Final Fantasy XV SPOILER THREAD

What was the significance of showing off Ifrit in the very beginning?

Also, is Ardyn a brother or just related?

Cliffhanger maybe? Because I can't think of any other significant reason.

From what I understand Ardyn = OG Lucis and Regis and Noctis are from Izunia line that usurped the name when they gained divine favor... Someone here has an official guide and can probably offer a more meticulous explanation though.

I've only ever seen a Cactuar in the arena. And yeah, Pitioss Ruins was intense. I don't know if it was fantastic or horrible but it was a gripping experience. Very interesting move to have a multiple hour long dungeon in an action RPG consist solely of platforming. The controls weren't great and the game wasn't made for jumping around but it's very impressive the stuff they did there with what they had and it nailed the mysterious creepy vibe.

A little bit of both I think.
 
Just finished.

I enjoyed it, but I understand the feelings about the story.

What it did well was the relationships between the main characters. I cared about them and their relationships with each other. It really failed when it came to the overarching plot though. Thankfully, the character relationships were strong enough to drive the game forward.

That being said, for a game focused on the idea of friendship and brotherhood, why the hell was the last fight a 1v1? I fully expected the whole "power of friendship" route with your friends one by one recovering in order to help you in the last fight. I knew it was going to be cheesy, and I didn't care. But then that didn't happen. Kinda ruined the buildup to the final confrontation.
 
Cliffhanger maybe? Because I can't think of any other significant reason.

From what I understand Ardyn = OG Lucis and Regis and Noctis are from Izunia line that usurped the name when they gained divine favor... Someone here has an official guide and can probably offer a more meticulous explanation though.
That's the explanation that makes the most sense. They never outright say Izunia was Noctis' ancestor, but it's the best conclusion you can draw from Ardyn's dialogue. Izunia could have also been the first oracle, but it seems awfully arbitrary for Ardyn to take the oracle's name.

That being said, for a game focused on the idea of friendship and brotherhood, why the hell was the last fight a 1v1? I fully expected the whole "power of friendship" route with your friends one by one recovering in order to help you in the last fight. I knew it was going to be cheesy, and I didn't care. But then that didn't happen. Kinda ruined the buildup to the final confrontation.
The friendship beam came in an after battle cutscene death instead.
 
Cliffhanger maybe? Because I can't think of any other significant reason.

From what I understand Ardyn = OG Lucis and Regis and Noctis are from Izunia line that usurped the name when they gained divine favor... Someone here has an official guide and can probably offer a more meticulous explanation though.



A little bit of both I think.

Thanks for the answers! I have the guide so I'll check it for myself, the names go over my head haha

Also, what's the significance of Luna and Noctis going to sleep at the end? Just to show the cool logo?
 
That being said, for a game focused on the idea of friendship and brotherhood, why the hell was the last fight a 1v1? I fully expected the whole "power of friendship" route with your friends one by one recovering in order to help you in the last fight. I knew it was going to be cheesy, and I didn't care. But then that didn't happen. Kinda ruined the buildup to the final confrontation.

I think the Luna ending really solidifed that feeling for me. She didn't earn that final ending with her place in the story compared to the bros. Atleast put Regis, and the bros in there somewhere looking on at them


Also, what's the significance of Luna and Noctis going to sleep at the end? Just to show the cool logo?

titanic
 
It's a crime that XIII got a trilogy instead of this game. It even had a fully fleshed out first game
 
It's a crime that XIII got a trilogy instead of this game. It even had a fully fleshed out first game

crystal tools was before SE realized sequels of a varying or declining level of quality hurt franchises. And they need to make up the money lost by investing into crystal tools in some manner.
 
What was the significance of showing off Ifrit in the very beginning?

Also, is Ardyn a brother or just related?

Shove in an action bit so that people aren't too turned off by the slow start.

Uncharted 4 actually did the same thing. What's the purpose of the flash-forward with the ship? There's no point.
 
What was the significance of showing off Ifrit in the very beginning?
It is my absolutely most hated way to start a game/movie/TV episode. You do it and claim it creates a mystery where the viewer is left wondering "how do we go from here to there?!" But in reality it is done because as a creator you have no faith in your audience to have patience and wait for normal narrative payoffs. Like we are all going to quit 5 minutes in if we don't have something intriguing or exciting immediately. John Wick is the most recent example I can think of. Battlestar Galactica did it a few times. Firefly. Person of Interest. Actually....what TV show HASN'T done this?

I really really hate it
 
Some foot-note thoughts, I need to think about the game more before any sort of deeper analysis.

