Final Fantasy XV Gamescom Active Time Report - CNN reporting live from disaster scene

Unique isn't inherently a good attribute however. FFXV's holding button to attack is fairly unique in action RPG, but is it actually good? Not for me.

The attack button only on one button is boring af and they need some new moves of course but also combos that matter. Like kingdom hearts when they use a special power or something, im in awe because of how beautiful it is and how damn powerful.
 
The attack button only on one button is boring af and they need some new moves of course but also combos that matter. Like kingdom hearts when they use a special power or something, im in awe because of how beautiful it is and how damn powerful.
If you count it like that then what's technically the most deep action game also has only one attack button (DMC4), since the other buttons are for the gun and the style (which may or may not be an attack).
For XV, if you add the abilities (second button) and magic (probably a third button) then it ends up with a lot more buttons!

And yet I doubt it will feel any better or less boring than games that only have one button (or none, *cough*Ys*cough*).

Putting in 100 different combos for different combinations of X-X-Y doesn't really make the game feel better...
 
If you count it like that then what's technically the most deep action game also has only one attack button (DMC4), since the other buttons are for the gun and the style (which may or may not be an attack).
For XV, if you add the abilities (second button) and magic (probably a third button) then it ends up with a lot more buttons!

And yet I doubt it will feel any better or less boring than games that only have one button (or none, *cough*Ys*cough*).

Putting in 100 different combos for different combinations of X-X-Y doesn't really make the game feel better...

Simplifying DMC4 down to 'one attack button' is ridiculously reductive - even if you ignore Dante's style switching; simpler characters like Nero and Vergil have their basic melee moves affected by timing and holding button presses (and a small number of multi-button inputs), use of lock-on and motion inputs, as well as additional systems which alter and affect their entire melee moveset. The overall amount of individual moves is fairly small, but the result is something incredibly versatile and responsive; the opposite of FFXV's system.

An all-male party would be fine, but FFXV's all-male team severely lacks diversity. There is no racial diversity, no species (human/non-human) diversity, no age diversity. Even their overall appearance looks very similar to each other with all black, fashion designer outfit. It's pretty awful.

Lack of species and age diversity would be understandable if they're trying to paint them as close-knit friends from childhood (though having them all be 17-18 is unnecessary, it'd still be plausible if Gladiolus and Ignis were three or four years older than Noctis and Prompto); but I agree that a less monochrome party, in every sense, would have been received better than the current one, regardless of gender. It really is a shame that clothing customisation wasn't included, at least; it'd fit in perfectly, reinforce the modern setting and help with a lot of people's complaints.
 
close-knit friends from childhood (though having them all be 17-18 is unnecessary, it'd still be plausible if Gladiolus and Ignis were three or four years older than Noctis and Prompto);

If I'm remembering correctly, Gladio mentions during some banter in Episode Duscae that he's 5 years older than Noct. Something along the lines of:
Noctis: "Feeling your age, huh?"
Gladio: "You'll be here in 5 years."

I'm a little surprised they haven't officially given out their ages yet.
 
If I'm remembering correctly, Gladio mentions during some banter in Episode Duscae that he's 5 years older than Noct. Something along the lines of:
Noctis: "Feeling your age, huh?"
Gladio: "You'll be here in 5 years."

I'm a little surprised they haven't officially given out their ages yet.

That's nice, at least. I was afraid they were going towards a repeat of FF8 - as it is, Gladiolus would be something like 22 at the youngest.

Maybe nobody (except Cor) has an official age yet because they were only determined recently? The script can't have been finalised for that long...
 
Lack of species and age diversity would be understandable if they're trying to paint them as close-knit friends from childhood (though having them all be 17-18 is unnecessary, it'd still be plausible if Gladiolus and Ignis were three or four years older than Noctis and Prompto); but I agree that a less monochrome party, in every sense, would have been received better than the current one, regardless of gender. It really is a shame that clothing customisation wasn't included, at least; it'd fit in perfectly, reinforce the modern setting and help with a lot of people's complaints.

