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Final Fantasy XV was something else

Final Fantasy XV (known as Versus XIII) had the potential to probably become the most beautiful story of the franchise, but it failed to achieve that.
In my opinion it’s a beatiful story, but as I said I’m not really familiar with the other games, so which one(s) do you think has better story? My dream would be a remake of VIII. In my childhood I really liked the aesthetic of that (XV kinda resembled it a bit for me, or at least the feeling) but never played it.
 

Brigandier

Gold Member
If only it never had such a troubled development and was much more fleshed out.

I got the plat which wasn't hard in the slightest and never played it again, This game had so much potential but ultimately it ended up being a soulless empty world with lame sub quests and a combat system that was absolute dog shit.... if only it had another year or 2 in the oven to flesh out a deeper immersive story and gameplay, The versus trailers looked much more fun than XV ever hit.
 
For story-wise, FF15 was all over the place. I liked the gameplay for a certain degree but the story presentation was realy disasterous for me. I play games, epecially RPG's, for their story mostly.

So that was why FF15 didn't appeal to me to be honest.
 
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RagnarokIV

Battlebus imprisoning me \m/ >.< \m/
Bunch of lads knocking about finding themselves and something to believe in.

Noctis transforms from a boy into a man.
Ignis likes to see life crystal clear but loses it, and doesn’t hold a grudge, for his friend.

What more could you want? No woke bullshit politics. It’s just about having innocent fun and finding something along the way.

Took me back to being a young one. Playing it for the first time was a nostalgic experience.

Driving down those long roads with music from IV playing, looking out to the wonderful landscapes.

The story was all over the place but so are the gang.

The Royal edition done more damage to be honest, the shit 50 transformation DBZ style boss and fake add in dungeon at Insomnia ruins the pacing.
 
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Bernardougf

Member
Worst AAA game I played in the last generation .. and its not even a contest.. awful ... not one redeeming quality outside of graphics.
 
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nikos

Member
Was obsessed with the Versus XIII trailers and XV ended up being one of my favorite Final Fantasy games.

Got it a couple of days before release and I think I may have actually finished it by the time it officially launched.

Been meaning to boot it up on PC to see how it is on modern hardware but now XVI is around the corner.
 
The last good one was FFX..
First Amendment protects freedom of speech.

5494922e52ffd7ae0d77364e0c472a889c7e2c2b.png
 

lifa-cobex

Member
I became really interested in the development and changes of the game over the game itself.
I was also surprised that Tabata disconfirmed to story behind the Pitioss area. It was really well thought out and gave the overall story much more depth.
In fact the Pitioss area was the most interesting part of the game for me.

I'm actually amazed that the story is somewhat coherent by the end of it all.

As an actual game itself. Very meh.
Combat system was very rinse and repeat. Summon system was daft.
 
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Chad Warden

Banned
The game was so bad. 70% of the game is one quest. Go to a city to meet your gf.

Some random shit happens, all your bros hate you for no reason, some guy gets blind off screen and blames you. Then you go to the bad guys city and nothing happens.
 
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Larxia

Member
FF VS XIII / XV might have been the most important game in my life.
I have never waited for a game for so long, this game was a huge fantasy for me growing up, since its first reveal in 2006.

The game we got is however not the game that was initally planned, and it was for many a dissapointment.

I think the final product, with all its updates and DLC, is a good game, but there will always be this bitter sweet feeling with it, this "what it should have been" aspect, because the amount of cut content and concepts is just insane.

The worst thing about the game for me, outside of the combats being too easy, is the lack of a prologue in Insomnia.
Kingsglaive, while being a good movie, should not have existed. Everyone who followed this project since the beginning wanted to play in this city, and play the Insomnia invasion. It's the event that they showed us and teased us with for almost 10 years, and it's not in the game.
Kingsglaive should not have existed, and instead we should have gotten a chapter or two set in Insomnia before its invasion. This would have made the player more attached to the characters, the city, the world, and the loss of Insomnia and your kingdom would have been a lot more impactful. There should have been a huge prologue set in the city, followed by the invasion being playable, and then you get into the wilds like in the current game, similar to when you escape midgar in FF7 and discover the outside world.

This all would have made the experience a lot better, coherent, and immersive.

I still like the game, but my attachment to it also comes from the fact that I have been following it for so long and it's just a big part of my gamer life.

I made this video a while ago to showcase the beauty of XV's world, focusing on out of bounds and cut content areas:


I've also been so frustrated by the lack of Insomnia that I've been working on recreating that myself inside Kingdom Hearts III as a new additional world to visit, so players can finally explore the Insomnia we wanted.
Here's some footage if anyone is interested, I recreated the missing areas myself, taking inspiration from what we could see in Kingsglaive as well as old trailers and concept arts.




So yeah, even if I was initially kind of disappointed by XV, it's a game I'm obsessed with and I just can't let it go :messenger_grinning_sweat:
Final Fantasy XV is a love / hate relationship. I still wish that one day they would "remake" it as the project it was supposed to be, but that won't happen.
 
