Final Fantasy 15’s first 10 hours: A car ride that asks, “Are we there yet?”

More to come, but for now, we talk about new battling system, disappointing plot.

Read the whole story

 

[Zer0.exe]

opiate46[/url]":2h4p5w14]Well this has pretty much been the way it's been since Sakaguchi stopped writing the stories. The guy created FF and wrote the story for every game up and to FFX. The stories for all of those games were wildly better than anything they've come up with since. And until they find someone out there who actually knows how to write a story (which is pretty much the entire point of an FF game) they're all going to fall a little flat.

You just reminded me of The Last Story. Was Sakaguchi's last game (to my knowledge) and it was on the Wii. FANTASTIC game with a wonderful story, beatiful music (seriously, just Youtube "Invitation to Madness"), and each character has their own development through main or side missions. Not to mention it has the same active type of battle system, to a lesser degree. There's also a new game+ that's actually worth it (certain optional dungeons unlock only on NG+, boss enemies scale to your OP level). Contrast impressions of FFXV to this game, it seems like RPGs are at their best on limited hardware.

 

[J.King]

puppies[/url]":36x5s96o]

There's a real tension with the fact that these games developed in a 2d/barely 3d graphics world and long time fans (20 years for me, people!) enjoyed the gameplay that were a result of the very limited computers of the time.

1. I liked the cartoony style, esp in IX.
2. I liked the turn based battles - just downloaded FFT to my phone, actually.
3. I liked the 'reasonably closed' open worlds of the old RPG maps.
4. I loved the minigames

If they want to go all modern, they need to go all the way. Skyrim makes sense, GTA makes sense, CoD makes sense, this pastiche of old tropes doesn't. Just look at the driving menu! In an 'open world' game, shouldn't you just drive? Or give them a self-driving car like the old airships, where you just pick a destination?

I haven't played the series in years, maybe I shouldn't get a say at this point. But I don't see the point in a JRPG without the turn-based combat. Yes, FF always reinvented itself, but ALSO it takes more than spikey hair to be Final Fantasy.

It's always been a bit nebulous to me what "makes" a Final Fantasy game. The game mechanics change, and there's no world or plot continuity save for some recurring elements. Do people really like Cid and Bahamut that much?

Anyway, the tone of this review is pretty relevant to me. I stopped playing after VIII and the last one I truly loved was III/VI. I do hear that IX was delightful so maybe I'll pick that up someday.

I'd suggest that combat was a unifying mechanic. With minor tweaks the way combat works is the same in the first ten games, the greatest change being the pseudo-real-timedness in, er... IV, was it? The back row also survived a surprisingly long time (I'm not sure of VIII or X had it), and spells and their effects have been pretty constant. You were also guaranteed a globe-spanning conflict, an airship, and a party of some size. There are certainly some commonalities. That all ended with XI, and then XII. I've not played any since X in any great amount, though.

 

[Zer0.exe]

J.King[/url]":233qnm49]

puppies[/url]":233qnm49]

There's a real tension with the fact that these games developed in a 2d/barely 3d graphics world and long time fans (20 years for me, people!) enjoyed the gameplay that were a result of the very limited computers of the time.

1. I liked the cartoony style, esp in IX.
2. I liked the turn based battles - just downloaded FFT to my phone, actually.
3. I liked the 'reasonably closed' open worlds of the old RPG maps.
4. I loved the minigames

If they want to go all modern, they need to go all the way. Skyrim makes sense, GTA makes sense, CoD makes sense, this pastiche of old tropes doesn't. Just look at the driving menu! In an 'open world' game, shouldn't you just drive? Or give them a self-driving car like the old airships, where you just pick a destination?

I haven't played the series in years, maybe I shouldn't get a say at this point. But I don't see the point in a JRPG without the turn-based combat. Yes, FF always reinvented itself, but ALSO it takes more than spikey hair to be Final Fantasy.

It's always been a bit nebulous to me what "makes" a Final Fantasy game. The game mechanics change, and there's no world or plot continuity save for some recurring elements. Do people really like Cid and Bahamut that much?

