Is Final Fantasy 16 Mid? FFXVI Full Review

In this video I give my full review after beating Final Fantasy XIV. This video contains small visual spoilers, but nothing that will ruin the game for you, especially compared to how much Square Enix showed in their trailers.
I talk a little bit in this video about the problem I think Creative Business Unit 3 has with introductions to their characters. It may seem like a small thing, but first impressions of characters are really important in storytelling and if you show the player a character that EVERYONE seems to instantly love before give the PLAYER a reason to love them you are being lazy with your writing and you'll have problems with players caring about your characters. I feel like this is a HUGE problem with the newer final fantasy games and wanted to address it.
For instance, look at the introductions to characters in Baldur's Gate 3, they are infinitely more interesting than the introduction to 90% of the characters in FFXIV or FFXVI. I know I harp on these games a lot, but it's because of the love I have for the older games and the desire for them to do better, and this is an area they really need to improve on. If this subject is interesting to you please leave a comment, I would be happy to make a separate video talking about this issue and giving more examples. But of course, please disagree with me in the comments, and may the almighty algorithm bless your sacred day.

[@530kuhmazing]

Dude! Your video quality is amazing! Keep killing it with awesome content.

[@genjigearlive]

Thank you my man

[@Joshiepoo2525]

Spot on.

[@SuperZombiepimp]

For sure I’m at level 36 and just stop playing cause I was bored with it which is insane cause I’m a trophy hunter but I’m not feeling this final fantasy at all

[@genjigearlive]

Yeah it’s unfortunate, it started off strong and had a lot of potential.

[@SuperZombiepimp]

@@genjigearlive my issue was pacing and it just doesn’t even feel like a rpg hell if you want a good action rpg just play horizon 2 that game is how you do a action rpg game right

[@grygaming5519]

I actually agree with a lot of your points but I wouldnt say its mid....I'd say its more akin to Square playing it safe. Everything that FFXVI has is the effects of the game trends in the west and I mean the negative aspects of western game development. The story was trendy....it was a high gothic setting but it was Game of Thrones light. The visuals were great and probably the best thing. Soken's musical ques feel as if they missed the mark hard in the game and its unlike him to be that off. Gameplay was set to western Journalistic mode. The gearing system was just not there, again set to western Journalistic mode. It honestly felt more like a themepark RPG than a actual RPG, in short the team played it way too safe just to placate to the journalist sensibilities instead of its actual intended fanbase. Now the big issue is what makes a Final Fantasy game and if you listen to Jessy Cox's video on XVI its subjective to say the least...We only know Final Fantasy games when they have what...moogles...turn base combat?....summons? so the core is what makes a Final Fantasy game is subjective to the person. Turn base systems have been around since MUD and those were limits due to hardware and software at the time so Final Fantasy only has summons and moogles to fall back on. Job systems are based off D&D with some range of variation of home brew rules. The open sand box has been overdone it was panned in FFXV and its wearing its stay out as every western RPG (except games that are based on open world, Cyberpunk and Baulders Gate) has open world where exploration means little. I think this was also an issue with God of War 2019 and Ragnork as you could just beat the game with the story gear and grinding was not worth it unless you were min-maxing. It feels more like a safe game for the company, it didnt push too much it adopted a lot of negative traits from the west and that's where the game ultimately created a split in the community. You could remove the Final Fantasy and summons out of the game...and it'd feel like a game Activision or EA would produce for a quick cash grab. Should.. it be supported...yes and my big reasoning as to why is when you give a bit of traction one of two things will happen. 1) The team will take bigger risks the next installment or 2) the team will keep everything the same and the flagship titles will sputter. I'm siding that the team now given more control over Final Fantasy will get to push and maybe buck industry trends next installment. Another reason as to why XVI failed to hit its targets is Sony. Sony forced a contract on the previous CEO to keep 16 exclusive + a rigid time table to push out a game for the PS5. The CEO was sold that Sony's 5 million install base would buy the game and Sony believed that 16 would push more console sales. The problem was well the lack of PS5s being the biggest issue and more gamers migrating to Xbox and PC for their gaming needs. The game undersold and possibly why Square announced its working partnership with Spencer at Fan Fest. Square Enix is done with Sony and if the company is to survive it needs to spread its games across all platforms.

[@genjigearlive]

Yeah I mean, I didn’t say mid in the review just thought it was a catchy title, yeah I agree that it was a pretty safe bet, I keep on hoping that Final Fantasy will nail it on the next one but I just keep getting let down, I’m definitely going to wait for reviews for the next one. And yeah, I pretty much agree with all your points. I think it’s interesting to talk about what makes a game a final fantasy, that would be a good conversation to have.

