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[Zheph]

Clive’s mother, does something ever come from that? I feel like she was just brushed aside with one sentence, despite being behind so much destruction. If not, that feels like a real waste of potential. Im still early on though.

You early on indeed watch the space

 

[Nydius]

Finally picked up the game and I'm having an issue where the unstable frame rate in performance mode gives me headaches but the aggressive motion blur in graphics mode legitimately makes me nauseated. Same result on any display I play it on. Ugh. I'm enjoying the combat and story but might have to put it on the shelf until some patches get released.

 

[rofif]

This track right here is what I was looking for:


There are still a few more variations of it about Sanbreque, but ughh.... so good. You can hear how they blended a bit of VI in it, particularly "Edgar and Sabin" Theme/Coin Song around 1:55 and after. Of course, the thematic serene vocals in there too!

Benedikta's Theme is one of my favorite compositions of all time, up there with Noel's theme. "Our Terms" is such a chill song to relax to in the Hideaway.

That armor was so much better than the alucard one.
Have you found the "path to geruda" track ?

edit: found it. amazing

 

[Ulysses 31]

Clive’s mother, does something ever come from that? I feel like she was just brushed aside with one sentence, despite being behind so much destruction. If not, that feels like a real waste of potential. Im still early on though.

Unfortunately, she never really gets her comeuppance for all the things she did IMO.

 

[Nankatsu]

Spoiler: Mid game spoilers

Cid dies way to early in this game

And Clive embracing his name doesn't do any better.

 

[Luipadre]

No motion blur patch this week?

 

[Shifty1897]

In light of the news that Microsoft considered attempting to buy Square-Enix, could you imagine this running on a Series S?
The game barely runs on PS5.

 

[FoxMcChief]

In light of the news that Microsoft considered attempting to buy Square-Enix, could you imagine this running on a Series S?
The game barely runs on PS5.

It would have likely only had one mode locked at 30fps at 900p with some other visuals tweaked. I’m sure it would have still looked good.

 

[Dr. Claus]

In light of the news that Microsoft considered attempting to buy Square-Enix, could you imagine this running on a Series S?
The game barely runs on PS5.

Please with the hyperbole. Cyberpunk 2077 barely ran. Redfall barely ran. This runs just fine with a few drops in framerate.

 

[Whitecrow]

I'm gonna go against the grain and say that I'm really disappointed in this game, and my disappointment is only growing worse the deeper in I get.

For the record, one more time: I've played every mainline FF, largely in order of release, and I don't have an issue with the series changing and evolving. It's what FF does. And because of that, not every entry is going to resonate with everyone. I'm glad most people here are digging this one, but I don't think it's doing it for me. There are so many things that aren't working for me.

The world feels so empty. I did the desert area last night, and I made it a point to explore every nook and cranny of the field. My efforts yielded exactly nothing interesting of note. Then I got to the desert city, and the same thing happened. No good treasure, no merchants selling new gear, nothing interesting to engage with outside of a couple of bland sidequests that yielded negligible rewards.

The Eikon fights feel like hollow spectacle. These are so scripted that I'd barely call them gameplay. They're a weird mashup of QTE's, button-mashing, cinematics, and sluggish combat where the numbers get fudged under the hood to make sure no one gets left behind. I think they're incredibly tedious.

Even the story and characters aren't doing much for me. Everything feels so joyless. I do like that Clive's visual design is a little older and more adult than the typical pretty-boy teen FF protagonist, but personality wise, he's pretty one-note. Jill is even worse. I did enjoy a lot of Cid's dialogue, so it's not a total loss.

I'm not even really liking the combat anymore. It can be satisfying in the moment -- lining up a parry or a precision dodge feels great, and there's definitely something satisfying about staggering a boss and going to town on it. I just don't feel like I'm making very many interesting decisions. None of the enemies require distinct strategies. None of my gear matters. I never feel like I'm working towards anything with my abilities or my character build.

It feels like such a huge missed opportunity. Stranger of Paradise, a spinoff game that wasn't even made by Square, did Final Fantasy as a character action game just last year, and it managed to do it while incorporating a job system, a full party of characters, and a vastly more complex gear system. Alongside FFVII Remake, it's obvious that FF can have a strong focus on action without sacrificing its RPG depth, so I'm not sure why they felt the need to over-streamline things so much here.

