Final Fantasy XV E3 2013 Trailer Discussion

[Reverse Vampire]

Well, we shall see. I'm still going to keep my head high for FFXV and it seems to be a really promising game if you ask me. Just not too much button mashing in the gameplay. I'm most into the story though, with all that realistic dialogue and stuff I'm expecting something of a higher caliber than the usual FF's.

 

[Squirrel Emperor]

I played the demo for Type-0 on PSP way back in the day, and that felt really good and that was more or less a button masher too, but it also had other things going for it where you were casting magic and other things too, so if FFXV is a bit like that I will be happy, you know what I mean?

To go into a bit more detail of what I'm trying to say here. Ultimately, what I don't want is that sense of repetition. Repetition is in a lot of games today and button mashing is just one example of it. Covering stuff like this up is a game designers job as it can be a distraction, and even ruin, the whole entire experience.

As for the battle system. Sure, being able to do other things such as casting magic might help. For me though, it's a bit more then that. It's the entire game itself. FFXIII was repetitive not just because of the battle system but because of how the entire game was structured. All you did was fight, fight, fight, fight, fight with really nothing else to do. Things like exploration, back tracking, mini-games and doing side quests for example could help break that repetition, but there wasn't really any of that. All you did is fight. The game was devoid of content. Because of how the game was structured, it ended up effecting the battle system. Auto-battle or not, the sense of repetition was there. I felt it. I wasn't excited fighting enemies. Instead, fighting the enemies in FFXIII felt like a chore with no sense of reward.

So it's not just one thing, it's many things. All things should work together as a unit. If one thing doesn't work well, it can end up effecting things that do work well.

And yeah... We do a lot of fighting in previous Final Fantasy games as well, but it was disguised well and that's the key. Hopefully FFXV does the same.

 

[Casval]

Putting together a good trailer is one of SE’s strengths. After all, this company highly values amazing visuals and presentation. It’s what they’re known for.. But like with all trailers, they’re intended purpose is to get people excited and interested in a product. They’re supposed to lure you in. However, that doesn’t mean the end product itself will be good. That said, I can't say I'm all too surprised people are excited for it.

The debut XV trailers are some of SE's weaker presentations. Of course SE create trailers for advertisement and marketing. However, the XV E3 trailer, as hype-inducing as it may be, looked haphazard and rushed compared to previous Versus XIII trailers. The game play trailer is even more so, and the caveat displayed at the beginning seemed unnecessary especially when the target audience (the press first and foremost) had already known of the game's troubled history.

Now that I think about it, I haven't truly liked a single SE trailer I've seen except for XIII's debut trailer (ha), so what I've just said, and what I'll say in the future about SE's trailers, will be mostly useless.

 

[Dollow]

To go into a bit more detail of what I'm trying to say here. Ultimately, what I don't want is that sense of repetition. Repetition is in a lot of games today and button mashing is just one example of it. Covering stuff like this up is a game designers job as it can be a distraction, and even ruin, the whole entire experience.

As for the battle system. Sure, being able to do other things such as casting magic might help. For me though, it's a bit more then that. It's the entire game itself. FFXIII was repetitive not just because of the battle system but because of how the entire game was structured. All you did was fight, fight, fight, fight, fight with really nothing else to do. Things like exploration, back tracking, mini-games and doing side quests for example could help break that repetition, but there wasn't really any of that. All you did is fight. The game was devoid of content. Because of how the game was structured, it ended up effecting the battle system. Auto-battle or not, the sense of repetition was there. I felt it. I wasn't excited fighting enemies. Instead, fighting the enemies in FFXIII felt like a chore with no sense of reward.

So it's not just one thing, it's many things. All things should work together as a unit. If one thing doesn't work well, it can end up effecting things that do work well.

And yeah... We do a lot of fighting in previous Final Fantasy games as well, but it was disguised well and that's the key. Hopefully FFXV does the same.

I hear what you are saying and I agree, and these days repetition is a bit more commonplace, I can in one way see most gamers just playing and controlling Noctis for most of the game and not really putting time into the other members of the party, unless forced to and then going right back to Noctis. I almost want FFXV to be Open-World to try and help with the exploration part, but that only makes the world seem big without lots to do in it.

What you mention with backtracking in an RPG, I have heard many which included my friends says "I don't want to backtrack, it annoying to go back to this same place X number of times", I think part of the problem with that is that gamers want to feel like they are wasting their time which is what you are getting at.

FFXIII is a special case where the whole game was like that and I cannot change that, it was what it was. For me FFXII, even if I like the game, the gambit system got really boring to the point that I would be listening to podcast to take away from the fact that I did not have to press "X" to attack.

If I had point it down, what you would want from FFXV is,

1. A world that doesn't need to be wide open sandbox but have good LoCals, with easy to find side quests and mini game even if those mini games were just racing cars and other simple games.
and
2. A Battle System that has a lot to offer outside of just one character and you are not forced by design to use another one, and in fact encourages you to use others, on top of have to use many ways of attack outside of just pressing "X".

Am I right or am I way off? Heh

 

[AuroraXIII]

Kingdom Hearts has nice distractions outside of combat. So I'm sure this will too.

 

[Dollow]

I won't really agree on that, I have not played Dream Drop, but with BBS I was not impress with anything outside of the Command Board

 

[AuroraXIII]

I'm referring to the Kingdom Hearts games made by the Final Fantasy XV team.