Anyway, the tone of this review is pretty relevant to me. I stopped playing after VIII and the last one I truly loved was III/VI. I do hear that IX was delightful so maybe I'll pick that up someday.

I'd suggest that combat was a unifying mechanic. With minor tweaks the way combat works is the same in the first ten games, the greatest change being the pseudo-real-timedness in, er... IV, was it? The back row also survived a surprisingly long time (I'm not sure of VIII or X had it), and spells and their effects have been pretty constant. You were also guaranteed a globe-spanning conflict, an airship, and a party of some size. There are certainly some commonalities. That all ended with XI, and then XII. I've not played any since X in any great amount, though.

You'll want to pick up XII when it's remake comes out then. It had a more "steampunk" look to the airships, but it was still your standard fantasy fare (power hungry villain "muh crystals"). The Steam port of FFIX is excellent as well, they sped up the crazy long battle sequence intro and made some other mechanical improvements. A game that wouldn't normally age well with time got a shot in the arm on Steam.
Edit: FFIX is my favorite one by a longshot, but even I can admit that the zooming panning camera for like 15 seconds at the beginning of every battle just slows everything down. Not hating, I love the game, but it wasn't without its faults.

 

[motytrah]

Serious question, when was the last time a game in the FF franchise got a stellar set of reviews? It seems like year after year it's been disappointment.

 

[Tofystedeth]

J.King[/url]":etz239mb]

puppies[/url]":etz239mb]

There's a real tension with the fact that these games developed in a 2d/barely 3d graphics world and long time fans (20 years for me, people!) enjoyed the gameplay that were a result of the very limited computers of the time.

1. I liked the cartoony style, esp in IX.
2. I liked the turn based battles - just downloaded FFT to my phone, actually.
3. I liked the 'reasonably closed' open worlds of the old RPG maps.
4. I loved the minigames

If they want to go all modern, they need to go all the way. Skyrim makes sense, GTA makes sense, CoD makes sense, this pastiche of old tropes doesn't. Just look at the driving menu! In an 'open world' game, shouldn't you just drive? Or give them a self-driving car like the old airships, where you just pick a destination?

I haven't played the series in years, maybe I shouldn't get a say at this point. But I don't see the point in a JRPG without the turn-based combat. Yes, FF always reinvented itself, but ALSO it takes more than spikey hair to be Final Fantasy.

It's always been a bit nebulous to me what "makes" a Final Fantasy game. The game mechanics change, and there's no world or plot continuity save for some recurring elements. Do people really like Cid and Bahamut that much?

Anyway, the tone of this review is pretty relevant to me. I stopped playing after VIII and the last one I truly loved was III/VI. I do hear that IX was delightful so maybe I'll pick that up someday.

I'd suggest that combat was a unifying mechanic. With minor tweaks the way combat works is the same in the first ten games, the greatest change being the pseudo-real-timedness in, er... IV, was it? The back row also survived a surprisingly long time (I'm not sure of VIII or X had it), and spells and their effects have been pretty constant. You were also guaranteed a globe-spanning conflict, an airship, and a party of some size. There are certainly some commonalities. That all ended with XI, and then XII. I've not played any since X in any great amount, though.

X did not have a back row, but I believe IX did. IX was a deliberate throwback though.

 

[Silellak]

motytrah[/url]":wlkxdofh]Serious question, when was the last time a game in the FF franchise got a stellar set of reviews? It seems like year after year it's been disappointment.

For what it's worth, most reviewers aren't calling it a disappointment - quite the opposite. This is actually the most negative thing I've read about it.

It's not exactly universal acclaim, but general buzz about the game is pretty damn positive.

 

[Grimmash]

I keep hoping they'll make a game with interesting characters and ditch the emo thing. I know this is subjective, but with the articles about this game trying to broaden the appeal of the games, I don't understand the continued emo thing. After saying they wanted to hit the worldwide audience, it looks like they doubled down on the Japanese pop look and feel.

