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[Geg]

Is there a "Final Fantasy cycle" like with Zelda?

 

[Crazy Diamond]

The BOIS

 

[MegaSackman]

Honestly I've no idea, the game is hated and loved from longtime fans, new fans, first FF players.

Personally I can't understand why longtime fans love this game but they do (I mean a lot of them).

 

[ZangBa]

Not really, aside from environment variety I can't see how that can be.

It feels bigger because there are so many more memorable locations with unique features, music and etc. FFXV is bigger in size but a lot more bland and uninspired. Big, empty desert/swamp/forest area with gas stations all over the place that all look the same.

 

[Ray Down]

Is there a "Final Fantasy cycle" like with Zelda?

Don't think so since while 12 was mixed for fans att, 13 and early 14 were what cause FF to be hated.

 

[Crevox]

It's engaging, I'll give it that. Sometimes changing paradigms is fun, but the game still suffers from "press auto-battle to win". It still ended up having that XII problem where it felt like it was playing itself.

The people who said this then had issues in later parts of the game. They would hit the doom timer on bosses (which I literally never knew existed outside of Eidolons) and then said the game was bad because they couldn't beat it. I understand why auto battle exists, and it's a useful tool at times, but it garnered the game negative criticism.

The battle system was nice because of how different it was, an interesting juggle of paradigm shifts. It had some issues that got resolved in FFXIII-2 (why in the world does the first paradigm shift of a battle take longer for that dumb animation every time) but then FFXIII-2 introduced its own issues. In both games party positioning mattered a lot in certain fights, but you had very little way to control it, mostly subject to RNG of them deciding to shuffle around the battle.

 

[MilkBeard]

Yea, I absolutely think the mixture of fantasy and reality sucks so bad. To fight a behemoth but then see the family truckster drive right by on a main highway, or to see a gas station... Just awful. I mean is just not cool anymore to have a matching natural fantasy world that sticks to one setting?

Ever since Final Fantasy VII, many of the games have had clashing styles. It is just more readily apparent in XV, probably because of the focus on realistic graphics. But really, it's a taste thing. I think it works, for the most part, although I think the game would have improved if they would have focused more on one style or the other.

 

[xealo]

Lightning Returns is a thousand times better than XV. Better as an open world too.

Lightning returns is the best out of the 13 series from a gameplay PoV. Thing is, the story was just way too far gone at that point. There is little redeemable about LR from anything but gameplay.

 

[brandonh83]

Not really, aside from environment variety I can't see how that can be.

Let me try and explain better.

So, FFXV is massive. Like, ridiculously big. It's so big that there's a road network and you spend time, rather than on-foot traversal, in a car-- because there's so much dead space and nobody would find enjoyment about just holding forward on the analog stick for as long as it would take to reach a point of interest.

FFXII's zones are very large, but not to the point where on-foot traversal doesn't work or that you need some kind of vehicle to make traversal painless. If you didn't have the car or fast travel in FFXV, imagine how devastatingly awful that would be. In XII, you're in-tune with the majority of the environment during natural gameplay, unlike XV, where even if you've spent countless hours in its world, you likely haven't actually covered a good deal of it.

FFXII has better player/environment economy while still being big. I'm not saying some of it isn't overly spacious, but there's a lot of XV that is just very long stretches of absolute nothingness.

 

[Crevox]

Lightning returns is the best out of the 13 series from a gameplay PoV. Thing is, the story was just way too far gone at that point. There is little redeemable about LR from anything but gameplay.

I liked the gameplay but the balance was a little off, making it easy to cheese things. It also both rewarded and encouraged heavy grinding which made things easier (extinction system), while making you lose interest due to how many battles it made you do.

Either way, a lot of people hated that game simply for the timer.

 

[Firenze1]

Lightning returns is the best out of the 13 series from a gameplay PoV. Thing is, the story was just way too far gone at that point. There is little redeemable about LR from anything but gameplay.

The story might been bad, but it engaged me more then noctis and his band.

 

[BocoDragon]

Lightning returns is the best out of the 13 series from a gameplay PoV. Thing is, the story was just way too far gone at that point. There is little redeemable about LR from anything but gameplay.

Music, atmosphere, gameplay. That's an okay package to me. The story is inoffensive imo.

