General JRPG Topic

[vanguard333]

I should probably clarify that I have played Xenoblade Chronicles X; in fact, it's the first one that I played (I have yet to play XC2 as I don't have a switch). 

21 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I think the lines are supposed to be

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Blood- since the Monado in its sealed state can't hurt highly intelligent lifeforms. And human blood would therefore be something it can't touch. Turn blue means ether is running through them instead I think. Ether being more of an inorganic-ish substance that organic and inorganic life need.

You are right in that there is no explanation for why Xord would run low on blood, but I'd guess the human cores of the Faces can circulate blood through the system for so long before the host has to return, for the health of the host I'd guess. Fiora, I'm sure you're getting something of an idea, doesn't have the most healthy of bodies in her present state.

 

Yeah I figured that. But yeah; they never addressed why they suddenly turned blue, and it's especially jarring that it never comes up again. 

 

23 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I'll let you play the game all the way through first, but ShulkxFiora was eh to me. ShulkxMelia I preferred. But that is just me.

Also, when at a certain moment in the game you're assigned control of Melia alone again, pay Shulk a visit and chat to him a few times. Won't say any more about it, but this optional scene should be noted.

Interesting. I mainly dislike ShulkxMelia because of the love-triangle problem that I mentioned. 

I guess I just like Shulk and Fiora because the player is actually shown that they like each other, rather than just told; as can often happen in stories. "Oh; just pair up the leading lady and the protagonist, and just tell the audience that they like each other. People will buy that." 

 

24 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

The irony of this statement is that this is, for Monolith, supposed to be oriented towards gameplay more than plot. Xenogears and Xenosaga- its prior works with Square Soft (now Square Enix) and Namoc- were both heavily oriented towards the story. Tetsuya Takahashi, the father of the Xeno franchise, actually let up on the plot in this game in attempt to develop better gameplay. He more or less forgot about it entirely in the followup XCX for reasons of learning how to develop in HD. But XC2 seems to be a returning to form.

That is funny. 

I played XCX. I enjoyed it. Looking back, I'd say the exploration was much better, though the borders between an area of low-level enemies and an area of high-level enemies could seem arbitrary and not well defined; particularly in the desert. But, for the most part, the game's pretty clear about what you can survive trying to explore at what time. The plot was a bit worse; the villains were more flat and not as interesting. But hey; no stupid love-triangle among the main heroes this time. That's an immediate several points in XCX's favour. As for the gameplay; the camera's better, but the combat is slightly worse as they cut out even more of the strategy stuff, though I did like the ranged-weapon & melee-weapon system; there's a lot that they could have done with that. 

[Slumber]

I was on board with Xenoblade's story until(mid-game spoilers):

Spoiler

It turned out Fiora was alive. That was a HUGE mood killer of the entire game for me. I just couldn't get into it after that. 

And to top it off, the ending full on reversing her becoming a Mechon was just... I get that there was a greater overall story, but at that point, the personal journey of Shulk, Reyn and Dunban suddenly felt entirely superfluous. There was still stuff with Dickson and Metalface, but I just really, really couldn't care. 

Everything else in the "greater scope" of the story just felt like watered down concepts that the team had already covered in previous Xeno games. 

 

Edited October 19, 2018 by Slumber

[vanguard333]

On ‎2018‎-‎10‎-‎19 at 1:07 PM, Slumber said:

I was on board with Xenoblade's story until(mid-game spoilers):

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It turned out Fiora was alive. That was a HUGE mood killer of the entire game for me. I just couldn't get into it after that. 

And to top it off, the ending full on reversing her becoming a Mechon was just... I get that there was a greater overall story, but at that point, the personal journey of Shulk, Reyn and Dunban suddenly felt entirely superfluous. There was still stuff with Dickson and Metalface, but I just really, really couldn't care. 

Everything else in the "greater scope" of the story just felt like watered down concepts that the team had already covered in previous Xeno games. 

 

I guess it makes it better then that I haven't played previous Xeno games.

