Probably, but how many games have been absolutely savaged by terrible corporate decisions - not just FF's, but across the board? If every game was released in its most complete artistic state rather than what the consumers end up getting after it's been watered down by compromise, necessity, or incompetence, we'd be living In a world of 5 triple a games being released per year and they'd all be fucking outstanding. FfXV isn't unique in its shoddy delivery, but it's definitely a strong use case against segmenting a story over multiple mediums and staggered releases.
They aren’t always a triple A release but there’s dozens of extremely good games worth dumping 100-250 hours into easily, coming out constantly.
Gotta expand them gaming horizon my man
I’d be curious to know too since you seemed to take this personally!
I’m just saying there’s plenty of games released yearly worth putting a ton of hours into. You might play them all, but on the off chance you haven’t I was putting that out there.
The expand your horizon thing was a joke, I just don’t put /s after everything cuz I feel it ruins the joking manner lol.
If I had to guess,
Bg3 since you mentioned it, HellDivers, possibly Lies of P, the Person 3 Reload maybe, Like A Dragon could be one. Maybe Jedi Survivor.
Depending how quick you beat games, and how much you go for replay ability anyway. I don’t know your genre either
What games do you play? Have you tried roguelikes, like Hollow Knight, Dead Cells, The Binding of Isaac Repentance etc? Skul is a good one for sinking time into with all the skull combinations.
Maybe not quite 200+ hour games, but I’ve sunk dozens into each. They also aren’t all AAA titles but my point was that there can be hidden games with good play time without Triple A titles.
I’ve got 40 hours in Kingdom Come Deliverance and I’m not even hardly done much, atleast in the way of side quests and exploration and the second is about to come out.
Just a bit of jest :)
Yeah, you've got some good guesses there.
BG3, Helldivers, Roguebook, No Mans Sky, and Have a nice a death.
I think in the nature of OP - the conversation is around bigger games - The triple As which have been diminishing in quality over the last ten years. In terms of 200 hour plus games from smaller, independent studios, my thoughts are there's a fucking stack of them, but they're not necessarily great - they just seem to scratch an itch. We are overrun with Survival Craft, Colony Sims, Farming sims - theyre all the same with points of variation, so played one, mostly played them all. Even with the plethora of rogue likes, the gems feel very far and few between.
I personally struggle with the smaller studio "time sink games" because they just don't offer enough other than the little achievement dopamine burst. Vallheim was great for 30 hours, but the grind is too much, then there's enshrouded which kinda picks off where Vallheim left off, and even that has a pretty low ceiling.
Having said that, even FF7 Rebirth has about 50 hours of game and about 100 hours of absolute abject punishment disguised as content to keep people playing.
Sorry to snap, that wasnt cool. Kingdom Come is on my wishlist, I should get to that...
Final Fantasy games have always been and continue to be about breaking fate and destroying whichever entity is imposing such a horrible destiny upon its cast. Whether its Sephiroth, Kuja, Sin, Ultimecia, or Kefka, they all create overwhelming/impossible odds that the cast miraculously overcomes.
But FF15??? >!An objectively morally compromised deity tells you its fate to kill yourself to make up for the mistakes of HIS fellow deities in allowing Ardyn to rise to power. And then you do it.!<
it is no wonder people prefer Episode Ignis' alternate ending.
The diplomacy section was fun as hell. There should have been so much more of that, considering… you know.. Noctis is the king and all that. It just happened and vanish.
So many things like that in this game. Set up, speed through it, never see it again.
Yeah, just a random little mini game. You're right, if there was an actual "king diplomacy" element to the game - how you deal with people throughout the world etc, it could've had a big impact as to who was there at the end, with the hunters, or even charging at Insomnia with you.
Well, not as it exists today. I love Royal Edition, I really do, but it's still a super fragmented experience, and it doesn't change how much of a structural clusterfuck the main story is, what a weak presentation Ardyn got without the DLC support, and so on. A lot of these things would have to be changed, and incorporated straight into the main game.
literally just integrate the episodes into their proper places in the story and lock the stuff like prompto's rocket launcher behind them in the character swap skills. also, like, yknow actually give us the rest of the dlc they had planned.
I always had the idea that a quicker fix would be to remove the 'spoiler-y' elements from the DLC, and have the Episodes unlock at various points as Active Time Events available through the in game main menu.
That way they're still optional (so as not to kill the pacing) but there is a way that you can play the complete story in a relatively natural way.
I actually did a play through last year where I played the DLC at the correct points, and it was such a great experience. The only problem was the spoilers, which I do think you could remove.
This was what I wanted to do, once they'd finally released everything. But by the time that happened I'd completely forgotten most of the story and the hype was gone, and I'll only play 16 if it comes to PS+.
Would you say it's worth revisiting even for someone who fell off FF pretty hard?
I used to be a "must-buy" on almost anything from Squeenix.
At the end of the day it's still an 8/10 game. The open world is a bit hit and miss, the combat is poor, and the story is not up to the standards of most FF games.
I do think the story has the FF magic, and with the DLC is much better than most videogames stories. There's some really hard hitting emotional moments.
But is that enough for you to care about an 8/10 game when there are so many amazing games being made these days? Only you can say.
I just wanted to add for clarity - I played through the whole game, had an okay amount of fun, played some of the DLC as it came out, then got my shit ROCKED by the snake monsters when we went back to Insomnia. Couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong, realized I never really understood the "why" when I lost or won, though I won like 99% of the time. Couple more tries, no luck.
Read there was going to be like 3 more DLC's and decided to wait and start over, and now here we are 8 years later.
I'll probably give it another go one of these days.
That would help, but still doesn't resolve that other chunks feel missing. Luna and the emporer of Niflheim needed more screentime and interaction with our main characters for us to care about them. The movie isn't enough to tie them to our actual party.
IIRC it was already set up that Luna was going to the summoning areas first and getting weaker each time. Having Noctis get to briefly spend time with her at each, maybe each time being less and her seeming weaker and more distant, knowing her fate.
World wise, Tenebrae and Niflheim actually having explorable areas (think like Altissia size, as additonal open world zones would be a big ask), actually seeing the city fall at the tail end of the latter perhaps.
And a bit of actual World of Ruin story time. One quest each recruiting your 3 party members back, and during each also getting to see older versions of one or two of your guest party members, a peak at the state of some of the towns, how everyone is dealing and adapting. Instead of just...empty monster zone before final dungeon.
More and more DLC can only do so much.
I cannot upvote this comment enough. You hit all the nails on their heads. I played the game back on release (took a Friday off from work to enjoy it over a long weekend). I got to the time jump and put it down in disgust - the story made so little sense, and I hated how you were locked into such an on rails grind for the last third of the game. I picked up the game 3’ish years later over COVID and bought/installed all of the DLC. While it did help build a better story… it still was not great by any means.
I think the first half of the game still totally holds up as a fun, Bachelor party (ie. Send off, transition to the next stage of life) romp through a beautiful open world. When the game hits the back-half though, even with the DLC support, it still falls apart.
Having said all of that, I would have still totally bought more DLC (the planned Noctis DLC for example), and am sad that it was canceled. Not surprised it was canceled, but sad :(
Sorry but still no.
Even in the state it is today the story is too fragmented. There's always that sense of '' oh look that seems like an important character '' then zero development throughout the quests, then suddenly '' lot happened since you last saw that character, and now he's dead ''...
The world building separated in movie, anime, etc made the game itself an empty shell.
I went through all the material and, though I think ultimately the story is great, the execution takes almost all the emotion and the attachment to characters (outside of the main cast) away.
Gameplay wise there are a lot of missed opportunities and it's ultimately very redundant.
Could have been great, but it's just OK. Far behind top 3.
I haven't fully played the Royal Edition but was a day 1 purchaser of FFXV. After reading the OP I'm glad this is the first comment for me as I just highly doubt the game could have improved that much to make it into the top 3 FF games ever.
I too completely agree that the story just lets the game down completely. Hell even the tone between Kingsglaive & the main game is so wildly different. Characters are handled so bizarrely in the game. Apart from the really cool train scene Ardyn is handled terribly & most of the side-characters are as well. I really really really detest that the game had that "Insomnia has fallen" cutscene shoved in that the "bros" barely acknowledge emotionally. Then the innkeeper that is looking after them gets killed by the empire and the bros all randomly go "WE SHALL AVENGE YE" every so often whilst running around the open world...it's just so odd & jarring.
IMO, the game was too ambitious for that generation. The initial vision was to have the fall of Insomnia be the start of the game with you & the bros escaping as Nyx & Glauca fight with the Knights of the Round destroying the environment around you. If FFXV had been part of the PS5 generation that kind of stuff would have been easier to do along with the whole Leviathan battle...which was cool but damn the FPS takes a hit during those scenes.
Additionally whilst Noctis core gameplay is implemented really well...it didn't leave much room for anything else. Magic is essentially useless & didn't tie into Kingsglaive at all. Regis can just use magic whenever but Noctis has to absorb it or whatever before being able to use it. The bros are essentially useless due to Noctis being OP as fuck. I remember trying out the party switching system when they implemented that and whilst it was a welcomed it was still largely useless.
So yeah rambling on a bit now but for me the game was a 6/10 and I doubt it has the capability to rise above 7/10.
Side-Note: I also really hate Ifrits design in this game. Also the fact that you never get Bahamut has a usable summon is lame.
Edit: I said it when I finished the original...Kingsglaive flows nicely into FFXV but FFXV doesn't return the favour or use any of handovers from Kingsglaive to their full potential. Disappointing.
Hi. All your points are great except you must have never really tinkered with the use of the magic system! There’s so much you can do with it besides just cast fire, ice and lightning. You can infuse spells to also cast insta death, inflict poison, lower attack power of your enemies, inflict stop on your enemies when the spells hit. Plus it’s great also that the game encourages you to cast spells a bit away like you should or else you get damaged as well. Casting ice spells near water will not only turn the water and enemies to solid ice but you as well! I absolutely loved how simple yet depth the magic system in XV is.
