-
Hey everyone, staff have documented a list of banned content and subject matter that we feel are not consistent with site values, and don't make sense to host discussion of on Famiboards. This list (and the relevant reasoning per item) is viewable here.
-
Do you have audio editing experience and want to help out with the Famiboards Discussion Club Podcast? If so, we're looking for help and would love to have you on the team! Just let us know in the Podcast Thread if you are interested!
Previews Final Fantasy XVI Preview Thread
- Thread starter Red Monster
- Start date
- Status
Angel Whispers
Follow me at @angelpagecdlmhq
Final Fantasy games were always linear, which makes that specific criticism towards other entries in the series wild - 7Remake has a lot in common with the 13 trilogy, and so does the original to some extent; The latter just hid its linearity behind the world map. Now, they’ve removed the pretence.
ertaboy356b
Resident Troll
You're right. The only time FF is not linear is when you finally unlocked the airship, or if you're playing FF1.
OP
OP
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Here's a look at hunts. This showcases the combat better than any other video I've seen so far.
Leica
Paratroopa
- Pronouns
- he/him
They should have showed that sort of gameplay earlier, looks really good.
Evil Lucario
Star Successor
Nero with a Shotlock is honestly incredibly inspired. Once a demo drops, I'm 100% there. Only issue is me working through my backlog, so FF16 will have to wait.
Looking good, but also a bit too exhausting for my liking. I wish the effects were a bit less... intrusive/busy, I guess.
- Pronouns
- he/him
Looks wild.
ProteusRidley
Famiboards one and only Lost Kingdoms simp
As someone whose not huge into FF, this game actually looks phenomenal.
Still waiting for reviews though
Still waiting for reviews though
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Hoping we get a demo today and it'll end up selling me on the game. I really want to like this.
Yamanoi
I paid $70 for this tag
- Pronouns
- He/Him
OP
OP
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I’m absolutely not gonna play the demo. I’m already as sold as I can possibly be.
OP
OP
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I’ve been saying this for months
ProteusRidley
Famiboards one and only Lost Kingdoms simp
These developers must be a fan of the
The beginning gave me flashbacks to it.
Meta Ridley fight in Metroid Prime 3 d:
The beginning gave me flashbacks to it.
Yamanoi
I paid $70 for this tag
- Pronouns
- He/Him
space_dragon
Cunning Commander
Can't tell you how many times I pressed circle to dodge but instead rushed forward into an enemy attack, lol.
Watching some demo gameplay, and to my eyes the performance mode is a complete mess. Looks a bit nasty and doesn't even run well (=consistent, primarily).
The solid stability of quality mode certainly is to my liking. Then again, I don't think the motion blur does the visual presentation any good.
So far the tech side of things certainly makes me feel pretty good about waiting for the PC version.
The solid stability of quality mode certainly is to my liking. Then again, I don't think the motion blur does the visual presentation any good.
So far the tech side of things certainly makes me feel pretty good about waiting for the PC version.
Vernal
Apologist
To whom it may concern, there's still some hope if you care about performance. We know you're waiting on that PC version Imitatio ;P
ProteusRidley
Famiboards one and only Lost Kingdoms simp
Well shit, this may have made this a day 1 purchase. Good job SE
SirArthur
Kremling
- Pronouns
- He/Him
So much for "No day 1 patch" /s.
Not the first time SE has done this. Forspoken, Star Ocean, Valkyrie , had issues with their demos. Granted the recent games with demos that carried data (I dont remember if the previous ones had carryover) from SE were great: DioField, DQ Treasures, all the HD-2D games (smaller games though).
- Pronouns
- He/him
Really want to play it, but the wait would just be harder then.
Can't wait !
Can't wait !
- Pronouns
- he/him
Whenever I wind up with a PS5, this will be the first order of business. Looks awesome. I hope everyone is enjoying the demo!
ProteusRidley
Famiboards one and only Lost Kingdoms simp
I decided to stop at the end of the prologue.
Final thoughts. Game actually seems fantastic. I'm excited to play it, gonna get it day one. No character is annoying which is a huge bonus. I only have two gripes with the game and even then they are super tiny. I actually got shivers at the end. God damn.
Shit, at this rate it'll end up my favourite FF (not saying much cause I havent beaten many)
Final thoughts. Game actually seems fantastic. I'm excited to play it, gonna get it day one. No character is annoying which is a huge bonus. I only have two gripes with the game and even then they are super tiny. I actually got shivers at the end. God damn.
