I am surprised we don’t (seemingly) have a thread for this one yet - FFXV was announced to have an actual release date this morning. 9/30/2016 with a world wide launch. It’s been a long road - it was originally announced back in 2006 as Final Fantasy Versus XIII and I had zero interest then having just been burned out by playing 20 hours of Final Fantasy XIII and being bored out of my damned mind.
Today also sees the launch of an all new FFXV demo on PSN that (from what I read months ago) is supposed to contain the new gameplay that they updated based on feedback from the previous demo (which I never tried).
I am an old-school FF fan, 12 and Tactics are my favorite hands down but I did just play the crap out of VI on Steam recently. I like these games - I love the end-game where the world is more open and there are so many secrets to be found! I love the lore, the Firaga spells and the Leviathan summons! But that all said, I’ve seen some footage of FFXV and I’m … unconvinced I should get this. It looks more like a Metal Gear game than it does a FF game, from what I did see. The combat feels way more like an arcade action game than an RPG - it looks even faster paced than The Witcher 3 or something for example. It’s only a turn-off because it’s Final Fantasy, which has established combat roots.
But all that said I pulled the demo down and will give it a try. It sounds like it plays like Kingdom Hearts, an RPG franchise I’ve never tried, but I’ll try to post some impressions tonight. Certainly it looks like it might be really awesome visually, and I want to like it!
I have to say, that’s a cool trailer. I’m still not sold on the gameplay itself though, but to be fair, I didn’t like the gameplay in FF12 OR 7 OR Tactics when I first played them, it was only later after giving each another try that I just fell in love with all three of those games. So who knows.
I still don’t know how to feel about last night’s event: it did a great job of providing excitement but it was just so… weird and didn’t feel like Final Fantasy. Hosted by two of the Kinda Funny guys, with appearances by Lena Headey, Sean Bean, Aaron Paul, and Florence & The Machine – and the crazy part is they were all relevant. The first three provided voices for the CG movie, and Florence performed a cover of Stand By Me for the main game. There’s also a 5-part anime, with the first episode going live last night. Seems like SquareEnix is banking on the FFXV world to be a huge hit for them.
All that said, I’m on board. I’m interested in their take on fantasy in a modern day setting and being a SquareEnix game, high production values are guaranteed.
The only Final Fantasy game I’ve played front to back is the first. That said I’m confused and intrigued by that trailer and hope they decide to bring it out on PC at some point.
I hope not, KH was a beautiful game with an awkward action combat system and obscure environmental goals. Playing felt like whacking my head against a wall, and I didn’t realize how much I was resenting it until I gave up right before the final series of boss fights, which were just more of what I liked least.
However, I do want to like this new FF game, and hope they can shake off a lot of the built-up ideas of what a FF game must be. Although the Type Zero game did not seem like anything fresh at all when I tried the XB1 version.
For me, the turn-based combat in entries like FF6 and FFX were the best. I hated the MMO-style combat of FF XII. Kingdom Hearts wasn’t bad when played on hard difficulty. It was extremely challenging, but fun. It was a great “pass the controller around when you die” game when played with a bunch of friends. I did beat the final series of bosses.
I like that they’re willing to try radically different things when it comes to the combat in game. That I never had a problem with. Just please, please don’t do the game-on-rails thing again.
Just saw an article on Game Informer that the director of Final Fantasy says “Final Fantasy XV is ‘make or break’ for the franchise.” Great, thanks for making a FF that’s the furthest removed from anything I’ve ever loved about the franchise since I was a kid and then hedging all of your bets on it. Christ.
I did not watch the video, just going by the headline.
The demo was fine. I played it when it came out and I don’t remember putting my thoughts down here at all, but basically it was fun like playing Zelda is in terms of running up to a guy and hammering a button to wack it with a weapon. Maybe not Zelda, possibly more like a Diablo type thing. You can dodge in the game, but it’s automated (just hold the dodge button down and you will do it when needed; but note while holding it down you aren’t attacking). So it’s like a very strange Dark Souls in some ways. It’s… odd. Not bad, but not really fun either. And magic seems to be just items you collect, like a thunder spell that you select from the D-pad menu you use to also pick the weapon you want to use. It’s not really what I want in my Final Fantasy game, having like 4 different weapons and cycling quickly between them, nor in my magic system, where a spell is just a limited use weapon in one of my weapon slots.
It’s really nice looking, but so is everything else these days. It’s so nice looking that it makes it feel even more removed from Final Fantasy, in a lot of ways.
The boss battle was probably the best indication of how the full game plays, and teleporting around with the main character was kind of a mess, with me fighting the camera as much as the boss. I also don’t like how fast paced that stuff is - dodging, teleporting, hitting and running; it was more Witcher/Dark Souls (but again, it didn’t feel good like it does in those games) than it was Final Fantasy. And I really am not a fan of just controlling the one guy the entire game, with party members being AI controlled.
If it gets great reviews, I’ll for sure check it out. But this isn’t the “numbered” Final Fantasy game I wanted. On almost any level.
The latest demo they released was just horrible. If that’s an accurate depiction of the combat, I won’t be buying it. It lacked impact and holding down a button to attack is very unsatisfying for me. Plus the characters look like they work at a host club.
Scott: You mirrored my thoughts exactly on the demo. I also played it and then never put down my thoughts. But it is very strange. I was hoping the combat would be like Kingdom Hearts, but it’s not like that at all, it’s very unique and not all that engaging. It’s very strange. And I also didn’t enjoy that boss battle much at all.
I really wish they hadn’t gone away from turn-based combat. I just loved the turn-based system in FFX and older FF titles. I didn’t even enjoy the real-time MMO-like combat of FF XII and whatever that Nintendo franchise is called, starts with an X.
The demo did show the extreme extravagance of a major Japanese title that always floors me. The extremely detailed art assets and big budget needed to create these beautiful worlds in a dream sequence that you only see for a few minutes. It’s extremely inefficient. But you gotta admire their vision. But if I don’t enjoy the core gameplay, all that doesn’t really matter in the end.
Music was really good too. I don’t think that demo was indicative on how the combat will work in that game, as you have a fairly limited set of tools in the demo. It really felt like this was a tech demo that they fleshed out into something that they could release for people to play.
I would love for things to turn out that way, Jon. But if that is the case, they are at least guilty of not knowing what the purpose of a demo actually is.
Maybe it was taking so long with title confusion and other things that they felt like they had to put something out there to spark interest and feedback. That wouldn’t surprise me a bit in this case. The recent trailers looked really damn good though, so I hope they are hammering out the gameplay. I want to be able to gloriously ride a giant nostalgia chicken without shame.
FF XIII came out in 2010 so you couldn’t have “just” been burned out when it was announced in 2006. Or am I reading that wrong?
I agree with your favorites, 12 and Tactics were fantastic. I would also add FF 9, FF 4 and FF 5 to that list. FF 5 and FF 12 are the most underrated in the series.
XV looks great but I am being very cautious not to get too optimistic after the extremely disappointing FF XIII. I did start playing XIII-2 recently and it’s made a much better first impression than its predecessor but not sure I will like it in the long run. XII should have been the direction SquEnix should have taken the series in.
So let me predict without even watching a trailer that there are no side quests, no shops, no interactable NPCs, no activities whatsoever apart from running through the main quest and watching cut-scenes, and that the character advancement system is linear with no real choices whatsoever. The extreme gorgeousness of the graphics will somehow fail to captivate players and SE will be shocked, simply shocked, that the game is panned. They will cobble together an unplanned XV-2 that addresses all complaints, but weakly, and people will once again wonder why they retain any of their game designers at all from year to year.
