However, the game has a bunch of things going for it by comparison
No time compression - we have all the time in the world to get to know these characters, at their best and worst in all kinds of situations. There is the possibility of them growing on you... or skockholm setting in, idk. This movie is under 2 hours, you gotta wrap it up and put a nice bow on it or your audience is gonna have a bad time.
Better writing and acting in general - From the 52 minute video - The car pushing scene, hammer head, little quips here and there in battle, Noctis upset after the invasion, etc. All better and much more appropriately placed (especially in terms of audio composition/ADR) than any of the dialogue in this movie.
The boys feel much more likable, even human. Not so much anyone in KG.
However, the game has a bunch of things going for it by comparison
No time compression - we have all the time in the world to get to know these characters, at their best and worst in all kinds of situations. There is the possibility of them growing on you... or skockholm setting in, idk. This movie is under 2 hours, you gotta wrap it up and put a nice bow on it or your audience is gonna have a bad time.
Better writing and acting in general - From the 52 minute video - The car pushing scene, hammer head, little quips here and there in battle, Noctis upset after the invasion, etc. All better and much more appropriately placed (especially in terms of audio composition/ADR) than any of the dialogue in this movie.
The boys feel much more likable. Not so much anyone in KG.
Judging from the lip syncing issues, I think the dialogue had to be compromised to fit and SE has a lot of trouble doing that (total speculation but maybe it's because the animators they use do not speak natural English?). When characters were able to speak without seeing their faces, the dialogue was tighter.
edit: Also, Liam (the guy voicing Libertus) seems like a great guy IRL but his voice acting was either subpar or poorly directed.
Just got out of a sold out showing in NYC. I really liked it! It's kind of silly at times, but I was more emotionally invested in the characters than I had any right to be. The animation was awesome. And the Versus callbacks were great. Pretty impressed overall. Wish I could jump right in to the game now. So, mission accomplished SE.
Judging from the lip syncing issues, I think the dialogue had to be compromised to fit and SE has a lot of trouble doing that (total speculation but maybe it's because the animators they use do not speak natural English?). When characters were able to speak without seeing their faces, the dialogue was tighter.
edit: Also, Liam (the guy voicing Libertus) seems like a great guy IRL but his voice acting was either subpar or poorly directed.
So I dragged my wife and my eldest daughter to see it.
They both said they enjoyed it, but found the beginning very confusing.
I'm with them, mostly. I enjoyed it, despite some serious flaws in plotting, directing, etc. The worldbuilding and such present in it made me somehow even more excited for the game itself though.
Also,
Diamond Weapons versus teleporting giant Knights of the Round? That shit was great.
It's fine that it's a different product from Versus or whatever, and I was never terribly excited for Versus, but the more time goes on the more interesting Versus seems ... partly because there's nothing more interesting, novel, or new to distract from that introduced by XV. And, of course, it's the interesting things from Versus that had to go.
I have to agree with most that the editing, storyboarding, and some plot elements really hampered the film.
That said, I went in with the expectation this wasn't an A-tier Hollywood produced movie and that it is fucking Final Fantasy, and I enjoyed most of it. I won't retread the quibbles shared here already; rather I appreciated a lot of the fan service and call backs to what the FF universe is about.
If nothing else, call the film as a marketing device ploy a success: I'm so intrigued by the FF15 universe and I'm dying to reunite Noctis and Luna!
Okay, there's some inconsistencies from the film I was hoping someone could help clear up:
1. Arydn. Where in the timeline does his meeting Noctis at the Quay occur? Noctis reads the papers about the attack the following morning, no? Does the attack happen earlier and is not reported until the Quay events. If so, how could no one hear of the attack with all the digital equipment around? If the city falls that night, how can Arydn be at the Quay and back at the city in such a short time frame? He couldn't have taken an airship because the barrier was still up.
2. Luna. Why would the Empire be so quick to eliminate her once she was on the run with the ring??? Her role as Oracle is essential for the world according to the released information:
From FF Wiki: " Oracle (神凪, Kaminagi?, lit. Calmer of Gods) is a title bestowed upon select people in Final Fantasy XV charged with keeping stability by conversing with the gods and cleansing the world. An Oracle's abilities are passed down through their family bloodline.[1] The oracles use their powers to halt the "Plague of the Star" from advancing that lengthens the nights, preventing the world from plunging into complete darkness. [2]
The youngest Oracle in known history is Lunafreya Nox Fleuret of Tenebrae. Thanks to her sacred status as an Oracle, the former kingdom maintains a level of autonomy despite being under Niflheim's control."
