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[Death Penalty]

Besides her design, what are those "great reasons"?

One, you're being a bit dismissive when you say we knew nothing about her. Those that followed the game from its outset knew plenty, about as much as we know about Glad, Ignis and Prompto. A smattering of her history, the fact that she was placed in opposition to Noctis, a glimpse of her personality, and even her mysterious role as one of three people with powers similar to Noctis'. It's not a whole ton, but it's more than enough to form an attachment or an opinion. I'm glad you don't care, that's great, but I can't fault those that do.

Two, Stella's removal is a pretty blatant red flag that tells us Tabata lied to our faces several times. The constant company line was that the storyline remained intact from Nomura's days and that his concept was their guiding light. Stella was half of the duo that was promoting Versus back in the day and an extremely primary character according to Nomura. The fact that she is now gone suggests sweeping changes to the story and that's bad news for anyone who might be a fan of Nomura or what's been shown up to this point. She symbolizes the removal of iconic scenes including some that were running as gameplay in 2011, and it's hard to imagine that Nomura's original concept remains very intact. Nomura is one of my favorite creators and I don't think this is great news as a result.

Again, it's cool that you're not upset but I think there's more there to lament than you're acknowledging.

 

[StrongBlackVine]

Looks just like the new girl so I don't see the problem.

 

[BocoDragon]

I think they're taking it like how some people took Magus being took out of CC mate, except we learned after the fact.

The loss of Magus should be greater. He is an established character that we actually came to know.

Stella is a character design, she was never a character.

 

[Ray Down]

Luna is going to transform into the deity in this game. I can feel it. Final boss.

"I have now become...Stella, goddess of this realm."

 

[The Spoony Hou]

Poor Kagari.

 

[Lynx_7]

Here's hoping S-E dials it back a little for FFXVI. This game feels like it was an unwieldy, bloated, and unfocused project from the start.

Final Fantasy doesn't need to blow the doors off the genre with every outing. How hard can it be to make a solid turn-based RPG with top-notch art assets? That's what we all really like about FF, isn't it?

I really wonder if they'll ever go back to a turn-based system again. And I mean a really traditional one, more like FF X or the psx/snes era with full party control and less like XIII.
I'd really love for them to do so, but considering how antagonistic the western (mainstream audience) has been against menu-based battle systems and people's huge boner over real-time action, I have my doubts about that possibility.

At least I can always count on Dragon Quest to deliver a classic jrpg experience. Well, whenever Enix decides they've had enough mmorpgs, ports and spin-offs I guess.

 

[Tesseract]

awesome

 

[jstripes]

Most of that time it was lack of development though, it really only went full production in 2011 then got a reboot for next gen.

That's like the literal definition of development hell.

 

[Zophar]

I really wonder if they'll ever go back to a turn-based system again. And I mean a really traditional one, more like FF X or the psx/snes era with full party control and less like XIII.
I'd really love for them to do so, but considering how antagonistic the western (mainstream audience) has been against menu-based battle systems and people's huge boner over real-time action, I have my doubts about that possibility.

At least I can always count on Dragon Quest to deliver. Well, whenever Enix decides they've had enough mmorpgs, ports and spin-offs I guess.

Fwiw, Bravely Default outsold Lighting Returns when they both debuted stateside.

 

[.JayZii]

The loss of Magus should be greater. He is an established character that we actually came to know.

Stella is a character design, she was never a character.

You clearly missed out on the subtlety and nuance she displayed in the past trailers. She was going to fight Noctis-kun! She looked determined! Her hair was less blonde! Luna obviously can't do that. She looked kinda sad at a table in that reveal trailer so that's all she's going to do.

 

[BocoDragon]

I really wonder if they'll ever go back to a turn-based system again. And I mean a really traditional one, more like FF X or the psx/snes era with full party control and less like XIII.
I'd really love for them to do so, but considering how antagonistic the western (mainstream audience) has been against menu-based battle systems and people's huge boner over real-time action, I have my doubts about that possibility.

At least I can always count on Dragon Quest to deliver. Well, whenever Enix decides they've had enough mmorpgs, ports and spin-offs I guess.

FFX wasn't really a traditional one.

