I can already see this getting downvotes and I really don’t want this to ruffle any feathers (and it really shouldn’t actually), but the thought occurred to me this morning that every single main protagonist from the series has been white or white-passing.

Obviously the games exist in fantastical universes where races don’t correlate one-to-one with our our own, I guess, and we have had occasionally explicit representation in the wider party (Barret, Sazh, etc). I also understand that the developers are Japanese which influences their (often ambiguous) design choices as well.

But a major portion of this playerbase is non-white, and the possibilities in character design and backstory are endless, so it would be great to see a story spearheaded by a character of deeper complexion.

Do you think we would ever reach a point where we could have broader representation within the lead role?

Edit: I fear I’ve opened a portal to hell

Just watched the new FF16 trailer and it looks so...generic.

It might be nostalgia but there's something about ff6-10 that make them magical. They just seem more like passion projects rather than a commercial product. The character and storyline may not seem that different on a surface level (some guy with traumaric past saving the world while meeting a pretty girl etc) but they just seem so more memorable and likeable than the newer ones. The music, the artstyle, the dialogue....everything just compliments each other to make the games more than just a game and more like an experience

Ff games also used to really stand apart from competition, graphics wise and just the overall quality. The ff16 looks just like dmc mixed with tales game mixed with nier and then some post ff13 stuff (crystal again??). I can't recall a memorable cutscence from ff 12 onwards but there are so many in 7-10. (10: kissing in the lake scene, 9: ending scene where dagger ran to hug zidane, 8: opening duel scene and rinoa squall in space scene, 7: infamous aerith scene).

Again I might just be getting old and nostalgic, but the other day I started playing ff6 for the first time and thought it was amazing. Even though with 2d graphics, I can feel that magical classic ff touch.

It makes me sad knowing I'll never experience games like classic FFs ever again

Edit: a lot of people seem to misunderstand what I said. I just want to make it clear that I actually prefer action style combat to turn base. My post was more about other elements of the games than the gameplay system

Hear me out. It’s a perfect balance from old and new, it’s loved by everyone, it allows for a party based combat and it can fit in every single of their evolutive systems, from junction, to job systems. They should stop trying to reinvent the wheel with every single title and just make the remake series the standard from now on.

I had remembered seeing the trailer for it ages ago and I was onboard. Just remake FF7 with cute overworld models and the remake models in combat? I'd pay 20-30 dollars for that no problem.

I was playing the original on PC and while I love it, man does it's age show.

I would be okay with a simplified combat system, I love messing w/ materia combos, but I can forgo that to make the combat more 'accessible'. I just want those higher quality models and backgrounds. So many elements look amazing.

This game is atrocious. It's gacha bullshit and I hate it so much because it's not a game that will survive whatever future plans Square has. I think of all those wasted models and assets that will eventually just get deleted and shelved when this game inevitably flops like The First Soldier. All of that work, that really makes the old chibi models look great, and it'll be trashed. It SICKENS me.

I should have known when there wasn't a PC release slated years ago, but no, I didn't.

I know it's only a game, but I just foresee a complete waste of resources and it infuriates me that, and mark my words, will fail.

EDIT: To answer peoples questions and criticisms.

1. Yes I did minimal research over the last year. I don't have much time to scour the internet for info on what was until this week an unreleased game.

2. I have minimal social media, and the social media I do have (with the exception of youtube) I exclusively link to friends who don't really like FF as much as myself.

3. I'm allowed to be disappointed and vocal at a game, but DMing me and calling me an idiot is a bit much no matter how under-informed I was leading up to this.

4. I'm only vocal of this because it was a tipping point for me. I'm sure there are dozens of other rants out there about other games where someone else hit their tipping point. Just because this was the game where I chose to voice my displeasure doesn't mean I give approval to others. People are allowed to comment on things.

TLDR at the bottom.

It’s alright to not like the game, but that doesn’t mean there has to be badmouthing about it at every available moment. This community is great, but recently there’s been so much negativity ever since the lead up to XVI even til now. It’d be one thing if there was constructive criticism, but it’s just negativity for the sake of negativity.

I don’t know if it’s some sort of gate keeping or elitism, but YES it is a Final Fantasy game. The gameplay does not change that. The creators of the franchise named it as such because it is. If you don’t enjoy it, that doesn’t make it any less of a Final Fantasy. The series has always slowly been changing gameplay-wise over the years. The series is more than just its gameplay. It is also its story, it’s characters, it’s world, it’s music. All of these add up to make Final Fantasy what it is. There has never really been a strict objective formula to what it is, so the state so matter of fact-ly that is isn’t has nothing to to do with the game, and it just based on personal feelings.

