Its not the only one, Skill up, Jim Sterling and Matty plays they are all big youtubers and all of them were very disappointed and have negative reviews that all criticize basically the same points about FF16 too
Baldurs gate 3 (like it or not) has shown that turn based game play is not only still viable but opens up developers to be more creative. Hope this shows squenix that turn based isn’t old or dead
Persona 5 showed that turn-based is not only viable but opens up devs to be more creative years before BG3 did, and that comparison is more fitting considering PS5 is a JRPG. Persona 3 Reload and MetaPhor ReFantazio will likely do the same as well. Hell, some of Squeenix's own games, like Octopath Traveller 2, show that turn-based combat is still more tham viable in the modern era. Atlus is crushing it when it comes to making great turn-based JRPGs, while FF and Square Enix have been losing their way for quite a while now when it comes to the mainline FF games.
@@jimmythegamer2231 JRPGs are a niche that never penetrated the wider market then BG3. BG3s effect on the entire industry is undeniable. Wether a game has done prior to this is of no consequence - nothing has hit the entire market like BG3
@@jimmythegamer2231 Bg3 is not a jrpg it's a crpg. That begs to be played in multiplayer persona 5 is high-school life manager attached to a turn based rpg. Too much busy work for me to fall in love with it but I can understand others loving it.
The mediocre story has been getting high praise from so many other reviews and it is absolutely baffling to me. Thank you for verbalizing the fact that the story in this game is absolute drivel.
Same here it annoys me to no end that everyone is praising the story. Everyone must be distracted by the visuals or something. There's so many things that don't make sense, like why they decide to destroy the crystals, why Joshua had the same black cloak as the guy in his head, why the political intrigue parts are even there, travel time/distances... It's bonkers
My entire FF 16 exploration experience: Game: “We think you could use another sharp fang” Me: “Well, umm, thanks but I already have 1000 of tho…” Game: “WE THINK YOU CAN USE ANOTHER SHARP FANG.”
Oh yeah the treasure chests full of nothing but crafting materials or gil, in older FF games when you found chest it had either weapon, armor, accessory or even key item.
@@N7SpecterElite I’d love to know the logic behind rewarding the player with single digit gil. That’s another thing that’s happened to me so many times while playing this game.
LOL so true. I didn't understand why items like that are so generously available, when you end up barely using most of those resources. I thought for sure there would be some end game item exchange system or other use for these items...nope!
Whether or not this game is “not my FF” I can’t imagine playing 40-50+ hours doing nothing but swinging a sword and blasting magic attacks. Sure there’s probably a decent story here, but I can go watch TV for a decent story New vs old don’t even matter here, this game just seems so shallow. I’ve watched hours of it, and it all just looks like a hack n slash. Sure, there’s Chocobos and all that, I suppose it’s technically Final Fantasy, but it’s the furthest thing from an RPG it could possibly be. It’s not even as varied as Bayonetta or DMC in its actual combat…. Anyone who says this is a masterpiece or whatever…I guess I can’t necessarily say they’re wrong, but just a little too easy to please I guess lol
It's not an RPG there no RPG elements whatsoever, it's more like babies first action game, the combat is really good I mean as good as games like Bayonetta or DMC but the game is so mindlessly easy that there's literally no point at trying to get better. I love action games so much but it's so disappointingly easy I keep wondering why did they go this route if they didn't want to commit? I mean yes action games are linear but the combat is fun you have combos and ratings and you need to do well to get better rating and getting better unlocks weapons or upgrades or nets you rewards to buy things but in FF16 there's no point there's no rewards no rating system and nothing to unlock. Even the upgrades are so simple and cheap that you can unlock everything without much effort. Nothing in this game requires effort and it makes the game so bland.
Ive been done with those cultists way before 16 ever even came out. Theyre a big reason FF14 has gotten complacent in design and the reason why 16 was designed with the sane philosophy of "reskin, reuse, and recycle".
Who gives a shit about Yoshi? I look at it like this, some people like the game and some people don’t. Clearly more people like the game than that don’t. Which, if you understand anything means that the game was a success… at the end of the day who gives a shit? If you don’t like it, move on… like I said, in another comment, you can’t please everyone and when you try to please everyone you end up pleasing no one. With that being said, the game was a huge success! Whether you like it or not.
@@midnightstarlis6405lol ohh no.. someone please protect me from all these lame peoples criticism! Who gives a shit about your criticism? Many people like the game a few people didn’t. The game was clearly a success when you look at the numbers. And there is plenty more Contant that is positive about the game then is negative. But that’s to be expected with anything. I, like many other, thought the game was awesome. Who are you to tell them it wasn’t? From the looks of it you can’t handle reality. The game was a success, whether you like it or not.
There is something worse than a bad game and that is a soulless game. You guys are aware that FFXVI is a reskin of FFXIV with action combat and kaiju battle right? Innovation at its finest! FFXIV is a 10 year old game btw! They got the biggest budget to make a game and just decided to play it safe, because they know FFXIV works. I lost any admiration I got for the CBU3 team. The best part of the game is the combat and they didn't even make it!
Yeah, it's sad. Some very talented members of CBU3 have done great things in the past, but they absolutely refuse to innovate (even when given a blank slate to work with, as they had in FFXVI). It makes me sad for the current state, and near future of FFXIV, as they clearly have no intent to shake up what has become an incredibly stale and outdated formula... and so, all the potential it has to be something greater goes completely waste.
FF16 is covered in Yoshi-P and his team’s worst tendencies. In FF14, all the moments of spontaneous player expression like builds, ability crafting, weapons/armor with meaningful gameplay implications, narrative choices, open world exploration and meaningful character progression were slowly removed from the game over the course of his tenure culminating in the most sterile, sanitized and inoffensive experience possible. Any point in the game, any single system that might introduce ANY level of friction, like choosing between weapons in way that is more complex than “bigger # more gooder” is cut out and replaced with the veneer of depth. FF16 is all of his worst impulses magnified. Watching layered and gorgeous areas in FF14 like Ul’dah, Gridania or the Sea Of Clouds be replaced with the flat, soulless and empty landscapes like the Ruby Sea or Kholusia is depressing. The dungeons went from nearly designed with real exploration in ARR and HW, to straight shot hall ways with nothing in them besides the same trash mob-trash mob-trash mob-boss- cycle for 3 expansions straight. This is reflected even in the community the game cultivates. The idea you can ever tell someone “hey you should actually equip your job stone, you’re level 70 and doing no damage” is a huge no no because, once again, any friction is bad. It’s no surprise that after 49 hours in FF16, none of these issues are remedied and are instead amplified. The side-quests are literally marked with + signs because they know they are so dreadfully awful that you’ll skip em and miss key upgrades unless telegraphed to do them. The open world is empty just like in 14, filled with insultingly shitty “5 Gil” drops and sharp fangs that you’ll have 80000 of by the time you finish the game because you can’t craft anything with them. It’s fake exploration. They are comically big beams of shiny light coming out of the ground to trigger your natural gaming instinct and dopamine release, but after the 20th magicked ash, it is a complete waste of time to pick anything up. You can literally never pick up a single item and your experience will not be even 1% different than someone who picks up EVERY item. The game literally treats you like a toddler and hands you the best weapon in the game after every boss fight. FF16 was Squares reaction to the flops that were 13 and 15. They threw the project at Creative Business Unit 3 and said “you fixed ffxiv when it flopped, do it again please” so yoshi just did what worked for his MMO. It was the safest possible decision driven by fear of another flop permanently killing the franchise. Ironically enough, ff16 sales have flopped. I never want to see devs hard work be a failure because clearly so much effort went into this game, but I’m glad they at least wont be incentivized to take all the wrong lessons from this game when making FF17. FF15 had issues, but it’s issue was biting off more than it can chew and that is 100x more commendable than 16. You can feel what they were reaching for with 15, it comes through in the design. It has charm and character. 16 is boiled chicken. It’s there. It’s calories. It did what it set out to do INCREDIBLY well, it just didn’t set out to do very much.
Good post, agree with most everything but ffxiv while it is watered down and painfully safe, is still enjoyable. 16 has no redeeming factors. Nothing cool to earn or work towards like xiv and every other rpg pretty much
Great post. Big agree. There HAS to be a middle ground between the grinder that is FFXI and the walk in the park FFXIV is in terms of an FF mmo. That needle is either cranked all left or all right .
Either that or didn't make it a mainline title. I feel like people would be more accepting to the game or call out more of the flaws. The game is by no means perfect.
Im at a loss on how it got such high scores ff16 isnt a bad game its just a game nothing special just a complete soulless experience that in my opinion doesnt deserve the name sake ff9 remains my favorite ff of all time ff16 looks pretty sometimes but mostly its putting me asleep with its forced mundane side storys
FF9 is such a beautiful game! Definitely my favorite! Idk... FF16 doesn't feel like a FF game at all. Not even FF15 made me feel this way... Tbh I love FF15, no more than 9, but still feels like a FF game. It is really frustrating!
And if you don't like it, it's not because it might be poorly designed or have some loopholes or you just don't enjoy it... no no no, it's because "you don't know how to play" or "you don't engage with the system as you should!". Is this a cult?
@@Stervelar"BuT yOu HAvE tO Use MagIC BuRst". So deep, right? xD I love the videos on reddit that want to show how great the combo potential is. It's always in training mode with an infinite hp single target. It's just not possible to do that stuff in the game, because normal enemies die too fast and bosses can't be juggled. So silly.
@@Dabedidabe I agree with you. I hate that comeback personally. Even with Magic Burst and all that, it's still just mindless action combat. People either haven't played the old games or have forgotten about a lot of the mechanics from old titles. Remember casting reflect on yourself and casting magic on yourself to have it reflect back at the enemy for x2 damage? Then having to rely on healing items because healing magic would reflect on enemies too? Or using elemental weaknesses to do more damage? If you attacked enemies with the same attribute, they'd recover that amount of damage done? Oh wait, that doesn't exist in this one because that system isn't in this one. Where are status effects? None of the enemies outside of bosses even pose a threat compared to how some in past titles would. Malboro's bad breath would cast almost every bad effect on the party. Frogs would use "frog jab" and make your life hell. Lol. You had to make sure you were either stocked up on items or had the proper magic to heal yourself. Where are enemy skills? Or abilities like Runic or steal/mug? Why are we restricted to only using ONE party member? The lack of things like this is why some people are saying the combat sucks. And that the game is kind of soul-less in my opinion.
@@Dabedidabe When I upgraded Magic Burst, I though my spell would upgrade from Fire to Fira to Firaga if I held triangle down but nope, it just made it charge faster (and also something else, I forgot what).
I never understood why his younger brother was running from him??? What was the point? I'm 73% into the game and I just can't force myself to play this game anymore
Yeah they never explain that, I don't know why Joshua never told Clive he's alive especially since Clive was literally being tormented by the idea that he killed his brother.
You didn't like the game and you're free to express it however you like. I'm baffled that people can practically join a cult about something as silly as a game. It's so telling for people who disagree but are incapable of engaging in any meaningful discussion about it. If this game got anything more than a 7.5, standards for triple A games are lower than I thought. Take the combat out of the equation, let's say it's amazing and perfect, the game was not even finished and it shows and is sold as a whole product! I'm surprised the painfully long cutscenes and visuals apparently managed to mask this. It can't be the game of the year nor a 12/10, it's an unfinished product that happens to be fascinating eye candy. Very disappointed because the potential to be a cornerstone for the gaming industry was here. Apparently now, wanting FF to be an RPG, to be properly fleshed out, finished, is asking too much and being overly nostalgic? This is crazy.
There wasn't a single thing about this game that I liked. Side quests are atrocious, and I've seen people defending them as "appropriate for the tone". Not to mention the exp you get for doing them is insultingly low, which makes them not even worth the effort. Areas are dull and empty. The eikon battles are shit and mostly consist of dodging and spamming triangle. The story is as dull as dishwater. The gameplay loop consists of hideaway, perform some menial task to get through a gate, run up to boss, defeat said boss, rinse repeat. Even the last game, whilst having a terrible story had more redeeming qualities than this shitefest. I can't even bring myself to finish it despite being about 80% done. The cringe worthy blind adoration for it is also quite perplexing. I kept saying to myself, there must be something I'm missing. Some aspect of this game that I'm not grasping that will make it click but no, it's just...shit. There's a reason the older titles are so revered.
