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[vpance]

Honestly the first 15 minutes of this game alone is better than the entirety of FFXV.

I still can’t believe that FFXV even happened.

Never played FFXV but that synopsis sounds like the story was written by 10 yr olds. Wtf

 

[Thirty7ven]

Imagine enduring more than 30 sec of that squeaky ass voice of her.

30 hard seconds is all one would need.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

I really hope the demo didn't ruin the game for us lol.
Week between now and then... the hype overloads. What if there is nothing better in the full game?!
We expected something but now we expect A LOT from he full game.

Gonna tune down the hype (yeah, like if that was possible)

Judging by the trailers, the demo is only scratching the surface.

 

[rofif]

Honestly the first 15 minutes of this game alone is better than the entirety of FFXV.


I still can’t believe that FFXV even happened.

You could tell that the devs of this game were really displeased with how XV was handled and what it ended up being, because it’s basically the polar opposite of it in every regard.

The catalyst of the story was removed from the actual game, and we started off the story with a prince pushing a car to a gas station in the most generic desert setting. Because I guess his dad, the king, thought it would be funny to not put in the proper amount of gas? Then we get to do a couple of hours of fetch quests. Then we find out that our home (that’s like 3 miles away btw) was annihilated via a newspaper. Then we go on a fetch quest for royal Arms (but collecting all of them isn’t mandatory for some reason) and then also Astrals. And then the villain somehow knows that Noctis is getting visions of Titan and we follow him in his car. We have the most embarrassing “set piece” boss fight I’ve ever seen. The enemy steals your car. You then refuse to use a temporary car and then somehow gain intel on the whereabouts of your car and then retrieve it from the army base it’s held at. Then avenging Jared. Then preparing the boat or something. Then Gladio being like “sorry Noctis I have to leave brb” and Noctis saying “oh ok.” Then that weird 2 minute mission where Noctis and Gladio are in hazmat suits. Then the Cup Noodle quest. Then embarrassing “set piece” boss fight #2. Then a party member saying “I am now blind” and Noctis being like “that sucks, won’t ask you how that happened though.” Then it’s a train ride to the end, with a few stops to remind you for the millionth time that the game had tons of cut content.


All for the most dull open world (minus a couple of admittedly cool optional dungeons).


I also reinstalled the game a couple of weeks ago just to get a feel for it again (since it never sits well with me to dislike a Final Fantasy game), and the combat is just as hilariously awful as I remember it being. Traversal is as stiff as I remember it being (minus the chocobos).

To me, FFXV is the one and only disgrace to the franchise. And hopefully it remains the only one.


EDIT: side note, as a sailor mouth IRL, I highly approve of this game’s constant use of the word “fuck.”

Dude ff XV is fantastic. It's a MESS story and gameplay wise but the game still made me bawl my eyes out at the end.
I kinda loved and I am not sure why. The vibe is there.
And the gamepaly is very cool once it gets going.

But exactly as you say - you can see how the game was butchered. it didn't bully survive it's dev hell

 

[Danjin44]

It's a MESS story and gameplay wise but the game still made me bawl my eyes out at the end.

Tabata does good bitter sweet endings, it was the same with FF Type-0 and Crisis Core.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

I bet the preorder numbers went up a ton after the demo.

Hopefully a good sign:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

 

[Katatonic]

I bet the preorder numbers went up a ton after the demo.

I did my part. First game related thing I've pre-ordered since Mario 3D Land 3DS and the first story worth a damn in ages imo.
The acting of these characters is the best I've ever seen and heard in a video game.

 

[Palabragrís]

Hopefully a good sign:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

I want that deluxe edition

 

[ToadMan]

There’s 2 NPC’s later in the hub that will do that for you and keep track of both lore and political as well as in game events.

One at least you even get to level up accompanied by some cute animations.

Ah ok nice

I’ve been avoiding trailers and spoilers and things so I’m not really clued in in those kind of mechanics.

Sounds like there is more to delve into there as well

 

[Trunim]

Didn't feel like a gameplay demo. It felt like it had more cutscenes than a kojima game.

 

[Northeastmonk]

Didn't feel like a gameplay demo. It felt like it had more cutscenes than a kojima game.

You can skip the cutscenes. Pause the game and hold Triangle.

 

[Trunim]

You can skip the cutscenes. Pause the game and hold Triangle.

Then I was running for 30 seconds and then another cutscene.

 

[Dr. Claus]

Oh yeah! I've always had that franchise on my periphery but never tried it. Might be time to change that.

They are very good games. I wouldn't recommend binging them as they tend to be very similar in terms of gameplay and style, but maybe one a month or every two months so you don't get burnt out. I would say they are almost as good as FF for me int erms of RPGs in general.

