If Final Fantasy XVI wanted to be FF Tactics so bad they should have just gotten Matsuno to write or consult on it, at least. I think Kazutoyo Maehiro is my least favorite Final Fantasy writer. People dunk on Nomura all the time but at least he has, like, ideas. He has things he wants to get across in what he's writing even if it's in the most wild, out there way. Maehiro's writing to me has always come off as "I'm a big Matsuno fanboy but I have no idea what makes any of his writing or settings work". The elements of Matsuno's writing are in 16 but that's basically it. It doesn't go anywhere or do anything with the stuff it sets up beyond some very surface level stuff.
That's the thing, too, is that Maehiro worked directly with Matsuno on FF Tactics AND Vagrant story dev teams and he still either didn't understand what made the writing in those games so special or just can't seem to replicate that spark himself.
The fundamental problem with Maehiro's writing for me is that he loves to show systemic issues such as poverty, racism, corruption. But more often than not, he's incapable of imagining how the world could change. Everything must go back to the status quo. Peak Maehiro for me is the massive cop out that was how he resolved the cliffhanger at the end of ARR patches leading into Heavensward. That huge event that should have large consequences and shake up the political landscape of the whole continent? Eh, forget it, it didn't actually happen. At the time i figured that being an mmo forces them to do stuff like that but, no it really doesn't. The later expansions prove that. Also, HE FUCKIN DID IT AGAIN IN FFXVI, A GAME IN WHICH HE HAD NO SUCH RESTRICTIONS. I guess I should actually finish it so i can't rant about it better but god that part pissed me off so much.
