Would you say it's on rails?
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Final Fantasy XV |OT2| For Jared!
- Thread starter Kagari
- Start date
Would you say it's on rails?
I actually loved the train. It reminded me of FFVIII.
A thing I don't quite understand are the airships I'm doing. I am doing them when I wanna stay grounded, and sometimes I hit nothing when in the air.
What command do I do to airstep? In which direction do I move the stick?
Where is this hunt? Hammerhead diner?
A thing I don't quite understand are the airships I'm doing. I am doing them when I wanna stay grounded, and sometimes I hit nothing when in the air.
What command do I do to airstep? In which direction do I move the stick?
Where is this hunt? Hammerhead diner?
DarkLordMalik
Member
Wtf? How dare you like this early access mess?
DarkLordMalik
Member
I was lower level at that time. <60 level and they still wrecked me.
Aranea
I say: just play the game the way you enjoy it. I reached lv 57 and then started again to play the story (I was on the same chapter of you and doing all the quests and hunts available)... so now the main is super easy, but I don't care 'cause I'm enjoying it anyway, and if I want some challenge I just need to go unlock more hunts or quest for my level... also the post game looks like have a lot of hard dungeon to play.
Jimnymebob
Member
I say: just play the game the way you enjoy it. I reached lv 57 and then started again to play the story (I was on the same chapter of you and doing all the quests and hunts available)... so now the main is super easy, but I don't care 'cause I'm enjoying it anyway, and if I want some challenge I just need to go unlock more hunts or quest for my level... also the post game looks like have a lot of hard dungeon to play.
Ah right, thanks.
I'll probably slow down a little bit now in terms of doing optional things, and focus on the story for a while. I can't get to some of the sidequests yet due to them being in the area towards the Northwest of the map, which I can't access yet.
Near the volcano restaurant. The very far left of the map.
Just finished Pitioss dungeon after 6 ingame days...
Woah, truly a mixed bag between frustrating ass controls and to-good-to-be-on-a-FF platforming sections more akin to Zelda.
Specifically,
If they cut some of the bullshit and fix some checkpoints we are left with one of the best FF dungeons.
Woah, truly a mixed bag between frustrating ass controls and to-good-to-be-on-a-FF platforming sections more akin to Zelda.
Specifically,
the moving platforms with spikes everywhere and the giant moving grinding machine were really nice. It made a good use of your 3d orientation and the checkpoints were fair.
Then there is the whole "platforming in the dark" with checkpoints 10km away from were you died. Fuck whoever designed that.
Then there is the whole "platforming in the dark" with checkpoints 10km away from were you died. Fuck whoever designed that.
If they cut some of the bullshit and fix some checkpoints we are left with one of the best FF dungeons.
Supermanisdead
Member
The bug that doesn't allow Ignis to equip daggers anymore hit Prompto now and he can't equip guns. This is some fucking bullshit.
DarkLordMalik
Member
Quests. Exploring the World Map. Guides. Etc.
Sounds scary. How does it even happen?
They are talking about those locked doors in the base dungeons and can only be unlocked as part of a quest.
Supermanisdead
Member
Happened as soon as I bought a new set of daggers for Ignis. Just picked up a new gun from a dungeon and now Prompto is bugged too. Square Enix pls fix.
stargateheaven
Member
could you make a video on what exactly is happening?
it sounds like a real shittty bug.. not heard of anyone else having the problem so hopefully its rare.
LordOfLore
Banned
Finally turned in my 12 day(!) haul of EXP. Noctis went from 32 to 50 and everyone else is close behind him. Cid also called about the Engine Blade so now I can finally start grinding for the horn.
Wow. That sounds awful. Doesn't inspire confidence in the way of equipping new weapons. :/
DarkLordMalik
Member
Sounds really strange. I always upgraded my weapons from shops across the world map and never had such a bug.
KojiKnight
Member
Close the game completely and restart the system? What bugs I've gotten this had fixed. This game hates the resume function from what I've seen.
Supermanisdead
Member
Can't make a video, but here's some photos of how it looks.
http://imgur.com/ehwOh17
http://m.imgur.com/U0zIDV8
I didn't change Prompto weapon because if you do, you can't change it back to guns or unequip it. He's stuck with that low level gun forever.
Ignis will default to only using the spear in combat now, but it's still annoying. When he uses the mark technique, he does the same animation but with invisible daggers that don't actually hit anything.
Edit: turned off the game, reset the system, but the bug persists.
http://imgur.com/ehwOh17
http://m.imgur.com/U0zIDV8
I didn't change Prompto weapon because if you do, you can't change it back to guns or unequip it. He's stuck with that low level gun forever.
Ignis will default to only using the spear in combat now, but it's still annoying. When he uses the mark technique, he does the same animation but with invisible daggers that don't actually hit anything.
Edit: turned off the game, reset the system, but the bug persists.
Sgt. Kabukiman
Banned
So I'm playing the optional platforming dungeon right now and... I'm kinda loving it?
Sure, the controls are clearly not suited for platforming but I love the puzzle aspect of it and the loot is insane so far even though I won't need it since I have already beaten most of the game including the Adamantoise.
This dungeon clearly demonstrates what I love about this strange and awkward game. It doesn't really belong here or make any sense gameplay-wise but it's the most original and random thing I've seen in a AAA game in a long time.
