...I have been so busy doing so many things that I am not sure when I will ever have the time to do a catch-up post on all of them, but I did start FF16 a little over 36 hours ago*, so I will start there.

First of all, I am glad that I had the presence of mind, in the midst of all the people talking crap about it definitely sucking because it was more action-oriented and/or "dark and gritty" (btw, "GoT meets FF" = don't you just mean Ivalice? I *like* Ivalice), to observe that every time I have played a new FF game, I hate it for the first few hours. I am lost and I don't know who anyone is or how to find my way around, and the controls and battle system are different and I keep messing up and feeling dumb. And I hate it because it is not like any of the other FFs.

But there comes a point when it starts feeling not like any other FF game, but like *a* FF game, and by that time I've usually gotten familiar enough with everything to start enjoying it. And in the end, even if I don't love it so much I feel like replaying it at once, I have never *regretted* playing a FF game.

I am still not QUITE at the point where it feels like a FF game, but I am somewhere in the middle of the "figuring it out" stage that it's becoming fun to play. With the exception of... the items they give you definitely make the early stages of figuring it out more bearable - the rings to like, auto-dodge and auto-potion and whatnot - but now it kind of feels too easy. And I am in fact playing on Action Mode because I like all kinds of games, I am not particularly concerned about a less menu-based, more action-driven battle system. And so far I'm doing well enough to find it kind of fun but also not challenging, so maybe I should unequip those things, heh.

I will also note that I went into this without having pretty much any knowledge past the first trailer (because it made my VS-loving-heart scream, and I have had so much fun playing FFXIV completely blind since that I chose to not seek out ANYTHING MORE about XVI) and the knowledge that you can, in fact, pet the dog. XD

And thus... either I was confused and completely misinterpreted the flashback in the opening, or Clive is going to have a really unpleasant revelation at some point.

And my main takeaway so far, without any plot spoilers is... it feels like someone's been reading my Vagrant Story fic and gave it the FF treatment where you take the basic building blocks but change it up and who's in what roles to create something similar but unique. o_o

Clive and Joshua in the flashback remind me SO MUCH of how I write Hardin with his younger brother in his flashback scenes. Joshua himself reminds me of the way I write child-Sydney. And their mother? DEFINITELY REMINDS ME OF JOSHUA'S MOTHER AND HOW SHE TREATS THE ELDEST/YOUNGEST SONS AND THE DUKE IN MY FIC WTF. Even physically resembles how I imagined her.

So uh, it may not really feel like a FF game to me yet (randomly stumbling across an obvious FF14 orchestrion that I couldn't interact with to confirm but definitely recognized helped a lot, lol) but I am digging it nonetheless.

Speaking of FF14 connections, laughed my butt off when I was told to give the blacksmith something to make him listen to me, but it wasn't specified what I'd been given to offer him... and it turned out to be a bottle of liquor. (I have a love-hate thing with Gerolt that rivals... the one he has with Rowena. And we won't even get into Brithael. XD)

And, uh. Cid. ...I saw his render back in the day and thought "okay I bet I'm gonna like that character" and then looked at the names and went "Oh this guy is not only a Cid, but a CIDOLFUS. WELL THEN." And uhm. He is living up to expectations in that regard. The man has VIBES. And already I have seen one person I know think his voice acting is terrible, but honestly from what I've seen so far? It's a choice, and a very brave one, because yes he mumbles and slurs his words and doesn't really emote, but that kind of delivery just lends more weight to the "eh whatever, I don't give af" vibe that he absolutely EXUDES - except that it seems fairly obvious that actually he does give af, quite a bit, or he wouldn't be doing what he's doing. (And the bit in the forest where you're fighting wolves and he's like "this is stupid, I *like* wolves" cracked me up. Excellent foil for Clive.)

So yes, count me in as a Cid enjoyer. Very much. Might be my new favorite Cid. ...Of course this makes me fear for his life, I don't necessarily expect any character to survive a game that has so far gone the way it has.

Still don't know about most of the other characters. I get that Jill is going to be important (and Shiva connection! I suspect I will like her) but last I knew she was still unconscious, and we went off through a lovely forest to a village before she'd woken up, so I don't actually know anything about her yet. I am very glad that we got to see Clive and Torgal reunited though! Slightly confused because I thought he was there because of Jill, but I guess he was there because of Cid? Or maybe both? I don't know what Jill's even been up to in the apparent last 13 years.

(Speaking of the lovely forest, apparently that is rare because of the Blight? Which is funny because in FF14 literally just after starting on FF16 and learning about the Deadlands, the next day I learned about "The Burn". XD)

Also gotta observe this is the first game I've played on PS5 that was actually developed for a current-gen system, and after having started on FF14 and finding it so pretty, FF16's graphics are downright eerie. Like I can't tell what is gameplay and cutscenes half the time, and everyone has their own unique animations for the same actions. But weirdly... the backgrounds/scenery seem ... less dynamic, more like static backdrops? Maybe because at the points of the game I've played through, there really hasn't been much in the way of exploration - whereas with FF14 the characters really were going to be going around/through/over every part of the landscape so yes, they are all placed in three dimensions. Maybe this will change as I get further in. In the meantime, the characters and immediate surroundings sure do look... well, not shiny, mostly dirty and dingy, which is how they probably should look. :D

I can't say I'm really feeling it yet? But I am no longer resenting having to learn the new systems and so on, so maybe will be able to actually pay better attention to the plot from here on out. And I'm not NOT having fun with it.

And that is what I will post about today. Maybe in a day or so I will get to all the Haurchefant cosplay progress, or FF14 progress, or... well, lots of pet stuff, mix of good and not-so-good and "omg wut" has happened there and it's hard to even know where to begin on any one of these subjects. FF16 initial impressions was the easy one.

* As for why I didn't start until very late Saturday... that too is A Story. Pre-ordered from Squenix's site and wasn't too worried about playing it first day, because I was assigned to jury duty that day AND a work day if my group was dismissed (it was), plus I have FF14 to play in the meantime and am in the middle of Big Plot there (again something I mean to post about) - so the game arrived Saturday afternoon but I figured I'd do my FF14 daily tribals before starting. And in the middle of that, there was a (long story, I need to post about... lots of pet stuff and cosplay stuff) pet mishap which caused me to jump up from the couch with controller still in hand and lunge to catch something... and in the process, my PS5 controller fell into the cat's water bowl and was completely submerged. -_- It didn't actually make it through the rest of the cut scene I was in after I dried it off and... kept shaking more water out of it. I had to advance the text by using the keyboard to pop up an "auto-advance text?" window but couldn't select "yes" - but when I hit confirm to select "no" the text would advance. So the rest of the rather important cut scene, viewed with a settings window between every line of dialogue before I could exit the game. Sigh. Then out to buy a new controller, which was annoying enough because if I hadn't had some help from a friend, those things cost as much as the game. And then it had to charge before use. So finally at like 11pm Saturday night I got to start. Barely, before I had to sleep. :/