Final Fantasy XVI – Clive’s equipment is the one thing holding the game back

thesixthaxis.com:

As we said in our review of Final Fantasy XVI, the latest instalment in this franchise is phenomenal. The action parts of the game are tight and combat is satisfying; the writing is outstanding and I would die to protect Jill and Clive. The Moogle is sassy, the Chocobos are cute; all in all, the game is a tremendous entry in the Final Fantasy franchise, and potentially one of the best to date.

But we didn’t give the game a perfect 10/10. There were a couple of minor niggles to the game, and they all come back to one system: the loot and equipment.

Upgrading your character is integral to RPGs. Change is a big part of that growth and Clive changes in many ways throughout the game that, in the interest of not spoiling it on launch day, we won’t go into. The two aspects of Clive’s growth you can control and affect in your ‘build’ are abilities and equipment. The Eikonic abilities system is great; the equipment system, however, is so sorely lacking it leaves a gaping hole in the experience the size of that giant crater in the middle of your world map.

We’re all accustomed to post-combat loot. Beat an enemy, take its pelt. Kill a wolf, take a tooth as a keepsake. Kill a Rathalos, turn it into a fancy suit of armour — wait, that’s the wrong series. Loot in Final Fantasy XVI feeds into the equipment system: give your resident blacksmith a dozen hides and a tooth and bam, you have a fancy new belt.

The issue is that with each story mission you complete, you unlock new crafting recipes at the smithy — and once you’ve taken down your first Eikon and made the fancy new sword with the unique item it dropped, each subsequent recipe is invariably worse than what you have equipped… that is, until you take down the next Eikon, which allows