I'm waiting for the second DLC before playing the first one. Glad to hear it's challenging.
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I'm waiting for the second DLC before playing the first one. Glad to hear it's challenging.
Spyxos
Gold Member
What a strange game. As if it was made by 2 teams. One wanted to make an offline MMo and the other wanted to stage cool boss fights. But they have forgotten to communicate with each other. If the highly praised ff14 is anything like ff16, I don't need to play it. I started skipping 90% of the dialog at some point. I don't care about the story, the main characters are a snooze. I just want to get it over with.
I've finally destroyed the 4th crystal, but the game won't stop - how much longer do I have?
Go_Ly_Dow
Member
DLC release date and other details announced. It looks it has a lot more content than the first.
www.neogaf.com
Final Fantasy XVI: The Rising Tide releases April 18th + Trailer. (also QoL updates to the base game)
Art direction is gorgeous (shame about the 1080p trailer :messenger_downcast_sweat:). I enjoyed the first DLC a lot and this one looks a lot more substantial. Full PAX presentation here where they show more of the environments and a list of QoL updates for the base game, including a new...
Go_Ly_Dow
Member
I always thought it would be late April and about 2 months after Rebirth. It releases a full week before Stellar Blade so time wise fits well as they're saying this DLC is about 10 hours long (the first was about 3 hours), so doable in a week.
I think after this DLC the last major thing for XVI will be the PC release and ultimate edition which contains both DLC. Perhaps an updated version for the Pro too.
Although now you can pick up the game + both DLC for probably less than what any ultimate edition would cost, $35-40 for te game + $25 for both DLC, so less than $70.
IAmRei
Member
Badass sword for badass mc
Minsc
Gold Member
Too bad the weapons in this game have no effect on gameplay at all, outside a .0001% boost in damage or whatever.
Didn't care for any of the cosmetics so far, all the extra costumes were meh.
Edit: What's more interesting is that Tonberry's iconic weapon is not some long ass meat cleaver, but a short knife.
Of course since this game doesn't have any weapon system in it, the only way they could make that work is to change Tonberry's weapon so that giving it to Clive works with FFXVI. Because you can't give Clive a knife weapon in this game, as there's no weapon system in it really, to accommodate weapon range/speed/etc.
Didn't care for any of the cosmetics so far, all the extra costumes were meh.
Edit: What's more interesting is that Tonberry's iconic weapon is not some long ass meat cleaver, but a short knife.
Of course since this game doesn't have any weapon system in it, the only way they could make that work is to change Tonberry's weapon so that giving it to Clive works with FFXVI. Because you can't give Clive a knife weapon in this game, as there's no weapon system in it really, to accommodate weapon range/speed/etc.
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Zheph
Member
SQUARE ENIX | The Official SQUARE ENIX Website - Update to FINAL FANTASY XVI
Welcome to the official SQUARE ENIX website. Find all the latest news and updates about your favourite games and upcoming releases.
Meaty patch with a lot of adjustements and QoL, perfect timing for Rising Tides!
Go_Ly_Dow
Member
I was literally just about to post this, but you beat me to it by mere seconds.SQUARE ENIX | The Official SQUARE ENIX Website - Update to FINAL FANTASY XVI
Welcome to the official SQUARE ENIX website. Find all the latest news and updates about your favourite games and upcoming releases.www.square-enix-games.com
Meaty patch with a lot of adjustements and QoL, perfect timing for Rising Tides!
Zheph
Member
It's not often Push Square actually put something interesting and not silly clickbaits or warrior stuff so here it is
www.pushsquare.com
Interview: Final Fantasy 16's DLC Director on The Rising Tide, 16's Success, and What Makes a Great Expansion
High tide
www.pushsquare.com
Push Square: To start with, what are your general thoughts on Final Fantasy 16, now that the game is approaching its first anniversary?
Takeo Kujiraoka, DLC Director: Final Fantasy 16 is unusual among recent mainline Final Fantasy games in that it has a grittier story set in a world that draws inspiration from medieval Europe, not to mention the fact that it’s the first fully-fledged action-RPG of the series. Both aspects were challenges that we undertook with the game.
In recent years, players of the Final Fantasy series have tended to skew towards a higher age range. However, this time there are survey results showing that more people in their teens and 20s played Final Fantasy 16. I think this shows that, to a certain extent, we’ve achieved one of our initial goals – to have players of all ages play the latest Final Fantasy game.
This doesn’t mean that all future Final Fantasy games will take a similar direction to Final Fantasy 16, but I do think it means that we’ve been able to bring new players on board and open new possibilities for the development teams that will work on future instalments in the series.
How did the development team come up with ideas for Final Fantasy 16's DLC? The base game already tells a complete story, so was it difficult to conceptualise additional adventures?
Our producer, Naoki Yoshida, was clear from early on in development that we should make a title that would have a self-contained story – and that he wanted us to focus all our energies into developing the main game. And that’s exactly how development went.
