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outside of 7, im not a huge final fantasy guy. started 6 and 9 but never got far. played a bunch if 14 with my wife when she was heavy into it awhile back. didn't have a ton of interest in this until the demo came out and i watched some people on twitch play it. the story hooked me, especially the ending to the prologue. huge game of thrones vibes, which works well for me when it comes to high fantasy stuff, cause otherwise i really don't gel with it. played the demo, had fun and bought the game. been playing since release day, im about 29 hours in, something like 62% of the way done, according to the ps5 metrics that get displayed. i've been LOVING it.
i totally get the people that don't, though, or they're disappointed in it. the rpg elements are laughable. loot and gear are linear as hell and elemental magic/eikon abilities mean absolutely nothing; fire does not do more damage or stagger to ice enemies, etc. it very much embraces the action side, for better or worse. this actually fits me very well, cause a lot of rpg mechanics clash with how i like to play games.
it plays a lot like ff14, tbh. from how the quests are set up to how they kind of funnel you into a dungeon for big main story beats and you go from hall to hall killing enemies before facing a mid-boss and then usually an end boss.
exploration is pretty useless. you mostly get crafting materials and potions pick ups by going out of your way to collect glowing orbs or opening chests, with the occasional piece of equipment popping up. there's three piece of gear to equip: weapon, belt and greaves. each only has two stats; weapon has attack and stagger, belt and greaves have defense and hp increase. some gear you can upgrade to +2, some ya can't. once you get a piece of equipment that has higher numbers, there's zero reason to keep the old gear around. once you get into the back half of the game there are apparently some side quests you can do to unlock crafting recipes for high end gear, but it's definitely few and far between.
with little invested history into final fantasy, i thankfully don't come anywhere close to the 'this isn't a final fantasy game' school of thought, so i've been enjoying my time with it a lot. i wish there was some more depth to the gear and crafting, and it'd be cool to have basic rpg mechanics like elemental weaknesses implemented, but there are a bunch of things the game does that make me happy, so whatever. the voice acting and story are fantastic and the combat is fun. the last boss fight i did is probably my favorite boss battle ever. i'd say this and re4 are neck and neck for my game of the year right now.
I went pretty hard on it the first week or two I had it, ended up being pretty busy the last week or so, but got a little playtime in last night.
I've mostly been loving it. As far as stories and presentation go, this is up there with the best. Blowing 15 out of the water for sure. I enjoy the ARPG approach and it's mostly a fun system to play around with. I also like the layers you can add to the combos with getting good timing with Torgal and magic burst attacks. Can see how some people could probably whip out some crazy combos. The boss and Eikon fights are jawdropping.
I'm not super upset about the linear equipment progression because that's mostly how FF games have worked for years, but it's lame that there's no extra effects, just purely affecting stats. That usually adds more customization and less linearity. I feel like if they're going this approach, the crafting system feels kind of useless when you could.just find and buy items. I also agree the lack of magic type mattering is weak, though it's less bothersome than other things.
Honestly, I think the only thing that keeps me from fully loving this game is the lack of a true party dynamic. FF7 Remake felt like it struck the right balance with being an ARPG that still incorporates party management, whereas this is clearly a single character experience. It works narratively, but it makes the journey feel just a bit more lonely. I wish there was at least the occasional command you could give the party members like you do with Torgal, or even adjust AI settings. Personally I'd like to have to keep them alive as well. I've accepted and even enjoy that they are gonna be an ARPG going forward, but it feels like without having an interactive party, it's missing some of that magic that feels like an adventure with a motley crew you find through the game. Frustrating because I like a lot of the side characters, and if anything it would be cool if you occasionally took control of other characters for certain fights to at least switch it up.
But I've been enamored regardless. The callbacks are really well done, and I absolutely love what they've done with the soundtrack. The repurposing of the Prelude and the Final Fantasy Theme really help make this feel like the proper next step in the evolution of the series. And I love that they brought back hunts and have plenty of side stuff to do. Overall, I'm liking it more than 15 right now, but I do hope future entries don't continue ditching the party dynamic. I kind of assume they went this route because they wanted to try something different while they're churning out the FF7 Remake series, so I respect it. I just hope it's the one thing that doesn't become a permanent fixture.