Sure, the controls are clearly not suited for platforming but I love the puzzle aspect of it and the loot is insane so far even though I won't need it since I have already beaten most of the game including the Adamantoise.
This dungeon clearly demonstrates what I love about this strange and awkward game. It doesn't really belong here or make any sense gameplay-wise but it's the most original and random thing I've seen in a AAA game in a long time.
Oh, right, last night I also found another Cosmogony chapter, this time talking about
Do we know how many Cosmogony books are there in total? Does the guide mention it? I don't want the locations or anything, just to know when I've read them all.
the Messengers. So, even though gods and humans fought side by side long ago, they never fancied making direct contact with people, and for that reason, used their 24 messengers to covey their will to the Oracle. So I'm wondering, is that what Gentiana is? Tabata mentioned she's a special existance, she hasn't aged at all all these years and is always by the Oracle's side. So I'm assuming she's the one who serves as a bridge between Luna and the Astrals as they slumber.
I know some things about Gentiana from the spoilers that make me wonder how they'll fit together, but we'll see. I can kind of imagine, but at this point it's just baseless speculation.
I know some things about Gentiana from the spoilers that make me wonder how they'll fit together, but we'll see. I can kind of imagine, but at this point it's just baseless speculation.
Do we know how many Cosmogony books are there in total? Does the guide mention it? I don't want the locations or anything, just to know when I've read them all.
stargateheaven
Member
have you tried removing the weapon entirely with L3 (i think its L3) then closing the menu and opening again? hopefully that works.
edit: why couldnt you make a video btw?
I think it's certainly well designed for the most part. Besides the
pitch black part
I was pleasantly surprised by how it actually played fairly decently. The controls are far from suitable for it, but I wouldn't say they were down right awful. I've seen worse platforming in non-platformer games.
EdwardTivrusky
Member
I say: just play the game the way you enjoy it. I reached lv 57 and then started again to play the story (I was on the same chapter of you and doing all the quests and hunts available)... so now the main is super easy, but I don't care 'cause I'm enjoying it anyway, and if I want some challenge I just need to go unlock more hunts or quest for my level... also the post game looks like have a lot of hard dungeon to play.
I think i may have to take the same advice
I've been running around doing hunts and quests and trying to get a grip on the battle system, i found the Cactuar shortcut on day-one but held off until yesterday when i went back, fought some and stayed at the x2 hotel. I went from level 13 to 35 lol but my weapons are now a bit pony and i'm running out of 2 Star hunts to do so i think i'll start Chapter 2 today If there is an update imminent then i may just mess about some more until it hits, have any dates been suggested for the holiday one?
Vincent Grayson
Member
I think i may have to take the same advice
If there is an update imminent then i may just mess about some more until it hits, have any dates been suggested for the holiday one?
The only assumption I would make is that the holiday update/dlc will come before Christmas.
I wish there was more.
When I heard there was a train I thought that you would have some control over it and would be just a plot convinience so that they didn't have to create morr open world. Even if that is true, we never got more places to really visit through the train. Shame.
So. From the 28th onwards I stayed away from GAF completely, filtered my whole Twitter timeline, and haven't read any review until 2 days ago or so when I finished the game.
I was thinking of making a long-ass post, but then I realized that pretty much everything you could say about the game has already been said hundreds of times and perfectly well by many here and in reviews/podcasts like the ones from Easy Allies, Game Informer, Kotaku, VG247, USGamer & Co. I found most reviews really fair and they mirrored my thoughts almost exactly. I'll try to keep it short
:
[!!! DON'T READ ANY OF THE SPOILER TAGS IN THE FOLLOWING IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED THE GAME !!!]
Story & Presentation:
I rolled my eyes when folks in the early-copy thread said it would have PSP-level cutscenes, but man... they weren't wrong. Some of the worst editing I've seen in a modern game. Too many janky, automated cutscenes, that should be reserved for less important stuff like NPC/quest-giver dialog, in situations where I would've expected a dedicated scene. This is the one aspect of WRPGs you shouldn't take inspiration from, lol. With the exception of Witcher 3, of course, which was much more consistent even with most NPC dialog.
A lot of awkward scene transitions and abrupt changes of music where an emotional song plays for, like, 2 seconds, suddenly stops when it cuts away to another scene with silence for a few seconds, then the cutscene's over just like that with a big, tonally-unfitting "Mission complete" screen and a loading screen.
Most of the emotional moments fall completely flat and lack any weight because often there's no proper build-up and characterization.
Characters:
The main characters' relationship was undoubtedly the game's (only) narrative strength. Many of the smaller moments were really lovely. What surprised me the most was to see relatable, natural-sounding dialog and interactions in a FF game. The situations following
and the
scene felt sincerely touching, like, it was the first time SE came remotely close to something intimate that you would see in a Naughty Dog game. Of course they're still far away from it, but some moments showed potential. At least in the German dub I played with, which I never would've expected if you asked me back in March when they announced the dub. This is the first time in my life that I played a game in German when given the choice and I must say I'm positively surprised. I mean, Prompto is still annoying like in any dub - what can you do - but everyone else sounds much more nuanced most of the time. The English dub is absolutely terrible, except for maybe Noctis, and after 20 hours or so I decided to switch to German. I honestly think even some of the Tales of games I played were better directed (ironically Prompto's VA voiced the main protagonist in Tales of Zestiria and he was fine there). Tried the Japanese one, but I felt it was too distracting to read subs all the time in a dynamic game like this where you're constantly moving, jumping, driving and fighting chaotic battles etc., especially with the subs being so small (devs, please give us a text magnifying option like LR had in all RPGs).
