Spoiler and Final Impressions Thread

[Scruffington]

The game does indicate it. It just lacks proper execution which is exactly the problem. It does indicate it nonetheless. I totally agree though that I want Luna to grow more on me which is why I would love to have DLC about her. It can easily destroy my greatest complaint.

And Etro or not. Rewrite is rewrite. I also don't care about how Cloud has no black hair or how Sephiroth and Aerith were no lovers in the final version (I mean, it could have been interesting but it is no game breaker for me).

No, the game does not indicate it. Being fond of someone and caring for someone doesn't necessarily mean you're in love with them. I'm not contending that they were in love, I'm contending that the game itself does not show that they're in love. To suggest that they are is entirely up to your own interpretation, but I'm basing my opinion off of facts.

The way some people interpret the ending, which I agree with, is a sort of "ideal world" that would have happened had Luna not died. They would have developed a romance and been together. But in reality, they didn't.

The logo itself was not rewritten or remade to fit the new story. Only the character filling the role of the logo was rewritten. Which makes it seem forced, because it is.

[Sephiroth]

No, the game does not indicate it. Being fond of someone and caring for someone doesn't necessarily mean you're in love with them. I'm not contending that they were in love, I'm contending that the game itself does not show that they're in love. To suggest that they are is entirely up to your own interpretation, but I'm basing my opinion off of facts.

The way some people interpret the ending, which I agree with, is a sort of "ideal world" that would have happened had Luna not died. They would have developed a romance and been together. But in reality, they didn't.

The logo itself was not rewritten or remade to fit the new story. Only the character filling the role of the logo was rewritten. Which makes it seem forced, because it is.

Base your opinion off the fact that not every sentence is blunt and we are lucky enough to even get some blunt Japanese things because a lot of what is said in Japanese is part of subtext. In Final Fantasy we even get plenty of stuff where we do not even need to know that. And people still manage to not understand the blunt parts. So make of that whatever you want.

Whether you like it for not, the game as a matter of fact does indicate their feelings and emotional bond. The only thing that is a fact is what I have already stated and that is that it has no good narrative execution, meaning it could be told a bit better and with a few more steps, that is basically the part where I agree. Your problem is that you just want a blunt "they are in love. Rinoa sits on Squalls lap, Tidus and Yuna dance underwater" message and that's it. There are various ways in stories to actually tell a message about an emotional state of one of more persons. In Final Fantasy IV Cecil and Rosa are already together. We are supposed to believe that they are in love even though that is not even close to being one of the most important plot points. Luna points out multiple times how her fate is connected with Noctis. They have this "person x has some sort of obligation to person y but it becomes more than just that" kind of story. Luna is so close to Noctis that they have the old-school "I meet you in a dream-like world" thing going on, in this one of course also combined with Luna's entire oracle-esque role and all. Luna is supposed to be connected to Noctis in any possible way, because he is the chosen one, share a more emotional and spiritual bond, know each other since childhood, et cetera. Noctis and her send messages each other all the time because they were not able to have any other contact for 12 years (if you really think you send a dog over the world for a person that is a mere friend to you and nothing else then think again). Not being together for 12 years is a very hard time and makes it even harder to tell such a story but what you claim they did not do is just not what it was. It was sloppy and in my opinion also not enough for my personal taste. But that's it. "Not enough" is not the same as "non-existent". Luna is there for Noctis all the time, even ready to die for him. And I am not talking about the main game alone but also Kingsglaive. That you need a full on-make out mode to believe them is the real problem here. And also - you have a hard time believing the ending because of this complaint of yours. But how about the ending itself being the final confirmation instead? We know almost nothing about Lord Rasler and it is still believable that Ashe felt something for him even though her storyparts when she thinks about him are not all about "oh Rasler we met when I was 16-year old and on our first date we were there and afterwards we were there ..."

It absolutely is there. It could have been better and I also want more to flesh it out and let Luna be more for me than the rare spawn of characters. But it is there.

