Pitioss Ruins Thread

[Sephiroth]

Idea: 10/10 (Good)
Design: 10/10 (Good)
Choice of Checkpoints & Shortcuts: 5/10 (Not balanced, by the end some are pretty good, hell in the middle)
Difficulty: 9/10 (Too hard)
Frustration Level: 10/10 (Too frustrating)
Fun Level: 5/10 (Not in balace with frustration, feeling of accomplishment overshadowed by it - except the very last feeling when you are finally done.

I just finished the Secret Dungeon of Final Fantasy XV. It took me hours. This dungeon probably has the greatest design and idea for me when it comes to any Final Fantasy super dungeon ever - sorry, Via Infinito. It is almost a bit MC Escher-esque. And the fact that it is hidden in like a lonely corner of the map, as some small piece of ruin is also cool. However, the frustration was high in this one. And I do not mean "Lulz man, this dungeon is supposed to be a bit frustrating but its funny!" level but frustrating as in really, really anger-awakening frustrating. Of course this dungeon is supposed to play with your ability to be patient and try to make the best out of the controls but this is so ridiculous. The checkpoints are irrationally placed, so you in many hard cases (probably in the middle of the dungeon very often) you have to go through bits once more were you just were a bit lucky to even make a correct jump on platform x. The dungeon consists of multiple leaps of faith, especially when you reach like 75% of it as then the camera suddenly is supposed to play with you that you do not know where up and where down is. Try to jump to the next save looking platform because it is on the same level and direction you are? Sure, go ahead! Too bad though! It would even have been the right one but you jumped wrong and that pseudo gravity pulled you to the wrong direction so you miss it and fall! The worst of it all is, you cannot even save. I want to get through a dungeon but I do not want to be forced to really do it all at once. Especially not when it is full of such moments where you can make the same mistake easily next time. Of course you learn a lot inbetween but there are also so many situations where you just jump and fall off because calculating the jump distance is not the easiest. You can get a feeling for it but even then you sometimes either mess up or it is the rest of your movements where just one extra step or trying to turn around can ruin it all.

This dungeon was hell. Give me frustrating challenges that are frustrating to a bearable extent. And in balance with my entertainment.

THIS is gold trophy material. But no, no. I better am rank 30 worldwide with Platinum than getting a trophy for this nightmare. How can the ultimate dungeon not give a trophy - I don't know. But well, not even the other "locked door" parts give you a trophy. Still, I feel this one at least deserved one. And not just a Bronze trophy but an actual gold one.

[Loony BoB]

Yeah, all the endgame content bar one thing doesn't give a trophy which I found kinda bizarre. But I like that it means that I can do things for the personal satisfaction instead of just for the trophy, too. So I'm in kinda two minds about it.

Haven't done Pitioss Ruins yet, will do that and the menace beneath Lucis once I'm done with the quests I still have on my list, and the Platinum trophy (one trophy away...).

[Aulayna]

Finished this tonight. Don't even know if the item is worthwhile. Was frustrating as hell.

To add insult to injury some Nif's landed where the car was parked (I didn't bother saving as I was planning on fast-traveling back to Hammerhead which would've auto-saved). Had the glitch where one of the party members goes invisible, then the game crashed in the middle of the battle.

Re-load last auto-save, guess what. It's before the smurfing dungeon was cleared.

Not even sure if I'll bother re-doing that trout.

[FinalxxSin]

I'm glad the post game content is difficult to appeal more to the hardcore audience. I'll get around to doing all the hard stuff at some point.

[Sephiroth]

Finished this tonight. Don't even know if the item is worthwhile. Was frustrating as hell.

To add insult to injury some Nif's landed where the car was parked (I didn't bother saving as I was planning on fast-traveling back to Hammerhead which would've auto-saved). Had the glitch where one of the party members goes invisible, then the game crashed in the middle of the battle.

Re-load last auto-save, guess what. It's before the smurfing dungeon was cleared.

Not even sure if I'll bother re-doing that trout.

