Final Fantasy XV (was Versus XIII)

Lulcielid · Feb 7, 2017

Final Fantasy XV Devs Considering How to Support Scorpio; No Plans for Nintendo Switch at the Moment

Shademp · Feb 7, 2017

BIG cup noodles at 0:27. This is now automatically best game DLC. :wacky:

The Twilight Mexican · Feb 7, 2017

Your mom's got a big cup for noodles.

Shademp · Feb 8, 2017

"Houston, we are reaching critical SASS" :monster:

The Twilight Mexican · Feb 8, 2017

Doing some bust-a-base fun, driving the Regalia, and navigating Pitioss while in

King of Light mode:

That shit is hilarious and awesome.
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Thanks to this next glitch, Noctis gets some help while training against Ignis, Prompto and Gladio at camp:

Even with that help, though, the player loses.
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Gentiana forever being creepy:

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This player noticed that on rare occasions, someone other than Ignis will serve up the food at camp:

I love all the little things in this game.
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In lulzy news, there's been a petition on Change.org for a couple of months to petition SE to reboot FFXV and remake Versus XIII "as it was intended to be." The funniest bit is right here:

"More specifically we would like to see Tetsuya Nomura; the former director and Kazunari Nojima; the former story drafter, appointed again in order to achieve the maximum fidelity on the original Versus gameplay and story direction."

lol-ingtoinfinity

lithiumkatana17 · Feb 8, 2017

The Twilight Mexican said:
In lulzy news, there's been a petition on Change.org for a couple of months to petition SE to reboot FFXV and remake Versus XIII "as it was intended to be." The funniest bit is right here:

"More specifically we would like to see Tetsuya Nomura; the former director and Kazunari Nojima; the former story drafter, appointed again in order to achieve the maximum fidelity on the original Versus gameplay and story direction."

lol-ingtoinfinity

Oh god. This is ridiculous on an almost molecular scale. People need to realize that Versus, its story, its characters and its battle system were never fully realized to begin with; the plot was never fully mapped out, the character's backstories were never complete...

It's not like Square finished Versus and decided 'Hey, let's royally screw our fans in the ear and make a completely new game with the same characters and shit but a different story and we'll wait until the ten year mark to actually release it.

Good lord. People need to get the hell over it. I'm getting really sick of this.

Sorry for the rant, I had a 2am shift with an hour of sleep and I think I may be getting sick.

But it's still ridiculous. :monster:

ForceStealer · Feb 8, 2017

The Twilight Mexican said:
In lulzy news, there's been a petition on Change.org for a couple of months to petition SE to reboot FFXV and remake Versus XIII "as it was intended to be." The funniest bit is right here:

"More specifically we would like to see Tetsuya Nomura; the former director and Kazunari Nojima; the former story drafter, appointed again in order to achieve the maximum fidelity on the original Versus gameplay and story direction."

lol-ingtoinfinity

Translation:

Tennyo · Feb 8, 2017

If that isn't the most accurate gif...

Lulcielid · Feb 8, 2017

Dualshockers Mega-Interview with Tabata, first look at avatar creation and future of the game.

lithiumkatana17 · Feb 10, 2017

I'm becoming a hardCor fan, you could say...

The Twilight Mexican · Feb 10, 2017

Insomnia

exploration videos by now, but this one is interesting in how the player takes their time and shows off some of the more obscure fixtures. For instance, at the 2:00-minute mark, we thoroughly explore

a parking deck I wasn't even aware of until now.

There's also some good looks at the river running through the city, some crashed Niflheim warships, and the "edge of the world."

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At 1:15 in this video, we can see Noct riding a chocobo while in

King of Light mode

, then making camp while still in the same state at 4:50, and then fighting the Zu at 9:50. Pretty cool, pretty funny. :monster:

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While this one doesn't exactly show us anything we haven't seen before, it does show us some things in ways we haven't seen them. We get to see

Ignis in the Fodina Caestino Mines with his sight intact, as well as all four bros take an endless fall together.

