I may have jumped to conclusions and reviewed the title too early. I will say however that it starts out eye gouging-like slow and generic. However, after more thorough and longer gameplay, it wasn't as bad as my last review had made it out to be.
Once you do open up the world a bit as you progress through the story, it does become rather enticing and "spacious." I am not used to the base infrastructure used in the FFXVI title, so it threw me off.
As I progressed the world opened up, and the story improved dramatically.
I am changing my rating from a six to an eight.
I do standby a lot of the negatives mentioned in my old review below.
Still not GOTY material.
8/10
------- OLD REVIEW BELOW -------
I am not impressed with the iconic titles being released lately. It all seems either like they're in experiment mode, or just becoming developmently lazy.
Seven hours in and the story is great so far, but it just doesn't seem like a main Final Fantasy entry.
1) No open World
This was mentioned in early development, but I didn't expect it to be this restricted. It seems like it's so linear that your items give you no joy when obtaining them. A lot of Final Fantasy games are based on discovery, with their witty activities and sidequests. Speaking of, the sidequests have absolutely no meaning or purposeful chain that affects anything in the story.
2) Leveling System
This leveling system is grossly generic. You have very little to actually level your character in, except one skill wheel with a handful of skills. Then, you have one for your nonhuman npcs and abilities, which is also generic.
I do not get the joy out of this Final Fantasy as I did previous ones. This game just comes off as flat out lazy to me.
If they would've combined somewhat of an openish world with this storyline, and implemented more Final Fantasy characteristics, this could've easily been GOTY material. I am disappointed.
Once you do open up the world a bit as you progress through the story, it does become rather enticing and "spacious." I am not used to the base infrastructure used in the FFXVI title, so it threw me off.
As I progressed the world opened up, and the story improved dramatically.
I am changing my rating from a six to an eight.
I do standby a lot of the negatives mentioned in my old review below.
Still not GOTY material.
8/10
------- OLD REVIEW BELOW -------
I am not impressed with the iconic titles being released lately. It all seems either like they're in experiment mode, or just becoming developmently lazy.
Seven hours in and the story is great so far, but it just doesn't seem like a main Final Fantasy entry.
1) No open World
This was mentioned in early development, but I didn't expect it to be this restricted. It seems like it's so linear that your items give you no joy when obtaining them. A lot of Final Fantasy games are based on discovery, with their witty activities and sidequests. Speaking of, the sidequests have absolutely no meaning or purposeful chain that affects anything in the story.
2) Leveling System
This leveling system is grossly generic. You have very little to actually level your character in, except one skill wheel with a handful of skills. Then, you have one for your nonhuman npcs and abilities, which is also generic.
I do not get the joy out of this Final Fantasy as I did previous ones. This game just comes off as flat out lazy to me.
If they would've combined somewhat of an openish world with this storyline, and implemented more Final Fantasy characteristics, this could've easily been GOTY material. I am disappointed.