You can see even I want more. But I would never actually say "I want more because there is nothing at all" because I know there are various ways to express the same thing.

Also, almost no one "interpretes the ending as the ideal world that did not happen". The ending goes from a very easy to understand healing world to a spiritual appearance of Luna and Noctis to show that they are finally together. even if it is just in death. The ending is basically nothing but Titanic. We get the typical fantasy shonen-type thing. The entire part before is "very dark and unforgiving but hey, at least here you get something for the ending to know that at least they are together in the end, here you have your happy end". There is no excuse of "reality" because reality in this Final Fantasy is also that there is a spiritual existence of people.

It also does not matter in the slightest if the logo was not changed. Fact is, the logo does not stand for what you want it to stand for. You are not the one who decides what is getting rewritten, you do not own the franchise and stop making factual claims like "it makes it seem forced because it is" because not everyone was annoyed by what you claim to "feel forced". I for example thought it was a very nice and sweet addition while Ardyn seemed forced to me.

[Loony BoB]

I have a plot question! So, I've looked around the internet to find answers to various questions I had and just better understand the story that was told. But there are a couple of things I can't wrap my head around.

1) Are the royal arms actually important to the story in any way?
I mean you have to go and collect them but there doesn't seem to be a reason for that other than "these are super strong".

2) Are the Astrals actually important to the story in any way?
So, you do the trials to get the power of the Astrals. But... this doesn't seem to actually do anything other give you the ability to use summons in battle occasionally? Noctis's important power is not related to the Astral's power at all, and it's awakened by Luna in order to defeat Leviathan. So beyond Bahamut being the person who reveals some plot details to you at the end, I don't see how they are actually important to the story in any way. If you took the Astrals away the plot could remain basically the same, couldn't it?

1) No, not as far as I am aware. They are just weapons that have a bit of lore behind them and can only be used by Noctis.

2) Yes, to some extent. The Astrals created the crystal and it is they who Noctis needed approval from in order to use it in the way he did - at least, that's how I understood it. I think he got approval from all bar Ifrit, and that was "enough", I guess. Majority vote or something.

[Scruffington]

Base your opinion off the fact that not every sentence is blunt and we are lucky enough to even get some blunt Japanese things because a lot of what is said in Japanese is part of subtext. In Final Fantasy we even get plenty of stuff where we do not even need to know that. And people still manage to not understand the blunt parts. So make of that whatever you want.

Whether you like it for not, the game as a matter of fact does indicate their feelings and emotional bond. The only thing that is a fact is what I have already stated and that is that it has no good narrative execution, meaning it could be told a bit better and with a few more steps, that is basically the part where I agree. Your problem is that you just want a blunt "they are in love. Rinoa sits on Squalls lap, Tidus and Yuna dance underwater" message and that's it. There are various ways in stories to actually tell a message about an emotional state of one of more persons. In Final Fantasy IV Cecil and Rosa are already together. We are supposed to believe that they are in love even though that is not even close to being one of the most important plot points. Luna points out multiple times how her fate is connected with Noctis. They have this "person x has some sort of obligation to person y but it becomes more than just that" kind of story. Luna is so close to Noctis that they have the old-school "I meet you in a dream-like world" thing going on, in this one of course also combined with Luna's entire oracle-esque role and all. Luna is supposed to be connected to Noctis in any possible way, because he is the chosen one, share a more emotional and spiritual bond, know each other since childhood, et cetera. Noctis and her send messages each other all the time because they were not able to have any other contact for 12 years (if you really think you send a dog over the world for a person that is a mere friend to you and nothing else then think again). Not being together for 12 years is a very hard time and makes it even harder to tell such a story but what you claim they did not do is just not what it was. It was sloppy and in my opinion also not enough for my personal taste. But that's it. "Not enough" is not the same as "non-existent". Luna is there for Noctis all the time, even ready to die for him. And I am not talking about the main game alone but also Kingsglaive. That you need a full on-make out mode to believe them is the real problem here. And also - you have a hard time believing the ending because of this complaint of yours. But how about the ending itself being the final confirmation instead? We know almost nothing about Lord Rasler and it is still believable that Ashe felt something for him even though her storyparts when she thinks about him are not all about "oh Rasler we met when I was 16-year old and on our first date we were there and afterwards we were there ..."