So that was a thing. I don't know. I don't regret seeing it and it certainly got me more excited for the game and world, but overall I can't say it was a good movie. There's a lot of cool ideas and basis for one, but it just doesn't come together well.
The editing was a huge problem as has been mentioned by others and undermines what could actually be really cool fight scenes. Also, what was with the constant use of fade to blacks? It made sense like once or twice but not at a lot of other moments.
I did quite like the music though.
Okay spoiler stuff:
The showing of Ravus here sort of made me hope he doesn't end up as the final boss because he's just sort of lame. And his motivation makes him look like an idiot, which even Luna points out. The only reason I can see for blaming Regis is that if he and Noctis hadn't come they might not have been attacked, which may actually be a fair point. Granted, the fact that him taking the ring was clearly against the Empire's plans makes it seem like he wants to take out both of them so perhaps he'll shape up better in the game. Right now, he feels like he'll turn into another of those FF villains who think the world is all suffering and destroying it or whatever is the best course of action.
Actually, the whole blaming Lucis thing was a recurring thing among most of the Glaives, though with them at least it did feel a tad better explained. Nyx did seem to be the only one bringing up the good point that Niflheim is the real problem rather than Lucis. The only one who has a counterpoint was Glauca, but even that felt undermined to me since it wouldn't have been a problem if the Empire wasn't trying to conquer everything.
Speaking of Glauca, I thought the twist with him actually wasn't too bad but I'm incredibly confused by his abilities. When Libertus hits him with the car he just throws it off and is suddenly wearing his armor. So is the armor magic? How does that work given the crystal or is it made from the wild sort of magic in the game and a combination of magitek?
And he's in the game right? I'm sort of wondering if a fight with him would really be as cool as the one with Nyx given the scale of their fight.
Regis' death actually was sad for me I thought so that at least felt effective.
Luna was sort of disappointing, though she was trying to take the initiative at times. Didn't like how she was a damsel so often and I found it weird that no mention of her as the Oracle was ever brought up. I did like when she tricked Luche into putting on the ring.
The complete lack of Noctis (aside from post-credits which I'll get to in a bit) was puzzling to me. I think I get why since he isn't the focus and this is supposed to be what's happening once he leaves, but I think maybe just a cameo would have benefited since otherwise he's just some kid we see at the very start. And his lack of involvement in knowing what's going on seems unwise on Regis' part, though it probably would have been hard to get him to leave if informed they were probably going to be invaded.
I think at least seeing him and the party getting in the car and leaving while Regis looks on might have been nice at least.
Regarding the post credits scene, that was really rough though it got some cheers from the crowd. The lip syncing was really bad and the voice over work was really rough where it seemed to be trying to make it look like they were talking over one another, but done badly.
The Old Wall with the Knights was really cool to see I'll admit though the editing did them no favors.
Last thing is that I'm really confused by how magic works in this universe. So if I have this right, there are three sources of magic:
The Crystal
This wild magic that we can make into grenades in the game
The Ring of Lucii
The Glaive get power from the King, but which power is that? Given that once Nyx gains the power from the kings, it looks like his old abilities I'll assume it was being drawn from the ring.
But then what is being drawn from Crystal? Are the ring and Crystal connected? Other than cryptic words from Luna, I'm a bit in the dark on what precisely the Ring of the Lucii is or how it came to be.
Noctis can use his weapons without the ring so that comes from the Crystal? And it being captured doesn't affect that then? Does this mean that once we get the ring, we'll have new combat options open up like barriers and the spells we see thrown?
Why do we not see anyone in Lucis using those magic grenades? They seem like they'd be a useful alternative to the King's power the Glaive uses.
I think the biggest thing I wonder, and this goes for the anime too, is any of the stuff from these multimedia projects going to be reflected in the game? Will the Glaive be mentioned or will Glauca's whole deal come up with Noctis?
