Trash Taste Reviews Final Fantasy XVI 

This feels like two parents whose kid finally started liking broccoli and they don’t wanna mess it up.

All their criticisms are fair but I gotta say, Ifrit & Phoenix vs Bahamut is probably the best gaming moment of the year for me so far and the Soundtrack goes so fucking hard

Connor in the middle of his JRPG redemption arc. 😂

Sixteen's sidequests really start to get more interesting from the middle to the end, for those who care about the side characters and world building in general

the sidequest: "Get up chloe, i didn't make you do too much magic" honestly there are sidequest and sidequest names that have just make me crack up, the chocobo sidequest sounds like it's straight up out of an 80's flick with the bandits saying and i quote "You aren't have seen the last of us Feathers" like i genuinely found some of them lore expanding and straight up hilarious, especially the final one. that messed with me.

Cid quickly became a favorite character of mine. Gah, that gravely voice

I absolutely loved FFXVI, its actually one of my favorite FF games and the best FF game since X in my opinion.

I'm only about 30 hours in so I hope that my little gripes go away soon but besides the fact that the combat is WAAAYYYY too easy, my biggest gripe is definitely the fact that there aren't many scenes for the characters to just talk about random shit or do fun activities. Like, I don't need a whole Christmas party scene but damn dude it's just all business all the time. What little scenes we do get of people just joking around and hanging out are great but there aren't many. Like Garnt said, those little moments with the characters are what make JRPG parties so fun to get invested in. I still absolutely love the game so far though. The story is engaging, Clive is great, the gameplay, though repetitive, is fun but like I need more silly stuff here and there for me to really care about the characters. EDIT AFTER A LITTLE PAST THE GAME'S HALFWAY POINT- (SPOILERS) Now that I'm past Kupka's boss fight and I just finished a bunch of side stuff after helping Mid with the start of her ship, I gotta say I'm happy the game has opened up a little more and given some genuinely good character interactions. Started to really like all of the characters and not just Clive. That being said, I still wish I liked the rest of them a little earlier but better late than never I suppose. Hope the rest of the game keeps this going and gives more fun side stuff and character interactions!

8:21 side quests were for world building a lot of the time. The pick up dirt quest I think was for growing that apple tree in blighted soil which they thought you couldn’t do. And that idea of being able to survive even in the blighted world was symbolic of humanity’s surpassing of ultima’s race. With ultima and his people just wanting to run from the blight instead of dealing with it.

While i do agree with the side quests being a little lack luster, you do have to remember that this is CBU3's first single player game. I believe the fetch quest design is a remnant from XIV and that they'll improve them a lot if they get to make XVII.

People saying turn based is outdated and yet play Yu-Gi-Oh and Magic:The Gatherig their entire life.

The active lore system was a great feature, it makes easy to understand the story and the context behind the scenes, its definitely a feature they should keep in future games

Im a FFXVI enjoyer that's all. I loved it, its not perfect but it was a good game that I would recommend any newcomer or just anyone to experience at least once especially if you're a story game lover.

FF16 is my current Game of the Year, flaws and all. I loved the combat, the story even with the sudden change from the politics heavy narrative to a traditional RPG as the actions of the protagonists still affect the world in regards to the culture of Valisthea. Beautiful art direction and visual fidelity, incredible music. And while the side quests mechanically are lackluster, especially at the start, the writing is great as it really adds a lot to the world. And the English cast does an impeccable job playing their characters. 9/10 game, I love it. Just wish the performance mode was more stable at launch outside of combat.

I'm sure that if they can maintain the hype and story quality of 16 with the gameplay, side quest, and character quality of ff7 rebirth, FFXVII will be a masterpiece.

I'm 20 hours in and the side quests are a mixed bag. On one hand, they really add to the world building and you learn a lot about the people you're protecting in your home base. But on the other, they all just feel like "go here and fight" quests, so if you're not keen on the combat it's not going to be fun. Also, I love the combat, but the game feels a bit too easy at the moment. I haven't died yet in this game, which is wild. Ni No Kuni 2 was more challenging even on its normal difficulty than this.

