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Final Fantasy XV |OT2| For Jared!

Lynx_7

Member
The biggest problem with the sidequests is that a few of them do have some interesting potential, but it's never explored. Like, let's take Dave for example. He's making you look for all these lost dog tags, right? And then you go to the designated location, fight a few monsters (which I assume are the ones that killed the hunter) and then bail. And I guess that'd be an ok setup for the first 2 quests he gives you or something, but then he gives you another one... And another one... And they all follow the same lazy structure. To mix it up, they could've at least added a little more flavour to it. Hell, instead of only looking for dog tags, he could've given you one mission like "hey, we haven't heard about this hunter for some time, but we're a bit shortstaffed right now, so could you guys check on him? Here's his last known location". And then you go to the place and talk to a few npcs who'll give you a little bit of character and world building ("oh yes, that guy! He was here a few days ago. He heard about the problems our village/settlement are facing and offered to help us out..."), and then you could get to know the problems plaguing that specific place and the hunter's willingness to solve them, and you're told he went to the crater to see the mysterious cause of the problem. When you get there, you find him on his last legs and help him take out some daemon that was the cause behind the citizens problems. You know, structure those side-quests like little vignettes, with some kind of story arc and a few amusing characters and interactions, similar to what you'd find in a Dragon Quest game. It makes your world feel more lively. Doing these kinds of work for the hunter association sure would've been a lot more interesting than "hey, go find dog tag", but I guess the latter is much easier to mass design.

They also could've done a lot more with Vyv. Being part of the press his quests could've been a lot more investigative in nature. It's the perfect opportunity to make you discover things about the empire and the lore of the world for his articles (he does give you a liiiittle bit of lore, I guess, but not enough), and just general background info that the story doesn't give you.

I don't know man, the more I think about, the more I wish they had focused on doing fewer but more engaging side-quests rather than a shitload of mostly repetitive side-quests. At least for the characters that have a little more going for them. Freaking Phil from the bakery store could still give you a generic "go fetch me this ingredient" questline I suppose.
 

Vic_Viper

Member
Just finished the last chapter of Final Fantasy XV and all I have to say is WOW. That has to be one of the best endings to a game ever. After the disappointing ending to MGSV I was a little worried XV would have a similar problem but nope. Finished the game at level 62 with 42 hours of game time.

Now on to completing the Regalia Type F to check out the hidden Dungeon!
 

LordKasual

Banned
I can't disagree with the second part of what you say, but I disagree that there isn't anything you can put in a catalog that you can't just put in the actual game. I mean that works to an extent, but there are budgetary constraints to these things. And some info may not make terribly much sense to just give it. I think the Dragon Age and Mass Effect games were really excellent with this. I fucking loved getting all the lore in Dragon Age Origins, specifically. Could they have told all that in the game somehow? I guess, but that would mean paid voice actors and creating tons of scenarios for it when you're mostly talking about countries that might not even exist in that particular game.

I guess to sum up, we're probably mostly in agreement. A datalog shouldn't be needed content. It should be extra lore to enhance the game for those that really want it. The problem with FFXV is that a lot of needed content isn't there, so while a datalog is a step up in that having it is better than not, the ultimate step is to put everything needed into the fucking game.

Yeah, we agree. For me, it's kind of a meta aversion i have to datalogs because of how Square used it in FFXIII. XIII used this terrible design concept of "don't show, don't tell, just pretend like they already know" and then point you to the datalog when your eyes begin to glaze over. When people talk about FNC and Etro, i wonder where the hell all of their fascination comes from, because XIII did not even mention Etro ANYWHERE in the actual narrative. It's just some page in the datalog that was suddenly really important in the sequels when the story implodes on itself.

FFXV doesn't strike me as the type of game that would have done that, it's just a circumstantial thing that the story is a bit disorganized because of the history of the game's development. They tried to salvage it with Kingsglaive and Brotherhood, but it's obvious that FFXV's biggest issue was that they didn't just scrap the Versus XIII story and start over completely. They condensed, cropped and trimmed it, and put what they didn't have time to incorporate into the game into a movie.

By comparison, FF7's story was complicated, but it never required any supplemental material because they made sure to put everything you need to know into the actual narrative. There are sections in FF7 that force you to play flashbacks where you cannot die (or don't fight anything for an hour), just for the sake of making sure you know what's happening.


So yeah, I would have definitely used the Datalog if it was put in the game, and there's zero reason not to have one...I just don't like the idea of Square using the crutch. I don't want another FF Type-0 where the game opens with a wilted word salad of terms, locations, governments and concepts I have no fucking clue about.
 

