A lot of people are taking Rebirth's (well deserved) positive reception as an opportunity to dunk on XVI, and it kinda bums me out.
Especially when I think there's a great, reasoned discussion to be had about how CBU3 could learn and take inspiration from what Rebirth does well while still building on the really strong gameplay base that XVI brought.
Like, if we had a potential XVI-2 or XVII that took inspiration from Rebirth's world structure, while also fleshing out XVI's own combat system with party members, a few more RPG elements and itemization (well reasoned, they shouldn't just throw that stuff in there just to say they have it), etc, I think we could have a game that's as strong as Rebirth in different ways.
I would love to make a thread and do a full write up speculating on where CBU3 could take the XVI template from here, but I know it would just get drowned out in shitposts.
Edit: Fuggit I'm making one anyway.
Apologies for not answering in your thread as I... don't want to enter a thread where XVI and Rebirth are both mentioned lol. Also avoiding Rebirth spoilers.
20 hrs into Rebirth, it's very clear that Rebirth was made by a team that already had the fundamentals done and are just batshit insane having fun putting everything. By Junon the illusion kinda dissipated and you can see the pattern, but still, it's a game that's chock-full of everything. I was very critical of how suffocating Remake feels, with it being entirely set on Midgar and how many optional content were hidden behind weird "Virtual battle" stuff. Rebirth didn't need that and put all the fun stuff on the map. The minigames are insane, there's a lot more activity that's focused on exploring.
On the flip side, XVI where it has an extreme focus of getting the project done. Don't do weird shit that some players won't engage. Don't do weird shit where players will optimize the fun out of it. No minigames, don't make equipment a busywork when the focus is on combat and Eikons, no need to make optional dungeon if people are going there for completion anyway. The focus on combat and story made both an extremely strong point in the game, and it came with the cost of almost everything else.
But it turned out that on a fanbase as diverse as Final Fantasy, you kinda need that little bit of everything--the stuff that's usually dragged development time. This is a luxury XVI didn't have, as they were making the game from ground up. I also think the PR dept of this game lost control of their narrative with their trailers. The conversation surrounding the game became "Are there towns?" "Are there NPC shops?" "Are there sidequests?" "Is Clive the only person in this game?" and the answers weren't satisfying to most players. They probably should've communicated this earlier.
Playing Rebirth so far increased my appreciation of XVI's storytelling, though. Clive is such a complex protagonist, not because of his backstory, but by how he chose to act to people around him. It's also a lot more subtle than Rebirth's on the face messaging and themes, and sometimes I found Rebirth's cutscenes had too much energy for what's supposed to be tender moments.
I hate ranking stuff, but in terms of enjoyment it's Rebirth > XVI > Remake to me so far and I don't think that'll change. That's a lineup of bangers, I should say. I said it in the XIV thread, but going from Rebirth to The Rising Tide to Dawntrail is a good, good year.
There's an interesting question for the future though. If CBU3 were to continue the game by using XVI's fundamentals, why not make it XVII? If they wanted to make a big, premium new IP using XVI's fundamentals, but the Rebirth team wanted to make the final game, who's making the next Final Fantasy? I don't think they have the internal capacity for VII, Kingdom Hearts 4, premium CBU3 game, and another XVII. Not to mention they must've thought about the next "service" Final Fantasy game to eventually replace XIV, which is currently the most profitable FF.
