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
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. Boaz_
    Jul 3, 2023
    6
    The game has a good story, good graphics, and the fights were well directed, although it doesn't run well in performance mode... But the problems with this game are the dev's decisions: The exploration is very basic that it doesn't reward the player, the game doesn't have playable party members, it doesn't have classes, it doesn't have good mini games like in the classics (card game, GoldThe game has a good story, good graphics, and the fights were well directed, although it doesn't run well in performance mode... But the problems with this game are the dev's decisions: The exploration is very basic that it doesn't reward the player, the game doesn't have playable party members, it doesn't have classes, it doesn't have good mini games like in the classics (card game, Gold saucer, etc), it doesn't have negative statuses, the progression of equipment and character evolution is very simple and without creativity. .. The FF series is based on tabletop RPG, they can't just turn the game into 100% action all of a sudden... It should be 50% action 50% rpg like in FF 7 remake.… Expand
  2. dasregal
    Jul 3, 2023
    5
    It's missing a lot of what one might expect of an FF game, but that's not really its biggest flaw. It just retreads ideas from FFXIV way too closely and fails to wrap up the narrative in an interesting way. Didn't feel worth my time or money in the end.
  3. Umutz
    Jun 27, 2023
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Where to even begin.. I'm halfway through the game and so far I think the story is great and the soundtrack is amazing. I like the dark tone and the sense of war and deceit being around the corner all the time. I think the characters are good and I find myself laughing from time to time even though the game really has a dark story. The game in itself is beautiful to, the stroke of the wind on grasssy parts just looks amazing and satisfying. The enemies also have great designs.

    But....

    That's it for the good stuff. And I actually find myself pretty disappointed. For starters, the battle system just lacks inspiration, you just do the same stuff all the time and there is no strategy behind it. You can attack fire type enemies with fire and still do a lot of damage. There is no status ailments. If you die during during a boss fight you get to start in the middle of the fight with replenished items.

    The weapons are boring, they just add a stronger attack and nothing else when you get a new one. There is no funny items that do funny stuff (FFX and FFXII had plenty).

    You get to battle the same kind of enemies all the time, I think there is like 10 different type of enemies and the rest is just different variation of the same kind of enemy.

    The hunts are easy, I could easily kill a rank A monster even though I was 8 levels lower than the actual monster. There is no puzzles or any form av exploring. Up until FFXIII the games wasn't open world and still had exploring to do.

    WHY is there no chocobo theme? Like WTF!?

    I will finish the game, and probably enjoy the story. But I feel SE really losing their touch. To not be able to plan a good strategy for enemies or not being able to explore is just so so sad. They keep saying they need to modernize, and that's fine, but don't remove key aspects because of it. This game would be awesome with a battle system that improved from FFXII, that was fast paced but still needed strategy.

    Shame.. Square    … Expand
  4. slaine130177
    Jul 18, 2023
    7
    Fini en 27h avec toutes les quêtes annexes, contrat d'élite et autres défis, ce qui fait quand même très peu pour un RPG type FF.
    Pour résumer FF16 n'est pas un RPG avec une dose de combat type DMC, mais bien un jeu Devil May Cry avec une pincée de Final Fantasy.
    Ici pas de gestion d'inventaire (du moins minimaliste), pas d'exploration libre mais des zones définies, pas de grandes    Fini en 27h avec toutes les quêtes annexes, contrat d'élite et autres défis, ce qui fait quand même très peu pour un RPG type FF.
    Pour résumer FF16 n'est pas un RPG avec une dose de combat type DMC, mais bien un jeu Devil May Cry avec une pincée de Final Fantasy.
    Ici pas de gestion d'inventaire (du moins minimaliste), pas d'exploration libre mais des zones définies, pas de grandes citées à explorer (que des villages quasi vides), des couloirs et des salles à l'infini jusqu'à la fin du jeu. C'est un pur jeu d'action teinté d'un scénario type RPG. Même pas besoin de farmer les levels, le titre est très facile.

    Il y avait tellement mieux à faire....Si seulement il y avait plus d'interractivité avec le joueur. Par exemple, à un moment dans l'histoire vous avez accès à une carte complète du monde avec tous ses enjeux politiques, sociaux et les stratégies de la guerre. Si au moins on avait laissé le choix au joueur d'attaquer le royaume qu'il veut dans l'ordre qu'il souhaite, qu'ensuite cela impactait le monde, les autres royaumes et changeait les stratégies, ça aurait été génial. Mais non, on doit suivre à lettre le scénario écrit.
    Ne cherchez pas non plus d'autres libertés, tous les objectifs sont indiqués sur la carte, même les PNJ à qui parler. Absolument AUCUNE liberté.

    Heureusement le jeu a quand même quelques beaux atouts comme un gameplay de combat bien maîtrisé et simple à prendre en main, d'excellents boss, un scénario sympa (mais pas aussi sombre que je l'aurais voulu), une OST excellente, un doublage VF bien travaillée et, un "méchant" charismatique.

    Dernier point sur la technique, le jeu alterne le très beau avec le très moyen en permanence. Le pire étant la modélisation des personnages (hors persos principaux) qui font peine à voir pour de la next gen. La PS5 peut faire largement mieux, le jeu aurait pu être cross Gen.

    Un bon jeu qui aurait mérité un peu plus d'ambition dans sa partie level design, liberté donné aux joueurs    … Expand
  5. Rafamunar
    Jul 4, 2023
    7
    The Epic fights are the only thing rescue the Game yo the hell, the rest is Bad design anda is boring
  6. Bestx
    Jul 14, 2023
    6
    Pros:
    - One of the best Narrative i've ever seen in a Videogame.
    - Particle effect implementation and graphics overall are astonishing - Great Character and Maybe one of the best Main characters of the Whole franchise Cons: -Too linear -Shallow side quests -RPG features that are reduced to bones, and it is not negative because FF must be an RPG saga. It is negative because These    Pros:
    - One of the best Narrative i've ever seen in a Videogame.
    - Particle effect implementation and graphics overall are astonishing
    - Great Character and Maybe one of the best Main characters of the Whole franchise
    Cons:
    -Too linear
    -Shallow side quests
    -RPG features that are reduced to bones, and it is not negative because FF must be an RPG saga. It is negative because These elements are an obstacle to the true gameplay.
    -Gameplay with a decent amount of battle option but at the end a bit "Button Smashing"
    -Creatures sometimes unispired, some of them are spongy enough and overall FF XV did a lot better on the Creature part.
    - Big Beautiful bosses but with zero to little interactivity on the gameplay side
    -Zero interaction with the world
    Ultra Cons (Horrible)
    - There are some of the worst invisible walls ever made in a videogame. Even DB: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 did a lot better.    … Expand
  7. emitrex
    Jul 12, 2023
    5
    Es un juego realmente excelente , una propuesta atrevida y arriesgada por parte de square Enix , es genial el sistema de batalla , los jefes son de una épica increíble , es una maravilla visualmente en ps5 , con tiempos de carga inexistentes y lo del árbol genealógico de los personajes , familias etc , es lo mejor para enterarte bien de la historia, y eso sin hablar de la banda sonora ,Es un juego realmente excelente , una propuesta atrevida y arriesgada por parte de square Enix , es genial el sistema de batalla , los jefes son de una épica increíble , es una maravilla visualmente en ps5 , con tiempos de carga inexistentes y lo del árbol genealógico de los personajes , familias etc , es lo mejor para enterarte bien de la historia, y eso sin hablar de la banda sonora , una de las mejores de toda la saga , es sin duda bel final fantasy más maduro.… Expand
  8. tachibananana
    Jul 14, 2023
    6
    I just want to be short. This game has very good and complete world but not so good story that lack of story telling techniques and character motivation. Full of boring main quests and side quests that make you walk from A to B, kill some monsters, then watch some awful animation. There are no building up your character like other RPG only character levels and abilities really affect inI just want to be short. This game has very good and complete world but not so good story that lack of story telling techniques and character motivation. Full of boring main quests and side quests that make you walk from A to B, kill some monsters, then watch some awful animation. There are no building up your character like other RPG only character levels and abilities really affect in combat. They seem like want to do a lot in the game but they failed to done it except the summons fight.… Expand
  9. Crimson9
    Jun 28, 2023
    6
    Best Final Fantasy game to come since FF12. The story is great, the characters are great, the world building is fantastic. Square has taken a big step forward in these areas. On the other hand, everything regarding gameplay here (the combat, the sidequests, the level design, the customization, the progression, etc.) is extremely subpar. FF fans as usual are happily living in a bubble whereBest Final Fantasy game to come since FF12. The story is great, the characters are great, the world building is fantastic. Square has taken a big step forward in these areas. On the other hand, everything regarding gameplay here (the combat, the sidequests, the level design, the customization, the progression, etc.) is extremely subpar. FF fans as usual are happily living in a bubble where they aren't even able to grasp the steep decline of this series.… Expand
  10. SilentDoc
    Jul 2, 2023
    5
    Great game, just not a final fantasy. A missed oportunity in my opinion. Technically excellent, interesting story, but 0 reward for exploration, 0 motivation to get items for equipment, non challenging combats...
  11. EightEyes
    Jul 2, 2023
    5
    I'm new to the Final Fantasy series, and this game was fun in some parts. I liked the combat and story okay, but I felt like it could be better. So, I got excited knowing there's at least 15 other entries. Maybe they did the combat/story in a way I'd like better. I did some research, and whoa, seriously, the people saying this entry is "not Final Fantasy" weren't kidding. None of the gamesI'm new to the Final Fantasy series, and this game was fun in some parts. I liked the combat and story okay, but I felt like it could be better. So, I got excited knowing there's at least 15 other entries. Maybe they did the combat/story in a way I'd like better. I did some research, and whoa, seriously, the people saying this entry is "not Final Fantasy" weren't kidding. None of the games are like this one. I'd hate it if my favorite series changed that much. I guess 15(?) is kind of like this one, faster and stuff, but from the videos I saw, 16 definitely doesn't match the others. Keep that in mind if you want to give this series (and this game) a chance.… Expand
  12. Captiosus
    Jul 4, 2023
    7
    As I sat there watching the credits roll, I basically came to the realization that this would be a good game if it had any name other than Final Fantasy. As a Final Fantasy game, however, it doesn't live up to the legacy of the franchise.

    Solo protagonist, action hack-and-slash, very few actual RPG elements, a lackluster world system, shallow characters with very little development,    As I sat there watching the credits roll, I basically came to the realization that this would be a good game if it had any name other than Final Fantasy. As a Final Fantasy game, however, it doesn't live up to the legacy of the franchise.

    Solo protagonist, action hack-and-slash, very few actual RPG elements, a lackluster world system, shallow characters with very little development, middling story arcs, mediocre exploration and crap loot, an unresolved ending... These would be fine if it was trying to be its own thing. But it's trying to be a FINAL FANTASY game. Tack on the awful performance with obscene motion blur in quality mode and severe frame drops and stuttering in performance mode and it just isn't worthy of all the 8s, 9s, and 10s it's getting. I struggle to give it a 7. It's honestly closer to a 6.

    Slightly better than FF15, but that's not exactly a high bar to clear.
    Not at all interested in replaying this game.    … Expand
  13. Redman_07
    Jun 28, 2023
    7
    i simply can not go over a 7...i wish i could, but i can´t.
    And here is why:
    - 0 Fantasy, literally, 90% of the colors are black/gray, no other races, no tech, nothing. - 0 rpg elements. Literally 0. you have 2 equip slots, which you just buy the new one the next chapter, clap clap. and a sword, same. - 0 "elements", there are no resistances, no poinsing, no burn, no slow, nothing,    i simply can not go over a 7...i wish i could, but i can´t.
    And here is why:

    - 0 Fantasy, literally, 90% of the colors are black/gray, no other races, no tech, nothing.
    - 0 rpg elements. Literally 0. you have 2 equip slots, which you just buy the new one the next chapter, clap clap. and a sword, same.
    - 0 "elements", there are no resistances, no poinsing, no burn, no slow, nothing, just raw damage
    - 0 fun with sidequests, it´s the basic mmorpg thing
    - 0 party member, no, you do not have a party, just 1-2 characters that somewhat join you in battle and mostly do almost nothing. you can´t equip them, not improve them, nothing.

    why is it still a 7?
    Presentation is great.
    Gameplay is really good, just took a while to get new stuff.
    it is a final fantasy after all, what i mean is, the boss fights, the over the top action and epicness with a great soundtrack (but definetly not as good as the great ones).