Unfortunately there are some weak moments in the later chapters where I thought the script wasn't doing their relationships justice, like when they
You can clearly feel that a lot was cut to make the release date. And I can totally understand why. All the time I wondered how the fuck Tabata is supposed to salvage the Versus-trilogy mess, deliver an huge, ambitious open-world FF, while also creating their first own modern engine and turning the whole dev team structures on the head, all in just 3 years. Now we know how. It's a miracle they turned out something more than just servicable at all, so kudos to that.
Just from a script standpoint I think FFXV is actually one of the better and more believably written FFs. What do you guys think of it? I told y'all to give the new writer a chance to prove herself. It's not her fault the general plot and structure is the way it is. Her job was to flesh out the dialog inbetween the story beats and given what she had to work with and the constant rewrites and cuts I think she did fine. The relatable party dynamic is one of the unanimously well-received aspects of the game.
Found the main antagonist entertaining
. Side-characters are a joke. Was that really
Also small mechanics like Ignis's cooking and reviewing Prompto's daily photos, which sounded silly at first, turned out to add a nice personal flavor and both of those were worked into the plot during two moments in a subtle but effective way that I found surprisingly touching
.
Structure:
I actually like the idea of going from open-world to more narrative-focused, linear because it suits my gaming style where I only do side content in the first half and then get tired half-way through and just want to finish the main story. In FFXV I had been playing for more than 70 hours before I reached Chapter 8, so pretty much half of the game, and probably would've done more if there were any hunts and dungeons left. Will also do the post-game stuff when I have the time, which is really not typical for me and a sign of how much fun I've been having with the gameplay.
The thing about FFXV's structural change is just that the execution here wasn't as strong as it could've been and obviously rushed. I liked the
section. It was different. Would've loved it to be even longer and something like a chamber play
for a few hours, going from drama to horror to action. Also the
had an interesting atmosphere and it's a shame it wasn't fleshed-out more.
Also come on, the hate on Chapter 13 is typical GAF hyperbole like Witcher 3's combat being the absolute biggest pile of trash that ever graced the earth and all these other "common conceptions" that are just repeated so often until everyone believes it and propagates it even further without questioning it. I mean, is the chapter at least 30min too long? Yes. Is it one of the better parts of the game? No. I actually liked the break after 70 hours of open-world questing. To be fair, I was also over-powered at level 74 or so and could easily
World:
The open-world is beautiful. Loved the variety of mountains and rocky areas, forests, rivers, coasts etc. Had a blast exploring everything early-on and finding the secret dungeons without knowing about them. I like how exploration isn't spoiled by markers from the get-go, at least until you get the specific quests/hunts. I literally had one of the often joked about "You see that mountain back there? You can go there!" moments, and it felt so cool when I realized there actually was some kinda mini-dungeon with a big area that looked like a boss-battle would be taking place in, but it didn't when I first found the place and so I anticipated and wondered about it for a long time until I had to return to the place later in the game. Not even Zelda games gave me that feeling of discovery/wonder anymore in the last decade (fortunately BOTW seems to do things right again).
I only drove the car in the first 20 hours or so and after I covered every road and parking spot I only used fast-travel and Chocobos. I wasn't expecting to enjoy the automatic car rides, but I actually thought they were relaxing, especially with the radio music turned up (as I said before, set the radio music to twice the volume of the voices/sound-effects in the audio settings). Didn't care about driving being limited. This is not GTA. We have Chocobos for fast and free traversing.
You should've been able to take on multiple hunts from your phone or something like that. Maybe after talking to every hunt-giver at least once. I mean you already can collect your reward for any hunt at any other hunt-giver, so why not the same for starting hunts. Would reduce all these loading screens inbetween every hunt (start hunt, warp to car, choose destination, fast travel, wait a minute or so, walk to the hunt, warp back to car, fast travel to hunt-giver again, wait a minute, rinse and repeat).
Quest design is hot garbage. I won't lie though, I still did every quest because I couldn't stop ("This is the last one I'll do, I swear!"). Witcher 3 forever spoiled me. The problem is not having fetch-quests - every sidequest is one if you break it down - but how well its nature is masked by creative and engaging writing.
Great dungeons and I haven't yet done the optional post-game ones, especially the crazy one that was praised by Jason Schreier and many others here.
Combat:
I used Control Type B because it felt a lot more comfortable to me, though I wonder if it's not also much easier than the default Type A that probably most played with because I honestly could just hold L1 to dodge all the time while mashing Attack and I almost automatically activated many parries/counters - of course I had to stop attacking when the Guard prompt popped up, but the timing felt more lax to me than with Type A. Also switched L2 and L3 through the PS4 remapping feature, so Sprint is on L2 and the less-frequently used Summon on L3.
