Support NeoGAF

[GymWolf]

Am i a bad dude for hating on that little

Spoiler

son of a bitch (literally) of olivier that only sleep in his mother lap while being stroked like a spoiled brat with that stupid absent face?

 

[mortal]

Man, the game really does throw side quests at you toward the last stretch, and some are definitely better than others.
The dialogue in side cutscenes can be sort of be a drag tbh, with these awkward pauses between each spoken line of dialogue.

 

[Dr. Claus]

Man, the game really does throw side quests at you toward the last stretch, and some are definitely better than others.
The dialogue in side cutscenes can be sort of be a drag tbh, with these awkward pauses between each spoken line of dialogue.

Turn off the subtitles. I find that seeing subs and having the pauses makes it feel far worse than it really is.

 

[mortal]

Turn off the subtitles. I find that seeing subs and having the pauses makes it feel far worse than it really is.

I haven't been playing with subtitles the entire time actually.

 

[Dr. Claus]

I haven't been playing with subtitles the entire time actually.

Ah, that sucks then

I had the same issue as you, until I turned off the subs. For some reason that fixed a lot of the issues for me.

 

[Zheph]

Am i a bad dude for hating on that little

Spoiler

son of a bitch (literally) of olivier that only sleep in his mother lap while being stroked like a spoiled brat with that stupid absent face?

nah he is a massive moron

 

[Valonquar]

How many hours do you have in the game, and did you sprint through ng+ skipping all the cutscenes?

85 hours. Skipped cutscenes \ sprinted through NG+. Beelined for Ultima Weapon and Reinforced Ouroboros\Sons of Ouroboros, then finished capping out abilties and got the clear for Plat. Probably could have been a lot shorter but I missed the availibility of the xp\gil\ap accessories at charon til VERY late in my first playthrough.

Spoiler: Best Platinum Screenshot ever (as last boss dies)

 

[Low Moral Fibre]

I’m enjoying this less the more I play. I think it is the difficulty (or lack of it). I have three Eikons unlocked and the next feels near so not sure how far through I am. I was really enjoying the combat at first but once you realise how powerful (and easy to pull off) counters are you just steamroll through.

The timing is so generous on boss fights that they all seem like QTEs and I’m not someone who likes difficult games. Some of the mini bosses are much harder. The bosses do look spectacular though. Coming from a team that made a MMORPG I would have hoped for more interesting mechanics in the boss fights.

Outside of boss fights it feels like a 20 year old game and not in a good way.

The story seemed so promising in the demo but it’s just plodding along in the full game and I’m losing interest.

 

[Pasta la Vista]

85 hours. Skipped cutscenes \ sprinted through NG+. Beelined for Ultima Weapon and Reinforced Ouroboros\Sons of Ouroboros, then finished capping out abilties and got the clear for Plat. Probably could have been a lot shorter but I missed the availibility of the xp\gil\ap accessories at charon til VERY late in my first playthrough.

Spoiler: Best Platinum Screenshot ever (as last boss dies)

Do you get the materials for Ultima weapon through hunts in new game+?

 

[Valonquar]

Do you get the materials for Ultima weapon through hunts in new game+?

Need to do all 4 + symbol quests for the blacksmith to get recipe for previous best weapon. then you need to do a few hunts for materials for reforged version of that weapon and need to also do 3 of the + symbol quest lines to get to a couple of the hunts for reforged other weapon. Then you take the game clear item and those 2 weapons and mash them into the ultima weapon. Ultima weapon + Genji Glove is pretty much murder even in the mid level 80 range.

 

[Nankatsu]

 

[GooseMan69]

Maybe the greatest OST I’ve ever heard. Brings the game up from like a 8.5 to a 10 for me.

 

[Exentryk]

Some random screens:

 

[Celcius]

Just hit level 50 on normal mode. I don’t care for those cloister trials so I’ll probably stop here for now, until either the leviathan dlc comes out or years from now whenever I feel like doing a second play through.

