Thoughts on Final Fantasy XV

Edit on December 15th: More screencaps and random babblings added. 😀

General thoughts:

• The gameplay, especially the battle system, is fun.
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• English voice acting is mostly good. English Gladio versus Japanese Gladio is a huge difference. With the JP one, he had a more expressive tone. English Gladio was more robotic. ^^ I prefer the former.
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• The story’s all right. I’ve experienced worse such as Star Ocean: Till the End of Time and Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits.
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• I didn’t mind the game being linear/on rails after Chapter 9, but Chapter 13 dragged on for eternity.
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• Wait Mode is great for the extra moment needed to find a part to target. ^^ I suppose the same could be achieved by simply doing a point warp and then target-cycle from there though.
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• Walking or jogging around towns and cities was annoying. I took to jumping around since it seemed like Noctis moved faster that way, but doing that in Altissia during the day was even more annoying since there were so many “Check” spots. (The jumping would get interrupted frequently.)
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• The country(?) of Accordo looks rather large! I was disappointed that we could only explore Altissia. Hopefully, some DLC will allow players to journey off the water city.
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• I hated navigating around Altissia. Maybe it’s just me but I had to stop every few steps to look at the map to make sure I was heading in the right direction.
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• Cactuar encounters are too freakin’ rare. I was hoping to farm some to get more Oracle Ascension Coins so I could trade them in for a Ribbon but … ugh. I kind of regret not doing it earlier in the game since now Imperials drop in every minute or so while I run around waiting for one cactuar to respawn. 😛 Seriously, the rate of Magitek jerks appearing is pretty damn high. I wouldn’t mind them too much if Assassins never dropped.
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• I hoped that being higher levelled meant having an easier time dealing with the daemons that popped up at night, but the game decided to toss in a level 99 Magitek mech post-story. 9__9 My level 60+ party only did like 10 – 15 HP of damage to it. But that may have been without any buffs. Still, I doubt the damage would have been much higher with an attack enhancing buff. Also, 1 hit from a missile put Noctis into the Danger phase. :E
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• Is it just me or is it a pain to land the Regalia-F? I always try to find roads that aren’t windy but by the time I get the car close enough to land, I’m already at a part where the road bends. 😛 Once I tried taking off and the vehicle immediately burst into flames. I think I hit a railing or something? I’m not even sure.
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• I found it interesting that radio broadcasts had story-related tidbits in them. They’re not vital but give you a little bit more insight on certain plot-related things though. You can keep turning a radio on and off to cycle through commercials and news.
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• Fishing is fun. Totomostro is fun too. ^^~ Justice Monsters V … not so much.

Random screenshots~!

I have more at my Twitter account along with video snippets of silly things. ^^ They can be found from November 29th to December 9th. I’m not done with the game though so there will probably be more screencaps and vids after that time range! XD

Now for S P O I L E R S! :E Actually, it’s more like a bunch of questions. ^^

The stroll around Lestallum with Iris was pretty awkward. ^^

What exactly was the point of having Cor in the game? If he felt bad for not being with the King when the Empire invaded Insomnia, wouldn’t he try to make up for that and protect the Prince instead? Or at least do more to help Noctis on his journey?

Luna’s death came way too fast, but her role as the Oracle really was done by that time as Leviathan was the last of the Six she needed to commune with. Still, I wasn’t expecting her to die like that 

I don’t really get how Noctis and Luna could be in love since it seems like the only time they ever met face to face was when Noctis was recovering in Tenebrae a few years prior to the beginning of FFXV.

I’ve seen people at message forums ask why Luna couldn’t just call Noctis with a cell phone if she wanted to hear his voice so much and it has me wondering too. It’s not like calls are being traced.

I get that Chapter 13 was the final dungeon but with Noctis moving at a snail’s pace, it made things feel really long. It was interesting to see FF take on a horror game-like atmosphere though. But the scares overstayed their welcome after a while. It just got to the point where I was expecting every inanimate suit of armor to come to life and latch onto Noctis. 😛

The revelation about Prompto hailing from Niflheim was extremely random. I don’t think Brotherhood hints at it at all. I guess this is something that will appear as DLC story.

