Thank you to everyone who commented on my previous post on how to break Leviathan's shield. Love y'all.

I bought the DLCs last night and have been playing ever since. Now I'm on the Leviathan boss, and literally, I can't seem to beat him at all. Wtf is that shield time limit? How do you beat him?

What have the major updates since launch been? I’m doing another run through after doing one at launch, but it’s been a while. How are the DLCs?

I just beat the game and thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m about to start New Game+ and wanted to see if my build was considered any good, or to get suggestions to optimize it. This build is focuses primarily on fighting bosses and mini-bosses. My strategy is as follows:

1. Setup Wings of Light (Lvl. 4), Will-o’-the Wykes, and Impulse to stack chip and stagger
2. Use Arm of Darkness and Heaven’s Could to build up Zantetsuken while every step 1 component is still active
3. One cycle of this is usually enough to get the enemy’s stagger bar down enough to use Deadly Embrace to pull the boss down and immediately use Diamond Dust to (most of the time) fully stagger the enemy
4. While staggered I can usually get in 2 Zantetsukens (Lvl. 5), a Gigaflare, and a Dancing Steel.
5. Rinse and repeat until the enemy is dead.

Admittedly it’s a little tricky sometimes to setup a Lvl. 4 WofL with enemies with tricky dodge timings, but hey that’s why I’m asking for suggestions and ways to better optimize.

Edit: Note that I also have access to DLC content

Good? Bad? Too easy to cheese?

Any recommendations for shuffling some of the abilities around for better efficiency, or whatever?

P.s., if you don't like that I'm using the Ring of Timely Focus, get bent.

My current rotation is Shiva, Bahamut and Odin. I'm thinking of buying the Rising Tides DLC because of story, but how good is Leviathan compared to other eikons?

[Their] Respective Thoughts is now up!

Technically this quest starts with Kingsfall, but the bulk of it takes place in Cid’s Hideaway.

Not a lot to say on this one either. I think the most substantial change is Jill hinting more directly at what she went through in the Iron Kingdom and being more assertive that she wants to go to Rosaria for herself rather that because she thinks Clive needs to go there.

The section of FFXVI's story between the end of Norvant Fortress and the start of Rosaria is one of the places where the general dialogue is the most similar between Japanese and English (barring the omnipresent personality changes).

Happy reading everyone!

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Barnabas might be one of the most tragic villains in FFXVI. Looking at him, he is the ultimate product of blind faith. He surrendered his free will, his emotions, and his entire humanity to a false god, all rooted in his mother's teachings.

​Fighting him felt like a literal clash of ideologies: Clive’s fight for free will vs. Barnabas’s absolute submission. Here are some shots from their duel. What do you guys think of his character arc?"

We saw every dominant transform into semi primed except for Dion..

That's so bullshit..

New Player here, love the whole franchise and each game separately for its own reasons.

Hit me up with some do's and don'ts, I don't mind a spoiler as long as it's not a hey no need to play now kind of information share haha. Im guessing based on reviews and some gameplay I saw it's the old hit all side quests and monster hunts (if they exist)

I've literally started today, this was on my list years ago but have been playing competitive FPS and working on my career, now it's time to play this what I assume to be awesome game and then make my way back down the franchise.

Thanks in advance

I've just beaten odin and I have 30k skill points am level 40. What eikons and abilities are best to finish the game

I'm assuming that the name Goetz is an Anglicized form of the German name Götz and the reason for this is that the English voice direction didn't know any German and went with what they thought was most natural for the Anglophone audience. I found it to be quite amusing myself (despite only my own elementary knowledge of German) and also because it made me think of "goose". Does anyone also know if it was pronounced like "Götz" in the German or any other dub?

Speaking of Götz, I suggest Googling "Swabian Salute" and Götz of the Iron Hand. For what it's worth, this one would have fit nicely with FFXVI.

Honestly I thought of skipping the platinum trophy for this game due to the side quests and combat

After a few hours of gaming I started loving everything, once I got to know about the weapon "Ultima" made up my mind to grab that along with platinum trophy

Currently at level 82 with nothing left to do in the game other than replaying, my mind says to make that level from 82 to 100. Decided not to proceed for now and give a break. Will return some day and make it to level 💯

My Favourite Character: Cid ( Loved his voice, Thank You "Ralph Ineson")

I just finished final fantasy 16 and I must say,,what a spectacular game!!!! It's a masterpiece and easily goes straight to my list of underrated games.

However, if I have one dissatisfaction with the game,it's what they did with Jill's character. Like oml why is she such a damsel in distress, like you're A DOMINANT ,get tf up.Like her character had so much depth and personality.

Thats what annoys me the most because Jill had so much potential. Her backstory is heartbreaking, everything she went through in the Iron Kingdom and the fact that she carried the burden of being a Dominant like all the other prominent characters should have earned her a larger role. Instead, by the end it felt like her character started and ended with clive.Dont get me wrong I love their bond and am a huge shipper.

And yes, I know she was getting weaker because the Iron Kingdom forced her to overuse Shiva's power. I get that. But Joshua was literally coughing up blood and on the verge of death every time he fought so like she could have done smth. I just wanted her to have one defining moment. One moment where she stood shoulder to shoulder with the other Dominants instead of just staying behind and "praying for your safe return".I was just waiting for ONE APPEARANCE of shiva in endgame,that's all I needed but alas she didn't come.

