Final Fantasy XVI (16) (2023-2024; PC, PS5)

[Koby]

 

Final Fantasy XVI is a 2023 action role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix. The sixteenth main installment in the Final Fantasy series, it was originally released for the PlayStation 5 with a Windows version in development. The game features segmented open environments and an action-based combat system involving melee and magic-based attacks. There are recurring series features including Chocobos for area travel, and summoned monsters called Eikons, which are both fought as bosses and used through channelling their power in combat.

 

Final Fantasy XVI is set in the twin continents of Valisthea, currently divided between six nations who hold power through access to magical Crystals and Dominants, humans who act as hosts for each nation's Eikon. Tensions between the nations escalate as a magical drought dubbed the Blight begins consuming the land. Clive Rosfield, guardian to his younger brother Joshua, witnesses his kingdom destroyed and becomes involved in the growing conflict between Valisthea's nations and a secret power driving the war.

 

Beginning concept development in 2015, the staff included Naoki Yoshida as producer, Hiroshi Takai as main director, artists Hiroshi Minagawa and Kazuya Takahashi, Kazutoyo Maehiro as creative director and lead writer, Masayoshi Soken as composer, and Capcom veteran Ryota Suzuki as battle designer. Yoshida's aim was for a dark fantasy storyline that would have broad appeal and reinvigorate the series. Its production and promotion were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and later by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

 

The game was praised by critics for its story, graphics, music, and gameplay. Criticism focused on its lack of role-playing elements, technical issues and side quest design. The game sold over three million units during its first week after launch, but failed to meet Square Enix's expectations. After release, the game was supported by a variety of downloadable content, including story-focused campaigns and smaller patches to include new features and in-game items.

 

 

[Koby]

September 17th coming to PC at $50 for base game or $70 with the whole dlc package.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2515020/FINAL_FANTASY_XVI/

[Spoony]

Going to be playing the demo this evening. Though I've read various reports of issues with it already. People are saying cinematics are locked to 30fps just like Visions of Mana was, but also FSR/DLSS is broken and doesn't work. The game is going to be huge at 170 GB and the requirements are pretty high, though it's more likely to be CPU bottlenecking than GPU. At least there's no mention of shader stutters, so that's good I suppose.

[Koby]

Demo was fantastic. Game was much better than I expected it to be. The fights can seem really button mashy at times with the whole square for attacks, triangle for magic, circle for ability, and r2+square or r2+triangle for eikon ability. But the story is one of the best we've had in quite some time. As you may be aware I couldn't get through 13 & 15, with the last mainline title I enjoyed being 12. Well if the story keeps up what we got in the demo, this may end up within my top 5 of the series despite the lack of classic gameplay. I honestly would prefer a return to the classic turn-based style over this, but I'll still enjoy the game if the story is good and unlike 13 & 15 this one actually hooked me and made me care about the characters and the world. So it went from meh, to I'm playing this day one based on the demo. I just hope I can finish up some of the games I'm playing before hand because otherwise I'm going to be juggling too much soon with all the games coming out in the next few months.

 

Anyhow in terms of performance, I was averaging around 80 fps with pretty much every setting maxed out. Though I did experience the whole FMVs being locked to 30 fps thing... which coincidentally was also an issue with Visions of Mana. Thankfully the demo here had a shader compilation loader upon booting the game so things were studder-free here unlike there. Overall pretty good performance and the visuals are nice... Though oddly sometimes things look very blurred. Idk if it's the DLSS or what but I had sharpeness maxed out and motion blur completely disabled so I'm not sure why it could occasionally look very blurred.

[Koby]

FINAL FANTASY XVI PC Demo Version Update 1.01

An update has been released for the FINAL FANTASY XVI PC demo, introducing a number of improvements and adjustments to the game.

Improvements have been made to DLSS, FSR, and XeSS quality.
This should help to alleviate various graphical issues such as blurring (DLSS/XeSS) and pixelation (FSR).

The following issues have also been addressed:

• Dynamic Resolution being locked on the lowest setting.
• Enemies not appearing properly in certain battle content.
• Graphics not displaying properly on certain stages.
• Graphical tearing in certain instances when using borderless screen mode.
• SFX not playing properly under certain conditions.
• UI not displaying properly under certain conditions.
• Screen resolution changing under certain conditions.
• Rare instances of GPU crashes.
• Other minor issues.

