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Final Fantasy XV Hands-On Demo (Chapter 0-3) Previews

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B

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Muffdraul said:
I just realized I haven't seen a JP preview book for FFXV yet. There's been one for just about every FF at least since VII, that's the first one I ever saw anyway. Being that the release date was Sept 30 until very recently, the preview book is kinda overdue. They're mandatory for those moments when you're fantasizing about the game coming out soon whilst taking a dump.
Click to expand...

Gotta love a sentence that has both the words "whilst" and "dump" in it.
 
DPtheGod

DPtheGod

Member
Straight from Tabata & co at Gamescom.



Final Fantasy XV Verified account 
‏@FFXVEN
What do you think about leaks?
- we won't stop people talking or gossiping but we haven't seen any leaks that have got everything right



Worth sharing:

Final Fantasy XV ‏@FFXVEN · 4m4 minutes ago

Any plans for FF Type Next?
- No. We're putting all our efforts into #FFXV and people would be angry if we started working on something else
Click to expand...

Final Fantasy XV ‏@FFXVEN · 6m6 minutes ago

Will the Ultimate collectors edition contain the season pass?
- sadly no & we looked into making more UCE but we were told we still can't.
Click to expand...
 
StereoVsn

StereoVsn

Member
Gbraga said:
There is Wait Mode that pauses the action for you to choose your next option, like where you'll aim your warp and things like that, it's up to you which way you prefer to play the game.

Personally, I do think it's fair to calssify it as an ARPG, but even so it's still very different from a Tales of game, kind of like you can have Street Fighter and Marvel playing nothing like each other, even though they're both fighting games. FFXV offers a very interesting (imo) combat that does indeed resemble the fighting we see in the early Versus CGI, which was the idea from way back then, real-time combat that resembles those CGs and Advent Children.
Click to expand...
Ahh, good to hear that the Wait mode is still in. I like Tales combat but was hoping for something a bit slower for FF which it sounds like it delivers, so it's all good then.
 
D

DarkLordMalik

Member
JuanLatino said:
Why is nobody asking tabata straightforward about the downgrade in these Interviews or are they not allowed to ask it?
Click to expand...
They might have asked and Tabata would have been like

j8gmQPA.gif
 
xion4360

xion4360

Member
JuanLatino said:
Why is nobody asking tabata straightforward about the downgrade in these Interviews or are they not allowed to ask it?
Click to expand...

what kind of question is that? and what specifically are you looking at that makes you say downgrade? everything from the character models to the physics and effects looks on par with what weve seen in demos so far. the xbox one footage looks like shit but on PS4 it looks like what weve been seeing. Dont say its the lighting or whatever because its an open world game and lighting changes everything. ive seen how there's less NPC's around but even that you dont actually know how they behave.. maybe there's more of them during particular times or whatever.
 
V

Voror

Member
Thought this was interesting:

https://twitter.com/FFXVEN/status/766360501379096578

Final Fantasy XVVerified account
‏@FFXVEN
Is there any post game content?
- I won't say too much but there's some areas (& monsters) you can only reach/fight once you beat the game

Edit:

https://twitter.com/FFXVEN/status/766356289811259393

Final Fantasy XVVerified account
‏@FFXVEN
Are we getting a great love story between Noctis & Luna?
- We have included those themes but it'll be different to say Tidus & Yuna in FFX

https://twitter.com/FFXVEN/status/766356798949457922

Final Fantasy XVVerified account
‏@FFXVEN
Luna is a strong modern woman & this comes across in her relationship with Noctis. She's a different kind of heroine to previous FF ones
 
M

MegaSackman

Member
Voror said:
Thought this was interesting:

https://twitter.com/FFXVEN/status/766360501379096578

Final Fantasy XVVerified account
‏@FFXVEN
Is there any post game content?
- I won't say too much but there's some areas (& monsters) you can only reach/fight once you beat the game

Edit:

https://twitter.com/FFXVEN/status/766356289811259393

Final Fantasy XVVerified account
‏@FFXVEN
Are we getting a great love story between Noctis & Luna?
- We have included those themes but it'll be different to say Tidus & Yuna in FFX

https://twitter.com/FFXVEN/status/766356798949457922

Final Fantasy XVVerified account
‏@FFXVEN
Luna is a strong modern woman & this comes across in her relationship with Noctis. She's a different kind of heroine to previous FF ones
Click to expand...

I like what I'm reading.
 
