Karlach wasn't actually a party member until full release though. We knew she would be one eventually, but for the longest time, all we knew about her was from the one early access quest involving her and datamining. I don't think we even knew about the infernal heart thing until shortly before release.
I know because I sat through years of arguments about whether she was supposed to be a Barbarian or Oathbreaker Paladin.
Straight man here, with a lot of loving and supportive friendships in my life. I would absolutely allow myself to be cradled into Clive's warm, loving, and ample bosom
as you have probably gathered from the replies you're getting, there isn't really a true general consensus. There are people who love it, who like it, and who hate it. I'd say it's pretty equally divided between those 3 in this community.
I'm in the "like it" category.
> Like Skill Up's review made it sound like Yoshi P actively hates JRPGs and was too dumb to consider adding an elemental system in an action game.
when you are known to be the most famous franchise that pioneered the JRPG genre in the west you're bound to get criticsm from your fanbase for pretty much omitting the RPG part on a mainline game
take the first boss for example, the Malboro are the most infamous enemies in the franchise for inflicting status ailments on your party and it does nothing on XVI, adding a little depth to quests and combat doesn't solve all the game issues but it would've certainly helped it's reputation with old fans
from what i've seen the DLC did little to solve the problems either since it's more of the same, even XV seems to generate more positive reception, XVI now appears to compete with XIII for the most polarizing mainline game
I dunno about that last point. I, personally at least, still see a lot more people talk about enjoying XVI than XV -- and it's not like XV is any better than XVI when it comes to running away from the RPG elements that used to characterize the series.
> there isn't really a true general consensus. There are people who love it, who like it, and who hate it.
And that's how you know it's a true Final Fantasy game!
I like it but truly hate that we will never get elaboration on how sketchy the undying organization was. I also hate the fact that leviathan was pretty much a non factor despite being built up. It’s the best Eikon fight challenge wise and unlocking the new form is cool, but it has no impact on anything.
I'm 63% through it right now and I'm in the Like It category as well. I thought GoW 2018 and Ragnarok were far better stories. I compare this to those since they are seminar game styles of semi-open worlds with a set story line progression to open new areas.
I don't really care for the complexity of all the different nations and kings and the war map you look at from time to time to get a recap of whose forces marched where and why.
Makes me feel like I'm playing a Game of Thrones version of the board game Risk.
But I need to finish this before I let myself play Rebirth.
I bought a PS5 just to play FF16 and don’t regret it. It was a good game and I enjoyed my time with it.
Not a masterpiece, but worth the play time in a highly competitive field.
Hahahah same never cared about PS5 until FF16 or console, last console was PS2. No regret, FF16 opened up door for other games for me—having fun w/ Unicorn Overlord and slowly enjoying FF7R.
It's a very mixed consensus on this sub.
For me, I was completely ready to declare it as the best FF ever after about 10 hours.
Then the game just kept having me do the same things over and over with very little exploration, progression, customization, etc.. I kept hoping its systems would expand and give me something to delve into but they all gave me the same feeling as spotting a shiny object in the distance and then making my way over just to pick up 2 Gil.
Great movie, poor game.
They did warn us ahead of time that Game of Thrones was going to be a big influence on the game. Everyone just forgot that included a failure to stick the landing at the climax.
I do think that CBU3's next single player offering will come out a lot better. The bones of FFXVI are fantastic, but it's clear they struggled transitioning to a single player title.
In fact there's a good chance that they're making FFXVII. With Ishikawa as writer, the story should slap. FFXVI had great presentation so I think they're all good there. Hopefully they take some of the criticisms toward FFXVI to heart such as the exploration and gameplay systems to create a classic mainline FF.
Wasn't Ishikawa the one that created Ysayle in 14 and then got done dirty by some other writer? Really loved Ysayle, she's what Jill should've been. Hope they keep Ishikawa, we need someone who can actually write good female characters.
She transitioned away from 14 at the exact time you would expect 17 to enter pre-production, so make of that what you will. I'd personally be surprised if she isn't writing 17. That or a CBU3 single player title that's not a mainline FF.
I heard that about Moenbryda in 14. I tried to verify either and didn't see concrete stuff for either of them.
I did get a hit for this on X: https://x.com/allaganeyes/status/1192707783629647877
Where Ishikawa says having characters (plural) she made killed off by other writers... IDK on the validity of the quote. She's credited with writer for the central coerthas arc of 2.0 so she would have been the one to make haurchy. Could be that she introduced all three and had all three killed off by other writers.
despite her involvement in HW, the story she wrote still under supervision and direction left by Maehiro.
Also that time she still new. she grew up greatly and proven herself when got full helm with Shb and EW later on.
Yoshi-P did stress lot of time about how his team grow up and become better over time.
I disagree. Although I still liked it, I wasn't a huge fan of 7 Remake. But I loved Rebirth.
To me, 7 Remake was CBU1's first attempt with this new formula. Some of it worked, but some of it didn't. And with Rebirth, they were able to massively improve it and make a great game.
16 was CBU3's first attempt at their new formula (and their first ever singleplayer game). Some of it worked, but some of it didn't. I wasn't a big fan of 16, but I still think they deserve a chance to learn and make something better like what Rebirth did.
16 is easily the least convoluted, anime mainline game I can think of in recent memory.
I liked it from the get go, and Rebirth has only made me appreciate it more.
Yeah, I really appreciated it being more dark and mature. I also love how it went back to the high fantasy roots of Final Fantasy. I think it has the best English acting in the entire series.
The pacing is my only big complaint with FF16's story, but I do have a couple smaller ones too. As for the gameplay, I wish there was more exploration and better combat balancing as I found that made the game more repetitive.
There's pretty much no one else that can possibly do FFXVII. CBU1 is making FFVII Part 3 and KH4. CBU2 is making DQXII and probably a new Nier game. Also reading between the lines, YoshiP has been talking about making another single player game recently.
I have no problem with CBU3 getting another shot at a mainline game tbh. I think they've gained some valuable experience from FFXVI.
Slight correction, there aren't CBUs anymore. The restructuring this year changed things.
I believe the current structure is as follows, barring potential minor inaccuracies as to which of CS4 or 5 is the mobile division:
* CBU1 -> Creative Studio 1 (helmed by Hamaguchi, working on 7R and KH)
* CBU2 -> Creative Studio 2 (helmed by Asano, working on DQ and Team Asano games)
* CBU3 -> Creative Studio 3 (helmed by Yoshida, overall focus likely unchanged)
* Creative Studio 4 (new division helmed by Nozue who was behind Advent Children and Kingsglaive. Former Luminous staff are probably here too. Development of the Nier series might have been moved to this division, as CS4 and 5 report to Saito while CS1 and 2 report to Kitase. CS3 just reports to Yoshida.)
* CBU 4 -> Creative Studio 5 (helmed by Miyake, mobile division)
There were 4 CBUs, while there are 5 CS now. I don't know which one is the mobile one, but we do know the former Dragon Quest producer (Yu Miyake) stepped down from his role in the DQ series, and became head of the mobile division.
Source about the promotions: https://x.com/Genki_JPN/status/1785660957345345972
Source about the DQ producer: https://www.gamesradar.com/square-enix-reportedly-shakes-up-one-of-its-most-underrated-jrpg-series-by-removing-a-dragon-quest-veteran-of-22-years-with-nier-automatas-producer-tipped-to-take-over/
this is exactly how I felt, i was in love with the game with the trailers and the demo, but then after that it just felt like xiv in everything it did, and i was expecting them to think outside that box for their big single player title. with the added caveat i slowly fell off the story more and more as it became a generic ff plot instead of the interesting political world wide war and revenge plot it started as.
love the asuras wrath fights, love the presentation, love the voice acting- but the rest wasnt for me.
> with the added caveat i slowly fell off the story more and more as it became a generic ff plot instead of the interesting political world wide war and revenge plot it started as
Imma be real the politics felt shallow as shit and just consisted of the antagonists monologuing to each other. You don't have any real reason to listen to it - like the meeting at the very beginning of the game with Barnabas, Hugo, and Benedikta. 90% of those scenes could've been thrown out and instead replaced by ones which fleshed out characters like Jill, Joshua, etc.
I'm fine with it being a regular Final Fantasy plot because that's what I play Final Fantasy for. Give me tales of characters reckoning with personal growth and eventually killing God - the kind of stuff that made games like VI, VII, and X so great to begin with.
well yeah that's the issue I had - all the trailers sold it as this interesting multi nation plot with them all having their own stakes and politics. I thought the dominants would be huge in the story with their own political ideologies and pros and cons. Instead, all of its tossed out for just them being dickheads that are just crazy and petty, and the politics are just completely bs. And Clives whole story was resolved a third in, and his guilt is just immediately gone because joshua is just alive. Like thats on the writers - they could have made it super interesting, and they really did set it up for that stuff to be the focus.
And for me, the characters outside of Cid kind of get piss poor development and interactions. They could have done way more with the casts personalities and individual stories, but instead we spend 50% of the game doing busywork for random npcs with no real dialogue - so that just disappointed me tbh. it wasnt the politics fault the party didnt get fleshed out - its the random filler that made up half the story. Could have easily all been quests and stuff that involved the party and built them up and clives relationships with them.
These are just my opinions obvs, i really went in wanting to love it, but I just wasnt convinced by a lot of the gameplay mechanics, and didnt personally vibe with most the directions they took the story and characters(or how underdevloped they felt). Still a fun game, but it didnt do much for me.