We are currently aware of instances of stuttering on certain PC environments, and are investigating the issue.

 

[Zemekis]

I'm a turbo hater of this game, so i'll try to stay out of this thread because I struggle to be constructive when I discuss it. It's my least favorite combat, characters, story, and setting of the series. This is the one in particular that gets me close to acting like one of those "subhuman" haters on the Steam Community forums for Trails. Yoshi P ruins everything he touches (in my opinion) and the game is woke to boot. The demo ran poorly on PS5 and the Eikon battles are particle effect vomit. Do we really need spectacle QTEs in the 2020's? The side quests are forgettable filler unlike many past FFs, and DMC combat does not belong in an FF game. I have an attention span...I don't need to see my character zooming all over the place while I button mash. It's not gonna make me soyface and stay excited/engaged. It's braindead. Make a new IP if you want to extract all the traditional FF stuff & change the genre. It was the first mainline FF I haven't purchased. Yoshi P was a smug prick through the entire development and his tourist supporters (FF XIV immigrants) prop him up. He's giddy about changing the genre, toning down story complexity & writing bland, West-pandering characters. We have him to thank for jamming femboys into FF XIV & men kissing into XVI. 

I know I shouldn't come by just to drop hate, so I'm gonna cut it there. None of that is directed at you guys, just the game. If you enjoy it then more power to you and I wish I could enjoy it too. There's nothing that would have made me happier than enjoying a new FF game. It would have nagged at me knowing this thread was here if I didn't say something, but now it's out of my system.

[Koby]

8 minutes ago, Zemekis said:

I'm a turbo hater of this game, so i'll try to stay out of this thread because I struggle to be constructive when I discuss it. It's my least favorite combat, characters, story, and setting of the series. This is the one in particular that gets me close to acting like one of those "subhuman" haters on the Steam Community forums for Trails. Yoshi P ruins everything he touches (in my opinion) and the game is woke to boot. The demo ran poorly on PS5 and the Eikon battles are particle effect vomit. Do we really need spectacle QTEs in the 2020's? The side quests are forgettable filler unlike many past FFs, and DMC combat does not belong in an FF game. I have an attention span...I don't need to see my character zooming all over the place while I button mash. It's not gonna make me soyface and stay excited/engaged. It's braindead. Make a new IP if you want to extract all the traditional FF stuff & change the genre. It was the first mainline FF I haven't purchased. Yoshi P was a smug prick through the entire development and his tourist supporters (FF XIV immigrants) prop him up. He's giddy about changing the genre, toning down story complexity & writing bland, West-pandering characters. We have him to thank for jamming femboys into FF XIV & men kissing into XVI. 

I know I shouldn't come by just to drop hate, so I'm gonna cut it there. None of that is directed at you guys, just the game. If you enjoy it then more power to you and I wish I could enjoy it too. There's nothing that would have made me happier than enjoying a new FF game. It would have nagged at me knowing this thread was here if I didn't say something, but now it's out of my system.

I would agree that I would prefer FF to return to it's roots and be more like FF9, both in story and in combat. This DMC-hybrid single character combat is no where near as nice as party based turn-based gameplay in traditional jrpgs. But to me, FF16 is already vastly superior to both FF13 and FF15 in that the story and characters within are at least somewhat interesting and griping. I never could get into 13 or 15, but the demo for 16 hooked me and made me go from "meh idk about this" to "preorder and play day one".

 

I also agree that they should stop experimenting so much with the FF brand and instead make new IPs to do that with. Unfortunately they're afraid to do that because the many times they've tried... they've all pretty much bombed. There's many reasons they bombed, but Square Enix doesn't see it that way because they're out of touch and they just assume anything not titled FF is somehow magically invisible. Forspoken was an awful mess and putting the FF name to it wouldn't have magically altered that.

 

I'm curious, in what way is this title woke? I'm not doubting you, I just haven't really seen any commentary around that aspect so I'm completely clueless as to what they've injected here.

