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Final Fantasy XVI



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BufferAqua

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The game definitely isn’t bad but I’m extremely disappointed with how diversity and women in this game are treated and handled.
 

Ðari

Look at you, armor-less
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The brands being laced with a wyvern tail's poison that can basically end the bearer's life if you try to remove it improperly is like the biggest middle finger to the inhabitants of this world.

Enjoying the game thus far, if my MSQ % is anything to go by, im sitting at around 76% til the end. I'll give my full thoughts in spoiler tags likely by the weekend.
 

Elysium

Be Wiser Than the Serpent
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Got to a little after (big spoilers, don't read these unless you're pretty far in) Cid's death before I stopped last night. I was a little disappointed when that character died, he was the most entertaining one. I like Clive, too, but he needs a sassier character to bring the best out of him. I expect it'll be a little sleepy from here now, really only the inevitable confrontation with Clive's mother to look forward to. Ultima was pretty good though, looking forward to seeing the resolutions.

I sort've missed the blue when Clive shifted to his main red design.
 

Elysium

Be Wiser Than the Serpent
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Finally played the ending the other night. Completed all hunts, lvl. 50, maxed out Harpocrates, made all the major weapons that require Orichalcum, etc. The only thing I didn't do were the Hand of X side quests, I'll try to come back to those later. My first playthrough was action mode or whatever it's called. I just re-started with Final Fantasy Mode today. It'll go a lot faster now I know how the world works for the most part. I was more cautious this first playthrough; it feels sort of weird to me not to play with an Official Strategy Guide anymore. The last one I remember having that with was XIII.

What a phenomenal game. I guess this is the closest we'll ever get to a Cid as the main character. I'm not sure I'd put it among my *top* favorites (IX, X, XV, XII), somewhere behind those along with VIII and X-2, but I thought it was a great game in a lot of ways. I think I would've beat it sooner, but after Cid died, I took a bit of a break before coming back to it because I was scared it was going to be a slog through the rest. Thankfully, it wasn't (for me at least). I have heard some didn't like all the missions and everything, although I personally love that stuff. To me, they’re wordbuilding; I always liked going to the various areas in a game after any huge plot event to hear what the NPCs are saying in games like IX and X, and this one has that same thing.

The gameplay was great, too, about on par with XII for me, not *quite* as fun as IX, X, and XV. I feel like I'm getting even more out of it the second time around though, I mostly didn't use Odin at all. Once I got Bahamut and Shiva, I used them + Garuda the rest of the game because it worked so well. Enjoyed almost all the characters for the most part, leaving one or two aside. I ended up loving the Clive/Jill romance. Sometimes the main romance can go either way for me, I was worried Jill was going to get on my nerves like Rinoa and Aerith do, but they had more of a mature vibe than the other FF romances I like (Zidane/Garnet, Yuna/Tidus).

After I’m done with FFM of this, I might go back and play some of the old pixel pre-VII FFs again. I did play most of them back when, but it’s been years, I could use a refresher. It’s just the older ones can get boring more easily than VII onwards do.

Full story spoilers ahead:

Spoiler Spoiler Show
Spoiler Spoiler Show
 
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Max

"There's always money in the banana stand."
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While we were all expecting it, I'm glad there's official word on the PC version now. I've been holding out for it so that I don't buy the game twice like I can be known to do lol.

Also hoping it comes to Steam right away instead of having to wait out an Epic deal. Last wish: please work on Steam Deck lol.
 

Launchpad

i remember the OLD khinsider
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Having now gotten some distance from the game, my feelings are conflicted. I love pretty much all the characters, and I was immensely satisfied with how everything played out, however shmaltzy the ending was. What troubles me is the core gameplay loop-- I don't think I can ever bring myself to replay this game, ever.

Clive is a JOY to play as, but he's almost overtuned-- the dodge windows on every single enemy are WAY TOO generous. This isn't a problem that can be fixed by unequipping armor and staying at a low level. Wailing on bosses to get to the stagger phase is just not fun. It feels too segmented, and the boss attack patterns pose little threat once you learn them, which is shockingly easy to do. This isn't a game that FEELS like crap to play, but the meaninglessness and lack of depth in combat encounters makes it crap, unfortunately.

People were gassing this game to be Square's 'real' attempt at a pure action game, but KH2 and KH3 run circles around XVI in terms of enemy design, it's laughable, it's not even close. I can replay those two games over and over again, and the challenge of each encounter remains fun, even once I've learned it. I feel like I'm already too intimately familiar with every enemy type and boss in FFXVI, and unlike the aforementioned KH games, what they offer isn't interesting, strategic, or fun enough to return to.

I was so damn excited for this game, too.
 

Luminary

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Having now gotten some distance from the game, my feelings are conflicted. I love pretty much all the characters, and I was immensely satisfied with how everything played out, however shmaltzy the ending was. What troubles me is the core gameplay loop-- I don't think I can ever bring myself to replay this game, ever.

Clive is a JOY to play as, but he's almost overtuned-- the dodge windows on every single enemy are WAY TOO generous. This isn't a problem that can be fixed by unequipping armor and staying at a low level. Wailing on bosses to get to the stagger phase is just not fun. It feels too segmented, and the boss attack patterns pose little threat once you learn them, which is shockingly easy to do. This isn't a game that FEELS like crap to play, but the meaninglessness and lack of depth in combat encounters makes it crap, unfortunately.

People were gassing this game to be Square's 'real' attempt at a pure action game, but KH2 and KH3 run circles around XVI in terms of enemy design, it's laughable, it's not even close. I can replay those two games over and over again, and the challenge of each encounter remains fun, even once I've learned it. I feel like I'm already too intimately familiar with every enemy type and boss in FFXVI, and unlike the aforementioned KH games, what they offer isn't interesting, strategic, or fun enough to return to.

I was so damn excited for this game, too.

I agree. When they announced that the harder difficulty would be unlocked after completing the main story, I was hoping that there would be enough depth to the system to warrant an immediate second playthrough like FFVIIR. But sadly, that just wasn’t the case. If I had to pick between 16 and VIIR to be the blueprint for future FF combat, I’d go with VIIR any day.
 

Max

"There's always money in the banana stand."
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I remember back in the Versus XIII days I was SO excited because I thought "YES! Finally, a Final Fantasy game with the combat of Kingdom Hearts! This will be the ultimate!"

We all know that never came to be, unfortunately. While I'm all for trying new things, to this day I've always felt that if an action-based Final Fantasy game took more cues from Kingdom Hearts combat, we'd be in for a hell of a time. They have a series of games with engaging and fun combat, why they can't manage to translate some of that into Final Fantasy is beyond me.
 

Luminary

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Echoes of the Fallen DLC shadow dropped tonight!

The next one, The Rising Tide, will be out Spring 2024!

 

Recon

Art of War
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I finally beat the game. Currently at 81% trophy completion. Man, final fight was crazy good. I only had one Eikon equipped by accident, but got through it no problem. The price of freedom is steep. It’s sad Clive dies at the end. Most likely to be taken by the waves of the sea. I was hoping for at least Clive to survive after defeating Ultima. However, it’s hard to hate the ending in my opinion. Clive sacrificed himself for the greater good of Valisthea. It’s noble when the hero dies to protect the people he loves and the connections he formed.

Overall I thought it was a good story, with great gameplay and music. To my surprise, I put 96hrs into the game. I’m going to break a bit and eventually start NG+ for that sweet Platinum trophy.
 
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