Spoiler

Also, thanks for the confirmation that Dickson's evil, as I suspected immediately. What; did they think players wouldn't notice that he blatantly said, "I almost feel sorry for deceiving these youngsters"? Everything about him screams secretly evil. 

By the way, one thing I forgot to mention in my gigantic wall of text review is that I really like the creativity when it came to designing the fantasy races: the High Entia, the Nopon, the... I'll just say people that you meet on the fallen arm, and even the Mechon (although they don't really count as a fantasy race as none of them, aside from the Face Mechon, are sentient) are all very creatively designed and portrayed, and I really like that they went the extra mile of creating their own fantasy races, rather than relying on pre-established molds.

It's something I really like about Fantasy JRPGs in general; they tend to be (they aren't always; key words being "tend to be") more creative with the fantasy races than western fantasy RPGs. Almost every fantasy RPG made in the west uses elves and dwarves. In fact; I issue this challenge: name me a western fantasy RPG that doesn't have any of the following: elves, dwarves, orcs/goblins, or halflings. While some have put a clever spin on them (Warcraft Orcs not being inherently evil and Dalish Elves in Dragon Age being two big examples), they're still elves, dwarves and orcs. C'mon! Be creative! Use mythology that isn't Nordic or otherwise already used by Tolkien! 

With Japanese Fantasy games however, there's this; Legend of Zelda with the Gorons, Zora, Deku and Gerudo; Fire Emblem with the Manaketes and the Laguz; etc. 

Has anyone else noticed this?

Edited October 23, 2018 by vanguard333

[Armagon]

Remember when i said i'd play through the Neptunia spin-offs before Megadimension? I lied. I played through and finished Megadimension Neptunia with the true ending. So you know what that means

What i liked

• The story. Ok so the story in Neptunia games aren't that special (not that they are bad). I mean, yeah the story in Mk2/Rebirth 2 is commentary on game piracy while the post-game story in Rebirth 3 is a commentary on the money-sucking nature of gacha games but the stories themselves aren't too special. But the story in Megadimension was actually pretty good. Even if you remove the Neptunia aspect of it, it still manages to be a good story. The story is seperated into three arcs: Zero Dimension, Hyper Dimension and Heart Dimension. The Hyperdimension arc contains four sub-arcs in which you play as one of the four CPUs of Gameindustri. Each story was pretty well told and the Noire, Blanc and Vert chapters show that these games work even when Neptune isn't there to crack a meta joke (meta jokes were still around but less so because the main source of it wasn't there). On two seperate occasions, the game subverted my expectations. Obviously, the series can get really weird and Neptune likes to break the tone of some scenes but from a genuine standpoint, there were two occasions that subverted my expectations.
• The combat's improved from Rebirth 3. It's mostly the same but there have been some changes. For example, the new combo system allows for bigger boosts in power if you execute attacks in a specific order. The EXE Gauge is back from first and second games only it fills up much faster, probably because accessing HDD, Gold Forms and Next Forms use up one bar of the EXE Gauge.
  • I can't really talk about about the Gold Forms because despite me liking the Gold Third members, they kinda just sat on the bench. The Next Forms though? Mmm. The Next Forms are a powered up form of the CPUs after going HDD. Each one contains a very powerful skill that, when used, reverts a CPU back to their original form (so pre-HDD). Of course, even without that skill, Next Form is insanly powerful. I also like how Next Form represents the current generation of consoles. Noire's Next Form (which i have as my new profile pic as of the time of making this) represents the PS4, Blanc's Next Form represents the Wii U (which is a dead system but this game came out in 2015 in Japan so shhh)  and Vert's Next Form represents the Xbox One. Neptune represents Sega, who doesn't make consoles anymore, but as the face of the series, she still had to get a Next Form. 
    • I wonder if they'll give Blanc a new form to represent the Switch or if they'll just throw it on as customization parts for her HDD form.
• One again, the characters are just as great as ever. The new CPU Uzume (representing the Dreamcast) is both badass and sweet and has a cool design too. 
  • That actually brings up a point that i haven't brought up before. While some designs can be very fanservicy (*cough* Vert's HDD and Next Form *cough* Uni's HDD form *cough*), a lot of the designs in the series are actually really cool.
• There are at least two JoJo references in the game. One of them is one of C-Sha's Rush attacks, called Ora Ora. The other is Big Neptune's (referring to the Neptune of another dimension) voice clip during her rush attacks in which she pulls a Dio and yells Muda Muda. Only if you use the Japanese voices though.
• Music's pretty good. Neptunia has some good music but aside from the OPs and EDs, i felt that the soundtrack in previous games was average with a few good songs. Megadimension changed that by having a nice number of good songs. And of course, the OP is a banger and i think the devs knew that because they used it as the true final boss theme.
• I like the cleverness of the name: Megadimension Neptunia VII. VII stands for Victory 2 (since the third game was HDN Victory) but it's also technically the seventh mainline game as there were the remakes of the first three games before it. Hence, the VII.