And with FFX they always stated that the series would continue to change and evolve forevermore. Sometimes I wonder if some people got that memo. Not ever going back to anything in FFI-IX is hard-coded into the concept of the series now.

 

[Ishida]

One, you're being a bit dismissive when you say we knew nothing about her. Those that followed the game from its outset knew plenty, about as much as we know about Glad, Ignis and Prompto. A smattering of her history, the fact that she was placed in opposition to Noctis, a glimpse of her personality, and even her mysterious role as one of three people with powers similar to Noctis'. It's not a whole ton, but it's more than enough to form an attachment or an opinion. I'm glad you don't care, that's great, but I can't fault those that do.

Two, Stella's removal is a pretty blatant red flag that tells us Tabata lied to our faces several times. The constant company line was that the storyline remained intact from Nomura's days and that his concept was their guiding light. Stella was half of the duo that was promoting Versus back in the day and an extremely primary character according to Nomura. The fact that she is now gone suggests sweeping changes to the story and that's bad news for anyone who might be a fan of Nomura or what's been shown up to this point. She symbolizes the removal of iconic scenes including some that were running as gameplay in 2011, and it's hard to imagine that Nomura's original concept remains very intact. Nomura is one of my favorite creators and I don't think this is great news as a result.

Again, it's cool that you're not upset but I think there's more there to lament than you're acknowledging.

What exactly did we know of Stella? And let's use only official stuff here, not assumptions made on her appearance.

Officially, directly from Nomura, we got this:

*She's royalty from Tenebrae.
*She has the power to see the souls of the dead/people who are about to die. This is due to a near-death experience.
*She is very polite, elegant and straightforward.
*She has to fight Noctis due to unknown circumstances.
*She seems to have the same Crystal-related powers that Noctis has.
*She met Noctis in the party before Niflheim attacks.

That's pretty much it. Everything else that people might say are assumptions.

What do we know of Luna?

*She's royalty from Tenebrae.
*She's a target of Niflheim's attack.
*She seems to have the same, or a similar Crystal-related ability that Noctis has. There are several small crystal shards floating around her during the footage.
*She seems to know Noctis from before the attack.
*Survives the attack, goes to Accordo where she is waiting for Noctis to give him something important.



I think that's pretty much it. Is it enough to put Stella in an unreachable pedestal and downgrade Luna to "weak damsel in distress"? Personally, I don't think so.

 

[jb1234]

None of this is even remotely reassuring.

 

[PensivePen]

People's attachment to a character in a game they never played is bizarre.

 

[Mr. RHC]

My Dark Lord Couldn't Possibly Be This Fatherly - a new prequel light novel for FFXV coming to a bookstore near you!

Would preorder.

My conspiracy theory is still that she's Luna, lol.

What?? I never noticed the blond hair, what is going on??

 

[Megidolaon]

What's the deal with the whole underwater fighting as DLC? Were there supposed to be fights like in X where you could fight like fish and stuff they had to cut? How is that gonna be handled as DLC? Sounds bizarre.

 

[Death Penalty]

What exactly did we know of Stella? And let's use only official stuff here, not assumptions made on her appearance.

Officially, directly from Nomura, we got this:

*She's royalty from Tenebrae.
*She has the power to see the souls of the dead/people who are about to die. This is due to a near-death experience.
*She is very polite, elegant and straightforward.
*She has to fight Noctis due to unknown circumstances.
*She seems to have the same Crystal-related powers that Noctis has.
*She met Noctis in the party before Niflheim attacks.

That's pretty much it. Everything else that people might say are assumptions.

What do we know of Luna?

*She's royalty from Tenebrae.
*Niflheim tried to kill her. We can assume this because the news mentioned her as dead.
*She seems to have the same, or a similar Crystal-related ability that Noctis has. There are several small crystal shards floating around her during the footage.
*She seems to know Noctis from before the attack.
*Survives the attack, goes to Accordo where she is waiting for Noctis to give him something important.



I think that's pretty much it. Is it enough to put Stella in an unreachable pedestal and downgrade Luna to "weak damsel in distress"? Personally, I don't think so.