The lack of RPG elements doesn’t make it any less a Final Fantasy either. The series has had a lot of variations on progression and customization, but at the end of the day, it is always bound within set paths, and doesn’t typically branch out that far. The lack of intricacy makes it more approachable for newcomers, and the thing Square really needs is newcomers. That’s how these communities grow, thats’s how THIS community grows. That’s what allows them to continue this series. If they did not make changes with each title, this franchise would not have lasted this long.

Closing yourself off into your own echo chambers does not benefit anyone. This is an opportunity to welcome new fans into the community and see them experience the franchise for the first time through fresh eyes. You’re never going to change someone’s opinion by stating your opinion’s as fact, or shoving them in others’ faces.

This release is something to be celebrated. This game is a massive achievement in story-telling, spectacle, and innovation for the series. It’s okay to let others enjoy it, and talk about it here. It’s also okay to not like it, and talk about not liking it. There’s a very good chance it is a vocal minority who try to rain on everybody’s parade. At this point it really does feel like a script that is being followed when ever you see negative comments about XVI in this sub. That energy can be so better spent on more constructive things. I really wanted to post and talk about the game more here, but I decided not to because of all the negativity.

I truly do apologize for this long-winded rant. I just want this community to be a place I can talk and read about a franchise I love.

TLDR: Just be nice to each other, and understand it’s okay for others to have differing opinions, and it isn’t anyone’s job to try and change those opinions.

The big difference I felt playing both games was the approach to death. When someone dies in FFVII OG they just die, death is eternal and irreversible, if a character dies you never see them again. As it is in real life. Surprisingly, my feelings were confirmed by one of FFVII's creators, who said that he wanted death in this game to be as real, painful and irreversible. This was due to the death of his mother several years earlier.

In the remake, on the other hand, it's true that characters die, but it's actually hard to feel it, because even if a character dies, he or she is somehow brought back into the story. Thanks to the fact that OG killed characters once and decently you felt it in the long run and could identify with it emotionally, because you knew that this character would not come back. She was, and she won't be anymore.

Spoilers from Rebirth

A good example of this is the death of Aerith, who dies, but in a moment you fight her side by side with Sephiroth, talk to her at the end, or in general she appears in various ways

Was just reminiscing and wanted to get my thoughts in order!

As a disclaimer, I haven't played any of the expansions for XI but I swear I will one day!

Happy to hear anyone's thoughts or questions!

I think after all these years, Square Enix's experiment on the battle system has finally come to fruition. Instead of changing the battle system in every other game, they should just keep building on the rebirth one. I feel they have something really special here. There is depth, control, strategy, variety and above all it's so fun to play. Story wise maybe they can keep expanding the VII universe, instead of remaking VI, maybe find a way to bring in those story and characters together like ehat Marvel did. It'd be so good if every game is somewhat related. We don't need another boring new story in FF franchise.

Its the first final fantasy game ive actually gotten into this big, i plan on playing ff12 or finishing ff7 remake next.

I will not be spoiling anything so do not fret. I am about at the 60% mark of the game. It's amazing. But I feel like it's the least rpg of all the final fantasy games. Like it feels more like a action/hack and slash game. I love the game though and think it's great. The story is so freaking good so far and the voice acting is fucking great. But yeah. Doesn't hit that rpg vibe like all the others.

Not trying to provoke anyone or start a fight, just want to know if anyone feels what I'm feeling.

With the latest news of devs maybe wondering making another game of FFVII after the remake is completed, don't you guys feel fatigued by the IP?
It's an amazing IP don't get me wrong and I like it, but I'm constantly imagining other remakes happening or new Final Fantasy games and spin offs not being done because the main team is busy with an infinite FFVII project.

I'm starting to get really tired and it's taking my Square Enix/Final Fantasy hype away...

I have the green scarf but I haven’t put it on yet lol

I just beat FF6 for the first time. I’ve been a huge Final Fantasy fan since I was a kid, kind of starting with FF1 on NES. I was really young so I never got far on it. Next was FF7, and every mainline game since. I’ve always heard great things about 6 and that it’s the best entry in the franchise to a lot of people, so I decided to give it a shot.

I’m certainly going to get flamed for this but I must have had my expectations set way too high for this game. It was entertaining, but definitely not nearly the caliber of game as quite a few that came after it. I often read about how great the story was but, to me, the story felt flat. There was almost no depth to the story at all, which was shocking because I have seen so many people talk about how incredible the story was.

Again, the game was entertaining. I did enjoy playing it but I must have had my expectations set too high. Am I the only one that feels this way?

Tl;dr:

> Change to Easy mode

• Open World bs/fluff/filler is now completely voluntary (like it should be).

• Game now progresses/paces normally if you beeline Main Story quest.

• Go back and do boring Open World Filler on "Dynamic Mode" after... if you must.

