• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

KINGSGLAIVE: Final Fantasy XV Thread: Everything for the future king

J

jiggle

Member
Ugh
Pretty laughable they had this subplot on discrimination considering how diverse the cast was
The only other female character was literally thrown away like garbage after like 1 minute of screen time
Disgusting
And strong female character Luna spent the whole movie being a captive pawn in need of rescue and protections

Hating minorities and women and want a wall around a country
Did Trump direct this?
I was entertained I guess
Fell well short of the cinematic masterpiece advent children though

It did look amazing
Character models were spectacular, especially the hair
Even the facial animations were good most of the time
But the action scenes were such a blurry hot mess

Who'd knew Jason Sudeikis looks so good as an action hero
Ardyn continued to be the standout character
Ravus sucked; Gabranth called and wanted his role back
Regis was surprisingly weak
 
K

KZXcellent

Member
Finished watching Kingsglaive so I'll post my thoughts.

The visuals are amazing, enough said. All of the political intrigue and the conversation between Regis and Iedolas had me enthralled. Kingsglaive did a very good job at getting me invested in the world they set up.

The movie has problems. Honestly a lot of the third act could have been cut and it would have improved the movie a lot to me.
After Regis is killed they should have gone straight into the confrontation where Nyx is shot and gets the Ring. Also trimming some of the Final Battle stuff like Libertus fighting off Glauca while on top of the car.
It's just unnecessary padding which isn't really needed because the Final Battle is pretty long on it's own to the point where is can become tiring.

The editing is also awkward at points (as many have said). It forced me to pay extra attention because the characters are whipping around and during the final battle they are constantly doing cuts. It's not terrible, but it did take away from the action a bit.

As for the Voice Acting I though most of it was acceptable, the only VA that I thought was on point was Ardyn, Iedolas and Regis. However, Crowe, Libertus and some of the minor characters VA was pretty mediocre (Crowe's especially).

The major thing for me is that this game finally got me to care about Final Fantasy XV. I've been excited for this game but I always had the ghost of Versus XIII at the forefront of my mind. Every change they made since 2013 made my eyes roll but the thing that kept me from being invested in this rebooted game was the lack of story. FFXV has no story trailer. Many this close to launch have a trailer that sets up the story and gives us a reason to care. I feel like forever we've had next to no info on the game's story and events to allow us to get invested and as a result it led me to lamenting about the game from 2006. This movie fixed that. It gave me a world that I'm excited to adventure in with an interesting mythology, cool set of antagonists and some motivation to go on Noct's journey. It feels great. Here's hoping we get a proper story trailer at some point as well but for now I'm excited.

So yeah, movie was fun (with some issues surprise surprise) and finally got me invested in the FFXV story.

Also here's hoping they do cool things with
Ravus
in the game cause he was fucking lame in Kingsglaive.
 
S

Squire

Banned
The Emperor said:
I totally agree you know.

He has quite a cinematic flair and his direction is always compelling. In X as he wasn't in charge of the script, music or content it came together well because other talents ensured those areas were relatively top notch...and he kind of was able to direct cut scenes well to bring that across.
Click to expand...

Definitely. He has his talents, XIII just wasn't a success. I'm not even opposed to him directing another game since I'm very pro-X-2. That said, I wouldn't want him in charge of XVI.
 
R

Ran rp

Member
wmlk said:
Well, Square Enix makes beautiful CG and he's listed as a Director or has some heavy level involvement in a lot of them.

But that may not translate well to a movie.
Click to expand...

I see.

duckroll said:
Almost certainly Nozue if we're talking about directing the production at Visualworks. But it would have been done under the direction of Nomura, who was overseeing the entire project and storyboards a lot of stuff himself. Again, it's the same difference between Advent Children and Kingsglaive. Nozue is obviously very capable at his job in directing a CG studio to get things done. But he doesn't seem very good at being a movie director.
Click to expand...

Yeah I can see Nozue following Nomura's direction. Thanks for clarifying.
 
D

duckroll

Member
Maybe I'm misremembering, but were the standout scenes in FFX really the realtime cutscenes? The FMV always seemed much more impressive to me, which is the opposite of FFXII, where Akiyama's cutscene direction clearly trumped the CG scenes.

