General Gaming Final Fantasy XVI – Information Thread, update (08/22): PC demo patch and system requirements released

[Bacon]

[Bacon]

[thedarkstark]

1 hour ago, Bacon said:

[Best]

About to restart the demo. It's that good, yes. 

[Biggie]

1 hour ago, best3444 said:

About to restart the demo. It's that good, yes. 

Ima pre-order this week. Let Bacon know. 

[Best]

1 minute ago, Biggie said:

Ima pre-order this week. Let Bacon know. 

 

What don't you like in the demo for real?

[Biggie]

10 minutes ago, best3444 said:

 

What don't you like in the demo for real?

Are you high again? I’ve talked about how much I loved the demo and it made me wanna pre-order the game for the last week. 

[Best]

Just now, Biggie said:

Are you high again? I’ve talked about how much I loved the demo and it made me wanna pre-order the game for the last week. 

 

Yea but I think you're just joking around? I can't tell if you like it or just being a smart ass to bacon. 

[Biggie]

2 minutes ago, best3444 said:

 

Yea but I think you're just joking around? I can't tell if you like it or just being a smart ass to bacon. 

[Best]

Beat it again. It's terrific and I can't wait to get my grubby lil hands on the final version. Quite the ending to the demo. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

@Bacon @thedarkstark

 

The demo was absolutely a marvel in all of its technical aspects from graphics to sound design to the quality of the voice-acting.  I really can't think of a game that nails its "presentation" as well as this one has with its demo and can definitely see why this demo has generated the overall "buzz" that accompanied its release.  Unfortunately, for my part, the demo had the complete and total opposite effect and pretty much eliminated the very slight bit of interest I had in playing the full game because quite frankly, I was practically bored to tears by the entire thing. 

 

While the actual combat encounter gameplay (what VERY little of it there was) and the presentational technical aspects are all top-notch, too much of what I experienced in the demo felt like something that I've seen/played innumerable times before across multiple forms of media.  Of course, it didn't help that the narrative appears to be heavily influenced by Game of Thrones and I FREAKIN' DESPISE that particular series immensely.  To illustrate how much I can't stand the series, as soon as I finished reading the first book, I immediately tossed it into a fireplace so that no one else would be subjected to it.  While its overall spectacle is undeniable, the most underwhelming/half-baked aspect of the demo for me was the Eikon battle which was the final nail in the coffin for my interest in the full game.  The gameplay from that entire sequence was so very "on-rails" that I actually ended up wishing that it was a cutscene instead.  I do hope that Eikon combat encounters in the full game are more substantive than what was presented in the demo or if they're not, then that they're few and far between.

But getting beyond my own internal bias against the Game of Thrones-inspired storyline, the other aspect that soured me on the demo was just how ridiculously non-interactive the world seemingly is.  To be clear, I'm not even remotely asking for a level of environmental interaction on par with either Tears of the Kingdom or the Elder Scrolls, but even nu-God of War (which the demo strongly reminded me of) had a little bit more environmental interaction which would've gone a long way to making the game world seem like more than a really pretty painting that I was just passing through and could look at but not actually touch, rather than actually inhabiting it.  This was really illustrated to me when I tried to enter a tent which had an open entrance flap, but couldn't actually go inside.  Or when during the very few combat encounters, environmental objects wouldn't react to being impacted by either player or NPC interactions which is something that does occur on a limited basis during combat situations in nu-God of War.  For a game demo that excels in its presentational aspects all in aid of player immersion, the omission of an even basic form of environmental interaction is disappointing.

 

All-in-all, if I had to give an actual score to the demo, it may come as a surprise that despite all that I've written above that I'd give it something in the 80% to 85% range.  I can readily recognize that overall high quality of what I experienced even though my actual enjoyment of that experience was relatively muted, bordering on non-existent.  I'm sure that full game itself will be very good -- perhaps even great -- but it just sure as hell ain't one for me.

[Bacon]

27 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

Eikon battle which was the final nail in the coffin for my interest in the full game.  The gameplay from that entire sequence was so very "on-rails" that I actually ended up wishing that it was a cutscene instead.  I do hope that Eikon combat encounters in the full game are more substantive than what was presented in the demo or if they're not, then that they're few and far between.

Won't say nothin' about the GoT opinion and that is just totally subjective and if you don't like then, yeah, I get not being on board for ff16. The Eikon battles, I believe, won't be the on-rails mediocre Starfox 64 gameplay. You do play as Ifrit in the other Eikon battles, so no flying, and from what I have seen it is just the normal combat with a new move set when you play as Ifrit.

 

I like the GoT show, didn't care for the first book tho and never finished reading it.

 

27 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

soured me on the demo was just how ridiculously non-interactive the world seemingly is. 