Oh well. I'll keep pushing through because I'm a huge sucker for FF. As always, I'm open to changing my mind and I genuinely hope I do. I'm just starting to think maybe this one isn't for me.

Are you depressed? Looks like it to me honestly

 

[Myths]

This guy has the game's combat system on lock.

Spoiler: Rank S Hunt

 

[Shifty1897]

Please with the hyperbole. Cyberpunk 2077 barely ran. Redfall barely ran. This runs just fine with a few drops in framerate.

Just an opinion, calm down. Bottoming out on PS5 at 1080p 27fps makes me think a Series S would bottom out at 720p or less with drops to 25 fps or less.

It's one thing to turn down / off effects, but I think FFXVI's thing is the geometric density of models and environments. I think it would be a lot of work to refactor that for weaker GPU's, though maybe they're doing the work for that now with the PC version.

 

[Dr. Claus]

Just an opinion, calm down. Bottoming out on PS5 at 1080p 27fps makes me think a Series S would bottom out at 720p or less with drops to 25 fps or less.

It's one thing to turn down / off effects, but I think FFXVI's thing is the geometric density of models and environments. I think it would be a lot of work to refactor that for weaker GPU's, though maybe they're doing the work for that now with the PC version.

I am perfectly calm. There is opinion and then there is exaggerative hyperbole, which is what your claim of "barely running" was. It makes proper discussions of what is wrong and what isn't wrong hard to do when people make false claims such as that.

 

[Rush2112]

i dunno I killed a lot of big bosses but not getting the same satisfaction that I get from action games. Too much movie, too much “let me tell you how the fight goes.” Just…fukin’ let me feel like I beat the boss before all the stupidly easy action sequences are cut in. I would probably get the same satisfaction if I watched the whole on YT. Only reason i’m continuing yet is because I’m near the end.

 

[Filben]

Not being a fan of most Final Fantasy games (too much anime and cringe dialogues and characters and directing of cutscenes) I'm really enjoying the demo. I like the voice acting and the story so far. Combat is okay but way to easy as of now. I'm disappointed with the visuals though. Often the game looks flat, missing high quality ambient occlusion, characters faces often look from PS4 era or even earlier. Environment is completely non-reactive, not even a small wooden barrel breaks when smashing it while in combat. The environment feels very rigid and more like backdrop instead of a living environment. For a AAA game, this is rather disappointing.

It's still fun, though and I'm thinking of getting the full version.

 

[a multicultural team of v]

Just 100% the game (pre-NG+, but that’s for later) and here are my thoughts:

Positives

• Combat both looks and plays really well (despite the framerate being a constant hinder, see below)
  
  
• Beautiful art direction with most of the vistas and scenery being completely jaw droppingly good
  
  
• Music is exceptionally good as well as being very memorable
  
  
• The mature themes that are set in the world is a very welcome addition to the franchise. Blood, nudity and curse words are one thing; but showing the player people who’ve been tortured and child labor as well as many other mature themes is a step in the right direction
  
  
• The hunts are a thrill to do, although it doesn’t quite hit the mark as well as XII did for a few reasons, one being the sense of threat not being present in equal caliber
  
  
• Some (although very few in comparison to the abundance of quests) side quests are very well written
  
  
• Set pieces are, bar none, moments that truly define the Final Fantasy games
  
  
• Cid is one of my favorite Cids in all of FF
  
  
• Dialogue of the MSQ is incredible

Negatives

• The game drops a ridiculous amount of upgrade materials… but there is almost nothing that require even 1/10th of the materials?
  
  
• Upgrading in general feel like an afterthought. Never did I actually find myself in a situation where I would go: ”wow, can’t wait to go to the blacksmith and see what this leads to!”.
  
  
• Items in general feel extremely lackluster and uninspired. I can prove and summarize this whole thing by saying that Genji Gloves; an iconic accessory throughout the franchise for its multiple different purposes in the different games; simply makes Clive ”5% stronger”. Boring!
  
