Queen's Blood (Final Fantasy Thread)

[Ruki]

2 hours ago, apsham said:

Whoever designed the "Mind The Trap" side quest needs to be buried up to his neck in mud. These fucking things are stupidly well hidden.

Is that the one where you find the 5 animal traps? Except you don't just need to find the traps, you also have to deal with the two fucking Coeurl's? (When one is hard enough and can OHKO you)

[Quom]

I'd take 50 Mind the Trap quests over this. Honestly. It's like playing an entirely different game in a genre I never play specifically because I hate them. It reminds me of MGS2 or whatever it was on PS2.

[apsham]

10 hours ago, Ruki said:

Is that the one where you find the 5 animal traps? Except you don't just need to find the traps, you also have to deal with the two fucking Coeurl's? (When one is hard enough and can OHKO you)

That's the one, although the Coeurls are dependent on random spawning it seems. I saw people complaining about them - but I only had a singular one when I was already done and leaving the area thankfully.

[Quom]

Have finished the game, I kind of want to talk about it since it's one of the weirdest games I've played, will be spoiler free so you can ignore it if you want because it's just my inane musings, but it won't have spoilers. 

This was to me the ultimate open world game, there were some small annoyances - anything that involved finding 5 small things that will needlessly take 30 mins, the Gauldin Quay pier which felt like it took you two minutes to traverse with no purpose, the boring arse loading screen whenever you quick travelled (give us the photos to flick through or something). But honestly GTA?, RDR?, Skyrim?, Witcher? I preferred this world to all of theirs.

I don't know why but the world and mechanics gave me a similar sensation to Stardew Valley, it wasn't just that I felt forced to do these things, or there was a story connected to them. It was that they felt both enjoyable and rewarding and they felt like fun. I loved that the story came organically, you camped and someone had a heart to heart with you and would open up giving you a glimpse of their back story. It felt really organic. It wasn't like a tv show or a movie or even a book where there's a set amount of time or pages and you need to have 'events' so as to force that shit out. Honestly an expansion building on this aspect and world wouldn't just be game of the year, it would be the type of game that I'd remember in 25 years, the same way I remember LoZ.

I made a terrible mistake in leaving to complete the rest of the missions. It honestly feels like an entirely different game. I left because I thought it might open up new quests or the world. I have no idea how you cock up a game so badly. I cannot understate how much I enjoyed the first two thirds of the game (for me, I totalled 60 hours, 40 hours fucking about in the open world) when I saw the reviews I honestly thought they were insane. Like this was it for me. Now when I look at the scores I think they were actually being generous. I have no idea how not only do you make something so grand and brilliant and then tack on that steaming pile of nonsense, but also how it's somehow so bad that it actually erases what came before it. It was honestly a 'it's still good, it's still good' that turned into a 'nah will probably put it in my cupboard and never play it again, even to travel back and complete the stuff I haven't in the fun part'.

I really just don't understand it at all. It was like two entirely different developers made the game. One that understood game mechanics, what makes a game enjoyable and decided to create a masterpiece, before it was kicked off to a team that has aspirations to make movies and can't understand that this is an entirely different medium, one where we don't want telling or showing, we want to do these things, and not just puzzles which amount to rats in a maze chasing the cheese of opening the next section.

Without going into spoilers there's also a massive divide in tone which I really, really didn't like. Nor was it properly exploited or used to any effect at all really. Like there was plenty of chances to actually create an impactful story and instead it was like the other team was given a 200 word synopsis of what came before and just guessed rather than actually being intimate with the tone, style and direction.

I dunno, maybe it's a FF thing. But Jesus Christ. I have never felt like this about any sort of media before. Like half of me wants to put it as my GOTY, the other half wants to throw it in the bin. 

[Trey]

Makes me want to slow down and enjoy it while I still can

[apsham]

Ignis is invisible.

Everywhere.

In the world, riding his Chocobo, in cutscenes.

Everywhere.

At night all I see is his floating light.

[apsham]

This is Gladius spawning on top of his empty Chocobo.

Annnnd here he is talking to us outside a cave while he still has his light on.

[Ruki]

@Quom, judging from your post, I assume you are talking about Chapter 13. I have no idea what it's about (just finished chapter 4.....holy crap was that epic).....but I heard that Square will be releasing a patch to fix some of the story stuff that people didn't enjoy or something about the end game?

 

Also? At the end of chapter 3? I was level 43. Just a little over leveled. Still nowhere near close to unlocking the 333 or 999AP abilities.

[Quom]

Meh it isn't just the story, the entire game changes. It's like going to see Batman and for some unexplained reason it turned into a Western half-way through. Everything about the game just suddenly changes and it's super linear with different mechanics and unfun gameplay.

I don't think there's anything they could do to fix it. It feels like that's the main game and this was some shitty fan made expansion or something. I dunno, you'll know what I'm talking about when you get there. 

[Sam]

6 hours ago, apsham said:

This is Gladius spawning on top of his empty Chocobo.

Annnnd here he is talking to us outside a cave while he still has his light on.

The same thing happened to me at that exact point in the game. When you close it and reopen he's back to being visible but it's not good that entire characters can suddenly become invisible!

[apsham]

12 hours ago, Quom said:

I really just don't understand it at all. It was like two entirely different developers made the game. One that understood game mechanics, what makes a game enjoyable and decided to create a masterpiece, before it was kicked off to a team that has aspirations to make movies and can't understand that this is an entirely different medium, one where we don't want telling or showing, we want to do these things, and not just puzzles which amount to rats in a maze chasing the cheese of opening the next section.

I am in the same exact mind.

While the word is vastly interesting - there are quirks here and there that baffle me. Sometimes it's the weird use of mechanics and sometimes it's the design of the world and how you traverse it. Beautiful world, but sometimes it feels like the person who created it absolutely despises you - but then due to the odd, odd mechanics I feel like it's almost part of the story and that I should like it? I dunno how to explain it otherwise, and I'm also no where near the tone shift.

[apsham]

I just saw news on the content patches coming to FFXV and I'm kind of let down by that as well. They claim they're going to fix Chapter 15, add more customization, more party members and more cutscenes... why am I being punished for playing the game early then? Blah.

EDIT: Gross - why did I write early? I played it when it was released - this isn't some early access shit.

Edited December 11, 2016 by apsham

[Avenged Probably]

Chapter 9 was phenomenal. 

[Trey]

I just finished chapter 9 and I second that. Just... It was fantastic 

[Ruki]

Managed to save up 100k experience and went to the Golden Quay. Went from 48 to 56

[Trey]

Quom was right, this game takes an awful turn towards the end. I just hope there is an endgame where I can get back to complete the game. 

[Maxx]

There is.

[Benji]

4 hours ago, Trey said:

Quom was right, this game takes an awful turn towards the end. I just hope there is an endgame where I can get back to complete the game. 

Oh good, there I was thinking they'd finally managed to fix everything, but they went and pulled an XIII-2 again

[Ruki]

27 minutes ago, Benji said:

Oh good, there I was thinking they'd finally managed to fix everything, but they went and pulled an XIII-2 again

still worth it! (I think? I'm 24 hours in, on chapter 6)

[Benji]

I'll still get it when it drops in price. I had it in my Amazon basket yesterday and decided to sleep on it, but it went back up in price today. Lame :/