It's honestly this type of mentality that lets them get away with this. A story driven franchise should not have things vital to the story left out for DLC or simply left up to assumption. It works for something like Dark Souls because that's how those games tell their stories, but not for something like Final Fantasy where they're very clearly telling a story, but decided to leave extremely important bits out.
Go on an online board complaining about it, hoping Square Enix takes notice and don't repeat the same kind of mistake?
As said, I got no problem with it so far. Why should I have a problem with it, if I feel like I got no problem with it? Should I change my mentality and opinion to fit your own, which apparently is the only right one?
Finished the main story. Played this game very different from many folks here (and definitely very differently from my friends). The side quests bored me to tears almost instantly so I stuck to the main story quests only for the most part. As a result, pretty under levelled. Relied heavily on magic and items to get me through, leading to some tense/frustrating battles, but yeah, no grinding. I beat the game at around level 38 for Noctis and somewhere in the mid-30s for the others.
Pros:
- Game looks spectacular in daytime scenes in 4K/HDR on the Pro Lite mode (as a con, it looks and runs considerably worse on the OG PS4 - glad I upgraded)
- Music is generally great. Dug it way more than XIII.
- The boys and their camaraderie were generally pretty solid. I found some of the relationship swings in the storyline from
Chapter 9 onward
to blow, but it was alright.
- Once you get the hang of it, combat is fast, furious and fun. A better version of Kingdom Hearts. Magic feels pretty great. Wish it was a more fully-developed system.
- Fanservice and adhering to some FF norms was really wonderful. The music in the car, the AMAZING feeling of riding chocobos around the world with your bros right into combat, things like Prompto humming a certain tune, etc.
- Creature design is pretty rad, particularly
the six summons
- I genuinely dug a few design choices, like Prompto's photos as a way to reminisce about your journey/day, and for this game's approach to summons,
truly making them gods that you had no real control over in terms of timing. They felt like incredible divine forces that could alter your destiny for a battle.
Cons:
- The car - sorry, I don't give a single shit about this ugly thing, despite it practically being hailed as your fifth party member from the start. It's slow and the drives are pretty tedious, and piled an extra couple hours onto my playtime.
- The world and the people living in it - it's bland and boring. The NPCs offer a boring history, and not much in the way of any intrigue.
Chapter 14 is a massive exception - why oh why couldn't we have some open world gameplay and story to explore in the World of Ruin??
- Banking experience and forcing people into the day/night cycle really sucked. Days are way too short.
- Unavoidable damage and reducing max HP in the middle of dungeons (to be rectified only with an elixir) fucking sucked. Nearly soured me on the game entirely in the early going.
- Combat against too many enemies in Active mode sucks - just way too much of a mess. It's practically impossible to reliable dodge a thing. The animation windows for attacking and dodging need to be more forgiving. I'd be holding the dodge button for what felt like a full second sometimes and it wouldn't register as a dodge and I'd get plowed.
- The plot - Jesus Christ, this was terrible. There's something resembling a good story somewhere under there, but man is this shit ever a fucking hot pile of garbage. A gaffer in the spoiler thread put together a meaty post with all the changes he'd make to the game - cut scenes put back in, scenes shifted around, new character developments, etc. - and THAT's a game I'd play. I'll try to find it and insert a link to it here.
- Wasted potential - the game is filled with scenes, characters, environments, moments, etc. That are begging to be expanded on, and many of which you just KNOW were supposed to be part of the game, but were probably cut. It's just brutal.
- THAT chapter.
- The load times are pretty long in general between saves/loads, chapters, etc. - is this typical of open world games? I don't play many.
- Relegating some victories to NPC actions was lame (
Ignis deciphering the end to the Marlboro fight
), and making some fights full on, spectacles instead of fun, challenging encounters was super lame (
hello Leviathan
)
- Puzzles - where were they? I miss engaging dungeons. Remember FFVI's Phoenix Cave, or FFVIII's final dungeon?
The more I'm reading in this thread about the experience to be had in the post-game and extra dungeons, the more I'm realizing it may really not be for me, and I used to be one to love and do all that shit in FFX and the earlier games. I'll probably do it all in XII Zodiac once it releases. But it's tough to care when there was so much about this game I didn't like. I'm not up for a couple of dungeon grinds that sound like unfairly stacked rooms filled with enemies and not much else.
