Did Ff16 Flop?

Because it had been so long since another mainline number was released and XIV 2.0 had done so well, people were very hyped that another entry would be really good. All the trailers and demo footage looked good and so people assumed the gameplay would be fun. They were of course wrong but by then they had already committed to buying it and felt they had to defend their choice. This in turn sent a positive buy signal to SE, who then repeated the exact same pattern.

Years later we can look back and realize how bad it was and that our support of XV is what lead directly to XVI. This is also why I refused to buy XV on release, even though this forum was full of defenders trying to justify it. "Supporting" a company doing a bad product just reinforces the decisions that lead to that bad product and will result in another bad product. Sales are the only language companies know how to speak.

FFXIV hallmarks ruin the game and it's pacing for the most part.

The music, surprisingly overall is very forgettable, given the composers usual success.

"Dungeons" are 2x trash packs 1x boss, repeat.

The sidequests don't really pertain to any relevancy to the story or the world for the most part. "Go fetch my favourite Bucket, Clive!"

The last 1/4 of the game is a Zantesuken spam when the combat becomes really hollow and shallow.

Started off great, middle to end-game is just a slog and you're kind of glad when the game finally ends.

XVIs music was unforgettable? That’s gotta be a hot take haha.

Unforgettable?

No, I said "very forgettable, a lot of it wasn't great, which is odd considering the music in XIV is usually very memorable.

There's likely a lot of factors in it. I'm nearly sure the composer was going through cancer treatment at the time.

My bad autocorrect hates me. I meant forgettable. Typo aside.

Musically I thought it was a banger, but what tickles everyone’s music bells is different.

Story I actually didn’t mind at all. It was the gameplay that, while fun, was rather flat and hollow. I can appreciate SE always trying different systems as is tradition, but you can tell that a lot of dev time was pulled from XVI to put into VII

I think FFXVI's music was one of it's best parts. That being said I'd understand if the pieces were not "catchy" but they definitely weren't forgettable. Heck I listen to Phoenix's Theme "Away" all the time and it still gets me hype.

I liked some of the tracks tbh, but that never excuses how terribad the game is. That's one thing xiv does well at least. The main battle theme was nice for 16

It is a hot take. My friend has the same opinion, but he just doesn't like Souken's music at all. The thing is, despite Souken often credited as the main composer, Uematsu was actually quite involved with 14's soundtrack, always composing the main themes of every game and expansion (Answers, Dragonsong etc), up untill Stormblood I think, and we know how the motifs of the main theme get remixed and reused. Overall, FF14's music was great (encounters, cities, overworld) and augmented the experience pretty well.

Speaking of FF14:

Every game SE has released lately



SE so far gone I don't even get the itch to play the classics anymore... accept chrono trigger

Sorry but.. you think this music is good?

Stranger of Paradise had a solid OST.

But FF music peaked in 1994

I cannot imagine thinking Soken's music is bad.

The thing about Soken's music is, there is a lot less emphasis placed on each individual track, but a lot of emphasis placed on motifs that run through sections of the soundtrack. These motifs are most memorable in the 'full' versions of pieces that the motif shows up in.

I don't remember much of FFXVI's music. But I heard the Leviathan fight theme once, the bahamut fight theme once, and the Greatwood themes once, and each of those central motifs are in my head forever now. For better or worse, those motifs cover like a good 1/4 of the soundtrack.

As far as Soken vs. the other FF composers:
Uematsu used motifs like this, but it didn't feel like he was relying on them to fill out a soundtrack. Not saying this is good or bad, but there is a lot of reputation in FFXVI's music.

Mizuta (FFXI Composer) uses a ton of really esoteric musical techniques, (most notably, maintaining tonics while switching back and forth between major and minor scales) particularly in the newer soundtracks, so he's hard to compare to Uematsu and Soken imo.

Soken is the undeniable king of range and variety. It's one of the things he is absolutely best at. If you have a wide taste in music, there will never be another soundtrack like FFXIV, and this quality extends to FFXVI to some degree as well.

If you told me that a piece of videogame music would involve a tempo of around 200 bpm with lyrical melody that incorporated 16tth notes on a violin and accompanying third interval, I wouldn't have believed you. But Soken goes and writes Ascension for FFXVI.

I still prefer Uematsu overall. I agree that his 2dFF soundtracks are some of the most amazing, given his constraints. But the dude is unbelievably talented, so hearing his more recent soundtracks with fewer technical limitations has been amazing.

Don't be. I posted the trailer because it just dropped, not to showcase/as testament to how magnificent 14's OST is.

If you think about it, mainline FFs have underwent several changes from 1 to 16, but, to my knowledge, Uematsu is the only core member of the original creators who has remained as a dev member in the same lead position till like.. 10? Still with heavy contributions to the online titles (11's Memoro de la Ŝtono and it's odes, Ronfaure, etc) and 14. To me, FF without Uematsu is not the same, and loses some of its magic. He has always been a core ingredient of the FF experience for me (despite enjoying main and spin-off titles not composed by him).

Uematsu is possibly the only "celebrity" I want to shake their hands and thank them for their hard work because of how much it meant to me. I never studied music, so I can't really "rank" him amongst composers, but I hope he gets the recognition I feel he deserves as a musician outside of videogames.

sure, but i'm sorry that is one of the worst uses of audio i've ever seen in a trailer.

the music is horrible and you can't even really hear what the story teller is saying over the horrible music.

not that she's even telling a good story anyways.. "land nice, land cold, some saved the land". i really wish i was being pedantic here.. maybe it sounds better in japanese lmao