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Interested in picking up FFXV. World + combat enough to prop up bad story?

ACE 1991

Member
From what I've read, the story isn't so great. However I'm itching for a JRPG, and if the consensus seems to be that the world/combat/things to do in the world are good enough, I'll probably bite on the Amazon deal currently running. Thanks!
 

georly

Member
I've personally spent 40~ hours doing nothing but sidequests, hunts, and exploration. I'm only on chapter 5. I'm having fun so far and will appreciate the game even if story does end up shitting the bed later on, as i've heard.

Not everyone will agree with me, but there's fun to be had there.
 

eliochip

Member
The story isn't actually that bad its just undercooked. Some of the writing is cringe worthy for sure though.

The combat is great and the world is interesting. It's also not that long. Go for it

I locked myself in my apartment for a weekend with a bunch of cup noodles finishing up this game and had a blast
 

Ray Down

Banned
Certainty for me but I can't speak for everyone.

Try the Judgement demo and see for yourself.

Though it's only 35 bucks, maybe just go for it :p
 
It's gameplay is really fun, sometimes it's grindy and the story is boring, but for $35 bucks you can't go wrong with FFXV.
 

Hutchie

Member
I for one like the story but it does leave a lot of questions. In terms of the world duscae is huge with sub quests and hunts but unlike older ff's you cant talk to everyone in the town and in the field youll pretty much only encounter monsters. After chapter 3 (i think) get a chocobo and the ipod and traversing the open world is fun
 

Toki767

Member
It's more than enough. Though that said, you could always wait until they patch in more story elements. It'll definitely be cheaper by then.
 
For me, very much so. The gameplay loop of exploring > hunting > questing > camping > repeat was very satisfying. Spent a majority of my time in Chapters 1-3 and post game.
The story was more of a numb disappointment than it was offensive, but it has its moments.
 

rybrad

Member
The story isn't actually that bad its just undercooked. Some of the writing is cringe worthy for sure though.

The combat is great and the world is interesting. It's also not that long. Go for it
This is accurate. The story isn't necessarily bad but it feels like you are scrubbing through a video with the amount of stuff that happens which you never see.
 

Mawarup

Neo Member
Still in chapter 3 with 30 hours just doing hunts and quest. Really enjoying just exploring around the map. Combat is just fun enough to make me keep playing.
 

pashmilla

Banned
Combat is generally liked. Story is nonexistent at best, awful at worst. 99% of quests consist of "pls find me a crate of tomatoes" or running around a big circle looking for the shiny thing. If that's your jam then go for it. I love the dungeons but there aren't enough imo.
 

Lothars

Member
The story isn't actually that bad its just undercooked. Some of the writing is cringe worthy for sure though.

The combat is great and the world is interesting. It's also not that long. Go for it

I locked myself in my apartment for a weekend with a bunch of cup noodles finishing up this game and had a blast
Yup that's how I feel, I would go for it.
 
I'd say so. Fun to explore, combat is satisfying, great bestiary, intermittently great OST. The main characters play off of each other well and I think their interactions are well written and well acted.

The arc of the story is really screwy though, despite some great moments. I think the game might be best played by just going through the story, and then exploring more with endgame content. I spent too much time on random quests in the early going and it amplified the problems with story pacing.
 

zoukka

Member
Do you crave for a specific type of JRPG? I'm asking because many of the games mechanics and systems are more WRPG than JRPG.
 

The Lamp

Member
I cannot get myself past chapter 2 or 3 right now. I like RPGs, I love Dark Souls, Kingdom Hearts, Pokemon, Persona, Ni No Kuni, etc. The game has so much unpolished open world design and a humongously jarring incongruency in all its random, arbitrary, hodgepodge gameplay elements and incohesive art style and design that are such a turn off for me. Leather clad prince bros driving a beat up car and fighting bizarre monsters in the desert before camping and doing errands for cats underneath a blanket of bad storytelling is overwhelming me from caring to move on. I did a dungeon for the royal arms and it was awful. Just tunnels and a random monster. No thought or care put into the concept. The combat can be fun but it hasn't wowed me like KH combat yet so maybe I need to get past the first few hours but my time is too valuable these days to wait several hours for a game to wow me and feel cohesive in its design and art style.
 

Ydelnae

Member
The story is good but the presentation is bad. Make sure to listen to every NPC conversation, don't skip any dialogue and interact with every object possible in the overworld.

It has one of the best gameplay in the series and it has hours of content. The "find me this type of frog" quests can be annoying, but you can skip them.
 

Ishida

Banned
The story is not bad at all. It's actually quite good. It's the way it's told that is poor.

The gameplay is fantastic and engaging, and the world is beautiful and interesting.

I'd say go for it.
 

Ray Down

Banned
The story is good but the presentation is bad. Make sure to listen to every NPC conversation, don't skip any dialogue and interact with every object possible in the overworld.

