(upbeat jingle) - [Jake] Hey, and we're
back with another episode of Before You Buy, that
show where we give you some straight up gameplay
and our first impressions of the latest games releasing. As usual, it's me, Jake, and today we're talking
about "Final Fantasy 16". This one is a big deal, a
as someone who loves jumping into every one of the
mainline games since like six. This new one has marked a shift that I was very curious to see. You know, it's going for a mature tone. It's from some of the "Final Fantasy 14" and "Devil May Cry" designers and a shift away from standard
RRG battling and grinding to character action and spectacle. It also could right some of
the wrongs of the more flawed but cool ideas of "Final
Fantasy 15" and run with them. So Final Fantasy 16 here
has a strong team behind it and some great new ideas
and incredible moments, but there is no doubt in my mind, this is a modern Final Fantasy
game through and through. And that means like a lot
of the more modern ones, there is some great stuff
here and also plenty of flaws. There's still a lot to like with this one, but I think your mileage
might vary greatly depending on your preferences and what kind of player you are. Some of my complaints might
not matter to some of you. You know, it seems like people are head
over heels for this game. I like it, but it's not
my favorite Final Fantasy. It's a complicated one,
but it's fun to talk about. So some housekeeping
here, just so you know, this footage was captured
on PlayStation 5. And we did not get a
review copy very early, only like a day before launch or so. So these are some first impressions just to give you some information. And this video is as
spoiler free as possible. We mostly show stuff in the
opening hours after the demo, but in order to give you like
a sense of the full game, we do show a handful of later combat scenarios when
the combat is more unlocked. You need to see some of that
just so you know what's up. Like, we're being careful
here, but we warned you. So of course it has to be
acknowledged, I think it's fair, people ask, you know, newcomers and stuff, you don't need to play all of the other Final Fantasy
games or anything like that. This is a new adventure, new world, new characters, new story. So you're good. And in this, it's a dark and gritty-ish medieval fantasy adventure spin on things, featuring main character Clive. And Clive is a lot of things. You know, he's edgy
video game protagonist, that's the easy one on the surface. But really he's a son of a king from a long
since fallen kingdom. He's a warrior slave kind of, and one of a select few
chosen ones that can wield some over the top power, and someone with a deeply personal story with actual problems in
his life on this adventure. Also, he has a dog. Clive in my opinion is a solid
Final Fantasy protagonist. You know, there's a lot of room for him because unfortunately his
friend circle is pretty small. This game does have like, one of the best Syds in all
of the Final Fantasy games. Absolutely love him,
just had to drop that. But Clive will have some allies in battle, but it's not a party system. No, you're just playing as Clive himself. And the game ditches turn-based RPG or hybrid action type things for just full on straight
up "Devil May Cry" or "Bayonetta" like combat. For some, including myself, as much as I worship the ground
"Devil May Cry" walks on, that is still very hard
to get over, this change. You know, I always like
seeing Final Fantasy games try to change it up from the RPG side, but this is a pretty big jump. Thankfully though the combat is pretty solid and satisfying. So Clive has main slashing
attacks, ranged magic blasts, and these can be combined
mid combo in a cool way, or you hold the buttons
down to charge them up. Then there's a dodge,
a perfectly timed dodge that will open up the enemy to a counter. There's a jump, a downward hit,
eventually a forward thrust, a quick zip to an enemy. And then from there there's
even more powerful abilities you can activate with the right trigger and a face button that are on cooldowns. These can be boosts, striking
up an enemy in the air or a massive smash or an area of effect type
crowd control attack, and some cool things that we won't spoil. These get more complex
as the game goes on, because you start with fire attacks and eventually pick up
wind, kind of lightning and some others that we won't spoil, but you can swap between
them and build up. All abilities have use cases,
and you can swap on the fly, like say use a special
attack to whack an enemy up into the air and then
combo them and then switch to another power group to
slam them back to the ground or yank them closer to you
and trigger something else. It's kind of like swapping weapons or stances mid combo in
a "Devil May Cry" game, although here it's just
swapping complete magic subsets. It's all about stacking damage or stun. So enemies have a secondary
bar that when depleted will open them up for
more damage from attacks. So you need to use the right
attacks to whittle that down. So between all that,
unleashing special attacks on enemies when the time is