The problem is people will hype this game up because it did something “different”. Most of the characters die in the story and the characters seem flat and dialogue is terrible when they speak. The shine will wear off in a month and more people will agree with this review.
Yes, I think people need to finally understand that more characters dying, more blood, more violence, depressing settings or pseudo religious drama do not mean it's more mature or "deep". Same with graphics, I'm sure if this game looked like a slightly below average ps4 game, no one would give it more than a 7, mostly for the bombastic concept of the kaiju bosses. Story, gameplay, world, characters... it's all under cooked when looked as a whole.
@@Dabedidabe Probably yes XDDD I can imagine reviewers saying that "the gameplay is outdated" (I mean being overly harsh about it), "style over function", "good story, everything else sucks" kind of arguments all over the place.
I don't think "most" of the characters die, I mean only two people die Cid and Joshua who else? If you mean villains or side characters like Dion then yeah but I wouldn't call that most characters, since Villains usually die in FF games.
@@alenezi989a3 I seriously don’t know if you didn’t finish the game or what, but you missed a couple major characters dying there. Most of the main cast certainly died by the end of the game 🤷🏽♀️ Name a character, and chances are they died 🤣
Couldn’t put it better myself. A justified and detailed review of a FF mainline game trying way too hard to be something that it doesn’t even know what that really is - a sad, disappointing mess for FF fans.
This game is just ugly Ugly characters in alll sense of the world Their personalities are disgusting, their actions are deplorable, they dress in awful clothes and run around in an ugly boring world.
Im probably alone in this, but i finally lost any motivation to finish this game after the Bahamut fight. I hated that fight, 45+ minutes of QTE and flashy cinematics. It just kept dragging on.
Thank you for truly supporting depth and saying the truth on this overhyped mess all the hateful comments are the type to call fast n furious a timeless classic so they are easily entertained The opinion of these individuals hold no strength because you wiped the floor with them with such ease
They traded strategy for spectacles. In a world over-saturated with graphics they have chosen to add to the trash instead of delivering something meaningful. I hope they fix this like they did 14 or maybe the modding community will rescue it. Fix the battle, add life to the world.
Legit though lmao "why use the magic attacks ever" automatically makes you sound so stupid when the insta-charge magic amulet exists. Even outside of that it's a stronger stagger than auto attacks (hence lower damage). Guess bosses are 5minute sponges when you have no idea what you're doing. 8th eikon boss fight took roughly 2-3 minutes outside of cutscenes which is a normal length? I'd love to see proper reviews but it seems either "the best" or "the worst" game ever. So dumb.
@@jessekovach What makes you sound stupid is that you people don't seem to realise that YOU DO NOT even need to dive into the battle system to beat the enemies. There is no requirement to learn it or use it. Thus, its an extremely shallow battle system as nothing in the game forces you to use it.
What I didn't like about FFXVI was political and depressing setting and the cast was just depressed, angry, jaded group of people (Clive reminded me too much of Cloud and Noctis as well) What baffled me the most was something sad happening in the very important part in the story and what kind of music they play? happy, casual music (those who played and finished the game know what I'm talking about). As a long-time fan of the series (I started from FF9 and still love it more than any other FF game), I found it sad that this is the direction it's going in...
The story was the biggest let down for me. The main characters had no flaws, were boring, the story went from game of thrones wannabe to god killing anime stuff. I only liked the easy gameplay and linear dungeons, as i dont have too much time to invest in game as I used to. if good writers pick up the story and make massive changes I could see it on HBO.
Great review. I knew, from the first trailer, that I'd never play this game. Squenix are lost. They convinced themselves that "JRPG" was lesser, and have destroyed the FF name. They need to look at Baldur's Gate 3's release and reclaim the godhead of turn-based RPGs. Great vid. Thanks
For me the issue wasn’t that it’s not turn based, final fantasy in general hasn’t been turn based for several years now. This game was just blah, no rpg elements, no magic system and complete lack of itemization.
Will Squenix learn… finally? After watching this release at almost the same time as Baldur's Gate 3? The world is starved for turn-based, party RPGs. Sqaure Enix has to give up on this westernization of FF and get back to roots and make a classic, bonkers turn-based FF.
Can we discuss the worthless crafting system. Why why are you giving me stuff to use for crafting...when none of the crafting weapons are as good as the named gear. You get a new named weapon after a few missions. Let me upgrade that weapon. It's been like 2 months and I'm only like halfway done. It's so boring. I have to continue with my pixel remasters to remind myself what are good ff games.
Yep, i just got my platinum today and suffered through two playthroughs and came to see if anyone thought it was as garbage as I thought it was. I paid for it new; £70. Im taking it down the game shop for trade tomorrow and getting rid of it, so i will at least make someone money back in it so the sting isn’t so bad. I was going to give it to my dad after I played it but I honestly thought that would be cruel.
Every problem you mentioned with the game I wholeheartedly agree with. This game was boring. It was so infuriating have control taken away from you every 2 minutes for long boring cutscenes. Gameplay was slow and boring and the cutscenes and the story did not carry the game like I think they intended. I wasn’t in the slightest bit interested in the game’s story because the gameplay and combat was boring and the lack of anything to do but complete the game obviously couldn’t string it all together to make it worth investing interest in to the story. ALL the characters are boring and Clive is the worst, most boring, bland character ever. I ended up skipping the scenes because it had no reason to watch them, I didn’t care. There was nothing from the final fantasy series in this game. Everything was stripped away. It’s a wonder why they even called it final fantasy. This is an linear action game with a final fantasy skin. I too gave it 4/10. I would have been a 3/10 but it was marked up for an easy trophy being the only redeemer to this game.
This is why l can't trust reviews anymore. They either show off perfectly cut gameplay and cutscenes/visuals in the best of settings...Or this, where they can't even perform the mechanics the tutorial/prologue explained. It is wishful thinking, but hopefully demos become the norm again.
@midoomdoc2080 I just wanted to believe that this game was going to be good. I didn’t really like what I saw but I was trying to be open minded and it turned out bad for me
@midoomdoc2080 That's why l got interested in it. Specially when they confirmed they had brought on board DMCV developers to work on the combat system, haha. It is actually pretty fun, nowhere near as difficult or complex as an actual DMC game mind you, but it still has plenty of options to pull off cool combos. The story and characters have been great so far too. So not just your eyes, more developers should release demos if they so much believe their product is of top quality.
Great video man. I haven't played the game & I refuse to play it because Square Enix is showing me that they don't care and are catering to people who never play FF or just RPGs over all
Game is painfully mid. Agreed on all points. The one that annoys me the most though is lack of world interactivity and no exploration. After playing ToTK its just insulting how dumbed down this game is. Its literally corridor-trash mobs-boss. I had way more fun with FFVIIR and dare I say even FF15. This should have been a spin-off if anything instead of the mainline entry. SoP is a better FF than this one.
Yeah, I get FFXVI not being everyone’s cup of tea, and while I’m absolutely loving it so far, I still have some criticisms. But scoring it the same as the Gollum game is inexcusable lmao
Honestly Have to disagree about the combat portion of this. When looking at your combat. I noticed you never chained magic burst after your basic combo. Torgal has precise calls that lets him do limit breaks. You can discover all this if you go into the training room and tick the box that says magic burst timing and torgal timing. The skill tree is very generous with its refund system and once you Master a move you can put it on different elements. Then for example if you fill the requirements of counters or other moves they refill timing gets cut by half. I can see how you missed theses aspects but if you dont actually dive into the system then Yes the fights are going to take a long time. By mashing just square.
my problem with everything you mentioned is that all of what u suggested still boils down to the same result. very little reward, no substance. playing with your food more wildly or plating it different still makes it taste the same.
@queenmarisa if his argument is "I don't enjoy the game as much because fights take a long time," yes fights will take much much longer when you don't engage with the system. It would be one thing if the game doesn't give you a solution to the problem. But it does. That's like me saying dig a hole, and you can do it however you like. You decide to use your bare hands when there's a shovel, and now you're mad at me because you chose to use your bare hands.
@@EverythingKeem my counter argument to this is that the game needed ways to play with your food because it would be boring otherwise. Personally i got thru the game just fine without the "advanced" combo stringing, but even when i started to dable with it along with my husband, it didnt really do anything more for the game. They copied DMC so hard with this game and even got the combat director from it, but they didnt even bring in the stylish gauge? total missed opportunity. One of the big features about why you want to "String" big combos in a DMC game is not just for the thrill, but also to get a good score and stylish grade. FF16 does not have that, there for there is really no need for it other then to be showy to yourself. if the game actually challenged you and required a level of effort to do them, then i would be singing a different tune for sure
@@EverythingKeem also the shovel analogy is greatly flawed. what u mean to say is that one person is using the same digging strokes with the shovel, while the other guy is dancing and singing while hes doing the digging strokes
The more time passes the more I dislike this game, and after having so much high hopes that this will be a proper return of the franchise. The team behind FFXIV made such a great game that someone like me who hates mmos would not only play the game for 10 years but actually love it. FF16 is just really sad and disappointing on every level.
I love everything about this game up until the final boss fight and ending left so much more to be desired. It felt empty, and somewhat meaningless. I finished the game and didn’t feel attached like I was at the beginning of the game. Perhaps we will get a DLC to unfold a few things and give us some closures.
I like this FF16. I would not rate my experience as a 4/10, but it's the one Final Fantasy game that I've connected with the least. The eikon battles had me laughing with excitement. Odin and Bahamut are two of my favorite FF boss fights. Some of my favorite FF songs are from 16. But it's just too brooding to inspire any deeper thoughts from me. I didn't come to Final Fantasy for Game of Thrones Dark Fantasy aesthetics, I loved the colorful and sometimes silly worlds of previous games. I really hope Final Fantasy doesn't lean further into FF16's direction, and I worry what its success might mean for future games.
I thought the eikon fights were boring, too long, too easy, messy, a button mash fest and to be frank laughable. Some of the dialogue and the characters inside screaming were just ridiculous and played so, so basic like something from older games. There was parts where they shot their powers like machine guns. The phoenix vs bahamut or ifrit vs Titan for example. It even gave you a crosshair at some points for god sake. When you were the phoenix fighting bahamut, it was so badly done that the phoenix essentially became a plane in an old arcade style game, rapid firing shots and shooting down projectiles with even a barrel roll evade. It was so lazily done. They overdid it with the two powers fighting one another, when both eikons are shooting their powers and there is a scene were both powers wrestle and fight, pushing against one another until one overdoes the other. That was used at least twice in every eikon fight. It’s so old and overused. Or the eikon holding up their shield trying to hold off the enemies attack, while they get blasted and act as if they are struggling to hold it back the power. It’s so bleh and outdated and cheesy. The fights were far too easy, went on too long, and was the same old, same old with whole, ‘the bad guy is too strong and overpowers you at the beginning of the fight, until the power awakens making you strong enough too win narrative’ is overused and is truly awful. It was even overused in the game. This happened in every single fight. I’d have to say the eikon fights were probably the worst part of the game and were just underwhelming. You didn’t even get to use your eikon’s signature movesets like hellfire. It was just a button mashing slog requiring zero skill. I’d say the eikon fights and the combat together were the worst part of the game and essentially because there is nothing else in the game, then for me it’s fair to say that the entirety of the gameplay sucked. I agree with you though, I really hope final fantasy doesn’t go down this road, but of course it will though.
@@Belisarius536 I actually liked the arcade-y feel of the eikon fights, that was part of the appeal. Mechanically I didn't think they needed to be too deep, the main game is already a fun enough game to learn. They were moments where I could take a break from the combat, and change it up for a lightshow from a toku show. Odin and the Eikon battles are the two things, I actually want to replay. They have the exact OTT feels of watching a kaiju movie, it's nonsense but a real fun time if you aren't not looking for something deeper. But I agree, even the main game is nothing special, it tried to be a platinum game but took too many concessions for the old school RPG fans. I didn't expect it to be amazing combat, but FF are rarely just about the combat. The gameplay loop was not there either for a Final Fantasy game. I still have hope that next game is different. Final Fantasy has takes inspirations from everywhere, Lightning modeling for Louis Vuitton is not as outlandish as it might seem if look back at series history. Dark fantasy doesn't work well with that modern fashion sensibilities and other inspirations that the director's pull from. FFXIV is still has a high fantasy aesthetic and extremely popular, I don't see that fully leaving the series.
I really disliked the end of the prologue. It's supposed to be shocking and edgy and bombastic and "adult" and whatnot but it just came across as gratuitous, ostentatious and kind of juvenile really. Seeing a child getting maimed and killed (in effect) is a real narrative low blow, at least when you're dealing with a fantasy story. It might be appropriate in a war movie or something (if handled sensitively), but Grave of the Fireflies this game ain't. And then within minutes you're mindlessly hacking away with a sword at an unharmed woman. But everyone swears a lot which must mean it's a game for grown ups. Not for me, ta. Back to Horizon.
Good review. Personally I think 4/10 is a bit too harsh. I'd say it is between a 6 and a 7. Definitely not up there. Some parts are great. Overall lacking. But I also don't regret it. I liked it but feel that most of its potential is wasted.
@thegamecrater Agreed! I think the bosses were absolute spectacles and the world looks super pretty. Jill is a fine character and I wish we had gotten more of her
@@solidwisdom8749 No overall I'd rate 15 about the same but for different reasons. Combat was okish. The world was interesting but empty. The boyband at least had some funny interactions and some banter but it definitely lacked some balancing characters. Lunafreya was awful. Honestly after watching the movie I liked her character A LOT more. But from the game alone I didn't care for her and her death scene wasn't earned at all. The movie also showed what happened in the capitol which is such crucial information to the game. When I first played it I didn't know there was a movie and that morning after you just get a bit of exposition from a newspaper but no answers. Absolutely horrible. But I will still admit that despite all that I did have fun playing it.
@@Dudldom nah 15 just had more flaws to me than 16. I dunno it felt kinda odd like how start of the game your pushing your car that died in the middle of the road or something. I also hated how in 15 they didn’t use the main boss battle theme very often. In 16 they use it prety much every boss battle. Overall i dunno, 16 was a better game
Its 2023, why can't consoles perform 4k 60fps? This is unacceptable. Only one playable character? What were they thinking? This game is a quick cash grab and nothing more. Easy pass here.
Bought the ps4 just for ff15 and promised i would never play a new ff till honest reviews came out. While im glad i held to that im saddened at what square has done to this once proud line of games. Guess ill stick with replaying 10 and 12
Damn, after watching this... I still like the game, love the story, wish we had elemental reactions, and wish even more that the RPG aspects excluding side quests were gone. Here's to hoping FF17 has more FF16 but even better!
Please do not compare Witcher 3 to FF16. The combat in Witcher 3 is probably the worst one in any RPGs I have played. The character model are not good enough to yield proper combat actions. The attack and defense are not good enough to yield powerful and satisfying responses to players as they are lack of proper physics and geometry (Ironically Witcher 3 does have excellent physics in its environment). They are playable but they are just powerless. They are neither real nor inspiring. The programmers for Witcher 3's combat system are lazy. The game has decent real-world motion capture but the programmers just think it is fine and don't want to fine tune it. But it may not just be Witcher 3's fault. Almost all western RPGs have the same problem.
Witcher 3's combat is its weakest aspect. In terms of combat fluidity nothing beats fromsoftware. Ff16 combat is good but it is meant to be fun while not punishing.
I was hyped on this game for the first 5 hours or so, but the more I played, I slowly began to see how shallow this game is. This is ridiculously overrated.
This is the most shallow game SE has EVER tried to pass off as mainline FF. I honestly cant believe how overrated it is. I love action combat, but when the first Kingdom Hearts game offers more depth and variety than the modern 2023 "Masterpiece" it makes me sad to see how far things are devolving and how much the lowest common denominator are lapping it up straight from Yoshi Ps nutsack. I dont see how anyone can call the game an objective 10/10 when the game as a whole feels half assed and lazily designed. They clearly used FF14s design philosophy of "reuse, recycle, reskin" and just slapped next gen graphics on it with a serviceable story and thats IT. No meaningful side content, no level design like puzzles or similar AT ALL, no secrets to find like dungeons or super bosses etc. Just marker to marker questing and shallow combat where you fight the same 8 enemies that have been recolored and renamed yet dont behave any differently AT ALL on repeat for 40 hours. Literally nothing else to the gameplay at all.
FF16 is a great game. But not final fantasy. No turn based aside, the game is flat out an action game. Its no longer a JRPG. FF has always been a JRPG. They should have done a hybrid of action and turn based with playable party members etc. It fails as a FF game for me. Right now im more excited for FF7 rebirth. If we got another Octopath traveler game or a FF spinoff with the classic elements that made FF into the franchise it was. Bringing in the team that worked on FF14 was a mistake. It just doesn't work. Great action game but horrible FF game. Square approached this game the same way Ubisoft did with the assassin's creed franchise when they switched from proper Assassin's creed to open world adventure RPG game. This same thing applies to how they treated FF16. Completely throwing away what made FF into FF in the first.
I like how everybody speaking about racism....since it is based in mediaval europe...especially ...medieval central europe /Poland ..czechia ..slovakia and hungary...during the austria-hungarian empire(especially where it is Kamil from tabor.... Kamil..is the common name here ...and Tábor is the city in czechia....../ ....probably people calling racist probably never been in those areas... I will give you a hint...we are 90% white....and mostly blond and blue eyed :D...
Believe it or not, history records black people being present in the medieval days. Even GOT where it takes inspiration from has black people. Yet the developers were fine to use the wakanda pose for Dionbs army. Not even an NPC is black. While i don't think its a ciritcism of a game thats fantasy, they did include the gay agenda. had they not included that, i would not even care one way or another.
believe it or not...not in whole europe...but just in parts which colonise the world...we are talking about a completely different part of europe...trust me I am from that part...I know the history of my Country...the same with witcher....Basically area which I believe they took the inspiration... dont have the sea .... didnt colonise ....but was shield to conquest turks and clans from asia... if the central europe or astria- hungarian empire fell...all those clans from asia gotl clear path europe like france ...etc... so you are right about black people...but as I said..setting is different...
The dev team multiple times throughout the hype for this game have stated that they’re making an action focused game with some rpg elements. I feel like alot of peoples reviews are judging the game on what it never set out to be . And your combat gameplay wasn’t good you can get through most action games just mashing ya button but if you won’t be doing “good” . Hence why it’s probably taking you so long to get through bosses
Just because they made a half assed, shallow, lazily designed game with almost zero variety on purpose doesnt give it a pass. Has nothing to do with what combat style it has. In all honesty it feels like its not finished.
The game is trash at least in assassin's creed it has intense depth and customisation while here with this Walmart dante that is so overpowered this is a trash version of dmc just accept it just improve your standards
This is not in any way a good game, though. And I say that as someone who has played one Far Cry game (a little bit) and who has never so much as touched an Assassin's Creed game. Instead, I've been a lifelong fan of FF-even the ones that many people don't like, such as XIII and XV.
As always the answer to if the game is good or bad is somewhere i between what people say not the best but not the worst though the main story does carry it the exploration and side quests suck and the combat would be much better if like ff7 remake over all still not complete trash
Tremendously disappointing? A soulless mess? Its almost as if you didn't play the game or don't like RPG games in general. It's fantastic in every way. A solid 10/10 and a true FF game to live up to the expectations.
@@yavvivvay Last time i checked RPG stands for Role Playing Game, You are taking on the role of Clive and his journey. Its pretty straight forward mate.
@@AltoAtik In my eyes its a great game so far. I'm taking my time and enjoying the world and story. Much like FF15 which is a fantastic FF aswell in my opinion
Yeah its a very shallow game that pretty much boils down to lots and lots and lots of combat with very little else to experience or explore. No party system, bot really an open world, exploration sucks, rpg elements are a joke, combat is really easy, every battle lasts a little too long, game wants to be game of thrones meets witcher. If you like the combat, i guess you might like the rest. But this is my least favorite final fantasy, ever.
@@lsaacthecraftsman I disagree on all counts. XIII is arguably bad for a lot of the same reasons but I care way more about the main characters and I enjoy the combat more in XIII
Wow, there's finally a review that recognizes this as the 6/10 it truly is (at best). I might try it out when it's sub 20 dollars, but come on. It's inferior DmC with cutscenes that last too long, and "epic' battles where you push square to punch.
With only two Eikons you can already pull off crazier things than anything Dante could in DmC with his color-coded and restrictive attacks. FFXVI has a lot of flaws, combat isn't one of them.
@@LordofLions the demo was 3 hours worth of content. The game is generally the one 10 minute loop it offers on repeat. I have seen enough of the combat and story to know that it is not worth MY 70 dollars. Story heavy, linear (even in open sections) and limited meaningful RPG elements. It isn't hard to tell this game is a middleground game. I will say a 7 because the production values, but as a GAME. Eh. I've played "10/10" games. This ain it chief.
"An old-school Xbox JRPG that didn't understand how best to appeal to western sensibilities" is such a pathetic line. This actually reeks of mid-2000's reviews of amazing JRPGs that would always get criticized for being "too Japanese", just incredibly close-minded and borderline xenophobic.
@@thegamecrater the relationship between clive and jill is a quality love story and Clive in general is one of the best protags in the series. The fianl battle is one of the best in the series. and the music is spot on throughout.
I like the time before this crap when you saw a game that was coming out and it peeked you interested and you got it and you loved it or hated it and it was on you now you listen to other people talking about a game and you listen to them and not your self if u like it or not because people lie and say crazy ass shit just to get views and a lot of people listen and miss out on a good game do your self a favor and juge your self when there's a game coming out that i reality want i will get it because i want it and ill juge for my self if i was happy or sad with it iv been playing games since i was 5 and was born in 1980 and yes im an old gamer and im not going to have someone else if i should get the game or not its called having your own mind
Love the review, it confirmed all my suspicion that this franchise has been dead a long time ago already. Definitely earned my subbed, please make more
The franchise isn’t dead, it just had to adapt. I love the older turn-based games but they can’t stick to this concept forever. It is expected that modern games will focus more on epic cutscenes and combat than story and this game does it very well. Franchises can not stagnate and the sooner we accept this, the less gatekeeping we will have.
If I had the ability to create a game like this I would have zero side quest. I would focus only on the main story and music and combat and main characters or party members and have the world and story be built around them and why they are doing what they are doing. I would have open zones that you see somewhat in this game because I really see no need for an open world in a game like this that focuses only on the main story. I would have enemy respawns often and close to each other so you don't have to run a mile to get into the next fight. I would have enemy AI super aggressive even more so then a game like Devil May Cry to the point the enemy would be at the players throat at all times not letting them breath. I wouldn't have QTEs but only cutscenes when a boss transforms into his next form and then straight back into the action. I would have music that ramps up as the fight gets more and more crazy in boss fights. The ending boss would be a beast to try and fight even when the player is maxed out on moves and attacks. There wouldn't be any stunning bosses giving the player long amounts of time to attack them they would be just as active and aggressive as the player making it super hard to get behind them or get very many hits in without getting hit yourself. You would have to use strategy and learn their attack patterns through many deaths or just luck. I would have dodging and parrying like this game. I would have easy, normal, hard, and extreme modes from the get go of the game so you wouldn't have to unlock them. The enemies would be just as aggressive in easy as they would be in the most extreme difficulties the only thing I would be changed is enemy health and attack strength. In easy enemies could beat on the player for long amounts of time but do very little damage but on hard or extreme just 5 to 10 hits would kill the player because the enemy AI would be on the player none stop forcing the player to learn when to dodge and when to attack. Weapon and attack upgrades would be easy to learn without to many other options to scroll through but feel enjoyable at the same time. I would just rip out all the junk that is cumbersome and keep the things that keep a player coming back to play the game multiple times If not infinite times but still be enjoyable every time they play.
