FINAL FANTASY XVI | Prologue DEMO

Benedikta is the type of woman that makes me want to fall to my knees and thank god I'm a man.

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cat face. you furry
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
It's Phenomenal and has that Final Fantasy vibe to it.
Depends what your definition of Final Fantasy vibe is.
Some will know what you mean and some will question what mean
Seems very FFXII/FFXIV which is very different to others and I can't compare it to pre FF7 as those games have a very different vibe all together to either types.
The graphics definitely benefit from HDR, it solves it's flat and washed out look it had in the trailers.
I haven't progress enough to fully comment of how the game is in comparison but it seems okay so far with nothing I'm not disliking.
Although I've yet to meet any standout characters.
 

Ansphn

Member
Square has a hit here with this game. I'm early in the demo but this story and early basic combat is very good.

EDIT : Just finished the Demo. We're about to experience one of the greats. This is looking like a game in contention for not only GOTY (Game of the year) but also, GOTG (Game of the generation). Holy fucking shit. I didn't want it to end. Square is back. I haven't been so engage since Elden Ring and GOW this gen.

EDIT # 2 : This is Final Fantasy for adults. If you're fans of Dark Fantasies like Game of thrones, with adult story-line and impactful deaths, violent events, betrayal, and vengeance..This is the game for you...Shit i had chills through the last hour of the demo.
 
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ANDS

Banned
The character models in this are absolutely terrible. This has to be using the FFXIV engine, because the modeling in this feels like an absolute step back from FFXV. Otherwise the art aesthetic is pretty good.

As for the demo itself, hopefully the intro "Uber-Mega-Fight" isn't indicative of the interaction of those segments in the full game (I didn't touch my controller that entire sequence, and for the first 20 minutes just pushed the controller forward). And while the writing is clearly better than FFXV and the acting seems to be on par with the best SE has given, the overwrought medieval English of the entire package feels so tacked on. Like someone binge watched GAME OF THRONES in a weekend before writing the script for this.

. . .definitely a title to wait on average smooth-brain impressions, before picking up.
 
Yeah it's fine most of the time but it definitely needs some improvement for the final release. Thing is we have no idea how old the demo is so hard to say if there's gonna be any significant improvement on the final build.
I would assume its a carved off slice of the final game if its gonna let you carry progress.

We know that the Benedicta dungeon crawl fight is the same slice that they released 3 or 4 months ago and people had played it before then.

Full impressions, Clive and Joshua's mom is a piece of shit. The story so far is really good. Gameplay is awesome, the counters feel really good, the parry timing is pretty strict, and thankfully the game is more challenging than I thought it would be. Just because there is no easy mode doesn't make it easy Benedicta will kill you, if you fuck around you will find out. Performance isn't perfect, but no where near as bad as some are saying in this thread. Worst two places for me were the second Icon fight, and the castle. I played through both sections on performance and graphics,and prefer the graphics mode in this game. Music is just .... man that swamp shit hit hard. Not a single miss on the music side. Rosaria feels like Sandoria from FFXI.

Biggest take away so far, Ambrosia is the best fucking chocobo ever, and this is as Final Fantasy as it gets.

Definitely a GOTY contender.
 
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Hugare

Member
The bolded is what I needed to read. I'm a HUGE 30fps guy, but thought 60 fps was going to be necessary on a game like this. So happy to see it runs great at 30fps.
Now having just finished the demo, I can say that there are drops, but its much more consistent than 60 fps

Framepacing is so good that at times I wondered: "wait, did I change to 60 fps?" after I got used to it

There's one HUGE drop at the end of the demo when shit went down that it got as bad as 10 fps, I think lol.

But it was the only one serious drop that I've noticed

The story beats are amazing. I've just finished the prologue and I'm eager to play more.
 
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Luipadre

Gold Member
I wanna get into the game but that framerate is disgusting. With Starfield being 30fps and this clearly shitting the bed in performance mode we need definitely need a refresh already.

Outside of a few first party games, performance modes are really disappointing on consoles. Either look like shit or run like shit or both lol
 

Hugare

Member
Those saying the graphics are bad, this is real time (my capture)

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There are some instances where the lighting isn't so great, but they are minor. And when it hits right, it hits hard

There's something about this game's look that makes it look almost CGI in quality sometimes. I cant quite put my finger on it.

That "war" scene is perhaps the most impressive scene that I've seen on a game yet.

People tend to forget that this game doesnt have CG cutscenes. That shit is running on realtime. It's not even "in engine", its gameplay.

Dozens of NPCs with different animations, particles everywhere, eikons stepping on them, it's really impressive
 
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wvnative

Member
I don't know how far I am, I am currently right before the dragoon boss when the castle is on fire...

