So it's been a year...

[Wolf Kanno]

So FFXV is officially a year old, for people who played it, have your thoughts changed about it? For those who haven't played, have you had the game spoiled for you or feel like the feedback has colored your expectations for better or for worse? Let's discuss FFXV.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

I just keep having no desire to return to it despite having the season pass. It was fun while I played it, but it still remains ultimately a disappointment. My disappointment has been further solidified while playing through the older games.

The potential was there for something great though, and I’m sure it won’t keep me from getting FF XVI.

[Psychotic]

I'm actually planning on finally giving some of the new content a go today. I think FFXV was okay. It was a step in the right direction and an interesting concept, but a concept they could've done a lot more with, especially the story and world building.

[maybee]

So FFX is officially a year old


Wait

What ???

[Wolf Kanno]

So FFX is officially a year old


Wait

What ???

You fell into a time warp, it's 2002 again, but we're somehow using an advance message board instead of EZBoard, have fun reliving the 2000s. ;)

[Psychotic]

Be sure to invest in facebook, bitcoin and the nokia n-gage.

[Shiva95]

I really loved it at my first playthrough, and I think I love it even more now. The characters feel so real to me, and the game arrived in my life at the best moment. I really love the story too. It's so sad, but so great.

[Jinx]

So FFX is officially a year old


Wait

What ???

I mean, technically it's not WRONG. xD


Also, can't believe this piece of shit game is already a year old.

[Sephex]

*shrugs*

I think people take this game way too seriously. It's not a top tier fantastic game by any means, but I enjoyed the atmosphere, look of the world, general banter from the guys (I imagined banter similar to this game as a kid with early FF titles), the ability to cruise around while listening to old school FF tracks (something I have done in real life for years), the fact that there seems to be a decent amount of thought from DLC, and the fact that the team who made this game are at least attempting to listen to fans (like altering stuff in chapter 13).

Again, I'm not head over heels when it comes to FFXV, but there are people out there that act like this is the worst video game of all time.

"But the older games! They were absolutely flawless! If not flawless they didn't get all weird like these new FF games NOT FROM MY CHILDHOOD GRAAAHHHHH!!!"

Eh, no. We were kids, smack dab in the middle of being teens, or at best young impressionable adults. I think a lot of the more passive plot elements of older FF games don't seem as obvious because it's a lot harder for things to look silly or "off" when a game is in 2D or (comparably to today) low tech 3D without voice acting. Here are some things from older FF games that are never or rarely brought up because they get a pass for being a couple of decades old.

A lot of people would bring up the diving helmet Gau finds in FFVI. It's clearly one helmet, but there are three party members that need to breathe as they traverse under a long riverbed of sorts. But hey, whatever, gameplay to story separation. The helmet acts more like a typical "you need this item to activate the flag to let you proceed" if anything. Having said that, imagine that stuff fully voice acted and in 3D. Guess FFVI is the worst game ever now.

Think of something besides a weird gameplay/story clash from that game? No problem. Terra gets kidnapped when she was 2 years old. Both Celes and Terra are 18. Yet Celes says she was infused with magic as a baby. A NPC also lets you know that Kefka was the first experimental Magitek Knight. The math doesn't make much sense here. Plus, the Empire rushed out that much technology THAT THEY FULLY DON'T UNDERSTAND BECAUSE MAGICITE ISN'T DISCOVERED FOR 16 YEARS SOMEHOW and casually took over the world just like that. What?

Look, I'm not trying to say that FFVI is a bad game. I'm just trying to point out that maybe we all need to gain a little perspective. I think a lot of people forget that they were 12 or something when they played SNES or PS era FF titles. I hate to break it to you, but as soon as they made the plot a major attraction to those games, there have been tons of obviously rushed and not carefully thought out story elements to those games.

"Okay, but the gameplay was better back in the day."

From which game? The old ones that everyone rushes to tell me are archaic grindfests? Or FFVI, VII, or VIII which all have such exploitable battle systems that you can have an overpowered party without practically any effort? I remember when FFX was the punching bag for FF fans. Now I hear that it is this classic entry in the series despite having a linear structure which pissed people off about FFXIII.

