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[HaveButOneLife]

Spoilers - in my opinion, if you can't see that they're in the afterlife at the end, then perhaps you just don't get the story of this game in-general if not that plot snippet.

It was very FF to me, and it destroyed 13 in every conceivable way and that's all I needed, couldn't care less about the salty people who want females in their party to look at while they play.

 

[Clear]

At least it would make sense and had proper exposition leading to moments like Luna dying having apropriate impact on player instead of being joke.

No, its the same. Just dumbed down with excessive literalism and linerarity.

 

[PhilipDoesMatter]

Obviously I disagree with you. Two main characters go on a journey to defeat evil. Noctis needs to gather the weapons and Luna the summons, in order to complete the artifact that will be able to overcome the enemy. They are bound to die during these journeys. Everything that happens elsewhere feels like it is happening without them being really involved, which is normal. They have their own objectives to accomplish.

It is common behaviour to shit on FF XV but I find that it is actually a great story that goes back to the roots of RPGs and gives place to your own imagination.

What? Is the story all around this? I missed it completely. Luna did absolutely nothing as I understood and which weapons should Noctis go after you are talking about?

The way you describe seems a fairly simple and well-rounded story. GO BE A DIRECTOR MY DEAR FRIEND.

 

[Zephir]

What? Is the story all around this? I missed it completely. Luna did absolutely nothing as I understood and which weapons should Noctis go after you are talking about?

While Noctis is gathering his royal weapons, Luna is going around waking the summons so they're ready when Noctis visit them....she's basically going around the world and she's slightly ahead of noctis

 

[nowhat]

i played it on release date, too. This is how it happened

OK, thanks. Not the greatest writing (the same criticism could be applied to the game in its entirety though), but at least there is an explanation.

In my defense, at that point I was really kind of done with the game so I may have either dozed off on the couch or just looked at the laptop for a while (as I prefer JP audio where applicable - yes, I'm "that guy" - it's easy to miss pieces of dialogue if you're not paying constant attention).

 

[daninthemix]

Compared to FF13, it was Shakespeare-worthy.

 

[xellos2099alpha]

Dragon Song War is about hate and revenge but much better told the. Xv

 

[KINDERFELD]

The fact that were are in here lamenting over how terrible FFXV turned out, imo, is an indication that we are not truly 100% over with Square Enix.

Yes, FFXV was abysmal and left you wanting a whole lot more, but we cannot deny that it was and still is an excellent template for a great game.

As far as the story goes, I found its delivery to be so disjointed that I stopped caring about halfway through the game.

 

[Teslerum]

The fact that were are in there lamenting over how terrible FFXV turned out, imo, is an indication that we are not truly 100% over with Square Enix.

Yes, FFXV was abysmal and left you wanting a whole lot more, but we cannot deny that it was and still is an excellent template for a great game.

As far as the story goes, I found its delivery to be so disjointed that I stopped caring about halfway through the game.

Yes, I can.

And to stir up the greatest shit storm of all time:

The FFXIII series was better written. FFXV is the worst written entry in the series especially from a storytelling perspective.

That said I have never seen any community, especially long term, about which FF games are actually good
(With FFVIII and IX especially trading places on the worst/best scale)
But what I've definitly seen in every FF thread is people stating those opinions as facts.

YMMV

 

[Nickolaidas]

I've only played a couple of hours so far. Is it THAT terrible? (I avoided the spoilers in the OP)

 

[Voost Kain]

At least FFXV kind of, tells you what things are, unlike FFXIII which never really did, some of which not even in the datalogs.

In XV you aren't running around trying to figure out why there were random monsters flying around, why people had those blue diamond robes, moms are tough, people dying from falls when others are not, what a pulse falcie is and what lcie are, the games plot involving god-like machines that can't talk, but they can, because they want to kill themselves. Also you go into the internet at the end of the game because? Also you kill a bunch of people at a moto GP race and....

 

[cireza]

Yeah i would love to play that game you speak of.
But that game isn't XV.

