Worst Combat Mechanics of any FF

[Forgewrath]

I have no idea what the developers are thinking, but i'm 8 hours into the game and I'm using 1 basic attack combo with 4 unique abililties on the side and just 1 character.

I don't really understand why turning a Role Playing game into one of the blandest action games around seemed like a good idea, but I'm feeling massive regret spending $60 on a title that doesn't even compete with Devil May Cry 1 combat mechanics or even the last 15 final fantasies.

The story is not compelling or well written enough to captivate me and when its broken up with a combat sequence a 5 year old button masher can win, I'm wondering why even bother?

I just wanna know who at Square Enix thought "Oh yeah, all die hard final fantasy fans would love a crappy action game instead that takes absolutely no skill, thought or planning to play."

Am I acting like some crazy boomer in video gaming talking about how we used to walk up hills both ways to get an airship to fly around and collect materia in? WTF world am I living in where FInal Fantasy games are crappy action games with bland stories?

[KNS-K]

The story isn't really that bad, at least the antagonists are well written.

The dev are definitely smoking when they make this game.

[UltimAXE]

Do yourself a favor and install the mod that decreases the ability cooldowns to 3 seconds, I played through the game normally on PS5 and the combat is pretty damn boring. Now, on PC, I'm spamming my abilities and it is quite a bit more fun. It's overpowered and unbalanced but I really don't care.

Anyway, I agree. The combat is quite bland. This is why games like Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden average about 15 hours and those actually have the variety to support an 80+ hour campaign. Final Fantasy 16 does not.

[Dice_24K]

The man is 8 hours into the game and still hasn't beaten Garuda?

For what it is worth: The more you progress, the more the combat options open up.
This a form of storytelling to demonstrate how Clive is absolutely getting stronger as the game progresses.

Yes, it absolutely starts off slow and I was tempted to grab the aforementioned mod, but once I unlocked Garuda, combat clicked for me. The more I progressed, the less the cooldown times mattered.

The standard combo and magic burst system is like the bread of the sandwich; you're always gonna have it and use it. To me, it's an easier version of DMC5's Nero's Devil Punches. So, it certainly starts off less complicated than DMC1, but uhh, without spoiling anything, combat does gain depth, but in a divergent way from the DMC series.

I, for one, like the direction the series is going. FF16 is another step in these games ceasing their outdated turn-based style -> and progresses to more real time action. FF16 is a step forward and if FF17 is another step forward, then I'll enjoy that too.

If I wanted to take turns to have my characters stand on the opposite side of the room to the enemy as they take turns to run up, hit the other person, and run back -> I'd play a pokemon game.

On the topic of difficulty, I did say this in my review: I find it to be a mistake that the game forces you to play it fully before unlocking the real "Final Fantasy mode" difficulty.
It's not just FF16, but a lot of AAA games do this: where they default to having *much* easier difficulties as their "normal mode." It makes sense from their perspective as most people who play games really are casuals.

People like you and I are kind of the exception from the norm -> where if we were placed on Final Fantasy difficulty for our first run of the game, we'd breeze through it without a problem.

And lastly, the story. I like the story. I wanted to see what happened next, make my own predictions, see the definitions of terminology and also the details of events of the game and the world that the game provides, and all that jazz.
Your enjoyment of a game's plot is subjective, but at least agree with me that it isn't "another bloody open world game with survival elements and crafting, where there is effectively no plot."

[Blackened Halo]

dont worry my pal...it wont get any better :D :D

[Blackened Halo]

Originally posted by Dice_24K:

The man is 8 hours into the game and still hasn't beaten Garuda?

For what it is worth: The more you progress, the more the combat options open up.
This a form of storytelling to demonstrate how Clive is absolutely getting stronger as the game progresses.

Yes, it absolutely starts off slow and I was tempted to grab the aforementioned mod, but once I unlocked Garuda, combat clicked for me. The more I progressed, the less the cooldown times mattered.

The standard combo and magic burst system is like the bread of the sandwich; you're always gonna have it and use it. To me, it's an easier version of DMC5's Nero's Devil Punches. So, it certainly starts off less complicated than DMC1, but uhh, without spoiling anything, combat does gain depth, but in a divergent way from the DMC series.

I, for one, like the direction the series is going. FF16 is another step in these games ceasing their outdated turn-based style -> and progresses to more real time action. FF16 is a step forward and if FF17 is another step forward, then I'll enjoy that too.

