Definitely one of the most somber games I’ve ever played. Agreed on the music; I’m generally not big on Motoi Sakuraba, but I think this is one of his best soundtracks. The overworld is a vibe, and the theme is a big part of why.

The undub is worth looking into unless one’s really opposed to Japanese audio. Fifth-generation localized games were notorious for poor English voice direction and this game is no exception. Even the voice track quality isn’t as good as the original.

I kinda doubt proper antialiasing is going to be ready in time, so this might be the first time I really try Reshade for a game. Even at 200% a lot of it is still rough. There’s so much motion, even in quiet scenes.

Yeah, there’s a bizarre amount of particles in the world. I guess I’ll hear more about that later but combined with the usual busy Persona-style UI, I’m expecting to hear complaints, lol.

About 90 minutes in, I’m enjoying the gameplay so far (still super simple) and already 100% hooked by the story. English voice acting is also phenomenal. I think the people who haven’t been thrilled with Persona’s slow starts are going to like this.

I’m not sold on the visuals. The handcam-style screen drift in dialogue scenes is a bizarre choice, especially with this game being on consoles and more and more people playing on Steam Deck. The vast majority of players are going to have aliasing issues on their hardware, and that’s not going to be pretty with constant screen movement on a static scene with an anime style (and then it’s not in the animated scenes either). It just feels so weird to me in a game without a realistic style.

Steam reviews are also mixed right now complaining of frame drops, and I did get some bad performance in the very early outdoor area. Haven’t been to an area with that kind of draw distance since, and even in town I was able to maintain 60 FPS, so that’s a good sign if the expansive areas are few and far between in the game. A lot of little things are telling me it’s unlikely we’re going to see substantial performance improvements in the full game, and it’s going to have to overcome the Denuvo performance hit there, too.

Edit: finished the demo just now. I’m a little more used to the visual quirks (and I have a strong hunch that an interesting explanation is coming for one of them) and think this is going to be really good. I’m understanding now why Atlus is investing so much marketing into it.

More details on the Playstation blog.

Considering it’s Yoko, it’d worry me if it wasn’t random!

30 plus minute show.

Kidding aside, I agree, probably nothing earthshaking coming ahead of TGS.

I also kinda uh, forgot FF16 actually existed since I don’t do consoles and wasn’t even aware it had come out on PC until I read this article, heh.

This is what I keep coming back to with FF16. As the article hints at, you probably would have heard about it if word-of-mouth on the game was better. Instead, they make the controversial decision (even for a series as experimental as Final Fantasy) to go full action, Yoshida was perhaps a bit too honest with it in interviews, fanning the flames; and then stagger the releases. That’s a lot of hubris between changing the genre and betting on the PS5. Even if the game, major changes and all, was a bigger hit with the fandom, it sure feels like the ceiling was already set for this game by waiting a year on PC.

Now, given the lack of fanfare on the PC version’s sales, I’m left wondering just how bad they are overall. Is FF16 not even going to reach Persona 5’s numbers? That would mark a huge shift in the competitive landscape. If nothing else, FF16 ending up with a huge decline in mainline series sales could end up serving everyone by sending a message to the rest of the industry that exclusivity is too risky today.

Square Enix has had offerings in lower tiers. The Bravely series has been their AA-budget Final Fantasy, and the rest of the Asano division’s output (such as HD-2D) specializes in that range. They have also gone even lower recently with The Voice of Cards. SQEX’s new president recently laid out a new direction for the company, so it’s hard to say what their lineups will look like going forward, but for now, there’s a range for players to choose from.

Looks nice! Kickstarter games have been a little mixed lately, so I wonder what the appetite will be for the fundraising.

No editorializing was done here. That’s the title provided by the metadata, which is the easier option Lemmy provides when posting links.

I don’t know where you’re hearing retailers don’t enforce ratings. Yes, it happens uncommonly, but the FTC previously found ratings compliance was higher among video game retailers than at the box office, and not much has changed in the culture since then. I’ve worked at multiple retailers that sold video games, and the training for video games enforcement was always taken just as seriously as with alcohol sales.

Being the largest entertainment industry in the world now, video game publishers are serious about this stuff. Developers also still take steps to avoid a Hot Coffee situation from occurring again.

