Hi, everyone. I'm just here to share some notes I have about the new FFXV combat showcased in the Platinum Demo. This won't be structured or formatted, but hopefully the info here will still prove useful to some of you guys. I'd also be glad to talk about any other aspects of the combat which I may not have mentioned here.
Going through the Iron Giant fight the first few times wasn't as smooth as I had imagined. It seemed, at first, that you had to commit to every attack, with little opportunity for defending yourself whilst doing so. After experimenting for a bit, I think I sort of have a handle of how the combat works now. It seems that while attacking, you are generally most unsafe while performing Crush, Counter, Vanquish, or certain special moves such as Tempest or the charged Broadsword attack. Ravage attacks, however, are always dodge-cancelable, so this is the state you want to be in if you're ever attacking the Iron Giant while it isn't staggered.
There are two weapons available in this demo. One is the Broadsword, which does high damage and recovers MP. The other is the Airstep Sword, which allows you to perform aerial attacks.
The Broadsword has slow startup and also has a fair bit of recovery. Basically, Noctis goes into a state of recovery should you ever stop attacking with the Broadsword, making him unable to dodge in this period of time. You'll want to use your Ravage attacks most of the time, as well as quickly alternate from attack to defend to avoid Noctis from going into said state of recovery. One thing to note about this state of recovery, however, is that if you press and hold the attack button while Noctis is in it, he'll start charging up an attack. This charged attack can't be interrupted by normal attacks from the Iron Giant and does a ton of damage if allowed to charge fully. If you hold back and attack while locked on, Noctis will perform the Tempest attack from Episode Duscae. It comes out quick, but is also unsafe, so be wary of how you use it.
The Airstep Sword is a fun weapon imo. Directional inputs during Ravage attacks will allow you to move Noctis around while still keeping an offensive, and you can also perform aerial attacks should you ever fancy in doing so. Inputting a direction more than once will make Noctis expend MP to move around even further, which is good if you're trying to move around, but is quite poor for dodging, apart from the backward input. The backward input allows Noctis to attack with a backflip, and this avoids most attacks if timed correctly as it has a few frames of invincibility. The MP version spaces him back even further from his enemy, which is good for escaping, but can also be used to move into aerial attacks should you continue to hold the attack button.
The Iron Giant uses a lot of sweeping attacks using either its Greatsword or its free hand. At times it'll use a unique attack. All of these attacks are highly telegraphed, but not every one is dodgeable by simply holding the defend button.
When Iron Giant emits a purple, spherical vacuum from its hand, you're looking at Graviga (or Gravity? idk). The attack generally doesn't kill, but does damage based on a percentage of your available health, so it can hurt pretty bad. This attack can be interrupted by Noctis' own attacks, and I've done it multiple times during the startup of Graviga. Doing it while Graviga was already out (using warp strikes) was a little less consistent. I'm not sure how one would interrupt it consistently, actually. If you're not trying to interrupt Graviga, simply sprinting or warping away will allow you to avoid being caught in the attack.
Iron Giant slams the ground with its free hand, sending out electricity as a small area of effect on the ground. You can't defend against the electricity, but it can be avoided by jumping, rolling out of the area of effect before it hits, or simply defending against the Iron Giant's fist as it comes down.
Iron Giant does a series of sweeping Greatsword attacks. Easy to dodge by simply holding the defend button.
Iron Giant's grab attack is probably the most annoying one in its arsenal. It's fast, you can't defend against it, and it seems that your dodge roll doesn't put you far enough to avoid it too. Your best bet might be to simply warp away, yet this can be difficult to do if you're using a hard lock-on on the Iron Giant. My alternative to warping is to use the Airstep Sword's backflip, which will avoid the grab cleanly. If you insist on using warp to avoid the grab, however, then don't use the hard lock-on (unless you have the reflexes to turn it off and then warp away).
Going through the Iron Giant fight the first few times wasn't as smooth as I had imagined. It seemed, at first, that you had to commit to every attack, with little opportunity for defending yourself whilst doing so. After experimenting for a bit, I think I sort of have a handle of how the combat works now. It seems that while attacking, you are generally most unsafe while performing Crush, Counter, Vanquish, or certain special moves such as Tempest or the charged Broadsword attack. Ravage attacks, however, are always dodge-cancelable, so this is the state you want to be in if you're ever attacking the Iron Giant while it isn't staggered.
There are two weapons available in this demo. One is the Broadsword, which does high damage and recovers MP. The other is the Airstep Sword, which allows you to perform aerial attacks.
The Broadsword has slow startup and also has a fair bit of recovery. Basically, Noctis goes into a state of recovery should you ever stop attacking with the Broadsword, making him unable to dodge in this period of time. You'll want to use your Ravage attacks most of the time, as well as quickly alternate from attack to defend to avoid Noctis from going into said state of recovery. One thing to note about this state of recovery, however, is that if you press and hold the attack button while Noctis is in it, he'll start charging up an attack. This charged attack can't be interrupted by normal attacks from the Iron Giant and does a ton of damage if allowed to charge fully. If you hold back and attack while locked on, Noctis will perform the Tempest attack from Episode Duscae. It comes out quick, but is also unsafe, so be wary of how you use it.
The Airstep Sword is a fun weapon imo. Directional inputs during Ravage attacks will allow you to move Noctis around while still keeping an offensive, and you can also perform aerial attacks should you ever fancy in doing so. Inputting a direction more than once will make Noctis expend MP to move around even further, which is good if you're trying to move around, but is quite poor for dodging, apart from the backward input. The backward input allows Noctis to attack with a backflip, and this avoids most attacks if timed correctly as it has a few frames of invincibility. The MP version spaces him back even further from his enemy, which is good for escaping, but can also be used to move into aerial attacks should you continue to hold the attack button.
The Iron Giant uses a lot of sweeping attacks using either its Greatsword or its free hand. At times it'll use a unique attack. All of these attacks are highly telegraphed, but not every one is dodgeable by simply holding the defend button.
When Iron Giant emits a purple, spherical vacuum from its hand, you're looking at Graviga (or Gravity? idk). The attack generally doesn't kill, but does damage based on a percentage of your available health, so it can hurt pretty bad. This attack can be interrupted by Noctis' own attacks, and I've done it multiple times during the startup of Graviga. Doing it while Graviga was already out (using warp strikes) was a little less consistent. I'm not sure how one would interrupt it consistently, actually. If you're not trying to interrupt Graviga, simply sprinting or warping away will allow you to avoid being caught in the attack.
Iron Giant slams the ground with its free hand, sending out electricity as a small area of effect on the ground. You can't defend against the electricity, but it can be avoided by jumping, rolling out of the area of effect before it hits, or simply defending against the Iron Giant's fist as it comes down.
Iron Giant does a series of sweeping Greatsword attacks. Easy to dodge by simply holding the defend button.
Iron Giant's grab attack is probably the most annoying one in its arsenal. It's fast, you can't defend against it, and it seems that your dodge roll doesn't put you far enough to avoid it too. Your best bet might be to simply warp away, yet this can be difficult to do if you're using a hard lock-on on the Iron Giant. My alternative to warping is to use the Airstep Sword's backflip, which will avoid the grab cleanly. If you insist on using warp to avoid the grab, however, then don't use the hard lock-on (unless you have the reflexes to turn it off and then warp away).
