Is Final Fanasy 15′s new direction a reality check for the RPG on PS4?

OPM: Pinstripe suits. Concrete skyscrapers. Cover-based swordplay. Final Fantasy 15’s cutting straight to it: Square Enix’s long-running RPG saga has left its staid turn-based roots rotting in the current-gen compost heap. And while purists may initially baulk at the combat U-turn, we reckon it might just be the happiest accident in the series’ 26-year history.

[pedrof93]

I hope its worth the wait.

[Need4Game]

Square Enix should release Gameplay Demo as soon as possible which can generate Gamer Feedback which can help improve the Game, thus making Final Fantasy XV, worth the wait.

with FFXV Gameplay Demo, Gamers can help improve the Game.

[socks]

Demos hurt sales. Industry stats, not mine.

[Minato-Namikaze]

I thought the trailer had gameplay?

[levian]

@socks

The only way demos hurt sales is if you have a bad game. Obviously people won't buy your game if they play it and it turns out to be shit.

On the flip side, I usually won't buy a game if it doesn't have a demo. I'm tired of wasting $60 on a game I don't end up liking. I either wait a few weeks after release and watch some gameplay, or I'll just pirate the game and use that as a demo, then buy it if I like it, delete it if I don't.

Also, if this game ends up needing sales, I know I personally will buy at least 2 copies if its good, and I'm sure others wouldn't be against it either.

[USEYOURFIST]

@levian, i agree in part, though rpgs are unique as a brilliant games can have bad demos that can put people off...ni no kunis demo really killed my hype for the game, though i still brought it as i had promised my kid the toy from the wizard edition...and it was amazing, so much better than what i had thought it would be based on the demo

[-Mika-]

I don't like it. It not final fantasy.

[Edito]

I know how you feel and i do understand you... XV will probably be good but not as good as a good Final Fantasy i still think they should change the name for something else.

[sobotz]

The gameplay looks like Dynasty Warriors with monster and magic

FF Musou?

[Summons75]

you don't like anything do you? nothing but negativity and hate whenever you speak...why don't you find a different hobby then.

[SexyGamerDude]

It's not like this is the first time the series has mixed up the battle system. You must not be a big fan because you obviously never heard of FF Tactics (which is a wonderful game, BTW).

FF is defined by more than it's battle system.

[VileAndVicious]

You are absolutely correct. The final fantasy series has always been defined by more than just a battle system. That's why every game in the franchise for the most part has a fundamentally different battle system and gameplay mechanics. Despite this fact FF games still remain cohesive.

Also as a side note. It's been very apparent the last few years that this is the direction that square was going in for upcoming battle systems anyway. Look at FFXII (that's where it started) and even FFXIII. Square has been experimenting with different systems outside of the norms of typical turn based combat.

But honestly, who cares as long as gameplay and story are excellent? That's what final fantasy is about.

[Dacapn]

On top of that, the final fantasy series has always been about enormous scale, but on previous hardware, there was absolutely no way to capture their vision. So this turn based battles were the best way to represent the fights. It wasn't until Advent Children that we got to see what these games were trying to portray. These games have always been big action games stunted by hardware, and now they have the hardware to really show their ideas.

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

@Dacapn

Hit the nail on the head.

I've always said that FFXII's battle system was the direction FF needed to go. Now FFXV is going a step further with an action battle system. And it doesn't even look bad at all. People are just upset that it isn't traditional FF. But I truly believe that once people actually get their hands on this game, the complaints will slowly cease to exist.

[mt]

to me it is Kingdom hearts mature version.

[N4GCB]

Pretty much, at first it seemed like an upgrade to the KHBBS system, but now it looks way more different, I see you can scroll through your swords on the bottom right, and a bunch of other changes.

[JC_Denton]

Meanwhile you have a Final Fantasy XIII image as your avatar, the undisputed worst Final Fantasy ever made...

(edit) other than X-2 and the various other spin-offs

[dcj0524]

Personally I hated XII. XIII was better imo.

[VileAndVicious]

Hey now...don't hate on X-2. It was silly as hell sure, but gameplay wise it was pretty fun lol.

[Minato-Namikaze]

X-2, and XII were better than XIII. XIII is down there in a tie with Mystic Quest.

[AirJohnston]

You call this not Final Fantasy, yet your picture is of Lightning, one of the worst protagonists in one of the worst FFs...this one is shaping up to be a lot better than XIII

[levian]

It IS Final Fantasy. It is everything that Final Fantasy is except for turn based combat. Big woop, it's not the end of the world. I have a feeling this will turn out better anyways. Kingdom Hearts was an awesome game, and if the combat is going to be anywhere near similar I will probably love it.

