Final Fantasy XIII demo thread

[dark1x]

GTAIV is a 30 / 40 hour game, and has great in game cut scenes.

This game also has some really shitty character design here and there, and what's up with the characters having more japanese features than ever, but not looking japanese? Do the japanese have a problem with how they look?

The pacing in these 40 min, if it's the initial 40 min of the game, is horrible. Not feeling the game at all from this demo.

Err, I think the cutscenes in the FFXIII demo look SIGNIFICANTLY better than what GTA IV offers.  I'm sure FFXIII will have many more cinemas as well (it is a story driven RPG, afterall).  You are taking issue with something completely different, which I can understand.  The actual quality of the cutscenes, however, does not seem to be a problem.

[Himu]

what i can't stand about rpg openings is that they're usually drawn out and stuff

Put me right in the middle of the action, I say.

[Third]

It's better than Persona's 4 opening, that's for sure.

[WrikaWrek]

GTAIV is a 30 / 40 hour game, and has great in game cut scenes.

This game also has some really shitty character design here and there, and what's up with the characters having more japanese features than ever, but not looking japanese? Do the japanese have a problem with how they look?

The pacing in these 40 min, if it's the initial 40 min of the game, is horrible. Not feeling the game at all from this demo.

Err, I think the cutscenes in the FFXIII demo look SIGNIFICANTLY better than what GTA IV offers.

Absolutely not. The graphics are better, but i'm talking about the animations, there are instances in FFXIII cutscenes where it looks like a toy is being moved around, for example when Lightning makes a jump, just horrible. And they are blandly directed.

[Third]

I agree.

But it's work in process. I dunno if SE is going to change much, though...

[WrikaWrek]

Well i think they still have a lot of time, and at least working on the camera work and editing wouldn't require that much, after all, it is being rendered in real time, so it's not like they have to go back and do it all again.

I definitely think they should work on that, i just think that there could be a much bigger sense of movement and action, and they have the stuff, it just isn't being presented in the best way.

And i do like action packed openings too Himuro, i don't think they are always the best way to open a game, but in this case it is, however, i believe they should give you less filler, and let it play out as this memorable opening, it's a 40 hour game, players will get used to the combat later on, no need to worry about the 1st 40 min.

[dark1x]

GTAIV is a 30 / 40 hour game, and has great in game cut scenes.

This game also has some really shitty character design here and there, and what's up with the characters having more japanese features than ever, but not looking japanese? Do the japanese have a problem with how they look?

The pacing in these 40 min, if it's the initial 40 min of the game, is horrible. Not feeling the game at all from this demo.

Err, I think the cutscenes in the FFXIII demo look SIGNIFICANTLY better than what GTA IV offers.

Absolutely not. The graphics are better, but i'm talking about the animations, there are instances in FFXIII cutscenes where it looks like a toy is being moved around, for example when Lightning makes a jump, just horrible. And they are blandly directed.

That specific jump you're talking about actually does look odd.  I've always thought that since the first trailer showing realtime footage emerged.  The majority of the scenes, however, look much nicer than GTAIV, I thought (and I am talking about animation).

I suppose there's no point in arguing over this, though, as it's obviously a matter of opinion.  I think FFXIII could still use some visual work, but I do think it looks really nice as is.

And i do like action packed openings too Himuro, i don't think they are always the best way to open a game, but in this case it is, however, i believe they should give you less filler, and let it play out as this memorable opening, it's a 40 hour game, players will get used to the combat later on, no need to worry about the 1st 40 min.

Do we even know if this is actually confirmed to be the opening?  I mean, the FF8 demo could also have been an opening sequence, but wasn't.  It seems like a neatly packaged demo that was created as a stand alone released than something from a work in progress.  Judging by their slow progress on the games creation, that wouldn't surprise me.

[WrikaWrek]

I believe it was confirmed by the Producer that these were the first 40 min of the game (1st hour).

Just like the whole thing about combat being 30% or whatever, and graphics etc

[recursivelyenumerable]

Yeah, it's confirmed to be the opening.

[Jansen]

got my tracking number 

[Himu]

Guess I'm gonna have to wait a few weeks to play the demo because ncsx will only ship to the billing address.

My billing address is in Houston, and I made my shipping address in Florida. I guess I could contact my bank.

