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Final Fantasy XVI coming to PC 9.17.24

Fess

Member
Played a bit from the demo. Is there a way to unlock higher framerates in cutscenes? Going between smooth and choppy so often is really distracting.
 

Zelduh

Member
Played a bit from the demo. Is there a way to unlock higher framerates in cutscenes? Going between smooth and choppy so often is really distracting.

When you watch a movie at the theater do you go back to the box office and demand your money back because it's a choppy unwatchable 24 FPS mess?
 

sigmaZ

Member
I feel like I played a different game than all these fanboys praising the game to the heavens.

The linear story stages and Eikon/boss fights were fucking amazing, some of the coolest things I’ve ever seen in a video game. The other 80% of the game however is some of the most boring garbage I have ever experienced. The game put me to sleep multiple times.

I’m convinced that this game began as a FF spinoff that was just those linear stages/bosses. All the rest (exploration zones, sidequests, crafting system, etc) just feels like the most bland, soulless shit that was added so they could justify calling it Final Fantasy XVI
Exact same.
I actually got a hint of what the game was gonna be when I played the second demo of the PS5 demo. (And knowing the team behind FF14 was working on this.)
My fears were confirmed more than imagine on the full game. The only part of the game that I can say I fully enjoyed was the Dion arc, but that was all cutscenes, so that could've just had been a movie basically. The rest of the time I found myself yelling at myself for wasting money on a PS5 for the game or at the game for so many lame design choices. Beating this almost destroyed my faith in gaming, but BG3 served as a nice rebound.

I think people that like this game, like flashy action games, which there is nothing wrong with at all. I like them too occasionally, but this didn't hit the mark for me. I actually enjoyed the combat much better in Strangers of Paradise of all games. I will probably just skip the next FF if it's like this again, especially if it's another timed exclusive.
 

FoxMcChief

Gold Member
Wait till y'all PC folks see the Rebirth rock textures in 4K
Here’s a screenshot I took of the amazing rocks from Rebirth.

GVZufscbYAAfAMK
 
I hope it runs well on PC/Steamdeck

I just tested out FF16 Demo on Steamdeck and it works fine for me. Yes there bugs but nothing game breaking. I can still play the game portable
Gave it whirl last night on the deck, can confirm it runs like total ass. Consistently below 20fps, lots of judder. I suppose if I was more invested in the game I would attempt more settings configurations but I got too tired, might try again later. The frame generation option makes the input lag atrocious and unplayable. I'm not really fond of maxing the gpu at a constant 99% for a subpar performance, it just aint fair to the little guy.
 

Killer8

Member
Tried the demo last night and compared back and forth with my PS5 version. The game is a stuttering mess on my 4070 Super. Run around the garden in the town after the training area and it's big hitching every few seconds. It's a shame as the game would otherwise run very well. I reached a point where I preferred just playing on PS5 at 30fps because it least it's consistent. No hitches and no extremely jarring lurches from 90fps down to 30fps whenever a cutscene plays (and this game has a lot of them). Every version of upscaling included looks like ass with only DLAA being just about passable although very blurry. Ironically after all the bitching and moaning on here about the resolution on PS5 ("iT's OnLy 720p!!!"), the TSCMAA + FSR1 implementation ends up looking the best next to native. I also noticed in the woods section several instances of textures not loading in their full resolution compared to PS5. Shouldn't be an issue with a card with 12gb VRAM yet here were are. HDR also did not look quite as good as on PS5 and needed a ton of tweaking and messing around in the Nvidia control panel to get it looking okay. And after all that it visually doesn't appear to boast any real advantage over the PS5 version. Just a barebones port with no extra RTX features or anything.
 

rodrigolfp

Haptic Gamepads 4 Life
Tried the demo last night and compared back and forth with my PS5 version. The game is a stuttering mess on my 4070 Super. Run around the garden in the town after the training area and it's big hitching every few seconds. It's a shame as the game would otherwise run very well. I reached a point where I preferred just playing on PS5 at 30fps because it least it's consistent. No hitches and no extremely jarring lurches from 90fps down to 30fps whenever a cutscene plays (and this game has a lot of them). Every version of upscaling included looks like ass with only DLAA being just about passable although very blurry. Ironically after all the bitching and moaning on here about the resolution on PS5 ("iT's OnLy 720p!!!"), the TSCMAA + FSR1 implementation ends up looking the best next to native. I also noticed in the woods section several instances of textures not loading in their full resolution compared to PS5. Shouldn't be an issue with a card with 12gb VRAM yet here were are. HDR also did not look quite as good as on PS5 and needed a ton of tweaking and messing around in the Nvidia control panel to get it looking okay. And after all that it visually doesn't appear to boast any real advantage over the PS5 version. Just a barebones port with no extra RTX features or anything.
Odd. A few stutters even on Steam Deck on Windows here and almost zero on Desktop. 🤷‍♂️

Didn't noticed textures problems though.
 