Oh, I totally noticed this. I walked up to some wooden object, slashed it with my sword, and nothing even happened. Later on, in both the story demo and the Eikonic challenge there are more breakable objects in the forms of tables and chairs that are destroyed in combat, but at the beginning everything is untouchable. I will give the game some credit tho, as when the goblin knocked down that tower, you could just walk over the rubble. It was nuts that I didn't have to find a way around this easily surmountable wooden mound. Even in Strangers of Paradise, there was foot-high rubble that I couldn't just walk over and had to make a shortcut around it.

 

And I think the voice acting is very good as well. Big fan of the," I'll fUcKiNg KiLl YoU". Really felt the drunk on defeat and anger that the MC was experiencing from that line. I do think the game is very grand in its presentation.

[Keyser_Soze]

@Commissar SFLUFAN Now to complete the circle you need to buy this game day one and throw it in the fireplace.

[Xbob42]

I think beyond just making minute to minute gameplay more interesting (which to me is the truly important part), my desire for more interactive worlds also stems from developers always only upping the visuals, the sound, the presentation, etc. Or to put it another way, the set dressing. They'll wheel out a juicy suckling pig but then slice me off a thin piece to go on a generic ham sandwich. With fuckin' yellow mustard to boot.

 

If you make the most realistic looking barrel in the world (as Yoshi-P once famously dunked on FF14 1.0) but the barrel is an indestructible façade, I personally feel like you've missed the actual important part of a video game: That I'm gonna be playing the damn thing. That I might want to do more than grind along the rail you've set up for me. Yoshi-P (or whoever it was in the Noclip documentary, I keep saying Yoshi-P but it might've been Koji Fox, regardless they were clearly on the same page) dunked on that barrel because it was focusing entirely on the wrong thing and it objectively made the game worse because it ran like shit. Well guess what, guys? You focused on that again and the game once again kinda runs like ass, at least on frame rate mode. And I can't even break the damn barrel! Well, I can sometimes, which is even more confusing! The inconsistency is even worse!

 

It's also part of why the idea of a big linear Final Fantasy is way less exciting to me. The FF games have never been open worlds, but they've always had large non-linear segments and plenty to explore. They were, in my opinion, the "right" kind of open world. In that the actual open part was a scaled down world map you could traverse in a short amount of time that was littered with secrets. And nowadays that's just a map screen (that is somehow worse than a proper world map and also worse than just warping me somewhere without me selecting a destination... because you're just reminding me of the rails again) and misses the point of what those old world maps represented: freedom, exploration, secrets. The things that make RPGs fun.

I'm trying to imagine how this would go if the next Elder Scrolls game was similar. I mean, they've been consistently shrinking and losing features and getting "streamlined," but at least there's a world to explore and tons and tons of secrets to find.

 

I guess to me an RPG is a world to inhabit for a while, not a TV show to consume and move on from.

[Keyser_Soze]

3 minutes ago, Xbob42 said:

I'm trying to imagine how this would go if the next Elder Scrolls game was similar. I mean, they've been consistently shrinking and losing features and getting "streamlined," but at least there's a world to explore and tons and tons of secrets to find.

 

That would be Avowed.

[Bacon]

I am a fan of the overworld in the old FFs. It was just like walking across a map rather than an open world, and it does have a kind of charm to it that is distinctly FF. I do not want a regular open world tho. I really don't. SoP:FFO does what FF16 is doing and that's fine as long as it doesn't turn into a DA:I experience.

[Xbob42]

4 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

That would be Avowed.

See, but there's so much less baggage, such different expectations from a new IP. If Elder Scrolls 6 was suddenly 50% cutscenes, 50% combat and there was a "you can explore a bit" zone, I can't imagine there being quite as strong a defense against it as Final Fantasy is getting. Although I guess FF has been on this strange trajectory for a while, so it's not entirely unexpected. Still didn't expect it to feel so... narrow, though. Even FFXV and FF7R felt a lot more open even early on.

  

Just now, Bacon said:

I am a fan of the overworld in the old FFs. It was just like walking across a map rather than an open world, and it does have a kind of charm to it that is FF. I do not want a regular open world tho. I really don't. SoP:FFO does what FF16 is doing and that's fine as long as it doesn't turn into a DA:I experience.

 

As I said, FF's never done open world and I don't think any FF fans have actually wanted it. Well, at least not any large contingent. I think the overworlds were the absolute perfect middle ground.

[Bacon]

1 minute ago, Xbob42 said:

As I said, FF's never done open world and I don't think any FF fans have actually wanted it. Well, at least not any large contingent. I think the overworlds were the absolute perfect middle ground.

Yeah, I was just reiterating to agree mostly. I did mention it in my "review" of the demo, that I missed the overworld. But I also say how I am not sure it would work in a character-action game. I could only imagine something like a Tales of game, maybe.