 

[Dollow]

Which includes what? KH1, COM, and KH2? Heh

I am just going I don't agree, and TBH I think Kingdom Heart as far as side quests might be a wrong choice, as each game and I played all of them up to RE:Coded, stuff wasn't very good.

But I will say agree to disagree.

 

[Squirrel Emperor]

I almost want FFXV to be Open-World to try and help with the exploration part, but that only makes the world seem big without lots to do in it.

You don’t need to create an open world like Skyrim’s in order to have exploration. Break down the older Final Fantasy titles and you'll realize that not only do they have exploration, but are linear as well.

What you mention with backtracking in an RPG, I have heard many which included my friends says "I don't want to backtrack, it annoying to go back to this same place X number of times", I think part of the problem with that is that gamers want to feel like they are wasting their time which is what you are getting at.

You have backtracking for story purposes and backtracking for other reasons that are mostly optional and up to the player if they want to do it or not. In this case, I’m mostly talking about the optional stuff as it fits my example of breaking that sense of repetition. Giving players the option to simply do something different and not the same thing for 50 hours straight is just one way to help break it.

1. A world that doesn't need to be wide open sandbox but have good LoCals, with easy to find side quests and mini game even if those mini games were just racing cars and other simple games.
and
2. A Battle System that has a lot to offer outside of just one character and you are not forced by design to use another one, and in fact encourages you to use others, on top of have to use many ways of attack outside of just pressing "X".

Am I right or am I way off? Heh

I just want a damn good game.

 

[Dollow]

@Squirrel Emperor, Me too.

If I had to be selfish, I would ask for one thing, that is to have the characters hang glide.

 

[Casval]

I actually really liked the trailer. It got me excited for a game that I hadn't even been interested in. The graphics, music, little voice acting we got, and even the city they showed (don't remember the name, but I don't think it was revealed before E3's trailer...?)...I thought they did great. Not sure how I feel about the KH-esque gameplay, though.

You mean Accordo? Or Lucis, Noctis's kingdom?

 

[Casval]

If Accordo is the city that is designed like Tokyo, then I'm talking about Lucis, the one shown with the Venetian architecture. Or if I'm wrong, then I have no idea.

Other way around. Are the sections in Accordo from later stages of the game, you think?

 

[Casval]

@Sapientia:



Accordo



Lucis

I think Lucis has been designed specifically with the Shinjuku ward in mind.

 

[Casval]

@Sapientia: Yes, Stella hails from Tenebrae, and I'll venture to guess that it's, er, a very bright city. No, SE haven't shown any footage of Tenebrae.

 

[AuroraXIII]

I'll venture to guess that it's, er, a very bright city.

Well Tenebrae is Latin for darkness, so I don't know about that. xD

 

[Ehren]

I would like to discuss how hard I'm gonna punch Square Enix in the life if they include a bajillion weapons but leave out scythes.

In a more serious vein, I'm very interested in what I've seen so far. I hope the final version of the game looks as fantastic as that initial trailer does. Although I guess graphics aren't really the most important thing to me personally, it's just nice to have pretty stuff to distract me.

 

[Casval]

Well Tenebrae is Latin for darkness, so I don't know about that. xD

Indeed. Although "lucis" means "light," the kingdom itself seems to have a pretty muted colour scheme. That, and the royal families dress in--well what do you know!--black.

On the other hand, Stella dresses in white, and considering the possible discrepancy between the meaning of a nation's name and the nation's actual representation, I'd guessed that Tenebrae would likely be a kingdom with more splashes of vibrance.

 

[AuroraXIII]

Hmm yes. I think you're onto something.

 

[AuroraXIII]

I would like to discuss how hard I'm gonna punch Square Enix in the life if they include a bajillion weapons but leave out scythes.

In the main character's country, you'll see the reaper motif interwoven into the design of all the places, as well as many more elements connected to 'death'.
-Tetsuya Nomura

The motif of this land is reapers. This comes from the Fabula Nova Crystallis mythos. Since this land puts faith in reapers, it has that kind of image.
-Tetsuya Nomura

http://sqex.info/2013/06/back-track-final-fantasy-versus-xiii-2008-interviews/

Considering the emphasis on reapers in the Kingdom of Lucis (even the Amano illustration in the Stella scene was being held in place by two reapers), I think it's safe to think there will be a scythe available to at least one of the characters at some point in the game.

 

[Ehren]

In the main character's country, you'll see the reaper motif interwoven into the design of all the places, as well as many more elements connected to 'death'.
-Tetsuya Nomura

The motif of this land is reapers. This comes from the Fabula Nova Crystallis mythos. Since this land puts faith in reapers, it has that kind of image.
-Tetsuya Nomura

http://sqex.info/2013/06/back-track-final-fantasy-versus-xiii-2008-interviews/

Considering the emphasis on reapers in the Kingdom of Lucis (even the Amano illustration in the Stella scene was being held in place by two reapers), I think it's safe to think there will be a scythe available to at least one of the characters at some point in the game.

Yesh, this is part of the reason I'm preparing my punching arm just in case.

Also, was I seeing things or did the spear shown in the trailer look kind of like it had pistons or jets on it?
O .o