Noonan

You've unlocked your Chocobo via side quests, right?

Why So Blu?

Finally started it up and that prologue/intro is long as hell. I did enjoy that LOTR inspired Ifrit/Phoenix fight down through the cave -- that looked epic. I ran out of time and was only able to complete my training orientation. I'll play more tonight.

nickdawgy

Yeah. But doesn’t help everywhere.

RichC2

Switching to favor frame rate over Graphics also helps a little.

RichC2

I haven't finished the last few FFs, did they all have brothels and horny characters or is that a new addition for this very obviously Game of Thrones inspired entry?

mhg83

I been playing little by little whenever I have time. Made it past the prologue (Crazy end battle!)


Love that you can pet your Doggo

Noonan

14 is as mature and it's the same team that worked on this story. 12 kinda was as well but not as direct.

If you enjoy the story telling in 16, 14 has a free trial that would last you well over 100 hours on PC or PS.

GatorDeb

Ooohhhh I've never played a FF14 game, going to give it a try!

Noonan

FYI, FF14 is a MMO similar to World of Warcraft. It's SUPER solo player friendly though. But yeah, the full base game and first expansion are part of the free trial with no time restriction.

T-bone22

Frame rate mode sucks on this game. Sometimes it takes the resolution down to 720p and it's not even a solid 60. It's recommended to go with graphics for this game.

nickdawgy

I always go with graphics mode. On every game. No issues.

RichC2

Graphic mode is super sluggish to me, Frame Rate mode has, thus far, looked great 99% of the time

slop101

I'm not loving how limited this game is in terms of "scope".

It's certainly got spectacle, which is where all the budget seems to have gone, but that seems to come at the cost of locations and environments, which seem to be far too few for a game of this supposed magnitude.

T-bone22

Graphics mode is locked at 30 frames per second and is steady and stable. Performance mode's framerate goes all over the place, and significantly lowers the visual quality of the game. Digital Foundry put out a pretty extensive video showing all of this, and after thorough testing, recommends anyone to use Graphics mode as the game stands now. Maybe in the future they will release a patch that fixes the mess that is performance mode.

RichC2

Yeah I saw the digital foundry vid, it isn't nearly as noticeable in action, gameplay also just feels better. Far from perfect but the 30 fps version is choppy on my setup and feels slow/heavy.

Plus it was in response to Clive running in quicksand and while not perfect, it is a lot less of a problem in FR mode for a majority of the areas.

T-bone22

Well, I don't experience any choppiness on my setup in Graphics mode. It is far better than the jarring switches in framerate while running around in performance mode. And viewing up close on a 77" OLED, the graphics downgrade on performance is quite noticeable... action or not. And I'm not buying that there's any difference in Clive's running speed or getting him out of "quicksand" while running in performance mode. If anything, it seems slower with all the stutters you get in that mode with the constantly fluctuating framerate...

RichC2

to each their own I guess.

Realistically if you timed it, despite feeling sluggish in Graphic mode, you probably get to where you're going in roughly the same amount of time.

Noonan

FYI to any achievement hoarders. This game requires you to finish it twice to get a platinum. One of the achievements is to finish it on the difficulty that only opens up with New Game +. Glad that's not something I care about. Another is to max every ability which would be a terrible grind without starting a NG+ as well.

Why So Blu?

Started playing this again but I am tapping out. It's a great looking game, but the insanely long cinematic scenes really bring the score down. I'm waiting an eternity to actually play in between the scenes.

Good thing this was only a rental, because I would have been pissed if I had paid for it full price.

The Questyen

This your first Final Fantasy game?

Why So Blu?

Nope. I own the remake of 7 that came out during the pandemic and that game was fun. This one fucks the momentum all up. No way did that previous game have this much cinematics between me fighting. Too bad, since the graphics are awesome. I don't like when games comes to continuous grinding halts.

The Questyen

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I'm close to the end of the game and the cutscenes have been similar lengths to every other modern FF game and every other modern RPG in general I've played.

Why So Blu?

This one didn't gel for me.

RichC2

That's fair, but yeah the cinematics are par for FF. FF13 was the one I simply could not get into no matter what I tried so I get it.

I'll be skipping the cinematics on any replay, but so far this is my favorite FF in the last 20 years (I haven't played FFXIV).

RocShemp

How long we talking' here? Like MGS2 long? MGS4 long? Or Death Stranding epilogue long?