FFXV is out

[sincere]

My thoughts so far on the first very, extremely tiny amount of Final Fantasy XV that I have played already:


• Why does it have to come out now, when I just discovered KHUX and I need a Roxas medal immediately and I only have four days left for the best ever medal deal?!? sdlfjsdlgkj

• Final Fantasy XV: Bachelor Roadtrip

• I feel like FF has finally broken and stolen all the best parts about the Tales games. A full-fledged cooking system, not the weak-ass version seen in Graces or the complete LACK in Xillia, but one where there are ingredients and cooking and battle effects and characters have favorite recipes! Costume changes with status effects! Skit chatter while running around! Rock on, Square-Enix

• Now with 5x more selfie action! tbh the fact that each character has a completely irrelevant skill to hone, like Prompto's photography and Noctis's fishing, makes me inexplicably happy. I WILL MAKE SUCH AN ALBUM OF YOUR PHOTOS, PROMPTO (/googles to make sure I'm not misremembering his name /no, it really is that stupid)

• So far the only female anywhere in sight has been Daisy Duke Cid's boobtastic granddaughter. It definitely seems like all my party members will be these four dudes, since the skill system entangles them all together. I accept this only because this is Final Fantasy XV: Bachelor Roadtrip, and all the other dudes are teasing Noctis about his future domestication.

• Cautious curiosity about the whole arranged marriage situation? Will this be neat? So far there's no doom and gloom about marrying a random stranger from these alleged royals who should be used to this idea. I like arranged marriage plots.

• Holy shit you guys the 16-bit characters scattered through the game just jumping around on the equipment screens SNES-style ahhhhh there is so much throwback love in this game already and it makes me so happy.


So to summarize, so far I am very optimistic and not at all disappointed except in the fact that I have only 2 hands and 24 hours in a day to do this and fucking KHUX

Comments

[slayerofgod]

I'll be happy when I actually have time to play it. Six work days in a row suck. I'm catching up on the ancillary material in the meantime. The anime's actually pretty good.

In any case, I hear that the story feels the dev hell later in the game, but the gameplay is awesome throughout, so I'll take it. Not the first time in this series that's happened.

[sincere]

Ugh, that sucks. I hope you've had a chance to play some! It's pretty fun.

Do you think I should watch the anime/movie? I haven't actually seen any of it yet, but I heard that it's good to have watched it beforehand. I just typically experience the base material first.

[slayerofgod]

I'm about to play some in a little bit.

The movie, eh. It's has the same problem that AC did in that there's not much narrative on display if you're not following all of the material up to that point. It follows how the empire takes down Lucius, and I couldn't say how important knowing that will be to the plot of the actual game. I've heard conflicting things there.

The anime on the other hand I'd definitely recommend. It goes into how Noctis became friends with the other guys, with the Prompto episode being the highlight for me. There's also only five of them that are fifteen minutes each, so they won't take up much of your time.

[sincere]

I will be super surprised if the empire taking down Lucius isn't relevant to the plot, since it's the motivation behind everything that I've seen so far, but I mean, they don't go much into the details about how it happened. Knowing exactly what went down wouldn't be my first question if someone asked me what background questions I wanted answered. I saw enough of it to feel pretty okay with it? It does sound like something you'd appreciate more knowing the context of the game, though. I'll probably wait to watch that until later.

But I turned on the anime instead of turning on the game, so I'll check it out! Having watched most of the first episode, I can say with authority that it accurately represents the nonstop fucking imperials dropping out of the sky directly onto your head. Every time I hear Prompto shout, "Imperials above us!" I want to shout back, "These assholes again?!?" Harrumph.

[slayerofgod]

Having gotten past chapter one, I can now say that it's a good idea to watch it, just to give context as to why Luna is leaving Insomnia with that ring, and what the ring even is, for that matter.