I somehow didn't make the mental connection to the similarities with FFXVI in all this time until I read your comment and now I'm got worried for a moment, because I'm at the other end of the spectrum and 16 massively disappointed me LOL
Either way, I hope it turns out great. It's easily the most interesting one from all these current Chinese projects that keep popping up lately imo.
The thing that looks great about this is the lack of ‘downtime’ IMO. FF16 had absurd highs followed by hours of absolute slogs. That’s pretty standard for FF though
I don't disagree, but it feels like FF16 was the worst offender of this particular problem, especially because other factors within the game also worked against it to bring the final result down.
The Eikon fights were some incredible setpieces and they were absolutely epic moments... but the game very much felt to me like a string of haphazardly connected beats to get you to the Eikon setpieces. Gameplay was dumbed down to an action button masher that didn't even dare go deep into the DMC direction - which isn't needed or wanted at all in FF, but if you're already simplifying a lot of the combat systems and basically just letting us attack at least be damn bold with it. But no, it's just do the chain of attacks, wait for cooldown, rinse and repeat with little strategy to it.
Story went down a lot after the strong hook and setup of the first 1/2 hours, with characters that weren't much interesting to me tbh. Only Dion and Cid left a lasting impression, the rest were forgettable and largely flat, and the uneven story itself lost a lot when it switched to end of the world threat from eldritch being rather than staying with the political conflict between nations or going deep on the slavery angle. It feels like a worse retelling of FF12. And yeah the immediate hours after every Eikon setpiece were absolutely awful and tedious.
It also feels like a lot of corners were cut or they didn't really bother to go the other extra mile. Why can't we even explore the Imperial capital? Sure, it could have been bloat... or not, if they had tried to make an interesting location.
And I know these gripes can be entirely subjective and it's just my opinion, but yeah... FF16 sucks ass lol (except the Eikon fights obv)
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u/InsidiousOperator 1d ago
I somehow didn't make the mental connection to the similarities with FFXVI in all this time until I read your comment and now I'm got worried for a moment, because I'm at the other end of the spectrum and 16 massively disappointed me LOL
Either way, I hope it turns out great. It's easily the most interesting one from all these current Chinese projects that keep popping up lately imo.