Forspoken on PlayStation 5 - What Works and What Doesn't - DF Tech Review

[@eslzack5490]

I know this is unrealistic, but I wish everyone on KZbin puts this much thought and care reviewing games. Thank you John.

[@MegaLPlover]

My only issue is when he pulls out these old and obscure references that come across as annoying and pretentious to me.

[@Scimarad]

@@MegaLPlover Example?

[@thorocomments]

Right.

[@iamthewalrus4998]

@@MegaLPlover so having knowledge is pretentious now

[@MrStrangermoon]

hes very detailed but somehow for bad games subjet always come to how the door look thats funny doenst matter other detail look at the door and you understand.

[@MegaCygnusX1]

Every time I see AC Unity shown these days it really does highlight how ahead of its time that game was in its presentation.

[@EarthIsFlat456]

My only complaint about Unity in terms of presentation is the lack of dynamic time of day.

[@rekoj08]

It is a gorgeous game, I wish it had this jumping ahead of its time in gameplay mechanics too, these feel really dated for today's standards.

[@Kotka1986]

@@EarthIsFlat456 Fair enough, but the static time of day is exactly why the lighting, baked GI & ambient occlusion in Unity looks better than the dynamic day-night cycles in other AC games ( and other open world games as general )

[@EarthIsFlat456]

@@Kotka1986 Yeah. Though I still prefer dynamic time of day in an open world game as it adds more immersion. As more games start utilizing RTGI it won't take too long until baked lighting doesn't offer any advantage in terms of visual fidelity.

[@ajsingh4545]

@@EarthIsFlat456 no it does not need that. You graphics obsessed people killing gamimg

[@Monkeypuzzle]

Thank you for the fair and comprehensive review of the game with the focus on the technical aspects. I love how you are able to articulate what is actually happening when the game doesn't look "right".

[@romxxii]

This is what I love about DF. They don't try to ride the haterade like other content creators.

[@fkaiba94]

@@romxxii especially on a ps5 or ps5 locked game

[@AltimaNEO]

@@romxxii Angry Joe is great tho

[@victory7763]

A lot of these other reviewers/content crestors have herd mentality and would rather just not be seen as the odd man out. Which despite numerous promised features not being in Cyberpunk all the reviewers acted like it was the greatest game ever. The game STILL doesn't even have a proper police pursuit system... STILL.

[@toothgrinder2760]

@@victory7763 The Cyberpunk 2077 Edgerunners update was how it should have been released and like you say it *still* has issues. It took CDPR 2 years to get that game up to snuff. With their blatant lies and delivering an unfinished game, among other things, I will never support them again.

[@Philboh8]

Holy moly that AC Unity comparison was willllddd. Crazy how that game and Arkham Knight in particular hold up so well graphically in 2023

[@TheBloopers30]

Arkham Knight was made in Unreal engine 3 if I'm not mistaken. It's pretty insane.

[@rickygforce4217]

Arkham Knight was nuts and Rocksteady are a bunch of insane people/sorcerers

[@kumomeme7852]

@@TheBloopers30 if i recall correctly, it is a high modified UE3.

[@toptiertech7291]

Arkham Knight is so over rated. The rain hides how terrible the shapes are. It’s dark like 100% of the time, low draw distances and a pretty empty world. You see a couple enemies here and there but it’s not on the level of something like a Spider-Man. Take Arkham knight and make it day time with no rain. The game really wouldn’t look that good

[@Philboh8]

@@toptiertech7291 well that's why they went with those choices? By doing that they were able to make a game that holds up. "Not on the level of Spiderman" bro there was 3 years in the difference. Also, of course it's dark, it's a Batman game.

[@JeanneDGames]

I think it was a pretty sick cut to run FF-XV music the entire review. It's a subtle but effective jab at Forspoken's DNA that it refused to build on.

[@wulf8889]

It's really odd when during progress reports for FFXV Tabata highlighted about the lighting and how much work the lighting and programming unit put into it and the marketing kept highlighting about the music. Or maybe because a lot of the leads like Yusuke Naora and Tabata himself is now gone is the reason why Forspoken ended up like this.

[@kosmassamothrakis1670]

If only Luminous and SE finished FF XV's The Dawn of the Future tetralogy instead of doing this...

[@mmhmmm2]

@@kosmassamothrakis1670 I wish for that, maybe with a remaster in the future they'll develop the rest of the content as a bonus. Thankfully we will have KHIV before long and judging the teaser, might be as close as we get to what XV might have been. Guess we will find out.

[@wulf8889]

@@kosmassamothrakis1670 Nah, couldn't care less of an alternate ending and the game itself needed to rearrange events and not feel like duct taped together. Moving on to the next project was a good move.