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These two videos aren't anything we haven't seen before (exploration of the Taelpar Crag on chocobo), but I'm putting them in here because they've got FFVII music, and it's very fitting.

lithiumkatana17 · Feb 10, 2017

So Tres, I was browsing the FF Wikia last night researching stuffs and I saw your translations as one of the sources. I was like 'HEY! I KNOW that guy!' :awesome:

Flare · Feb 11, 2017

Not sure if this video has been posted before by you, Tres, but it showcases exactly how powerful Blizzaga is. :monster:

(I've never actually gotten any of the -aga spells, how do you do it?)

Cthulhu · Feb 11, 2017

Use the right items I guess; things turn to -ara and -aga as the potency reaches a certain number IIRC.

But I don't know, I never liked magic in XV :monster:

Lulcielid · Feb 11, 2017

Final Fantasy XV survey by Square-Enix:
http://www.novacrystallis.com/2017/02/final-fantasy-xv-survey-wants-opinion-post-release-content/

Lulcielid · Feb 13, 2017

http://www.siliconera.com/2017/02/13/final-fantasy-xvs-gdc-2017-trailer-epic-interactive-music/

Interactive music is common in AAA games, but in games like ‘Final Fantasy’ that always have a strong melody line and musical progression, it doesn’t go well in the same way. Square Enix worked to make an intelligent music system called “MAGI”, that allows composers to create music in any tempo or measures and has customized sync points to make it interactive while remaining epic. In this talk, the sound team behind ‘Final Fantasy XV’ will share how they created actual music data in their proprietary authoring tools, and issues they faced during implementing them such as synchronization with game scene and looping, fading, etc.

lithiumkatana17 · Feb 13, 2017

Nice find! I can't wait to watch the whole thing. I loved the music in XV.

Lulcielid · Feb 14, 2017

From a recent interview from gameinformer magazine:

Edit: He also wants to make updates and extra content for as long as possible but, his currentvgoal is set for one year. They are hoping to "develop game content that actively incorporates voices from the players as part of a post-launch plan."

Edit2: I feel like there might be some translation issues going on here, because I can't really imagine the guy who made the game using the phrasing that Game Informer chose. It'd make more sense if he intended to say something like, "We didn't want to tell the story from an omniscient perspective."

Alex Strife · Feb 14, 2017

Actually I think it would make sense for him to word it kind of like that. It is a powerful statement, almost philosophical, kind of "Stories do not have to be balanced, they have to be emotive" or something like that.

I may prefer a well balanced story which encompases pretty much "everything", but I can appreciate what they did with FFXV. That said, I'm still not entirely sure they did it by choice or because they had no alternative...

ForceStealer · Feb 14, 2017

It is exactly as X surmised :monster:

The Twilight Mexican · Feb 14, 2017

I still think it isn't, but that's not to say this design philosophy didn't get incorporated deliberately as well. It's not even unheard of (e.g. "Signs" shows the effect of an alien invasion on a single family rather than the epic scale we're accustomed to seeing such things from), but I think the philosophy came into play because of the limitations (time especially) Tabata and co. were working within.

It was probably decided that a more successful, fleshed-out effort could be made with this narrow-in-scope approach than with a wider lens that didn't penetrate as deeply into all the areas it glimpsed. Given that the team is well aware Ravus's story failed to come across as well as it should even with a few omniscient viewpoint scenes included, I'd say both that this truth is without debate, and that the team probably made the right decision.

There's no doubt in my mind, though, that this would not have been the preferred angle to take. Kind of like FFXIII didn't streamline towns while offering more expanse wilderness because "the cast are fugitives" -- more like, the story was devised such that the cast were fugitives so there'd be an excuse not to render towns more fully.

In this case it's less of an excuse, though, and more of a "we were given lemons; let's make some lemonade" kind of deal.