[Xbob42]

1 minute ago, Bacon said:

Yeah, I was just reiterating to agree mostly. I did mention it in my "review" of the demo, that I missed the overworld. But I also say how I am not sure it would work in a character-action game. I could only imagine something like a Tales of game, maybe.

Well, I don't think any other character action game has tried to be like 40-60 hours, so to me the house of cards already seems wobbly, just go for it!

Even God of War Ragnarok isn't that long and I think I'd qualify it as a bit less of a DMC-style game than this for sure. Although it's the closest comparison and still includes a ton of exploration.

[Bacon]

5 minutes ago, Xbob42 said:

Well, I don't think any other character action game has tried to be like 40-60 hours, so to me the house of cards already seems wobbly, just go for it!

I mean, shit, I wouldn't care if there were random encounters that put you into a circular arena for you to fight in. I'm used to that shit and I enjoy it. And like, hell, I spend of my time on the overworld on a Chocobo or airship so even if there weren't random encounters I really wouldn't be missing much then either.

 

Edit: your GoW bit wasn't there, and I disliked GoWR's more open parts. Specifically that whole optional area in Vanheim or whatever the name is. GoW2018 was more my style.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

2 minutes ago, Xbob42 said:

Well, I don't think any other character action game has tried to be like 40-60 hours, so to me the house of cards already seems wobbly, just go for it!

Even God of War Ragnarok isn't that long and I think I'd qualify it as a bit less of a DMC-style game than this for sure. Although it's the closest comparison and still includes a ton of exploration.

 

It's pretty telling of where the state of things are regarding the RPG genre that a comparison between a God of War game and a Final Fantasy game can be reasonably made and not seem ludicrous in the least.

[stepee]

32 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

It's pretty telling of where the state of things are regarding the RPG genre that a comparison between a God of War game and a Final Fantasy game can be reasonably made and not seem ludicrous in the least.

 

Tbf it’s telling for the action genre as well!

[thedarkstark]

I get the GoW comparisons but to me personally the newer games are like a 7/10. The heavy story focus already isn't quite my cup of tea and then on top of that story is just kind of bland/generic/played out, because it's based in greek mythology there is only so much iterating you can do. I do understand why other people like them though.

 

For FFXVI again I don't love the heavy story focus and long cutscenes but the story grabbed me because it's new and even though it for certain borrows from GoT I don't know exactly where things are going (I did predict the big "twist" in the demo though).

[Bacon]

30 minutes ago, thedarkstark said:

(I did predict the big "twist" in the demo though

It's this twist that makes me think I know exactly what the ending will be and I might be quite mad when it is all said and done

[Bacon]

What I am looking forward to the most is seeing the sales numbers. SE was worried supposedly. Will Yoshi-P get the last laugh?

 

I mean, I don't care for how well it sells on a personal level. But it will be interesting to see if they announce anything or nothing at all.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

I did get a good laugh out of the fate of

Spoiler

Great Valu Ned Stark

[Bacon]

4 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

I did get a good laugh out of the fate of

  Reveal hidden contents

Great Valu Ned Stark

[Best]

Spoiler

Poor Joshua 

 

[Biggie]

11 minutes ago, best3444 said:

  Hide contents

Poor Joshua 

 

[thedarkstark]

29 minutes ago, Bacon said:

What I am looking forward to the most is seeing the sales numbers. SE was worried supposedly. Will Yoshi-P get the last laugh?

 

I mean, I don't care for how well it sells on a personal level. But it will be interesting to see if they announce anything or nothing at all.

So apparently they were worried about sales in Japan. Preorders are doing quite well in other regions from what I've read.

 

Honestly though don't really care, it's going to sell well enough, not worried about a giant corporation's stock price.

[stepee]

I honestly don’t buy that SE was ever seriously concerned about the sales. 

[Bacon]

21 minutes ago, stepee said:

I honestly don’t buy that SE was ever seriously concerned about the sales. 

It could be false. I have since heard that the gossiper who made such a proclamation has touted wrong information in the past.

[stepee]

2 minutes ago, Bacon said:

It could be false. I have since heard that the gossiper who made such a proclamation has touted wrong information in the past.

 

Yeah I think hype cycles are different these days too so people think they are on to a good concern troll

[Mercury33]

22 hours ago, eventide11 said:

I know. But I felt like that stuff might be spoilery if I end up caving and getting it. Which is inevitable 

That’s fair. I also didn’t play it because I didn’t want any powers or anything spoiled. 

[eventide11]

1 hour ago, Mercury33 said:

That’s fair. I also didn’t play it because I didn’t want any powers or anything spoiled. 

Exact same. But I was very tempted. The fight between the Phoenix and Ifrit was epic and beautiful. That was enough for me