![]() ![]() ![]() During this time, you’ll level up and get used to the combat, and by the time you return from this mission you’ll be ready for the real thing – which is for the best, as it all then kicks off for real. Clive heads on a preppy non-essential mission with two temporary party member NPCs (sadly not called Biggs & Wedge), that mission acting as a tutorial for combat and culminating in a battle against an iconic FF enemy. ![]() Soldiers and docile handmaidens alike get their throats slit in full view of the camera. FF16’s brutality, which is certainly new for this entry, is on proud display. There are both gentle character-developing story scenes and bombastic action. However, based on what I played of the rest of the game, pretty much everything you need to see is in the prologue. In the prologue you play as a younger version of Clive, FF16’s protagonist, experiencing a small characterful slice of day-to-day life before events unfold that set him on the path to his adult life – which is where the game really gets going. The term ‘vertical slice’ is generally bloody stupid exec-level speak that isn’t often very compatible with the manner in which games are made – but this segment of FF16 is one of the best examples of that term in action I’ve ever seen. Of the initial four hours, the first almost two hours comprises the game’s prologue – and this is the content the public will be able to experience in its upcoming demo. To paint a full picture, I got to play the first four hours of Final Fantasy 16, followed by a couple more hours’ of content from later in the game. That’s what leads to this headline, really. The conversation shifts, then, to the game as a work of art and design – and if people are going to be picking up what it’s putting down. From a fit-and-finish perspective, I’d confidently say that quality is no longer a question. It’s clear that this is the most confident and complete main-line Final Fantasy game at launch since the PS2 era it’ll match up to the excellent launch state of Final Fantasy 7 Remake. That’s the first major point I’d make about Final Fantasy 16, in fact. 45 minutes of Final Fantasy 16? Go on then. It’s a stark contrast to Final Fantasy 15, which had a messy final preview that was followed by a last-minute polishing delay before the preview embargo even lifted. There’s an air of confidence around how finished it is, in fact – I’ve been told that there’s no day-one patch to tighten things up, because it’s just not needed. You do this job for long enough and you get pretty good at identifying when something has been stitched together for a hands-on versus when it’s done – and this game appeared to be well and truly finished at this event, almost a full two months from release. Though all from a work-in-progress build that Square Enix was careful to note had been specifically designed for the media tour, much of what we played appeared to be pretty much the final version of the game. At a recent hands-on for Final Fantasy 16, we got to play a good six hours of content from across the game. ![]()
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