#yeah. love clive. and jill oh my god !!!!! and i have a feeling i'll just looove the cast in general. + dion lol dragoon <e

[astrxealis]

hi ffxvi is crazy the m rating is so real ... i havent played yet but i think i will be able to this december as a gift for christmas (INSANE... so happy) but the very few spoilers i know are very out of context and. sus. kinda funny

[not-playable-character]

Finally finished FFXVI

As stated finally finished and i have many thoughts, and not all are good or (probably) popular.

Before I post spoilers, I'll just put my general score for the game; Its an 8/10 BUT I didnt particularly "like" the game (meaning my first response to "did you like the game" was no, but its not really a no but not a yes)

So now into spoilers and my semi indepth review!

Ok so first things first I'll say, yeah I didn't really like the game, and dont get me wrong there was no skipping cutscenes and ignoring things, I did every sidequest and most of the hunts.

Now onto the things I like;

The characters: I loved pretty much all of them (especially Gav, he holds my heart) and there were some i didnt love (Jill, girl i wanted to love you so bad but you were so mid imo) but none that I hated (except Annabella, but i loved to hate her)

The Setting: Valstheia is an amazing world for this setting and the art direction was perfection, it felt full and lived in like an actual country.

The music: This is a given, its Final Fantasy, the music is gonna be banger as per usual.

The active time lore: oh my god this thing saved me so many times in this game and it was just fun to get the little details and watch them fill in.

The story: I was invested in the story...for the most part, It was a bit over complicated for me personally and there are some changes I would have liked and i felt like it was way too front-loaded.

Things I didnt like;

The length: THIS GAME WAS WAY TOO LONG AND I WILL DIE ON THIS HILL. It did not need to be a 30+hr main story, and because of that it got very boring at points, especially just after the 5 yr jump and the titan fight, then from that to the Waloed. There was just so much filler and many of those Main quests could have been side quests (since there werent too many of those)

The story (cont.): So While i kinda liked the story, I feel like it could have improved on the themes of Breaking Bonds and Unity by having the Rivals join Clive and become party members instead of absorbing their power. This would have also furthered the Breaking of Fate theme since Clive wont be following his destiny as Ifrit and the ending fight against ultima could have been more impactful with all the Dominants overcoming the odds and defeating him (even if they die at the end, essentially sacrificing themselves like Clive did in the real ending) This also removes the played out Chosen One plot line for Clive (which they do kinda subvert because Clive is great in general) itd also give the other Dominants more of a central role (THAT THEY DESERVED)

THe Edginess ™: Let me set this straight first, I do not mind the edge, I enjoy a more mature story (and this series needed a shift to more mature) BUT it was way too front loaded. Up till the 5 year jump it was like game of thrones edgy, then it just felt like a generic early final fantasy story with more cursing. They also mentioned slaves so much it got to the point where I was like that good place meme with the time knife but replace time knife with slaves. Also it felt a bit strange with that they would want to be edgy, we see Benedikta almost get SAed but we cant see her severed head??? (the fact that we dont see her head led me to believe she was alive for so long, aldo why was it glowing??)

Final thoughts:

This game was a great game and had the potential to be a masterpiece to me, but I think it just slightly missed the mark with the story. This could also just be me, I have weird FF standards and the game did and didnt feel like a FF game and I think it would have benefited not being part of the series (though the sales would have been worse) I would Highly recommend it to people who enjoy ARPGs but I think Id hesitate to FF fans.