Too bad that you feel this way about the game. I had a blast with it, it was awesome and I highly recommend it.

What? Is the story all around this? I missed it completely. Luna did absolutely nothing as I understood and which weapons should Noctis go after you are talking about?

The way you describe seems a fairly simple and well-rounded story. GO BE A DIRECTOR MY DEAR FRIEND.

It is as simple as that. I don't get it why people don't understand the story of FF XV. It is actually one of the most simple story in RPGs of the gen. Very reminiscent of older RPGs, like FF IV for example. Nier Automata is way more complicated (still awesome too !)

 

[PhilipDoesMatter]

While Noctis is gathering his royal weapons, Luna is going around waking the summons so they're ready when Noctis visit them....she's basically going around the world and she's slightly ahead of noctis

Oh my. I really didn't realize that. Not my fault though. A bad badly told story.

 

[zeorhymer]

If you read/watched all of the other things for FFXV, the story wasn't too bad. Just the fact that bits and pieces of key lore were fragmented in different mediums made it useless and ultimately the incomplete story is garbage.

 

[PhilipDoesMatter]

Too bad that you feel this way about the game. I had a blast with it, it was awesome and I highly recommend it.


It is as simple as that. I don't get it why people don't understand the story of FF XV. It is actually one of the most simple story in RPGs of the gen. Very reminiscent of older RPGs, like FF IV for example. Nier Automata is way more complicated (still awesome too !)

It could be. But it's badly told anyway. This comes from someone who plays JRPGs since 1996.

 

[Wimbledon]

Insert Sponge bob image here.....

SpOiLeRs nOt aLl uS HaVe PlAyEd tHe GaMe!


JK

 

[Jigsaah]

Ok...I've played through this game and for the very life of me I cannot figure out who the hell "MC" is.

All I can think of is...Main Character.

 

[Quezacolt]

Ok...I've played through this game and for the very life of me I cannot figure out who the hell "MC" is.

All I can think of is...Main Character.

Main character

 

[Jigsaah]

Main character

Who writes a post this long but can't be bothered to spell out who he's referring to by name? So strange.

Thank you for the confirmation. Now....who is "MS" Main Sidekick?

 

[Hinedorf]

Remember that time a game maker told you that if you didn't watch a whole movie prior to playing the game that the story wouldn't make sense?

The problem is, Square Enix never explicitly stated you needed to watch that garbage movie (I liked the garbage movie) prior to playing the game to understand how things transpired.

The precedent HAS STILL NOT HAPPENED, yet clearly if you want to understand anything about FFXV you better watch it or you're going to be as mad as virtually everybody here responding.

If there's a prerequisite story you need to watch to make an epic game more epic, NO PROBLEM. Please fucking tell your customer base first before you ruin it for them.

 

[Dontero]

No, its the same. Just dumbed down with excessive literalism and linerarity.

So you like it like it is in FFXV where Luna has total of 15 minutes of some exposition before she abruptly dies ?
Also FFXV is completely linear so idk where you get this "nonlinear" stuff.

 

[Dontero]

Remember that time a game maker told you that if you didn't watch a whole movie prior to playing the game that the story wouldn't make sense?

Honestly speaking Kingsglaive is least of its problems. Game could just as well start from where it started. But then game should not feature both Luna and Aerdyn and do something else instead because there was no way to create any kind of proper context and buildup to anything. Yet they choose to do it either way which leads to hilarious death of Luna and then completely losing player when Noctis goes through his angry phase.

The most hilarious part was that you would think MC would give funeral or something but nope lol.

 

[Zephir]

Oh my. I really didn't realize that. Not my fault though. A bad badly told story.

Well, it is told pretty clearly in game, both with dialogues and flashbacks....buuuuut, yea, they could have handled it better, like making her playable during those times

 

[Silver Wattle]

Thank fuck I skipped this mess, it looked like a Trainwreck pre launch, good job watashi *pat's self on back*.

 

[Dthomp]

As somebody that grew up with final fantasy’s, 15 is in the running for worst FF of all time in my book, right up there with that 13 garbage.

