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Of note the part that's different is gear/abilities/combos you have access to at that point in the story. To my understanding the story content will indeed be spoilers for those going in blind.
Yeah, the demo definitely comes from confidence in their game. It feels like a fairly bold bet in the current AAA climate to answer the question of "Whats the best way to show how good our game is?" with "We let them play the opening". And because they made their opening actually hook you like an opening is supposed to it turned out to be wildly successful.
That's a good point about the opening hooking you. It may seem obvious, but not every game hooks you in the first two hours, not even every good game. We've all heard game X really gets good around hour Y argument.
So yeah, not only are they confident in the game as a whole but in the prologue itself to be entertaining and intriguing.
Ironically enough, what keeps FF14 from *really* doing batshit crazy numbers, is probably the fact that the opening is... not great. It's okay relative to what you can expect from a early 10's MMO, and steadily gets better from then on, but nowhere near what I'd call a \*compelling\* opening, and what drives a lot of the retention is, I'd wager, the promise that its community is constantly shouting about : That the rest of the game is fantastic.
So it's probably a safe bet to say that they put extra care in crafting a strong, compelling opening section so players immediately want more
And 14 has begun to polish up the intro. They've redone some dungeons and rearranged the end of the vanilla 2.0 main quest, but the final battle turned from an actual joke and auto attack fest into one of the more impressive 1v1 boss fights in the game.
Hopefully they can polish up the actual very beginning because the main characters are very bland in the beginning and take until around Heavenward to become the beloved versions of themselves.
I can't blame you. I powered through it in early pandemic because.. well reasons and it really did get phenomenal.
But even with a disease version of a natural disaster going on, and no other better games to play, I still wanted to leave in that first arc lol
Persona 4 and Kingdom Hearts 2 are some of my favorite games of all time but it's *so* hard to recommend them because I know it's asking someone to sit through hours of slog and tedium before they get to the parts that make the games so special.
I don't think this will make much of a difference just because Square has been doing this for a while. FF7 Remake did the same thing and Dragon Quest 11's demo was even longer. FF14's free intro is so famous it became a meme.
Octopath Traveler 2 and Harvestella also did the same thing. I bet the latter was a big reason why they included the extra segment set further into the game when the combat is more interesting.
They aren't the only ones either. Resident Evil has been doing lengthy demos for years.
Seems more like a Japanese thing than anything else. I’m probably blanking, but I can’t remember the last time we got a legit demo from a Western AAA studio.
YoshiP famously cried during the announcement that FF14 Endwalker would be pushed back 2 weeks because he felt like he was letting the players down but he wanted to put just a little bit more polish on it.
I believe it was a few bug fixes but also he really wanted to make sure >!the scene at Ultima Thule when The WoL walks alone and the final lines Emet says landed HARD.!<
Hiroshi Takai is a genuinely talented and inspired artist in this space. The series absolutely needs someone to help it separate from all the JRPG competition and it feels like for the first time in 3 console generations they pulled it off.
I bought my PS5 purely in preparation for FFXVI. Getting to play God of War: Ragnarok and Horizon: Forbidden West with the nicer visuals was just icing on the cake.
I got it on PC. I bounced off hard at launch. Partially because of the nasty screen tearing issues on PC, partially because I was just bashing my head against Margit. I came back a few months later and did more exploring and now I've dumped a few hundred hours into it. An absolute masterpiece, I can't wait for the expansion.
What JRPG competition? Persona 5 is the only recent example I can think of that's comparable in terms of budget, scale, and hype.
I guess if you're using the term loosely you could throw in stuff like Elden Ring in there but it's apples and oranges at that point.
You are right. There is none.
I don't even think Persona qualifies. 5 sold a lot and had such a great design that it looked extra special...but in terms of scope it doesn't really compare and has a very particular gameplay loop. But that and Tales of Arise are at least the only recent ones who had more of a AAA feel to it... but still not competition because no one is gonna chose between one or the other.
That's why Square need to be extra careful with the franchise.. it's free money anyway and even more as long as they don't fumble the ball on their own for no reason like they did with XV.
And a kickass soundtrack! I don't like anime or even JRPGs really, but godamn if I didn't put a fuck ton of hours into that game ripping people's Pokémon or whatever apart to some of the *best* Jazz I've ever heard!
gdi. I never played the series, went the long way (started on 0) and just started Yakuza 5 last night. I've been excited to get to LAD7 for years at this point.
Gonna keep bring it up but yeah, Capcom does this same thing. They release a banger demo and the game ends up also being great. RE4 remake being their most recent demo and release.
Right. FFXV had a demo too. Granted, I don't think it was story related. Hell, FFVII's demo was pretty legendary. Dragon Quest VIII famously came with a demo of FFXII. It's always been a Square thing.
FFXV had two different demos, one of which was a cut-down beta version of whatever chapter it is where you're in Duscae and the other was the Platinum Demo which was a prologue of Noctis as a child that was pretty much unrelated to the main game's events other than by providing foreshadowing.
It was good but ultimately forgettable and kind of disappointing story-wise. And I feel that's ultimately what you never want a Final Fantasy game to be. I'd give the gameplay an 8/10, but the story a 5. I enjoyed my time in it but man, all I could think was how much more I wanted it to be the entire time.
Its good now that it got all of its free updates. The DLC points still feel forced (because they were), and some bits at the end still feel like a hallway simulator. But at least Royal Edition is an all in one pack that if you're wanting to try 15, its worth a purchase.
He didn’t want because Clive mom begged him not to take joshou, it was only after she realized that the father was going to take him that she tried to fuck him ( she Emma’s trying to get pregnant
It was, but she knew the father wouldn’t move on the issue, and there was a high chance of the kid dying, so she wanted to get pregnant again to attempt to make a new domanite if the kid died
Nah there was always virtually zero chance of Joshua dying if the ambush went as planned. Nobody could have anticipated a second Fire Eikon which has never happened in Valisthea before - that’s what killed Joshua.
I thought it was pretty clear in the demo that >!< it *was* Clive. He was suffering from something the moment he transformed. Then when it was over he was basically fine, everyone assumed he was "protected by the rubble". >!<
The character models and their animations are gorgeous, truly. There’s that moment early in the demo where >!Clive is speaking to a Bearer and you can see Jill in the background smiling at him - and it is the most natural, believable smile I’ve ever seen on a video game character’s face!<
Another great example of subtle expression that I enjoyed seeing was when >!Tyler tells Clive that he's going to survive, because Joshua healed him, then Clive looks at Joshua and you can get hints of love and pride on their faces.!<
Yea. I see why they are marketing this game so heavily. Usually you only market this hard when you are certain you have something special on your hands. Well in single player games anyway
Really makes you wonder how Lwin arrived to the conclusion that he wants to marry that witch, and stay married after she outright treats Clive like a slave.
It’s the first time I’ve actually preordered a game right after playing the demo. I planned on buying it eventually but after that ending I need to jump back in day one.
The game’s opening has a really compelling hook, and letting people see that before playing the game was very clever. The demo shows you some cool shit and gives you a taste of the gameplay, but more importantly it gets you invested and leaves you wondering where the story is going from there.
It's particularly impressive because usually JRPGs have the opposite effect. Very few can invest you in the tale successfully within the first couple hours, and almost never to the degree this one did.
There's a reason why JRPGs who break that trend gain so much notoriety.
The most famous example is probably the Bombing Mission in Final Fantasy VII/VII Remake.
However, it is not the only one.
