Final Fantasy XVI

[Lulcielid]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1306361505173196800

 

[Odysseus]

Given that it was the only game running on PC hardware in the demonstration, a PC version seems inevitable anyway.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

Comparison between the last two shots...

Spoiler: 1st One

Spoiler: 2nd One

So yeah, they very much are the same person. Which suggest the backstory is going to be super important if they're already drawing attention to a "before" and a "now"...

 

[Prism]

Yeah, at first, I somehow thought they were different people. But it’s clearly the protagonist before and after a timeskip, where Joshua becomes the main antagonist.

 

[Joe]

The fact that Yoshi P is producing this means I can get hyped for an FF game again.

 

[Tetsujin]

I'd really like to know who's the writer for this.

Music sounded a lot like XIV's Masayoshi Soken.

 

[kathy202]

It looks good, but somehow I'm just not hyped up by it. I only just realized that my excitement has diminished with each new FF title after 9, largely because trailers always look good once graphical technology crosses a certain point. With this one, I feel nothing at all.

Gosh, somehow ended up with a premature send.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

Several people have pointed out that the music does sound like Soken. Or rather, it definetly doesn't sound like Masashi Hamauzu's style. I could see it maybe being Yoko Shimomura too. But Soken has been composing for Yoshida ever since Yoshida took over FFXIV so it's more than likely him.

Story writer is going to be a big one. What we have seen does feel like something Matsuno could come up with. On the other hand... I would love to see what Banri Oda or Natsuko Ishikawa could get up to in an main title FF game. Especially Natsuko Ishikawa, the writer of the Binding Coils of Bahamut raid, the Dark Knight job quests and Shadowbringers MSQ. She's a really, really good writer.

 

[cold_spirit]

FF16 is a master stroke from a business standpoint in my opinion. FF14 has over 20 million subscribers. The division between the online and single player communities is palatable. FF16 is like a bridge between the two. The aesthetic and tone of the story appeals to the 14 player base while the action gameplay appeals to mainstream audiences. Plus, the project is publicly backed by notable developers such as producer Naoki Yoshida and battle director Ryota Suzuki. It's a slam dunk.

Guess this article from four years ago ended up being pretty accurate:

https://gamingbolt.com/final-fantas...rpg-side-says-final-fantasy-15s-brand-manager

 

[BlueCollarNerd]

Not sure what to say.

DMC combat with a FF story, definitely sounds like its got potential. Have to wait for more to surface before i can make an opinion.

My only concern is that i dont want this to slow down ff7r part 2.

 

[Odysseus]

My only concern is that i don't want this to slow down ff7r part 2.

It's being developed by a different team so that's not really a concern. The only thing that might happen is that they could spread out the releases so they don't have two big games come out around the same time.

 

[HylianMogget]

I dig the tone - I was hoping for a medieval, Matsuno-y vibe and it looks like that's where they're going with it. The aesthetics, both the graphics and art direction, are somewhat less impressive than I was expecting, but I'm looking forward to seeing more of the world. I'm very curious about the combat. Is this going to be a straight-up ARPG? I haven't played FFXV, so I don't know how that was, but it's still sort of strange to me (but understandable) to have full action gameplay in a mainline FF. I thought FF7R's combat was a wonderful modernization of the classic ATB system, but I understand why this is doing something different, though it'd be a bit of a bummer if there's not some sort of party in this. I tend to prefer more action-y stuff nowadays, however, so it's all good to me.

Also, it probably doesn't mean anything, but Joshua is also the name of the duke's son in Vagrant Story. Doubt it's anything more than a possible shout out, but it was the first thing I thought of.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

The aesthetic and tone of the story appeals to the 14 player base while the action gameplay appeals to mainstream audiences. Plus, the project is publicly backed by notable developers such as producer Naoki Yoshida and battle director Ryota Suzuki. It's a slam dunk.

I have to admit, as someone who plays FFXIV, part of the reason I'm happy Yoshida's team is making a main title FF game is so that all the people who don't play MMOs, but do play single-player games can get a chance to see what kind of game a lot of the devs behind FFXIV can make.

@HylianMogget The combat looks different from FFXV and FFVIIR because the battle designer is different from both of those. It's the battle designer behind DMC5. Which is considered by a lot of people to have a very good action combat system.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

The depth of analysis and attention to detail you guys are capable of absolutely floors me. I love reading all your takes. Meanwhile I'm just "New FF, cool. Summons, cool. Gonna buy it, pretty sure it'll be a fun game."

 

[Shademp]

The division between the online and single player communities is palatable.

I just wish to point out what an excellent summary this is. I am skeptical towards FFXVI being any form of bridge between the two communities, but I did feel like the style was a mix between FF14 and FF15 (srsly for so many scenes I was thinking FFXVI is a prequel to FFXV), so there might be more to this bridge notion than I'm giving credit.