At the same time, we’d been asked to include some potential crumbs in terms of setting and lore that we could pick back up quickly if there was demand from players for DLC. So, the basic ideas and concepts existed before we ever began work on the DLC itself.
From there, we started work on world building and writing the plot in earnest. But you may have noticed that there are some points left undiscussed in the main story, right? The team working on the scenario for the DLC decided to give the tale of Valisthea even more depth by tying some of those bits and pieces to the stories in the DLC.
To give an example, The Rising Tide touches upon the histories of two Mothercrystals that do not appear in the main game: Drake’s Horn and Drake’s Eye.
So, while conceptualising additional adventures was difficult, I think the end result is something that blends seamlessly with the story of the main game.
Final Fantasy 16's first DLC, Echoes of the Fallen, had a crazy final boss that really stood out, even amongst the game's many memorable boss encounters. What was the thinking behind having such a challenging fight?
Final Fantasy 16 is the first time the series has adopted this kind of action gameplay. So, to make sure that long-standing fans of the series would be able to reach the end of the game, we intentionally balanced the difficulty to be more moderate for the main game.
The combat team – myself included – were worried that it was a little too easy, but when we saw how players who weren’t too confident with action games were still having fun and completing the game, we felt like it was probably the right approach.
Having said that, we could also see feedback on livestreams and social media from players who wanted battles that they could really sink their teeth into. Since the underlying combat system in Final Fantasy 16 was created as a robust action game, we had the foundation in place to create high-difficulty battles – and there are new challenges you can only create at high difficulty.
I thought that these challenges would be accepted if they were in the DLC and decided to increase the baseline difficulty of the DLC’s combat.
I was relieved to see that this was well-received in Echoes of the Fallen. We’ve used the same baseline to balance The Rising Tide, so I hope players enjoy the combat in this chapter of DLC as well!
Can you tell us more about The Rising Tide? What are your goals for this second DLC?
Our concept for The Rising Tide was to approach it like an MMO expansion pack, and include all the elements that make up Final Fantasy 16.
There’s a new field area and village, new side quests, new equipment and abilities for Clive, fearsome bosses as well as an Eikon battle, and even endgame content that can be played after completing the DLC. There really is a lot of content packed in.
For those coming back to Final Fantasy 16 for the first time in a while, it will no doubt feel like Valisthea has grown along with Clive’s story. If you’re playing Final Fantasy 16 for the first time, the overall game experience will be richer and all the more satisfying to play.
The team poured all our efforts into creating something for the players who fell in love with the world and gameplay of Final Fantasy 16, so I really hope people will pick it up and give it a go.
Can you give us insight into how development of DLC actually unfolds? How closely does your team work with developers from the main game?
After the producer, Yoshida, gave us the go-ahead to create the DLC, I first worked on pinning down the exact content. It was at this point that we decided to develop the DLC as two separate pieces, so as not to keep players waiting too long after the release of the main game.
From there, a DLC development team was created – comprised mainly of team members who had already completed their work on the main game. That was when development on the DLC began in earnest.
All the while, we were getting more and more feedback from players. We proactively took on board anything we could incorporate and used it to inform the DLC and updates to the main game.
Most of the team working on the DLC had also worked on development of the main game, so we didn’t need to plan any kind of formal coordination between the teams working on the DLC and the main game. Rather, I would say that we were able to use our experience of working on the main game to develop the DLC at a breakneck pace.
I also had regular discussions with the producer, Yoshida, and the main director of the base game, Hiroshi Takai, to check that what we had was fitting as DLC for Final Fantasy 16.
In the end, we were able to implement even more than what I’d put into my original proposal – so I’m incredibly grateful to the development team.
In your own opinion, what do you think makes a great DLC? What does it need in order to elevate the whole game?
I believe that DLC should preserve and respect the concepts in the main game, at the same time as providing further gameplay and fun for players who enjoyed the game.
DLC obviously can’t pretend the main game never happened, and it can’t be something completely different – regardless of whether that “something different” might be good fun in its own right. On the other hand, it’s not a good idea for the experience of the main game to be incomplete unless you play the DLC.
These are all fairly common sense, but they’re the kinds of things I tried to keep in mind. And, of course, I think it’s really important to take note of player feedback. That’s one of the advantages you have when the DLC is created after the release of the main game.
This is less about what elevates the game per se, and is more about my own preferences, but I do sometimes wonder if changing a simple levelling or growth system in the base game to something more complex makes the experience more enjoyable.
And finally, do you have anything you'd like to say to our readers, and to fans of Final Fantasy 16?
The narrative of Final Fantasy 16 has reached an end with this DLC, The Rising Tide. The DLC development team was only able to make it this far because the fans let us know how much they’d enjoyed the main game. Thank you so much!
We have the release of the PC version ahead of us, and we plan to release a demo that will also act as a benchmark – so I hope that you’ll give it a go if you’ve yet to play Final Fantasy 16.
