first impressions: final fantasy xv

[queenlua]

i had no idea final fantasy xv came out yesterday, actually, but i already had plans to hang out and play video games with an amazing brofriend of mine, and he was the one who was like "this came out today and we should buy and play the shit out of it and do the high school nostalgia thing" and i was like "AGREE"

disclosure of my own tastes/preferences: i've played all of FF6 through FF10 and varying amounts of others in the series; i think 10 is objectively the best (for some sense of objective—by this i mean the plot in that one is remarkably tight/streamlined throughout, in a way that even a non-JRPG fan would be able to appreciate, and the gameplay is very polished), but 9 is my personal favorite; i was bitterly disappointed that i couldn't really get into 13; while I appreciated that the series was trying new things, i thought they made some pretty major missteps.

anyway, thoughts so far:

* i really wish i knew when & why the final fantasy series as a whole decided that exposition is a pointless thing, to be discarded with as much as possible. this was perhaps my biggest frustration with FFXIII; i was like eight hours in and still felt like i had no coherent idea of what was at stake, who these people came from, or just what the hell was going on. and yeah, i know, there were like Backstory Cliff's Notes you could access from the menu, but out of principle i tried avoiding reading them because if i have to read Cliff's Notes to understand your story then you have fucked up, and even when i eventually broke down and read said Cliff's Notes, i still didn't understand as much as i liked, and the game had kind of lost its opportunity to make me intuitively, gleefully invested in the universe. i proceeded to play another tenish hours of that game (while drunk) but eventually abandoned it.

XV isn't as bad as XIII on this front, but i think this is largely because the setting's more familiar and the plot's less convoluted (so far, anyway). "four bros on a bro-roadtrip before one of them gets hitched" is, like, the plot of The Hangover, i've seen this rodeo before. but there's like, basic plausibility questions that i'd really like answered so that i know what's at stake. for instance, if i'm a fucking prince, how the hell am i short on money? when i'm getting my car repaired can't i just charge it to the royal bank account? and folks seem to treat the prince with general irreverence/indifference, like, who the hell tells a prince "hey can you go kill these annoying monsters for me"? unless royalty is just not that big of a deal or not that powerful in this universe? and who is this chick noctis is marrying, and does he even like her that much (it's kind of unclear whether this is mostly a strategic-alliance wedding or not)?

i wondered a bit if this has always been a problem in Final Fantasy, and i just didn't remember the awkward exposition in the earlier games because i was so young when i played them. yet, i remember when i replayed VII in college, my impression wasn't "wtf is going on" so much as "wow they are laying it on thick with the exposition here." it did the in media res thing, sure, but the dialogue just handed you a lot of stuff to the tune of "he's in SOLDIER, oh wow what a bad dude" and "hey cloud don't you give a fuck? these reactors are destroying the planet!" and "fuck shinra, man, they keepin' us down," which is, you know, heavy-handed, but at least it lets me get the basic picture of "okay, cloud's some shady mercenary type from some bad SOLDIER group, and he's helping out these captain planet terrorists who want to save the planet, also this Shinra thing is like a comically evil corporation" which is not that much but is exactly the correct amount of context i need to feel grounded enough to be invested.

* at the very beginning, you say an extended, loving goodbye to your kind, aging father. "he is so dead," my friend announced as soon as the scene ended. not only was my friend so right, but dad bit it before we even finished playing for the night, which i found hilarious

* the setting's... hm. i have weird feelings about the setting. like, it's gorgeous, but it's also very contemporary, in the sense that cars and roads and gas stations all look basically the same way they do in 2010s America, and the scenery is very semi-arid mountainous desert and thus looks a lot like Driving Down the West Coast. (admittedly the west coast is beautiful in extreme and often surreal ways, so maybe i just live in an actual Final Fantasy universe. conversation i once had with Bird Guy:
     me: holy shit this park is so gorgeous why is this only a state park it should be a national park oh my god
     him: uhhh... i mean, parks like this are kind of a dime a dozen in Washington, it's not that nice
     me: WHAT THE HELL YOU PACIFIC NORTHWESTERNERS DO NOT EVEN REALIZE HOW AMAZING THE LAND YOU HAVE IS
so. we'll see. i did literally just finish the first chapter, after all; there's abundant time for the setting to change. i just remember how otherworldly the midgard slums looked, and how wacky some of the settings in VIII looked, and so on—it felt like being transported to another world. i'm not feeling that here, yet.

