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How is the reception for FFXV by fans and first timers last year and today?


Alantor32

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   Been a while since I thought about it and haven't played it since I platted it last december - my thoughts are still the same though. This could have been a completely different and superior experience if it stayed in development for another couple of years. The world is generally nice if a little samey after a while but the game was crying out for another locale to explore in the same way, I still can't believe the game had only 1 town on the main map. The MMO style fetch quests felt really out of place for a Final Fantasy style game and I can't believe they were that lazy to resort to that.

   The story IMO is absolutely awful because of how it was done and I think now that the honeymoon phase is over for the fanbase a good majority of players who sat through the awfully delivered plot feel the same. I don't see it as a good thing that Square Enix has put a survey in its game to ask players what they would like them to add, as it really drives home the feeling they put out a half baked product and are fully aware of that. The first game I ever played on my PS1 as a babby was Final Fantasy 8 and I've been a huge fan of the series since then - sorry for the hyperbole but this is the worst experience I've had with a mainline FF game in all the ~20 years I've been playing them.

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As someone who came to FF in the later games ive learned to just not bother listening to the things said on forums about them. From what i've seen most the people who started with an early iteration just love to shit all over the new games out of some weird loyalty to the old games. Obviously not all these gamers are like that but i've never seen someone openly declare hatred for 13 or 15 without following it up with their overwhelming love for the early ones.

 

I personally loved it. Not as much as i did 13, but still a whole lot. The story was quite fantastic and the gameplay mechanics were an all-round evolution for the series.

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18 hours ago, Terarded said:

As someone who came to FF in the later games ive learned to just not bother listening to the things said on forums about them. From what i've seen most the people who started with an early iteration just love to shit all over the new games out of some weird loyalty to the old games.

 

There's a lot of people with that kind of attitude, but I don't think that's the case here. It's pretty clear that the FFXV we got was put out unfinished and unpolished. The story goes through weird time skips, can't decide if it wants everything to happen offscreen or onscreen, introduces and then drops major characters, provides little characterization/backstory to most of the cast, etc. etc. The gameplay looks great but it's incredibly simplistic, the camera goes nuts in enclosed areas, and every monster in the game can be killed if you have enough items on hand. There's no challenge and there's little strategy to most fights - attack from behind, use a tech, teleport, rinse and repeat. FFXIII had lots of strategy and nuance - especially in the endgame. I had my problems with its characters but the general story and gameplay were an absolute blast, and the hunts at the end of the game kept the challenge and depth intact - FFXV has none of that, its endgame is absolutely tedious. Other than the random platforming dungeon.

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For, it's mixed although it's my least favourite FF to be honest.

 

Negatives:

  • The movements of the characters are kind of awkward and you have to maneuver manually, in that there's not "jumping spot" or any automatic field movements that make getting that treasure on top of the barn easier.
  • I find the main four to act a bit like girls with the whole guys on a road trip taking cheesy photos, cooking and complaining if you walk around too much.
  • Loading times are surprisingly long for a PS4 game!  
  • I find the camp scenes and guys posing for photos, taking selfies and saying how cool they look in their own photo a tad too cheesy for me. If guys do this in real life, that's news to me. 
  • I don't like the fact that magic is consumable and can blast your team mates and treasures are not chests but little sparkles on the ground, which is probably more realistic but I find it hard to see them at all (this was my biggest annoyance).

 

Positives:

  • The visuals are fantastic with Instagram worthy food, the character design is great (especially the hair), the music is excellent as always and the game itself feels very realistic with the passing of time, smartphones, having to actually eat, sleep and drive like actual humans which I don't mind too much as LR was similar and I loved that game. 
  • I'm probably biased in that I'm a long term FF fan who is used to and mush prefers the whole Fantasy aspect of magical looking locations (e.g. Spira, Ivalice, Cocoon), jobs (no black mages and dragoons here...)  and turn based battles. But the locations and towns in this game are still lovely, and the wait mode for battles is a saviour for non-action orientated players like me. The battle system is quite fun after you get the hang of it and is like KH with a bit of FFXII.
  • Not having to do endless grinding to get the plat is a good thing (unlike FFX and XIII). The trophies and the battles are very easy for an FF game, so FF first timers are more than welcome. 
  • Sticks with the whole RPG theme of having lots of side quests and hunts to indulge in.