Over the course of Final Fantasy 16's development, we have had the opportunity to gain all kinds of experience. We’ll do our best to put that to good use in the development of future titles and create games that you’ll enjoy even more, so I hope you’ll continue to look out for and support the team.
Thank you.
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Go_Ly_Dow
Member
Great interviewIt's not often Push Square actually put something interesting and not silly clickbaits or warrior stuff so here it is
Interview: Final Fantasy 16's DLC Director on The Rising Tide, 16's Success, and What Makes a Great Expansion
High tide
saintjules
Member
SQUARE ENIX | The Official SQUARE ENIX Website - Update to FINAL FANTASY XVI
Welcome to the official SQUARE ENIX website. Find all the latest news and updates about your favourite games and upcoming releases.
Meaty patch with a lot of adjustements and QoL, perfect timing for Rising Tides!
Thinking that performance mode will get fixed when the Pro comes out. Gonna continue holding off until then.
saintjules
Member
Punished Miku
Gold Member
Finally started the game last night. Borrowing a copy.
I went into it again with an open mind. I thought it was starting to get better after the demo portion. The Tiamat fight was fun enough. Some good dialogue portions leading up to it. Then when I got to the hideout the pacing took another steep dive. I delivered some wood and some soup. Got some sword upgrade. Then out to the great forest. Got past another boss and Im just almost ready to call it. Its got cool elements at times but it really is boring. The bosses are too spongy in terms of health. Your 4 hit sword combo gets so old so fast and barely feels like youre doing damage on bosses. Playing on performance mode, there are lots of times that its a bit hard to see what is happening in the fight. Abilities so far feel mostly useless.
I just dont know. I'll play more this weekend. For a bit I thought I was maybe going to get into it but it has lots of flaws that really drag down the cool elements.
And I really dont trust people on music. Its really not that great. The main crystal theme remix from the EP is good. But I dont know if I heard even a 2nd song I liked and it all sounds so drab since its not live instruments. Playing Persona 3 R really showed me not everyone has an ear for that. Thats fine, glad you like it. But it sticks out a lot sometimes for me and I expect more from this series in that area.
I went into it again with an open mind. I thought it was starting to get better after the demo portion. The Tiamat fight was fun enough. Some good dialogue portions leading up to it. Then when I got to the hideout the pacing took another steep dive. I delivered some wood and some soup. Got some sword upgrade. Then out to the great forest. Got past another boss and Im just almost ready to call it. Its got cool elements at times but it really is boring. The bosses are too spongy in terms of health. Your 4 hit sword combo gets so old so fast and barely feels like youre doing damage on bosses. Playing on performance mode, there are lots of times that its a bit hard to see what is happening in the fight. Abilities so far feel mostly useless.
I just dont know. I'll play more this weekend. For a bit I thought I was maybe going to get into it but it has lots of flaws that really drag down the cool elements.
And I really dont trust people on music. Its really not that great. The main crystal theme remix from the EP is good. But I dont know if I heard even a 2nd song I liked and it all sounds so drab since its not live instruments. Playing Persona 3 R really showed me not everyone has an ear for that. Thats fine, glad you like it. But it sticks out a lot sometimes for me and I expect more from this series in that area.
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sigmaZ
Member
Nailed it. I imagine it's harder for since you're playing it without any release hype but in the end the mediocre and awkwardness of everything traumatized me to a degree lol
And I'm totally with you on the music. At times it feels the music was made seperately from the game. I went back and played last night to see of I could stomach any more and I remember entering one area and thinking, did Soken even see this area before he scored it or did they just randomly take one of the 300 songs and randomly stick it on there. I felt this way multiple times during my first playthrough. The mixing can be quite mediocre at times. Sounds like someone who just discovered what reverb is.
Away is a masterpiece though. And the dungeon themes were cool. Everything else was meh city. A few themes also feel like clear ripoffs of certain movie themes (namely Batman and Star Wars from what I recall).
James Sawyer Ford
Member
Serious question - if this was such a turnoff, how did you ever manage to get through your personal GOTY last year?
The latter is a far worse offender on the aspects you mention
Punished Miku
Gold Member
I'm really not looking to derail this thread with the same stuff we've discussed 100x. It gets old when you just don't remember previous conversations we've had explaining why I enjoyed Starfield in extreme detail.
