Quote Originally Posted by rubah View Post
1) It's incredibly understated. You, the player, can put as much or as little effort as you like into understanding the motives of the characters, what people are doing in the background etc. You tune into the radio each time you roll up to Kenny's or a pit stop, and you'll be a couple of cutscenes ahead of the person who waits to be shown what's going on. You watch Kingsglaive or read the Prologue novel, and suddenly, you can see how those guys who get a couple of minutes of screen time in Chapter 2 are responding to their own conflicts and drama, wholly unrelated to you.
This method of storytelling is neither immersive nor enjoyable.

XV's problem is that several key details are spoonfed to you. Whether it's through listening to the radio or picking up the journals in Chapter 13, the game does not let the player experience the plot. Instead you are informed of the story. You don't get to experience the downfall of the Niflheim empire. You don't get to witness Iedolas being defeated by Ardyn. And you definitely don't get to see Ravus' death. All of these cool events happen off-screen, and the player is merely told what happened after the fact. It makes the story shallow and cheap. What makes a good game is its ability to tell story through gameplay, allowing you to experience the plot as it happens. XV unfortunately fails to deliver a satisfying experience in this regard.

Also I am of the firm belief that a game should not require supplementary material to understand its plot. A player should be able to purchase a game and be able to completely understand both the context and narrative. Without having watched Kingsglaive, I was utterly confused by the random cutscene they included during the Galdin Quay chapter. It didn't really have any context. It was basically a radio report saying "the king died" and it showed a 10 second clip of Regis being killed by Glauca. Without being able to participate in this event or understand the background behind the scene, it had almost zero significance to me.

Ravus and Regis are the two greatest examples of XV's shoddy storytelling to me. Neither character gets a satisfying conclusion.