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FF16 game mechanic will be used in KH4, don't be too disappoint you did not get what you wanted in a FF series. SE created many mobile games that failed in the last 4 years. they were making so many subpar games, many of them had to be canceled. with all the woke and DEI SquareEnix devs are going through since the making of FF13, FF16 was a Cry for help. with FF16, you have to wonder, the sexuality of many staffs at SE. had the entire company succumb to lgbtQ fandom?? like with Forsoken, a sad sad and terrible remainder of what REAL TRASH LOOK LIKE, had many limitation. SE was scam for using a igbtQ consultant company to help rewrite their Triple A games. SE must been out of the mind to but this type of TRASH in FF7 REmake and REbirth, but they blody did!!!!! which had poor sell. expect woke and DEi in FF7: part 3 (Requiem, why requiem, you the have the Q in lpgtQ in the title) other than FF14, people are leaving SE games for better fan service base korean games. expect woke and dei in KH4 and be disappointed in this game. ..the sound of track of FF16 is over 8 hours long, it is a great addition for people who travel a lot.. over all FF16 was a fun game, the game play was similar the Devil May Cry 5 special edition. you can say FF16 is Devil May Cry 6.0.....

FF 16 tone is just the darkest in the series. Not FF8 dark but there. The world is depressed unfortunately and that is the point, right? I agree in the end about the characters in the party not feeling like a true FF party. You just don’t feel super attached to them for the most part. You still enjoy their characters for the most part. Like Cid.

Writers should really stop "subverting expectations", in all the media I've engaged with--games, shows, movies--when writers try this bit, they often write themselves in a plot hole they can't escape from or overwrite stuff to be bombastic for the sake of spectacle that they run out of steam by the middle or the end. Having a predictable plot isn't a bad thing as long as the story beats are coherent and compelling for the audience, FF6 was memorable and touching enough. But I suppose I can understand the fear of creatives to get lambasted online for playing safe. I don't have the solution of course, but I am a consumer and I'm just disappointed with the last two main titles. People would be like "focus on what you love, don't spread hate", like some kind of cult. I don't hate Square Enix, I wouldn't be disappointed if I didn't love the company. I'm not banking on nostalgia but it's weird that Xenogears has a more compelling, complicated story in pixel art than with this 4K Game of Thrones with waifus fanfic. People shit on FF8 but at least Rinoa and Squall had positive and negative interactions spread throughout the game, I wanted to like Jill and Clive, I really do. Half of my life I've spent on the FF fandom was because of shipping. I was there when FF.net removed all the NC-17 fics off their archives, I learned coding to make my own FF shrine with geocities--- but yeah, I really felt that Jill and Clive had the chemistry of work colleagues, not two people who should have trauma bonded. It would have been better if their interactions were spread out instead of that one weird naked scene (that was so fanfic-y btw) and their weird letters. Why write letters if the person you wanted to talk to is right there? What's the point of voice acting if their significant relationship developments were through letters? It's not like they're royals anymore, so no one would care about appropriateness of them talking. But letters? Like some therapeutic Leave It to Beaver kind of ridiculousness. And it's heavily implied they share a room? Benedikta and Kupka had a raunchy scene, at the beginning, we'd even see Benedikta and Barnas post-coitus----yes, they talk after Jill is rescued and the naked scene, but selling me that they're star-crossed tragic lovers is a meandering discourse. Sorry, I just care too much. Square inspired to write my own stories and it really hurts to see your hero fall, is all. I'd still support them, of course. I owe too much of what kind of person I am now growing up with their games, but we also shouldn't be a monolith of yes-men.

This game needed some actual dungeons more than anything, with a complex level design and interactivity, some environmental puzzle solving, something outside the relentless battles, it became redundant very fast...

While I can agree on a number of things you said, particularly the literal end of the world feeling extremely underwhelming, I feel inclined to disagree with you on the Amon point, since I actually did feel like that made Fandaniel more interesting than just an over-the-top antagonist. The idea that one of the Ascians had no interest in the plans of the Unsundered and actually did care about the life they had before being elevated was pretty interesting. But I do wish a bit more focus was given to that idea. Also, it was Papalymo that struck down Ilberd's ghost.