[@DavidKnowles0]

@@wulf8889 More likely I suspect Square Enix cut its budget an ran away with Sony money to focus on NFTs

[@Harrysound]

I once described this as “looks like a game that got cancelled”

[@kernalmusterd]

It's shit

[@asheleydavies]

For sure dude. This is just generic as hell.

[@josedeleon1923]

@@JokerX350 With Scalebound at least you would say "this kinda looks like Devil May Cry and Monster Hunter" instead of just generic.

[@DaRkLoRd-rc5yu]

Scale bounds main concepts were reused in bayonetta 3. Where you can use the giant beasts in combat mid combo. Nintendo does what Xbox doesn't

[@Sc00p77]

@@asheleydavies l

[@boufenarafetooh]

I would like to see a technical analysis of Assassin's creed Unity , it's just mind blowing for a 2014 title

[@phant0mdummy]

It is pretty neat.

[@jc_dogen]

there's a technical presentation that goes over it from 2014 or 2015 called "gpu driven rendering pipelines"

[@niks660097]

their indoor global illumination system is still quite good looking..

[@saputrasaputra3347]

well well well.. here we go again.. 20fps 720p on so-called next gen console $300 rtx 3060 ti is 2x faster than weakstation 5

[@Rifqi1464]

Will make a good DF Retro material next year for sure.

[@reizak8966]

I'm glad that you explained the lighting and shadows. I kept trying to put my finger on why I thought the world looks really flat and uninteresting in Forspoken. Part of it was that I didn't like the art direction for the world, but looking at your comparisons with older games definitely put it into perspective.

[@neocodexx]

Yes this is actually huge. Awful lightning, reused assets, overall incredibly bland. Add the framedrops, clunky controls and combat and I couldnt wait to stop playing the demo. I thought this would be the next Horizon but its not even close. Its like a B game not AAA.

[@picolete]

This game had a huge graphical downgrade from the trailers 6 months to a year ago

[@GuyWhoLikesTheSnarkies1435]

@@picolete I have a feeling they must've fired the particular team who made that brief but visually stunning presentation here 1:42 and somehow everything else start to fall apart.

[@roshawn1111]

@@neocodexx one thing i notice about the demo is if you don't know the skills or moves it feels clunky and out of pace, once i learned what the fuck i was doing the game FLOWED very well. Its one of those issue where if you just unlock a ton of stuff without learning it, it gives the impression of clunky and unfinished. The demo should of never started people at level 17.

[@GamingandFrightened]

I give up on Japanese studios

[@brigadooner]

This man has a way with words. I could listen to him describe things all day.

[@nick13b]

I just wish this game didnt look and run like a ps3 game

[@gazray08]

its honestly captivating, iv been addicted since I picked it up a few days ago, its just a shame the effort that went into making the gameplay excellent did not go into the hub city, side content and minor cut scenes because it just feels unpolished and stale in cipal, and it stands out next to its peers like horizon and god of war.

[@OsaculnenolajO]

Some of the structures in Forspoken look like literal stock assets that were slapped together. The cities look so sterile and lifeless.

[@psr22676]

Looks like a ps2 game with an HD treatment

[@J0rdan912]

Isn't it a "normal" thing these days? I forgot last time when I saw something truly impressive, artistic, "full of life" or at least rich at details. Maybe some Playstation exclusive titles like Naughty Dog or God of War games, but they are also eventually going downhill with generic boredom.

[@Arszene]

@@J0rdan912 i have to be honest though, WD Legion's London looks alive compared to whatever this mess is

[@AFpaleoCon]

They’ll claim it’s on purpose just like babylons fall.

[@MaddJakd]

I dunno about "stock." They definitely look like they did a design and stopped at the point where detailing and greebling were supposed to commence.

[@matternicuss]

Forspoken's environments looks shockingly barren for a modern game. It honestly looks more like a work in progress than a finished product.

[@eternalbeing3339]

"Sonic frontiers"

[@Henlak-]

The game looks like a Tech demo. It did when they first showed it and it looks like it hasn't made much progress since the 2 years ago that they did the reveal It's a shame

[@GrandAce]

So like most games released recently

[@EcopiuM]

Nah of ALL the things you can come here hating on this isn't one of them lmao. Ya'll don't even try hiding the biases at this point.

[@matternicuss]

@@EcopiuM what bias? This genre is right up my alley lol. I was genuinely interested in this game before seeing this footage. But it looks well below expectations for a modern AAA title. When you add the $70 price tag and frankly absurd system requirements it’s not a good look. John was spot on when he said there are times when it looks like a game from several generations ago.

[@Rufnek2014]

John is ridiculously good in his explanations and breakdowns. It doesn't get much better than his descriptions of conveying ups and downs with REALISTIC information and informative discussion of Why's.

[@pinkberry50]

Why's what?

