Final Fantasy 16 Part 12 Playthrough
Added 2025-07-02 17:00:09 +0000 UTCEarly ad-free access for part 12 of our Final Fantasy 16 playthrough
Comments
I get that they're familiar with TFS' work, but I also really advise against starting with Machinabridged lol. I'd argue it's even further removed from the source material than DBZA is from DBZ. Not that I don't want them to check it out at some point, but I would never recommend that someone start with a parody if they can help it. I was more understanding with DBZA bc they were new to anime and watching the original show would've been a lot of episodes to go through, but this is different. If ya experience the original first, you'll appreciate Machinabridged's humor more imo.
JT
2025-07-03 09:48:52 +0000 UTCI also felt your disappointment originally with Odin’s buildup in the story and his actual fight especially if you do like the Ifrit fights a lot but the more I replay the fight the more I actually really enjoyed it as a Human Clive fight
seels
2025-07-03 09:24:48 +0000 UTCSince the end is almost here if you want to continue your FF journey a lot of people are saying to play FF7 Remake which is a really good choice however the game fully expects you to have knowledge on the original story because it’s less like a remake and more like a reimagining without going into spoilers. For that I highly recommend either the FF7 Fandub that JT recommended or TeamFourStar’s Machinabridged cause I feel like that’s more familiar territory in terms of video content whatever you choose I’ll be happy with
seels
2025-07-03 09:22:59 +0000 UTCJust to talk about your point on this being an "underwhelming" fight... I have to disagree, and here's why... Bahamut was meant to be the pinnacle of Eikon battles. Barnabas was meant to be the pinnacle of human battles. It's why the little splash screen at the end said "Barnabas" was defeated and not "Odin". It was all very intentional! I love that the game threw this curve ball and sidestepped expectations of something more spectacular than Bahamut. You've bested the greatest foe of both Eikons and humans. Next you have a God to face. Also, just remember... Odin's biggest strength was his sword that cuts everything. Barnabas had found a way to manifest that weapon at any time in his human state. His Eikon would only make him a huge target. It would afford him no further strategic value in actual battle against someone like Clive who has taken on these giant Eikons before. (With regular human armies? Odin's Eikon form would decimate everything.) Dion pushed his Eikon form to the limit of its power in Bahamut's body. Barnabas decided to do the opposite and hone all of Odin's power into his own human body instead.
Ghost Tendency
2025-07-03 05:40:32 +0000 UTC2:55:05 Hehe, yeah, I about had the same reaction. Quite honestly I thought they'd make a bigger push to have Torgal harmed/killed since Barnabas was aiming to use Clive's connections against him.
JT
2025-07-02 19:25:56 +0000 UTC"INDEED!" - wait wrong game
JT
2025-07-02 19:16:46 +0000 UTC2:47:23 Oh nah if ya'll are feeling this pressured with this fight then I'm starting think some real salty seas are gonna come flooding by in the near future lol. A real tidal wave of anguish.
JT
2025-07-02 19:14:58 +0000 UTCSHOW ME YOUR WORTH, MYTHOS...THAT I MIGHT REVEL IN IT!
Shadowpunch13
2025-07-02 19:08:07 +0000 UTCThe original might feel a bit dated (Blasphemy! 🫣); if your coming of ff16. Thats something to consider too. Personally i would play ff7 OG, but then ive played through every FF entry.
Mosh Mia
2025-07-02 18:42:12 +0000 UTCIdk its a prequel and i feel like that spoils some big reveals that they shouldn't know
feltskate ._.
2025-07-02 18:23:34 +0000 UTCIf your a newcomer;( i played the og and remakes) i recommend starting with crisis core reunion before remake and then rebirth as that is the chronological order of events (not including Dirge Of Cerberus).
Mosh Mia
2025-07-02 18:07:14 +0000 UTC1:14:47 Ya don't need to hold circle for Megaflare. You press circle once, let the gauge build up either by doing precision dodges or standing still while it's active, then hitting circle again to unleash the attack (ideally once the gauge has reached level 3 or 4). If my ability overviews aren't cutting it or ya need something more "on hand", you could always hover over an ability in the Ability Tree and pressing triangle to read up on its details. I've just been doing these overviews to give ya more specific advice.
