Final Fantasy XV

[deanb]

I'm not a fan of the segment but I guess some are or they wouldn't continue doing it.

 

This I can't embed but it's pretty damn sweet example of combat against bigger creatures:

https://twitter.com/owariKUDO/status/798229980404654080

 

Gotta say the range you can have with the warping is much larger than I'd have first thought. And damn is the blizzard spell shown here pretty dang sweet (even if the AoE cripples the party )

[TCP]

Why aren't you a fan?

[deanb]

American comedy in general doesn't really grab me. Loud noises n funny noises kinda stuff (like especially the stuff at the start).

[TheMightyEthan]

That's funny, I associate the more ridiculous "loud/funny noises" type comedy primarily with the UK.  I also don't like it.

[TCP]

That's funny, I associate the more ridiculous "loud/funny noises" type comedy primarily with the UK.  I also don't like it.

 

UK has comedy? 

 

EDIT:

Oh yeah, that's right:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monty Python too, they were good. Well, sometimes.

Edited November 15, 2016 by It will probably suck

[TCP]

Wait does it really take 72 hours to beat that boss? That can't be right. But on the other hand it's a Final Fantasy....

[deanb]

I believe it's closer to 72 in-game hours, which'd be closer to around 90 minutes in real world time.

 

It's meant to be a more extreme creature to tackle similar to Yiazmat in FFXII, and I believe something similar in FFXI or FFXIV.

[Saturnine Tenshi]

Man, this game's combat is baffling. Is it just QTEs and a few attacks with fancy animations or what? Because that's all I ever see.

[deanb]

It's pretty usual ARPG fare with attacks of various strength (augmented with having different weapons, with different speed, stagger, strength abilities), and your dodge, roll n counter attack stuff. The additions to these are the warping, which lets you warp sort of out of battle to recover, and warp in causing extra damage, you can (on bigger creatures) target specific points, allowing you to, for example, lop off horns or limbs or what not. You can also command your party to do certain actions and also link with them for certain attacks too.

The magic acts more like grenades, with a bit of Rikkus "mix" stuff in that you craft your magic spells before hand fusing several elements and able to use items to so potions would help create a spell that heals your guys while setting enemies on fire. There's other magic available too through the Ring of Lucii but that's sort of end-game stuff (they've shown off "Death" for example).

 

There's also the summons, but not much is known on how those will work in combat. While Ramuh shows up in the Duscae demo if you hit 0HP it's guessed that won't always be the case n they'll be much more special n limited than in prior games.

[Saturnine Tenshi]

I see. Maybe it just looks too flashy, so I'm thinking there isn't much going on besides that. How would you compare it to FFXIII when it comes to combat? It's obviously less traditional, but what you're describing seems like a mix of that and XII.

[deanb]

Oh it's flashy as hell, really pretty combat.

 

I'd say the only thing it has in common with XIII is only controlling the one main party member, though that's where it ends and thankfully unlike XIII you don't game over if Noctis dies as long as you've enough phoenix downs to keep going.

 

Which looks cool btw.

 

It's much closer to XII out of the two, the whole battles within the overworld stuff, and each sort of lump of enemies treat as a battle (you get XP and graded on performance at the end...which I guess the grading is a thing XIII did too). My understanding is there's a sort of gambit system in there, though not as comprehensive as XII had. Otherwise it plays much closer to an ARPG. Dragons Dogma I guess is a close comparison in having a party where you control one dude n you're hacking n slashing. I've not played Kingdom Hearts but a lot of people compare it closer with those, which makes sense given the team is mostly from KH games.

[Saturnine Tenshi]

Good to hear it doesn't have that bullshit where your party dies if your character dies.

[deanb]

http://i.imgur.com/3X1UEag.gifv

 

So in the whole "it plays mostly like an ARPG though the warping is the big difference" this is a good example of that. Also has Air Step ability here too I'd guess (it's like one of the first ascensions you can get so pretty likely). Also I love the animation for lances (which he uses at the end).

[deanb]

 

I guess sort of the launch trailer.

 

Oh yeah it shows the cute NES animations you get when buying things.

[Saturnine Tenshi]

That fucking narrator.

[deanb]

Yeah, bit annoying. I'd have loved Ardyn/Reinheardt guys to do it but I guess it'd be in character n maybe spoil things in that aspect.

[deanb]

A bit of the piggyback guide for free:

http://piggyback.com/downloadfile.php?id_download=1859&type=guide&mode=download

[deanb]

 

Big IGN stream thing they di;, interview with Tabata and showing off battle with Midgarsoremrem...solom and Leviathan(which is a bit QTE type, but it is a summon battle). Starts proper at about 17 minutes in  and you can probably just stop after the Leviathan battle (after 1:05) cos Tabata then goes on a bit of a legal diatribe against streamers n what not that seemed a bit out of place :/

[MetalCaveman]

 

Just because you can fight a gigantuar, doesn't mean you should fight a gigantuar.

