mcdreamer

@tameshiyaku I think cross progression is possible via a Larian account. They talk about it a bit in one of their updates on steam. Over of the reasons I decided to dive in on the Deck ahead of the ps5 launch.

@ShadowofSparta I'm not sure I've seen anything about Trophy support for cross saves. Given it's going to be a game I'll likely play through multiple times for me I'll just see what I pick up along the way each time if it's not supported. I was going to wait too, especially after I refunded the final Early Access build due to poor performance. After seeing videos on YouTube of Deck gameplay looking a lot better I couldn't resist!

@deathaxe @Sequel @Khayl I'm getting a solid 30 most of the time with most things on medium settings and FSR set to Ultra Quality. I did see a dip at the end of one of the dialog scenes, but in game play it seems OK so far.

Obviously it's not going to look as good as it does on a high end PC (and hopefully the PS5 version too) but I'm surprised how good it looks to be honest. I never managed to get the Early Access builds looking anything like this. It even looks OK on the TV. Naturally the fan has a wonderful time with the game

The only thing I had to change was to set the controller layout to the official Larian one for the deck itself and change the Dual Sense layout to standard gamepad. Proton Experimental also seem to be a must and I already had the --skip-launcher launch flag set from EA.

I love the Deck, especially for older games, but all of the above is why I left a lifetime of PC gaming behind Looking forward to diving into the game again later on!

I couldn’t wait and bought this last night. Runs surprisingly well on the steam deck, certainly better than even the final early access build. The controller support is really good too. Plus, from what I understand it’ll be possible to pick up my save on PS5 visa the Larian account.

I decided to go with a largely unmodified version of the dark urge for my first play through. Still very early in the game but you can tell it’s something special.

I finished FF16 this week. In the end I quite liked it. The cast of characters is great, the story and world was very Final Fantasy. And whilst a bit of a change, the combat was fun, if not a bit less expansive that I'd have liked. A solid 7/10 game.

Now I'm spending most of my time on Trails in the Sky FC. Just started chapter 3. Also continuing Act 2 of the Diablo 4 campaign. Contemplating taking something off the backlog too. Maybe Ryza 1 or Tokyo Xanadu eX+.

FF9 is my favourite game but I probably do prefer Tidus to Zidane. Cloud was always going to win this poll, though he is probablythe most iconic. I liked Clive but he can't really compare to the more classic characters (though FF16 has a strong cast overall).

I cannot wait for this game! Only a few more weeks to go!

I'm really looking forward to this game. So much so I'm on the verge of just buying it now on Steam Deck to get a taste via Early Access before starting properly in a couple of weeks. The only thing that puts me off is whilst the game looks good on the Deck, no doubt I'll end up getting the PS5 version too for the enhanced visuals.

More than that though, the length of the game is intimidating. Hearing there are multiple endings is great (however many it might be), but realistically I will see only one in game and the rest on YouTube.

Mostly just FF16 still. About 60% through now according to the dashboard. I'm really enjoying the game and all the Final Fantasy elements it incorporates. I sense that the story is about to ramp up another level following a huge Eikon battle. Speaking of story, the "active time lore" feature is really useful. Something I'd love to see in other games with lots of world building and lore.

As for the combat, well I'm over the fact that it's not turn based now. I can't really imagine the game with anything but the combat system that it has. My only real criticism is that AP is quite slow to build up and I'd have liked to have unlocked a few more abilities by this point in the game. But overall I can't complain about it too much.

And that might be in part because I'm really going in on the Trails series now. I'm slowly grinding my way through Sky FC on Steam Deck and enjoying it. Once I finish FF16 I will be able to put a bit more time into it, and Diablo IV.

I'm considering picking up the Atelier Marie remake. Looks like a good entry point to the series (being the start and all). Especially given how short and simplistic it is. I have Ryza and Sophie 2, both of which I'd love to play but have never quite got around to. The systems on offer seem much deeper and more satisfying but if Marie hooks me in then I think that'll push me to really get going on one of them.

And on the other extreme, also thinking about picking up Baldur's Gate 3 on Steam Deck. There seem to be mixed opinions about the performance but on the whole it sounds like it's compromised but acceptable if you go in with realistic expectations. Ideally I'd wait for the PS5 release but I'd love to dive in ahead of that and see if the game is for me.

It's more FF16 for me. Coming up on 50% completion according the PS5 dashboard. Enjoying the game and really interested to see where the story goes. Ready for it to ramp up another notch now but I'm pretty sure current events are leading to that.
My copy of Reverie arrived but Sky FC is my other main game right now. Will probably have a few matches of SF6 too. Sadly Diablo 4 has taken a bit of a back seat but looking forward to returning to it post FF16. I also really want to finally play the Xenosaga trilogy following Future Redeemed. Those are ready to go on my Steam Deck.