    So, what can i say...it often is very slow, awkward, i watch anime and play jrpgs, but in ff16 there is a lot of cringe going on.
    In the end, great game, but 0 RPG, action-adventure, with technical issues, which makes it a 7 not an 8.
    have fun    … Expand
  14. Kaseladen
    Jun 29, 2023
    6
    As a very quick breakdown:
    Pros:
    Voice acting is solid Gameplay works great for bosses Eikon fights after the first two start getting super fun Cid and Byron are great characters Good music Cons: Inconsistent writing (We have no proof on crystals being an issue, but we're gonna nuke them all even though nothing's improving as we do so. Why does only one eikon summon egi's or offer    As a very quick breakdown:
    Pros:
    Voice acting is solid
    Gameplay works great for bosses
    Eikon fights after the first two start getting super fun
    Cid and Byron are great characters
    Good music
    Cons:
    Inconsistent writing (We have no proof on crystals being an issue, but we're gonna nuke them all even though nothing's improving as we do so. Why does only one eikon summon egi's or offer blessings. Where the **** is Leviathan)
    Pacing is garbage, you'll get cool scenes and plot rolling then you're suddenly set to go do MMO fetch quests for the next 2-3 hours
    Non-bosses are literally nothing
    Clive somehow manages to be super passive despite spending the first part of the game on a revenge quest. Even later he's just kind of swept along
    Side quests suck, I've found 4(?) well written ones. The rest are throw away and rewards suck. Post timeskip you start getting 'renown' for them which is a promise that maybe someday you'll get a good reward if you do enough
    Crafting sucks, all items are super boring and thats all you find with explorign
    As mentioned above, exploration, even for more linear structured areas, is non-existeint
    Characters that are interesting like Benedickta don't get enough screentime
    Characters that DO get screentime like Jill are nothing characters
    Eikon unlocks are very drip fed throughout the story (with only 4 options per Eikon)
    Lack of customizable controls    … Expand
  15. PrImevibrations
    Jul 2, 2023
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This game is actually really bad. I made a longer review, but it deleted it, so **** it. Game sucks, crafting is pointless, the story is drawn out more than the DBZ cell saga, items are useless and pointless, you walk 10 feet from cutscene to cutscene, about the most random useless **** Bad game, bad story, fun boss fights, great visuals.

    I forced myself to finish the game because I paid $70 for it. Don't make the same mistake as me.    … Expand
  16. Mgcarter91
    Jun 28, 2023
    5
    I’m not a fan of what the final fantasy combat system has become. It just feels to hack and slash. This one is also more a movie than a game. You’ll probably enjoy it if you like this style of combat and are more interested in a story, but otherwise I would avoid it.
  17. Ghostino
    Jul 3, 2023
    6
    Overall it's a decent game, the story is good but the pacing make it less enjoyable.
    The combat is great, you can definitely say Mr. Suzuki was behind it. Unfortunately the game is not challenging at all, so the great combat system ends up being a cool showcase of combos without any sort of strategy applied to it. The RPG system is just fake, and honestly I can understand why it's like    Overall it's a decent game, the story is good but the pacing make it less enjoyable.
    The combat is great, you can definitely say Mr. Suzuki was behind it. Unfortunately the game is not challenging at all, so the great combat system ends up being a cool showcase of combos without any sort of strategy applied to it. The RPG system is just fake, and honestly I can understand why it's like this, it would have been a pain to balance this combat with a proper RPG system, but the point is why is It in the game? It does not add anything to the gameplay.
    What I don't forgive is the lack of elemental weaknesses, and the lack of a proper magic system, including status effects and spells. These would have made the game a little bit more challenging and smart.
    I also find that the world setting is bland and some areas are too generic, on top of that all of them don't feel to be alive.

    Their main objective was to have a game functional to tell a story as easy as possible.
    Ultimately, with this formula I would have preferred a shorter game, since the low complexity of the gameplay is nowhere engaging for 50+ hours.    … Expand
  18. ronchalant
    Jun 28, 2023
    5
    It's an absolutely beautiful game, and the story itself is fairly good. That said, I really want to enjoy this more, but there are too many nagging problems. Mainly: it's a lot of cutscenes and locked dialogue with periodic action and gameplay. If you just want a story then I think you'll enjoy it, but I prefer games that tell a story - not stories that occasionally let you run the mainIt's an absolutely beautiful game, and the story itself is fairly good. That said, I really want to enjoy this more, but there are too many nagging problems. Mainly: it's a lot of cutscenes and locked dialogue with periodic action and gameplay. If you just want a story then I think you'll enjoy it, but I prefer games that tell a story - not stories that occasionally let you run the main character from place to place. Skill Up claimed the game was 75% cutscenes, and while I think that's a slight exaggeration, it's not that far off. And much of the "action" is moving from one place to another, battling minor groups of enemies who pose no threat.

    The enemies are redundant and far too easy. You can make it more interesting by mixing up your style and rotating different kinds of attacks, but aside from bosses and "cinematic mode button selection" I honestly think I could beat the game just using the basic attack over and over.

    Others may find these non-issues, and if you enjoy the game by all means have at it. I rather wish I could get my money back.    … Expand
  19. Squallleon
    Jun 29, 2023
    6
    I really wanted to like this game, I really did. This game falls short on so many levels and it’s a shame because there’s something there between the world building the characters the story presentation there’s definitely good points and potential. But they just chose to take it down a road where it doesn’t resonate as the final fantasy that I’ve been waiting for, not a perfect game but aI really wanted to like this game, I really did. This game falls short on so many levels and it’s a shame because there’s something there between the world building the characters the story presentation there’s definitely good points and potential. But they just chose to take it down a road where it doesn’t resonate as the final fantasy that I’ve been waiting for, not a perfect game but a game that I could say okay this was 90 percent really good just a few flaws. Everything that’s wrong, No controllable characters the fact that you have party members that you can’t control at all just seems unnecessary the game is not even difficult so why even have uncontrollable characters in your party and torgle is a cheap excuse for a party memeber. The progression and customization is non existent. There is no depth. You literally just show up to the shop after every big battle and buy a new sword that’s a bit stronger than the other. No satisfaction from that. The explorable area seems useless nothing good to find and I found myself picking up 2 Gil way too often like it feels items where just placed there to just say they had items no thought out into it. When you defeat a boss the screen stops and you get taken out of the moment to sip through your exp and items and it just feels awkward especially for an action game. The cinematic scenes in the boss battles are pointless. The side quests feels like you’re playing an mmo. Overall this should have been a side entry into the series I would have been okay with that but this is not a mainline final fantasy game. Square shouldn’t have done stranger of paradise which was a pointless game and this could have taken it’s place and maybe we could have gotten a ff16 that we deserve.… Expand
  20. GuitarGog
    Jul 27, 2023
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Pros: Amazing plot, characters, music, boss fights.

    Cons: Dead large areas
    very shallow combat system
    very weak item diversity.
    very weak equipment depth.
    Buffing is pointless.
    the game’s skybox changes to grey and keeps it that way even after you finish the game making it hard to see and very annoying.
    Lacks a RPG game elements.
    Too much uninteresting dialogue in the sidequests.
    Chocobo music is absent.
    **** crafting system.
    No manual sprinting.    … Expand
  21. Aceball
    Aug 28, 2023
    5
    How the mighty have fallen, I used to be crazy about final fantasy games but this is the worst of the lot, story is very game of thrones, combat is button mashing and there are far too many cutscenes, it's an empty shell of what a final fantasy game should be.

    When you start it just doesn't feel like a final fantasy game, after a while the boss fights really ramp up and the combat is alot    How the mighty have fallen, I used to be crazy about final fantasy games but this is the worst of the lot, story is very game of thrones, combat is button mashing and there are far too many cutscenes, it's an empty shell of what a final fantasy game should be.

    When you start it just doesn't feel like a final fantasy game, after a while the boss fights really ramp up and the combat is alot more engaging although it just doesn't feel like final fantasy.

    From ff 1 until ff10 ff games had a staple ingredient, an engaging party, deep story, everyone in your party had their own character and a deep story, you synergised with your party. The only thing they did right was the deep story even if it was a bit of a game of thrones rip off It's ok saying every ff game needs to be different but you still need the same basic ingredients to make it an ff game, If this is the way ff games are going I will save my money when 17 comes out.

    Whatever happened to square? I mean the game is largely successful but the difference is ff16 will be forgotten about in 2 or 3 years, ff 7 8 9 and 10 are still talked about more than 20 years later.

    Take a good look at baldurs gate 3, ok yes of course it's an entirely different type of game but what i mean is its very very different from bg 1 and 2 but has kept the basic ingredients that made the originals great, that's why it's 96%, this is currently 87%.

    87% is a good score but that's the difference between good and great.

    It's not 1998 now, we wait 7 years to get a new ff game, 1 doesn't come ever year, we wait 7 years and they release this devil may cry with ff summons and flashy graphics.    … Expand
  22. Thwomp
    Jul 1, 2023
    7
    For the life of me I cannot understand all the 8's 9's and 10's here. Holy smokes this game is no where near a freaking 10 or masterpiece, and it's definitely not a 0 either. There must be a plethora of trolls who give the fake negative AND positive score reviews. Because this is one of the not so great Final Fantasy games in the series. And here's exactly why.

    Huge, linear, empty    For the life of me I cannot understand all the 8's 9's and 10's here. Holy smokes this game is no where near a freaking 10 or masterpiece, and it's definitely not a 0 either. There must be a plethora of trolls who give the fake negative AND positive score reviews. Because this is one of the not so great Final Fantasy games in the series. And here's exactly why.

    Huge, linear, empty and boring world. NPC's outside of main characters have nothing to add with their dumb dialogue and most NPC's just stand in one spot the entire time doing nothing. Also, most of the towns are boring and lifeless as well. Dialogue and script is good at times, bad at others.

    Side quests are easy, but god awful boring. The only reason to do these is to get crafting materials and some extra ability points for eikon powers, which are not needed at all to beat the game. These will come to you by just doing the main story. Witcher 3 just smashes FF 16 in side quest quality. Sad.

    Muddy visuals outside of the climatic Eikon fights and boss and enemy battles. Visuals are great with spell effects, monsters, etc., and then you get back to the actual world gameplay and Clyde looks like PS4 or worse. Heck there are older gen games like Uncharted and Gears of War and God of War and Witcher 3 that STILL look way better than this. I cannot believe the blur I saw on character models and the low textures all around, especially in the distant environments, which are pretty awful in the background. Flat, blurry, zero texture mountains are abound here.

    Extremely dumbed down combat that this is basically just a straight action RPG with the player spamming square half the time, if not more. Eikon abilities are cool, but you'll usually run with the exact same setup the entirety of the game. ZERO depth outside button mashing eikon abilities to win.

    Speaking of depth, the item system and crafting and gathering system is a complete joke. There are very few items even compared to the huge amount of wonderful items in previous FF games. This is a complete joke, as is the crafting system. It's incredibly easy to craft and you are only ever going to need to craft the next best weapon or armor that the blacksmith has available, which is incredibly elementary in nature. Want multiple options for gear? Good luck! This is incredibly simplified and dumb.

    Now for the wonderful part; the horrible performance at low resolution on NEXT GEN PS5 hardware. Holy man is this bad. Ratchet and Clank looks 10x better as do many other PS5 and Series X games. It is 2023 and even The Witcher 3 next gen update absolutely SMASHES FF 16 in terms of resolution and performance. And the original game is almost 10 years old now!! There is no excuse why Square Enix couldn't make a more stable game with better visuals and resolution. Hell, there aren't even any graphics settings in this game and it's a next gen game, LOL. Just about every single new game has several graphics options on console such as HDR, Ray Tracing, Anti-Aliasing, on and on. FF 16? You can forget it! You're limited to graphics and performance mode and the graphics mode is virtually unplayable because the framerate isn't even locked at 30. It dips into the 20's for god sakes. And the performance mode reaches a maximum of 60 fps with several dips into the 40's. UNACCEPTABLE IN 2023, Square Enix!!! You can do better than this. So many other games run look so much better than this garbage. I literally felt like I was playing a PS4 or Xbox One game like MGS Phantom Pain. That game was 1080p max but at least it ran great, and it it was massive.

    Now the little good that there is in this game that prevents it from being a complete disaster.

    While the combat is extremely dumbed down, the fights look incredible thanks to the amazing particle effects and animations of the eikon abilities, boss battles, and cinematic gameplay of the Eikon battles. If those fights didn't look and feel so good then this game would have been a 2 or 3 at best.

    Music is also great and even probably improves on FF XV's awesome soundtrack which has two of the greatest orchestral/choir boss tracks in a game, ever. Hats off to the composer of FF 16, because like Blizzard and World of Warcraft, Square Enix's design team sure doesn't know what the hell they're doing anymore.

    Story. I actually enjoy it quite a bit. I love the dark adult theme to it. Not much to complain about here from me. Betrayal, love, death, revenge; it's all there. It's just too bad Some characters are much better than others (Kupka and Cid for instance carry a lot of the weight for most of the game). Mother starts off strong and then just stays silent for most of the game, with her child bent over her lap. Pointless, but overall I thought the story was a much needed positive point

    Bottom line is FF 16 is an average action RPG with great moments.    … Expand
  23. Solidsnake69
    Jun 28, 2023
    6
    I think this game is a bit overrated. The good: cool combat, story.

    The bad: exploration is pointless, the combat is ludicrously easy, side quests are horrible and meaningless.
  24. NeverCasual
    Jul 3, 2023
    7
    The game is great if you enjoy story driven games. Based on the story I would rate it 9/10 (side characters could have used slightly more depth and there are some pacing issues). Setting is much darker than previous FF-Games, which has been a welcome change for me.

    Unfortunately, as much as I liked the story, it often feels like grinding through video sequences to get to the actual    The game is great if you enjoy story driven games. Based on the story I would rate it 9/10 (side characters could have used slightly more depth and there are some pacing issues). Setting is much darker than previous FF-Games, which has been a welcome change for me.

    Unfortunately, as much as I liked the story, it often feels like grinding through video sequences to get to the actual gameplay. The story and side quests/bounties take about 60h if you are not skipping dialog/sequences. 30-35h are dialogue/sequences and about 10h running through empty corridors to the next pack of enemies. Killing these with massive AoE-Damage-Skills from Eikons is fun tho'.