Story:
- The rewrites show very badly. The plot in the game is actually good, but the narrative... it's really bad. The way how things were told was just so half-baked, the game deserved more.
- The narrative being a mess reflected on the pacing, emotion, everything. This was definitely "BRB using imagination because no pics" the game.
- Still, I enjoyed the four bros. Well Noctis, Prompto and Ignis at least, Gladiolus spent too much of his time acting like an ass even when Noctis had a perfectly good reason to be upset.
- The ending is enjoyable, glad to see they were able to wrap up the story admirably, even though the narrative was completely bonkers.
- Literally all side characters got shafted, same with lot of locations.

= The story in general is the worst part of the game. Plot itself is good, but it's the way it was handled was really disappointing. FF13 suffered from bad excecution too, although in that case the problem was "all of the screen time is used to cringy-drama". Here the problem was "75% of the story was cut for no reason".


Gameplay:
- I really enjoyed the open world. I do wonder how it holds up in the post-game, though.
- I also enjoyed the dungeons, especially the few I encountered during the side quests I did before reaching the ending. I hope the quality holds up.
- Battle System was good. Better than Birth By Sleep/Dream Drop Distance, worse than Kingdom Hearts 2. Items end up making up the combat way too easy though, enough stock of Mega Phoenixes make you unkillable.
- Music was really good, even if implemented unevenly. Exploration themes were played somewhat inconsistently.

=In general I really enjoyed gameplay aspects. I just wonder if they hold up in the post-game.
 
Also, I thought Chapter 13 was okay. The first part when you have only the ring was bothersome, but once you get Regis' sword, the chapter became much more enjoyable to me. It was basically just a very long dungeon with some nice tension to it. I do agree that the aesthetics of the place were boring, and it ran too long, though.
 
Am i missing something in chapter 13? I just got back to the quay during world of ruin and it wants me to run 3 miles in the dark with super scary bosses every few feet? Did I miss some transport somewhere?

Edit: Thanks, wanted to be sure before I did a stupid

edit2: Really love how it is literally called World of Ruin. Nice nod there :D
 
Am i missing something in chapter 13? I just got back to the quay during world of ruin and it wants me to run 3 miles in the dark with super scary bosses every few feet? Did I miss some transport somewhere?

Walk towards the goal. The game will give you means of transport after a short while.
 
I hate that wild enemy encounters don't even slightly scale with your level.
At a certain point it's just impossible to get into a satisfying random battle because you one-shot everything.
I just want to chill in Cleigne and listen to the best battle soundtrack ever but fights are over in 15 seconds.

And that's the highest-leveled region, too.
Leide is 99% Level 2-12 enemies the entire game - even the post-game.
 
I hate that wild enemy encounters don't even slightly scale with your level.
At a certain point it's just impossible to get into a satisfying random battle because you one-shot everything.
I just want to chill in Cleigne and listen to the best battle soundtrack ever but fights are over in 15 seconds.

And that's the highest-leveled region, too.
Leide is 99% Level 2-12 enemies the entire game - even the post-game.

At least it gives you a really easy way to grind AP.
 
At least it gives you a really easy way to grind AP.

So that I can have better stats and abilities to make random battles even shorter and less satisfying?

I'm not even bashing the battle system. It's amazing. I just want more of it.
There was a point in the middle of the game where your level matched most creatures and fights were exhilarating and perfect.

It seems like the way to play on repeat playthroughs will be to intentionally never use any lodgings that give you an EXP boost.
Hopefully we get a New Game+ and a Hard difficulty mode.

Maybe even a Kingdom Hearts style "EXP 0" Ability/Accessory.
Seemed like the perfect level to enjoy the open world is right around 40.
I'd like to be able to "lock" myself there.

I should try equipping all the starting equipment on everyone and see if I can bring their damage output way down.
 
It is my absolutely most hated way to start a game/movie/TV episode. You do it and claim it creates a mystery where the viewer is left wondering "how do we go from here to there?!" But in reality it is done because as a creator you have no faith in your audience to have patience and wait for normal narrative payoffs. Like we are all going to quit 5 minutes in if we don't have something intriguing or exciting immediately. John Wick is the most recent example I can think of. Battlestar Galactica did it a few times. Firefly. Person of Interest. Actually....what TV show HASN'T done this?

I really really hate it

I think a cold open that then flashes back to see how they got there can work if done rarely in things like TV but when it's done in video games and movies I hate it. Not only does it spoil stuff, like it spoils the time skip here (maybe not a big deal but then throughout the game you are waiting for the "x years later..."). Like if it's a TV show and it cold opens on something complete wild and unexpected, like a genre shift, then you are wondering "how did we get here?" but it's a Final Fantasy game, no duh we will fight some kind of massive demon god monster. And the opening after that stupid shit was so good. Opening on the road, broken car, pushing it with your friends, stand by me starts. Very good opening, didn't need to get all high stakes end of the world, we know it'd get there in the end anyway.
 
