What are you playing?

[Bebpo]

Yeah, I mean even with the Norse mythology type stuff in games all I can think of is the new God of War and The Banner Saga 1-3 (in addition to Lost Vikings). Doesn't seem like a really saturated gaming setting to me?

[Rufus]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Video_games_set_in_the_Viking_Age
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Video_games_based_on_Norse_mythology

Incomplete and full of questionable picks, but it's something. Viking stuff doesn't make it into AAA much, that's my only takeaway.

[Rufus]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Video_games_set_in_the_Viking_Age
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Video_games_based_on_Norse_mythology

Incomplete and full of questionable picks, but it's something. Viking stuff doesn't make it into AAA much, that's my only takeaway.

How is Skyrim not in here for example lol

Authenticity is the only criterion, I think. Max Payne for instance has fuck all to do with norse myth, but it does use authentic terms (Valkyr, Aesir Corp). Can't explain its inclusion otherwise.
I feel like a lot more games should make the list based on this, but I can't think of any.

[Bebpo]

FFXV - Finished both versions of ch.13 aka RESIDENT EVIL FF. The patched route is way better for sure, mostly because it's short (too short actually) and better paced with radio announcements and cutscenes to fill in story.

That being said I thought the original route, other than going on far too long with too many keys, was fine and hardly in the group of "bad rpg final (or near final) dungeons", I actually really, really like the parry holy attack. Had a lot of fun parry exploding holy non-stop for 9999 damage everywhere. The dungeon actually reminded me a little of FFVIIr's dungeons.


Anyhow, got to ch.14.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I like the idea behind the timeskip world of darkness with really well face modeled older Noctis (I wish we could get a jrpg with a protaginist who looks badass like this), but I wish it wasn't just ok no here's a few cutscenes go do the final boss fight and watch the ending.



Probably finish the story tonight after dinner since I'm interested in where it all goes from here.

[close]

[tiesto]

Played more Golvellius, up to the last area in the game. I enjoy it but there are so many strange design decisions, like the auto-scrolling side-scrolling parts where you can leave the dungeon by moving to the back of the screen... or having to grind money to get 'bibles' to raise your max cash... or the stiff 4-way movement in the overworld, that's replaced by 8-way movement during boss fights. But it's still pretty fun and an interesting alternative to the original Zelda. Definitely one of the better games on the SMS.

[thisismyusername]

Also I have a strong feeling that the first half open world game, which is 2006-era good was mostly what Nomura/KH's team put together over the years. Especially after KH and FFVIIr I'll give Nomura and that team the benefit of the doubt. Wouldn't be surprised if Tabata & his team basically just retooled their open world game to make it releasable and then put together this 2nd half to string together the rest of the story.

I didn't play the game today, so I'm not finished as you. But if that's the case: Why the hell is Insomnia locked for 80% of the game?



I mean, that might be Altissa (I have to get the Ore to get the boat working), but ignoring the city:

• The Regalia looks more 1950's rat-rod (not sure of the term) than a Bentley.
• Stella changed into Lunafreya.
• Menu's changed (which is ok).
• Invasion by the Empire changed (Noctis and his group are there, talking to Stella/Luna before the invasion hits).

I mean ignoring most of the cut/changed story, we see Noctis battling in the city there.

Granted, this was "Early in development" at the start of the PS360 generation/7th gen. We could look at:

• Regalia changed, again. (More bubble here. Mix between Bentley and 1950's here)
• Boy-band/party of 4 is featured here
• Desert areas have bent electrical lines (this is carried over to the final in a sense, with the night system being implemented and the lights being strung out but people grouping up as night falls in rural areas)
• Stella/Luna being something more than an Oracle?

(3:33 in this Youtube, but that's being a Kagari on this)

• They kept the one Boss Fight at the base before you leave with Iris in chapter 6's Valkyrie spinning woman but changed her location from Insomnia to the base.
• Regis changed

(10 mins in)

• Ardyn's kept (but changed from how he is in these/production to the final?)
• Hard to see, but it looks like the Regalia looks closer to final when Noctis is talking to Cor

(13:05-07ish)

• Final Fantasy Versus 13->FF15 name change and production look is closer to final now, so I'll drop my list of noticing things though since these are "deleted" there is probably shit there that isn't in the final game

The biggest issue I have with your "it's scrambling to get what Nomura put out there together" is that what Nomura DID put out there focused on Insomnia (the city) mostly. The rural bits are there in bits and pieces but (and looking at the second Youtube) he repeated a shit ton of the same scene.

I'll agree with you in that the Battle System sort of wears it's welcome out around chapter 6/24 hours into the game. It's brain dead and there is very little strategy involved FF15HoldingCircleMemeSpammedinFF15/v/threads.gif

But I don't think Nomura had a game beyond Insomnia and the world-design/map put together before Tabata came in. But who knows: Maybe you're right.

It just feels like versus 13/Nomura was focused more on Urban Fantasy than Sci-Fi Fantasy that 7, 8, 13, and versus 13/15 are doing now.

[Bebpo]

FFXV - Beat the main story. Thoughts on story below, but for side stuff wow does the airship fucking suck, no wonder it wasn't part of the game. Invisible walls everywhere, pretty slow, and only a single new place you can go in the entire map for one optional dungeon. Otherwise not a damn reason to use.

The first time I used the airship I tried to land and it went into auto assist landing and took over the controls and flew it into a mountain and blew everyone up and I got a game over and had to load my last save 

Also there's...not much new post-game. Basically I have the handful of quests left to wrap up and a few more of the optional dungeons and the one new airship landing dungeon, the adamantoise quest, and the ch.14 sidequests that I skipped because why would you run around doing filler sidequests at that point in the story? But that's probably like one evening worth of content to wrap up and then there's just these 8 menace dungeons which maybe are cool? Or maybe not. Idk I'll try them. I'm lvl.83 now.

And why can't you unlock timeskip adult versions as costumes (not just the outfits) for post-game.

Thoughts on the story:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Hmmm, that was alright I guess? I dunno, it was interesting but obviously missing all the connective emotional pieces so it felt more like an outline. Apparently in the original ch.14 you just walk up to Insomnia and go straight to the Ardyn fight (which is a total shit simple 2000 gameplay fight and lolz psychic force flying)? The fights against the old kings (knights of the round) were cool though yeah I thought it was weird only fighting 4 of them.

One thing that bugged me was the new stuff they added in ch.14, Ardyn summoning the Lucis wall, Ardyn summoning the old kings and controlling them and making them fight Noctis...plot-wise I don't understand how he would be able to do any of that? The whole point is the ring gives the power of that stuff and Noctics is the one with the ring, I am so confused.

