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[Shahadan]

No offense but Ignis not knowing Ardyn's face is litterally the least important plot hole or problem or inconsistancy in the story, lol

 

[SolVanderlyn]

Literally the only one who recognizes Noctis as the prince is Vyv. And he was planning to sell him out to the empire until he started essentially doing his dirty work for him.

Noct should have been way more careful. But then again, he and his buddies mow down whatever imperial forces come after them anyway, and Gladio and Ignis talk about the pride of wearing Crownsguard fatigues sometimes, so maybe they just didn't care.

 

[Shouta]

But this is wartime. How do they not know? That being said, you're right we don't know what information has been circulated around Lucis and that could be a reason but it just seems idiotic this is the case... Eh.

I mean, war in the real world is all about information. It's how they're won. Figuring out who the high ranking officials are is a huge deal normally. If info is being closely monitored, I can see how it isn't know.. I mean, the empire used faceless magitek warriors most of the time and only occasionally would their generals would appear on the battlefield.

I think it makes more sense this way anyway. It also jives with the idea that the only reason Regis knows who Ardyn is in Kingsglaive is because, as a King of Lucis, he's privy to what really happened in the past.

Literally the only one who recognizes Noctis as the prince is Vyv.

Dino does too, off the top of my head.

 

[LAA]

This is why I dont understand the praise Tabata gets for completing a project that was in shambles. His plan of attack and direction was clearly a mess as well. An absurd amount of trailer content completely cut, even stuff shown this year

Yeah that's the most concerning thing about it being stuff shown this year.
I'm fine with Tabata though. He finally got the game into my hands, and I'd still say it's great in the end, so props for that alone.
Though I do also think, Normura must have like set most things up for him after leaving, at least the world, story and characters. The story seemed done, (though it seems it was all condensed to fit in one game and things cut and changed as a result), the characters done, so I think it's weird Nomrura isn't getting as much credit, he's the one who designed the characters and world, even the idea of a real time FF, which are all the things I loved. I know it took 10 years but some of it doesn't seem his fault, FFXIII took the staff it seemed for a while and after that it seemed they weren't so focused on VS after that.
I will always be wondering what VS XIII would be compared to FFXV, but guess we'll never know.

 

[Chase17]

I'm trying to decided which sidequest was more annoying, the bear traps or the steam pipes.

Dino does too, off the top of my head.

Dino is the stand out character in the game.

 

[dramatis]

Well, actually, it'd be fine to compare systems with similar parts. for example, you can compare ff9 and 7 because they're variants of ATB.

Kh and 15 are just too different to compare. One is a largely menu based facsimile of ff menus in a action setting, where as the other (15) barrows far more fron strategy rpg's due to its reliance on character positioning and techniques use. You can say you like one more than another, but comparing them as counterparts is silly.

its like comparing 15 and integrity and faithlessness outside of the fact they are both 20 hour rpg's

I'm saying that in general they are not similar, not that they could not be compared.

For the whole battle system, they have some overlap in the team based nature of things, and the fact that there is a dodge button, but outside of that, KH and FF15 generally have no real actual similarities to each other.

KH has individual button press combo strings, different combos for different button combinations, active jumping mechanics, micromanagement for team base priorities, manual blocking, manual countering, manual juggling, manual dodging, manual canceling, manual dashing ect.

Holding a button to dodge, holding a button to attack, contextual counters among other things puts FF15 far away from something like KH.

I disagree.

It is possible to compare various aspects of different combat systems with each other to consider how each type of system executes those aspects, and think about what could have been done better. Just a few days ago I had a lengthy discussion that started with talking about Free Run in Tales of the Abyss, and examples from not only Tales came up but also Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile 2, and discussion about movement in action RPGs in general. I think there are valid comparisons and discussions to be made in a conversation that involves FF10, Xenosaga 3, and Shadow Hearts 2—even if the systems aren't "that similar" or whatever. Because there are elements that are similar in each combat system that can lend to discussion about execution of mechanics.

So I think it's completely fair to judge FF15 with its action RPG contemporaries and with the action RPGs that came before it. Saying "the systems are totally different" is an excuse not to evaluate 15's combat relative to the genre, at all. If KH/Tales/SO/whatever is playing smoother is more engaging than 15, then there's something not good about 15's combat. So we can look to example for the reasons why.

