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[Perfo]

Because the trailer is no doubt running on a high end PC instead of a PS4.

They're still doing this shit of using PC for trailers? I thought they stopped doing so and showing only Ps4 footage from some time. I guess I was wrong. Right now I can't imagine how horrible this game will look once releases if the DEMO is any indication of it. Plus the framerate... -.-'

 

[Majukun]

no pc demo?

 

[GhostTrick]

They're still doing this shit of using PC for trailers? I thought they stopped doing so and showing only Ps4 footage from some time. I guess I was wrong. Right now I can't imagine how horrible this game will look once releases if the DEMO is any indication of it. Plus the framerate... -.-'

That's what all devs always do. Using a version with better IQ for trailers.

 

[BocoDragon]

They're still doing this shit of using PC for trailers?

Sure. I mean the game is being developed and is even targeted towards high end PCs, then it's down ported to PS4 in the end.

I don't expect footage is from a particular platform until they explicitly label it so...

 

[DigtialT]

no pc demo?

We don't even know when the full game is being released on the PC, let along the Demo.

 

[BocoDragon]

That's what all devs always do. Using a version with better IQ for trailers.

It's so tempting since that's what they're designing on. Everything looking nice and shiny... it would feel a shame to show a version with a lowered framerate unless you were specifically representing a particular platform.

 

[GhostTrick]

It's so tempting since that's what they're designing on. Everything looking nice and shiny... it would feel a shame to show a version with a lowered framerate unless you were specifically representing a particular platform.

As long as you don't brand a platform in the trailer, how is that a lie ?

 

[DarkLordMalik]

I have figured out the bad press screenshots from Square Enix. Seems like they are from the Xbox One version of the game. Maybe they always release those screenshots because of the UWP platform? The demo was also being played on a devkit and looked pretty much the same as Xbox One during the event, with its frame drops. I wonder why they are wasting their potential showing the Xbox One screens and footage =/

There is an important thing to mention here, aside from the frame rate, the Xbox One version hold up pretty decent in motion and I say that as someone who has played both versions of the game. The dynamic resolution makes it kind of tricky and the jaggies are more frequent, but the rest of the visuals are a close match with the PS4 version of the game but with a better frame pacing and a stricter frame drops.

That said, the screenshots are absolutely horrendous and since I wanted to test the screenshot feature, I was shocked to see the final result. When I took these screens, I can assure you that the visuals weren't as bad as seen in the screenshot. These screenshots are pretty much the PR screenshots that SE released a while back including the infamous Chocobo Ride one. FFXV is simply horrendous on Xbox One for screenshots that involve motion or some action.

Behold the ugly mess below and do keep in mind that the game never looks as ugly as seen in the screenshots. FFXV is definitely not photogenic on Xbox One unless we stand still and take screens

Static scenes meanwhile look much better as expected.

 

[GhostTrick]

I have figured out the bad press screenshots from Square Enix. Seems like they are from the Xbox One version of the game. Maybe they always release those screenshots because of the UWP platform? The demo was also being played on a devkit and looked pretty much the same as Xbox One during the event, with its frame drops. I wonder why they are wasting their potential showing the Xbox One screens and footage =/

There is an important thing to mention here, aside from the frame rate, the Xbox One version hold up pretty decent in motion and I say that as someone who has played both versions of the game. The dynamic resolution makes it kind of tricky and the jaggies are more frequent, but the rest of the visuals are a close match with the PS4 version of the game but with a better frame pacing and a stricter frame drops.

That said, the screenshots are absolutely horrendous and since I wanted to test the screenshot feature, I was shocked to see the final result. When I took these screens, I can assure you that the visuals weren't as bad as seen in the screenshot. These screenshots are pretty much the PR screenshots that SE released a while back including the infamous Chocobo Ride one. FFXV is simply horrendous on Xbox One for screenshots that involve motion or some action.

Behold the ugly mess below and do keep in mind that the game never looks as ugly as seen in the screenshots. FFXV is definitely not photogenic on Xbox One unless we stand still and take screens


Static scenes meanwhile look much better as expected.

