So I have been at the 97% point for more than a week and I've been putting off finishing it because
a) I figured the next time I touched it, it was gonna be the end, and I'll finally have a full picture of my final thoughts on the game.
b) I kinda resolved myself at being [underwhelmed? whelmed???] at around the 80% mark and the rest has been fueled by sunk cost copium.
The story feels like a poorly told video game adaptation of a long, epic novel. Big plot points feel very rushed, don't have adequate set up, and huge climactic parts feel unearned. Shit just doesn't have time to
breathe. It's a story with a lot going on, and the pacing is a nightmare. I actually think it is very cool and interesting in the broad sense... it's just. Very poor presentation, really haphazard and unnatural feeling plot sequencing with strange momentum.
I saw Jason Schreier get chewed out for his take that it devolves to magical BS. I don't agree with his description, but I completely understand with what he's getting at. There are many moments where the plot feels like it needs to catch up with itself. While it doesn't necessarily drop anything, things kinda get wrapped up weirdly so as to move along to the next thing. It's like the story knows it needs to get to a point, but the ways it does aren't necessarily the most impactful, and sometimes don't make the
most sense.
I am a big kaiju lover tho, and it really delivers on kaiju shit. Those parts are bombastic and cool. But that's like the flip side to this game where, for everything I think it really delivers on, there is something that is much more important to the sum-of-its-parts package which makes it very limp. Mainly, as I said, weird plot pacing/set up and the ease of combat (I will get back to this) don't exactly justify the crescendo these moments are meant to be taken as. They are very cool on their own tho, so your mileage may vary.
I think most of the main cast are likeable... but unfortunately almost all of them are very, VERY blatant Frankensteins of a bunch of Game of Thrones characters. Except the GoT characters are way more interesting and well developed. I feel like the devs would have some really terrible takes if I were to engage them in a conversation about them (I would not want to). Since the FFXVI characters get so little screen time, there are huge chunks of dialogue that feel like a series of grand JRPG platitudes and GoT references. Seriously, this game sucks off GRRM more than freaking
Elden Ring, and he actually worked on that. I just found it very distracting as it kept happening. I had trouble feeling particularly attached to anyone because of this, and everything else I've said thus far.
The villains were fun tho and it feels like a long ass time that the series has given us a brand new entourage of fun evil people. Without breaking them down individually, I do think they also unfortunately suffer from the weird ass pacing/plotting + lack of screen time selling them short.
I will say - the story is complete and perfectly comprehensible. There is a big lore compendium ala FF13, but you don't necessarily need it to follow what's going on. There is room for DLC, but it isn't like 15 where even with DLC the story feels incomplete. I feel like I shouldn't be praising the game for this, but I guess this is where we're at. The end gives some wiggle room for stuff, but it is the end.
I'm just... not going to really comment on the diversity aspect too much because... well, I made a bunch of MGTOW jokes when I first started the game and I stand by them tbqh. It gets better thanks to side quest and NPC stories, but not much in the main plot. The interview about no black people in ~*~*dark fantasy*~*~ Europe was really just a warning sign as to what the dev's fluency in the genre is like. Like, I don't know what to say other than the way it handles the central women characters is awful. I'm sure there are a million thinkpieces on this already so I'm not gonna go on about it too much. There's a gay character, so I guess that's a win for diversity I guess. He's cool but the my issues with him is related to what I already explained in my previous paragraphs
I honestly thought the side quests were better written than the main plot tbh. I had more of a connection to some NPCs than characters who were more at the forefront of the plot. The game almost blurs the line between NPC and core cast - which is cool! Though I think there's still a pretty clear delineation. Narratively, my favourite bits were going around the world and seeing the little stories within it. The problem here is the gameplay loop that I commented on in previous posts. While many of the side quest stories were lovely on their own, I don't think the game design served them all that well. I'll try my best to explain.
