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[Cikay]

They say there are still many places and towns that have not yet been revealed.

Nice.

I hope it's true. This is my major concern with the game, I fear there will be like 3 big open fields like Duscae, 2 big cities and that's it.

 

[sappyday]

A wild screenshot appears.

https://thinkit.co.jp/article/10010

The only times Nomura will get acknowledgment.

 

[martino]

all those early developped games from third party only tell me they aimed for more powerfull at the time.

 

[Mifec]

according to DF, the E3 demo is significantly better and runs great

You also have to remember that's it's just a chunk of the game cut out and polished up for the convention.

 

[sappyday]

You also have to remember that's it's just a chunk of the game cut out and polished up for the convention.

True but if that's the case then they could've done the same with Duscae, but instead they let us experience it in a terrible state.

 

[SomTervo]

Except I'm talking about what of it I have played and seen others play. So no.

I just don't think many have sat down and really considered the games they have been playing the last 10 years. What changed, what didn't, what may still be satisfying but is still too basic and could go farther, what standing challenges have remained, what dreams haven't been properly realized, what different advancements have been isolated in narrow products and which have been successfully combined into one product, what arguments do different demographics of gamers have with each other and how can tastes be bridged? This game is the new paradigm, my man. Even if gamers don't recognize it, developers will. The ideas and systems it has developed are the future.

It's weird because I see most people losing their minds over Zelda Breath of the Wild, and I don't want to diminish the different sorts of achievements it is reaching, but I don't get how so many can see that for what it is and does for that style of game design and not see FFXV for what it is to its own style of design.

Cool. I'm going to indulge you here because it's great to see someone engaged in a game's design to this level - I'm one of the few others here who really do this, IMO.

Full disclosure: I've never finished a Final Fantasy. In fact, I've never finished a JRPG, except perhaps the original GameBoy Pokémon games. However, I have played Final Fantasy VII, VIII and X substantially and enjoyed them. I also played a lot of Persona 3 and need to finish it. And up until the Platinum Demo, I didn't particularly have any interest in Final Fantasy XV, indeed as I don't have much interest in any JRPG. However, I'd seen the gifs and screens and brief bits of gameplay which looked very nice indeed. So when the Platinum Demo dropped, I tried it.

And I thought it was excellent. Really good showcase of their engine, of the gameplay systems. It was genuinely compelling to play. The narrative ideas seem decent. My only reservation is that they should have given more tutorials for the final boss - I watched videos of people playing it and doing Devil May Cry style moves and I didn't even know that was possible. But regardless of that, the potential for the game - especially on the scale of the full experience - is huge.

However, I don't see how FF XV is the only game in the last 10 years to truly push videogaming's envelope. All I see is some great gameplay tropes expanded in scope and with very intelligent blending of game mechanics. On paper, exactly the same shit is being done here as was done in Batman: Arkham Knight, Xenoblade Chronicles X, The Witcher 3, MGS V and potentially No Man's Sky (among many others).

So to go deep into one example: The Witcher 3 has, in my opinion, already nailed what you mention here as ground-breaking about FF XV. Well crafted mechanics (RPG and combat and traversal) have been blended on a newly magnificent scale and with a great story. You can travel from a bustling, dense city out into the country side and then off onto the ocean and to various islands; every interior is rendered real-time with no loading screens (you can look through almost every window in the world and see objects/NPCs inside), on your journey you can seamlessly see tiny details, huge plains, and hand-crafted characters along the way (side quests or main quests), then as it progresses you reach special locations e.g. a castle where a giant Lord of the Rings-style battle occurs against large monsters (not JRPG-end-game large but big) with a large set of friendly NPCs on your side, too. It's all seamless, no loading screens, with high-end simulation, generally well designed gameplay, and phenomenal best-in-class writing. The RPG systems make you truly role play Geralt the monster hunter, e.g. preparing his potions and oils, meditating, thinking up strategies and magic/weapon combos, navigating high-fantasy politics and a world full of scummy and not-scummy individuals. There's a fantastic dialogue/conversation-tree and quest system, with outcomes that can vary in small quests and large quests and impact other plotlines. The world is some 80 square kilometers I think and every single inch of it (literally) is a perfectly realised hand-crafted world. If you fast travel the game loads incredibly quickly, too, like in seconds, but you can also walk, horse or boat your way across it.

