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Final Fantasy XVI Revenge Trailer (June 22, 2023)

Kumomeme

Member
At the beginning we see a young Clive and Joshua exchange words but later in the trailer we see what looks to be an older version of Clive running towards Joshua while he hasn't seemed to have aged a day and is surrounded by a fire aura of some sorts.

Am I hallucinating? What the hell is going on?!?
in Clive's dream perhaps?

where Joshua come to deliver premonition?
 
LOL I'm sorry, thought I posted words in there as well but just posted the picture. Was going to ask if that bit was a cutscene the Ifrit vs titan bit. I'm actually not sure because I think they mixed it in with actual gameplay of a different fight right there. But the part where Ifrit and titan looks a bit CG cutscene to me.
No that’s in-game. The only parts shown thus far that are pre-rendered mixed with some CGI elements (but not fully CGI, only background elements like the canyons, or dust clouds or ice shards, etc.) are the Titan vs. Shiva scene and Odin vs. Bahamut scene

Everything else has been in-game


The character models are good but not nearly good enough for the game to not have full-blown CG cutscenes with characters in them. We’ll see I guess but I expected this from the director of TLR and FFXIV
 

JusticeForAll

Gold Member
I somehow missed that there was controversy regarding the "lack of diversity" in this game. Now I'm double glad I pre-ordered, as I would have done so anyway to support people who attend up against the woke fundamentalists who are now going to boycott it.
 

Kumomeme

Member
looking at the trailer and some gameplay bits, i wonder what the hell were ff15 devs doing, it seems so bad in comparison?
this slide presentation tell a lot:

228.png




in this GDC presentation, Naoki Yoshida talk about FFXIV 1.0 failure but the stuff he mention also 100% related toward other game like FF13 and FF15. he talk more about this in noclip documentary where he critisized the approach and mindset of Square Enix's management that time. now, same devs team is behind FF16 development.

simply to say FF15 devs done lot things that should never been done at first place:

- announce game when it never even started in development
- changing director in middle of development
- the devs has no clear of direction in middle of development, even during full production. both gameplay and narrative aspect. they even end up asked for player feedback in middle of development lol.
- mindset of released first, and patch things later. like those slide. what make it worse is, that this is bad for MMO and yet they do this for single player game which is, WORSE. for example those update that 'improve' combat based on feedback, add DLC to cover story plothole and other stuff. this things should be finalized beforehand before full production not afterward once the game is released.
- treat the game like a live service game during development and even after game launch despite FF15 is single player game, not MMO. even for MMO, this is bad like how Yoshida mentioned in slide above. they keep doing livestream presentation to present the game development progression like FFXIV's live letter and even asked for player feedback over it. its like they also unsure at what they are doing. i still remember that they even asked fans whether to include moogle or not in the game LOL. should that they know this better than fans?
- unhealthy obsession with visual at the cost of other fundamental aspect like gameplay and story. similliar problem with FF13 and this trend is actually become huge topic in industry that time.
- engine or simply to say their tech not complete yet that time. compared to FFVII Remake where they use finished, complete and proven engine.
- go for open world approach despite has no experience for it. Tabata also aware of the risk over it and even devs team that time worry the game would end up 'empty' and yet he still keep going on with it.


while FFXVI:

- announce game when it close to final phase of development.
- no changing key staff. they started with small team of key staff that later expanded once they want to further the development scope. Yoshida know before hand that he is handsfull with FFXIV so he hand over the task to his right man instead of trying to shoulder it alone.
- has clear direction over the game. the design, story and gameplay. the writer finalize the world map and the story first before enter full production and expanded the team. this process is similliar with how they do preproduction of FFXIV's expansion and obviously others studio too.
- they makesure everyone in the team has clear view over the game despite everyone has different vision of what Final Fantasy should be.
- hire right person for the combat.
- they didnt treat the game development like a MMO despite they has wealthy of experience and fanbase over it.
- they has firm grasp of what should be done instead of keep asking for player feedback. for example like how Yoshida talk about 'diversity' in the game. they not even budged against fans complaint. this level of confident is lacking with FF15 team.
- no unhealthy obsession toward visual. the visual is improving but the first trailer already tell alot.
- itseems they developed new engine but considering this is not first time they develop new engine alongside new game since they already did it with FFXIV A Realm Reborn with no issue, so they know what they do. especially if it is an evolution to whatever tools they already used to before.
- not go with open world for sake of trend. instead they go with different approach that work the best for the game.
 