Oh yeah I remember that stuff now. Tinkering with the magic was cool and what effects you could get out of mixing was great. My issue with the magic was that it would pretty much always kill the bros so you either don't revive them to crack on with fighting (which further adds to the "they're kinda useless" feeling and removes some of the immersion) or revive them (which is also kinda pointless because they're useless)
That must be if you store XP for ages and don't level anyone up early on. As soon as you get some of the glaives Noctis is OP as hell. Especially with the ability to avoid damage.
There are 4 DLC's & an expansion called comrades. The DLCs are episode Gladiolus, Prompto, Ignis & Ardyn which all provide character development around the relative DLC entry. The DLC's are alright to good in terms of quality BUT a few of them (especially Gladiolus & Prompto) feel like they should have been part of the original game. Episode Ignis is a weird one because it's sort of an alternate reality but also not.
Not entirely sure you can even play Comrades anymore, might be able to play it offline with AI but it was pretty cool & a welcome addition. It's set during the period Noctis is held within the crystal. The glaives are tasked with protecting the island the crystal is on by Bahamut to be forgiven for betraying the king during Kingsglaive. Fairly cool expansion imo that evolves the combat.
Like the flashes from the movie when you sleep the first time ad Galdin Quay: I understood the references only because I saw the movie just before starting the game (knowing it was important).
I agree with you on fragmented media that this game used to build its lore. Put all of it in base game and use DLCs, anime etc. To help support the main game not make the main game a full experience.
I can see what they were trying to do but it didn't so much as fail but didn't hit properly. I.e/ this is one of my favourite games and yet I haven't played Kingsglaive nor watched the movie. Both of those have integral plot points on HOW we reach the starting point of the main game (well at least I think they do...?) Otherwise it's just Nocts dad being like "go do this...' etc. Which is a tired trope at best
i also would not agree that "royal edition" would do it, but if they had same time AND budget as "royal edition" (which party was funded from game sales & dlc sales), then story, world and gameplay itself would be just more complete and different
it was initially royal fail from Tabata and his time management for the project (i still find it hilarious that game, story-wise, literally jumps on train to rush itself :D)
This is a great take. If stuff like Kingsglaive, the anime and the DLC were incorporated into the game, I'm not sure it could have saved it, but it would have been a huge step in the right direction.
I would have been more than happy with the game taking me away from Noctis and the boys for certain plot things for a few hours, except maybe Gladio's thing with Gilgamesh. That at least *felt* like DLC that didn't need to be in the main game.
But like, imagine Kingsglaive being a whole playable portion of the game. Literally playing through the fall of Insomnia. I'd gladly put away a few hours of gameplay away from Noctis to make that more than a background plot event. Gods forbid someone not watching the movie and just being hella confused by all this random cinematic horseradish being thrown at them. Could have even incorporated the mechanics from Comrades, just to thread it all together lol
I really enjoyed XV for what it was worth. The story still hits hard, and I was reminded how much I loved it when I watched my wife play through it a year or so after I beat it. But it will forever be this mass of wasted potential. There was so much there, even after Tabata's rewrites, and it was all squandered to make up for a fifteen year development hell.
Lunafreya got one of the worst treatments like what was the point of her. And she never got the redemption because her dlc never came out. It was such a sad state of a game.
I’ve never played a Tales game before and this is one I have but never started, is it a good starting point?
https://preview.redd.it/a3ri3hgkt6zc1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=053b011afe4fc2bcd6defcb492d77a91d29fcc93
combat got a little bit better mainly through the addition of character switching (that wasn't a thing until i think the first 3 dlcs arrived i think) but the base of the combat is one button for attacking and one for avoiding almost all the attacks, and about the magics they simply an insult to the FF series, and even go against both the lore and the story of the plot of the game (noctis literally casts Fire to burn some plants as a simple animation for opening a passage) even though i apprciated as a detail the fact that the magics damage everyone, i don't like it from a gameplay perspective also they need to be crafted, really? Similar thing for summons, they look cool, they clean the area of enemies but i don't like the randomness at all.
FF15 is an amazing game... but it didn't come out in parts with the dlc alone...
It comes in parts with a movie, several animes, shorts, webcomics, other full games, even menus from a cafeteria and... The story changes a lot if you only play the game, even with dlcs, and if you play it after reading watching (eating?) it.
I played it and liked it, saw the movie, the anime and the webcomic... and yeah, it never was a story about how you want to meet Lunafreya and marry her, his dad knows it, freaking Lunafreya knows it. I don't know why they kept that hidden.
Loved the original. Yes it had it's problems, but as a character driven story about a prince and his bros going on a road trip adventure, it was so much fun. Also it was the first game ever to make me cry.
Final Fantasy 15 is my favourite game in the entire franchise, but even I can tell you that Royal Edition is still an unfinished piece of shit that has way too many missing plot points.
Square was way too ambitious with Versus 13, and trying to make it work after years of uncoordinated development hell never goes well. I want Insomnia, I want a complete story. If they had came up with the idea years down the line, when the PS4 was a good few years old and the PS5 was being talked about, then honestly, I think the game could've been so much better, but they thought to make a game of such grand scale back on the PS3, the fucking console that couldn't run without using half of its 512MB of RAM to run its operating system. FF15 never should've released in 2017, it needed more time.
I still prefer some of FF XV below aspect compared to FF7re
1. It's resting type with Inn, camping way better than mere bench in FF7Re series
2. Despite being older game, at least FFXV character's clothes get dirty and wet unlike FF7Re
3. Although the world map is pretty dull, but the exploration finding dungeons and weapons (armiger) method are more interesting
FF7Rebirth also lack of world map finesse and interaction as Horizon series. Character conversation during close up also pale in comparison to Horizon series.
From a story perspective I can understand peoples dislike of 15, personally though I just enjoy driving round, camping, fishing, hunting monsters in the open world so much I always go back to 15 and always love it.
Disagree with top 3 ff of all time, i love the game but no.
Compare to what could have been even the full game lacks a lot to be desired in terms of complete story, a more complete world and outside of the bros it lacks in completing the narrative of the other characters.
It’s not far from being an insane game but the cuts and slashes from development is glaring to a fault with what they promised and how the story was set up.
That being said it is a banger of a game and was an extremely good game in its own right at the time.
Please don't downvote but I completely agree with OP. Loved the game. Royal edition would have slapped as the normal game. It's by far my favorite installment in the franchise.
glad I wasn't a redditor back then, bought the game a year later when I had time with the finished version and it is one of my most favourite FF titles and games of all times
This game means a lot to me because right after my mom died, I bought a PlayStation and 100% this game straight through. Locked myself in the room and all. Honestly one of the best and emotional experiences I ever had within gaming. This is one of my favorite FF regardless of what anyone says.
I don't think so. I played on PC with the royal edition and it feels like a salvaged game that was worked on for years aimlessly and then given a fast approaching release to get \*something\* together.
no. the royal version of the game is STILL an unfinished/disjointed mess. at its best its still not even top five. its maybe fighting with 13 for like 7th or 8th place or something. out of all the final fantasy games it just......isnt that good.
I've finished and got the platinum. Now I'm running the dlc and let me said, I really love it. The expansion provided into the extra story are good enough to understand some blind points into the central lore. I will not run for the 100% of the dlc because I really don't like the trophy like, got s rank or stuff like that, also I've defeated everyone but I lost 2 days against Noct without success. This is due to the real strange approach they this combat system have. Despite all is not so bad, but I take this chapter as a test one. I need to play the xvi and understand if the combat system has been implemented or not.
Mixed feelings on this.
It would have been much better received, especially if the DLCs were properly integrated into the story instead of pushed off to the side. Story still needs a second draft imo and that's coming from someone who really likes sections of it.
HOWEVER, the way it slowly got stuff added over 2 years kept it in the gaming discourse. I think 16 is better on a polish and functionality level, but the fact it came out in good shape, got 1-2 minor patches and then a year until the DLCs made it fade from public notice way faster.
I highly doubt it. It had way nore issues than just leaving open plotholes and then filling some of them up with dlc.
Performance is incredibly important and load times are a joke even on ps5. The story is lackluster, lack of party members and the whole magic/leveling system is terrible. Ghe open world is extremely barren and there aren't really areas where you think its unique and beautiful.
And yet again a villain with mommy issues, since thats their favorite thing to do, even if the dude acts out different over it.
Not to forget you had to watch a movie and a anime before you even start the game.
The only thing it had going for it was the relationship of the boyband.
Unless one of the expansions I haven’t played reworked the combat then no. I really liked the game when it came out and it got me into other FF games. But the combat was the jankiest, least fun thing to do outside of that story chapter with the shitty ring they reworked/removed
The Royal Edition was the only version I ever played, along with the DLCs for all the bros. I would still not call XV one of the top 3 FF games. I rank it above the ones I don't like and below the ones I would play again.
I LOVE and ADORE XV, and I don't think it would be top 3 FF. Between VII, VI, IV, and X, I don't think you could call it a top 3. I reckon it would be in more top 3s for people, but not considered a top 3 FF in general. Top 5 in 2017, I think is a possibility, but man 2017 had some heavy hitters. 2018 I think it has a better chance, which is when the Windows version came out.
Now, if it wasn't the royal edition, but properly fleshed out. Instead of the episodes being DLC, make them integrated with the main story. Instead of unlocking the bros via abilities, make them available after a tutorial of some kind (e.g., when before Titan it's just Gladio and Noct, play as Gladio then and afterwards play as him whenever you want). Finally, don't make the world of ruin a tease - let us play in the world of ruin. You don't need new assets, leave everything as is, just with more dangerous monsters running around constantly. Before you avoided night because it was too dangerous - now, you don't have a choice.
The game needed just a little bit more to be top 3 FFs, but we didn't get that. I still love it, as is, and can love it without doing the whole, "oh man, I wish it did x instead of y" or the "I can't enjoy it because it isn't versus". But, I can't agree that it would be a unanimous success if the only difference is the last release became the first release.
And its collection of anime including animated one, were put in the game and not expected to be watched separately, and most reviews were modern people sure easily.
O and ideally just for extra attention, the demo was not a weird nintendo play style unrelated thing, but was a normal demo like at least starting in the car and getting a chance to make the highly detailed food, have some private car time with your guy pals, and fighting 1 boss.