I doubt there is a way to prevent a division between the online and single player communities. MMOs have a tendency to become full-time commitments and so by default the two camps grow further apart.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

I feel it's more that the creative work done in the MMOs is... looked down on a bit by the single-player games because it's an MMO. And so it sometimes feels like you've got people saying (or at least thinking) that the devs in Business Division III (which does both FFIX and FFXIV) aren't "real FF devs" just because they've never done an single-player FF game yet. When for a lot of the people who do play the MMOs (or even just watch the play throughs), the ideas that are coming out of that Division feel the most "Final Fantasy" the franchise has been in the last decade at least, if not longer. So to hear people people say the MMOs "don't count" towards the FF series in terms of ideas and the shape of the series over the last decade doesn't feel fair.

With letting the Business Division III do a single player main-line FF game, it's kind of like SE saying that yes, what the division has been doing in their games does matter to the series as a whole now. Just because the games they work on are MMOs, doesn't mean they're not Final Fantasy games. And now they're making a game that will "count" as an FF game for everyone who says the MMOs don't count.

MMOs have a tendency to become full-time commitments and so by default the two camps grow further apart.

This is when I wonder if people even bother to research how FFXIV deals with leveling up and equipment, or if they just hear "MMO" and think it's just like WoW, that is you have to be grinding all the time. Which isn't the case at all.

The thing is that the longer and longer FFXIV has gone on, the more and more it's become possible to play it like a single-player Final Fantasy game, at least when it comes to the Main Story. Shadowbringers introduced AI controlled party members which take the place of other people for the story dungeons and you can basically play it as if you're playing a solo game since the Main Story gives you so much Exp you basicly get a free ride to the level cap for one job. And there's been talk that the FFXIV team wants to make that kind of thing available for all the other story dungeons eventually.

There is a sizable chunk of the FFXIV player base that only logs in on the week a patch hits, do the story content and then don't log in again until the next patch hits months later. Even more people just log in for the expansion every two years, finish it in a few weeks and then leave until the next expansion rolls around. FFXIV has been designed with people not having to sticking around to get through the main story ever since Yoshida took it over. He's never wanted to get people to feel like they have to grind to see the story content because for him, the point of FF is the story. And making that harder to do goes against what FF is about.

 

[Wol]

C'mon just announce Sakimoto as the composer, while Soken takes care of crafting pop songs for the Eikon fights lol (you know they will be good)

 

[Kuja9001]

The kid becoming Ifrit reminds me of XIII-2's "incarnate summoning" concept minus dying.

As long as the lore can hook me then I'm down.

 

[Odysseus]

This is when I wonder if people even bother to research how FFXIV deals with leveling up and equipment, or if they just hear "MMO" and think it's just like WoW, that is you have to be grinding all the time. Which isn't the case at all.

The thing is that the longer and longer FFXIV has gone on, the more and more it's become possible to play it like a single-player Final Fantasy game, at least when it comes to the Main Story. Shadowbringers introduced AI controlled party members which take the place of other people for the story dungeons and you can basically play it as if you're playing a solo game since the Main Story gives you so much Exp you basicly get a free ride to the level cap for one job. And there's been talk that the FFXIV team wants to make that kind of thing available for all the other story dungeons eventually.

There is a sizable chunk of the FFXIV player base that only logs in on the week a patch hits, do the story content and then don't log in again until the next patch hits months later. Even more people just log in for the expansion every two years, finish it in a few weeks and then leave until the next expansion rolls around. FFXIV has been designed with people not having to sticking around to get through the main story ever since Yoshida took it over. He's never wanted to get people to feel like they have to grind to see the story content because for him, the point of FF is the story. And making that harder to do goes against what FF is about.

If I'm being honest, the main thing I don't like is paying a $13 fee every month to be able to keep playing the game.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

I mean... a lot of Soken's best work in ShB is considered to be the normal BGM that plays while walking around areas. He can totally nail non-pop songs for fight music too...

That said, Sakimoto would be crazy awesome too.

 

[LNK]

Did anyone else notice a girl looking like she was from Agni's philosophy? Same kind of hair and clothes

 

[Wol]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1306337215992266753

Lmao

I bet the girl with the white dress will be a playable character in the timeskip though.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1306368576987607041

Thanks for representing us dragoons accurately Yoshida.

 

[Odysseus]

Lightning and Terra aren't real, they cannot hurt you.
Also Yuna.

 

[Ite]

Lightning and Terra aren't real, they cannot hurt you.
Also Yuna.

Yeah I see the point, but XV was such a sausage fest you’d think they’d have backpedaled at least a little lol.

I mean if “Joshua’s Shield” were a milquetoast generic brunette woman, same dialogue, outfit, and attitude, my interest in the game would probably be doubled.

 

[Torrie]

I knew I would wake up to an overload of comments and reactions - yep, I was right.

Watched the trailer on my mobile first thing in the morning, now re-watched it on PC, and I definitely feel the hype! Dark fantasy, oh my god, I've been looking forward to that, and it looks amazing so far. Some people on Twitter are complaining though that the graphics look a bit disappointing for a new-gen console, but we shouldn't forget that it's merely a trailer and that the game is still in development, so lots of things might change for the better, even if it already looks incredibly cinematic and breathtaking, so I honestly don't know why people should complain over and over again, ugh. I can't wait to meet the new characters and learn their stories. Pretty certain that I'm not going to play it myself when it comes out (unless a PC version is available), but there will be plenty of streams, sooo... Let's just be patient, shall we?