[@goal2004]

My only gripe is that he won't ever say "volumetric" correctly. For some reason he says "vollometric", in spite of the fact that he's perfectly capable of saying the word "volume". It's just when that "tric" gets added at the end that all of a sudden he forgets? I don't get it.

[@kimurafool]

It's too bad the dev studio got shut down. I was interested in what they would do next. As a first outing it's still a pretty cool experience.

[@sonicbroom8522]

Nearly forgot all about that 2012 demo. How much better that looked than anything even recently

[@JoaoFederle]

John is simply the best in the business. Honestly, there is no figure in the gaming coverage space I trust and value more. I hope we get to keep you making these videos forever, John!

[@mariotaz]

You should really REALLY *REALLY* learn from KZbinrs, Celebrities etc that that is a bad idea.

[@dun0790]

I agree because he seems most interested in the facts not pr or fanboy bullshit

[@elliotyorkcameron793]

John and SkillUp are the two YT gaming reviewers/content creators that I trust the most.

[@borborkontri4837]

Agreed. Unlike the idiotic Eurogamer review of the game

[@Carinthian_Oak]

For me its Alex

[@pillar.1]

i knew something was off about how this game looks! i was speaking with a friend telling him how the game looks flat like something is missing from the graphic, and then I saw this video and how you guys described the lighting and ambient occlusion issue!

[@gabrielsemipro]

Yeah me too! It always seemed off, especially when i played the demo, then DF explained, so cool

[@felathar1985]

It looks bleh. Like if you fed information to an IA and ask the IA to write a generic game.

[@malekaius]

It feels like a procedurally generated game in places

[@Masarofia]

It really is a shame. Lighting really make worlds shine and what we see here points toward a mixed bag of a game. Had it been truly amazing in the lighting side, the world would feel so much more interesting. I am still curious about playing it though. Who knows, maybe we can hope for some patches (or some reshades on PC?)...

[@malekaius]

@@Masarofia but also it was delayed. There was a lot of time to fix some of these things if they wanted to. It’s weird.

[@10whiten99]

AC Unity was such a good game and it’s a crime that it’s been abandoned by Ubisoft.

[@LOSTBHOY88]

But not by me. I still load it up every so often and reminisce about the times we were an actual assassin. Mirage please please take even 10% from Unity and it will be more enjoyable than these recent ACs

[@dirknowitzki3627]

This is why I hate the "apologise after releasing an unfinished product" convention in the gaming market these days.

[@jphuwae4505]

I believe Luminous spent all their budget on particles. It really shows where their focus was. Never seen so many crazy particles in a game before

[@angelajiliagalvez]

Lol. Infamous second son is laughing

[@rudybertazzo]

To me those particles aren't that good looking. There're tons of them, for sure, but the overall effect is just... meh.

[@Centrioless]

Also the animation (including folliage and clothes animation) and the hair. Would be better if they didnt go with open world design

[@jphuwae4505]

@@angelajiliagalvez second son looks last Gen next forspoken, especially the more advance magic spells. Go get your eyes checked

[@aaronclay4665]

@Rudy Bertazzo cope.... they look great, some of the other stuff in game not so much. . But partials look good as fuk

[@ObiWanShinobi67]

Can't believe the lack of detail in the city areas.

[@eternalbeing3339]

"Sonic frontiers".

[@TheChromanoise]

That is just how NYC looks.

[@WH250398]

What works: The boot screen What doesn't work: The game

[@killermario8458]

This gave me a chuckle

[@Bobbylite981]

Thanks for the review. This game looks like a huge step back. No way I'm paying $70. Maybe a deep sale I'll pick it up.

[@JudeTheYoutubePoopersubscribe]

It'll be 25 dollars in a few months.

[@karlomyduck8220]

it's €80 in eu. All I can say is terrible

[@Nero_PR]

It'll go on sale astonishingly fast.

[@ralfiejr34]

$20 in 3 months

[@ziegfeld4131]

Its really fun your loss

[@Saturn2888]

This video started out super positive. I was like "wow, what a beautiful game". And then you showed the _real_ game as we hit the half-way point in the video, and it was all downhill from there.

[@rafadono]

I would've loved to see a "next gen" to FFXV patch, I know it'll never happen, but it would've been a good opportunity to test some settings later applied to Forspoken.

[@derptyderp5287]

Assuming that wouldn't just be using this version of the engine, would be nice to have seen FFXV with DLSS2 and Denuvo removed.

[@rafadono]

@@derptyderp5287 DLLS 2.X would be awesome!

[@AzaiaMonota]

Consoles aren't ready for a next gen FFXV update it takes an RTX 3090 to max that game out at 4K 60 and even then it's not a perfect 60

[@AceStrife]

@@AzaiaMonota As someone with a 4090, I'm going to test your statement, as I've been waiting years to play it and couldn't because my 1080 Ti didn't give me acceptable performance at 3440x1440.

