I have faith in Yoshi-P and Soken and pretty much got a PS5 for this so I'm ready. Hook it to my veins.
-
Welcome to Talking Time's third iteration! If you would like to register for an account, or have already registered but have not yet been confirmed, please read the following:
- The CAPTCHA key's answer is "Percy"
- Once you've completed the registration process please email us from the email you used for registration at percyreghelper@gmail.com and include the username you used for registration
Once you have completed these steps, Moderation Staff will be able to get your account approved.
Final Fantasy XVI
- Thread starter Mogri
- Start date
New entries in the series never look like Final Fantasy, until the next one is announced, upon which fans will argue that upcoming entry doesn't look like Final Fantasy because it isn't similar enough to the most recent one that just came out.
Last edited:
I agree with others responses but tbf, you're referring to the game that features a village of orphans who were displaced after the apocalypse, one scene among many other tragedies. FF swings wildly in tone sometimes in a single game, let alone across the franchise.
There have been more serious-business Final Fantasy games before, and they all still found elements of silliness to inject into their stories; FF13, 12, and 10 are what I'm thinking of here. Even if you take a look at FF14, most of that game's central story cutscenes and tone is pretty serious-business, and it's only when the game has to satisfy being an MMO does it get into the really silly stuff.
People forget that game has a scene with attempted suicide!
R.R. Bigman
Coolest Guy
I get the picture now.
There does seem to be a noticeable lack of ladies from what I’ve seen, in a series where several of the few I’ve played feature women as party leads.
There does seem to be a noticeable lack of ladies from what I’ve seen, in a series where several of the few I’ve played feature women as party leads.
And deals with teen pregnancy, genocide and experimentation on the victims, poisoning an entire castle town to death, and more. FF6 is honestly one of the darkest entries in the series, it just also features some lighthearted silliness here and there. That's honestly pretty par for the course from 6 onwards, really.
Was I all-in before this trailer? I honestly can't remember. Anyway, while I too wish for a return to the party-and-menu driven format (wasn't there a mode in FF15 that basically worked like that? Still gotta play that... and 13, for that matter...), this still looks pretty sweet and I'm here for it.
Women are a footnote as writ in the Book of Matsuno, and there's been no reason offered to think the successor will be any different.
Fyonn
did their best!
I don't hate the action focus of newer Final Fantasy games, but I do wish they would focus more on the party and strategy elements of the franchise. FFXV's Wait Mode is an interesting idea for a game with sort-of action-y combat, and I'd like to see a game that takes what amounts to an afterthought and fleshes it out into the core of a combat system. Like dropping into Wait Mode to coordinate combos or issue commands would be a really interesting system even if your player character only has relatively basic melee toolkit available to them directly.
Of course, still no sign that FF16 will even have a party, and given that Code Vein, Stranger of Paradise, and Devil May Cry 5 are all various flavors of demanding action RPG that still feature AI backup, I feel like a single-character focus would be a serious misstep for a franchise that has always had party members. FF14 features AI buddies in some quests, even before Trusts became a thing. And, yeah, the lack of women in recent Final Fantasy games being a frankly bizarre turn after Final Fantasy 13, 13-2, and 13-3, all of which have women as the point-of-view characters.
Of course, still no sign that FF16 will even have a party, and given that Code Vein, Stranger of Paradise, and Devil May Cry 5 are all various flavors of demanding action RPG that still feature AI backup, I feel like a single-character focus would be a serious misstep for a franchise that has always had party members. FF14 features AI buddies in some quests, even before Trusts became a thing. And, yeah, the lack of women in recent Final Fantasy games being a frankly bizarre turn after Final Fantasy 13, 13-2, and 13-3, all of which have women as the point-of-view characters.
There are still spaces for Final Fantasy to be turn based games. They just exist in the realm of spin-offs and lower budget titles like Bravely Default. For better or worse, SquareEnix has convinced themselves that in order to justify the money spent on mainline FF games, they need to appeal to the lowest common denominator regarding gameplay. And they think the average joe doesn't have the patience or interest in a turn based game anymore. Whether they're right or not is a subject up for debate. But as an anecdote, I grew up on turn based RPGs as my favorite genre of game and these days I literally can't stand them anymore despite still holding immense fondness for them. I just don't have the patience or time for them now as a serious business adult with real responsibilities. Also, I am convinced that despite the stereotype of kids/teens having no patience or attention span, adults are in fact have innately far less than kids and it only gets worse as we age.
I am open to the idea but I'd have to see some evidence that the writers/directors are big fans of those popular genre medias first. Because otherwise there are plenty of possible other sources of inspiration that seem more likely to me. Like, didn't a recent FF14 expansion include visiting the moon, having mechs, and a character class that fights with mecha-esque bits/funnels? Seems more likely to me that these guys are just as inspired by say, Zeta Gundam.
As for the game itself, trailer looks great. My only nitpick is that the face animations are bad. I really hope that's something that will get ironed out in the "polishing" phase they're in. Because as of right now, it's a significant step down from FF7R's facial animations, and even FF15's.
The problem specifically is the eyes. Rewatch the trailer and focus specifically on the eyes. Through almost the entire thing, the eye positions are locked in a forward position and never deviate. IRL people's eyes move constantly, especially as people move about. Eyes have a tendency to subconsciously track objects as the head moves rather than being locked in place, and people tend to dart their eyes about all over the place as they move about and interact with their environment.
When they aren't animated at all in this way, it makes the otherwise finely detailed character models look like they're leaping into the uncanny valley head first, because it gives them the look of soulless puppets moving about rather than living, breathing people.
