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[Lifejumper]

IGN

After two hours into Final Fantasy XV’s campaign, I can’t help but trace the lineage of Square Enix’s new blockbuster RPG in the back of my mind. But the first two chapters never feel like a derivative work, with the core story and presentation leaning on the type of strong characterization and blockbuster graphics that have come to define Final Fantasy. You could almost picture director Hajime Tabata and his team spending the last few years playing other games and saying, “Hey, wouldn’t this be a great idea to put in Final Fantasy?” And, somehow, the unique sauce blends multiple flavors into a cohesive and ambitious vision of a modern RPG.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/06...the-biggest-name-in-rpgs-is-making-a-comeback

Destructoid

All told, the preview session convinced me I'll want to dig into the final version which, as a non-fan, is a big deal. They finally did it. But there are two things I'm anxious about: whether or not consoles will be able to handle running Final Fantasy XV reasonably well, and what the open-world design will feel like after, say, 25 hours (will it become a slog?). We probably won't know until September.

https://www.destructoid.com/final-fantasy-xv-has-won-me-over-367553.phtml

Will update when more previews are posted.

 

[LowParry]

Would love to see some video of this in action on the PS4.

 

[wmlk]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/...riving-and-battling-through-final-fantasy-xv/

More here.

This was also a good scene for me to try out the game's magic-synthesis system, which allows players to take magical energies gathered in the game and split them up into mixes of different elements to create new twists on standard spells. More electricity in a standard fireball would allow it to chain the attack to hit other nearby enemies, for example, while other boosts added team healing and slow-down effects to attacks. I didn't get a good tutorial or explainer for this magic-synthesis system, but I am hopeful that its final version enables a lot of player-preference customization for gamers to make the game feel the way they want.

^ That sounds like fun. Never expected to chain elements together.

The concern here is that it was a bit glitchy when they played it. That's something that they'll work on as it nears release, obviously.

 

[Wagram]

Maybe Tabata is purposefully trying to make fan expectations insanely low at every showing so he can blow people away when it releases.

These impressions are a stark contrast to the immense negativity that even I share towards both showings at E3.

 

[Ray Down]

chaining magic sounds cool.

 

[The Last One]

Wait... they played 2 hours of the game at E3? Square isn't going to show any of it to us?

 

[MagnaderAlpha]

How long until someone comes in and posts, "Square must've payed them off, cause the game looks like it SUCKS and yadda yadda, that Leak dude from 4chan is information GOD!!!".

 

[Seven Force]

I'm really not all that excited for the game anymore, but those impressions sound nice.

I'd probably bet on the game being sort of a wreck optimization wise though, if those previews are anything to go by.

 

[Ray Down]

Wait... they played 2 hours of the game at E3? Square isn't going to show any of it to us?

I think they got previews at appointments or something.

 

[MultiJhonny]

I think they got previews at appointments or something.

Yeah. I bet that was it.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

That magic chaining thing sounds great.

 

[TheChocoboCadet]

Is it normal for a game to still be using Japanese audio 3.5 months before launch?

 

[The Last One]

I think they got previews at appointments or something.

I see. At least Square will livestream new gameplay from the titan segment tomorrow.

 

[benzy]

Impressions brings a glimpse of hope.

 

[george_us]

Cool impressions but I remain skeptical. Every time I've actually gotten my hands on FFXV I haven't liked it all that much.

 

[Dark_castle]

Magic synthesis sounds neat, but making them consumable like is ehhh.

 

[Blackleg-sanji1]

Wait so I can put lightning and fire in like one magic orb?

 

[shandy706]

The E3 demos were horrid.

I enjoyed what I've played of it enough to try it though.

I'm not a fan of the gameplay as a FF/JRPG, but I like the world/setting enough I suppose.

 

[Vincent Grayson]

For fuck's sake Square, show *us* the things that previewers are writing positively about.

 

[MMarston]

Is it normal for a game to still be using Japanese audio 3.5 months before launch?

Huh? We've been having loads of English footage for a while now.

 

[SPAW]

Maybe Tabata is purposefully trying to make fan expectations insanely low at every showing so he can blow people away when it releases.

These impressions are a stark contrast to the immense negativity that even I share towards both showings at E3.

Even you?

Anyways, it is telling that the PR department needs to be put down when they fail so utterly in providing good material for the major press conferences...

 

[yanipheonu]

Is the game still "hold a button to attack"?

 

[TheChocoboCadet]

Huh? We've been having loads of English footage for a while now.

They said in the preview that the demo they played was in Japanese with English subtitles. I'm not sure if that's normal or cause for concern.

 

[Aters]

Wait, I thought only 2 hour is playable? Maybe they showed them everything they have?

Spoiler

/s

 

[GavinUK86]

Reactions from people who have only seen trailers are bad.

People who have played it behind closed doors say it's pretty great.

Definitely interesting.

 

[Blackleg-sanji1]

Is the game still "hold a button to attack"?

You can try won't get far

 

[MilkBeard]

Maybe Tabata is purposefully trying to make fan expectations insanely low at every showing so he can blow people away when it releases.

