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Final Fantasy XV Gameplay Analysis [GIF Heavy]

Kyon

Banned
the characters will not look like that when the game is ready to release. Don't know why ppl are worried about it
 

Kyon

Banned
Eh... I'll wait and see. FFXIII E3 2006 target render anyone?

RIP

Never forget

It's a different team tho so im not worried .... .__.

Well good news is more powerful hardware than last gen :D cant be that difficult right? O_O
 

Exentryk

Member
I'll take larger areas than higher poly characters. I can live with how they look currently. Just optimize the rest.
 

Voror

Member
I have a hard time calling it "development hell," because I think that implies that the game itself was troubled. For the most part, the issue was that the other teams at Square were having problems, so the XV (then VsXIII of course) team couldn't actually work on their game.

Square, Nomura specifically, definitely has a lot riding on this game, though. It would be really bad for the company to be seen as screwing up an entire generation and then starting the next one on the wrong foot. For Nomura, it would be embarrassing to finally get the keys to the company car, so to speak, and then drive it into a ditch (though some say it's already there).

It's hard to really gauge the game, since the next gen consoles are many, many times more powerful than the last consoles his projects have been on, and thus can allow for a much more ambitious design and scale. I'm really excited, personally, but I can understand peoples' hesitation if they aren't too keen on Kingdom Hearts.

Probably a poor choice of words as you are correct in that the bigger problem was that the team could never work on the game due to being pulled to help out with other projects.

Yeah, this has become Nomura's shot at a mainline title which is a bit of a big deal even if it didn't start out that way. If XV is a success then it not only helps in getting SE off to a good start this gen, it also could help their reputation to a degree. I'd also worry what the title's failure could do to any future FF games in terms of new things being tried out.

Even more so since we never really knew all that much about the game in the first place aside from the few morsels they would feed us here and there. We still don't know too much although this thread for example already provided a lot of information about the gameplay that we never had before. Same regarding the excitement and even if the game is great, it will have detractors. Every FF does it seems.
 
Haven't been keeping up with the news on this game but doesn't square want to port this game onto the luminous engine? What is it running on now? A vastly improved ps3 ffv13 engine? Or just pc at dx11. I remember square talking about that. I guess my question is: will the game ultimately be ported to the luminous engine?
 

UrbanRats

Member
the characters will not look like that when the game is ready to release. Don't know why ppl are worried about it

I don't know what they will look like at release (nobody does) i'm just pointing out how that is CGi (the one discussed before, not my image) with probably just different lighting.

--

Also on the weapons, i think the "car engine" design is cool, but they're a little too busy.
 
It's a shame that no recent RPG (at least 3D ones) going for world maps anymore. I LOVE world maps. That's the only reason I might buy Ni No Kuni, despite hating the setting and characters - it has a splendid world map! World maps are so great, I want a world map in my world map. ಠ_ರೃ.

Agreed, I freaking love world maps.
 
I don't really get why so many people are excited for this to be honest.

Graphically, the video definitely gives away that this was still a game developed on PS3 and them upgraded to PS4. Overall the whole thing just looks very similar to FFXIII, and I can't really make much of the gamepaly. Looks very cinematic.

Just saying. I haven't seen anything to make me confident about Square's console development ability here.

Can you point out where you see this? Because maybe in the fact that character detail could be higher. But in terms of scale, effects, world detail, animations, this looks far above any game on PS3. I just completed Ascension a month ago, and this a good amount above that visually I would say.
 
Yeah, this has become Nomura's shot at a mainline title
You know, since the E3 announcement I didn't think about this until I read your post and then it hit me. It really did. I've still perceived this game as the 'Versus Project' in my head but it really is Nomura, the Kingdom Hearts dude and character artist, directing a mainline Final Fantasy game. Wowsers!
 

Voror

Member
You know, since the E3 announcement I didn't think about this until I read your post and then it hit me. It really did. I've still perceived this game as the 'Versus Project' in my head but it really is Nomura, the Kingdom Hearts dude and character artist, directing a mainline Final Fantasy game. Wowsers!

