FINAL FANTASY XV

  • Thread starter Shirrako
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I actually think that the party works really well. Each character falls into a fairly basic trope, but I really do think that there is a sense of camaraderie between them and a few things that suggest that there is depth to them; I think Noctis is more mature than everyone gives him credit for (a perception that he is happy to hide behind), while Prompto appears to have been chosen by Regis to give Noctis the common touch. The story was initially pitched as a road trip between four good friends - right down to the bickering set to "Stand By Me" during the title card (which made me laugh because the title card is usually an epic moment, but here it seems to be self-parody) - and it's so far paying off.
 
So, I have spent a couple of hours with the game, mucking around and getting a feel for the controls and the combat system. I haven't made any significant progress - I have only just left Cid's garage - and will start over soon. I tend to do this with games to get an appreciation for how to actually play it so that I am not puzzling over the mechanics and missing key story points.

So far, everything feels fairly intuitive. I definitely prefer wait mode to active battle because it gives me the opportunity to introduce more complex actions, like tech. The only issue that I really have is that the battles can be pretty frantic; it's not uncommon to encounter five or six enemies at once and things get a bit cluttered. I often get attacked by enemies that I never saw coming, and usually miss the prompt to block. Still trying to get my head around the lock system because right now Noctis simply targets the nearest enemy, which negates some of the strategy. I like to pick them off one by one, weeding out the weaker enemies as quickly as possible before focusing on the stronger ones. The learning curve is steep, but I have never felt as if I was out of my depth, even when I took on a level 23 and a level 12 dualhorn with a group of level 5 characters.
 
Haven't gotten a chance to play it yet since I'm at my grandparent's house, but I'll finally get my hands on it this evening.

Regarding battle getting cluttered though, yeah... it definitely looks like it gets a bit hairy. I've heard that going into options and setting the camera distance to far will help give you better overall situational awareness and make things more comprehensible, so that might be worth a shot if you haven't tried it yet.
 
Not really sold on skills at the moment. I can see the value in Ignis' cooking and Gladiolus' survival skills, but I don't really know what Prompto's photography does. I haven't had a chance to test fishing yet, but it looks like something that you have to grind through to get good stuff from.

I'm really hoping that there is more to magic. The flasks that I have can only hold three spells at a time. I'm sure that I will get larger flasks before long, but magic has an area of effect and can damage allies, so there's no point. I'd give it to my allies, but if they can only hold three at a time, I don't want to be constantly crafting magic for them.

Lain
that might be worth a shot if you haven't tried it yet
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I didn't even know that it was an option. I'll look into it, but for now my strategy is to warp in, use a tech and do some damage, then warp out before the enemy has a chance to regroup.
 
I guess from my previous post, I tended to feel that the Final Fantasy series has changed so much to where it feels like a completely different RPG than the classic ones many of us know of. Take it from someone who considers Final Fantasy 3 (FF6 in Japan) as one of the greatest RPGs of all-time... if I were to play this game, an analogy for me would be like going from Duke Nukem 3D to the Borderlands games. It would seem incredibly like culture shock trying to assimilate with the more modern Final Fantasy games. That was my concern from my previous post(s).
 
I noticed that you level up pretty dang quick... I am at Level 23 at the moment for all four boy-band members, and I'm only 12 hours in.

And I am really blown away by the environment. Simply breath-taking scenery. It makes the whole road-trip experience such a treat; fast-travel feels wrong to use at times.

Lain
Regarding battle getting cluttered though, yeah... it definitely looks like it gets a bit hairy. I've heard that going into options and setting the camera distance to far will help give you better overall situational awareness and make things more comprehensible, so that might be worth a shot if you haven't tried it yet.
Click to expand...

I've been using the Far camera, and it helps a bit. But the larger battles are still super chaotic and hard to track your stance and the enemy's stance.
 
http://www.siliconera.com/2016/12/0...worldwide-sales-fastest-selling-title-series/

dang, 5 million copies and it hasn't even been a week yet :eek: but then I've read somewhere that the game supposedly needs to sell 10 million just to break even. Soooo US$600 million? That's an astronomical amount of money for just a single game. Then again, they did start with Crystal Tools and ended up making a whole new engine eventually. They could be trying to recoup the cost of making the Luminous Engine as well, which would definitely explain the break-even amount.

Me thinks they could easily get a good 2 million or so in additional sales if they would release it on PC, since there are people out there who wouldn't want those eye-watering graphics to be held back by the limitations of a console. Just saying, but I'm still a console guy.
 
