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All-New Press Previews of Final Fantasy XV's First 5 Chapters

S

Sagely

Member
It's so encouraging that the previewer said the game feels nostalgic/classic, when it also appears to be so modern and have new Western-inspired ideas. If those elements really are blended to good effect and it "feels" like Final Fantasy that's extremely impressive.

Whilst I'm absolutely sure now that I'll enjoy the game (and pretty sure it will become my favourite in the series) the story remains a mystery. I really hope it's good, and that Greek mythology video from another thread has me intrigued, but we'll see. Certainly I've enjoyed some JRPGs very much without giving a hoot about the story so it's not the end of the world, but an old-fashioned epic story would be great.
 
G

GinoFelino

Member
jschreier said:
Guessing the continent we've all seen a lot (Liede, Duscae, etc.) is the "open world" part of the game and that the second half of FFXV takes place in a totally different area that's far more linear.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that makes sense.

I think the second half will take place in a larger number of areas than just the one linear area.

Maybe we'll see a retread of FFX-type towns and a more linear type of roadtrip than the first half, allowing for more but way smaller places to visit.
 
B

benzy

Member
jschreier said:
Guessing the continent we've all seen a lot (Liede, Duscae, etc.) is the "open world" part of the game and that the second half of FFXV takes place in a totally different area that's far more linear.
Click to expand...

I think there are multiple continents that are open world, like Witcher 3, and it doesn't get linear until you go to
Insomnia
as the final dungeon leading to the end.

The concept arts for Terraverde are pretty much open landscapes.
 
D

DeSolos

Member
benzy said:
I think there are multiple continents that are open world, like Witcher 3, and it doesn't get linear until you go to
Insomnia
as the final dungeon leading to the end.

The concept arts for Terraverde are pretty much open landscapes.
Click to expand...

Tabata straight up said it starts getting linear when you start riding trains.

That's going to way before as you need to take a train to Tenebrae. I'm assuming it's the destination after Altissia.
 
K

Koozek

Member
New preview (thanks to Mognet's @Storm):

DailyStar.uk:
Final Fantasy XV Preview - Beautiful, colossal, phenomenal. A must buy on release day.

"For me, Final Fantasy XV felt more like an open-world RPG like The Witcher 3 rather than a Final Fantasy title but that’s definitely not a bad thing.

It takes everything that’s traditionally associated with the series and turned it upside-down and I absolutely loved it.

As a huge Final Fantasy fan, we were always afraid that the changes proposed by Square-Enix would ruin the experience but if anything, they’ve made it even better.

Still, we would 100% recommend picking Final Fantasy XV up when it finally releases because there really is no other game like it on the market right now.

We've no doubt that Final Fantasy fans will love the new direction of the series.

But equally, by not adhering to the conventions of the previous games we also think this will be the perfect Final Fantasy title for newcomers to jump in."

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/tech/gam...XV-Gameplay-Preview-Release-Date-PS4-Xbox-One
​
 
G

GinoFelino

Member
DeSolos said:
Tabata straight up said it starts getting linear when you start riding trains.

That's going to way before as you need to take a train to Tenebrae. I'm assuming it's the destination after Altissia.
Click to expand...

Trains? Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii. Train travel in games <3

This last month of waiting is going to be tough...
 
B

benzy

Member
DeSolos said:
Tabata straight up said it starts getting linear when you start riding trains.

That's going to way before as you need to take a train to Tenebrae. I'm assuming it's the destination after Altissia.
Click to expand...

He said it would be near the very end is when the game gets more linear. I don't see Duscae and Leide area being the only open continent. Who really knows when the train sequence actually starts.

http://m.ign.com/articles/2016/09/0...asy-xv-becomes-more-linear-in-its-second-half

Tabata: "Rather than it being the latter half, it’s actually very close to the end of the game,” Tabata told IGN regarding when things become more linear.

I didn’t want to end the game in an open world type of environment,” he continued. “At the very end, when the main character and the enemy are going against one another, there’s a build up in the story. I wanted to ensure that that last part was a little bit different from the open world environment and more of a packed, condensed type of game experience.”
 