Well, Versus on its own was his first time directing a FF game as up until it the only games he has served as director were the various KH games. It's one of the things that has me excited and worried about the game really.
 

Exentryk

Member
Was reading this old (2011) Siliconera article about gameplay in Versus. Automatic weapon switching depending on combos?

Speaking with Famitsu, Tetsuya Nomura shared a few more details about Final Fantasy Versus XIII. The game has swords, axes, spears, handguns, machine, guns, rifles, bazookas, shotguns, and so forth. Players can equip weapons, multiple weapons, by setting them on a menu screen. Weapons can automatically change depending on your combo.

Nomura also describes the three other characters traveling with Noctis. We already know about the blonde boy who excels with guns and can target enemy weak points. Another ally who throws knives is particularly good as a support character. A third ally with a scar on his face is well trained in hand to hand combat. His prefered weapons types are a pile bunker and great sword.

Final Fantasy Versus XIII is designed for players to switch between characters in the middle of a fight. As an example, you can smash an enemy with a hammer to destroy part of it and then turn to Noctis who can hit it with a quick slash. The combo count will be retained even if you switch between characters.

Nomura also says Final Fantasy Versus XIII will not have a job system. However, you will see classes like dragoons and summoners in the game. There is a "summon" command too, but Nomura wouldn’t explain how it works.

During battles, Noctis can revive fallen allies. However, if Noctis dies the game ends. Nomura says he plans on upping the difficulty of Versus XIII.
 

Famassu

Member
I don't really get why so many people are excited for this to be honest.
A lot of reasons, not just the trailers, but basically that they actually seem to have delivered on many promises of the past based on it, so we assume they'll deliver on ALL or most of the "promises" of what Nomura has said to expect XV to be like (huge world, chocobos, tons of secrets to be found, possibly even airships etc.). These trailers were obviously made to show us what we can expect in terms of action and it looked glorious.

Graphically, the video definitely gives away that this was still a game developed on PS3 and them upgraded to PS4.
Shocker, in its unfinished, "only-a-year-in-development-for-next-gen" state, it still has some rough spots. It will improve and even at this point even if you can see the PS3 roots in some ways (overall not, but if you go through the trailers frame-by-frame, maybe then) it doesn't look like a game that even a boosted up PS3 could ever handle.

Overall the whole thing just looks very similar to FFXIII
It looks absolutely NOTHING like FFXIII.

and I can't really make much of the gamepaly. Looks very cinematic.
It's like a slightly heavier Kingdom Hearts action RPG (though, not EXACTLY like it, Nomura has said he doesn't want XV to feel too similar to KH games), but with some Uncharted-like shit-happens-in-the-middle-of-gameplay kind of cinematic stuff mixed into it with small cinematic instances (i.e. the group attacks) and some bigger epic events (i.e. the fight against Leviathan).

Just saying. I haven't seen anything to make me confident about Square's console development ability here.
Really? A game looking as impressive as FFXV doesn't give any confidence that they know what they are doing? Even taking into account the rough spots, FFXV is easily one of the most impressive looking next-gen games so far. And it's definitely going to get better. SQEX had problems during this generation but they are clearly getting over them and back to the groove with their console development.




Eh... I'll wait and see. FFXIII E3 2006 target render anyone?
Not even remotely the same. That was when absolutely nothing real was done on anything yet and not even fully understanding what they could achieve with the platform they were aiming for, or even having figured out how the game would actually play. The XV stuff is after years of developing XV and probably a much better understanding of the platforms they are working on.
 

Voror

Member
Was reading this old (2011) Siliconera article about gameplay in Versus. Automatic weapon switching depending on combos?

Hmm, I'm not sure if that could be troublesome or not, though the gameplay video did show us you could cancel out of using a weapon in exchange for another. Perhaps you can set up how they will show up if you are just hitting attack over and over with the option to change it on the fly if you wish?