What i didn't like

• Compile Heart, i don't know what it is, but for some reason you really like recycling dungeons in your Neptunia games. It wasn't blatant in Megadimension like it was in previous games and they actually had a good variety of dungeon themes this time. But it gets old when the first dungeon gets reused like three different times. Dungeon design is my least favorite part about these games, sometimes it just feels lazy. Or maybe it's a commentary on bad level design? Either way, the dungeons need to improve.
• The world map. I remember when random encounters didn't exist in the mainline games (dunno about the spin-offs). I remember when you didn't have to (for a low cost) build routes to reach the next stop on the world map. 
• This is the 7th mainline game and they still kick you back to the title screen if you lose a battle without giving you the option to retry. Why?
• I remember when characters that weren't in the party still got EXP from battles.

Final thoughts

Woo, with this, i have completed the mainline games. I haven't played the original three games but i don't need to, i got the Rebirth games for that. I can safely say that the Neptunia series is shaping up to be one of my favorite video game franchises ever. Top 5? Yes. Top 3? Mmmmmmmmmmm, maaaaaaaaaaybe. Haven't decided yet. In the future, i play through these games again but with the English voice acting. I had initially written off the English voice acting but i've heard some really funny lines so maybe i'll give it a fair shot and see if it's any good though i still maintain my stance that the Japanese voices capture the wackiness of this series much better.

I have Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Action Unleahsed downloaded and that's the first spin-off i'll be tackling. But now. At this rate, i'll burn myself out of Nep. I'm now going to go and finish Xenosaga, Baten Kaitos and Trails of Azure. I mean that this time.

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On 10/19/2018 at 1:07 PM, Slumber said:

Everything else in the "greater scope" of the story just felt like watered down concepts that the team had already covered in previous Xeno games. 

Ehhh, i think that's putting it a bit harsh. More like, less ambitious. Which makes sense considering Takahashi and his team had already gotten fucked over twice, first by Square and then by Namco so they limited their ambition. Then there's the fact that Xenoblade 1 was never meant to be a Xeno game in the first place. But now that the series is actually making a profit, i do hope they give it a third go at a multiple episode sci-fi story. Though recently, Takahashi did say if there was a Xenoblade 3 (which there will be, there's no reason to can the series after the success of 2, which according to Monolith, exceeded expectations), it'll be taken in a completely different direction than previous entries. What that means, i don't know. Probably still have mechs though.

 

On 10/19/2018 at 1:42 PM, vanguard333 said:

I guess it makes it better then that I haven't played previous Xeno games.

You should give it a go. Xenogears, despite not having aged wellgameplay-wise (as is the case for many PS1-era JRPGs) still has one of the greatest stories in the genre. The Xenosaga Trilogy is essentially a reboot of Xenogears (though it's not connected outside of very obvious similarities and references, something seen throughout the Xeno series as a whole). It's gameplay has also aged better.....mostly. Xenosaga Episode I's gameplay is actually worse than Xenogears' imo.

