FFXVI is a bold shift in both gameplay and narrative, yet captures the Final Fantasy magic in stunning fashion, earning a place within the pantheon of incredible entries in the beloved franchise.
Outstanding story, characters, and worldbuilding earn the right to depart from what fans expect from Final Fantasy.
Amazing - Featuring fast, reflex driven, action heavy combat, Final Fantasy 16 is certainly a departure from what fans may expect out of a Final Fantasy game, but its excellent story, characters, and world building are right up there with the best the series has to offer, and the innovative Active Time Lore feature should set a new standard for how lengthy, story-heavy games keep players invested in its world.
They love the game, but Performance Mode needs some work, as it's a very unstable 60 fps during exploration and a solid 60 during combat, albeit with a drastic drop in resolution via dynamic resolution scaling to achieve that (resulting in messy combat visuals).
Unfortunately it doesn't. With PS5's implementation of VRR, there's a window where it will work of 48-60hz. If a game's framerate falls out of that window (which XVI does in exploration in Performance Mode), VRR will not be able to compensate. John mentions it briefly in the review that the dips are enough to break VRR, sadly.
I had some hitches here and there during the demo, but nothing too bad. I was playing on performance mod then too.
Honestly, I am not usually a person prone to noticing these kinds of things, so I doubt it will affect me all that much. My TV isn't exactly the best for gaming, so a lot of the bells and whistles wouldn't work for me necessarily either.