I really enjoyed 6, made it through 7, never finished 8, got to the penultimate part of 9 (i didn't like the end game plot switcheroo), and made it 2 hours into 10. Nothing sinve has looked at all compelling to me. What will it take to bring back the fantasy worlds?

 

[apoclypse]

opiate46[/url]":1r33uk22]Well this has pretty much been the way it's been since Sakaguchi stopped writing the stories. The guy created FF and wrote the story for every game up and to FFX. The stories for all of those games were wildly better than anything they've come up with since. And until they find someone out there who actually knows how to write a story (which is pretty much the entire point of an FF game) they're all going to fall a little flat.

Actually Kitase was the one who wrote FF6,7,8 and X, and Chrono Trigger as well. However ever since Kitase took over producing the FF series (which used to be Sakaguchi) FF has gone down hill. Sakaguchi's influence on the final product can not be denied. Too bad that Japanese work culture can be so vindictive at times. Was The Spirits Within a good investment especially in the hands of a novice director, hell no. Yes it did almost run the company into the ground which instigated the merger with Enix, but the FF series needs him right now to put it back on track, imo.

Also enough already with Nomura's designing the characters. I want a new character designer with a fresh outlook on FF instead of the silly over the top designs that Nomura always chooses to go for.

 

[Katana314]

I'm a bit worried for the characters. I'm just coming from the Ace Attorney and Danganronpa games, which demonstrate to me the values of exaggerating aspects of your characters to their fullest extent. (eg, Danganronpa 2 has a highly-skilled animal breeder that views himself as some sort of immortal summoner that has killed gods, and issues commands to his hamsters with "GO, my four dark devas of destruction!!")

Something those games have in common is a pretty heavy dose of humor, but both of them also involve grisly murders. I think having both has been a good way of making one feel close to characters so that when something bad happens to one of them, you care and the story is more driven-in. I remember Final Fantasy 7 doing plenty of this - the later media plays it down, but the early game has plenty of silly exchanges between Cloud, Barret, Tifa, and Aeris.

 

[Stinkles]

This game has been in development hell for 10 years and the one thing they slack on is the plot, go figure.

 

[orangpelupa]

Stinkles[/url]":1s98zzf1]This game has been in development hell for 10 years and the one thing they slack on is the plot, go figure.

The new plot is probably only 2 or 3 years old.

At least from what we can deduce from the videos and pictures Square released since ff versus 13.

 

[apoclypse]

J.King[/url]":1xc8rdgx]

puppies[/url]":1xc8rdgx]

There's a real tension with the fact that these games developed in a 2d/barely 3d graphics world and long time fans (20 years for me, people!) enjoyed the gameplay that were a result of the very limited computers of the time.

1. I liked the cartoony style, esp in IX.
2. I liked the turn based battles - just downloaded FFT to my phone, actually.
3. I liked the 'reasonably closed' open worlds of the old RPG maps.
4. I loved the minigames

If they want to go all modern, they need to go all the way. Skyrim makes sense, GTA makes sense, CoD makes sense, this pastiche of old tropes doesn't. Just look at the driving menu! In an 'open world' game, shouldn't you just drive? Or give them a self-driving car like the old airships, where you just pick a destination?

I haven't played the series in years, maybe I shouldn't get a say at this point. But I don't see the point in a JRPG without the turn-based combat. Yes, FF always reinvented itself, but ALSO it takes more than spikey hair to be Final Fantasy.

It's always been a bit nebulous to me what "makes" a Final Fantasy game. The game mechanics change, and there's no world or plot continuity save for some recurring elements. Do people really like Cid and Bahamut that much?

Anyway, the tone of this review is pretty relevant to me. I stopped playing after VIII and the last one I truly loved was III/VI. I do hear that IX was delightful so maybe I'll pick that up someday.

I'd suggest that combat was a unifying mechanic. With minor tweaks the way combat works is the same in the first ten games, the greatest change being the pseudo-real-timedness in, er... IV, was it? The back row also survived a surprisingly long time (I'm not sure of VIII or X had it), and spells and their effects have been pretty constant. You were also guaranteed a globe-spanning conflict, an airship, and a party of some size. There are certainly some commonalities. That all ended with XI, and then XII. I've not played any since X in any great amount, though.

I don't know I always though it was the elements and the lore that they have built up over many iterations . Such as having familiar enemies, or summons, or magic, or items. Almost every FF has potions, hi-potions, elixir, mega-elixir etc. If you fought an Adamantite or tTonberry in a previous game you will probably find it in the new one somewhere. Weapon names are similar sometimes, etc. The most amazing thing for me about FF and it's world is that while story wise the games aren't connected there is deep deep level of lore that gets carried over in every game, combat imo is just a small part of it.

Shiva is always a goddess of ice, Ifrit is always a fire demon. Ramuh is always a thunder god. Even when they change the Summon names like in FFX and FF12, their relation to their counterparts in previous games is pretty spot on. You will always have an ice summon, a fire summon, a lightning summon and a water summon, most of the time an earth summon. What makes it interesting to me is to see their new design and animation in each new iteration. Shiva in FF6 and FF9 is completely different but the overall premise of the character is the same.

 

[gerryq]

GreyAreaUk[/url]":z3m7myv5]
How can they be Final Fantasies if we're now up to 15 of them? Doesn't sound very final to me.

Because the fantasy is that one day, one of them will be final.

 

[Mawich]

Is it just me whose first thought when reading about the game's party is "why is it all guys?"? Sounds like the only female character of significance at least at the start of the game is a damsel in distress with lots of cleavage. Do Square still think all gamers are straight men?

 

[Zra]

Don't know why SE wouldn't let this be part of FF13's lores, then they will have solid world building and stuff to base this game on.

A real-time, team-based battling system in a JRPG? And it's fun?! Get out!

Are we forgetting series like Star Ocean here, Sam?

 

[Deleted member 1]

"I know better than to expect my Final Fantasy games to make sense."

They should make sense, though. The good ones--FF4, 6, and 7--all had fantastic stories. Personally, I'd rather play a well-written game with a cruddy battle system than a napkin scribble of a story with a meh battle system.

 

[Orion Escobar]

BulkyZ[/url]":1hrgxldj]

BasP[/url]":1hrgxldj]Remember when Final Fantasy was about hunting down elemental orbs in a straight-up fantasy world?

Oh ohh I'member!

Remember running into OP monsters, like behemoths?
¨I´m sure I can take it on¨

 

[Dez1013]

BasP[/url]":2p6yfxfh]Remember when Final Fantasy was about hunting down elemental orbs in a straight-up fantasy world?

Awww yeah, I 'member!

 

[BasP]

Mawich[/url]":2ww2mjmx]Is it just me whose first thought when reading about the game's party is "why is it all guys?"? Sounds like the only female character of significance at least at the start of the game is a damsel in distress with lots of cleavage. Do Square still think all gamers are straight men?

With protagonists like these guys? Hardly.

 

[DeerSteak]

BasP[/url]":270sz6f1]Remember when Final Fantasy was about hunting down elemental orbs in a straight-up fantasy world?

It hasn't been that in 20-some years, though.

I feel like I'm trapped in the past, from a gaming perspective. I'm currently replaying Final Fantasy III (SNES, VI to everyone else) after replacing the battery. I won't say that games are worse now or anything like that, but I personally enjoy that blast from the past. Final Fantasy XII and XIII failed to deliver that for me, so I'm sticking in the past. Doesn't look like XV is any better off. I do have a PS4 and was hopeful, but alas...

 

[cactus jack]

it seems to me JRPGs tend to get a pass when it comes to narrative and writing. Often when someone says the plot makes no sense, another person replies "it's a jRPG." If these games want to appeal to an international audience, they better start making sense. Western RPGs have picked up the slack from their own history of abysmal stories/character dialogue, and are approaching a cinematic level of professionalism (witcher 3), is it too much to ask that a top-tier publisher like square enix does the same?

