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Fuhgeddit

#TeamThierry
Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,699
Does the game become more linear after the beginning? Always wanted to play it but hated the beginning.
 

Kupo Kupopo

Member
Jul 6, 2019
2,959
You can relate to a character's personality, the emotions they convey in a conversation etc regardless of their background, race, and gender.

Cause if not then I guess people who talk about relating to characters either must be on crack or they do all the things that video game characters do.

Prompto talking about being that outcast kid while growing up who used to watch them from afar is a relatable thing, his privilege at that point in the game does not make it irrelevant. That is a mature conversation and far cry from anime tropes you usually get. Some other games will try that too, but when the cast is 15 and talking about things people go through when they are in their 20s I can't take that seriously. Which is why I relate to them being in their 20s in this game.

for me, it's not so much about doing all the things they do, as it is relating to where they're coming from. & i, personally, can relate to a character who's had to earn their way to get where they are a lot easier than i can to a character who's way to get there was paid for them...
 

Oniletter

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
1,245
Game is legit bad and the only redeeming qualities it had are a handful Shimomura songs and if you enjoy hate-playing the atrocious linear second half of the game to laugh at what a disaster it is.

The ""characters"" and ""comradery"" in particular are complete shit. There is nothing to these people outside of broad strokes Shounen tropes and some super generic interactions. Combat, sidequests, story, world design, it does absolutely nothing well.

Played on PS4 at launch.
 

PAFenix

Unshakable Resolve
Member
Nov 21, 2019
14,620
I could feel the potential with the game. I liked it okay well enough when it launched. Watched the movie and anime (though I admit this shouldn't be required viewing for the game) to be prepped for the story. Beat it before the first bits of DLC came out....and it was just.......okay? I always read that the Royal Expansion and some of the DLCs help improve the game in a variety of ways, but everytime I think about buying it to play.... I realize I'd have to play the game again.

And I just can't.

This is the result of releasing a game in such a way. There will always be a set of FF fans who will always view FFXV in it's vanilla form instead of it's "True Finished"/Improved form (or as much as they could finish before cancelling the rest of the DLC).
 

CaviarMeths

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
10,655
Western Canada
I haven't played it, but I would argue that being "not that bad" is... kind of the problem.

This is Final Fantasy, one of the most beloved and critically acclaimed video game franchises in history. It's not some niche otaku DRPG series that gets 70 MC, sells 200k units, and weebs hail as some unsung masterpiece. Being "not that bad" is that bad.
 

devSin

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,194
This is Final Fantasy, one of the most beloved and critically acclaimed video game franchises in history. It's not some niche otaku DRPG series that gets 70 MC, sells 200k units, and weebs hail as some unsung masterpiece. Being "not that bad" is that bad.
Final Fantasy hasn't been that since 6 (maybe 7 if you insist).
 

KernelC

alt account
Banned
Aug 28, 2019
3,561
just popping in this thread to say, yeah FF XV is that bad.
Like Star Wars prequels "cant be that bad, its been 15 years, lets watch them... oh god they are THAT bad". FF XV is exactly like that

See ya.
 
Feb 13, 2018
1,241
New Jersey
I enjoyed the game very much despite the flaws and find folks are over critical about it.

I do not think more development would have helped much. The game spent 10 years in development hell because they kept adding and changing things to it, Tabata finally pushed it out for better and worse.
 

EarlGreyHot

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,376
I think FFXV is a lovely mess of a game. Enjoyed it greatly but it was very flawed in certain area's.

If you need a wiki to understand the story you fucked up. And the 'lovestory' between Noctis and Luna was..... well not there really.
And locking important story info behind a movie was stupid (movie was great though!)
 

Bulby

Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 29, 2017
5,035
Berlin
Was fine but I hold FF at a way higher standard than this game achieved.

Was low B tier JRPG in everything except graphical presentation.
 

Lucael

Member
Oct 3, 2018
325
The game ending is one of the best of the series, I think they had a clear vision of it from the beginning. The story is good but delivered in a real bad way. I enjoyed my time with it more than FFXIII. The bad part for me was the open world, it's clearly something not organic to the game and put in it just because they wanted it. The story, characters and the world would have been a lot better with a more classic approach, not FFXIII style ma at least something like X.
 