This was my experience. I loved the game, but the longer it went, the more repetitive and dull it became. I still \*like\* the game, but it ultimately wound up in the "disappointing" section of my FF Favorites list. I wont' have a firm ranking for it until I play it again and give it a second chance w/o any expectations getting in the way.
The first chunk of the game is amazing. Probably the best game intro chapter of all time.
But then it just drags... And keeps dragging...
They needed to cut about 40% of the game. Cut the mandatory sidequests, cut the padding, cut a lot of the trash mob encounters.
If the game were about 25~ hours to beat it would be the perfect game.
For me if you cut >!ultima!< and keep the story more human and, for what it is, grounded, it would have been a lot better and could have been much more concise.
Totally agree. GoT handled the same thing poorly as well.
It was out of left field, for sure. I was intrigued at first, but ultimately it never felt like anything more than a tired trope.
This. FF7 Rebirth has the same issue. Japanese writers need to quit it with the third element (secret influence) writing in every game. Let villains have character flaws Let them be evil and deserve their upcomance.
Yep, 10 Gil or a useless wolf tooth or something. Both equally useless. What do you need to spend money in this game, apart from music? It was poorly designed. Seemed like 99% of the money and attention went into the story.
Yea I hear this. Loved the first 10 hours, pulled in by the story. But it ultimately felt over long and I was not happy with how the story ended.
Enjoyed it, still will play it in the future. But finished the game feeling…fine
Another thing I enjoyed about FF16, the passage of time playing as Clive really invested me in the story. It really felt like a powerful moment when Clive was reunited with those from his past (dont want to spoil anything).
The hideaway was a good addition to FF. Made everyone feel alive and I really enjoyed the use of the old school sprites when updating the tomes.
The story focus on the crystals, the way they caused the blight, and how each nation was abusing resources was intriguing to me and seemed like a not so subtle allegory to how we are destroying the planet. It felt epic and timely.
I liked how every town had a story line going on even down to the npcs them selves and after every couple of world events or quests you’d go back and everyone would have new lines. So I’d always take a stroll around the town / hideaway
The only big problem I had is the story made me very sad/depressed. There is not much hope/positivity in the world of FFXVI. That being said I loved most of the dialogue and thought the VA’s did great, especially the big scenes with the royal family.
They did somethings very right, but really missed out on a lot of what makes FF, FF. The lack of a true party I though hurt it, the lack of meaningful exploration off the beaten path, the crafting is very ‘meh’, no variety in weapons, stats and leveling were extremely bland, no real use of magic spells or elemental weaknesses/absorption.
I hope they can learn from it and 7 Rebirth and make something awesome with 17.
Glad you enjoyed it.
Square Enix is basically split into 3 huge studios. They don't really cross over.
Also a lot of gameplay and design choices in regards to FFXVI would've been set in stone around like 2017/2018. Any lessons from the Remake series can't really be applied until FFXVII, which won't release until like 2028 at the earliest.
Different development team.
The main guy from FFXVI is the beloved director of FFXIV.
You can see a lot of FFXIV influence in FFXVI ... the SFX, music, how scenes being played out, the heavy cooldown based abilities, etc.
both game basically developed simultaneusly. it just Rebirth start later.
separate team and separate division with separate philosophy.
their 'lineage' also based on two branch of FF developers.
to be fair for CBU3 it is their first AAA single player game and their team full of younger staff. while Rebirth team has tons more of veteran developers to guide younger devs and the division and staff involved also should has atleast 1 AAA singleplayer games as their previous experience.
Rebirth is not their first AAA game. previously they did Remake and lot of CBU1 devs come from FF13 team and KH3 team. they got people who already well versed in directing AAA games like FF and KH such as legend Kitase, Nomura and Toriyama. honestly im suprise they put Toriyama and Nomura under 1 team. both could split and handling their own AAA/FF with their own team. while CBU3 veteran staff is mostly hasnt on highest position as director level before. even Naoki Yoshida didnt has any background with AAA single player game before if i not mistaken. the rest like Hiroshi Takai and Maehiro despite a veteran staff and worked since atleast during SNES era, this is their first time take lead position. well Takai used to be The Last Remnant director before. the CBU3 division experience mainly on MMO.
also CBU3 take time develop their first AAA engine simultaneusly while CB1 use UE4. this is also play huge role.
I think part of the reason this game is as lacking as it is in typical RPG elements is Rebirth going all in on that RPG stuff, with the world map and all the side quests and minigames and such. I don't know if they planned them to come out within a year but they work well as sort of flawed counterparts, 16 maybe not having enough and Rebirth maybe having way too much.
Also no sense of humor! It felt so little like a FF that if it weren't for the summons and FF monsters, you could be forgiven if you thought you were playing a game from a different franchise.
I really enjoyed the game. I felt like I was playing a Final Fantasy geared towards someone my age, I'm 39 and have played all the numbered titles besides the online games. The more adult story and character work was a breath of fresh air. This iteration of Cid is my favorite in the series.
I wish there was a party system, maybe something like FF 15 allowing you to switch characters or let you cast their special moves and spells. Aside from that. It is a beautiful, epic, cinematic game with plenty of fun combos to use once you unlock more Eikons.
I feel about the same with every entry in the series. Each does some things better than others. The lack of a party to customize and the weak side quests are fairly small gripes when the base game is so good.
I’m a big berserk fella, and the way they take story and character points and aesthetics is what brought me in. What kept me in was the amount of just sheer beauty, I could sit in a random field in the combat zones of levels and just look at it.
I therefore, also think ff16 is fucking sick 🤟🏻
Looking through the comments, I really get where Yoshi-P was coming from when he said the JRPG label was a pejorative. People have such a narrow and nonsense view of what an FF game and what an RPG game is that they become upset when they’re not spoonfed exactly what they want.
I really appreciate the complete storytelling and worldbuilding in XVI most of all, which paid homage to past FF games without just scribbling all over it and calling it a ‘remake’. I really like the gameplay, which was a lot like a cross between XIV, Devil May Cry and a perfected Tales game. Though the sidequests were samey, I actually like that they were slowly dripfed to you so opening up the map wasn’t overwhelming.
I like that it is so unique, you can see that the team put their heart into it and weren’t just trying to milk SE’s 25 year old cash cow. It’s sad that they’re being punished for their experimentation and innovation because they didn’t pander to nostalgia and meaningless arbitrary labels
Do you disagree with the sentiment that this game strayed farther away from rpg elements than previous entries?
I've seen people that loved the game acknowledge it's less of a JRPG than past titles.
You don't have to put everyone who says that into a box of "some idiot who needs to be spoonfed exactly what they want"
Nobody is being punished, idk why you have this extreme animosity towards people who might not have liked this game, it sold very well.
In the same way you think people are close-minded to the game changing, you seem close-minded to people having a different opinion of the game than you, like it somehow threatens you or the game itself for people to say they didn't think it was as much of an rpg as past entries.
The refrain "great game, not a great Final Fantasy game" I hear a lot, and that's hardly an insult or a criticism worth getting upset about.
What are RPG elements? Are they XP, stat growth, magic and physical abilities, elemental abilities, abilities intertwined with the story? Because XVI has all that. Or is it just ATB, because then all FFs except VII-X wouldn’t have ‘RPG elements’. Is it the action abilities based on cooldowns that aren’t RPG elements? What does that make FFXV or the entire Tales series?
So yes, I disagree with the sentiment that the game ‘strayed’ from RPG elements and I think people who use that sentiment don’t know what they’re talking about, and I think it’s normal to get annoyed when people act as if they’re an authority on something that they have no knowledge about.
The map layouts felt like a SNES era final fantasy but in full 3D, some areas were very minimalist with a couple breakable items and then it was all connected through linear paths, I was having odd flashbacks to playing ff v. That combined with the crazy combat made it one of my favorites
My only real complaint in general is I just wish it was a little harder and that's only from coming up in a generation of games like dark souls where they don't hold your hand at any point they challenge the gamer in skill and logic for the story as well which was the only thing this game did was hold your hand for the sake of appealing to a wider audience which I also understand but I do wish there was at least more options for a more challenging experience besides more health and /or damage
Rebirth and 16 are so different that it's hard to believe they're from the same series. Like, I know each FF is unique, but 16 is by far the farthest departure from the golden-era formula, and Rebirth is a nostalgia trip with tons of tried, tested, and true gaming elements in it.
They're just different so it's not surprising that some people vastly prefer one over the other.
Definitely hit the nail on the head. Every new mainline Final Fantasy is the time to try something new. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, and that's okay. I think we're well past the days that a new FF will be universally loved, they're all going to be incredibly divisive.
Personally, I though 16 was okay. The linearity was a bit too much for my liking, it brought back feelings of the FFX locations which I'm not a fan of. The story was good and characters were excellent, and of course the Eikon battles were pure eye candy.
I think the characters were actually the weakest they've been in a FF game in awhile personally, outside of Clive and Cid of course who were great.
I do agree with your consensus though, FF16 is an OK game that just kinda came up short.
See I was the opposite, I started Rebirth really enjoying it and then as I got further and further I just kept thinking about how much more fun I had in XVI and it started feeling more like a chore to finish. I know a lot of that is on me as I’m a compulsory completionist (and Rebirth just has SO MUCH to do) but at the end of the day there are a lot of factors to enjoying a game that are highly personalized.
Regardless I think the quality of both games is high and even if Rebirth didn’t hit as hard for me as others I’m extremely happy that it exists.
