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Final Fantasy XV Impressions: Mark All Spoilers

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B

bigmac996

Member
Fbh said:
.sorry, was talking more about the single player stuff. I have to admit that I haven't played the online ones (and I hear the stories are good)

But the story in XII was really bland on top of having the worst main character in the franchise.
XIII was terrible and it was 3 games and a whole gen long
The last remnant had a terrible story (though I love that game)
Kingdom hearts as a whole has a terrible story with writing that you'd believe to be a bad fanfic if you weren't actually seeing it in the game.


Square (Japan) has hands down some of the absolutely worst writers out of any AAA dev. Which I honestly don't understand given how they make story heavy games. And if you look at Japanese books, movies and manga/anime there are obviously talented writers over there so either Square has a terrible hiring team or they pay like $2/hour.
Personally I stopped expecting decent story, storytelling or writing from them a long time ago. Luckily I still enjoy their games for other reasons.
Click to expand...

You're totally right. Don't know how they can't hire some excellent writing talent with the size of their development budgets. I think maybe it's like Hollywood where a potentially decent script can be torn apart and reworked by more senior folks who don't know what they're doing.
 
W

wmlk

Member
yunbuns said:
What Final Fantasy game has had 5-8 major cities?

VII had Midgar and Junon. VIII had Deling City and Esthar. IX had Alexandria, Treno, and Lindblum. X had Luca, Bevelle (which you couldn't even explore) and Zanarkand. XII had Rabanastre and Archades. XIII-2 had Academia and LR had Yusnaan and Luxerion.

That's only like 2-3 major cities with the rest of the game filled with villages and other varied locations.
Click to expand...

And yes, I was thinking about this last night. You're totally right.
 
F

Fou-Lu

Member
Fbh said:
Square (Japan) has hands down some of the absolutely worst writers out of any AAA dev. Which I honestly don't understand given how they make story heavy games. And if you look at Japanese books, movies and manga/anime there are obviously talented writers over there so either Square has a terrible hiring team or they pay like $2/hour.
Personally I stopped expecting decent story, storytelling or writing from them a long time ago. Luckily I still enjoy their games for other reasons.
Click to expand...

Final Fantasy XV, where fantasy meets reality, written by Haruki Murakami.
 
G

Gbraga

Member
Z3M0G said:
Ok, after reading this, here is my plan:

- avoid all side stuff and do straight to story objectives
- after I finish the main story, return and do all the side stuff to get more gameplay if I so desire

Is this possible?
Click to expand...

I think you should strive for a middle ground. Ignore the side quests that look too much like fetch quests to you if you'd like, but don't just go straight to story objectives. There's a lot to discover through exploration, and having the bros talking about this optional dungeon you just found, and not in generic Dragon's Dogma banter, but unique dialogue written for this specific place, just adds so much to the sense of discovery, this sense of journey that is so characteristic of the series.

Skulldead said:
Normal encounter are somewhat easy, but hunt and boss are pretty hard ? I'm fine with that, from the video i saw when try to fight monster of your level looking somewhat a little challenging, far from a cakewalk. Any news of a hard mode anywhere ? Or Harder new game + mode ?
Click to expand...

I don't think there is one, but it's definitely something I can see them implementing as free DLC, if enough people request it. I definitely want that, too!

NoctisVsStar said:
You mean the Goat P3
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Some dances gonna put you in a trance
Let's party, let the boogie hit your body
Move everybody, move that body, make sure you don't hurt nobody
I say HEY, HEY, HEY
 
F

Falk

that puzzling face
Megalosaro said:
Lol that game had a cool concept shit writting
Click to expand...

I don't disagree completely. Wasn't trying to knock on the setting of the game, even if I was one of the oddballs who was pretty much slogging through the boss rushes because the game systems were solid

Just pointing out that it wouldn't be uncharted territory.
 
C

~Cross~

Member
Z3M0G said:
Ok, after reading this, here is my plan:

- avoid all side stuff and do straight to story objectives
- after I finish the main story, return and do all the side stuff to get more gameplay if I so desire

Is this possible?
Click to expand...

If you are playing on normal and you dont do ANY sidequests you are going to rapidly end up underleveled for the content and make it that much more of a slog. Even on easy the dude that rushed through it would do pitiful damage to bosses and would have to constantly be using potions to stay alive. Then again it didnt look like he was any good at the game so it might balance out.
 
B

Burbeting

Banned
yunbuns said:
What Final Fantasy game has had 5-8 major cities?

VII had Midgar and Junon. VIII had Deling City and Esthar. IX had Alexandria, Treno, and Lindblum. X had Luca, Bevelle (which you couldn't even explore) and Zanarkand. XII had Rabanastre and Archades. XIII-2 had Academia and LR had Yusnaan and Luxerion.

