Anyone gonna FF XV?

[thesameguy]

I haven't even considered a FF game since VIII disappointed the shit out of me, but XV seems to be genuinely interesting and I am intrigued by the real time combat. I just ordered me a copy, something to do on some future rainy day.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP4LrURHpWs

Reviews seem generally good (or surprised ;) ) so I'm gonna give it a go. I'd be thrilled to feel like I did playing VII!

[Jason]

I have it. First one I've played since FFX. I like the gameplay, the world, etc so far, but I'm not digging the absolute lack of diversity in the party. No women, no creatures, no variations in style, etc. It's probably a 'silly' thing for me to care about, but I like when RPGs have diverse parties with clear roles. I somewhat miss turn based systems, but I understand that most people prefer action RPG controls, so I'm getting used to it. I'm having a hard time figuring out if strategy is involved much at all :lol: That sounds like a lot of complaining, but I *am* enjoying the game so far, it's just not quite what I liked so much about VII, VIII and IX (and to an extent, X). I've barely scratched the surface of the game so far, so who knows what's ahead. It certainly looks pretty, and there's loads to do. I also kinda enjoy the road trip vibe :up:

[thesameguy]

Honestly, the road trip vibe was one of the major attractors to me, but you're not alone in lamenting the lack of party diversity - that is the thing that kept me from pulling the trigger before. But I've read a bunch of "this is pretty cool" reviews so I went for it. I'm probably going to have a lot of time on my hands over the upcoming holidays since I'll be half-working (monitoring a bunch of server processes) so having something entertaining to do that can be paused when I need to actually work is worth planning for. ;)

I'm not sure I will miss the turn-based combat - it's been a long time, but I do remember eventually getting bored with VII and how long it frequently took to get through combat. It started to feel monotonous to me when combat was no longer difficult, just in the way and as much time was spent going through menus as anything else. I'm kinda hoping this unfolds a little more like the Batman games, which - for whatever reason - always entertains when it comes to a little fisticuffs. ;)

FF sure does look pretty, so even if the gameplay doesn't draw me in, I can be entertained with the scenery for a while!

[Jason]

Hm, I just got to a cut scene that seems like they just pulled clips from the CGI movie they released. Might be worth watching that to actually get the story.

Also, the game is exceedingly blurry at times. It's pretty clearly rendered at 720p and blown up, to keep frame rate ok. In the process, it seems like they put some sort of 'filter' on it to try to hide the fact, but it just makes it look worse, imo. (or they simply need to turn bloom/depth of field effects down)

[SkylineObsession]

Yeah, the movie was bloody awesome. Borrowed my brothers copy the other day and after watching it i told him i want it for Christmas. ;)

I'm not the biggest FF fan, have only played FF8 before and then got completely hooked on Blitzball and then only played the game for that. :D

But am mega interested in 15, and may end up buying a copy myself one day. Brother has it (he has most/all FF games?) and loves it so far as i know.

[thesameguy]

I didn't even know there was a new movie! It's Kingsglaive, yeah? I may just have to Amazon that to gear up. ;)

[SkylineObsession]

Yep. Good storyline too. :)

[MR2 Fan]

I watched the movie and I played about 30 mins at a friend's house...looks good so far

[21Kid]

I'm looking forward to it. I need to clear out some of my current games first. :( But, hopefully by then, it should be on sale.

I played the demo a few months ago. I was looking for some kind of strategy, but it seemed to mostly be button mashing. I was hoping for something that required a little more strategy. I know that Action RPGs are the go-to. But, I'd still like to have a regular turn-based option. :|

I can play Diablo III if I want a button mashing RPG.

[Jason]

I really want to see what this game looks like on PS4 Pro, I think the 'low resolution' issues I see, are largely because I decided to buy a big fucking TV that really points out these things :lol:

So maybe I shouldn't get too far in the game, and save my $$ for a couple months and pull the trigger on the PS4P

[Jason]

I really want to see what this game looks like on PS4 Pro, I think the 'low resolution' issues I see, are largely because I decided to buy a big fucking TV that really points out these things :lol:

So maybe I shouldn't get too far in the game, and save my $$ for a couple months and pull the trigger on the PS4P

[Jason]

I'm looking forward to it. I need to clear out some of my current games first. :( But, hopefully by then, it should be on sale.

I played the demo a few months ago. I was looking for some kind of strategy, but it seemed to mostly be button mashing. I was hoping for something that required a little more strategy. I know that Action RPGs are the go-to. But, I'd still like to have a regular turn-based option. :|

I can play Diablo III if I want a button mashing RPG.

While it does have a fair bit of button mashing, I have found (just finished 'Chapter 2) that there definitely is strategy involved, you just have to be a bit quicker with it compared to turn based, and it's not quite as clear. I've been struggling to figure out how to do specific things I want, though. One of the crew will say to target specific things, but there's no clear way to change the targeting, that I've found? Or I'm dumb haha. Certain weapons that the main character uses work better against certain enemies. Also magic and skills play a part. Magic, though, seems to be a very limited resource, at my stage at least. You can basically use any spell 3 times, and then you have to replenish it. I notice there's a summon button, so I assume summons will become a thing at some point.

I guess what I'm saying is, compared to some games, 'attack' is definitely the most common form of offense, and there's a lot less magic/summoning involved so far, but the attacks themselves have added variety in weapon types, and associated skills.

I'm only on Chapter 2 (no clue how many chapters there are), so I have no clue if the above changes as the game goes on or not.

[thesameguy]

I'm excited - the game just shipped and I went ahead and ordered the DVD from Amazon so should have it in a couple days. :up:

[SkylineObsession]

Watch right till the end of the credits in the movie btw...

[thesameguy]

Noted!

[thesameguy]

Watched the movie last night - definitely a good lead-in for the game & happy I did.