There's a reason it garnered 250+ GotY awards. And in terms of developer tools it's also groundbreaking - it's optimised around creating meaningful story content, so one single member of staff can quickly create a bespoke character, create a script for them, place them, place bespoke camera angles, place bespoke objectives, etc, and they can iterate quickly on it to correct any issues. When you complete your 200th side quest and it gives you a unique, one-off camera angle of Geralt looking out over a field at night, or a woman looking at somebody in the background, you know the developers can achieve special things with their tools. Apparently they're pushing the boat with their next game (Cyberpunk 2077) to new levels, too, and I don't doubt their fantastic technology and development pathways will facilitate this.

I've already written a lot, so I won't go into other examples – but how is what FF XV is aiming to achieve any different from The Witcher 3's achievements above? Sure, you can increase scope, and you can polish more, and you can tweak mechanics more, but I don't see what envelope is being pushed on the grander 'videogaming in general' scale.

PS I'm super stoked for FF XV and what you're saying here is getting me extra stoked. Really look forward to playing it.

PPS I think what you're talking about - some concept of videogaming being pushed forward in an unprecedentedly substantial way - is basically impossible. I don't think any one game will or can cause this. Or rather - lots of games are going to push the envelope in little ways and we'll be looking at a widespread pushing of the envelope, rather than something like FF XV being one big driver of change. Zelda: Breath of the Wild looks damn great because of Nintendo's new focus on organic 'play' - i.e. not defining objectives, giving lots of ingredients, making emergent systems. They're trying to make a truly "sandbox" game, and trying to do it better and in a more fun way than anyone else. The gameworld is also staggeringly big, like almost as big as Just Cause 3, and I'm sure on NX it will be seamless with many traversal options like FF XV. It will just be a very different type of game.

 

[CentralScrutinizer]

True but if that's the case then they could've done the same with Duscae, but instead they let us experience it in a terrible state.

let alone platinum demo, which was even smaller and more directed...

 

[Styles]

I hope it's true. This is my major concern with the game, I fear there will be like 3 big open fields like Duscae, 2 big cities and that's it.

So you would like them to spoil every single area before the game's release?

 

[gconsole]

So you would like them to spoil every single area before the game's release?

I dont think anyone wants full game spoiling. It is just the reveal so far doesnt show much variety in terms of location. We only see road and duscae open world area and some other bits.

 

[CrimsonSquall]

SomTervo just wrote a 10 page paper on an analysis of current gen RPG's in relation to FFXV

Spoiler

and ofc I'm not reading all dat

 

[The Last One]

I dont think anyone wants full game spoiling. It is just the reveal so far doesnt show much variety in terms of location. We only see road and duscae open world area and some other bits.

What about the vídeo from Uncovered showing tons of locations?

 

[Mifec]

True but if that's the case then they could've done the same with Duscae, but instead they let us experience it in a terrible state.

There is a huge difference with the landmass and running systems in duscae and the length of the scripted titan sequence/fight.

 

[SomTervo]

SomTervo just wrote a 10 page paper on an analysis of FFXV

Spoiler

and ofc I'm not reading all dat

You didn't even read the first two paras!

It's the opposite of an analysis of FF XV! I say almost nothing about it!

 

[IvorB]

Based on what I saw in the demo, I have no idea why anyone would be trying to hype up the tech in this game.

 

[chozen]

Based on what I saw in the demo, I have no idea why anyone would be trying to hype up the tech in this game.

Blame consoles, SE can do way better. The tech is there,

https://gfycat.com/JitteryUnimportantElephantseal < Running on ps4

https://youtu.be/rpDdOIZy-4k?t=158

 

[『Inaba Resident』]

There is a huge difference with the landmass and running systems in duscae and the length of the scripted titan sequence/fight.

There is also a difference with the two demos considering one wasn't optimized at all.
Not saying, its guaranteed to run perfectly but still.

 

[vio]

Cool tech, but it needs NEO.