    The actual gameplay is decent. Combat system is really engaging if you are not using the "cheat rings" - they should never have existed! If you are playing without the rings dodging skills can sometimes feel somewhat overwhelming because many enemies have multiple visual effects active simultaneously making it super hard to time your dodge. Still I would recommend to unequip them at the start, as they make the game way too easy (almost effortless).
    Enemy variety is quite low and you will be fighting the same enemies just in differing colours all the time . Since even on "Final Fantasy"-Difficulty most of them pretty much just exist so that the player can execute extremely satisfying AoE-Damage-Combos, skipping all enemy mechanics, they could have added a little more variety there.
    Boss fights are engaging as long as you play Clive. Being massively rewarded for landing an Eikon-Ability that has a carging time or positioning-condition feels great. Sometimes it can be frustrating to dodge tho when ground and charge attacks overlap (assuming you play without "time... rings".
    Once you play as your Eikon it gets monotonous quickly as the difficulty drops massively, the abilities at your disposal are reduced to 4 (6) and the Boss-Eikon HP feels massively inflated.

    Early side quests are horrible. Yet, since their structure is mainly "Go-Kill 5-Return-Reward" (max. 1-2 min time investment) and they do not even count toward 100% completion, I do not really understand the fuss there. It does get better tho and eventually you'll end up in side quests that almost have too much dialogue.

    I would rate the game higher based on the combat (9/10) and main story (9/10), but it forces you into so much downtime that I have spent more time without my controller in my hand than I have spent actually using it... and when I was using it, it was often to get to the next npc to put it away again.    … Expand
  25. LeafAdam
    Jul 2, 2023
    5
    A flashy fighting system where you can't see anything from the amount of effects and b
    and damage numbers.
    Everything else is the bare minimum --> in the game there is no reason to do side(fetch)quests or "explore", collect items or anything. Beautiful though, but that doesn't redeem it. It was hard to finish, halfway through I realised I'm bored... I'm playing A Final Fantasy and I'm    A flashy fighting system where you can't see anything from the amount of effects and b
    and damage numbers.
    Everything else is the bare minimum --> in the game there is no reason to do side(fetch)quests or "explore", collect items or anything. Beautiful though, but that doesn't redeem it. It was hard to finish, halfway through I realised I'm bored... I'm playing A Final Fantasy and I'm bored and waiting for it to end.    … Expand
  26. UltimaMoogle
    Jul 16, 2023
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Final Fantasy XVI is a beautiful game..... until you get into the 2nd half.

    The Final Fantasy series possesses a groundbreaking collection of very balanced, rich fantasy worlds and characters with satisfying turn based combat and rpg elements. Final Fantasy XVI forgoes most of those aspects, in favor of more modern action based combat (albeit surprisingly shallow, and uninspired), bombastic actions sequences and cutscenes of immeasurable spectacle, and amazing (attempts) at storytelling and A class voice acting.

    The setup for FFXVI genuinely captured me and I was truly hoping it would deliver an experience to rival previous games, as it was a huge divergence in the Final Fantasy main title series. Where it is true, that XV, and 7re both possessed action combat gameplay, both still were grounded in some sort of resource/rpg systems. 7re with the more traditional ATB meter. Nonetheless, we are thrown into a very dramatic opening where our protagonist survives more or less a coupe, to a genocidal degree and loses both his home and nation, and thrown away as a slave to a military state. Wars are waged with titanic magical entities called "Eikons" (summons/espers in previous games), who happen to just be humans; "Dominants", granted this phenomenal power, and play the leading roles in the machinations of the political whims of their corresponding Kingdoms. All running parallel to a class struggle of "Bearers" who can attune to the trace amounts aether of the land, who are slaves to the kingdom , in the background.

    Boy what a setup. Eikons, Cid and spending an hour testing legitimate combos with Clive, where I only had access to Phoenix, and Garuda. This game showed promise. Well this is where the game made the most sense, and honestly the high point of the game, in terms of substance.

    The game all goes downhill around the time we meet Ultima, for many reasons all culminating at this critical point, and not just because we get less screen time with Cid's amazing voice actor and banter.

    The combat is actually really bad. There are dmc combos in this game that you perform with your basic attacks, that are amazing to optimize and explore....but it all is meaningless. Once you get access to 6 Eikonic abilities, you realize gameplay revolves around using all of the abilities virtually on cooldown, maybe you have 2-3 stagger breaking ones (Wicked wheel for example), then once they are staggered, you unleash a gigaflare or judgment bolt, and rinse and repeat. Your Eikonic abilities just utterly outscale the damage and even the area of effect of your normal attacks and combos, that it feels horrible to even use your normal attacks quite honestly. Coupled with the fact, that the game has zero rpg elements like enemy "weaknesses" It completely turns the game into brainlessly waiting for your abilities to come off cooldown. Limit break is also shallow as well, nothing really much to mention. Typically your limit breaks would encapsulate your "ultimate" damage abilities, so without that its more or less just a basic boring "install" mode that buffs your damage and defensive ability.

    Well the combat sucks, but the story? Surely the setup for the story is amazing. Its Game of Thrones right? Wrong. After you meet Ultima.... it turns out all of these kingdoms warring against each other, all of the turmoil and conflict between characters, even Clive losing his nation and family....is because of Ultima...so he can become a God.... Just complete and utter anime nonsense of a story, that we have to pretend like its a beautifully well put together narrative. None of the story was driven by political dealings of military expansion or running away from the blight. The background class struggle of the bearers as slaves was pointless. The Dominants were meaningless. Just everything about this game, was sorely wasted potential.    … Expand
  27. FeoGamer
    Jul 7, 2023
    7
    Lo bueno
    Una historia más adulta con intrigas palaciegas
    Sistema de combate hack and Slash
    BSO espectacular
    Doblado a español latino
    Diseño artístico de los eikons

    Lo malo
    Desenfoque de movimiento mareante
    Caídas de frames
    Misiones secundarias de recadero
  28. Vantasia
    Jul 2, 2023
    6
    Final Fantasy is no longer Final Fantasy. However, it is still enjoyable for what it is, a mediocre action game. This is coming from a man who played who the FFs in the mainline. They really need to up the story telling to make the characters fall more alive, I felt no attachment to anyone in the game (maybe a small one to Cid), but the story telling was trash compared to what FF fansFinal Fantasy is no longer Final Fantasy. However, it is still enjoyable for what it is, a mediocre action game. This is coming from a man who played who the FFs in the mainline. They really need to up the story telling to make the characters fall more alive, I felt no attachment to anyone in the game (maybe a small one to Cid), but the story telling was trash compared to what FF fans expect. I can see why this game is receiving raving reviews. To non die-hard FF fans, this game is an epic action game with a cool story. Unfortunately, the FFs of old set a bar with storytelling that cannot be explained, only experienced at the time, to really understand how high story telling can go in video games.… Expand
  29. j_obediah
    Jul 1, 2023
    7
    This game is being pushed into the green by a lot of hype.
    Graphics: 10/10. Perfect
    Story: 7/10: The hero is the overly compliant cliché who does whatever is asked of him. Including horribly boring side quests. A LOT of exposition and forced dialogue that does not feel natural at all. Horrible pacing with hard, frequent, transitions that make you feel as though you're going through a    This game is being pushed into the green by a lot of hype.
    Graphics: 10/10. Perfect
    Story: 7/10: The hero is the overly compliant cliché who does whatever is asked of him. Including horribly boring side quests. A LOT of exposition and forced dialogue that does not feel natural at all. Horrible pacing with hard, frequent, transitions that make you feel as though you're going through a documentary and not a flowing narrative.
    Gameplay: 7/10: Not very interesting. It has a lot to it, but there's no real feeling of reward to it. I had more fun when I equipped the auto-attack ring. but then I just wished it let me hold the attack button down instead of constantly mashing it.
    Music: 4/10: I had to turn it down because the music did not fit the scenes. Boss battles that are supposed to be intense are accompanied by flowing, thoughtful music. I felt no suspense in those times.

    The game just did not deliver. If you're going to change this much about the series, then you gotta knock it out of the park, and it just didn't do that.    … Expand
  30. Vvm92
    Jul 2, 2023
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This is the weakest Final Fantasy I've ever played. I'll break down my gripes with the game in sections:

    Graphics: Frame rate dips and motion blur are terrible. And the skybox in some areas looks like something straight out of PS2 era games. See, for instance, Shiva vs. Titan segment.

    Story: The beginning of the game is amazing, but later on, the story becomes horribly paced, with periods of lull that do not feel good. Mithril engine quest, I'm looking at you as one of many examples. Clive is a leader of a rebellion and possesses the most powerful eikon. Sure, let's have him run chores and do menial tasks. That's what leaders do, right? Oh, and let's use FF14's like cutscenes for those segments, with long fade to black moments and characters reaching out behind their backs to pull out bowls of soup, lumber, weapons, etc and etc. Oh, and a lot of back and forth between points A and points B in the base, filling Otto on every sneeze our character makes, and repeating same points again and again. It kills all momentum and turns the game into an outright slog.

    Game has two timeskips, one that lasts 13 years, and another lasts 5. We do not see Clive grow up at all during those 13 years of enslavement, his struggles, his adaptations, his pain. It's all just black screened away. Similar for the other 5 years.

    Ultima's involvement in the plot brings an unnecessary degree of convolution. Instead, why not spend more time fleshing out the Dominants and Anabelle (who ends up as naught but a moustache twirling shallow villain)? Benedikta had so much potential, as did Cid, but both got killed very early in the game.

    Some plot points are quite terrible as well. If Cid cared so much about Benedikta, why did he not give her a proper burial and just left her laying in the field? Why does no monarch in Valisthea concern themselves with a very prominent rebel group that is destroying the crystals across the world, and their actions remain unhindered for years? Why does a scar in the exact shape of a Bearer tattoo not raise any suspicion from observers whatsoever? I could go on and on.

    The world: The world of Valisthea as described in the lore is rich and magnificent. Valisthea we get to see is naught more than a linear corridor, that does not reward exploration, and is not fun to navigate. You get to ride a chocobo after a very touching sidequest. But the game will dismount you automatically in settlements and you can hardly traverse the world vertically. On that note, Clive's jump animation is atrocious. He performs incredible feats of agility in the cutscenes. Why not give him a double jump, or a flip of some kind at least? Also, where are the iconic Final Fantasy monsters such as cactuars and tonberries?

    Characters: Clive feels flat as a protagonist, especially without characters like Cid to balance Clive's stoicism. After confronting Ifrit, Clive also becomes a regular goody two-shoes character, without much depth. Jill is poorly voiced and her development arc is rather flat. Two saving graces are Cid (best FF Cid, imo) and Byron, but there's too little of their overall involvement in the game.

    Gameplay: Eikon abilities look and feel great, respeccing for free is also a welcome feature. But the gameplay is otherwise shallow. Enemies are low in variety, do not allow for much strategy, and often become nothing but damage sponges. Gear system is bad, with nothing but flat stat increases that do not alter the gameplay in want way. Weapons look uninspired and are replaced at very confusing intervals. Some of Clive's animations do not change with eikon change, like blade infusion. Also, the basic spell still remains just a recoloured fireball. Some variety there would have helped.

    Most Eikon battles are great, but some fall flat, such as the Barnabas fight. We hardly see Odin himself, while the eikon was previously shown to split the ocean in half. Why couldn't we get a similar spectacle in the actual fight? Mmo-style sidequests are also terrible. Some of them do build up the world, but the majority simply draw out the game time for no good reason. And what rewards do you get for doing them? In majority of cases, those will be crafting materials, employed in a shallow crafting system.

    Sound: Sound design is good. There are some memorable tracks, and high-octane themes such as Titan Lost (which I wish there was more of). Voice acting is good, with Clive, Cid and Byron giving outstanding performances. But with some characters, the voice acting did not hit the mark, as with Jill, for instance.

    I could go on and on, but listing the game's flaws would require much more space than Metacritic allows. Overall, the game is extremely mediocre. 6/10    … Expand
  31. CorruptShaolin
    Jul 18, 2023
    6
    Final Fantasy 16 has been a bit of a roller coaster ride with absolutely incredible ups and absolutely incredibly boring put you to sleep downs. I haven't completed the entire game yet but have played a lot of the game and feel I've played enough to know what this game is.

    PROS Combat - The thing that stands out the most in this game is the combat and the boss fights. I give the    Final Fantasy 16 has been a bit of a roller coaster ride with absolutely incredible ups and absolutely incredibly boring put you to sleep downs. I haven't completed the entire game yet but have played a lot of the game and feel I've played enough to know what this game is.

    PROS

    Combat - The thing that stands out the most in this game is the combat and the boss fights. I give the combat a solid 10/10. The combat resembles Devil May Cry style combat but it's much easier to pull off crazy combos in this game than it is in DMC which I think is great. The boss fights are absolutely epic and very fun!

    Visuals/Art style - The visuals are incredible and are actually pretty breathtaking, which has been the norm for FF games for the longest time but this game just adds new elements visually that I don't think have ever been in FF games.

    Music - GODLIKE!! Nothing left to be said.

    CONS

    Performance Issues - This game hurts my eyes just playing it and walking around. There seems to always be this constant jittery vibration on the screen that just ruins the experience of just walking around in non-combat gameplay. Sometimes in games that look amazing and have cool sceneries to look at, I enjoy just walking around and looking at how far video games have come. I did it with RDR2, Ghost of Tsushima, Demon Souls and others but in this game the constant nonstop performance issues are so distracting and takes away from the immersive experience in a huge way. The performance is great in combat but most of this game is spent not fighting which I also think is a problem.

    Pacing - The game has incredibly bad pacing. There will be moments where I think HOLY GOD this is the greatest game of all time while I'm fighting some crazy boss battle and then immediately after I find myself about to fall asleep from having to do some fetch quest where I go and pick berries or listen to some common folk talk about something that adds absolutely no value to the engagement of the story or anything for that matter. The prizes for doing side quests are useless and there is no motivation or incentive to do them at all.