It's worth noting that the current era of Visualworks with Takeshi Nozue, Eiji Fujii, and Kazuyuki Ikumori basically started after FFX. From the FFVII to FFX period, the FMVs were directed by Motonori Sakakibara and Hiroshi Kuwabara. Sakakibara eventually went on to co-direct The Spirits Within and crashed and burned along with Sakaguchi. He moved on from videogames since then, and I think the last thing he worked on was the Pac Man animated series. Kuwabara joined during FFVIII, and took over the studio when Sakakibara left. So that's probably where a lot of FFX's FMV greatness comes from.
 
A

APZonerunner

Member
duckroll said:
Maybe I'm misremembering, but were the standout scenes in FFX really the realtime cutscenes? The FMV always seemed much more impressive to me, which is the opposite of FFXII, where Akiyama's cutscene direction clearly trumped the CG scenes.

It's worth noting that the current era of Visualworks with Takeshi Nozue, Eiji Fujii, and Kazuyuki Ikumori basically started after FFX. From the FFVII to FFX period, the FMVs were directed by Motonori Sakakibara and Hiroshi Kuwabara. Sakakibara eventually went on to co-direct The Spirits Within and crashed and burned along with Sakaguchi. He moved on from videogames since then, and I think the last thing he worked on was the Pac Man animated series. Kuwabara joined during FFVIII, and took over the studio when Sakakibara left. So that's probably where a lot of FFX's FMV greatness comes from.
Click to expand...

The irony about Sakakibara being ended at Square by TSW is that TSW is from a directing perspective about 100 times superior to AC or Kingsglaive. Like, he either had natural talent or they studied standard Hollywood techniques very closely.
 
K

Koozek

Member
duckroll said:
Maybe I'm misremembering, but were the standout scenes in FFX really the realtime cutscenes? The FMV always seemed much more impressive to me, which is the opposite of FFXII, where Akiyama's cutscene direction clearly trumped the CG scenes.

It's worth noting that the current era of Visualworks with Takeshi Nozue, Eiji Fujii, and Kazuyuki Ikumori basically started after FFX. From the FFVII to FFX period, the FMVs were directed by Motonori Sakakibara and Hiroshi Kuwabara. Sakakibara eventually went on to co-direct The Spirits Within and crashed and burned along with Sakaguchi. He moved on from videogames since then, and I think the last thing he worked on was the Pac Man animated series. Kuwabara joined during FFVIII, and took over the studio when Sakakibara left. So that's probably where a lot of FFX's FMV greatness comes from.
Click to expand...
Word.

And interesting info, thanks!
 
S

Squire

Banned
duckroll said:
Maybe I'm misremembering, but were the standout scenes in FFX really the realtime cutscenes? The FMV always seemed much more impressive to me, which is the opposite of FFXII, where Akiyama's cutscene direction clearly trumped the CG scenes.

It's worth noting that the current era of Visualworks with Takeshi Nozue, Eiji Fujii, and Kazuyuki Ikumori basically started after FFX. From the FFVII to FFX period, the FMVs were directed by Motonori Sakakibara and Hiroshi Kuwabara. Sakakibara eventually went on to co-direct The Spirits Within and crashed and burned along with Sakaguchi. He moved on from videogames since then, and I think the last thing he worked on was the Pac Man animated series. Kuwabara joined during FFVIII, and took over the studio when Sakakibara left. So that's probably where a lot of FFX's FMV greatness comes from.
Click to expand...

I thought X's in-game cutscenes made for some pretty solid cinematography. I mean, that's the stuff that really sells me on if being cinematic. The FMVs were great (still kinda are with the remaster) and are of course part of it, but honestly those things are so fleeting; they're rarely what comes to mind for me.

And that's with regards to all the FFs with FMV. X is my favorite though, so bias = acknowledged!
 
K

Kuraudo

Banned
I definitely feel the most memorable stuff in FFX is in FMV: the shot of Tidus hanging upside down and catching the first glimpse of Sin, Seymour summoning Anima, the underwater kiss. The ingame stuff has most of the best character moments, but the composition of the FMV is miles ahead.
 
A

Arion

Member
That was bad.

