IGN FF16 review is almost like a critique of FF14's own issues

[R041]

The padding quickly becomes obvious.

"Come, we must get to the Phoenix Gate.

*Gets to Martha's Rest

"Well, the bridge is out, so you have to find our carpenter to fix it.

*Finds the carpenter

"Good job finding the carpenter, but he can't repair the bridge in a single cutscene. So you have to go see some dying bearers.

*Bridge is finally repaired, on to Eastpool

"Hey, before you can exit this gate, I need you to talk to this old dude, who just so happens to have wandered off so you have to find him first

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Not even done with the game, yet it's nearly every time a village becomes a bottleneck I have to solve that area's problem before I can get past it.
Martha's Rest, Eastpool, Amber, Northreach (Tbf, it was after getting past it that the quest starts), Dalimil, Boklad.

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Right - It's riddled with it. This is the core of the gameplay, and once the underlying combat becomes dull - That's kinda what you're left with.

It was such a weird experience, because I do like a bit of the game, I think they have a lot they can work with. But I also believe they went with their MMO gut for the brunt of the gameplay, when FF has survived without constant fetch-quests for decades. I don't mind a few, every FF has a few. But it's all of them. And it's always something super stupid.

Like your example with the bridge, right there I can tell you - You can jump that godamn bridge, or shimmy the side. Our characters have shimmied ledges way worse, and jumped bridges more rickety and dangerous. But I have to do a whole fetch series to put 2 planks down so I can walk across a shallow lake?

They even write the fact that he likes doing fetch quests into the story, it's ridiculous. And I know for a fact people will use that as some kinda weird defense for shitty systems. "Yeah well the story says".. lol

I do enjoy the game, but unlike some I really don't hope that this is the future of Final Fantasy in gameplay design and story.

Also a bit of a personal gripe. In the intro as young Clive you have the dragoon boss with an awesome thematic intro, looked so good. Then in the Greatwoods you got the Ninja boss, not a special intro but a nice cinematic ending. King's Fall boss was another dragoon, but still had a nice intro with the wyvern and the mirage jump part.
But after that it felt like human bosses just were less focused and never really used the job themes that well outside of the Dominant fights.
Even the Black Shields was another dragoon fight without anything special. Could have been so much cooler to introduce a Dark Knight here to keep the job themes going.

That's what I keep saying about the vertical slice, they only fleshed out the few areas they've been promoting. The rest are pretty dull, samey, and lack similar snazz.

QTEs piss me off so much. They're the worst mechanic to me personally, and here it's just fucking egregious. If someone here hasn't playing XVI yet, you know how you can get a QTE in XIV Trials sometimes? Well imagine that being all the time, and it never telling you when it'll happen. So you could chip the boss 10% and then it's all cutscenes, or 50%, might give you your controller back, or not. Who knows? I never could figure out a pattern there.

I also find it funny that they pulled most of the bestiary and models directly from older games, but it somehow still lacks diversity. They purposefully neglected a ton of FF trope creatures. They have a few, but my personal quota is way too low. It's like they felt ashamed to really dive into FF, and thought it'd be better to go dull medieval on everything.

I won't tell someone that if they enjoy XVI they're wrong. There's a lot to like. But it loves to abuse tropes that are incredibly divisive and unpopular. When it does them, it REALLY has no shame. They're like a decade behind, and maybe we know why that is. I just don't think the archaic systems they used were used well enough in 2023 even.

This game is a good marketing scheme, it has promotion all over it, you can take a screenshot of anywhere and anything and sell it. But if you play it, you'll quickly realize they forgot to put that same effort into the actual gameplay. It's a shallow 100 mile long river, just like XIV MSQ.

[CStrife912]

....

My man I think its time you come to terms with you not liking how CBU3 designs their games, I have done everything in 16 besides finishing new game plus which I'm just taking my time through now. The side quests and padding didn't actually affect me that much because I was enjoying the world building and characters or even the voice acting. However I wont defend all the side quests or some of the pacing because some of it could indeed have been trimmed out (The bridge one you mentioned I definitely agree with but at the same time I get to explore the world and wipe all the easy adds off the map)

You do exaggerate the QTE aspect of it though that's for sure...they exist and are there but they don't dominate the gameplay experience. I think as they lacked experience in transitioning via an action game they did it as a crutch for better or worse honestly. I mean like you said you cant say I'm wrong and I can't really say your wrong but the more general consensus wouldn't agree with all your gripes some sure though.

I play so many jrpgs and RPGs in general and I have experienced all manners of side quests, padding etc and I guess I am numb to it really. I mean heck I have a friend who just finished it and he is the most cynical hateful person I know when it comes to games and movies and he really liked it. More gripes with certain aspects of combat but I agreed with him there.

All in all it just screams the direction and style of game they make isn't for you, not saying aspects could be improved of course but I think at a core foundational design level...this isn't the business unit your looking for.

On another note, I have just started replaying FFX and shock horror in the game its been mostly talking and linear maps for about the 10 hours I've done so far. I think some of the fanbase needs to take some rose tinted glasses off when comparing them to each other.

[R041]

...