JT
2025-07-02 18:05:21 +0000 UTCWild Card Wednesday repeat vouch: - History of the HUGE crossover the West never got - by Top Hat Gaming https://youtu.be/itR6YGb9XDg?si=CeQOS8jRP2BaZnAc
AlexThat200
2025-07-02 17:37:39 +0000 UTCGungnir: Clive summons Odin’s spear “Gungnir” and delivers a series of strikes, which will fill up the Zan gauge with each hit. Upgrading it will increase the speed of the strikes. Deals little HP and stagger damage. Out of all of Odin’s moves, this is the one I suggest ignoring, as there are better options for filling the Zan gauge. Heaven’s Cloud: Clive lunges forward with Odin’s blade to strike an enemy. If this first hit lands, Clive will continue to slash away until the combo maxes out. If used on one enemy, you can just mash the attack button. If used to attack several enemies, you’ll need to mind the timing between each strike. Deals low HP and stagger damage. A better option for building the Zan gauge (if performed correctly) than Gungnir, but still not the best. Dancing Steel: Clive uses his sword and Odin’s blade to perform a series of series of slashes. If you’re locked on to an enemy, all the slashes will be dealt to the target. If you’re not locked on, the slashes will be distributed among separate nearby enemies. Upgrading this ability will increase the number of slashes. Like Gungnir and Heaven’s Cloud, Dancing Steel does not much damage, but its high hit rate makes it the easiest way to fill up the Zan gauge. The ability takes a few seconds to get going, but once it does, time will freeze for enemies and make Clive untouchable during his onslaught. Rift Slip: This is the one ability of Odin’s that isn’t tied to the Zan gauge, and it’s arguably the most OP ability at Clive’s disposal once you learn how to use it. Activating Rift Slip during ANY of Clive’s animations (attacking, getting knocked back, falling, etc.) will cancel the animation prematurely and cause time to slow for two seconds. That might not sound like much, but consider this. Rift Slip’s cooldown period is 15 seconds and shortens to 7.5 seconds if used to cancel an Eikonic ability, which makes it very easy to activate between the use of separate abilities. So, if you get the timing correctly, you can buy yourself extra time for your abilities to recharge, extend the duration of your Limit Break, and extend the time that an enemy remains staggered. Using Rift Slip right before an enemy hit you will also trigger the slowdown effect, giving you a bit of time to either parry or dodge. Summary: Odin is the most offensive oriented Eikon there is, with little in the way of defense. The high AP costs it takes to upgrade Odin’s abilities and their dependence on Zantetsuken being equipped make them rather difficult to mix with other Eikons, and that’s likely by design. If you could just use Zantetsuken on top of your other moves without drawbacks, it’d be more broken that it already is. Since you two seem keener on using the “press button once and let Jesus take the wheel” abilities, I can’t say I’m confident you’ll even bother with Odin. But if you do, then I would suggest prioritizing getting enough AP together to upgrade Arm of Darkness and Dancing Steel, because that’d be your easiest way of getting the higher level Zans. When it comes to getting a Lv 5 Zan on bosses, here’s the easiest recipe: Get the boss staggered, plant Ramuh’s Lightning Rod right next to the boss, use Dancing Steel, and then use Zantetsuken. If Dancing Steel and Arm of Darkness are both upgraded, you should be able to reach a Lv 5 Zan while the boss is still down. Whew! Guess that's a wrap on these guides of mine now that you've obtained all the Eikons.... right?
