Are you sick of FFXV yet?

[dope_danny]

So back in the EARLY ps3 days Square Enix's change over was solidified and the ethos to the brand changed around the release of Advent Children to -and this is a quote- "exploit our most popular brands" and so began the Fabula Nova Crystalis project. Lead by a crazy person. The creator of FF13 and 'father of lightning' which has its own creepy connotations was a man who thought his rule 63 of Cloud was "the first strong female character and the greatest final fantasy hero" and there are many stories about his north koreanesque studio regime of how "everyone must be in eyesight of Lightning at all times" and this led to a bloated project that took up a LOT of time and money. So much so that after the game came out they had to release two sequels to recoup losses on the number of assetts produced but never used that are still being implemented in SE titles to this day.
The two other arms of the project was Agito XIII which become Type 0 and released on PSP and later PS4 to minor praise with its own niche fanbase and Versus XIII which went dark for 10 years. This would later be the product we now call FFXV.

FFXV came out and was a pretty but ultimately bland open world rpg with shallow gameplay and blank characters. It was met with an initial positive response then kind of got forgotten for the most part due to its linear second half and unfinished, barely explained plot. Since they have tried to do another 7 and rebranded it as "The FFXV Universe" including
-The base Game
-A season pass of to this point extremely underwhelming content to -in their own words- "fix the story"
-strange time gated events that offer nothing bar cosmetics in the long run
-A CGI movie crucial to the plot
-A mobage pyramid scheme scam
-An anime webseries
-A fishing VR dlc
-A clothing line
-A pc Port
-A Switch port
-A shrunk down mobile version
-Tie in in game events for things like Assassins creed and Cup Noodle
-Kings Tale
-Wrath of the Dragon King
-Justice Monsters 5

and more besides. Its been nearly a year and these increasingly strange brand exercises SE claims 'are to bring in a new, wider audience' -because wider market appeal attempts totally havent been the ruin of so many japanese game ips over the last 10 years- and now they have promised 'far more content updates and tie in products in 2018'. Which means nearly 4 years into the current console generation no work is being done on a new Final Fantasy title. Lots of ports, remasters and remakes out and on the way but original content? thats FFXV Universe branding content only. For two years. At least.

This could honestly mean we are not going to see Final Fantasy XVI till the Playstation 5. If you exclude the cross generation mmorpg FFXIV that means for two console generations the series gets 1 new mainline game each console. All in the name of the modern SE ethos of "exploiting our most popular brand". Which i thought they learnt their lesson on after the audience at large did not resonate with all the extreme lightning pushing during the PS3 generation and how games like Bravely default were traditional jrpgs and much more profitable. Because i can only imagine this is going to end up being a monetary loss for SE the longer it goes on. I don't know about you but i don't know anyone who bought FFXV this year, much less was sold on buying it outside its launch window due to all this brand white noise.

But the odd part is you dont see that many people that seem as exhausted by the game as you might expect. Its certainly there at this point but it really makes me wonder how many people just want a 'finished' FFXV -which at this point looks more and more like Lucas with his 'fixing' of the star wars trilogy- and how many if any are really going crazy over all these tie ins with genuine excitement.


Do you still care? are you still playing it? all the time ins and mobages?

Who is the audience for the FFXV universe?

[TriHard]

The game was too gay for me to even finish it tbh.

[Jtbrig7390]

Who is the audience for the FFXV universe?

Personally I enjoyed FFXV but all I experienced of it was the animated movie and the PS4 game. I tried the 2D one I got for pre-ordering but played like 2mins of it then stopped.

At some point in the future ill get the Season Pass to play the MP mode. But as for all the other spin-off stuff I have no interest in it atm.

[Arrashi]

I love how FFXV made all square enix jokes in barkley shut up and jam gaiden make sense again.

[Video Games]

I was sick of it in chapter 13. But anyway, it was probably the most expensive game they made and want to recoup what they can because i doubt it sold to expectations.