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Someone remind me, this is straight up action RPG now, right ?
Yes. You only control Clive (though interviews IIRC say there’s a brief segment or two where you control someone other than Clive). You can issue direct commands to Torgal. Party members are AI and from the sound of interviews, they’ll be rotating in and out throughout the story so probably not too much customization.


Personally, I’m fine with this. I love plenty of ARPG’s with party members where you only have direct control over the MC, like Kingdom Hearts, The Last Story, Infinite Undiscovery, etc.
 
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Meicyn

Gold Member
this slide presentation tell a lot:

228.png




in this GDC presentation, Naoki Yoshida talk about FFXIV 1.0 failure but the stuff he mention also 100% related toward other game like FF13 and FF15. he talk more about this in noclip documentary where he critisized the approach and mindset of Square Enix's management that time. now, same devs team is behind FF16 development.

simply to say FF15 devs done lot things that should never been done at first place:

- announce game when it never even started in development
- changing director in middle of development
- the devs has no clear of direction in middle of development, even during full production. both gameplay and narrative aspect. they even end up asked for player feedback in middle of development lol.
- mindset of released first, and patch things later. like those slide. what make it worse is, that this is bad for MMO and yet they do this for single player game which is, WORSE. for example those update that 'improve' combat based on feedback, add DLC to cover story plothole and other stuff. this things should be finalized beforehand before full production not afterward once the game is released.
- treat the game like a live service game during development and even after game launch despite FF15 is single player game, not MMO. even for MMO, this is bad like how Yoshida mentioned in slide above. they keep doing livestream presentation to present the game development progression like FFXIV's live letter and even asked for player feedback over it. its like they also unsure at what they are doing. i still remember that they even asked fans whether to include moogle or not in the game LOL. should that they know this better than fans?
- unhealthy obsession with visual at the cost of other fundamental aspect like gameplay and story. similliar problem with FF13 and this trend is actually become huge topic in industry that time.
- engine or simply to say their tech not complete yet that time. compared to FFVII Remake where they use finished, complete and proven engine.
- go for open world approach despite has no experience for it. Tabata also aware of the risk over it and even devs team that time worry the game would end up 'empty' and yet he still keep going on with it.


while FFXVI:

- announce game when it close to final phase of development.
- no changing key staff. they started with small team of key staff that later expanded once they want to further the development scope. Yoshida know before hand that he is handsfull with FFXIV so he hand over the task to his right man instead of trying to shoulder it alone.
- has clear direction over the game. the design, story and gameplay. the writer finalize the world map and the story first before enter full production and expanded the team. this process is similliar with how they do preproduction of FFXIV's expansion and obviously others studio too.
- they makesure everyone in the team has clear view over the game despite everyone has different vision of what Final Fantasy should be.
- hire right person for the combat.
- they didnt treat the game development like a MMO despite they has wealthy of experience and fanbase over it.
- they has firm grasp of what should be done instead of keep asking for player feedback. for example like how Yoshida talk about 'diversity' in the game. they not even budged against fans complaint. this level of confident is lacking with FF15 team.
- no unhealthy obsession toward visual. the visual is improving but the first trailer already tell alot.
- itseems they developed new engine but considering this is not first time they develop new engine alongside new game since they already did it with FFXIV A Realm Reborn with no issue, so they know what they do. especially if it is an evolution to whatever tools they already used to before.
- not go with open world for sake of trend. instead they go with different approach that work the best for the game.
A great synopsis, and it’s obvious how different CBU3‘s approach is versus the rest of Square Enix. Final Fantasy XVI is a showcase of the team’s confidence in their product. Every screenshot and trailer has clearly been in-game content, no bullshots, no faked “gameplay” target renders, and no misdirection. Yoshida has been clear on what we are getting. He also has been clear about what we are not getting. Dude has also explained how in tune he is with the Final Fantasy community and how diverse it is, and how not everyone will necessarily like what they have presented.

The game won’t be for everyone, but it’s abundantly clear that what we are getting is a labor of love. It’s probably the first brand new mainline Final Fantasy title that didn’t suffer from development hell in decades. I’m very excited.
 

ergem

Member
No. He's producer. The ditector is the guy who directed The Last Remnant.

So it should be fantastic.


My own gripe is I'm kinda tired of these gritty and dark and always serious Final Fantasy games. I miss the color, the charm, the whimsy. Silly moogles.

Oh well.

FF9 is getting a remake!

We can have them both.
 

Madflavor

Member
Damn son, the view count for the latest trailer is crazy low. They went hard on that last trailer too, it was pretty awesome. Sucks to see the lack of interest.
 
This was a good trailer, mostly because I liked the blue/crystal area and a glimpse of party members and exploration.

