Final Fantasy XV

[Mal]

Well, nobody ever questioned SE's composers on their musical talent. Everything I've listen to was good. The question is if the game will stand up well. Still debating if I should gamble on this game like I did with NMS. Well there is no gambling on my part since it won't be on PC anytime soon.

Edited September 7, 2016 by MaliciousH

[deanb]

I'm going for it, this game has put out demos (two), had plenty shown playing through, walked through a bunch of the systems, and hasn't implied there's MP in there. I'm a bit bummed that it's further heading from the older turn based FF battles, but it's fairly close to FFXII so not too bad. It looks like it'll be gorgeous as hell. And I'm kinda intrigued by the world they've set up, especially following Kingsglaive.

[Mr. GOH!]

I thought the consensus was that the demos were not good at all.

[Mal]

A 'Dean can take a break edition' post.

 

TGS trailer. Honestly the only time I've looked at one of the trailers. I can dig the story that the trailer is trying to set up. Can't help but feel that they might add some convoluted plot point that make Noctis into Jesus 3.0 so that they can have a XV-II and XV-III though.

[deanb]

I came here to post that, damn time zone differences.

 

First half of the trailer story wise is covered in Kingsglaive. I think story wise it'll be similar to FFXII in that it's the small nation that's caught up against the big bad, as opposed to the usual "big bad tries to destroy the world" type situation. In fact also like FFXII there's the sort of sub-plot of gaining ancient royal weapons, oh and brief chats with sort of semi-god like beings that are manipulating things (the "Varya" I think they were in FFXII...google they're the Occuria, and Venat was the rogue one). Here they're the Luciens, which provide a kings power via a ring separate to the crystal. As of Kingsglaive Luna has the ring to pass to Noctis and Niflehiem has the crystal. I imagine a chunk of the game is in trying to get both. Oh and the summons being boss battles before you acquire them is also a thing from FFXII.

 

Ardyn will be interesting. The VA seems really into playing him which is always a good sign. Talking of VA since you stole the TGS trailer from me!

 

Also there's a weird pre-order game thing playing as Regis:

It's defo out for Gamestop pre-orders, unsure about GAME.

 

Also there's Justice Monsters Five which is a mobile game based on an in-game cartoon/pinball minigame

http://www.finalfantasyxv.com/justicemonstersfive/

 

You're saying about FFXV-II n such but tbh their current output in both a film, a manga, mobile game, spin-off retro game they're doing pretty well so far.

[Mal]

Well they have a decade of trying to make this world work. Perhaps a really nicely fleshed out world isn't that far out there. The worlds* of FF VII, X, XIII, Ivalice, and I suppose Kingdom Hearts (for being Square Enix) were built up after the first game. I can only think of Ivalice being anywhere near graceful.

 

... I should just keep on playing Trails games (Being a Western fan is suffering).

 

*Maybe I should include XI and XIV but MMOs are a bit different.

Edited September 15, 2016 by MaliciousH

[deanb]

Oh yeah, one thing that's pretty neat (and I'm well aware is a "producing content" type thing but it's all good stuff) is them knocking out some Cosplay guides. So far mainly Kingsglaive folk but I imagine they'll eventually roll out stuff from the game, they have promised more upcoming.

 

http://dl.square-enix.co.jp/ff15/cosplayguide/Ardyn_en.pdf

http://dl.square-enix.co.jp/ff15/cosplayguide/Regis_en.pdf

http://dl.square-enix.co.jp/ff15/cosplayguide/Nyx_en.pdf

 

Nyx is their most detailed guide, but he is the main character I guess.

[deanb]

 

From the Playstation Access live stream at EGX.

I actually quite liked this playthrough since it was quite like how I'd play it for the most part, though she sel-fadmitedly isn't great at the combat. Mainly in customising which I'd been aware of the clothes thing (though a slight bummer that clothes affect stats) but it was only in recently seeing a white Regalia I'd had a hint you could customise that and even more surprised it goes beyond black or white. Also cool with the in-car radio, which once again a thing hinted at but she's first to go into it. I guess it's cos she's had a fair bit of time with the game and isn't one of the developers giving a sort of set-piece go through to show off specific elements (I've noticed the PAX n TGS playthroughs...or Gamescom, two of the three, were going to the same goblin infested dungeon which I guess is maybe for its lack of story there but still). Shame it crashes at the end, but I guess that's why it's out end of Nov.

