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

[Lauront]

You forgot FFVII:R exists and is pretty highly praised.. Itemization, Equipment, Party Synergy.. Except for the time ghosts. Fuck those guys. Combat is phenomenal and should be new gold standard.

I'd add SoP. I've enjoyed that game's combat system a lot too. Both were neglected when XVI was on its "first true action RPG" marketing push. Of course you can caveat that "...only the mainline series", but 7R is still really difficult to ignore in that context and I think it had a better system than XVI's. I really dislike the long stagger timers in XVI. Overall I agree with your sentiment on it. It's good, but it is being over-hyped, and there's small changes they could've made to make it even better. The trash is, by and large, so bad it may as well not exist. I'd be more understanding if the hard mode was available from the outset, assuming it addresses it.

They take an average of what gamers wants. It wants to simultaneously be for action gamers who don't like command-based strategy, and for the old timer Final Fantasy players who are not comfortable with the pace of action games. It wants the lowest barrier for entry and to appeal to both western and eastern tastes.

Gaming was good when it was less democratized. When there wasn't such a big corporate structure and targets of X millions of sales. Some of those old designers just tried to make the ultimate game for their own personal tastes with little regard to how they might be received overseas, if localisation even happened.

In doing so we got some wonderfully weird and unique games that added to the fabric of gaming culture. They are now working at a scale where they cannot afford for any mainline FF to be a failure so it's built to mitigate risk. Quite a safe and bland game (apart from over-the-top cutscenes).

That's the distinctive impression I get, too. Feels like design by the numbers. You can tell which games/series it's taking inspiration from (at least I can from the ones familiar to me) and blending together. It's not a bad game, by any means, and I am enjoying the grittier vibe of the plot (could've been a bit bolder, but it's fine for what it is), but even if I neglect the combat system, the story elements themselves feel a bit under-developed. Still, it does excel when it comes to cinematography and music. The Bahamut fight, for example, was really memorable.