I hope we get to visit Tenebrae proper in a DLC too.

What are Pryna and Umbra? They look like dogs but they seem to be otherworldly beings? Umbra can clearly travel through time and around the world with ease. And did Umbra die? The scene in Insomnia after the credits seems to show both present day and the afterlife, but to me, Umbra is still alive and just lying around alone outside the citadel.

Did Ignis, Gladio, and Prompto perish? The battle in the afterlife made it seem that way — what with them appearing along with King Regis — but we also see Ardyn flinch afterwards which makes me think that seeing them beside Noctis may have been his imagination.

Edit on December 15th: Upon playing through the ending again, I don’t think the trio died. If they did then it’d make Noctis’ last words to them kind of a waste since my interpretation of “I leave it to you” as “I leave the rebuilding of Insomnia to you”. Besides, if it were just 3 Iron or Red Giants that appeared, they can take them on without the King. This is especially true if the time flow during the sequence in the throne room and the beyond moved at the same pace as their battle. Ardyn’s destruction would have meant the daemons disappearing in mid-fight. 😀 Maybe. :V I hope there’s an epilogue in the form of a short story or something. ^^;

I’m kind of bummed the story was a tragedy.  It’s also a bummer that we don’t get to see a grown up Iris or any of the allies in Chapter 14 other than Talcott. Oh, this part was the first time I encountered tonberries since I never did any hunts in Altissia. I was excited at first until I noticed how fast they moved. ^^;

How did Noctis end up in Angelgard? Why was the boat there? It was Umbra’s doing, wasn’t it? XD

I have to admit that I’m an over sentimental fool and weep at any potentially sad scenerio in just about any media. ^^ It could be the stupidest story in the world but throw in some tragic scene of someone on their deathbed and waterfalls will be coming out of my eyes. Anyway, the cutscene of the final camp site after the credits is heartwrenching. .___.; Prompto’s eyes were all red too. ;;_;;

It’s disappointing that there aren’t many variations of dialogue when going through Prompto’s photos in the final part of the game. I thought the guys would have said something specific about the group photo at Cape Caem but it was just the regular lines. I do like how there’s a separate line for an Iris photo though. XD

I have mixed feelings about this:

Nyx’s presence makes sense as part of the FFXV Universe but it also seemed kind of out of the blue given that there is no mention of him at all within the game. I don’t think players learn anything about the Kingsglaive either so the significance of the attire that the protagonists wear during the final leg is lost.

Costlemark Tower was such an aggravating dungeon. From my understanding, players are always forced to select the incorrect block at least once before they’re finally allowed to proceed downward toward their goal. And even then, they can make a mistake along the way by choosing the wrong path.  I believe this throws them back to square one where they can experience the joys of RNG fucking them over once more. This is utterly shitty design. At least give people a 50-50 chance at being wrong instead of outright providing them the ONE WRONG CHOICE.

Is there a time limit to the Adamantoise battle? Because, somehow, my Noctis got tossed out of the battle zone. See here:

This fucker. Fuck SE for outright cancelling the hunt. #FFXV #PS4sharehttps://t.co/IKRxxz4xrk pic.twitter.com/yqQT0K4CK0

— …………… Kupo (@koukoupuffs) December 15, 2016

I’m supposing it’s a bug. This pissed me off until no end because I lost 1.5 hours real time, not in-game time, to that. I read that the head can knock you away but I was no where near it. -_- At least the second run went much faster since I buffed and had spells ready. 😛

One of my toughest battles was this!

This one was a battle. Fish had crazy stamina D: #FFXV #FishingTour #PS4sharehttps://t.co/IKRxxz4xrk pic.twitter.com/sc7mgMW4Zj

— …………… Kupo (@koukoupuffs) December 10, 2016