I really liked the cutscenes, but I agree there were times where I felt like I "played" the game for 2 hours, but only actually fought anything for like a total of 10 minutes of that 2 hours. I found the story to be amazing, but there were certainly times where it felt like I wasn't really "playing" the game at all, and I know it was a very story-focused game, but still. They gotta master that balance in the next one.

Final Fantasy 16 is my game of the year for 2023

It started with FFVII where the cutscenes were like a reward for the player for reaching that point and they were much more distinct from the game itself. XVI blurs the lines between cutscene and interactive part and it does need some mental readjustment. I loved XVI much more than I thought I would, as a player who laments the loss of turn-based and ATB mainline FFs.

There’s no way!!! I remember I did a side quest where some noble kid was literally killing off his slaves with the animals he has, like it was the Purge, but it began looking like he was a child in danger and in need of help.

Tbh the story had me so engaged I couldn’t look away, i was hooked (Gav for me was a personal favorite) and the lore button was such an amazing detail that helped flesh out aspects I normally would pull up a wiki for. But the quest’s definitely get better in the end and really flesh out the characters before the end. After XV having great characters but a lackluster game XVI was such a breath of fresh air.

My favorite FF since FF10 ngl I think it's the type of FF game Connor would like a lot because it doesn't require any grinding and the combat is real time action. For those who haven't played it because it's very different than most of the other FF games, I still highly recommend it, extrenely good game even if it has some imperfections

Idk but having te opportunity to play in the middle of cutscenes s the reason why I love ff 16. Also I love Clive so much, idk why Garnt haven't found a character that sticks with him. Well, besides FF 6 and 12, this is one of my favorite FF

I played all the FF games and FF16 became second favorite FF behind 7 after I finished it. The combat was great, the story was fantastic, all the characters were incredible, even the the characters with less screen time like Lady Charon, Gav, Jote and Mid were all enjoyable. Masayoshi Soken went all out with the music (Garuda's theme was an absolute bager), Clive and Jill had an amazing relationship, easily the best relationship in the franchise and way better than Tidus's and Yuna's cringe and creepy relationship in FF10. Dion was the best written character in the game, The Titan and Bahamut Eikon boss fights were GOD tier, def one the best boss fights ever created in all of gaming. And I can agree that the side quest were the weakest part of the game but for personally, the highs of this game were so high that the lows weren't low enough to ruin my experience in any way. I also don't mind the long cutscenes because I love story heavy games. FF16 is a masterpiece in my opinion and I could care less what anyone else has to say because to me, this game is top 3 in the franchise.

I have two main problems with ff16. First one - the game has interesting world, lore etc but in the end (small spoiler alert I guess) we end up wirh standard jRPG where we have fight with the god at the end. All that politics don't really matter in the story. It is a shame because at the begging in the prologe it looked like we might have really interesting villan but that was just red herring Second one is the combat system. It really had potential but it felt too easy. I died maybe 4-5 times in the game and mostly in the begining when I was still learning tactics and basic combos. Some challange would be appreciated so we could put that system to the test. One more issue diarrhea Christmas light syndrome. Bosses and our character have many special attacks with many special graphic effects. For most of the time we can't see the boss or our character. I'm attacing, evading and doing special attacks but honestly I have no idea what is going on.( and despite this handicap those bosses were super easy)

Connor...enjoying cutscenes?! What timeline is this?!

The side quests at the start are kinda basic, but near the middle of the game they get really good, still there are some that keep being basic, but many others really expand the world and the relationship between the characters, the one about the little girl trying to find Chloe really stuck with me and was the first one to do so, after that they get better, like the Quinten ones near the end, and of course any about the main cast. Also there are some basic ones at the beginning that you don't really get the importance of them until much later after doing other quests in that questline, like the one about getting dirt for the apple tree research. Still, flaws and all it's my favourite game, managed to mix many elements I always dreamed that could get together so it feels like the closest to the game I've been wishing for my entire life.

