Final Fantasy XVI

 PlayStation 5
User Score
8.1

Generally favorable reviews- based on 8567 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6,528 out of 8567
  2. Mixed: 693 out of 8567
  3. Negative: 1,346 out of 8567
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  1. AutisticPS_Pony
    Sep 12, 2023
    2
    Never played it. Will pirate PC version because me so poor I can't buy to play. I will wait the RUNE or TENOKE version of the game. Thank you Sony for investing, very nice! Much love Jim!
  2. WithFieryTruth
    Sep 11, 2023
    4
    I tried to post an in-depth review for this game, but the coding on the Metacritic website is as bad as always and gives me a 403 error whenever I try to post it. I guess I'll make a shorter one and hope it's accepted.

    The story, characters and soundtrack are all great, but the combat system is one of the worst I've ever had to endure throughout my life as a gamer, mainly for one    I tried to post an in-depth review for this game, but the coding on the Metacritic website is as bad as always and gives me a 403 error whenever I try to post it. I guess I'll make a shorter one and hope it's accepted.

    The story, characters and soundtrack are all great, but the combat system is one of the worst I've ever had to endure throughout my life as a gamer, mainly for one reason: enemy HP.
    Basically, every enemy in the game has a ridiculous overabundance of health, especially the bosses. It doesn't really add to the challenge of the game; it's just there to artificially prolong it.
    The situation is so bad that the button mashing that is required makes my hand physically hurt to the point where I deliberately have to take breaks from playing just to recover from the pain. This is the first game I've played since Track & Field on the NES where this has happened, and that should say something about how awful it is.

    Do yourself a favor and just watch a Let's Play of Final Fantasy XVI instead of playing it yourself.    … Expand
  3. eclesis
    Sep 11, 2023
    0
    An extremely mediocre game that manages to be boring for almost 50 hours non stop.
    The gameplay is simplistic and does not even compare to its sources of inspiration: Devil May Cry, God of War etc…
    The game is far too easy and even boss fights are stacked with checkpoints so that you can restart mid-fight in the unlikely case you would die. Fighting is boring and ultra repetitive. The    An extremely mediocre game that manages to be boring for almost 50 hours non stop.
    The gameplay is simplistic and does not even compare to its sources of inspiration: Devil May Cry, God of War etc…
    The game is far too easy and even boss fights are stacked with checkpoints so that you can restart mid-fight in the unlikely case you would die.
    Fighting is boring and ultra repetitive.
    The gear system and abilities system are jokes and are not interesting.
    The item system is useless and you can breeze through the game by using only potions.
    There is no strategy in fights, you just damage, damage, and damage. No status, no magic, nothing… And there are so many explosions of lights that you can not see enemies attacking.
    The pacing of the game is horrible with extremely long cutscenes for the main story where people walk slowly, talk slowly, stare, and repeat the same things over and over. Every motion is slow, taking a quest, giving an item to an NPC, displaying the reward screen. And most of the time you can not speed it up, it’s either skip it or endure it.
    The main story is extremely simple and always repeats the same pattern: The bad guy of the hour appears, side quests to solve to go to the bad guy lair, fight with the bad guy, repeat over and over until the end. The villain of the game is revealed extremely early and from there there will be almost no twists. Everything that happens is easy to anticipate. The relationships between people are strange and very cringy. Even the romance between Clive and Jill is not good. The characters that accompany Clive are dull and uninteresting. Their clothes and designs are so devoid of color and originality that they look like any other random NPC. And since you do not control them, it does not feel like they are part of the adventure. The story is also an uninspired copy/paste of Game of Thrones and Witcher 3 in so many ways that it’s impossible to find a shred of originality in it.
    The side quests are a complete disaster and just MMORPG like side quests, devoid of any interest and impact on the story. You could just skip them and be the better for it. Their pacing and fetching pattern is also horrible.
    The game has 2 lore characters that are here to give the impression that the story is complex and ends up telling you most of the time nothing: One of them tells you: The king will probably do something soon. How is that even smart?
    There is no exploration, no map with free movements. It’s corridor after corridor after corridor.
    The chocobos are nice because they make you gain time. Otherwise they are useless. Same for the Mog.
    The main villain looks like an alien version of Marilyn Manson and does not inspire fear.
    The main character is a little interesting at the beginning but becomes very dull as the adventure goes on.
    Also the power scale does not make sense in this game, with simple thieves challenging your character to fight when he has god-like powers.