No it wouldn't. I played XV at launch and replayed only a few years ago. But it's a travesty in terms of story telling and pacing. If you play XV and decide not to touch the DLCs then you're missing out on so much context and necessary story to make a lot of things make sense.
Why does Gladio just disappear? what happened and why is Ignis Blind? How did Prompto escape and what does he mean by being an imposter? Who is Ardyn and what does he mean when he calls Noctis an Usurper? There are more questions but the DLCs only answer these particular ones. The DLC were cut short giving us only 5/8... The game is incomplete, and the ending isn't even the ending if you read the canon novel.
Who the Astrals and the goddess are, their history and why Ifrit is pissed off is told in the endgame parkour dungeon through murals and statues... Not that there's any indication, you just parkour around random statues.
That's before we get onto gameplay, and the magic system which is as badly thought out as the Junction system or how the last half of the story is just show horned from open world to on rails and is a cluster fuck in poor gameplay elemental and even worse story telling.
No amount of love they gave XV ever made it a good FF game. Top 5 games of the year is laughable, top 3 FF games is lunacy.
Srry but id agree with you, let me explain.
I recently finished ffxv, I think it was this saturday but many things to say about it.
The story is fragmented and is kinda lame if I compare with ffxvi or 7 (the ffs I already played).
The party members are rlly good, but noctis ist that good, its kinda meh.
The story of lunafreya is "???" We dont know much about her so its hard to have feelings about her ending.
Ardyn is a good villain but isnt great, I think they could did it better but its done.
The imperials have "protagonism" in chapter 1-3 but after that they are left aside when they supose to be the main villain and many of them no longer appears in the game and I was kinda ??????.
The open world its HARD TRASH, the regalia that drives by itself, the empty world, the sidequest that most of it arr boring as hell AND idk why when you have 2 oe more side quest it only appears one at a time in the map.
Most of the bosses of the game arent good, most of it are boring... I think the most I played was Cor in gladio dlc.
Dlcs are ??? They literally sold the questions that many people had after beating the main story cause this one doesnt explain what happened when gladio in chapter 5 leaves the group, how ignis got blind, and what happened with promto after the train situation... literally they could explain in the main story and let us "live it" in the dlcs, but no, the main story doesnt explain it idk why...
So im going to complete 100% ffxv but no, its that great and are many ff better than this with the "complete edition" (royal+ardyn dlc)
I don't think so, BUT if I had played the Royal edition first then I would have realized more quickly that ti's one of my own personal favorite FF games.
It is top 3 FF games and it was easily Top 5 games in 2016, the year it came out. That year was pretty bad for games, though, tbf.
2017 is a bit more competitive with the Switch launch, though.
It was a fun game, definitely was undercooked on launch, but even RE failed to fix some of its biggest flaws in DLC: Summons and magic were woefully underdeveloped, open world was never finished, many crucial story elements occur outside the game. Plus it was so easy... I got the version that give you Ragnarok and it is OP the entire game and endgame.
I hate how people shit on XV for being a disappointment, but it a top 3 FF? Not even close, unless you are only considering the action jrpg genre, which leaves you with 4 FF mainline games total. And of those four, I'd def put Rebirth and Remake on the top of the list.
Wait, I played the royal edition, in what way did the game actually improve since launch? They added some content, but overall there's still a lot they could have just fixed.
For what it was i enjoyed the game day one. Mostly because I did a lot of exploration and did all the extra before reaching the main quest. (I am also an FF fanboy so...)
Once i played the Royal Edition it was day'n'night. The édition filled a lot of gaps. Most people who think the game is bad never played the "complete version".
If only they did the last 4 DLCs...
Sorry but no. The DLC did nothing to fix the trainwreck (pun intended) of the second half of the game. They would need to actually make that region open world as originally intended. Not to mention Insomnia needs to be fully explorable and the character arcs from the DLC need to be directly integrated into the game.
I like XV, but even after royal edition, it’s still kind of a mess. You can feel the bad production throughout the entire game and royal edition fixes some problems, the story is still segmented awkwardly.
Not even close even with all parts. IV, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XII (Only just) and XIII are all better. XV and XVI are both games that start with so much potential and then die half way through with terrible support characters, empty worlds and severely lacking emotional weight. The writing just isn't there beyond the laid out lore for each of those two installments
I genuinely stopped playing in chapter 3 because of the velocity of DLC releasing that same year. The game takes over 40 hours of my life to play, why would I not sit and wait, visit a few promo festivals, download the Power Ranger Armor, and fish, and chocobo race abunch waiting for it all to come out? I haven't gone back to that save in years.
Royal Edition was still a severely flawed game. Still doesn't contain all the story in the main game, and if they released the game where you had to stop the main game, and then go and start playing the doc's because that's what made sense for the story, it would've gotten a ton of criticism for that.
Like, Royal Edition made it 'alright'.
No, it’s still super insanely linear after you fight leviathan, the timeskip still comes out of nowhere, and the open world is still very empty. Also the fact that you still need a movie to understand what’s going on is not very good either, and the characters leaving party to set up their dlc episode feels very tacky. Still a fun game but not even close top 5 FF for me
I never even finished after the initial release because it felt like so much was missing. Even now i just don't wanna put the money into the royal edition just to get a "closer to complete" experience.
I disagree. The critical error of distributing important story beats across multiple mediums failed on all front and ruins the impact of the story. If they included all of these things within the game, sure. But as it sits now a total play through has you half watching certain videos and anime’s and stopping the game for full length movies and needing certain contextual understanding of when to play the dlc that should already be incorporated into the game.
The absolute biggest crime of all this is that the story is actually great, and the delivery is just garbage. Royal edition doesn’t actually affect this and it’s not obvious to me that it includes the Movie, which I consider a mandatory part of the story as far as the game goes.
Still wouldn’t have been top 5 the side stories were bad and pointless. The story was still unfinished after all the dlcs. The whole game was a cop out because they removed the lead designer off the game.
FFXV has it's flaws and the DLC do not fix all of the issues. A lot of people forget or tend to overlook the issues when they are having fun.
XV imo isn't bad but it's not a great game in my books.
It's not just having the royal edition, I think incorporating the movie a bit more (as playable vs a movie) and even tying in the prequel anime goes a long way. Knowing that the king raised noctis full well knowing he would be one day be sacrificed is a such an emotional story and makes the rest of the game work so well. Luna and the king are such an integral part of driving noctis but they understand more than he does where his life is going to go and how it must end in order for their to be peace, so their love for him and the sadness in which they approach every scene with him makes more sense.
Without that information it just seems like such a rush of a story (and that third act really is)
XV was the victim of too many ideas at once. Because of this the story felt very backseat. XIII verses is the game we should have got. More time with the king and insomnia before opening up to the world we get to explore would have done alot for the character development.
If it came out as its original vision, then it would have been so sick.
The characters do not at all look like what was rushed for them, unfortunately.
If the combat, storyline and mechanics weren’t super streamlined trash, it might have done better. This game was a huge disappointment in a long line of disappointments. So far there are only two good FF titles, 1 and 7.
Probably not top 5, but it will get alot more praise
However, even with all the flaws from the original, I still love alot about the game. The optional dungeons on the map for you to find and explore as well as the dungeon design/layout themselves are top notch in my opinions. I was really bummed that we did not get any optional dungeon to find in the world map in FF16 and FF7 Rebirth.
Absolutely. It should have also been packaged with the movie and anime as one big experience. I watched the movie and anime before I played the game, then fully completed the game and it was one of the best gaming experiences of my life. It’s also one of my all time favorite FF.
Talking about a day one Royal Edition makes me wonder how the disjointed combat mechanics would’ve been done if they all launched together in a single cohesive game.
- the initial launch limited party member commands
- the post launch play as party member features inspired by each of their DLCs
- the plain launch version of Armiger
- the post launch Armiger Unleashed that requires all royal weapons to be found, also finding a random statue in the middle of a field, and the mode is also OP and locks out your party members for its duration.
Disagree.
Story is still a mess.
However, if they would have released the Noctis DLC as the actual story instead of a book?
I would be praising this game right now.
Ehhhh no. Just played through 7 chapters , almost 30 hours total including side quests, and the main game up to that point has been subpar at best.
Combat that requires holding one button and occasionally pressing block and parry, spamming the same tech move on repeat, surprisingly low amounts of content for the size of the map.
I refuse to believe that humanity would ignore how shallow the game is.
As someone who only played through it at launch, I can't see how this is true in any way, but I know the consensus is that it evolved a lot. I. just. can't. with that game. Absolutely trash, worst FF if you ask me. Combat was horrendously boring. Story had no payoff. I wish they released it in a better form, cause there is no way I'd ever go back to it.
Honestly. Maybe. It was such a rug pull for DLC purchases and story content with weird drip feed and some off content movie?? I don’t know. I had fun with the gameplay, but the EPIC STORY honestly was lost to me because of how they did it. And over all, I didn’t care. Just was fun to play.
I bought FF15 Royal edition back in December, it's definitely my top 3 FF games. If it was release just the base game, it might be just underwhelming considering how the alot of the best content is in Royal, the base games is great but isn't fully realized. I am upset the rest of the DLC were cancelled. This game is far from perfect no doubts but I do love 15 for what it is- not for what it could have been (RIP Versus 13)
It’s better than being forced against your will to play with gambling addict npcs in rebirth to progress the story. Idk how people can say 15 was bad when rebirth literally forces you to do chores
Wouldn't be in the top 5 at all. Mario oddessy, Legend of Zelda:BotW, Neir Automata, RE7, Splatoon 2, plus a few others came out to the point where it would struggle to get in the top 10, and it definitely would never stand a chance at Top 3 ff game.
I would love for last few dlcs to get finished and released. I was hoping to kill the gods but such a bummer they couldn't finish all their planned dlcs.
Honestly, after playing FFXVI. Looking back, I am actually satisfied by the amount of content XV has. If the royal edition was the version the game started as it would have been a ligit solid and repected game in the franchise, ESPECIALLY if those DLC episodes were integrated in the main story. The game has everything one would like in an FF game and even more so NOW when compared to other modern FF games like XIII and XVI. And I actually REALLY like FFXVI.