Despite its flaws, I love that game. Have played it through twice, it’s just got a certain magic to it. I love the story, I think it’s deeply touching. The music is at points just incredible. And I also just really liked the overarching “4 besties traveling the world road trip” vibe.
 
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StereoVsn

Gold Member
I liked the game, worts and all. Definitely liked it better vs XIII or what I have seen of XVI.

That said, IMO, anime episodes are a must to watch as they give so much more background for the characters.
 
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IAmRei

Member
This game is a blast back then. I skip XIII, but consider Type-0 as subtitute or XIII to my own : )) , and yet XV is a blast for me. The gameplay is good, the lore is cool. The content is big, but i think can be better if not because the cost of development are skyrocketing too much to handle. I feels like they are skipping because the dev timeline is too long already and higher ups want to release it already. Too bad, given more time, it can be one of the best. The skipped content are quite unfortunate. XV makes me hate Nomura more while like Hajime Tabata more.

This game have flaw, maybe big one. But the game itself is fun and solid!

I think it is solid 8/10⭐ from me.
 

Mortisfacio

Member
why? surely not because it resembles a cross between a boy band & the goonies?...

The gameplay I found not engaging and the story/pace I found boring. I forget if it was acts or chapters or whatever, but by the 3rd part I was bored. I didn't even make it the "dress" part where the boys were fawning over that.
 

N30RYU

Member
Never completed it... had to play the Pocket edition to experience the story without so much filler and trsversal.
 

Gp1

Member
It's definitely a divisive game.

The soundtrack is sublime. And i like the "real life" art direction.

The story could be awesome and rival the best in the series if Square include every transmedia content inside the main product. A content guide like someone posted is imperative.

All thing considered this should be one of the saddest and darkest stories in Square history. Regis is an awesome character and you barely see it in the game or his sacrifices.

If you only play the main game the thing is completely disjointed and way out of tone. It begins as a road trip, then Noctis lost his father (which you don't have any emotional attachment if didn't saw the movie, some obscure content released on YouTube or an exclusive PS4 demo), 2 seconds later everyone is cheerful and happy, 2 seconds later Gladiolus is wiping the floor with Noctis morale, then 2 seconds later everyone is riding a chocobo all happy again like nothing happened etc. Then something happens to another character that you don't have any attachment, etc.

The combat system alone is good albeit heavily unbalanced. It's way to easy at the beginning and strange in late chapters. The hard mod partially corrects this but the enemies soaks up so much damage that every single battle takes too long.

Anyway I've played it as soon as the pc version launched and didn't enjoyed. Now i took some time to play it correctly (aka following the content guide) and I'm really enjoying it. I was even thinking in doing a RTTP for it.

Ps. Steam Workshop has tons of great mods. Imho the armor mods helps a lot with the immersion and to break the "kingdom hearts/boy band aura" in the visual and clothes.
 

RaduN

Member
Yeah, it definitelly was something else. It was by far my biggest disspointment in gaming and nothing will ever top that.

A decade of anticipation with bit and pieces of story/lore/characters that were promising the moon, and in the end it was a piece of shit narrative with zero production values, zero talent, but still with a decent enough to warrant a go, world and gameplay.

Such a fucking mess, such a shame.
 
FF VS XIII / XV might have been the most important game in my life.
I have never waited for a game for so long, this game was a huge fantasy for me growing up, since its first reveal in 2006.

The game we got is however not the game that was initally planned, and it was for many a dissapointment.

I think the final product, with all its updates and DLC, is a good game, but there will always be this bitter sweet feeling with it, this "what it should have been" aspect, because the amount of cut content and concepts is just insane.

The worst thing about the game for me, outside of the combats being too easy, is the lack of a prologue in Insomnia.
Kingsglaive, while being a good movie, should not have existed. Everyone who followed this project since the beginning wanted to play in this city, and play the Insomnia invasion. It's the event that they showed us and teased us with for almost 10 years, and it's not in the game.
Kingsglaive should not have existed, and instead we should have gotten a chapter or two set in Insomnia before its invasion. This would have made the player more attached to the characters, the city, the world, and the loss of Insomnia and your kingdom would have been a lot more impactful. There should have been a huge prologue set in the city, followed by the invasion being playable, and then you get into the wilds like in the current game, similar to when you escape midgar in FF7 and discover the outside world.

This all would have made the experience a lot better, coherent, and immersive.

I still like the game, but my attachment to it also comes from the fact that I have been following it for so long and it's just a big part of my gamer life.

I made this video a while ago to showcase the beauty of XV's world, focusing on out of bounds and cut content areas:


I've also been so frustrated by the lack of Insomnia that I've been working on recreating that myself inside Kingdom Hearts III as a new additional world to visit, so players can finally explore the Insomnia we wanted.
Here's some footage if anyone is interested, I recreated the missing areas myself, taking inspiration from what we could see in Kingsglaive as well as old trailers and concept arts.




So yeah, even if I was initially kind of disappointed by XV, it's a game I'm obsessed with and I just can't let it go :messenger_grinning_sweat:
Final Fantasy XV is a love / hate relationship. I still wish that one day they would "remake" it as the project it was supposed to be, but that won't happen.

