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Final Fantasy XV Hands-On Demo (Chapter 0-3) Previews

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sappyday

Member
Which begs the question, why does FFXV need to have such a humongous open environment to begin with. Big for the sake of being big is what I'm concerned. I would generally prefer a more linear world if developer could not make a meaningful, big world map.

In order to capture that actual feeling of being on a road trip. I don't mind big environments with nothing in them but I do when I'm forced to explore them. This isn't the case here. The story paths are set on a linear path and you'll get to them just by following the road.

Also cause of all the hate they got for XIII. Sure, maybe the reason why FFXIII was bad wasn't just cause of the linearity, but that's sure as shit what everyone said back in the days and that was the most thrown complaint at them.
 

Mifec

Member
I have this amazing idea it's really cool I might call up Tabata and sell it to him.

What if for some unexplained reason I don't wan't to sit around and stare at the scenery while the car drives at 20 miles per hour?

Wouldn't it be cool that even due to their own limitations they'd let me manually fuck around on the road and go faster than they do when it's on auto so I don't have to sit through their banter?

Are you still with me? Strap in this one might be extra scary.

What if they made it so when I picked a destination I could press a button, get a loading screen and be there instantly, because I don't give a fuck about looking at the environments passing by? I'm probably gonna be doing the fetch quests there anyway or I might never come back. So why do I have to suffer through the boring ride.

Now you might say: But Mifec some people want to experience it all, what about them? Well to you my friend I say, don't press the skip ride button.

It's really easy to fix it and still stay in line with their technical limitations, because that's basically what it amounts to until you get the airship.
 

sappyday

Member
I have this amazing idea it's really cool I might call up Tabata and sell it to him.

What if for some unexplained reason I don't wan't to sit around and stare at the scenery while the car drives at 20 miles per hour?

Wouldn't it be cool that even due to their own limitations they'd let me manually fuck around on the road and go faster than they do when it's on auto so I don't have to sit through their banter?

Are you still with me? Strap in this one might be extra scary.

What if they made it so when I picked a destination I could press a button, get a loading screen and be there instantly, because I don't give a fuck about looking at the environments passing by? I'm probably gonna be doing the fetch quests there anyway or I might never come back. So why do I have to suffer through the boring ride.

Now you might say: But Mifec some people want to experience it all, what about them? Well to you my friend I say, don't press the skip ride button.

It's really easy to fix it and still stay in line with their technical limitations, because that's basically what it amounts to until you get the airship.
Nah man we're gonna have it our way and our way only.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
should cancel the world map and have a point-selection system like hyperdimension neptunia

L1LSO3W.png


squeenix got 2 months
 
I have this amazing idea it's really cool I might call up Tabata and sell it to him.

What if for some unexplained reason I don't wan't to sit around and stare at the scenery while the car drives at 20 miles per hour?

Wouldn't it be cool that even due to their own limitations they'd let me manually fuck around on the road and go faster than they do when it's on auto so I don't have to sit through their banter?

Are you still with me? Strap in this one might be extra scary.

What if they made it so when I picked a destination I could press a button, get a loading screen and be there instantly, because I don't give a fuck about looking at the environments passing by? I'm probably gonna be doing the fetch quests there anyway or I might never come back. So why do I have to suffer through the boring ride.

Now you might say: But Mifec some people want to experience it all, what about them? Well to you my friend I say, don't press the skip ride button.

It's really easy to fix it and still stay in line with their technical limitations, because that's basically what it amounts to until you get the airship.
There is a fast travel option once we get the *summon spoiler
Doom Train
.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
Didn't we get something like this already with FFX or FFX-2?

Oh that's right X's airship menu, and by extension, X-2 where you start with an airship.

Technically XIII-2's Historia Crux is similar, too.

FFT might count, although it's different in that you still need to physically travel from point to point adjacently without skipping.
 
What if for some unexplained reason I don't wan't to sit around and stare at the scenery while the car drives at 20 miles per hour?


.

Don't get the game. Not even being snarky, just don't. Buying this game when you don't care about banter and relationships of the 4 main guys is like buying a persona game if dislike everyone in the cast and don't want to do social links. Waste of your money and time.
 

Mailbox

Member
Oh that's right X's airship menu, and by extension, X-2 where you start with an airship.

Technically XIII-2's Historia Crux is similar, too.

