Square Enix Doesn't Think You've Seen Enough Final Fantasy 16 PS5 Gameplay

Still a no from me dog.

They might as well throw up the entire finale at this point.

It's gonna be great.

This is like the only place that thinks they've shown too much when a lot of what they have shown is very early in lol

Anyway, this just further cemented my hype. The atmosphere was fantastic, the music was great. The banter and dialogue between the characters just had me smiling throughout. Combat looks great as always. And it confirmed something I was wondering about which was different swords to equip! These last few weeks of waiting are going to be extremely painful...

I'm going to get it but it feels like a sad visit to an old friend who has dementia and has forgotten who he is. It's due to the bond I have with the series rather than looking forward to anything in particular in the game.

@Matroska The only thing definitive about final fantasy anymore is its identity crisis. So I get it

The gameplay looks fun to play but watching it is like visualizing a migraine headache. So many flashing lights and colors and wavy lines. The settings are all so dark. It really makes all the bright HDR particle effects pop, but I sure hope there’s some parts that don’t take place in a endless dark corridors. The moaning and grunting sounds during combat are also tiresome after watching that video. And those enemies — blimey they sure are damage sponges. Even the common enemies take dozens and dozens of hits to finally die. The bigger mini-bosses’ health bars don’t even show to be taking any damage even after being blasted and slashed with a rainbow of multiple colored elemental dazzling explosive attacks. Luckily, most the enemies seem to just stand there while you whale on them for five minutes until the fall down.

I know I sound negative, but I’m still planning on day 1. Just hope it is more fun to play than to watch.

I preordered it so I guess it's working.

They ain’t wrong

I haven't watched anything since the last trailer and I am keeping it that way, I already have the deluxe edition pre ordered

...... Set aside hype and love for the IP, and what's left here raises some pretty big red flags.

Looks rough, and unsure of what it wanted to be. This and that recent boss Battle gameplay were tedious to watch and looked even more so to play. Why they stuck with giant sponge health bar mechanics of their turned based efforts yet switched to this style of combat really baffles me. It doesn't show well at all beyond the flashy particle effects. On top of that, If the bland level and art design showed is indicative of what they are calling a dungeon throughout the playthtough, this game has the potential to be a real mess. There is an apparent lack of depth here regarding many levels of its design even as an attempt at an action game/ARPG focused FF title.

This solidifies my decision to absolutely wait for unbiased reviews and impressions. I truly hope I'm wrong on this one.
Music was nice though. Anyone else more concerned about this one the more they show of it?

@Th3solution I dont think I can even play this game with all the flashing particle effects. Its extremely annoying. I really hope they include a way to turn them down, or off. Off would be better.

I'm so tired of news on this game that I hope it falls below sales expectations at this point.

@Ken_Kaniff It doesn’t matter how much it sells it will be below Square’s expectations because of course it will.

Seriously I don’t know how they set their expectations because every single game ends up “underperforming”, even something like FFVII Remake.

Already preordered and I'm not watching anything until release date reviewes. They do show too much.

Considering rumors that Square is panicking about pre-order sales of FFXVI I'm not surprised they want to show everything they can about a game.

@Matroska check out Memoria Project on YouTube. They’ve finally finished what they set out to do and posted a concept demo of FF9. Absolutely beautiful.

@get2sammyb please also check it out and give it the attention it deserves.

@Ken_Kaniff now that's just spiteful and sad

I haven't looked at any of its trailers in a while.

Ultimately I'll leave it to the upcoming demo to sell me on the game, I'd rather get excited about FFXVI via my own gameplay than via what amounts to curated spoilers.

I haven't followed this, can you customise your HUD so you don't have to see constant damage numbers flying about??

It looks pretty cool, but enemies not really doing anything and tanking a lot of damage is a bit of a downer.

It's just not my Final Fantasy anymore. Which is fine, it doesn't need to be and i wont stand in the way of anyones fun, but every game after FF10 has gotten a solid "meh" from me.
And God darn, was this solidified for me when I sat down to play the Pixel Remasters. FF6 is such a work of art. This flashy and loud mess isn't in the same league.

The reason I haven't pre-ordered is that I'm still playing Zelda, and I have an insane backlog of games that already include Xenoblade 3. I just ain't got enough time to play them all these days.

The marketing approach seems very questionable. You have all this promotion for FFXVI but then at the same time you do daily updates on FFVII Rebirth which is seemingly leading up to a Summer Game Fest trailer which'll massively steal the spotlight from FFXVI.

Chill Squenix, I’m buying your game, just not preordering it.

Enough gameplay to look forward to playing the game someday? Yes, I have.

Enough gameplay to buy a home console with no proper Remote Play (the jury is seemingly still out on PSQ) where even a mindblower like Xenoblade X never coerced me into doing that with Wii U? There's probably no such thing to see.

