General Gaming Final Fantasy XVI – Information Thread, update: PC version in "final stages of optimization', pre-release demo planned

[Bacon]

9 minutes ago, Xbob42 said:

I feel like they should've made staggering take longer, but give a much bigger bonus.

That would be fine too. As you pointed out, it is actually weird that you have to actually do your best during stagger. Staggering should feel like a reward, instead, you need to perform at your technical best. Your skill outside of stagger hardly matters other than not getting hit.

[BloodyHell]

I don’t know, I also love DMC, so while the combat isn’t exactly the same, I’m still really enjoying it.

 

I won’t lie, I would absolutely prefer Elden Ring Great Sword style fighting, I do think SoP has better combat. I also wish the game had deeper RPG mechanics. Nothing about this is an RPG, outside of the deep story.

 

But I also absolutely love the game. I had to pull myself away from it just now. It’s definitely one of my top 3 games of this year, and this year has been incredible. 
 

And it just keeps ramping up faster and faster. One of the most exciting stories I’ve played through in a while.

[BloodyHell]

26 minutes ago, Bacon said:

Gotta feed bad for

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Gav. No Eikon so he just gets left out. It will be sad when he dies trying to play the hero. That's just an assumption, but it'll happen no doubt.

 

Hugo is gonna get him (total speculation, not a spoiler). 
 

He will definitely end up in a hole, I think. I like him a lot too. 

[Bacon]

10 hours ago, BloodyHell said:

But I also absolutely love the game

I like it a lot too. Always wanting to play more. I suspect I'll end up giving the game around an 8/10 unless combat REALLY picks up by the end. With most combat encounters feeling more like speed bumps and the not-great performance, not sure if I can rate it higher if something doesn't change. Still am hopeful cuz I don't have half of all future abilities.

 

10 hours ago, BloodyHell said:

He will definitely end up in a hole

I'm thinking a small box...

[Bacon]

Imagine if you had another weakness to exploit to make combat go faster. Like, maybe... hm... elemental weakness

___

 

Okay, WAY too many side quests that involve delivering food.

[Biggie]

I just fought 

Spoiler

Garuda

and damn the battle and music was fucking epic 

[eventide11]

Somebody want to gift me this on PS5? I'm broke because of wife's home improvement projects. Who am I kidding..ill be painting trim in the bathroom lol 

[Keyser_Soze]

 

[BloodyHell]

1 hour ago, Biggie said:

I just fought 

  Hide contents

Garuda

and damn the battle and music was fucking epic 

Yeah, it was cool, but wait, the fights get even more epic.

 

@Bacon my biggest question so far is

Spoiler

What the fuck is up with Joshua.

 

[Bacon]

13 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

@Bacon my biggest question so far is

 

All of my guesses.

Spoiler

Spoiler

Well, at first I thought time travel or a different timeline. That could very well be the case as much as I'd hate it. Even FF14 uses that lame trope... twice. But I have a feeling, that upon his "death," he was somehow whisked away and learned some kind of truth about Eikons and especially Clive's power which seems to be able to take in powers of other Eikons. I wouldn't be surprised if somehow Clive will actually end up being/becoming Ultima, the embodiment of all Eikons, which is what Josh needs to stop.  The visual appearance between the hooded man and Josh was just a bait n' switch is my guess. You can even hear evil laughter when Clive accepts being Ifrit. So, that hooded man isn't "Clive". If it is, it makes no sense as others can see him and he was there before Ifrit awakened. That whole spiritual journey bit seemed really confusing to me, especially the acceptance part because that hooded guy at the start was not Clive. I don't believe Ifrit was naturally Clive's especially as you've seen the flame figure before the transformation. I am also expecting there to be "dark" Eikons and Ifirit is the first we have seen. I know that Odin is already considered "dark" but yeah.

 

[Bacon]

Wow, uh... totally not what I thought would be happening next.

