Regardless of how they chose to spend the final few days prior to its release, Final Fantasy fans have now had almost a week to dig their teeth into Final Fantasy 16.
So far, the game has ignited a lot of debates among players, with some arguing over whether it provides the 'true' Final Fantasy experience they believe defines the series, others using its reception to discuss Final Fantasy 14’s legacy and a few struggling to decide whether they prefer this version of Cid to Final Fantasy 12’s Balthier.
Meanwhile, one group of fans have recently set their discursive sights on the aspects of the game that they think could have done with some extra development, in order to make them worth investing more time into.
Do you think any mechanics and systems in Final Fantasy 16 could do with being a little bit more fleshed out?
Their improvement-centric chat can be found in a recent thread on the subreddit r/finalfantasy, which user muempire93 kicked off by declaring that the game’s blacksmithing mechanic “could have been more fleshed out.”
They went on to explain that, in their estimation: “All it seems to be there for is to visit after defeating a boss [in order to] to craft a stronger stat stick for Clive. There's no scope for adding in additional stats/effects, status effects or elemental affinities.”
Most of the other fans in the thread seemed to agree with this assessment of the system, with user disposable_hat asking: “Is there a point to crafting after you get your Count Dripula outfit?” They added that aside from upgrading their sword, they’re struggling to spend the resources they’ve gathered.
Similarly, user Troisius lamented: “I wish the weapons and armour mattered more, and had something unique about them,” suggesting that even expanding the system to allow players to boost the amount of certain types of damage inflicted and repelled by items via upgrades would have improved things.
On the other hand, user Yoids argued that they'd have preferred it if the game had abandoned the idea of a crafting system altogether, saying: “we [could] just receive the items directly from drops, instead of having to [click through] menus [that don’t offer a choice over] anything.”
Other users in the thread argued that crafting isn’t the only area in which the game could benefit from being more fleshed out, with the likes of dungeons and side quests outside of the main story also being criticised.
Regardless of how you’re finding Final Fantasy 16 so far, make sure to follow us for an array of helpful guides to everything from earning trophies, to gathering resources, and defeating foes, as well as updates on Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.a