Funnily, SE PR screenshots or gameplay seems to be without any platform brand:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPLUUt4ka8I

As you can see, they never use console prompts but instead, they're using button prompts showing the place of the button on the controller.

 

[Afrocious]

ok new impressions after running through the demo a second time

got the shruiken

actually used that armstige or whatever it's called

goddamn that was a game changer

i liked how the shruiken used MP and how fast it was to use. you basically want to use it to get good attacks in and swap to a slower weapon. made gliding around and attacking fun as hell.

okay i have a better opinion about this demo.

 

[DarkLordMalik]

Is there a reason why FFXV in the latest trailer looks absolutely amazing in regards to graphics while the Platinum Demo showcases something, imho, worse than FFXIII - that is a game from 2009? The game is so "dirty" visually, textures in the giant toyful room something from N64, Venice so blocky, foggy and empty... it's sincerely horrible all around.

I think that has more to do with the LOD and Textures that they have implemented in the demo then a simple downgrade.

You can see the same boats that are present in the environment trailer but they barely have any textures or detail. Heck even in the room with books, you can spot low quality textures everywhere.

Now don't ask me why SE even decided to show the game in this state because judging from their PR screenshots, they have no clue at all.

Funnily, SE PR screenshots or gameplay seems to be without any platform brand:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPLUUt4ka8I

As you can see, they never use console prompts but instead, they're using button prompts showing the place of the button on the controller.

That might be the case, sure. But when I was playing the demo on Xbox One, I was thinking that it looks okay and was taking screenshots. Once I viewed them though, my opinion completely changed. They looked horrendous, thanks to the dynamic resolution which made the motion blur unbearable and there were artifacts everywhere

You can also see a comparison between the October Walthrough video (PC build) and Episode Duscae on PS4 running at 900p. This comparison was also done between the Version 1.0 for Duscae and not 2.0, which had better foliage rendering.

Episode Duscae looks so much better and it was also stable 30 fps without any frame pacing issues. I am 90% certain this is another rush job demo so that they could release it after Uncovered event, and they paid even less attention to it then Duscae. Developers know very well how hard it is to release a demo before the launch of the game and SE released two freaking demos instead of finishing the actual game =/

Finally here is Episode Duscae 2.0 with the improved foliage rendering compared to 1.0.

 

[Macrotus]

That past tense man.

It still hasn't really sunk in yet. :|

Yeah...
He was very talented. I just listened to his American Tail soundtrack again yesterday.
He's really a genius.

 

[Yautja_Warrior]

Played it last night. Gameplay feels a lot like Kingdom Hearts, not sure how I feel about that at the moment, will just need to get used to it in a FF game. I prefer turn based RPG's personally but that seems to be a thing of the past now.

Graphics are really nice and the characters and animation look great, but the character movement feels a little unresponsive sometimes, like a bit of input lag or something, also noticed the framerate dip from time to time, hopefully that will be sorted for the final game.

Hopefully the story and characters will be done right, to pull me into this new FF but I'm not totally convinced by this gameplay demo at the moment and the game has been in development forever now, so that's not always a good sign.

 

[Rush_Khan]

ok new impressions after running through the demo a second time

got the shruiken

actually used that armstige or whatever it's called

goddamn that was a game changer

i liked how the shruiken used MP and how fast it was to use. you basically want to use it to get good attacks in and swap to a slower weapon. made gliding around and attacking fun as hell.

okay i have a better opinion about this demo.

I agree. The shuriken is a game changer and once you get used to aerial dodging it feels so much better to play. I also enjoy warp striking from large distances, it feels so satisfying.

It's a shame that they explain almost none of this to the player.

With regards to graphics... I mean, it is pretty low standard but the world is going to be absolutely massive from what we've seen so you can't expect everything to look perfect, especially for a demo.

 

[GhostTrick]

So the PC version that they are using for the video is also ugly as fuck?


I think that has more to do with the LOD and Textures that they have implemented in the demo then a simple downgrade.

You can see the same boats that are present in the environment trailer but they barely have any textures or detail. Heck even in the room with books, you can spot low quality textures everywhere.

Now don't ask me why SE even decided to show the game in this state because judging from their PR screenshots, they have no clue at all.