I enjoyed the movie quite a bit - it suffered from a little bit of the same scattered storytelling that other Square movies had, but was still a good watch. A few times during the movie I completely forgot I was watching CG, and for the life of me I can't figure out whether it's because the work was so good, or because so many movies incorporate CG that I'm used to seeing this quality of work in live action movies. It was a really strange feeling losing myself for a moment or two and then getting yanked back to, "Oh, this is computer generated." Crazy!

[Jason]

I decided to pull the trigger on the PS4P, since I was going to for FFVII anyways, and the Xbone version of FFXV has been annoying me on the big screen.... Happy to report the PS4 version of FFXV absolutely fixes my issues with the Xbone version. Renders at a higher resolution, better details, seems a bit smoother overall. Now I just have to play through the first couple of chapters again :up: I'm notoriously slow with these sorts of games, since I like to wander around and collect things and do side quests as I go along.

That all being said, anyone in the Continental US that wants a copy of FFXV for Xbox One, let me know. It plays and looks good on screens probably 50" and smaller (or if you're simply less picky than I am). Would rather give it to a friend than try to haggle a few bucks for it. :up:

[21Kid]

ME! :D

I'd haggle a few bucks for you.

edit: Or I could send you MGS V when I'm done. I'm about 75% there.
Or, I could send you the last Batman game... I never actually started it.

[thesameguy]

I played for the first time last night - put a couple hours in. I don't have any complaints about the graphics on my 1080p TV - but now I am interested in trying it on the 4k. Quite possible neither TV is actually good enough to create issues.

I went offroading, ignoring what the game told me to do and just ran around the countryside beating people up. Or trying. I am not very good at combat, I don't have the feel for it. My post-battle report cars were always like Offense A, Teamwork A, Defense D. Not good at the X button. I spent a fair amount of time in near death or stasis. :lol: Hopefully I will get better with block/parry/weapon switch/spell/warp over time, but frankly I think I will end up button mashing my way through the game. ;)

I am a little put off by how much management I gotta do - manage Ascension, spells, meals, weapons, inventory, blah blah. At the beginning it seems a little overwhelming - a lot of busy work - but I suspect there is some baseline "this works" behavior I can employ so it's not a constant effort. I'm not going to spend hours optimizing four peoples' lives. I get plenty of that at work and at home!

Overall, it's fun but I have a little hesitation... we'll see!

[Jason]

Warping to uh, safe zones, or whatever they want to call it is very vital for Noctis, if at all possible try to lure enemies towards an area that you can warp around in to recover HP/MP.

Also, I just started using 'wait mode' last night, and it helps a lot in trying to focus your attacks against one enemy or another.

[thesameguy]

I should try that - it makes sense. I did some hunting missions last night that were a little beyond my ability and it was stressful. Got it done, but it felt lucky and not talented. ;)

IIRC there is a skill or something that lets you learn about an enemy - I need to get that going, because I feel like my battles last night would have gone faster had I known how to fight. :lol:

[Jason]

Also, just put the game on easy mode, that's what I did. I have no gaming pride anymore, I just want to play through things :lol:

[SkylineObsession]

Yeah i'm getting that way too. I sometimes even cheat/Gran Turismo myself through the game in racing games (use walls/ai cars to help corner/brake etc).

What's happened to us. :( :D

[thesameguy]

I'm sorry guys, I'm afraid I can't do that.

I'm not quite the brazen Nightmare mode player I once was, but I just can't accept anything less than Normal and usually choose Hard if there's an option.

OTOH, I'm not once of those 100% seekers... eventually it will be Good Enough.

I have a late night tonight, I expect to put in a couple hours before I'm done for the day!

[21Kid]

I'm the same TSG.

I've played/beaten most of the Souls games, and that's one of the most enjoyable victories I can remember in recent history. I usually keep it on normal, unless it's a sequel (like Civ 6) or something where I'm pretty comfortable with the controls, situation, and know pretty much what's going to happen.

Unless it's basketball/football. I leave those on normal, because I just want to dominate the other team!!! :rawk:

[thesameguy]

I started feeling really bad last night - as I'm roaming around the desert it's clear the game wants me to kill spacehorses and megagiraffes and stuff, but they all seem like peaceful wildlife just doing what wildlife does. If you don't bug them, they leave you alone. I didn't sign up for Game of Big Game Hunter Thrones or whatever. Maybe I should not have moral dilemmas about this, but I do.

Eventually the game threw some flan at me, and I got my ass beat. Next time I fire it up, I'm going to have some aggression to take out.

[SkylineObsession]

It's okay to have virtual moral dilemmas. If you look in the GTA V thread, i had one about replacing my level 50 character, so i did a photo send off for him. Still honestly feel bad about it. :(

[thesameguy]

That's good, because I am not killing spacehorses anymore. I might kill some megagiraffes, as apparently they are delicious. Hey, it's a crime with a point at least.

I sincerely appreciate the tip to watch the movie before playing the game. Lots of things make sense that wouldn't otherwise - I feel like they should have included the movie with the game. It seems that important.

I still feel that there is a little too much management in the game and increasingly like there is too much walking & driving, but they sort of nailed the combat. You can play the game how you want to play the game, and it never feels too easy or too hard. It's an amazing balance in my mind. It took me four or five tries to beat the flan (thankfully you can save almost anywhere) but I did it eventually, and it didn't feel like luck. I learned things through the first passes that when applied netted victory. That's a feel good.

I don't want to give the plot away, but there's a lot more stuff to fight now and last night I got into an epic battle. It started with a quest, but that quest was compromised when I got caught between a pack of the bony wolf things (I will never learn any of these names) and dualhorns (okay, I'll learn one) and a misplaced Tempest on a wolf angered a dualhorn. That made things difficult. Then the spaceships dumped four loads of robots on me. It took six or so game hours of non-stop fighting... it was incredible. Found what I was looking for, hoofed it back to the car since it was well past dark and was told "you can't drive when there are enemies present." I looked skywards for another ship, but then heard the burbling sound of a daemon. HELL NO. Queue Flock of Seagulls.