@@mathieugirouard4192 I wish this "new audience" SE has been chasing would leave FF alone. Id rather the games be lower budget, but better designed. So sick of all the budget going to visual areas instead of making a good game. Its sad the FF games on snes, ps1 and 2 have more to them than the 2023 AAA game. Has zero to do with the combat style too. Its just a barebones as fuck game
@@Eversoul12Totally agree. I've been wanting FF to kind of return to that as well. But I think at this point SE is too far gone. FF16 is damn near just an interactive movie at this point. I feel like the more the series progresses, it'll just keep gravitating towards visuals and less interesting gameplay. Been an FF fan for around 23 years now. If SE said a literal "Final" Final Fantasy was being released, I wouldn't even be upset. The series has become kind of a walking corpse at this point in my opinion.
How is It more than 4 ? What depth is there Final fantasy games always had deep customisation and freedom while this is a reject devil may cry it is what it is and unfortunately many individuals like yourself can't see that
Atleast it was better than ff15. Way better battle system in this and story and characters. The highs in this game is so much that I would not rate it anything less than a 8
To me its a low 7. The lack of any kind of variety killed it for me. I dont care how awesome a combat system is if there arent any interesting enemies to fight. If your enemy design doesnt push you to try new things, then your combat is ultimately a shallow experience. Sure i get that you can change skills at any time, but just because you CAN force yourself to drown in a shallow pool doesnt mean youre in any danger of doing so
Well the demo i felt like it was a 7. Not as much polish it seemed but eventually the game got more engaging i liked it, i feel its definitely got its good moments but at the same time missing that true final fantasy feel in lot of ways which youll be ok with it or not i guess
Well, my review of that review is a 4/10. The review does have some good points. For example. 1) Elemental damage would have been great 2) The game does have sequences where it is slow and boring 3) The sidequests are tedious and not exciting at all. 4) The world though quite decent in size, feels a bit empty and exploration is pointless. No secret dungeons or ruins to explore. However, the review clearly lacks the insight to understand the following: 1) The combat is no dull or a button-masher. The game clearly explains the concept of stagger, parry and dodge. It is up to you to use your abilities to get to the stagger sequence quickly and for that you do need to know which ones to use. The game also has some abilities that work better with certain types of enemies, e.g. heatwave. The boss fights are not similar and require you to learn their attack patterns. 2) The story has a lot of potential after Clive’s personal revenge quest. I don’t know how it will turn out but I am 20+ hours in this game and there are some things that I want an answer for. Further to that, the game’s brutal and sad nature is emotionally motivating. The characters are not fully developed sure, but their interactions with Clive are decent. 3) The soundtrack is gorgeous. Maybe not on par with FFVX or Nier Automata, but gorgeous. The boss fight theme is epic and for some fights it changes to something more trancy or electronic. 4) The reviewers need to realise that the characters Clive meets (aside from some exemptions) are not old friends of his and it is obvious that they won’t be bundling up laughing and having overall banter. 5) Also the reviewers need to realise what the game wants to do - Because it is rare a game will excel at everything. The purpose of the game is to tell a cinematic story focused on Clive’s path and the overall drama unfolding in Valisthea. ------------ Fans of the franchise need to realise that franchises need to evolve and adapt. Old-school JRPG games are not the norm anymore, the emphasis is on action and cinematics. I have been playing FF since 1998 and I love the games of this era. But I can understand the need for SE to try something new, a company can not stagnate. And compared to the atrocities like FFXIII and FFXV, they did a bang on job. If you don’t enjoy the game, that’s absolutely fine. But it’s silly to think companies need to conform to YOUR expectations and standards with every game they release. So cast aside your gatekeeping please.
gatekeeping is important, because without it, we allowed our favorite rpg company become somthing it isnt, and as a result, we now get shallow cinematic movie games that cost 70$
saying that they should conform to "specifically" me is so fucking reductive and i intellectually dishonest. its more like people LIKE me, u know, the people that actually buy and support their games? this game didnt bring in new fans, they arent gonna go back and buy any if their pixel remasters, and they certainly arent gonna buy octopath traveller
There wasn't a single thing about this game that I liked. Side quests are atrocious, and I've seen people defending them as "appropriate for the tone". Not to mention the exp you get for doing them is insultingly low, which makes them not even worth the effort. Areas are dull and empty. The eikon battles are shit and mostly consist of dodging and spamming triangle. The story is as dull as dishwater. The gameplay loop consists of hideaway, perform some menial task to get through a gate, run up to boss, defeat said boss, rinse repeat. Even the last game, whilst having a terrible story had more redeeming qualities than this shitefest. I can't even bring myself to finish it despite being about 80% done. The cringe worthy blind adoration for it is also quite perplexing. I kept saying to myself, there must be something I'm missing. Some aspect of this game that I'm not grasping that will make it click but no, it's just...shit.
This game is just ugly Ugly characters in alll sense of the world Their personalities are disgusting, their actions are deplorable, they dress in awful clothes and run around in an ugly boring world.
The game is a masterpiece. Story, cutscenes, combat, RPG. GG. What you see is what you get. No endless puzzles and gear farming and collecting and all that stuff. Including Eikons as actual abilities your main character can learn and use was absolute genius. Once again, FF taking risks and trying something new. Everytime I got a new Eikon it felt so satisfying. The more gore and bloody turn was also a very bold move that gives the game a whole different atmosphere than all previous ones.Also, replaying the game in FF Mode + going for all the endgame stuff and platinum is also very fulfilling.
Id actually enjoyed the game enough to give it an 8.0. The story, the combat and the spectacle of the Eikon fights and its music. I did want a little bit more from the characters and sidequest but I dint have many gripes with them. I do admit that going straight to new game+ after finishing is not worth for just an upgrade to the accessories, there are stronger enemies in some areas but most are handled with the same strategies I had in the end of the game. If I would be looking from the start to have other things to do than going straight trough the story then I would have rated the game lower.
You know there are scores of us as gamers that do not give two single flying shits about the music. I play with the music turned to ZERO. Every game. Every time. Because the only fucking thing it's EVER good for is distracting me from learning anything about the game, and how to beat it's mechanics. NOT the best way to introduce your review. : /
Agree on some points/HARD disagree on others. Really only major gripes so far are the lack of hard mode from the beginning and the side content/exploring feeling unrewarding. I’m only 70%ish through the game so maybe it’s a bit better at end but if they improved that it could be my favorite game in the series. I’m totally sucked into the story right now. I guess my only one other complaint is the pacing at points. Story/Gameplay/most of the characters have been fantastic so far.
people who think they are the authority on what "makes a FF game" are legit so pretentious it's laughable. the amount of times the series has reinvented itself is kind of the selling point. funny thing too, is that the game has far more nuances regarding its combat and story that these people STILL dont understand. if you take the combat at face value and just spam one button to win...good for you? you're missing out. if you took the story at literal face value and dont understand ANY of the allegorical points it was trying to make. you're missing out
people that say "final fantasy has reinvented itself" dont know wtf they are talking about. the core fundamentals of ff combat specifically since that's what everryone eludes to never changed until this point. Rven 15, 12, 7remake that are mor action rpg oriented still maintained the ablity to customize not only a main party character, put each and every member to suit the need for the situation. Class, materia, draw, ect still allows the player to express themselves as much as they want to while having them maintain and plan properly for the situation ahead of them. You know what ff16 did, Allow you to mash. no true customization that affects anything. new items gained is so negatable it doesnt matter. Party really doesnt matter in the grand scheme of things. There is no true expression. like foh with that bs. the game is dawg water and sales and mixed reviews shows it
FF16 in a nut shell. Hi im white. confident and conceded, the best the world has to offer. Never humble always oppressing. I look down on everyone. if its not white, i ain’t touching it. The burden of greatness is mine to bear. Know your place.I am righteousness! and righteousness shall prevail! 😂🤭
Finally a review that states the truth! 👍
It’s not truth if it’s subjective
Exactly. This is how we view the game, whereas others may feel it’s a 10 and that’s okay. That’s the beauty of gaming! ❤️
*your truth, not mine or the majority of players
Its not the only one, Skill up, Jim Sterling and Matty plays they are all big youtubers and all of them were very disappointed and have negative reviews that all criticize basically the same points about FF16 too
@@thegamecraterpinning the one comment that agrees with you is not a good look
Baldurs gate 3 (like it or not) has shown that turn based game play is not only still viable but opens up developers to be more creative. Hope this shows squenix that turn based isn’t old or dead
Persona 5 showed that turn-based is not only viable but opens up devs to be more creative years before BG3 did, and that comparison is more fitting considering PS5 is a JRPG. Persona 3 Reload and MetaPhor ReFantazio will likely do the same as well. Hell, some of Squeenix's own games, like Octopath Traveller 2, show that turn-based combat is still more tham viable in the modern era.
Atlus is crushing it when it comes to making great turn-based JRPGs, while FF and Square Enix have been losing their way for quite a while now when it comes to the mainline FF games.
@@jimmythegamer2231 JRPGs are a niche that never penetrated the wider market then BG3. BG3s effect on the entire industry is undeniable. Wether a game has done prior to this is of no consequence - nothing has hit the entire market like BG3
Age has nothing to do with relevance. It is an old system, but it works.
@@jimmythegamer2231 Bg3 is not a jrpg it's a crpg. That begs to be played in multiplayer persona 5 is high-school life manager attached to a turn based rpg. Too much busy work for me to fall in love with it but I can understand others loving it.
I’m waiting for the DLC to drop so I can play as Vergil 😂
😂😂😂
XDDDDDDD I wish I could give you more likes XDD
The mediocre story has been getting high praise from so many other reviews and it is absolutely baffling to me. Thank you for verbalizing the fact that the story in this game is absolute drivel.
Same here it annoys me to no end that everyone is praising the story. Everyone must be distracted by the visuals or something. There's so many things that don't make sense, like why they decide to destroy the crystals, why Joshua had the same black cloak as the guy in his head, why the political intrigue parts are even there, travel time/distances... It's bonkers
Which is sad, because it was supposed to be selling point. this was may first and ''final'' fantasy.
I'm sure you have made new york times best sellers.
@@ganshrio7336 Ah yes, we're not experts in the field, so we can't criticize the product...
My entire FF 16 exploration experience:
Game: “We think you could use another sharp fang”
Me: “Well, umm, thanks but I already have 1000 of tho…”
Game: “WE THINK YOU CAN USE ANOTHER SHARP FANG.”
😂😂
Oh yeah the treasure chests full of nothing but crafting materials or gil, in older FF games when you found chest it had either weapon, armor, accessory or even key item.
What's that, champ? You trekked way out here and killed that big monster guarding that chest? Here's 2 gil.
@@N7SpecterElite I’d love to know the logic behind rewarding the player with single digit gil. That’s another thing that’s happened to me so many times while playing this game.
LOL so true. I didn't understand why items like that are so generously available, when you end up barely using most of those resources. I thought for sure there would be some end game item exchange system or other use for these items...nope!
Whether or not this game is “not my FF” I can’t imagine playing 40-50+ hours doing nothing but swinging a sword and blasting magic attacks. Sure there’s probably a decent story here, but I can go watch TV for a decent story
New vs old don’t even matter here, this game just seems so shallow. I’ve watched hours of it, and it all just looks like a hack n slash. Sure, there’s Chocobos and all that, I suppose it’s technically Final Fantasy, but it’s the furthest thing from an RPG it could possibly be. It’s not even as varied as Bayonetta or DMC in its actual combat….
Anyone who says this is a masterpiece or whatever…I guess I can’t necessarily say they’re wrong, but just a little too easy to please I guess lol
It's not an RPG there no RPG elements whatsoever, it's more like babies first action game, the combat is really good I mean as good as games like Bayonetta or DMC but the game is so mindlessly easy that there's literally no point at trying to get better. I love action games so much but it's so disappointingly easy I keep wondering why did they go this route if they didn't want to commit? I mean yes action games are linear but the combat is fun you have combos and ratings and you need to do well to get better rating and getting better unlocks weapons or upgrades or nets you rewards to buy things but in FF16 there's no point there's no rewards no rating system and nothing to unlock. Even the upgrades are so simple and cheap that you can unlock everything without much effort. Nothing in this game requires effort and it makes the game so bland.
The Yoshi-P cultists are mad in the comments XD.
Ive been done with those cultists way before 16 ever even came out. Theyre a big reason FF14 has gotten complacent in design and the reason why 16 was designed with the sane philosophy of "reskin, reuse, and recycle".
they can’t handle criticism that’s why.
