This review contains spoilers
First ever FF game I've played and beaten to completion and it was a pretty wonderful time. While I do wish the gameplay was better XVI makes up for that in spades with a phenomenal story that keeps you interested until the very end.
Starting off strong, XVIs story is one I'd say that stuck the landing in spectacular fashion, with Clive and his gang of Outlaws being some of the best ensemble I've seen in a RPG. While the pacing can be a bit messy at times, the world of XVI remains an intriguing one filled with lots of twists and turns, with excellent villains like Hugo and Barnabas being highlights of the year. Also felt the message of having hope through even the bleakest of situations was a strong one that payed off incredibly well in some of the later quests, with a lot of the side quests surprising me in how many tugged at the heartstrings. It does help that the voice work is some of the best I've seen in a AAA game in a long time, with nearly every quest big or small having voice work that stayed consistently great throughout. Another thing about XVI that stayed consistent was how phenomenal an OST it had, with my favorites definitely being those played during the Eikon battles (Titan Prime and the final boss being some of the best I've listened to this year). Last point I'd say is for a PS5 game this game definitely looks the part, though for now I'd say its a technical mess with the only consistent part being 60fps during battles (which is good but quite jarring when out of combat).
If I had to say where my flaws with XVI were to be found it would sadly be the gameplay. While I think the foundation is quite solid with Clive controlling like butter and a lot of the core mechanics being pretty sound my main issues come from how shallow it all feels. While I am happy that the stagger mechanic isn't that much of an issue and can be easily circumvented in later fights the same can't really be said for the cooldown based abilities. While six abilities does sound good it's out of over THIRTY which forces you to leave out ones that could be useful (my late game build was almost exclusively grounded) which leads to combat feeling very repetitive and more of a waiting game since Clives base kit is shockingly bare and the most optimal way to approach the combat is spamming the most broken abilities. It also does not help that the actual RPG mechanics boil down to the abilities since item progression is fairly linear besides the various rings (which only offer Cooldown and damage options besides a scant few unique ones). I do actually like that level grinding is not something that needs to be done but the combat needed to be deeper to compensate. This issue is only exacerbated with the various Eikon battles that have amazing spectacle but the depth of a kiddie pool, with the only positive being that they're fairly short and don't tend to drag on for longer then they should (also helps that the cinematic finishers tend to dish out a lot of damage). One final frustration would be the missing QOL features (like an autofill option in shops) and some mechanics like the various Hunts facilitating a return to the Hideaway since you can't check them in your menu for some odd reason.
STORY SPOILERS AHEAD
While XVIs Story is the best part and still absolutely worth going through my biggest gripe would be the main villain Ultima being a disappointingly generic villain. It's quite a shame since a lot of the actions he does throughout are fairly interesting and lead to some pretty shocking moments in the story (such as the Olivier reveal and everything with Barnabas and Waloed). The issues I have just come down to how uninteresting he is for a majority of his time, with only the finale doing something interesting with him that doesn't make up for his general lack of intrigue throughout the story. Will say I did find XVI did stick the landing with said finale, ending the story on a note that some might hate but I found a lovely end to a journey filled with so much heartache and tragedy.
STORY SPOILERS END
As one of the few PS5 owners on the planet I would definitely recommend FFXVI. It's lows are definitely annoying but its highs are some of the best of the year and I don't regret my time in Valisthea.
8.5/10
Starting off strong, XVIs story is one I'd say that stuck the landing in spectacular fashion, with Clive and his gang of Outlaws being some of the best ensemble I've seen in a RPG. While the pacing can be a bit messy at times, the world of XVI remains an intriguing one filled with lots of twists and turns, with excellent villains like Hugo and Barnabas being highlights of the year. Also felt the message of having hope through even the bleakest of situations was a strong one that payed off incredibly well in some of the later quests, with a lot of the side quests surprising me in how many tugged at the heartstrings. It does help that the voice work is some of the best I've seen in a AAA game in a long time, with nearly every quest big or small having voice work that stayed consistently great throughout. Another thing about XVI that stayed consistent was how phenomenal an OST it had, with my favorites definitely being those played during the Eikon battles (Titan Prime and the final boss being some of the best I've listened to this year). Last point I'd say is for a PS5 game this game definitely looks the part, though for now I'd say its a technical mess with the only consistent part being 60fps during battles (which is good but quite jarring when out of combat).
If I had to say where my flaws with XVI were to be found it would sadly be the gameplay. While I think the foundation is quite solid with Clive controlling like butter and a lot of the core mechanics being pretty sound my main issues come from how shallow it all feels. While I am happy that the stagger mechanic isn't that much of an issue and can be easily circumvented in later fights the same can't really be said for the cooldown based abilities. While six abilities does sound good it's out of over THIRTY which forces you to leave out ones that could be useful (my late game build was almost exclusively grounded) which leads to combat feeling very repetitive and more of a waiting game since Clives base kit is shockingly bare and the most optimal way to approach the combat is spamming the most broken abilities. It also does not help that the actual RPG mechanics boil down to the abilities since item progression is fairly linear besides the various rings (which only offer Cooldown and damage options besides a scant few unique ones). I do actually like that level grinding is not something that needs to be done but the combat needed to be deeper to compensate. This issue is only exacerbated with the various Eikon battles that have amazing spectacle but the depth of a kiddie pool, with the only positive being that they're fairly short and don't tend to drag on for longer then they should (also helps that the cinematic finishers tend to dish out a lot of damage). One final frustration would be the missing QOL features (like an autofill option in shops) and some mechanics like the various Hunts facilitating a return to the Hideaway since you can't check them in your menu for some odd reason.
STORY SPOILERS AHEAD
While XVIs Story is the best part and still absolutely worth going through my biggest gripe would be the main villain Ultima being a disappointingly generic villain. It's quite a shame since a lot of the actions he does throughout are fairly interesting and lead to some pretty shocking moments in the story (such as the Olivier reveal and everything with Barnabas and Waloed). The issues I have just come down to how uninteresting he is for a majority of his time, with only the finale doing something interesting with him that doesn't make up for his general lack of intrigue throughout the story. Will say I did find XVI did stick the landing with said finale, ending the story on a note that some might hate but I found a lovely end to a journey filled with so much heartache and tragedy.
STORY SPOILERS END
As one of the few PS5 owners on the planet I would definitely recommend FFXVI. It's lows are definitely annoying but its highs are some of the best of the year and I don't regret my time in Valisthea.
8.5/10