 

edit: and cos the above crashed they did some more the next day:

[deanb]

http://www.novacrystallis.com/2016/09/heres-music-can-listen-final-fantasy-xvs-car/

 

Dang there's a pretty sweet amount of music to listen to on the radio in FFXV. Like watching the streams I figured like maybe 5-6 per game but it's a good dozen or so per game, and a shit load from Dissidia which is mostly remixes of all the above too. A few notable absences, but a lot of them are voiced and I feel there's maybe a rights issue with singers that they can ease over with Uematsu stuff.

 

I'll be happy heading around to this

 

But lo we're on a hunt!

 

N then he finds out his dad is dead

 

But while I can stick on the black clothes n black hair in my black car cos I'm so sad I can't stick this on

 

Also a visual comparison of Duscae through the ages, certainly perked up in recent builds

http://imgur.com/a/Vb9Kq

Though I'd say a chunk of it seems more down to lighting and some contrast improvements, but the bushes add some colour too.

[Mal]

I gave Kingsglaive a watch. It is very pretty. As for everything else, it's not bad and it does give quite a bit of background on the world of XV and what to come. Most of it is pretty good while some is head scratching. For example: Glauca.

 

 

Please tell me that I am not missing anything... How the general of the opposing kindgom becomes the commander of the Kingsglave? Was he playing a mole for a better part of 12 years? I find that kind of hard to believe. The identity of Glauca got to be something someone takes on.

 

Anyhow, Square Enix should just announce a PC version already... I know I shouldn't but I feel like diving into this game ASAP. The story is at least interesting enough for me.

Edit: I also think Ravus (Luna's brother) and Ardyn are people to watch.

Edited October 2, 2016 by MaliciousH

[deanb]

Ardyn is totally a guy to watch, he might be one of the better FF villains in a while. 12 n 13 sucked in that regard. And iirc Ravus is a boss fight.

 

But yeah on the spoiler front I feel we'll find more in the game. You don't design a baddy as a Judge n then do jack with them.

[deanb]

 

TwitchCon stream. This is using the newest build, running here on the Xbone(they pop back to Duscae which looks much like the linked comparison above). Got a bunch of new enemies here, a couple newer quests and such. Also shows off the Ring of the Lucii in action, it seems that runs the non-elemental spells and holy crap is it a bit OP. I imagine they're on god mode for this though to show it off though. People are picking through it since this build is a lot further on the in game so a lot more weapons shown (Ultima Blade being the biggy, and he's using Firestrike), and parking spots and sidequests etc as they're jumping through the menus. The wasp things are pretty cool with grabbing you n such (and actually now I think on it, there's confirmation they're on a god mode cos they said they disabled the "mind control" element for the stream). Only issue I'd say is that the "fast travel" takes a while with loading, but I guess it's faster than the several minutes of driving around (which allows for it all to stream in better, so I'd imagine you can go from A-B without a single loading screen). I'd guess the gil charge is to limit the overuse of that a bit.

 

Ascension is also reworked from the stream demos, though I imagine that the stream demo ascension tree was specifically limited for the sake of the demo and to put useful skills closer n cheaper together. The finalised tree seems to be a bit more broken down, which lets you focus on certain strengths n such I guess.

http://imgur.com/a/5iIUY

 

Another TwitchCon stream too

Not watched this one yet, but jumping around it seems they're playing the older demo they've been showing off.

 

edit: Here's the official Death/Ring of Lucii video without the messed up Twitchcon "B-reel" stuff

[Mal]

 

Another spoiler-free gameplay video. I've been avoiding most of them so this one might be a good one for me to watch. Still though... I think they might be better served to chill on the marketing until say December/January (Edit: Disregard, I have a terrible memory). I rather see a build of the game that closer to being gold than this in progress shot.

Edited October 8, 2016 by MaliciousH

[TheMightyEthan]

Hold off on the marketing until December/January?  You realize it comes out November 29, right?

