Final Fantasy XVI (PS5)

[fuse]

Nice! Is this the block mechanic? Hopefully I'm not far from unlocking it.

That's El Blocko, alright! While others are arguably more outright powerful, it's definitely one of the more rewarding to get good with.

Didn't notice any real difference with the patch but I didn't play around with the settings too much and as I understand it, performance mode has less of the issues that folks have been reporting with the motion blur.

Just now got the platinum on this, and think I'm about done with it. It's actually a pretty long game, and that the endgame is essentially "replay on hard" with the same item upgrade paths does feel like a bit of a wasted opportunity. Still been enjoying the action sections, still think the quests are fairly weak, still think the characters and story are very good, even if I have been skipping all of the scenes this time round. One final gripe is how much of the game is spent in relative darkness, and how that's a shame given how gorgeous it looks. I suppose it shows off their fancy lighting engine better when things flash and sparkle, but it's also a bit of a pain in the arse when you're playing it in the middle of summer while light's coming in through all your windows and you can't see a bleeding thing. Anyway.

[hudson]

Nice one getting the platinum. Was it a slog to get? El Blocko lol

[Tobal]

still not finished it, the last Mid sidequest rubbed me the wrong way and turned it off, rare for a game to actually make me angry enough to turn it off. not been back for 3 or 4 days.

[fuse]

Nice one getting the platinum. Was it a slog to get?

It's not too grindy but it does require a second complete playthrough, which isn't quick even when you're skipping things. Most of the others are pretty straightforward, the most challenging part of the whole thing is beating all of the time trials which you can drop to 'story mode' for.

[hudson]

It's not too grindy but it does require a second complete playthrough, which isn't quick even when you're skipping things. Most of the others are pretty straightforward, the most challenging part of the whole thing is beating all of the time trials which you can drop to 'story mode' for.

Did you feel capable of taking down mobs/bosses in New Game plus without grinding too much your level? I know in my currently playthrough, I'm searching every nook and cranny and any enemies I see, I take them down. I imagine on second playthrough, I may wanna run past a few

[fuse]

There was already a fair bit of it, but there is definitely a lot more inclination to just skip past the general encounters the second time around, riding past anything non-mandatory and getting on with the scripted fights that you have to deal with. You're often a much lower level than enemies (particularly when it comes to doing hunts) but I think this is intentional and can't say I ever needed to grind levels to beat any specific encounters. Keeping up to date with sidequests probably kept my levels in line with what was expected, maybe? Once you've got access to all of the Eikons you've got some very powerful options for dealing with groups and single targets even when they are many levels ahead of you. I've spoilered it in case anyone doesn't want to read about late game abilities, but...

->Open Spoiler<-

Odin's "Dancing Steel" charges Zantetsuken super fast, and level 5 Zan utterly melts pretty much every group of mobs in the game as well as dealing high single target damage too. Bahamut's Gigaflare also does very high single target damage, whereas you can get things like Shiva's Diamond Dust to do ridiculous amounts of will damage to get staggers really quick.

My go-to stagger combo was to launch straight into Limit Break, release L5 Zan, then Gigaflare, then use Dancing Steel to charge up as much of the Zan gauge as possible to let that off again (usually scraping L4) before the stagger ends. Even while still wearing bonus AP/XP gear, not using any pots etc, this racked up 290k against one of the last A rank hunts I did before finishing off my second run.

[Tobal]

Finished up the last mission, spent last 3 weeks slowly doing the last 15 to 20 sidequests that pop up at the end till i had access to the hunt i needed to get the ultimate weapon which then went unused with only 3 crap sidequests left in Ash and the last boss battle. In the end i'm left pretty disappointed in the game and would rank this at the same quality as 15, for all the improvements (i would still be very happy with FF7remake mashup or a return to 4 guys in row) in moving to full action they made it far to simple and boring in the long run which i wasn't expecting from the people who made this game having a hand in 14 and Nier.

Simplicity comes from 4 things, lack of enemy type, lack of elemental reactions, lack of a changing basic move set, lack of real equipment, and instead of spending time and money on these, it all went into the look of the main story 'dungeons' and Eikon fights and major cutscenes which are a of visual quality so far beyond the games side content it is constant whiplash from the MMO like talking heads which always lead to tiny fetch quests (often 100yards from the quest giver) with poor rewards. To make action RPG without classic 'Fire beats Ice' and instead have it all be different shades of HP damage and/or Stagger damage make sure it never gets complex, the enemy types don't even allow for it and they even cut water from the elemental wheel just rub it in. Alot of the Eikon O button moves should have been basic moveset replacements as you progress, front dodge is the Phoenix Step, side dodge Shivas style, gives us a default block which powers up with titan and can also be used for cancelling and parry, jump and using O does the Garuda launch.