TheCed

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,417
So... I've been replaying FF Type-0 recently and I noticed that many things felt familiar to FFXV for me.
Note : FFType-0 is a bad game that I do enjoy for some reason, and it ,makes me mad because of those glaring flaws that are right there in my face while I can feel like there's a lot of potential in there.

- I got very interested in a world that has a lot of potential but in the end I had to make research outside of the game to understand the lore properly.
-Many of the Characters are explored outside of the game... I'm not planing to read a manga or to play Agito+ (Cancelled)
- Ending felt rushed and unearned.
-It feels like a lot of content got cut at the very last minute.

I don't know if it's a Tabata thing... he is good at making me interested in a world but... in the end, you end up not knowing much.
 

MDSVeritas

Gameplay Programmer, Sony Santa Monica
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
1,026
It's my favorite entry in a series I greatly love. It's got some flawed areas for sure but it shoots for the moon on a lot of stuff and in some of those areas (like the actual connection between the four main characters) is absolutely knocks it outta the park.
 
Oct 31, 2017
14,991
???

XV is def the complete clusterfuck of the two

Right? XIII is polished as fuck. It having a lot of vital info relegated to datalog entries and being very linear (and Vanille having awkward voice direction) is not what I'd consider as a "complete clusterfuck" or even a "clusterfuck," but then again maybe I'm biased because I fucking love Final Fantasy XIII.
 
Oct 31, 2017
14,991
Look, I'm not one of those fans that says "EWWWW CHANGE? FUCK THIS."

But there's certain things that have to remain consistent IMO.

The immaculate presentation, and a focus on story. Both of which XV did not have. In fact story was XV's absolute last priority, and it shows. Chapters 1-8 have some of the laziest writing I've ever seen in a JRPG, ALL the "set piece" boss fights are embarrassing, most cutscenes lack polish, and when the actual story starts in Chapter 9 the game is over around 5 hours later (2.5 of which is spent in Chapter 13).
 
Oct 31, 2017
14,991
You can say that again. In a world full of magic and MOBILE phones, you learn about something from a NEWSPAPER. I rolled my eyes so much, that I couldn't believe.

And in a world where lovers communicate via magical teleporting dog that carries a notebook, for some odd reason Luna has to physically give the ring to Noctis, instead of just having Umbra transfer it over???

Where all Lucians/all of Regis' friends treat Noctis like some normal kid in a normal situation needing to grow up, rather than as a king with a kingdom that was just eradicated by a force that seeks to dominate the entire world?

Cor: "Sorry I wasn't there for your father.... so I'm not gonna be there for you, either."

Or where Shiva, who apparently loves humanity and has been very close to the Fleuret family, literally does not intervene during the Leviathan fiasco and just lets the Fleuret line die out.

Or where the party, after getting their car taken away, despite the world being in danger, decide to traverse on foot because it "doesn't feel right" and waste time by retrieving their old car conveniently located in a military base.

I guess this is all par for the course, considering the fact that Ardyn Izunia's alias was "Ardyn," and the party's takeaway on Ardyn guiding them to Titan and opening up a Niflheim checkpoint by saying "open up, it's me" is "what a weird guy. Hope we don't see him again"

Like the biggest issue is that the party never questions shit.

Oh and Jared.

EDIT: oh and with the movie, Luna was said to have "no magic powers" numerous times, which is not the case at all. And Luna was never ever referred to as "oracle" but rather "princess."

Game gives a really bad, obvious last-second patch up excuse via radio by saying "Luna will be suspending her oracle duties at Insomnia," as if that's a reason for everyone to collectively stop calling her "oracle."

Oh and Kingsglaive also shows that Regis was only able to be killed because of some guy who was able to be the general of two opposing armies at the same time, who was given a suit of armor so powerful that was only able to be taken down by using the ring (which Ardyn calls a "royal disappointment" in the game???)

God the writing is a complete travesty
 
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Quinton

Specialist at TheGamer / Reviewer at RPG Site
Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,255
Midgar, With Love
While I like the game overall...

The way the game tells its story, you'd think it expects you to be emotionally invested in it for just being there.

I can't care about a dead king or a ravaged kingdom I saw for literally 20 seconds in a single cutscene. I can't feel the ramifications of a war I experienced via silent clips from a movie I haven't watched. I can't feel the impact of Jared's death if I can't remember the guy's face. Your bros are all super loyal to you, but what inspired their loyalty? Fuck if I know.