This game was a fascinating experience since it's been so long in development - it was bound to be interesting to see how it all turned out, but the few highs were majorly bogged down by the many disappointing lows. This one's a 4/10 or so for me, and that's on a scale where I think 8/10 is Excellent, and 10/10 is almost unattainably perfect. I'm not using the web review scale where 7/10 is garbage, but where 7/10 is 'good'.
Thank you!!! I did a search and couldn't find it for some reason.
edit: ah, a spoiler thread, I'll have to check it out when I beat the game.
edit2: as a side question, is there a way to increase the 150 photo limit? Do I just start deleting? If so is there a way to mass delete? I already saved all my favorites to the PS4 sharing system.
Thanks a lot for answering, guys. I've just been so caught up in the hype and want to get in on it. Even though I haven't played a Final Fantasy in awhile, I'm open to giving this a try.
I go the slow and non-finesse route. Pick Ignis first since his HP's a lot lesser. Warp-striking him while popping elixirs is a good route. You WILL have to dodge more than you attack. I don't think I popped in more than 3 normal O hits. Everything was a parry or warp-strike. Once Iggy's out. Gladio is a straight up block+parry, wait, patient chip-away.
Hmm, the game seems to have glitched and won't let me ride Chocobos anymore I can't remember if the chocobo whistle was an actual inventory item but if it was it looks like it disappeared.
Go on an online board complaining about it, hoping Square Enix takes notice and don't repeat the same kind of mistake?
As said, I got no problem with it so far. Why should I have a problem with it, if I feel like I got no problem with it? Should I change my mentality and opinion to fit your own, which apparently is the only right one?
I'm going to express my dislike about it on said online forum, because that's what it's for. Odds are they don't look here, but they have already proven that they are listening to some of the problems people have with the game and are adding things to fix it.
I wish those things didn't need to be added and were just in the game from the start, but it's clear they through all the changes throughout the years and all the hands the story must have gone through that they just had to cobble together something in a short 3-ish year span.
But hey, if you want to act like an obnoxious asshole that's all you buddy.
Hmm, the game seems to have glitched and won't let me ride Chocobos anymore I can't remember if the chocobo whistle was an actual inventory item but if it was it looks like it disappeared.
I'm going to express my dislike about it on said online forum, because that's what it's for. Odds are they don't look here, but they have already proven that they are listening to some of the problems people have with the game and are adding things to fix it.
I wish those things didn't need to be added and were just in the game from the start, but it's clear they through all the changes throughout the years and all the hands the story must have gone through that they just had to cobble together something in a short 3-ish year span.
I choose to ignore your last comment. I just felt your reply to me in the first place was a little bit rude.
That said, I do agree that it would have been a better thing, if those story elements that they will apparently patch in, fix and add, would be there from the start, and yes there are plot holes, but I haven't seen any major ones yet. But they might show up later, what do I know, since I'm only at Chapter 10.
I understand where you are coming from, but I also feel like the criticism is generally a bit harsh. I for one, had no problem with the whole Jared case for one.
Hmm, the game seems to have glitched and won't let me ride Chocobos anymore I can't remember if the chocobo whistle was an actual inventory item but if it was it looks like it disappeared.
I choose to ignore your last comment. I just felt your reply to me in the first place was a little bit rude.
That said, I do agree that it would have been a better thing, if those story elements that they will apparently patch in, fix and add, would be there from the start, and yes there are plot holes, but I haven't seen any major ones yet. But they might show up later, what do I know, since I'm only at Chapter 10.
I understand where you are coming from, but I also feel like the criticism is generally a bit harsh. I for one, had no problem with the whole Jared case for one.
I know it's a bit of a meme at this point, but I honestly didn't know who Jared was until near the end of that scene because his name was only mentioned once.
Things like Jared and to a lesser extent
Luna
are the types of things I often see in many games and other media these days. A character will die and the game will tell you that you should feel sad about this moment, but we've had little to no time with said character to be emotionally invested in them, so moments like this will almost always fall flat.
