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Final Fantasy XV - 30 minutes of gameplay (Japanese)

Yeah, I know. I am not talking about the other 10 mechanics. :p



FFXV has a continuous canned string of attacks, and the feeling is completely different from 1:1 games. Not being 1:1 makes it a passive experience where you're just watching the animations. It's great if you don't mind it, but it certainly does bother others.

Ah ok. When you said "combat" I read it as the whole system, not just standard melee.
 

silva1991

Member
Is it? I don't think that's a mechanic at all. Do you gain an advantage or something by holding? In fact you get less MP cost if you dodge correctly and right in time.
Yes? what buttons will you press for main regular melee attacks? you either hold the attack button aka the way it was meant to be or tap the buttons and it won't feel right because it was't designed for button tapping obviously in the first place like most action games.
 

wmlk

Member
If anything there was subtlety with Duscae's system where releasing at the right time forced the combo progression to the next weapon.

Duscae's system lasted pretty long.

...

:(
I believe we still have that, just locked to the weapon we're currently using...

Which doesn't offer much. I want some preset attacks to return.
 

Kraq

Member
The graphics on PS4 at least are starting to shape up. Not amazing by any means but certainly nothing like what we've seen these past few months. The gameplay is looking pretty good too.

Best delay ever?
 

Falk

that puzzling face
I believe we still have that, just locked to the weapon we're currently using...

Yeah, that's what I meant. There was an element of active work watching for the telltale flash when the weapon disappeared in Duscae 1.0, or you simply wouldn't force the finisher.

The graphics on PS4 at least are starting to shape up. Not amazing by any means but certainly nothing like what we've seen these past few months. The gameplay is looking pretty good too.

Best delay ever?

It's technically just over a month out from the original release date and presumably Day 1 Patch date. I guess 'best delay ever' might be better attributed to the changes for whatever footage is shown around after TGS (if any) vs. November.

(Or if you want to be pedantic, yeah, best delay ever for the build on the discs ;p)
 

Gbraga

Member
Looks like MP has a white-gray-black bar system too now. Wonder how it works.

I still don't like the amount of MP that warping requires. It really limits aerial combat.

It should limit aerial combat, MP management is the name of this game's combat.

Using your other post as an example:

So, is the combat still hold-button-to-attack while enjoying the animations?

giphy.gif

The only reason he can just hold the button and enjoy the animations here is because the enemy is stunned. One of the ways of stunning that enemy is by doing a warp strike with the Shuriken. The Broadsword's main effect is recovering MP, like, A HUGE chunk for every hit. So you're going at it with aerial combat, and when you're starting to get low on MP, you stun the enemy and attack it with the Broadsword for a while.

If you just get in the fight and hold circle, you'll probably get your ass kicked by any stronger enemy.

It's always funny to read the responses where people say - "you can tap too". It's a good way to find people that don't get it ;)

Another way to find people that don't get it is when you see people saying that context sensitive attacks with a prompt on screen are QTEs.

Or that holding circle and looking at the animations is any different from spamming the same basic /\ /\ /\ combo in DMC over and over again. You won't do anything flashy by holding the button, even character action games won't force you to learn advanced combos. As long as you can avoid getting hit, you can easily go through any character action game with the most basic possible combo. Same here, you want to just hold circle and dodge? Sure, you can do it, but saying that it's all the combat has to offer is just nonsense. Unless you also think that of Devil May Cry, then I'll give you that it's a consistent opinion, but still wrong.
 

Brentonp

Member
Agreed, seems pretty much in line with most of his battle quips. I guess tone is maybe a little light-hearted for the severity of the foe.

Watching this again, I don't get the function of Chapter 0. What's the point of showing such a tiny portion of this particular fight?

It looks cool, but, narratively, I don't understand what it's doing.

If we at least got a feel for powered up future Noct that would make sense.

Maybe it's kind of to show how long of a journey you're about to go on and just make you eager to find out what happens to lead up to that.

Also... The devs are taking cues from Uncharted. Cold opens are all the rage, you know. Haha
 

Nags

Banned
This is a dev-exclusive build right?

