Final Fantasy XVI should be a 10/10 game.

[ethomaz]

I am several hours in and don't think it's a 10/10 personally ...

I think it's "cool" but ... and again, I have not finished the game so my opinion could change for the better ...

The music so far is atmospheric but I can't remember any of it. Kinda forgettable in that sense which is a stark contrast to a lot of past FF games.

Combat is super easy. Mash attack, and press dodge when you see very telegraphed attacks coming. Not only have I not died, I have been hardly hit so far, and that includes bosses.

Towns/locations are bereft of interaction and ways to explore. The map tells you exactly where to go and who to talk to at all times. And what's there is also very linear, and just kinda sparse.

The visuals are fantastic when it comes to the cutscenes. As soon as you get into dialogue in "normal mode" the character models and lip sync kinda resemble PS3/360 era at best. It's a huge gulf in quality and I am not sure why it exists other than it's really hard to make that level of stuff on a big scale.

It's really not an RPG. it's an action game. It feels kinda like a Final Fantasy side story in that sense, which is of course totally fine. I don't really care, it just is what it is and I can imagine a fair number of fans won't like it for that reason. Doesn't bother me, just trying to look at it from different angles.

The story is very bland so far, but at the same time VERY Final Fantasy. However it's also, as everyone else has said before, trying to ape Game of Thrones. It's just so obvious, it feels like it's directed by a young inexperienced person who likes a bunch of things and thinks recreating those things in his own project is cool, instead of trying to do your own thing.

Great settings and locations though, and the voice acting is mostly great and these two things make it easy to keep going IMO. But as a video game, I don't think it's a stand out in any way so far in many crucial areas.

I know a lot of people won't like that but I think the reviews were MORE than fair on this one so far. 88-89 is high for what I am experiencing.

You can all start getting mad at me now.

Most of your points I made before (with way less details).

I’m liking the game for several reasons… and at some points it really shines but I see the flaws too that are things you don’t expect from AAA games.

Still it is the best FF in over a decade.

 

[anonpuffs]

I am several hours in and don't think it's a 10/10 personally ...

I think it's "cool" but ... and again, I have not finished the game so my opinion could change for the better ...

The music so far is atmospheric but I can't remember any of it. Kinda forgettable in that sense which is a stark contrast to a lot of past FF games.

Combat is super easy. Mash attack, and press dodge when you see very telegraphed attacks coming. Not only have I not died, I have been hardly hit so far, and that includes bosses.

Towns/locations are bereft of interaction and ways to explore. The map tells you exactly where to go and who to talk to at all times. And what's there is also very linear, and just kinda sparse.

The visuals are fantastic when it comes to the cutscenes. As soon as you get into dialogue in "normal mode" the character models and lip sync kinda resemble PS3/360 era at best. It's a huge gulf in quality and I am not sure why it exists other than it's really hard to make that level of stuff on a big scale.

It's really not an RPG. it's an action game. It feels kinda like a Final Fantasy side story in that sense, which is of course totally fine. I don't really care, it just is what it is and I can imagine a fair number of fans won't like it for that reason. Doesn't bother me, just trying to look at it from different angles.

The story is very bland so far, but at the same time VERY Final Fantasy. However it's also, as everyone else has said before, trying to ape Game of Thrones. It's just so obvious, it feels like it's directed by a young inexperienced person who likes a bunch of things and thinks recreating those things in his own project is cool, instead of trying to do your own thing.

Great settings and locations though, and the voice acting is mostly great and these two things make it easy to keep going IMO. But as a video game, I don't think it's a stand out in any way so far in many crucial areas.

I know a lot of people won't like that but I think the reviews were MORE than fair on this one so far. 88-89 is high for what I am experiencing.

You can all start getting mad at me now.

It's fine if you think it isn't a 10/10. Just don't use bullshit reasoning to try to nitpick the game. From what I've played so far it isn't a 10/10 merely because the performance and visual quality dropping in motion is detracting from the experience. But I'm not going to make up some ridiculous stuff like "no black people in the game" to artificially lower the score. Imagine if we had black characters in this game and they were slaves or murdering/violent dudes like almost everyone in this game is, what a controversy that'd be.

 

[Vertigo]

I am several hours in and don't think it's a 10/10 personally ...

I think it's "cool" but ... and again, I have not finished the game so my opinion could change for the better ...

The music so far is atmospheric but I can't remember any of it. Kinda forgettable in that sense which is a stark contrast to a lot of past FF games.

Combat is super easy. Mash attack, and press dodge when you see very telegraphed attacks coming. Not only have I not died, I have been hardly hit so far, and that includes bosses.