As for plot holes, it's not so much that. It's more so that it's very clear that a lot of content is missing. If you actively look for the story, you can piece it together and make sense of it. if you do that, admittedly it's pretty cool. However, we should not HAVE to do that. If I recall, one of peoples biggest gripes about FF13 was that so much of the world was stuck in the Catalog where you had to go and read it, yet when this game does a similar thing but in a WORSE fashion it's somehow fine?
I know it's a bit of a meme at this point, but I honestly didn't know who Jared was until near the end of that scene because his name was only mentioned once.
Things like Jared and to a lesser extent
Luna
are the types of things I often see in many games and other media these days. A character will die and the game will tell you that you should feel sad about this moment, but we've had little to no time with said character to be emotionally invested in them, so moments like this will almost always fall flat.
About Luna, I actually just witnessed that scene and
I think her death came out of nowhere. And I'm not sure what to feel about it just yet, but I might end up not liking how they practically wasted this character, that was set up to be this big Oracle woman in both Kingsglaive and the whole lore, only for her to die in a fight against an Astral. It kind of felt anti-climatic yeah.
As for plot holes, it's not so much that. It's more so that it's very clear that a lot of content is missing. If you actively look for the story, you can piece it together and make sense of it. if you do that, admittedly it's pretty cool. However, we should not HAVE to do that. If I recall, one of peoples biggest gripes about FF13 was that so much of the world was stuck in the Catalog where you had to go and read it, yet when this game does a similar thing but in a WORSE fashion it's somehow fine?
I haven't played FFXIII myself, so I cannot say. But I like how the story has been presented in FFXV, and I love to actively piece it all together, but I do see your standpoint and how one should not be looking for it. But personally, I like it, but it might all come crashing down in the remaining chapters I haven't played through yet.
Man that Elemancy menu screen is still confusing to me...why cant I always recharge,how do I get to the menu on the left lol...not using much magic so far anyway because it hits your own guys but might come in handy...I have 3 flasks.
Man that Elemancy menu screen is still confusing to me...why cant I always recharge,how do I get to the menu on the left lol...not using much magic so far anyway because it hits your own guys but might come in handy...I have 3 flasks.
If you get the regroup tech for ignis you can use it to bring everyone to ignis, then throw a spell. Or after throwing the spell regroup and they'll get healed.
It does. The option to summon it is always blacked out though. I tried to solve it by resting at a campsite since the chocobo always appears with you in the morning, but when it did the mount prompt wouldn't show up. Definitely seems to be a bug.
Spent all day preparing for and starting the post game. Leveled up to 90, did the Randolph questline for the not-quite Ultimate but still decent Weapons*, then decided I was hot shit and took on Adamantoise.
The fight is kind of a mess, the camera is lol, and the boss fight (and most of the post game, really) boils down to critical point blank warp strikes, but there was something oddly satisfying about teleporting around and taking down a giant ass turtle, even if it took a half hour. My vacation from work ends today though, so I'll probably have to chip away at the sealed dungeons over the course of the week.
*Aside from the Zwill Crossblades, cause hooooly shit do they do damage. Kinda wish it's "more damage at full HP" ability was given to Ultima Blade instead, since that's traditionally how Ultima Weapon tends to function in the series. Can't argue with that ridiculous dps, though.
Finished the main story. Played this game very different from many folks here (and definitely very differently from my friends). The side quests bored me to tears almost instantly so I stuck to the main story quests only for the most part. As a result, pretty under levelled. Relied heavily on magic and items to get me through, leading to some tense/frustrating battles, but yeah, no grinding. I beat the game at around level 38 for Noctis and somewhere in the mid-30s for the others.
Pros:
- Game looks spectacular in daytime scenes in 4K/HDR on the Pro Lite mode (as a con, it looks and runs considerably worse on the OG PS4 - glad I upgraded)
- Music is generally great. Dug it way more than XIII.
- The boys and their camaraderie were generally pretty solid. I found some of the relationship swings in the storyline from
Chapter 9 onward
to blow, but it was alright.
- Once you get the hang of it, combat is fast, furious and fun. A better version of Kingdom Hearts. Magic feels pretty great. Wish it was a more fully-developed system.
