
Which is exactly why it isn’t Final fantasy for me.
@@riotvaleThen don’t play it or learn to appreciate its strengths instead of going to UA-cam replies to vent
@@riotvalewhy though. The ff games have always changes up the combat.
Pre-Ordered FF16 about a week ago, I must say this looks like a ''PS5 Xenoblade Chronicles'' with a Tales of Arise feel, but a Final Fantasy Story.
Man why alll that brightnes?
Fextra sounds bored and monotone when reading the copy for reviews lately… don’t forget to take a vacation and not get burnt out! ❤
Cas just sounds like that all the time, there’s no need to make a show of fake agitation.
The screen is too washed out. Is that the setting for your recording I wonder.
I was on the fence and the demo convinced me to buy. Can’t wait to play. Most excited for a great story.
I want to keep this game in my ps5 library forever even after the lifecycle of ps5. This is by far the best ff series I ever played. I had played ff 7 remake,ff 9,10,11,13, and 15. But 16 is the best one on my list so far.
Sad that you skipped 12
@@fukunaga-kane typo 12 is the one i played not 11
Too bad my schedule is booked for Diablo IV. No time for this game right now and hopefully we get some season one news soon. . .
I have to delete the game because of the constant frame rate dips even in 30 fps . Waiting for the patch 😢
not sure if someone said it already or not the reason why English feels better to listen to in this game instead of japanese is because the devs actually recorded this games voices in English first and then recorded the japanese ones they did this because of their inspirations on medieval Europe
I'm still on the fence whether I should get this or not but I'm hoping to see more FF16 from you.
I’m a souls games addicted, and I always hate FF Pokémon fighting style, but after playing the demo I’m 100% in.. I highly recommend playing the demo before making any decision
Play the demo
You can spot a smoothbrain by their utterance of something along the lines of "but it's not open world!"
Great game but the pacing was just blisteringly slow for me. I had a great time with 15 and just wished this one had a little less dialogue and more action throughout.
Lovely!
PC release when ?
@fextralife In your deacription, you have a timestamp that says “Xbox series X performance”. You guys just about gave me a heart attack considering i dont own a ps5. Just letting you know
The lack of challenge in this game is very disappointing.
Hunts, Chronolith Trials, Arcade Mode, and FF mode on NG+ exist. FF design philosophy has always been to ensure the main quest isn't so difficult that average players can't make it to the end.
Once the PS5 exclusive period passes, likely followed by an Epic games store exclusive,, maybe I'll remember the game still exists.
I will wait for it to realese on PC to actually play it at a decent framerate but looks awesome apart from that
The lack of party system really makes me annoyed with it
I heard Lorath's voice
TY Cass
they manage to create an action game with FF spectacle and both "Easy game journalist" mode side by side with "normal" mode without sacrificing one or the other,FFXVI is if u think like
"what if this beautiful FF game is not just turn base? what if my character can just jump doing cool fight,flashy stuff while still having FF experience?" there u go,its FFXVI.
The cons is that the combat can be more than this but its ok since this is the first one they want to go full ARPG,the QTE pause on cutscene is too much sometimes that they can reduce it for minimum.
I wonder why this video doesn’t have more likes, did this person say something you guys didn’t generally agree with? Cmon show em some love
Just can't get into the new ARPG Final Fantasy. I still play the old turn-based games regularly though.
Unfortunately no pc release in sight. So ill have to miss this one. Maybe in a few years down the line.
I won't be playing until it's on PC too so I understand