 

[Akemi]

Katana314[/url]":1d156j3h]I'm a bit worried for the characters. I'm just coming from the Ace Attorney and Danganronpa games, which demonstrate to me the values of exaggerating aspects of your characters to their fullest extent. (eg, Danganronpa 2 has a highly-skilled animal breeder that views himself as some sort of immortal summoner that has killed gods, and issues commands to his hamsters with "GO, my four dark devas of destruction!!")

Something those games have in common is a pretty heavy dose of humor, but both of them also involve grisly murders. I think having both has been a good way of making one feel close to characters so that when something bad happens to one of them, you care and the story is more driven-in. I remember Final Fantasy 7 doing plenty of this - the later media plays it down, but the early game has plenty of silly exchanges between Cloud, Barret, Tifa, and Aeris.

To be fair. VII did have translation issues which included a not so insignificant portion of plot.

In some cases people were laughing at translation issues regarding grammar, spelling, and yes - missing dialog.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015- ... -fantasy-7

 

[elvisizer]

alanmies[/url]":1ibfyr9q]

A real-time, team-based battling system in a JRPG? And it's fun?! Get out!

I dunno, I found Xenoblade Chronicles X to be pretty much this.

I thought the combat system sounded a lot like Xenoblade as well . . . . starting to get a little interested in this now!

 

[Tofystedeth]

Grimmash[/url]":1qu3s4sa]I keep hoping they'll make a game with interesting characters and ditch the emo thing. I know this is subjective, but with the articles about this game trying to broaden the appeal of the games, I don't understand the continued emo thing. After saying they wanted to hit the worldwide audience, it looks like they doubled down on the Japanese pop look and feel.

I really enjoyed 6, made it through 7, never finished 8, got to the penultimate part of 9 (i didn't like the end game plot switcheroo), and made it 2 hours into 10. Nothing sinve has looked at all compelling to me. What will it take to bring back the fantasy worlds?

I'd recommend giving 10 another shot. It's mostly low tech (or, post collapse of high tech civilization), much less emo (some people complain Tidus is too upbeat, but he has character reasons for his excessive pep) and while there are some twists in the story towards the end, some are foreshadowed throughout, and the rest are consistent with lore and established metaphysics of the world. It doesn't go completely bonkers in the final act like some of them do.

edit: Mechanically, it also has my favorite of the battle systems, and I love that unlike some of the earlier games (not an issue with the later ones really) the party that you pick for battle is
1) Easily changed, even within the battle, which is nice
2) separate from who is with you for story stuff. This I especially like because I always get twitchy in games like Mass Effect when I have to pick who gets to do story with me (Garrus and Wrex, my bros forever) and then lose out on any cool dialog from the characters chilling on the ship.

 

[Asvarduil]

solomonrex[/url]":3delsdh8]Yes, FF always reinvented itself, but ALSO it takes more than spikey hair to be Final Fantasy.

Indeed. It takes spiky hair and oversized swords; everyone knows this.

...Silliness aside, FFXV seems at its outset to be a flawed game, maybe not in the way that FFXIII was, but nonetheless built on the same premise as more modern FF titles: instead of being a good game written by people who make games, it's a game that is written by people who make games but would much rather work on movies.

The remark early in this review that everything ties into the Kingsglaive movie, and that Kingsglaive does a better job of exposition than this particular work seems to me confirmation that, Square Enix's direction has only slightly veered in a better direction with FFXV. Square Enix has learned some lessons from both the split community around FFXIII - probably the most divisive FF title, other than FFVIII - as well as the failed, then reborn, FFXIV. They just haven't learned the most important lesson of all: if you're writing a game, write a goddamn game!*

Based on the 2-hour long preview shown two months ago, and this critical review, I think the game is going to be at least moderately good and playable. I don't think it will be as boring as XIII, or as painfully-written as Lightning Returns, at this point I count them as the low-water mark of the series, that it's hard to out-awful. FFXV would have to try to do worse than my already-low expectations...so this might actually turn out to be a pleasant surprise.

As a JRPG fan, I'll put this game through its paces. If I don't like it, I'll trade it in to GameStop.

*: Something something goddamn TEA!!! Requisite FFVII reference is achieved.

 

[dsparil]

BasP[/url]":3q4dqk03]Remember when Final Fantasy was about hunting down elemental orbs in a straight-up fantasy world?

That's why Square's nascent Bravely series exists. They're basically FFV+.

 

[Sufinsil]

<quote>A real-time, team-based battling system in a JRPG? And it's fun?! Get out!</quote>

Xenoblade
Star Ocean 3
.hack
Tales of
Rogue Galaxy
Ys series (kinda)

Final Fantasy Type-0 started slow, but once you unlocked a lot more abilities, the team combat became a bit more interesting.

Games like Xenoblade or White Knight still have some of that turn based, MMO cooldown pacing.

FF15 reminds of a faster paced Xenoblade.

 

[EpochAWOL]

BasP[/url]":3izvzo0h]Remember when Final Fantasy was about hunting down elemental orbs in a straight-up fantasy world?

I remember the 1st, 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th (didn't play 2,3,5) all having airships, robots, magitech, space ships, time travel of some sort. So no, I don't. That's why Final Fantasy stood out amongst its peers.

 

[AlaskanDruid]

You must remember that if there's no Fantasy in a Final Fantasy game, then it is automatically in the "Ugly" column ...the whole game.

This includes every single game after FF6, with the exception of FFXIV. And there may have been one or two out there somewhere.

I'm surprised squaresoft went down hill for so long.

 

[Saikaici]

Lately I've been annoyed with their character engine. FF Brave Exvius uses the same engine for Rain, Lasswell, and Fina, and it's gotten stale after ten years of this engine for characters.

Sadly I think I'll be waiting for the PC port on this one. I always told myself I'd get a PS3 for FFXIII Versus, and I still don't have a PS3. But the ship has really sailed for me on this one. It's a Duke Nukem Forever to me now.

 

[murst]

It seems strange to criticise this game for lack of story after only 10 hours of playing. One of the best stories in a FF game was probably FF7, and I doubt you could tell much about the story of that game 10 hours in. I think you'd still be on one of the floors in the Shinra building in Midgar.

One of my favorite JRPGs in recent years is Trails of Cold Steel, and after 10 hours, you're still basically in tutorial mode.

I'm not saying that the story in FF15 is any good (I'm only about 1 hour in... I just got the car repaired), but the story of the game should be criticised after you actually know what it is, and not at the beginning of the game.

 

[DameonK]

They sure have a lot to say when walking through a side-quest dungeon about how dark and spooky it is, but when it comes to grounding the story, the characters choose instead to bury their faces in smartphones. (No, really. They all have smartphones, and they stare at 'em during idle time.)

Seems that the drive to make the game more realistic extends beyond the graphics then?

 

[billyok]

This looks so bloated to me.

I assume Square is all out of money after finally pushing this expensive monster across the finish line after 10 years of development, so how about going back to the basics for 16? Everybody reveres FF6, so make one in that vein and see if you win some long-lost fans back. Everyone else can play that FF7 remake when that thing finally comes out in 9 years.

 

[Little-Zen]

byuu[/url]":s7n2zade]
To me, the series ceased being Final Fantasy after V. That's not to say VI wasn't a fantastic game, but it really had almost nothing to do with the previous games anymore. Went from fantasy to steampunk. VII and onward though ... I really don't see the point of keeping the Final Fantasy title. With the sole exception of a bit of throwback with IX, those games share nothing in common with the classic Final Fantasy games. The entire gameplay engines, the settings, the stories, the music ... they're Final Fantasy in name only.

Well, aside from the whole "it is a brand name now" thing, I've seen this sentiment expressed a lot recently.

I can only assume that everyone expressing it didn't play Final Fantasy IV (II in the US on the SNES). Which started out in a very fantasy way, what with the airships bombing a magic kingdom and all, and continued to be all fantasy with dwarves putting together giant drill attachments for your new airship, entering a glowing tower full of ancient machines, which results in the summoning of a giant robot you defeat by climbing through its mechancial insides and then destroying its CPU, and ended in a very fantasy way when you took an airship built by an ancient technologically advanced civilization to the moon.