No way they can handle LV50 monsters at what, 5-10?

Althought Tabata did said that if you're skilled you can deal with much higher leveled enemies...

This game is going to have a steep learning curve to finesse combat. I'm actually okay with that. The bigger fights look good (or fights against bigger monsters). The small stuff, especially when they are numerous looks like it might be a pain with targeting.
 

Dark_castle

Junior Member
It's a JRPG. Timing and skill-based combat has almost never been what JRPGs are about.

So suddenly Tales, Ys 7, KH2, Star Ocean series aren't JRPG anymore?

Strangely enough, Lightning Returns had button holding to attack nonsense, but somehow they managed to make the strike felt more responsive and closer to player's button input. Not to mention they added true incentive to encourage players to tap by increasing their damage output with timed strikes as opposed to holding them.
 
Is it me or do all these gifs make it seem like the game runs at 60 when it's not the case, not saying the gifs are running at 60. The gifs make the game look as if its runs fluidly when we know from many videos that it doesnt. lol
 

Gbraga

Member
Exentryk obviously knows this.

Even holding for consecutive attacks there are a ton of other commands to input:

-analog stick changes attack type (and can unleash weapon specific specials)
-locked on warp for warp strike
-free warp for evade and maneuver
-defense
-evade
-context specific counter
-weapon change
-jump and aerial maneuvers
-party specials
-regular magic
-ring magic
-all the armiger related stuff (like damage cancel)

Obviously some would prefer character action responsiveness and that's fine. But the "all you do is hold and watch" meme is lazy and basically just trolling at this point.

Word.

It's fine if you still dislike it after knowing all this, and would still prefer if it wasn't possible to hold to attack, that's a perfectly valid opinion, but instead of pretending like it means the game has no depth and is just braindead hold O to win, just say it as your preference and it's all good.

I wasn't a fan of holding to attack at first either, took me a while to get used to it, but I don't pretend it means anything other than "I didn't like it".

I became fine with holding to attack ever since the first Duscae demo, when we could stop holding, wait and press it again to go straight into the finisher move from your deck, without having to wait for the enemy to be low on health to trigger it. It was already clear that just holding the button wouldn't to everything, and you still need to know what you're doing to explore the combat.

I'm sure for those aerial combat gifs, you can also just wait on the ground until the bird lands and auto attack it, until it flies again and you go back to waiting, but that's also true of every DMC boss with fast movement through the stage. You can actually follow it and attack it all the way through with Dante's teleports if you're good enough, but you can also not do it. I'm not pretending this game will have DMC4 levels of depth, but it's still incredible that you can make most of the criticism on the combat also work with DMC4.

It's lazy, it's shallow, and just proudly shows one's lack of understanding of what they're criticizing. Having depth doesn't mean one has to like it, I've disliked my share of games with deep systems, but if I'm explaining why I disliked it, I wouldn't say "it has no depth", because that's just not true.

So suddenly Tales, Ys 7, KH2, Star Ocean series aren't JRPG anymore?

Strangely enough, Lightning Returns had button holding to attack nonsense, but somehow they managed to make the strike felt more responsive and closer to player's button input. Not to mention they added true incentive to encourage players to tap by increasing their damage output with timed strikes as opposed to holding them.

Right, and if you use the mechanics to your advantage and explore the Iron Giatn's weaknesses in the demo, you'll do more damage, take less risks and beat him much faster than just standing on the ground with the standard sword holding O.
 

Alej

Banned
Is it me or do all these gifs make it seem like the game runs at 60 when it's not the case, not saying the gifs are running at 60. The gifs make the game look as if its runs fluidly when we know from many videos that it doesnt. lol

It runs fluidly now.

...maybe?
 

Falk

that puzzling face
Is it me or do all these gifs make it seem like the game runs at 60 when it's not the case, not saying the gifs are running at 60. The gifs make the game look as if its runs fluidly when we know from many videos that it doesnt. lol

A higher FPS is required to simulate fluidity for something moving across a greater portion of your field of view.