Here I complained about 1) poor pacing which doesn't really apply too much to Starfield since Starfield doesn't really even have pacing. It's pretty open. So far XVI has kept me on a linear path, which is fine. But the two things aren't really related. 2) Spongy enemies. Not at all the case in Starfield. Not sure why you would even bring this up. 3) Doing the same 4 hit sword combo the whole game. Not really the same as Starfield. You have stealth, lasers, shotguns, sniper rifles, cosmic powers, etc. 4) Barely feels like you're doing damage on bosses. Again, really genuinely has literally nothing to do with Starfield. There's like 1 boss in the whole game, couple on side quests. They're not sponges. 5) Hard to see what's happening sometimes in performance mode. Again, totally unrelated to Starfield. Starfield is 30 fps, and I never found it difficult to make out what was happening visually. 6) Abilities feel mostly useless. Again, not really the case in Starfield. Many of them are not even damage abilities, but more for utility, including invisibility, oxygen regeneration, making plants grow, freezing enemies in place, seeing enemies through walls, etc. 7) Music audio quality. Starfield's OST is all recorded with live instruments so no that's not the same either.
Literally not a single thing I mentioned has anything at all to do with Starfield. I'm not doing this again. All I'm going to do in here is talk about playing FFXVI. If you can't handle that then block me.
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skit_data
Member
Playing through the DLCs now, I just started The Rising Tide DLC. I had forgotten how good FF16 is when it nails that feel of epicness in the big boss battles.
But damn, the 30fps feels more unbearable than ever. It's gonna be interesting to see if the PS5 Pro can hold a more stable 60fps and higher res in FFXVI:s Frame Rate mode.
But damn, the 30fps feels more unbearable than ever. It's gonna be interesting to see if the PS5 Pro can hold a more stable 60fps and higher res in FFXVI:s Frame Rate mode.
James Sawyer Ford
Member
Poor pacing is one of the largest complaints about the game. Many claiming it took around 50 hours to "git good". Tons of linear quests masked in a superficial and barren procedural world where all you do is go from one dull NPC to the next in an endlessly boring fetch quest. My second comment was combat in general, not specifics, and the combat is absolutely poor and monotonous. There's not much variety that feels meaningful around all the various types they throw at you. The quality of an audio to me is more than just the quality of its instruments, it's the melodies, and outside the main theme, nothing is memorable with melody.
So yeah my comments are applicable, I was able to make it through FF16 despite my complaints and got fully engrossed in the characters, story, world, lore, music, and epicness of all the battles despite not having much depth to the customization or RPG aspects and the dull fetch quest side story stuff. But whatever complaints I do have are far greater in a game you absolutely adored last year. The production values and polish are a universe apart in terms of quality.
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James Sawyer Ford
Member
Yeah I'm going to wait for the PS5 Pro to play this. I was fine with 30 fps but I want to see what it looks like enhanced.
Punished Miku
Gold Member
The main quest isn't even 50 hours. You're free to go do literally anything you want after about 45 minutes. Saying it takes 50 hours to get good is literally, objectively a nonsense statement. It's not a linear game. I've done 4 New Game + runs so you really learn how little is gating you before you're 100% free. It's just the mining planet intro, and meeting Constellation in New Atlantis, then nothing else is stopping you.
The rest of your post is just us having different opinions about a game that I don't care to discuss in this OT any more. I could say the same thing about you liking FFXVI but hating Starfield, but why on Earth would I? Who even cares? You are allowed to like whatever you want, and the games are really not alike at all or inviting any obvious comparisons.
Only thing I would see any value in comparing is production values. I'd say both games are pretty uneven. Starfield has some NPCs that look shit, and basically any NPC that has dialogue looks fantastic. FFXVI has great story cutscene NPCs but zero visual gear customization, and any NPC in a normal questline looks like they're from a PS3 game. I'd say environments look good almost all the time in XVI, but they're simplistic layouts and pretty limited in scope. I'm still early in the game so I don't know, but does FFXVI even have 1 city? That small hideout definitely doesn't count. Some environments in Starfield look bad, but some stuff including interiors looks fantastic, and the game is like 1000x bigger in scope and level design complexity. Both clearly seem to use some kind of procedural generation for lip syncing, and I'd say Starfield's is way better there. For combat animations and things like that clearly XVI has better animation, but Starfield is also designed to be played in 1st or 3rd person. Both have pretty good voice acting. Audio production quality is far better in Starfield, as I mentioned in the music section. Physics and item interaction is infinitely better in Starfield; everything in XVI environmentally is simplistic and static. FFXVI has nothing even in the ballpark of the production value put into the shipbuilding and all the options there, or the habitat construction. But ... who cares?
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James Sawyer Ford
Member
FF16 has multiple cities. Rebirth does the cities better, but 16 isn't bad in that regard especially as you do the side quests (which, while simple, do actually have some good stories to them). You are still quite early. But at the same time you've gotten enough taste of the game to know if you like it or not. I was hooked from the demo and it never let up. The problem with Starfield is that I totally disagree with you on the idea that the NPCs look fantastic - they look terrible, and it's not just the NPCs it's the main characters in the game.... And the diaogue/writing is absolutely awful. The scope of the game is surface level at best. Almost nothing has a hand crafted look and the towns in the game feel completely devoid of personality or anything memorable to them, that's why they are easy to get lost in. I wouldn't say that's good complexity. The mega fans of the game are the ones that said 50 hours were required to get good - but nothing hooked me at all, none of the gameplay systems were compelling. It's just a time waster with no reward. In FF16 it's probably some of the best writing the series has featured and feels leagues better than the infantile writing of Starfield
To each their own, people are into different things, but some of the same flaws in FF16 are 10x worse in something like Starfield IMHO. But maybe the shipbuilding, tinkering, crafting, etc were things you enjoyed which FF16 doesn't have (I did not enjoy these aspects) and loading was something you could put up with. Thankfully FF16 didn't have a lot of that. The only thing I can say about Starfield is that the interior art style in the ships and labs is really cool and looks great, but it seems like a completely separate team made everything else which isn't nearly as polished and slick.