That's only like 2-3 major cities with the rest of the game filled with villages and other varied locations.
Click to expand...

I'd argue that IX has lot of major cities

Alexandria
Treno
Lindblum
Cleyra
Black Mage Village (debatable)
Burmecia (debatable kinda)
 
B

btuger

Neo Member
Another day gone by and Simplygames still hasn't shipped the game, so there goes my chance of playing it Saturday. Loving reading the opinions though.
 
R

Relaxed Muscle

Member
Falk said:
yeah seriously

square should try something like hire steins;gate writer for a ff spinoff
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At that game, with it's faults, worked well as subversion of the classic JRPG. Can't say the same of PE 3rd Birthday, Dissidia games or Type 0 or that awesome X3 novel, all penned by the current all star writing team of SE.
 
B

bigol

Member
Burbeting said:
I'd argue that IX has lot of major cities

Alexandria
Treno
Lindblum
Cleyra
Black Mage Village (debatable)
Burmecia (debatable kinda)
Click to expand...

Black Mage Village and Burmecia are a couple of screens big. They are very small.
Cleyra is a bit better but still small.

The only real towns are Alexandria, Treno and Lindblum.
 
J

Jo Shishido's Cheeks

Member
Kenzodielocke said:
15219368_1518902151457627_4166199073067901564_n.jpg
Click to expand...

Oh fuck... think I'm about to cancel my pre-order and pay £8 more just for this case, hmmm...
 
H

hosannainexcelsis

Member
Falk said:
I don't disagree completely. Wasn't trying to knock on the setting of the game, even if I was one of the oddballs who was pretty much slogging through the boss rushes because the game systems were solid

Just pointing out that it wouldn't be uncharted territory.
Click to expand...

In addition to that, Nintendo infamously hired a prominent manga author to improve Fate Emblem's story with Fates, and they just ended up making the story even worse than the Awakening story everyone already hated. "Hire an author from another field" isn't a magic bullet to solve all the bad game stories out there.
 
R

Ralemont

not me
Jennipeg said:
I understood the story of XIII better than XIII-2. I still have no idea what XIII-2 was about, it was a load of gibberish to me.
Click to expand...

I understood XIII-2's story better, because it actually bothered to explain what was going on in the game instead of codex entries. Besides that, I don't know if understanding the story matters when XIII relies on the power of friendship and Deus Ex Crystallis for its conflict resolution. XIII's ending was so atrocious it took an entire game's story (XIII-2) to retcon/explain it.
 
R

Relaxed Muscle

Member
hosannainexcelsis said:
In addition to that, Nintendo infamously hired a prominent manga author to improve Fate Emblem's story with Fates, and they just ended up making the story even worse than the Awakening story everyone already hated. "Hire an author from another field" isn't a magic bullet to solve all the bad game stories out there.
Click to expand...

Steins Gate is a game, and Urobochi wrote light novels, VN and animes, just to put an example.
 
Hikami

Hikami

Member
Reading this thread made me want to cancel my pre-order now, welp. Not liking what I'm reading.

I can wait a bit longer I guess.
 
D

dramatis

Member
yunbuns said:
What Final Fantasy game has had 5-8 major cities?

VII had Midgar and Junon. VIII had Deling City and Esthar. IX had Alexandria, Treno, and Lindblum. X had Luca, Bevelle (which you couldn't even explore) and Zanarkand. XII had Rabanastre and Archades. XIII-2 had Academia and LR had Yusnaan and Luxerion.

That's only like 2-3 major cities with the rest of the game filled with villages and other varied locations.
Click to expand...
Lol

FF12 had Rabanastre, Bhujerba, Archades, Balfonheim as major cities.

Nabina Fortress, Mount Bur Omisace, Eruyt Village, and Jahara as towns.

There there were camp/safe zones that were in the field areas. Phon Coast, Giza Plains, Dalmasca Estersand, and more.

Even if I could agree with you about the other titles, I won't agree with you about 12.
 
N

Neoleo2143

Member
bigmac996 said:
You're totally right. Don't know how they can't hire some excellent writing talent with the size of their development budgets. I think maybe it's like Hollywood where a potentially decent script can be torn apart and reworked by more senior folks who don't know what they're doing.
Click to expand...

It's not just Writing on its own. It's planning and we all know that the planning for this game was a mess and then some. It's about tying all the pieces of the game together into a cohesive whole.

For example, in terms of raw writing quality, the recently released Pokemon Sun isn't terribly special, but it is quite cohesive about how it portrays its setting and its impact on the characters. The planning process was likely much more smooth which allowed the team to bring out the better parts of its individuals.

FFXV from my understanding, does not reconcile all of its parts of the Road Trip and themes of Brotherhood and the path to becoming king as smoothly as one would like, which creates the disjointed feeling in an uncomfortable sense.
 
