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Final Fantasy XV - Windows Edition First Impressions - MMORPG.com
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Final Fantasy XV - Windows Edition First Impressions - MMORPG.com
The wait is over and Final Fantasy XV has finally made its way to the PC market. Let's get the first thing out of the way, 86 gigs. Because I'm sure people will complain about the install size or the system needed to run the game. Overall, I have a decent PC setup and the game ran fine after a few hiccups. Let's dig into the game for a quick impression, shall we?
Comments
It's a beautiful game - but at 4K it eats up pretty much any rig out there on the highest settings. 60FPS is unachievable with a single GPU.
For some reason Square keeps trying to reinvent the wheel, instead of offer more of the same formula that fans grew to love.
I sort of think it is if they say it is.
Just like One can look at any particular Elder Scrolls game and say "this is not an Elder Scrolls game".
Well, if the company that makes it says this is a blah blah game then it is. Especially if it sets the tone for future games in the series.
What it isn't is x game in the series that a player has determined defines the series.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I too would love a traditional turn-based FF to come from Square one day, but I'll settle for Tokyo RPG Factory games until that cycle comes back around.
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Denuvo killed the game for me, I have a massive collection of every Final Fantasy series going up to like PS2, and some on Steam, but not buying anymore Square Enix titles until Denuvo is removed because all it does is hurt the paying customer, decreases PC Performance by taking extra resources when Multitasking, and may not be playable in the future just like Securom... All Denuvo does is hurt the customers who actually buy the game, and prevents modding from fans who like to mod their own games, Just Google Final Fantasy XV Denuvo, what happened before it was even released.
I am sure they will not miss my cash, but just can not look at how the game plays and think i would enjoy it.
Would much rather sit on the sidelines and wish for what could have been, than get a game i dislike and have bad feeling for a loved series. R.I.P. Final Fantasy...
This particular "final fantasy" was derived from a series of spin offs they had targeted for mobile platforms, in fact the world it takes place in was supposed to be the same world as Type-0. At some point they probably saw there was more money is scraping away its original spin off name and tacking on a number to it, despite so much changing in setting, focus and gameplay.
Its the first "FF" to feature a "new" active cross battle system aka "AXB", which closely resembles that from Type-0. Again not surprising since it was originally a spin off title set in the same Type-0 world.
As for the developers, they wanted the focus to be largely based on a few concepts... which were the car itself, the feeling of a road trip and some friends. The car is a more important character than the rest of the cast, or rather the game was designed with it as being the focal point. This is another indicator on how far apart the game is from the rest of the numbered FF series.
A lot started to go down hill when Squaresoft ..er Enix at some point decided to break their long standing rule with the Final Fantasy, which was never to do direct sequels.
Final Fantasy in a way was considered a kind of sub-genre within the jrpg genre, once you start changing a lot of the core components of it, the "sub-genre" aspect of it is lost.
Either way, there are always going to be people who will like the game... or rather anything with FF printed on it. Publisher's love this kind of consumer, branding bias is a great money maker.
I have a lot of the FF titles on my PC (thank you Steam), but I rarely play them there. Most of those are just nostalgia buys, I'll admit.
Apart from mind-blowing PC graphics (and an install size that won't fit on some of my older SSDs), any other reason to get this on PC?
But you know how that goes...will the modding community pick it up and the mod scene will be booming? Or will the modding community be small to nothing? Can go either way.
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul
If the publisher wants to target a difference audience (and genre) outside of their original fanbase, that's certainly up to them. The fan base in turn does not have to purchase said product, but they also are equally free to critique the said departure as well.
For what it is worth, the FF series has had its ups and downs, with a lack of "innovation" resulting in some stale releases in the early days. FF6 had them finally add a steam punk component, as well as add a more detailed rpg system. Thing is, everything they added to the series was more about building upon existing design choices rather than departing from them.
As far as sales go, FF7 is still their biggest seller (topping over 12 million copies sold), so you think that would be the standard for Square. Type-0 did not get even remotely close to that ( I do not believe it even topped a million), and as such we see FF15 not reaching that height. Unlike many of its predecessors, it is technically an "action rpg" rather than a typical jrpg. This is fairly significant change for the numbered series.
Final Fantasy's biggest rival (especially back then) was Dragon Quest, which does relatively well and has not had to depart drastically from the series.
Here is the important part to take away from this. They invested a lot of money into the project, perhaps a decision they regret. Tabata-san said they need to sell at least 10 million copies to consider the game a "success". They also realized that they probably would not reach that goal if it was a branded as a "spin off". In this case it would have been called "Final Fantasy Versus".
So in order to achieve more sales to either break even or make enough profit, the game was sold as FF15 (which is what a lot of fans were looking forward too). As it stand now, FF15 has only sold around 6.5-7 million copies (multi-platform)... 3-3.5 million short of what they need. It is entirely possible they can reach that with the PC release, then again maybe not.