And let's not even talk about Warmech.

My point is: there's always been some odd element of technology in these games. I and IV used the "ancient civilization" type. VI went steampunk. VII and VIII were future tech. It's not a new element to the series. I can understand saying it seems like there is MORE science fiction than fantasy in the later games, but that just takes me back to my first sentence, which is "it's a brand name now."

Relating to FF15 - I've seen some glowing reviews so far, all of which talk about how this game is all about the bromance and the big expansive world. And they sort of gloss over the whole plot and character development thing. That's left me wondering if I'd actually enjoy this game, and this article has brought up a lot of my concerns: plot seems a bit absent, and aside from superficial banter between the four bros it isn't showing much character development.

I've also seen (and heard from friends) a lot of "oh, you should watch the movie/anime they released, it explains so much" and found myself wondering... so does the game just not explain what's actually going on?

I'm an FF fan and will probably pick it up eventually, but as it is, nothing is making me want to run out and buy it to play right away.

[edit - also, "happy" to hear that the game runs "mostly" well, I guess. And wishing that instead of making all of the PS4 pro capabilities optional to developers to implement however they want that Sony just implemented a blanket "1080p 60fps" enhancement mode]

 

[Tofystedeth]

billyok[/url]":2g2h9inb]This looks so bloated to me.

I assume Square is all out of money after finally pushing this expensive monster across the finish line after 10 years of development....

Nah, they're doing fine. FFXI and now FFXIV basically print money for them.

 

[Resolute]

Mawich[/url]":n9uwf0og]Is it just me whose first thought when reading about the game's party is "why is it all guys?"? Sounds like the only female character of significance at least at the start of the game is a damsel in distress with lots of cleavage. Do Square still think all gamers are straight men?

The thing about a franchise as large and sprawling as Final Fantasy is the decidedly large variation in cast choices. XV is definitely a "guys road trip" motif. But X-2 was the all-girl party, and WoFF goes with the "female protagonist is intelligent, male protagonist is a moron" attitude. In VI - released 22 years ago - the story basically revolved around the two female leads and everyone else was along to support them.

 

[Grimmash]

Tofystedeth[/url]":5ez9s2wt]

Grimmash[/url]":5ez9s2wt]I keep hoping they'll make a game with interesting characters and ditch the emo thing. I know this is subjective, but with the articles about this game trying to broaden the appeal of the games, I don't understand the continued emo thing. After saying they wanted to hit the worldwide audience, it looks like they doubled down on the Japanese pop look and feel.

I really enjoyed 6, made it through 7, never finished 8, got to the penultimate part of 9 (i didn't like the end game plot switcheroo), and made it 2 hours into 10. Nothing sinve has looked at all compelling to me. What will it take to bring back the fantasy worlds?

I'd recommend giving 10 another shot. It's mostly low tech (or, post collapse of high tech civilization), much less emo (some people complain Tidus is too upbeat, but he has character reasons for his excessive pep) and while there are some twists in the story towards the end, some are foreshadowed throughout, and the rest are consistent with lore and established metaphysics of the world. It doesn't go completely bonkers in the final act like some of them do.

edit: Mechanically, it also has my favorite of the battle systems, and I love that unlike some of the earlier games (not an issue with the later ones really) the party that you pick for battle is
1) Easily changed, even within the battle, which is nice
2) separate from who is with you for story stuff. This I especially like because I always get twitchy in games like Mass Effect when I have to pick who gets to do story with me (Garrus and Wrex, my bros forever) and then lose out on any cool dialog from the characters chilling on the ship.

I intensely dislike 10. Tried to get into it a few times, and gave up. But by no means let me stop you from enjoying it!

More specifically, I got through a few parts, and disliked all of the characters and much of the world design.

 

[Little-Zen]

Resolute[/url]":1tx4qi1x]

Mawich[/url]":1tx4qi1x]Is it just me whose first thought when reading about the game's party is "why is it all guys?"? Sounds like the only female character of significance at least at the start of the game is a damsel in distress with lots of cleavage. Do Square still think all gamers are straight men?