In other words a small thumbnail will always look more fluid.
 

SOLDIER

Member
At this point people are practically scraping to find things to complain about.

It took hours before someone pointed out the obvious that the Iris clip had different dialog because of the dialog wheel rather than "a terrible localization".

Not to mention the utter surprise that the visuals would continue to improve with each new preview, as if it were some unfinished game with an extra two months of optimization left. Who ever would have guessed!
 

Exentryk

Member
It should limit aerial combat, MP management is the name of this game's combat.

Using your other post as an example:



The only reason he can just hold the button and enjoy the animations here is because the enemy is stunned. One of the ways of stunning that enemy is by doing a warp strike with the Shuriken. The Broadsword's main effect is recovering MP, like, A HUGE chunk for every hit. So you're going at it with aerial combat, and when you're starting to get low on MP, you stun the enemy and attack it with the Broadsword for a while.

If you just get in the fight and hold circle, you'll probably get your ass kicked by any stronger enemy.

[...]

Or that holding circle and looking at the animations is any different from spamming the same basic /\ /\ /\ combo in DMC over and over again. [...]

MP management is fine. However, aerial combat does less damage, it makes you more vulnerable (Platinum had no aerial dodges), and it consumes more MP. So, the game isn't encouraging the player to go airborne. Aerial combat should be encouraged, because it is so much fun.

And I'm not saying holding the button is all you'll need to get through everything. Just that it is the core system of attacks.

I can see that you don't get it if you think holding button and watching the animations is the same as watching the animations via 1:1 combos in a game. It's the feel of attacks, the feedback.

Regarding context sensitive attacks and QTEs, I don't like them if they are taking away control from me for extended periods of time. The devs are basically saying we couldn't design this cool move in combat, so we put it in as a movie. You can press a couple of buttons in between so you feel involved in the process, lol.
 

Exentryk

Member
If anything there was subtlety with Duscae's system where releasing at the right time forced the combo progression to the next weapon.

Duscae's system lasted pretty long.

...

:(

There was some good stuff in the Duscae system to be honest. Automatic weapon switching combined with manual weapon switching would be the best system in my opinion. That timing to get the vanquish attack was something I guess. I much prefer the directional moves that Platinum and the game now has, which gives us more control over what animation we want Noctis to use.
 

Dark_castle

Junior Member
Right, and if you use the mechanics to your advantage and explore the Iron Giatn's weaknesses in the demo, you'll do more damage, take less risks and beat him much faster than just standing on the ground with the standard sword holding O.

You keep thinking that I'm implying that one could really just turn off their brain and hold down the attack button to win when I was not. I know that is not efficient, as you're better off using the aerial combo, doing charging attacks, using magic etc to beat the enemy quicker and more easily. What I'm not happy about is simply the fact that they make basic attacking hold rather than press. Like yes you could technically press, but the animations don't match up, because Noctis has to slowly swing his weapon in a realistic manner, he doesn't react very quickly to player's button input, making all sorts of ground combo feel unsatisfying.

Why do you think so few Action titles or ARPG games choose to allow button holding to attack in the first place? You thought that was a coincidence? NO, because they know accurate button pressing for attacks in action game is what makes you feel like you're in full control of the character, making each individual strikes per your liking. You're actively slashing and thrusting, you're not enabling a string of slashes and thrusts. There's a difference there.
 

Plywood

NeoGAF's smiling token!
At this point people are practically scraping to find things to complain about.

It took hours before someone pointed out the obvious that the Iris clip had different dialog because of the dialog wheel rather than "a terrible localization".

Not to mention the utter surprise that the visuals would continue to improve with each new preview, as if it were some unfinished game with an extra two months of optimization left. Who ever would have guessed!
Some games don't always shape up and people raising concerns or critiques =/= scraping things to complain about. This is a discussion forum, not a giant circlejerk. People can only really truly comment on what is shown to them, commenting beyond that is purely speculation. It also shouldn't come as a surprise that people would be concerned about the game or engine's performance and capability considering their troubled development, but sure enjoy your drive-by high horse.
 

thematic

Member
Glad we're getting the Japanese dub in the English release...couldn't stand the voice acting.

is this confirmed?
sorry, it's been a while since I read FFXV related news

I might want to wait for Steam version
all this "blocking FFXV news" seems help a bit.
 