- Fanservice and adhering to some FF norms was really wonderful. The music in the car, the AMAZING feeling of riding chocobos around the world with your bros right into combat, things like Prompto humming a certain tune, etc.
- Creature design is pretty rad, particularly
the six summons
- I genuinely dug a few design choices, like Prompto's photos as a way to reminisce about your journey/day, and for this game's approach to summons,
truly making them gods that you had no real control over in terms of timing. They felt like incredible divine forces that could alter your destiny for a battle.
Cons:
- The car - sorry, I don't give a single shit about this ugly thing, despite it practically being hailed as your fifth party member from the start. It's slow and the drives are pretty tedious, and piled an extra couple hours onto my playtime.
- The world and the people living in it - it's bland and boring. The NPCs offer a boring history, and not much in the way of any intrigue.
Chapter 14 is a massive exception - why oh why couldn't we have some open world gameplay and story to explore in the World of Ruin??
- Banking experience and forcing people into the day/night cycle really sucked. Days are way too short.
- Unavoidable damage and reducing max HP in the middle of dungeons (to be rectified only with an elixir) fucking sucked. Nearly soured me on the game entirely in the early going.
- Combat against too many enemies in Active mode sucks - just way too much of a mess. It's practically impossible to reliable dodge a thing. The animation windows for attacking and dodging need to be more forgiving. I'd be holding the dodge button for what felt like a full second sometimes and it wouldn't register as a dodge and I'd get plowed.
- The plot - Jesus Christ, this was terrible. There's something resembling a good story somewhere under there, but man is this shit ever a fucking hot pile of garbage. A gaffer in the spoiler thread put together a meaty post with all the changes he'd make to the game - cut scenes put back in, scenes shifted around, new character developments, etc. - and THAT's a game I'd play. I'll try to find it and insert a link to it here.
- Wasted potential - the game is filled with scenes, characters, environments, moments, etc. That are begging to be expanded on, and many of which you just KNOW were supposed to be part of the game, but were probably cut. It's just brutal.
- THAT chapter.
- The load times are pretty long in general between saves/loads, chapters, etc. - is this typical of open world games? I don't play many.
- Relegating some victories to NPC actions was lame (
Ignis deciphering the end to the Marlboro fight
), and making some fights full on, spectacles instead of fun, challenging encounters was super lame (
hello Leviathan
)
- Puzzles - where were they? I miss engaging dungeons. Remember FFVI's Phoenix Cave, or FFVIII's final dungeon?
The more I'm reading in this thread about the experience to be had in the post-game and extra dungeons, the more I'm realizing it may really not be for me, and I used to be one to love and do all that shit in FFX and the earlier games. I'll probably do it all in XII Zodiac once it releases. But it's tough to care when there was so much about this game I didn't like. I'm not up for a couple of dungeon grinds that sound like unfairly stacked rooms filled with enemies and not much else.
This game was a fascinating experience since it's been so long in development - it was bound to be interesting to see how it all turned out, but the few highs were majorly bogged down by the many disappointing lows. This one's a 4/10 or so for me, and that's on a scale where I think 8/10 is Excellent, and 10/10 is almost unattainably perfect. I'm not using the web review scale where 7/10 is garbage, but where 7/10 is 'good'.
Well...you certainly are the outlier here. Eos is one of SE's best worlds to date and basically rushing through the game meant you missed a lot of good sidequests, dungeons (with puzzles), hunts that are really intense, and just plain exploring that the series used to be so prominent in. Also, aside from the max HP going down in dungeons, the battle system in Active mode should not be as frustrating as you are describing. You did know you could create Healcast spells to recover your HP, no? It also sounds like you didn't use your allies' techniques to manage crowd control.
I was aggravated by some of the flaws and decided to push towards the end of the storyline. Now I just want to go back to explore and finesse the combat system.
Square could have had a masterpiece on their hands with a little more time and focus. Still, I think it's marvelous and if anything a fantastic technical achievement. I'd put with Gran Turismo 5 up there as a engineering masterpieces marred by baffling direction and design decisions.