Edited October 20, 2018 by Armagon

[vanguard333]

14 minutes ago, Armagon said:

You should give it a go. Xenogears, despite not having aged wellgameplay-wise (as is the case for many PS1-era JRPGs) still has one of the greatest stories in the genre. The Xenosaga Trilogy is essentially a reboot of Xenogears (though it's not connected outside of very obvious similarities and references, something seen throughout the Xeno series as a whole). It's gameplay has also aged better.....mostly. Xenosaga Episode I's gameplay is actually worse than Xenogears' imo.

Maybe. But I already have a lot of other games I want to play and finish. Plus, I already said that the gameplay's one reason I probably won't replay Xenoblade Chronicles. 

Also, I don't have a PS1. How would I get my hands on Xenogears? Is there a port of it available for any consoles?

[Slumber]

6 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

Maybe. But I already have a lot of other games I want to play and finish. Plus, I already said that the gameplay's one reason I probably won't replay Xenoblade Chronicles. 

Also, I don't have a PS1. How would I get my hands on Xenogears? Is there a port of it available for any consoles?

You can get it on PSN if you own any modern Sony consoles.

[Perkilator]

So after all the flak about TWEWY: FR’s Joycon controls, do you think fans and Square alike are still gonna want to keep the series going?

[eclipse]

I think it's going to take more than bad controls to stop TWEWY.

[Interdimensional Observer]

The World Ends With You Two, or the World Begins With You, or whatever the sequel is called, I'd say will happen. Particularly since now SE apparently ends the new story scenario on a giant cliffhanger that just begs for one. 

The issue of gameplay in the Switch version likely stems from the fact TWEWY was a DS game, which had to be significantly modified for iOS to account for the lack of a second screen, and then ported to the Switch. Any TWEWY sequel won't be made this way, it'll be made with the latest Nintendo tech in mind, and or iOS, and or PC/PS- (why wouldn't KH fans like TWEWY? I'm sure Nomura wants to take it in the same esoteric narrative direction.), and therefore no major gameplay control issues.

[Slumber]

21 hours ago, Perkilator said:

So after all the flak about TWEWY: FR’s Joycon controls, do you think fans and Square alike are still gonna want to keep the series going?

idk TWEWY had bad controls(Fight me) when it came out, and it still did fine.

We're what? Like 12 years out from the initial release? Square's still trying with it, so I don't think they'll keep it going. If anything, I wouldn't be surprised if this version wasn't just a test for them to try to figure out how to work the TWEWY concept on modern systems.

Edited October 24, 2018 by Slumber

[Armagon]

So i've reached Labrynthos in Xenosaga Episode II and at this point, i gotta say that Episode II has the worst combat in all of Xeno. On paper, it should have a better combat than the two games that came before it, Xenogears and Xenosaga Episode I. However, the problem in Episode II is that everything takes an eternity to die and that's because of the Break system. It's like the Combos from Xenoblade (Break -> Topple -> what comes after depends on the game) but turn-based but they only really work if you combine it with the Boost system (which is the thing in ATB based games that allows you to accelerate your turn). The game wants you to do this because if you don't, even if you unleash your most powerful attacks, it's gonna do jack shit compared to using the Break system. Don't even get me started on Ether attacks because they do NOTHING. They're so weak, i don't even know why they exist. At least the healing and buffs work. All of this, coupleded with the fact that the enemy can also Boost whenever the fuck they feel like (even during your turn when you haven't done anything yet) makes the combat ass.

Ironically, the E.S (mech) battles last way shorter, despite everything having even higher HP and less attack options. Probably because the Break system doesn't exist there and E.S battles are just about killing the enemy before they kill you.

I still think Episode II is an overall better game than Episode I but the on-foot combat can go burn in a fire.

Edited October 26, 2018 by Armagon

[Lief]

Ok, so I beat kh2 fm on crit (or at least beat the final boss) overall, I died quite a lot early on as I tackled Beauty and the Beast before Mulan, the bosses of that area killed me multiple times in the fights. But once I got cure and more than three item slots, the game became more manageable. Even then, I still died to certain enemy encounters throughout the game.

