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[SolVanderlyn]

The point being, it's a game that has existed in some manner and idea since 2006, as such there had to be tons of stuff that was thought about and public even came to know about since it was such a long time. But at the same time you have to realise that at the end of the day there was only so much they could have done. The people asking or wishing or wondering it could have been 3 different games are only kidding themselves. Even if it was the original idea you have to consider the fact that the game was in development hell while making the "first game" itself and nothing could come up together. And it required a reboot after which it still took 3-4 years to get what we have right now. Granted the sequels would have been developed faster, but Square probably at some point just wanted to get done with it rather then extend it into a sub franchise with multiple games.

There's no doubt that the trilogy idea is unrealistic. Square realized this too, and that's why we have what we have. The story still feels like it retains the elements of a trilogy condensed into one game, with the open world segments removed from the second two and made into one linear path. Of course, nobody knows what the original plan was - that just seems most likely to me.

Yes there are flaws and it is disappointing especially because they did so much right and had such potential. But I'm just going to accept the game for what it is rather than the fantasy of what it could have been had everything went right because thinking about that will just diminish the experience I got out of playing this game.

I agree. If this game had reached its full potential it would have been my Game of All Time. As it is, I'm happy we got this. It has a lot of warts, but it's still a beautiful experience and it's not too hard to fill in what the story is missing with a bit of mental connect-the-dots work.

As haphazard as this game can be, its story is able to come together and the writer's intention is very clearly there. Metal Gear Solid V had BLATANTLY missing parts, and this is worlds better than that game in regards to its narrative. Here, we're at least able to piece together the missing parts on our own, even if they really should have been told better in-game (ex: what happened to the empire).

I liked this shot I took. More timeskip love.

Edit:

Don't worry, i wasn't angry, i was just frustrated cause i had seen similar posts and i didn't get it

With that being said, I don't think that's really the case. Its not easy to see where the FNC mythos fits in because etro herself, and many other elements that existed to push the narrative simply don't exist anymore. Summons are the only true gods for example, and Ravus, and Stella either got minimized to nothing or taken out entirely, which would have been an entire other significant part of the narrative supposedly.

Yet in the end, even the things that replaced them were done poorly and largely as one note, to the point where its hard for me to see how any of this could be puzzle pieced together by anyone.

I disagree here, too, although only to an extent. It's anyone's guess as to what role the summons played in Versus XIII (or if the devs themselves even had a plan for them) but Etro and the Unseen Gate and all of that was probably repurposed into the Ring of the Lucii and The Wall that Regis uses the crystal to maintain. The Old Kings are likely Etro's replacement. Other things are apparent - Noctis and his Father are very similar to l'Cie, using the crystal's power instead of Etro's, and Daemons are very similar to C'ieth, who have been transformed into monstrous forms for whatever reason. Noctis even dies when he uses The Old King's powers to end The Starscourge. Etro was the Goddess of Death, so it feels like she could have easily taken their place here. It feels like they went through a name change while keeping the lore the same, and the devs did comment that they wanted to keep what they had of VXIII intact, only that they had to distance it from FNC lore. That's just my two cents, though.

I don't think Versus XIII existed in as complete a form as people claim, but the overall outline of the script (however complete or incomplete it was) definitely still exists in XV in some form.

My two cents on Stella - and this is going more into theorycrafting territory than everything else I've said - is that she was always a concept. The FFVI scrapped ideas/characters thread that popped up recently, as well as the developer's comments on how it was a mistake to present information too early, only cements this theory for me. Stella and Noct are seen fighting in the original trailers, and that scene was later said to have been removed before the game even shifted to being FFXV. The devs likely had a nebulous idea that Noctis and Stella would be from rival kingdoms and be forced into some sort of conflict without any concrete idea as to how that would take form. Tenebrae ended up being a vassal state of the empire rather than an antagonistic or slightly antagonistic country, and The Hooded Man/Ravus was made to work for the empire instead of Tenebrae directly. Once the story started to take a more concrete shape, they didn't know what to do with Stella and decided to get rid of her, replacing her with Luna, who better fit the way the story had formed.

 

[Zedark]

There's no doubt that the trilogy idea is unrealistic. Square realized this too, and that's why we have what we have. The story still feels like it retains the elements of a trilogy condensed into one game, with the open world segments removed from the second two and made into one linear path. Of course, nobody knows what the original plan was - that just seems most likely to me.


