Off Topic Discussion Megathread

[Lauront]

The set up with the eikons reminds me a bit of AoT, and the Mothercrystals refs of Type 0. I don't want to hype myself up too much, but it is looking good, especially if it's going for a grittier theme.

The other two games which caught my eye were Eternights and The Callisto Protocol. Love me some space horror.

[Fukuro]

I'm also hyped for the Resident Evil 4 Remake! I heard it's from the unit that developed RE 2 Remake and Village, both fantastic games IMO! (RE 3 seems to have been developed by a different unit)

Also, Street Fighter 6 looks good too, an open-world Street Fighter game! It got me hooked too!

[MikkoAkure]

Mostly optimistic about the gameplay, a little worried that the script and acting could be as goofy as Stranger of Paradise and that the bedroom scene thrown in the trailer is going to be cringy.

At least they gave us a date and I know my deadline for getting a PS5.

[Tehmon]

The FFXIV trailer does not look good.

Final Fantasy has always had an essence of wonder, comedy and whimsy about it, and the worlds have always had great colorful high fantasy and sci-fi elements to break the otherwise bleak settings.

This game looks to take itself way too seriously, and lacks those elements completely. It's just too far from what I want from a Final Fantasy game. Take me back to Besaid Island and Balamb Garden!

[Vyrerus]

The FFXVI trailer does not look good.

It looks great.

Final Fantasy has always contained comedic relief, but it has not always been great, colorful high fantasy.

Final Fantasy II literally only has comedy in NPC dialogue, and in one or two interactions in the main story. It was incredibly melancholy, and literally featured monsters summoned from Hell by the Emperor of Palamecia.

Final Fantasy VI is set in a steampunk fantasy world with the majority of its color palette being greys, blacks, browns, and beige/off tan colors. In the second half of the game you are thrust into The World of Ruin with a deep dark blood red sea, maroon sky, and desolate earth as far as the eye can see with the exception of some scant forests. For every moment of comedy, there are two or three of incredible gravity. This includes a scene that you have to actively and somewhat RNG based avoid wherein Celes attempts suicide (unless you get Cid enough healthy fish). Bereavement is a common theme for no less than 1/4th of the game's cast.

Final Fantasy VII is similar to VI, except in a slightly more modernized setting. You play eco-terrorists trying to take down a world spanning Electric Power company that's bleeding the planet's life force dry for profit and control. It is only due to a plethora of mini-games at the Golden Saucer, along with the comedic relief elements that are usually present in an FF that the player is distracted from how incredibly grim the story actually is, being that it culminates in a rather Lovecraftian alien parasite being melded with a human fetus to create a super soldier who then becomes the will of that parasite, and attempts to break open the planet with a giant meteor and feast on its life force to become a god.

There is more whimsy in the next three entries, but none are without deeply existential questions and themes.

FFXI was a brutal, death filled MMO with absolute truck loads of comical relief and whimsy in the cutscenes, because the gameplay itself was slaughtering you every day. Even so, its more serious cutscenes are some of the most serious in the series with incredibly high stakes.

I don't think FFXVI will be absolutely serious all of the time, but even if it is, it will be hard to be more serious than entries they've already given us in the past. The trailers we've been given have been mostly focusing on the eikons/eidolons/summons, as well as the combat, since Final Fantasy has been moving towards action game for the last decade now. I am certain there will be NPC distractions and some comedy here and there within the more personal moments in the story, rather than the grand stakes that is the overarching plot.

[Tehmon]

It looks great.

Final Fantasy has always contained comedic relief, but it has not always been great, colorful high fantasy.

When a FF game hasn't been colorful high fantasy, it has made up with an extremely colorful cast of characters, heroes and villains alike. How FFXVI has presented itself is not making me confident, not with it's characters, atmosphere, character design or environment design. Everything has lacked the joy I require, as they are seemingly taking a deep turn into grimdark serious edgy nonsense, and they haven't showcased anything to balance that yet. Of course, this is based on a few trailers, but how they are marketing the game does not make me confident in the things I'd like to see in a singleplayer Final Fantasy game. The '' magic '' is not there.

[RyuDragnier]

When a FF game hasn't been colorful high fantasy, it has made up with an extremely colorful cast of characters, heroes and villains alike. How FFXVI has presented itself is not making me confident, not with it's characters, atmosphere, character design or environment design. Everything has lacked the joy I require, as they are seemingly taking a deep turn into grimdark serious edgy nonsense, and they haven't showcased anything to balance that yet. Of course, this is based on a few trailers, but how they are marketing the game does not make me confident in the things I'd like to see in a singleplayer Final Fantasy game. The '' magic '' is not there.

They did similar marketing for FFXII, if I recall, on how dark the game was. Even FFX's marketing was somewhat dark I believe on what all it showed.

[RyuDragnier]

Looks similar to FFXII to me, which also seemed pretty serious before it came out from the earlier trailers. But as we know, the full game itself was pretty whimsical and whatnot. If the rumor that the Heavensward writer is behind the script is true, then we will very likely see some wonder, comedy, and whimsy.

[Theodric]

Pretty much every Final Fantasy game has set out to do something new in order to stand out from the others. We've also had 'serious' entries in the past. Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy Type-0 instantly come to mind. They had much more grit, tragedy and intrigue than comedic moments but still did pretty well for themselves.

[MikkoAkure]

Pretty much every Final Fantasy game has set out to do something new in order to stand out from the others. We've also had 'serious' entries in the past. Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy Type-0 instantly come to mind. They had much more grit, tragedy and intrigue than comedic moments but still did pretty well for themselves.

The difference is that while those Final Fantasys were serious and their stories were well liked, Stranger of Paradise tried to do the same and missed the mark and is more recent than those games by over a decade. Type-0 is the newest of those listed and came out in 2011.

I'm excited to see a return to classically medieval and gritty and FFXII was one of my favorites, but if Clive spends the whole game screaming "EIKONS!!!!!" over and over, it's going to suck a bit of the enjoyment out of it so I'm keeping my hype down for now and being cautiously optimistic.