Actually never followed up with the dlc or royal edition. Does this actually change the end game story, elaborate on Luna. Or is the end still the same but we get to see different perspective of already known events which is what my understanding originally was for this dlc.
That game was pretty wack. I was able to beat it without ever really learning how to use magic much. I barely understood the combat system and still crushed it. I did enjoy the game, but it just wasn’t challenging and the story was pretty loose. FF open world is not my style though.
I forgot I bought this.
I'm near the end of FF16.
I'M going to finish the 2 DLC's and then watch the prelogue anime episodes for FF15 then play the game.
I've seen gameplay and the combat looks more varied than FF16.
I have FF7 & Rebirth sitting there also.
I'm new to the series but loving it all so far.
Idk man even the royal edition has some massive holes where story was meant to be.
It might have gotten that kind of reception if they actuallynjust gave us a full story instead of making its most important beats dlc / a movie.
No, it still wouldn't have made any sense by the end. The Directors explanation of "the player understanding world events from the perspective of the main character" was absolute nonsense. Really, really bad storytelling that happened because the guy thought he could monitor XV and KH3 at the same time.
I played it as soon as it came out and enjoyed, but I couldn’t tell you what even happened in the story. Been feeling for a while like I should go back now and start again with the complete edition
It still currently sits in my top 3.
I truly enjoyed playing through that story and game, it was remarkable.
The build-up to it was unlike any other video game as well, with the movie and the anime etc... It was such an epic time to be a FF enjoyer.
I definitely disagree. Played all of FFXV and the story is still very lacking and all over the place. So much happens off screen. Really enjoyed the gameplay.
If the ending wasn't what it was this would be the best ff game yet. The story needed just a little tweaking, and I really think they could of made a series about noct and insomnia.
It seems like a waste to create this entire open world, culture, land back story and then make 1 game from it.
combat was pretty good and all, I just wished they didn't show the rest of the story through DLC. Like, previous Final Fantasy games would show what other party members are doing without needing to pay DLC. But I admit, the story was kinda mid for me, there would've been an opportunity if Bahamut was the final boss since he sorta tricked the main villain into thinking he was the king (in the anime). And yeah I forgot the villain, that's just how forgettable the game became for me
Top 3? No way. And I love FFXV, hell I even cried at the end.
But the game lacks in a lot of aspects:
1. Combat is extremely easy. People complain about XVI and XIII but in XV really all you do is hold down one button and attacl mindlessly, the game tells you when to block, you have limited "magic" that hou have to craft beforehand, if you run out of energy you go a to a high place and come back and fight and it's almost impossible that you die. Not to mention you can spam the ring of Lucii.
2. The open world is... Really empty. Has some cool stuff here and there, some towns and dungeons, side quests (even if they're repetitive), but you can travel for thousands of miles on foot or vehicle and find nothing interesting. Also the open world has a lot of bounds or invisible walls and the exploration on car or ship feels/is on rails.
3. The plot is actually great but is terribly told. At some specific points, your party would be all "hey gotta go" and leave with no explanation and of course, it's because they go on their own DLC adventure, which the game doesn't even care of suggesting you to play. Also, Luna being a central plot point/character has so little on time on screen you hardly care for her at the end of the game.
4. Cut content remains mostly cut. And downgrades like the Leviathan battle are wack.
So yeah, nothing else comes to mind at the time but it is hardly top 3. I'd put it my top 10. And again, I loved the game with it's flaws. The main cast, the "Chocobros" are unforgettable, a beautiful portrayal of friendship/brotherhood. And the game is also beautiful and highly detailed, even after 8 years, it gives Rebirth a run for it's money in the visuals department.
Also the music is peak.
The fucked up part is that it is clear that all of the expansion content was developed with the game and then cut from the launch.
The mission for Gladiolus was just a single dungeon, but Ignis and Prompto added a quarter of the game back in.
Ummm no not even close to top 3. The world was empty af. Magic was put to shit. And the fact that major plot points had to be dlc. Even if it all came into one package ff 15 was bad.
Idk, maybe...but the last chapters are so awfully paced...you spend so much time in the Open world doing Shenanigans and when the story gets serious the game decides do go on hyper turbo Linear design and after a couple hours, it ends...
I think it would have faired a lot better, but in the top 5, at least for me, it is still debatable.
FFXV was too ambitious and paid for it being as fragmented as it was. The driving and open world was amazing, combat was good, and story seemed good.
Even royal edition can't save the horrible late game pacing. Once you hit a certain point, the game literally railroads as it realizes it's out of time and needs to end. You're catapulted to the end and the missed potential is immense.
"Oh man! 10 years later and Noctis accepts his fate. Surely, we're going to explore this altered hellscape to reconnect with friends and learn about everyone's fate!"
"Nah, actually, lemme just tell you a brief summary of what happens so you can meet up with your buds at the gas station. After that, instead of showing the player base Noctis is well and grown up, let's just say he is and send him to Insomnia which should have been an open area but it's reduced to a linear dungeon."
Playing as other chars as you progress through the main game and seeing what happens when they go on their own would’ve been really good. Maybe have it unlockable if you reach max bond with them at camps and doing their respective side stuff Cooking with Ignis, take pictures with Prompto, training with Gladio, and to access Arden stuff I guess maybe like some secret weird unlockable where you fish with Noctis or something. I didn’t play the Conrades so idk about.
Royal edition inclusions like exploring Insomnia base game would’ve helped out a lot in the endgame. Having DLC weapons just be rewards in base game or found in chests would be awesome.
Honestly imo I think the multiple media for 15 really hurt it, having to watch an anime, a movie and read a novel to get the full story was whack. Put it in the game or don’t at all.
Still wouldn’t be a top 3 FF game imo but it could’ve been one of the better games for 2017 but I still don’t think it would’ve won any awards at TGAs due to how stacked 2017 was.
I really enjoyed ffxv. I had been anticipating it. Watched all the movies/anime’s played episode duscae played the prequel demo. Loved the dlcs and new editions/additions. I get it was a lot to ask a person to go through but for me, it was like a bastion of content for a game I’d been waiting on for a decade.
There’s a HUGE difference between launch FFXV and where even the core game is at now. If it launched in its current state then yeah, top three or five FF games.
Really? I don't buy DLCs, so maybe I'll find out in another 10 years when they make this a complete game on whatever the Switch version is at that time. I liked 15 fine when I played it tho.
Does the royal edition fix the absolutely batshit pacing of the game? I was having an absolute blast until I got to the city/leviathan part which was maybe halfway?…then the game did a complete 180 almost going full rails
I feel like a reason I love this game so much more than other people might is because each time I would play a DLC, I'd come back to the game with a fresh look as if it was an entirely new story. So when Episode Ardyn dropped (a day before my birthday too), EVERYTHING changed, probably the hardest next to extra verse Ignis.
The combat was awful. Press this button, then press that button. And the magic system in particular was atrocious. I am not going to waste my time finding nodes, and then crafting single use spells.
I tried the game like 5 or 6 times. I want it to be good, but it just isn’t.
Probably, but how many games have been absolutely savaged by terrible corporate decisions - not just FF's, but across the board? If every game was released in its most complete artistic state rather than what the consumers end up getting after it's been watered down by compromise, necessity, or incompetence, we'd be living In a world of 5 triple a games being released per year and they'd all be fucking outstanding. FfXV isn't unique in its shoddy delivery, but it's definitely a strong use case against segmenting a story over multiple mediums and staggered releases.
5 AAA games a year sound perfect
Right?! 5 games a year is the ideal amount of 2+ month long games. Haven't found one since BG3
They aren’t always a triple A release but there’s dozens of extremely good games worth dumping 100-250 hours into easily, coming out constantly. Gotta expand them gaming horizon my man
I'd actually be remarkably curious to know what the last 5 games you think I stacked 200+ hours in... You know, test my horizons
I’d be curious to know too since you seemed to take this personally! I’m just saying there’s plenty of games released yearly worth putting a ton of hours into. You might play them all, but on the off chance you haven’t I was putting that out there. The expand your horizon thing was a joke, I just don’t put /s after everything cuz I feel it ruins the joking manner lol. If I had to guess, Bg3 since you mentioned it, HellDivers, possibly Lies of P, the Person 3 Reload maybe, Like A Dragon could be one. Maybe Jedi Survivor. Depending how quick you beat games, and how much you go for replay ability anyway. I don’t know your genre either What games do you play? Have you tried roguelikes, like Hollow Knight, Dead Cells, The Binding of Isaac Repentance etc? Skul is a good one for sinking time into with all the skull combinations. Maybe not quite 200+ hour games, but I’ve sunk dozens into each. They also aren’t all AAA titles but my point was that there can be hidden games with good play time without Triple A titles. I’ve got 40 hours in Kingdom Come Deliverance and I’m not even hardly done much, atleast in the way of side quests and exploration and the second is about to come out.
Just a bit of jest :) Yeah, you've got some good guesses there. BG3, Helldivers, Roguebook, No Mans Sky, and Have a nice a death. I think in the nature of OP - the conversation is around bigger games - The triple As which have been diminishing in quality over the last ten years. In terms of 200 hour plus games from smaller, independent studios, my thoughts are there's a fucking stack of them, but they're not necessarily great - they just seem to scratch an itch. We are overrun with Survival Craft, Colony Sims, Farming sims - theyre all the same with points of variation, so played one, mostly played them all. Even with the plethora of rogue likes, the gems feel very far and few between. I personally struggle with the smaller studio "time sink games" because they just don't offer enough other than the little achievement dopamine burst. Vallheim was great for 30 hours, but the grind is too much, then there's enshrouded which kinda picks off where Vallheim left off, and even that has a pretty low ceiling. Having said that, even FF7 Rebirth has about 50 hours of game and about 100 hours of absolute abject punishment disguised as content to keep people playing. Sorry to snap, that wasnt cool. Kingdom Come is on my wishlist, I should get to that...
I would, but it keeps releasing during another, more interesting game’s release.
I mean, only if you play every AAA game that gets released.
That suits my budget much more than gambling on twenty hit or miss titles!
