Spoilers up to getting the 'Awoken' achievement / seeing the FFXVI title art in-game.

[Loony BoB]

This thread can be used to discuss the first portion of the game, up to the point where you receive the 'Awoken' achievement / see the title art appear in-game.

You can feel free to post unmarked spoilers about this portion of the game in this thread.

...So.

I'm not that upset about a certain young lad getting rekt, not gonna lie. I wasn't their biggest fan. I dislike 'child heroes' in general and having a seven year old or whatever constantly get on my nerves in the story wasn't something I was looking forward to. The actual death scene was proper gruesome to listen to, though, they really put the audio to 'grotesque' on that one.

A bit sadder about pops, he seemed cool. Honestly, both of them were really predictable deaths overall for me, they had redshirt vibes for the sake of story.

The gameplay so far... I'm button mashing for sure. It's not exciting stuff thus far. I'm not a massive fan of action games, though. I prefer them at least being more like FFVII: Remake where we get to slow down time for particular menu selections. So far it's been smash square to win.

The dramatic scenes have been cool. I feel like it's not as smooth as it could be, but then this is the first game I've played on the PS5. Might mess around with the camera and stuff later and see if I can find a setting closer to my preference.

Clive's mum seems like she could be an interesting character, hopefully she has more to her than just "be villainy" but we'll find out, I guess, in time!

[Marshall Banana]

Gonna put one of my thoughts in a spoiler tag to be safe, 'cause not everyone wants to read speculation.

Also, technically, a Game of Thrones spoiler/reference.
I'm not convinced that Joshua was actually the Archduke's son. After watching the scene with Joshua's/Clive's mom that follows the combat tutorial, I immediately thought that Joshua was Murdoch's son instead. To be fair, though, I think this, in part, because FFXVI is channeling Game of Thrones so hard.

Maybe Joshua has strawberry-blonde locks (unlike both of his parents) because he's the Phoenix, but it's hard not to think there's more to it.

[Psychotic]

I find it hard to believe Joshua is dead-dead... he's the Phoenix! You know, the thing that revives people!

I'll requote this in whatever ending thread we have and either claim my triumph or admit to my shameful wrong prediction.

Also dunno why you wanted him dead. He seemed like a nice enough lad, inoffensive and sweet enough.

[Loony BoB]

I find it hard to believe Joshua is dead-dead... he's the Phoenix! You know, the thing that revives people!

I'll requote this in whatever ending thread we have and either claim my triumph or admit to my shameful wrong prediction.

Also dunno why you wanted him dead. He seemed like a nice enough lad, inoffensive and sweet enough.

Oh, I'm definitely with you on your thinking. The very name Phoenix has too many obvious implications to think anything otherwise.

I didn't really care if he died or not, I suppose, but I didn't want him around anymore. I didn't care for his voice actor and I didn't care for his personality. I very rarely like having children as prominent characters in video games which aren't focused on everyone being children. I don't like child prodigies either. I also don't like the super-innocent kind of vibe that a lot of anime fall into (hi, Clannad, I still can't watch you), where they're constantly apologising and being overly nice and overly timid all the time. It just agitates me. I mean, IRL I'm okay with it because I've known and cared about a lot of people who were or even are like that. But in a story it's just something I rarely enjoy. I'm more inclined to like children in stories if they are playful and happy, like in Ghibli films or whatever.

Maybe I just don't want to feel like I'm babysitting in my action games xD

[Del Murder]

I liked Joshua. He was a sweet kid, and loved his brother. It is not his fault he was born with immense powers that he could not control.

I also liked the Duke. He reminded me of the duke dad from Dune. A busy and just ruler but still found some time to be a decent dad.

The mom definitely gives me Cersei vibes.

The combat was pretty button mashy at this point but I could tell it was just getting going. I'm still a little disappointed in yet another prince protagonist who is the only person you control (though nice to play Joshua briefly).

I am intrigued by the lore so far. Active time lore is so useful!