I started FFXV

Inspired by Fynn's thread, I picked up the Royal Edition of FFXV which was surprisingly cheap. I'm still in the first chapter/area, and I have only a vague idea of what's going on. It's only from reading other things that I have any grasp of the plot at this point. Despite all this, I'm having fun.

Cruising around in the car sounds so cheesy for a FF game but it is actually very satisfying. I love that you can listen to old FF soundtracks as you drive. The area I am in is very barren so I'm glad we have the car and also that you can set a destination pretty much anywhere on the map. Running is boring especially with these open spaces where not a lot is going on.

The game has some interesting depth with the special skill for each character and the magic drawing/crafting system that reminds me of FFVIII. Other than warping around, which is cool, I don't find the combat all that interesting yet. I don't yet understand the purpose behind switching weapons other than for cool visual effects. Maybe it gets better.

I think right now I need to do a quest for a guy so I can catch a boat, but instead I've just been driving around doing random quests or collecting treasures. :) I will update as I go!

Glad you are finally having a chance to play through this. Getting side tracked by quests is the norm of this game. Can't wait until you unlock chocobos. :chocobo:

Weapon changing is basically up to you. Each weapon type has a particular battle style, so knives will be super quick, great swords will be very strong but much slower and combo poorly, while spears are great for reaching fliers. Enemies also have weaknesses and resistances towards types of physical damage so be on the lookout for that - the game tells you whether they’re weak resistant or neutral via the color of the damage numbers, but I don’t remember which color meant which ^^;

Honestly, the battle system doesn’t really get much more complicated than that, but what I really loved about it is how relaxing it is. Holding the buttons is a great alternative to the usual button smashing in action RPGs and it always just felt really fluid once you get into the flow of combat.

It got a little repetitive, in my opinion, but that may be because I felt compelled to do every last little side quest before advancing the main story.

I am now on Chapter 3 and having a lot of fun. I just like how easygoing the game is. Holding the button to combo, just letting the car drive you to quests, fantastic food buffs, finding random cool stuff lying around in the open, they clearly wanted you to just sit back and enjoy the ride.

My kids love it too. We just discovered chocobos and had a lot of fun picking a color and name and running all around. They also liked customizing the car, we have a pimped out golden chocobo car with purple interior and blue rims. :eoffpimp: That quest to fight the behemoth to gain the chocobo rentals scared the crap out of them.

My favorite part of combat is definitely warp striking. And hanging off a cliff to regain HP while my bros take care of business. My favorite part overall is collecting the old FF game soundtracks from the rest stops, and fishing.

Are all these rest stops supposed to be modeled after middle America? It's so weird that these are the 'towns' so far. I think I'm supposed to go to a real city to continue the story.

Yeah the outposts are largely the game's version of towns. There are a few cities that are pretty big, but there are only a few of them. If the Behemoth quest scared them, I can't wait until you do the Marlboro quest. You also have to tell us what they think of the Jedi Tonberries.

Since you’re playing with kids, I figure a disclaimer is in order: this game gets super depressing in its later half, so fair warning

Depressing as in, everyone dies? Or there is lots of gore? The kids won't care much if fictional characters die and it might be a good thing for us to talk about, but I don't want them to see a lot of graphic violence. For context, when they found out the king died (though he was barley in it), they were like 'whoah!', but when the behemoth looked like he was eating some animal, they were kind of grossed out.

Nah, no gore. But “characters die” doesn’t exactly capture how dark this game gets. There’s a kind of hollowness to it that other FFs seem to lack, or maybe it just wasn’t as pronounced before due to the games not being so cinematic. Things will get a bit existential though and the ending is bittersweet. I don’t know how old your kids are, but I figured it would be a good idea to give you a heads up. Of course, in the end it’s up to you to decide if they’re ready!

I think the most of that "hollowness" of the last part of the game will go over little kids' heads. But it does get visibly dark and spookier.

The first half of the game was my favorite part, so I'm not surprised you're enjoying it, Del. The car rides and chocobos were good fun. I'll be curious to see what you think about the latter half, after Fynn raved about it (I assume you're playing the full game, too). I was pretty meh about it, but I have only played the original version.

I mean, I can see why it wouldn’t be for everyone regardless of when you play the game. So I may have raved about it but that’s because it hit all the right boxes for me. It’s always best to find out for yourself! But yeah, the latter half is pretty much a different game, so you enjoying the first half doesn’t mean it’ll stick

Finally, you started this game. What is your opinion?