You misunderstand, I'm not in the "Luna is bad" camp. I'm in the "I'm going to miss Stella" camp. The bullet points you listed are why I was intrigued to meet Stella, and her presentation as being in direct opposition with Noctis already made her atypical as heroines go. I'll agree that I don't know enough about Luna to judge her as a poor character. I'm hopeful she maintains the same powers Stella had, even, and am eager to know more about her. I think most people crying out against Luna are just doing so because they see her as trying to replace a character they were already looking forward to.

However, I am sad to see Stella go and I'm sad to know that Tabata was lying this whole time about the state of the story. I think there was plenty to like about Stella and apparently she was a well-realized enough character that Tabata felt the need to scrap her utterly because she no longer fit and that's a concern for me.

 

[Kagari]

What's the deal with the whole underwater fighting as DLC? Were there supposed to be fights like in X where you could fight like fish and stuff they had to cut? How is that gonna be handled as DLC? Sounds bizarre.

It was a vague answer. Much like the airship answer a few months ago.

Don't expect airships.

 

[OBias]

Has there ever been a game that recovered from being in development hell and turned out good?

Team Fortress 2. It was in development for nine years, from 1998 to 2007.

 

[Lynx_7]

FFX wasn't really a traditional one.

And with FFX they always stated that the series would continue to change and evolve forevermore. Sometimes I wonder if some people got that memo. Not ever going back to anything in FFI-IX is hard-coded into the concept of the series now.

If anything, X was one of the more traditional ones with the lack of an ATB system and just a straight up turn-based combat without many notable gimmicks other then turn order depending on which attacks you use. When I say "traditional" I'm referring to turn-based systems in general, not just within the context of Final Fantasy where ATB is

Spoiler

(was)

the norm.
EDIT: also, going from the series "continuing to change and evolve" to "we'll probably never return to the kind of battle systems that defined this franchise to begin with" is a pretty huge leap imo. Of course, it's all conjecture at this point.

 

[wmlk]

What's the deal with the whole underwater fighting as DLC? Were there supposed to be fights like in X where you could fight like fish and stuff they had to cut? How is that gonna be handled as DLC? Sounds bizarre.

They never confirmed underwater fighting. They actually never even outright mentioned it.

People just assumed that you would be able to and Tabata heard of it after the demo.

Just because Noctis swimming for 2 seconds in the E3 2013 trailer, it doesn't mean that there's underwater fighting. I would be disappointed if there wasn't any swimming though.

 

[Kagari]

You misunderstand, I'm not in the "Luna is bad" camp. I'm in the "I'm going to miss Stella" camp. The bullet points you listed are why I was intrigued to meet Stella, and her presentation as being in direct opposition with Noctis already made her atypical as heroines go. I'll agree that I don't know enough about Luna to judge her as a poor character. I'm hopeful she maintains the same powers Stella had, even, and am eager to know more about her. I think most people crying out against Luna are just doing so because they see her as trying to replace a character they were already looking forward to.

However, I am sad to see Stella go and I'm sad to know that Tabata was lying this whole time about the state of the story. I think there was plenty to like about Stella and apparently she was a well-realized enough character that Tabata felt the need to scrap her utterly because she no longer fit and that's a concern for me.

Well said, really.

 

[rhandino]

I think that's pretty much it. Is it enough to put Stella in an unreachable pedestal and downgrade Luna to "weak damsel in distress"? Personally, I don't think so.

Maybe, just maaaaaybe is the framing and how they presented the characters? Stella was presented as an action girl despite her politeness and Nomura stated that she was going to 'stand out' compared to the other female characters of the franchise but so far Luna and her reveal has been pretty... meh?

You are not wrong tho, we need to wait for more material / trailer / etc. before saying how bad/good character is Luna on her own but people is discussing with the things the team has presented so far...

Oh, Also, could it be that maybe some are concerned of her role because of this:

Stella – Presented as the heroine to play opposite Noctis in Versus XIII. The team wanted to keep her as a heroine and pursued ways to tie her into Final Fantasy XV‘s design, but we found it difficult to make sense of her character and role within the new game. So then they thought, “Do we want to recreate Stella in a different role and image, or do we want to start over with a new heroine?” After a lot of consideration, the team decided not to include Stella and go with a new heroine named Luna, who has a different role in the story.

Luna will have a different role in the story, and since people perceived Stella as an Action Girl... well, you can see how that can be constructed.

