Final Fantasy 16 Dev Team Fields Fans' Snarkiest Questions in PAX East Panel

I heard that this game will get ported to pc 6-12 months after launch. Will probably pick it up then.

@mariomaster96 You trust millionaires? How naïve

This is definitely a day one purchase.

Lmao I love that they just shut down almost every complaint which were rather ridiculous assumptions based off of one stage.

But my favorite part was yoship going towards torgal to pet him but attacks instead

That panel was equal parts impressive and cringe.

All of the game footage was great. The game looks like it’s gonna be good.

But the attitude of the presenters got really annoying the further they went.

It started well. Both Yoshida and Fox were lighthearted and funny. Maybe a bit “How do you do, fellow kids?” at times, but whatever.

The Q&A section was where it started. They phrased the questions in the most negative, whiny way possible. Made it feel like they were saying: here’s all these petty complaints we got about the game, and here’s why you were stupid to think that way. If they presented the questions as legitimate criticisms, then proceeded to alleviate the concerns, it would have been fine.

The worst part was the explanation of the accessibility options. The fact that they made them equipable items instead of menu options was bad enough. But the way they talked down to people that might want to — or need to — use them was disgusting. It was much like: you could use these items to make the game easier, but you won’t be a real gamer if you do. They even felt the need to shame streamers for having the gall to be so dishonest by using them, so they had to put icons on the screen to remind people that they’re not playing the game the way it’s “supposed” to be played.

It’s a big F U to everyone with physical or mental disabilities that might need to use the options to play or enjoy the game at all. But, hey, they all got a good laugh out of it.

@Impossibilium I just rewatched that whole section and I think you really blew that way out of context. Firstly, those accessories were never mentioned as accessibility options. They are merely a way to adjust difficulty. I am not sure that when you look at recent games applauded for their accessibility options like TLOU or GOW, that they were just making combat easier. My understanding is that accessibility addresses vision and hearing issues. These accessories absolutely do not target that, nor do they state they do or shame those with disabilities. These rings are their difficulty scalpers and not once mentioned to be accessibility options target at those with disabilities.

The brief joke they make about streaming was just that a brief quip, not at all as shameful as you are making it out.

I did find it hilarious when he takes a dig at the Ps5 "oh look it's not Froze,....whew... it didn't freeze,...it didn't freeze!" 🤣 (30:20).

Now that aside I do agree with you that other concerns they addressed in the questions section were kind of just brushed aside with some snark. The dark environs for example. However again I think maybe some of it all was lost in translation and just the trying to keep it light.

I do find their explanation on QTES to be completely bs though. Basically this is what they said. "QTES are just used for transitions" but then they show all the qtes are attack related and we have seen eikon battles pretty much solely consisting of just button prompting while Watching the battles. So for me I still think this is a bit lame and concerning. I don't want the illusion of partaking in those battles as some sort of smoke and mirrors nonsense. I would rather have just has the traditional watch the summon spectacles, or truly have full combat control and mechanics than be prompted to hit button prompts to attack and evade.

Damn the good boi is cute. I'm more excited for the game after this interview.

Looks phenomenal. I appreciated the humor and candor.

@NinjaSixx Yeah, I don't even mind it going full action rpg. It just feels like they didn't even do that, they decided basically "Sony style over the shoulder cinematic action adventure is popular, let's do that, RPGs don't sell enough. "

We could be wrong but every time I watch this I still feel like horizon is 10x more rpg than xvi which looks more like a gow/naughty dog game set in an admittedly beautiful ff world.

@KundaliniRising333 You’re right. They do discuss the accessories as difficulty settings, not accessibility options. But they start the segment referring to them as accessibility options, saying that they make the game more accessible (47:35), so you might understand my confusion. It’s possible that the game has accessibility options beyond the timely accessories, but since they function the same as some accessibility settings you would find in a menu, it would be strange for them to double up.

But whether the developers consider them accessibility options or not, they can still function that way. Disabilities are more than just being blind or deaf. Someone may only have one hand, so auto-dodge and auto-attack can be very useful. Someone may have a repetitive strain injury and not be able to tap the buttons (even without that issue, I like changing the QTEs from tap to hold when the option is available). And someone (like myself) may be autistic/ADHD and may have issues keeping track of attacking, dodging, healing, and spell casting at the same time. Accessibility can help a lot, to a lot of different people, which is why their jokes surrounding the accessories seemed so inappropriate and tone-deaf to me.

Having five timely accessories, but only three item slots — the same slots that are used for every other accessory in the game — makes it even worse.

I was being a bit hyperbolic when I mentioned the digs at streamers, I’ll admit that.

I do agree with you about the QTE question. Like, they just finished saying that they hate QTEs, everyone hates QTEs. Then they proceed to talk extensively about the QTEs in the game, and how their QTEs are actually good. I found that more funny than the jokes they tried to make.

@NinjaSixx I also would have preferred turn-based combat rather than real-time action. Especially for a Final Fantasy game. It might be the reason I haven’t played FF XV yet, and one of the reasons I didn’t like FF VII Remake as much as other people did. But the previews the games media did said that the action combat was pretty good, so we’ll have to see how it actually turns out.