It has one of the best gameplay in the series and it has hours of content. The "find me this type of frog" quests can be annoying, but you can skip them.

But they give a shit load of EXP!
 
From what I've read, the story isn't so great. However I'm itching for a JRPG, and if the consensus seems to be that the world/combat/things to do in the world are good enough, I'll probably bite on the Amazon deal currently running. Thanks!

The only thing holding it back from being a god-tier Final Fantasy, for me, is the story (and more its execution and the quality of storytelling than the narrative itself).

Instead, it's merely great, entirely due to a fantastic combat system and the fun of exploring the open-world to fight huge monsters and dive into deep, complex, fun dungeons with lots of secrets.
 
The story is not bad, I'm actually watching some cutscenes from the game a few times a day, I really like some of them.

That said, the world is fun and the combat is really satisfying.
 

Sanctuary

Member
Honestly, while I appreciate a good narrative, they have almost always been of secondary importance to me most of the time, even in RPGs (where they are typically cliche anyway). This is one reason I love/hate The Witcher 3. Very interesting characters, pretty good narrative and side stories, but dreadfully dull gameplay. I never expected FFXV to have a good story anyway, and was going to pick it up for the banter within the group, the world and the combat.

Not really imo. It's not even as good as Dragon's Dogma.

So? The phrasing makes it sound like Dragon's Dogma is some kind of low bar anyway.
 

kobu

Member
The combat is not great and paired with the frustrating camera at times I'd just call it bad. The open world isn't the worst I've seen this gen so there's that.
 

ghibli99

Member
Overarching story is kinda throwaway, but the story between you and your childhood friends is terrific IMO.

As someone who doesn't play that many JRPGs at all anymore, I've sunk nearly 70 hours into it already, and am enjoying the postgame content. It's one of the nicest surprises of the year.
 
I'm normally a story first kind of guy, but FFXV is really fun to play. I'm only chapter 5 or 6 but I'm like 20 hours in, and the bulk of that play time is doing hunts, sidequests and admiring the scenery while driving and riding chocobo and listening to classic Final Fantasy music on the radio.

I really like the incidental dialogue Noctis' crew makes throughout your journey.

I don't know how and when the story shits the bed but so far it's alright.
 

Ferr986

Member
IMO yes. The combat is fun and gets deeper once you unlock ascensions. The world is realistic but beautiful and big enough. There's a lot of hunts to do. Lots of sidequests (a lot are fetch quests though).
Dungeons have good level design and there's a lot of them. I'm 80 hours in and I still have enough content for like 20 more hours minimum.
 

Nestunt

Member
It's a joy to play and roam around

and the story is good. They just do not explain a lot of motivations. But the important ones are very easy to comprehend.
 

silva1991

Member
It was good enough for me to consider the game good. Just pretend the main story doesn't exist and have fun with the world, combat and dungeons.

You should try the Judgement demo first though. If you hated the combat in teh demo then it will be hard for you to enjoy the open world stuff.
 

hemo memo

Gold Member
Still in chapter 3 with 30 hours just doing hunts and quest. Really enjoying just exploring around the map. Combat is just fun enough to make me keep playing.

Take an advice from someone who's at 40 hours still in chapter 6 and chapter recommend level is like 25 and I'm level 40.

Play chapters mission because you'll be overleveled it kinda break the game. No sweat in boss figts that supposed to be challenging.

Also I have the
Ultimate
sword. Pretty cool.
 

kennyamr

Member
The story is not great, and the game has still flaws here and there, yes.
But the whole package IS great, the world is very good.
Even post-story dungeons are fun, and 1 of them is the best level/dungeon I've ever played anywhere.
After 158+hrs, I'm satisfied with it.
 

Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
The combat is quite repetitive, you can beat the game using the same approach to every fight.

This. I find myself mixing things up or using magic just for the sake of efficiency or to stymie complete boredom. Really not enjoying the exploration or the combat in XV.

Enough people seem to disagree though, so OP may end up loving it.
 

Holundrian

Unconfirmed Member
I honestly would say if you're not sure at all just wait and see what the patches/dlc will bring. I'm like 95% sure this will have a edition at some point with everything packed into it. I think FFXV seems somewhat divisive so hard to recommend depending on where you land. Plenty other games that are easier to recommend.
 

Socivol

Member
I loved the game. The main crew + battle system is super fun. It's the only FF game I've played where at the end I still WANTED to fight the random monsters that were just around as you walked.
 

Ferr986

Member
This. I find myself mixing things up or using magic just for the sake of efficiency or to stymie complete boredom. Really not enjoying the exploration or the combat in XV.

Enough people seem to disagree though, so OP may end up loving it.

Problem is that story is really easy, and it's even easy when you overlevel (something that you'll probably do even if you don't notice).

Post-game content is where you have to be more careful with fighting, and where the battle system shine (unless the camera decides it's not time for that).
 
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