 

[wmlk]

Blame consoles, SE can do way better. The tech is there,

https://gfycat.com/JitteryUnimportantElephantseal < Running on ps4

https://youtu.be/rpDdOIZy-4k?t=158

The interiors man. That hallway in Altissia looked so good. I want to see more indoor locations.

 

[NoctisVsStar]

Based on what I saw in the demo, I have no idea why anyone would be trying to hype up the tech in this game.

You should be proud of your work and show it off.. I mean what do you want them to say that it sucks? I mean I understand the platinum demo was done by two people and it ran horrible.

 

[JBwB]

I hope it's true. This is my major concern with the game, I fear there will be like 3 big open fields like Duscae, 2 big cities and that's it.

.

 

[Panda Rin]

Sucks for SE this game is coming out before the Neo.

 

[benzy]

Based on what I saw in the demo, I have no idea why anyone would be trying to hype up the tech in this game.

That Platinum demo was shit, total waste of time on their part. Their tech is impressive though and the hype comes from stuff outside of a rushed demo.

 

[Ray Down]

Sucks for SE this game is coming out before the Neo.

Late September games will have a Neo patch.

 

[dragonzdogma]

Late September games will have a Neo patch.

last I heard was October (not late september)
iircc Tabata didn't even know what a scorpio or ps4 neo was and mentioned he had no plans on working on them.

 

[jennetics]

I'm...actually pretty excited about this game. I like the characters, and the story seems interesting enough. Can't wait to play it!

 

[RiZ III]

They didn't talk about the tech though...

 

[benzy]

last I heard was October (not late september)
iircc Tabata didn't even know what a scorpio or ps4 neo was and mentioned he had no plans on working on them.

Tabata knew about Neo, not Scorpio. He just didn't want to say anything regarding Neo and did most talking about Scorpio. There's probably some kind of NDA at the moment because Kaz Yamauchi who's making GT Sport said he doesn't know anything about Neo despite being a Sony first party dev who's releasing a game in November.

 

[artsi]

Tabata wouldn't say anything about Neo as Sony hasn't officially announced this stuff. Having the documents leak doesn't free him from his NDA.

 

[Dark_castle]

Oddly enough, bald Noctis looks like a more relatable, grounded and adult character compared to him in his ridiculously hair gel filled animu haircut.

 

[『Inaba Resident』]

Oddly enough, bald Noctis looks like a more relatable, grounded and adult character compared to him in his ridiculously hair gel filled animu haircut.

ok

 

[Inuhanyou]

Oddly enough, bald Noctis looks like a more relatable, grounded and adult character compared to him in his ridiculously hair gel filled animu haircut.

Uh.

 

[NoctisVsStar]

Oddly enough, bald Noctis looks like a more relatable, grounded and adult character compared to him in his ridiculously hair gel filled animu haircut.

Sure..

 

[Koozek]

Cool. I'm going to indulge you here because it's great to see someone engaged in a game's design to this level - I'm one of the few others here who really do this, IMO.

Full disclosure: I've never finished a Final Fantasy. In fact, I've never finished a JRPG, except perhaps the original GameBoy Pokémon games. However, I have played Final Fantasy VII, VIII and X substantially and enjoyed them. I also played a lot of Persona 3 and need to finish it. And up until the Platinum Demo, I didn't particularly have any interest in Final Fantasy XV, indeed as I don't have much interest in any JRPG. However, I'd seen the gifs and screens and brief bits of gameplay which looked very nice indeed. So when the Platinum Demo dropped, I tried it.

And I thought it was excellent. Really good showcase of their engine, of the gameplay systems. It was genuinely compelling to play. The narrative ideas seem decent. My only reservation is that they should have given more tutorials for the final boss - I watched videos of people playing it and doing Devil May Cry style moves and I didn't even know that was possible. But regardless of that, the potential for the game - especially on the scale of the full experience - is huge.

However, I don't see how FF XV is the only game in the last 10 years to truly push videogaming's envelope. All I see is some great gameplay tropes expanded in scope and with very intelligent blending of game mechanics. On paper, exactly the same shit is being done here as was done in Batman: Arkham Knight, Xenoblade Chronicles X, The Witcher 3, MGS V and potentially No Man's Sky (among many others).