The side quests get better, but HOLY are they a grind. I was trying to do 100%, and if you stop doing them for like 2 missions you have to spend literal hours catching up.

FF9 is not only my favorite final fantasy but my favorite game of all time

The side quests are underwhelming for the most part, but then you get one about a girl looking for her toy and... man

I want them to talk about the game again once they've finished the main story

The demo was the best part of the game lol absolute snooze fest for me, personally. Also hated the combat mechanics, didn’t feel like FF at all. I want to be able to actually cast magic, upgrade my equipment, upgrade my spells, etc. 16 was a huge disappointment IMO.

Side quests in FFXVI offer amazing world-building and they do get better towards the end. Both in story and in gameplay.

I had absolutely no problems with how the cutscenes were handled in ff16 and its so weird to me that it bugged them. Though to be fair im not normally a final fantasy fan and im use to cinamatic games, the boss fights were the biggest highlight to me but the cutscenes are straight fire so they aint wrong lol

It's hella good. love the cutscenes love the gameplay love everything about FF16 honestly

Agree on the part that why let you walk for a couple of seconds after a cutscene just to enter another one. Just fast forward and extend the cutscene if that is the case.

I loved it. The ending was super emotional for me and memorable

I wouldn't worry about understanding the lore straight away by the end you'll understand everything

My only gripe with 16 is that they took down the status effects and enemy weaknesses. Also i love 16 story more then 15, but 15 is in my opinion a better game once you realise the game doent play itself (they did a bad job explaining the combat system in the tutorial)and that the open world is explorable.

I had no idea that Joey and Garnt played it as well. Only saw connor 😅

These dudes don't realize the game is 70 hours long

Ff16 was my first final fantasy game (aside from 7 remake) and since beating it I’ve completed 15 and 10 and I actually much preferred those two over 16. I found the characters way more likeable

I agree about the sidequests so far. They tell you about the characters that aren't central to the story. But the primary cast doesn't get much development out of them.

I honestly don't understand the FF15 hate. No other game has so profoundly evoked an emotional response to two songs every time I hear them because of the story. Also Ardyn might be the only likable/relatable/justifiable antagonist in the entire franchise.

ff6 is the culmination of all SE experience with 2d systems, but ff7 8 and 9 are in a whole new level even when feeling unpolished in a lot of ways

There are a few interesting side quests, but most of them are pretty bland. But I also feel the need to do them for the rewards like renown, ability points, and items. Every time I’ve taken a break from the game it’s been during a large side quest stent where I’m doing like 4-8 side quests in a row. So I’d agree that side quests are probably the weakest part of the game. The cutscenes though, especially with the Eikons can truly be gripping and climactic. The game can certainly give you the two extremes.

I just finished the game and I can say for certain that it's a great gateway for getting people interested in the series. It's not perfect, like the boys were saying with side quests and cutscene-gameplay cuts but its still really damn good. The combat itself was enough to draw me in, couple that with a pretty good narrative, a decent set of characters and the great voice acting makes for quite an awesome game

Some side quests were amazing to me. They nay not flesh out the main characters but they really flesh out the world e.g the kid who see's mages as disposable pets really shows how hated they are. Also Cid is really cool.

There we're definitely some lulls in the pacing around the start of Act 3. I think it was just hard to keep the momentum up after the bahamut fight, but i'm glad I pushed through because the game does have a satisfying conflusion. It is definitely the best of the more recent FF games of the last decade.

I loved ff16. I played them all and i love dmc.

In this game, I genuinely experience the passage of time. The lore is so captivating that I crave more, even after the release of the downloadable content.

