Final Fantasy XVI

Final Fantasy 16 is a cinematic-playable experience (which is a complement of course... well mostly.)

However, it has suffered from Square Enix's common mistakes as in poor investment in RPG elements and Open-world building, as well as pretty meh side quests.. still this is a solid 9.

If am gonna rate this game only for its combat & the epic fights & boss battles, it will probably get a 10/10. But there’s just some things that i was a little bit let down, I just felt the levels and the world were a little bit restricted and not enough creativity & freedom although the graphics were really pretty and very nice environments. Also not enough verity of things to do other than combat, no puzzles no platforming, or anything interesting 🤨. Enjoyed the story & cutscenes. The side quests were okay the good thing about them it gives you more context & lore and some pretty rewards. Great music & voice acting. And something about the game that makes it feel very luxurious and top quality. So overall mixing the good with the bad i feel this is a solid 8.5 ✨

What a roller-coaster ride all the way through. This easily in my top 3 FF games of all time.

The story is hands down my favourite of the series, as well as the best cast of characters in the series. Like 7 Remake, this is one of the few games in the franchise that is actually well written and easy to follow. It helps that they geniusly added the Active Time Lore system where you can pause the game at any point and familiarise yourself with story points you may have missed. Clive is the most relatable and best written protag and my favourite thus far.

The game manages to flesh out the world and feel like a grand adventure where you grow and travel and learn with Clive and all his companions on the way, something that FF15 tried to do with it's open world and bromance but ultimately failed due to it's lack of vision. FF16 clearly had a vision all the way through it's development and executed it perfectly.

While the combat is so well executed and fun for an action game, where it feels like it rivals the likes of DMC and Bayonetta, there are barley any RPG elements to the system besides levelling up and equipping gear. This is the biggest flaw that made me want to pull this down from a 10 to a 9. The game presents you with the power of 8 Eikons (summons) each representing a different element, however there is no reason to choose one element over another in battles as THERE ARE NO ELEMENTAL WEAKNESSES, something that has been a core part of the battle system of Final Fantasy since the first game and is main driver of strategy for battles. As a result of this, every single battle from the first enemy all the way until the final boss require the same strategy; dodge any attacks and hit them until they are staggered, once staggered use all your strongest attacks for maximum damage. This is the best most efficient way to battle for any enemy or boss. Fortunately the action is so fun that it doesn't feel repetitive considering each enemy has a diverse moveset you'll need to learn to dodge, however I always end up missing the element of strategy during every battle. Even FF15 with it's shallow combat had both elemental weakness as well as weapon type weakness which added at least (some) element of strategy.
FF7 Remake had a great mix of real time action gameplay and strategy, and my perfect battle system would be a mix of FF16 with the ATB system of 7 remake. Here's hoping future games do this.

On top of the combat, FF16 has some of the best boss fights I've ever experienced in video games ever. I won't go further into detail just take my word for it.

Music is some of the best in the series, but of course that is the case as the composer is the legendary Soken who composed F14 which probably has my favourite soundtrack of the franchise.

The game took me about 70 hours to complete with all side quests. Most side quests were great and fleshed out the characters and world, but there were still some of the typical pointless side quests you've seen in a lot of games.

The best way to describe FF16 is that it has the artstyle of FF12 (my favourite one), the music and world of FF14, the characters of FF5, the storytelling of FF Tactics, and the combat system of Devil May Cry. This turned out to be a great recipe for the next iteration. As a fan of the FF franchise, I highly recommend this to both old school fans and newcomers alike.

I know the game isn't a 10/10 but it just feels like it

A long, but worthwhile story. It gets a ten because of the final battle and ending. It's worth staying the course. That was awesome.

A solid and fun game. I really enjoyed my time with this one. An intoxicating mix of Final Fantasy, DMC, God of War and Sony first party magic.