Either PC version or just the say they playtest their game

 

[Roufianos]

Not really feeling the battle system. I thought it was going to play like kh but this holding down circle auto battle stuff is hella boring.

Fuck sake, it's one of those games is it? I absolutely despise that kind of combat in Dragon Age.

I was actually looking forward to this because I thought it would play like an action RPG but that's all my interest gone.

They should have just stuck to turn based combat instead of a half assed attempt at real time. Sounds like they've pissed off the fanbase in an attempt to broaden the audience but I can't ever see Dragon Age styled combat being mainstream.

 

[DarkLordMalik]

Either PC version or just the say they playtest their game

They showed the Platinum Demo with a custom PC controller with frame rate drops and horrendous IQ in front of the thousands of fans streaming worldwide and on a big stage for an event that they spent millions on for marketing.

I guess I don't need to say any further for their incompetency.

 

[Falk]

The entire stream had some severe framerate issues.

I mean, that's half the reason people are asking if there's been an upload of the Environment trailer by Square Enix.

 

[GhostTrick]

They showed the Platinum Demo with a custom PC controller with frame rate drops and horrendous IQ in front of the thousands of fans streaming worldwide and on a big stage for an event that they spent millions on for marketing.

I guess I don't need to say any further for their incompetency.

Could also come to their PC build.

 

[le.phat]

Well, That was supremely dissapointing :/

 

[Squire]

They really should've been more upfront with the combat options in this. Not to take anything away from the thrill of experimentation and discovery, but the weapons and spells should've just been given to you outright.

Like, a bunch of genuinely cool shit that's only happening in obscure YT clips isn't going to sell 10m copies, SE.

 

[HeelPower]

I think that has more to do with the LOD and Textures that they have implemented in the demo then a simple downgrade.

You can see the same boats that are present in the environment trailer but they barely have any textures or detail. Heck even in the room with books, you can spot low quality textures everywhere.

Is there a reason why FFXV in the latest trailer looks absolutely amazing in regards to graphics while the Platinum Demo showcases something, imho, worse than FFXIII - that is a game from 2009? The game is so "dirty" visually, textures in the giant toyful room something from N64, Venice so blocky, foggy and empty... it's sincerely horrible all around.

The textures on objects in the toy room only attest to their amazing quality.You're zoomed in probably x100 from how you'll see them normally in the game.

Its probably crazy how much work they put into the assets of the game.You can be zoomed in that much and it would still look good.

These are the very same objects you'll see distantly in the game and people won't pay much attention to them.

 

[wmlk]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRmQvnwzI-E

Posting this because it's so good.

A L T I S S I A B O Y S.

Spoiler

What a (Gratia Mundi) we live in.

 

[StoppedInTracks]

Finished all mainline FF games (13 trilogy included) and never played FF15: Duscae before.

Today I downloaded and finished this demo with my kid (I was playing all the time).

Ummm................ the combat is really garbage BASED ON THE DEMO alone. It is nowhere near FF13's combat.

Graphics (Xbone) suck - low res textures, jaggies everywhere. I would say framerate was worse than FF13-2's framerate on PS3.

Yuck this demo... hopefully the reviews put it in the 8/10 range otherwise I will have to wait for Falk's review of it.

 

[doemaaan]

Sure. I mean the game is being developed and is even targeted towards high end PCs, then it's down ported to PS4 in the end.

I don't expect footage is from a particular platform until they explicitly label it so...

You say that so casually... I have a real problem with this. I understand when they first show off a game it looks WAAAY better than the final outcome (The Division). That's because they're usually target renders amirite? Now we have something like FFXV which releases in 6 months time and the trailers are still being recorded from a high-end PC?? WHAT does the game look like running on the actual console? How old is the Platinum Demo? Can SE make the game look anywhere near as smooth and stable as in the trailers by time of release???

I've got a really bad feeling deep down in my gut saying they can't and that what we received in that demo is going to be very similar to the final product.

 

[DarkLordMalik]

The textures on objects in the toy room only attest to their amazing quality.You're zoomed in probably x100 from how you'll see them normally in the game.

Its probably crazy how much work they put into the assets of the game.You can be zoomed in that much and it would still look good.

