Final Fantasy XV - General News Thread

[Lulcielid]

FFXV PC Benchmark is misleading.

TL;DR: The benchmark is rendering objects and other stuffs with more details than it should both when they're way far away or long past your location, with performance taking a hit. They theorize (and hope) this is just an issue of the benchmark being probably done as a quick job.

 

[Ikkin]

Im down for that, but Ignis's episode needs to be towards the end, when you know Noct's fate, its very spoilery, but i guess you can say that is cool to know it before hand through Iggy.

I disagree. To me, the pros and cons of holding Ep Ignis to the end are as follows:

Pro: It avoids showing Ignis' spoilery vision too early.

Con: Literally everything else.

Spoiler

The biggest issue, of course, is that Ravus' story is almost non-existent without Ep Ignis being in place. Ep Ignis explains Ravus' motivations in a way that the original game didn't, and it would be so much better to have that explanation before Chapter 13 and 13:2.

Turning Ep Ignis into "Chapter 9:2" would also help make the Chapter 9 setpiece sequence feel more epic -- even if the Leviathan fight is left as-is, Ep Ignis would offer some of the setpiece moments that felt lacking in the original Chapter 9. It would also add a bit of open-world gameplay in a place where it's needed.

You'd get a little bit more about Luna's devotion to Noct earlier, which would be nice as well... as would the appropriate conclusion to Calligo's part in the game.

And it's not that difficult to fix the issue with Ignis' vision, anyway. While there's no way to misunderstand the spoilers with Bahamut's voiceover being in English, it'd be a lot more ambiguous if Bahamut were to be given a voiceover in Astral without subtitles. A bunch of clips from scenes without context followed by Ignis asking whether he saw a vision of the future would serve perfectly well as foreshadowing... and that might actually help the game's story (particularly in understanding Noct's mindset in Chapters 10-13), as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Bazztek]

I think if they just modify the "vision" Ignis is shown to just

Spoiler

showing something like

with the pan over mural of the prophecy, and only have a the start of the Bahamut dialog spoken while it fades off not revealing the whole dialog and it fades to white back to Ignis, implying more was told to him but the audience isn't spoiled on it before it happens but it at least comes across that he's being shown a vision for something to come.

Doing that would make it able to fit in very easily within chapter 9, on top of that the moment Ep Ignis should technically start would be between the CGI scene of Noctis and Luna and the scene of Noctis waking up in the bed, since in Ep Ignis you find Noctis and Luna side by side with her dead, and it would spoil the CG scene if you find her there before that scene plays, and the scene of Noctis waking up to see Ignis can jus happen in between the scenes shown in the credits of Ep Ignis.

 

[Nova]

Do you guys think they’ll actually do that for the DLC though?

Or, I’m being hopeful here, integrate them into the main game?

I have a feeling they’re going to keep them separate.

You’ll need the season pass, or purchase the Episodes individually, in order for the story cut away prompt to come up.

I’m not sure they’re gonna want to work on that now.

If really depends on if demand is currently still high enough for them to reconsider leaving the episodes seperate. Specifically for the DLC episodes themselves i don't think the implementation will surface upon the release of the Royal Edition, but possibly much later should the chance remain up there.

 

[Storm]

https://thelifestream.net/forums/showthread.php?t=14038&page=272

—"A line spoken in the game's final battle on extremely rare occasions adds an interesting angle

Spoiler

during parries, Ardyn might say "I was so very close...so close to taking those friends of yours...and making them into daemons." I wonder if he chose not to because he realized Noct needed them with him to the end in order to get him to fight at his best?"

unfortunately the link page is broken, so i can't confirm.

 

[Paperchampion23]

I know I've said this a few times already but do you all think they should update the beginning of the game, just as they are updating the end with the Royal Pack?

