Fabulous Final Fantasy Franchise Discussion Catch-all

Still enjoying FFX. On a whim I mixed a map with a power sphere which created a "pineapple" that blew up a cactus in one shot. Oh I also threw 9000 gil at a dragon boss from the roof of an air ship and inflicted 9000 damage.

Fun times.

FFX is so good

Also, having played it nearly nonstop for the past 4ish months, FFXIV is a really really good Final Fantasy, particularly the Heavensward expansion. Don't know or care where I'd rank it at this point, but it's up there with X and VI as my favorites.

beanman101283 wrote:

FFX is so good

Also, having played it nearly nonstop for the past 4ish months, FFXIV is a really really good Final Fantasy, particularly the Heavensward expansion. Don't know or care where I'd rank it at this point, but it's up there with X and VI as my favorites.

Enjoyed FF14 for a couple months last summer. Kind of ran out of steam when the plot left me high and dry around level 46. Wasn't in the mood to grind for 20 hours to get the 2 or 3 levels I needed to continue the story. Buggers.

ChipRMonk wrote:
beanman101283 wrote:

FFX is so good

Also, having played it nearly nonstop for the past 4ish months, FFXIV is a really really good Final Fantasy, particularly the Heavensward expansion. Don't know or care where I'd rank it at this point, but it's up there with X and VI as my favorites.

Enjoyed FF14 for a couple months last summer. Kind of ran out of steam when the plot left me high and dry around level 46. Wasn't in the mood to grind for 20 hours to get the 2 or 3 levels I needed to continue the story. Buggers.

Er.. Trust me when I say you could get those levels in maybe 3 hours by running roulettes for a couple days.

Could do it in one day in about 2-3 yeah.

Log_In_Lain wrote:

Could do it in one day in about 2-3 yeah.

Hmm. There was a claim that only the first roulette in a day got decent xp. Mob kills just weren't doing anything, even in dungeons. That and the wait times were over half an hour anyway, just twiddling my thumbs.

*shrug* The game was good for a while. Not perfect, but good.

Fair. I have the benefit of running dungeons with friends, so I don’t deal with wait times. I wouldn’t put up with a thirty minute queue. The reward is only once per day but the daily roulettes still give out good experience even without it. Another quick option is Fates in Northern Thanalan.

I know other people that tried the game and fell off, too. It isn’t going to be for everyone.

There are a few different daily roulettes you can do each day, tho at your point in the game it may only be leveling dungeons and trials. There is also the Palace of the Dead, which I know people use to more quickly level and try out jobs. I haven’t tried it myself. The dungeon queue times for dps classes is rough, though. As the game progresses you get more and more to do that can fill your time (Beast tribe dailies, hunts, managing squadrons, etc) but getting there still takes time.

beanman101283 wrote:

There are a few different daily roulettes you can do each day, tho at your point in the game it may only be leveling dungeons and trials. There is also the Palace of the Dead, which I know people use to more quickly level and try out jobs. I haven’t tried it myself. The dungeon queue times for dps classes is rough, though. As the game progresses you get more and more to do that can fill your time (Beast tribe dailies, hunts, managing squadrons, etc) but getting there still takes time.

No worries. I dropped my subscription a couple of months ago. Fun while it lasted. I guess I was more surprised at how I was tooling along enjoying myself, and then the content just dropped off a cliff.

I tried the Palace of the Dead. Interesting, but I didn't find it practical solo. You don't get any xp unless you make it quite far in without dying...wasted quite a bit of time trying, though. LOL.

Good, more people need to play this game. Pokemon FF!

garion333 wrote:

Good, more people need to play this game. Pokemon FF!

Yay! Hopefully this means we'll see a Switch port down the road, and a sequel if the ports drum up enough interest. Also, maybe demonstrate to Level-5 and Atlus that there's untapped demand for mon games on PC?

Wishful thinking I know, but any chance PC/PS4 will have battling cross play?

The Steam listing doesn't mention cross-platform play so that seems doubtful

I can't embed it, but Mana Books (the publisher handling distributing Ultimania 25th Anniversary in France) commissioned a mini-documentary (around 8 minutes) from a Japanese group known as "toco toco" about Amano and his art. If anyone's interested you can find it here.

h/t Destructoid

More random FF "news" I'm not sure anyone else cares about:

Final Fantasy VII: On the Way to a Smile novellas are getting an official release in the West

World of Final Fantasy is getting a mobile spinoff title. This was apparently planned a while back but they decided it would be cheaper to make a full game and then re-use the art assets for the mobile project. Also buried in the article is news that the console title sold about 800k units which is respectable and it sounds like they're planning more titles in this sub-series.

And lastly, Hajime Tabata says he's rolling onto a new project in 2018. My money is still on FFVII Remake being his next cleanup effort. This probably also indicates that they're winding down on new content for FFXV, and hopefully that also means they can stop trying to keep the audience busy while we wait for XVI.

Nothing particularly fascinating. Just magazine scans of an advertisement for FF1, featuring some art not in the final version of the game. Most notably a big dragon, but some color swaps to sprites as well. A blue fighter on the overworld for one, and a red wizard in the one with the dragon... wait... I mean, the Black Wizard (Black Mage evolution) but swapped to red color. Also, a lake in the forest around Corneria (or is it Cornelia now?).

A little bit of SaGa slipped in there...

Mantid wrote:

A little bit of SaGa slipped in there...

Nice collection they've got there. Thanks for sharing that.

So it sounds like in recent interviews, Tabata is talking about extending work on Final Fantasy XV for another year, wrapping up the extended development at the end of 2018. There are more DLC scenarios planned that tie into the main storyline and expand on the characters and the history of Eos, and they're teasing some kind of "new gameplay experience" to be announced in the new year.

