Conan Plays FFXV

[cmdrdredd]

It reminds me of a MMO, and that includes the awful, fluff quests that you don't want to do. A friend of mine pretty much swore off the game once he saw some YouTube video about a quest to feed a cat. (I doubt he would've bought it anyway, but whatever. )

Stuff like that never bothered me in games. I had to get a job as a forklift driver in Shenmue and had to show up on time for work etc. Persona 4 had me tutoring a kid and meeting up with a friend for lunch (that I had to make based on their likes or dislikes) so I'm used to this type of stuff. Even great titles like The Witcher 3 had lots of filler quests and random junk to do, like the one quest about finding a woman's lost frying pan and all the smuggler's cache locations that had nothing of real value inside. The difference I see with FFXV is that these quests still develop the characters a bit and make them seem more like real people, relatable I guess you could say. Not unlike how it worked in Persona where doing these things increased your bond with the other character.

I've only played a little bit of FFXV so far but the mundane tasks have lots of banter between characters and you can get a sense of how close they are as friends. That's fine. Now if it were just endless fetch quests with no chatter between the characters, no context, just a random quest that ended and you got a couple gil as a reward then that would be a problem.

 

[smackababy]

I'd love to play this game, but a 40GB install from disk and a freaking 10GB day one patch... Wtf? It's like they don't want me to play tonight.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I'd love to play this game, but a 40GB install from disk and a freaking 10GB day one patch... Wtf? It's like they don't want me to play tonight.

Lol wanna hear something funny. The head of development said a couple months ago that the delay in release was because they didn't want a large day one patch. We got one anyhow. It seems pretty common to have this anymore. I guess they find stuff to fix after the game goes gold and deliver those fixes in a patch at launch.

 

[Aikouka]

Lol wanna hear something funny. The head of development said a couple months ago that the delay in release was because they didn't want a large day one patch. We got one anyhow. It seems pretty common to have this anymore. I guess they find stuff to fix after the game goes gold and deliver those fixes in a patch at launch.

I believe that the biggest aspect of the Day One patch is that they're adding in videos segments from Kingsglaive. This might relate to what Ars was reporting as the biggest issue with the game (so far)... the story just isn't that good or engaging. It's kind of interesting, because you were talking about the banter between some characters, but their article complained that that's all it was.

I haven't really had time to play, but I did get my deluxe edition copy yesterday. I did hear that the game has some minor performance issues. I just hope that it isn't so bad that it makes me consider a PS4 Pro! It's kind of amusing, because I remember playing games like Mega Man on the NES, which is notorious for slowdowns, but back then, we never thought much about it... or at least I didn't. I guess it's because the slowdowns were kind of helpful in some ways (it was almost like bullet time in some games!), but with the fancy 3D games, it feels very jarring.

 

[cmdrdredd]

The slowdowns aren't too bad, the pro patch is not available so it's the same on either console right now. When the new patch is released you will be able to do 1080p/60fps (or close to it) on the Pro or 4k/30fps.

I think a lot of reviewers are taking the game the wrong way. The story is not an overarching plot line like previous FF titles. This was known for some time. How did they forget this? I remember reading many times over the course of development that they are taking a new approach to story telling with this one where it's about the characters rather than the war, the impending doom of the world, or an intricate plot by the antagonist. Generally speaking, the story in FFXV is Noctis and his sworn brothers on their adventure through the world. Knowing this it makes sense that there is a lot of banter between them and that there is only a cursory mention of the Niflheim invasion.

I guess I don't understand why they are complaining about things that I have known since long before the release of the game. I would have assumed they knew this going into it and feel that complaints about that are silly at this point. Sure it's ok to mention how it's different from previous FF titles in regard to how the story of the game is told and unfolds, but actual complaints and subsequent point deductions for it don't seem fair to me.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

When the new patch is released you will be able to do 1080p/60fps (or close to it) on the Pro

I hope so or I'm buying the Slim (I already bought a bunch of PS4 games on Black Friday).