Before we finalize the order, we would appreciate it if you could email us the billing address and please note that we are unable to ship orders to addresses other than the billing address, unless the shipping address is on record with your credit card company.

lol whatever

[Third]

that sucks, himuro

Just watched the whole gamersyde footage. And I want the demo too.
It seems that the movie you get with the demo plays on PAL Ps3's too. So I might get it anyway. :'(
But I won't import. I'm trying to buy it from someone.

[dark1x]

Just watched the whole gamersyde footage

I downloaded and watched the second part (which is almost 12 minutes long) in HD and it shows lots of gameplay.  I'd like to know WHERE people were seeing really bad framerates.  It seems to be running at a rock solid 30 fps without really any hitching or anything like that.  It's very very smooth.  I did notice some oddities when certain attacks connected, but it seems more like an intentional thing as the camera pans are smooth during these bits (suggesting that the framerate is not actually dropping).

[Bebpo]

I got mine in the mail today.  Man, the packaging SUCKS.  It's like cd-case size wtf.  I thought it was coming in a slick looking black blu-ray case?  I guess that's just for the standard non-FFXIII version?  Wtf, why does the more expensive one have shittier packaging.  boooo.

[recursivelyenumerable]

Well, the director actually mentioned framedrops in an interview (and said they'll be fixed in the final release)

[Himu]

got a reply from ncsx

Hello Garrett, thanks for the information and explanation and we will ship to your FL address.

YEEEEE HAWWWWWWWWW

[Mr. Gundam]

I still haven't ordered this... I might wait to see if Pink Godzilla gets it in and just buy it from them before the Mariners game on Saturday.

[WrikaWrek]

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├──PS3_GAME
│　　　├──ICON0.PNG 52818
│　　　├──PARAM.SFO 1040
│　　　├──PS3LOGO.DAT 5120
│　　　└──USRDIR
│　　　　　　　├──EBOOT.BIN 16639200
│　　　　　　　└──white_data
│　　　　　　　　　　　├──movie
│　　　　　　　　　　　│　　　├──z000_ps3.wmp 2554624016
│　　　　　　　　　　　│　　　└──z016_ps3.wmp 2191333392
│　　　　　　　　　　　├──sys
│　　　　　　　　　　　│　　　├──filelist.ps3.bin 44463
│　　　　　　　　　　　│　　　├──filelist_scr.ps3.bin 4461
│　　　　　　　　　　　│　　　├──white_img.ps3.bin 179036160
│　　　　　　　　　　　│　　　└──white_scr.ps3.sdat 2134336
│　　　　　　　　　　　└──zone
│　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　├──white_z000_img.ps3.bin 55037952
│　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　├──white_z016_img.ps3.bin 201062400
│　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　└──white_z106_img.ps3.bin 10240
└──PS3_UPDATE
　　└──PS3UPDAT.PUP 268435456

Lol

Apparently it's like 500 MB without the intro and the trailers

[Mr. Gundam]

That's nice.

[dark1x]

Lol

Apparently it's like 500 MB without the intro and the trailers

I would be rather concerned if it WAS significantly more as that would suggest sloppy coding.  I mean, there's not exactly a lot of assets used in the demo.  

[demi]

That's nice.

XBL demo released at E3... distant feels silly for paying $70 for a demo

[Mr. Gundam]

I haven't bought the demo yet. More than likely I'll end up not getting it because $70 on a demo IS silly.

[Diunx]

What's wrong with the pacing?  It just looks similar to FF7 to me in that sense.

They are trying to open up the game with a big action set piece, but then you spend too much time just walking in this straight line through a bridge, fighting the same duo of characters over and over.

It needs to be much more intense, like tak tak tak bam, holy shit, and when it's over you're like "whoa, that was an amazing opening", this on the other end is like "zzZZZZZzzzzzZZZZzzzz"

Welcome to the world of RPGs demos.

[Mr. Gundam]

But the movie is easily worth $70! That's assuming what Ive been told is true. Ive heard Cloud is a sexii bishe.

I don't know if Advent Children is worth 70 cents.

[recursivelyenumerable]

I like Advent Children and I am a well-known man of good taste, whose favorite piece of music is Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire ffs, so don't listen to these posers.

[WrikaWrek]

Advent Children is horrible dude.

You don't have to feel bad about it, just file it under "Guilty Pleasure", but don't try to say it's not crap, because it is.

[recursivelyenumerable]

You don't have to feel bad about it, just file it under "Guilty Pleasure", but don't try to say it's not crap, because it is.

