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FINAL FANTASY XVI | Prologue DEMO

Well just a note of caution - the demo is great. The danger is that for next week you’ll play it multiple times and then when the full game is out be burned out.

So if you can be patient I think its better assuming you are already sold on the game.

I’m itching to play more now … but resisting the urge to just keep cycling through the demo content.
I managed to play about 50min during my lunch time and I had a great time. I really can't wait to finish it and start the full game next week!

Only negative is that framerate mode is not a steady 60fps but I don't know if it ever was advertised this way.
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
You can kill really fast. Especially if you pop limit before stagger and use the R2 specials. You can cycle between powers in the extra battle demo and use their specials in rotation. I got over 20k I think. The Titan special hits hard if you release at the sweet spot. And I also like the titan shield perfect block.
I had some problem on executing the combo where you mix normal attacks and magic, in the skill example video they show that you can do one attack and one fire, one attack and one fire etc, but it only worked if i did 4 attack and one final fire attack, i though it was a timing problem but if i do 4 attacks and one fire it always succeeded no matter the timing...
 
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GymWolf

Gold Member
I had to skip the last few cutscenes in the castle like Jesus christ this is a demo let me play the game I'm not here to watch all this stuff.
It's the start of the game dude, of course it's gonna be cutscene heavy, and this is an rpg not an action game or an fps.
 

Whitecrow

Banned
The first time I played I was too busy analyzing the looks.

But after that, I must say, the game is fire. No cringe dialogue or disgusting anime tropes. They went full western medieval setting.
And despite some technical flaws, looks amazing. A bit in the uncanny valley sometimes, but great.
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
The first time I played I was too busy analyzing the looks.

But after that, I must say, the game is fire. No cringe dialogue or disgusting anime tropes. They went full western medieval setting.
And despite some technical flaws, looks amazing. A bit in the uncanny valley sometimes, but great.
Really? i think the style is not realistic enough to feel uncanney valley, characters are still clearly made in an anime style.

i was surprised by the facial animation tho, maybe they are not as complicated as something like tlou2 but the characters are all super expressive.
 
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GymWolf

Gold Member
Makes me wonder how people managed to play games like Persona 4? That game take it sweet time before you start the proper game.

that’s usually with most RPG with heavy on character and story.
Many people who are trying ff16 didn't played p5 because it was turn based most probably.

I'm sure many people tried this one because it has a full on action combat system.
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
I don't like the part where they turned the game into a trilogy. Outside of that, yeah.

I love KH. In fact it is my favorite franchise. Not only I don't understand the criticism around its story(Its a good type of complex, though KH 3 was indeed underwhelming plotwise), but also because the story it tells is refreshing in a market where most games are "mature".

So yeah, loved the fact that FF 7 Remake is actually a sequel. The hybrid combat system is the perfect blend of Turn based and action, being true to FF while doing something new at the same time.

Just feel sad for you that you feel this way about FF7 Remake and KH(Which is one of the most successful Square IP), but that's your opinion. And opinion is like ass: Everyone has one.
I mean...you can like kh plot but the game is kinda of a laughing stock on gaming forum plot wise:lollipop_grinning_sweat:

I really liked kh1 because it was the start of the story and was somehow "easy" to follow, i even bought kh3 and enjoyed at least the disney overworlds and the graphic but the game was so incredibly fucking easy that i stopped half way to re-sell the thing (the plot being so confusing even after watching many recap didn't helped)
 

saintjules

Member
I don't ever skip cutscenes in games but when it comes to a demo A DEMO, I just wanted to see how the game felt to play and it doesn't play very well. So it was kind of annoying to get these long winded cutscenes and then snippets of gameplay that isn't really that good. Since when was final fantasy mash square button to win for 5-10 minutes on a boss? Even playing on performance it's very sluggish and I still don't know how to switch target lock to other enemies.

Also this seriously outdated level design doesn't sit well with me either. Being packed into these extremely tight spaces and then forced into small combat arenas and quick time events for opening doors and pushing your way into the next small area. I really thought we were passed this kind of thing. I really hope this is just a bad representation of the game. I really didn't like FF15 and the FF7R and had hoped this would be something completely different.

It's interesting to hear you felt performance mode was sluggish during combat? I didn't get that. At least not yet. I finished the Malboro boss with no issue in performance.
 

