Watching the reception to Final Fantasy 16 unfold in real-time is intriguing, to say the least. If I were to quantify it, I’d say that about 10% of fans are currently dissatisfied with the game’s new action garb and minimalistic RPG quirks, while the remaining 90% are consistently blown away by every single aspect, including the much-debated side quests.
But, with respect to all parties, it seems to me that the discussion is oversimplifying its perception into two damaging extremes: denying the series’ right to evolve (which our Matt protects in his review) on the one side, and tolerating the flaws as long as the positives outweigh them on the other.
Personally, I find neither stance appealing. I address the first stance in our roundtable discussion and acknowledge that Final Fantasy 16 is a change for the better. But I don’t want to ignore the other stance, which I find more concerning. Ignoring the flaws of FF16 does not speak to the future of the series, nor does it help shape the unique mass of elements we collectively call a Final Fantasy game.
Take, for example, the fans’ preoccupation with proving that side quests are meaningful or justifying their formulaic design. It’s obvious that the side quests (and even much of the main story) are fetch-questly straightforward. They indeed don’t waste time getting to the point, but they lack structural variety, meaningful choices, or other mechanical gimmicks like unlocking new secret locations or terraforming previous areas or anything else that would translate the “world-building” excuse many make for them into some tangible essence.
In fact, many fans in debates leaverage this “world-building” point to normalize having quests that are simplistic in nature, as if creating meaningful and compelling quest go against the goal of building the world, and downvote those who disagree. So I ask, why are we hesitant to hold Final Fantasy to higher standards? I get that we’re all still scarred from FF15’s disastrous launch, but FF16 is also riddled with creative choices that hinder its potential. The barren, compact areas devoid of any non-aesthetic variation, the boring main quest padding, the low quality of Eikon battles after the Bahamut space battle. None of these things are game-breaking, but they are shoddy.
It’s baffling to see how all of these constructive ideas get lost to platitudes like “well, no game is truly perfect”, “everyone’s entitled to their own opinion”, “no one forced you to play the game” or “I like X which you don’t so I’m good.” Such rebuttals shut down discussion, they encourage ‘settling for less,’ even if the criticisms come from a place of love for the series. Final Fantasy 16 simply offers us less than old Final Fantasy games in some areas by a noticeable margin, and it’s hard to brush that aside as a matter of opinion or taste, to accept it as a necessary part of the series’ constant metamorphosis for the sake of evolution.
And speaking of metamorphosis, changing direction doesn’t necessarily have to be synonymous with shedding your old skin. Yakuza 7: Like A Dragon takes a drastic leap into the JRPG realm, but preserves everything that makes a Yakuza experience meaningful (side quests, mini-games, action sequences, etc). The Trails series mixes and matches new gameplay elements with each iteration, but the narrative core never stops growing.
And then there’s Final Fantasy 7 Remake, a project literally built on the concept of giving you more, more places to visit, more activities to engage in, and even both action and turn-based control schemes without sacrificing the latter for a modern vision. The developers could have basked in the glory of the old Final Fantasy 7 and repackaged it for a modern audience, but they went all out on all fronts to flesh out eveyrthing about the game and the world, not just combat and story as in the case of Final Fantasy 16.
Long story short, you can love Final Fantasy and criticize it at the same time. In fact, the criticism of Final Fantasy 15 is what brought us to this point, and the producer of Final Fantasy 16 himself acknowledges this. Pointing out the flaws of FF15 not only helped shape the updated “Royal” version, but also had the producer define the direction of FF16 as a “complete” story in one package, rather than a plethora of scattered material like its predecessor. Remaining indifferent to the quality of Final Fantasy is just as misguided as criticizing its changed direction, and in the end, no one will benefit from such a passive attitude.
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