 

But the biggest dealer of deaths has got to be that new FM boss in the final world. I spent a solid hour dying to him, learning how to best handle his attacks until I finally beat him. TBH all of the story bosses from then on were extremely easy compared to the new boss. Other deaths came from tackling the Absent Silhouettes, which were just as fun/frustrating. I then tried to take on Sephiroth, and after dying many times to him I decided to leave him and the other superbosses for later, as I was itching to play Birth by Sleep.

 

So far I beat Ventus’ story. A lot of the worlds felt pretty short since they were cut up for the three characters, but I mostly loved the designs of the worlds. Unlike kh2, levels have actual platforming and secrets, whereas in kh2 they were mostly boring, linear combat corridors ala FFXIII. I played on Proud, and it was mostly easy until the last boss for Ventus’ story, who took a few tries to take out. He loved to break out of combos but like every other boss in BBS, he gets melted by Shotlocks.

 

I’m thinking of doing Re CoM next, then doing Terra’s story, then Reverse Rebirth, and finally finishing with Aqua’s story.

 

 

[Modamy]

4 hours ago, Lief said:

Ok, so I beat kh2 fm on crit (or at least beat the final boss) overall, I died quite a lot early on as I tackled Beauty and the Beast before Mulan, the bosses of that area killed me multiple times in the fights. But once I got cure and more than three item slots, the game became more manageable. Even then, I still died to certain enemy encounters throughout the game.

 

But the biggest dealer of deaths has got to be that new FM boss in the final world. I spent a solid hour dying to him, learning how to best handle his attacks until I finally beat him. TBH all of the story bosses from then on were extremely easy compared to the new boss. Other deaths came from tackling the Absent Silhouettes, which were just as fun/frustrating. I then tried to take on Sephiroth, and after dying many times to him I decided to leave him and the other superbosses for later, as I was itching to play Birth by Sleep.

 

So far I beat Ventus’ story. A lot of the worlds felt pretty short since they were cut up for the three characters, but I mostly loved the designs of the worlds. Unlike kh2, levels have actual platforming and secrets, whereas in kh2 they were mostly boring, linear combat corridors ala FFXIII. I played on Proud, and it was mostly easy until the last boss for Ventus’ story, who took a few tries to take out. He loved to break out of combos but like every other boss in BBS, he gets melted by Shotlocks.

 

I’m thinking of doing Re CoM next, then doing Terra’s story, then Reverse Rebirth, and finally finishing with Aqua’s story.

 

 

Cool, I've been replaying the series in anticipation for KH3 and KH2 on critical is insanely fun. The extra abilities given to just offsets the rough start for me. The Roxas fight is probably one of my favorites in the series to since it's pretty much all about learning how block him and take advantage of his openings. He's pretty much the boss that teaches you what the supebosses will be like (not that I've beaten them all) so good luck if you decide to try.

Is this your first time going through the series? Or is it a replay like it is for me?

[Lief]

5 hours ago, Modamy said:

Cool, I've been replaying the series in anticipation for KH3 and KH2 on critical is insanely fun. The extra abilities given to just offsets the rough start for me. The Roxas fight is probably one of my favorites in the series to since it's pretty much all about learning how block him and take advantage of his openings. He's pretty much the boss that teaches you what the supebosses will be like (not that I've beaten them all) so good luck if you decide to try.

Is this your first time going through the series? Or is it a replay like it is for me?

I only had KH1 and 2 on PS2, so it’s a replay. This is the first time I beat KH1 though, and it was pretty fun with a magic-focused build. It helps that I exploited Tinkerbell and Aeroga though. And yeah, critical KH2 feels pretty satisfying with the free abilities and AP.

I skipped out on BBS due to having no PSP, and I only went maybe halfway through CoM on GBA. However, I thought CoM’s combat was pretty fun, so I want to give it a try on the PS4.

I also beat 358/2 days, and while I liked it, it was also pretty repetitive with all the missions and recycled worlds. It also didn’t feel as good to play on the DS, and it felt lonely to play without party members. 