I do not exaggerate the QTEs. Are you serious? Are we playing the same game? Sometimes boss fights are more QTE than they are fighting. You don't even have to look very far to realize this. The Demo alone is mostly QTE in those fights. lol

I never said I hated FF16, I said it has bad gameplay*. And like I've said before, I've played and enjoy plenty of bad games.

No I think people here are numb to shitty side-quests and bad pacing due to FFXIV storytelling and padding.

BRO THERE ARE WAY MORE QTES THAN THE TUTORIAL AND DEMO LOL




As for your playthrough of FFX - It's not that it has linear maps, yes FFXVI has less linearity in it's open world VISUALS than FFX, but FFXVI has nothing to explore or look for, while FFX does. I found like what, 2 orchestrion rolls in chests and I explored everywhere, while the rest are on merchants for 20-80k? The rest are potions, mats I don't need, and 2gil. The maps are as shallow as they are long.

[Kisshu]

I also find it funny that they pulled most of the bestiary and models directly from older games, but it somehow still lacks diversity. They purposefully neglected a ton of FF trope creatures. They have a few, but my personal quota is way too low. It's like they felt ashamed to really dive into FF, and thought it'd be better to go dull medieval on everything.

To be fair, when I first sw promos with the big horn and chimera I feared that we would get straight up FF14 models in 16. At least the majority of models are new, even those inspired from 11 and 14.

All that said, the base enemies still lack variety, has a very small amount of models. But then again, nearly all non-stamina enemies are just combo-lunge-punish-repeat fodder and don't put up much of a challenge.

[R041]

To be fair, when I first sw promos with the big horn and chimera I feared that we would get straight up FF14 models in 16. At least the majority of models are new, even those inspired from 11 and 14.

All that said, the base enemies still lack variety, has a very small amount of models. But then again, nearly all non-stamina enemies are just combo-lunge-punish-repeat fodder and don't put up much of a challenge.

A lot of them are hi-res reskins of older models in the franchise. Most of the unique monsters to XVI are just the humanoids that all have reskins of themselves through the whole game. Then ...

spoiler

Second half of the game all being Akashic versions of the first half..

Even the Moogle is a direct rip from XIV. lol

Very sloppy.

[CStrife912]

A lot of them are hi-res reskins of older models in the franchise. Most of the unique monsters to XVI are just the humanoids that all have reskins of themselves through the whole game. Then ...

spoiler

Second half of the game all being Akashic versions of the first half..

Even the Moogle is a direct rip from XIV. lol

Very sloppy.

Well in regards to monsters I wish there were more types but I think there was clearly a direction/theme/tone they were going with so some quirky monsters wouldn't make sense for the world (but then we had a moogle) and FF is always known for taking from another....14 uses assets from 11,12,13 (Adamantoise for example started in FF11..then 14 then 16 lol they up ress, added more details and better texture work so work is done...hopefully port back for the visual update in 7.0) lol like its not uncommon and also as they are just their to populate the world I never see harm in it. The hunts were for the most part all new designed monsters. But i can definitely see how some could think it lazy...just why make stuff when you have stuff you can use is all.

[R041]

Well in regards to monsters I wish there were more types but I think there was clearly a direction/theme/tone they were going with so some quirky monsters wouldn't make sense for the world (but then we had a moogle) and FF is always known for taking from another....14 uses assets from 11,12,13 (Adamantoise for example started in FF11..then 14 then 16 lol they up ress, added more details and better texture work so work is done...hopefully port back for the visual update in 7.0) lol like its not uncommon and also as they are just their to populate the world I never see harm in it. The hunts were for the most part all new designed monsters. But i can definitely see how some could think it lazy...just why make stuff when you have stuff you can use is all.

Well that's what I'm saying too, they took the worst parts of both sides. They could've just gone crazy and no shame grabbed a bunch of models to fill the world. But they decided it'd be best to have a world with mostly repeating monsters AND still have taken from older titles. So it doesn't make a lot of sense here. There's plenty of non-weird creatures to fill out a world of FF.

Also, personal opinion - But I don't really think "Dark Medieval" is a good excuse to not provide variety. So they think Medieval is just Orcs, Goblins, and Humans? It's played out, dull, weak.. We have those garbage pile medieval games all over the place.. FF is good because variety, not because Orcs and Goblins.

Most of the hunts were also the same models, just slightly bigger and recolored. Couple uniques.

[CStrife912]

Well that's what I'm saying too, they took the worst parts of both sides. They could've just gone crazy and no shame grabbed a bunch of models to fill the world. But they decided it'd be best to have a world with mostly repeating monsters AND still have taken from older titles. So it doesn't make a lot of sense here. There's plenty of non-weird creatures to fill out a world of FF.

Also, personal opinion - But I don't really think "Dark Medieval" is a good excuse to not provide variety. So they think Medieval is just Orcs, Goblins, and Humans? It's played out, dull, weak.. We have those garbage pile medieval games all over the place.. FF is good because variety, not because Orcs and Goblins.

I agree it shouldn't be an excuse but I am just spitballing at what they were probably going with....I mean its heavily western high fantasy focused so orcs, goblins and humans sort of play out close to that. I don't think we have had high fantasy medieval games in quite some time unless you can refer me to some cause by all means its one of my fav settings lol I could always play more games set in that sort of time period.