W

wmlk

Member
benzy said:
He said it would be near the very end is when the game gets more linear. I don't see Duscae and Leide area being the only open continent. Who really knows when the train sequence actually starts.

http://m.ign.com/articles/2016/09/0...asy-xv-becomes-more-linear-in-its-second-half

Tabata: "Rather than it being the latter half, it&#8217;s actually very close to the end of the game,&#8221; Tabata told IGN regarding when things become more linear.

I didn&#8217;t want to end the game in an open world type of environment,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;At the very end, when the main character and the enemy are going against one another, there&#8217;s a build up in the story. I wanted to ensure that that last part was a little bit different from the open world environment and more of a packed, condensed type of game experience.&#8221;
Click to expand...

The only thing is that the concept art for Terraverde shows a lot of train segments. Unless we're expecting it to be at the end of the game.
 
K

Koozek

Member
GinoFelino said:
Trains? Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii. Train travel in games <3

This last month of waiting is going to be tough...
Click to expand...
:
HoWDQtQ.png

tumblr_odg7psk9Jl1qd79gyo3_540.gif

LeftImmediateButterfly.gif
Click to expand...
 
Cindi Mayweather

Cindi Mayweather

Member
That train looks like it belongs in FF8. Sweet mother of God. It looks like a train from Timber got old and rusted.

Hype.

Sagely said:
It's so encouraging that the previewer said the game feels nostalgic/classic, when it also appears to be so modern and have new Western-inspired ideas. If those elements really are blended to good effect and it "feels" like Final Fantasy that's extremely impressive.

Whilst I'm absolutely sure now that I'll enjoy the game (and pretty sure it will become my favourite in the series) the story remains a mystery. I really hope it's good, and that Greek mythology video from another thread has me intrigued, but we'll see. Certainly I've enjoyed some JRPGs very much without giving a hoot about the story so it's not the end of the world, but an old-fashioned epic story would be great.
Click to expand...

Which previewer? Parish?
 
S

Sagely

Member
Cindi Mayweather said:
Which previewer? Parish?
Click to expand...
Yep I think it was Parish. Admittedly he only said nostalgic and I said classic.

"So yes: Final Fantasy XV feels nostalgic. It contains constant callbacks to earlier games in the series, of course &#8212; that's to be expected for a Final Fantasy game. Even though battles take place seamlessly in the game world, even though there's no victory fanfare when battles can flow one into the other, even though you're battling monsters in real-time with minimal use of menus, it still captures a certain ineffable sense of Final Fantasy."
 
LordKasual

LordKasual

Banned
NoctisVsStar said:
10 years ago fables were told about an upcoming game that dealt with an "isolated nation protected by an ancient lines of kings. A modern civilization alive with the crystal songs of swords and sorcery." The people were excited and anticipated such an event with open arms, ushering a new era of FF.

Nothing went as expected, a false prophet claiming to be goddess not only descended from the heavens not once but three times. The people lost faith, fear engulfed joyful hearts, skepticism grew strong and the arrival of the true king was nowhere in sight.

Years passed.. and the people wondered if the king had abandoned them..little did they know the king was always watching over as his eyes grew tired of watching the life of expiring threads throughout the passage of time expecting his arrival.

On a random summer day, the king graced us with his arrival. Legend has it he was received with cheers and excitement by everyone! faith was renewed. However, unforeseen events led to dramatic changes. The king was haunted, condemned by many, few faithfuls remained by his side.. it was dark time indeed, the unconditional love provided by many was eradicated.

The king was out on a mission to reclaim his throne and to prove to himself that he's worthy to sit alongside the previous kings that came before him. Slowly but surely skeptics started to come over to his side and a sense of positiveness engulfed everyone.. but the journey is far from over, it's only just begun.

*gets on one knee and stabs the engine blade into the ground.. " People deserve more, people deserve the best and people deserve to have their faith and patience rewarded..and i intend to deliver.

- A King's promise, from the book of the XVersus epic.

j2A5RR.gif


Ontopic: the chocobo leveling up system looks fantastic hopefully they get more abilities like link attacks and such.
Click to expand...