    Upgrade Systems/RPG elements - This game has new items you can buy or forge but it's all based on the game's progression. When you get to the next part of the story there usually is a new item for each weapon or accessory and nothing else. You can't even see what the item looks like. I absolutely despise this type of upgrade system, it gives no incentive to work towards something, it's a scaling effect and the stat system is absolutely terrible and meaningless. As you get stronger, NPCs also get stronger and there doesn't seem to be any point where you feel like you're progressing in terms of how strong your character is.

    Dialogue/Cutscenes - This game is plagued with HEAVY amounts of cutscenes and constant snooze inducing dialogue that for one, is incredibly uninteresting and two, super awkward in the way body movements and the angles in which people interact with each other play out. It's like they're AI robots trying to be humans but are malfunctioning at times and the interactions just seem so unnatural in those moments and there are ALOT OF THESE MOMENTS and it makes me want to shut off the console and put the game away in storage and is a big part of why I haven't finished the game yet.

    No run mechanic - This game doesn't allow you to run on command, it only allows you to run in very specific moments. I am absolutely confident that the game doesn't allow to run because of how bad performance issues are. It makes no sense why they won't allow you to run. Adding the run mechanic would've made combat even better and the long distance traveling you have to do in this game would be more bearable.

    I am disappointed with this game and I really was looking forward to it more than any other game this year. Hopefully FF7 makes up for that.    … Expand
  32. frostblooded
    Aug 26, 2023
    6
    A mix between a 9/10 game and 3/10 game. Wish it was shorter and the filler missions were cut out.
  33. UhtredTheGreat
    Aug 28, 2023
    7
    game bugged and glitched so bad during the first 40 min. The story was rushed it seemed as well.
  34. Symour2
    Aug 28, 2023
    6
    Jeu difficile à noter tant le rythme n'est pas bon. Mon expérience se résume à des moments d'adrénaline ultra fun, à des moments d'ennuis profonds.
    Ce n'est pas un mauvais jeu, mais il n'est clairement pas creusé. Le scénario est plutôt chouette mais mal rythmé, et nous n'avons qu'un seul personnage, dont l'évolution est plutôt très limitée pour un RPG. Plusieurs équipiers peuvent    Jeu difficile à noter tant le rythme n'est pas bon. Mon expérience se résume à des moments d'adrénaline ultra fun, à des moments d'ennuis profonds.
    Ce n'est pas un mauvais jeu, mais il n'est clairement pas creusé. Le scénario est plutôt chouette mais mal rythmé, et nous n'avons qu'un seul personnage, dont l'évolution est plutôt très limitée pour un RPG. Plusieurs équipiers peuvent rejoindre la team mais à aucun moment on peut les contrôler ni même gérer leurs équipements compétences. Ce qui enlève clairement de mon point de vue un pilier d'un FF.    … Expand
  35. RowanBlack
    Jul 7, 2023
    7
    Close to being great but just doesn't get there. Is this a good game? yes. However, a few tech and play issues keep it from being a top shelf game.

    The Great Cinematics are plentiful and well made. Characters are complex and help support an okay story. The okay Story is fine but takes too much inspiration from other source material (game of thrones) and is dark but pulls it's    Close to being great but just doesn't get there. Is this a good game? yes. However, a few tech and play issues keep it from being a top shelf game.

    The Great
    Cinematics are plentiful and well made. Characters are complex and help support an okay story.

    The okay
    Story is fine but takes too much inspiration from other source material (game of thrones) and is dark but pulls it's punches. They wanted to make a gritty game but apparently were also worried about offending anyone so scrubbed it out anything mature. This makes the story feel like it has no appropriate audience...like an R rated movie that's been cancered for general audiences.

    Combat gets to feeling repetitive after a while. I've played many action games with better move sets, and it feels like they are trying to cover up a mediocre system with an abundance of particle effects. I think they should have stuck with being a turn-based game, where they could be the king of turn based games, they settle for middle of the road for action.

    Graphics have a constant blur and muddy feel. This game would look amazing on a $4000 pc but the ps5 just doesn't have what it needs to run this above 30fps.

    The bad
    Crafting is minimalistic. It's so weak you can completely ignore it.
    Side content is mostly skippable and unnecessary. Missing the often-massive amount of side content a final fantasy game usually has.    … Expand
  36. Ahglock
    Jul 1, 2023
    5
    It looks good, but that is where the positives end IMO. The game play is shallow and far too easy, the story is dark but not particularly good or deep, the characters are not compelling, and the cut scenes are far too frequent. If you want flash with no substance this is the game for you.
  37. Soulsweeper
    Jul 18, 2023
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I want to love this game so much but there are some issues we need to talk about. I have played all the main entries of FF games and I enjoyed every single one since FF7, however despite having moderate expectations, FF16 falls a bit flat in important bit while it shines in big moments.
    This review is only about the first run (i don't have the motivation for the New Game Plus)

    Starting with Pros:
    - Almost every single cinematic moment is an absolute master class in direction.
    - The music is another huge highlight (except the music during Titan fight, that felt off for me). For me music is really important when being used in a story background and they don't miss here.
    - The combat feels really good, specially in a long run when you unlock more eikon powers that help stun, special dodges, etc, during fights.
    - You can use different abilities from Eikons to see the best combos you can use.
    - Eikon fights are visually amazing.
    - Character design feels more contained, compared with many FF titles but each character is well designed and easy to identify.
    - The story feels more mature than usual, I am glad they made a more adult story.
    - Game design is phenomenal, the visuals are another big highlight, I can't count how many times I stopped the game to take a screenshot.
    - Cid is probably the best Cid iteration we have ever had even if the character didn't reached the end of the game.
    - Monster design feels grounded but I think it's good.
    - High rank monsters feel like good challenges.
    - Best characters: Benedicta, Anabelle, Cid, Kupka, Gav.

    Now the Cons (this is going to hurt):
    - Gameplay, I kid you not, you can literally fight enemies with one hand and win, just use attack and dodge.
    - First part of the game is good since it teaches you about the world, world rules, characters, and life changing moments at the end of First Act.
    - Second part of the game is almost unnecessary, you continue your journey through the world with the story more focused on saving bearers. Some side quests are good but in general it just felt the same over and over with no impact in a long run.
    - Third part of the game felt much better as a closing act, however there is no closure for a game of such magnitude. All the work done around, secondary characters is worth nothing, Bearers have zero impact and in the end there is zero explanation of what happened to the world. You have a small epilogue and that's it. WTF?
    CHARACTERS! Holy s*** this is my biggest issue. You have characters like Cid, Dion, Joshua, even Byron, Wade and Gav. You can't use a single one of them. They could have made the same system like Torgal but no, sure you have Torgal but it's so basic and his abilities are the same from beginning to end.
    -Jill survives the whole game and could have easily been used as a secondary playable character. So much potential lost in terms of gameplay and story, she literally feels like a female token npc. Even Benedicta or Anabelle are more complex and interesting.
    -Barnabas, I literally skipped his dialogue whenever he appeared, I couldn't handle the way they made the character speak like he's reading Shakespeare the whole time. This character felt important at first but in the end it was just a big empty fart when it came to character building.
    - Dion could have been managed in a better way (big potential as a playable character).
    - Do not play in Performance mode because the frame drops are quite distracting, locked 30 fps makes it more bearable and still I had drops below 20 even in dialogue moments. It shows that the optimization isn't very good.
    - There are ZERO mini games or any kind of puzzle mechanic. Not even Chocobo racing, nothing.
    All side quests are all FETCH Quests, at some point it bored me to death. The only side quests that have real impact are the upgrade ones (potions, recipes for weapons).
    - There almost no magic to use, the world exists around magic but Clive can only use little balls of fire, or wind, etc, from little to no impact in gameplay.
    - Rpg elements are almost non-existent, don't expect to see special stats on weapons or accessories, it's just the basic stats and that's it.
    - The customization in Clive is just the sword, nothing else is visible in your character. You have one playable character and you can't even change the look of armor, bracelet, not even the story items given by npc's are visible.
    - I used my first Potion at the big Bahamut fight, I'm not joking. The game is very easy and the potion system is almost useless.
    - Second Hideway, There are too many Npc's that only give you information that is literally useless. Sure you can learn about characters and the state on the world but there is zero substance. The area it self is so big and forces you to walk so much to reach characters.
    - Maps are big despite being semi-open but they just feel so empty, some map areas like the region next to Dragon Talon just feel bland and rushed.    … Expand
  38. NxtDoc
    Jul 1, 2023
    7
    Final Fantasy XVI is a solid game. Pro's: The soundtrack is very good. The characters are enjoyable, Clive, Cid, Gav, Joshua, and Jill are all very likeable. The voice acting is solid. Con's: Let's get the combat out of the way. Sure it's "fun", however it is a complete clone of Devil May Cry. Swings are nearly the same, the "Devil Trigger" is the same. It's all far too familiar,Final Fantasy XVI is a solid game. Pro's: The soundtrack is very good. The characters are enjoyable, Clive, Cid, Gav, Joshua, and Jill are all very likeable. The voice acting is solid. Con's: Let's get the combat out of the way. Sure it's "fun", however it is a complete clone of Devil May Cry. Swings are nearly the same, the "Devil Trigger" is the same. It's all far too familiar, and lacks originality. Sure the Eikon battles can be epic. However, even those at times can lack inspiration.

    The visuals are not that impressive. For being a PS5 exclusive I was expecting more. I feel like it could have been on last Gen as well. Character models look uninspired, move minimally and go into poses during conversation. But I guess that could be nostalgic.

    The open areas are far too empty, items in the world are waiting for you to pick up with a large white glow. It feels uninspired. Overall I feel like Final Fantasy wanted to be something else, rather than what made it an iconic franchise. I understand others are rating it highly. I don't completely agree. This doesn't make it a bad game by any means, it just isn't anywhere near an A grade.    … Expand
  39. Bashamuto
    Jul 26, 2023
    5
    FF16 had such a strong demo I was completely sold on the game. The story starts off strong and the combat seems to hold a lot of promise.

    Unfortunately, the pacing of the game is extremely inconsistent. The story will go through lows that I would consider completely unplayable for extended periods and I feel it gets weaker as it continues. The combat is fun and engaging until you unlock    FF16 had such a strong demo I was completely sold on the game. The story starts off strong and the combat seems to hold a lot of promise.

    Unfortunately, the pacing of the game is extremely inconsistent. The story will go through lows that I would consider completely unplayable for extended periods and I feel it gets weaker as it continues. The combat is fun and engaging until you unlock most of the abilities and realize it doesn't change much and you're very much spamming square.

    The boss fights can be a sight to behold. Similar to the story I think the bosses lose steam in the second half.

    The best way I can describe this game is that it felt like separate teams made different parts of the game but didn't have anyone making sure there was consistency. If you're the kind of person that needs snappy pacing - this isn't for you. If you can ignore stretches of mediocrity for some great moments - by all means give it a shot.

    By the end of the game I was rushing to get it finished. I was complaining to my wife that I couldn't believe I spent 50 hours on this game and that it should have been between 20-30. When I checked my settings I was shocked to see I only spent 31 hours with this game. I've never had a game feel like it dragged on so much - even games double the size.    … Expand
  40. BertKA88
    Aug 27, 2023
    6
    A fun game held back by boring, uninspired exploration and level design, as well as terrible, repetitive fetch quests. The fetch quests in the main story nearly broke me. A lot of potential, though, and some great combat and fight sequences.
  41. Vuxendagis
    Aug 27, 2023
    6
    Absolutely stunning graphics. Awesome Eikon battles. And really good story!!

    But Final fantasy is so much more. We we all lovet FF like 6,7,8,9 was not because of graphics. Noy cause of Eikonbattles. I miss the side quests. I miss all the mystery. Theese new FF games are way too easy. A Child could play it. There is alays a questionmark, vivid colors or in this case a dog showing you the    Absolutely stunning graphics. Awesome Eikon battles. And really good story!!

    But Final fantasy is so much more. We we all lovet FF like 6,7,8,9 was not because of graphics. Noy cause of Eikonbattles. I miss the side quests. I miss all the mystery. Theese new FF games are way too easy. A Child could play it. There is alays a questionmark, vivid colors or in this case a dog showing you the way. Every weapon, every armour everything is in front of your eyes in the min quest. There are no chocobos, no open world map, no card games, no fishing. Nothing at all that fills you day besides hunting main quest or obviously easy side quests.

