Final Fantasy XIII demo thread

[cool breeze]

Who says it looks like garbage? I can't imagine anyone who has played it saying that.  I don't agree that it looks as good as everything, PC included, but as far as console games go it's probably the best.

The most shocking part for me is that aliasing is almost non-existent, which is even more shocking consider most japanese devs (sans Capcom) don't seem to care about fixing aliasing problems in their games.  It helps really show off how amazing the character modeling is.

The battle system would be amazing when/if you're able to control others.  It's almost Grandia-like if you remove the importance of position on the field.

[Ninja]

I played through the demo earlier. The game is beautiful, while other games outdo FFXIII's character models in terms of technical detail, when you consider the scale of the world and the visual design, XIII is easily one of the best looking console games so far and it blows away any other current-gen RPGs. The CG scenes are, as you would expect from Square-Enix, phenomenal.

The combat system is also very promising. It's very fast and the animations are great. There's a lot of scope for developing strategies and combining attacks and when the final game comes out and we get to grips with the fully implemented systems, I'm sure it'll be great, especially when you can have some more influence over the other characters, whether it's direct or indirect.

[WrikaWrek]

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.

lolololol

Man you must be nuts, or visually impaired

[Bebpo]

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. 

Actually, I'm not running this on the kuro plasma.  I should try that later on.  My opinions are based on it with my 34" XBR960.  But yeah, I'll give it a run on my parents 60" kuro tonight and see how it looks

[dark1x]

Who says it looks like garbage?

Well, WrikaWrek and dcharlie are clearly very unimpressed with it.

For instance...

lolololol

Man you must be nuts, or visually impaired

Actually, I'm not running this on the kuro plasma.  I should try that later on.  My opinions are based on it with my 34" XBR960.  But yeah, I'll give it a run on my parents 60" kuro tonight and see how it looks

Ha ha, well, that's the second best option as the XBR960 also kicks ass.  It's nice having two of the displays consumer displays ever made in the same home, huh?

[maxy]

Well Edge said that it is the best looking PS3 game,so Bebpo is not alone...

It is visible from the videos,screenshots that IQ is really really good...

It doesn't surprise me,Square has amazing CG team and you can bet that they looked into CG pipeline to see what can be done real-time.

[Himu]

This is easily the most impressive game I've seen this gen personally.

[Jansen]

cinematic jrpg

lately all i do is roll my eyes and groan at every story driven jrpg that i play these days. i like the gameplay in most jrpgs but the stories, cutscenes, characterization, in them generally suck massive amounts of ass and i end up not caring one damn bit about my party. when someone dies (someone in your partys always dies in jrpgs these days) i usually just laugh cuz the developers did a poor job of getting me emotionally attached to them

i felt this way about ffxii and i really can't see myself giving a flying fuck about the gaggle of misfits in ffxiii. but we'll see

[WrikaWrek]

Well, WrikaWrek and dcharlie are clearly very unimpressed with it.

Looks great, but i'm not impressed in the least. It has some animation problems, but it's clearly amongst the best looking games in the industry, however, it's just one more of many other great looking games, not too long ago i was playing REs5, KZ2, Gears 2, etc, and i must say FFXIII is just one more in that kind of list.

And Bebpo says it's more impressive than anything, even pc stuff, and that is just nutsy, hype mode, fanboy blowout.



On some italian PC, running at i don't know what settings. And that's just the 1st 3 minutes of the game....

Compare the black dude in Crysis to the Black dude in FFXIII....

There's nothing impressive about FFXIII, in these 40 minutes at least.

[Himu]

There's nothing impressive about FFXIII, in these 40 minutes at least.

lamo

[dark1x]

On some italian PC, running at i don't know what settings. And that's just the 1st 3 minutes of the game....

If you read the comments, you'll see that he actually pre-rendered those Crysis cinematics in order to display them smoothly for video purposes. 

Still, I can easily run Crysis at DX10 Very High mode and I know exactly what it looks like.  No, FFXIII doesn't really compare, but name dropping Crysis in every discussion about visuals is starting to get old (even though it really is the best of the best).