The bit about a PC release is interesting. With the PS4 Pro's hardware it allows them to push the visuals a fair bit more, supporting a faux-4K render or even a 1080p 60fps gameplay, in conjunction with HDR.
 
Techy
The bit about a PC release is interesting. With the PS4 Pro's hardware it allows them to push the visuals a fair bit more, supporting a faux-4K render or even a 1080p 60fps gameplay, in conjunction with HDR.
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exactly. Imagine if it was an actual 4K render, or extremely smooth and consistent 1080p 60fps. Any game that can churn out those kinds of visuals is always welcome in the PC market.
 
=drifting24/7=
the game supposedly needs to sell 10 million just to break even. Soooo US$600 million? That's an astronomical amount of money for just a single game
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It’s actually not that uncommon. Dollar for dollar, triple-A video games perform on the same level as major film releases.
 
prisonermonkeys
It’s actually not that uncommon. Dollar for dollar, triple-A video games perform on the same level as major film releases.
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I'm quite sure major films nor games don't reach US$600 million. US$200 million or so, yeah. But three times that amount? Hence my reaction -> :eek:

But my other point still stands, that if they would release it on PC, they could easily get a million or two in additional sales. Who wouldn't want to see Square Enix graphics unhindered by hardware limitations?
 
Im very happy for Square that sales are up. They listened to the fans and made wholesale changes to the gameplay.

Funny how this sold in one day what GT6 has sold in its lifetime. Sad PD is not taking note. Doubt they will be rewarded with similar sales figures.

Also anyone else notice some of the basic grammar mistakes? "Noctis's" and "fishes" where two really obvious ones.
 
The patched in Kingsglaive snippets feel out of place and are honestly detrimental to the game's storytelling. They should've left those out IMO.
 
For some reason, Prompto is my highest-levelled character. This is despite the fact that I regularly ignore him in battle and he routinely gets KO.
 
JohnBM01
I guess from my previous post, I tended to feel that the Final Fantasy series has changed so much to where it feels like a completely different RPG than the classic ones many of us know of. Take it from someone who considers Final Fantasy 3 (FF6 in Japan) as one of the greatest RPGs of all-time... if I were to play this game, an analogy for me would be like going from Duke Nukem 3D to the Borderlands games. It would seem incredibly like culture shock trying to assimilate with the more modern Final Fantasy games. That was my concern from my previous post(s).
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I know what you mean. I played FFXV and it felt very different from the old titles, yet similar to FFXIII and XIV.
 
Niyologist
I know what you mean. I played FFXV and it felt very different from the old titles, yet similar to FFXIII and XIV.
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I see a lot of similarities between XV and previous titles:
  • Insomnia is a lone nation cut off from the rest of the world, much like Esthar in VIII.
  • The Niflheim Empire using a peace treaty as an excuse to invade Insomnia mirrors the empire in XII invading Dalmasca, as do the weddings of Noctis and Ashe.
  • There are further similarities between magitek and magicite, particularly in the way that it is being used to augment the imperial armies.
  • The daemons coming out during the night is similar to the monsters being more frequent in the Mist in IX.
  • There is talk of a meteor being used as a source of power (though I haven't seen it yet), which parallels elements of VII.
  • Lunafreya has some usual ability that hasn't been explained yet, but is similar to Yuna's summoning in X.
  • Lunafreya and Ravus' relationship resembles the one between Basch and Noah in XII.
  • There are obvious similarities between the astralgrid of XV and the spheregrid of X.
  • And I don't know who he is yet, but I get a real Kefka vibe from the "suspicious stranger" you meet in Galdin Quay.
 
So, I was really disappointed by the game to begin with. The world felt really small and pretty dull. Going through Leide, I was reminded of the Afghanistan portions of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, as it was an underpopulated desert. That was only reinforced by Galdin Quay, which aside from the docks was also pretty sparse, especially since there were only a handful of daemons on the beach. My mood improved when I got to Duscae, particularly with the disc in the centre, but I still felt underwhelmed. But then I got to Lestallum, and was blown away by the landscape. Final Fantasy XV may well be the prettiest game that I have ever played.

Also, the game should be called Final Metal Fantasy Gear, given all of the mecha the Niflheim Empire have. And I swear Gladiolus says "kept you waiting, huh?" at one point there.
 
If you continue progressing the story, you also get to visit Altissia and Tenebrae, along with a few more locales outside of Lucis.
 
