12:45 FYI: as John mentions that turning off motion blur is not an option in the current, release version. But over the past weekend, Yoshi P mentioned (during the Japanese Pre launch livestream) they will add an option to “Turn Off” motion blur in an upcoming patch.
@@BorisTheGoose92 agree. I’m also not a fan of motion blur. However, I recently got my first OLED TV just in time for this game and it helps when playing “Graphics” mode. The near instantaneous pixel response time stuttering is a lot smoother at 30fps than other games. At least in my case.
@@teddyholiday8038 yeah. More people are going to wait out until the patches before playing this now. But for me, with a story this grand, don’t want spoilers. At least by the time I get to New Game+, hopefully all that is implemented and performance is improved.
The Grape segment was hilarious as an FFXIV player who was there for all the grape mocking during the Endwalker launch! I’m hesistant to watch much more to avoid spoilers though.
Yeah I've always been a long time final fantasy fan since I first bought FF7 on the Playstation 1 as a kid. His review really shows the love, care & respect he has for the game which is surprisingly uncommon when it comes to many game reviewers. (I'm liking the like minded sentiment of this comments section)
Totally agree. Jon, this is a great video and your passion is appreciated and accentuates the quality of this game. If people don’t want to hang around they will drop off once they’ve got the message. But the rest of us are all here for the moments you feel enamoured enough to write a love letter to a work of art!
It’s never gets old listening to John talk about video games, just like Rich, he has a way of describing everything that’s so appealing to listen to and you can hear his passion for the game while also being able to critique the finer details.
John, I was not expecting a section on the music alone and I can't say enough how much I appreciate that you included it for this particular game for the DF Tech Review. Definitely felt like a conscientious decision for fans of the series.
Music is part of the tech progression in video game, even though there are no limitation now, it is essential to the presentation and experience a player can have with technology, I'm a bit disappointed there aren't in depth review of special sound effect and music immersion. Example like how a sword slash the skin or armor of the enemy, or how the music transition between different stages of the battle, they all contribute to the experience of the game even though the player barely notice the diminutive detail comparing to the graphic.
He has done it before, but is really one of the reasons I love john reviews, he really explores the audiovisual department from every direction, is great tbh.
@@dante19890 Well that isn't somewhat insulting to actual add folk... 😑 To be fair, i have add and I managed to watch at least 25 minutes before I started to lose interest. But I was busy eating during most of if so you know, was kinda already distracted 😅
@@SwordsandMushrooms Thank you bro, you might just saved my game experience from being destroyed. I immediately paused the video when I saw this comment😧
Yeah it's (sadly) a real feat these days to have close to no game breaking/major bugs in a game of this magnitude. I salute the team, what a great effort!
@@a9udn9u-vanced that's true about minor ones but with the gaming industry critical ones come day one and a few months down the line that's the problem you see
@@leftyfourguns No and it's worse before because of modern software development processes. The only reason you feel games are more buggy nowadays is because modern games are exponentially more complex than older games. When you code 1+1 it's difficult to have bugs in it.
@@LS95774 Yeah was about to say, can't trust PC ports to fix things when they usually turn up even worse lol. If you want 60fps with a reasonable resolution, seems like PC and multiplatform games are still the only way to go. That or keep playing PS4 games on PS5, those look and run pretty great.
@@seanpitt27t's not the consoles. Devs are lazy and have outs and excuses. Xbox granted hasn't proved its power yet but ps5. Look at all the exclusives, insomniac for example. SM remastered, SM miles morales, ratchet rift apart. All have performance ray tracing modes. Flawless 1440p 60fps with RT. Look at HFW, 1800p 60fps locked. Ragnarok, Demon souls, tlou part 1. All running superbly. It's the Devs being lazy. The fact we're going back to 30fps being the norm is a joke, unfortunately when it comes to third party pc is the way. This game is a ps5 console exclusive running and looking like absolute sh*t. No excuse it's a joke. This is why I've stopped pre ordering games, I waited to see this video to determine whether or not I was gonna get this. Cause that's modern gaming. You can't just rely on good faith that the game will release in a polished state. It's so bad. I ain't getting this game now. Wait for a deep sale.
right on time with this one DF. It's shame performance modes are starting to not hit 60fps.... crazy times we are hearing about consoles running at 720p-1080p and struggling with fps... it's like we jumped back 2 generations
@@soumenkamila92I already preordered the game but 30fps in 2023 is unacceptable. Ps2 had its games at 60FPS. I’m beyond disappointed and disgusted how weak both consoles are, we definitely need pro versions and this time every game should be 4K 60.
@@theanimerapper6351Sony's first party games knock it out of the park when it comes to image quality or a stable higher frame rate. The dumbass third party developer, especially this generation got no clue or intelligence to optimize their games. That's why even the PC ports with stutter struggle are mostly trash nowadays...
31:09 I am sure that I am gonna be dead by the level of goosebumps I am gonna get at this moment, soundtrack alone is some of the best thing I have ever heard in my life
Imagine playing in 720p resolution in 2023.... If we continue this path, 60fps modes will run in 360p by the end of the generation... Why is it so hard to optimize games? They cant blame the weak jaguar cpu-s anymore...
I feel like Final Fantasy 16 and Final Fantasy 7 Remake solidified that the series is no longer held back by technical limitations. These visuals were envisioned by the devs from the start and this is truly how they wanted the series to look.
I believe I'm nearing the last leg of the game at this point. I remember years ago when I dreamt of have a game that looked like all those beautiful CG cut scenes we would get in the PS1 and PS2 Final Fantasy titles, and now we are as close to that as ever, even better at times. The combat is really solid and I adore the narrative in this game. The hours of cutscenes are completely fine with me as it is telling one of the best stories in the Final Fantasy series. Thanks for the video breaking everything down and going into such great detail.
"One of the most polished games in last years." "FPS dropping up to 30-40 in some areas in performance mode." Are you honestly thinking that we can call it "polished" ?
Oh no. One of the best games ever made in the graphical department can’t hit 60 at all times on a 400 dollar console. There’s more to a game than hitting 60 fps for every second. In 20 years, no one will look back at this game and say, yeah that game sucks. It only ran at 45 fps in the open world. 😂 bruh that’s not what makes a game good. Did you miss the rest of the review?
@@tehCostHDeveryone bitching about the graphics either: 1. Never played the demo so have no idea how much fun the gameplay loop is. 2. Never had any intention of actually buying/playing it.
@@eh-ronlocke7164 exactly bro. The internet is swriously depressing. Everyone is doom and gloom about everything in existence. No one can enjoy anything anymore. Tiny details matter to people more than the bigger pictures and it’s seriously fucking depressing.
They've been a great source of info for years, but I think console players starting to care about performance vs quality has seen DF get more attention.