 

edit

7 hours ago, Bacon said:

 

All of my guesses.

  Reveal hidden contents

Spoiler

Well, at first I thought time travel or a different timeline. That could very well be the case as much as I'd hate it. Even FF14 uses that lame trope... twice. But I have a feeling, that upon his "death," he was somehow whisked away and learned some kind of truth about Eikons and especially Clive's power which seems to be able to take in powers of other Eikons. I wouldn't be surprised if somehow Clive will actually end up being/becoming Ultima, the embodiment of all Eikons, which is what Josh needs to stop.  The visual appearance between the hooded man and Josh was just a bait n' switch is my guess. You can even hear evil laughter when Clive accepts being Ifrit. So, that hooded man isn't "Clive". If it is, it makes no sense as others can see him and he was there before Ifrit awakened. That whole spiritual journey bit seemed really confusing to me, especially the acceptance part because that hooded guy at the start was not Clive. I don't believe Ifrit was naturally Clive's especially as you've seen the flame figure before the transformation. I am also expecting there to be "dark" Eikons and Ifirit is the first we have seen. I know that Odin is already considered "dark" but yeah.

 

And some of that is wrong already lol

 

edit2

And in classic FF fashion

Spoiler

every important character escaped alive from their destruction. It's FF9 all over again!

 

That and you will never guess what the first named fallen airship is called!

 

The game has its own Oysters, clams, and cockles as well.

[Bacon]

OMFG

 

So I don't remember if any remember me complaining how the PS5 colors seem dull. But if you do I'm sure some of you remember me changing to full-color RGB range.

 

Well the real issue, all this time, as I just figured out, is that my custom color settings are not saved across Inputs. As in my "HDMI port 2" color settings are totally different than my display port color settings. All this time, over half a year at this point, my PS5 has been running on "standard" color settings as custom color settings start out at standard. Holy shit this IS fucking life-changing. Like my god, man.  This monitor has such shit settings out of the box and you HAVE to blast the saturation to get any vibrant colors. Like HOLY FUCKING SHIT MAN.

 

All of the games I have played and they all looked so dull and there was nothing that I thought could be done. What it took me to realize this is that I was watching someone play ff16 on the monitor that my PS5 is hooked up to, and the colors just looked so bright and crips. It was like seeing a Vizio first the first time at Walmart when I was just a kid. I never thought to recheck the saturation because I had assumed your color profiles were shared across Input sources. To me, that is obviously how it should be. Why would I want the colors to look different when going thru DP or HDMI?

 

I cannot describe how frustrated I feel over realizing this. Cuz I'm glad now that I have fixed this long-standing issue, but I can help but also be mad about it just in general.

 

fuck man...

[Best]

3 hours ago, Bacon said:

OMFG

 

So I don't remember if any remember me complaining how the PS5 colors seem dull. But if you do I'm sure some of you remember me changing to full-color RGB range.

 

Well the real issue, all this time, as I just figured out, is that my custom color settings are not saved across Inputs. As in my "HDMI port 2" color settings are totally different than my display port color settings. All this time, over half a year at this point, my PS5 has been running on "standard" color settings as custom color settings start out at standard. Holy shit this IS fucking life-changing. Like my god, man.  This monitor has such shit settings out of the box and you HAVE to blast the saturation to get any vibrant colors. Like HOLY FUCKING SHIT MAN.

 

All of the games I have played and they all looked so dull and there was nothing that I thought could be done. What it took me to realize this is that I was watching someone play ff16 on the monitor that my PS5 is hooked up to, and the colors just looked so bright and crips. It was like seeing a Vizio first the first time at Walmart when I was just a kid. I never thought to recheck the saturation because I had assumed your color profiles were shared across Input sources. To me, that is obviously how it should be. Why would I want the colors to look different when going thru DP or HDMI?

 

I cannot describe how frustrated I feel over realizing this. Cuz I'm glad now that I have fixed this long-standing issue, but I can help but also be mad about it just in general.