I thought the world of darkness had really good impact in this game. Yeah in other FFs or other games you have a bad guy destroyed most of the world, but this is the time where I felt it hit the hardest all thanks to the open world and billion stupid  MMO quests. If you do all the quests, by the end you've gotten to know all the people in Lucis and towns and been to the Golden Quay more times than you ever want to, and then to wake up in the world of darkness where everyone for the most part is...dead and every place is destroyed and just clothing around as the NPCs you interacted with turned into monsters...it was pretty fucking dark and depressing. So that worked well. It would've been neat to spend more time in the world of darkness traveling around WoD Lucis and seeing everywhere you went destroyed and almost everyone dead. It's one game where I think a deus ex machina reboot ending would've been ok because it's pretty fucked up.

Speaking of fucked up Ardyn is one of the most fucked up evil psychopaths in FF and even compared to like Kefka. Ardyn for his personal vendetta not only destroys the entire world and kills almost everyone (he also personally kills and toys with lots of characters), but he also basically helps and tortures Noctis the entire way being sadistic and murdering everyone he knows while still pushing him to the path of the crystal so Ardyn can fight powered up god king Lucis. I thought it was kinda of out of place at the very end to try to add any kind of antagonist empathy to Ardyn (oh no he got screwed over hundreds of years back and can't die so sad cry cry) considering how blatantly evil he is. Will be interesting to go through episode Ardyn and see how they handle that.

One thing that really annoyed me was in ch.13 when Noctis puts on the ring...nothing happens. Kingsglaive made it a huge fucking deal that when someone puts on the ring they basically are transported into an audience before all the old kings who judge them. I was waiting the whole game for Noctis to put on the ring and have that conversation with the kings of old and...it doesn't happen. which makes no sense wtffff

Also all the dumb stuff about how everything needs to be a blood price and what not just seems very arbitrary with no explanation other than to have an ending where Noctis dies.

The 10 year time gap is also kinda undeserved because he just goes in the crystal for a minute and then leaves and it's been 10 years? Suddenly he is acting all grown up and mature even though it's been like 5 mins? Time skip was good in terms of the world progressing but that was kind of weak way to do the time skip.

And what's up with the creepy crystal that eats Noctis. Maybe the episodes or optional dungeons or remaining lore stuff will go into the crystal/scourge more. Because it sure seemed like the crystal was some kind of alien meteorite that came to the planet with its defense systems of the summon gods and then created life forms and then fought against another alien meteorite that came to the planet as the scourge parasite.

The summons were cool in the way they were handled more like greek pantheon gods. I just wish so many characters like the summons, luna, etc... weren't just focused on fulfilling the prophecy instead of like...being their characters and doing things on their own accord. These are interesting beings, but they pretty much are just like one liners of existing to give Noctis his power so he can fight the darkness.

[close]

The main story is definitely a mess in a lot of the same ways as FFXIII, but the plot is much more straight-forward and better than the FFXIII. Even with all the mess of the game that it is, I'd say it's still better than some FF games.

My FF mainline rankings:

FF Rankings

Great
FF4 DS, FF6, FF7, FF8, FF10,

Very Good
FF5, FF9, FF10-2, FF7r, FF14 HW, FF14 SB, FF14 SHB,

Good
FF1, FF4 Original, FFX12, FF13-2

Ok
FF2, FF14: ARR

Meh
FF13, FF3 DS

Haven't played
FF3 original, FF13-3 LR, FFXI, FFXII Zodiac Version


FFXV so far falls somewhere around the good category, though less good than FFXII. But depending on the DLC episodes and rest of the dungeons/post-game might shift it around slightly.

Also I probably should play Lightning Returns one of these days since now it's the only single player FF story I haven't played through.

[Don Rumata]

I think it had very interesting ideas, told in the worst possible way.
Like that time skip thing was so cool in concept, too bad that they just couldn't really sustain it with the production, and spread thin as everything was.
And then all the shit told off screen or vital plot points relegated to additional material... it was a botched job, but there was something there.

[paprikastaude]

Refunded the Steam version after 40 minutes a couple of months back  Still, Open Your Heart

[Positive Touch]

i bought it on steam thinking that that version had all the game gear roms included, just like the gamecube release did. they weren't in this release   game had a lot of variety but i could never stand 3D sonic controls. something about how quickly he turns that makes it feel clumsy.

[Great Rumbler]

Sonic Adventure (1998, Dreamcast)


Brehs, this is actually pretty awesome. My only experience with it was playing the demo at a toy store in probably 1999 I guess. Only memory of it was the whale. But I was under the impression this wasn't well received and had a terrible camera and was janky but....nah. This is very impressive. Graphics look great, clean and bright. Stages are huge and wild, seem to have at least 5-6 different branching routes per stage, great and high quality music, actual cut scenes and dialogue, lots of variations in game play from classic style Sonic to true platforming to kart racer to snowboarding to shoot em up to pinball, all done pretty well. An open world hub in 1998 with lol NPCs and buildings to go into. Also seems to have a ton of replay value with all the different characters having different objectives and areas only they can reach in stages.

It scratched a nostalgia itch I shouldn't even have as I never played it, but it's fun and breezy. Perhaps a bit easy, but I'd rather have a game be a little too easy than just punish you into rage and submission. Camera wise, tbh I think Mario 64's camera fucked me more often than SA's. It's not quite 1:1 in that regard, but obviously the comparison between first 3D Mario and first 3D Sonic can't be avoided. As a launch title, this might be the best of that generation and Dreamcast should have dominated I'm very impressed with the scope and imagination of this.

Played a little Sonic Adventure today for the first time since 2011. So much nostalgia.

[Bebpo]

The more I'm wrapping up the side stuff in FFXV the more I feel like I don't like the tone of the 2nd half.

I'm all for grim dark stuff. I love my GRRM and appreciate games that go very unexpectedly dark, but tonally FFXV's 2nd half just...doesn't fit FFXV's first half. Like the first half is a fun adventure with friends, NPCs are regular people and you're doing silly quests for them, everything is colorful and happy music, lively towns. Car rides and hanging with Iris and planting vegetables. Fun hunts. Tone is probably most similar to like FFIX or FF14.

But then second half is SO SERIOUS. Like everyone is a sad emo depressed fucker and everything and everyone is nihilistic march to the end because PROPHECY. There isn't like one happy moment, everyone is just upset and sad and moping all the time. Tonally it's just so completely at odds with the first half. It feels like the 2nd half of a totally different game. Then again an entire game that was serious and mopey like this would be pretty miserable to play through.