 

[mortal]

Hopefully a good sign:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

 

[Danjin44]

Then I was running for 30 seconds and then another cutscene.

Yoshi-P already warned that in young Clive sections is going little more story heavy to set up the characters and story, this also why they put second part to the demo thats much combat focus.

 

[TheKremlinBossMan]

Spoiler

I loved this scene. Rip to the boys.

 

[Mr.Phoenix]

Yoshi-P already warned that in young Clive sections is going little more story heavy to set up the characters and story, this also why they put second part to the demo thats much combat focus.

Honestly, I won't even bother. Anyone coming into a FF game thread and talking about cutscenes is a troll. Is there any FF game that isn't cutscene or story heavy?

And that's evermore relevant in this game because what we play first is actually the beginning of the game... where we are being introduced o the world and characters.

I have now learned to spot the flags, someone talks about cutscenes... ignore them. Someone talks about shallow combat systems? ignore them. Someone talk about last-gen like graphics? Ignore them.

 

[struggler_guts]

Spoiler

I loved this scene. Rip to the boys.

Spoilers son

 

[Efren is G.O.A.T.]

The music, the FUCKING MUSIC!

Never really knew Soken before this. His work is S++ Tier!

 

[Lokaum D+]

The music, the FUCKING MUSIC!

Never really knew Soken before this. His work is S++ Tier!

u need to listen some FF14 ost

 

[Efren is G.O.A.T.]

u need to listen some FF14 ost

 

[Rush2112]

If you liked the Eikon boss music, this is a sound-alike from FF14

 

[Lokaum D+]

If you liked the Eikon boss music, this is a sound-alike from FF14

dear lord, not this again XD

cant listen to this since so many MSQ

 

[Unknown Soldier]

I agree. My main issue with 15 was that the writing and presentation were all over the place, and when things started to get very serious it was too late for me to care.

I still don’t know how any fans of 15 thought it had an amazing story. It had amazing concepts, but the execution was severely lacking.

Your mistake was thinking FFXV had fans. Everyone I knew basically tolerated it because it's Final Fantasy.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

u need to listen some FF14 ost

He really fucking nailed Shiva's themes



This video actually also shows a complete run of the Savage version of that particular raid fight from the perspective of a tank role (Paladin). As someone who played a tank role (Warrior) while clearing through this fight, I can say this fight was really something. Watching this video brings back memories lmao. Soken puts a lot of effort into these themes because he knows you'll be listening to them for many hours while the boss kills your party over and over.

 

[Meicyn]

Since it’s turning into a Soken thread, one of his best songs:



He worked on this while he was undergoing treatment for cancer in the hospital, alongside all the energy he was putting into XVI’s soundtrack. This was during covid too, so no one could really be there in person. He poured everything into his work. And it shows.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

This one's another one of my Soken favorites

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Searching Youtube for old FFXIV themes is fun, so many good ones over the 10 years this game has been live. Soken has been the sole composer for FFXIV the entire decade it's existed after the Realm Reborn era started in 2013

 

[009EspadaSageJay]

Based on your review it does sound like the FF14 formula at work. But Yoshi P made this game and took half the FF14 staff to make this game so that doesn't surprise me that similar plot progression motifs and encounter design is very similar. Having things be very easy or very hard with no middleground.

I assume the very hard is going to be locked behind Hard mode and will require you beat the story so you can play it again. The WoL(Meteor) in FF14 also has no personality and some of the plot progression does have characters forget to use their brain for the sake of plot.

Edit: I want to say that your concern about the combat being barebones without all the other unlocked abilities is also a FF14 thing. Without your whole kit combat won't be as good as it should be. It only comes together once you have all your toys.

Thank you for the highly detailed experience. It's very informative.

I played FF14 up to stormblood just as a reference for ff16 and there were tons of things in FF14 i did not like both as an MMO and a jrpg but yoshi said that some of the things are hard coded and cant be fixed fair so some stuff I just chalked it up to just that. But with FF16 I expected and complete 180 new engine new dev team new combat designer ect I can easily tell the parts ryko, platnum and KH Tokyo team worked on which are great sections and I can see the parts of the FF14 devs team and what they brought to the table the walk 5 steps then overly long cut scene immediately made my blood pressure rise outside of the phoenix fight and how you literally cant see anything because of the motion blur. You got 3 great combat directions and thats how you want your 1st 2 hours of a game to be and then the 1st boss is snooze fest nier,bayo 3, KH3, DMC5 which are those studios recent games didnt do that at all. And the fact that the phoenix fight is on rails is insanity since even Nier didnt do that. But the unlock skills super late im not surprised you can be level 55 in FF14 and have your character feel complete incomplete or have little to no AOEs also even though there are parts that happen in ff14 that you will shake your head and be like no way that happened I feel like they did a better job of hiding in ff14 by just saying of magic happend or the life stream of what ever as compared to what i have seen in 16 so far.