When I got into the combat's flow after a few hours I loved it. It has something addictive about it and I just couldn't stop doing hunts, lol. Keeps you on your toes and looks flashy. The camera and target system, especially when fighting large monsters, is trash. Camera too frantic. Hard-locks aren't hard enough and soft-locks are too soft, constantly causing targets to change accidentally between the different body parts of monsters and it's super annoying to concentrate on only one part if you also want to control the camera at the same time, which causes the target to change. This was easily the most frustrating aspect of the combat.
The party commands really helped making the combat more varied and I often used different combinations of skills. I wish there was a simple way of telling your whole group to regroup. Maybe as Noctis' own party command instead of Ignis' Regroup (so I can use his amazing Overwhelm skill instead) - I mean, technically there would be an empty skill slot on the bottom of the party command menu for this.
I barely used magic because of how inconvenient it was to use. It's used up so quickly and then you have to go into the menu and switch out the valuable empty weapon slot again every time. They should have used a seperate weapon wheel just for magic by holding L2 + D-pad because, let's be real, summons absolutely don't need their own button for the 5 times I used them in 90 hours - instead give them an entry in the item menu like Moogles/Chocobo. In the last chapters I had 12 full magic vials sitting there and never used any of them. Though, I was overpowered at level 77 anyway, lol.
When you're in the flow, dodging, warping in and out, sword-dancing in the air, breaking enemies, activating party skills at the right time, it's a joy, but it can also be super chaotic and finnicky to the point where I almost wasn't watching what happended on screen because I couldn't really see anything anyway and rather just observed the HP bars and waited for the guard/parry prompts. I can understand why some wouldn't find it fun in those moments. I'd love to see an improved version of this system someday. One of the reason I'd like something like a FFXV-2 is that the direct FF sequels always had the best battle-systems, iterating on and improving the base systems. Hopefully the DLCs will do this now.
Music:
remarkable. Best battle and boss themes in the series, whew. The dynamic music system in towns/outposts is really fun. BUT the default audio setting were almost unusable for me. You can't hear the music, especially the already rare and constantly interrupted field music, underneath the voice and sound effects, the sound-effects and music in battles are annoyingly loud compared to the rest, and radio volume too low. First thing I did was setting music and radio volume to 100 and voices and sound-effects to around 40-50. Best decision. I recommend others to tweak the settings too.
Conclusion:
So, ̶i̶̶n̶̶ ̶̶s̶̶h̶̶o̶̶r̶̶t̶ in summary, it's a good game, sometimes ranging between mediocre and great, with huge narrative flaws that hold it back from being amazing. What makes it such a shame is that the potential was there, but the nightmarish development history was clearly impossible to escape from and they probably would've needed a year more to make the current version more consistent and fleshed-out at least. You can see the seams left everywhere by tons of cuts and rewrites of the original material. Now all of this might sound more negative than I actually felt about it while playing. I had a blast with it and clocked in nearly 90 hours, which I only did for 2 other games in the last 10 years, Witcher 3 (most likely still my GOTY over FFXV and UC4) and Lightning Returns (yes). And by the way, in all of the 90 hours I played I encountered maybe 3 harmless bugs. Only had to reload once because a hunt wouldn't spawn. Never glitched out anywhere as Noctis. No crashs. Actually pretty impressive for a huge, dynamic game like this.
There's just a certain charm about FFXV for a AAA game and it was interesting to see many reviewers share this same sentiment. Almost everyone used the words "weird" and "strange" in a positive way like "weirdly engrossing", "strangely fascinating" etc. and I think it's a fresh breath of air amidst the Holiday blockbuster season. You could say FFXV is the Deadly Premonition of AAA games
. This new Forbes review nails it basically:
In the end it turned out exactly as I expected a few months ago: not a masterpiece, but a solid foundation for the future, if they learn from their mistakes with FFXV. Can't wait to see what direction FFXVI will be going. Just finally get rid of all this decade-old FNC/Versus baggage. But man... if the new, ridiculous "Versus XV" rumors are true that would be the most hilarious irony of life.
Probably no one read this whole post anyway, but I just had to get it off my chest
I was thinking of making a long-ass post, but then I realized that pretty much everything you could say about the game has already been said hundreds of times and perfectly well by many here and in reviews/podcasts like the ones from Easy Allies, Game Informer, Kotaku, VG247, USGamer & Co. I found most reviews really fair and they mirrored my thoughts almost exactly. I'll try to keep it short
who am i kidding, it won't be
[!!! DON'T READ ANY OF THE SPOILER TAGS IN THE FOLLOWING IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED THE GAME !!!]
Story & Presentation:
I rolled my eyes when folks in the early-copy thread said it would have PSP-level cutscenes, but man... they weren't wrong. Some of the worst editing I've seen in a modern game. Too many janky, automated cutscenes, that should be reserved for less important stuff like NPC/quest-giver dialog, in situations where I would've expected a dedicated scene. This is the one aspect of WRPGs you shouldn't take inspiration from, lol. With the exception of Witcher 3, of course, which was much more consistent even with most NPC dialog.
A lot of awkward scene transitions and abrupt changes of music where an emotional song plays for, like, 2 seconds, suddenly stops when it cuts away to another scene with silence for a few seconds, then the cutscene's over just like that with a big, tonally-unfitting "Mission complete" screen and a loading screen.