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James Sawyer Ford
Member
I ended up really enjoying the softer musical tracks in addition to the hype stuff like Away and Sail The Forbidden Seas
At the time I didn't realize maybe how much I enjoyed it, but it has a really cozy atmosphere and makes me nostalgic for some of the areas in the game.
saintjules
Member
Yea the hideout really killed my hype for the game for some reason. Combined with performance issues I decided to hold off for now.
skit_data
Member
I was also planning to wait for the Pro but I had quite a lot of coins on Playstation Stars so I exchanged them to credit and bought the season pass. I'll probably do the Final Fantasy difficulty playthrough on the Pro, though.
Punished Miku
Gold Member
I could see that for sure. I'm going to keep going. I do want to see more of the game and this is my shot to play it while I'm borrowing it.
Final point I will make on Starfield since you brought it up is that the loading is really not even that different between these games. We all know Creation Engine isn't optimized for fast loading so you see that 1-2 seconds of a black screen. Other than that speed being faster in XVI, there's very little difference. Nothing in XVI is really open world. Everything is loaded in from a world map. It's not loading areas larger than what Starfield does. It's just 1-2 seconds faster.
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Perfo
Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
Soken is exactly the type of music composer Uematsu not long ago was saying missing lately. While he chases sometimes like everyone some big cinematic scores most of his work revolves around strong game-y music and sounds. I realize only this late that probably among SE composers is the one most close to Uematsu legacy as now. Can’t forget a single track or 16 or melody why I can’t remember a single one from 7rebirth that aren’t remixes of the usual stuff and even then the way the overly rearranged it makes them still forgettable compared to the originals!
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SkylineRKR
Member
I was day one but the hideout was a huge red flag to me. Its sounded like you access everything from this hub. And this turned out to be the case. you'll return here dozens of times, often for just smalltalk.
When you traverse an area you don't really get the feeling of travel; you'll be greeted by blue lines. And once you cross it you aren't in the next connected area but back on the level select. Worse yet, many times you'll be forced back the Hideout for reasons.
But to me the worst part are the dungeons. They are like an insult, and they feel like they aren't a part of the game.
James Sawyer Ford
Member
Hmmm it took me significantly longer to load in to areas in Starfield, because everything seems to require a loading screen or multiple menus to navigate to quick travel.
FF16 only requires you to pull up the map and fast travel and it’s significantly faster
James Sawyer Ford
Member
The hideout expands in the game and is better when that happens
I enjoyed the game but the “dungeons” and the lack of exploration was a bummer. They made a pretty solid semi-open world but it’s mostly empty. Nothing to find unless you’ve triggered a side quest. It would’ve been a lot more fun to be able to stumble upon some of these areas randomly and have stuff happen.
Still enjoyed the game 8.5/10.
Still enjoyed the game 8.5/10.
rofif
Can’t Git Gud
After bloated rebirth with kingdom hearted story... I think I appreciate 16 anew. There is beauty in simplicity and ff16 starts, does what it wants to do and ends.
CrustyBritches
Gold Member
I love FF XVI and can't wait to play Rising Tide. Just have to wait until I'm wrapped up with Unicorn Overlord.
skit_data
Member
Wow, the ending of The Rising Tide was
very much not what I expected.
Don't know what I expected but the ending was... kinda... cute? I guess that's the best word for it. Felt a little more tangible than Ultimas philosophical autofellatio. A sad, really, really old baby finally found a family.
Don't know what I expected but the ending was... kinda... cute? I guess that's the best word for it. Felt a little more tangible than Ultimas philosophical autofellatio. A sad, really, really old baby finally found a family.
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sigmaZ
Member
All decent songs. No doubt. Just most of them don't resonate with me that strongly.
The first one is the one that open like Duel of Fates. It's still a decent song though.
The forest song I liked but it felt odd in-game because you enter that area from the opposite of the forest and it screams forest theme so it felt a bit odd at first as you don't start out surrounded by trees (Yes. This is how sensitive I am when it comes to soundtracks lol)
Not a fan of Twilight or any of those reverb heavy piano tracks that Soken does. FF14 is full of them too. But I tend to loathe aimless cozy tracks. This has been my issue with a lot of Hamauzu's stuff as well. He also does a lot of these tracks (though with far better production).
