Final Fantasy XV Official Thread of HD Towns and Bromantic Adventures

[nachobro]

this game is magical! i'm gonna be up all night playing it

also queen, there's a ps4 combo disc with 14 and Heavensward: https://www.amazon.com/FINAL-FANTASY-XIV-Heavensward-PlayStation-4/dp/B00UO4NKA4?th=1

[mormapope]

Something that really really needs to be added or unlocked down the road is hard mode and an even harder mode. I also hope the DLC is expansion sized instead of being quest packs, even those would be nice to get eventually though.

[a slime appears]

The game is cool, I'm enjoying it. Some random thoughts:

• Environment design is pretty shitty. Read Dead Redemption, a SIX YEAR OLD GAME, has better artistry and technical skill than this. It's amateur hour over in Japan.
• It's a complete narrative failure that the player has to watch a shit movie followed by a terrible internet cartoon to understand just what the fuck is going on at the beginning of the game.

[Positive Touch]

Kingsglaive is cool tho

[a slime appears]

Kingsglaive is cool tho

Kingsglaive was complete shit. Still better than Spirits Within and Advent Children though!

For people who haven't indulged in four hours of animated garbage (movie+cartoon) just read this link and you're good: http://www.zam.com/article/1253/what-the-hell-is-happening-at-the-start-of-ffxv

[demi]

Amazon sent me another batch of Road Trip DLC, about to be super rich

[Joe Molotov]

The game is cool, I'm enjoying it. Some random thoughts:

• Environment design is pretty shitty. Read Dead Redemption, a SIX YEAR OLD GAME, has better artistry and technical skill than this. It's amateur hour over in Japan.
• It's a complete narrative failure that the player has to watch a shit movie followed by a terrible internet cartoon to understand just what the fuck is going on at the beginning of the game.

Why you mad bro?

[archnemesis]

While Christmas shopping, I accidentally ended up picking up the deluxe version (with Kingsglaive on Blu-ray included) for myself.

[Great Rumbler]

• It's a complete narrative failure that the player has to watch a shit movie followed by a terrible internet cartoon to understand just what the fuck is going on at the beginning of the game.

I definitely get that the early part of the game is pretty bare on the details. On the other hand, so many RPGs get so bogged down in trying to tell you every single detail it thinks you want to know that the first few hours are a slog of explanatory cutscenes. Just drop me into some actual gameplay and I'll piece together enough of the essentials on my own.

[demi]

They incorporate some Kingsglaive scenes at the end of Chapter 1 (I assume this is what the patch did).

So Kingsglaive takes place during Chapter 1, while you're off having a big GAY road trip, Insomnia and Lucis are getting their ass kicked

[Great Rumbler]

Square Enix announced on Thursday that its Final Fantasy XV PlayStation 4 and Xbox One game sold more than 5 million copies on its first day when it went on sale worldwide on Tuesday. The number includes download sales and shipments of the game's first edition. This is the fastest record for Square Enix's Final Fantasy franchise.

[tiesto]

Square Enix announced on Thursday that its Final Fantasy XV PlayStation 4 and Xbox One game sold more than 5 million copies on its first day when it went on sale worldwide on Tuesday. The number includes download sales and shipments of the game's first edition. This is the fastest record for Square Enix's Final Fantasy franchise.

Wasn't people saying this was gonna bomb?

Anyways, excellent news for fans of Japanese games and RPGs.

[Himu]

Yes! I'm really happy with those sales. I'm hoping it outsells XIII. If it sells a lot Tabata hinted that certain people (Toriyama, Daisuke) might be fired I think? 

Also, watch Brotherhood. It's short, and it'll really mak you like the characters. Prompto's episode in particular is great.

The game is cool, I'm enjoying it. Some random thoughts:

• Environment design is pretty shitty. Read Dead Redemption, a SIX YEAR OLD GAME, has better artistry and technical skill than this. It's amateur hour over in Japan.
• It's a complete narrative failure that the player has to watch a shit movie followed by a terrible internet cartoon to understand just what the fuck is going on at the beginning of the game.

Have you reached Duscae yet? Keep playing. I disagree highly. I think you mention RDR because you're still in the desert area. Duscae, especially the road to Lestellum has better artistry than RDR.

Nachobro thanks for the link!

[Himu]

Apparently that's 5m shipped not sold. I hope they can sell that.

[tiesto]

Well, I was at the local Target and Best Buy looking for the guide and there were pretty slim pickins for the game... like Target had a single Deluxe for PS4, a single Deluxe for Bone, and a handful of the regular editions. Ditto for BB. Guide was sold out at many of the local Gamestops too.