 

[smackababy]

So, I haven't gotten a ton of the way in, but people complaining about the characters and the story have never played a FF game. So far, I'm enjoying it. Even if the story is just what is laid out in the first few chapters (it likely isn't as the third has some kind of twist thing already) I'm okay with that. It isn't any different than bad thing happens to good guys and you gotta be the hero of most other games.

 

[cmdrdredd]

A few tips for people starting out and who may not understand a few things.

You only gain XP when you rest. Each battle and quest will give you XP but it accumulates and you have to rest in order to claim it. You can rest at a camp area, an RV or a hotel. The RVs and Hotels will give XP bonuses but cost gil. It's worth it though if you have some XP saved up to get the bonus. A motel is 1.5x and the fancy Hotel in the resort town is 10,000gil but gives 2x bonus.

Do the hunting requests from the diners in the rest areas. They give decent rewards and xp. Speaking of diners, talk to the guys behind the counter to have the treasure locations etc marked on your map for the local area.

Avoid walking around at night if you can at first. There are some enemies in the starting area that come out only at night that you might not be able to beat until much later. I found a lv38 Bandersnatch that killed me in 2 or 3 shots when I was level 4. This enemy isn't there only at night but I came across it by accident when exploring at night and had a tough time seeing it. It's possible to win by making it a long distance fight and using warp strikes to your advantage etc. You just can't get hit more than a couple of times.

Don't fast travel with the car too often because as you drive along you may pass an area with some treasures or things. You can hop out and go collect it. Also about treasures they are used to upgrade weapons and spells but some of them you get quite a few of and they can add up to quite a lot of gil if you sell them. I've been keeping a few of each type and selling the extra. You can buy weapons anyhow and I've seen people who have completed the game say that they never found a need to use the treasures so use them as a source of money since unlike many other games you don't get money from battle.

In battle you can access the items menu by pressing the right trigger. This will allow you to use healing potions, antidotes etc. The battle will pause when you are in this menu as well which is nice. Also don't forget that you can warp to a high place or hide behind a rock to recover HP and MP. I often forget I can warp to a high place, recover, then warp strike back into the fight. Also don't forget to swap weapons depending on the situation. Some may give bonus damage to enemies who haven't been damaged, or increased damage for warp strikes or blind side attacks. Use these to your advantage. Also watch out for using magic as it can hurt you and your party as well as the enemies. I find it best to use it at the beginning of the battle rather than when you are in close combat. Also you can lock onto a target by holding R1 on PS4 or RB on XB1 and then pressing R3. This will lock you to the target without needing to hold R1/RB the whole time.

Some of these may have been covered in a tutorial in the game but if you are like me and skipped them or just didn't bother, then it may be helpful to know.

 

[chimaxi83]

Just bought this, downloading while I'm at work. Playing on a One S. Looking forward to it

 

[cmdrdredd]

I absolutely hate the way they did magic in this game. It's basically an AOE that has friendly fire. So if you cast firaga it will ignite the area in flames and damage your party as well as yourself. The area remains on fire and even if you point warp to a high spot that is close to the affected area you are still being burned. It's pretty stupid. You basically have to avoid the area until the effect wears off.

I also found something kind of silly. If you start sprinting and then continually jump you will not drain stamina but will continue moving at sprinting speed.

 

[WhiteNoise]

I preordered this paid in full awhile back. I still haven't picked it up. Might drive over tonight I suppose.

 

[smackababy]

I absolutely hate the way they did magic in this game. It's basically an AOE that has friendly fire. So if you cast firaga it will ignite the area in flames and damage your party as well as yourself. The area remains on fire and even if you point warp to a high spot that is close to the affected area you are still being burned. It's pretty stupid. You basically have to avoid the area until the effect wears off.

I also found something kind of silly. If you start sprinting and then continually jump you will not drain stamina but will continue moving at sprinting speed.

I like how they did magic. It is silly throwing a huge ball of fire only hits bad guys, IMO.

Also, if you let go of sprint and time it just right, the gauge refills and you can continue sprinting.

