Final Fantasy XVI is an INSULT to RPG Fans, and I DIG IT! Hell has frozen over. Today I am talking about a Final Fantasy game on the channel, FF16, which has made a very interesting decision to swap out its usual semi-turn based party combat, into a single character real time Devil May Cry / Bayonetta style combat system. Naturally, being a big fan of character action games and discussing combat systems generally, I felt compelled to try this game and and share my thoughts on whether or not the combat system of the game is legit or not. Funny enough, as odd as this game may be seeing as how it is cutting against its original audience of RPG players, I actually found that a lot of what I have to say about this game ties very nicely into the themes I have been discussing on the channel as of late when it comes to precriptive combat, special move (summons) balance, the importance of pace, level design, enemy design, hitstun, super armor, and strong graphical presentation. One review that this game ties into heavily is my review of Bayonetta 3. In many ways, FF16 and Bayo 3 are sister games, both of them have essentially arrived at the same comprimise of blending real time action with RPG elements. Both games are trying to capture eachother’s audiences. What makes FF16 more interesting to me personally, however, is that it is cutting against the usual trend of moving towards RPG design, by being an already established RPG that is moving towards character action design. So that even though a lot of the elements of this game are similiar to Bayo 3, the tone of this shift I find more interesting, as character action is a less marketable genre than RPG in terms of sales. Final Fantasy 15, for example, is sitting at a total of 10 million sales currently, while Bayo 3 is at a mere 1 million sales, and let’s not forget that the original Bayo sold so poorly that Nintendo had to buy the IP to keep it going (which ended up hurting the franchise quality wise imo).
One other core question I bring up in this video is the question of what is the role of gameplay in RPG in the first place? What is proper RPG combat? Is it turn based? Does it matter? Does the gameplay of RPGs exist to support the story, or does the story exist to support the gameplay? This is a key discussion of design that I’d love to hear about the genre. Though I personally believe that all games, even RPG, are meant to be game design first story second, but of course I’m much more interested in game design than games as a story telling medium.
As of right now Final Fantasy XVI is a PS5 exclusive, but later on I understand it will be released on other consoles and PC. As for if I recommend the game or not, or if I think it’s GAME OF THE YEAR as every game that releases is hailed, you’ll have to tune in to find out 😉
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00:00 All Games Genres Are Merging
05:40 Prescriptive Combat Design Vs Fundamental Combat Design
09:00 FF16 Has a Strong Foundation of Combat … So Far So Good
17:00 Mechanics Are NOT ENOUGH, Action Games Need Strong Enemy and Level Design
19:00 Bayonetta 3 Vs Final Fantasy XVI
22:00 Is Gameplay or Story Top Priority in RPG?
25:00 FF16 Abandons Open World Design … THANK YOU!
29:50 Enemy Design: Don’t Make Sandbags
33:00 The Biggest Issue with FF16 Combat is Balance, NOT Depth
37:19 I APPRECIATE The CHAD Mature Presentation (No More Children Games Please)
39:00 The Arcade Mode is a good IDEA, But Design is Not Successful
42:25 Final Thoughts and Conclusion on FF16
#finalfantasy, #finalfantasy16, #finalfantasy7remake