Magic attack should've been removed, it's worthless outside the charged up burst at the end of a combo and annoying to do without the necklaces that auto charges it. Should have been a Heavy attack button that can change up the basic combo for launchers, eikon theme attacks or big magic bursts(without holding a button). Being able to change weapons would have added some needed variety, just giving us polearm for piecing attacks and h2h or club/hammer for Blunt could have allowed for increased stagger damage, have it replace Torgal buttons.

Story was good, I warmed to Clive and liked Cid,Gav and Torgal alot, and maybe Joshua and the Uncle coming in 4th and 5th place... but everyone else is forgettable, Jill looked and sounded bland all the way through. Could have done with Ash section just being cut all together, everything after Odin felt like worthless filler, waiting for the final showdown, and Ash looked just liked everything else, more Death Standing like grass and rocks. Outside of the main story there was so little talking between cast when you went out on sidequests and hunts, it felt really quiet and backwards compared to stuff done a decade ago in Mass Effect.

Ending spoilers

->Open Spoiler<-

I assume he fixed and rescued Joshua for him to write the FF book, then went off to die alone after removing the Fantasy (magic) from the world. If he had the power the save Joshua, why not just go die in Jill arms than alone. At least they reined in having Jill with a Clive Jnr running around her feet, which is what i was expecting to happen. Guess this means no DLC to, until ending happened, i was fully expecting Leviathan story to happen.

I'm also still unhappy we didn't get a working Airship and final dungeon, Mid's last sidequest was prime for it to carry the cast to origin and have Torgal drag Joshua back to the airship after the final boss battle when Clive needs to clean up the world at a cost.

7/10 game, could have been much better.

[Finsbury Girl]

Thanks for the impressions. Seems like this is one for future years when on sale. I'm lining up XV to play later this year so it will be interesting how I view that one after the excellent Remake.

[Tobal]

DLC part 1 is out for £8 as revealed at the game awards. When they showed the trailer i thought it was a 14 expansion till i saw Clive... looks like you're arena fighting Mecha's. Part 2 out sometime next year is the Leviathan DLC, £20 for double up bundle in the store.

I'm tempted to get it but it does means reinstalling and huge patches to download.

[Neon Ignition]

Only done the first hour or two and so far I think my two biggest irks are the amount of cutscenes (they're awful as well - visually nice even if the art design remains off putting) and how drab the game looks. Gameplay wise first impressions are okay if only because FF has effectively gravitated so far towards action based that it's effectively a walk along beat em up at this point. I'll likely pick my way through it over time as its GOT-but-worse-written styling doesn't grab me but it seems like a fairly inoffensive lite-FFVII Remake affair so far.

[hudson]

I hope you didn't just have a dig at FFVII Remake's battle system? I love that battle system

[Neon Ignition]

Absolutely not, I really enjoyed FFVII Remake more than any FF game in many years but a lot of that was because of how heavily it's moved away from turn based and being very 'RPG'ish. I would just have preferred FFXVI to not have used the medieval stylings

[Tobal]

Reinstalled 16 to play first DLC echeos of the fallen, which is about 1 hour of battle content, with maybe 20 minutes leading up to retreading another Fallen tower with a purple makeover to fight different coloured monsters, 3 or 4 mini-bosses and 1 new boss design. Tower itself was just as all other towers, walk from room to hallway then up a lift after a mini-boss is taken down, though it does seem they have taken the nerf bat to Odin's lvl5 Zen move, had to swap it out for how little HP it took off the bosses.

Definitely a strong smell of a small budget with Gav and Ultima VA's being reused for new characters, no Eikon fight, no new powers, 2 new songs, hand full of new items which are only useful to people playing with the starting crutch accessories, and 2 new weapons which are both better than the Ultimate Weapon found in the main game. If you spend £20 you'll get part 2 bundle at some point, and a weapon lockstyle/vanity for Onion Sword and Buster Blade.

I did enjoy the final battle, read ahead for spoilers for what it is, video in the 2nd spoiler is midway and last bit of the fight just show of how it moves and the music... which is completely different to everything else in the game.

->Open Spoiler<-

Fight is homemade Eikon created by the Fallen which is the Final Fantasy classic, Omega Weapon.

->Open Spoiler<-