I Cant Be The Only One Who Felt Vibes From The Tarja/Jill And Gav/Clive Interactions Right? No? Ok

I cant be the only one who felt Vibes ™ from the Tarja/Jill and Gav/Clive interactions right? No? ok

My Pros, Cons, and Neutrals for Bayo 3 to get my thoughts about the game organized.

Pros:

ngl i prefer the new VA for Bayo. Dont know why but i just like it more

The combat is amazing (for bayo, but ill get to that in a min)

The art and design choices are *chefs kiss* magnificent as always

I absolutely adore Viola and Cheshire and think they are a good addition (as a side character)

The music is great but also not very bayonetta-y (if that makes sense)

As an unpopular opinion, The jeanne mini game was great, I loved it

The demon masquerades were a great game mechanic to add

im alone in this opinion but i like that they removed the hair from the demons, i just want to admire that model baybee

The alt universes (while massivly confusing) were so interesting and i wish they had gone more into them

the kaiju battles (especially Baal zebul)

Its just a fun game to play imo

Neutral:

I liked the homunculi but man they were kinda samey

the rpg skill system was a bit hard to get used to but thats cuz i forgot about it several times

not being able to mix and match weapons, i can live with out it but i miss it

glad they brought everyone back in the end (allegedly) but we didnt need that depressing ending.  Series has never been depressing

The madama kaiju was my least fav but im just salty cuz shes my fav demon (yes im basic)

moonlight serenade was the weakest of the moon songs and i got annoyed listening to it over and over

Cons:

WHAT THE F**K IS A FAIRY

The characterization of all the previous characters was kinda bland, even bayo was very toned down to be a touch boring

the whole Luka thing (which im not even gonna get into that can of worms) (not the romance, the werewolf thing and his weird im a god now thing)

THe adam and eve thing (just....ew)

What whas singularity’s plan???

Killing every alter with a deus ex machina was just rude

Making bayo feel fairly weak compared to Luka and Viola’s weird fairy nonsense was weird to me

the story

we are one was not it chief

Replayed the last few levels again (to try and actually understand this mess of a plot) and I missed the first time it said "to be continued in the next generation". As much as I love Viola I dont think she can hold up a game on her own, plus I'm not playing bayonetta for viola, im playing for cereza. Like they didn't need to make a new mc they have a multiverse now, show us the full other alt bayo's stories. I really want to see more about the Papillon d'Ombre she was my favorite alter and she actually got to grow up with her mom.

It could be neat to see other versions of bayo's kids, like I'd personally like to see a bayojeanne kid but that'll never happen but I think it's gonna just focus on this Viola

I feel like Bayo 3 Bayo was 100% little Cereza from 1 the more I think about it tbh

Oh yeah same, there are so many similarities but there are also some discrepancies (but thats probably the bad writing)

The addition of lukaon has added so many plot holes to an already hole riddled lore.

Like ok so in origins, lukaon is the arch Adam origin yeah? So how is he in 3?? He died at the end. And he and regular luka are the same person but also not??? Cuz there's an origin luka and lukaon (god I hate his name).

Also why is luka/lukaon the only character affected by the shattering multiverse? Why don't we see another character plagued with visions of alters (would have been neat imo) was it to somehow revive origins lukaon into luka?

Also side note, I know the whole Adam and eve thing is for kamiya's fetish fantasy but like, it would have made more sense if balder and Rosa were the Adam and eve and the story was based around Cereza trying to save her parents (also would have been more in character)

The man wrote himself into a gay corner with 2 so he had to make a whole multiverse to retcon it

Finally finished FFXVI

As stated finally finished and i have many thoughts, and not all are good or (probably) popular.

Before I post spoilers, I'll just put my general score for the game; Its an 8/10 BUT I didnt particularly "like" the game (meaning my first response to "did you like the game" was no, but its not really a no but not a yes)

So now into spoilers and my semi indepth review!

Ok so first things first I'll say, yeah I didn't really like the game, and dont get me wrong there was no skipping cutscenes and ignoring things, I did every sidequest and most of the hunts.

Now onto the things I like;

The characters: I loved pretty much all of them (especially Gav, he holds my heart) and there were some i didnt love (Jill, girl i wanted to love you so bad but you were so mid imo) but none that I hated (except Annabella, but i loved to hate her)

The Setting: Valstheia is an amazing world for this setting and the art direction was perfection, it felt full and lived in like an actual country.

The music: This is a given, its Final Fantasy, the music is gonna be banger as per usual.

The active time lore: oh my god this thing saved me so many times in this game and it was just fun to get the little details and watch them fill in.

The story: I was invested in the story...for the most part, It was a bit over complicated for me personally and there are some changes I would have liked and i felt like it was way too front-loaded.

Things I didnt like;

The length: THIS GAME WAS WAY TOO LONG AND I WILL DIE ON THIS HILL. It did not need to be a 30+hr main story, and because of that it got very boring at points, especially just after the 5 yr jump and the titan fight, then from that to the Waloed. There was just so much filler and many of those Main quests could have been side quests (since there werent too many of those)

The story (cont.): So While i kinda liked the story, I feel like it could have improved on the themes of Breaking Bonds and Unity by having the Rivals join Clive and become party members instead of absorbing their power. This would have also furthered the Breaking of Fate theme since Clive wont be following his destiny as Ifrit and the ending fight against ultima could have been more impactful with all the Dominants overcoming the odds and defeating him (even if they die at the end, essentially sacrificing themselves like Clive did in the real ending) This also removes the played out Chosen One plot line for Clive (which they do kinda subvert because Clive is great in general) itd also give the other Dominants more of a central role (THAT THEY DESERVED)

THe Edginess ™: Let me set this straight first, I do not mind the edge, I enjoy a more mature story (and this series needed a shift to more mature) BUT it was way too front loaded. Up till the 5 year jump it was like game of thrones edgy, then it just felt like a generic early final fantasy story with more cursing. They also mentioned slaves so much it got to the point where I was like that good place meme with the time knife but replace time knife with slaves. Also it felt a bit strange with that they would want to be edgy, we see Benedikta almost get SAed but we cant see her severed head??? (the fact that we dont see her head led me to believe she was alive for so long, aldo why was it glowing??)

Final thoughts:

This game was a great game and had the potential to be a masterpiece to me, but I think it just slightly missed the mark with the story. This could also just be me, I have weird FF standards and the game did and didnt feel like a FF game and I think it would have benefited not being part of the series (though the sales would have been worse) I would Highly recommend it to people who enjoy ARPGs but I think Id hesitate to FF fans.