I wander if FFXV's world even has non-human civilization to begin with. We know there are robot mutants in the enemies's troop, but that's about it so far. Gladio is older than the rest, but he actually looks fairly young still. Even Cor looks fit even though he's supposedly 42(?). The problem I have with it is that they all look so damn bishounen and visual kei-like and a lot of hair gel and highly fashioned appearance and outfit. I understand Japan likes pretty boys, but I'm getting tired of it.

It's probably Nomura's character design (and ROEN's costumes) that's wearing thin for me. I'm already past my teens. His overly stylized, flamboyant design work just doesn't cut it for me anymore. To further exemplifies my point:

This is what Nomura likes:

Batman_FF-720x495.jpg


This is what I like (now):

818.jpg
 
It's probably Nomura's character design (and ROEN's costumes) that's wearing thin for me. I'm already past my teens. His overly stylized, flamboyant design work just doesn't cut it for me anymore.

Bah I don't know, I find his character designs still quite appealing and if anything at least pretty unique in the jRPG genre. I would not complain for an older protagonist than Noctis though, Cor would be perfect!
I'm already past my teens. His overly stylized, flamboyant design work just doesn't cut it for me anymore. To further exemplifies my point:

This is what I like (now):

818.jpg

A man dressed like a bat doesn't really sound like something completely out of teenage appeal you know...
 
Simplifying DMC4 down to 'one attack button' is ridiculously reductive - even if you ignore Dante's style switching; simpler characters like Nero and Vergil have their basic melee moves affected by timing and holding button presses (and a small number of multi-button inputs), use of lock-on and motion inputs, as well as additional systems which alter and affect their entire melee moveset. The overall amount of individual moves is fairly small, but the result is something incredibly versatile and responsive; the opposite of FFXV's system.
If you're just holding the button in FFXV, you're doing it wrong. There are some timing based offensive stuff that you can do to spice up the combat a bit, not to even mention the defensive abilities

Why do people find teenage boys hooning around in a car as a central premise of an RPG the least bit interesting?
A prince on the run with a close group of friends from an invasive empire that laid waste on his home city and who are trying to find a way to get back at the invaders as well as getting back a stolen crystal sounds like a decent premise, yes. Not all of us are pathetically superficial like you.

If I'm remembering correctly, Gladio mentions during some banter in Episode Duscae that he's 5 years older than Noct. Something along the lines of:
Noctis: "Feeling your age, huh?"
Gladio: "You'll be here in 5 years."

I'm a little surprised they haven't officially given out their ages yet.
They haven't given official ages, but if I'm not totally wrong I think I remember them having described them as a group of 20-something year olds. I don't thiink any of them are teenagers. Noctis is probably ~20-21 year old.

An all-male party would be fine, but FFXV's all-male team severely lacks diversity. There is no racial diversity, no species (human/non-human) diversity, no age diversity. Even their overall appearance looks very similar to each other with all black, fashion designer outfit. It's pretty awful.
None of that is problematic in any way. There's nothing wrong with FFXV focusing on a group of close friends who are roughly the same age. And there's diversity in their looks, even if they all dress in black. They've all got their own style that tell about their persona. Not everything needs to be coloured with all the colours of rainbows. A largely black & white motif for the main & supporting cast is a perfectly fine choice that has been done in other fiction before. Not sure why it's so horriburuuuu for FF.
 
Bah I don't know, I find his character designs still quite appealing and if anything at least pretty unique in the jRPG genre. I would not complain for an older protagonist than Noctis though, Cor would be perfect!


A man dressed like a bat doesn't really sound like something completely out of teenage appeal you know...

I'm not saying that is completely out of teenage appeal. I'm just saying Nomura's design can get pretty overdesigned and stylized to the point of losing all subtlety in his art. Of course there are various exceptions to his work, mostly older and some newer, he knows how to draw well. But sometimes he needs to be held back.
 
I'm not saying that is completely out of teenage appeal. I'm just saying Nomura's design can get pretty overdesigned and stylized to the point of losing all subtlety in his art. Of course there are various exceptions to his work, mostly older and some newer, he knows how to draw well. But sometimes he needs to be held back.