It absolutely is there. It could have been better and I also want more to flesh it out and let Luna be more for me than the rare spawn of characters. But it is there.

You can see even I want more. But I would never actually say "I want more because there is nothing at all" because I know there are various ways to express the same thing.

Also, almost no one "interpretes the ending as the ideal world that did not happen". The ending goes from a very easy to understand healing world to a spiritual appearance of Luna and Noctis to show that they are finally together. even if it is just in death. The ending is basically nothing but Titanic. We get the typical fantasy shonen-type thing. The entire part before is "very dark and unforgiving but hey, at least here you get something for the ending to know that at least they are together in the end, here you have your happy end". There is no excuse of "reality" because reality in this Final Fantasy is also that there is a spiritual existence of people.

It also does not matter in the slightest if the logo was not changed. Fact is, the logo does not stand for what you want it to stand for. You are not the one who decides what is getting rewritten, you do not own the franchise and stop making factual claims like "it makes it seem forced because it is" because not everyone was annoyed by what you claim to "feel forced". I for example thought it was a very nice and sweet addition while Ardyn seemed forced to me.

Sorry that my post came off as a bit...absolutist. I'm definitely not someone that can't enjoy something unless it black and white.

We both agree that the game needed to have more exposition on Noctis, Luna, and their relationship together. I still hold that even while there are some hints in the game that they're in a deeper relationship, their relationship together outside of being friends as kids isn't really shown. The one time they see each other outside of being kids? Noctis doesn't say a word to her because she's giving a speech. I'm not looking for something explicit from him, I want to see how he interacts with Luna when they're together. The difference between them and Squall/Rinoa is that the two exchange dialogue constantly. They spend a lot of time together. And they spend time alone together, too. Some stories explain character relationships as occurring before the story begins, some during and some after. Noctis and Luna are only together after the story ends.

It's not about "what I want it to stand for." That was literally the original version of the logo when the game was Versus XIII. The character in the logo was always intended to be Etro. So when the game was changed to XV, the concept of Etro was scrapped. Okay sure, stories and characters get scrapped from games all the time. Yet they kept the original logo from Versus XIII with a character that is no longer in the game. So that means that the new story needs to have a new character to fulfill that role. They chose Luna.

Why this is forced is because they shoehorned Luna into a role that wasn't her own. Just because the role is hers now doesn't mean it was designed with her in mind. They put her in that role after the logo. Not the other way around. And the scene itself is incredibly unnatural with her sleeping on the side of the throne. Not exactly the most comfortable place to rest your head.

[Kappy]

So, I just beat it.

Overall, I found the game absorbing and fun. Definitely a step in the right direction after XIII. I really enjoyed the open world setting and variety of things to do, the quest system and the battle system (after learning it properly). There was some truly jaw-dropping moments - I don't think I'll ever forget the first time I summoned Ramuh. The overall design of the game was excellent - art direction, music, voice acting (save a couple of characters), attention to detail - all great.

When it all boils down though, I play Final Fantasy games for two things - story, and characters. And I've got to say I agree with much of the opening post. It just doesn't have that X-Factor that FFVI through to FFX has for me, and that's down to poor storytelling, some frankly odd pacing, and poorly fleshed out characters and ideas.

That's not to say the potential isn't there. I think it very well could've been phenomenal, and that's all the more frustrating to me. For example, I lacked a true sense of menace from the villain and the stakes at hand, even though potentially he was excellent. I didn't really feel a sense of devotion or investment save for a couple of excellent scenes where you could see the potential of it all - that last scene around the campfire with your friends where Noctis struggles to speak - just awesome! So frustrating.

