Board 8 > Andy Plays Final Fantasy XV

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I - II - III - IV - (TAY) - V - VI - VII - (VIIR - DoC - CC) - VIII - IX - X - (X-2) - XII - (RW) - XIII - (XIII-2 - LR) - Final Fantasy XV - Tactics - (TCB)

It's time for the next entry in my grand FF playthrough, the super divisive FF15! From my understanding many hate this game, many think it is 'fine', and MZero loves it. I have no idea where I'm gonna wind up on the scale. My expectations are an overly convoluted plot, not very subtle product placements, and a guy named Ignis who everybody loves. I don't care for XII but I do like XIII, so I'm not anti-modern FF or anything. Very curious how this will be.

Is there anything I should know before going into this one? I don't even know what it plays like! I don't think I've seen gameplay clips or anything. If it's pure action-based I will likely be pretty poor at the combat >_> Also as usual if there's anything I should know RE missables/tips etc please share!

I know XV has a lot of related media, should I dive into any of that before I play? And I have the Royal Edition so I have all DLC except Episode Ardyn, I figure that shouldn't matter right now and I should leave them til the end anyway but I defer to your collective knowledge on this. I do have the Comrades thing too if that's relevant. Also I think there's difficulty options in this one, if so I will likely pick the middle/standard difficulty unless recommended otherwise.

I know one major spoiler I think, that Noctis dies at the end? Kind of a bummer to know that, but eh I'm honestly not expecting an amazing story given the response to this game. Aside from that I know absolutely nothing about the setting or story aside from character names. And that there's a car. I haven't been let down by any of the games I've played since starting this FF journey last year, so hopefully this will continue the trend! I am excited to once again dive into a brand new world and see what this one is all about.

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Tag so hard

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oh ya my Noctis

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also hopefully you watched the Kingsglaive movie first since that's like half the story

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Watching Kingsglaive is important yea, otherwise the Royal Edition covers pretty much everything. Episode Ardyn is great so you should get that when you beat the game too.

I don't think anything is missable so just play the game blind.

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Kingsglaive is a double-edged sword though, I had a friend advise me to not watch it before playing through a certain chapter in the game because it does spoil (Andy don't click this) Ardyn being the chancellor. If you play XV w/o watching Kinsglaive you don't know Ardyn's role w/ the Empire until he reveals himself which is post-Titan iirc?

And I'd probably also recommend not watching it as a result before playing the game, but it does help give some extra perspective, for sure...

Anyways, tag. I've been meaning to replay XV like I've been meaning to replay a dozen games so this playthrough topic will have to do in the meantime...!

I opted to play through the Pocket Edition instead of the full version of XV. It's the same story but it's just abridged, which is kinda nice depending on what you're looking for.

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I mean, I watched Kingsglaive first because someone told me if was the backstory/prequel and afterwards I felt I had no idea what I just watched.

It kind of gives the backstory, but I also think it might make more sense to watch it after playing XV for a few hours.

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Hm I'm getting split directions on what to do with Kingsglaive. I'm leaning towards playing the game a bit first to get a feel for the world etc, and also because...

...I don't want to start my XV experience with a bad time. I'm open to changing my mind on this though.

The Pocket Edition did intrigue me but I figured I might as well go for the full package!

BlackDra90n posted...

I don't think anything is missable so just play the game blind.

Excellent, that's what I like to hear. *Grumbles in IX*

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Audience score 68%!

seems pretty good

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Kingsglaive is not great but it's still the best narrative in the whole damn thing.

I think you'll be fine either way though.

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Tag. I finished FFXV Royal Edition fairly recently. Never saw the Kingsglaive movie, just because I wasn't aware of it. I think it's fine playing without it, though at the start it does feel like you're starting about 4-6 hours past where a typical FF would start. I did play through all the DLC that came with the game, though I didn't bother with whatever that multiplayer thing was (Comrades, I think it's called?). By the time I got through the DLC, I did a some post game (not the super hard stuff) but was ready to move on. I didn't buy episode Ardyn and I think it was spoiled for me at one point, though I might've forgotten the spoilers, so maybe I could play it now. >.>

Overall, FFXV is alright as a game, though quite different from traditional FFs. It would likely place pretty low on my list of FFs, though it's not without it's good spots.

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I'll tag this. Not played it yet but will do in a few weeks I think. Also seen Kingsglaive and thought it was alright and was certainly not a bad choice on my part.

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Well dang, now I'm leaning the other way... I want to play this thing already but more people have said they watched Kingsglaive first. What about this anime, Brotherhood? Should that be watched before starting the game? Before/after Kingsglaive? All this supplementary content D:

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You went too far you were supposed to stop at xiv and play that

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Dantezoid posted...

