Post by flameheadshero on Dec 20, 2016 14:57:51 GMT -5
Ok, so I recently beat FFXV and I figured I'd share some impressions. I'm actually going to keep plot spoilers out of this. I'll talk about the general direction of the plot but I won't say any details of what actually happens in it so this should be safe to read. I'll leave a tl;dr in the final paragraph.
So I guess I'll start out with the gameplay since this is mainly why I bought the game. Combat is... interesting. You hold down the attack button and Noctis will automatically execute combos on whatever enemy you're locked onto. Even if you aren't in range to attack, Noctis will just run towards them until he is. This is pretty jarring at first, you aren't mashing buttons, just holding attack and watching Noctis attack. Eventually you do get used to it but it never quite feels like you're 100% in control of Noctis's attacks. Blocking and dodging is also kind of automated. By holding the block button, Noctis goes into this phase mode where any normal attack will be automatically dodged. This slowly consumes MP but at such a slow rate that it never was a problem for me. Just don't hold block for the entire fight - you can attack and block at the same time anyway. You can dodge roll by just tapping the button while moving but it seems kind of pointless when you can just stand there and have Noctis dodge automatically. Later on in the game, enemies do have attacks that you can't dodge this way but they aren't incredibly common. Enemies also have specific attacks you can block and parry. Once again, all you have to do is hold the block button when these attacks are happening (you know because a big block prompt appears on screen) and then hit the attack button to parry. It's pretty fun to parry enemies, which I feel adds a bit of control to battle but it's more like a reaction command. You can lock onto enemies and objects in the environment and warp strike them. It's pretty cool to throw your sword and zip across the area, smashing into your enemy. Warping to cliffs and rocks fully restores MP which you use for warping and that automatic dodge maneuver, which is why it's never an issue to run out of MP. You get bonus damage for doing this and for attacking from behind. There are summons but again, very controlled, they only come out when you are in trouble... if they feel like it. But when they do come out... damn, it is amazing.
You also can wield 4 weapons at a time and switch between them mid battle - Noctis has a wide variety of weapons he can use so even though he's the only character you control, I never got bored of him. You can use magic grenades, spears, ninja stars, guns, broadswords, etc. Noctis's allies generally don't do much on their own but they each have a special technique that you can order them to do and occasionally they'll do combination attacks with Noctis. You really can't die in battle. Well ok, you CAN die. When you die, you enter a "Danger" state where you can't do anything but stumble around and you get a new HP bar that quickly depletes. Your allies can pick you back up or you can use a healing item (the game pauses when selecting items). The only way you can die is if your Danger HP is depleted but even then, Noctis still has a few seconds to use a phoenix down and revive himself. You won't be seeing a game over screen too often if at all. So generally you can take down really powerful enemies by stocking up on healing items and focusing on blocking and parrying though it can take a long time. The more challenging enemies in this game are the ones that hit you really hard. Despite all this, the battle system is VERY flashy and it's really fun just seeing some of the crazy things that can happen during battle. That was most of the fun for me.
The open world. I can't help but compare it to Xenoblade Chronicles X. Compared to that game, FFXV's open world is very controlled. It doesn't follow the "anywhere you see you can go" mantra. Right from the beginning, there are mountains you can't climb, lakes you can't swim across, fences you can't hop over and straight up invisible walls. The open world mainly consists of roadways and areas off to the sides of the road to explore. The car is the main way of travel because on foot Noctis is really slow. Ok, well, Noctis is like a regular human being and not a mim. He can sprint but he gets tired after 10 seconds and he gets hurt from jumping from too high. He can't jump that high either. Normally he has a basic jog speed when not sprinting but in inhabited areas Noctis decides he's going to walk and in dungeons he decides he's going to slowly creep around. You jog then becomes your sprint in those areas. I guess it's immersive but it slows down the pace and it's annoying. Eventually you can rent chocobos to help off road travel about 1/3 into the game. Anyway, back to the car. It is also very controlled. In the early game, Ignis, one of Noctis's friends won't even let you drive the car. He drives it instead, which means you must set a destination and watch Ignis drive you there. He also won't let you drive at night because demons come out at night and attack you on the road. You do eventually get control of the car yourself but it is still very controlled. You can't drive freely, you hold the accelerate button and the car sticks to its lane in the road. You don't have to do anything but hold accelerate, occasionally tilting left or right on the control stick to turn at an intersection. Otherwise, Noctis will drive on the road and slow down for cars, there's even an automatic U-turn button. This kind of kills exploration a bit, as you're driving along the set road, you have to decide if you want to get out and see what's off on the sides of the road. There is fast travel but it's limited. You can fast travel to a outpost, parking spot or quest location if you're in your car (it cost 10 gil, almost like they don't want you to do it). Otherwise you can skip back to the last place you rested or skip back to your car from anywhere accept inside a dungeon.
