Well, at ANY rate, I can get behind a game where Random Encounters and stats are better managed.
FFXIII-2 and LR had something similar, but this feels a lot better.
Astral Summons acting as the uber 'safety net' also feels nice, though I haven't figured out how to equip them individually, unless they are chapter-based only at first?
ETA: You know what tho...I halfway take back my last post. As soon as Snow appeared and opened his mouth, I remembered why I wanted to wring my own neck while playing this game.
On the subject of Open Worlds though, I must remind you all that FINALES FANTASIA NUMERO UNO (that's FF1 by the way), was pretty darn open as a world (especially if you didn't use the Manual or Strategy Guide).
If you have problems with that... I mean seriously, you need to question why you like FF in the first place.
I can see people feeling like they'd get lost in such a huge landscape, but veteran gamers WILL TELL YOU that there's always a way back to the main story. For FF1 it was the Circle of Sages. For later games you just had to overhear an NPC or two to figure stuff out.
Back in the day I'd break out a notebook I put together of Monsters and locations and what everyone was talking about, to keep track of info I got.
You don't even need that now with how organized side quest menus are.
You need someone to hold your hand? There's always the Internet.
It somewhat bothers me that whenever music starts up in the field I run into enemies that interrupt it and it doesn't start back up once the battle is over. =P
Also, getting more and more convinced that Ishimoto is on the OST. The guitar/e-guitar heavy stuff sounds so much like his style.
Ok, I got something that's pissing me off :/ I'm trying to hand in a side quest to a weapon merchant, but aside from when I first tried, I havnt been able to get the "Quest" option to show up, just "Shop". It disappeared before I could click X, so I've been spending the last 5 min trying to get the right pop up to show up.
I wish it just added a new line to their options as opposed to having to interact with something right next to them.
Edit: It's been like 10 min... I give up.
Edit 2: Apparently if you sell the item you need to give him, it still says that the quest is complete. I'm kinda not wanting to ever sell anything in the "treasures" section, since it lumps in stuff you need, with stuff only useful for selling.
I've had to save/reload once or twice due to that glitching out. It depends which "shop" owner it is.
If it's a diner dude, it's the sheet in front of him you need to interact with, not the dude himself. If it's in the lestallum markets, again the point you interact with to hand in the quest is usually beside/ in front of the shop owner.
For the record I've had two glitches like this. One was where I interacted with Cindy a little too "quickly" if that makes sense. Nothing happened (as though it was loading) but then the game started behaving like it was in a cutscene - I couldn't open any menus, only "pause" as though dialogue was ongoing and I couldn't interact with anything. The other time was in the Lestallum markets, I had to reload to be able to interact with a quest marker.
I mean this all sounds horrific but it's really small glitches compared to the shit you need to endure with a day one Bioware game XD. It's unusual for SE though, especially in FF.
I mean this all sounds horrific but it's really small glitches compared to the shit you need to endure with a day one Bioware game XD. It's unusual for SE though, especially in FF.
The larger games get, the buggier they usually are at release, especially if there's a variety of gameplay features. I mean, I love them and all, but Bethesda has managed to finesse the general gaming public into thinking that broken-ass bin juice is a feature rather than a flaw, so the bugs I encountered felt minor by comparison.
Have to say, the music is er, interesting. Probably not the most memorable and rather campy at times TBF, but, it blends nicely. The smooth transition in style between indoors and outdoors areas is neat too. In some areas I'm getting a strong FFVIII vibe (and no it's not in the car).
iPod music turning off mid battle makes some sense, especially for tougher fights where you shouldn't get distracted. That, and the games DOES have to remind you it's FFXV after all, not those ANCIENT RELIC FF GAMES.
The Diner Side quest thingie is just the little pamphlet to the right of where Takka is standing. I had to shove Gladio aside a few times to get to it, but once you clear it it never appears again.
I've had issues of NPCs and allies getting under foot or freaking out when I swap armiger weapons, but it's not too bad if they don't actually get hurt.
Typically whenever there's item spoils quests though, you can usually recollect any items you sold.
The Diner Side quest thingie is just the little pamphlet to the right of where Takka is standing. I had to shove Gladio aside a few times to get to it, but once you clear it it never appears again.
Another not-that-negative point from your resident negative nancy: The scale of this gaem is pretty damn huge, both in terms of land mass and (judging on others) content / sidequests. I wonder how much revisiting of locations there is / will be. I just
went to some random cave to get a can of vintage wax (ikr)
Thanks for the support! It's strange as hell, actually. In theory it could still arrive tomorrow morning but I'm working until 3am, won't be into my bed until 4am and I'm not sure just how early I can wake up. If not, then I should be waiting until Monday.
Problem is, next week's a slow week in Spain because of some national festivities. I hope the shipping does not get affected by that or I fear for my sanity .
Don't say that till you play it, my friend, this game is more than videos can describe.
I've been playing the game and between sidequests I have been thinking about the story, and things tend to feel more intense the longer events play out.
Just listening to newsfeeds on gas station radios really opens your eyes as to how the world sees the Empire and Lucis, you tend to forget you're royalty out in this vast place, but the empire's robots and the Astrals remind you you have such a grand role yet to play.
Getting stronger as a King is all part of that.
The only thing missing from this game is taking a piss in the woods, pretty much.