I agree. If this game had reached its full potential it would have been my Game of All Time. As it is, I'm happy we got this. It has a lot of warts, but it's still a beautiful experience and it's not too hard to fill in what the story is missing with a bit of mental connect-the-dots work.

As haphazard as this game can be, its story is able to come together and the writer's intention is very clearly there. Metal Gear Solid V had BLATANTLY missing parts, and this is worlds better than that game in regards to its narrative. Here, we're at least able to piece together the missing parts on our own, even if they really should have been told better in-game (ex: what happened to the empire).

I liked this shot I took. More timeskip love.

I agree with you. This game's story could have been really special if they would have had the opportunity to fully realise it. There are moments that are so good (chapter 9 and the ending) and the characterisation of Prompto was really good as well. If they had been able to give as good a back story to Gladiolus and Ignis, and managed to tell more of the story (as you said, some parts are missing, like what happened with the empire), it would probably have been my favourite game of all time. As it is right now, it rank among my top five favourite games, just below or just above Witcher 3 (can't decide just yet) in that top 5.

Speaking of which, do we even know what exactly happened to Iedolas? I remember one line in Chapter 13 where hé said something, but he never surfaced. Or, for that matter, the other commander that we did see in the first scene with Ravus and Iedolas.

 

[GwyndolinCinder]

Chapter 10 to me show why they game could of been great, just completely focused on characterization.

 

[Original Man]

Just beat it. Beautiful ending. I teared. Why did ya have to die Noctis . Great game. That Ifrit fight was incredible

 

[Hallowed]

Just wanted to pop in and say that the leviathan battle was the high point in this game for me.

Also, adult Noctis is the most handsome/good looking male character I have ever seen in any video game to date.

 

[Vincent Alexander]

Just finished. Some rambling thoughts. It goes without saying this is all just my opinion, obviously. But how I felt about things:

1) Immersion. This game could not keep me focused. I was constantly reminded I was playing a video game, and I feel like some minor things could have countered that. I don't need a pop-up on my screen saying "Ignis" or ANY character name before they talk. If I wanted that, I would have turned on subtitles/captions. I also don't need a character repeating the same lines over-and-over again as we're driving, or out running around in the world. I know you can't record an infinite amount of dialogue....but it bugged me every time Noctis handed Ignis a drink in the car then asked if it was really that good of a drink. And this seems like an odd point to make under immersion, as it should go under storytelling, but the DLC spots killed me. Basically, this:

Well, but it's obvious that Gladiolus DLC will be when he just went away for a bit, Promptos when he fell from the train and Ignis his when he got blinded. I mean, when I played the game, this was the most blatant DLC advertisment in my face ever.

These 3 moments stood out like a sore thumb. I will eat my shoe if Mendrox isn't completely correct that each of these moments will be DLC.

2) Storytelling. I really can't say it any better than SolVanderlyn, becaues he nails my sentiments.

I can't get over how good and unique the story OUTLINE to this game is. It's dark, it's tragic, it's about bonds and destiny and sacrifice without feeling cliche. It has tragic turns with Ravus being good all along and then dying, the Emperor falling to his own greed and becoming this horrible Daemon, Luna's death, the gods dying and slowly killing off the world, Ardyn being a hero of a past generation who had everything stolen by Noctis' ancestor. Prompto learning he's from Nifleheim only to be casually reassured by the others is amazing. But THE DETAILS. The details are missing. I have never been so in love with a story's overall ideas and so disappointed with how they are told at the same time.

The pieces are all there for a truly great story. But this game was so disjointed. There was no cohesion between the story beats, and I still can't figure out why. But the moment you see this, you should be worried:

Am I the only one who didn't understand Ardyn had tricked Noctis? I mean, there was a lot of fuckery going on in that scene and it seemed like Ardyn was screwing with them for sure. But he had tricked Noctis into hurting his friend? And not too far after, when arriving at The Empire capital, you get a blip of text telling you that Ardyn sealed you powers. What the shit? When was that ever made clear to us? Not once. What makes this even better is that we later find out it was a piece of machinery that was blocking Noctis' power, and not Ardyn! Unless you want to argue that Ardyn turned it on, helped develop it, whatever. Either way, it was terrible for the game just to use that small blip to explain why you can't use your powers. They can't let us have a bit of mystery in our game to wonder what is going on. Another one: when I did a sidequest to attack a fort, the loading screen informed me about the fort and "...empire oppression." This eventually bleeds into my next point about world building, but I never once got a feeling of the empire's oppression. Why exactly were they bad guys? Because they killed Noct's daddy? Yeah, people die in war. That isn't enough of a reason to hate the empire and treat them as villains. But I suppose this isn't too bad, because I'm convinced this game had no goal of the player ever thinking much of the empire at all. They were pretty non-existent. At the end of the day, using loading screens and blips of text to explain things as terrible as the Bioshock games, and many many many others, using audio recordings and text documents to explain story. However, I hold it against Final Fantasy XV more because this is an RPG. And a Final Fantasy at that! We expect story. We want story. Oh...one more I thought of. Reading in a NEWSPAPER at the back of the train that Ravus was removed from his position and sentenced to capital punishment and the empire suffered heavy losses from Leviathan. Whaaaat? I just read that in a newspaper?!

3) World Building. I don't necessarily mean world building in the lore of the world, the gods, the kingdoms. I mean the world itself and those who populate it. This world felt very empty. Hollow. I hate to compare, but just about every other Final Fantasy had worlds I believed were real. And they felt alive. I cannot for the life of me put my finger on Final Fantasy 15, but something about it let me down. Maybe just the scope of it? The fact that we mostly run around outside of Insomnia within a 5 mile radius? It's crazy to think I'm controlling a guy who is supposed to save the world when I've hardly see any of it.

4) The Gang. I am going to get a lot of shit for this, but I don't like the idea of Noctis, Gladio, Ignis, and Prompto. They don't make for good entertainment. Now I love all 4 of them. I really do. However, they get along too much. And because of this, they lack conflict. It bored me to hang out with 4 people who get along so well they don't argue, get in fights, and therefore eventually grow as people from said fights. The only 2 conflicts I can remember came from Gladio, and both felt forced. I didn't buy them, but even if I did....they were still both from the same person, and both piss-poor conflicts. And just because I say "conflict" doesn't mean I need to see screaming or anything. Just any kind of disagreement. In a conflict we really get to learn about our characters. In this? They're all too homogenous. Sure, they have different styles of clothes. One likes to cook, and another take pictures. But they all want the same thing, and they're all content getting it the same exact same way. No disagreements about how to go about saving Insomnia, putting Noctis back on the throne, taking out the empire, etc.

5) Battle System. I didn't like it....Though I almost loved it! The camera loved to hang out behind trees, rocks, walls WAY too much. If that could just be fixed, I'd be a much happier camper.

So what did I actually enjoy? Chapter 9. That one chapter had me go from "This game is OK" to "This game is fucking great." It was coherent, didn't jump around, didn't rely on loading screen text to explain what was going on, and it took it's damn time to let us breathe in the emotion of what was going on. It was also the first time I felt any kind of emotional response in Final Fantasy. When Ardyn stabbed Luna, I immediately thought "Oh, that mother fucker has gots to go." And I was happy. Because up to that point, I had no one to hate and root against. Then the good-bye from Luna to Noctis? Pulled at the heartstrings.

The final act was pretty great too. Nothing amazing, but a step up from the crazy town of Chapter 13. It had the only memorable line in the entire game, but a damn good one:
"Off my chair, Jester. The King sits there." Dayum. The delivery had me AMPED. I was ready to knock Ardyn around after that.

In the end, I feel empty. I'm bummed that a game I've waited so long for came out like this. I need all this MMO garbage ripped out of my modern RPGs....that would help. I don't know. It bums me out because of how much potential there is in Final Fantasy 15. I would have rather played a complete pile of crap. I could be fine with hating that. But this? I like it. But mostly hate it. And that is crazy, because there is a lot of good in it. A lot of good that drowned in all the bad.

If you actually bothered to read, bless your heart. I feel better after this ramble. Now to go put my Ultimate Collector's Edition up for sale.

Final note:
What did Luna do to Ardyn's hand? She blessed that hand specifically after he stabbed her, and it came back to bite him in the very end.

 

[Gamer @ Heart]

Does anyone have pics of the kingsglaive out fits for the party? What chapter do you get them?

 

[rhandino]

The 4chan leak got everything right except the ending. The leak said Noct and bros live and rule over the land although with there not being much to rule.

