Winter 2024 Game Of The Season Club: Final Fantasy 15, Fae Tactics and Persona 5

Winter 2024's Games:
Final Fantasy 15
Fae Tactics
Persona 5

What is Game of the Season Club?

Game of the Season is a community project based upon the Game of the Month Club. Much like the GOTM Club, it's open to all B8ers where users share, discover, play and/or discuss a bonus chosen game every season. The three games featured each season are chosen by YOU the users (and Lady Luck).

The Basics

- Each season will usually feature three games that were chosen via a random drawing from a pool of games that users nominated

- For each of the games you beat you get a cool point on our just-for-fun standings as well as a nomination for next season's randomized drawing

- In order to receive the point and nomination, you must beat said game within the three months of the season in question. However, you can get a point but no nomination even if you beat it a season late.

- If you beat one of the current season's games in the previous month, you can apply for a "recently beaten waiver," but you will only receive a point and no nomination should you do so. Note that I used the word "month" here on purpose; the previously beaten waiver isn't for a whole season.

- Drawing for next season will begin around a week or so before the season ends, give or take.

- If you periodically keep us posted on your progress and/or talk about different aspects of the games, then everyone will think you are super awesome!

Nomination Rules

- You get one nomination automatically each season
- You receive additional nominations each season for beating one of the featured games
- The same game can't win twice
- Each game must be a standalone game that can be acquired and played on its own (aka cannot be DLC/expansion that requires the base game)
- Nominations only carry over if you beat a featured game after the drawing for next season's game but before the end of the season
- You have 3 supports you can use throughout the year. Your only limitations are that you can't support your own nomination, and you can only use one support per game per season

The tl;dr is that it's the game of the month club, but seasonal, and you can complete a game late and still get a point because the goal here is to make completing super long games stress free.

Thanks to KCF0107 for giving permission for the GOTM Club Replay topic to exist. Most of the rules of the Replay Topic are the same as the GOTM club. If you're wondering what the Game of the Month Club is, here's the link to the current club; https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80659929

@Seanchan @KCF0107 @Mauron @Cody11533

Wow, good start to the year. Two of my all-time favorites in the first season. I've been meaning to replay FFXV, so maybe I'll finally get around to that!

I assume Royal is fair game for P5 as well?

In for FF15, since that was my pick!

I have a spare Steam key for Fae Tactics for anyone who promises to make a concerted effort to beat it during this period.

I'll probably decide by the end of the month if I feel up to P5, if not nothing for me this season. Will hold off on nominating until March to see what catches my fancy in a couple months..

MZero posted...

I assume Royal is fair game for P5 as well?

Yeah, I intend to play Royal.

KCF0107 posted...

I have a spare Steam key for Fae Tactics for anyone who promises to make a concerted effort to beat it during this period.

I'm thinking of doing it if I can finish Persona 5, but I do know that Mauron was mentioning playing it to me.

I started up Persona 5 Royal; I spent some time in the first dungeon, a castle. It feels like I'm going to have to go back to it though, as we left kind of abruptly and left Morgna, a new party member who claims to not be a cat despite looking a lot like a cartoon cat behind.

Still haven't finished the first dungeon.

Thought I was going to play some FF15 today but 90GB takes a long time to download on PS5. It said it was "ready to play" and I launched the game and the only thing I could do was this Open Combat thing where you can just fuck around a bit.

Was playing with the settings because, man does this game run like shit by default. Apparently you've got to set Performance to Lite to get 60FPS, which seems like the only way to play this.

Seanchan posted...

Thought I was going to play some FF15 today but 90GB takes a long time to download on PS5. It said it was "ready to play" and I launched the game and the only thing I could do was this Open Combat thing where you can just fuck around a bit.

Was playing with the settings because, man does this game run like shit by default. Apparently you've got to set Performance to Lite to get 60FPS, which seems like the only way to play this.

It's not optimized for the system it was made for? That's kind of wild.