 

Story/ character: In terms of the story, I feel that it's bland for an FF game and hard to follow unless you watch the anime first. Having only a party of 4 guys is very boring for me as I prefer mixed parties of male and female as it tends to be more humorous and interesting that way.... to much testosterone here.  Also having a choice of around 6 characters to make your own team, changing it around depending on your play style and the enemy is another thing I miss. I feel that there is a somewhat lack of party and play customisation, but the party team link function and a sphere grid style development is a plus. 

 

I'm female so I have no opinion on Cindy as I think some people didn't like her design (very typical scenario of car garage, male customers and hot girl), although I kind of wish either her or one or two of the other female characters joined the party fully instead of just as a guest like maybe Iris or something. Oh well, I guess FFX-2 was all girls and LR was a solo female, so I should not complain about the male party, but I thought I should mention it for completeness sake.

 

Overall: I like the gameplay, character design and the cool hairstyles (although the colours are surprisingly realistic with no pinks or greens!) but not a fan of the story and boys version of girl scout adventure style a la selfies and fishing (which I wouldn't bother with if it weren't for the trophy). However, I don't see it as a "Final Fantasy", but more like a mix of FF, Assassin's Creed and Cindy inspired by GTA, so a bit like KH in that it doesn't feel like it's a 100% of one series, even if it officially is. 

 

One thing I did notice is that the game was very well received in the West but poorly received in Japan, but I guess it's more similar to a western RPG than a JRPG so it's explainable. 

Edited by Lava_Yuki
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I enjoyed the first 20 hours seeing the world and side quest grinding a little bit. Then the repetitiveness of the combat sets in. There is nothing interesting occurring in this world.  The story is going nowhere and even after to get to the linear part, it wont make you emotionally respond in any way. The boss fights are borderline very bad, leviathan especially. Just nonsense with no strategy, timing or decisions to make, just press some Os and wait for it to finish itself. Any other title and it would be an Okay game even at best, but unfortunately it's my least favorite FF game. 

 

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On 6/19/2017 at 5:16 PM, Eraezr said:

It's not a bad game, but I'm more upset that Square Enix was not 100% straight with us on the state of the game they were delivering. Disappointed.

 

The craziest thing is that I like XIII more than this one. 1f635.png

 

 

You crazy! xD

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On 6/14/2017 at 4:54 PM, MMX20 said:

I have been wondering and conflicted by this for awhile since FFXV was released last year. We finally got the game after it went through development hell in 2016 and it sold very well and got lots of positive reviews (Although, I wish the Metacritic score for it would be higher), but there are haters who bash this game and some who loved the game and look forward to more updates.

 

The haters claimed that SE cheated them out of their money for FFXV's rushed product but hear me out, they were pressed for time and had to release the game last November. Maybe that's why some haters are bashing the game because they may either hate SE or just trolling or venting out their frustation.

 

So I want to know from the people in these forums, how is the reception for FFXV by fans and first timers who played the game?

 

It was supposed to have a very dark story and the gameplay was supposed to be more immersive. Here are two trailers I feel you should look at to get a better idea and maybe you'll understand better why those of us who waited so long feel cheated.

 

 

Unlike the battle we got where you simply have to spam one button, this one seem to have more of a strategy to it, and let's not forget, it looks like a fun and epic battle! But I can't complain too much since this battle was run on a super computer and was sadly downgraded due to reasons I forgot. Also, the main villains were killed off-screen which is another smack to the face. Now I know we are getting the DLC's but why the flying hell am I paying for a finished product where I expect the story to be complete when it clearly isn't. Now in order to get the story you have to watch the movie, watch the anime, play the DLC episodes, and read the novel, good lord! Other things that come to mind are camera and clipping issues which can clearly be seen on the Adamantoise battle. There are very few towns to explore but a bucket load of gas stations. And the side-quests are repetitive to hell, I think most people would prefer fewer side-quests with variation than to have more but they're all more or less the same thing. Quality over quantity, SE. Yes, I know they were under contract to finish the game and release it last November, but the butt hurt in me as well as others won't subside. Don't get me wrong, the game had it's moments, but it's not what I waited 10+ years for...The only good thing I can think of is that this game will serve as a nice blueprint for the FF7 remake so maybe they'll finish that game faster, but who knows...? T__T

