The fifteenth entry in Square Enix's flagship RPG franchise, set in a world that mixes elements of modern technology with magic, a fantasy based on reality.
I thought I would start a thread where people can ask questions. I'm playing on PS4 and Im either going to start playing the game tonight or tomorrow. It's not my first Final Fanal Fantasy game but the only ones I have played to completion are 8 and 10.
I'll be happy to answer any questions to the best of my ability. Also this has been said before but the game has a 7gb day one update.
Did you watch much of the pre-game hype stuff they created like the 5 episode anime or the movie (Kingsglaive I think it was called?)
If so, did that actually add anything to the experience you've had with the game? If not, does the game see lore/story heavy enough that it might help or is the game self contained enough that it won't add all that much to the experience?
Tip : Explore and do side quests, Tones of awesome weapons and car upgrades are around! Give the big gravity/portal gun to prompto he'll fire it and suck enemies even huge ones into it while you and the others can put a beat down on them.
I've been following the Neogaf impressions thread for the last week and overall it's looking pretty solid. A few problem areas with the story progression but apparently overall it's great. Personally can't wait for my copy to arrive on Tuesday, it's been 10 years and I need to know for myself how this all plays out haha.
Q: How big does the world feel to you from the outset?
Are the characters actually good or are they as insufferable as they dress? I kid, but the game seems to be putting a lot of emphasis on the relationship between the four bros and if they are poorly written or annoying I can see the whole game falling apart on a story level.
@pompouspizza: No Prob bud, Also they tell you about the weapon tombs and and later base infiltration (Both after the first 2 or 3 are optional but do them all especially the tombs! You get fantastic Weapon rewards for tombs and the bases extra boss fights)
If thats spoilery sorry ill use tags if anyone thinks thats appropriate.
Will it take 3 days for you to kill a huge adamantoise? :)
Real question: How's the camera in battle with multiple opponents? That seemed to be a problem in earlier beta's.
Also, how do you like the 'hide behind rock' to regain health mechanic? Is there still some strategy to what actions you use or does it feel quite far removed from Jrpgs? I played 13, and while it was very action-y already, there was still a big strategic element between which paradigms you use for what purpose, and timing attacks such that you can juggle enemies in the air.
A few quick thoughts after just starting the game:
- The tutorial is pretty lengthy but completely optional.
-I was very pleasantly surprised with how little story information the game gives you up front. I expected it to bombard me with information but as soon as the tutorial is over, there is a quick intro sequence and then you're playing.
- Just based off combat in the tutorial, the camera seems a little unwieldy but it might very well be that I'm just not used to it yet.
- The game looks really fantastic. I never though the game would actually look as good as it did when they showed it at E3 2013 but it does.
- The game starts with text that reads "A Final Fantasy game for fans and newcomers" which I still think is hilarious considering that it's called Final Fantasy 15. I know that it's completely standalone but it just makes me laugh.
I'm curious to hear how the game manages its second half, which the director said becomes much more linear. But I guess it's still too soon for you to have seen that.
Are the characters actually good or are they as insufferable as they dress? I kid, but the game seems to be putting a lot of emphasis on the relationship between the four bros and if they are poorly written or annoying I can see the whole game falling apart on a story level.
For the record, you can dress them however you want. The clothing is all customizable.
I'm curious to hear how the game manages its second half, which the director said becomes much more linear. But I guess it's still too soon for you to have seen that.
Without spoiling it, it's more like the last quarter, the story gets really moving but saying that again before say the final few events, you can go back into the open and explore, really though better to do allot of that stuff before going there as it has benefits going in to the later part of the game. Also there are few things you can only go to Post game which is cool.
@liquidprince: From people who've played the game, there appears to be two outfits per character, plus no-jacket variants, then a third pair of sweet endgame duds. There's some choice there, but it's not GTA5 or Watch_Dogs 2.
@scottjay01: did you have even earlier access to the game or are games press of some sort/youtuber/etc? or did you just beat it that fast, because god damn.
@ripelivejam: Yeah I had earlier access to it from the start of this week, so I hunkered down and outside of going to the gym and sleeping all I did was FF XV
@scottjay01: Also could you help me understand something? From what I can tell, you have to rest at a campsite to cash in your XP to level up. If you die before cashing in the XP do you lose it?
@pompouspizza: Yeah, although please keep in mind that I knew allot about this game even when it was VersusXIII so there were aspects & stages that I wanted it to retain before Hajime Tabata fully took over the project, so I've been trying to push that feeling of what could have been away and not have an already colored opinion of it.
That said I'll try and keep this brief with as little spoilers as possible! Overall I'll start by saying it is the best Final Fantasy game to come out since XII (I know many will think that's not hard but still at least rest assured no fear of a XIII here) One thing I was very happy with was the Japanese Voice cast is selectable ,I would recommend this as it is more enjoyable, Square aren't Atlus when it comes to their English dubs.
There are 2 Control schemes The first is the default new one or number 2 which the button layout is that of FFXV Episode Duscae,This is great for doing mid weapon switching combos (I thought that was a great little addition)
The story I'm not going to lie, I watched the Kingsglave movie and Brotherhood Anime pretty much a day or 2 before I played this, so I felt allot more connected to what I was doing especially when the story really kicked in later. Outside of that I don't want to go into the story but even though my feelings before playing this, I will say the package of Brotherhood, Kingsglave and the Game I enjoyed very much, more than I thought actually.
The 4 main Characters become very likable over time, there are some really great scenes between them and some quests that flesh out their bond which becomes very interesting because they're just 4 best friends most of the time but there is this underline tone of we have to protect Noctis.