I have a lot of thoughts about this game, even more now I’ve played a good chunk of it. I’m way more positive on the game now than I have been, but I do think 7th sounds about right out of a long list. For my personal list of FF games I’ve played it would be probably sit in 3rd behind FF9 and FFX. I think it probably does have the edge over FF7R, but only just.

I'm a few hours into FFXVI now. I think the game has quite a challenge ahead to win me over. And I have a challenge to unlearn the combat rhythm and button layout of the Souls games. It's a perfectly OK game so far but I'm not getting a sense that I'm warming to it as much as I hoped I would for reasons I can't quite put my finger on. It's definitely not the combat system. It might just be the ridiculously high expectations I've had since it was announced. More and more I think it would have been better if it had just been a new IP. The amount of baggage tied to the FF name is huge. I will continue on in the hope I get into it as I progress. I really liked the music in that first forest area so at least they've got things right in one of the important areas.

Outside of that I will probably play more Diablo 4. Now that's a game that's hooked me more than I expected. It's been a few days since I've been able to fire it up and I'm missing it! And there will be more of the excellent Street Fighter 6 too.

I too recommend ShopTo vouchers. I've loaded up my wallet but am yet to pre-order (yes, despite my numerous comments about the combat on other threads). I'm sort of waiting for the reviews, though as others have said I suspect it will get a lot of 8s and 9s. And really, I'll be getting it either way.

On the subject of the combat, and specifically Souls games, this reminds me that Stranger of Paradise exists. I know that was widely panned but perhaps I should check it out for the combat alone...

@Judal27 Yes, I hope there really are more options and there are multiple combo options as the game goes on. I still contend most people will have a favoured set they perform repeatedly, which to some will feel like engagement enough. The challenge mode looked more promising but given it started with a story spoiler I didn’t want to play too much. I’ll be interested to see how I really feel once the game is finished.

The other thing is that From are the pinnacle when it comes to action RPGs for me, so any game in the genre that doesn’t have that specific feel is going to feel disappointing to me.

@Judal27 I've been highly cynical from the start about the action combat, and my time with the demo essentially confirmed what I was expecting. It's not bad. It's not great either. Even with a few more mechanics on hand, I find you do end up stringing together the same sequence of actions over and over again. This is where the button mashing comments come from and they're not entirely wrong. The Tales series suffers from the same problem, even if the nature of its combat is slightly different.

On thing I've thought since the demo is that if the FF16 team really want you to get deep into the combo system then I hope the game has a training mode, as in any fighter or in games like Bayonetta. Hard to work out the timings otherwise. I'd be somewhat surprised if it does.

And in the end, I think this is just another example of why the combat feels out of place. It would be almost completely incongruous for a FF to have a combo training mode. People aren't coming to big RPGs like this for their flashy combo systems.

I was really hoping they were going to go with the same system as FF7R. That mixed up action and turn based combat in a really clever way. So in some respects, I'm probably just disappointed we didn't get that (or indeed a full return to a turn based system).

Regardless, I will pre-order the game, I will complete it and I will probably enjoy it. I just expect that by the time I get there, I will think of the combat as something I had to endure, much like with the (otherwise excellent) Tales of Arise.

Fear that Persona 6 might be Xbox exclusive based on rumours years back was one reason of many reasons I decided to pick up a Series X this generation in addition to PS5. Perhaps it will turn out that those rumours were really related to this game (if they were based on reality at all).

Still, I wouldn't be surprised at all if this game does end up on PS5. It's going to be where more of the market is for this kind of title.

I've pre-ordered this already as I definitely want the physical release but might not get to it for years yet. Still in the Sky trilogy at the moment (and loving it!).

@KaijuKaiser The first section was terribly wooden though I’ll concede that it did improve towards the end of the demo.

Having finished it now I think the eikon battles are the real low point. Perhaps they’ll be better later on in the game. The combat seems serviceable overall, the music is definitely good and the world seems very interesting.

A 9 remake would be incredible if we get it.

I’ve not finished it but it’s quite underwhelming so far. I’m sure there will be more to the combat later but even got bored of it during the tutorial. Terrible voice acting. Far too many sections on rails. All of that said, I’ll almost certainly still play the full game to completion.

Maybe it's just me, but I'm slightly confused by this. It obviously sits outside of the character pass DLC? Where can the music be used? Perhaps I'm just not used to stuff like this as I don't play any live service games (though I suppose I do if SF6 is now considered one).