Edit: Also, The Plague of Stars is a big deal in the game but it's never brought up or mentioned. I feel like that would have been a good thing to establish in the film to sort of hint at the bigger picture and this Destiny that keeps getting brought up about Noctis.
One thing Luna also did that irritated me was that she seemed to talk in these speeches all the time along with this happening at inopportune times like Nyx with him explaining his backstory.
When we're talking about an animated feature, what most people think are editing problems are actually storyboarding and direction problems. Animation isn't made like film is. You don't shoot stuff from a bunch of different cameras to have a selection of takes before editing into a complete scene later. With animation you make exactly what you want. The editing mostly boils down to timing of scenes and sometimes changing the order of scenes later on. When an action sequence in an animated production looks poorly edited, it's usually because it was poorly storyboarded and if that went into production without anyone correcting it, that falls on the director.
I've booked a ticket for a screening next Saturday here in Wellington. It might suck, but at least I'll get to enjoy it (or bitch about it) with my brother.
Finished this movie yesterday.Awesome, I like the design of insomnia combined with Japan and Europe style. And with the story I gain more expectation to ffxv!!!
Watched it last night and I definitely enjoyed it and am even more excited for the game now. If anything, it's made the wait for the game even harder. However, yeah, I can understand why it got such low scores. Overall, it was a lot of fun, but it can be confusing for non-fans in terms of the story, and visually, during fights, it's a little difficult to keep track of things. I believe the colour and lighting's to blame for that.
Also, as most people have mentioned already, too damn many fade-to-black's. The end of the opening before the title card shows up was just awful and made me cringe quite a bit.
It's put to rest my worries about the lack of any information or hints about the "Plague of the Stars." Regis and a few others mentioned the
"Old War,"
which, from my understanding, is related to that, correct? Ardyn also said something like "
the terrors of the night.
" Which just makes the whole thing even more intriguing for me.
Then there's the Ring... I'm still a little lost on it and I sure hope the game will explain it well as well as the rest of the lore. (questions about it, please help me understand, hahaha)
What the heck are the "Lucii," exactly? They're those three big spirits that Nyx talked to, right...? And they... fight the "Old War," is it?
Some thoughts on the story and characters:
• I was really hoping that Regis won't die, but it's Sean Bean so I expected it already, I guess. Just glad he didn't get Ned Stark'd. Also, what the fuck is up with the horn on the right side of his head...?
• I was quite disappointed with him when he left Ravus and the others, although I suppose it could have been a case of him just saving who he can and, who knows, maybe he couldn't hear Ravus or something...Him wanting revenge on Lucis like that is totally understandable, but he doesn't seem like much of an interesting character.
• Luna was also pretty disappointing in the movie. She felt like a damsel in distress most of the time and seemed too quiet and didn't really do so much. I really hope that she'll be much more interesting and likable in the game itself. She's also really unattractive in the movie, as opposed to her appearance in the game. Which is in contrast with her brother, who looks a lot better here. And why the fuck did she decide to walk all the way to Altissia, though...? And who the fuck were those people walking around her as well?
• Libertus' (English) VA was pretty awful, although I think Ignis' is still worse. Not by much, though. Still, he's an alright character. I hope to see him in the game.
• Real shame that Nyx dies, as I really liked the guy. He seemed like the only logical member of the 'glaive who didn't hate Regis and Insomnia.
• The other members of the 'glaive betrayed Lucis and helped Niflheim, because Lucis gave their homes and other territories to Niflheim... Right. They're fucking idiots. Glad that one idiot got burnt.
• Glauca being revealed to be whatshisname was... well, I was surprised. I had hoped whatshisname was a good guy. Still, it felt pretty cliche. I'm confused now, though, because he looked pretty dead to me, but he's in the game. Guess he just survives then? And that's one hell of a suit. It took such a beating from both Regis and Nyx. Goddamn, he's gonna be one tough boss battle.
• The gigantic statues fighting looked like the beings that Nyx talked to, so I'm guessing they're supposed to represent them? Or, it was actually them? They're the Lucii, right? From my understanding, they're the former kings...? Which would explain the warp striking, I suppose. Still, that whole fight was kind of a mess and hard to visually understand.