His FFXV designs don't look like over-worked or overly-complicated to me. Among his simplest designs I might say actually.
 
His FFXV designs don't look like over-worked or overly-complicated to me. Among his simplest designs I might say actually.

In FFXV's case, they don't look as much overdesigned as looking like a boyband who's ready to rock a concert than fighting the forces of evil and go on a rough adventure.
 
In FFXV's case, they don't look as much overdesigned as looking like a boyband who's ready to rock a concert than fighting the forces of evil and go on a rough adventure.

To me they look like they would fit in Tokyo, and their city we already know is inspired by such. Of course they're stylish and all, but this is Final Fantasy and not Oblivion afterall (thanks god). So, given that, I think they fit in the universe they're creating.
 
To make they look like they would fit in Tokyo, and their city we already know is inspired by such. Of course they're stylish and all, but this is Final Fantasy and not Oblivion afterall (thanks god). So, given that, I think they fit in the universe they're creating.

Fair point. I don't disagree that they fit Lucis. Afterall, it's a modern city, and they're wearing modern clothing. The problem arises when they step out of Lucis. They already look kinda out of place in Duscae and Lestallum. I can't imagine how they would look like near Niflheim and other high fantasy locale. If you want to argue that making the characters look foreign in these places was intended, fine. But it still makes the whole thing incoherent and awkward.
 
Fair point. I don't disagree that they fit Lucis. Afterall, it's a modern city, and they're wearing modern clothing. The problem arises when they step out of Lucis. They already look kinda out of place in Duscae and Lestallum. I can't imagine how they would look like near Niflheim and other high fantasy locale. If you want to argue that making the characters look foreign in these places was intended, fine. But it still makes the whole thing incoherent and awkward.
Eh, if the party changed its clothes every time they are in another nation it would only be visually coherent, but not thematically. I mean, who changes their clothes to match local custom when they're travelling around?
 
Fair point. I don't disagree that they fit Lucis. Afterall, it's a modern city, and they're wearing modern clothing. The problem arises when they step out of Lucis. They already look kinda out of place in Duscae and Lestallum. I can't imagine how they would look like near Niflheim and other high fantasy locale. If you want to argue that making the characters look foreign in these places was intended, fine. But it still makes the whole thing incoherent and awkward.

This isn't new to FF though. The Cocoon-ers look out of place on Pulse in XIII, Vaan looks out of place everywhere that's not a desert in XII, Kimahri looks out of place in whimsical beach towns in X, etc.

Tourists always look out of place. Is the real world visually incoherent? I guess so. This may be amplified in XV by the graphical fidelity and the large cultural gulf between regions. I suspect the latter was baked into Nomura's whole "versus" concept from the beginning, trying to set up sharp opposition between characters and forces.

Anyway, I don't love their clothes, but I don't see them as an inherent flaw of design.
 
If you want to argue that making the characters look foreign in these places was intended, fine. But it still makes the whole thing incoherent and awkward.

Of course it's intended! Without even mentioning real life (where in my hotel in Italy japanese tourists look out of place in the way they fashion as much as I'm duscae) it's only natural for a fantasy jrpg to play on the idea that travelling far takes you to alien places. It's one of the most used plot and setting device in the whole genre. Just thing at star ocean or FFXIV itself, a game that takes you often to places with clashing aesthetic differences.
 
Most Japanese designs are overstylized to begin with. Comes down to personal preference at that point. No idea why Nomura is somehow any better or worse offender of overdesigned characters.

FFXV has very good design sensibilities, especially in its architecture. Real but with a flash of fantasy. It's a very nice balance.
 
http://oyster.ignimgs.com/wordpress/stg.ign.com/2014/07/Batman_FF-720x495.jpg[/IMG

This is what I like (now):

[IMG]http://www.mygeek-attitude.fr/visuel/article/original/818.jpg[/IMG[/QUOTE]

Is the best criticism you have the throw away desgins for toys at least use his game designs.
 
Eh, if the party changed its clothes every time they are in another nation it would only be visually coherent, but not thematically. I mean, who changes their clothes to match local custom when they're travelling around?