27:54 naw thats how you get wows msq which is super unengaging for me

A new expansion is out and now a slew of videos come out that boil down to "Actually, Endwalker isn't that good" and it's almost always someone who thinks the story that plays out in their head is better than the one we got because of unrealistic/nonsensical expectations or they just didn't pay attention

I'm really glad there's people that have the same views on this expac as I do. Not everything i agree with, but a lot of it I do. I was SO excited for endwalker after release. I'd loved the story and the game was in such an amazing position, with all the various content to go through, and I was so hopeful that endwalker's content patches would make it shape up to be the best expansion. But I can't really look past how disappointing every single patch was. Squenix's complete failure to provide their new content with interesting rewards and the utter lack of any sort of progression beyond leveling a job, was just so depressing. The completely rigid formula they've set themselves to is going to sadly be the downfall of this game. I've been trying to keep my hopes up for Dawntrail, but all the time i'm reminded of their stale structure and get worried that dawntrail will suffer all the same issues we've faced since Stormblood, hell, ARR too.

I mostly agree with your takes, honestly. I have some vague recollection that Endwalker was supposed to play out over 2-3 expansions but that since Shadowbringers was so popular they smooshed it into one so everyone would go into it excited. That was the wrong move. I think we should have had two: One being a Garlemald expansion dealing with the Towers, Fandaniel, Zenos. We learn Fandaniel is Amon and this revelation has time to breathe and sit with us. Amon is someone we've known since the game came out and his creations have been penultimate or final raid bosses over the years. We needed more time with him. End this expansion on the Moon with us killing Zodiark, post-patch content is the Final Days coming to the world where we revisit old locations where people are turning into monsters. A leader of one of the original three cities dies permanently. Second expansion: We go to Thavnair and help them deal with the Final Days then, to end everything, we go back in time to Elpis, learn about Hermes and it ends with the Endsinger at Ultima Thule. Post-patch content is a victory lap that also sets up new storylines. I think this would have worked way better. Interestingly enough World of Warcraft, a game not famously known for its story, is doing its own Endwalker in an apocalyptic event that wraps up plot points from the last couple of decades. Their end times/wrap up story will be three expansions long because even they recognize they can't fit it all into one and have it land.

8:47 -- Alright, I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed. The story of the allagans is a heartbreaking development, that Endwalker allows you to personally experience. And then, those same Allagans that you befriend being the Ascians you fought for literal years now, heightens the tragedy and loss that you experience through a kind of reverse-empathy here. Defeating Amon for the last time, and his speech about never finding the answer he was seeking, questioning if in the end the only true meaning to life, the only thing that connects people from across the entire world is their suffering and inevitable death. I actually cried during moments like that, and to have a character I had grown fond of in Ellipse die in front of me after that. Hell, the moment the story in Ellips went dark was impactful me too. It was true, cosmic horror at its peak for me. I'm just going to stop it here, because I know I'm going to spend the rest of the video disagreeing with everything you dislike about the game and its story.

I came into this with anger, then watched the video in the entirety and frankly you've ruined Endwalker for me, purely because I realise you have a point and I'm starting to agree with it, I hate that I agree with it. <_< I think the best solution would be to approach Dawntrail and the next few years with the attitude of looking at Shonen and how Shonen approaches new sagas as we are entering FFXIV's second saga, the devs have outright said this, so they should commit to it. So, if the first 10 years was Dragonball Z, think of Dawntrail as the start of Dragonball Super. Or say even Naruto verses Naruto Shippuden. What I am about to say is somewhat controversial, so forgive my blunt broadly assumptions and offensive opinion, but I believe it must be said. You need to realise that this is the exact direction the story will take so, unfortunately, we will continue to see the same characters as before as a result. You have to keep in mind there is a big looming shadow over the development team called the Square Enix Board and they tend to expect certain things which western gamers may not agree with purely because they believe it is what makes the game popular, they chase whatever the fanbase likes, blindly, without considering anything else. What matters to them is sales and attention retention, they rely on FFXIV to keep SE in the black right now. What we see, the formulaic stuff is one of those things, along with the pointless fan service and other nonsense. Everyone is blinded by the shiny colours that they don't notice they have been staring at the same ad on repeat. Unless the majority of fans oppose the constant shonen nature of FFXIV, it will retain it. I believe Endwalker is the victim of corporate interference, because in Shadowbringers, the developers were given a lot of freedoms to do what they wanted, without caring about pandering to fan service the playerbase or try and forcibly insert references to previous games. But... there was a lot of interference too, many things were forcibly changed by the higher ups during development and it showed. While with Endwalker, it felt like the higher ups decided a lot of it. With that said, the old writers who were working on FFXVI are back working on FFXIV again, also, Sakaguchi has taken interest in consulting FFXIV's future development direction. So, this could potentially impact positively on the direction of the story. Corporate needs to be hands off, they need to just let the devs cook and also to the devs, stop trying to kill off characters, the higher ups will force you to keep them alive, so instead of constantly killing them to just bring them back, just don't do it anymore at all, they only let you get away with it three times and that was a decade ago, so stop trying to do it again. It is very much a cry wolf situation, as of right now the only mistake they haven't done yet is jump the shark.