On a related note, I sure as hell hope there's a Kingsglaive uniform outfit. Preferably as an unlockable, of course. The knives too, please.
Just got out of a sold out showing in NYC. I really liked it! It's kind of silly at times, but I was more emotionally invested in the characters than I had any right to be. The animation was awesome. And the Versus callbacks were great. Pretty impressed overall. Wish I could jump right in to the game now. So, mission accomplished SE.
The first one would be the hotel rooftop gala where the BGM is Somnus and Lunafreya talks to Nyx. Early VersusXIII trailers had Noctis and Stella talking at a party about an Amano painting of Etro, a deity in the game mythos, and the painting is seen in the movie scene too. Why it's in a fish tank that has what looks like two mini-Leviathans is anyone's guess.
The second one would be the scene where the two kingdoms face off in the signing room and point their phantom-swords and guns at each other. That was an iconic scene from VersusXIII trailers as well, and I saw it coming but still liked its inclusion.
I almost expected one of the scenes with the characters in the car to have a bit where they hit a checkpoint and a guard has to stop them real quick like in the final VersusXIII gameplay trailer with that bit before the game was rebooted to XV.
Narratively bizarre.
Visually incomprehensible
3/10...but theater-going experience 10/10. (????)
This movie is terrible and I love it.
It made no sense.
Visually terrible, camera, editing-wise.
Makes Greengrass look sterile.
Voice acting beyond terrible.
I'm still going to watch the film so I can form my own opinion of "Kingsglaive Luna" but it sounds like they're still failing to portray her as the character they claim to have written.
Narratively bizarre.
Visually incomprehensible
3/10...but theater-going experience 10/10. (????)
This movie is terrible and I love it.
It made no sense.
Visually terrible, camera, editing-wise. Makes Greengrass look sterile.
Voice acting beyond terrible.
Saw it tonight. I don't know anything about FFXV. Haven't played any demos, or watched any trailers since like it was revealed as Versus and then the revealed as FFXV trailers and that's it. These days I'm generally in media blackout on every videogame, just because I don't care and nothing worse than getting hyped up for a game that ends up sucking. But anyhow, so knowing nothing about FFXV here's my thoughts:
While FFVII Advent Children was a bombastic stupid videogame movie that embraced itself and FF and was all about SUPER MELODRAMATIC slow moments and CRAZY ACTION at ultra-high speed with dramatic orchestra music pounding (I like AC), Kingsglaive is a very mild low-key videogame cutscene movie. It's a bit odd because the low-key more western cinematic style to it (aka, general lack of melodrama) would make it seem like it'd fit more as a movie, but it just doesn't feel like a movie at all. It feels really close to like the Type-0 opening movie if it was 2 hours long and without the cool "We have arrived" music. Just a bunch of action with no impact, bad editing, and the worst videogame sound effects I've ever heard. Like they get in the car and it sounds like Gran Turismo 3 car sound effects. It doesn't sound like a movie because the sound effects are like gameplay sound effects. It's weird. Also the music not being Shimomura but low-key background movie music really keeps it generic feeling. At least if it had FF style music it'd have its own unique character to it.
The few little bits of character stuff are generally solid. My favorite scene is the ONE melodramatic slow scene in the entire movie where Somnus is playing and the old Versus painting is in the background and it feels nice and character-y and it feels like the stuff I like FF and jrpgs for. But then it quickly gets back into 90 mins of action action action that's for the most part terribly directed/edited with non-stop quick cuts and only the final fight really has decent fight choreography in a Cloud/Sephiroth way.
Story was alright. Honestly, now that I know what FFXV is about, I'm sorta interested because I assume it's an old but workable story of
an exiled prince taking back a kingdom.
But at the same time the quality of Kingsglaive makes me feel like the execution of the concept is gonna be pretty terrible like Type-0, which also had an interesting story but awful execution of it all. If FFXV is anything like Kingsglaive the general feeling I'm getting is that it's FFXII x Type-0; lots of parts of Kingsglaive felt very Type-0 (I don't like Type-0).