[Zemekis]

On 8/23/2024 at 5:39 PM, Koby said:

I'm curious, in what way is this title woke? I'm not doubting you, I just haven't really seen any commentary around that aspect so I'm completely clueless as to what they've injected here.

Spoiler

A very jarring scene of men kissing. Aside from my natural aversion to it, the scene simply doesn't fit and there's not much if any build up to these characters being in a relationship. It appears to be an ESG checkbox Yoshi P wanted to check for more funding or something like that. That part is just my assertion, to be fair. Some others complained about the game being a bit girl-boss heavy, but I really don't think one or two female antagonists counts as "woke." Hell, FF8 has a whole slew of them and it's my favorite one. If you already got the game & are enjoying it then keep on keeping on. I could be wrong about some of this because I haven't played it in its entirety, just the demo & ragebait from other Yoshi P haters. Oh, they also made Shiva some butch non-binary thing.

 

On 8/23/2024 at 5:39 PM, Koby said:

I would agree that I would prefer FF to return to it's roots and be more like FF9, both in story and in combat. This DMC-hybrid single character combat is no where near as nice as party based turn-based gameplay in traditional jrpgs.

That's my main sticking point with this game, actually. The woke stuff is its own can of worms. Yoshi P very smugly and dismissively bats away the concerns of the series' diehard fans in favor of two things: Industry trends and the opinions/tastes of series tourists. Perhaps there is some business wisdom to that approach, but you can tell in interviews and presentations regarding this game in particular that he's a bit giddy about ripping out the spirit of Final Fantasy to make it into his own thing. 

Spoiler

 

>Genuine concern from lifelong fans...

Nuh-uh!
Yet it turns out to be exactly what he says it isn't.

I'll give him credit that he listens to the audience of FFXIV, but he does not take into consideration the broader fanbase. In fact, he enjoys dismissing their concerns. He wants Square Enix to focus on action games in general and for that to be the future of the company. It's interesting that the demo sold you. I thought it ran very poorly (on PS5), lots of jagged animations and stuttering. This is a known issue and there's lots of discussion about it from the time of the demo's release. The characters are bland to me, and the combat is braindead at best. Very button mashy with particle effects everywhere. I was willing to give the game a try but certainly not after that QTE Eikon fight  

 

On 8/23/2024 at 5:39 PM, Koby said:

I also agree that they should stop experimenting so much with the FF brand and instead make new IPs to do that with. Unfortunately they're afraid to do that because the many times they've tried... they've all pretty much bombed. There's many reasons they bombed, but Square Enix doesn't see it that way because they're out of touch and they just assume anything not titled FF is somehow magically invisible. Forspoken was an awful mess and putting the FF name to it wouldn't have magically altered that.

Precisely. As usual, I think we are generally in agreement on the direction we'd prefer to see FF take, but there seem to be a lot of roadblocks to that right now. They misunderstand the market and they misinterpret their failures. Square Enix does not learn from mistakes. I want to be excited for this game so badly, but everything about it rubs me the wrong way. Couldn't be less interested in the story, characters or setting. I'll take 10 sequels to XV before playing this.

 

 

Edited August 30 by Zemekis

[Koby]

Yikes. I hadn't heard about the kissing scene. So it literally comes out of no where just to be "inclusive"? That sounds awful. I'm guessing maybe it was Cid? He seemed a little.... strange. At least from the small bit I got to see him in the demo.

 

And they did what to my girl Shiva? Oh please no!

 

> It's interesting that the demo sold you. I thought it ran very poorly (on PS5), lots of jagged animations and stuttering.

 

On my PC I ran it at mostly max settings and got a stable 80+ fps at all times with absolutely zero stuttering. But hey even though my PC is like mid-range at best (probably on the low-end of midrange now cause my cpu is many generations old), it's still got way better performance than a PS5.

 

My PC: AMD R5 3600 CPU, Nvidia RTX 3060 12GB GPU, 32GB DDR4-3600 RAM.

 

According to Digital Foundry and Gamers Nexus, the PS5 non-raytracing performance is around a GTX 1070, while the raytracing performance is around a RTX 2070. A 2070 is roughly equivalent to my 3060 according to benchmarks. But I also generally don't play games with raytracing on largely because of the performance hit. I'd rather bump a lot of the other stuff up instead. While with raytracing it'd require bumping a lot of other settings lower to make up for it.