At no point did I remotely care about most of the cast, and after platinuming the game there is no way in hell im going back to replay this train wreck to see if their “changes” make it make any more sense or play any better.

Turn based>real time

 

[cireza]

It could be. But it's badly told anyway. This comes from someone who plays JRPGs since 1996.

1989, Phantasy Star II. Storytelling was done with only a few words back then, still one of greatest settings I ever witnessed in a RPG.

Good storytelling is not achieved by answering every little question, repeating things tenths of times and killing any kind of imagination and thought process from the player/reader. That's what I think.

 

[royox]

Let us sum up first FFXV story so everyone is just on same page:

- Game starts with Noctis going to see his fiance before political marriage
- His own home gets killed offscreen (buy shitty movie !)
- He has to unlock powah now
- For some reason enemy empire general who nuked his home helps him and MC sees no issue with that lol
- For no reason Summons attack him while he gets swords who are completely lucklustre and for some reason Empire decides to attack summons but not head of enemy state on quest to get those summons
- Luna ? Remember his fiance or something ? She dies for no fucking reason being killed by enemy general.
- Party decides to go to Empire to do ... something, while still being complete scrubs with no power.
- Party stops at Luna home and game probably knows it fuck up so here is FMV why you should care about that Luna NPC dying before.
- Party arrives in Empire while being herrased for no reason by enemy general.
- Hey evil empire is dead for some reason ! Hurray you did absolutely fucking nothing and you won the game.
- Enemy general shows up and turns out he is your great great great uncle who was angry about his brother being chosen for king or someother idiotic garbage so he planned all of this for 100s of years and now demons will take over world... for what reason exactly ?
- MC gets older and there is time skip. World is now dark and somehow everyone waited 20 years for you to come and was ready to fight your uncle
- Uncle dies. Then MC dies for no reason. Buy hey here is cutscene showing MC and random NPC named Luna somehow living and getting hitched.

What the actual fuk ?

The retail game was even worse than what you posted there. Let me show you how it really was:

-Game starts with Noct going to see his fiance, a girl he's been in love for years DESPITE they haven't met eachother since they were kids-
-Car crashes. Nobody in the planet recognices Noctis and he and the whole party become Eos FedEX.
-Own home destroyed offscreen, dad died, fiance maybe dead, whole life destroyed
-1 minute later "HEY NOCT WHAT PICS SHOULD I TAKE??? COOL ONES LOL????? LET'S SEE THE CHOCOBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOS!!!"
-Met Cor Leonis. "I'm so sorry I failed at defending your dad, I will defend you with my life."
-Cor Leaves for no reason.
-Noct has to unlock Power by getting some ancient weapons
-After getting 3-4 ancient weapons this quest suddently becomes useless, now we need the summons to get power
-Meet Ardyn. Never suspect about him, not even when he opens an IMPERIAL GATE by literally yelling "IT'S ME, OPEN THE DOOR"
-After getting 2 summons this quest suddently becomes useless, let's avenge fucking Jared, a random NPC that died offscreen.
-Gladio swears he will never abandon you and he will protect you with his life.
-Gladio leaves the party for no fucking reason.
-Luna gets rekt before she gets 5 minutes of screentime by Ardyn.
-Ignis gets rekt offscreen and you never have a hint of what the fuck happent.
-Whole empire army now decides to chase Noct
-Literally 1 cutscene after the empire is now gone and your only hint are some scattered papers around fucking Chapter13
-Remember the EMPEROR we hyped over 10 years? it was that random demon you killed 3 hours ago lol.
-SUDDENTLY STARSCOURGE. Where does it come? What's its origin? What happent in the past? NEVER EXPLAINED.
-Crystal absorbs Noct. Ardyn "It was my plan all along" moment that has almost no explanation.
-Enters punished Noctis.
-WANT TO PLAY A WORLD OF DARKNESS SCENARIO??? FUCK YOU! CUTSCENE TO THE GAS STATION IT IS!!
-Ignis is now Daredevil tier with no logical explanation.
-For no fucking reason Ifrit is sided with Ardyn.
-Final Boss is "hold X to win"
-Final boss "this is not even my final form" is a cutscene.
-You end the game, cry like a bitch because of the music+the pictures they show you and after you get the "The End" screen you think "WHAT THE HELL WAS THIS GAME ABOUT?".

