Final Fantasy XVI Reviews
Final Fantasy 16 is a tremendously disappointing JRPG with a clunky, shallow narrative, unengaging characters, lifeless environments and overly simplified combat. It's few redeeming qualities, namely its visuals and occasional intriguing story moment, are overshadowed by its plethora of flaws. Final Fantasy 16 is a hard game to recommend, even to diehard fans of the franchise.
To sum up, I’ll quote myself from a tweet I posted when I happily traded the game in after finishing it. “Bloated beyond any resemblance of fun, unlikeable characters and incoherent pish for a story.”
Though Final Fantasy XVI is a fun game in its own right, much of the appeal comes from the visuals. The combat is fun, with its flashing colours, but spamming square for forty hours isn’t much fun. Though the boss fights look great, once again, it’s all visuals and doesn’t leave much for the player to do except do enough damage to trigger a cinematic and then do some quick-time events. Story-wise, they do well, with the overall goal being for Clive to destroy the Mother Crystals. However, how the story goes about this is rather messy. Characters don’t get enough development for me to care, with Benedikta Harman being a good example. Without spoilers, it felt as if they couldn’t decide her role in the story. Unless the enemies are large or bosses, they don’t really fight back and will just get smacked around. The game says you can do builds but doesn’t offer a proper way for the player. There are no different weapon types or spells. The only two stats used for combat is solely staggering and attack. They decided to go with smaller maps instead of a larger open world. Which is fine, but these areas are lifeless and lack any secrets. I was shocked to see that for a game about gods who control the elements, the elemental effect didn’t play a part in the game. Final Fantasy XVI relies too much on its visuals and not enough on the gameplay. That’s why I’m giving it the Thumb Cultures Silver Award.
If you like Game of Thrones-style intrigue and drama, you will like Final Fantasy XVI. It takes itself very seriously and lacks any fun diversions to mix up the experience. Final Fantasy XVI delivers a truly Westernized take on Final Fantasy with simplistic hack-and-slash combat that will appease average gamers.
An excellent battle system shackled to a dispiritingly dull and long-winded fantasy adventure, that takes an inordinate amount of time to say nothing of value.
Final Fantasy XVI delivers on the “action” side of its action-RPG formula. A fierce and fast-paced combat system makes for the series’ most exciting stab at real-time swordplay yet, while its blockbuster Eikon fights rank among some of gaming’s most awe-inspiring battles. But there’s a general flatness surrounding those exhilarating highs, as shallow RPG hooks and dated design leave a promising evolution for the series stuck in the past.
A smart combat system straining under the weight of a characterful but ponderous pseudo-medieval soap opera, with some of the grandest bosses and dullest sidequests in FF history.
While Final Fantasy XVI didn’t meet this fan’s expectations for a new series entry, newcomers to epic fantasy and action games will be swept away by the eye-melting combat and enormous-yet-approachable scale.
Final Fantasy 16 ticks plenty of boxes – fluid combat, epic boss battles and an engaging story – but for every win, there’s a spectacular fail, be it the bland semi-open world devoid of much to do or the uninspired fetch quest-style side quests. It’s a game at its best when its focus is narrowed, but that doesn’t happen often enough.
Final Fantasy 16 is a rich, visually arresting spectacle with engrossing set pieces let down by a bloated story and stifled combat.
Final Fantasy XVI continues to push the series into a new direction. While it has a well-realized setting, good characters, satisfying combat, and excellent cinematic large scale battles, the slow pacing, lackluster RPG elements and barebones optional content grind the excitement to a halt too often.
Overall I’d reckon that Final Fantasy XVI’s PC port IS a good one, albeit with the caveats that it has some beefy requirements to run at higher frame rates and resolutions. It’s a phenomenal game that is now available to a wider audience, so I’d highly recommend checking it out if you’ve got the hardware.
Final Fantasy XVI is a page-turner. Better still, it's the beginning of a new book. Although there are some things that still bring to mind the weight that the name carries, Square Enix takes a completely different path in almost everything this experience gives us. It's a good story, with its exceptional peaks, but the climb up there is quite boring and difficult to digest. It feels that, somewhere in middle of the story there are repetitive moments of sloppiness that greatly undermined everything good that this Final Fantasy could provide us. I accept that the changes had to happen, but it leaves a bittersweet taste in the end.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Final Fantasy XVI certainly excels in spectacle, boasting superb boss fights with a great combat system and narrative, but the quieter moments outside of those big scenes end up mostly uninteresting and boring with RPG elements that feel mostly inconsequential.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Final Fantasy XVI has epic scenes with combat system, story, Eikon battles. The fact that it is almost completely disconnected from RPG dynamics and important mistakes puts the game in a good game mold rather than a classic.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
A bold change of direction for the Final Fantasy series that almost manages to pull it off. Grandiose combat and great performances are the highlights, but a largely funneled story and underdeveloped environments sour the spectacle.
Final Fantasy XVI is all over the place. It’s a game of incredible highs and distasteful lows, boasting such a narrative trainwreck of disarranged ideas it’s borderline incompatible with itself. Endeavoring to tackle themes of fascism and slavery would be laudable if the result wasn’t inelegant at best and offensive at worst. The frustrating, exhausting nature of XVI’s miserable narrative is countered by notably enjoyable combat, impressive setpieces, and truly stunning boss encounters. When it’s not boring, it’s exhilarating. When it’s not exhilarating, it’s insulting. When it’s not insulting, it’s delightful.
After over 2500 characters, I'm not sure I've fully answered the opening question. The only certainty I have, after all these words and 50+ hours with Clive, is that I've experienced an unforgettable journey, despite its highs and lows. Final Fantasy XVI isn't the best in the series, but it's bold and coherent. More polished than its predecessor, Yoshida's work aims to broaden the audience. The result is divisive but deserves your time and affection. Not the GOTY 2023, but Clive and co. are worth the journey.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Perhaps a bit too divergent from the Final Fantasy formula, but rich characters and spectacular combat still make it an impressive sequel.
Despite the lack of heavy RPG elements, Final Fantasy XVI is a fine enough addition to the series. In the future, however, Square Enix should focus even more on making sure that its computer ports can be enjoyed by as many people as possible.
Review in Slovak | Read full review