First impressions: If the game looks washed out on your TV, try reducing brightness, this helped on my X95J. Feels excellent to play despite the limited move set at the start. I dislike all of the button layouts, I really want an option to have ready action on L2 and evade on L1, I can do this via either cronus zen or console OS, but that is a pain. My biggest gripe is...yeah the game may kill you a few times, but bosses appear to have MULTIPLE checkpoints. Imo this eliminates all suspense, at least give me an option to restart the entire boss. Feels like a cheap victory to restart at full health plus restocked potions, then the boss only has a small amount of health left over.

Did anyone notice

Joshua gains exp, and has his own gear plus stats?

Might mean nothing, but was interesting nonetheless.

I think the game is fantastic overall as expected, but I'm always frustrated by awesome games having just a few frustrating design choices.
 
I don't know how far I am, I am currently right before the dragoon boss when the castle is on fire...

First impressions: If the game looks washed out on your TV, try reducing brightness, this helped on my X95J. Feels excellent to play despite the limited move set at the start. I dislike all of the button layouts, I really want an option to have ready action on L2 and evade on L1, I can do this via either cronus zen or console OS, but that is a pain. My biggest gripe is...yeah the game may kill you a few times, but bosses appear to have MULTIPLE checkpoints. Imo this eliminates all suspense, at least give me an option to restart the entire boss. Feels like a cheap victory to restart at full health plus restocked potions, then the boss only has a small amount of health left over.

Did anyone notice

Joshua gains exp, and has his own gear plus stats?

Might mean nothing, but was interesting nonetheless.

I think the game is fantastic overall as expected, but I'm always frustrated by awesome games having just a few frustrating design choices.
In the Eikonic Battle mode you have access to better gear.

Yea I don't like the boss save points either but I get it.
 
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Hugare

Member
I don't know how far I am, I am currently right before the dragoon boss when the castle is on fire...

First impressions: If the game looks washed out on your TV, try reducing brightness, this helped on my X95J. Feels excellent to play despite the limited move set at the start. I dislike all of the button layouts, I really want an option to have ready action on L2 and evade on L1, I can do this via either cronus zen or console OS, but that is a pain. My biggest gripe is...yeah the game may kill you a few times, but bosses appear to have MULTIPLE checkpoints. Imo this eliminates all suspense, at least give me an option to restart the entire boss. Feels like a cheap victory to restart at full health plus restocked potions, then the boss only has a small amount of health left over.

Did anyone notice

Joshua gains exp, and has his own gear plus stats?

Might mean nothing, but was interesting nonetheless.

I think the game is fantastic overall as expected, but I'm always frustrated by awesome games having just a few frustrating design choices.
Joshua is 100% not dead. He is that masked man that says something to Clive and then disapears. Some tive traveling shenanigans going on dont know. I have the feeling we will play as a grown up Joshua later on
 
I'm feeling it. I assume its not going to be as expansive or heavy on exploration as i'd have liked but the story and character set up seemed engaging, combat was pretty fun and the music was great.
I think it'll have plenty of exploration. Maximilian dood said the same thing but this is the beginning of the game which typically is always more linear. Once you get access to zones I'm sure there's much more exploration.
 

Thabass

Member
I don't know how far I am, I am currently right before the dragoon boss when the castle is on fire...

First impressions: If the game looks washed out on your TV, try reducing brightness, this helped on my X95J. Feels excellent to play despite the limited move set at the start. I dislike all of the button layouts, I really want an option to have ready action on L2 and evade on L1, I can do this via either cronus zen or console OS, but that is a pain. My biggest gripe is...yeah the game may kill you a few times, but bosses appear to have MULTIPLE checkpoints. Imo this eliminates all suspense, at least give me an option to restart the entire boss. Feels like a cheap victory to restart at full health plus restocked potions, then the boss only has a small amount of health left over.

Did anyone notice

Joshua gains exp, and has his own gear plus stats?

Might mean nothing, but was interesting nonetheless.

I think the game is fantastic overall as expected, but I'm always frustrated by awesome games having just a few frustrating design choices.
I mean...

He dies...so I wouldn't expect much there. Unless there's a twist at one point in the future of the story....Though, I guess he is a Phoenix....
 
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Lokaum D+

Member
playing the demo right now and my god

- graphics are great, way better then FF7R
- 30fps is smooth as hell, didnt even mind with performance yet
- combat is great, fast and responsive
- didnt see no one bringing this up but, the main menu is smooth as hell too, one of if not the best main menu in a FF game, its P5 lvl of main menu imo.
- FPS on the last fights was real bad, need some work
 
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skit_data

Member
I really like this Active Time Lore thingy, a good way to incorporate information about characters, areas etc. without resorting to a boring 100 page codex.
I suspect it may become a pretty valuable tool in order to keep track of all characters and locations if the constant introduction of new info start to feel overwhelming at some point.