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Celcius

°Temp. member
Just posting this here as well, new nvidia driver 560.94 is out. It says "This new Game Ready Driver provides the best gaming experience for the latest new games supporting DLSS 3.5 technology including Star Wars Outlaws. Further support for new titles leveraging DLSS technology includes Black Myth: Wukong, FINAL FANTASY XVI, and Concord which support DLSS 3. In addition, this driver supports the launch of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2."

 

rodrigolfp

Haptic Gamepads 4 Life
Just posting this here as well, new nvidia driver 560.94 is out. It says "This new Game Ready Driver provides the best gaming experience for the latest new games supporting DLSS 3.5 technology including Star Wars Outlaws. Further support for new titles leveraging DLSS technology includes Black Myth: Wukong, FINAL FANTASY XVI, and Concord which support DLSS 3. In addition, this driver supports the launch of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2."

Hopefully DLSS is not a blurry mess now.
 

Certinty

Member
Demo is better than the main full game.

Honestly, one of the most disappointing games i’ve played.

Practically just running through linear maps fighting weak enemies before fighting a boss who’s tough at the end.

Just so bland.
 

Brock2621

Member
This game is such a wild ride of a story. Absolutely worth playing if you skipped out on PS5. Throw a Reshade on there even if you want. It's incredible
 

Mercador

Member
Would watching the game on YouTube enough? My playtime is quite limited, I don't want to play a single player MMO for 60 hours... Can those side quests be skipped?
 

Gafito

Neo Member
Exact same.
I actually got a hint of what the game was gonna be when I played the second demo of the PS5 demo. (And knowing the team behind FF14 was working on this.)
My fears were confirmed more than imagine on the full game. The only part of the game that I can say I fully enjoyed was the Dion arc, but that was all cutscenes, so that could've just had been a movie basically. The rest of the time I found myself yelling at myself for wasting money on a PS5 for the game or at the game for so many lame design choices. Beating this almost destroyed my faith in gaming, but BG3 served as a nice rebound.

I think people that like this game, like flashy action games, which there is nothing wrong with at all. I like them too occasionally, but this didn't hit the mark for me. I actually enjoyed the combat much better in Strangers of Paradise of all games. I will probably just skip the next FF if it's like this again, especially if it's another timed exclusive.

I fell in love with the first chapter but finishing this game was terrible, most boring FF i played ever.
 

proandrad

Member
Sometimes in MMO, you need to do x side quests to progress in content. Since it's the FFXIV team, I prefer to be sure. Because from what I read, side quests are meaningless.
We have different definition of side quest then. All the side quest in 16 are skippable and are meh at best imo. It feels like they are just there because fans expect a Final Fantasy to have them, but they were just added to pad game time. I would totally recommend to skip them, if you really enjoy the game you could always do them in a new game+ playthrough.
 
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MikeM

Member
Just finished the demo. 60+ FPS at 4k high settings using FSR 3 quality across the board (7600x/7900xt). Still running old 23.11.1 drivers.

I may buy but the amount of cutscenes made it feel like a Kojima game.
 
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MagiusNecros

Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
Before someone says FF14, that should have been a spinoff title instead of Mainline title
FF11 is the better FF MMO as it feels more like a FF game whereas XIV feels like a modern Theme Park MMO that is most similar to WoW more then anything and I would actually consider WoW to be the better game overall. An issue I have with XIV is that it's a rather linear experience in the long term while 11 is all about having your own adventures and having a real sense of mystery, intrigue and danger. There is more strategy involved in player decision making in 11 then in XIV which also is a factor I think.

Many times I've found myself saying that if I dread logging into FF11 it's because I will want to spend the whole day playing getting lost in the world. And that I dread logging into XIV to only do dailies or just log right back out given how lifeless it is when it really is a themepark where you get your queue ticket and wait in line to ride the ride and then it's over. XI feels lived in and XIV feels stagnant.

It also helps that XI has multiple jobs and you can take a main job and a subjob to make your main job better.

Years ago I wasn't feeling XIII Trilogy or 15(still don't), Type 0 I thought was ok but they really botched the translation IMO and 16 falls under having the same issues as Endwalker which is high highs and low lows with the lows being more prominent. And they really just took the XIV MMO design in terms of progression and made it worse. With XVI it'll be 80% boring and 20% fun. With a Raging Fire, Dying Embers kind of story. It starts strong but boy does it fall off fast. So you'll either enjoy it or feel like "oh god when does it end".

FFXVI probably should of just been something similar to Granblue Fantasy Relink where it is 90% game and feels more like Final Fantasy then XVI does in the manner that each character is a different class and it wastes no time putting you into the fray instead of putting you into cutscene hell.

I will agree that the last good 3D FF games are still X and XII. Everything after that for mainline has just been "underwhelming". And when you admit that and realize there hasn't been a great mainline game since 2006 I think there is a problem.

If you liked BD2 I would definitely recommend getting a 3DS and playing the games in order with Bravely Default and then Bravely Second. As Second is a sequel to Default. With lots of QoL improvements and boasts 30 jobs as opposed to I think 24 in BDFF.
 

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
IQ and texture quality is significantly better on the PC version. Not to mention that 100FPS+ you'll be getting on a high end rig.

