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Final Fantasy XVI The Demo
Jun. 12th, 2023 03:19 pmSo I just finished the FF XVI demo and I have THORTZ. Mild spoilers for the first hour or so of the game.
First: tis very conventional after the batty demos for XV. The Duscae demo was taken from the game but such an early point in development as to tell us very little, and the Platinum demo was a load of random nonsense that had little to do with anything. This demo gives us a short story that opens that game and it feels both complete and intriguing for the full game. That should achieve mainstream appeal but I do like how "Crackers Charlie" FF can get and this is not that. It's a pretty safe short game that fits in well with things like GoW Ragnarok. We'll have to see how it develops but at present it feels like one I probably won't replay every year for the next decade like I have with most of the recent ones.
There's a lot of cut scenes. You have a handful of ordinary fights and a few mini bosses but it feels like you spend a minority of your time actually doing anything and what gameplay there is is linear and lacks much tactical depth. Again, though, you could say that about the start of other games in the series, with XV really being the only recent one that gives you a lot of freedom from near the start. Perhaps my problem is that the story also seems rather conventional, high fantasy with a brutal edge; there's nothing as memorably strange as the zero-gravity water from the opening of X.
Story and tone wise it's a mix of XII and Type-0. Indeed, parts of it feel so XII that I feel like it probably should have been an Ivalice game (it actually might still be).
The best thing about the demo is summon vs summon, which I have been wanting since X. Indeed, we get Amano's illustration in the demo - one might almost say the demo is shaped around it - and it didn't really occur to me before that what we're seeing is a fight between two summons of the same elemental alignment which wasn't allowed in X (you couldn't, for example, summon Ifrit to fight another summoner's Ifrit, except possibly the dark Aeons which I didn't really bother with). The summon vs summon sequence is polished and cinematic, and while it's essentially a glorified quicktime sequence it works. Storywise though I'm a little confused on who exactly summoned Ifrit. It seems to be implied that Clive does, but then he doesn't seem to be controlling it? I guess that will all pan out in time. Despite the masses of cut scenes a few things were similarly unclear, for example who Jill is? Probably she's the little sister of Clive, but perhaps not?
Another interesting point is that quite a large amount of this opening was in that first trailer from a couple of years back, suggesting they've developed the game in story order, which might make the ending rushed (I assume that's why - or at least a big reason why - XV's ending felt rushed). In the meantime they've got a lot better at hair physics, Joshua's flaxen locks are almost Widdecombesque in their tousled golden amazingness. Wait a minute, he wasn't named after Josh Widdecombe was he????? Naaaaah
So that's about it, really. Polished, epic, cinematic, currently lacking in much to actually do. I do however want to know more of the story. A week and a bit before the rest appears in my letterbox.
Meanwhile, in other squeenix game news a DLC chapter came out for Forspoken. It involves Frey quantum leaping all Beckett-like into the life of a guard during the Rheddig war and it is very lovely. You get to play alongside Tanta Cinta for most of it, there is lots of good bantz with Cuff and a couple of laugh-out-loud moments. The backstory is deepened in ways that feel satisfying and make sense with what we already knew. Frey still has a potty mouth yay, though there are no new cats in this one, boooo. Anyway it ends with an intriguing twist that leaves me hoping further chapters are on the way. It's only a shame that "yellow magic" is basically a cherry-picking from the other colours rather than something completely new.
First: tis very conventional after the batty demos for XV. The Duscae demo was taken from the game but such an early point in development as to tell us very little, and the Platinum demo was a load of random nonsense that had little to do with anything. This demo gives us a short story that opens that game and it feels both complete and intriguing for the full game. That should achieve mainstream appeal but I do like how "Crackers Charlie" FF can get and this is not that. It's a pretty safe short game that fits in well with things like GoW Ragnarok. We'll have to see how it develops but at present it feels like one I probably won't replay every year for the next decade like I have with most of the recent ones.
There's a lot of cut scenes. You have a handful of ordinary fights and a few mini bosses but it feels like you spend a minority of your time actually doing anything and what gameplay there is is linear and lacks much tactical depth. Again, though, you could say that about the start of other games in the series, with XV really being the only recent one that gives you a lot of freedom from near the start. Perhaps my problem is that the story also seems rather conventional, high fantasy with a brutal edge; there's nothing as memorably strange as the zero-gravity water from the opening of X.
Story and tone wise it's a mix of XII and Type-0. Indeed, parts of it feel so XII that I feel like it probably should have been an Ivalice game (it actually might still be).
The best thing about the demo is summon vs summon, which I have been wanting since X. Indeed, we get Amano's illustration in the demo - one might almost say the demo is shaped around it - and it didn't really occur to me before that what we're seeing is a fight between two summons of the same elemental alignment which wasn't allowed in X (you couldn't, for example, summon Ifrit to fight another summoner's Ifrit, except possibly the dark Aeons which I didn't really bother with). The summon vs summon sequence is polished and cinematic, and while it's essentially a glorified quicktime sequence it works. Storywise though I'm a little confused on who exactly summoned Ifrit. It seems to be implied that Clive does, but then he doesn't seem to be controlling it? I guess that will all pan out in time. Despite the masses of cut scenes a few things were similarly unclear, for example who Jill is? Probably she's the little sister of Clive, but perhaps not?
Another interesting point is that quite a large amount of this opening was in that first trailer from a couple of years back, suggesting they've developed the game in story order, which might make the ending rushed (I assume that's why - or at least a big reason why - XV's ending felt rushed). In the meantime they've got a lot better at hair physics, Joshua's flaxen locks are almost Widdecombesque in their tousled golden amazingness. Wait a minute, he wasn't named after Josh Widdecombe was he????? Naaaaah
So that's about it, really. Polished, epic, cinematic, currently lacking in much to actually do. I do however want to know more of the story. A week and a bit before the rest appears in my letterbox.
Meanwhile, in other squeenix game news a DLC chapter came out for Forspoken. It involves Frey quantum leaping all Beckett-like into the life of a guard during the Rheddig war and it is very lovely. You get to play alongside Tanta Cinta for most of it, there is lots of good bantz with Cuff and a couple of laugh-out-loud moments. The backstory is deepened in ways that feel satisfying and make sense with what we already knew. Frey still has a potty mouth yay, though there are no new cats in this one, boooo. Anyway it ends with an intriguing twist that leaves me hoping further chapters are on the way. It's only a shame that "yellow magic" is basically a cherry-picking from the other colours rather than something completely new.