The PlayStation menu says 60 hours but that’s usually wrong and I’d guess closer to 70 hours.

 

[Danjin44]

The quality of quests is getting better as the game goes on, I really liked quests about Otto and learning about his family.

 

[GymWolf]

Most sidequest are bland but they explain details of the world like the marks and why they are hard to remove, why they kill slaves even if they are the only ones that can use magic and other stuff that seems illogic in the world until you know the details behind it.

The structure and rewards are pretty shit most of the times tho.

 

[decisions]

Most sidequest are bland but they explain details of the world like the marks and why they are hard to remove, why they kill slaves even if they are the only ones that can use magic and other stuff that seems illogic in the world until you know the details behind it.

The structure and rewards are pretty shit most of the times tho.

Yeah, they have their issues but the side quests in this game are better than most open-world games. In TOTK I had to build a box around a flag about 10 times with copy-pasted dialogue.

In FFXVI there was not a single repeated sidequest, and even the boringly written ones are at least carried by the game’s incredible combat.

 

[GymWolf]

Yeah, they have their issues but the side quests in this game are better than most open-world games. In TOTK I had to build a box around a flag about 10 times with copy-pasted dialogue.

In FFXVI there was not a single repeated sidequest, and even the boringly written ones are at least carried by the game’s incredible combat.

I would really not go that far at all since majority of sidequest purpose is to flash the world so they do exactly what ff16 does but sometimes with better rewards or structure.

I think they are bottom of the barrel sidequest, just not worse than some other games.

 

[ergem]

It’s not perfect but fuck, games like this don’t come around very often.

Boss battles are epic. The story and lore building are perfect.

The good things about this game more than make up for its imperfections.

 

[Danjin44]

but sometimes with better rewards

But we do get some good rewards, one of recent side quests I did which got me excalibur sword and another one increase my item capacity. In fact you get Berserk Ring as reward for doing side quests.

If thats not good rewards I dont know what is. Also if the rewards are too good people would complain about "why this side quests and should have been part of main quests."

 

[Doomtrain]

Outside of boss fights it feels like a 20 year old game and not in a good way.

It feels like something out of the late 2000’s to me. We had that period during the PS3/360 era when the trend was to reduce all the major moments to scripted events or QTE’s, heavily restrict player agency, simplify game mechanics, and hand-hold players as tightly as possible in an effort to make sure no one got left behind. XIII was very much a product of that time, and XVI reminds me a lot of that design philosophy.

 

[GymWolf]

But we do get some good rewards, one of recent side quests I did which got me excalibur sword and another one increase my item capacity. In fact you get Berserk Ring as reward for doing side quests.

If thats not good rewards I dont know what is. Also if the rewards are too good people would complain about "why this side quests and should have been part of main quests."

Like i said in my previous post, you get shit rewards MOST OF THE TIMES, it means that sometimes rewards are good.

 

[decisions]

I would really not go that far at all since majority of sidequest purpose is to flash the world so they do exactly what ff16 does but sometimes with better rewards or structure.

I think they are bottom of the barrel sidequest, just not worse than some other games.

I really hate repetition in side quests, and nearly all open-world games have it. This game doesn’t, so for me they are better than most open-world games. I never skipped any of them because I knew they would at least be new each time, and none of them are really long enough to overstay their welcome.

Off the top of my head, only games with better side quests are those with exceptionally good writing, like The Witcher 3, Mass Effect, or RDR2.

Even Yakuza, a series where I generally do a lot of the side content, overstays its welcome in this regard.

 

[Danjin44]

Like i said in my previous post, you get shit rewards MOST OF THE TIMES, it means that sometimes rewards are good.

Thats most RPGs, not all quests gives you good rewards and some do.

 

[GymWolf]

I really hate repetition in side quests, and nearly all open-world games have it. This game doesn’t, so for me they are better than most open-world games. I never skipped any of them because I knew they would at least be new each time, and none of them are really long enough to overstay their welcome.