 

[WhiteNoise]

Took about 15 minutes to install the game and download the patch. I only played about 40 minutes or so but so far so good. Looks great and I'm playing it at 4k w/HDR. I haven't noticed any dropped frames yet but I haven't been in any major battles yet either.

 

[KentState]

Spent a few hours with the game yesterday. I have a lot of mixed feelings about the game. Just a very odd experience all the way around, but fun enough to keep going.

The slowdown is pretty jarring, but from everything I've read, it's a frame pacing issue, not an actual drop in frames. Some good video showing how the issue in prevalent on both the regular and Pro PS4. The XB1 doesn't have the issue, but the resolution is 720p with a lot of post processing thrown on top.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nANRQ-NGPZQ&t=334s

For the game itself, the mixture of fantasy, real world stuff and the characters just doesn't align. Why and the hell is Coleman camping equipment or stereotypical redneck accents in a FF game? It's like the put a boy band, Borderlands, Game of Thrones and Metal Gear in a big bag and then pulled out random parts. The music is the same way. Ranges from orchestral to what reminds me of Arnold Palmer golf for the Sega Genesis. Is lounge music really the right fit?

 

[cmdrdredd]

I like how they did magic. It is silly throwing a huge ball of fire only hits bad guys, IMO.

Also, if you let go of sprint and time it just right, the gauge refills and you can continue sprinting.

The way magic is supposed to work is it is targeted. This isn't targeted, it's just throwing an elemental bomb. It's totally not final fantasy in this respect

 

[cmdrdredd]

Spent a few hours with the game yesterday. I have a lot of mixed feelings about the game. Just a very odd experience all the way around, but fun enough to keep going.

The slowdown is pretty jarring, but from everything I've read, it's a frame pacing issue, not an actual drop in frames. Some good video showing how the issue in prevalent on both the regular and Pro PS4. The XB1 doesn't have the issue, but the resolution is 720p with a lot of post processing thrown on top.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nANRQ-NGPZQ&t=334s

For the game itself, the mixture of fantasy, real world stuff and the characters just doesn't align. Why and the hell is Coleman camping equipment or stereotypical redneck accents in a FF game? It's like the put a boy band, Borderlands, Game of Thrones and Metal Gear in a big bag and then pulled out random parts. The music is the same way. Ranges from orchestral to what reminds me of Arnold Palmer golf for the Sega Genesis. Is lounge music really the right fit?

Coleman sponsored the game in some way that's clear lol. However the accents I guess it's supposed to represent a backwater town or something. I don't know Japanese so I can't tell you whether they are using any kind of character traits to represent a hillbilly and for English the best they could do is a southern accent. Others have said that Cindy's mannerisms are that of a teenage Japanese girl and the accent doesn't fit.

As for performance both the pro and the regular PS4 are rendering the game exactly the same and there are no performance advantages for the pro currently. That patch is due out this month. I don't find the performance to be a real problem though. The game looks great to me and I really like he combat.

 

[KentState]

Coleman sponsored the game in some way that's clear lol. However the accents I guess it's supposed to represent a backwater town or something. I don't know Japanese so I can't tell you whether they are using any kind of character traits to represent a hillbilly and for English the best they could do is a southern accent. Others have said that Cindy's mannerisms are that of a teenage Japanese girl and the accent doesn't fit.

As for performance both the pro and the regular PS4 are rendering the game exactly the same and there are no performance advantages for the pro currently. That patch is due out this month. I don't find the performance to be a real problem though. The game looks great to me and I really like he combat.

Thought the pro had two modes. Performance or IQ? The video from digital foundry showed the frame pacing difference.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Thought the pro had two modes. Performance or IQ? The video from digital foundry showed the frame pacing difference.

The patch has not been released for the pro to enable 1080p/60 or 4K/30


Don't sell your coins guys. The debased and rare coins can be added to elemancy spells to create xp bonus bombs. You can stack these against enemies and rack up massive bonus xp. If played right you can get 1mil xp with various bonuses and hotel stays. The ascension coins are used as a form of currency from a special vender who sells rare accessories that are worth it. Things to reduce elemental and darkness damage are rare and these coins allow you to buy them.