 

Edit: I can't embed it with the start at: thingy, gigantuar bit starts at 43:34

Edited November 26, 2016 by MetalCaveman

[Mal]

Some people are saying the villain rivals the best that FF offers. Let's say that I am intrigued.

 

As for the game itself, it seems to be doing really good considering the development hell it went through. It'll be interesting to see how it is viewed after its honeymoon period.

[TheMightyEthan]

Huh, I've heard the opposite: that the villain is completely boring.

[Saturnine Tenshi]

I'm going to need each of you to back up your arguments because I don't know who to believe and I just want to take a side.

[deanb]

So I'm ~5hrs in (hard to tell cos it counts time while paused).

 

I'm in Chapter 2 now, so beyond the "Judgment Disc" demo from Japan, though yet to reach Duscae. The inclusion of Kingsglaive scenes in some parts is good, for example the opening with Regis seeing your crew off from Insomnia, but also a bit weirdly placed for the between Chapters showing the fall of Insomnia n death of Regis which was mostly just mixed up heavily edited cuts together with little context (I only knew what was happening cos of seeing the film). The loading screen after it does actually give a paragraph of text though, which I feel might have been better overlayed on the Kingsglaive footage. But ah well.

 

There's currently a wee bug that seems to be impacting nearly everyone though by how much depends on if you've a dirt cheap shitty TV or not. It's not using the PS4 screen settings so it's a bit bigger than it should be and you've got to change your aspect ratio settings on TV to fit the edge of screen in. I imagine that'll be a quick fix though.

 

Otherwise I'm having fun. Managed to have a fight against some birds which were only rumoured before now. Being able to warp around certainly makes fights against flying beasties fun. I imagine if I was skilled enough I'd be able to move through the flock without hitting the ground once. Getting a lot more out of it now it's in a language I understand (incidentally given the options I had on loading I think this is dual audio). There's also more hunts and side quests than the demo had for the area (though I think a bit of it might be missing the side quests from not understanding what was going on ). 

 

I'll add more thoughts later, off to pub.

[Mal]

 

A look at the game through the years. When you think about it, a lot of the time was spent retooling the game from the PS3 to the current gen consoles and their refreshes. No small feat considering the unique PS3 hardware. Besides the hardware limitations on graphical/performance, the only problem I'm seeing is the frame timing issues on the PS4 versions (See DF's PS4, PS4 Pro and Xbone performance reports; Scorpio whenever it comes out). I believe I've read/heard that a 60 fps version is in the works. Once that drops I think a PC version won't be far behind. Hoping for a hint at E3 since I want to play.

Edited December 1, 2016 by Mal

[deanb]

@Mal: Dang that old Regalia. The new Regalia is great. I love my design atm, abusing the resizing options for the "race stripes" to give a two tone throughout.

 

 

and japanese dub:

 

 

In other news Square reckon it's sold 5 million on day one making it the fastest selling FF. Kinda amazing given the other wise shitty game sales this month (unless loads of people were waiting on this? I know I was).

 

I'm now into Chapter 3 and the game has opened up a fair bit more, now into the Duscae region (which is the area from their first demo, except that was barely a thin slice of the finished area). Goddamn is it pretty. Especially the meteor in the centre, it glows with a sort of blue flame at night which looks great. I did the Deadeye mission too, the "boss battle" of the Duscae demo n the fog in it is probably the best fog I've ever seen. If I wasn't having to be all sneaky I'd have screenshotted the fuck out of it, such a great gradient on seeing his shadow, or just sort of his tail sticking out as you're trying to follow him to his lair.

And hey means I now have Chocobos.

 

Also got to Lestallum the first of the towns. Pretty cool place, obviously it's not sized like a proper town but it's got a nice layout that belies that with a market stall, shops, the swanky area with fountain n high end hotel (where you and your princely entourage crash), as well as the crappy alleyways with rubbish stacked up n pipes around. Such a change from FFXIII

 

One minor issue I have is with the main story. At least two of them have dead dads (Gladios dad is the kings protector, same as Gladio is to Noctis), yet the only sorta mention Regis n there's not really much of an impact it's like "oh your dad is dead, the empire has taken your home city, go n grab the weapons of past kings". It feels a bit of an elephant in the room to not like have them chat at a camp or something. Also it's annoying you can't take on multiple hunts and just activate them as n when you want. Somewhat slows the pacing of doing missions since you've got to go to the guy, get hunt, go do hunt, come back, do another hunt etc. Be nice for the Regalia Quest list to include levels too, gotta go into the main menu n find it from there. 

 

 

Oh handy tips:
- Push R3 when your stamina is at ~5% (you can enable the stamina bar in the menu which is handy for hanging off buildings too since you drop when it's low)

- You can't eat meals at hostels/caravans so you won't get a boost for future battles (though you do get a multiplier for current XP gain in levelling up)

- The frog mission is a bitch, I'd suggest just googling the solution for that

- You only get a brief foray of manual driving in early game, so plough through to Chapter 3 if you want to manually drive.

- Buying food items, reading books (they're lying around), doing hunts, unlocks new recipes for Ignis *clicks fingers*

 

I think there's a couple. I'll add down the line.