9:47 I don't really agree to this like you said, they are meant to be portrayed as human-like. Just because they were a powerful god like race doesn't mean they are immune to emotions, or else the ascians wouldn't have done what they did. They feel fear, hope and those are represented there. I also don't think that just because Elpis exists it invalidates the mistakes or sacrifices of Emet etc. In fact through Elpis you understand him way more as a character and the role he played and his position on the convocation. Also your point about teleporting to Elpis to see them again doesn't really make sense from a narrative point because at the end he does show up again acknowledging you kicked his ass in ShB and that you are worthy of bearing the responsibility of carrying on the legacy they made. They don't really live happily in that pocket of time.. Good of you to show your love for the game by making a 40 min video though!

Regarding stripping your power to make stakes higher again - they did that right before Heavensward if I remember correctly with Midgarsomr removing your link to Hydalin. I think them doing something where like... we lose the power of Azem somehow for some reason it could work maybe?

Endwalker has a strong second half for the story, the first half was a chore imo which funny enough was the opposite of FFXVI. The zenos body switching with you thing was so dumb and pointless, I still don’t get what it was for. FF16’s gameplay teaches us a lot about Yoshi’s design philosophy considering how much it borrows from FF14, in the worst ways. The slow pruning of any choice or agency in FF14’s gameplay systems (job identity, TP systems, cross class skills, etc…). Some of these choices were good, some made the game incredibly sterile and then when you look at FF16 having basically no RPG systems, it starts to make sense. Those aforementioned systems needed work and progress, not thrown away altogether and replaced with 4 tanks that play identically, 4 healers that suck to play, and DPS that also play identically with 2 minute burst windows dominating the design. Sure, ARR monk was janky but it felt distinct to any mmo I’d played. It doesn’t feel that way anymore. the flattening of the overworld is another thing. Layered map design like Black shroud is completely absent from any post ARR content in favor of dull, lifeless overworld with 0 charm or activity. Just automaton NPCs mindlessly droning around. Some places like Ultima Thule and Elpis are gorgeous but otherwise worthless to explore. I get it, it’s an mmo, but still. So much of what I fell in love with FFXIV for has been cut out and replaced with inoffensive, frictionless and heartless display pieces. I’ve been playing since 2.0 and the dungeons are similarly boring now. No sense of exploration or fun, just hallways broken up by trash mobs catering to the people running them over and over again instead of making a fun initial play through. As far as the story, it was really good but it doesn’t hit the emotional highs Shadowbringers does because I frankly don’t care about Hydaleyn as a character like I cared about Emet or Elidibus since she’s barely there in non crystal form. Rehashing zenos and having some absurd anime fist fight in space was just gratuitous imo though. I guess I’m over the whole existential nihilism theme for JRPGS since we’ve been inundated with them. Endwalker does it well enough but Shadowbringers made me genuinely question why I was doing what I was doing and if it was worth it. Endwalker doesn’t. It’s an animal rights activist giving an obviously impossible question to ChatGPT 4.0 then losing his mind over it. Just hard to buy it. 3:38 Lyse and Hien have been retconned out of the story. They responded to stormblood critiques by just deleting people from the story. Lyse is an OG scion and gets no growth or time. Again, this instinct to react to any *friction* by completely scrapping the system/character is such a plague on the game. How many times have classes been completely reworked? How many times have they gone back and forth between “we’ll never do this content again” to “okay we’ll do it again.” Just really feels like since FF14 is basically the only thing Square has going for them they are terrified of doing anything radical or committed in fear of losing any subscribers. 9:42 OMG yes!!! Thank you!!! I thought I was going crazy. They were 10000 times cooler when they were this ancient communist society that progressed past class distinction, when they were just Emet’s illusion, this last breath of their society through the lens of someone who lived it, you got to make abstractions in your head. You got to imagine how their lives would have been. Fast forward to endwalker and it’s a bunch of guys dicking around in an open field doing nothing. Thats not an ancient advanced society. That’s a renaissance fair in some small Michigan town. so incredibly disappointing. I guess in summation, I just dislike where the game is going. I’ve pre ordered ever single expansion and despite my reservations as early has HW seeing this trend, I was excited for launch day every single time. It’s one of my all time favorite games but I genuinely don’t know if I even wanna bother catching up to the current patch content to even play Dawntrail. Idk how many more hallway dungeons and “move out of circle” trial fights I have in me. Thanks for the video, you are a braver man than me for making this lmao. I hope you don’t get too much shit. Sentiment on endwalker post Zepla video seems to be swinging so hopefully you’ll avoid most of it