I've now spent quite a chunk of time doing random quests. I probably spent as much time in Chapter 3 than any of the others combined at this point (on Chapter 7 now). My kids really love the hunts and there are tons of them. I'm level 40 and the main story content is pretty easy (which I prefer) while some of the hunts are still pretty tough. For some reason, I find it fun to map out the path my car will take where I can hit up as many quests on the way that I can.

I randomly stumbled upon someone from FFXIV which I think is a DLC quest or something. Anyway, the kids loved seeing Fat Chocobo. We are also in the middle of another DLC quest from Terra Battle with some weird alien things that the kids think are cute.

The storyline is fine, still hard to keep up with everything as random characters appear for a quick appearance and then leave. We did really like that mission in the military base which lets you summon Ramuh in the end and he destroys everything. Are the summons purely story based? They want me to summon Titan because we fought him earlier but I don't know how.

As main characters go, Noctis is pretty likable. Ignis and Gladio are also very strong. Prompto is meh, but the kids do like the end of day pics and always ask me to save some.

The aliens are Hiso, the mascot for Mistwalker studio and they were designed by Sakaguchi's daughter. :)

Summons only activate based on certain criteria.

• Titan only appears if your allies are low on health or dead.
• Ramuh appears when either Nocts health is low or the battle has dragged on for too long.
• Leviathan only appears near water or places associated with water. Noct needs to be at low health.
• Shiva can appear anywhere and her chance of appearing increases the lower the whole party's health is.
• Garuda will randomly replace any of these summons when she is acquired after doing the FFXIV event to acquire her.

The others are spoilers at this point, so I won't tell you.

How dare you. Prompto is precious :colbert:

prompto is a good boy :(

I also really like Prompto hehe :P

Prompto has grown on me in the last several hours. I triggered a couple of his camp sidequests and a few photo ops which gave me some more time with him. Also, I finally found some of his skills useful in battle. I still think overall Gladio and Ignis have more useful skills.

I'm still on Chapter 8 and barely moving the story forward. The story missions are fun and all but I prefer the more free form of doing random quests. I really like how the game does not force you into doing much of anything. Running from battle is pretty easy, fast travel is quick and cheap, combat has enough variety that you can vary up how you want to kill things (the magic bombs rock). I guess the only annoying thing the game forces on you is when the demons or imperials show up on the road and block your car. :mad: I realize that the game becomes much more linear later but I'm prepared for that, and I think it might be a nice change of pace after spending 40+ hours in the open world.

When this game was pitched I thought it was silly to have a FF game with more real world looking things like diners and cars. And it is silly, but in a fun way. This is still a fantasy game. These cars do not look like modern vehicles nor do any diners I know of give you monster hunts. The juxtaposition of these elements with chocobos, magic, roaming ferocious beasts is pretty cheesy but in a good way. I'm really liking it! I just got a cactaur hunt and I can't wait to go find those critters. Also, Iris gave me a moogle that takes hits in battle. I'd say at this point there is way more tie-ins to the 'classic' FFs than FFXIII ever had, and even FFXII.

I don't use the royal weapons that much. They are cool but the HP drain seems like too big of a cost. Is there a good way to use those? I get by pretty well with warp strikes, magic, and chains.

It’s up to you. I feel the utility of the Royal weapons depends on how much you want to prioritize damage over survivability. I think I always had at least one Royal weapon equipped, but which one it was changed and I couldn’t tell you which one was my last choice.

As for the car, you will eventually get a quest to upgrade the headlights so daemons don’t attack you, so definitely keep doing quests for Cindy!

Oh nice. I thought Cindy talking about the "headlights" was just a euphemism.

I honestly never used the Royal swords very much. Didn't really need to when I finished the quest with Cid to upgrade Noct's starting weapon into the Ultima Blade.

Yeah, I can agree that the juxtaposition of everything is what makes the game feel so weird and cool at the same time. Helped also by my own years doing road trips giving the game a strange nostalgic vibe I don't usually get from these kind of things. Glad you're having fun still.

How funny. After I read your post I thought 'I should look into this ultima weapon.' Then I slept in a hotel and Cid called me to tell me it was ready. I guess I did it without knowing!

The same thing happened to me as well. :lol:

Another cool tie-in are Edgar's machines from FFVI. Anyone find them useful for Noctis? Promoto gets some good damage from them but so far I find them slow for Noct's play style.

I usually leave them for Prompto since he needs the damage boost. I tend to stick to spears as Noct's secondary weapon since they have a nice balance of speed and power which works better for Noct's playstyle for me.