These impressions are a stark contrast to the immense negativity that even I share towards both showings at E3.

Yeah it's weird. Their impressions seem positive (for the most part) for the core game, which is good.

SE's marketing has been all over the place.

 

[VexMythoclast]

Shoutouts to everyone who has managed to stay positive amidst this week's series of events. I really enjoyed Duscae and the PT Demo so the terribly planned E3 live demonstration hasn't halted my excitement for this game at all.

 

[shintoki]

Impressions brings a glimpse of hope.

Really? First one reads like they just jammed whatever popular fad hit gaming over the past 10 years into it.

 

[Gurnlei]

Shoutouts to everyone who has managed to stay positive amidst this week's series of events. I really enjoyed Duscae and the PT Demo so the terribly planned E3 live demonstration hasn't halted my excitement for this game at all.

I've made it through E3 more hesitant but still looking forward to the game. It's a stupid thought but it seems like SE is going out of their way to make the game look bad.

 

[Meowster]

Reactions from people who have only seen trailers are bad.

People who have played it behind closed doors say it's pretty great.

Definitely interesting.

Square needs to get the people who made trailers like this for XV. The trailers (at least the ones they released for E3 this year) haven't been doing them any favors.

 

[Jeffrey]

You can try won't get far

i beat the free demo just doing that, although to be fair you don't have hp bar for most of it.

 

[HStallion]

Is it normal for a game to still be using Japanese audio 3.5 months before launch?

Its a Japanese game, probably not worth the trouble for a glorified demo.

 

[benzy]

Really? First one reads like they just jammed whatever popular fad hit gaming over the past 10 years into it.

It reads more like them trying to modernize FF and it's actually working.

 

[ctothej]

Magic requiring consumable items? No thank you. That's the kind of shit that makes neurotic players like me never use magic.

 

[Pejo]

Magic synthesis sounds neat, but making them consumable like is ehhh.

It's not only the consumable thing that bugs me, but the targeting was what ruined it for me on the Platinum demo. It's like a really poorly implemented grenade mechanic. I really hated it.

 

[Blackleg-sanji1]

i beat the free demo just doing that, although to be fair you don't have hp bar for most of it.

I couldn't do it in duscae or the last part of the platinum demo.

 

[vainglorious]

I don't get the western game enthusiast press. They shit all over FF13 for being a corridor simulator and here we have Destructoid concerned about FF15's open world game design because they don't want the game to feel like a slog after 25 hours of play time?

What the fuck was Skyrim like after 25 hours of play time?

Jesus fuck.

 

[Ray Down]

Wonder if NC got a preview.

 

[NHarmonic.]

Have there ever been bad hands on previews? honest question.

Magic synthesis sounds fun.

 

[Aters]

Really? First one reads like they just jammed whatever popular fad hit gaming over the past 10 years into it.

FFXIII struck me as SE was out of touch with the industry, so it's not a bad idea for them to sit back and see how far the genre has gone since 2006.

Magic requiring consumable items? No thank you. That's the kind of shit that makes neurotic players like me never use magic.

I was just like you until I played FFI.

 

[Possumowner]

After that awful E3 demo my expectations are low.But obviously hearing other opinions helps,and I like the sound of chained magic so there's positives to counter that demo

 

[DPtheGod]

Wait... they played 2 hours of the game at E3? Square isn't going to show any of it to us?

They played the

Spoiler

ONLY 2 hours the leaker said are playable.

/joke

These previews build even more hype for me. Chaining elements? Freaking BADASS! IGN with great things to say about the story? Hell yeah!

 

[Blackleg-sanji1]

Have there ever been bad hands on previews? honest question.

Magic synthesis sounds fun.

The order 1886 lol.

 

[SPAW]

Have there ever been bad hands on previews? honest question.

Magic synthesis sounds fun.

yes, and additionally you can infer the negative aspects by significant omissions in the previews.

anyways, the previews above note several aspects that might be potential troublesome.

 

[Cindi Mayweather]

I don't get the western game enthusiast press. They shit all over FF13 for being a corridor simulator and here we have Destructoid concerned about FF15's open world game design because they don't want the game to feel like a slog after 25 hours of play time?

What the fuck was Skyrim like after 25 hours of play time?

Jesus fuck.

Skyrim came out like 5 years ago.

Open worlds are tired now. FFXV was literally nearly 5 years late.

 

[Dangansona]

Yup, even Jeff from Giant Bomb said the game looked good from the behind closed door demo he played during the Microsoft press conference.

 

[Kaizer]

FFXV Gameplay Footage from GameSpot's Twitch Stream

Copying this from the other FFXV thread so more people will see, liking what I've seen!

 

[DarkLordMalik]

Impressions sound positive so far. Shame to see that they weren't able to recapture these moments at E3.

The press played just two hours of the demo and the fake leak earlier also talked about just two hours being playable. I guess we found out the source of leak now

 

[Ray Down]

Copying this from the other FFXV thread so more people will see, liking what I've seen!

Was about to post this.