[@grygaming5519]

@@genjigearlive For sure that would be a great round table discussion on what exactly makes a Final Fantasy Game. I know for myself I dont consider 7, 13 and 15 FF games because of how they kind of its not gothic high fantasy. Its too modern Fantasy something I'd see in Shadowrun but even then I can still see them as FF games. just through the themes. So yes its highly complicated. Its also fun to note that Yoshida only worked on one game before heading Creative Business 3 and that was Dragon Quest X an MMO for the Dragon Quest Series. Even after having close to a decade with FFXIV, you can still see a bit of that new writer feel in XVI. I also would argue the big reason why XV failed was not only its open world but it felt like HUGE chunks of the game were cut out to meet deadlines and that was the biggest failure for the game. So yes XVI is safe but in comparison it could have been stuck in development hell like 13 and 15 were (or god forbid the Kingdom hearts purgatory). Gotta start somewhere and sometimes a strong foundation leads to better games.

[@burtwonk]

FF16 should have been a spin off of FF14, starring Gunbreaker Thancred lol

[@ketthefox]

Good review! I share many of your feelings. Cid's theme is also my favorite, but I think it's because it reminds me of Cosmo Canyon theme. I hoped alot more of the soundtrack. I don't understand why it isn't played with real orchestra. Those synths Soken uses for violins and horns sections also sounds kinda cheap. In consideration of how important music is in Final Fantasy game that is very weird place to save money and I can't understand that decision. Most of those vendors and other NPC's gets more story in sidequests, but when you do sidequests it's 70% doing nothing but watching and 30% playing the game. I like cutscene heavy games but that's too much, especially when you write such long dialog and sentences for every little thing. It takes forever to get to the important and meaningful part in every conversation. It's still good game, but I there so much more to hope for and this game flaws are so obvious that it almost feels like they didn't have enough time, budget or skill to make big singleplayer AAA experience. I give it 8/10 because the highs are really high

[@genjigearlive]

Yeah I agree, the dialogue sometimes was really skippable, I did have higher hopes but for overall it was still an okay game.

[@bazlow8069]

Going with your original title, it is a Mid game, which is sad because it’s also the best ff game since X at release for me, and while I’ve grown to love 12, 13 and 14 since their release, I can’t help but worry if this is the best they’ve produce in nearly 20 years.

[@genjigearlive]

Yeah, I do think it’s probably the best since X. So it’s still heading in the right direction, but yeah, still a shell of its former self.

[@OmegaEnvych]

Good review, but I personally disagree on many points. Generally on villains I would say that only Ultima themself was a bit lacking. But they aren't bad villain, just slightly eh. It's hard for me to see worse villain than Ultimecia. Since she is in my bottom list of villains, it's very hard to make someone worse. Regarding sidequests - early ones are truly not that good. But some of really important moments - like VERY touching scene with Jill, resolution of L'ubor's story, Lady Charon's story, story of Eloise and Theodore - all that is relegated to sidequests and they have some gut-wrenching moments in them. These quests are very well done, but they are mostly backloaded closer to the latter part of the game and it took me a while to get to them. Sad to say, but this is why you should do them, because they give great development of these characters even though it's absolutely unnecessary to do them. Then again, I did all sidequests and killed all marks before finishing game, and I was on limited time because I borrowed a console (because sure as hell I am not buying PS5 for a single game, lol) and it was time to give it back. I found game being fun, but if you put ring of focus, it becomes pathetically easy lol. As a result a lot of characters that you said are one-note feel like that exactly because they are one-note if you don't do their side-stories. I genuinely dislike old FF lack of worldbuilding and the fact that world is comprised of basically what is important to the main story and everything revolves around it and nothing else. It took me many years but eventually I realised that I don't like it when world is presented in this way - if it doesn't concern protagonists, it doesn't exist. While it was fine in FF1-6, I feel that it started getting on my nerves with 7 onward. Like I felt that worlds of FF7, 8, 9, 10 barely existed outside of main story, which at 10 was at least somewhat forgivable since there were signs of larger world out there. But idea of larger world, that our story is just one of many that could be told in this world, felt more enticing to me. I can easily think of my own story put in world of Ivalice or in world of FFXIV or in world of FFXVI, but not in world of FF8 or FF9. A bit more in FF7, but mostly because it was overblown by SE over the years and it still connected to the Cloud and his team somehow. And I kinda dislike it. This is what I like in FF12, 14, 16 - world can live with other stories told. With characters that aren't these ones. Theirs is just one story of many. But maybe it's because I am an old roleplayer, who played a lot of games in Forgotten Realms, Eberron and in other worlds - I just don't 100% like idea that world has to be created to service the story. I would still put FF16 fairly high in my list. With all sidequests I would put it in my top 5 of FF games along with IX, XII, XIV and VI. I truly believe that VII is overrated (not a bad game, but it's overrated IMO) and VIII is just bad (but it has a warm place in my heart due to it being my first FF game ever) and X was so boring for me, I dropped it after 9000th time Seymour wanted to fight me and never returned. But this is my personal position.