Who gives a shit about Yoshi? I look at it like this, some people like the game and some people don’t. Clearly more people like the game than that don’t. Which, if you understand anything means that the game was a success… at the end of the day who gives a shit? If you don’t like it, move on… like I said, in another comment, you can’t please everyone and when you try to please everyone you end up pleasing no one. With that being said, the game was a huge success! Whether you like it or not.
@@midnightstarlis6405lol ohh no.. someone please protect me from all these lame peoples criticism! Who gives a shit about your criticism? Many people like the game a few people didn’t. The game was clearly a success when you look at the numbers. And there is plenty more Contant that is positive about the game then is negative. But that’s to be expected with anything. I, like many other, thought the game was awesome. Who are you to tell them it wasn’t? From the looks of it you can’t handle reality. The game was a success, whether you like it or not.
@@Apostle734 it was ass
There is something worse than a bad game and that is a soulless game.
You guys are aware that FFXVI is a reskin of FFXIV with action combat and kaiju battle right? Innovation at its finest! FFXIV is a 10 year old game btw! They got the biggest budget to make a game and just decided to play it safe, because they know FFXIV works.
I lost any admiration I got for the CBU3 team. The best part of the game is the combat and they didn't even make it!
Yeah, it's sad. Some very talented members of CBU3 have done great things in the past, but they absolutely refuse to innovate (even when given a blank slate to work with, as they had in FFXVI). It makes me sad for the current state, and near future of FFXIV, as they clearly have no intent to shake up what has become an incredibly stale and outdated formula... and so, all the potential it has to be something greater goes completely waste.
You hack, do you have any proof of this??
FF16 is covered in Yoshi-P and his team’s worst tendencies. In FF14, all the moments of spontaneous player expression like builds, ability crafting, weapons/armor with meaningful gameplay implications, narrative choices, open world exploration and meaningful character progression were slowly removed from the game over the course of his tenure culminating in the most sterile, sanitized and inoffensive experience possible.
Any point in the game, any single system that might introduce ANY level of friction, like choosing between weapons in way that is more complex than “bigger # more gooder” is cut out and replaced with the veneer of depth.
FF16 is all of his worst impulses magnified. Watching layered and gorgeous areas in FF14 like Ul’dah, Gridania or the Sea Of Clouds be replaced with the flat, soulless and empty landscapes like the Ruby Sea or Kholusia is depressing.
The dungeons went from nearly designed with real exploration in ARR and HW, to straight shot hall ways with nothing in them besides the same trash mob-trash mob-trash mob-boss- cycle for 3 expansions straight.
This is reflected even in the community the game cultivates. The idea you can ever tell someone “hey you should actually equip your job stone, you’re level 70 and doing no damage” is a huge no no because, once again, any friction is bad.
It’s no surprise that after 49 hours in FF16, none of these issues are remedied and are instead amplified. The side-quests are literally marked with + signs because they know they are so dreadfully awful that you’ll skip em and miss key upgrades unless telegraphed to do them.
The open world is empty just like in 14, filled with insultingly shitty “5 Gil” drops and sharp fangs that you’ll have 80000 of by the time you finish the game because you can’t craft anything with them. It’s fake exploration. They are comically big beams of shiny light coming out of the ground to trigger your natural gaming instinct and dopamine release, but after the 20th magicked ash, it is a complete waste of time to pick anything up. You can literally never pick up a single item and your experience will not be even 1% different than someone who picks up EVERY item.
The game literally treats you like a toddler and hands you the best weapon in the game after every boss fight.
FF16 was Squares reaction to the flops that were 13 and 15. They threw the project at Creative Business Unit 3 and said “you fixed ffxiv when it flopped, do it again please” so yoshi just did what worked for his MMO. It was the safest possible decision driven by fear of another flop permanently killing the franchise. Ironically enough, ff16 sales have flopped. I never want to see devs hard work be a failure because clearly so much effort went into this game, but I’m glad they at least wont be incentivized to take all the wrong lessons from this game when making FF17.
FF15 had issues, but it’s issue was biting off more than it can chew and that is 100x more commendable than 16. You can feel what they were reaching for with 15, it comes through in the design. It has charm and character.
16 is boiled chicken. It’s there. It’s calories.
It did what it set out to do INCREDIBLY well, it just didn’t set out to do very much.
Good post, agree with most everything but ffxiv while it is watered down and painfully safe, is still enjoyable. 16 has no redeeming factors. Nothing cool to earn or work towards like xiv and every other rpg pretty much
Ffxiv has amazing classes with unique gameplay. Ffxvi has nothing.
Great post
Best take on this crap game yet.
Great post. Big agree.
There HAS to be a middle ground between the grinder that is FFXI and the walk in the park FFXIV is in terms of an FF mmo. That needle is either cranked all left or all right .
If only they didn’t slap the final fantasy name on it…
Either that or didn't make it a mainline title. I feel like people would be more accepting to the game or call out more of the flaws. The game is by no means perfect.
Im at a loss on how it got such high scores ff16 isnt a bad game its just a game nothing special just a complete soulless experience that in my opinion doesnt deserve the name sake ff9 remains my favorite ff of all time ff16 looks pretty sometimes but mostly its putting me asleep with its forced mundane side storys
FF9 is such a beautiful game! Definitely my favorite!
Idk... FF16 doesn't feel like a FF game at all. Not even FF15 made me feel this way... Tbh I love FF15, no more than 9, but still feels like a FF game.
It is really frustrating!
The most generic battle system to date in a FF title. Look it sparkles and its all it does. So sad.
And if you don't like it, it's not because it might be poorly designed or have some loopholes or you just don't enjoy it... no no no, it's because "you don't know how to play" or "you don't engage with the system as you should!". Is this a cult?
@@Stervelar"BuT yOu HAvE tO Use MagIC BuRst". So deep, right? xD
I love the videos on reddit that want to show how great the combo potential is. It's always in training mode with an infinite hp single target. It's just not possible to do that stuff in the game, because normal enemies die too fast and bosses can't be juggled. So silly.
@@Dabedidabe I agree with you. I hate that comeback personally. Even with Magic Burst and all that, it's still just mindless action combat.
People either haven't played the old games or have forgotten about a lot of the mechanics from old titles. Remember casting reflect on yourself and casting magic on yourself to have it reflect back at the enemy for x2 damage? Then having to rely on healing items because healing magic would reflect on enemies too?
Or using elemental weaknesses to do more damage? If you attacked enemies with the same attribute, they'd recover that amount of damage done? Oh wait, that doesn't exist in this one because that system isn't in this one.
Where are status effects? None of the enemies outside of bosses even pose a threat compared to how some in past titles would. Malboro's bad breath would cast almost every bad effect on the party. Frogs would use "frog jab" and make your life hell. Lol. You had to make sure you were either stocked up on items or had the proper magic to heal yourself.
Where are enemy skills? Or abilities like Runic or steal/mug? Why are we restricted to only using ONE party member?
The lack of things like this is why some people are saying the combat sucks. And that the game is kind of soul-less in my opinion.
@@Dabedidabe When I upgraded Magic Burst, I though my spell would upgrade from Fire to Fira to Firaga if I held triangle down but nope, it just made it charge faster (and also something else, I forgot what).
I never understood why his younger brother was running from him??? What was the point?
I'm 73% into the game and I just can't force myself to play this game anymore
Believe me, you won't miss anything by not finishing the game.
Stopped after odin. Haven't finished it
Yeah they never explain that, I don't know why Joshua never told Clive he's alive especially since Clive was literally being tormented by the idea that he killed his brother.
You didn't like the game and you're free to express it however you like. I'm baffled that people can practically join a cult about something as silly as a game. It's so telling for people who disagree but are incapable of engaging in any meaningful discussion about it. If this game got anything more than a 7.5, standards for triple A games are lower than I thought. Take the combat out of the equation, let's say it's amazing and perfect, the game was not even finished and it shows and is sold as a whole product! I'm surprised the painfully long cutscenes and visuals apparently managed to mask this.
It can't be the game of the year nor a 12/10, it's an unfinished product that happens to be fascinating eye candy. Very disappointed because the potential to be a cornerstone for the gaming industry was here. Apparently now, wanting FF to be an RPG, to be properly fleshed out, finished, is asking too much and being overly nostalgic? This is crazy.
There wasn't a single thing about this game that I liked. Side quests are atrocious, and I've seen people defending them as "appropriate for the tone". Not to mention the exp you get for doing them is insultingly low, which makes them not even worth the effort.
Areas are dull and empty. The eikon battles are shit and mostly consist of dodging and spamming triangle.
The story is as dull as dishwater. The gameplay loop consists of hideaway, perform some menial task to get through a gate, run up to boss, defeat said boss, rinse repeat. Even the last game, whilst having a terrible story had more redeeming qualities than this shitefest.
I can't even bring myself to finish it despite being about 80% done. The cringe worthy blind adoration for it is also quite perplexing. I kept saying to myself, there must be something I'm missing. Some aspect of this game that I'm not grasping that will make it click but no, it's just...shit. There's a reason the older titles are so revered.
The combat is boring. Simplistic, with fake combos. Fake variaty. Just a succession of boring abilities.
12/10 hallway simulator game of thrones knock off
The problem is people will hype this game up because it did something “different”. Most of the characters die in the story and the characters seem flat and dialogue is terrible when they speak. The shine will wear off in a month and more people will agree with this review.
Yes, I think people need to finally understand that more characters dying, more blood, more violence, depressing settings or pseudo religious drama do not mean it's more mature or "deep". Same with graphics, I'm sure if this game looked like a slightly below average ps4 game, no one would give it more than a 7, mostly for the bombastic concept of the kaiju bosses. Story, gameplay, world, characters... it's all under cooked when looked as a whole.
@@StervelarIf this was less graphically impressive and didn't have the name Final Fantasy, it would probably get 4s 5s and 6s across the board.
@@Dabedidabe Probably yes XDDD I can imagine reviewers saying that "the gameplay is outdated" (I mean being overly harsh about it), "style over function", "good story, everything else sucks" kind of arguments all over the place.
I don't think "most" of the characters die, I mean only two people die Cid and Joshua who else? If you mean villains or side characters like Dion then yeah but I wouldn't call that most characters, since Villains usually die in FF games.
@@alenezi989a3 I seriously don’t know if you didn’t finish the game or what, but you missed a couple major characters dying there. Most of the main cast certainly died by the end of the game 🤷🏽♀️ Name a character, and chances are they died 🤣
Couldn’t put it better myself. A justified and detailed review of a FF mainline game trying way too hard to be something that it doesn’t even know what that really is - a sad, disappointing mess for FF fans.
excellent review. once the honeymooners wake up they will realise this is the kind of review that accurate depicts the game's unfortunate direction.
True to that. Especially those yoshi p and somen worshipers.
@@arisuaozora at this point i would have to agree with you, they arent fans, they are just zealots Lol
This game is just ugly
Ugly characters in alll sense of the world
Their personalities are disgusting, their actions are deplorable, they dress in awful clothes and run around in an ugly boring world.
Im probably alone in this, but i finally lost any motivation to finish this game after the Bahamut fight. I hated that fight, 45+ minutes of QTE and flashy cinematics. It just kept dragging on.
Thank you for truly supporting depth and saying the truth on this overhyped mess all the hateful comments are the type to call fast n furious a timeless classic so they are easily entertained
The opinion of these individuals hold no strength because you wiped the floor with them with such ease
They traded strategy for spectacles. In a world over-saturated with graphics they have chosen to add to the trash instead of delivering something meaningful. I hope they fix this like they did 14 or maybe the modding community will rescue it. Fix the battle, add life to the world.
What style? Your gameplay was terrible xD. You got 0 right talking of the battle system with that terrible display
Legit though lmao "why use the magic attacks ever" automatically makes you sound so stupid when the insta-charge magic amulet exists. Even outside of that it's a stronger stagger than auto attacks (hence lower damage). Guess bosses are 5minute sponges when you have no idea what you're doing. 8th eikon boss fight took roughly 2-3 minutes outside of cutscenes which is a normal length? I'd love to see proper reviews but it seems either "the best" or "the worst" game ever. So dumb.
