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Loose FF16 thoughts now that I'm about 10-12 hours in: why do you have a jump button if your jump is so comically small. I know it's for combat so you can enemy step after doing it, it still feels very silly especially when I use it while traversing like I can get over anything with it.

Similarly, it's funny that most of your combat animations feel pretty grounded with your magic abilities being where big flourishes usually are, but then sometimes finisher animations will also just do crazy-looking stuff like football-kicking an enemy 20 feet away.

Speaking of abilities, I had definitely heard people talk about this part but man do they seem to trivialize most small encounters. It kind of reminds me of the alpha-strike problem in D&D 4E, where you're incentivized to use all your encounter-cooldown powers up front to make a big dent right away.

I haven't really clicked with any of the big kaiju fights so far; I think I'd be fine with all of them just being cool cutscenes I can chill and enjoy instead of either having to slowly control or pay enough attention to so I can perform the QTEs. "Are you still there?" design.

This appears to be another FF game where money does not matter. Which is funny coming off of 15 where I often felt pretty strapped for cash. I think some of that is only having to gear one character, plus you have crafting as a money-free way to get gear and can only carry so many potions.

Oh yeah speaking of crafting, it feels very..."standard modern AAA-game" in a way I don't usually associate with FF games. I had also seen people joking about having a bazillion Sharp Fangs with nothing to do, and now I get to live it. The inventory cap for them is like 9999 so lots still to get.

The other slightly-modern-feeling thing I've really noticed is people occasionally getting a bit too quippy or clever, like they gotta comment on every little thing going on. It's not on all the time thank goodness, and I think the writing overall has been pretty good, but I definitely notice it.

This was actually pretty present in FF15 as well, but I think it fits the tone better when you're a group of young guys who I kind of expect to be bullshitting with each other in that way. It feels different in the context of a more "dark"/"mature" game like 16.

I haven't minded the darker tone too much overall so far, though I've heard people talk about some of the Bearer stuff going off the rails which seems extremely possible based on what I've seen; I think it's a pretty ill-advised thing for a game like this to try to tackle.

That said, it is funny that this is the FF game where people finally say "fuck." We've come so far from bleeping Barret's swears in 7. I generally feel like it doesn't fit the tone/setting super well, I kind of expect more weird fantasy swearing, so it does feel a bit performative.

Like, oh yeah this isn't your DAD'S Final Fantasy. Characters in this have sex and say fuck. Also lmao there could legitimately be people who know of FF from their parents and are picking the franchise up here.

Also I mentioned it earlier but it's kind of odd only having one main party member; there's enough recurring characters that you have a sort of unofficial party, but between not gearing them and not having them around all the time it really does feel like the Clive Show.

This isn't a bad thing necessarily, but it does feel like another pretty big departure from what I normally associate with FF games. It definitely lets his character arc drive the story more, but that seems kind of handled by this point so I'm not sure how the rest of the game will feel.

I think letting different characters come into the foreground at different parts of the story is one of the numerous benefits of having a big party/ensemble in previous games, and while this game can kind of do that with its other characters it still feels different.

Okay back to random grab-bag, the big pop-up "quest complete"/"quest started" things are kind of annoying to me, though this is really another holdover from FF15 (and FF14 honestly), and they're actually a small upgrade from 15 because you get your rewards all at once.

Whereas in 15 you had to wait for each individual type of item to cycle through the rewards screen, which wasn't normally a big deal but they'd often give you like a bunch of ingredients for food-related missions and waiting on those was a pain.

The combat is fine overall; it looks and feels pretty good but there isn't a lot going on, again made more pointed by not having party members to worry about or manage (except giving Torgal orders I guess). From how things are now and what I've heard I assume the late game is just rotating abilities

I do like how quickly you both build and spend DT (I mean Limit Break); it makes it feel like something you're not supposed to hoard, but can just dish out freely, and you want to spend your time in the form wisely.

Oh yeah also my PC could not run this game at all, so I've had to fall back to playing on my Steam Deck which has fortunately been pretty good so far. Idk if the PC port is a bit rough on perf or what, my computer isn't super old so I thought I could at least play on potato settings but nah.

Turns out my PC *can* run FF16 quite well, but only on Windows. Something about Proton or my Ubuntu graphics drivers must be sad about it, presumably the latter since it works on Steamdeck which would be putting it through Proton as well. Does make me wonder if I should give Bazzite a shot...