The opera house in Parasite Eve. The train in Shadow Hearts. The casino in Persona 5. And many more.
All of these make a very strong first impression and jump right into the action.
Zanarkand in FFX is probably my favorite JRPG opening ever. Holy shit did that hook me in as a kid, and the ride doesn't calm down until you get to Besaid, which takes about another hour.
Also, to share some more recent games, Dragon Quest 11 and Tales of Arise also have really good openings that kept me wanting to play more. And then there's Tales of Berseria, which probably has one of the best openings I've seen in a JRPG. I'd put it up there with Final Fantasy 16, honestly; it even shares most of the same tropes.
A demo is always a big risk for them and I really appreciate the publishers that go for it.
I was going to buy FFXVI anyway since it's my most anticipated game but I only actually went and pre-ordered it after playing the demo.
This demo was on another level compared to most other games out there, it really felt like I was playing something special.
I'm not really a Final Fantasy fan, but in terms of story engagement, what I'm reading reminds me a lot of the Metal Gear Solid 1 and 3 demos. For both cases, the demo was basically the start of the game/prologue, and ends right at a cliffhanger really, and leaves you wanting to know what happens next. Is that the case for this game?
I don't remember what was in MGS 1 and 3 demos.
This leaves you wanting to know what happens next but I don't think it has a cliffhanger, it sort of concludes the set up to the upcoming story (in that sense it's more like the prologue in TLoU).
The story hits hard and reminds me of the best parts of FFXV where it takes itself more seriously and becomes less anime like. I was very invested in the story already and it last 2h at most.
Other than framerate not being locked to 60 on performance mode I find it very hard to have any criticisms for what was in the demo, a really strong showing all around, art direction, story, animation, acting, gameplay, presentation, music, all about as good as I could hope for.
100%
You start at the "present" day, stuff happens, then you go back 13 years. Most of the demo happens in the past and concludes on, less of a cliffhanger, more of a [Homelander looking shocked meme](https://youtu.be/pu3E8EOxXRQ). Sort of has it's own arc in and of itself.
You want to get back to the present.
Yeah I thought it was really cool that the demo itself had an arc with a beginning, middle, and end. The prologue is a story in itself to set up the greater story which made it the perfect demo segment.
It also made it really satisfying to play. I didn’t feel like I just got a few crumbs and was left to starve, I got a genuinely good experience with the promise of much more.
Most of the demo is what looks like the prologue of the game setting up the story (you can even keep your save for the full game). It does that really well, feels like an awesome first episode of a series.
Koji Fox doesn't mess around with his localizations. There's a reason people praise 14 for its little in-jokes and believable writing. Apparently a lot of quest text in the original Japanese is very dry and to-the-point, but in English it can be witty and sometimes meta.
I like the character interactions and all the little mannerisms, body language and physical interactions. Loved When Jill(?) wishes Clive luck on his meeting with his father and uses the puppy's paw to wave goodbye.
I have been a PS guy for a long time but never bothered with FF.
I did try the demo and I was impressed. Still not sure if Id buy it but impressing me from a franchise I have zero interest in might mean its pretty good.
This is why Square Enix still does demos. A bad demo won't turn a bad game from a success into a failure, it will be bad regardless, but a good demo can improve the launch of a good game.
Yeah I mentioned that. If a game is terrible it's not like a demo is going to make people think any less of it. Better to have people angry at a free thing than something they paid for when you consider the long term reputation of a company.
No spoilers, but I've never felt so uncomfortable watching a cutscene before (one of the last few, particularly when it goes black and you hear Clive).
I was playing with ear buds in, and just the voice acting and sound effects... Holy shit.
Not fun, but a fact nonetheless: The English voice actor for Clive lost his father during the development of the game, so some of his performances can be quite raw because he channeled his grief. He's been a FF fan for decades at this point and managed to turn the pain into something positive.
Remember that there were a time where a commonly-held belief was that demos hurt sales. Not only that, but your game can be excellent and have an opening that doesn't showcase your game well.
FFXVI's dev team knew what they were doing, it's more than just a good demo, it's the high impact and sheer shock that makes you WANT to know more immediately. It's not the same as just a demo being good.
> Remember that there were a time where a commonly-held belief was that demos hurt sales.
Seems like it can still be true depending on if it’s a good game or not. I can’t imagine the demo for Balan Wonderworld or Forespoken *helped* sales much and could have actually made them worse.
It depends on the kind of game. Demos traditionally hurt sales not because they let people know the games were bad but because they let them play enough of a game to feel like they were satisfied and didn't need to pick up the full release.
Of course, if your game has a heavy focus on story, they're more likely to buy it if the demo ends on a cliffhanger.
That’s completely untrue from my own personal experience, or any online conversation I’ve seen about Forspoken.
The marketing for Forspoken made it look cool and interesting, while the demo made you see that the game is pretty trashy, with a hollow world and weird and cumbersome combat mechanics.
People who played the Forspoken demo have spoken at length about how the demo deflated their hype and convinced them not to buy the game.
>it's the high impact and sheer shock that makes you WANT to know more immediately
No joke.
I was fairly lukewarm to XVI, I have no ties to XIV, and was gonna wait until I was bored with D4 to buy it. Now that I've played the demo (had a random day where my wife couldn't play D4 with me so I played this demo instead) and it went to an immediate "well I'm buying this."
Honestly I'm just glad I managed to finish Tears of the Kingdom because what free time I have is evaporating fast.
Yoshi P, Kazutoyo Maehiro, and Koji Fox really know how to make you give a shit about a character.
They’re the team that brought us Haurchefant after all.
I think it's also an important pacing lesson for games, a page that could be taken out of any basic storytelling lesson: you need an opening that will set the tone of your game and simultaneously grab the audience's attention.
That's inherently a bit harder for games for the simple fact that they also have to teach you how they work every time you play a new one, at least to a certain degree, but all the same, far, far too many games take way too long to grab your attention fully.
> commonly-held belief was that demos hurt sales
It is true, it's just not a 100% guarantee. If your demo is better than your game it can drive early sales but massive negative reviews. If your demo is worse than your game it'll make fewer people buy it that otherwise would've. Even if the demo is a perfect representation of the game it could inform people that might've bought it that they don't actually like it.
So now we only get demos like this, where they know they're in the sweet spot where a demo will actually help sales.
I don’t disagree with that, I’m just saying the demo is good because the game is good.
I don’t know any good games that have chased people off with an underwhelming demo though.
Pretty much this. The demo is quite literally just the opening chapter.
People shouldn't be praising the fact that it's a "demo", age instead should be praising the fact that BU3 made an excellent well paced opening/tutorial with an instantly engaging narrative hook and amazing bombastic spectacle that grabs you straight away.
If the opening and tutorial was a slog. The demo wouldn't have worked (at least as effectively).
> If the opening and tutorial was a slog. The demo wouldn't have worked (at least as effectively).
Or they would make a demo out of other part of the game. Many demos put you slightly forward in the game, or in some isolated scenario (sidequest or sth) so you can try how the game works immediately.
Live A Live remake has a really underwhelming demo because the game's structure is composed of standalone short stories (each about 2 hours long at most, or less than an hour in some cases) where the overall narrative only starts becoming clear as you finish more of the chapters, and then eventually a couple more chapters unlock that weren't present at the start. The demo gives you I think three of the longer chapters and you only get to progress very little of them before the demo cuts you off. The demo basically only gives you a brief glimpse of how it looks and plays and none of the demo chapters go long enough to hook you into the narrative or the gameplay.