Voice acting was a mixed bag. Most of the non-big name actors were total shit anime dub. Aaron Paul is actually really good! And Lena Headey's quality as well. Sean Bean kinda sucks and his character doesn't emote visually which is weird, so that's disappointing, but on the antagonists the cowboy hat dude actually has a decent dub voice. But then you have the 2ndary characters like white trash Barrett and no-name NPCs who really suck and take you out of the movie when they talk.
Visuals are weird too. Like, you can tell these are video game cutscenes as they're decently above real-time PC/PS4 graphics, but nowhere near the quality of modern CG films. You can see that most of the assets, especially in the environment are seriously in-game PS4 assets. Some of the outdoor locations look really rough and some of the character animations are pretty bad too. Even the lip-synch is off a lot, which gives it more of a dub anime feeling, but I'm under the impression the lip-synch was done to the English voice track. Just feels budget. And then the one scene that is seriously in-game PS4 graphics running on a giant theater screen wow, that looks terrible.
In the end it's not a bad movie, story is ok as a prologue, there's a couple cool scenes and most of the time it's passively enjoyable, but it's not good either and it's never really great like the highs of Advent Children. Kingsglaive abandons its Japanese melodramatic epic FF roots and is the poorer for it. It's the movie equivalent of those last gen Japanese games that tried so hard to westernize for a wider audience. I don't know if this reflects on the game as well, but hopefully not. Also, I never want to see a realistic
Narratively bizarre.
Visually incomprehensible
3/10...but theater-going experience 10/10. (????)
This movie is terrible and I love it.
It made no sense.
Visually terrible, camera, editing-wise.
Makes Greengrass look sterile.
Voice acting beyond terrible.
I liked it well enough. I went in with no expectations and left feeling like my ¥1500 was well spent. It did its job of making me look forward to the game, but left me questioning how much better things would've have been if this was just in the damned game instead.
Aaron Paul delivered a stellar Dinklebottian performance. That might be my biggest gripe all the performances.
And it just didn't look as good in the movie, not to mention the tons of redesigns. The movie also didn't have a lot of the more colorful and fantasy aspects of FF (which we know the game will), which only made it look more sterile.
As for the movie itself, no wonder it has such low scores. The editing is atrocious (sup with the constant fadeouts?), the instrumental version of Somnus is used as a background song without being given much importance, the storytelling is all over the place, and the action scenes are hard to follow.
I still enjoyed it, but...I guess it made me wake up and realize that the XV universe is going to be very different from what I expected. At this point, I wish they had used entirely new designs and ideas, instead of bits and pieces of Versus 13, which was the game I had been hyped the most in my entire life. It might sound way too hyperbolic to some of you, but man, there's some real beauty to the Versus 13 trailers.
I'm still hopeful though, because at least I am really enjoying the anime. And who knows, maybe it was the art direction and style of the movie itself what threw me off.
We'll see.
TL;DR: I am bitter because the scenes originally intended for Versus XIII did not live up to the hype and looked & felt, in my opinion, worse than the original game trailers.
is even in the game? When Tabata introduced the character he said that it was Nilfheim's structure at the BEGINNING of the game, but the beginning of the game happens prior to the end of the movie so I am pretty sure
is even in the game? When Tabata introduced the character he said that it was Nilfheim's structure at the BEGINNING of the game, but the beginning of the game happens prior to the end of the movie so I am pretty sure
is even in the game? When Tabata introduced the character he said that it was Nilfheim's structure at the BEGINNING of the game, but the beginning of the game happens prior to the end of the movie so I am pretty sure
We haven't got in-game render of that character. He might still be in the game, though, we haven't got renders for any of the other generals neither and they're still in
We haven't got in-game render of that character. He might still be in the game, though, we haven't got renders for any of the other generals neither and they're still in
I've seen that first picture was this ever confirmed that character in the E3 trailer was Glauca? I think people are making that assumption because during his reveal Tabata said it was the first time they were showing him.
I've seen that first picture was this ever confirmed that character in the E3 trailer was Glauca? I think people are making that assumption because during his reveal Tabata said it was the first time they were showing him.
I've seen that first picture was this ever confirmed that character in the E3 trailer was Glauca? I think people are making that assumption because during his reveal Tabata said it was the first time they were showing him.
There's a reason why people think it's Glauca if you seen the movie it becomes clear, and when you watch the e3 2013 trailer it connects.. I'll leave at that.