Probably neckbeard-scratchy, but the main material property (i.e: BRDF property) shown at 6:27 is not Fresnel, it's Rayleigh backscatter. Backscatter is a key component of material properties like velvet/silk/suede (especially in generating the dual visual colorations often visible in those materials) or even hair (hair 'halos') Fresnel is more of a standard reflectivity component in metalic/dielectric materials, and is a standard inclusion in any Microfacet BRDF model. The Fresnel equations simply quantify the distribution of the light energy reflected and refracted when interacting with a surface, so it has no way to model the fuzzy fiber simulation that causes backscatter (simulation because rasterization or ray tracing of such fine elements defined as geometry would be too expensive). And yes, it's likely simulating both (as mentioned, Fresnel is standard in Microfacet BRDFs; energy dissipation is usually modeled in all material shaders!), but the focus in this shot is on a velvet/suede material. Also, just because a shader "varies on viewing angle" does not make it a Fresnel material, as many material effects use the surface normal relative to the view vector -> in other words: a cow is indeed an animal, but an animal is not by definition a cow. Sorry for the neckbeard scratching, but because of the high standards set for DF, this seems like a fair correction.
I remember wishing for this while playing FF7R - walking around town is fine at 30 FPS if it looks significantly better, but during combat, it's definitely 60 FPS or bust.
It's the first new main-line FF that I'm currently enjoying ( in 17 years ) that feels as close to what an FF should be thats been missing for a long time ( great story, characters, realism & fantasy elements with over the top spectacle and solid world-lore that's easy to follow with a consistent, banging soundtrack on top ) though it's not perfect but the pros are easily outweighing the cons, in 17 years since FF12 in 2006 on the ol PS2, that's how long its been from an old-school fan, so I don't know what they're ( reviewers ) talking about or this rancid comment section for that matter.
@@xtr.7662 "for some reason" because its a good game and alot of reviewers/people enjoy it? I get everyone is entitled to their own opinion and nothing can please everybody, but you act like you have NO clue why this game is praised. like cmon lets not act clueless lol
@@GlazeonthewickeR It's a good game trapped in the body of a bloated open world. I really wish the trend of making every game open world would die already. FFXVI's model of having large, independent spaces is a great middle ground.
You get used to very quickly, I prefer stability so I'll quality mode. The graphics and visuals are amazing so it helps with an even better picture quality, but I understand if a majority find 30fps hard to play at.
Dips into 720 resolution and choppy performance mode and this is a good launch? Idk I can’t help but feel DF has resigned itself that we will always have bad performance on consoles. Had a good laugh when your suggestion was just never to switch to performance so your brain never knows better lol. I’m so disappointed with the promises of these next gen consoles. The hopium was real…
These next-gen consoles can handle 60fps in certain cases, but when you see how detailed they are and the AMOUNT of systems in work, 30fps in itself is a miracle at times when you really think about it. How Zelda Totk on the switch runs flawlessly is a mystery.
Well if you check all the poor PC games recently I would say that it's just the gaming industry and game development problem in general. The PS5 and XSX perform really close to their PC counterparts (a Ryzen 3600X + RX 6700 class) but for 500 bucks (I would even say 400 for the PS5 digital edition). On PC to really get performance, you really need to aim for high end components: RX6800/6900/7900 or RTX 3080/3090/4070/4080/4090 to really beat the consoles and all those GPUs alone cost the price of the console or much more, you then have to add the CPU, Mobo, Memory and SSD. So credit to consoles makers, with the price point they were targeting, they offer the best they can. I have the feeling that modern development/engines enable easy development but have a lot of overhead in terms of resources consumption. It is unacceptable to see the poor textures of a lot of recent games chugging with 8GB of VRAM, the stutterings due to shaders compilation even on beefy machines etc...
Run Time is perfect for a mainline Final Fantasy game. Especially when its excellent like this one. Awesome and detail tech review as always! Wonderful job!
@fernandoblengio didn't realize I wasn't relaxed? If you read my comment in a manic tone, that's on you. Being critical of something is not the same as being manic.
@@jamjam445 if you're talking about the fps for the game, I think its hardware limitation at this point as even PS5 can barely keep up with FF16's software demands in performance so its pushing the hardware to its limits while keeping it playable and enjoyable as possible. They provided some quality of life improvements though including adjusting motion blur for 1.03 Patch
It's a cabal. The devs, the publishers, the games media...all in it together. Then we have the fanatics online who try and gaslight everybody who can perceive as the clear as day the framerate fluctuations and resolution drops. All you can do as a consumer is withhold your money and play something else. No video game is essential.
if you enjoyed this try to find some tracks from FF14 they are also very very good. I would also recommend music from the Nier games, different style but some of the best soundtrack ever created IMO.
I think with CBU3 and Yoshi-P being behind this and 14, we’ll be in good hands. They clearly didn’t half ass this game, you can really feel the passion behind it
I'm totally not a FF guy but more of a racing guy but man the quality of video's you guys bring out are so good lately that while watching this I can even get excited for what you guys bring to the table. The way of explaining, the passion, the level of detail. No other group of guys can match that and then I haven't even spoken about the editing... Pffff I'm so deeply impressed by that and I believe Oliver does the edits for these video's... Well sir... Hats off to you. I'm absolutely deeply impressed and you all can be extremely proud of the work you deliver for this channel. Hope to see a lot more of your work in the future. Greets from your neighbour (Dutchman)
31:50, looks like Gandalf fighting the Balrog! This whole game looks gorgeous to my eyes, possibly my favourite visuals so far this generation - particularly the forest sections you show here.
Ha, if you haven't played the game yet, you might not know just how right you are... there's a shot in the game that is a direct copy of the wide shot of Gandalf and the Balrog falling into the deepest depths of Moria. If it's not an intentional homage, I'd be extremely surprised.
I know some people don't want to hear this, but a game with so many performance problems in performance mode shouldn't get so high ratings. This is a wrong sign for the developers. Look at Jedi: Survivor. The game still runs horrible in performance mode on consoles, including screen tearing. In the FF 16 demo i even noticed extrem frame drops in nearly empty small rooms in the castle. I personally won't buy the game until this is fixed.
Publishers use FOMO and fanboys to run damage control for them. Put out a poorly performing game and have their rabid fans tell anybody that complains that they're wrong; that they don't notice any dips; and 18fps was fine for Ocarina of Time when we were kids so why care? This can join Jedi Survivor on the forget about list. So much other choice out there.
@@shinramiddlemanager7949 I remember asking EA for a patch and got answers from people like "The game runs PERFECT on my PS5" or "Maybe don't buy your PS5 from wish next time". This is so weird. I mean everyone benefits from a stable 60 FPS mode.
@@joshsmith2629 I am talking about a PS5 game not a Switch game. I mean you know that there's a difference? Just watch the performance analyzes, the performance mode is constantly hovering from below 40 to 60 FPS with a resolution at 720p at times.
@@joshsmith2629 This is a problem with optimization and not with the hardware. There are many games out there with a lot more graphical fidelity, like Forbidden West or Far Cry 6, and they all have a stable 60 FPS performance mode. I guess they developed the game for 30 FPS and at one point later in the development realized that the game needs a performance mode too.
Blows my mind that i have to even consider playing my my ps5 game in 30fps. Games shouldn't even be made in anything but 60fps. Damn we were promised 120 fps.
Ive been playing for a few days now and been using graphics mode in Sanbreque ( performance mode tanks here) while running around and exploring then shifting to performance for big fights. Thanks for confirming this DF!
It's bad optimization. There are several games out there with much more visual fidelity and they run with flawless 60 FPS and higher resolution. Forbidden West for example, Far Cry 6 and many more.
