How to easily improve the story? Spoilers within!

[Sephiroth]

Of course there could overall be a longer story and a lot of additonal story being written in. And I am really glad that we get an extended story with the DLC but it will hardly change the moment that in my opinion could have easily made things better:(SPOILER)

• Do not kill off Luna in Chapter 9
• Make her join your team for the next chapters. Ignis gets blinded nonetheless, also you have more present time with Luna this way and she can grow more on you than just from flashbacks and stories that are told about her
• Let her be killed off by Ardyn in Chapter 13 right before the Crystal incident: Noctis tries to get his revenge on Ardyn, has no chance and gets sucked into the Crystal. When he wakes up 10 years later he gets the Trident

[Fox]

Good suggestions TBH. They wouldn't have redeemed it entirely by any means in my eyes, but those changes could add a lot of impact to certain key moments.

[Fynn]

Jesus, Fox, who hurt you

[Fox]

Jesus, Fox, who hurt you

What, I thought that was a pretty positive response!

[Sephiroth]

Also, it is not as important for me because I think it was handled at least better but I think Ardyn's presentation should have been way different.

[Loony BoB]

Let's face it, everything relevant in this thread is going to be a spoiler, and if Sephiroth doesn't mind I'd like to just mark the thread title to say spoilers within. Lemme know, dude.
I'm actually not too overly fussed about the Luna stuff I saw (or did not see) to be honest. They perhaps gave her too much importance prior to the game being released. I mean, I get that she is important to some degree, but I don't see the point in elongating her return just so she can join your party. We already have three other people who join your party as it is. We don't have to have Luna join too. I like the idea that the moment we finally get to see the person we've come all this way for is the moment that she gets destroyed. I mean, initially I wanted to see more of Luna but in retrospect I kind of appreciate the feels we got and don't think we need to elongate that too much.

What I WOULD change...

- More/clearer story regarding what happens with...
--- Ravus
--- The Emperor
--- Luna
--- Ignis (blinding part)

Essentialy the above would cover the finer details of what was going on with them all, and answer most (I like having some imagination and theorising left to players) questions that we were left wanting for.

- More time spent in the World of Ruin. Like, a lot more. Not even half the time we spent in Lucis by any stretch, but enough time to visit these other locations and people we used to know and see how they are getting on, how they have changed, etc.

- Postgame should unlock the ability to add previous guest party members back into your party on demand.

- More background regarding Prompto's personal revelation. Or more build-up. I dunno. It felt very rushed, despite the annoying length of the chapter.

Honestly though, I'm happy with how it is. These are just things that would make it notably better, at least for me.

[Sephiroth]

Yes, Bob, please change the title and fix the typo.

I do not really want Luna in the team just so she can be in the team but to get this "Aerith is in your team, you get more story moments and interaction, et cetera, you can grow to like her more" and all. She just felt so thrown away for me and I want that moment to be more moving for me. That was essentially my biggest complaint. As said, it could easily have been even longer overall but anyway I would have wanted more scenes where I could feel more for her. Your details also cover Luna and depending on how they would play out they could also result in something that I would like. Of course I also want to know more about the others. But that for me personally was the biggest problem apart from "the story is short".

I think anyone here knows that I love all Final Fantasys. For me this is just the same thing as "damnit why didn't they show as ultimate scene in Lightning Returns how Snow and Serah got married and then with Lightning smiling in the end" or something instead of just "we wanted the story to end with Lightning.

[Loony BoB]

Updated.

And yeah, I get that. I think what would have been interesting is if - without actually engaging in battles - we got to actually control Luna as a one-woman-party while she did her own scenes. We could have all those cutscenes with her in their youth and while she was away from Lucis and everything. It'd help people get more endeared to her without making her into some kind of battle hardened badass (which I don't feel she needed to be - her showing against Leviathan showed how badass she was at staying strong without the need to engage in active battles).

[Sephiroth]

Maybe some of the new parts that we get cover at least a bit of Luna It could help me somewhat. As said I am already glad that we get more in the first place.

[Fox]

Yeah, that would have been a good solution. It would also flesh out the world more as she has very different interactions with it compared to Noctis and co. I would especially be interested to see more of her and Ravus. Having control of her on her own would have made her feel more like a character with some agency.

[Sephiroth]

I feel having her in the team would just be extremely good for options like when you get to Tenebrae which just was another location where you basically could not do a thing. Have more options there and as it is where Luna comes from she could also play a more significant role there in the story with own scenes where she actually speaks with you than just the old lady talking about her. It would be different. Luna's entire existence was carried through stories and flashbacks except for very brief moments. But yes, even if it was a flashback it could probably have been better if it would just have been longer and her own, I don't know, 2 chapters or so where you could get story with her and play ... with her. That sounds so wrong.

[Psychotic]

In addition to what's already been said about other areas of the game which I broadly agree with, the whole invasion of Insomnia was also poorly done. Why is the invasion a big deal? Have they occupied it or did they just smash and grab with the crystal? If they have occupied it, how are the people doing - are they suffering or in internment camps or anything like that? Is there a resistance? Noctis is pissed off about it and talks about taking it back, but why? Does he want justice? Does he want revenge? Does he want to help the suffering people? Or is it that the crystal is such a powerful weapon that he wants to get it back from the Empire no matter the cost to civilian life? He's dead and then he's not dead - so are the empire even looking for him? Sure, there's Magitek troops dumped on him on a regular basis but it doesn't feel like he's actually being hunted.

It also seems like Leide, Duscae etc were barely affected at all besides a few roadblocks - you think there would be food shortages and the like with a major neighbour falling. And surely there'd be tens of thousands of refugees and casualties streaming out of the Crown City beyond main characters like Cor and Iris?

Essentially, there's apparently a war going on. So, uh, show me.

[Fox]

FFIX and X both do this quite well by simply letting you back into the places that have been struck by disaster. Kilika after Sin, or Alexandria after Bahamut.

It's nice to see people working on rebuilding as well. That's a sure way to hammer home the effect of the diaster. Not letting you explore Insomnia before the World of Ruin was a big mistake in my eyes. You had no sense of contrast. It was shocking to see Alexandria/Kilika in ruins because I'd seen them before the disasters. Insomnia may as well have been just another dungeon.

[Sephiroth]

FFIX and X both do this quite well by simply letting you back into the places that have been struck by disaster. Kilika after Sin, or Alexandria after Bahamut.

It's nice to see people working on rebuilding as well. Not letting you explore Insomnia before the World of Ruin was a big mistake in my eyes. You had no sense of contrast. It was shocking to see Alexandria/Kilika in ruins because I'd seen them before the disasters. Insomnia may as well have been just another dungeon.

Insomnia basically was another dungeon.

They just had the plan that Insomnia should be the final thing once the story comes to an end and I think that is actually not all that of a bad decision but as I already said when I finished the game 2 weeks ago "there could have been so much more, this game has so much room for improvement". Let's see what we get. But surely not all we want.

[Loony BoB]

While I agree it would have been cool to go back to Insomnia before the world of ruin, I also understand why we weren't able to. That was very much the heart of the Empire territory on Lucis, and going back there wouldn't make sense. I mean, I'm sure they could have managed it at a stretch, but the place was crawling with daemons and empire troops last I saw and I don't think it looked like there would be anything there but a fancy looking Fortress dungeon.