But I get it. I can understand why people would like this.
James Sawyer Ford
Member
Hmm...so you like more of the aggressive battle songs and stuff?
I tend to like a pretty wide variety. Soken has subtle tunes but they have really good melodies that don't feel aimless to me. Hamauzu's stuff is pretty great too, especially the unique tracks in Rebirth like Mt. Corel and all the regional themes were fantastic.
It's hard to top Uematsu though.
sigmaZ
Member
Doesn't have to be aggressive. I just prefer synth and more straightforward lead melody and basslines and string layers and ambiance. Like Cosmo Canyon in FF7 for instance.
Not all of his music is aimless but there are several examples in FF14 and 16 where tracks are more ambient and don't feel like they were specifically made for what they were used for. But if you enjoy it while playing, that's all that matters. For me it's not bad perse, but it doesn't do anything to enhance the experience for me (versus the Mt. Corel music you mentioned from Rebirth which very much enhances the experience).
Oh, yeah. Hamauzu's Rebirth stuff is next level. It's his best stuff by far imo. (It even suites the game better than the OG music at times) His stuff is really good when it has synth in it. The Stamp battle song is my favorite battle song in the game.
Also like that song that plays on the beach quest in Corel where you look for shells with Aeris (can't find it on YouTube). Shame his stuff isn't in the world areas.
When it comes to melody yeah. I think all the composers we've discussed are capable of doing the same, I mean look at the Kurogane theme in FF14, that's Uematsu-level stuff. It's just not where their musical interests lie currently.
I have high hopes for Yasunori Nishiki right now. I'm hoping they let him onto an FF project at some point. He's good and doing things orchestrally but keeping strong melodic themes.
Zheph
Member
Stamp battle theme is just next-next level but I do agree, I like Soken but I prefer Hamauzu (he was amazing already with X and did a great job in XIII) and the Rebirth team much better.
Nishiki is quite good and I hope he gets bigger projects too
SkylineRKR
Member
I continued XVI after many months. I am quite far, I just want to get it over with. I don't dislike it. There are some moments in here. But then I am sent to an NPC, and yet another NPC.. and back to the Hideaway for quest completion. These MMO quests shouldn't be here.
The gameplay... its good but it obviously lacks challenge. However, what I like less is the damage you deal with normal attacks. Its almost nothing. Same like charged magic.
If they want to go action game, then tune the damage for both outgoing and incoming. A stinger and skull crusher finisher should do much more damage than it does here. I see no reason not to roll with Phoenix and its Heatwave attack, because you can nearly insta stagger enemies with it.
Also, elemental damage is absolutely sorely missing. I want to be able to one shot bombs with something like Ice Age and deal significant damage with charged ice blasts or magic burst. There is no reason to use magic burst instead of charge magic and fire it after a 4 hit combo. Its all there.. but its useless. These enemies barely do anything, yet they take ages to go down. Even when you are overleveled.
That in combination with a 40 hour game and a basic move set thats pretty much complete after approx 2 hours of play makes combat quite a chore. You can't launch big guys, effectively making a myriad of skills useless (you should be able to launch them after a stun). And only Garuda can do a stun after 50% stagger, so no reason to not use this one either. And those fucking cooldowns, for what? Just to prolong the boring fights.
I did notice some QoL improvements such as warp back to the quest giver.
The gameplay... its good but it obviously lacks challenge. However, what I like less is the damage you deal with normal attacks. Its almost nothing. Same like charged magic.
If they want to go action game, then tune the damage for both outgoing and incoming. A stinger and skull crusher finisher should do much more damage than it does here. I see no reason not to roll with Phoenix and its Heatwave attack, because you can nearly insta stagger enemies with it.
Also, elemental damage is absolutely sorely missing. I want to be able to one shot bombs with something like Ice Age and deal significant damage with charged ice blasts or magic burst. There is no reason to use magic burst instead of charge magic and fire it after a 4 hit combo. Its all there.. but its useless. These enemies barely do anything, yet they take ages to go down. Even when you are overleveled.
That in combination with a 40 hour game and a basic move set thats pretty much complete after approx 2 hours of play makes combat quite a chore. You can't launch big guys, effectively making a myriad of skills useless (you should be able to launch them after a stun). And only Garuda can do a stun after 50% stagger, so no reason to not use this one either. And those fucking cooldowns, for what? Just to prolong the boring fights.
I did notice some QoL improvements such as warp back to the quest giver.
Revolutionary
Member
Just finished Rising Tide and... meh? The questline was relatively short and doesn't feel worth the $20 price tag. I should've stuck to my guns and waited for the complete edition on sale for PC.
Also, jumping back into this game after playing a better Final Fantasy (Rebirth), as well as a better ARPG (Dragon's Dogma 2) really solidified how many missteps this game made.