FFXV is definitely enjoyable - a good game purchase in my mind. Glad we're having some weather here so I can enjoy it guilt free.

[21Kid]

Sounds like this game would be a fun 4-player co-op buddy game. :D


I didn't know that there was a FF15 movie, so I went to look for it...
They got some good voice actors.

Aaron Paul ... Nyx Ulric (voice)
Lena Headey ... Lunafreya Nox Fleuret (voice)
Sean Bean ... Regis Lucis Caelum (voice)
:( So this guy dies?

[thesameguy]

A multiplayer FFXV would just be Diablo with more bickering. :D

[21Kid]

And?




;)

[thesameguy]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Jason]

Just watched the movie... and now I'm mad that Square didn't implement a few more of the scenes from it into the beginning of the game. Everything makes a lot more sense now.

[Jason]

Sean Bean ... Regis Lucis Caelum (voice)
:( So this guy dies?

I mean, that's the main plot point of the game basically. :lol:

[21Kid]

So... Game of Thrones XV?

[SkylineObsession]

It was actually a fluke that i watched the movie. Was around at my brothers place a while back, and wanted something to watch at home, so looked thru their DVD collection to see if there was anything i hadn't seen, then saw that. Had no idea it was related to XV, i just know the first FF movie was incredible looking at the time.

But yeah you raise a good point, it should have - if not released with the game - been mentioned somewhere either in game, or in the physical copy's disk case, that the movie should be watched first if you want to get the whole story. Would have been a good chance for them to increase movie profits too...

[21Kid]

Sold a combo pack for $5 more...

[Kchrpm]

Apparently the first patch for the game adds a lot more cutscenes to the main game, maybe they are from the movie.

[thesameguy]

Apparently the first patch for the game adds a lot more cutscenes to the main game, maybe they are from the movie.

That would explain the 10gb download. There have been several scenes directly from the movie in the brief amount of plot I have unlocked. Oddly no voices, but you still know what's going on.

[MR2 Fan]

Oddly no voices, but you still know what's going on.

Probably a contracts issue

[thesameguy]

Sounds likely.

I am really enjoying this game - VII, which is the benchmark in my opinion - had better characters and better stories, but XV's more open-world concept makes for a lot of fun. I've been doing all the side missions and delaying the story so I'm pretty high level but not much has happened. Last night when I started playing - at around level 22 - I realized I didn't have to be entirely afraid of the dark anymore and tackled a daemon. It was a tough battle, but ended well. Got some courage and did some nighttime monster bounty hunting and found myself in this epic battle where the target, random encounters, space robots, and daemons all showed up. It took 8 hours of game time, which I think is 20 minutes or so of real time. That is a long time to be fighting! I have definitely gotten better at the buttons - the dodge/warp/attack movements are pretty powerful and they make you feel like a champion when it all works.

I will say, the daemons I've fought have all been iron giants (I think that's what they're called) but I did try my hand against a fire giant. That didn't go well. I started losing pretty badly, but the battlefield was so congested and obscured by trees I couldn't see what needed to happen. Eventually things had gone badly for long enough I just gave up, and after standing still for a while realized a second fire giant had showed up. Yeah, one daemon is doable. Two, not so much. :lol:

For anyone else playing the game, here is something I didn't initially realize: Ignis's Mark technique is STUNNING especially when he's equipped with a weapon that has a secondary effect. Right now I have him with something that poisons opponents, so in a big fight you can use Mark to poison the entire battlefield pretty reliably. Also, since Noctis follows his marks with attacks, you can quickly survey the enemy to see what sort of shape they're in, and how to target your next attack. It's like a little slice of time where you can see & think without having to go hang out on a warp point or switch to wait mode. I still haven't use that - and in fact I almost never use the warp points either anymore. I'm sure I'm not being as efficient as I could, but it feels hectic & fun so I'm happy. ;)

The game seems like it moves really fluidly between places and encounters - I'm sure part of that is I have it installed on an SSD, but I think the bulk is actually good coding. Not a lot of waiting - almost none - which really improves the flow of the game. :up:

[Jason]

You've well passed me already damn :lol:

I've played 12 hours (level 19 now) and I'm not even to chapter 3, I dick around way too much :lol:

[thesameguy]

I am just to Chapter 3 - I have not done the first story quest in it yet. I don't know how much play time I have offhand, but I'd guess about 15 hours - four or five 3-4 hour sessions. I have been trying to do all the side quests & hunts as they unlock and haven't focused much on the story. Although the side quests are pretty hit & miss in terms of quality, I really like running around on chocobos and seeing the sights, and combat is still really exciting. I thought I was going to get put off by it more quickly, but it's very fun. Those long battles are enjoyable to play and enjoyable to watch! Never saying know to a fight can rocket you through levels. I think I did five levels in the four hours I played yesterday... that daemonrobothuntrandom fight was good for 11,000 EXP IIRC!

Oddly, all the extra collecting (like food) has been no big deal, but I find the arms & items equipping to be really burdensome. Inventory management is still not the game's strongpoint. Figuring out what damned sword to use is a big pain. I guess the upside is that you can mess with that stuff most any time, so you don't have to be quite as prepared as you do in other games. :up:

I have not done much fishing (boooooring) and only the demo chocobo race (I still suck at it) but I've tried most everything else. So far, I think I've enjoyed the hunting the most - it's fun, good experience, and financially rewarding... at least when you don't blow through a bunch of Phoenix Downs trying to survive. ;) Really, though, money doesn't seem too hard to come by in the game. Edit: Especially if you never say no to combat - lots of animals bits are worth a fair amount of money.