 

[Ishida]

You misunderstand, I'm not in the "Luna is bad" camp. I'm in the "I'm going to miss Stella" camp. The bullet points you listed are why I was intrigued to meet Stella, and her presentation as being in direct opposition with Noctis already made her atypical as heroines go. I'll agree that I don't know enough about Luna to judge her as a poor character. I'm hopeful she maintains the same powers Stella had, even, and am eager to know more about her. I think most people crying out against Luna are just doing so because they see her as trying to replace a character they were already looking forward to.

However, I am sad to see Stella go and I'm sad to know that Tabata was lying this whole time about the state of the story. I think there was plenty to like about Stella and apparently she was a well-realized enough character that Tabata felt the need to scrap her utterly because she no longer fit and that's a concern for me.

I'm actually sad that Stella's design is no more, but Nomura always said that all the designs were placeholders, from the very beginning, so I guess I just learned to accept it.

And don't get me wrong, of course I loved the little we knew about Stella. I love strong, determined female characters. But Luna could very well be like that. We have seen so little of her. We don't actually know what her role is. Perhaps she might even fight Noctis at some point.

I will wait and see more of Luna. If she ends up being weak, of course I will complain. But so far they haven't given me a reason to. Luna is still a mystery. I cannot praise her, and I cannot bitch about her.

Stella is gone, the sooner the people accept that, the better. Complaining about it won't bring her back. We can only look forward to the new character, Luna, and what she will bring to the table.

Maybe, just maaaaaybe is the framing and how they presented the characters? Stella was presented as an action girl despite her politeness and Nomura stated that she was going to 'stand out' compared to the other female characters of the franchise but so far Luna and her reveal has been pretty... meh?

You are not wrong tho, we need to wait for more material / trailer / etc. before saying how bad/good character is Luna on her own but people is discussing with the things the team has presented so far...

Oh, Also, could it be that maybe some are concerned of her role because of this:
Luna will have a different role in the story, and since people perceived Stella as an Action Girl... well, you can see how that can be constructed.

Well, "different" doesn't exactly mean "opposite". She may still be an action girl, just a different character from Stella.

 

[Megidolaon]

It was a vague answer. Much like the airship answer a few months ago.

Don't expect airships.

Yep. Expectations are in check.

They never confirmed underwater fighting. They actually never even outright mentioned it.

People just assumed that you would be able to and Tabata heard of it after the demo.

Just because Noctis swimming for 2 seconds in the E3 2013 trailer, it doesn't mean that there's underwater fighting. I would be disappointed if there wasn't any swimming though.

Ah, I gotcha. Yeah, I saw that fight but never assumed there'd be underwater fighting.

 

[Kagari]

The character designs weren't placeholders, just the clothing.

 

[chaosaeon]

I wonder if the big city battle with Leviathan from the 2013 trailer is still in.

This was one of the biggest things that got me actually interested in this game. I wanted to play that. If that's out too . . .

Feels like every time I see news about this game it's something else that makes me go "welllll ...."

 

[Ishida]

The character designs weren't placeholders, just the clothing.

Ah yeah, that's what I tried to say. Wrong way to put it.

 

[wmlk]

The character designs weren't placeholders, just the clothing.

Stella and Prompto still looked different in 2011 and looked even more different again in 2013. Stella didn't have that strong design from 2008 in future revisions.

Stella was more intriguing to me, sure. But they would not make changes unless they felt it was for the better. They know more about this than we do.

 

[Makoto Yuki]

People's attachment to a character in a game they never played is bizarre.

I've never understood this myself.

It's no longer the FF Versus XIII I dreamed about playing exclusively on my PS3 so many years ago. It's now FFXV and things have changed dramatically. It's time to move on and accept that things change, hopefully for the best. So long Stella, it's a shame I never got to play FFvXIII, but in all honesty, Luna might as well be Stella reincarnated.

 

[Death Penalty]

Well said, really.

It just sucks because up until today I had really been buying into the image Tabata was trying to present as a straight shooter who was interested in preserving the spirit of the original concept. He seemed open and straightforward and not afraid of tackling ugly questions. Honestly, I likely should have known that it was all PR as it was coming off just a little too well. Now it's clear that he has little concern for what made Versus such a compelling concept to begin with and more concerned with getting XV out the door. Combine this with the fact that he doesn't have the greatest track record with female characters in my opinion and it's just tough not to be worried.