FFT might count, although it's different in that you still need to physically travel from point to point adjacently without skipping.

Didn't like either system tbh. God getting on the airship in X was a huge disappointment :( I didn't expect a point and click map, but a ff9 style simplistic overworld to fly over :(

oh reliving disappointment :/
 

JayBabay

Member
If the intention and vision of the Dev was one way, and now it isn't because of hardware limitations or time - That's one thing. However, if they decided this is how they want the player to experience the game and it's this way by design, then I'm going to go with that and I'll argue against it after I've experienced the game as a whole.

Would it be cool to manually drive the car around? I don't know, it's not that important to me in this game. The only time it would be a problem is if the game was designed around this feature, and then it was taken away, and that has detracted from what the game is overall. To me, it's always been advertised as a scenic on-rails experience that you can manually stop to check out surroundings, as opposed to selecting a list of destinations and loading there. Maybe that would be better if there turns out to be nothing to do between two points.

With that said, maybe there will be chocobos available for making exploring quicker anytime you hop out of the car. That's the only reason I can think that anyone might "need" to have full control of the vehicle.
 

Jac_Solar

Member
Don't get the game. Not even being snarky, just don't. Buying this game when you don't care about banter and relationships of the 4 main guys is like buying a persona game if dislike everyone in the cast and don't want to do social links. Waste of your money and time.

People should be allowed to complain or comment about whatever they want in a game -- especially if it's a feature in a game they might otherwise have enjoyed.
 
In a sense, the game seems to be a return to the world map of the Final Fantasies of old. In the context of the modern era it's a low detail, largely bland environment - just like Final Fantasies prior to FFX. Except that everything is being sacrificed for the world map. A big, boring map where we can complete a series of dull Xenoblade quests, with a 1/10th of the story to tell and not so much of the anticipation of twists and turns to come.

Surely, FFXV will herald the return of Final Fantasy's crown.

Tell me I'm wrong/uninformed, I hope I am.
 

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
Wasn't the original vision for Versus to have Noctis with big head walking on a FF7 style world map?

How do you fuck this up Nomura? They made it sound like creating that would be difficult, but we get an open world with Tabata.
 

JayBabay

Member
You get a chocobo whistle for a period of time.

Right, so we can assume that you can call on them when you are away from any of those Chocobo stations with the whistle, and it will deal with quicker traveling in areas where the vehicle is not intended to go?
 

Mailbox

Member
Wasn't the original vision for Versus to have Noctis with big head walking on a FF7 style world map?

How do you fuck this up Nomura? They made it sound like creating that would be difficult, but we get an open world with Tabata.

yeah, um, back when it was still early concepts Nomura said he was considering that, but then later said he scraped the idea because he didn't like it (iirc).
 
Wasn't the original vision for Versus to have Noctis with big head walking on a FF7 style world map?

How do you fuck this up Nomura? They made it sound like creating that would be difficult, but we get an open world with Tabata.
This was the world map as envisioned by Nomura

4UuHuq8r.jpg

vs1.jpg


Looks like they have nailed the look of it being barren and empty field.
 

Mailbox

Member
I really really hope someone doesn't say something snarky about how "those tree lods are better than the ones we have now"...
 

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
yeah, um, back when it was still early concepts Nomura said he was considering that, but then later said he scraped the idea because he didn't like it (iirc).

This was the world map as envisioned by Nomura

4UuHuq8r.jpg

vs1.jpg


Looks like they have nailed the look of it being barren and empty field.

I think you are both right but those screenshots were the idea that was decided on later. A FF7 World Map was on the table (and to be honest they should have gone with that).

The aversions to world maps that either leave us with crap open worlds or menu driven shit (FFX) drives me crazy.

Yeah the character is going to look small and the world map not very detailed looking, but it's cute AND a throwback.
 

JayBabay

Member
This was the world map as envisioned by Nomura

Looks like they have nailed the look of it being barren and empty field.

Didn't you express some concern about a certain town looking different in this demo than it did in previous images or showings? Maybe not as populated or something? I glanced over it but it stayed on my mind and I've been wondering what it was.
 

Mailbox

Member
I think you are both right but those screenshots were the idea that was decided on later. A FF7 World Map was on the table (and to be honest they should have gone with that).

The aversions to world maps that either leave us with crap open worlds or menu driven shit (FFX) drives me crazy.