To be fair it was very vague and now that we know how the game ends it fits.

"Will Noctis become a King?
I guess you could say he becomes King (During the endings there is that banner in which Noctis is recognized as a the CXIV king), but doesn't have much to rule over by the end (Because

Spoiler

he is DEAD! lol

)

There are other details that he got wrong but considering that he also said that they were doing a LOT of rewriting and changes... yeah.

 

[Infest]

Summoning system is horrible, not only is it extremely random, the requirements for each one are separate and very strict, meaning most of the time we're gonna be seeing only Ramuh since he has the most 'lenient' requirement.

Across my playthrough I only once saw Shiva and Leviathan [it was still story related tho] and Titan twice. Ramuh on the other hand is my best buddy, even if the fight just began he can come which is puzzling.

I'd prefer a different system, maybe charging some additional bar, or crafting them from Elemancy, both would be strict and not spammable. I don't know, I just hope they fix it somehow.

Leviathan can only appear if you're nearby the sea iirc.

Does anyone have pics of the kingsglaive out fits for the party? What chapter do you get them?

You get them after beating the story.

 

[Mifec]

Man the Admontoise fight is complete and utter dogshit. If you don't wanna spend too much time in it make Ignis cook the 100% crit dish. You get it at level 10 cooking. (go to Lestalum, buy lunch meat and cook the recipe over and over at a camp, you will level cooking to max in about 15 mins). Then just warpstrike it's leg/hack away at it until it dies.

Terrible game design for this fight.

 

[sappyday]

Apparently there's a scene of ardyn and emperor? I don't remember this scene. Could this have been added in patch 1.02

 

[Mifec]

Apparently there's a scene of ardyn and emperor? I don't remember this scene. Could this have been added in patch 1.02

I've not experienced it.

 

[Inuhanyou]

.

We'll just have to agree to disagree then. I don't think it makes much sense to try and pretend like we know things we could not possibly know out of this mess of development hell.

I can claim that i liked the original world portrayed by Nomura in 2006, but i'd be just throwing sand into the wind by claiming what the end product would have ever been like considering how everything went in terms of development in any case.

I think we can never truly know. Speculation is fine, but declarative statements generally don't really sit well in my view.

 

[nOoblet16]

Man the Admontoise fight is complete and utter dogshit. If you don't wanna spend too much time in it make Ignis cook the 100% crit dish. You get it at level 10 cooking. (go to Lestalum, buy lunch meat and cook the recipe over and over at a camp, you will level cooking to max in about 15 mins). Then just warpstrike it's leg/hack away at it until it dies.

Terrible game design for this fight.

The combat system is just not suited for an enemy that size. You can't even climb it and hit with normal attacks.

If they really wanted to have an Admantoise fight they should have had the turtle be the size you see in FFXIII, or let you climb the enemy. You simply cannot do a David vs Goliath size boss fight in games without either:

1) Letting you climb the boss and fight on it
2) Have the boss be actively engaged in combat rather than have the boss wiggle around, sneeze and fart indifferently.

 

[Rebel Leader]

Wait. Prompto, Ignis, and Gladio died?

I want to pretend they didn't die.

Tabata has a thing for killing everyone, no?

No one dies in my game

80 potions
67 hi-potions
67 phenoix downs
57 elixirs
77 hi elixir


Every one live in mine

Apparently there's a scene of ardyn and emperor? I don't remember this scene. Could this have been added in patch 1.02

What? I'm on 1.2 and saw nothing of this at all

 

[Vincent Alexander]

Welp. My UCE has been put up on Ebay. A little sad....but alas. We weren't meant to be.

 

[Holundrian]

As more people finish the game this thread has been extremely good for final impressions given that the reviews at large have been really confusing and saying stuff I just don't really get. Thanks everyone, I'm happy I waited for more impressions to hit.

 

[hamchan]

Wait. Prompto, Ignis, and Gladio died?

I want to pretend they didn't die.

Tabata has a thing for killing everyone, no?

I hope they didn't die. It makes Noct look like a real asshole, taking his time walking up those steps, when he could have ran and sacrificed himself faster.

 

[Omega Kirby]

The combat system is just not suited for an enemy that size. You can't even climb it and hit with normal attacks.

