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

.JayZii

Banned
GAF's third best GOTY in an excellent year for games. FFXV should be so lucky.
The reality is that it will probably get almost the exact same treatment. Praised and lauded for a few weeks, rank highly on the game of the year voting, and then referred to as trash from that point forward.
 

Tyaren

Member
I think Luna will die it's a feeling I have but I would love for Noctis to die in the end... something tragic like the end of Crisis Core.

c7NJRa2.gif


Seriously, I already dread Tabata killing off most of the cast. D:
 
I think Luna will die it's a feeling I have but I would love for Noctis to die in the end... something tragic like the end of Crisis Core.

Do it Tabby.

Kill 'em all, let god sort it out.

(I would be 100% less grumpy about Luna dying if Noctis dies, too. Misery for everyone! I'm still heartbroken from Crisis Core, thanks, Tabata.)
 

Perfo

Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
They shouldn't do anything. Being "linear" doesn't automatically mean "bad" as long as the narrative is there to carry it in a meaningful way.

Well I'm for once quite concerned about this supposed linearity. I mostly fear the excuse of a tighter story-section is a masked way to say "short development time" and "rushed ending" like many similar titles (and FFs) did before it. I hope the contrast between the first part and second part in level design is not too evident because if so, I'm pretty sure it's a choice forced by the development time more than design ideals and ideas. I really pray the game doesn't literally become a corridor after hours of open world... it'll be so akward and feel just rushed. A perfect negative comparison would be Metal Gear Solid 4: good level design during the few initial chapters and then becomes a shitty linear corridor till the end... for obvious time constrains during the long dev. time it went through.
PLEASE DO NOT BE LIKE THAT!
 

Wvrs

Member
I am so excited to play this over the Christmas break. No University and the bar I work in closes for two weeks; I am going to lose a lot of time to this game.

Not much longer.
 

sappyday

Member
Well I'm for once quite concerned about this supposed linearity. I mostly fear the excuse of a tighter story-section is a masked way to say "short development time" and "rushed ending" like many similar titles (and FFs) did before it. I hope the contrast between the first part and second part in level design is not too evident because if so, I'm pretty sure it's a choice forced by the development time more than design ideals and ideas. I really pray the game doesn't literally become a corridor after hours of open world... it'll be so akward and feel just rushed. A perfect negative comparison would be Metal Gear Solid 4: good level design during the few initial chapters and then becomes a shitty linear corridor till the end... for obvious time constrains during the long dev. time it went through.
PLEASE DO NOT BE LIKE THAT!

Tabata should have never said that. I don't think it'll be like MGS4 or any linear games. I think it'll be like The Witcher 3 which for me became really linear by Chapter 2 and 3.
 

valkyre

Member
Kotaku has me a bit worried in regards to the framerate in this game ... any other previews say anything related to this?

I thought Tabata said they managed to pretty much have solid performance all around, what gives?
 

bunkitz

Member
Please don't let Luna die. And Noctis. And especially Prompto. Ignis and Gladio... I'd rather they didn't but I wouldn't really mind.

Although, yeah, I guess I'd feel better about the possibility of Luna dying if Noctis does too.
 

KupoNut

Member
Well I'm for once quite concerned about this supposed linearity. I mostly fear the excuse of a tighter story-section is a masked way to say "short development time" and "rushed ending" like many similar titles (and FFs) did before it. I hope the contrast between the first part and second part in level design is not too evident because if so, I'm pretty sure it's a choice forced by the development time more than design ideals and ideas. I really pray the game doesn't literally become a corridor after hours of open world... it'll be so akward and feel just rushed. A perfect negative comparison would be Metal Gear Solid 4: good level design during the few initial chapters and then becomes a shitty linear corridor till the end... for obvious time constrains during the long dev. time it went through.
PLEASE DO NOT BE LIKE THAT!

I think it's going to be more like Xenoblade (Wii), still large areas but maybe just not the option to travel back in order to stay focused.
 

JBwB

Member
I've been waiting in anticipation for this game for over 10 years. No matter how it ends up I've just gotta say...

It's been a hell of a ride.
 

JeffZero

Purple Drazi
I've been waiting in anticipation for this game for over 10 years. No matter how it ends up I've just gotta say...

It's been a hell of a ride.

Amen to that. I've been waiting, too. Many of us have. Come what may, it has been... fun.
 

Sagely

Member
Jason Schreier said:
raw emotion and intimacy
I need this game already.

