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Sum-Up

In-depth analysis further down.
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🟩 Pros
🟥 Cons



• Excellent story, full of exciting events and many memorable, well-written characters.
• Superb skill-based combat that rewards mastering its mechanics. It’s responsive, perfectly paced and fun.
• Solid variety of enemies, with many variants that have unique abilities, ultimate moves and patterns.
• Exceptionally well-designed multi-stage, evolving boss fights that will surprise you time and again.
• Enormous amount of interesting lore to find out more about this wonderful setting.


• The hardest difficulty is locked behind beating the game, while the second hardest doesn’t offer enough challenge.
• Barring some exceptions, most side quests are quite boring and give meager rewards.
• Balance issues between the various powers at your disposal; several become redundant once you get newer ones.





🟨 Bugs & Issues
🔧 Specs



• Severe performance issues in specific locations regardless of specs or settings. Generally bad optimization.
• Steam Input has to be used to display the correct button glyphs with a DS4; natively, in my case, the ones for Xbox were shown instead.


• i9 13980HX
• 64GB RAM DDR5
• RTX 4090
• NvME SSD
• 3840x2160



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Content & Replay Value:
It took me 81 hours to finish FFXVI on ‘Action’ difficulty, the highest available for the first run, taking considerable additional time to finish all side quests, bounties and explore all maps thoroughly. Despite a new difficulty setting for NG+ alongside a few additional bosses, everything else stays linear; the replay value is low.


Do I recommend it?
Absolutely. This is one of the better FF installments in several years. It delivers fresh gameplay, an excellent story and an interesting, well-thought-out setting.


Conclusion:
A mature Final Fantasy chapter that doesn’t hold back in discussing heavy themes, and compounds them with exciting, albeit linear gameplay. A marked step from the dispersive immaturity of its predecessor.



In-Depth

Writing & Worldbuilding
The harsh reality of a war-torn continent where countries fight for dominance over magical power sources is well-depicted and shown in all of its brutality. Unlike in other installments, this Final Fantasy will show death, gore, violence and horrors on a constant basis, which is fitting for the realities Clive, the protagonist, and his companions have to see through. Each side character of some importance is distinct, has a consistent, well-written personality and acts coherently, while world-changing events happen on a regular but plausible basis. It’s a story of loss, struggle and liberation from social stigma.
The world is vast, diverse and superbly designed. Each location from villages to grand cities is rich in detail, and the visuals all around are probably the best seen in the series yet. It’s not just that though: there is a great degree of finery in how each character, locale and landscape is designed—even comparatively minor NPCs or locations will keep the consistency to be just as great as main story ones. Effects and animations, especially in battle, are grand and contribute in delivering a constant feast for the eyes.
Exploration & Secrets
With the world divided in a series of closed, albeit large, locations accessed through a global map, there isn’t a true open-world experience at any point. Despite that, you’ll make ample use of both fast-travel waypoints and later on your personal Chocobo to get around faster, since there’s still a lot of ground to cover, especially if you aim to explore everything. Exploring is worthwhile: you might find hidden chests that, most of the time, house crafting components and valuables, but sometimes unique items. An array of quest markers, maps and QoL functions, like teleporting to a quest giver to immediately deliver the task, make orienteering and traveling hassle-free. The majority of locations in each area are initially locked, and can be accessed only via either main or side quest progression.
Combat System & Bosses
FFXVI goes above and beyond in showcasing how modern third-person melee action combat should be done. Despite it being a JRPG on paper, the systems in place rely much more on player skill, timing and mechanical mastery than on equipment and levels on their own. Features such as perfect parries and dodges reward timing, while each power at Clive’s disposal works in a unique way: each elemental set has three abilities, one feat and one ultimate whose workings may not be apparent until you test them through. As you progress, you’ll have to combine three different elemental sets and dynamically swap between them in combat, thus opening to particularly strong combinations to stagger your foes as fast as possible to receive a large damage bonus. There’s no mana, only cooldowns, and at times ways to charge various abilities by performing specific actions in combat.
The combat system has the same foundation throughout the game, but also constantly evolves in some way or another, be it with enemies progressively gaining more diverse abilities, or Clive acquiring more and more powers that alter how each fight plays out. This is, above all, the winning formula that makes FFXVI compelling and interesting until the end, as far as combat is concerned.
Despite all of the above, barring some bosses, the difficulty will remain at a tame level most of the time. Normal enemies are all but mere fodder that doesn’t ever pose a threat, while Elite ones and actual bosses put up more of a fight—at no point, however, will Clive ever really struggle, given the overabundant quantity of healing items and ways of avoiding damage that are far too simple to pull off, like perfect dodges having a very wide, forgiving window at all times. It’s not boring by any means, but veterans of third-person action will be left wanting. The bosses themselves are excellent, and their fights are intertwined with cinematic sequences and gameplay variations you’d not expect.
Character Progression & Crafting
You’ll gain XP and AP from quests and kills; the first levels up your character, giving it better attributes automatically, while the second is a currency used to unlock and upgrade abilities, which can also be respecced freely at any time. Certain quests also expand your maximum capacity of consumables, like potions, and can even unlock new gameplay features or crafting recipes. Despite the lack of control in Clive’s attributes, you can fine-tune the abilities at your disposal through a series of swappable presets, to be effective depending on which enemy is at hand.
Equipped gear like weapons, armor and trinkets grants better stats and protection, and in many cases also unique passives that can modify how combat mechanics work, such as further improving your perfect dodge bonus, or granting lower cooldowns. Resources are gained from enemies and chests, far in excess, especially if you’re thorough in exploring. They’re used to improve existing gear to a maximum of +2, or craft new items at a blacksmith. Needless to say, crafted gear is by far the best you can get, since enemies don’t drop any.