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
I mean...you can like kh plot but the game is kinda of a laughing stock on gaming forum plot wise:lollipop_grinning_sweat:

I really liked kh1 because it was the start of the story and was somehow "easy" to follow, i even bought kh3 and enjoyed at least the disney overworlds and the graphic but the game was so incredibly fucking easy that i stopped half way to re-sell the thing (the plot being so confusing even after watching many recap didn't helped)

Going from KH1 to Kh3 is like reading Game of THrones and immediately skipping to Dance of Dragons. Of course you will be confused, you just skipped most of the narrative.

Also this forum praises trash like TLOU2 for story. I don't really trust folks here in terms of understanding narratives.
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
Going from KH1 to Kh3 is like reading Game of THrones and immediately skipping to Dance of Dragons. Of course you will be confused, you just skipped most of the narrative.

Also this forum praises trash like TLOU2 for story. I don't really trust folks here in terms of understanding narratives.
It's not only this forum tho, kh plot being confused to say the least is kinda of a gaming community running joke like sony games having overly talkative characters:lollipop_grinning_sweat:

Also, between kh1 and 3 there are like...15 games between mobile and shit? I tried to watch some recaps before buying kh3 because of course i wanted to enjoy the story aswell, but the amount of turn of events and ass-pulls was overwhelming.

But you have a point with tlou2, i don't really like any of ND stories but they are celebrated like the second coming of sliced jesus.
 
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Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Really? i think the style is not realistic enough to feel uncanney valley, characters are still clearly made in an anime style.

i was surprised by the facial animation tho, maybe they are not as complicated as something like tlou2 but the characters are all super expressive.
The character models still very stylized, it’s basically same character designer behind FFXIV.

THANK GOD they didn't use face scan like they did with Forspoken.
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
The character models still very stylized, it’s basically same character designer behind FFXIV.

THANK GOD they didn't use face scan like they did with Forspoken.
Tbf frospoken is a really bad case of face scanning, the chick looks derpy:lollipop_squinting:
 

Nautilus

Banned
I mean...you can like kh plot but the game is kinda of a laughing stock on gaming forum plot wise:lollipop_grinning_sweat:

I really liked kh1 because it was the start of the story and was somehow "easy" to follow, i even bought kh3 and enjoyed at least the disney overworlds and the graphic but the game was so incredibly fucking easy that i stopped half way to re-sell the thing (the plot being so confusing even after watching many recap didn't helped)
Its not, the same way that only a vocal minority likes to hate Nomura. KH is extremely popular, and the ones that don't like it is a subsection of a subsection of hardcore gamers. And hardcore gamers(Forum dwellers and the like) is already a tiny part of the gaming fanbase as a whole. Never seen anyone who makes fun of KH or Nomura seriously.
 

tommycronin

Member
It's the start of the game dude, of course it's gonna be cutscene heavy, and this is an rpg not an action game or an fps.
I kind of viewed this just as a demo to see what the gameplay was like. I didn't go into it knowing about it being mostly cutscenes and barely being any gameplay. I have no issues with full games like this but in a demo I do. 80% of the time I was just sat there watching all this stuff and then every once in a while I got to walk around and fight stuff and even then all that was pretty weak stuff.
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
Its not, the same way that only a vocal minority likes to hate Nomura. KH is extremely popular, and the ones that don't like it is a subsection of a subsection of hardcore gamers. And hardcore gamers(Forum dwellers and the like) is already a tiny part of the gaming fanbase as a whole. Never seen anyone who makes fun of KH or Nomura seriously.
Agree to disagree then.
 
Its not my box to define it. Who defined it was decades of FF games.

I think its you who don't know what FF stands for.
FF has been a zombie series for almost two decades, dude. The last good mainline game was XII in 2006, and that in itself as an attempt to move the series in the direction that XVI is taking. Since then the series has been unmitigated trash. If you can't evaluate XVI in the context of the failure of XIII and XV as games I don't know what to tell you.
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
I kind of viewed this just as a demo to see what the gameplay was like. I didn't go into it knowing about it being mostly cutscenes and barely being any gameplay. I have no issues with full games like this but in a demo I do. 80% of the time I was just sat there watching all this stuff and then every once in a while I got to walk around and fight stuff and even then all that was pretty weak stuff.
I guess some people just prefers demo that put them in the middle of the action to try the gameplay.

I think releasing the first 2 hours is genius, forspoken got an even worse fate than it deserved because the demo was not introducing combat and traversal properly (and also the embarassing tweets with the cringe likes).

Being toss in the middle of the heat can be a double edged sword.
 