You went too far you were supposed to stop at xiv and play that

Embarrassingly I only recently learned that I can't play XIV. I had just assumed it was on Xbox but it's just PS4/5/PC which I can't do >_> In any case it would have been left for last after I've done all the others, or I'd never get to anything else!

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Brotherhood is also about events before the game.

Honestly it really doesn't matter what order. They can work as introductions or as side stuff that just expands the lore and connections between the characters after you already know them through the game.

I would say you can watch them anytime before the halfway point for best effect.

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Brotherhood isn't really necessary. It's there to sort of help flesh out the relationships between the main characters, but nothing that happens there is important to the plot of the main game.

Kingsglaive is pretty important though.

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LeonhartFour posted...

It's there to sort of help flesh out the relationships between the main characters,

You might say that's more important than the plot itself!


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Well, that's really what the game is about more than anything, but I'd probably recommend it to someone who enjoyed the main cast just to give them some extra goodness.

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Yeah, the game is already good at creating the bro bond. It's less successful at establishing lore, plot, and pacing.

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I've still never seen Kingsglaive, for what it's worth

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Well, I watched Kingsglaive last night in lieu of starting the game. So those who haven't seen it may want to skip this post! (Though you'll probably know all the events anyway)

*Unmarked Kingsglaive spoilers*

It was... not great, but easy to watch. It definitely helped give me some background info on the world and the story. The action sequences were generally fine if overlong, the VA was uneven and the story itself... well it's clearly just a prologue to the game, in isolation this doesn't really mean too much. The characters weren't very strong, Nyx was decent though.

The aesthetic of this game is going to take some getting used to. There's a mix of the modern day real world, futuristic sci fi, and medieval fantasy all rolled into one here. I can't help but feel taken out of the world whenever we see just a regular old Audi show up >_> Like it just seems so out of place, a fantasy princess buckling her seatbelt. And people wandering around in fantasy armour and outfits next to others in just regular ol suits lol. Not bad, just odd. Also it was hard to keep track of who everyone was because they all had such weird similar sounding names. Maybe that was just me though!

Unfortunately I hate the 'magical royal bloodline' trope, and the general vibe of 'we just need a Good Pure Royal to rule over people in a nice way and that is how things should be. Their lives are simply more important than everyone else's =)'. There is potential that the game will rail against this, Nyx calling out the Lucian spirits is good, but the narrative also feels really weirdly defensive of King Regis. The two main heroes both revere him and pretty much anyone who ever doubts him is dead by the movie's end. IDK. Sidenote: the Lucian spirits remind me a lot of the Ocuria from XII.

Lunafreya was not very compelling. It's odd, the movie is at least somewhat aware that she's a generic stock character (Nyx calling out her Stoic Princess act), but they don't deviate from that at all. I got pretty annoyed at all her duty talk, and she's just a pure innocent damsel the whole movie. To be fair, it's likely the writers were hamstrung here- she's surely a major part of the actual game so they couldn't have her go through a whole personal arc before the game even begins. But I wasn't drawn to her to say the least. Headey's performance was surprisingly not very good imo. Also lol at her traveling in secret at the end in full princess garb next to hundreds of plain clothes refugees. Nice going!

Lunafreya's brother could have actually been a really interesting character, but the film paints him as so one-dimensionally bad he gets pretty wasted. We could see him again though, I don't think we see him actually die (unless it was implied from the burning). The supporting cast were fine but none of them got enough development, I wasn't feeling Libertus at all. General whatshisface was ok I guess. All the antagonists who die in this film seem to follow the same arc (did you get it, you gotta let go of the past!!), but they don't flesh them out enough to actually be interesting.

Ardyn could be really cool though! The relationship between him and the emperor feels like it could be Kefka/Gestahl done more realistically. I am looking forward to the Niflheim stuff in game, one of my wishes for FFVI was to develop the empire more and make it less The Kefka Show from scene 1 so I'm pretty excited for this! The empire using daemons was cool, the main one was very reminiscent of Diamond Weapon from VII. And... an Ultros cameo?! I wasn't expecting that at all! Oh man, how different would the tone be if they let him speak lol.

Overall I wouldn't say this is a good film but it did its job in laying out the story. There were cool bits, and the CG was pretty damn impressive for the most part (the humans weren't quite as good and the flying bugs looked worse than all the other monsters). I don't regret watching it at least. Next time I will start the actual game!

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andylt posted...

she's surely a major part of the actual game

if you only knew

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I can tell this gon be good

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The Sean Bean effect

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andylt posted...

Ardyn could be really cool though!