Shit, at this rate it'll end up my favourite FF (not saying much cause I havent beaten many)
Last edited:
- Pronouns
- He/him
Finished the demo, and goddamn what a game. It's going to be hard waiting to play the rest (and I'm going on a small vacation on the 23rd so I'll have to wait even longer 
). Gonna try out the combat demo later, but so far the game is a ton of fun.
). Gonna try out the combat demo later, but so far the game is a ton of fun.
Zeroth
No
I have been avoiding all media around this game since its announcement, and I'm quite happy with the demo. Changed from a "May get it down the road" to "Pre-ordered and actively listening to its music". My only complaint is that I miss having more elaborate attack combos and the mapping of dodge to R1 versus Circle, with the extra bad factor that the control schemes do not have the option to simply swap one particular button to another (probably for UI reasons, but still).
ertaboy356b
Resident Troll
Is it just a cutscene simulator or a an actual "fun" game?
From what I played, it's a very traditional JRPG + a action base combat system (vs. turn base) + cinematic combat between titans
ertaboy356b
Resident Troll
Ok that's good to know. Hope it doesn't take a lot of my time when I managed to play it. I dropped FE Engage for the very reason that I only have 1 hour to play and 45 minutes of those are cutscenes.
but.....it's the traditional JRPG... so it'll definitely have a lot of cutscens...
ertaboy356b
Resident Troll
Well the quantity of cutscenes is not the problem. The problem is the length. You could eat lunch and the cutscene is still not finished. I have this issue with FE Engage where they just talk and talk, cutscenes after cutscenes.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
This was awesome. Just awesome. Story has me hooked already. Dialogue and character moments already miles ahead of what the series has done previously.
It’s a AAA as AAA game (QTEs, hold to open door lol), but I’m fine with it. I can see this game being exactly what FF needs right now.
Obviously didn’t get a full feel of combat with just the prologue, and I’m not really someone who’s worried about the combat so I won’t play the second part of the demo due to wanting to avoid any spoilers, but I can really see it blossoming. At the very least, it feels good. Already caught myself trying to commit magic chaining to muscle memory.
It’s a AAA as AAA game (QTEs, hold to open door lol), but I’m fine with it. I can see this game being exactly what FF needs right now.
Obviously didn’t get a full feel of combat with just the prologue, and I’m not really someone who’s worried about the combat so I won’t play the second part of the demo due to wanting to avoid any spoilers, but I can really see it blossoming. At the very least, it feels good. Already caught myself trying to commit magic chaining to muscle memory.
- Pronouns
- he/him
Unfortunately I was more sold on the game before the demo than I am after. The combat system seems to have potential against the big enemies, but against mobs it kinda feels like playing a more limited version of Kingdom Hearts. The lack of mini-map is very annoying, there's a bit of outdated game design as well (hold R2 to open some doors will get annoying fast), I'm a bit worried about the writing of female characters in the game, and it struggles a bit to hold 60fps.
I'm not all negative though, there's a lot of good stuff: the presentation is beautiful, the voice acting is great, I really had fun against the big enemies... but we'll see how the game turns out. Still buying this day one, because it's FF.
I'm not all negative though, there's a lot of good stuff: the presentation is beautiful, the voice acting is great, I really had fun against the big enemies... but we'll see how the game turns out. Still buying this day one, because it's FF.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
It's kinda funny, before the demo I wasn't sold on the game, but having played the demo it really impressed me in a lot of ways. However, I feel like the game might be too depressing for me. The end of the demo was a lot and I'm not sure I wanna go through a whole game like that.
Illucio
I can lift a solid two leaves 🍃
- Pronouns
- He
Just finished the FF16 demo 1 and 2.
Absolutely hate the feel for combat. I want so many changes and tweaks. Visually hard to see anything (I need to play around with performance over visual quality). Dodging is just horrible in this game, charging towards enemies feels horrible and that was the one nice ability in FFXV that I wish came back (it was also the most fun). Magic feels weak and pointless then getting some dps in like in DMC. And the game really just feels like Devil May Cry meets Dark Souls, but just worse.