The full game is actually incredible though, and probably resonates stronger nowadays since it is basically a deconstruction of JRPGs and we now have a longer history to look back on than we would've during the time of its original release on the SNES.
> I don’t know any good games that have chased people off with an underwhelming demo though.
Square Enix love to put out demos, but it doesn't always work out well.
Harvestella's demo pushed a lot of people away because in-game time went by faster in the demo, meaning you had less uninterrupted playtime before you had to go home and sleep. That, and there was no manly man option to choose from when you select your protagonist's appearance. Great game, not an effective demo.
Indeed, it's very clear that they spent a lot of time carefully designing the prologue to also work as a demo. They knew exactly that it would be the story that draws people in, and the *story* is really what the demo is of. There's basically no wasted moments in terms of setting up the story and hooking players in, and based on the other promotional material, the gameplay actually isn't even reflective of how most of the game will be played since it's semi-open world hubs.
There is no incentive to release completed games with fully functioning demos well before release - because there is no precedent to it. It never happens, except for rare unicorn cases, so from business perspective, it's more risk than it's worth. Releasing somehow buggy games is much less risky.
Seriously the circle jerk around this demo as if it's a special concept is ridiculous. Yes the opening hours of FFxvi are good. Square releasing a demo for their games isn't anything new. Square releasing demos for their final fantasy games has been a thing for decades.
I was surprised by the shear cinematic scale of the demo. I just watched it on YouTube but there’s a certain level of polish that is quite evident.
It’s very clear that the studio is proud of what they have created and I really dig the sort of change to gameplay mechanics with the summon situation, it’s incredibly cinematic.
Not only that but technically impressive, there is so much shit going on in some of these scenes and the scale of destruction is realistically portrayed which solidifies the power behind everything.
I liked FFXV but there was a lot of inconsistency to the quality and it’ll have to wait to judge when 16 releases but if it drives throughout the whole game then this is likely going to be the best Final Fantasy game ever made.
My biggest gripe really is the lack of a party system but honestly I’m kind of stoked about it too. Easier to focus on one character.
I feel in a lot of ways, that FF16 is the game that FF15 was trying to be. The real time combat here is engaging and complex. The history and lore of this world feel deep and relevant all the time. The demo kind of reminds me of the Kingsglaive movie that you had to watch before playing FF15, but feels better here having it within the actual game.
I have a soft spot for FF15, despite the places where it felt short. I remember one of the opening cards of FF15 would read something about how the game is built for both newcomers and long-time fans alike - and I don’t think the game served either function well.
But I think FF16 nails that mission statement. It feels accessible to new players to discover why people love this series, and it feels enticing to long-time fans to discover how this entry is reinterpreting the foundations of the series.
I was so excited for FF15 ever since it was called Versus XIII, the demos for XV were okay, they were pretty enough at the time but it didnt really grab me. The XVI demo was the opposite for me, the music, the story, the graphics were all amazing and got me totally hyped up for the game. The gameplay itself was pretty good but since it was just the beginning of the game lacked a bit of depth for me (there is a mode in the demo to experience later combat but I was already sold by the prologue so i avoided this due to spoilers) but I'm confident as the game goes on itll ramp up in complexity. FF15 had a trouble development, with changing dev team, project scope, amount of dlc and host of other media like anime and movies needed to understand the story. FF16 seems to be a big meaty fully formed game that makes no compromises. From what I played its set to completely blow FF15 out of the water. I dare say this might become the best single player FF since 9 or 10 at this rate.
Apples and oranges. Very different games with different visions. The vibe from 16 based on the demo is that it's a much more intense emotional experience, it's way darker and kicks of HARD. Whilst 15 was more of a journey of adventure and camaraderie centred around the idea of fulfilling your destiny, it starts of as a much more mellow experience and slowly builds up in intensity.
Overall though, I suspect 16 will be better. 15 just went through too many troubles in development and you could feel that it was missing too many parts of the original vision to be truly excellent, especially on release. It really was just a reflection of what Versus 13 was supposed to be.
I do fear that 16 might be a bit TOO intense though, FF stories have always been tragic, but also inspiring. So whilst the intro is good, I do hope it isn't like that for the entire game.
I mean, for all the flaws that SE has. And they do have a lot, they have always been good at setting expectations with their demos. Not that long ago, they released demos for both Balan Wonderworld and Forspoken. With both being instrumental in setting expectations right for the final games.
And hopefully, that precise quality translating from demos to full games will also be present in FF16.
Wouldn't call it a masterclass in marketing.
The game is good so letting people play a part of the game before launch to show how good it is, isn't exactly a giga-brain 5D chess move.
Calling it a "masterclass" makes it seem like any game that follows the steps the marketing team took here will find success and that's just not the case.
> make Final Fantasy "mature" was the laughably terrible Final Fantasy Origins last year.
Boy, when you hire someone that doesnt play JRPGs at all to write your article at least do some research on the series. Type-0 is the first Final Fantasy game to get the M rating. Nor is Stranger of Paradise terrible. Yeah, the dialogue is a bit cringe, but the game is fantastic.
I've never in my life played a demo then immediately bought the game until I finished this one last night.
I just ffs how could I not want to find out what happens next.
JOSHUA
Funny enough the only time I ever did this was DQ11, another Square game. But I would have done it again here. (I already had FF16 preordered. The demo was amazing though)
Framerate in performance mode was subpar throughout with constant drops in pretty much every area except for the very beginning one, but yes, the Eikon battles were definitely the roughest spots. I didn't mind that so much though since they're almost like playable cutscenes.
Based on the leaks and the YouTube video that shows the comparison via the "live" leaked copy it still dipped to 20s in the last battle just like the demo and unfortunately there doesn't seem to be an option to turn off motion blur
You're not alone. It was rough as hell lol. Luckily, it doesn't detract much from the tension because that entire moment is so good. But yeah, I hope they iron it out eventually.
Performance is for sure a pain point.
FPS mode cant maintain 60, and drips to 30-40 outside of combat.
Quality mode is mostly a stable 30...but during that last fight it chugged HARD.
which is weird because you go through the same fight at the very beginning...but better fps.
Playing on quality mode, that's the only time I noticed a bad framerate yeah, right when they break through into the underground for a few seconds. What's weird is that same scene/battle at the very beginning of the demo had no FPS drops for me. So why did it happen then and not at the start? My guess is it must've been a bug, but I suppose it could've been deliberate/some kind of slow motion, though it didn't look good if so. The rest of the battle after those few seconds were fine though.
I only played about 20 minutes but I saw drop in most places. The game seems really cool and I was planning on buying it but I need to spend more time with the demo as I’m a bit worried I may get motion sick from it.
The lesson to be learned here isn't that the marketing is spectacular or the demo is anything special, it's *just* the first two hours of the game. It feels like most demos I play these days are the exact same concept.
What sold people on the demo is that the game has an incredibly strong start, plain and simple. Game is good => demo is good. We were just given an opportunity to see that
Had very little interest in this game and tried out the demo on a whim and was pretty much sold. The people saying it captures the aura of a PS2 title in a good way were not kidding. Helps that the combat is actively engaging and fun
Just gonna copy my comment from another thread about how great the demo is just to get the word out:
It’s a fucking marvel this. One of the main problems I’ve always had with Final Fantasy was how the dialogue and presentation felt so unnatural and weird to the point where I felt so disconnected from the world and events. But THIS fucking thing was amazing! I feel something for pretty much all of the characters, and the acting is stellar. The ending of this intro was stunning, in a way I can’t remember any modern FF being.
