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Final Fantasy XV |OT| There and back again.

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SoulUnison

Banned
While XV is a far superior experience to actually play, I'm going to go ahead and just say it:

For all the complaining about the Datalog and "fal'Cie" and "l'Cie," XIII had a much, much more coherent and fleshed out story besides a couple of sudden swings in character motivation.
Characters never got introduced and then completely dropped without explanation, though a few did get unsatisfyingly fridged.
It also had hours of actual cutscenes, like, with actual direction and cinematic flair, and multiple beautiful CGIs.

XV has, like, 3 CG scenes, while just off the top of my head XIII had at least 5 or 6.
 

MechaX

Member
I just made it to Chapter 7, and... wow, yeah, the story is starting to come apart here little by little.

I wouldn't even had known who the fuck Jared was if I had not turned on subtitles. And the entire segment about how the Empire impounded your car instead of capturing you (and I will let slide how Cindy even figured out it was impounded at an Imperial Base) was just...dumb.

And besides Gladio's awkward as fuck way of flying solo, my absolute favorite part was how Ignis somehow not only dragged the base commander out of the base, but got him to the fucking Hunters somewhere, and they still managed to lose him! This shit happens all offscreen! And Ignis still makes it back to the party before they blow the Magitek reactor so he can tell everyone about it! Like, what?
 
Whenever someone sums up the spudity that the mid chapters are, I burst out laughing. Best thread. This game's narrative will provide memes for years to come.
 

spidye

Member
While XV is a far superior experience to actually play, I'm going to go ahead and just say it:

For all the complaining about the Datalog and "fal'Cie" and "l'Cie," XIII had a much, much more coherent and fleshed out story besides a couple of sudden swings in character motivation.
Characters never got introduced and then completely dropped without explanation, though a few did get unsatisfyingly fridged.
It also had hours of actual cutscenes, like, with actual direction and cinematic flair, and multiple beautiful CGIs.
Never would have thought that I read something positive about XIII's story.
I hated XIII's story and it looks like XV won't fare much better
 

SoulUnison

Banned
my absolute favorite part was how Ignis somehow not only dragged the base commander out of the base, but got him to the fucking Hunters somewhere, and they still managed to lose him! This shit happens all offscreen! And Ignis still makes it back to the party before they blow the Magitek reactor so he can tell everyone about it! Like, what?[/spoiler]

Why did Ignis even turn the guy over to "some Hunters?"
Were we even working with "the Hunters?" Did we have some sort of relationship with any of them besides maybe Sidequest Dave?
 

Hobbes211

Member
I mean I don't think you particularly need to wait until then unless you're that anal about efficiency.

I'm at level 63 on chapter 8 thanks to just doing side quests with the double exp of Galdin Quay.

If you want the main story to pose a bit of a challenge, you should just wait until post game to do most of the side quests. You get massively overlevelled by doing them as early as you possibly can (as proven by my level).

Ok, well I'll quest until I get bored then. I was using the motel/hotel as a catchup mechanic and it wasn't something I wanted to abuse and end up level 70 before I was done chapter 3.

Also this game desperately needs a bestiary like FFXII had. Having hunts without one seems almost pointless, though some of the hunts have been interesting, like the Griffon.
 
While XV is a far superior experience to actually play, I'm going to go ahead and just say it:

For all the complaining about the Datalog and "fal'Cie" and "l'Cie," XIII had a much, much more coherent and fleshed out story besides a couple of sudden swings in character motivation.
Characters never got introduced and then completely dropped without explanation, though a few did get unsatisfyingly fridged.
It also had hours of actual cutscenes, like, with actual direction and cinematic flair, and multiple beautiful CGIs.

XV has, like, 3 CG scenes, while just off the top of my head XIII had at least 5 or 6.

Yeah agree.

XIII had some nice eye candy irrespective of whether stuff made sense or not.
 
I got my first game over :(

Chapter 7 I think. That fight at the end of the dungeon. Heck I'm struggling just to make it there without using my Hi potions (no more potion and no Gil to buy) and only 1 Phoenix down.
PROMPTO pretty much knocks out at the start, and ignis barely helps with regroup.

Then again I've only tried once. I'll see how I do today without going Rambo and fighting more defensive.

We miss you Gladiolus...
 

Arkeband

Banned
Why did Ignis even turn the guy over to "some Hunters?"
Were we even working with "the Hunters?" Did we have some sort of relationship with any of them besides maybe Sidequest Dave?