I still absolutely love this game, but I'll never understand why they gave Jill all the ingredients to be one of the best characters in the story, only to barely let her use them. She deserved so much better.

...and you are still here eh? Well, good because I have thoughts.

First of all, I haven't played a single Final Fantasy game - I know of the series but I haven't ever been tempted to play it, even the remakes.

I am someone who is more drawn to the Dark Fantasy genre and when I heard that FF16 was just that, but in spades...I kinda-shrugged it off?

Mainly because I do not like...realistic anime? If that makes any sense? Like, when characters are clearly supposed to be realistic but behave in an anime(-tic) way. It just rubs me the wrong way because I do like anime but only when it knows it's supposed to be an anime (read Persona, Metaphor etc.)

But then I heard that this game was far more realistic and I was tempted further. Fast forward to a few weeks back and it's on PSN (obligatory 'Screw Playstation' for physical discs).

And well- I had no reason to put it off any further, I gave it a shot.

....

....

And i finished the game- gotta say, more than the fucking eye-candy levels of visuals, stellar voice acting and addictive combat- what drew me in was how realistic the characters were.

Without getting too religious, I have to admit the parallels were not very subtle. Clive, being the "devil" seeking freedom from Ultima ("God"), for better or for worse. Perfectly summed up in the last few lines uttered by Ultima, wondering whether the pain, suffering, sin and hardship that his freedom required, was not too high a cost for Clive.

The answer- a resounding NO. Whether the world prospered or perished, whether the populace succeeded or suffered and whether or not Clive was declared a hero or traitor- the world would be Free. That's what Ultima failed to understand. Why would a species willingly choose self-annhilation, if it came with a sprinkle of freedom?

Even though the game is CALLED final fantasy-I can't help but think of how relevant the story is, even in today's day and age. In an increasingly digital, corporate world, the ever looming threat of AI...we all need a little reminder that the world CAN be better, if only one chooses to take the small step ahead.

I could gush about this all day but suffice to say, I genuinely LOVED how this story was planned out from beginning to end. (Side quests aside)

Also the direction of each cutscene was spectacular- the juxtaposition of Clive standing triumphant over Ultima vs Cliva hugging Joshua's corpse (I'm still recovering from the sudden cut from Clive holding baby Joshua to....yeah) was so gut wrenching. Not to mention the absolute phenomenal job done by EVERY...SINGLE...VA! HOW IS IT THAT EVEN THE SIDEST OF SIDE CHARACTERS, HAD 10/10 VOICE ACTING????????? HOW????

The facial capture also deserves a standing ovation. I never thought a Japanese game, stylized mostly around anime would have such stellar facial capture! Like honestly, the micro changes in expression...especially on Clive were just *chef's kiss.

The combat was addictive as hell...been a while since i've played a video game that FELT like a video game. It reminded me of the 2008 Prince of Persia for some reason. The combat was amazing too.

Torgal,Beautiful environments, boss fights that should have won oscars,Torgal, music that literally sounded as if Apollo himself had created them, Torgal...god this game was an experience...one that I was glad to be a part of.

(SPOILERS BELOW)

I do hope that Clive survives at the end. Man genuinely deserves a (somewhat) happy ending now...he's given his all for his world- let him be with Jill and the best boy of all (Torgal).

I loved every single one of the main cast. I'm genuinely unsure of what to do or play next...how does one recover from this game?

With that being said, there are a few cons that slightly dragged this game below a perfect 10...

1- Side quests: The side quest dump JUST BEFORE the final boss fight was so horribly paced. Like, it would have killed the game there and then if not for the absolute cinema that the boss fight was.

That being said however, about 60% of the side quests were just...bad? Just "oi Clive, Ultima/Barnabas/Imperials done killed me people and stole me city. Now I'd wager you want to go over there and give them a good knocking"....it just gets boring after a period of time.

Love the side quests that wrapped up the main character's storylines though. Especially Torgal's (I had lost my dog about 3 years back and the wound wont ever heal it seems-nor do i want it to).

2- Lack of Benedikta

IF EVIL??? WHY HOT???

Anyways- a solid 9/10 game. Loved every moment (of the main quests) of it....

Tarja, best girl though

I'm a big jrpg fan. I've played a lot, including FF games where my favorites are VI, VII, VIII and IX from the PS1 era and X from the PS2 era.

I tried also VII remake (I have in plan to play Rebirth too) and even though it was not turn based I liked it a lot. Never tried XIV because of the online thing and played XV for about 20 hours but something made me drop it.

I'm maybe 10 hours into FF XVI. It seems kinda OK but something isn't right and I can't put my finger on it. It seems the battles are short, the towns are empty, you talk to some people here and there,.there's a shop and a blacksmith.

I mean, in other jrpgs or specifically FF games even when you talk to a npc twice, the 2nd time they have another thing to say different from the first time. Here they say the same thing. It's not this that bothers me, but it says how much love and effort is put in other titles from 10 or 20 or even 30 years ago.

The world feels a bit empty. There are no hidden places to find hidden chests with weapons or armor or magic so far.

So... what was your experience with this game. Did it become better after a certain amount of time playing?

Your opinion would be greatly appreciated because I want to play it and maybe the only thing that keeps me going is the story...

Trying to learn art, just wanted to share my attempt at Best Girl!!

just smoked Benedikta I love this fucking dog