I just wish they hadn't lied so much, because they'd gotten me back to believing that Versus lived on when I should have been saying goodbye years ago.

 

[MultiJhonny]

I've never understood this myself.

It's no longer the FF Versus XIII I dreamed about playing exclusively on my PS3 so many years ago. It's now FFXV and things have changed dramatically. It's time to move on and accept that things change, hopefully for the best. So long Stella, it's a shame I never got to play FFvXIII, but in all honesty, Luna might as well be Stella reincarnated.

Exactly, and if people weren't preparing for changes after 10 years then that is just really naive.

It just sucks because up until today I had really been buying into the image Tabata was trying to present as a straight shooter who was interested in preserving the spirit of the original concept. He seemed open and straightforward and not afraid of tackling ugly questions. Honestly, I likely should have known that it was all PR as it was coming off just a little too well. Now it's clear that he has little concern for what made Versus such a compelling concept to begin with and more concerned with getting XV out the door. Combine this with the fact that he doesn't have the greatest track record with female characters in my opinion and it's just tough not to be worried.

I just wish they hadn't lied so much, because they'd gotten me back to believing that Versus lived on when I should have been saying goodbye years ago.

Honestly I bet it is still the management kinda forcing this since I bet most involved want to move on already and get it out so they can continue the series, while striving to make a quality title.

 

[rhandino]

Stella and Prompto still looked different in 2011 and looked even more different again in 2013. Stella didn't have that strong design from 2008 in future revisions.

That doesn't mean they were placeholders tho, they just updated them a bit, Nomura even explained why the change:

Finaland & FFDream: Why did you change Stella’s design and made her look so much younger. Is it because of story development or because you made a survey with the audience ?

Tetsuya Nomura: There is no specific reason behind hit, but we didn’t want to make her look younger, we just wanted to make her a little bit prettier. That’s all.

 

[Kagari]

It just sucks because up until today I had really been buying into the image Tabata was trying to present as a straight shooter who was interested in preserving the spirit of the original concept. He seemed open and straightforward and not afraid of tackling ugly questions. Honestly, I likely should have known that it was all PR as it was coming off just a little too well. Now it's clear that he has little concern for what made Versus such a compelling concept to begin with and more concerned with getting XV out the door. Combine this with the fact that he doesn't have the greatest track record with female characters in my opinion and it's just tough not to be worried.

I just wish they hadn't lied so much, because they'd gotten me back to believing that Versus lived on when I should have been saying goodbye years ago.

Yeah. And of course that's what SE wanted people to think - that everything was all right.
The truth was going to come out eventually though and the length of time they took to do so just shatters all of the parading around they've done since TGS trying to copy Naoki Yoshida and his Live Letter format.

 

[wmlk]

That doesn't mean they were placeholders tho, they just updated them a bit, Nomura even explained why the change:

I didn't say they were placeholders. I just implied that the game changed as all games in development do.

 

[.JayZii]

The character designs weren't placeholders, just the clothing.

Considering there are like four different rendered Stella designs that were shown, I don't think saying they were placeholder is entirely off the mark.

 

[Death Penalty]

Yeah. And of course that's what SE wanted people to think - that everything was all right.
The truth was going to come out eventually though and the length of time they took to do so just shatters all of the parading around they've done since TGS trying to copy Naoki Yoshida and his Live Letter format.

Without a doubt it seems like a calculated effort to appease fans of Versus with no substance behind the words at all. It just goes to show that you shouldn't believe PR, and I won't in the future. I hope their marketing can go a different direction in the future because it's difficult not to see this as a betrayal.

 

[Mr. RHC]

"Betrayal" LMFAO, I don't know exactly what is going behind the scenes, how should I but this warfare rhetoric is laughable.

I mean, the game is like a year or more away and they just told us about Luna and other changes.
Yes, it's coming step by step and maybe it's only coming in the long run.

I'm sensing some sort of feud and it's not very exciting to play along when only a few people know what's really going on.

 

[Thoraxes]

Not saying otherwise. A completely valid opinion.

I'm hoping 2.0 changes some of that for me!

I don't really expect to see much besides resource tweaks though, based on what we know so far.