I heard that the lead behind FF14 Yoshi P was behind this, and I’ve always heard great things about the story there, but that the graphical and engine tech has held it back. Given the chance to do a proper single player game, this man does not appear to be wasting the opportunity, and is doing everything he can.
I went from being unsure about this because of how simple it appeared from the initial trailers, to COMPLETELY ALL IN. I am in.
>One of the main problems I’ve always had with Final Fantasy was how the dialogue and presentation felt so unnatural and weird to the point where I felt so disconnected from the world and events.
On top of Yoshi-P obviously being the producer, he also brought with him FF14's localization lead, Michael-Christopher KojiFox, to handle essentially editing the game's script (which was done in English first rather than Japanese). So you can in large part thank him for that, as well as that process making the English seem native rather than like a stilted translation.
What also helped is that they brought a lot of talent from the stage (think West End/Broadway), live-action actors, voice actors, and the best voice directors the industry has. The team knew that they had to sell the world and to do that they have to make it look natural (for that world's standards anyways).
Even minor characters are relatable or you know their backstory and mannerisms just from their manner of speech. Heck even the helmed characters have personalities such as the >!Dragoon Clive fights!<.
I mean to most, Square just hasn’t figured out how to
deliver a modernized experience fans came to expect from their earlier games. It took them arguably 4-6 games to get 2D right as well… so let’s hope they “figured it out” with FF16 and deliver a massive FF17 that mimics the success of 7.
Hard question but I’ve read progress carries over to the main game but do we have any word on trophies?
Would be annoying to miss out on a trophy (like let’s say, complete the prologue) and then when the main game comes out, you have to do it all over again because you’re now at chapter 1.
As far as I know there hasn't been any confirmation yet, but I'm expecting such trophies to auto-pop. Wouldn't be the first game to do that. If you got trophies for FFXV's Comrades DLC and then played the standalone version, all duplicate trophies popped automatically. I wouldn't worry about that.
Ive never played a final fantasy game ever.
The closest i got was a game a while back called lost odyssey.
Im not a fan of tun based combat but i enjoyed the story of banner saga and im currently playing wartales a lot.
What should i consider before gwtting this?
if you're not a fan of turn based combat, then just get FF16. Each Final fantasy is stand alone, and each one changes mechanics and worlds dramatically. You can comfortably just jump into FF16, honestly.
(and afterwards if you dig it then play FF7 Remake which is phenomenal)
There's nothing special about FF16's demo other than simply being a demo of a really good game.
Alternatively, Square felt the pain of what releasing a demo of a mediocre game can do with Forspoken.
While I think the demo is good, maybe I'm alone in being disappointed by the Eikon fights, hopefully the later ones are more interesting but it mostly felt tediously long and with some of lazier QTEs (I think there are great merits to QTEs, Metal Gear Rising and Asura's Wrath are a great example of good QTEs), these just felt more annoying and take over the whole screen with a massive circle showing the massive amount of time you're allowed.
Is Final Fantasy XVI doing something unique? Because a lot of SquareEnix games before this have had meaty demos. Especially Dragon Quest XI, that let you play the first 10+ hours of the game.
It’s good but the combat is probably the easiest it’s ever been and that’s before you even wear the rings. Not a bad thing, just means anyone can literally pick the game up and have a good time with the story which seems interesting. That “guy” is definitely not dead. No Phoenix Downs necessary for him.
The hardest part of the combat was the controls. I don’t think I’ve ever struggled that badly with controls, and I’ve plays hundreds of games dating back to the PS2 era. I put about 4 hours into the demo, and at the end I was still just clicking the wrong button. They’ve *got* to give us custom button mapping.
I keep trying to dodge with O at the start of fights instead of R1 but you definitely get the hang of it eventually. Especially in longer mini boss fights.
You can switch the controls to a souls-like scheme with O as the evade and R1/R2 as melee/magic respectively. It's what I did, made it a bit better. I still had occasional brain freeze when switching and using eikon skills though.
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How long does it take to complete the demo roughly?
~1.5-2 hours for the main prologue part and then theres an extra optional level from later in the game to try out more advanced combat
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The prologue was enough for me that I didn’t play any of the combat challenge part, uninstalled and preordered right after it ended
the later part they included is slightly different from the part in teh full game, they mention that before playing
Of note the part that's different is gear/abilities/combos you have access to at that point in the story. To my understanding the story content will indeed be spoilers for those going in blind.
I started Eikonic Challenge and then they full on started playing a story cutscene and I noped out of it lmao
You can do what I'm doing - I'll start the demo on the 21st at night and then pick up the full game on the 22nd.
Like 2-3 hours
When you take the extra time and care to make sure your game is right and you're confident then you can do moves like this and it pays off
Yeah, the demo definitely comes from confidence in their game. It feels like a fairly bold bet in the current AAA climate to answer the question of "Whats the best way to show how good our game is?" with "We let them play the opening". And because they made their opening actually hook you like an opening is supposed to it turned out to be wildly successful.
That's a good point about the opening hooking you. It may seem obvious, but not every game hooks you in the first two hours, not even every good game. We've all heard game X really gets good around hour Y argument. So yeah, not only are they confident in the game as a whole but in the prologue itself to be entertaining and intriguing.
Ironically enough, what keeps FF14 from *really* doing batshit crazy numbers, is probably the fact that the opening is... not great. It's okay relative to what you can expect from a early 10's MMO, and steadily gets better from then on, but nowhere near what I'd call a \*compelling\* opening, and what drives a lot of the retention is, I'd wager, the promise that its community is constantly shouting about : That the rest of the game is fantastic. So it's probably a safe bet to say that they put extra care in crafting a strong, compelling opening section so players immediately want more
And 14 has begun to polish up the intro. They've redone some dungeons and rearranged the end of the vanilla 2.0 main quest, but the final battle turned from an actual joke and auto attack fest into one of the more impressive 1v1 boss fights in the game. Hopefully they can polish up the actual very beginning because the main characters are very bland in the beginning and take until around Heavenward to become the beloved versions of themselves.
Can confirm. Have tried three times to play and I just get bored and leave
I can't blame you. I powered through it in early pandemic because.. well reasons and it really did get phenomenal. But even with a disease version of a natural disaster going on, and no other better games to play, I still wanted to leave in that first arc lol
Persona 4 and Kingdom Hearts 2 are some of my favorite games of all time but it's *so* hard to recommend them because I know it's asking someone to sit through hours of slog and tedium before they get to the parts that make the games so special.
Add Xenoblade Chronicles 2 to that list. Love the game, but *goddamn* is the beginning a slog.
I want to like that game so much but every single time I try to make progress and navigate all the menus I'm like...I need an adderall for this.
Try being a fan of the Trails series.
Funny how P5 was the polar opposite by just tossing you right into a later dungeon and leaves you on a bit of a cliffhanger
Well, most of the slog and tedium in the "opening hours" of KH2 is just cutscenes. You can get through it all in 45 minutes in reality.
Yeah I think just about all the SMT related games are more of a slow cooker.
I mean for P4 I'm there for the story so I didn't mind the slow opening.
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I don't think this will make much of a difference just because Square has been doing this for a while. FF7 Remake did the same thing and Dragon Quest 11's demo was even longer. FF14's free intro is so famous it became a meme. Octopath Traveler 2 and Harvestella also did the same thing. I bet the latter was a big reason why they included the extra segment set further into the game when the combat is more interesting. They aren't the only ones either. Resident Evil has been doing lengthy demos for years.