 

[Khrno]

I'm finding FFXV to be quite brutal, who was this game catered to?

For FF fans that don't like good combat systems.

Also for people that have wished a FF where they would actually use consumable items.

 

[brandonh83]

Music, atmosphere, gameplay. That's an okay package to me. The story is inoffensive imo.

I don't see how some people can bash the story in one JRPG and give a pass to the story in some of the others that they do. It confuses the fuck out of me.

 

[ShadowSoldier89]

I liked the gameplay but the balance was a little off, making it easy to cheese things. It also rewarded heavy grinding which made things easier (extinction system).

Either way, a lot of people hated that game simply for the timer.

I thought I'd hate the timer, but lately I've realized that I'm actually a fan of the added pressure. I'm a big fan of Persona and Atelier games as well...too bad atelier dropped the time management.

I didnt think LR was easy to cheese. You could definitely cheese, but it took tricky setup and planning. I actually had a lot of fun cheesing things. Reminded me of some of the Materia setups in FFVII.

 

[ErasureAcer]

Battle System. Super Crap.
Story. Crap.
Characters. Decent.
Villains. Crap.
World. Decent
Graphics. Very Good.
Music. Decent.
Quests: Uninspired Crap.
Replayability: Very Unlikely.
Fishing: Fun.
Overall: Worst FF I've played (I, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, X-2, XII, FFT)

 

[Firenze1]

Music, atmosphere, gameplay. That's an okay package to me. The story is inoffensive imo.

Really loved the time system. Reminded me of majoras mask.

 

[LordKasual]

I never thought we'd see a more hated FF game than 13, yet here we are.

Personally I had a lot of fun with it and enjoyed the personality of the characters and only felt like the game fell apart in the last four or five chapters.

FF13 and its spinoffs sent Final Fantasy into the "i think we should probably stop" phase. No FF game will be as universally hated as 13.

Majority of XV's serious hatred are from fans who are salty at the direction shift. But the game is more appealing to the masses then a game like 13 could ever hope to be.

 

[The Dude]

Ever since Final Fantasy VII, many of the games have had clashing styles. It is just more readily apparent in XV, probably because of the focus on realistic graphics. But really, it's a taste thing. I think it works, for the most part, although I think the game would have improved if they would have focused more on one style or the other.

I agree but the flow of it all felt somewhat more appropriate. This feels so off in so many ways it's just hard to even begin to explain it.

 

[brandonh83]

Really loved the time system. Remind me of majoras mask.

It's also painless to manage it, you can basically break the mechanic. After a while I barely thought about it.

 

[AzureFlame]

Also the lack of cities was really bad, you had the same gas station copy pasted almost everywhere and 3 major cities? and one of them was a mess to explore, they were filled with uninteresting boring fetch quests.

 

[Squire]

Let me try and explain better.

So, FFXV is massive. Like, ridiculously big. It's so big that there's a road network and you spend time, rather than on-foot traversal, in a car-- because there's so much dead space and nobody would find enjoyment about just holding forward on the analog stick for as long as it would take to reach a point of interest.

FFXII's zones are very large, but not to the point where on-foot traversal doesn't work or that you need some kind of vehicle to make traversal painless. If you didn't have the car or fast travel in FFXV, imagine how devastatingly awful that would be. In XII, you're in-tune with the majority of the environment during natural gameplay, unlike XV, where even if you've spent countless hours in its world, you likely haven't actually covered a good deal of it.

FFXII has better player/environment economy while still being big. I'm not saying some of it isn't overly spacious, but there's a lot of XV that is just very long stretches of absolute nothingness.

It's a much more efficient use of scale, basically.

 

[Ray Down]

I don't see how some people can bash the story in one JRPG and give a pass to the story in some of the others that they do. It confuses the fuck out of me.

Different strokes for different folks, but 13 as a whole is awful story wise.

 

[Crevox]

Forgot to mention how buggy the game was. When I played I had multiple bugs occur only near the beginning of the game, at least one of which caused me to lose a ton of progress. This only contributed to making me feel like I was playing a tech demo.

 

[Wagram]

I'm not one to be overly hyperbolic about Final Fantasy. There's things in FFXV I really like, but when I look back at it; It's definitely my "Final Fantasy XIII" (A game I liked, but admit has some issues).

