FFXV Thoughts.

[coffee-san]

General:

- Game is phenomenal.
- Overworld is /massive/ and there's quite a bit to do; also little to no pop-ups which is great.
- Character synergy/dialogue is pretty refreshing.
- AI should be isn't very responsive to movement. Which is kind of annoying (ex. trying to walk past allies but they don't move, so you're stuck.)
- Nice amount of difficulty, game feels very rewarding in pretty much all aspects.


Combat: This is where pretty much most of my gripes came from.

- Customizable weapons is pretty fun. Wish there was more diversity though (2 spears, 2 short swords, longsword).
- Camera. Focuses too heavily on Noct, which makes it difficult to fight mobs.
- Parrying can be done simply by holding the guard button lol.
- Party AI doesn't really do anything in battle (when's customizable party AI)
- Targeting. Reticle is slow, makes it impractical almost to rely on target switching in mobs.
- Camera doesn't seem to be able to keep up with faster enemies, even if targeted.
- Ramuh was amazing. Hopefully the other summons aren't only usable in critical state and each has their own prerequisite to be used.
- Phantom Swords are broken/great lol.

Anyways, those are my thoughts on the FFXV demo. Not too many glaring issues that I'm sure won't be addressed in the full game. Feel free to share your own opinions based on your experience!

 

[Infest]

- AI should be isn't very responsive to movement. Which is kind of annoying (ex. trying to walk past allies but they don't move, so you're stuck.)

I nearly couldn't start the fight against the Behemoth because of this. xD

 

[LeonBlade]

- AI should be isn't very responsive to movement. Which is kind of annoying (ex. trying to walk past allies but they don't move, so you're stuck.)

Very annoying, one of my only actual complaints.

- Customizable weapons is pretty fun. Wish there was more diversity though (2 spears, 2 short swords, longsword).

I mean, I guess? It's just a demo, so I honestly wasn't expecting anything more than the bare minimum. You have pretty good range over what you can do already anyways. If you know the combat system properly you can engage with each weapon in the deck in the fight when you need to, so really adding more weapons on top of that without adding other features just feels like it would be a wasted effort.

- Camera. Focuses too heavily on Noct, which makes it difficult to fight mobs.

I agree with this for the most part, the camera can actually pan out more when you get into wider combat, I feel like it's something they will tweak over time.

- Parrying can be done simply by holding the guard button lol.

Parrying isn't as easy as holding down the guard button. There are many moves that have very small party windows. Take the Behemoth for example, I've only actually successfully parried him while trying to actually take him down, because he's more safer to attack from behind than in his front where you would actually get a parry off on him. Plus, even if you get the block window for the parry, which is small as it is, you THEN have to initiate the parry which again you need to be prepared for. While you can just stand in front of the Behemoth and wait, that's not really effective... And to top it off, in the open fields he runs around like crazy, so you don't exactly get the chance to sit around and wait for the perfect time to parry.

Needless to say, it's not really that simple.

- Party AI doesn't really do anything in battle (when's customizable party AI)

Definitely hit and miss with me, I've had great moments with my party AI and some poor moments.

- Targeting. Reticle is slow, makes it impractical almost to rely on target switching in mobs.

I'm not sure what you mean by that? The only gripe I have with targeting is being able to easily swap between targets with the right analog stick (if that's what you mean).

- Camera doesn't seem to be able to keep up with faster enemies, even if targeted.

You need to use a hard lock on for this, and it should be better. It's not going to jerk your camera around, that would disorient players if it followed the enemy perfectly.

- Ramuh was amazing. Hopefully the other summons aren't only usable in critical state and each has their own prerequisite to be used.

Ramuh was BREATHTAKING when I first used him, he scorched the land around him including the trees, it was beautiful.

As for my own thoughts? Honestly, it's everything I was expecting and definitely solidifying my confidence in areas like the battle system. Other than the things I replied with, I'd have to say that the Phantom Swords are really confusing as fuck. They don't do a good job at explaining them as passives or non passive skills and the order you get them doesn't effect anything. Also the final ability you get I'm confused as to what can be done fully with it, I also don't know if I've got other abilities to trigger or not because I'm just not sure when something has worked or not

Anyways, I'm really excited. Just beat Behemoth for the second time (this time without Ramuh) and it was really tough. Spent at least 2 or 3 hours fighting him and losing (about one hour each time). I leveled up and I'm now around level 40 for all my characters. Wondering what else there is to get. How many frogs? What about those magicite? I assume that there are only 4 Phantom Swords, but could there be another one...? (lol probably not)

 

[coffee-san]

@LeonBlade,
- Yeah I was pretty aware that we'd be getting the bare minimum. Pretty sure nothing from the demo will remain as it is in the full game. I pretty much was acknowledging that aside from passive skills you get from the weapons, nothing really changes, each category of weapon pretty much fights the same way is what I'm getting at. I should have been more clear on that.
- Regarding the reticle comment, I pretty much mean that when target switching, since it relies on the camera movement (which is pretty slow), it makes target switching a bit difficult if you're fighting a swarm of saber tusks or goblins that love to run off screen constantly.
- Hard lock-on on does help a bit, but the camera still does have a hard time keeping up with aforementioned enemies just because they're so fast.
- Also parrying really is that simple, I'm afraid. I played around with it, all you really have to do is acknowledge the parry icon and hold guard button and mash square. I haven't missed a parry on any of the enemies yet in this way lol. They'll probably fix that in full game

I nearly couldn't start the fight against the Behemoth because of this. xD

That was hilarious haha, they definitely need to make AI more responsive to the player. I got stuck in the cave because of this loool