[Himu]

crysis looks boring

[demi]

Crysis is DOG SHIT why do people keep bringing it up like it is relevant in any gaming discussion

Granted the jury is still out for XIII but that battle music is squeeee

[WrikaWrek]

There's nothing impressive about FFXIII, in these 40 minutes at least.

lamo

What's impressive? The art? Half of it is shit.

crysis looks boring

Maybe for a japafag.

Crysis is DOG SHIT

Dude you like 50 cent.

[cool breeze]

I wonder if there will be another wrikaflop about the graphics when the game comes out.

On some italian PC, running at i don't know what settings. And that's just the 1st 3 minutes of the game....

If you read the comments, you'll see that he actually pre-rendered those Crysis cinematics in order to display them smoothly for video purposes. 

Still, I can easily run Crysis at DX10 Very High mode and I know exactly what it looks like.  No, FFXIII doesn't really compare, but name dropping Crysis in every discussion about visuals is starting to get old (even though it really is the best of the best).

I know what you mean.  With hope RAGE is out this year and there can be a new peak.

[demi]

Crysis is DOG SHIT

Dude you like 50 cent.

Which looks and plays better than Crysis. Maybe Crysis reminds you of your girlfriend's assfarts. Always with the mental disorders with you people

[dark1x]

I wonder if there will be another wrikaflop about the graphics when the game comes out.

I know what you mean.  With hope RAGE is out this year and there can be a new peak.

I somehow doubt Rage will even top it as it is being designed to deliver similar visuals across PC and consoles at a high framerate.  Crysis aims for ridiculous levels of detail on a large scale.  Even the fastest machines in the world are unable to run Crysis at a solid 60 fps in DX10 mode at 1080p.  The game was just way ahead of its time.

[WrikaWrek]

I wonder if there will be another wrikaflop about the graphics when the game comes out.

?

Crysis is DOG SHIT

Dude you like 50 cent.

Which looks and plays better than Crysis.

 

I wonder if there will be another wrikaflop about the graphics when the game comes out.

I know what you mean.  With hope RAGE is out this year and there can be a new peak.

I somehow doubt Rage will even top it as it is being designed to deliver similar visuals across PC and consoles at a high framerate.  Crysis aims for ridiculous levels of detail on a large scale.  Even the fastest machines in the world are unable to run Crysis at a solid 60 fps in DX10 mode at 1080p.  The game was just way ahead of its time.

The stuff i've seen from Rage looks amazing, only loses to Crysis on character models imo.

[recursivelyenumerable]

And Bebpo says it's more impressive than anything, even pc stuff, and that is just nutsy, hype mode, fanboy blowout.



On some italian PC, running at i don't know what settings. And that's just the 1st 3 minutes of the game....

bebpo explained that he didn't mean it was technically more impressive, but in terms of the overall effect.  e.g. the background in that Crysis video may be very detailed and well-rendered, but it's still just a room with a bunch of boxes.  the background in the FF13 demo looks like a vast panorama with a million things going on, and though, as bebpo said, that's mostly just trickery in technical terms, the overall effect is still more impressive than anything else, to him at least.

[Himu]

And Bebpo says it's more impressive than anything, even pc stuff, and that is just nutsy, hype mode, fanboy blowout.



On some italian PC, running at i don't know what settings. And that's just the 1st 3 minutes of the game....

bebpo explained that he didn't mean it was technically more impressive, but in terms of the overall effect.  e.g. the background in that Crysis video may be very detailed and well-rendered, but it's still just a room with a bunch of boxes.  the background in the FF13 demo looks like a vast panorama with a million things going on, and though, as bebpo said, that's mostly just trickery in technical terms, the overall effect is still more impressive than anything else, to him at least.

this.

[Himu]

There's nothing impressive about FFXIII, in these 40 minutes at least.

lamo

What's impressive? The art? Half of it is shit.

crysis looks boring

Maybe for a japafag.

It's boring. Why would anyone want to play a game that looks like real life?

[WrikaWrek]

I can pull out a video where they have the island as a background if that's the problem

Come on, Killzone 2, Gears 2 also pull that "whoa in the distance" stuff, it's just because it's FF, and it has that anime thing going on for it, and japafags go nuts for it.