  
• Jill is yet another case of people hyping up a Final Fantasy character (often female) to almost obsessive levels and then reality remains; she is one of the games most under-developed character and is there primarily to make Clive feel good about himself at times
  
  
• The player feeling disconnected from the world as you, at occasions, have to go out to the world map when entering new zones. In FFXII, for example, almost every zone is interconnected with each other
  
  
• The majority of the side quests are 2004 MMO quality. The structure of these quests are almost always identical to each other - and the low quality script for these quests doesn’t help the matter at cause
  
  
• There’s this trend that Square-Enix have been hopping on lately. This trend is present in almost all of their releases as of late. In the process of you discovering the world, you’ll end up meeting many different characters. In FFXVI (and many other releases), you’ll end up finding 3 ”important” NPCs. These ”important” NPCs are in reality just boring NPCs but Square has decided that these 3 in particular are ”special” so the game forces you to engage with them over and over again - for different reasons each time, but the quests are almost always identical. The static low-budget in-game cutscenes along with the horrid lip sync and terrible writing make these moments the most painful in the entire game
  
  
• Restricted to the use of 3 (!) Eikons and only 6 primary abilities. I found myself maxing out the potential of the 4-5 sets of combos I could implement - because the game forced me to be locked to 3 Eikons
  
  
• Far and beyond the worst technical performing game I’ve ever played on the Playstation 5. This one’s mind-boggling to me. Even a week after playing, I still couldn’t get used to the drops in framerate. This negative specificially and single-handedly subtracts an entire point of my total rating
  
  
• Locking on to the enemy and/or switching targets in-battle is by far the hardest challenge in the game. It is absurd how an AAA Final Fantasy in 2023 can’t even get locking on to enemies right - especially coming from Stranger of Paradise that does locking on and switching really well
  
  
• Way too many MSQ cutscenes were using the in-game engine (static animations and bad lip-sync). There are scenarios in the game that could’ve really used motion capture and just higher budget cutscenes in general, but were instead gutted to uninteresting robot-like scenarios
  
  
• The sense of urgency in the main quest is often lacking because of how often you have to go back to the camp
  
  
• There is no sense of distance in the world. The time it should take for a character to travel between the continents should be noticeable in-game, but we see NPCs travel between massive parts of the world in mere minutes. The results of this is that the world feels smaller than it actually is
  
  
• It pains me to say this but although the music is incredible in many ways; there aren’t enough of them. The amount of times the same music is repeated during cutscenes is to an absurd level. I also don’t agree with most of the music that were being used during the side quests. Some of these songs should’ve remained exclusive to the MSQ but instead are plastered all over random side quests like Barry who’s sad that his apples are stolen by random bandits. I would’ve also loved to have every region of the game have its own battle-theme
  
  
• The lack of enemy variety. I guess it’s on par with games like XV and XIII… but I can’t stop thinking about how there weren’t even that many COLOUR variations
  
  
• Also, where in the flying fucks are cactuars and tonberries? For this alone I would subtract 50 points… there was absolutely no reason to not have these iconic enemies in the game. I don’t give a fuck if it doesn’t fit your games ”thematics”, cactuars could’ve 100% been a hunt in the desert and a master tonberry should’ve been hiding in… well, you know exactly where if you’ve come far enough into the game
  
  
• Locking hard difficulty to NG+. I used zero accessories throughout the entire game and barely used any potions. This is by far the easiest Final Fantasy (on par with XV) to date and it’s not even a contest
  
  
• No real end game. No real grind. No super boss. Come. The. Fuck. On.

Nitpicks

• Logo drop (both the very early one and post-intro-one) isn’t as good as the many incredible logo drops of previous Final Fantasy games
  
  
• Having to play the game and then restart the game to see the Final Fantasy menu + logo is not a direction I like
  
  
• Not being able to charge your sword without Clive attacking the air once.
  
  
• No real status ailments and lack of elemental weaknesses. The game tells you, upon retrieving a new Eikon, that your spells’ element changes… but there’s basically no difference in damage if you i.e. use fire on Bomb, etc.