They do a good job of coloring the world on your adventure, as you go through towns and dives or stores there will be things like radios or NPC's talking and if you hit the prompts to listen in you hear about stuff that is happening in different parts of the world as your on your journey, this was especially enjoyable as I'd just watched Kingsglave so it made the events that are meant to be running parallel to each other work really well.
Combat is not a hack and slash if you take the time to learn it, Noctis can juggle through up to 4 weapons at a time which you can switch through mid combo and string together huge damage dealing moves, as you raise your skills you open up things later on that can lead to things like you soaring in aerial combat which is fantastic. Your 3 Bro's AI is very good in combat and are constantly linking up double team (or more) moves with you. Back attacks are the way to go!
You can also set a combat action for each of your 3 bros on L1 which you can activate in battle as you please, for example, I had Ignis to throw his daggers against a group of soldiers we were fighting, he hits about five of them then by timing my presses of O Noctis warps cutting down each of them. Later one I got to a much harder boss fight and I swapped out that command for a new one for Ignis where if the 4 of us were getting pushed to far apart, I'd hit L1 and choose Ignis to activate a regroup where the 4 guys rush back together in a sold line (This is very useful if one of you are low on HP)
I mentioned tombs in a previous post, these are very important as going through each of these you will get a weapon of the Royal Arms. There are 13 of these in total to get and activates the ability to use the awesome Armiger mode, If you saw any trailers of this game its all the weapons that surround Noctis's Body they protect you from harm but also allow you to pull of some spectacular combat Below the text is a lil gif i found of a look at just having only 4 of the 13 (Please note those enemies weren't meant to fight back)
As you go through towns or pit stops there will be restaurants, diners, hotels and inns, that by talking to them will add a bunch of side objectives and monster bounty's to the map which you be able to find items, weapons, car parts and what not.
Music in this game when used is superb especially for the mid and final boss fights!
That's all I can think of atm with out hitting any spoilers and Story wise I always think it's important for someone to experience that type of thing first hand.
@pompouspizza: Yes you need to camp and rest to cash in your XP and level up, Also eat food the stat boosts from eating are very beneficial .
Also I completely forgot to talk about Magic in this game, Magic is used by combining the 3 elements of fire, ice and lightning with items into a Bomb of sorts which you can check the final level and stats before creating, resulting in extremely useful thing to use if you run into enemies your not ready for.
I remember fighting 2 level 37 enemies at night and was about to die until I made a bomb of level 66 with all 3 elements and a potion threw 2 of those and damn was it a great get out jail free card haha.
@scottjay01: Can you actually mix the elements to create different kinds of spells? I messed around with it a little bit but I didn't really understand what effect it would have on the magic if I mixed elements.
@pompouspizza: Yes you can really really mess around if you put items into the mix, during my time though I just made what ever was the highest level sometimes that would result in the first bomb being different to the second one I threw!
Magic is my one regret in this game, I noticed more and more that the Weather has an impact on what you use! But I was almost done with the game at the time I would like to experiment more with the magic but yeah try dumping stuff together and see what happens lol at one point I botched my throw in the opening hours and electrocuted my whole party!
I assume after your sleeping/camping your using your AP points when you have them to upgrade all the stuff on your grids right?
@scottjay01: Yeah I have been using my AP points to upgrade stuff. In your experience, will I be okay just upgrading whatever sounds the most useful to me regardless of category, or would it be better to pick a category and go fully down that path?
Also I don't know if you have bought any of the health level upgrades but I'm assuming that when it says "increases HP of each party member by twice the number of levels gained" that happens every level and it's not a one time use ability? Otherwise you would always be waiting for the best time to buy it.
Sorry for all the questions, I really appreciate you taking the time to answer.
@pompouspizza:No worries bro, I couldn't tell you off that bat on that one but it does sound about right. I focused more on combat, teamwork and techniques. I'm guessing those are in recovery? When it came to health I was loving that you and the guys could just pick each other up if you got to each other in time so I never really thought I needed a health up.
But yeah I think hover over what you like and get what you think is best.
@scottjay01: Yeah they are in stats. I'm just going to look through all of the trees and just get whatever seems best each time I have points to spend. I love that you can buy soundtracks from shops and listen to them in the car! My fina question...how long did it take you to beat it? The game seems absolutely massive.
@pompouspizza: Also one last note on story side of things, I really unintentionally did allot of the open world quests and bountys and what not before I think Chapter 8 I want to say. So when they game closed me off for a while to have a a meater story I didn't feel like it was forced on me as I'd had quite a big fill of that stuff before hand, unlike some other impressions I read where I think they didn't do as much of that early onward and then felt locked in for a bit until you can go back basically.
So yeah if your enjoying that stuff yeah I'd recommend getting as much of your fill so then your ok when your closed off a for a bit.
Lets see I did allot of the side content, not all because at some point I was thinking I'd need a guide cuz I'm sure theres stuff laying about I've not got.
Saying that I put about 50 hours in maybe more before getting to the end, I did allot of side content keep in mind and allot of just fighting testing the combat and raising. Some people have rushed through it round the 35/38 hour mark but yeah it's a big game.
The First 7 or so chapters compare more to FF12 and then maybe the chapters after that are like FF10 but then you get to go back in the open before finishing.
One thing to note in this game is the Monster Design is Brilliant.
@scottjay01: That's great to hear. I'm trying to do a treasure map quest right now and it's driving me crazy because I can't find it! I have been walking around the radius for ages. Do side quest ever expire?
@deathshroud: Great but please keep in mind that I tried to cover no story stuff (Because I think that's all down to personal taste and should be a freash experience) and before my play through I had watched Brotherhood and Kingsglave for a better feel of everything.
That said I think what is here as a package is really very good, after you master the combat the way it flows is very fun. I like this more than any PS3 or PS2 FF
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