I don't see how it's a step up at all. There's some gameplay elements that I feel were really neat for the modern era, but that completely uneven and dissatisfying story even when coherent just destroys my experience. I can't see how any writer worth their salt thought that was even remotely good.

 

[brandonh83]

Also the lack of cities was really bad, you had the same gas station copy pasted almost everywhere and 3 major cities? and one of them was a mess to explore, they were filled with uninteresting boring fetch quests.

Altissia indeed was like trying to drunkenly navigate a life-sized ball of yarn.

It's a much more efficient use of scale, basically.

Correct!

Different strokes for different folks, but 13 as a whole is awful story wise.

Also correct, but I liked the sequels in this regard more than the first one and it's not any more ridiculous, dumb, or convoluted as other JRPG's I've played.

 

[AzureFlame]

Battle System. Super Crap.
Story. Crap.
Characters. Decent.
Villains. Crap.
World. Decent
Graphics. Very Good.
Music. Decent.
Quests: Uninspired Crap.
Replayability: Very Unlikely.
Fishing: Fun.
Overall: Worst FF I've played (I, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, X-2, XII, FFT)

the fishing mini game was the best thing about XV i agree.

 

[LordKasual]

I agree but the flow of it all felt somewhat more appropriate. This feels so off in so many ways it's just hard to even begin to explain it.

It's literally no different from FFVII or VIII

You leave Midgar with motorcycles, mahcineguns and arcade machines and immedately go to a village, a chocobo ranch, and fight a giant snake

The only difference is that the quirkyness is now depicted with photorealistic colors and textures

I don't think they're going to repeat XV's structure ever again.

It's the fastest selling FF game of all time. You're delusional if you think that.

 

[th4tguy]

This and persona 4 are the only games I've beaten and felt a strong connection with the characters. Stick with it and don't get bogged down by side quests too much.

 

[Firenze1]

Altissia indeed was like trying to drunkenly navigate a life-sized ball of yarn.

That city looked huge, but turns out that you could explore like 20% of its size with the usual shops and a half assed arena. This game was beyond rushed.

 

[Ray Down]

Also correct, but I liked the sequels in this regard more than the first one and it's not any more ridiculous, dumb, or convoluted as other JRPG's I've played.

The only thing I will give 13 later games is 13-2 villain.

I could at least understand what he was doing, wanted to end time due to seeing the one chick keep dying. That's about all I will give it, cause it has such a whiplash effect as the game starts and abandons alot from the first game.

 

[hydrophilic attack]

Is there a "Final Fantasy cycle" like with Zelda?

Yes. The series means such different things to different people

Final Fantasy fans vs Final Fantasy fans is one of the longest-running Internet wars

 

[Geg]

It's a much more efficient use of scale, basically.

Honestly, I disagree. The fact that most of it is traveled on foot made a lot of it feel like more of a slog to go through than XV's big empty world. That was a problem I had with Xenoblade Chronicles too, a game I really enjoyed but thought some areas were way too big for their own good.

If future games take anything from XV I hope it's the way the chocobos were handled. It was probably my favorite chocobo system in the series, it really helped mitigate a lot of the problems I had with the open world.

 

[demosthenes]

I want to like this game, I really do. I'm playing it in hopes to find that special feel but.... I can't help but wonder who this game was designed for. It's one of the weirdest game mash ups I can recall and not really in a good way. I realize some might love it and that's fine, but I find the game to be pretty cringe worthy at times.

I remember feeling ff13 was not to FF feeling but looking back and when I fired it up recently, it feels a lot closer to the mark than this.

And same with ff12, that game looks like the pinnacle FF when compared to XV even tho 12 is a decent step away from the typical formula, but it's a formula that I favor alot more than what XV is offering.

It's kind of sad that I'm actually looking at the re-release of 12 as if it was the "new" FF, and even moreso while playing FFXV.

Now granted, I'm not super far in... I've done a good but of questing and exploring around, but I'm not far in. Does this game take a nice turn where it starts to just really come together and feel more like a Final Fantasy game? Or does it sort of stay the course and basically what you get from the start is what you're gonna get the whole game?

Man my once favorite series of all time has really fallen so far compared to other series like DQ that just hold the fort down and are typically awesome each and every time.