These are the very same objects you'll see distantly in the game and people won't pay much attention to them.

The wall painting are hardly what you call zoomed in. They are huge w.r.t Noctis and yet the textures are total crap. Even the floor texture is weird because it looks good at some place and crap at others.

Aside from that, if you look down to the boats in the city section, you will easily notice the LOD which makes everything distant a blurry mess. It is like seeing the Titan in the Duscae demo up and close.

 

[BocoDragon]

You say that so casually... I have a real problem with this. I understand when they first show off a game it looks WAAAY better than the final outcome (The Division). That's because they're usually target renders amirite? Now we have something like FFXV which releases in 6 months time and the trailers are still being recorded from a high-end PC?? WHAT does the game look like running on the actual console? How old is the Platinum Demo? Can SE make the game look anywhere near as smooth and stable as in the trailers by time of release???

I've got a really bad feeling deep down in my gut saying they can't and that what we received in that demo is going to be very similar to the final product.

I'm worried too.

They can certainly optimize it some going forward. It will be better than the demo. But by how much?

What if they made a game engine so demanding and game design so beautiful that nothing current runs it well and it actually looks ugly?

To think it started as a PS3 project...

 

[Dark_castle]

Luminous engine is a mistake.

They shouldn't have wasted so much resources and time on creating their own engine and just use Unreal Engine 4.

At least let's hope FFXV would break even and moving forward they will use UE4 for XVI and so on.

 

[StoppedInTracks]

Square should NOT have put out this demo.

-Janky combat
-Bad camera during combat
-Low Framerate especially during warping
-Poor IQ as you'll see by lack of AF and AA

This x100.

Is the Duscae thing any better?

 

[Sjefen]

Demo was underwhelming and did nothing for me. Will buy FFXV, just hope they clean up the framerate and gfx(if it compares to the demo)

 

[BocoDragon]

Luminous engine is a mistake.

They shouldn't have wasted so much resources and time on creating their own engine and just use Unreal Engine 4.

At least let's hope FFXV would break even and moving forward they will use UE4 for XVI and so on.

I think that's a given, at this point.

Their actions with games like KH3 and FF7R reveal they think UE4 is a smarter choice, and custom engines are a vestige of the old Square Enix.

The whole reasoning for a custom engine seems to be prestige and pride.... which is worth almost nothing if you can't release games in a timely manner, and they run like dog shit.

This x100.

Is the Duscae thing any better?

It's much better.

-Big open world that makes for a fun demo.
-More variety in combat. Pretty much every battle is more dynamic and interesting than that final battle in this Platinum Demo.
-Seems to have much much better performance

Everyone's saying it, but it's a damn shame this Platinum Demo is so many gamers' first contact with the game, when Duscae was so much better. It's more of the demo that the public needs to feel good about this game, but it's locked as a bonus in a PSP port....

An ideal demo would have been Duscae-like in terms of combat, but showing a story sequence in the game... much like the FFVII or VIII demos of yore.

 

[Renekton]

Luminous engine is a mistake.

They shouldn't have wasted so much resources and time on creating their own engine and just use Unreal Engine 4.

At least let's hope FFXV would break even and moving forward they will use UE4 for XVI and so on.

Can UE4 achieve SE's vision?

UE4 for Street Fighter V has a very poor performance budget.

 

[BocoDragon]

Can UE4 achieve SE's vision?

Better than their own engine, no doubt.

UE4 seems great. Many studios are making colourful games that scale great between hardware specs.

I can't know specifics of how well they are optimized for this platform or that... but I think it goes without saying as an industry-wide tool of choice: pretty well?

As an aside, I'm planning to learn UE4 myself. I've been practicing on Unity, but a friend showed me his UE4 project and I'm in love with how smooth it looks. The idea that I can work on the same engine as with KH3 or FF7R for free is appealing.

 

[StoppedInTracks]

Low quality shadows, low quality textures, medium polycounts and terrible LOD.

The demo generally looks bad. Maybe the realtime lighting engine that switches the weather and time of the day etc. is just too much for the engine? I was really astonished with how low quality are the overall assets: polycounts, textures, shaders etc. They all look really bad, really not worth the terrible performance.