Most of the emotional moments fall completely flat and lack any weight because often there's no proper build-up and characterization.
You know what I actually felt sad about instead of Luna's death at the end of Chapter 9 in Altissia? Ignis going blind. That really hit me somehow, even though we speculated about it a few months ago after the TGS trailer. And WTF@the anti-climatic Prompto reveal in Chapter 13. And according to the strategy guide (here) apparently he's the son of Verstael, Niflheim's head of research who could be seen in old trailers and one cutscene in the game? LOL. I still don't get it, but let's discuss that in the spoiler thread. Feels like it was supposed to be a much bigger reveal in the original script, but other scenes were cut and then what was left in didn't make sense anymore. Seems to be a consistent theme for many story beats in the game.
Characters:
The main characters' relationship was undoubtedly the game's (only) narrative strength. Many of the smaller moments were really lovely. What surprised me the most was to see relatable, natural-sounding dialog and interactions in a FF game. The situations following
Ignis going blind, especially in the train,
mid-credits
Unfortunately there are some weak moments in the later chapters where I thought the script wasn't doing their relationships justice, like when they
reunite after not seeing each other for 10 years and they're just like "Hey dude, wassup.". Anti-climatic af. This is where I could actually see the 4chan rumors being true (or maybe I just want them to be), which said there was supposed to be more in the World of Ruin, like Noctis looking for his bros seperately and visiting Dark Lestallum etc.
Just from a script standpoint I think FFXV is actually one of the better and more believably written FFs. What do you guys think of it? I told y'all to give the new writer a chance to prove herself. It's not her fault the general plot and structure is the way it is. Her job was to flesh out the dialog inbetween the story beats and given what she had to work with and the constant rewrites and cuts I think she did fine. The relatable party dynamic is one of the unanimously well-received aspects of the game.
Found the main antagonist entertaining
, though I still don't quite understand his origin and background story. Will have to read the spoiler thread
Iedolas who looked like the other generic daemon monsters in Chapter 13 and we killed just like that without any build-up? LOL.
Also small mechanics like Ignis's cooking and reviewing Prompto's daily photos, which sounded silly at first, turned out to add a nice personal flavor and both of those were worked into the plot during two moments in a subtle but effective way that I found surprisingly touching
(the cast only having canned food after Ignis turned blind and couldn't cook anymore, and choosing your favorite photo right before the finale)
Structure:
I actually like the idea of going from open-world to more narrative-focused, linear because it suits my gaming style where I only do side content in the first half and then get tired half-way through and just want to finish the main story. In FFXV I had been playing for more than 70 hours before I reached Chapter 8, so pretty much half of the game, and probably would've done more if there were any hunts and dungeons left. Will also do the post-game stuff when I have the time, which is really not typical for me and a sign of how much fun I've been having with the gameplay.
The thing about FFXV's structural change is just that the execution here wasn't as strong as it could've been and obviously rushed. I liked the
train
in the train
World of Ruin
Also come on, the hate on Chapter 13 is typical GAF hyperbole like Witcher 3's combat being the absolute biggest pile of trash that ever graced the earth and all these other "common conceptions" that are just repeated so often until everyone believes it and propagates it even further without questioning it. I mean, is the chapter at least 30min too long? Yes. Is it one of the better parts of the game? No. I actually liked the break after 70 hours of open-world questing. To be fair, I was also over-powered at level 74 or so and could easily
kill most of the enemies with that timed "dodge-attack". I saw that some who had issues with the section didn't even know you could use R1+Circle for Ultima or timed dodges to do damage instead of trying to use Death, which is super slow and uneffective, which is why they said they'll increase its power for the next patch.
World:
The open-world is beautiful. Loved the variety of mountains and rocky areas, forests, rivers, coasts etc. Had a blast exploring everything early-on and finding the secret dungeons without knowing about them. I like how exploration isn't spoiled by markers from the get-go, at least until you get the specific quests/hunts. I literally had one of the often joked about "You see that mountain back there? You can go there!" moments, and it felt so cool when I realized there actually was some kinda mini-dungeon with a big area that looked like a boss-battle would be taking place in, but it didn't when I first found the place and so I anticipated and wondered about it for a long time until I had to return to the place later in the game. Not even Zelda games gave me that feeling of discovery/wonder anymore in the last decade (fortunately BOTW seems to do things right again).
I only drove the car in the first 20 hours or so and after I covered every road and parking spot I only used fast-travel and Chocobos. I wasn't expecting to enjoy the automatic car rides, but I actually thought they were relaxing, especially with the radio music turned up (as I said before, set the radio music to twice the volume of the voices/sound-effects in the audio settings). Didn't care about driving being limited. This is not GTA. We have Chocobos for fast and free traversing.
You should've been able to take on multiple hunts from your phone or something like that. Maybe after talking to every hunt-giver at least once. I mean you already can collect your reward for any hunt at any other hunt-giver, so why not the same for starting hunts. Would reduce all these loading screens inbetween every hunt (start hunt, warp to car, choose destination, fast travel, wait a minute or so, walk to the hunt, warp back to car, fast travel to hunt-giver again, wait a minute, rinse and repeat).