[Jason]

Oh, so we're basically playing the same way :lol:

[thesameguy]

Although the side quests are all pretty derivative (retrieve this, kill that), I'm still pretty impressed by the scenery and am enjoying just running around. I do wish there was more variety in the monsters - it sucks a bit that any given location only has 3-4 distinct things to fight, but I do appreciate the difficulty in fully modeling and animating these things so it's hard to be upset. I feel that the production value is quite high, and I'm glad that they focused on quality and not quantity. ;)

FFXV seems like a pretty awesome value, so I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the season pass. As the rate I'm actually completing the story, DLC should out long before I've finished even that. ;)

As of last night I had about 24 hours in the game, quite a bit more than I thought. Still not enough experience to tackle a red (it's not fire) giant. Although I wasn't having a problem staying alive, neither was it. After 10 minutes I hadn't done any damage, so I ran away. :lol: Instead I got into a fight with three iron giants at once. I guess they summon each other? I don't know. It was brutal. Went though my entire inventory of restoratives - something like 50 potions/hi-potions/phoenix downs. It was rough, but loads of fun. ;)

[thesameguy]

Oh, I did this to me:


Red Giant is an enemy in Final Fantasy XV fought in the Costlemark Tower in Duscae and in Insomnia in chapter 14. It is a daemon that can appear at night after an Iron Giant has been felled.

Chapter 14! Whoops.

[thesameguy]

Sounds like this game would be a fun 4-player co-op buddy game. :D

Turns out 4-player co-op is going to be the final DLC for FFXV. I guess the idea is that after you've played the game, you can go do monster hunting with three of your friends.

Bring on the bickering!

[21Kid]

neat!

[thesameguy]

I am feeling dumb, but I cannot figure out how to use techniques other than the default ones. I have most of them at this point, but I'm missing how to actually employ them. :(

Pro Tip: Around Level 20 you reach the point where you can realistically start challenging the Iron Giant. Stop sleeping at night, and spend a few game days straight doing quests, hunts, and slaughtering daemons. Gather up about 20k exp - you can easily do this in one or two game days - then go spend the $10k it costs to sleep in the hotel at Galdin Quay, which nets you 2x exp. I netted 15 levels (25->40) in about five hours of playing yesterday. It cost twenty grand, but I had twenty grand and it wasn't doing anything otherwise. Eat a good meal -> do all the bounties in Galdin Quay -> take out some daemons -> sleep in the hotel is superb. Use the AP you win to buy the ascension skills that net more free AP (AP for fishing, camping, riding, driving). If you do this early, when you're running around all the time anyway, you can rack up some major AP. Last night when I went to bed I had 240 AP points to use. Crazy!

[thesameguy]

Took way too long to Google!

Go to equipment, then you can change technique

Derp.

[Jason]

Yeah, I hopped on the AP mods right away, I learned that lesson in past games that earning early and often nets a big pay off... wait, that's kinda like retirement savings.

As far as your level, damn son! I hit 21 last night. I did the third dungeon, then decided to exit the city and go back to doing some more sidequest stuff. I might have to try that method out, though I don't have much in the way of money currently now.

[thesameguy]

I actually don't know where my money comes from - I think it must come from hunts, they're the only thing I have a specific sense of getting cash for. Although taking pictures for Vyv pays really well also - like, stupid good. I've been circling the countryside ranking up in Hunting, which pays and then unlocks more hunting. :) After 2-3 successes you can *easily* afford that hotel stay... it's its own little sub-economy. ;) Also, in the middle of the map is where the Voretooths are (bony wolf things) and they drop Voretooth bristles which fetch good cash from shops. I don't know if others things fetch more tbh, but the Voretooths are easy kills and might net you $400-$800 per fight regularly. Every time I show up at a city I have 25-35 bristles and I sell them off. That works. I haven't really sold much else of anything - I'm afraid I am going to want something down the road and be sorry I sold it. I know I can always get more animal parts. ;)

I did one of the story quests last night sort of by accident. I was doing a hunt (for these giant crocodile things) and ended up right by one of the story parts so I figured why night. It was an ice dungeon that unlocked Armiger. That's a lot of fun but ultimately doesn't seem to do all that much... I could be using it wrong. :) I was glad to have it though, because I then did the hunt "Things from the past" which turns out to be a trio of Necromancers. FML. If they get a hold of you, you're dead. Then they shine their triangle beam on you and you're petrified. Then they summon a bajllion bony imps to ruin your day, er night. I utterly blew it the first two attempts and went back to a save. Like, I didn't have a choice - I'd blown through all the healing supplies. The third time I stopped focusing on the Necromancers and ran around crushing imps - that kept the tech bar up and the Armiger recharged and reduced healing potion consumption. I just kept unloading techniques and Armiger on them til they were dead. :lol: Those three games days - some photos, some hunts, and some ingredients for Takka - netted 32,000 exp, which I doubled on the coast. Level 39->45!

I feel like I must be fumbling with buttons because I am having a hard time choosing targets on which to unload techniques. While fighting those Necromancers I inadvertently loosed Gladiolus on an imp 3-4 times, doing 9999 damage on something with like 9hp. Doh. There was a lot of movement in a tiny space, so selecting the right target was difficult. I almost switched to wait mode, but figured if nothing else it was experience in that technique so whatever. ;)

[Jason]

I'll be as vague as possible... but once you leave a certain light house, the game fast tracks you along the story to the end, and I found myself beating the game today. Plus side is, you can go back to the open world after beating the game :up: I very much enjoy the side quests/open world stuff more than the story, since the story is really choppy as it goes along (rumor has it, they cut a bunch out to push the game out, instead of continuing the 10 year development).

Edit: Going through Wikis/Reddit confirms that much of the game was cut up due to mismanaged development, and the game was released this year to meet a deadline. Also, Reddit/Wiki answer a lot of story things that the game didn't communicate very clearly. Hopefully updates/DLC flesh things out to be more 'complete' at some point, because the game has all the makings of a classic, but the last few chapters of the story are a complete mess. That being said, the open world stuff is a lot of fun, so the game is still enjoyable, and I have a lot of things to do still before I'm done for good.

[thesameguy]

Thanks for the heads up! I inadvertently engaged Chapter 4 Saturday night and was surprised at how quickly that all unfolded... I guess it's kind of not shocking to find later chapters doing the same thing.