 

[AzureFlame]

The story presentation was a complete joke.

 

[frogger]

To be fair, I haven't felt FF stories were good since FF9. I couldn't even finish FF10 due to bad writing, I finished FF12, but gave up on understanding the story half way through. I finished FF13, but that story is far more a disaster than FFXV.

 

[Fbh]

To be fair, I haven't felt FF stories were good since FF9. I couldn't even finish FF10 due to bad writing, I finished FF12, but gave up on understanding the story half way through. I finished FF13, but that story is far more a disaster than FFXV.

I'd say the story in XV is substantially worse than that of XIII even though the characters and their interactions in XV are more enjoyable.
The plot of XIII isn't particularly good or well written but once you get past the silly terms and names it's presented in a competent way even though the ending is stupid.
In XV the majority of the plot happens off screen with the game not even bothering to explain things. The whole invasion and the death of the king? Off screen (well, in a movie you have to buy), the backstory and motivations of the villain? Off screen and only vaguely explained, the fall of the empire? off screen and only vaguely explained, Lunas entire story? off screen and vaguely explained, the darkness arriving and the whole world going to shit? off screen and only vaguely explained, etc, etc.
Maybe someone could make the argument that having the perspective be set on the main character and then having him miss some big events instead of being at the center of everything could be unique and interesting. But then you'd need the writing to be a WHOLE lot better than what's there.

I'd put Square right there next to Ubisoft as the AAA studio with the worst writers. Most recent Square games with enjoyable stories/writing have either just been published by them or made by external people like Yoko Taro.

 

[Chairman Tickles]

What's next....a bad story in a Kingdom Hearts game? In metal gear game? Impossibru!

Japanese devs are narrative challenged. They build their tales on random cliches and quirks.

 

[KiteGr]

They greenlit a different story, but when they realised that the project was in development hell for almost a decade, they salvaged and put together whatever they could.

 

[Montblanc]

The story was a godawful mess and so was the game as a whole.

Worst Final Fantasy ever. All of Tabata's games are pure trash.

 

[Breakage]

I've never played this game, and after reading the summary, I'm happy I haven't. If it had a more self-contained straightforward story, it probably would have been a better game overall.
I think the FF will only be great again when SE has the courage to go back to making “one and done” FF games instead of trying to expand every entry into messy FFVII-style compilations.

 

[Malmorian]

Let us sum up first FFXV story so everyone is just on same page:

- Game starts with Noctis going to see his fiance before political marriage
- His own home gets killed offscreen (buy shitty movie !)
- He has to unlock powah now
- For some reason enemy empire general who nuked his home helps him and MC sees no issue with that lol
- For no reason Summons attack him while he gets swords who are completely lucklustre and for some reason Empire decides to attack summons but not head of enemy state on quest to get those summons
- Luna ? Remember his fiance or something ? She dies for no fucking reason being killed by enemy general.
- Party decides to go to Empire to do ... something, while still being complete scrubs with no power.
- Party stops at Luna home and game probably knows it fuck up so here is FMV why you should care about that Luna NPC dying before.
- Party arrives in Empire while being herrased for no reason by enemy general.
- Hey evil empire is dead for some reason ! Hurray you did absolutely fucking nothing and you won the game.
- Enemy general shows up and turns out he is your great great great uncle who was angry about his brother being chosen for king or someother idiotic garbage so he planned all of this for 100s of years and now demons will take over world... for what reason exactly ?
- MC gets older and there is time skip. World is now dark and somehow everyone waited 20 years for you to come and was ready to fight your uncle
- Uncle dies. Then MC dies for no reason. Buy hey here is cutscene showing MC and random NPC named Luna somehow living and getting hitched.

