Game:

Final Fantasy XV (2016)

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Duration: 4:56

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I dive into a mixed-enemy combat situation involving Sabertusks, Garula and Magitek Troops to showcase some best-practices that aren't immediately obvious. Video assumes you're aware of the basics as highlighted in this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr2t2Si60Ak

Loadout
Unfortunately, unless Squeenix implements multiple switchable loadouts on the fly, there's one no-brainer go-to loadout from the stuff in the demo. Bloodsword/MP Recovery III is too much of a dealbreaker to go on any slot other than Ravage. The other fast weapon HAS to go on Crush unless you like missing. I've had some success with Zweihander on Vanquish but Partisan has a better timing for the flinch state of most of the enemies in EP Duscae. Zweihander works best on Counter. Considering the mixed bag of enemies that most encounters turn out to be, this is by far the best setup. Any setup that doesn't have MP Recovery III in Ravage is asking to run out of MP really fast unless you abuse tower warping/cover. I'm not a fan of this mechanic as it is to be honest, although maybe it's just because EP Duscae doesn't have enough ranged enemies that can punish you for it.

Lock on
It's terrible at the moment, and I fully expect it to get refined in response to feedback but you can brute-force the system to do what you want to do.
- tap R1 to unlock if you're stuck on something you don't want to be. This 'resets' it.
- Treat holding R1 as more of a targeting to aim at what you want to lock on - It's not the actual lock-on. R3 then actually locks on. Very important shift in mindset
- Trying to kill enemies without lock-on/R3 is futile. I think this is where a lot of the complaints for clunkiness comes from. Not that I don't disagree that the system right now sucks, mind you

Knightsguard
The timed L1 backflip skill - This, along with the manual dodge, are honestly the bread and butter for combat. Holding L1 doesn't do jack shit when you're on the offensive unless you're playing at the most basic level. Two of the complaints, that the system is too automated/holding L1, and that defensive capabilities need to be more responsive/being animation locked into attacks kinda cancel each other out once you get the hang of abusing Knightsguard.

Flinching and staggering
Realizing that all/most? enemies have a flinch and stagger states really help. A flinching enemy isn't retaliating. A staggered enemy opens up to a shit ton more damage, along with the high-windup moves like Full Thrust. I'm not sure what the exact mechanics to stagger enemies are - might be related to weapon type, damage spikes, or damage done overall, or a hidden XIII-style stagger meter - but there are surefire ways to stagger some of the mobs. The flagbearers for example -will- always go down if you drop a Counter on their head. They're also much harder to flinch compared to the regular Magitek troops and will kick back at Noctis so staggering them is the best defense.

Target priority
Goes without saying that always finish off the weaker enemies first. Exception to the rule is soldiers, since they spawn nonstop until you kill everything out. Sabretusks - small garulas - garulas - yellow garula - soldiers - flag bearers. Targets on the fringe of combat bump their priority because it's more likely you can DPS them down uninterrupted. Sabretusks should always be high priority since they have by far the most unchoreographed attacks from off-screen, so getting rid of them early means you don't have to deal with that. Obviously this is very specific to the demo, but I'm giving an example of how this is important even though the game allows you to swing at anything you want at any point of time and pressures you to do so by being real-time

AOE - Goes without saying that like in any game with positioning, multiple enemies and AOE abilities, that you should save them for when they're the most effective. In the video I'm saving OP Armiger limit warp thingoo to thin out the soldier packs the moment they land.

Parries
If you miss a parry opportunity, you're doing it wrong. Full stop.

Enemy attacks
Many are actually highly choreographed, and I don't mean when the animation starts. I guess this goes a little into exploiting AI and looping territory, but it's very possible to get a feel of when enemies are going to launch specific attacks before the animations actually start, simply based on positioning/combat situation/etc. This allows you to set up for dodging and parries.

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