[mhdoe]

Tried it because of my love for past Final Fantasy games but was over it about 20 minutes into the game and have not been back.

[Cæli]

no soul in ff15 :/

[Matt0193]

The game was too gay for me to even finish it tbh.

I'd have to agree. It looked like a generic High School-styled JRPG. My first view of the game was seeing them driving around in a car full of teenagers who all have the standard Anime Japanese School look. It was enough of a turn off for me to never pick up the game.

[Deleted]

Sick of it? Its one of the worst FF games.

Made a movie and anime around it with story and if you didnt watch them you lost A LOT of background story or a little bit of character development.
Characters in-game which you see once. No character development for the main characters. The wife, you dont get to know her and barley see her.
Shit ton of bad and boring MMO side Qs
Boring gameplay, hold Triangle and you win. The way they handle spells suck.
The way they handle the weapons from the kings you get was extremly lackluster. Could have made that way more epic.
Railway car -.-
Chapter tunnel
Had an interesting base for the story but they didnt expand on it or rather they didnt go deep with it. If they would have it could have been amazing.

Clearly you saw they did restart the development of the game like 3-4 times or whatever. Still came out too early after 10 years. They made DLC for you to learn more about the characters which is a sign its fucked up.
They talk about making DLC for the "wife" which I dont even remember the name of anymore because thats how little they made you care for her.

Multiplayer coming "soon" 1 year after or something... seriously FFXV is fucking weird. And they STILL go on about it. Developing it for mobile now. Just move on.

I could go on about more reasons why its shit but its getting late and the way I wrote was probably shit.

Best thing about it was the fishing and OFC they have to make a fucking fishing game out of it. God damn they are milking it.

[Aoyi]

I was there for the reveal of the whole FFXIII project at E3. Very little was shown of the one that eventually became XV. It was actually just a cinematic. All we could really get from it was there was a prince. There were lots of soldiers coming to kill him and the prince had weapons floating around him he could control. I'm happy enough with what I got from FFXV. It was well worth its price tag especially compared to a lot of other $60 releases. I wouldn't consider it to be a shining point in the series, but it wasn't a bad game. Chapter 13 was annoying and didn't really fit (look we want to make a survival horror game), but it was really only about 2-3 hours out of a 50 hour plus experience. Of course I'm hoping we get better from the next FF release and if that means one per generation, then that's fine. There are plenty of other games to play in the mean time.

[Socialhealer]

completed it then stopped, it's just too unfinished they needed another 2years but hey it's a business $$$$$, it's more important to release unfinished shit and try milk people for money than finish what could of been an epic game.

[Shibito]

Damn i was expecting someone to disagree with the mmo final fantasy game and came here to watch the drama , boy was i wrong.

[Farath]

Finished it and stopped. Don't think I came back for any of the DLC despite having the season pass. Just wasn't what I hoped out of a Final Fantasy, which is basically harking back to the 'olden' days up to FFXII.

[Saucerian]

OP: Yeah, your argument re FFXV likely being milked for the remainder of the PS4's life is something those of us following the ongoing trainwreck that is FFXV, saw coming a while ago. It's unfortunate.

I get the feeling FF like other big IPs has fallen prey to its maker obsessing with continuing to outdo itself re production value and broad appeal, when it's clearly past making financial sense.

FF needs a reset.

Edit: and on topic, I guess, no, I'm not sick of it, because I foolishly bought it without researching it enough, played it once, realized my mistake, and traded it in.

[Soluna]

I enjoyed it quite a bit. As a fan of dark souls series, this also, felt like a game where you would just learn enough to keep you going, but never the full picture. I know it wasn't the dev's intention most likely to give ME a dark souls feeling, but I liked it anyway. I loved the combat system, as even though other ppl keep saying you need to press one button to win, well that's the same for old school final fantasy, go around a menu, press 'A' to confirm spell, all you did was press A, nothing else lmao.