Visually this game looks absolutely brilliant. Music is stellar and the story seems very interesting, though on another side. I dislike how much inspiration they took from Game of Thrones. I always had to skip through Jon Snow parts or practically anything to do with the North because of how boring it was at times. And Clive just feels like Jon Snow 2.0 but with more trauma and baggage. I just really don't care for the medieval setting, there is just no fantastical final fantasy design and elements in the landscapes I've seen. I think they really took the whole "we don't want to be seen as a JRPG" comments to heart. But I feel like this game shows some of the worst elements of what makes JRPGs, JRPGs. As they try so hard to feel Western like Dark Souls does. Quick time events, half baked mechanics with very little flow and visually too much going on.
I have the game preordered and I'm still interested to proceed with the game for the visuals and story alone. But I really hope the gameplay is better at release. Since apparently this demo was made months ago.
Stark family which this game really seems to be focusing entirely on with Clive sort of being a more trauma filled Jon Snow. Dealing with the actual problems of the world.
Lannisters as the comedic side with the high royalty angle with a lot of backstabbing and family drama.
Then Taegareans with the uplifting upheaval of the system, the magic elements of the show with the dragons and the character people got to really root for to take the throne.
But what I get from the FF16 story is the Jon Snow stuff amped up to what feels like trauma porn. Alongside the Taegarean magical summoning elements that seems to be the driving force of Clive's story. And I just can't get behind that being the plot device that moves the story forward, as opposed to the characters being the driving force that progresses the plot.
At the end of the day FF16 story looks interesting but it's going to be difficult to sit through if they keep it dark like this all throughout the game. And if they do, I REALLY won't be feeling for any of the characters of this game. And it will be weird to play a Final Fantasy game and absolutely hate every character because of the dark and brude writing.
Really hoping for the best.
Absolutely hate the feel for combat. I want so many changes and tweaks. Visually hard to see anything (I need to play around with performance over visual quality). Dodging is just horrible in this game, charging towards enemies feels horrible and that was the one nice ability in FFXV that I wish came back (it was also the most fun). Magic feels weak and pointless then getting some dps in like in DMC. And the game really just feels like Devil May Cry meets Dark Souls, but just worse.
Visually this game looks absolutely brilliant. Music is stellar and the story seems very interesting, though on another side. I dislike how much inspiration they took from Game of Thrones. I always had to skip through Jon Snow parts or practically anything to do with the North because of how boring it was at times. And Clive just feels like Jon Snow 2.0 but with more trauma and baggage. I just really don't care for the medieval setting, there is just no fantastical final fantasy design and elements in the landscapes I've seen. I think they really took the whole "we don't want to be seen as a JRPG" comments to heart. But I feel like this game shows some of the worst elements of what makes JRPGs, JRPGs. As they try so hard to feel Western like Dark Souls does. Quick time events, half baked mechanics with very little flow and visually too much going on.
I have the game preordered and I'm still interested to proceed with the game for the visuals and story alone. But I really hope the gameplay is better at release. Since apparently this demo was made months ago.
Same. Like Game of Thrones worked for many people because you got three main families to follow.
Stark family which this game really seems to be focusing entirely on with Clive sort of being a more trauma filled Jon Snow. Dealing with the actual problems of the world.
Lannisters as the comedic side with the high royalty angle with a lot of backstabbing and family drama.
Then Taegareans with the uplifting upheaval of the system, the magic elements of the show with the dragons and the character people got to really root for to take the throne.
But what I get from the FF16 story is the Jon Snow stuff amped up to what feels like trauma porn. Alongside the Taegarean magical summoning elements that seems to be the driving force of Clive's story. And I just can't get behind that being the plot device that moves the story forward, as opposed to the characters being the driving force that progresses the plot.
At the end of the day FF16 story looks interesting but it's going to be difficult to sit through if they keep it dark like this all throughout the game. And if they do, I REALLY won't be feeling for any of the characters of this game. And it will be weird to play a Final Fantasy game and absolutely hate every character because of the dark and brude writing.
Really hoping for the best.
Evil Lucario
Star Successor
I skipped every cutscene because I didn't want to spend time away from the combat and I'd get fully immersed with the full game anyway. But I had a good time with the demo and it firmly pushed it into the "later once the backlog clears up enough" zone.
Lots of Devil May Cry moves make the leap to FF16. I especially enjoy how Clive has Trickster and can blink to enemies just like in DMC, the Stinger having the funniest sound from Clive, Enemy Step, and multiple other things I could point at. It feels pretty damn good and while the beginning combat did feel standard and doesn't quite flex much depth, the Eikon Challenge quickly changed my mind and actually revealed awesome stuff, like how Titan has Royal Guard and that feels awesome to use. With how much customization you have, this really is gonna be an RPG DMC, which is honestly really exciting.