@@ms7b101 Yes of course: The open world has much more complexity in it's geometry in it's presentation and even active physics, running at rock stable 60 FPS at 1440p (i think). That's just one example. The main problem of FF16 is the engine in my opinion, it's just not very good optimized.
How can you say this is as close to a perfect release as youve seen in a long time when Dead Island 2 ran near perfect and didnt run at 7th gen resolutions. This is incredibly biased.
@tehCostHD It runs at a near constant 60FPS and looks better when doing so yet John states that FF XVI is the most polished game we've had in quite some time which is just a flat out lie. This review was nothing more than a fanboy showing his bias.
Needing to drop to 720p to reach 60fps is crazy, going from high 30's to 60 all the time is jarring as fuck. Also using FSR1 to upscale the image doesn't make sense, this is not the Switch, at least use the much better FSR2.
I never comment but this time I really feel the need to compliment this beautiful video. Really from start to finish a very good presentation and the passion you've put here almost makes me want to buy a ps5 for this game alone. I didn't even felt the length and in fact I would've enjoyed watching more. Thank you John!
So to get 60 fps we need to drop down to 720 p… and doesn’t get locked 60 while exploring. There’s no point of a performance mode it it can’t reach locked 60 I guess it’s shouldn’t be a problem that starfield is only 30 fps now then?
..Did you even listen to what he said? It only hits 720p in combat in performance mode and does so specifically to lock the framerate at 60. Also that's the internal resolution, it's still upscaled.
Mentioning 720p in 2023...truly next gen guys. Coupled with FSR 1 and you've got a blurry looking mess. Think it's best to wait for the PC port later on, I need to play this game at 60fps, but I cannot accept the poor image quality. I wonder what all the defenders of the demo have to say now...according to them the demo was an "old build" and the final release should have been perfect. Lol!
You don’t even notice it when you’re playing. Played the demo multiple times on performance mode and not once did I do a double take at it when combat began. Upscaling solves it.
Imagine being such a fool that you’re willing to pass up on some of the best gameplay this year because a video on the internet says it has performance drops which will most likely get fixed.
@@eh-ronlocke7164 I'll get it when it gets fixed then :) Not going to support these shitty practices and buy games full price wishing they fix them someday. People like you are the reason why every single game these days is broken. Corpos don't care, they will release whatever in a broken and/or unfinished state and people will buy it.
Yet the clown Alex thinks the consoles still have SOOO much to give no pros are needed this generation. I'm mainly a pc player and absolutely hate he is the pc tech guy on this site
@@SPG8989 I think its mostly due to incompetent devs or garbage engines. I'm curious to see what Forza Motorsport will look like in game and its resolution, frames, and RT will look like.
I have become such a fan of 60fps in the past year or so that I think I’m gonna have to play it in performance especially since it seems to be stable in combat. The 60fps in combat is where I think it really counts specifically for this game. Having that fast fluid combat at 60.
Except that resolution drop is almost Switch level bad, I would personally prefer a reasonably sharp image at lower framerate if the alternative was a smudged image.
Yea DF continually recommends 30 and then I put it on 30 and it’s just so unplayable for me . Part of me wishes I never experienced 60 so I can just stick to the quality mods, but atlas I cannot.
“Performance Mode” has lost all meaning. It used to be the mode that promised a stable, locked framerate. Now it just means “more random amount of frames than the other mode”. STABILITY MATTERS, devs.
@@Lewis-4 Indeed. I'd wager a LOT of us are still using displays without VRR so the addition of a proper 60FPS mode would be far more beneficial to the general populace.
I dont like the motion blur at all it looks so bad on a OLED tv with VRR i have stopped playing making characters faces look like a blur mesh when moving around
Really hoping they'll drop a 40 fps patch for 120hz screens. The hit to the visuals are noticeable in performance mode, but quality mode is just unplayable to me 😣
Unless you have a medical condition that causes severe motion-sickness while playing at 30fps then ( vey rare condition ), no, its not unplayable to you, you only have convinced yourself to think it is. I can play both and there is a difference but no where near unplayable, sub 25 to 20 maybe unplayable but that's another story.
Motion blur kills my brain man. Really sucks that you can't turn it off. It's fine when I'm just running around and mostly looking straight forward but when I'm exploring an area and whipping my camera around to scope out what's around me it almost gives me a headache. I tried, I used it for about an hour, but I just couldn't keep going using it. As much as I hate the inconsistent frame rate of the performance mode it's much more tolerable than the killer motion blur. If I could turn that off I'd take the consistent frame rate for sure.
By now I think most people won't take "open world" as positive anymore as it often implies massive open areas which are largely empty, boring and repetitive.
The music, especially the boss battles, is alone worthwhile picking the game up. I haven't been this excited for the title in a long time. Look forward to jumping into FF16 world this weekend. Excellent review John, thank you.
John is the man! It’s going to be a sad day if he ever leaves Digital Foundry. These videos are just so well put together. (The DF Retro video’s being my favorite)
The motion blur is far worse than what is mentioned in this video. If you stand in a bright light anywhere then move your right analog stick from left to right it literally triples the image of the sword hilt making the blur more like a fast disorienting image duplication method instead of a blur at all.... I have no idea how Squenix did not realize that blur is horrible.
I'm sorry I've said it before on here and I'll say it again, I have no clue what this weird disparity between PC and Console analysis is that you guys are doing atm. When John was waxing lyrical about how amazing and polished a release this was I actually assumed that the performance mode was considerably improved from the demo and that they'd pulled off a miracle. Then to get to the framerate analysis and see it waving around the 40-50 fps range really pissed me off. This is an amazing accomplishment? Why? Because it's Final Fantasy? It absolutely does not appear to be pushing to the boat with visuals enough that they shouldn't have been able to produce a mostly solid 60fps mode. Everything outside of the giant summon set pieces seems fine enough that 1080p upscaled and 60fps is more than reasonable based on comparative titles. Even worse is that that mode has such awful image quality it's actually beyond belief. This forced use of FSR is a terrible crutch being used in recent releases and is making games look absolutely awful in motion. This game is not open world (A Good thing imo btw) and is not a graphical showcase any more-so than cross gen Sony titles like Ragnarok and Forbidden west which both run at 60, so how this has such a positive slant I really have no clue. More importantly, if this was released on PC and with console equivalent hardware you could only achieve the framerates from performance mode, even when FSR is clearly cranked up as high as it is, it would be considered an abject failure and Alex would be tearing it a new one (Rightly so). I get you've decided 30fps is OK for you with this one John and honestly that's absolutely fine. I think it's terrible console games have abandoned 60 now because the games don't even look better than their cross gen competition and are hardly more ambitious (Starfield may be a fair exception). But it seems really unfair to be slamming every PC release left right and centre while giving this a pass when realistically you could cap all your PC games to 30 and probably have similar "Quality" mode experiences and ignore everything Alex says atm. That would be a joke, nobody on PC wants to do that, but there's a very clear double standard going on here that seems wrong to me. And btw just to clarify PC performance on recent releases have been crap so Alex has been very much justified recently, it's just most of the time the console versions are pretty much as bad and sometimes even worse. Case being Jedi survivor's Performance mode where the image quality is absolutely shocking. You won't get a locked 60 anywhere but at least it looks nicer on PC... Anyway I'm very excited to eventually play this when it's fixed up (If it ever is) and the game itself looks very cool. But the positive slant on the technical analysis here doesn't seem right because I think the technical performance of current gen games is an industry wide issue not isolated just to the PC platform like DF seems to imply with their videos recently. I mean seriously how on earth are Cyberpunk 2077 and Horizon Forbidden West a solid 60 on consoles despite the complexity of their open worlds and this isn't, it just doesn't add up. Not hating here guys I do love your content but I think some more clarity about when 30 is "Fine" and when it isn't would be nice so we know where expectations lie in the future
"Grapes per second" must become the unique quality measure for any new game.
