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World of Final Fantasy is the better Final Fantasy 2016 release
- Thread starter black070
- Start date
Sir Abacus
Member
I'm replaying FFXIII on PC, getting back into FFXIV, still getting through FFXV, and have WoFF on the back burner.
I really miss FFXIII's paradigm system. People loved to shit on it but it was so much fun for me.
I really miss FFXIII's paradigm system. People loved to shit on it but it was so much fun for me.
Concurrently with the PS4 version. Not 6-12 months late during the launch window of a new system with presumably a ton of other games hogging the spotlight.
LordKasual
Banned
No, the game is slow and boring. It's almost a parody of old FF games that's meant to be taken seriously. Take any battle in WoF and compare it to any battle in an FF that appears on one of the playstation games. The difference is night and day. The game just looks and feels lazy.
I don't see the point in even comparing this to a game like FFXV. Hell, i don't see the point in comparing it to any of the previous FF games on Playstation 1.
orthodoxy1095
Banned
Final Fantasy XIV with all its patches was the best FF of 2016.
Especially in regards of the story telling
The combat isn't slow if you actually utilize the options the game is giving you. I really don't see how this arguable.
Yabberwocky
Member
WoFF was a huge surprise all-round for me, considering I nearly cancelled my pre-order after playing the demo. (Thankfully, Nier Automata seems to have broken Square's atrocious demo spell. Shame XV's Judgement Demo didn't get a release outside of Japan.) WoFF had a fantastic localization (the flavor text is hysterical), incredible soundtrack from Hamauzu, gorgeous levels with an interesting use of fixed camera, Jun Akiyama mic-dropping as usual with the cutscenes, amazing representation and treatment of the FF ladies, FF characters not being flanderized to death and having a genuine role in the story - I could go on! (Take notes in that regard, Dissidia and KH.) I thought collecting mirages was going to be so tedious, but being able to transfig them at will (let alone between families) gave an incredible refreshing freedom to the gameplay. I think I had about 60 mirages that could be transfigged into 150+ other forms (bad estimate), depending on the mirages and how many were in their family. Being able to give/take abilities from your player characters and your mirages at your whim with mirajewels and seeds respectively was fantastic. Stacking abilities was great, too, ie. Firaga + Firaga = Firaja. Or stacking mirages with high agility so that your stack would have high agility, which is extremely useful. The sync bonuses for getting a family filled up was satisfying, too. I feel like WoFF is easily the best spin-off the franchise has had since the Tactics games back in the day. I won't deny it's an odd ball one, though! I'm still headscratching on the intended audience for it, as WoFF has plenty of nightmare fuel to go around, with one of the creepiest true final bosses the series has ever had. I didn't really have a huge issue with it, but I agree that the pacing could be tweaked for battles. I spent a lot of the battles in fast-forward mode, only slowing down as needed. I started off in Active Mode, but switched to Wait Mode after 10hrs or so, because on the faster enemies I wasn't selecting abilities quick enough before enemies got their turn again.
FFXV and WoFF are certainly bizarre cousins. I wish Jun Akiyama had stayed on for FFXV, and that XV had ended up with WoFF's localization team. (WoFF's puns>>>>FFXV's puns.) As much as I was thoroughly charmed by WoFF, I though XV could have benefited from both a lot more. I also prefer the core ideas of XV's story, though I'm still baffled by its execution. Interestingly, WoFF was kind of the Final Fantasy equivalent of an Aseop's Fable, which was pretty fucked up and refreshing. I also was really surprised how similar the stories and character arcs were for the main leads in both games -
. For two games that are extremely different in a lot of ways, they have a lot of similarities.
I'm not sure I'd entirely recommend the Vita version if you have a PS4 option, the load times in and out of battle take a bit longer, etc.
WoFF ended up being more enjoyable of the two for me personally, which I was never in a million years expecting. (WoFF and FFXV are 7-7.5/10 games for me.) I prefer XV's core ideas, and how grounded it was, just goddamn those story and characters issues. Even the supporting FF cast in WoFF had their own little character arcs that got resolved (ie. Cloud, Yuna, Rydia, Celes, etc), and there was a ton of FF supporting characters! There is no excuse for XV in that regard, honestly.
FFXV and WoFF are certainly bizarre cousins. I wish Jun Akiyama had stayed on for FFXV, and that XV had ended up with WoFF's localization team. (WoFF's puns>>>>FFXV's puns.) As much as I was thoroughly charmed by WoFF, I though XV could have benefited from both a lot more. I also prefer the core ideas of XV's story, though I'm still baffled by its execution. Interestingly, WoFF was kind of the Final Fantasy equivalent of an Aseop's Fable, which was pretty fucked up and refreshing. I also was really surprised how similar the stories and character arcs were for the main leads in both games -
Noctis and Lann/Reynn having parent issues, and learning to take responsibility, sacrificing themselves because of this responsibility (though Lann/Reynn kinda came back), etc
I'm not sure I'd entirely recommend the Vita version if you have a PS4 option, the load times in and out of battle take a bit longer, etc.