Whatevs.  I didn't watch it until a couple years after it came out and then only out of morbid curiosity; I expected to hate it, because it got ragged on, I don't much care for FF7 and I don't like the so-called action movie genre.  But I was pleasantly surprised.

the "guilty pleasure" thing is a cop-out anyway.  Either I like something or I don't. 

[MCD]

i hated how cloud is all emo again, like disc 2 never happened.

[recursivelyenumerable]

Well I thought of it more like a remake of FF7's main story thrust, presented in a different format, than a sequel.  It works better that way I think.  It's plausible though, it's pretty common for people who've recovered from depression etc. to still have relapses, even if dramatically it's a bit odd.

[MCD]

i don't know, he was pretty badass after he recovered from that coma.

stealing submarines? FUCK YEAR

[recursivelyenumerable]

bipolar disorder

[Himu]

cloud at the end of ff7 is a man's man.

In AC he is a wimp again. It is dumb.

[recursivelyenumerable]

cloud at the end of ff7 is a man's man.

see last post, manic != manly though they look similar

[Himu]

Naw. A man accepts the truth and continues on and presses forward. Cloud overcame all obstacles. He became a man, after being a pussy most of the game or trying to be Zack.

Cloud in FF7AC, however, acts like he never went through any sense of character development in the original game.

And what's this about the "so-called" action genre?  How is it "so-called?" If it's full of action it's an action movie wtf.

[recursivelyenumerable]

I don't generally see movies given that label, is all.  Anyway, nothing interesting happens on disc 2-3 after the Reunion except for the sequence in Cloud's head, so clearly on an empirical basis vulvic/imitative Cloud > masculine Cloud.  Nomura obviously realized this, hence the masculine Cloud was spurned for AC a la New Coke.

[cool breeze]

Advent Children is shitty as a whole, but I'm fine with having those action scenes on blu-ray.  Would have still bought it if it was without the demo...when it got released in the states and on sale.

[dark1x]

Honestly, with the quality of the Gamersyde videos and the limited nature of the demo, I can't see why anyone would even bother with the demo.    I mean, you can experience everything it has to offer in nicely encoded HD videos already.  RPG gameplay is generally at its worst during the early stages of the game anyways.

That said, I finally watched the first part of the demo in HD and now I see where some framerate complaints came from.  It does drop frames (especially during some of the cutscenes).  Still, the drops are pretty minor next to a lot of other RPGs this gen.  It's MUCH MUCH MUCH smoother than Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, Infinite Undiscovery, Star Ocean 4 outside of battle, Folklore and Last Remnant.  It's just minor hitches here and there without any texture popping or other oddities.  Seems pretty polished overall, really.

It's a shame the game itself is so far off.  RPGs this gen have been almost entirely disappointing (outside of Lost Odyssey, which I loved).  They all have so many weird blemishes and issues.  I suppose the only RPGs that have been polished are those that stay pretty conservative on the visual side (Tales of Vesperia, Valkryia Chronicles, and Eternal Sonata all come to mind).  FFXIII is one that has a chance at being pretty solid at release AND visually impressive. I hope they can pull it off.

[pilonv1]

Apparently it's like 500 MB without the intro and the trailers

bububububububu the 360 version will require 10 discs

[MCD]

360 is the lead sku.

any disagreement is pure fanboyism.

[demi]

XIII will be the same length and difficulty as X

Not that I'm complaining

[dark1x]

Again, i shouldn't be so uppity with you, but i simply can't fathom how anyone can look at the videos and not see the issue.

The animation issues I can see, though.  The framerate is a solid 30 fps for the most part.  This can easily be seen with lots of camera panning (which remains smooth).  I watched the whole thing in HD on my plasma, and it looked very smooth throughout.  There is something odd about the animation, though.  I'm not sure what the deal is.  I mean, it looks decent enough, but certain major motions seem to be missing frames or something.  It definitely does not run at sub-30 fps, though.

It wouldn't be the first time a Square game had some sort of strange animation issue.  Remember that odd shaking/jittering effect in FFX?  That was awful (though that game had terrible animation throughout most of its scenes anyways).

I still an RPG based on Capcom's MT Framework engine would look fantastic.  They should license it out.  Also, I wish Namco would tap into some of the animators that worked on that Naruto PS3 game as that had absolutely unreal animation (something a game like Tales of Vesperia needed desperately).

[Himu]

XIII will be the same length and difficulty as X

Not that I'm complaining

Do you think it will be one path like in FFX?

