Final Fantasy XV tries its hand with the open-world format, but it gets too many things wrong and ultimately does more harm than good.
Gary Green said: With my fondness for (most) Final Fantasy games and my side goal of finishing off games in my collection with loose ends, a return to Final Fantasy XV seemed inevitable. It also serves as my third Final Fantasy platinum trophy after VII and VIII, a reasonable substitute since Final Fantasy IX is nigh on impossible to master.
Final Fantasy 15's director has revealed why he left Square Enix back in 2018.
Hajime Tabata famously resigned from Square Enix two years after Final Fantasy 15 shipped in 2016. In a special livestream at the time, Tabata announced his decision to resign from the company, cancelling three of four new story-focused DLC episodes for Final Fantasy 15 in the process.
I liked it. I haven’t played the royale edition yet but I’ll get around to it one day.
I really believe 13 was better put together and more complete than 15 ever was.
Found the pathetic troll.
How is your jobless life going?
Dot worry, you will never get a job or a girlfriend haha!
Man inherited a train wreck and was expected to release this game in under two years after it spent a better part of a decade in development hell. At one point there was even plans to make FFXIII Versus a musical. He did what he could.
I didn't care much for XV and I always wanted the original vision of Versus XIII but I think the dev team did what they could to salvage the project
And yet people still blame him for the game turning out the way it did, rather than SE for the horrible mismanagement of 13 and Namura for being overly ambitious.
Whatever the behind-the-scenes went on over the many years, at the end of the day it was a radical change in direction that I could not go along with. Also why I never bought 16.
Final Fantasy XVI’s launch was very different than Final Fantasy XV’s and the two mainline game releases are difficult to compare for a number of reasons.
While it seems really cool and people seem to really be enjoying it, I'm in the mood for a real jrpg right now, not an action game.
This is the first mainline Final Fantasy game I didn't pick up at launch since the original FF7 on PS1.
I'll certainly get it eventually, just not in the mood for this right now. Personal taste.
“I'm in the mood for a real jrpg right now, not an action game.”
Implying that action RPGs aren’t real JRPGs?
If I can't control the party, it's not for me. I actually really like how FF7 Remake handled combat, being able to choose to straight up action it, or slow down time for more strategic party control...regardless of how I felt about them bloating the story.
If this satisfies your jrpg itch, then cool, have at it! The story experience looks amazing though, which is why I'll probably pick it up Black Friday.
You know what he's trying to say. Most of us learned of jrpg during the golden age of jrpgs and they were very very different. While I'm liking ff16 it doesn't really feel well jrpgish at all.
@ OtterX
Props to you if you don’t like the game. Not here to say you’re wrong for not enjoying it
Just saying JRGGS come in various ways and it’s disingenuous to say one is less real than another
@ shin
JRPGs have a large variety. Even during the golden age there were plenty of quality action RPGs. It’s absurd to say there’s only one way to design a game in a genre that has so many design principles
@FallenAngel1984 lol, yea I'm not going to dive into a semantics debate. enjoy the game, I'll catch up with it later. cheers, mate.
Fallenangel
That's not what I'm saying at all. I enjoy action rpgs just as much. Star ocean is one of my favorite series. The year star ocean 6 released I've even said it was my personal game of the year. Im not thrilled they changed the combat in ff particularly, but combat aside ff16 didn't feel jrpgish at all.
When you're basically just a spectacle fighter, first and foremost, then just call yourself that. It's like jokingly arguing GTA San Andreas was an RPG because they had a couple skill trees in it, and you can get fat.
While FF16 is absolutely a Final Fantasy game (setting, characters, story, etc) it is barely an RPG, and its not just about combat.
If you want an example of an Action RPG with combat that is just as action focused as this one, while still feeling like an RPG, just look at Tales of Arise.
I’m still loving the game, but it is like 5% RPG, maybe 10% if I’m feeling generous. And what little RPG elements it has, are pretty scaled down.
