This game is very confusing to me, and it feels like its also confused about itself. To get it out of the way, yes it has very high highs. The eikon fights are amazing and are some of the coolest set pieces I have seen in video games. This goes hand in hand with the presentation and music, which are both very good troughout the entire game. The rest of the game is a different story however.
The reason why this game doesn't really work for me is partially because it fails to commit to being either an action game or a full blown RPG. On the rpg side, it has the length of a standard jrpg but does not commit to the systems that make those games special. No playable or even semi playable party members, no in depth gear or magic system to create interesting character builds. The lack of these elements also combines with another gripe, the combat system. They created an action style combat system with the depth of a puddle. Clive has little to no combos in his base moveset, for a game that lasts 40-60 hours this is already a problem. If I can understand his moveset and learn nothing new within 1 hour, how do you expect it to carry the entire game? I enjoy the different eikon abilities, but they dont add enough depth to justify how many combat encounters there are, and how much hp every enemy has. While combining eikons can be fun, there is no reward for combining anything, and it boils down to simply filling a stun gauge and spamming your best abilities. They really should have commited to a full on combo system that rewards creativity, instead they chose style over substance.
Style over substance is also how I would describe my other problem with the game, the pacing and in turn story. Final Fantasy 16 has a lot of cutscenes. You almost cannot go 15 minutes without stumbling into one. While this creates a very cinematic game, it breaks up the pacing considerably. Often times when you finally get immersed it goes into a dialogue heavy cutscene that takes away from the gameplay, while they look good, it often does not feel very necessary, especially when some of the dialogue can feel unnecesary and repetitive. The story itself here is alright, Clive is a cool protagonist and I often felt connected with him trough his struggles. Sadly the same can not really be said for the rest of the cast. Due to the lack of a substantial party system, characters such as Jill, Joshua and dion can lack impact. I liked them, but did not feel a stronger connection to them even after a 40+ hour journey. The same can be said for ultima, his beliefs are something I have seen enough times in other stories, and I cant say that this game put a unique spin on the free will vs godly submission debate. I also struggled to do any sidequests past a few in the start. They felt like a slog, and neither the story or rewards from them provided anything that was worth my time. If the sidequests do get better towards the end, the game did not provide me enough of a reason to see them trough.
I really wanted to like this game more , and there are some really cool and exciting moments scattered troughout its 40+ hour runtime. Sadly the time between these exciting moments is a slog to get trough, and neither the gameplay nor pacing made it a more fun experience.
