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

[Biggie]

38 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

Except this is great.

 

36 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

I completely disagree about the story. It’s been nothing short of incredible so far.

 

29 minutes ago, best3444 said:

Those in here complaining about the story and gameplay are in the minority. I have only played the demo section and absolutely love this style of game. 

 

I'll definitely get a better idea after the weekend. 

The story is the best part imo. 
 

Just defeated 

Spoiler

Benedikta

And it was fucking epic. And that music during the battle omg!

[Xbob42]

Also Yoshi-P's shit about the story not having black people because of being historically accurate is even more hilarious. I think it doesn't have any because it's a story laden with slavery and I bet they didn't want to touch that shit with a 10-foot pole. 

[Xbob42]

For extra fun: Every time an R2 prompt comes up to open a door, press R2 as liiiightly as you possibly can while still making progress. It makes it so stupidly long. 

[Mr.Vic20]

Am I doing something wrong with the combat? I've taken every opportunity to upgrade both my equipement and powers. I'm using combos, and I'm stagggering enemies then piling on the punishment! Still I feel like a nat trying to take down an elephant! I get that they wanted the combat to be flashy and dynamic but it makes you feel like a super mobile infant. Dance like a butterfly sting like a wee baby! 

[Biggie]

28 minutes ago, Mr.Vic20 said:

Am I doing something wrong with the combat? I've taken every opportunity to upgrade both my equipement and powers. I'm using combos, and I'm stagggering enemies then piling on the punishment! Still I feel like a nat trying to take down an elephant! I get that they wanted the combat to be flashy and dynamic but it makes you feel like a super mobile infant. Dance like a butterfly sting like a wee baby! 

Are you using your abilities? I’m destroying enemies. 

[Mr.Vic20]

3 minutes ago, Biggie said:

Are you using your abilities? I’m destroying enemies. 

I am! And I'm level 20, verses current enemies at level 19. It takes me 30 hits to kill a basic monster and 100s of hits to kill a wild bull or turtle. 

[BloodyHell]

45 minutes ago, Mr.Vic20 said:

Am I doing something wrong with the combat? I've taken every opportunity to upgrade both my equipement and powers. I'm using combos, and I'm stagggering enemies then piling on the punishment! Still I feel like a nat trying to take down an elephant! I get that they wanted the combat to be flashy and dynamic but it makes you feel like a super mobile infant. Dance like a butterfly sting like a wee baby! 

Later (not much later) you get abilities that let you stagger enemies far easier, allowing you to cut down strong enemies faster

[BloodyHell]

14 minutes ago, Mr.Vic20 said:

I am! And I'm level 20, verses current enemies at level 19. It takes me 30 hits to kill a basic monster and 100s of hits to kill a wild bull or turtle. 

Are you cycling and using your eikonic abilities? (R2+square/triangle)

[BloodyHell]

Like, I’m slaughtering groups of enemies easily, and large beasts in a minute, max.

[Biggie]

29 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

Later (not much later) you get abilities that let you stagger enemies far easier, allowing you to cut down strong enemies faster

 

28 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

Are you cycling and using your eikonic abilities? (R2+square/triangle)

 

18 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

Like, I’m slaughtering groups of enemies easily, and large beasts in a minute, max.

All of this. I’m wrecking stuff. 

[Xbob42]

Okay, finally, the story appears to be going places in a cool way with some fun weird shit happening, the Eikonic battle controls are opening up to more advanced stuff like actual mobility and more interesting attacks (thank god, I was worried they'd all be just super simple versions of normal combat) and the music, as always, remains stellar.

[skillzdadirecta]

Couple more questions... what are the difficulty options? Is the more of an action game with lite RPG mechanics or an RPG with action mechanics? 

[Bacon]

Just now, skillzdadirecta said:

Couple more questions... what are the difficulty options? Is the more of an action game with lite RPG mechanics or an RPG with action mechanics? 

Story and Action difficulty aka Easy and Normal. Hard (Final Fantasy mode) is unlocked after beating the game.

 

And there ain't shit for RPG mechanics. It's just an action game where, when you kill a lot of enemies or a boss, your character just gets stronger across the board. The real experience points are actually Ability points which you spend on Abilities. Pretty sure GoWR has more RPG mechanics at least in terms of how to strengthen your character.

[Xbob42]

Yeah, there's almost no RPG at all. It's mainly just the ability tree and choosing what trinkets you want to use.

