The Story (Disappointing or what?)

[Alvaro-M27]

10 YEARS! 10 FREKIN YEARS!! And this is what we get??

With all the respect for people who liked it, please tell me why!

First and foremost i'm talking about the story, just that... not the combat system, not the world, not the gameplay, not the graphics...props for those aspects...

But geezz the Story is getting on my nerves....

 

And this is why:

The storytelling is so week, the script is poor, and the voiceovers...oh GOD! Many plot points doesn't even make sense... most of the time i feel like a lot of stuff was cut... like they lost their way from point A to B...

People changing sides and we don't even get an explanation why...Some characters look so appealing but fall short...No clear explanation on their motives or motivations...

I loved Kingslave... but honestly, that movie put my hopes to high... and the gmestory feel so short...

I got so frustaded with Ravus... what a waste!! I didn't get what the hell happened... And about the Nilfheim Empire?? Wasn't even properly used ... looks like everything was used for the goals of Ardyn...but so poor job explaining that...

Gentiana to... wasted character...

Areana...wasted...

Cor...wasted...

Astrals...wasted...

Luna...WASTED!

 

And that deal about the 10 years passing during the game?? Oh please... i won't even go there...

 

My first FF was FFX and that was amazing...i wont go as far saying that FFX-2 was better, but at least we knew the characters, their aspirations and motives...

 

There as so much hate on FFXIII but i actually loved it and for my (once again storywise) it was better then FFXV... i admite FFXIII-2 fell a bit short and Lighteing was so boring and soullacking in the third game...but still... overhall great story, nice characters, very well explained backgrounds, mithology...

 

In short: Great ideas...poor execution!

 

Heck... i know i should explain myself better, but i wan't to avoid spoilers... for those  who already played it and/or seen the full story... what do you think?

 

This video speaks my mind (spoilers):

 

Edited December 28, 2016 by Alvaro-M27

[NINTENDOTHEGOAT]

I could not agree more the story is honestly utter trash and the way it just ends..... is a joke but the combat is very fluent that really impressed me the characters have no development what so ever, you can literally hold circle to win most of the fights , i thought the graphics were ok nothing that blew me away, its a 6/10 for me all the way and it turns out too be average. 

[DaivRules]

First: Thank you for avoiding spoilers.

 

Second: Never associate the amount of time you have to wait for something with increased expectations of quality results. A story doesn't get better just because it took longer to write.

 

Sorry you didn't enjoy the story as much as prior FF games, some people really seem to be enjoying it. Just one of those things that happens sometimes. 

[coldkillaaaaaaaa]

10 YEARS! 10 FREKIN YEARS!! And this is what we get??

With all the respect for people who liked it, please tell me why!

First and foremost i'm talking about the story, just that... not the combat system, not the world, not the gameplay, not the graphics...props for those aspects...

But geezz the Story is getting on my nerves....

 

And this is why:

The storytelling is so week, the script is poor, and the voiceovers...oh GOD! Many plot points doesn't even make sense... most of the time i feel like a lot of stuff was cut... like they lost their way from point A to B...

People changing sides and we don't even get an explanation why...Some characters look so appealing but fall short...No clear explanation on their motives or motivations...

I loved Kingslave... but honestly, that movie put my hopes to high... and the gmestory feel so short...

I got so frustaded with Ravus... what a waste!! I didn't get what the hell happened... And about the Nilfheim Empire?? Wasn't even properly used ... looks like everything was used for the goals of Ardyn...but so poor job explaining that...

Gentiana to... wasted character...

Areana...wasted...

Cor...wasted...

Astrals...wasted...

Luna...WASTED!

 

And that deal about the 10 years passing during the game?? Oh please... i won't even go there...

 

My first FF was FFX and that was amazing...i wont go as far saying that FFX-2 was better, but at least we knew the characters, their aspirations and motives...

 

There as so much hate on FFXIII but i actually loved it and for my (once again storywise) it was better then FFXV... i admite FFXIII-2 fell a bit short and Lighteing was so boring and soullacking in the third game...but still... overhall great story, nice characters, very well explained backgrounds, mithology...

 

In short: Great ideas...poor execution!

