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Jimquisition: Final Fantasy And Patchwork Narratives (Dec. 12, 2016)

hodgy100

Member
For those wondering why I'm more defensive of Square Enix's decision here as opposed to my criticism of Battlefront and Street Fighter V:

Final Fantasy XV has a ton of content. A TON of content. They didn't produce a shell of a game, they have enough shit in there to last you weeks.

The major problem with XV is creative rather than mechanical, which I think can be more easily forgiven due to the subjectivity of narrative. You can objectively look at the missing features of Battlefront and say "These features are not here."

Saying "the story in FF XV isn't good" is a matter of taste. I happened to enjoy the story as-is, even though it was also very frustrating in places.

This isn't so much a case of Square Enix deliberately releasing a bare-bones product and plugging in the important features later. Yes, the latter half of the game is rushed and it absolutely deserves criticism for that, but it's not like FFXV as a product was threadbare.

A lot of Early AAAccess games need to produce free content to be worth the MSRP. I'd argue FFXV does enough already to be worth its asking price, which is why I find them going back to add things more laudable - with caveats, of course.

Yeah this is essentially my opinion of the game too. I feel like MGS5 has the exact same issues as FF XV. massive game with loads of content that is superbly polished but at the cost of a rushed narrative that feels like its missing bits. The difference here being SE are actually addressing that. Konami were jsut like "whatever"
 

Ochibi

Member
Yeah this is essentially my opinion of the game too. I feel like MGS5 has the exact same issues as FF XV. massive game with loads of content that is superbly polished but at the cost of a rushed narrative that feels like its missing bits. The difference here being SE are actually addressing that. Konami were jsut like "whatever"

Should be the next title of the next OT : FINAL FANTASY XV THE PHANTOM PAIN
 
I had similar feelings about the ending of Mass Effect 3. They went back and changed it after the fact, but nothing's going to undo the bullshit I witnessed when I finished that game for the first (and only) time. You only get one chance to make a first impression. My experience of finishing the whole Mass Effect series is always going to be that.

Patch the performance and you make the game play better overall, but it rarely affects one specific moment like a story patch does. I played Arkham Knight on PC on release day and it was an absolute shitshow, but I at least got the same story as people who played the functional console versions did. With Mass Effect 3, though, I played a game where the entire galaxy blows up from magic Mass Relay explosions at the end, whereas anyone who played it post-patch got a totally different ending to their three-game journey. Fuck me for playing the game at launch, basically.
 

Sizzel

Member
Some good points made. I originally came into this thinking I would be completely against this concept. After watching the video and having a think, I have changed my stance. The people here that arguably get the short end of the stick are day one'ers. They are effectively editors for the game if the company is responsive and listens to feedback. It has always been that way to a degree, what with balancing, but I am unaware of a precedence as pervasive as it pertains to the narrative.

There will be some creators (Kojima) who will undoubtedly reject alterations to their vision, but this would be , as Jim said, an open invitation for people to say "fuck it" , release the game and custom tailor it based on widespread feedback. Again, this is already being done with gameplay and outright bugs. I have grown to have a very dim view of day buying/pre-ordering as being suckered and if this concept takes hold even more so. I will benefit greatly in cases like FFXV where, by the time I get around to playing it, the narrative will be fixed/complete and I won't have the memory of the "before".

Square haphazardly rushed with FFXV, we know it, they know, everyone knows it. Instead of delaying it they opted for holiday cash and crossed their fingers. It is a valuable franchise and they are being taken to task. Thankfully they are attempting to preserve it's value(I disagree with the artistic integrity narrative) by addressing this. I look forward to playing the game next year when it is complete as opposed to being stuck with the narrative mess it is reported to be.
 

Zafir

Member
Yeah this is essentially my opinion of the game too. I feel like MGS5 has the exact same issues as FF XV. massive game with loads of content that is superbly polished but at the cost of a rushed narrative that feels like its missing bits. The difference here being SE are actually addressing that. Konami were jsut like "whatever"

I don't agree the side content is superbly polished. The side content in Final Fantasy XV is all over the place in terms of quality, so I definitely think it was also affected by the poor development cycle. For most of the game, the side quests are copy and pasted which are only really propped up by a fun battle system and amusing exploration. Some of the side quests do start which an interesting premise but it isn't long before those same quest givers give you the exact same task two or three times over, if not more, with out even bothering to explain why this time around.

Hunts were a nice idea in theory, but only being able to take one at a time was pretty irritating. Also the big postgame hunt
(the Adamantoise)
that they were always talking about was an absolute mess, it's ridiculously easy - only long, and is really buggy. With many people talking about how they got flung out of the battle area by the boss, only to have to start the endurance fight over(I fortunately didn't encounter this, but I'd be pretty damn livid if I did).

Some of the dungeons are really solid, but there's also some dungeons which are downright blergh (
Costlemark Tower
probably being the worst offender). Either way, most of them you won't be doing until late game or post game anyway besides the story ones.
 

Croyles

Member
I wrote that when I was younger and a toolbag. It's a really, really old article.

These days I'd frame my contempt a little more diplomatically. :)

I'm aware, just messing with you. I just needed to give you some shit for ripping out my heart and then stomping on it. I have waited many years for this and you will not take this keyboard warrior victory away from me!
 
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