 

fuck man...

 

Fuck. Frustrating but really happy you have better image quality. 

 

10 hours ago, eventide11 said:

Somebody want to gift me this on PS5? I'm broke because of wife's home improvement projects. Who am I kidding..ill be painting trim in the bathroom lol 

 

I can get it for you. Just respond and we can discuss details. 

[legend]

3 hours ago, Bacon said:

OMFG

 

So I don't remember if any remember me complaining how the PS5 colors seem dull. But if you do I'm sure some of you remember me changing to full-color RGB range.

 

Well the real issue, all this time, as I just figured out, is that my custom color settings are not saved across Inputs. As in my "HDMI port 2" color settings are totally different than my display port color settings. All this time, over half a year at this point, my PS5 has been running on "standard" color settings as custom color settings start out at standard. Holy shit this IS fucking life-changing. Like my god, man.  This monitor has such shit settings out of the box and you HAVE to blast the saturation to get any vibrant colors. Like HOLY FUCKING SHIT MAN.

 

All of the games I have played and they all looked so dull and there was nothing that I thought could be done. What it took me to realize this is that I was watching someone play ff16 on the monitor that my PS5 is hooked up to, and the colors just looked so bright and crips. It was like seeing a Vizio first the first time at Walmart when I was just a kid. I never thought to recheck the saturation because I had assumed your color profiles were shared across Input sources. To me, that is obviously how it should be. Why would I want the colors to look different when going thru DP or HDMI?

 

I cannot describe how frustrated I feel over realizing this. Cuz I'm glad now that I have fixed this long-standing issue, but I can help but also be mad about it just in general.

 

fuck man...

 

 

Sucks that it slipped by for so long, but you figured it out on a good game! FFXVI's most graphically pleasing feature is their contrast and colors in HDR. Shit fucking pops.

[eventide11]

48 minutes ago, best3444 said:

 

Fuck. Frustrating but really happy you have better image quality. 

 

 

I can get it for you. Just respond and we can discuss details. 

Thank you so much my friend but I was kiddin around about wanting to get it but not having time or money. Looks like I will have some time this weekend and I actually have about 7000 Points on my PS account that I can use for a discount. But again, thank you so much for offering 

[Xbob42]

While every side quest I've done has basically been a super simple MMO quest that seemed mostly designed around expanding the lore a little bit and giving you a small reward, one was named "Caulk and Bawl" so that elevates the game at least one full point.

[Biggie]

Do treasure chests ever 

Spoiler

give you new weapons or armor? Or just items. 

 

[Bacon]

1 hour ago, Xbob42 said:

While every side quest I've done has basically been a super simple MMO quest that seemed mostly designed around expanding the lore a little bit and giving you a small reward, one was named "Caulk and Bawl" so that elevates the game at least one full point.

Just wish they'd change it up a bit so that you weren't delivering food 9 out of 10 times. Hunts are my style of side quest. Glad they exist.

[Mr.Vic20]

So I've masterd my limit breaker upgrade and combat is a little less "a 6 year old is fighting Tyson, BUT he's super fast!" That said, here are my game complaints:

 

• Not remotally enough equipment and weapons and pretty much no variety.
• Side quests are uninspired, worthy of skiping the dialog most of the time
• Any interaction with characters that is not a main quest line event uses a gneric 2 camera framing for the exchange with canned and looped animations. 
• Combat is fast and fluid, but lacks punch, spectical over substance
• If it weren't for the HP bump, leveling would be nearly pointless
• Crafting is lame and clearly and afterthought tacked on to give the illusion of choice
• Weapon progress is a treadmill: Beat boss -> next Weapon upgrade -> beat slightly tougher boss -> get slightly better blade, rinse repeat
• This is not a true RPG, but rather an ARPG lite

A couple of things that bother me is that they clearly wanted this game's combat to focus on the powers you get as you progress through the story. This means that physical weapons are just there to proc your powers. All other ways to shape your character's development are nothing more than an after thought. I could just have a staff, a giant pointed hat with a wide brim, and call it a day, ya know? 