Everything in Garlemald was a massive disappointment. I wanted a proper modern metropolis to walk around in, see Garlean lifestyle, but it's just ruins full of people who hate anyone trying to help them for no reason. Elpis was cool but the story was badly executed. You appear small and need to be upscaled and aethered-up by Emet and then that's immediately forgotten, the WoL should have come back in time as a giant but no, they just made that scene just because, and because they already made the ancient shades tall. The Elpis story was stupid too. Emet and Hythlo just stand there to let their memories get wiped instead of flying through the gate out, and they have plenty of time to easily escape. Venat does nothing with her countless days/months/years/decades/centuries of time to use her high standing in the Ancient society to change things up, or to prepare for the attack, maybe make an army of a million Meteion-like drones who can hunt her down while using dynamis for power? But no, I guess doing nothing and then becoming the ultimate villain of the story is fine too. Zodiark also felt so wasted, he has no agency and neither does he ever do anything bad in the story. He gets summoned, does exactly as told and then gets attacked by some crazy woman and stomped into 14 parts for no reason whatsoever. Venat really was the big bad and I'm glad she's dead, but the story for some reason didn't allow me to call her out on all the monstrous things she did. Like imposing 10,000 years of intentional suffering on everyone just because. There's also that moment where Emet looks to the camera and tells you, the player, not to unsub because there's still this list of things the game can go to, which was both so immersion ruining and hilarious to see.

I agree with a lot of your takes on the main story of base Endwalker. A lot of it was lost on me. I disliked the time travel, I disliked the memory erasing, I disliked the explanation of the Final Days with a final boss shown at nearly the final hour of the video game, I disliked how the Final Days happened in only one area and didn't really affect anywhere else on the map, I disliked Ultima Thule execution. I was so shook when Thancred was gone, but then we focused on dragons and it became clear what was about to happen. I loved the Garlemald section - Jullus is probably one of my favorite side characters, in any video game. His story had me captivated way more than most of the things going on with main characters. The tones in Garlemald were excellent. I really wish they fleshed that out way more.

Ooooh, spicy take right off the start. I feel like I wanna give my takes as the video goes. Lemme keep editing this comment. Edit 1: 4:20 dude, yeah. The Loporits, the twins' mother - Ameliance and father - Forchenault, Erenville, Montichaigne, fricken Hythlo, Jullus, Quintus, Venat!!, Vrtra, Nidhana, Matsya. Did none of these characters connect with ya? Edit 2: 8:17 Well not really, depending on how the story went, we could have had Anima, Hydaelyn, or some other new trial at 84. Zodiark at lv 84 is frankly the last choice anyone predicted. I definitely see how that can be a disappointment to someone who has played this game for 10 years but honestly on hindsight, what did you expect? You really killed all hope of Zodiark being born with massive power in SHB, the actual zodiark fight was in 5.3 with the warrior of light because that's the heart of zodiark. Elidibus is the Venat of Zodiark. Zodiark was a shell after 5.3. What you fought in EW trial 1 was Fandanial. Edit 3: 10:42 ah yes, who could forget Emet's fall from gays. Some say Hythlo is still there waiting for him, forsaken for eternity. Edit 4: 12:08 Looks like someone didn't do their role quests. At that point in the story you are literally introduced to all the role quest givers to show you how every part of the world is affected and needs you help. And if you did do them you would get to meet Hien in the phys ranged role quest. So there that's 2 of your complaints solved in one missed aspect of the story. Even if you tell me oh that's side content, ain't nobody got time for that, you are still introduced to that aspect of the world in the main story and told how the rest of the world is affected so it's unfair of you to say we weren't shown the stakes of the situation. Edit 5: 13:42 Okay so you know about but are just throwing a hissy fit about how the "story isn't exactly how I pictured it in my mind for 10 years", bud, nothing was going to be equal to the paradise in your mind. Your rant reminds me of those ancients who wanted to summon Zodiark to remake their perfect wo..... you're an Ascian! XD Edit 6: 14:09 No, cause the world could be destroyed by then. I feel like you are being a jaded old meta player who lost all immersion in the story and just going through the motions at this point. Edit 7: 15:02 Damn, tell us how you really feel. Edit 8: 20:58 Yeah I disagree. Your character experienced the same things as you the person playing the game did, why would you expect the in game characters to feel differently from you? The entire point about Emet is that he was a good dude who did bad deeds, we put him down for his action but why must we hate him? Just like how we understood Emet's actions, don't you think the in game characters understood Emet too? Do you view in game characters as 2d no brain exposition spewers, or actual people with complex emotions? Edit 9: 26:14 okay I'm gonna stop the video and watch it some other time but general thoughts so far: Ye no you experienced the story how you experienced it and I don't think there's anything fundamentally wrong with it but it does feel like you robbed yourself of a lot of good experiences because of the baggage you brought into the story instead of just experiencing the story. Edit 10: 26:51 afaik you didn't agree to help her, just that we would visit the new world and see before making up our mind. Edit 11: 29:09 Ye no fair point lol but I disagree that being a witness is just a better way of telling the story. It's cool if that's how you prefer it but not everyone does. Edit 12: 40:03 Clap Clap Clap, hey gj on the vid. I had a lot I disagreed on but cool to see your vid. Glad you enjoyed the PVP changes, I did too. Hope you enjoy DT but goddamn man, when was the last time you took a break from FF it sounds like you desperately need one.