That is dumb considering, if you finish the dungeon and open that last shortcut you can even get the Black Hood when re-entering the ruins. So if not saving once after that ruined it all for you, then yes, I probably would also not want to do that again.

Were there specific parts you did not like?

[Aulayna]

Finished this tonight. Don't even know if the item is worthwhile. Was frustrating as hell.

To add insult to injury some Nif's landed where the car was parked (I didn't bother saving as I was planning on fast-traveling back to Hammerhead which would've auto-saved). Had the glitch where one of the party members goes invisible, then the game crashed in the middle of the battle.

Re-load last auto-save, guess what. It's before the smurfing dungeon was cleared.

Not even sure if I'll bother re-doing that trout.

That is dumb considering, if you finish the dungeon and open that last shortcut you can even get the Black Hood when re-entering the ruins. So if not saving once after that ruined it all for you, then yes, I probably would also not want to do that again.

Were there specific parts you did not like?

The main specific parts I didn't like were the stupid rotating bit where you have to fall down the hole surrounded by spikes, the bit where gravity is all weird and you run on multiple sides of blocks and just Noctis's unpredictability in general, where sometimes he'd roll when he landed, or if you so much as breathe on the left analog stick he'd walk off of whatever he was standing on.

Overall, I found it a cool concept marred by camera issues and finicky controls.

I'm glad the post game content is difficult to appeal more to the hardcore audience. I'll get around to doing all the hard stuff at some point.

Honestly I wouldn't even say this was hardcore. It's basically no different to an original Tomb Raider game. It had hard moments but the challenge was mostly (probably unintentionally) artificially inflated by shortfallings in the way Noctis handles.

[Psychotic]

smurfing awful. They saw the popularity of parkour in other games and wanted to hop on the bandwagon. The difference is that those other games have precise movement controls that make it satisfying when you do it. FFXV is not set up for this and I can't begin to count how many times Noctis has lurched forward after landing and fallen to his death. I wish they hadn't bothered and diverted the resources used to make this elsewhere.

[Sephiroth]

You can let go off the analogue stick before he lands to not make an extra step but yes, it is annoying and not something that you might think of during all those things and nervousity and frustration.

Funnily enough someone already cheated himself through the ruins in minutes. Really why even bother doing it then.

[Psychotic]

I was doing that, and he was still rolling off the edge. That roll animation is the actual worst.

[Sephiroth]

I was doing that, and he was still rolling off the edge. That roll animation is the actual worst.

Didn't know you only meant the rolling. Thought the extra step was your main problem.

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

Yeah, I'm digging this thread up just to say smurf this dungeon and the sensitive controls.

First of all, I kind of had a hard time even getting to the entrance. Flying the Regalia to the thin landing strip and setting it down between all those rocky mountains took several tries of blowing myself up.

I was getting angry with this dungeon. To make sure that I wasn't just irrationally blaming the controls for my own mess ups, I took to reddit and elsewhere to see if anyone else was having a similar issue.

Overall, I found it a cool concept marred by camera issues and finicky controls.

I agree. I think this is the core issue. The problem isn't the length or the timed jumps you might expect of an inherently difficult end game dungeon, it's the controls.

Most deaths in this dungeon for me weren't the result of making a wrong move, but of only trying to take the slightest step with the analog stick and Noctis decides to take a full step or roll.

The reward for the long trek through this dungeon is a Black Hood accessory which lets you auto-dodge, but I don't think I would even wear that because I'm pretty good at dodging on my own, and having to do it makes me more engaged in any given battle.

Maybe on a future playthrough or New Game + I'll get around to it, but I'm passing on it for now. More than a sense of accomplishment for beating the dungeon, I just see so many people saying "I'm glad that's over with".

[Scotty_ffgamer]

I tried to land the regalia there, and I died. It was my first time trying to fly and land, but the small landing strip looks really frustrating.

I may try to do this and go through the dungeon next week if I haven’t moved on by then. I’m curious to see it despite hearing all of the frustration about it.