If they really wanted to have an Admantoise fight they should have had the turtle be the size you see in FFXIII, or let you climb the enemy. You simply cannot do a David vs Goliath size boss fight in games without either:

1) Letting you climb the boss and fight on it
2) Have the boss be actively engaged in combat rather than have the boss wiggle around, sneeze and fart indifferently.

That boss was made for a game like Dragon's Dogma

 

[Relaxed Muscle]

Chapter 9:

AHAHHAHA

That is all
*leaves thread*

 

[XANDER CAGE]

for jared....

 

[Dougieflesh]

That logo makes perfect sense now. Glad they could be together in whatever afterlife exists.

 

[ladyluthien]

After completing the story a few days ago, I've been able to think and also read other interpretations from everyone else in the thread. I really loved the story in this one. Like everyone else, there was so much they could have gone into detail with and "fleshed" out the story more, but I'm pleased with what I played.
I don't know if this is my favorite final fantasy, but it's definitely in my top bracket. I enjoyed the characters, the music and the atmosphere. I didn't think I would care for the dark and somber tale but seeing it to be a little different from other final fantasies, I appreciate it more. Ardyn in my opinion is a pretty great villain too.
I sure did cry though at the end, with Luna's death, after the credits rolled. I was even sad most of the day after playing. I had to turn off everything and just kind of sulk hahaha
I'm secretly hoping for further DLC to enhance the story more

 

[Vincent Alexander]

Chapter 9:

AHAHHAHA

That is all
*leaves thread*

Well, she isn't too differet from some previous heroines, in that Final Fantasy games have had some good, strong females before. But I do love Luna. Easily my favorite character of the game, and thus sadly the one I wanted to see more of. The more I think about her death, the more I love the fact she tries to heal Ardyn after he stabs her. She must have sensed all the demons he had inside, and tried to cleanse them. And whatever she did was enough to fuck him in the afterlife.

 

[Sylas]

I rewatched the ending and I don't really believe the bros are dead. I'm taking it as a literal, "The power of friendship," moment as opposed the THE AFTERLIFE AND THEY JUST DIED. Especially since the last words Noctis has with them are, "I'm leaving it to you guys."

That'd ring so goddamn hollow if leaving it to them meant they die like chumps instead of make sure things can be rebuilt.

 

[orthodoxy1095]

Well, she isn't too differet from some previous heroines, in that Final Fantasy games have had some good, strong females before. But I do love Luna. Easily my favorite character of the game, and thus sadly the one I wanted to see more of. The more I think about her death, the more I love the fact she tries to heal Ardyn after he stabs her. She must have sensed all the demons he had inside, and tried to cleanse them. And whatever she did was enough to fuck him in the afterlife.

I would never call Luna a good, strong female character.

 

[Caim]

The story boss fights were so disappointing.

I don't think I liked any of them besides Aranea and the final bosses.

I expected normal Ravus to be a boss at some point.

Being able to fight technically "superboss" (Level 85) versions of Ignis, Gladio, and Prompto all at once in the last stage of training was cool though.

Also is the Cross Shuriken from Platinum Demo gone?

 

[Jorgie]

Although I was let down with the game I would still recommend the game to people. I enjoyed it and honestly can't wait to go back and find off of the secrets in the world. I still have no idea what's behind those secret doors within the dungeons. Will probably pick it up again whenever it comes to PC and it has all of the DLC.

Favorite dungeon was definitely the one where you had to get the mythril. Aranea is a beast and I loved her chats. The dungeon it self having falling platforms and such made it a lot of fun and man that last boss was lovely. Albeit I am sad they reduced Quetzalcoatl to just some a boss mob, it was a joy to fight him.

Also is the Cross Shuriken from Platinum Demo gone?

I assume it's one of the knight's blades you can find around the world. I only managed to find five though so I could be wrong.

 

[Cheshire_Buddha]

Also is the Cross Shuriken from Platinum Demo gone?

It's still in, but it's one of the Royal Arms.

 

[Kazuhira]

I just beat the game, Ch 13 was probably the worse but overall loved the game.

Here is the image i got from it

This is a fantasy based on reality.

 

[Infest]

Just wanted to see how it burns during daylight...

 

[Fardeen]

sadly the story was pretty weak and shallow


one thing i also didn't like end game spoilers since its been dark for 10 years since noctis left, shouldnt it be an eternel winter without the sun? kinda bothers me, i know its a final fantasy but the previous dungeon had a lot of scientific stuff about magiteck etc

 

[Arc07]

Woo my first platinum trophy. Saved the worst one for last.