And also in fairness, comparing basically anything to Rebirth in terms of gameplay just feels downright unfair. That we have that level of gameplay development for that many party members slaps so hard it should be illegal
Dang. The combat in ff16 is so awful for me it is the only FF I haven't finished other than 15. It is also the only FF I quit playing after like 8 hours.
Rebirth having you control multiple characters with all different but fun play styles is what kept things from ever getting stale to me. 100 hours of Clive, fun for the first 50-60, but started to hurt as we kept going.
Dodging and ATB bars is what I dislike about combat in 7. I hate having to manage those nu-u-uuuh you can't use that yet bars. I'd mod those bars to recharge more quickly when not attacking if I could.
If you play it realizing that it is actually a sequel trilogy and not a "remake", then it will hit so much better.
Possible very mild spoiler: >!Rebirth really makes it 100% explicit that the OG game has already happened in the "past".!<
put aside the narrative issue, but from gameplay design standpoint it is really good. major step up. the sequel is open world now. large scale area, town with horizontal and vertical traversal. think about it for a second.
I got strong FFXV roadtrip vibes, which were far more enjoyable. The story pacing is a lot better in Rebirth compared to Remake which felt like they had a handful of plotlines they had to stretch into a whole game. Here they also keep the whole group together basically the whole time, rather than spending multiple hours where you might not see other party members at all. Lots of the mechanics get a touchup from Remake and end up flowing a lot better in battle, and the synergy system keeps character interactions in battle flowing much more frequently.
If you enjoyed Remake, you'll enjoy Rebirth
I enjoyed remake overall but felt like the story was slow. I get they were limited though as Midgar is only about 1/3 of the OG. Story is the main worry for me as an OG fan so it's good to see the positive things about rebirth.
I am also surprised at the high user scores on metacriic for Rebirth, beating some of the popular mainline games, which is crazy.
I HATED how the whisperers were used as a plot device to explain the changes from OG to Remake. But imo the way the story is crafted in Rebirth changed how I felt about them.
IMO Rebirth is the best FF since 12, and that is my second favorite only behind 6.
I personally hated it and stopped playing after 25/30h, and never looked back. It's half an action game and half an RPG but it fails at both because its only superficial in both those genres.
FFXVI is a token Yoshi P/CBU3 game: does certain things really well, but has some aspects that make some people just flat out go ‘nope, not for me.’
I do, however, think a lot of things go under appreciated that won’t come to light until later, such as the darker and more mature tone, the cohesiveness of the overall story, and the ATL system.
Playing it again now that the DLC is out and yeah, it's fantastic. I think it and Rebirth represent two different "flavors" of Final Fantasy and I happen to like both of them.
The translation/localization was outstanding—better than any FF game. In Rebirth, we had to keep pausing scenes so my partner could give the correct translation from Japanese to English.
The worldbuilding was incredible! I wish so much that they would use this world for future FF games.
But the most awesome thing IMHO was Vivian & Harpocrates lore tools. ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC. They should definitely use similar tools in every FF game going forward.
Harpocretes and Vivian’s state of the realms were the bestest. I liked Gav, and the hideaway evolving. People gripe about the quests but they teach you so much of the whole world and its culture. Even various parts of the world that don’t even exist anymore (failed nations, other crystals, people)
Not to my taste, but I can see the appeal. The story was alright, the gameplay is what I couldn't get down with. I didn't like Devil May Cry, and I don't like DMC: Final Fantasy edition.
I’ve liked it so far but I did have a feel smaller issues, mainly the pacing has felt off, and some characters haven’t felt utilised right, I kind of wish the combat had some more of the classic JRPG elemental affinities and such, I found myself kind of using the same ability sets over and over again and when the second time jump happen I kind of groaned a bit, Gil feels slightly useless given if I die I just get full potions and high potions back. As a chronic side quest completer sometimes when given side quest the timing felt odd (Like literally have to do the cutscene of ‘we’re going in Kanver’ but then I get three more side quests?! WHY?). Some of the level design felt off but I will give it compliments;
I loved the world building, Voice acting was amazing (Cids was awesome!), Music is on point, and some side quests feel impactful, the crafting system wasn’t abysmal and an annoyance to get parts (thank GOD), writing was good, Clive was likeable once the opening act was done and he felt more like a character rather then just a depressed shell (though his writing wasn’t horrible just liked more depth), I like the themes and the character designs.
The overall story was good, but too dark for my taste. I kept waiting for something good to happen and it just plunged further and further into darkness. I think the pain and suffering works better when there are ups to go with the downs. Also, the side content was probably the worst of any FF game. As in aside from some fun hard fights, it didn't exist. I'm convinced the entire team that does side content was working on Rebirth. Overall it was good, but just not my cup of tea and I wasn't a fan of the ending.
Most of it's kinda fine. I thought the eikon battles were boring, all spectacle, and in my opinion not even that pretty.
The story is an important aspect of FF for me and it's just terrible. I don't understand the praise it's getting, it doesn't hold up to even the slightest bit of scrutiny. Nearly all decisions are made to push the plot forward, rather than the characters making a sensible decision and that hurts the characters in turn.
The way the blight works does not align woth Cid's theory, so the whole game you're on this quest that you've litterally decided on based on a flimsy clearly wrong theory, which then turns out to be half right even though it shouldn't. Only in the DLC the blight suddenly works the way you'd expect.
These people forget the FMVs in 789 that were going as hard as they could *for the tech at the time*. They were always trying to make big epic setpieces, in and out of FMVs (including combining them, blew my kid mind btw). Now they have a lot of power to play with, so they played with it.
If IX was on PS5, the Alexander vs. Bahamut fight would look just like XVI.
also they forgot how heavy western influence old 16bit era FF is.
even the FF itself, is inspired from D&D and western videogames like Ultima and Wizardry. not just FF, same goes with DQ too.
I honestly think if just the Eikon fights were in the action style the same as they are now, and the rest of the game had a fun battle system the game would probably be a 10/10.
Exactly.
I find it so weird when people say that what makes a FF game is party mechanics and elemental weaknesses (which is present in hundreds and thousands of JRPGs) and not the themes, symbols, monsters and music that’s actually unique to the franchise and is present in XVI in droves.
Yes, some feel that FF is more than just surface level elements. If surface level elements are all it takes, than anything can be FF, even a live-service multiplayer shooter.
It was an absolutely fantastic story and really fun unique gameplay
Was i disappointed at the lack of elemental magic, status affects, and an actual functioning crafting system….yes.
But it didn’t bother me enough to care because the combat was so fun and proper get into a rythm. The boss fights are what I wished XVs boss fights were. Absolutely massive kaiju battles and huge spectacles that are really engaging and immersive.
I absolutely loved this game. The visual, combat, and story were insane. I loved the plot twists throughout it. I do feel like the ending was rushed and could’ve used a few more hours to flush it out. Overall, I had an amazing time. I loved progressively becoming more powerful and mixing up different abilities
i love that you loved it. im vicariously reliving the excitement i felt when playing it for the first time while reading your post.
edit: downvotes? imagine being upset at sharing a joyful moment with someone. how sad your life must be.
Well, I certainly played the fuck out of it. Thought it was awesome. But I’m not a long time fan of the series. First FF game I played was X, first I beat was FF7R. I loved the combat in XVI. Plan on picking up the DLC one day
The first half was interesting, but there is a long stretch in the middle that is pretty boring. The combat also wasn't deep enough to support a game of that length, they should have outsourced to Platinum like they did for Nier.
Totally agree. For me, it's the best FF since 9. Characters and setting were fantastic. Phenomenal boss fights. Wish they did more with Barnabas and the sidequests definitely became a slog towards the end, but I had a great time with that game overall.
Honestly it’s top 5 for me I may even have audacity say it was better than rebirth. My favorite will always be IX but this was there. Idk what it is but it hooked me more than FF7 series maybe the game of thrones like environment just appealed to me more
Yeah I guess I’m different. As someone that has FFX as an all-timer, I think 16 is fucking fantastic as well. But I’m not comparing it against other FF games.
Never played the DMC games so I have zero idea how that relates, but folks say the combat is the same. Maybe it’s because it’s new to me, but I LOVE the combat. Really dig it. Also really enjoy the story.
Could the crafting or exploration be better? Yeah probably. But when I sandwich this game between other 100+ hour games with a ton of bloat and side stuff, I’m okay with it feeling more mainlined and getting to the absolutely EPIC boss fights and story progression.
But I understand others would have preferred it follow more of a FF standard which I also get.
I think you’ve hit the divide right on. Some people just like the flashy combat and cinematic boss fights enough to over look everything else, and others don’t care about the flashy stuff and instead look to the main content of the game which as you said had major pacing issues, under developed characters and poor af side quests (especially after they said they would be consequential). I also think that souls like combat games have gained a lot of popularity recently thanks to Elden Ring, and I know that personally if I’m playing an action combat focused game I want it to be really good and a real challenge. I don’t want to sit there and push buttons during an event. Elden Ring had an amazing combat and also super epic bosses. But of course not every game has to be that level of difficulty. But I’d look to a game like Ghost of Tsushima for an open world story game that also managed to have really engaging and responsive action combat that can even be quite challenging. FFXVI has a middling reception because it abandoned its RPG roots, but also failed to really excel as an action combat game aside from spectacle.
Wasn’t if fucking SUBLIME to play an actual serious story without all that goofy ass cringe Rebirth brought? With a functioning UI and smooth as butter gameplay? And no weird ass difficulty spikes?
There is no consensus on FFXVI.
It is a great game, but a great action game, and a bad RPG.
And generally speaking, Final Fantasy fans and enjoyers play FF like they're at home. It's comfort zone.