WoFF ended up being more enjoyable of the two for me personally, which I was never in a million years expecting. (WoFF and FFXV are 7-7.5/10 games for me.) I prefer XV's core ideas, and how grounded it was, just goddamn those story and characters issues. Even the supporting FF cast in WoFF had their own little character arcs that got resolved (ie. Cloud, Yuna, Rydia, Celes, etc), and there was a ton of FF supporting characters! There is no excuse for XV in that regard, honestly.
Sir Abacus
Member
FFXV really has too many world's shittiest side quests. It's like a proto-MMO level of bad.
Blackleg-sanji1
Banned
Got stuck in the crystal tower Because I didn't have the right mirages(that lil stack thing that needs weight and resistance) haven't touched it sense
And gimmie golems can die in a ditch
And gimmie golems can die in a ditch
I just finished XIII and XIII-2, working my way through LR. I do say it has grown on me the second time around and is now one of my favorites. I love the paradigm system.
This is more or less how I feel. Adding the battle theme complaints, and it's that.
The game is essentially a dungeon crawler, with the fields being usually 30 second walks at most, and there being nothino meaningful to do in the towns. So you just run from dungeon to dungeon, which feel identical after a while.
Again there's like ten different battle themes, you select which one you want in the options.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Topics like this really get me excited for taking my copy out of it's shrink wrap, was waiting for the Pro fix which has been released. Already in the middle of Diablo 3, will finish it upto Act 5 before opening my copy.
Cornbread78
Member
I will love them long-time if they released an HD version of XI that can be played for SP with either computer AI or co-opp. FTP would be awesome as well, but I'd just play it for the story and Lore.
Fleet_of_Foot
Member
Since I'm coming off both games, here's my take.
As a pretty big Final Fantasy fan, FFXV is one of the most disappointing things to happen in my life in 2016. There are some things I like about it, but I hate a lot about it. I keep trying to go back to it and just can't. The reasons have been given many times by many people so I won't bother going through it all again. To sum up, the characters are lame, the story is so nonsensical and empty that, 7 chapters in, I have NO IDEA what's going on. The car sucks. The long loading screens suck. The soundtrack is a letdown, too, and I own all the FF soundtracks. Twenty hours in, I think I'm done trying with it and I regret buying it digitally. I even bought the strategy guide, not because I needed its strategy, but because I said to myself, "It's a mainline FF game, I want the guide just to have it." Regrets!
World of Final Fantasy is pretty good. I'm coming off 30 hours of it in a pretty short time so I am somewhat the-burnt out on it. The whole game feels a little thin for a Final Fantasy game but it is definitely more enjoyable to a FF fan than XV. The voice acting starts out a little grating and one character who appears very annoying at first the-glance actually gets better as the game goes on. The in-jokes are great and that character's part in the in-jokes are good too, as the game progresses.
My main the-complaint about WoFF is how easy it is. None of the battles are challenging and for the entire second half of the game, I never had a game over. Never even came the-close. The Pokemon aspect is a failure because it was never so difficult that I had to care which Pokemon I had. They were all effective.
As a pretty big Final Fantasy fan, FFXV is one of the most disappointing things to happen in my life in 2016. There are some things I like about it, but I hate a lot about it. I keep trying to go back to it and just can't. The reasons have been given many times by many people so I won't bother going through it all again. To sum up, the characters are lame, the story is so nonsensical and empty that, 7 chapters in, I have NO IDEA what's going on. The car sucks. The long loading screens suck. The soundtrack is a letdown, too, and I own all the FF soundtracks. Twenty hours in, I think I'm done trying with it and I regret buying it digitally. I even bought the strategy guide, not because I needed its strategy, but because I said to myself, "It's a mainline FF game, I want the guide just to have it." Regrets!
World of Final Fantasy is pretty good. I'm coming off 30 hours of it in a pretty short time so I am somewhat the-burnt out on it. The whole game feels a little thin for a Final Fantasy game but it is definitely more enjoyable to a FF fan than XV. The voice acting starts out a little grating and one character who appears very annoying at first the-glance actually gets better as the game goes on. The in-jokes are great and that character's part in the in-jokes are good too, as the game progresses.
My main the-complaint about WoFF is how easy it is. None of the battles are challenging and for the entire second half of the game, I never had a game over. Never even came the-close. The Pokemon aspect is a failure because it was never so difficult that I had to care which Pokemon I had. They were all effective.