    Some of the musical pieces are good, especially during boss fights (except a very strange techno music that is the most horrible thing I have heard in an RPG). But others themes are just copy-paste of older FF music ( FF VIII, FF XIV) that do not have their place in this game.
    The only thing this game has going for it is that it is quite beautiful. But this is often diminished by having a lot of dark and dull environments. This makes the world dull and everything but a fantasy world.

    Also some of the Dominants fights and the last fight are quite epic. It’s such a shame that they are so easy and simple. It removes all sense of stakes and dread.    … Expand
  4. CreepyPinkSocks
    Sep 9, 2023
    4
    For the love of god, stop talking! I'm all for cinematic experiences but this game takes control away from you seemingly every minute or two for lengthy, dry conversations in various (admittedly solid) regional English accents.

    Combat starts promising, with hints of Devil May Cry style spectacle fighter influences but the combat never gets any deeper, just wider so that eventually you're    For the love of god, stop talking! I'm all for cinematic experiences but this game takes control away from you seemingly every minute or two for lengthy, dry conversations in various (admittedly solid) regional English accents.

    Combat starts promising, with hints of Devil May Cry style spectacle fighter influences but the combat never gets any deeper, just wider so that eventually you're just alternating between dodge and square while you wait for your cooldowns to finish. When it comes to side content, this one wears its MMORPG inspirations on its sleeve, and that has absolutely no appeal to me. Boring, meaningless fetch quests and forgettable characters everywhere.

    Boss fights are okay, but most of the good stuff is relegated to cutscenes interspersed with button mashing QTEs and sulky monologues. We were promised God of War 3 but outside of Titan we never even got close to that.    … Expand
  5. Megalomani
    Sep 9, 2023
    3
    No es final fantasy, animaciones de los npcs como los del final fantasy x, escenarios vacíos y estáticos, historia aburrida y lenta ,solo por dos momentos lo demás es puro relleno cansino y absurdo, lineal y sin complejo sistema de combate, un juego indi tiene más mecánicas que ofrecer vaya castaña ni de lejos esta a la altura de final fantasy 7 remake
  6. Guilhermesmsmsm
    Sep 9, 2023
    0
    Jogo fraco dms, história medíocre, ff perdeu a essência, du odiei essa porcaria genérica, virou um hack in slash genérico
  7. hyperreality-
    Sep 7, 2023
    4
    The game is just a massive slog. There's like a handful of good moments, and the remaining 50 hours is just painfully boring. the side quests are trash, the story derails into nonsensical jrpg tropes mixed with a below average shonen, the side characters are neglected (especially jill), the villains are uninteresting and extremely annoying, Clive gets no development after the 10 hour mark,The game is just a massive slog. There's like a handful of good moments, and the remaining 50 hours is just painfully boring. the side quests are trash, the story derails into nonsensical jrpg tropes mixed with a below average shonen, the side characters are neglected (especially jill), the villains are uninteresting and extremely annoying, Clive gets no development after the 10 hour mark, exploration is nonexistent, combat is too easy even on FF mode, RPG systems are pathetic and tacked on, etc.

    Worst FF to me. the 4 points come from the crystalline dominion section of the game, and shiva and odin's eikon abilities.    … Expand
  8. Tombanner
    Sep 7, 2023
    3
    This game is far from a Role Playing Game, unless you’re defining it in a literal sense. At times it’s barely a game. Final Fantasy 16 is plagued with long, boring cutscenes and 1 dimensional gameplay with little to no challenge. The story is somewhat decent although if you want to compare it to the rest of the series it’s easily one of the weakest.

    The only redeeming qualities is the    This game is far from a Role Playing Game, unless you’re defining it in a literal sense. At times it’s barely a game. Final Fantasy 16 is plagued with long, boring cutscenes and 1 dimensional gameplay with little to no challenge. The story is somewhat decent although if you want to compare it to the rest of the series it’s easily one of the weakest.