 

Heck... i know i should explain myself better, but i wan't to avoid spoilers... for those  who already played it and/or seen the full story... what do you think?

FF13's story was trash too....lol, FF13 essentially suffers from every criticism you gave to 15, including the VA's, there's usually never good VA's in FF games. Plus the lazy design, and underwhelming combat, FF13 is the worst in the series.

[Hertz]

Still blows my mind people finished the story already

Did you play the game with the amazing day one 10 GB patch?

I do not know what scenes they added on that patch as I am just fooling around in the game and drooling at Cindy.

I'm not trying to defend the game or anything. Your opinion is just and very interesting.

[Alvaro-M27]

FF13's story was trash too....lol, FF13 essentially suffers from every criticism you gave to 15, including the VA's, there's usually never good VA's in FF games. Plus the lazy design, and underwhelming combat, FF13 is the worst in the series.

 

I understand some os the critics to FFXIII... but still, in there you well defined bad guys and good guys, there motives, people they when they had to die, and you knew how and why... even if the story isn't the best one, or underdeveloped... you still get a sense of connection...at least that's what i think... sure isn't a great game, maybe not a good game to... but i really think it is better then FFXV... i can even go as far as saing the story o  Mortal Kombat is better... a better trash lol

Still blows my mind people finished the story already

Did you play the game with the amazing day one 10 GB patch?

I do not know what scenes they added on that patch as I am just fooling around in the game and drooling at Cindy.

I'm not trying to defend the game or anything. Your opinion is just and very interesting.

 

To be honest i haven't played the game. i'm just the kinda of person who doesn't mind spoilers... and i don't have a ps4 at the moment...and i didn't want to wait to see the story...

What compells me to buy games is the story... so even if the game is great in graphics, combat system, adventure etc... it dies for me without a good plot. I started to watch the playtrough with the sole purpose to satisfie a bit my curiosity. i didn't intend to watch it all, but i kept seeing because i was so looking for reasons to buy the game... never found them, because, like i said, i like a good story...

Of course if the game had a good story, and trashy gameplay i wouldn't buy it either... but a bad story and good gameplay still doesn't work for me...

 

Keep playing and enjoy the good stuff... because they exist...i have to admit that... and since i didn't play it myself i can't judge many of the other game features...If u get frustated in the end, like me, please let me know

[Xel]

I will try to say this while avoiding spoilers.

The story is a hot mess. I feel like Tabata was responsible for the open world of the game. The linear chapters, however, I think that's where FFXV falls short, maybe that's what Nomura intended for the 2nd half of the game, I remember Tabata mentioning that Nomura's vision still exists. I mean look at the storytelling in Type-0 and Crisis Core you'd think Tabata has mastered his craft by now, he obviously had constraints with the story. No wonder there's so much rewriting and so much off screen stuff happening. Tbh, I don't know where the problem lies perhaps they didn't put many resources into the writing. Chapter 13 made me wanna kill myself. 2 Hours stealth sequence?! Seriously? in a Final Fantasy game?! I'm outta here.

[Cetra29]

The story's problem is just that there is just not much, it feels incredibly sparse. That gets way better til the end but before that it is a problem. Even knowing Kingsglaive and Brotherhood it is not that much and even having seen those secret camping scenes with like Noctis and Prompto talking about the past while sitting on a motel roof which definitely should be obligatory instead of hidden, it is still not much. Final Fantasy often has those subplots that ultimately lead together to everything and I think that is one of the things that its lacking, together with some other story aspects such as not enough screentime for characters like Luna.

 

The final scene still saved it for me.

Edited December 2, 2016 by Cetra29

[TheAveryChu]

I'm also going to be trying to avoid spoilers for the time being. 

I just finished Chapter 7. The main characters so far are the best aspect of the writing, but as far as the narrative it is incredibly weak so far. I'm not entirely sure what is so evil about the Empire, what exactly they want, and I am failing to understand half of the other character's motivations. 

I saw Kingslave, but I didn't study it. I am assuming that some of those problems are addressed there, but even then that is still an incredible flaw of writing if you have to consume other media just to have a basic understanding of the story.

In terms of characters, XV easily has among the best in the series, but as far the plot goes, XIII is stronger than XV. 

