|
IMO the latter parts of FF15 (except for the ring part) are actually good and contain some pretty compelling character drama, plot stuff, and (most importantly) vibes. The whole trip to the Empire is really good, and I think it actually benefits from the contrast with the vibes of the first half of the game. I've never really understood what people mean when they talk about the exploration. It's fun traveling to all the different hub places as you progress through the story, but FF15's world isn't really a world that is fun to explore in the same way as something like Breath of the Wild. It's mostly empty space (which actually makes it feel pretty realistic + the driving feel better, but doesn't really mean there's much to explore).
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 11:47
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 3, 2024 14:49 |
|
|
I can't quite explain it, but FFXV felt right and I tend to strongly dislike non-MMO 'open world' games. I bounced off Skyrim. Dragon Age: Inquisition didn't work for me. FFXV felt comfortable. Maybe it's because you have a fixed non-solo party, or you have the ability to use a vehicle that isn't terrible, or you have the little side activities you can do like taking photos or fishing or dungeon crawling banter that help make it feel like this is an actual group and you're bonding with them. Combat feels fluid enough that random battles aren't a slog. You have sensible fast travel. Overworld and battle music are great. Questlines let you explore without giving you indecision paralysis like in Skyrim where you're almost completely hands-free. Not saying it's perfect, but for me it mixed the immersion factor with actual gameplay well.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 13:36
|
|
|
god pittios was so loving fun
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 13:54
|
|
|
Ytlaya posted:IMO the latter parts of FF15 (except for the ring part) They actually added significant buffs to this part to make it easier. It also makes adamantoise extremely trivial.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 14:01
|
|
|
Mr. Fortitude posted:The people who have the biggest criticisms of FFXIII tend to have no media literacy or must have skipped cutscenes or something. I too don't think that highly of the game but the number of people who don't understand the most basic premises of the setting I've run into online are staggering. If you don't read the datalogs after every plot beat you're missing a big chunk of the story and almost any character motivations that are more subtle than them outright stating one hates the other or whatever. Honestly that's probably my biggest criticism of the game, nothing else about it is as bad as how heavily they commit to in medias res and don't explain much outside of the bits buried in the datalog.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 16:23
|
|
|
parasyte posted:If you don't read the datalogs after every plot beat you're missing a big chunk of the story and almost any character motivations that are more subtle than them outright stating one hates the other or whatever. They literally explain all the relevant bits during the opening chapters. I think when Sazh talks people just become so transfixed by his Frocobo that they miss what he says
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 16:27
|
|
|
The datalog defines a lot of the proper nouns and gives some background info on things but I always felt like enough was present in the actual presented story for me to fill in the gaps or infer the meaning of most of the nouns. People like to hyperbole that "XIII is incomprehensible and expects you to read every datalog for anything to make sense" and I've never understood it honestly. Also never understood the people who endlessly dunk on Hope for being "annoying and too whiny". Like yeah he's a goddamn kid who watched his mom fall off a cliff, got roped into being a cursed tool for a God, and just generally is in way over his head through no fault of his own. Then he makes a really stupid plan to stab Snow because he's a kid and kids are stupid. Unfortunately he's paired up with Lightning who is too busy being absorbed in her own problems to realize she's steering the impressionable kid down a shady back alley.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 16:57
|
|
|
this just in, child in video game acts like child, to the confusion of many
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 17:15
|
|
|
parasyte posted:If you don't read the datalogs after every plot beat you're missing a big chunk of the story and almost any character motivations that are more subtle than them outright stating one hates the other or whatever. The data logs will elaborate a little, or tell things early on, but all the important information does get mentioned in cutscenes at some point. Having finally finished the game last year after hearing people complain about datalogs, it came to my surprise that the datalogs either just restated what you already learned, or tell you something 10 minutes early. There’s expanded worldbuilding you can get in the datalogs, but not to the degree that they’re required reading.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 18:50
|
|
|
parasyte posted:If you don't read the datalogs after every plot beat you're missing a big chunk of the story and almost any character motivations that are more subtle than them outright stating one hates the other or whatever. Literally the only thing in the datalogs which isn't explained in game is stuff to do with Etro. Which literally isn't relevant until the sequel, FFXIII-2. I'm sorry but, you're just bad at media literacy.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 20:49