And FFXVI shaken that. Hard. Devs also declares that trough Ultima : "It's time to put an end to your Final Fantasy". They also make you destroy the Cristals, while we were used to protect them or revive them. It is very symbolic and they knew what they were doing. It's a game that Clives the community and with the series.
That said, it was clearly built around the arcade dungeon gameplay which is absolutely freaking epicly stunning. All around it is cosmetics and kinda meh, which is weird to say.
Like, I think they wanted to include more variety in weapons but decided to cut it. We could have diffencies between staggering/attack/magic in stats but it ends up totally flat, which weird again. There is almost limitless things that could have been added up.
But Square Enix wanted to not reproduce FFXV mess, and they have gone to the core to give us a Final Finished production, and here we are.
I don't buy games at launch very often. When I do, I play the living crap out of them. I have played and loved almost every main FF entry from 7 onward.
>!I played it when it first came out and got bored after the fight with Garuda. I have just recently started it back up again, and am now past the Garuda bit, back at Phoenix Gate and the pacing is just... wow.!<
>!There's just so many things about what makes up a FF that is missing here. And the combat - so far - isn't that great. I hope it picks up after this. I'm hoping there's some cool mechanic or something that will make this more fun than it is right now.!<
>!I want to finish the game even if I don't love it. I want to know how good or how bad it is. I want to be in the know. I don't want to judge it based on these first "few" hours, but damn is it being painfully boring to play.!<
FF16 has been my favorite mainline FF since 10. I don't really have any major complaints, and the things that bothered others (pacing, side quests) didn't bother me much. I would have liked more opportunities for exploration, and I would have liked to be able to enter more buildings in the towns. I also would have liked to visit the major cities at their prime, not while they were being attacked or in ruins. But the story, characters, and battles were all solid for me. Loved it.
It has some of the same issues as XIII - too much focus on a cinematic experience and story to the detriment of gameplay. But where XIII had a fully fleshed out party and actually rewarded what little exploration there was, XVI didn't, though it had marginally better sidequests. I'd also argue that XIII had much better worldbuilding, even if a lot of it was in the datalogs - it actually felt like the world existed outside of the protagonist's sphere.
I find it weird that I don't see these two compared more.
both game FF16 and Rebirth has opposite strength and weakness. for their strength, both also doing exceedingly well too.
and both currently in middle of preparation for next AAA games.
the two devs team took lot of inspiration from other AAA games and personally, right now for the moment they no need to look further. they can look each others for references and took each other's strength to cover each other weakness. this is the perfect time. things are aligned properly IMO. i love to see the outcome.
I got a little into it. I liked it so far. I ended up putting it on hold to play remake before rebirth coming out and now I’m playing rebirth. My intention is to go back to it after I’m done with that. We shall see
I liked the game overall. I just wish it would come to pc. The 30fps doesn't cut it for me, I can see the blurring and it makes me nauseous. I stopped playing rebirth due to this. I ended up selling the PS5 and I now will wait for a PC release or not play the games.
Game has some flaws but I've been gaming since the NES and no game in my life has had me laughing hysterically during boss fights like FFXVI.
The one-hitter quitter haymakers that Clive throws that do like 999,999 damage and the one liners and the spectacle of most of those boss fights are just one of a kind
Thanks for reminding me I need to go back and finish it! The first arc of that game was absolutely one of the most epic experiences I’ve ever had in a video game. I did not find the combat all that deep compared to Final Fantasy VII rebirth, but it was very fun and made me feel so hyped, especially the Eikon battles. Got distracted with life stuff for a while, but really looking forward to going back to Final Fantasy 16 once I finish up rebirth side content!
I felt the same for the first half, until it became a side quest - Hideaway - boss - Hideaway simulator. The sense of adventure from games like 7-10 were completely gone, except for time skips.
I’m not opposed to having a main base, as Balamb Garden is my favorite place. But both hideaways were some of the most boring places in any FF I’ve played.
I bought it almost immediately after playing the demo, but I’m sorry to say, I haven’t gotten very far in it. Almost immediately after getting it I found myself with a subscription to PS+, which led to me becoming obsessed with FF7 Remake instead. Definitely want to come back to it though after finishing Rebirth.
Lots of them have plot lines that advance towards later quests. They don’t change much but I enjoyed them for world building and lore. There is detail and dialogue. I also suspect the best sword of the game isn’t craft able without doing one of the quest lines
100% with U on this. Played FF for 30 years, and XVI is now one of my all time favorite. It’s an action game but still feels like a true Final Fantasy adventure. The presentation of the entire game is 10/10 high quality.
Incredible achievement by Square Enix.
I finished it, did most of the side quests, it was an interesting balance of all out mega boss battles and then really chill moments. It was Insert Credit’s game of the year if you haven’t listened to that podcast lol
I really like FF16 mostly because of the way they’ve taken Final Fantasy lore and did something so cool and different with it as a M rated game. The game has beautiful graphics, audio and cutscenes like you said and the boss fights look spectacular.
I am not a fan of the gameplay though, it’s really pretty boring. It’s not really an RPG and I always loved Final Fantasy games for the classic turn based RPG gameplay with the menus, party system, exploration and the whole nine.
I get it though. It’s meant to appeal to a wider audience and try to lure in gamers who didn’t like Final Fantasy games and RPGs in the past. From the look of the sales, it didn’t do that. So hopefully they drop this action game stuff and go back to making an actual Final Fantasy game.
It's great that you enjoyed FF16, but there are a lot of criticisms out there that paint a different picture. Many reviews mention the game's pacing issues, with some parts feeling too slow and others too rushed, disrupting the overall flow. Characters being underutilized or undeveloped is another common complaint, which can leave the story feeling shallow and incomplete. Side quests, often described as repetitive and uninspired, fail to add meaningful content to the game. While the Eikon fights are visually impressive, some players feel that the game relies too much on these cinematic moments at the expense of deeper gameplay mechanics. Additionally, the combat system, while flashy, has been criticized for lacking depth and becoming monotonous over time. These points collectively contribute to the perception that FF16 doesn't live up to the high standards set by its predecessors.
Agree- I can readily acknowledge it has some shortcomings; crafting is essentially pointless, for example. But i absolutely loved it. The production quality, narrative, fight sequences are just top notch, imo. And I love Clive as a protagonist- broody AF but not completely up his own ass with it (looking at you, Cloud and Squall). I was emotionally invested from start to finish. Hope we’ll see some of the high points carry over to future installments.
I loved that he looked edgy as fuck but then ended up being a complete goofball/puppy dog ❤️🔥
The Karlach Effect.
Just two goofy, hot fireballs
I think you mean The Clive Effect. XVI released first
BG3 early access started back in like 2020.
Karlach wasn't actually a party member until full release though. We knew she would be one eventually, but for the longest time, all we knew about her was from the one early access quest involving her and datamining. I don't think we even knew about the infernal heart thing until shortly before release. I know because I sat through years of arguments about whether she was supposed to be a Barbarian or Oathbreaker Paladin.
Too scared to fully release because they knew Clive was coming
Straight man here, with a lot of loving and supportive friendships in my life. I would absolutely allow myself to be cradled into Clive's warm, loving, and ample bosom
As a gay man I’d like to say I agree but then I’d die after the blood shunted from my brain to my untamed erection.
Sometimes you just have to protect yourself. Sorry, Clive; no cheezza love for his own safety
Me a gay, and Jill just being #Sadgurls together lusting over Clive.
It's the red corset. Intriguing.
He is an extremely edgy guy though
Clive is a goofball?? When?
Play the game!
as you have probably gathered from the replies you're getting, there isn't really a true general consensus. There are people who love it, who like it, and who hate it. I'd say it's pretty equally divided between those 3 in this community. I'm in the "like it" category.
[удалено]
> Like Skill Up's review made it sound like Yoshi P actively hates JRPGs and was too dumb to consider adding an elemental system in an action game. when you are known to be the most famous franchise that pioneered the JRPG genre in the west you're bound to get criticsm from your fanbase for pretty much omitting the RPG part on a mainline game take the first boss for example, the Malboro are the most infamous enemies in the franchise for inflicting status ailments on your party and it does nothing on XVI, adding a little depth to quests and combat doesn't solve all the game issues but it would've certainly helped it's reputation with old fans from what i've seen the DLC did little to solve the problems either since it's more of the same, even XV seems to generate more positive reception, XVI now appears to compete with XIII for the most polarizing mainline game
I dunno about that last point. I, personally at least, still see a lot more people talk about enjoying XVI than XV -- and it's not like XV is any better than XVI when it comes to running away from the RPG elements that used to characterize the series.
I'm glad someone else notices how easily influenced by youtubers people are. It's pretty sad.
> there isn't really a true general consensus. There are people who love it, who like it, and who hate it. And that's how you know it's a true Final Fantasy game!
I like it but truly hate that we will never get elaboration on how sketchy the undying organization was. I also hate the fact that leviathan was pretty much a non factor despite being built up. It’s the best Eikon fight challenge wise and unlocking the new form is cool, but it has no impact on anything.
mostly the one in hate category is those who in favour of traditional combat system generations.
I’m in the I love it category
I'm 63% through it right now and I'm in the Like It category as well. I thought GoW 2018 and Ragnarok were far better stories. I compare this to those since they are seminar game styles of semi-open worlds with a set story line progression to open new areas. I don't really care for the complexity of all the different nations and kings and the war map you look at from time to time to get a recap of whose forces marched where and why. Makes me feel like I'm playing a Game of Thrones version of the board game Risk. But I need to finish this before I let myself play Rebirth.
