I'm sorry, but Final Fantasy 15 is better than 16

The thing about Final Fantasy, is that there's a lot of them. Not counting the countless spin offs and sequels, there's roughly 16 of them (in the mainline series, at least), and with that many games not all of them can be bangers – even if a lot of them are. You all have a favourite, that one entry you swear is the best one, warts and all, but it seems that since Final Fantasy 13, the beloved series has been a bit rough around the edges. Only thing is, I'm a Final Fantasy 13 defender, and as you might have guessed I'm the same when it comes to 15 too - so much so that I truly do think it's better than Square Enix's latest, Final Fantasy 16. I finally got around to playing Final Fantasy 16 over the holidays, months after everybody else, and, well, it was fine! Maybe even good, if you like games with all the rough edges sanded off, but I'm not that kind of person. More than anything it is refined, a complete picture not ruined by years of troubled development, clearly laying out what it wants to be: God of War, but Final Fantasy. Unfortunately, what that has ended up doing is offering up something that I ultimately think is a bit dull compared to its predecessor, even if as a final product it's a lot more cohesive than 15. Clive Rosfield is generally well-performed by English voice actor Ben Starr – there's even some stunning moments from him in there – but he feels very let down by some poor writing. He's a pretty uninteresting protagonist, with his defining character trait being "grump," and it never really evolves past that point. The game doesn't help itself by not really developing its supporting cast either, even though we somehow spend hours worth of cutscenes with characters like Jill. It's issues like these that really shows how much 15's writing shines. Read more