Edited December 3, 2016 by TheAveryChu

[FeralTurtle]

I think the story is good, sure it isn't mindblowing but I think it's a great "return to roots" which is something they were going for for the game (and I think that goal was influenced by the unnecessary amount of backlash XIII got). I guess there are alot of "why's" in the story that seem left out which may frustrate some people, including me a little bit, but I think maybe there's more depth to it than meets the eye, FF games tend to be like that. The writing seems weak at first but after looking at it more, you start to understand and connect things more and even fan theories start pouring in. But I'm kind of speaking out of past experience and maybe this game may indeed have a "weaker" story, but idk, I still gotta watch Kingsglaive and Brotherhood, since they seem pretty important for understanding it. Overall, it really is a beautiful game that was well worth the wait (and let's be real, most of us weren't waiting a full ten years since it's very first debut as Versus XIII since we didn't even know if it was going to be a go or not).

 

Edit: To the OP, please don't turn away from this game just because you think the story doesn't seem great, especially if you haven't played the game. Let me tell you this, there's a good difference between watching people play the game/reading reviews rather than actually playing it yourself...and by the way, the story is good, of course it's nothing over the top but it is solid. What really drew me in, at least, was not how complex or amazing the story was itself, but the emotional journey the game took me through. This is something I learned from FF games. It's like watching a really good movie, the way it's paced and all the detail such as the slightest music cues and character expressions.. that's what makes it good. Basically it's not just the story itself that can be appreciated but the way the story is told which can make a world of difference. Just experience it as it is.

Edited December 3, 2016 by FeralTurtle

[Hadeshii]

post-credits scene

 

[instastoump]

The game has suffered too much develpment hell. I'm on chapter 3 but I've already seen that the cut scenes, the pacing, the main quests all have problems. Thing is the main scenario was and sub plot for XIII in the start and it had the broz be L'cie and shit. Of course having the game go as a numbered title they had to remove these plot points but without much pre production you can't have a complete game. Versus was going to be 3 full games. XV is one game that has suffered in these past years. I hear from people the story wasn't that great but it had potential. Still in these 17 chapters I'm in I enjoy every aspect of the game excluding th main scenario. It's not that bad until now but it's not grat either.

[FVRlS-]

its so good i don't wanna finish it 

ofc it has flaws like every game

[Hadeshii]

Ravus... what a waste!! I didn't get what the hell happened... And about the Nilfheim Empire?? Wasn't even properly used ... looks like everything was used for the goals of Ardyn...but so poor job explaining that...

Gentiana to... wasted character...

Areana...wasted...

Cor...wasted...

Astrals...wasted...

Luna...WASTED!

 

Remember when there were two Dogs?

The white one was wasted too.

Only Umbra survived.

[DEMON]

I just completed the story and thought it was great.  A good point to make would be not to rush it.  Obviously if you are going to rush it and miss out on lore from things like books/pages/radios lying around, then yea, you're obviously going to be disappointed.

 

I will say there is plot holes, but the only plot holes I found was with Gladio, Prompto and Ignis.. I guess that's what their DLC episodes are for which I'm looking forward to.

 

I will try to say this while avoiding spoilers.

The story is a hot mess. I feel like Tabata was responsible for the open world of the game. The linear chapters, however, I think that's where FFXV falls short, maybe that's what Nomura intended for the 2nd half of the game, I remember Tabata mentioning that Nomura's vision still exists. I mean look at the storytelling in Type-0 and Crisis Core you'd think Tabata has mastered his craft by now, he obviously had constraints with the story. No wonder there's so much rewriting and so much off screen stuff happening. Tbh, I don't know where the problem lies perhaps they didn't put many resources into the writing. Chapter 13 made me wanna kill myself. 2 Hours stealth sequence?! Seriously? in a Final Fantasy game?! I'm outta here.

 

What stealth? You could literally time your dodges and kill all the enemies off with Holy (there's like a node which gives you MP if you time your dodges to the enemy's attack, so I never had to hide from enemies).

 

I actually really enjoyed Chapter 13.. it felt like a survival horror, a lot of answers were revealed and there was a lot of lore lying about to read.  I honestly don't know why people hate on it so much.

