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[Draugoth]

- "One of the most polished games I have experienced this year" - John
- "But not perfect by any means (re: performance mode)
- FF14 related roots are obvious


Visuals:

- "Exceptionally detailed character models" re: micro-details, fabrics etc.
- Hairs use standard alpha coverage, not a higher res strand system
- Shadows have characteristics of RT but John could not nail it 100%.

- Cut-scenes can show gap in quality between main character scenes and regular NPC chatter
- A-tier cut-scenes are exceptionally detailed and beautiful with high quality bokeh
- Some cut-scenes switch to videos with high quality
- B and C tier scenes are reasonably well animated but lack the polish and can feel a little jarring

- Character animations can feel odd at first but you get used to it
- Transitioning between game play and cut-scene is 'awesome'

- The motion blur is subjective and while John likes it, there is feedback from other players who don't because of its intensity.
- Environmental detail variation is praised

- No dynamic time of day but baked lighting allows developers to present a cohesive vision
- Liberal use of geometry and fine details
- Wind simulation and scripted explosions/destruction adds to the atmosphere
- More lighting and shadow praising

- The visuals are best in dim areas, brightly lit areas look like FFXIV, a little cross-geny.
- Larger bodies of water look nice but smaller ones look mediocre due to SSR cut-off

- Larger Eikon battles praised and compared with God of War for missing set pieces like this.



Performance:

- Quality mode: DRS 1080p to 1440p upscaled to 4K
- Performance: DRS 720p to 1080p upscaled to 1440p. Combined with TAA 'doesn't look great'.
- The game seems to be using FSR 1, not FSR2

- Quality mode looks fine but Performance mode is 'kind of a mess'
- Shadow quality is dropped and has more dithering in Performance mode
- Distant enemies run at lower frame rate in both modes

- DF tested with day 1 300MB patch
- DF recommends playing in Quality mode. 99% lock with properly paced frames
- Patch does not fix the performance, only negligible changes
- Performance mode often falls below VRR range to low 40s.

- As soon as you enter battles, the performance often maintains 60 because the game drops internal resolution to 720p

- All cut-scenes are locked to 30 regardless of which mode is chosen.

- DF recommendation: start the game with Quality mode so you don't have the jarring transition from 60 to 30.

- Load times praised as very fast.

Final Fantasy 16 is a beautifully crafted, visually stunning series entry that arrives with gamers in a polished, bug-free state. John takes us through what makes this game so compelling in terms of its visuals, audio, environments and characters, plus there's everything you need to know about quality and performance modes in terms of image quality, frame-rates and everything else. Also: Square-Enix has indeed delivered a day one patch, and we've got analysis on whether it improves performance compared to the recently released demo.

00:00 - Introduction
02:00 - The New Generation
03:58 - Characters and Cutscenes
13:14 - The Environments of Final Fantasy 16
16:42 - Grape Analysis
17:51 - Shadows, Particles and Water Effects
21:10 - Performance Testing - Frame-rate and Image Quality
28:19 - Loading Times
29:11 - The Sound and Ending

 

[DeepEnigma]

What version is this? The demo was 1.01 and reports said retail before any patches is 1.03?

 

[Nankatsu]

Final Fantasy 16 is a beautifully crafted, visually stunning series entry that arrives with gamers in a polished, bug-free state.

We've all witness a miracle fam. Can't remember the last time we got one of these.

For a GOTY contest, this should matter more than it currently does.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

I'm surprised they're covering this with the massive boycott going on. Shame on them.

 

[killatopak]

Coming from a Eurogamer affiliated channel

 

[Toots]

Can anyone please sum up the framerate / resolution conclusions ?
I don’t want to visually spoil myself

 

[Senua]

I'm surprised they're covering this with the massive boycott going on. Shame on them.

As long as it's not banned on resetera it's lights out and away we go!

 

[Stafford]

Yeah, that performance mode is a big no no. What the fuck yo.

