I ignore most enemies a fair bit of the time and have been a high level for the areas. Most of them you just spam the square button as well.

Sir, thank you Sir.

Well your further than me, I've just and pretty blates still have a long way to go.

I am still basically enjoying it, but it's maybe lost a little if its early charm. Need to sort to kick on a bit really.

Finished this last night, and overall really enjoyed it. I think I did basically every sidequests (apart from a handful before going to Oriflamme) and did every Hunt on the board.

My extremely non-controversial take is that the game is quite good, actually. It has the finger prints of so many previous FF games all over it that I am sort of surprised by some of the online chatter i’ve seen elsewhere as people say it’s not FF enough, or that it gives on trying to be a GoT-alike too fast. Just like all of the previous games it’s got its unique setup that dovetails into the usually calamity at the heart of every good megalomaniac villain’s plan.

Combat is an absolute charm against the right enemies with just so much customisation available on the latter end of the game that it ends up become a sort of mini game trying to get stagger as high as you can. Without unlocking full freedom to really go wild, I managed a tasty 87,000 in one stagger sequence. Now that’s video gaming.


The side quests were largely a much of a muchness until the second half of the game where they were useful for continuing to flesh out the world while the stakes raise. I felt they were helpful for providing context for what is in site of Valisthea after the curtains fall, as the game trusts you to envision what the world will be like after the finale.

In terms of sheer spectacle, I don’t think anything has come this close to the exuberance and sheer gleefulness of the set piece boss fights in XVI since… gosh… Wonderful 101 maybe? It’s full, truly unhinged shounen anime nonsense. Mortals against gods, Quick Time Events that make you want to punch the air, bosses who have attack names like “Extinction” and “Supernova” and ask you to break their build up gauges before they give you a spectacularly gaudy attack that shoved you into a game over screen.

Fancy parrying an attack that could level a continent, or dodging a beam of energy that could cut a planet in two? FFXVI is your game. It offered all the scale and bombast I would have hoped for from the end of GoW Ragnarok, but delivers it on a fairly regular basis from quite early on. It’s like playing the best cutscenes from Final Fantasy games of the past, all done up in shiny PS5 graphics and a soundtrack that never settles and keeps on chucking out winners.

Extremely glad we can still get these kind of showstopper games that pull out all the stops to make boss fights true spectacles. Very glad that XV didn’t end up being the last word in modern FF games, and that XVI was given the time it needed to cook.

For all its niggling flaws, it was nice to have a game that made me feel as excited at its peak moments as the best Platinum, DMC, and FF games have in the past.

Cinty is this good? I am balls deep in Zelda right now, and want this next, but I trust your opinion.

It's next on my list.

The Plus side quests are different? Give better rewards and more story / character focussed?

Yeah I think I've only seen one of those... And yeah, reward was nice, though its animation is pretty lolsome

I've only done the first mark too, tbf. But worrying that I'm not feeling motivated to do more though.

Vela wrote:

Cinty is this good? I am balls deep in Zelda right now, and want this next, but I trust your opinion.

It's next on my list.

Basically this:

Tempy wrote:

My extremely non-controversial take is that the game is quite good, actually.

…

For all its niggling flaws, it was nice to have a game that made me feel as excited at its peak moments as the best Platinum, DMC, and FF games have in the past.

It’s flawed but the highs are incredible.

Wouldn't just mashing square just take ages and be boring as fuck?

Basically I like games that demand a bit of skill, whereas this basically doesn't.  And I think that is a contrast to the FF norm, where you had to think a bit strategically about front line vs. back line, attacking vs. healing, etc.  There's none of that finesse.

Yeah I think the majority of encounters in 7-10 you could just use the attack command and win.

EvilRedEye wrote:

That said, the generic enemies with stagger bars do take a disproportionately long time to kill.

I pretty much ignore those unless I have to fight them. The time isn't worth the rewards from the fight.

Like even the finite heals puts a different spin on things. No more bosses that have moves that take you to 1HP or anything like that.

Yeah I do streamline it ofc, and stun as much as poss, just pondering design differences against earlier games & pondering why I found their combat more engaging

I must have been sniffing glue at some point, because this last cutscene has me stumped.

Spoiler for those that have finished, can't really get more specific than that unfortunately.
It's starting to become a bit of a mess, this