And game over if Noctis dies? I get it, but it's still an annoying mechanic.
 

raven777

Member
did they say the in-game looking part of Venice part was not actually in-game?
the quality of Venice part and Lucis part is quite different (character model)
 

RedSwirl

Junior Member
Can you point out where you see this? Because maybe in the fact that character detail could be higher. But in terms of scale, effects, world detail, animations, this looks far above any game on PS3. I just completed Ascension a month ago, and this a good amount above that visually I would say.

Pretty much the whole thing except for the cinematic parts that looked like they were on-rails. All the stuff shown with the characters on the ground fighting "normal" battles looked more like an upgraded PS3 game than a game that started development on PS4 and Xbox One.

As people have pointed out, the character models still look very much like FFXIII's in-game (or real time cut scene) models. In terms of scale and world detail to me it looked mostly like FFXIII but with a lot more characters on screen. Compared to other next gen games shown, the environments also looked pretty empty if you ask me. It looks like they've taken what was a PS3 game and upped some of the effects.

ALL we've seen however is combat. We haven't seen what exploration looks like and we haven't seen in-engine cut scenes at all.

Overall I thought the Kingdom Hearts III footage looked much more impressive and like what I would expect from a next-gen Square Enix game. It was almost certainly not in-game, but probably was running on Luminous. If FFXV had truly been rebuilt entirely on PS4 and Xbox One I would expect it to look quite a bit closer to the Agni's Philosphy tech demo's we've been seeing for the past year.

Shocker, in its unfinished, "only-a-year-in-development-for-next-gen" state, it still has some rough spots. It will improve and even at this point even if you can see the PS3 roots in some ways (overall not, but if you go through the trailers frame-by-frame, maybe then) it doesn't look like a game that even a boosted up PS3 could ever handle.

But do we really know they scrapped all the assets and rebuilt them completely when they switched over to PS4? All we know is that the current-gen version was cancelled sometime last year. What this says to me is that at some point the game was cross-gen, as in a PS3 game with a PS4 version, and then they just dropped the PS3 version last year.

I still think that this game is, for the most part, the game they've been developing since 2006.
 
Pretty much the whole thing except for the cinematic parts that looked like they were on-rails. All the stuff shown with the characters on the ground fighting "normal" battles looked more like an upgraded PS3 game than a game that started development on PS4 and Xbox One.

As people have pointed out, the character models still look very much like FFXIII's in-game (or real time cut scene) models. In terms of scale and world detail to me it looked mostly like FFXIII but with a lot more characters on screen. Compared to other next gen games shown, the environments also looked pretty empty if you ask me. It looks like they've taken what was a PS3 game and upped some of the effects.

ALL we've seen however is combat. We haven't seen what exploration looks like and we haven't seen in-engine cut scenes at all.

Overall I thought the Kingdom Hearts III footage looked much more impressive and like what I would expect from a next-gen Square Enix game. It was almost certainly not in-game, but probably was running on Luminous. If FFXV had truly been rebuilt entirely on PS4 and Xbox One I would expect it to look quite a bit closer to the Agni's Philosphy tech demo's we've been seeing for the past year.



But do we really know they scrapped all the assets and rebuilt them completely when they switched over to PS4? All we know is that the current-gen version was cancelled sometime last year. What this says to me is that at some point the game was cross-gen, as in a PS3 game with a PS4 version, and then they just dropped the PS3 version last year.

I still think that this game is, for the most part, the game they've been developing since 2006.

I largely disagree. While Sora in KHIII trailer looked good, the environment looked barely above PS3 graphics to me, while the environments in the FFXV demo looked as good as anything shown at E3 to me. Character detail looks good, faces are the only thing that seemed to lack a bit of detail at this stage, although I still think it looks good. It looks far, far more impressive than FFXIII. It is not even a comparison for me.

I mean:

Behemoth in FFXIII vs FXIII

ffxiii35.jpg

Ingame characters:



I agree that the faces in gameplay should be improved, but otherwise I think the visuals are absolutely stellar.
 

