Final Fantasy XV

I like that the Youtube preview picture of that video just shows a bunch of guys standing around a field, one about to smash something. It reminds me of Office Space.

Demyx wrote:

Don't play it BTW, I bet you'd hate it ;)

You dropped this.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/1Y9HKuZ.jpg)

That doesn't look like mine, I'm a Time Mage, that's more of a Dark Knight thing.

Welp.

Siliconera[/url]]“The party will only have male characters,” replies Tabata, “and that hasn’t changed since its previous form of [Final Fantasy Versus XIII].”

I've been looking for a Backstreet Boys video-clip to put up as blind linked FFXV "trailer" for ages, Kitty Cat Dance style. None of them really worked, and all I've done is pollute my YouTube recommendations. I give up.

Just pretend I made... like... a really sick burn here.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Welp.

Siliconera[/url]]“The party will only have male characters,” replies Tabata, “and that hasn’t changed since its previous form of [Final Fantasy Versus XIII].”

Well that's disappointing. Hopefully this is a one-off thing due to the original spin-off plan rather than a new direction by the franchise.

shoptroll wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

Welp.

Siliconera[/url]]“The party will only have male characters,” replies Tabata, “and that hasn’t changed since its previous form of [Final Fantasy Versus XIII].”

Well that's disappointing. Hopefully this is a one-off thing due to the original spin-off plan rather than a new direction by the franchise.

Ugh.

Hey, maybe they're really deep and interesting characters, right?

... Right?

I watched the trailer a few days ago and my interest level in the game decreased. The animation and visuals are superb and the combat could be good - but I do not care one iota for that boring-looking group, and I don't want to drive a not-Porshe around that world.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Welp.

Siliconera[/url]]“The party will only have male characters,” replies Tabata, “and that hasn’t changed since its previous form of [Final Fantasy Versus XIII].”

I can't pretend that I am not disappointed. Very disappointed. It's the same sinking feeling I had when I saw FFX-2's cheesecake direction and Lightning's redesign*. A feeling that the target audience just shifted to exclude me and I will end up having to play despite that instead of enjoying a more inclusive experience.

*I loved her original FFXIII design! She had a cool outfit which was both feminine and suitable. Then they increased her breast size and gave her low-grade boob armour for Lightning Returns, and devoted parts of the promo videos to discussing how they'd sexed her up.

garion333 wrote:

Hey, maybe they're really deep and interesting characters, right?

... Right?

I definitely got that impression from the trailer.

This is secretly an Assassins Creed game. T that explains both the guy in the white hood and why women are too difficult to animate.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

This is secretly an Assassins Creed game. T that explains both the guy in the white hood and why women are too difficult to animate.

Thats because they need a separate game engine for the boobs.

Gematsu has a roundup from interviews and such about FFXV. Similar to the Siliconera article above, but with a bit more info.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

This is secretly an Assassins Creed game. T that explains both the guy in the white hood and why women are too difficult to animate.

To be fair, the Assassin's Creed games are secretly sequels to this given how long this game had been in development.

garion333 wrote:

Gematsu has a roundup from interviews and such about FFXV. Similar to the Siliconera article above, but with a bit more info.

All male party aside (and even then it sounds like only Noctis playable which is right in-line with the old "FF via KH" talk from the VS XIII days) I'm very intrigued by how the gameplay and technology are sounding.

The part I don't like is the open world talk. The comparison to RDR makes sense, but I have a sneaking suspicion it's not as open world as they seem to be saying. I'll be happy to be wrong considering the game is focused on a road trip vibe.

On one hand I'm intrigued by the idea of a road trip for bros. I've got a lot of nostalgia for my high school days when it would be me, my brother, and our two friends just hanging out, going places, talking, etc. Stuff like that is why I really dig movies like The Sandlot and Stand By Me. So the concept of what is essentially a four-dude road trip in an epic setting, well, yeah, color me intrigued.

But as I said earlier, one of the things about this franchise has always been its strong cast of characters, and that includes female characters. Looking back, I cannot help but wonder if that's one of the reasons the franchise has had such a strong following among women playing games (based on anecdotal evidence). Given the game's aesthetic, I'm curious if there's a bit of "let's try to appeal more to the Western market" going on, which includes a focus on male characters.