    Better luck next time!    … Expand
  42. Matorif
    Jul 2, 2023
    7
    ce jeu ne mérite clairement pas un 10.c est un jeu au-dessus de la moyenne Les graphismes sont bien et la musique est très belles.le scénario est correct. Par contre le combat est sympas les 5 premières heures puis c est toujours pareil rien de transcendant. Le rythme du jeu est catastrophique et il faut éviter les longues cessions de jeu sinon le jeu devient ennuyant.
    Les quetes annexes    ce jeu ne mérite clairement pas un 10.c est un jeu au-dessus de la moyenne Les graphismes sont bien et la musique est très belles.le scénario est correct. Par contre le combat est sympas les 5 premières heures puis c est toujours pareil rien de transcendant. Le rythme du jeu est catastrophique et il faut éviter les longues cessions de jeu sinon le jeu devient ennuyant.
    Les quetes annexes sont nullissime mais il faut les faire pour débloquer des améliorations. Ce jeu à trop de défaut pour être le jeu de l année je comprends pas tous ces 10.
    Encore les journalistes on peut comprendre ils ont peur de plus recevoir les jeux en avance des éditeurs.    … Expand
  43. gggeist
    Jul 1, 2023
    5
    Reading all the reviews talking about this being a mature FF game is wild. The story definitely falls short in a lot of aspects. This game is an identity crisis for FF. Still kind of fun though I guess.
  44. Acsid
    Jul 3, 2023
    5
    I was so hyped up for this game, the only reason I bought a PS5...
    With just about 95 hours into the game after exploring, grinding, I'm level 50, completed all the side quests and memory board.
    First instinct was to watch every cut scene to get the whole story, But D*mn... There's just SOOOO many. What happened to old style Final Fantasy,? The kind that started the whole thing... Parties,    I was so hyped up for this game, the only reason I bought a PS5...
    With just about 95 hours into the game after exploring, grinding, I'm level 50, completed all the side quests and memory board.
    First instinct was to watch every cut scene to get the whole story, But D*mn... There's just SOOOO many.
    What happened to old style Final Fantasy,?
    The kind that started the whole thing...
    Parties, exploration, dungeons
    The combat is ok, just ok.
    The camera angles are really bad during the fight, and without a mini map (a small complaint) your pulling to the world map to see what direction your wound up facing after a fight. Minor annoyance, but it's there.
    What we end up with is basically an interactive movie unless you do the (mostly sadly lacking) side quests.
    At this point I'm at the end, the final battle? And I skip cut scenes, fast forward through dialogue.
    It's such a slog...
    Is it a good game? Yes indeed it is, Is it a great game? (Like most people believe)?
    Nah...
    Definitely not the "game of the year" Disappointing    … Expand
  45. Risolu
    Jun 26, 2023
    6
    Gameplay is good but misses alot of tactic. No debuffs nor buffs which made FF games interesting. The Story is good but I hoped for a different conclusion especially with villians motivation. The game is sadly build like a single player MMO. The Sidequest are really boring and just fetch quests. The crafting system is horribly lacking. The hunt system shouldn't be in a single player game,Gameplay is good but misses alot of tactic. No debuffs nor buffs which made FF games interesting. The Story is good but I hoped for a different conclusion especially with villians motivation. The game is sadly build like a single player MMO. The Sidequest are really boring and just fetch quests. The crafting system is horribly lacking. The hunt system shouldn't be in a single player game, not to mention how every hunt is just a resin of mobs from the story. The game is baby easy, there is not the slightest challenge and that there is an easy mode option too is really funny. I think 6/10 is really justified.… Expand
  46. MikeScates
    Jun 24, 2023
    7
    It's not that bad a game - it's just not an FF game. Story wise yes, it's as convoluted as any other FF game. Music is on point as always is with FF games. Just the combat is well off pace. Outside of eikon battles (just did the Typhon fight, which was awesome), the combat lacks impact. Combos are great to pull off, air juggling with Garuda brings me Nero vibes from DMC, but enemiesIt's not that bad a game - it's just not an FF game. Story wise yes, it's as convoluted as any other FF game. Music is on point as always is with FF games. Just the combat is well off pace. Outside of eikon battles (just did the Typhon fight, which was awesome), the combat lacks impact. Combos are great to pull off, air juggling with Garuda brings me Nero vibes from DMC, but enemies feel spongy. Parrying and dodging are too op and the windows should be shortened. They should of made this a non mainline FF game to appease some of the back lash from die hard turn based fans. Doesn't deserve the hate it's getting from the fanbase , but doesn't deserve the praise either. It's just a good game - 7/10.… Expand
  47. VLRibeiro
    Jun 30, 2023
    6
    It’s a good game, just not a Final Fantasy game. I played 60% of it already, it’s a straight line as it gets and in summary: press square until it hurts.
  48. zugzug15
    Jul 9, 2023
    7
    Story - 10, music - 10, graphics - 9, crafting - 6, spells - 5, combat - 6.

    The story and music are amazing and the ps5s graphics are awesome. The lack of spells with elemental traits that matter is a bit puzzling. Crafting is only for the latest equipment which will always just be a slight stat increase. Gil is almost worthless except for buying in game soundtrack. The combat is    Story - 10, music - 10, graphics - 9, crafting - 6, spells - 5, combat - 6.

    The story and music are amazing and the ps5s graphics are awesome. The lack of spells with elemental traits that matter is a bit puzzling. Crafting is only for the latest equipment which will always just be a slight stat increase. Gil is almost worthless except for buying in game soundtrack. The combat is flashy but once you find the combo that works for you it gets repetitive and boring and I found myself avoiding battles while traveling because I would rather use my time and combos on storyline battles. I do think this is a problem with it being single character focused and if they had done stories and battles with other party characters (Jill, Jonathan, Cid) it might have kept it a bit fresher.
    A mini map in the top corner or a compass would have been very helpful as well as I found myself constantly checking the map to make sure I was heading the right direction.

    Its a fun game that is heavy on cut scene stories but story itself makes the game so worth it.    … Expand
  49. DAVIDRB
    Jun 27, 2023
    5
    Bon jeux pour cette année 2010…. Seul bémol c’est qu’ils fait cracher ma PlayStation lors des cinématiques….
  50. UkyoSonoda
    Jun 28, 2023
    6
    The parts of the game you actually get to play are mostly smooth however hitbox timing for dodges on a number of enemy attacks doesn't fully line up with the animations. It's also extremely heavy on cutscenes and expository breaks as I feel I spent more time watching the game than playing it. Also observed a number of typos in the game text for items and captions.

    Visually the game is    The parts of the game you actually get to play are mostly smooth however hitbox timing for dodges on a number of enemy attacks doesn't fully line up with the animations. It's also extremely heavy on cutscenes and expository breaks as I feel I spent more time watching the game than playing it. Also observed a number of typos in the game text for items and captions.

    Visually the game is quite impressive with it's details. However gameplay itself is overly simplified to timing button presses while navigating mostly linear map areas. There is little reason to explore and nearly all staples and mechanics of an RPG are missing.

    The only build "options" you have are limited to the relic slots which have a limited range of options and which Eikons and skills you choose to slot. However that part just boils down to preferences on what types of moves you like as the element of the Eikon makes no difference at all in the game.

    It's not a bad game. However it's not something that should have been shipped as a numbered mainline entry to the Final Fantasy series and instead been given a spinoff designation like other forays by SE to branch the Final Fantasy series outside of the RPG genre. Between this title and the direction they've been taking with changes to Final Fantasy 14, it gives the impression that CBU3's goal is to take the Final Fantasy franchise away from it's original fanbase.

    Lots of flashy things to get attention but sorely lacking in substance compared to previous mainline entries in the series and even a number of the series spinoffs.    … Expand
  51. Scottkey
    Jul 12, 2023
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The end was so good, same thing for the boss battle, the story was great but sometimes i had some problème to understand… Expand
  52. Pskc
    Jul 4, 2023
    5
    The game is unbelievable the story pulled me in immediately with eye watering visuals there are some boring parts side mission in-between main story but it really makes up for it with some of the best boss fights I've ever seen its like god of war 3 ×100
  53. Baneblade
    Jun 28, 2023
    5
    Potentially good game impaired by lack of critical industry standard user experience feature. Graphical issues are nothing compared to being unable to play due to shockingly unfamiliar button placements. For most of people that play more than one game, new muscle memory for each game is not something that could be tolerated. Who would dodge with R1 and not O? Why Lock target is not R3?Potentially good game impaired by lack of critical industry standard user experience feature. Graphical issues are nothing compared to being unable to play due to shockingly unfamiliar button placements. For most of people that play more than one game, new muscle memory for each game is not something that could be tolerated. Who would dodge with R1 and not O? Why Lock target is not R3? This review could be much higher if Square Enix simply release a patch to enable custom control layout. But they don't even recognize the issue. Do they even have QA department? If so then replace them with competent people for not doing a simple job. I tried PS5's Accessibility feature combined with scheme B, I could do the combat perfectly, but then when I get to the game's menu, it gets messy again because the buttons already swapped. Also, the diamond shaped bar at the bottom right does not change according to the selected button scheme. Otherwise, this could be a sneak attempt at selling Dualsense Edge, that could swap button profiles easily. Unfortunately most of people don't have that controller, so yeah, another game for the backlog that will never see play.… Expand
  54. behola
    Jun 27, 2023
    5
    A series of cutscenes inferior to those in B-movies, monotonous battles, and boring mini-games that are only flashy. It is a boring game that cannot be enjoyed either as a visual work or as a game. It is a work worthy of its creator, who looks like a delinquent child.
  55. Domova
    Jun 27, 2023
    7
    The story is entertaining in this game and the Eikon battles are breathtakingly gorgeous and fun. That’s pretty much it, the game is permanently on rails with slightly open areas that give little to no rewards. There is no difficulty slider, so you have to play on Easy or Very Easy for your first playthrough.

    The RPGs elements are dumbed down and may aswell not exist. Lip syncing is off    The story is entertaining in this game and the Eikon battles are breathtakingly gorgeous and fun. That’s pretty much it, the game is permanently on rails with slightly open areas that give little to no rewards. There is no difficulty slider, so you have to play on Easy or Very Easy for your first playthrough.

    The RPGs elements are dumbed down and may aswell not exist.
    Lip syncing is off in most cutscenes.
    Gear may aswell not exist, very small stat increases for each weapon tier and accessories provide some damage % to a specific skill of a cool-down decrease.
    The ability tree also may aswell not exist.

    While named Final Fantasy it may aswell be a Devil May Cry spin off, it’s structured very similar and has about as much “RPG” in it as DMC.

    The highs in this game are extremely high, but the lows are extremely low, which sucks the enjoyment a little bit out of the game, but then a high comes again and you manage to put up with the low, mundane MMO style questing.

    It seems they took the worst of FF14 and the worst of DMC and smushed it together. The game also suffers from performance issues, several times my PS5 has told me to turn off due to overheating issues.

    Gameplay doesn’t reward exploring combat, trash will die in an eikon ability or 2, while bosses who can’t be juggled or anything are complete damage sponges. I enjoyed my playthrough, it’s not the best Final Fantasy but it’s not the worst either. If you can put up with the low periods inbetween the high periods, you’ll enjoy the game. I do have to say that anyone giving it perfect scores is completely blinded by hype. The game doesn’t deserve a 0 but it certainly isn’t a 10 by any means,    … Expand
  56. Rdotsmith
    Jul 6, 2023
    7
    I'm giving this game a seven out of ten because it lacks the RPG mechanics that I've come to love in Final Fantasy games. The combat feels more like Devil May Cry than a traditional Final Fantasy game, and I think that's a mistake. They're trying to appeal to new players, but they're alienating fans of the series in the process. The story is excellent, and the characters are amazing, butI'm giving this game a seven out of ten because it lacks the RPG mechanics that I've come to love in Final Fantasy games. The combat feels more like Devil May Cry than a traditional Final Fantasy game, and I think that's a mistake. They're trying to appeal to new players, but they're alienating fans of the series in the process. The story is excellent, and the characters are amazing, but it's still missing that sense of wonder that I felt when I first played the original Final Fantasy VII. The world feels smaller and more linear, and the sense of exploration is lacking. I'm not saying that this is a bad game. It's just not the Final Fantasy game that I was hoping for. If you're a fan of Devil May Cry, then you'll probably enjoy this game. But if you're a fan of traditional Final Fantasy games, then you might be disappointed.… Expand
  57. Pogiboy
    Jul 14, 2023
    6
    Stellar opening, amazing first part, but it didn't last long, somewhere before half of the game the story stall's, then it drags until the end, has the potential to be an epic game but sadly, it didn't.
  58. Zuhri69
    Jul 15, 2023
    6
    Possibly, my biggest Final Fantasy disappointment. It delivers only on the spectacle and the graphics. While those are part of the series identity, another series staple have always been the quiet moment between the characters, instances in which the characters just talk with nothing to prove. The game barely had that. And by removing the party members, they remove that part of the game.Possibly, my biggest Final Fantasy disappointment. It delivers only on the spectacle and the graphics. While those are part of the series identity, another series staple have always been the quiet moment between the characters, instances in which the characters just talk with nothing to prove. The game barely had that. And by removing the party members, they remove that part of the game. The story telling, while good on paper is terribly clumsy. While one can expect certain busy work in side quests, these busy work also crept into the main quests as well. Additionally, the quest structure of the story telling made the story feels less dynamic than usual. The combat looks and feel good. However, at a certain point, it will turn into a spam contest where you have to use all your abilities to deal maximum damage in a certain timeframe. However, by doing so, the thrill of the combat is gone. The key factor of the combat is the eikon abilities and when they are on cooldown, the combat turn into a crawl. For an action game, FFXVI has a lot of waiting in its combat. The RPG, another key factor of the series is abysmal. Even considering the combat not including elemental and status weakness, the levelling system is terribly insipid, it barely affects the combat. And the gearing and item economy is so basic, you will mostly ignore them. The game is never interested in being an RPG. The music sounds good but the tracks are not as memorable as the other entries. Soken’s penchant for repeating tracks rear its ugly head again, which made the OST sounds same-y. All in all, my biggest disappointment in the series so far.… Expand
  59. mlhope0
    Jun 23, 2023
    7
    The combat is fun, but it's held back by on-rails RPG progression. It's also spaced out by chunks of fetch quests and long dialogue cinematics that are often uninteresting and padded with awkward silence between "cuts."