Don't sleep on it, you can access it by pausing during cinematics and then using the touchpad.

Edit: Hell, make it industry standard in lore/story heavy games. Strange nobody has created a similar feature in a game before (at least afaik).
 
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jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Damn, I gotta download this demo. Game is out in like 10 days, coming in hot.
 

ANDS

Banned
What? I thought the character models looked amazing. I loooooove the character designs in this game.

The facial modeling in this is abysmal. Most of the faces have this weird "cat like" quality that is all over FFXIV (which is why I think this is based on that engine) and is here - but even more distracting given the fidelity and character of everything else. Joshua looks like a porcelain doll for goodness sake.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
The facial modeling in this is abysmal. Most of the faces have this weird "cat like" quality that is all over FFXIV (which is why I think this is based on that engine) and is here - but even more distracting given the fidelity and character of everything else. Joshua looks like a porcelain doll for goodness sake.
I highly disagree, I thought characters looked great, I think some of you guys got too used to Nomura's designs in Final Fantasy, think every FF should look like that.
 
Is there a Dragon's Dogma 2 demo out?
No, what I meant is that there is a Capcom showcase later today where one of their flagship showings will be Dragon's Dogma 2. All make me believe we are finally arriving at their marketing campaign start for the game, and Capcom is notorious for releasing their games not long after they start to heavily market them. I'd say if we get a launch date it could probably be Q1 2024. But I have the impression the game has at least 1 more year of development if it's to be believed it started development by the end of DMC 5's development.
 
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Isa

Member
Is there a Dragon's Dogma 2 demo out?
Nah I think he's referring to the Capcom Showcase later this evening.

My impressions are thus, as a once skeptic... I actually am very impressed and got really absorbed into the game. The story is honestly pretty damn great, with decent enough time taken during scenes to let tension and emotion build, along with familiarity with characters. It was starting to get me choked up at points too, can't wait to see what the full game will bring. My biggest criticism was the combat, and its alright so far. I was having fun with it and I imagine it will only get better later on. I could play the Eikonic Challenge but don't want to spoil anymore. I really like the dodge in this, along with the magic. The Eikon fights are very cool and more impactful than what I was expecting thankfully.

The intro battle scene too reminded me of Lost Odyssey's beginning which was nice. Can't wait until my gf get's out of work so she can play it. Finally the music is superb, with nice original themes and series highlights blended in, along with nice flourishes. Honestly I think this game is going to be up there with the best of the year for me, which is a very welcome feat.
 

SkylineRKR

Member
This is like my dream FF game. It has that atmosphere of my fave FF games (FFXII for example), excellent characters, VA and OST too. I am also sold on the gameplay. Its limited in the demo, but the evasions and combinations do feel good. We have seen a lot of gameplay videos, it will only expand.

And Lost Odyssey, yes, I was thinking about that game too when I saw the opening minutes. I fucking love LO too.
 

ANDS

Banned
I highly disagree, I thought characters looked great, I think some of you guys got too used to Nomura's designs in Final Fantasy, think every FF should look like that.

Yeah. . .I have no idea what point you're trying to make. And if you think the character work is great, that's fantastic and you should enjoy the game. I don't and think it's just a step above FFXIV (which also has derpy faces). Like, if you can look at Benedicta and say that is a face with character and detail that is going to work well with the mature story they CLEARLY think they are telling, more power to you.

. . .for those that don't, has nothing to do with being beholden to some previous incarnation of the series.
 

skit_data

Member
Damn, this combat system is fire, the button mapping felt awkward at first but it already feels great after just a couple of fights. I can see it offering a very wide range of possibilities as your skill repertoire grows without becoming too complicated.
 
It’s horrible in 30fps mode, the camera reacts like there is half a second of input lag even with the sensitivity up and the motion blur is ugly as hell. The performance is shit in the 60fps mode and it’s very blurry, there must be dynamic res or something as you can see it getting really blurry and shimmery when it is struggling. I don’t know what Square think day one patches are but this game needs one if this is the final game.

Graphics are great for the most part but some characters look honestly cgi quality and some look like they have wandered in from FF11 or something and some of the environments and lighting look really bad.

Looks and feels like a FF game.

Combat is way too visually messy for my taste but is really good so far.
 

Markio128

Gold Member
Just completed the prologue part of the demo and wow, I absolutely love this game! I played the whole thing in graphics mode and it played really well, so I didn’t even bother trying performance mode.
If the whole game continues in this vein then it will be my game of the gen so far.
 
I’m hyped but I can only play on the weekends really on my TV and I’ve got it ore ordered so I might just restrain myself and wait for the full release since it’s this close?
 
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