@@jessekovach What makes you sound stupid is that you people don't seem to realise that YOU DO NOT even need to dive into the battle system to beat the enemies. There is no requirement to learn it or use it. Thus, its an extremely shallow battle system as nothing in the game forces you to use it.
I honestly hope this was a one time experiment that never happens again.
Get ready for FF16 pt2 and 3
What I didn't like about FFXVI was political and depressing setting and the cast was just depressed, angry, jaded group of people (Clive reminded me too much of Cloud and Noctis as well)
What baffled me the most was something sad happening in the very important part in the story and what kind of music they play? happy, casual music (those who played and finished the game know what I'm talking about). As a long-time fan of the series (I started from FF9 and still love it more than any other FF game), I found it sad that this is the direction it's going in...
Go play pokemon
The story was the biggest let down for me. The main characters had no flaws, were boring, the story went from game of thrones wannabe to god killing anime stuff. I only liked the easy gameplay and linear dungeons, as i dont have too much time to invest in game as I used to. if good writers pick up the story and make massive changes I could see it on HBO.
Great review. I knew, from the first trailer, that I'd never play this game. Squenix are lost. They convinced themselves that "JRPG" was lesser, and have destroyed the FF name. They need to look at Baldur's Gate 3's release and reclaim the godhead of turn-based RPGs. Great vid. Thanks
For me the issue wasn’t that it’s not turn based, final fantasy in general hasn’t been turn based for several years now. This game was just blah, no rpg elements, no magic system and complete lack of itemization.
Will Squenix learn… finally? After watching this release at almost the same time as Baldur's Gate 3? The world is starved for turn-based, party RPGs. Sqaure Enix has to give up on this westernization of FF and get back to roots and make a classic, bonkers turn-based FF.
Can we discuss the worthless crafting system. Why why are you giving me stuff to use for crafting...when none of the crafting weapons are as good as the named gear. You get a new named weapon after a few missions. Let me upgrade that weapon. It's been like 2 months and I'm only like halfway done. It's so boring. I have to continue with my pixel remasters to remind myself what are good ff games.
Hit the nail on the head in every single way. This game ultimately felt like a waste of money.
Yep, i just got my platinum today and suffered through two playthroughs and came to see if anyone thought it was as garbage as I thought it was.
I paid for it new; £70. Im taking it down the game shop for trade tomorrow and getting rid of it, so i will at least make someone money back in it so the sting isn’t so bad.
I was going to give it to my dad after I played it but I honestly thought that would be cruel.
Every problem you mentioned with the game I wholeheartedly agree with.
This game was boring.
It was so infuriating have control taken away from you every 2 minutes for long boring cutscenes.
Gameplay was slow and boring and the cutscenes and the story did not carry the game like I think they intended.
I wasn’t in the slightest bit interested in the game’s story because the gameplay and combat was boring and the lack of anything to do but complete the game obviously couldn’t string it all together to make it worth investing interest in to the story.
ALL the characters are boring and Clive is the worst, most boring, bland character ever. I ended up skipping the scenes because it had no reason to watch them, I didn’t care.
There was nothing from the final fantasy series in this game. Everything was stripped away. It’s a wonder why they even called it final fantasy.
This is an linear action game with a final fantasy skin.
I too gave it 4/10. I would have been a 3/10 but it was marked up for an easy trophy being the only redeemer to this game.
Love casual player say game of the year 😂 😝 😭
Basically yeah. Casuals love it. FF fans really dont.
Pretty sad moment when i realized i was bored out of my mind not even half way thorugh the game
This is why l can't trust reviews anymore. They either show off perfectly cut gameplay and cutscenes/visuals in the best of settings...Or this, where they can't even perform the mechanics the tutorial/prologue explained.
It is wishful thinking, but hopefully demos become the norm again.
Middle of the road doesn't get the clicks unfortunately.
To me, this was the first time in a long time that the reviews didn’t match what I played.
@midoomdoc2080 I just wanted to believe that this game was going to be good. I didn’t really like what I saw but I was trying to be open minded and it turned out bad for me
@midoomdoc2080 That's why l got interested in it. Specially when they confirmed they had brought on board DMCV developers to work on the combat system, haha.
It is actually pretty fun, nowhere near as difficult or complex as an actual DMC game mind you, but it still has plenty of options to pull off cool combos. The story and characters have been great so far too.
So not just your eyes, more developers should release demos if they so much believe their product is of top quality.
Great video man. I haven't played the game & I refuse to play it because Square Enix is showing me that they don't care and are catering to people who never play FF or just RPGs over all
so true doesnt care about money to keep their fanbase that is going to buy the game. This company cares about ...what ? lol
they managed to make a title with the name Final FANTASY look so generic it has to be an achievement on itself
Game is painfully mid. Agreed on all points. The one that annoys me the most though is lack of world interactivity and no exploration. After playing ToTK its just insulting how dumbed down this game is. Its literally corridor-trash mobs-boss. I had way more fun with FFVIIR and dare I say even FF15. This should have been a spin-off if anything instead of the mainline entry. SoP is a better FF than this one.
Painfully low
By far the worst ff
@@blvckcasketit's trash
I'm sorry but no one is going to take your site/videos seriously when you give FFXVI the same score as Gollum. What a joke.
Or Legends Arceus an 8.5 and Tears of the Kingdom an 8 wtf
Truly the metric of our time.
Yeah, I get FFXVI not being everyone’s cup of tea, and while I’m absolutely loving it so far, I still have some criticisms. But scoring it the same as the Gollum game is inexcusable lmao
Ff16 is trash he is right it's close enough to gollum this game lacks any depth this Walmart dante is going to be soon forgotten
Besides the graphics and the fact that the game runs it might actually be as bad as gollum
I'm playing now and it's not bad but not great 7/10 for me
Agreed...its nothing but a big cut scene...15 was far better !!!
Honestly Have to disagree about the combat portion of this. When looking at your combat. I noticed you never chained magic burst after your basic combo. Torgal has precise calls that lets him do limit breaks. You can discover all this if you go into the training room and tick the box that says magic burst timing and torgal timing. The skill tree is very generous with its refund system and once you Master a move you can put it on different elements. Then for example if you fill the requirements of counters or other moves they refill timing gets cut by half. I can see how you missed theses aspects but if you dont actually dive into the system then Yes the fights are going to take a long time. By mashing just square.
Agreed! Buying and forging better weapon help also.
my problem with everything you mentioned is that all of what u suggested still boils down to the same result. very little reward, no substance. playing with your food more wildly or plating it different still makes it taste the same.
@queenmarisa if his argument is "I don't enjoy the game as much because fights take a long time," yes fights will take much much longer when you don't engage with the system. It would be one thing if the game doesn't give you a solution to the problem. But it does. That's like me saying dig a hole, and you can do it however you like. You decide to use your bare hands when there's a shovel, and now you're mad at me because you chose to use your bare hands.
@@EverythingKeem my counter argument to this is that the game needed ways to play with your food because it would be boring otherwise. Personally i got thru the game just fine without the "advanced" combo stringing, but even when i started to dable with it along with my husband, it didnt really do anything more for the game. They copied DMC so hard with this game and even got the combat director from it, but they didnt even bring in the stylish gauge? total missed opportunity. One of the big features about why you want to "String" big combos in a DMC game is not just for the thrill, but also to get a good score and stylish grade. FF16 does not have that, there for there is really no need for it other then to be showy to yourself. if the game actually challenged you and required a level of effort to do them, then i would be singing a different tune for sure
@@EverythingKeem also the shovel analogy is greatly flawed. what u mean to say is that one person is using the same digging strokes with the shovel, while the other guy is dancing and singing while hes doing the digging strokes
A devil may cry spinoff
The more time passes the more I dislike this game, and after having so much high hopes that this will be a proper return of the franchise. The team behind FFXIV made such a great game that someone like me who hates mmos would not only play the game for 10 years but actually love it. FF16 is just really sad and disappointing on every level.
You want a proper return of the franchise? Stop focusing of pretty graphics and excessive cutscenes, and focus more on art direction and game design.
FF XVI is more movie than game. Shallow gameplay, piss easy battle system.
Take off the rings
@@krisdeschamphelaere859 I don't use this disgusting cheats ...
@@krisdeschamphelaere859I also found it easy and shallow with no rings.
sadly there is no exploring, level Design or rpg mechanics, i like the first 10 hours but the last 30 hours was trash.
Yeah, unfortunately he’s right. Story at least in my opinion was good but not worth 70 dollars.
Based.
Why there is so many effects on screen ? Sometimes I Can't see whats's happeing in the fight. Is there a way to tone down this effects ?
I love everything about this game up until the final boss fight and ending left so much more to be desired. It felt empty, and somewhat meaningless. I finished the game and didn’t feel attached like I was at the beginning of the game. Perhaps we will get a DLC to unfold a few things and give us some closures.
I like this FF16. I would not rate my experience as a 4/10, but it's the one Final Fantasy game that I've connected with the least.
The eikon battles had me laughing with excitement. Odin and Bahamut are two of my favorite FF boss fights. Some of my favorite FF songs are from 16. But it's just too brooding to inspire any deeper thoughts from me. I didn't come to Final Fantasy for Game of Thrones Dark Fantasy aesthetics, I loved the colorful and sometimes silly worlds of previous games.
I really hope Final Fantasy doesn't lean further into FF16's direction, and I worry what its success might mean for future games.
I thought the eikon fights were boring, too long, too easy, messy, a button mash fest and to be frank laughable.
Some of the dialogue and the characters inside screaming were just ridiculous and played so, so basic like something from older games.
There was parts where they shot their powers like machine guns. The phoenix vs bahamut or ifrit vs Titan for example.
It even gave you a crosshair at some points for god sake.
When you were the phoenix fighting bahamut, it was so badly done that the phoenix essentially became a plane in an old arcade style game, rapid firing shots and shooting down projectiles with even a barrel roll evade.
It was so lazily done.
They overdid it with the two powers fighting one another, when both eikons are shooting their powers and there is a scene were both powers wrestle and fight, pushing against one another until one overdoes the other.
That was used at least twice in every eikon fight. It’s so old and overused.
Or the eikon holding up their shield trying to hold off the enemies attack, while they get blasted and act as if they are struggling to hold it back the power.
It’s so bleh and outdated and cheesy.
The fights were far too easy, went on too long, and was the same old, same old with whole, ‘the bad guy is too strong and overpowers you at the beginning of the fight, until the power awakens making you strong enough too win narrative’ is overused and is truly awful. It was even overused in the game.
This happened in every single fight.
I’d have to say the eikon fights were probably the worst part of the game and were just underwhelming.
You didn’t even get to use your eikon’s signature movesets like hellfire. It was just a button mashing slog requiring zero skill.
I’d say the eikon fights and the combat together were the worst part of the game and essentially because there is nothing else in the game, then for me it’s fair to say that the entirety of the gameplay sucked.
I agree with you though, I really hope final fantasy doesn’t go down this road, but of course it will though.
@@Belisarius536 I actually liked the arcade-y feel of the eikon fights, that was part of the appeal. Mechanically I didn't think they needed to be too deep, the main game is already a fun enough game to learn. They were moments where I could take a break from the combat, and change it up for a lightshow from a toku show. Odin and the Eikon battles are the two things, I actually want to replay. They have the exact OTT feels of watching a kaiju movie, it's nonsense but a real fun time if you aren't not looking for something deeper.
But I agree, even the main game is nothing special, it tried to be a platinum game but took too many concessions for the old school RPG fans. I didn't expect it to be amazing combat, but FF are rarely just about the combat. The gameplay loop was not there either for a Final Fantasy game.
I still have hope that next game is different. Final Fantasy has takes inspirations from everywhere, Lightning modeling for Louis Vuitton is not as outlandish as it might seem if look back at series history. Dark fantasy doesn't work well with that modern fashion sensibilities and other inspirations that the director's pull from. FFXIV is still has a high fantasy aesthetic and extremely popular, I don't see that fully leaving the series.