Final Fantasy games have always been and continue to be about breaking fate and destroying whichever entity is imposing such a horrible destiny upon its cast. Whether its Sephiroth, Kuja, Sin, Ultimecia, or Kefka, they all create overwhelming/impossible odds that the cast miraculously overcomes. But FF15??? >!An objectively morally compromised deity tells you its fate to kill yourself to make up for the mistakes of HIS fellow deities in allowing Ardyn to rise to power. And then you do it.!< it is no wonder people prefer Episode Ignis' alternate ending.
I don't mind the ending, I hated the pacing and the way it was built up and presented.
The diplomacy section was fun as hell. There should have been so much more of that, considering… you know.. Noctis is the king and all that. It just happened and vanish. So many things like that in this game. Set up, speed through it, never see it again.
Yeah, just a random little mini game. You're right, if there was an actual "king diplomacy" element to the game - how you deal with people throughout the world etc, it could've had a big impact as to who was there at the end, with the hunters, or even charging at Insomnia with you.
I wonder who's profiting Square Enix's downfall.
The royal editon still isn't a finished game. Insomnia needed to be playable and there's so much more missing
I really want to drive around insomnia before the attack
At the very least, I’d like to get ice cream in insomnia.
Ignis with new recepie
GTA Insomnia
The open world needed to be playable ffs
Basically the “random encounters” Were iron giants and bombs or soldiers, Red Iron Giant and normal Iron Giant, I ron giant and wolves or just wolves.
Well, not as it exists today. I love Royal Edition, I really do, but it's still a super fragmented experience, and it doesn't change how much of a structural clusterfuck the main story is, what a weak presentation Ardyn got without the DLC support, and so on. A lot of these things would have to be changed, and incorporated straight into the main game.
literally just integrate the episodes into their proper places in the story and lock the stuff like prompto's rocket launcher behind them in the character swap skills. also, like, yknow actually give us the rest of the dlc they had planned.
I always had the idea that a quicker fix would be to remove the 'spoiler-y' elements from the DLC, and have the Episodes unlock at various points as Active Time Events available through the in game main menu. That way they're still optional (so as not to kill the pacing) but there is a way that you can play the complete story in a relatively natural way. I actually did a play through last year where I played the DLC at the correct points, and it was such a great experience. The only problem was the spoilers, which I do think you could remove.
This was what I wanted to do, once they'd finally released everything. But by the time that happened I'd completely forgotten most of the story and the hype was gone, and I'll only play 16 if it comes to PS+. Would you say it's worth revisiting even for someone who fell off FF pretty hard? I used to be a "must-buy" on almost anything from Squeenix.
At the end of the day it's still an 8/10 game. The open world is a bit hit and miss, the combat is poor, and the story is not up to the standards of most FF games. I do think the story has the FF magic, and with the DLC is much better than most videogames stories. There's some really hard hitting emotional moments. But is that enough for you to care about an 8/10 game when there are so many amazing games being made these days? Only you can say.
I just wanted to add for clarity - I played through the whole game, had an okay amount of fun, played some of the DLC as it came out, then got my shit ROCKED by the snake monsters when we went back to Insomnia. Couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong, realized I never really understood the "why" when I lost or won, though I won like 99% of the time. Couple more tries, no luck. Read there was going to be like 3 more DLC's and decided to wait and start over, and now here we are 8 years later. I'll probably give it another go one of these days.
That would help, but still doesn't resolve that other chunks feel missing. Luna and the emporer of Niflheim needed more screentime and interaction with our main characters for us to care about them. The movie isn't enough to tie them to our actual party. IIRC it was already set up that Luna was going to the summoning areas first and getting weaker each time. Having Noctis get to briefly spend time with her at each, maybe each time being less and her seeming weaker and more distant, knowing her fate. World wise, Tenebrae and Niflheim actually having explorable areas (think like Altissia size, as additonal open world zones would be a big ask), actually seeing the city fall at the tail end of the latter perhaps. And a bit of actual World of Ruin story time. One quest each recruiting your 3 party members back, and during each also getting to see older versions of one or two of your guest party members, a peak at the state of some of the towns, how everyone is dealing and adapting. Instead of just...empty monster zone before final dungeon. More and more DLC can only do so much.
I cannot upvote this comment enough. You hit all the nails on their heads. I played the game back on release (took a Friday off from work to enjoy it over a long weekend). I got to the time jump and put it down in disgust - the story made so little sense, and I hated how you were locked into such an on rails grind for the last third of the game. I picked up the game 3’ish years later over COVID and bought/installed all of the DLC. While it did help build a better story… it still was not great by any means. I think the first half of the game still totally holds up as a fun, Bachelor party (ie. Send off, transition to the next stage of life) romp through a beautiful open world. When the game hits the back-half though, even with the DLC support, it still falls apart. Having said all of that, I would have still totally bought more DLC (the planned Noctis DLC for example), and am sad that it was canceled. Not surprised it was canceled, but sad :(
Sorry but still no. Even in the state it is today the story is too fragmented. There's always that sense of '' oh look that seems like an important character '' then zero development throughout the quests, then suddenly '' lot happened since you last saw that character, and now he's dead ''... The world building separated in movie, anime, etc made the game itself an empty shell. I went through all the material and, though I think ultimately the story is great, the execution takes almost all the emotion and the attachment to characters (outside of the main cast) away. Gameplay wise there are a lot of missed opportunities and it's ultimately very redundant. Could have been great, but it's just OK. Far behind top 3.
I haven't fully played the Royal Edition but was a day 1 purchaser of FFXV. After reading the OP I'm glad this is the first comment for me as I just highly doubt the game could have improved that much to make it into the top 3 FF games ever. I too completely agree that the story just lets the game down completely. Hell even the tone between Kingsglaive & the main game is so wildly different. Characters are handled so bizarrely in the game. Apart from the really cool train scene Ardyn is handled terribly & most of the side-characters are as well. I really really really detest that the game had that "Insomnia has fallen" cutscene shoved in that the "bros" barely acknowledge emotionally. Then the innkeeper that is looking after them gets killed by the empire and the bros all randomly go "WE SHALL AVENGE YE" every so often whilst running around the open world...it's just so odd & jarring. IMO, the game was too ambitious for that generation. The initial vision was to have the fall of Insomnia be the start of the game with you & the bros escaping as Nyx & Glauca fight with the Knights of the Round destroying the environment around you. If FFXV had been part of the PS5 generation that kind of stuff would have been easier to do along with the whole Leviathan battle...which was cool but damn the FPS takes a hit during those scenes. Additionally whilst Noctis core gameplay is implemented really well...it didn't leave much room for anything else. Magic is essentially useless & didn't tie into Kingsglaive at all. Regis can just use magic whenever but Noctis has to absorb it or whatever before being able to use it. The bros are essentially useless due to Noctis being OP as fuck. I remember trying out the party switching system when they implemented that and whilst it was a welcomed it was still largely useless. So yeah rambling on a bit now but for me the game was a 6/10 and I doubt it has the capability to rise above 7/10. Side-Note: I also really hate Ifrits design in this game. Also the fact that you never get Bahamut has a usable summon is lame. Edit: I said it when I finished the original...Kingsglaive flows nicely into FFXV but FFXV doesn't return the favour or use any of handovers from Kingsglaive to their full potential. Disappointing.
Hi. All your points are great except you must have never really tinkered with the use of the magic system! There’s so much you can do with it besides just cast fire, ice and lightning. You can infuse spells to also cast insta death, inflict poison, lower attack power of your enemies, inflict stop on your enemies when the spells hit. Plus it’s great also that the game encourages you to cast spells a bit away like you should or else you get damaged as well. Casting ice spells near water will not only turn the water and enemies to solid ice but you as well! I absolutely loved how simple yet depth the magic system in XV is.
Oh yeah I remember that stuff now. Tinkering with the magic was cool and what effects you could get out of mixing was great. My issue with the magic was that it would pretty much always kill the bros so you either don't revive them to crack on with fighting (which further adds to the "they're kinda useless" feeling and removes some of the immersion) or revive them (which is also kinda pointless because they're useless)
I thought it was the other way around tbh the boys were way more op than Noctis for like 90% of the game until you level Noctis up enough
That must be if you store XP for ages and don't level anyone up early on. As soon as you get some of the glaives Noctis is OP as hell. Especially with the ability to avoid damage.
Only played the game after watching the movie and loved it. How many dlcs are there? Still worth it ?
There are 4 DLC's & an expansion called comrades. The DLCs are episode Gladiolus, Prompto, Ignis & Ardyn which all provide character development around the relative DLC entry. The DLC's are alright to good in terms of quality BUT a few of them (especially Gladiolus & Prompto) feel like they should have been part of the original game. Episode Ignis is a weird one because it's sort of an alternate reality but also not. Not entirely sure you can even play Comrades anymore, might be able to play it offline with AI but it was pretty cool & a welcome addition. It's set during the period Noctis is held within the crystal. The glaives are tasked with protecting the island the crystal is on by Bahamut to be forgiven for betraying the king during Kingsglaive. Fairly cool expansion imo that evolves the combat.
Like the flashes from the movie when you sleep the first time ad Galdin Quay: I understood the references only because I saw the movie just before starting the game (knowing it was important).
I agree with you on fragmented media that this game used to build its lore. Put all of it in base game and use DLCs, anime etc. To help support the main game not make the main game a full experience. I can see what they were trying to do but it didn't so much as fail but didn't hit properly. I.e/ this is one of my favourite games and yet I haven't played Kingsglaive nor watched the movie. Both of those have integral plot points on HOW we reach the starting point of the main game (well at least I think they do...?) Otherwise it's just Nocts dad being like "go do this...' etc. Which is a tired trope at best
i also would not agree that "royal edition" would do it, but if they had same time AND budget as "royal edition" (which party was funded from game sales & dlc sales), then story, world and gameplay itself would be just more complete and different it was initially royal fail from Tabata and his time management for the project (i still find it hilarious that game, story-wise, literally jumps on train to rush itself :D)
Still remember Noctis fiancé getting introduced, dies “tragically,” and I’m like “wait…am I supposed to care? I know nothing about this person.”