Yeah, I strongly get the impression that the story in this game is more about experiencing the journey and its associated activities than a more traditional FF narrative -- and that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's drastically different from what FF usually goes for, but I'm down to give it a shot.
There will still be legitimate, gripe-worthy shortfalls (e.g. sidelined, seemingly irrelevant characters; unearned emotional beats; plot elements that feel like they're just kind of there, and so you just have to say "okay, I guess that's a thing now"), but the more I watch of the space between cutscenes in walkthrough videos, the more I begin to feel that I'm seeing the real meat of the story.
From what I've seen of cutscenes in this game as compared to pretty much any scene in "Kingsglaive," there are definitely two different storytelling approaches at work. "Kingsglaive" was more about the mythos and overall plot of the FFXV setting. FFXV itself is pretty much exclusively about Noctis's journey -- and more to the point, the journey the player experiences seeing that through.
You mentioning that radio chatter makes me realize that the game is somewhat like the M. Night Shyamalan movie "Signs" in the way the story is told, or even "Cloverfield." Neither movie touches very much on their respective "mythos," so to say, beyond little bits and pieces that you are privy to in the same limited (as opposed to omniscient) way the cast is. They give little insight into "what's happening outside" in the larger sense than what their main cast members experience on the smaller scale. They're really just about the personal journey these characters have while all the big shit is going down.
I think it's fair to say that FFXV is told the same way, and so you're often left with a sense that you're skirting around the outside of major events and "just missed" the more epic moments (e.g.
the fall of both Insomnia
and
Gralea
) -- the same way the aspects of "Signs" that would make it an epic are never shown, only mentioned instead in passing radio chatter after the fact. There are moments of FFXV where the personal journey overlaps with the larger epic unfolding in the background, but that's ultimately only because
the jackhole orchestrating everything just happens to have a personal vendetta
with your POV character's bloodline.
We're used to the personal journeys of our POV characters in FF being more intricately tied to the plot beats and developments of the overall epic (FFVII, VIII and X are all great examples), so I think you're probably 100 percent on the money when you say "this game is more than videos can describe."
I absolutely love "Signs" (it's one of my favorite movies), and I think "Cloverfield" is one of the better "found footage"-style movies. So I do appreciate what FFXV is doing. I think having seen "Kingsglaive" first may actually hinder the experience heading into FFXV, though, because there is such a clash between their areas of focus and the framing perspectives. Going from one to the other, I brought with me some expectations that just didn't belong.
Maybe that's my own fault -- Tabata had certainly been clear about what FFXV The Game was going to be. But I do wonder if there was any hesitation or ambivalence on his part going about it this way.
I also wonder if FFXV is enjoyed more by watching "Kingsglaive" after playing the game. Hopefully there will be some of us here who play the game first and can weigh in on what they get out of seeing things unfold in the opposite order.
Okay, that's enough rambling from someone who hasn't actually played the game.
Anyway re: stuff, I see what people mean I guess. Kingsglaive is intended to set up the backstory and mythos (and fapworthy visuals). I guess this game is intended to establish the game world, like a central hub around the rest of the franchise. There was also an anime or something right? How does that tie into the franchise?
Also, iirc the day one patch added bits of Kingsglaive to the game (during early game where the two stories mix); it feels a bit disjointed there tbf. The game itself doesn't seem to have pre-rendered cutscenes itself. A bit of a shame.
Actually I wouldn't have minded a Kingsglaive game, they could've made that work, and give pre-rendered cutscenes as a reward, like they used to do until at least X or XII. After that in-game engine visuals were good enough so I guess the pre-rendered stuff wasn't worth the investment anymore. But really, that was one of the main motivators behind playing the PS1-era FF games, working towards a cool video.
Anyway I need to do some sidequests and shit, had some trouble with one of the story missions (chapter 3, lvl 19 quest while my dudes were 17). OTOH, finishing that quest gave me enough experience and shit to get to level 19. Actually doing sidequests is more about getting money to buy elixirs and potions and shit. I'd like curative magic that is automagically cast pls.
I've seen Kingsglaive, and really it's backdrop to what is about to happen to Noctis.
Yeah it's action-filled, yeah it's more linear as a movie, but in the end it's an outcome that doesn't change. In the same way with Brotherhood, you have these events that define how the characters grew up, and that essentially solidifies how they are.
For example, when Prompto gets emotional about his past, there's an option to try and get him to talk about it, even if it's obviously a sore point for him. Whether you talk about it or not doesn't change how he is, but it does affect how he feels in the moment.
Another example is when Noct has to drive the car, but still insists Ignis is his driver. Ignis gets an EXP boost from your response in this conversation.
There's other little things, like Ignis deciding he'll drive at night if Noct gets strong enough.
Sparring sessions in Camp start with Gladio, then Ignis helps train, then Prompto, then you end up taking on all three at once! Just sparring with them is an emotional exchange and has a coming-of-age feel to it.
I've been driving around and there are some serious 'wow' moments, like looking at canyons and rock formations. The scenery is so diverse it's like a vacation in your living room. Fog, dust storms, all the major elements are out there.
Just coming here to say we're on Day 5 of my own personal journey. No FFXV yet.
PS: At this point I'm not really complaining. But I feel the duty to inform you guys so that some day we'll have a satisfactory conclusion. You've put up with my complaints enough .
It sucks that you don't have the game yet, but that is one of my favourite reaction gifs from one of my favourite films, and you wouldn't have used it otherwise, so it's not all bad...