They obviously had the cold open because otherwise the game starts off with a conversation, pushing a car, and then running around in a desert for 2+ hours. That's boring.
 
This was my very first final fantasy game so I feel like I can say without a biased attachment to one of the previous FFs that this game was "good". In my opinion it wasn't "excellent" or even great, probably not gonna rave to my friends about it. and that makes me sad because I'm a hype man and I like hyping stuff up to people lol. I agree with a lot of the previously mentioned sentiments in this thread like shadow soldier's post a while back so no need for detail since everything that can be critiqued has been already xD

...anyways with that being said, was I the only one that thought the open world felt so "closed" at times?
 
Just beat it. First let me say I'm a massive idiot or the game does not explain it very well, but I didn't realize you used Umbra to go back to the open world. So I actually had to switch to easy mode at one point in Chapter 14 because it was too tough and I was wholly unaware I could go back to level up.

That out of the way, I loved the game and enjoyed the story quite a bit. Combat I wanted to love but for some reason was frequently too hard. Even when i was facing weaker enemies and I had the most recent weapons.

Chapter 13 I initially didn't understand the hate. The atmosphere was great... Until it never ended. Do I love the idea and execution but it should have been half as long.

There was way too many unexplained things though and I think that is the biggest shortcoming. Ardyn's relationship wasn't clearly explained. Why they had to fight again in the beyond was unclear. And a lot of chapter changes skipped over days with of story, biggest one being post Titan.

I don't play post game generally but I'll try that one dungeon that I've read briefly about. Would really like to get more ascension nodes, level up and maybe have another go at the final mission.

So, I'm really curious what Nomura's vision/story would have been. But as it is, I did enjoy the game and I think the mid 8 scores are pretty accurate. And I'll play the game again, something I can't say about XIII.

Edit: one more thing, Kingsglaive and Brotherhood really helped to care about the characters and world immediately.
 
...
Now for the story, a lot has been told already. I do think it mainly boils down to Square Enix missing the 'Show, don't tell'-mechanic since FFXIII. Can anyone explain the nature of the relationship between Luna and Noctis? I mean, I assume they're lovers. This is never explored thoroughly.
Their relationship was explained in this loading screen. And I think it's about the only place I actually saw it mentioned.

finalfantasyxv_201612szsb3.jpg
 
Thanks for the answers! I have the guide so I'll check it for myself, the names go over my head haha

Also, what's the significance of Luna and Noctis going to sleep at the end? Just to show the cool logo?

I took it symbolically, they got to "rest in peace" so to speak.

Think back having player choice for the notebook was a mistake, if I had choose to write the bare minimum I wouldn't have bought the whole "no he really loves her guys" when the plot called for it.
 
So...back in the review thread, I was hearing talks of some crazy post-game dungeon that is worth checking out?

How do I access that
 
Luna and Noctis are pen pals at best, but the game wants you to think they're deeply in love.

Again, it's a crappier version of The Lake House. The ending should've been the camp scene, the two of them together shouldn't have made it into the ending at all.
 
which is fitting because there was also a Naja snake thing in the room also

If I ever go back to check out what the hell they're doing with the PS4 Pro patch, the first thing i'll do is get anti-stone/frog charms and put 'em on everyone.

Cause I hated those things.
 
If I ever go back to check out what the hell they're doing with the PS4 Pro patch, the first thing i'll do is get anti-stone/frog charms and put 'em on everyone.

Cause I hated those things.

Yeah that room was a pain because of them, and because I kept picking the wrong door I ended up fighting them 4 times in a row :/ had to leave the dungeon but I finally beat it.
 
It's a crime that XIII got a trilogy instead of this game. It even had a fully fleshed out first game

i agree with this. square should have made this a trilogy. flesh out the story of the first seven chapters as the first game. Accordo should have been a full continent like lucis.
 
It's a crime that the world they crafted is unappreciated. Sure some people are bored because of lack of things to do, but look at the landscape. It's not only huge, it's beautiful, consistent, and very open. I think people just want more setpieces in this open world. All of this in about 4 years is not bad.
 
It's a crime that the world they crafted is unappreciated. Sure some people are bored because of lack of things to do, but look at the landscape. It's not only huge, it's beautiful, consistent, and very open. I think people just want more setpieces in this open world. All of this in about 4 years is not bad.

For me it's wanting a better realized story than what we got. They created an interesting world but the things you do in said world are rather dull in the grand scheme of things.
 
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