Final Fantasy XVI - Easy Allies Review 

Best review I’ve seen on this game and honestly nothing beats a Jones narration.

I might be late here, but the guy who did this review, used to be the guy who did the Game Trailers reviews on their website right? He was one of the best, extremely professional.

12:23 I would strongly disagree with "wondrous world full of exploration", the weakest point imo is exploration and side quests, but nice review

Haven't even finished the video and have to comment on how wonderful the "active time lore" system sounds. It sounds so obvious and simple but seemingly nobody (including me) ever thought about it. I was nervous about how much lore and characters would be in this game that would be too hard for an adult with a full time job to appreciate because I will forget everything every time I get back to playing.

Nice to see a nonremake single player FF be amazing again. Business Unit and Yoshi aren’t playing around!

Good to hear that this game doesnt make the same mistakes 15 did, at least is a complete story this time around.

Jesus guys, everything in this review proved that your reviews should be the industry standard. It was that good!

I'm so confused. I cannot believe how many people drank the kool-aid on this thin, boring, button masher with a good soundtrack and visuals.

The most consistent criticism I'm hearing about the game is framerate and early-game sidequest. But other than that, it's an overall amazing game. Well worth the wait.

Tears of the Kingdom runs at 20 FPS and no one bats an eye. FF16 spikes between 30-60 only in certain areas of the game and it gets dinged for it.

Damn, this game is yet another banger this year in a year STACKED with them. This year might turn out bettter than 2018 and others. What a time to be a gamer. We're eating good this year.

Ff16 coming in strong and hot. Great review!

I'm usually not one to complain about scores but watching this overly positive review and seeing a 9.0 from Damiani and then remembering he gave Ni no kuni 2 a 9.5 makes me thing review scores are completly meaningless😅

It feels surreal to actually have an FF not disappoint, it brings me such a joy I can’t describe.

Just finished this game about an hour ago. Spectacular. I loved it.

Man idk about this game. All the reviews are amazingly positive but the demo really did nothing for me.

I hope we will see Ben Starr at the FFXVI Spoiler Mode 🤞

Glad FF is back. Whatever happens it is my GOTY😊

As a 31 year old playing games , this brought me back to being a kid shouting at screen and gett8ng amazed. Real game of the year!

Amazing review as always

I'm getting lots of Tales of Arise vibes playing the game, and Clive also reminds me of Alphen.

FINALLY a great mainline final fantasy. The demo was absolutely amazing.

Its kind of interesting that Square is so dead set against turn based combat when Atlas feels confident it can resurect a ps2 game faithfully with just a few tweaks.

Wish I had a PS5 for this, but it will likely be some months, if not a year before I can grab this (unless it drops on PC sooner). Either way, this is the most hyped I've been for a FF since the 90's.

Legit the only review that matters to me and that I've been waiting for especially after watching you guys play the demo with Ben. Not surprised to hear it's a modern masterpiece that's really only slightly hindered by its performance because I had more fun with the 2 hour demo alone than most full length games I've played this year.

I love the game so much. The only thing I cannot stand is the borderline intolerable motion blur. I tried turning up my sensitivity because the default is so low and I about threw up from motion sickness. I hope they patch it soon.

Most disheartening and disappointing game of the year for me.

This is great! Hot off the press 🔥 FF is back in stately fashion 🎮

Im so glad Square removed most of the RPG elements from one of the best RPG series

CBU3 showing once again why they have made one of the best FF stories to date

"The most satisfying single player FF in nearly two decades." Just what I like.😋

How this game is getting lower scores than TOTK is beyond me.

The demo already made me care about Sir Tyler and Sir Wade. The characters so good!

Active time lore itself should push this into at a 9.5

Good work, Easy Allies. A trustworthy review as always

Revisiting this review after beating the game. I agree with the review. The combat is some of my favorite of all time, and i found the overall story, world, main missions, and bosses to all be consistently amazing. To me its one of my favorite games of all time with some issues that are more design/pacing related that hold it back from some more polished 10/10s. I love this game and so far its my goty. It has some negatives, but they are outweighed by an unforgettable campaign and engaging combat. The performance mode is definitely lacking, and i would have been okay with any visual cuts necessary to maintain better frame rate like sony’s first party offerings (and even Ff7R). Side content doesn’t always have good rewards so casuals will not know which they should prioritize. The in game cutscenes can be jarring. Exploration can feel slow with unnecessary caps on movement speed and animations for mounting/dismounting chocobo. Game would have better without chests in general as any good accessory is mostly gated to main missions which could be spoils, and you can consistently craft best upgrades with mats from quests/hunts anyway. That said can’t recommend this game enough to anyone on the fence. Especially final fantasy/god of war/devil may cry fans.

Holy shit, GOTY 2023 is stacked! What a year!

So the only negative to the game is the performance and not being a stable 60 fps? That's over all pretty good to hear. I wonder if it will be a 10/10 for me. I hope it's a huge seller but with how stacked this year has been and people's wallets already hurt, I've been worried it may not sell as amazing as it should.

Is this the same voice behind the gametrailers reviews?

Love the "the wire" references on that trophy

I remember when people thought there was was only one tiny hub and no additional towns in the game 😆Boy were we dead wrong.

Just beat the game. Yeah, it's the best Final Fantasy in many years, goes head to head vs Final Fantasy X, and makes FF15 look like the trash it was all along. It's not perfect but it's definitely an incredible story

Great review Damiani! I really REALLY can't wait to play this

Between FF7Remake and FF16, I'm glad Final Fantasy is finally back among the leaders in gaming again.