* it feels.... very strange to play a final fantasy without some kind of ATB or turn-based system.

certainly i didn't want another ATB/turn-based game; i've found it difficult to replay old FF games (even the ones i really loved!) since those systems feel disappointingly repetitive/grindy to me now. but wow the new gameplay is. very western RPG. quest markers, mini-map, Dragon Age-style banter between your party members as you walk along, Skyrim-style ridiculous cliff-climbing physics, and live-action combat. it's certainly more accessible and fun. but i realized i'm starting to get annoyed by quest markers, in particular, in modern games; it feels less like exploring a new area (with all the small joys that entails—getting lost, getting re-oriented, mastering the lay of the land) and more like just bulldozing towards the next dot on your map.

but those are petty gripes; the biggest boon from this modernization is the combat, which from what i've played so far is surprisingly fun. it's kingdom hearts, but more streamlined and with more mechanics to keep things varied and fun. you get damage bonuses for catching enemies via flanking, from behind, while they're vulnerable/stunned, etc, so you have to do some tactical running-around instead of just mashing X; the ally-abilities you can trigger are viscerally fun, and the warp-step mechanic that lets you jump up on cliffs and then plunge into your enemies has a pretty badass feel. that's what i'm itching to get back to, more than the story; my friend and i blazed through all the monster-hunting quests we could just because the encounters were so satisfying.

in conclusion FFXV is surprisingly fun and hope i get to blaze through more of it soooooon

Comments

[hilow]

re: poor royalty, I mean, I feel that prince is a poor title for this kind of character. While you do sometimes have poor people at the top of the chain, this only tends to happen in certain circumstances. For example, in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, you could argue that out of Ling Yao and May Chang's numerous brothers and sisters, there are clans (and therefore princes and princesses) who are quite poor because there are just so many of them that only the top tier princes/princesses have power (i.e., the further down the succession line you go the poorer the families are because the title doesn't really mean anything anymore). That said, poor princes/princesses of a kingdom where there aren't 50 heirs or the king's not banging a woman from each major house in the kingdom, is much rarer and constitutes a poor country because...nothing else makes sense. It could also be in a country where the monarchy has been overthrown, has crumbled, and/or has been replaced by something more democratic and is only around for nostalgia's sake.

Having not played FFXV I can't say anything about the main character, let alone that any of these possibilities are true, but like, it's possible for there to be a poor prince or princess: it's just not that common and if you were poor because the monarchy was falling apart or did fall apart it's like: you wouldn't advertise it. Ever.

(As a slight aside if you think 1800s into very early 1900s England, poor people of titles weren't at all uncommon, and lots of wealthy untitled merchants married poor noblemen/women where the benefit was: the merchant's family gets the title of, say, count(ess) while the poor noble family gets, you know, taken care of financially.

I think it's funny that you don't like questmarkers very much, though. I live for them these days. Back in the olden days when I had Lots of Time and/or could hyperfocus on games for days or weeks on end I didn't need them, but now I can't get into games that are plot-driven and don't have maps and quest markers on them. I was pleased when Pokemon Sun had quest markers because my memory's gone into the shitter (or I'm just not hyperfocusing on the game which is possible and the lack of caring much = lmao what was I doing again???) and I honestly would get sidetracked looking for items and then forget completely what it was I was supposed to be doing.

