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[Nankatsu]

I'm near ending section, and I could see myself writing a similar topic like this.

I loved the demo and still think the game has one of the greatest starts in recent years but... Eventually falls off when you start to get past that point and you start to see that besides the epic CGI, boss battles and some narrative moments, everything else is flat as fuck.

Like I said on the games OT, if this game had the depth, mechanics and party charisma of Tales of Arise, it would be much better.

Hell, I'm bold enough to even say that what FFXVI tried to achieve, Tales of Arise already did and did it way better.

 

[Gambit2483]

You can see it as the game is not perfect and even without doing the sidequests, it is a masterpiece.

If you don’t like the sidequests, don’t play them.
GOTY so far

In FFXVI there are clearly;
Good sidequests
And
All other sidequests

More Good sidequests, less other sidequests.

 

[NecrosaroIII]

Which is better 15 or 16 ?
I've only played 15 and i could not believe how short it was 25 hours then done.

16 and not even close. 16 isn't perfect but it's at least coherent and well crafted. 15 is a mess of ideas thrown together in a bid to just get rid of a cursed project.

 

[Alebrije]

I like the game....but it feels stupid that after you defeated one on the most powerfull enemies ( like Chronus of God of War)....you need to help people to get ingredients to make a steel plate, a food recipe , etc..

Sidequests are lame and scarce weapon and armor upgrade are a joke.

Hope they improve that because combat is great and the adult tone of the story is good...not the best story but better than others rpgs.

 

[X-Wing]

You haven't been playing much then.

 

[Bojji]

In FFXVI there are clearly;
Good sidequests
And
All other sidequests

More Good sidequests, less other sidequests.

Witcher 3 released 8 years ago... We still didn't see ANY game replicating it in terms of side quests quality, AC Odyssey is the closest thing that comes to my mind (then they completely fucked it up in Valhalla).

Out of all recent FF games Remake is the best and keeps relatively high quality trough the game. I like FFXVI despite issues but next FFVII has potential to be a much better game.

 

[DragoonKain]

I agree, and the annoying thing too is some of the main missions are much of the same thing. You start a new chapter and have to run around chatting with several people and fetching nonsense. It was extremely boring.

 

[M.W.]

I like how some of the main quests just wrap up and it feels like you didn't do anything, but they still give you that results screen.

 

[Hestar69]

THANK YOU!

this game is a slog to play through so far

lvl 23 atm and every side quest is hot garbage and the game RUNS AWFUL..

biggest dissapointment of the year for me.

 

[Interfectum]

This game also seems to transgress another critical aspect related to side quests. The items or requirements needed by the quest giver don't materialize until you officially accept the quest. This implies that all your prior exploration is futile in terms of aiding the quest... instead, the necessary elements just mysteriously appear post-quest acceptance, rather than being automatically completed because you had previously explored that area and retrieved the item.

 

[linko9]

This game also seems to transgress another critical aspect related to side quests. The items or requirements needed by the quest giver don't materialize until you officially accept the quest. This implies that all your prior exploration is futile in terms of aiding the quest... instead, the necessary elements just mysteriously appear post-quest acceptance, rather than being automatically completed because you had previously explored that area and retrieved the item.

Yep. While TotK does use the annoying (!) markers and lengthy quest log, it handles this really well, which made it stick out even more to me in FF16

 

[SuperBabyMethod]

I beat the game a few days ago and while I liked the core story and characters, the rest felt like such a slog to play. Towards the end I just wanted it to end and the game kept sending encounter after encounter and got monotonous fast.

I only need to replay the game again for the platinum but I’m having a hard time trudging through it again!

 

[Gambit2483]

Witcher 3 released 8 years ago... We still didn't see ANY game replicating it in terms of side quests quality, AC Odyssey is the closest thing that comes to my mind (then they completely fucked it up in Valhalla).

Out of all recent FF games Remake is the best and keeps relatively high quality trough the game. I like FFXVI despite issues but next FFVII has potential to be a much better game.

This is one of those areas that the East can clearly borrow from the West...jus sayin.

 

[Filben]

The game simply has like 10 hours of good content milked into 50++.

Reminds me of Mafia 3. I hate it when Publishers think "the more and longer the better" and just add (low quality) padding to their game to pump up some numbers. Little is often more.

I've only played the demo and was intrigued by the story, but I guess I'll just watch it on YouTube instead. Also, exploration felt weak. Looking in every corner, my reward: 2 Gil and one potion. Wow.

 

[LakeOf9]

This game also seems to transgress another critical aspect related to side quests. The items or requirements needed by the quest giver don't materialize until you officially accept the quest. This implies that all your prior exploration is futile in terms of aiding the quest... instead, the necessary elements just mysteriously appear post-quest acceptance, rather than being automatically completed because you had previously explored that area and retrieved the item.