I think Chapter 0 in its current form actually is pointless and hurts the narrative, simply because the same scene happens in Chapter 14 already and the context is just not there. I can think of a few ways to improve it without actually creating new assets, but I wonder if they would change it. My only hope is that like other aspects of the game, the beginning was not well received and may have been heard by them as negative feedback to improve in the future.

The series actually has a decent of assets to pull from, ranging from Dawn Trailer footage, the Platinum demo, the Novella (if it could actually be voiced, or potentially even just a few new cutscenes), the beginning of KG (where Regis takes Noct away and Luna is left behind) to create a better prologue.

I think most of us can agree that the Father-son relationship between Noct and Regis was something that could have been explained a little more, same with Nocts injury (if you don't watch Brotherhood), recovery, and the road to meeting his friends (all behind Brotherhood or the Platinum demo, which is now unobtainable if you hadn't downloaded it prior). IMO that would be a MUCH better introduction to FFXV than the one we got. Here's to hoping theres enough fan demand for a change at some point.


To me, a potential update on this would be just as important as they are updating the ending to the game.


Edit: Like seriously, read this description of the Dawn 2.0 trailer: "The destiny of the stars is set in motion 15 years before the events of FINAL FANTASY XV. This updated cut of the “Dawn” trailer reveals new footage of the game’s protagonists, Noctis and Luna, as the hardships of their past give them purpose in the present. Their journey begins."

We actually know nothing about their childhood struggles unless you watch supplemental material.

 

[Jubileus]

https://thelifestream.net/forums/showthread.php?t=14038&page=272

—"A line spoken in the game's final battle on extremely rare occasions adds an interesting angle

Spoiler

during parries, Ardyn might say "I was so very close...so close to taking those friends of yours...and making them into daemons." I wonder if he chose not to because he realized Noct needed them with him to the end in order to get him to fight at his best?"

unfortunately the link page is broken, so i can't confirm.

I can confirm that Ardyn does indeed say such a line.

I heard it during my battle with him.

Good question. I have no idea why Ardyn let them be. I think it would've been the opposite tbh, where if he

Spoiler

chose to turn them into daemons, that might make him more angry and fight harder.

I think he didn't because it wasn't necessary.

Ardyn is angry and an asshole sure, but he strikes me as intelligent too. He does things only if they further his scheme along. If they don't, then he's not going to bother.

 

[Ikkin]

I think if they just modify the "vision" Ignis is shown to just

Spoiler

showing something like

with the pan over mural of the prophecy, and only have a the start of the Bahamut dialog spoken while it fades off not revealing the whole dialog and it fades to white back to Ignis, implying more was told to him but the audience isn't spoiled on it before it happens but it at least comes across that he's being shown a vision for something to come.

Doing that would make it able to fit in very easily within chapter 9, on top of that the moment Ep Ignis should technically start would be between the CGI scene of Noctis and Luna and the scene of Noctis waking up in the bed, since in Ep Ignis you find Noctis and Luna side by side with her dead, and it would spoil the CG scene if you find her there before that scene plays, and the scene of Noctis waking up to see Ignis can jus happen in between the scenes shown in the credits of Ep Ignis.

Spoiler

If you're going to limit Bahamut's speech to the first line, why not just keep the visuals as they are? The scene played over that line was included in launch trailers, IIRC. *shrugs*

Doing that would be a good way to avoid spoilers, though it'd also feel a bit abrupt. I guess it'd be possible to keep most of the next line as well, since you could probably cut off "only at the cost of a life" before "his own" to keep it ambiguous.

But, yeah, that's where I was thinking it ought to go... though I was thinking it'd make more sense to suppress the credits until the Episode proper unlocked (after finishing the game). That's where the unavoidably spoilery stuff is. XD; The scene in the bedroom could be retained, but it might flow oddly, so... I dunno.

 

[Bazztek]

Spoiler

If you're going to limit Bahamut's speech to the first line, why not just keep the visuals as they are? The scene played over that line was included in launch trailers, IIRC. *shrugs*

Doing that would be a good way to avoid spoilers, though it'd also feel a bit abrupt. I guess it'd be possible to keep most of the next line as well, since you could probably cut off "only at the cost of a life" before "his own" to keep it ambiguous.