 

[Death Penalty]

"Betrayal" LMFAO, I don't know exactly what is going behind the scenes, how should I but this warfare rhetoric is laughable.

I mean, the game is like a year or more away and they just told us about Luna and other changes.
Yes, it's coming step by step and maybe it's only coming the long run.

I'm sensing some sort of feud and it's not very exciting to play along when only a few people know what's really going on.

Perhaps the word is a bit melodramatic, but I'm not sure how else to characterize the deliberate feeding of misinformation over the course of several months to fans. It's manipulative in the extreme, and the fact that what the game really is is coming out now after months of it is unseemly to say the least.

 

[Megidolaon]

So looks like Noctis won't be in the new Dissidia if they have to wait til after FFXV comes out to add him in...

 

[Ishida]

I'm hoping 2.0 changes some of that for me!

I don't really expect to see much besides resource tweaks though, based on what we know so far.

Well, from what we know, 2.0 features:

*More animations for the characters.
*More interactions between the protagonists.
*Several new attack moves/Techs for Noctis.
*New Double/Cooperative attack.
*Better performance (Framerate?)
*New quests where you can take one of your companions.
*We can now fight and be murdered by the Catoblepas.
*We can now Warp to rocks.
*New evasive movement (Roll).

 

[LowParry]

So looks like Noctis won't be in the new Dissidia if they have to wait til after FFXV comes out to add him in...

Why not? He'll be making an appearance at some point as a cameo in FFXIV?

 

[Makoto Yuki]

It just sucks because up until today I had really been buying into the image Tabata was trying to present as a straight shooter who was interested in preserving the spirit of the original concept. He seemed open and straightforward and not afraid of tackling ugly questions. Honestly, I likely should have known that it was all PR as it was coming off just a little too well. Now it's clear that he has little concern for what made Versus such a compelling concept to begin with and more concerned with getting XV out the door. Combine this with the fact that he doesn't have the greatest track record with female characters in my opinion and it's just tough not to be worried.

I just wish they hadn't lied so much, because they'd gotten me back to believing that Versus lived on when I should have been saying goodbye years ago.

Sure it's not gonna be the game or story it was supposed to be as FFvXIII but that doesn't mean they are not "preserving the spirit of the original concept"

From what I remember about Final Fantasy Versus XIII's story (Please correct me if I'm wrong), Nomura wanted it to be about "bonding" Noctis was shy, and the story was defending his kingdom's crystal. There is also a pretty blond lady (Stella) that Noctis seems to be involved with. Final Fantasy XV seems to be about his buddies bonding over this crazy road trip, and also has something to do with crystals, don't forget the pretty blonde lady (Luna). Bonus busty blonde, Cindy. So from a bare bones perspective they are preserving some of what was originally there at a base level. Will Noct fight Luna at one point? Who is to say. Probably not, but it may make for a better story.

Gameplay wise it's still Versus in the "Versus" sense, going against standards of Final Fantasy gameplay, not the ATBs, CTBs, and turn based battles, but a more action oriented game. Much like the 7 minute trailer showed. FFXV won't be the KH inspired gameplay from Nomura, but the general consensus of FFXV's gameplay is that it's pretty good, just needs refining, but that's what demos are for. Gives the audience an idea of what to expect, but allows the creators to refine the game as well.

So in many ways, I feel like FFXV still maintains what I've come to associate with FFvXIII, at its core it's still preserving what it once was, but for all we know it's just reinterpreting what the story was before.

 

[duckroll]

So looks like Noctis won't be in the new Dissidia if they have to wait til after FFXV comes out to add him in...

The new Dissidia is an arcade game which will be constantly adding new characters via updates. I don't see the issue.

 

[Ishida]

Sure it's not gonna be the game or story it was supposed to be as FFvXIII but that doesn't mean they are not "preserving the spirit of the original concept"

From what I remember about Final Fantasy Versus XIII's story (Please correct me if I'm wrong), Nomura wanted it to be about "bonding" Noctis was shy, and the story was defending his kingdom's crystal. There is also a pretty blond lady (Stella) that Noctis seems to be involved with. Final Fantasy XV seems to be about his buddies bonding over this crazy road trip, and also has something to do with crystals, don't forget the pretty blonde lady (Luna). Bonus busty blonde, Cindy. So from a bare bones perspective they are preserving some of what was originally there at a base level. Will Noct fight Luna at one point? Who is to say. Probably not, but it may make for a better story.