[@genjigearlive]

Thanks for the thoughtful response. Yeah I think the Final Fantasy games aren’t really the games for “role playing” in the traditional sense, they are character focused narratives. For western RPG’s I eat up any bit of world building, I have listened to dozen of one hour plus videos on KZbin about the Elder Scrolls gods and the different ages, races, religions, and factions, because the game lets me interact with them in a way where that lore and world building pays off. As for the side quests/characters I knew people would say that you have to do all of them to enjoy them lol, I think that’s just bad game design. Like I mentioned in the video, the other FF’s would make you care about a character right off the bat instead of making you have to do hours of side content to finally figure out why this character is interesting. I can understand people not being as bothered about it as I am if they are already bought into the world and the characters, but for me I found a lot of trouble connecting and caring about both. I’d be interested to hear what rating you would give it out of 10?

[@OmegaEnvych]

@@genjigearlive I would give around 8,5. Mostly would take half a point for Ultima not being better fleshed out - I know their motives but in the end... They are not as good as motives of Emet-Selch, Vayne Solidor or even Sephiroth. 1 point would be for putting character backgrounds and stories behind lengthy chains of quests of very varied quality, while literally finale of Jill's, Dion's and other characters stories is locked behind sidequest chains without any depiction that they are important. Most important for Jill since she's present for most of the story and then just left behind, while one of most beautiful romantic scenes in the series (reminds me of scene between Squall and Rinoa but done miles better) is relegated to what is literally yellow quest in FFXIV (FFXIV also did this thing - Schola sidestory is amazing, but it's literally locked behind yellow quests). But at least XIV held finales of heaviest character arcs as they happen in Shadowbringers and Endwalker within main story. Seriously I would be mad if scene near the end of Endwalker (who knows - knows) happened in yellow sidequest, voice-acting and all. Finally 1 point would go for technical side. While I played it on 1080p TV (because they don't make 32' 4k panels and nothing larger than that would fit in my room) it wasn't as bad, DF review showed it all - game barely runs on PS5, which is... idk, should I be mad at SE or at Sony at this point? But yeah, I am not a fan of how game runs in either performance or graphics mode. I won't go on feeling regarding story, lore etc. because in my opinion it's question of personal taste.

[@genjigearlive]

Hm, yeah I think one issue with side character story’s not being too obvious also might have something to do with the game not really being a party based game, sometimes you do have different companions but I think having Clive be by himself makes it less obvious when important things are happening with other characters. Anyway, decent game for sure, just didn’t engage me in ways others have.

[@btw9241]

Square just made their "Final" Fantasy.

[@nswmeeuwes89]

The game design part of the game is obviously pretty bad. The combat is okay, but it does get repetitive. I was willing to accept all of this, if the story was good. Unfortunately the story is also quite bad. The characters are good, but don't get enough development. The story also contains some mistakes that are just impossible for me to look past and I'm baffled many people don't seem to notice them.

[@genjigearlive]

Yeah I agree, I’m pretty disappointed

[@asdfghjkllkjhgfdsa8725]

Its trash actually. Considering its title.

[@siresorb1419]

I was heavy riding on the 8.5 band wagon until that not final fantasy ending, now the games just a solid 7.0. (Still better than 13 so that's good.)

[@YA-vs5wu]

We almost two months late after the game launch, and still is a Beat a dead horse😮‍💨

[@genjigearlive]

Huh?

[@rashid2898]

its an excellent game but its not an excellent Final fantasy game,

[@genjigearlive]

True

[@SILVERONIN]

Yes its mid

[@genjigearlive]

So sad

[@MrOmega97]

I disagree with your take . It’s a 10/10

[@genjigearlive]

Glad you enjoyed the game!

[@florianlison8085]

I disagree with your disagreement.

[@asdfghjkllkjhgfdsa8725]

I disagree with your take. Its a 4/10