 

[Wooxsvan]

recommends quality mode because its the most stable at hitting its target of 30fps. or 40 on 120hz displays. le sigh. good grief lows of 720p in performance mode. yet another reason to build that PC earlier than thought

 

[Zathalus]

Can anyone please sum up the framerate / resolution conclusions ?
I don’t want to visually spoil myself

1080p-1440p using FSR1 to 4k at a near rock solid 30fps for quality mode.

Performance mode is significantly rougher, 720p-1080p with drops to 30fps. Combat is usually 60fps but resolution is 720p in that mode, but the larger Eikon fights still drop to the 30s.

I'm certainly going to play this in quality.

 

[adamsapple]

- "One of the most polished games I have experienced this year" - John
- "But not perfect by any means (re: performance mode)
- FF14 related roots are obvious


Visuals:

- "Exceptionally detailed character models" re: micro-details, fabrics etc.
- Hairs use standard alpha coverage, not a higher res strand system
- Shadows have characteristics of RT but John could not nail it 100%.

- Cut-scenes can show gap in quality between main character scenes and regular NPC chatter
- A-tier cut-scenes are exceptionally detailed and beautiful with high quality bokeh
- Some cut-scenes switch to videos with high quality
- B and C tier scenes are reasonably well animated but lack the polish and can feel a little jarring

- Character animations can feel odd at first but you get used to it
- Transitioning between game play and cut-scene is 'awesome'

- The motion blur is subjective and while John likes it, there is feedback from other players who don't because of its intensity.
- Environmental detail variation is praised

- No dynamic time of day but baked lighting allows developers to present a cohesive vision
- Liberal use of geometry and fine details
- Wind simulation and scripted explosions/destruction adds to the atmosphere
- More lighting and shadow praising

- The visuals are best in dim areas, brightly lit areas look like FFXIV, a little cross-geny.
- Larger bodies of water look nice but smaller ones look mediocre due to SSR cut-off

- Larger Eikon battles praised and compared with God of War for missing set pieces like this.


Audio:

- DF praised the music, audio quality and voice acting of the game.
- But noted that the lip sync is only calibrated for English, if you play any other language, it will not sync with the facial animations.



Performance:

- Quality mode: DRS 1080p to 1440p upscaled to 4K
- Performance: DRS 720p to 1080p upscaled to 1440p. Combined with TAA 'doesn't look great'.
- The game seems to be using FSR 1, not FSR2

- Quality mode looks fine but Performance mode is 'kind of a mess'
- Shadow quality is dropped and has more dithering in Performance mode
- Distant enemies run at lower frame rate in both modes

- DF tested with day 1 300MB patch
- DF recommends playing in Quality mode. 99% lock with properly paced frames
- Patch does not fix the performance, only negligible changes
- Performance mode often falls below VRR range to low 40s.

- As soon as you enter battles, the performance often maintains 60 because the game drops internal resolution to 720p

- All cut-scenes are locked to 30 regardless of which mode is chosen.

- DF recommendation: start the game with Quality mode so you don't have the jarring transition from 60 to 30.

- Load times praised as very fast.

 

[skit_data]

I couldn't keep myself from watching their review despite risks of spoilers. Holy hell does it look good. The designs are just so good. Can't wait to continue the game tonight.

LOL at the grapes segment, John is easily the best reviewer on DF.

 

[adamsapple]

Can anyone please sum up the framerate / resolution conclusions ?
I don’t want to visually spoil myself

They tested with the day 1 patch. There's no improvement to performance, John says 'it's negligible'.

He recommends using the Quality mode.

 

[Leonidas]

Performance mode dropping as low as 720p and using FSR1 is abysmal

Hopefully the PC port turns out okay, would be nice to have DLSS.

 

[Setsuna Mudou]

The FSR implementation on the demo was bad bad bad. Game seemed amazing though, so bought it regardless.

Can't wait to unlock it, still a few hours more to go.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

The design work and world looks stunning. Will be playing in quality with VRR on my LGC9.

 

[Fake]

I'm surprised they're covering this with the massive boycott going on. Shame on them.

Is like more than two people, almost half the world.