TannerDemoz
Member
Sell it to me:
(I refuse to believe the OST is better. I was meh on FFXV in general but the soundtrack was killer. Each track reminded me of a different main song from other FFs)
(I refuse to believe the OST is better. I was meh on FFXV in general but the soundtrack was killer. Each track reminded me of a different main song from other FFs)
The Game never made it clear to me. And since the battle theme changes automatically to another one after a certain plot advancement, this way seemed to be the one the developers wanted it to be.
orthodoxy1095
Banned
They really are like MMO quests but even worse somehow.
Riposte
Member
Every time a Final Fantasy game comes out there always has to be this sentiment like "no! THIS is the real Final Fantasy of 20xx!". It's a really corny way to praise a game you may have liked. At least it isn't Chaos Rings this time.
I haven't played World of Final Fantasy (or Digimon), but feel like there is a dire lack of Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, and, if it counts, Stranger of Sword City, mentions for JRPG of the year (I don't really see FFXV as a JRPG to begin with, to be honest).
I haven't played World of Final Fantasy (or Digimon), but feel like there is a dire lack of Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, and, if it counts, Stranger of Sword City, mentions for JRPG of the year (I don't really see FFXV as a JRPG to begin with, to be honest).
How does the game feel if you skip most of those side quests?
No the game doesn't make it clear, but that doesn't change the fact that there is a good selection of battle themes to choose from. And I never had it override my manual selection for random encounters or change my choice.
ethomaz
Banned
Of course you'd like a fan service nostalgia game more than a game that doesn't appeal to you. Final Fantasy has always been polarizing, good luck finding someone who likes every single entry individually (even ignoring 15).
Final Fantasy needs to keep doing new things at the risk of making something you don't like. I bet SNES fans were insulted by Final Fantasy VII back in the day.
Final Fantasy needs to keep doing new things at the risk of making something you don't like. I bet SNES fans were insulted by Final Fantasy VII back in the day.
Cornbread78
Member
I haven't bothered to finish the final mission of XV yet (I'll get there before Tales of Berseria launches, lol.) However, I ignored a lot of flaws in XV as I was playing through chapters 1-10, then I got to 10-14 and it kinda drove me a little crazy. It wasn't as bad as some made it out to be, but it was pretty bad. The reveals at that point were sudden and without substance...
10 year time skip?
I rank WoFF higher because it never tries to be something it's not and it doesn't get caught up in it's own complexities. There are some gaps in the story here as well, but it keeps a consistent tone the entire game and doesn't try to get "edgy" at all. I can appreciate the consistency this game brought forth and made it such an enjoyable experience.
Let's be real though, there is no way to compare the games directly since they are complete opposite in tone, structure, gameplay and theme.
The only thing that is consistent between the two is the great OST...
Blackleg-sanji1
Banned
That's been the mo of every woff thread since it's announcement
Even on the fastest ATB setting with the fast forward button held down it's still too slow. The older titles are having fast forward buttons added for a reason. WoFF is slower than it needs to be, comparisons to other games don't change that.
And lol in no way is it more complex and strategic. Other than like the final boss inflicting a variety of statuses and a few mirage captures you basically never have to touch anything past attacks and elements, no worries about statuses and stacking is a shallow mechanic that amounts to very little. I was surprised they never iterated on it throughout the game and enemy stacks were relegated almost entirely to mobs.
I will respectfully disagree with your opinion. WoFF, imo, is missing out on something that FFXV just filled the void with. I'm not sure if it was too much of a reliance on nostalgia or something else. FFXV, on the other hand, really hit the spot for me. It could be argued that XV relied on nostalgia a bit too much as well, but...idk, it just felt better.
That said, I kinda want to replay WoFF again...
That said, I kinda want to replay WoFF again...
Hibiki Kurosawa
Member
I'd have to agree with this. XV is a bit of a mess and quite a bit of a disappointment. WoFF was a delightful surprise.
And as the game didn't make it clear, I didn't even know about this until you told me. Which frankly (after playing the game for around 40 hours), is on the game more tbh.
ethomaz
Banned
I disagree with a lot of things but I will focus on story only.
All FFs NPC get developed plots and it is part of the the main quest line. Each one has at least 10 minutes of story... most have more... they have a good and funny plot lines.
Cybrwzrd
Banned
I would have liked FFXV if it had the paradigm combat system.
The combat in XV killed the game for me. I can put up with bad storytelling if the game is fun. There is nothing fun for me about point warping but having it not work, trying to mash a button to dodge stuff with perfect timing, and having to spam drink potions to keep your party alive.
World of FF is great though. I agree it is the better 2016 Final Fantasy. I'd put Brave Exvius right behind it though.
I find this hard to believe, but WoFF doesn't appeal to me at all. So, it's cool people like the game I suppose.
On the soundtrack side, I'm not a huge Hamauzu fan (he's good but not my favorite). FF XV's soundtrack is pretty great (there are some generic tracks thrown in but the main themes are incredible and get stuck in my head at random times). So by default I will disagree on that front as well.