Given up on Tears for now - all in on Diablo IV and SF6. I'm surprised how much I'm enjoying D4 and wondering why I never really got into 2 and 3 when I tried them. Really glad I took a chance on 4. Just getting to what I assume is the end of Act I now and will definitely be seeing this through to the end.

@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

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.

This and SF6 have completely displaced ToTK for me. With FF16 coming up it might be months before I get back to Zelda, if at all. Even with all the new stuff I just felt like I was playing BoTW.

On topic: I'd previously tried to get into D2 and D3 but neither held my attention that long. I'm not sure what it is, but D4 is really holding my attention. Really loving the atmosphere, character building and the music. Like others have said, I struggle a bit with the perspective, but it's not a deal breaker for me.

They should have done turn based combat 😆

But in all seriousness, this game will sell well. I’m pretty sure I’ll buy day one even with my huge misgivings.

Street Fighter 6! Loving it so far playing through arcade modes. Will lab the new characters later. Manon seems great.

Also trying not to buy Diablo 4! Even though I never really got into the previous games I’m intrigued. Any other month I’d have already jumped in but with FF16 also coming there’sa lot going on!

@Andy22385 I suppose what I'm really yearning for is the return of turn based combat Still, we have the pixel remasters. Currently playing FF6 for the first time and really enjoying it!

This looks very much as I feared - a lot of mindless button mashing. I desperately want this game to be good, but every video I see makes me more and more concerned.

Still only about a third of the way through the base game at the moment, with lots of stuff taking its place. Will definitely go back and finish it though, and this DLC!

The biggest niggle they should address before launch is replacing the action combat with turn based combat.

You can also play the Sky trilogy on Apple Silicon Macs using Crossover, though in places the performance is a bit patchy (unsurprisingly really). This will also work on Intel Macs. No need to bog things down with Windows. Playing games on a computer is a relatively miserable experience in general though.

In the UK Sky SC is available on Vita, which is how I'm playing it. Everybody says it's not the best, mostly due to the lack of a fast forward button, but that is really a total non-issue.

Of course, you can also play them all on Steam Deck if you have one of those.

Regardless of how you play, Sky does really feel like the best place to start. I played about 10 hours of ToCS, then Zero before relenting and going back to the start. It's well worth it.

I'm playing Sky SC for the first time at the moment on my Vita. Would love to see the trilogy on modern systems. Feels like one of those things which will never happen but stranger things have.

Royal is the one to play. Took me about 110 hours over a couple of months. Longest game I've ever played by a huge margin. An incredible experience from start to finish. I think what helps the Persona games manage their extreme lengths is that they're sort of comprised of two games in one. You have the dungeon crawling and combat, and you have the social sim/visual novel side. I always felt like just as I was starting to tire of one of those, the game flipped to the other style.

More RE4 Remake mostly for me, though I've not played in several days. Getting towards the back half of the game now but I'm taking a surprisingly long time over it. Even though it's a lot less scary than 2 and 3, in fact it's not really scary at all on the whole, I still find it quite intense so struggle a bit with longer sessions. Ideally I'd wrap it up before the HFW DLC drops but I doubt that's feasible.

This is the first time I've experienced a new mainline Final Fantasy release as a fan of the series. I've played a lot of the games over the last few years so I've been following along with FFXVI with a lot of interest. I was really hoping they'd go for a battle system like that of FF7R for XVI. The way that game melds something of the old turn based combat with real time action is really clever. The fact that XVI is going full action combat is the wrong direction for me.

I'm sure this game will be very polished and fun to play, but is it really Final Fantasy? Yes there are Chocobos and Moogles around the place, but is that enough? To me it looks like it could have been a new IP but they've chosen the FF name for the marketing bump.

I'm very excited about this!

This song does not fit the game at all. Fingers crossed it only appears in game during the final credits. It doesn't help that I'm not a Yonezu Kenshi fan at all.

Hard to tell if this theme song or the action combat is more out of place. Thank goodness we've got the pixel remasters in the next few days.

Switching between RE4 Remake and Forsaken. RE4 is brilliant, but even though it's less scary than 2 and 3 I can still only handle the tension for so long!

As for Forspoken, I can see the issues reviewers pointed out but I do think it holds its own. Sure there are some questionable choices, such as the fades to black, the inconsistent graphical quality and some of the more ponderous pieces of dialogue to name a few. However, the story and world are quite intriguing, I like Frey and Cuff and the combat and movement out in the world are pretty solid. Is is a masterpiece? No. It is however a very solid, "good" game. It has some great music too.