It certainly didn't work as a stand alone film (although it was never intended to) and I don't think it worked as a primer to the game either. The setting and lore of the universe did not seem at all exciting. All the characters seemed really flat. In part because of the dull voice acting and also the facial animation and body language just didn't work. It seemed like the dialogue and the emotions of the characters didn't fit the facial expressions. The action scenes were an incomprehensible mess. Too much particle effects and objects in every frame made it visually very busy so the action was really hard to follow.

Overall better than Spirits Within and worse than Advent Children.
 
artsi

artsi

Member
BTW the iTunes version of the movie had some very weird, juddery framerate. Tried it with many devices but same result.

So I'd recommend Amazon or PSN to buy it.
 
V

Voror

Member
Kagari said:
This film seems kind of polarizing.
Click to expand...

Yeah, there seems to be a love it or hate it in general. I actually feel I'm more in the middle leaning towards negative. It got me excited for the game, but could have been a lot better overall I think with the direction and tightening of the plot.
 
L

Ludens

Banned
So, watched it. I liked it but I didn't like those things:

-Luna is a bland character, all "fate & destiny". At one point because of faith she jumped from the ariship just to be saved by Nyx. she talks like an oracle, she doesn't seem even human.
-a lot of themes are thrown away in two lines, like the minority thing. Nothing is really explained, some characters act in a dumb way like Libertus...I mean, ok, you loved her, but is that enough to pass from being a soldier to join the "resistence"? Resistence against what, exactly? Against the king because of the magic wall used to protect them all? Also Crowe was a soldier, I think you can consider you can die if you are part of an elite, after all.
-action scenes were a mess, in the end I couldn't understhand who was fighint who, worse than a Bay movie.

I enjoyed it, but I don't know how can someone not into FFXV find this interesting. Also
it's kinda pointless, I mean, the king died and they stolen the crystal, was really a two hours movie necessary for this? It would be probably resumed in the game with a couple of lines. I mean, from a marketing point it could make sense, but I'd prefer SE putting those money into the game instead of releasing a movie.
Also the ending is kinda stupid: Luna wants to go by her own, but she is suited like a princess...I mean, people are looking for you and you walk freely in the middle of the street without trying to even disguise youself.
 
C

Cynar

Member
artsi said:
BTW the iTunes version of the movie had some very weird, juddery framerate. Tried it with many devices but same result.

So I'd recommend Amazon or PSN to buy it.
Click to expand...
Google play was fine.

M_Night said:
What's the suggested method to purchase this?

Amazon, PSN, or a different provider? Which one provides the best quality?
Click to expand...
I use Google play for a lot of my movie purchases and it's always worked great for me
 
F

Falk

that puzzling face
artsi said:
BTW the iTunes version of the movie had some very weird, juddery framerate. Tried it with many devices but same result.

So I'd recommend Amazon or PSN to buy it.
Click to expand...

Few years ago I gave up trying to get iTunes to play nice with 24FPS video. I don't know if this is a related issue.
 
R

Ruruja

Member
I liked it.

My only issues were:

- Libertus' voice was absolute dogshite. Jarring when he was speaking to Nyx (who Aaron Paul voiced very well).
- Far too many fade-to-black scenes at the start, always before something actually happened in the scene too.
- Like others have said, the big battle at the end was hard to follow/see due to motion blur and smoke.
-
Crowe was hot and had a great design. Seems a shame to waste that design on a quick to die character.

I'll definitely watch it again when FF15 is closer to release, it was enjoyable.
 
R

Replicant

Member
Not too bad, I guess.

I mean editing is disastrous. Too many weird cuts and fade to black for no good reason. There's little understanding of how to tell story via chaining scenes. Dialogues can be unnatural at times and bordering on fake.

However, there's something arresting about Nyx, Luna, and Regis. Unfortunately,
two of them are goner at the end of the movie
. It makes me wish there's a game with Nyx as the protagonist. I'm not too sure about Luna. I understand they want to make a strong female character but they seem veering towards
suicidal instead of powerful
. Despite that she's intriguing enough and has untapped chemistry with Nyx. It's unfortunate they didn't go there because Noctis looks like a sullen teenage brat in comparison to the more mature Nyx and Luna.

