Bup, celebrating his rightness.
Lusipurr and SiliconNooB go hammer at tongs at reviewing and discussing major releases including Super Mario Maker 3DS and Final Fantasy XV, whilst receiving help from a most unlikely source: Bup.
SiliconNooBThat picture of Nate is amazing!
WolfeYes. Yes it is.
Lusipurr:|
BupIt’s from the Henry Ford museum here in Michigan. Right next to the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile is that hot dog bun!
BupAlso, what did I get right? I have not, and will not, listened to the podcast.
KisakiProjectFFXV sounds awful. Glad I skipped it. Play Pokemon instead.
SebastianI could not agree MORE with SiliconNooB regarding Pokemon: GO’s impact on Sun/Moon sales. Buzz surrounding GO only brought Pokemon back to the general social consciousness, and the sales obviously reflect a Hugh level of interest in the game.
SebastianAlso, HIGH level of interest.
LaneFFXV is… interesting. I broke down and bought it because I was bored and it was there. One giant download later, and I was road-tripping with my homebros through AnachronismLand, doing MMO-style fetch quests and being alternately frustrated and pleased with the game.
What’s frustrating is that there’s a day/night cycle, but no way to advance time. For example, at one point, I picked up a hunt to take out some Imps. NBD, let’s just go to the mines, and… they mostly come at night. Mostly (only). Without a “wait” option, I had to return to town, abandon the hunt, re-accept the hunt, and then I was given an option to advance the time to night immediately. Which then meant I had to reboard my Audi-branded bit of product-placement and return to the mines… except this time I couldn’t make my yaoi-buddy Prompto drive, I had to do it. Driving, thankfully, isn’t the chore it might be in a real open world game, but it’s still a pointless means of travel for a Final Fantasy game.
A few minutes later, I had killed the Imps, gotten back in my car, driven back to the diner without further incident, and collected my gil.
I’m sure that, at this time, there were urgent narrative reasons for me to have continued my main story quest, but that’s what the game is like. As points of interest flash up on your map, you tell Prompto to pull his happy ass over, get out of the car (you seriously leave it there with the top down; apparently auto theft is unknown in Eos), and go see what’s over the horizon, like a treasure chest or magic stones or ridiculously large monsters you have no hope of beating.
The main story quests, on the other hand, are the height of boring. Cid’s stripperific granddaughter asks you to deliver things for her, which you do, because hey, car! Some dude wants you to find him a gemstone because he’s an amateur jeweler, which you do, without incident. At one point, you play a fishing minigame to feed a hungry cat, who turns down your fish because fuck you, that’s why.
The combat is engaging after a fashion. Imagine Crisis Core or The Last Remnant smashed headlong into FFXII. Your companions are useless as tits on a boar hog, except when you tell them to use a technique, at which point you stop controlling main character Noct and start controlling whoever you just gave an order to. It’s jarring. The active dodge/block and parry mechanics are nice and make fights seem more active, though with lower-level enemies (which do randomly spawn), you mostly just end up holding down the attack button until the pain stops.
I am told the second half of the game is much more like a traditional FF game, but what I can say so far is that the bones of a good FF game are there, just oddly jumbled. If there is a FFXV: Eos Reborn, it could be the same success story as FFXIV. The dungeons, the memorable characters, the look and feel, etc., are all there. It just gets lost under product placement, a confusing advancement system, and a strangely-paced narrative.
Lusipurr@Lane: These are salient points, but the REAL problem with FFXV is in its battle system, where the vast array of choices available are all meaningless. It’s a bit like going to a huge smorgasbord where the spread on is thoroughly amazing. In great anticipation, one loads up multiple plates with all of the delicious looking entrees and deserts. BUT, when one returns to table and takes flatware to hand, one finds that one has been cruelly deceived for all of the food–from the chicken to the coffee-cake, from the lemon bars to the lasagna–every single thing, no matter how spectacular and unique–ALL of it tastes like plain oatmeal.
SebastianI like plain oatmeal.
LaneI suppose I will soldier on through it, because I hear at the midway point, the narrative improves significantly. The battle system is dumb, but I can deal with a dumb battle system. At some point in my FF playthroughs, I grind out levels anyway to the point where I cheese all but the ridiculous fights anyway (I still don’t think I’ve beaten Ruby Weapon, ever. Fuck that guy). I play FF for the goofball stories and interesting characters, which, for better or worse, our bishy quattro actually are, against everything I would have surmised. Noct and Pals feel realistic for a bunch of dudes on a roadtrip.
The story is pretty classic FF dumb, what with crystals and all. Obviously a different writing team than the one that gave us Brochefant, but they can’t all be winners all the time.
@Sebastian — steel cut or rolled? There is a right answer.
LusipurrI’m finding that the story for FFXV becomes worse and the car drives/long runs/challenge-free battles become more and more tedious the farther I get. I’m probably about half-way through now or a bit more, and with each new cutscene I find myself rolling my eyes and sighing with greater frequency and volume, respectively.