Agree with almost all of this... honestly my biggest peeve is just the lack of a party. I don't care about in battle, I'm talking about traveling with a group and experiencing the interactions. A significant portion of the game is just Clive and Jill which is like if disc 1 Cloud and Squall were a party - not exactly the most lively pair. Cid was great but again it was often just Clive and Cid, and even when Jill was also there that makes it disc 1 Cloud, Squall, and Balthier in a party.

I wish there was a way to repeat some of the hunts because the flan one was such a fun fight.

 

[JohnnyPhats]

Guess I'm too much of a noob to vote.

Anyway, Quality mode and LOVING this game

 

[TwinB242]

Who else is getting the high pitched sound effect when exploring? Its annoying AF. Its like nails on a chalkboard and makes me not want to play the game.

 

[Guilty_AI]

Who else is getting the high pitched sound effect when exploring? Its annoying AF. Its like nails on a chalkboard and makes me not want to play the game.

FoxMcChief

 

[Sethbacca]

This guy has the game's combat system on lock.

Spoiler: Rank S Hunt

That is absolute crazy sauce. I really need to sit down and figure out a build because I'm basically using kind of a mess different shit at the moment.

 

[FoxMcChief]

Who else is getting the high pitched sound effect when exploring? Its annoying AF. Its like nails on a chalkboard and makes me not want to play the game.

I’m getting it as well. Nothing you can do about it right now. It happens so long as Jill is with you. There’s a few different Reddit threads about it.

 

[GymWolf]

Holy shit at

Spoiler

the rock style, i'm not gonna use any other style from now on, nothing can top this one

One of the moves is straight up hokuto no ken type of shit

 

[TwinB242]

I’m getting it as well. Nothing you can do about it right now. It happens so long as Jill is with you. There’s a few different Reddit threads about it.

Maybe I just have sensitive hearing, but I would rank this close to being a game breaking issue. Im not sure why/how this wasn't caught pre-release. Surely there would have been some play testers that would have experienced it.

 

[GigaBowser]

How longs is this game? Cant afford to be sitting around playing to longs drinking eating and getting more fats.

 

[FoxMcChief]

Maybe I just have sensitive hearing, but I would rank this close to being a game breaking issue. Im not sure why/how this wasn't caught pre-release. Surely there would have been some play testers that would have experienced it.

I said it before, it seems to be a rare bug, and even then, even if some has it, they might not hear it, due to its audio frequency. It really does suck though. I decided to take a break in hopes of a patch that fixes it.

 

[Myths]

That is absolute crazy sauce. I really need to sit down and figure out a build because I'm basically using kind of a mess different shit at the moment.

Not to mention his rotation is well-timed, both in attacks and anticipating the boss’.

 

[rofif]

The game is incredible. Every evening I play, it tops the previous evening. SOMEHOW.
It looks beautiful. It is somber, It is emotional and I don't want it to end.
I am nearing the end. Below in spoiler tag THERE ARE HEAVY, SOMEWHERE CLOSE TO ENDGAME SPOILERS AND SCREENSHOTS. Don't spoil me any further.
I took 315 screenshots excluding demo... The game is just something else man. You will see some shots below.
I mean.. I am playing the game and laughing to myself with excitement lol. Sitting here and doing audible "whoah haha, oohhh, ooof... oh man"

Spoiler: Heavy near endgame spoilers and screenshots!!!

Fight with Dion was incredible and then fight with Barnabas as he SPLITS THE SEA !!! The somber scene after was so emotional. I cheered when they finally kissed lol. I am getting old

And now for the most important part of the game.
BABES OF 16 !!! WHO IS YOUR FAV !!! Obviously some female characters spoilers.

Spoiler: BABES OF 16 - SPOILERS TOO

 

[Yoshichan]

Holy shit. I’m playing NG+ on the FF-difficulty and it’s CRAZY how fast it goes when you push MSQ and skip cutscenes. I’m half way through the game in four hours.

Oh and FF difficulty is a joke so far lol…

 

[Sygma]

All the people writing that the game is too easy, that the combat is shallow etc etc yet not flexing their rankings on the leaderboard in Ultimaniac absolutely cannot be taken seriously

Everybody knows that the first playthrough is the prologue

 

[Doomtrain]

Are you depressed? Looks like it to me honestly

What a strange comment. I played a video game I was excited for, was disappointed by it, and thought that a topic about that game on a gaming message board was the place to discuss it.