I do hope DLC fleshes the story out more - I agree all the ingredients for classic game are there. The open world stuff intellectually seems tedious and repetitive, but when I'm in it I really enjoy it! This is one game where 100% completion seems like something genuinely fun to do.

It's been a great game so far - I am really happy I chose this one to do another Final Fantasy. Absolutely worth the money - I already ponied up for the season pass!

[Jason]

For anyone wanting to play it, or is currently playing it and confused by the story, I highly recommend the below Wikia page. It gives a much better synopsis than the game does, sets the world up a little and explains some of the history. The chapter summaries are good too, I wish I read each chapter summary as I completed them, to better understand what happened, since the game, at times glosses over things, or puts vital information in optional items (ie if you miss a clickable random paper on the table somewhere, you might miss a piece of the story).

NOTE, LINK CONTAINS SPOILERS IF YOU SCROLL DOWN TOO FAR

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_XV#Synopsis

[Jason]

Post end game notes so far:

- 65 hours in or so, I would estimate I'm about 90% of the way through side missions and 75-90% through hunts
- I did some saving of xp then hit up an expensive hotel, shot my levels up to 70ish
- Did a certain dungeon that proved to be quite difficult, thankful that I decided to 'level up' before doing it
- Took forever to do said dungeon, but finally completed it
- Then 'celebrated' by doing something dumb, like dying.
- Discovered that the game's auto save function focuses on story elements not optional elements, and lost said dungeon completion :(
- Also note on said dungeon, it has a room that spawns pretty strong enemies every time you enter it (unlike other dungeons that don't re-spawn after you kill something), should be good for grinding some decent xp when I need to get closer to 99 for some of the 'special dungeons'
- Including the re-do of the above dungeon, I have two more dungeons/swords to get, then it's time to figure out the special dungeons, and fight some of the big beasts.

I'm guessing I'll be at 80-100 hours played by the time I'm done with the things I want to do :up: I don't care for things like 99 every item/level/all abilties/weapons etc... I do however want to explore the whole map and fight/beat all beasties there are to fight.

[thesameguy]

We ended up spontaneously redoing the kitchen over the past week, but I threw in the towel Monday afternoon and played a bit...

Did the same leveling - had 130k exp, stayed in the fancy hotel, now Level 70. :lol: I have 360 AP banked right now, just not sure whether to spend that on one of the big 333 skills or a bunch of smaller ones. I honestly am not finding all that much that's truly challenging (some of the big monsters take a while, but it's never been close), so I don't know what stuff needs attention the most. Probably just hang onto it until I find a reason to upgrade something.

I think I am to chapter six - I am dragging my feet on getting on the boat, doing more quests. Unfortunately I have no idea which dungeons I've been in, or which ones have been completed. I do feel like I've missed some things, but don't really know what or, more specifically, how. Last night I did Costlemark Tower and Crestholm Channels. The Tower became a little repetitive towards the end, but the boss battle was worth it. The Channels I just kept getting lost over and over and would warp back to the beginning to retrace my steps. With many of the dungeons being elegantly disguised but still really linear, when you run into a legit maze or complex contraption you're just never really sure if you actually finished or not. The map helps, but oftentimes you can see things you can't reach, but now the map is filled in and you don't know you still need to do something. :|

It's still fun! :) I have a few more things to do on the mainland, but all the side quests and hunts are drying up so I guess it's on with the story!

I do know that since the last patch the game has become interestingly unstable - twice I've lost dungeon crawls to frozen games. Twice I've lost complete control of Noctis - once I couldn't move him around, once I could not use any menus.... so had to force-quit. Yesterday when I loaded the game some real interesting stuff happened - the party just stopped helping out... they followed me around, but didn't lift a finger. If I used their techniques, the animations would fire off but there would be no effect. It was the middle of the night, so the daemons came out. Oddly, Aranea would drop out of the sky and help. Eventually that got annoying so save/reload & all is well. I had become pretty religious about manually saving the game any time I've made progress - losing a game day's worth of work sucks.

Which dungeon is the one you're talking about? I think I have them all found... not entirely sure if I've been in all of them. :| Gonna need to fast travel around and be sure they're all cleared out.

[Jason]

Costlemark is the one I had to do over :lol:

Not sure if I've done Crestholm, I'll be slowly getting around to all the dungeons and 'special doors' in time :)

[thesameguy]

Costlemark frustrated the crap out of me - I thought I was done but on a second pass realized I'd missed the point. :smh:

Crestholm is a damn confusing maze, and what's worse is that after you beat it, Takka sends you back. JERK!!!

I have found a few of those special doors but don't know what they're for - I assume somewhere along the lines I'll get access to them, right now I'm just regretting not keeping a diary so I don't waste time repeating the past. Oops.

[thesameguy]

I realized last night tombs that you've visited appear on the map with an icon, then realized that isn't reliable... some tombs appear, but some don't. Discovered it was unreliable after going through a dungeon a second time and finding the tomb door cracked. Hey, at least you can warp back to the entrance. Then, after some rye, realized that you can tell what tombs you've visited by your inventory. 9 holy items = 9 tombs visited. Derp.

I then remembered I had bailed out of the Mines before because the end boss beat my ass. Well, I came back to show him how big I'd gotten. Level 25 Noctis not so scary. Level 70 Noctis is gonna beat your ass, bitch.

So, I think I've wrapped up all the dungeon tombs - 10 tombs, 10 weapons.