Off the top of my head, only games with better side quests are those with exceptionally good writing, like The Witcher 3, Mass Effect, or RDR2.

Even Yakuza, a series where I generally do a lot of the side content, overstays its welcome in this regard.

The game doesn't have a huge enemy variety and you meet the same trash enemies in the open world over and over and many times the bosses in the sidequest are repeated or creatures you fought before, not sure how ff16 doens't have repetition compared to other open worlds but ok...

And majority of sidequest are fetch quest with almost zero explorations or puzzles or anything that is not super basic, sorry but i don't see anything superior in ff16 sidequest compared to any other open world, even writing wise.

 

[GymWolf]

Thats most RPGs, not all quests gives you good rewards and some do.

In ff16 case they overdo with shit rewards tho, i can count on one hand how many sidequest had decent rewards after like 30 hours with the game, and i did all of them.

The rpg part of weapons and armours being so barebones doens't help at all since weapons and armours 99% of times just give you a small defense\hp bonus or attack\stun bonus, and the fact that the game is super easy and you really can beat it without upgrading much doens't help neither when you get crafting materials as rewards.

 

[adamsapple]

Ok, I have a major gripe with one thing.

How the fuck does Clive keep finding convenient side ways directly into the hearts of these mother crystals. You'd think that at least after the first one, security would be tightened to all hell.

 

[Belthazar]

It feels like something out of the late 2000’s to me. We had that period during the PS3/360 era when the trend was to reduce all the major moments to scripted events or QTE’s, heavily restrict player agency, simplify game mechanics, and hand-hold players as tightly as possible in an effort to make sure no one got left behind. XIII was very much a product of that time, and XVI reminds me a lot of that design philosophy.

Well, at least XIII didn't shy away from making the combat complex and having some very difficult battles. It was very straightforward and streamlined in its design, but you could get deep in the systems and it was very rewarding.

 

[decisions]

The game doesn't have a huge enemy variety and you meet the same trash enemies in the open world over and over and many times the bosses in the sidequest are repeated or creatures you fought before, not sure how ff16 doens't have repetition compared to other open worlds but ok...

And majority of sidequest are fetch quest with almost zero explorations or puzzles or anything that is not super basic, sorry but i don't see anything superior in ff16 sidequest compared to any other open world, even writing wise.

You’re sidestepping my point, never said enemy variety or writing in the sidequests was what made them better than most other games. I agree those are some of this game’s weaknesses. It’s the unique structure of the sidequests that is sustained throughout the whole game. At each step of a quest you don’t know what will happen next. To me, this alone makes them more enjoyable to do than side content in most other open-world games.

In TOTK I stopped talking to that guy who wanted me to build a box around a flag after the first few times, repeating the exact same dialogue as he did the first time I met him. But in FFXVI I pick up every side quest because I don’t know what it will be like, and since I have enjoyed many of the quests, I have faith that it might be good.

 

[Doomtrain]

Well, at least XIII didn't shy away from making the combat complex and having some very difficult battles. It was very straightforward and streamlined in it's design, but you could get deep in the systems and it was very rewarding.

I agree with this. There are a lot of things I dislike about XIII, but they did a great job tuning the battles and especially the bosses.

 

[GymWolf]

You’re sidestepping my point, never said enemy variety or writing in the sidequests was what made them better than most other games. I agree those are some of this game’s weaknesses. It’s the unique structure of the sidequests that is sustained throughout the whole game. At each step of a quest you don’t know what will happen next. To me, this alone makes them more enjoyable to do than side content in most other open-world games.

In TOTK I stopped talking to that guy who wanted me to build a box around a flag after the first few times, repeating the exact same dialogue as he did the first time I met him. But in FFXVI I pick up every side quest because I don’t know what it will be like, and since I have enjoyed many of the quests, I have faith that it might be good.

Sorry i don't see it, every sidequest boils down to picking objects for someone or killing a group of monster or a mini-boss, since most of them are also repeated, i know almost exactly what to expect.