He liked the cut of Dave's jib. The way he says "dowg tags" really resonated with me, personally.
 

Ydelnae

Member
Where can you get better reels for fishing? I still have the first one and the fishes have a field day with me anytime I catch something interesting
 

Gbraga

Member
Why did Ignis even turn the guy over to "some Hunters?"
Were we even working with "the Hunters?" Did we have some sort of relationship with any of them besides maybe Sidequest Dave?

Dave is their leader, and Cor seems to call the shots above him, even. Cor sends us to meet Monica at their HQ to prepare to invade that base Niflheim's building under Loqi's watch.

They're also pretty much in charge of keeping the people of Lucis beyond the wall safe. Now that's no longer that relevant, with Insomnia falling, but from escorting people to protect them from daemons when they need to do something at night to organizing those safe camps to protect people
which the Oracle used to tend to, but with Sylva's death and now Luna's presumed death, Dave is taking care of them instead.

I have no idea what you're talking about, though, still didn't reach that part, but I'm assuming it's the same hunters, since you mentioned Dave...

He liked the cut of Dave's jib. The way he says "dowg tags" really resonated with me, personally.

Well, Dave is a charming guy. Can't blame Ignis.
 

Everdred

Member
I got my first game over :(

Chapter 7 I think. That fight at the end of the dungeon. Heck I'm struggling just to make it there without using my Hi potions (no more potion and no Gil to buy) and only 1 Phoenix down.
PROMPTO pretty much knocks out at the start, and ignis barely helps with regroup.

Then again I've only tried once. I'll see how I do today without going Rambo and fighting more defensive.

We miss you Gladiolus...

I just beat it, what level are you?

Level 34 here...
 

SoulUnison

Banned
Dave is their leader, and Cor seems to call the shots above him, even.
I have no idea what you're talking about, though, still didn't reach that part, but I'm assuming it's the same hunters, since you mentioned Dave...

Who knows what "Hunter" it is, it happens off-screen, and in the time it takes Ignis to run maybe across a football field and back.
And I never got the impression that Dave was the Hunter leader...
What was he doing cowering in a shack and passing the buck on his job first thing in the game, then?
 

Famassu

Member
If we are purely talking about combat systems (what you can do during combat, what can be done to you), there's really no argument: FFXV's is better, or at least it doesn't so needlessly limit play freedom as Witcher 3's horrible character development system does, enemies are far more imaginative and it offers far more variety & depth than Witcher 3's combat system does.

Now combat as a whole? That's where you can argue either way based on your preferences & skill level/how much effort you're willing to put into learning the ins & outs of the system and not just settle to a level that gets you through the game. Personally, FFXV's highs are far higher than Witcher 3's, especially if you learn to play if skillfully and not just "I got through it" well. While FFXV does occasionally dip into becoming chaotic mess (though I've noticed that with greater understanding of the combat system & after having unlocked some skills, you can become better at controlling that chaos), it is a bit harder to get a proper handle of and can have some camera problems (especially indoors), for me it offers the kind of excitement Witcher 3 rarely did even when fighting some basic mobs.

Witcher 3's combat is easier to read & control, but in result of its simplistic combat, it is a bit pedestrian in comparison. Most enemies don't really do anything exciting other than lunge at you and what you can do to them is fairly monotonous in the long run. It's a ballet of dodging/parrying & doing the same simple few hit combo when you see an opening (throw an occasional Star Wars spell in there and you're set). I just feel combat in FFXV maintains its excitement even if you're confronted the same enemy a dozen times since enemies are far less predictable and can hit you hard, at least if you're not overleveled, though even then I feel the spectacle & variety keeps it more fresh for a longer time than Witcher 3 manages to with its legions of drowners, bears and wolves/wild doggies.

Maybe you can argue that you can get through FFXV by just holding circle and performing warp-strikes every few seconds, but FFs have always been newbie friendly (so just "getting through them" has never been particularly challenging) and that's a bit like complaining about how you can get through Bayonetta with the square-triangle-square combo and a bit of dodging (not that FFXV's combat system is anywhere near as good as Bayonetta's). A bit pointless when the game does offer you a lot of tools to not play it in such a simple way and those tools actually make the game more fun to play & help you deal with enemies more efficiently. At least with FFXV you have the option to get better and use all the tools that are available, Witcher 3 doesn't really have that option. No matter how good a player you are and how differently you'd like to try to play the game, you'll be repeating a simple pattern ad infinitum.