Yeah, now I remember what my problem was initially with Kingsglaive. I watched your vids, and I loved them and couldn’t agree more, even though I love what we got in the end but it’s obvious how more this could have been. This could have been indeed the most ambitious videogame ever if all that is in your video was included (and what you talked about).
 

manzo

Member
The only Final Fantasy I’ve ever actually liked playing. However, it’s the only Final Fantasy whose story I have zero recollection of. I don’t remember the characters, their ambitions or relationships. Completely forgettable.

I really enjoyed the Duscae open world and the battle system was fun. The on-rails later game was absolutely dismal.

Most fun FF to play, worst story in a FF.
 

kunonabi

Member
I couldn't stand it. It felt like coming into a random modern anime 10 episodes in filled with some of the most godawful product placement imaginable. Maybe if the combat was any good I could have soldiered through it but no typical shit ff action combat as usual. I did like the concept behind the magic system but that was about it.
 

Stu_Hart

Banned
FF15 was an incomplete game when it comes to the lore when it came out. These recent FF games have been so meh. I highly doubt that they can recreate the magic they had with the older games. FF12, 13, 15 and 16 were so forgettable, like basically all mainline single player FF games after FF10 have been mediocre for me.
 
I love Final Fantasy XV. It’s a game I can put on and just relax with, running around, fishing, riding chocobos…my favorite since VI.
Almost like playing animal crossing! And this is how I liked this game too.

I hated the whole stupid brat teens stuff though. The game looked great with splendid vistas, adventure and exploration and mature themes and we had to constantly suffer those 16 yo behaving like 12 yo.
 

cireza

Member
I love Final Fantasy XV. It’s a game I can put on and just relax with, running around, fishing, riding chocobos…my favorite since VI.
Totally agree with this. I find that it is the only "open world" game I played that didn't bore me to death. The design, size/distances, locations, traversal are all excellent in this game.
 
I love this game, despite its many flaws. In bullet points:

Pros.

- Music

- Excellent happy vibes

- Spectacular bosses

- Amazing cities.

- Combination of free exploration - linearity

- Cindy

Cons:

- Dark dungeons suck. A lot.

- Too easy

- Simplistic combat. Magic is irrelevant. No RPG elements.

- Gross plot holes and inconsistencies. The latter part of the story doesn't match the happy vibes from before.

- The main character is the worst of the bunch.
 

DelireMan7

Member
My hype was through the roof for it.

I was a bit disappointed while playing but in the end I really enjoyed it. It also get me very emotional toward the end. I love the bound between the party.

I replayed it several years after and still loved it. It's not without problems but I love the experience. Will replay again from sure.
It for me quite superior to XVI. And also XII.

Anime was OK but it didn't grab me.
I liked the movie.
I did the DLC on my second run. I'd say only the Ardyn one is important for the story and info from it should have been in the base game.
I like overall the "special combat" in the DLC which shows how the combat system is very good, if you don't have access to unlimited potion.
 

SkylineRKR

Member
It was ... terrible alright . The first half of the game was totally disjointed from the second half . The combat was mediocre . And also the boy band trip was one of the dumbest shit ever .

Like my father's kingdom was being taken over , my childhood love had gone missing ... but hey ! lets stop every once in a while , look for ingredients to cook and enjoy our camping first . Then we drive around and enjoy the breeze woohoo sightseeing so fun like we never drive in a trip before yay

I will reiterate it again

FF13 is dull and boring , but FF15 is offensively bad

The sidequests break the road trip story even further.

But yes, FFXIII is better. It was at least a good looking, well playing, polished to a tee game. A lifeless and stupid game at that, but one with a good battle system, some challenge and good performance (on PS3 at least). Overall XIII was at least consistent. I enjoyed my first FFXIII playthrough more.
 

Kumomeme

Member
considering someone must watch anime and movie first before play never ceased to give me a facepalm. at launch the game sold at full price with incomplete content that needed to patch later or through another paid DLC + need to spend money to watch another media is a bad practice that no other company should never do it again.

the saving grace is the game has pretty visual and awesome music. i say music might playing bigger role in saving the game.

simply to say the overall presentation quality created an 'illusion' of good game. which is something Square always excel at.

same case with 13.

objectively, this game is bad. subjectively however depend on each others preferences. the former weight more than later but often get ignored by lot of people.

and yet despite the mediocre output, the devs actually poured their soul as much as they can. thats why perhaps despite its flaw it still end up has its own charm.
 
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Neilg

Member
The community had to make an entire guide on how to experience FFXV:
And to me that just feels like a big problem. Otherwise, FFXV could have been up there as a great post-XIII experience full of storytelling and lore content.

This guide is so stupid, it's just about obsessively experiencing things in chronological order and recommends playing dlc up to a point then looking away during the credits so that you don't see things you haven't seen yet.
It's not that complicated. Watch the anime, watch the movie, play the entire game, then play the dlcs.
 
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