One of the only two channels whose reviews I trust. Now I'm gonna pre-order

Just for some Performance issues a 9/10 Why not 9,5 or 10

Great review picking up a PS5 now.

Is the voice actor for Cid same for Lorath Nahr

Mainline FF is back baby!! Loved the game, but I do hope pure action combat isn’t the sole future for the series

People are not giving this a 10 becuase of the same performance issues that they ignored when reviewing other games who had the same issues, like ToTK.

The real Game of the year

I didn't even make it to the end of the review yet and I think Damiani just sold me a PS5. I really haven't been paying attention to this game despite being a long time FF fan but I think I need to play this.

This game is for room temperature IQ gamers lol the easiest FF I played with the most mundane quest design, no customisation, terrible villain and ending. It is a Mid game!

Imo FF16 is a masterpiece ❤

FF16 is goty, not totk it was disappointing admittingly.

Damn Yoshi-p the savior of final fantasy series, he did it twice.

Yoshi P is a literal god

Really been one hell of a year for video games

I hope the story of this game teaches the other Sqaure Enix teams on FF projects how its done.

Final Fantasy 15 was easily trash

they were smart to release a demo - I didn't care for this game before, but I immediately pre-ordered the game after playing the demo - it's that good

Looks lik ps3

Lets goo FF I knew this game wasn't going to disappoint!

Great review, was fun to watch and listen to.

the character movement is awful though. there is no weight to it or realism. ff7 remake character movement is soo much better

Dead space RE4 Wo Long Star wars Diablo 4 FFXVI Next we have Spiderman 2 Starfield What a Great year in gaming .

Another reason i can’t pull the trigger on an Xbox WHERE ARE THE EXCLUSIVE GAMES

I’m enjoying my first final fantasy game experience i’m looking forward to rebirth.🥂😎

The only thing I wasn't sure about from the demo was the combat (everything else was excellent), the switch to action focused doesn't bother me at all it's just it didn't feel that deep. Granted it's only the first two hours of the game which is basically a tutorial and just teaching you the mechanics. But given the Devil May Cry combat director is involved, I hope it opens up a bit more.

This year have been a year of nostalgia. With titles like Resident Evil, Legend of Zelda, Street Fighter, and Final Fantasy bringing their best for 2023.

4:00 "worlds and locations feel alive and with a handcrafted touch"

Hey, yoshi p cultists how did you feel when turn based game baldurs gate 3 won game of the year?

Not sure how much I can trust these reviews. Game looks fine, but then again Easy Allies also gave 4.5 stars to FF XV (equivalent to a 9) , and FF XV was very ... meh. I finished it and 2 weeks later I couldn't remember one single detail about the story

The demo feels like Asura's Wrath in the best way possible. Can't wait to try the rest of the game tomorrow 😴

Satisfying? This is by far the easiest game I have EVER played. No skill necessary whatsoever. And a damn shame too cause the combat is actually pretty good otherwise.

i think Lost Odyssey on 360 had something like the active time lore.

Great review! So happy we still get the Jones VO, miss that hunk.

Lorath?

Amazing Review!!

Can’t wait for this weekend. I’m gonna wait until I can no-life before I start this game.

Just preordered. Between the demo and these reviews, I know I’m gonna love this game.

Can't wait :)

I really want this game to be game of the year contender, so far its just going to be another year of the overrated Legend of Zelda sweeping everything. Good to see that square is vastly improving and leading the right direction

Phenomenal review as expected from the team. ThanQ ❤ Quick Question : where is Mr. Ben Moore? Been a while since his last review!

They give a 9

I don't get it. There's basically no use for new weapons outside of +5 damage, no unique gear, no use for like 90% of the stuff that drops from enemies, no crafting, no real skill progression, items add nothing to your stats, no reason to do side quests outside of an XP bump as there's nothing to obtain or craft by doing them...there's no RPG in this "RPG".

About 1/3 of the way through and this is already one of the best games I've ever played. My top 3 FFs for sure along with FF7 and FF8.

You're almost always right with your reviews. So im sold.

Seems like SE is back on track still not going to buy a PS5 for this, FU Sony/SE

Great review, keep up the good work guys. All your Final Fantasy content makes this the only review I needed

Great to hear Finchy from the Office

So like BTOW, will this be the start of a new direction for FF games?! 😢

Let’s go!🎉

This year's GoY discussions will be 🔥

Damn I beat the game and never once rode the chokobo didn’t realize that was an option 😂

Dude my heart hurts im so ready for this

The only thing I didn't like were the Quick Time Events... other than that it's really good. FF16 is the only game that can challenge TotK for GOTY, realistically=

Thanks for the review Damiani

FF XVI CHARACTER CAST > FF XV CHARACTER CAST (while XVI still did not unfold the full potential of their designed characters) FF XVI COMBAT SYSTEM > FF XV COMBAT SYSTEM (both combat systems are still not satisfying the community) FF XVI SOUNDTRACK > FF XV SOUNDTRACK (both titles soundtrack had been good, though) FF XVI STORYLINE > FF XV STORYLINE (both titles storylines are average) FF XVI GRAPHICS > FF XV GRAPHICS FF XVI EXPLORATION < FF XV (both titles treasure chest game was too random) FF XVI SIDEQUESTS < FF XV SIDEQUESTS (both titles side quest game had been boring, except Pitioss Ruins in XV) FF XVI DISCUSSION >>> FF XV DISCUSSION FF XVI is the better project and more interesting, but still not the Final Fantasy title, the community wants to experience.

I was hoping for a brad review since combat was my only worry from the demo. Felt a bit shallow in the demo and I know it was mainly tutorial stuff but it doesn't seem to get much more complex.