So what's out there in the open world? Enemies, though not nearly as present as in XCX. There are plenty of enemies that spawn in and also imperials that fly in on drop ships to ambush you at regular intervals (man they are ANNOYING.) You'll find collectible items on the ground, ingredients for cooking, things to sell or use for crafting spells, weapons, etc. There are outposts scattered throughout the world, gas stations, diners, motels, campsites. At the campsites you can cook food for stat boosts and sleep for the night. This is the only way to gain experience, all your exp from battle is tallied and given to you at once when you camp. Also since demons come out at night and are generally too powerful to deal with early on, you are encouraged to camp every night. This sets the pace of travel by road in the morning, explore something off road until night fall, run to camp for the night, repeat. Driving at night is tough because if a demon spawns you can't just drive away, you're forced out of your car so again, it's VERY encouraged to camp or stay at a motel. If you remember the "danger mode" I mentioned, the HP bar in that mode won't restore from potions. So if you repeatedly enter that danger mode, your HP cap gets lower and lower. Only elixirs or camping will restore your HP cap, again a reason to camp regularly. At the diners you can accept hunts for money and materials. These things are really bland. You just go to a point on the map and fight whatever enemy needs killing, then you have to run back to a diner to get your reward. It's not automatic like XCX. You also can't take more than one hunt at a time. It's a great way to get money and valuable items but they make it such a drag to do. In addition, the sidequests are very barebones. Most of them are centered around specific NPCs who need you to fetch an item. There's barely any story to these quests, in fact, the NPCs almost seem aware of how mundane their quests are since when you return to them for subsequent quests they often say things like "You know what to do by now." "I need another thing." with barely any exposition or change. There is maybe one or two quests that actually feel like something engaging is happening. That said, there are dungeons scatter throughout the world and these are really fun to go through. They have great atmosphere and feel like a better version of the caves in XCX. You can also go fishing all over the world. I love fishing in video games! I also should mention that the world is very pretty. Artistically though I think it pulls a bit too much from the real world.
Ok finally, story and characters. The characters are pretty entertaining. You get lots of banter between the bros all throughout the journey. The game nails the road trip vibe and you get the feeling that these guys have been friends for a long time. You can get special quests with the bros - they're pretty simple, not affinity quest level. Unfortunately, it kind of ends there. A lot of the supporting casts gets underutilized. A lot of the major protagonists and antagonists hardly get any screentime or a chance to really do much. The game tries to hit you with emotional moments but they fall flat because the game doesn't bother to build up most of the characters so that you actually care about what happens to them. That said, there are some nice narrative moments in the open world - mostly just set pieces. Simple things like trying to sneak by a giant sleeping monster, or following a monster back to its lair, etc. The production values are really great and give a cinematic feel. Now you've no doubt heard that the final third of the game is a mess. Yeah... it is. At this point, the story becomes super rushed. You're zipping from new location to the next but each area is tiny and they clearly are suffering from cut content. You completely ditch the open world and go into a linear story which I feel completely topples the game's balance. You can still go back to the open world for sidequests but as far as progress goes, it feels like a completely different game. Chapter 13
TL;DR So I had a lot of fun with Final Fantasy XV. It's very flashy, the music is great (f*** yeah Yoko!), and the world is pretty. The atmosphere is really great and it's fun in that aspect. There are however a lot of things that get in the way of it being great. If I had to pick a word to describe the game, that word would be controlled. There is a sense of limitations and control throughout the game. You hold a button to make Noctis automatically attack. Your car automatically stays in its lane and Ignis takes over your car at several points. The world is large but it's not truly open, you are blocked by barriers at many points. Sidequests are simplistic and tedious. Your movement options are all limited and early game you are pushed into a pattern of moving during the day and camping at night. Overall, I just feel like they wanted to make a linear FF game but pressure for open world made them compromise. The open world could be more fun if they fully committed to it. They also could've dropped it entirely for a more linear adventure. But what they ended up with is a clash of design philosophies. The open world is completely ditched 2/3 in for a linear story but the open world ends up being limited and the linear story rushed. Everything suffers in the end. The game clearly went through development hell and back. The story suffers from this the most, underutilized characters, major events happening off screen, rushed reveals and twists that don't go anywhere, emotional moments that aren't properly built up. So like... I was pretty critical of the game. I still enjoyed it for what it was. I still think that it's something you should play if you like JRPGs but you really need to temper your expectations going in. I guess if you have any specific questions I can answer those but that's it. It's a good game with self imposed limitations holding it back and a nosedive in quality in the final act that is clearly the result of cut content. So I guess that makes it overall OK with some good peaks throughout and deep drops.
