Crisis Core counts, that's the game that started them on this path. Hatred of women? They're just going for realism and is it not safe anymore to add in themes of racism or misogyny. Idk, I think the story goes hard and I'm all for it, God know it's all that FF16 has cause you could easily just watch the game on YouTube and it'd be a very similar experience. 

FF 15 is definitely better, I suppose cause it's more flashy and feels like you're actually doing more than  you are. 

XV is the only one using more 'modern' combat that I've played, and... it's not great. It's not bad either, but the combat is just good enough to keep you playing and not necessarily all that fun per se.

Bro Square they had action RPGs on SNES. PS1. PS2 and so forth. Mana games which are action RPGs started as Final Fantasy Adventure on game boy. Crisis Core is a PSP spinoff in the middle of the Final Fantasy 7 spinoff craze. Dirge was an action game on PS2. They also had turn-based FF7 spinoffs on Japan mobile phones.  Crisis Core combat is nothing like 15 or 16's either.  13 was turn-based. The game sucks but it was turn-based and came after Dirge and Crisis Core. No 16 hates women. Women are evil for no reason. There is no explanation, no solid motivation. They just are like a cartoon villian. Women with powers randomly become helpless damsels. Women with ice god powers suddenly become helpless because the man is there. This is the most common criticism of FF16 and is as subtle as being hit over the head as a bag of doorknobs. It will not let women become strong in the game as characters. Anytime they get close they pull back and that woman becomes reliant on a man to do the job. When a woman is evil it's to service a man. We think hey Jill wants revenge cool let's go but they keep pulling back and most of the game is her acting like a child waiting for clive as she acts helpless.

You're trying to say that the game lacks the depth because you attack with one button when originally the series' entire gameplay was based upon one button for not just attacking but everything in general (going through the UI, choosing a command, interacting with a NPC or object, etc). 

Its not a wRPG or a cRPG where you have multiple inputs for different attacks.

Ive got mixed feelings about this take because I think the mechanics in recent games (most notably FF7 Remake and Rebirth) are fantastic. However, in the specific case of FF16 it just was a bit underdeveloped, the combat mechanics were great in concept but they needed more dynamism/depth, elemental affinities and much bigger challenge from the game wouldve helped a lot. The game was way too easy, you didnt need to switch skills at all, you could force your way through the game with whichever skill set you liked and you were gonna be fine.

Personally I prefer the old school turn base systems. I like the strategy (with the exception of FF8, I could never get to grips with the Junction system).

Ah well, there are plenty of good modern Turn Based RPG's out there, including from Square Enix. I watch the latest FF's as movie-cuts on Youtube.

I'm not a fan of the Junction system as well.

But if you know the inner mechanics of it and know what spells to slot - you can break the game easily lol.

I enjoyed the combat in FFXVI, but certainly thought it could be refined.
FFVII Rebirth felt pretty rough in comparison, but that may be a result of me playing FFVII Rebirth immediately after FFXVI.

I don't get it. Perhaps there is something in FF16 that opens up the combat, I'm 7 hours in and it's waiting for me to continue when I get the vibe. I hope you folks are right, I wanna love this game.