If I wanted to take turns to have my characters stand on the opposite side of the room to the enemy as they take turns to run up, hit the other person, and run back -> I'd play a pokemon game.

On the topic of difficulty, I did say this in my review: I find it to be a mistake that the game forces you to play it fully before unlocking the real "Final Fantasy mode" difficulty.
It's not just FF16, but a lot of AAA games do this: where they default to having *much* easier difficulties as their "normal mode." It makes sense from their perspective as most people who play games really are casuals.

People like you and I are kind of the exception from the norm -> where if we were placed on Final Fantasy difficulty for our first run of the game, we'd breeze through it without a problem.

And lastly, the story. I like the story. I wanted to see what happened next, make my own predictions, see the definitions of terminology and also the details of events of the game and the world that the game provides, and all that jazz.
Your enjoyment of a game's plot is subjective, but at least agree with me that it isn't "another bloody open world game with survival elements and crafting, where there is effectively no plot."

so the real difficulty is unlocked after beating it? ...that slame.. ...20 hours in and I have not died at all ...of course, it will happen, but even this shows how easy the first playthrough is

[KNS-K]

I guess you probably won't die in the rest of your playthrough, it's literally the easiest game I have played in 20 years.
At least you feel good when you beat a game without dying once, lol.

[Elazul]

Originally posted by Blackened Halo:

dont worry my pal...it wont get any better :D :D

This! I'm forcing myself to keep playing atm... but nearing my limit. Might DNF this game.

[$OULJA $TRIFE]

Best combat in the series by far, if difficulty bothers you that much mod the harder difficulties to be available earlier, a fatal flaw made by the developers no doubt, but final fantasy was never a hard series, nor a very polished one.

At the highest level of play this game decimates anything the series has ever put out both in terms of being creative and skill as well as mechanical complexity, but the developers obviously are very bad at directing this to the casual side of the fanbase lol.

[Blackened Halo]

Originally posted by $OULJA $TRIFE:

Best combat in the series by far, if difficulty bothers you that much mod the harder difficulties to be available earlier, a fatal flaw made by the developers no doubt, but final fantasy was never a hard series, nor a very polished one.

At the highest level of play this game decimates anything the series has ever put out both in terms of being creative and skill as well as mechanical complexity, but the developers obviously are very bad at directing this to the casual side of the fanbase lol.

FFX and XII have the best combat....FF16's is great to look at but it is farly limited and it takes too much time to open more skills...also it does not have much depth to it

[Gibbs]

Nah, it's good.

[Blackened Halo]

Originally posted by Stj.Srex:

The point is to find synergy between different Eikon abilities and use them in combination for massive damage. Is not just spamming random abilities.
People dont even wanna try to learn about gameplay mechanics anymore, they just go and spam whatever they can.

but you are trying to find complex mechanics where there are none. No, it basically does not matter which ability you use.

[$OULJA $TRIFE]

Originally posted by Blackened Halo:

Originally posted by $OULJA $TRIFE:

Best combat in the series by far, if difficulty bothers you that much mod the harder difficulties to be available earlier, a fatal flaw made by the developers no doubt, but final fantasy was never a hard series, nor a very polished one.

At the highest level of play this game decimates anything the series has ever put out both in terms of being creative and skill as well as mechanical complexity, but the developers obviously are very bad at directing this to the casual side of the fanbase lol.

FFX and XII have the best combat....FF16's is great to look at but it is farly limited and it takes too much time to open more skills...also it does not have much depth to it

both of those games fall flat at the super bosses requiring grinding out the aaa, FF16 never suffers from such an issue and even at the craziest difficulty is extremely polished and balanced allowing for a numerous amount of setups and builds.

saying it doesnt reward such things is just proof of your ignorance lol, I might as well say FFX combat is terrible because you can quick hit everything into dust, at least FF16 has higher difficulties which punish you far harder for sloppy play

[PERKLESS WARRIOR]

Originally posted by UltimAXE:

Do yourself a favor and install the mod that decreases the ability cooldowns to 3 seconds, I played through the game normally on PS5 and the combat is pretty damn boring. Now, on PC, I'm spamming my abilities and it is quite a bit more fun. It's overpowered and unbalanced but I really don't care.

Anyway, I agree. The combat is quite bland. This is why games like Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden average about 15 hours and those actually have the variety to support an 80+ hour campaign. Final Fantasy 16 does not.