As much as I like dark plots, I think FFXV would've worked better as a Star Wars-esque PG-13 resistance story for the 2nd half. I guess if they wanted to do the 2nd half like this, the first half should've been more like Tactics Ogre/FFT then.

No matter how many times people complain about the story in FFXV I'll always stick by Ardyn being one of the best villains FF ever had. He's personally top 5 for me.

Yeah, he reminds me of a more grounded modern day Kefka. Same sadistic psychopath murderer personality. FF has some fucked up villains.

[tiesto]

Finished Golvellius today, those last 2 bosses were much easier than the 5th area's boss. A bit of grinding near the end to get some of the high level equipment but still pretty manageable. Onto Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap. Gonna see this one through, this time... I keep dying on the final boss but now I'm determined to win.

[Bebpo]

FFXV - Man, some of these end game dungeon crawlings and super bosses are pretty fun. This is definitely a fun game to play.



Tried the flying ship again and tried to land and somehow it crashed and set on fire and killed everyone and I lost another 5 mins of having to reload my last save? How the fuck does this thing even work  Changed back to the Type-D offroad version which is the best



Got lost in the dumb Costlemark dungeon with the moving block puzzles for way too long. Was fighting 3 of these red fuckers and a snake at the same time because it adds 1 red everytime you mess up the maze. Was pretty chaotic lol

The final form for Armiger thing they added it pretty cool, too bad it takes up an accessory slot. Can we talk about how wtf the sphere AP grid points are? I'm lvl.88, at this point I've done almost everything in the game, just have a handful left + the menace dungeons, and I haven't bought a single one of those 333/666/999 AP skills. Like how the fuck are you supposed to get those and clear out the grid other than just grinding or driving around for 200+ hours. That stuff is way way too grindy which is weird because if it wasn't for trying to complete the AP grid and maybe complete the fishing compendium, I feel you should be able to 100% completion the game in like 60-70 hours which is more than reasonable.

The only thing I missed on the grid that bugs me is the +50/100 potency for magic crafting so I can get the ~ga versions of the spells. I've never seen them and can only make ~ra versions of the three with around 150 potency when combining with items in crafting for like 3x/4x casts. Which btw, I'd really like to break the 9999 barrier because all my magic attacks basically do 9999 per cast if I'm hitting weakpoints at this point. I should look into if that's an AP skill or equipment.

I might look into a cheat trainer to see if I can just cheese and get infinite AP to check out some of the end grid skills since I'm at the end anyhow.

[thisismyusername]

The final form for Armiger thing they added it pretty cool, too bad it takes up an accessory slot. Can we talk about how wtf the sphere AP grid points are? I'm lvl.88, at this point I've done almost everything in the game, just have a handful left + the menace dungeons, and I haven't bought a single one of those 333/666/999 AP skills. Like how the fuck are you supposed to get those and clear out the grid other than just grinding or driving around for 200+ hours. That stuff is way way too grindy which is weird because if it wasn't for trying to complete the AP grid and maybe complete the fishing compendium, I feel you should be able to 100% completion the game in like 60-70 hours which is more than reasonable.

https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Ascension_(Final_Fantasy_XV)

Exploration: Basically get the 2AP/3AP as soon as possible and you'll basically be making 2-3 AP for EVERYTHING you do.

[tiesto]

Bebs, are you gonna do the Pithioss Ruins? That dungeon was really strange, it turns the game into some strange puzzle platformer... but super frustrating without a guide.

[Bebpo]

Bebs, are you gonna do the Pithioss Ruins? That dungeon was really strange, it turns the game into some strange puzzle platformer... but super frustrating without a guide.

Yeah, probably will try it today. If it's too bullshit I'll pass on it. Just have that and Durell Caverns left for dungeons and a few sidequests like Adamantoise and finishing the Legendary Weapon superboss quests and then will also try the Menace Under Lucis dungeons and see if I like them or will skip those.

The final form for Armiger thing they added it pretty cool, too bad it takes up an accessory slot. Can we talk about how wtf the sphere AP grid points are? I'm lvl.88, at this point I've done almost everything in the game, just have a handful left + the menace dungeons, and I haven't bought a single one of those 333/666/999 AP skills. Like how the fuck are you supposed to get those and clear out the grid other than just grinding or driving around for 200+ hours. That stuff is way way too grindy which is weird because if it wasn't for trying to complete the AP grid and maybe complete the fishing compendium, I feel you should be able to 100% completion the game in like 60-70 hours which is more than reasonable.

https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Ascension_(Final_Fantasy_XV)

Exploration: Basically get the 2AP/3AP as soon as possible and you'll basically be making 2-3 AP for EVERYTHING you do.

Yeah, I got most of the exploration nodes first because of the cumulative add. That being said the 1AP here and there doesn't get you anywhere near 18,000.

Googling, apparently everyone says it's a grind and not worth it for any of the nodes and most people do it with a shield grind that gets about 800AP / hour.

[MMaRsu]

Ok lets try Dark Souls 3 for real this time

It looks super good on pc

[Bebpo]

Cannon Spike was great

[Nintex]

Finished the GDI campaign of Command & Conquer remastered.

It helps that I'm not 8 or 10 anymore (I was 8 when it released on Windows 95 but I remember my brother playing the DOS version) and I actually understand the mechanics beyond "built tanks -> rush base" now and all the English words.
AI still cheats like hell, producing 2 tanks at the same time from an Airstrip, spawning in stealth Tanks at no cost and replacing/placing buildings far beyond the reaches of their base.
In the end these missions are more like puzzles than actual battles. There's always some trick to a map and the AI actions are limited and scripted.
Still holds up really well with all these subtle QOL improvements though.

Unit balance is much different from what I remember. The NOD flame troopers basically make all GDI infantry useless.

Now for the Nod Campaign

 

[thisismyusername]

The final form for Armiger thing they added it pretty cool, too bad it takes up an accessory slot. Can we talk about how wtf the sphere AP grid points are? I'm lvl.88, at this point I've done almost everything in the game, just have a handful left + the menace dungeons, and I haven't bought a single one of those 333/666/999 AP skills. Like how the fuck are you supposed to get those and clear out the grid other than just grinding or driving around for 200+ hours. That stuff is way way too grindy which is weird because if it wasn't for trying to complete the AP grid and maybe complete the fishing compendium, I feel you should be able to 100% completion the game in like 60-70 hours which is more than reasonable.

https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Ascension_(Final_Fantasy_XV)

Exploration: Basically get the 2AP/3AP as soon as possible and you'll basically be making 2-3 AP for EVERYTHING you do.