I really disliked the end of the prologue. It's supposed to be shocking and edgy and bombastic and "adult" and whatnot but it just came across as gratuitous, ostentatious and kind of juvenile really. Seeing a child getting maimed and killed (in effect) is a real narrative low blow, at least when you're dealing with a fantasy story. It might be appropriate in a war movie or something (if handled sensitively), but Grave of the Fireflies this game ain't. And then within minutes you're mindlessly hacking away with a sword at an unharmed woman. But everyone swears a lot which must mean it's a game for grown ups. Not for me, ta. Back to Horizon.
In your opinion what are some of the best action rpgs that have good combat gameplay?
FF7R
Dragon's Dogma
Ummmm ANY and EVERY Souls game.
@AstonishingRed can't go wrong with fromsoft. If the games are to hard they can summon.
@@queenmarsia nah dude, that shit gets repetitive
Good review. Personally I think 4/10 is a bit too harsh. I'd say it is between a 6 and a 7. Definitely not up there. Some parts are great. Overall lacking. But I also don't regret it. I liked it but feel that most of its potential is wasted.
That’s great, nothing worse than game regret and wishing you’d used your free time better to play something else! What was your highlight?
@thegamecrater Agreed! I think the bosses were absolute spectacles and the world looks super pretty. Jill is a fine character and I wish we had gotten more of her
So your saying ff15 is better? That game to me felt more disappointing. The boy band type of main characters I didn’t like much
@@solidwisdom8749 No overall I'd rate 15 about the same but for different reasons. Combat was okish. The world was interesting but empty. The boyband at least had some funny interactions and some banter but it definitely lacked some balancing characters. Lunafreya was awful. Honestly after watching the movie I liked her character A LOT more. But from the game alone I didn't care for her and her death scene wasn't earned at all.
The movie also showed what happened in the capitol which is such crucial information to the game. When I first played it I didn't know there was a movie and that morning after you just get a bit of exposition from a newspaper but no answers. Absolutely horrible.
But I will still admit that despite all that I did have fun playing it.
@@Dudldom nah 15 just had more flaws to me than 16. I dunno it felt kinda odd like how start of the game your pushing your car that died in the middle of the road or something. I also hated how in 15 they didn’t use the main boss battle theme very often. In 16 they use it prety much every boss battle. Overall i dunno, 16 was a better game
Its 2023, why can't consoles perform 4k 60fps? This is unacceptable. Only one playable character? What were they thinking? This game is a quick cash grab and nothing more. Easy pass here.
I've played and finished everything final fantasy game multiple times. I'm half way through 16 and struggling to jump on to finish it very sad
Bought the ps4 just for ff15 and promised i would never play a new ff till honest reviews came out. While im glad i held to that im saddened at what square has done to this once proud line of games. Guess ill stick with replaying 10 and 12
Going back to play FFX will never be a bad time 😍
Damn, after watching this... I still like the game, love the story, wish we had elemental reactions, and wish even more that the RPG aspects excluding side quests were gone. Here's to hoping FF17 has more FF16 but even better!
Quality review. It's like a perfect tutorial how NOT to make Witcher 3.
Haha I would happily take another Witcher 3! 😍
@@thegamecrater So do I. I didn't want Witcher 3 to end. Unlike this one.
Please do not compare Witcher 3 to FF16. The combat in Witcher 3 is probably the worst one in any RPGs I have played. The character model are not good enough to yield proper combat actions. The attack and defense are not good enough to yield powerful and satisfying responses to players as they are lack of proper physics and geometry (Ironically Witcher 3 does have excellent physics in its environment). They are playable but they are just powerless. They are neither real nor inspiring. The programmers for Witcher 3's combat system are lazy. The game has decent real-world motion capture but the programmers just think it is fine and don't want to fine tune it. But it may not just be Witcher 3's fault. Almost all western RPGs have the same problem.
@@tso-jungyen8978 lmao
Witcher 3's combat is its weakest aspect. In terms of combat fluidity nothing beats fromsoftware. Ff16 combat is good but it is meant to be fun while not punishing.
I was hyped on this game for the first 5 hours or so, but the more I played, I slowly began to see how shallow this game is. This is ridiculously overrated.
This is the most shallow game SE has EVER tried to pass off as mainline FF. I honestly cant believe how overrated it is. I love action combat, but when the first Kingdom Hearts game offers more depth and variety than the modern 2023 "Masterpiece" it makes me sad to see how far things are devolving and how much the lowest common denominator are lapping it up straight from Yoshi Ps nutsack. I dont see how anyone can call the game an objective 10/10 when the game as a whole feels half assed and lazily designed. They clearly used FF14s design philosophy of "reuse, recycle, reskin" and just slapped next gen graphics on it with a serviceable story and thats IT. No meaningful side content, no level design like puzzles or similar AT ALL, no secrets to find like dungeons or super bosses etc. Just marker to marker questing and shallow combat where you fight the same 8 enemies that have been recolored and renamed yet dont behave any differently AT ALL on repeat for 40 hours. Literally nothing else to the gameplay at all.
FF16 is a great game. But not final fantasy. No turn based aside, the game is flat out an action game. Its no longer a JRPG. FF has always been a JRPG. They should have done a hybrid of action and turn based with playable party members etc. It fails as a FF game for me.
Right now im more excited for FF7 rebirth. If we got another Octopath traveler game or a FF spinoff with the classic elements that made FF into the franchise it was. Bringing in the team that worked on FF14 was a mistake. It just doesn't work. Great action game but horrible FF game. Square approached this game the same way Ubisoft did with the assassin's creed franchise when they switched from proper Assassin's creed to open world adventure RPG game. This same thing applies to how they treated FF16. Completely throwing away what made FF into FF in the first.
I like how everybody speaking about racism....since it is based in mediaval europe...especially ...medieval central europe /Poland ..czechia ..slovakia and hungary...during the austria-hungarian empire(especially where it is Kamil from tabor.... Kamil..is the common name here ...and Tábor is the city in czechia....../ ....probably people calling racist probably never been in those areas... I will give you a hint...we are 90% white....and mostly blond and blue eyed :D...
Believe it or not, history records black people being present in the medieval days. Even GOT where it takes inspiration from has black people. Yet the developers were fine to use the wakanda pose for Dionbs army. Not even an NPC is black. While i don't think its a ciritcism of a game thats fantasy, they did include the gay agenda. had they not included that, i would not even care one way or another.
believe it or not...not in whole europe...but just in parts which colonise the world...we are talking about a completely different part of europe...trust me I am from that part...I know the history of my Country...the same with witcher....Basically area which I believe they took the inspiration... dont have the sea .... didnt colonise ....but was shield to conquest turks and clans from asia... if the central europe or astria- hungarian empire fell...all those clans from asia gotl clear path europe like france ...etc... so you are right about black people...but as I said..setting is different...
The people who talk about racism like this don’t actually care, they’re just virtue signaling
@@saiwaqa2573 The final villain is creepy trans demon alien with they/them pronouns; you might be into that. GOTY for me.
@@MASJYT I never said i was into that. I don't know how you came to that conclusion.
The dev team multiple times throughout the hype for this game have stated that they’re making an action focused game with some rpg elements. I feel like alot of peoples reviews are judging the game on what it never set out to be . And your combat gameplay wasn’t good you can get through most action games just mashing ya button but if you won’t be doing “good” . Hence why it’s probably taking you so long to get through bosses
Just because they made a half assed, shallow, lazily designed game with almost zero variety on purpose doesnt give it a pass. Has nothing to do with what combat style it has. In all honesty it feels like its not finished.
It's sad to see a good game get review bombed but then same people will go and play Far Cry or assassins creed and be happy ;'(
The game is trash at least in assassin's creed it has intense depth and customisation while here with this Walmart dante that is so overpowered this is a trash version of dmc just accept it just improve your standards
This is not in any way a good game, though. And I say that as someone who has played one Far Cry game (a little bit) and who has never so much as touched an Assassin's Creed game. Instead, I've been a lifelong fan of FF-even the ones that many people don't like, such as XIII and XV.
Yoshi p and soken worshippers will still love this trash game.
first !! so excited to get this game, shame u guys didn't like it tho !
We really hope you enjoy it more than we were able to.
Good or bad, never trust a review because it's only their opinion. When it comes to gaming, the only opinion that matters is yours.
As always the answer to if the game is good or bad is somewhere i between what people say not the best but not the worst though the main story does carry it the exploration and side quests suck and the combat would be much better if like ff7 remake over all still not complete trash
Visuals 9/10
Combat 7/10, 8/10 once you learn it
Story and Setting 2/10
Characters 2/10
Music 8/10
Total 28/50 or 5.6/10 😎
Love the detailed score breakdown!
Tremendously disappointing? A soulless mess? Its almost as if you didn't play the game or don't like RPG games in general. It's fantastic in every way. A solid 10/10 and a true FF game to live up to the expectations.
It's not an RPG though, its an action game with some stats glued on, no matter if its good or bad.
You're just as bad as him just on the other extreme. This game is definitely not a 10
A 10 out of 10 lol I wouldn't even give ff9 that and In my opinion ff9 is one of the best games ever made yall are mindless
@@yavvivvay Last time i checked RPG stands for Role Playing Game, You are taking on the role of Clive and his journey. Its pretty straight forward mate.
@@AltoAtik In my eyes its a great game so far. I'm taking my time and enjoying the world and story. Much like FF15 which is a fantastic FF aswell in my opinion
I liked the characters the music the gameplay the graphics and the bosses are PEAK, but the quests are not it same with difficulty
Fair score.
someone is asking for attention
Lol if you think this trash is good then it says something about your standards
Or telling the truth/breaking echo chambers
Yeah its a very shallow game that pretty much boils down to lots and lots and lots of combat with very little else to experience or explore. No party system, bot really an open world, exploration sucks, rpg elements are a joke, combat is really easy, every battle lasts a little too long, game wants to be game of thrones meets witcher.
If you like the combat, i guess you might like the rest. But this is my least favorite final fantasy, ever.
Completely agree, it feels like it’s taken so many steps away from being actual final fantasy game.
It's a video game not real life. It's for entertainment and enjoyment. It shouldn't be a job or a task.
13, 15, 2, 1 are far worse than 16
@@lsaacthecraftsman I disagree on all counts. XIII is arguably bad for a lot of the same reasons but I care way more about the main characters and I enjoy the combat more in XIII
@@lsaacthecraftsman I and XV are both top 5 FF games for me
Wow, there's finally a review that recognizes this as the 6/10 it truly is (at best).
I might try it out when it's sub 20 dollars, but come on. It's inferior DmC with cutscenes that last too long, and "epic' battles where you push square to punch.
Agreed. Yeah we definitely recommend waiting for it to come down in price! ✌🏼
So you say it's a 6/10 at best....but then you state you havent actually played it. Unbelievable
With only two Eikons you can already pull off crazier things than anything Dante could in DmC with his color-coded and restrictive attacks.
FFXVI has a lot of flaws, combat isn't one of them.
@@LordofLions the demo was 3 hours worth of content. The game is generally the one 10 minute loop it offers on repeat.
I have seen enough of the combat and story to know that it is not worth MY 70 dollars.
Story heavy, linear (even in open sections) and limited meaningful RPG elements.
It isn't hard to tell this game is a middleground game. I will say a 7 because the production values, but as a GAME.
Eh. I've played "10/10" games. This ain it chief.
@@phant0mdummy I’ve played rpgs for over 20 years and every ff entry in the franchise. It’s a 10/10 and my 3rd favorite ff game behind X and lX.
Idk how anyone can defend this game, it’s terrible! I mean the game is ok but it shouldn’t have ever been called a Final Fantasy.
"An old-school Xbox JRPG that didn't understand how best to appeal to western sensibilities" is such a pathetic line. This actually reeks of mid-2000's reviews of amazing JRPGs that would always get criticized for being "too Japanese", just incredibly close-minded and borderline xenophobic.
Lol
@@Dudldomsuper lol
sorry you didnt like it easy 9/10 for me games amazing barring a few pacing issues in the first half of the game.
Yeah nice, glad you were able to enjoy it more than we were. What do you think has been your favourite part?
@@thegamecrater make a guess
@@thegamecrater the relationship between clive and jill is a quality love story and Clive in general is one of the best protags in the series. The fianl battle is one of the best in the series. and the music is spot on throughout.