The thing about a franchise as large and sprawling as Final Fantasy is the decidedly large variation in cast choices. XV is definitely a "guys road trip" motif. But X-2 was the all-girl party, and WoFF goes with the "female protagonist is intelligent, male protagonist is a moron" attitude. In VI - released 22 years ago - the story basically revolved around the two female leads and everyone else was along to support them.

I can't disagree with that, but that large variation in cast choices in earlier games is what makes 4 generic anime dudes seem so odd to me. These guys might as well be copy and pastes of Squall with different stereotypes overlaid on top. One is big brawny Squall, one is snarky Squall, one is chef Squall (presumably also comic relief Squall) and one is main character Squall.

The mechanic girl has more character development than Luna, who it sounds like is an important part of the plot because... Noctis thinks she is dead, so that's her character development. Or she's actually dead, which I guess is an interesting spin on a character.

 

[Asvarduil]

Little-Zen[/url]":3jmm4atf]

Resolute[/url]":3jmm4atf]

Mawich[/url]":3jmm4atf]Is it just me whose first thought when reading about the game's party is "why is it all guys?"? Sounds like the only female character of significance at least at the start of the game is a damsel in distress with lots of cleavage. Do Square still think all gamers are straight men?

The thing about a franchise as large and sprawling as Final Fantasy is the decidedly large variation in cast choices. XV is definitely a "guys road trip" motif. But X-2 was the all-girl party, and WoFF goes with the "female protagonist is intelligent, male protagonist is a moron" attitude. In VI - released 22 years ago - the story basically revolved around the two female leads and everyone else was along to support them.

I can't disagree with that, but that large variation in cast choices in earlier games is what makes 4 generic anime dudes seem so odd to me. These guys might as well be copy and pastes of Squall with different stereotypes overlaid on top. One is big brawny Squall, one is snarky Squall, one is chef Squall (presumably also comic relief Squall) and one is main character Squall.

The mechanic girl has more character development than Luna, who it sounds like is an important part of the plot because... Noctis thinks she is dead, so that's her character development. Or she's actually dead, which I guess is an interesting spin on a character.

Big brawny squall is a gentle giant/Steiner wannabe, only with a bigger heart and IQ score (Gladiolus)
Snarky squall is also comic relief squall/emo-Zell (Prompto)
Chef squall is also smart squall/he-Quisitis (I forget his name)
And then you've got the player's surrogate who's a standard coming-of-age JRPG hero.

 

[Resolute]

Little-Zen[/url]":2v24id7e]

Resolute[/url]":2v24id7e]

Mawich[/url]":2v24id7e]Is it just me whose first thought when reading about the game's party is "why is it all guys?"? Sounds like the only female character of significance at least at the start of the game is a damsel in distress with lots of cleavage. Do Square still think all gamers are straight men?

The thing about a franchise as large and sprawling as Final Fantasy is the decidedly large variation in cast choices. XV is definitely a "guys road trip" motif. But X-2 was the all-girl party, and WoFF goes with the "female protagonist is intelligent, male protagonist is a moron" attitude. In VI - released 22 years ago - the story basically revolved around the two female leads and everyone else was along to support them.

I can't disagree with that, but that large variation in cast choices in earlier games is what makes 4 generic anime dudes seem so odd to me. These guys might as well be copy and pastes of Squall with different stereotypes overlaid on top. One is big brawny Squall, one is snarky Squall, one is chef Squall (presumably also comic relief Squall) and one is main character Squall.

The mechanic girl has more character development than Luna, who it sounds like is an important part of the plot because... Noctis thinks she is dead, so that's her character development. Or she's actually dead, which I guess is an interesting spin on a character.

And on those points, I agree. I haven't played anything but the Episode Duscae demo yet, but it does seem on the surface that Square-Enix suffered a big miss with the character choices - however that is not because of the all-male main cast.

And don't get me started on Cindy. They took a character with great potential - a female Cid - and tropified it into a Daisy Duke wannabe so badly that even SE was too ashamed to properly call her Cid.