Instead I kind of feel left with barebones, and that a bunch of stuff was missing. If it's fleshed out later via DLC, I'll revise my opinion, but also be quite angry.

Overall, it's not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination. It's just not a classic Final Fantasy at this moment in time.

[The Summoner of Leviathan]

Imma gonna keep it quick because I'm on my cell, but I loved the game and enjoyed it a lot. The narrative however was bad. Without the supplemental media you don't get much about Regis and Luna. Almost all the characters outside the chocobros are throwaway: flat characters who only serve to further the plot or sidequests. For example, Luna has no character development if you view the game in isolation. One of her scenes are skippable if you don't check the radio ffs. KG has this problem too (Crowe anyone?). There is a lot of potential there but the ball was seriously dropped.

[Night Fury]

Haven't played it, but watched Pheesh play it.

My thoughts.... It's better than FFXIII on a lot of things. The gameplay and battling didn't appeal to me, but the story was pretty good and better than what I thought. I also really liked the 4 boys a lot, and enjoyed their friendship - I think they pulled it off well enough.

Solid game, gameplay itself isn't for me but I really don't think it has come out as bad as I thought it would.

EDIT: I really liked the ending cinematics and the FatM cover song fit really well.

[Wolf Kanno]

Not going to pay attention to what else has been discussed...

Lets do a quick and final Pros vs. Cons and then I'll elaborate at the end.

Pros:

• It was better than FFXIII, which was about the only major requirement I needed to be fulfilled from this game. Seven years since that clustersmurf and it still makes my blood boil thinking about how much a waste of time that turd was. I am happy to see that FFXV was a much more fun, expansive, and intimate experience than "rail-movie the game".
• Gameplay was overall really fun and well designed minus a hiccup here and there.
• I really enjoyed combat, and that statement is coming from someone who generally never cared for Action-RPG combat and was the one element I was the most concerned about. Switching weapons doesn't have the "weightiness" of the demos which was a nice improvement, and the variety of weapons made combat feel fresh as long as I experimented with the load-out. The greater emphasis on dodging and blocking attacks kept combat interesting and devolving into "hold circle to win" The dual weapons for comrades also helped make them more diversified and helpful in combat, speaking of which...
• My biggest compliment goes to the treatment of the A.I. comrades who finally hit that sweet spot of not being so dumb that I'm screaming at them for being totally useless and making me wish for the Gambit systems (this would be your KH/FFXIII type of A.I.), but they are also not so overly competent that I have to start wondering why I'm even here (your FFXII/MGS type of A.I.).
• The Tech system really made the party feel alive and spiced up combat exquisitely by giving me that interactive/cinematic quality to combat that older FFs had and has been missing from the franchise since FFX. It also helped establish a distinction among the party of who they were and where they fell into place on the team.
• I'm happy the game actually begins open-ended instead of being narrow and then opening up. It may have hurt the pacing in the early sections in terms of story, but since so much of the character bonding moments generally happen during the gameplay moments, as oppose to the story proper, I felt it really helped establish the team rather well, and allowed the world to open up more organically instead of constantly being dragged from place to place and being given the quick rundown of why I should care.
• I genuinely enjoyed most of the game's locations, even in the few times I felt disappointed when I couldn't explore or learn more about a place. Still, the game does a great job of capturing familiar locations in the real world and twisting them into something more fantastic. From the early Americana Route 66 sections, to Listallum's fantasy Havana, to Altissia being fantasy Venice, to even the wild and scare locals of the Nifelheim Empire. The locations were rarely boring to explore and there is so much content that it's easy to drown in the options.
• The summons were pretty awesome. While it has the smallest list of available summons in the series, I was happy to see them return to being something impressive after so many years. I don't even mind the fact they are "I win" buttons since summoning them can often be tricky, usually meant you were getting your ass kicked and needed them, and could never be exploited like previous installments.
• The core four characters really work. I really felt a level of trust and camaraderie among the main four that never felt distant or forced like the previous single player installments. The characters bounce off each other really well and I am thankful that the cast doesn't really rely heavily on appealing to archetypes like most of the series. There is a real sense of them being people and I feel XV might have one of the better playable casts in the series. Ignis and Prompto are easily the two best characters in the game.
• Barring one important character and one minor character, I really loved most of the female cast. Iris is adorable and spunky but doesn't have the irritating traits of the hyper genki girls often seen in the medium, instead she feels genuine, and how one would think a sixteen year old would feel like. Aranea certainly deserves to be in the same league as Kain and Freya as a memorable and awesome dragoon. They were easily the best side characters. Cindy may have the creepy lech elements going for her but as I did quests for her, I came to really enjoy her more as a character who was much more well thought out than previously imagined. Gentiana was quite the surprise since I didn't think much of her before the game, she has enough quirks and story relevance to make her memorable.
• Ardyn was a damn good villain, having that nice dual quality of being charming and scene stealing, but also a total ass you wanted to punch in the face when you saw him. I feel he suffers a bit of the same issues as Lord Vayne in XII in terms of his motives not being well presented, but he is easily one of the more memorable villains to come out of the series in awhile.
• The more "out there" elements like the car and skills worked really well for this game and helped to set it apart from not only other FF games but a few open world ones as well. I didn't mind the fact the car had limited control cause I've seen too many times my terrible video game driving skills ruin the immersion factor for me and I enjoyed the fact it worked really well with the central idea of the game being a Road trip. It definitely hit a certain nostalgia for me, as my family mostly did road trips as vacations; so sitting back, watching the scenery and listening to conversation and good music hit all of my nostalgia buttons. The quirks of the character from their skills was also neat from checking out Prompto's photos, to finding new recipes for Ignis, to Noctis finally breaking from bored attitude to one of excitement when he finally got to fish, and Gladio always insisting on camping. All these elements were great as a means to tell you more about the characters.
• I loved the fact the game had more interactive moments from the onset like pushing the car, stirring soup, doing foot races, and just in general for exploring and combat. It's not immersion if I'm just sitting there watching cutscenes, make me feel like I'm actually there, that was what the Golden Era of the series did and something I really missed.
• The ability to explore and discover was also super nice, and I appreciate that I often had to look around every nook and cranny to discover a dungeon, a royal tomb, or some other cool element. Again the open world element of the game really helped to bring back that swashbuckling adventure feel of the early games, before the series devolved into poor and bizarre knock-offs of Hollywood summer blockbusters.
• Several of the quests in the game are amusing and help to establish a fun cast of minor NPCs. While they get monotonous after awhile, they still do a great job of introducing a fun cast of minor characters who help to bring the various locations and world alive.
• Soundtrack was pretty good, not great, but it works for what it needed to do, and I'm happy the party had some nice character themes that were actually noticeable for once.
• Most of the game's mini-games were actually fun, fishing especially brought back pleasant memories of the Breath of Fire series.

Cons:

• There is a real sense that XV feels like a "catch up" game. Similar to how I felt about DQVIII, there just seems to be a real sense that the design team was seeing what was hot in the gaming market and putting it in. While it certainly has it's charms and eccentricities that can only be offered by a Japanese developer, the game often feels like something you've probably played from many other AAA open world titles on the market. The team probably could have done more to branch out and make themselves feel different from the pack, but they rarely did.
• The game has one of the same problems I had with Xenoblade Chronicles, which is that there are too many sidequests, and too many of those sidequests are too similar to each other. The game content could have been edited down a bit, and several of the quest lines could have been more impactful had a third to half of their number of quests been removed. It's too easy to get stuck in the sidequest grind like many open world titles and the fact they are just you redoing maybe the same seven things over and over just makes them feel monotonous.
• While there are some gorgeous enemy designs and I am loving the fact that many of Amano's classic designs were getting the 3D treatment; it just seems like the enemy variety is pretty small considering the size of the game. The "wolf" like creatures were especially jarring since there seemed to be a lot of pallete swap/minor design difference among them.
• While magic type abilities are usually underwhelming in Action-RPGs compared to good old brute force (Secret of Mana being one of the few exceptions) I was still a bit sad to see so little variety in magic abilities. The three core elements plus Holy, Death, and X-Zone seems really slim picking for an FF game. I get how the system works in the game, but for a world where magic is rare and supposedly powerful, I felt like the game could have done more to show that off. I mean when VI talks about how freaking powerful magic is, the gameplay mechanics back it up. Same with FFX and the summons. There was no reason why we couldn't have gotten Aero, Quake, and Water as Elemancy elements and maybe some more big magic spells from the Ring of Luci like Flare or a team attack with Armigar that is Ultima.
• The Mark Hunts are still being done poorly. Like I mentioned in the first impressions thread, it lacks what made them cool in FFXII. There is no story component to any of them, and the enemies encountered are mostly just beefier versions of things you've fought (or will fight) a million times anyway. XII's worked because most of the monsters on the list had a story element to them but many of them also offered unique gameplay challenges and would often subvert your expectations with them. They were a series of cool mini-boss battles, not just beefier trash mobs.
• While I appreciate the more linear nature of the final chapters (you know, the part when you're suppose to be invested and rushing to see what's next) the game has the same issue as Xenogears second disc where all these cool events and places are revealed but you the player are getting the Reader's Digest/ Travel catalog version of it. You get to the lands of Nifelheim and Tenebrae and you get to see so little and the impact is kind of lost on the player. It's sort of the same problem XIII had with making you care about Cocoon, but you have the added disappointment of having these places subtly hyped for you only to find so little of it.
• So let's just discuss the big pink elephant in the room shall we? The plot doesn't have much going for it. The first half is just a loose series of ill-defined fetch quests and the second half is rushed and lacks satisfaction and clear context. It's not the worst plot in the series, that would be XIII, but it definitely was a bunch of great ideas that fall painfully short of their full potential. Like Crisis Core before it, Tabata finds interesting ways to bring in an emotional impact from all of it, but again, the writing is weak and leaves a bittersweet taste in your mouth due to it.
• With the exception of Ardyn, the rest of the villainous cast is largely lacking, and the game has a similar issue to XIII where the villains all seem cool on paper but often get removed with little ceremony or fanfare. They are also poorly developed and their motives change off screen in the case of Ravus. It ultimately hurts the overall story and the game lacks the usual catharsis that many of the better villainous ensembles have had to offer. Most fans figured Ardyn was the big bad, but XV didn't have to make it so blatantly obvious by giving him all the screen time while the rest of the villains get the majority of their screen time in Kingsglaive.
• Speaking of which, Kingsglaive, and to a lesser extent, Brotherhood should have never been made. All of that content should have been in the game proper and I really wish large studios would stop trying to transform all of their projects into multimedia ensembles because it weakens the element by pulling them apart. The early sections of XV could have benefited from having the Fall of Insomnia as a gameplay piece (just drop the Kingsglaive and let Regis and Lunafreya have some more screen-time) and the Brotherhood scenes could have been nice story elements to spruce up the more dry parts of the early chapters. Yes it's easier to get all this content now, but it still doesn't change the fact the main game felt a bit empty by having these events removed, and in the case of Kingsglaive, it had an epic moment over-produced into something that can't really stand on its own and would have worked better as a scaled back experience to kick off the main event proper.
• Lunafreya is probably not going to win "best female FF character in the series". She has the same issue as Serah in the original XIII, where she's kind of just there in the plot and only after she's gone does the game bother to give you the flashbacks to develop her as something more than just "The Oracle". The Aerith undertones don't help either. The bigger pet peeve I have with her is that I felt the game should have left her relationship with Noctis ambiguous. It would have helped both of them to give the fans less and leave us wondering if they truly loved each other, were just friends, or two people trapped in their duty. The last half of the game ruins the mystery that should have been there and is a wonderful example of when less is more could have really helped.
• Regis is another character I feel under-performs, and is probably one of the few times I'm going to bother saying that Versus XIII promised us something more with him and XV kind of falters with that promise. He was a character that had great potential from the other media sources but his role in the main game proper feels empty.