 

[Limality]

I'm trying to decided which sidequest was more annoying, the bear traps or the steam pipes.



Dino is the stand out character in the game.

Steam Pipes for me...took me longer

 

[Shahadan]

Cutting or changing stuff is fine, as well as cutting corners because you have no time or money, but it can be done the right way and it's absolutely not the case here.

It's apparent everywhere in the world and half the stuff in the story doesn't make sense and even sometimes contradicts itself, lol.
As far as I'm concerned Tabata can still fuck off he's not doing a good job.

 

[The Emperor]

Anyone else read this?

http://creditconcerto.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/final-fantasy-xv-in-honor-of-unseen.html

SHOCKING revelations in there. So much vital plot not mentioned was in the strategy guide.

What the hell?!

And a lot of it sounds like had it been implemented into the game would've made it so much better.

*tears...FFXV is the rollercoaster that never ends*

 

[SargerusBR]

I'm trying to decided which sidequest was more annoying, the bear traps or the steam pipes.

Bear traps are far worse because of Coeurls

 

[Ydelnae]

Anyone else read this?

http://creditconcerto.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/final-fantasy-xv-in-honor-of-unseen.html

SHOCKING revelations in there. So much vital plot not mentioned was in the strategy guide.

What the hell?!

And a lot of it sounds like had it been implemented into the game would've made it so much better.

*tears...FFXV is the rollercoaster that never ends*

The fact that Ifrit seems to be actually the big bad behind the Starscourge and this is not even hinted at in the game... lol (Also, I still think he should have been named Chaos since his "role" in the story)

 

[Ruff]

A thing I don't understand, how is it that they keep mentioning that the empire keeps slaying the Arcaeans(sp?), but they can fight for me still? Especially Gentiana who is literally standing next to her corpse at one point. Is it like, their ghosts are helping me out or something?

 

[Falk]

Anyone else read this?

http://creditconcerto.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/final-fantasy-xv-in-honor-of-unseen.html

SHOCKING revelations in there. So much vital plot not mentioned was in the strategy guide.

What the hell?!

And a lot of it sounds like had it been implemented into the game would've made it so much better.

*tears...FFXV is the rollercoaster that never ends*

Maybe the datalog is IRL rather than in-game like FFXIII

A fantasy based on augmented-reality

 

[Jonnax]

I'm trying to decided which sidequest was more annoying, the bear traps or the steam pipes.

The steam pipes weren't all too bad. They were large and you could just go around once.

The bear traps were hard to spot over a large grassy area.

But they weren't the worst thing. F.R.O.G.S =|

 

[DiipuSurotu]

Well considering Ifrit is the reason all things went to shit (he is the reason for plague) and the fact that it was him in the cold opening I'd say it's usual to have his fight be more memorable.

What I liked about the Ardyn fight was that there was no "This isn't even my final form" moment. Although the Matrix Revolutions air fight should have come before the one foot fight...and he should have had more on foot moves than just warp strikes and 1-2 attack.

Wait wat?!

 

[Ydelnae]

Fans: we hated how we had to read the datalog to understand XIII's story because it made no sense without that info
S-E: alright I got this
*deletes the datalog from the game and turns it into a section from the official guide, the story remains nonsensical*

 

[Jake2by4]

Anyone else read this?

http://creditconcerto.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/final-fantasy-xv-in-honor-of-unseen.html

SHOCKING revelations in there. So much vital plot not mentioned was in the strategy guide.

What the hell?!

And a lot of it sounds like had it been implemented into the game would've made it so much better.

*tears...FFXV is the rollercoaster that never ends*

So much cut and unexplained.

 

[Jonnax]

Fans: we hated how we had to read the datalog to understand XIII's story because it made no sense without that info
S-E: alright I got this
*deletes the datalog from the game and turns it into a section from the official guide, the story remains nonsensical*

If you have to read a book to understand the plot of a film, the film has failed.
Same with the game. A datalog isn't much better than it being in a book, (Well apart from every consumer having it), the things mentioned in the guide should have been expressed in the game in cutscenes, conversations and gameplay.

 

[The Emperor]

The fact that Ifrit seems to be actually the big bad behind the Starscourge and this is not even hinted at in the game... lol (Also, I still think he should have been named Chaos since his "role" in the story)

Indeed...frankly this is bigger than any single damn thing XIII left out of its plot.

The Goddess is redeemed.

