beard ひげ @beardalaxy@gameliberty.club

i think final fantasy has always been a series that wants to go as grand as they possibly can, and i think this was the logical next step for it.

if people want to play more classic RPGs they can always jump over to dragon's quest or trials. or this little game called God's Disdain that's coming out next year... hm...

man the steam discussion forum for the ffxvi demo is absolute cancer. it's mostly people arguing over whether the game is a "final fantasy" game or not. i'm just looking for people talking about performance lol.

i wonder if it would have been better received by these people if it was a spin off, but really EVERY final fantasy game is a spin off since there's no sense of a singular world and plot, just shared elements.

idk man to me, ffxvi seems to be the best final fantasy has been in a long time. you can't do the same thing over and over again. i get that people might see the setting as being boring but i really like it. the combat is simple but refreshing.

the cutscenes are pretty long but i don't see any meaningful difference between that and previous ff games which, instead of having fully rendered stuff, just have dialogue boxes appearing. the beginning of ff7 is a slog and this is way more engrossing to me. does clicking X a bunch of times to progress dialogue really make things that much more engrossing than watching scenes?

i see people saying that ff13 was better and i'm like damn... you must have not played ff13 since it came out and you were like 8 years old.

maybe i'll change my tune after playing more than just the demo, but i have watched a good amount of it as well and i liked what i saw. takes a lot to get me hyped to buy a fully priced game and i was even tempted several times to buy a ps5 for this shit. happy to see it on pc now.

FFXVI PC demo seems to have some problems. Game still locks to 30fps during cutscenes (which is especially bad on a 144hz monitor). Graphics settings seem to not work? It makes the game look flat because I don't think AO is working for instance, and the textures don't look great either. The performance outside of cutscenes seems solid, but it does still hitch a little bit (though not in combat from what I've seen).

More a list of annoyances than anything, I'll still buy it. I think it's probably got some work to be done on it still though, so hopefully some of that will be ironed out by release.

FFXVI coming to PC on 9/17!

Demo currently up on Steam! No Epic exclusivity!! And it launched at $50!

LMAO, the guys over on the No Man's Sky Reddit gaslighted journalists into reporting about a secret boss battle in the latest update that doesn't exist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJHoPlBkBdE

Wtf these guys last week asked if I wanted to play for their music festival, I emailed them a few days later, then they just responded and said the schedule was totally full??

looking at rpg architect right now... man, this might be the one i go with guys. it's rpg maker on steroids. i wish it was around when i started working on god's disdain because it would have made so many things i wanted to do but didn't have enough time/willpower incredibly easy, and things i did even easier.

it does have 3d support too. i don't think i'm going to go all-in on 3d, but having 3d environments with 2d sprites i think is a good compromise there.

the engine does cost $50, but once you own it that's it, free updates and everything.

i was also looking at rpg in a box, with their voxel based stuff and the new low-poly model they are releasing at some point in the future. that looks super intriguing too, definitely would be a lot more work and a steeper learning curve but i think it would still be easier than godot.

at the moment, those are the two i'm keeping an eye on.

hm

here's what i've been listening to a lot over the past month or two!

Cheerleader by Porter Robinson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzJbz9qSsd0
Very catchy song with a story I can relate to. Porter Robinson's melody and synths are as unique as ever with a pop-punk veneer on top of it all and his voice works really well for this style too. It's chaotic and moe, but still leaves room for Parker's voice to shine whenever there are vocals introduced into the mix.

Roc Sh!t by UnityTX: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cDP_iOEIoI
This is heavy metal as hell and gets me motivated. Nu-metal has never sounded this close to metal while still sounding so close to hip-hop and it's an insanely good blend of both genres. I can imagine a concert for these guys being absolutely insane. The vocalist is super talented, doing everything from the rapping to the screams.

Hard To Say Goodbye by Johnny Stimson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CvD7ggjozQ
Best way to describe this is SUPER SMOOTH! The flow of the lyrics, the content of them, and the instrumental are all going to make you want to groove. It's definitely a feel-good song that I like listening to when I'm riding or walking just to peace out for a bit.

Landmines by Sum 41: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQEY1gPeZgk
A surprising amount of Sum 41's latest album is top notch, but this is my pick from it. Classic pop-punk in the best kind of way. Catchy lyrics and hooks plus Sum 41's signature refrains with explosive choruses are all here. If you told me this was recorded 20 years ago, I'd believe you, and that's a good thing.