Yeah the character is going to look small and the world map not very detailed looking, but it's cute AND a throwback.

Since playing Ni No Kuni, I actually kinda agree.

Didn't you express some concern about a certain town looking different in this demo than it did in previous images or showings? Maybe not as populated or something? I glanced over it but it stayed on my mind and I've been wondering what it was.

pretty sure that's the city in the later part of the video. I just think the areas it showed were sparse and that Vendor NPCs have low draw distance (like in KH2, only the vendors have shitty draw distances). We also see in the video when Iris says "this is kind of like a date" that there are quite a lot of people in the background, and since this is a real-time cutscene, i'm inclined to believe my hypothesis.
 
Didn't you express some concern about a certain town looking different in this demo than it did in previous images or showings? Maybe not as populated or something? I glanced over it but it stayed on my mind and I've been wondering what it was.
Yes, I said the graphics appear to have been taken a huge hit. Guaranteed, the comparison is not fair as it is not 1:1 due to the difference in weather + time of day. But the assets appear to have been pared down, likely to fit on consoles.


To be honest, it is a damn shame. The original version looked so much better.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
An obfuscated/not-to-scale world map with roads and a toy car with 4 giant chibi heads sticking out the top would be charming.

Probably not what FFXV is going for, but charming.
 

JayBabay

Member
Yes, I said the graphics appear to have been taken a huge hit. Guaranteed, the comparison is not fair as it is not 1:1 due to the difference in weather + time of day. But the assets appear to have been pared down, likely to fit on consoles.



To be honest, it is a damn shame. The original version looked so much better.

Yeah this is what I was looking for, thanks. So the amount of things on screen is close enough but the level of detail did take a huge hit. The textures look washed out, the lighting (especially on the Regalia) is not reflecting well, and the shadows look muddled. It could be a time of day thing but it makes me wish I didn't have to play this game twice to enjoy it as intended with a powerful PC.
 
Why not a segmented middle ground like in FFXII? The limitations in scale could allow Square to give each area a bit more detail and character while providing a large map to traverse - even if it was ultimately an abstraction.

I can handle a graphical downgrade, albeit it being disappointing. But even with all of these concessions they still can't get the game to run. Will two months really fix this?
 
People should be allowed to complain or comment about whatever they want in a game -- especially if it's a feature in a game they might otherwise have enjoyed.

I never said that he shouldn't express his opinion on the subject. I just warned him that game clearly puts absolutely majrotiy of it's focus on the 4 and their buddy buddy road trip, if he doesn;t care about the 4, then he is buying a game that at least 80% something he doesn't like or care about.
 

JayBabay

Member
I feel like this style only fits with something like WoFF now.

Yeah, for sure. It would be great if they amazed us with a creative way to implement this style, modern and close in scale. Maybe taking a different approach to art direction.

I remember when I first saw the Ramuh summon in Duscae, I thought wow, that is really expansive and I can't imagine what they can do for the world map by letting it pan out that far. It looked incredible the first time I saw it.
 
This is what I need:

aSbP8CK.jpg
Why people think XV would look silly like this incl the developers/nomura I do not know.

Just switch the art style to look more realistic. Have it similar to what google
Maps would look like in HD zoomed out a bit and in 3d view mode.

I can see it in my head!!! It's totally possible! If i was a good artist i'd make an example image for you guys.

At the end of the day it is up to the artists to make a realistic style game look good on an old fashioned world map!

XIII's cocoon was such an innovative world design, a ps1 style world map on that couldve been so unique!!! It's just a matter of experimenting I feel.
 
should cancel the world map and have a point-selection system like hyperdimension neptunia

L1LSO3W.png


squeenix got 2 months

Didn't we get something like this already with FFX or FFX-2?

don't remind me :<

Oh that's right X's airship menu, and by extension, X-2 where you start with an airship.

Technically XIII-2's Historia Crux is similar, too.

FFT might count, although it's different in that you still need to physically travel from point to point adjacently without skipping.

Didn't like either system tbh. God getting on the airship in X was a huge disappointment :( I didn't expect a point and click map, but a ff9 style simplistic overworld to fly over :(

oh reliving disappointment :/

I love me some FFX prob my fav FF, or perhaps tied with 8, but the most disappointing thing about the game was that the airship was point and click.