Maybe the datalog is IRL rather than in-game like FFXIII

A fantasy based on augmented-reality

Haha...I am trying to see a speck of humour in this. It's still too soon

Damn the game is plummeting in my mind as each second passes. It's like sand slipping from my fingers.

P.S. Falk thanks for the music

 

[AkirraKrylon]

Wait wat?!

Many many years in FFXV's past, Ifrit, having a strong distaste for mankind, betrayed the rest of the astrals and the War of Old (war of the gods) occurred. Ifrit unleashed a parasite onto Eos what later becomes known as the starscourge/ scourge of the stars (you could translate that to plague of the gods since the gods are "astrals" a.k.a stars). '

That's where Ardyn and his story come into play and where the whole story begins to unfold. He is the healer, absorbs/heals the daemons in people but becomes tainted, is denied entrance into the afterlife by the astrals because of said tainted-ness, comes to have a grudge, etc etc etc

 

[Cathcart]

The steam pipes weren't all too bad. They were large and you could just go around once.

The bear traps were hard to spot over a large grassy area.

But they weren't the worst thing. F.R.O.G.S =|

Son of a bitch, Sephiroth! I should have known you were frogs all along!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8EfMTiOtb0

 

[Falk]

I'd say they were all pretty memorable. As for XV, I think the fight with Ifrit was more memorable than Ardyn.

Well considering Ifrit is the reason all things went to shit (he is the reason for plague) and the fact that it was him in the cold opening I'd say it's usual to have his fight be more memorable.

In a purely RPG sense, Ifrit really feels like the final boss since it makes use of all your gear/ascension/etc. of the full party, rather than a 1v1. Yeah, yeah, action game, you control Noctis, party is kinda useless yadda yadda, but Ifrit really did feel like the final fight because it was a culmination of both RPG progression as well as learning the combat system - linkstrikes, weaknesses, warpstrikes, aerial combat, parrying, knowing when to hit him (when he's not on fire) etc. etc.

The only problem is that due to the open nature of the game's progression and the rather steep leveling curve that you can bust through by doing a bunch of easy quests then cashing in 200k x3 in Altissia, a 'final boss' gets pretty hard to tune, and no fight can really be called epic when you blow through phases in about 30 secs apiece, with or without summons interrupting.

edit: Speaking of end-of-main-quest balancing, it also feels like they acknowledged it by having a smorgasbord of boss-level monsters in the streets of Insomnia, so regardless of whether you were level 45, 60, 80 or 99 you had something sorta challenging to beat up on.

 

[ShadowSoldier89]

Son of a bitch, Sephiroth! I should have known you were frogs all along!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8EfMTiOtb0

you cant just link dunkey without me having to rewatch 15 dunkey videos...

 

[Shouta]

It was hinted in the game that Ifrit was the one that did it by Ardyn. It's a line in passing only though.

 

[Relaxed Muscle]

Also I get what they were going for with the time jump, but I can't say they earned it. It was just like okay this is a thing for the last hour I guess. Actually I'd say that about every emotional beat in the game outside of the core four: lots of ambition, weak execution.

This game is like Arrow Season 3

At least Arrow Season 3 has olicity.

And Ardyn last fight is trash, the game fails in all these boss fights setpieces. Seriously.

I'll write my review tonight. Lot of things to get out of my chest.

 

[The Emperor]

Many many years in FFXV's past, Ifrit, having a strong distaste for mankind, betrayed the rest of the astrals and the War of Old (war of the gods) occurred. Ifrit unleashed a parasite onto Eos what later becomes known as the starscourge/ scourge of the stars (you could translate that to plague of the gods since the gods are "astrals" a.k.a stars). '

That's where Ardyn and his story come into play and where the whole story begins to unfold. He is the healer, absorbs/heals the daemons in people but becomes tainted, is denied entrance into the afterlife by the astrals because of said tainted-ness, comes to have a grudge, etc etc etc

Nomura's three arc game seems to me like as follows:

Part 1 - Invasion, open world Lucis, Accordo...ending at Stella's death there possibly.

Part 2 - Reclaiming the throne. So open world Tenebrae/Niflheim. Bringing Ardyn to justice in Insomnia.

Part 3 -War with the God. So the focus is on the world of ruin and defeating Ifrit now.

Damn the road was set for quite an epic trilogy.