Ya exactly

And also, what is the point of the side quests? What do I get out of them?

• Crafting materials: these are completely worthless, because the game gives you better gear and unique materials in the main story
• EXP: also mostly worthless, you need to do like a dozen quests to make any progress towards leveling up
• Money: what am I supposed to buy? Music for the hideout?

I don’t need my side quests to have good rewards, you can have bad rewards if either the quest design is good (like Zelda) or the story is good (like yakuza or Witcher). This is neither! So at least give me good rewards. But no. Then why am I wasting my time with them

 

[The Cockatrice]

You are correct.

 

[Muffdraul]

I haven't thought of myself as an FF fan since about 2010. I started with FFVI in 1994 and it was one of my top favorite franchises for 16 years. FFXI was the first to make me . Then FFX-2. And then FFXIII was the straw that broke this camel's back. I wasn't a huge fan anymore, I didn't get hyped for new FF anymore, but I still wanted to play whatever new FFs came out. I felt zero hype for FFXV or FFVIIR, but once I started playing them, they were a good time. Yes, even FFXV.

And I assumed that would be the case with FFXVI. I had almost zero interest in it all, but I still assumed I'd enjoy it once I started playing. Well, I didn't. I played it for about 25 hours, and then I put it down and very consciously thought "I am never coming back to this. Why would I?" On one hand, it truly baffles me that there is any positivity about FFXVI. What does make sense to me is that I have this friend who has hated FF his entire life, he used to watch me play them on PS1 or PS2 and ask, "Why do you like this shit? Seriously, tell me, what exactly is there to like?!" A few weeks ago he texted me, "u playing FFXVI? ITS FUCKING GREAT"

 

[Fbh]

Don't take it as the game being bad overall. It's still a really great game, with some of the best highs I can remember in recent memory. From my perspective I just see it as the game could have had a more consistent quality when it comes to the sidequests and gear/equipment. I don't feel sorry about skipping past dialogue with some peripheral characters that did add little to the story. You'll notice when you get furher into the game that they have a pretty smart way of signaling wether its dialogue worth hearing by simply making it possible to skip lines (instead of having a "skip cutscene"prompt).

Yeah I'm still excited to try it out.
Ultimately I like to form my own opinion, there's tons of flawed games I've enjoyed over the years (including the Last Remnant which is by the same director as FFXVI)

Besides the internet (Gaf included) told me Persona 5 is one of if not the greatest JRPG ever made and I found it boring as fuck.

 

[Alebrije]

Ya exactly

And also, what is the point of the side quests? What do I get out of them?

• Crafting materials: these are completely worthless, because the game gives you better gear and unique materials in the main story
• EXP: also mostly worthless, you need to do like a dozen quests to make any progress towards leveling up
• Money: what am I supposed to buy? Music for the hideout?

I don’t need my side quests to have good rewards, you can have bad rewards if either the quest design is good (like Zelda) or the story is good (like yakuza or Witcher). This is neither! So at least give me good rewards. But no. Then why am I wasting my time with them

You forgott the "threasure chests"...."you got 10 gil"...what the hell I am going to buy with 10 gils? Not even a piece of bread.

But still I like it ...if you think is not more an RPG you will enjoy it ...for me feels more like current God of war games.

 

[fart town usa]

In case anyone is wondering like "huh, how could the game be a slog ...."





Imagine dozens of hours worth of NPC interactions like this. I skipped stuff for a bit but after a few hours I was like, "no, I want to experience this game as Square intended."

It's on a whole other level when it comes to slog.

So you can either skip the dialogue and do the slog of side missions to get the occasional useful items. Or skip them entirely and focus on main quests which still contain slog elements.

It's a really bizarre game.

 

[LakeOf9]

You forgott the "threasure chests"...."you got 10 gil"...what the hell I am going to buy with 10 gils? Not even a piece of bread.

But still I like it ...if you think is not more an RPG you will enjoy it ...for me feels more like current God of war games.

I honestly think the new god of war games are better at being RPGs than ff16, and they are better at doing down time than ff16

 

[fart town usa]

You forgott the "threasure chests"...."you got 10 gil"...what the hell I am going to buy with 10 gils? Not even a piece of bread.

But still I like it ...if you think is not more an RPG you will enjoy it ...for me feels more like current God of war games.

How about the occasional 2 gil pickup, lol. Or the other coins that you just sell for gil cause there's no other purpose for the item besides selling them for gil.

 

[hyperbertha]

16 and not even close. 16 isn't perfect but it's at least coherent and well crafted. 15 is a mess of ideas thrown together in a bid to just get rid of a cursed project.

16 is an absolute mess too. The economy system, crafting, torgal, party members, everything is an afterthought and doesn't integrate into the game. They might as well not exist. It's story is incredibly simplistic compared to 15, so it's not really all that impressive it's fully finished.

