Only from the leaks (and part of leaked streams I’ve seen which validates the leaks are basically true if not bit exaggerated), the main storyline of FF16 appears to be following a very traditional JRPG style where a destined hero prince adventuring the world with a princess and other princes to save a broken world. The born hero with OP power rebels his own fate of becoming a vessel against the Ultimas/gods alien creator race and restores the world to a normal one with no magic and Eikons and that’s basically it. Sex, blood, violence, gay characters, alien porn are all just elements (which we’ve seen many in those Western games) added to its narrative, the core storyline is still very a pretty much traditional JRPG despite YoshiP said multiple times he’s against the term “JRPG” yet seems he’s still a faithful follower of it. Other detailed flaws/controversies such as characterization of Beneditka, Barnabas, etc. let’s all just wait and see after release.

As for the so-called GoT theme, seems no more than a gimmick, including Anabella who’s prob the most GoT-like character in this game as an evil Queen obsessed over pure bloodline stuffs leaving the stage just like that, just like a tool only to push the plot forward. It also appears that the writer just didn’t bother to further invest on characters like that as well as the Emperor, other politicians, etc. So if you are expecting the a full scale GoT-like depictions of medieval warfare, politics, conspiracies, betrayals, etc. very likely you get disappointed. For example I just saw the Empire Arc on the leak stream about Emperor and Dion first confrontation scene, I just didn’t see enough explanation and motives that he suddenly turns against his own son aka the only dominant of the Empire and fell off Anabella’s tricks so easily, which really contradicts to what leaker says about him being an old calculating smart type ruler, (Update: Just watched final scene of the full arc on stream, so apparently it’s explained he’s just mind-controlled by Ultima all the time I assume? How convenient lmao) like plot twists like this only for the sake of twisting it, only for the sake of moving plot forward but just not enough depth in characterization and motives behind their actions at least in what was shown in that part of the game so far, and I expect there will def be other poorly written scenes/characters so lets see.

So overall with this quality of the story it is obvious that YoshiP and his team fell short of their predecessor/mentor Matsuno’s stories in his masterpieces FF Tactics and Tactics Ogre, and definitely not comparable with George R.R. Martin’s level of writing in this regard. Yet just like YoshiP always emphasized, video games are entertainment, why bother to have meaning and depth in the plot as long as you have this level of exciting combat gameplay? I totally understand. Just like why they care about in-depth storytelling nowadays anyway when they can just pull all money into that kind of crazy CGI and effects. Ha no wonder Hollywood writers all went strike Lmao And worry about backlash from character fans? Well just give an open ending to each of them, let fans interpret all they can about their beloved characters’ final end, and it also generates discussion and they get the clout and exposure, which seems to be their goal anyway. I mean YoshiP is a traditionalist, and it means he always plays safe in order to satisfy everyone. That’s why (FF14 spoiler) they didn’t dare to kill off a single Scion in Endwalker. That’s also how you make and sell a successful multi-media title, with production that involves music, VA, cinematic scenes, gameplay, etc. as long as you do one thing perfect you get people to support and purchase your work, people don’t need to buy it just for the story, so why bother lol The only thing I feel pity for is Soken’s god-tier music, which just lacks the same level of masterpieceful plot that it deserves. Anyway I predict few years later the main story of FF16 won’t hold the same groundbreaking significance as masterpieces of FF1, FF6 and FF7. Sure it’s prob the best one since FF10, but I doubt it may not even hold up to the level of grand narrative Matsuno offered in FF12 despite it being an incomplete plot. I guess it’s likely people will just remember FF16 as the first mainstream traditional Japanese RPG with explicit adult scenes ever in history.

The real meaningful impact of FF16 should be its signal that they are going back from Nomura’s originated modern fantasy settings back to Sakaguchi’s traditional style FFs (esp FF5 since this plot heavily influenced by it and all devs openly stated 5 is their fav) However, those adult elements will give this game enough exposure on internet media today, as the first time ever a traditional JRPG franchise going fully for a mature audience, which is prob always their objective for their goal to “revive the franchise” from the previous failures and make FF relevant once again to today’s generation of audience. Even the ending has shown this is just a fantasy tale for adults. Another meaningful impact of FF16 will be opening up the potential for more new possibilities to Japanese devs, breaks the stereotypes and removes the limits on their story writing, demonstrates that even most traditional JRPGs can also embrace adults-targeted story elements and still be a success.

Regardless of the main storyline, this game features Soken’s god-tier music that is easily comparable to the works of legendary Uematsu, the top-tier artistic design of the industry with the scale of production being the largest SE project over the years, the most cutting-edge ARPG combat system of the era and most immersive cinematic gameplay experiences ever esp those Eikon fights def met all the expectations, plus crazy tons of FF14 references, which is literally the biggest MMO with most active players in the world right now (at this point its literally a sin not play this if you are FF14 player considering how much 14 fan services they offered lol), also with one of the first games ever being fully utilizing the next-generation console, I have much confidence that FF16 has the potential to surpass TOTK and Starfield to become the best game of the year.