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asphodelical · 5 months

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Brief FFXV/XVI comparisons

Knowing the dev team of FFXIV headed FFXVI, it feels like they were singing, “Anything you can do, I can do Better” in the face of FFXV. Many of the key story elements and beats are identical: An orphaned prince clad in black who was a supposed heir to a noble bloodline, the hero’s kingdom being destroyed in the beginning, a deadly plague that is slowly consuming the world and its people, etc. Hell, they both end with a 1v1 duel and both the heroes and villains die at the end. Except FFXVI actually has a cohesive, more focused narrative, better lore, and smarter world building. It also has a massive advantage over FFXV since it is a self contained story—not a bullshit multimedia project where you have to watch a movie, an OVA and play four separate DLC games.

Things I liked:

Torgal. Best boy.

Mothercrystals - Both the crystal’s role and appearance are really fucking cool. It takes the basic premise of the original FF games, and looks at it realistically. (Though I felt robbed since we didn’t see the heart of the purple crystal in Waloed.)

The interpretation of the summons and Dominants. - Similar to the crystals, I like how people across Valisthea have such different thoughts on the Dominants: fear, reverence, worship, etc. Their character designs are very appealing. It’s also great to see summons who haven’t appeared in a game in well over a decade.

Cid - Easily a candidate for the best Cid, only rivaling Cid Highwind and maybe Balthier’s dad. He was one of the few characters who had a distinct voice. (Along with Mid.)

The music - Opinions on this game are all over the place. The one thing everyone universally agrees on is the music fucking rules. It definitely deserved its prize at the Game Awards. Great job, Masayoshi Soken.

The Hades-esque combat system for Clive. It was fun experimenting with all the powers and abilities.

Nektar - MOOGLE. We actually had a moogle in a FF game for the first time since FFIX. HAPPY DAYS.

No day/night cycle. No fishing. No forced mini games. Fast travel was accessible from the start. Blessed dreams.

Things I didn’t like:

Jill is useless. She has no agency. Her confrontation with her abusers was ruined, since Clive did all the fighting in that encounter. They should’ve done what they did with Joshua, and given us control over Jill/Shiva just that one time. After the ocean fight with Barnabas, why did she waste time creating a path on the ocean floor, instead of turning into Shiva and flying themselves out of there? So stupid. And don’t get me started on the sad excuse for a romantic relationship she had with Clive. What a waste of the only female party member. (Also, why does she look so much like Tifa?)

Lack of interaction with other party members, and a lack of a core party - Sparse off the cuff conversations/remarks, no tag team attacks, no breathing room for these characters to simply exist. And when they do, it feels out of place. (I.E. the optional picnic scene with Jill and Clive that felt like watching two rocks try to talk to each other.) Final Fantasy has always been a franchise that has always had a group of eccentrics of different ages, creeds, and species banding together to fight a shared enemy. FFXVI loses that entirely. With a large portion of the game just being Clive and Torgal, this could be any other dark-ish fantasy game. (My ideal core party would be Clive, Joshua, Cid, who would then be replaced by Mid. Byron, Gav and Dion would rotate as guest party members. Jill can go away.)

Lack of good character writing and dialogue. It feels like a redux of FFXII, where the dialogue is dramatic, poetic, and oh gosh no almost everyone talks the same, and the core cast has such little personality.

Too many characters and too many unnecessary story elements. - Torgal being a frost wolf? Doesn’t matter. Sleipnir being an ‘egi’? Doesn’t matter. Spend more time on your characters, dammit!

How every goal, main and side, is impeded by a seven step process. Oh, we have to get through this gate? Well first you have to talk to five people for a fetch quest, run to another area, and defeat two rounds of mooks followed by a mini boss. GIVE ME A BREAK. Are you so insecure about your story and its run time that you have to have bumps in the road at every single turn?

The length of the boss battles. If I weren’t on story mode, some of these battles would take me over an hour (and multiple tries). The Bahamut fight in particular was absolutely absurd.

So many of the problems could’ve been solved if characters just waltzed into places and killed their targets immediately. Clive could’ve stabbed Hugo in the back before the hallucinations kicked in. If Dion just threw his lance at Anabella or Olivier instead of making a whole fucking speech, then maybe he wouldn’t have killed his dad. It feels like nearly everyone in the game is just stupid.