So I guess I'll start out with the gameplay since this is mainly why I bought the game. Combat is... interesting. You hold down the attack button and Noctis will automatically execute combos on whatever enemy you're locked onto. Even if you aren't in range to attack, Noctis will just run towards them until he is. This is pretty jarring at first, you aren't mashing buttons, just holding attack and watching Noctis attack. Eventually you do get used to it but it never quite feels like you're 100% in control of Noctis's attacks. Blocking and dodging is also kind of automated. By holding the block button, Noctis goes into this phase mode where any normal attack will be automatically dodged. This slowly consumes MP but at such a slow rate that it never was a problem for me. Just don't hold block for the entire fight - you can attack and block at the same time anyway. You can dodge roll by just tapping the button while moving but it seems kind of pointless when you can just stand there and have Noctis dodge automatically. Later on in the game, enemies do have attacks that you can't dodge this way but they aren't incredibly common. Enemies also have specific attacks you can block and parry. Once again, all you have to do is hold the block button when these attacks are happening (you know because a big block prompt appears on screen) and then hit the attack button to parry. It's pretty fun to parry enemies, which I feel adds a bit of control to battle but it's more like a reaction command. You can lock onto enemies and objects in the environment and warp strike them. It's pretty cool to throw your sword and zip across the area, smashing into your enemy. Warping to cliffs and rocks fully restores MP which you use for warping and that automatic dodge maneuver, which is why it's never an issue to run out of MP. You get bonus damage for doing this and for attacking from behind. There are summons but again, very controlled, they only come out when you are in trouble... if they feel like it. But when they do come out... damn, it is amazing.
You also can wield 4 weapons at a time and switch between them mid battle - Noctis has a wide variety of weapons he can use so even though he's the only character you control, I never got bored of him. You can use magic grenades, spears, ninja stars, guns, broadswords, etc. Noctis's allies generally don't do much on their own but they each have a special technique that you can order them to do and occasionally they'll do combination attacks with Noctis. You really can't die in battle. Well ok, you CAN die. When you die, you enter a "Danger" state where you can't do anything but stumble around and you get a new HP bar that quickly depletes. Your allies can pick you back up or you can use a healing item (the game pauses when selecting items). The only way you can die is if your Danger HP is depleted but even then, Noctis still has a few seconds to use a phoenix down and revive himself. You won't be seeing a game over screen too often if at all. So generally you can take down really powerful enemies by stocking up on healing items and focusing on blocking and parrying though it can take a long time. The more challenging enemies in this game are the ones that hit you really hard. Despite all this, the battle system is VERY flashy and it's really fun just seeing some of the crazy things that can happen during battle. That was most of the fun for me.
The open world. I can't help but compare it to Xenoblade Chronicles X. Compared to that game, FFXV's open world is very controlled. It doesn't follow the "anywhere you see you can go" mantra. Right from the beginning, there are mountains you can't climb, lakes you can't swim across, fences you can't hop over and straight up invisible walls. The open world mainly consists of roadways and areas off to the sides of the road to explore. The car is the main way of travel because on foot Noctis is really slow. Ok, well, Noctis is like a regular human being and not a mim. He can sprint but he gets tired after 10 seconds and he gets hurt from jumping from too high. He can't jump that high either. Normally he has a basic jog speed when not sprinting but in inhabited areas Noctis decides he's going to walk and in dungeons he decides he's going to slowly creep around. You jog then becomes your sprint in those areas. I guess it's immersive but it slows down the pace and it's annoying. Eventually you can rent chocobos to help off road travel about 1/3 into the game. Anyway, back to the car. It is also very controlled. In the early game, Ignis, one of Noctis's friends won't even let you drive the car. He drives it instead, which means you must set a destination and watch Ignis drive you there. He also won't let you drive at night because demons come out at night and attack you on the road. You do eventually get control of the car yourself but it is still very controlled. You can't drive freely, you hold the accelerate button and the car sticks to its lane in the road. You don't have to do anything but hold accelerate, occasionally tilting left or right on the control stick to turn at an intersection. Otherwise, Noctis will drive on the road and slow down for cars, there's even an automatic U-turn button. This kind of kills exploration a bit, as you're driving along the set road, you have to decide if you want to get out and see what's off on the sides of the road. There is fast travel but it's limited. You can fast travel to a outpost, parking spot or quest location if you're in your car (it cost 10 gil, almost like they don't want you to do it). Otherwise you can skip back to the last place you rested or skip back to your car from anywhere accept inside a dungeon.