Witcher 3 never gets as chaotic as FFXV at times does but by the 10th hour its combat system has shown pretty much everything it has to offer while I hadn't even touched half the weapons in FFXV by that point and there were constantly new enemy types I needed to learn to read & figure out new strategies for. Witcher 3's combat system is a bit more polished but it would be hard for it not to be since it's so simplistic in comparison. Personally I'd take the frantic excitement of FFXV over the methodical simplicity of Witcher 3 any day.
 

ZeroX03

Banned
Get the summon prompt. Start holding down L2. Enemy knocks me out of the battle zone, cancelling the entire summon opportunity.

It's crazy how restricted battles are to their particular zone. Makes running away easier I guess.
 

rataven

Member
So uh, I just started Chapter 3 (yeah, I'm poking along) and I met up with
Gladio's sister, Iris, and then an old guy and kid showed up (I think one of them was named Talbott?) but I don't think the game ever said who they were in relation to anybody else? I feel like I must have missed something.
 
So uh, I just started Chapter 3 (yeah, I'm poking along) and I met up with
Gladio's sister, Iris, and then an old guy and kid showed up (I think one of them was named Talbott?) but I don't think the game ever said who they were in relation to anybody else? I feel like I must have missed something.

Please report back in when you are done with chapter 5. I need to see that reaction.
 

carlsojo

Member
Run around to flank monster to blindside it, Noctis hits the wrong monster.

God damn it every time

Please report back in when you are done with chapter 5. I need to see that reaction.

I didn't
think they had a relation to anyone. They were just a couple of nice people that took in Iris.
 

Arkeband

Banned
So uh, I just started Chapter 3 (yeah, I'm poking along) and I met up with
Gladio's sister, Iris, and then an old guy and kid showed up (I think one of them was named Talbott?) but I don't think the game ever said who they were in relation to anybody else? I feel like I must have missed something.

Prepare for an entire game of this.
 

Gbraga

Member
Who knows what "Hunter" it is, it happens off-screen, and in the time it takes Ignis to run maybe across a football field and back.
And I never got the impression that Dave was the Hunter leader...
What was he doing cowering in a shack and passing the buck on his job first thing in the game, then?

I mean, that dualhorn was mutated, affected by the scourge with his red horns, increased aggression and power. Dave's a hunter, he doesn't have the power of the Lucis Caelum bloodline to summon swords and shit. They can keep people safe while doing chores, but actually fighting some things might be too much for them.

He may not be the leader, but given how he's the one giving interviews and talking about those camps, he's at least one of the higher ups. Maybe Monica is the actual leader, but Dave's up there, for sure.
 
I just beat it, what level are you?

Level 34 here...

Noct is barely lvl 31 and the other guys are 29 and 30.

I have 5 or 6 slots for magic storage. (Hardly use it since I make it too potent for my mates)

Lost my sword since I left it with CID before heading out to upgrade to lvl III


Also got my first lock up yesterday. Lost a full hours progress. So annoying. But I found something strange, I had fought a boss and was able to use a summon. When I fought him again after restarting from the lost progress, no summon.
Not sure what triggers it?
 
Frog quests - Done
Lestallum Quests - Done
Cindy Quests - Done
Wiz Quests - Done
Takka - Done

1 more Dino, 1, Vyv, 2 Dave, and 2 fishing and I'll be done with almost every sidequest! At least from the consistent quest givers. Then it's only to ch. 9 and beyond!
 

Zafir

Member
I just made it to Chapter 7, and... wow, yeah, the story is starting to come apart here little by little.

I wouldn't even had known who the fuck Jared was if I had not turned on subtitles. And the entire segment about how the Empire impounded your car instead of capturing you (and I will let slide how Cindy even figured out it was impounded at an Imperial Base) was just...dumb.

And besides Gladio's awkward as fuck way of flying solo, my absolute favorite part was how Ignis somehow not only dragged the base commander out of the base, but got him to the fucking Hunters somewhere, and they still managed to lose him! This shit happens all offscreen! And Ignis still makes it back to the party before they blow the Magitek reactor so he can tell everyone about it! Like, what?
(Chapter 4-7 spoilers)

Yeah,
I still didn't even know who Jared was when he died(I know now thanks to someone telling me). That's all I could think about in the scene after you find out hes dead. Everyone else is upset and distraught and I'm just utterly confused. Especially because you don't even see it happen. I'm pretty sure most other games would put in a little cut scene of this happening.
 