I kinda feel the same about World of Warcraft, basically the only other game I play these days. I like speeding through to end game. BUT quests grew boring for me long ago. I leveled like 40 characters to the level cap in WoW over the years: I am tired of questing and by that I mean I don't really like it in any game anymore.

Anyway, FF hasn't caught my attention in years. FFIX was my favorite due to the story, I'd say. It was a more fantastical world, too, and they tried blending in humor which helped make it a much more enjoyable playing experience. FFVII and VIII were fun, too, but I just wasn't quite as invested in them. FFX was a good play at least.

But these days all my friends are always getting excited about games and I'm like meh. I'd rather pick up my crocheting hooks again than play 99% of the games out there.

Anyway, I was curious about the game and I hope you continue to enjoy it!

(I forgot to comment on exposition: if it's done in a way that's *believable* I find it's not too bad. Exposition annoys me not when it's heavyhanded, but when it's shoved down your throat in really unconventional awkward ways. Like you, I need to know why I should keep playing the game: I need the game to grab me in the first hour or two. If it doesn't I probably won't soldier on, not anymore. Time means too much to me.)

[queenlua]

ah, the "princes may not be loaded due to other circumstances" thing is a good point, which i hadn't thought of—that could possibly explain it in this context (like maybe he's prince of a really minor city-state or something, the equivalent of being the son of the mayor of topeka), but if that's the case the context clues haven't helped me out a ton—the city we see him departing at the beginning of the games looks flash and modern and rich as all get-out, heh.

it's interesting; i liked quest markers a lot when i was playing dragon age: inquisition, and i think my opinion varies a lot with my present state of mind? when i was playing dragon age, i was kind of exhausted and sad and wanted the visceral feeling of accomplishment you can get from a game; quest markers totally streamlined my gameplay and made me feel badass. whereas, in this context, i was relaxed and having fun exploring with a good friend and not really needing to accomplish much, and thus the quest markers felt a little oppressive to me. it's an interesting difference!

and the humor in FFIX helped SO MUCH gosh. it's something i wish more fantasy epics in general realized; it's really hard to make your hero's angst accessible to everyone, but everyone likes to laugh, and the game did a really good job of introducing everyone as a quirky trope (overly-shy mage! womanizer! clumsy knight!) to make them likable and then fleshing them all out in really cool ways. love love ffix ee

[lassarina]

I am fascinated to know what you think as you continue to play! (Also, I love the XIII trinity but your critiques about it are spot-on.)

[missxylia]

AND THEN I CAME BACK TO THIS ENTRY

so you probably haven't been told this, but there's a movie for ffxv called kingsglaive! it's like $5 on itunes and amazon to rent or something. most importantly, for whatever reason, you're supposed to watch that movie before you play the game because all the basics of the plot are in there. it's kind of shitty, but i don't know how else you'd know what the crystal is, or who luna is, or how exactly regis died. they literally use scenes from kingsglaive as flashbacks in the game.

as for why noctis is so broke: prompto and gladiolus talk about it at the very beginning of the game, but it's in a missable party banter exchange. apparently the currency used inside insomnia, the capital city, is different than the currency used outside of it. this is probably bc insomnia had the crystal regis was guarding, which erected a gigantic barrier around the city. people can pass through the barrier, but i figure you have to have good reason for it, like you're a noble or you work for the king as a guard or something. to the randos outside, it's basically completely cut off, so i guess it's been so long that there was a currency shift. ignis had gil on hand when they left insomnia, but y'know, cid charged them a shitton and just took all of it. so there you go!

also, i thiiiiiink noctis is hiding his royal status? cid and cindy send him on a bunch of quests because cid knew regis personally and was kinda like "well this dude's our next king so i'd better make sure he can survive out here." tough love, i guess.

