I started FFXV

[Jessweeee♪]

prompto is a good boy

[Shiva95]

I also really like Prompto hehe :P

[Del Murder]

Prompto has grown on me in the last several hours. I triggered a couple of his camp sidequests and a few photo ops which gave me some more time with him. Also, I finally found some of his skills useful in battle. I still think overall Gladio and Ignis have more useful skills.

I'm still on Chapter 8 and barely moving the story forward. The story missions are fun and all but I prefer the more free form of doing random quests. I really like how the game does not force you into doing much of anything. Running from battle is pretty easy, fast travel is quick and cheap, combat has enough variety that you can vary up how you want to kill things (the magic bombs rock). I guess the only annoying thing the game forces on you is when the demons or imperials show up on the road and block your car. I realize that the game becomes much more linear later but I'm prepared for that, and I think it might be a nice change of pace after spending 40+ hours in the open world.

When this game was pitched I thought it was silly to have a FF game with more real world looking things like diners and cars. And it is silly, but in a fun way. This is still a fantasy game. These cars do not look like modern vehicles nor do any diners I know of give you monster hunts. The juxtaposition of these elements with chocobos, magic, roaming ferocious beasts is pretty cheesy but in a good way. I'm really liking it! I just got a cactaur hunt and I can't wait to go find those critters. Also, Iris gave me a moogle that takes hits in battle. I'd say at this point there is way more tie-ins to the 'classic' FFs than FFXIII ever had, and even FFXII.

I don't use the royal weapons that much. They are cool but the HP drain seems like too big of a cost. Is there a good way to use those? I get by pretty well with warp strikes, magic, and chains.

[Fynn]

It’s up to you. I feel the utility of the Royal weapons depends on how much you want to prioritize damage over survivability. I think I always had at least one Royal weapon equipped, but which one it was changed and I couldn’t tell you which one was my last choice.

As for the car, you will eventually get a quest to upgrade the headlights so daemons don’t attack you, so definitely keep doing quests for Cindy!

[Del Murder]

Oh nice. I thought Cindy talking about the "headlights" was just a euphemism.

[Wolf Kanno]

I honestly never used the Royal swords very much. Didn't really need to when I finished the quest with Cid to upgrade Noct's starting weapon into the Ultima Blade.

Yeah, I can agree that the juxtaposition of everything is what makes the game feel so weird and cool at the same time. Helped also by my own years doing road trips giving the game a strange nostalgic vibe I don't usually get from these kind of things. Glad you're having fun still.

[Del Murder]

How funny. After I read your post I thought 'I should look into this ultima weapon.' Then I slept in a hotel and Cid called me to tell me it was ready. I guess I did it without knowing!

[Wolf Kanno]

The same thing happened to me as well.

[Del Murder]

Another cool tie-in are Edgar's machines from FFVI. Anyone find them useful for Noctis? Promoto gets some good damage from them but so far I find them slow for Noct's play style.

[Wolf Kanno]

I usually leave them for Prompto since he needs the damage boost. I tend to stick to spears as Noct's secondary weapon since they have a nice balance of speed and power which works better for Noct's playstyle for me.

[Fynn]

I usually stick with a sword, a spear or heavy sword, a Royal weapon to round out the damage types, and then the ring. I believe you’ll also always have the ring on you once you get it

[Jessweeee♪]

lmfao yeah i'm like "oh i'm doing a second upgrade to my troutty starter weapon" and he hands me a freaking ultima weapon

[Del Murder]

So I went out to get those headlights. Thanks for mentioning they were in a big sewer maze, Fynn.

In the place I found something called an Auto Changer. I looked up if it was good and turns out it is not that good. But someone mentioned that it may have been included to let people play the battles the way they had it in the Duscae demo. I totally forgot about the demo for this game! I remember it being very different than what I'm playing now. I was very underwhelmed by it.

I also just realized that I can switch characters in battle, playing as the bros are fun.

[Del Murder]

I finally got to Altissia (at level 65 ). So the story battles are not hard at all, but that is my fault for messing around in the open world for too long. Those hunts are just too addicting! The leviathan battle was fun, but it seemed like I was in no danger of losing. I don't know if that was because I was overleveled or if it was scripted.

My main issue about this game is that it is so... disjointed. It's a lot of fun parts but very difficult to understand how it all fits together. The story feels like a dream, you get bits and pieces of something that seems like it is good but not nearly enough to understand what is going on. How am I supposed to care about Luna's fate if I never interacted with her? Ardyn and Cindy are the only two characters (outside the main 4) that I have formed more than a superficial bond with, and even then it is just barely. I feel like the guy who makes me go fetch gems for him has more of a characterization than any of the major players in the Empire or Lucis (except Ardyn). I will say the main 4 are great.

Whatever, I'm having fun. My favorite thing right now is when I'm getting my butt kicked and the summon comes to save my ass. I love when that happens.

[Fynn]

Did you watch Kingsglaive or Brotherhood? They sound like supplemental material but it’s really just a prologue and character bits essentially taken out of the game lol Oh yeah, and while we’re at it, I feel like the Omen and Dawn trailers are kind of essential reading

Also, have you been playing the DLC Episodes? Imo the best times to play them are when the characters are out of your party so you can immediately see what happened