Final Fantasy XVI - Crystals have shaped our history long enough

We talked about Final Fantasy 16 in a couple of other threads, but it’s probably worth having a separate thread already since this isn’t the usual Final Fantasy reveal where they just show us a name. This trailer showed actual gameplay, and little bits of story, and blood that makes it clear this is a Mature rated game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8MiRIt09vc

Interesting to think about the fact that this is the first game since Final Fantasy 13 designed as a mainline single player adventure final fantasy game. 14 is an MMO. 15 started off life as Final Fantasy Vs XIII and then was later changed into whatever it turned out to be.

Anyway, I like what I see of combat in that trailer. It reminds me a lot of Kingdom Heart’s real time combat. Like the fighting in the swamp seen at 1:19 and then at 1:30 in that trailer looks very much like Kingdom hearts to me, the way you swing your sword in real time and cast spells in real time while the enemy is moving. I don’t know how people here feel about the combat in Kingdom Hearts, but I really enjoyed it, so I’m very encouraged.

I was hoping with the action RPG esque FF15 that we’d get a return to a more traditional 4-person party and maybe even (dare I hope) old-school turn-based combat like the incredibly successful and popular Dragon Quest XI featured. Instead it looks like they are leaning even harder into FF15 combat but this time with air juggling (gross) and what looks to me like just one character, not even like a party of characters? I guess it’s a little early to render a verdict, I’ll try to keep an open mind. I didn’t think I’d like FFVII Remke Part 1 but it was ultimately one of my favorite experiences on the PS4 this year.

Other than the combat, I loved everything else about this - the setting, the visuals, the weapons and armor designs, the animations (all of which others blasted the trailer for and it was revealed to be an early look at the game, but I still liked it all the same). The voice work seemed good, there is a great deal to like about this, and a lot of reasons I’m excited for it - even if the combat doesn’t do it for me, and maybe once I see more of it and find out if there is more to it than just mashing light/heavy attacks, I might come around on it. Who knows.

Have you played Kingdom Hearts? The air juggling works well there.

Though I agree, a turn-based game would be best. Though an actual Action RPG like Kingdom Hearts is preferable to me compared to a Real Time with Pause model like Baldur’s Gate or FF 12. Or traditional MMO combat.

I haven’t played FF 15, so I can’t compare to that yet. I know it’s part of Game Pass, so I should install it and see if it’s as bad and confusing as it was in the FF 15 demo.

The new Devil May Cry looks dope yo.

I haven’t, and no thanks. I’m just not a fan of, for example, the gameplay in Devil May Cry and this is what that looks like. I am, however, a huge fan of Dragon’s Dogma, so I have hope this will be closer to that and not DMC.

FWIW, Kingdom Hearts (well, the first; I didn’t keep up with the later ones) was pretty far from any kind of DMC style gameplay. It’s still an RPG at its heart. Just one where you can hit the doofy looking little shadow squiggles a bunch of times in a row with your Keyblade Shadowslayer +5 (it’s got a +5 to slay shadows!).

Cool, I get drunk.

I will not buy this if it’s a one-character-controlled-at-a-time action game. I refuse. Final Fantasy has been nothing but a let down since FF13. What an identity crisis the series has had the past decade.

FF12 tried something different but it still felt like FF. I love that game and wish they would go back to that combat system or one of their previous TB systems. I want a 4 character party again.

They could (and have) experiment with spinoff titles. What are they trying to prove?

All of this.

I have not played Dragon’s Dogma, so again I can’t compare. Rest assured though that I also don’t like Devil May Cry! Woohoo! So we have that in common. Like Armando said, Kingdom Hearts combat is not like DMC.

I guess what it comes down to is - does FF16 track and reward me for successive, successful combos?

My favorite FF is XIII-2. Just saying.

Play Dragon’s Dogma!

You have to S-Rank every fight in the game to get the best Summon.

I think it’s fair to count the XIII sequels as part of the Royal We that is Final Fantasy XIII.

I still plan to play that trilogy. According to Digital Foundry it looks really good on Xbox Series X.

Wait, really? Even now, in 2020? Won’t it look really dated and stuff? It’s a 360 generation game. I thought I missed the window.

I liked what I played of FF 13-Two. Stopped playing when i put my 360 away but now that it’s backward compatible on Xbone I need to get back to it.

I eventually enjoyed FF 13, but still, it is at the bottom of my FF rankings.

FF XIII has issues. Pacing and linearity issues, mostly. At some point I felt like I was forcing myself to play, which is, of course, a bad thing. But I wanted to see how it would end.

FF XIII-2 for me fixes the problems with XIII while improving its gameplay considerably. The characters and story are also miles better than the first one while building on its strengths. XIII was uneven at best, but I loved XIII-2 so much that I’m grateful for XIII for making possible for XIII-2 to exist.

Now, FF XIII-3 (Lightning Returns) I have yet to finish. I have a problem with ticking clocks and that blocked some of my enjoyment of Lightning Returns, and in many ways it doesn’t feel as good as XIII-2, but I fully intend on finishing it one day. And then playing XIII-2 again. ;)

I didn’t finish FFXIII (played it at launch, felt like a traitor for not being able to bring myself to play it - like @rhamorim I would have had to make myself keep playing, which didn’t work well enough to get into what I’m told is a great late-game.

But you may have sold me on FFXIII-2 - it’s only $10 on Steam and I’ve never played it at all, so it could be a cool thing to dig into, for sure. Thanks!

I don’t know a lot of people who love it the way I do, so keep that in mind. ;)

If you do try it, I truly hope you enjoy it. The combat system is the same as the one in XIII, but improved (with some much needed variety too). You’ll play with pretty much the same characters the whole game… but I wouldn’t have it any other way. And there are loads of secrets and unlocks, post-game content, the works. The story is also a lot more nuanced and poignant than I expected. But I didn’t play a lot of FF (only played a bit of 6, 8, most of X, a bit of X-2, the XIII series, a bit of XII, Type-0, and XV), so keep that in mind as well.