That feeling when you survive your first night without running away from a single battle....

giphy.gif
 

SoulUnison

Banned
I wish Prompto had more than 2(?) lines for using Piercer.
He doesn't even switch between them at random, seemingly.

For the first 30 hours of the game I only heard "Oh, hi there, opening!"
Then he suddenly switched to "All in bullet time, baby." for the next 30.
Now he's back to the original line.

There seems to be a rare line when using any Bro skill where Noct gets confused and calls out the wrong name and then the bros scramble to figure it out - that was pretty great, but in 62 hours it's happened exactly twice.

"Ignis! No, wait... Prompto!"
"Huh!? What- Who!?"
 

Gbraga

Member
Maybe you can argue that you can get through FFXV by just holding circle and performing warp-strikes every few seconds, but FFs have always been newbie friendly (so just "getting through them" has never been particularly challenging) and that's a bit like complaining about how you can get through Bayonetta with the square-triangle-square combo and a bit of dodging (not that FFXV's combat system is anywhere near as good as Bayonetta's). A bit pointless when the game does offer you a lot of tools to not play it in such a simple way and those tools actually make the game more fun to play & help you deal with enemies more efficiently.

Exactly.

When I see people saying the combat is bad and following it up with something like "there's some depth, but you don't have to use any of that", I always wonder what they think of the games with objectively the most depth of any combat system ever. Are they trash, too?

I remember my first playthrough of DMC4, and I'm preeeetty sure it was nothing like some of the amazing videos you can watch from people who truly mastered it. But I beat it just fine!

As you said, and I'll repeat, it's obviously not on the same level, but saying the combat system is bad because you don't have to do certain things is something that only seems to apply to this specific game.

Dave passes the buck on everything. Friggin wuss.

Someone has to protect the people when the actually strong ones are just murdering the wildlife for fun.
 
How awesome was it to see Biggs and Wedge in this. I knew it was only a matter of time.
Even the dialogue bringing them up when you continue after meeting them. Pretty cool.
 

carlsojo

Member
Finished all the hunts in Galdin Quay woohoo. Those fucking alligators had their way with Noct. One even fucking grabbed me and rolled around. That was a pretty cool animation.
 

HotHamBoy

Member
Exactly.

When I see people saying the combat is bad and following it up with something like "there's some depth, but you don't have to use any of that", I always wonder what they think of the games with objectively the most depth of any combat system ever. Are they trash, too?

I remember my first playthrough of DMC4, and I'm preeeetty sure it was nothing like some of the amazing videos you can watch from people who truly mastered it. But I beat it just fine!

As you said, and I'll repeat, it's obviously not on the same level, but saying the combat system is bad because you don't have to do certain things is something that only seems to apply to this specific game.

I dunno, man, I died a lot playing Bayonetta. Died once, early, playing FFXV.
 

Peroroncino

Member
Witcher 3 never gets as chaotic as FFXV at times does but by the 10th hour its combat system has shown pretty much everything it has to offer while I hadn't even touched half the weapons in FFXV by that point and there were constantly new enemy types I needed to learn to read & figure out new strategies for. Witcher 3's combat system is a bit more polished but it would be hard for it not to be since it's so simplistic in comparison. Personally I'd take the frantic excitement of FFXV over the methodical simplicity of Witcher 3 any day.

But FF XV doesn't offer any challenge at all, I platinumed the game and finished most challenging dungeons without ever curing myself of any negative status and without ever seeing game over screen with the exception when I
crashed while flying regalia
. And after doing one dungeon, you even get the accessory that auto-dodges for you making combat even easier.

As for monsters, after a while you pretty much saw every enemy type, 'giraffes', 'dogs', iron giants, snakes,
'dragons'
, most of high level enemis are just recolors of them, same movesets etc. I remember when I saw
Jormungand
for the first time, looked like some sort of
chinese dragon
, but moved like your typical snake, with the same attacks, they just exchanged poison for fire, I'm also not sure what new strategies you need for them except holding circle and activating bros skills. Whereas in Witcher you needed to study your opponent in bestiary and see what were their weaknesess, because sometimes hacking away at them just didn't quite cut it.

