Final Fantasy XV - General News Thread

[Jubileus]

Yeah, it's sad. It was only with Skyward Sword that I found something that didn't make me feel sick with the damsel in distress saved by someone who doesn't have any real reason other than... just because. I felt emotionally invested, and the scenes with Impa were just so incredible. And after that they went back to "classic" blandness. I'm hoping they can capture that energy and emotion again.

I love Zelda, I really do, but BOTW isn't exactly doing anything revolutionary in terms of gaming. The cooking and climbing have been done in other games before and people are excited (myself included) because they've never been done in a Zelda game before.

I feel that FFXV is trying so many new things and angles in gaming that if it doesn't win, I'd be hugely disappointed.

 

[llazy77]

I wanna go spoiler free but I feel like Chapter 0 spoiled me alot already. It shouldn't have been included imo.

 

[Lulcielid]

it really is a stupid complain, even more considering FF always had these weird jargons.

Complaining about jargons not being properly explained is a valid critising (but going by the last posts it seens that this criticisme are not completely valid agains XIII).

 

[ChingleeTribal]

I think XV would have a hard time earing GOTY or/and RPGOTY in 2017.

There are already strong contenders slated for 2017 and im sure there are even more ambitious games to be announced for that year.

At the moment I can see Mass Effect Andromeda taking GOTY/RPGOTY. If not then it'll be CoD or something.

Personally, I'd love for FFXV to get it though but then I need to to play it to see of it got what it takes

 

[Lulcielid]

Does the Videogame Awards hold anything special? Cause this thing feels more like a weightless Oscar Award.

 

[Jubileus]

I think XV would have a hard time earing GOTY or/and RPGOTY in 2017.

There are already strong contenders slated for 2017 and im sure there are even more ambitious games to be announced for that year.

At the moment I can see Mass Effect Andromeda taking GOTY/RPGOTY. If not then it'll be CoD or something.

Personally, I'd love for FFXV to get it though but then I need to to play it to see of it got what it takes

Giving GOTY to CoD seems strange to me. I've played those games and they're exactly the same and don't offer anything revolutionary.

But yeah I don't think it will get it either. They're more likely to give it to a western game tbh.

 

[Slaintimez]

TGA GOTY means nothing for me honestly. As much as i like Witcher 3, this game is nowhere near of GOTY level, because the "game" itself really dumbed down. There is barely interesting gameplay mechanincs, of course its has great written characters and great side stuff, but games on its core is not about it in the first place. While XV gameplay is really something new in the genre, mix of great hack and slash gameplay in open world with good depth in it, and RPG elements.
At this point i want this game to be critically acclaimed just to shut up some vocal persons that i know.

 

[ChingleeTribal]

Giving GOTY to CoD seems strange to me. I've played those games and they're exactly the same and don't offer anything revolutionary.

But It has all the ingredients the game of the years award show requires for GOTY material: guns, dude bro actions, mountain dew and doritos, dude bro jokes, pressing F to pay respects, shoot bangs as well as pew pews, K/D ratios powered by cheetos and war never changes/war has changed or some cheesey war related quotes that sound like that.

 

[Jubileus]

TGA GOTY means nothing for me honestly. As much as i like Witcher 3, this game is nowhere near of GOTY level, because the "game" itself really dumbed down. There is barely interesting gameplay mechanincs, of course its has great written characters and great side stuff, but games on its core is not about it in the first place. While XV gameplay is really something new in the genre, mix of great hack and slash gameplay in open world with good depth in it, and RPG elements.
At this point i want this game to be critically acclaimed just to shut up some vocal persons that i know.

Agreed.

But knowing the game awards they're gonna give it to a western title and give FFXV a pass.

I find people to be waaay more hyper critical of 15 for some reason. I've never seen a game get picked apart so much like this before.

But It has all the ingredients the game of the years award show requires for GOTY material: guns, dude bro actions, mountain dew and doritos, dude bro jokes, pressing F to pay respects, shoot bangs as well as pew pews, K/D ratios powered by cheetos and war never changes/war has changed or some cheesey war related quotes that sound like that.

As much as I know that this is a joke... it's probably why it won in the past (and probably may win again).