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Well, my local library just got this, but it's currently checked out (unlike the XBox version, which will NEVER be checked out), so I'll let you know what I think then.This will be the second FF title I don't bother buying (the first being Type 0). Maybe this one will be the one to bring me back into the fold? We. Shall. See.

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16 minutes ago, starcrunch061 said:

Well, my local library just got this, but it's currently checked out (unlike the XBox version, which will NEVER be checked out), so I'll let you know what I think then.This will be the second FF title I don't bother buying (the first being Type 0). Maybe this one will be the one to bring me back into the fold? We. Shall. See.

I actually put Type 0 above FFXV, I highly recommend trying it, it's a fun game

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9 hours ago, Valyrious said:

Don't you think you're making too many of these kinds of threads?

 

vgML7WO.jpg

Sorry about that. I tend to do that sometimes. I just can't help but get mad at those who bash games that I liked. But I am slowly learning to ignore their negative opinions and listen to some key points like criticism of the story and stuff. I mean, I enjoyed FFXV's story, but I kind of agree on its weakpoints. But everyone is entitled to their opinions and we should respect them.

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4 minutes ago, MMX20 said:

Sorry about that. I tend to do that sometimes. I just can't help but get mad at those who bash games that I liked. But I am slowly learning to ignore their negative opinions and listen to some key points like criticism of the story and stuff. I mean, I enjoyed FFXV's story, but I kind of agree on its weakpoints. But everyone is entitled to their opinions and we should respect them.


Don't ignore people's opinions. Whether it's good or bad, it's their opinions. I couldn't care less how many people hated XV. It was what I expected it to be. Did I want more from it? Yeah, of course I did, but it's still one of my favourite FF titles to date, so that should be more than enough for me.

Lord knows people have shit opinions and like shit themselves. It's just the nature of people having minds of their own.

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  • 3 weeks later...

 

On ‎6‎/‎23‎/‎2017 at 3:58 PM, Lava_Yuki said:

For, it's mixed although it's my least favourite FF to be honest.

 

Negatives:

  • The movements of the characters are kind of awkward and you have to maneuver manually, in that there's not "jumping spot" or any automatic field movements that make getting that treasure on top of the barn easier.
  • I find the main four to act a bit like girls with the whole guys on a road trip taking cheesy photos, cooking and complaining if you walk around too much.
  • Loading times are surprisingly long for a PS4 game!  
  • I find the camp scenes and guys posing for photos, taking selfies and saying how cool they look in their own photo a tad too cheesy for me. If guys do this in real life, that's news to me. 
  • I don't like the fact that magic is consumable and can blast your team mates and treasures are not chests but little sparkles on the ground, which is probably more realistic but I find it hard to see them at all (this was my biggest annoyance).

 

Positives:

  • The visuals are fantastic with Instagram worthy food, the character design is great (especially the hair), the music is excellent as always and the game itself feels very realistic with the passing of time, smartphones, having to actually eat, sleep and drive like actual humans which I don't mind too much as LR was similar and I loved that game. 
  • I'm probably biased in that I'm a long term FF fan who is used to and mush prefers the whole Fantasy aspect of magical looking locations (e.g. Spira, Ivalice, Cocoon), jobs (no black mages and dragoons here...)  and turn based battles. But the locations and towns in this game are still lovely, and the wait mode for battles is a saviour for non-action orientated players like me. The battle system is quite fun after you get the hang of it and is like KH with a bit of FFXII.
  • Not having to do endless grinding to get the plat is a good thing (unlike FFX and XIII). The trophies and the battles are very easy for an FF game, so FF first timers are more than welcome. 
  • Sticks with the whole RPG theme of having lots of side quests and hunts to indulge in.