Whitecrow

Banned
Really? i think the style is not realistic enough to feel uncanney valley, characters are still clearly made in an anime style.

i was surprised by the facial animation tho, maybe they are not as complicated as something like tlou2 but the characters are all super expressive.
Keyword, sometimes : )

Characters are stylized yeah, but the only one who "ruins" it for me is Joshua, the rest I can bear with them.
 

Nautilus

Banned
FF has been a zombie series for almost two decades, dude. The last good mainline game was XII in 2006, and that in itself as an attempt to move the series in the direction that XVI is taking. Since then the series has been unmitigated trash. If you can't evaluate XVI in the context of the failure of XIII and XV as games I don't know what to tell you.
You're not wrong there. But FF has been a zombie since XII exactly because Square doesn't know what to make of it, and that's absolutely clear in XVI. Which is yet again a total shift in tone and gameplay to what FF is.

I'll admit that XVI will most likely end up being better than XIII and XV, but exactly because it has nothing of FF in it, XVI will just extend the franchise's eternal penetence in limbo. Which is extremely sad.
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
Keyword, sometimes : )

Characters are stylized yeah, but the only one who "ruins" it for me is Joshua, the rest I can bear with them.
Ok i get what you say with joshua, it has a very slightly unsettling face in some moments, i would not call it uncanney valley tho, just videogame childs rendering being generally unsettling.

I think i had the same feeling with benedicta because she kinda has a jap-cat face but she reminds me so much of a real life actress so i was internally confused:lollipop_squinting:
 
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vpance

Member
I guess some people just prefers demo that put them in the middle of the action to try the gameplay.

I think releasing the first 2 hours is genius, forspoken got an even worse fate than it deserved because the demo was not introducing combat and traversal properly (and also the embarassing tweets with the cringe likes).

Yeah I think it was smart. Definitely an attention grabbing demo with how it ends on that plot point.
 

Thirty7ven

Banned
The first time I played I was too busy analyzing the looks.

But after that, I must say, the game is fire. No cringe dialogue or disgusting anime tropes. They went full western medieval setting.
And despite some technical flaws, looks amazing. A bit in the uncanny valley sometimes, but great.

The aesthetics and and overall look of the game feels like an anime version of western fantasy, so I never felt uncanny valley. The game isn’t looking for photo realism. Can see it and feel it in the character designs and direction too.

Absolutely love the look and feel of the game. People who choose the English VA might be doing themselves a disservice because you can tell the game was written by Japanese writers and then translated.
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
The aesthetics and and overall look of the game feels like an anime version of western fantasy, so I never felt uncanny valley. The game isn’t looking for photo realism. Can see it and feel it in the character designs and direction too.

Absolutely love the look and feel of the game. People who choose the English VA might be doing themselves a disservice because you can tell the game was written by Japanese writers and then translated.
Really?

i usually play every single japanese game with japanese va but i opted for the english one to have that got feeling and the va is great, does it really sound that better in jap?

Fun fact, using the term "jap" is enough to get a warning on reeee:lollipop_grinning_smiling_eyes:
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
I'm not exaggerating. Playing FFXVI felt like I was playing one of the greatest modern-day games.

Everything is so amazing. I love the dark and gritty tone, the Game of Thrones inspiration, and the freakin' huge scale of everything. And that mind-blowing music in the background, elevating every scene to new heights.

I hope it sells 20+ million copies. If the first 2 hours are anything to go by, this game deserves it.

What an excellent first impression!
 
You're not wrong there. But FF has been a zombie since XII exactly because Square doesn't know what to make of it, and that's absolutely clear in XVI. Which is yet again a total shift in tone and gameplay to what FF is.

I'll admit that XVI will most likely end up being better than XIII and XV, but exactly because it has nothing of FF in it, XVI will just extend the franchise's eternal penetence in limbo. Which is extremely sad.
XVI is not a total shift in tone from what FF used to be, it's a continuation of a shift towards a more mature tone and more sophisticated narrative that was occurring in the series with XII (and Tactics before it) but that Square Enix brass under Wada aborted to double down on the countervailing melodramatic adolescent tone embodied in games like VIII and X (and especially KH and X-2).

Under Sakaguchi, FF's stories became progressively darker and more mature from IV to VI to VII. He then returned to a sort of Dragon Quest-style storybook tone with IX, but that was explicitly a throwback game that was never intended to be the direction for the series in the future. Sakaguchi's chosen protégé was Yasumi Matsuno, whose games are all very dark, mature, medieval political thrillers (Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, parts of XII). That's the direction Sakaguchi wanted for the series, because he realized that as your audience matures the sorts of narratives they'll be interested in will have to mature along with them.

