Final Fantasy XVI

Retr0gamer

So it looks like despite the massive sales square Enix has declared that the game has underperformed. I guess that exclusivity delay didn't work out but its probably another case of square over estimating sales to investors. I more than likely made a profit but all that matters is the shareholders are happy

johnny_ultimate

The more I progress through the game the more baffled I am by some of the design and balancing the decisions the designers have settled on. It’s like some entire systems exist in a weird first draft format and weren’t progressed beyond that.

Limit breaking is a perfect example. The scene fills with flashy flames when you invoke it, and you heal, but it doesn’t seem to do much additional damage at all compared to normal combat? If an enemy is staggered and I unleash a limit break, it’s going to do roughly the same amount of damage as if I just used the standard combat cooldown skills instead. I upgraded limit break to see if that’d make a difference but I just got an extra notch on the limit break gauge instead. Maybe it improves later, but at the moment it seems like the actual gameplay impact of it barely matters, relative to the aesthetic flashiness of it all.

Ditto the weapons system. You sometimes get given cool, unique weapons as part of the story, or can craft them after defeating a major boss. But then you’ll often just get another better standard sword at your next visit to the shop or armoury. Sword upgrades don’t really do anything beyond ‘number goes up’, but still feels very strange to get a major character’s sword in a big story beat and then never use it again after maybe 30 mins of play.

On top of all the weird pacing issues, meandering story (they really were smart releasing the prologue as a demo, as that’s by far the most interesting the story has been so far), terrible quest design etc… it all just gives the sense of a project that never fully came together. And it’s a shame, because I actually appreciate that they scaled back relative to the open world excesses of 15, and I like the switch to character action game. There’s still enjoyment in using the combat system to its fullest, even if it lacks the sheer technical depth of the genre’s best.

Penn

I'm not sure I'll continue on with this for now. I've had limited time for playing anything the last two months or so, but I'm also just not feeling any pull or draw to keep going with this. I'll probably return to it at some point in the future as I'm still early enough in the game that it shouldn't make a difference, but I think I'll switch to something else.

one armed dwarf

There's some tech with limit break, essentially works the same as devil trigger in DMC. It can cancel attacks and invuln through some stuff. You can use it as a get out of jail for that reason.

A lot of the damage stuff is down to cycling usage of stagger inducing stuff and stagger multipliers, then paying out with the big raw damage moves. To be honest, I wasn't good at the maths on that stuff cause the game is so visually unclear, so I just DMC-ed my way through regardless of optimising damage.

But using limit break to cancel the recovery on some of the more committal options and cooldowns is nice.

As for not coming together, I've a kind of different view of it. So much of its design resembles FFXIV in its pacing and structure, and even cutscenes. Then there's the lite DMC part of it. I think they made the game they wanted to make here, it's just that maybe working on FFXIV for so long has insulated them a bit from the way that games like Witcher III has taken the genre. It seemed very western oriented at its beginning but it's very much a character action game made by MMO devs, with all the caveats of that.

johnny_ultimate

Been plugging away at this for the last two weeks or so to try to finish it before Baldur's Gate hits PS5. Just passed the Titan fight last night, so seems I'm into roughly the final third or so of the game.

It's yet another game where the problems could be solved by editing. When the game sparks, it really sparks. I do really enjoy the flow of the combat system - grinding down a stagger bar before unleashing as much hell as you can. The game opens up more and more as you unlock additional Eikons. Between Titan Block, the mini-limit-break dodge ring, and the more and more equipped abilities at your disposal, it really does feel great in action even if it's definitely total character action game rather than RPG. The hunt fights also ensure there's a more steady stream of big fights.

But god it's at least twice, three times as long as it needs to be. The amount of useless downtime and busywork between the truly good stuff is infuriating. It'd be fine if that downtime was interesting, but alas. The story grows increasingly meandering and dull as it goes, the subquests remain awful, and even the more dramatic, exciting parts of the game are weighed down by a few too many dull fights against random grunts. But most frustrating of all is that the pace at which upgrades are doled out is farcically slow. 20 hours into the game before I can increase potion potency? 5-6 hour gaps between unlocking new Eikons? Immensely scabby ability upgrade XP? It all takes a toll.

There's a reason a Bayonetta or Hi-Fi Rush isn't 40 hours long. But FFXVI insists on being an epic, long RPG, despite virtually every aspect of its design shouting from the rooftop that it is absolutely not an RPG. This would be a stone-cold banger if it was 20 hours long, I reckon. As is, it's a slog enlivened by occasional bursts of wonderful spectacle and fighting. Somehow still better than FF7 Remake in that regard, though :p

EoinMcLovin

https://youtu.be/DoHS6oKF-3s?si=jHgg8iCiSZ9zFI50

Free update out today with weapon transmog and 2 paid dlc have been announced

HopingforNewZ

Finished it this week having been plugging away since June. Combat is good, the game looks beautiful and I liked the ending. However, the game is really padded out and the pacing is so awful I almost just gave up after about 25 hours! 7/10 - still the best FF since XII.

awec

Had a go at the demo, I think so far it's been like 5 minutes of killing goblins and 45 minutes of pointless cutscenes. It's frustrating to watch a cutscene, then you get control and think you're finally going to play, you take 10 steps forward and... yep, cutscene again...

RedXIV

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121186002#Comment_121186002

Like most of the games, once you're skipping cut scenes, it ties the action well together but they are like MGS games the first playthrough if you're watching all the cutscenes. The demo is a bit more cutscene heavy that some of the "open-world" spaces where you can fart about a bit more but gotta acknowledge that the game is absolutely littered with cutscenes

johnny_ultimate

The game does get less cutscene heavy - or at least more gameplay between the story drops - but the pacing is appalling. So much messing around doing inane tasks in between the generally great combat, though even some combat sections run way too long.

Ive played around 30 hours if it I think over several months, and really think it feels extraordinarily long and bloated. In contrast, I’ve played around 55-60 hours of Baldur’s Gate 3 in a month and that has absolutely flown by with a constant parade of interesting ideas and encounters. The difference pacing can make!

Unearthly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121187758#Comment_121187758

Yeah I’d agree there. I enjoyed the first half a lot more than the 2nd half. The side missions were an absolute chore. I only did them as sometimes you got upgrades but I began skipping the dialogue scenes.

Also the loot has to be up there for one of the biggest trolls in gaming history. Late game areas and there are drops of 1 or 2 gil. What were they thinking

johnny_ultimate

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121187968#Comment_121187968

Oh yeah, the 1-2 Gil drops are hilariously terrible. There’s so little to spend money on too relative to most games, other than occasional weapons upgrades and overexpensive records for the hub jukebox!

The loot is awful - have hundreds of some crafting items in my inventory, when you only need a couple for upgrades. Also found the ability economy very scabby - takes agggeesss to earn enough skill points to buy new stuff to try. At least you can refund, but feels like you should be getting new abilities far more regularly than you do.