Final Fantasy Video Game • Page 143

I've finished the game and I have a lot of thoughts to unpack about everything but I do know that in my heart this is a 10/10 and one of my favorite Final Fantasies ever

 

i’m still not loving it but i’m early on, just left martha’s rest

 

Okay, so after finishing the game and clearing chronoliths I am now working on getting a no-hit boss run done. Sorry both for the wall of text and for the fact that it's still very thrown together.

Things I loved about FFXVI off the top of my head:
- First of all it has to be said: THE SOUNDTRACK. This is Soken's best work and Soken did a shit ton of heavy lifting. He kept me fully engaged no matter how I felt about a storyline because he'd come in with the sickest arrangements and good god. I could go on for hours about how much I love this score but I'll say without hyperbole this is the best score I've heard in gaming.

- The combat was absolutely stellar. I loved how the abilities worked and the different chemistries that could be used in battles. Being able to mix and match abilities across eikons was so nice and having everything be fully refundable encouraged a ton of experimentation which is always good. Furthermore, the chronolith trials encouraged learning how each ability worked and caused me to begin to use things I wouldn't have used otherwise. While I at first wasn't sold on the control scheme, practice made it fluid and easy to use while also having a high skill ceiling.

- Combat in eikon battles was great as well. I'm impressed at how good of a job they did making eikons feel like an extension of what is existing and not a gimmick. Combat using Phoenix maybe felt iffy at times but I feel like it's justified given that we know Joshua didn't have much prowess as a combatant. Combat using Ifrit felt perfect, especially going from it feeling slightly clunky vs Garuda into feeling insanely powerful vs Titan and beyond.

- While I'll mention later that the game is too easy, and the boss fights are not exempt, boss fights were mostly masterfully crafted in terms of matching the scope of the fight match the scope of the story. Titan and Bahamut in particular were excellently made fights. All of the hunts were fun to do even when they weren't so hard. I felt very engaged in each of the big fights in this game and also felt encouraged to fight trash mobs as I navigated the world as well.

- I know people will have mixed feelings on the story but I loved it. The parallels between the bearer experience in the lens of those in power and the human experience in the lens of Ultima were not lost on me and it made things hit so much more for me. Clive's journey was wild to experience and I don't understand party complaints because I never once felt like I was alone. Cid, Dion, and Jill are among my favorite Final Fantasy characters already, and I loved learning more about everyone and loved hating everyone the game wanted me to hate. It didn't emotionally destroy me in the way FFXIV Shadowbringers and Endwalker did, and I think that's a good thing for this game as it wasn't the messages' intents. This did both feel close to Heavensward and also channel the spirits of past Final Fantasies wonderfully.

- You can pet Torgal.

- I love the lore centric features like active time lore, the compendium with Tomes, and the state of the realm with Vivian. FFXIV's team was derived from the team behind FFXII and it certainly shows with the presentation of lore resources. It was so nice to have a moment where I might not perfectly remember who someone is and immediately get the answer in my face at any time. I hope future Final Fantasy titles take from this.

Things I didn't like about FFXVI off the top of my head (but didn't hinder my experience too much):
- My first gripe is that the game is too easy (including arcade mode and most hunts). I'm going to be trying Final Fantasy mode to see how this changes things, but I agree with Jake that a higher difficulty should be available from the start rather than being something unlocked by clearing the game. FFXVI did a fantastic job nailing the power fantasy, and I disagree that enemies just became sponges (because most things became a LOT easier to take down as the game continued), but that doesn't change that enemies didn't quite have the aggression needed to create challenges and more often than not FFXVI took the Elden Ring approach of "what if they ran away a lot".

- Second gripe is that looting is very unsatisfactory. This is an extremely minor complaint as I'm not a big fan of looter games in general, but there should still be some satsifaction to finding something cool on the ground or in a chest. It felt like more often than not I'd travel to the ends of the earth for crafting materials that I already had 500 of. The weapon upgrade loop made looting feel bad and a more diverse weapon upgrade loop would've helped encourage looting more often, and even still...90% of what was on the ground didn't need to be there.

- I actually did enjoy the sidequests but I don't enjoy when the main quests feel like sidequests (aka the first part of Mid's story) and I also think the initial sidequests having little exposition other than tiny glimpses into the lives of no-names (which I still do enjoy) discouraged people from doing the heavier sidequests later on that they might've liked seeing a lot more.