It doesn’t have to be jaded. As with the original quote I riffed off of, these particular Skinner boxes don’t have to always be pure evil and can provide net-positive outcomes, as long as we’re clear-eyed about the consequences of participating. The latter part is what I’m trying to drive home here. Consumer behavior psychology is part of every major live-service game.

Even if you do find the cabinet in the lavatory, the probability calculations for a simple use case are ridiculously complicated. It does reek a bit of “minimum compliance required by law.”

On the plus side, Hoyo (at least in Star Rail) doesn’t bombard the player in-game with pop-ups or the like. A zero-spend player that just wants to poke around in the story or the game world isn’t going to be harassed. Instead, it’s earnest marketing, by way of letting the player use characters on trial, featuring them in the story, or high-quality video productions published outside the game. They make as much money as they do because their production values on that stuff are among the best in the business.

As far as running a digital goods casino (where you don’t own the goods), I’ve seen far worse. I still don’t think we’re doing as much as we should to protect those with addictions to gambling or FOMO from these products, however.

Come on. We both know that legitimizing the RMT system increased the number of gold buyers and normalized the process. Not only does it now capture the players who were both a) squeamish about paying unproven third parties and b) had no recourse if they did get scammed, it’s also a far more convenient process. We know the gold-for-gear (and other services) market exploded in size because Blizzard was finally forced to make systemic changes to fight/redirect services spam. Service sellers are everywhere, and there was a point they were constantly in your whispers, your mailbox, your chat, your group finder. It’s nothing like it was 15-20 years ago.

No, gold buyers are not most players (and no, I don’t care that some players are doing it). Most gacha players aren’t whales, either. My point is that yes, your game is also chasing the whales right now and will continue to design systems to do so.

The AO rating is still the kiss-of-death for game content in North America, enforced by retailers. Even still, the ESRB only came about because the political climate at the time was very much “clean up your shit or we’ll do it for you.”

This reads like “the only moral Skinner box is my Skinner box.”

Also sounds like you haven’t played in a while. The addition of real currency to gold trading creates an even more direct pipeline from one’s wallet to in-game gear dice rolls. Guilds selling raid gear is even more common now, and with crafting orders, a whale can spend to reroll secondary stats on crafted gear.

With the way Warcraft is throwing currencies at players now, it’s clear Blizzard has taken more than a few cues from how gacha and other live-service outfits are doing things these days. Plenty of opportunities for ruinous, addictive behavior.

Something like Rune Factory? Or a different approach?

What stands out to me the most about the mainline series today is that it’s gone nearly 30 years with a track record of having quality games. While the games have had flaws and, more recently, time in development hell, the overall product has been at or near top-tier production quality in the industry (with the sole exception of Final Fantasy XIV’s 1.0). That’s remarkable considering how many different producers, directors and ideas the series has had. The series has become more experimental as of late, which has ruffled some feathers in the fandom. If that’s the direction they want to keep going in, I’m all for it amidst a sea of stale IPs in gaming that play it safe and churn out cookie-cutter productions.

My favorites in the main series are VI and X. It’s interesting to look back on VI and see how it was among the first to drive cinematic techniques in video games, be in awe at what Uematsu squeezed out of the SNES sound chip, and appreciate its timeless qualities like its sprite art. X is one I like more and more as time passes. I’ve explored the genre a lot more since I first played the game in 2003, and while I tend to find gameplay systems elsewhere I like more than those in Final Fantasy, FFX’s story remains one of my favorites in gaming. It’s amazing how much replay value the story offers on a second run, too. Really well-crafted stuff.

I’d say the series is facing a transitional point now, but that feels redundant considering it’s always changing. Sales have been on a major decline in Japan, and both Rebirth and XVI are going to need major showings on PC to stay ahead of breakout global performances from NieR, Dragon Quest, and growing competition from Atlus. I didn’t like a lot of Remake, so I’m not eagerly anticipating a PC release for Rebirth, but I did love everything about the recent FFXVI demo. Hopefully I’ll enjoy that one when I’m able to pick it up down the road; I’ve seen a lot of complaints.

In any case, Final Fantasy wasn’t my entry point to the genre and it’s not my favorite JRPG series now. Still, it’s what made me fall in love with the genre in the 90’s. I’ll always appreciate it for that.

FSR doesn’t use AI hardware. The original comment is overselling it a bit, but something AI-driven like DLSS does offer substantial (if slightly blurry) framerate gains.