[@AceStrife]

Gotta love when KZbin deletes my comment for no reason, especially when it's big and full of technical info, and I find out over a week later. Thankfully I have a text backup addon: Okay, tested, at the spawn area. (edited to remove image link) It's not GPU bottlenecked at max settings, unless the render resolution is increased (4090 can handle up to 150% locked @120Hz). It's CPU bottlenecked mainly due to object LOD, which becomes even worse in ultrawide since it's rendering more of the game world. 4K is ironically less demanding to run because of this. Lowering model LOD drastically improves framerate when looking out into the distance. Obviously affects distant IQ quite a great deal (and it could really be better even at max). Disabling some of the NVIDIA effects also improves framerate in this situation; for whatever reason their VXAO and TurfEffects are massively CPU bound. And lastly "Assets" not only enables the 4K texture pack, but dramatically improves world detail, and as such vastly increases draw calls. Unfortunately, the 'assets' introduce a bunch of visual bugs, like missing rocks (mod to fix), or disappearing vegetation (must lower model LOD). With everything enabled, there's just no way to get the game running over 100FPS; need like a 9950X3D+ as the game isn't that effectively multi-threaded compared to something like Horizon Zero Dawn. TLDR: I'm playing with all normal options at max (unless bugged), only HairWorks enabled at 150% render scale (5,160x2,160) and keeping 120FPS. So yeah, I wouldn't say needing a 3090 for 60FPS is accurate at all, but 120FPS, yes probably. The game could also become more demanding later on, I don't know at this early point. At any rate, a 4090 is about 60-70% utilized at 120FPS (1.7x the perf of a 3090), and I have mine set to 90% power, so there's a bit of headroom left. Now if only the game had controller rebinding, as all 3 presents are horrible and making me not even want to play it.

[@trianglestri7487]

10 years ago it looked much better = only possible at SE

[@CasepbX]

Agni's Philosophy looked great. Shame we got this crap instead.

[@zzzyyyxxx]

Tech demos are not the same as full games, it's like comparing a Pixar movie and a video game.

[@antonioc.5778]

This took 10 years to make?

[@JustSkram]

and ubisoft, naughty dog, EA, CD Projekt.

[@SixAstron]

@@zzzyyyxxx after 10 years it's kinda ok to compare prerendered demo footage with a real graphics engine, since it's enough catch up time, at least on paper.

[@JerryFlowersIII]

WHAT!? This whole time, because of the 'weak' lighting, I figured it had a time of day system. I love the look of baked lighting and it's way performant.

[@JerryFlowersIII]

My best assumption is that there once was the plan to have a time of day system but was scrapped but didn't change their lighting strategy. But maybe they really did make this choice.

[@jcm2606]

Either that or the engine doesn't natively support baked lighting and they didn't consider adding support to be worth it. If the engine was developed specifically for FFXV and the other tech demos also used almost completely dynamic lighting then it'd make sense that the engine was made with dynamic lighting in mind, meaning that it'd be a waste of time and resources to add support for baked lighting in. Since this may be their first project that uses relatively static lighting environments they may have just decided to settle with the existing dynamic lighting systems, as opposed to adding support for baked lighting.

[@apostolos8734]

Forgot how good that final fantasy soundtrack is, makes me nostalgic.

[@espirite]

Hahah same! It made me just re-install the game

[@오늘은제가-b9v]

What a fantastic review. Thank you for a great quality content!

[@Sergioiafrate]

FFXV's OST in the background made this video more epic than it had to be ! Thanks a lot for the detailed review DF. :)

[@luizaugusto3801]

John (and DF in general) are the best out there. Another masterpiece from you guys.

[@AL2009man]

Square Enix after watching Digital Foundry's review: "Well, that just happened"

[@SLE3PR]

Great work as always, John.

[@kallmeej9106]

Digital Foundry showing once again why they're the best. Thanks for the review y'all

[@Wallguy]

OMG Digital Foundry finally gave me a shout out! Good day. :P

[@Nolasco.]

I had a feeling this game would be exactly how you experienced it. Thanks John 👍

[@Dragon_Void07]

Man the ffxv theme still hits hard for me

[@cocofuccorio7913]

It sucks and makes everyone cringe

[@jomareun]

@@cocofuccorio7913 Huh?

[@hammygaming8278]

@@cocofuccorio7913 must be just you! Clearly a boring clown 🤡 😂

[@LukeBenMBay]

I don't even have a PS5 but I love how John makes everything interesting and instructive. I can't thank you enough.

[@LeePhan79]

90% of xbox players do not like Japanese games.

[@julianmaria5715]

@@LeePhan79 What does that have to do with his comment?

[@DBTHEPLUG]

@@julianmaria5715 Autism

[@MrStrangermoon]

@@LeePhan79 on usa mw2 is number 1 sellniggame 2 is elden ring. so

[@TheChromanoise]

Thanks.

