Die Hard 2 is a really good film for anyone who hasn't seen Die Hard 1.

...I feel like I shouldn't just leave it at that, huh...

Y'know, I'm not one of those complete purists who thinks a series should never try new things - I really liked Final Fantasy XII (for the most part) and that was a hell of a departure from what had come before. But it is still important to understand what you did before and what your strengths are. The new Ghost in the Shell is a perfectly competent movie taken on its own, but when you compare it to the 1995 anime version it's rubbish. It re-used scenes and story elements without really understanding what made them strong in the first place, so they didn't have the same effect.

To me FFXV is like that. It's a perfectly fine game on its own. But it doesn't understand the series it finds itself a part of. It's so busy throwing "cool stuff" at you that it has no focus of its own. The thing that really epitomizes this for me is the flying Regalia. They had no intention of including flight in this game, until a bunch of people moaned (foolishly IMO) about it not having an airship. "Oh, fine then, have your airship," they said, and proceeded to implement the flying Regalia in a completely boring, non-important, non-story related way. They heard the cried for an airship and then ticked a box rather than figuring out something that would actually work.

Yes, there it is. That's my problem with Final Fantasy XV. It's a game about 'ticking the boxes' on the Final Fantasy checklist rather than making those elements work for its own vision.