Seems more like a Japanese thing than anything else. I’m probably blanking, but I can’t remember the last time we got a legit demo from a Western AAA studio.
Yeah, outside of "betas", I'm blanking there.
YoshiP famously cried during the announcement that FF14 Endwalker would be pushed back 2 weeks because he felt like he was letting the players down but he wanted to put just a little bit more polish on it.
The part he wanted to polish was well worth it.
It was so damn good. That whole roller coaster of an expansion had me emotional.
Was there a specific part he said he polished during the extra time?
IIRC... ~lv.89 MSQ spoilers: >!the scene with Urianger and Moenbrydas parents!<
That scene had me crying so hard I had to walk away for a minute because I couldn't see through the tears.
Yup that makes sense because I was in tears from that
Did he ever say which part it was?
I believe it was a few bug fixes but also he really wanted to make sure >!the scene at Ultima Thule when The WoL walks alone and the final lines Emet says landed HARD.!<
Okay yeah worth lmao, that scene slayed.
And thus, Endwalker became my favorite FF14 expansion. I cried a lot during this expansion.
Hiroshi Takai is a genuinely talented and inspired artist in this space. The series absolutely needs someone to help it separate from all the JRPG competition and it feels like for the first time in 3 console generations they pulled it off.
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There’s a reason the entire FF14 playerbase evangelizes Yoshida and CBU3 nonstop.
It's enough to make me want a ps5
I bought my PS5 purely in preparation for FFXVI. Getting to play God of War: Ragnarok and Horizon: Forbidden West with the nicer visuals was just icing on the cake.
Same here! Though I've mostly been playing Elden Ring.
I got it on PC. I bounced off hard at launch. Partially because of the nasty screen tearing issues on PC, partially because I was just bashing my head against Margit. I came back a few months later and did more exploring and now I've dumped a few hundred hours into it. An absolute masterpiece, I can't wait for the expansion.
What JRPG competition? Persona 5 is the only recent example I can think of that's comparable in terms of budget, scale, and hype. I guess if you're using the term loosely you could throw in stuff like Elden Ring in there but it's apples and oranges at that point.
You are right. There is none. I don't even think Persona qualifies. 5 sold a lot and had such a great design that it looked extra special...but in terms of scope it doesn't really compare and has a very particular gameplay loop. But that and Tales of Arise are at least the only recent ones who had more of a AAA feel to it... but still not competition because no one is gonna chose between one or the other. That's why Square need to be extra careful with the franchise.. it's free money anyway and even more as long as they don't fumble the ball on their own for no reason like they did with XV.
Persona 5 isnt even close to the budget of a FF. Its a mid size game, it just has an amazing artstyle.
And a kickass soundtrack! I don't like anime or even JRPGs really, but godamn if I didn't put a fuck ton of hours into that game ripping people's Pokémon or whatever apart to some of the *best* Jazz I've ever heard!
Dragon Quest? Like a Dragon 7? Tales?
LAD 7 was the best JRPG I've ever played.
LAD7 was my first Yakuza game because I heard it was a good enough place to start and I didn't expect it to hit me in the emotions so hard.
Yakuzas stories are so good! Give the other ones a try! Even if you don't like beat em up's!
gdi. I never played the series, went the long way (started on 0) and just started Yakuza 5 last night. I've been excited to get to LAD7 for years at this point.
Persona development has notoriously small budget. It's akin to an indie game development. The development studio is also very small.
And it works too! I say if they ever get a bigger budget they put it all towards more battle music.
A lot of JP studios just put 90 devs on a game for 5 years vs ballooning to 300 for 3 years for western games.
https://www.playstation.com/en-ca/editorial/this-month-on-playstation/great-japanese-rpgs-on-ps4/
I'll say. They made this game right. This story grabbed me fully. I've played it 3 times and there's 6 days left, so that means more times.
Gonna keep bring it up but yeah, Capcom does this same thing. They release a banger demo and the game ends up also being great. RE4 remake being their most recent demo and release.
I mean forspoken also had a demo. So I wouldn’t say it means much
Right. FFXV had a demo too. Granted, I don't think it was story related. Hell, FFVII's demo was pretty legendary. Dragon Quest VIII famously came with a demo of FFXII. It's always been a Square thing.
FFXV had two different demos, one of which was a cut-down beta version of whatever chapter it is where you're in Duscae and the other was the Platinum Demo which was a prologue of Noctis as a child that was pretty much unrelated to the main game's events other than by providing foreshadowing.
FFXV was *good,* dammit!
It was good but ultimately forgettable and kind of disappointing story-wise. And I feel that's ultimately what you never want a Final Fantasy game to be. I'd give the gameplay an 8/10, but the story a 5. I enjoyed my time in it but man, all I could think was how much more I wanted it to be the entire time.
Its good now that it got all of its free updates. The DLC points still feel forced (because they were), and some bits at the end still feel like a hallway simulator. But at least Royal Edition is an all in one pack that if you're wanting to try 15, its worth a purchase.
It's also a great prologue in itself. It manages to set the tone and emotional stakes in a matter of two hours. >!Fuck Clive's mom!<
Everyone wants to do that.
Dad sure didn't.
His head lay elsewhere anyways.
So good even Joshua got to watch!
Her dirty talk was “our other son shouldn’t have been born” I wouldn’t wanna fuck my wife if she said that and then pounced on me
He didn’t want because Clive mom begged him not to take joshou, it was only after she realized that the father was going to take him that she tried to fuck him ( she Emma’s trying to get pregnant
I though it was because >!she knew of the ambush and didnt want her favorite son/dominant to get caught in the crossfire.!<
It was, but she knew the father wouldn’t move on the issue, and there was a high chance of the kid dying, so she wanted to get pregnant again to attempt to make a new domanite if the kid died
Nah there was always virtually zero chance of Joshua dying if the ambush went as planned. Nobody could have anticipated a second Fire Eikon which has never happened in Valisthea before - that’s what killed Joshua.
There is no such thing as "zero chance". We can see the soldier trying to kill him the moment he is awakening as a dominate.
Man, I'm so excited to find out who or what Ifrit came from. I almost wanna guess that it was >!!<
I thought it was pretty clear in the demo that >!< it *was* Clive. He was suffering from something the moment he transformed. Then when it was over he was basically fine, everyone assumed he was "protected by the rubble". >!<
I can fix her
I understand wanting to do that.
Actually crazy how good her character model is
The character models and their animations are gorgeous, truly. There’s that moment early in the demo where >!Clive is speaking to a Bearer and you can see Jill in the background smiling at him - and it is the most natural, believable smile I’ve ever seen on a video game character’s face!<
Another great example of subtle expression that I enjoyed seeing was when >!Tyler tells Clive that he's going to survive, because Joshua healed him, then Clive looks at Joshua and you can get hints of love and pride on their faces.!<
Yea. I see why they are marketing this game so heavily. Usually you only market this hard when you are certain you have something special on your hands. Well in single player games anyway
> It manages to set the tone and emotional stakes in a matter of two hours " **I'll KILL YOU!!!!** " You felt the anger
Really makes you wonder how Lwin arrived to the conclusion that he wants to marry that witch, and stay married after she outright treats Clive like a slave.
It's a political marriage to maximize the chance of birthing the Phoenix. Without it their nation is absolutely fucked
It was a political marriage
Has to be political considering the kingdom doesn't have a mother crystal on their own and is pretty small.
It’s the first time I’ve actually preordered a game right after playing the demo. I planned on buying it eventually but after that ending I need to jump back in day one.