Gbraga

Member
MP management is fine. However, aerial combat does less damage, it makes you more vulnerable (Platinum had no aerial dodges), and it consumes more MP. So, the game isn't encouraging the player to go airborne. Aerial combat should be encouraged, because it is so much fun.

Of course it had aerial dodges, the backflip had huge amounts of invincibility, and just being airborne made you not worry about some AOE attacks, like the punch to the ground.

And I'm not saying holding the button is all you'll need to get through everything. Just that it is the core system of attacks.

I can see that you don't get it if you think holding button and watching the animations is the same as watching the animations via 1:1 combos in a game. It's the feel of attacks, the feedback.

Yeah, I get that. But the other systems require direct input, you can't just hold O and hope everything happens. I totally get not liking this basic element of the design and hating the way the game feels because of it, but even though using the same basic combo over and over again in a character action game feels better, it's still boring and shallow as hell. If every system in the game was just hold O and watch Noctis doing the appropriate animation, then yeah, it would be boring as fuck. But as it is, if you're bored with the combat, there are tools to make it more involved and fun, just like in a character action game. It'll feel better and more responsive to be bored in DMC, but it's still boring.

As I said, I'm not claiming this is DMC, but people are ignoring a huge chunk of the game's depth when they say "So, is the combat still hold-button-to-attack while enjoying the animations?". It implies that it's all you do, and as nice as some gifs may look, all you're doing is holding the button. The gif you posted yourself when you said that wasn't cool to look at, it looked weird and it didn't flow well, because he was just going thorugh the exact same motions. If you don't mix it up, neither will Noctis.

Regarding context sensitive attacks and QTEs, I don't like them if they are taking away control from me for extended periods of time. The devs are basically saying we couldn't design this cool move in combat, so we put it in as a movie. You can press a couple of buttons in between so you feel involved in the process, lol.

So when Dante skates on enemies in DMC3, is that the same? It's context sensitive, they must be knocked down, and even though there is no prompt on screen, you do one motion and he'll do the cool thing that he can't do outside of this context.

Is suplexing people just "a cool movie" in RE4-6? Context sensitive actions that are triggered by the player's actions, that are always consistent in the same situation and need to be manually set up are not separated from gameplay, they're very much a part of it. The visual reward is incentive for you to set it up, not to mention the numbers. Doing a coup-de-grâce in RE6 isn't just the game showing you a cool movie when you press the button on screen, you have to set it up yourself. It's not a scripted event that you'll always do it in a certain moment to a certain enemy, if you don't do a "double stun" or explore some weakness like enemies that automatically go into a coup-state when you throw a flash grenade, it won't happen. It's not because there isn't a dedicated button to do that animation at any given time that it's not part of the gameplay. Are super moves in Fighting Game not part of the gameplay? I just do the same motion as a regular projectile, but I press two buttons, and they do this cool-looking animation.

I feel like people's hate for QTE (that I do share) is so overblown that they see a prompt on screen and their immediate reaction is to use the same criticism they do for QTEs. It's not the same situation. Being consistent, player-driven and optional make it different. As I gave the example with the bird parry/counter, you can just jump, warp past the bird and use fire. There you go, all manual. They're not taking basic possibilities away from you to hide in movies, they're just making a bunch of unique contextual animations for parries and counters. They could always have the same short animation for every enemy, but they chose not to.

I prefer hold a button, instead of keep smashing it.

Ironically, given my position in this thread, I still prefer mashing.
 

Servbot24

Banned
So suddenly Tales, Ys 7, KH2, Star Ocean series aren't JRPG anymore?

Really dude? I very clearly wasn't saying that every JRPG ever made never has any timing based combat. I was clear about it because I figured someone would stick their hand up like "Actually!"

