Final Fantasy XV: Cup Noodle XV Special Edition

[Skai]

A lot of people also forget that the retail version of the game will likely be more tuned than what we are seeing now.

[Lucavi]

This game easily looks like it'll rekindle my love of field grinding in FF titles. I had so much fun in FFXII the first time I got Vossler and just grinded the hell out of the desert, finding slick new AI gambit combos to use. I'm getting the same vibe from this game, so even though I'm glad they have the option to challenge yourself by not grinding and leveling up via camps, the old school grinder in me (I'm the guy that grinds Paladin Cecil and Palom on Mt. Ordeals until Palom has -at least- Quake) is super happy.

[Kuya]

A lot of people also forget that the retail version of the game will likely be more tuned than what we are seeing now.

If i had a dollar...

[Tidane]

If i had a dollar...

I hate being that guy, but again: demons are not supposed to be perfect. Please keep this in mind. I know that everyone likes to parrot negative remarks about gamers being overly optimistic about what will change from a demo to release. This is a valid point to make, but it brings with it the expectation that every demo that comes out will be polished and finalized. This puts us into the same position we are currently in, where the only purpose the industry sees for a demo is to keep people from buying the game. I'm of the opinion that you continue to criticize the demo for what it is while acknowledging that the final version "needs to have X fixed and would be better with Y changed". There are certain things that obviously wouldn't change from an alpha/beta demo to release version, but combat tuning is one of those things that is extremely likely to change. If we get to the pre-release reviews and the game is still shit, don't buy it and move on.

That said, here is my opinion of the demo footage. Absolutely no one should care to read this.

Combat
This is what I was most worried about going in, as I'm the one guy in the world that plays games for the combat and not the story / graphics / whatevers. Most of the video was the player running around not engaging in any combat while the NPCs swung their weapons at things. The fact that they were comfortable releasing the demo without any magic was worrying to me, because I saw that as them only having a one button attack implemented. The demo video didn't do a lot to quell this fear.

Parrying
If my understanding is correct, you parry attacks by holding down the guard button. MP will only be consumed when you parry an attack. This boils down to being able to hold down the guard button the entire time. From the demo footage, it looks like you still recover MP while holding the guard button. To me, this feels like it would remove a lot of the strategy of when to guard. If there's no downside to holding guard down, it seems like it would make more sense to implement the feature as a toggle: turn guard on and MP is used to avoid damage, turn guard off and it stops being used. Perhaps this is an oversight that will be changed later. I noticed at one point Noctis appeared to be guarding and two enemies attacked. The MP was taken for both guards but still appeared to recover before the next attacks. Hopefully the values used for regen and guard are set high for the demonstration.

I did like that there appeared to be some sort of rudimentary cover system based around guarding. When Noctis went behind a rock, the guard symbol popped up and let him take cover. His HP/MP regened much quicker once in cover.

Attacking
Without magic, the only thing (other than guarding) that you can do is attack. From what I can see, that leaves one button for attacking. It also appeared that each weapon had a special ability that could be used for some MP cost.

There were some attacks that looked like they should've hit (based on direction and distance), but no damage popped up. It seemed to happen most often when attacking the larger targets, so I'm not sure if that is an issue with the hitboxes or what.

Holding down a button to attack still seems a bit...blah, but hopefully that will be suboptimal and either timing or interweaving is better than just holding down the button. If this game is hold L1 to guard and square to attack, I'm not sure now they'll get the necessary depth in the gameplay to make it enjoyable.

Being Attacked
One thing I saw that I wasn't quite sold on was the recoil from being hit. It seemed like being hit would cause attacks to be interrupted. This was especially noticeable when dealing with the soldiers shooting at Noctis. I imagine this could be partially avoided by interweaving guard with attacks, but when the player was running around swinging and being interrupted, it was noticeable (and annoying, to me). This is another case where playing it will be the ultimate decider in how well it is implemented.

Weapons
There appeared to be five weapons in the demo and most of them had special abilities. It looks like each weapon has a rank and there are five different slots a weapon can be put in. I think that three were part of the combo moveset, one was for countering, and one was for aerial attacks. I imagine that certain weapons are better for certain positions based on damage, speed, and etc. I'd like to see some more information on that and the weapons system in general. It is probably a relatively simple "big sword end combo" setup, but it would be interesting if there was more depth.

Co-Op Attacks
I saw one co-op attack in the demo. You seem to parry an enemy with an ally close to you, then you get a button for a counter. You press it to do your ally's attack and then again to do your own attack. I would've much preferred the original "play as any party member" idea, as this just seems like a minor annoyance. If the AI moves your ally close enough, you can do a co-op attack. Otherwise, keep chipping away.

Movement
For the most part, I liked the movement around the world. There didn't appear to be many invisible walls (though I'm sure they would've avoided them anyway). I didn't see the player getting stuck on terrain. The animations seemed heavy, but it didn't look like they impacted movement responsiveness. That's something we'll have to see for ourselves, but unlike the combat / hit animations, it seemed like transitions in and out of them were relatively quick.

Warp was nice. I liked the warp to targets. I liked the short warp directly ahead of you. I liked the warp to terrain points.

I got linked to this image of the control scheme. I do not like having sprint on L3. Hopefully the game allows you to remap buttons.

[fliprock]

it looks like it kind of follows the kingdom hearts party system (goofy melee/donald magic). gladiolus was heavy melee, prompto ranged melee, and ignis healing.

[Skai]

If i had a dollar...

Ya, that's how I feel too when people say a game doesn't look like it will play well when all we have to go by is a demo.

And what dude said above.

[Akiyama]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=997082

Link to an in depth analysis of the combat system.

[Shenrien]

Need a gif edit of the animal running noctis down with hype train.

http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/...-xv-combat.gif

[Dantrag]

Can't wait for this game. I hope they do it justice. I haven't played a console FF game(console) since 12(Now that I think about it that means I just missed 13 lol).

[Adajer]

Dat music...... dat combat

HYPE


also needs GTA wasted gif when his hp hit zero

[Tyrath]

Is that like the normal combat music in the caves? Because it's awesome. Can I has demo yet???

[Adajer]

I think I'm going to preorder Type 0 just for the demo ~_~


Also, I wish there was word on PC version.

[Lucavi]

I just want this game. Goddamn it looks like a hyper-evolved and refined mashup of FFXII and KH's combat, which I want!

[Cichy]

seems like a nice variety for just one area and I like the design

[Kaslo]

I'm hoping that frog at the beginning is an NPC you have to cast frog on to turn back into a human.

[Waraji]

Hope this comes out on PC sooner than later. Amirite?

[Adajer]

At launch please. or announcement before launch.

[Charismatic]

You would be insane to expect that. I'm gonna go ahead and say right now that it ain't happenin' anywhere near that soon. Gonna milk console owners first and then let people double dip on PC 1yr+ later.

Calling it now.

[Adajer]

Well, the operative word was "hope". It is my hope that it would.


With FFXIII coming to pc. I definitely believe this will be on PC eventually. I just hope it wont be as long as the FFXIII wait for PC was. I dont think it will be.

[Shenrien]

Considering that both console are just PCs with shit tier specs and fancy RAM, I don't see a reason that a port would be difficult for them to do. If anything that has come from current-gen(more like late-gen by todays standards of gaming) has made it easier to do ports from the console to pc, the only thing that should prevent it form happening is if some company wants to be a pile of dicks and pay the company on the side to maintain it as a console timed exclusive so people have a reason to purchase either console.