[Biggie]

21 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Couple more questions... what are the difficulty options? Is the more of an action game with lite RPG mechanics or an RPG with action mechanics? 

Very very light rpg mechanics but that doesn’t take away from the fun. I’m playing on normal and with upgrading my abilities I haven’t had a problem so far with enemies/lite bosses/boss

[skillzdadirecta]

So this is basically Devil May Fantasy of War ?

[Bacon]

Just now, skillzdadirecta said:

So this is basically Devil May Fantasy of War ?

Yep, and while I was positive that the cutscenes would be slowing down, they kinda aren't so far. If I were to guess, I'd say I'm officially out of Act 1 (of 4 or more).

[Bacon]

While the "omg graphics" cutscenes have slowed down a bit, there are a large number of what I call FFXIV cutscenes. Where characters talk and emote(like MMO emotes) instead of scenes where characters are actually acting. Not really sure they should be called cutscenes either but I don't know what else to call them.

[Slug]

I forgot about ability points.  I just remembered they were a thing and looked and I have thousands of unspent points. 

[Mr.Vic20]

2 hours ago, BloodyHell said:

Are you cycling and using your eikonic abilities? (R2+square/triangle)

Oh yes, and my limit break now. Still its a ton of pretty hyper kinetic nothing. Combat is waaaaay too easy, but it takes forever! And I'm playing on action mode, my god how easy is this on story mode?!

[BloodyHell]

6 minutes ago, Bacon said:

While the "omg graphics" cutscenes have slowed down a bit, there are a large number of what I call FFXIV cutscenes. Where characters talk and emote(like MMO emotes) instead of scenes where characters are actually acting.

I don’t know how far you are, but I have had some recent incredible cutscenes and story experience.

 

For me, I just went back to to the demo section (and finished that). Are you further than me? 

[Biggie]

2 minutes ago, Slug said:

I forgot about ability points.  I just remembered they were a thing and looked and I have thousands of unspent points. 

Oof

[BloodyHell]

3 minutes ago, Mr.Vic20 said:

Oh yes, and my limit break now. Still its a ton of pretty hyper kinetic nothing. Combat is waaaaay to easy, but it takes forever! And I'm playing on action mode, my god how easy is this on story mode?!

But combat is over in seconds for me for anything but a boss fight or elite monster.

and the wind abilities completely destroy stagger guages, then you destroy them with your phoenix abilities.

 

I haven’t tried story mode, no interest in that 

[Mr.Vic20]

1 minute ago, BloodyHell said:

But combat is over in seconds for me for anything but a boss fight or elite monster.

and the wind abilities completely destroy stagger guages, then you destroy them with your phoenix abilities.

 

I haven’t tried story mode, no interest in that 

So you're not hitting enemies like the turtle or the wild bulls a couple of hundred times? I'm already exhuasted from hitting enmies enough times so I can get stagger then wail on them for a full 30 seconds so they can get up and we can do that 1-2 more times. Its boring and empty. Very pretty mind you, but without much substance. 

[BloodyHell]

10 minutes ago, Mr.Vic20 said:

Oh yes, and my limit break now. Still its a ton of pretty hyper kinetic nothing. Combat is waaaaay to easy, but it takes forever! And I'm playing on action mode, my god how easy is this on story mode?!

 

2 minutes ago, Mr.Vic20 said:

So you're not hitting enemies like the turtle or the wild bulls a couple of hundred times? I'm already exhuasted from hitting enmies enough times so I can get stagger then wail on them for a full 30 seconds so they can get up and we can do that 1-2 more times. Its boring and empty. Very pretty mind you, but without much substance. 

God no. I can kill those turtles in a minute tops.

 

stagger with wind abilities, damage with fire when he drops.

 

also, yuse the wind circle ability at 50% stagger to get an extra big damage boost

[Best]

Lol what is vic smokin? 

 

These visuals make me hard. Story is slowly taking off and combat is fun. I am still not very far and I'm still being introduced to mechanics. I just really love the characters, visuals, combat, and mostly, the soundtrack. So far so good. I'm really digging in tomorrow. 

[BloodyHell]

The turtles though, you need to hit the head. If you hit the shell it does nothing 

[Bacon]

21 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

I don’t know how far you are

Without major spoilers. Just made it past the LoZ:OoT Water temple mini-boss and Clive has linked back up with Cid in the hideaway.