 

[M.W.]

I have like 400K Gil, what the fuck do I do with it?

 

[ShadyAcshuns]

I have like 400K Gil, what the fuck do I do with it?

"toss a coin to your Witcher"

 

[LakeOf9]

I have like 400K Gil, what the fuck do I do with it?

If only I could buy a gift for Jill or Mid

 

[Gambit2483]

I have like 400K Gil, what the fuck do I

If only I could buy a gift for Jill or Mid

FFXVI: Waifu Edition

 

[NecrosaroIII]

16 is an absolute mess too. The economy system, crafting, torgal, party members, everything is an afterthought and doesn't integrate into the game. They might as well not exist. It's story is incredibly simplistic compared to 15, so it's not really all that impressive it's fully finished.

What's wrong with Torgal?

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

FFXVI: Waifu Edition

FFXVI-2 when

 

[Kaachan]

XVI played perfectly on the beats it wanted to hit but it's far away from being perfect

Personally speaking I think Final Fantasy best titles comes from Sakaguchi's time and I'm just realizing that more and more with each passing title

 

[Kaachan]

Which is better 15 or 16 ?

The general consensus around FFXV is that it is the worst in the series, unfortunately

 

[Bkdk]

Biggest problem for this game is that many of the main chars are so poorly designed other then clive. Also for clive since he is more of an introvert, there really isn't much of a story to tell. For older FFs they feel much better paced because they would put in much more effort for other main chars as well.

 

[Certinty]

Honestly shocking that the game has a Metacritic score as high as it does given all its flaws.

Definitely regret buying this digitally. Bought into the hype due to the reviews and ended up just wasting a load of money on something I’ll never even get close to finishing because it’s so bland.

 

[MagiusNecros]

I have read some people praising the story as some kind of high points within the slog and I just can't comprehend it. Some throwaway side villains and an ultra generic final boss. Plot contrivance galore to allow villain to come out on top. It's the worst ff story I've played.

They bought into the hype and are now blinded by it. Meanwhile you got FF veterans lambasted for giving their criticism. Familiar retread of FFXIV community vibes.

Glad RPG fans still have the likes of Xenoblade 3 for an all around great game.

Last great FF overall IMO is still FFIX and the better MMO is still FFXI.

I'd argue Strangers of Paradise is a better FF then FFXVI.

But hey at least there is still Dragon Quest.

But I'd rather not be a perpetual debbie downer on FFXVI. Kind of depressing to roast one of my favorite franchises.

 

[pleaseinsertdisctwo]

Like I said in my early impressions of the game, this game has that modern AAA stink all over it. Very easy, very linear, depth of a puddle and safe as shit.

Yoshi-P’s derivative ass basically was “inspired” by other Sony first party character action games and it shows.

 

[Gambit2483]

FFXVI-2 when

If and only if FF7 Rebirth bombs...

 

[tmlDan]

In case anyone is wondering like "huh, how could the game be a slog ...."





Imagine dozens of hours worth of NPC interactions like this. I skipped stuff for a bit but after a few hours I was like, "no, I want to experience this game as Square intended."

It's on a whole other level when it comes to slog.

So you can either skip the dialogue and do the slog of side missions to get the occasional useful items. Or skip them entirely and focus on main quests which still contain slog elements.

It's a really bizarre game.

What's exactly wrong with this?

Just seems like you don't like FF games

Probably could have provided a better example

 

[fart town usa]

Honestly shocking that the game has a Metacritic score as high as it does given all its flaws.

Definitely regret buying this digitally. Bought into the hype due to the reviews and ended up just wasting a load of money on something I’ll never even get close to finishing because it’s so bland.

The biggest disappointment for me is that I was legitimately excited. Not hyped at all cause FF hasn't been hype for me since the mid 90s but the thought of Square being hungry, the medieval setting, PS5 exclusive, etc. It was definitely something worth being excited over.

The demo for me was honestly really underwhelming but I did my best to kind of let it go. Then I saw all the reviews and expected the game to be something special...

It's just a bummer more than anything and all the ridiculous praise it's getting... Just makes it worse IMO cause it's legit kind of depressing to see people full-throated defend this game and then shit on all kinds of games that have far less gaming sins and issues. I didn't say it in the OT but it legit comes off as fanboys or younger people who just don't have any concept of what previous generations have given us.

We get what we deserve though. I'm just glad I have a massive console collection to fall back on cause if FFXVI is AAA GOTY material, I'm better off staying outside the bubble and doing my own thing like I have been for the last decade+.

 

[fart town usa]

What's exactly wrong with this?

Just seems like you don't like FF games

Probably could have provided a better example

That stiff ass NPC, the bad voice acting, the slow pan out to show what, a shitty wooden building. It looks worse than PS3 games. It's just straight up bad and there are hours upon hours of it.