Or maybe it is the Xbone version. Hard to tell :/

I will say however that it looks quite nice during nighttime and rain. Daytime period is not kind to the demo!

 

[BocoDragon]

Or maybe it is the Xbone version. Hard to tell :/

Not likely. I'd have said as much about the PS4 version :/

 

[Neptune]

This demo was my first experience with the game aside from having watched trailers before, and I was far from impressed. I knew from the very beginning that their focus on action combat wouldn't work for me, because I despise everything about Kingdom Hearts, which seems to be the main inspiration here. I suppose that there's room for improvement in this regard once the game actually bothers teaching you how to do anything, but to me it's already feeling like huge step down from the XIII series.

Aside from that, controls and movements were not smooth, responsive or enjoyable, and there seemed to be heavy input lag going on. And the game itself is just not good-looking, and aside from the character models, XIV is honestly more visually appealing overall. All this combined with the poor performance means that I'm not going to be holding my breath for the final release. If it turns out to be good, I'll be happy to eat my words, but it's been a long time since anything Final Fantasy was an instant purchase – this first taste of XV doesn't do anything to change that, sadly.

 

[RyudBoy]

Horrible demo. Didn't like what I played. Held down O while eating and my guy just killed everything automatically lol. Got to the boss and the warp thing felt so clunky. Even moving around in general feels bad. Not a day 1 purchase for me, will definitely take a "wait and see" approach with this one.

Some positives - graphics are nice but at the same time looks rough. Main menu music is good. Carbuncle in kawaii.

 

[StoppedInTracks]

Yeah music is great.

 

[RiderKairuu]

How do you air dodge?

 

[flattie]

Just finished the demo. I guess I'll just take it as it is for now, but it hasn't done much for my hype levels.

The graphics are nice enough, but textures are poor throughout (not just the section where you're in the room). Frame rate is tolerable but I hope it improves a little more. The battle system has potential - I quite enjoyed it and look forward to seeing how it is developed in the main game.

The music was lovely. Really liked it. Also enjoyed the slightly whimsical nature of the demo and hope some of that makes it into the final game.

It's not the most impressive sampler ever, but I'm all-in on giving this game a proper go in September.

 

[KupoNut]

Maybe it's cause some televisions mess up the image quality/make it look stuttering? I had that with Episode Duscae and then switched to a separate display and it looks more crisp and seemed to perform better.

As for the demo, the part in Altissia looks beautiful and performs well and I don't see why people are complaining about that, in motion and with music it's already more moody than the entirety of Zestiria's towns and there aren't even NPCs. [sorry]


I'm curious though if this alternate battle mode for people who preferred battles at a slower pace was a mistranslation/misinterpretation, because there's no sign of anything like that so far.

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

The demo must of been rushed. Makes no sense for Duscae to look so much better.

 

[Perfo]

Any hope for that Venice/Altissia section to be fully a place-holder? I can't state how ugly is. Like a MOD for an old FPS. They can't publish that monstruosity in a 3xA Final Fantasygoddamn -.-'

 

[kadotsu]

I like the combat but I would prefer a different control setup for lock-on.

 

[Twookie]

Any hope for that Venice/Altissia section to be fully a place-holder? I can't state how ugly is. Like a MOD for an old FPS. They can't publish that monstruosity in a 3xA Final Fantasygoddamn -.-'

i'd imagine it's an older build, so maybe?

 

[Hentailover]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OD2lZgTucM


whelp

 

[Labadal]

Someone uploaded the demo music. Godlike.

 

[Gbraga]

I'm in love with the combat in this demo. They really nailed this. I already thought it was quite clever in Duscae, but now it's just awesome.

Really wish they'd make it a bit more responsive, but it's fine. I hope there will be plenty of optional and very challenging bosses, because as much as it feels like KH, I don't think we're getting a Final Mix version with a bunch of cool extra bosses

 

[Loudninja]

Remember to use the analog sticks to change how you attack

 

[Breakage]

So how close is this demo to the final version? I am truly surprised at the negative reactions to it.
Would it have been better if SE stuck with a similar battle system to the one found in XIII?