Well, I probably pissed off everyone, so let me state again that I'm not trying to tear down old games to prop up FFXV. FFXV is probably far down there in terms of my favorite FF, and even further down if we were talking about RPGs in general. I just had this stuff on my mind for awhile and I figure this would be a good place to vent, even though I know people are going to scramble to tell me I'm wrong or look up some wierdly sourced wiki entry to try to make old story elements make sense. Because I remember everyone thought the in game wiki for FFXIII (and other games like Xenosaga III) was SO FUN TO READ! Or cite the Ultimania Guide that totally wasn't released after the fact to patch some questionable plot elements or things that weren't explained in the game that we all bought in the first place. Yes, FFXV was the first FF game and RPG EVER to start that.

Okay, I'll stop being snarky. Point is you can make anything look like trash if you highlight the right parts.

[Psychotic]

I'm actually planning on finally giving some of the new content a go today. So following up on this, the new content isn't half bad, it definitely gives some more life to Gladio and Prompto, as well as Cor and the Empire. Episode Prompto was definitely the better of the two, Episode Gladio felt a bit light in comparison. Looking forward to Episode Ignis later this week now.

Also I talked a bit of trout about the Assassin's Festival when it was announced but credit where it's due. it was decent enough too, especially for being free. A lot of it was rehashed from the chocobo and moogle festival but it was a fun and silly little romp.

[maybee]

So FFX is officially a year old


Wait

What ???

You fell into a time warp, it's 2002 again, but we're somehow using an advance message board instead of EZBoard, have fun reliving the 2000s. ;)

Yes ! Time to sit down and watch some good Spongebob and Fairy Odd Parents. :jess:

on topic/

My thoughts on XV are a bit mixed between disappointment and love, I think. I hate how SE is trying to do it's best to milk everything with DLC that should've been in the game originally, and how it's clear on how much they cut out scenes so they could create said DLC. It's not EA levels of dick, though it's greedy.

Though the music/ OST, and the relationship and friendship between the all-male cast is so good and feels so real.

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

Having just beat this, I really enjoyed it. It's a blessing in disguise that I played it so late because now I get to play all of the 2017 DLC roughly around the same time as well.

I wasn't spoiled about what happens during the game and I definitely had a better experience because of it. I suppose I'd have to let a good amount of time pass before I posted a reflective post in a thread like this since everything's so fresh.



I'm actually planning on finally giving some of the new content a go today. So following up on this, the new content isn't half bad, it definitely gives some more life to Gladio and Prompto, as well as Cor and the Empire. Episode Prompto was definitely the better of the two, Episode Gladio felt a bit light in comparison. Looking forward to Episode Ignis later this week now.

Also I talked a bit of trout about the Assassin's Festival when it was announced but credit where it's due. it was decent enough too, especially for being free. A lot of it was rehashed from the chocobo and moogle festival but it was a fun and silly little romp.

Have you tried the multiplayer? It has a story mode and you can have AI party members if playing with other people isn't your thing.

I'm looking forward to Episode Ignis, as well. I have a feeling it's going to be my favorite.

[Psychotic]

My thoughts on XV are a bit mixed between disappointment and love, I think. I hate how SE is trying to do it's best to milk everything with DLC that should've been in the game originally, and how it's clear on how much they cut out scenes so they could create said DLC. It's not EA levels of dick, though it's greedy.I don't know if I agree that they cut things out that were going to be in. I actually think they intentionally planned for all of this DLC from the start, and so they contrived reasons for Gladio and Prompto to leave the party. This isn't to say it makes them any less greedy of course!

Have you tried the multiplayer? It has a story mode and you can have AI party members if playing with other people isn't your thing.I have not for precisely those hermit related reasons! I might have a look now.

[Freya]

I got distracted by fishing and the open world ness and have never finished it. While everyone always complains about linear, I felt the first bit of it was TOO open and didn't capture me enough in the story.

I have not picked it back up to finish it yet.

[Fox]

I haven't gone back to this dumb game yet and won't even consider it until it's actually finished. So maybe sometime in 2018? We can but dream. The biggest problem it faces in getting me to go back to it is I've now played 2 much better RPGs in the form of Berseria and Xenoblade 2, and I'll probably be borrowing Persona 5 over Christmas, and I've got Trails in the Sky to play. So I don't expect my view is going to improve much by the time I get around to a replay, but I will probably give it another shot.

Still, they'd probably be better served just writing it off and focusing on XVI. At this point I think they're just continuing to sink money into a lost cause, I doubt these DLCs are going to be particularly lucrative for them.

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

I played on Xbox One.

Based on the achievements I unlocked playing the DLC chapters, it was something like 3% of players also unlocked those. It was so rare it made the diamond 'ding!' sound.