JT
2025-07-02 17:09:23 +0000 UTCA lot of people were disappointed with Barnabas’ final battle since they were expecting a proper showdown between Ifrit and Odin. Honestly, I can’t say I felt the same. I’d go as far as to say that this is my second favorite boss in all of FF16 (not including the notorious mark fights). As I’ve said before, I find the bosses where you’re playing as Clive are more engaging since they let you demonstrate your mastery over Clive’s abilities and give the player more agency. The BGM that plays during this fight titled “The Riddle” is also incredible and makes the duel feel even more exhilarating. In Final Fantasy mode, Barnabas is able to Rift Slip out of any abilities that stop time/freeze enemies, making it feel even more like a battle between an unstoppable force and an immovable object. That being said, I do think that the fight against Odin likely ended up being this way due to a lack of time/resources among the devs. It also doesn't help that his fight is positioned between Bahamut (the most popular summon there is) and the final boss. Ya can't make the spectacle in Bahamut's fight anything less than stellar, but ya also can't make Odin's fight too spectacular or the final boss will feel underwhelming. So yeah, don't know what I'd do either tbh. EDIT: Seems you two don't agree with me on that first half of mine lol. Guess I just don't really take things by the spectacle so much as the skill asked of the player as to what makes a boss battle more incredible. Bahamut's fight is more visually appealing but it really ain't too hard, so I don't place it above Clive vs Barnabas.
JT
2025-07-02 17:02:31 +0000 UTCHaving replayed this game a few times now, I’ve started to realize that I find Barnabas to be a bigger waste of potential writing wise. Arguably even more so than Benedikta. I’d argue that he has the opposite of Benedikta’s problem, by which I mean he only started to become a prominent character too late into the story. In the end, he was just there to reemphasize Clive’s motivations and act as a jobber so Ultima could come off as more imposing. He didn’t do a whole lot with the “severing Clive’s human connections” plan either. Whether this was the plan with his character from the start or a result of the devs simply not having the resources to do more with him during development isn’t my place to say. Curious to see if that Logos FF16 lorebook I told ya'll about may have any more info about him that just didn't make into the final product. That’s not to say that I found him to be all bad. His views on the will of humanity are not “entirely” wrong. Some of those with free will have used their ambition to bring about great amounts of harm and sorrow to others, both in our world and Valisthea. Still not a good reason to have it yoinked away from everyone since not everybody was responsible for those kinds of actions, but still, the idea’s not entirely unfounded. I also can’t give enough praise to his VA (David Menkin) for his acting during the fight between Barnabas and Clive. It’s so entertaining and deranged. Looked him up for the sake of this comment, and I’ve only now realized that he’s also the VA for one of my favorite Xenoblade villains. Guess if I had a nickel for every time I’ve fought a dashing man dressed in black wielding a cool ass sword who was voiced by David Menkin, I’d have an overused Phineas & Ferb quote.
JT
2025-07-02 17:02:12 +0000 UTCAs this game’s ending makes its way near, I wanted to discuss FF content that may come after this playthrough. While Final Fantasy X (FF10) is a viable option, it seems that most of the DND community would much rather prefer moving on to FF7. While I do agree with this move, I wanted to go in-depth with it because FF7’s popularity has caused it to grow into a series in and of itself. One that fans can’t seem to decide on what order newcomers should experience it. I gave my thoughts on some approaches that you two could take to starting with FF7 a few months ago, but I wanted to build on to them now that some things have changed and to try to explain why the disagreement about this subject exists in the first place. Among the fandom, there are two primary options that people often recommend when getting into FF7: Option 1 – Starting with OG FF7 Now, while this game is an all-time classic with very significant value in the history of video games, I can’t recommend playing it for yourselves in good faith. While modern ports for the game add a handful of quality-of-life features to make it more palatable for modern gamers, I still don’t think they would be enough for you two to enjoy the gameplay. The UI design feels dated, and the combat can be rather slow even with the “speed up battle” function of the newer ports. The lack of voice acting may make it hard for you two to get invested in