-
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.
Final Fantasy XV - Review Thread [Second wave of reviews coming in]
- Thread starter dc89
- Start date
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
We have very different definitions of paragraphs evidently.
ethomaz
Banned
This.
I found some interesting points in the reviews like how it uses a metaphor of American and Japanese food... I never thought that way but I see that for not just FFXV but a lot of Japanese games today that try to incorporate a lot of western game design that ends creating a mix that didn't pertence a either world for good or bad.
Pilgrimzero
Member
Ending was good but the game has serious storytelling problems. And the world was smaller than I thought.
Oh and very pretty game.
I'd give it a 7/10
Oh and very pretty game.
I'd give it a 7/10
Astral Dog
Member
wow its all Metal Gear Solid now :-O
Pilgrimzero
Member
Nah. The only good thing is MGS5 was the gameplay.
Relaxed Muscle
Member
lol, indeed, but not for the review.
Rising_Hei
Member
The games really shines later gameplaywise.
The problem i see is that some people don't have their expectations in check, and are unable to enjoy what they have (they usually are overentusiastic and overhyped with the games, even use avatars of the game and such when we barely know anything about them to know if the characters you use those avatars for are cool or not!), i do enjoy it recognizing its flaws and tasting the game's weak points, and it's definetely a solid 85/100 for me taking everything into account.
I also noticed that your enjoyment of the game might depend on how good you get at exploiting the game's battle system and if you know what to unlock in the skill grid
MGS 5 is better designed, but it has also much less going on, it's "just" an action game with much less scale and not as ambitious visually (crossgen release)... It also encounters some of the problems FFXV in the second chapter of the game, and it's even worse... but atleast ch 1 was very good plotwise, yep.
The problem i see is that some people don't have their expectations in check, and are unable to enjoy what they have (they usually are overentusiastic and overhyped with the games, even use avatars of the game and such when we barely know anything about them to know if the characters you use those avatars for are cool or not!), i do enjoy it recognizing its flaws and tasting the game's weak points, and it's definetely a solid 85/100 for me taking everything into account.
I also noticed that your enjoyment of the game might depend on how good you get at exploiting the game's battle system and if you know what to unlock in the skill grid
MGS 5 is better designed, but it has also much less going on, it's "just" an action game with much less scale and not as ambitious visually (crossgen release)... It also encounters some of the problems FFXV in the second chapter of the game, and it's even worse... but atleast ch 1 was very good plotwise, yep.
Audioboxer
Member
I'm totally going slow to hope chapter 13 is it? gets patched before I hit it. Currently enjoying just going around doing side quests. I said it in another topic but the game does seem to prioritise style. Most of the quests so far are fetch quests 101 and the story is sparse to say the least. The characters seems fairly likeable if a little annoying but the story so far reeks of lol pls buy and watch the movie first.
I'll echo other sentiments in here for what it's worth MGS4 > MGS5. MGS5 is a terrible MGS game, even if the gameplay is good.
I'll echo other sentiments in here for what it's worth MGS4 > MGS5. MGS5 is a terrible MGS game, even if the gameplay is good.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
Review has a well written lengthy exegesis on the mood, the theme of travel and how it relates to the author's own experiences, the sense of worldbuilding, the quest design, and the odd east-meets-west design manifest in the world itself...
... response is to whine it's not a normal gamer review and the score is too low.
PshycoNinja
Member
It's scoring as high (and depending on the review that gets added to metacritic) and sometimes higher than A Realm Reborn. Which isn't bad by any means.
orthodoxy1095
Banned
The review literally has only two sentences about Cindy.
Even more importantly, an analysis about how the car informs the progression of the game is to tantamount to talking about the "gameplay." It's an inextricable cornerstone of the game.
I guess we shouldn't expect more from a "hardcore gamer" with an insular and narrow-minded view like this:
Don't ever try reading a Kill Screen review. It'll probably explode your poor little head.
It's certainly a thoughtful and unusual review, but yeah, all of that stuff is "substantive" and ultimately talking about "gameplay" and "narrative."
MGSV story > FFXV story
MGSV story sucking is just a meme. It was actually pretty decent, just left up in the air which a lot of people can't deal with.
No. MGSV's story sucking means exactly that. The story sucks.
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
The review literally has only two sentences about Cindy.
Even more importantly, an analysis about how the car informs the progression of the game is to tantamount to talking about the "gameplay." It's an inextricable cornerstone of the game.
I guess we shouldn't expect more from a "hardcore gamer" with an insular and narrow-minded view like this:
PshycoNinja
Member
The review literally has only two sentences about Cindy.