 

Now I'm gonna work towards the platinum and enjoy the rest of the end game and pick up whatever lore I missed.

[Gage]

I just completed the story and thought it was great.  A good point to make would be not to rush it.  Obviously if you are going to rush it and miss out on lore from things like books/pages/radios lying around, then yea, you're obviously going to be disappointed.

 

I will say there is plot holes, but the only plot holes I found was with Gladio, Prompto and Ignis.. I guess that's what their DLC episodes are for which I'm looking forward to.

 

What stealth? You could literally time your dodges and kill all the enemies off with Holy (there's like a node which gives you MP if you time your dodges to the enemy's attack, so I never had to hide from enemies).

 

I actually really enjoyed Chapter 13.. it felt like a survival horror, a lot of answers were revealed and there was a lot of lore lying about to read.  I honestly don't know why people hate on it so much.

 

Now I'm gonna work towards the platinum and enjoy the rest of the end game and pick up whatever lore I missed.

A lot of the notes are really important to the story, like all the ones in chapter 13 give a lot of backstory on the area you're in and you'll completly miss it without reading the notes.

Im going to post a thread on PST about this tonight on my theory about the dlc episodes, but you can make some pretty well informed guesses on when/where the dlc episodes will take place based off of the theme that comes with the digital version of the game that shows background for each of the guys episodes.

Holy pretty much breaks that chapter of the game. I noticed as well it'll sometimes knock the weapons out of the enemies hands and then they can't actually damage you, so you can then just death spell them.

Chapter 13 is my least favorite part of the game though, mostly due to its length. Story wise it's really cool, but forced jogging the entire time makes it take far too long. Pretty sure it'd be faster just to stay in combat whenever possible so that you can sprint through the area instead of moving slowly through the same corridors for 2 hours.

[DEMON]

A lot of the notes are really important to the story, like all the ones in chapter 13 give a lot of backstory on the area you're in and you'll completly miss it without reading the notes.

Im going to post a thread on PST about this tonight on my theory about the dlc episodes, but you can make some pretty well informed guesses on when/where the dlc episodes will take place based off of the theme that comes with the digital version of the game that shows background for each of the guys episodes.

Holy pretty much breaks that chapter of the game. I noticed as well it'll sometimes knock the weapons out of the enemies hands and then they can't actually damage you, so you can then just death spell them.

Chapter 13 is my least favorite part of the game though, mostly due to its length. Story wise it's really cool, but forced jogging the entire time makes it take far too long. Pretty sure it'd be faster just to stay in combat whenever possible so that you can sprint through the area instead of moving slowly through the same corridors for 2 hours.

 

I'll probably join in on that thread.. love making theories.

 

Yea, Holy is so OP, attack a bunch of enemies at once.. like hell, I was still using that at the beginning of Chapter 14 for packs of enemies. lol  Yes, that caught me off-guard a lot of the time.. it was like "why is Holy not activating", then I stood still and realized the thing basically couldn't attack me.

 

Chapter 13 was my favorite, it focused heavily on Daemons (you know, my name here kind of hints at something >.> lol) and my favorite character;

 

Which is Ardyn.  Despite all the stuff he does, he's still my favorite and I feel if anything, there needs to be DLC of his past or at least DLC that allows you to fight him in his daemon form.. that was maybe the only disappointing thing to me was that they basically teased that at the end. Speaking of Ardyn though, he definitely has been a comeback for the villains of FF and is easily my favorite one.

Edited December 4, 2016 by DEMON

[SnowxSakura]

It could be much worse after 10 years

[Gage]

Yea, Holy is so OP, attack a bunch of enemies at once.. like hell, I was still using that at the beginning of Chapter 14 for packs of enemies. lol  Yes, that caught me off-guard a lot of the time.. it was like "why is Holy not activating", then I stood still and realized the thing basically couldn't attack me.

 

Chapter 13 was my favorite, it focused heavily on Daemons (you know, my name here kind of hints at something >.> lol) and my favorite character;

 

Which is Ardyn.  Despite all the stuff he does, he's still my favorite and I feel if anything, there needs to be DLC of his past or at least DLC that allows you to fight him in his daemon form.. that was maybe the only disappointing thing to me was that they basically teased that at the end. Speaking of Ardyn though, he definitely has been a comeback for the villains of FF and is easily my favorite one.