There's nothing impressive about FFXIII, in these 40 minutes at least.

lamo

What's impressive? The art? Half of it is shit.

crysis looks boring

Maybe for a japafag.

It's boring. Why would anyone want to play a game that looks like real life?

Why would anyone want to see a movie that looks like real life?

Not to mention, you aren't taking into account the sci fi aspects of it, but whatever, it's the japafag argument.

[cool breeze]

I wonder if there will be another wrikaflop about the graphics when the game comes out.

?

Down on Gears 2, then it comes out and you're all up on it.  Then you're all praising KZ2 for looking amazing, down on it when it comes out.  Just saying that stay open to the possibility that there might be another flop in opinion.

I somehow doubt Rage will even top it as it is being designed to deliver similar visuals across PC and consoles at a high framerate.  Crysis aims for ridiculous levels of detail on a large scale.  Even the fastest machines in the world are unable to run Crysis at a solid 60 fps in DX10 mode at 1080p.  The game was just way ahead of its time.

Just because it's designed so that the console and PC versions are similar doesn't mean that it isn't impressive.  Far Cry 2 on PC looks so much better than the console versions and is one of the best looking games out.  Have faith in Carmack.

[demi]

There's nothing impressive about FFXIII, in these 40 minutes at least.

lamo

What's impressive? The art? Half of it is shit.

crysis looks boring

Maybe for a japafag.

It's boring. Why would anyone want to play a game that looks like real life?

what

[WrikaWrek]

>

Brought to you by

[WrikaWrek]

Adriana Lima

[Himu]

As demi said, Crysis is dog shit

[recursivelyenumerable]

i'm not entirely sure what point wrika is trying to make, but fashion/glamour photography does not look like real life, sorry.  in fact it's more like FF13 than real life

[WrikaWrek]

i'm not entirely sure what point wrika is trying to make, but fashion/glamour photography does not look like real life, sorry.  in fact it's more like FF13 than real life

 

[Himu]

Because the battle music rox

[recursivelyenumerable]

   the Nomura style since FF8 has been inspired by fashion magazines and shit, not typical anime style.  I don't personally like having all the characters look like fashion models, I prefer a more realistic approach like Silent Hill or whatever.  but it's lame that you're so keen on fitting things into whatever the currently popular stereotypes are, in this case EAST VS. WEST, ANIMU VS. REALISM that you don't bother to pay attention to what the things actually are.

[WrikaWrek]

You are talking about clothing, i'm talking about characters 

As far as i know this:



Isn't exactly, standard, street fashion either...

So there, we are talking about say:



Vs




And that ain't no "glamour" photography.

[recursivelyenumerable]

the Adriana Lima pic you posted is a weird shot so I'm just going to ignore it, but the Lightning pic is stylized in a similar way to fashion photography i.e. exaggeratedly smooth skin, exaggerated facial features (approximated with makeup in the latter case), texture simplified so facial features stand out, etc.  there's nothing about it that's particularly reminiscent of stereotypical anime style except I guess for the pink hair, which is more of a general fantasy thing than an anime thing.

[WrikaWrek]

You mean to say to me that, the shape of the face, the crazy hair, etc, isn't reminiscent of modern manga like



?

Plus the texturing, and the crazy personalities and extravagant look that you want to attach to fantasy, when it has been pretty much standard fare from the japanese side, where they combine Eastern Features with Western features, and create this idealized hybrid.

And you just took a big tangent, i mean, Himuro comes out saying something that looks like real life is boring, clearly talking about how he prefers something that doesn't look real, and criticizes Crysis for it, and you come along and say that Adriana Lima in that shot looks like something closer to FFXIII than real life, which is completely absurd, and hilarious.

Because if he was talking about fashion, then it wouldn't make sense, because Crysis delivers something that you can't find, it's sci fi, so clearly he was talking about how close to real life the faces looked.

So now i don't even know what you are trying to argue, what? That Lightning looks like something out of a Victoria Secret photo shoot? Maybe in terms of design, but in terms of design i could make a lot of visual styles look like they are based in those, it doesn't mean however that i would mistaken them for the real thing.

