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

[Brian]

State of Play presents a special look at Final Fantasy XVI

BLOG.PLAYSTATION.COM

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Tune in Thursday, April 13, for an all-new look at the highly anticipated action-RPG

 

[Bacon]

I shan't be watching this. Already feel too spoiled from what I have seen so far.

[skillzdadirecta]

Watching the State of Play. Combat looks SLICK... lack of control of party members is a bummer though. So the game is a full fledged action RPG now huh?

[Hurricane Game]

It looks so sick!

[thedarkstark]

Holy shit I am so hyped. On paper this should be my favorite game of all-time, love DMC, love Final Fantasy both top 5 franchises for me.

[Xbob42]

I haven't been even mildly impressed by 16's visuals, but I also don't really care all that much about visuals to begin with, long as you got good reflections. WHAT'S THE PERFORMANCE LIKE, SQUARE?

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

 

[Chris-]

Looks great. I was originally going to hold on it since TOTK and Diablo 4 will consume a lot of gaming time, but I think I might get it day one now, it just looks like a lot of fun.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

That's definitely Devil May Final Fantasy, alright!

[Xbob42]

1 hour ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

That's definitely Devil May Final Fantasy, alright!

Which makes it so much less interesting to me. Square is so not A-tier when it comes to action combat. They're ashamed of their roots and keep trying to make games they're not good at making.

[gamer.tv]

It looked great and definitely something my wife might like. I wonder though if SE will make a more traditional RPG as a spin-off (or leave it to the Yakuza team or the Dragon Quest team). 

[Fizzzzle]

People have wanted a turn-based Final Fantasy game ever since they stopped making them, but Square Enix keeps going "lol, no you don't."

[Keyser_Soze]

53 minutes ago, Fizzzzle said:

People have wanted a turn-based Final Fantasy game ever since they stopped making them, but Square Enix keeps going "lol, no you don't."

 

No they keep going, "It's on mobile"

[Mr.Vic20]

Still pretty excited for this entry! I wish I was playing it on PC, but somehow I'll solider on! 

[Bacon]

Yeah, I would pretty much prefer any other form of action combat over DMC style. Never played DMC but I have played bayo 1 and old GoW and never beat them. While I am not actually a fan of turned-based combat I still want it for some reason. Like in my head, I've had this idea for turned-based combat where instead of just standing still after attacking, your character and the enemies are actually fighting the whole time. Like battles are sort of miniature cutscenes and when it becomes one of your character's turns time slows down and you select your action which then alters the mini-cutscene with whatever you selected. Even your basic attack command would look different than the "auto-attacks" that happen when you are waiting for your turn. And by mini-cutscene, I don't mean like an actual cutscene. An example I could think of would be something like Fire Emblem where it zooms in and an animation happens, but it is like that the whole fight. It would look kinda silly if you didn't have a lot of opponents and there would have to be custom animations for pretty much every type of random encounter. Like, a fight with three cactuars would look different than a fight with two cactuars and a tonberry. Now, I am assuming there is already a game that does this but I don't know of it. Edit: It's similar to Xenoblade I suppose but you don't move your character and the "auto-combat" is a never-ending stream of animations. None of that weird auto-attacking every three seconds.

 

 

But hey, at least it is not like FF15 at all. God what a shit combat style. But then again, Final Fantasy combat has already been translated perfectly into an action RPG and that game series would be Kingdom Hearts. I get that every FF has to be its own special little snowflake, but KH has already perfected what both 15 and 16 are trying to do.

 

Oh, but the DMC combat isn't a huge issue. What I was meaning to get at with the whole not being a fan of turned-based combat is that I kinda don't care what the combat is as long as it isn't actually bad as I am here for the story. Gameplay is almost irrelevant in FF unless it is actually bad like with FF15. DMC combat is more than serviceable to get me through the game. If the story is good I'll have a swell time.

[Fizzzzle]

2 hours ago, Mr.Vic20 said:

Still pretty excited for this entry! I wish I was playing it on PC, but somehow I'll solider on! 

It'll come out on PC entually, they just are too early on to say when. The most they've said is "definitely not in 6 months" (when the PS5 exclusivity runs out)

 

I'm thinking it'll come out on PC probably a year after release, or maybe a little longer. I think I can wait that long. There are very few games these days that I feel like I'll have FOMO if I don't play it day-1.

 

Nintendo is pretty much the only company still making games that will never, ever come out on PC.

[Bacon]

1 minute ago, Fizzzzle said:

There are very few games these days that I feel like I'll have FOMO if I don't play it day-1.

For me, I just don't want to get spoiled and with playing FF14 there is no way that won't happen so I had to get it at launch.

[crispy4000]

1 hour ago, Bacon said:

But hey, at least it is not like FF15 at all. God what a shit combat style. But then again, Final Fantasy combat has already been translated perfectly into an action RPG and that game series would be Kingdom Hearts Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

 

 

[Bacon]

13 minutes ago, crispy4000 said:

No + Stay on topic + Mad(me)

[crispy4000]

[Bacon]

Just now, crispy4000 said:

I played the demo and that isn't the combat I want

[crispy4000]

It’s a brilliant battle system that takes a couple of hours (and more playable characters) to find its footing.  It starts to feel more like a fighting game with Tifa, for example. All while still feeling true to FF’s command-giving roots, making it the perfect mix to me.  Better party AI is really all it needs.