I usually stick with a sword, a spear or heavy sword, a Royal weapon to round out the damage types, and then the ring. I believe you’ll also always have the ring on you once you get it ;)

lmfao yeah i'm like "oh i'm doing a second upgrade to my troutty starter weapon" and he hands me a freaking ultima weapon

So I went out to get those headlights. Thanks for mentioning they were in a big sewer maze, Fynn. :roll2

In the place I found something called an Auto Changer. I looked up if it was good and turns out it is not that good. But someone mentioned that it may have been included to let people play the battles the way they had it in the Duscae demo. I totally forgot about the demo for this game! I remember it being very different than what I'm playing now. I was very underwhelmed by it.

I also just realized that I can switch characters in battle, playing as the bros are fun. :D

I finally got to Altissia (at level 65 :p). So the story battles are not hard at all, but that is my fault for messing around in the open world for too long. Those hunts are just too addicting! The leviathan battle was fun, but it seemed like I was in no danger of losing. I don't know if that was because I was overleveled or if it was scripted.

My main issue about this game is that it is so... disjointed. It's a lot of fun parts but very difficult to understand how it all fits together. The story feels like a dream, you get bits and pieces of something that seems like it is good but not nearly enough to understand what is going on. How am I supposed to care about Luna's fate if I never interacted with her? Ardyn and Cindy are the only two characters (outside the main 4) that I have formed more than a superficial bond with, and even then it is just barely. I feel like the guy who makes me go fetch gems for him has more of a characterization than any of the major players in the Empire or Lucis (except Ardyn). I will say the main 4 are great.

Whatever, I'm having fun. My favorite thing right now is when I'm getting my butt kicked and the summon comes to save my ass. I love when that happens.

Did you watch Kingsglaive or Brotherhood? They sound like supplemental material but it’s really just a prologue and character bits essentially taken out of the game lol Oh yeah, and while we’re at it, I feel like the Omen and Dawn trailers are kind of essential reading

Also, have you been playing the DLC Episodes? Imo the best times to play them are when the characters are out of your party so you can immediately see what happened

I played Episode Gladio right after he came back and it was pretty cool. I think the other two take place during the battle of Altissia? So I can play them now?

I'm sure my kids will want to watch the supplemental movies with me, so I'll check them out.

Episode Ignis takes place during Altissia, but Episode Prompto happens later down the line. Also, fair warning: Episode Ignis will spoil a bit of the ending for you. Imo it’s still worth playing now since everything just falls into place better that way (and Ravus can actually get a complete character arc) but if you really want the whole last bit to be a surprise, you might want to wait until the very end.

Thanks for the warning. Given that Ignis shows up blind after the battle I think I'd rather experience (what I assume) what happened to him in his episode rather than get to the end and go back to it. The piecing together of the story of this (otherwise fun) game is a huge mess!

Given what happened to the other two, I guess I'll wait until Prompto shows up with some injury to do his episode. :p

The gap for Episode Prompto is going to be pretty obvious, don’t worry ;)

But yay for Episode Ignis! You’re gonna get a taste of the actual quality of these DLCs because Gladio’s was really redundant

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Originally Posted by Del Murder

I'm sure my kids will want to watch the supplemental movies with me, so I'll check them out.

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Don't make your kids watch Kingsglaive. They'll be asleep within 15 minutes. You'll be asleep within 30.

Brotherhood was fun though.

Nah, he needs to see Kingsglaive just for Ultros' cameo.

Kingsglaive was... a surprisingly competent movie tbh

I was really distracted by Aaron Paul's performance. It wasn't like, bad, but he just really sounded like, himself?

I think I will watch Kingsglaive myself and give them a synopsis. They really only care about the bros, so they will like Brotherhood.

This game is all about the bros. The political battles are just background!

So I could only find Brotherhood in Japanese and my kids are too young to read subtitles that quickly. We did find the first episode dubbed but no luck after that. Is there a dubbed version somewhere?

They didn't dub it. There are some fan projects on youtube, but I never watched them so idk how good they are. Might pass for the kids?

Yeah, they'll get over it I'm sure. :p

So I found myself with a good amount of time between projects and decided that I should finally give this game a real try. Like everyone else said, it starts very slow and then becomes actually a heck of a lot of fun around Chapter 3 when you suddenly are just on an endless roadtrip. There are definitely some big flaws in the plot I'm already seeing but that sort of becomes part of the charm for most Final Fantasy games anyway. What was the last one that told a complete coherent story in one go? IX? Maybe XII-Zodiac Age?

