Final Fantasy XVI demo impressions -- tl;dr Game of Self-Owns

HOLY SHIT SKILLUP DIDN'T LIKE IT.

I feel so vindicated right now.

Also: it seems Diablo IV DOES have a better story for its game than XVI does. And that comes down purely to how it is delivered. Not only I felt that -- one of the biggest YoshiP fans in the critic world did too.

Oh shit he just negatively compared its narrative style to Isshin!

A fucking Yakuza gaiden.

Hahahahaahhaahha.

I tend to agree, although not as strongly.

Honestly it's just so unexpectedly meh. Not terrible by any means, but not great either.

Literally not a single likeable character.

I lost it when SkillUp said, "A moment ago I was literally fighting gods and now I am collecting soil samples for a local farmer". We have all been there -- just not in a game that desperately wants to be taken so dead seriously. Martin did not subject Jon Snow to fetch quests and talking to NPCs to get stronger.

Another interesting take I read was that if anything the game is held back by its obeisance to JRPG norms. Pretty interesting that this can be considered a legit opinion to an FF main game but that's the result of YoshiP wanting his cake and eating it too. Is it Game of Groans...or Devil May Clive? Po-faced political machinations or sexycool combo chains?

This game will not age well, and the high scoring reviews are going to be a hindsight embarrassment. A collective acknowledgment that they were all of them deceived.

I mean, YoshiP saved XIV and possibly Square Enix but he did it with a game that is still going and still going strong. It's his thing and it works. Handing someone the future of the realm just because they saved it once...well, there's a fantasy trope that rarely ends well.

And thinking a team that made and makes an excellent MMO might also be capable of a strong, well-paced single player game is definitely ignoring the huge differences between the two.

By all accounts the most competent part of XVI is the action and that's because they headhunted an expert on the matter. You can guarantee said expert made clear part of his requirements to deliver great hack n slash action was to keep the itemisation fairly simple and the weapon/character options limited. Trying to balance a DMC style game with a typical FF party and typical FF gear options would require a game unto itself. And maybe they should have done that. I dunno.

I do know that once the ads cycle out of the screens at my local shopping centre I will be glad to think on it as little as possible. But eh. Maybe XVI money will go into a new Dissidia or something. That'd be nice.

I do want to move along in 16, but I seriously cannot put down D4 lol.

I do want to move along in DIV, but seriously I cannot put down Elden Ring lol.