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[Sleepwalker]

Dang, the variability in side quest rewards is crazy. That's definitely worth it as AP are hard to come by to max out the Eikons.

Once you get a little further in the game you will be retroactively rewarded with a new currency for doing sidequests, you can unlock "gifts" with it, they are useful imo.

Also for the part of the game you're in, don't sweat it. You will be advised theres a point of no return, so if you want, when you hit that, you can come back and do all the sidequests, thats what I did.

What I've been doing is accepting all the quests then just do them when im near or in bulk as many are in the same territories.

-----


Finally got a Chocobo earlier today, traversing is now a breeze.


Loved the fight against

Spoiler

Kukpa, shit went hard as fuck and then you chop off his hands? Incredible lmao, cant wait for the final showdown vs him. Anyone here using the titan abilities? cant figure out if they're good yet.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

Would skipping side quests to do them in NG+be a good idea? The game seems easy enough anyways, so no need to level skills that much more to make it even more of a cakewalk. And also to leave something to discover for the next playthrough.

They mostly don't pump your XP, just some gil.

 

[GHG]

Ayoo when they said return to Phoenix Gate, I did not expect to return to a fucking crater lol

Spoiler

The hint is on the map the moment you return to present day if you remembered where it was situated.

 

[Zephir]

Spoiler: Cute Easter egg in mid-game, I guess?

What a nice little reference...too bad that...

Spoiler: context

...it's accompanied by another egregious "What the shit, mom?" moment (yes, they're hanged bodies)

 

[Danjin44]

It was so obvious and phoned it the second they never said it was an animal. Lol. Still A LOT better than "Give these three items to people."

I dont understand some of you guys issue with the side quests, have you played original Xenoblade? That games had LOTS OF MMO like side quests, you get 20 of them at once and in original Wii version it wouldn't even track those quests so it was pain in the ass to do them.

 

[Neff]

this game has the best Cid of the series

Agreed. Finchy steals the show.

That Shadow boss fight…no potions left, almost dead, and then….

There's some very dishonest boss HP bars in this game lol

 

[Nankatsu]

And look at where those new Eikon abilities are located on the abilities tree screen. K I N O.

And the UI changing to red is a nice little touch too.

 

[Madflavor]

The Berserker Ring. My god.

 

[Imru’ al-Qays]

I'm intrigued by how uneven the story is. First I'll say that by video game story standards it's quite good, and it's certainly infinitely better than the series has been for the last two mainline single player installments.

That said, there's something uncanny valley about it. It's like they took inspiration from Matsuno's games, GoT, The Witcher, etc without really understanding what makes those worlds work cohesively as settings. So they've adopted a mature, sophisticated, "political fantasy" aesthetic but under the surface it's a very typical shonen JRPG plot about young people recognizing the injustice of the world and vowing to work together to change it.

It kind of works, though, in the sense that I'm quite hooked and genuinely interested to see what happens next. And I'm still quite early on so things may improve as the plot develops. I'll take this over squealing anime trash like FF7R any day.

 

[TGO]

Anyone think the opening to the battle theme is very FFVIII

 

[Palabragrís]

Some of these side quests are brutal…one little girl ask me to find her pet and thought it’s going to be same as I did in FFVIIR……..NOPE!

This world is almost as fucked up as as Yoko Taro games…..almost.

You just missed one hell of a side-quest... I'm still shocked.

 

[TheKremlinBossMan]

Just absolutely demolished the Rank S dragon, 12 levels below.

He one shot my group once.

Then I destroyed his red ass.

I'd like to see this. No Idea how you had a party when you fought him, when it unlocked for me I was solo

Spoiler

It didn't unlock until after the mother storyline. You are talking about Svarog correct?

Something I whipped together in training mode trying out new stuff, and people are saying enemies take too long to kill. It's spoiler heavy as far as abilities so take care.

Removed the vid there was a huge spoiler besides abilities that I missed. Sorry.

 

[Danjin44]

You just missed one hell of a side-quest... I'm still shocked.

Do you mean the one with wolfs, they watch Bearers get killed by wolfs for entertainment.

 

[kevm3]

I'm putting this as my favorite Final Fantasy of all time. Behind that comes 6. Are there things 6 does better? Sure. But the epicness of this is unmatched. The way this blends numerous games together is amazing. It has the epicness of God of War with the fluidity of DMC.

There's not a ton of 'exploring', but that's fine. The corridorish stuff would usually bother me, but it pushes this game along from one epic encounter to another.

 

[Palabragrís]

Do you mean the one with wolfs, they watch Bearers get killed by wolfs for entertainment.

Nah, that one made me laugh. I mean the other one, near that one, with the little girl asking you to look for her pet.
Speaking of creating a trauma...

 

[Danjin44]

Nah, that made me laugh. I mean the other one, near that one, with the little girl asking you to look for her pet.
Speaking of creating a trauma...

Thats the one actually I was talking about on my original post.

 

[Yoshichan]

I'd like to see this. No Idea how you had a party when you fought him, when it unlocked for me I was solo

Spoiler

It didn't unlock until after the mother storyline. You are talking about Svarog correct?

