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Personally they really didn't come off as interesting to me. Most of them were just fetch quests that tell me to just go there and do that. Really no interesting side quests. (Which is very sad and disappointing considering how while the story was very lackluster the side content couldn't make up for it.) How about you?
Each sidequest was like good enough to be in there once. But I surely do not need to repair a car 10 times just so the fans can say that XV is so much better than XIII because you could do so much.
Friend Tours: Awesome.
Other Quests: Meh. They were a source of items etc. rather than story, as far as I was concerned.
I really enjoy monster hunting quests. I wish that the development team spent more time on them. Making it more efficient to pick up quests and giving us more varied monsters would have made the game a lot more enjoyable for me.
For me personally I don't care as much about any other sidequests. Aside from maybe the Prompto photography quests, because the pictures he takes of the group are really cool. I just wish he didn't have to slow the game down to prompt you to do them.
Yeah the hunts were definitely the highlight, I just didn't feel like there was much structure to them. Remember the Hunter's Guild from XII? You could go back to Rabanastre and visit and everyone's opinion of you would grow over time. Even aside from the fact that most of the hunts in XV were less special as you were fighting groups of mobs at a time rather than one big dude with a name, that lack of structure turned them into fairly dull MMO-like quests.
And then you couldn't even take multiple hunts on at one time which really drove me mad. *Picks up hunt in Lestallum *Rides Chocobo out to hunting place *does hunt *returns to Lestallum *picks up new hunt from same place *rides chocobo 100 yards from the last hunt I did *rinse and repeat
I thought the hunts except bigger ones like Malboro, Ayakashi, Adamantaimai, Naglfar, Malbodoom, Sir Tonberry, Zu, Bennu, Jumbo Cactuar, et cetera - so obviously some of the legendary blacksmith included - were extremely boring. I really do not need 100 quests with common monsters. I would have simply done 50 very special monsters and then a really well done cutscene, with a bit of story about it, so a highly improved Cie'th Stone sidequest. No commons, special monsters and special cutscenes.
I would have done stuff like ...
Not just color swaps but actual different looking ...
Malboro Light
Tonberry King
Primal Zu
Metal Cactuar
Medusa Queen
Mindflayer Priest
Couerl Empress
Ogopogo - Masamune
Supreme Bomb
Katana Soul - Master Scroll
...
and real new things that are not the super beings of the stuff we see in the game already but instead a monster from FF that we have not seen species-wise in XV before
And why do we not have the chance to fight a buried Diamond WEAPON in Insomnia that did not get destroyed by Knights of the Round? This would have been a good super boss. Not Glitch Turtle Master's Edition that gives you an accessory which is not even half as good as stuff like the MagiTek Suit Version 2.
And the moment you get the jet, you should be able to trigger a random cutscene where you are automatically set back to the nearest street and see Death Gaze flying to you.
Yeah I definitely agree with you there. I wish that they had followed the same formula that XIII had with the monster hunts. Each enemy was visually unique and required a strategy in order to earn the full five-stars. It appeared far more like a fantasy game, compared to XV where the monsters are far too "realist." In XV it felt like you were just hunting animals in the wild as opposed to playing in a fantasy world. Some might like that, but I really disagree with Tabata's design philosophy of a "fantasy based on reality." There was hardly any fantasy and far too much reality.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sephiroth
Every Cie'th stone mission in XIII unlocked something new, whether it was a piece of equipment or an accessory. Some people even sought out specific boss encounters like Mission 55 because it gave a growth egg which doubled your CP gains. I really didn't feel like XV did anything to make me want to do monster hunts.
Uh, yeah well. In XIII they were also not visually unique except some like Zenobia or Vercingetorix, et cetera. There were still tons of throw-away enemies. But I mentioned XIII because XIII also tried to give them some meaning. Like XII. Now reduced to the really special ones with some special cutscenes and story and dialogue and we have something cool.Quote:
Originally Posted by ScruffingtonYeah I definitely agree with you there. I wish that they had followed the same formula that XIII had with the monster hunts. Each enemy was visually unique and required a strategy in order to earn the full five-stars. It appeared far more like a fantasy game, compared to XV where the monsters are far too "realist." In XV it felt like you were just hunting animals in the wild as opposed to playing in a fantasy world. Some might like that, but I really disagree with Tabata's design philosophy of a "fantasy based on reality." There was hardly any fantasy and far too much reality.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sephiroth
Every Cie'th stone mission in XIII unlocked something new, whether it was a piece of equipment or an accessory. Some people even sought out specific boss encounters like Mission 55 because it gave a growth egg which doubled your CP gains. I really didn't feel like XV did anything to make me want to do monster hunts.