 

Story/ character: In terms of the story, I feel that it's bland for an FF game and hard to follow unless you watch the anime first. Having only a party of 4 guys is very boring for me as I prefer mixed parties of male and female as it tends to be more humorous and interesting that way.... to much testosterone here.  Also having a choice of around 6 characters to make your own team, changing it around depending on your play style and the enemy is another thing I miss. I feel that there is a somewhat lack of party and play customisation, but the party team link function and a sphere grid style development is a plus. 

 

I'm female so I have no opinion on Cindy as I think some people didn't like her design (very typical scenario of car garage, male customers and hot girl), although I kind of wish either her or one or two of the other female characters joined the party fully instead of just as a guest like maybe Iris or something. Oh well, I guess FFX-2 was all girls and LR was a solo female, so I should not complain about the male party, but I thought I should mention it for completeness sake.

 

Overall: I like the gameplay, character design and the cool hairstyles (although the colours are surprisingly realistic with no pinks or greens!) but not a fan of the story and boys version of girl scout adventure style a la selfies and fishing (which I wouldn't bother with if it weren't for the trophy). However, I don't see it as a "Final Fantasy", but more like a mix of FF, Assassin's Creed and Cindy inspired by GTA, so a bit like KH in that it doesn't feel like it's a 100% of one series, even if it officially is. 

 

One thing I did notice is that the game was very well received in the West but poorly received in Japan, but I guess it's more similar to a western RPG than a JRPG so it's explainable. 

 

Finished the game and after watching the trailers, wow was I sad that most of the scenes and events from the trailer didn't make it into the final cut, would've been an even more engaging game. Still I enjoyed the experience, loved the characters and the dastardly and charismatic villain too, I liked the combat, but I felt that was too simplistic and had a ton of button-mashing. Pretty much agree with the pros and cons, though I would like to add in some other things such as that the boss felt surprisingly easy despite their menacing appearances and once thing that bugged me out when exploring was the jump and interact actions were mapped to the same button. That being  said, the soothing theme that plays when navigating gears and items was awesome.

 

 

Overall,  liked FFXV for what it was and yes, I would have loved to see much of the trailers included in the game and overall depth to the secondary characters, I guess it wasn't meant to be and I'll probably get over it. Still, I feel that FFXV is a good RPG and a decent FF.

 

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2 hours ago, NullRay85 said:

 

 

Finished the game and after watching the trailers, wow was I sad that most of the scenes and events from the trailer didn't make it into the final cut, would've been an even more engaging game. Still I enjoyed the experience, loved the characters and the dastardly and charismatic villain too, I liked the combat, but I felt that was too simplistic and had a ton of button-mashing. Pretty much agree with the pros and cons, though I would like to add in some other things such as that the boss felt surprisingly easy despite their menacing appearances and once thing that bugged me out when exploring was the jump and interact actions were mapped to the same button. That being  said, the soothing theme that plays when navigating gears and items was awesome.

 

 

Overall,  liked FFXV for what it was and yes, I would have loved to see much of the trailers included in the game and overall depth to the secondary characters, I guess it wasn't meant to be and I'll probably get over it. Still, I feel that FFXV is a good RPG and a decent FF.

 

Yeah I complete the game a few weeks ago, and I agree the bosses and enemies were very easy on normal mode. For an FF, I found it far too easy especially when you compare it to FFX and XIII which were tougher not that it's a bad thing. But they should have included a hard mode like in LR for players who want more of a challenge. The ending was very disappointing though and didn't explain anything and left me totally confused, so I had to look it up. They did a good attempt with the gameplay, but I feel that they tried to do a Kingdom Hearts with it but it didn't work out as well. 

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Very impressing at first but kinda meh in the long run!

As a Fan you'll be impressed how all the Final Fantasy staples work and look in this game.

 

But the final boss is disappointing, especially for a Final Fantasy game.

 

EDIT: i really liked the movie tho

Edited by thekiffer21
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5 hours ago, thekiffer21 said:

Very impressing at first but kinda meh in the long run!