Unreal

Member
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Dimmle

Member
Sooooo, the 48 page novella: worth the read? Kingsglaive was pretty bad and I didn't find it to be as critical to the game's plot as people are reporting. Brotherhood, on the other hand, at least captures the best element of the game, the dynamic between the party members.
 

Ishida

Banned
Sooooo, the 4 page novella: worth the read? Kingsglaive was pretty bad and I didn't find it to be as critical to the game's plot as people are reporting. Brotherhood, on the other hand, at least captures the best element of the game, the dynamic between the party members.

Yes, it's worth the read.
 

Lynx_7

Member
Here's the thing: I agree with your sentiment. I am inclined to accept the repetitiveness of it and, hell, even enjoy it, because when i think to the alternative, what we've been doing for years on end with jrpgs, and that is grinding for random battles on a map somewhere, I cringe. Here, at least said grind is framed around an objective and I feel there is enough variety in side quests to keep me going. This is why I personally feel this is the best Final Fantasy game because I could never fucking wrap my around running in circles on a map waiting for random battles to level up my characters.

You never had to go out of your way to grind in past FF games though. As long as you fought all the battles while progressing through the story the game would keep you appropriately leveled for its main campaign. Unless you mean the post-game stuff because yeah, that required loooots of grinding and I'm glad FF XV seems to avoid this problem.

Sooooo, the 4 page novella: worth the read? Kingsglaive was pretty bad and I didn't find it to be as critical to the game's plot as people are reporting. Brotherhood, on the other hand, at least captures the best element of the game, the dynamic between the party members.

Unpopular opinion: I liked Kingsglaive much better than Brotherhood. I actually thought the latter was kinda boring.
Don't know about the novella though.
 
D

Deleted member 752119

Unconfirmed Member
A little disappointed that the Pitioss dungeon so many raved about ended up being a
platforming puzzle
area. The controls are just not well suited for that. Gave up quickly trying to figure it out myself (props to any with that level of patience) and been going through with a 33 minute video and about half through that and took over 90 minutes already from
falling
so much.

Taking a break now to grab some lunch and a beer and grab some groceries before getting back to it. Last part before I took the break with the
giant skull and spikes platform puzzle
was awful with a lack of checkpoint requiring repeating a bunch of it over and over. Grrr.
 

Jennipeg

Member
Here's the thing: I agree with your sentiment. I am inclined to accept the repetitiveness of it and, hell, even enjoy it, because when i think to the alternative, what we've been doing for years on end with jrpgs, and that is grinding for random battles on a map somewhere, I cringe. Here, at least said grind is framed around an objective and I feel there is enough variety in side quests to keep me going. This is why I personally feel this is the best Final Fantasy game because I could never fucking wrap my around running in circles on a map waiting for random battles to level up my characters.

Yeah I get that, it is old fashioned. But speaking as someone utterly sick of open world games, I would take that in a heartbeat. From what I can see, we have traded one arguably overdone mechanic for another.

Cuteness overload. I have to find this.
 

RDreamer

Member
Yeah I get that, it is old fashioned. But speaking as someone utterly sick of open world games, I would take that in a heartbeat. From what I can see, we have traded one arguably overdone mechanic for another.

It's a false dilemma really. The alternative to brainless fetch quests isn't run in circles leveling up. That wasn't even an actual reality for the previous FF games, much less what we should expect as far as solutions nowadays. FFXIII already definitely didn't have that problem. I'm not saying FFXIII is the solution, but why are these presented as the only choices?

Running in circles was never an overdone mechanic. It wasn't really ever an actual mechanic. It was done by people looking to get overpowered and sidestep the natural gameplay difficulty curve. Fetch quests aren't done by people looking to get overpowered... i mean sometimes they are, but they're also done by people looking to explore the world. That's where the big difference lies.

The reality is that it wouldn't really take terribly much work to change the fetch quests into something that at least gives us some world building and feels more natural.
 

Jennipeg

Member
It's a false dilemma really. The alternative to brainless fetch quests isn't run in circles leveling up. That wasn't even an actual reality for the previous FF games, much less what we should expect as far as solutions nowadays. FFXIII already definitely didn't have that problem. I'm not saying FFXIII is the solution, but why are these presented as the only choices?

Running in circles was never an overdone mechanic. It wasn't really ever an actual mechanic. It was done by people looking to get overpowered and sidestep the natural gameplay difficulty curve. Fetch quests aren't done by people looking to get overpowered... i mean sometimes they are, but they're also done by people looking to explore the world. That's where the big difference lies.

The reality is that it wouldn't really take terribly much work to change the fetch quests into something that at least gives us some world building and feels more natural.