[queenlua]

i did know vaguely about the movie! but i assumed it was more bonus-content than actually-necessary-to-grok-the-story content, lol oops, clearly they decided to design it that way. thanks for nothing square enix >___>;;

lol: re: that explanation for money woes. it still seems like you should be able to take like, some royal jewels, and pawn them for $$$, but given that explanation, i'm guessing the writers were like "we want them to be kinda broke, we need some sort of reason for them to be broke, turns out it is hard to rationalize royalty being broke soooo let's just come up with a hand-wavy explanation and hope no one squints at it too hard" :P

yeah i think noctis is trying to be on the down-low, though there's something kinda adorably naive about that—he's constantly running into randos who are like "OH YOU'RE THE PRINCE" and at this point i'm just assuming it's like, idk, Taylor Swift trying to go about town incognito, good effort but ultimately some goddamn fan is going to recognize you :P

[missxylia]

i can give you the basic rundown of important things!

12 years ago tenebrae and lucis were close neighboring countries, so their rulers (and noct and luna) were good friends. then the fire nationempire attacked tenebrae and killed luna's mother. regis and noct and originally luna fled, but the niffs captured ravus, luna's brother, so she opted to stay behind for him (also she was slowing regis down).

lucis and the empire are now on the verge of war; lucis is somehow the last country that hasn't been conquered by niflheim. but regis is too old to control the Old Wall(tm) which would be their only hope in a battle with niflheim. actually, the only reason they've survived is bc the lucis line, through magical powers, can control this Crystal(tm) through their bloodline and the ring of the lucii, and it puts up a barrier around insomnia. but it's basically only a matter of time before the empire breaks through it, so regis opts to try for the peace treaty, which has two conditions: lucis gives all territories but insomnia to niflheim, and noctis and luna (who is in niflheim's custody bc tenebrae is theirs now) get married. that's why the wedding is a thing!

you can watch how this plays out in kingsglaive if you want, but basically niflheim stabs them in the back and makes off with the crystal. they try and make off with the ring too, but ravus, who blames regis for his+luna's mom's death, puts on the ring to kill him bc it gives lots of powers that are not controlling the crystal too. unfortunately when you put on the ring you talk to all the ghosts of old lucian kings, and they're all assholes, so you can only put it on if you have good intentions and if you're of lucian royalty. and ravus is neither, so they set him on fire and he escapes sans an arm. (which is why he's got a metal prosthetic in ffxv.)

regis knows he won't make it, so he hands the ring to luna and nyx (the movie's protag. he's a member of the titular division of the king's soldiers) and does a heroic sacrifice. they kinda run away from a ton of shit trying to kill them. luna gets pinned up against the wall by a minor villain and is like "oh ok you got me... i'll hand over this ring... which by the way gives you immeasurable power" and he puts it on and gets set on fire. then she pushes his body off the balcony while grabbing the ring off him and runs for it. i love her

eventually this giant twist happens where the head of the kingsglaive was the traitor all along and he fights nyx, who realizes that yeah, they're not making it out of this alive, so HE puts the ring on. through the power of pure heart the lucian kings reluctantly give him their power, but he'll die in exchange when the sun comes up. luna runs away with the ring and he engages drautos/general glauca in an epic duel that ends in both their deaths. luna survives and runs away to begin doing her oracle thing for noctis.

SORRY for the wall of text but that's all the important parts of kingsglaive. nyx actually makes a cameo in ffxv so i thought i would at least mention him and his fate. hope this at least clears up some stuff :V

by the way, there's a short anime series about ffxv called brotherhood for free on youtube! there's prompto backstory in there :PP i didn't know this, but interestingly enough, prompto has a thing about his weight because he got harassed for being obese as a kid. that's kind of almost exclusively a trait for girls, so i was surprised... anyways, that's in brotherhood! it goes into the personal lives of the four and is all pre-ffxv. i haven't watched it myself yet but i really wanna...

(btw your celebrity comparison is hilarious bc in a later chapter some little girl just comes up to noctis like "HEY PRINCE NOCTIS")

edit: by the way i forgot to mention that the ring of the lucii (and luna's oracle powers actually) are Cast From Hit Points and they make you age+die faster. regis looks like 70 but he's actually 50. oops