Granted, it sounds like Noctis is the only character you control at all anyway, which is a potentially damaging opportunity. Even if you're going to have just four characters, I feel like you'd want each of them to fit someone's play style rather than forcing the player to master one sort of combat type. Perhaps the different swords you can implement will help fulfill that role, but he describes the combat as shuffling the deck, so to speak, which would randomize it. So they're essentially turning FFXV into an action game with some strategy elements.

Which itself isn't too bad of an idea on its own, but you're essentially going to be drastically changing enough aspects of the game that you risk alienating huge chunks of your existing fanbase.

I wonder if XV will ultimately have a response along the lines that you see with games like 7 and 8, where a large chunk of new players came in and it was different than any game they experienced before, but older fans are all curmudgeonly about it. Will a lot of new players jump into XV loving it, but previous fans stick to older titles, including those that jumped on board with 7/8, X, XII or XIII.

It kind of ties into what I was pondering in the FF thread. What is it that makes Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy? I'm really interested in what this will be as a game, but it seems that this one is bound to sunder the fanbase a bit.

Or perhaps I'm just speculating way too much off of very little information.

I definitely agree this is probably going to go down as one of the most controversial entries in the franchise.

As for the combat... It sounds very similar to KH Birth By Sleep and TWEWY. Yes you only have one playable character, but there should be enough customization options to empower players to build a Noctis that fits their play style.

The all male party might be Western pandering but this game was started before Japan had their huge "must appeal to the West at all costs" fit part way into last generation. So I don't really get that read from it.

garion333 wrote:

The part I don't like is the open world talk. The comparison to RDR makes sense, but I have a sneaking suspicion it's not as open world as they seem to be saying. I'll be happy to be wrong considering the game is focused on a road trip vibe.

They're definitely caging their responses on that topic. I expect it's going to be similar to Xenoblade: lots of open spaces but the game is going to keep you on the main path a lot.

shoptroll wrote:
garion333 wrote:

The part I don't like is the open world talk. The comparison to RDR makes sense, but I have a sneaking suspicion it's not as open world as they seem to be saying. I'll be happy to be wrong considering the game is focused on a road trip vibe.

They're definitely caging their responses on that topic. I expect it's going to be similar to Xenoblade: lots of open spaces but the game is going to keep you on the main path a lot.

Aha! Good call on that.

ccesarano wrote:

Given the game's aesthetic, I'm curious if there's a bit of "let's try to appeal more to the Western market" going on, which includes a focus on male characters.

I don't think that making the guys in the car all look like pop stars is the best way to sell copies in the US.

Maybe I'm not paying close enough attention, but the only one that full-on screams pop start to me is the Cloud Wannabe. Even Noctis has a toned down aesthetic despite his hair.

Then again, I could just not be paying enough attention because oh man that Adamantoise looks friggin' awesome.

That article mentions that you can defeat the adamantoise but that it'll take about thirty in-game days to do it. Each in-game day is thirty real time minutes. So, holy cow, fifteen hour battle?

The people who are saying they made this decision to appeal to men, or to the West -- are you looking at the same trailer that I watched? I don't think they made a party of young men ripped straight from JPOP or male modeling to appeal to the men, and they sure didn't do it to appeal to the West.

Maybe I'm a minority opinion but I'm pretty much okay with this. They did just come off a trilogy with female protagonists in each.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

So, holy cow, fifteen hour battle?

Wouldn't be the first time they've done that.

Demyx wrote:

The people who are saying they made this decision to appeal to men, or to the West -- are you looking at the same trailer that I watched? I don't think they made a party of young men ripped straight from JPOP or male modeling to appeal to the men, and they sure didn't do it to appeal to the West.

Maybe I'm a minority opinion but I'm pretty much okay with this. They did just come off a trilogy with female protagonists in each.

The game is certainly heavy on bishounen.

And yes, they just came off a trilogy with a central female protagonist, but there's a difference in my mind between having a mix of male and female characters with a female lead and having only male characters with a male lead.

Demyx wrote:

The people who are saying they made this decision to appeal to men, or to the West -- are you looking at the same trailer that I watched? I don't think they made a party of young men ripped straight from JPOP or male modeling to appeal to the men, and they sure didn't do it to appeal to the West.