I only have a couple of complaints here and there. First off, the motion blur is despicable. The 30fps cap is actually very good with minimal input lag, compared to other games like God of War 2018 which felt awful at 30, but the motion blur ruins it super hard. And the 60fps mode holds okay during combat, but it's not super stable for towns. I can deal with that, though.
Secondly though, both the Morbol and Dragoon had a bit too much health for not having enough things in your toolkit. I felt like I fully staggered that Morbol like five times before it died for real, and the Dragoon was a bit better but still went on a bit longer than needed for your limited moveset in the moment. Even with Precision Dodges, damage on them felt low. It'll solve itself once you get more moves, but those bosses didn't like super wow me.
Lots of Devil May Cry moves make the leap to FF16. I especially enjoy how Clive has Trickster and can blink to enemies just like in DMC, the Stinger having the funniest sound from Clive, Enemy Step, and multiple other things I could point at. It feels pretty damn good and while the beginning combat did feel standard and doesn't quite flex much depth, the Eikon Challenge quickly changed my mind and actually revealed awesome stuff, like how Titan has Royal Guard and that feels awesome to use. With how much customization you have, this really is gonna be an RPG DMC, which is honestly really exciting.
I only have a couple of complaints here and there. First off, the motion blur is despicable. The 30fps cap is actually very good with minimal input lag, compared to other games like God of War 2018 which felt awful at 30, but the motion blur ruins it super hard. And the 60fps mode holds okay during combat, but it's not super stable for towns. I can deal with that, though.
Secondly though, both the Morbol and Dragoon had a bit too much health for not having enough things in your toolkit. I felt like I fully staggered that Morbol like five times before it died for real, and the Dragoon was a bit better but still went on a bit longer than needed for your limited moveset in the moment. Even with Precision Dodges, damage on them felt low. It'll solve itself once you get more moves, but those bosses didn't like super wow me.
I've played through the story prologue three times to get a feel for the combat and, for me, it gets better every time. The story and cinematography have been really good. I loved Witcher 3 so the darker execution of the themes has been a nice touch. I still worry about how good I'll be at the combat when it's fully fleshed out. Haven't done eikonic abilities demo yet because I think I'll probably be better at it if I let myself adjust to the new abilities organically through the story. They didn't need to sell me on the game because I was already sold so all it really did was make the wait for the full release seem even longer lol. Can't wait to dig more into the story and see where it takes me.
Illucio
I can lift a solid two leaves 🍃
- Pronouns
- He
Preach on that motion blur. Absolutely horrendous, I scowled through the settings trying to find a way to turn it off. Eye gouging blur.
And I agree the health bars were way too high for something early game with such a basic toolkit. And how little you hit for damage definitely made me feel like I was playing wrong when it looked like a enemy should had been defeated at the last cinematic cutscene for some of the fights.
Another bit too is that I REALLY want to turn off the Quick time events in cinematic events. They are not engaging and I hate them in every game they are used in.
(Hold button to open door had me facepalm a bit. They pulled that from God of War didn't they? Do they understand from a gameplay perspective why some games do that? Just another example of them trying to be more Western in game design with this game, but not understanding what the reasonings and mechanics were behind it).
BlueManifest
Bob-omb
Did anyone notice the boss in the demo, it’s hp doesn’t go back to 100% if you die? Completely removes any challenge or purpose for gear
Also just found out the game has no optional dungeons or zones, im still buying but not liking what info I’ve been finding out
Also just found out the game has no optional dungeons or zones, im still buying but not liking what info I’ve been finding out
- Pronouns
- He
Played the demo of it. As a non-FF fan who's tried to get into the series and a fan of action games my opinion is basically that the first half was pretty terrible and that the second half was pretty great.
The introduction had everything I dislike about Final Fantasy and Game of Thrones writing and it made it all the more awkward. You have realistic dialogue writing juxtaposed with Square Enix still forcing themselves to come up with a unique name for every concept, so just like with "SOLDIER" and "DEEPGROUND" you get a lot of talk of "the Dominant" in a completely serious scene that just completely ruins the mood. The intro is composed of a ton of scenes of characters you don't care about, which means for about an entire hour you're just sitting on your ass waiting. Clive is a charisma vacuum; a Dyson came to life. And in general the attempt at making everything dour is painfully lacking in nuance. To top it all of we got a Game of Thrones style scene early on to remind us, yes, people have sex.