 

[WhiteNoise]

The patch has not been released for the pro to enable 1080p/60 or 4K/30.

So what is the game playing in then on a 4k TV? Is the PS4 Pro up-converting 1080p to 4k? That would explain why I think the visuals are not as sharp as they should be. Still looks great but not 4k great.

 

[cmdrdredd]

So what is the game playing in then on a 4k TV? Is the PS4 Pro up-converting 1080p to 4k? That would explain why I think the visuals are not as sharp as they should be. Still looks great but not 4k great.

I don't believe it's doing any special rendering. It's just 1080p. There is an option for light or high resolution but that only seems to affect the textures. I tried seeing differences but the only obvious thing was lower resolution textures and characters.

 

[cmdrdredd]

There sure is a lot to do in this game. I have been doing hunts and side quests. I have 3 royal arms and am only on chapter 3 at level 36. I am just about to the point where the side quests are behind barricades that won't unlock until chapter 8 so I am going to be forced to continue the main missions.

So far I found only 2 enemies that give me trouble. The first are Coeurls who are just super fast and have some attack that kills you in 1 hit via lightning. They also have auto counter when they lay down to regen mid fight which is super annoying. The second is a lv54 Midgardsormr that poisons me and does some other move that 1 shots me. I've killed two Bandersnatches and a Behemoth with no trouble lol. Other than that it's just gangs of enemies that give me minor trouble but manageable.

It also feels a bit odd to get the Ultima Sword at chapter 3. Although if I am being honest I went out of my way to grind for it and you probably shouldn't be lv36 at that time. Ignore the playtime at the bottom left. I fell asleep while driving from place to place last night and the game was on for a few extra hours. It's probably closer to 35hours of actual play time. Much of it driving and running from place to place for quests and playing the Justice Monsters Five minigame to get a few rewards.

 

[WhiteNoise]

I don't believe it's doing any special rendering. It's just 1080p. There is an option for light or high resolution but that only seems to affect the textures. I tried seeing differences but the only obvious thing was lower resolution textures and characters.

Hmmm While playing if I check my TV res it claims the game is running in 4K so the PS4 must be up-converting it I would think. Visually it doesn't look like 4k though.

As for the game...I'm a little torn at the moment. It's a bit boring so far. I'm only L5 though so I suppose things don't start happening until I progress further.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I think you are confusing rendering with output. When you set the console to 4K resolution that is what it will output even if games are rendered at 720p. The game needs to be specifically coded to use the checkerboard rendering technique for higher quality scaling. Also for any higher resolution rendering. For example, battlefield 1 is rendered at 900p on the standard PS4 and it is then outputting at 1080p. For the pro, DICE renders the game at 1800p and then the console scales it to 4K. In ratchet and clank the game is rendered at the same resolution as the standard PS4 but it uses checkerboard rendering to scale the game to 4K which is a very good scaling method that is hard to distinguish from native rendering. It's all in how the developers use the power.


As for the game you don't get a whole lot of direction and you don't have a lot of story narrative to give you the gist of what's going on. With this game the story for the game is better explained in the anime and movie which was a bad idea to me. I think there is a better way to tell the story through the game, even a notebook or something in the game where you could read up on what is happening up until the point the game starts.

 

[WhiteNoise]

Ahh thanks. Yeah I get a little confused obviously.

 

[KentState]

As for the game you don't get a whole lot of direction and you don't have a lot of story narrative to give you the gist of what's going on. With this game the story for the game is better explained in the anime and movie which was a bad idea to me. I think there is a better way to tell the story through the game, even a notebook or something in the game where you could read up on what is happening up until the point the game starts.

I started to watch the anime series last night and it was downright impossible unless you know Japanese. Trying to read sub titles takes away so much from the animation that I miss half of what is being said. Maybe there is a voiced English version?