Final Fantasy XVI

RedXIV

Ok a huge thing on this game. Had a couple of sessions playing this now and while I think it's fantastic that they have the accessibility accessories for players who may not be overly familiar or want to breeze through it, I only copped I hadn't removed arguably the two overpowered ones,

The Ring of Timely Strikes - turns you into an overpowered perfect executor of combos by just tapping Square repeatedly.

and

The Ring of Timely Evasion - auto dodges when a dodge is possible.

I wasn't really challenged at all in the game while playing the first few hours but when I was trying to figure out why I kept switching Eikon's I had engaged, it turned out to be the Timely Strikes accessory.

The game is SO much more satisfying to play without these, and I've enjoyed becoming more conservative and having to watch how long attacks take and health etc.

Might have been obvious to most but just in case, sharing with the group :D

ShaneU

The main story arc is great but everything outside of that is terrible.

Exploration is pointless. 99% of the loot you find is materials for the barebones crafting system.

Majority of the sidequests are dreadful, you can tell an MMO team worked on them.

A lot of the characters are wooden and devoid of personality, there are a few exceptions (Cid, Mid, Byron, Gav).

No mini games at all? Even FFXV had fishing and that game was half finished.

The main arc of the game is enjoyable and the combat and Eikon battles are great but it's far more a God of War / Devil May Cry action game than a Final Fantasy game.

Retr0gamer

Crafting was a mistake.

El Gato De Negocios

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120776863#Comment_120776863

Ya, i started playing, hadn't equipped the three starting buff accessories, added them for an hour but removed as there was zero challenge.

On the game itself, just got to the wind valley place. Im enjoying it well enough but as said above, it is absolutely not a FF game, its an action RPG with a FF sticker on it. Some of the castles I found extremely dark. The ability (up to now at least) to carry only a small number of potions is irksome. The lack of open world wandering, which is why I loved the FF series, takes away massively imo. I also find the game VERY "hand holdy". Im far from an accomplished gamer and have never played the likes of From Software games for more than an hour as I dont have the patience for learning things but the cinematic dodge / cinematic hit stuff feels really out of place and are waaaaay too forgiving.

Its gorgeous looking and it feels like there is a tremendous game in there but there are too many annoyances to make it a brilliant game, so far at least.

TheIrishGrover

Just played the demo last night (was it my imagination or did the baddie girl keep slipping into an Irish accent?). It looks pretty but, for me anyway, it was a button-basher. I miss turn-based RPGs. Which is why I love Altus RPGs I suppose. I really wish they'd give the option between button-bashing and "traditional" turn-based. Not for me, I'm afraid. (Now I got a hankering for a turn-based. Any recent recommendations?)

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120785853#Comment_120785853

The Etrian Odyssey remasters, all great but if you want to play just one then go for 3.

ShaneU

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120785853#Comment_120785853

Yakuza like a dragon

johnny_ultimate

Like A Dragon is highly recommended. It's not the most robust or balanced turn-based system in the world - indeed, it's wildly, entertainingly unbalanced at times, and the grind can get a bit repetitive. But it's a delightful, big-hearted old-school RPG with a charming cast of characters and a much needed partial reset for a series that had been weighed down by increasingly convoluted plots.

McFly85

Still enjoying it, but would hope the combat would be slightly deeper at this point. For the most part it is a button masher. FF7R hit the sweet spot for me with action/RPG combat.

It doesn’t help that they locked the more challenging difficulty behind finishing the game.

Retr0gamer

Oh I forgot Like a Dragon. That's another recommendation from me.

bzzn87

I agree with you gameplay is very terrible, it was difficult for me

McFly85

Like a Dragon was on sale on steam, that will probably halt my progress though this!

megaten

I found the battle syste, way more managebale once I conciouly stoppe dtrying to ubtton mash and being more delibrate. The ryhthrm of battles is a bit slowrr than you assume automatically I think.

RedXIV

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120785853#Comment_120785853

regarding the accents, it does look like there is a very british isles based inspiration to the voice acting. Have definitely heard a handful of scottish, Irish and English accents so far. Have to admit, I'm kinda enjoying that.

Sephiroth_dude

I'm enjoying it, it's not a traditional FF but there is a good game here, miss having a party though I must admit.

nullObjects

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120787374#Comment_120787374

This is something I should have noticed in the demo but didn't, I thought they were just showing parts of the game where you hadn't put a party together yet. From reviews and commentary it seems it's worth playing but because it's a good game rather than because it's an FF game

TheIrishGrover

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120787374#Comment_120787374

Ohhhhh. Nope. That's the last straw for me. Nah. Not an FF game (IMHO). Half of the fun was arranging your team functions: Your healer, your range fighter, your melee fighter, your mage etc and tailoring them to individual battles. Why call it FF? Why not just remove the FF elements and have it as another Square Enix IP? (Well, brand recognition I suppose).

That is a pity. Oh well

Penn

I've never played an FF game before, but having listened to a few reviews (and especially hearing the combat described as similar to Devil May Cry), I said I'd take a punt.