 

[Lucina]

Does the Videogame Awards hold anything special? Cause this thing feels more like a weightless Oscar Award.

It's an American awards program, and hence caters to the popular taste in Western culture. All I remember about them last year was them making no mentions of games outside the west apart from Nintendo first-party stuff and MGSV. They also rode on Kojima as the 'Japanese' representative in gaming, and it looks like they're doing it again this year. What they do is obviously biased and should, in no way, tell you if a game is worth its salt.

 

[APZonerunner]

Just had an itch to re-read FFXIII reviews....
Good God now I remember why is dislike reading reviews(most of the higher profile outlets anyway). That complaint they made about the jargon being too complicated to figure out....you know, those three clearly defined and explained terms: l'cie, fal'Cie and Cieth?

You literally just have to pay a little bit of attention. Gametrailers are like "good luck figuring out the difference between l'cie fal'Cie and Cieth"....No Brandon, I have more than two brain cells, I don't need luck(Brandon Jones still an awesome dude with the best voice for reviews though). It's like they needed something else to add to the list of problems the game had yet they didn't even address the actual real problems the game was plagued with.

I don't hold the game in high regard. Heck, I think most reviews gave it too much praise(Game Informer calling it "Phenomenal")but if you are going to point out the flaws point out the actual flaws the game has.

/rant

Will be fun reading the XV review after I complete the game xD

The jargon in 13 is bullshit, though. There's too much of it and the game expects you to dive into its codex to actually get a lot of context. I actually think this is a big problem with FF13 in general: it's clear that the lore came first, THEN the story. There's a number of casualties here (such as the lack of a strong antagonist in the game thanks to FNC's nebulous 'gods using humans as pawns in their own fights' thread), but a major one is that the game has all this guff, all this terminology, and it's all bullshit and from a writing perspective, strictly in terms of how it's written, it's not properly explained at all.

Plenty of other games do a better job at this stuff - games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age are filled with jargon and even have a codex the same as FF13, but the difference is you're never actually compelled to read it via confusion, which I think can too easily be the case with 13.

I liked 13, btw. I gave it an 8 at the time... but I do think the terms thing is an absolutely valid complaint, not because of the fact the terms exist - that's fine - but because they're poorly executed and written into the actual narrative thread of the game. This isn't a problem for a game like FF7, or FF8, where the story was fashioned around the characters and then terms like SOLDIER, SeeD, Garden, Jenova, etc etc were built up around the core plot, rather than a plot built up around an extended lore book. It's a chicken vs egg situation, but I think universes where they build a detailed lore book before their first entry often suffer the same sorts of problems FF13 did.

 

[yeah_93]

But It has all the ingredients the game of the years award show requires for GOTY material: guns, dude bro actions, mountain dew and doritos, dude bro jokes, pressing F to pay respects, shoot bangs as well as pew pews, K/D ratios powered by cheetos and war never changes/war has changed or some cheesey war related quotes that sound like that.

You could have said you dislike COD without sounding like a total hater. That comment wasn't insightful at all.

 

[APZonerunner]

RE awards, I think it'll have a very challenging time in the 2017 field purely because it'll be up against Mass Effect, Persona 5, South Park, Horizon and Scalebound. That's without even getting deeper into the niche with things like Nioh and Nier, or kinda-sorta RPGs like Zelda. 2017 is a pretty stacked year and there are several big unannounced RPGs for that year yet! But we'll see.

 

[Slaintimez]

 

[Ikkin]

It's a chicken vs egg situation, but I think universes where they build a detailed lore book before their first entry often suffer the same sorts of problems FF13 did.

What about universes built around languages?

(...to be fair, I think the general consensus on The Silmarillion is that it's really hard to get into, but it seemed to work out for The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. XD )

 

[Lucina]

3:24.
You can definitely recover MP from warp points in the final game as well as do basic attacks. Either Gamespot is wrong, or the preview build didn't have that.

 

[Ikkin]

3:24.
You can definitely recover MP from warp points in the final game as well as do basic attacks. Either Gamespot is wrong, or the preview build didn't have that.

IIRC, the instant MP recovery from warp points is relatively recent. The Platinum Demo had MP replenish itself faster than usual but not instantly. My understanding is that there was a trade-off between losing the ability to hang from warp points indefinitely (which is now governed by the stamina bar) and the requirement to wait for MP to fill while hanging from warp points.

