While Final Fantasy 16 has so many moments of pure style and flair that still hit the second time, my overall feeling towards 16 after playing through Final Fantasy mode is just...it's fine. FF mode ups the very by-the-numbers initial difficulty, but this usually amounted to more frustrations/monotony and made the deeper flaws of the gameplay even more noticeable. The encounters are roughly the same but with higher health pools that drive tedium more than difficulty; even mixing up some encounters with a random mini boss thrown in more so pad the experience than fundamentally change it, just another Lvl 5 Zantetsuken to charge or two to move on fast. The narrative, while not without very obvious faults, felt engrossing the first time and I still love the cast, but the bloated quests and very slow pacing hurt a somewhat interesting tale of free will vs fate and freedom vs oppression, though the yikes execution of many story beats and politics makes the themes ring a little hollow. That said, the Eikon battles still feel like the most next-gen thing with so much focus and intensity wrapped in them that I can ignore the simplicity of their movesets unlike the rest of 16's braindead combat and encounters. The DLC release next year may pull me back in, but I'm not sure there's much to come back to with 16 for now.
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Anyways, here’s some extra thoughts not included above since I was going to make it longer but decided to keep it short and not messy lol:
-I really wish the game committed more to being an action game. While I personally don’t find it that amazing in terms of its combat (Clive’s basics are basic as hell), I feel like some tweaks to the formula like massively expanding Clive’s moveset and distinguishing the Eikons more with Clive’s moves would do wonders, along with removing the leftover rpg mechanics that still exist like the cooldowns. 16 feels more similar to Dragon’s Dogma than DMC in parts, but even DD feels way more engaging gameplay wise, even Stranger of Paradise too.
-Shops and crafting in this game feel so superfluous that I think the game would have been better off not having any of this.
-This wasn’t a gripe I had when I first played 16 but I do wish the areas had at least a tiny bit more rewards or secrets hidden off the beaten path. The decision to make the game very linear is really good and I have no complaints about that except that there is nothing to do except go down the same route or just fast travel to specific points because Clive’s movement is very slow.
-The side content could be so much better, but I don’t think it’s the worse like many people say it is, at least in the second half where the smaller stories and development work done there are really compelling that I don’t mind some of the menial tasks.
-The amount of pauses with “Quest Accepted”, “Quest Completed”, “Reward Given” and selecting to give an item drove me insane this time. Even hearing the same battle music again and again and interrupting some better music choices killed me.
-State of the realm is so cool with the lore of the Valisthea and the conflicts and thoughts of everyone in the story. Active time lore is still great but it would have been even more cool if extra details were revealed or filled in during the second playthough.
-I really wish the game committed more to being an action game. While I personally don’t find it that amazing in terms of its combat (Clive’s basics are basic as hell), I feel like some tweaks to the formula like massively expanding Clive’s moveset and distinguishing the Eikons more with Clive’s moves would do wonders, along with removing the leftover rpg mechanics that still exist like the cooldowns. 16 feels more similar to Dragon’s Dogma than DMC in parts, but even DD feels way more engaging gameplay wise, even Stranger of Paradise too.
-Shops and crafting in this game feel so superfluous that I think the game would have been better off not having any of this.
-This wasn’t a gripe I had when I first played 16 but I do wish the areas had at least a tiny bit more rewards or secrets hidden off the beaten path. The decision to make the game very linear is really good and I have no complaints about that except that there is nothing to do except go down the same route or just fast travel to specific points because Clive’s movement is very slow.
-The side content could be so much better, but I don’t think it’s the worse like many people say it is, at least in the second half where the smaller stories and development work done there are really compelling that I don’t mind some of the menial tasks.
-The amount of pauses with “Quest Accepted”, “Quest Completed”, “Reward Given” and selecting to give an item drove me insane this time. Even hearing the same battle music again and again and interrupting some better music choices killed me.
-State of the realm is so cool with the lore of the Valisthea and the conflicts and thoughts of everyone in the story. Active time lore is still great but it would have been even more cool if extra details were revealed or filled in during the second playthough.
sleepytitan
5 months ago