I’m a little concerned, though, in the sense that it feels like they’ve shown the same story footage over and over and over again lol

Obvious huge exaggeration, but I hope there’s a lot more to the story.


That being said I can see this being one of my favorite Final Fantasy games.

I still need a confirmation of CG cutscenes though.

The pre-rendered cutscenes (such as Shiva vs. Titan and Odin Vs. Bahamut) look good but they still don’t hold a candle to their internal CG department.
I really fuck with them only showing us the same shit. Because I was sold on it day 1, them holding back alot in trailers means theres alot to be surprised about
 

Meicyn

Gold Member
BTW, we’ll have CG cutscenes in FFXVI. Takeshi Nozue, the director of Kingsglaive and all the CG in FFXV is storyboarding and directing CG for FFXVI. You already know Visualworks will be putting in the incredible quality they always do. Making graphical comparisons between XV and XVI is futile, the game isn’t released and they’re saving the CG for the final trailer when the last leg of the hype train will kick off. Creative Business Unit 3 knows how to build up hype, the best is yet to come.
 

Azurro

Banned
Think Forspoken will be the death of Luminous studio if it mega bombs.

It really isn't looking very good, the American woke influence is palpable, and it's very strange considering it's a Japanese production.

I remember reading something about Square experimenting with foreign investment in some internal project or something like that, I wonder if Forspoken is the first product of that.
 

Go_Ly_Dow

Member
Damn son, the view count for the latest trailer is crazy low. They went hard on that last trailer too, it was pretty awesome. Sucks to see the lack of interest.
The millions (tens of millions actually?) that tuned into TGA would have seen it there. They also showed it when viewership peaked before the GOTY announcement.

Views have also been split between about 10 different YouTube uploads and would also be viewed away from YouTube, such as on social media like Twitter and uploads directly on VG websites.
 
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Sakura

Member
It looks really epic and all and I'm sure it will be good (at least better than XV), but I kinda miss the games when they were more like FFIX. I like a story that starts out lighter and more grounded, gives more time to appeal its characters to you, and slowly builds up to an epic story.
Dialing it up to 11 from the get go like these modern games do, I dunno, it kinda burns me out.
 

Teslerum

Member
It looks really epic and all and I'm sure it will be good (at least better than XV), but I kinda miss the games when they were more like FFIX. I like a story that starts out lighter and more grounded, gives more time to appeal its characters to you, and slowly builds up to an epic story.
Dialing it up to 11 from the get go like these modern games do, I dunno, it kinda burns me out.
?

The only lighter part in IX's first hours is the Vivi sequence, the rest is kidnapping a princess and then being stuck in a murder forest. As far as overall story goes that's *big* from the get go until Dahli. And even Dahli is pretty fucked up on a more grounded level. You're also witnessing Genocide before Disc 1 even ends.

IX offers a very nice contrast with its cutesy charachter models and well placed humor, and that may be what you're referring to, but I wouldn't use it as an actual example of *lighter and grounded*.
 
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Go_Ly_Dow

Member
?

The only lighter part in IX's first hours is the Vivi sequence, the rest is kidnapping a princess and then being stuck in a murder forest. As far as overall story goes that's *big* from the get go until Dahli. And even Dahli is pretty fucked up on a more grounded level. You're also witnessing Genocide before Disc 1 even ends.

IX offers a very nice contrast with its cutesy charachter models and well placed humor, and that may be what you're referring to, but I wouldn't use it as an actual example of *lighter and grounded*.
+seems like XVI begins with young Clive and Jill before the war. So I would guess it starts slower paced.
 

Xeaker

Member
What!? I should be shocked but based most of your posts, of course you are going to hate it like you hate everything else.

Huh? I don't hate everything, why are you saying that?!
I am playing Mass Effect 2 right now and I enjoy it very much! :unsure:
 

BootsLoader

Banned
I have mixed feelings about this game. Characters and the game generally feels outdated, except the summons. I love final fantasy series (I am playing since ff7) but I’m kinda bored. The characters look like FFX characters in better definition.
 

Valt7786

Member
Literally the only negative so far about this is not being able to switch between party members, I hate that. Imagine playing 12 and ONLY being able to play as Vaan.
Otherwise, Inject this straight into my eyeballs, right now.
 

Teslerum

Member
I meant the real time action system. I'm not really a fan of those, at least not in FF.
I'm not a fan of those either. In comparison to many I actually can't even stand the combat system in Remake.

This isn't that and seems to be done with competency and actually looks fun. My opinion of course, yours may vary.
 

dispensergoinup

Gold Member
Not sure if its been said yet but I knew I recognized Joshua's VA!