[Biggie]

34 minutes ago, Mr.Vic20 said:

So I've masterd my limit breaker upgrade and combat is a little less "a 6 year old is fighting Tyson, BUT he's super fast!" That said, here are my game complaints:

 

• Not remotally enough equipment and weapons and pretty much no variety.
• Side quests are uninspired, worthy of skiping the dialog most of the time
• Any interaction with characters that is not a main quest line event uses a gneric 2 camera framing for the exchange with canned and looped animations. 
• Combat is fast and fluid, but lacks punch, spectical over substance
• If it weren't for the HP bump, leveling would be nearly pointless
• Crafting is lame and clearly and afterthought tacked on to give the illusion of choice
• Weapon progress is a treadmill: Beat boss -> next Weapon upgrade -> beat slightly tougher boss -> get slightly better blade, rinse repeat
• This is not a true RPG, but rather an ARPG lite

A couple of things that bother me is that they clearly wanted this game's combat to focus on the powers you get as you progress through the story. This means that physical weapons are just there to proc your powers. All other ways to shape your character's development are nothing more than an after thought. I could just have a staff, a giant pointed hat with a wide brim, and call it a day, ya know? 

[Keyser_Soze]

42 minutes ago, Mr.Vic20 said:

I could just have a giant staff

 

But I thought you did

[BloodyHell]

1 hour ago, Biggie said:

Do treasure chests ever 

  Hide contents

give you new weapons or armor? Or just items. 

 

I found a sword in one just after I read this

[Best]

This game is so fuckin good. It's exactly my type of game where things aren't overly difficult or complicated... just awesome. The combat has gotten even better for me with the upgrades in the eikon abilities. I put in 4 hours today and I want to jump back in. I love the realistic vibe they went for here. 

[BloodyHell]

Holy shit. 
 

First mother crystal spoilers!

Spoiler

Cid 

 

[Mercury33]

All of my dogs from now on will be named Torgul

[Best]

16 minutes ago, Mercury33 said:

All of my dogs from now on will be named Torgul

 

He's a good boy! 

[Xbob42]

Hm. I feel like this game has a few different "segments" it goes through. You've got your high-octane stuff once every few hours for a big fight or two, then a lot of lot of low-key worldbuilding that can be dull at times. In that way it's a lot like FFXIV, not to keep bringing that up (but the influence is clear in many, many ways) -- but I think the part that gel with me is a third segment that makes it feel like a less interesting Witcher? Where Clive's just going through these fields to small towns where none of the doors open and only a few people will even talk to you, occasionally engaging in a side quest. I'm glad that we're far enough along for the "HD towns" meme to not be a thing anymore, but I still feel like every town I've been in so far is just like 2-5 NPCs I can talk to, a merchant and very little else of consequence. The feel very dead and sterile, even when they're not being made dead and sterile for plot reasons.

It's like just enough of a façade to be kind of okay, but you can tell all the care and attention went into the really big moments and the cutscenes. I was wondering why when I hit like my 7th town or so I was like "there ain't shit happening here, what's going on?" and then realized that was true of all of them so far. Hoping that changes eventually.

 

On the plus side, game definitely opens up more. At least it's not just the hallways from the intro! Bigger areas and the freedom to visit almost all of them fairly often, though not very much to do in them out of sidequests or chest hunting.

