FFXVI announced - PS5 and PC

[JoeK]

3 minutes ago, stir fry said:

I really liked blitzball in X and Triple Triad in VIII. TT in particular added a ton of depth to junctioning and developing your characters and gave a great reason to just explore towns doing more relaxing content

 

Until some motherfucker spread the '[Random]' rule throughout a region and destroyed the minigame for however long it took to get rid of that rule 😠

 

Even VII Remake added Fort Condor with the DLC, which I also liked and I think will make Rebirth a much better game than Remake. Speaking of VII in general that had shitloads of optional content, chocobo stuff for instance

 

I completely forgot about all those things! I don't think they ever left much of an impression with me!

[stir fry]

Well I don't know if this is a hot take, but imo the best PSX era FF is FFVIII with encounters turned off where you leverage the level scaling in that game to develop your characters solely with the triple triad minigame

 

I had so much fun doing that on the switch version, highly recommend it 👍

 

Anyway, looking forward to seeing more of 16

[JoeK]

6 minutes ago, stir fry said:

Well I don't know if this is a hot take, but imo the best PSX era FF is FFVIII with encounters turned off where you leverage the level scaling in that game to develop your characters solely with the triple triad minigame

 

I had so much fun doing that on the switch version, highly recommend it 👍

 

Anyway, looking forward to seeing more of 16

Are the Switch versions of vii and viii decent then? My Switch is fast becoming the jrpg machine in my house!

[Popo]

41 minutes ago, JoeK said:

Are the Switch versions of vii and viii decent then? My Switch is fast becoming the jrpg machine in my house!

They’re great. IX too. 

[Sarlaccfood]

Some of the footage coming out from the previews looks amazing.

 

Funny that summons have been such a big part of the series for so long before they thought “if only you could talk to control the monsters?”

[layten]

4 hours ago, JoeK said:

And of course, EG have put up a short article effectively saying: 

 

"We have no fucking idea when a PC version will come out."

 

https://www.eurogamer.net/yoshida-confirms-final-fantasy-16-wont-be-on-pc-six-months-after-ps5-release?fbclid=IwAR10nTuyKD3hkQ7QtEyG0uBhcuyaWdhDyUzi8ay-2SA7BhKpBlPk2FAG83I

 

I know the exclusivity wouldn't be the only reason we don't have a day one release for PC as well, but it sure fuck doesn't help. I wouldn't have been moaning had they not screwed up and put that 'available on PC' bit on the initial trailers we saw!

Interesting given that Sony had to use PC footage when they first showed it off. I guess a few more bags of money have been tossed onto the timed exclusive pile.

[JoeK]

1 minute ago, layten said:

Interesting given that Sony had to use PC footage when they first showed it off. I guess a few more bags of money have been tossed onto the timed exclusive pile.

 

But it's all okay, because it's Sony doing this sort of crap so it's all good...

 

Do you think Sony execs ever wake up in the morning and think of the hypocrisy? 

[Kayin Amoh]

Despite owning a PS5 I'm waiting for it on Series X, or I'll get a loan of it from somewhere.

 

Timed exclusives don't really tempt me, only actual ones.

[layten]

4 hours ago, JoeK said:

 

But it's all okay, because it's Sony doing this sort of crap so it's all good...

 

Do you think Sony execs ever wake up in the morning and think of the hypocrisy? 

It's fine, I just wish gaming "journalists" would hold them to the same standards.

 

 

[Mr. Gerbik]

13 hours ago, Sarlaccfood said:

Funny that summons have been such a big part of the series for so long before they thought “if only you could talk to control the monsters?”

Yep, it took them until FFXII before we could control the summons 

[Calashnikov]

14 minutes ago, Mr. Gerbik said:

Yep, it took them until FFXII before we could control the summons 

Those summons were kinda wack compared to the OG’s like Ifrit, Odin and them tho 

[revlob]

Yeah these days it's all "scissoring lesbian motorcycle twins" and "god of belts and zippers". I prefer the classic summons, like Fire Guy, Ice Lady, Lightning Gandalf, and Sentient Cactus.

[Calashnikov]

Those scissoring lesbian motorcycles are Shiva, so they’re kinda OG. I actually fucking love XIII’s take on the summons. In fact, I’m wearing a fucking t-shirt right now with a big fuck-off back piece on it depicting Lightning riding Odin’s prancing pony form 🤣 

 

 

Weirdly fucking gangsta, I’m sure you’ll all agree 🤘🏻😎 

 

 

[Popo]

1 hour ago, Mr. Gerbik said:

Yep, it took them until FFXII before we could control the summons 

 

Yes, but if only you could talk to these summons. 

 

(Have we done the summons version yet?)

[Popo]

7 minutes ago, revlob said:

"scissoring lesbian motorcycle twins" and "god of belts and zippers"

 

This sounds incredible. 

[Calashnikov]

3 minutes ago, Popo said:

 

This sounds incredible. 

 

 

And people say this is the worst fucking one 🙄 

[Mr. Gerbik]

1 hour ago, Calashnikov said:

Those summons were kinda wack compared to the OG’s like Ifrit, Odin and them tho 

Yes they're a bit weak sauce. But we controlled them is the point. Overall tho even though the summons weren't all that I think XII is awesome. Hope XVI captures some of that

[Calashnikov]

Yeah XII is god tier 🎖 

[Qazimod]

On 28/02/2023 at 16:26, JoeK said:

 

Is there ever anything much to do in Final Fantasy other than to get stuck in to an epic (and usually incomprehensible) story and fight stuff? I mean, that's what I buy the games for, I don't ever want them to become much else than that. But if the combat has been kicked up a notch, then that's all good for me I reckon.

