Hold my beer...
Patch Wishlist - Let me clarify that I'm not "expecting everything", or anything for that matter from this list to be patched in. These are just things in all my hours spent with this game that I'd like to see included if at all possible at this point... and if they were, or even just one was, I'd be really appreciative. Let's Begin:
- Insomnia with the Bro's: Now that the assets for Insomnia exist thanks to EA the opportunity to have the player explore the crown city with the party, and actually build some sort of connection with the place in the process mustn't be missed. As the story is told currently (in-game) we're not given an opportunity to establish any sort of connection too Insomnia, we're essentially told - indirectly, that "this is the party's home and they love it"... and that's nice and all, but to let us actually experience the city and see it full of life? Now that's the kind of incentive that propels a player to play through a lengthy story to get back to and save this city... and also this would fix the disconnect ppl have in Chapter 14, where the boys are having a rollercoast of emotions in regards to the state of their home and all you can do is sympathize with them, but not feel with them... this would ideally fix that as well.
Now... as for HOW this happens exactly, hmm I'm not toooo particular. A playable parting ways prologue would be incredible, although a port of the founder's festival that's either retextured or rebranded into the most recent founder's festival that took place before the chocobro's left home could work too. However, I think a seamless expansion to chapter 1 that gives you control of the party right on the steps of the citadel (after the opening cutscene) would be fantastic. Have cor Escort us to the regalia (that's maybe somewhere at the edge of the border's of ep ardyn's Insomnia map) with the option to explore the city before hand and interact with some unique NPC's, gawk at the metropolitan buildings, hit up the arcade, dine, etc... then have the boys say their goodbye's to family (Iris, Clarus, etc), and cutscene us riding off on our adventure with prompto at the wheel (something similar too the end of KG, or even... maybe, literally that).
- Free-Roaming As The Others: Not only is this possible, but the functionality actually already exists in the game files. It's patched now, but previously PC players with access to the debug menu were able to free-roam as the others. They could pick up items & speak with vendors and seamlessly enter & exit combat... however, enemies did have trouble detecting the new party members, for some reason they would get confused and still regard Noct as the party leader which means often times the player could be beating up on the enemy without it even fighting back if Noct didn't get close enough lol. Now, obviously this would need to be worked on... and let me clarify I'm no game developer, but I'd like to think they could do that. Also, while it's not essential for me adding some new dialogue for each boy when he's the alpha (lol) would probably be more immersive, and their weapons should probably be restricted in towns although maybe not? Seems kinda fun lol. Lastly, also not essential for me but being able to ride chocobo's & drive the car as each of them would be great too. We already know the chocobo riding animations exist and IIR the driving animations exist too, although I could be wrong about that but I seem to vaguely recall watching some pre-launch footage, from back when they were showcasing animations which demonstrated each of the bro's driving animations? Hmm...
Anyway, here's demonstration of CS outside of combat:
- Let us recruit guest party members in Chapter 15: Also something that was available in the Debug menu. Again, it would need a bit of polishing like giving Cor/Aranea car riding animations, and chocobo riding animations, and a few more voice lines for each additional party member out there in the open world but this is one where I can say it actually wouldn't be that difficult to do. Oh, and they probably shouldn't be immortal in chapter 15 lol.
Also, let us play & free-roam as the guest party members when they're in the party. Cor & Iris fighting styles already exist in comrades, so that should be rather seamless and as for Aranea... hmm, I'm hoping they made enough progress with her to include it for us if that's possible.
- Expand Accordo/Altissa (Bahamut Boss Battle) - The royal vessel is pretty cool imo but it could be utilized better than it is currently, for example I think some of the islands between Lucis & Altissia should be explorable, by that I mean maybe like 3-4 of the smaller pieces of land. To make them interesting I'd suggest putting some rare items and/or monsters on them, for example perhaps a Golden Berserker that spawns once every night, and rare items that arbitrarily spawn each day...
As for Angelguard, you'll see in the video above at 6:21 that Bahamut as an enemy exists in the game files of XV but isn't utilized. What a shame, I think a Bahamut trial in Chapter 15 would be the perfect way to utilize him. Now, I know the island isn't all that explorable and I'd never expect of them at this point to put in the work to let us chart it, so I think when you get close enough to the island in Chapter 15 you should be hit with a prompt that asks you if you want to participate in the trial and if you chose yes you're loaded into the same place he's fought in comrades (they should be able to port that area, right?). I personally think that would be really epic, and especially if it's followed by the long sought after summon of him as a reward for his defeat.
As for Altissia, the dev's were awesome enough to include the other half of the city for us in Episode Ignis yet this area is enigmatically missing from the main game. I want it, and also I'd like to explore the palace again however that probably is too big of an ask or expectation. I know that the area outside where Noct see's Luna giving her speech is actually explorable on foot oob, and of course that area we explore inside briefly when Leviathan attacks is available but I'm not sure how much else of the palace is... it would be nice to have one full city to explore (rip insomnia, tenebrae, etc), but if they could at the very least include the other half of the city included in Episode Ignis that would be incredible.
- Bahamut & Ifrit Summons: For Bahamut, if he never makes it in as a boss battle than I'd love to see the removed assets from the royal edition where Luna was going to be a playable party member with Bahamut as her summon return. As for Ifrit, after you defeat him in Chp. 14 he should be re-incarnated in Chp 15 and become another summon. And yes, I'd love if his unique functionality as a summon in EA was brought over to the main game for us, however if that for some reason wasn't at all possible than I'd accept a traditional summoning sequence as well.
- Fully Rendered Items on the Map: Now I don't know if this wasn't included as a feature because of loading concerns, or if there wasn't enough time to implement it, or what but I'd love to see a fully rendered item on the map attached to those blue/red indicators. IIR all of the models already exist and are just not utilized (I could be wrong about this) for whatever reason, but it would go a long way in regards to immersion of there were actual items on the map. Also I'd like to see pictures of the renders of items whenever we're looking at the in the items screens.
- Make Objects in the way of the Camera During Combat Transparent
-
Let us continue listening to music in generic battles
- FFXV Universe Menu Option: Give us a way to watch & read as much of the expanded universe as possible in game. For example, via the main menu in a XV Universe tab let us DL/Stream episodes of Brotherhood & Ardyn's Prologue. Let us stream/dl trailers, stream/dl Kingsglaive (if we have to pay for this that's fine), promote the free regis backstory game A King's Tale, etc. My only problems with the XV Universe are that it's not at all promoted in the game itself so you are probably missing out on content if you don't keep up with XV's social media, and of course the fact you have to go out of your way to find and watch/read all of this other content. It feels disjointed. If it were available all in one place, as a cohesive package people would appreciate it a lot more lol...
- Black Chocobo: Lol... why it's not available already is anyone's guess. During the assassn's festival you could ride one...
- Permanent Chocobo: After a couple hundred hours in game, if I never had to rent another chocobo it would be too soon. I understand they can't be available in Altissia, or Niffleheim and that's fine but in Lucis there should be a way to own your own Chocobo.
-
Permanent Chocobo Festival: Literally no reason this can't/shouldn't be a thing.
- Hard Mode: Last but certainly not least, give us an additional difficulty that not only restricts your amount of curatives but also drastically increases the enemy levels/stats and ideally improves their AI as well. I'm hoping this additionally changes up some of the spawns a bit too, like, instead of having the generic blue & red berserker's at night how about instead we have red & gold. Super rare Melusine spawn, etc.