Basically, the real truth, as I see it: many people, not expecting much out of WoFF, are surprised by its quality, thus consider it a good game.
On the reverse, people were expecting a great deal out of FF XV, and those who are disappointed say it is not a good game.
However, anticipation clouds people's judgment on what makes a good game. But really, in the end it's pretty subjective. You like what you like.
On the soundtrack side, I'm not a huge Hamauzu fan (he's good but not my favorite). FF XV's soundtrack is pretty great (there are some generic tracks thrown in but the main themes are incredible and get stuck in my head at random times). So by default I will disagree on that front as well.
Basically, the real truth, as I see it: many people, not expecting much out of WoFF, are surprised by its quality, thus consider it a good game.
On the reverse, people were expecting a great deal out of FF XV, and those who are disappointed say it is not a good game.
However, anticipation clouds people's judgment on what makes a good game. But really, in the end it's pretty subjective. You like what you like.
its sort of difficult to rank them but i preferred FFXVs soundtrack slightly more but WoFFs was incredible too.
World of Addy
World of Grymoire
Labyrinth of Lights
Still relatively early in WoFF (think it is 30 - 40 hours for completion) and have some quibbles with the overall game so i can't recommend it fully but the soundtrack is great.
LordKasual
Banned
Don't really see the point in arguing this, because i'm sure we're talking about this from 2 very different perspectives. But the fact that WoFF even includes a "Fast Forward" option is exactly what i'm talking about. It's there because they're self-aware of how the game plays.
Games like International FFXII and the FFIX re-release have a fast forward option there for different reasons than WoFF. FFXII has you doing alot of running around large areas. FFIX has been displaced by 3 console generations, what was fun to look at then may not seem that way today.
WoFF is just plodding by design, and it has no reason to be, especially since the last two FF games to use an ATB variant (XIII and X-2) didn't need any kind of fast forward button. They removed the need for one through sheer design of the battle system.
WoFF is closer to Pokemon Stadium than it is to Final Fantasy...Like, seriously the character's dont even physically move to attack the damn enemies anymore. When's the last time Final Fantasy was that minimalistic??? It's just retro pandering at its worse.
Fleet_of_Foot
Member
I don't think you've got a valid complaint. So you played it for 40 hours and the game never told you? The length you played is irrelevant. It's the kind of thing the game is either going to tell you in the first hour, or not at all. So you could have played it for 1,000 hours and your complaint would be the same. You think the game is suddenly going to tell you, in hour 38, that you can change the battle music?
It's right there in the menus - not exactly hidden. All you had to do was scroll through the menus one time.
oneofthose
Banned
Yeah i liked WOFF better the only thing i wish was the ff characters would be actual playable party members.
Final Fantasy can't survive off of exploiting nostalgia with cheap spin-offs forever. Right now they need to focus on ramping up output and taking risks. If a risk doesn't pay off (see VIII and XIII) they can do something different next time.
The role of Final Fantasy fans is to stop assuming the past should dictate the future, and allow Square Enix to innovate. Otherwise Final Fantasy will end up like Assassin's Creed, tired and repetitive. "You can skip this year's entry because you've already played it before"
The role of Final Fantasy fans is to stop assuming the past should dictate the future, and allow Square Enix to innovate. Otherwise Final Fantasy will end up like Assassin's Creed, tired and repetitive. "You can skip this year's entry because you've already played it before"
100%TrophyMaster
Member
I enjoyed both games. I wouldn't go out and say one is much better than the other but they were each good in their own way. Battle system was much better in FFXV but WoFF definitely had that old school JRPG feel which was great. Music I would call a draw--both probably my favorite OST's of last year. Hamauzu/Shimomura tag team could destroy any competition.
VIII paid off. How did it not? If you personally didn't like it that's fine, but it was a financial and critical success by all measures. XIII was shakier in critical reception and couldn't carry an audience into the sequels, but even that was sold copies.
Blackleg-sanji1
Banned
I agree here except Viii paid off with the risk as well
LordKasual
Banned
so much this, man. Luckly, we're in a position where the developers at Square are fully aware that pandering to the past is never going to move them forward. They've never operated off that mentality and i'm so happy that they verbally refuse to start doing so.
Yeah VIII is something fans complain about, but I personally was in love with that game when it came out.
Its mechanical shortcomings didn't take anything away from what it brought to the series. And honestly, FFIX felt kind of bland in comparison following it, at least in the combat mechanic department.
I'll forever love that game for the Renzokuken gimmicks it brought to the table. Watching Squall run through enemies with unique animations never got old. I just wish they used those attacks in FFVIII with something other than the limit mechanic.
I'll be happy when this every RPG needs to be open world trend is over. In majority of the cases it has just meant that game has a ton of shitty side quests.
PS. Also FFXIII is actually a good game as you say.