Home Entertainment There is no uncanny valley in new Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV videos

There is no uncanny valley in new Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV videos

1 min read
20

Kingsglaive Final Fantasy XV 2015 05 26 16 002

Last week, I was blown away by how gorgeous Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV was looking. The screenshots were so impressive, and I was happily surprised to see how far along the CG-movie seemed to be. Now new trailers have surfaced (thanks DualShockers) showing off the Japanese voice acting, but I don’t care if I can’t understand what’s happening, I’m just watching the footage with my mouth agape.

Here is the first, short one.

And a second one that seems to repeat certain clips with and without backing music, but I don’t really mind because I’ll happily watch those sections again.

It hit me fully while watching Luna in that second video. I was trying to place the actress, trying to figure out where I might have seen her before in TV or movies. I had to remind myself that she isn’t a real person, she was created by the team at Square Enix who are developing Final Fantasy XV. Everything just looked so real.

Usually, there is the typical uncanny valley in CGI. Things that don’t quite line up properly, weird lighting quirks or funny animations that make us know we’re looking at something that’s animated and not a real person. But this… this is absolutely incredible. I am actually getting even more excited for Kingsglaive; I might have to watch it several times before the full game releases – I think it will help tide me over.

And it gives me so much hope for the future of gaming animations. If they can do this with a full CG movie, eventually the software and hardware will catch up to do this in games, right? We’re already getting so close to photorealism, it could be something that we’ll actually see all the time in future games. Naughty Dog is moving in that direction already, so a few more years could mean we finally see the end of the uncanny valley.

Last Updated: May 31, 2016

20 Comments

  1. Umar

    May 31, 2016 at 08:10

    Daaaaaaaaamn. Looks way too good. The next episode of Brotherhood is dropping in June as well. So hype 😀

    Reply

  2. DragonSpirit009

    May 31, 2016 at 08:23

    Oh my!! Check that detail! Now this is an achievement I want one day!

    Reply

  3. Pariah

    May 31, 2016 at 08:23

    I wonder how long until actors no longer need to have looks. Voice actors are the future.

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0

      May 31, 2016 at 08:24

      Cheaper as well

      Reply

      • Pariah

        May 31, 2016 at 08:25

        Yeah for how long though? If voice actors become high in demand, like the current actors, then their cost to hire will go up as well. It’s the way of things.

        Also the cost is off-set by the fact that you need to hire a few people to create the 3D rendition that the voice actor is portraying.

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0

          May 31, 2016 at 08:26

          True, but I doubt it will run into the tens of millions like some actors get paid

          Reply

          • Pariah

            May 31, 2016 at 08:28

            That too is true. 😀

          • Ir0nseraph

            May 31, 2016 at 08:35

            Well some of them should pay the people , my eyes still hurt after watching sandler’s last netflix movie 🙂

          • Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0

            May 31, 2016 at 08:36

            Thank heavens I can play games while watching movies or else I’d feel horrible for wasting my time with that

          • Ir0nseraph

            May 31, 2016 at 08:37

            O yeah I forget mr multitasking entertainment, no wonder you’re always up to date, gaming and sports at the same time, one day I will invest in a 2 tv set too.

          • Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0

            May 31, 2016 at 08:43

            XD

    • Umar

      May 31, 2016 at 08:34

      Interesting point. I don’t think it will ever go away, but it’s exciting for people that can’t necessarily do screen/theater acting as this could be another avenue for them. You already see it with animated movies, but those have been mostly confined to the kids genre, so it will be interesting to see if we more CGI serious dramas etc

      Reply

  4. Mossel

    May 31, 2016 at 08:52

    Ok so I’ve started playing FF13 and I know its like the worst one ever according to the internet. The story is ok thus far (9 hours in), but everything else is boring as fuck. So to all ye FF veterans out here, please tell me all FF are not like this. Also I don’t get the hate for Lightning, she’s a pretty cool character.

    Reply

    • Francois Knoetze

      May 31, 2016 at 09:23

      FF8 and 12. Really really good games. Played 13 for 12 hours. sold it the next day. Was extremely disappointed in it.

      Reply

    • RinceThis

      May 31, 2016 at 10:49

      Agreed, it sucks.

      Reply

  5. HairyEwok

    May 31, 2016 at 09:05

    Wait hold up… So a game adaption film that’s made by Japan have gone and made their characters speak/lip in English and dubbed it over in Japanese :/

    Reply

  6. Strawman Jim

    May 31, 2016 at 13:35

    Wow! Holy smoke it’s looking amazing!

    Reply

  7. Railgun

    May 31, 2016 at 18:18

    I mean, don’t get me wrong, the animation is impressive but… Have you ever seen real people? Still very uncanny.

    Reply

  8. Darth Folwart

    April 1, 2021 at 21:12

    Yes, yes there is. This is some of the best cgi you can get, but it’s not perfect. There are certain scenes with certain brief facial expressions, and the mouth movements are often off or too stiff. In not complaining, I love it, but it’s just not perfect. The uncanny valley is there.

    What’s amazing about this isn’t that the uncanny valley is present here or there, it’s that there are so many moments where at a glance you can’t tell that it’s cgi at all.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Check Also

Xbox indie game showcase slated for next week

Expect to get your eyes on over 100 game announcements, which sounds both too good to be t…