 

Even though I’m somewhat disappointed FF16 is doubling down on DMC and a single character, at least we get both styles moving forward.

[eventide11]

So it's not a seamless open world.. It's going to a map and selecting an area you want to go to.. Meh. Something about that has never clicked with me 

[Fizzzzle]

1 minute ago, eventide11 said:

So it's not a seamless open world.. It's going to a map and selecting an area you want to go to.. Meh. Something about that has never clicked with me 

I don't mind it in cases like The Witcher 3. Granted, the map areas in that game were fucking huge.

[eventide11]

2 minutes ago, Fizzzzle said:

I don't mind it in cases like The Witcher 3. Granted, the map areas in that game were fucking huge.

I guess I'm just tired of Squeenix and FFs telling us what we want instead of giving us what we want 

[Keyser_Soze]

Still struggling with the HD towns.

[Bacon]

1 minute ago, crispy4000 said:

It’s a brilliant system that takes a couple of hours (and more playable characters) to really find it’s footing.

While I can't say that you are wrong, I do doubt this. The intent of a demo is to mostly be an ad but to also give you a slice of the game for you to play. It wouldn't be my fault if the demo didn't reflect the true depth. No game should take a couple of hours to understand if you'll like it or not. And I'm not really complaining this time. I basically just said no I don't want it after you brought it up knowing what my reaction would be. I have played FF7 OG, and I would say that the same slice of the game is pretty spot on for the rest of FF7 despite the advanced materia section coming after. The gameplay is pretty much unchanged, tho, given that it is a turned-based game there really isn't a way to change up the system so that isn't that fair of a comparison. Also, not exactly relevant, but I don't like ATB in the older FFs. FF10 has my favorite turned-based system because it is just turned-based.

 

For me, one of the reasons why KH has the better action FF combat is that I have no desire to switch characters in action RPG games that have a party system. I have played many of the Tales of games, and I have never swapped off the main character. Luke, Lloyd, Yuri, Asbel, Jude, and Kor were the only characters I played as unless I was forced to swap. I love the fact you only control one guy in FF16. Hell, I'd prefer it if the dog didn't have commands for you to issue and I would like it if that is an aspect I can ignore in FF16. Personally, in FF7R, Barret is the only character I would want to switch to because he is my favorite FF7 character.

 

Also I really want the ability system from KH to be in a game that isn't KH.

[Bacon]

21 minutes ago, eventide11 said:

I guess I'm just tired of Squeenix and FFs telling us what we want instead of giving us what we want 

I mean, I don't want it to be an open world. Can't say they are giving me what I want tho as, from what I have seen so far, they are doing a Dragon Age: Inquisition and wew boy did I not like that when DA:I did it.

[Fizzzzle]

26 minutes ago, Bacon said:

I mean, I don't want it to be an open world. Can't say they are giving me what I want tho as, from what I have seen so far, they are doing a Dragon Age: Inquisition and wew boy did I not like that when DA:I did it.

DA:I was filled with sooooooooo much pointless busy work. If I had only played a demo of the game, I would have thought it was awesome.

[Bacon]

15 minutes ago, Fizzzzle said:

If I had only played a demo of the game, I would have thought it was awesome.

If this is directed toward my previous post, you would have assumedly experienced the combat of DA:I well enough to know if you liked it(combat) or not. The combat of FF7R isn't what stopped me from getting the game and if 16 had the same combat it wouldn't stop me from getting it. FF7R not being an actual remake is why I didn't get it.

 

Also, I don't want to talk about FF7R anymore so I won't after this post.

[Keyser_Soze]

11 minutes ago, Bacon said:

Also, I don't want to talk about FF7R anymore so I won't after this post.

 

1 hour ago, Bacon said:

While I can't say that you are wrong, I do doubt this. The intent of a demo is to mostly be an ad but to also give you a slice of the game for you to play. It wouldn't be my fault if the demo didn't reflect the true depth. No game should take a couple of hours to understand if you'll like it or not.

 

The demo was a slice of a game that is just a slice of a game, it's not like they could dump you on to disc 2 to experience the combat depth.

 

[crispy4000]

1 hour ago, Bacon said:

While I can't say that you are wrong, I do doubt this. The intent of a demo is to mostly be an ad but to also give you a slice of the game for you to play. It wouldn't be my fault if the demo didn't reflect the true depth. No game should take a couple of hours to understand if you'll like it or not.

It’s more that the first hour (demo) of the game doesn’t reflect the gameplay expansions later, or depth found in challenging encounters.  Like most long RPGs.

 

Also, I’d say the more real time a combat system is, the more leverage there is to change the general feel of combat.  Selecting menu items is a different ball game than hitstun, cancels, lag reduction accessories, etc.

 

1 hour ago, Bacon said:

I have played FF7 OG, and I would say that the same slice of the game is pretty spot on for the rest of FF7 despite the advanced materia section coming after.

 

The way you could essentially break the game with materia later on isn’t really apparent in the opening hours.  But yes, the action of selecting menu items doesn’t fundamentally feel different other than sometimes hitting left and right to select an action in an expanded slot.

[Bacon]

2 minutes ago, crispy4000 said:

It’s more that the first hour (demo) of the game can’t  reflect the gameplay expansions later, or depth found in  challenging encounters.  Like most long RPGs.

OK yeah, that's fair.

[best3444]

I'm down for whatever they provide me. It will be awesome so that's all that matters. 

[Biggie]

Meh