FFXIII clearly has a distinct Japanese look to it, which is easily recognizable due to the extravagant art style of the characters, and you wouldn't mistaken them for anything else.

[recursivelyenumerable]

And you just took a big tangent, i mean, Himuro comes out saying something that looks like real life is boring, clearly talking about how he prefers something that doesn't look real, and criticizes Crysis for it, and you come along and say that Adriana Lima in that shot looks like something closer to FFXIII than real life, which is completely absurd, and hilarious.

Because if he was talking about fashion, then it wouldn't make sense, because Crysis delivers something that you can't find, it's sci fi, so clearly he was talking about how close to real life the faces looked.

Yeah, my point was that your post didn't make sense, so you started the not-making-sense-ness.

The face shapes in that manga pic you posted are just common idealized/exaggerated faces with pronounced cheekbones, etc., not really a manga-specific thing.  What is manga-specific are the big eyes and stuff, which Lightning doesn't have except to the degree that unusually large eyes in real people are generally considered attractive (so they too are often exaggerated or highlighted with makeup, lighting etc.)

[WrikaWrek]

The big eyes and stuff, right.

Anyway, nobody with a brain would mistaken Ligthning with a real women, which is the point of the debate, unfortunately you missed the point.

And it was clear, that the image comparison i did was "not real" vs "real", but you went on about how glamour and whatever isn't real, completely missing the point, as if you would mistaken Adriana Lima in the photo, for a drawn character.

So i made perfect sense, you just didn't get it.

[recursivelyenumerable]

Obviously, if you start with a real woman and try to use makeup and lighting and editing and stuff to make her look more idealized, it'll still look more real than if you made an idealized woman from scratch to begin with.  That's not the point.  There's a continuum here, and on that continuum Lightning is closer to fashion pics than to animu.

[dark1x]

Just because it's designed so that the console and PC versions are similar doesn't mean that it isn't impressive.  Far Cry 2 on PC looks so much better than the console versions and is one of the best looking games out.  Have faith in Carmack.

Having directly compared the two, I can safely say that the PC improvements are almost entirely the result of improved image quality and less aggressive level of detail on models and shadows.  The PC version really isn't all that much more impressive than the console versions.  It certainly doesn't blow them away (which was surprising to me).

[WrikaWrek]

There's a continuum here, and on that continuum Lightning is closer to fashion pics than to animu.

Maybe you are semi right.

I can tell you one thing, the glamor one is closer to real life than FFXIII, unlike you said, which was absurd, and i can tell you that Lightning is distinctively a typical Japanese designed character, with the hair and the face, and doesn't look real.

[recursivelyenumerable]

Yeah, I goofed there, but what I meant is more similar in spirit, not in actuality.

[recursivelyenumerable]

Pretty much every FF game has split the fanbase (I remember the FF2us vs. 3us wars on Usenet back in '94, and much hate directed at FF7 when it came out) and I'm sure 13 will be no exception.

[recursivelyenumerable]

For the Japanese market though, the gen is in some ways just starting, and I think SE was smart to focus on handhelds in the intervening period.

[recursivelyenumerable]

I'd say FF8 when it came out was at least as divisive as FF12, actually.

[recursivelyenumerable]

I personally think FF8 was just as big a change at the time.  Or at least if it were, say, 6 to 8, and there were no 7 in between it would be as big as 10 to 12, and remember we had 11 in between.

[TVC15]

What was the last FF game you actually played, recursively?

[recursivelyenumerable]

9, or 4DS

I have read walkthroughs for 10 and 12 though, and I spend a lot of time on FF11 forums reading about people's strategies and balance complaints.

[TVC15]

9, or 4DS

I have read walkthroughs for 10 and 12 though, and I spend a lot of time on FF11 forums reading about people's strategies and balance complaints.

I'll give you my extra PS2 for drugs.  And FFX and XII. 

[recursivelyenumerable]

I don't have a TV, and in XII's case at least I would rather hold out for the Zodiac Job System version.  But thanks.  I actually buy a lot of PS2 games, by the way, just never got around to buying the PS2 itself.