Menu based combat is a huge part of JRPG and Final Fantasy history. You don't have complaints about it because you probably grew up playing it. And because it's a valid gameplay mechanic. Same for holding down a button to continue attack screen. It's basically the same as a menu, except you don't have to navigate through the Action > Attack prompts.
 

Kamina

Golden Boy
Is there any Lip sync for the english voices?
My worst nightmare would be bying the local english version and having english lip sync forced to the japanese voices (which i prefer). Vanquish had that problem.
 

Koozek

Member
Of course it had aerial dodges, the backflip had huge amounts of invincibility, and just being airborne made you not worry about some AOE attacks, like the punch to the ground.



Yeah, I get that. But the other systems require direct input, you can't just hold O and hope everything happens. I totally get not liking this basic element of the design and hating the way the game feels because of it, but even though using the same basic combo over and over again in a character action game feels better, it's still boring and shallow as hell. If every system in the game was just hold O and watch Noctis doing the appropriate animation, then yeah, it would be boring as fuck. But as it is, if you're bored with the combat, there are tools to make it more involved and fun, just like in a character action game. It'll feel better and more responsive to be bored in DMC, but it's still boring.

As I said, I'm not claiming this is DMC, but people are ignoring a huge chunk of the game's depth when they say "So, is the combat still hold-button-to-attack while enjoying the animations?". It implies that it's all you do, and as nice as some gifs may look, all you're doing is holding the button. The gif you posted yourself when you said that wasn't cool to look at, it looked weird and it didn't flow well, because he was just going thorugh the exact same motions. If you don't mix it up, neither will Noctis.



So when Dante skates on enemies in DMC3, is that the same? It's context sensitive, they must be knocked down, and even though there is no prompt on screen, you do one motion and he'll do the cool thing that he can't do outside of this context.

Is suplexing people just "a cool movie" in RE4-6? Context sensitive actions that are triggered by the player's actions, that are always consistent in the same situation and need to be manually set up are not separated from gameplay, they're very much a part of it. The visual reward is incentive for you to set it up, not to mention the numbers. Doing a coup-de-grâce in RE6 isn't just the game showing you a cool movie when you press the button on screen, you have to set it up yourself. It's not a scripted event that you'll always do it in a certain moment to a certain enemy, if you don't do a "double stun" or explore some weakness like enemies that automatically go into a coup-state when you throw a flash grenade, it won't happen. It's not because there isn't a dedicated button to do that animation at any given time that it's not part of the gameplay. Are super moves in Fighting Game not part of the gameplay? I just do the same motion as a regular projectile, but I press two buttons, and they do this cool-looking animation.

I feel like people's hate for QTE (that I do share) is so overblown that they see a prompt on screen and their immediate reaction is to use the same criticism they do for QTEs. It's not the same situation. Being consistent, player-driven and optional make it different. As I gave the example with the bird parry/counter, you can just jump, warp past the bird and use fire. There you go, all manual. They're not taking basic possibilities away from you to hide in movies, they're just making a bunch of unique contextual animations for parries and counters. They could always have the same short animation for every enemy, but they chose not to.



Ironically, given my position in this thread, I still prefer mashing.

Preach.
 

Zedark

Member
You keep thinking that I'm implying that one could really just turn off their brain and hold down the attack button to win when I was not. I know that is not efficient, as you're better off using the aerial combo, doing charging attacks, using magic etc to beat the enemy quicker and more easily. What I'm not happy about is simply the fact that they make basic attacking hold rather than press. Like yes you could technically press, but the animations don't match up, because Noctis has to slowly swing his weapon in a realistic manner, he doesn't react very quickly to player's button input, making all sorts of ground combo feel unsatisfying.

Why do you think so few Action titles or ARPG games choose to allow button holding to attack in the first place? You thought that was a coincidence? NO, because they know accurate button pressing for attacks in action game is what makes you feel like you're in full control of the character, making each individual strikes per your liking. You're actively slashing and thrusting, you're not enabling a string of slashes and thrusts. There's a difference there.