|
|
|
my recollection of 13’s datalogs is they were comically useless at explaining anything you didn’t just see in the cutscenes. the characters aren’t deep enough to warrant anything more than a footnote apiece to start with
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 20:55
|
|
|
I remember reading the datalogs along with the plot, and one thing that stuck out to me was after Hope admits to Lightning that he wants to kill Snow, in the cutscene Lightning is like whatever, but in the datalog it says Lightning is a bit mortified at that revelation, which makes more sense. Of course, this could be more the fault of the English translation/voice direction more than anything. Also I still maintain that there wouldn't be nearly as much confusion if they had simply removed the apostrophes from Fal'Cie/L'Cie/Cie'th. It makes them seem grander and more mysterious than they really are, which are Minor God/Minor God's Puppets/Zombie respectively.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 21:04
|
|
|
ff13's story isn't difficult to understand once you accept that some of the principle characters are completely insane and the rest of them are extremely dumb
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 21:07
|
|
|
cock hero flux posted:ff13's story isn't difficult to understand once you accept that some of the principle characters are completely insane and the rest of them are extremely dumb So a standard Final Fantasy cast.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 21:08
|
|
|
Mega64 posted:I remember reading the datalogs along with the plot, and one thing that stuck out to me was after Hope admits to Lightning that he wants to kill Snow, in the cutscene Lightning is like whatever, but in the datalog it says Lightning is a bit mortified at that revelation, which makes more sense. Of course, this could be more the fault of the English translation/voice direction more than anything. The English script for FFXIII is based on an older Japanese script, which is why there's tons of minor discrepancies is what I've heard. Development of the game was such a mess that they rewrote parts of the game right up until it went gold, while they couldn't justify getting the English VA to rerecord their lines again and fit everything to schedule. Dunno if it's true but it would explain a few things.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 21:09
|
|
|
Would FF8 be a better game if it had tons of logs? Nothing changes except the game is full of logs and in-game books, Dragon Age style. Edit: Will the plot be less of a fever dream?
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 21:14
|
|
|
It already has ton of blogs, so...
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 21:15
|
|
|
Mega64 posted:It already has ton of blogs, so... it has blogs, logs, and dogs
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 21:17
|
|
|
Datalogs are blasé, the hot new thing is Active Time Lore
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 21:18
|
|
|
Oxxidation posted:it has blogs, logs, and dogs and mogs, and norgs
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 21:19
|
|
|
Mr. Fortitude posted:Literally the only thing in the datalogs which isn't explained in game is stuff to do with Etro. Which literally isn't relevant until the sequel, FFXIII-2. I'm sorry but, you're just bad at media literacy. Probably, I just couldn't figure out why Vanille was like that until the datalog told me her motivation rather in advance of the cutscenes bothering to do that. Also I don't remember poo poo about Etro in XIII but once I was through the Steppe I just wanted the game to be over so it looks like I didn't ever even find the two Cie'th stones that would have let me know about Etro. Not that I'd have noticed probably, I didn't even pick up on Alyssa's poo poo in XIII-2 even after the point where it becomes rather important. The character-to-character bits are told well. Hope's fine, even if his experiences lead him to design the Torment Nexus, possibly more than once. Not sure why he gets de-aged later, that's where I object.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 21:22
|
|
|
Being able to read Selphie's blog from the pause menu instead of having to go back to your desk at school would improve FF8. So would there being more entries. Additional articles from magazines, including actual content for old issues of Timber Maniacs, would also improve it. Heck, even being able to check out history books from the school library and read up on the bonkers and irrelevant lore would be cool.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 21:34
|
|
|
cock hero flux posted:ff13's story isn't difficult to understand once you accept that some of the principle characters are completely insane and the rest of them are extremely dumb Counter: Sazh is good and my friend
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 21:46
|
|
|
FFVIII will not be less of a fever dream. IIRC it gets continually more absurd
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 21:47
|
|
|
yeah it's great
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 22:07
|
|
|
That’s the exact reason VIII is my second fav FF. It just falls apart into glorious nonsense the further it goes.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 22:15
|
|
|
The logs in VIII make me dislike it even more, because they gives all this cool lore that is far more interesting than the plot of VIII, and is never referenced again.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 22:18
|
|
|