This is kinda how I feel about this game. I'm only on Chapter 3 but the sudden overflow of side-missions that are rarely compelling or have a rewarding reward has made me think I will just truck to the end. It really is a good game so far but it's got a good bit of odd decisions or things that could have been better.
Also their recent comments about patches and DLC make me not want to play anymore if they are just going to add to it later. Because as it stands, the way they have a lot of systems in place make me think this will be a one off for me until/if it gets a PC release and I can cheat my way through the minor annoyances.
If you guys are doing post game: this is what it has to offer:
Finish up the dungeons, go to Hunter HQ and get the key to gain access to the vault doors. Those are raids.
Regalia Type-F by completing another base in Leide
Super high-level hunts
Best weapon quests from a man in Lestallum, you fight rather hard enemies.
Adamantoise (I hear its not fun)
Secret Potioss dungeon. No enemies, just spacial puzzles and platforming. Its the most thought out dungeon in the game, but can be frusterating. Be careful, getting there is hard (because landing the Regalia is hard lol)
- Try to level up a bit. I didn't start seriously doing post game activity til around 60+. There's various guides on places to Exp, Gil and AP farm.
- Get the Ultima Blade and Dominator weapons. They're not ultra powerful, but they'll definitely help you get your footing for the post game. You get Ultima Blade by completing the "A Better Engine Blade" sidequest chain. Dominator is found near some buildings not to too far from the first outpost in Duscae.
- Buy Elixirs, Hi Potions and Phoenix Downs. You'll probably need it.
- There's a man in Lestallum in an alley that appears in the post game. He'll send you on glorified hunts against certain high level monsters, forging you new weapons. They're very high leveled (The highest level monster is 120), but it's doable at low levels, too.
- After that, it's really up to you. You can start acquiring the rest of the Royal Arms, you can take on the sealed dungeons (You have to have beaten some of the other optional dungeons in the game, before getting access, though), you can get the Regalia type F (There's a post game dungeon that can only be accessed with it, I believe?), or even try your luck against Adamantoise.
Just wrapped up the main story.
...an 8/10 from me.
Story was a mess but it was to be expected.
Ill wrap up endgame shit someday but for now me and a friend wanna get into FFXIV as we hear its got a great story
I thought Ardyn's fight was awesome. Fast paced, deeply personal, amazing music. Fast, hits like a truck, and you have to stay on your toes. What's not to like?
Well...you certainly are the outlier here. Eos is one of SE's best worlds to date and basically rushing through the game meant you missed a lot of good sidequests, dungeons (with puzzles), hunts that are really intense, and just plain exploring that the series used to be so prominent in. Also, aside from the max HP going down in dungeons, the battle system in Active mode should not be as frustrating as you are describing. You did know you could create Healcast spells to recover your HP, no? It also sounds like you didn't use your allies' techniques to manage crowd control.
I did just about every side quest in the game and I agree with everything he said. The world is super boring. It's a pretty but empty world. There's nothing interesting to find, and 9/10 of the sidequest are pure fetch quest.
I thought Ardyn's fight was awesome. Fast paced, deeply personal, amazing music. Fast, hits like a truck, and you have to stay on your toes. What's not to like?
The first phase is great -- the permanent Armiger mode second phase is pretty dull and devoid of any challenge whatsoever, it's full on autopilot at that point and doesn't have the spectacle of the Leviathan fight. Plus I got glitched out of the map in the second phase while being flown around, that's probably a rare bug -- but still, dampened my excitement for the fight. Ending itself is fantastic though.
waaaay too early (party at level 38) in the game which made me waste quite a few resources to say the least. I've just beaten the Red Golem and all that's left to do is take the other square floor thing until I get to the boss. Problem is, I don't have enough items to take me through the next enemy waves and the boss himself, so I should probably retreat and replenish my stock, but I don't know if leaving the dungeon will erase my progress or not and I don't want it all to go to waste.
So basically, can I safely leave the dungeon, buy some more itens and come back to it without losing my progress?
I thought Ardyn's fight was awesome. Fast paced, deeply personal, amazing music. Fast, hits like a truck, and you have to stay on your toes. What's not to like?
Stay on your toes? You literally can't die in that mode if you hold the attack button. At least with Leviathan, the spectacle was nice. In this one you can barely even see
such gank.