Thee who gave me hope as thine eyes lurked behind the veil of GAF's arduous login gates

We may never have spoke, but tales of the taken Hype Prince have long thus echoed in these hollow halls

hpVnUek.gif


And now the prince has returned, and hollow turns to HYPE once again...!!!!!

sorry

Koozek said:
LeftImmediateButterfly.gif
Click to expand...

Gosh, that looks painful. Alot of animations in XV feel a bit over-acted, but when it comes to pain (Magitek soldiers / that samurai enemy impaling you, shock/burning animations, fall damage) this game sells it so damn well.

Luckly there's some kind of healing magic in this world, because im sure the aftermath of this would be having catastrophic effects on their skin...
 
D

dragonzdogma

Member
With all these previews, I've only seen like one side quest (I'm not counting the monster hunts) and it was something about delivering a battery.

Has Squarenix ever made a good side quest before?

Honestly, I cant remember any good side quest in any RPG for that matter.
Wow, I have the worst memory, I was trying to think of a good side quest in both FFVI or Chrono trigger and I cant remember any, and those are my two favorite RPGS of al time.
 
T

Tyaren

Member
I too think there is at least another region as big and open as Lucis to explore in the game. They wouldn't have shown us all of Lucis if this was the case. It also wouldn't add up to the facts that we know:
- Duscae (the whole region) is 1/10 of FFXV's game world. That would make Lucis actually just 3/10 of the whole world.
- A developer said they haven't revealed about 50% of all regions and cities in FFXV yet. What they had revealed at that point were: Insomnia, Leide, Duscae, Cleigne, Accordo and Tenebrae. That means there are at least 6 more regions. These can't possibly be all linear.
- The game starts being linear towards the end of the game. Reaching Altissia on the second continent isn't even the halfway mark of the game but more like 1/3.
-There are hunts for monsters available in Altissia. That means it is a hub city like Lestallum that you can freely leave and return to. This too suggests that this part of the game is also still open.
 
Cindi Mayweather

Cindi Mayweather

Member
dragonzdogma said:
Has Squarenix ever made a good side quest before?
Click to expand...

Triple Triad and of Queen of Cards quest. Chocobo Hot and Cold. In the case of VI, wouldn't recruiting the characters in World of Ruin be considered a side quest? Wutai/recruiting Yuffie are great. FFX's final summoning side quest. The bulk of X-2. XII's marks. Getting a gold chocobo in VII.

There's more where that came from? Those are off the top of my head.
 
N

NoctisVsStar

Member
M_Night said:
NoctisVsStar..... my....son ;_;

BELIEVE!
Click to expand...
images

LordKasual said:
Thee who gave me hope as thine eyes lurked behind the veil of GAF's arduous login gates

We may never have spoke, but tales of the taken Hype Prince have long thus echoed in these hollow halls

hpVnUek.gif


And now the prince has returned, and hollow turns to HYPE once again!
Click to expand...

Always near your hearts like the black theme you use on gaf ;')

In regards to the linear aspect near endgame or halfway that's fine. A lot of gamers got that small OCD to search every piece of land, so having a bombastic nonstop action to the end is quite cool. I'm with Tyaren on that they haven't shown at least one more continent or town.. how big will it be? That's another conversation.
 
Cindi Mayweather

Cindi Mayweather

Member
NoctisVsStar said:
10 years ago fables were told about an upcoming game that dealt with an "isolated nation protected by an ancient lines of kings. A modern civilization alive with the crystal songs of swords and sorcery." The people were excited and anticipated such an event with open arms, ushering a new era of FF.

Nothing went as expected, a false prophet claiming to be goddess not only descended from the heavens not once but three times. The people lost faith, fear engulfed joyful hearts, skepticism grew strong and the arrival of the true king was nowhere in sight.

Years passed.. and the people wondered if the king had abandoned them..little did they know the king was always watching over as his eyes grew tired of watching the life of expiring threads throughout the passage of time expecting his arrival.

On a random summer day, the king graced us with his arrival. Legend has it he was received with cheers and excitement by everyone! faith was renewed. However, unforeseen events led to dramatic changes. The king was haunted, condemned by many, few faithfuls remained by his side.. it was dark time indeed, the unconditional love provided by many was eradicated.