ApplesandOranges posted:Counter: Sazh is good and my friend Sazh is the exception that proves the rule which is why he is the only character to come to the obvious conclusion of "oh well, I guess we're hosed", since being a l'cie is explicitly established as having no possible good outcome but, since he immediately understands that he's completely hosed, he mostly just goes along with whatever insane or stupid bullshit the other party members are doing since it fundamentally does not matter what he does
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 22:19
|
|
|
I really hope VIII gets the remake treatment some day I know it's nowhere near as beloved as FF7 or FFX, but with some polish and better execution on it's ideas I bet it'd be insanely popular. Especially seeing as there's the romance angle as a core plot point in addition to the Time Kompression madness.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 22:20
|
|
|
FF VIII had become one of my favorite games in the series over the years pretty much because of how much of a fever dream the whole thing is. Child soldiers in floating cities led by a marshmallow man that speaks in capslock? Moon monsters dripping down on the planet? A speaking advanced civilization being run by a former soldier/journalist who's kid's memories were eaten by Gods living in his skull? Time Kompression? Hell yeah that nonsense rules.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 22:23
|
|
|
None of the XIII characters have nonsensical motivations. Lightning wanted to save her sister, her sister 'died' and she was cursed and her anger was so much she just wanted to hurt someone or something. That is why she is paired with Hope. Hope is a kid who went through hell and feels betrayed by Snow since Snow was pretty much the one who put her in firing range. He is grieving and wants to lash out and hurt someone, like Lightning. Sazh feels responsible for what happened to his son and is desperately trying to find a way to fix him, something made more coomplex by the fact his son is cursed to help the other side Vanille feels guilty because her waking up from Crystal stasis is what triggered everything and all she has done is gently caress up, including her being responsible for Sazh's son, Lightning's sister, and Fang's memory loss. She just wants to get away before more people get hurt. Fang doesn't remember what happened and so she wakes up knowing only that her brand is inactive, Vanille's isn't, and damned if she is going to let her girlfriend die. Snow was a loser with dreams of being a hero and pro ing his worth. His chance came and he botched it royally ans he spends the rest of the game trying to use bravado and optimsm to help because he is a dumbass with a good heart. Literally all of this is onscreen text only in the cutscenes Like a good chunk if what they do is stupid but that is because of character reasons. Even going bsck to Coccoon is 'We have literally no other plan and if we don't it is going down anyway' ImpAtom fucked around with this message at 22:55 on Mar 20, 2023 |
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 22:46
|
|
|
For some reason I'm imagining FFVIII with Social Links.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 22:46
|
|
|
Oxxidation posted:it has blogs, logs, and dogs
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 22:47
|
|
|
Keromaru5 posted:For some reason I'm imagining FFVIII with Social Links. Rinoa: Lovers Zell: Chariot Selphie: Sun Quistis: Empress Seifer: Death Laguna: Hierophant
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 22:50
|
|
|
ImpAtom posted:None of the XIII characters have nonsensical motivations. Look paying attention to the text of a story is cheating when it comes to understanding it. Look at how many people in this thread who thought the laughing in FFX scene was unironic.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 22:53
|
|
|
Sazh is cool, but he has the sleepiest kid. Just a perpetually worn-out little guy. Lightning and Hope are a great idiotic duo. For a good chunk of the game, both those dumb dumbs are so confident in the their poorly thought-out plans and oblivious to anything running counter to them. When LR starts out with them working together again, I knew something stupid was going to happen. It was great
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 22:54
|
|
|
Hope runs at Snow to stab him with a dagger Snow got for Lightning as a birthday gift in the most beautiful tag team attack in the middle of what's basically an active war zone and is only stopped in his pure drive to hurt someone else by the enemy shooting a biomechanical dragon at them. The kid rules.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 22:56
|
|
|
ZenMasterBullshit posted:The kid rules. He also gets the dumbest form of Alexander to date. Then the President of Rad Science version makes child Hope look even worse
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 23:13
|
|
|
If there's anything XIII does well it's the characters. They are the most dysfunctional group people probably in any game in the series which makes it even more awesome once they've managed to hash out all their emotional problems and work together properly. The assault on Eden cutscene is loving amazing. Hope just hopping onto an active race track and staring down a robotic enemy that stop inches away from without flinching, Lightning & Snow just wreaking havoc on their mounts, Sazh doing daredevil stunts to help out Vanille who's overwhelmed. It's so great I love that cutscene.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 23:13
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 3, 2024 14:49 |
|
|
I'm pretty sure Fang and Vanille were just really good friends though
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2023 23:41
|
|