I think it was the only ff game I started that I didn't finish and most likely won't ever.

 

[brandonh83]

That city looked huge, but turns out that you could explore like 20% of its size with the usual shops and a half assed arena. This game was beyond rushed.

To be totally fair, it's not the only RPG city that I've found navigating to be incredibly grating. FFXIV comes to mind immediately.

 

[archreaper93]

I think this is the first time I've heard a video game referred to as "brutal", and the person wasn't talking about the difficulty.

 

[ShdwDrake]

I heard it was good but when I play FFXV I just find it frustrating. Like the game feels frustrating to play and I can't put my finger on why.

 

[Ray Down]

To be totally fair, it's not the only RPG city that I've found navigating to be incredibly grating. FFXIV comes to mind immediately.

Yeah 14 cities were confusing to navigate, mainly the one by the sea and the one in the desert imo.

 

[Firenze1]

I heard it was good but when I play FFXV I just find it frustrating. Like the game feels frustrating to play and I can't put my finger on why.

The loadtimes everytime i fast traveled bugged me.

Xenoblade on wii had virtually no loadtimes when fast traveling

 

[Ray Down]

I never really had a problem myself with the world in XV.

 

[PshycoNinja]

This and persona 4 are the only games I've beaten and felt a strong connection with the characters. Stick with it and don't get bogged down by side quests too much.

Yeah 14 cities were confusing to navigate, mainly the one by the sea and the one in the desert imo.

Limsa and Ul'Dah?

 

[Hopeford]

The game was catered to me. I wanted a shallow combat experience that didn't need much effort to be satisfying featuring the JRPG backstreet boys on a road trip with a good soundtrack.

A+, game of my dreams, totally understand why it appeals more to me than to like everyone else though.

 

[Can Crusher]

Horrible game, It was a chore all the way through. Lifeless.

It was very jarring to go from The Witcher 3 to this.

 

[Ray Down]

Limsa and Ul'Dah?

Yeah .

 

[CD'S BAR]

A Final Fantasy for people who like long load times and tedious on-rails traveling.

Otherwise I quite like the game.

 

[TheKastorian]

Be that as it may they evoked the coziest friendship dynamic in recent memory for me, mostly just from the little things... for the bros!!

This.

 

[The Dude]

It's literally no different from FFVII or VIII

You leave Midgar with motorcycles, mahcineguns and arcade machines and immedately go to a village, a chocobo ranch, and fight a giant snake

The only difference is that the quirkyness is now depicted with photorealistic colors and textures



It's the fastest selling FF game of all time. You're delusional if you think that.

It simply works better in those games than this /shrug

 

[HeeHo]

The people who said this then had issues in later parts of the game. They would hit the doom timer on bosses (which I literally never knew existed outside of Eidolons) and then said the game was bad because they couldn't beat it. I understand why auto battle exists, and it's a useful tool at times, but it garnered the game negative criticism.

The battle system was nice because of how different it was, an interesting juggle of paradigm shifts. It had some issues that got resolved in FFXIII-2 (why in the world does the first paradigm shift of a battle take longer for that dumb animation every time) but then FFXIII-2 introduced its own issues. In both games party positioning mattered a lot in certain fights, but you had very little way to control it, mostly subject to RNG of them deciding to shuffle around the battle.

Well, that is just a tiny bit of variation though. What is the tactic supposed to be in those battles? Build up stagger and then use Fang's ultimate skill? I guess my beef is that the ultimate skills felt like the only part of the game that requires manual input.

Anyway, in some way, I liked the auto battle. But between it and the later strategies of taking down adamantoise, it felt like there wasn't much input from user aside from changing paradigms which is fun in a nice rhythm game type of way.

 

[dragonzdogma]

This game feels more backstreet Boys go to wally world so far.

The Dude,
you can do better than that, with comment like these it's hard to take you serious.

The game is as much as FF as any of the other title before it-
If you liked FF12, I would recommend wait mode- it might just satisfy the turn based feel of the old ff's although not by that much.

 

[sn00zer]

In my head the perfect Ff would be straight action with AI dictated by gambit system. Ffxv fucking nailed the 'walking around a final fantasy world' but it's combat just sort of floundered in a weird middle ground when it really should have just gone one way or the other.