Did manage to score some of that Jones Soda at Target and the cute cashier was like "whoa, they got more in stock? I wanted to get one last night!". Should have played into that and struck up a convo

[Stoney Mason]

The game is cool, I'm enjoying it. Some random thoughts:

• Environment design is pretty shitty. Read Dead Redemption, a SIX YEAR OLD GAME, has better artistry and technical skill than this. It's amateur hour over in Japan.
• It's a complete narrative failure that the player has to watch a shit movie followed by a terrible internet cartoon to understand just what the fuck is going on at the beginning of the game.

There are elements of the game that look nice but there are equally elements of the game that look kind of shitty. And in general I think the story and the dialogue are kind of awful. I think the world building elements and immersion are kind of nice though which are separate things.  It's a testament to the gameplay and the variety of activities and quests that I find the game enjoyable when I don't really care about the characters or the stories in a JRPG. 

[demi]

So do you have to camp outdoors specifically in order to get Ignis to cook?

Also has anyone found the upgrades for Drain Lance 3 and Engine Blade 3? I think it was "Couerl Whiskers" and "Glass Gemstone"

[Stoney Mason]

So do you have to camp outdoors specifically in order to get Ignis to cook?

I believe so. That and I guess if you are stuck out late at night and not near a sleeping area. I found I had to go out of my way to camp to level him up since I was always near a town.

[Himu]

More specifically you need to camp out at a camp ground place with the glyphs and stuff.

[Positive Touch]

I found a courel outside the first dungeon at night. killed half my party in a single swipe. don't think that I'll be getting that upgrade any time soon

[Himu]

The game is cool, I'm enjoying it. Some random thoughts:

• Environment design is pretty shitty. Read Dead Redemption, a SIX YEAR OLD GAME, has better artistry and technical skill than this. It's amateur hour over in Japan.
• It's a complete narrative failure that the player has to watch a shit movie followed by a terrible internet cartoon to understand just what the fuck is going on at the beginning of the game.

There are elements of the game that look nice but there are equally elements of the game that look kind of shitty. And in general I think the story and the dialogue are kind of awful. I think the world building elements and immersion are kind of nice though which are separate things.  It's a testament to the gameplay and the variety of activities and quests that I find the game enjoyable when I don't really care about the characters or the stories in a JRPG.

I find this surprising because the reason I enjoy the game most are the characters and how their personalities shine during quests. I just did a quest where I had to photograph a chocobo and while the quest was kinda fun in itself it was really simple. What I got out of it was the banter between the characters. I'm not finding this variety you're talking about but I don't really care about the lack of variety because of the characters and how they interact with each other. So interesting how we can like it for completely different reasons.

I also think immersion could be better. I think the art design is there but something feels off. It's probably the fact that I miss talking to npcs. You don't talk to npcs unless they're quest givers for the most part though - you generally just listen in. I think npcs are a huge part of making an rpg location feel like a location. I don't really know any of the NPC's stories. It feels generated. In the old days, you'd have NPC's that were nameless generally, but still had stories even if it's just one line of text. Through multiple npcs and multiple lines of text you gain insight into the location. You start building an idea. Npcs are location exposition basically that help fill out the world with small details of how its citizenry lives. But so far FFXV has no such thing. Problem with this is that this requires a use of far less npcs than what FFXV is going for. Being an open world the game needs lots of npcs to fill a location in. But they don't seem placed with any real care other than immersion. I think FFXII handled this better. There were still non essential npcs. So you'd have their story evolve along side the player's story progression. Seems weird to talk about but this lack of npc interaction is fine for something like GTA but not suitable for an rpg. For example, the crown city got turned into rubble and no one in this world gives a shit. No one cares about what's going to happen under Empire rule. It's weird. In a traditional jrpg NPC's would be talking about their hopes and fears of the new order or maybe the history of their town, but instead we get "heard your wife got promoted" or whatever. My 2c.

So far the best immersion thing is the radio.

[Himu]

Watch this guys vids it helped me with the combat

[Himu]

Another thing. The game has HD towns but they're really, really small. Like Lestellum is a few alleys and a shop market and that's it. People are comparing this to The Witcher 3 when they should be comparing it to Final Fantash XII. You can fit every city/town in XV so far in the entire city of Rabanestre.

I also find FFXII's exploration to be much better. Although it has zones and not a seamless world.

[Great Rumbler]

Pretty much any RPG is going to come up short when compared to The Witcher 3, regardless of which aspect is being discussed. I'm just glad that FF15 isn't a long, narrow tube.

[Lucretius]

Where's the jump button?  I mean... XIV has a jump button.

[Great Rumbler]

Where's the jump button?  I mean... XIV has a jump button.