Towns/locations are bereft of interaction and ways to explore. The map tells you exactly where to go and who to talk to at all times. And what's there is also very linear, and just kinda sparse.

The visuals are fantastic when it comes to the cutscenes. As soon as you get into dialogue in "normal mode" the character models and lip sync kinda resemble PS3/360 era at best. It's a huge gulf in quality and I am not sure why it exists other than it's really hard to make that level of stuff on a big scale.

It's really not an RPG. it's an action game. It feels kinda like a Final Fantasy side story in that sense, which is of course totally fine. I don't really care, it just is what it is and I can imagine a fair number of fans won't like it for that reason. Doesn't bother me, just trying to look at it from different angles.

The story is very bland so far, but at the same time VERY Final Fantasy. However it's also, as everyone else has said before, trying to ape Game of Thrones. It's just so obvious, it feels like it's directed by a young inexperienced person who likes a bunch of things and thinks recreating those things in his own project is cool, instead of trying to do your own thing.

Great settings and locations though, and the voice acting is mostly great and these two things make it easy to keep going IMO. But as a video game, I don't think it's a stand out in any way so far in many crucial areas.

I know a lot of people won't like that but I think the reviews were MORE than fair on this one so far. 88-89 is high for what I am experiencing.

You can all start getting mad at me now.

All of this is valid. The questing sucks. Exploration sucks. Towns suck. And the game runs like shit to be honest. Music and combat is baller tho. The rest… middling. The story and narrative is default better than most ff since high pitched characters are no longer yelling at me.

(I value combat and music above all else in every game so that’s why I’ll swoon over most of the game)

I like it plenty but people flipping their shit because review industry didn’t unanimously give it a perfect 10s are list wars losers

It’s pretty much a “tales of” game with less rpg stuff and worse performance. I liked Arise plenty more than more recent Ffs so I don’t mind the similarities.

The combat here tho… the combat here is some of the best melee combat I’ve played. It’s just too easy for most of the game it seems.

 

[Systemshock2023]

I'm playing it and I don't see anything else that could beat it for GOTY on Playstation. It's that good.

The game is incredible but it's getting attacked by big websites. The Xbots are also very loud and spreading doom everywhere (with help from Nintendrones and PCMR). I hope the positive comments can counterbalance the onslaught of negativity.

Only marketing can help.

Yep. PCMR is going the extra mile to bash the game they will be getting down the line (and it will be the definitive version)

The things I have to hear...

Th game is at 87/88 on MC. It's still a great score, I don't see why folks are so fixed on this game being the greatest FF ever, when FF peaked 25 years ago.

 

[SLB1904]

Yep. PCMR is going the extra mile to bash the game they will be getting down the line (and it will be the definitive version)

The things I have to hear...

Th game is at 87/88 on MC. It's still a great score, I don't see why folks are so fixed on this game being the greatest FF ever, when FF peaked 25 years ago.

People focus too much on reviews. Most of these guys don't even play games. Just a bunch of failed bloggers that move to gaming because they failed in other medium. I trust myself better anybody on Metacritic hands down. I've being playing games for years. I know what's good. And this shit is good. Also I'm not a fan of final fantasy or jrpgs in general. So this is more up to my alley. The only thing I miss is able to change outfits. Different swords doesn't scratch.

Having said that, God this game is hype

 

[Dr Bass]

All of this is valid. The questing sucks. Exploration sucks. Towns suck. And the game runs like shit to be honest. Music and combat is baller tho. The rest… middling. The story and narrative is default better than most ff since high pitched characters are no longer yelling at me.

(I value combat and music above all else in every game so that’s why I’ll swoon over most of the game)

I like it plenty but people flipping their shit because review industry didn’t unanimously give it a perfect 10s are list wars losers

It’s pretty much a “tales of” game with less rpg stuff and worse performance. I liked Arise plenty more than more recent Ffs so I don’t mind the similarities.

The combat here tho… the combat here is some of the best melee combat I’ve played. It’s just too easy for most of the game it seems.

Question for you. If you think the combat is great but also too easy … how is it still great? I’ve gotten a good bit farther and still haven’t died, and not even gotten close. It’s all still just literally mash attack and dodge when you need to. You simply mow down the competition.

And then the Eikon battles … are hardly interactive? You sit there and watch large sequences of them followed by a prompt to press a button that gives you a really long time to react. It’s not even a QTE it’s so slow. Yeah you gotta do a little simple fighting to get to this point but it’s all clearly designed to just show off a fancy looking battle. There is hardly anything to do. SNKs King of the Monsters had more gameplay in 1991 lol.

Just curious what you think about all that.

Also some of the story is so disappointing so far. I don’t want to get into spoilers but Square is stealing from its own games in a completely shameless way. Oh well.