I can see why you would feel like holding makes you less in control, but I think this feeling is more due to the slow animations than the actual holding. A game can still be very responsie with holding if the button configuration allows for Quick shifting to sensible follow up actions. The game did offer that configuration in episode Duscae for me, with only this responsiveness being a bit lacklustre. If they teak that well, it should be fine.
 

Dark_castle

Junior Member
Really dude? I very clearly wasn't saying that every JRPG ever made never has any timing based combat. I was clear about it because I figured someone would stick their hand up like "Actually!"

Menu based combat is a huge part of JRPG and Final Fantasy history. You don't have complaints about it because you probably grew up playing it. And because it's a valid gameplay mechanic. Same for holding down a button to continue attack screen. It's basically the same as a menu, except you don't have to navigate through the Action > Attack prompts.

"Timing based" is a weird description, like you could be turn-based AND "timing-based", like Legend of Dragoon and Shadow Hearts. But for games with action combat (forget about the term JRPG for the moment), just any games with action combat in general, nearly all of them are designed with player having to press the button to attack, without the option to hold it. Why do you think that is?
 

Gbraga

Member
All this talk about holding and smashing.. I just wanna hold the game in my hands.

Since I'm getting it digitally, I'll be mashing X on the download screen until I get decent speeds, because PSN sucks.

EDIT: Btw, this made me install the Platinum Demo again to do some testing.

God, it looks so bad.

Hurry up, PC version.
 

wmlk

Member
Since I'm getting it digitally, I'll be mashing X on the download screen until I get decent speeds, because PSN sucks.

EDIT: Btw, this made me install the Platinum Demo again to do some testing.

God, it looks so bad.

Hurry up, PC version.
Just never play in the day. It looks bad during the day. The night time is on point in FFXV, especially with the rain.
 

.JayZii

Banned
"Timing based" is a weird description, like you could be turn-based AND "timing-based", like Legend of Dragoon and Shadow Hearts. But for games with action combat (forget about the term JRPG for the moment), just any games with action combat in general, nearly all of them are designed with player having to press the button to attack, without the option to hold it. Why do you think that is?
I don't think they'll be changing it. So it's probably best to accept the design decisions that were made and judge how well they executed on those decisions, or to move on.
 

Exentryk

Member
Of course it had aerial dodges, the backflip had huge amounts of invincibility, and just being airborne made you not worry about some AOE attacks, like the punch to the ground.

When airborne (imagine fighting that bird), you had to attack, and then press a direction to do a flip. You couldn't do multiple flips back to back, or even do a flip without attacking. (I am not talking about the on ground Airstep sword's backflip via back direction button. I am also not talking about being airborne to avoid punches.) So, there are no aerial dodges designed in Platinum. The flips are just something that helps Noctis to stay in air longer, but they are not dodges that can be used on demand.
I believe the devs are adding some sort of air dodges in the full game however. Regardless, my point that aerial combat is not encouraged still stands.

Yeah, I get that. But the other systems require direct input, you can't just hold O and hope everything happens.

I wrote in my previous post and I'll mention it again - I'm not saying the game is hold O to win. Just that hold O is a core mechanism.

As I gave the example with the bird parry/counter, you can just jump, warp past the bird and use fire. There you go, all manual. They're not taking basic possibilities away from you to hide in movies, they're just making a bunch of unique contextual animations for parries and counters. They could always have the same short animation for every enemy, but they chose not to.

The problem is when these movies can't be turned off. When that bird attacks, if I don't parry/counter, I take damage. If I do parry/counter, I have to sit through a movie and Iose control. Not all context sensitive effects are the same - some are fine if they are quick in execution. It depends.
Regardless, It's fine if you have a higher tolerance for these, but others don't feel the same way.
(Also, I haven't played DMC or RE, so can't comment on the specific examples you mentioned.)

Anyway, I gotta go, but I'll check back tomorrow if any posts feel worth replying to.
 

Ishida

Banned
Is it just me, or the framerate seems greatly improved when they enter Lestallum? I remember in the last video the drops are HEAVY. But in this video, it actually looks quite good?
 
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