Final Fantasy XVI

Absolutely loved every minute and I have sunk 200+hrs into it at this point. I played through at least 7 times and still did every side quest and extra bits on each one. I have gotten multiple tattoos for this one along with my other favorites.

cool game, clive is a great character, the pacing issues people tend to complain about don't really exist minus one particularly egregious section, ultima is a philosophically precise antagonist

LOVE THE STORY. A good youtube movie! But the game design is a complete disaster compared to earlier Final Fantasy games. The action combat is a terrible change, it's so boring and tedious. All you do is hack enemies with a sword over and over, and their HP is huge. There's no party with different classes and spells. And there's no meaningful customization, no items (just linear upgrades), no abilities (well there are some but they just change the colors of the effects).

At first it's a bit hard to recognise the FF in it, and the story takes some time to make you attached, but once is done you get one of the more solid FFs, a great story, very good battle (but purely action-rpg), and just a bit uneven pace sometimes. Also, the feeling is FF + Game of Thrones + Avatar (animation series), very interesting mix. DLC Echoes of the Fallen is ok (or very good if you enjoy fighting), Rising Tide on the other hand is great, highly recommended and should be main story.

I really liked the beginning of this - the production value is top of the line. The music, the spectacle - it's all really great. It is just WAY too long for its own good. It seems to run out of ideas after a while and just became a slog to finish. The story was so gripping at the beginning but it progressed way too slowly toward the end. The gameplay was okay, nothing amazing - you're fighting the same enemies over and over again. The highlight is the boss fights by far.

As torn as I’ve ever been on a game! It looks and sounds fantastic as you’d hope, the battle system is fun (if more hack ‘n slash than RPG) and the plot & world will intrigue and satisfy fans of epic/dark/high medieval fantasy. It also has very monotonous gameplay with zero minigames, a billion fetchy side quests that become near torture and utterly ruin the pacing, and if you’re OCD about watching all the cutscenes like me then strap yourself in for literally like 25 hours of them, dear god.

When the main quest isn't stupid fetch quests this is really thrilling and emotional with a great story. I love how it wraps up. I enjoyed the characters more than I thought... not that they are the best we've seen in FF. Combat is fluid and deep. Sure, there's not a ton of RPG in this, but I was okay with it. It was all about narrative and combat. The side quests are mostly whack. The dog is awesome. Soundtrack is absolutely fantastic. Eikon battles are also fantastic.

mid tier combat and a bunch of fetch quests, that coat of paint sure is shiny though