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I went into FFXVI pretty cautious about the direction. A lack of a real traditional party felt like a move that was really moving away from core jrpg battle concepts. Compound that with real time action combat that looked more like DMC and a seemingly adoption of western tastes in writing and aesthetics(begone anime pretty boys with emotions) and yeah I was a little cautious. I like jrpgs to be jrpg ass Japanese role playing games and it looked like Square in it’s increasing desire to have FF grow bigger was abandoning certain aspects for a western audience.
And you know what? I don’t think I was wrong, but that doesn’t mean I disliked the game. 100 hours later all side quests complete, all eikon trials complete, all hunts complete, and so on. I can safely say past a round 2 I got a lot out of XVI. Clearly, I did not dislike it, but it’s unevenness keeps it from reaching the heights that other FFs do for me. Perhaps, though that’s impossible. FF as a series I think for many fans grabs them at a young age and is a formulating experience for them and it makes it harder for instalments afterwards to match the special feelings those gave. That said, every FF is a special moment, a game that offers an experience like no other.
Now the combat was one of the most worrisome aspects going into the game for me. I like systems in JRPGS. I like crafting a party with specific roles and seeing how the game engages with me. I like finding the point of these systems and utilizing them to my fullest. I like party members, because I just like building a team and seeing what I can do with it. People seem to yell turn based elitist whenever fans don’t seem to jive with the real time action. I mean I have no problem with action gameplay, VIIR was fantastic and the direction I’d like the series to go. Star Ocean 6 was one of my favorite games of last year. But both of those games gave me what I want from jrpgs, which is to “think”.
Before people scoff at that, but jrpgs usually give me some thinking behind why I’m having a character in my party, why this weapon, and what’s why and how when it comes to utilizing these systems. It doesn’t mean they are some thinking man big brain game, it just means they engage me on a different level then some games. Even if most FF games are piss easy, I still think about what I want to do with my characters and party, they still give me systems I like to engage with. FFXVI’s combat system meant to me it was going to go for something else.
But did it give me what I like about jrpgs? Yes and no.
A little ways into the game I noticed that attacks had a stagger and attack rating. I had already felt that the Eikons were meant to have certain utility, more so styles than different weapons. Obviously, Gruada’s gouge is great at weaking stagger gauge, maybe best used after that embrace stagger attack. Or maybe not, maybe Titans block counter is better, the jojo like counterattack sure melts stagger when you use it as a counter. Then you get Odin’s attacks and at first I thought trying to fill the Zan guage just isn’t worth it. But then you get an accessory that you know boosts steel dancing gauge filling. Then you realize steel dancing basically pauses when it connects. So now to me Odin has become a lot viable. While Grauda is great and all, I’d rather have Phoenix, Titan, and now Odin. And I decided that because now when I get that half stagger window, I can use steel dancing and the gauge is pretty much full right there. I keep Phoenix because it has a great CC ability and an easy to use combo ability that works in pretty much every situation. Titan is great because the counters deplete stagger fast, and Odin to me worked as a great damage dealer. With Ignition for a good quick start to lead into staggered enemies (or crowd control) and then throw down thunderbolt before you LB/or Hold the Zan button. My friend himself found great use for Ramuh’s ability and preferred Grauda over Odin. Really the only one I found lacking was Bahumet, even after the Eikon trials. My point is that I actually think there’s perhaps more rpg to this then people give credit. More nuance to the battle system.
In a way, I started to somewhat see the Ekion selection like the paradigm’s of XIII, but based on a more action situation. Phoenix to start off with as a general attacker complete with it’s zero in shifting ability and good CC attack. Then shift to Titan when closer to an enemy for counters and Odin’s ability that I want to use at a specific window that will most likely happen as I’m closed in. Lastly, Odin himself for my attacks I want to make sure I get in during a staggered phase.
There was thought I put into these decisions. Maybe they weren’t the most “efficient”, but they were how I played. I started to think about equipment and how those little bonus would effect. Maybe having Phoenix’s CC attack on a shorter cooldown would be worthwhile, it was for Odin’s attacks.