So final thoughts on the 15th installment of the series:
Overall, I am quite pleased with XV, it's hardly perfect but I feel anyone going into it thinking it was going to be "the greatest game ever!" was doomed for disappointment. Considering it's very public implosion on the development side, I was expecting a much worse and I feel the game does a good job of taking half baked ideas and making something presentable out of it. Could it have used more time to be better developed? Hell yes, but we the fans were not going to give it anymore, so it's our own fault for rushing the game out once it changed directors, and either way, I still feel like it was always doomed to begin with.

With that said, the core game is still super fun if still trapped with the usual pitfalls of open world design that is starting to feel tired after the over-saturation of the market last gen, yet I still feel that it was some of the best gameplay satisfaction I've gotten out of a numbered entry in ten years, so it at least succeeds as a game. While the narrative falls flat, the core cast make up for it with their frank conversations, small moments and little idiosyncrasies that help make the world feel alive and actually inhabited by real people. In fact a more subdued story and cast was a bit overdue for the franchise, so while it falls short of it's potential, I'm still satisfied with the results.

XV to me feels like one of those games where several years from now, when the raw emotion of it's development history and controversial design choices in the aftermath of Tabata taking over has faded just a bit; fans will finally be able to look back and see this game for what it truly is: a fun if flawed feature we placed too much hope and expectation on. The game is also filled to the brim with so many secrets and shout-outs, it may still be many years before fans uncover everything about it, which is something I always appreciate from my games. For the most part, I would recommend the game to people. To both new and old fans of Final Fantasy.

[Fox]

Glad you enjoyed it overall, Wolf - interesting how a bunch of things on your 'Pro' list would be very much on my con list. Specifically

- Gameplay treatment of the AI comrades
- Tech system
- Game starting open
- Summons

I really enjoyed the scale of the summons, and I too didn't mind them being 'I win!' buttons. I minded having very little control over when they were available. I know there are conditions that cause them to trigger but I never felt like I was doing it deliberately, sometimes it would just kinda randomly happen. Kinda like Odin in FFVIII but with every summon.

[Serapy]

Development hell (staff changes i.e. Tabata, delays) and all that cut content or changes have made this game so bland and messy. The storyline just felt so lacking too.

[Spawn of Sephiroth]

I hate that they created a movie out of alot of the game material and could have done a better job in certain aspects if the story. My only complaints are of course Ch. 13 and I feel they should have doen something with Noctis while he was gone those 10 years. I feel like we should have seen what he went through. That would have been a perfect spot to complete Nocts charactor development and show us how he went into this rather whiny and immature and then he comes back he is calmer, more mature demeanor and focused on what he has to do. I would prefer to have seen that. Use that for a few hours of gameplay for that developement that way when we go back to Hammerhead it feels like we were gone a while. Then I still loved the Leviathon fight, but the earlier versions of that in the early trailers were to me better than the one we got. It was still awesome as hell, but I was dissapointed a tad about it.

[Scruffington]

It was better than FFXIII, which was about the only major requirement I needed to be fulfilled from this game. Seven years since that clustersmurf and it still makes my blood boil thinking about how much a waste of time that turd was. I am happy to see that FFXV was a much more fun, expansive, and intimate experience than "rail-movie the game".

You really do act like a child when it comes to XIII. The first bullet point in your review damages your credibility because you can't seem to dislike or disagree with something without calling it a "turd." Sad.

XIII was a phenomenal game, and much better than "development hell fetch quest simulator the game."

There isn't a single area in which XV is better than XIII in, except maybe the main cast.

[Wolf Kanno]

It was better than FFXIII, which was about the only major requirement I needed to be fulfilled from this game. Seven years since that clustersmurf and it still makes my blood boil thinking about how much a waste of time that turd was. I am happy to see that FFXV was a much more fun, expansive, and intimate experience than "rail-movie the game".