This game has the potential to be THE best Final Fantasy to date. Yes, I feel it can do better than VI, VII and VIII.

[TheLyonKing]

No Final Fantasy has been the same that's why the series stays fresh though it throws up some stinkers like 13.

13-2 was a good game and 15 seems more of an ommage to the classic ff titles such as th story, airship travel, large scale maps etc.

Give it a chance before you say you don't like it, you haven't even played it yet.

[CLOUD1983]

-Mika- most of the time I tend to disagree with anything u say but this time I will half-agree, I can't say I don't like it at all because I waited for this game for a long time to come out, & the reason I wanted to play it so much was because of the dark Shakespearian (Romeo & Juliet themes) plot & the return of old-school exploration with huge open fields, airships, cars etc, but still I didn't want to play this game as a main FF tile this DMC/Bayonetta battle system is not what FF needs to return back to the glorious days, this game could only be a spin-off "never" a main FF.

And that's where I agree with u that this is not a Final Fantasy, not with this battle system, so my feelings is mixed from the moment they rename it to FFXV, anyway let it come out to see if the w8 was worth it & we can then move on to FFXVI & let's hope that this time SE will decide to go back to turn based/ATB battle system, until they go back to their roots FF will continue to be dead for me as it is for more than 10 years now after FFX.

[xReDeMpTiOnx]

Well crisis core on psp was a great final fantasy game and that stepped away from the typical final fantasy equation.

So don't count 15 out yet. Yes it's different but it might be good. Well this is square Enix last chance for me. I never liked square Enix after their first game was FFX2 what a disappointment

[MonChiChi]

I wouldn't count it out as well, and yes it def is a different direction. To me it will come down to story and content. FF15 is geared towards a different audience this time around (which is not a bad thing).

I just want to know more before declaring this "The FF we have been waiting for".

[bakagaijin78]

"FF15 is geared towards a different audience this time around (which is not a bad thing)."

Completely agree. I personally like the old-school FF games, so after seeing FF15 I was pretty 'meh'. However, my 15-year-old daughter feels 'meh' about the old-school FF games and is actually excited for the more action-combat style shown in FF15.

I'm interested to see how it fairs. I'm just happy to get the HD remakes of FFX/FFX-2 in the meantime.

[SexyGamerDude]

It is the FF we have been waiting. Before the change in title and announcement, everyone was bitching about and asking where Versus 13 was.

[ChipChipperson]

Don't forget Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII that came out PS2 that featured Vincent, which I believe, was SE's first Final Fantasy shooter.

[AirJohnston]

I agree about Crisis Core being a great game. However I think most people would be fine with the style of XV if it was a spinoff like CC. I don't think people like a mainline game having a completely different battle system, so if it was still Versus XIII I don't think it would get as much criticism from the "fans."

I have no problem with it though. I can't wait to play this game.

[levian]

I'm not sure I'd say its geared towards a different audience. I love most Final Fantasy games, and from the looks of this, I'll love this too. I loved Kingdom Hearts as well. The combat is probably a style more people can appreciate, but it is unfair to say that the audience Final Fantasy has always addressed won't enjoy this style of combat.

[EdoubleD]

I'm all for it. I'm not going to quit on this game after waiting for almost a decade. I don't think a battle system makes Final Fantasy what it is known for. Sure the classics were great, there is no denying that. However I'm not going to shove off a potentially good game because of one aspect.

[ABeastNamedTariq]

I'm certainly excited for it. I likes my JRPGs. A little real-time action doesn't seem too bad to me.

[Fishy Fingers]

Turn based fighting is one of the reasons I've never completed a FF game so I personally welcome the change.

[AceBlazer13]

I'm a huge fan of kingdoms hearts so the combat system in this final fantasy is a plus for me all I need is a good plot decent gameplay and its a guaranteed buy for me.

[My_Name_BTW_Is_Dante]

They should just call this Kingdom Hearts Fantasy because it's certainly not a Final Fantasy game.

[dcj0524]

But it is. Look, it says "Final Fantasy" right there. See?

[e-p-ayeaH]

this isnt call of duty where the same exact gameplay transcends into future games.

inovation is key if you want to make an interesting series.

[Sketchy_Galore]

I love the menu combat of the originals but it does feel a bit ancient at this point and I wouldn't be against seeing some new modern take on it as long as they keep the basis in tactics and stats rather than just reflexes. Ni No Kuni had a pretty good take on the battle system despite being a bit clunky to control. Some kind of refined version of that would be ideal to me.