 

[Gods&Monsters]

Question for you. If you think the combat is great but also too easy … how is it still great? I’ve gotten a good bit farther and still haven’t died, and not even gotten close. It’s all still just literally mash attack and dodge when you need to. You simply mow down the competition.

What rings do you have equipped? Auto dodge and auto combo? I have the one that slows down time and I still get hit sometimes. I used all my potions and died in some fights already.

I'm playing on Action focused.

 

[anonpuffs]

What rings do you have equipped? Auto dodge and auto combo? I have the one that slows down time and I still get hit sometimes. I used all my potions and died in some fights already.

I'm playing on Action focused.

If you're playing with one of the rings equipped you aren't really playing action focused.
I do not have the rings on and have died several times, always because my playstyle is hyperaggressive and I don't prioritize dodging. For someone who plays the game more like a read-and-react souls game the game will seem extremely easy and slow/boring because the enemies all have insanely telegraphed attacks and do not attack very frequently or have very long combo strings. I can count on one hand the number of movesets that include an attack that requires consecutive dodges. So if you are just sitting back and waiting to do a parry or dodge punish, enemies will seem like extreme damage sponges and combat won't be exciting.
In order to fully engage the combat system you kind of have to go balls to the wall, while still maintaining enough control of your rotation that you can weave in a dodge or parry when you see an incoming attack (I'm bad so I can't do this reliably, hence ded)

 

[Vertigo]

No assist rings. I just like the combo system. They should’ve had a harder difficulty available from the jump. Most of my deaths are because of fumbling with the different control setups and performance modes so far vs enemy encounters.

 

[Gods&Monsters]

If you're playing with one of the rings equipped you aren't really playing action focused.
I do not have the rings on and have died several times, always because my playstyle is hyperaggressive and I don't prioritize dodging. For someone who plays the game more like a read-and-react souls game the game will seem extremely easy and slow/boring because the enemies all have insanely telegraphed attacks and do not attack very frequently or have very long combo strings. I can count on one hand the number of movesets that include an attack that requires consecutive dodges. So if you are just sitting back and waiting to do a parry or dodge punish, enemies will seem like extreme damage sponges and combat won't be exciting.
In order to fully engage the combat system you kind of have to go balls to the wall, while still maintaining enough control of your rotation that you can weave in a dodge or parry when you see an incoming attack (I'm bad so I can't do this reliably, hence ded)

I'm not good at parrying so with the ring I can parry right after dodging. More fun and flashy for me.

That Bighorn still killed me with that fat ass tho

 

[Box]

No assist rings. I just like the combo system. They should’ve had a harder difficulty available from the jump. Most of my deaths are because of fumbling with the different control setups and performance modes so far vs enemy encounters.

I do wish it was a lot harder like Sekiro Level but most normies and journalists would complain

 

[ethomaz]

What rings do you have equipped? Auto dodge and auto combo? I have the one that slows down time and I still get hit sometimes. I used all my potions and died in some fights already.

I'm playing on Action focused.

These rings just makes the combat even worst…

The combat is too easy (my 4 years old is beating the bosses) and there are a lot of breaking immersion QTEs.

I expected something action to be fair a DMC (because the guy was involved) but it not comparable at all.

FFXVI are more similar to GoW but the late has way better combat system.

 

[BroodCorp]

I'm sure it will remarkably squeeze over 90 if they release it on Xbox a year later

Does Game Pass play a role here?

 

[Yobo]

Does Game Pass play a role here?

Why would it

 

[BroodCorp]

Why would it

People tend to feel better about games they’re already paying for.

 

[Box]

These rings just makes the combat even worst…

The combat is too easy (my 4 years old is beating the bosses) and there are a lot of breaking immersion QTEs.

I expected something action to be fair a DMC (because the guy was involved) but it not comparable at all.

FFXVI are more similar to GoW but the late has way better combat system.

You have been very overally negative about this game in a lot of threads

 

[Cool hand luke]

All of this is valid. The questing sucks. Exploration sucks. Towns suck. And the game runs like shit to be honest. Music and combat is baller tho. The rest… middling. The story and narrative is default better than most ff since high pitched characters are no longer yelling at me.

(I value combat and music above all else in every game so that’s why I’ll swoon over most of the game)

I like it plenty but people flipping their shit because review industry didn’t unanimously give it a perfect 10s are list wars losers

It’s pretty much a “tales of” game with less rpg stuff and worse performance. I liked Arise plenty more than more recent Ffs so I don’t mind the similarities.

The combat here tho… the combat here is some of the best melee combat I’ve played. It’s just too easy for most of the game it seems.

I don't think the game runs like shit and Digital Foundry agrees, saying it was one of the most polished releases this year.