- Genre: Action RPG
- Time Played: 69 Hours. (Nice)
- Too Short/Long: Just a little too long. Some individual areas went on just a tad long and a handful of sidequest kinda drag on.
- Pleased/Disappointed: Very pleased, it's a new favorite.
- Why I played: Do I need a reason to play a mainline Final Fantasy game? Actually, when it was first announced I didn't care too much. They're doing a mature traditional fantasy medieval inspired setting? Ehhh, not until some friends pointed out the protagonist and how up my alley in design he was. Then I watched exactly one trailer, got excited and refrained from finding out more. I actually finally bought a PS5 mainly to be able to play FFXVI... and catch up on the (very few) exclusives I was still missing out on.
- Recommend to others: I absolutely would if it's something you expect you'll like. I would say it can be rather difficult at times. With it's action focus in the combat, it's not something you can just grind levels out to overcome obstacles.
I don't feel like I walked away having too much to say, even though I loved it. So let's get my grievances out the way. The story isn't bad, but the first third of the game is... rough. I don't mean as in poorly written. I mean as how they present one of the primary subjects. Slavery. It doesn't approach it with kid gloves and maybe even takes it's presentation a little far. I've consumed a lot of fantasy media which features slavery, and maybe it's their fault for not presenting it as a serious enough issue, as it's often just a kinda background thing, like, oh these obvious villains have slaves and we're going to free them, and now everyone is happy. This treats it in a way that can be very uncomfortable at times.