Even more importantly, an analysis about how the car informs the progression of the game is to tantamount to talking about the "gameplay." It's an inextricable cornerstone of the game.
I guess we shouldn't expect more from a "hardcore gamer" with an insular and narrow-minded view like this:
Don't ever try reading a Kill Screen review. It'll probably explode your poor little head.
I don't know if all that was necessary, dude.
Did you mean MGSV?
orthodoxy1095
Banned
It's not necessary to point out when people have a regressively insular view of the gaming industry and critique?
And when they lack basic reading comprehension of and appreciation for thematic/game design critique?
Nah, I think it's perfectly necessary.
Mister Megative
Banned
It's not necessary to point out when people have a regressively insular view of the gaming industry and critique?
And when they lack basic reading comprehension of and appreciation for thematic and game design critique?
Nah, I think it's perfectly necessary.
That's cool, man. It's perfectly reasonable to stoop to personal attacks, right? So edgy and full of 'tude, brah. You sure showed me.
Mister Megative
Banned
Huh, you must have missed the part where I mentioned Times 9/10 review.
orthodoxy1095
Banned
The "personal attack" is evidently true given how you talked about that Washington Post review.
So yeah? I guess it's reasonable to attack an unreasonable character.
I don't even agree with his conclusion but that review, like most everything Matt Peckham write, is perfectly substantive.
Mister Megative
Banned
You're right, brah. I'm sorry. Not sure what got into me.
brandonh83
Banned
FFXV's story even with its narrative issues runs circles around MGSV's but then again many things do. Even if I didn't like FFXV's story I would argue that the emotional aspects, the bond between the characters gave me a lot more to care about. The payoff in FFXV was resounding. It had a good villain with a strong personal attachment to the protagonist. It has a good ending and palpable conflict. It goes on. The areas in which XV is better in its story are virtually endless.
DarkLordMalik
Member
Ok, lets see.
MGSV had the weakest villain in the series. It had no boss battles, which are a staple of the series. The game also felt unfinished. It had 'open world' but it was so bland and boring that nothing happened in it. A lot of the missions were set in the same location. Vehicle driving was total shit and didn't serve any purpose. Presentation was shit. Travelling to any location required long boring ride in a helicopter.
Calling MGSV having 'masterful Stealth' is laughable when it was so easy to cheese the game's AI that Stealth became non-essential. I easily managed to exploit the AI to finish some of the difficult missions and unless you were going for the S ranking, which was useless, you could have easily played the game without bothering with Stealth.
MGS 4 was more of a MGS game than MGSV. It had the boss battles, story elements, even if it lacked a proper cohesive world liked MGS3. It did stick a little closer to the series' roots.
If I had to compare both games, I'd say that MGS4 is closer in term of series to FFXV. Both have flaws but both still build a solid foundation for the series going forward.
MGSV doesn't deserve its 93 score, should have received 80-85. But the game being the last Kojima MGS game, reviewers ignoring the important and repetitive second half, made the game get very high scores.
MGSV had the weakest villain in the series. It had no boss battles, which are a staple of the series. The game also felt unfinished. It had 'open world' but it was so bland and boring that nothing happened in it. A lot of the missions were set in the same location. Vehicle driving was total shit and didn't serve any purpose. Presentation was shit. Travelling to any location required long boring ride in a helicopter.
Calling MGSV having 'masterful Stealth' is laughable when it was so easy to cheese the game's AI that Stealth became non-essential. I easily managed to exploit the AI to finish some of the difficult missions and unless you were going for the S ranking, which was useless, you could have easily played the game without bothering with Stealth.
MGS 4 was more of a MGS game than MGSV. It had the boss battles, story elements, even if it lacked a proper cohesive world liked MGS3. It did stick a little closer to the series' roots.
If I had to compare both games, I'd say that MGS4 is closer in term of series to FFXV. Both have flaws but both still build a solid foundation for the series going forward.
MGSV doesn't deserve its 93 score, should have received 80-85. But the game being the last Kojima MGS game, reviewers ignoring the important and repetitive second half, made the game get very high scores.
Audioboxer
Member
My man! I agree. MGS5 outside of the gameplay is hot garbage in relation to it being a MGS game. The story is an unfinished and terrible mess, even for MGS standards. The twist is smart but not the kind of thing you pull in the 5th mainline MGS game. Sutherland was a shit voice actor. The returning MGS fan favorite characters were all horrendous and totally off the pace for the reasons they are liked. Bosses are garbage. Quiet is garbage. Uhh. Such a bad game, IMO. Played it once, will never replay it again. MGS4 is the last MGS game.