Thank you for giving me something to chew on while the servers are down. I don’t agree with some points, I agree with many others, and I found it all interesting. Editing and pacing are superb. I admire how much work you put into this.

FF16 was going all right for me until the 5 year time skip, from then on it went downhill. The only reasons I somewhat like the game and even decided to finish it is mainly because of Clive, and also because I kind of liked the depressed/dark vibe that it had. It's Yoshi P and Maehiro who were in charge of this game though, so I guess I sort of expected the game to not be that great. They're pretty lazy writers as both FF16 and FF14 proves it. FF16 has countless flaws. The ending of the game was stupid and I think it threw part of Clive's character arc out of the window, along with the reveal of Joshua being alive. Part of his arc was about living and saving himself. There's even a lot of the characters in the game constantly scolding him to quit worrying about everyone else and save himself for once, and I think Clive being dead (if he is dead) devalues all of that. It's never explained why Joshua stays away from Clive for an additional 5 years Most of the side quests are dull and unrewarding (the only good quests were the endgame ones) The gameplay was way too simple (I didn't die a single time) and the design of it is lazy. There's not much enemy variety and none of the enemies had any weaknesses/strengths. The characters in your party are useless and hardly do any damage, they only do one attack every 20 seconds, and they stupidly have infinite health. The party members unable to be incapacitated in battle is probably the most ridiculous thing that I've ever seen in a Final Fantasy game. I for one don't really mind if other characters are unplayable, but being immortal in the gameplay? Seriously? Whoever designed the gameplay, I ask you, what in the actual fuck were you doing? This is probably the most important flaw that I think everyone who has played FF16 agrees on. Literally all of the characters except Clive had absolutely no exploration/character arcs. They never once get to shine on their own, and they pretty much all exist for Clive's development/story which is pretty insulting to the characters in my opinion. There's also lot of unanswered questions about the characters that people who played the game wanted to learn more of, especially when you consider some of the tiny hints and details that some of these characters themselves throw at us in the game as to how they came to be/why they are the way they are in the present. It was also very disappointing to see that even none of the characters appearances even changed after that 5 year time skip. The game was just way to focused on Clive, and if somebody is not a fan of Clive then they'll easily get bored of the game, as I'm sure that there are. FF16 had so much potential, the developers even had an opportunity to redeem the game with certain DLCs that a lot of people were asking for, but unfortunately they didn't care what the fans wanted for the DLCs, and as far as I've seen hardly anybody has played the them. And they pretend like they don't know why the game didn't sell to their expectations.

For someone who doesnt play a lot of games, you really seem to get it. A puddle deep character action game cannot go on for 40 hours. Hironobu sakaguchi advised tetsuya nomura that you have to add depth for people to be interested in your game when he made kingdom hearts. I think ff16 wants to be a hbo series and not a game.

A big mistake in my opinion was letting game of thrones influence the series so heavily. By the time FF16 came out game of thrones was old news, not to mention many people lost interest because of the nose dive in quality after season three or four. Previous FF games had influences sure, usually pulling from multiple places and it always became it’s own thing. The game of thrones influence here feels way too overt and more like trend chasing than a true inspiration. Chasing trends is a great way to date your game vs. feeling timeless. In this case 16 felt dated when it released. I’m a big FF fan too, I’m not sure I can bring myself to try 16 though. I skipped everything after FF10, I may try 12, none of the entries after that look remotely interesting to me. I miss the quirkier side of the series, the diorama like setting as you entered a home, giving you a feeling of how people lived. I miss music that would stop me in my tracks and still have an impact on me years later. The older games have more interesting characters and dialogue, cutscenes were a reward for gameplay that progressed the story and were usually paced very well. The charm seems gone and I’m not sure if it’s a lack of talent or an attempt to broaden appeal, either way it’s a decline in quality.

