Final Fantasy Video Game • Page 45

Just saved up 400k exp and stayed at the 3x Altissia hotel.. shot from my ending game lvl of 69 to 90. Wooo that was worth it.

 

The story had so much potential, but the execution near the end was lacking. It definitely felt like it was rushed. I'm hoping the DLC will be able to patch some holes in the story. I still love this game a lot, I just wish the story was more fleshed out.

 

Agreed. They had four main characters I really cared about, and then a bunch of characters I could have cared about..

 

Exactly. They did a really poor job with the side characters which bums me out. Iris and Aranea were awesome for the small interactions they had, but we barely learn anything about them.

 

Aranea was great. Her outfit kinda reminds me of Lightning's from Lightning Returns btw.

 

Maybe I'm not far enough to really understand her deal. I just don't get it. It felt like they just needed to throw in a dragoon for the fans. She has some incredible animations though.

 

So dumb that everyone turned heel with no reason Aranea and Luna's brother. Also we saw the Emperor like one time in one cut scene. They literally don't explain Ardyn at all until the end and even at that it's piss poor. Super disappointed with how the story played out. It could have been stellar, but womp womp womp..

 

I knew it looked extremely familiar!

 

They specifically said the content they're going to add will address/clarify that stuff. It desperately needs it. the emperor is the weird gargoyle looking creature you fight throughout chapter 13

 

Final Fantasy XV review

This game was ten years in the making. We all know that the plan for this game changed multiple times over the past decade. Production teams, story, characters, etc. It all changed. The final product of an inconsistent mess is evidence that this game was never going to be made correctly since it lost its vision sometime between 2006 and 2015. And yet, I just spent 48 hours playing and pretty much never got bored. Full disclosure in that I did not tackle the post game/hidden dungeons or mega bosses yet but I will get around to them eventually and wanted to share my thoughts before everyone forgets about this game.


Gameplay (9):
Let's start where this game mostly shines. Some might argue that some of the side quests are boring and pointless (fetching dog tags anyone?), but the gameplay overall is quite good. Yes there are some oddities (including driving being on rails in an "open world" game), but overall the gameplay in this game is great.

The battle system is actually quite good despite my early worries. As you gained Ascension skills and gathered different weapons it became more fun. My main complaint about the battle system is no longer that it is not turn based, but that there are not really traditional Final Fantasy roles (healer, Mage, etc) within the party. Sure some of the simple elements are there but it doesn't feel like we have dedicated classes or characters here. This is part of the reason this game does not feel like a Final Fantasy game to me. The camera was also annoying at times, but nothing major in my opinion.

I don't like that summons are only available at certain times. The animations for the summons were great, especially at the end of the game. Camping, exploring, battling and the like are all great in this open world setting. I was not a fan of the magic system. Lots to think about in terms of gameplay overall but as a whole, I think the gameplay is great and it kept me coming back to play.

Graphics (8):
Most of the time, the graphics were pretty good, but not mind blowing like FF X and XIII were for their time. Some of the time, the graphics were awful and it appeared that they used early renderings for the final product. Characters like Holly looked awful and voice acting was atrocious. I just started playing the Uncharted series again and the first Uncharted game has better voice acting than this. I expect more from a final fantasy game, but the graphics were fine overall.

Music (9.5):
The music in this game is another one of its strengths. The music almost always matched the pace and tempo of what was happening on screen. Having the ability to listen to older final fantasy soundtracks while driving in the Regalia was a great touch.

Story (5):
Ouch. This may be the most scattered and shallow story in any final fantasy game ever. It is clear that huge pieces of content were cut, story lines were changed, and a clear vision was never realized for the version of this game that was released to us. One of the best scenes from the early trailers is not even in the game. There are simply too many plot holes for the player to be able to fully grasp this story. Yes, the relationship between the 4 bros developed nicely and some of the scenes near the end were touching, but the "love" story was virtually non-existent. I would have loved to learn more about Lunafreya and characters like Cindy were dreadful. Again, this did not feel like a final fantasy game cast and it felt like they poorly gauged what to include in the story line versus the number of side quests to have the player embark on.

Extras (8):
There are a lot and there are a good variety. I would actually argue that there are too many extras. In the 48 hours I played the game, I would say only about 15 of them were actual story line. If they could have made it 50% side quests and 50% story line, I feel like this game would have been better balanced and we would have got a more complete story. Instead, they wanted me to spend hours fetching dog tags. The extra dungeons and bosses sound like they are worthy extras and including the task of obtaining all 13 Royal arms seems good too - though they could have made the game have 13 dungeons or main quests to obtain all of them that way (and maybe included more of the story in this way too).

Verdict (7.75 - Good):
It very rarely felt like a Final Fantasy game. It wasn't a bad game, it just didn't feel like a FF game story and cast wise. Yes there were chocobos and a crystal, but man that's about it. They really missed the mark as a final fantasy game, but it was fun and interesting enough to keep me coming back for nearly 50 hours. Hopefully they can take the good parts of this one and give us a full final fantasy story and cast next time.

 

Pretty spot on review man. I haven't finished the game yet but yeah I'm towards the end and the story is easily the biggest flaw. I had the same problem with 12, but even THAT one was better. Still tho I'm enjoying the game and will probably check out the DLC down the line when I finish the main story. I like how you can go back and do other stuff after the main story, cause I know I'll be trying to unlock everything

I feel like the FF7 remake is gonna feel pretty similar to this, and you know the story won't suck, so I feel like that will be the "truest" FF we'll ever get again sadly. Also really looking forward to the 12 remaster.

 

Thanks.

Also, this trailer shows how much was cut. How is NONE of this trailer in the game? Unbelievable.

 

Good lord. This isn't even close to the same game.

 

Really agree with your review.

Really hoping 7 remake is literally this gameplay somewhat. Slightly tweaked and just the story as was and is. Would be amazing.

I'll have to watch that video.

 

Wonder what made them cut and change so much of the story. :/ They put a lot into the movie instead, it looks like.

And it's kinda obvious how different Stella is from Luna.

Isn't Noctis' Dad MUCH younger as well in that 2013 trailer?

 

Looked better in the trailer lol. At least that Levethian section through the building.

 

If you have 45 minutes to kill and want to be even more mad....lol

 

The OST is much shorter than expected

 

Just finished the game today and also felt like a lot was cut from the story. I watched these 3 videos and they helped me understand a LOT. It's a shame, cause it's really great stuff.

 

Yeah so why cut all of that out. FF should always have an amazing story. This thing was super shallow!

 

I don't get it either. Like are they saving stuff for more DLC down the line? Pretty damn wack if that's true.

 

Wasn't it supposed to originally be:

Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy:

FF XIII (Lightning)
FF Agito XIII (Ace)
FF Versus XIII (Noctis)

but instead they made XIII its own trilogy, agito XIII became type-0, and versus XIII became XV.

I will always wonder what would have happened if the original plan worked out. lol

 

The flying car in this game....you can crash trying to land. I don't see why that has to be a thing. It is really jarring. You hear Ignis yell and I just get really anxious. :/

 

This solo crawl with Noctis fucking sucks.

 

By the time I got through the solo part, I didn't give a shit about the story. Didn't help that the antagonist was cliche and boring.

Boosted up to about level 78 and finished it out. This seems like a really easy game to 100%, so I'll put a few more hours into it.