If you wanna bring in real life argument, who actually wears one and one only set of clothing 24/7 for the rest of their life? :P
 
If I'm remembering correctly, Gladio mentions during some banter in Episode Duscae that he's 5 years older than Noct. Something along the lines of:
Noctis: "Feeling your age, huh?"
Gladio: "You'll be here in 5 years."

I'm a little surprised they haven't officially given out their ages yet.

Anyone saying something like that about someone under 30 is nonsensical, but I'm sure Gladio will be well under that....

Oh, those aging and creaking 23 year olds!
 
In FFXV's case, they don't look as much overdesigned as looking like a boyband who's ready to rock a concert than fighting the forces of evil and go on a rough adventure.
What, exactly, are they supposed to wear? They are youngsters in a modern world where no one wears any kind of protective gear. They also find themselves to be on the run from enemy forces out of the blue and I doubt the world has dozens of shops everywhere where they could just walk in and buy all kinds of protective wear. Wearing some armor would just stick out and draw attention to themselves. And as I have pointed out before, armor really wouldn't be any good anyway, since they already have Noctis' magic protecting them. Armor would just slow them down, wouldn't really be of any protection against bullets or magic anyway and they would severely affect Noctis' mobility negatively. Also, this is fantasy where huge fire balls don't cause severe burns. I think what people wear when constantly suffering from such attacks is pretty unimportant, nothing could protect them against such things anyway, so might as well wear clothes that hinder your movement as little as possible.

The only design I don't personally like is Gladio's (out of the main four & Cidney is the only bad one from side characters) and that's because I think leather vests & pants are pretty ugly & tacky no matter who wears them (IRL or in games), extra-so when you have nothing underneath the vest. But the rest fit the characters. Noctis is royalty who intentionally wants to dress casually because he's not too big on the whole being royalty thing. His offensive also relies heavily on agility, so casual, slightly looser clothes don't hinder his movements and support his fighting style. Prompto is a punk-ass bitch, so he wears some pretty typical rockster clothes. Maybe not as ragged as similar people IRL, but otherwise I don't see what's so horrible about him either. Ignis is the one with a bit of a stick up his butt because he's Noctis' official advisor, so he dresses more formally. The game's world just isn't the kind where people would wear any kind of armor or protective wear, much like no one except professionals wear such things IRL.


Personally, I just hope that if the game takes us to some places with windy -20*C weather (i.e. high up in the mountains or a wintery northern hemisphere), they put in a little bit of effort and have them put an extra layer of clothes. Or at least a jacket. Gladio would probably be too cold to move properly in about 20 minutes in that kind of weather, Noctis & Prompto would follow soon after. Ignis is the only one who might be able to be out in that kind of weather for a little while longer.

Anyone saying something like that about someone under 30 is nonsensical, but I'm sure Gladio will be well under that....

Oh, those aging and creaking 23 year olds!
You never joke about feeling old with your friends when maybe some bad posture has given you a bit of a stiff & sore back for a moment?
 
Noctis is 22 years old, so Gladio is 27 years old.

Is Noctis' age confirmed? 22 would make a lot of sense, though it's kind of funny that it'd make him the oldest FF protagonist with an official age.

Yeah, that would have made more sense if it was Cor. He looks like he's in his 40s.

I think it was just poorly-translated - it makes sense as a joke between friends who are fairly close in age; it'd be sort of incongruous with someone who's actually 20 years older than him.

Or at least a jacket. Gladio would probably be too cold to move properly in about 20 minutes in that kind of weather,

The next Luminous tech demo will showcase their groundbreaking real-time nipple-hardening technology.
 
That just means the employment contract lasts at least 12 months. It doesn't say there's no possibility of extension or that the actual duties may end before that.
 
Just from that block of text it says "initial" which could mean a contract-to-full time type of arrangement, also can't tell what the start date is.

I wouldn't read into it.
 
In FFXV's case, they don't look as much overdesigned as looking like a boyband who's ready to rock a concert than fighting the forces of evil and go on a rough adventure.