Konami are assholes, but mass-reviewer pandering to Kojima because "fuck Konami" and "last MGS game" resulted in genuinely over-inflated scores. Considering many of these reviewers call themselves MGS fans and not just people dropping in for the 5th game and coming away impressed because "gameplay".
MGS5 to me seems like something Konami would actually manage to cobble together without Kojima actually there. Hence why I am so bitterly disappointed it is what he put out as his last ever MGS game.
MGSV is one of the very few games that does open world design right. The open world is nothing but a backdrop. You're not actually supposed to go into it other than for extended chase sequences now and then. The promise of open world games is that "you can go all the way over there!", but they never answer "but why would you want to?" MGSV actually answers this question, and gives the correct answer. You wouldn't. It's just an interactive background. Go ahead and focus on small scale infiltration. I love that.
I will say that part of MGSV's greatness requires placing limitations on yourself, which is something I generally don't like in games. I never ran into a base with bazookas. I always entered with the mindset of wanting to outsmart the opponent. When you buy into that approach the game is absolutely divine. It may be one of the top 5 or so ever in terms of raw gameplay. I definitely understand not getting into a game when you're always aware of the fact that easy mode is available to you though (playing a Nintendo sidescroller, dying several times, and then getting the easy mode option available cheapens the game even when I continue trying to beat it normally), and a game saying "Just do whatever you want!" generally irritates me to no end.
I've mentioned before and I will maintain that "It's not a good MGS game" is not a valid criticism. Every game deserves to be judged on its own terms. MGSV doesn't have great boss battles, but I don't judge it on its boss battles. I judge it on what it chooses to focus on, which for the most part is great.
Audioboxer
Member
MGS isn't like FF though which outside of X-2 and the XIII trilogy are all self-contained games. People buying MGS5 had expectations of story line continuation from the previous games. Even as a prequel. So that is why it gets a lot of flak from MGS fans, most who weren't even asking for a gameplay upheaval, just largely more of the same from 1~4. Messing about with voice actors and completely neutering fan favorite characters, whilst introducing absolute garbage like Quiet soured many.
5 does gameplay well, but some of us think at the cost of story/world building. FF15 seems to have sacrificed story telling as well in the obsession to open world all of it. Largely speaking though, especially after 13, many had zero hope for FF to return to form with story. Just different expectations all round I guess. Both series have reached a major dip on the story side. Some people who only care about gameplay are rejoicing, others are pretty bitter because we have experienced what has come before with FF and MGS and would prefer it. Ubisoft is always there for open world gameplay shot out of a run of the mill "open world generator".
The only game in recent times with an open world to impress me has been TW3. That is because it still manages to have a great story and side quests. It takes time, love and care to manage to balance open world with tight story telling. So many games, especially western games, just end up hollow carcasses with fetch quests and run of the mill map icons to collect-a-thon. I think many of us are getting tired with that same shit over and over. As I said, yearly Ubisoft games have been feeding it to us for many years now.
There are some parallels to be shared between the two, so ¯\_(ツ
_/¯Imp the Dimp
Member
Oops, didn't realize I was in the MGSV review thread. Don't mind me.
The rumor about FFXV getting the famous Famitsu's 40/40 is debunked : it "only" got 38/40
https://twitter.com/bk2128/status/808677578798043136
https://twitter.com/bk2128/status/808677578798043136
Audioboxer
Member
DarkLordMalik
Member
Audioboxer
Member
Lightning Returns to your life. Buy another copy of 13 to celebrate.
In reality while I'm nowhere near finished 15 yet, yes, it is a million times better than 13 so far.
LordKasual
Banned
But every open world game does that, more or less. There may be a few roadside/broken carriage quests on the way, but I don't think anyone buys an Open World game and expects every square foot to be full of exciting funtime.
The problem i had with MGSV is that although the Open World was really just a side-effect of the new game direction of freeform infiltration, there's nothing else about the Metal Gear formula that was enhanced by the open world. Instead the game just kind of gave up on itself and instead of making actual Metal Gear levels, it just threw you into the world to complete Generic Infiltration Mission #45. FFXV on the other hand (IMO) actually does benefit from its open world. Because if the game was still turn-based, the only thing that would be changed from the FF formula is the fact that there are no more transitions or loading screens, and the World Map aspect of the game has just been placed on the player scale. The biggest change that happened in FFXV is actually the combat system, not the fact that the world is now massive. After the novelty of being able to just kind of float around wore off in MGSV, you're left realizing that you aren't really playing an "MGS" game.