What the actual fuk ?
I mean story has so much promise but is COMPLETELY wasted by whoever decided what is important.

Here is how FFXV should be:

- game starts with Noctis meeting Luna, they fuck around in city and with his buddies for 1/3 of tame similar to midgard in FF7
- invasion on city, party runs away
- they decided to power up and hunt summons not some faggy swords
- party has adventures and gathers more important summons
- Luna dies while getting Leviatan up until this point player had 50 hours of playtime together with her so he cares
- Party decided to get their revenge and goes to empire
- Party nukes empire WW2 style in revenge for both invasion and Luna
- Some of his buddies die along the way
- MC kills enemy emperor but he also dies in process.
- Cut-scene shows statue of Luna and Noctis, love that never was.

cut world in half, make insomniaparts of city playable as well as enemy empire city parts of city playable.
voila 10/10 ff game.

Story of love and revenge but mainly revenge. Lovengence ! Makes sense ! Many tearing moments and laughing moments. Doesn't consist of space ninjas and great great great great uncles making no sense.

But it doesn't have plotholes and doesn't require hour of movie to get that additional sales.

Your version is so much better lol
I liked the gameplay and the graphics, but the story/plot/garbage had no gravitas.

 

[EctoPrime]

The game would of worked better if it was split into story arcs and all external FF15 content used ingame but some fan fiction might get included.

Main game

- The road trip that shows off the main locations ending with Noctis coming back from the Altissia festival with Insomnia being attacked.
This section would have flashback dream sequences to young Noctis at each camping spot.
- Insomnia falls while a now playable Cor and the Kingsglaive try to defend the king. Cor now takes the place of Nyx
- Noctis is now hunted by the empire but helped by the surviving kingsglaive and Cor.
- Cor attacks military installations instead of Noctis.
- Multiple political empire cutscenes would be dispersed throughout the main game.
- Noctis attempts to save Luna but it turns out she was brainwashed by the Empire and kills herself summoning Leviathan in an attempt to kill Noctis.
- Gladio shields Noctis but is killed. Araena now introduced using death magic to revive him. He is now her puppet.
She now takes Noctis onboard her ship and to the Empire.
- Ignis and Cor now set forth to the empire to rescue Noctis but Ignis pays a high price to get him back.
- Araena now takes the place of Stella and has conversations with Noctis trying to convince him that getting married will end the war.
- With Cor almost winning the battle to save Noctis the emperor is forced to use their cracked and corrupted crystal they possess to summon Ifrit.
The crystal shatters unleashing not only Ifrit but the Starscourge he is infected with transforming half the city into monsters.
- Ardyn the once loyal general just smirks ignoring the transforming emperors pleas for help and leaves with Ifrit.
- Noctis ends up killing the emperor. This sends the Niflheim princess Araena into an uncontrollable rage.
-Noctis and the others escape but notice something has went really wrong.

World of Ruin.

- This section would incorporate a lot of the comrades and brotherhood content to flesh out the secondary characters.
- Noctis would search for weapons and summons to help him in this part of the game.
- Cor and Noctis would eventually enter Insomnia. Cor's part would play out much like the end of the Kingsglaive film.
- Noctis would fight Araena in the streets killing her and freeing Gladio. The end battle with Ardyn would play out much the same.
- Noctis lives and we move on.

Hunters

- All of the monster hunting and low tier quests end up here at the end of the game.

 

[Komatsu]

As someone who's been playing Final Fantasies for twenty plus years, I have to say that FFXV is one of the few that made me want throw my controller through the television - and trust me, I am of those people that do not wince when watching that Rinoa/Squall scene with "Eyes On Me" playing in the background. There is somewhere inside XV the seeds, or the ruins, of a good game. The open world is fascinating. But the characters are stupid, half of the action happens offscreen and the end is an embarrassment. It speaks volumes that Tabata jumped ship a year after release and a bunch of DLCs were cancelled.

