Final Fantasy XVI (PC/PS5) - June 22, 2023

[Anoat]

Aight boys just got access to my third set of Eikonic powers now I feel like we’re cooking for real

Spoiler: show

The minute I saw Clive steal Garuda’s power from Benedikta I was like ooooooh shit Cid is definitely gonna die because I know Clive gets Ramuh powers later so that wasn’t too much of a surprise but I will miss the Cid VA.

[SephYuyX]

My modus operandi with any sort of media is to listen to the native VAs. Pretty much 99.999% of every single video game, anime, movie, and any other foreign media I watch, I am reading subs. I was going to play XVI in JP, but read that English was the primary source. Great selection of English VAs, they did an amazing job. Cid's silky-smooth voice, Clive's guttural mid-battle queues, Jills emotion lines, and everyone else, all were amazing.

[Uzor]

Spoiler: show

I took it as only a dominant that has absorbed so many eikons and ascended can channel the spell that Ultima was casting. He needed a higher power level lol.

I figured they called Leviathan "the Lost" cause the eikon disappeared leading us to assume the dominant probably is alive somewhere otherwise someone else would have been discovered as dominant by now. I also figured the mainlands were crystal and blight free, or at least used magic in a different way. I don't recall any character expanding much on what civilization looked like on the mainlands aside from the coastlines.

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

Spoiler: show

Ultima mentions at the end when they go into the rift that when they discovered magic, they sucked the land dry of all Aether. Valisthea was the last poece of untouched land on the planet, which is why they travelled there to enact their plans.

However, as part of the hideout, it is hinted at that the land can recover, as they do manage to plant and grow things at the hideout, which is something the herbalist NPCs talk about too. The ending cutscene of the game also hints at the land being able to fully recover. So it’s very possible that in the hundreds if not thousands of years since the Fallen moved to Valisthea, the lands beyond could have had time to recover and could have full civilizations there.

If I recall, Mid (or another character) briefly mentions that few traders ever travel to the continents betond due to the hazardous waters, suggesting that there are civilizations beyond Valisthea, but due to the dangerous waters Valisthea remains isolated from the rest of the world.

[Koul]

Just beat it, possible DLC talk

Spoiler: show

They could also do like xenoblade 2 and the DLC can be a prequel from before the Fallen, fell. Obviously, it wouldn't be Clive but maybe a different dominant or something. Also, lots of talk of the Medicine girl being Leviathans dominant

[NynJa]

Spoiler: show

If there was a Leviathan dominant, the other dominants would have felt its presence, similarly how they felt Jills presence when she was captured to know she was still alive

Unless i misinterpreted that part of the story.

[Malithar]

Spoiler: show

If there was a Leviathan dominant, the other dominants would have felt its presence, similarly how they felt Jills presence when she was captured to know she was still alive

Unless i misinterpreted that part of the story.

Spoiler: show

I feel like that was an ass pull writing wise, it hadn't been discussed prior to that. Hugo didn't know Benedicta had bitten it until Cid sent her head in a box (speaking of, that really confused me - Cid was really attached to her, tf did he go all Seven on her for?). Carrying on about the Leviathan thing, I think it just comes down to they didn't want him in there, at all, and just devoted a few throwaway lines to address it. Otherwise, why not have Ultima use some Leviathan/water powers in the final fight and have Clive have to counter them with a combination of other powers? Lacking them shows they just didn't want to bother IMO.

I'm still digesting the game as a whole. I get why some are disappointed overall, but I enjoyed the game well enough for what it was. I think it just left me whelmed, there weren't any big plot twists that paid off a setup or anything.

The combat is absolutely a highlight but once you know what you're doing there's very little threat unless particle effects wash out your screen and you can't see telegraphs. The Eikons all do a pretty decent job of catering to different play styles. It's been said, but not having elements matter was a sore point. They could have easily used an elemental hierarchy system and had your current Eikon change more than just your magic attack.

[IceSylph]

Spoiler: show

I feel like that was an ass pull writing wise, it hadn't been discussed prior to that. Hugo didn't know Benedicta had bitten it until Cid sent her head in a box (speaking of, that really confused me - Cid was really attached to her, tf did he go all Seven on her for?). Carrying on about the Leviathan thing, I think it just comes down to they didn't want him in there, at all, and just devoted a few throwaway lines to address it. Otherwise, why not have Ultima use some Leviathan/water powers in the final fight and have Clive have to counter them with a combination of other powers? Lacking them shows they just didn't want to bother IMO.

I'm still digesting the game as a whole. I get why some are disappointed overall, but I enjoyed the game well enough for what it was. I think it just left me whelmed, there weren't any big plot twists that paid off a setup or anything.

The combat is absolutely a highlight but once you know what you're doing there's very little threat unless particle effects wash out your screen and you can't see telephraphs. The Eikons all do a pretty decent job of catering to different play styles. It's been said, but not having elements matter was a sore point. They could have easily used an elemental hierarchy system and had your current Eikon change more than just your magic attack.

Spoiler: show

Barnabas and Sleipnir send the head to Kupka. They want to anger him to get Clive to eventually fight/defeat/absorb his shit. Part of Ultima's plan.

[Salodin]

Spoiler: show

I assumed it was like power levels and you could only sense them accurately at a certain distance. Idk, seems like a plot mcguffin and not worth thinking hard about.