If you speak about having different story elements for every quest, that's basically every sidequest in any game ever where you have a different character asking you for something.

The guy in zelda is not even a sidequest, just a little fun distraction, like bringing the korok together, of course you can get bored by this type of stuff but personally i don't even consider that a sidequest tbh.

I think some modern open world games have distinctive categories for sidequest based on how much effort they put on them, for example tsushima has companions sidequest, normal sidequest, throw away sidequest and legendary objects sidequest.

 

[Kurotri]

I just beat

Spoiler

Bahamut

and..MAN..

That was friggin unreal. I don't think anything will top this. It felt like what you would only expect in your imagination to play out the way it did but these crazy bastards did it. Made me think "this is why I bought a PS5". This game is awesome.

 

[Sleepwalker]

Ok, I have a major gripe with one thing.

How the fuck does Clive keep finding convenient side ways directly into the hearts of these mother crystals. You'd think that at least after the first one, security would be tightened to all hell.

during the first one the empire was in the proccess of moving its forces to conquer south and also it was flooded with akashic, the remaining people there were just containing the infected.

I'm really not sure how far along are you but in the second one the ironblood did have security and the place was filled with soldiers, the outside of the volcano was full with aether and akashic so theyd be poisoned if they posted guards there.

For Drake's fang there was security, the mines were full of orcs, the orcs ended up killing the guards in the castle.


Will refrain commenting on the others because idk how far along are you.

 

[Danjin44]

Sorry i don't see it, every sidequest boils down to picking objects for someone or killing a group of monster or a mini-boss, since most of them are also repeated, i know almost exactly what to expect.

If thats your issue then you have issue with 90% all JRPG side quests, heck thats even true with most of the side quests in God of War 2018 and Ragnarok.

 

[GymWolf]

If thats your issue then you have issue with 90% all JRPG side quests, heck thats even true with most of the side quests in God of War 2018 and Ragnarok.

Sure, never said the opposite, every sidequest usually boils down to that, it's how good the writing, rewards and core gameplay are that make a sidequest great even if they are basic in structure (usually)

Of course when some games offer more than that it's always better.

 

[Danjin44]

Sure, never said the opposite, every sidequest usually boils down to that, it's how good the writing, rewards and gameplay are that make a sidequest great even if they are basic in structure.

For my taste I actually like story behind side quests in FFXVI way more than both God of War games, especially in 2018 game, which most all about Kratos complaining about why we are doing chore for others.

 

[GymWolf]

For my taste I actually like story behind side quests in FFXVI way more than both God of War games, especially in 2018 game, which most all about Kratos complaining about why we are doing chore for others.

The opposite for me, i find grumpy kratos fathering little shit quite amusing because it was a complete 180° from always angry kratos, and mimir always had something funny to say (a bit too verbose in rangarock tho)

But ff16 had some good moments too.

FF16 sidequest are usually about the world and normal people lives, in gow they are more about the intimate story between the protagonists with some world building sprinkled on top, in ragnarock they used more world building during the quests but some of it was boring, not gonna lie, i find greek mythology more funny\interesting.

 

[Sleepwalker]

The opposite for me, i find grumpy kratos fathering little shit quite amusing because it was a complete 180° from always angry kratos, and mimir always had something funny to say (a bit too verbose in rangarock tho)

But ff16 had some good moments too.

FF16 sidequest are usually about the world and normal people lives, in gow they are more about the intimate story between the protagonists with some world building sprinkled on top, in ragnarock they used more world building during the quests but some of it was boring, not gonna lie, i find greek mythology more funny\interesting.

I personally hated Atreus, hated him at the start and hated him at the end, even hated him in combat! Lol

Having a game be focused mostly on your main character journey just hit the right spot for me.

 

[Danjin44]

FF16 sidequest are usually about the world and normal people lives, in gow they are more about the intimate story between the protagonists with some world building sprinkled on top, in ragnarock they used more world building during the quests but some of it was boring, not gonna lie, i find greek mythology more funny\interesting.

