I just started playing Final Fantasy XV for the PS4 after holding off on it for so long. The game has been in production since 2006 and was planned as a spin-off title for Final Fantasy XIII. It shares the same mythos found in that game, but set in a completely different world. The game was retooled and became a main line title in 2012 and was finally released in 2016 after numerous delays.
The game starts with words from the developers saying this game is made for new and returning players. That's supposed to say "trust us, you guys," but I'll have to see it for myself.
You're thrown into the story of events already happening sometime in the future for a few minutes. Then it cuts back to the present with the main character and his friends heading out of the huge castle with barely anyone (non-playable characters) around, sent off by the king and his advisor with encouraging and hopeful words for their journey and the task at hand. Your car breaks down and your characters push it to the nearest shop. Cue in Florence Welch (Florence + the Machine) and her rendition of "Stand by Me" swells in the background as the camera pans and zooms out, showing the horizon of this big beautiful, yet somewhat empty world. Then the title, "Final Fantasy XV," is on screen. You reach the stop called Hammerhead and met with a plucky character with a Southern American drawl for some reason, named Cindy, who becomes the game's mechanic for your main characters. Her grandpa is a character named Cid. From here on out, you get to interact with the world and experience the game's battle system.
You control the main character, Noctis, prince of the kingdom of Insomnia, during onscreen battles while your friends, Gladiolus, Ignis, and Prompto help out. You can issue commands to your friends or execute linked attacks. You gain experience and on leveling up, gain AP which you can use to fill up your character's skill grids. These grids unlock more powers, skills, and abilities that help your character. Typical Final Fantasy flair for the most part. But that's basically it. This huge world is filled with side quests right from the start of the game. You can indefinitely hold off on main story and do as much of the side quests as you want, except for those locations that are blocked for game and story reasons.
When I did decide to continue with the main story, I was shown clips of negotiations going horribly bad for the King of Insomnia with no sound or context. The next thing, the main character wakes up in bed from where they were staying and hears the news from his friend that his kingdom has fallen. This is where you start to see the cracks and where the developers hodgepodge-ed material from FF Versus XIII to fit the story of FFXV, or whatever story they have cooked up to finish and justify the 10-year development of this project.
I'm 17 hours into the game and barely touched the main storyline. I've been doing most of the sidequests and developing my characters' levels and skills. This is why I miss the old Final Fantasy titles: Story.
I don't know if it's the limitations of the tech back then, but story/mythos was center stage on top of gameplay. The more recent FF games seem to have focused on gameplay while having trouble executing a coherent story. I saw the same thing with Kingdom Hearts 3, which underwent its own development hell. I just don't feel a connection with the characters right now. In previous games, you spent a lot of time learning about the story and the characters. You can play mini-games, but side quests were off-limits until further down the line. In FFXV, you're basically doing your own thing from the get go like Fallout 3 or Fallout 4. Maybe it's the whole "open world" strategy that has worked well with titles like Grand Theft Auto or Assassin's Creed, but it's not working out for this game when the story is incomplete to begin with. Assassin's Creed, especially, has a well-established mythology that sprinkles all that information throughout the game. Previous FF games pepper you with this information. FFXV lazily attempts to do that and right now, I just don't care about these characters.
Hironobu Sakaguchi, the father of Final Fantasy, left Square-Enix and formed his own company. He created Lost Odyssey for the Xbox 360. The game is praised for its story, but people were turned off by the outdated turn-based battle system. I think that's what's missing in these more recent Squeenix JRPGs. When you play a Final Fantasy game, you're supposed to feel like you're on this epic journey... an odyssey. I'm hoping at this point where I'm at in the game picks up the pace and the story. But based on numerous anecdotes and reviews from people who've played the game and its numerous DLCs over the past few years, I'm not hold my breath.
I'm done.
The game starts with words from the developers saying this game is made for new and returning players. That's supposed to say "trust us, you guys," but I'll have to see it for myself.
You're thrown into the story of events already happening sometime in the future for a few minutes. Then it cuts back to the present with the main character and his friends heading out of the huge castle with barely anyone (non-playable characters) around, sent off by the king and his advisor with encouraging and hopeful words for their journey and the task at hand. Your car breaks down and your characters push it to the nearest shop. Cue in Florence Welch (Florence + the Machine) and her rendition of "Stand by Me" swells in the background as the camera pans and zooms out, showing the horizon of this big beautiful, yet somewhat empty world. Then the title, "Final Fantasy XV," is on screen. You reach the stop called Hammerhead and met with a plucky character with a Southern American drawl for some reason, named Cindy, who becomes the game's mechanic for your main characters. Her grandpa is a character named Cid. From here on out, you get to interact with the world and experience the game's battle system.
You control the main character, Noctis, prince of the kingdom of Insomnia, during onscreen battles while your friends, Gladiolus, Ignis, and Prompto help out. You can issue commands to your friends or execute linked attacks. You gain experience and on leveling up, gain AP which you can use to fill up your character's skill grids. These grids unlock more powers, skills, and abilities that help your character. Typical Final Fantasy flair for the most part. But that's basically it. This huge world is filled with side quests right from the start of the game. You can indefinitely hold off on main story and do as much of the side quests as you want, except for those locations that are blocked for game and story reasons.
When I did decide to continue with the main story, I was shown clips of negotiations going horribly bad for the King of Insomnia with no sound or context. The next thing, the main character wakes up in bed from where they were staying and hears the news from his friend that his kingdom has fallen. This is where you start to see the cracks and where the developers hodgepodge-ed material from FF Versus XIII to fit the story of FFXV, or whatever story they have cooked up to finish and justify the 10-year development of this project.
I'm 17 hours into the game and barely touched the main storyline. I've been doing most of the sidequests and developing my characters' levels and skills. This is why I miss the old Final Fantasy titles: Story.
I don't know if it's the limitations of the tech back then, but story/mythos was center stage on top of gameplay. The more recent FF games seem to have focused on gameplay while having trouble executing a coherent story. I saw the same thing with Kingdom Hearts 3, which underwent its own development hell. I just don't feel a connection with the characters right now. In previous games, you spent a lot of time learning about the story and the characters. You can play mini-games, but side quests were off-limits until further down the line. In FFXV, you're basically doing your own thing from the get go like Fallout 3 or Fallout 4. Maybe it's the whole "open world" strategy that has worked well with titles like Grand Theft Auto or Assassin's Creed, but it's not working out for this game when the story is incomplete to begin with. Assassin's Creed, especially, has a well-established mythology that sprinkles all that information throughout the game. Previous FF games pepper you with this information. FFXV lazily attempts to do that and right now, I just don't care about these characters.
Hironobu Sakaguchi, the father of Final Fantasy, left Square-Enix and formed his own company. He created Lost Odyssey for the Xbox 360. The game is praised for its story, but people were turned off by the outdated turn-based battle system. I think that's what's missing in these more recent Squeenix JRPGs. When you play a Final Fantasy game, you're supposed to feel like you're on this epic journey... an odyssey. I'm hoping at this point where I'm at in the game picks up the pace and the story. But based on numerous anecdotes and reviews from people who've played the game and its numerous DLCs over the past few years, I'm not hold my breath.
I'm done.
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