Yeah, I got most of the exploration nodes first because of the cumulative add. That being said the 1AP here and there doesn't get you anywhere near 18,000.

Googling, apparently everyone says it's a grind and not worth it for any of the nodes and most people do it with a shield grind that gets about 800AP / hour.

Yeah, supposedly, if you login on the 14th (and a few other days) there's an Online Quest that you can grind for 50AP a pop all day that day so long as you are online in Square's servers.

Might be faster than the slower "whistle/summon monsters" method that gives 1AP for one-shotting a level 2 enemy, which got nerfed supposedly. It's still a grind either way.

I just got to Altissa now, the run-up via the boat was nice, but now that I'm in a new map and checking the map, there's really no connectivity to the main area so now I'm worried about leveling opportunities here. You said the game gets super linear at this point? Because I still had quests to do, but I put them aside due to the blockaids STILL going on, but I got the car fully upgraded to the D-type (not the F-type which apparently requires assaulting the bases). I wanted to get to Altissa to get the 3xEXP hotel finally unlocked, so whenever the Cid boat blockaid is over, I might go back and get as much EXP and Gil possible before hitting the 3x Hotel, since I'm like 43-45 in Level starting Chapter 8 of 15.

[Bebpo]

The final form for Armiger thing they added it pretty cool, too bad it takes up an accessory slot. Can we talk about how wtf the sphere AP grid points are? I'm lvl.88, at this point I've done almost everything in the game, just have a handful left + the menace dungeons, and I haven't bought a single one of those 333/666/999 AP skills. Like how the fuck are you supposed to get those and clear out the grid other than just grinding or driving around for 200+ hours. That stuff is way way too grindy which is weird because if it wasn't for trying to complete the AP grid and maybe complete the fishing compendium, I feel you should be able to 100% completion the game in like 60-70 hours which is more than reasonable.

https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Ascension_(Final_Fantasy_XV)

Exploration: Basically get the 2AP/3AP as soon as possible and you'll basically be making 2-3 AP for EVERYTHING you do.

Yeah, I got most of the exploration nodes first because of the cumulative add. That being said the 1AP here and there doesn't get you anywhere near 18,000.

Googling, apparently everyone says it's a grind and not worth it for any of the nodes and most people do it with a shield grind that gets about 800AP / hour.

Yeah, supposedly, if you login on the 14th (and a few other days) there's an Online Quest that you can grind for 50AP a pop all day that day so long as you are online in Square's servers.

Might be faster than the slower "whistle/summon monsters" method that gives 1AP for one-shotting a level 2 enemy, which got nerfed supposedly. It's still a grind either way.

I just got to Altissa now, the run-up via the boat was nice, but now that I'm in a new map and checking the map, there's really no connectivity to the main area so now I'm worried about leveling opportunities here. You said the game gets super linear at this point? Because I still had quests to do, but I put them aside due to the blockaids STILL going on, but I got the car fully upgraded to the D-type (not the F-type which apparently requires assaulting the bases). I wanted to get to Altissa to get the 3xEXP hotel finally unlocked, so whenever the Cid boat blockaid is over, I might go back and get as much EXP and Gil possible before hitting the 3x Hotel, since I'm like 43-45 in Level starting Chapter 8 of 15.

You can go back and forth at any time using Umbra at the hotels. It's weird but basically there's a whole game from start to finish back on Lucis continent and then from Altissia on it's just this linear story rush 5-10 hour run to the ending. Just feels totally separate from the main game.

[Bebpo]

Bebs, are you gonna do the Pithioss Ruins? That dungeon was really strange, it turns the game into some strange puzzle platformer... but super frustrating without a guide.

At first I was going to joke that the hardest part of the dungeon was landing the damn airplane without exploding to get there. Probably took me like 4-5 tries and googled it on how the fuck you actually land. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to have the airship landing be one of the most difficult actions in the game and it instant game overs you if you mess up was either really trolling or needs to be fucking fired.

Then 3 hours later I done with Pitioss ruins or whatever it's called. Feels like I played an entire indie platforming game from start to finish jeez. I was kinda of dreading it since the controls in FFXV aren't exactly tight, but...I kinda liked it. Outside of Noctis being a bit slippery when he moves so he can slide a step and his forward roll on falling after a certain point, the controls are actually pretty solid and my hands were sweating but I was surprised how often I'd make all the jumps on my first try.

The main issue I have with the dungeon is there are parts where you can't see shit and it's extremely unclear where the fuck you're supposed to go next. It's really frustrating to do like 3-4 mins of tight platforming to get to a spot where you can't see anything and just trial & error with a lot of deaths. I thought the worst was the statue in the picture above where suddenly you have to jump on the statue's chest even though there's nothing indicating that and if you try to jump on the statue at any other point in that area you just slide right off and fall to your death.

Also the camera on those weird 45 degree slopes can suck.

It's a bit unfortunate there's some jank stuff like that because otherwise the checkpointing is fair and some of the layouts are really well designed like that moving skull spikes rolling room you traverse. The spinning sphere was interesting too and some other bits. Overall it's still pretty good, but it makes sense they didn't put this in the main game because it's way too hardcore and people would give up on the game 

Anyhow, did all the rest of the quests, Adamantoise, Insomnia Ruins/Omega, etc... I didn't bother finishing the Insomnia Ruins quests because holy crap are they terrible absolute filler in a large map with no chocobo transportation. Also didn't finish the rainbow frogs final quest because didn't want to bother using a guide to just go grab them all for a ribbon. Already got a ribbon from a lvl.99 hunt and used the ribbon for some of the superbosses.

Speaking of superbosses, all the lvl.99-120 stuff sucks. Adamantoise is zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Everything lvl.99 and above follows the same pattern: everything one shots you and they have tons of HP so you just spam healing items and my strategy was to just save up Armitage and go into the royal edition Armitage Unleashed mode and do the lvl.3 tech bar super move that has limit break and does like 50-100k damage. Then just save up tech bar and armitage bar again and repeat, repeat. zzz.

I beat one of the Menace Under Lucis dungeons. Was ok but pretty dull dungeon crawler, and if you're overleveled and geared by that point from everything else, the enemy rooms are zzz and the loot isn't anything you need. I'm good on the rest of them.

So basically finished everything in the main game. Around 62 hours. Will do Episode Prompto, Ignis, Ardyn next and then done!