You can be super cheesey with Holy during the Ardyn fight too if you have instant dodge activation. Start beating on him and then as soon as he goes to attack switch to ring and hit square to hit him with Holy.

I like the story parts of chapter 13, just think the over execution of it was really bad and it's way too long because of it.

Ardyn was a great villian. Always present through the story without being obvious as to his intentions. You start to wonder what he's up to after a while, and they even pulled a fake out with the trophy list by having Ifrit be the gold trophy when he's not even the final boss.

[DEMON]

You can be super cheesey with Holy during the Ardyn fight too if you have instant dodge activation. Start beating on him and then as soon as he goes to attack switch to ring and hit square to hit him with Holy.

I like the story parts of chapter 13, just think the over execution of it was really bad and it's way too long because of it.

Ardyn was a great villian. Always present through the story without being obvious as to his intentions. You start to wonder what he's up to after a while, and they even pulled a fake out with the trophy list by having Ifrit be the gold trophy when he's not even the final boss.

 

Yea, figured. Sadly his fight wasn't much of a challenge (Titan basically came in and threw a fucking bolder on top of him) although he did manage to one shot me on that Zone of the Enders phrase his fight had.. dunno how.. it just kind of came suddenly.. lol .

 

Maybe.. I like things that last a while tbh.. the rest of the chapters if you weren't doing the amount of extra stuff I did, you would feel like they were a bit super short.  Chapter 13 being long was a rather nice surprise to me.  Poor Ravus though, I kind of felt for him at the end of that.  I realized it was probably because of the Magitek arm he had since we found out that they originated from daemons in this game.

 

Yea, he played the brothers nearly the whole way through. I liked his attitude honestly as you the player, if you watched Kingsglaive would clearly know that this guy was the guy behind the whole mess in the first place.  I never really expected him to be a Lucis Caelum though (I was expecting him to be Bahamut honestly). The bit where he says "You'll never guess whose name Izunia was." and whatever he was about to say to Gentiana (before she did the most epic "stfu you psycho" ) but yea, it was like he knew her, maybe she was his oracle or some shit?; I feel like it isn't the last we have seen of him.

[ThiophenSJ]

I loved the story. Without going into spoilers here, I think it makes a story of a game/ movie/ book especially great if NOT everything is directly explained to you. You have to read between the lines, think about what happened, make your own clues and find some secret stuff to add onto the lore. And if it is designed well, everything will make sense in the end - and that is completely true for FFXV.

However, there are some things here and there that aren't explained too well too, but I didn't think these are destroying the whole story at all.

Edited December 5, 2016 by ShadowStefan

[DEMON]

Someone actually pointed out, the bit at the end of the Collector's Guide actually fulls in some of the actual plot holes the game had.  So if you have that, it's worth a read.

[Alvaro-M27]

I guess this sums it up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaLUbAq93N0

[ShadowReplicant]

Just finished the game and... I just feel numb. I spent 50 hours having a total blast in the open world, looking forward to the rest of the journey and then... you leave the main continent, a bunch of disjointed setpieces happen, and before you know it, you're done. It took me 8 hours to get from chapter 8 to the end credits. Basically from that chapter onward the game becomes a blueprint for how NOT to tell an epic story. It picks up in the final chapter, but at that point it's simply too late. There were genuinely touching moments in the final hour or so, but I was already way too disconnected from the entire experience to appreciate them fully. What a terrible shame. So much potential gone to waste. I'd rate the story elements like this:

The premise of the story: 9/10

Overall story as executed in the final game: 4/10

Characterization: 6/10 for the main party, 2/10 for the supporting cast and antagonists

[NEV]

Wait, what? What do you mean by disappointed? It doesn't seems disappointing at all. The story won't tell you what the heck's going on or why Niflheim are the bad guys, even Noctis and Luna doesn't even know what's going on, either. Just wait for the new content, and you'll see.

Edited December 13, 2016 by Gokai Yellow