I’m really struggling to keep playing it. Nier Automata was a perfect blend of character action and RPG. FF XVI is only being character action (and not as good as Nier Automata in that regard, or Devil May Cry for that matter) and barely cares about focusing on the RPG elements. The “but Final Fantasy has always changed” argument holds no weight as the series is an RPG series, you can change the style of RPG, but when you put that much focus away from the RPG element, it’s a serious departure.
The story and cast are fine, I guess. Cid is really the only one that interesting, helped by his god-tier dub actor. The problem is a good deal of the story is Tales of Berseria all over again and Berseria did it far better (for one thing, have the MC be the one to find out a certain reveal along with the audience instead of just revealing it for the sake of it. God, what an amateur writing move). The “Game of Thrones” elements barely work, I just feel the world and powers at play aren’t that interesting.
Music is really good (hey, it did learn something from Nier, though of course it’s not on par as Nier 1 and Automata are fucking legendary OSTs), I’ll give it that.
JRPG fans really can’t complain about people hoping some JRPGs take lessons from Baldur’s Gate 3 when one of the flagship JRPG series’ release this year seems to barely give a shit about being a RPG. A JRPG that became more like BG 3 is still more a JRPG than FF XVI is in my eyes.
Oh well, at least VII Rebirth looks promising. People can mock Nomura all they want, he at least knows how to stick to the gameplay genre of a series.