A bad graph I made to explain the puzzle piece like additions to XV

So this is what Final Fantasy XV looks like. The base game is the blue arrow and the additional modifications that were made along the way are in red.

For the Royal Edition, you can throw in additional green arrows pointing towards the blue.

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In an ideal world, this entire graph would have been blue from the jump.

I have conflicting feelings about it. As I've said before in other threads, I honestly love this game. I don't think there's inherently a problem with having DLC, either.

So if the game itself isn't bad, and having DLC isn't bad, what's the problem?

Quote:

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The problem is quite simply the kind of DLC and patches that they've chosen to make. Hands down the biggest problem with this game is They're adding in story relevant cutscenes post-release.If you were anticipating this game for a long time and have owned a copy since launch, there are pivotal plot explanations and character development that are still being added in after you had beaten the game months and months ago. Square Enix has effectively sold you a 500 piece puzzle that only has 375 pieces in the box.

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As I said, DLC isn't inherently bad. I don't mind hanging out with Sazh in a casino. I don't mind costumes or new fishing gear. These don't detract from the main plot of the game, and only serve to enrich the story if you so choose.

One of the best characters in Final Fantasy XV is Ravus Nox Fleuret. He may also be the character most criminally under served by having all of the post-game releases.

Attachment 75135

Yeah, that guy. He has one of the most compelling and tragic stories of a Final Fantasy character in recent memory. But you wouldn't know that if you played the game when it first came out because his story is literally told out of order, spaced out between months at a time.

The only reason I get fired up about it is because I love this game and I love these characters, and I want it to succeed. People who bought the Royal Edition have been loving it, and people who bought the base game felt like they were sold a beta release. In my opinion, I think the Royal DLC content should have been a free download for people who already owned the base game.

I'm not up-to-date on all of these changes but I think there's two types: ones that are absolutely necessary and ones that allow a deeper, more explicit understanding of the narrative. I don't think every detail is imperative—even if it explains questions. But it is a really haphazard approach that does raise questions about whether videogames are ever worth playing at release for risk of not getting the actual product.

Yeah, if the Royal Edition was free - at the very least to those who shelled out on either the Ultimate Collector's Edition, Digital Deluxe and/or Season Pass, I think it might've reduced the salt levels - not by much, but some might've been placated.

I got called a cynic when I called this coming from a mile off based off of a) feeling the base game was incomplete and b) speculating purely based on the Episode (Bro) backgrounds as part of the PS4 theme - but now more people have woken up and smelled the coffee.

As someone who shelled out on the UCE I'm still a bit miffed about the whole thing, I expected better from SE in the past but I'm beginning to accept that they really have changed (I mean the prices they charged for the FFXII TZA and FFXIV Stormblood CEs are just absurd). SE have been harping on about moving to a "games as service" model over the past year or so - so I can't help but feel what happened with FFXV is going to become par for the course with the franchise.

DLC isn't inherently bad, but when it's stuff that's blatantly been cut from the base game to sell later on, either because a) it was deliberate or b) the publisher is forcing the game out early, there's a problem.

I'm waiting for the rest of the DLC to drop before giving XV another go, but judging by what I've read on the matters, the "complete" version is going to feel like a very different beast from what I played, which will likely help it with new adopters but feel a bit jarring for someone like myself who played Day 1. My thoughts on DLC are mostly inline with Aulayna's statement, but I'm not exactly salty about how XV turned out cause I feel like the circumstances of its creation showed all of us that the game was likely going to be rough.

What I do find surprising is when I do talk to people who really enjoyed the game. My girlfriend has become slightly obsessed with the game and she's even cosplaying Noctis all this weekend as we speak, which I find fascinating because for the life of me, I can't get her to play any entries in this series besides X, X-2, and eventually and very begrudgingly, VI. So to have her jump onto an entry with little push from me or anyone else has been interesting and pretty much shows that despite all of our wailing about the product, it still has its appeal somewhere.

I wonder how my own opinion will change when I give the game another go?