S

shark sandwich

tenuously links anime, pedophile and incels
Ray Down said:
Who will push him to make his move?
Click to expand...

He's going to accidentally walk in on her while she's showering, she'll slap him, and then he'll realize he has genuine feelings for her. This is going to be the most mature and realistic romance yet in a Final Fantasy game.
 
T

Toth

Member
Great stuff. Though seeing the more 'smooth' PS4 version, I am starting to get the impression the delay was more due to the XBone port being poorly optimized...The same issue as FF13's western release lol They probably could have gotten the PS4 version polished alone by September 29th.
 
S

sirronoh

Member
SilentRob said:
I feel like there are three big pillars to this game:

1) Driving around (The Road Trip pillar)

2) Fighting (The Final Fantasy & Action Game pillar)

3) Exploring, Questing, Looting (The Open World pillar)

I have huge problems with each one. Let's start with my biggest disappointemnt from this demo:

1) The Driving feels bad, lacks interactivity and betrays what a road trip is about

When I think of the concept of a road trip I think about freedom. About driving around unshackled from any boundaries and obligations, about exploring unknown territory, about going out of your comfort zone. In contrast to all of these concepts FF XV takes all control away from you when you drive. Even when you choose to control the game "manually" you:
-can't leave the road
-can't turn the wheel more than a few cm, while you snap back to your previous position the second you let go from the analogue stick
-can't drive fast
-can't exit the car wherever you want (kinda, but not exactly)
-can't take corners the way you want, the game automatically breaks, even if you pull the Gas button as far as you can

You are basically on a fixed track and you have to hold R2 to keep on driving on that fixed track. Whenever an intersection comes up you hold in the direction you want to drive and the game does the rest for you. When you want to make a U-Turn you just press Square and the game automatically does a U-Turn for you. There is no way for you to do this yourself since you can't actually steer away from the road in front of you. Even if there's a huge, long, endless straight in front of you Noctis will not drive with more than what feels like 15 mp/h, no matter how much you just want to race to your next waypoint. This means that driving long distances takes WAY too long with no way to skip to the end (at least in the demo I played), even in Automatic mode. When I hold X to exit the car, they don't immediatly do it but instead drive a few meters further to a predetermint point where the game allows me to stop. After that, the screen turns black and I stand outside of the car.

Nothing works as you'd expect it to work, nothing feels good, you are never in control and the black screen seems completely unnecessary and betrays the seamless transition they were going for originally.

Your Number 1 method of transportation feels like garbage and isn't fun in the slightest.

2) The Fighting System couples the action of Character Action games with the control responsiveness of JRPGs. It doesn't go well.

The controls are incredibly sluggish and unresponsiv, even at a steady framerate. Since you have to hold the circle button to attack you can't accurately control each strike. It's not intuitively noticable when one attack started or the next one ended. You never know 100% if you already queued up the next hit or not.

At the same time the fast paced fighting demands the accuracy of a Character Action game. You should not attack enemies when they block you, you should block when enemies attack you. Since you do not have complete control over your character and instead just tell him which NPD to attack instead of actively attacking him yourself, this demanded accuracy seems unnecessarily frustrating to achieve.

The developers also didn't think about several fundamentals of the Action game genre and instead had to work around them with stopgap solutions. The biggest example to me is the utter lack of noticable enemy tells. The best character action games achieve a perfect balance of letting the player know when and how an enemies is about to attack while also demanding great reflexes and the knowledge of how to counter said attack. An obvious example would be the red flashe some enemies in Metal Gear Rising display shortly before attacking. This red flash always means the same and is an established part of the ruleset.

In FFXV everything explodes in effects and characters since 3 of your companions share the screen with you most of the time while you often fight against 3, 4 or 5 small enemies at the same time, making it utterly impossible to actually notice any tells from any of the enemie NPCs. So what did Square Enix do?

The put a Huge "GUARD! USE SQUARE!" tooltip up everytime an enemie attacks with an attack you could parry. Instead of actually working on the issue the built a ugly workaround, removing any learning curve and finesse inherent in actually learning an enemie's behaviour. With big enemies there comes a new problem of actually not knowing what is an attack and what's just movement. You don't really know what hurts you and what doesn't.

And don't even get me started on their solution to "Oh Jesus, no one knows what's going on during these battles, what should we do?" Just PAUSE them? Are you serious? That's like building a terrible shooter where no one hits anything and instead of working on the AI or the controls you just tell your players to pause the game and move the crosshair over your enemie's head in that time.