[Mal]

Oh right. I thought it was one of those games delayed to 2017. Seemed all the rage.

Edited October 8, 2016 by MaliciousH

[deanb]

Oh if you've been holding off for ages on watching gameplay streams, apart from this one having the final Ascenion grid in it and the wee little equipment sprites in the shop screen(so cute), it's actually much the same as the majority of gameplay demos from >2months ago. Push the car to the tones of Florence and the Machine, go hunt some varmints, rescue a guy from a shack and sneak around the big bird to get the jewel for the reporter. It's only started mixing it up in recent stuff with PAX/Gamescom/EGX/Twitchcon. So yeah, old story segment, finalised look and gameplay. Only other "tried n tested game segment" is the journey into the goblin infested mines.

Up to now next to nothing has had any "spoilers" except their actual trailer they put out for...TGS iirc.

 

It was delayed, I'd be a week into playing it if it was the original release, but now it's due for the end of November. Sad face.

 

edit: On one hand: saweet Bombbs!
on the other hand: wow that Regalia

 

edit2: That's from this video

Which is sort of Eurogamers of the above, but they've spoken over their playthrough n covered a wee bit more (including going into the goblin mines place).

[deanb]

 

They've put out some weird trailer thing. Noctis shouldn't drive when distracted. Also curious on that final bit given what we know from Kingsglaive about their "gods" (as far as I know there's actually 3 sets of gods being the main god/etro-type, the asc-something or other(summons), and the Luci, which provide the "Old Wall" for Lucis n Regis is now part of.)

 

Also today revealed there will be online MP somehow. It was in the Paris stream though which I didn't watch(je ne parlais pas francais) so all I know is their minor post about it on twitter. I guess a way to have people take over other non-Noctis party members.

 

Also it has Midgarzolom in it (a fair way from home), and also went Gold today.

[deanb]

the feedback responses from the Duscae demo

http://gematsu.com/2015/04/final-fantasy-xv-feedback-live-stream-full-report-episode-duscae-2-0-coming-mid-may

 

Controls seemed to be a universally disliked thing, which explains the massive changes to them since. It's actually really cool to see how the feedback was taken on board and used to improve the game. A true "beta" as it were. Seems Prompto wasn't overly liked either

[Mal]

Reading through some of the comments... #5 jaggies and frame rate and #6 slowness of movement/responsiveness is kind of related. If the frame rate is unstable then your actions will seem sluggish regardless of the animation used. Kind of nice to see that they are prioritizing frame rate than resolution but at the same time it is 1080p@30. They're not or are having trouble maintaining what I consider a bare minimum (It should be 60 fps since it is real time but I'm cutting them some slack due to hardware). At least they are trying. I can appreciate that. Hope they can hit a stable 1080p@30fps.

[deanb]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-11-02-finishing-final-fantasy

 

Decent write up of the progress of FFXV under Tabatas stewardship.

[deanb]

 

Somewhat interesting video in the development and addition of Moogles to the game. Kinda hoping they intend to knock out a plush toy for it.

[Mal]

That's terrible. Watch, somewhere along the line an actual Moogle will appear kupo.

[deanb]

I've a feeling not. They've been quite insistent on not having much in the way of the more usual "fantastical" races except as daemons at night. I think it's quite cute, though their "moogle collection campaign" thing was really clunky.

[deanb]

Demo out tomorrow that'll cover Chapter 0 and up to middle of Chapter 1, roughly 1-1.5hrs of gameplay. Won't transfer over save wise though. And another snag being it's on the Japan PS Store.

[deanb]

I did an article:

http://pressxordie.com/2016/11/12/things-to-pass-time-before-final-fantasy-xv-releases/

Though not much I've already mentioned on here.

 

And here's an imgur with a bunch of my screenshots and "Promptogrpahy"

http://imgur.com/a/xPGbe

 

Also a playlist someone made of the demo tunes:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc_RJ2laVnkBqi31wV2-fA9N7QWTS96fl

(thoguh also felt the need to "Extend" them which doesn't work in some cases, especially as the game doesn't play them for many minutes at a time but works through many different tunes)