Still very early in the game as I'm not getting a lot of time to play, but enjoying it so far. I think definitely once I start unlocking more powers/abilities, the combat could be a lot of fun. That said, not a lot of gameplay so far. I'm enjoying the effort they're putting into the story, but the balance between story & gameplay is a bit off so far.

RedXIV

I think the worldbuilding and extensive cutscenes are supposed to deliver that Final Fantasy feeling, but to be fair, if there was ever a franchise that tried to change things up between iterations, it's Final Fantasy, sometimes they hit, sometimes they miss, but while I'm also a massive sucker for party management, this is still proving to be fun to play. When you do get to play. @Penn it takes a while, but the balance for story & gameplay, does improve but takes a few hours to get there.

On a fun side note, my 5yr old came downstairs as I was playing yesterday evening and asked for a go, so I put the accessibility rings back on the character and let her mash Square and she loved it. Even more embarrassed that I had that on for the first 5 or 6 hours now. She beat two fairly significant enemies and she spent half the fights trying to pet the dog

johnny_ultimate

Also haven’t had much time to play but generally enjoying it, mainly for the combat. It’s still early and feels like they’re holding up complexity til later but I’m glad they went full real time for a change. I love FFVIIR’s approach too but it’s nice to see SE mixing things up between entries, as is tradition. The ‘cinematic’ flourishes are glorified QTEs but I do enjoy how they mix things up in the middle of a brawl.

The story is well told if hilariously derivative of GOT at times.

Ive only done the first subquests but they are farcically **** MMORPG nonsense.

RedXIV

Motion Blur patch is out! This was my biggest grief with the game so hoping this helps a lot!

johnny_ultimate

I tried it last night and yeah turning motion blur off or down makes the 30fps mode a lot more tolerable. Found it hugely offputting when I tried previously.

Still sticking with the performance mode as need that extra smoothness in combat, despite the awful inconsistency in towns. But yeah 30fps is definitely more tolerable now.

RedXIV

So over 20 hours in, I have to say the combat is really fun, especially as you get to the point of mixing and matching abilities against enemies and the addition of the marks does help a lot too for a bit a meaty challenge after sitting through extended cutscenes. Ironically, the extended cutscenes actually mean that the slightly repetitive gameplay components always feel fresh and welcome because the rapid battles are a really nice counter to the slow paced dialogue. Pleasantly surprised overall and enjoying this more than I thought

nullObjects

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120818838#Comment_120818838

How do you find the change to only controlling one person rather than managing a party?

RedXIV

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120819164#Comment_120819164

Honestly not too bad. I think the fact that you really need to play around with the Eikon/Summon abilities to find styles that suit you mean that you're always tweaking things to see how best they may come together. I would like the idea of having more control over the AI characters as they join you but honestly I find it hard to imagine it behaving in any way other than the FF7 remake, and to be honest, the fast paced combat is what this game does well.

I finally copped as well what the combat reminded me of, it's the Lord of the rings PS2 games. There were certain combos you could pull off but they explicitly did NOT have invincibility frames so you could cancel out of them to parry or dodge. Some of the moves are similar in FF16, you could be in the middle of a glorious combo but if something sneaks up behind you, you have to dodge which interrupts your flow but definitely keeps your head in the game a bit more.

El Gato De Negocios

Banging through this now, at level 29. I was finding the whole thing far too long so at around level 18 I started completely skipping all cut scenes and am enjoying it much more. At one point last night, there were 5 separate cut scenes from the end of a boss battle til I got control again, feck that.

RedXIV

Once you get to parts of the game where you can go explore for quests or hunts, it's far more entertaining, I'll agree. I am looking forward to getting to the point where more people have played it so we can discuss the set pieces a bit more.

Spoiler Warning

For example I thought playing through that the Final Titan battle was going to be the most extravagant and spectacular (in the literal sense) battle within the game and then I fought Bahamut. In Space. Did not see that coming :D

Just discovered the timed trials at level 38 (not sure if they are available sooner) but these look very promising to spend a rainy day doing!

johnny_ultimate

I’m enjoying the game, but it feels like something I can only play in short bursts. A mix of long-ass cutscenes and rote non-combat gameplay just makes it an hour seem longer than it would in other games. I’m only finished the second big Eikon battle so will be working away at it for a while yet.

Between this and FF7R, I really wish Square Enix would hire more level designers though! I’m happy it’s not a sprawling open world, but Jesus they could’ve put a bit more effort in than what we got here!

RedXIV

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120859544#Comment_120859544

If it helps, the desert kingdom does come as a bit of a breath of fresh air on that. It's not a complete solution but the "sameness" of the first couple of hours does start to feel less and less overwhelming as you branch out into more story lines. Could still be better but just to keep you interested!

Retr0gamer

Playing SMT Apocalypse at the moment and went through an excellent teleport maze. Altus use some very simple mechanics to make some very interesting levels. Really wish square could go back to gods honest level design. It's not that hard to make an interesting rpg dungeon.