I think a world map in the sense of giant people walking around the earth wouldn't make too much sense in what this game is trying to convey.

I think the best world map I ever played was Dragon quest 8. Big world (for that game anyway.) with boats, flying, sabrecat riding and fast travel. And stuff was for the most part proportionate.

I wish no rpg game did point and click. Exploring the world and building up your transportation options were always one of the most fun things in these types of games to me.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
I wish no rpg game did point and click. Exploring the world and building up your transportation options were always one of the most fun things in these types of games to me.

Ehhhhhhhh, in many cases it's a budget thing and it's worked out for e.g. Idea Factory to put together games that tells a narrative* without needing the resources to put together a functioning world map.

*(Whether that narrative is good is a completely different and subjective issue, of course)
 

Dark_castle

Junior Member
In order to capture that actual feeling of being on a road trip. I don't mind big environments with nothing in them but I do when I'm forced to explore them. This isn't the case here. The story paths are set on a linear path and you'll get to them just by following the road.

Also cause of all the hate they got for XIII. Sure, maybe the reason why FFXIII was bad wasn't just cause of the linearity, but that's sure as shit what everyone said back in the days and that was the most thrown complaint at them.

Fair enough. But having the story revolves around road trip, I'm concerned if the story-telling aspect will be too predictable. The collecting dead kings part sounds really bland.
 

Diablos

Member
Well. I said I'd loved to be proven wrong. I've gone from bracing for the worst to somewhere between cautiously and somewhat optimistic. Don't let us down S-E.
 

artsi

Member
FF7 was about blowing up mako reactors

just sayin

FF8 was about watching out for a teenage girl
- We got sorceresses, going to space and time travel

FF9 was about kidnapping a princess
- We got to visit an alien planet full of monkey-people and blow it up

I assume the original premise won't be everything about FFXV either.
And no, don't respond with leaked information, I won't read it :p
 

Tyaren

Member

Apart from the now horrible IQ and the unconvincing puddle effect on the street, there are no cables running over street anymore for the cable car. :/ The posts holding the cables are still there though...
 
Yes, I said the graphics appear to have been taken a huge hit. Guaranteed, the comparison is not fair as it is not 1:1 due to the difference in weather + time of day. But the assets appear to have been pared down, likely to fit on consoles.



To be honest, it is a damn shame. The original version looked so much better.

So it doesn't seem the have changed much or anything in object density, etc, which is good. The problem is they seem to have a lot of technical features in there, but they are dialled down or limited. The image doesn't have as much cohesion. I think that is exacerbated in the rainy scene. However, I think pop in and draw distance is a problem. In tha scene in the video, it actually looks nice when looking at stuff close to the car, but the density of the scene combined with the drop off in detail is not always flattering.
 

Squire

Banned
FF8 was about watching out for a teenage girl
- We got sorceresses, going to space and time travel

FF9 was about kidnapping a princess
- We got to visit an alien planet full of monkey-people and blow it up

I assume the original premise won't be everything about FFXV either.
And no, don't respond with leaked information, I won't read it :p

X was about acquiring the summons from the temples.

Yeah, they're going after the swords, but chances are things will go wrong or not as smoothly as they plan. Hopefully that actually produces some interesting arcs/scenarios.

Really, the worst thing that could happen is it's a successful road trip from point A to B, with no hitches.
 

Dark_castle

Junior Member
I was thinking, maybe they could structure the game's story similar to a Dragon Quest game. Player has a generic overarching plot, but allows for a journey, coming across various places and encountering different sorts of mini-stories, where we not only get to see the main cast develop as bros, but at the same time learning about the world and its inhabitants. But being a Final Fantasy, maybe add in more urgency and set pieces at various point in the story.
 
Apart from the now horrible IQ and the unconvincing puddle effect on the street, there are no cables running over street anymore for the cable car. :/ The posts holding the cables are still there though...
That is due to the LOD. The cables are still there but due to the distance from the car, they are not visible.

The LOD was really aggressive as even the street vendors appeared outta nowhere in the 52 mins video.
 

sappyday

Member
That is due to the LOD. The cables are still there but due to the distance from the car, they are not visible.

The LOD was really aggressive as even the street vendors appeared outta nowhere in the 52 mins video.
Yea that was really bad with them popping up 2 feet away from you.
 
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