I don’t really plan on getting 2.8, as that would be a little too much KH for me. Gonna go on a break on the series after beating the 1.5+2.5 collection, then it’s KH3 time.

[Armagon]

Oh yeah, i forgot to post this: my thoughts on Xenosaga Episode II. To save time, i'll just be copy-pasting my post from the Xenoblade subreddit

Quote

So after an almost two month hiatus (a combination of me losing my PC for a month and being sucked into the Hyperdimension Neptunia games to the point where i've played every mainline game in the series), i finally finished Xenosaga Episode II.....sort of.

So in my Xenosaga Episode I review, i claimed that Episode I is the weakest game in the series and that the combat isn't that good. And now, while i still think Episode I is the weakest game in the series, i would much rather have it's combat than the mistake that was Episode II's combat. But before i get into that, let's talk about what i did like about Episode II.

What i liked

So Episode II's story is much better than Episode I's. Episode I's story was good but an overglorified prolouge. Episode II felt like a proper tale and, despite it having the second shortest story in the series (it used to be the shortest but then Torna ~ The Golden Country came), i was really into it. I have to give major props to Albedo. He is one of the best villains ever made and as of right now, he is basically tied with Malos for best Xeno villain.

I know i said the combat was ass but the E.S (mech) battles in the game are actually consistently fun. Personally, i enjoyed these a bit more than the Gear battles from Xenogears, even if you had less options here. Unlike the Gears, you could mess around with the pilots of the E.S Crafts. You have three E.S Crafts, each one piloted by two and the pilots determine which special attacks you can use so there's a bit a variety here.

The music is so good, with the two best tracks in the game being Fatal Fight and Communication Breakdown. Then you have themes like the Second Miltia theme which is pretty catchy. And the Kukai Foundation FINALLY has music. Episode I's biggest flaw is that it only had like 5 songs and most of the game was just silence. That is gone here. Mitsuda's been replaced by Yuki Kajiura and it tells, as the music style changes.

While Shion and KOS-MOS are the main protaganists of the trilogy, i did like that Episode II focused more on Jr and his relationship with Albedo. I still prefer Shion and KOS-MOS but Jr did well in this game. On the subject of characters, one complaint i've heard was that the voice actors changed but i didn't mind. Hell, i couldn't even tell the difference. I know Shion's voice actor changed but it didn't change that much.

The locations are more varied too. In Episode I, it was just spaceship after spaceship. Here, you explore planets, subconsciousness and spaceships too.

But no game is perfect, so now time for the bad.

What i didn't like

XENOSAGA EPISODE II'S ON-FOOT COMBAT WAS A MISTAKE! See, on paper, it should've been better than both Xenogears' and Episode I's combat. But the way it's executed is so ass. Ok, so Episode II introduces Break, Topple, Launch and Smash into the series. Yeah, this existed before Xenoblade, only Launch was called Air and Topple and Smash were called Down (you could Down an enemy without Airing them). The problem? The game wants you to do this, to the point where you'll be dealing weak-ass numbers if you don't. Heck, even when you do, everything still takes an eternity to die. It's actually not that bad at first but once you reach the Ormus Stronghold (worst dungeon in the game btw, you have to set off the self-destruct and escape and you're actually timed on this, good luck fighting basically undying enemies), it just becomes hell. It takes less time to install Red Dead Redemption 2 on a PS4 than it takes to complete an on-foot battle in the late game of Episode II. It got so unbearable that i said "fuck it" and watched the rest of the cutscenes on YouTube. And don't even get me started on Ether attacks. They do NOTHING! You could remove Ether attacks from the game and nothing would change. Even the enemies' Ether attacks are ass.

But the worst part of the battle system (and this affects E.S battles too) is the Boosting system. Boosting is that thing in ATB-based games where you cut in line and accelerate your turn.....except in this game, the enemy can do it too. When do they do it? Whenever the fuck they feel like it. There is no consistency too it. They'll even Boost during YOUR turn when you're still SELECTING an option. Don't bother taking your time, because the enemy just might Boost and ruin your plans.