So not taking into account people who bought the season pass but didn't play it yet, I imagine it means that roughly 3% of people who played the main game also bought the DLC.

[Aulayna]

I'll probably dust it off for Episode Ignis, and then leave it stewing again until all the season pass 2 DLC is out before deciding if I want to buy those or not.

My feelings about the game are still the same, it was a fun romp, the bromance was strong, but ultimately the core story part of it felt light and incomplete.

Even if the 2nd season pass contains good DLC, I'm still reluctant to consider buying it as I don't want to give Square Enix the message that I'm okay with having to pay for the base game, 2x season passes, a feature length movie - let alone the 3(?) mobile games etc, to get the "complete" experience. So yeah, I dunno. I mean for games like Mass Effect 2 for example, I bought all the DLC and didn't feel swindled because the base game was a great, fully rounded experience, and the DLCs were high-quality. In XV's case, Episode Gladio was trash, Prompto was a definitive improvement, will have to see how Ignis goes.

SE have mentioned that they're viewing games as a "service model" going forward, so sadly I worry that FFXV's structure is going to become par for the course.

[Rocket Edge]

I still haven't tried it and I partly blame FFXIII for that, but tbh when I looked at the gameplay pre-release I didn't warm to it as I'm not an action-rpg fan. Gimme some time-based gameplay any day. I think I'll give this a go though eventually.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

Decided to break down and start playing again. I’ve decided to try to do a new game + and play through the story to the point of each dlc so that I remember what’s going on. We’ll see how my opinion will be after going through it again.

[Wolf Kanno]

Funny enough, in my latest issue of Game Informer I got in the mail, they also did a One Year Later article on FFXV discussing it with the staff their trials and tribulations as well as plans for the future. Most of it was old info if you've kept up with interviews, probably the only new info was the challenges of making the Open World elements which is more interesting from a background setting since Tabata mostly explained how their development schedule was still based on their more linear design, and then the issue with XV being developed as a service model and the team's failure to really get that across to the fans before launch.

**************************************************************************************************** *****
As for my own thoughts, I enjoyed FFXV, even if it wasn't really the type of game I genuinely like. I'm not fond of Action-RPGs outside of Dark Souls/Secret of Mana style games, and I generally dread Open World tropes. I largely had fun and I enjoyed the main cast and the novelty of the road trip style they were shooting for. I appreciated having more to explore and I loved the design of the actual dungeons you can find with the party banter and amusing events like the Mine Shaft with the Goblin infestation that feels like a horror movie as the little fuckers kept pulling stunts on you along with ambushes. The plot is weak, but serviceable, it's the cast that feels more lop-sided with half of them being really well developed and the other half kind of feeling like they were there to fill a quota. I may change my mind on these elements once I get around to the DLC but I'm waiting for the bulk of it to be released before venturing a new playthrough.

Frankly, I felt XV succeeded better than expected considering the tumultuous development it had and the unfounded fan expectation placed upon it when it was still Versus XIII. I feel my general disinterest in Versus XIII helped save me from too much disappointment. With all that said, the game has some weak elements in the story and gameplay; and while it did generally surprise me with several cool elements and moments, it didn't save the game from me feeling like it was a middling experience. Not bad, but not great either. Perhaps a second playthrough with all the DLC can change that, but that may be awhile since the team seems to be gearing up for some new ideas for that in the coming year. None of this was helped by playing the fantastic Persona 5 and currently playing through FFXII:TZA which both are still really flooring me and showing how SE was way ahead of it's time ten years ago, whereas XV kind of felt like SE's attempt to appeal to the modern market base.

I'd still recommend the game, but I doubt I would hype it up as some of my more personal favorite FFs.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

I’ve been going through the story pretty fast on new game + since I’m mainly just doing this to remind me of what’s going on around each dlc chapter, and I’m feeling more positive towards it than I thought I would. It’s all still pretty fun. I may even try to do some more of the hunts and side quests I missed originally.

I still see a ton of missed potential though. It just feels like they dropped the ball on anyone outside of the main four. i also feel like if you don’t stop to do a lot of side stuff (which I felt didn’t add much to the story and world anyways), you go through the story really quickly. It just all feels a bit unfinished, and I wish we could explore more outside of the main four because the world, mythology, and characters seem like they could be pretty interesting.

[Baggins]

I've never played it, but I hear mixed things about it in general. Personally, the only time the game captured my interest (in terms of the footage I've seen) was probably one of the older trailers, but apparently a lot of stuff from that never made it into the actual game. It was this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcUSXub_ypU