While I love FF16, and it could very well be recency bias, but its up there as my favorite FF game because of the combat, the story, and probably the best romance in the entire franchise between Clive and Jill (actually Gav). However i gotta say the side quest are a little slog to get through at times and repetive, however they do eventually pay off in the end if you wanna flesh out the side characters. Heads up though, if you expect that this to be your traditional FF game, then you'll be disappointed

I feel like he reason FFXVI doesn't have these bombastic characters you get super attached to like other JRPGS (outside of the one Joey mentionted) is because XVI's cast doesn't really feel that fantastic. It's the first FF cast that feels like they are real regular people in a fantasy setting. Clive, Jill, Gav and everyone at Hideout can fight these big threats but it's like you could meet any of them somewhere, as opposed to Cloud Strife, Cecil or Terra. And that's far from being a bad thing. There's two scenes that made me cry because of how real their relationships feel and how well their actors brought these characters to life. In specific one scene where a group of characters reunite with someone after a long time apart, and one scene where Torgal takes Clive to see something.

I absolutely hate it when people keep saying that turn based combat is outdated! Have they not heard of Baldur’s Gate 3, Persona and Shin Megami Tensei.

I just bought it after the demo and the cutscense example is valid...the gameplay is fun tho and I'm looking forward to it

Amazing Game in terms of action and production, the last part of the Game was lackluster though

I like this side focus on games, especially final fantasy!

It was my favorite FF games since IX.

didnt they only play like 1 or 2 hours of it or just the demo?

I completely disagree with Joey. I think FFXV is much better and I hate the way some content creators like Joey jump on the bandwagon of hate for XV with an almost dismissive tone of like "Well of course its better than XV." I am with Maximilian Dood in that I think XV is the better game. And I think people trying to downplay how good XV is a shame.

side quests get more interesting later on. some of the back story for the side characters is better explained in side quests than even the main quest

If only the gamplay was more complex this would've been an easy 10/10 game for me

Hearing that Garnt is 20 hrs in is rather telling. I feel like between the 30-70 hour mark was rather mundane + repeative with some amazing bright spots.

So as someone who literally just finished the game yesterday and has really only dabbled in FF (this being my first game to finish)... I definitely understand what they mean about the unnecessary walking in between cutscenes, etc. But I really disagree with the side quests not being important. Garnt talks about how they share characters you haven't "had enough banter with yet" but that's the thing. You get that with those side quests. And then they accumulate into being a HUGE part of the story and why the end and the entire moral is so friggin strong. You couldn't get where you were at without them and that's the point they're trying to make. You made these friends along the way that support you in their everyday roles and that's what makes you better. I'm sure they'll understand if/once they finish (which I hope they do). But honest to goodness, this is now become one of my all time favorite games. I was so invested in the story and I friggin loved the combat (I hate turn based) and the character development is just phenomenal. What incredible world building.

My biggest 2 critiques for the game is that side quests, which is essentially half of the game, are a boring chore and Ultima turning the epic GoT esque story into a 1 dimensional fight against a bad guy. The latter in particular disappoints me since the story could have been so much more engaging. The demo was a masterpiece. The sidequests definitely fleshed out the world organically but I was still bored by it. I do agree that most of the side quests being the same formula - fetch, slay or talk requests definitely contributes to it being a bore but tbh, I've forgotten what else it could be. Thinking hard, I'd guess it would be things like card games from FF8? Blitzball games from FF10? Snowboarding, motorbike chases from FF7? Maybe things like that would keep it fresh but I think the actual issue is that I didn't care enough about any of the side characters to stay engaged. When one of the characters turned Akashic, I just shrugged.

I love ff16 but it definitely has a lot of issues and I completely understand why someone would think it's mid or just flat out hate it.

RPG doesn't have ENOUGH cutscenes.

I adored ffxvi, it's a great game. Some eikons fights are mind blowing like nothing else in this medium. Shame that the pacing is all over the place.