Came to the comments to write this XD
I can not find the timestamp, where is that line?
@@nefertumdark@16:44 lol
It's almost like the Seconds to Crate metric OldManMurray dreamed up so long ago.
@pigjedithe guy never said he watched the video, just said he can't find a time stamp
12:45 FYI: as John mentions that turning off motion blur is not an option in the current, release version. But over the past weekend, Yoshi P mentioned (during the Japanese Pre launch livestream) they will add an option to “Turn Off” motion blur in an upcoming patch.
Thank god too. I was hating it in the demo.
Should have launched with the option
@@BorisTheGoose92 agree. I’m also not a fan of motion blur. However, I recently got my first OLED TV just in time for this game and it helps when playing “Graphics” mode. The near instantaneous pixel response time stuttering is a lot smoother at 30fps than other games. At least in my case.
@@teddyholiday8038 yeah. More people are going to wait out until the patches before playing this now. But for me, with a story this grand, don’t want spoilers. At least by the time I get to New Game+, hopefully all that is implemented and performance is improved.
I'm sure the motion blur toggle is included in the 300mb day 1 patch.
The Grape segment was hilarious as an FFXIV player who was there for all the grape mocking during the Endwalker launch! I’m hesistant to watch much more to avoid spoilers though.
🤣 We were dying. We had to pause the video. Grapes Per Second!!!! 🍇🍇🍇
Yup, I'm dying right now. Had to come to the comments for extra fun 😂
🎶Tales of Loooosssss, and fiiiiire, and graaaaaaaapes...🎶
Those OG Endwalker grapes were 11/10
Hahaha so good!
Let's take a moment to appreciate John's "Ode to the Grapes of Final Fantasy". Top job sir.
DF stays unrivaled, I don't think we've had a moment this magical since the Chad Warden ps3 retrospective intro.
@@ghostcula That reminds of df retro, i don't think there is anything like DF retro on entire youtube..
They added a motion blur slider in an update today! You can set it from 0 to it's default setting of 5.
5 looks great for 30 imo but 60 fps could do with 2 or 3
Wonderful video. Do not apologize for the length. This is so well put together. Amazing work.
It's great to see you excited about a new release.
Yeah I've always been a long time final fantasy fan since I first bought FF7 on the Playstation 1 as a kid. His review really shows the love, care & respect he has for the game which is surprisingly uncommon when it comes to many game reviewers.
(I'm liking the like minded sentiment of this comments section)
Totally agree. Jon, this is a great video and your passion is appreciated and accentuates the quality of this game. If people don’t want to hang around they will drop off once they’ve got the message. But the rest of us are all here for the moments you feel enamoured enough to write a love letter to a work of art!
It’s never gets old listening to John talk about video games, just like Rich, he has a way of describing everything that’s so appealing to listen to and you can hear his passion for the game while also being able to critique the finer details.
Love it, but… i absolutely hate when he doesn’t like a game, oh man he’s unbearable. Lol
720p - 1080p in performance mode 💀 truly next gen
John, I was not expecting a section on the music alone and I can't say enough how much I appreciate that you included it for this particular game for the DF Tech Review. Definitely felt like a conscientious decision for fans of the series.
That's how I feel about the grape section!
Music is part of the tech progression in video game, even though there are no limitation now, it is essential to the presentation and experience a player can have with technology, I'm a bit disappointed there aren't in depth review of special sound effect and music immersion. Example like how a sword slash the skin or armor of the enemy, or how the music transition between different stages of the battle, they all contribute to the experience of the game even though the player barely notice the diminutive detail comparing to the graphic.
He has done it before, but is really one of the reasons I love john reviews, he really explores the audiovisual department from every direction, is great tbh.
It deserves it. The music is sensational.
@@carpetfluff35 Oh I know. I am a major Soken fan. I plan to buy the soundtrack too.
Run time was perfect, don't apologise. Great to witness somebody just loving a game and wanting to share it! Well done.
IF this review was 20 hours id have watched it lmao
I never noticed the run time. I only realized I'd spent 30 minutes after hearing him apologize, lol.
its too long for ADD audience
@@dante19890 Well that isn't somewhat insulting to actual add folk... 😑
To be fair, i have add and I managed to watch at least 25 minutes before I started to lose interest. But I was busy eating during most of if so you know, was kinda already distracted 😅
You damn hypocrites hate starfield for being 30 fps but you’re fine with this shitty game terrible performance lol
Another fanboy monent for DF. Y'all keep ruining your credibility.
Exactly just like they did for Zelda they took the money from Nintendo and Sony to give it great ratings.
If you guys don't want anything spoiled, just listen to the video, John describes everything well.
I didn't expect that MASSIVE spoiler at 31:05 🙁
@@SwordsandMushrooms Thank you bro, you might just saved my game experience from being destroyed. I immediately paused the video when I saw this comment😧
@@SwordsandMushrooms dude you can't even describe what is happening
Fkn poosis spoilers don't ruin anything
@@SwordsandMushroomsYou are my hero ❤️ Thank you
Yeah it's (sadly) a real feat these days to have close to no game breaking/major bugs in a game of this magnitude.
I salute the team, what a great effort!
fucking sad indeed
No software is bug free.
@@a9udn9u-vanced that's true about minor ones but with the gaming industry critical ones come day one and a few months down the line that's the problem you see
Bug free action games didn't exist before FF16?
@@leftyfourguns No and it's worse before because of modern software development processes. The only reason you feel games are more buggy nowadays is because modern games are exponentially more complex than older games. When you code 1+1 it's difficult to have bugs in it.
How convenient. I was literally just thinking to myself wondering when DF would drop their review
Basically the same time everyone else did, on account of the Square Enix embargo lmao
And they say we don’t need pro consoles.. wow it’s not looking good for the next 4 years!
@@seanpitt27 Heh, PC port can't come soon enough, eh?
Let's hope it turns out better than the AAA releases this year
@@LS95774 Yeah was about to say, can't trust PC ports to fix things when they usually turn up even worse lol. If you want 60fps with a reasonable resolution, seems like PC and multiplatform games are still the only way to go. That or keep playing PS4 games on PS5, those look and run pretty great.