So what's out there in the open world? Enemies, though not nearly as present as in XCX. There are plenty of enemies that spawn in and also imperials that fly in on drop ships to ambush you at regular intervals (man they are ANNOYING.) You'll find collectible items on the ground, ingredients for cooking, things to sell or use for crafting spells, weapons, etc. There are outposts scattered throughout the world, gas stations, diners, motels, campsites. At the campsites you can cook food for stat boosts and sleep for the night. This is the only way to gain experience, all your exp from battle is tallied and given to you at once when you camp. Also since demons come out at night and are generally too powerful to deal with early on, you are encouraged to camp every night. This sets the pace of travel by road in the morning, explore something off road until night fall, run to camp for the night, repeat. Driving at night is tough because if a demon spawns you can't just drive away, you're forced out of your car so again, it's VERY encouraged to camp or stay at a motel. If you remember the "danger mode" I mentioned, the HP bar in that mode won't restore from potions. So if you repeatedly enter that danger mode, your HP cap gets lower and lower. Only elixirs or camping will restore your HP cap, again a reason to camp regularly. At the diners you can accept hunts for money and materials. These things are really bland. You just go to a point on the map and fight whatever enemy needs killing, then you have to run back to a diner to get your reward. It's not automatic like XCX. You also can't take more than one hunt at a time. It's a great way to get money and valuable items but they make it such a drag to do. In addition, the sidequests are very barebones. Most of them are centered around specific NPCs who need you to fetch an item. There's barely any story to these quests, in fact, the NPCs almost seem aware of how mundane their quests are since when you return to them for subsequent quests they often say things like "You know what to do by now." "I need another thing." with barely any exposition or change. There is maybe one or two quests that actually feel like something engaging is happening. That said, there are dungeons scatter throughout the world and these are really fun to go through. They have great atmosphere and feel like a better version of the caves in XCX. You can also go fishing all over the world. I love fishing in video games! I also should mention that the world is very pretty. Artistically though I think it pulls a bit too much from the real world.
Ok finally, story and characters. The characters are pretty entertaining. You get lots of banter between the bros all throughout the journey. The game nails the road trip vibe and you get the feeling that these guys have been friends for a long time. You can get special quests with the bros - they're pretty simple, not affinity quest level. Unfortunately, it kind of ends there. A lot of the supporting casts gets underutilized. A lot of the major protagonists and antagonists hardly get any screentime or a chance to really do much. The game tries to hit you with emotional moments but they fall flat because the game doesn't bother to build up most of the characters so that you actually care about what happens to them. That said, there are some nice narrative moments in the open world - mostly just set pieces. Simple things like trying to sneak by a giant sleeping monster, or following a monster back to its lair, etc. The production values are really great and give a cinematic feel. Now you've no doubt heard that the final third of the game is a mess. Yeah... it is. At this point, the story becomes super rushed. You're zipping from new location to the next but each area is tiny and they clearly are suffering from cut content. You completely ditch the open world and go into a linear story which I feel completely topples the game's balance. You can still go back to the open world for sidequests but as far as progress goes, it feels like a completely different game. Chapter 13
strips you of all your abilities and tries to be a poorly made, linear corridor, survival horror that overstays its welcome.
A bunch of plot points are kind of just overlooks or skipped. It's hard to really get what's going on at times because things just happen off screen and at one point a character reveals a terrible secret about themselves that actually has no impact on anything and is quickly forgotten. It's kind of a scramble mess right up to the end. TL;DR So I had a lot of fun with Final Fantasy XV. It's very flashy, the music is great (f*** yeah Yoko!), and the world is pretty. The atmosphere is really great and it's fun in that aspect. There are however a lot of things that get in the way of it being great. If I had to pick a word to describe the game, that word would be controlled. There is a sense of limitations and control throughout the game. You hold a button to make Noctis automatically attack. Your car automatically stays in its lane and Ignis takes over your car at several points. The world is large but it's not truly open, you are blocked by barriers at many points. Sidequests are simplistic and tedious. Your movement options are all limited and early game you are pushed into a pattern of moving during the day and camping at night. Overall, I just feel like they wanted to make a linear FF game but pressure for open world made them compromise. The open world could be more fun if they fully committed to it. They also could've dropped it entirely for a more linear adventure. But what they ended up with is a clash of design philosophies. The open world is completely ditched 2/3 in for a linear story but the open world ends up being limited and the linear story rushed. Everything suffers in the end. The game clearly went through development hell and back. The story suffers from this the most, underutilized characters, major events happening off screen, rushed reveals and twists that don't go anywhere, emotional moments that aren't properly built up. So like... I was pretty critical of the game. I still enjoyed it for what it was. I still think that it's something you should play if you like JRPGs but you really need to temper your expectations going in. I guess if you have any specific questions I can answer those but that's it. It's a good game with self imposed limitations holding it back and a nosedive in quality in the final act that is clearly the result of cut content. So I guess that makes it overall OK with some good peaks throughout and deep drops.