Animation is generally good but character modelling at times look weird. Nyx' body and arm looks too skinny at times when he's not in his Kingsglaive outfit.
 
T

The Emperor

Member
duckroll said:
Maybe I'm misremembering, but were the standout scenes in FFX really the realtime cutscenes? The FMV always seemed much more impressive to me, which is the opposite of FFXII, where Akiyama's cutscene direction clearly trumped the CG scenes.

It's worth noting that the current era of Visualworks with Takeshi Nozue, Eiji Fujii, and Kazuyuki Ikumori basically started after FFX. From the FFVII to FFX period, the FMVs were directed by Motonori Sakakibara and Hiroshi Kuwabara. Sakakibara eventually went on to co-direct The Spirits Within and crashed and burned along with Sakaguchi. He moved on from videogames since then, and I think the last thing he worked on was the Pac Man animated series. Kuwabara joined during FFVIII, and took over the studio when Sakakibara left. So that's probably where a lot of FFX's FMV greatness comes from.
Click to expand...

Wow thanks very much for this info.

So it is Kuwabara & Sakakibara who are responsible for the subtle, yet emotionally transcendent FF CGI from the golden era.

As much as I like visualworks stuff since X it lacks the emotional gravitas. It lacks that feeling of 'beauty'. It lacks a certain style of craftmanship.

Urgh if I could go back in time and change one thing...it would be can Spirits Within.

Everything would be different today if that film had never happened *goes and cries into PS1/PS2 FF game cases...but tears pass through the disc cases...as they have now turned into mere dreams of a long lost past*
 
V

Voror

Member
Ruruja said:
- Far too many fade-to-black scenes at the start, always before something actually happened in the scene too.
.
Click to expand...

This was bizarre to me at the start. I actually started cracking up when it kept happening and then they just stop doing it till later on where it wasn't quite as jarring.

Replicant said:
However, there's something arresting about Nyx, Luna, and Regis. Unfortunately,
two of them are goner at the end of the movie
. It makes me wish there's a game with Nyx as the protagonist. I'm not too sure about Luna. I understand they want to make a strong female character but they seem veering towards
suicidal instead of powerful
. Despite that she's intriguing enough and has untapped chemistry with Nyx. It's unfortunate they didn't go there because Noctis looks like a sullen teenage brat in comparison to the more mature Nyx and Luna.
Click to expand...

They're definitely the most compelling of the characters on screen. Luna felt weird in this film to me and I kept rolling my eyes since she often seemed to talk in speeches with all the destiny and fate stuff. There definitely was some chemistry going on there I thought and a part of me wonders if that is perhaps a remnant of Noctis' role in the invasion that was cut or something else. It does make me hope that Noctis shapes up over the course of the game.
 
B

bunkitz

Member
Uhh, can somebody explain some things for me? I watched the movie some time ago already, but seeing people mention
"Knights of the Round"
and
"Diamond Weapon"
is confusing me because I don't know what the fuck those are? I recognize the former from the speculation discussions, but I never really understood it...
 
L

Ludens

Banned
bunkitz said:
Uhh, can somebody explain some things for me? I watched the movie some time ago already, but seeing people mention
"Knights of the Round"
and
"Diamond Weapon"
is confusing me because I don't know what the fuck those are? I recognize the former from the speculation discussions, but I never really understood it...
Click to expand...

The Diamond is the "demon" they summon in the beginning and the end of the movie. It was a boss from FFVII.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mdv9T7e7sKM
Knights of the Round was a hidden summon in FFVII, the most powerful one, and I suppose in this movie is the Lucii spell Nyx summoned after he offered his life while wearing the ring.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv9aI5RkoeQ
 
K

kurahador

Member
bunkitz said:
Uhh, can somebody explain some things for me? I watched the movie some time ago already, but seeing people mention
"Knights of the Round"
and
"Diamond Weapon"
is confusing me because I don't know what the fuck those are? I recognize the former from the speculation discussions, but I never really understood it...
Click to expand...

Nifelheim's
monster thing is Diamond Weapon
. The thing
that Nyx control at the end is KOTR
.

They are both from FF7.
 