So to go deep into one example: The Witcher 3 has, in my opinion, already nailed what you mention here as ground-breaking about FF XV. Well crafted mechanics (RPG and combat and traversal) have been blended on a newly magnificent scale and with a great story. You can travel from a bustling, dense city out into the country side and then off onto the ocean and to various islands; every interior is rendered real-time with no loading screens (you can look through almost every window in the world and see objects/NPCs inside), on your journey you can seamlessly see tiny details, huge plains, and hand-crafted characters along the way (side quests or main quests), then as it progresses you reach special locations e.g. a castle where a giant Lord of the Rings-style battle occurs against large monsters (not JRPG-end-game large but big) with a large set of friendly NPCs on your side, too. It's all seamless, no loading screens, with high-end simulation, generally well designed gameplay, and phenomenal best-in-class writing. The RPG systems make you truly role play Geralt the monster hunter, e.g. preparing his potions and oils, meditating, thinking up strategies and magic/weapon combos, navigating high-fantasy politics and a world full of scummy and not-scummy individuals. There's a fantastic dialogue/conversation-tree and quest system, with outcomes that can vary in small quests and large quests and impact other plotlines. The world is some 80 square kilometers I think and every single inch of it (literally) is a perfectly realised hand-crafted world. If you fast travel the game loads incredibly quickly, too, like in seconds, but you can also walk, horse or boat your way across it.

There's a reason it garnered 250+ GotY awards. And in terms of developer tools it's also groundbreaking - it's optimised around creating meaningful story content, so one single member of staff can quickly create a bespoke character, create a script for them, place them, place bespoke camera angles, place bespoke objectives, etc, and they can iterate quickly on it to correct any issues. When you complete your 200th side quest and it gives you a unique, one-off camera angle of Geralt looking out over a field at night, or a woman looking at somebody in the background, you know the developers can achieve special things with their tools. Apparently they're pushing the boat with their next game (Cyberpunk 2077) to new levels, too, and I don't doubt their fantastic technology and development pathways will facilitate this.

I've already written a lot, so I won't go into other examples – but how is what FF XV is aiming to achieve any different from The Witcher 3's achievements above? Sure, you can increase scope, and you can polish more, and you can tweak mechanics more, but I don't see what envelope is being pushed on the grander 'videogaming in general' scale.

PS I'm super stoked for FF XV and what you're saying here is getting me extra stoked. Really look forward to playing it.

PPS I think what you're talking about - some concept of videogaming being pushed forward in an unprecedentedly substantial way - is basically impossible. I don't think any one game will or can cause this. Or rather - lots of games are going to push the envelope in little ways and we'll be looking at a widespread pushing of the envelope, rather than something like FF XV being one big driver of change. Zelda: Breath of the Wild looks damn great because of Nintendo's new focus on organic 'play' - i.e. not defining objectives, giving lots of ingredients, making emergent systems. They're trying to make a truly "sandbox" game, and trying to do it better and in a more fun way than anyone else. The gameworld is also staggeringly big, like almost as big as Just Cause 3, and I'm sure on NX it will be seamless with many traversal options like FF XV. It will just be a very different type of game.

Great post.

I'm extremely hyped for FFXV, as everybody here knows, but having played and beat Witcher 3 for the first time a few months ago really was eye-opening. In some aspects I'm doubtful FFXV will reach TW3's level, like its quantity-quality ratio of writing and quest-design, but I can see it excel in others, like animation, combat, set-pieces, monster-design/variety and scale in general.

They both have two totally different approaches to open-world design, though, and shouldn't be compared. TW3 is smaller and denser, FFXV embraces negative space for the sake of the "road-trip" theme feeling authentic. If it had TW3's world size you'd be at the other end of the world in 5 minutes with your car and less with your airship, which is obviously not what you'd want in a game about a road-trip, lol.

 

[Tyaren]

I'm extremely hyped for FFXV, as everybody here knows, but having played and beat Witcher 3 for the first time a few months ago really was eye-opening. In some aspects I'm doubtful FFXV will reach TW3's level, like its quantity-quality ratio of writing and quest-design, but I can see it excel in others, like animation, combat, set-pieces, monster-design/variety and scale in general.