Yeahhhh and that's the downside of watching Kingsglaive before playing XV. His intro in XV is as a mysterious figure who you don't know so like, just try to pretend you don't know who he really is when you first come across him in the game!

Also I like/recommend watching Brotherhood but maybe only after you've played the game (or played more of the game). Like was mentioned earlier, it's not integral to the story or anything, but it'll carry more weight after you've gotten to know the characters a bit better I think.

Eh, I think it was kind of obvious what role Ardyn was being set up to play, even if you didn't watch the movie first. You could tell from the trailers, even.

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...reading that doesn't particularly make me want to see the movie any more than I did before, so thanks for the quick highlights.

Leonhart4 posted...

You could tell from the trailers, even.

On the topic of trailers, do some of the trailers also provide background info that isn't really available in the main game? I feel like they might and I didn't find it out until after beating the game.

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I'm not sure. I haven't watched any of them since the game came out, but it wouldn't surprise me! Square started putting out extra material that explains stuff that isn't in the game with FFXIII, so it might have continued with XV.

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Some of the early trailers are pretty much showing a different game.

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BlackDra90n posted...

Some of the early trailers are pretty much showing a different game.

Well yeah, Versus XIII is a totally different game than what we got with XV!

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If there's some kind of Datalog like in XIII that should help at least, though it can't be that hard to follow right >_> I usually avoid trailers for stuff like this anyway, there's often spoilers there.

MartinFF7 posted...

Yeahhhh and that's the downside of watching Kingsglaive before playing XV. His intro in XV is as a mysterious figure who you don't know so like, just try to pretend you don't know who he really is when you first come across him in the game!

Ah I see. Well I already knew that Ardyn is a villain (I figure he's the main one but not sure on that) so it shouldn't have affected much. Still I'm glad I have some frame of reference for the world/story going in, given how obtuse it may end up being! I'll leave the anime til I've played the game for a bit.

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There is a datalog, but you have to find stuff to unlock entries about locations and stuff.

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What you should know: It's a totally incomplete game. That explains all the weirdness in it. It's not some grand master plan that pays off later. But even so, it does pay off well if you enjoy what's there and take it easy.

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*Progressive spoilers shall follow throughout the topic!*

Hey, that's not Sean Bean's voice!

Fiop posted...

, though at the start it does feel like you're starting about 4-6 hours past where a typical FF would start

Boy this completely nails what it feels like starting this game up. Like we skip past any story or character introductions and we're straight into sidequests and open worlding. I'm very glad I've seen Kingsglaive now so I have some sense of background.

Somehow I didn't know this was gonna be a full open world game! I guess they really wanted to correct for the blowback XIII's corridors got. I've done a couple of hunts and met Cindy (whose outfit is just too ridiculous sorry) and DAVE. Not sure about the combat yet, it'll take a while to properly get used to. I'm not really engaging in any tactics beyond blindsiding, spamming the warp and telling my allies to use their techniques >_>

The car being locked to the road is interesting. In a way I kinda like it as it adds to the realism, but... I hope there's faster ways of moving around in future. It takes quite a while to run places.

I like that each party member has their own specialty, Prompto's photos are fun and Noctis loving fishing (of course there's fishing) and feeding cats is the first interesting personality trait he's been given. Ignis is basically the babysitter of the group, and Gladio is just the muscle atm. We've gone down to the port and met a friendly hatless stranger =) He gave us a coin which is surely not gonna be some shady tracking device or something. What a nice man!!

It's way too early to make any judgments so far, but this has already taken me by surprise. I hope traversing the open world gets more fun. It feels like I haven't really begun playing yet, I look forward to... you know, the plot actually starting lol. There's been some bits of news over the radio which I appreciate, the modern fantasy stuff could wind up being really cool if they use it right. I wonder when Insomnia falls.

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I enjoyed cruising in the Regalia just listening to Final Fantasy tunes

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It's really big part of that road trip vibe.

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The FF tunes are cool, I like FF1 being here. Matoya's Cave is rad. Some random non-FF choices though.

We meet Dino and sure enough the game actually begins here, right after I last stopped playing. We get some Previously On Kingsglaive scenes and bounce back to Insomnia. Now this is more like it! The Niflheim Empire is making this feel like a 3D version of VI in some ways, it's so cool seeing the Magitek soldiers and stuff. Noctis gets sad about his dead dad and I guess the wedding is off!

After a chat with Cid and an inappropriately chirpy Cindy, we travel west and meet Monica, and soon Cor The Immortal becomes a temporary party member. He's a legend who is famous for surviving the unsurvivable, and he kicks ass in gameplay, so I imagine he'll either be a secret villain or dead by the midpoint of the game. Noctis brings up some rather reasonable points about his dad a) dumping the weight of the world on his shoulders without preparing him and b) singling out his son's life over millions of others. But the game leans into blah blah kings blood power stuff here, so I'm not sure if that will actually go anywhere good.