Dynamic Mode/Normal forces you to go out and waste your time scanning objects and doing menial tasks for random NPCs that contribute nothing to the story of FF7 (that's why you bought his game) in order to get strong enough to actually beat the Main Story fights. The good news is you can go back and do your chore of a Ubisoft collect-a-thon at your convenience!

Every piece of side content in the Open World portion is waste of time fluff/filler.

Helping every random NPC you come across doesn't feel like I'm playing FF7; it just feels like I'm doing pointless chores, and it downplays the seriousness of the save-the-world Sephiroth situation. The outside of Midgar was supposed to be barren and dangerous place without too many settlements because of the dangerous monsters. They tried to fill everything up like a stupid Assassin's Creed map with a million dumb markers that want to waste your time. It's a good thing the devs gave us faster traveling chocobos though, so while we are following our markers, we can create micro trail markers from the chocobo via the Scent tracking. I love to follow marks while I'm following a mark!

Remember kids, you're not exploring if the game is telling you where to go and what to do; you're just following a recipe book. This compounds the time with the various tasks in Rebirth that just run up the clock. Oh, look Cloud, take out your scanner and waste 20 seconds while you scan this, and then climb the two ladders and jump down the pole-- you'll only do this a few times I swear!. Yeah, that really screams FF7 to me. Scanning towers. Oh Cloud, make sure you slowly push around the Mako vacuum cleaner for a minute multiple times (screams FF7 to me) or Barret pushing a minecart at a snail's pace for a sold minute. This is the zenith of gaming. Hell, even the triangle button makes you hold/wait for every 2 seconds every time you need to press it.

As soon as I turned off Dynamic mode (mode that keeps the difficulty up but forces you to do side content in order to get strong enough to do mainline story missions), everything started feeling like a normally progressed/paced game again instead of dicking around picking up herbs/flowers and seeking out monsters to fight (stupid thematically), and I started to be rewards with more story content.

I love FVII, it was my first ever FF back in 97 and I've loved the series ever since. I've just finished my third playthrough of Remake and currently watching the credits of Rebirth.

With the VII Remake, I get it's not perfect, what series isn't. I don't think Remake hit the emotional tones that OG or Rebirth did. But then it was only the Midgar section.

What Remake did better than OG's Midgar section was Wedge and Jesse's deaths, Wedge's was kinda abrupt but seeing his short character arc was great. And I've seen people call their little mission segment filler, but I think it helped build more meaning to their deaths. OG's was never that big of a deal. But it felt much more in the Remake. Plus, it just felt BIGGER. Midgar looked so much bigger, the plate falling looked like so much more of a disaster than it did in the original (modern tools made it easier of course). Being able to explore sector VII more, the more time spent talking with characters just built the bond between then stronger leading into Rebirth. Seeing Sephiroth (sorta) so early though I feel has diluted him, he was still a great antagonist but VII's way of making his presence felt without him being there was a MUCH better tactic

The battle system too was so much fun, a brilliant way to meld Materia and ATB into a more modern setting. I understand people want to keep TB or ATB going and use Expedition 33 as an example (an absolute gem of a game itself!!), but I always felt like Square has pushed forward and moving onto new is what they do. They did it so well here, and while I expect them to move away from it after VIIR3, I hope they experiment more and find something new.

I think the side quests were fun, could have been a little more but the as annoying as Chadley was (, the VR missions were fun. The box blasting one was fun and the Dancing Scene at the Honeybee inn was hilarious. There was a ton of fun side elements to it like VII had.

With Rebirth, I really think they stepped it up. In the best way? The emotional moments. From Dyne's death, Seto's story, the brief remembering of Jesse at the Gold Saucer, the date, Aeriths Death. But I think one thing they absolutely nailed, and was the saddest thing in gaming I've experiences was Aerith's flashback to her mothers death. Aerith wondering the station slowly pleading for help, and then just accepting defeat was absolutely heartbreaking, it was harder to watch that OGs Aerith death and this ones. There were just so many steps throughout and the longer game, more dialogue as you play, the bond created in Remake. I think it just strengthened everything that happened and they did an astounding job of the writing.

What I thought was peak gameplay, they improved. It may only have been the Synergy system, but it was fun and a great way of dealing more damage and turning a tide of a tough battle. My favourite battle system in the series.

Also, man the world just looked amazing. The Grassland, Gongaga, Costa Del Sol, Kalm, Junon, Cosmo Canyon. IOt was just gorgious. And I think it was compact in a way you didn't felt you spent hours getting between locations but that not everything was right next to each other. So well designed.

What I am struggling with though is the level of minigames. I really wanted to finish them this time. All I had left was Sephiroth in 3D brawler, The Pro gym challenge and some of Chadley's legendary and brutal missions (which I'd have completed if I hadn't given on the other two). I dunno, the 3D brawler just annoyed me too much which made me lose steam in the two.