FFXV combat system is definitely more prettier to watch, but not necessarily more fun to play, in my opinion of course. I'd say both have their shortcomings and both, while fun, are not even close to being very good. Servicable/decent at best, but not complete shit as some would say.
 

cackhyena

Member
But FF XV doesn't offer any challenge at all, I platinumed the game and finished most challenging dungeons without ever curing myself of any negative status and without ever seeing game over screen with the exception when I
crashed while flying regalia
. And after doing one dungeon, you even get the accessory that auto-dodges for you making combat even easier.

As for monsters, after a while you pretty much saw every enemy type, 'giraffes', 'dogs', iron giants, snakes,
'dragons'
, most of high level enemis are just recolors of them, same movesets etc. I remember when I saw
Jormungand
for the first time, looked like some sort of
chinese dragon
, but moved like your typical snake, with the same attacks, they just exchanged poison for fire, I'm also not sure what new strategies you need for them except holding circle and activating bros skills. Whereas in Witcher you needed to study your opponent in bestiary and see what were their weaknesess, because sometimes hacking away at them just didn't quite cut it.

FFXV combat system is definitely more prettier to watch, but not necessarily more fun to play, in my opinion of course. I'd say both have their shortcomings and both, while fun, are not even close to being very good. Servicable/decent at best, but not complete shit as some would say.

Where is this magical dungeon with auto dodge reward?
 

Curufinwe

Member
I pre ordered the deluxe edition from Best Buy on the 28th, and it's not due to arrive till the 10th.

It's ridiculous but I'm still trying to finish up Dishonored 2, so i can't get too annoyed.
 

Peroroncino

Member
Where is this magical dungeon with auto dodge reward?

Can you please re-quote my post? I added some spoiler just in case someone didn't watch trailers.

As for the dungeon it's
post game exclusive, you need flying regalia to go there, it's called Pitioss Dungeon,
very different from anything else in the game.
 

Gbraga

Member
I dunno, man, I died a lot playing Bayonetta. Died once, early, playing FFXV.

I won't disagree that this game needs a Hard Mode. Hopefully they'll get to it soon-ish, since they're already adding NG+ and a way to limit leveling up, which should also serve as a poor man's hard mode, hopefully.

But FF XV doesn't offer any challenge at all, I platinumed the game and finished most challenging dungeons without ever curing myself of any negative status and without ever seeing game over screen with the exception when I
crashed while flying regalia
. And after doing one dungeon, you even get the accessory that auto-dodges for you making combat even easier.

As for monsters, after a while you pretty much saw every enemy type, 'giraffes', 'dogs', iron giants, snakes,
'dragons'
, most of high level enemis are just recolors of them, same movesets etc. I remember when I saw
Jormungand
for the first time, looked like some sort of
chinese dragon
, but moved like your typical snake, with the same attacks, they just exchanged poison for fire, I'm also not sure what new strategies you need for them except holding circle and activating bros skills. Whereas in Witcher you needed to study your opponent in bestiary and see what were their weaknesess, because sometimes hacking away at them just didn't quite cut it.

FFXV combat system is definitely more prettier to watch, but not necessarily more fun to play, in my opinion of course. I'd say both have their shortcomings and both, while fun, are not even close to being very good. Servicable/decent at best, but not complete shit as some would say.

Lmao, auto-dodge is bullshit. Does it even Blink, or at least it's just the regular MP-consuming dodge?

Completely disagree with the bit about The Witcher, though. At least if we're talking about Wild Hunt. If we're talking about Assassins of Kings, before we leave Flotsam, then yeah, agreed, but Wild Hunt is disappointingly easy on Death March, preparation loses all its meaning because of that. I actually think FFXV has a much stronger focus on preparation with the food buffs than vanilla Wild Hunt. Thank God for rebalance mods.
 

Carbonox

Member
50+ hours in, Chapter 7, level 55 and I'm STILL not bored of just driving around for 5 minutes at a time, staring at the scenery (only just got to the south-west coast hnnngh) and enjoying the soundtracks.

So many little shitty things about this game but as a whole it's just a bliss to play and experience.

Also seeing new enemies for the first time in hunts brings a smile to my face, especially big fuckers and that awesome music kicks in. Hnnngh.
 

cackhyena

Member
Can you please re-quote my post? I added some spoiler just in case someone didn't watch trailers.

As for the dungeon it's
post game exclusive, you need flying regalia to go there, it's called Pitioss Dungeon,
very different from anything else in the game.
Oh bummer. Yeah i'll requote.
 

X-Frame

Member
Hey everyone, quick question but are you all expecting another patch in the near future to address Pro performance with 1080p TVs?
 
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