I hated the story, the demo stablished so many interesting conflicts and problems for Clive but everything gets resolved as soon as the first timeskip, you find Shiva girl, the dog, his brother and even his old guard are alive and he gets the power to destroy entire countries by himself. It's so sloppy.

Funny that yoship said "nobody wants to play rpgs anymore" when ffxiv put him on the goddamn map.

Honestly, I love FF16 a lot so watching this video really did break down a lot for me. I think I still enjoy it but I can definitely see the glaring issues with storytelling it has. I probably only have one huge disagreement among a small amount of others and that’s with Clive and Jill’s relationship as I felt it was done well, but for the most part I think this was pretty cohesive. Definitely an interesting perspective different from me talking this up with my homies

i hate to break it to you but squall died lol

Thanks for the video. I’m a big FF fan though perhaps a little more old school as I played it on the SNES and PS1 (FF4, 6, 7, 8 and 9). I missed out much of FF when it entered into 21st century and I would return to it on PS4 with Remake and just recently, Rebirth on the PS5. After finishing Rebirth, my good friend asked me to play 16 but the demo left me not as satisfied. But the game was recently on sale so I decided to bite the bullet and play 16. Worse case scenario: my money goes to Square-Enix for future projects. In sum, 16 wasn’t bad but I’d be lying to myself if I said it was good. And after finishing Rebirth, which is on a whole different level on all aspects, the comparison hurts 16 more. The game just felt lacking. It had lots of potential because when it gets epic, it’s truly epic (such as the summon fights). But the game left me disappointed because I know it could’ve been better. I can forgive the silly side quest of feeding 3 meals to bearers, but when dialogues with NPCs only recorded the first 3 lines while the rest was silent? What happened, seriously? I doubt they ran out of money but it felt just laziness on the devs. Anyway, thanks again for the video. I agreed to many of your points.

Mupauls diva rave has ruined my social life, my sleep schedule and my mental health. I’ve lost all hope in society when I saw people agree that “drop it like it’s hot” fit the theme for the character scooby doo. I submitted one of the greatest songs from the 2000s and I’m being told by a grand jury of my peers that I should kill myself. I wish I could back. Back to 1999. Take a ride through my old neighborhood.

If this game had everything you were asking for it would’ve been a 250 gb download instead of a 96gb download

It’s not called Final Fantasy because it’s a realistic game. It’s called Final Fantasy because it’s in the world of fantasy.

Dude i watched the entire game in a stream and i fell asleep. It's BORING. 15 is the opposite of 16. A party. Fun. Open world. A MC with a personality. An actual love interest. Good dlc. Good side quests. 16 just fails.

As a new fan, this was probably my favorite game. It was fun to play, the deep moments were deep and some of the side quest actually made me super invested and i'd argue that the opening hours are so fantastic. but beating this game and seeing everything it has to offer, yeah story does suck and feels half baked. My biggest problem was Jill being nothing more than just gum that gets stepped on. So much potential wasted The combat is arguably shallow as well and everything can be beaten with just super attacks if you want and some/most fights don't require skill especially when theres potions everywhere and so many crafting supplies and free restarts with max heals the balance in this game also suffers so much and doesn't scale properly and it always feels like it's just rushing to the next plot point I do love this game. I had so much fun but my gosh it is a bit of a headache cause it feels like it should've been handled better

I wanna meet the prick at square that thinks I dont wanna be able to control my party (and no party is not the solution to that)

Here after the rising tide released, mystery of the medicine girl continues. Honestly, I feel the same in most ways about this game. It's honestly forgettable besides the rage that it could've been better. It's a 6/10 and I hope people realise after the spectacle that this it the true worth of the game

here after FF7 Rebirth, base on the sales numbers and the views on twitch - youtube, the interest in FF7 are low in comparison to FF16, and not only that to see such a dip from FF7R P1 to FF7R P2 in player counts, can tell you one thing that a lot of people don't like FF7R... FF16 got a lot of hate for youtubers who do JRPG contents and made it into something, but it was loud minorty like skillup - mattyplays and other JRPG nerds...

My biggest issue is the side quest main quests. Good god they just kill the pacing

Disliked, not because I disagree (although I disagree a lot), but mostly because of bad takes.