But, yeah, that's where I was thinking it ought to go... though I was thinking it'd make more sense to suppress the credits until the Episode proper unlocked (after finishing the game). That's where the unavoidably spoilery stuff is. XD; The scene in the bedroom could be retained, but it might flow oddly, so... I dunno.

Spoiler

They show the entire ending CG including the parts of Noctis in the beyond and more plus destroying Ardyn with his starscourge face, the launch/Judgement trailers only showed Noctis walking up to the throne and like a second of him sitting on the throne and it was never spoiled who Ardyn really was or anything prior, but the context for that scene wasn't made aware of what was going to happen to Noctis either. When Bahamut is speaking and showing those scenes it makes it clear Noctis is going to sacrifice himself, but the player isn't supposed to know that until Noctis himself finds out when Bahamut tells him in chapter 13, and that dialog in Ep Ignis from Bahamut is the same dialog Bahamut has at the end of chapter 13, and it's only at that point in chapter 13 when the player learns who Ardyn really is, but to be shown Ardyn being defeated before that even happens is something they could just avoid by not showing it, so it would be better if they just give a brief snippet of the Bahamut dialog first and fade out to it while they overlay on something that isn't outright spoiling the ending, so the audience isn't spoiled on it before it happens but so that we still get that Ignis was shown a vision of the future

 

[Ikkin]

Spoiler

They show the entire ending CG including the parts of Noctis in the beyond and more plus destroying Ardyn with his starscourge face, the launch/Judgement trailers only showed Noctis walking up to the throne and like a second of him sitting on the throne and it was never spoiled who Ardyn really was or anything prior, but the context for that scene wasn't made aware of what was going to happen to Noctis either. When Bahamut is speaking and showing those scenes it makes it clear Noctis is going to sacrifice himself, but the player isn't supposed to know that until Noctis himself finds out when Bahamut tells him in chapter 13, and that dialog in Ep Ignis from Bahamut is the same dialog Bahamut has at the end of chapter 13, and it's only at that point in chapter 13 when the player learns who Ardyn really is, but to be shown Ardyn being defeated before that even happens is something they could just avoid by not showing it, so it would be better if they just give a brief snippet of the Bahamut dialog first and fade out to it while they overlay on something that isn't outright spoiling the ending, so the audience isn't spoiled on it before it happens but so that we still get that Ignis was shown a vision of the future

Spoiler

I wasn't saying that the full vision in Ep Ignis didn't show more than the trailer; what I was saying was that the first line of that vision wasn't accompanied by anything that wasn't shown in the trailer, so the vision could be cut down to that first line without really spoiling much. (For what it's worth, the trailer did show the Lucii, even if it didn't show them stabbing Noct.)

With that said, after reviewing the vision, I think the ideal solution would be to show the parts of the vision that correspond to Bahamut's first two lines and end the vision with a cut to white immediately after that (with the third line either being played over the white screen, over a reaction shot of Ignis, or removed, and the fourth line being removed regardless). Yes, that would include the "only at the cost of a life -- his own" part, but Ignis' questioning of what he saw and the general assumptions that people make about how JRPG characters respond to inevitability would lead people who hadn't played the game to make the wrong conclusions. The existence of two separate supernatural groups could help fuel the assumption that there has to be another option, since it's not clear at all that the voice is an Astral's until you reach Ch 13. With only the context provided by the first half of the game and the modified version of Ep Ignis, it'd be really easy to think that maybe Pryna was warning Ignis of the Lucii's plan to help Noct avoid his fate.