We get some old king's weapon that apparently drains HP if you wield it, I haven't tried it out though. There's also a bunch of free DLC weapons in the inventory but they look pretty OP and I'd rather stick at the regular level here so I'm only equipping new things I find in game. After Cor shows off his skills we're into our first dungeon, Keycatrich Trench. This place is pretty much just some corridors and goblins with a single spider-y enemy, but I enjoy myself anyway. I'm not good at the combat or anything but I'm getting into a better rhythm now. Surprised there's no boss here, though there is an ominous fancy locked door... I don't see a key so I'll have to come back later.

Noctis and Cor split up from the rest and slice through some incompetent Nifl soldiers, and we meet new villain Loqi, who- oh he's dead already. Ah well. Lunafreya's brother is placed in charge of finding Noct and the gang, the emperor must really have faith that he's fully on their side. Ardyn isn't present, for obvious reasons. We leave the dustbowl behind and travel into verdant lands as Chapter 2 ends. Unfortunately I didn't do a sidequest for Dino so next time I'm gonna have to turn right back around >_>

I'm getting into things more now. The Daemons at night thing is a little annoying but it's also cool worldbuilding and an effective simple way to make night seem terrifying and have you rush to get back to a rest spot before sunset. I assume the main thrust of Noct's journey isn't just gonna be finding these old weapons, so I look forward to finding out what happens next!

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andylt posted...

I assume the main thrust of Noct's journey isn't just gonna be finding these old weapons,

*pulls on collar*

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nyx ulric for smfffc xxiv

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foolm0r0n posted...

It's not some grand master plan

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pjbasis posted...

*pulls on collar*

oh dear

foolm0r0n posted...

foolm0r0n posted...
It's not some grand master plan

I know you called it an unfinished game but that made me think that, like, the ending will be rushed as it is in most FFs, not that... it won't have a throughline of a plot >_>

Thankfully, driving around is fun. I haven't yet gone to see Iris, much to Gladiolus's chagrin. I keep telling him we're heading right there and then I piss around some more. I hope there's some dialogue about us being late or something when we do get there lol.

Prompto is happy with me though, because I headed straight for CHOCOBOS. A much more interesting prospect than some sister somewhere. We have to clear out a mini behemoth named Deadeye before we get to ride a chocobo, and we do just that. Nice atmosphere here, even if it's basically just walking through some mist until we cast Fira twice on some oil drums and down the beast right away. I like the style of this, I'm glad sidequests are more substantial than the hunts so far.

Now we have chocobos whenever we want! Well, we have to rent them, and you can only rent them for 7 days at a time for some reason, but it's cheap so I don't see any reason not to constantly keep them on order. More importantly, there's racetracks! This game has chocobo races! Finally! I loved racing in 7 but every game since has either avoided chocobo races entirely (T, VIII, IX, XII, XIII) or done them in an underwhelming way (X, X-2, XIII-2, TCB). I've only tried it a couple times here and it's no Golden Saucer, but it looks like things will get more elaborate as we go so my hopes are high. Prompto and I are of the same mind when it comes to chocobos.

We keep driving around and there's a bunch of places that are just blockaded off to us sadly, including a disc that Ignis wanted us to visit. I expend a ton of items downing a level twenty something Magitek dude guarding the gate to the disc, but it stays locked and we don't get anything special for it. Boo! I also try out the arcade game, it seems OK but I doubt I'll be mastering it.

Next time I'll go see this stupid sister already

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the sister is good; you will regret your words

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the only dumb thing about her is how they chose to say her name in English

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andylt posted...

I know you called it an unfinished game but that made me think that, like, the ending will be rushed as it is in most FFs, not that... it won't have a throughline of a plot >_>

Well games are not developed linearly. There's different teams working on all chapters at the same time. Now imagine if half of those teams quit or moved to another project in the 10 years of development. Then the other half had to redo everything in the 2 years after Nomura was fired.

It ends up with a lot of cool gameplay and story elements, but definitely no throughline. I heard the DLC fills in some good bits though.

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I wonder if there's a list somewhere that lists the ideal time to play each DLC


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ninkendo posted...

I wonder if there's a list somewhere that lists the ideal time to play each DLC

It is pretty easy to know when each one takes place if you're not wanting to wait until after you beat the game (which is just fine, really)

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I only ever played the 1st DLC and was planning to do the rest of them when I did a replay of the full game (which I was going to do if I ever get caught up in FF14)

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