Which makes it interesting in the fact that fans of the series might choose to skip it because of the little RPG in it (I would still heavily recommend it though) and non fans of the series might also skip it because it keeps being labeled as an RPG, when its basically an Action Adventure game
@Otter
Interestingly enough, if you did choose to get into a semantics debate, it would honestly just make it even less of an RPG haha, as there is practically zero ROLE PLAYING in the game.
Its a linear story, a defined character with defined choices and dialog, no ability to customize your build or jobs/classes, cant modify (or use) your party members, equipment is basically irrelevant, leveling is almost as irrelevant, skills are practically based on preference as there is no elemental advantages, etc
I dont get why people seem hesitant to say this game really isn’t an RPG, its an Action Adventure game with some very light RPG mechanics (and which game doesn’t have them these days).
It doesnt mean the game is bad just because its not an RPG, if anything, it might help bring people over that DONT like RPGs
@--Onilink-- ha yea, I did end up engaging in the semantics more today. (below) Yesterday I had kids running around the living room, couldn't focus enough to engage. X'D
But yea, you hit the nail on the head - it's not "enough" of a jrpg for me. It's watered down, and I was never a big fan of DMC games. I still want to experience the story eventually though.
I’m my opinion jrpgs are typically turn based and not real time. People will deny that but ask how many peoples favorite jrpgs are turn based and like 99 percent would be. It’s not insignificant
No, it doesn't even have to be turn based. I love Tales games even. Just JRPG elements like switching between characters, buffing, finding enemy elemental weaknesses etc.
Back in the 90's we would have called this an action rpg, as it distinguishes the playstyle. I was recently playing through Secret of Evermore again on SNES, and while I love it, it was considered more action oriented:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...
Even the Zelda devs don't call Zelda n rpg, they call it an action-adventure game with rpg elements.
At the end of the day, it's just semantics. Yes, it is a jrpg in the sense of leveling up etc... but it's very much an action jrpg. That's all I'm saying. If you want to call it a classic jrpg, then cool. Go for it, I'm not going to stop you. 👍
@OtterX: It's N4G man you gotta fight in the comments, not be nice to people. You'll figure it out
Oh man, I deal with enough screaming kids at home. I'm willing to let this one go. 😂
It's not about that. It's that he is factually wrong. If this isn't an rpg, then what would you call Uncharted or Tomb Raider?
@Shane Kim - I answered above. It's an action rpg. We had them back in the 90's. I gave an example. But I concede, it's still a "classic jrpg", it's just a matter of acknowledging the sub-genre.
What do you call Zelda?
An action rpg is an rpg, so I don't k ow what the discussion is.
I have only played the original NES and SNES Zelda games, wich I would call action adventure games.
@shane
Notice how Bioshock has puzzle elements, but we don't call it a puzzle game. Mafia had a racing segment, but nobody would compare it to Forza.
If a title has any sort of element that fits even the remote criteria of a certain genre, it's disingenuous to associate it with that genre.
Again, if I sold you a copy of Bioshock and told you it was a puzzle game, you'd go home and end up either highly confused, or genuinely annoyed.
This is a Final Fantasy game. It should be sold as a Final Fantasy game. The caveat being it's an entirely different experience than people have in their head when they hear Final Fantasy, and RPG/JRPG should be nowhere near the marketing for it, because it's 100% about the action and a linear story.
Understand what you're saying lad, for me though this is what was missing from ff since ff10. As it is my favourite franchise alongside maybe metal gear...ffs have just missed the mark in quality since ps2 era.
For me ff 16 is starting to finally hit the full potential of ff. You don't watch those long summon cutscenes anymore. You play them.
100% the reasons I'm not getting it either. No full party control and just looks too linear for me. I'll wait for FFVII remake part 2. I'm playing FFIX again for the first time in a long time and it's perfect.
FFIX is one of my favorites! I hope they do a more lighthearted stylized one again some day.
