Game:

Final Fantasy XVI (2023)

Category:

Review

Duration: 13:15

412 views

14

I'm diving into one of my favourite series with its latest iteration: Final Fantasy 16. But this one doesn't feel quite right. There's no party, no traditional skill tree to define my play style, and the new aspects they brought in aren't hitting the mark. Sure, it's fun to do magic burst combos, but the reward for pulling it off makes it not even worth doing.

So this week we're diving into why all these changes cause the game to feel like it doesn't belong to the main line series. We'll also talk about difficulty levels and why designers tend to avoid them in modern games.

My name's Joel, I'm a game designer and this is another episode of GBU reviews. I'll break down the good things I like, the bad things that need work, and suggest some ugly, back-of-the-napkin solutions that I would have tried if I were on the design team.

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Twitter - @GBU_GameReviews

EXTRA READING ON THE TOPIC:
Learn more about why designers avoid difficulty levels in modern games:
- https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/difficulty-levels-and-why-you-should-never-use-them#close-modal

Video Sections:
0:00 Intro
1:05 The Good
3:30The Bad
7:16The Ugly
11:34 Final Thoughts

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