My thoughts/questions/concerns about FFXV right now

[Jim 2,990]

I've been on the hype train for FFXV for the past day or so. I am REALLY excited to play the demo for this game, and I'm so glad that it looks like it's almost complete. Still, I have a few thoughts that I want to share on this thread and hopefully discuss with you guys.

 

So about the trailer: obviously, this trailer has a big "road trip" vibe to it. I also read somewhere that part of what we see in this trailer is in the demo, and they also said that the demo is from near the beginning of the game, so my assumption for this is that we enter the story where Noctis and co. are returning from a long trip/vacation or something and are making their way home, and everything will hit the fan on their arrival. On top of that, the "treaty" that they're discussing on the radio is probably the point where Emperor Eldercapt begins to threaten the king. I guess that's a fairly obvious assumption, but hey I'm excited, so may as well talk about it.

 

Now the gameplay is something that's beginning to confuse me. 

The trailer we saw in 2013 gave us this HUD (with the character names and HP on the opposite side of the screen): 

 

But yesterday, we see this: 

 

So here, we see four slots:

As they said in neogaf, the general gist of what we're seeing here, in terms of the HUD, is:

-----------<>Attack]  >>Goblin                                                           [Noctis           3776
-----------<>Attack]  >>Behemoth                                                     [ignis              2233
-----<> Defend]                                                                                [Gladio           2987
-----------<>Attack]  >> Goblin                                                          [Prompto        3147

 

So essentially, this seems kinda similar to FFXII's HUD, where we see the character names, next to what the character is doing. Also, note the yellow-ish dots near the right part of the white HP line under the character's names. I'm curious as to what these dots represent, because they must be there for a reason. these dots appear at different points on each character's HP line. (go to full screen and HD on this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJrXCfVKXEA if you can't see what I'm talking about. they're hard to see) 

 

So what happened to the old HUD? I'm concerned, because a lot of people are saying (and for all I know, this could be just a rumor) that the director said that you hold down the defend button to block/avoid attacks. I'm not sure what I think about that. But I'd kinda like to know: what about menus where you can see which button does what? What about the magic menu that we saw in the e3 one? How do we know which magic attack we're selecting? I'm not sure I want to see just one button for magic and have that just automatically use it (with no apparent MP cost, as far as I can tell). And my biggest question: what happened to the weapon reel? I'm kinda bummed that we don't see that here. 

This isn't to say that I dislike the new HUD. It's fine, especially because it's good to see what all the characters are doing. I'm just concerned about what it's implications are for the gameplay. But even then, perhaps it isn't even the final one. Seeing as that new video just showed the directors messing with the environment and all that, maybe they just weren't showing us any of the other menus we'd usually see. So perhaps there are other menus, and it alternates between them. Of course, I guess we won't find out for sure for a little bit, so this is more speculation than anything else.

 

That being said, I'm sure the game will be a blast. FFXV seems extremely ambitious, and I'm excited that they said it's going to be a massive open world. And it looks beautiful too! Like, look at this! Freaking look at this!

 

And if the demo is four to five hours long for people who like exploring (still more gameplay than MGS5:GZ), imagine how long the actual game will be! I am super excited for this game. 

 

What are your guys' thoughts? 

[Dave 5,715]

Honestly, all I can think of every time the four dudes appear on screen is a Maybelline commercial. They just seem extraordinarily pretty and stylized, almost to the point of parody. 

[TerraRedeemed 255]

I'm super excited. So much so that I've exhausted words that describe how excited I actually am. I cannot wait until march when hopefully we can get a taste of XV and Type-0.

[Neptune Vasilias 340]

Maybe it'll be like GTA and you pull up a weapon wheel or something? Idk until I see completed game video I don't trust anything

[PrinceNoctis 1,011]

They said they changed the battle system...I'm kind of worried about that.

[sagman12PC 280]

We will see what the battle system feels like in March when Type-0 HD comes out. Words cannot express how excited i am for this game. I have been waiting for 8 years now and the wait is almost finally over

[Sora96 17,256]

The E3 trailer was running on a different engine.