Final Fantasy XVI (16)

I’m about 75% in and I’m finding the game takes a massive nose dive after the Kupka stuff. I’m currently post Dion stuff (I hope those two aren’t too spoilery) and it’s just.. well excruciating to get through at the moment. Really got into it but it’s just sending me around on inane quests. Story is wilting a little bit too - could be to do with the pacing, still looking forward to see how it plays out though.

By the way richyroo, some of those final side quests are amongst the best in the game for story. I get why you’d start skipping them, but depending on which ones you skipped you may have missed out on the highlights

The sidequests aren't anything special from a gameplay standpoint. There are a few proper bosses hidden in there mind you. But from a story standpoint they are by far and away the best ones in the series. They give very good closure to multiple character arcs in the hideaway and beyond.

I think they are getting a bit of a bad rep because there isn't an 'endgame' chase in this one so they are being looked upon under the lens of being a replacement for superbosses and ultimate weapons. But they are purely narrative subplots that add to the world lore, really.

Theyve announced that two paid dlc's are in development for 16 as well as confirmation of a pc version. No dates for either of those, but a free update dropped today as well with a couple of fixes, but 2 of the more notable ones are that you can glamour Clives sword so you can give it any appearance and there are alternative outfits for Clive, Jill and others.

Still playing the game but if I were yo hazard a guess, I'd imagine one of the DLC's is about

Christ, how bad did sales drop off to cause a 30% share slump and be called a “disaster” after selling three million in one week

Oh, that’s where Wesley ended up.

No profit from Outriders, loses $200m on MARVEL games multiple mobile flops like FF7 First Soldier, Forspoken doesn't make back investment, Babylon's Fall bought by 3 people*

Games media: Well clearly its all FF16's fault that Square lost £2bn

For as many good games that come out from Square that I enjoy like FF16, FF7R, Triangle Strategy etc, they do like shooting themselves in the foot repeatedly.

Finished it, this game sure has some really high moments. The story really has some impressive emotional beats but is at the same time all over the place due to the time skips. I will remember the game much more then 13 and probably 12.

So for me its a return to form. I still can't finish FFX15 with its atrocious combat.

It does have some baffling decisions, such as a lack of fast travel around the hideout. It dis not bother me for the most part except when you have to visit Mid or go to the Botany.

Completed this last night after 110 hrs. Every side quest cleared, every curiosity collected, every mark hunted, S ranked all Arcade and Final Chronolith challenges. I think I'll write a review at some point in the Completed Games thread but in short, it's my GOTY. I have criticisms of it, both in gameplay and story but in true form of the character action genre, the peaks are peaks and the valleys are valleys. In spite of all these criticisms, I personally don't think it stops it from being a GOTY, there's so many moments, scripted or otherwise through player expression in the combat, that elevated the game to elicit genuine excitement and tears out of me more times than any other game I've played this year. But I know for some people that it's their worst FF game, to me it's one of the best and with such difference in opinion, in the end, does that not make it a true FF game?

I'm tempted to go back and replay in Final Fantasy mode to see what's new, but now wondering if maybe I should hold off until both bits of DLC comes out and allow me the hard drive space to play Spiderman.

For sure, I also think it exists in a weird space right now where it's a PS exclusive and that then causes the MS fanboys to drive up criticism of it and general negative perception. But if someone were to say they didn't like it I'd understand it, there's a lot of elements that you would imagine a FF game to have which it doesn't. Meanwhile I'm here thinking if they want to take the same approach with XVII and make it another character action game, I'm completley all in.

Given the outsized influence of the localisation team on the game I can pretty much guarantee it is on purpose.

Finished the first bit of DLC Echoes of the Fallen. Took about 3 hrs? The first hour could have been cut down a bit but the dungeon you fight through might be one of the best ones in the game. 3 pretty cool sub bosses and the final one is one of the most difficult and has one of the best tracks. I'm somewhat at a loss however, the quest can only be done right before you do the final mission and there are new weapons, accessories and orchestrion rolls too. The accessories bust the combat even further. Displaying when to parry, auto trigger limit break if you're about to die, increased aerial damage, even something absurd like break the damage multiplier you can get up to from 1.5x to 2x and more. But I'm already some ways in on FF mode playthrough, I think I'm gonna have to restart, clear the game again on that save file and start a new FF playthrough to keep hold of everything otherwise I won't get it again right til the end at which point there won't be anything else in the game to test it out with. Might just wait til the Leviathan DLC is done and start then so I can have a full playthrough using everything...but I was enjoying it so far! Ah well, don't have to wait that long I think

Do I play XVI before Rebirth.. decisions..

I think I'll give it a start then. I was thinking to myself last night, why am I playing TLOU again, when I could be playing something new.