They both have two totally different approaches to open-world design, though, and shouldn't be compared. TW3 is smaller and denser, FFXV embraces negative space for the sake of the "road-trip" theme feeling authentic. If it had TW3's world size you'd be at the other end of the world in 5 minutes with your car and less with your airship, which is obviously not what you'd want in a game about a road-trip, lol.

Well, the good thing is, Tabata mentioned several times that he and his team were also inspired by The Witcher 3 and that they consider it the gold standard in RPGs right now.

I'm also incredibly hyped for the game, most of all for a brand new, vast and beautiful fantasy world to explore. I hope it lives up to the immense hype.

 

[Crossing Eden]

ok

Uh.

Sure..

More people irl are bald then people who have hair that perpetually grows itself like it's an anime. Having a bald character is more "grounded" than having a character with Sasuke's hair. Granted, he's bald because animators like to see what they're doing without a strange haircut getting in the way.

Based on what I saw in the demo, I have no idea why anyone would be trying to hype up the tech in this game.

Japan is still really behind in terms of technology, horrible engine aside, this game is really pretty by modern standards. An open world game that looks this good is a pretty big deal in Japan, compared to over here where gorgeous open worlds are commonplace.

 

[Death Penalty]

A wild screenshot appears.

https://thinkit.co.jp/article/10010

Really wanna know what Ignis is up to in this shot.

 

[Falk]

More people irl are bald

theres a dagger in my back can someone help me reach it

 

[Koozek]

theres a dagger in my back can someone help me reach it

You rock that semi-bald head with grace! Looks likeable on you, imo :>

 

[Falk]

You rock that semi-bald head with grace! Looks likeable on you, imo :>

Seriously uncanny resemblance

edit: please don't photoshop Mr Baldy onto that iPad.

 

[NoctisVsStar]

Seriously uncanny resemblance

edit: please don't photoshop Mr Baldy onto that iPad.

 

[wmlk]

Falk digging deep in that 'Waifu' folder.

 

[theofficefan99]

I'm gonna be really sad if the game only has an opening and ending CGI cinematic

 

[Koozek]

Seriously uncanny resemblance

edit: please don't photoshop Mr Baldy onto that iPad.

Man, I'd love to be you right now.

 

[Astral Dog]

Tabata knew about Neo, not Scorpio. He just didn't want to say anything regarding Neo and did most talking about Scorpio. There's probably some kind of NDA at the moment because Kaz Yamauchi who's making GT Sport said he doesn't know anything about Neo despite being a Sony first party dev who's releasing a game in November.

are we sure NEO is going to be released this year?

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Seriously uncanny resemblance

edit: please don't photoshop Mr Baldy onto that iPad.

5/10.

I'm gonna be really sad if the game only has an opening and ending CGI cinematic

Indeed. I demand many CGI cutscenes.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

are we sure NEO is going to be released this year?

All signs point to....YES.

 

[Mcdohl]

I hope it's true. This is my major concern with the game, I fear there will be like 3 big open fields like Duscae, 2 big cities and that's it.

Honestly it's mine as well.

Specially after apparently

Spoiler

Lucis is now only movie and final dungeon D:

 

[NoctisVsStar]

Indeed. I demand many CGI cutscenes.

Heh

I'm gonna be really sad if the game only has an opening and ending CGI cinematic

I'm expecting that so don't get your hopes up.

 

[Mediking]

I'm gonna be really sad if the game only has an opening and ending CGI cinematic

I wrote the script for the game. You can relax.

 

[orthodoxy1095]

Cool. I'm going to indulge you here because it's great to see someone engaged in a game's design to this level - I'm one of the few others here who really do this, IMO.

Full disclosure: I've never finished a Final Fantasy. In fact, I've never finished a JRPG, except perhaps the original GameBoy Pokémon games. However, I have played Final Fantasy VII, VIII and X substantially and enjoyed them. I also played a lot of Persona 3 and need to finish it. And up until the Platinum Demo, I didn't particularly have any interest in Final Fantasy XV, indeed as I don't have much interest in any JRPG. However, I'd seen the gifs and screens and brief bits of gameplay which looked very nice indeed. So when the Platinum Demo dropped, I tried it.