But that is all assumptions. Nomura's vision could've ultimately been just as bad or worse for all we know.

 

[Falk]

P.S. Falk thanks for the music

Oi, it was a ride and I'm glad the game is out.

 

[ebil]

The fact that Ifrit seems to be actually the big bad behind the Starscourge and this is not even hinted at in the game... lol (Also, I still think he should have been named Chaos since his "role" in the story)

Looks like Chaos was the original intent and they just decided to compound the ideas and assets they had to save time and money (not having to do a separate boss fight and summon while still retaining Ifrit as a series mainstay), as Ifrit on his throne adorned with skulls suspiciously looks like Chaos.

 

[Inuhanyou]

But that is all assumptions. Nomura's vision could've ultimately been just as bad or worse for all we know.

Or it could have been better, or completely different. We just won't ever know about what Nomura planned. There's no point dwelling on Versus, or Nomura's 15, all we have is the final product.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

Fans: we hated how we had to read the datalog to understand XIII's story because it made no sense without that info
S-E: alright I got this
*deletes the datalog from the game and turns it into a section from the official guide, the story remains nonsensical*

Hahahahaha

Spoiler

it's true

 

[Relaxed Muscle]

Many many years in FFXV's past, Ifrit, having a strong distaste for mankind, betrayed the rest of the astrals and the War of Old (war of the gods) occurred. Ifrit unleashed a parasite onto Eos what later becomes known as the starscourge/ scourge of the stars (you could translate that to plague of the gods since the gods are "astrals" a.k.a stars). '

That's where Ardyn and his story come into play and where the whole story begins to unfold. He is the healer, absorbs/heals the daemons in people but becomes tainted, is denied entrance into the afterlife by the astrals because of said tainted-ness, comes to have a grudge, etc etc etc

Is this on one of those lore books that the game randomly throws at you?
Mess,bale dat.

 

[Via Purifico]

Just picked up the collectors edition guidebook. It's a pretty decent sized book and looks nice.

The map included is huge lol.

 

[DarkLordMalik]

Nomura's three arc game seems to me like as follows:

Part 1 - Invasion, open world Lucis, Accordo...ending at Stella's death there possibly.

Part 2 - Reclaiming the throne. So open world Tenebrae/Niflheim. Bringing Ardyn to justice in Insomnia.

Part 3 -War with the God. So the focus is on the world of ruin and defeating Ifrit now.

Damn the road was set for quite an epic trilogy.

But that is all assumptions. Nomura's vision could've ultimately been just as bad or worse for all we know.

Part 1 out in 2016
Part 2 out in 2019
Part 3 out in 2022

Play the full game remastered in 8K exclusively for the PS6.

 

[jimmypython]

Nomura's three arc game seems to me like as follows:

Part 1 - Invasion, open world Lucis, Accordo...ending at Stella's death there possibly.

Part 2 - Reclaiming the throne. So open world Tenebrae/Niflheim. Bringing Ardyn to justice in Insomnia.

Part 3 -War with the God. So the focus is on the world of ruin and defeating Ifrit now.

Damn the road was set for quite an epic trilogy.

But that is all assumptions. Nomura's vision could've ultimately been just as bad or worse for all we know.

yeah that would have been very good.

Say what you will about Nomura's KH story, it actually has managed to attract a cult following. So Nomura's certainly capable of making an epic.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

Nomura's three arc game seems to me like as follows:

Part 1 - Invasion, open world Lucis, Accordo...ending at Stella's death there possibly.

Part 2 - Reclaiming the throne. So open world Tenebrae/Niflheim. Bringing Ardyn to justice in Insomnia.

Part 3 -War with the God. So the focus is on the world of ruin and defeating Ifrit now.

Damn the road was set for quite an epic trilogy.

But that is all assumptions. Nomura's vision could've ultimately been just as bad or worse for all we know.

Even just the idea of playing the Insomnia invasion is epic... I mean I liked Kingsglaive, but it would have been awesome to play it in the game.

 

[Falk]

I mean, the development focus for this game clearly was on the Lucis continent. It would have been awesome to get sequels that built on all the technical/gameplay/etc. lessons learnt while making Lucis, but it feels like that'd just be setting up the franchise to get critically crucified by 'repeating past mistakes', especially if the first game wasn't received well.

It's high time to move on.