[TVC15]

I don't have a TV, and in XII's case at least I would rather hold out for the Zodiac Job System version.  But thanks.  I actually buy a lot of PS2 games, by the way, just never got around to buying the PS2 itself.

Zodiac Job System version?

[Bebpo]

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. 

I went through the demo again on the kuro and it still looks great.  The image quality is perfect.  Not a jaggy in sight and unlike some games that blur the IQ to get smoothness, the game is very sharp and not blurry at all.  It's has the sharpness that you usually expect for a game full of jaggies, just...without the jaggies  

Playing it again you notice the occasional frame drop here and there, but it's still very smooth and much better than the framerate of any other jrpg this gen.  You also notice the characters are all a little polygon starved around the bodies, but it's not a big deal since the modeling is just fantastic especially for the faces.  The facial expressions are the best I've seen in a game and they really convey a lot of character even with the volume off and no voice.  I thought I was going to dislike Snow from the early pictures, but his facial animations make him really likable and friendly.

[recursivelyenumerable]

Zodiac Job System version?

AKA the International version, was released in Japan about a year after the original.  It changes the License Board system so that instead of having one in common for everyone, you can pick a job for each character at the beginning of the game and each job has its own dedicated LB layout.  Based on the impressions I've read, I think I'd prefer that version, and if I'm going to spend 50+ hours on an RPG it may as well be the best available edition.  I didn't buy DQ5 DS for the same reason (holding out for maybe importing PS2 ver. someday).

[WrikaWrek]

Final Fantasy 8 was awesome.

I was really young, it was like, the second or 3rd game i bothered playing, 1st JRPG, and it all came around in a perfect storm. No JRPG since has been as enjoyable to me.

I really liked the world of FF8, i still love the SEED concept, how Squall went from being this "student" to full blown Merc, how it's all this sort of schools, and there's a graduation party, and there's the test, and then the gunblades were awesome, etc

Heh, i wish there was a sequel, unfortunately for me, Final Fantasy 7 is the installment that went huge, and has all this crazy ass following. Man fuck that universe.

[recursivelyenumerable]

By the way, there were at least 4-5 different versions of the character building/license board system at various stages of development:

(1) Gain skill through use system, similar (at least in concept) to SaGa series, etc.  Mentioned by Matsuno in early 2004.

(2) Original, more complex license board system.

(3) Job system.  This was the plan at some point, though unclear when.

(4) Greatly simplified license board system, found in the original game as shipped.  Apparently changed to this late in development after testers found the original LB too complicated.

(5) Zodiac Job System.  The director has said this is NOT the same as the job system that was once planned.

[Himu]

license board sucks. Did Itou come up with that? because he's like, a genius.

[recursivelyenumerable]

Yeah, it and the final gambit system (earlier versions had more generic AI options a la DQ4+, rather than the finer-grained customizable condition->action rule system) were his ideas.  He's said they oversimplified the license board in retrospect, though.

[Himu]

Damn.

But it appears that Itou fixed most of the problems with the license board in FF12i. Too bad we'll never get it.

I'd actually really like it if they put FF12i on the wii. Then S-E USA would have an excuse to release it and the ps2 version overseas.

[Jansen]

fucking hair looks like it's interlaced. i hope they fix that shit cuz it looks terrible and is a huge blemish on the games visuals

[MCD]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=15506491&postcount=200

Magna Carta II battle screens look good, apparently entering battles will be seamless, there'll be both turn-based and action elements in battle and you can change characters realtime. Also game is 80% done, so I'm guessing late summer for japanese release.

FFXIII owned by Korean developers.

[dark1x]

(Image removed from quote.)

fucking hair looks like it's interlaced. i hope they fix that shit cuz it looks terrible and is a huge blemish on the games visuals

And?  That's a very common technique for dealing with lots of thin, transparent edges.

Take a look (PC version of Half-Life 2 Episode 2)...

[Himu]

fuck me sideways, this battle theme owns

http://files.filefront.com/FFXIII+battle+theme+loopenmp3/;13611602;/fileinfo.html