[@jphuwae4505]

You guys should do an update on this, they fixed the lighting in the game, looks a lot better now and less bloom

[@respectfulremastersbymetal8336]

Can't even hit 60fps solid when running as low as 720p and looking like that? Bit messy innit?

[@nukeclears]

The static time of day really makes the poor lighting very underwhelming.

[@SirCrest]

Another excellent review. Your care and detail in these videos don't go unnoticed.

[@eatyrghost]

Another fantastic rundown, thank you! The demo reactions made me reconsider a preorder; this solidifies waiting to see what they choose to patch and how quickly they do so.

[@His0ka]

Dont bother, game is trash

[@ttwinsturbo]

Omg this is game that schould be a canceled because look and run worse than final fantasy on ps4 pro….

[@elitebeing21]

Lol. Wow.

[@naci2378]

@@His0ka Better than Halo trash

[@His0ka]

@@naci2378 halo is trash nowadays but this one is still worse

[@frijolitodr]

Love the what works and doesn't work part hope it is a regular going forward on these tech videos

[@rabbitenjoyer6320]

Thanks for the extremely thorough and thoughtful review! "*Wall-guy* energy" at 12:27 lmfao that comparison was a perfect reference.

[@flyingplantwhale545]

It's crazy to see how other games used to compare against this, not only look so much better, but are also nearly a decade old.

[@eclisis5080]

that's a lie lmao

[@eclisis5080]

@Gamer yeah, some of the best particle effects I've ever seen, the graphical problems are do to the limitations of the ps5 hardware, and the game still looks good, did you watch the video ambient occlusion was broken on Spider-Man PC, does that mean the game all of a sudden had poor graphics until they fixed it, get real, how about playing the game for yourself, the traversal alone is the reason I'm playing it, I hate open worlds because moving around the open world in the game is not fun, reason why I never finished Red Dead I hate moving around in the world, it's boring

[@eclisis5080]

​@Gamer what open world games look better than this, with large numbers of enemies on the screen and this level of particle effects please don't say God of war which has the camera up Kratos ass at all times and barely has any enemies at the screen at once lmao, the effects in the game are taxing which is why the PS5 game has lack of detail in areas so they can keep a playable frame rate

[@eduardojunior6183]

@@eclisis5080 This game looks good? kkkkkkk

[@eclisis5080]

@@eduardojunior6183 It will on PC, ps5 is comparable to 7 year old PC hardware, so they had to cut corners to make the game have a playable frame rate

[@p3wx4]

Can we please get initial trailer vs release comparison? This one seems like had a significant downgrade.

[@mayen67]

Indeed, probably the biggest downgrade this gen so far.

[@HydraCFW]

Let's see PC gameplay first?

[@saputrasaputra3347]

well well well.. here we go again.. 20fps 720p on so-called next gen console $300 rtx 3060 ti is 2x faster than weakstation 5

[@deviouslaw]

Are we still complaining about "downgrade"? It feels really pointless.

[@Vulguse]

@@deviouslaw It's not.

[@TaroTrejo]

A PDZ Wallguy reference in the year of our lord 2023 was not something I expected to see today but it is highly appreciated nonetheless!

[@catmadethat]

Thanks for taking a fair look at the game without resorting to click bait divisive statements.

[@JohnDoe-wq5eu]

It's unlikely but I would love to see a game like this get more updates to try to bring the technical performance completely under control and working good across all modes.

[@adriensegura8205]

This video reminded me how beautiful AC Unity looked, even by today standards

[@destebangm11216]

Still no PC code, damn this is surely gonna suck on PC

[@ronmexico7256]

It’s square Enix did you expect the pc version to not be ass 😂

[@UltraCasualPenguin]

Judging by system requirements I'd say so. You pc fans can keep your powah.

[@bubsy3861]

It was a demo. It’s already suck as hell.

[@saputrasaputra3347]

well well well.. here we go again.. 20fps 720p on so-called next gen console $300 rtx 3060 ti is 2x faster than weakstation 5

[@ArchieBunker11]

@@UltraCasualPenguin and console fans can keep their 25 fps games or 720p.

[@itag295]

Damn the soundtrack of FF15 is so good. Luminous has the potential to be extremely great but Forspoken seems to need more polish on the technical aspect.

[@GrizzlyFeverr]

Truly one of the best music to grace our world.

[@funtourhawk]

Is that the background music? I was tempted to just mute it like holy shit

[@VampireNoblesse]

this review saved the game for me.., John has a similar taste of games as I do..

[@elastichedgehog6339]

"...bound not by the finality of its most popular fantasy series..." is a fantastic line.

[@DrJones20]

Cringe

[@elastichedgehog6339]

@@DrJones20 You sound about 14.