The king was out on a mission to reclaim his throne and to prove to himself that he's worthy to sit alongside the previous kings that came before him. Slowly but surely skeptics started to come over to his side and a sense of positiveness engulfed everyone.. but the journey is far from over, it's only just begun.

*gets on one knee and stabs the engine blade into the ground.. " People deserve more, people deserve the best and people deserve to have their faith and patience rewarded..and i intend to deliver.

- A King's promise, from the book of the XVersus epic.

j2A5RR.gif


Ontopic: the chocobo leveling up system looks fantastic hopefully they get more abilities like link attacks and such.
Click to expand...

Yo.

This post made me lose my shit.
 
D

DrBretto

Banned
NoctisVsStar said:
10 years ago fables were told about an upcoming game that dealt with an "isolated nation protected by an ancient lines of kings. A modern civilization alive with the crystal songs of swords and sorcery." The people were excited and anticipated such an event with open arms, ushering a new era of FF.

Nothing went as expected, a false prophet claiming to be goddess not only descended from the heavens not once but three times. The people lost faith, fear engulfed joyful hearts, skepticism grew strong and the arrival of the true king was nowhere in sight.

Years passed.. and the people wondered if the king had abandoned them..little did they know the king was always watching over as his eyes grew tired of watching the life of expiring threads throughout the passage of time expecting his arrival.

On a random summer day, the king graced us with his arrival. Legend has it he was received with cheers and excitement by everyone! faith was renewed. However, unforeseen events led to dramatic changes. The king was haunted, condemned by many, few faithfuls remained by his side.. it was dark time indeed, the unconditional love provided by many was eradicated.

The king was out on a mission to reclaim his throne and to prove to himself that he's worthy to sit alongside the previous kings that came before him. Slowly but surely skeptics started to come over to his side and a sense of positiveness engulfed everyone.. but the journey is far from over, it's only just begun.

*gets on one knee and stabs the engine blade into the ground.. " People deserve more, people deserve the best and people deserve to have their faith and patience rewarded..and i intend to deliver.

- A King's promise, from the book of the XVersus epic.

j2A5RR.gif


Ontopic: the chocobo leveling up system looks fantastic hopefully they get more abilities like link attacks and such.
Click to expand...

The music was a nice touch, lol
 
T

Tyaren

Member
dragonzdogma said:
With all these previews, I've only seen like one side quest (I'm not counting the monster hunts) and it was something about delivering a battery.

Has Squarenix ever made a good side quest before?

Honestly, I cant remember any good side quest in any RPG for that matter.
Wow, I have the worst memory, I was trying to think of a good side quest in both FFVI or Chrono trigger and I cant remember any, and those are my two favorite RPGS of al time.
Click to expand...

The majority of side quests are probably simple fetch quests and monster hunts. But alone in Leide and Duscae there were a hand full of side quests that go beyond that. They introduce NPCs, have a little narration going on, are more interesting, give you better rewards and some of them might take some time/will lead you to new areas/will be extended over the duration of the game. There were for example:

- finding the lost/wounded hunters or their remains in Leide
- Helping the professor to find all red frogs in Alstor Slough
- tracking and defeating the Behemoth to make chocobos available
- Go on a "date" with Iris in Lestallum
- Doing photographs of different locations for the blogger in Lestallum
- Tracking and defeating the Bandersnatch

They don't reinvent the wheel but those kinds of side quests are imo fine and fun.
 
S

Socivol

Member
Cindi Mayweather said:
Triple Triad and of Queen of Cards quest. Chocobo Hot and Cold. In the case of VI, wouldn't recruiting the characters in World of Ruin be considered a side quest? Wutai/recruiting Yuffie are great. FFX's final summoning side quest. The bulk of X-2. XII's marks. Getting a gold chocobo in VII.

There's more where that came from? Those are off the top of my head.
Click to expand...

Triple Triad was amazing until you started getting into some of the more ridiculous rules (looking at you random!) and did people actually have fun with the gold chocobo? I did it because I had to but hated it. I also think that a lot of the optional summon side quests have been really fun.
 
G

Gbraga

Member
The side quests not being very inventive in their design will easily be overcome if they keep up with the amount of unique in-game dialogue.