At first I wished XVI was a jrpg framed as a DMC game. Later it seemed like they actually did adopt DMC combat to an rpg. And it’s fun, everything feels great. But it’s not without criticism. Most encounters do feel the same, your kind of are always doing the same thing. If you’re say a FFXIV fan and you really enjoy making sure you’re rotation is done well all the time, this may not bother you. It didn’t for me, but I enjoyed always trying to do my best. The grunt battles are extremely thoughtless, but again if you enjoy doing your best it may not bother you. I think this comes down to personal taste, but I think it can be said the combat is very fun and a great entry game into character action.
Boss battles and staggered enemies are where the battle system does really excel, they actually ask you to engage with these systems. That’s really the problem with XVI’s combat, it does not really ask you to engage with it on a deep level. Getting by with really no effort is extremely possible. Which despite what people say, I disagree about that being the norm. Even for 13. The encounter design for 16 I believe is pretty weak, while I have learned to agree that the argument for elemental weakness would maybe limit players freedom, I somewhat also think so what? It’s a jrpg and encounters should maybe force some rethinking.
I also still think the lack of party members is disappointing. Something like Scarlet Nexus does party members better and could have been an influence. Maybe there are elemental weaknesses, but if you chose the party member that has the Ekion of water it buffs and negates these things. I don’t know, just something. Speaking of the Eikons, I kind of don’t care for their battles. Yeah, the spectacle is there, but in the end they are kind of what I expected. It often really feels like you really don’t have any impact in them. Whatever progression or choices you’ve made are irrelevant. Just keep attacking with what we’ve given until they are dead. These numbers are for show, nothing you’ve done would really change how easy or hard this battle is. On repeats they will lose their luster.
One thing that I really think lost its luster quick was the general quest design of XVI. The sad part of XVI is for all Yoshi P’s talk about feeling like a roller coaster, it sure didn’t. If anything, it reminded me of XIV. Honestly to me XIV is boring outside of dungeons. Every zone feels the same. New zone, do a bunch of tedious quests that talk about the zone, story starts building again, dungeon/Primal time, and repeat. Its like this in XVi, you go to a new zone and have to deal with tedious quests and then the pacing restarts for exciting things. In general the game has I feel weak momentum, it lacks those exciting story moments like in X where your on the airship, then you have the boss battle with the red carpet, then Beveille, then some rest, and then shift where you control Yuna. Things that feel like good paced story and gameplay moments. XVI really lacks these coalescing of memorable story and gameplay moments. Everything feels very structured and segmented thanks to the quest design. It does not feel like a constant seamless cinematic adventure, nor does it feel like a journey thanks to the hub design. If there’s anything it took from GoT, it’s the instant travel from season 8.
So that kind of sucks to me and while I think the hub design helps in the sense of community that the game is strong in, it does make the world feel small. It does add to the world feeling like a level select world. In XII all the zones are connected, you must walk to most of them first, and so on. When its time to go Mt. Bur Ominse you can talk there and it feels like an actual journey. XVI misses these feelings. Hell, there are parts of the world that seem like they should connect, and they don’t. The first warning sign of course was “Journey with Cid to the Hideaway” and instead of a set-piece moment where you trek through the world and Cid talks to you giving you more worldbuilding, you instead open a menu and that’s that.
So much of XVI feels like CBU3 maybe doesn’t understand what a single player jrpg should be like. How you should pace them, how you should make the adventure feel. The level design of the world is fine on paper, but it has no good allusion to it. People dislike XIII because it fails at this. X on the other hand is just as linear and yet this problem doesn’t exist, because that game does many things to make it feel like you are traveling a world. The pacing, the scale of the world, and so on. XVI fails at that.
Like the structure, the side quests are kind of mmoy, but I will say plenty of hem provide interesting context which is an upgrade from a lot of jrpgs. Few are exciting in a gameplay way. Some are less exciting in a story way, but some complete whole character and/or town story arcs. The plus ones do have worthwhile rewards, but in general the equipment crafting and whatnot is simply there.
Some of this sounds uneven and well I mostly think the game is uneven. Plenty good, but also plenty bad or just dated. In general, I don’t think the game 100% takes FF to the next level. That applies to the story as well.
I like Clive, he is a personable character. He has an interesting character arc. Having great promise, and then finding himself with a purpose, and then maturing into someone who has purpose and a goal in life. It’s relatable, but also kind of stops halfway and then kind of becomes him banging the same drum.
I already think the story lacks exciting momentum, losing it after Cid’s death.