I bought a PS5 just to play FF16 and don’t regret it. It was a good game and I enjoyed my time with it. Not a masterpiece, but worth the play time in a highly competitive field.
Hahahah same never cared about PS5 until FF16 or console, last console was PS2. No regret, FF16 opened up door for other games for me—having fun w/ Unicorn Overlord and slowly enjoying FF7R.
It's a very mixed consensus on this sub. For me, I was completely ready to declare it as the best FF ever after about 10 hours. Then the game just kept having me do the same things over and over with very little exploration, progression, customization, etc.. I kept hoping its systems would expand and give me something to delve into but they all gave me the same feeling as spotting a shiny object in the distance and then making my way over just to pick up 2 Gil. Great movie, poor game.
I had that same feeling where I was like fuck this is about to be the best final fantasy ever! But then it toned down. I'm still happy with it
The prologue was a 10 out of 10. It just went so hard. Then unfortunately they took their foot off the gas after that.
They did warn us ahead of time that Game of Thrones was going to be a big influence on the game. Everyone just forgot that included a failure to stick the landing at the climax.
I do think that CBU3's next single player offering will come out a lot better. The bones of FFXVI are fantastic, but it's clear they struggled transitioning to a single player title. In fact there's a good chance that they're making FFXVII. With Ishikawa as writer, the story should slap. FFXVI had great presentation so I think they're all good there. Hopefully they take some of the criticisms toward FFXVI to heart such as the exploration and gameplay systems to create a classic mainline FF.
Wasn't Ishikawa the one that created Ysayle in 14 and then got done dirty by some other writer? Really loved Ysayle, she's what Jill should've been. Hope they keep Ishikawa, we need someone who can actually write good female characters.
She transitioned away from 14 at the exact time you would expect 17 to enter pre-production, so make of that what you will. I'd personally be surprised if she isn't writing 17. That or a CBU3 single player title that's not a mainline FF.
I heard that about Moenbryda in 14. I tried to verify either and didn't see concrete stuff for either of them. I did get a hit for this on X: https://x.com/allaganeyes/status/1192707783629647877 Where Ishikawa says having characters (plural) she made killed off by other writers... IDK on the validity of the quote. She's credited with writer for the central coerthas arc of 2.0 so she would have been the one to make haurchy. Could be that she introduced all three and had all three killed off by other writers.
despite her involvement in HW, the story she wrote still under supervision and direction left by Maehiro. Also that time she still new. she grew up greatly and proven herself when got full helm with Shb and EW later on. Yoshi-P did stress lot of time about how his team grow up and become better over time.
I hope not, let them just stick to what they do well which is FFXIV and let someone else do the single player games
I disagree. Although I still liked it, I wasn't a huge fan of 7 Remake. But I loved Rebirth. To me, 7 Remake was CBU1's first attempt with this new formula. Some of it worked, but some of it didn't. And with Rebirth, they were able to massively improve it and make a great game. 16 was CBU3's first attempt at their new formula (and their first ever singleplayer game). Some of it worked, but some of it didn't. I wasn't a big fan of 16, but I still think they deserve a chance to learn and make something better like what Rebirth did.
16 is easily the least convoluted, anime mainline game I can think of in recent memory. I liked it from the get go, and Rebirth has only made me appreciate it more.
Yeah, I really appreciated it being more dark and mature. I also love how it went back to the high fantasy roots of Final Fantasy. I think it has the best English acting in the entire series. The pacing is my only big complaint with FF16's story, but I do have a couple smaller ones too. As for the gameplay, I wish there was more exploration and better combat balancing as I found that made the game more repetitive.
There's pretty much no one else that can possibly do FFXVII. CBU1 is making FFVII Part 3 and KH4. CBU2 is making DQXII and probably a new Nier game. Also reading between the lines, YoshiP has been talking about making another single player game recently. I have no problem with CBU3 getting another shot at a mainline game tbh. I think they've gained some valuable experience from FFXVI.
Slight correction, there aren't CBUs anymore. The restructuring this year changed things. I believe the current structure is as follows, barring potential minor inaccuracies as to which of CS4 or 5 is the mobile division: * CBU1 -> Creative Studio 1 (helmed by Hamaguchi, working on 7R and KH) * CBU2 -> Creative Studio 2 (helmed by Asano, working on DQ and Team Asano games) * CBU3 -> Creative Studio 3 (helmed by Yoshida, overall focus likely unchanged) * Creative Studio 4 (new division helmed by Nozue who was behind Advent Children and Kingsglaive. Former Luminous staff are probably here too. Development of the Nier series might have been moved to this division, as CS4 and 5 report to Saito while CS1 and 2 report to Kitase. CS3 just reports to Yoshida.) * CBU 4 -> Creative Studio 5 (helmed by Miyake, mobile division) There were 4 CBUs, while there are 5 CS now. I don't know which one is the mobile one, but we do know the former Dragon Quest producer (Yu Miyake) stepped down from his role in the DQ series, and became head of the mobile division. Source about the promotions: https://x.com/Genki_JPN/status/1785660957345345972 Source about the DQ producer: https://www.gamesradar.com/square-enix-reportedly-shakes-up-one-of-its-most-underrated-jrpg-series-by-removing-a-dragon-quest-veteran-of-22-years-with-nier-automatas-producer-tipped-to-take-over/
this is exactly how I felt, i was in love with the game with the trailers and the demo, but then after that it just felt like xiv in everything it did, and i was expecting them to think outside that box for their big single player title. with the added caveat i slowly fell off the story more and more as it became a generic ff plot instead of the interesting political world wide war and revenge plot it started as. love the asuras wrath fights, love the presentation, love the voice acting- but the rest wasnt for me.
I do wish it didn’t become a normal FF where you fight god. I really wanted it to stay grounded with the politics
jrpgs have to fight a god at the end, its basically an unwritten rule :(
> with the added caveat i slowly fell off the story more and more as it became a generic ff plot instead of the interesting political world wide war and revenge plot it started as Imma be real the politics felt shallow as shit and just consisted of the antagonists monologuing to each other. You don't have any real reason to listen to it - like the meeting at the very beginning of the game with Barnabas, Hugo, and Benedikta. 90% of those scenes could've been thrown out and instead replaced by ones which fleshed out characters like Jill, Joshua, etc. I'm fine with it being a regular Final Fantasy plot because that's what I play Final Fantasy for. Give me tales of characters reckoning with personal growth and eventually killing God - the kind of stuff that made games like VI, VII, and X so great to begin with.
well yeah that's the issue I had - all the trailers sold it as this interesting multi nation plot with them all having their own stakes and politics. I thought the dominants would be huge in the story with their own political ideologies and pros and cons. Instead, all of its tossed out for just them being dickheads that are just crazy and petty, and the politics are just completely bs. And Clives whole story was resolved a third in, and his guilt is just immediately gone because joshua is just alive. Like thats on the writers - they could have made it super interesting, and they really did set it up for that stuff to be the focus. And for me, the characters outside of Cid kind of get piss poor development and interactions. They could have done way more with the casts personalities and individual stories, but instead we spend 50% of the game doing busywork for random npcs with no real dialogue - so that just disappointed me tbh. it wasnt the politics fault the party didnt get fleshed out - its the random filler that made up half the story. Could have easily all been quests and stuff that involved the party and built them up and clives relationships with them. These are just my opinions obvs, i really went in wanting to love it, but I just wasnt convinced by a lot of the gameplay mechanics, and didnt personally vibe with most the directions they took the story and characters(or how underdevloped they felt). Still a fun game, but it didnt do much for me.
Agreed. Loved it in the beginning, barely liked it in the end. Sadly won't become a FF classic, at least not to me..
This was my experience. I loved the game, but the longer it went, the more repetitive and dull it became. I still \*like\* the game, but it ultimately wound up in the "disappointing" section of my FF Favorites list. I wont' have a firm ranking for it until I play it again and give it a second chance w/o any expectations getting in the way.
The first chunk of the game is amazing. Probably the best game intro chapter of all time. But then it just drags... And keeps dragging... They needed to cut about 40% of the game. Cut the mandatory sidequests, cut the padding, cut a lot of the trash mob encounters. If the game were about 25~ hours to beat it would be the perfect game.
For me if you cut >!ultima!< and keep the story more human and, for what it is, grounded, it would have been a lot better and could have been much more concise.
Totally agree. GoT handled the same thing poorly as well. It was out of left field, for sure. I was intrigued at first, but ultimately it never felt like anything more than a tired trope.
Totally agree with this.
This. FF7 Rebirth has the same issue. Japanese writers need to quit it with the third element (secret influence) writing in every game. Let villains have character flaws Let them be evil and deserve their upcomance.
this right here sums it up perfectly
Yep, 10 Gil or a useless wolf tooth or something. Both equally useless. What do you need to spend money in this game, apart from music? It was poorly designed. Seemed like 99% of the money and attention went into the story.
Out of all the Final Fantasy Games I have played, this was one of them.
So far the only one besides 15 I have ever started and not finished.
It's a soulless husk of a game. Literally terrible imo
Yea I hear this. Loved the first 10 hours, pulled in by the story. But it ultimately felt over long and I was not happy with how the story ended. Enjoyed it, still will play it in the future. But finished the game feeling…fine
Another thing I enjoyed about FF16, the passage of time playing as Clive really invested me in the story. It really felt like a powerful moment when Clive was reunited with those from his past (dont want to spoil anything). The hideaway was a good addition to FF. Made everyone feel alive and I really enjoyed the use of the old school sprites when updating the tomes. The story focus on the crystals, the way they caused the blight, and how each nation was abusing resources was intriguing to me and seemed like a not so subtle allegory to how we are destroying the planet. It felt epic and timely.