 

[Grinchy]

I gave up on Final Fantasy so long ago and the posts about how horrific they handled the story in this game keep me feeling justified about that. There hasn't been a good story since 9. At least 10 and XII played well and had quality aspects to them, but after XIII, there's been no reason to bother anymore.

They have no idea what they're doing. They take years to build up what they think is a graphics foundation that will get people talking and then they realize they need a game to go with it. So, they flail around with the launch window approaching and desperately glue together pieces of previously written lore and ideas so they can put something out and make money. And they will make money, because for some reason people still hand over their credit card details any time they see Final Fantasy written on the box.

 

[Sejan]

Square Enix has become so obsessed with creating a world for each final fantasy to take place in that the have lost the importance of the story and gameplay. This has left the most recent final fantasy games as feeling plodding and pointless. Yes, there were a few good bromance moments in 15, and 13 had moments as well. Unfortunately, these moments were the exception rather than the rule. In the end, I felt like I was left with a place that I’d love to explore, but no good reason to do so (or the inability to do so in much of 13s case).

SE needs to stop trying to make the next genre defining game such as ff7 and focus on making a good game. Instead, they spend years making a game that ends up falling short of its potetential because they couldn’t set realistic goals or reign a project in.

 

[kevin_trinh]

Best story: FF X
Best gameplay so far: FF XII IJZS

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

Let us sum up first FFXV story so everyone is just on same page:

- Game starts with Noctis going to see his fiance before political marriage
- His own home gets killed offscreen (buy shitty movie !)
- He has to unlock powah now
- For some reason enemy empire general who nuked his home helps him and MC sees no issue with that lol
- For no reason Summons attack him while he gets swords who are completely lucklustre and for some reason Empire decides to attack summons but not head of enemy state on quest to get those summons
- Luna ? Remember his fiance or something ? She dies for no fucking reason being killed by enemy general.
- Party decides to go to Empire to do ... something, while still being complete scrubs with no power.
- Party stops at Luna home and game probably knows it fuck up so here is FMV why you should care about that Luna NPC dying before.
- Party arrives in Empire while being herrased for no reason by enemy general.
- Hey evil empire is dead for some reason ! Hurray you did absolutely fucking nothing and you won the game.
- Enemy general shows up and turns out he is your great great great uncle who was angry about his brother being chosen for king or someother idiotic garbage so he planned all of this for 100s of years and now demons will take over world... for what reason exactly ?
- MC gets older and there is time skip. World is now dark and somehow everyone waited 20 years for you to come and was ready to fight your uncle
- Uncle dies. Then MC dies for no reason. Buy hey here is cutscene showing MC and random NPC named Luna somehow living and getting hitched.

What the actual fuk ?
I mean story has so much promise but is COMPLETELY wasted by whoever decided what is important.

Here is how FFXV should be:

- game starts with Noctis meeting Luna, they fuck around in city and with his buddies for 1/3 of tame similar to midgard in FF7
- invasion on city, party runs away
- they decided to power up and hunt summons not some faggy swords
- party has adventures and gathers more important summons
- Luna dies while getting Leviatan up until this point player had 50 hours of playtime together with her so he cares
- Party decided to get their revenge and goes to empire
- Party nukes empire WW2 style in revenge for both invasion and Luna
- Some of his buddies die along the way
- MC kills enemy emperor but he also dies in process.
- Cut-scene shows statue of Luna and Noctis, love that never was.

cut world in half, make insomniaparts of city playable as well as enemy empire city parts of city playable.
voila 10/10 ff game.

Story of love and revenge but mainly revenge. Lovengence ! Makes sense ! Many tearing moments and laughing moments. Doesn't consist of space ninjas and great great great great uncles making no sense.

But it doesn't have plotholes and doesn't require hour of movie to get that additional sales.

Haha I agree but between that mess there was a really good story there but the game was incomplete in so many ways and how the story was put together was one of them,

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

Square Enix has become so obsessed with creating a world for each final fantasy to take place in that the have lost the importance of the story and gameplay. .

