This game is one of the few games i 100% and in my second playthrough the game lost some of its charm and the flaws started to appear, there are serious pacing problems in this game, the side content fells kinda dull and the world yet pretty gorgeous is empty, Only the main scenarios shines for me now. The combat of the game is pretty neat and dynamic they really nailed and I liked the more serious approach the story had, Clive is such a good protagonist and the crew such as Jill, Cid, Gav and cia are really charismatic as well. And the Eikon battles are the peak of this game, not only the battles but the music score is one of the best among the franchise. I see FFXVI flaws but it is still one of the best games I played in 2023

This was by far my least favorite final fantasy. A game that started off decently strong but then fell the fuck off. Start of the game was hype, I mean HYPE. The music, the fights, the story, all fucking hype. The battle system was pretty good from the start, pretty average and really seemed more like a devil may cry thing (from what I heard from other people). The few boss fights was sweet, and the overall monster designs are sick. The story was also pretty hype with Clive accidentally killing his own brother and their mother betraying her own kingdom. And the MUSIC, OH THE MUSIC IS SO GOOOD. Then after a couple of hours it all started to fall off. Though the thing of getting all the other EIkons abilities through the story is cool, the battle system is not really all. Maybe I'm just not utilizing it to its best ability but it wasn't all that intriguing to use. The gear and leveling progression are pretty straightforward
You just go up from one weapon to the next with not a lot of options. Grinding is really just doing a side quest or a hunt, which both suck ass. story and its progression started to get really repetitive and boring, especially the side quests. There are some good characters like Joshua (my pretty boy), Cid, Torgal (yes I'm adding the dog) but most of the characters and antagonists were forgettable (except Ultima because he's so hawt). And Jill's and clives romance was not really all that (in all honestly I just see Jill as just there). The only thing I can still see good is the boss fights BUT The EIkon boss fights suck ass and the music. That being said, Joshua is cute and Ultima is hot

Fantastic world, gameplay, and story. Voice acting is incredible and I love all of the characters. Extremely fleshed out lore and the vibe is on point. Feels like it kinda wanted to be a movie sometimes, but low-key I was engaged the whole time in both gameplay and plot. Loses a little bit of steam at the end and becomes a little too "JRPG" for a pretty grounded game, but meh I think it wouldn't be FF without that. The side quests however completely kill all plot momentum and I wish the game was just set piece to set piece. Overall really great and an extctiting look at what a FF XVII may look like if Square takes what they have learned from this, FF XVI and Rebirth. Probably will be one of the best mainline games.

Loses half a star for what I can only describe as dense final act bullshit, but otherwise very solid game. Ben Starr as Clive is inspired, a joy to witness perform.
Game suffers from a serious lack of Dion, but like a good meal it's always better to be left wanting more than wishing you'd endured less.
No game does spectacle this way. Titan and Bahamut are highlights.

Cid might be the franchises best Cid, played to perfection by Ralph Ineson.

Game wears the game of thrones influence on its sleeve, but doesn't suffer because of it. Wish it stuck in the mundane a bit longer before spinning off into the Mythos Logos stuff, but overall it gets right more than it gets wrong.

Music goes hard. Find the Flame might be a better title track than Liberi Fatali.

I miss Clive.

I loved the game. But.

Strengths:

Beautiful graphics, incredible story, beautiful world, cool characters, amazing skills.

Negative points:

Boring side missions, performance issues, overly easy fights, and slow main story missions break immersion.

I loved the game, but it has a lot of problems, a sequel fixing them would make it easier, a GOT. I couldn't give up on it because of the story, but it was tiring, finishing it.

I have heard the criticisms aimed at this game and agree with pretty much all of them. However, my opinion of the game is not nearly as negative.

For starters, the story at first implies there is going to be a complex story with medieval politicking, lots of scheming, backstabbing, etc. But it ends up being as complicated as a heisei Kamen Rider show. Even the main villain reminds me of "Evolt" from "Kamen Rider Build", a character who's motivations were at first mysterious, but in the end was just an evil alien that wanted to blow up the Earth. The lead writer, Kazutoyo Maehiro, also worked on FFXIV A Realm Reborn, and Heavensward, both of which have similar issues to this game. The most prominent of which is the fact that some characters that seem like they should have bigger roles just don't have much of a presence in the story. He also tends to have characters show up just to die for dramatic purposes, if you are familiar with FFXIV you probably know what I mean. Regardless, I enjoyed just being fantasy Kamen Rider, the story didn't piss me off or annoy me or anything, it was just a bit too dry for its own good and would have been better if it were more anime/tokusastu.

I agree with the complaints that the combat is too easy, it definitely could have used an additional, harder difficulty level in the beginning. The fact that the trash enemies barely fight back while the larger bosses are the real opponents make this closer to a Dynasty Warriors game rather than Devil May Cry. Now this isn't too big an issue, because Final Fantasy games tend to be easy. I can't recall ever struggling with any of the ones I've played. Hell, I beat FFXV (FF15, my least favorite) barely engaging with the combat. After finishing the much more intense DLC campaigns, I'm more optimistic about action Final Fantasy, and wouldn't mind FFXVII also being an action RPG, assuming they don't make another MMO. (Please SquareEnix don't do another MMO, you do some dumb stuff but you're not nearly as bad as ActiBlizz.)

Another issue is the padding, the sidequests could have been trimmed a bit, maybe even merged some of the hunts with the sidequests. Most of the sidequests felt like MMO busywork, not really adding much to the setting. In addition, the areas weren't that interesting to explore (Again, like an MMO).

Anyway, this is much more than I would normally write. Overall, I'm more disappointed in the fact that the game is only good, when I wanted it to be amazing. Better luck next game? In a franchise this old? Who knows.