Or with major spoilers

Spoiler

Clive has accepted he is Ifirit and now is gonna fuck up the mothercrystals with Cid.

 

I am a very slow gamer and take a lot of time to fully explore every area no matter how linear. I have fully explored both of the wider areas so far and left no chest unopened.

[BloodyHell]

Just now, Bacon said:

Without major spoilers. Just made it past the LoZ:OoT Water temple mini-boss and Clive has linked back up with Cid in the hideaway. Or rather

  Hide contents

Clive has accepted he is Ifirit and now is gonna fuck up the mothercrystals with Cid.

 

That’s exactly where I am

[BloodyHell]

15 minutes ago, Mr.Vic20 said:

So you're not hitting enemies like the turtle or the wild bulls a couple of hundred times? I'm already exhuasted from hitting enmies enough times so I can get stagger then wail on them for a full 30 seconds so they can get up and we can do that 1-2 more times. Its boring and empty. Very pretty mind you, but without much substance. 

Ya, as somebody mentioned above, you are upgrading abilities, right?

[Bacon]

Some slight spoilers in this video due to some changing appearances, but nothing that you haven't seen from the demo or box art.

But the video shows how long it takes me to kill a minotaur. It's a bit too long for my liking, but I'm also not great at character action games. I'm just pretty good at dodging and mashing r1. It takes about a minute and I half with my level of skill. I specifically didn't use LB as you don't have it when you first encounter this enemy.

Spoiler

 

 

[Mr.Vic20]

39 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

Ya, as somebody mentioned above, you are upgrading abilities, right?

I am, I think I just don't like the feel of having to hit enemies so many times to kill them. Its feels bad to me. I'm progressing just fine, in fact to demonstrate what I was talking about to my wife, I would frequently take my eyes off the screen while fighting bosses because while they have an ungodly amount of hit points, and the screen is constantly exploding, they are in reality very simple and easy fights. It all adds up, for me mind you, as boring and lacking depth. Also, what the fuck is up with limited the amount of potions one can have? I get the idea is game balance, but I don't love it even if I don't really need to heal a lot because of the afore mentioned ease. I'm what you'd call a middle of the road gamer. I'm not crushing Sekiro with my mad skills over here. So when a game is kinda easy and also filled with loads of spongy enemies and super spongy bosses, I leave with carpal tunnel but not a sense of satisfaction in my progress. That said, I'm cearly in the minority here. And for what its worth, I too thought I was doing something wrong so I went into the training location back at the hide out and trained up and yup, I'm comboing like a mother ducker. I guess I just like weightier combat with more meaninful hits, not endless fluries of  hits. 

 

[Bacon]

7 minutes ago, Mr.Vic20 said:

I guess I just like weightier combat with more meaninful hits, not endless fluries of  hits. 

Same. Just look at my SoP gameplay. I use the biggest "slowest" weapon there is and decimate bosses with charged attacks. I won't say I'm not having fun, as I thought I actually did pretty good in the Minotaur video and when I feel I'm doing well I tend to have fun, but I also would have greatly preferred if once you stagger a non-boss, that was pretty much the end of the fight. That's how it was in SoP. You never have to stagger an enemy twice and I feel that was the right move. My style of play in SoP made the game very easy and yet I still have fun.

[Bacon]

Gotta feed bad for

Spoiler

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.

 

[Xbob42]

I feel like they should've made staggering take longer, but give a much bigger bonus. You should start doing 50% more damage by default, not building up to it max. Don't give it an upper limit. Let some lunatic go mad and hit +10,000% or something. RPGs are a lot of fun when you get to do the really big numbers after building out a character and figuring out the mechanics.

 

Even FF13 knew that once you were in stagger, you gotta be doing BIG damage, that's the reward for the stagger after all. So far in FF16 the reward seems limited and like you've still got to do a lot of work using your basic attacks and weaker skills to max out the damage bonus before using your bigger skills, but because everything is cooldown based, you can't, for example, pop an ether and use your most powerful ability like 10 times in a row until you're out of MP. Kinda one of the reasons I liked the turn-based stuff, you could really plan out ways to demolish the enemy once you were good at it.

That said some abilities do seem super strong at certain things. Like the fire wave attack does a ton of stagger damage, while the really expensive phoenix move at the bottom of the circle absolutely devastates entire groups of weaker enemies, and doubly so once powered up. (It also does tons of damage to big enemies.)