And, in some ways, I think that knowing that Noct might have to die beforehand would make Chapters 10-12 work better anyway, since as it stands, Noct knows things the player doesn't. As it stands, a lot of people interpreted his refusal to wear the Ring as sulking; if the possibility that he had to die was floated earlier (especially in conjunction with the reveals about what the Ring did to Ravus and Ignis), his reaction could be properly understood as mortal terror, which is a lot more sympathetic.

 

[Storm]

huh? interesting, there's dialogue with the older bros using the car.

 

[FFChocobo18]

huh? interesting, there's dialogue with the older bros using the car.

Perhaps we could see them drive the car down the bridge?

 

[Ikkin]

Perhaps we could see them drive the car down the bridge?

Give that the dialogue is triggered by actually driving, it seems like it would be less seeing them drive across the bridge and more actually driving across the bridge (if the bridge was accessible, of course).

 

[Nova]

@Paperchampion23 Should be delighted about this.

Can't wait for tge upcoming uldate even more.

 

[Paperchampion23]

100% XDD

This is super interesting!

Edit: Wonder if it means we get to drive to insomnia or we can explore the WoR prior. I'll take anything tbh, so friggin excited for this update

 

[FFChocobo18]

I took a screenshot of the mini-map of the expanded Insomnia, and it seems there's some of a big area hidden away in here.:

http://prntscr.com/iafafy


With that being said, I'll take any sized expansion of Insomnia, I'm very much looking forward to the expansion to explore Insomnia, fighting the new bosses, and seeing the new story content there.

 

[Paperchampion23]

I took a screenshot of the mini-map of the expanded Insomnia, and it seems there's some of a big area hidden away in here.:

http://prntscr.com/iafafy


With that being said, I'll take any sized expansion of Insomnia, I'm very much looking forward to the expansion to explore Insomnia, fighting the new bosses, and seeing the new story content there.

I honestly think the map will be sizable. For them to sell it as a priced DLC that mostly focuses on this specific part of the game makes me think that it will be a decent chunk of map. Definitely not the entire city lol but possibly a large part of that city center.

Edit: The main website actually has a few pictures of Insomnia and there are definitely area type's we haven't yet. Can't post it cause of my phone being dumb but if you just look at the Royal edition section, you see a new type of neighborhood there, which seems very different from the downtown area the citadel is in.

 

[FFChocobo18]

I honestly think the map will be sizable. For them to sell it as a priced DLC that mostly focuses on this specific part of the game makes me think that it will be a decent chunk of map. Definitely bit the entire city lol but possibly a large part of that city center.

I agree, I, too, think this expanded Insomnia will be a decent sizable chunk, especially with the partly big area hidden away in the mini-map. Talking about this is exciting me even more, I think exploring the city center could be fun, and really nice to look at, and not to mention, the expanded Insomnia will be having side quests, that could also be another indicator on how big it could be.

 

[Paperchampion23]

Yup! Just best to temper expectations and let the DLC surprise you.

I know most people see that I make a lot of wishlists or changes of what I'd like to see in the game, but I know going into it that many of them may not happen. Insomnia was one of those things that I didn't expect to actually happen (I thought other things would happen over this) and it is fantastic to see here, but another level to this is to see how much they actually give us in the long run.

I totally agree though, it looks promising and I can' wait to see just what the March update over all does to the structure of this game.

 

[FFChocobo18]

Yup! Just best to temper expectations and let the DLC surprise you.

I know most people see that I make a lot of wishlists or changes of what I'd like to see in the game, but I know going into it that many of them may not happen. Insomnia was one of those things that I didn't expect to actually happen (I thought other things would happen over this) and it is fantastic to see here, but another level to this is to see how much they actually give us in the long run.

I totally agree though, it looks promising and I can' wait to see just what the March update over all does to the structure of this game.

Yeah, I have my expectations lowered for anything just in case if there's any surprises awaiting. I will say, though, whatever portion of Insomnia they give us as long as it's a decent chunk, I'll take it, as the two sections we got at launch weren't enough to satisfy me, as there wasn't enough exploration in Insomnia, but I have my expectations at low.