Your right about it being a false dilemma. I'm talking about someones perception of JRPG's compared to my perception of open world games these days. They are both on the extreme end of what these games actually are. I guess that's what happens when you get bored of a genre lol. I get around my issue by doing as few side quests as possible and going for the main story, although I do enjoy the hunts so I still get to level and earn cash.

I have to say the Bloody Baron quest from the Witcher 3 is God tier. Maybe that's why I'm finding other open worlds a bit tedious. Damn you Witcher you broke me.
 
Fishing has got to be the most anti-fun thing in the game. It feels like playing fighting game AI where as soon as you start reeling they turn around to fuck up your line. I can't believe how much praise I've seen for this mini game.
 

Gbraga

Member
Sooooo, the 48 page novella: worth the read? Kingsglaive was pretty bad and I didn't find it to be as critical to the game's plot as people are reporting. Brotherhood, on the other hand, at least captures the best element of the game, the dynamic between the party members.

Not really. It's typical fanservice crap. I only read it because people reacted with things like "this is what the opening should've been!!".

No, thanks, it really isn't.

An opening in Insomnia? Sure, I'd love it. That specific story? Hell no.
 
D

Deleted member 752119

Unconfirmed Member
Damn looks like I have a trophy glitched. I have the weaving a tapestry trophy for doing 80 side quests but for some reason do not have the spinning a yarn v for completing 40.
 

tariniel

Member
I just fought one of the most awesome bosses ever.
Highwind, I forgot her first name, a dragoon in one of the bases in I think chapter 6. This fight was so intense, it ended entirely in the air like some DBZ stuff where I just kept teleporting after her. I parried a hit, Noctis slammer her down towards the ground with a sliver of health left, and I locked on and teleported directly downward for the final blow.
I was stunned at how awesome that was and then immediately disappointed by my lack of foresight that I didn't record it :(

Right now I have
Iris with me. We can ride toward a city which I imagine would be the end of the chapter, but we also rode by an optional dungeon in a forest that she seemed to want to go with me on a Chocobo. But that quests level is 35 and I'm only 29-30. Should I bring her and try that dungeon anyway?

Fishing has got to be the most anti-fun thing in the game. It feels like playing fighting game AI where as soon as you start reeling they turn around to fuck up your line. I can't believe how much praise I've seen for this mini game.
My problem with it, is I really have no idea how to even hook the fish in the first place. Sometimes the red bar shoots up easy, other times the fish will lose interest no matter what I do for 10+ casts in a row. Really frustrating. When the fish will at least bite, I enjoy the minigame though.
 

Jennipeg

Member
Not really. It's typical fanservice crap. I only read it because people reacted with things like "this is what the opening should've been!!".

No, thanks, it really isn't.

An opening in Insomnia? Sure, I'd love it. That specific story? Hell no.

I haven't read the novella, so I don't know how this compares, but I imagined everything going to crap and the group having to escape the city. Noctis being rather reluctant to leave his father. They still wouldn't know what happened to Regis, and could find out about it in a newspaper.
 
Fishing has got to be the most anti-fun thing in the game. It feels like playing fighting game AI where as soon as you start reeling they turn around to fuck up your line. I can't believe how much praise I've seen for this mini game.
I've criticised it before, it's just not fun. The more rare fish are a boredom fest and they take forever to catch.
 

Ishida

Banned
Noctis slammer her down towards the ground with a sliver of health left, and I locked on and teleported directly downward for the final blow.
I was stunned at how awesome that was and then immediately disappointed by my lack of foresight that I didn't record it :(

PS4 is constantly recording the last 15 minutes of footage, bro. That's one of its best features. :)

I don't know if the Xbone does the same, I think it does.
 
Fishing has got to be the most anti-fun thing in the game. It feels like playing fighting game AI where as soon as you start reeling they turn around to fuck up your line. I can't believe how much praise I've seen for this mini game.
I hated it at the beginning, but it's actually funny when you reach level 8 with Noctis in fishing
because you can finally fish
 
I've criticised it before, it's just not fun. The more rare fish are a boredom fest and they take forever to catch.

Exactly. I get they wanted to make it a game of patience, but it just turns into me sitting there never knowing when exactly to reel.

I hated it at the beginning, but it's actually funny when you reach level 8 with Noctis in fishing
because you can finally fish

Almost there, but man has it been a chore. Wish you could at least listen to the MP3 player while fishing, seems like a weird oversight.
 

tariniel

Member
PS4 is constantly recording the last 15 minutes of footage, bro. That's one of its best features. :)

I don't know if the Xbone does the same, I think it does.