Some enemies were reused in later missions, true. But I think overall a lot of the enemies actually felt like real fantasy monsters. The Cie'th enemies especially were pretty unique from each other. The real highlight is the Titan trials, because every enemy you encounter there is different. And there are multiple routes you can take to completion, with a different enemy at the end of each route.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sephiroth
All of the enemies in XIII felt as though they were a part of a true fantasy world. And they especially felt like they came from a Final Fantasy game. I never really got that vibe from XV.
I thought the Titan Trials were kinda underwhelming considering you could not fight Titan and the end route bosses were stuff you knew already like Neochu, et cetera. The only really special one was Spartakus/Attacus.
FFXIII should have made the same thing I want for all those monster quests. I think it just did it a bit better than XV. But they could still have added Titan and Atilla/Raspatil.
It is just what it is. If you are at the point were you do the same thing over and over again and give the player colour swaps or whatever then I think you should just reconsider your idea.
What could have given XV us as Sidequests and Battles at the same time ... KoyoKoyo! Known as Pupu by you guys. A Chimera ... a Sandworm ... the Ochu/Otyugh ... so many possibities.
Why not old FF bosses?
Why is one of the MagiTek Armors in the ships the Carry Armor from FFVII? They even have a mech that is similiarly designed.
Why not bring in a "MA-Prototype 1.0" and then we suddenly see the one from FFVI?
I am enjoying doing all of them. I like pushing myself trying to get A+ scores across the board (although I failed on that for a few). Some of them are more notable than others with the Tour Quests being at the top. I liked the Deadeye one as that was given more attention, and I enjoyed getting some backlore on Lucis from time to time from Cindy while collecting upgrade parts for the Regalia. Also, Cid doing upgrade for me is another set I enjoy a lot.
Your memory must be foggy on the Trials from FFXIII. You can take various paths, but in the end they will all have the same end target once unlocked by doing all the trials. Hardly any fantasy? I highly disagree. I see nothing wrong with how the development team tackled the "fantasy based on reality" theme. It turned out what I expected it to be: a very realistic world with fantasy elements in it of various degrees. It's almost a moot aspect to complain about to me.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scruffington
What they should have done is make a sidequest its own independent story within the game. The Witcher 3 does that.
I don't really like the fact that you have to rest in order to receive the upgrade. It just feels tedious to me.Quote:
Originally Posted by FinalxxSin
Either I misspoke or you misunderstood me. What I meant was at the end of each path in the Trials, there is a different boss. I believe there are about six different "final bosses" at the end of each branch in the Trials. That's what I meant. The end bosses are different.Quote:
Your memory must be foggy on the Trials from FFXIII. You can take various paths, but in the end they will all have the same end target once unlocked by doing all the trials. Hardly any fantasy? I highly disagree. I see nothing wrong with how the development team tackled the "fantasy based on reality" theme. It turned out what I expected it to be: a very realistic world with fantasy elements in it of various degrees. It's almost a moot aspect to complain about to me.
Yes, the game doesn't feel very fantasy-like at all. There are limited options for magic use, very rare appearances of summons, a lack of really diverse environments and a more "grounded" approach to the design of all enemies in the game completely reduced the element of fantasy in the game. I don't even think XV is a terrible game, but I'm quite happy that Tabata won't be directing another Final Fantasy game. I would much rather Final Fantasy go back to being a fantasy game as opposed to having a realistic approach.
As I stated before, the Hunts fail to recognize what made them cool in FFXII, which was the fact that many of them were unique either as enemy opponents or just special new creatures which forced you to really learn the ins and outs of combat. They were basically mini-bosses you could challenge when you were bored and all of them came with a bit of story that either made it interesting in itself or expanded the lore of the game. Most of the ones from XV don't do this which was a shame.
The fetch quests largely depend. I feel many of them should have been cut down because they quickly turned to busy work but others worked well since the quest giver themselves were often interesting characters and conversing with them does actually expand the world and setting better. There was a lot of missed opportunities with a few of them like the Dog Tag quest. Others were great like the one that gives you closure to Ignis' quest from his Brotherhood episode.
I absolutely enjoyed the Dungeons though, you got great banter with the party, usually fought some less seen enemy types and they had great atmosphere and challenge.
@Scruffington Eh... VII and VIII were more realistic/futuristic themed and they still felt "fantasy" to me.