Of course, you already know and understand those things, so I’m not sure why you bothered to quote me or why I’m responding to you. God help us all, I guess.

 

[Lokaum D+]

Ok, this game is full of surprises, why era didnt like it ?

 

[STARSBarry]

Also, Ultima reminds me so much of Necron from FFIX.

He reminds me of Omega from XIV, honestly I thought it was him before they revealed his name

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

Spoiler: BABES OF 16 - SPOILERS TOO

All of em. Jill at the bottom for me, but I love em all.

 

[DenchDeckard]

So much to enjoy about this game but God damn its so easy.

There's a few little issues I have that stop it from being top tier but I'm enjoying the ride so far. Not too far in but it's pretty good.

I completely ignored all cut scenes from the first little town I went to as I was that bored I just zoned out unintentionally.

30 fps and how easy it is are my only real complaints. Looking forward to it kicking off and going full anime.

Deffo feels more like a heavenly sword sequel meets asuras Wrath meets god of war meets anime...I think it's gonna be great.

 

[Meifu]

So pretty far I died of laughter when

Spoiler: Late game spoiler

Jill offered her power to Clive and dude didn't even hesitate, said. " Aight bet"

 

[Lokaum D+]

Titan lost is the best spectacle in video games since GoW3 Poseidon/Cronos, what a fight, i was smiling from start to end, just amazing

 

[Danjin44]

All of em. Jill at the bottom for me, but I love em all.

 

[STARSBarry]

Well just finished the game, looking forward to trying newgame+ on Final Fantasy mode for more of a challange.

It would have been nice to have a game that takes you all the way to 100 in a single playthrough, but I guess that's the price we pay for modern games.

I am both suprised and saddened by the lack of any complex side activities. Thought there might have been fishing at least... maybe hawking... the game just lacked something on the side to break up all those fetch quests.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

Well just finished the game, looking forward to trying newgame+ on Final Fantasy mode for more of a challange.

It would have been nice to have a game that takes you all the way to 100 in a single playthrough, but I guess that's the price we pay for modern games.

I am both suprised and saddened by the lack of any complex side activities. Thought there might have been fishing at least... maybe hawking... the game just lacked something on the side to break up all those fetch quests.

I loved the side quests the more I played, but it really would have been nice to have something, chocobo breeding, fishing (I kept seeing fish in the water), rebuilding a town (some little sim or more detailed determination of something like that). Just some mini game of some kind to help even it out and give some idle time.

 

[Madflavor]

Holy shit. I’m playing NG+ on the FF-difficulty and it’s CRAZY how fast it goes when you push MSQ and skip cutscenes. I’m half way through the game in four hours.

Oh and FF difficulty is a joke so far lol…

Heard conflicting impressions on that front. Some thing FF Mode is hard, some think it's easy.

 

[Sleepwalker]

Just got to the point of no return and there are so many sidequests holy shit. And ive been pretty good about cleaning them up

 

[TheDarkPhantom]

Eikon battle against

Spoiler

Titan

might the be craziest boss battle I've ever seen, topping anything in GoW, DMC, Asura's Wrath etc. The wild thing is I know this will be topped too Have to say, I really didn't like the

Spoiler

music in the 2nd phase of the battle, seriously Yoshi P, what were you thinking?

but the end? Spectacular

 

[Dr. Claus]

Just got to the point of no return and there are so many sidequests holy shit. And ive been pretty good about cleaning them up

Yea, there are a lot - but most are payoffs for slow burn character development throughout the game. Many of them made me tear up. Wonderfully done in terms of writing at the very least.

 

[Dr. Claus]

Eikon battle against

Spoiler

Titan

might the be craziest boss battle I've ever seen, topping anything in GoW, DMC, Asura's Wrath etc. The wild thing is I know this will be topped too Have to say, I really didn't like the

Spoiler

music in the 2nd phase of the battle, seriously Yoshi P, what were you thinking?

but the end? Spectacular

The music is classic Soken. He does that a lot with FFXIV. Sometimes they hit hard and sometimes they can be a bit wonky. Personally I love them, but I definitely understand why others may find it a bit offputting or even out of place.