I'd probably say the world building in FFXV was kind of lacking too.

 

[Dontero]

Your version is so much better lol
I liked the gameplay and the graphics, but the story/plot/garbage had no gravitas.

The not said thing here is that probably this was how FF13Versus was going to be.
If you look at first trailers you can see Noctis meeting Luna in Insomnia, empire attack on city and gameplay in city so what i wrote was literally from initial design.

 

[royox]

I'd probably say the world building in FFXV was kind of lacking too.

lacking is a short term for what it was. There's literally no worldbuilding in FFXV. I will always remember reaching Ifrit and asking myself "why is he sided with Ardyn?" And never got an explanation. Same with the starscourge that pops suddenly after 90% of the game and suddenly becomes the main plot. And remember that meteor Titan was holding and the craters near it? Who the hell cares.

 

[Clear]

So you like it like it is in FFXV where Luna has total of 15 minutes of some exposition before she abruptly dies ?
Also FFXV is completely linear so idk where you get this "nonlinear" stuff.

Well she's not a playable character, and the whole point is its a marriage primarily of political convenience. Turning her into an Aerith proxy solves nothing, its just lazily rehashing a trope that only really worked in the first place because it was a surprise.

If you look at legendary tragedies like the Arthurian myth that XV is clearly influenced by, the notion is that the protagonists are essentially pawns in the hands of the Gods, and their nobilty comes from their submission to Destiny.

Much like Guinevere, Luna is basically a symbolic presence. She submits and commits to her destiny knowing that her death is an important event in a larger story. Noctis/Arthur follows her example, and are eventually rewarded by taking their well-earned rest in the afterlife.

The point of XV as it stands is about what Noctis must leave behind. His friends, and the fellowships forged over their journey. That loss is XV's "Aerith Dies", moment. Its as legitimate a dramatic conceit, and a whole lot more subtle and original (in terms of its use as gaming narrative) than the paint-by-numbers fridging/plot-device in your alternative.

Seems to me you are just hung up on the fact that Luna isn't Stella, and her function in the overall story is less important than you wanted or expected.

 

[Petrae]

I don't think you can fix FF at this point. It's become a different thing to too many people and they haven't made a great single player one since 2006. It'd be better to create a new franchise with new design goals and a focused scope. None of this "rent the CG movie to understand the plot" cross media crap.

Final Fantasy has been fucked for awhile now, and there’s no hope of redemption. Hell, Square-Enix is going to ruin one of the most popular games in the series by forcing wholesale changes where they aren’t necessary, just to pander to a new generation of players who allegedly don’t like turn-based combat (despite turn-based combat games selling pretty well in Octopath Traveller and Persona 5).

 

[BlackProdigy]

Game was terrible

 

[Quezacolt]

Final Fantasy has been fucked for awhile now, and there’s no hope of redemption. Hell, Square-Enix is going to ruin one of the most popular games in the series by forcing wholesale changes where they aren’t necessary, just to pander to a new generation of players who allegedly don’t like turn-based combat (despite turn-based combat games selling pretty well in Octopath Traveller and Persona 5).

They should look at those smaller games and copy what makes them good. Square needs to rediscover what made people love the series in the first place and build a game around that, because right now, they are missing a lot with the series. I wouldn't mind if they also let yoko Taro have a go directing a main series FF. Most of the problems of his older games had problems, probably from having low budget, but people still love them anyway.

 

[KonradLaw]

I like a lot of suggestions, except Luna. Putting her into party kills one of the few cool things about FFXV story trip

 

[D.Final]

I've only played a couple of hours so far. Is it THAT terrible? (I avoided the spoilers in the OP)

No.
It's just, as usual, the usual hatred and hatred that goes with every new Final Fantasy released.

Whenever.

For me, Final Fantasy XV was so good that I loved it.
Reputedly one of the best Final Fantasy.

So, my advice is to play it until the end.
(including DLC)
And then get yourself a personal opinion about the game.