    The only redeeming qualities is the voicing acting, Cid and the world building, but unfortunately none of that outweighs the negatives.    … Expand
  9. YKER
    Sep 4, 2023
    0
    Demasiado repetitivo, aburrido... Lo mismo de siempre mismos personajes, cero inovación,
  10. CireWolf
    Sep 3, 2023
    0
    The first thing I have ever say is: don't waste your time and don't waste your money with this fake game
    The reason is the ridiculous gameplay button smashing, and the BORING and anonymous story.
    The graphics is late old gen, on the same level of a PS4 porting, but with terrible framerates drop and popup.
    And in the end I'm severely disappointed by this FF
  11. tchouprine
    Sep 3, 2023
    4
    A good game marred by a terrible optimization. Decided to give a fair two months for devs to come up with some good fixes, only to be utterly disappointed by the complete lack of any. And it's not even multiplatform, come on!
    UPD 03.09.23 – still stutters, don't believe the hype (if there's any)
  12. ereleos
    Sep 3, 2023
    0
    Single most boring game of the franchise, in the company of ff13. Please do not buy this bland attempt of making a button-masher kid-GoT "cinematic experience" if you look for anything cerebral in games.
  13. eroeru
    Sep 3, 2023
    0
    My thumb is sore from mashing square and my mind is dull from the drab story, dull characters and abhorrent worldbuilding.
  14. TaddyMas0n
    Sep 2, 2023
    1
    I’ve never been so bored playing a FF game. The entire thing is a repetitive loop: talk to villagers, run through super linear areas fighting bad guys and opening 1000 doors with R2 (for no good reason), boss battle, repeat. When in dialogue the character models and their animations are shameful and look like they were created during the PS3 era.
    Weapon upgrading is also linear. After each    I’ve never been so bored playing a FF game. The entire thing is a repetitive loop: talk to villagers, run through super linear areas fighting bad guys and opening 1000 doors with R2 (for no good reason), boss battle, repeat. When in dialogue the character models and their animations are shameful and look like they were created during the PS3 era.
    Weapon upgrading is also linear. After each boss you can buy ONE new sword, belt, arm piece and that’s it.
    As for exploration, well.. there isn’t any.    … Expand
  15. somovbiu
    Sep 2, 2023
    1
    - horrible voice acting like FFXV
    - horrible voice audio quality comparable to Google Translate, maybe sampled with 10-dollar mics?
    - the same enemy comes back again and again, so annoying, like in animes. - unnatural conversations, no human being talks that way, not even the famously weird Japanese people, let alone Europeans - horrible parry system, the last time I saw this kind of    - horrible voice acting like FFXV
    - horrible voice audio quality comparable to Google Translate, maybe sampled with 10-dollar mics?
    - the same enemy comes back again and again, so annoying, like in animes.
    - unnatural conversations, no human being talks that way, not even the famously weird Japanese people, let alone Europeans
    - horrible parry system, the last time I saw this kind of crappy parry was in Vampyr. In general the combat is too boring, clicking square and using special powers occasionally
    - horrible missions. Japanese games always have tons of filler quests, that's just plainly stupid
    - horrible graphics performance on ps5, and it's a ps5 exclusive? Frucking ridiculous    … Expand
  16. IDlkcvjasd
    Sep 1, 2023
    3
    Boring as hell. Meaningless cutscenes dragging the length of the game and too many pauses.
  17. Samus01
    Sep 1, 2023
    0
    First time I've felt asleep while I'm playing a game. This is what I've experienced when I've finished this tremendous boring torture of a game.
    The soporific story clash with a braindead gameplay.
    Poorly written story, bad written characters, bad pacing, objectively zero exploration, zero secrets, and a forgettable and generic art design. Considering all of this, I think that Final    First time I've felt asleep while I'm playing a game. This is what I've experienced when I've finished this tremendous boring torture of a game.
    The soporific story clash with a braindead gameplay.
    Poorly written story, bad written characters, bad pacing, objectively zero exploration, zero secrets, and a forgettable and generic art design.
    Considering all of this, I think that Final Fantasy 16 is indeed the worst iteration of the franchise so far    … Expand
  18. cesar2000
    Sep 1, 2023
    0
    How depressingly bad is this game made?
    Well knowing how 90% of everything are cutscenes connected by almost soulless "gameplay" phases and almost totally devoid of player interaction, I'd say I can't even call this a real game.
    Then I call it Fake Fantasy 16, the shameful crap of YoshiP
    An exhaustive description of this ****
  19. Honoke
    Sep 1, 2023
    0
    One of the worst action games I've had the misfortune to play
    Practically this Final Fantasy 16 is like a game in Beta, where the only complete element is that of the plot while everything else is absent. Especially the boring gameplay at QTE.
    A bitter disappointment
  20. Redhu
    Aug 31, 2023
    1
    Bad action game, with a boring story and trash gameplay
    I think it was a truly disappointing experience
  21. Isahg
    Aug 31, 2023
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. No es un juego que se disfrute tanto, no llega mi a ser un reto. ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ… Expand
  22. Ghobo
    Aug 31, 2023
    0
    You know what? I'm sick of Square Enix's attitude of trying to change a franchise like Final Fantasy that already worked.
    And what have they achieved with this practice? I think we all know that already... And Final Fantasy 16 is another bad attempt to try to make a game at all costs different from the previous ones, and failing miserably.
    A listless game, without spirit and without    You know what? I'm sick of Square Enix's attitude of trying to change a franchise like Final Fantasy that already worked.
    And what have they achieved with this practice? I think we all know that already... And Final Fantasy 16 is another bad attempt to try to make a game at all costs different from the previous ones, and failing miserably.
    A listless game, without spirit and without bite, which falls on practically all the aspects on which it rests. Including the sadly poorly written storyline and aseptic gameplay where you only ever press one button.    … Expand
  23. T4l0n
    Aug 31, 2023
    4
    This game is such a step backward for the series: there's no exploration, there's no airship, there's close to no rpg mechanics, NO MANA, ...