[tiesto]

Stro, if you're going for Dreamcast, you should give the new Napple Tale english translation a try and also Elemental Gimmick Gear.

[Beezy]

Ikaruga

  surely this game is literally impossible to beat without cheats on DC or infinite quarters at an arcade. Absolute bullet hell

git gud

[thisismyusername]

Ikaruga

  surely this game is literally impossible to beat without cheats on DC or infinite quarters at an arcade. Absolute bullet hell

Do note the Steam and X-box 360 version is reversed.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Sadly, Treasure is dead so we'll never get Radiant Silvergun Steam. :'(

[close]

The final form for Armiger thing they added it pretty cool, too bad it takes up an accessory slot. Can we talk about how wtf the sphere AP grid points are? I'm lvl.88, at this point I've done almost everything in the game, just have a handful left + the menace dungeons, and I haven't bought a single one of those 333/666/999 AP skills. Like how the fuck are you supposed to get those and clear out the grid other than just grinding or driving around for 200+ hours. That stuff is way way too grindy which is weird because if it wasn't for trying to complete the AP grid and maybe complete the fishing compendium, I feel you should be able to 100% completion the game in like 60-70 hours which is more than reasonable.

https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Ascension_(Final_Fantasy_XV)

Exploration: Basically get the 2AP/3AP as soon as possible and you'll basically be making 2-3 AP for EVERYTHING you do.

Yeah, I got most of the exploration nodes first because of the cumulative add. That being said the 1AP here and there doesn't get you anywhere near 18,000.

Googling, apparently everyone says it's a grind and not worth it for any of the nodes and most people do it with a shield grind that gets about 800AP / hour.

Yeah, supposedly, if you login on the 14th (and a few other days) there's an Online Quest that you can grind for 50AP a pop all day that day so long as you are online in Square's servers.

Might be faster than the slower "whistle/summon monsters" method that gives 1AP for one-shotting a level 2 enemy, which got nerfed supposedly. It's still a grind either way.

I just got to Altissa now, the run-up via the boat was nice, but now that I'm in a new map and checking the map, there's really no connectivity to the main area so now I'm worried about leveling opportunities here. You said the game gets super linear at this point? Because I still had quests to do, but I put them aside due to the blockaids STILL going on, but I got the car fully upgraded to the D-type (not the F-type which apparently requires assaulting the bases). I wanted to get to Altissa to get the 3xEXP hotel finally unlocked, so whenever the Cid boat blockaid is over, I might go back and get as much EXP and Gil possible before hitting the 3x Hotel, since I'm like 43-45 in Level starting Chapter 8 of 15.

You can go back and forth at any time using Umbra at the hotels. It's weird but basically there's a whole game from start to finish back on Lucis continent and then from Altissia on it's just this linear story rush 5-10 hour run to the ending. Just feels totally separate from the main game.

I started the hunts, found Regis' forth member (which is an island bar under the rest of the city, weirdly. No walking connection really?), and went back to Lucis to finish side-quests now that I have the 3xEXP hotel unlocked (right?) so I'm going to clear those, do some hunts, etc. before finishing the game since you say it's linear now.

[thisismyusername]

(Image removed from quote.)


House of the Dead 2's voice acting


Made me think that instead of the unplayable Resident Evil knock off Hail To the King, Evil Dead that gen should have been a light gun game with a boom stick and non stop Bruce Campbell quips

The Japanese are insane. IIRC that's the original version, though. Like I said: the entire game was reversed from the Arcade/Dreamcast release on the X-box 360/PC, Steam release.

[Great Rumbler]

Ikaruga

  surely this game is literally impossible to beat without cheats on DC or infinite quarters at an arcade. Absolute bullet hell

Play Bangai-O instead.

[Great Rumbler]

Ikaruga

  surely this game is literally impossible to beat without cheats on DC or infinite quarters at an arcade. Absolute bullet hell

Play Bangai-O instead.

I did but I didn't like the controls and so gave up on it pretty quickly

It would be loads better with two analog sticks, I agree. Still fun, though.

[Bebpo]

Ikaruga

  surely this game is literally impossible to beat without cheats on DC or infinite quarters at an arcade. Absolute bullet hell

Play Bangai-O instead.

I did but I didn't like the controls and so gave up on it pretty quickly

Bangai-O is one of the coolest games ever.

It’s puzzle game in the guise of a bullet hell shmup.
It’s one of the top Treasure classics and has been built into the gaming culture.
I still see it’s influence and nods to it here & there.

Stick with it.

[Mr Gilhaney]

goodbye csgo. it was nice, but we cant be friends anymore.

[BisMarckie]

Escape from Tarkov is the game for you breh.

[Mr Gilhaney]

i dont need that euro jank in my life.

[thisismyusername]

30,000 gil for the Luxery Suite that only unlocks 9 chapters in.

90,000 x 3 = 270000 exp.

Level 49 to 60 (the rest of the boy ban in 58) in one go.

Max cap is apparently 120 which requires 10,000,000 EXP?

But I just finished tonight the 80 quests achievement, so now I think I'm going to focus on the story and hunts instead of more of these since it seems like the quest givers never stop giving me quests.

[tiesto]

The announcement of the Alex Kidd in Miracle World remake had me go and play through Alex Kidd in High Tech World. What a shite game. It starts out in a Japanese castle (this was a reskin of some game based on an anime called Anmitsu Hime) and you have to collect 8 pieces of a map to an arcade. Some of the pieces are easy to find, some are completely inane... and there are a lot of instakills. So if you get 7 of the 8 pieces of the map, but walk down the wrong stairs and collapse and die, you'll have to restart it... you can also try on a piece of samurai armor and get stuck in it and get a game over. After escaping the castle, you get a password, and then there's a really terrible sidescrolling part, your character has a huge hitbox, cannot duck, and ninjas are flying around everywhere throwing shuriken at you. Then you go to a little village, which also has some game overs (such as if you pick up a gun and try smuggling it through the checkpoint). To get past here, you have to go to a little bamboo shrine and walk over and pray 100 times to get the passport. Then there's another shitty sidescrolling part. You can restart from the sidescrolling parts if you die, but you only get a password for the first one... and if you let the controller idle on the 'new game/resume game' screen it'll go back to the title screen. I very nearly beat the final sidescrolling part, left it idle to grab a beer, and then found out I couldn't continue, I had to put in the password to go back to the first sidescrolling part, beat that again, and then do the stupid praying 100 times part again. So many terrible design decisions here. But I managed to beat it at least, heh.