  • Barnabas Tharmr – David Menkin
  • Benedikta Harman – Nina Yndis
  • Cidolfus Telamon – Ralph Ineson
  • Clive Rosfield – Ben Starr
  • Dion Lesage – Stewart Clarke
  • Hugo Kupka – Alex Lanipekun
  • Jill Warrick (child) – Charlotte McBurney
  • Jill Warrick (young adult) – Susannah Fielding
  • Joshua Rosfield – Logan Hannan
I'm glad the Plague Tale kids are getting more work, I really liked them in APT: Innocence.
 

Andyliini

Member
Not sure if its been said yet but I knew I recognized Joshua's VA!

  • Barnabas Tharmr – David Menkin
  • Benedikta Harman – Nina Yndis
  • Cidolfus Telamon – Ralph Ineson
  • Clive Rosfield – Ben Starr
  • Dion Lesage – Stewart Clarke
  • Hugo Kupka – Alex Lanipekun
  • Jill Warrick (child) – Charlotte McBurney
  • Jill Warrick (young adult) – Susannah Fielding
  • Joshua Rosfield – Logan Hannan
I'm glad the Plague Tale kids are getting more work, I really liked them in APT: Innocence.
David Menkin was ace in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, so I have high hopes for his performance here as well.
 

SlimeGooGoo

Party Gooper
You don't need two flagship retro JRPG series on the market. Let DQ keep the conversative gameplay and the storybook feel. Let FF take risks, be innovative, and appeal to a different audience. That's always been the distinction between the two series. The issue with FF is that it stopped innovating - it settled on an increasingly adolescent teenage anime aesthetic and did nothing else. Back during the golden age of FF you had games with sophisticated narratives (VI, VII, XII, Tactics), teenage drama (VIII, X), and games with an almost DQ-style vibe (IV, V, IX). That's what people liked about the series.
Except they're not taking risks. They're just copying what western franchises are doing without any thought at all.
And no, settling for anime aesthetics is by not means stopping innovation. If that was the case, I suppose Zelda is not innovating in your books?
My main issue is not with the visuals, to make that clear. I liked the more semi-realistic style of FF12 for that matter, and 16 character design is not bad aside from some questionable emo haircut choices.

How? Every final fantasy is completely different.
While still keeping its identity intact. It was *never* an edgy action RPG.
Same thing for Dragon Quest, all entries are different, but the overall identity and feel remains mostly intact (for now)

So FF4-10 had no edginess, sexual themes, political themes and swearing? (don't think I've seen much swearing in any of the FF16 trailers...) Personally, I think you need to replay these games.
It was always tame and implied.
Nothing forced for the sake of looking "adult" and "mature" as it's being marketed for western audiences.

If Square cared purely about the money than the art with FF16, why didn't they release it as a cross-gen game, rather than ignore PS4's 120mil install base? Why didn't they rush it to launch last year or this year, as all the dev comments suggest the game is pretty much complete? Why focus so much on release a large scale game and not release something of smaller scale? Why develop expensive gameplay systems over simplistic rock, paper scissors combat?
Because they have a deal with Sony. A legal contract. They can't just throw it in the trash.
Also, because it allows them to release the game again on other platforms and charge full release price a second time. Which is what happened with FF15 Windows edition.

My answer to these questions is that a lot of Square's AAA output (not all but a lot) is in the hands of artists and veterans in the company
I have nothing against their artists. They have a lot of talented people there.
My issue is with the people making decisions. Either they are hacks or they're powerless against their superiors that only care about their investors.

Something has triggered you, but I can't figure out what it is as you keep jumping around with your grievances. If it was to guess, it's basically that you really hate they've adopted action combat.
Since Final Fantasy 13 to be honest. It's not only this game.
The problem is not *only* the combat (although with this one it plays a big part in that), but also all the forced edginess to market it as "mature" for western audiences.

It's as if everything they've been doing during SquareSoft days is suddenly "wrong" and western RPG developers got it right.
They gave up on their product. They're not even trying anymore. Their focusing their efforts on western audiences and trends, and also on what types of games Playstations users play the most.

You say this affects only Final Fantasy, but they've even said they're also gonna make Dragon Quest "mature" and "adult" and also change its combat somewhat.
 
Why are you using Kingsglaive footage? Lol


The actual FFXV always felt pretty low budget for an FF, especially anything related to the main story.


If you’re insinuating that FFXVI needs CG cutscenes, I agree.

There was an interview back in June stating that the Kingsglaive team is “working closely” with the devs to fix up the CG character models or something so I am PRAYING that the game has a few CG cutscenes. Please.
 
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