 

[Relaxed Muscle]

Part 1 out in 2016
Part 2 out in 2019
Part 3 out in 2022

Play the full game remastered in 8K exclusively for the PS6.

Um, considering that all 3 games would have been good. I wish that this had happened. After waiting 10 years what is 6 more? Lol

 

[AkirraKrylon]

Is this on one of those lore books that the game randomly throws at you?
Mess,bale dat.

In the game's defense, all the Ardyn stuff is contained within the game if you look hard enough. Idk if SE just expects people to look at and read every single thing in their games because everything make much more sense when you do that, or what. The War of Old/Ifrit stuff is from the strategy guide.

Sad because the content here is absolutely epic, the presentation was just not great.



That being said, I think they really just focused on Noctis and his journey with his friends and what that meant for him. All this lore/underlying mythos is flavor in that story but not really 100% necessary to understand what the game was trying to convey....Noctis coming of age and accepting his fate.

 

[Jake2by4]

Part 1 out in 2016
Part 2 out in 2019
Part 3 out in 2022

Play the full game remastered in 8K exclusively for the PS6.

This doesn't seem right. There is no 10 year gap between each release.

 

[DarkLordMalik]

yeah that would have been very good.

Say what you will about Nomura's KH story, it actually has managed to attract a cult following. So Nomura's certainly capable of making an epic.

I'd certainly not use Kingdom Hearts to claim of Nomura making an 'epic'.

If you throw your fans a bone every year, you will have a following no matter how shitty your writing or story is.

 

[Lights and Waves]

I don't even want a XV-2. Just give us a director's cut of this game, or patch in a hell of a lot more cutscenes and make the New Game+ worth our time.

 

[Slater]

Or it could have been better, or completely different. We just won't ever know about what Nomura planned. There's no point dwelling on Versus, or Nomura's 15, all we have is the final product.

You mentioned Nomura saying they converted the party scene to full CGI at some point right? Do you have a source for that? Coveting what could have been is usually a bad thing but I want to let my mind run with it for a little bit.

 

[Cathcart]

you cant just link dunkey without me having to rewatch 15 dunkey videos...

If it helps, I'm doing the same.

"Is that a pro Genji?"

 

[Relaxed Muscle]

You mentioned Nomura saying they converted the party scene to full CGI at some point right? Do you have a source for that? Coveting what could have been is usually a bad thing but I want to let my mind run with it for a little bit.

I vaguely remembering something that the game at some point was gonna replace a lot of realtime scenes for CG.

No source, mind you.

 

[jimmypython]

I don't even want a XV-2. Just give us a director's cut of this game, or patch in a hell of a lot more cutscenes and make the New Game+ worth our time.

The director has cut enough already...

 

[Falk]

Maybe the biggest 2nd-continent blue balls for me was getting off at Catarnica, remembering the car is on the train, seeing roads below the station and then realizing maybe at some point or another there at least were supposed to be hubs at each stop, if not a connected open world.

As it is, with the retail game the party basically lugged the Regalia to Altissia and then to Niflheim and dragged it across the entire Niflheim continent solely to have a 2-minute dash before getting wrecked.

The car deserved better

The director has cut enough already...

wow

 

[DiipuSurotu]

Part 1 out in 2016
Part 2 out in 2019
Part 3 out in 2022

Play the full game remastered in 8K exclusively for the PS6.

That's not three parts, that's three different games. No one considers FFX, X-2 and X-3 a single game.

 

[jimmypython]

I vaguely remembering something that the game at some point was gonna replace a lot of realtime scenes for CG.

No source, mind you.

it might have been in a famitsu interview for KH DDD iirc. He also talked about how he wanted Versus' battle system to differentiate by giving KH freeflow and Versus a weighty feel, iirc.

 

[Falk]

FFX, X-2 and X-3

getting ahead of ourselves aren't we

 

[ShadowSoldier89]

Or it could have been better, or completely different. We just won't ever know about what Nomura planned. There's no point dwelling on Versus, or Nomura's 15, all we have is the final product.

I've definitely only cared to focus one what the final product was, but I wont be surprised to see people constantly referencing back to what they wanted out of versus.

With risk of going too far onto this path again. Stella might have just been a concept, but I can see where people were really intrigued by her potential. The trailer scene with her standing contentiously across from Noctis was one of those "Picture worth a thousand words" moments for her character potential. Even so it was just potential, but I can see people pining for that knowing what we actually got out of Luna