If you strip Witcher 3's side quests down to their core, you also won't find a very compelling mission design, but it's the writing that gets most people engaged and make it deserving of the praise it gets for its quests.

If instead of just walking in silence from point A to point B in order to kill the generic enemy #28, go back and get some money you don't even need, you get the same sense of journey with your friends that you do in main missions while exploring, it'll be very much a worhtwhile experience.

You go on your journey to point B, but on your way there you get some unique dialogue, you see some curious shit walking around, you take a scripted photograph that will make you think back on that journey (instead of the quest itself) when you're camping later on, all these things really add up to making it feel fresh. Most games can be boiled down to very basic sentences, it's what they do to keep the played engaged that makes the difference.

Even masterpieces, like, say, Shadow of the Colossus. It's a game about going from point to point killing one enemy after another and then you're done. The world is empty and there's not much to see. But to anyone who played that game, this is complete bullshit, because it sells the game short on what it achieves, and how unique each battle is, even if it's technically still true.
 
Cindi Mayweather

Cindi Mayweather

Member
Socivol said:
Triple Triad was amazing until you started getting into some of the more ridiculous rules (looking at you random!) and did people actually have fun with the gold chocobo? I did it because I had to but hated it. I also think that a lot of the optional summon side quests have been really fun.
Click to expand...

You can get rid of random. :p

I liked getting a gold chocobo.
 
K

Koozek

Member
Aren't all sidequest in FFs or, well, RPGs in general basically fetch-quests and talking to different NPCs? It's not about the structure itself, it's about the narrative around it. See Witcher 3, which had so many entertaining and well-written sidequests with quite some unique cutscenes, but if you break it down it's basically just a fetch-quest/monster-hunt, too. As long as their is a build-up and small story arc to a decent amount of the sidequests, it'll be good.

Fake-EDIT: Ah, beaten by Gbraga.
 
B

badcrumble

Member
benzy said:
He said it would be near the very end is when the game gets more linear. I don't see Duscae and Leide area being the only open continent. Who really knows when the train sequence actually starts.

http://m.ign.com/articles/2016/09/0...asy-xv-becomes-more-linear-in-its-second-half

Tabata: "Rather than it being the latter half, it’s actually very close to the end of the game,” Tabata told IGN regarding when things become more linear.

I didn’t want to end the game in an open world type of environment,” he continued. “At the very end, when the main character and the enemy are going against one another, there’s a build up in the story. I wanted to ensure that that last part was a little bit different from the open world environment and more of a packed, condensed type of game experience.”
Click to expand...

Sounds sort of like an inversion of FFVI's structure.
 
T

Tyaren

Member
Gbraga said:
The little camping cutscenes weren't.
Click to expand...

You mean before they go to sleep? Yes, those are obviously not voiced. But I think that was fully intentional and not because of some constraints.
I've heard several people complain about them not talking but I actually like it exacty like that. I like listening to the calming camping theme and concentrating on the point tallying and stats that are shown to you. The guys sitting on the fire, eating and chatting are just supposed to be the pretty and atmospheric background. Them loudly chatting would imo be distracting. Also, depending on how quick you go through the menus there won't be enough time for them to actually have a conversation. Sometimes you will want to just quickly level up and carry on.
When you look through Prompto's pictures they will however make some voiced comments and all the mini side quests, like cooking with Ignis or Gladio challenging you to a race in the morning, are also fully voiced.
 
K

Koozek

Member
Tyaren said:
You mean before they go to sleep? Yes, those are obviously not voiced. But I think that was fully intentional and not because of some restraints.
I've heard several people complain about them not talking but I actually like it exacty like that. I like listening to the calming camping theme and concentrating on the point tallying and stats that are shown to you. The guys sitting on the fire, eating and chatting are just supposed to be the pretty and atmospheric background. Them loudly chatting would imo be distracting. Also, depending on how quick you go through the menus there won't be enough time for them to actually have a coversation. Sometimes you will want to just quickly level up and carry on.
When you look through Prompto's pictures they will however make some voiced comments and all the mini side quests, like cooking with Ignis or Gladio challenging you to a race in the morning, are also fully voiced.
Click to expand...
Word.
 
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