Square-Enix Final Fantasy XV [the game formerly known as Versus XIII]

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Personally, seeing as even the PS4 version of the Platinum Demo has some framerate stuttering, I'd rather see them work on optimizing that before working on polishing other parts of the visuals. I'm disappointed that we're not seeing 60 FPS (and MGSV tells me that there is a way to make the game look phenomenal AND have a rock solid 60 FPS, even on X1), but I can live with 30. The frame stuttering is killing me, though.

 

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If that means there's actually some focus on telling the story and fewer superfluous characters (seriously, people who somehow like Final Fantasy XIII, please tell me ONE thing Jihl Nabaat did that Yaag Rosch couldn't have done or vice versa), then it should be a good sign. Somehow Final Fantasy XIII managed to have practically no plot, while still having too much plot.

 

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I'm loving the aesthetic and world design of this game so far, even if I know feckall about the story besides stuff about royalty in a modern era and short-shorts.

 

I mean writing shouldn't be a problem either, lore wise i'm sure it's refined mainly because it's Final fantasy and because they've had 10 years of refining it , I know a lot of people who are doubting the game in it's writing department but i feel like it's solid

 

Then explain Final Fantasy XIII.

 

So they implemented the flying car as an extra instead of a mandatory story item, like pretty much any other game? There better be same good secrets hidden away with that thing

 

I shouldn't need to, FFXIII started out as something good to be honest, the first game had decent enough writing, just DECENT. The problem everyone had with XIII was that Snow and Hope were a pain in the ass. Either way the game's lore was something that was good , for the first game that is. The gameplay elements were what made the game so terribad , especially because the game is just a set of pretty looking hallways , you go straight you win , it's a game that basically played itself in every aspect because in battle you had the auto attack option which was faster and more efficient than actually inputting commands in yourself.

XIII-2 & 3 i can't speak for both are just a mess when it comes to writing because of the fact they brought in the alternate realities and time travel into the mix along with the third game resetting the games universe (apparently the universe that got reset was what developed into FFXV's universe , though i'm sure this is a fan theory)

Along with that a lot of aspects of FFXIII/type-0's lore has been taken , disassembled and the good aspects of them have been put in FFXV , such as the concept of L'cie which in my opinion was actually good, but they've taken out the whole "you turn into crystal " aspect or the whole "focus" BS they had in them , because Noctis and his friends are basically L'cie though i don't think they're gonna refer to them as L'cie in the game , we'll see.

You can disagree with me if you want but I think the first installment of XIII was written pretty well, aside from the throw away terms like "the purge" and other terms they used every so often without explaining the principles behind it, XIII actually had some decent character development on Lightnings end , y'know , before they turned her into an "emotionless warrior" in the final installment , by a lot of means XIII was bad , but it's writing wasn't the most terrible thing about it.

 

FFXIII (the first one) was very poor from a narrative and quality of writing stance. Every other Final Fantasy I have played have done an excellent job of introducing you to its world and culture through the major narrative, and fleshing out more finite pieces of it/additional details through side quests or simple conversations with NPCs. That's non-existant in XIII, and the developers definitely realized that because they put a massive Codex in the game that you have to read to understand anything beyond the basic plot of "Lightning is a soldier and her and these other people are cursed social outcasts and they're... walking around doing something about it kind of?" Years down the line nobody can really explain go me what the **** the actual game is about. There's no active world-building, which is a damn shame because I think some of the concepts and lore in the game could be pretty cool, and I appreciate their attempt to do a semi-nonlinear narrative (jumping around in the 13 days), but when you don't give a **** about any of the characters you don't really want to know their backstories.

Which brings me to the next biggest problem with XIII: the characters. The only one I felt remotely interested in was Sazh. Fang and Oerba were okay but I'm not going to pretend they had a backstory that struck any kind of interest, I actually liked Hope but I know I'm in the minority there, and Snow is pretty damn insufferable. I don't blame Hope for trying to stab him at every opportunity (maybe that's why I liked him). There are a ton of unnecessary characters running around who are presented to have some kind of purpose but then just randomly die or disappear without doing anything (Jihl). And Lightning is the worst of them all. Fair warning that I didn't finish the game but from what I have played and what I know of the ending, her so-called "character development" is just "hothead calms down a little and learns to hold a conversation without punching someone." There's absolutely no emotional pull to the character. And I'll defend to the death a female character's right to be unlikeable and unemotional, but when it's the main character it can detract from the game especially when the supporting cast is also incredibly weak.

The gameplay isn't great. The linearity is a problem as the bulk of the game falls into the "kill-a-thon on rails" category. I know many dislike the battle system but I don't mind it too much. To suggest that the gameplay is the only reason XIII performed poorly critically and is such a sore spot for the fans frankly ignores the bulk of the criticism levied against the game.

I'm concerned with the writing behind XV for some intersecting and some different reasons. Similar to XIII, the anime and movie concerns me that much of the character-building is being sidelined to these extras rather than being (rightfully) an integral part of the narrative. I'm also concerned about the game's narrative because, while we've seen some cool concepts over the last ten years, we have no idea what remains and what doesn't in the game, and all of the promotion for the game in the last few years has been "BROS take a road trip" rather than the political plot we still know nothing about. I'm concerned that once Tabata took over and imposed the bros plotline that it became the focus rather than the kingdom politics and lore-centric stuff (which, a lot of the lore was seemingly gutted when it was separated from the XIII line).

With two very different focuses driving the project (Nomura's and Tabata's), I'm concerned the game has become a camel.

 

I'm not worried about the film or anime taking away too much character building from the game itself; unlike Final Fantasy XIII where the full cast basically didn't even meet each other until the halfway point or some point that far, it seems we'll get plenty of time with the full party in the 40+ hours of Final Fantasy XV. I'm pretty sure Kingsglaive doesn't even have Noctis or the other three main characters, so that'll just be a bit more character development for Regis Lucis and world-building of the game's universe.

And I agree with Misty: the issue with XII was hardly the combat system (which I kind of liked but found ultimately far too simplistic) but the lack of world-building (completely lacking a sense of culture and commerce due to missing out on towns and such) and meaningful character development and very basic storyline and plenty other things.

But I don't think the "bros take a road-trip" is going to be an issue: what I feel like the game will probably do is use that kind of storyline for the first quarter or third of the game to get us used to the cast and the gameplay, and then ramp up the political and epic storyline, but this is only speculation on my part. I could fully be wrong, but we'll see.

Maybe I'm just optimistic, but I feel like Square learned plenty after the criticism of the XIII trilogy and having successfully rebooted XIV. That and I sorely want to be excited for a new Final Fantasy game again, and nothing in XV so far has me worried beside being held-back technically by the consoles.

 

If the writing is anything like FFXIV, we won't have much to worry about. The game may not be near done, but every time there's a patch, there's a huge deal of content and character development just from about an hour or 2 of gameplay. Might be because I enjoy the game, but I seriously won't worry if they are using their brains like they are in XIV.

*also I liked Snow as a character. Don't shoot me*

 

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