I want to see Final Fantasy Tactics revitalized too. I adore the world of Ivalice. Moreso in Tactics & Tactics Advance games.
See the the thing is, FFIX is pretty linear and so are most of the older ones until late in the game. You're on a set path from area to area with no deviation like FFXVI. It's only once you get to disc 3 it starts to open up
I can recommend Dragon Quest XI, Nier Replicant, Nier Automata, Valkyrie Chronicles IV, Persona 5 Royal, Persona 4 The Golden, Dark Souls I-III, Elden Ring, Chained Echoes, Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, FFX/X-2, Monster Hunter World & Rise, Ni no Kuni I & II.
On top of that you have the classic versions with great mods to make them better than the PS1 versions: Chrono Trigger, FFVI, FFIV, FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX and Chrono Cross.
Well,
FF15 launched on more platforms than FF16
FF15 cost less to buy than FF16
The PS4 install base was bigger when FF15 released compared to the PS5 for FF16
The install base was alot bigger if I recall. I'm not reading the article but if it's implying it's ps5 exclusive as the reason sure maybe it would've sold a little more but out of the million sold of ff15 on xbox one I have a hard time believing all one million sales came at launch
I love how people downvote you as if you're not stating objective facts that certainly make a difference.
And what matters most was when the games where released. FFXV during Black Week, and FFXVI during summer.
And just like that... you made that article completely worthless .
I don't understand, Tales of Arise is a jrpg. It's also an action rpg, it even has less jrpg elements than FF16. The impact of PS5 exclusive is really strong.
Less JRPG elements? That’s just flat out wrong. Arise has party member switching, status ailments, and elemental weaknesses, which XVI doesn’t have.
No one that has played both games would ever say that Tales of Arise has less RPG elements. If anything, as you say, its the perfect example of being able to do heavy action combat and still being an RPG
That's not completely true repsahj. I'm sure it's having an affect but I'm a ps fan. Loved tales of arise, star ocean 6, ff16 doesn't seem jrpg or rpgish much. Some of us long time since ff1 back on nes fans have real complaints and to brush it off to the side as a console exclusive thing is just ridiculous
I understand I'm also an RPG fan since SNES. My first ff is FF3. And also tales is one of my fave series. But for me, Arise is my least favorite Tales. Yes, the graphics are superb but everything else is just ok to me, but I still accept it. That's what I'm saying with FF16, even the change when done right is very ok to me.
I'm currently somewhere in the middle of FF XVI I think, and so far I'm enjoying it. Problem when comparing the two is there is a lack of bromance in FFXVI and it's less open worldish. In FF XVI the accompanying characters feel more like accessories that don't bring much to your playthrough outside of cut scenes.
Settlements not fortified against the monsters at night? The had powerful spotlights that burnt monsters which came out in the dark. Many a time I lured an Iron Giant into them and watched their HP slowly whittle down.
The problem with Open-World games is very simple. They are designed so that the things you do in them, do not matter. The fix: Make every single thing extremely heavily matter, and suddenly you have a very interesting game. Kill someone? Massive change in the game world and for the player. Help someone? Same. Suddenly choices, and outcomes, become very interesting. If you can't make such a game, do not make one.
The open world was heavily flawed but not for these reasons, the settlements were fortified, the game doesn't start a battle music, it just have a danger sound effect but the track would continue after it, the biggest problem was how much the side quests were detached from the rest of the game, the stories in them were weak don't add much to the plot or develop the characters which is a overkill in a game that it's biggest strength was the main cast's dynamic
My problem was that there was one single town and people driving to nowhere outside of it. It was bizarre. Diners and rest stop motels for nothing. Where were all these people coming from and going to?
FF15 best parts were linear. The royal dungeons linear, the last few chapters linear , dlc linear. Ff7 remake is a linear game and no one complained about it. Ff10 was linear . People Just complain about ff13 about being linear but I bet you It would do well if they re release it .
I hope ff16 isn't a force open world game and just take the pacing from ff7 remake .