[@DrJones20]

@@elastichedgehog6339 no u

[@bestledisthe]

love the FFXV music in the background!

[@HanCurunyr]

Amazing review, as always from DF, this is a game that I'll gladly wait for a sale in a digital or physical media

[@magicjack4076]

The real question is what’s the need for such insane pc specs when the game doesn’t even look that good?

[@maxminy5634]

Seems like this is becoming a trend. The higher the hardware power the less optimization these developers deploy. FF15 looked better in my opinion.

[@chimerakait]

It's unfinished, hence the unoptomization. I'd wait until that is ironed out in the next patch, which is more than likely will come out.

[@candidosilva7755]

Reasons.)

[@saputrasaputra3347]

well well well.. here we go again.. 20fps 720p on so-called next gen console $300 rtx 3060 ti is 2x faster than weakstation 5

[@blablabla5632]

It's probably very unoptimized, but don't underestimate the impact of the particle effects during magic attacks, they look heavy as fuck (I still think the PC specs are too high, mind you)

[@wifedupreviews]

Thanks for providing history and how it effected Forspoken. Great Review!

[@etienne1062]

Selling that thing 80€ on PC... No shame whatsoever. I certainly won't waste my time and money on that. Thanks DF for that insight on the game !

[@SteamPunk96]

I'm only a few minutes into the video but it's nice to see Luminous's strong animation systems at work again, Noctis' run and walk cycle in FFXV are still some of the best I've ever seen, simply because it doesn't look like a *cycle*, it just looks like someone running very naturally, super impressive! EDIT: The map system is giving me King's Field IV flashbacks

[@v1kt0u5]

Nevertheless, in FFXV it also looks like the characters float over the ground, without any weight or actual traction.

[@fattymcboomboom9254]

FFXVs run cycle was always weirdly unrealistic in my opinion.

[@claudemartin7785]

Cant wait for PC description

[@stevenwhitfield7798]

😢😢😢😢 he’ll be crying

[@saputrasaputra3347]

well well well.. here we go again.. 20fps 720p on so-called next gen console $300 rtx 3060 ti is 2x faster than weakstation 5

[@stevenwhitfield7798]

It’ll be poor on pc

[@stevenwhitfield7798]

Red flags all over place bet it’s poorly optimised

[@wickywak1]

The new presentation looks neat. Well done Mr.Linneman

[@xistam]

I dont really care what the internet is saying about this game. I think it looks awesome and looks like it hits a lot of things I've wanted from a game. Specifically the magic, it looks awesome and seems so open to creative combos.

[@sehrschee]

Interesting video! Loved the comparions with FXV... also FXVs soundtrack is still amazing. Also of course a bit disappointing that SE dropped the ball somewhat on this game even technically which is astounding. Hoping FFXVI works out better for SE !

[@asmodeusml]

Honestly, this is a much better breakdown than this game deserves.

[@floppa9415]

Man this is why I love Digital Foundry. Its so clear that these guys love what they do, know a lot about the topic and do an excellent job in explaining everything. So glad I found this channel a year ago.

[@gdoumit]

Great breakdown. Ultimately I'm glad I stayed away from this game. I had a bad feeling about it since they revealed it and it seems I made the right choice. I'll play it when it eventually comes to PS Plus.

[@devmiles]

This is why i love DF, what a great disection, observations and review. I have the deepest respect and love for video's like this, very educational as well!

[@Stanjara]

Music in the beginning of the video was terrible and annoying over you speech John. Was really a rush to put this out huh? Thanks, because the game is ridiculous. From launch Demon Souls to this, two years into generation, we are going backwards in quality.

[@ikwilgeenkanaalzeur]

Man that Agni demo still rock, always hoped they make a game in that style. The power of the consoles is not holding the ffxv engine back anymore hope they use it again and at full force.

[@theoldpcgamer77]

Did you watch the video. The consoles are not held by last gen and this it what they produce graphically. I think you need to check your expectations of these machines.

[@pan5001]

The Sporfoken preview we've been waiting for! ;-)

[@treythebaked595]

I have the game already if you wanna know how it is lol

[@Dill2G]

@@treythebaked595 we don't need to know we can see how bad it is from this video

[@treythebaked595]

@@Dill2G the story is shit lol gameplay isn’t bad in my opinion the story & character models remind me of monster hunter mixed with old final fantasy lol

[@Dill2G]

@TreyTheBaked yeah the gampeplay doesn't look too bad but the graphics and the lighting don't look good either

[@damienkrawczuk1435]