Dr. Sparkle's coverage of the game:

[Bebpo]

30,000 gil for the Luxery Suite that only unlocks 9 chapters in.

90,000 x 3 = 270000 exp.

Level 49 to 60 (the rest of the boy ban in 58) in one go.

Max cap is apparently 120 which requires 10,000,000 EXP?

But I just finished tonight the 80 quests achievement, so now I think I'm going to focus on the story and hunts instead of more of these since it seems like the quest givers never stop giving me quests.

Yeah, the system of each NPC having just a lists of quests fully available from the start so everytime you turn one in you just get a new one is very badly designed from a psychological perspective and some designer really fucked up there. It gives the feeling that every quest you do is pointless and it never ends. No sense of progression. They should have at least locked the quests behind different chapters so the next quest won't show until a little later.

The game has some severely bad design choices that show some of these developers in charge of them are not good at their jobs.

[thisismyusername]

Apparently I have the last of the Hammerhead's diner chef's quests listed, but it requires me to be Rank 4.

The others are like "Ok, am I finished?" and then a yellow checkmark appears and I'm like "goddamn it, there's ANOTHER one?" I mean I'm leveling up at a good clip from these, but MY GOD THERE ARE TOO MANY SIDEQUESTS in Lucis.

OH MY GOD, THEY KEPT ADDING QUESTS: https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Quest_(Final_Fantasy_XV)/Sidequests#:~:text=Sidequests%20are%20optional%20quests%20in,Tapestry%20after%2080%20completed%20quests.

So many "after patch X.XX" quests. WTF.

[Bebpo]

hahahahaha, no wonder there are so many sidequests

[thisismyusername]

Looking at the list, there's even photo opportunities on the boat once you're able to drive it around manually (or just fast travel between the two maps). I didn't even know that was possible. I just thought it was for like fishing or something so I skipped over it.

I like the photo opportunities and it's neat seeing the ones in that wiki page with different poses than the ones I've gotten, but I don't like them enough to try to collect like 1million EXP to 3x that.

I think I'm going to do like you and finish the game tomorrow by rushing the main story and maybe clean up the achievements after the DLC episodes and Comrads.

Speaking of Comrads:

https://www.reddit.com/r/FFXV/comments/fsqhky/news_termination_of_online_content_for_ffxv/

Oh, ouch. Apparently the servers are going, so I might as well finish the main story and then play around with the Avatar system to see that (since they introduced it early but I didn't like not being Noctis during the story) before it goes with the picture system.

[Bebpo]

I tried to watch a cutscene collection of Comrades on youtube but the only one I found gave up like 15 missions in

Ended up just skimming around a video walkthrough of the whole 60-70 hour game in like 30 mins. Didn't make a lot of sense or really matter but I enjoyed seeing the base city and NPCs in the beginning and the final boss fight looked ok.

[Bebpo]

Got about halfway through Ep Prompto. It's fun, almost feels like I'm playing an last gen JPN tps.




Also Aranea. At first I thought she was just a goofy side antagonist anime style with a terrible outfit, but by the end of the game and in this side stuff, she's actually a pretty good character. She's basically a way better Lightning. If FFXIII had her as the lead it'd be so much better. Aranea has that confident badass they were going for with Lightning but without the emotional coldness silent angsty character Lightning was.

Too bad the episode Aranea was one of the canned season 2 DLCs. She'd probably also be fun to play as since she's a dragoon.

[Bebpo]

Couldn't sleep, so decided to start checking out stuff in the 1,500 itch.io bundle.



Spent an hour playing One Night Stand. Real short choice narrative of waking up after a one night stand and having awkward conversation. Depending on what you do and say leads to lots of different outcomes, which reminded me of Missed Messages. It's nicely rotoscoped, which is always cool and gives the game kind of a dreamlike blur feel. The only thing I didn't like was narrative branching felt pretty rigid and it's basically just save/reloading to figure out the different ending paths. I like how if you play a bunch of the paths you can piece together the whole secret story of what really happened.

Will be interested in checking out the dev's next game.

[porkbun]

House of the Dead 2's voice acting


Made me think that instead of the unplayable Resident Evil knock off Hail To the King, Evil Dead that gen should have been a light gun game with a boom stick and non stop Bruce Campbell quips

"Suffer like G did."  Wasn't there a mode that uses the fishing controller?

I gotta go back and play some DC games.  Zombie Revenge was awesome.  You got Robert Rodriguez Desperado dual machine gun guitar cases as a powerup.

The announcement of the Alex Kidd in Miracle World remake had me go and play through Alex Kidd in High Tech World. What a shite game. It starts out in a Japanese castle (this was a reskin of some game based on an anime called Anmitsu Hime) and you have to collect 8 pieces of a map to an arcade. Some of the pieces are easy to find, some are completely inane... and there are a lot of instakills. So if you get 7 of the 8 pieces of the map, but walk down the wrong stairs and collapse and die, you'll have to restart it... you can also try on a piece of samurai armor and get stuck in it and get a game over. After escaping the castle, you get a password, and then there's a really terrible sidescrolling part, your character has a huge hitbox, cannot duck, and ninjas are flying around everywhere throwing shuriken at you. Then you go to a little village, which also has some game overs (such as if you pick up a gun and try smuggling it through the checkpoint). To get past here, you have to go to a little bamboo shrine and walk over and pray 100 times to get the passport. Then there's another shitty sidescrolling part. You can restart from the sidescrolling parts if you die, but you only get a password for the first one... and if you let the controller idle on the 'new game/resume game' screen it'll go back to the title screen. I very nearly beat the final sidescrolling part, left it idle to grab a beer, and then found out I couldn't continue, I had to put in the password to go back to the first sidescrolling part, beat that again, and then do the stupid praying 100 times part again. So many terrible design decisions here. But I managed to beat it at least, heh.

I love the SMS (I was the lonely nerd in junior high that had one) but the Alex Kidd games suck.  The only decent one is Miracle World and even that has a lot of jank and cheapness.

[Mr Gilhaney]

so close that i can taste it




may allah please give me level 10, so i can finally quit cs:go forever

[Bebpo]

FFXV - Finished Episode Prompto. Was a fun Binary Domain lite. Waves went on a little long but otherwise enjoyed the action. I wish the final boss was the Diamond Weapon though. They have all these notes talking about the Diamond Weapon and then you fight a monkey and a worm.

[Bebpo]

Episode Ignis seems neat, I like his combat, feels good and better than the other characters and the gameplay with the hookshot feels like Assassin's Creed lite.