right, learning attack patterns and nailing perfect dodges,
it can feel really nice. Some enemies are really spongy and you're just whacking them forever, and it's not always the most challenging, but it has some good
moments here and there when you're really getting bodied or you're waiting for your
dog Torgal to help you out or you're chugging potions,
like it can be a thrill. It's not absolutely
perfect, you know, sometimes if you're just not on the ball you'll feel like you're
just doing the same attack over and over, and the
lock on is not that great. And also because of
that, it's not often easy or clear to tell when
you're being attacked from behind off camera by an enemy. Like, there's indicators
of where enemies are but many games have done this better. Also, the camera will just
screw you over sometimes. Those are certainly issues but it's issues in otherwise the thing
that is probably one of the better parts of the game. Combat is cool and intense, and in certain story moments
where you take control of these big monsters, it only
gets even more over the top. A large part of this
game is actually centered around these big powerful,
mythical creatures, the archetypes we've seen
in many Final Fantasy games, from summons, to Aeons or whatever they're called
in the specific game, they're like really celebrated here. And it's really cool to
see them tie so closely into the story and the gameplay. And the game just kind of has fun with it, and it makes for some
of the most downright, balls out, crazy jaw-dropping
spectacle I've seen in a game in a long, long time. The boss battles and the big
moments are absolutely wild and thrilling, and they
don't just come and go. There is some drawn out chaotic battles that are sometimes just unbelievable. I think some people might argue that some of the simplified attacks from these monsters might
overstay their welcome, but for me I was just
there for all the crazy, over the top quick-time
events and crazy cutscenes. I was just into it. Now when you're not doing
all that cool stuff, that's unfortunately
where the pacing can drag and some of the issues for
some people are gonna crop up. When the game slows down, some of the moment to moment gameplay just isn't as exciting. It is extremely linear for the most part, save for some areas here and there that are more open and explorable. Now don't get me wrong, for me personally that's not a bad thing. I don't need a massive open world, but I do want the things
I do in linear areas or those in between boss battles to be interesting or compelling. And frankly, not a lot of it is. The hub areas, you know, like the towns
are often pretty gorgeous from an art perspective but
are often kind of lifeless. You know, most side
characters don't stand out and provide much value at all
other than a shop for items, a blacksmith for upgrading, and a kind of lore codex you can visit to level up and update. Side quests mostly feel like
early game, simple side quests. Like you know when you
start an open world, like big adventure game
or something like that and the first side quests
are really easy and boring just to kind of get used to the game? A lot of the quests here unfortunately continue to feel that way once
you're hours and hours in. A lot of the stuff you do is simple. It's over in a few minutes. Not very exciting or rewarding and not contributing to the
story and that's a damn shame. And not just the side quests, but anytime you're not
in like a boss battle or a big siege area or
just a story heavy moment, the stuff you do just isn't as exciting. The story still can be,
don't get me wrong, you know, the characters talking
and interacting and stuff, and some of the journey is cool, but going from place to place fighting some random non-story enemies, they just tend to be less exciting battles and ultimately unfulfilling. I think the game is so
extreme and awesome at times that the smaller quieter
parts need to feel meaningful and exciting in their own unique ways to really stand out and keep
up, and oftentimes they don't. I think the other thing that does hurt is the RPG elements. There are not a ton of them. Again, I'm open to a Final
Fantasy game shaking it up but instead of just
ditching them all together, they keep them but really barebones in a game that still otherwise feels like and it's structured like an RPG. So the moment to moment
stuff that feels dull is dull in part to the fact that you're not really
getting very exciting loot or any sort of progression. You know, swords look a
little cosmetically different, and you want higher numbers,
but there's not much to it. And the same goes for gauntlets and a belt you can equip for bonuses. You can get better ones to increase stats, craft your own in a blacksmith or upgrade them with certain materials. But there feels like
there's an endless list of named crafting materials
that you have no connection with picking up. It's never exciting to slay
an enemy and get a good item or loot or wander off
and find a treasure chest that feels like your little
exploration was rewarded. You don't really get that feedback loop. The skill trees are decent though. You can learn new moves for