Gotta love how some of the older games visuals are better than modern day, go figure.. like the water effects in Gotham Knights is pretty average compared how beautiful the waves look in Arkham Knight, but apart from a couple of Small issues in Forspoken I have zero issues with the game n absolutely love it, Ive never known a game where I feel like a undefeatable destructive magical Juggernaut, I really hope there's a sequel where she's alot older and Resembles the girl from Project Athia, because if she's powerful as she is as a teenager, her abilities when she's older would be a spectacular dance of limit breaking destruction that I would absolutely love to see, I can only hope that the Ray Tracing option gets a bit more love to with its shadows n whatnot like you mentioned, the stories not bad, it's growing on me, but the constant banter made me put the cuff dialogue on its Minimal settings, way more immersive that way, but I love the traversel n combat mechanics the most, Some of that atmospheric music is quite good n I can say I'm very Addicted to the game n look forward to its new story content in the future

[@phatmillips]

Appreciate this but definitely would love to see the PC analysis - especially after those requirements came out

[@CRF250R1521]

its a PS5 exclusive if im not mistaken.

[@SgtZaqq]

@@CRF250R1521 it's on Steam, lol

[@Kubose]

FFXV had some really great music.

[@KrazyBean14]

Can't really find many excuses for this game presentation wise when Horizon 2 exists, and that's a cross-gen game.

[@y.m.6911]

Great soundtrack choice. Always a pleasure to hear Yoko Shimomura's work. Also, awesome soundtrack touch at 17:26, using Up to The Challenge to show that Ray Tracing is in fact not up to the challenge here.

[@balteus13]

FFXV has one of my absolute fave soundtracks.

[@terogamer345]

Awesome video John, i really liked the comparison with AC Unity and how you explained the graphical shortcomings of the game, really valuable info. Im really impressed with the load times too, 0.5 sec load time is crazy.

[@crescentmoon256]

those tech demos look impressive even today, even today games don't look that good

[@Sikanda.]

I was so impressed by the Agni's philosophy demo (which was last gen). A shame Square Enix never released a game that came close to that quality.

[@MASJYT]

I would play this game if Agnis was the protagonist instead of this cringe.

[@pilouuuu]

@@MASJYT Who ever thought it was a good idea to go with this protagonist instead? She's a franchise killer.

[@franciscor390]

@@MASJYT Absolutely that character actually looked like like it was part of its own epic universe, instead of this western (or rather Californian) trend chasing that Square-Enix is on right now.

[@cosmosofinfinity]

@@franciscor390 But Frey is east coast New York!

[@franciscor390]

@@cosmosofinfinity You talking about the in game character im talking about where these cultural ideas, designs and decisions all come from, and that place is California.

[@_Ease]

Great video, appreciate all the work you guys do

[@DonPatriko]

Thank you, John. Great review!

[@basicsimp8798]

Great review. More informative than the many review who just cry about the game nonstop. We need more reviews like this, instead of riding the toxic hate media.

[@augustburns933]

I know it has its issues and everything. But I’ve actually grown to love this game now.

[@astrea555]

I guess Forspoken gave us one good thing, this really good video.

[@Mene0]

Thanks for the comprehensive review

[@Jaymez2012]

19:37: I'm convinced this is a modern development problem. Every single game released these days always has this texture bug. I've been seeing it happen in plenty of games on plenty of different engines where the higher-res textures just refuse to load in for one reason or another making areas and objects look very muddy. I think this would be an interesting topic to look into sometime in an attempt to figure out just what the hell is happening here because it's not just a problem in this game.

[@TexelGuy]

Only game I've personally seen this on was RE8 Village on PC with the default texture quality setting on my system (1GB). Any gun that isn't your handgun sometimes get cut down to PS2-level textures that take ages to load in fully, even though everything else in the game has perfect, high resolution textures. I don't know who thought it was a good idea to sacrifice the texture quality of literally the closest thing to the camera, but that should NOT be happening. Environmental textures, preferably distant ones, should be the first ones getting culled when running out of texture memory budget. Either way, Forspoken's texture pop-in and what happened with RE8 leads me to believe that the game's running out of texture memory, but pairing back entirely the wrong object's quality.

[@Jaymez2012]

@@TexelGuy I just saw it happen while I was messing around in Gotham Knights the other day. A lot of ground textures and signs just would not load properly and I have a 24G card and the game wasn't even using 8G of VRAM at any point while I was running around the city on the highest texture setting. It's also happened to me in the HZD PC port on launch anyway, (haven't played that game in a while) and I also occasionally see it happen in the Spider-Man PC ports as well, mostly just with signs though. And that's just what I can remember recently. It's a pretty weird phenomena.

[@jphuwae4505]

Exactly it’s not just this game - I noticed it on RE8, Edge of Eternity, Kena Bridge of Spirits. They’re all using different engines too : RE Engine, Unity and Unreal 4.

[@Safetytrousers]

@@TexelGuy I didn't notice any graphical issue in RE Village at 4k with my 3090.

