Final Fantasy 16 was announced

[Shougun]

I can see why some might have felt FFXV's combat needed more iterations but don't really agree with the hate on the concept of action combat in general. I feel FF series can absolutely have both the depth and breadth of the classic games while also being fast paced.

Just recently I replayed the witcher 3 with some mods that in effect make it harder than the hardest difficulty (focus off hp sponges, onto hyper aggression / skill usage), what I noticed was I regularly used many pieces of my kit- like all my bombs, all my potions, all my signs, multiple types of weapons, it was almost samurai like where it was a series of really intense moments followed by an intense 'breather' of me diving into my menu as the slow motion of that one hit ko move was coming at my face (the menus that slow down time, not the ones that pause it).

Now I'm not saying it has to be like that but just that I'm confident that SE could, potentially, pull off an action rpg with high strategy, depth, variation, and nostalgia. They just need to figure that one out lol. Of course SE already has some action games with some variety like Kingdom Hearts but I do feel it's parsed down a bit, like the amount of choices I had to make in Witcher 3 at max vs Kingdom hearts at max is like 5 vs 40 but yeah lol (still had fun with KH, just that if say it was a job based game you'd have a hard time selling "white mage" nostalgia with a character who had a basic attack and cure as their near only moves).

Also I feel like some of what I see in the trailer, now that I've seen it twice, has some of our feedback from early on in FFXIV. Maybe just a crazy / been here too long repercussion but I swear I saw a few things that were like "eeeeeeey, did the forums influence that?". Of course with some classic Yoshida making what seems to be an off hand comment is actually exactly what he plans on doing thing lol. Like how he mentioned the order of our expansions very early on, or fairly well described nearly exactly what blue mage would be all the way back in ARR beta days.

Tangenting off that I feel there could be a fun job made out of what they were showing, for FFXIV.

As for the discussion on zones- there were some more straight forward areas, hopefully they'll mix that with some slap you in the face zones too. Like if we think of more realistic(ish.. lol) fantasy games like Witcher 3, your Ard Skellige was your main wild fantasy area, with of course some treats here and there like the ending series of content of the game. I'm okay if some of it is subdued, just still want to make sure it's "pretty", but you'll definitely want some moments that go "damn".

[Shurrikhan]

I can see why some might have felt FFXV's combat needed more iterations but don't really agree with the hate on the concept of action combat in general.

Sadly we tend to base concepts around the implementations of it we know with relatively little work to imagine how else they might play out or what actually defines that concept. If all I'd seen of "action combat" was FFXV's, and let my imagination stop there... I, too, would probably hate "action combat".

Tangenting off that I feel there could be a fun job made out of what they were showing, for FFXIV.

Personally, I was just reminded of the job-swapping in the Shadowlands trailer and thinking "Oh, shoot, right, we have core game concepts by which to do all that cool stuff!" only to seconds later remember "But we're irrevocably set upon the course taken away from character-centric progression or meaningful customization in favor of character-as-one-job-at-a-time..."

At this point, if I heard that XVI's production was going to have an impact in XIV, I'd be at least as worried as hopeful. Still, it's got some great food for thought in there.

[Kahnom]

That goon though ....

[Neri]

That goon though ....

SE did capture his trait quite perfectly though, by letting him tank the floor.

[Amnmaat]

What will make XVI good or bad is not the graphics, it's how well it handles everything else. If it's just a straight and linear story it'll be no different from playing Devil May Cry. If it's a story with open world environments where you can can pick up a bunch of open world quests; have a huge selection of weapon types, a huge amount of glamour options, the ability to create your own character (as a new game+ bonus?); it's these extra features that will make/break FFXVI.

Games with a straight story don't fare well, good games these days offer you a good amount of customization; character creation (I know it's not an mmo, but any good solo rpg has a character creator now, specially Western ones), a huge amount of challenges to do in the world that build the game's lore and exploration systems.
So miss me with the graphics, I'm all about how rich or dull the world around the story is.

[linayar]

What will make XVI good or bad is not the graphics, it's how well it handles everything else. If it's just a straight and linear story it'll be no different from playing Devil May Cry. If it's a story with open world environments where you can can pick up a bunch of open world quests; have a huge selection of weapon types, a huge amount of glamour options, the ability to create your own character (as a new game+ bonus?); it's these extra features that will make/break FFXVI.

Games with a straight story don't fare well, good games these days offer you a good amount of customization; character creation (I know it's not an mmo, but any good solo rpg has a character creator now, specially Western ones), a huge amount of challenges to do in the world that build the game's lore and exploration systems.
So miss me with the graphics, I'm all about how rich or dull the world around the story is.

Uh, I want a linear/straight story in my Final Fantasy games, even more so for a single-player game.

[Amnmaat]

Uh, I want a linear/straight story in my Final Fantasy games, even more so for a single-player game.

If only I could dig up this very quote from 2010/11 when FFXIII came out. Yeah, linear story good, or so you think that's what you want. If there's one thing Yoship's good at, he knows people say one thing but they really don't mean it. FFXIII taught them that they can't just make a linear, story focused FF game. It has to have depth to it. Either through its battle system (XII with its zociac boards/LP; X with its spheres, levels, and other things, VII with its materia, etc) and/or through its world environment like in XII, VIII, and some others.You can't just give us a movie and expect that to be a good product. Some of the most memorable things about FF happen to be its battle systems and world environment. FF can't stand on story alone, the people who are good at analysis understand this.

[Shurrikhan]

If there's one thing Yoship's good at, he knows people say one thing but they really don't mean it.

I guess that's how he knows which opinions or inquiries to cherry-pick so he can address only our most surface-level conflicts or concerns while avoiding any interaction with most of the underlying issues?

Granted, I can respect that skillset.

[linayar]

If only I could dig up this very quote from 2010/11 when FFXIII came out. Yeah, linear story good, or so you think that's what you want.

Well, considering I very much enjoyed FFXIII, I guess I do know what I want. Right now, it's second only to FFIX as my favorite.

[Shurrikhan]

Well, considering I very much enjoyed FFXIII, I guess I do know what I want. Right now, it's second only to FFIX as my favorite.

It's funny how 'meta' the linearity to that game is.
Spoilers:

You're start in a world where all is linearized, optimized, and what few people enjoy any real sense of freedom only do so because it helps maintain the illusion for everyone else while they go on enjoyably with preset, catered lives, as crafted by gods made by man to serve man who and who, since they've no freedom, only want to die.
Pulse, a world which doesn't give a damn about people, is by contrast one of the most open world experiences we've ever had in an FF.

It's likewise a top 3 for me, after 9 and alongside a split between 7 and 8.
That said, 4 and 6 were pretty great too, so... it's all real close, though, honestly.