 

I'd like to upgrade my CPU but that requires also upgrading the motherboard to support the newer chips and then doing that would open up the ability for DDR5 ram... and by that point it's basically a whole new pc build. But I'm happy with my 3060 GPU for now and don't really have any desire to upgrade it for now, especially with how power hungry the newer gen cards have become as it is. To do all that might require getting a bigger psu too and well I just don't want to do that. LMAO. I built this PC on a budget in 2021. Spent maybe $1,200 on it and more than a 3rd of that was the GPU buying it during the pricehikes of covid and supply being way lower than demand. But hey I managed to buy two of them and I mined bitcoin and ethereum with them for a while and made like $1,500 so they paid for themselves in the end. Can't beat getting a product that pays you back more than you paid for it, right?

 

If you want to build a PC with comparable specs or actually slightly better than a PS5, you can do so for about $580 right now, I made an example parts list showing that here: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/ChaoXide/saved/b9wZ23

 

Anyways FF15 was not good in any aspect to me. I tried to like it. Couldn't stomach more than like 2 hours in the game. The entire main cast of guys seemed like they were all gay for each other, the movement was awkward, the battle system was terrible, and the story was bland. It just kind of throws you out into this seemingly empty open world environment with a shitty looking car and you end up at this run down gas station and spend like 2 hours doing random fetch quests. The story doesn't move at all in this time and I just gave up as it wasn't fun to me. I tried watching the Kingsglaive movie and giving it another chance but that movie was by far the worst Final Fantasy movie we've gotten. Spirits Within was actually good, as was Advent Children Complete.

 

While FF13 I spent like 6 or so hours doing little more than what felt like walking down an endless hallway while letting auto-battle run it's course, because the battle system wasn't fun and auto-battle seemingly picked exactly what I would've picked nearly all the time anyways. The characters weren't just not likeable, but rather absolute unlikeable. They were just grating every time they opened up their mouth to speak. I can't explain it better than that. I want to give the game another shot eventually but every time I think I'm ready to do so, I remember what a terrible experience it was before and push it back down the list.

 

I think FF7 Remake combat still beats FF16 combat, but honestly as "braindead" as FF16 seems, I still prefer it really over 12, 13, and 15 combat-wise even though it's basically a glorified dumbed-down/watered-down version of Devil May Cry's combat lacking a lot of the combo abilities. Honestly the last mainline non-remake FF combat I thoroughly enjoyed was X-2. I think that had the best used of the ATB system. The story setup of X-2 was bad but the combat was peak. But hey even FF10s full on turn-based combat was awesome. 10 is practically the only one that was "true turnbased" and I loved it. Despite not liking the combat in 12 I still liked the game enough to finish it even though I literally beat 12's final boss without even touching the controller because the characters played themselves if you had a good gambit setup. I never could stomach 13 & 15 long enough to ever finish them.

 

Honestly I don't know a lot of Yoshi-P titles that I've actually played and enjoyed. I played Dragon Quest Swords but that was the awful on-rails Wii game. Story was okay but gameplay was absolutely atrocious. Outside of that, most of his credits on games I played just say "special thanks" rather than director or whatever else.

 

I never got into FF14 because I don't pay to play subscription-based games. If it was a one time upfront buying the game and then can play it anytime then maybe... but I ain't paying $15 a month to play a game on top of the initial purchase of the game.

 

Yoshi-P's comments against the fandom come across as deranged and it's unfortunate that his success with FF14 has allowed him more opportunity to take charge and push his ideas.

[Zemekis]

7 hours ago, Koby said:

Yikes. I hadn't heard about the kissing scene. So it literally comes out of no where just to be "inclusive"? That sounds awful

That's how it was presented to me. I haven't played through the game so I can't say for certain. I'm willing to be wrong on that point, but the fact that it exists in the game at all is enough to keep me away. I have plenty else to play.

 

8 hours ago, Koby said:

And they did what to my girl Shiva? Oh please no!

Sorry.

 

8 hours ago, Koby said:

> It's interesting that the demo sold you. I thought it ran very poorly (on PS5), lots of jagged animations and stuttering.