Other bad things about the game is the complete lack of shops. "Items" are now skills that you have to use skill points to unlock. Regular items still exist but they are very scarce. The sidequests are also really ass since they require a lot of backtracking and this is pre-Xenoblade so fast-travel doesn't exist. Sucks too since some sidequests are the only way to unlock the special Double Attacks, in which two characters team up for a Special.

Oh yeah, and while this isn't super terrible, the game throws a billion puzzles at you. They are mostly pretty simple (certainly better than the cryptic puzzles from Xenogears) but there's just too many. At least Xenogears only threw them at you near the end of each Disc.

Final Thoughts

So while the on-foot combat was a massive mistake, i think Episode II improves on Episode I in every other aspect. Story and characters are better, music's better, environments are better.

And with that, i can finally start on Xenosaga Episode III. From what i hear, mostly everyone agrees that this is the best in the trilogy and some would even say it's the best Xeno game ever. Will i agree? Find out after i beat the game.

 

I actually did start on Episode III a few days ago and the combat is so much better. It's simpler but it actually works (in general, i'm enjoying the first hour of Xenosaga Episode III more than i enjoyed the first hour of the previous two Saga games).

[Modamy]

3 hours ago, Lief said:

I only had KH1 and 2 on PS2, so it’s a replay. This is the first time I beat KH1 though, and it was pretty fun with a magic-focused build. It helps that I exploited Tinkerbell and Aeroga though. And yeah, critical KH2 feels pretty satisfying with the free abilities and AP.

I skipped out on BBS due to having no PSP, and I only went maybe halfway through CoM on GBA. However, I thought CoM’s combat was pretty fun, so I want to give it a try on the PS4.

I also beat 358/2 days, and while I liked it, it was also pretty repetitive with all the missions and recycled worlds. It also didn’t feel as good to play on the DS, and it felt lonely to play without party members. 

I don’t really plan on getting 2.8, as that would be a little too much KH for me. Gonna go on a break on the series after beating the 1.5+2.5 collection, then it’s KH3 time.

I’ve played through all the games at this point. Started the series in 2013 with KH1 and instantly fell in love and sank a ton of my cash in getting my hands on the whole series. Most of my play thoughs of KH1 were using the shield and my current playthrough with the staff is pretty rough for me since I’m really missing the ability to block, but I guess I just need to make more use of magic and summons.

358/2 days is really rough, but at least the emotional moments of the story were decent. I found recoded was just a much more enjoyable game in spite of having the most throw away story in the series.

If you do care about the story at all you’ll probably be just fine skipping 2.8’s stuff especially if money is an issue.

[Etrurian emperor]

Oh wow, it seems that something went really wrong with FF15. Lots of planned DLC has been canceled and Tabata has left Squire Enix. 

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/final-fantasy-15-dlc-canceled-director-hajime-taba/1100-6463112/?ftag=GSS-05-10aab8e&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=5be3bc7d3ed3f00001a53f85&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

[DragonFlames]

20 minutes ago, Etrurian emperor said:

Oh wow, it seems that something went really wrong with FF15. Lots of planned DLC has been canceled and Tabata has left Squire Enix. 

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/final-fantasy-15-dlc-canceled-director-hajime-taba/1100-6463112/?ftag=GSS-05-10aab8e&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=5be3bc7d3ed3f00001a53f85&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

Well, the goodwill for that game seemed to be on a sharp decline, anyway, but I think this will be the final straw to break the camel's back. It's sad, really. Fans have been looking forward to the game for lord knows how long and it ended up being what everyone feared video games would become: an unfinished product at full price, and the rest of it gets it drip-fed to the audience for even more money.
It's truly a shame, though I am glad I jumped ship after XIII-2, honestly.

[Lief]

I’m really worried for the future of Final Fantasy after this. Between Luminous Studios losing their leading figure, the big losses in the company’s financial performance, and SE’s desire to add subscriptions to non-MMO titles paints a really bleak future for the series and SE. Really hope this doesn’t affect KH3.