@@seanpitt27t's not the consoles. Devs are lazy and have outs and excuses. Xbox granted hasn't proved its power yet but ps5. Look at all the exclusives, insomniac for example. SM remastered, SM miles morales, ratchet rift apart. All have performance ray tracing modes. Flawless 1440p 60fps with RT. Look at HFW, 1800p 60fps locked. Ragnarok, Demon souls, tlou part 1. All running superbly. It's the Devs being lazy. The fact we're going back to 30fps being the norm is a joke, unfortunately when it comes to third party pc is the way. This game is a ps5 console exclusive running and looking like absolute sh*t. No excuse it's a joke. This is why I've stopped pre ordering games, I waited to see this video to determine whether or not I was gonna get this. Cause that's modern gaming. You can't just rely on good faith that the game will release in a polished state. It's so bad. I ain't getting this game now. Wait for a deep sale.
right on time with this one DF. It's shame performance modes are starting to not hit 60fps.... crazy times we are hearing about consoles running at 720p-1080p and struggling with fps... it's like we jumped back 2 generations
Bro Sony and Microsoft just sold people a dream. That 60fps promise was a bigger lie than a cheating spouse
@@theanimerapper6351 sony never promised 60 fps or power narrative... I guess u jinxed them with xbox
@@soumenkamila92 Lies, xbox doesnt make games anymore.
@@soumenkamila92I already preordered the game but 30fps in 2023 is unacceptable. Ps2 had its games at 60FPS. I’m beyond disappointed and disgusted how weak both consoles are, we definitely need pro versions and this time every game should be 4K 60.
@@theanimerapper6351Sony's first party games knock it out of the park when it comes to image quality or a stable higher frame rate. The dumbass third party developer, especially this generation got no clue or intelligence to optimize their games. That's why even the PC ports with stutter struggle are mostly trash nowadays...
I absolutely adore John's DF Tech Reviews. The craftmanship of each video is remarkable.
31:09 I am sure that I am gonna be dead by the level of goosebumps I am gonna get at this moment, soundtrack alone is some of the best thing I have ever heard in my life
Agreed. It’s so good.
Music is so good, Soken and Okabe (Nier series) are my favourite game music composers at the moment.
@@xSG1969x Same here. Love their work.
Wow! This video is an art in itself. Very enjoyable to watch like in the old times.
Imagine playing in 720p resolution in 2023....
If we continue this path, 60fps modes will run in 360p by the end of the generation...
Why is it so hard to optimize games? They cant blame the weak jaguar cpu-s anymore...
I feel like Final Fantasy 16 and Final Fantasy 7 Remake solidified that the series is no longer held back by technical limitations. These visuals were envisioned by the devs from the start and this is truly how they wanted the series to look.
The work you put into the analytics of this video...brilliant. Thanks for your hard work! Can't wait to play!
No need to apologize for the length! You're attention to detail is what you do best. Keep doing you John!
再加上TQQQ 跌了4.3%，但SQQQ只涨了2.3%，三倍ETF会贬值，但是狼王没警告大家不能常持
John, you're hillarious. That grape segment made my day. Great review. After watching this and playing the demo I'm so excited to play the full game.
I believe I'm nearing the last leg of the game at this point. I remember years ago when I dreamt of have a game that looked like all those beautiful CG cut scenes we would get in the PS1 and PS2 Final Fantasy titles, and now we are as close to that as ever, even better at times. The combat is really solid and I adore the narrative in this game. The hours of cutscenes are completely fine with me as it is telling one of the best stories in the Final Fantasy series. Thanks for the video breaking everything down and going into such great detail.
Close to PS1 and PS2 CGI Cutscenes? We are past that Graphics wise. FFXVI looks better than any CG Cutscene in the PS1 and 2.
We are 10 years way passed that.
That active time lore or w/e it's called is one of the best unique feature they came up with and I'n sure other games will follow in it's footsteps.
@@ZeltorI pray this become a default option for all large rpg games
Agree 100%
I have a $4,000 tv and $600 console and I’m supposed to be happy with 720p on a console that says 8k gaming on the box?
Maybe actually understand what hardware you’re buying before you buy it
Love that you kept returning to Stillwind's theme throughout the video. I have not been able to stop listening to it since playing the demo.
"One of the most polished games in last years."
"FPS dropping up to 30-40 in some areas in performance mode."
Are you honestly thinking that we can call it "polished" ?
Oh no. One of the best games ever made in the graphical department can’t hit 60 at all times on a 400 dollar console. There’s more to a game than hitting 60 fps for every second. In 20 years, no one will look back at this game and say, yeah that game sucks. It only ran at 45 fps in the open world. 😂 bruh that’s not what makes a game good. Did you miss the rest of the review?
@@tehCostHDeveryone bitching about the graphics either:
1. Never played the demo so have no idea how much fun the gameplay loop is.
2. Never had any intention of actually buying/playing it.
@@eh-ronlocke7164 exactly bro. The internet is swriously depressing. Everyone is doom and gloom about everything in existence. No one can enjoy anything anymore. Tiny details matter to people more than the bigger pictures and it’s seriously fucking depressing.
How did I not find Digital Foundry until recently. Great work John and everyone
They've been a great source of info for years, but I think console players starting to care about performance vs quality has seen DF get more attention.
Glad you found them! They're amazing and really just give the facts 🙂
@@TheRikuideFurame My first technical review and so impressed at the level of detail they go to to give us consumers all the information we need
The only one good reviewer is Tom, no bias no bullcrap fanboyism, the rest are meh biases cry babies.
You weren't looking hard enough
Thank you for such elaborate and detailed insight into every facade of the game. Incredible work as always.
720p is unacceptable in 2023
Exactly especially for those guys who paid $70 for this next Gen game.😂
Probably neckbeard-scratchy, but the main material property (i.e: BRDF property) shown at 6:27 is not Fresnel, it's Rayleigh backscatter.
Backscatter is a key component of material properties like velvet/silk/suede (especially in generating the dual visual colorations often visible in those materials) or even hair (hair 'halos')
Fresnel is more of a standard reflectivity component in metalic/dielectric materials, and is a standard inclusion in any Microfacet BRDF model. The Fresnel equations simply quantify the distribution of the light energy reflected and refracted when interacting with a surface, so it has no way to model the fuzzy fiber simulation that causes backscatter (simulation because rasterization or ray tracing of such fine elements defined as geometry would be too expensive).
And yes, it's likely simulating both (as mentioned, Fresnel is standard in Microfacet BRDFs; energy dissipation is usually modeled in all material shaders!), but the focus in this shot is on a velvet/suede material.
Also, just because a shader "varies on viewing angle" does not make it a Fresnel material, as many material effects use the surface normal relative to the view vector -> in other words: a cow is indeed an animal, but an animal is not by definition a cow.
Sorry for the neckbeard scratching, but because of the high standards set for DF, this seems like a fair correction.
720p in 2023? Oof
720p is still fine in the handheld format but yeah not on a console
Nintendo switch joined the chat.
11:25 That shot in the forest... just WOW.
look like modded skyrim.
Just wow choppy 30 fps on ps5 in 2023, wow indeed. Ghost of Tsushima looks better, has rock solid 60 fps and is 3 years older. What a fail
I was actually eating grapes in the grape analysis part. Wholesome moment
So current gen consoles cant even hit 1080p 60fps in new games. Interesting.
720p!? Oh boy.
I love that number.
So pogged to be back in the early 00s again
I would 100% be happy with a 'balanced' framerate mode that offered 30fps during open world/exploration but cut to 60fps for battles.