 

On my PC I ran it at mostly max settings and got a stable 80+ fps at all times with absolutely zero stuttering. But hey even though my PC is like mid-range at best (probably on the low-end of midrange now cause my cpu is many generations old), it's still got way better performance than a PS5.

 

My PC: AMD R5 3600 CPU, Nvidia RTX 3060 12GB GPU, 32GB DDR4-3600 RAM.

Err, I meant that a different way than it came across via text. I'm surprised anyone could see the same characters/setting/story as I did in the demo and be intrigued. The performance was meant to be a different comment, but I see that I rolled it into one when posting. My apologies, I was rushing that post out at the end of work before driving home. I'm running a significantly more powerful PC than that, so I'm well aware that PC can provide a stronger experience than console. I know this keeps coming up, but I just enjoy playing on consoles/tv/couch sometimes. + I refuse to pay for digital games. I still play digital games & spend a lot of time PC gaming, but I'll let you put the pieces together on how I manage that. My commentary on the PS5 performance was a jab at Squeenix for releasing a buggy, busted game demo on their bread & butter platform. I still had the bad taste of their bricked Strangers of Paradise demo in my mouth. I'm glad that PC performance is enhanced, especially considering their weak track record with PC ports.
 

8 hours ago, Koby said:

Anyways FF15 was not good in any aspect to me. I tried to like it. Couldn't stomach more than like 2 hours in the game. The entire main cast of guys seemed like they were all gay for each other, the movement was awkward, the battle system was terrible, and the story was bland. It just kind of throws you out into this seemingly empty open world environment with a shitty looking car and you end up at this run down gas station and spend like 2 hours doing random fetch quests. The story doesn't move at all in this time and I just gave up as it wasn't fun to me. I tried watching the Kingsglaive movie and giving it another chance but that movie was by far the worst Final Fantasy movie we've gotten. Spirits Within was actually good, as was Advent Children Complete.

Perfectly reasonable to not like 15. Hell, I don't either, which is why I used it as an example of how much I loathe 16. If you think that cast was gay, just you wait for the literal gay couples in 16! I agree, the battle system in 15 was atrocious, movement was stilted and awkward, and I can't even tell you what the story was at this point. The story isn't even included in the game! The full story & true ending are locked in the DLC + Kingsglaive movie!!! The destruction of the protagonist's home city & the motivations of the primary villain are locked away within other pieces of media. Unforgivable after 10 years of development. I played it at release before the infamous Chapter 13 was patched, so I got the FULL slap in the face from 15. Including the un-loseable Leviathan fight. I set the controller down and cooked an entire dinner (30+ minutes) and came back to Leviathan still beating on Noctis before I finished the fight. The open world was awful, and reminds me of a point I'd like to make about 16 & Squeenix as a whole. Their games tend to embody things that were popular in the West 5 - 10 years prior to their release. It's as if the dev team gets fixated on some piece of Western media and strives to copy it. For 15, this was explicitly stated to be Skyrim. For 16, it's quite obviously Game of Thrones. I disagree with Spirits Within being "actually good", but I prefer it to Kingsglaive. I just rewatched Spirits Within last year now that you mention it.
 

8 hours ago, Koby said:

While FF13 I spent like 6 or so hours doing little more than what felt like walking down an endless hallway while letting auto-battle run it's course, because the battle system wasn't fun and auto-battle seemingly picked exactly what I would've picked nearly all the time anyways. The characters weren't just not likeable, but rather absolute unlikeable. They were just grating every time they opened up their mouth to speak. I can't explain it better than that. I want to give the game another shot eventually but every time I think I'm ready to do so, I remember what a terrible experience it was before and push it back down the list.

Lol, all reasonable. I'm not here to defend 13 or 15. 13 got deserved hate at the time of release, and it gets deserved hate now. I didn't mind it as much as others, but it's not a top 5 or anything like that. I'm not a fan of the auto-battle, despite the praises it gets today. My wife is currently replaying it so it's very fresh in my memory because I get called in to assist with bosses. The battle system is unintuitive at times and probably the #1 most "braindead" of the series at other times. Mind numbingly repetitive and lacking any strategy. I will not die on the hill of FF 13, I'm here to bash 16 is all. I'll accept collateral damage to 13 & 15.
 