Who’s even left to direct the next FF anyway? It looks like all the directors with great track records (like Kitase) seem uninterested in making another main entry, at least going by when Sakaguchi kinda vented at Kitase. I will laugh if Nomura is going to direct FFXVI.

[henrymidfields]

So...is it, like, all good things come to an end? An unfinished entry at full price is something I haven't heard from the FF main entries. This sure doesn't look good...

On a different note, I wonder if there will be a updated re-release of Persona 5. If there is, I sure wish Naoto (P4) and maybe Mitsuru (P3) would make an actual appearance. At least P4's plot looked like some random local murders so I can see that the Shadow Operatives from P3 would brush off the murders as isolated/mundane. For P5 having the main plot and the main backstory both having the in-universe effects and attention across Japan, it is jarring that Naoto does not interact with the protagonists/antagonists. This is one case where a better integration with P4 and P3's stories and characters would have been nice.

Edited November 8, 2018 by henrymidfields

[Etrurian emperor]

I thought that while it was agreed to be very flawed FF15 was  welcomed as a return to form after the abysmal Fubalous crystalus Nova years that defined the last console generation. 

[Modamy]

Geez, I got FFXV for like $20 and enjoyed the game so I didn't care much about anything else even though I knew the problems with it, but this seems really damaging to the franchise. With how KH3 was looking and Octopath it seemed like Squeenix was regaining some of their credibility, but one of their big directors leaving and the second season of DLC cancelled might just kill FF.

Though it would be funny as hell if they kept throwing Nomura into another project while he's supposed to work on the 7 remake

[Armagon]

5 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

Oh wow, it seems that something went really wrong with FF15. Lots of planned DLC has been canceled and Tabata has left Squire Enix. 

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/final-fantasy-15-dlc-canceled-director-hajime-taba/1100-6463112/?ftag=GSS-05-10aab8e&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=5be3bc7d3ed3f00001a53f85&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

I feel bad for the team. While i think it's unacceptable that a game that's spent 10 years in development released in an incomplete state and needed DLC to be complete, to not even be given a chance to finish it must sting.

4 hours ago, Lief said:

I’m really worried for the future of Final Fantasy after this.

4 minutes ago, Modamy said:

With how KH3 was looking and Octopath it seemed like Squeenix was regaining some of their credibility, but one of their big directors leaving and the second season of DLC cancelled might just kill FF.

 

Final Fantasy is too big to be killed off. At worst, it'll probably go into a dormant state like what happened with Mega Man. Which maybe is for the best because if Nomura directs FF16, it'll never come out. Nomura is just not a good director or writer but that's another story.

Final Fantasy should be put to sleep until they can find good directors.

 

[Etrurian emperor]

1 hour ago, Armagon said:

I feel bad for the team. While i think it's unacceptable that a game that's spent 10 years in development released in an incomplete state and needed DLC to be complete, to not even be given a chance to finish it must sting.

Though 10 years is probably the point were you should have severely reduced expectations. Rushed games may be bad forever and delayed game might eventually be good but if it takes 10 long years then something in the development process must have gotten terrible wrong. That FF15 wasn't finished certainly isn't good but given the rough development cycle it could have been much worse, it could have been Squire's answer to Duke Nukem Forever. 

It it takes 10 years its much likelier that they screwed up and are desperately trying to salvage what they can rather than create a titanic mega game. 

[Slumber]

6 hours ago, Lief said:

Who’s even left to direct the next FF anyway? It looks like all the directors with great track records (like Kitase) seem uninterested in making another main entry, at least going by when Sakaguchi kinda vented at Kitase. I will laugh if Nomura is going to direct FFXVI.

The Ivalice team is still there, and a number of the people involved with the Ivalice games are still there... though... I don't really know what they're doing beyond consultation for the FFXIV raids.

Maybe we'll get an Ivalice game next.

Also, I feel bad for Tabata. He basically took over work from a maniac and salvaged what was there and got a working... ish product out in about 2 years.

Having your entire life be "Make more FFXV content" for 5 years seems like it'd be soul crushing.

Edited November 8, 2018 by Slumber