[pilonv1]

bububububububu the 360 version will require 10 discs

if the PS3 version is 5.9 gig when you throw in the cutscenes, then either this is going to be a very short RPG or those renders will be used very lightly and everything will be done in engine....

or someone has some compressin' to do (X360 natch, PS3 version would too at that sort of file size (which seems insane, unless i'm totally missing something and there was some huge massive hidden trailer beyond what we know about?))

I'm sure it will be on 3-4 discs. But some people think that the power of Blu Ray means 30gb+ of GAME assets.

[recursivelyenumerable]

this isn't quite kosher but since himu is sort continuing our discussion here elsewhere I'll quote him:

And here we have Cloud in FFVIIAC. Some brooding jerk who, for some reason, after saving the world and conquering his fears, has accumulated the MANLY TEARS virus. This clearly wasn't the same Cloud and the people who wrote the story for AC clearly hadn't played FFVII in quite some time, I think.

lol, they didn't forget what happened in FF7, they were the leads in its creation after all.  it was a conscious decision, Nomura talks about it in the Reunion Files book:

At the end of Final Fantasy VII, Cloud was more of a positive, upbeat character than he had been at the beginning, but I didn't think that "upbeat" image of him is what stuck in the minds of the fans.  We decided to go with a more familiar image of him that was consistent with the fans' view of him.  The script was written to explain why he's returned to that sort of solemn mentality.

[Don Flamenco]

Is he bangin' Tifa or what?  That's all we need to know.  can he even bang?  Just looking at him would suggest it's just flat and rounded off down there, like a mannequin.

[recursivelyenumerable]

the 10th Ann. Ultimania interview has a bit on that

Kitase: Kato [Masato Kato] also did the event on the airship, the night before the final battle.

Nojima: Oh, the scene with the risqué line of dialogue? It was Kato who wrote that as well, not me.

- The line “Words aren’t the only way to tell someone how you feel,” right? That was quite a mature conversation for a FF game.

Kitase: But I remember having to get another version that was too intense toned down.

Nojima: The original idea was more extreme. The plan was to have Cloud walk out of the Chocobo stable on board the Highwind, followed by Tifa leaving while checking around, but Kitase turned it down. But even with the line in question, maybe at that time none of us thought it would be something so important (laughs).

I like how this is "too extreme" but Don Corneo and the Honeybee Inn aren't 

[recursivelyenumerable]

Better than pandering to Himuro's odd submarine theft fetish

[Bebpo]

Ok, after playing the demo through I gotta say this is the most impressive game I've ever seen in my life.  Nothing on this generation of consoles or even PC compares.  The character/enemy modeling in this game blows the hell out of anything else away.  The real-time cutscenes are better than any real-time cutscenes I've seen and almost have a CG quality to them.  The transitions between field and cutscenes are so good that it's like you're always playing a cutscene.  The background environment is INCREDIBLE.  I mean you know it's not technically rendering all those millions of things going on and it's just good artistry, but that's why good artistry ROCKS.  It really looks like you are in the most detailed environment ever with a million things going on in the distance.  The image quality is perfect and the animations are great.  Presentation-wise, this is just the best thing ever but coming from the king of presentation that is the FF series, it's not really a surprise.  I'm pretty surprised that they pulled this all off on the hardware that is the PS3, this is the kind of thing I would have expected from a target render trailer.

Now in terms of actual gameplay...it's ok.  The battle system has potential to be as good as FFX-2 IF AND ONLY IF the game includes an option to control the other party members.  If they pull another FFXII or worse (at least you could manually order members in FFXII), I'm worried the battles will be too shallow.  But man, if you have access to your whole party and better yet if you can sloooow down the battle speed to be more strategic, then the battles will be all about setting up the timing of attacks so you all break the enemy together and then launch into cooperative group combo-ing.  It could be like FFX-2 but with aerial raves.  The FF team isn't stupid so I'm sure they have to be letting you control the other members in the full game.  Also you need to be able to avoid enemies in the full game.  There's no point in seeing all the enemies but not being able to actually run past them without an encounter.

[demi]

Maybe the programmers should travel the world to get a better outlook on life

[MCD]

> japan

> real life

you can only pick one.

[Himu]

FFXIII looks like the only jrpg this gen that actually looks next gen.

[dark1x]

FFXIII looks like the only jrpg this gen that actually looks next gen.

I'd say Blue Dragon is right there with it.  The framerate was horrible, but the visuals were really impressive.  It seems like it was held back by its budget more than anything else (repetitive dungeon environments and other short cuts were pretty common).  It was a lovely game.

