Final Fantasy XVI

[AndyKurosaki]

Just finished the demo. There’s not much in the way of actual gameplay, but what there is, definitely gives a taste of what to expect. I like the combat, comboing magic with attacks felt quite satisfying. 
 

Was already looking forward to this. Playing this hasn’t changed that at all. 
 

 

[one-armed dwarf]

Don't know about it. Hearing Soken music to such big AAA scenes made me emotional, but what made me emotional in a bad way was how hard it is to read any of the fights in the 2nd demo or in the night sections in the first demo

 

Basically I think the mechanics are actually really good, and the timed magic button press thing is an interesting system I wouldn't write off. Reminds me of DMC5's exceed system a bit but you've got to decide do you want the fast attack string or the more powerful but longer combo. Works with stingers, overheads, so not only can you jump on people's heads with a sword you can also set their hair on fire. You also can buffer the negative edge of charge attacks in other animations, so you can do an eikon ability, hold down square during and release for the charged attack. Or keep it held while dodging, teleport up with circle and release square. 

 

But I don't feel much connection to what's going on in its fights, because I'm unable to read a lot of it. I'm mashing buttons against enemies I don't see rather than fighting them. The day time sections are fine, the morbol fight was excellent at onboarding you to how it works. I thought it was really well done, everything communicated really well by enemy tells and tooltips (FFXIV style). But when it gets dark the particle effects become the only thing you can see even with brightess adjusted, and the QTEs as well. It's very poorly balanced in terms of its visuals, and that's a pain with a game like this. Also screen shake and motion blur don't help

 

Could be great, but needs some updates for accessibility. I can't enjoy it like this. Comes down to how much of the game feels this way I suppose tho, and performance mode did help a bit. In terms of visuals, sometimes it looks excellent and othertimes it feels the IQ is falling apart a bit. FSR still looks bad imo. But in-game cinematics approach FFXIII pre-rendered FMV glory. We're at that point, but not all the time. 

 

On story and setting, I like that stuff. But I'm predisposed to liking this style of Final Fantasy from FFXIV. Main difference here is they say fuck a lot more.

 

edit regarding plot and setting, apparently this scenario is being written by the writer of FFXIV Heavensward. Until Shadowbringers I would have considered Heavensward the best modern Final Fantasy story. It's all about this bloody 1000 year war with dragons, with a bunch of pathos and betrayal and all sorts of cool shit. It's not an area I really would doubt them on, they built a really convincing and cool world with FFXIV and will probably do well with this too

 

Watch its FMV, it's got dragoons doing cool shit. 

[mfnick]

So the more middle age stuff is like in FFXIV? Makes sense why they’d continue that route since that’s so successful. Still not a fan though.

 

7 hours ago, one-armed dwarf said:

Works with stingers, overheads, so not only can you jump on people's heads with a sword you can also set their hair on fire. You also can buffer the negative edge of charge attacks in other animations, so you can do an eikon ability, hold down square during and release for the charged attack. Or keep it held while dodging, teleport up with circle and release square. 

What? 🤪 I completed the demo with no issues during the fights but I literally have no idea what you’ve said there. The game didn’t teach me any of that. I basically hit square a lot (sometimes triangle but I still don’t think that felt good, due to the timing) and when the gauge filled the next hit would be a Phoenix uppercut. 
 

Just another little point, what is it with Japanese devs not letting me remap buttons lately? I just want to swap dodge and that dash ability. I keep pressing circle to dodge (like in every other game) and getting battered for it. It lets you change control type but then it alters all the buttons which I don’t want. Frustrating! 

[one-armed dwarf]

negative edge is holding and releasing a button to do an attack, there's a skill in the wheel which charges up your sword so I said I tried out charging it during other lengthy attack animations/teleports and it worked. That's not really a thing games like this will tutorialise tho, there's too many intricacies to how to use and weave attacks together that each skill would need an essay and a youtube guide attached lol

 

Yeah no button remap is weird, tho I dunno if it's a japanese thing or I hadn't noticed. DMC5 let you map buttons, it was the first thing I looked for with the magic combo system cause I wanted to put it on trigger cause of how it reminded me of exceed

 

btw, when i talk about having issues seeing things, it was this room in particular that I found really bad (not my gameplay btw, just one I found)

 

 

[mfnick]

Hang on, is there a second part to the demo I don’t know about or is that from a preview? I didn’t do that section at all. It ended for me after the big monster fight and had me save my data for the full game? That might explain why I don’t know any Eikon abilities apart from the uppercut thing and piddly fireballs. 

[one-armed dwarf]

Yeah, it's the 'eikonic challenge'. It takes place a couple hours later into the game, so I just skipped all the cutscenes to not get out of context events. You have three stances with 2 skills each, and can upgrade.

 

I didn't complete it tho, got tired with it. Even in the first demo tho you can get a few decent moves. I don't think the mechanics are simple really, not as deep as contemporaries in this genre perhaps but it would be a mistake to try and chase that kinda depth while trying to remain as an RPG anyway

[mfnick]

Wish it surfaced that a bit better. When I finished, it saved and then sent me to the store page. Not re-downloading it now. Ah well. 

[one-armed dwarf]

 

Clive's voice actor is a very cool guy. He's way into this games.

[mfnick]

Clive is such a shit name. 

[one-armed dwarf]

So is Butz, it's a rich tradition of shit names.

[Nag]

Is it as bad as being named after the noise Pac-Man makes though.🤔

[OCH]

40 minutes ago, Nag said:

Is it as bad as being named after the noise Pac-Man makes though.🤔

[Nag]

Poor Wakka, although I'll give him his due... he did pull Lulu.

[one-armed dwarf]

I watched that whole video, well the 2nd half with the VA. He's so into it. Dude must be mad hype to be the MC in a Final Fantasy game

 

He's an Onimusha 2 and FFVIII fan, an appreciator of fine things

[one-armed dwarf]

They are looking at adding some motion blur and camera speed options.

 

 

Nice one. I would be labbing the combat in the demo but for how sick it makes me feel. Looking forward to this more now

 

Doesn't seem like it will be on a day 1 patch though

[Nag]

I pre-ordered this today... 👍

[radiofloyd]

New Game Plus will be called “Final Fantasy Mode.” Increases the level cap and the enemies will be stronger.

 

https://www.eurogamer.net/square-enix-details-final-fantasy-16-new-game-plus-offering

[DisturbedSwan]

 

[Nag]

The pre-load is up for this... just a tad over 90gb.

[DisturbedSwan]

Lovely stuff, that's not too bad compared with Jedi Survivor lol. I've gone physical on this though so hopefully Square have put the entire game on the (one) disc.