Or you use the game mechanics and get good at parrying to reduce your cooldowns instead of modding it... But to each their own I guess

[Forgewrath]

Originally posted by Dice_24K:

The man is 8 hours into the game and still hasn't beaten Garuda?

For what it is worth: The more you progress, the more the combat options open up.
This a form of storytelling to demonstrate how Clive is absolutely getting stronger as the game progresses.

Yes, it absolutely starts off slow and I was tempted to grab the aforementioned mod, but once I unlocked Garuda, combat clicked for me. The more I progressed, the less the cooldown times mattered.

The standard combo and magic burst system is like the bread of the sandwich; you're always gonna have it and use it. To me, it's an easier version of DMC5's Nero's Devil Punches. So, it certainly starts off less complicated than DMC1, but uhh, without spoiling anything, combat does gain depth, but in a divergent way from the DMC series.

I, for one, like the direction the series is going. FF16 is another step in these games ceasing their outdated turn-based style -> and progresses to more real time action. FF16 is a step forward and if FF17 is another step forward, then I'll enjoy that too.

If I wanted to take turns to have my characters stand on the opposite side of the room to the enemy as they take turns to run up, hit the other person, and run back -> I'd play a pokemon game.

On the topic of difficulty, I did say this in my review: I find it to be a mistake that the game forces you to play it fully before unlocking the real "Final Fantasy mode" difficulty.
It's not just FF16, but a lot of AAA games do this: where they default to having *much* easier difficulties as their "normal mode." It makes sense from their perspective as most people who play games really are casuals.

People like you and I are kind of the exception from the norm -> where if we were placed on Final Fantasy difficulty for our first run of the game, we'd breeze through it without a problem.

And lastly, the story. I like the story. I wanted to see what happened next, make my own predictions, see the definitions of terminology and also the details of events of the game and the world that the game provides, and all that jazz.
Your enjoyment of a game's plot is subjective, but at least agree with me that it isn't "another bloody open world game with survival elements and crafting, where there is effectively no plot."

So actually I had just beaten Garuda and gotten 2 more abilities. So that's 4 specials and the basics 8 hours in, like I said.

I agree that if there is a 'real difficulty' mode in new game+ it should also be an option to start on. But that wouldn't redeem what is an un-remarkable system out of the gate.

1 hour in to Final Fantasy - Paradise Lost and I was swimming with job options and things to do that made the combat in the game compelling. 8 hours into FF16 and I'm flaming it on forums because I'm bored and bitter over the purchase.

Paradise lost did have Team Ninja co developing it, so no surprise the action rocked.

Final fantasy games have always had some of the coolest combat systems in the rpg genre.

The essence of Final Fantasy games is esoteric nature / tech themes lodged in a world where you go around kicking ass using strategy based combat. It's always been about a complicated story with a rich in-depth combat system.

FF16 at its core is just a story on wheels.

[UltimAXE]

Originally posted by PERKLESS WARRIOR:

Originally posted by UltimAXE:

Do yourself a favor and install the mod that decreases the ability cooldowns to 3 seconds, I played through the game normally on PS5 and the combat is pretty damn boring. Now, on PC, I'm spamming my abilities and it is quite a bit more fun. It's overpowered and unbalanced but I really don't care.

Anyway, I agree. The combat is quite bland. This is why games like Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden average about 15 hours and those actually have the variety to support an 80+ hour campaign. Final Fantasy 16 does not.

Or you use the game mechanics and get good at parrying to reduce your cooldowns instead of modding it... But to each their own I guess

Oh, please. FF16 is not a difficult game. Field enemies literally cannot stand up to you and all normal enemies get stunlocked into total oblivion by every one of your attacks. The only enemies that pose any sort of challenge are the ones that have a stagger gauge, which usually show up during the main story quests as bosses and mini-bosses and during the hunts. Allowing me to use Judgement Bolt or any of the other powerful attacks once every five field fights or once per boss fight doesn't make any of those fights more interesting; it makes me never want to equip those abilities in the first place because I barely get to use them.

And the combat "strategy" is: use abilities that hit stagger to bring the gauge down, then use abilities that hurt HP when they're stunned. That's it. It's "mash normal attack button (and coordinate with Torgal if you want) and throw out an ability once every 15 seconds when it's off of cooldown." It's not complicated. It's not an issue of skill, it's an issue of being uninteresting.