3.) Exploring the open world is tedious and straight-up not fun

I could go on and on about this point (oh my god using the car is seriously such a fucking chore) but this post is already way too long so I just want to give you one perfect example of how badly thought out almost every aspect of this game is:

I drove on a street when I heard a scream from somewhere and a new side quest popped up. A hunter needed help! I wanted to help him...but the game didn't actually tell me where I should go to do that. The game registered the side quest. It marked it in my Quest Log. And I could even get a waypoint! But not just like that - I had to put in some work. And, honestly? This feels so obviously unintuitive and easy to fix that I think I probably missed a button here. If that's the case, please correct me and I will quote you as soon as I see it. But I tried and tried and didn't find a way. So what did I have to do?

Well, I was driving in my car - and while driving I couldn't access my Skill Menu or Quest Log anymore. The options were gone from the Start Menu. I could only open my map. I had to get out of the car to be able to access the Quest Log. This was the process:

- Getting the sidequest notification
- Holding X to stop the Car
- Waiting for the Car to stop further down the road for no discernible reason
- Getting a Black Screen while my characters left the car.
- Accessing the Quest Log
- Marking the Side Quest as active
- Leaving the Quest Log
- Getting back in the car
- Turning around
- Slooowly accelerating and driving back to the point where I got the notification and go from there

For whatever reason I could only ever track one quest on my mini map. This sounds like a small thing but in an open world game where such notifications hit by the minute, making me leave me car slooooowly only to be able to tell the game to allow me to approach the activity while I could have done so way easier while actually already sitting in my car is a completely unnecessary obstacle between me and my desire to explore the world.

I would go in further detail but just imagine a really ugly Dragon Age: Inquisition and you got the picture.
Click to expand...

After reading through this whole thread and watching various videos and playing the demos earlier this year, this has to be one of the most damning summaries of the game that I've seen so far -- particularly the section on combat.

The graphics are of little importance to me but I do care very deeply about gameplay systems and attention-to-detail. From the
second
beginning of the media coverage for this game, the concept of holding "X" or "O" to attack and defend as a combat system in what is now an action-RPG seemed short-sighted and shallow for all of the reasons listed by SilentRob. It's very flashy and it may look cool and appealing at first glance, but once you move past the style, how deep and rewarding is the actual combat?

Everyone will have different opinions and experiences but from this preview, and from what I've seen and played so far myself, it seems like the combat system looked good on paper and turned out poor in practice. We'll find out one way or another come November.
 
K

Koozek

Member
New preview from today (thanks to Mognet's @Storm for posting it):

Final Fantasy XV Hands-On: I Couldn't Put It Down

After years of delay, Final Fantasy XV will finally see the light of day on November 29. And an extended hands-on demo with the $60 Final Fantasy XV has pulled off something I never expected — it's reinvigorated my interest in the title. I've gotten a chance to see what Final Fantasy XV has to offer beyond just pretty graphics, and beneath its shiny exterior beats the heart of a very ambitious role-playing game.

I got to take a deep dive into Final Fantasy XV at a Square Enix press event today (Oct. 5). Unlike FFXV’s E3 demo this past June, which was one enormous battle scene, I got to play from a combat tutorial all the way through Chapter III of this seemingly massive title. What I played was an ambitious and tremendously entertaining combination of Western world design and Japanese character-building. If you ever wished that Final Fantasy and The Witcher could have a baby, it’d look a lot like FFXV.​


bdxRlau.gif
 
V

Vincent Grayson

Member
Koozek said:
New preview from today (thanks to Mognet's @Storm for posting it):

Final Fantasy XV Hands-On: I Couldn't Put It Down

After years of delay, Final Fantasy XV will finally see the light of day on November 29. And an extended hands-on demo with the $60 Final Fantasy XV has pulled off something I never expected — it's reinvigorated my interest in the title. I've gotten a chance to see what Final Fantasy XV has to offer beyond just pretty graphics, and beneath its shiny exterior beats the heart of a very ambitious role-playing game.

I got to take a deep dive into Final Fantasy XV at a Square Enix press event today (Oct. 5). Unlike FFXV’s E3 demo this past June, which was one enormous battle scene, I got to play from a combat tutorial all the way through Chapter III of this seemingly massive title. What I played was an ambitious and tremendously entertaining combination of Western world design and Japanese character-building. If you ever wished that Final Fantasy and The Witcher could have a baby, it’d look a lot like FFXV.​


bdxRlau.gif
Click to expand...