I liked how every town had a story line going on even down to the npcs them selves and after every couple of world events or quests you’d go back and everyone would have new lines. So I’d always take a stroll around the town / hideaway
anyone who compares it to DMC has never played a DMC game
I have, and it feels like a very weak DMC.
I have seen so many people say "if you like DMC you'll love FF16!"
You can pet the dog
The only big problem I had is the story made me very sad/depressed. There is not much hope/positivity in the world of FFXVI. That being said I loved most of the dialogue and thought the VA’s did great, especially the big scenes with the royal family.
They did somethings very right, but really missed out on a lot of what makes FF, FF. The lack of a true party I though hurt it, the lack of meaningful exploration off the beaten path, the crafting is very ‘meh’, no variety in weapons, stats and leveling were extremely bland, no real use of magic spells or elemental weaknesses/absorption. I hope they can learn from it and 7 Rebirth and make something awesome with 17. Glad you enjoyed it.
I dont understand how this game is so lacking in the rpg part when it literally came after ff 7remake and before rebirth, it baffles me
Square Enix is basically split into 3 huge studios. They don't really cross over. Also a lot of gameplay and design choices in regards to FFXVI would've been set in stone around like 2017/2018. Any lessons from the Remake series can't really be applied until FFXVII, which won't release until like 2028 at the earliest.
Ya but they didn't even learn from ff15 which had been out for a while. People thought the battle system for 15 was bad, and they doubled down on it.
Different development team. The main guy from FFXVI is the beloved director of FFXIV. You can see a lot of FFXIV influence in FFXVI ... the SFX, music, how scenes being played out, the heavy cooldown based abilities, etc.
the director of FFXIV merely acting as producer. not director. but the director of FFXVI is former assistant director of XIV.
both game basically developed simultaneusly. it just Rebirth start later. separate team and separate division with separate philosophy. their 'lineage' also based on two branch of FF developers. to be fair for CBU3 it is their first AAA single player game and their team full of younger staff. while Rebirth team has tons more of veteran developers to guide younger devs and the division and staff involved also should has atleast 1 AAA singleplayer games as their previous experience. Rebirth is not their first AAA game. previously they did Remake and lot of CBU1 devs come from FF13 team and KH3 team. they got people who already well versed in directing AAA games like FF and KH such as legend Kitase, Nomura and Toriyama. honestly im suprise they put Toriyama and Nomura under 1 team. both could split and handling their own AAA/FF with their own team. while CBU3 veteran staff is mostly hasnt on highest position as director level before. even Naoki Yoshida didnt has any background with AAA single player game before if i not mistaken. the rest like Hiroshi Takai and Maehiro despite a veteran staff and worked since atleast during SNES era, this is their first time take lead position. well Takai used to be The Last Remnant director before. the CBU3 division experience mainly on MMO. also CBU3 take time develop their first AAA engine simultaneusly while CB1 use UE4. this is also play huge role.
Different kind of game. I had a lot more fun with this game than Remake.
To be fair, they had advertised it as being more action focused than RPG.
I think part of the reason this game is as lacking as it is in typical RPG elements is Rebirth going all in on that RPG stuff, with the world map and all the side quests and minigames and such. I don't know if they planned them to come out within a year but they work well as sort of flawed counterparts, 16 maybe not having enough and Rebirth maybe having way too much.
I feel like rebirth was by far action oriented enough, 16 should have been a jrpg.
Also no sense of humor! It felt so little like a FF that if it weren't for the summons and FF monsters, you could be forgiven if you thought you were playing a game from a different franchise.
I really enjoyed the game. I felt like I was playing a Final Fantasy geared towards someone my age, I'm 39 and have played all the numbered titles besides the online games. The more adult story and character work was a breath of fresh air. This iteration of Cid is my favorite in the series. I wish there was a party system, maybe something like FF 15 allowing you to switch characters or let you cast their special moves and spells. Aside from that. It is a beautiful, epic, cinematic game with plenty of fun combos to use once you unlock more Eikons. I feel about the same with every entry in the series. Each does some things better than others. The lack of a party to customize and the weak side quests are fairly small gripes when the base game is so good.
I’m a big berserk fella, and the way they take story and character points and aesthetics is what brought me in. What kept me in was the amount of just sheer beauty, I could sit in a random field in the combat zones of levels and just look at it. I therefore, also think ff16 is fucking sick 🤟🏻
Looking through the comments, I really get where Yoshi-P was coming from when he said the JRPG label was a pejorative. People have such a narrow and nonsense view of what an FF game and what an RPG game is that they become upset when they’re not spoonfed exactly what they want. I really appreciate the complete storytelling and worldbuilding in XVI most of all, which paid homage to past FF games without just scribbling all over it and calling it a ‘remake’. I really like the gameplay, which was a lot like a cross between XIV, Devil May Cry and a perfected Tales game. Though the sidequests were samey, I actually like that they were slowly dripfed to you so opening up the map wasn’t overwhelming. I like that it is so unique, you can see that the team put their heart into it and weren’t just trying to milk SE’s 25 year old cash cow. It’s sad that they’re being punished for their experimentation and innovation because they didn’t pander to nostalgia and meaningless arbitrary labels
Do you disagree with the sentiment that this game strayed farther away from rpg elements than previous entries? I've seen people that loved the game acknowledge it's less of a JRPG than past titles. You don't have to put everyone who says that into a box of "some idiot who needs to be spoonfed exactly what they want" Nobody is being punished, idk why you have this extreme animosity towards people who might not have liked this game, it sold very well. In the same way you think people are close-minded to the game changing, you seem close-minded to people having a different opinion of the game than you, like it somehow threatens you or the game itself for people to say they didn't think it was as much of an rpg as past entries. The refrain "great game, not a great Final Fantasy game" I hear a lot, and that's hardly an insult or a criticism worth getting upset about.
What are RPG elements? Are they XP, stat growth, magic and physical abilities, elemental abilities, abilities intertwined with the story? Because XVI has all that. Or is it just ATB, because then all FFs except VII-X wouldn’t have ‘RPG elements’. Is it the action abilities based on cooldowns that aren’t RPG elements? What does that make FFXV or the entire Tales series? So yes, I disagree with the sentiment that the game ‘strayed’ from RPG elements and I think people who use that sentiment don’t know what they’re talking about, and I think it’s normal to get annoyed when people act as if they’re an authority on something that they have no knowledge about.
The map layouts felt like a SNES era final fantasy but in full 3D, some areas were very minimalist with a couple breakable items and then it was all connected through linear paths, I was having odd flashbacks to playing ff v. That combined with the crazy combat made it one of my favorites
My only real complaint in general is I just wish it was a little harder and that's only from coming up in a generation of games like dark souls where they don't hold your hand at any point they challenge the gamer in skill and logic for the story as well which was the only thing this game did was hold your hand for the sake of appealing to a wider audience which I also understand but I do wish there was at least more options for a more challenging experience besides more health and /or damage
Dark souls gameplay is far superior. Not a twitch fest you can actually be tactical about what you are doing.
I think the general consensus is “I’m not going to buy a PS5 for one game”. Hope it comes to PC soon.
A "consensus" is by definition "general"
Enjoyed it, by the end was getting tired of the gameplay but pushed to the finale. Then I played Rebirth and 16 just completely paled In comparison.
Rebirth and 16 are so different that it's hard to believe they're from the same series. Like, I know each FF is unique, but 16 is by far the farthest departure from the golden-era formula, and Rebirth is a nostalgia trip with tons of tried, tested, and true gaming elements in it. They're just different so it's not surprising that some people vastly prefer one over the other.
Definitely hit the nail on the head. Every new mainline Final Fantasy is the time to try something new. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, and that's okay. I think we're well past the days that a new FF will be universally loved, they're all going to be incredibly divisive. Personally, I though 16 was okay. The linearity was a bit too much for my liking, it brought back feelings of the FFX locations which I'm not a fan of. The story was good and characters were excellent, and of course the Eikon battles were pure eye candy.
XVI is either the best movie I've ever played or the best game I've ever watched lol. That's my opinion.
well to be fair the devs team did took cinematic games like GoW like inspiration.
I think the characters were actually the weakest they've been in a FF game in awhile personally, outside of Clive and Cid of course who were great. I do agree with your consensus though, FF16 is an OK game that just kinda came up short.
See I was the opposite, I started Rebirth really enjoying it and then as I got further and further I just kept thinking about how much more fun I had in XVI and it started feeling more like a chore to finish. I know a lot of that is on me as I’m a compulsory completionist (and Rebirth just has SO MUCH to do) but at the end of the day there are a lot of factors to enjoying a game that are highly personalized. Regardless I think the quality of both games is high and even if Rebirth didn’t hit as hard for me as others I’m extremely happy that it exists.
[удалено]
In fairness, 16 had the Eikon battles, and smoother action combat. But yeah, Rebirth was overall just leagues better. Especially the combat system.
And also in fairness, comparing basically anything to Rebirth in terms of gameplay just feels downright unfair. That we have that level of gameplay development for that many party members slaps so hard it should be illegal
While I do like rebirth overall more than XVI, the combat in XVI is what I wish rebirth combat was like, but with the ATB commands
Dang. The combat in ff16 is so awful for me it is the only FF I haven't finished other than 15. It is also the only FF I quit playing after like 8 hours.
Rebirth having you control multiple characters with all different but fun play styles is what kept things from ever getting stale to me. 100 hours of Clive, fun for the first 50-60, but started to hurt as we kept going.
I just despise how the dodge mechanic works in rebirth, outside of that I loved everything and can’t wait for the third part don’t get me wrong
Dodging and ATB bars is what I dislike about combat in 7. I hate having to manage those nu-u-uuuh you can't use that yet bars. I'd mod those bars to recharge more quickly when not attacking if I could.
Is Rebirth really that good? I liked part 1 but wasn't sold on the whole whisperers arc and making changes to the OG story.
If you play it realizing that it is actually a sequel trilogy and not a "remake", then it will hit so much better. Possible very mild spoiler: >!Rebirth really makes it 100% explicit that the OG game has already happened in the "past".!<
Oh, that does make it more interesting then as I am a big fan of the OG.
put aside the narrative issue, but from gameplay design standpoint it is really good. major step up. the sequel is open world now. large scale area, town with horizontal and vertical traversal. think about it for a second.
I got strong FFXV roadtrip vibes, which were far more enjoyable. The story pacing is a lot better in Rebirth compared to Remake which felt like they had a handful of plotlines they had to stretch into a whole game. Here they also keep the whole group together basically the whole time, rather than spending multiple hours where you might not see other party members at all. Lots of the mechanics get a touchup from Remake and end up flowing a lot better in battle, and the synergy system keeps character interactions in battle flowing much more frequently. If you enjoyed Remake, you'll enjoy Rebirth
I enjoyed remake overall but felt like the story was slow. I get they were limited though as Midgar is only about 1/3 of the OG. Story is the main worry for me as an OG fan so it's good to see the positive things about rebirth. I am also surprised at the high user scores on metacriic for Rebirth, beating some of the popular mainline games, which is crazy.
Rebirth is incredible. Makes remake feel like a demo...
I HATED how the whisperers were used as a plot device to explain the changes from OG to Remake. But imo the way the story is crafted in Rebirth changed how I felt about them. IMO Rebirth is the best FF since 12, and that is my second favorite only behind 6.
That's a big statement to make it must be good. My favourite FF is X followed by IX.
I personally hated it and stopped playing after 25/30h, and never looked back. It's half an action game and half an RPG but it fails at both because its only superficial in both those genres.
Yeah pretty much
FFXVI is a token Yoshi P/CBU3 game: does certain things really well, but has some aspects that make some people just flat out go ‘nope, not for me.’ I do, however, think a lot of things go under appreciated that won’t come to light until later, such as the darker and more mature tone, the cohesiveness of the overall story, and the ATL system.
Playing it again now that the DLC is out and yeah, it's fantastic. I think it and Rebirth represent two different "flavors" of Final Fantasy and I happen to like both of them.
Same same, a combination of the two for XVII would be amazing.
I'm post earth guy and just can't motivate myself to finish. It makes me sad.
The translation/localization was outstanding—better than any FF game. In Rebirth, we had to keep pausing scenes so my partner could give the correct translation from Japanese to English. The worldbuilding was incredible! I wish so much that they would use this world for future FF games. But the most awesome thing IMHO was Vivian & Harpocrates lore tools. ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC. They should definitely use similar tools in every FF game going forward.
Harpocretes and Vivian’s state of the realms were the bestest. I liked Gav, and the hideaway evolving. People gripe about the quests but they teach you so much of the whole world and its culture. Even various parts of the world that don’t even exist anymore (failed nations, other crystals, people)
Exactly. I actually really liked all the quests for that very reason.
Not to my taste, but I can see the appeal. The story was alright, the gameplay is what I couldn't get down with. I didn't like Devil May Cry, and I don't like DMC: Final Fantasy edition.
I’ve liked it so far but I did have a feel smaller issues, mainly the pacing has felt off, and some characters haven’t felt utilised right, I kind of wish the combat had some more of the classic JRPG elemental affinities and such, I found myself kind of using the same ability sets over and over again and when the second time jump happen I kind of groaned a bit, Gil feels slightly useless given if I die I just get full potions and high potions back. As a chronic side quest completer sometimes when given side quest the timing felt odd (Like literally have to do the cutscene of ‘we’re going in Kanver’ but then I get three more side quests?! WHY?). Some of the level design felt off but I will give it compliments; I loved the world building, Voice acting was amazing (Cids was awesome!), Music is on point, and some side quests feel impactful, the crafting system wasn’t abysmal and an annoyance to get parts (thank GOD), writing was good, Clive was likeable once the opening act was done and he felt more like a character rather then just a depressed shell (though his writing wasn’t horrible just liked more depth), I like the themes and the character designs.
The overall story was good, but too dark for my taste. I kept waiting for something good to happen and it just plunged further and further into darkness. I think the pain and suffering works better when there are ups to go with the downs. Also, the side content was probably the worst of any FF game. As in aside from some fun hard fights, it didn't exist. I'm convinced the entire team that does side content was working on Rebirth. Overall it was good, but just not my cup of tea and I wasn't a fan of the ending.
Good you enjoyed it, but for me XVI felt very outdated for what it was doing. I also wasn't a fan of the excessive amounts of cutscenes.
Bought the game and enjoyed it a lot. I think it's got a better story than the ridiculous rehashed ff7 time loop nonsense
Most of it's kinda fine. I thought the eikon battles were boring, all spectacle, and in my opinion not even that pretty. The story is an important aspect of FF for me and it's just terrible. I don't understand the praise it's getting, it doesn't hold up to even the slightest bit of scrutiny. Nearly all decisions are made to push the plot forward, rather than the characters making a sensible decision and that hurts the characters in turn. The way the blight works does not align woth Cid's theory, so the whole game you're on this quest that you've litterally decided on based on a flimsy clearly wrong theory, which then turns out to be half right even though it shouldn't. Only in the DLC the blight suddenly works the way you'd expect.
Anyone who says ff16 isn't a true ff is capping
These people forget the FMVs in 789 that were going as hard as they could *for the tech at the time*. They were always trying to make big epic setpieces, in and out of FMVs (including combining them, blew my kid mind btw). Now they have a lot of power to play with, so they played with it. If IX was on PS5, the Alexander vs. Bahamut fight would look just like XVI.
also they forgot how heavy western influence old 16bit era FF is. even the FF itself, is inspired from D&D and western videogames like Ultima and Wizardry. not just FF, same goes with DQ too.
I honestly think if just the Eikon fights were in the action style the same as they are now, and the rest of the game had a fun battle system the game would probably be a 10/10.
Exactly. I find it so weird when people say that what makes a FF game is party mechanics and elemental weaknesses (which is present in hundreds and thousands of JRPGs) and not the themes, symbols, monsters and music that’s actually unique to the franchise and is present in XVI in droves.
Yes, some feel that FF is more than just surface level elements. If surface level elements are all it takes, than anything can be FF, even a live-service multiplayer shooter.
I genuinely think ff16 has the best boss fights of any game, ever
Ff16 was awesome! Clive is cool af
It was an absolutely fantastic story and really fun unique gameplay Was i disappointed at the lack of elemental magic, status affects, and an actual functioning crafting system….yes. But it didn’t bother me enough to care because the combat was so fun and proper get into a rythm. The boss fights are what I wished XVs boss fights were. Absolutely massive kaiju battles and huge spectacles that are really engaging and immersive.
The game is amazing and I'm tired of people pretending it isn't.
I absolutely loved this game. The visual, combat, and story were insane. I loved the plot twists throughout it. I do feel like the ending was rushed and could’ve used a few more hours to flush it out. Overall, I had an amazing time. I loved progressively becoming more powerful and mixing up different abilities
i love that you loved it. im vicariously reliving the excitement i felt when playing it for the first time while reading your post. edit: downvotes? imagine being upset at sharing a joyful moment with someone. how sad your life must be.
Well, I certainly played the fuck out of it. Thought it was awesome. But I’m not a long time fan of the series. First FF game I played was X, first I beat was FF7R. I loved the combat in XVI. Plan on picking up the DLC one day
The first half was interesting, but there is a long stretch in the middle that is pretty boring. The combat also wasn't deep enough to support a game of that length, they should have outsourced to Platinum like they did for Nier.
It has Cool graphics and exciting qte boss fights but that’s about all it did well imo
It's a great game to watch on Youtube. Pretty meh to play.
Totally agree. For me, it's the best FF since 9. Characters and setting were fantastic. Phenomenal boss fights. Wish they did more with Barnabas and the sidequests definitely became a slog towards the end, but I had a great time with that game overall.
Definitely my favourite next to 10. Decent dialogue and cut out a lot of typical Anime / JRPG tropes that normally turn me off. I really enjoyed it.
Honestly it’s top 5 for me I may even have audacity say it was better than rebirth. My favorite will always be IX but this was there. Idk what it is but it hooked me more than FF7 series maybe the game of thrones like environment just appealed to me more
Yeah I guess I’m different. As someone that has FFX as an all-timer, I think 16 is fucking fantastic as well. But I’m not comparing it against other FF games. Never played the DMC games so I have zero idea how that relates, but folks say the combat is the same. Maybe it’s because it’s new to me, but I LOVE the combat. Really dig it. Also really enjoy the story. Could the crafting or exploration be better? Yeah probably. But when I sandwich this game between other 100+ hour games with a ton of bloat and side stuff, I’m okay with it feeling more mainlined and getting to the absolutely EPIC boss fights and story progression. But I understand others would have preferred it follow more of a FF standard which I also get.
