Curious how everyone's experience has been playing FF 16 so far. I'm enjoying myself and having fun with the game, but I am having a really hard time understanding all these 9/10 review scores. When the game is firing on all cylinders it’s a total banger, but there are so many issues with this game.
Let’s start with side quests. These are some of the most simple, repetitive, and boring side quests I’ve seen in a while. Almost every single one is a basic fetch or kill quest, and the rewards for completing them are truely awful. Luckily they are completely skippable, and after the first few hours I decided to completely ignore them. Unfortunately this even bleeds over into many main quest sections. A real low point for me was after an insanely epic battle with a key villain in the game, I was tasked with finding a carpenter so another character could build a workshop. We just went from god-tier battle for the fate of the realm to job recruiter in like 10m time.
Exploration is also a real low point. Compare this game to something like Elden Ring or God of War, and this world feels so lifeless. There are no secret dungeons, no memorable NPCs, no sweeping vistas to discover. Nothing. The hunt battles are fun but that’s about it. In general it just feels like exploration has absolutely no pay off. The rewards in general are just poor due to a really bad itemization system and garbage crafting.
Speaking of crafting and items, what is the point? The game is constantly throwing crafting materials at you, but like 95% of the things you can craft are just crap. There are a few key items that felt worthwhile but the vast majority of what you can create is terrible. Sadly the best items you can craft cannot be upgraded either from what I’ve seen so far. The accessory slots are so limited that even when I do get a cool accessory I feel unable to use it many times since I only have 3 slots. This really sucks the fun out of finding new grear or unlocking it at the vendor.
That said, it’s not all bad. The main story is really fun and I love the world. The huge struggle between all these competing factions is right up my alley. The combat is really tight and satisfying, despite my initial struggles to get the hang of it. I like all of the Eikon powers, and appreciate that the ability system makes respeccing so easy since it gives you a chance to try out new playstyles all the time. Oh, and have I mentioned how gorgeous this game is? Without question one of the best looking games so far this generation. And let’s talk about Eikon battles. This is just epicness on top of epicness. You feel like such an absolute badass leading up to and during these key moments in the game, and it’s where things really shine brightest for me.
So how has your time with the game been so far? Do you have some of the same complaints as I do, and what do you enjoy most?
So I've been waiting for this one for a while. I have many of the gripes that you do, and I will say that damn, if you don't like the combat and story, you won't like the game because there isn't much else.
But as an avid FF14 player, I think some of the more baffling decisions (shitty sidequests, boring world to explore) make more sense when you think of it from the FF14 writer perspective. FF14 has very epic moments, but something they always try to do (and IMO, works better in an MMO setting) is have VERY grounded sidequests to balance it out. In the MMO, the sidequests exist purely to expand the lore of the world and make it feel more connected overall, and the reward is the quest, not actual rewards.l. They are consistently just trying to flesh out communities and sometimes characters, as opposed to really being their own story.
The exploration is far more disappointing to me, but I will say that I suspect they simply put all their effort into the main story and it shows in the quality comparison mostly.
My personal gripes are mostly mob fights being too easy, since I regularly wipe them in around 10 seconds without giving them a chance to fight back. The boss fights are great but the awesome mob enemy variety and design from a game like DMC wouldn't even matter here because I can ragdoll the entire group to infinity.
I AM having a lot of fun with the game though. I'd give it a solid 8/10 at most currently. I played the majority alone, but restarted earlier this weekend to play with my girlfriend, and seeing it through her eyes (knowing nothing about the game or marketing) made me appreciate it more than through my own (me, who really devoured the combat, the demo, and all the promotional material).
It won't be my game of the year, but I don't regret my purchase. It's the kind of FF game I wanted, with a slightly disappointing execution.