Me too
I remember wishing for this while playing FF7R - walking around town is fine at 30 FPS if it looks significantly better, but during combat, it's definitely 60 FPS or bust.
thats terrible
no that would be jarring. 40fps no fsr please. it's not rocket science
@@whodatninja439 it drops into the 30s in some cities and during eikon fights its clear there are cpu and gpu bottlenecks a locked 40 isnt possible
Can't believe anyone would even think to score this the same as Redfall...
Eurogamer 💀
It's the first new main-line FF that I'm currently enjoying ( in 17 years ) that feels as close to what an FF should be thats been missing for a long time ( great story, characters, realism & fantasy elements with over the top spectacle and solid world-lore that's easy to follow with a consistent, banging soundtrack on top ) though it's not perfect but the pros are easily outweighing the cons, in 17 years since FF12 in 2006 on the ol PS2, that's how long its been from an old-school fan, so I don't know what they're ( reviewers ) talking about or this rancid comment section for that matter.
That part with him running up the stairs with the wind and dirt blowing around looked so amazing! Mind blown 🤯
Mid
@warumsindalleso
Fanboys will praise anything, this game looks incredibly mediocre in fidelity mode and horrendous in performance mode.
@@originalityisdead.9513 get your eyes checked
@@originalityisdead.9513 mental illness
@@originalityisdead.9513 bait
Great video. I love the idea of tiered cut scenes. Forbidden West is truly miles ahead of anything in this regard.
Too bad the game suxxxx
@@GlazeonthewickeR its decent about as good as control another mediocre game praised by people for some reason
@@GlazeonthewickeR it's an okay game, nothing too great but nothing to scoff at
@@xtr.7662 "for some reason" because its a good game and alot of reviewers/people enjoy it? I get everyone is entitled to their own opinion and nothing can please everybody, but you act like you have NO clue why this game is praised. like cmon lets not act clueless lol
@@GlazeonthewickeR It's a good game trapped in the body of a bloated open world. I really wish the trend of making every game open world would die already. FFXVI's model of having large, independent spaces is a great middle ground.
Just wish the exploration mode will be fixed for 60 fps , i find hard to play at 30
You get used to very quickly, I prefer stability so I'll quality mode. The graphics and visuals are amazing so it helps with an even better picture quality, but I understand if a majority find 30fps hard to play at.
it wont be fixed its not as simple as hitting a button it must be cpu bottlenecked by the looks of it
Dips into 720 resolution and choppy performance mode and this is a good launch? Idk I can’t help but feel DF has resigned itself that we will always have bad performance on consoles.
Had a good laugh when your suggestion was just never to switch to performance so your brain never knows better lol.
I’m so disappointed with the promises of these next gen consoles. The hopium was real…
These next-gen consoles can handle 60fps in certain cases, but when you see how detailed they are and the AMOUNT of systems in work, 30fps in itself is a miracle at times when you really think about it. How Zelda Totk on the switch runs flawlessly is a mystery.
The amount of systems and detail...in this game....my God no
Well if you check all the poor PC games recently I would say that it's just the gaming industry and game development problem in general. The PS5 and XSX perform really close to their PC counterparts (a Ryzen 3600X + RX 6700 class) but for 500 bucks (I would even say 400 for the PS5 digital edition).
On PC to really get performance, you really need to aim for high end components: RX6800/6900/7900 or RTX 3080/3090/4070/4080/4090 to really beat the consoles and all those GPUs alone cost the price of the console or much more, you then have to add the CPU, Mobo, Memory and SSD.
So credit to consoles makers, with the price point they were targeting, they offer the best they can. I have the feeling that modern development/engines enable easy development but have a lot of overhead in terms of resources consumption. It is unacceptable to see the poor textures of a lot of recent games chugging with 8GB of VRAM, the stutterings due to shaders compilation even on beefy machines etc...
@@SPG8989uhhhh yes? Did you even watch the first half of this review?
@@sup3rAVATARtlafAN It's definitely not flawless, have you seen how hard the framerate tanks in Kakariko Village?
its a problem when starfield does it but no one batts an eye when final fantasy runs better at 30fps. they shouldve just made a 40fps mode.
Run Time is perfect for a mainline Final Fantasy game. Especially when its excellent like this one. Awesome and detail tech review as always! Wonderful job!
If this game were released on Xbox, media would have given it low scores because of the performance problems.
Its so frustrating that key performance patches come later. I always feel punished for buying it day 1
Relax.
@fernandoblengio didn't realize I wasn't relaxed? If you read my comment in a manic tone, that's on you. Being critical of something is not the same as being manic.
@@jamjam445 if you're talking about the fps for the game, I think its hardware limitation at this point as even PS5 can barely keep up with FF16's software demands in performance so its pushing the hardware to its limits while keeping it playable and enjoyable as possible. They provided some quality of life improvements though including adjusting motion blur for 1.03 Patch
@@Mirage4492i think it's mainly due to ray tracing. Modern consoles struggle w that
@Mirage4492 I was honestly mostly upset that we didn't have an option at launch to disable motion blur. But that's patched now.
I can't believe this game gets 8s 9s and 10s. Every other game of the last year in this state got slaughtered.
It's a cabal. The devs, the publishers, the games media...all in it together. Then we have the fanatics online who try and gaslight everybody who can perceive as the clear as day the framerate fluctuations and resolution drops. All you can do as a consumer is withhold your money and play something else. No video game is essential.
i swear the sound track is disgustingly good. I really felt a shiver i had'nt felt since ffX
if you enjoyed this try to find some tracks from FF14 they are also very very good. I would also recommend music from the Nier games, different style but some of the best soundtrack ever created IMO.
@@xSG1969x i already appreciated Nier, popola and devola boss fight theme will forever be in my heart
Amazing tech review John, I played the DEMO yesterday and boy oh boy the story hits hard right from the beginning. Have a wonderful evening everyone!
Dad was a true man ..sad
Sending prayers for them to make a great PC port. Honestly, the "drop settings and resolution during combat" setting would be great on PC too!
I think with CBU3 and Yoshi-P being behind this and 14, we’ll be in good hands. They clearly didn’t half ass this game, you can really feel the passion behind it
I'm totally not a FF guy but more of a racing guy but man the quality of video's you guys bring out are so good lately that while watching this I can even get excited for what you guys bring to the table.
The way of explaining, the passion, the level of detail. No other group of guys can match that and then I haven't even spoken about the editing... Pffff I'm so deeply impressed by that and I believe Oliver does the edits for these video's... Well sir... Hats off to you.
I'm absolutely deeply impressed and you all can be extremely proud of the work you deliver for this channel. Hope to see a lot more of your work in the future.
Greets from your neighbour (Dutchman)
If you are a racing Guy then go drive a real car not virtual cars lol
720p?!?!?!?! Did we go back to the PS3 , XB 360 era?
What a shambolic mess.
60 FPS still the best pc exclusive.
PC players play at 100+ FPS, 60 FPS is very choppy same as 30 FPS is choppy
oh boy, 30 fps ? here we go again.
"Always sharp presentation" ? Except when it's running at resolutions that even last gen would have been disappointing.