    Say what you want about FF15, yes it was unfinished and rushed but it took risks and had a great vision about the future of the series, FF16 is is an average action game masquerade as a Final Fantasy.
  24. Conmanus
    Aug 30, 2023
    4
    So disappointing. This game is very boring. I actually find my mind wandering while playing the game. The world feels pointless and dead. The gameplay is far too easy and braindead with no way to up the difficulty. The 'performance' mode runs like crap- literally looks/feels like a 30fps game. Quests are simply npc's saying "go see ___", walk 30 steps, press x to talk to npc, walk back toSo disappointing. This game is very boring. I actually find my mind wandering while playing the game. The world feels pointless and dead. The gameplay is far too easy and braindead with no way to up the difficulty. The 'performance' mode runs like crap- literally looks/feels like a 30fps game. Quests are simply npc's saying "go see ___", walk 30 steps, press x to talk to npc, walk back to first npc. Everything about the way this game plays is paint-by-numbers and goes beyond boring into the realm of irritating.

    I'm usually into narrative-driven, cinematic games, and since that's what people kept saying was this game's strength, I spent the $95 CAD... I feel ripped off. This game proves to me that a big cinematic story doesn't save, or even help, when the gameplay and tech aspects are this boring/bad. Even the demo section made the game seem like it had some promise because they obviously put more time into polishing it- but soon after you pass that section you'll notice things like character models, cinematics, and sidequests drop off dramatically in quality. This feels like a game an indie studio would make in 2015, but with plagarized high-budget cinematics spliced in every 30 seconds to pad it out.

    I wouldn't like this game if it had been made by a small team of indie devs, but the fact that Sqaure Enix and CBUIII made this with the budget they had does make me hate it a little more. This is because they have no excuse for how lazy this game feels. i feel like the writers of the game really tried to do their job, but everyone else on the dev/publisher teams just couldn't care less. Square Enix sucks, and I should have known better. Why would I pay $95 to a company whose last release was Forspoken!? Because I thought CBUIII had some integrity.