The other tendency within FF, and the one that Wada favored, was the idea that the series should just focus on an audience of teenagers and arrested development cases forever. The idea that there are enough mentally or emotionally stunted adults out there who'll just eat this slop up forever so just double and triple down on them and you never need to mature or cater to a wider audience.

Well guess what, that was a terrible idea that's done possibly irreparable damage to the franchise. The biggest RPG of the 2010s was The Witcher 3, FFXIII and XV were sideshow laughingstocks in comparison. Squenix has finally realized that they need to course correct away from anime trash if the series is going to regain its relevance, so they're leaving you and your childish sensibilities and preferences behind. Thank god!
 

Skifi28

Gold Member
I hate to say this, but the 30fps mode is actually pretty ok. If they don't improve the performance mode by the final release, I might actually stick with that.
 
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GymWolf

Gold Member
Yeah the 30 fps mode is A-ok, they just need to kill the amount of blur when you move the camera because as it stands now, it's pretty disgusting on oled tv.

I mean, ok for a 30 fps mode, the game doens't look good enough to not have a 1440p60 mode.
 
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Diseased Yak

Gold Member
Yes
It confused me a bit, but I'm sure
I'm not exaggerating. Playing FFXVI felt like I was playing one of the greatest modern-day games.

Everything is so amazing. I love the dark and gritty tone, the Game of Thrones inspiration, and the freakin' huge scale of everything. And that mind-blowing music in the background, elevating every scene to new heights.

I hope it sells 20+ million copies. If the first 2 hours are anything to go by, this game deserves it.

What an excellent first impression!

You sum up my feelings perfectly. I was blown away from start to finish! The 22nd can't come soon enough.
 

Nautilus

Banned
XVI is not a total shift in tone from what FF used to be, it's a continuation of a shift towards a more mature tone and more sophisticated narrative that was occurring in the series with XII (and Tactics before it) but that Square Enix brass under Wada aborted to double down on the countervailing melodramatic adolescent tone embodied in games like VIII and X (and especially KH and X-2).

Under Sakaguchi, FF's stories became progressively darker and more mature from IV to VI to VII. He then returned to a sort of Dragon Quest-style storybook tone with IX, but that was explicitly a throwback game that was never intended to be the direction for the series in the future. Sakaguchi's chosen protégé was Yasumi Matsuno, whose games are all very dark, mature, medieval political thrillers (Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, parts of XII). That's the direction Sakaguchi wanted for the series, because he realized that as your audience matures the sorts of narratives they'll be interested in will have to mature along with them.

The other tendency within FF, and the one that Wada favored, was the idea that the series should just focus on an audience of teenagers and arrested development cases forever. The idea that there are enough mentally or emotionally stunted adults out there who'll just eat this slop up forever so just double and triple down on them and you never need to mature or cater to a wider audience.

Well guess what, that was a terrible idea that's done possibly irreparable damage to the franchise. The biggest RPG of the 2010s was The Witcher 3, FFXIII and XV were sideshow laughingstocks in comparison. Squenix has finally realized that they need to course correct away from anime trash if the series is going to regain its relevance, so they're leaving you and your childish sensibilities and preferences behind. Thank god!
Honestly, tired of just telling and retelling of what it feels like its been the 20th time by now. I mean no disrespect, but my opinion and the view of the fanbase is pretty well documented in this thread and in other threads. So if you wish to know it, just go back and read them.

Regardless, it will be sales that will decide the fate of this game. If the gaming audience wants this new take that has nothing of FF in it, then sales will reflect it. If the audience doesn't think this is FF, much like XV wasn't, then it won't sell well. Simple as that.
 

Auto_aim1

MeisaMcCaffrey
Yeah the 30 fps mode is A-ok, they just need to kill the amount of blur when you move the camera because as it stands now, it's pretty disgusting on oled tv.

I mean, ok for a 30 fps mode, the game doens't look good enough to not have a 1440p60 mode.
Yeah I was searching for the setting to disable the blur.
 
Honestly, tired of just telling and retelling of what it feels like its been the 20th time by now. I mean no disrespect, but my opinion and the view of the fanbase is pretty well documented in this thread and in other threads. So if you wish to know it, just go back and read them.