X

[demi]

LOL

[Himu]

Pretty much any RPG is going to come up short when compared to The Witcher 3, regardless of which aspect is being discussed. I'm just glad that FF15 isn't a long, narrow tube.

I haven't played the Witcher 3. I'm slowly coming out of being a lapsed game fan the last three years and catching up on games I've missed. I have the goty edition for ps4 tho. TBH this year was the best year for games for me in a long time. Nice to actually enjoy games again. Last generation sucked but I don't wanna get into that here lol.

[Lucretius]

Where's the jump button?  I mean... XIV has a jump button.

X

I haven't played it yet while not stoned on NyQuil. 

[Stoney Mason]

The game is cool, I'm enjoying it. Some random thoughts:

• Environment design is pretty shitty. Read Dead Redemption, a SIX YEAR OLD GAME, has better artistry and technical skill than this. It's amateur hour over in Japan.
• It's a complete narrative failure that the player has to watch a shit movie followed by a terrible internet cartoon to understand just what the fuck is going on at the beginning of the game.

There are elements of the game that look nice but there are equally elements of the game that look kind of shitty. And in general I think the story and the dialogue are kind of awful. I think the world building elements and immersion are kind of nice though which are separate things.  It's a testament to the gameplay and the variety of activities and quests that I find the game enjoyable when I don't really care about the characters or the stories in a JRPG.

I find this surprising because the reason I enjoy the game most are the characters and how their personalities shine during quests. I just did a quest where I had to photograph a chocobo and while the quest was kinda fun in itself it was really simple. What I got out of it was the banter between the characters. I'm not finding this variety you're talking about but I don't really care about the lack of variety because of the characters and how they interact with each other. So interesting how we can like it for completely different reasons.

I also think immersion could be better. I think the art design is there but something feels off. It's probably the fact that I miss talking to npcs. You don't talk to npcs unless they're quest givers for the most part though - you generally just listen in. I think npcs are a huge part of making an rpg location feel like a location. I don't really know any of the NPC's stories. It feels generated. In the old days, you'd have NPC's that were nameless generally, but still had stories even if it's just one line of text. Through multiple npcs and multiple lines of text you gain insight into the location. You start building an idea. Npcs are location exposition basically that help fill out the world with small details of how its citizenry lives. But so far FFXV has no such thing. Problem with this is that this requires a use of far less npcs than what FFXV is going for. Being an open world the game needs lots of npcs to fill a location in. But they don't seem placed with any real care other than immersion. I think FFXII handled this better. There were still non essential npcs. So you'd have their story evolve along side the player's story progression. Seems weird to talk about but this lack of npc interaction is fine for something like GTA but not suitable for an rpg. For example, the crown city got turned into rubble and no one in this world gives a shit. No one cares about what's going to happen under Empire rule. It's weird. In a traditional jrpg NPC's would be talking about their hopes and fears of the new order or maybe the history of their town, but instead we get "heard your wife got promoted" or whatever. My 2c.

So far the best immersion thing is the radio.

There is a good deal of immersion to be found while driving in the world with the car. And meeting people. And just existing in the universe. That is the case with any rpg but the better ones make you feel like the world is a real thing in a way that only a videogame can. I don't really like these characters and the things they say. Some of that is probably because of the voice acting. I debated playing the game in japanese and I probably should have but I decided to give the english a try. While I don't especially like the voice actors, I think just about any english voice actors would have had a hard time salvaging the dialogue.

I think the dialogue might have worked better in the same way as when I'm watching an undubbed anime and I let the voice of the japanese vo actors guide the emotion and the written dialogue functions just as sort of a suggestion. It doesn't help that I can't relate to any of these characters but whatever. I'm not really the target audience for a story like this anymore.

My favorite parts about this game are driving in the car. The combat in that you have the option to wield all these different weapons and stuff. And the quests. Not because of the individual quest quality but just in that the quests function to world build for me. I liked going to go find some car wax so Cindy could install it. Even if the quest wasn't the most interesting thing in the world in and of itself, I liked doing it. A lot of the quests function this way for me. I like to go fish or find recipes or find those photo ops around the world. I've found myself playing the game almost like a Bethesda game where I focus on all the side stuff and leave the main quest for later. Because I kind of just like dicking around in this world. 

[Positive Touch]

i always play Japanese games with Japanese vo. it's like you said: it works to go off the emotion of the actors and the subs work like a guide for what they're saying. it doesn't seem to matter for me how good a dub is; the content, pacing, and body language in scenes was all written in Japanese uh style I guess and always feels off in English.