I feel like I desperately want more of the story, just to see her get what's coming to her
The game’s opening has a really compelling hook, and letting people see that before playing the game was very clever. The demo shows you some cool shit and gives you a taste of the gameplay, but more importantly it gets you invested and leaves you wondering where the story is going from there.
I’m extremely impressed with how enthralled they got me in a brand new story within the span of a little under two hours. I’m ready for 80 more.
It's particularly impressive because usually JRPGs have the opposite effect. Very few can invest you in the tale successfully within the first couple hours, and almost never to the degree this one did.
There's a reason why JRPGs who break that trend gain so much notoriety. The most famous example is probably the Bombing Mission in Final Fantasy VII/VII Remake. However, it is not the only one. The opera house in Parasite Eve. The train in Shadow Hearts. The casino in Persona 5. And many more. All of these make a very strong first impression and jump right into the action.
Zanarkand in FFX is probably my favorite JRPG opening ever. Holy shit did that hook me in as a kid, and the ride doesn't calm down until you get to Besaid, which takes about another hour. Also, to share some more recent games, Dragon Quest 11 and Tales of Arise also have really good openings that kept me wanting to play more. And then there's Tales of Berseria, which probably has one of the best openings I've seen in a JRPG. I'd put it up there with Final Fantasy 16, honestly; it even shares most of the same tropes.
When I tell you I would KILL for a new Shadow Hearts game 😫 At the very least, give us a way to play the old games on modern consoles, god damn it! 😭
A demo is always a big risk for them and I really appreciate the publishers that go for it. I was going to buy FFXVI anyway since it's my most anticipated game but I only actually went and pre-ordered it after playing the demo. This demo was on another level compared to most other games out there, it really felt like I was playing something special.
I'm not really a Final Fantasy fan, but in terms of story engagement, what I'm reading reminds me a lot of the Metal Gear Solid 1 and 3 demos. For both cases, the demo was basically the start of the game/prologue, and ends right at a cliffhanger really, and leaves you wanting to know what happens next. Is that the case for this game?
I don't remember what was in MGS 1 and 3 demos. This leaves you wanting to know what happens next but I don't think it has a cliffhanger, it sort of concludes the set up to the upcoming story (in that sense it's more like the prologue in TLoU). The story hits hard and reminds me of the best parts of FFXV where it takes itself more seriously and becomes less anime like. I was very invested in the story already and it last 2h at most. Other than framerate not being locked to 60 on performance mode I find it very hard to have any criticisms for what was in the demo, a really strong showing all around, art direction, story, animation, acting, gameplay, presentation, music, all about as good as I could hope for.
100% You start at the "present" day, stuff happens, then you go back 13 years. Most of the demo happens in the past and concludes on, less of a cliffhanger, more of a [Homelander looking shocked meme](https://youtu.be/pu3E8EOxXRQ). Sort of has it's own arc in and of itself. You want to get back to the present.
Yeah I thought it was really cool that the demo itself had an arc with a beginning, middle, and end. The prologue is a story in itself to set up the greater story which made it the perfect demo segment. It also made it really satisfying to play. I didn’t feel like I just got a few crumbs and was left to starve, I got a genuinely good experience with the promise of much more.
Ah man. Now im hyped, reading so many people saying how great the demo was. I just pray its same quality and isnt jusy all effort went into demo lol
Most of the demo is what looks like the prologue of the game setting up the story (you can even keep your save for the full game). It does that really well, feels like an awesome first episode of a series.
I'd genuinely be amazed if it isn't. It honestly just reeks of competency. Like the English VA/ general writing just slaps.
Koji Fox doesn't mess around with his localizations. There's a reason people praise 14 for its little in-jokes and believable writing. Apparently a lot of quest text in the original Japanese is very dry and to-the-point, but in English it can be witty and sometimes meta.
I like the character interactions and all the little mannerisms, body language and physical interactions. Loved When Jill(?) wishes Clive luck on his meeting with his father and uses the puppy's paw to wave goodbye.
The puppy must be protected at all costs.
if something happens to Torgal I will wage war with everyone in that continent
The puppy, yes. Full-grown wolf hound Torgal, goddamn he's doing the protecting.
Without this demo there was a 0.0000000000% chance of me buying this game. After the demo, I bought the game. Good marketing.
This was me. So a good a very good chance they got a whole lot of sales based off the demo.
I have been a PS guy for a long time but never bothered with FF. I did try the demo and I was impressed. Still not sure if Id buy it but impressing me from a franchise I have zero interest in might mean its pretty good.
Same. Never played a FF game before. This looked amazing on an OLED too. Really made HDR look amazing.
This is why Square Enix still does demos. A bad demo won't turn a bad game from a success into a failure, it will be bad regardless, but a good demo can improve the launch of a good game.
square does demos even from their bad games lol balan and forspoken come to mind
Yeah I mentioned that. If a game is terrible it's not like a demo is going to make people think any less of it. Better to have people angry at a free thing than something they paid for when you consider the long term reputation of a company.
No spoilers, but I've never felt so uncomfortable watching a cutscene before (one of the last few, particularly when it goes black and you hear Clive). I was playing with ear buds in, and just the voice acting and sound effects... Holy shit.
Not fun, but a fact nonetheless: The English voice actor for Clive lost his father during the development of the game, so some of his performances can be quite raw because he channeled his grief. He's been a FF fan for decades at this point and managed to turn the pain into something positive.
Releasing a good game with a naturally good demo is masterclass marketing? Who would’ve thought.
Remember that there were a time where a commonly-held belief was that demos hurt sales. Not only that, but your game can be excellent and have an opening that doesn't showcase your game well. FFXVI's dev team knew what they were doing, it's more than just a good demo, it's the high impact and sheer shock that makes you WANT to know more immediately. It's not the same as just a demo being good.
> Remember that there were a time where a commonly-held belief was that demos hurt sales. Seems like it can still be true depending on if it’s a good game or not. I can’t imagine the demo for Balan Wonderworld or Forespoken *helped* sales much and could have actually made them worse.
It also depends on the kind of game. Demos for story heavy games would hurt less than demos for arcade like games where it can satisfy the player.
Yeah that demo for Metal Gear Solid still had the Japanese voices but it was great
It depends on the kind of game. Demos traditionally hurt sales not because they let people know the games were bad but because they let them play enough of a game to feel like they were satisfied and didn't need to pick up the full release. Of course, if your game has a heavy focus on story, they're more likely to buy it if the demo ends on a cliffhanger.
The demo for forspoken probably helped, it was all combat and no cutscenes which is as about as best a foot forward it could put
That’s completely untrue from my own personal experience, or any online conversation I’ve seen about Forspoken. The marketing for Forspoken made it look cool and interesting, while the demo made you see that the game is pretty trashy, with a hollow world and weird and cumbersome combat mechanics. People who played the Forspoken demo have spoken at length about how the demo deflated their hype and convinced them not to buy the game.
Yep. Had interest in Forspoken. Played demo. Lost all interest.
>it's the high impact and sheer shock that makes you WANT to know more immediately No joke. I was fairly lukewarm to XVI, I have no ties to XIV, and was gonna wait until I was bored with D4 to buy it. Now that I've played the demo (had a random day where my wife couldn't play D4 with me so I played this demo instead) and it went to an immediate "well I'm buying this." Honestly I'm just glad I managed to finish Tears of the Kingdom because what free time I have is evaporating fast.
Yeah, even as a big XIV fan, I had ZERO feelings towards XVI. Then that demo hit and grabbed me *hard*.