Finally finished it. Did all the sidequests and got all but one of the achievements I can reasonably get without grinding(which this game is not designed for) or playing New Game+, and while I mostly enjoyed the game, I'm not exactly chomping at the bit to play it again. Overall, it's a really good game that's held back from being great because of some design issues. I think other than scope, it tends to feel like FF7R ran so FF16 could jog brisquely.
Biggest flaw for me, as I already mentioned, is the lack of a true party dynamic. It just feels like the structure is right there and they don't bite on it. While I like getting different characters to join your adventures, they feel useless in battle and just there for dressing. And as much as I enjoy the Torgal mechanics, I feel it never expands, and the fact he gets a power up later that gives him special moves that you have no control over(and that to my knowledge I've never ever seen?) is dull. This is made worse by combat getting a bit repetitive by the latter half.
And yeah, the gear is disappointing. I like working for the final weapon, but I never had any incentive to experiment with accessories. Definitely feels like the crafting mechanic is useless in the vanilla game which makes the equipment feel a little more useless by proxy. I think a lot of this would be relieved by having a party that you maintain and gear up, where you'd have more characters to play around with and actually have a use for all the gear you can upgrade, since half the time you have two or three weapons/armor to craft at a single moment and there's no incentive to craft the lower quality ones. Especially since resources are easy to come by.
While I generally enjoyed doing all the end-game quests and the closing out NPC storylines, it feels like there aren't a lot of tangible rewards for doing so. With no customizable magic and the gear being a bit useless, maybe something like some quest/hunt-specific special attacks would have been cool, but as is the best you get is the final weapon quest lines. Which is enjoyable. But it would be nice to have more tangible incentive to actually explore such a gorgeous world.
Also, the soundtrack is mostly incredible. Which is why it's a shame the game does an awful job of showcasing it outside of cutscenes and boss battles. A lot of the field and town music is wonderful, which is why it's infinitely annoying that during any conversations, the game turns the music volume down. There are some tracks you don't get to fully enjoy because of this, since otherwise you're just blazing through an area and barely get to hear 30 seconds of it unless you decide to linger purposefully. This is probably a nitpick, but being that the music is usually one of the best parts of a Final Fantasy, not being able to soak a lot of it in naturally is a shame.
There's also the issue of a lot of the less important NPCs looking the same(the men have like 2 stock faces that are barely changed from each other), and a bit more variety in quests could have been nice(maybe a mini-game or two), but the latter part is definitely a nitpick.
All that said, I still really enjoyed this game. Presentation and storywise it's pretty much a 10 out of 10. Well, ok, the story might not be a 10/10 but I was into it the whole way. It helps that the characters were really lovable with some excellent voice acting. The best and pretty enjoyable rewards from the sidequests was getting more characterization and intimate moments with the side characters. The graphics, lazy NPC modeling aside, are nothing short of stunning. Like the environments just had me pausing at times to just look at it all and appreciate it. The water in the Velkroy is pure beauty. And my god, the cutscenes. Yes, there's maybe too many or at least are broken up in an annoying way for some portions, but they were almost always a treat. Especially the ones involving Eikons. Some of the set pieces during boss fights just had my jaw agape as I took it all in.
And I already said it, but I loved the soundtrack. It has some "epic movie/video game" tropes that made some moments less memorable where a notable melody or rhythm could have served well. And like I said, the general mixing and implementation of the soundtrack makes it so some of the more memorable tracks don't get to shine. But this doesn't stop some of the best pieces from truly shining, especially during cutscenes and battles. I loved the re-imaginings of the FF Theme and the Prologue, making them feel more integral to the themes rather than just traditional pieces that need to be fit in somewhere. Masayoshi Soken does amazing work and when Square let him shine, he's fucking blinding. Overall, while I don't think he's topped Nobuo Uematsu as far as pure memorability, I think if Soken is the main composer going forward, then the series is in good hands.
And then the combat. Well, like I said, it gets a bit repetitive and I think if they weren't gonna commit to a couple more RPG elements than they should have leaned a bit harder into the action. But for the first half of the game, the combo system is really fun and refreshing. And while I never felt I needed to get Eikon abilities outside Phoenix/Ifrit and Garuda, once I started unlocking the super powerful moves and played around with the techniques a bit, I found myself getting a setup that was really fun to play and also hella engaging to rack up damage and stagger. I feel you take what's here, add more versatility to Torgal and give some semblance of control and management of party members, and you have an excellent ARPG combat system. As is, if you put the effort in, you can have a lot of fun with this system, but again, you're not really incentivized to do so. Particularly with the enemies being such damage sponges.