I did a couple more side quests, some more hunting, a little fishing (to pass time), racked up another 100kx2 EXP, leveled to 74 but I still haven't set sail. I think I am going to have to press on with the plot now, as the side quests are kinda getting silly and involve way too much errand-running. I typically stack up quests and knock them out as I travel back and forth between Galdin Quay and Lestallum (one loop per session ;) ) but it's reached the point where I just keep getting sent back to places I just was, sometimes to do nearly or even exactly the same thing I just did. When it's between cities or outposts, fast travel in the car makes it painless, but often it's between parking spots and you literally have to drive. I found myself drinking and reading the interwebs while Ignis drove us around last night, not a great use of time. ;)

I have over 500AP banked now, which I still don't know what to do with. I have something like 70k in cash, and mountains of items I will never use and should probably sell. The game is so solid that I really hope they expand the content without making it clunky. I'm not sure how to do that or what I'd expect, but it's been so great to play I'll be seriously disappointed if they phone in the DLC like so many games do.

[Jason]

There's a couple areas that you visit further in the story that they could easily expand upon should they wish, I'm hopeful, but keeping my expectations low. :)

[thesameguy]

Ha. Me too. :(

[21Kid]

So tough trying not to read all the tips/tricks and go at it on my own. :eek:

[thesameguy]

If you've ever played a FF game before, go it alone. You get it enough and the in-game coaching/direction is plenty to move you along.

If you've not, you might want to read something, as I feel there are some assumptions about your knowledge made in the game that may not be accurate. Things like how items can be used, the nature of quests, etc. I remember specifically consulting the physical strategy guide way back in the day because I just didn't understand some mechanics, but knowing that stuff now made XV readily playable.

I've had to flat-out google two things because I just wasn't sure but (how many holy arms there are, and something specific about one of the dungeons) but I've read nothing else and found the story, the environment, and the discovery to be good fun.

FWIW, I have not found any fiddly details that, if missed, make the game unplayable or unfun as happens in some games. If you just get buoyed along by the story you'll do fine. If you go completely off the rails you'll do fine. :up:

[thesameguy]

Man, Jason wasn't kidding about being buffeted along by the story post Chapter Six! I took a damn phone call and before it was over I'd started 11! WTF!

[Jason]

:lol:

It really ramps up quickly!

I haven't played in a few days. Got a little worn out on leveling up, preparing myself for some of the bigger challenges post game.

[thesameguy]

I took a break as well for about a week, but played a bit last night. I did feel good just BLASTING through Altissia. I think I was supposed to be like Level 15 or something. Imperial troops were trying to get in my way but I just sliced through them. Were you saying something??? I THOUGHT NOT.

[thesameguy]

Man, that's a big turtle, isn't it?

[Jason]

:lol:

I need to pick the game back up, check out the new additions, and get cracking on some things. I've been distracted by Netflix.

[thesameguy]

I finished the game Tuesday night - the last five chapters took maybe two hours. Definitely a rush job, which is too bad.

I decided to check out the post-game content last night, and spent two or three hours just mashing buttons against a turtle toe. Plowed through a bunch of potions, but was never in any risk. It was really quite tedious. The drop is pretty stunning, though... makes me think the deeper dungeons are going to be real difficult.

[thesameguy]

Ermahgerd.

While literally waiting for paint to dry over the weekend I started in on the post-game content.

Regalia Type-F is a death machine but quite fun.
They should provide snacks with the Steyliff Grove Menace Dungeon. And valium. Stressful and frustrating and an eternity! SO MANY TONBERRYS.
This dude Rudolph gives you side-quests, and the things you fight are really interesting, and two were really hard.

I almost had a major catastrophe when doing a side quest and I got an INVENTORY FULL warning. I never really sell anything, because I am never short on cash, but this put the fear in me. I cleaned out my "accessories" and "weapons" inventory, eliminating things I would never use again... leaving only things I do or conceivably might. I am now sitting on 200 large. That number would be a lot lower if I could replenish the fortune's worth of supplies I blew through on the SGMD, but most of that stuff was found and not bought (all the Mega potions, etc.).

It still blows my mind that all of this was never part of the main game. Makes me sad thinking of what it might have been like had it not been rushed out. As the story unfolded I only once or twice felt overmatched or underprepared - I enjoyed letting the story unfold and really enjoyed the scenery, but it was essentially never challenging. However, even at level 90+ some of this content is really difficult. I don't care for the grinding like with the turtle, but I don't mind at all enemies that make you think about strategy. I found some really exciting (to me, anyway) ways to deal with some of these challenges... ways that resulted in me switching weapons or techniques multiple times in combat. That's probably normal in Wait Mode, but a bit stressful in realtime mode. The Ignis Enhance, wait a sec, Prompto Gravisphere, Armiger, Gladiolus Downhammer is MIGHTY COOL. I also enjoyed messing around with the Accelerators - the Tech Accelerator is really fun when trying to mash up techniques.

I wish FFXV stored stats like GTA. I would be really interested to know how many Phoenix Downs I used in just SGMD & one of Rudolph's quests alone. ZOMG.

[thesameguy]

I don't think this really needs spoiler tags, but in case it does:

The thing that makes the Costlemark Menace Dungeon special is that it prevents you from using items... No potions or Phoenix Downs or anything. Since it's a dungeon, you can't save... Except for the camp sites every ten levels. I didn't know this before starting l, so I had wrapped up a hunt for the Jabberwock with the Menace Dungeon figuring I'd save time. Huge mistake. The hunt is annoying enough, since it requires fully resolving the bottom floor puzzle - that entails something like 20 required fights, plus at least three big battles (and maybe more, if you blow the puzzle) and THEN the Jabberwock. But I did that, and headed into the Menace Dungeon.

First several levels were fine, but a struggle. Then I died. And you can't use Phoenix Down, and having not hit the first campsite there were no saves, so basically a huge waste of time. There is no need to combine the hunt and menace dungeon, so clearly don't do that - not worth risking losing the hunt since it's a huge PITA by itself. Do that, then go back for the Menace Dungeon... Lesson learned.

Now I need to devise a strategy for the Menace Dungeon. Clearly it's going to involve some status boosts from meals and a giant stockpile of magic. Unfortunately, I haven't used magic much so my Ascension tree thing is pretty weak on the magic front. Whoop. I'm maxed out on levels, so gaining AP is pretty tedious - fishing, driving, camping, or riding Chocobos around. I think I am going to need those potency et al boosts.