Everything that might've made these characters and events interesting or impactful happened offscreen, most of it before the game even started.

This succinctly sums up why I can never give it more than like a 7.
 

mhayes86

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,246
Maryland
It was a mess with good ideas stitched together by a rough development I suppose, and I really enjoyed it despite its flaws. It wasn't until much later that I found out that some of the plot or external events were being explained over the radio. I also played it prior to the patch that changed up chapter 13(?), so I'm not familiar with any other changes made to the game nor played any of the DLC.
 
Oct 31, 2017
14,991
So... I've been replaying FF Type-0 recently and I noticed that many things felt familiar to FFXV for me.
Note : FFType-0 is a bad game that I do enjoy for some reason, and it ,makes me mad because of those glaring flaws that are right there in my face while I can feel like there's a lot of potential in there.

- I got very interested in a world that has a lot of potential but in the end I had to make research outside of the game to understand the lore properly.
-Many of the Characters are explored outside of the game... I'm not planing to read a manga or to play Agito+ (Cancelled)
- Ending felt rushed and unearned.
-It feels like a lot of content got cut at the very last minute.

I don't know if it's a Tabata thing... he is good at making me interested in a world but... in the end, you end up not knowing much.

It's definitely a Tabata thing. With Type-0 he clearly had a huge budget (it was 2 UMD's for gods sake) to work with and no "ohhhh Nomura and/or Toriyama was ruining things for him" excuse.

Both games have a major antagonistic force die off screen before the finale. Both games have (mostly) tragic endings that are totally unearned. That's not a coincidence.

And Type-0's presentation of the story is so, so, sooooo much worse than XIII's. Literally nothing makes any sense unless you read the Compendium extensively, watch Compendium-only cutscenes, and replay it at least once. So it makes total sense that Tabata thought that relegating key info/context to a movie and anime was a good idea and that the ridiculous jumps and time skips in the game were no big deal.

Type-0 also found ways to try and stretch your playtime at every opportunity, which is why XV was like that at launch with its stupid ass "1 hunt at a time" limit, its slow ass car rides, and not being able to drive on auto at night until you reached Level 40.

I just do not think Tabata is a good director and he cannot tell a story (or properly pace it) if his life depended on it.
 

Spehornoob

Member
Nov 15, 2017
8,941
I just tried playing FFXV again in preparation for the VII Remake and I just can't enjoy it. I don't like the open world and I don't like the combat. I wish I did though, because I like the characters and what I've seen of the story. There are some really emotional beats and I love the coming of age theme and the exploration of male friendship and bonding between the main cast.

I just couldn't get into the game that surrounds it.
 

Deleted member 54073

User requested account closure
Banned
Feb 22, 2019
3,983
FF6 to FF12 are all great single player FF games, some even masterpieces. When you go from playing those when they were released to FF15 then yes, FF15 is a bad game.
 
Mar 31, 2018
616
The friendship relationships were worked out in a fantastic way in the game and the idea of a road trip with the possibility to camp was very good. If extended, I would appreciate it if these elements could be found in other Final Fantasy games.

But apart from that, I don't think the game is very good, it is obviously finished in a rushed way. The world was smaller and army than originally planned (see the abundance of parking lots and gas stations in places where there is nothing to do). Below you'll find a video of some of the places that have been deleted, they clearly look unfinished. If you look at the footage of early demos, you will also find, among other things, an unfinished train station.

Apart from the DLC of Aranea, Lunafreya and Noctis which was eventually cancelled, the following was also planned to be added via updates.
- Integration of the mythical forest from the Platinum demo into the map of the game.
- Integration of the removed cutscenes from, among others, the Dawn trailer.
- Integration of the minigames that are now exclusive for the Stadia version. Elements of this could be found in the code around the end of 2018.
- And much more.

So there were still updates planned after the end of 2018, but these were all cancelled. At that time, Square Enix was also actively looking for a possible Unreal Engine 4 version to bring the game to the Nintendo Switch. (The results with Luminous Engine were not good enough). Probably this port is also scrapped. There was also an extensive mod editor and a level designer in the planning. This could be used to create a golf minigame. If that mod editor had been released, fans could improve a lot on this game. This was also scrapped.

Originally they planned to actively expand this game with the second season of DLC, more updates et cetera, but they changed course.

