Baldur’s Gate 3 – the best RPG ever? (Picture: Larian Studios)
A reader compares Final Fantasy 16 to Baldur’s Gate 3 and finds Square Enix’s game lacking, especially its attempts to appear more Western.
I’m probably not even halfway through it yet, but as far as I’m concerned Baldur’s Gate 3 is not only the best game of the year, but one of the best role-playing games of all-time and one of the best games ever made. High praise, I know, but it seems most people seem to agree and if they’d been able to get review copies out in time, I’m sure all the big sites would’ve already showered it with 10/10s – GC has already hinted that they will.
What’s interesting is that the game I played right before this was Final Fantasy 16 and, well… let’s just say there’s quite the contrast. Final Fantasy 16 is a game that is so ashamed of its Japanese role-playing roots that its director tried to suggest that the term JRPG was actually an insult, although I still don’t know whether he actually believes that or if he just doesn’t understand about all the various other sub-genres of role-playing games.
Whatever the case, the game’s attempt to appear more Western comes across as kind of sad, especially as it’s trying to copy Game Of Thrones five years too late and it seems to think God Of War is a role-playing game, and that’s the game it should be copying to make JRPGs more like Western role-players. Let me tell you that it is not.
At the time I thought Final Fantasy 16 was… okay. The combat is quite good, but eventually repetitive, while the graphics are decent and the story is convoluted and overly serious, with no particularly likeable characters (well, maybe Cid). You can see all the money thrown at it and yet the whole thing feels so desperate and needy. It wants to come across as an adult and serious epic and yet it’s still got giant monsters and crystal in it.
It mistakes complexity for depth, to the point where it becomes so much effort to keep up with what’s going on, and who’s doing what, that you just can’t be bothered any more. In the end I gave up, especially as I began to realise just how linear the game is and how restrictive everything other than combat is, in terms of how much control the game was willing to give you over anything.
Compare this to Baldur’s Gate 3, where you can literally go anywhere and do anything. I don’t mean that in a vague ‘It’s quite open-ended’ kind of a way, I mean that as long as the laws of physics and Dungeons & Dragons magic allow it you can pretty much do it. From raising the dead to coating your enemies with oil and setting them on fire, Baldur’s Gate 3 is almost more like a simulator than it is a role-playing game.
It does have a story though and proper, well written characters. Characters you like, that have understandable motivations, and an overall plot that can be explained in a few sentences and doesn’t involve crystals (basically, aliens are invading). These characters are neither good nor bad but all act in a realistic fashion, including falling in love. And while I haven’t got to any love scenes yet the fact that it has them, and they’re both risqué and humorous, puts them miles ahead of Final Fantasy 16.
What annoys me about Final Fantasy 16 in particular (other than there is no PC version) is that it’s all so linear and so while in Baldur’s Gate 3 you feel completely in control, focusing on whatever aspect of the gameplay or plot you’re most interested in, in Final Fantasy 16 you’re just pulled through it by the nose, having to experience it exactly as the developer wanted.
Like all Japanese role-playing games, there’s no meaningful character choices and Final Fantasy 16 doesn’t even have any decent side quests. I have enjoyed many a JRPG before, the Persona games in particular, but as technology and game design marches on they seem to be stuck in the past, forcing you to experience them in a strict linear manner, with just a little bit of leeway around the edges.
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A JRPG is like having a story told to you, but a Wester role-player is you making up the story as you go along. That’s perfectly fine, if that’s how JRPGs want to be then that’s their decision but I think it’s going to seem increasingly outdated in the years to come. And my point with Final Fantasy 16 is that it actively wanted to seem more Western and yet all it did was copy some surface traits.
Because the director doesn’t seem to understand why people use JRPG to mean a different kind of game, he seemingly couldn’t identify the elements that needed to change if Final Fantasy 16 was going to appear more Western. If JRPGs don’t want to change that’s fine, I can admire sticking to your guns, but Final Fantasy 16 just ends up getting the worst of both worlds.
By reader Vaston
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A reader compares Final Fantasy 16 to Baldur’s Gate 3 and finds Square Enix’s game lacking, especially its attempts to appear more Western.