RedSwirl

Junior Member
I largely disagree. While Sora in KHIII trailer looked good, the environment looked barely above PS3 graphics to me, while the environments in the FFXV demo looked as good as anything shown at E3 to me. Character detail looks good, faces are the only thing that seemed to lack a bit of detail at this stage, although I still think it looks good. It looks far, far more impressive than FFXIII. It is not even a comparison for me.

The environment in the KHIII trailer is what made me think it was a target render.

All the other screenshots to me honestly don't look extremely different -- not a whole console generation of difference anyway. Something about the FFXV environments to me looked just as flat as what I'd seen throughout FFXIII, just with many more battle participants running around. And I definitely don't think FFXV looks near as good as The Witcher 3 (which itself promises to have a big-ass world), Watch_Dogs, or The Division.

It could also be however because the video quality of the FFXV trailers so far is pretty terrible.
 

Servbot24

Banned
This definitely looks like a game that was originally meant for PS3. I don't care though, if it can get the franchise back on track.
 

HeelPower

Member
guys guys...these graphics aren't shitty.My brain is melting , guys...

I really hope they don't waste too much time on graphics...The game looks stunning just as it is.
 

Exentryk

Member
Hmm, I'm not sure if that could be troublesome or not, though the gameplay video did show us you could cancel out of using a weapon in exchange for another. Perhaps you can set up how they will show up if you are just hitting attack over and over with the option to change it on the fly if you wish?

Yeah, it'll be an add-on, like being able to choose your combos with automatic weapon switching. But that won't diminish your free control. You can keep attacking with the same weapon if you like, like we saw during the vertical battles. Or skip multiple weapons at a time as needed.
 

raven777

Member
venice
\

Lucis(thats the name of the kingdom, right?)


I don't know, the character's hair and overall quality seems a lot better in Venice part than Lucis part. Maybe its just different quality of video encording, but I think overall character model is different.

Hopefully the final product will be as good, or better than Venice part.
 

Zukuu

Banned
That's a very troubling thing if true. We all know how popular that was in XIII, don't we?

In XIII you were part of a group. Here it looks like you're an individual that is accompanied.

Think of it like Kingdom Heart.
 

Toth

Member
In XIII you were part of a group. Here it looks like you're an individual that is accompanied.

Think of it like Kingdom Heart.

Yes but you can switch characters according to the article. What if you switch to a character trying to heal Noctis or he gets all of the enemy's attention? Worse still, what if the AI moves him to a spot where he will take massive damage from an enemy attack? Could lead to some cheap deaths and game overs.
 

Rojo

Member
That's a very troubling thing if true. We all know how popular that was in XIII, don't we?

Assuming that they haven't changed the story Noctis has the power of the last crystal thats how he has magic and special abilities. The interesting thing is that this also transfers to his friends as well so they get a boost in there abilities as well which is why they can take hard hits in game anyways. So if Noctis dies then his power goes with him making his friends normal again so they would get killed soon after. I think that is the reason behind it i could be wrong.
 
1371011791-command-menu-magic-item-link-form.gif


I don't care what anyone says, this looks amazing.

Edit: Well, except for the spazzy position change of the monster right before the explosion hits.
 

RedSwirl

Junior Member
Watched the higher quality videos. There's definitely a big difference between what look like on-rails cinematic sections, and the open battle segments in terms of graphics.
 

Exentryk

Member
I don't know, the character's hair and overall quality seems a lot better in Venice part than Lucis part. Maybe its just different quality of video encording, but I think overall character model is different.

Hopefully the final product will be as good, or better than Venice part.

Hmm... the fingers are usually a good giveaway for low poly models. Maybe compare them? I'll have a look later today.


Might wanna put these in the OP man.

Done.
 

Exentryk

Member
I am pretty happy with how the character models look right now to be honest, even in Lucis. But I guess people expect even more from a next gen game?
 

Soriku

Junior Member
The world looks great but the character models looks PS3 quality (and I don't even know if I'd say these are some of the best PS3 models either) and lacking. They have time to improve them though.
 

shadowkat

Unconfirmed Member
The graphics look pretty good to me. And it seems like they will continue to improve until the game is released. I can deal with lower graphics if the gameplay is there.
 
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