the story/characters. It’s also pretty hands off when it comes to telling the player where to go, which is def gonna be a major issue for you two. Therefore, if you’re going to start with OG FF7, I suggest watching this fandub of the game instead. Link: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngmVwkiRf4HdDxoBxCQg709WlIhzdaPI&si=RzAcfCZEHg-WY2PP This project is a fan-made voiceover of the entire game. It’s not very well-known among the FF community, so you’ll probably only be seeing me as its only advocate. When I suggested it a few months ago, it had not yet covered the entire game, but that is no longer an issue. While the VAs involved in this project are not people with tons of experience, they do a good job despite that. You'll be able to get all the story while not having to deal with any annoyances of the gameplay. Option 2 – Starting with FF7 Remake Being games that have only come out within the past 5 years, FF7 Remake and Rebirth would be much more accessible to you two. You two have seen enough of the gameplay of visuals to know what I mean by that. For that reason, these two games are probably the ones that people have been leaning on you two starting with (besides the fact that they’re just enjoyable in their own right). However, I wanted to address the catches with doing this. These two games are not a 1 to 1 retelling of the original story. They veer off to expand more on the characters and world in ways that have some fans considering them to be more like “sequels” than “remakes”. They make several references to not only the OG FF7, but also other entries in the FF7 compilation like Crisis Core, Advent Children, and Dirge of Cerberus. Remake and Rebirth have also not finished their coverage of the full story of FF7. This could become an issue if you wanted to move on to doing anything else FF7 related (i.e. FF7 Machinabridged) since it all assumes you know the full story of FF7. Ya could try waiting for Remake games to finish the story, but I’d say you’d be waiting at least 3 years for the next game to come out. There’s no guarantee they’ll end the plot the same way either. If ya couldn’t tell, I’m more in favor of you two starting with the OG FF7 fandub before anything else, but it’s ya’lls decision at the end of the day. Sorry for dumping all this at once. This is something that a lot of FF fans can’t seem to agree on, so I figured I needed to give serious reasoning behind my suggestion.
JT
2025-07-02 17:01:50 +0000 UTCOdin’s Abilities ⚫️ * Due to how elaborate Odin’s Eikonic Feat is, I’ve decided to give it its own section just to help with the readability of this overview. See the reply for the other abilities. Arm of Darkness (AoD): Clive replaces his sword with Odin’s blade. Odin’s Eikonic Feat is unique in that it alters Clive’s basic moveset and depends solely on using Odin’s abilities. If Arm of Darkness is not equipped, most of his abilities become worthless. This is because AoD relies on the Zantetsuken gauge (Zan gauge for short), which will fill up depending on how many strikes Clive lands with Odin’s blade. While AoD is active, a few of Clive’s animations for his basic melee attacks, mid-air attacks, lunge, and parry are altered. These alterations grant Clive wider reach with his blade, but make his attacks deal little damage. Strikes with AoD don’t increase the Limit Break meter either. “Then why the hell would I want to use this?”, you may be asking. That’s because the real technique behind this Eikonic Feat is Odin’s signature technique... Zantetsuken By holding down the square button, Clive unleashes a flurry of slashes that will grow in power and size relative to how high the Zan gauge has been raised. The gauge will max out at level 3 and increases to level 5 when upgraded. A level 5 Zan is the most powerful attack in the game. It’ll one shot any small regular enemy regardless of where they’re standing or if they’re even on screen. It won’t one shot any larger enemies or bosses, but it’ll deal the most damage they’ll ever get from a single attack. There is no greater satisfaction in this game than ending a fight with this move. The animation is just pristine. I should also note that the Zan gauge does not degrade between encounters, so ya can save one charge for the start of an upcoming battle.
JT
2025-07-02 17:01:21 +0000 UTCGuess I’ll just keep reusing this comment: Leaving this post as another reminder for thoughts and feedback on the VGM playlists. The more descript, the better. Ya’ll have done me the courtesy of listening to me prattle on here over on Patreon (and sometimes on YT), so I’d love nothing more than to hear your notes on how I could improve/alter them to your liking, and if you’ve taken a fancy to any particular songs
JT
2025-07-02 17:00:57 +0000 UTC
![Blue [K]nights](https://nokimo.com/istorage/107130.jpg)
