Final Fantasy 16 demo

[chicago_ruth]

Hey! Who's played the FF16 demo? Any thoughts? :)


Things I enjoyed
- I liked Clive! and his dad
- Benedikta/that big dude, right at the start, oh that is some very nice size difference
- The eikon abilities were pretty cool
- For the most part the battle system was enjoyable
- I actually didn't expect things to turn as dark as they did but oh my god the entire tragedy of it all. I'm here for it.

Things I am more meh about
- I wish the game difficulty weren't mostly tied to those rings. I ended up equipping the auto-dodge because too many things were going on at once. I think I'm gonna have a hell of a time remembering to switch Eikons during battle too.
- I'm not a fan of the stagger system, but I guess it's here to stay
- I wish the character designs were a bit more unique. I actually had to wonder if Clive's mother and Benedikta were the same person. Even the men were pretty similar, all of them in drab colors. (Please, Square, I'm begging you. Let them wear colors!)
- Maybe it'll work out better in game but that active lore thing where you interrupt a cut scene to read up on the lore--because nothing is explained properly otherwise--was kind of intrusive but I ended up using it because I kept thinking "who is this character even??" on a few of them.
- All the text, outside of subtitles, is so tiny :(

I've preordered the game and am definitely looking forward to playing but I suspect I will not enjoy it as much as I enjoyed FFXV or Remake. I guess I won't know until next week.

Comments

[althea_valara]

I HAVE PLAYED IT! My thoughts are here (behind spoiler cuts) BUT they were posted before I played the Eikonic Challenge, which is the optional "battle showcase".

Thoughts on your thoughts

* I agree it's unfortunate that Clive's mom and Benedikta look so much alike. I was able to tell the difference between them but that is sure a choice that was made.
* I didn't mind the lore dumps in the touchpad screen! Probably because they were short, and I felt that they weren't necessary for the story but added additional detail that was nice to have.
* Hmm, I didn't think the text was small? My TV isn't huge, and I play sitting at a desk so am pretty close to the TV, so that may be why it worked for me.
* I also equipped auto-dodge in the demo itself, and thought "hey, okay, this battle system isn't too bad!" But the Eikonic Challenge doesn't have it equipped, so I had to dodge a lot with the ring system. I *can* do it but I fear it will be hard on my hands, especially since the PS5 controller feels slightly too big for me (I have small hands).
* I was slightly underwhelmed by the demo itself, but am hyped again after playing the Eikonic Challenge because it left me with questions I want answered.

[chicago_ruth]

Yeah, I did both parts of the demo, and that's where I was able to confirm that Benedikta and Clive's mom weren't the same person because Benedikta's accent is so different XD I'd forgotten about it between her first appearance and the mom showing up.

It's possible I wasn't paying attention during one bit, but I had *no* clue who the girl with Torgal was without opening the lore thing. ... and I still don't remember her name, lol.

I was playing on the Story mode so the battle system was doable, but I can also foresee myself getting super annoyed at bullet-sponge enemies if the bosses are all the same as the demo had 😔 This is definitely a me thing, but I get impatient and don't like combat that goes on for too long.

Re: text size -- I have a 48 inch TV and I sit a few feet away from it when I play, but my eyesight sucks. Obvs I have glasses/contacts but whenever the side chatter subtitles showed up, I was like "welp, guess I'm not reading that." It's not Outer Worlds or FF13 levels of bad, but still not pleasant for me.

But I'm definitely still hyped for it! I fully expect to be completely consumed by this game. XD

[chicago_ruth]

It was *so* dark and dramatic! I honestly didn't expect it. While I was playing I did kind of think "I hope Joshua doesn't die" but nope, game decided to crush all my hopes. And to make it that dramatic, omg. Poor Clive. (I did interpret that correctly, right? Clive sort of became Ifrit and killed Joshua/Phoenix himself? 😱 ) And then they killed the dad too 😭

Anyway can't wait for the future confrontation with the mother, lol.