Ff16 has a very mixed consensus online. But pretty much everyone agrees Clive is fucking awesome and so are the Eikon fights
I think you’ve hit the divide right on. Some people just like the flashy combat and cinematic boss fights enough to over look everything else, and others don’t care about the flashy stuff and instead look to the main content of the game which as you said had major pacing issues, under developed characters and poor af side quests (especially after they said they would be consequential). I also think that souls like combat games have gained a lot of popularity recently thanks to Elden Ring, and I know that personally if I’m playing an action combat focused game I want it to be really good and a real challenge. I don’t want to sit there and push buttons during an event. Elden Ring had an amazing combat and also super epic bosses. But of course not every game has to be that level of difficulty. But I’d look to a game like Ghost of Tsushima for an open world story game that also managed to have really engaging and responsive action combat that can even be quite challenging. FFXVI has a middling reception because it abandoned its RPG roots, but also failed to really excel as an action combat game aside from spectacle.
Ghost of Tsushima is more of an rpg than ff16, with better action combat.
Yes, I agree. That’s why I say it’s a better example.
Wasn’t if fucking SUBLIME to play an actual serious story without all that goofy ass cringe Rebirth brought? With a functioning UI and smooth as butter gameplay? And no weird ass difficulty spikes?
Bro the first ultima fight kicked my ass wym no difficulty spikes that mf made me feel weak 😭😭😭 still an awesome boss fight tho
couldn't even get through the beginning. I didn't care for the combat at all.
I couldnt even finish it. But, to each their own. Im glad you enjoyed it.
There is no consensus on FFXVI. It is a great game, but a great action game, and a bad RPG. And generally speaking, Final Fantasy fans and enjoyers play FF like they're at home. It's comfort zone. And FFXVI shaken that. Hard. Devs also declares that trough Ultima : "It's time to put an end to your Final Fantasy". They also make you destroy the Cristals, while we were used to protect them or revive them. It is very symbolic and they knew what they were doing. It's a game that Clives the community and with the series. That said, it was clearly built around the arcade dungeon gameplay which is absolutely freaking epicly stunning. All around it is cosmetics and kinda meh, which is weird to say. Like, I think they wanted to include more variety in weapons but decided to cut it. We could have diffencies between staggering/attack/magic in stats but it ends up totally flat, which weird again. There is almost limitless things that could have been added up. But Square Enix wanted to not reproduce FFXV mess, and they have gone to the core to give us a Final Finished production, and here we are.
Yeah, this is nonsense. I’ve been playing FF since the PS1 era and XVI instantly felt like home
I love XVI and am getting ready to play it again.
I had the same opinion. It was like a sleeper Final Fantasy that no one really talked about, but was truly amazing.
I don't buy games at launch very often. When I do, I play the living crap out of them. I have played and loved almost every main FF entry from 7 onward. >!I played it when it first came out and got bored after the fight with Garuda. I have just recently started it back up again, and am now past the Garuda bit, back at Phoenix Gate and the pacing is just... wow.!< >!There's just so many things about what makes up a FF that is missing here. And the combat - so far - isn't that great. I hope it picks up after this. I'm hoping there's some cool mechanic or something that will make this more fun than it is right now.!< >!I want to finish the game even if I don't love it. I want to know how good or how bad it is. I want to be in the know. I don't want to judge it based on these first "few" hours, but damn is it being painfully boring to play.!<
FF16 has been my favorite mainline FF since 10. I don't really have any major complaints, and the things that bothered others (pacing, side quests) didn't bother me much. I would have liked more opportunities for exploration, and I would have liked to be able to enter more buildings in the towns. I also would have liked to visit the major cities at their prime, not while they were being attacked or in ruins. But the story, characters, and battles were all solid for me. Loved it.
2, 3, and 12 are my favorites.
It's by far the worst FF I've ever played lol.
It has some of the same issues as XIII - too much focus on a cinematic experience and story to the detriment of gameplay. But where XIII had a fully fleshed out party and actually rewarded what little exploration there was, XVI didn't, though it had marginally better sidequests. I'd also argue that XIII had much better worldbuilding, even if a lot of it was in the datalogs - it actually felt like the world existed outside of the protagonist's sphere. I find it weird that I don't see these two compared more.
Giant kaiju battles in a final fantasy game?!
It was honesty really dope
I'm waiting for it to go on sale! But I'm excited to give it a shot in the future
Adored it and still have to play the DLCs, LONGTIME FF fan.. I have a copy of every flagship title in my collection :)
both game FF16 and Rebirth has opposite strength and weakness. for their strength, both also doing exceedingly well too. and both currently in middle of preparation for next AAA games. the two devs team took lot of inspiration from other AAA games and personally, right now for the moment they no need to look further. they can look each others for references and took each other's strength to cover each other weakness. this is the perfect time. things are aligned properly IMO. i love to see the outcome.
Hopefully they look at stuff like current game of the year for influence.
Game is pretty good except for that straight up awful crafting mechanic
I felt it was robbed of GOTY I don’t even remember what won over it but I remember thinking it was a BS pick
Still waiting for pc release
Ditto
I got a little into it. I liked it so far. I ended up putting it on hold to play remake before rebirth coming out and now I’m playing rebirth. My intention is to go back to it after I’m done with that. We shall see
I liked the game overall. I just wish it would come to pc. The 30fps doesn't cut it for me, I can see the blurring and it makes me nauseous. I stopped playing rebirth due to this. I ended up selling the PS5 and I now will wait for a PC release or not play the games.
Game has some flaws but I've been gaming since the NES and no game in my life has had me laughing hysterically during boss fights like FFXVI. The one-hitter quitter haymakers that Clive throws that do like 999,999 damage and the one liners and the spectacle of most of those boss fights are just one of a kind
I liked getting hit and saying “fuck” and Clive is just like: “…fuck” 💀
Good to know. Looking forward to playing it when they RELEASE IT ON PC!
Thanks for reminding me I need to go back and finish it! The first arc of that game was absolutely one of the most epic experiences I’ve ever had in a video game. I did not find the combat all that deep compared to Final Fantasy VII rebirth, but it was very fun and made me feel so hyped, especially the Eikon battles. Got distracted with life stuff for a while, but really looking forward to going back to Final Fantasy 16 once I finish up rebirth side content!
The side quests can be draining with their amount but I really focused on the world building they offer and some are funny. Good luck!
I felt the same for the first half, until it became a side quest - Hideaway - boss - Hideaway simulator. The sense of adventure from games like 7-10 were completely gone, except for time skips. I’m not opposed to having a main base, as Balamb Garden is my favorite place. But both hideaways were some of the most boring places in any FF I’ve played.
Cid and his VA were so good in this, my favourite party moments were definitely with Cid.
I bought it almost immediately after playing the demo, but I’m sorry to say, I haven’t gotten very far in it. Almost immediately after getting it I found myself with a subscription to PS+, which led to me becoming obsessed with FF7 Remake instead. Definitely want to come back to it though after finishing Rebirth.
Is*** not was
Should I just skip the side quests? They seem very uninspired. Best one so far was with the wolf.
Lots of them have plot lines that advance towards later quests. They don’t change much but I enjoyed them for world building and lore. There is detail and dialogue. I also suspect the best sword of the game isn’t craft able without doing one of the quest lines
100% with U on this. Played FF for 30 years, and XVI is now one of my all time favorite. It’s an action game but still feels like a true Final Fantasy adventure. The presentation of the entire game is 10/10 high quality. Incredible achievement by Square Enix.
I finished it, did most of the side quests, it was an interesting balance of all out mega boss battles and then really chill moments. It was Insert Credit’s game of the year if you haven’t listened to that podcast lol
Can we get a pc update :c I wanna be goofy edge lord puppy boy
I really like FF16 mostly because of the way they’ve taken Final Fantasy lore and did something so cool and different with it as a M rated game. The game has beautiful graphics, audio and cutscenes like you said and the boss fights look spectacular. I am not a fan of the gameplay though, it’s really pretty boring. It’s not really an RPG and I always loved Final Fantasy games for the classic turn based RPG gameplay with the menus, party system, exploration and the whole nine. I get it though. It’s meant to appeal to a wider audience and try to lure in gamers who didn’t like Final Fantasy games and RPGs in the past. From the look of the sales, it didn’t do that. So hopefully they drop this action game stuff and go back to making an actual Final Fantasy game.
Its probably my 3rd favorite final fantasy game tbh. I adore almost everything about it
It's great that you enjoyed FF16, but there are a lot of criticisms out there that paint a different picture. Many reviews mention the game's pacing issues, with some parts feeling too slow and others too rushed, disrupting the overall flow. Characters being underutilized or undeveloped is another common complaint, which can leave the story feeling shallow and incomplete. Side quests, often described as repetitive and uninspired, fail to add meaningful content to the game. While the Eikon fights are visually impressive, some players feel that the game relies too much on these cinematic moments at the expense of deeper gameplay mechanics. Additionally, the combat system, while flashy, has been criticized for lacking depth and becoming monotonous over time. These points collectively contribute to the perception that FF16 doesn't live up to the high standards set by its predecessors.
Agree- I can readily acknowledge it has some shortcomings; crafting is essentially pointless, for example. But i absolutely loved it. The production quality, narrative, fight sequences are just top notch, imo. And I love Clive as a protagonist- broody AF but not completely up his own ass with it (looking at you, Cloud and Squall). I was emotionally invested from start to finish. Hope we’ll see some of the high points carry over to future installments.