FakeAccount3000 posted...

It's not optimized for the system it was made for? That's kind of wild.

Technically it's a PS4 game that I'm playing on PS5.

Anyway, I did start FF15 this weekend. Only to the beginning parts of Chapter 2 though.

I'll say, this kinda gets off to a bit of a rough start. You start a New Game, and it says "hey, do you want to do tutorials", and I started on them but eventually got tired of it because they just kept going. I quit out, and then have to pick New Game again and just start the actual damn story.

Some random thoughts as I was going along:

• Car is cool looking.
• Cindy... (FYI, in the dossier thing, you can't zoom in on any of the female characters.)
• Why the fuck is the car so slow?
• So much shit going on in the menus. I know that's just RPGs but jeesh. I've got the Royal edition of the game, so that apparently comes with a bunch of weapons and other shit I wouldn't normally have, which maybe exacerbates the "issue".
• Dino's voice does not match his character model.
• End of chapter 1 finally got me interested in the story.

Up to Chapter 10 in FF15.

The game is confusing, weird, and very mediocre. It's like its design just fights against itself. There's an open world but it feels terrible to navigate. There's a never ending cavalcade of fetch quests, should you choose to imbibe, but they're basically completely extraneous to the main narrative. The combat is meh, I never use magic, and equipment and character customization seems less important than I've ever seen. The characters are interesting but the story...I have no fucking idea what's going on.

It's like, I see the influence of Xenoblade Chronicles with the boring ass open world and picking up little glowing blue dots. I see Monster Hunter with the meal cooking and the hunts. But also I see the hunts from FF12, but that was more interesting combat with setting up the Gambits.

But also, have you guys ever had Cup Noodles? It's pretty much the greatest food imaginable and a perfect complement for a nice long Final Fantasy session. If you want, you can even add your own protein to the dish to really bring it to the next level! If you don't know what I'm talking about, there's just some ridiculous product placement for Cup Noodles in this game.

Chapter 14 in FF15.

• The game got very linear for a while but Chapter 14 seems a bit more open, with a couple of side quests thrown at you.
• There were some good character moments in the last few chapters. Again, I'm not sure the plot is coming together but the interactions between the main crew are pretty damn good.
• Chapter 13 though was very bizarre. You get some cool new powers that are visually very fun. But the level design is literally walking through mostly narrow corridors while the big bad taunts you for, fuck, seemed like 45-60 minutes? It was like, "thank you for doing something fun in the most boring way possible".

Tag because I own FF15 and have never gotten around to play it.

Still Chapter 14 in FF15, but I think I'm just before the final boss.

I've enjoyed this last chapter. It's a relatively large area to run around, with a few side quests and a bunch of tough fights. This last bit has been a boss rush, but with each battle punctuated by taking control of one of the other party members. Had to chug a lot of items during those fights.

FF15 beated!

I had literally 10 minutes of game left. The final fight kind of sucked and lacked the size and theatrics of the boss fights leading up to it. Ending also kinda sucked but I would just say that of the story in general.

Overall, I'm very "meh" on the game. I'm not going to bother going back to do more side quests or hunts, or to do any of the DLC.

I need to get back to Fae

Thanks for the bumps; I've been really slow on Persona 5. I've only completed the first palace in about 20 hours.

I'm in August on P5R, working on recruiting the undisputably best character.

Mauron posted...

I'm in August on P5R, working on recruiting the undisputably best character.

You got way ahead of me.

I finally dedicated several hours to Fae Tactics the past two days. I finally got out of the main tutorials and basically have the game opened up and all the menu stuff unlocked. I seem to be underleveled compared to the enemies I face, and while there is an option to do free battles, I'm hoping to avoid grinding (fights have been more on the challenging side).

I don't know if anyone else is playing it, but I after getting some more party members and having to decide on three each fight, I've basically settled on offensive-oriented party members, high-movement and support summons, and a spell book focused on healing. That seems to work well enough.