I like the post launch hunts/chocobros episodes, extra story and upcoming multiplayer so ye, it's really nice, not sure what people were expecting from the game. I also loved chapter 13, cause I am not thinking, 'OH THIS ISN'T FINA FANTASY MOMMY, CRY CRY CRYYYYYYYYY', instead I am thinking 'Fuck, this is pretty neat'.

[Deleted]

Finished the main game, but still want to play the DLC. But will wait until all four episodes are out, and there is a nice sale going on. Don't think I'll get sick of the game.

[StrawberryZebra]

Squenix's problem is the same as it's always been. They bite off more than they can chew and turn even what should be straight forward productions for an experienced studio into a bloated unwieldy mess. FF13 is a good example, as is FF 15. They were both in development hell for absolutely ages and suffered because of it. Both have that air of someone having to put their foot down and say "We've spent too much on this as it is. Cobble together something that resembles a game and get it out the door as cheaply as possible!"

I'm not sure why they've poured tonnes of extra resources into making a side movie to go along with FF15. Why bother with it? Just tell the story in game instead and save yourself the money. Why make a web series? Surely Squenix's past forrays into film making has taught them they're not cut out for this kind of work. If people there feel that passionately about film, perhaps they're in the wrong career?

It's no wonder they need to sell an imagainary number of copies to break even, they've put far too much time and work into things that aren't the core gameplay and have ended up digging themselves into a financial hole as a result. From the outside, it looks like a classic Sunk Cost situation.

FF needs a reset.

I think you're right.

The Modern Squenix makes games that are more about spectacle than substance. They need to realise that what made earlier FF's a success wasn't it's flashy 3D graphics, but the fact they were perhaps the only genre of game that could tell a compelling story at the time. Skip all the extra bullshit and just make a solid game with a character driven narrative. Like they did with FF4, 5, 6, 7 etc. Is that really too much to ask of them? In this day and age the answer seems to be yes.

In their haste to exploit their biggest brands they seem to have forgotten why people like them in the first place. They were good video games for their time first and foremost. Just make good games. They really need to take a step back and look at what people actually liked about their games, then act on that feedback.

The most important thing the modern Squenix has forgotten however is that you can still make profit on games that aren't selling eleventy trillion copies just by keeping your budget reasonable and your overall design focused. Instead they seem to keep making the same mistakes over and over.

This could honestly mean we are not going to see Final Fantasy XVI till the Playstation 5.

If we were getting one for the PS5, it would have been announced as a launch title for the PS4 before being rebranded and redesigned from the ground up several times already. Even if they were to announce FF16 tomorrow, it wouldn't be released until 2029.

I'd have to agree. It looked like a generic High School-styled JRPG. My first view of the game was seeing them driving around in a car full of teenagers who all have the standard Anime Japanese School look. It was enough of a turn off for me to never pick up the game.

Honestly, the idea of the game being centered around a guys road trip I can get behind. There are plenty of strong themes you can fit into that without having to force it. Final Fantasies have always been big on friendship, so that ones a no brainer. Lots of easy Heroes Journey metaphors and symbolism you can toss in even without having to try.

The big one they pushed while the game was in development is the fun guys get up to when there are no girls around. Which would be fine, but they won't let you, say... Build a ramp and drive your car over it. They won't even let you go off roading with your car to try run monsters over. I can understand they'd draw the line at Bars, Strippers and content unsuitable for minors, but every single guy in the world has anecdotes about that one time when they did this stupid thing just because it would be fun.

Yet Squenix have gone out of their way to stop you having the kind of stupid fun guys actually get up to when there are no ladies present. The idea was workable, but the execution left a lot to be desired.

[Polarthief]

I got sick of it when I saw the trailer. This is the first FF game I haven't even bothered to touch since FF13-2/3.

[Deleted]

I haven't finished one FF since 10x2. Kinda lost the old charm, every game of the series had. Really hoped Mistwalker would continue that after Lost Odyssey but nothing came

[JoNxJoN]

Honestly the only highlight of the game for me was the antagonist Ardyn Izunia and we barely knew anything about him.