Thanks to random bits of manga, film, and research, I've learned more than I'm comfortable with when it comes to Fujoshi, so I'm completely aware of that. I didn't feel it would be worth mentioning that the female response in Japan is likely the exact opposite as it is in the West, where there's disappointment in a lack of female characters. FFXV is going to be a major source of fan-made erotic Doujinshi, I'm certain.

I think there is a certainly interesting contrast between Lightning Returns and FFXV, actually. Lightning Returns gives Lightning a boob job and sexier outfits to appeal to male Otaku, but FFXV is, if it's targeted towards Otaku at all, going directly for the female Otaku. When I bring up the West, however, I simply wonder if it's a decision that might just incidentally work out in a strange sort of fashion. I mean, let's forget about some of the crazy hair for a moment, it's a game where you fight giant monsters and drive around in a pretty sweet looking car (I guess (I don't really know or care much about cars or their aesthetics)).

But that's also not a guess with ground to stand on. It's basically just a curiosity based on the aesthetic, but given that the visual design isn't too far off from Type-0, it's more likely just the sort of look Tabata prefers.

frogbeastegg wrote:

*I loved her original FFXIII design! She had a cool outfit which was both feminine and suitable. Then they increased her breast size and gave her low-grade boob armour for Lightning Returns, and devoted parts of the promo videos to discussing how they'd sexed her up.

I agree. Lightning's design is one of my favorites out of the heroines of Final Fantasy games, and I was fairly disgusted with SE's pandering to the lowest common denominator with Lightning Returns.

As for FFXV, with each new release of information, SE is making the game into an uphill battle in terms of trying to sell me the game.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

The game is certainly heavy on bishounen.

And yes, they just came off a trilogy with a central female protagonist, but there's a difference in my mind between having a mix of male and female characters with a female lead and having only male characters with a male lead.

You're right. I guess I should clarify that there's a difference between thinking this is ideal, which I certainly do not, and being okay with it, as in I'm still interested in playing the game. I think there should be female characters, and if the only female characters in the game are eye candy or love interests, that sucks a lot. However, I'm interested in the road trip angle, so I'm willing to see where they go with this.

ccesarano wrote:

Thanks to random bits of manga, film, and research, I've learned more than I'm comfortable with when it comes to Fujoshi, so I'm completely aware of that. I didn't feel it would be worth mentioning that the female response in Japan is likely the exact opposite as it is in the West, where there's disappointment in a lack of female characters.

I think it's interesting that this design might actually be a deliberate attempt to cater to female fans, or at least a particular subset of female fans, but it's not likely to play that way in the West. Except among that particular subset of female fans, which also exists here.

Farscry wrote:

I agree. Lightning's design is one of my favorites out of the heroines of Final Fantasy games, and I was fairly disgusted with SE's pandering to the lowest common denominator with Lightning Returns.

Uggh, I was just on Final Fantasy Wiki looking up some things for Theatrhythm and I saw the page of Lightning's outfits. Probably less than five percent of those are something I could actually picture the Lightning from FFXIII wearing, ever.

I'm torn. Really hate the character designs but really want to battle those awesome looking beasties.

Nomura is no longer the director, apparently, but I don't know how much that will affect what appears to be a mostly complete game. I blame him for the current state of FF as a whole (and Square-Enix, basically).

I'll probably sit on the fence until I see something that tips me one way or the other.

brokenclavicle wrote:

Nomura is no longer the director, apparently, but I don't know how much that will affect what appears to be a mostly complete game. I blame him for the current state of FF as a whole (and Square-Enix, basically).

Based on the article Garion linked, the game was basically redeveloped from scratch two years ago, and shortly after Nomura was shifted off of the project and replaced. So it's basically not really Nomura's work you're looking, just some of his base concepts as envisioned by a different director.

ccesarano wrote:

I wonder if XV will ultimately have a response along the lines that you see with games like 7 and 8, where a large chunk of new players came in and it was different than any game they experienced before, but older fans are all curmudgeonly about it. Will a lot of new players jump into XV loving it, but previous fans stick to older titles, including those that jumped on board with 7/8, X, XII or XIII.