The boss battles could be better in some senses, as the big ones half the time feel more like glorified cutscenes since death is kind of meaningless and rare. But considering the shortcomings of the battle system, I found myself enjoying the change of pace for these battles. Though fights as Ifrit that weren't purely focused on set piece like moments felt less freeing than most fighting as Clive.
This is already way bigger than I planned for it to be, but I also want to give a special shout to the hunts. Not all of them were amazing, but they added some incentive to explore, and some of the S Rank hunts were the most thrilling and memorable fights of the whole thing(looking at you, Svarog).
So, yeah. There are a lot of flaws. Especially with FF7R staring it right in the face doing mostly everything 16 did but better. And I see myself wanting to replay XV before this one to be honest. But as a brand new story and experience in an engrossing world that constantly drew me in, this was still a really good Final Fantasy.
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yeah, like i mentioned on FOS, i ended up hitting a wall with ff16 around the 60% mark. i did boot it up a couple more times since that post and played a couple more hours, and even with the break from playing, i was still feeling kinda done pretty quickly. once you get all the eikons and figure out your ultimate play style as far as their powers are concerned, there is very, very little besides the progression of the story to find much interest in since there are literally no other systems to tinker and play with. so then it just becomes about questing, which is ultimately just going to be more combat, which after 50 hours is just kinda on auto-pilot. and i was definitely feeling like the story was getting padded out with filler the last few times i played. i really love the story, and the main crux of clive's journey, but soooooooooooooooo many times they just reiterate the 'live as free people' thing during cutscenes or as a basis for a certain quest. so redundant. they could cut a bunch of it and have the pace be much quicker.
Yeah, it definitely has an issue with pacing. Feel like it could have been much tighter if they didn't have as much filler between the big missions. Even if there were some nice moments of character development in some.
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Originally Posted by Psycho666Soldier
Yeah, it definitely has an issue with pacing. Feel like it could have been much tighter if they didn't have as much filler between the big missions. Even if there were some nice moments of character development in some.
absolutely. there are a lot of really great character moments, especially in side quests. blackthorne became one of my favorite people in the game because of the side quests focused around him. but sometimes cool character moments aren't enough to motivate me to WANT to quest, and there is so little else to gain outside of them. really quite unfortunate, cause there are such blatantly obvious mechanics or features they could have implemented, even on a pretty rote level, that would have broken up the monotony. after too long it feels very visual novely, at which point i'd rather just watch instead of play.
the titan boss fight was the absolute peak of the game for me. incredible spectacle of an experience. now think about how early that actually was in the game.
absolutely. there are a lot of really great character moments, especially in side quests. blackthorne became one of my favorite people in the game because of the side quests focused around him. but sometimes cool character moments aren't enough to motivate me to WANT to quest, and there is so little else to gain outside of them. really quite unfortunate, cause there are such blatantly obvious mechanics or features they could have implemented, even on a pretty rote level, that would have broken up the monotony. after too long it feels very visual novely, at which point i'd rather just watch instead of play.
the titan boss fight was the absolute peak of the game for me. incredible spectacle of an experience. now think about how early that actually was in the game.
I really liked the Bahamut fight too. I will say the final boss fight is a really enjoyable spectacle too if you get to that point. I wouldn't fault you for not finishing it out, though.
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Originally Posted by Psycho666Soldier
I really liked the Bahamut fight too. I will say the final boss fight is a really enjoyable spectacle too if you get to that point. I wouldn't fault you for not finishing it out, though.
was gonna mention that the whole crystaline dominion mission was also pretty good...
finally reuniting with JOSHUA, finding out why dion went mental AFTER the boss fight when the eikon power suck gets triggered, finding out oliver is a pawn of ultima and dion hurling his spear into the little guy's chest and watching your cunt of a mother's world implode. so fucking good. was probably the last of the main quest that i enjoyed. the stuff with barnabas, outside of him splitting the fucking sea, was dull and convoluted in comparison.
i might make it around to finishing it, but given how meh i am with the gameplay loop, i think just watching the final bit of story might actually be the better way to digest it, tbh. plus, starfield is now eating into my time, and we got spiderman 2 coming soon, as well. mario wonder and the rpg remake, too.
Originally Posted by Psycho666Soldier
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