[Joe Molotov]

i always play Japanese games with Japanese vo. it's like you said: it works to go off the emotion of the actors and the subs work like a guide for what they're saying. it doesn't seem to matter for me how good a dub is; the content, pacing, and body language in scenes was all written in Japanese uh style I guess and always feels off in English.

I started with Japanese VO but I had to switch to English because the subs are so small. I got old-man eyes Sqeenix, come on. :'(

[demi]

I like Ignis the most. Prompto and Gladious share the equal amount of fucking annoyance right now

[Positive Touch]

i always play Japanese games with Japanese vo. it's like you said: it works to go off the emotion of the actors and the subs work like a guide for what they're saying. it doesn't seem to matter for me how good a dub is; the content, pacing, and body language in scenes was all written in Japanese uh style I guess and always feels off in English.

I started with Japanese VO but I had to switch to English because the subs are so small. I got old-man eyes Sqeenix, come on. :'(

ff14 has tiny text too, so i permanently moved my gaming chair a few feet from the tv a long time ago worst part about 15s subs is that they're almost illegible against bright backgrounds.

[SantaC]

So do you have to camp outdoors specifically in order to get Ignis to cook?

Also has anyone found the upgrades for Drain Lance 3 and Engine Blade 3? I think it was "Couerl Whiskers" and "Glass Gemstone"

couerl whiskers can be found just outside the first tomb area by that couerl enemy. (I think it was nighttime)

[Himu]

Stoney I don't disagree the game is immersive. I find it highly immersive especially in car. I'm just making a note I guess.

[a slime appears]

Game is cool.

[Joe Molotov]

Grinding some Justice Monsters 5 for Platinum Bangles.

[SantaC]

Grinding some Justice Monsters 5 for Platinum Bangles.

I got bored after 30 min

[demi]

Justice Monsters is a terrible game, I tried it on iPad before FFXV even came out. Only did it for the achievement.


Where does the Jumbo Flan spawn? I've been running around like a re-re

[demi]

Turns out its a glitch if enemies dont spawn at night. Reloading my save worked fine.

[I'm a Puppy!]

But, does it have flat ground? If so, no sale!

[TakingBackSunday]

So, uh.  For the RPG itch...

This, or Pokemon Sun/Moon?

[Tasty]

So, uh.  For the RPG itch...

This, or Pokemon Sun/Moon?

Depends what you mean by "RPG."

[Himu]

So, uh.  For the RPG itch...

This, or Pokemon Sun/Moon?

so far i greatly prefer this to pokemon sun. i haven't beaten sun yet but then again i've always been a bigger ff fan than pokemon fan

[Positive Touch]

they're so different. ff15 plays more like an evolution of kingdom Hearts, while pokemon changes a lot of stuff up but is still clearly a pokemon game. both are very good tho.

[TakingBackSunday]

FF it is.

[demi]

If you dont play this, how will you ever be able to make lists?

FF15 > FF4 > FF12 > FF5 > FF1 > FF8 > FFT

[SantaC]

FF15 is so great. Are you guys rushing the game? I am taking my sweet time with it doing all hunts and quests. Currently on chapter 3.

[demi]

I bought a King's Tale code for $15 off someone on CAG. Gonna try that out tonight.

[demi]

I'm on Chapter 2. Level 16 - just cleaning up hunts, but I think I hit the ceiling for now so I will be moving on the story to unlock the region beyond the blockade.

[SantaC]

currently level 21. Gaining exp isnt so hard, especially when the sidequests are very generous of it. I got 2K exp just for catching some frogs lol.

[Positive Touch]

told yall bitches square Enix was back

[TakingBackSunday]

aw snap wrath

[I'm a Puppy!]

Beat the game earlier today.

My criticisms are basically some of the bigger set piece fights were a bit underwhelming, the main quest was too short, and the game felt a little rushed in areas.

Despite my criticisms, this is easily my GOTY and one of my favorite FF's ever. I would love a FFXV-2 if that's in the cards. Thankfully you can go back and finish up the sidequests after beating the game, so I'll be doing that from now on. I can't believe I'm saying this: I know find myself hyped for the FF7 remake and I'm looking forward to whatever Square Enix does next.

wha???

[SantaC]

I love auto-driving around for some AP.

[Joe Molotov]

I'm about 7 hours in and I've just barely started Chapter 2. This is good.

[SantaC]

I'm about 7 hours in and I've just barely started Chapter 2. This is good.

not sure why people complain this is short. I am 20 hours into chapter 3.  Every game is short if you ignore sidequests.

[TakingBackSunday]

Is this supposed to feel like Hold O to win?

[Positive Touch]

it gets harder after the first chapter. in ch3 rn and I've had to run from random battles bc they're kicking my ass