The game overall has a very poor reward structure. I'm using the term reward interchangeably in two ways: the sense of accomplishment you get from overcoming an obstacle, and material in game rewards. One of the reasons this is because the combat is just so easy. The combat is awesome but does not challenge you. The times it does are very few and far between, and mainly in the final hours. There is also no exploring. There are chests but there's nothing very worthwhile it in any of them. Optional hunts maybe make you explore a bit, but it's not like through a dungeon or anything, it's just a particular spot on an open field. For many you will likely stumble on them accidentally. The layout of the map makes it pretty obvious where they are as well. The sidequests are straight lines off the main path, which is in itself completely linear. There are no puzzles to figure out. There is nothing that your knowledge of the plot/paying attention to detail that will help you progress the side quests. The only engagement is listening/reading dialogue in between running back and forth between quest markers. You do this
for hours at a time. This high tempo action game legitimately becomes a visual novel between action segments, and the visual novel is like anime filler arcs of varying quality. At first it's not so bad, but the whiplash becomes increasingly intense as the game progresses. The only way that these side quests are rewarding is through getting invested in the NPC stories. It's the only point in doing them because most of the material rewards are nothing (i'm sure there are lists out there that tell you which ones are worthwhile). Reading that back, it sounds hyperbolic and mean, but I really am not trying to be. The game almost forces you to care about NPCs because otherwise wtf is the point.
I think I already voiced my complaints about gameplay, but yeah. It's way easy. Hard mode is locked behind NG+. My first playthrough clocked in at 55ish hours. It's kinda insulting and feels like it's actively trying to waste my time. Some of the S rank hunts were challenging, and those parts were fun. There are only like, 5 or 6 of them. Most of them were only a challenge because I intentionally did them as under leveled as the game would allow. Some of the end game bosses were fun. I guess you can give yourself some arbitrary self-impositions, like no using potions for example, to pretend like there are at least some consequences to your decisions. Idk what else to say here. I understand the philosophy behind these choices, but imo it's still such a glaring fuck up.
Monster design is excellent. I really liked the design iterations of the recurring creatures - enemies, bosses, and summons. This is a big stand out I think. Combat mostly shines when you're fighting hoards, where you can chain cool combos. This doesn't translate to the bosses too well. A vast of majority of the bosses feel sluggish in their movement, and their move sets are very easily telegraphed. There is a rhythmic, almost turn based tempo to boss fights that's kinda neat at first, but gets repetitive for an action focused game. Since the difficulty scaling is so gentle, you fight a lot of variations of the same enemy type, who often gains a more complex moveset as you progress. Honestly I think a lot of problems would be solved if enemy movement speed was increased just a bit across the board.
I think the point I'm getting at is that, in the entire 50+ hours experience, it seemed like there were only a handful of moments of while playing where I felt I was actively using my brain to engage in any of the gameplay elements - combat or otherwise.
The environments are graphically pretty, but honestly not super memorable. They do feel lived in and homely with how much you engage with the NPCs. There are times when the art design really pops off, but the lack of the level design/exploration really undersells the beauty of those environments. Unfortunately a lot of the game is wandering around in pretty generic looking areas (a forest, a different forest, a dark forest, multiple rickety wooden peasant towns, a desert...) This really didn't feel like a PS5 game to me, apart from really pretty graphics and an abundance of particle effects (which are way overdone imo), and I guess the length. Not that it's super important, I just think that I have played PS4 games that felt more impressive despite being "previous gen." The graphics/use of the PS5 isn't that big a deal for me tho, since I already owned a PS5 - I didn't buy one especially to play this. The amount of somewhat generic looking areas is a big bummer tho. There is an identity to the world but I don't think it showed itself off enough. Or maybe it just didn't stand out from its influences too much to me, idk.
I haven't given a dedicated listen to much of the soundtrack. The boss music slaps. I liked the ending song too. I can't remember a whole lot else off the top of my head. I don't know if the music is a series high, but I'm sure there's more good stuff on there.
I'm just being mean tho, FF16 is definitely a much better product than Bayo 3. I think it definitely falls short in comparison to something like God War or DMC 5, however.