    Still, the teams behind the hero cinematics and Eikon battles deserve a lot of praise for making up for the game's shortcomings.
  60. straubsberry
    Jul 12, 2023
    5
    The issue with diversity does unfortunately reign true in this game. However, in every other aspect, I find it truly incredible. I hope that in the future the issues of characters fitting only one demographic will be fixed, and that I can rate a wonderful game without having to make mention of an issue we shouldn’t still be having.
  61. Sbhu
    Jul 17, 2023
    5
    The story was so hard to get through and I miss the more traditional RPG elements. Won’t be preordering this series anymore.
  62. Auriss
    Jun 28, 2023
    5
    This game is not worth the money spent to buy it and not even the time spent to play it.
    We’re talking about a totally unsatisfactory combat system. The difficulty of each fight is reduced to dodge the enemy’s shots and throw spells at each CD since there are no MP to consume but only CDs to have to wait, in the meantime you can freely hit sword.
    The videos are intrusive and present at    This game is not worth the money spent to buy it and not even the time spent to play it.
    We’re talking about a totally unsatisfactory combat system. The difficulty of each fight is reduced to dodge the enemy’s shots and throw spells at each CD since there are no MP to consume but only CDs to have to wait, in the meantime you can freely hit sword.
    The videos are intrusive and present at every step (literally). The intensity of the videos is zero, since the graphics are not beautiful (definitely far from current gen graphics) the facial expressions of the characters are almost absent and leads you to immediately get bored.
    The only thing I save is the plot, but can a plot be worth 80€? I don’t think so.
    FFXVI is far from being as beautiful as the most famous previous chapters.    … Expand
  63. kenduck
    Jul 2, 2023
    5
    Combat is fun and graphics is amazing.
    Wrong game design directions. Why would a fast-paced act game have so many cut scenes?
    Some of them should be replaced by simple dialogues. I though RPG player are more into these amount of cut scenes. The core gaming system is bad which is lack of RPG elements. Gear system feels like it's designed by someone without experience in about one month?    Combat is fun and graphics is amazing.
    Wrong game design directions. Why would a fast-paced act game have so many cut scenes?
    Some of them should be replaced by simple dialogues.
    I though RPG player are more into these amount of cut scenes.
    The core gaming system is bad which is lack of RPG elements.
    Gear system feels like it's designed by someone without experience in about one month?
    Quest system is bad . Maybe who just played a 2010 online game designed some of the boring quest.
    You can only control a dog and the party member is like a stupid NPC.
    No hidden dungeons or cave to explore. No hidden weapons and mini games.
    Most the budget are spent on cut scenes and Eikon fight and skills.
    It just feel unbalanced.    … Expand
  64. Ryang23
    Jun 25, 2023
    5
    We're halfway through 2023 and Square Enix is using FSR 1 for their biggest title game.....I hope they plan on moving on to a whole new game engine after this title as everything from the early 2000's facial animations down to the late 90's textures all over the place are looking pretty sorry. Which the horrendous job FSR 1 is doing to hide the resolutions of 720p-1080p being upscaled toWe're halfway through 2023 and Square Enix is using FSR 1 for their biggest title game.....I hope they plan on moving on to a whole new game engine after this title as everything from the early 2000's facial animations down to the late 90's textures all over the place are looking pretty sorry. Which the horrendous job FSR 1 is doing to hide the resolutions of 720p-1080p being upscaled to 1440p in performance mode doesn't do any favors at all. The motion blur is so bad it would be comical if it hadn't made me sick to my stomach yesterday. A feat only 1 other game has achieved over the past 33 years. 29- 60 fps in performance mode and stutter city everywhere you go to top it all off. 60fps is only achieved when the resolution is shoved off a cliff when you enter battles so the game is at least physically playable. How do you defend any of that?… Expand
  65. Hontoo
    Jun 24, 2023
    6
    I cleared this video game, but I couldn’t find its uniqueness. The sub-quests were boring and the story wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t very good either. I enjoyed the combat system, but there were many scenes where I couldn’t see the enemy’s attack due to excessive effects, which hindered the fun. I think this game is an ordinary game.
  66. seymour2012
    Jun 23, 2023
    7
    Final Fantasy XVI is a good game, but it's hard to not feel that it could have been a great game and can't quite get to the finish line.

    I was genuinely incredibly hyped for the game, as I think Yoshi-P and his team can complete fantastic projects and I am a big fan of FF14 -- it is genuinely my favorite Final Fantasy game -- but 16 just fails to stick the landing for me. I know    Final Fantasy XVI is a good game, but it's hard to not feel that it could have been a great game and can't quite get to the finish line.

    I was genuinely incredibly hyped for the game, as I think Yoshi-P and his team can complete fantastic projects and I am a big fan of FF14 -- it is genuinely my favorite Final Fantasy game -- but 16 just fails to stick the landing for me.

    I know there is a lot of discourse about the action style v ATB/turn based/etc., and I don't really care too much about that discourse as I genuinely liked Stranger of Paradise; but there's something about the style of action combat 16 tries that I feel just falls flat for me. I do genuinely miss being able to be some archetype of a "caster" and focus on casting magic, or having more obvious "job" or "role" designs like previous games. I think it's possible to do in an action game (as mentioned, Stranger of Paradise), but this comes off being half-baked.

    Ultimately, it feels like a darker FFXIV but a little worse. I think this was a good entry into the Final Fantasy series and one that breathed new life into it, but I hope other games in the franchise test out different styles, as I'm not sure the action styles of DMC really work well within the bounds of what I expect from a Final Fantasy.    … Expand
  67. Knapppp
    Jun 23, 2023
    5
    Not so tragic as I expected, but still disappointing. Battle system is ok, I can live with it and it is fun, apart from long time needed for taking HP sometimes which makes it exhausting and not so fluid. The story is also good, plus the music as usual in FF.

    Graphic is ok. Not sure why I see so many 10/10. This is far from highs for PS5 and not even close to GoW or Horizon (especially    Not so tragic as I expected, but still disappointing. Battle system is ok, I can live with it and it is fun, apart from long time needed for taking HP sometimes which makes it exhausting and not so fluid. The story is also good, plus the music as usual in FF.

    Graphic is ok. Not sure why I see so many 10/10. This is far from highs for PS5 and not even close to GoW or Horizon (especially the latter even though Forbidden West is an open world and XVI not). Also, the character faces look sometimes really not good. Frame rate drops in performance mode (still after the patch) is outrageous and motion blur in graphic mode looks weird - not sure why it is even used and you cannot turn it off.

    They said the game will be linear, which I don’t mind, but at least I thought it will be more like Star Ocean or Tales of Arise. However, here we have a lot of “corridor-like” dungeons and areas. After some hours we get bigger areas, but there is literally nothing to do there. Rarely any good treasure/item which is worth discovering. The world and exploration feels very flat. There are no distractions from the story (like mini games at least or any other activities). How is this different from Final Fantasy XIII?

    World map is just locations where you can click to teleport which again takes away the immersion

    Side quests are the worst part of the game. Most of them are completely pointless (there are really no good prizes for finishing them) and boring. Item crafting, skill tree and stats/equipment are very basic and to be honest are probably there just to still call it an “rpg” because they are very simplistic and not in a good way    … Expand
  68. JackMoschet
    Jun 30, 2023
    5
    Do not take the rating on this site seriously. Whether it's 0 or 10, multiple of these entries mention giving the game a misleading score to amplify their side of the discussion. In fact, there's a ton more 10s doing that than 0s. I finished the game yesterday, and here's the meat of some advice: Final Fantasy fans, this isn't Final Fantasy. If you're going in hoping the series kept muchDo not take the rating on this site seriously. Whether it's 0 or 10, multiple of these entries mention giving the game a misleading score to amplify their side of the discussion. In fact, there's a ton more 10s doing that than 0s. I finished the game yesterday, and here's the meat of some advice: Final Fantasy fans, this isn't Final Fantasy. If you're going in hoping the series kept much of anything from it's previous games, you'll be majorly disappointed. It's mostly a brand new series in the ice cream cone, with some FF sprinkles. New players: go for it. You probably don't care about honoring the series or holding it to standards the developers have abandoned. It's fast, flashy, and dark. That's very popular right now, and you'll probably enjoy it. As an FF game, I'd give it a 4. As a new IP, I'd give it a 7. I picked 5, because haters and lovers alike are being utterly bias with their reviews. It's a bit of a sell out move by Square Enix, but some people don't care. It all depends on what you enjoy, and what an honest series means to you.… Expand
  69. Fission_Mailed
    Jun 29, 2023
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The game tried to revolutionize its gameplay by adding hack and slash mechanics and RPG elements together but failed. The main reasons are the lack of the so called RPG elements: the party system, the elemental damage from the power of the eikons that you get, the alternate statuses, weaknesses and resistances from the monsters and bosses, secret dungeons and secret bosses. All of this aspects lacked from the RPG side of the game. As for the hack and slash side It was decent, doing combos was funny but It turned out monotonous since the enemies were easily destroyed with the ability ignition, except for the minibosses and bosses that allowed at least some variety by using for example Garuda and Shiva abilities for staggering, Bahamut and Phoenix for damage.
    The worse part of the game are the subquests and sadly only a few were good, the rest were fetch quests and defeat this and that.
    The main story was fine but a bit generic. It tried to be mature but It fell like an apple after the revelation of the evil god that wants to rebuild the world without humans because they're disposable tools. I played this game on performance mode and It was really disappointing to see soo many frame drops even during cutscenes, as for the graphics mode It wasn't that great between pixelated clouds and graphical errors on the desert I decided to remain on performance mode. In conclusion It was a disappointing experience that had a lot of downs than ups.    … Expand
  70. deceased_goat
    Aug 16, 2023
    6
    Really disappointed with this entry. I was originally going to hold off as I wasn't overly excited by what I was reading during development, but I pre-ordered last minute. There are some great moments within the game, but unfortunately these are a scarcity amongst the monotony of lackluster side content and a world that doesn't engender the desire to really explore. The world also doesn'tReally disappointed with this entry. I was originally going to hold off as I wasn't overly excited by what I was reading during development, but I pre-ordered last minute. There are some great moments within the game, but unfortunately these are a scarcity amongst the monotony of lackluster side content and a world that doesn't engender the desire to really explore. The world also doesn't feel lived in for me - it feels hollow and devoid of interesting characteristics. The new direction on with the action is not one I favoured. I liked the turn based systems of old, the gambit system from XII, and the hybrid system of FFVII remake, but the full on action didn't peak my interest here. Interestingly I enjoyed FFXV's action orientated approach, but XVI just isn't landing. Overall it's another FF ticked off, but I'll hold fire on getting XVII if it takes the same path.… Expand
  71. Bigbozz
    Aug 27, 2023
    7
    This game makes so much wrong, its insane...
    Mainstream at fullest, it's a **** joke for a final fantasy game. And I am not talking about the combat system. The quest are so bad even for jrpg standard, its really sad.
    This game does not deserve the name rpg, but it also don't deserve the name hack and slash. This game does not know what it want to be. I only can say something positive    This game makes so much wrong, its insane...
    Mainstream at fullest, it's a **** joke for a final fantasy game. And I am not talking about the combat system. The quest are so bad even for jrpg standard, its really sad.

    This game does not deserve the name rpg, but it also don't deserve the name hack and slash. This game does not know what it want to be.

    I only can say something positive about th music and some cutscenes , which are great.    … Expand
  72. firstevil87
    Sep 2, 2023
    7
    Ultima Mithos?
    Every time a new Final fantasy is released, we say: "this is the most divisive ever".
    And it is also true here. Never a game had highs so high, and lows so low that rating it is just a matter of taste, rather than objective merits. Let's start with the good: the story! This is the best final fantasy story in a very long time, with characters both memorable and    Ultima Mithos?
    Every time a new Final fantasy is released, we say: "this is the most divisive ever".
    And it is also true here.
    Never a game had highs so high, and lows so low that rating it is just a matter of taste, rather than objective merits.

    Let's start with the good: the story!
    This is the best final fantasy story in a very long time, with characters both memorable and charming.
    The plot gives some "game of thrones" vibes that combine political intrigue with supernatural calamity.
    Regardless of your personal taste, it is undeniable that Square put effort into crafting an unforgettable world.

    But now there is the bad...
    This game doesn't want to be a game, the part when you are in control seem more often then not an afterthought.

    The "meaty" part of the gameplay is the combat and, for a final fantasy, it is very disappointing.
    Turn based combat has been replaces with a devil may cry action swordfest.
    Any resemblance of planning and "tactic" gets thrown out of the window due to a hectic speed and magic effects covering the screen.
    At points you would just button mash randomly because you don't see what you are doing or if anyone is attacking you.

    Worst, there are no status aliments, or elemental damage so any new power is mostly (not always but mostly) cosmetic.
    Personally, I would have preferred a more distinct "look and feel" for any new "power up" (a different weapon?).

    Even worse, the party system has been completely ditched in favour of AI companions that pop in here and there, with no control over their equipment and stats.
    Only Torgal, a canine companion, can be somehow controlled, but it never feels impactful or rewarding or tactical.

    Having said that, when the system clicks, it can be very fun, but not much final fantasy.

    Outside of combat, the game doesn't shine at all, despite having a wonderful world that kills any desire to explore it.

