CMongler
Bio
just a dude, sometimes a guy
just a dude, sometimes a guy
Badges
1 Years of Service
Being part of the Backloggd community for 1 year
GOTY '23
Participated in the 2023 Game of the Year Event
Liked
Gained 10+ total review likes
GOTY '22
Participated in the 2022 Game of the Year Event
N00b
Played 100+ games
150
Total Games Played
005
Played in 2024
105
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I’m conflicted about this one. There are moments of Final Fantasy XVI that are my favorites of the entire franchise. The sheer scale and spectacle of some of the battles and cinematics in this game are phenomenal and awe-inspiring. The more-mature, higher fantasy plot is pretty good. The combat is also pretty fun and offers enough variation in play to stay fresh more-or-less throughout the game. The soundtrack hits in all the ways it needs to, too.
But man, there are moments in this game where it is an absolute slog. Multiple points you’ll go from a high-octane fight with a massive, deity-like Eikon, to immediately doing simple fetch quests for your sleepy home base. The game’s narrative at one point even goes as far as acknowledging the main character is just running around doing boring chores; like was that not a clue that maybe some of this stuff should have been reconsidered?
The pacing whiplash this creates unfortunately detracted from the overall experience quite a bit, and was by far my biggest gripe with the whole thing. On top of that, I was disappointed by the kind of complete lack of a true party in this game — I honestly can forgive the lack of “RPG elements” (something this game, in fairness, does lack) in a Final Fantasy game, but to me these games have always been about a party of heroes going in an epic quest. This game is first and foremost the Clive show, with a couple key secondary characters who play their parts at certain points.
Ultimately it’s just kind of a bummer. I wanted to love this game, and there are moments where I did, but the moments where I didn’t almost made me drop the game entirely. But hey, I think I liked it more than XV, so it’s the little wins, right?
But man, there are moments in this game where it is an absolute slog. Multiple points you’ll go from a high-octane fight with a massive, deity-like Eikon, to immediately doing simple fetch quests for your sleepy home base. The game’s narrative at one point even goes as far as acknowledging the main character is just running around doing boring chores; like was that not a clue that maybe some of this stuff should have been reconsidered?
The pacing whiplash this creates unfortunately detracted from the overall experience quite a bit, and was by far my biggest gripe with the whole thing. On top of that, I was disappointed by the kind of complete lack of a true party in this game — I honestly can forgive the lack of “RPG elements” (something this game, in fairness, does lack) in a Final Fantasy game, but to me these games have always been about a party of heroes going in an epic quest. This game is first and foremost the Clive show, with a couple key secondary characters who play their parts at certain points.
Ultimately it’s just kind of a bummer. I wanted to love this game, and there are moments where I did, but the moments where I didn’t almost made me drop the game entirely. But hey, I think I liked it more than XV, so it’s the little wins, right?
A fascinating, short, narrative-game that deals with the topic of creative expression and a creator and their audience (or in the case of video games, the player). I feel like I’m still chewing on “the message”, having just completed this one a few moments ago, but the closing question of “what does it mean to create not for external validation” really resonated with me currently as I feel similarly stuck in a place where my own work doesn’t feel like it is for me a lot of the times. Highly recommended for anyone involved in any sort of creative endeavor, especially video game development.
A great metroidvania that absolutely excels at engaging combat and stylish boss fights. Definitely one of the best of them. I do have to knock though, the game in the latter stages gets notably buggy; scenes often hitch, and once I even had the entire area's geometry unload at the start of a dramatic cut scene that then took place in a gray void.