Regardless, it will be sales that will decide the fate of this game. If the gaming audience wants this new take that has nothing of FF in it, then sales will reflect it. If the audience doesn't think this is FF, much like XV wasn't, then it won't sell well. Simple as that.
They have been catering to your opinion for almost two decades! You got what you wanted - FFXIII and FFXV and FFVIIR are games tailor-made for your sensibilities. It's time for the series to grow up.
 

Rush2112

Banned
Would anyone here recommend FF VII remake while waiting for this? never played the original. Unfinished plot worth a play or no?
 
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GymWolf

Gold Member
Yeah I was searching for the setting to disable the blur.
it-doesnt-actually-exist-derek-muller.gif
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Would anyone here recommend FF VII remake while waiting for this? never played the original. Unfinished plot worth a play or no?
Final Fantasy VII Remake is a pseudo-sequel. It's really meant for people who have played the original. If you can turn your brain off, you'll be fine - but a lot of the story beats won't hit right, and I imagine you'll be pretty confused by the end of it. Just my 2c.
 

tommycronin

Member
I guess some people just prefers demo that put them in the middle of the action to try the gameplay.

I think releasing the first 2 hours is genius, forspoken got an even worse fate than it deserved because the demo was not introducing combat and traversal properly (and also the embarassing tweets with the cringe likes).

Being toss in the middle of the heat can be a double edged sword.
I'd have to agree with you there. That's what happened with me and the Forspoken demo. Still though I wish they toned down some of the cutscenes and had more gameplay.
 
Would anyone here recommend FF VII remake while waiting for this? never played the original. Unfinished plot worth a play or no?
You can perfectly play FFVIIR, even if it's just the first chapter of a longer story. I thoroughly recommend it.

Now, if possible, I suggest playing the original FFVII first, archaic graphics and all.
 
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GymWolf

Gold Member
I'd have to agree with you there. That's what happened with me and the Forspoken demo. Still though I wish they toned down some of the cutscenes and had more gameplay.
Umm...the game is an open world, i would argue that it's the genre with more gameplay time of all the genres because you decide how much gameplay you want to try, and the demo doesn't really have any cutscene if my memory doesn't fuck with me...

The game is only cutscene heavy at the beginning and at the end, but part of the fun with the combat system is when you have all the powers and try to beat the strong bosses around the world, the campaign is short and just a meaning to get all the powers for combat and traversal for rthe endgame.

If you like infamous, you should really buy the game when it reach 15-20 dollars.
 

Nautilus

Banned
They have been catering to your opinion for almost two decades! You got what you wanted - FFXIII and FFXV and FFVIIR are games tailor-made for your sensibilities. It's time for the series to grow up.
XVI is not growing up. Its going sideways from the bottom it was.

That's why I said that XVI should have been a new IP - It has nothing to do with FF, and would make everyone happy.

What Square needs to grow up from is this insistant need to chase trends, and go back to creating them. Look back to FF VI - X to see what made them great, and start from there, so that FF can be reborn again, and once again be taken seriously as it once was.
 

Mr.Phoenix

Member
It's interesting to hear you felt performance mode was sluggish during combat? I didn't get that. At least not yet. I finished the Malboro boss with no issue in performance.
That's because its not true. Performance mode is a locked 60fps... only when in combat. Strange.
I kind of viewed this just as a demo to see what the gameplay was like. I didn't go into it knowing about it being mostly cutscenes and barely being any gameplay. I have no issues with full games like this but in a demo I do. 80% of the time I was just sat there watching all this stuff and then every once in a while I got to walk around and fight stuff and even then all that was pretty weak stuff.
Its an RPG. Which are always primarily story heavy and focused. Every single RPG isike that. And this snot just a demo, its the literal start of the game. The game director even said as much when announcing the demo. This is why they divided the demo into two parts. Gave you the start of the game, and a second part so you can just feel out only the gameplay.

And to be honest, I question the validity of anyone's opinion that comes into a FF...or JRPG thread and complain about cutscenes or story snippets. like wtf...

I think people forget how these games used to be.. which probably explains the amount of nonsense I read these days. Eg... you see that scene between Clive and the chic that was praying for him? On the PS1... this is what that scene would have looked like...

60-FFVIII_19933.jpg


I really think people have forgotten what RPGs used to be like before. We literally used to watch a couple of characters in a fixed frame like that and read through 3-10mins of text!!!!!

Or people taking about QTE... like are you guys delusional?

EVERYTHING in every turn-based FF is just all QTE. That's basically what a turn-based game is... you wait for your turn, select attack. press the button... then watch cool stuff happen.
 
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