And I thought it was excellent. Really good showcase of their engine, of the gameplay systems. It was genuinely compelling to play. The narrative ideas seem decent. My only reservation is that they should have given more tutorials for the final boss - I watched videos of people playing it and doing Devil May Cry style moves and I didn't even know that was possible. But regardless of that, the potential for the game - especially on the scale of the full experience - is huge.

However, I don't see how FF XV is the only game in the last 10 years to truly push videogaming's envelope. All I see is some great gameplay tropes expanded in scope and with very intelligent blending of game mechanics. On paper, exactly the same shit is being done here as was done in Batman: Arkham Knight, Xenoblade Chronicles X, The Witcher 3, MGS V and potentially No Man's Sky (among many others).

So to go deep into one example: The Witcher 3 has, in my opinion, already nailed what you mention here as ground-breaking about FF XV. Well crafted mechanics (RPG and combat and traversal) have been blended on a newly magnificent scale and with a great story. You can travel from a bustling, dense city out into the country side and then off onto the ocean and to various islands; every interior is rendered real-time with no loading screens (you can look through almost every window in the world and see objects/NPCs inside), on your journey you can seamlessly see tiny details, huge plains, and hand-crafted characters along the way (side quests or main quests), then as it progresses you reach special locations e.g. a castle where a giant Lord of the Rings-style battle occurs against large monsters (not JRPG-end-game large but big) with a large set of friendly NPCs on your side, too. It's all seamless, no loading screens, with high-end simulation, generally well designed gameplay, and phenomenal best-in-class writing. The RPG systems make you truly role play Geralt the monster hunter, e.g. preparing his potions and oils, meditating, thinking up strategies and magic/weapon combos, navigating high-fantasy politics and a world full of scummy and not-scummy individuals. There's a fantastic dialogue/conversation-tree and quest system, with outcomes that can vary in small quests and large quests and impact other plotlines. The world is some 80 square kilometers I think and every single inch of it (literally) is a perfectly realised hand-crafted world. If you fast travel the game loads incredibly quickly, too, like in seconds, but you can also walk, horse or boat your way across it.

There's a reason it garnered 250+ GotY awards. And in terms of developer tools it's also groundbreaking - it's optimised around creating meaningful story content, so one single member of staff can quickly create a bespoke character, create a script for them, place them, place bespoke camera angles, place bespoke objectives, etc, and they can iterate quickly on it to correct any issues. When you complete your 200th side quest and it gives you a unique, one-off camera angle of Geralt looking out over a field at night, or a woman looking at somebody in the background, you know the developers can achieve special things with their tools. Apparently they're pushing the boat with their next game (Cyberpunk 2077) to new levels, too, and I don't doubt their fantastic technology and development pathways will facilitate this.

I've already written a lot, so I won't go into other examples &#8211; but how is what FF XV is aiming to achieve any different from The Witcher 3's achievements above? Sure, you can increase scope, and you can polish more, and you can tweak mechanics more, but I don't see what envelope is being pushed on the grander 'videogaming in general' scale.

PS I'm super stoked for FF XV and what you're saying here is getting me extra stoked. Really look forward to playing it.

PPS I think what you're talking about - some concept of videogaming being pushed forward in an unprecedentedly substantial way - is basically impossible. I don't think any one game will or can cause this. Or rather - lots of games are going to push the envelope in little ways and we'll be looking at a widespread pushing of the envelope, rather than something like FF XV being one big driver of change. Zelda: Breath of the Wild looks damn great because of Nintendo's new focus on organic 'play' - i.e. not defining objectives, giving lots of ingredients, making emergent systems. They're trying to make a truly "sandbox" game, and trying to do it better and in a more fun way than anyone else. The gameworld is also staggeringly big, like almost as big as Just Cause 3, and I'm sure on NX it will be seamless with many traversal options like FF XV. It will just be a very different type of game.

Nailed it.

Great post all around. There's plenty to be interested in with FFXV without giving into some hype about envelope pushing.