Also, jumping back into this game after playing a better Final Fantasy (Rebirth), as well as a better ARPG (Dragon's Dogma 2) really solidified how many missteps this game made.
Punished Miku
Gold Member
Beat Garuda. It was definitely a highlight. A surprising amount of it was cutscenes but it was still fun to watch. Definitely some Evangelion influence. Really cool wind effects leading up to it.
I'm not hating the game, but its just a shame that they couldnt more meaningfully capitalize on the stuff they're doing well. The writing is just not great. Dialogue lines are mostly good, I'm more struggling with some of the plot and character points. Not a lot about Clive makes any sense. I'm sure they will explain it, but some of this should have been addressed already. I remember key character scenes in XIII that were actually way better written. The characters turn to l'cie and they actually talk about how crazy that is, how they're scared and dont really get it and dont understand their powers. Here we just have Clive decide he's a demigod and will fight Garuda in 1 on 1 combat with a sword and somehow wins? Blocks blows with his sword when she is shattering buildings? Its just done really quickly to the point that he kind of feels like a Mary Sue.
Combat could be infinitely better with just a few small tweaks, so its frustrating. Even if they dont want to give him multiple weapons, they could just make a new 4 hit combo animations when you're in wind stance so it at least mixes up the rhythm and flavor a bit. And there is just simply no excuse for enemies having this much HP. I'm taking a break now because my hand is literally tired from hitting attack so much. Even some mid tier enemies can take like 3-5 minutes of just constantly hitting attack. I think the Game of Thrones "realistic" vibe they're going for would be so much better served with higher damage / fast fights. In all the cutscenes a random axe will come from off screen and kill people in one hit, let alone Clive's dad. Thats the tone. It just makes no sense to set it up this way. If there was ever a game to copy Souls on it would have been this one, not DMC. Nothing about it fits tonaly. Cooldowns suck and I dont think the stagger system helps combat at all. You end up not wanting to use your moves because you want them ready when you break someone and they take a long time to recharge. Then you spam them all in a row. I didnt really enjoy manually controlling Torgal so he's on auto. I wish there were more ways to heal besides items.
I still think they lift way too obviously from terms used in GoT. Takes me out of it.
I still think the music is pretty weak at times. Garuda battle was the 2nd song that stood out for me. Good themes.
And I still think there's some strange difficulty seeing shit at times. The dungeon area was nearly pitch black. I dont know if you can adjust brightness in the menu even. I honestly couldnt see some of the doors. And a lot of times enemies are a bit of a blur under the spell effects.
Sticking with it though. Had some enjoyable parts finally so that is keeping me invested.
I'm not hating the game, but its just a shame that they couldnt more meaningfully capitalize on the stuff they're doing well. The writing is just not great. Dialogue lines are mostly good, I'm more struggling with some of the plot and character points. Not a lot about Clive makes any sense. I'm sure they will explain it, but some of this should have been addressed already. I remember key character scenes in XIII that were actually way better written. The characters turn to l'cie and they actually talk about how crazy that is, how they're scared and dont really get it and dont understand their powers. Here we just have Clive decide he's a demigod and will fight Garuda in 1 on 1 combat with a sword and somehow wins? Blocks blows with his sword when she is shattering buildings? Its just done really quickly to the point that he kind of feels like a Mary Sue.
Combat could be infinitely better with just a few small tweaks, so its frustrating. Even if they dont want to give him multiple weapons, they could just make a new 4 hit combo animations when you're in wind stance so it at least mixes up the rhythm and flavor a bit. And there is just simply no excuse for enemies having this much HP. I'm taking a break now because my hand is literally tired from hitting attack so much. Even some mid tier enemies can take like 3-5 minutes of just constantly hitting attack. I think the Game of Thrones "realistic" vibe they're going for would be so much better served with higher damage / fast fights. In all the cutscenes a random axe will come from off screen and kill people in one hit, let alone Clive's dad. Thats the tone. It just makes no sense to set it up this way. If there was ever a game to copy Souls on it would have been this one, not DMC. Nothing about it fits tonaly. Cooldowns suck and I dont think the stagger system helps combat at all. You end up not wanting to use your moves because you want them ready when you break someone and they take a long time to recharge. Then you spam them all in a row. I didnt really enjoy manually controlling Torgal so he's on auto. I wish there were more ways to heal besides items.
I still think they lift way too obviously from terms used in GoT. Takes me out of it.
I still think the music is pretty weak at times. Garuda battle was the 2nd song that stood out for me. Good themes.
And I still think there's some strange difficulty seeing shit at times. The dungeon area was nearly pitch black. I dont know if you can adjust brightness in the menu even. I honestly couldnt see some of the doors. And a lot of times enemies are a bit of a blur under the spell effects.
Sticking with it though. Had some enjoyable parts finally so that is keeping me invested.
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SkylineRKR
Member
The combat stays sore all the way through. You can use your abilities, actually you should. Solely use cooldown reduction accessories.