I think using Armiger is out since it consumes health and I can't use potions to recover. Thinking maybe using the Tech Booster item so I can build the tech bar faster - less hand to hand, more frequent use of Ignis's Regroup? I don't know how deep Costlemark is, but ten levels of tough foes without items at a time is ROUGH. And I thought the hundred levels of Steyliff was hard!

[thesameguy]

I have had a really odd last few days - nothing really bad, just peculiarities and such. Thought I would relax with some FFXV.

I realized about 20 minutes in that I am sick of the music, so I turned it off. It's really weird playing the game in silence - the conversations between the characters seems that much more real without a soundtrack. Also, big battles seem far less frantic without music... and that's not bad.

I started in on Costlemark's Menace dungeon and...

FUCK ME!

I made it down thirty levels without too much drama. I was better prepared this time with lots more magic, but the real secret really seemed to be better use of items - the Tech Turbocharger namely - and status-boosting meals. One "secret" that turned out to be pretty helpful was magic that wraps healing in - you can't use items, but unloading even a basic spell with a "healing level 99" side effect at least guarantee Noctis lives, so that's a plus.

At level 31 things started to get difficult. A tiny room with three braindrainers tripped me up, but a minor tactics switch and all is well. Things took a damned dive at level 34 - a huge room with four iron giants. At first I thought it was not going to be a problem - I beat up iron giants all the time, and slowing my roll and being more careful wouldn't be a problem. So, so, so very wrong. The iron giants have an ability like Prompto's Gravisphere that draws you in and crushes you - it's more or less a guaranteed hit that only Noctis even has a chance of avoiding (by warping away). When four of these assholes do that at once, or worse in sequence, it's pretty much instant death for the entire party. It's almost impossible for me to recover anyone, because I can't see shit with four iron giants, and even when I can it's often difficult or impossible to get to them with four giant swords clanging around. It's awful. After that, there's no point in continuing because with no other distractions it's only a matter of time before Noctis gets dead.

I probably replayed these four levels 50 times. Got SO CLOSE to winning once but never that close again. I can always take one giant out, usually two, sometimes three, but usually by that third the rest of the party is dead so one misstep and it's over. Sometimes that misstep is my fault, sometimes it's what appears to be a bug in the game - Armiger or a spell that goes off (it takes the energy, etc.) but has no effect. Very frustrating. I've had the best results using the Armiger Accelerator as I can usually build up two Armigers which is generally enough to wipe out two giants, but then.... ?

I'm not sure if I need a new strategy or if I need more stuff. It's hard to strike a balance between attack and defense - the longer I'm in that room the more chance a multi-gravisphere event will take out the party, but the more aggressive I am the more chance conventional violence will take out the whole party. :| If I leave I can probably work on my magic some more - I made a terrible mistake and built up a spell arsenal that favors fire and lightning which is not useful against the giants, they need ice. BLAH. Wondering if maybe I'm better off leaving to collect more/stronger ice spells, increasing the party's auto-healing capability, etc. or just sucking less and using what I've got.


I guess the second DLC came out, which as near as I can tell is some specialized hunts that are released at intervals - the first is out now, the second is 3/6. Kinda like the Forzathon events! This first one is 100 cactuar which attack in waves. The price is some cash and - most importantly - 333 AP, which is huge! The cactuar also drop a mess of items as they die, especially if you have one of the double-drop status boosts or items and a high-level Gladio Survival skill. it's clearly a big battle.

However, it's stupid-easy to beat. Prompto's Gravisphere MURDERS the cactuar. Tech Turbocharger ramps up the tech bar real quick, and just keep unloading Gravispheres. It took only a couple minutes to wipe out the cactuar army, zero restorative items used in the process. Could not be easier! I'll bet that's how the iron giants feel. :(

Also, the DLC seemed to have unlocked >99 levels. I noticed my EXP is going up again, with something like 1,000,000 needed for the next level. What sucks about this is ALL THE TOUGH THINGS I'VE FOUGHT since max'ing out my level, all that EXP WASTED. That's real irksome. :(

[thesameguy]

Tried Costlemark some more last night. After a strategy adjustment (more equipment switching) I was finally able to beat those damned iron giants. Unfortunately, at the end of the battle everyone was very, very dead so they revived with 25% health. Got totally murdered two floors down pretty much instantly.

I threw in the towel, left the dungeon, and decided to take a slightly less adventurous but probably more effective approach. Spent about 30 minutes farming the Zu to get Zu beaks. Zu beaks are one of a few items that can be combined in spell crafting to make limit break spells. I figured out the farming bit when I was trying to get Zu breast for a quest. Park your car in town, walk up the dungeon, camp at the campsite at the peak, fight the Zu. Then "return to entrance," "return to car," redo the hunt, "return to last rest point," rinse and repeat until you get what you want. It takes maybe 3-4 minutes per pass if you're fast - not a huge investment in time with very little walking. :up: In this case, I wanted fifteen Zu beaks. They drop three at a time about 70% of the time (it seems) - for me it went breast beak beak breast beak beak... So I had to kill that damned bird about 20 times. Fortunately, the battle has one or two of those "strategy bonuses" (dunno what they're called) so I was able to extract about 60 AP for those fights too.

Now I have an assload of limit break spells - probably 30-40 of them. I've never used one, but I hear they do like 100,000 points of damage each so I'm pretty excited about that. Hopefully those combined with some healcast spells and I'll be able to get through this dungeon. Those iron giants better brace for impact - I'm bringing a blizzard or ten. Hopefully going to try this plan out tonight - this damned dungeon is gnawing at my soul!