Techy
If you continue progressing the story, you also get to visit Altissia and Tenebrae, along with a few more locales outside of Lucis.
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I remember seeing a video of the party's arrival in Accordo, but it was the drive to Lestallum that really took my breath away.
 
prisonermonkeys
So, I was really disappointed by the game to begin with. The world felt really small and pretty dull. Going through Leide, I was reminded of the Afghanistan portions of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, as it was an underpopulated desert. That was only reinforced by Galdin Quay, which aside from the docks was also pretty sparse, especially since there were only a handful of daemons on the beach. My mood improved when I got to Duscae, particularly with the disc in the centre, but I still felt underwhelmed. But then I got to Lestallum, and was blown away by the landscape. Final Fantasy XV may well be the prettiest game that I have ever played.

Also, the game should be called Final Metal Fantasy Gear, given all of the mecha the Niflheim Empire have. And I swear Gladiolus says "kept you waiting, huh?" at one point there.
Click to expand...

Yeah... XV does feel a lot like Phantom Pain. Needs fulton dlc.

I'm not very far in, but I'm not sure how you could claim that the world is small, even in the beginning. Sparsely populated, sure, but XV's open world is the most true-to-reality in terms of scale. Most open-world games prioritize gameplay over realism and focus on making their worlds dense rather than truly vast. Anywhere in Skyrim is just a short hike away, whereas driving is pretty crucial to getting around XV's world in a reasonable amount of time.

It might only take 3 minutes to get from Hammerhead to Galdin Quay by car, but try travelling between the two on foot... it'll probably take you about as long as it would take you to walk from one side of Skyrim to the other. :P
 
speaking of extra content, check this out. There are rumors that this would be released as DLC, but that aside, this Mystery Disc is funny as hell :lol::lol::lol:

 
Lain
I'm not sure how you could claim that the world is small, even in the beginning.
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Because the early hours of the game feel like they're designed to restrict you as much as possible. You're effectively limited by how far you can walk in a day, because you're dead if you stay out too late. On top of that, I was constantly getting into battles with packs of low level sabertooths or reapertails that were easy enough to take down individually, but were time-consuming to defeat as a whole. I get that Square Enix want to gradually introduce gameplay mechanics and that they don't want you to stumble into a fight that you can't win (unless it's at night), but you're given this vast, open world to explore and then forced follow a narrow path until you get to about level fifteen - which is about the earliest point where you're strong enough to take on the batallions deployed by magitek engines and stand a reasonable chance of surviving long enough for reinforcements to show up.
 
I've decided to put Final Fantasy XV aside until after Christmas. I'm starting to appreciate just how big the game is, and with a very busy two weeks ahead of me, I decided to stop for the time being and come back when I have more time.
 
prisonermonkeys
I've decided to put Final Fantasy XV aside until after Christmas. I'm starting to appreciate just how big the game is, and with a very busy two weeks ahead of me, I decided to stop for the time being and come back when I have more time.
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There is a lot of content (well if you consider fetch or hunt quests meaningful). I have already finished the main quest but there is still lots of end-game content to keep you busy for a while. When you consider the additional updates they're going to bring from my previous post, it piles up quite plentiful.
 
Techy
I have already finished the main quest but there is still lots of end-game content to keep you busy for a while.
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It's nice to know that the game continues after you finish the main storyline.

Techy
There is a lot of content (well if you consider fetch or hunt quests meaningful).
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I tend to complete things as I go. Although I have realised that a lot of the side quests are like the rolling quests in Fallout 4, so now I'm at level 30 when the recommended level for story quests is 20, so the main story isn't particularly challenging.

Techy
When you consider the additional updates they're going to bring from my previous post, it piles up quite plentiful.
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That was my issue with the DLC in Fallout 4 - it was released some time after the game, but the content actually complemented it, so it was actually better to start over with the main quest.
 
I finished the game a few days ago. This is how I would rank the Final Fantasies that I've played.

  1. VII
  2. VIII
  3. XV / XII / X
XV has alot of issues, but they're mostly offset by alot of the great things the game does well. The core story is interesting but its astonishing how poorly they executed it for the majority of the game. My only explanation for this was the development hell the game experienced forced the developer to streamline the experience.

Thankfully the combat is fun and over the top which helps make up for it.

Overall a fun time
 
Earth
I finished the game a few days ago. This is how I would rank the Final Fantasies that I've played.

  1. VII
  2. VIII
  3. XV / XII / X
XV has alot of issues, but they're mostly offset by alot of the great things the game does well. The core story is interesting but its astonishing how poorly they executed it for the majority of the game. My only explanation for this was the development hell the game experienced forced the developer to streamline the experience.

Thankfully the combat is fun and over the top which helps make up for it.

Overall a fun time
Click to expand...

Now that we've both finished it, what do you think about Chapter 13?
 

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