- Barnabas arc did a lot of telling and not a lot of showing. I felt like Barnabas was the perfect opportunity to have an insanely hard boss in the "you are supposed to lose" phase AND in the actual fight and instead he was a pushover when we actually could fight him, and then a lot of parts we couldn't interact with when we're actually supposed to lose. Just a big missed opportunity.

- The final arc with Ultima felt like it could've been half the length, and I didn't enjoy the tone shift with Ultima's character itself after the transformation at the end. Going from stoic to an overly emotional deity felt weird considering Ultima's lack of understanding in the human experience. Maybe I'm reading too much into it and I'll change my mind later but as of right now I didn't really like Ultima, as much as I enjoyed Clive and Dion in that final arc.

My endgame setup:
1. Odin - Gigaflare (Bahamut), Gungnir (Odin)
2. Garuda - Impulse (Bahamut), Rook's Gambit (Garuda)
3. Titan - Windup (Titan), Diamond Dust (Shiva)

 

yeah i feel like they are hyping/writing barnabas to be like seymour in FFX and that just hasn't been the case so far for me

 

Now that I'm finally reading more things I'm discovering my end build is really bad but hey it worked out for me and felt comfortable. Another argument for the game being too easy! (Though it's good to be able to use anything.)

 

Without having looked at guides, your end build seems fine to me.

I kept using Phoenix, Garuda, and Shiva since I liked the mobility of their circle abilities. Having the others made me feel like I either wasn’t being active in combat/passive, or just killed the flow I wanted like Ramuh’s.

 

I ended up setting my stuff up as one long combo. Lightning rod > raging fist > gouge > filler stuff > wicked wheel > slam attack > diamond dust. So when I’d stagger you’d just bleed them of health

idk how I felt about the ending. why do they always gotta kill the protagonist in FF games.

 

I don’t think they killed him though

 

Idk how I feel about the ending's presentation but I agree with Joe, can go in depth if needed

I'm a big fan of Lightning Rod now as I've experimented with it more

 

Interesting cause I got that Joshua was saved by Clive doing his Phoenix thing. Aka writing the book the kids were talking about in the post credit. What gave you the idea he was alive?

 

A big trend of the game is Clive's renaming, Clive becoming Wyvern until he encounters a tie to his past as Clive, then returning to his name until the passing of Cid, at which time he becomes Cid the Outlaw in his stead as he continues the life of Cid. I interpreted the ending as Joshua becoming a part of Clive to conquer Ultima and as a result, he adopts the name of Joshua. In a conversation with Harpocrates through his questline (I think), Clive hints that when this is all over he's going to become an author. I think Clive does this as Joshua.

How does he actually live? I dunno. But that's how I chose to interpret the ending. I hope that isn't reinforced in any way though, I think it's more fun for everyone to have their own interpretation.

 

Interesting. I shall contemplate haha (Ultima voice)

 

what Dustin said, plus his conversation with Jill about returning when the sun breaks. Jill cries until the sun comes out at the end, and then she stops and smiles, almost as if she knows he’s returning. The book thing is the big one, but the conversation with Jill in her last side quest before the ending makes me feel like he’s alive as well

 

I didn't catch that, that's a great observation

 

It’s funny cause I can remember all of that and how everyone all game keeps saying you’re alive or you’re back! I guess I’m dumb haha. It just felt so finite, but I like y’all’s theory much better. So do you think he’s in Joshua’s body after he healed it or his own?

 

That's a good question as well, I really don't know haha. I assumed his own but I suppose it really could be either/or, I hadn't thought about the former.

 

Yeah I would think it’s his own. I feel like he just healed Joshua’s body as a respect of burial sort of thing, and that he remained in his own body

 

Just did the Typhon fight. Dudes rock

 

Should the full XVI soundtrack be released in the US eventually? Right now only the prelude version is available in the US and it’s a bummer

 

Just did the first Kupka fight. I got the titan powers now. Gonna probably just mainline the story now but I did do a really fun monster hunt yesterday.

 

Holy shit that Titan fight

 

Just finished the Odin fight which wasn't as good as the ones before, in my opinion. Just heading what i'm assuming is the final boss. This has been an experience!

 

Most unrealistic thing about this game is that Clive and Jill haven’t fucked (or kissed before) leading up to this final mission lmao

 

I have finally finished 16 (life, y'know?) and that was a step up from 15 and probably my favourite since 10. It was incredible and the story itself was an emotional journey right to the end. I did get a bit bored at the monotonous quests just before the final mission, the lack of Ultimate Weapon bosses and the status effects (these would have made for more strategy) but its a step in the right direction.

Interesting that they paved the way for a sequel in a post credits, if that's how you want to interpret it.