Will be interesting to see in-depth comparisons. Hopefully DF is on it.
Almost certain texture quality is the same. It's probably FSR that hurts the PS5 look.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Here's one from my playthrough, and I played the game exclusively in the Quality mode.

4KKC3Q0.jpeg
those are just bugs.

Game actually has some pretty decent rock textures in the open world. it's just classic UE4 texture streaming they cant seem to figure out.

It is pretty much the only thing i like about the game's visuals.

GHl9UUxWQAAXqx9


GHzRtyYXwAAhf9N
 

SkylineRKR

Member
FFXVI one of the most boring games I have played in recent years, I actually put it down for nearly a year. I just got to the end credits last spring. The game is actually at its best when its cinematic, I generally hated the traversal, quests and dungeons. And I hated the boss battles because they go on and on and you barely damage them outside of stagger. Ofcourse, FFVII and XIII used this same mechanic, but they had MUCH more flexibility. With the correct setups on your party you could nearly insta stagger enemies and then finish them off in seconds. In FFXVI this just isn't possible, there is no elementals so no setups to exploit weaknesses. You can pepper bombs with Shivas magic and moves but it doesn't matter, it does nothing different.

The only thing thats kind of working is use those specials with the projectile counter ability like that one from Garuda, this will eat away their stagger bar, but then you lose out on a DPS move in your slot to deal actual damage. Its just never really working out. And those cooldowns don't speed up by doing succesful evades, combos etc. Its a lot of missed potential.

If we're talking about the Highs of the game, then yeah the Demo isn't the best part. But if we're talking about storytelling, pacing, characterizing, cutscene quality, and dynamic camerawork and directing, then yes the Demo is the best part of the game. I was fiending hard for this game leading up to realize. It was ticking every single right box for me. So I didn't go in looking to criticize it. FFXVI has banger moments that are few and far between, and in the middle of those moments are some of the worst pacing and gameplay loop I've seen in a long time.

The demo was very good in setting up a cinematic medieval FF game. The combat sucked but you'd expect the full game opens up and gradually adds more depth. What happens however is that what you see here is what you get for the entire game, and the story delivery takes a dive after the prologue.

This demo is one of the best examples of bait and switch.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
those are just bugs.

Game actually has some pretty decent rock textures in the open world. it's just classic UE4 texture streaming they cant seem to figure out.

It is pretty much the only thing i like about the game's visuals.

GHl9UUxWQAAXqx9


GHzRtyYXwAAhf9N


I reckon at this distance, even the FF16 assets someone pointed out earlier will look fine.

Up-close, VII had a lot of low resolution assets in the Kalm region. The Junon region was better but mostly because the lighting was a bit darker and moodier and obscured a lot, I reckon.
 
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Mercador

Member
Perhaps the demo was the sales pitch and when it was selected as the official game, they continue from their concept but without the pressure of getting the pitch. I wonder if SquareEnix ask for marketing pitchs like that to the teams.
 

Myths

Member

I spend a lot of time just getting lost in minutiae of level design, checking out some of the more minor details easily overlooked or passed by. There were small things that I thought were neat, the bedrock, submerged branches and twigs in the brackish water of Stillwind actually having its own plane adds depth for sure. Different particle effects depending on what you hit, the lighting on certain materials... great stuff. The surface tension and reflection of the film surrounding leaves and twigs on water was done well. Also, love when you spend time in an area and the music actually starts tor resonate more whereas before it might have not in any regard -- just ambient. Motion blur was at 0 here too and it still looks like there's a bit applied to my eyes.
 
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I will agree that the last good 3D FF games are still X and XII. Everything after that for mainline has just been "underwhelming". And when you admit that and realize there hasn't been a great mainline game since 2006 I think there is a problem.
A lot of people didn't like XII when it came out either. It was considered FFXI's offline counterpart, due in large part to the gambit system. It makes sense though. FFXII came out right when the ToAU expansion was getting released in FFXI, which had the same setting and aesthetic. The pseudo political story and characters, especially Vaan, were heavily criticized too. If I recall, Basch was originally supposed to be the MC, not Vaan, and it definitely shows.

FFXVI is alright. It's the first mainline FF game in a long time to not be total trash fire on the day of release, which is a small step in the right direction. 13 is without a doubt the most divisive entry in the mainline series, 14 needed to be redone entirely, and 15 was built in a cave with a box of scraps and is held together by duct tape and the dreams of what could have been.
 
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mhirano

Member
I teied on my Steam Deck OLED and it runs decently.
The game seema to have a bug in the ingame FPS limiter.
If you set it to 40 or 30 fps, it becomes extremely choppy, kinda slow motion like.
I set it to 45 fps ingame and in Gamescope, Dynamic Resolution ON (makes the game stick to the target framerate better), fullscreen (to enable 800p and HDR), low settings and FrameGen OFF, MOTION BLUR OFF (important cause it sucks here).
Image scaling can be set to Intel XESS or FSR3, I prefer the latter cause you can increase sharpness
ISFvjvy.jpeg
 
Was curious and Steam reviews has the game at 50%. That's not great.

I don't know what Square's expecations are for sales, but they better lower them, lol.
 
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