I ardently disagree with your overall point of ”it didn’t feel like a final fantasy game.” You brought up whimsy and goofy almost like you’ve never played ff2,or FF4, or 6 where the overall tone of the game is bleak for almost the entirety. The story of the game was one of the best overall. What turned me off was the action, this game was too easy and didn’t feel like an RPG and the world as a whole felt empty. These are the same problems I have with KH3 and am afraid that this is the direction Square is going.

People talked about how "epic" the eikon battles were. Outside of the two where you fly around, they are pretty lame. They are nothing but repetitive button mashing sections followed by lame QTEs. I actually did like the story, but the fetch quests are ridiculous. This game does not respect the player's time at all. Some of the later side quests are really good, but it's such a slog to get to the good part. Idk... this game was a mixed bag for me. I completed all the chronoliths, hunts, and side quests. I am on my way through final fantasy mode to get my platinum. Whereas I feel like I got my money's worth, I don't feel like I will pick it up again. Coming into this as an older fan that had to resort to shoddy fan translations to even play 2, 3, and 5 before the GBA and PSX versions, this game doesn't measure up to its legacy. The pacing issues could have been solved by removing the fetch quests, the enemies are worse than the OG method of recolors, and it just falls short in some many ways. I do disagree with you on the OST though, I actually think it knocks it out of the park on a lot of tracks. Find the Flame and the phoenix them are great. The main eikon fight theme is great. I even like the run of the mill strong enemy battle theme. Either way, great video and commentary. I'm looking forward to catching more of your stuff

I loved FF16 for its darker tone, the Eikon fights as well as the sibling dynamics, but after playing FF7 Remake and Rebirth I completely understood what the fandom had hoped for.

Ive never seen an FF game want you to feel the aspect of the power of friendship towards the end but make everything feel so lonely the entire time. Most boss fights you fight by yourself. You fight Benedikta by yourself. You fight Hugo by yourself. You fight Barnabas by yourself. And you fight Ultima by yourself even though Joshua and Dion go in with you to help, but by the halfway point of the fight you're back to fighting by yourself. One of FFs strong points is the power of friendship and side characters. Their character development and screen time matters. Everyone at the hideaway immedietly takes to Clive and loves him like they've been friends for years. No one at the hideaway ever questions him or wants to go about something another way. Everyone just agrees with everyone at all times. Now take FFX. Not everyone took to Tidus from the get go. Many thought his naivety would hold them back, but both Tidus and the other crew taught each other things along the way. Wakka learned to not put so much of his prejudices onto Rikku. Lulu was learning to get over the death of her boyfriend and Wakka was learning to not blame her for it. Aaron hates his younger self and feels he didn't as good of a job as a guardian in the past..having to undo those feelings. Yuna bears a good deal of weight on a mission she feels she has to do and it's only through Tidus where she sees it doesn't have to be that way. And Tidus is learning to navigate a world that he no longer knows. Losing most people he ever knew. Having to learn the ropes of a world he no longer understands. In FF16 the only moment we get that showcases any kind of teaching a lesson moment is when Joshua slaps Clive because Clive has been doing things alone. That would be fine and dandy if Joshua didn't force a piece of Ultima in his chest basically draining his own life force. Doing that so others wouldn't have to bear to full weight of Ultima. It doesn't help that even when you do have people with with you it doesn't feel like you do. The other problem is how useless so many of the characters are in regards to battle. Unless you are a dominant of an Eikon then you have no uses and can't particpate in battles which is most of the characters. Gav only wields a sword but never does much with it besides one fight. Goetz can't do anything. Blackthorn can't do anything. Charon can't do anything. Tarja can't do anything. Jill gets captured twice and then gives up all of her Eikon abilities to Clive. So all you're left with is Joshua and Dion that can't even help you for the whole end fight. Ive never seen an FF game make so many characters so useless