*edit* actually it's musou
and the camera can't track the lightning blade teleporting 

[MMaRsu]

I've given up on Headhunter. The jank was too much. Especially the motorcycle driving. The fuck. It's a shame because I liked the Robocop x Demolition Man/Blade Runner kind of vibe it had, but the game play is MGS cross with Resident Evil and bad versions of both, with added terrible driving.

I thought Headhunter looked so goddamn cool at the time on Dreamcast, above most other games graphically.

Ofcourse I was wrong

[thisismyusername]

Holy hell. This dungeon for the Royal Greatsword.

Having to go down and figure out a specific spot to battle a dragon in an enclosed area.

At least I have one more Royal Arm  to get before I finish 15's main quest.

[Nintex]

Super Mario Odyssey

Walked around Seaside Kingdom collecting moons with my Sunshine get-up and did a quick visit to New Donk City 

[thisismyusername]

I feel this everytime I have to pick-up something:

[Bebpo]

Yessssssss

It's not even them being the same button but a lag between when it says you can press X to pick up and when you can actually do it so you jump if you hit it too early.
Surprised they never patched that. It's obvious as hell to anyone that plays the game for an hour or two. Getting on the chocobo is always dumb like that.

[El Babua]

Persona 5 Royal

Just finished the extra palace. Wow. This is elevated the base game beyond my wildest expectations. The third semester did a proper reexamination of what the vanilla game was clumsily trying to say and adds way more meaning (and insignificance) towards how the characters end up.

The two new big characters are actually way more nuanced than the one dimensional anime caricatures we got as the main villains and half the confidants in the base game, and their endgame character development can be interpreted in multiple ways.  Akechi is also grafted up into that tier, though I feel his new placement does elicit too much of a "I'm Sorry" from Fatlus.

The entire third semester climactic sequence was sick, and had the best three songs in all of Persona 5 back to back to back

[Bebpo]

FFXV - Finished Episode Ignis. Shortest of the bunch but probably should've been in the main game.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Would make Kingsglaive serve more of a point of build up if Ignis puts on the ring at a pivotal moment, though I'm still annoyed that nobody sees the old kings when they put on the ring in FFXV compared to Kingsglaive.

[close]

Anyhow verse 2 was whatever because it didn't seem to bring any new information or change anything...until the ending. Which essentially just confirms that FFXV's main game is a good 8/10 perfectly fine quality rpg that's stuck with a bad end route only as the main scenario. While it has a ton of issues, the game that's there is mostly good, fun to play, nice little world, things to do, people to talk to, lots of dungeons which are decent mazes, chocobos and cool summons, giant monster hunts. It's just the ending route is shit.

(FFVIIr ending spoilers below as well as FFXV ending spoilers)

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Like the ending route is just everyone following their pre-determined fates and dying one after another to get to the end goal to bring light back and start again for the small remainder of the world.

In like every rpg ever where there is a FATE and DESTINY telling people what they must do...the whole point is that the heroes say fuck that and we're going to carve our own path and kill god and fate. I mean THEY JUST DID THAT IN FFVIIr!

There's no narrative satisfaction in the characters just doing nothing.

The true end route of FFXV if it was a normal fucking rpg would've been that Noctis finds out what's really going on and tells the Crystal and Bahamut and the gods to fuck off and he's going to do things his own way. Maybe he'd shatter the crystal or something and then kill Ardyn and basically create a new godless world or something. That's your typical rpg. It's cliche, but hey it works.

Now maybe FFXV is trying to be all hipster and be a deconstruction of that defying fate in every rpg cliche and is like "what about if there was a game where everyone just gave up and followed their fate killing themselves in the path?",
but if that's what they were trying to do it sure makes for a shitty fucking story.

The end stuff in Verse 2 made a lot of sense. Like Ravius was probably not supposed to die as a dumb mutant boss. Because otherwise what is the point of killing Lunafreya if the remaining family member of their line doesn't carry her place forward as the new oracle supporting Noctis. I can't tell if they were trying to pull another FF7 Aerith moment for a new generation with Lunafreya, it didn't really work either way and she just ended up being a non-character, which was fine if her story was just going to continue through Ravius. Just having him stay alive and helping out sure would've made a big difference, although yeah having Noctis not just go kill himself would be nice too.

I'm all for characters dying at the end of their stories, but it doesn't work here like it has in previous FF games because it just feels completely unearned in this game. Honestly the only good thing to come out of FFXV's Noctis death ending is the post-ending campfire scene where Noctis breaksdown because he's scared of walking to his death. That's a nice human scene and it makes sense they ended the game on it, but otherwise that whole end route fucking sucks.

It's also pretty funny playing through the DLC episodes how they are trying to fill in some of the missing bits like "what happened to those 2 other generals on the empire side that we never saw again [especially the Hojo guy]" although they didn't really do much in the DLC other than die so it didn't really add anything.

[close]

Ok, time to start Ardyn.

Oh and the music in these DLC episodes is greaaat. Ignis had a lot of epic stuff.

*edit* Actually ended up playing 45 mins of Comrades while waiting for Ardyn to download. It's ok, but seems pretty grindy and just a weaker, less flashy, monster hunter. I gotta say this engine is really good though. All the post-game stuff like the DLC episodes and Comrades looks and runs great on PC. The more realistic color tone of Comrades is interesting, looks like a totally different game.

[Positive Touch]

i mean that's kind of the point of FFXV's story, as most everyone has the same basic arc. they struggle with and eventually accept that they have a role to play in society, and they must do it for everyone's benefit no matter how much it hurts them. thought it was a more mature and still very japanese take on growing up.

[Nintex]

Some more Super Mario Odyssey.

The end game of 3D Super Mario games is just r i d i c u lo u s

They could've hammered out 2 sequels with all the hidden and optional stuff alone.

[Beezy]

Some more Super Mario Odyssey.

The end game of 3D Super Mario games is just r i d i c u lo u s

They could've hammered out 2 sequels with all the hidden and optional stuff alone.

I don't know if I'll ever do everything in Odyssey lol. Amazing game though. It makes me wanna finally play through the Galaxy games and Mario 64. Until Odyssey, Sunshine was the only 3D Mario that I beat.

[Bebpo]

i mean that's kind of the point of FFXV's story, as most everyone has the same basic arc. they struggle with and eventually accept that they have a role to play in society, and they must do it for everyone's benefit no matter how much it hurts them. thought it was a more mature and still very japanese take on growing up.

You're right in that it's sort of a representation of Japan's "for the good of the whole, not the individual", but it's taken to such an extreme that it really feels nihilistic, that lots of people know what is coming, but still just march on to do their duty without even trying. You never even see anyone struggle with it outside the final post-credit scene in the game. It just makes the story feel like it's about a bunch of robots and not human beings.