I have a 120htz tv that supports vrr. so I love it when dev provide either a 40 fps mode or an unlocked quality mode.
Idk, i have a new tv and even with vrr enabled i can notice alot of fps dips
31:50, looks like Gandalf fighting the Balrog!
This whole game looks gorgeous to my eyes, possibly my favourite visuals so far this generation - particularly the forest sections you show here.
Ha, if you haven't played the game yet, you might not know just how right you are... there's a shot in the game that is a direct copy of the wide shot of Gandalf and the Balrog falling into the deepest depths of Moria. If it's not an intentional homage, I'd be extremely surprised.
I know some people don't want to hear this, but a game with so many performance problems in performance mode shouldn't get so high ratings. This is a wrong sign for the developers. Look at Jedi: Survivor. The game still runs horrible in performance mode on consoles, including screen tearing. In the FF 16 demo i even noticed extrem frame drops in nearly empty small rooms in the castle. I personally won't buy the game until this is fixed.
Publishers use FOMO and fanboys to run damage control for them. Put out a poorly performing game and have their rabid fans tell anybody that complains that they're wrong; that they don't notice any dips; and 18fps was fine for Ocarina of Time when we were kids so why care?
This can join Jedi Survivor on the forget about list. So much other choice out there.
@@shinramiddlemanager7949 I remember asking EA for a patch and got answers from people like "The game runs PERFECT on my PS5" or "Maybe don't buy your PS5 from wish next time". This is so weird. I mean everyone benefits from a stable 60 FPS mode.
@@joshsmith2629?
@@joshsmith2629 I am talking about a PS5 game not a Switch game. I mean you know that there's a difference? Just watch the performance analyzes, the performance mode is constantly hovering from below 40 to 60 FPS with a resolution at 720p at times.
@@joshsmith2629 This is a problem with optimization and not with the hardware. There are many games out there with a lot more graphical fidelity, like Forbidden West or Far Cry 6, and they all have a stable 60 FPS performance mode. I guess they developed the game for 30 FPS and at one point later in the development realized that the game needs a performance mode too.
Blows my mind that i have to even consider playing my my ps5 game in 30fps. Games shouldn't even be made in anything but 60fps. Damn we were promised 120 fps.
Ive been playing for a few days now and been using graphics mode in Sanbreque ( performance mode tanks here) while running around and exploring then shifting to performance for big fights. Thanks for confirming this DF!
The game isn't even out yet, do you mean the demo?
@@avalokiteshvara113Early physical copy
@@avalokiteshvara113he’s capping
@cb6667 He isn't. A lotta people got an early copy. I haven't, but in 2016 I had an early copy of FFXV by about a week
@@cb6667 what you are experiencing right now is queefing and jealousy my guy LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Drops to 720p in performance mode, this is exactly what I was picturing next gen being a few years ago.
It's bad optimization. There are several games out there with much more visual fidelity and they run with flawless 60 FPS and higher resolution. Forbidden West for example, Far Cry 6 and many more.
@@MarkusFFFFdid you just say far cry 6 has much more visual fidelity than ff16? 🤣🤣
Yeah but if he doesn’t say it dropped to 720 how many people you think would notice it
@@ms7b101 Yes of course: The open world has much more complexity in it's geometry in it's presentation and even active physics, running at rock stable 60 FPS at 1440p (i think). That's just one example. The main problem of FF16 is the engine in my opinion, it's just not very good optimized.
@@MarkusFFFF far cry 6 looks like a PS3 game, no wonder it's a solid 60
Please we don't need 30fps ever again! wtf is going on man?
Hmmmm could it be because consoles age
How can you say this is as close to a perfect release as youve seen in a long time when Dead Island 2 ran near perfect and didnt run at 7th gen resolutions.
This is incredibly biased.
Because dead island 2 doesn’t do things nearly as crazy as this game lmao
@@tehCostHDThis game seems pretty straightforward to me.
@tehCostHD
It runs at a near constant 60FPS and looks better when doing so yet John states that FF XVI is the most polished game we've had in quite some time which is just a flat out lie.
This review was nothing more than a fanboy showing his bias.
It's an early demo build they said,
The full version will run way better they said
*Full version comes out,runs the same as the demo*
This game is a testament to how gorgeous baked lighting still is to this day.
Needing to drop to 720p to reach 60fps is crazy, going from high 30's to 60 all the time is jarring as fuck.
Also using FSR1 to upscale the image doesn't make sense, this is not the Switch, at least use the much better FSR2.
I never comment but this time I really feel the need to compliment this beautiful video. Really from start to finish a very good presentation and the passion you've put here almost makes me want to buy a ps5 for this game alone.
I didn't even felt the length and in fact I would've enjoyed watching more.
Thank you John!
Solid review. I like the focus and level of detail and knowledge on light, texture and graphics, don’t see that in most reviews.
WOW! Nice to see Square Enix is still able to make games like this.
So no one's going to talk about the non stable 60fps .. wow so many xbox haters ....
So to get 60 fps we need to drop down to 720 p… and doesn’t get locked 60 while exploring.
There’s no point of a performance mode it it can’t reach locked 60
I guess it’s shouldn’t be a problem that starfield is only 30 fps now then?
Hardly comparable games. Starfield is such a huge and complex game.
720p in performance mode? Wow!
720p 30fps oil painting = perfect? Interesting take.
..Did you even listen to what he said? It only hits 720p in combat in performance mode and does so specifically to lock the framerate at 60. Also that's the internal resolution, it's still upscaled.
It's never 720p at 30 fps. It's 720p 60 fps in battles and 1080p 35-60 fps in exploration.
Mentioning 720p in 2023...truly next gen guys. Coupled with FSR 1 and you've got a blurry looking mess. Think it's best to wait for the PC port later on, I need to play this game at 60fps, but I cannot accept the poor image quality.
I wonder what all the defenders of the demo have to say now...according to them the demo was an "old build" and the final release should have been perfect. Lol!
Kinda wild that the base resolution is 720p during combat.
You don’t even notice it when you’re playing. Played the demo multiple times on performance mode and not once did I do a double take at it when combat began. Upscaling solves it.
@@eh-ronlocke7164even df said that on the big screens resolution is pretty noticable
@@eh-ronlocke7164stop lying
@@eh-ronlocke7164it looks like an oil painting
Man, y’all circle jerking in here. I guess you all need DF to make up your minds for you.
Thanks for this video DF. Cancelling my preorder lol
Imagine being such a fool that you’re willing to pass up on some of the best gameplay this year because a video on the internet says it has performance drops which will most likely get fixed.
@@eh-ronlocke7164 I'll get it when it gets fixed then :) Not going to support these shitty practices and buy games full price wishing they fix them someday.
People like you are the reason why every single game these days is broken. Corpos don't care, they will release whatever in a broken and/or unfinished state and people will buy it.
I'm only an hour into the game but noticing quite a lot of frame stuttering on the PS5... Anyone else?
Resolution drops to 720p and it STILL can't hold a steady 60fps? Ouch. Thats really bad.
Yet the clown Alex thinks the consoles still have SOOO much to give no pros are needed this generation. I'm mainly a pc player and absolutely hate he is the pc tech guy on this site
@@SPG8989 I think its mostly due to incompetent devs or garbage engines. I'm curious to see what Forza Motorsport will look like in game and its resolution, frames, and RT will look like.