G

GwyndolinCinder

Member
bunkitz said:
Uhh, can somebody explain some things for me? I watched the movie some time ago already, but seeing people mention
"Knights of the Round"
and
"Diamond Weapon"
is confusing me because I don't know what the fuck those are? I recognize the former from the speculation discussions, but I never really understood it...
Click to expand...
They are final fantasy bosses and summons
 
S

sheamus

Member
I kind a wish I watch this movie after I played Final Fantasy. But overall I liked it I think they fucked up by
killing crowe off I think she's a really cool character

The movie looks beautiful
 
Auto_aim1

Auto_aim1

MeisaMcCaffrey
I think it was okay. Some cool moments and the last bit was totally crazy. That scene where Nyx
gains temporary power reminded me of the one from Transformers 2 where Sam was deemed worthy by the Primes. I felt like Aaron Paul was gonna cry and say hecantkeepgettingawaywithit.gif haha.
 
B

bunkitz

Member
Ludens said:
The Diamond is the "demon" they summon in the beginning and the end of the movie. It was a boss from FFVII. Knights of the Round was a hidden summon in FFVII, the most powerful one, and I suppose in this movie is the Lucii spell Nyx summoned after he offered his life while wearing the ring.
Click to expand...

kurahador said:
Nifelheim's
monster thing is Diamond Weapon
. The thing
that Nyx control at the end is KOTR
.

They are both from FF7.
Click to expand...

GwyndolinCinder said:
They are final fantasy bosses and summons
Click to expand...

AH. Right, right. Thanks! I recognized the
"Diamond Weapon,"
but it didn't click in my head because I was thinking of
Ultimate Weapon, which I thought was the name for all of them. (I was a kid when I played VII and I didn't know about the optional bosses at the time)
Didn't know about
the Knights of the Round summon, though.
 
Grizzlyjin

Grizzlyjin

Supersonic, idiotic, disconnecting, not respecting, who would really ever wanna go and top that
This was just exhausting to watch. It got more muddled and lazy as the film dragged on. The first half of the feels disjointed. Jumps around and fades to black with little cohesiveness. Then in the second half everything gets rushed. Reveals and supposedly emotional moments come and go at breakneck speed.

I don't even know why this exists. It obviously is attempting to have some sort of mass market appeal since they paid for popular actors for the lead roles. It's just hard to imagine someone that had absolutely no interest in FFXV being excited by this. After the first hour I was just ready for it to be over. The visuals look good sometimes...that's about the only positive thing I have to say. I honestly don't understand what this movie is even trying to do. It doesn't really develop the cast of characters in this film, it edges around characters that will actually be in FFXV, and it doesn't really serve as a good introduction to this world.

This had the opposite effect on me that I imagine it was supposed to. The grounded visuals just highlight the poor writing even more. It's jarring to watch photorealistic characters spout off this trite dialogue. If this was some cheap direct to DVD live action film, they wouldn't have the budget for big specials effects and grand scenes. But this does those things since it is CG, and the writing doesn't match the quality of the visuals. If Games of Thrones was a SyFy original tv show, I imagine it would be something like this.
 
L

Ludens

Banned
bunkitz said:
AH. Right, right. Thanks! I recognized the
"Diamond Weapon,"
but it didn't click in my head because I was thinking of
Ultimate Weapon, which I thought was the name for all of them. (I was a kid when I played VII and I didn't know about the optional bosses at the time)
Didn't know about
the Knights of the Round summon, though.
Click to expand...

I edited my post if you want a couple of videos for those.
 
R

Ruff

Member
What are "daemons" anyway? Do they appear in the game in any way or is it just the general term for a monster in this world. Where are they even getting these city destroying size monsters by the shipload anyway??
 
E

encephalon

Member
Ludens said:
So, watched it. I liked it but I didn't like those things:

-Luna is a bland character, all "fate & destiny". At one point because of faith she jumped from the ariship just to be saved by Nyx. she talks like an oracle, she doesn't seem even human.
-a lot of themes are thrown away in two lines, like the minority thing. Nothing is really explained, some characters act in a dumb way like Libertus...I mean, ok, you loved her, but is that enough to pass from being a soldier to join the "resistence"? Resistence against what, exactly? Against the king because of the magic wall used to protect them all? Also Crowe was a soldier, I think you can consider you can die if you are part of an elite, after all.
-action scenes were a mess, in the end I couldn't understhand who was fighint who, worse than a Bay movie.