I thought so too, so after a minute I went and clicked "Save Video", and the video was 12 seconds long, only since the most recent load screen after finishing that area. Not sure what happened there.
 

Ishida

Banned
I thought so too, so after a minute I went and clicked "Save Video", and the video was 12 seconds long, only since the most recent load screen after finishing that area. Not sure what happened there.

Oooh dude, that fucking sucks. :/

Never had that issue, all my videos have always been 15 mins.

I hope the next patch adds some sort of Boss Rush mode. That would be the tits.
 

Zafir

Member
The biggest problem with the sidequests is that a few of them do have some interesting potential, but it's never explored. Like, let's take Dave for example. He's making you look for all these lost dog tags, right? And then you go to the designated location, fight a few monsters (which I assume are the ones that killed the hunter) and then bail. And I guess that'd be an ok setup for the first 2 quests he gives you or something, but then he gives you another one... And another one... And they all follow the same lazy structure. To mix it up, they could've at least added a little more flavour to it. Hell, instead of only looking for dog tags, he could've given you one mission like "hey, we haven't heard about this hunter for some time, but we're a bit shortstaffed right now, so could you guys check on him? Here's his last known location". And then you go to the place and talk to a few npcs who'll give you a little bit of character and world building ("oh yes, that guy! He was here a few days ago. He heard about the problems our village/settlement are facing and offered to help us out..."), and then you could get to know the problems plaguing that specific place and the hunter's willingness to solve them, and you're told he went to the crater to see the mysterious cause of the problem. When you get there, you find him on his last legs and help him take out some daemon that was the cause behind the citizens problems. You know, structure those side-quests like little vignettes, with some kind of story arc and a few amusing characters and interactions, similar to what you'd find in a Dragon Quest game. It makes your world feel more lively. Doing these kinds of work for the hunter association sure would've been a lot more interesting than "hey, go find dog tag", but I guess the latter is much easier to mass design.

They also could've done a lot more with Vyv. Being part of the press his quests could've been a lot more investigative in nature. It's the perfect opportunity to make you discover things about the empire and the lore of the world for his articles (he does give you a liiiittle bit of lore, I guess, but not enough), and just general background info that the story doesn't give you.

I don't know man, the more I think about, the more I wish they had focused on doing fewer but more engaging side-quests rather than a shitload of mostly repetitive side-quests. At least for the characters that have a little more going for them. Freaking Phil from the bakery store could still give you a generic "go fetch me this ingredient" questline I suppose.

Yeah, I totally agree.

What it felt like to me is they designed x amount of quests, which was the first quests all the ones NPCs give you. They all tend to give a good explanation of what they want you to do, and why, with maybe a bit of backstory.

Then they ran out of time to make more quests of that detail, so they used the same template as those x amount of quests to make x*y number of quests. The second quests given by the NPCs never had the amount of detail that the first did, especially apparent in the dialogue.
 

Gbraga

Member
Your right about it being a false dilemma. I'm talking about someones perception of JRPG's compared to my perception of open world games these days. They are both on the extreme end of what these games actually are. I guess that's what happens when you get bored of a genre lol. I get around my issue by doing as few side quests as possible and going for the main story, although I do enjoy the hunts so I still get to level and earn cash.

I have to say the Bloody Baron quest from the Witcher 3 is God tier. Maybe that's why I'm finding other open worlds a bit tedious. Damn you Witcher you broke me.

Bloody Baron is a main quest, though.

I do agree about being tired of open worlds. And unfortunately, Witcher 3 also suffered because of this, to me. It's a great game, but I find the separate hubs from Witcher 2 a far better approach. It's still my favorite in the series. :C

I haven't read the novella, so I don't know how this compares, but I imagined everything going to crap and the group having to escape the city. Noctis being rather reluctant to leave his father. They still wouldn't know what happened to Regis, and could find out about it in a newspaper.

That would be cool, yeah.

Even something much more relaxed. Just driving around in Insomnia, saying goodbye to important characters and shit. Just getting to see Insomnia before the fall. Include the lore exposition from the tutorial paintings as part of the opening as well. That would be nice.

The novella, though, is simply "REMEMBER THIS CHARACTER? WHAT ABOUT THIS CHARACTER FROM KINGSGLAIVE? HEY, DID YOU KNOW THIS CHARACTER FROM KINGSGLAIVE ACTUALLY TALKED TO IRIS ONCE UPON A TIME?"

It's garbage. Would be a complete waste of time.