I'm not bashing your post, but I'm just using it as an example. I mean, we have people talking about how they want games designed specifically for the Japanese audience (what they said for bravely default). Now that ffxv is doing exactly that (since this is obviously what people love in Japan, and they are the primary audience), I find it contradicting that people are complaining about the designs of ffxv.

If you even look at the designs of 90% of anime/manga or jrpgs, I honestly would say that nomura tends to have more variety than most.
 
I'm not bashing your post, but I'm just using it as an example. I mean, we have people talking about how they want games designed specifically for the Japanese audience (what they said for bravely default). Now that ffxv is doing exactly that (since this is obviously what people love in Japan, and they are the primary audience), I find it contradicting that people are complaining about the designs of ffxv.

If you even look at the designs of 90% of anime/manga or jrpgs, I honestly would say that nomura tends to have more variety than most.

I'm convinced that people who think FF character designs are too effeminate, too anime, etc have just not at all looked at character designs in most anime and the lion's share of Japanese games.
 
I'm convinced that people who think FF character designs are too effeminate, too anime, etc have just not at all looked at character designs in most anime and the lion's share of Japanese games.
I'm guessing most of these people started playing JRPG games through FF, which there's nothing wrong with.

As for people saying that Noctis and co look out of place in the world (including duscae), that is very much so intentional. It's there to emphasize how big of a difference the crystal makes in terms of societal development. The other countries focus on weapons, Lucis focuses on urban development.
 
All of this pompous language that's used for Square Enix job openings makes all of the other companies' job openings blush.
 
So uh... 12 months from August? That's how it works?

Another clue about a August 2016 release date at the latest? We already got that GC nomination thing...

Well it ultimately depends on when they hire whoever they hire, but I'd also say the contract would probably extend a bit past the release date, whenever it is.

This does pretty squarely point out the time frame we're looking at though, Q3-Q4 2016. Basically what everyone has been expecting since GC.
 
A largely black & white motif for the main & supporting cast is a perfectly fine choice that has been done in other fiction before. Not sure why it's so horriburuuuu for FF.

Instantly made me think of The Matrix. Actually I can think of a couple of similarities between FF XV and The Matrix
 
I wander if FFXV's world even has non-human civilization to begin with. We know there are robot mutants in the enemies's troop, but that's about it so far. Gladio is older than the rest, but he actually looks fairly young still. Even Cor looks fit even though he's supposedly 42(?). The problem I have with it is that they all look so damn bishounen and visual kei-like and a lot of hair gel and highly fashioned appearance and outfit. I understand Japan likes pretty boys, but I'm getting tired of it.

It's probably Nomura's character design (and ROEN's costumes) that's wearing thin for me. I'm already past my teens. His overly stylized, flamboyant design work just doesn't cut it for me anymore. To further exemplifies my point:

This is what Nomura likes:

Batman_FF-720x495.jpg


This is what I like (now):

818.jpg
You implying that, that Batman's design isn't aimed at teens or that it's more mature than anything Nomura's? I understand that taste changes over time, but i don't think it has anything to do with being a teen or not in this case.
 
We know we still have a teenage mentality and taste when we argue which of two designs of a man who dresses up like a bat looks the best.
 
That Batman design isn't bad. It's bad for Batman maybe, but if it were just a random boss or something then no one would be complaining about it.
 
I wander if FFXV's world even has non-human civilization to begin with. We know there are robot mutants in the enemies's troop, but that's about it so far. Gladio is older than the rest, but he actually looks fairly young still. Even Cor looks fit even though he's supposedly 42(?). The problem I have with it is that they all look so damn bishounen and visual kei-like and a lot of hair gel and highly fashioned appearance and outfit. I understand Japan likes pretty boys, but I'm getting tired of it.

It's probably Nomura's character design (and ROEN's costumes) that's wearing thin for me. I'm already past my teens. His overly stylized, flamboyant design work just doesn't cut it for me anymore. To further exemplifies my point:

This is what Nomura likes:

Batman_FF-720x495.jpg


This is what I like (now):

818.jpg

What about Amano's Batman?

AmanoBatPoster.jpg
 
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