 

[Slaintimez]

3:24.
You can definitely recover MP from warp points in the final game as well as do basic attacks. Either Gamespot is wrong, or the preview build didn't have that.

They actually wrong on lot of things, they said that techniques were removed from the final game compared to ED, while its not true, you still can do tempest and death drop. Just post it before watched it. News is news anyway.

 

[Lucina]

IIRC, the instant MP recovery from warp points is relatively recent. The Platinum Demo had MP replenish itself faster than usual but not instantly. My understanding is that there was a trade-off between losing the ability to hang from warp points indefinitely (which is now governed by the stamina bar) and the requirement to wait for MP to fill while hanging from warp points.

I'm talking about the "final" preview build, though. I went back and took a look at their October FFXV gameplay video.

10:45. Seems Gamespot's just flat out wrong. I'd nitpick on some other parts of their video too, but they're minor things, even if there are errors there too.

They actually wrong on lot of things, they said that techniques were removed from the final game compared to ED, while its not true, you still can do tempest and death drop. Just post it before watched it. News is news anyway.

Precisely. The research put into this video is abysmal.

 

[Ikkin]

Since LOTR came out first to theatres, I'll use this to support what I'm saying.

Spoiler

With the Fellowship of the Ring, the movie was all about pacing and ensuring the audience is getting a general idea of what's happening in each timeframe. The opening starts off with story telling the audience what the 'Lord of the Rings' actually is (being the 'One Ring'), how it came to be and how it was triumphed by the freefolk of men and elves. This was done through visual imagery, narration and quite excellent cinematography.

Then it transitioned to a time where peace still remained potent after those events. It went slow with the movie giving viewers the opportunity to enjoy the scenery of The Shire, in which that gave Gandalf and Frodo the opportunity to small talk about Bilbo's past experiences (which is essentially lore building), while at the same time, they creep in some small details relevant to the main plot i.e. Bilbo's acts of weirdness
Essentially, the dialogue was well written to provide clear context for viewers to see a distinct correlation between the lore and the plot. In short, the stuff they said made sense (for the most part for some).

This formula was done throughout the movie, balancing out the fast-paced action moments with quiet moments in between, allowing plenty of opportunity for lore to jump into the movie and educate viewers with it. The Lord of the Rings films are fantastically made. Dare I say it's a masterpiece. With the Hobbit trilogy..... Well..... I'll save that for another conversation, eh?

FFXIII is completely the opposite of this. If you read what I wrote about The Lord of the Rings, those that played FFXIII would get a good idea on what I'm talking about.
Regardless, the game's still enjoyable to play through. The cryptic-like storytelling and the way it bombards lore to players is what causes the RPG to suffer the most..... That, and its incredibly linear level design.

I feel like it's worth pointing out that Lord of the Rings as a series of novels and Lord of the Rings as a series of movies aren't interchangeable -- while the latter pushed the length of movies to a surprising extent (at least when they were initially released =P ) in order to retain memorable scenes from the books, they also de-emphasized much of the lore in order to create a more easily understandable movie narrative. Movie!Aragorn's claim to the throne of Gondor, for instance, is a lot more straightforward than it is in the books, probably because Peter Jackson recognized that a conflict founded on hundreds of years of fictional history would be nearly impossible to present to a movie audience without risking confusion. Similarly, the magical powers vested in those of Numenorian blood (like Faramir being a literal mind-reader) barely exist in the movies, because that would require an explanation of what Numenor was.

In its original form, at least, Lord of the Rings is a very lore-based work. It's very obvious that Tolkien's primary focus was on the world he'd created -- pages-long digressions about cosmology and history within the story are not infrequent, appendices provide minute detail about Hobbit genetics and Elvish languages, and important conflicts often rely on stuff that happened hundreds or thousands of years earlier. Tolkien himself even admitted that his primary drive in creating the Middle Earth mythos was to create a people who spoke the languages he created. And yet, it's the work that made fantasy fiction into what it is today.

Anyway, the point I was trying to make is that there isn't anything inherently wrong with building from lore (even incredibly niche lore). How things are implemented is a lot more important than where they originate.