Final Fantasy XVI – PlayStation 5

Story – very political like FF12 but spans nearly two decades through whole game. In terms of characterization, character logic and magic lore its lacking poorly. Only the main character feels fully fleshed out, most of other characters no where nearly as much besides maybe the stable Cid character. If you wanna explore the side characters, then optional side quests it is. There are main story parts when fighting against a summon boss but half the fights end up being a long cutscene to do some QTEs, pretty to look at but boring gameplay wise. These fights destroy nearly everything around them yet afterwards main characters allies come into view totally unscathed, its like…where did they hide from all this destruction during lol. Overall, its far too cutscene heavy taking control away from the player every few moments.

Combat-
It literally is like Devil May Cry but with a much easier entry point. Loads of attack animations are so similar to DMC5. This because FF16 combat director was also DMC games’ combat director when they use to work for Capcom. This battle system has loads of synergy depth even within the main character’s regular sword combos before unlocking more summon attacks later via skill menu from skill points given after battles, can even fully respec at anytime no cost. If you aren’t good at action combat, you can use these accessories that auto-play to a certain degree for you, auto-dodge, auto-combo, auto-heal etc. Stagger meter returns from past FF games, some attacks do more stagger bar dmg than HP dmg, once stagger bar is gone the enemy takes a knee. Dealing dmg in this state increase your dmg during all the way up to x1.50. You also have Limit Break meter unlocked that gives main character buffs of attack speed, damage output and auto-regen while active, cant die in this form either. Unlike past FF games, only control main character 99% of time, and one other character for plot reasons certain parts of the game. All party members are automated, cant play as them, nor level them, or mirco manage their equipment or skill trees, nothing. I forgot they were there half the time honestly. Combat wise they’re mostly just flashy chip damage.

Exploration –
it is very linear broken up between 4 sandbox zones belong to each nation which has tiny villages, towns through out which all feel lived in NPCs about chatting doing varity of things. No exploring actual full cities, unless its main story dungeon for plot reasons with pathways blocked off with destruction around. For these you defeat mob of enemies, run a linear path, do interaction with something to advance and repeat it gets old very fast.

Side quests –
the pacing for showing them is very good, gives you about less than 5 at a time every few main story beats so you dont feel overwhelmed with quest markers everywhere (until final main story, then quest markers like crazy). But gameplay wise its very dated like mmorpgs (makes sense, FF16 devs are also the FF14 MMO devs) yet narratively they are very well written and flesh out the world’s lore, side character backstories galore. Even after doing some quests if will show NPCs around affected by that completed quest, even doing some quests before others will add more to different quests entirely. I have done every single side quest and FF12-like Rank hunt side bosses and loved them all. If not your thing, be sure to do plus symbol side quests at least, they’ll unlock a mount, more healling item usages etc.

Music-
Lead Composer is Soken, same as FF14 main composer. So you’d think incredible OST for FF16 if you’re a FF14 fan. Honestly, massive hot take but barely remembered any of FF16 music, besides remix prelude on the way to final boss lair, and maybe one soundtrack during later phase of a summon boss fight which irony sounded like DMC music. But that was it, such a blurr for me music wise I am sorry fellow Soken fans.

Role Playing mechanics or lack there of-
As review title stated, this game is not an RPG. main character equips a sword for their primary damage which just gives “attack” and “stagger” stat points, majority of the time both being the same number. A belt and a bangle, with 3 accessories slots. The belt and bangle barely increase anything but +5 or less points just “defense” stat and maybe under 5 to 10 to your max HP which is in the thousands, so worthless. It all feels so tacked on, cuz Final Fantasy is RPG franchise they did bare minium stats. This is 1st mainline game with no debuffs at all ( enemy malboro bad breath just damages you thats it) and no elemental weaknesses or resistances. So like doing thunder attacks on a coerul it doesnt heal it like past FF games, it all feels so weird for an supposed RPG. Then crafting is often useless, 90% of the time. You will only need it to upgrade your sword few times and for NG+ on a harder difficult to get the Utima Weapon via crafting and that is only unlocked after beating your 1st playthrough.

Summary-
Overall I kinda regret getting the game tbh.
Truly only incredible voice acting performance of Ben Starr (voice of main character) and the side quests, side characters helped me through this game. But disjointed poorly paced story, magic lore, flawed character logic, and not being an RPG made this game very middling for me. I would recommend to DMC fans, and those that dont like RPG mechanics but wanna try final fantasy cuz this is definitely it.

I went into FF16 with moderate expectations. I have been playing console games for 35+ years now, and I have seen everything. Every once in a while you come across a gem. The last one for me was Horizon Zero Dawn.

Having finished FF16 I can say that I am completely blown away….a Masterpiece for me.

Epic story and plenty of eye candy visuals….and the boss fights…….holy cow!! If you have Sony’s PS5 3D Headphones, it sounds amazing! Yes, there are tons of cut scenes, but the story itself is FANTASTIC.! A++

My only gripe is the Frame Rate. There is just something not right about it in certain situations, but I have no worries…it’s by no means a show stopper and they will add a patch I’m sure. Aside from that, there are no other technical issues I have come across.

Get it!