Featured Image Credit: Metacritic, Square Enix
Topics: Final Fantasy, Square Enix, PlayStation 5
To quote an iconic game, ‘Ah s**t. Here we go again.’ That’s right. The latest case of review-bombing has arrived because some people really don’t know when to stop.
Review-bombing is certainly nothing new. Earlier this year, Horizon Forbidden West’s PS5-exclusive DLC Burning Shores was targeted by a wave of homophobic review-bombing after the expansion introduced a female love interest for protagonist Aloy. For similar reasons, HBO’s The Last of Us was review-bombed - specifically for the Bill and Frank, and Ellie and Riley centric episodes. The latest game to be hit by the curse is Final Fantasy XVI. The difference here though is that there’s no one reason why fans are targeting the latest Square Enix release.
Take a look at Final Fantasy XVI in action below.
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Head on over to Metacritic’s user reviews for the game and you’ll find a wide array of zero and one scored reviews. Strangely though, those who are review-bombing the game are utterly split on why they’re doing so. Some dislike the gameplay direction the latest instalment in the franchise has taken while others blame critics for over-hyping the release.
“Not Final Fantasy. Definitely not a JRPG, it feels like more of a mix between a hack n slash and adventure game. If you're a huge Final Fantasy fan like me, you probably won't like this,” read one review. “Massively disappointing Final Fantasy game. Absolute shallow RPG elements. Tries too hard to be a Devil May Cry game. Generic, dull, boring and unrewarding side quests that actually hurt the pacing of the game. Tries to be so many things but fails to be the one thing it needs to be: a Final Fantasy game,” read another.
Another player added, “So much cutscenes, so much interruptions, so much fps drops, so much quality drops, so much performance issues, There are no RPG elements in the game which is actually a JRPG game. I don't want to watch anime bro! I just want to play the game.”
For the 657 negative reviews (at the time of writing), there are also 2,526 positive ones. There is also a free demo of Final Fantasy XVI available to sample on the PlayStation Store so it’s simple and easy to try the game yourself at no cost.