    In conclusion, if what matters to you the most in a final fantasy is the story, this will keep you entertained.
    If you are looking for gameplay and exploration and all the little things that made final fantasy special, I am afraid you will be disappointed.    … Expand
  73. NeverwinterMoon
    Jun 24, 2023
    5
    The story is captivating, but the technical aspect is underwhelming. In quality mode, the game runs at 1080p to 1440p, upscaled in a way that even when standing still, it looks soft on a 4K screen. In performance mode, the game runs in the 720p to 1080p range, upscaled to 1440p, and almost never locks to 60 FPS. Furthermore, it often falls below Sony's VRR window, resulting in noticeableThe story is captivating, but the technical aspect is underwhelming. In quality mode, the game runs at 1080p to 1440p, upscaled in a way that even when standing still, it looks soft on a 4K screen. In performance mode, the game runs in the 720p to 1080p range, upscaled to 1440p, and almost never locks to 60 FPS. Furthermore, it often falls below Sony's VRR window, resulting in noticeable frame rate fluctuations. The level design is corridor-based, so the scale of the world around is hardly visually impressive. Combat is fun but simple. It's essentially a copy-paste of Forspoken combat (which I found enjoyable), but with much less variation and visual splendor. I would have considered giving this a higher score if it weren't for the developers' cocky behavior, boasting about how they would utilize the hardware to the max by making this a PS5 exclusive. Unfortunately, I don't see that level of optimization. Despite having a new game engine and years to optimize for a single hardware platform, I find nothing impressive in the technical implementation, except for the fast loading times (which are largely attributed to Sony's hardware and APIs rather than the game developers themselves). Essentially, the game is technically mediocre, and the gameplay is reminiscent of something I recently played, but with a more lackluster experience.… Expand
  74. GhostXZ117
    Jun 23, 2023
    6
    They game could be something great, but unfortunately isn’t, is more like an Action game than a real RPG, also the developers lied to us and this game doesn’t run at 60 fps like they said. They didn’t improve too much in the design of the game and it does not look like a new generation game and is sadly true. The music is a little repetitive and at first is pretty good but after a while itThey game could be something great, but unfortunately isn’t, is more like an Action game than a real RPG, also the developers lied to us and this game doesn’t run at 60 fps like they said. They didn’t improve too much in the design of the game and it does not look like a new generation game and is sadly true. The music is a little repetitive and at first is pretty good but after a while it gets boring, and most importantly the problems that this game has with the PS5 and what I mean with that is… the PS5 overheating when you try to run this game in it. The second half of the game is very boring until you reach the ending of the game.

    The game is not trash like a lot of people say, the game got some good stuff like the combat mechanics, also the combats are very immersive and fun, and the story is pretty good (is not the best videogame story but is good enough), the cinematics are pretty awesome and the maps are also good, the quick time events are great, and the first half of the game is fun in general, Final Fantasy 16 is a good game and it could have been one of the best Square Enix games but unfortunately it wasn’t. 6/10 final review    … Expand
  75. PCMasterRice
    Jun 23, 2023
    6
    A fall from grace for Square Enix. I know we've had some pretty mediocre FF in the past but this is something else.

    SQ wanted to 'evolve the series' by turning it into an action game. Instead of really investing in creative action experiences, we get dumbed down systems, less customization than other actions games, and generic battles (with the exception of the cinematic ones). In    A fall from grace for Square Enix. I know we've had some pretty mediocre FF in the past but this is something else.

    SQ wanted to 'evolve the series' by turning it into an action game. Instead of really investing in creative action experiences, we get dumbed down systems, less customization than other actions games, and generic battles (with the exception of the cinematic ones).

    In addition to that, the game looks very mediocre. There are times when it really looks good, but through 90% of your gameplay, it looks bland. Its almost as if the level designers behind Forspoken worked on this in their free time.

    The story is good, and what is keeping me playing it. But after 10+ hours its a drag. Everything is on rails, no point in doing side quests, equipment you won't have to work towards. Its all just there for you when its supposed to be.

    You'd probably have a better experience simply watching a playthrough on youtube.    … Expand
  76. Mezzrim
    Jun 23, 2023
    6
    This game is on auto mode and plays itself. The game is beautiful when they turn on lighting, lots of particles. There are inconsistencies with the framerate in some areas, and sometimes the story forgets what it established 10min before. Don't worry about failing, you'll be revived with full health and potions, which drags the experience even more. The action resumes itself to buttonThis game is on auto mode and plays itself. The game is beautiful when they turn on lighting, lots of particles. There are inconsistencies with the framerate in some areas, and sometimes the story forgets what it established 10min before. Don't worry about failing, you'll be revived with full health and potions, which drags the experience even more. The action resumes itself to button mashing and some really uninspired quick time events. The enemies are damages sponges and the level ups mean nothing. I suggest watching lets plays if you want the story. The action is broken by level up windows and no music switches when it's time to fight.


    Graphics great
    Audio good Presentation average +
    Gameplay poor/inexistant
    Experience poor    … Expand
  77. TheProphet334
    Jun 25, 2023
    7
    The frame rate mode feels very unbaked from a supposed game where square enix was very confident in themselves. Was it like tested at all i wonder and on another note the no motion blur option either it feels like it was made for last gen and we didn't move forward at all. Performance and the no motion blur option are -2 points together the third point is mission design a lot of timesThe frame rate mode feels very unbaked from a supposed game where square enix was very confident in themselves. Was it like tested at all i wonder and on another note the no motion blur option either it feels like it was made for last gen and we didn't move forward at all. Performance and the no motion blur option are -2 points together the third point is mission design a lot of times after epic eikon fights we go back to do fetch quests which really breaks the pacing it's more like they dragged the story out.… Expand
  78. Thom17
    Jun 24, 2023
    7
    The story is very interesting and good, you always want to know how it continues. The game is a story driven so I already knew it would be good
    Speaking of gameplay, i found it very easy, not boring, but even with bosses its very hard to die. Developers also decided that during boss fights you get to respawn at the moment you died with full hp, and you really have no challenge then.
    Fetch    The story is very interesting and good, you always want to know how it continues. The game is a story driven so I already knew it would be good
    Speaking of gameplay, i found it very easy, not boring, but even with bosses its very hard to die. Developers also decided that during boss fights you get to respawn at the moment you died with full hp, and you really have no challenge then.
    Fetch quests at this time should be very low or nonexistent, but this game has so many of them and it becomes very, very boring.
    Speaking about exploration is personal: I have heard many people saying they prefer this linear way to explore the world, and many others not liking it. Personally I don't find exploration very funny.
    I found very bad their decision to completely eliminate the party, you only have to build the main character and that is very unusual for a JRPG.
    The OST is amazing!
    So I think ffxvi is a good game, but it failed in so many aspects imo.    … Expand
  79. Acguydance
    Jun 23, 2023
    7
    A flashy but generic AAA action JRPG with a lot of cut-scenes, this FF sequel is highly entertaining but lacks the iconic feel of its predecessors.

    Pros: - Visually heavy and very casual friendly. You can sit back and relax without sweating your hands 80% of the time. - The combat system is fun and totally stress-free for an action game. You will feel like an action game god with the    A flashy but generic AAA action JRPG with a lot of cut-scenes, this FF sequel is highly entertaining but lacks the iconic feel of its predecessors.

    Pros:
    - Visually heavy and very casual friendly. You can sit back and relax without sweating your hands 80% of the time.
    - The combat system is fun and totally stress-free for an action game. You will feel like an action game god with the help of all the system assists.
    - Beautiful combat effects and QTE during key battles will keep you fresh.

    Cons:
    - Unnecessary but lengthy cutscenes are VERY distracting when you just want to PLAY a GAME.
    - Mostl. Linear. Final Fantasy. Ever. In terms of everything. Especially exploration.
    - Unable to turn off motion blur. May suffer.

    Also, there is no way this game deserve a 10 or a 0. Forget about those fanbois and Haters. Just saying.    … Expand
  80. Bevin_Kacon
    Jun 26, 2023
    7
    Good story and decent combat when the game actually lets you play it. Too many generic characters and too many long winded dialogue cutscenes where nothing is happening. 7/10 on a good day.
  81. BLUECRUSH
    Jun 28, 2023
    5
    apart from the fact that it's not the typical FF experience for me, i have to say that the performance of the game is an absolute impertinence. 30 fps quality mode I can not do to me, everything is blurry when you move times, the combat system is also not good. the performance mode is not even a performance mode. and then 720p on top to 60 at least in combat to be able to hold? last thereapart from the fact that it's not the typical FF experience for me, i have to say that the performance of the game is an absolute impertinence. 30 fps quality mode I can not do to me, everything is blurry when you move times, the combat system is also not good. the performance mode is not even a performance mode. and then 720p on top to 60 at least in combat to be able to hold? last there are still people with the console overheats, which has not happened to me fortunately after 19hrs yet. if everything is fixed I'm happy to reconsider my rating. in the current state not reasonable.… Expand
  82. urufangu
    Jun 23, 2023
    5
    After 6 hours of start the game there's a lot of cinematics, the gameplay at the moment is simple and too straightforward, I hope it gets better.
  83. TimmonsXCI
    Jun 24, 2023
    5
    Is it a Final Fantasy game, or is it a hack and slash just branded Final Fantasy? The game seems to walk a fine sketchy line where it can't decide on what kind of game it wants to be.
  84. vash_payan
    Jun 23, 2023
    5
    It seems to me that the game is too simple. The saga has been innovative on many occasions, but this game has not wanted to take risks and has only offered combat with a lot of brilliance. Disappointing in graphics, story and performance.
  85. Craxk
    Jun 23, 2023
    5
    After the exceptional Demo, the game had a solid start.
    The combat was fun and the cut scenes are good, but the story falls off for around the last third of the game.
    The main quest takes all the worst parts of Final Fantasy XIV and puts fetch quests in as filler, The side quests are bland fetch quests with little to no rewards and the rewards you actually do get are useless, and despite    After the exceptional Demo, the game had a solid start.
    The combat was fun and the cut scenes are good, but the story falls off for around the last third of the game.
    The main quest takes all the worst parts of Final Fantasy XIV and puts fetch quests in as filler, The side quests are bland fetch quests with little to no rewards and the rewards you actually do get are useless, and despite the world opening up later in the game it is empty with nothing in it being worth your time.    … Expand
  86. And92
    Jul 6, 2023
    6
    Too easy, even on the highest difficulty I never died.
    Of RPGs it has nothing, much less excels as hack & slash, this game is a limbo where it fails at nothing, I give enough only for the fairly accurate story.
    The FF saga died with 12, a real shame.
  87. LEXGBR
    Jul 4, 2023
    6
    Acredito que a Squarenix querendo popularizar a franquia, removeu muitos elementos de RPG, game muito fácil, semelhante ao que aconteceu com o FFXV, lamentável o rumo que a franquia tomou!
  88. DreamCore90
    Jul 12, 2023
    7
    Too start off, much better than the joke of a game called FF15.

    However, the game has 3 major flaws: 1. Performance issues, even on Frame Rate mode. The frame rate is frequently in the low 40s. I would expect a performance mode to manage 60 fps most of the time. 2. The side quests are as bad and tedious as ever. Combine this with the fact that you get little to no rewards for    Too start off, much better than the joke of a game called FF15.

    However, the game has 3 major flaws:

    1. Performance issues, even on Frame Rate mode. The frame rate is frequently in the low 40s. I would expect a performance mode to manage 60 fps most of the time.

    2. The side quests are as bad and tedious as ever. Combine this with the fact that you get little to no rewards for doing them. It's unfortunate they didn't learn from FF15.

    3. TOO. MUCH. FILLER. The main story has lots of amazing moments, but suffers from too much tedious filler content in between. This makes parts of the story a real drag and makes the pacing very uneaven.

    Overall, a big step up from the FF15 trash, but far from the FF golden days (FF7, FF8, FF9, FF10, FF12). The FF7 Remake is by far a better game.    … Expand
  89. Gofrein
    Jul 11, 2023
    6
    The game is not that very bad - but absolutely mediocre.
    1. There is no difficulty - the whole game is completed by pressing one button, square button. Why did not they implement full autoplay then?
    2. Character builds are completely unimportant, as is leveling. 3. Craft is not needed - you will just be given better weapons 4. The game is one continuous deserted identical repeating    The game is not that very bad - but absolutely mediocre.
    1. There is no difficulty - the whole game is completed by pressing one button, square button. Why did not they implement full autoplay then?
    2. Character builds are completely unimportant, as is leveling.
    3. Craft is not needed - you will just be given better weapons
    4. The game is one continuous deserted identical repeating corridor - killed a pack of enemies, killed the boss. Reminds me more of the Diablo series.
    The game is incredibly boring and monotonous. The plot is +- ok, some blood, some drama. Good for 14-16 year kids.    … Expand
  90. Spudsii
    Jun 24, 2023
    7
    Well i have to say for a final fantasy game Yoshi-p dropped the ball on this one the game is good but that's it good nothing more, it is very hollow and overall lacking for a ff game i think ff7 remake combat would have been so much better way to go in this game and when i start to think ff15 is a better game i know something is wrong.
  91. JennBee
    Jun 23, 2023
    6
    Yeah, the music, story and graphic are pretty good. But there's maybe five minutes of gameplay between every 20 mins of cutscenes. It's more like an interactive anime with Quick Time Events (in 2023?). Fights are kinda boring and are easy and accomplishable by 1 button spam. Story is ok but it tends to drift from itself and gets dragged on at times. Side quests are weak and boring. With soYeah, the music, story and graphic are pretty good. But there's maybe five minutes of gameplay between every 20 mins of cutscenes. It's more like an interactive anime with Quick Time Events (in 2023?). Fights are kinda boring and are easy and accomplishable by 1 button spam. Story is ok but it tends to drift from itself and gets dragged on at times. Side quests are weak and boring. With so little actual gameplay, I'm not convinced it's much of a game l. Nice to look at, but probably not 70 dollars worth.