My biggest complaint actually has to do with the music: there should be more of it when you are traveling. I have to say, I fell in love with what I think is the track called Wanderlust that plays sometimes when you are walking around but is interrupted whenever an enemy comes near or you open the menu and then doesn't seem like it comes back right away. Then there are just stretches where you have only the sounds of walking around, which can be nice at times but definitely contribute to the hollow nature of things.

I also found it very funny that they clearly are basing the look, at least in the early chapters, of the American southwest. Having driven from California or Arizona to New Mexico several times, a LOT of the little pit stops towns match almost too well.

Overall, I have to say, the game is much more fun than I had heard. It definitely seems like things were a bit more streamlined with the added DLC as compared with the broken first version which while maybe not Cyberpunk levels of buggy, were on that level.

The open road is calling again!

Take care all.

Glad you're enjoying it too Captain.

My kids loved Episode Ignis. And you guys are right, it is pretty obvious where Episode Prompto takes place. :p We just rejoined with him and they are very excited to try Episode Prompto.

I'm not sure how I feel about the very linear turn the game takes in the second half. I don't mind linear RPGs, but some of these chapters feel pretty empty. I guess the part on the train was cool. I am in Chapter 13 right now and it is by far the least fun I have had with this game. It's just boring compared to the way it went before.

I actually really enjoyed chapter 13. Having to rely on the ring was a nice gameplay shakeup. But imagine how much worse it was before the updates streamlined it severely.

Yeah I didn't mind that part, but the dungeon is so long and repetitive. Get keycard, open door, repeat, I've done that in games dozens of times. And there are only 3-4 total enemy types that are not very interesting (except that big gargoyle thing). The best thing about that section is Ardyn taunting you the whole way.

My 2 year old actually liked that section because he kept telling me which doors to go to. 'No, not that one. Green one!'

But yeah, Episode Ignis is very nice, and so are Prompto and Ardyn. It’s really just Gladio’s that stands out as particularly lame. On that note, Episode Ardyn is meant to be played after you’ve beaten the game, ideally after also watching the short anime prologue to that that’s on YouTube.

Great, and should I read the manga too? And get the collectible action figures? Would that help me understand this game I already paid for?

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Originally Posted by Del Murder

Great, and should I read the manga too? And get the collectible action figures? Would that help me understand this game I already paid for?

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Only if you get the original Japanese version of the figures in their original packaging because the back of the box adds an extra line of story detail that will completely change how you see the game.

I need to invest in the Royal edition and finally replay this game. I feel I've let enough time go by that I can appreciate another run through.

Hey, at least the anime is free :monster:

After we got through chapter 13 we decided to go back to the open world since it is more fun. We beat Zu and a few other higher rank hunts. That's really where the game shines for me.

I beat the game yesterday. I really liked the boss rush at the end, those were some emotional battles with great cinematics. The ending was also refreshing given that (SPOILER)Noctis actually died and wasn't brought back by the power of love or some BS. Very much unlike most FF games! Messing around in the WOR was also a nice change of pace from the earlier open world.

Overall I liked the game a lot. The first half open world was about as fun as I've had in an OWRPG. The story is a huge mess though. After learning Ardyn's motives I was still very confused by his actions throughout the game. I read through the plot of Episode Ardyn and he actually has a very compelling story. Too bad none of this was in the main game! Similarly, King Lucis, Luna, and Ravus all seemed like important characters but you have to go outside the game to learn about all that, which lessens their impact while you are playing.

Also they gave no explanation for the time skip and even after reading about it I still don't have it figured out. It feels like SE wanted this game to have a complex and overarching plot but ran out of time to get it all in the game. So rather than just simplify the plot to a road trip/coming of age/revenge story, they created all this side content to try and salvage it.

Chances are a lot of plot confusion came from them repurposing the plot of versus XIII. Lucis especially felt more like a leftover from the original game that was contractually obligated to be in the game because he was prominent in the few trailers we ever got of the old game. I imagine Ardyn's backstory was also something in the original script that carried over, but the new team wasn't sure what to do with in regards to all the other changes.

I'm glad you liked it though. I was fairly pleased with it despite all the problems, and I've only played the Day 1 vanilla version and none of the DLC, so I'm sure it's a huge improvement over that. The bro trip part is certainly the highlight of the game for me. I feel like the theme of the FNC was to deconstruct the old Crystal theme of the early series by making the crystals/Light gods, just as much of a dick as the bad guys.