You really do act like a child when it comes to XIII. The first bullet point in your review damages your credibility because you can't seem to dislike or disagree with something without calling it a "turd." Sad.

XIII was a phenomenal game, and much better than "development hell fetch quest simulator the game."

There isn't a single area in which XV is better than XIII in, except maybe the main cast.

If you want a constructive dialogue, then its best not to come in with a self-righteous tone. I simply stated an opinion, it was uncalled for you to attack me personally because you disagree.

XV remembers that it's a game, and thus gave me something that actually had this thing called content, which means doing something more than babysit A.I. in combat, walk through linear corridors with no other options, and suffer through over-dramatic cutscenes.

XV at least tries to be interactive and keep the player involved, giving the player free agency to go through the story and immerse themselves at their own pace; not the perpetual moving forward by lack of options and a Datalog that describes the plot better, while failing to explain why you should care about anything, because the world is a shallow void the story never felt was worth really expending on in any meaningful way.

It gives you a cast that actually understands emotion and feeling and the subtlety of human interaction instead of long winded monologues and over dramatic poses and speeches. Its plot is rushed and simple, but at least it's coherent and doesn't need the Ultimania and an inevitable series of increasingly convoluted and terribly written sequels to explain everything.

Both are flawed games, but XIII doesn't have enough good qualities to help it shoulder the weight of those flaws like XV does.

[Scruffington]

If you want a constructive dialogue, then its best not to come in with a self-righteous tone. I simply stated an opinion, it was uncalled for you to attack me personally because you disagree.

I can't really respect someone's opinion when they call something a "turd" in a supposedly well-written review. It's childish. If you want to be lighthearted or joke around about it, that's fine. But to present something as a legitimate, well-articulated review and then say that completely undermines the entire point of your post.

Maybe you should think about how you write your criticisms if you don't want them to be called childish.

XV remembers that it's a game, and thus gave me something that actually had this thing called content, which means doing something more than babysit A.I. in combat, walk through linear corridors with no other options, and suffer through over-dramatic cutscenes.

Yes, XV's content. The 30+ hours of sidequests that Tabata put in the game because he wanted players to have a lot of content to play. The story DLCs that were intentionally excluded from the final release to be sold as content later.

I find your complain about XIII quite hilarious, considering that you can't even control the AI in XV. At least with XIII you have the Paradigm Shift system where you can control what they do. It isn't perfect, but it's a better system than XV.

Outside of open-world battles, all of the dungeons take place in fairly linear environments in XV as well. And you have to contend with a janky camera a decent amount of the time.

I would rather take "over-dramatic cutscenes" than a lack of cutscenes. Especially when you only devote one of those cutscenes to two villains, one of which was presented as a major antagonist. And speaking of over-dramatic, how about the chapter where the party overreacts to Jared's death? The cutscene was completely jarring and unnatural considering the dude was barely in the game.

XV at least tries to be interactive and keep the player involved, giving the player free agency to go through the story and immerse themselves at their own pace; not the perpetual moving forward by lack of options and a Datalog that describes the plot better, while failing to explain why you should care about anything, because the world is a shallow void the story never felt was worth really expending on in any meaningful way.

Giving the player "free agency" in the story completely dismantles the pacing and narrative of the game. At the end of one chapter, Aranea is fighting you. At the very start of the next chapter, Aranea is helping you through a dungeon. There's no real transition. If you want to talk about "pacing," XV is not the game to defend.

Both are flawed games, but XIII doesn't have enough good qualities to help it shoulder the weight of those flaws like XV does.

Better soundtrack from start to finish, a complete and fully coherent story, beautiful and varied environments, gameplay that has flexibility and deep customization, and no cut content sold to you later? Yeah, we're not talking about XV. XIII is better.

[Sephiroth]

Part ways. I know where this goes. 12 years experience.