Okay, these cannons are really fucking me up in this game. I only have cannon-included story missions available to me, so I'm just going to have to deal with it.

We are in the final month, so I guess that I need to get focus on Fae some more

I beat Persona 5 Royal. Going to try for Fae Tactics as well.

KCF0107 posted...

We are in the final month, so I guess that I need to get focus on Fae some more

I've really slacked off.

Fae Tactics is set up so that how you battle can affect the outcome ( like fighting three bosses at once and allowing any of them to die before you knock all three down simultaneously or not finishing a fight before an NPC's health reaches 0 ) that doesn't trigger a failure state. This combined (since I feel like garbage/it is a waste if I trigger a bad battle outcome and will re-do the battle) with being one of the more challenging tactics games that I've played is making me go at a slower pace. I also am going through two games from the main topic, so there's a chance I won't finish this in time.

I finally did some research about level scaling in Fae Tactics since the gap between enemies and my team keep getting wider. I found out that enemies scale to the amount of story missions that you beat. If you don't max out experience bonuses in each story mission, you will always be under-leveled without also doing free missions. Since I don't want to force myself to have to do story missions a certain way, I guess that I will have to supplement it with grinding in free missions. As such, the extra time needed will definitely put me out of getting it done before the drawing and probably before the end of the season.

I will just go ahead and do a nomination now and see if I somehow get another, but I'm going to prioritize games from the main project.

Disco Elysium will be my nom

Im still in the middle of playing a long game in AC: Odyssey

I guess Ill nominate GTA 5 , though Im unsure about my ability to start and finish it by July.

What was the minimum playtime for noms?

I already Beat Persona 5 Royal , but I doubt I'll finish Fae Tactics before the nomination deadline.

Mauron posted...

What was the minimum playtime for noms?

30 hours, and I'm using how long to beat. I'd allow it if that was only the completionist, but if it's the main story alone it's a better use of this topic imo, since the longer the less likely it would work in the normal topic.

Also keep in mind in this topic to make finishing long games even easier you can still finish the games in this topic for a point but no nomination next season if you like.

Nom time. *eats some food*

Dark Cloud II
Monster Hunter: World

Probably won't finish Fae Tactics in time for a nom, but will get a point.

Nominate Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

I've been meaning to nominate but kept forgetting.

Beat Fae Tactics . Good game.

Nominate Horizon Forbidden West if it's not too late.

I think I would have done FF15 if we didn't get a new big Final Fantasy released in the season. Oh well.

Think I'll do the pull this Sunday the 14th, so get in your nominations by then, thanks. Also thanks for keeping the topic bumped.

A little late, but this is a seasonal topic so it's fine.

Nominations:
Disco Elysium
GTA 5
Dark Cloud II
Monster Hunter: World
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Horizon Forbidden West
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot (my nom)

This Season's Winners:
Grand Theft Auto 5
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot

Congratulations to Seanchan, Cody11533 and myself for having our games selected.

I might try KoToR again.

My luck is butts.

No excuses for not playing GTA5 now!

I already played it before. >_>

Excited to give KoToR a try, probably won't start until next month.

I've started on GTA5...

My beginning hour of time has left me feeling like an old man, overwhelmed by all the controls, pop ups, etc. The amount of shit I see popping up in the upper left corner is a bit overwhelming: get a haircut, change your clothes, race planes or some shit. There's like 2 dozen radio stations?!? I'm doing the first real mission where you have to steal the bike, and I'm driving after him when he runs, and it took way (way, way, way, waaaaaaay) longer than it should for me to aim and shoot that idiot off the bike (after chasing him literally MILES out of town).

Playing on PS5, btw. It actually uses the adaptive triggers, which is nice...I guess? I had an issue trying to switch characters during the prologue. It kept telling me to hold down on the D-Pad and use the right stick but that just did not work. Eventually I realized the touch pad could get the job done to switch. But that was not a great moment for my patience.