Still my main problem with newer Final fantasy games remains with this one and it's that the characters are no longer romantic fantasy characters and are instead all swaggering douche teenage rock stars in hot topic clothes. I'm not saying they should be made to go back to knights and princesses but even with the older technopunk style games the characters felt more romantic and less flashy and obnoxious.

[goldwyncq]

I don't think it's fair to judge the game based on the e3 trailer. That happens during the beginning and is not indicative of how it will play for the rest of the game. Looking back at FFVII, it didn't really open up until 5 hours in the game. The same could happen with FFXV.

[KittyEmperor]

Got a Kingdom Hearts vibe from seeing some of the combat which isn't a bad thing since I like Kingdom Hearts. The only really turning off points for me would be is if the combat is more like 12 or 13. Didn't care for the combat in either of those games.

[trenso1]

I can't wait for this game to come out and am still baffled at how when this was called versus, it was the true final fantasy game to make up for XIII. Now that it is XV it suddenly isn't a true final fantasy game now cause of the battle system when we have known for a long time that this was the battle system. Also when great games like type-0, crisis core, and tactics all don't traditional final fantasy gameplay but are still considered great final fantasy games.

[wahn0004]

I hear a lot of people argue about whether this (and the past few releases) is or isn't a "Final Fantasy game". I have no problem with it holding the name Final Fantasy, as there are some common themes, references, etc. with other titles in the Final Fantasy universe (or multiverse). But I REALLY DO have a problem with it being one in the numbered main series. I think it was completely disingenuous to after 10 games in the series to release Final Fantasy XI which has totally different gameplay. Give it a spinoff series name, as happened with Final Fantasy: Tactics, Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest or something like that. Great! But putting these games in the main series is like Infinity Ward releasing a RTS (not FPS) called Call Of Duty 5. Or Capcom releasing an RPG called Street Fighter 6. Other franchises don't seem to have a problem keeping series' distinct while adding titles to the franchise umbrella. Why does squenix keep messing with its fans? It may make sense if it had a progressing story, but it certainly doesn't. Never did. I can't help but think it's entirely to feed off the name recognition early titles have. To me, that's shady, and not something I respect as a consumer. If you have other ideas as to why the FFXIII's weren't instead called FF:The Lightning Saga (or something similar), please let me know.

[VileAndVicious]

I hear what your saying....but that's still superficial. Ultimately it doesn't change anything numbered or otherwise. Gameplay would still be the same, a sub title has little relevance to the final product.

It's almost as if saying if this game wasn't numbered I'd love it, but since it is I hate it (not saying that's what your saying, but you catch my drift).

[CLOUD1983]

Very nicely said my feelings exactly they destroy my anticipation to play Versus when they rename it to FFXV I wanted to play this as something else as a spin-off not as a main traditional main FF title, that's where SE wrong is, fans shout for years now to SE to return to turn-based/ATB battle system & give us again control of all the characters in our party & they keep shoving down our throats all those fail/garbage/trash battle systems were we just program the characters what to do & we just watch what happen.. every FF game with SE logo on it have those garbage battle systems the last "real" FF was FFX after that it's one failure after another, & now they move from auto-pilot battle system to full hack n slash ala-DMC & Bayonetta... that's what FF become after the merge with Enix my disappointment have no end.

[LAWSON72]

I really hope this game is great and not crap like FFXIII2 and has things that really were needed in FXIII even though IMO it was a solid game that just needed classic ff elements. I have alot of faith in Nomura hopefully he don't disappoint

[EximiusNebula]

Why is there so much controversy around the combat system? The combat system was visioned to have Kingdom Hearts fight mechanics WAY back in 2007.

"For the game's actual battle system, Nomura suggested that we picture something like a realistic Kingdom Hearts." - IGN

http://www.ign.com/articles...

[MoneyMeng]

All you little babies just need to stfu and let them make the game! I'm tired of hearing all of you cry about how the combat should be like it used to be, complaining on how 15 will have real time combat! Damn idiots, if you didn't notice, FF13 played like the originals and it was fucking horrible! JRPGs are dying genre and it's because they lack innovation and evolution! They may still have decent and at times, memorable stories but their gameplay just doesn't add up. The majority of turn based jrpgs nowadays are bland and boring with only a very few that deliver. Still Jrpgs like FF need to convert their combat to a more real time combat system or a more complex turn based combat if they want to survive. Nobody wants just press up ,down, and "x" throughout a whole game anymore! (FF13)