8 hours ago, Koby said:

I think FF7 Remake combat still beats FF16 combat, but honestly as "braindead" as FF16 seems, I still prefer it really over 12, 13, and 15 combat-wise even though it's basically a glorified dumbed-down/watered-down version of Devil May Cry's combat lacking a lot of the combo abilities. Honestly the last mainline non-remake FF combat I thoroughly enjoyed was X-2. I think that had the best used of the ATB system. The story setup of X-2 was bad but the combat was peak. But hey even FF10s full on turn-based combat was awesome. 10 is practically the only one that was "true turnbased" and I loved it. Despite not liking the combat in 12 I still liked the game enough to finish it even though I literally beat 12's final boss without even touching the controller because the characters played themselves if you had a good gambit setup. I never could stomach 13 & 15 long enough to ever finish them.

It's late so I'll keep a few of these short: Agreed on Remake combat. While I don't prefer the action style to ATB, it's preferable to FF16 and I overall "like" Remake's combat. The same cannot be said for Rebirth but that's another story. 16....well...I have heard from everyone I know who played it (5 people) that it is laughably easy. It gets easier the further along you go, to the point where several of my friends actually missed story content due to beating the final boss too quickly and cutting a dialogue scene short. I played through DMC 1, 2 and 3 for the first time last year. It's not good or bad, it's just not for me whatsoever and I'm happy to remove myself from the equation. I don't even feel right having an opinion on it. I care to argue DMC combat about as much as I care to claim which golf course is the best...It's just not something I ever think about nor do I have feelings about it. That said, I wish DMC stayed in its own lane and Yoshi P hadn't hired the DMC combat guy for FF16. I say again: make a different IP. Don't turn FF into DMC. That's what DMC is for. I understand not finishing 13 or 15. I've finished 13 twice and 15 once, but never 12.

 

8 hours ago, Koby said:

I never got into FF14 because I don't pay to play subscription-based games. If it was a one time upfront buying the game and then can play it anytime then maybe... but I ain't paying $15 a month to play a game on top of the initial purchase of the game.

 

Yoshi-P's comments against the fandom come across as deranged and it's unfortunate that his success with FF14 has allowed him more opportunity to take charge and push his ideas.

I like (or I guess at this point you could say 'liked') MMORPGs for about 15 years. I loved FF 11, RuneScape and for a while, FF 14...but I was always confused when people said it has the best story, characters, setting or gameplay. To be honest, I played it because it said FF on the box, but it's as bland as can be. There was a survey that went out a few years ago, and something like 80% of FF 14 players had never played another FF game. It shows. They're mostly Redditors and Tumblr freaks, concerned with LGBT roleplay and shipping characters. I don't know if you recall the Viera from FF 12, but it's explicitly stated in their design docs and in the game that they are all female (kinda like Gerudo). the rainbow crowd beat on Yoshi P until he flamboyantly added Bunny femboys into FF14, but by that point I was gone. Most players don't even run dungeons anymore. They roleplay and sit around decorating their in-game house or dress up their character. The entire vibe is just whack. I've asked every single FF 14 story supporter what they like about it and none have ever had an answer, nor could they tell me what happened in this masterful narrative. Yoshi P's works often do satisfy a vocal fanbase, but his works lack substance. I fear that is what you will uncover with FF 16 as you progress with it. 

The series is in a very dark place.

[Koby]

I wonder if the PC demo is the same demo from PS5.

 

It was about 2 hours long and started at present time I guess with Titan fighting someone (I think it was Shiva come to think of it but I didn't pay enough attention to what she or he? looked like) and destroying the mountain Clive and some people were on... Then it flashes back in time and makes you play as a young Clive to take out a goblin invested town, see how awful Clive's mother is, end up having the place taken over and trying to defend everyone, and eventually we see Ifrit kill the Phoenix. So Clive loses pretty much his whole family. After that Clive is taken as a Slave and the demo ends. Then we get another option in the menu to play a later part in the game where we see Cid almost die by being nearly crushed and we end up fighting Garuda (I think that was her name) up on top of the castle after we made our way through it. Then that part ends and theres nothing more. Both combined it's about 3 hours of play time max.