I'm ready for this

Monsters looked like damage sponges - until I started to grasp the stagger-to-dps cycles they go through to bring one down. It's a familiar system which I sometimes like or dislike depending on how it's done, but I think I like the way FF16 has done it.

I think it's a system of 2 halves in each cycle, to accentuate the change of pace going from a slower probing of the opponent to offloading all cooldowns to max out DPS.

I think what they've shown is a tiny bit under-geared / under-levelled so that they can show the skills. I suspect most players would have grinded to be stronger, so that 1 cycle would finish most monsters. Maybe.

@durxll123 When I first saw FF7R preview footage I thought it looked too flashy and frenetic, and it ended up being okay, so we’ll see. Several games this generation have been heavy on the visual pizazz but this appears to take it and crank the special effects even higher. Now with current technology being what it is, developers are flooding the screen with chaos. I’m gradually getting accustomed but it’s a lot. I do wonder it there will be options to turn some of it down. I’m guessing that at the very least they will have an option to turn down HUD elements like the flashing damage counter numbers and health bars. It would be nice to see them do something like what Jedi Survivor has done with the option to slow down combat scenarios. Not that it’s needed in this game because it appears the enemies barely attack, but because it may help it appear less chaotic and hectic.

@Th3solution

The settings are all so dark. .... endless dark corridors.

There's a floating light source you can use. I wonder if there are different levels to the brightness because it is a bit dark in parts.

I like how excess potions are used automatically when one is lying around. It seems you can be quite far away and still pick them up.

@KundaliniRising333 Not really because I thought this was gonna be trash from the get go and I still do.

"And those enemies — blimey they sure are damage sponges. Even the common enemies take dozens and dozens of hits to finally die. The bigger mini-bosses’ health bars don’t even show to be taking any damage even after being blasted and slashed with a rainbow of multiple colored elemental dazzling explosive attacks. Luckily, most the enemies seem to just stand there while you whale on them for five minutes until the fall down" @Th3solution

This is my main issue. When will they learn? 😫 Sure combat can look sparkly and cool, but if it amounts to simply spamming every attack under the sun forever more, while watching clones of standard enemies take those hits without anything actually happening, the western market will never be won over. I know I won't be.

Incredible enemy variation/monster design, with various strengths, weaknesses and an array of unique animations is pretty much the minimum expectation. Paired with combat that actually looks like it has an effect on the enemy, and not just waiting for a red bar to slowly decrease with meaningless numbers flying everywhere as you hammer a few buttons.

Combat like this doesn't feel like it respects people's time.

I'd rather spend 30 minutes fighting a boss on something like Elden Ring, than spend five minutes button mashing and stun locking these random things 😭

I want Square to make a game I'd enjoy, and I want this to be it, because it looks very cool and the world intrigues me. But the same old patterns seem to be repeating :/

It really doesn't take a rocket scientist to see this ISN'T final fantasy, and its IN NAME ONLY... It literally jumped the shark on the genre it invented. Not Happy Days.

Don't malign old fans just because the label changed and they realize it's not the same product inside.

Final Fantasy: Overly Flashy Dark Souls Edition.

@bkeswick Yeah, I liked the little fire orb that was cast for lighting there at the end of the video. It’s a cool way to enlighten the dungeon which fits within the magical setting.

As far as the darkness (and I assume there will still be bright above ground settings but they’re choosing not to promote them because the flashy attacks showcase better in the dark) I’m thinking I need to upgrade to an OLED TV to better appreciate all these darker games.

@Ravix I can understand that they are surely trying to avoid falling into the Souls-like comparisons for combat, but yeah — it doesn’t look like the combat feels very punchy or visceral. It’s fine with range attacks and spells, but melee and sword combat doesn’t look weighty at all. Which I guess is a carryover from the turn-based roots, but this hybrid might risk being a watered down version of both styles. So you end up pulling off huge spectacular attacks that take 1/50th of the enemy’s health bar, but instead of having to strategize because the enemy will have a turn afterward, you can just follow up with another stream of DMC-style endless combo hits one after another and the enemy never has a chance to counter. I’ve never played one but this kinda looks like a Musou game to me…?

I’m not completely condemning the game before I get to play it; maybe this amalgamation of genres will work and it’ll hit well in the West and Japan both. I’ll remain cautiously optimistic. Even though I was less high on it than most, I did really like FF7 Remake.

The average consumer isn't a game journalist. But I've been interested since the first trailer. Looks like they learned their lesson from FF15, and I prefer action RPG over turn based / ATB. So once I get around to getting a PS5 and FF16 eventually goes on sale... I'm in!

This was already a no for me, but with each video I’m even more convinced that this is not the Final Fantasy I’m looking for. I’ll stick with FromSoftware and Team Ninja for my action RPGs, thanks. Wake me when Rebirth is ready…

Game looks really good! June 22nd can't get here soon enough.