Sephiroth was again too involved. Watching him kill The Midgar Zolom rather than just seeing it lost the luster from the OG. It dilutes his mancing atmosphere. I still just don't like Cait Sith all that Much, though I appreciate Squeenix for getting an actual Scottish person with an actual Scottish accent in, even if some of the Scots felt a bit forced at times. Yuffie I like more than OG, we just get more of her in this (thanks to intergrade).

I think most of all, with Remake and Rebirth, it's the Whispers and the whole Fate thing. People say they hate it, but I'm holding off. We're clearly building to something and we aren't ready for the payoff.

But overall. I have absolutely loved these two games. And Rebirth really has pushed my love for this and remake to be better IMO than OG VII which I still love dearly. I just can't wait for the third, I want to see what everything the whispers are leading to, The Icicle Inn and more on Ifalna, Hojo and Gast. Hopefully a really big section in Wutai, with some really well written sub story on Yuffie turning her back on the team to impress her dad and the inner turmoil it causes her. The events in Rocket Town, Mideel and the final reveal of everything that happened there, Junon blasting a weapon with the canon, going back into Midgar, Tifa vs Scarlett (I hope it'll be more than an exchanging of slaps but please let there be 1 slap for Nostalgia), the final fight with Hojo and the Turks, getting to fight with Cid and Vincent., the Gelnica and fighting the Turks and the Northern Crater ending, . There's so much built up and the way they went from Remake to Rebirth really does make me think they can pull it off, it just depends. I think a lot rides with the whispers though.

I just can't wait.

To preface, the only games I have played in the series are:

2 (did not complete)

4 -my favorite

13, 13-2, LR trilogy

15

i’m only level 20(not sure how far in the game that is, feels early) So my opinion might be invalid, but overall, I feel like 16 isnt really a final fantasy game. It feels eerily similar to Dragon Age Veilguard, but with better story and worse gameplay. I feel like I payed $70 to watch an interactive movie rather than a game. The maps feel empty and do not reward exploration so far. There has not been a single fight that felt challenging in any capacity(im not using the timely accessories), nothing over my level to come back later for. The lack of companion control/modification is the icing on the cake.

My question is, does the game get better or should i just blast through the story and call it a day?

Edit for all the purists: it doesnt feel like the final fantasy I know and enjoy. Please keep downvoting me for having an opinion

I was REALLY invested in the beginning; dialogue, characters, motivations etc. were hitting just right. Combat (specifically the 10-15 sec lag of the action queue) is annoying and occasionally frustrating, I cranked the battle speed but it doesn’t seem to do much for this issue. The side content seems solid to this point, I don’t mind hot and cold, and finding the moogles I have letters for is a nice little treat; the game rewarding me for my every inch pixel hunt w/ the blood sword felt AMAZING. But I’m 17 hours in at this point, at lvl 17 (which seems like half-ish of what it usually is). I just poked my head out into the Outer Continent, and I feel like my motivation to see the story continue just vanished. The last 3-4 areas felt like a SLOG for some reason. I’m playing blind, and being very thorough as my FF experience leads me to think that type of play is usually encouraged and rewarded, and so far it has been. But DAMN it has never been so draining. Is this just a hitch in the giddy-up? is this entry just not for me? This is my second go at the game after just kinda forgetting about it the first time, years ago. It’s the only “Golden Era” entry I haven’t played. I really want to like it, I want to finish it, but at this stage it feels like a chore.

Edit: after reading many comments I have concluded: I will in fact stick it out. I love FF and as anyone who does knows, the game may give you one ribbon; but if you want two or three you gotta push. Many have stated the game does get some wind back in the sails after this particular section, which has been noted by many to be a choke/low point. I don’t see this as being my favorite of all time type of thing, but there’s enough so far, combined with allusion in the comments; for me to believe it is worth sticking with to the end.

I got 100% on the grasslands in about 10 hours I just passed through the mines and now am in Junon. It’s the same thing over. 24 to 30 pieces of Intel (4 types) for Chadley each region, chocobo quest and you kinda have to do it to because intel ties into the games upgrade systems to get stronger. It’s kind of a grind I was just like here we go again. I don’t know if I can keep it up for 7 regions. Then the main story mission is the big reward at the end. Anyone agree or is this just the normal JRPG/semi open world formula?

The graphics and combat is all top notch and the main story missions some of the battles I feel are so much more rewarding and cinematic after I just felt like I grinded out a whole 10 hour region and wrecked some bosses with stronger party members than if I hadn’t. But I feel like I might burn out by region 4 or 5 but I once I activate a tower my OCD won’t let me not go to the intel location even though it says exactly what it is. Am I just a bad gamer who used to the 15 to 30 hour Last of Us/Spiderman?