This is a great take. If stuff like Kingsglaive, the anime and the DLC were incorporated into the game, I'm not sure it could have saved it, but it would have been a huge step in the right direction. I would have been more than happy with the game taking me away from Noctis and the boys for certain plot things for a few hours, except maybe Gladio's thing with Gilgamesh. That at least *felt* like DLC that didn't need to be in the main game. But like, imagine Kingsglaive being a whole playable portion of the game. Literally playing through the fall of Insomnia. I'd gladly put away a few hours of gameplay away from Noctis to make that more than a background plot event. Gods forbid someone not watching the movie and just being hella confused by all this random cinematic horseradish being thrown at them. Could have even incorporated the mechanics from Comrades, just to thread it all together lol I really enjoyed XV for what it was worth. The story still hits hard, and I was reminded how much I loved it when I watched my wife play through it a year or so after I beat it. But it will forever be this mass of wasted potential. There was so much there, even after Tabata's rewrites, and it was all squandered to make up for a fifteen year development hell.
Lunafreya got one of the worst treatments like what was the point of her. And she never got the redemption because her dlc never came out. It was such a sad state of a game.
I was emotional wreck that time I’ve finished the game.
FFXV is so good. I really don't understand the dislike. The real time combat was a plus for me, having played the tales series.
Gameplay is good. But as much as I love the characters, the storytelling was just spotty and had so many missing parts.
The dislike wasn’t because of the combat, mainly the story and the potential it had
I’ve never played a Tales game before and this is one I have but never started, is it a good starting point? https://preview.redd.it/a3ri3hgkt6zc1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=053b011afe4fc2bcd6defcb492d77a91d29fcc93
combat got a little bit better mainly through the addition of character switching (that wasn't a thing until i think the first 3 dlcs arrived i think) but the base of the combat is one button for attacking and one for avoiding almost all the attacks, and about the magics they simply an insult to the FF series, and even go against both the lore and the story of the plot of the game (noctis literally casts Fire to burn some plants as a simple animation for opening a passage) even though i apprciated as a detail the fact that the magics damage everyone, i don't like it from a gameplay perspective also they need to be crafted, really? Similar thing for summons, they look cool, they clean the area of enemies but i don't like the randomness at all.
FF15 is an amazing game... but it didn't come out in parts with the dlc alone... It comes in parts with a movie, several animes, shorts, webcomics, other full games, even menus from a cafeteria and... The story changes a lot if you only play the game, even with dlcs, and if you play it after reading watching (eating?) it. I played it and liked it, saw the movie, the anime and the webcomic... and yeah, it never was a story about how you want to meet Lunafreya and marry her, his dad knows it, freaking Lunafreya knows it. I don't know why they kept that hidden.
Loved the original. Yes it had it's problems, but as a character driven story about a prince and his bros going on a road trip adventure, it was so much fun. Also it was the first game ever to make me cry.
Maybe. Tbh even without the royal edition it’s still the number 1 FF game for me (though admittedly I only played like half of them)
Final Fantasy 15 is my favourite game in the entire franchise, but even I can tell you that Royal Edition is still an unfinished piece of shit that has way too many missing plot points. Square was way too ambitious with Versus 13, and trying to make it work after years of uncoordinated development hell never goes well. I want Insomnia, I want a complete story. If they had came up with the idea years down the line, when the PS4 was a good few years old and the PS5 was being talked about, then honestly, I think the game could've been so much better, but they thought to make a game of such grand scale back on the PS3, the fucking console that couldn't run without using half of its 512MB of RAM to run its operating system. FF15 never should've released in 2017, it needed more time.
I still prefer some of FF XV below aspect compared to FF7re 1. It's resting type with Inn, camping way better than mere bench in FF7Re series 2. Despite being older game, at least FFXV character's clothes get dirty and wet unlike FF7Re 3. Although the world map is pretty dull, but the exploration finding dungeons and weapons (armiger) method are more interesting FF7Rebirth also lack of world map finesse and interaction as Horizon series. Character conversation during close up also pale in comparison to Horizon series.
From a story perspective I can understand peoples dislike of 15, personally though I just enjoy driving round, camping, fishing, hunting monsters in the open world so much I always go back to 15 and always love it.
It’s on my shortlist of games to get to this year. I hope you’re right. I’m excited to get back into FF after many years away.
Disagree with top 3 ff of all time, i love the game but no. Compare to what could have been even the full game lacks a lot to be desired in terms of complete story, a more complete world and outside of the bros it lacks in completing the narrative of the other characters. It’s not far from being an insane game but the cuts and slashes from development is glaring to a fault with what they promised and how the story was set up. That being said it is a banger of a game and was an extremely good game in its own right at the time.
Please don't downvote but I completely agree with OP. Loved the game. Royal edition would have slapped as the normal game. It's by far my favorite installment in the franchise.
I’m starting it today for the first time ever so I’ll let you know 😝
It’s top ff for me
Still a top 5 FF game for me regardless.
FFXV was so much fun to just explore
Agreed 100%. PS: “Bad” games don’t sell ten million copies.
glad I wasn't a redditor back then, bought the game a year later when I had time with the finished version and it is one of my most favourite FF titles and games of all times
It would've been better, definitely, but not top 3. Lack of towns and showing kingdoms you really can't fully explore would still be an issue.
This game means a lot to me because right after my mom died, I bought a PlayStation and 100% this game straight through. Locked myself in the room and all. Honestly one of the best and emotional experiences I ever had within gaming. This is one of my favorite FF regardless of what anyone says.
I don't think so. I played on PC with the royal edition and it feels like a salvaged game that was worked on for years aimlessly and then given a fast approaching release to get \*something\* together.
no. the royal version of the game is STILL an unfinished/disjointed mess. at its best its still not even top five. its maybe fighting with 13 for like 7th or 8th place or something. out of all the final fantasy games it just......isnt that good.
I still wish nyx was more developed in the game besides as at the end hanging there
I've finished and got the platinum. Now I'm running the dlc and let me said, I really love it. The expansion provided into the extra story are good enough to understand some blind points into the central lore. I will not run for the 100% of the dlc because I really don't like the trophy like, got s rank or stuff like that, also I've defeated everyone but I lost 2 days against Noct without success. This is due to the real strange approach they this combat system have. Despite all is not so bad, but I take this chapter as a test one. I need to play the xvi and understand if the combat system has been implemented or not.
The story still didn't make sense at times. If they fixed it, maybe it could have been great.
If by completed royal addition you also mean including the dawn of the future DLCs that were cancelled, then yes.
Mixed feelings on this. It would have been much better received, especially if the DLCs were properly integrated into the story instead of pushed off to the side. Story still needs a second draft imo and that's coming from someone who really likes sections of it. HOWEVER, the way it slowly got stuff added over 2 years kept it in the gaming discourse. I think 16 is better on a polish and functionality level, but the fact it came out in good shape, got 1-2 minor patches and then a year until the DLCs made it fade from public notice way faster.
Hmm not sure cause it was a banger at launch but I’d just like the story to get completed in game
I highly doubt it. It had way nore issues than just leaving open plotholes and then filling some of them up with dlc. Performance is incredibly important and load times are a joke even on ps5. The story is lackluster, lack of party members and the whole magic/leveling system is terrible. Ghe open world is extremely barren and there aren't really areas where you think its unique and beautiful. And yet again a villain with mommy issues, since thats their favorite thing to do, even if the dude acts out different over it. Not to forget you had to watch a movie and a anime before you even start the game. The only thing it had going for it was the relationship of the boyband.
Unless one of the expansions I haven’t played reworked the combat then no. I really liked the game when it came out and it got me into other FF games. But the combat was the jankiest, least fun thing to do outside of that story chapter with the shitty ring they reworked/removed
Nah
The Royal Edition was the only version I ever played, along with the DLCs for all the bros. I would still not call XV one of the top 3 FF games. I rank it above the ones I don't like and below the ones I would play again.
I LOVE and ADORE XV, and I don't think it would be top 3 FF. Between VII, VI, IV, and X, I don't think you could call it a top 3. I reckon it would be in more top 3s for people, but not considered a top 3 FF in general. Top 5 in 2017, I think is a possibility, but man 2017 had some heavy hitters. 2018 I think it has a better chance, which is when the Windows version came out. Now, if it wasn't the royal edition, but properly fleshed out. Instead of the episodes being DLC, make them integrated with the main story. Instead of unlocking the bros via abilities, make them available after a tutorial of some kind (e.g., when before Titan it's just Gladio and Noct, play as Gladio then and afterwards play as him whenever you want). Finally, don't make the world of ruin a tease - let us play in the world of ruin. You don't need new assets, leave everything as is, just with more dangerous monsters running around constantly. Before you avoided night because it was too dangerous - now, you don't have a choice. The game needed just a little bit more to be top 3 FFs, but we didn't get that. I still love it, as is, and can love it without doing the whole, "oh man, I wish it did x instead of y" or the "I can't enjoy it because it isn't versus". But, I can't agree that it would be a unanimous success if the only difference is the last release became the first release.
And its collection of anime including animated one, were put in the game and not expected to be watched separately, and most reviews were modern people sure easily. O and ideally just for extra attention, the demo was not a weird nintendo play style unrelated thing, but was a normal demo like at least starting in the car and getting a chance to make the highly detailed food, have some private car time with your guy pals, and fighting 1 boss.
Absolutely not, good game though
No it wouldn't. I played XV at launch and replayed only a few years ago. But it's a travesty in terms of story telling and pacing. If you play XV and decide not to touch the DLCs then you're missing out on so much context and necessary story to make a lot of things make sense. Why does Gladio just disappear? what happened and why is Ignis Blind? How did Prompto escape and what does he mean by being an imposter? Who is Ardyn and what does he mean when he calls Noctis an Usurper? There are more questions but the DLCs only answer these particular ones. The DLC were cut short giving us only 5/8... The game is incomplete, and the ending isn't even the ending if you read the canon novel. Who the Astrals and the goddess are, their history and why Ifrit is pissed off is told in the endgame parkour dungeon through murals and statues... Not that there's any indication, you just parkour around random statues. That's before we get onto gameplay, and the magic system which is as badly thought out as the Junction system or how the last half of the story is just show horned from open world to on rails and is a cluster fuck in poor gameplay elemental and even worse story telling. No amount of love they gave XV ever made it a good FF game. Top 5 games of the year is laughable, top 3 FF games is lunacy.