 

[009EspadaSageJay]

How people are doing in the Eikon Challange without the evasion rings to help? Game can get dark with lots of effects on screen and more enemies gagging on the player… haven’t tried yet but does it get too messy for the player or it’s possible to understand what’s going on all time and properly being able to manually dodge? Because I’ve seen lots of potential on 1vs1 battles but I fear when it gets crowded things get messy. Anyone pushed further and challenged himself already?

if your playing on an oled your screwed that section of the game is way to dark almost all of the abilities in that section + the upgrade tab you can just spam most of them and they do AOE if you spam the phoenix AOE over and wait to time the stone ground pound one you can easily clear out a room in like 10 seconds.

 

[009EspadaSageJay]

As a (mostly) non-Final Fantasy person, I'll try to give my demo impressions later when I have a bit more time.

Somewhat tangential question prompted by this demo. My son is 10 years old and loved the combat, but after playing through the demo, I can't in good conscience let him play through this game, the themes and content are just too mature.

Can anyone think of some games with similar combat, that are more kid appropriate? I'm aware of Bayonetta and Devil May Cry. I haven't played them but from what I do know, those aren't something I want him playing at this point either. So I'm wondering if anyone can think of similar games with this level of flashy, action oriented combat that would be more appropriate for a 10 year old.

any tales of game, Wonderful 101, Streets of rage, ys

 

[Lokaum D+]

Since it’s turning into a Soken thread, one of his best songs:



He worked on this while he was undergoing treatment for cancer in the hospital, alongside all the energy he was putting into XVI’s soundtrack. This was during covid too, so no one could really be there in person. He poured everything into his work. And it shows.

i cleared this on the first week without guide or static, shadowbringers PF was full of competent players, i wish to go back and finish endwalker someday, but for now i have no time for 14 since i have a baby girl that took almost all my free time.
Best FF ever

 

[009EspadaSageJay]

Honestly the first 15 minutes of this game alone is better than the entirety of FFXV.


I still can’t believe that FFXV even happened.

You could tell that the devs of this game were really displeased with how XV was handled and what it ended up being, because it’s basically the polar opposite of it in every regard.

The catalyst of the story was removed from the actual game, and we started off the story with a prince pushing a car to a gas station in the most generic desert setting. Because I guess his dad, the king, thought it would be funny to not put in the proper amount of gas? Then we get to do a couple of hours of fetch quests. Then we find out that our home (that’s like 3 miles away btw) was annihilated via a newspaper. Then we go on a fetch quest for royal Arms (but collecting all of them isn’t mandatory for some reason) and then also Astrals. And then the villain somehow knows that Noctis is getting visions of Titan and we follow him in his car. We have the most embarrassing “set piece” boss fight I’ve ever seen. The enemy steals your car. You then refuse to use a temporary car and then somehow gain intel on the whereabouts of your car and then retrieve it from the army base it’s held at. Then avenging Jared. Then preparing the boat or something. Then Gladio being like “sorry Noctis I have to leave brb” and Noctis saying “oh ok.” Then that weird 2 minute mission where Noctis and Gladio are in hazmat suits. Then the Cup Noodle quest. Then embarrassing “set piece” boss fight #2. Then a party member saying “I am now blind” and Noctis being like “that sucks, won’t ask you how that happened though.” Then it’s a train ride to the end, with a few stops to remind you for the millionth time that the game had tons of cut content.


All for the most dull open world (minus a couple of admittedly cool optional dungeons).


I also reinstalled the game a couple of weeks ago just to get a feel for it again (since it never sits well with me to dislike a Final Fantasy game), and the combat is just as hilariously awful as I remember it being. Traversal is as stiff as I remember it being (minus the chocobos).

To me, FFXV is the one and only disgrace to the franchise. And hopefully it remains the only one.


EDIT: side note, as a sailor mouth IRL, I highly approve of this game’s constant use of the word “fuck.”

You must of not watched any of the movies or anime for FF15 outside of that so FF16 isnt generic? we got the most standard opening every of any medieval style game some big war going on in the background you cant par take end, 5 dude sitting around a camp fire late after noon with the sun up wearing 10+ pound armor climbing over rocks and trees didnt know were Call of duty now. Random cut to some room with 6 dudes talking about territories and trade 1 dude is so horney he gets tricked by some bimbo random training flash back inside the most generic looking castle around only thing remotely unique are the crystals, one kid prince is disowned and one is SHOCKING sick, step child jill, Generic evil MOM from GOT there is no way ff16 is some unique ground breaking settings.

 

[NeoLed]

Then I was running for 30 seconds and then another cutscene.