Pacing issues in the back half of the game as well lol
I like the time before this crap when you saw a game that was coming out and it peeked you interested and you got it and you loved it or hated it and it was on you now you listen to other people talking about a game and you listen to them and not your self if u like it or not because people lie and say crazy ass shit just to get views and a lot of people listen and miss out on a good game do your self a favor and juge your self when there's a game coming out that i reality want i will get it because i want it and ill juge for my self if i was happy or sad with it iv been playing games since i was 5 and was born in 1980 and yes im an old gamer and im not going to have someone else if i should get the game or not its called having your own mind
Gamecrater is a newer company who prides itself on click bait for views because nobody reads anything they put out otherwise.
Love the review, it confirmed all my suspicion that this franchise has been dead a long time ago already. Definitely earned my subbed, please make more
Thanks!!
The franchise isn’t dead, it just had to adapt. I love the older turn-based games but they can’t stick to this concept forever.
It is expected that modern games will focus more on epic cutscenes and combat than story and this game does it very well.
Franchises can not stagnate and the sooner we accept this, the less gatekeeping we will have.
Lol 😂 Are you not entertained !!! Are you not entertained ? … throws sword 😅
😂
If I had the ability to create a game like this
I would have zero side quest.
I would focus only on the main story and music and combat and main characters or party members and have the world and story be built around them and why they are doing what they are doing.
I would have open zones that you see somewhat in this game because I really see no need for an open world in a game like this that focuses only on the main story.
I would have enemy respawns often and close to each other so you don't have to run a mile to get into the next fight.
I would have enemy AI super aggressive even more so then a game like Devil May Cry to the point the enemy would be at the players throat at all times not letting them breath.
I wouldn't have QTEs but only cutscenes when a boss transforms into his next form and then straight back into the action.
I would have music that ramps up as the fight gets more and more crazy in boss fights.
The ending boss would be a beast to try and fight even when the player is maxed out on moves and attacks.
There wouldn't be any stunning bosses giving the player long amounts of time to attack them they would be just as active and aggressive as the player making it super hard to get behind them or get very many hits in without getting hit yourself.
You would have to use strategy and learn their attack patterns through many deaths or just luck.
I would have dodging and parrying like this game.
I would have easy, normal, hard, and extreme modes from the get go of the game so you wouldn't have to unlock them.
The enemies would be just as aggressive in easy as they would be in the most extreme difficulties the only thing I would be changed is enemy health and attack strength.
In easy enemies could beat on the player for long amounts of time but do very little damage but on hard or extreme just 5 to 10 hits would kill the player because the enemy AI would be on the player none stop forcing the player to learn when to dodge and when to attack.
Weapon and attack upgrades would be easy to learn without to many other options to scroll through but feel enjoyable at the same time.
I would just rip out all the junk that is cumbersome and keep the things that keep a player coming back to play the game multiple times If not infinite times but still be enjoyable every time they play.
Incredible breakdown! Are you a game dev? If not, maybe you should consider it! 😅
Go create your own game bro and leavd FF alone please ty.
@@mathieugirouard4192 I wish this "new audience" SE has been chasing would leave FF alone. Id rather the games be lower budget, but better designed. So sick of all the budget going to visual areas instead of making a good game. Its sad the FF games on snes, ps1 and 2 have more to them than the 2023 AAA game. Has zero to do with the combat style too. Its just a barebones as fuck game
@@Eversoul12Totally agree. I've been wanting FF to kind of return to that as well. But I think at this point SE is too far gone. FF16 is damn near just an interactive movie at this point. I feel like the more the series progresses, it'll just keep gravitating towards visuals and less interesting gameplay.
Been an FF fan for around 23 years now. If SE said a literal "Final" Final Fantasy was being released, I wouldn't even be upset. The series has become kind of a walking corpse at this point in my opinion.
Wtf 4/10 Are you serious this is why I hate video game journalism
How is It more than 4 ?
What depth is there
Final fantasy games always had deep customisation and freedom while this is a reject devil may cry it is what it is and unfortunately many individuals like yourself can't see that
It's 4/10 legit
No offense to certain fans, but FF16 is flat! 😂
Atleast it was better than ff15. Way better battle system in this and story and characters. The highs in this game is so much that I would not rate it anything less than a 8
i would even argue its better in certain categories
To me its a low 7. The lack of any kind of variety killed it for me. I dont care how awesome a combat system is if there arent any interesting enemies to fight. If your enemy design doesnt push you to try new things, then your combat is ultimately a shallow experience. Sure i get that you can change skills at any time, but just because you CAN force yourself to drown in a shallow pool doesnt mean youre in any danger of doing so
Well the demo i felt like it was a 7. Not as much polish it seemed but eventually the game got more engaging i liked it, i feel its definitely got its good moments but at the same time missing that true final fantasy feel in lot of ways which youll be ok with it or not i guess
The faintest praise ever.
@@Eversoul12 well yes… but what matters is it’s still a enjoyable experience. I get the lows that people had tho like you mentioned
Well, my review of that review is a 4/10.
The review does have some good points. For example.
1) Elemental damage would have been great
2) The game does have sequences where it is slow and boring
3) The sidequests are tedious and not exciting at all.
4) The world though quite decent in size, feels a bit empty and exploration is pointless. No secret dungeons or ruins to explore.
However, the review clearly lacks the insight to understand the following:
1) The combat is no dull or a button-masher. The game clearly explains the concept of stagger, parry and dodge. It is up to you to use your abilities to get to the stagger sequence quickly and for that you do need to know which ones to use.
The game also has some abilities that work better with certain types of enemies, e.g. heatwave.
The boss fights are not similar and require you to learn their attack patterns.
2) The story has a lot of potential after Clive’s personal revenge quest. I don’t know how it will turn out but I am 20+ hours in this game and there are some things that I want an answer for.
Further to that, the game’s brutal and sad nature is emotionally motivating. The characters are not fully developed sure, but their interactions with Clive are decent.
3) The soundtrack is gorgeous. Maybe not on par with FFVX or Nier Automata, but gorgeous. The boss fight theme is epic and for some fights it changes to something more trancy or electronic.
4) The reviewers need to realise that the characters Clive meets (aside from some exemptions) are not old friends of his and it is obvious that they won’t be bundling up laughing and having overall banter.
5) Also the reviewers need to realise what the game wants to do - Because it is rare a game will excel at everything. The purpose of the game is to tell a cinematic story focused on Clive’s path and the overall drama unfolding in Valisthea.
------------
Fans of the franchise need to realise that franchises need to evolve and adapt. Old-school JRPG games are not the norm anymore, the emphasis is on action and cinematics.
I have been playing FF since 1998 and I love the games of this era. But I can understand the need for SE to try something new, a company can not stagnate.
And compared to the atrocities like FFXIII and FFXV, they did a bang on job.
If you don’t enjoy the game, that’s absolutely fine. But it’s silly to think companies need to conform to YOUR expectations and standards with every game they release.
So cast aside your gatekeeping please.
gatekeeping is important, because without it, we allowed our favorite rpg company become somthing it isnt, and as a result, we now get shallow cinematic movie games that cost 70$
@@queenmarsia Lol so true. Imagine expecting a properly developed game, finished, is asking too much.
saying that they should conform to "specifically" me is so fucking reductive and i intellectually dishonest. its more like people LIKE me, u know, the people that actually buy and support their games? this game didnt bring in new fans, they arent gonna go back and buy any if their pixel remasters, and they certainly arent gonna buy octopath traveller
There wasn't a single thing about this game that I liked. Side quests are atrocious, and I've seen people defending them as "appropriate for the tone". Not to mention the exp you get for doing them is insultingly low, which makes them not even worth the effort.
Areas are dull and empty. The eikon battles are shit and mostly consist of dodging and spamming triangle.
The story is as dull as dishwater. The gameplay loop consists of hideaway, perform some menial task to get through a gate, run up to boss, defeat said boss, rinse repeat. Even the last game, whilst having a terrible story had more redeeming qualities than this shitefest.
I can't even bring myself to finish it despite being about 80% done. The cringe worthy blind adoration for it is also quite perplexing. I kept saying to myself, there must be something I'm missing. Some aspect of this game that I'm not grasping that will make it click but no, it's just...shit.
I loved it. Harsh resonating ending and stellar characters and interesting lore.
This game is just ugly
Ugly characters in alll sense of the world
Their personalities are disgusting, their actions are deplorable, they dress in awful clothes and run around in an ugly boring world.
you must have b een playing a different game
You must have been playing a different game cause he is right it's not a good game this is a weak devil may cry take your L this game is trash
Clive is much better than any other edge MC that we have in all FF games
“Mind numbingly one note drivel” - are you commenting on FF15 or your own narration voice?
Before the game came out we knew it was about the combat 9/10
The game is a masterpiece. Story, cutscenes, combat, RPG. GG. What you see is what you get. No endless puzzles and gear farming and collecting and all that stuff. Including Eikons as actual abilities your main character can learn and use was absolute genius. Once again, FF taking risks and trying something new. Everytime I got a new Eikon it felt so satisfying. The more gore and bloody turn was also a very bold move that gives the game a whole different atmosphere than all previous ones.Also, replaying the game in FF Mode + going for all the endgame stuff and platinum is also very fulfilling.
Glad to see that you're really enjoying it!
Id actually enjoyed the game enough to give it an 8.0. The story, the combat and the spectacle of the Eikon fights and its music. I did want a little bit more from the characters and sidequest but I dint have many gripes with them. I do admit that going straight to new game+ after finishing is not worth for just an upgrade to the accessories, there are stronger enemies in some areas but most are handled with the same strategies I had in the end of the game. If I would be looking from the start to have other things to do than going straight trough the story then I would have rated the game lower.
You know there are scores of us as gamers that do not give two single flying shits about the music. I play with the music turned to ZERO. Every game. Every time. Because the only fucking thing it's EVER good for is distracting me from learning anything about the game, and how to beat it's mechanics. NOT the best way to introduce your review. : /
Looks like an attempt to Dark Souls without the Dark Soul.
it's not
In some ways it does seem like a really low quality souls like
Agree on some points/HARD disagree on others. Really only major gripes so far are the lack of hard mode from the beginning and the side content/exploring feeling unrewarding. I’m only 70%ish through the game so maybe it’s a bit better at end but if they improved that it could be my favorite game in the series. I’m totally sucked into the story right now. I guess my only one other complaint is the pacing at points. Story/Gameplay/most of the characters have been fantastic so far.
Good luck with uh... whatever it is you're trying to do with this channel.
It's a great story. Loved it
Skill issue.
Please learn how to play action games before you call their combat soulless.
It is though you can mash one button and get through everyone it shows your skill issue if you find this exciting
No that doesn't apply here. I made the game as hard as it would let me and the combat was shallow af
people who think they are the authority on what "makes a FF game" are legit so pretentious it's laughable. the amount of times the series has reinvented itself is kind of the selling point. funny thing too, is that the game has far more nuances regarding its combat and story that these people STILL dont understand. if you take the combat at face value and just spam one button to win...good for you? you're missing out. if you took the story at literal face value and dont understand ANY of the allegorical points it was trying to make. you're missing out
people that say "final fantasy has reinvented itself" dont know wtf they are talking about. the core fundamentals of ff combat specifically since that's what everryone eludes to never changed until this point. Rven 15, 12, 7remake that are mor action rpg oriented still maintained the ablity to customize not only a main party character, put each and every member to suit the need for the situation. Class, materia, draw, ect still allows the player to express themselves as much as they want to while having them maintain and plan properly for the situation ahead of them.
You know what ff16 did, Allow you to mash. no true customization that affects anything. new items gained is so negatable it doesnt matter. Party really doesnt matter in the grand scheme of things. There is no true expression. like foh with that bs. the game is dawg water and sales and mixed reviews shows it
@@miltonpitts4185 I’m not reading all that, but I’m sorry for your time wasted!
@@mythos12 Now you dont want to read it after you wrote some bull lmaooo. Regular FF fanboys i swear
FF16 in a nut shell. Hi im white. confident and conceded, the best the world has to offer. Never humble always oppressing. I look down on everyone. if its not white, i ain’t touching it. The burden of greatness is mine to bear. Know your place.I am righteousness! and righteousness shall prevail! 😂🤭
All jrpgs are soulless.