Criticism. . .

The character designs for female characters could be better – the women suffer from same face syndrome (I couldn’t tell Benedikta and Anabella apart for over half the game and Jill is a Tifa clone) and all the important, named ones have the same exact body types. The men could afford to be incredibly varied and memorable but each woman is the exact same oval face round eyes small nose tiny lips combo?????

I also wished they handled the women better in general. I wanted to know more about Jill and her backstory, especially from what came before she went to Rosaria. I wanted her to be a bigger presence at the end of the game, even after she gives up her power – and I also wanted to see the toll that using magic took on her. We saw her naked; why doesn’t she have scars from the torture she went through? Why isn’t she turning to stone like the male Dominants? Come on. Also, I wanted more time with Beneditka and why she knew Cid, why does she choose to follow Barnabas and potentially Ultima, what did she actually feels for Kupka, etc etc. I wish they didn’t make the threat of sexual assault be the thing that gave her a powerup in the middle of the game somewhere. Boring. Unoriginal. So on and so forth, I’ve got gripes with a bunch of the writing of the female characters.

I didn’t like that the only people of color are the Dhalmeks, who are fantasy Arabia / Egypt. Get it the fuck together, Squeenix. I know FF16 was based in GOT and medieval Europe, but newsflash! Both have people of color. (I think? Idk much about GOT if I’m being honest. I’ve heard it’s racist?) It’s like walking into a party of only white people and immediately knowing you’re not welcome. Why are the only people who look vaguely like me and my family in only one area. That’s not how that works.

My forth and last issue was Dion x Terrance. They didn’t do anything, I just wasn’t interested in them when first of all we have canonical gay dilfs Cid x Otto, and second of all they’re the least interesting relationship to make canonically gay. Prince x knight, we’ve seen it a thousand times, WHAT about Cid x Otto. Rebellion leader who’s in love with his second in command but won’t tell him and second in command who’s in love with his leader but won’t tell him and the truth only comes out after working closely for over a decade and also one of them has already passed on. I need to write a painful and fucked up fanfic about them, they drive me up the wall.

Things I enjoyed :)

I loved just about everything else. I loved the gameplay; they hired on a guy who worked on DMC V and god when I tell you it showed. The fighting at no point felt repetitive or annoying. The boss fights all felt different and interesting, which is something they specifically set out to do. Their version of Bloody Palace from DMC are these lil time trials where you are only allowed to use the power of a single Eikon, and it’s usually like 4 rounds, and by the time you reach the end of the game these feel challenging without being a massive skill check like with getting the Genji Armor in Rebirth (which was fucking impossible for me). Cannot understate how happy I was that there wasn’t a card game lmao.

I love the OST like I looooove the OST. My favorite song is probably Courage.

I loved pretty much everything Clive was doing. A lot of the men’s stories are handled so carefully and I really did appreciate that. What can I say, good storytelling is good storytelling. Clive’s internal conflict was incredible, I loved the contrast between him being constantly emotional and distressed vs Jill being stoic and reserved. I loved Cid’s whole deal; I loved how Clive internalized Cid’s motivation of getting to die on his own terms as well as Cid’s realization he should have also been fighting so that people could live on their own terms, and how Clive carries that part of Cid through the rest of the game. I love the sheer trust between Clive and Jill; one of my favorite tropes is when a couple is so steadfast and solid in their relationship, even if it’s new or just budding, that there’s no stress or drama riding on the will they won’t they, but instead riding on the when will they. I loved that when Jill said what she needed to do in order to heal was to kill her abuser and Clive was immediately on board. I loved the weird semi flirtatious thing Clive x Cid and also Clive x Gav had going on. I loved how respectful Clive was. I love how supportive he was. I just love that guy.

In 15, you play a prince with little to no access to his powers and has a distant relationship with his father, who loses everything when his enemy attacks the castle pretty much as soon as he leaves home for the first time. Noctis then mourns his family and kingdom, but otherwise continues to slowly head for Altissia for his marriage to Lunafreya.

In 16, you play the son of a duke with no powers and multiple strained family relationships (aside from with his baby brother), who loses everything when his mother orchestrates the murder of their family, which sparks the emergence of a mysterious Dominant who murders Clive’s brother, who Clive immediately dedicates the rest of his life to bringing to justice.

In 15, you enter a world of ruin when you get to the end game because the main character is thrown into a crystal for 10yrs to absorb magic to use in the final fight. In doing so, he loses his strongest ties to the world and is essentially groomed by a god to sacrifice himself.

In 16, you enter a world of ruin when you get to the end game, because the main character is literally about to go fight the final boss, who has blotted out the sun because he’s preparing for the final fight as well. During these final moments, you tie up a bunch of side quests, earning you the trust and love and faith of your companions, many of which remind you how much they care for you and insist that you need to come back alive regardless of the outcome of the fight.

In 15, you fight a guy who happens to be the devil and in killing him remove all magic from the world, but you have to give your life to do so, which proves. . . ? I’m not sure what it proves if I’m being honest. “Noctis kills Ardyn, an already suicidal man, out of revenge for the murder of his fiance” doesn’t sound right but may be technically correct?

In 16, you fight a guy who happens to be a god and in doing so remove all magic from the world, which loses Clive his arm but not his life, and in doing so then frees all Bearers from the thing that was enslaving them, proving that people can and should choose their own destiny and live their own lives. In this case, the god that has been trying to convince Clive that he should give up his free will is proven by Clive’s free will, a thing he has only been able to maintain with the help of friends and family, is the one killed, rather than Clive getting groomed for death the way Noctis was.