Final Fantasy XVI |OT|

[the-pi-guy]

Holy tuna, what game am I playing?

That was insane.  

I'm still only like 2/3rds of the way through the game.

[the-pi-guy]

I'm like 95% of the way done with the game.

Overall, it's very weird.

There are a lot of very strong highs, so many things that are incredibly well made. The combat system is consistently great. There are lots of parts that are just insane.

But then there is another side, where it just feels like they ran out of budget. A lot of these things aren't game breaking, but they can feel a little jarring compared to most of the PlayStation Studios games for instance.

There's exactly one animation for handing anything over. He reaches into his pocket and hands it over. It doesn't matter if it's a large board or a small potion, always the exact same.

[Legend]

I'm like 95% of the way done with the game.

Overall, it's very weird.

There are a lot of very strong highs, so many things that are incredibly well made. The combat system is consistently great. There are lots of parts that are just insane.

But then there is another side, where it just feels like they ran out of budget. A lot of these things aren't game breaking, but they can feel a little jarring compared to most of the PlayStation Studios games for instance.

There's exactly one animation for handing anything over. He reaches into his pocket and hands it over. It doesn't matter if it's a large board or a small potion, always the exact same.

Haha sounds a lot like FF15.

[the-pi-guy]

Haha sounds a lot like FF15.

Still haven't played unfortunately.

But I feel like the high 80's makes sense for a score. But it also strongly feels like it could have gone a bit further.

[nnodley]

I'm like 95% of the way done with the game.

Overall, it's very weird.

There are a lot of very strong highs, so many things that are incredibly well made. The combat system is consistently great. There are lots of parts that are just insane.

But then there is another side, where it just feels like they ran out of budget. A lot of these things aren't game breaking, but they can feel a little jarring compared to most of the PlayStation Studios games for instance.

There's exactly one animation for handing anything over. He reaches into his pocket and hands it over. It doesn't matter if it's a large board or a small potion, always the exact same.

I would agree 100%.  Especailly with the handing over animation.  I always laugh everytime i gave something to someone. 

The bosses were some of the best i've played.  I think they top even god of war 3 for me. 

And those side mission.  Holy shame so many side missions.  And they were fairly boring most of the time.  They could have cut the amount of them in half and there still would have been too many probably.  But alas I still did them all. lol

[darkknightkryta]

I'm just looking outside in, so take my opinions as these horrible opinions and I should be ... I don't know where I'm going with this.  Anyways, I've played a lot of Devil May Cry and Devil May Cry styled games.  Senran Kagura?  Played.  Onechanbara?  Played.  Nier, Nier Automata, and Drakengard 3?  Played. Golden Axe Beast Rider?  Finished.  That PS3/360 Conan hack and slash?  Played.  Finished all God of Wars, finished Bayonetta 1 and 2 (Haven't started 3 yet).  I even played though modern Ninja Gaiden (Sigmas + 3).  Finished all Kingdom Heart games that weren't cellphone stuff (minus 3 and 2.8 ).  So while I'm sure there's more stuff I've played that I'm forgetting, I've played a lot of Hack and Slash.  So what do all the good ones have in common?  Really good enemy encounters.  What does this game lack?  Apparently good enemy encounters.  I was watching one hunt and the player figured out the enemy's pattern, but then it became a monotonous slog since the boss/hunt or whatever had wayyyyy too much health.  The grunts just stood there and took your attacks, which is apparently the thing with grunts in the game.  Your combat is only as good as your enemy encounters and it looks like they put all their efforts into the combat without thinking about what to do with the enemies (Bosses are fine?).  Pair that up with a game that's been stripped down to its core, yet still 60 hours long and you have a recipe for a disaster.  They probably would have gotten away with a 20 hour game with what they built.  Oh well, I don't expect the next game to be any better, nor do I expect the new CEO to not make the same mistakes Wada made back in the PS360 gen, so I actually expect things to get worse.

[the-pi-guy]

Finished the story finally.

What game shall I play next...  

[Legend]

Finished the story finally.

What game shall I play next...  

Well, what did you think?

[the-pi-guy]

Well, what did you think?

Nothing has changed.

It's a great game with some short comings.
I'd give it a score of like 9/10.
There are some slower parts and the side quests are overly numerous for the quality. Some parts of the story felt like they got shafted in service of a bigger story.

But largely incredible battles, story is mostly good, great characters.

[the-pi-guy]

pic.twitter.com/KnOjgtbdEp

— Ben Starr (@The_Ben_Starr) September 25, 2023

[Legend]

I was quoted in @stephentotilo's excellent Axios newsletter today. I wanted to reinforce my strong disagreement with the position taken by analysts and quoted by former staff in this month's @business piece on Square Enix.

To start, as a reminder, I reported directly to two…

— Jacob Navok (@JNavok) September 25, 2023

Interesting read. Talks about how employees are stupid if they dislike that creatives are in control, and talks about exclusivity hurting sales on PlayStation. Hadn't realized people were manufacturing drama about the game.