Welcome to the Final Fantasy series

 

[Azaroth]

For reference, my Final Fantasy history is limited. I think I only ever played through IV on the SNES. I also played XIV, but never quite got to Heavensward.
I was somewhat curious about XVI because I knew how respected Yoshi P was and I enjoyed my time with XIV.

My experience with this demo was interesting. I was mostly interested in seeing what the combat was like, so the amount of initial cutscenes and the slow start rubbed me wrong. It also felt very...Japanese...and while I love the Soulsborne games, and Dragon's Dogma is one of my all time favorites, I don't play many Japanese games.

I started skipping the cutscenes. I got to the swampy area where you fight the goblins and I felt done with it, was not pulled in. I let my son play a bit of the combat, but I was sure this game wasn't for me. I deleted the demo.

The next day, I had some extra time to spend with my son, and he wanted to play some more. So I re-downloaded the demo and he picked up where we left off. We both played more, trading off battles, and after some boss fights, and seeing the combat start to become more interesting, I wasn't so sure about my initial impressions being correct
I started watching the cutscenes, and we finished the demo...and woah, this game goes places. I enjoyed the crazy bombast of the bigger fights, the combat seems really fun, and the story seems mature and interesting, and now my interest was piqued.

After finishing the prologue, we played the through the Eikonic Challenge and had a blast.

Now I'm very interested, and keeping up with this thread, and researching more about the game. I wouldn't say I'm 100% in yet, but man, the turnaround was pretty crazy. I'm very much looking forward to seeing the reviews, and I'm very curious to hear more about how the different pieces of the game fit together, since it seems there's a lot about this game we don't know yet.

I feel like I'll have a good gap between eventually burning out on Diablo IV, and Starfield releasing, so this may well end up slotting in there quite nicely, and I'm actually feeling really optimistic about this game now!

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Since it’s turning into a Soken thread, one of his best songs:



He worked on this while he was undergoing treatment for cancer in the hospital, alongside all the energy he was putting into XVI’s soundtrack. This was during covid too, so no one could really be there in person. He poured everything into his work. And it shows.

This isn't just amazing because yeah he later admitted he composed this one while on his hospital bed, it's also because it's an amalgamation of two of the best themes from Shadowbringers: the main theme itself and the theme of the lost city of Amaurot





Today's reminder Emet-Selch did nothing wrong

 

[Azaroth]

any tales of game, Wonderful 101, Streets of rage, ys

Great, thank you, I will take a closer look at those!

 

[TheKremlinBossMan]

Be careful online lots of new pictures leaked today some are very spoiler heavy but it does look like we get to

Spoiler

Explore a city.

 

[10v12]

Well if we're talking Soken's best works,

this has become my favorite boss fight music in ANY game



FFXVI seems to be in this style and I can't wait (the music in the demo was on fucking point)

 

[xellos2099alpha]

u need to listen some FF14 ost

Ah, the time where everyone say is a bad idea and Ryne did it anyway

 

[SecretAgentHam]

I just wrapped up the demo for the first time and...wow. The characters immediately left an impression on me and the brief story we were introduced to left me wanting more. I cannot wait to get my hands on this bad boy. Yoshi P is a fucking magician with the Final Fantasy IP.

 

[Lokaum D+]

Well if we're talking Soken's best works,

this has become my favorite boss fight music in ANY game



FFXVI seems to be in this style and I can't wait (the music in the demo was on fucking point)

Lets not forget soken meme songs

 

[Sub_Level]

FFXIV ost is goated

 

[009EspadaSageJay]

Ah ok nice

I’ve been avoiding trailers and spoilers and things so I’m not really clued in in those kind of mechanics.

Sounds like there is more to delve into there as well

your profile pic is S tier THE CHAMP

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

I liked the demo and cant wait for the game when the price drop comes but what is up with those cutscenes, thought I was plating MGS4 for a moment. You play 15 seconds then a 3 minute cutscene starts and like that 20 times in a row. I am a sucker for good story cutscenes but yeah, MGS4 was the first thing that popped in my head.

 

[yet_another_alt]

This thread is making me want to get a PS5. But no, I'm staying strong, PC is getting Armored Core, Starfield and Phantom Liberty and that's going to have to last until Square ports this in 3 years or so

 

[struggler_guts]

Lets not forget soken meme songs

WAIT that's the music director? Oh we are in good hands.

 

[mortal]

Keeping the Soken love going.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Gotta laugh at anyone saying the combat isn’t good or is shallow. Clearly they have no idea what they’re talking about. At all.

 

[Danjin44]

This thread is making me want to get a PS5. But no, I'm staying strong,

Sony:

Gotta laugh at anyone saying the combat isn’t good or is shallow. Clearly they have no idea what they’re talking about. At all.

Because some of the people in GAF act like overreactionety YouTuber, they assume shit without any reasoning and just go full on hyperbole.