 

[Vincent Alexander]

I would never call Luna a good, strong female character.

Would you call her weak?

 

[YunFang1130]

Just wanted to see how it burns during daylight...

Tenebrae destroyed? Why?! Also, I'm reading a thread here on gamefaqs about Ravus being executed by imperials. That's not true, right? He was in the room with king regis' glaive.

 

[Vincent Alexander]

Tenebrae destroyed? Why?! Also, I'm reading a thread here on gamefaqs about Ravus being executed by imperials. That's not true, right? He was in the room with king regis' glaive.

There was a newspaper on back of train saying he was sentenced to death for the failed attack on leviathan. Based on where you find him, I'd say he was killed by demons overrunning capital along with everyone else before he was executed.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

The beginning of Chapter 13 is ironically one of the best parts of the game, before the corridor simulator. We'd seen Insomnia, Altissia and Tenebrae countless times in promo material, but the empire remained a mystery. Turns out it's a truly massive city that puts even Insomnia to shame. It's a shame we only see the glimpse of it on the highway, and only see it after it's fallen to daemons.

 

[ShadowSoldier89]

ok I just finished chapter 9 and what the fuck was this shit. Altissia is beautiful so it was off to a good start. City was annoying to navigate as Id desperately looked for the right bridge until I realized you have to take a boat. Thank fuck you can skip the floating.

The fucking boss fight though...this was the worst thing ive played in a video game in a long time. Quick time events, randomly poking with warp strikes until it triggers a cutscene. And the most pathetic free win fight I've ever seen. I even made a video of playing it. Grabbed a phone when I realized how dumb it was

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgD5pckAOns

Luna's death too...just lol. Its like Tabata thought of Aeris and was like "I gotta do that!" except he forgot the part about earning it. Luna shows up in childhood flashbacks, and 2 scenes where she doesnt even talk before chapter 9. In chapter 9 she gets two speeches and then gets stabbed. I straight up laughed at the fucking screen. Then to confirm her death they defer to Ignis and a "She has passed" Then as Noctis started crying I laughed again as I realized the game was trying to really make me care about the death of a character that barely existed

 

[orthodoxy1095]

Would you call her weak?

I'd call her absent. I'd hardly call her a character actually. She's just a narrative contrivance that exists for the sake of Noctis without any interesting strength or weakness and thus lacks any kind of meaningful depth to her.

 

[ShadowSoldier89]

I'd call her absent. I'd hardly call her a character actually. She's just a narrative contrivance that exists for the sake of Noctis without any interesting strength or weakness and thus lacks any kind of meaningful depth to her.

Fridged

 

[Mifec]

Just did the dungeon with all the platforming, welcome break after the terrible admontoise fight.

Woo my first platinum trophy. Saved the worst one for last.

Fishing is the worst one imo unless there are fish that make it go fast, then admontoise, you can just start and quit the minigame and it counts.

 

[orthodoxy1095]

Fridged

Like I said in the OT, I think it's worse than just being fridged.

If she was fridged, but a great character, that would be one thing and that would be bad enough. Think about it this way. You could make a claim that Aerith or hell, Gwen Stacy were all characters that got "fridged" for the sake of their male romantic partner's narrative progression. But they're characters that had some amount of depth and history to them, so to some extent, the fridging is actually effective to the viewer. I cared that they died. I cared about who they were.

Compare that to Luna, where the problem that I have is that the drama and heartache feel almost wholly unearned because of the narrative progression. Never interacted with her, seen in flashbacks, very little explained about their history and upcoming marriage, etc etc. She died, and I was left like this:

I made fun of Jarred's death being this big emotional hooey, but honestly his death isn't much worse than Luna's. There's hardly any actual investment into either of them, and Luna's death is a very unearned payoff honestly, and it's hard to muster up caring about anyone's fate in this story outside of maybe the bros, Iris and Aranea.

 

[F0rneus]

Also is the Cross Shuriken from Platinum Demo gone?

Just found it. It's in a dungeon Dino sends you to for a gem.

 

[Inuhanyou]

It seems from the end result that Tabata basically created Luna without any actual care to make her a character. She was there to suit the rewritten plot he had created without being much of anything else.