    And def not game of the year.    … Expand
  92. Serenityinaz12
    Jun 25, 2023
    5
    Giving it a 10 is ridiculous the character models are so bad for PS5 it’s laughable as is the performance. I like the new mature theme of the story but the combat sucks and the animations/effects are way too exaggerated and flashy all over the screen. Another mediocre Final Fantasy after the last good one being X
  93. debiru_ita
    Jun 24, 2023
    6
    FFXVI is definitely a good action game, with a good story and just as much does not reflect what one would expect from a Final Fantasy. the strengths of the game revolve totally around the narrative plot that makes you want to keep going to see how the story evolves.
    On the gameplay level I find the cutscenes far too invasive, totally unnecessary side quests, and a total lack of the gdr    FFXVI is definitely a good action game, with a good story and just as much does not reflect what one would expect from a Final Fantasy. the strengths of the game revolve totally around the narrative plot that makes you want to keep going to see how the story evolves.
    On the gameplay level I find the cutscenes far too invasive, totally unnecessary side quests, and a total lack of the gdr aspects.
    The combat system resolves itself with a continuous rotation between eikons to spam the moves having coldowns with no need for tactics or reasoning, all for the purpose of staggering the opponent over and over again to do some damage.

    They probably had not named it Final Fantasy would not have received so much criticism sometimes even gratuitous    … Expand
  94. PedroR0
    Jun 23, 2023
    7
    Es muy buen juego, espectacular en sus efectos visuales, buena música, buen protagonista, más que aceptable historia. Normalmente a un juego así le pondría un 8/10 pero como alguien que ha jugado casi todos los FF anteriores me molesta que se hayan alejado tanto de la fórmula original haciéndolo casi irreconocible.
    Debieron lanzarlo con otro nombre.
  95. Valzan1a
    Jun 24, 2023
    7
    It's an enjoyable game but it's not rpg imo. It's an action hack n slash. The combat is repetitive. There isn't really a skill tree. It's just abilities which you can only have 2 per element slotted. It's boring after a while especially with how spongey some enemies are. The story is the only thing keeping engaged. I don't knock square enix for trying to appeal to a broader audience I justIt's an enjoyable game but it's not rpg imo. It's an action hack n slash. The combat is repetitive. There isn't really a skill tree. It's just abilities which you can only have 2 per element slotted. It's boring after a while especially with how spongey some enemies are. The story is the only thing keeping engaged. I don't knock square enix for trying to appeal to a broader audience I just pine for the old school Final fantasy days. It's a decent game for what it is but I can't justify all the 10/10s.… Expand
  96. sneakysnake128
    Jun 27, 2023
    5
    Such a disappointment. Completely lacking in interesting characters, a frustratingly poor story, and samey combat that is both too easy and monotonous. Play Octopath 2 instead of you want a Final Fantasy experience.
  97. Sythalin
    Aug 2, 2023
    7
    It's highly debated back and forth, but God of Dragon Ball May Cry is a pretty decent game for what it is. I do tend to agree with the majority though - it's far more God of War/Devil May Cry game with a Final Fantasy skin than a true "Final Fantasy" game.

    The world is gorgeous and very detailed. However, it's also very empty. They attempted to fix the major complaint of FF13 where    It's highly debated back and forth, but God of Dragon Ball May Cry is a pretty decent game for what it is. I do tend to agree with the majority though - it's far more God of War/Devil May Cry game with a Final Fantasy skin than a true "Final Fantasy" game.

    The world is gorgeous and very detailed. However, it's also very empty. They attempted to fix the major complaint of FF13 where the majority of the maps were corridors, but failed to fill them with anything substantial. Zones are wide open spaces with a few patches of monsters here and there and 1-2 towns, which are also mostly empty. Quite honestly, the game really could've benefited if they would've make it a seamless world instead of broken into chunks.

    Combat is primarily where the game is compared to GoW/DMC, and rightfully so. Combat encounters either button mashing or QTE for major fights. For standard enemies... well it's basically the same still. There are a total of 38 abilities (no counting combat basic skills) and you can assign a total of 9 active at a time. Optimally, you'll end up choosing a mix that is maximizing stagger and pure damage. Unforunately, this makes the majority of skills "useless" in comparison. I didn't even bother testing/using the majority of the available skills once I found a combination that pretty much erased even elite enemies.

    The main story is okay. It's nothing super special, and nothing really felt unique. Besides for the "combat skins" and NPCs, this is really the only thing that was "Final Fantasy"esque, and it was unimpressive overall.

    Side quests get extremely tedious and boring very quickly, and that's amazing since you don't get the majority of them until towards the end of the game. And at that point, almost every quest is 3 minute or longer dialog, that you can thankfully skip through. At the start of the game, I was all in for sitting through the side stories. After hitting the end point of the game where they dump 15 side quests at once, it got to the point I just started skipping through the dialog for anyone that wasn't a "main" character.

    Crafting/gear progression is a complete joke. The option to craft progession gear (green) is pointless. Once you start rolling through the story and side quests, the materials for your next major weapons (blue quality+) are pretty much literally thrown at you. By the time you unlock a crafting recipe, you either already aquired all the materials or will be getting them very shortly after. They may as well just scrapped this entire system and given out the gear upgrades directly.

    Overall, the game is very pretty, and feels like the majority of development went into doing only that. Everything that makes a RPG feel like "Final Fantasy" felt like it was tacked on, or missing entirely, just so the IP can be in the title. They could've completely removed all the FF IP and it would be solid on it's own. Even FF15 felt more like a "Final Fantasy" game than this did. But again, even though this is most definitely "God of Dragon Ball May Cry", it was a solid game to play through.    … Expand
  98. Xenomorph_kills
    Aug 3, 2023
    7
    A new vision for the franchise but not with its many flaws. For every amazing moment this game provides through epic cutscenes, it is met with the absolute low with side quests involving simple item fetch quest that take just about equal amount of time in this 60 hour game. The gameplay is flashy but no depth. The main character is greatly fleshed out while the side charaters are one noteA new vision for the franchise but not with its many flaws. For every amazing moment this game provides through epic cutscenes, it is met with the absolute low with side quests involving simple item fetch quest that take just about equal amount of time in this 60 hour game. The gameplay is flashy but no depth. The main character is greatly fleshed out while the side charaters are one note and forgettable.… Expand
  99. AlexApex
    Jul 19, 2023
    7
    I am a long time FF fan and I played many other action, rpgs, and action-rpg games. FFXVI is a good game but it has many core fundamental flaws that prevented me from giving it a higher score. I already wrote this before but got the 403 error, thanks metacritic, I apologize if you're reading this twice.

    Flaws Include. 1. Easy difficulty with little to no challenge even on action    I am a long time FF fan and I played many other action, rpgs, and action-rpg games. FFXVI is a good game but it has many core fundamental flaws that prevented me from giving it a higher score. I already wrote this before but got the 403 error, thanks metacritic, I apologize if you're reading this twice.

    Flaws Include.

    1. Easy difficulty with little to no challenge even on action mode. The mobs of enemies are just punching bags that barely do anything. They don't dodge or block and barely attack, some have a guard but that's easily circumvented. The enemy variety is small, you fight the same scorpions on different locations and every nation has a big guy with a big hammer or axe. The combat gameplay is amazing but there really is no incentive to make the best combos or to improve on them like in the game this was inspired by, DMC.

    2. Little to no itemization. You upgrade your sword very easily, and it's always a minor/flat increase like +5 damage/stagger. All the accessories mostly decease cooldown or increase damage of eickon ability, the only cool accessory is the berserker ring which actually does something. Your belt and wrist guard are no different to your sword, it's all defense and vitality increase. The only thing you can customize are your eickon ability and you can only really upgrade them once to improve them. The other upgrade is just to move it to another slot. Every battle gives you a lot of materials to upgrade or craft. It's very easy to get your best in slot gear, no thinking required.

    3. No RPG system. There are no buffs or debuffs in this game. Get hit with bad breath? Well it only does damage. No poison, haste, stop, paralyses, doom, etc. No elemental wheel. No way to strategize and exploit enemy weakness. All you do is just wail on them with your sword until stagger breaks, use limit break, hit them with all of your abilities, rinse and repeat.

    4. Too many side quests. At first the game starts you with only 2 or 3 in the early game which is fine but then amps up the frequency. Before the final boss I had more than 10 side quests that popped up. This really ruined the pacing. Near the end it felt like an MMO and trust me I played quite a few, you start by picking everything up at once, skip dialogue/cutscene, go here, kill that, collect this, go back to npc, accept reward. And some side quests felt meaningless, they could've been taken out and some MSQuest could've been sidequests.

    5. Quick time events are meaningless. The QTE are cool but it pauses the game for like 5 or 6 seconds just to press one button. There is no skill required and it just ruins the flow of battle. Kingdom Hearts II and older God of War games did it better. Those scenes would be better if it didn't have them so I could grab some snacks and enjoy the awesome Kaiju battles instead.

    6. No reason to explore map. Only things worth finding are the notorious marks or eickon trials. Only chest in the world just give you materials you already have or could just buy from an npc.

    There are smaller nick picks I have like your chocobo is just faster walking, no chocobo racing or treasure hunts like in FF9. No mini games to change up gameplay or just to relax like prior entries. Party members don't show up in side quests or respond in any way like in Mass Effect.

    Don't get me wrong, FFXVI is a good game. I love the story, combat, characters, dialogue, eickon battles and set pieces. But I was so disappointment by it that I was not having fun halfway through the game. I had to force myself to get to the end, it felt like a chore. I was gonna give it a lower score but Soken's music is magnificent like always. I will definitely get the album when it comes out. Anyways, thank you for reading.    … Expand
  100. jkvlnt
    Jun 27, 2023
    5
    Remember going to your friends house when you were younger and they had the hot new game that everyone was talking about that you hadn’t had a chance to play yet? You’re watching them play and it looks amazing. You see them do so much sick stuff and want nothing more than to have a turn on it yourself. You ask them if you can have a go, and they reluctantly say yes. You walk down aRemember going to your friends house when you were younger and they had the hot new game that everyone was talking about that you hadn’t had a chance to play yet? You’re watching them play and it looks amazing. You see them do so much sick stuff and want nothing more than to have a turn on it yourself. You ask them if you can have a go, and they reluctantly say yes. You walk down a corridor for a minute, and then they snatch the controller back from you and you have to watch while some amazing stuff takes place. Eventually they give you the controller again, and let you run through an empty albeit pretty field where there are a few enemies that amount to nothing but brainless punching bags. That gives you enough time to know that the combat seems super fun with a lot of depth to it if you choose to deep dive into the combo system. But before you can do much else the controller is yanked away again by your friend.
    This is, I think the best of describing Final Fantasy 16. A game that is itself almost desperate to not let you play it. You’ve likely already heard that the combat is great and it certainly is. But the pointless punching back enemies that litter the games empty open area zones aren’t worth engaging with, and that only leaves the bigger fights and boss encounters in the games more linear sections. These can be great, but last about 5 minutes, before wresting control from you to subject you to another 30 minutes of its confusing mess of a melodrama. This is coming from someone who likes melodrama mind you, and I found the demo a great setup for a potentially intriguing albeit simple medieval fantasy revenge story. Within about 10 minutes of playtime outside of what the demo offered, a pattern of jumping from one thing to the next with careless abandon would be how this game attempted to tell its story. At time of writing this I’m about 80% done the story. It’s very clear at this point that they almost immediately abandon any attempt of telling a simple but well put together story, and jumped instead headfirst into something else entirely. It’s got to the point where I just feel myself going comatose whenever some of the atrocious voice work start blathering on; expositing things that should have been either setup earlier to lend themselves to a more cohesive narrative, or explained dynamically as you play. Instead the methodology is to just have you spend 20 minutes after a main quest concludes running around speaking the boring NPC after boring NPC and having the fill in the many blanks. I had a feeling that I would likely struggle to finish the game when I was first hit with such marvellous quest design as:
    Talk to NPC who wants you to talk to three other NPCs. One of the three instructs you to go and find someone in a location you’ve visited dozens of times already. Go there, talk to NPC. “Sorry person you need isn’t here, go here instead”. Find other NPC, talk, quest complete.

    It’s ironic that they said they used the first season of Game of Thrones as thematic inspiration for the game, because the way they tell the story in this game feels as though you get to watch the first episode of the first season, then they skip you all the way to season five and just occasional stop the game dead in its tracks to give you a 30 minute lore recap on key events that you just don’t get to take part in but are seemingly crucial to the story. The cutscenes are of course superbly well done. But so much of the exposition is delivered not through the actual cutscenes but through these stiff and lifeless conversations that aren’t animated in the slightest. Character says line, long pause, character responds, long pause. Rinse and repeat.

    Though the game isn’t open world, the game is still too open world; a symptom of this death grip the game has on the notion of needing to be perceived as an RPG.
    The zones that you can explore feel akin in scope to something like a Hyrule Field in Ocarina of Time. Only difference being that in Ocarina of Time the Field serves as an access point to all the key areas of the game. The zones in FF16 serve no purpose other than prolonging your access to the linear segments that are actually fun. Once you’ve run through them once, they serve no function other than the occasional side quest that may pop up there, and trust me when I say side quests in this game are the last thing you want to waste your time on.

    Many times over the team said that this game was an action RPG. There is no RPG in here. If they’d just accepted that maybe they wanted to make an action game that would take you at most 20hrs to clear that was all linear with well designed levels and great combat, I think it could work. Unfortunately the need to maintain the series pedigree or not stray too far from the known path renders the game a mess, a pretty one with some fun to be had of course, but a mess nonetheless.    … Expand
Page:

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 »