I've been waiting to buy the game until it was "done", but it sounds like that's still far off. Anyone have any thoughts on how it feels as a complete experience with the DLC to date?

Beeporama might be your best guess but I feel I'd have to restart the game, and even then play it without the season pass content. Keep in mind all the episodes are part of the season pass and thus cost money.

I feel like a lot of the updates and new content haven't helped make it "more complete", and the notion of FFXV being "complete" was out the window once they decided to release in 2016.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I've been waiting to buy the game until it was "done", but it sounds like that's still far off. Anyone have any thoughts on how it feels as a complete experience with the DLC to date?

I've felt like it was a pretty complete experience without the DLC already, and I'm a pretty big cheerleader... but the DLC to date should make any outstanding story questions about as clear as you can hope for.

I think the update that lets you switch party members in battle has the potential to be a big deal, so you might wait for that. On the other hand, there's a good argument you'd want to spend the beginning of the game focused on getting Noctis down before you start throwing in more complexity. So it's not a bad time to start. That update should hit really soon, I think.

beeporama wrote:

I think the update that lets you switch party members in battle has the potential to be a big deal, so you might wait for that. On the other hand, there's a good argument you'd want to spend the beginning of the game focused on getting Noctis down before you start throwing in more complexity. So it's not a bad time to start. That update should hit really soon, I think.

I look forward to years of another Persona 3 style argument about party control.

I haven't gone back to FFXV to really see if the updates made it more "complete". Like Beep, I think the game was fairly done when it launched. Most of the updates seem more targeted at Quality of Life improvements like allowing you to take on additional hunt quests, off-road driving, etc. than "finishing" the story. (Here's a good summary over at ResetEra of the changes). Most of the new story content seems gated behind the DLC episodes which I don't think are integrated into the main game. It does sound like there might be some more story content added to the main campaign next year but I'm not expecting much.

EDIT: Just to clarify, I don't think the plot of the game (at least up to Ch. 7 which is as far as I got I think before getting distracted) is that hard to follow. There's definitely some stuff that's not fully fleshed out or explained outright in-game, but if you pay attention and think about what's going on a bit and just roll with it you'll be fine. I also recommend taking your time and soaking up the sidequests and hunts instead of just critical/golden pathing your way through it.

beeporama wrote:

That update should hit really soon, I think.

It's been out for a couple weeks I believe. SiliconEra has an blog post dated the 12th suggesting it was released.

Just to be clear: I'm considering the game plus the season pass when talking about whether or not it's "complete". I remember a lot of complaints at launch that it felt half-baked and the story half-written. It sounds like the paid DLC patches some of that up nicely.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I remember a lot of complaints at launch that it felt half-baked and the story half-written.

I feel like that's been a bit of a recurring theme for the franchise since forever.

shoptroll wrote:
beeporama wrote:

That update should hit really soon, I think.

It's been out for a couple weeks I believe. SiliconEra has an blog post dated the 12th suggesting it was released.

OH SNAP! I assumed it wasn't out because I couldn't figure out how to do it.

Here's the deal: for each character, there is a node in Ascenscion that you have to spend AP to activate before you can switch to them. It's not super expensive, but I think it's a good choice, because it forces you to spend some time getting combat down before throwing in the complexity.

I do wish they'd thrown up a tutorial or something when you started up after the patch, but... oh well. Looking forward to jumping back in and trying it out! The DLCs didn't leave me thinking any of the characters were nearly as powerful and flexible as Noctis, but, it should be fun and I can imagine some special cases where they'll shine.

shoptroll wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

I remember a lot of complaints at launch that it felt half-baked and the story half-written.

I feel like that's been a bit of a recurring theme for the franchise since forever.

That's my feeling on this. Before the updates, yeah, the metaphysics behind the story were kind of hard to understand, almost an afterthought... the only difference now is that they have the technology (and the desire) to make changes to make it clearer. Patches of the same caliber could easily have been applied to most of the other FF games, which I think are generally just as "unfinished" as this one.

beeporama wrote:

the only difference now is that they have the technology (and the desire) to make changes to make it clearer. Patches of the same caliber could easily have been applied to most of the other FF games, which I think are generally just as "unfinished" as this one.

It's always been possible for them to "patch" the story/worldbuilding holes in games. It just wasn't cheap to do since it would've required pressing new discs or ROM chips

I still maintain that FFXV's post-release updates are largely to keep fans busy until XVI is announced. Kitase and Toriyama haven't been involved with a new console title since Lightning Returns, and I can't imagine their team is only working on Mobius.

Just wanted to drop a note here that I'm currently reading Boss Fight Books Presents: Final Fantasy V, written by Chris Kohler. I'd heard of these books but wasn't sure of them since they seem part autobiographical in addition to part-analysis and part-journalism. I also got the one on EarthBound, but wanted to read Kohler's first since it includes information from a brand new interview he conducted with Hironobu Sakaguchi and previously untranslated interviews from Japanese press materials.

I'm only about 45 pages in so far, but it has been a surprisingly absorbing book. I've been greatly enjoying it and figured it would be worth recommending to some folks here. The books aren't too long – about the size of a Narnia novel but with larger font – and I figure would be fun to read if you have any interest in Final Fantasy V and its missing place in America's line-up.

Also: Shoptroll I feel like you'd dig this one.

I look at it as a precursor to grabbing Final Fantasy Ultimania Vol. 1 in June.

Thanks, I wasn’t aware of this or Ultimania!