And that IS a valid criticism, because this notion that you were getting an "MGS game" wasn't helped by the trailers that all hyped the game up as the same kind of cinematic rollercoaster that the previous games were. Then you play it and realize that EVERYTHING cinematic in the game, you'd already basically seen in the trailers. The game has a single boss. There are no cool villains. There's no climatic ending. There's only 2 actual maps and they aren't really varied. There are barely any cutscenes.
Nah, MGSV actually felt like a bait and switch to me after it sunk in. I'm someone who is 100% down for shaking it up and utilizing better tech to enhance your oldschool formula. I loved FFXV for this. But MGSV was just too far removed. And none of the reviewers seemed to give a shit.
WordsintheWater
Member
Yup, and this says alot about how bad MGSV was in the story department when FFXV is better then it in that aspect.
Days like these...
Have a Blessed Day
How did VI only manage a 37?
ShadowSoldier89
Member
Ok, lets see.
FFXV had the weakest villain in the series. he had a pushover battle followed by QTEs. The game also felt unfinished. It had 'open world' but it was so bland and boring that nothing happened in it. A lot of the missions were horrid MMO style fetch quests, find X in a circle, or kill X mobs in a circle. Vehicle driving was total shit and didn't serve any purpose. Presentation was shit. Travelling to any location required a very long boring ride in a car until you get fast travel unlocked.
Calling FFXV having 'masterful combat' is laughable when it was so easy to cheese the game's AI that strategy became non-essential. I easily managed to exploit the AI to finish some of the difficult fights by activating one of 10 different options that cause invulnerability.
FFXIII was more of a FF game than FFXV. It had the boss battles, story elements, even if it lacked a proper cohesive world liked FFX. It did stick a little closer to the series' roots.
FFXV had the weakest villain in the series. he had a pushover battle followed by QTEs. The game also felt unfinished. It had 'open world' but it was so bland and boring that nothing happened in it. A lot of the missions were horrid MMO style fetch quests, find X in a circle, or kill X mobs in a circle. Vehicle driving was total shit and didn't serve any purpose. Presentation was shit. Travelling to any location required a very long boring ride in a car until you get fast travel unlocked.
Calling FFXV having 'masterful combat' is laughable when it was so easy to cheese the game's AI that strategy became non-essential. I easily managed to exploit the AI to finish some of the difficult fights by activating one of 10 different options that cause invulnerability.
FFXIII was more of a FF game than FFXV. It had the boss battles, story elements, even if it lacked a proper cohesive world liked FFX. It did stick a little closer to the series' roots.
Opinions. But
Ardyn
LordKasual
Banned
XV's villain was amazing, easily my favorite since Sephiroth/Kefka.
It's a bit pointless to rate a Final Fantasy game's combat by stating how easy it is to cheese it, especially if FFX and XIII are your examples of a better game
XIII sticking to series roots is an....interesting opinion, but it's yours to have lol
Having my characters turn into frogs and the others comically commenting on it made me realize how far XIII was from the original series in terms of charm and humor.
ShadowSoldier89
Member
scroll up a little guys
ArkhamFantasy
Member
I like XVs villian but prefer Caius, hes very underrated, the best in the series outside sephiroth of course.
XIII-2 the real winner here.
You clearly have bad taste since The villain is among the best if not the best in the entire series.
ShadowSoldier89
Member
man, people cant even notice a copypasta from the same page.
regardless of that post I'm completely negative on this game and anyone thats in the spoilers thread knows that.
As final fantasy goes, an open world filled with fetch quests, very small explorable world (FFX you see a larger amount of spira and you are on foot...you have a car in FFXV for fucks sake and you barely see any of Eos), a small cast of uniform characters, a single playable character, barely existent magic system, and a story thats lacking in size and exposition. This is definitely the least "Final Fantasy" game in the series as far as I'm concerned.
I actually like Ardyn for the most part. My biggest problem with him is hes too sudden. I'll leave the rest of that for posts I've already made in the spoilers thread
regardless of that post I'm completely negative on this game and anyone thats in the spoilers thread knows that.
As final fantasy goes, an open world filled with fetch quests, very small explorable world (FFX you see a larger amount of spira and you are on foot...you have a car in FFXV for fucks sake and you barely see any of Eos), a small cast of uniform characters, a single playable character, barely existent magic system, and a story thats lacking in size and exposition. This is definitely the least "Final Fantasy" game in the series as far as I'm concerned.
I actually like Ardyn for the most part. My biggest problem with him is hes too sudden. I'll leave the rest of that for posts I've already made in the spoilers thread