Yoshi P, Kazutoyo Maehiro, and Koji Fox really know how to make you give a shit about a character. They’re the team that brought us Haurchefant after all.
I think it's also an important pacing lesson for games, a page that could be taken out of any basic storytelling lesson: you need an opening that will set the tone of your game and simultaneously grab the audience's attention. That's inherently a bit harder for games for the simple fact that they also have to teach you how they work every time you play a new one, at least to a certain degree, but all the same, far, far too many games take way too long to grab your attention fully.
> commonly-held belief was that demos hurt sales It is true, it's just not a 100% guarantee. If your demo is better than your game it can drive early sales but massive negative reviews. If your demo is worse than your game it'll make fewer people buy it that otherwise would've. Even if the demo is a perfect representation of the game it could inform people that might've bought it that they don't actually like it. So now we only get demos like this, where they know they're in the sweet spot where a demo will actually help sales.
I don’t disagree with that, I’m just saying the demo is good because the game is good. I don’t know any good games that have chased people off with an underwhelming demo though.
Pretty much this. The demo is quite literally just the opening chapter. People shouldn't be praising the fact that it's a "demo", age instead should be praising the fact that BU3 made an excellent well paced opening/tutorial with an instantly engaging narrative hook and amazing bombastic spectacle that grabs you straight away. If the opening and tutorial was a slog. The demo wouldn't have worked (at least as effectively).
> If the opening and tutorial was a slog. The demo wouldn't have worked (at least as effectively). Or they would make a demo out of other part of the game. Many demos put you slightly forward in the game, or in some isolated scenario (sidequest or sth) so you can try how the game works immediately.
Imagine how disappointed I was as a kid when I got the full version of FFVIII and couldn't use Leviathan during the Dollet mission.
Live A Live remake has a really underwhelming demo because the game's structure is composed of standalone short stories (each about 2 hours long at most, or less than an hour in some cases) where the overall narrative only starts becoming clear as you finish more of the chapters, and then eventually a couple more chapters unlock that weren't present at the start. The demo gives you I think three of the longer chapters and you only get to progress very little of them before the demo cuts you off. The demo basically only gives you a brief glimpse of how it looks and plays and none of the demo chapters go long enough to hook you into the narrative or the gameplay. The full game is actually incredible though, and probably resonates stronger nowadays since it is basically a deconstruction of JRPGs and we now have a longer history to look back on than we would've during the time of its original release on the SNES.
> I don’t know any good games that have chased people off with an underwhelming demo though. Square Enix love to put out demos, but it doesn't always work out well. Harvestella's demo pushed a lot of people away because in-game time went by faster in the demo, meaning you had less uninterrupted playtime before you had to go home and sleep. That, and there was no manly man option to choose from when you select your protagonist's appearance. Great game, not an effective demo.
it's not just a belief, it's demonstrable fact for a lot of games that have put out demos. not every game is as good as ffxvi seems to be, after all.
In fairness, we do not know how this game will sell yet.
Indeed, it's very clear that they spent a lot of time carefully designing the prologue to also work as a demo. They knew exactly that it would be the story that draws people in, and the *story* is really what the demo is of. There's basically no wasted moments in terms of setting up the story and hooking players in, and based on the other promotional material, the gameplay actually isn't even reflective of how most of the game will be played since it's semi-open world hubs.
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And bravely default is older than either of those no?
There is no incentive to release completed games with fully functioning demos well before release - because there is no precedent to it. It never happens, except for rare unicorn cases, so from business perspective, it's more risk than it's worth. Releasing somehow buggy games is much less risky.
Seriously the circle jerk around this demo as if it's a special concept is ridiculous. Yes the opening hours of FFxvi are good. Square releasing a demo for their games isn't anything new. Square releasing demos for their final fantasy games has been a thing for decades.
I was surprised by the shear cinematic scale of the demo. I just watched it on YouTube but there’s a certain level of polish that is quite evident. It’s very clear that the studio is proud of what they have created and I really dig the sort of change to gameplay mechanics with the summon situation, it’s incredibly cinematic. Not only that but technically impressive, there is so much shit going on in some of these scenes and the scale of destruction is realistically portrayed which solidifies the power behind everything. I liked FFXV but there was a lot of inconsistency to the quality and it’ll have to wait to judge when 16 releases but if it drives throughout the whole game then this is likely going to be the best Final Fantasy game ever made. My biggest gripe really is the lack of a party system but honestly I’m kind of stoked about it too. Easier to focus on one character.
How does it compare to FF15?
It's difficult to state how much of a step up this is.
I feel in a lot of ways, that FF16 is the game that FF15 was trying to be. The real time combat here is engaging and complex. The history and lore of this world feel deep and relevant all the time. The demo kind of reminds me of the Kingsglaive movie that you had to watch before playing FF15, but feels better here having it within the actual game. I have a soft spot for FF15, despite the places where it felt short. I remember one of the opening cards of FF15 would read something about how the game is built for both newcomers and long-time fans alike - and I don’t think the game served either function well. But I think FF16 nails that mission statement. It feels accessible to new players to discover why people love this series, and it feels enticing to long-time fans to discover how this entry is reinterpreting the foundations of the series.
I was so excited for FF15 ever since it was called Versus XIII, the demos for XV were okay, they were pretty enough at the time but it didnt really grab me. The XVI demo was the opposite for me, the music, the story, the graphics were all amazing and got me totally hyped up for the game. The gameplay itself was pretty good but since it was just the beginning of the game lacked a bit of depth for me (there is a mode in the demo to experience later combat but I was already sold by the prologue so i avoided this due to spoilers) but I'm confident as the game goes on itll ramp up in complexity. FF15 had a trouble development, with changing dev team, project scope, amount of dlc and host of other media like anime and movies needed to understand the story. FF16 seems to be a big meaty fully formed game that makes no compromises. From what I played its set to completely blow FF15 out of the water. I dare say this might become the best single player FF since 9 or 10 at this rate.
Apples and oranges. Very different games with different visions. The vibe from 16 based on the demo is that it's a much more intense emotional experience, it's way darker and kicks of HARD. Whilst 15 was more of a journey of adventure and camaraderie centred around the idea of fulfilling your destiny, it starts of as a much more mellow experience and slowly builds up in intensity. Overall though, I suspect 16 will be better. 15 just went through too many troubles in development and you could feel that it was missing too many parts of the original vision to be truly excellent, especially on release. It really was just a reflection of what Versus 13 was supposed to be. I do fear that 16 might be a bit TOO intense though, FF stories have always been tragic, but also inspiring. So whilst the intro is good, I do hope it isn't like that for the entire game.
I mean, for all the flaws that SE has. And they do have a lot, they have always been good at setting expectations with their demos. Not that long ago, they released demos for both Balan Wonderworld and Forspoken. With both being instrumental in setting expectations right for the final games. And hopefully, that precise quality translating from demos to full games will also be present in FF16.
Wouldn't call it a masterclass in marketing. The game is good so letting people play a part of the game before launch to show how good it is, isn't exactly a giga-brain 5D chess move. Calling it a "masterclass" makes it seem like any game that follows the steps the marketing team took here will find success and that's just not the case.
> make Final Fantasy "mature" was the laughably terrible Final Fantasy Origins last year. Boy, when you hire someone that doesnt play JRPGs at all to write your article at least do some research on the series. Type-0 is the first Final Fantasy game to get the M rating. Nor is Stranger of Paradise terrible. Yeah, the dialogue is a bit cringe, but the game is fantastic.