Granted, i will say that they probably had far more of her around just based on the previous marketing materials of her that never made it into the game, but for whatever reason, that is not reflected at all in the final product

Like I said in the OT, I think it's worse than just being fridged.

If she was fridged, but a great character, that would be one thing and that would be bad enough. Think about it this way. You could make a claim that Aerith or hell, Gwen Stacy were all characters that got "fridged" for the sake of their male romantic partner's narrative progression. But they're characters that had some amount of depth and history to them, so to some extent, the fridging is actually effective to the viewer. I cared that they died. I cared about who they were.

Aerith has a completely distinct out though in that she's not even explicitly a love interest. You don't have to romance her at all in any fashion. She is important to Cloud, but she's important to Tifa and the rest of the group too, so when she dies, it impacts everyone.

It wasn't just to further Cloud.

With Luna, there is literally no other recourse, she is the love interest and that is the only conclusion to take from simply offing her.

 

[sappyday]

I can't stop listening to Ifrit's battle theme. It's so fucking good

 

[Vincent Alexander]

I'd call her absent. I'd hardly call her a character actually. She's just a narrative contrivance that exists for the sake of Noctis without any interesting strength or weakness and thus lacks any kind of meaningful depth to her.

I partially agree. I think the game as a whole is pretty bad, but Luna was one of the better parts of it (for me). She could have been much better, but I found what little of her character we saw more interesting than Noctis, Gladio, Ignis, and Prompto. I hated when she died only because I wanted more of her, but maybe that was the point. To tease us with her and Noct's reunion only to take it away before they'd gotten a chance to even say hi. But I enjoyed her interaction with Leviathan, her brother, and even that bit with the guard shoving a gun in her face more entertaining to watch than anything with Noctis. Now I know that isn't setting the bar very high....but still. I can't defend her much more though because like most everything else in this game she had the potential to be so much more.

I can't stop listening to Ifrit's battle theme. It's so fucking good

Speaking of Ifrit---I can die a happy man if I never have to watch a TV show, movie, or play a video game that starts near the end just to rewind. This one in Final Fantasy was especially terrible and pointless.

It seems from the end result that Tabata basically created Luna without any actual care to make her a character. She was there to suit the rewritten plot he had created without being much of anything else.

Granted, i will say that they probably had far more of her around just based on the previous marketing materials of her that never made it into the game, but for whatever reason, that is not reflected at all in the final product



Aerith has a completely distinct out though in that she's not even explicitly a love interest. You don't have to romance her at all in any fashion. She is important to Cloud, but she's important to Tifa and the rest of the group too, so when she dies, it impacts everyone.

It wasn't just to further Cloud.

With Luna, there is literally no other recourse, she is the love interest and that is the only conclusion to take from simply offing her.

Not to argue against Luna because I like her....but I would go so far as to say her death didn't even push the narrative. They went and did the same thing they were going to do anywho. I think...But it is still bugging me. WHAT THE SHITE DID SHE DO TO ARDYN'S HAND?

The more I think about it....Luna was going to die anywho. They made it obvious with her brother. Not that it changes much. Just throwing that out there.

 

[hamchan]

Hmmm the trophies seem really easy for this game. They should have put more endgame content in the trophies like FFX trophies.

 

[ULTROS!]

I can't stop listening to Ifrit's battle theme. It's so fucking good

I liked Ravus Aeterna more though, which is so good.

 

[Inuhanyou]

Not to argue against Luna because I like her....but I would go so far as to say her death didn't even push the narrative. They went and did the same thing they were going to do anywho. I think...But it is still bugging me. WHAT THE SHITE DID SHE DO TO ARDYN'S HAND?

The more I think about it....Luna was going to die anywho. They made it obvious with her brother. Not that it changes much. Just throwing that out there.

As the oracle, she represents light. So she probably purified part of him that was daemonified

 

[Vincent Alexander]

As the oracle, she represents light. So she probably purified part of him that was daemonified

I'm probably putting too much thought into it, but it pissed Ardyn off whatever she did. And it came back in the end to distract him before Noct and the old kings or whatever finished him off. I suppose there probably isn't much more to it than that. Just curious why it did come back to bite him.

Oh duh. I was wondering why people thought Gladio, Ignis, and Prompto were dead. Re-watching ending, it just clicked why. Because they're in the afterlife with Noctis.