Quest design is hot garbage. I won't lie though, I still did every quest because I couldn't stop ("This is the last one I'll do, I swear!"). Witcher 3 forever spoiled me. The problem is not having fetch-quests - every sidequest is one if you break it down - but how well its nature is masked by creative and engaging writing.
Great dungeons and I haven't yet done the optional post-game ones, especially the crazy one that was praised by Jason Schreier and many others here.
Combat:
I used Control Type B because it felt a lot more comfortable to me, though I wonder if it's not also much easier than the default Type A that probably most played with because I honestly could just hold L1 to dodge all the time while mashing Attack and I almost automatically activated many parries/counters - of course I had to stop attacking when the Guard prompt popped up, but the timing felt more lax to me than with Type A. Also switched L2 and L3 through the PS4 remapping feature, so Sprint is on L2 and the less-frequently used Summon on L3.
When I got into the combat's flow after a few hours I loved it. It has something addictive about it and I just couldn't stop doing hunts, lol. Keeps you on your toes and looks flashy. The camera and target system, especially when fighting large monsters, is trash. Camera too frantic. Hard-locks aren't hard enough and soft-locks are too soft, constantly causing targets to change accidentally between the different body parts of monsters and it's super annoying to concentrate on only one part if you also want to control the camera at the same time, which causes the target to change. This was easily the most frustrating aspect of the combat.
The party commands really helped making the combat more varied and I often used different combinations of skills. I wish there was a simple way of telling your whole group to regroup. Maybe as Noctis' own party command instead of Ignis' Regroup (so I can use his amazing Overwhelm skill instead) - I mean, technically there would be an empty skill slot on the bottom of the party command menu for this.
I barely used magic because of how inconvenient it was to use. It's used up so quickly and then you have to go into the menu and switch out the valuable empty weapon slot again every time. They should have used a seperate weapon wheel just for magic by holding L2 + D-pad because, let's be real, summons absolutely don't need their own button for the 5 times I used them in 90 hours - instead give them an entry in the item menu like Moogles/Chocobo. In the last chapters I had 12 full magic vials sitting there and never used any of them. Though, I was overpowered at level 77 anyway, lol.
When you're in the flow, dodging, warping in and out, sword-dancing in the air, breaking enemies, activating party skills at the right time, it's a joy, but it can also be super chaotic and finnicky to the point where I almost wasn't watching what happended on screen because I couldn't really see anything anyway and rather just observed the HP bars and waited for the guard/parry prompts. I can understand why some wouldn't find it fun in those moments. I'd love to see an improved version of this system someday. One of the reason I'd like something like a FFXV-2 is that the direct FF sequels always had the best battle-systems, iterating on and improving the base systems. Hopefully the DLCs will do this now.
Music:
Un
Conclusion:
So, ̶i̶̶n̶̶ ̶̶s̶̶h̶̶o̶̶r̶̶t̶ in summary, it's a good game, sometimes ranging between mediocre and great, with huge narrative flaws that hold it back from being amazing. What makes it such a shame is that the potential was there, but the nightmarish development history was clearly impossible to escape from and they probably would've needed a year more to make the current version more consistent and fleshed-out at least. You can see the seams left everywhere by tons of cuts and rewrites of the original material. Now all of this might sound more negative than I actually felt about it while playing. I had a blast with it and clocked in nearly 90 hours, which I only did for 2 other games in the last 10 years, Witcher 3 (most likely still my GOTY over FFXV and UC4) and Lightning Returns (yes). And by the way, in all of the 90 hours I played I encountered maybe 3 harmless bugs. Only had to reload once because a hunt wouldn't spawn. Never glitched out anywhere as Noctis. No crashs. Actually pretty impressive for a huge, dynamic game like this.
There's just a certain charm about FFXV for a AAA game and it was interesting to see many reviewers share this same sentiment. Almost everyone used the words "weird" and "strange" in a positive way like "weirdly engrossing", "strangely fascinating" etc. and I think it's a fresh breath of air amidst the Holiday blockbuster season. You could say FFXV is the Deadly Premonition of AAA games
(okay, please don't challenge me on this analogy, I haven't thought about it more than a minute, but I think it could make sense, lol)
There are so, so many things I hate about Final Fantasy XV. Decisions that were made from pacing to structure to storytelling to mechanics that just seem mind-bogglingly bad in many ways. And yet, despite that, what the game gets right, its visuals, its combat, the bond it forges between its main heroes, that ultimately I sort of love the game. FFXV is heavily flawed, but there’s a certain, intangible magic that pulls it all together in a way that genuinely surprised me by the end.
In the end it turned out exactly as I expected a few months ago: not a masterpiece, but a solid foundation for the future, if they learn from their mistakes with FFXV. Can't wait to see what direction FFXVI will be going. Just finally get rid of all this decade-old FNC/Versus baggage. But man... if the new, ridiculous "Versus XV" rumors are true that would be the most hilarious irony of life.
Probably no one read this whole post anyway, but I just had to get it off my chest
CielTynave
Member
Finished chapter 10...
Yeah, can't say any of those events really had much impact, but the fight was a pretty cool spectacle.
Yeah, can't say any of those events really had much impact, but the fight was a pretty cool spectacle.