If they wish to keep trying to appeal to a "market" that is more risky or does not generate the kind of revenue they need, they are free to do so but if we look strictly at the numbers, over saturating the market with FF (including spinoff) titles and changing target audiences (genres) might not be nearly as profitable in the long run. It starts to look more like quantity over quality at that point as well.
At some point some of original fans (or those who want something close to FF7...ect) will clock out of purchasing altogether. If Square believes it can replace that audience with a new one, one that prefers their changes in direction, then that's a risk they are going to take.
From my point of view, I do not think they were actively seeking a new audience in this case, but rather try to get back the losses on a bad investment or risky project. In other words FF15 looks more like a title trying to reduce financial damage due to heavy investment on a less than ideal spin off.
Why? FF15 (Versus) was in development for over 10 years... let that sink in.
You pretty much say that they have changed things instead of catering to their fans. Your wording implies you are a fan.
He is simply pointing out that they are now catering, at least with this game, to a different group than their former fans.
Now, whether this is true or not is another thing entirely.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I do like the little touches like your character actually gets dirty, your clothes get dirty and what not and your friends make comments about it
Game is just a ton of fun to play. First Final Fantasy I played was FF7 and didn't like it at all. I don't like that kind of gameplay what so ever. I hate (most of the time) turn based combat, unless its a strategy game. I tried FF10 and that one was a lot better (I think it had turn based combat, but I liked it a lot more, I think cause it was more fast paced), I actually finished that one. And that was the last Final Fantasy I played till this one.
But FF XV has been an amazing experience so far. Combat is amazingly fun, so much action to it. Story is kinda good so far. Still in beginning before picking up my fixed car. I explore/dp side-stuff more in games than main story...
I do like the monster hunts and fighting some of the bigger enemies is intense, love how can find a lot of stuff exploring, love finding new cooking recipes and all the side stuff to do.
And what is #1 most important to me in any game...wow is the immersion amazing. The game feels so immersive, and like an actual world instead of a game. That is the kinda game I like. Probably one of the most immersive RPGs I've played in a long time.
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul
Not really a good comparison. In fact it's pretty terrible. Each FF game is it's own world/universe that only shares a few of the series staples(Chocobos, moggles etc). Each one also has a completely new cast and setting. Friday the 13th series is a continuation of the same antagonist's story over and over again.
A better comparison would be to compare it to say Stephan King's books. Each written by the same author, but each tale is unique.
When I downloaded the game and saw Denuvo being installed I laughed. First I knew you'd post your usual stupid pro-cheater rhetoric. Second, I knew you wouldn't pick up the game because of it. Even if you really wanted to play it lol. I hope every game you are looking forward to has Denuvo lol.
That was what they did with every Final Fantasy. It is part of the design to change it ever time to have something new. While I am don't like this one as much as any of the others, just finished another run thru 12 the other day, it isn't a bad game at all.
No argument about the size of the files from me, but you are wrong about running it at 60 fps with a single card. Have everything maxed and stays around 58 to 60 fps with no problem at all for me. It all has to do with your set up and what you have.
FF7 remains my favourite game of all time, I still play through it about once a year. That game made me a fan of the series so I've played quite a lot of them since.
However, they've pretty much lost me as a customer now. I feel that around FF10, Square stopped caring as much about the gameplay and started focusing more and more on the story. I could just about stomach it through 10 and 12, but 13 is where they lost me. It's like they just said "fuck it" when it comes to gameplay and focused almost solely on story, resulting in a really garbage game.
15 looks to be a continuation of that trend. Garbage gameplay but a strong focus on story. I actually bought 15 for my brother on xbone as he was an even bigger fan of the FF series than me. He quit after a few days due to terrible gameplay.
I am assuming that a part of the decline in the series is also due to things getting lost in translation. The stories that appeal to an eastern audience don't necessarily appeal to a western one. For example, when the characters starting getting more detailed and lifelike from FF10 onwards, I stopped being able to relate to them and thus stopped caring. The last game I played was FF13 and the characters and story were truly awful. Out of the 6 main characters, I only liked one of them (fang).
When I look at 15, it looks like the situation is even worse. All 4 main characters look like complete idiots to me, I have absolutely no desire to play any of them, let alone feel any connection to them or desire to help them. I want to see them suffer, not succeed! I thought I might be being too harsh so I did watch the anime series but to be honest that just made things worse. The FF7 film, Advent Children, had a similar effect on me. I used to love Cloud, but when they created him in high definition and turned him into some emo douchebag I really stopped caring. Maybe he was always an emo douchebag, I don't know, but that was certainly hidden in the original game.
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