This is some of the smartest use of the ADV format I've ever seen in a visual novel, a real fusion of medium and narrative that has a satisfying conclusion to basically everything you could ask for and leave you clutching your head with how it all works out.

There are also a lot of comforting VN-isms that anyone familiar with this genre would be either ecstatic or disappointed with, up to personal preference really.

Solid characters and all sorts of awesome twists and turns that are only bogged down slightly by a couple odd puzzles and narrative choices that have with weird solutions but do have their own justification, kind of not really i'm still mad over one of the solutions to a puzzle let me be.

Definitely not the kind of game you can binge in one sitting, maybe treat it like a replacement for a tv show or a mystery book.

I hope this gets the attention it deserves and more great things come from this team (despite being under Squeenix's thumb)

It is almost overwhelming to attempt and collect my thoughts on this game, much less summarize them into an actual sort of score. Above all else, this game feels like it accomplished everything it set out to. Final Fantasy XVI is just as exhilarating, emotional, and fantastical as you’d expect any entry in the series to be. It is filled with phenomenal characters and voice acting, a story both equally political and philosophical that is strongly focused on the human will at the macro and the power of the many interpersonal relationships at the micro, and an excellent combat system that deserves high praise.

At times even more important than any of these, however, was that Final Fantasy XVI is an excellent showpiece of the power of video games as a medium, and if anyone needs it, a reminder of just how fun a video game can be. The masterpieces that are the eikon battles, particularly the full Bahamut fight—perhaps one of my favorite sequences in video game history (including the story arc surrounding it) and one of the most impressive boss battles of all time—are some of the most fun I’ve had in a game. They left me in complete disbelief, brought me to tears, and I believe are the kind of experiences that everyone deserves to have in a piece of media. That is not to say that the rest of the game’s combat is not equally as fun. While I can’t say for certain, FFXVI may have my overall favorite action combat system of all time, one that made me unable to resist the temptation of NG+’s Final Fantasy Mode, and I almost never replay games, particularly right after beating them, even my favorites. The system of eikonic abilities and feats is fun, customizable, and probably my favorite implementation of the various iterations of ‘summons’ across the Final Fantasy series, as you get to take advantage of these awesome, godly beings more directly than ever before, each with their own set of gorgeous animations.

There’s also much to be said of FFXVI’s side quests, which are not nearly as bad as some have made them out to be. If anything, they are right in line with what you would expect from any given JRPG’s side quests, if not generally better. Every single one is fully voiced, making even the most straightforward tasks at least feel a part of your journey in some way, as Clive comments on his comings and goings throughout the various steps. The latter half of the game, and particularly right near the end, features a number of side quests that are in fact so important to world building and/or character development that I almost feel as though they could, and maybe should have been main quests. In my first play through I did nearly every single of the game’s side quests, partially because of the desire for completionism but also because I felt as though I might miss something important by skipping out on them. Many of the side quests open up areas that are otherwise inaccessible, consequentially unlocking more content, usually with another hunt that would be found in that same area. The item rewards for the non “+” special side quests aren’t always great, but doing a large number of them gives you Renown that does become quite rewarding, becoming a great source for ability points, for example. I wouldn’t normally spend so much time talking about a game’s side quests but it was one thing that I found many people to be wrong about. The vast majority of them are worth doing, the only reason I wanted to not at times is simply because I was anxious to find out what happened next in the main story. The ‘final’ conclusive side quests that I mentioned you get at the end of the game complete the story arcs of nearly every important side character and village, leaving almost no knot untied.

The discourse surrounding this game has been pretty exhausting, but once it dies down a bit as time goes on I think that FFXVI will absolutely be remembered as a hallmark entry in the Final Fantasy series and an excellent game in its own right. It is certainly a new direction for the series, most immediately evident in the M rating, which it does not abuse to be unnecessarily edgy. Instead, it tells a mature story that does not hold back in its brutality at times, but also with deeply emotional moments that support much of the excellent character development seen in nearly everyone, even Torgal. I grew to really love the world of Valisthea. Although the areas are a bit smaller than what we might come to expect in some more recent AAA games, the linearity was somewhat appreciated as a departure from the at-times exhausting need to explore every crevice of the massive open worlds that we get so often these days. While most of the environments aren’t the most colorful or diverse, the dark fantasy setting is still beautiful in its own right, and fits perfectly with the tone of the game. The many cities and towns make the world feel alive, something that I find to be very important in the success of game settings.

Final Fantasy XVI is a special game that I feel we will not see anything like until perhaps the next major Final Fantasy game. It takes so many of the franchise’s established concepts, creatures, and tropes and puts them in a scope unlike anything before, setting a new precedent for what we should come to expect in the series. The incredible cutscene direction, boss battles, and story reminiscent of many themes from the series’ past make FFXVI a more-than-worthy entry in the legendary franchise, one that in many ways I see as a culmination of some of the best aspects of it fully realized in a way that was never possible before. As almost no game is, it’s not perfect, but any major issues I had are few and far between and I don’t believe are anything worth considering a drastic fault. As so many people do, I love this franchise, and believe FFXVI turned out to be everything I was hoping it could be.

edit: Think I'm settling on a strong 9.5/10