Just got past the half way point, and I'm probably going to drop it sadly, everything about it could be better, it's overall mid sadly, I love FF IV, VII, IX, and X and Remake and Rebirth so I'm not a newcomer. Was excited for this game as I also love Devil May Cry (especially V and how much depth they added) the combat is waaaayy too shallow, I was expecting sooo many more skills and complexity, how is there not at least 3 sword combos for gods sake, it blunts the stupid design of waiting for cooldowns on skills, thankfully Remake/Rebirth combat was satisfying. When you play so many games you don't get sucked into the spectacle and just see the mechanics of those big summon fights, which are cool but not as much again as they could be if there was more depth At least it doesn't play itself like XV I guess...

The biggest gripe with the game is how easy it is, apparently you get a hard mode after you finish the game and idk why that wasn’t offered from the very beginning, the combat is easy to understand but difficult to master which I love, it does feel very DMC like and I’ve been able to pull off some incredible combos using the Eikon abilities, the Eikon battles tbh are the single most fun and incredible thing I’ve witnessed just incredible all around

Everything you guys are complaining about is what I love lol

It’s a good game, nothing great, but it really is basically a character action game (and a too easy one at that) with so many RPG elements downplayed, leveling barely matters, exploration rarely yields anything valuable as crafting materials are so easy to find, skill tree is really basic, the dungeons are basically hallways, etc. Nier Automata is a perfect blend of character action and RPG, this is just Devil May Cry with training wheels. For my money, people can clown on Nomura all they want, he at least knows how to balance action and RPG equally with Kingdom Hearts and FF VII Remake.

I think Connor would benefit best from playing either FF7 original (personally i think its one of the easier Final Fantasies and has like the least amount of grinding/easiest combat system) or FF10 from story and voice acting along with actually the best combat system. Even though FF9 is what i think is peak Final Fantasy I however recently beat FF16 and im....still a mess I do agree, aside from maybe a total of....7 sidequests, nothing felt engaging and rewards were pointless (aside from the ones that actually gave you things) As a avid FF14 player, you can see the MMO parts of 16 shine...specially in the sidequests and the main story Surprised Clive didn't grip them like he did me...he's legit one of the better protags we've had in so long

Side quests are significantly better after the timeskip

I loved 16.

Now play Baldur Gate 3 if you guy dare

l'm split in the middle with this game. I love the story telling and the cinematics this game offers and the battle mechanics was pretty fun (at the start). The Eikon battles are Jaw dropping (Hi Bahamut and Titan)!!!, but this game is also insanely bare bones outside of those high notes. Even small $15 indie RPG's offer more customization than FF16. Going from playing FF9 to this.... it just feels empty. The side quests starts feeling like fetch quests and becomes too repetitive way too fast. Also, the game is way too easy that the battle mechanics suffers and becomes dull very fast (I was playing on Hard with no rings equipped). Hell, I don't even go to the shop, even if she only sells like 5 items. The items in the overworld all feels useless that I don't even bother picking them up (drops consist of the same couple of "crafting mats" you already have 1000s of, potions, very small amounts of gil, and items to sell for like 500-1000 gil. The game is still amazing, but it doesn't feel like a FF game sadly when there's nothing to do, which is rare for a FF title.

Such a weird take about Xenoblade Chronicles, their voice actors are literally mostly from outside of the industry. And they're also all British with a few exceptions. I put 16 down halfway through because the game never really felt like it was more than a waste of time. The active lore button isn't needed in games that actually have good writing. I'm shocked to see people liking a lore button that interrupts the cut scenes. This series won't learn its lesson. It's been not learning its lesson since 12.