This has been one of my most anticipated games since it was announced. After the 2 and 3 remakes I never doubted it would be just as good - and it looks like it will deliver!

I’m finally making a start on this series with cold steel 1. I have zero too but I think CS is going to serve me better as an entry point.

@NEStalgia Yeah, that's it. I think if this was called anything other than Final Fantasy I'd be somewhat more interested in it. The name sets a tone as you say and not what some long time fans are expecting.

I actually started 13 again before Christmas and I managed to get quite a few hours in before I got distracted. It's still going to have the corridor problem and all but without the weight of expectations on it now it sort of seems OK. It also looks surprisingly good on the Series X. I'd like to go back to it eventually. 15 I could never quite get into but will try again one day for sure.

As for 14, I'm pretty sure I'll never play that one. Online games aren't my thing, especially one which is so massive now, but I too only hear good things.

SMT V was one of my top games of 2021. It was a bit of a shame that there were some resolution issues in the overworked, but otherwise it was a very beautiful title. Not sure if a graphics and performance bump would be enough for me to play it again but I'd certainly be tempted.

@NEStalgia Yeah, I agree with all of what you're saying here too. I especially like your point about a great set of ingredients not necessarily creating something greater than their sum.

I also worry about this style of combat not working well over a longer game. I really enjoyed Bayonetta 3 last year, so much so that I went back and played 2, but I was also glad the games are short. Whilst they have deep combo systems, in practice I learn and few and make it through the games with them alone. And certainly "deep combo systems" are not what I'm looking for when it comes to any RPG. I really love the From games and prefer that style of combat, but again I'm not sure I'm looking for that in a more traditional RPG. Like FF.

I guess in the end, as you say, we will see. I'm 100% certain I'll be playing the game. I just hope we start hearing stuff which makes it more exciting rather than less.

I'm pretty sure this has already been said countless times above, but none of this looks or sounds promising. For a start, why they chose such a dark and muddy looking area for this demo is a mystery. I can believe the game looks great overall but this section doesn't appear to illustrate this at all (even if it probably does look better when you see it running on the hardware).

And look, I really need to admit upfront that I want Final Fantasy to remain turn based, but the combat sounds awful. I could have bought action combat if it was like FF7R, where there was an element of turn based menu selection involved, but Final Fantasy should not be DMC or Bayonetta (as much as I like the latter). And big boss battles stuff with QTEs? Awful.

On top of all of that, the last thing they should be doing is going down the western style RPG route. I'm sure games like The Witcher and Skyrim are fine for some people, but I play Japanese RPGs for a reason. They shouldn't be selling out FF to what presumably is a bigger market. I don't think they need to.

So, I will buy the game on release day, and I'll probably enjoy it for what it is. But will it really be Final Fantasy in anything but name? It doesn't sound like it at all.

At this price I might finally bite on Ghost Of Tsushima! I’m pretty sure it’ll be something I only really play the first few hours of before getting bored, but I’d still love to check it out!

This will pretty much be my first AC game too - can't wait! I did pick up one of the Vita titles when 6 was announced but found it quite difficult to play due to the mechanics of the controls. I'm imagining the new one will feel much better!

Still all in on Fire Emblem Engage so not much on the PS5 this weekend. Planning to go back to Crisis Core once I've finished FE though Dead Space is tempting me...

Reading down the comments this week, just want to send my best wishes to everybody having a hard time with their health.

@KaijuKaiser @JP80 I also have to agree when it comes to Zelda - the only good game in the series is BoTW and that's just "good" rather than any of the other accolades people give it. I think people will be very disappointed with the new game as expectations seem to be unrealistic all round.

I do love Pokemon, Fire Emblem, Metroid and most other Nintendo franchises though. The truth is that without either Sony or Nintendo the gaming world would be losing something very special (and I have a soft spot for the Xbox too of course ).

More on topic - it's great to see the PS5 doing so well.

I'm currently in Japan and have seen FF16 marketing like this in quite a few places now. Starting to get quite excited about the release!

This is indeed high on the list of my most anticipated upcoming games - definitely beyond Spiderman 2 for me (which I imagine I won't play). I'll be surprised if this really does come out in 2023 but that's fine given we'll be getting FFXVI.

My main hope is this next game isn't so padded out with filler. FF7R was very good, but there were some awful sections which felt thrown in just to extend the run time. The part in the warehouse especially springs to mind.

Like others here I've just started Crisis Core. Felt like there was a bit of a slow start but getting into it now. Still not sure I really understand how the DWM works but I don't think you really need to!