Now you have a mediocre game with some strong points, that had a lot of potential, but could not live up to it.
 

Cathcart

Member
Oct 29, 2017
1,058
It really was that bad. Sometimes it's ok for a bad game to just be bad, you don't have to go out of your way to save it's feelings.

"Wasn't that bad" is some shit you say about a successful non-elective surgery. If you have to describe a videogame this way you have set the bar way too low.
 

Kain

Unshakable Resolve - One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
7,599
The moment they tell you about the king's death in a silent cutscene, with zero background and then you remember you have to watch a fucking movie to know what's going on but then you remember you don't care, it's the moment you know this is Type-0-2 and the team fucked up. Again.
 

Kamek

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,976
Probably in my top 10 most enjoyed game this gen if not top 7. Enjoyed almost everything about it, except the ring chapter, but wished certain story beats were fleshed out more. It seemed like there was some FNC mythos going on with Prompto I wish they got to.

Loved the cast of characters and really enjoyed the all male cast and camaraderie and bro road trip.

I will concede watching kingsglaive beforehand made the game make a lot more sense.
 
Nov 17, 2017
12,864
It was simply ok for me. I do regret buying it at launch since they added and changed a fuck ton since. But I already sold it. Maybe one day I'll get the Royal Edition.
 

eXistor

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,274
The most important aspects of the game were well done. I know this means story for a lot of people, but I really don't give a hoot about that. I loved the dungeons, few as they were. They had a fantastic physicality. In fact the entire map was a lot of fun to traverse. It's a diamond in the rough for sure, but I really loved a lot of it. If they took FFXV as a base and made a more polished, better paced and well-rounded game out of it it should be something special. Even as it stands I think they had the right idea, even if it's clear the end result was a bit of a mess.
 

Look! The Pie!

Chicken Chaser
Member
Oct 27, 2017
794
Played it at launch. Loved it, while recognising that it had significant flaws. Just played the Royal edition and still loved it. Even in its cobbled together, unfinished state I'd rather play it than the super-polished yet horrid XIII any day of the week.
 

scottbeowulf

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,347
United States
My favorite FF since 7. Loved all the stuff most people love like the bros etc. But I really got lost in some of the end game stuff. And I was playing at launch. I didn't care that I didn't understand every story beat. I rarely do in these games.
 

Normal

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,296
Yeah, it's a great game. It's controversial due to it changing genre's from turn based to action based, but seeing the sales of the game it was correct direction despite many people on Era hating that haha.
- Any interesting side character is left to rot.
We were supposed to get a DLC that gives more depth to Aranea and Luna but with Tabata gone, it's long gone. Which is why delaying a game rather than releasing an incomplete game and add story later on via DLC is a bad move...
The Aranea dlc being canceled hurts, but the Noctis and Luna were just what if non-canon scenarios so it that didn't sting as bad. The main party is great tho, easily my favorite in the entire series and the Ignis/Prompto dlc fleshes the bros out even more.
 
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sn00zer

Member
Feb 28, 2018
6,060
I think FFXV is unique in that it seems like a lot of really good ideas that werent executed well rather than bad idea. There are so many cool things about FFXV I really hope carry forward in the series (lived in world, casual conversation, explorable space, monsters living in the world). It feels like they really just ran out of time and money.
 

King Kingo

Banned
Dec 3, 2019
7,656
The best praise I can give it is that it's not a complete clusterfuck like 13. It's the one FF that was actually deserving of some sort of sequel to improve things, but it didn't get one.

Couldn't put it better myself.

Final Fantasy XV tried to flesh itself out with the whole games as a service model but it's evident that hasn't worked out to XV's favour.

And it's kind of telling that Luminous Productions is shifting to a new IP as opposed to continuing XV after Tabata's resignation.
 

Valkerion

Member
Oct 29, 2017
7,229
I liked the final acts of 15, everything after the boat more or less when the story actually started and took center stage. IMO the open world was a massive detriment to the game mostly because it was only half realized and uninteresting if not beautiful. The more linear parts that actually lead to anything were infinitely more gripping than turning in one monster quest at a time or catching frogs or the 3 other side quests that were on repeat in this game.

Started my second playthrough of it a few days ago after only playing it on release with no updates and still am feeling the same way even with some of the quality of life changes.