I got my FFXV early thanks to a nice clerk.

I've so far played about 4 hours, in the first chapter, after watching Kingsglaive last night.

There have been a few complaints about Tabata comparing the gameplay in interviews, which I feel is not right. While the gameplay looks way more dynamic, and the controls makes it feel that way too; the actual actions you can make in battle makes it feels like FFXII with shorter cooldowns between attacks.

Here's what you can do in battle : 

- Move (and jump)

- Attack by holding the attack button (You can choose the attck type by choosing a weapon)

- Defend by holding the defense button (or riposte through a mini QTE against stronger ennemy blows)

- Take cover either with the cover system or with the teleport thingy

- And use skills/items

Attack/defense timings are less important than in other A-RPGs (except against stronger blows). The system feels like it just substracted the usual battle menu for fluid controls, making the game feel more dynamic without having to rely on FFXIII's auto system. It's pretty crazy how different it feels to hold the attck button than to click on the attack command.

It is a very weak system, i already knew that. I'm going in because of the story, not the combat system.

Here is how i understand combat goes if you dont just auto-attack everything:

Move around and back attack mosters > teleport away if you need to regen health > teleport back in and resume. Do dodges as possible and throw a grenade or link attack if you feel like it or to avoid big hits with invincibility.

Thats it. I expect it to get very boring very fast. Hope i'm wrong though. I guess one can change weapons for flavor.

Indeed so far I can't what might make me still enjoy the gameplay in 10 game hours.

If you're going in for the story, you will definitely enjoy the game. While can't tell much of the story yet, the universe and characters feel more real than ever before in a linear RPG. A lot of details make sur the immersion is like never before, from the camping cutscenes to Prompto pictures. I tought these would be useless features until actually playing the game, now i feel like every other RPGs will feel bland.

So, has the combat system changed since the demo? Because that was awfully bad...

I'm fine with that. It's a good thing that Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts have a different style to them in terms of gameplay.

Dear SE why can't I use heave and light attacks and combo my way trough bossfights. It makes gameplay much more enjoyable than holding buttons and ocassionaly use a spell.
If you dont want gamers to do much during combat make it turnbased

Movements and teleportations make it more subtle than just holding buttons.

Considering that you could do nothing of what you just described in FFXII I don't believe you. Sure it's no Dark Souls but it still incorporates all of its aspects and is as far from FFXII or FFXIII as it can be.

I say it's a lot closer to Dark Souls than any FF game. It also sucks that you have no control over your mates, which is a worse situation than in FFXII or FFXIII. But I guess people will just gloss over it even though it was one major gripe in FFXIII.

How very encouraging

tell us all about the combat from your 4 hour experience in a 200 hours long game