This comment comes a bit late but I don't want to be alone with my thoughts. I just finished the game today after 4 months of playing with lots of breaks. 1. The game looks shit and I mean shit. I figured that on my new TV and on Ps5. The visual appeared washed out, the grey / brown tint to make it look dark and gritty killed the Final Fantasy vibe for me. Usually FF- Games were colorful and bright at times of peace and dark and cruel when something catastrophic happened. You quickly get the feel of FF14 "This is not an important cutscene so we didnt put effort into animating the discussion between two characters." and you can easily spot them. 2. The pacing was so messed up. I wanted to play the sidequests but for the love of god after the battle with Odin I couldnt continue them any longer. "Quick, Clive we have to do X and Y. Ok? Go gogo!" then four sidequests pop up which might later become unavailable so you better do them then and there, thus killing the games flow. 3. Unispired world. Its just meadows, forest and ruins (which aren't even explained other than <old civilization>. You keep runniung around the same areas with some "Plot Dungeons" which go from Hallway to Boss Arena to Hallway to Boss Arena. You could tell when a boss will come around just by looking 2 seconds around. While the graphics aren't all bad it looked super uninspiring. I never felt like "Oh let's go over there and see what I can find." 4. Clive. Clive is the worst Protagonist ever. Period. I am baffled that the two braincells he had kept him breathing. You could slap him in the face and stand in front of him and he'd ask who done it. He takes everything he is told for granted and never doubts anything. (Especially in the final of the game when he sees the illusion caused by the fucking ENEMY!!!), also this Clive-Cid-Mythos-Logos Name shenanigans was super annoying to me. 5. I dont care about the other characters. Cid was cool, Benedicta had potential yes, even Kupka could've been more interesting in his strive for revenge other than going nuts. Jill was nothing but a mediocre eyecandy. Torgal was a good boi but sadly useless in actual combat. 6. The Combat. God forbid the combat. It's too shallow for a DMC Style game and void of any tactic other than "Spam strong ability, break enemy balance bar, cutscene, QTE, rinse and repeat." It lacked more combo options that we know from the DMC games. I swear to god if I ever have to play a game with super bulletsponge bosses just to break balance-bars over and over, I'll go out and... do something healthy. 7. And this is my main complaint. It felt like a dead MMO. A few zones to visit over and over, NPC all looked the same with changed color palettes but the WORST!! was Ultima. This thing just popped up with motivation that was void of any logic. It was like a Diet- Ascien from FF14. Ultima wants to retake the world and return it to its primal state, wiping out mankind along the way. The issue is that we know nothing of his kind. He just keeps telling he is superior because some god shenanigans and a that what causes the plague drove his kind away. What kind though? Was there an entire civilization of his species? Were they all god-like or was he special? We learn nothing more about his origin other than that. He just made humans to get new bodies. Done. How would that solve the issue they came across before? He even stated that this "ancient enemy" followed them to Valisthea. The issue is that when you've played all of FF14 up to the end of Endwalker, you see so many similarities, that FF16 feels like a poor ripoff from the same director except the compelling antagonists are missing.

For me this should have been a spinn-off, rather than mainline FF. Final Fantasy has always been an RPG with a party. And this game is an action game, with a single playable character. This is the equivalent of calling Command & Conquer: Renegade, just Command & Conquer 4. Or calling the first Telltale Borderlands adventure just Borderlands 3. Just a little change in name, and people wouldn't even discuss whether this is or is not a Final Fantasy game. That being said, the name is far from the only issue this game has, as you explained, but it would have helped to have people less frustrated. Because if a spinn-off fails, well we still have the mainline titles... but if the mainline disappoints, people are that much more likely to just abondon the franchise. And it's not like there was no writing on the wall about how FF fans think about action-games with a single playable character, because that did not go down well wtih Lightning Returns either.

Everyone or No one LOL

10:45 Not even the Hidaway theme?

FINALLY. Someone else was saying things I’ve said the whole time. You elaborated so sufficiently in eloquently that there’s not much I can comment on. I REALLY don’t get why people seem to love the music. I think the final boss theme was pretty good and some(not all) the other battle themes were decent, but that’s it

I finished the game and felt empty. I feel like something was right and it was a Final Fantasy to me. You speak for a lot of people including me Final Fantasy 16 wasn't good.

So much agreement. This is the worst FF game of the entire series. I just finished FF and am in the middle of a FF2 playthrough, and they are fun, whimsical, brief. Just pleasant. This entire game is like a homework assignment. In 15 years time no one is going to want to replay 16. But they will still enjoy the old titles

Good review. I think you shouldn't say "in my opinion" that much, I know (I think) that you do it to soften the blow and be diplomatic in your criticism, but a lot of your "imo" are on objective statments. The music is indeed, sadly, generic. I can hum music from every title since 5, I don't even remember a track from 16. Even the most controversial titles, 8, 10, 12, 13 have something in them that makes them a FF game. This could have been the latest Ubisoft game, sadly (slight exageration, yes). It's like HBO produced a FF, yeah, it's very adult now, everyone says f**k and s**t, you see oouples naked in bed, but where is the fantasy ? Eveything is dark and gritty and serious, reminds me of the new Star Trek where we went from a bright, hopeful future to drugs and insults and murder and loud explosions. I fear for the future of FF.

Well Final Fantasy shills buy any slop thrown at them so they get shit.