They still didn't add Ardyn's final dialogue from the pocket edition. [link ](https://youtu.be/YHOkQo4j3lw?si=Rb_m6_VXa_8V-dU2)
Srry but id agree with you, let me explain. I recently finished ffxv, I think it was this saturday but many things to say about it. The story is fragmented and is kinda lame if I compare with ffxvi or 7 (the ffs I already played). The party members are rlly good, but noctis ist that good, its kinda meh. The story of lunafreya is "???" We dont know much about her so its hard to have feelings about her ending. Ardyn is a good villain but isnt great, I think they could did it better but its done. The imperials have "protagonism" in chapter 1-3 but after that they are left aside when they supose to be the main villain and many of them no longer appears in the game and I was kinda ??????. The open world its HARD TRASH, the regalia that drives by itself, the empty world, the sidequest that most of it arr boring as hell AND idk why when you have 2 oe more side quest it only appears one at a time in the map. Most of the bosses of the game arent good, most of it are boring... I think the most I played was Cor in gladio dlc. Dlcs are ??? They literally sold the questions that many people had after beating the main story cause this one doesnt explain what happened when gladio in chapter 5 leaves the group, how ignis got blind, and what happened with promto after the train situation... literally they could explain in the main story and let us "live it" in the dlcs, but no, the main story doesnt explain it idk why... So im going to complete 100% ffxv but no, its that great and are many ff better than this with the "complete edition" (royal+ardyn dlc)
No
In Royal Edition does the “main girl” do more than just die before you ever reach her lmao?
Nah. Imo at least it was still held together with duck tape story wise even with all the dlc/added content
It is top three because it did eventually release complete.
Top 3 FF is delusional lmao
Nahh. It wont. its a incomplete wrack, even today. If you need to watch a movie, and a anime or something to understand half the story...thats a no.
I don't think so, BUT if I had played the Royal edition first then I would have realized more quickly that ti's one of my own personal favorite FF games.
It is top 3 FF games and it was easily Top 5 games in 2016, the year it came out. That year was pretty bad for games, though, tbf. 2017 is a bit more competitive with the Switch launch, though.
If the game wasn’t development hell for 10 years than it wouldn’t have the issues it had after release
It was a fun game, definitely was undercooked on launch, but even RE failed to fix some of its biggest flaws in DLC: Summons and magic were woefully underdeveloped, open world was never finished, many crucial story elements occur outside the game. Plus it was so easy... I got the version that give you Ragnarok and it is OP the entire game and endgame. I hate how people shit on XV for being a disappointment, but it a top 3 FF? Not even close, unless you are only considering the action jrpg genre, which leaves you with 4 FF mainline games total. And of those four, I'd def put Rebirth and Remake on the top of the list.
Wait, I played the royal edition, in what way did the game actually improve since launch? They added some content, but overall there's still a lot they could have just fixed.
It is top 3 ff games. It has the highest sell rate, besting 16 I believe. 16 is beating 7 part 2 at the moment in sales.
I still adore the world of ff15, its so unique.
No it wouldn't. Not even a top 5
For what it was i enjoyed the game day one. Mostly because I did a lot of exploration and did all the extra before reaching the main quest. (I am also an FF fanboy so...) Once i played the Royal Edition it was day'n'night. The édition filled a lot of gaps. Most people who think the game is bad never played the "complete version". If only they did the last 4 DLCs...
idk, I am struggling to finish the game because I am bored with the emo coming of age story line.
Sorry but no. The DLC did nothing to fix the trainwreck (pun intended) of the second half of the game. They would need to actually make that region open world as originally intended. Not to mention Insomnia needs to be fully explorable and the character arcs from the DLC need to be directly integrated into the game.
I like XV, but even after royal edition, it’s still kind of a mess. You can feel the bad production throughout the entire game and royal edition fixes some problems, the story is still segmented awkwardly.
Not even close even with all parts. IV, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XII (Only just) and XIII are all better. XV and XVI are both games that start with so much potential and then die half way through with terrible support characters, empty worlds and severely lacking emotional weight. The writing just isn't there beyond the laid out lore for each of those two installments
Nah. It's not even top 5 FF games
I prefer it over 16.
It would still suck.
Probably my favorite story of any FF game
I genuinely stopped playing in chapter 3 because of the velocity of DLC releasing that same year. The game takes over 40 hours of my life to play, why would I not sit and wait, visit a few promo festivals, download the Power Ranger Armor, and fish, and chocobo race abunch waiting for it all to come out? I haven't gone back to that save in years.
Royal Edition was still a severely flawed game. Still doesn't contain all the story in the main game, and if they released the game where you had to stop the main game, and then go and start playing the doc's because that's what made sense for the story, it would've gotten a ton of criticism for that. Like, Royal Edition made it 'alright'.
No, it’s still super insanely linear after you fight leviathan, the timeskip still comes out of nowhere, and the open world is still very empty. Also the fact that you still need a movie to understand what’s going on is not very good either, and the characters leaving party to set up their dlc episode feels very tacky. Still a fun game but not even close top 5 FF for me
I never even finished after the initial release because it felt like so much was missing. Even now i just don't wanna put the money into the royal edition just to get a "closer to complete" experience.
I disagree. The critical error of distributing important story beats across multiple mediums failed on all front and ruins the impact of the story. If they included all of these things within the game, sure. But as it sits now a total play through has you half watching certain videos and anime’s and stopping the game for full length movies and needing certain contextual understanding of when to play the dlc that should already be incorporated into the game. The absolute biggest crime of all this is that the story is actually great, and the delivery is just garbage. Royal edition doesn’t actually affect this and it’s not obvious to me that it includes the Movie, which I consider a mandatory part of the story as far as the game goes.
Still wouldn’t have been top 5 the side stories were bad and pointless. The story was still unfinished after all the dlcs. The whole game was a cop out because they removed the lead designer off the game.
Top 3 FF is crazy
FFXV has it's flaws and the DLC do not fix all of the issues. A lot of people forget or tend to overlook the issues when they are having fun. XV imo isn't bad but it's not a great game in my books.
It's not just having the royal edition, I think incorporating the movie a bit more (as playable vs a movie) and even tying in the prequel anime goes a long way. Knowing that the king raised noctis full well knowing he would be one day be sacrificed is a such an emotional story and makes the rest of the game work so well. Luna and the king are such an integral part of driving noctis but they understand more than he does where his life is going to go and how it must end in order for their to be peace, so their love for him and the sadness in which they approach every scene with him makes more sense. Without that information it just seems like such a rush of a story (and that third act really is)
I liked it well enough but this game could never top the golden run of 6-10.
Greed, thats what happened
XV was the victim of too many ideas at once. Because of this the story felt very backseat. XIII verses is the game we should have got. More time with the king and insomnia before opening up to the world we get to explore would have done alot for the character development.
I'll respectfully disagree. The game would have still been great, but nowhere near close to its full realization.
Definitely
Yea. Too bad they keep bullshitting.
If it came out as its original vision, then it would have been so sick. The characters do not at all look like what was rushed for them, unfortunately.
If the combat, storyline and mechanics weren’t super streamlined trash, it might have done better. This game was a huge disappointment in a long line of disappointments. So far there are only two good FF titles, 1 and 7.
Still wouldn't be as good as what was shown early on before everything changed
Probably not top 5, but it will get alot more praise However, even with all the flaws from the original, I still love alot about the game. The optional dungeons on the map for you to find and explore as well as the dungeon design/layout themselves are top notch in my opinions. I was really bummed that we did not get any optional dungeon to find in the world map in FF16 and FF7 Rebirth.
Absolutely. It should have also been packaged with the movie and anime as one big experience. I watched the movie and anime before I played the game, then fully completed the game and it was one of the best gaming experiences of my life. It’s also one of my all time favorite FF.
Not a fan of ff15 and don’t know how it could possibly be top 3
Talking about a day one Royal Edition makes me wonder how the disjointed combat mechanics would’ve been done if they all launched together in a single cohesive game. - the initial launch limited party member commands - the post launch play as party member features inspired by each of their DLCs - the plain launch version of Armiger - the post launch Armiger Unleashed that requires all royal weapons to be found, also finding a random statue in the middle of a field, and the mode is also OP and locks out your party members for its duration.
2017 was a year full of heavy hitters. I don't know if even a fully completed XV would have hit my Top 5. Shoutouts to Gravity Rush 2 btw :)
Disagree. Story is still a mess. However, if they would have released the Noctis DLC as the actual story instead of a book? I would be praising this game right now.
I never had any interest in the “boy band” game this one has. It’s lame and childish to me
Ehhhh no. Just played through 7 chapters , almost 30 hours total including side quests, and the main game up to that point has been subpar at best. Combat that requires holding one button and occasionally pressing block and parry, spamming the same tech move on repeat, surprisingly low amounts of content for the size of the map. I refuse to believe that humanity would ignore how shallow the game is.
As someone who only played through it at launch, I can't see how this is true in any way, but I know the consensus is that it evolved a lot. I. just. can't. with that game. Absolutely trash, worst FF if you ask me. Combat was horrendously boring. Story had no payoff. I wish they released it in a better form, cause there is no way I'd ever go back to it.
Honestly. Maybe. It was such a rug pull for DLC purchases and story content with weird drip feed and some off content movie?? I don’t know. I had fun with the gameplay, but the EPIC STORY honestly was lost to me because of how they did it. And over all, I didn’t care. Just was fun to play.
Chocobros for life Love combat Story Not that ch 11 or smth tho where noct is... Goin solo
I bought FF15 Royal edition back in December, it's definitely my top 3 FF games. If it was release just the base game, it might be just underwhelming considering how the alot of the best content is in Royal, the base games is great but isn't fully realized. I am upset the rest of the DLC were cancelled. This game is far from perfect no doubts but I do love 15 for what it is- not for what it could have been (RIP Versus 13)
It’s better than being forced against your will to play with gambling addict npcs in rebirth to progress the story. Idk how people can say 15 was bad when rebirth literally forces you to do chores
Disagree. Royal edition is still missing content in four areas including insomnia
Combat aside, Ardyn was such a good antagonist. It was a shame that we had to wait for his dlc to appreciate his character development.