Well that's encouraging.

So many more days to go :(
 
B

bunkitz

Member
Koozek said:
New preview from today (thanks to Mognet's @Storm for posting it):

Final Fantasy XV Hands-On: I Couldn't Put It Down

After years of delay, Final Fantasy XV will finally see the light of day on November 29. And an extended hands-on demo with the $60 Final Fantasy XV has pulled off something I never expected — it's reinvigorated my interest in the title. I've gotten a chance to see what Final Fantasy XV has to offer beyond just pretty graphics, and beneath its shiny exterior beats the heart of a very ambitious role-playing game.

I got to take a deep dive into Final Fantasy XV at a Square Enix press event today (Oct. 5). Unlike FFXV’s E3 demo this past June, which was one enormous battle scene, I got to play from a combat tutorial all the way through Chapter III of this seemingly massive title. What I played was an ambitious and tremendously entertaining combination of Western world design and Japanese character-building. If you ever wished that Final Fantasy and The Witcher could have a baby, it’d look a lot like FFXV.​


bdxRlau.gif
Click to expand...

Oh Lord. Somebody hold me, please. This is too much.

(really hope that the game turns out great and does equally well, if not more)
 
K

Koozek

Member
And another one *Khaled voice*:

DrBretto said:
More impressions coming out, again thanks to Storm on Mognet:
Click to expand...

EGX | Hands On: Final Fantasy XV
All in all, my short time with the game did enough to make me do something I rarely ever do with a game anymore, pre-order. I saw enough in the time I was given and enjoyed the experience so intensely that I will be beyond surprised if the full game turns out to be anything short of amazing. Final Fantasy is a series that can be hard to just pick up and fully get into without knowing an encyclopedia of information, but that’s where I feel the strength of FFXV really lies, there is truly something here for everyone. There were a lot of big games on display at EGX, but few came even close to promising anything on the same scale as Final Fantasy XV.​


vdLSTVj.jpg
 
T

The Last One

Member
Koozek said:
And another one *Khaled voice*:



EGX | Hands On: Final Fantasy XV
All in all, my short time with the game did enough to make me do something I rarely ever do with a game anymore, pre-order. I saw enough in the time I was given and enjoyed the experience so intensely that I will be beyond surprised if the full game turns out to be anything short of amazing. Final Fantasy is a series that can be hard to just pick up and fully get into without knowing an encyclopedia of information, but that’s where I feel the strength of FFXV really lies, there is truly something here for everyone. There were a lot of big games on display at EGX, but few came even close to promising anything on the same scale as Final Fantasy XV.​


vdLSTVj.jpg
Click to expand...

So these news previews are from EGX? They had the most recent build?
 
B

Blackleg-sanji1

Banned
Koozek said:
And another one *Khaled voice*:



EGX | Hands On: Final Fantasy XV
All in all, my short time with the game did enough to make me do something I rarely ever do with a game anymore, pre-order. I saw enough in the time I was given and enjoyed the experience so intensely that I will be beyond surprised if the full game turns out to be anything short of amazing. Final Fantasy is a series that can be hard to just pick up and fully get into without knowing an encyclopedia of information, but that’s where I feel the strength of FFXV really lies, there is truly something here for everyone. There were a lot of big games on display at EGX, but few came even close to promising anything on the same scale as Final Fantasy XV.​


vdLSTVj.jpg
Click to expand...
Ooo baby the Kyle bosman QUOTE looking more truthful as Time goes on
 
B

Blackleg-sanji1

Banned
The Emperor said:
What quote?
Click to expand...
Tgey were playing a game cut or no cut and Kyle instantly went cut!
"This sword will cut thru anything, it's a legendary sword, this game will be one of the greats,I believe in Tabata,i believe in the team,i believe in the vision,games are just better when things like this exist"
 
T

The Emperor

Member
Blackleg-sanji1 said:
Tgey were playing a game cut or no cut and Kyle instantly went cut!
"This sword will cut thru anything, it's a legendary sword, this game will be one of the greats,I believe in Tabata,i believe in the team,i believe in the vision,games are just better when things like this exist"
Click to expand...