[@sjwbeater6103]

NO! It's just you are a CIS WHITE MALE! and hate that a black women has magick and kicks a$$! BLM, BLM!

[@MauR1CEnl]

Even with its flaws, I'm having fun with Forspoken. 🙈

[@y2everything223]

3:24 I love that you put Crystalline Chill in here. That song is such a bop , even made it my ringtone 🤣🤟

[@alyx4436]

Raytraced GI is great and all and its totally the future, but man, what artists can do with baked lighting is still always going to be impressive to me. I suppose with games getting bigger all the time RT is a great solution though.

[@subject_n]

Baked lighting is ray-tracing, just not running in real time. There isn't much of a difference between the two for an artist, except for the time it takes to set up and render baked lights

[@MLWJ1993]

Baked lighting would work just as well as good real time GI systems (including raytracing). It just never looks quite right when there's a dynamic time of day system where lighting will always look "off" one way or another.

[@Chicky_Lumps]

Baked GI is almost indistinguishable from real-time GI in static environments. The problem is, it entirely ceases to work if you're making a game with unpredictably dynamic environments / entities.

[@TexelGuy]

RTGI gives those artists more time to, you know, flesh out the art and not have to waste time baking the lighting to see how something would look.

[@Phil_529]

Playing Fortnite with lumen is such a step forward for lighting. Really makes Forspoken look like garbage in comparison.

[@DaCashRap]

As always, amazing work by DF team. SE can't be serious releasing a game with that kind of lighting in 2023, especially when trying to show off their engine.

[@Noaixs]

Thanks for this great review. I was so excited about the world and the isekei story, but the lighting and the placement of the buildings was something that looked so weird and misplaced that the whole immersion was lost for me. I will play it later, hoping for some patches to improve the lighting issues.

[@marcosdheleno]

i will be completely honest, never in my decades of gaming has lighting made me not enjoy a game, it made me want to play some, sure, but it never was a reason not to. i know that nowadays people are all "its either amazing looking or not worth playing" but i never really cared that much for lighting to where it killed immersion for me.

[@Noaixs]

@@marcosdheleno When a world with great character design looks as flat as Halo, the overall feel of that game world is just bad. It's like putting a 3D character in a 2D world. Better lighting can dramatically improve this. Its not about a game has to be looking always amazing its about consistency in the game design and game graphics. I have played a lot of indie games with much worser graphics but the overall game design didn’t feel that bad. That’s the curse of AAA open world games like all of the Ubisoft games.

[@rushpan93]

@@Noaixs Idk how you've gone from looks as flat as Halo to bad/inconsistent game design in that sentence. I understand lighting does dramatically improve a gameplay experience but it's not a game-breaker like the other person said.

[@jay616]

Love digital foundry reviews of games always down to the T 👌🏽 like fine wine 🍷

[@renno0301]

The quality of this review is even more impressive given how fast DF produced it.

[@MukiMuki688]

Bad optimization, these graphics do not justify the specs it's asking for on the PC. Hogwarts Legacy vastly outpaces Forspoken graphically, and it has a lower spec requirement

[@electroshock58]

What works: At least when you boot the game up it starts. What doesn't: Pretty much everything else.

[@Freakgood]

Tested the demo and .. it just doesn’t work for me.. graphics might be good and all however that’s all it is for me .. still hope the game do well.

[@ottolehto]

Sometimes it is good if games fail so that it forces publishers to get better.

[@xerxesmontes9828]

I like how my favorite Final Fantasy game is getting praised in a DF video. Even if it as the expense of a title the Luminous team is working on.

[@brannycedeno6823]

A shame that God of War pulled this cinematic feel and better graphics five years ago in a PS4 instead of a PS5.

[@luminous2585]

Great Video, I also loved the FFXV soundtrack ^^ I'm considering getting this for PC, but the price tag is a bit steep for anything but top quality. Are you planning a follow up video for the PC version? I wouldn't mind if it's trimmed down a bit with you simply pointing to the info provided in this video, when applicable. Just if it turns out it runs like ass on PC or has strange visual glitches that don't appear on Console I'll definitely wait a bit and see what happens with patches and the price.

[@utkuozdemir3111]

Ahh, that's what it is. Ff15 Ost

[@xBINARYGODx]

"for anything other than top quality" uh... you really dont know PC hardware - you can easily get in, even today, for $800 or less. Most of what the PC channels focus on is only there for clicks (as in, entirely, since most wont eve buy those things), and plenty of affordable MB/RAM/CPU's exist that will get you lovely performance on PC. You dont need a 4000-series anything.

[@David-ln8qh]

@@xBINARYGODx I think you misunderstood them.

[@luminous2585]

@@xBINARYGODx Yeah, I was talking about the quality of the Game. If the devs focused primarily on PS5 performance and didn't have enough time to make the PC version run well there are likely going to be tons of problems.