Final Fantasy XVI

ggallegos1

Cholecystectomy Required.,
10 Year Member
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Oct 1, 2013
Posts
5,153
Final Fantasy XV, which my wife jokingly called 'Truckstop the Video Game', seemed to have left no mark or impression on the collective gaming consciousness except amongst the weeb subgroup and the J-Pop and K-Pop types.

That's fine. Sex sells and all that. And I'm all about beauty and virility in fantasy settings. I don't want to see ugly and fat people in leading roles in fantasy stories.

EDIR: Unless it's a subversion of the trope, on which case, fine. It's fine to shake things up once in a while.

But it's just weird that outside of teenagers with the lamest tastes in escapism (IMHO), no one cares.

There isn't even the divisiveness that we see in FF XIII's audience, which can still be sparked by a lazy troll looking for lolz to this day.

I've LONG said that FF XIV (yes, the MMO) is the apex of this series, the ultimate representation of what this series could be. It's got everything we love about the series when it was at its best:

-Crystals
-Chocobos
-Airships
-Western fantasy aesthetic as seen through Japanese artistic expression
-All of our favorite in-game jobs (Red Mage, Monk, Dragoon, etc.)
-A vast, sprawling world with every environment imaginable
-Environmental themes
-Anti-war messaging
-An oppressive Empire in love with technology that corrupts the natural order

If you like Final Fantasy, then you like Final Fantasy XIV. If you think you hate, you probably wouldn't hate it quite so much.

They might as well have called it Final Fantasy XIV: A Franchise Realized.

Because it's all downhill from here as they move forward with numbered entries they aren't remakes.

SE could always prove wrong. I hope they do.

Apparently the same director and producer for FFXIV is doing the same for FFXVI, so if what you're saying is true then I'm excited to see how the series grows.
 

Taiso

Remembers The North,
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2000
Posts
13,156
Come a long way since the trashfire that was Version 1.0. It's better at being WoW than WoW itself ever was.

I completely agree. 1.0 was unplayable. I liked the idea of contiguous, unending zones but the game had shitty UI, server and UI lag for days, fucked up enemy placement and the worst user support and fast travel options I've ever seen. The marketplace was also terrible, with no universal bulletin board. You had to have your retainer stand in an overcrowded market that you had to enter. Then you had to individually inspect EACH retainer to see what they were selling.

Even with the best of connections and no player traffic in your area, this was a process that could take hours.

With update 1.27, which is when Naoki Yoshida took over direction of the game, and the introduction of the advanced jobs and job questlobes and streamlined UI and performance, the game got a lot better

The fact that SE rebuilt this game from the ground up, revisiting all of the original storylines in a meta 'world reset' and actually COMMITTED to the reinventing of the game is an almost impossible idea to fathom.

Most companies would have cut their losses Andover on. SE stuck to it and no matter how corporate and cynical they have become, they deserve credit for taking such a huge chance in an industry and market that didn't believe in their efforts

Gallegos-I will not steer you wrong, sir.
 

ReplicaX

Unholy Custom Rank.,
15 Year Member
Joined
Aug 23, 2008
Posts
2,420
Apparently the same director and producer for FFXIV is doing the same for FFXVI, so if what you're saying is true then I'm excited to see how the series grows.

That is correct. Naoki Yoshida is in charge. Which makes sense regarding the darkness and more mature type setting from the trailer. Taiso talked a lot about XIV and his reasoning is solid.

The storyline and reigniting the core of the franchise is what XIV 2.0+ did in MMO form and saved the Company from the Crystal Tools Failure. Yoshida finally gets his dream, his own game to make, and its long overdue. I feel it only helps the IP.
 

LonelyWarbler

Crazed MVS Addict
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Jun 10, 2019
Posts
130
I am optimistic for 16. The trailer for 16 has the tone and style 14 would have if it weren't constrained by the need to be an MMO. 14 is the best FF by far. The story follows long arcs that develop characters over years before coming to thrilling conclusions. 14's allows it's story to address mature topics while also keeping the whimsy and magic of a mainline title.

My pipedream is that 16 ends up being a spin-off of 14 and ties in with the next expansion. The game could take place in one of the provinces nearby Garlemand we haven't seen(similar to how ivalice fits in) or on a different world than the first/source. The way 14 tied in 12 with the raids is a good example of how 16 can be integrated.
 

fake

King of Spammers
15 Year Member
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Jul 26, 2008
Posts
10,977
You guys are making me want to play XIV. But I don't have the time for an MMO and subscriptions turn me off.
 

LonelyWarbler

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Posts
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You guys are making me want to play XIV. But I don't have the time for an MMO and subscriptions turn me off.

14 isn't really like other MMO. All dungeons and activities are locked behind the main story. You can go from 1-80 purely by following the MSQ. Try the free trial. You can play the entire base game and the first expansion before needing to pay anything. The amount of content is more than enough to get a handle on the plot and decide if it's for you.

Endgame is where the game gets closer to traditional MMO. 14 does a good job of respecting your playstyle. Want bleeding edge content? Check. Just enjoy grinding daily quests? Check. Want to fuck around and play dressup while decorating your house? Check. 14's strong catch-up mechanics mean that you are never far off from getting to the base level of a different path if you want to do something different. I play I statics doing new content when it interests me then go months only casually logging in to be social and do events. The community is great and I can always have fun regardless of my schedule. If you end up trying and play on the JP data center I can help you do dungeons and stuff.
 

k'_127

NeoGumby's Sycophant,
20 Year Member
Joined
Jun 12, 2002
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6,724

Taiso

Remembers The North,
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2000
Posts
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Decent video by Tyler at The Gaming Shelf talking about the game.

 

Taiso

Remembers The North,
20 Year Member
Joined
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The video is good because it looks at the acumen of the people involved and what the results might be.

In the vid, it's pointed out that some gameplay footage was sprinkled in with the CGI.

Point being...based on what we know so far, there's room for optimism rather than to immediately dismiss the game as another failed attempt to recapture lost glory, which is exactly what FF XV was.
 

Late

Reichsf?rer-Finnland,
20 Year Member
Joined
Nov 22, 2001
Posts
8,348
Having played XV quite a lot lately, the main issues for me are:

-A large, but empty and static world which is at the same time quite limited, almost everywhere you go, you can advance twenty paces before hitting a chainlink fence, you can't enter most of the buildings, etc.. there's very little to explore or discover

-Extremely repetitive side quests

-Magic system is probably the worst one in all the FF's I've played

-Pacing issues, after arriving at Lestallum you're literally on rails till the end of the game

-The airship that can only land on paved roads

-The big battles against the Aeons, sorry Astrals are not battles at all but bullshit cinematics where you can pretend you're doing something by pressing O now and then
 
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