LordOfLore
Banned
What food improves item finding/rare drops?
BlazingDarkness
Member
Where is the horn, may I ask?
LordOfLore
Banned
It can be dropped by the larger unicorn-like beasts so I'll re-do a hunt with them until I get it to speed things up.
Yu Narukami
Member
What "Versus XV" rumor are you talking about?
Nope, I read the whole thing!
I was actually waiting for your take on the game and I have to say I share most if not even basically all of your thoughts. Awesome review, thanks!
I need some help understanding the game's structure, now that it feels like I'm closing in on the end:
I read that the last chapter is chapter
, and I am now at chapter
. I'm at the point where Noctis just
. So I'm asking about when this game ends, just so I don't push on with the story, and suddenly just run into the end of the game. I guess I'm kind of getting close to the point like Nothern Crater/Ultimetica's Castle/Lifa Tree. If it works like that, just let me know that there will be a definite "you are now entering the last part of the game, no return, no mercy". I just got scared that I already started that. Will everything be opened up in some way that will make sense, given the earlier spoiler-tag?
Also, is progressing the story from here also related to
I read that the last chapter is chapter
15
13
regained his weapons, and I regained the power to use Umbra again. Following the ability to once again use Umbra, I felt I might be getting close to the end, and I feel like the whole game's a bit disjointed at this point. It feels like there's something going on in chapter 15 that kind of warrants a revisit of some stuff, but I have no idea
Also, is progressing the story from here also related to
the doors in the dungeons that requires a key?
I mean, it's obviously bullshit, but it would be hilarious if true
https://twitter.com/MoogleKupoCake/status/804804373012422656
Check out the recent FFXV behind-the-scenes and Versus original plot rumor/leak thread:
[Don't click if you haven't finished FFXV yet]
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1323493
With the Sony Gold headsets, I just set it to Surround and kept the rest of the settings on default and it's pretty good, imo. Everything has a decent volume, aside from the occasional super loud music.
And to be honest, I think I disagree with this idea that a game with many flaws can't be a masterpiece, but only serve as a stepping stone to it.
I've been thinking about Nier a bit recently, for a few reasons (FFXV being the biggest), and even though I'll concede most of the criticism people give it, and the flaws attributed to the game, I still consider it a masterpiece, without a doubt. A flawed gem, but a gem nonetheless. Nier is absolutely a 10/10 game, to me.
Not to say that FFXV is one as well, only time will tell (and I don't think it will, to be honest), but I get the impression that people who really like this game are holding their opinions a little bit, not singing as much praise as they want to, just to point the issues and seem more level headed. To hell with that. If you love it, you love it.
It probably helps that we don't have nearly as many people mocking Nier's issues in threads made for it, and they're nothing but (deserved) praise for one of the best games I've ever played. Some of the most discussed elements of that game's world and story are knowledge we got from a companion book that was never officially translated to english, how's that for "improtant events happening offscreen"?
It's also similar to Nier, even though arguably not as good, in that I don't really feel compelled to keep going through a checklist of things it does wrong when I'm talking about it. I acknowledge the issues, I wish they weren't there, but they don't really become a hindrance to my enjoyment. While I'm playing, I'm not constanly thinking what could've been, I'm enjoying what is. When I get some optional cutscene, camping miniquest, cosmogony book, optional NPC dialogue or new radio show, I'm not suffering because stuff like this should be mandatory, and feeling bad for people who missed it, I'm just thoroughly enjoying this content and thinking it's nice that they reward exploration and paying attention.
It should have more main quest cutscenes, absolutely, but I'm not desperately looking for things to yank out of the optional content and make mandatory instead. If they have nothing else to tell in the form of mandatory cutscenes, then don't tell anything else. The way the lore and small moments with the characters are delivered is spot on, in my opinion. Wouldn't change anything about it.
And I'm incredibly excited for more major events happening offscreen and reading about them in documents in Nier: Automata. Can't wait to buy the bullshit companion book that this time will probably be localized. That game will be something special, I'm feeling. Hopefully they stay true to their word that it's still a Nier game through and through, and not just an action game with Taro's writing. They showed some promising stuff, but we'll see. Gameplay is a fundamental part of the Nier experience, too, it's not all about the story.
And to be honest, I think I disagree with this idea that a game with many flaws can't be a masterpiece, but only serve as a stepping stone to it.
I've been thinking about Nier a bit recently, for a few reasons (FFXV being the biggest), and even though I'll concede most of the criticism people give it, and the flaws attributed to the game, I still consider it a masterpiece, without a doubt. A flawed gem, but a gem nonetheless. Nier is absolutely a 10/10 game, to me.
Not to say that FFXV is one as well, only time will tell (and I don't think it will, to be honest), but I get the impression that people who really like this game are holding their opinions a little bit, not singing as much praise as they want to, just to point the issues and seem more level headed. To hell with that. If you love it, you love it.
It probably helps that we don't have nearly as many people mocking Nier's issues in threads made for it, and they're nothing but (deserved) praise for one of the best games I've ever played. Some of the most discussed elements of that game's world and story are knowledge we got from a companion book that was never officially translated to english, how's that for "improtant events happening offscreen"?