I have become such a fan of 60fps in the past year or so that I think I’m gonna have to play it in performance especially since it seems to be stable in combat. The 60fps in combat is where I think it really counts specifically for this game. Having that fast fluid combat at 60.
Except that resolution drop is almost Switch level bad, I would personally prefer a reasonably sharp image at lower framerate if the alternative was a smudged image.
it's more like 50fps lol, can drop down to 720p. jedi survivor all over again
@@yellowblanka6058 I didn't think the IQ was bad playing the demo personally. What kind of bothered me most was framerate because it stands out.
as always digital foundry recommends the 30fps. why the hell should we play at 30fps on a ps5????
Yea DF continually recommends 30 and then I put it on 30 and it’s just so unplayable for me . Part of me wishes I never experienced 60 so I can just stick to the quality mods, but atlas I cannot.
Wouldn’t call a game that drops to 28fps in performance mode polished 😂
You would if you had decided beforehand that it was going to be great and spent every week since January saying so.
The one thing that no one is talking about is how slow it is opening some doors. Especially for a new generation game.
“Performance Mode” has lost all meaning. It used to be the mode that promised a stable, locked framerate. Now it just means “more random amount of frames than the other mode”.
STABILITY MATTERS, devs.
I'd be fine it was at least within VRR range at all times
@@Bankoru No it wouldn’t. VRR is a band-aid solution where stitches are needed.
And people are paying $70 for this lmao. Idiots. Call me when it’s patched. An game with dmc combat that plays clunky and laggy is unacceptable
@@Lewis-4 Indeed. I'd wager a LOT of us are still using displays without VRR so the addition of a proper 60FPS mode would be far more beneficial to the general populace.
@@Bankoru Most people don't have VRR yet so it is still unacceptable.
I dont like the motion blur at all it looks so bad on a OLED tv with VRR i have stopped playing making characters faces look like a blur mesh when moving around
Bravo John, this video is simply amazing. Your knowledge keeps us on the edges of our seats.
Really hoping they'll drop a 40 fps patch for 120hz screens. The hit to the visuals are noticeable in performance mode, but quality mode is just unplayable to me 😣
Unless you have a medical condition that causes severe motion-sickness while playing at 30fps then ( vey rare condition ), no, its not unplayable to you, you only have convinced yourself to think it is. I can play both and there is a difference but no where near unplayable, sub 25 to 20 maybe unplayable but that's another story.
16:06 actual geometry and meshes, consider my mind blown at the amount of care the art direction was given
The colours are lacking so much vibrancy
Did you play the demo? If so, you would not be saying that.
Motion blur kills my brain man. Really sucks that you can't turn it off. It's fine when I'm just running around and mostly looking straight forward but when I'm exploring an area and whipping my camera around to scope out what's around me it almost gives me a headache. I tried, I used it for about an hour, but I just couldn't keep going using it. As much as I hate the inconsistent frame rate of the performance mode it's much more tolerable than the killer motion blur. If I could turn that off I'd take the consistent frame rate for sure.
These underpowered consoles struggling at 30 fps are a joke, hopefully the PC port isn't garbage like a lot of modern games.
By now I think most people won't take "open world" as positive anymore as it often implies massive open areas which are largely empty, boring and repetitive.
Open world is just unnecessary. Large zones are way enough.
The music, especially the boss battles, is alone worthwhile picking the game up. I haven't been this excited for the title in a long time.
Look forward to jumping into FF16 world this weekend.
Excellent review John, thank you.
John is the man! It’s going to be a sad day if he ever leaves Digital Foundry. These videos are just so well put together. (The DF Retro video’s being my favorite)
`how can you even imagine him leaving qq
Can’t help but feel like y’all damage controlling the terrible frame rate.
The grape graphical review was so stellar.
I feel like it‘s insanely biased
The performance mode is basically unacceptable, it runs more then half the time not with 60
The motion blur is far worse than what is mentioned in this video. If you stand in a bright light anywhere then move your right analog stick from left to right it literally triples the image of the sword hilt making the blur more like a fast disorienting image duplication method instead of a blur at all.... I have no idea how Squenix did not realize that blur is horrible.
FF16 is easily GOTY
Grapes of the Year
I'm sorry I've said it before on here and I'll say it again, I have no clue what this weird disparity between PC and Console analysis is that you guys are doing atm. When John was waxing lyrical about how amazing and polished a release this was I actually assumed that the performance mode was considerably improved from the demo and that they'd pulled off a miracle. Then to get to the framerate analysis and see it waving around the 40-50 fps range really pissed me off. This is an amazing accomplishment? Why? Because it's Final Fantasy? It absolutely does not appear to be pushing to the boat with visuals enough that they shouldn't have been able to produce a mostly solid 60fps mode. Everything outside of the giant summon set pieces seems fine enough that 1080p upscaled and 60fps is more than reasonable based on comparative titles. Even worse is that that mode has such awful image quality it's actually beyond belief. This forced use of FSR is a terrible crutch being used in recent releases and is making games look absolutely awful in motion. This game is not open world (A Good thing imo btw) and is not a graphical showcase any more-so than cross gen Sony titles like Ragnarok and Forbidden west which both run at 60, so how this has such a positive slant I really have no clue. More importantly, if this was released on PC and with console equivalent hardware you could only achieve the framerates from performance mode, even when FSR is clearly cranked up as high as it is, it would be considered an abject failure and Alex would be tearing it a new one (Rightly so). I get you've decided 30fps is OK for you with this one John and honestly that's absolutely fine. I think it's terrible console games have abandoned 60 now because the games don't even look better than their cross gen competition and are hardly more ambitious (Starfield may be a fair exception). But it seems really unfair to be slamming every PC release left right and centre while giving this a pass when realistically you could cap all your PC games to 30 and probably have similar "Quality" mode experiences and ignore everything Alex says atm. That would be a joke, nobody on PC wants to do that, but there's a very clear double standard going on here that seems wrong to me. And btw just to clarify PC performance on recent releases have been crap so Alex has been very much justified recently, it's just most of the time the console versions are pretty much as bad and sometimes even worse. Case being Jedi survivor's Performance mode where the image quality is absolutely shocking. You won't get a locked 60 anywhere but at least it looks nicer on PC... Anyway I'm very excited to eventually play this when it's fixed up (If it ever is) and the game itself looks very cool. But the positive slant on the technical analysis here doesn't seem right because I think the technical performance of current gen games is an industry wide issue not isolated just to the PC platform like DF seems to imply with their videos recently. I mean seriously how on earth are Cyberpunk 2077 and Horizon Forbidden West a solid 60 on consoles despite the complexity of their open worlds and this isn't, it just doesn't add up. Not hating here guys I do love your content but I think some more clarity about when 30 is "Fine" and when it isn't would be nice so we know where expectations lie in the future
although the game is 10 years old now, ff13 still looks pretty impressive on pc 4k 60fps
What a high production video. Great work!
Only issue with 16 is the ps5 exclusivity. I have my copy coming later today but would have preferred it on pc
@@MobileTechGamingIt would’ve not been this polished if this wasn’t a timed or platform exclusive.