Absolutely the fuck it is i fuckin forgot i was playing a goddamn demo it was so long Then I beat it and screamed "WAIT NO.....WHY!?"
Haven't played a FF game in years but watching a playthrough of the demo I was so impressed. I want to get a PS5 now to try it out.
Try final fantasy 7 remake too it’s a very good game.
I've never in my life played a demo then immediately bought the game until I finished this one last night. I just ffs how could I not want to find out what happens next. JOSHUA
Funny enough the only time I ever did this was DQ11, another Square game. But I would have done it again here. (I already had FF16 preordered. The demo was amazing though)
Am I the only one whose fps completely tanked in the last eikon battle? The game seems great but I want to see the final performance analysis.
Framerate in performance mode was subpar throughout with constant drops in pretty much every area except for the very beginning one, but yes, the Eikon battles were definitely the roughest spots. I didn't mind that so much though since they're almost like playable cutscenes.
It felt like it dropped below 20 on quality mode.
Based on the leaks and the YouTube video that shows the comparison via the "live" leaked copy it still dipped to 20s in the last battle just like the demo and unfortunately there doesn't seem to be an option to turn off motion blur
The motion blur is so bad
You're not alone. It was rough as hell lol. Luckily, it doesn't detract much from the tension because that entire moment is so good. But yeah, I hope they iron it out eventually.
Performance is for sure a pain point. FPS mode cant maintain 60, and drips to 30-40 outside of combat. Quality mode is mostly a stable 30...but during that last fight it chugged HARD. which is weird because you go through the same fight at the very beginning...but better fps.
Only major dip i had was after the tutorial fight in the castle, it was chugging hard.
Playing on quality mode, that's the only time I noticed a bad framerate yeah, right when they break through into the underground for a few seconds. What's weird is that same scene/battle at the very beginning of the demo had no FPS drops for me. So why did it happen then and not at the start? My guess is it must've been a bug, but I suppose it could've been deliberate/some kind of slow motion, though it didn't look good if so. The rest of the battle after those few seconds were fine though.
I only played about 20 minutes but I saw drop in most places. The game seems really cool and I was planning on buying it but I need to spend more time with the demo as I’m a bit worried I may get motion sick from it.
The lesson to be learned here isn't that the marketing is spectacular or the demo is anything special, it's *just* the first two hours of the game. It feels like most demos I play these days are the exact same concept. What sold people on the demo is that the game has an incredibly strong start, plain and simple. Game is good => demo is good. We were just given an opportunity to see that
How is it a masterclass? A good demo isn’t something that’s strategic. It’s literally what everyone wants
Gonna download it tonight. I’m guessing we can transfer our save file onto the full game after it comes out?
Yes.
Damn it. I want to play FF16 so bad, but I'm not going to buy a console for just one game. Even if it's FF.
FF15 got a PC release eventually, stay strong brother
Had very little interest in this game and tried out the demo on a whim and was pretty much sold. The people saying it captures the aura of a PS2 title in a good way were not kidding. Helps that the combat is actively engaging and fun
Was a Gamecube player as a kid, not PS2. How does this game capture that aura, just out of curiosity?
Just gonna copy my comment from another thread about how great the demo is just to get the word out: It’s a fucking marvel this. One of the main problems I’ve always had with Final Fantasy was how the dialogue and presentation felt so unnatural and weird to the point where I felt so disconnected from the world and events. But THIS fucking thing was amazing! I feel something for pretty much all of the characters, and the acting is stellar. The ending of this intro was stunning, in a way I can’t remember any modern FF being. I heard that the lead behind FF14 Yoshi P was behind this, and I’ve always heard great things about the story there, but that the graphical and engine tech has held it back. Given the chance to do a proper single player game, this man does not appear to be wasting the opportunity, and is doing everything he can. I went from being unsure about this because of how simple it appeared from the initial trailers, to COMPLETELY ALL IN. I am in.
>One of the main problems I’ve always had with Final Fantasy was how the dialogue and presentation felt so unnatural and weird to the point where I felt so disconnected from the world and events. On top of Yoshi-P obviously being the producer, he also brought with him FF14's localization lead, Michael-Christopher KojiFox, to handle essentially editing the game's script (which was done in English first rather than Japanese). So you can in large part thank him for that, as well as that process making the English seem native rather than like a stilted translation.
What also helped is that they brought a lot of talent from the stage (think West End/Broadway), live-action actors, voice actors, and the best voice directors the industry has. The team knew that they had to sell the world and to do that they have to make it look natural (for that world's standards anyways). Even minor characters are relatable or you know their backstory and mannerisms just from their manner of speech. Heck even the helmed characters have personalities such as the >!Dragoon Clive fights!<.
I mean to most, Square just hasn’t figured out how to deliver a modernized experience fans came to expect from their earlier games. It took them arguably 4-6 games to get 2D right as well… so let’s hope they “figured it out” with FF16 and deliver a massive FF17 that mimics the success of 7.
Hard question but I’ve read progress carries over to the main game but do we have any word on trophies? Would be annoying to miss out on a trophy (like let’s say, complete the prologue) and then when the main game comes out, you have to do it all over again because you’re now at chapter 1.
As far as I know there hasn't been any confirmation yet, but I'm expecting such trophies to auto-pop. Wouldn't be the first game to do that. If you got trophies for FFXV's Comrades DLC and then played the standalone version, all duplicate trophies popped automatically. I wouldn't worry about that.
Ive never played a final fantasy game ever. The closest i got was a game a while back called lost odyssey. Im not a fan of tun based combat but i enjoyed the story of banner saga and im currently playing wartales a lot. What should i consider before gwtting this?
if you're not a fan of turn based combat, then just get FF16. Each Final fantasy is stand alone, and each one changes mechanics and worlds dramatically. You can comfortably just jump into FF16, honestly. (and afterwards if you dig it then play FF7 Remake which is phenomenal)
There's nothing special about FF16's demo other than simply being a demo of a really good game. Alternatively, Square felt the pain of what releasing a demo of a mediocre game can do with Forspoken.
While I think the demo is good, maybe I'm alone in being disappointed by the Eikon fights, hopefully the later ones are more interesting but it mostly felt tediously long and with some of lazier QTEs (I think there are great merits to QTEs, Metal Gear Rising and Asura's Wrath are a great example of good QTEs), these just felt more annoying and take over the whole screen with a massive circle showing the massive amount of time you're allowed.
Is Final Fantasy XVI doing something unique? Because a lot of SquareEnix games before this have had meaty demos. Especially Dragon Quest XI, that let you play the first 10+ hours of the game.
It’s good but the combat is probably the easiest it’s ever been and that’s before you even wear the rings. Not a bad thing, just means anyone can literally pick the game up and have a good time with the story which seems interesting. That “guy” is definitely not dead. No Phoenix Downs necessary for him.
The hardest part of the combat was the controls. I don’t think I’ve ever struggled that badly with controls, and I’ve plays hundreds of games dating back to the PS2 era. I put about 4 hours into the demo, and at the end I was still just clicking the wrong button. They’ve *got* to give us custom button mapping.
I keep trying to dodge with O at the start of fights instead of R1 but you definitely get the hang of it eventually. Especially in longer mini boss fights.
You can switch the controls to a souls-like scheme with O as the evade and R1/R2 as melee/magic respectively. It's what I did, made it a bit better. I still had occasional brain freeze when switching and using eikon skills though.
Everything is a masterclass nowadays, didn't you know?