Before Cids death you had a lot of momentum complete with an ok arc for Benditka. I know people have some issues with her depiction in regards to how women are depicted. They have their points, but Im not as interested. Though I do think the women are weak in this game as Jill is a wet blanket. It became pretty clear to me that the Dominants would basically be arcs to themselves, which makes sense if you’re trying to structure a story. But Ben feels the most realized. It comes at a time where the story is really starting to get going. Her arrival brings interesting intrigue, but also a good first examination on the story’s themes. To me we see through her how a Dominant effects a person and how because of her connections to people being damaged she becomes a more cold walled off person, tying her being to her power. When she loses it, it becomes a terrible force. This is all decent first heavy stuff, its even well-paced with some nice linear map design.
And then the game kind of starts to falter.
“We’re going to sneak into the city to destroy our first crystal”
“Sneaking happens off-screen” and we never go to this city we keep hearing about. In fact we don’t really go to any of these cities the game constantly talks about. Adding to the ill-feeling of the world.
Then we flash forward and we’re with a more well realized Clive and the arc we are in is the Hugo arc and it’s not compelling. Because honestly, what nuance is there to Hugo. He’s angry about a relationship we really did not feel or see outside of one cutscene. One that I feel we are mostly left with the feeling of her kind of using him. But we don’t really delve into what Hugo feels or what drives him beyond being angry. I guess that fits into the themes of how our connections with people shape us, and in his case it leads him into fury, but I’m unsure if makes for interesting storytelling the way it’s presented. And how it connects to Ultima’s overarching goal I am less enthused.
Then we have Dion and again, I’m less enthused. We never saw when his father was a decent man and we also don’t get a good take on how Annabelle(maybe actually Ultima) is really influencing beyond he’s bad. But to what ends?
Which ties into this game’s problems. For all the Game of Thrones talk, it amounts to nothing. The maclhations of these states and whatnot in the end feel like whatever. They have so little to do with the actual plot that I’d rather the game just embrace the jrpgness and get to the Ultima stuff faster. The conflict between them feels distant and I guess that leads me to caring about Dion less, because what’s going on is his kingdom is whatever. A lot of this story is about Climate Change and maybe Sanbreqe is the America equivalent here, but there’s not a lot of commentary that could help push that. I just think it failed to really connect with me. It does not help that Anabelle feels like Cersi without any of the interesting elements. Just a villain for the sake of it and poorly written. Is her motivation to keep her bloodline pure, but she also props up her clearly infantile son? Who was never real maybe? It’s just not well done and so a lot of this arc falls flat for me.
Not as flat as Banabras whose nihilism perhaps serves as maybe an interesting mirror to Clive, but lacks a real punch after all the build up. The War of the Ekions does not feel like this war of philosophies and motivations symbolized by powerful characters, instead isolated episodic episodes that feel often undercooked.
Maybe not us undercooked as Ultima. We arrived a point where Ultima started to explain his backstory, I thought we were going to experience a Shadowbringer’s tier backstory dungeon. Hey, it’s worked twice there. I wish that’s what happened. I’m sure much has been said about Ultima and I think his problems kind of symbolize a lot of what the problems XVI’s story is. I don’t think it makes strong enough connections and explorations of it’s themes, which is rather ironic about of a s tory about connections.
Ultima is also driven by his connections. His goal is to bring back his own people, so he must be experiencing a great loss. Unlike Clive though he’s taken this task all on his own and formed a god complex. His problem is seeing humans as tools, just like people see the bearers and that is his weakness. I also found it interesting how he seems to use people’s connections against them, perverting them. Using their images against them.
But I also think the game does a poor job laying out exactly the mechanics and themes.
It starts off with these nation sates and whatnot, but in the end the conflicts of them are rather irrelevant.
There’s thematic elements with the slavery aspect and I would say in the end it’s better then who say a Tales game would handle it, but there doesn’t seem to be some really impactful connection to Ultima and the main plot. Like what I mean is that in FFX, pretty much all the world building ties into the plot on a surface and thematic level.
Yu Yeveon is a religion of death, even the masters are dead and clinging unto an everlasting cycle, as is the manifestation of this the theme, the villain itself.
But either way, it can’t be said I didn’t enjoy the game. And maybe a playthrough that avoids the most of the sidequest will create a more faster paced and eventful feeling game. The fact that I’m already interested in a replay I think says it all.