The whole "just seems like you don't like FF games" is lazy. When you say that, you're implying the other games in the series are all just as bad.

 

[Seyken]

XVI is by far the better game when compared to XV. And by XV, I mean the game we actually got, and not what we were promised by trailers. XV has multiple marketing pieces filled with things and content that never even made it into the game itself. Hell, they had to make a movie, an anime and multiple DLCs to begin trying to tell a complete story that made sense.

I enjoyed my time with XVI, even while seeing the flaws, mostly stemming from the fact that they didn't have the courage to stray from the FF formula enough. This could and should've been a much shorter game. It took me 65 hours to fully beat it with all sidequests complete. That time could EASILY have been trimmed to be more like 35-40 hours and it would've been better for it. The main quest works and has some of the highest highs in any game I've played. Some side quests work, but most don't and they are not rewarding enough - same with exploration, which can be traced back to the XIV roots. I know it's bad when I dread the time when those green markers will pop on my map.

It's clear to me that not only are they using the game design methodology from XIV, but a modified version of the XIV engine - probably for efficiency's sake, since most of the team is familiar with that - plus being able to migrate the new tech back into XIV (having NPCs follow you around in XIV is probably something they developed for XVI and the next expansion will also see a graphical and physics upgrade). In hindsight, I'm not sure if that decision was the best one to make, since I'm sure they had some constraints of what they could do with the engine and that ended up affecting the final game.

 

[tmlDan]

That stiff ass NPC, the bad voice acting, the slow pan out to show what, a shitty wooden building. It looks worse than PS3 games. It's just straight up bad and there are hours upon hours of it.

The whole "just seems like you don't like FF games" is lazy. When you say that, you're implying the other games in the series are all just as bad.

That's been FF since the beginning, you don't have to play them if you don't like it.

Sure it can be improved but that's not that bad tbh

 

[hyperbertha]

That's been FF since the beginning, you don't have to play them if you don't like it.

Sure it can be improved but that's not that bad tbh

I don't remember anything looking this low budget in ff 13 or 15.

 

[Punished Miku]

Honestly shocking that the game has a Metacritic score as high as it does given all its flaws.

Definitely regret buying this digitally. Bought into the hype due to the reviews and ended up just wasting a load of money on something I’ll never even get close to finishing because it’s so bland.

I skipped it after that demo. I'm not surprised people have complaints.

 

[fart town usa]

That's been FF since the beginning, you don't have to play them if you don't like it.

Sure it can be improved but that's not that bad tbh

Putting you on ignore. I've had it with dipshits tossing the entire franchise under the bus because your new game is mediocre and you can't defend it on its own merits.

 

[LakeOf9]

That's been FF since the beginning, you don't have to play them if you don't like it.

Sure it can be improved but that's not that bad tbh

Final fantasy has been on the cutting edge of storytelling and aaa presentation lol what the fuck is this bullshit

 

[Guilty_AI]

In case anyone is wondering like "huh, how could the game be a slog ...."





Imagine dozens of hours worth of NPC interactions like this. I skipped stuff for a bit but after a few hours I was like, "no, I want to experience this game as Square intended."

It's on a whole other level when it comes to slog.

So you can either skip the dialogue and do the slog of side missions to get the occasional useful items. Or skip them entirely and focus on main quests which still contain slog elements.

It's a really bizarre game.

Feels like a direction problem. I understand the purpose of this scene (basically frame this woman as some reliable type), but the execution feels weird. NPCs and VA are all stiff and lack the correct type of emotion, with these awkward long pauses in-between conversations, also needlessly drawn out.

 

[tmlDan]

I don't remember anything looking this low budget in ff 13 or 15.

Just google it, esp 15 there was a ton of cringe dialogue

 

[Kaachan]

What's exactly wrong with this?

Just seems like you don't like FF games

Probably could have provided a better example

It feels like a 2006 MMO quality quest. The structure of these quests are almost always identical to each other and you're forced to engage with these ''special'' NPCs over and over again

The low-budget cutscenes plus the awful lip sync just makes them even more painful

 

[hyperbertha]

Just google it, esp 15 there was a ton of cringe dialogue

Ah 'cringe dialogue' because you played the English dub version right? And I'm not even talking about dialogue.

 

[fart town usa]

Feels like a direction problem. I understand the purpose of this scene (basically frame this woman as some reliable type), but the execution feels weird. NPCs and VA are all stiff and lack the correct type of emotion, with these awkward long pauses in-between conversations, also needlessly drawn out.

Of course it's a direction problem.

I understand the purpose of the scene too but it's still bad by any standard. The fatal flaw is that there are dozens of hours of those scenes, it's legit probably 60% of the game.