 

Anyways I guess mostly what drew me in was Clive and his brothers relationship. And going back to the time of castles and kings and none of the modern shit. I want to know who the hell Ifrit is. It kind of made me think it was Clive, but then there were things that suggested it wasn't... and Clive is apparently trying to hunt Ifrit down. Becoming a slave and seeing how that unfolds... idk really how to explain it other than I was intrigued and engrossed in the story and its characters in the little bit we got to see.

 

As for combat, I agree overall it seems very simple. There's a lack of diversity in attacks and as long as you can properly dodge then it's largely easy to go through it. I mean it was just a demo after all but I never actually died. Though that doesn't say much because I don't generally see the gameover screen in most jrpgs either. FF9 I had individual characters get KO'd, but never a game over. That said you're limited to like 4 potions and 4 Hi-Potions in the FF16 demo and there was a moment when I had used nearly all of them up... mostly cause I was still getting the hang of dodging. The second demo segment you had 3 different Eikons to draw from so it was largely use their tech, swap Eikon, use their tech, swap. This allowed you to not have to wait for cooldowns and so it was a pretty basic spam. So I'll say the battle system itself is not very thoughtful or overall good even... But it's passable. I'd much rather have turn-based again.. but I'd somewhat rather have this than what we got with 13 & 15 as I stated prior. I'm not going to pretend it's deep, or hard. I'm also not going to defend it.

 

I actually played Strangers of Paradise to completion (even the dlcs) earlier this year! XD

 

Spirits Within is enjoyable Sci-fi in my opinion if you go into it as it's own thing and not as part of the FF brand. It has practically nothing to do with FF imo... but it's whatever. I thought the CGI animation was extremely well done, especially for the time when it came out, but it still holds up now imo and in some aspects looks better than Advent Children did at times (though Complete also fixed up AC here and there).

 

Now you've got me interested in what they messed up with the combat between Remake and Rebirth for you to say you liked Remakes but not Rebirth. I thought they didn't change it much, but what do I know...I haven't played Rebirth yet. Maybe it'll come to PC in 2026.

 

Only MMOs I played, if you can call them that... I guess I'd just say "online" games in general... Were WoW Wrath of the Lich King on a free to play private (fan) server, Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst, GTA Online, and Fallout 76. I tried out others here and there but didn't really invest enough time into them to really say I was playing them much.

[Spoony]

12 hours ago, Koby said:

And they did what to my girl Shiva? Oh please no!

This is her concept art:

 

and this is what she looks like in-game:

 

I don't really understand the butch comment, though she's definitely a lot more covered up than past iterations.

 

For comparison here is Shiva in Final Fantasy VII Remake:

Edited August 31 by Spoony

[Koby]

PC Demo Version Update 1.02

An update file (version 1.02) for the FINAL FANTASY XVI PC Demo has been released and is ready for download.

The following adjustment has been made to improve gameplay stability:

• Fixed stuttering issue.

The following issues have also been addressed:

• Certain characters not being displayed properly.
• User adjustments to the graphics setting "Screen Space Reflection" not being properly applied.
• User adjustments to the graphics setting "Variable Rate Shading" (VRS) not being properly applied.
• Screen mode settings not being saved on certain hardware environments.

These fixes will be applied to the forthcoming release version as well as the demo.

[Koby]

Game launched at 9AM my time this morning. Been downloading the game since then but at my download speed it's going to be a few days of non-stop downloading. After 13 hours, its at 19%.

[Zemekis]

On 8/31/2024 at 6:30 AM, Spoony said:

I don't really understand the butch comment, though she's definitely a lot more covered up than past iterations.

From other angles she is quite muscular and has that 2024 female character man jaw look.

 

On 9/17/2024 at 11:17 PM, Koby said:

Game launched at 9AM my time this morning. Been downloading the game since then but at my download speed it's going to be a few days of non-stop downloading. After 13 hours, its at 19%.

I suppose it just finished a day or two ago, then? You'll have to let us know what you think of it. The sidequests in particular are supposed to be slop, so I'm interested to hear your take.

[Koby]

53 minutes ago, Zemekis said:

From other angles she is quite muscular and has that 2024 female character man jaw look.