I enjoyed it, but I don't know how can someone not into FFXV find this interesting. Also
it's kinda pointless, I mean, the king died and they stolen the crystal, was really a two hours movie necessary for this? It would be probably resumed in the game with a couple of lines. I mean, from a marketing point it could make sense, but I'd prefer SE putting those money into the game instead of releasing a movie.
Also the ending is kinda stupid: Luna wants to go by her own, but she is suited like a princess...I mean, people are looking for you and you walk freely in the middle of the street without trying to even disguise youself.
Click to expand...

I think it would really be better served as the intro to the game, even if escaping Insomnia wasn't an event in the game.

Here's a rough idea for a better intro for the game, which is currently terrible and is clearly robbed by the existence of the movie.

1. Narration setting the scene, briefly covering Lucis and Niffleheim, the crystal, the war, blah blah blah.
2. Cut to the versus signing ceremony scene that made it into the movie.
3. Show a bit of the imperial airships attacking the city.
4. Fade to black, narration continues with some weighty line portraying the state of affairs in a perilous light.
5. Insomnia under attack. Weapon might appear.
6. Show Regis being killed, unless they want it to be a surprise the player learns about later.
7. Luna walks down the highway just like in the concept art. Pan up to the sky.
8. Back down to the car being pushed.
 
K

KupoNut

Member
Ruff said:
What are "daemons" anyway? Do they appear in the game in any way or is it just the general term for a monster in this world. Where are they even getting these city destroying size monsters by the shipload anyway??
Click to expand...

Think they're sub-bosses, think the Iron Giant was called a Daemon in the Master Version gameplay too.
 
artsi

artsi

Member
Ruff said:
What are "daemons" anyway? Do they appear in the game in any way or is it just the general term for a monster in this world. Where are they even getting these city destroying size monsters by the shipload anyway??
Click to expand...

Yeah they are in the game too.

They're more like monsters than normal animals. Daemons supposedly only come out at night, and live in dark places like caves or dungeons by day.

For example in Duscae, goblins are only in the caves but come out to the plains at night. In the 50 minute video an Iron Giant attacked the party when they were driving at night.
 
R

Ruff

Member
artsi said:
Yeah they are in the game too.

They're more like monsters than normal animals. Daemons supposedly only come out at night, and live in dark places like caves or dungeons by day.

For example in Duscae, goblins are only in the caves but come out to the plains at night. In the 50 minute video an Iron Giant attacked the party when they were driving at night.
Click to expand...

Ah I never remembered that name being used in the game when I played the demo, guess my memory lets me down.

Still, the ones in the film look big enough to be summons in their own right
 
T

The Last One

Member
The (BIG SPOILER)
Regis's death was really brutal. I wasn't expecting something like that

I remember Tabata saying that the game would feature some really brutal scenes, the problem is that the game probably won't have violence with blood because of the ratings.
 
K

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
I really didn't enjoy how
Clarus and the other members of the Lucian Council just got offed so easily.
It was pretty bullshit.
 
T

Toth

Member
Ruff said:
Ah I never remembered that name being used in the game when I played the demo, guess my memory lets me down.

Still, the ones in the film look big enough to be summons in their own right
Click to expand...

I also wager that this is the serious threat of the Plague of Stars: longer and ultimately everlasting night means that the daemons will become even more powerful and have free reign over the darkened world.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

  • Poll
Final Fantasy XVI | Review Thread
Analysis Review Hype 24 25 26 27 28
1K
94K
Brigandier replied
Sony Pictures Core, formerly Bravia Core, launches on PS5 and PS4 consoles
2 3
142
9K
Sorcerer replied
  • Poll
SONY/SIE: The Balance Of Chasing Margins, Multiplat Expansion, And Maximizing The Console
Opinion Business Analysis 2 3
101
7K
vaibhavpisal replied
Naoki Yoshida and Hironobu Sakaguchi to discuss RPGs’ future, Final Fantasy XVI at TGS 2021
Opinion 2
74
8K
YeulEmeralda replied
RTTP: Final Fantasy XV - Return of the Dissapointment, or is it?
15
2K
TheInfamousKira replied
Top Bottom