Ahh excellent! everything is proceeding as planned then :)
 
T

The Last One

Member
Koozek said:
New preview from today (thanks to Mognet's @Storm for posting it):

Final Fantasy XV Hands-On: I Couldn't Put It Down

After years of delay, Final Fantasy XV will finally see the light of day on November 29. And an extended hands-on demo with the $60 Final Fantasy XV has pulled off something I never expected — it's reinvigorated my interest in the title. I've gotten a chance to see what Final Fantasy XV has to offer beyond just pretty graphics, and beneath its shiny exterior beats the heart of a very ambitious role-playing game.

I got to take a deep dive into Final Fantasy XV at a Square Enix press event today (Oct. 5). Unlike FFXV’s E3 demo this past June, which was one enormous battle scene, I got to play from a combat tutorial all the way through Chapter III of this seemingly massive title. What I played was an ambitious and tremendously entertaining combination of Western world design and Japanese character-building. If you ever wished that Final Fantasy and The Witcher could have a baby, it’d look a lot like FFXV.​


bdxRlau.gif
Click to expand...

Beyond that, there are shops, points of interest on the map, equipment to protect your characters — everything you’d expect from a good RPG, be it Eastern or Western. One thing is for sure: A few hours is not enough time to experience everything that Final Fantasy XV has to offer. I’m counting down the days until I can play again.
Click to expand...

oEQ2g0K.gif
 
A

AuthenticM

Member
Koozek said:
New preview from today (thanks to Mognet's @Storm for posting it):

Final Fantasy XV Hands-On: I Couldn't Put It Down

After years of delay, Final Fantasy XV will finally see the light of day on November 29. And an extended hands-on demo with the $60 Final Fantasy XV has pulled off something I never expected — it's reinvigorated my interest in the title. I've gotten a chance to see what Final Fantasy XV has to offer beyond just pretty graphics, and beneath its shiny exterior beats the heart of a very ambitious role-playing game.

I got to take a deep dive into Final Fantasy XV at a Square Enix press event today (Oct. 5). Unlike FFXV’s E3 demo this past June, which was one enormous battle scene, I got to play from a combat tutorial all the way through Chapter III of this seemingly massive title. What I played was an ambitious and tremendously entertaining combination of Western world design and Japanese character-building. If you ever wished that Final Fantasy and The Witcher could have a baby, it’d look a lot like FFXV.​


bdxRlau.gif
Click to expand...

damn
 
T

The Last One

Member
Reading about Amy working 80+hours per week on Naughty Dog made me wonder if the FF XV's team goes through the same thing =(

I hope in the end everything turns out well for them.
 
G

Gbraga

Member
The Last One said:
Reading about Amy working 80+hours per week on Naughty Dog made me wonder if the FF XV's team goes through the same thing =(

I hope in the end everything turns out well for them.
Click to expand...

Tabata did mention in an interview that no one was more upset about the delay than his daughter, because it meant she wouldn't get to be with her father for two more months.

It's rough.

You only need to look at his face to see he's not getting enough sleep. He's the Versus Noctis.

EDIT: Even without considering the amount of hours they spend in the office, right now he's in Barcelona. As fans we tend to not think too much about seeing devs at international events, but all of the hours they spend flying or in another country to promote the game are hours spent away from the family and their personal lives. It can be great if they enjoy all the traveling, but if they don't, gotta it do it anyway.
 
B

Blackleg-sanji1

Banned
Gbraga said:
Tabata did mention in an interview that no one was more upset about the delay than his daughter, because it meant she wouldn't get to be with her father for two more months.

It's rough.

You only need to look at his face to see he's not getting enough sleep. He's the Versus Noctis.
Click to expand...
Ouch man that's so heartbreaking to read.
 
P

Philippo

Member
The Last One said:
Reading about Amy working 80+hours per week on Naughty Dog made me wonder if the FF XV's team goes through the same thing =(

I hope in the end everything turns out well for them.
Click to expand...

Well he said that he sleeps 3 hours a day on average, and that he rarely gets to see his family.
And that was last year, can't even imagine now that they're so close to release.
 
T

The Last One

Member
Gbraga said:
Tabata did mention in an interview that no one was more upset about the delay than his daughter, because it meant she wouldn't get to be with her father for two more months.

It's rough.

You only need to look at his face to see he's not getting enough sleep. He's the Versus Noctis.
Click to expand...

Yes, he looks so tired everytime we see him. And yet every interviewer says that he's a delightful person, must be tough.
 
F

Falk

that puzzling face
Chillstep prelude

xZTbE1y.png
xZTbE1y.png
xZTbE1y.png


edit: While the previews are indeed apparently ch0-3, we've got two threads covering the exact same stuff.
 
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