 

I suppose it just finished a day or two ago, then? You'll have to let us know what you think of it. The sidequests in particular are supposed to be slop, so I'm interested to hear your take.

It finished late Thursday night. I'm now about 20 hours into the game.

 

I'm not using a walkthrough but I looked at one just to judge how far through the story I am and it seems I'm midway through Act 2 of 3. So I figure I'm probably halfway through the game now.

 

We've already had the 13 year timeskip from the prologue to Act 1, and then another 5 year timeskip at the start of Act 2. I now have the powers of Phoenix, Garuda, Ifrit, and Ramuh. I'm currently level 31.

 

All 4 bonus weapons you get with the DLC or preordering the game have the exact same stats and by roughly 7 hours into the game you've obtained a weapon on-par or better than them.

 

I'm actually still very much loving the story of the game. I stand by my opinion of it being much better than the last several titles.

 

But the combat gets boring pretty easily. Especially when you're running through mobs very frequently... and just spamming square. I think the combat is why I don't play for longer bursts than I do. When I start getting bored with it I quit playing for a bit. There's just not enough to do with the combat. There's no status effects, no elemental weaknesses, etc. It's just hit square until the cooldown on abilities are done, spam them, then return to hitting square. Then occasionally hit R1 to dodge. The game is way too easy, but at the same time certain enemies are way too spongy. You have no threat of being wiped, yet some of the battles drag on far too long as you do so little damage compared to their HP pool. Thankfully not every enemy is a sponge.

 

The sidequests definitely aren't anything to write home about either. They're the typical filler jrpg sidequests of "go fetch me this, or go kill this monster". But you've gotta do them for the specific drops and Renown required for crafting.

 

That's another thing... You're drowning in crafting materials by the boatload, but there is rarely anything to craft. You get one or two things every other story beat to craft... and they take up a couple materials.... but you're swimming in hundreds of the material. You're never having to hunt for material or hold off on crafting. We're suppose to be Outlaws hidden in a remote location with limited supplies but we're always in overabundance. Doesn't line up with the story right?

 

But again, I'll say while the gameplay elements are lame... the story is very good and the characters remain interesting enough to continue my way through the game.

[Koby]

Version Update 1.01

The latest update (version 1.01) for FINAL FANTASY XVI is now available for download. This update aims to improve game stability, add controller options, and address several other issues.
 

Game Stability

Resolved an issue wherein the frame rate would drop under certain conditions.
 

System

Enabled Bluetooth connectivity for DualSense and DUALSHOCK controllers.
 

Issues

The following issues have been addressed:

• Character graphics not displaying properly on certain screens.
• Issues with the UI.
• Instances of incorrect text displaying.
• Errors in the ending credits.
• Instances in which the game would close unexpectedly upon executing certain commands.
• Instances in which the game would close unexpectedly under certain conditions.

[Koby]

Version Update 1.02

Version Update 1.02 is now available. This update implements various changes to system settings while addressing several known gameplay issues.
 

Change Log:

• A cursor lock option has been added to Settings in the Main Menu. Default is set to OFF.
• Timing for the shutter click sound effect when taking screenshots has been adjusted.
• Help text for Photo Mode has been tweaked to improve clarity.
• Shadow Quality settings have been adjusted to include cloud quality at all three levels—low, medium, and high—instead of only at high. This should improve performance when low or medium is selected.
• Graphical Fidelity settings have been adjusted to improve overall game performance.

The following have also been addressed:

• Issues with mouse scrolling when using aspect ratio settings other than 16:9.
• Issues with locking on during the Eikonic Feat Blind Justice when using aspect ratio settings other than 16:9.
• Issues with in-game access point interaction when using borderless window mode in conjunction with aspect ratio settings other than 16:9.
• Issues with the last device used not remaining active when playing with multiple controllers.
• Graphics not displaying properly on certain screens.
• Issues with UI continuity.
• Unexpected crashes with select hardware setups.
• Other minor issues.

[Zemekis]

On 9/25/2024 at 3:41 PM, Koby said:

I'll say while the gameplay elements are lame... the story is very good and the characters remain interesting enough to continue my way through the game.

Different strokes for different folks, I suppose. Thanks for coming back to give your thoughts.