Especially because, except from the awful Chapter 0, the game's opening isn't bad. My favorite opening thematically for this game was the TGS/Jump Festa 2014 opening. They start on their road trip, just like in the final game, but start to pick up on what's happening, while we get CGI scenes from what's going on and the invasion. No Kingsglaive, no expensive setpiece about escaping Insomnia, no Chapter 0, retain the carefree roadtrip feeling of Chapter 1.
 

AlexIIDX

Member
Still really early in the game, do I just l let the analogue stick go back to neutral if the fishing line tension is getting to high? Or do I stop reeling? Or both?
 
I had no idea how to fish until I realized that we throw the line and if there is a red bar above screen, it means that there is a chance the fish can catch it. If the line disappears, cast it again and it will reappear. We can also see the fish slowly moving to catch the bait. Sometimes the fish won't appear clearly in the water in that case we just have to watch the red bar.

I am still level 2 in fishing but now I hope to catch some more. I still suck at reeling in the fish though.
 
Quick question about Altissia:

I am at the point where I'm going to talk to some government lady (forgot name), and the game tells me I wont be coming back to the city. Does that mean you can never return to Altissia or just for a while?
 

Ishida

Banned
Quick question about Altissia:

I am at the point where I'm going to talk to some government lady (forgot name), and the game tells me I wont be coming back to the city. Does that mean you can never return to Altissia or just for a while?

You cannot return for a while. Don't worry, this game doesn't have points of no return.
 

Jennipeg

Member
Bloody Baron is a main quest, though.

I do agree about being tired of open worlds. And unfortunately, Witcher 3 also suffered because of this, to me. It's a great game, but I find the separate hubs from Witcher 2 a far better approach. It's still my favorite in the series. :C



That would be cool, yeah.

Even something much more relaxed. Just driving around in Insomnia, saying goodbye to important characters and shit. Just getting to see Insomnia before the fall. Include the lore exposition from the tutorial paintings as part of the opening as well. That would be nice.

The novella, though, is simply "REMEMBER THIS CHARACTER? WHAT ABOUT THIS CHARACTER FROM KINGSGLAIVE? HEY, DID YOU KNOW THIS CHARACTER FROM KINGSGLAIVE ACTUALLY TALKED TO IRIS ONCE UPON A TIME?"

It's garbage. Would be a complete waste of time.

Especially because, except from the awful Chapter 0, the game's opening isn't bad. My favorite opening thematically for this game was the TGS/Jump Festa 2014 opening. They start on their road trip, just like in the final game, but start to pick up on what's happening, while we get CGI scenes from what's going on and the invasion. No Kingsglaive, no expensive setpiece about escaping Insomnia, no Chapter 0, retain the carefree roadtrip feeling of Chapter 1.

Oh was it a main quest? No wonder it was good. I don't know why I thought it was optional. I did like the Witcher contracts, I mostly stuck to them as they did lead to some interesting scenes. They weren't necessary though, because you only seem to get good exp from the main quests. So it's actually an easy one to just run through, which is what I ended up doing. Those Dandelion quests killed me, rubbish.

Yeah that Novella sounds beyond underwhelming. I'll stick with what we have and pass on that.
 

Gbraga

Member
Exactly. I get they wanted to make it a game of patience, but it just turns into me sitting there never knowing when exactly to reel.

When the controller is not vibrating. Don't let it flash red or the durability goes down.

It's pretty fun, imo.

Oh was it a main quest? No wonder it was good. I don't know why I thought it was optional. I did like the Witcher contracts, I mostly stuck to them as they did lead to some interesting scenes. They weren't necessary though, because you only seem to get good exp from the main quests. So it's actually an easy one to just run through, which is what I ended up doing. Those Dandelion quests killed me, rubbish.

Yeah that Novella sounds beyond underwhelming. I'll stick with what we have and pass on that.

Most people talk about it as if it was optional. I have no idea why that happens, but it's very common.
 

DPtheGod

Member
Chapter 8 question.

I know I'm on my way to Altissia, and I know post chapter 9, the exploration comes to an end, basically. Post game, can u return to the past and explore everything in Altissia I don't explore while there?
 

Ferr986

Member
Nights while raining are awesome, truly dark, as they should be (I feel like regular nights got downgraded in comparison to Duscae demo and are not dark enough)

When the controller is not vibrating. Don't let it flash red or the durability goes down.

It's pretty fun, imo.
.

My (fisher)man!

Had a lot of fun leveling fishing to 10, although I still miss A LOT of fishes, and I think I fished everywhere....
 

Brokun

Member
I'm only on Chapter 6 so maybe this gets revealed later but I need to know about Ravus.

In the Kingsglaive movie
He died by combustion from attempting to wear the king's ring, yet he is very much alive in the game in scenes that take place after his gruesome death.

What do?
 
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