    The people giving this 10's are either devs who worked on it or their family and friends. No one could play this for more than 6 hours and not be bored to tears.    … Expand
  25. Loraxe
    Aug 30, 2023
    0
    The worst waste of time I've made this year
    Because "playing" ff16 isn't fun at all, since it's basically 85% cutscenes, and the story is even a boring and sluggish dull mess. While the gameplay is button smashing meet bullet sponge mobs + cinematics qte bosses (all scripted).
    Hugely disappoint experience imho
  26. AdrianOfSweden
    Aug 29, 2023
    4
    A technically well-made game that suffers from how depressing, dull, and sluggish it is. Everybody is depressed. The main character is depressed. The ending is depressing. There is no fun in the game to make up for how dull the world is. Enemies are bullet sponges and you very early find a pattern to deal with bosses that makes any new encounter repetitive. There is no way to explore andA technically well-made game that suffers from how depressing, dull, and sluggish it is. Everybody is depressed. The main character is depressed. The ending is depressing. There is no fun in the game to make up for how dull the world is. Enemies are bullet sponges and you very early find a pattern to deal with bosses that makes any new encounter repetitive. There is no way to explore and power-level, and you are drip-fed sidequests and rewards that give you slightly better equipment now and then. There are team mates, but they cannot be controlled, and barely do any damage. The cinematic parts of battles have so many effects that it's hard to tell what's going on.

    It's almost as if Square Enix tried to pull a Nier: Automata and Elden Ring (both very good at being melancholic yet fun at the same time), and forgot what makes an FF game Final Fantasy, or how to make an RPG in the first place.

    I spent 64 hours from start to finish, and pretty much regret from bothering finishing it. Being presented with a New Game+ option at the end was almost an insult.    … Expand
  27. KifiDace
    Aug 29, 2023
    0
    Boring game
    It's the first time that I've feel sleepy while I play a Final Fantasy game, and this makes me almost quit this FF16.
    At first I was expecting something of different and more engaging, but then I've feeling more and more bored hours after hours, and the plot become truly bad. The gameplay feels too braindead easy, to the point of be just a mere interlude between the    Boring game
    It's the first time that I've feel sleepy while I play a Final Fantasy game, and this makes me almost quit this FF16.
    At first I was expecting something of different and more engaging, but then I've feeling more and more bored hours after hours, and the plot become truly bad.
    The gameplay feels too braindead easy, to the point of be just a mere interlude between the cutscenes, and this wasn't fun at all. Just like the bad side quests.
    And there's not even exploration in the game, and this make the game just not worth it, for a series like this.    … Expand
  28. Wallins
    Aug 28, 2023
    2
    A shame for an action game and embarrassing to be Final Fantasy in name but not in fact. Final Fantasy 16 fails to entertain me due to a sadly poor writing and the boring and repetitive gameplay, too many quick time events. While the plot is see-saw and mostly forgettable.
    Without interesting ideas, and without scenes of real impact for a player, given the excessive use of CG movies even    A shame for an action game and embarrassing to be Final Fantasy in name but not in fact. Final Fantasy 16 fails to entertain me due to a sadly poor writing and the boring and repetitive gameplay, too many quick time events. While the plot is see-saw and mostly forgettable.
    Without interesting ideas, and without scenes of real impact for a player, given the excessive use of CG movies even for every single Quick Time Event. Note of evidence, a rough, linear and empty level design for all sections of the game make the whole things not worth the price tag    … Expand
  29. mikegh1994
    Aug 28, 2023
    2
    This game is the worst thing a game can be - boring. Got near the end but I just couldn't push through. Super boring MMORPG quest structure. You lose nothing by just watching a video of the cutscenes on youtube.
  30. Reuben78
    Aug 27, 2023
    0
    was a great game super happy its moved on from all the bugs and glitches of the last instalment. smooth gameplay and good story no regrets in this purchase
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Awards & Rankings

16
#16 Best PlayStation 5 Game of 2023
1
#1 Most Discussed PlayStation 5 Game of 2023

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
87

Generally favorable reviews - based on 146 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 134 out of 146
  2. Mixed: 12 out of 146
  3. Negative: 0 out of 146
  1. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Jan 22, 2024
    100
    Final Fantasy XVI is an excellent game in every way. If you're a fan of the series for the stories and characters, you won't go wrong here, and if you've avoided the series for, say, turn-based combat, the sixteenth installment offers the perfect opportunity to get started with this legend of the gaming industry. [Issue#329]
  2. Riot Pixels
    Oct 30, 2023
    73
    This is a solid RPG/action game. Some elements of the game are unusual and fresh for single-player parts of the Final Fantasy series, but some are too dull and rudimentary.
    Read full review
  3. PLAY
    Sep 17, 2023
    90
    New numbered FFs are good again. Stunning to look at, with new, punchy combat, and a great yarn, it is, if anything, too focussed, lacking a bit of the weird. [Issue#30, p.78]
See all critic reviews »