Something I whipped together in training mode trying out new stuff, and people are saying enemies take too long to kill. It's spoiler heavy as far as abilities so take care.

Removed the vid there was a huge spoiler besides abilities that I missed. Sorry.

Spoiler: Hunt spoilers

yeah, Svarog! And I had Jill with me… hmm, odd!

 

[Palabragrís]

Thats the one actually I was talking about on my original post.

Oh, sorry. My mistake. Re-reading your post I thought you didn't make the side-quest because it was like the cat-fetching side-quest from FFVIIR.
And, yeah, this game it's brutal.

I love it.

 

[Spukc]

This game has such poor fucking gameplay.
And i am loving every second of it.. all i want is the next boss fight,

but this aint no final fantasy game. It's an interactive movie i played 3do games with better gameplay.

then again boss fights are fing epic.

 

[TheKremlinBossMan]

Spoiler: Hunt spoilers

yeah, Svarog! And I had Jill with me… hmm, odd!

Really fun fight, that last part killed me the first time it happened though.

 

[rofif]

The game is so good. ps5 says I am 62% and 24h in but the hours count doesn't seem right. I am playing longer.
Anyway - Hgig vs DTM on lg oled looks like that. No matter if 11, 14 or however many clicks.
The game is kinda dark and grey with hgig. I am palying with DTM.

Hgig also tends to overexpose so stuff in this game which is kinda strange. Maybe it is intended but then I doubt the grate would be visible with dtm

 

[ebevan91]

You are not Ifrit. I am.

I KNOW, RIGHT?

 

[rofif]

Once you get a little further in the game you will be retroactively rewarded with a new currency for doing sidequests, you can unlock "gifts" with it, they are useful imo.

Also for the part of the game you're in, don't sweat it. You will be advised theres a point of no return, so if you want, when you hit that, you can come back and do all the sidequests, thats what I did.

What I've been doing is accepting all the quests then just do them when im near or in bulk as many are in the same territories.

-----


Finally got a Chocobo earlier today, traversing is now a breeze.


Loved the fight against

Spoiler

Kukpa, shit went hard as fuck and then you chop off his hands? Incredible lmao, cant wait for the final showdown vs him. Anyone here using the titan abilities? cant figure out if they're good yet.

Oh wait for next time you meet him. Shit is crazy.
This got better levels boss fights than other games end boss fights!

 

[ChiefDada]

Wait, is the time of day not fixed? Or does it change based on progression? I just went back to the main hub and there is so much more shadows as if sun changed location.

 

[rofif]

So we ever get to change out of alucard clothes? The first outfit was so much better lol

 

[rofif]

So the overheating is a lie?

What is the Neogaf experience?

12 hours a day ps5 is on. Quality mode. Not a single crash and it’s 27c inside

 

[FoxMcChief]

I’m enjoying my time with the game. It’s got some super high moments, and some super meh moments. Then just weird decisions.

Like why do we have to wait 5 seconds before Clive goes full sprint? Why not let use tap R1?

Why can’t we turn off waypoints on the screen, or remove the quest objective?

Experience from enemies is weird. 1 tough enemy gives 15-20, while a group of simps gives 60+.

 

[mortal]

Wait, is the time of day not fixed? Or does it change based on progression? I just went back to the main hub and there is so much more shadows as if sun changed location.

It seems to change over the course of the story.

 

[mortal]

This game has such poor fucking gameplay.
And i am loving every second of it.. all i want is the next boss fight,

but this aint no final fantasy game. It's an interactive movie i played 3do games with better gameplay.

then again boss fights are fing epic.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

The further I'm getting into this game, so far 2 Eikons, the more incredible it becomes. I find it odd some don't recognise how much more ambitious this is than XIII, XV, 7R-1. (not in this thread, but just in general)

Despite no open world, the world feels bigger to me than XV, not to mention more unique in design. The settlements, villages, towns of which there have been plenty of so far have much world building with interesting NPC dialogue, which is missable if you don't explore them. The open zone maps and how they connect different villages together was absent in XV which basically had one town and one city that didn't contribute towards building a narrative of the world in the way XVI is doing.

The visuals are stunning, the high points are some of the best in the series. The boring sidequests do serve a purpose, which is to slow down the bombastic pace of the main story. I've also noticed the sidequests improving the further in I've gotten. Some quite surprising ones about bearers. Some adding some nice details to the world/lore/civilisation side of things.

It's an FF game through and through and one thats most comparable to the scale of the PS1/PS2 era games, with cutting edge graphics presented in real-time splender.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

The Berserker Ring. My god.

It's by far the best accessory in the game. If you've been sleeping on this thing, you either are one of those guys who just mashes Square and complain the combat sucks or you simply read the description (as I did) and had no idea what it actually did.

What it actually does is make all those precision dodges you've been doing turn AWESOME. The description in game sucks, ugh.

 

[xellos2099alpha]

Can you imagain how MUCH backlash there would be if they included Black Bearer?