@Th3solution It does look like that, doesn't it. But upon a closer inspection I find that the combat is methodical over the stagger phase and damage phase. I thought it's more obvious in boss fights.

My guess is, the way it looks (HP bar and all) will feel right once we wrap our heads around the context and then watch the combat in that context. We'll see how it goes.

Every one of these gameplay videos is doing a better job of convincing me to skip this game. The combat looks utterly tedious. I'd really been hoping for a system like FF7R which was quite clever in how it balanced action and turn based combat. I have no idea why they wanted to go all in on button mashing for a Final Fantasy game.

I felt like I'd seen too much of the game back when they had a trailer showing the locations in the world. Been avoiding all the trailers since.

@KaijuKaiser You're not wrong - turn based battles can of course be incredibly rote as well. I almost mentioned your point in my original comment in fact.

I suppose what I really mean is that in the end a lot of turn based games do tend to require more strategy as you progress, but more than that there are different levels of complexity to action combat too.

I know we've not seen the whole game yet, but the combat here and in the boss footage from the other day looks very vanilla indeed. Perhaps I'm just comparing all action combat to Dark Souls and Elden Ring these days. I have the same problem with the combat in Tears Of The Kingdom - there's nothing to it.

Of course, I'm currently loving Diablo 4, so it's possible you might just want to ignore all of the above

This will be my first FF purchase ever, so something they did worked. I've never been REMOTELY interested in the series (I loathe non-real-time combat), so while I don't need to watch anything else (and I'm not doing so), making sure I was aware it was a real-time action game certainly got me to pay attention. They're probably not confident they got the word out to enough consumers like me.

@KaijuKaiser personally I think the gameplay shown isn't anything different to what we've already seen. Just more combat, and it looks great

But yes some of the comments have exuded so much hatred towards the game 😂

@KaijuKaiser I wouldn't say it is less a final fantasy than any of those that you listed, because those are all similarly games that lost their way after the merger.

With one exception.

FF XIV is final fantasy online, at least. It kills it as far as anyone could have ever envisioned an MMO FF.

Final Fantasy used to set trends, post merger, it chases them. Its identity is an identity crisis. It's only consistency is its inconsistency.

But to answer,
It made the move from Role playing game with action elements to action game with rpg elements, effectively abandoning the genre it championed, whereas the other games you listed were still RPGs that just really wished they weren't.

That's because we haven't you got 35 hours of the game they've literally showed like 5% of the game and people act like they don't even have to play the game anymore lmao. There's definitely a lot more in the game than the trailers entail.

You can take or leave the marketting, only obsesives like those of us here will have had too much. The vast majority of ps5 owners wont have seen any of it, ive two ps5 owning friends who dont even know its coming out.
Im completely convinced im gonna enjoy this, much as ive enjoyed all the previous itterations (yes, even xv). Ive even pre ordered, and thats a rarity for me, but im happy to play what they serve up and im not convinced I know better than the publisher what their game should be.... Im even going to set aside zelda to play it.....

They must really be upset with the low pre order numbers. Chill Square, plenty of people will buy the game. It looks good, still not sure it’s my cup of tea but i admit i am interested and normally i am not for FF games. Diablo 4 is all i need, but i am leaning towards playing this when it’s on sale for $40

I don’t mind the trailers but I’m also avoiding them. I’m trying to go in fresh as possible.

Since we’re talking about marketing: Does anyone think that FF loses some (not saying a major amount. Just a little bit.) of sales because of its title numbering? Maybe it misleads casual consumers into thinking they’re all continuations and that they’d be missing out with starting now when in fact, they aren’t. I know Square does a good job explaining they’re standalone, but not everyone checks online for this information. For example, the odd person, who shops at a retail store, searching for a video game gift wouldn’t know that. Just my random 1 AM thoughts haha.

@Th3solution I feel the same about the enemies' health. Although, if you notice, the character seems to be on the same level as the enemies and who knows what equipment they have on Clive currently. Enemies might be easier to defeat with more powerful equipment, I'm still worried, but at the same time hopeful because in the past demos, they do this often to lengthen the gameplay.

Can’t wait to play Final Dante Fantasy XVI. Looks fun, a bit overkill on the numbers. It’s always amazing how these inhuman wrecking balls can talk without a trace of being out of breath. The dog gets a thumbs up, seems to require a bit of button mashing?

I haven’t watched any new FF16 trailers for quite some time. My main fear after seeing the recent FF7 Rebirth trailer is that FF16 will lack the humor, character, and overall ability to remain memorable for years to come. FF7 on the other hand has created some of the most iconic final fantasy characters ever and the story has so much heart!

Kind of like FF15 - I played through the game, beat it, but the game lacked anything to create a core memory for me. I fear the same for FF16. It looks great, but almost too serious. You know?

The last few FF games have been underwhelming, so I'm not buying anything until I see some reviews.