Final Fantasy XV Demo Video

Originally Posted by joxer
Seems the game is Dragon Age: Bears 2.
http://kotaku.com/final-fantasy-xv-t…iew-1789400066

20 hours for the main story and then you can knock yourself out on crapload of filler (although that reviewer likes some of the very same filler which is not odd coming from that site).
Do we need this on PC? I say no.

EDIT:
Another one, equally bad site:
http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/fina…/1900-6416579/
Again, a reviewer bases the score on the postgame content. Is this a joke? It's not, it's gamespot.

Thanks for the links. Looks like I will wait for it go below sub £20 before giving it a go!

The 20~25 hour main quest is standard now. They could not stick to the FF JRPG model.
It can no longer work, especially as players desire to make money off playing vid products.
20 hour is what streamers need.

Originally Posted by joxer
Again, a reviewer bases the score on the postgame content. Is this a joke? It's not, it's gamespot.

That actually sounded like a good thing to me.

A lot of RPGs suffer from what I call the "false emergency syndrome" where the story is cranking along toward its conclusion and you're given the impression that you need to go solve the crises RIGHT NOW when, in reality, the evil catastrophe will be happy to wait for you to finish anything else you care to do. JRPGs have been some of the worst in that regard. I remember when I first read a walk-through for Final Fantasy 7 I was shocked at all the content I missed because I had actually followed the story's lead instead of, say, running off to breed chocobos or some such. Western games would have quest journals so it would be obvious there was more to do but JRPGs didn't.

This fixes that by letting you keep playing after the story ends. They are going to need *some* sort of goal, though. Some extra superboss or some such to strive for.

Bland story and bland characters, though… that's bad. Very bad. It's still survivable if the combat system is fun enough but it would have to be exceptional and I sure didn't get that impression from the review.

Originally Posted by Zloth
A lot of RPGs suffer from what I call the "false emergency syndrome" where the story is cranking along toward its conclusion and you're given the impression that you need to go solve the crises RIGHT NOW when, in reality, the evil catastrophe will be happy to wait for you to finish anything else you care to do.

Yeah. I think Morrowind got it right. It's very laid-back, unfolds slowly and you are encouraged to tour the world before delving into it.

Some said it was *too* laid-back, so they overcompensated with Oblivion and made it urgent from the start. Even if you *know* it's not urgent, that feeling still seems to be there, especially when you start seeing Oblivion gates open everywhere, etc.

Skyrim, kind of similar to Oblivion, but not as extreme and with some elements closer to Morrowind. You *do* fight a dragon so early on, and they appear somewhat often after that (I'd argue *too* often, since I think the dragon fights should have been more serious, rarer and more threatening to begin with), but you don't have the same sense of urgency as Oblivion, yet not quite the total laid-back feel of most of Morrowind. In other words, not bad (but I still think Morrowind "wins" here).

Totally off-topic, I know.

So, some the strongest points of Final Fantasy used to be:

Good plot
Memorable characters
Amazing summons
Amazing music

It looks like they scrapped that, and instead aimed for:

Impressive open-world that's equally beautiful and haunting
Fast and fluid combat system
Captivating monsters
Rewarding endgame challenges

Hmmm, so they want to get even further away from their fan-base I guess?

Originally Posted by Zloth
It's still survivable if the combat system is fun enough but it would have to be exceptional and I sure didn't get that impression from the review.

FFXV combat system is real time with slow down time (added by day one patch)
Spamming skills is not enough (even though the game has no hard difficulty settings)
and defeating enemies results as coordinated action.
It requires to be able to think in terms of RT (chaining up thoughts, train of thoughts) and execute in RT.
Added to that, it also features vs fighting gameplay with dodge, parry/guard and combos.
Positioning also matters.

At this stage, the strategical mode is usually unneeded. Players with the required fluidity skillsets find no challenge.
Nevertheless, any "ugoigo" player, the type that struggles with Tyranny, must think twice before jumping in.

Last point: a coop dlc is expected, this might lead to the introduction of a higher level of difficulty as it will allow players to focus on one or two characters only

The short length of the main quest would play fully.

Originally Posted by Zloth
This fixes that by letting you keep playing after the story ends.

Originally Posted by GothicGothicness
So, some the strongest points of Final Fantasy used to be:

Good plot
Memorable characters
Amazing summons
Amazing music

It looks like they scrapped that, and instead aimed for:

Impressive open-world that's equally beautiful and haunting
Fast and fluid combat system
Captivating monsters
Rewarding endgame challenges

Hmmm, so they want to get even further away from their fan-base I guess?