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Can you imagain how MUCH backlash there would be if they included Black Bearer?

They should have made Sanbreque royalty all black with the bearers all white to gain the woke award points

They’d find some way to complain about how it trivializes modern day race relations or some such BS

 

[John Marston]

Just real quick.

I love the UI. It's very slick, user friendly and "modern".

I was so spoiled by Horizon Forbidden West's facial animations that this looks like a "Ps2 Pro" game.
A VERY MINOR COMPLAINT

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

I was so spoiled by Horizon Forbidden West's facial animations that this looks like a "Ps2 Pro" game.

HFW has definitely spoiled every single game when it comes to NPC facial models and animation

It’s crazy how far above that game is in that respect

 

[mortal]

Just real quick.

I love the UI. It's very slick, user friendly and "modern".

I was so spoiled by Horizon Forbidden West's facial animations that this looks like a "Ps2 Pro" game.
A VERY MINOR COMPLAINT

That's one of the minor issues for me as well. Some of the drama is diminished by the limited expressions, especially during the B cutscenes in sidequests.
The writing and voice acting are doing a lot of heavy lifting.

Hope to see an improvement in that area in the next mainline entry.

 

[TheKremlinBossMan]

Some of the later game side quests are just gut wrenching. Damn.

 

[GHG]

Anyone think the opening to the battle theme is very FFVIII

The more I play the more I get Viii vibes, and I fucking love it.

I cannot unsee Squall in Clive.

 

[mortal]

I love how Clive in his 30s essentially becomes Geralt, voice and all . A lot of the side quest and hunt stuff gives me some The Witcher 3 vibes.

 

[TheKremlinBossMan]

I love how Clive in his 30s essentially becomes Geralt, voice and all . A lot of the side quest and hunt stuff gives me some The Witcher 3 vibes.

Man this story really picks up late in his thirties. I am loving a few arcs I wont spoil here but these are some tragic ass characters. I didn't expect to but I love Dion.

 

[gow3isben]

When you get comfortable with charging attacks during Magic Burst, the combos you can make are insane.

What do you mean by this? I just secured the second eikon abilities but have no idea how Magic burst relates to charging abilities. I though it is just hitting triangle at the right time after square.

 

[Nubulax]

HFW has definitely spoiled every single game when it comes to NPC facial models and animation

It’s crazy how far above that game is in that respect

HFW was my GOTY that year yet people constantly try to shit on it and downplay it

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

HFW was my GOTY that year yet people constantly try to shit on it and downplay it

Yeah it’s a great game. Best technical showpiece and solid mechanics.

FF16 doesn’t have the graphical polish in all areas, but the main story and peak set piece design is the best the generation has to offer right now imho.

If someone asks me for a true next gen spectacle I’ll point them to FF16. HFW had some but not anywhere near this

 

[John Marston]

I love Ralph Ineson's voice.

From the dude who bonked Theon Greyjoy's head during his rallying speech after taking Winterfell, recently Diablo 4 and also the movie "The VVITCH".

And then as I was in the shower it came to me.

"Oh SHIT Charles Vane from AC Black Flag!"

Such a distinct voice

 

[Myths]

Anyone think the opening to the battle theme is very FFVIII

Soken did an amazing job culling from older FFs as there are multiple battle themes throughout the game.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Anyone else agree this game has some of the best uses of Haptics yet?

I don’t know why certain games are far more subtle about it. This is awesome. Best use since Returnal

 

[Dr. Claus]

Anyone else agree this game has some of the best uses of Haptics yet?

I don’t know why certain games are far more subtle about it. This is awesome. Best use since Returnal

Definitely! I think it helps that this feels like the first true Next Gen Exclusive since Returnal that actually has thought and care put into it.

 

[Myths]

Flew over my head but, Cid’s Hideaway is like Faris’ Pirate’s Hideout from FFV. Even the theme gives off such a vibe.

Some picks:




Until the other themes roll in, particularly ones present about Sanbreque. Those can put me fast asleep.

 

[SaniOYOYOY]

I'm intrigued by how uneven the story is. First I'll say that by video game story standards it's quite good, and it's certainly infinitely better than the series has been for the last two mainline single player installments.

That said, there's something uncanny valley about it. It's like they took inspiration from Matsuno's games, GoT, The Witcher, etc without really understanding what makes those worlds work cohesively as settings. So they've adopted a mature, sophisticated, "political fantasy" aesthetic but under the surface it's a very typical shonen JRPG plot about young people recognizing the injustice of the world and vowing to work together to change it.

It kind of works, though, in the sense that I'm quite hooked and genuinely interested to see what happens next. And I'm still quite early on so things may improve as the plot develops. I'll take this over squealing anime trash like FF7R any day.

Oh I get what you mean regarding the got.
I think up until the momen where you get the limit break, the story never focus away from clive.

Any less competent writer will just cram us in with the political bullshit.

 

[TGO]

The more I play the more I get Viii vibes, and I fucking love it.

I cannot unsee Squall in Clive.

Really?
This should be interesting if true.