Once the enemy is staggered you will probably have your ability ready again. The best way I found is using skills like Heatwave and Rooks Gambit. The first is for projectiles and the second is for when a strike is coming your way. These eat up the stamina bar. The others I have equipped are for damage dealing during stagger.
The combat would be better off if you get bonus damage for juggles and mixing up attacks. Trash mob should die after a few hits. Counter attacks should do far bigger damage too.
Bosses should fall quicker. They are very easy, but they all have super armor and take a long time to kill. Even if you use the best setups. Regular attacks are actually pointless, you can also wait out your cooldowns and solely use abilities. If a boss has a projectile, wait for it and Heatwave it. No point in breaking your controller with useless normal attacks. Do this twice and he's staggered, use something like Wicked Whirl or Ignition first, and finally the hard hitters when the multiplier is at 1.50.
Also, I think the super moves, like Flames of Rebirth, should be under R2+O.
Once the enemy is staggered you will probably have your ability ready again. The best way I found is using skills like Heatwave and Rooks Gambit. The first is for projectiles and the second is for when a strike is coming your way. These eat up the stamina bar. The others I have equipped are for damage dealing during stagger.
The combat would be better off if you get bonus damage for juggles and mixing up attacks. Trash mob should die after a few hits. Counter attacks should do far bigger damage too.
Bosses should fall quicker. They are very easy, but they all have super armor and take a long time to kill. Even if you use the best setups. Regular attacks are actually pointless, you can also wait out your cooldowns and solely use abilities. If a boss has a projectile, wait for it and Heatwave it. No point in breaking your controller with useless normal attacks. Do this twice and he's staggered, use something like Wicked Whirl or Ignition first, and finally the hard hitters when the multiplier is at 1.50.
Also, I think the super moves, like Flames of Rebirth, should be under R2+O.
SkylineRKR
Member
I beat the game today. After starting in June last year.
The pacing is horrible if you want to complete everything. You open up the final battle, and again the game throws 10 new sidequests at you. The sidequests never became good, contrary to what I read. There are 2 or 3 involving important characters that have some decent dialogues but thats about it. They are the same boring fetch quests and return to the Hideaway types. Many times, especially during the weak middle part, you cant skip these talk and fetch quests.
The game has its moments, its at its best when pushing the story forward. Everything else surrounding it is trash. This game would be better off if 70% was cut, and pushed a linear and cinematic narrative. The combat doesn't sustain for 50+ hours. It never changes from the opening and you never feel more powerful. You do shit damage all the way through. Its level design doesn't sustain either, because there is nothing to find. The enemy variation is very average too. You can do fancy things to trash mobs but this only stalls the game, I was better off just starting battles with something like Diamond Dust. Mobs with a yellow will gauge require a stagger and then super ability rotation. There is no point in using anything remotely creative on them.
If this game was cut short, and structured like the prologue it would've been better. Perhaps this was meant to be something different but S-E insisted on a feature length main FF game.
.
The pacing is horrible if you want to complete everything. You open up the final battle, and again the game throws 10 new sidequests at you. The sidequests never became good, contrary to what I read. There are 2 or 3 involving important characters that have some decent dialogues but thats about it. They are the same boring fetch quests and return to the Hideaway types. Many times, especially during the weak middle part, you cant skip these talk and fetch quests.
The game has its moments, its at its best when pushing the story forward. Everything else surrounding it is trash. This game would be better off if 70% was cut, and pushed a linear and cinematic narrative. The combat doesn't sustain for 50+ hours. It never changes from the opening and you never feel more powerful. You do shit damage all the way through. Its level design doesn't sustain either, because there is nothing to find. The enemy variation is very average too. You can do fancy things to trash mobs but this only stalls the game, I was better off just starting battles with something like Diamond Dust. Mobs with a yellow will gauge require a stagger and then super ability rotation. There is no point in using anything remotely creative on them.
If this game was cut short, and structured like the prologue it would've been better. Perhaps this was meant to be something different but S-E insisted on a feature length main FF game.
.
rofif
Can’t Git Gud
People complained about the game being too easy and they delivered more „difficulty”.
The usual crap. People watch these soul streamers and have unreasonable difficulty standards.
I liked ff16 difficulty. I sub dubs it fun dying in every encounter and having to memorize bosses.
Punished Miku
Gold Member
The GoT references are just so over the top nonstop. I just dont know why anyone thought that was an acceptable idea. The Twins, the Veil, Hugo sends his regards, and on and on.
Had a great session tonight though. The whole section from Oriflamme to the time jump was my favorite part so far. Really cool cutscenes. The mother crystal area looked sick. Typhoon fight was fun.
Had a great session tonight though. The whole section from Oriflamme to the time jump was my favorite part so far. Really cool cutscenes. The mother crystal area looked sick. Typhoon fight was fun.
Punished Miku
Gold Member
So the Ironblood are an island nation. Come on man lol.