And then there was “pet the dog.” They only mentioned that for the memes, just to gain some internet points. They even named the panel after it. Shameless pandering. 😊

@Impossibilium I do agree it's a weird system altogether
Like why not just have a suite of difficulty settings. Just weird. I also am very worried that it's too far in the action direction. Real time combat is one thing, but stages and devil may cry style combo score leader boards?! That just seems way too far away from a mainline FF and could have been possibly better clearly defined as a spinoff type game like crisis core.

Hopefully it all pans out, but recent square from basically ff15 on have done pretty much nothing but fail in terms of main studio projects are concerned aside from the recycled cont rereleases.

They need a win, and I think this is a potentially poorly thought out atteppmt to appeal to a greater audience. He mentioned it again in this presentation in a subtle way. That essentially this shift to action game is because they think action game will appeal and sell more to a wider audience. I however I am not so sure on that. Some people just don't like final fantasy games, some don't like the style of these titles whether they are rpg or action. Why risk alienating a fan base and franchise in order to appeal to button mashing, combo score combat encounters.

It may turn out that this is a decent action rpg but a fairly subpar FF game. However, they don't have a huge bar to clear with me personally, as I thought ff15 was a terrible game in nearly every aspect. So there's that.

@NinjaSixx pretty much agree with your concerns on every front. Well put.

@NinjaSixx I really don't even mind an arpg. Arpgs are good. I love the Tales and Ys series. They're all at least RPGs. If turn based is ancient and real time is in, that's cool, but make it an actual transition of the combat in an RPG game, don't just make a naughty dog/ssm action adventure and call it ff16. I'm not glued to turn based but I at least want the game to be an RPG as much as horizon and not as little as gow.

Seems like a lot of people are pretty hyped about the environments. I honestly think they're kind of bland. Looks like more running around in empty spaces. A little skeptical, but I've got my fingers crossed.

@NinjaSixx
Funnily enough, as an old school FF and JRPG fan, I don’t mind the real time combat. But only as long as there is no enemy scaling. The grind and sense of progression in JRPGs was alway a thing I enjoyed. Getting stronger and stronger until I could destroy anything. To me FF and other JRPGs were about that. Strategy was left to TRPGs, those isometric types.

@Impossibilium If it’s about accessibility than it should be in a menu with that label. Items that in-game affect difficulty are not accessibility options, they are how the game is balanced - saying it’s optional isn’t good enough. I shouldn’t have to play differently to accommodate bad balance or game design. Bad balance is fine to complain about and potentially ridicule.

@GrimReaper enjoy that indefinite wait

@Jaz007 Unfortunately, I believe the developers think the timely accessories are a way to keep the game balanced.

People that use them — taking the easy way, as they see it — won’t be able to use the buffs that come with other accessories in the game. The buffs also make the game easier, by giving a character +4 Attack or add burn damage to your sword (these are just examples; I don’t believe they’ve gone into any detail about what other accessories actually do). If you want the buffs, you have to sacrifice the “easy mode” accessories to do that. The average player might use the timely accessories to help them out while they’re still learning the game mechanics, and switch to the regular accessories later.

This is a garbage way of handling things. People might need the help the timely accessories provide. This means that they may lose out on one entire part of the equipment system, just because of their disability.

I’m not going to say it’s discriminatory, because I don’t believe the developers are doing this intentionally. But it shows that they haven’t thought of the importance of making games more accessible, and I hope that they eventually learn this.

This is only a big deal because they brought it up. The whole reason they went with an action-based combat system was to make the game appeal to a wider audience. They may gain that audience, but they’ll lose out on another one.

YoshP is an MMO guy and only an MMO guy, whose personal preferences are about online service games, mainly Western games, who's entire modus operandi in gaming has been about making MMOs more popular in Japan. Hes famous for rescuing a single game, an MMO, that isn't even his design.

I don't know where this obsession with him came from that everything he does is golden and he's a guaranteed fan success for anything FF. He's never even made a solo rpg before and never a main FF game.

It's just super fans of 14 assuming anything he does must automatically be perfect despite him having no association with anything but that one game. He has no history with classic FF no history with Sakagichi, no connection to anything but the DQ and FF MMOs. I think this obsession with him in the fandom is strange. He doesn't have the background of someone like Todd Howard, Warren Spector, Peter Molyneaux, Hideo Kojima to know what exactly he's going to be capable of in a game design.

Sadly though I think among those that now worship him, no matter what he does they'll believe it's great and above criticism. The FF fan base is starting to become the Pokemon fan base.

He has less experience than most of the other FF teams including the doomed xv team.

@mariomaster96 slight point, Yoshi P is the producer not the director. FF16 is directed by Hiroshi Takai Kazutoyo.

I like the look of this game a lot. I like the dark and gloomy look as it reminds me of dragons dogma a bit. As for the "snark" i find it quite fitting in todays society to be honest as just about every conversation that takes place with todays youth and those adults trying so hard to stay relevant ends up with..i'm getting old..

I'm still vaguely looking forward to it but my problem is that if you said "let's make Devil May Cry VI but it's longer than usual and in a fantasy setting" you'd end up with FFXVI - and that it's actually more suitable as a DMC game than a FF one. Change Clive to Dante and people would accept it as an odd spin-off, like Isshin for Yakuza. The genre drifting of the franchise is odd. Imagine if Civilisation VII was an FPS.

Im pretty pumped for this game, I hope the platinum is hard. The world sortve reminds me of running around in FFXII. Which I guess makes sense if that games art director and creative director worked on this one