I did one quest for one of the early village and which was about one of the black shield spotted near the village but after I was done with quest and later came back, the entire atmosphere of that village changed and even changed the music, which was awesome. You never get that level quests in none of the God of War games.

 

[DragoonKain]

As I progress, I'm starting to get confused. If anyone is willing to clarify this without any spoilers, I'd appreciate it. If you can't without spoiling, just say so and I'm cool with that.

I've been playing the game late at night so I've been a bit groggy, so maybe I just wasn't paying enough attention. But I could have sworn....

Spoiler

It was Clive who turned into Ifrit and killed the Phoenix Eickon. And I've been assuming all along Clive somehow doesn't remember killing his own brother, perhaps due to the trauma of transforming or whatever, but the viewer is supposed to already know he did.

But now I'm starting to question whether I had that right at all.

 

[Danjin44]

As I progress, I'm starting to get confused. If anyone is willing to clarify this without any spoilers, I'd appreciate it. If you can't without spoiling, just say so and I'm cool with that.

I've been playing the game late at night so I've been a bit groggy, so maybe I just wasn't paying enough attention. But I could have sworn....

Spoiler

It was Clive who turned into Ifrit and killed the Phoenix Eickon. And I've been assuming all along Clive somehow doesn't remember killing his own brother, but the viewer is supposed to already know he did.

But now I'm starting to question whether I had that right at all.

Keep playing......you find out later on.

 

[GymWolf]

I did one quest for one of the early village and which was about one of the black shield spotted near the village but after I was done with quest and later came back, the entire atmosphere of that village changed and even changed the music, which was awesome. You never get that level quests in none of the God of War games.

That's because you don't have any village in the gow games

I have to disagree on the quality of sidequest but let's stop talking about gow here.

Maybe someone is gonna open a topic about the best sidequests.

 

[Slothbeing1209]

Spoiler

This combo video is crazy. And he only uses 1 eikon.

 

[FoxMcChief]

Sure, never said the opposite, every sidequest usually boils down to that, it's how good the writing, rewards and core gameplay are that make a sidequest great even if they are basic in structure (usually)

Of course when some games offer more than that it's always better.

Exactly. It’s when a game gets you to care about doing the mundane things. That’s what sets aside good side quests from bad side quests.

Diablo 4 has some great side quest lines, while it has the barebones ones as well. From my early impressions, I’ve only seen bad ones in FF16.

Bethesda games are known for side content. Not just because they can be long quest lines, but because they have actual story involved. More than dude didn’t want to get wood that’s like 50 feet away.

 

[GymWolf]

Exactly. It’s when a game gets you to care about doing the mundane things. That’s what sets aside good side quests from bad side quests.

Diablo 4 has some great side quest lines, while it has the barebones ones as well. From my early impressions, I’ve only seen bad ones in FF16.

Bethesda games are known for side content. Not just because they can be long quest lines, but because they have actual story involved. More than dude didn’t want to get wood that’s like 50 feet away.

They get better later.

 

[CrustyBritches]

I fought my first notorious mark last night and I didn't understand what the Doom spell would do and I was using auto-lock so I couldn't get out of the area of effect fast enough. Motherfucker one-shotted me.

You definitely want to do the "+" side quests. The quest with Whiteheart was great. I had completely forgotten about Ambrosia!

 

[Pasta la Vista]

Spoiler

This combo video is crazy. And he only uses 1 eikon.

He's using different Eikons, just showing different combos for each.

 

[FoxMcChief]

They get better later.

I hope so. But that’s why I did say early impressions. I’m not one of those people that can’t have their minds changed. It’s already changed with this games combat.

 

[Celcius]

How long do you guys think it will take for the Leviathan DLC? Think it will be free?

 

[Pollux]

PC gamer that is on the fence on getting a PS5 mainly because of this game - but I just wanted to pop in and say that OT is spectacular. Great job!