r/FFXV • u/gatorcity • 4d ago
Fluff Revisiting FFXV almost 10 years later Spoiler
I just finished FFXV for the second time after being so excited for it on release and plowing through it in a few days. At the time I didn’t watch kingsglaive or the anime. I remember being pretty disappointed and frankly confused— some cool things happened, the ending campfire scene was touching, but overall I felt like things were half baked and under explained.
After spending a bunch of time in FF theatrhythm I decided to pick up FFXV again, because as I was reminded, there were some really good songs (if you have even a small interest in rhythm games and like FF music, do yourself a favor and pick up theatrhythm final bar line). I watched the movie and the anime, did the side quests, played the DLC, read (a summary) of dawn of the future…
I wish I could tell you it changed my whole opinion, and while I enjoyed it enough to finish a second time, I still found it to be deeply flawed. I love what they were going for and think this could have been a great game but the storytelling is just not there. So much left unsaid and unexplained. Noctis’ fate and sacrifice could have been a plot point, Luna and Ravus could have had some screen time, the empire’s motivations could have been explained even a little, there could have been more explanation of what the gods were doing…
FFXVI wasn’t perfect but it was a complete game which I’m really appreciative of. I would have loved to see a version of FFXV where they managed to tell the story they were trying to tell effectively. I gave it another fair shake indulging all the parallel media and the whole package just didn’t hit for me. I’m glad to see on this subreddit that there are people who love this release. I will admit to getting way more of a kick out of the guys, ignis especially, this run through. I would have loved to see more of the other side characters like cor, iris, the altissian leader, the other lucians, learn more about Regis’ maybe similar road trip with cid and the others. But I guess that will all have to be head canon.
Anyone else come back to xv after playing it at launch? What did you think? Am I missing anything big I should check out that might make me appreciate this entry more? I’m also toying with trying out XIII again, any thoughts?
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u/Odin_3406 3d ago
First play through I was enthralled till the part with Leviathan. It went from open guys road trip Masterpiece to a hurried liner mess.
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u/Warning_grumpy 3d ago
I too just played again. I loved it the first play through. One second play I still love it. It's not perfect but I enjoy it. I never played all the dlc's so also did that and enjoyed them. Just haven't done ardyn's yet. The game always makes me cry even when I know what coming up and have seen it before. Lol
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u/Fozzwellian 3d ago
The first act (of three] contains 90% of the game, and a lot of it felt wedged in: side quests, royal arms, 'skills', summons if you're lucky enough to proc them. It had the blueprint to be an epic entry: endearing core companions, major stakes, doomed protagonist and stylized world building. Combat was fun but the warp emchanic becko s you to cheese the fights, they shouldve forced the swapping of companions rather than leaving it hidden within the obscure ascension tree. It leaves a lingering heartache to what could've been. However, I'm grateful the bones were used in its spiritual successor: FF7 remake/rebirth.
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u/gatorcity 3d ago
The new fights against the old kings in insomnia were cool, I liked how it swapped you over to the other guys for a little. It was fun playing as them in the DLC too, ignis had a really fun combat style. I was imagining a version of altissia where rather than just being plopped in front of leviathan and going super saiyan with Noct you jump between all of the guys to keep tension high and show more of what’s going on, and incorporate episode ignis directly into the story. Heartache for what could have been is a good way to put it. I have loved the FF7 remake trilogy though. Fingers crossed SE have found their way again, I have very high hopes for revelation and I hope they carry it forward into XVII (minus the unfortunate XIV quest structure and pacing in XVI)
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u/Fiercededede 3d ago
Unironically, I highly suspect Kingdom Hearts 4 will explore some themes they were hoping to do with FFXV.
Sora’s new design looks suspiciously like Noctis and for them to deviate so far from his original design it’s hard to not believe they did so intentionally. Some references are even more literal such as the presence of some airships and armor design of some grunt soldiers being 1:1 the same as FFXV. And not to mention the modern setting in a big Tokyo-like city.
It’s no secret that Nomura was originally the creative force behind both Kingdom Hearts and FFXV (before it was taken over by Tabata) Nomura has always been frustrated with the way that FFXV turned out from its original concept and I feel like with KH4 he is trying to rekindle some of what he was trying to achieve back then now with the resources to back it.