Seriously though, I'm so pleased that a lot of effort seems to have been put into Noct's crew interactions. Plentiful banter and a dynamic approach to story telling through (hopefully) natural dialogue is a great approach if executed well. As if I needed encouragement to go on ladventures, this is even more motivation to focus on spending time with the guys rather than zipping from one plot point to the next.
 

Koozek

Member
I need this game already.

Seriously though, I'm so pleased that a lot of effort seems to have been put into Noct's crew interactions. Plentiful banter and a dynamic approach to story telling through (hopefully) natural dialogue is a great approach if executed well. As if I needed encouragement to go on ladventures, this is even more motivation to focus on spending time with the guys rather than zipping from one plot point to the next.
I like this organic approach more too. Basically the opposite of FFXIII.

Also now Tabata's comments about TLoU being an inspiration make sense:
He added that Square Enix's goal for Final Fantasy XV, broadly speaking, is for the narrative and story to be "really one in the same." He cited The Last of Us as inspiration for how he hopes his game will intertwine narrative and gameplay.

"It's important that the story progresses through the gameplay in a very unforced way, in a similar way that it was done with The Last of Us, for example," Tabata said.​
 

Sagely

Member
I like this organic approach more too. Basically the opposite of FFXIII.

Also now Tabata's comments about TLoU being an inspiration make sense:
Indeed. I never played XIII at the time and watched a full long play over the past couple of weeks, just for some background and extra context on XV. What we've seen of XV seems very much "versus XIII" in so many approaches, which is interesting. I'm not gonna hate on XIII since I didn't actually play it (long plays are good for the cutscenes, art direction, music etc. but don't offer the same experience in terms of combat and linearity); whilst I can safely say it was not to my tastes, I could see that the team were trying new things with it and I found some elements interesting.

However, XV appearing to be the opposite of that is encouraging for me. Tabata citing TLOU as inspiration makes a lot of sense and it seems like a great Western game to draw from in terms of emotional impact and storytelling; as opposed to linear shooters like CoD which I think were considered light inspiration for the direction of XIII. Trying not to put words into peoples' mouths or speculate too much of course.
 
I can't believe it's been a decade now. I was ready to write off Final Fantasy if this game turned out to be disappointing, but I'm glad impressions so far seem to be positive. Still gonna wait for final reviews and impressions, although I'm gonna play this regardless. I have to know.
 
It's super simple really, DON'T KILL THE TWO LOVE BIRDS TABATA. It's not worth it (for me). I'm not too worried about the framerate though so we'll see what happens.

I can believe that there are only 28 days left. I'm all set to go with the game since the UCE got charged, and I'm getting the guide on release day, basically everything is ready. Just got to get a Pro now.
 
It's super simple really, DON'T KILL THE TWO LOVE BIRDS TABATA. It's not worth it (for me). I'm not too worried about the framerate though so we'll see what happens.
Unfortunately for me, I'm very sensitive to framerate issues. It's probably due to being a fan of character action games, but stuff like Dragon's Dogma or Platinum Demo could even result in me getting a headache.

Though, fortunately from previews it doesn't seem that XV will be that extreme. But still it'll probably affect my enjoyment.
 

Sagely

Member
I'm in two minds about a tragic ending...a good tragic ending would be really epic and profound, would make the game a classic in my eyes. But at the same time I don't want to lose anyone :'( especially after 60-100 hours with them.
 
Tabata shall give you despair, and you'll love it!
We'll see Noctis, bleeding to death, huddle around a dead Luna, say his last words like "Our journey is finally over. Did I make you proud dad? Luna too?", and finally just lay there as they both slowly, through some weird shenanigans, turn into a crystal while either vocal Somnus or Stand By Me plays in the background.

Or switch the two so it's Luna who gets close to a dead Noctis.
 

Toth

Member
We'll see Noctis, bleeding to death, huddle around a dead Luna, say his last words like "Our journey is finally over. Did I make you proud dad? Luna too?", and finally just lay there as they both slowly, through some weird shenanigans, turn into a crystal while either vocal Somnus or Stand By Me plays in the background.

Or switch the two so it's Luna who gets close to a dead Noctis.

Bad flashbacks to Type-0! No, no, no!
 

OrionX

Member
We'll see Noctis, bleeding to death, huddle around a dead Luna, say his last words like "Our journey is finally over. Did I make you proud dad? Luna too?", and finally just lay there as they both slowly, through some weird shenanigans, turn into a crystal while either vocal Somnus or Stand By Me plays in the background.

Or switch the two so it's Luna who gets close to a dead Noctis.

I'm worried Luna won't
make it past the time jump. Unfortunately, I think they'll try to avoid aging her. Prove me wrong, Tabata!
 
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