It's also similar to Nier, even though arguably not as good, in that I don't really feel compelled to keep going through a checklist of things it does wrong when I'm talking about it. I acknowledge the issues, I wish they weren't there, but they don't really become a hindrance to my enjoyment. While I'm playing, I'm not constanly thinking what could've been, I'm enjoying what is. When I get some optional cutscene, camping miniquest, cosmogony book, optional NPC dialogue or new radio show, I'm not suffering because stuff like this should be mandatory, and feeling bad for people who missed it, I'm just thoroughly enjoying this content and thinking it's nice that they reward exploration and paying attention.
It should have more main quest cutscenes, absolutely, but I'm not desperately looking for things to yank out of the optional content and make mandatory instead. If they have nothing else to tell in the form of mandatory cutscenes, then don't tell anything else. The way the lore and small moments with the characters are delivered is spot on, in my opinion. Wouldn't change anything about it.
And I'm incredibly excited for more major events happening offscreen and reading about them in documents in Nier: Automata. Can't wait to buy the bullshit companion book that this time will probably be localized. That game will be something special, I'm feeling. Hopefully they stay true to their word that it's still a Nier game through and through, and not just an action game with Taro's writing. They showed some promising stuff, but we'll see. Gameplay is a fundamental part of the Nier experience, too, it's not all about the story.
Yu Narukami
Member
I think FFVI is Tabata's favourite FF.
Started this yesterday night, played nearly 3 hours and did almost nothing but run around hunting monsters near the initial parking lot, but i'm enjoying the vibe.
One thing though, the combat is still confusing me, even after doing the tutorial.
Things seem straight forward enough when fighting Gladio alone, but in the chaos of a real fight, it's all very confusing.
The dodging in particular, i have trouble understanding.
So it's not like a Souls game or a Bayonetta, where you ideally need to dodge at the last second, you have to press the dodge button and hold it, and Noctis dodges on its own? Same with the Parries? Yet sometimes i'm fighting, and i have L1 held down (my dodge button) and Noctis will get hit anyway, usually by some dog jumping in from off screen.
Most of the times i went into "Danger" it was because of this.
Also, the animations are very stylish, but goddamn if it doesn't feel like sometimes i get hit because Noctis takes 4 hours to perform an attack, because of it... maybe it's because i'm playing it like a straight up action game (again, Souls, Bayonetta, etc) whereas this game seems much more alien and different, when it comes to combat.
The warping is cool though, even though in this desert there isn't much you can warp to, yet.
One thing though, the combat is still confusing me, even after doing the tutorial.
Things seem straight forward enough when fighting Gladio alone, but in the chaos of a real fight, it's all very confusing.
The dodging in particular, i have trouble understanding.
So it's not like a Souls game or a Bayonetta, where you ideally need to dodge at the last second, you have to press the dodge button and hold it, and Noctis dodges on its own? Same with the Parries? Yet sometimes i'm fighting, and i have L1 held down (my dodge button) and Noctis will get hit anyway, usually by some dog jumping in from off screen.
Most of the times i went into "Danger" it was because of this.
Also, the animations are very stylish, but goddamn if it doesn't feel like sometimes i get hit because Noctis takes 4 hours to perform an attack, because of it... maybe it's because i'm playing it like a straight up action game (again, Souls, Bayonetta, etc) whereas this game seems much more alien and different, when it comes to combat.
The warping is cool though, even though in this desert there isn't much you can warp to, yet.
Vincent Grayson
Member
Nah. This is only the second instance of that term in the series.
So grayed out hunts you've already done can just be redone?
CielTynave
Member
Since I've already gone past chapter 10, if I use Umbra to
go back to the open world part of the game, will the day/night cycle have returned to what it was ealier on in the game or is that something I have to wait for post game for? I was getting of getting sick of the sun going down at 2PM and the daytime part only being like 4 in-game hours long...
Just started chapter 10. The scenes in Altissia were great, truly a spectacle. I loved the scene where Luna
gave the ring to Noctis
Luna
Also Gladio needs to get bitch slapped.
Unlock the Blink node in the Ascension Grid ASAP. If you time your dodges with it unlocked, you'll be able to cancel any attack animation into a dodge.
You can also dodge roll, by pressing L1 along with a direction, that gives you more control than just holding it and waiting for an opening. But yeah, Blink is the ideal form of dodging at almost any moment.
Airstep and Blink are the two abilities I'd recommend getting before anything else in this game, along with the ones that give you more AP for doing stuff you'll be doing anyway, like car drives, chocobo riding and camping.
uh, you can wear those sure.
EdwardTivrusky
Member
I had the combat down but then didn't play for a few days and i had to figure out how it worked again. I'm going to redo some of the tutorials later to freshen up.
I realised i wasn't letting go of attack button and dodge didn't seem to work, i now let go of attack, tap dodge to quickstep or hold to warpstep and press attack again and i'm getting better. I do try to tap dodge a lot when being mobbed and i need to learn to let go of the left stick more often to engage Wait Mode and plan my actions better as i find it difficult to keep an eye on all the beasties to see which is about to attack me.
Basically i need to: redo the tutorials, let go of attack sometimes, use warp more, start using magic
edit: also what gbraga said. Get some Ascendancy skills to help out although i haven't chosen Air-Step yet myself. Just warp-dodge and decoy.
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