[Himu]

I'm not talking about just the models. I'm talking about the whole package.

Blue Dragon had good visuals, but the game did nothing to separate itself from the pack. ps2 could run it if the visuals were downgraded enough. But in FFXIII you have scripted scenes that add to the atmosphere heavily, a semi-real time/turn based battle system on steroids, seamless battle transitions, almost no load times so far in the demo and the visuals STILL look better than every other jrpg this gen.

The battle system is the only jrpg battle system that looks next gen.
The visuals outside of battle is the only jrpg that screams next gen.

All the other jrpgs I've played this gen, even the ones I enjoy like BD, LO, and ToV are still over glorified ps2 games. Not FFXIII.

[Himu]

FFXIII music

[youtube=560,345]_T4FYJZsw90[/youtube]

[youtube=560,345]fuusY0-jR1E[/youtube]

[youtube=560,345]Br09lyH5A_c[/youtube]

[youtube=560,345]SJMUvjgNK6U[/youtube]

[Bebpo]

Ok, after playing the demo through I gotta say this is the most impressive game I've ever seen in my life.  Nothing on this generation of consoles or even PC compares.  The character/enemy modeling in this game blows the hell out of anything else away.  The real-time cutscenes are better than any real-time cutscenes I've seen and almost have a CG quality to them.  The transitions between field and cutscenes are so good that it's like you're always playing a cutscene.  The background environment is INCREDIBLE.  I mean you know it's not technically rendering all those millions of things going on and it's just good artistry, but that's why good artistry ROCKS.  It really looks like you are in the most detailed environment ever with a million things going on in the distance.  The image quality is perfect and the animations are great.  Presentation-wise, this is just the best thing ever but coming from the king of presentation that is the FF series, it's not really a surprise.  I'm pretty surprised that they pulled this all off on the hardware that is the PS3, this is the kind of thing I would have expected from a target render trailer.

okay, one of us is on drugs.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

please send /

[close]

I don't expect everyone to see it that way, but honestly it looked 10x better than what I was expecting (I didn't watch the demo videos) before I played it.  To me the game is pretty much perfect right now in that there's nothing I'd want more from a visual/audio/presentation perspective.  If they give me a 50 hour+ game with every location and cutscene looking as good as this demo and they've basically made a game beyond the quality of anything released so far this gen on consoles and it'll have been worth the 4 year wait IMO.  To me this is the equivalent of FFX back in 2001, which blew away everything else and set a new standard for the cinematic rpg.  Or the FF7 demo which did the same.

[Himu]

I don't expect everyone to see it that way, but honestly it looked 10x better than what I was expecting (I didn't watch the demo videos) before I played it.  To me the game is pretty much perfect right now in that there's nothing I'd want more from a visual/audio/presentation perspective.  If they give me a 50 hour+ game with every location and cutscene looking as good as this demo and they've basically made a game beyond the quality of anything released so far this gen on consoles and it'll have been worth the 4 year wait IMO.  To me this is the equivalent of FFX back in 2001, which blew away everything else and set a new standard for the cinematic rpg.  Or the FF7 demo which did the same.

Yes.

[recursivelyenumerable]

Clearly in the mind of programmers prostitution is more normal then a relationship.

Programmers aren't usually involved in story/design decisions though, we're talking about the planners here

[cool breeze]

Best looking console game.  The battles look stunning, like, I'm stunned by how good this game looks.

[dark1x]

Best looking console game.  The battles look stunning, like, I'm stunned by how good this game looks.

The back and forth of opinions on this game is insane. 

To some, it's the best looking console game at the moment while others seem to feel that it looks like garbage.  Bebpo is probably in a good position to judge, though, as I know he also own a Kuro plasma. 

[recursivelyenumerable]

According to IGN's recent preview, they stated that the final build will allow you to switch between other players (then again so did FFXII, so I don't know what's the complaint here) and it'll also allow you to choose how other characters act AND assist you in you battle (latter being to achieve those Advent Children crazy action sequences smoothly between characters).

I'm actually not sure this is true.  I think all the developers have said on this is that there will be some system that plays the role of Gambits in controlling the AI, but will be different from the Gambit system, and more oriented towards changing strategies on the fly in response to changing battle conditions rather than setting everything up in advance.  I don't think they've specifically said you can (or can't) control other characters directly, though it's somehow become an internet fact that they have.