 

[adamsapple]

The design work and world looks stunning. Will be playing in quality with VRR on my LGC9.

The quality mode is capped to 30, VRR won't have any effect there.

 

[rofif]

I am not watching it. Only listening.
Amazing stuff. Graphics were amazing in the demo already

 

[Low Moral Fibre]

I did say it looked like 720p in combat. Disgusting IQ in performance mode but if you want Switch like resolution and I guess framerate consistently on your 65inch OLED go right ahead.

Some of the later stuff does look great and if you can stomach 30fps seems like the demo undersold how good it can look.

 

[cash_longfellow]

Performance mode dropping as low as 720p and using FSR1 is abysmal

Hopefully the PC port turns out okay, would be nice to have DLSS.

It’s upscaled to 1440 tho…don’t do this to yourself. It’s an in depth tech review, don’t pull out the pieces you want from it and discount the rest. It appears 1080 at all times.

 

[Kilau]

SEVEN HUNDRED AND TWENTY PEES!

 

[mckmas8808]

Is like more than two people, almost half the world.

What massive boycott?

 

[skit_data]

I'm pretty confused when it comes to FSR tbh, how come devs still use FSR 1, when we have released games using FSR 2. Is it some kind of engine compatability?

Wierd how 60fps performance is pretty damn solid during combat, Johns speculation on what is going on makes kinda sense though.

Really torn wether I should play Quality or Performance mode now. I played the demo in performance mode but I can see myself switching to quality if it starts dropping too frequently.

 

[BennyBlanco]

1080p-1440p using FSR1 to 4k at a near rock solid 30fps for quality mode.

Performance mode is significantly rougher, 720p-1080p with drops to 30fps. Combat is usually 60fps but resolution is 720p in that mode, but the larger Eikon fights still drop to the 30s.

I'm certainly going to play this in quality.

Ya I’m gonna wait for PC. Hopefully they incorporate DLSS.

 

[Low Moral Fibre]

It’s upscaled to 1440 tho…don’t do this to yourself. It’s an in depth tech review, don’t pull out the pieces you want from it and discount the rest. It appears 1080 at all times.

FSR is ok getting you to 4k from a decent internal resolution but 720p upscaled with FSR can look worse than native 720p as soon as the camera moves so unless you stay completely still at all times you're going to have a bad time.

 

[ProtoByte]

Those resolutions are embarrassing.

 

[Kacho]

720p… yikes

 

[Zathalus]

I'm pretty confused when it comes to FSR tbh, how come devs still use FSR 1, when we have released games using FSR 2. Is it some kind of engine compatability?

Wierd how 60fps performance is pretty damn solid during combat, Johns speculation on what is going on makes kinda sense though.

Really torn wether I should play Quality or Performance mode now. I played the demo in performance mode but I can see myself switching to quality if it starts dropping too frequently.

FSR1 is basically "free", FSR2 does come with a significant GPU impact (still less then native). So if they are already struggling with GPU power (hitting 720p with FPS drops) then FSR2 was likely too much.

 

[adamsapple]

I'm pretty confused when it comes to FSR tbh, how come devs still use FSR 1, when we have released games using FSR 2. Is it some kind of engine compatability?

FSR 2 is still fairly expensive. AMD recommends the RX 5700 XT and RX 6700 XT if you're looking for good visuals in 4K.*

FSR1 by comparison is a very quick, cheaper, solution but obviously the output is worse.

What is AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution? And how does it work?

AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution is AMD's answer to Nvidia's deep learning super sampling (DLSS). But what does it do and how does it work?

www.pocket-lint.com

 

[TheKremlinBossMan]

Is the video spoiler heavy I want to watch it but they like to show way too much.

 

[BennyBlanco]

What version is this? The demo was 1.01 and reports said retail before any patches is 1.03?

 

[Stafford]

I just don't get it. Built from the ground up for PS5, right? How sway? Performance mode is a big no no with that ridiculous resolution and unstable framerate.

So quality mode it is, back to 30fps. And even there there are sometimes dips, come on now.