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Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno

I've only played the Day 1 vanilla version and none of the DLC

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The story DLC is sooooo good - particularly Episode Prompto and Episode Ardyn. With each DLC episode, the team got better at storytelling. Those stories may be smaller-scale, but they were actually much more impactful and memorable to me than the base game.

I mean, while I’ll agree Episods Ardyn is super good both in terms of gameplay and story, its story also has a big problem that mostly stems from the fact that it was supposed to be the first part of the new season of DLCs that lead to a new ending that, as Dawn of the Future has shown, was completely at odds with the game’s themes.

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Originally Posted by Fynn

I mean, while I’ll agree Episods Ardyn is super good both in terms of gameplay and story, its story also has a big problem that mostly stems from the fact that it was supposed to be the first part of the new season of DLCs that lead to a new ending that, as Dawn of the Future has shown, was completely at odds with the game’s themes.

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I'm sure this is what the staff was thinking:

I really loved the open world part of the game in Lucis, but found myself enjoying the game less and less the more it focused on its messy and quite clearly incomplete story. The chapter where you had to slowly walk around for blind Ignis to keep up with you was pretty bad, and Gladio became kind of a dick for no real reason.

If you watch the Brotherhood episode about him, it explains a little bit of how he can be such a dick to Noctis. However, (1) you shouldn't need a separate anime to explain the motivation of your game's characters and (2) they've been together for several years after that so it was still odd that he went right back to dick mode after Altissia. It's not like Noct sat on the sidelines during Altissia, he was pretty active and suffered a pretty big loss.

One thing that bothered me in the whole game was that if Noctis bumps into him while running around, he gets very snippy with a 'hey watch it!!' which doesn't seem like a good way to talk to one of your best friends.

Honestly, everything that’s happened in Altissia had been distressing for the whole gang. Gladio has been well established as processing his grief through anger, so it really didn’t seem out of character for him. Did it feel unfair from the player’s or Noctis’ point of view? Sure. But people don’t always behave fairly when in a crisis. I feel it’s less an issue of poor writing and more just genuine character flaws showing through

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Originally Posted by Del Murder

Great, and should I read the manga too? And get the collectible action figures? Would that help me understand this game I already paid for?

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Don't forget the Kenny & Kelly Crow gacha, officially licenced cup noodles and Aranea body pillow, all of which are super important to the plot.

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Originally Posted by Del Murder

If you watch the Brotherhood episode about him, it explains a little bit of how he can be such a dick to Noctis. However, (1) you shouldn't need a separate anime to explain the motivation of your game's characters and (2) they've been together for several years after that so it was still odd that he went right back to dick mode after Altissia. It's not like Noct sat on the sidelines during Altissia, he was pretty active and suffered a pretty big loss.

One thing that bothered me in the whole game was that if Noctis bumps into him while running around, he gets very snippy with a 'hey watch it!!' which doesn't seem like a good way to talk to one of your best friends.

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I especially love how Prompto made such an inappropriate and possibly even offensive joke about Ignis's blindness, yet it was Noctis who told him it wasn't funny while Gladio said nothing. And apparently if you warp strike out of harms way during a fight in that chapter Gladio will chastise you for "abandoning" Ignis, or so I've heard.

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Originally Posted by Fynn

Honestly, everything that’s happened in Altissia had been distressing for the whole gang. Gladio has been well established as processing his grief through anger, so it really didn’t seem out of character for him. Did it feel unfair from the player’s or Noctis’ point of view? Sure. But people don’t always behave fairly when in a crisis. I feel it’s less an issue of poor writing and more just genuine character flaws showing through

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Yeah but for some reason he really zeroes in on Noctis, like he's always secretly harboured resentment towards him and now finally has an excuse to let it out.

Well it’s hard to deny Noctis is at the center of it all.

I definitely got the warp strike comment from Gladio many times.

Do you have the sword that they give you with the Royal Edition that enables you to do massive damage with Warp strike? I breezed thru most of the game with it.

Oh yeah, I used that up until I randomly got Ultimate Weapon from a quest. Then I used that for the rest of the time. I actually liked how the game was so nonchalant about giving you the good items out of no where.

The Ultima blade you meant? Actually, I rmb the Ragnarok still does more dmg if you spam warp strike at the right distance.

Yeah ultima blade. I did not know the other one was good if you use warp strike a lot. I did spam warp strike about 90% of the time.

Have you gotten the flying car yet? One complaint about this game is flying sux. You can easily crash and the game just ends with it!! God, flying was the best part in the FF series. FF XV really ruins it.

PS: I am not sure if the latter DLCs and updates fixed this though.