But once you are actually able to play the game it is pretty fun. I dig the Lord of the Rings vibe going on as Clive leads his band of misfits like Frodo leads his friends. Combat is generally good, I could see it maybe getting old because it's a bit simple in the story demo, but I doubt it. There's weirdly some parts that lack feedback (Clive basically glides on the ground) and the dodge is a little weird, but nothing you can't get used to with time. The bosses are cool, though they only tangentially feel Final Fantasy (the final boss of the demo in particular feels weird from a story perspective?). I'm fine with that though because the series does have cool boss designs.
The "trauma porn" is something I can see turning people off, but really it was the coolest part by far for me and actually had me really invested, especially since the "twist" everyone saw coming went down way different than I think anyone was expecting. I don't really like how it kind of implies Clive as blameless, I think thematically it could say interesting things about his subconscious, but we'll have to see in the final game.
So I'm a bit more sold on the game now. But will the game be that consistently good? I don't know. The thing about Final Fantasy in my experience is the moments everyone remembers are as good and as legendary as they are hyped up to be - all of Midgar, Vivi's existentialism, Kefka "winning", etc. It's the moments in between that I think are weak. The parts where characters are forgotten or made worse, the parts where less interesting narrative devices overtake the story, the parts where repetition sets in as I have to defeat another mindless group of enemies. Here's hoping it doesn't dip.
Also the Star Fox sections fucking suck, holy shit
The introduction had everything I dislike about Final Fantasy and Game of Thrones writing and it made it all the more awkward. You have realistic dialogue writing juxtaposed with Square Enix still forcing themselves to come up with a unique name for every concept, so just like with "SOLDIER" and "DEEPGROUND" you get a lot of talk of "the Dominant" in a completely serious scene that just completely ruins the mood. The intro is composed of a ton of scenes of characters you don't care about, which means for about an entire hour you're just sitting on your ass waiting. Clive is a charisma vacuum; a Dyson came to life. And in general the attempt at making everything dour is painfully lacking in nuance. To top it all of we got a Game of Thrones style scene early on to remind us, yes, people have sex.
But once you are actually able to play the game it is pretty fun. I dig the Lord of the Rings vibe going on as Clive leads his band of misfits like Frodo leads his friends. Combat is generally good, I could see it maybe getting old because it's a bit simple in the story demo, but I doubt it. There's weirdly some parts that lack feedback (Clive basically glides on the ground) and the dodge is a little weird, but nothing you can't get used to with time. The bosses are cool, though they only tangentially feel Final Fantasy (the final boss of the demo in particular feels weird from a story perspective?). I'm fine with that though because the series does have cool boss designs.
The "trauma porn" is something I can see turning people off, but really it was the coolest part by far for me and actually had me really invested, especially since the "twist" everyone saw coming went down way different than I think anyone was expecting. I don't really like how it kind of implies Clive as blameless, I think thematically it could say interesting things about his subconscious, but we'll have to see in the final game.
So I'm a bit more sold on the game now. But will the game be that consistently good? I don't know. The thing about Final Fantasy in my experience is the moments everyone remembers are as good and as legendary as they are hyped up to be - all of Midgar, Vivi's existentialism, Kefka "winning", etc. It's the moments in between that I think are weak. The parts where characters are forgotten or made worse, the parts where less interesting narrative devices overtake the story, the parts where repetition sets in as I have to defeat another mindless group of enemies. Here's hoping it doesn't dip.
Also the Star Fox sections fucking suck, holy shit
Not very impressed by the demo. The visual style doesn't scale well on a large OLED (vs a small phone), and the game has a strong blur effect when turning the camera. Playing in FPS mode makes it seem like your character is floating on top of the environment rather than walking on it.
Seems odd to say but TotK looks much better visually on the same TV. Hope the final build is pretty radically different.
Edit: After I got over the visuals and skipped cutscenes I had fun. It's fun spamming fire ball and just mashing buttons to kill goblins, this is the best combat a final fantasy has had in a while. Overall this game reminds me of two Xbox 360 games, blades of time and the first Templar.
Seems odd to say but TotK looks much better visually on the same TV. Hope the final build is pretty radically different.
Edit: After I got over the visuals and skipped cutscenes I had fun. It's fun spamming fire ball and just mashing buttons to kill goblins, this is the best combat a final fantasy has had in a while. Overall this game reminds me of two Xbox 360 games, blades of time and the first Templar.
Last edited:
- Status