[legend]

I sympathize with what @Mr.Vic20 is saying. I'm enjoying the game, but the combat doesn't click in a satisfying way the way God of War or something does. The most effective way I've found to fight the bosses and mini bosses is also the most boring. Here's the general conclusions I've come to

 

• Bigger enemies are non-responsive to player hits. They just ignore all your sword slashes and proceed through whatever canned attack animation they want to do.
• The regular dodge is often not good because the enemies will do a series of unbreakable attacks and the dodge freezes you in place immediately after you do it (even if you dodge and counter, they'll keep going through the attack unimpeded as with the above point). Instead, it's better to just free form run from attacks and only dodge if you have to.
• Never target lock, because this decreases your free form mobility to just run out of the way of attacks which is superior to close-range dodges.
• Hurting unstaggered boss/mini bosses is painfully slow (and unresponsive as with the first point)
• Charged up magic blasts (especially once mastered for quick charges) is very effective at dropping stagger

 

Combining all those facts together means by *far* the most effective I've been is running away, shooting with charged blasts until stagger hits (or the 50% stagger hits) and then unloading ability attacks. Which is... not the most exciting? I guess the extra thing is I use the Gouge special in particular once they are 50% staggered (and you do the pull move on them) because they can't do anything during that and you'll shred their remaining stagger to go into a full stagger.

[Biggie]

27 minutes ago, Mercury33 said:

All of my dogs from now on will be named Torgul

okay but I prefer the doggo from Final Fantasy called Torgal better

[Biggie]

8 minutes ago, legend said:

I sympathize with what @Mr.Vic20 is saying. I'm enjoying the game, but the combat doesn't click in a satisfying way the way God of War or something does. The most effective way I've found to fight the bosses and mini bosses is also the most boring. Here's the general conclusions I've come to

 

• Bigger enemies are non-responsive to player hits. They just ignore all your sword slashes and proceed through whatever canned attack animation they want to do.
• The regular dodge is often not good because the enemies will do a series of unbreakable attacks and the dodge freezes you in place immediately after you do it (even if you dodge and counter, they'll keep going through the attack unimpeded as with the above point). Instead, it's better to just free form run from attacks and only dodge if you have to.
• Never target lock, because this decreases your free form mobility to just run out of the way of attacks which is superior to close-range dodges.
• Hurting unstaggered boss/mini bosses is painfully slow (and unresponsive as with the first point)
• Charged up magic blasts (especially once mastered for quick charges) is very effective at dropping stagger

 

Combining all those facts together means by *far* the most effective I've been is running away, shooting with charged blasts until stagger hits (or the 50% stagger hits) and then unloading ability attacks. Which is... not the most exciting? I guess the extra thing is I use the Gouge special in particular once they are 50% staggered (and you do the pull move on them) because they can't do anything during that and you'll shred their remaining stagger to go into a full stagger.

you are both dead to me. and if @Xbob42 keeps it up he is gonna join you

[Best]

I seriously have nothing to complain about here? The combat is terrific and everything else the 3 people are complaining about is nonsense to me. This is a 9/10 game so far and deserves all the great reviews. 

[Best]

16 hours ago, Biggie said:

I just fought 

  Reveal hidden contents

Garuda

and damn the battle and music was fucking epic 

 

I did this in the morning. Extremely epic and fun. Not frustrating or to difficult too beat but just perfect. 

[BloodyHell]

2 minutes ago, best3444 said:

I seriously have nothing to complain about here? The combat is terrific and everything else the 3 people are complaining about is nonsense to me. This is a 9/10 game so far and deserves all the great reviews. 

I understand the combat complaints. Also wish it had deeper rpg elements.

otherwise it’s my second favorite game this year so far.

[Best]

Just now, BloodyHell said:

I understand the combat complaints. Also wish it had deeper rpg elements.

otherwise it’s my second favorite game this year so far.

 

Maybe deeper RPG elements but it's an action game. The combat is very fun, too. Glad you're really enjoying it. 

 

This year has been utterly insane. 

[BloodyHell]

Just now, best3444 said:

 

Maybe deeper RPG elements but it's an action game. The combat is very fun, too. Glad you're really enjoying it. 

 

This year has been utterly insane. 

Yeah, but id prefer if my FF wasn’t an action game.