I started FFXV

[Del Murder]

Inspired by Fynn's thread, I picked up the Royal Edition of FFXV which was surprisingly cheap. I'm still in the first chapter/area, and I have only a vague idea of what's going on. It's only from reading other things that I have any grasp of the plot at this point. Despite all this, I'm having fun.

Cruising around in the car sounds so cheesy for a FF game but it is actually very satisfying. I love that you can listen to old FF soundtracks as you drive. The area I am in is very barren so I'm glad we have the car and also that you can set a destination pretty much anywhere on the map. Running is boring especially with these open spaces where not a lot is going on.

The game has some interesting depth with the special skill for each character and the magic drawing/crafting system that reminds me of FFVIII. Other than warping around, which is cool, I don't find the combat all that interesting yet. I don't yet understand the purpose behind switching weapons other than for cool visual effects. Maybe it gets better.

I think right now I need to do a quest for a guy so I can catch a boat, but instead I've just been driving around doing random quests or collecting treasures. I will update as I go!

[Wolf Kanno]

Glad you are finally having a chance to play through this. Getting side tracked by quests is the norm of this game. Can't wait until you unlock chocobos.

[Fynn]

Weapon changing is basically up to you. Each weapon type has a particular battle style, so knives will be super quick, great swords will be very strong but much slower and combo poorly, while spears are great for reaching fliers. Enemies also have weaknesses and resistances towards types of physical damage so be on the lookout for that - the game tells you whether they’re weak resistant or neutral via the color of the damage numbers, but I don’t remember which color meant which

Honestly, the battle system doesn’t really get much more complicated than that, but what I really loved about it is how relaxing it is. Holding the buttons is a great alternative to the usual button smashing in action RPGs and it always just felt really fluid once you get into the flow of combat.

[Strider]

It got a little repetitive, in my opinion, but that may be because I felt compelled to do every last little side quest before advancing the main story.

[Del Murder]

I am now on Chapter 3 and having a lot of fun. I just like how easygoing the game is. Holding the button to combo, just letting the car drive you to quests, fantastic food buffs, finding random cool stuff lying around in the open, they clearly wanted you to just sit back and enjoy the ride.

My kids love it too. We just discovered chocobos and had a lot of fun picking a color and name and running all around. They also liked customizing the car, we have a pimped out golden chocobo car with purple interior and blue rims. :eoffpimp: That quest to fight the behemoth to gain the chocobo rentals scared the crap out of them.

My favorite part of combat is definitely warp striking. And hanging off a cliff to regain HP while my bros take care of business. My favorite part overall is collecting the old FF game soundtracks from the rest stops, and fishing.

Are all these rest stops supposed to be modeled after middle America? It's so weird that these are the 'towns' so far. I think I'm supposed to go to a real city to continue the story.

[Wolf Kanno]

Yeah the outposts are largely the game's version of towns. There are a few cities that are pretty big, but there are only a few of them. If the Behemoth quest scared them, I can't wait until you do the Marlboro quest. You also have to tell us what they think of the Jedi Tonberries.

[Fynn]

Since you’re playing with kids, I figure a disclaimer is in order: this game gets super depressing in its later half, so fair warning

[Del Murder]

Depressing as in, everyone dies? Or there is lots of gore? The kids won't care much if fictional characters die and it might be a good thing for us to talk about, but I don't want them to see a lot of graphic violence. For context, when they found out the king died (though he was barley in it), they were like 'whoah!', but when the behemoth looked like he was eating some animal, they were kind of grossed out.

[Fynn]

Nah, no gore. But “characters die” doesn’t exactly capture how dark this game gets. There’s a kind of hollowness to it that other FFs seem to lack, or maybe it just wasn’t as pronounced before due to the games not being so cinematic. Things will get a bit existential though and the ending is bittersweet. I don’t know how old your kids are, but I figured it would be a good idea to give you a heads up. Of course, in the end it’s up to you to decide if they’re ready!

[Raistlin]

I think the most of that "hollowness" of the last part of the game will go over little kids' heads. But it does get visibly dark and spookier.

The first half of the game was my favorite part, so I'm not surprised you're enjoying it, Del. The car rides and chocobos were good fun. I'll be curious to see what you think about the latter half, after Fynn raved about it (I assume you're playing the full game, too). I was pretty meh about it, but I have only played the original version.

[Fynn]

I mean, I can see why it wouldn’t be for everyone regardless of when you play the game. So I may have raved about it but that’s because it hit all the right boxes for me. It’s always best to find out for yourself! But yeah, the latter half is pretty much a different game, so you enjoying the first half doesn’t mean it’ll stick

[Basket of Moogles!]

Finally, you started this game. What is your opinion?

[Del Murder]

I've now spent quite a chunk of time doing random quests. I probably spent as much time in Chapter 3 than any of the others combined at this point (on Chapter 7 now). My kids really love the hunts and there are tons of them. I'm level 40 and the main story content is pretty easy (which I prefer) while some of the hunts are still pretty tough. For some reason, I find it fun to map out the path my car will take where I can hit up as many quests on the way that I can.

I randomly stumbled upon someone from FFXIV which I think is a DLC quest or something. Anyway, the kids loved seeing Fat Chocobo. We are also in the middle of another DLC quest from Terra Battle with some weird alien things that the kids think are cute.

The storyline is fine, still hard to keep up with everything as random characters appear for a quick appearance and then leave. We did really like that mission in the military base which lets you summon Ramuh in the end and he destroys everything. Are the summons purely story based? They want me to summon Titan because we fought him earlier but I don't know how.

As main characters go, Noctis is pretty likable. Ignis and Gladio are also very strong. Prompto is meh, but the kids do like the end of day pics and always ask me to save some.

[Wolf Kanno]

The aliens are Hiso, the mascot for Mistwalker studio and they were designed by Sakaguchi's daughter.

Summons only activate based on certain criteria.

• Titan only appears if your allies are low on health or dead.
• Ramuh appears when either Nocts health is low or the battle has dragged on for too long.
• Leviathan only appears near water or places associated with water. Noct needs to be at low health.
• Shiva can appear anywhere and her chance of appearing increases the lower the whole party's health is.
• Garuda will randomly replace any of these summons when she is acquired after doing the FFXIV event to acquire her.

The others are spoilers at this point, so I won't tell you.

[Fynn]

How dare you. Prompto is precious