The Twilight Mexican · Feb 14, 2017

And yeah, here's an interview with Tabata from last year where he does admit that deadlines informed the design philosophy:

“When we first sat down to re-plan the project that’s Final Fantasy XV, we really looked at which elements we need and should use and could do to create that kind of unique gameplay experience that we wouldn’t really get anywhere else. It was a very in-depth discussion about what elements to keep and what to throw away or change. We felt because the theme we’re trying to handle here with the story is such a massive epic tale, we really couldn’t fit all of that into the game that we had the time to make. So we wanted to show the essential things to get the best story across, which is where we decided on that—that’s reflected in the final form of the game.

“It’s not that we don’t need to show the Niflheim invasion to get the story across, but because that episode is something that would take up so much effort and time that rather than force it into the game, we started up its own separate project independently, and that’s the tale we wanted to tell with the film. That’s why we moved that to Kingsglaive. From a story perspective we’d have to have both the game and the film, both of these together in one package, but realistically that’s not something we could have done in one game, it’s too much.

“It’s very similar to the kind of decision we had to ask ourselves, OK do we spend another six years to develop that whole complete package as one game or do we spend three years to do it in the way that we’re doing now? I think, it really doesn’t affect it which one you get to see—from a story perspective whether you see it as part of the game or through the film, and how we tell that story is not such a thing which is affected by that choice. We really are confident that we’ve made a really great experience with that. We felt the most important thing we needed to depict through the game was that idea of traveling together with these comrades and watching them all grow and develop as people emotionally at the same time. We really have gotten that in there, so from a story perspective I think we've done the best we can."

Lulcielid · Feb 14, 2017

More detailed stuff from the interview: http://www.novacrystallis.com/2017/...-xv-story-imbalances-latter-half-game-linear/

Speaking with Game Informer, director Hajime Tabata says the narrative direction was entirely intentional – namely the important events that happened off-screen. “It was for the players to experience the story through Noctis’ eyes,” he told the magazine. “The world and the events that Noctis sees are merely things that are seen through his eyes. We didn’t want to create a comprehensive and perfectly balanced story in this game. Instead, we placed importance on the main characters and for the player and Noctis to share the same experience when we tell the story.”

With this sort of narrative design philosophy in hand, Tabata said it was only natural to increase the proportion in which the main characters are depicted. “It’s not that we decreased the role of the side characters,” he explained. “Focusing on many characters in the game means that the allocation given to the main characters will decrease. Instead of creating a comprehensive and perfectly balanced story, we placed greater importance on the four main characters and strived to depict a world seen from their perspective.”

Another topic fielded by Game Informer touched on the later chapters of the game, where things become a lot more linear. This again, according to Tabata, was intentional.

“Based on calculations that the development time and cost would double if the latter half of the game was to be an open-world environment as well, we had already planned to make the latter half more of a journey by vehicle. The structure of this title – to create memories while traveling in the open-world environment during the first half of the game, then have the story move forward linearly using the train in the latter half of the game – was designed and intended to be that way.”

RedFFWolf · Feb 15, 2017

Back to basics here as I check in to say I'm on Chapter 6, which for me is pretty solid progress (I only play twice a week, anyway

). After one too many side-quests I'm at level 45, though, which seems to be over the top for where I'm at, going by the recommended level on the main storyline. Still continuing to love this game!

I've a question I feel safe only asking here because I've been trying real hard to avoid spoilers (and I'm doing pretty well so far). I see the Carnival thing is only available until Feb 20, so I want to experience it before it's gone. Is there anything indicative of this place that could potentially reveal some elements of the storyline? For example, something someone says that suggests a certain place/person/aspect has changed/gone etc., things like that, even really small hints? Much appreciated!

Flare · Feb 15, 2017

^I haven't fully experienced the carnival yet, but from what I can see, it's pretty safe in regards to not spoiling story moments.
It does take place in a location that you've not been to yet though, so keep that in mind. You'd likely learn the area in the carnival before going there in the main game. :monster:

Up to you if you want to see the sights and whatnot. Also you do hear mention of a side character while playing one of the carnival game, I don't think it's spoilery but you'll not have met the character yet. All in all I think you're safe.

Others who've fully experienced the carnival can jump in and give you advice too.

Final Fantasy XV (was Versus XIII)

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