Also when you're call up Umbra and go back and clear up the post-game/side stuff it's such a night and day contrast. The fishing & photograph adventures of captain Noctis and his merry crew do not represent the characters in the end route. They're like completely different people in a completely different game. Out of any game there was to do that story in the end route, FFXV was not that game based on the game & story they built coming before it. Which feels to me like it's the fingerprints of two very different people/teams making the game which makes sense in the Nomura team -> Tabata team transition. And when you look at like, Type-0's storytelling & ending, FFXV's end route feels extremely similar so it feels like Tabata 100%. Crisis Core was at least written by Nojima who I think has always been the best writer at SE in the 2000s beyond era (and who would've been the writer for Versus  :'()

Like I said, I'm glad Tabata's gone and SE can stick to better directors. I have a feeling whatever game his new studio does while be very similar to Type 0 and FFXV's end route of just being bleak and nihilistic.

[Positive Touch]

spoiler (click to show/hide)

i wouldn't say it's nihilistic because it's ultimately for a purpose. the gods gave noctis' and luna's bloodlines power back in the day as thanks for beating the plague, and now that it's come back the gods are back to collect on their investment. and ultimately it's very few story characters that end up dead. luna, ravus, regis, and nyx all give up their lives so noct can succeed, and noct knows that he can't let their sacrifices go to waste especially since his death literally means saving the world.

the tonal shift between the open world and the rest of the game i get, because honestly how many people would want to play a game where they know from the start the main character has to be sacrificed? instead they created a game filled with lots of small interactions between the boys so the player can feel the closeness with them, and then the payoff at the end shows that they are able to complete their mission, despite the high cost, solely because they have such a strong bond with each other.

i dunno, FF is a series where depression is always at least in the margins, so having a bittersweet ending doesn't feel out of character and i still enjoyed it. haven't played type-0 so i can't comment on that.

[close]

[Bebpo]

FFXV - finished Episode Ardyn. That was pretty awesome. The main map reminded me a lot of Infamous Last Light where you're zipping around a city taking out repetitive but fun control points. It's like LL mixed with musou combat, especially some of the waves at the end. And it works! It felt like playing a throwback PS2/PS3 action game and was a lot of fun.

Really makes me wonder what the hell is taking SE so long to approve Koei Tecmo/Omega Force from doing an FF musou. If nothing else, Ep Ardyn proves an FF musou can be exciting and fun and have giant summons and crazy battles and stuff with simplistic combat.

Also the team apparently doesn't know how QTEs work lol I was too busy taking a screenshot when the final QTE popped up at the end of the last boss and I guess I didn't hit it in time and it gave me a game over and I had to redo the entire final boss fight 

Story-wise it was fine for being exciting and fun and filling in Ardyn a bit...but I don't think it worked narrative-wise. The transition from good guy Ardyn in the lab to Ifrit breaks free and suddenly he LET'S MURDER THEM ALL Ardyn was way too quick. I mean they have one throwaway line that everytime he killed someone and absorbed their memories he started changing bit by bit until there was nothing left of the old Ardyn and I guess you'll just have to take that as an explanation of his 180 change in character.

Also the ending is kinda a let down, there doesn't seem to be any difference in outcome between the two choices? (go w/fate, or fight against fate). I kinda expected the latter would be like the Ignis Verse 2 where it would be another what if scenario of things playing out differently.

And wait if Ep Ardyn is canon, why is there no mention of him attacking Lucis and almost killing Regis and Ifrit destroying a lot of Lucis anywhere in FFXV? I mean...that's kind of a major thing you would expect to be in the datalog.
Waaaait, Regis meets Ardyn in Kingsglaive, so yeah Ep Ardyn can't be canon. Weird that it's an alternate universe take but still has the same outcome?

The music by Kenji Hiramatsu was really good.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

i wouldn't say it's nihilistic because it's ultimately for a purpose. the gods gave noctis' and luna's bloodlines power back in the day as thanks for beating the plague, and now that it's come back the gods are back to collect on their investment. and ultimately it's very few story characters that end up dead. luna, ravus, regis, and nyx all give up their lives so noct can succeed, and noct knows that he can't let their sacrifices go to waste especially since his death literally means saving the world.

the tonal shift between the open world and the rest of the game i get, because honestly how many people would want to play a game where they know from the start the main character has to be sacrificed? instead they created a game filled with lots of small interactions between the boys so the player can feel the closeness with them, and then the payoff at the end shows that they are able to complete their mission, despite the high cost, solely because they have such a strong bond with each other.

i dunno, FF is a series where depression is always at least in the margins, so having a bittersweet ending doesn't feel out of character and i still enjoyed it. haven't played type-0 so i can't comment on that.

[close]

I get where you're coming from but I still don't agree/like it. Also the first half doesn't have to be depressing, but the mood should be closer to FFT seriousness if they were going for that. Hell FF13 is more serious in tone than FF15.
But I think the tone of FF15 is great and it's the end route that should've been changed.


Finally, after finishing Episode Ardyn the story makes it clear as fuck at this point

spoiler (click to show/hide)

That Bahamut is the main villain (or the Crystal and Bahamut is just the voice of the crystal)

Which continues to make it baffling that Bahamut wasn't the final boss of the game. So.weird.

[close]

I plan on skimming the English version of the novel that finally comes out in a week since it picks up from Episode Ardyn and covers the rest of the cancelled eps. Not super interested, but I wonder if that's the direction it ends up going.

[thisismyusername]

I'm halfway through Comrades, and apparently they didn't update it too much since there's a strong barrier/wall near where the Hammerhead and Insomnia would be. You go down this long route (with no criss-crossing paths) to the Boat Marina that you first go to for the wedding and it's 

A lot of grinding for Kilowatts to get there, and then doing some more grinding on Urgent Missions to unlock them.

The concept is alright, but without other players it's really dismal to play, but I want to finish unlocking the nodes and all that and see the ending before doing Ardyn.

I did finish Gladio, Prompto, and Ignis' episodes: I liked Ignis' hookshot, turned Venice/Altissa into Assassin's Creed. Gladio's was the weakest of the three, but it was the first to come out. Which is a shame as Gladio is best boy.

Prompto's was... ok... it wasn't good, nor bad. It was just there. I couldn't figure out what the purpose of the weak pistol was for beyond "get closer to melee, fire potshots while getting away to use the SMG/RPG/Sniper on the enemy."