As a Fan you'll be impressed how all the Final Fantasy staples work and look in this game.

 

But the final boss is disappointing, especially for a Final Fantasy game.

 

EDIT: i really liked the movie tho

The movie is Gold, I should watch it for the 4th time tomorrow. 

I highly recommend everyone who hasn't watched it to do so! 

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  • 2 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...

People were complaining about XIII linearity.
So they overcompensated with this one. Too much focus on the open world. Which looks amazing. But lacks substance. And there's not nearly enough story.
The first 8 chapters or so are doing MMO-style fetch quests and feeding cats. And by then there's only a few hours of story left..

Do I like it? Sure. I love the combat. I've always favored action RPG's over turn-based ones.
But I had much more fun with XIII, which is my fav FF to date. Such a great story. Diverse areas. Individual plots. amazing graphics and soundtrack Etc etc.

I play FF for the story-lines. I wished they'd focus on that. Too much work goes into open-world games. Usually at the cost of the story.
It's a shame that the game still isn't finished after all this time. After I plat it. I'll probably give the PlayStation 5 Complete Edition another try in a few years. 
I have watched the movie and anime prior to starting XV. And I must say. Having seen those made me like XV much more. Which is kind of a pity. Because without having seen those there'd be even less context and story in the game..

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Haven't finished it yet. Like any Final Fantasy (Fave game series btw) its got its good points and a few bad points. It's an oddly good game and has lovely music, but kinda doesn't feel like a FF game properly sometimes lol Still enjoying it though and looking forward to getting the plat in the future, but don't feel compelled to get the DLC sadly.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I've had the game since not long after launch and have struggled to bring myself back to it to 100% it - the only reason I'm doing so now is due to being determined to substantially clear out my backlog.

 

I'm still very early in - I've just 'defeated' Titan and got his charm/key thing - but unless things improve substantially I'm going to struggle to pull myself through this one. Struggle may not be the best choice of words... I'll manage, I just don't think I'm going to enjoy doing so.

 

I have 3 major gripes just now:

 

  • The characters: My main gripe with the game. The characters are annoying. These are people who are charged with guarding royalty - yet Prompto runs around singing songs about Chocobo (which I can stomach, to a degree...) and acts like an all-round buffoon. Ignis, whilst actually quite endearing as a character (somewhat Lulu-esque - knowledgeable and plays the role of mentor, teaching the other 3 about the area, strategy, etc), is incredibly overacted in the voiceover department and comes across as campy. Gladio I don't really mind so much, he's the best of a bad bunch.

    Normally, this wouldn't phase me - every FF game has crappy characters, or at least, characters who just don't tick as many boxes as the rest - but you can usually sideline them in place of one of your other characters. Even before release I knew that being stuck primarilly with the same squad of 4 was going to be a problem for me - I'm disappointed I wasn't wrong.

 

  • The battle system: From what I've read on this forum and others, I'm in the minority here - I hate the battle system! I'm very willing to accept I'm doing something wrong or missing a trick with this, but there is, from what I can tell so far, zero strategy involved in encounters. I either hold down square and occasionally attack or just fry the enemies with my already-overpowered-magic and move on. I'm getting no satisfaction or sense of achievement from these fights and praying that it changes.

 

  • The side quests: No point going into detail here. I think we all know why they're lacking.

 

 

With all that said, it's a solid game. It's one I would pick up if I saw it on sale in a store/Amazon/the PS store. It's not a solid Final Fantasy game. I enjoyed X-2 more than this because of FFX setting such a fantastic lore and world to be part of (and I think FFX-2's battle system was awesome fun). Same goes for XIII and XIII-2 - I thoroughly enjoyed these entries to the series because of their phenomenal musical scores and, in my opinion, outstanding battle systems.

 

I don't like to come on forums and gripe about games all that much - every series is going to have it's bad eggs where they didn't quite hit the mark - but with XV being in development for so long and us as fans having to wait such a long time, I'm incredibly disappointed with what they managed to achieve.

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