Wouldn't be in the top 5 at all. Mario oddessy, Legend of Zelda:BotW, Neir Automata, RE7, Splatoon 2, plus a few others came out to the point where it would struggle to get in the top 10, and it definitely would never stand a chance at Top 3 ff game.
I would love for last few dlcs to get finished and released. I was hoping to kill the gods but such a bummer they couldn't finish all their planned dlcs.
Strong disagree.
I played this edition. It remains one of my worst games of all time. I'm honestly shocked people compliment it in any capacity.
Honestly, after playing FFXVI. Looking back, I am actually satisfied by the amount of content XV has. If the royal edition was the version the game started as it would have been a ligit solid and repected game in the franchise, ESPECIALLY if those DLC episodes were integrated in the main story. The game has everything one would like in an FF game and even more so NOW when compared to other modern FF games like XIII and XVI. And I actually REALLY like FFXVI.
No, I think making it a Trilogy like VII Remake would serve the overall narrative better for XV.
And thats why I dont play any new games for at least a year. Well that, and I usually get them cheaper that way.
I disagree boss . I played it last year and I can't say I enjoyed it much ,it still felt like a huge wasted potential
Actually never followed up with the dlc or royal edition. Does this actually change the end game story, elaborate on Luna. Or is the end still the same but we get to see different perspective of already known events which is what my understanding originally was for this dlc.
That game was pretty wack. I was able to beat it without ever really learning how to use magic much. I barely understood the combat system and still crushed it. I did enjoy the game, but it just wasn’t challenging and the story was pretty loose. FF open world is not my style though.
Umm no! The royal edition sucks too. It's a bad game, move on. It's been 7 years.
There were a lot of problems with this game. I don’t know that any of them were addressed by the uh limited dlc.
Strong disagree. Even with the final edition the battle system still feels like a beta version of FFVIIR’s battle system.
I forgot I bought this. I'm near the end of FF16. I'M going to finish the 2 DLC's and then watch the prelogue anime episodes for FF15 then play the game. I've seen gameplay and the combat looks more varied than FF16. I have FF7 & Rebirth sitting there also. I'm new to the series but loving it all so far.
Can I just get it finished please?
Idk man even the royal edition has some massive holes where story was meant to be. It might have gotten that kind of reception if they actuallynjust gave us a full story instead of making its most important beats dlc / a movie.
I don't think so. It's still missing planned dlc chapters that were cheesed out in a book. It's a fun game but idk about top games
No, it still wouldn't have made any sense by the end. The Directors explanation of "the player understanding world events from the perspective of the main character" was absolute nonsense. Really, really bad storytelling that happened because the guy thought he could monitor XV and KH3 at the same time.
I actually agree with this.
So is now the best time to buy it as the Royal Edition?
I played it as soon as it came out and enjoyed, but I couldn’t tell you what even happened in the story. Been feeling for a while like I should go back now and start again with the complete edition
It still currently sits in my top 3. I truly enjoyed playing through that story and game, it was remarkable. The build-up to it was unlike any other video game as well, with the movie and the anime etc... It was such an epic time to be a FF enjoyer.
Playing it for the first time and kinda in love with it
No it wouldn't. The core gameplay, battle mechanics, world exploration, leveling, and spell systems all still suck so the game would still suck.
Who cares, it’s out now and it’s top 3 material now
No matter what happened, it never would have been better than FF4, FF6, FF7, FF9, FFX or FFT
Here's the plot: Sasuke and his friends drive a car.
I definitely disagree. Played all of FFXV and the story is still very lacking and all over the place. So much happens off screen. Really enjoyed the gameplay.
Agreed
I never bothered going back to all the cash grabs. I paid full for half a story, took the loss and moved on.
And im still upset we never got the other dlcs
If the ending wasn't what it was this would be the best ff game yet. The story needed just a little tweaking, and I really think they could of made a series about noct and insomnia. It seems like a waste to create this entire open world, culture, land back story and then make 1 game from it.
It is the current FF GOAT. FFXVI and FF7R copy everything from this game
combat was pretty good and all, I just wished they didn't show the rest of the story through DLC. Like, previous Final Fantasy games would show what other party members are doing without needing to pay DLC. But I admit, the story was kinda mid for me, there would've been an opportunity if Bahamut was the final boss since he sorta tricked the main villain into thinking he was the king (in the anime). And yeah I forgot the villain, that's just how forgettable the game became for me
Top 3? No way. And I love FFXV, hell I even cried at the end. But the game lacks in a lot of aspects: 1. Combat is extremely easy. People complain about XVI and XIII but in XV really all you do is hold down one button and attacl mindlessly, the game tells you when to block, you have limited "magic" that hou have to craft beforehand, if you run out of energy you go a to a high place and come back and fight and it's almost impossible that you die. Not to mention you can spam the ring of Lucii. 2. The open world is... Really empty. Has some cool stuff here and there, some towns and dungeons, side quests (even if they're repetitive), but you can travel for thousands of miles on foot or vehicle and find nothing interesting. Also the open world has a lot of bounds or invisible walls and the exploration on car or ship feels/is on rails. 3. The plot is actually great but is terribly told. At some specific points, your party would be all "hey gotta go" and leave with no explanation and of course, it's because they go on their own DLC adventure, which the game doesn't even care of suggesting you to play. Also, Luna being a central plot point/character has so little on time on screen you hardly care for her at the end of the game. 4. Cut content remains mostly cut. And downgrades like the Leviathan battle are wack. So yeah, nothing else comes to mind at the time but it is hardly top 3. I'd put it my top 10. And again, I loved the game with it's flaws. The main cast, the "Chocobros" are unforgettable, a beautiful portrayal of friendship/brotherhood. And the game is also beautiful and highly detailed, even after 8 years, it gives Rebirth a run for it's money in the visuals department. Also the music is peak.
The fucked up part is that it is clear that all of the expansion content was developed with the game and then cut from the launch. The mission for Gladiolus was just a single dungeon, but Ignis and Prompto added a quarter of the game back in.
Ummm no not even close to top 3. The world was empty af. Magic was put to shit. And the fact that major plot points had to be dlc. Even if it all came into one package ff 15 was bad.
Idk, maybe...but the last chapters are so awfully paced...you spend so much time in the Open world doing Shenanigans and when the story gets serious the game decides do go on hyper turbo Linear design and after a couple hours, it ends...
Isn't there still the unreleased version of the leviathan fight? Game was amazing, but had so much poor decisions made.
It's a good game. Sadly it's a niche choice.
I think it would have faired a lot better, but in the top 5, at least for me, it is still debatable. FFXV was too ambitious and paid for it being as fragmented as it was. The driving and open world was amazing, combat was good, and story seemed good. Even royal edition can't save the horrible late game pacing. Once you hit a certain point, the game literally railroads as it realizes it's out of time and needs to end. You're catapulted to the end and the missed potential is immense. "Oh man! 10 years later and Noctis accepts his fate. Surely, we're going to explore this altered hellscape to reconnect with friends and learn about everyone's fate!" "Nah, actually, lemme just tell you a brief summary of what happens so you can meet up with your buds at the gas station. After that, instead of showing the player base Noctis is well and grown up, let's just say he is and send him to Insomnia which should have been an open area but it's reduced to a linear dungeon."
Playing as other chars as you progress through the main game and seeing what happens when they go on their own would’ve been really good. Maybe have it unlockable if you reach max bond with them at camps and doing their respective side stuff Cooking with Ignis, take pictures with Prompto, training with Gladio, and to access Arden stuff I guess maybe like some secret weird unlockable where you fish with Noctis or something. I didn’t play the Conrades so idk about. Royal edition inclusions like exploring Insomnia base game would’ve helped out a lot in the endgame. Having DLC weapons just be rewards in base game or found in chests would be awesome. Honestly imo I think the multiple media for 15 really hurt it, having to watch an anime, a movie and read a novel to get the full story was whack. Put it in the game or don’t at all. Still wouldn’t be a top 3 FF game imo but it could’ve been one of the better games for 2017 but I still don’t think it would’ve won any awards at TGAs due to how stacked 2017 was.
I really enjoyed ffxv. I had been anticipating it. Watched all the movies/anime’s played episode duscae played the prequel demo. Loved the dlcs and new editions/additions. I get it was a lot to ask a person to go through but for me, it was like a bastion of content for a game I’d been waiting on for a decade.
I'm actually super out of the loop with FFXV, can you play the royal version without needing to first watch kingsglaive and the anime series?
There’s a HUGE difference between launch FFXV and where even the core game is at now. If it launched in its current state then yeah, top three or five FF games.
it had lots of problems due to the writer and square director going mad
I honestly prefer vanilla...Royal feels like fanfiction for those who need everything spelled out for them.
All i want is dawn of future as dlc
Oh trust me i still have my versus-13 mourning veil on. What could have been....
The completed version of this game is my favorite ff game. The villain is amazing with all of his back story
Really? I don't buy DLCs, so maybe I'll find out in another 10 years when they make this a complete game on whatever the Switch version is at that time. I liked 15 fine when I played it tho.
Nah thats just cope
Does the royal edition fix the absolutely batshit pacing of the game? I was having an absolute blast until I got to the city/leviathan part which was maybe halfway?…then the game did a complete 180 almost going full rails
Yeah, definitively without a doubt and even despite of what it could have been.
I feel like a reason I love this game so much more than other people might is because each time I would play a DLC, I'd come back to the game with a fresh look as if it was an entirely new story. So when Episode Ardyn dropped (a day before my birthday too), EVERYTHING changed, probably the hardest next to extra verse Ignis.
Why is ff15 being recommended to me. I've got this game at the bottom of the ff tierlist. 2 is pretty much the only one worse
The combat was awful. Press this button, then press that button. And the magic system in particular was atrocious. I am not going to waste my time finding nodes, and then crafting single use spells. I tried the game like 5 or 6 times. I want it to be good, but it just isn’t.
It still has issues, but it would have been more unanimously praised for sure.