Gameplay wise it's still Versus in the "Versus" sense, going against standards of Final Fantasy gameplay, not the ATBs, CTBs, and turn based battles, but a more action oriented game. Much like the 7 minute trailer showed. FFXV won't be the KH inspired gameplay from Nomura, but the general consensus of FFXV's gameplay is that it's pretty good, just needs refining, but that's what demos are for. Gives the audience an idea of what to expect, but allows the creators to refine the game as well.

So in many ways, I feel like FFXV still maintains what I've come to associate with FFvXIII, at its core it's still preserving what it once was, but for all we know it's just reinterpreting what the story was before.

Fantastic post.

 

[Zomba13]

Maybe, just maaaaaybe is the framing and how they presented the characters? Stella was presented as an action girl despite her politeness and Nomura stated that she was going to 'stand out' compared to the other female characters of the franchise but so far Luna and her reveal has been pretty... meh?

You are not wrong tho, we need to wait for more material / trailer / etc. before saying how bad/good character is Luna on her own but people is discussing with the things the team has presented so far...

Oh, Also, could it be that maybe some are concerned of her role because of this:
Luna will have a different role in the story, and since people perceived Stella as an Action Girl... well, you can see how that can be constructed.

This is kinda how I feel. I know we're still waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay away from release and we know next to nothing about the actual games story and characters but my impression by "cutting" Stella and not simply renaming/redesigning her the "replacement" is going to be a very different character.

Like, say they cut Noctis and replaced him with Nighty and they specifically said "Noctis has been cut" even though Nighty looks kinda like Noctis. It implies that the character and their role in the story and personality and everything is gone and not just transferred into a different body with a different name. So if Stella was supposed to be unexpected, one to stand out, someone who might oppose Noctis for their own reasons and being a equal to him then cutting her and being very deliberate in the Luna is not Stella and not a rename/redesign then it give the impression that the entire character has gone and not just slightly edited.

But yeah, it's still way to early to know either way or what exactly Stella's role was and how much it is different from Luna. I do know that I liked the name Stella more as it offered more contrast to Noctis. Luna and Noctis both make you think of night and darkness while Stella makes you think more of stars and while they come out at night, they are bright. (You could say the moon is also bright but it just reflects the light of a star).

The new Dissidia is an arcade game which will be constantly adding new characters via updates. I don't see the issue.

Plus when it does hit the consoles they can add Noctis in as DLC.

 

[Thoraxes]

Well, from what we know, 2.0 features:

*More animations for the characters.
*More interactions between the protagonists.
*Several new attack moves/Techs for Noctis.
*New Double/Cooperative attack.
*Better performance (Framerate?)
*New quests where you can take one of your companions.
*We can now fight and be murdered by the Catoblepas.
*We can now Warp to rocks.
*New evasive movement (Roll).

I was looking for more things based on camera control/movement, fov, soft-lock inprovements, auto-attack range and auto-attack movement inprovements, and animation cancelling for advanced teching, a proper combo system to reward skill-based play over spamming.

Also re: Stella, I think Luna's petite look doesn't do her any favors, especially when compared to what Stella was. I think that's more where people are coming from on that.

 

[Megidolaon]

The new Dissidia is an arcade game which will be constantly adding new characters via updates. I don't see the issue.

I hope so. I do remember reading this on Siliconera, though.

“We’re thinking about it, of course. He would likely use something like his ‘Phantom Swords’,” Kujiraoka says with a laugh.



“There are even some among us that have been thinking about it, saying ‘if Noctis will be in it, how will he perform those warps?’” adds Hayashi.



“However, this will have to be after Final Fantasy XV releases,” Hazama says. “It would be a bit too much to play as a Final Fantasy XV character in arcades right after the demo.”


Read more at http://www.siliconera.com/2015/04/2...fantasy-final-fantasy-xv/#7ClhW3jWAY0OMdi6.99

Maybe I'm wrong, but I read that as no Noctis until after the full game ships.

 

[Terareflection]

Hmm, it does seem like an FFXII-esque situation does it? Awesome. Make this game as FFXII-esque as possible.