 

Build customisation, sidequesting and minigames, I guess. Even VIIR had things to do outside of the critical path.  

 

It is weird that so much of what's been revealed seems so... set-piecey. There's a feeling that everyone's going to go through more or less the same gameplay beats at the same time. Although I am looking forward to the customisation that might be possible with the Eikons you choose to equip (essentially cycling between different "loadouts" during battle.)

 

E: I feel like the demo is going to suffer from the same effect as VIIR. People were asking why anyone was expecting VIIR to have any optional content like sidequests when the demo was so restrictive. VIIR did end up getting a bunch of sidequests and optional bits (e.g. Chadley battle sim stuff, or me wasting time collecting the jukebox music once I'd unlocked fast travel) but the demo was so limited that I can't blame anyone for having doubts.

[Mr. Gerbik]

1 hour ago, Calashnikov said:

Yeah XII is god tier 🎖 

Indeed it is. I'm currently halfway through the remaster and it's as brilliant as it ever was.

[Cyhwuhx]

Unfortunately, I’m out. This is now on track to become Square’s God of War in scope, audience, and gameplay, and no, that is not what I want to play as a JRPG. And then they still add those bloody Stagger and MMO systems on top.

 

Oh well, enough classic JRPGs out these days. It’s not like the genre is dead. Just disappointed we’re skipping another possibility for a high budget classic JRPG. 

[RubberJohnny]

Christ, the whole purpose of FF is to keep doing new things, new worlds, new stories, new gameplay systems. 

 

We've literally got half of the series now devoted to nostalgia bullshit (2/3rds if that FFIX remake in the Geforce leak is true, and uh, everything else in it has been), we don't need the entire thing being creatively hidebound, with nothing to say other than "REMEMBER THE 90s LADS?" even if it is what some boring old farts in here would prefer.

[Keyboard Koala]

FF XVI "Eikon" gameplay:

 

 

[thesnwmn]

Does that not look shit? 90% of the time there's nothing to see. A screen of grey with some button prompts hanging around.

 

I'm not really the target audience of this but sometimes you just see a video and wonder what it's even meant to show. I'm sure my skipping around it didn't help of course. But I was expecting something "cool" for a gameplay video I guess.

[stir fry]

I'm struggling with seeing what's going on in a lot of it as well. I put some of it down to youtube compression, but I think also there's been a bit of a general trend in AAA gaming towards dark games with lots of highlights and lots of screenshake, and sacrificing clean visuals. 

 

The gameplay seems interesting but I'd hope it's cleaner on release, and not just in terms of resolution and framerate but also better contrast and less visual noise and clutter.

[Cyhwuhx]

4 hours ago, RubberJohnny said:

Christ, the whole purpose of FF is to keep doing new things, new worlds, new stories, new gameplay systems. 

 

We've literally got half of the series now devoted to nostalgia bullshit (2/3rds if that FFIX remake in the Geforce leak is true, and uh, everything else in it has been), we don't need the entire thing being creatively hidebound, with nothing to say other than "REMEMBER THE 90s LADS?" even if it is what some boring old farts in here would prefer.

 

Weirdly, I agree. We've now almost spent 20 years watching the series remake itself into multiple increasingly action-ish forms of an offline MMO with stagger bars. It would be nice if they started replacing it with something new.

 

Seriously though, why is the stagger bar such an integral part of FF combat these days? Even the "nostalgia bullshit" contains stagger bars. And now we are getting a character action game. With a stagger bar. We've seen them shaving down turn-based combat and in-game command selection elements with every new title and spin-off, but somehow for some reason, the stagger bar survives. Ignore me though, because 16-bit RPG game design, yeah, that is still definitely the main problem holding the franchise back.

 

Full disclosure: I detest the stagger bar.

[Keyboard Koala]

Everyone knows that if you still want the true JRPG experience from the 16- and 32-bit heydays of Square, you have to play the Bravely Default or Octopath Traveler series these days. The whole idea of those two series was a revival of that particular type of JRPG experience that got abandoned after the PS2 era. They stopped making traditional JRPG Final Fantasy games over a decade ago now.

[Sarlaccfood]

That IGN video looks insane, I’m proper looking forward to this now.

[crisy]

I hope this has a few sunny villages to potter about in too and it's not all grey and grimdark. 

[RubberJohnny]

 

13 hours ago, Cyhwuhx said:

Seriously though, why is the stagger bar such an integral part of FF combat these days? Even the "nostalgia bullshit" contains stagger bars. And now we are getting a character action game. With a stagger bar. We've seen them shaving down turn-based combat and in-game command selection elements with every new title and spin-off, but somehow for some reason, the stagger bar survives. Ignore me though, because 16-bit RPG game design, yeah, that is still definitely the main problem holding the franchise back

 

Because you presumably want some state changes in your battle system so it's a bit more dynamic than people just trading attacks that do X health until you deplete their  Y HP: interrupting big moves, downing enemies, making actually using stuff like elemental weaknesses more effective and rewarding than just +% damage. Lots of other games found ways to do this in turn based systems through stuff like Press Turn or Grandias counterattacks, it's just FF and Dragon Quest that got stuck being vanilla throwbacks.

 

I'd wager a stagger system is in most games and you just don't notice it (every action game and shooter going back to at least Halo CE, for instance).