It's a small detail, and it's not a deal breaker by any means. But it's distracting once you notice it and it's pretty disappointing when everything else looks spectacular (Seriously, everything else in this trailer looks INCREDIBLE) and the last few mainline entries in the series did a much better job of this. Games can be forgiven for a certain amount of this happening during say, idle animations, or where the attention of a scene isn't focused directly on characters, or during ancillary npc interactions. But during major cutscenes it's kinda baffling that this is occurring here.
The problem specifically is the eyes. Rewatch the trailer and focus specifically on the eyes. Through almost the entire thing, the eye positions are locked in a forward position and never deviate. IRL people's eyes move constantly, especially as people move about. Eyes have a tendency to subconsciously track objects as the head moves rather than being locked in place, and people tend to dart their eyes about all over the place as they move about and interact with their environment.
When they aren't animated at all in this way, it makes the otherwise finely detailed character models look like they're leaping into the uncanny valley head first, because it gives them the look of soulless puppets moving about rather than living, breathing people.
It's a small detail, and it's not a deal breaker by any means. But it's distracting once you notice it and it's pretty disappointing when everything else looks spectacular (Seriously, everything else in this trailer looks INCREDIBLE) and the last few mainline entries in the series did a much better job of this. Games can be forgiven for a certain amount of this happening during say, idle animations, or where the attention of a scene isn't focused directly on characters, or during ancillary npc interactions. But during major cutscenes it's kinda baffling that this is occurring here.
Sprite
(He/Him/His)
They confirmed in June that XVI will have party members that move in and out of the party, but they’ll be completely AI-controlled.
I definitely would prefer a more traditional game but it’s hard to complain too much when we don’t exactly lack turn-based options and we’re getting two more VIIR games where you’re both doing action game stuff and controlling a party.
That's where you're wrong: complaining is easy!
A lot of responses are touching on how each game is different or bringing up examples from FFVI, but even the light-hearted in the collective imagination FFIV starts with you as a high ranking member of an imperial military murdering wizards to steal from them, then killing everyone in an entire village with a magic bomb, and then as you and the lone survivor from the village you massacred reach a neighboring kingdom, the empire bombs it and kills nearly everyone there.
I think people describe it differently, because it has wild tonal shifts. Don't really want to argue about that. The beginning is pretty dark, but then it reaches levels of self-parody, and then the power of friendship brings everyone back to life. I think generally it's thought of as more light-hearted than VI or VII, for example. But I mention it because it's kind of the most classical (I guess) Final Fantasy, for better or for worse.
look, he's got a lot of HP
Sorry, all I meant by that was more like "that isn't my point of interest," not anything about you wanting to start an argument!
FelixSH
(He/Him)
It's fine, I see now that I sound defensive when I didn't even try to be. Sorry, something went wrong there with my answer, it's all fine.
And yeah, when thinking about IV, I tend to think of the start, of people sacrificing each other (not necessarily Cid, but Palom/Porom - though even Cid, despite the goofy way he does it, is someone who intends to kill himself, to save his friends), of backstabbing and how Edge has to see his horribly mutated parents, who he is supposed to fight against, and then watch die. Every time I think about it, it feels like there are two different games smashed together, in all kinds of ways. Fascinating game.
And yeah, when thinking about IV, I tend to think of the start, of people sacrificing each other (not necessarily Cid, but Palom/Porom - though even Cid, despite the goofy way he does it, is someone who intends to kill himself, to save his friends), of backstabbing and how Edge has to see his horribly mutated parents, who he is supposed to fight against, and then watch die. Every time I think about it, it feels like there are two different games smashed together, in all kinds of ways. Fascinating game.
You absolutely did not sound defensive! Everything's fine! If anything, I'm the one who phrased it poorly.
Yeah, I'm in a similar place. I think the last actual turn-based game I played through was the original Bravely Default, which I had a ton of fun with and wanted to play the sequels and other similar spin-offs, but.... have never gotten around to it. And even there, the game is *packed* with features to streamline and speed up the essential turn-based combat.
I've enjoyed all of XII, XIII, and XV's takes on threading the RPG/Action line, tbh. It's a little disappointing if XVI's party members are really completely out of your control, I enjoy being able to at least give some commands/hints/plans, but I guess we'll see how that shakes out in the final build.
I will say I would absolutely LOVE for them to expand on VIIR's system for this sort of thing. For example the way aerial combat works in it already, just polish it up a bit more so it's actually good, and turn that into its own menu-controlled function for people that would rather control combat that way, and whoever wants to can control it like an action game otherwise. Classic Mode in VIIR has the right idea but I think it takes away just a little too much control over basic combat.
More on topic, god I need to get a PS5. I kind of stopped trying to get one around new years, maybe I'll have better luck now.
Yeah. But I think your case is even more advanced than mine, lol. There's a new Macross movie out and you haven't even commented on the fact, let alone seen it yet!
Final Fantasy always looks like Final Fantasy (giant crystals, giant yellow birds) and never does (new setting, new characters, new esthetic for every main entry).
As for this one, it looks more like some of them and less like others, and as with all FF games I will give it a shot. As for grimness, its more colorful design aside, the setting and status quo of FFX are incredibly grim and hopeless, way more than this looks.
Alsooooo I don't really like how trailers like this prompt so much "oh they were obviously influenced by Game of Thrones" as if political maneuvering or war sucking for the populace were plot elements invented by George RR Martin. That's just a generalized gripe, not specifically directed at you. But FF Tactics, Vandal Hearts, Suikoden II, etc. were cover that thematic ground in Japanese RPGs over 20 years ago.
Last edited: