Final Fantasy XV (PS4 / XB1 / PC)

People will defend that shitty battle system too. It was the laziest implementation possible.

In XIII, maybe. Like I said before though, bringing in Tri-Ace for XIII-2 and LR fixed everything wrong with the first game.

Edit: Watching Kingsglaive now. It certainly is impressive to look at, but I'm bored out my skull every time the action stops.

I'm sorry, there was nothing, at all, positive about 13's battle system.

Lightning Returns was even worse. Worse than anything that came before it.

40 Minutes of early game play.

See Final Fantasy 15's First 40 Minutes on Xbox One

The only FF game to not be worth the purchase price is literally FF2 (Not IV for Snes; Cecil was not in FF2) and it continues to be the absolute worst entry in any gaming series ever.

If you aren't aware of how bad this game is, do a little research and/or play the game via visualadvance (it's on the Origin of Souls or whatever cart) to understand just how bad a game can be. And this was a game released with the entire core of the FF team intact. Recent games may not be to your liking, but they are at least playable to some extent. FF2 was/is absolutely horrendous and Square should really not survived its release. I'm happy it did, but holy shit was that a terrible game. The fact that 3 and 4 even were slated for release is unimaginable given how terrible that game was. That should have been the real Final Fantasy; a game so bad it killed the company that produced it.


KH-lite with FF aesthetics (at least since 1997) doesn't cry out failure on the level that people seem to think it will be. It's going to sell a lot, and sell well. How it fits into your personal version of Final Fantasy will determine how you feel about it. But FF has been a -lot- of things over the years, so expecting it to fit into any sort of defined bag is asking for disappointment.

Ehh I liked FF2, (real 2, not 4... I love 4 also, but I am talking about 2, as you are lol). It had a more developed plot, it had set characters, personalities and roles. It implemented keywords and special NPCs to advance plot. It was the first FF to introduce Cid!

The battle system is what people contently blast - the idea of the battle system is quite cool - you get better at what you do and what happens to you... your tank that hits things and gets hit a lot gets stronger at attacking physically and getting hit = more hp...same for magic etc. etc. If you used the system naturally and progressed there were a few typical FF "exp" walls to get past- people don't like is that you can gimp the system simply by backtracking to a earlier area with weak enemies and have your party beat on each other, nuke each other, heal each other to excess and jump endlessly in power- all you gatta do is grind... grind vs yourself, or grind vs NPCs...its still the same level/exp wall grind.

As I have said before FF games tend to flow in themes - as well as try and innovate the battle system. I see now that FF games have ALWAYS changed up and attempted to push and innovate battle systems etc. however - the US did not GET any of these (2,3,5...) and we only saw games that had fairly similar with understandable advancements, however mostly inline with each other 1,4,6 and 7... So me myself I tend to like the "normal" or "old school" battle systems and hate when their innovation in trying something new to me makes enjoying the game more difficult. (looking at you 8)

As for common plot idea- FF2 and 4 are very similar, as are 3 and 5. In 2 and 4 its a big empire with the might of airships going in an subjugating the world for power etc. they both hold a plot twist about a party member being bad or not...or bad... etc.

3 and 5 like 2 and 4 are similar in function (job classes) and plot - with this odd outside world misbalance threating the entire planet, lots of very interesting small and contained kingdoms etc.

8,9 and 10 again all are basically love stories- its like square gets stuck on something and cant give it up until they feel they have done it.

6, well 6 is an enigma and is seen as one of the best for many reasons - it innovates the battle system with something that is different (espers) yet- each person has their own "class" via not only personality but plot etc. While we started with a fairly strong focus on Terra, it later totally focuses on other members and focuses heavily on Celes - giving her some of the best moments of the game (Opera and post world destruction depression and attempted suicide, perfectly linked back to the opera house scenes... our hero's are real people, they are not perfect.)

The plot also, to many is a perfect piece together of classic and push to new items - the empire, the success of the enemy beyond the standard village burning.. also this is where they started putting more personal "love" stories into the plot beyond the price and princess happy typical high fantasy love plots.

To me the modern games just haven't done it for me... I am sure I am missing some great stories and great characters.. maybe I will give 15 a good ol "lets go on a bro trip in our car and kill dino's" try on my xbone Netflix and hulu streamer :-D

I haven't been able to get into FF since shortly after 7. I tried recently to play through the water balls one with the surfer looking dude. I think it was X. With the two sisters, one falls in love with him and gets taken into some special stasis and the older warrior sister is perpetually PMSing. Tried to trudge through it. I got to the point where they started forcing the water balls stuff down my throat and ended up saying fuck it. Just wasn't good enough for me to keep pushing through it. Never went back to it.

I didn't think it was that great but IIRC the big part that irk'd me was being forced to level up the scrubs on the bench since they didn't gain xp when not in use. I wasn't about to rotate in shittier people just because the game wanted to force me to. It's been awhile so I could be remembering incorrectly.

I've gotten into and loved several jap style RPGs. It isn't' the genre, I just feel like FF has become generic shit. Hopefully 15 will be decent.

You're conflating a couple of games, but I think that's kind of the point of the post haha.

X had Tidus, the surfer looking guy and water balls. 13 had the two sisters, with one who turns into a crystal and the other is a military chick. But the rest of your post points towards X and the eventual "water ball" game (blitz ball) that is required to play one time ever about 3-4 hours into the game.

FF has gone through a lot of strange cycles in its long life. It started as pure turn based, then became partially active (A T B, active time battle) where there was times between turns vs. a strict "Ok your turn. Infinite time to think about your choice!" Then it went back to hardcore turn based (with your "turn" coming up related heavily on the speed levels of everyone involved) and then there's 12, which had automation and was a lot closer to an MMO in terms of how the gameplay worked. It was still "turn based" but had both the active time requirement as well as a new positioning requirement, since the battlefield wasn't left vs. right anymore. Then it became largely automated based upon ingame information with 13 and 13-2, where your default attack was "use best attack" which meant if in-game you knew the enemy was weak to lightning but strong to ice, your character would chain cast lightning and not use ice attacks. This was primarily discovered by the default AI just sort of using -every- spell/attack type until it did weakness related damage, then it changed the default scripting to focus on the damage that capitalized on the weakness. The combat in those games focused more on being able to flip into and out of various roles on the fly, so that you could absorb heavy damage or heal up or hit the dragon's weak spot for maximum damage.

Kind of a flip-floppy evolution. FF15 looks to have substantially more in common with the KH franchise and ff12 (though less menus) than other games in the series, and I know FF7's remake is apparently both turn based and KH-y.

The only time they really let the battle system get "samey" was from 1-3 and 4-9, as it was turn based hardcore and then active time battle until FF10, which went back to hardcore turn based. 12 and 13 were kind of largeish departures from the original formulas for sure, though. I think they're two of the most engaging and "better" battle systems, but if you only played FF 1 on the nes, 2 and 3 on the snes (lol NA) and then 7? Very divergent gameplay indeed.

Hah shit, so I did sort of melt two games together.

I don't mind the love story stuff. I wish I could put my finger on what exactly it was that made me stop playing those games. Obviously I don't recall them well enough to remember at this point.

Hell I enjoyed Star Ocean (despite the creepy loli shit). Loved Lost Odyssey and Tales of Vesperia. Didn't care for Eternal Sonata.

I certainly enjoy the genre. Perhaps 15 will bring me back to FF. I hope it doesn't suck because I'd love an RPG to play right now.

Turn Based stuff + Action / Positioning you can sploit so bad - Re: FF:CrisisCore - you sit in defend (an instant non time/action based...action) and wait your action timers out while taking little damage... if your going to die you just move away and defend, and dodge their attacks... once you realize that its a turn based pure system with imposed visuals and physical proximity its lulzy mode... so if that's all the FF7 remake is going to be...bah...also you only control 1 character...like the new games - I do not like that.

I do wish for the ability to switch between characters in FF15 during combat, but I don't think it will happen. I don't expect combat to be terribly challenging due to the way the battle system is set up (especially how 0 HP is not true death), but I do expect it will be fun experimenting with all of the different spells, combo attacks, and ways to utilize warp strike.

Ni No Kuni had an amazing world and absolutely stuck the landing on the Studio Ghibli feel. But goddamn combat was annoying when you weren't outright cheesing it. The old thread from rerolled was dead on: great world and story with interesting and fun characters, but the combat was severely hampered by the strange attack animations and timing, as well as positioning of the pets. And the best way around it? Use pets with abilities that just hit everything or auto-hit a target, instead of "attack" type animations. Hello to you, Dinosaur pets.

New CG trailer featuring Noctis and Luna.


Also the discs are officially being manufactured now!

Final Fantasy XV Goes Gold - Niche Gamer

Hype!

Yeah that trailer is fucking dope.