I'm torn on this perspective and wish to elaborate (as it informs my opinion on FFXV significantly).

I started the franchise with Final Fantasy I back on the NES (and Dragon Warrior I on the NES, while I didn't beat it until years later, was my first rpg).

I played through FFVI before FFIV (long story), and loved them both. I loved FFVII just as much as those, as even though it had some differences from what came before, it still very much felt like a Final Fantasy game. FFVIII was the first game I was a little disappointed by, but I still found it reasonably enjoyable. I loved FFIX unabashedly, recognizing that it was an intentional callback to the NES titles.

FFX was the first game I had any significant complaints about, and that was regarding the lack of an overworld as well as not really liking Tidus or a lot of the spoken dialogue. At the time, I wished for a return to the overworld maps of the prior games as well as less corridor-y adventure maps, and would've preferred an option to just have the dialogue in text boxes with the spoken lines muted. But aside from Tidus, I liked the cast of characters, I loved the turn-based combat, and the game still mostly felt like a Final Fantasy title.

So as a curmudgeonly old "get off my lawn you lousy kids!" type, I really enjoyed the first ten entries in the FF franchise. My least favorite of the first ten games, having played II, III, and V since then, is actually FFIII. The story is rather poor, and while I like the idea of the job system, it feels very shallow and uninteresting compared to the other entries that play with character customization in other ways (everything since FFV).

I don't count the MMO's as "true" mainline FF titles, as you can't play through the stories in single player and you aren't playing a party, but a single character.

FFXII was an odd one. I really disliked the approach at first, and thoroughly disliked the demo of the game that was included with Dragon Quest 8. I was actually going to give FFXII a pass at first, but as the final release of the game neared and I read more and more reviews and impressions that explained how and why the demo was a poor sample of the full game, I finally caved in and picked up XII at a midnight release. I had scheduled the next day off work and spent the entire day playing the game.

I loved it. The first couple hours I was rather ambivalent; I loved the music, art, dialogue and voice acting. But the combat didn't gel with me initially, as it was such a significant departure from the series' previous entries, and Vaan & Penelo weren't very interesting characters. As the game progressed and got deeper into the political machinations, and we picked up the remaining party members, the combat system's depth gradually revealed itself, the scope of the maps to adventure through and their non-linearity making up for the continued lack of an overworld map, and the sheer amount of optional content became apparent, I grew to like the game more and more. In the end, I was surprised to find that XII is tied with VI as my favorite FF game.

After XII defied my expectations, I was actually moderately excited about FFXIII up until its release. But my enjoyment of that title ran the opposite path to my enjoyment of XII. I started off quite liking it for around the first hour, but the more I played, the less I liked it. In the end, the only things I liked about the game were a couple of the characters, some of the music, and elements of the combat system. The rest was a mess for me; it combined elements I disliked from several previous games (mostly from FFX though, interestingly) and amplified them. The uninteresting corridor-map design of FFX and lack of a traditional overworld map, the overlong voice-acted dialogue sequences of FFX, and the direct control of only one party member in real-time combat from FFXII (though in fairness, FFXII allows for pausing to issue orders, and you can issue direct orders to all three party members whenever you want that way). Then it added in additional things I disliked, most notably the exceedingly long time before you have full access to the game's combat and party/character customization systems and the removal of a Wait-Order or Pause-Order option leaving the only real combat control amounting to "switch the party's paradigm when appropriate, use auto-attack the rest of the time".

It bears mentioning that FFXIII-2 resolved some of these complaints, most notably reducing the frequency and duration of extended dialogue scenes and providing area maps that feature more open areas to motivate actual exploration.

So, this is my long-winded way of saying that being a curmudgeonly fan of the original games doesn't mean that I automatically dislike any modern FF sensibilities. There are very specific things about FFXIII that dissatisfied me, whereas I've liked all the other mainline single-player FF games significantly, and some of the spin-offs (FFX-2 and FFXIII-2; haven't touched Lightning Returns). Much of what we're seeing and reading about FFXV so far has me rather unenthusiastic about the game. Between that and the dearth of Dragon Quest releases in the West, it's been a disappointing few years for me in jrpg-land with the lack of compelling games for my two favorite long-term franchises.