[Jason]

Holy hell the Cactuar timed hunt is a pain in the ass. But, you get a lot of EXP and AP for it :up:

Edit: I clearly need to spend some of my AP :lol:

[thesameguy]

Get that Gravisphere up! :lol:

Took my limit break spells into Costlemark and WALTZED through the entire thing. I did die once, due to poor meal choice, but I reloaded from that camp save, changed my dinner, and knocked out the rest. Can't stress the importance of Lasagna Al Forno enough - I won't spoil too badly but a significant battle becomes almost silly-funny when the enemy's primary attacks are element-based. :lol: I went in with a full compliment of Freeze, Flare, and... Electon and came out with most of it. The Freeze spells made the iron giants readily doable and that was the key detail. The rest of the limit break spells were useful, but I mostly didn't use them... physical violence was sufficient. ;)

I think that was the last real quest I had to do. I've been finishing up hunts because I enjoy the big beasts, but there ain't much left to do. Definitely zero interest in grinding to item/skill/whatever completion. Once the sights have been seen, I'll put it away.

[thesameguy]

I was wrong, there was a whole extra dungeon to be done... but screw Pitioss, and screw 45 degree angles. That's some bullshit.

2nd timed hunt ain't no thing when you've got a magic flask full of Flare.

[Jason]

After Zelda, I'm not sure if I'm ever going to return to FFXV :|

[thesameguy]

Can't blame you - Pitioss is an insane, monster-free dungeon. Looking back I cannot decide whether the experience was worth the frustration or not.

If you're not, watch this:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0VMJ8oEmYw

It's like 30 minutes of video. Took about five hours of my life. I had to watch the video because after spending five hours there were parts I could not remember and I was sure I'd missed something obvious. I don't think I did.

[balki]

Been lurking here for months; thought it was a PS-exclusive like SFV :o
Do I rent Kingsglaive or can I just jump in? I know the obvious answer is yes, but I'm just looking for a slightly more fleshed out Diablo/Disgaea (grind battles, collect items, level up... repeat a hundred times) rather than anything centering around a plot/heavy dialogue.

[thesameguy]

Rent Kingsglaive for sure. The game-story is Swiss cheese no matter how much you read/listen in game. The movie sets up all the characters and gets you off on the right foot.

Although if you seriously just want to press A a lot, meh, it doesn't matter. :D

[balki]

you can just hold down A (sidetrack: Mortal Kombat X has a Test Your Might (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjZIsZ1VdBI) mode: you just have to mash buttons. The 9th and 10th stages get hard and really hard. Loved it!)

[balki]

Just found out that the last FF I played (FFX) was 15 years ago.
I like what they've done, it felt more like GTA (actually tried to jack a parked car and wished I could melee the greeter at Galdin Quay) and there are actual challenges.

Prompto seems useless; I'm taking on 5 huge cheetahs and I hear him snapping pictures. Later in the chapter he asks "you mad, bro?" ... indeed

edit, forgot about the product placement, I'm all for it as long as it's not in your face or gratuitous like in some movies (GM and Audi in Transformers and Iron Man). I can't think of a single game outside of racing 'sims' that do product placements (I'm sure there are and I just haven't come across them)

[thesameguy]

I thought Prompto was excess baggage for the longest time, but when things get really difficult his techniques are absolute game changers. Once I figured out how to optimize him it was night and day. Stunning, really.

Speaking of, when you get there, if you get there, the higher-level sealed ("Menace") dungeons I last posted on are the best for pure button mashing - just fight after fight after fight. No plot, no story, no dialogue. Just kill or be killed.

Except the secret Dungeon - Pitioss - which is zero fighting, all horrible.

[balki]

Looking forward to Menace (biggest complaint so far is all the traveling needed between hunts and wild goose chases)

[thesameguy]

Once you get the chocobos that stuff goes faster. And, of course, unlocking fast travel in the Regalia helps. :) Don't forget that you can choose "return to car" and "return to camp" from the map. By strategically leaving the car and setting up camp in certain places you can rocket around the map pretty effectively.

[Rare White Ape]

For Forza Horizon 3 fans:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFk2QVFlyVA

[thesameguy]

I'm interested to see how they make it drive, since you can't really drive it in FF.

[Jason]

I only owned FFXV on Xbone for like a week, before switching to PS4Pro, wonder if I'll be able to get it...

[Rare White Ape]

You have to own either FH3 or FFXV, and it looks like you own both, so you'll get it.

[Rare White Ape]

FF XV Royal Edition, now with more... royalness. Coming soon to XB/PS and PC.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPHypsuXNKs

[Jason]

Seems like this is the edition that the developers probably intended if they weren't rushed to meet fiscal deadlines. I might play through the game again with these additions sometime... or not. We'll see.

[animalica]

https://www.vg247.com/2018/01/16/final-fantasy-15-pc-version-gets-march-release-date-royal-edition-announced-for-ps4-xbox-one

Final Fantasy 15 minimum PC specs

OS: Windows 7 SP1/ Windows 8.1 / Windows 10 64-bit
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500 (3.3GHz or higher), AMD FX-6100 (3.3GHz or higher)
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050, AMD Radeon R9 280
RAM: 8GB
Free space: 100GB or higher
DirectX: 11

Final Fantasy 15 recommended PC specs

OS: Windows 7 SP1/ Windows 8.1 / Windows 10 64-bit
CPU: Intel Core i7-3770 (3.4GHz or higher), AMD FX -8350 (4.0 GHz or higher)
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050, AMD Radeon R9 280
RAM: 16GB
Free space: 100GB or higher
DirectX: 11

Final Fantasy 15 4K HDR PC specs

OS: Windows 10 64-bit Fall Creators update
CPU: Intel Core i7-3770 (3.4GHz or higher), AMD FX-8350 (4.0 GHz or higher)
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
RAM: 16GB
Free space: 155GB or higher
DirectX: 11

[Rare White Ape]

Suddenly I’m very thirsty.

https://i2.wp.com/nintendosoup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/7A3D10FF-48E1-4803-B359-8F6FDBF74F9E.jpeg?resize=640%2C960&ssl=1

https://nintendosoup.com/square-enix-celebrates-30-years-final-fantasy-whisky/