each of your magic ability trees and then spend even more to master them. And this is kind of like a workman-like good, simple skill tree. Final Fantasy games often
stumble over themselves trying to make character upgrades unique or reinvent a system completely
and make it kind of weird. But here they keep it simple and I don't mind the skill tree stuff, it's just the rest of it. The stuff I already mentioned, you know, the character stats, the items,
the buffs, it's not much. There's so much menus and numbers, but like, none of it really means anything and you're not gonna care that much. I just found myself kind
of mindlessly clicking whatever got me the most power and not thinking much of it,
and really just looking forward to the next big monster
showdown or 10 minute cutscene, which on a good note, hell
yes, cutscene lovers, rejoice. Where are my "Metal
Gear Solid 4" fans here? This is a big story with a lot of dialogue and drawn out story moments,
and it can be a blast. This game is at its best when
the actors are just acting, the vibes are there, the battles are being
obnoxious and explosive, the music is being incredible,
just Final Fantasy music. All the presentation stuff
is a really great experience. The only other disappointment for some might be the performance. Now you could choose between two modes. There's graphical fidelity mode and performance frame rate mode. Frame rate mode drops the resolution and it can be a little noticeable. The game can feel a little bit blurrier a little bit softer looking. And the sacrifice doesn't feel as worthy, like I wouldn't normally point that out but it's specifically because
it's not a locked 60 frames. In combat it usually fares well but the rest of the game
it's like all over the place. Then fidelity mode is just a
locked higher resolution 30. At the very least it feels like a very
locked and consistent 30. But for a linear action combat
game, I was hoping for more. Maybe there will be patches to
clean up the frame rate mode. I don't know for sure but I
just wanted to point that out. And despite all this, the
game otherwise is not like a lot of other releases where they're like an undercooked mess. You know, I haven't really
ran into any major bugs or glitches or anything like that at all. So that's a plus at least. Now Final Fantasy 16 can be
absolutely tremendous, dude. Like as much as some of the gameplay and RPG stuff kind of disappointed me, the highs are really,
really damn high here. Focusing on a character
with pain in a more brutal, gory, f-bomb laden world
than we've ever seen in a Final Fantasy before,
is pretty refreshing. We've seen this in other games but not in that special Final Fantasy way. And with that they still
somewhat delivered. The story starts to
lose some of its focus, some of its more interesting ideas and get goofier and kind of
goofier as the time goes on. And that seems kind of, meh, you know? But it's definitely not the first Final
Fantasy game to do that. But it is still worth noting. And I'm glad there's a demo
so you can try before you buy. A lot of you probably already have. But the demo doesn't
really show the quieter, less exciting parts or
the disappointing parts. Still, I think this is going to end up being a significant Final
Fantasy for many people. It may not be my favorite,
but there are plenty of redeeming qualities depending
on whether you're playing for the quests, the story or the combat, and really how much you're
willing to slog through to get to the cool parts. It's hard because even though there are a few parts of
the game I'm disliking, the big awesome moments
I'm going to remember for like a really long time. And I play a lot of games and my memory is basically
broken, but still. Some stuff I definitely
didn't like in this one. But ultimately I am still
going to recommend it to some of you, just given
that you do your homework and make sure some of the
downer parts of the game, you're going to still manage
to either disagree with me on or feel like it's worth it
to get to the better stuff. But hopefully this helps
you decide for yourself. This is of course a Before You Buy. You know how this goes by now, I give you some pros, some
cons and some personal opinion. And now I wanna hear yours
down in the comments. What is your experience with
the Final Fantasy series? Have you been playing
since the very old days? Are you like me, did you jump
in about halfway through? Was Final Fantasy 13 your first RPG? Was it 14? Was it 15? Is it going to be 16? Will this be your first Final Fantasy? I'm excited for you either way, whether it's the good reviews
or bad reviews, have fun. Let's talk about this game and this series that I really
love down in the comments. Now, if you like this video all you gotta do is click the like button. It genuinely helps us out. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your patience
with this Before You Buy video. I know it took a while to get out. We didn't want to half-ass it. If you've been watching these for years, I cannot thank you enough. These projects are my baby. So love you, see you guys next time. (energetic music)