But this is one game where I didn't expect that. Lots of praise for visuals, especially characters, but I can't be the only one noticing some extremely less impressive characters too, going back to like PS4, maybe even 3 levels. I guess those aren't the important NPCs.

 

[FoxMcChief]

Jesus, those numbers for the two modes are terrible.

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

720p?

 

[DeepEnigma]

So not the 1.03 that was said to be a day one patch? I'm confused.

Is there, or isn't there a 1.03?

 

[adamsapple]

I just don't get it. Built from the ground up for PS5, right? How sway? Performance mode is a big no no with that ridiculous resolution and unstable framerate.

So quality mode it is, back to 30fps. And even there there are sometimes dips, come on now.

But this is one game where I didn't expect that. Lots of praise for visuals, especially characters, but I can't be the only one noticing some extremely less impressive characters too, going back to like PS4, maybe even 3 levels. I guess those aren't the important NPCs.

It's a trend in almost all Japanese games since forever that not only do the NPCs get 1/5th of the detail, but the main characters themselves often have 2, 3 different detailed models for cut-scenes vs real-time scenes vs game play.

For example: Yuna's in-game and talking character model vs cut-scene character model from FFX.

So not the 1.03 that was said to be a day one patch? I'm confused.

Is there, or isn't there a 1.03?

They tested with the day 1 300MB patch, the 1.03 is from a month old State of Play video, that was probably a demo build version they showed. The launch-day patch is already out.

 

[Darsxx82]

720p and using FSR1 is largely surprising being exclusive and supposedly with extra help from Sony engineers. 1080p Or lower on Quality mode neigther.

That said, looking at the performance, FSR2 (being more demanding in fps) would not have been solved either.

Technologically and artistically the game is a very exaggerated mix of very good things and very bad things.

 

[Thaedolus]

Yeesh at the performance mode remaining terrible. I’ll stick to quality here, which I never do, but that’s because performance mode usually means…more performance

 

[Neo_game]

The game is very demanding. I guess they were right if PS5 is struggling then no way they could get this game on PS4

 

[FoxMcChief]

720p in any mode on a PS5 should not be a thing.

 

[Kvally]

No bueno.

 

[adamsapple]

720p in any mode on a PS5 should not be a thing.

Did they ever clarify if this game is using Luminous or a different engine? The performance profiles seem close to Forspoken.

The only thing missing is a 40hz mode, which would have been great here, if they have overhead from the 30 FPS mode.

 

[NeonGhost]

So not the 1.03 that was said to be a day one patch? I'm confused.

Is there, or isn't there a 1.03?

No the 1.03 was from the live event which could be from the build they were using for that event and has nothing to do with the final game

 

[TGO]

Big deal being made out of a mode people have been told not to use in every aspect.
yet, 720p, 720p, 720p

 

[DeepEnigma]

They tested with the day 1 300MB patch, the 1.03 is from a month old State of Play video, that was probably a demo build version they showed. The launch-day patch is already out.

No the 1.03 was from the live event which could be from the build they were using for that event and has nothing to do with the final game

Ah, okay. So that is where the confusion was. Unless 1.03 is coming in the pipeline and needs further testing.

 

[SlimySnake]

720p in any mode on a PS5 should not be a thing.

Thats what you will get when you want 60 fps for next gen games. Star wars drops to 600p.

 

[Nankatsu]

Playing through early Jedi Survivor made sure I'm ready for whatever is coming for the rest of the year.

No complains from me whatsoever regarding this

 

[ProtoByte]

Did they ever clarify if this game is using Luminous or a different engine? The performance profiles seem close to Forspoken.

The only thing missing is a 40hz mode, which would have been great here, if they have overhead from the 30 FPS mode.

No, this isn't Luminous. Otherwise, it would have outright janky gameplay.

I'm guessing that they've used a modified version of their FF14 engine. MMOs have almost never been known for being performant.

 

[ProtoByte]

Thats what you will get when you want 60 fps for next gen games. Star wars drops to 600p.

Both games are badly optimized from teams that are not technically proficient.