what I hate most about FFXVI's storyline is... spoilers: The fact that they made every anatagonist somewhat connected to the BIG BAD. Here is a good saying I stole: NOT EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE CONNECTED TO THE BIG BAD. I rolled my eyes out when they revealed that it was a god's doing, because ffs let the story just continue like a political struggle instead of making everything about the BIG BAD. I mean, Ultima is great, but the battle with the Prince--- was really something else. To me that is more like a final battle than Ultima's despite how flashy Ultima's is. Ultima is like a modern version of old JRPG final bosses, and I'm tired of it. This critic is especially for the reveal of Annabelle's being puppeted by Ultima. They legit made this manipulative lady, who lusts for power and eugenics---- into a pitiful character that was manipulated by Ultima. I was fine when she seemed to manipulated her way to the empire, and placed HER child on the succession, but when it was revealed that the child is the mastermind all along.... I can't help but feel angry. Subverting the expectation is good if you HAVE SOMETHING MORE INTERESTING TO SHOW FOR IT. Annabelle was such a threating villain that uses tactic of manipulation before but she got reduced as a plot convenience for Ultima's stuff at the latter of the story. TDLR: stop making us fight gods already, a story about a political struggle is far more interesting and nuanced when compared to fight an evil god. BUT that's just my opinion.

it's my first FF and is one of my favorite games ever.

I LOVEEEE Final Fantasy games but nothing about XVI looks remotely entertaining to me which sucks because I was really looking forward to a new FF...and then I saw it and was like :/ guess not then. I think it's a good game for people who don't like Final Fantasy that much. It's definitely a step in a new direction. It's just not a step I personally wanted the franchise to make

16 got great combat but god the pacing of the story is terrible and the side quests uuuuuuugh

I think we can all agree that FFXVI is underrated, it’s a brilliant experience that everyone deserves to go through at least once. It feels brilliant.

Story is pretty cool

nothin can beat final fantasy type 0

Pokemon is the master of lowering peoples standards no way bro said "i dont like it in modern games except Pokemon"

Bruh its not even about cutscenes (which are awesome), the gameplay loop is bad, you just walk from combat arena to combat arena. The combat itself is decently engaging (doesn't even come close to DMC though, its just dump stun and dump dps after stagger) but that's just it. It is not an RPG at all, there's no RPG elements, its just buy heals and the best armor and weapon is always obvious and the path to get them is linear and given to you. There's nothing to discover in the world, its just go from combat arena A to B in the main story and the side quests are a joke (from an RPG perspective). The biggest pros are the cutscenes and the epic boss fights but after you play it once, there's 0 incentive to play it ever again cuz of the gameplay loop. They should've went all in the action part of the game and made the combat more engaging and deep and just call it an action game, instead of this jack of no trades, weird hybrid.

My favorite Final Fantasy's are 4, 6... and Stranger of Paradise LOL

better than 15, I felt it started really well and fell off at the end, that said the game design while playing is insane.

Go do some S - Rank hunts if any of ya'll find the game too easy and take off all timely accessories.

I really enjoyed the game, the only thing that I didn't like were the side quests. Alot of them are very generic and boring and it really kills the pace of the game. Towards the end of the game I stopped doing any of them apart from the ones that upgrade things Also I think they could have let us play as ifrit more l, especially against the final boss.

16 started out good and promising but exploration was nil, the battles lacked RPG elements, the quests were bland ( talk to ten people lol) and locked spontaneity, and despite the voice acting being superb a lot of NPCs rambled on. The story had too much deus ex machina and lore baiting. Dions arc was awesome though.

How was the first recommendation not final fantasy 9 😢

16 is the best since 9. Absolutely amazing story, unforgettable characters, and I can't get enough of the combat. And now I can't wait for Rebirth, because Remake was amazing as well. 13 and 15 suck so bad, thank god FF is back to their best.

