Should Final Fantasy XV be Held to a Higher Standard? - Review Scores in AAA Development

Is it time to reevaluate how we treat scores for AAA games? Gamemoir's Nick D. doesn't think so.

[NukaCola]

All games be held to the same standard based on a gray area that is Baseline and agreed on. When you're holding something to a higher standard you are either holding it to a level higher than the standard or creating a new one.

[BlahBlahWhatever]

Actually the metacritic of FFXV drop even further to 83 you are saying that 8 must be considered a good score for a game but a main FF game is not *any* game, in case you weren't around during the PS1 days back then every new FF was an instant 9+ only the past years this change, I would put below the 'user' meta-score of each main FF because many agree that professional reviewers can't be trusted & most of the times their review doesn't make any sense, for example it often happen a game site to score an amazing game much lower than what they gave to a much worse game in the past, & in the end f*ck critics, how the actual players & fans feel about a game is the only thing you can take seriously imo so here we go:

FFVII: 9.2
FFVIII: 8.6
FFIX: 8.9
FFX: 8.7
FFXII: 7.6
FFXIII: 7.3
FFXV: 7.9

What do we see here? we see that FFVII have above 9 & every other FF up to FFX have close to 9, what happen after FFX? the user meta-score of main FF games drop below 8, is that a coincidence by you? FF fans keep on saying for more than a decade now that after FFX the series is not the same anymore, the quality drop by a lot & the usual awesome feeling every new main FF used to have cease to exist in newer installments, that's the only undeniable truth here, that FF used to be good until X, after that it start to suck & the series stop remind an FF anymore, anything else those critics who put those 9's & 10's say doesn't matter because as I said 95% of them can't be trusted, they either got payed to give those good scores or their taste simple suck, THE END.

[Nara_shikamaru]

You've proved two standpoints, the critics and your own, while also implying another in the background, that no matter the critique, and opinion is an opinion, and that my friend, is based on your own standards, and the standards, of everyone and anyone, has undoubtedly evolved and become much higher than before, hence the decline in a sufficient degree/sense of satisfaction of-in particular- ff games as of late...lets take the topic of open worlds as an example, in the 8-bit and 16-bit era, heck even around the time of the ps1 and ps2, creating an open world that appealed to the then current standards was more convenient as less demanding as at that time open worlds were simply land to cross, i.e there was no need to include side quests or (graphics-wise) a variety of different assets that gave you a sense of a living, breathing open-world that had an aesthetic similar to our world but with creative and fantastical imagery. as technology advanced, such open-worlds became more prominent and with each new game that dares to push the line and succeeds (for example ff7 or tw3), the standards are set higher for newer games to be better than that. With final fantasy, technology advancements helped the games graphically, but at this and earlier stages, the games cant reach the scale/size of the open worlds of the older games and that is a let down for some...point being here, people set their standards too high and are disappointed by unfulfillment

[Irishguy95]

You're also gonna have to face the fact that Final fantasy didn't face much competition back then. Especially on consoles!

[rainslacker]

FF actually is just another game.

Every FF game is different. Different battle system, different story, different characters, different themes and presentations(mostly), so comparing them, and saying it's not as good because it differs from prior games is completely unethical.

FF should be held to whatever review standards are in place at a particular publication at the time of the review. Giving it higher or lower scores because it doesn't live up to some arbitrary merit placed on it by other games in the series is not a equitable way to review an individual game.

It is worth comparing it to other games in the franchise for the purpose of informing the potential customers what to expect in comparison to other games, but it has to be taken as it's own thing.

[datriax]

FF XV is a AAA game? Huh. Fooled me. Here I thought it was a tech demo for a new engine or something. You mean, there's actually game play in this thing?

[Nara_shikamaru]

I have deduced one thing from your petty delusions: you are delusional...you see, you are the type to only acknowledge the negatives and focus on that, lol its like you are colour- blind, if the negatives in life was the colour grey, thats all you would see

[Kreisen]

I think if the game had a more interesting world to explore, focused a bit more on actual monster hunting with a proper crafting system to boot this would easily be in my top 3 rpgs this gen.