It all sounds to me like MMO rubbish, only it's turned into singleplayer game.
Am I so pathetic to buy this design just because they made proper hair? No. Sorry.

But what if the hair is *really* good, joxer? I think you'll bite.

trichophilia ‎(noun)

1. A paraphilia in which one is sexually aroused by, or extremely fond of, human hair.
2. Any hair-related fetish.

Most reviews I have read seem fairly positive… 8/10 to 9/10 and no one is trashing the game.

Originally Posted by lostforever
Most reviews I have read seem fairly positive… 8/10 to 9/10 and no one is trashing the game.

But how trust-able are those reviewers?

Take the combat, I've seen many saying it was awesome. Then I read a few reviews and it appears it is actually frustrating (camera not following the character, party AI being party AI, corridor fight being annoying, magic under-utilized, etc). Turns out the awesomeness is in the animations. The IGN reviewer even calls the combat simplistic and sound frustrated with it in some cases, yet that get sidelined to praise the animations.

Bioware is going to be jealous, Square achieved "Push a button and something awesome happen!".

I also saw a single review mention that dungeons do not allow for manual saves, they use a save point system and that reviewer tries to sell having to redo 30-40 minutes of a dungeon as a perk.

edit: I'm wondering how much "day 1 patch will fix this" mentality affect those reviews.

The usual suspects at the big mainstream sites seem to agree on a score around 80%. It's about what I expected - on the upper end of mediocre, with very little that appeals to me.

Originally Posted by Ripper
trichophilia ‎(noun)

So that would make a trichomancer… Bayonetta?

Originally Posted by Ripper
The usual suspects at the big mainstream sites seem to agree on a score around 80%. It's about what I expected - on the upper end of mediocre, with very little that appeals to me.

I haven't seen a mainstream review in awhile, but do they even give less than 80% on games this big (AAAA) ?

Originally Posted by Ripper
The usual suspects at the big mainstream sites seem to agree on a score around 80%. It's about what I expected - on the upper end of mediocre, with very little that appeals to me.

8/10 mediocre? Since when?
5/10 is mediocre. 6+ would mean above it… some strange mathematics happens if 0.8 is 50%.

Originally Posted by Fluent
I haven't seen a mainstream review in awhile, but do they even give less than 80% on games this big (AAAA) ?

It depends and this is why I don't pay attention to number anymore. I normally skim through the reviews to see what they are actually saying. Based on what is important to me in a game, I think the reviews are saying its actually a good game.

However I still haven't bought it since the cheapest version I can find is £38 for PS4 and as matter of principle I refuses to spend any more than £30 on a game these days!

Originally Posted by azarhal
Bioware is going to be jealous, Square achieved "Push a button and something awesome happen!".

Apparently this is not true. Everything I read talks lot about how the combat can get very difficult if you don't pay attention, use your party abilities properly etc. Its not an easy game by any means.

Not easy on gimmicks = no autoaim.

Originally Posted by azarhal
But how trust-able are those reviewers?

Take the combat, I've seen many saying it was awesome. Then I read a few reviews and it appears it is actually frustrating (camera not following the character, party AI being party AI, corridor fight being annoying, magic under-utilized, etc). Turns out the awesomeness is in the animations. The IGN reviewer even calls the combat simplistic and sound frustrated with it in some cases, yet that get sidelined to praise the animations.
.

Combat will be frustrating for players who do not have the skillset required to support the gameplay and do not find struggling fun. AI is AI, it cant second guess a player.
The AI behind camera cant second guess a player. To get the desired angle, a player must be able to right stick the angle at times. Players who do not have the skill will struggle as AI cam cant find every single time the proper angle for them.

As to combat being simplistic, they clearly factored in their extended base of customers (mostly western players)
It fits the overlevelling scheme: to beat a fight, levelling beyond the level demanded works. It ensures that players who do not have the required skills can still beat the fight.
In some sort, the difficulty is left to players: players can take quests that are higher than their current level.
Other than that, they adapted to their customer base.
Players play vid products because they desire to feel smart, proficient etc
Anything that could annihilate that desire must be avoided if devs want to sell.

And SE want to sell FFXV hard.

http://www.vg247.com/2016/11/30/fina…fore-starting/

I can't believe some of these FF15 tips (warning: it's click-o-rama article):

1. Getting started: Ignore the tutorial
2. Turn on the stamina bar in order to sprint infinitely
9. Don’t sell items you’re not certain of the use of

Either the game is a joke or the article was written by a cretin.