Dang the shade towards xenoblade 😢

Ngl I disliked ff16. The game itself is awesome with some of the coolest boss fights ever in a game but the narrative disappointed me a lot. Ik in the video they were talking about the active lore button. Yes that is a nice feature but it felt like an excuse to not flesh things out. They would say parts of the world and act like I am supposed to know it. Ik there is where the active lore button is but i dont wanna hear about some place for the first time and do a bunch of reading about the place and then go back to the cutscene. It would be fine if it was to fill in information that has already been explained like xenosaga does. Xenosaga does it where it is out of the way but if you need that refresher it's there but its not relying on it. worlds like the keseki series does an amazing job of fleshing out its world though natural dialog. I feel this really hurt the impact had on the game for me. As someone who is going to school for English literature im too busy trying to figure everything out that's happening in the story and how everything is fitting in the world and narrative. But I want them to explain it naturally. I will admit my viewing of the story was impacted because i didn't look at the active lore button. I assumed it would explain things naturally. Also clive is one of the worst fumbles of a protag I have seen in a long ass time. Is clive cool? Yeah he is. Is his Va amazing? Definitely. Does he have badass moments? For sure no questions about it. But his arc was so unsatisfying for me. Like when he "accepts the truth" like 30% through the game like awesome man. some of the most impactful writing in fiction is when people have realistic thoughts, emotions ect. If I killed the brother i loved then went on in pain regretting every moment of my life after that, how can clive just accept the truth. Like yeah cid helps a bit but there is nothing to make him realize his mistakes for the most part. He just accepts it. This is followed by a lot by again not explains things and relying on the player to read the active lore button. Then in the final scenes of the game where Clive is going to fight ultima maybe i just didnt pay enough attention to the story but i had no idea wtf he was talking about the whole game was convoluted and messy. And ik my favorite JRPG franchise is the Xeno franchise Ik Jrpgs are supposed to be convoluted. But explaining things better next time for a idiot like me. Xeno games will lay things out for you the entire game and connect each line one by one letting everything make sense. Also clive and his brothers relationship made me so mad. The whole time joshua is telling Clive to not go alone and deal with things by himself. Then clive doesnt listen and takes jills power. joshua punches him cuz he is upset and then they just stop talking about it for the rest of the game. they were creating conflict for a reason and didn't follow through on it. Because at the end of the game Clive and Joshua die. But if they wanted to get the message across of not relying on only one self and forgiving yourself, not letting the past burden you things like that it would make more sense for clive to live and joshua to die right? Then the game ends with clive moving on being thankful for the time he had with his brother. ugh this game makes me so mad. besides the story tho game is aweomse LMFAO.

Keep playing the side quests, you get exactly what you ask for even though they're boring for a while sadly

I never personally liked the art style of FF games. The characters look very "plastic" I guess ? It always just pulls me out of the game, making me think if they are actually people. Which is a deal breaker for me. Since immersion is a big deal for me. It just pulls me out of the game every time I see a character like that.

The side content really killed the game for me personally as I am someone who likes to go through all of the side activities while I play through a game and the side content in Final Fantasy XVI was just so bland, boring, and repetitive that I just got tired of the game and didn't complete the main story. The gameplay also didn't help the matter because while he gameplay was very engaging at first, it quickly became very repetitive and easy as the game failed to add new gameplay elements to spice things up and even the different Eikonic powers that I unlocked didn't really change how I played the game. Plus, I just like Garnt failed to become invested in the characters of the game and it suck too because the game had a lot of potential to be great as the world of the game is intriguing, the Eikon fights in the main story are fantastic, it has some terrific voice acting, etc. I think that Final Fantasy XVI has laid the seeds for a great game in the future of the series but XVI itself just leaves much to be desired imo.

Everyone talks about how bad the side quests are but can anyone tell me a JRPG, yet alone a final fantasy, that didn’t have fetch quest like side quests? That’s literally what a side quest is you talk to a character, go do a thing, get extra info or crafting materials/money/items. That’s been the way side quests has been done for years why all of a sudden is 16 getting hit with this massive wave of “the side quests are too fetch questy and bad” when the most of them build the world and or your characters. I can admit the game has flaws but I’m seeing way to many people go out of their way to essentially be disingenuous and over exaggerate things like that’s not been how video games work. I saw people complain that it gets slow and I’m like yeah what do you want it to be at 400% non stop you’d literally get exhausted playing it like that.