Ã

『Inaba Resident』

Banned
Deckard Chapel said:
The "there's only 2 cities/towns" issue is what is deflating my hype the most, tbh.

How, after 10 years of development, could they not make more towns/villages at least?!? It's a Final Fantasy staple - at least 5-8 major cities with a handful of settlements and villages.

Maybe instead of barren wasteland, they should have added in some more towns to fill-up that empty space?

¯_(ツ)_/¯
Click to expand...

Because development is not so simple that they can just go "I think we should add some more towns and cities here" and then *poof*, it just happens. And this game was not in "development" 10 years. Its really only been 3-4 years.
 
Y

yunbuns

Member
Burbeting said:
BMV and Burmecia have a big story relevance, though.
Click to expand...

They have story relevance but they're still not major cites. BMV is a village and you can't do anything in Burmecia after the story bit compared to the other three big cites in the game.

dramatis said:
Lol
Even if I could agree with you about the other titles, I won't agree with you about 12.
Click to expand...

I don't really get the point of your 'lol' but I forgot about Bhujerba and Balfonheim. I don't agree that any of the other places you listed are major cites although I think that XII had the best and most varied locations out of all the games.
 
G

Gbraga

Member
Hikami said:
Reading this thread made me want to cancel my pre-order now, welp. Not liking what I'm reading.

I can wait a bit longer I guess.
Click to expand...

The impressions were overall very positive, imo. If they made you want to cancel your pre-order, you probably should. It's not getting better.
 
G

Gestault

Member
I'm wondering about the recommendation to avoid side-quests. I don't want to assume too much, but generally that's the recommendation when the content is just low-quality filler.

Are there just so many it's easy to OD and not progress, or is it a quality thing?
 
U

UpDownLeftRight

Banned
Gbraga said:
No Final Fantasy game is as good as Persona 4, though, it's beating a dead horse.
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Honestly, Persona 4 almost put me to sleep. I get that it's loved, but for me it just dragged on and I would have happily cut the first 70% or so of the game. I'm really hoping that P5 is nothing like it. More stuff actually happening and way less high school drama. Hell I'm not even sure I could classify P4G as an RPG since it feels closer to a hyrbid dating sim/visual novel.
 
A

Aters

Member
UpDownLeftRight said:
Honestly, Persona 4 almost put me to sleep. I get that it's loved, but for me it just dragged on and I would have happily cut the first 70% or so of the game. I'm really hoping that P5 is nothing like it. More stuff actually happening and way less high school drama. Hell I'm not even sure I could classify P4G as an RPG since it feels closer to a hyrbid dating sim/visual novel.
Click to expand...

I always classify P4 as a visual novel. GAF should play more visual novels TBH. P4 isn't even the best in the bunch.
 
G

Gbraga

Member
UpDownLeftRight said:
Honestly, Persona 4 almost put me to sleep. I get that it's loved, but for me it just dragged on and I would have happily cut the first 70% or so of the game. I'm really hoping that P5 is nothing like it. More stuff actually happening and way less high school drama. Hell I'm not even sure I could classify P4G as an RPG since it feels closer to a hyrbid dating sim/visual novel.
Click to expand...

You'd cut the best part of the game, tho.

Aters said:
I always classify P4 as a visual novel. GAF should play more visual novels TBH. P4 isn't even the best in the bunch.
Click to expand...

I wish Japan would make more stuff like Telltale's The Walking Dead in terms of production values. Having control over your character and stuff like that really adds a lot, compared to just clicking and reading.
 
O

otapnam

Member
sidenote : did anyone else's best buy orders dissappear from their order history? If i search the order number it seems to be still there but my 2 orders have completely disappeared from my order history
 
T

TalentBurke

Member
I haven't really read anybody's impressions of the game, I'll see how I like it for myself. I remember with XII a lot of people hated it at release but I loved it!
 
N

Neoleo2143

Member
Aters said:
I always classify P4 as a visual novel. GAF should play more visual novels TBH. P4 isn't even the best in the bunch.
Click to expand...

I think while P4 matches close to Visual Novel Stylings, it shares more of its DNA with more traditional Role playing and trying to capture the day to day life of a student with special circumstances.
 
V

Vincent Grayson

Member
yunbuns said:
What Final Fantasy game has had 5-8 major cities?

VII had Midgar and Junon. VIII had Deling City and Esthar. IX had Alexandria, Treno, and Lindblum. X had Luca, Bevelle (which you couldn't even explore) and Zanarkand. XII had Rabanastre and Archades. XIII-2 had Academia and LR had Yusnaan and Luxerion.

That's only like 2-3 major cities with the rest of the game filled with villages and other varied locations.
Click to expand...

Sure, everything looks wrong if you remember it.
 
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