I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY ABOUT THIS!!!

EVERYTHING. IS. SO. SLOW.:

The pace of the game is SLOW, some of the (unskippable) dialogues are TERRIBLY dragged out and there are weird pauses that make you wonder "Is there a problem with my game??", I absolutely HATED the fact that EVERYTHING needed an end/reward screen. Oh, you've just beaten a pack of 5 random mobs that took you 2 seconds to defeat for a boring side quest? Here is a screen that's gonna take 15-20 seconds to skip and that's just useless information that could've been displayed in real time on the somewhat empty UI. Now imagine that happening with EVERY. MINOR. ACHIEVEMENT. So on and so forth. HOWEVER, as soon as you accept that fact, the game becomes much more enjoyable in my opinion. PLEASE DO NOT DROP THE GAME BEFORE THE END OF ACT 1 IT GETS BETTER I PROMISE!

The side quests:

It's hard for a game to make good side quest content, especially when there's so many of them, but it's very much possible. I think that random fetch quests should not be a thing in this kind of game and I would much rather have like 10-20 over-arching side quests that were longer and in multiple parts for character development rather than maybe 5-6 interesting ones out of SEVENTY SIX (76!!)... After like 7-8 side quests where I tried to get involved in the plot, I basically started skipping through all of their uselessly long dialogues and I was all the better for it.
While on the topic of side quests (minor spoiler warning), I absolutely HATED how they dropped like 8 of them at once just before the final boss like "oopsy doopsy, let us not have unfinished character arcs" and once you think you're done with one you get EVEN MORE of them. I didn't count exactly but I think there were 15 of them at the end?? Way to make the end of a somewhat cool finale feel like a slog. Also sucks that those were the most interesting ones story-wise but I just didn't have the patience to go through them because I just wanted to be done with the game so that it doesn't end in my backlog as I'm really close to finishing it...

Rookie mistakes from such an established IP is unforgivable:

Bit of a personal rant here but I think that when a weapon (Ragnarok) is a core part of one aspect of your gameplay (don't know the name in English but the elite monster hunt thingy) maybe DON'T GIVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO SELL SAID WEAPON... It is obviously my fault for having done that but, as someone who plays a TON of games, I go by the principle "if I can sell it, it means it's either unimportant or that I can rebuy it if I made a mistake"... SO TELL ME WHY AFTER THE 16TH INSTALLMENT OF YOUR FRANCHISE YOU DIDN'T PUT A "REBUY" OPTION OR MADE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO SELL AN IMPORTANT SWORD?? I know it's possible because the Onion Sword is still in my inventory so WHYYYYYY?? I am of course also mad at myself but that's such a basic thing to do and it's BAFFLING to me that they didn't think of that, especially since (from what I've gathered) it's really important for NG+ stuff... It's a small detail but at 35+ hours in and when you want to be done with the game, it kinda kills the mood of it all...



Ok, so... I may be complaining a lot but I actually thoroughly enjoyed this game despite its flaws. It's a typical case of "the highs are super high but the lows are so damn low too". Despite all of its flaws, I still had a good time playing the game 90% of the time and I was most often looking forward to go back to the game rather than feeling like I "needed" to get back to it. (SPOILER) Also the "first kiss" scene with them being completely butt-naked out of nowhere was not what I expected but it's still one of the most touching moment I've witnessed in my video game history.

Final words: if I could rate it out of 20, I would probably give it 13. Not too high because the flaws are too important and present for me to say "I had a very enjoyable experience" but rating it any lower would be hypocritical of me because, at the end of the day, I DID have an enjoyable time.

An endearing cast, uniformly brilliant performances, and several hype QTEs are dampened by a visually unimaginative world with combat that stops being engaging quite early.
In effect you're doing the same thing in XVI's combat as in most other FFs, attacking with your strongest moves and healing when your HP is low. The other ones give you things to think about and manage though, inside and outside of battles. What's not ideal for a combat system meant to entertain for 50-60 hours is that, during fights, it's never a question of "which move is best for this enemy/situation?", but always "which move isn't in cooldown atm?"
Action combat can definitely be designed to entertain for as long as this game takes, but I can't think of any systems that manage that for the full length of an RPG while being devoid of meaningful customisation options or enemy types that demand you adjust your approach. (It's weird that they didn't go with elemental affinities given how many FF summons are associated with the elements). I imagine people who have played NG+ or Final Fantasy Mode will have a better idea of how deep the combat can get, but I was never given a reason to plumb its depths during my initial playthrough, and I do believe it's on the game to incentivise exploration of its mechanics.
With neither a consistently engaging battle system, nor MP, status effects, party members, junctions, gambits, or materia, you can get away with finding a build that drains boss HP fast, then never again thinking about anything except where the red marker on the map is.
In terms of pacing, it feels pretty similar to XIII in that it's run ahead>fight>run ahead>fight. The maps being more elaborate here than in XIII doesn't add much variety to the pacing. Nor did the towns. I didn't much want to explore these towns, but the game explored them and their mundane problems anyway during countless side quests distinguishable only by their cut scenes. Story developments having a visible effect on the world was cool but often the changes saw settlements going from drab to drab in a different way.
The performances in XVI are about on par with those in XII, with many of Clive's relationships feeling grounded and genuine. The chemistry between him and the Hideaway crew allows for some fun dynamics, and these proved the highlight of the experience for me. That said, it's a shame that many of these relationships are Clive-centric. Perhaps this was inevitable given that he's the only proper party member, but I wish we could've seen Mid and Jill interact, for example.
There are a couple of scenes where the game gives you a glimpse of the party you could have had, and I lamented that this game's cast was the one they relegated to the sidelines so they could go full action instead of offering the traditional party set-up. Having more characters to customise or play as would definitely have helped the combat hold my attention. The interactions between the Hideaway crew elevate the experience so much, I can only imagine how much more entertaining the between-cutscenes portions of the game would've been with more pals more often.