 

[Comandr]

Just finished the game and got a bit into NG+ FF mode. Which is not hard at all.

The game is a solid 7. It is the quintessential power fantasy. Ruggedly handsome white dude can turn into godzilla and have kaiju battles. Character designs are some of the strongest I've seen in a long time. Consistently surprised with how good unimportant NPCs look. Best looking characters SE has pumped out in ages. Monster and eikon designs are another thing. Most of them suck. What was the point of Behemoth's extra pointy bits? Let's take an iconic monster and then fuck up its design because more horns means more cool. Music is very good for the most part, but not especially memorable. I don't think I could whistle a single song from that 45 hour playthrough. Probably used less than 10 potions in my whole playthrough. Eikon battles are cool until they're just drawn out and exhausting. Game is a button mash fest and requires very little strategy or critical thinking. Hit the sword button until the bad guy stops moving. Elemental attacks and weaknesses are virtually non existent. You can dodge essentially any attack in the game. The game is really dudebro's first FF.

One nitpick I have is the ludonarrative dissonance towards the end of the game.

Spoiler

Towards the end of the game it all culminates in the power of friendship is the strongest force in the universe, and Clive admits he couldn't have made it this far without his friends. But... you spend huge portions of the game alone; even as he announces this, he is completely alone. You might have one or two people rotate in and out of the party but no one ever sticks around for a particularly long time. For me, this is contrasted against FF15, who largely has the same message, but because of the bro roadtrip-- the broadtrip that you are on for the most part, you really do feel a sense of friendship and closeness with these people.

All in all, I thought it was really good. Certainly not the legendary status of previous entries, but very good.

 

[Meicyn]

Just beat the game.

First 10-15 hours? 10/10.

Remainder? 7/10. The structure of the game did most of the characters a disservice, a lot of opportunities were squandered. Side quest design was identical to FFXIV, where the writing revolves around your created character and no one else, because you can do the quests at any point, regardless of your progress in the main scenario. FFXVI functions the same way, so it’s the Clive show, with your party members never accounted for in any way, to the game’s detriment.

I remember one side quest in particular where a soldier is actively bleeding out and dying, and Joshua is in my party. The game acts like he doesn’t exist. The side quests should have been opportunities for characters to say or do something that gives us more insight into them, like Bioware games, or other JRPGs do.

Way better than FFXV, but after FFXIV Shadowbringers, my expectations were way higher. Don’t regret the purchase, but I doubt I will be giving the game another full replay. The opening hours were so damned good, I just wish the rest had sustained that quality.

 

[Madflavor]

Question for those who've beaten the game:

Spoiler

I'm in Waloed, pretty far in the game I think. The world has been dark and purplish for awhile now, with somber music playing all the time. I miss how bright and colorful the world used to be during exploration, and I miss side quests as well. I know I'm getting closer and closer to a Point Of No Return, so my question is, will the rest of the game be dark and purplish, or does the world revert back before the endgame? I'm asking because if I can do the last of the sidequests when the world is restored, I'd rather do it then.

 

[TheKremlinBossMan]

So much to enjoy about this game but God damn its so easy.

There's a few little issues I have that stop it from being top tier but I'm enjoying the ride so far. Not too far in but it's pretty good.

I completely ignored all cut scenes from the first little town I went to as I was that bored I just zoned out unintentionally.

30 fps and how easy it is are my only real complaints. Looking forward to it kicking off and going full anime.

Deffo feels more like a heavenly sword sequel meets asuras Wrath meets god of war meets anime...I think it's gonna be great.

Final Fantasy mode feels better, also when you die I think you only get two of each potion back instead of a full stock.

 

[Perfo]

Game’s graphics are at their best when it’s not in full daylight, lighting here really boosts the general looks and atmosphere while during the sessions at day can look pretty flat and dated overall.

More pictures from my favorite time of the day atm. I wish all the game was set in such a mood lol, the darker this tale the better lol

Spoiler

 

[rofif]

I need to get new controller due to slight stick drift. Wtf is the ff dualsense. It sold in eu.
Edge has bad battery and of all the colours I only like the white one like original