The problem with making elements matter in a game is you get people who behave like they did during the House fight in FF7R where you had to actually watch and exploit changing elemental weaknesses, and instead of loving the challenge and change of pace you had people whining cause it was too hard.

At the very least they should have had buffs and penalties to damage based on element. Shouldn't have to wait til NG+ for a challenge in a game imo

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

[Koul]

Spoiler: show

Barnabas and Sleipnir send the head to Kupka. They want to anger him to get Clive to eventually fight/defeat/absorb his shit. Part of Ultima's plan.

Spoiler: show

Yeah, that's how I saw it with Benedicta. Leviathan talk: Lots of theories on this but Barnabas was the first Odin dominant for a long time, so, there may just not be a leviathan dominant that has awakened yet so Ultima couldn't use their powers. Was there any indication that Jill was Shivas dominant when she was a kid?

[IceSylph]

Spoiler: show

Yeah, that's how I saw it with Benedicta. Leviathan talk: Lots of theories on this but Barnabas was the first Odin dominant for a long time, so, there may just not be a leviathan dominant that has awakened yet so Ultima couldn't use their powers. Was there any indication that Jill was Shivas dominant when she was a kid?

Spoiler: show

Just that Torgal was close with her. Lore states that Fenrir/Frost Wolves tended to be close to Shiva's dominant. More of a hindsight thing, and probably a stretch.

[Salodin]

Considering how the plot ended up, I doubt all of this was set in stone and things are likely fluid tbh

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

[Malithar]

Spoiler: show

Barnabas and Sleipnir send the head to Kupka. They want to anger him to get Clive to eventually fight/defeat/absorb his shit. Part of Ultima's plan.

Spoiler: show

Oh, now that suddenly makes so much more sense haha. They weren't even involved at that point, that didn't occur to me that it coulda been them.

There's couple more questions I have, maybe it's disclosed somewhere and I just missed it; how did Cid know who Ultima was and who was Typhon (beyond being the first fight to let you really stretch your wings and enjoy playing as Ifrit)?

[IceSylph]

Spoiler: show

Oh, now that suddenly makes so much more sense haha. They weren't even involved at that point, that didn't occur to me that it coulda been them.

There's couple more questions I have, maybe it's disclosed somewhere and I just missed it; how did Cid know who Ultima was and who was Typhon (beyond being the first fight to let you really stretch your wings and enjoy playing as Ifrit)?

I'm replaying the game on hard, and there's a line about that

Spoiler: show

Cid says to Benedikta that kind of explains this.
"Cid:
To Benedikta: ...I got tired of you and your king's antics..." -- refers to Barnabas

then when Ultima appears before Clive in Oriflamme:
To Ultima: ...I know who you are...

I think this refers to that line he says to Benedikta earlier in the game. Cid used to be the Commander of the Waloed forces, so probably knew at least a tiny bit of what was going on.

[Tyrath]

Yo I am really liking the sidequests closer to the endgame. They were fine before and did a little bit of worldbuilding, but I am happy to see progressing side quests with many of the familiar NPCs. Actually makes me care about them and their plight.

[Prothescar]

Yo I am really liking the sidequests closer to the endgame. They were fine before and did a little bit of worldbuilding, but I am happy to see progressing side quests with many of the familiar NPCs. Actually makes me care about them and their plight.

I really started getting into them when the shit in Lostwing started to pop off

[Tyrath]

I really started getting into them when the shit in Lostwing started to pop off

Ya I think that was one of the first ones I noticed by multi part side quests. Cool how they spread it out over the game

[Tyrath]

Lol game lore needs to stop giving me spoilers

I'm pre-Odin fight but this is a post-Odin spoiler

Spoiler: show

The Knights of Waloed lore card mentions how Ultima uses them after Barnabas' death. I haven't even fought Odin yet!

[Malithar]

Lol game lore needs to stop giving me spoilers

I thought I found a spoiler too with the lore but it ended up just being a bug.

Spoiler: show

If you check Vivian's character chart, characters that have died are greyed out. This is true for all of them except one; Sir Tyler. His portrait remained colored in the entirety of the game and since Sir Wade popped back up, I thought maybe he would too at some point.

[SephYuyX]

I think I figured out a main issue of mine with this game - One of the problems I was having initially when I started the game was the huge disparity between gameplay and cutscenes, but it's not like I'm not used to that playing other JRPGs, namely Trails as an extreme, but for some reason this felt so much more jarring. I also just came off of 180hrs of ToTK, so I had to change my mindset to readjust to just sitting and watching something, versus playing.

I still feel there is a much larger amount of cutscenes in this game versus gameplay though. Try a quick playthrough by just skipping all CSs and see, I was able to get

Spoiler: show

titan abilities

in about an hour on FF mode. More CSs bad? No, just an observation.

In any case, the issue I have with it is going from heart racing ADHD button mashing boss battles, to then siting in a CS for 15mins before being able to do anything else. It just caused a disconnect for me that turn-based systems don't seem to give me. 7R or SoP I didn't have a problem with, but SoP CSs weren't as long before getting you back into the action.

I can only imagine the new to JRPG folks coming off of more gameplay heavy western games twitching like crazy through these CSs.

Idk, it just bugged me.

[Tyrath]

Complaining about too many cutscenes in a FF mainline game is just lulz.

7R had over 11 hour of cutscenes so I don't really see the difference here.