#video games #final fantasy

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poteto-kitsune · 7 years

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Final fantasy XIV Dad of light Episode One

So Dad of light is finally on international Netflix. I decided to review this episode by episode. Warning spoilers Lets talk the main two characters. Akio and his father. From the first two minuets we get that Akio is an only child who during the holidays is bored playing alone in his house. I get the feeling Akio is socially awkward with trouble connecting to others. Though nothing has been explored that the only way I can explain why this child during the school holidays is on his own playing fidget spinner. This is where Akio’s father finds him and decides to buy his son a video game. Which both Akio and his mother say was a first time as when ever Akio asked before his father refused. They buy him a copy of Final fantasy (or Final Fantasia to Akio’s father) and the son instantly loves it. Curious to his sons enjoyment in the dead of the night his father plays the game and also enjoys it. he caught by Akio and the two bond closely over the game and being warriors of light.

This touched me deeply as I remember spending time watching my dad play computer games when I was younger. Though less child friendly I will always remember pulling up a chair and sitting quietly next to my dad playing Doom or Duke Nukem and just enjoying being in his presence. Ever since the divorce I kind of wish I could go back to something similar. Unfortunately my dad show no interest in games much anymore and defiantly wouldn’t put time into something like FFXIV.

We now skip forward several years to where Akio is now a Miquote in FFXIV and playing a monk in a realm reborn. This is where I have a slight issue. The game is centred around a Realm reborn. Content that is now a few years to old. We have since had Heavensward where the introduction of a new race and three new classes has come into play. And just recently Stormblood has launched. I can understand now doing stormblood blood as with the in game shot scenes (done by a team of people playing the game only and not animated) I could understand not going into Stormblood but at the same time it feels awkward when Twintania is stated as the hardest boss....so this is Early patch 2.01 with the first set of binding coil. It does feel dated. And if they get what i presume is desired effect of this series which is to get a wave of fresh players. Alot of them may jump potion to get into the updated content and twintania can be cleared by just 3 or 4 players now. And I remember trying to kill twintania back when she was the hardest content. Its a minor annoyance that i can understand that the production may of taken longer hence why its only out now. But as someone who currently plays the game it does confuse a bit. Though I guess binding coil was always better then Alexander (burn) Though they should of made it Bahamet. Minor Rant aside back to the story, Akio and his farther now have a very distant relationship. which Akio explains later to his guild of friends that he believes it was due to his father getting a promotion and being to busy with work to connect with his family. This is something I hope get addressed in later episodes as it is a growing issue in Japan. And as I mentioned in my rant there are some lovely scenes shot in game from the perspective of Akio’s Character Maidy. The scenes look to be shot by the ‘actors’ Avatars doing in game actions while the camera person records through first person. They could of easily just recorded these like a cut scene but I love how it feels like just another set and more natural to be watching this as a game. The movements are slightly more jiggered compared to the crisp clean model movements of FFXIV’s cut scenes and yes i did a side by side comparison to check this. We see that Akio is saddened by the distant between him and his father. During his work day he gets the call from his mother that his father suddenly quit from his work with no prior warning. And again the episode hits me with nostalgia. Back when I was at this point in ARR I was in a small guild called Healing Serenity. We were very close and would often spend time just sat in our little house on the beach front and chatting. Be it if one of us was stressed from work or even more serious events we were always there for each other. During this time something terrible happened to me. I was off sick from work for a while and almost completely shut in and unable to go outside. I pretty much lived in the game and My guild was there for me. They got me through a terrible time. And watching Akio turn to people who he trusts so much to talk about something so personal is touching. It’s in this scene his in game friends try and help him find a way to reconnect with his father seeing that the distance is hurting there friend alot. And the plan is suggested to invite him to the game and reconnect. (also note the fantastic scene switch from in game and to real Akio where both are in the same pose) Akio after much thinking buys his father a ps4 and a copy of the game as a retirement present. A slight nod to his mother seeing it as a retirement and not her husband just quitting his job. The use of the FFXIV soundtrack is pretty beautiful including the part when Akio’s father calls it Final fantasia and AKio corrects him just as he did when he was little. The touching moment is accompanied by the light backing track that is use in game in some home cities giving a soft feeling of being home. Akio sits with his father through character creation. And there quite a funny moment when it comes to naming his character. Akio sets his father into the world of Ezora and then sets off to his plan. Recruiting his guild he pretty much sets up to catfish his father. Reconnecting with him in the game to learn who is father is again beat the final boss and reveal who he is. His guild agree to help and work together to become some sort of guardian angels to Akio’s father. Hang on theres a astrologian there!! And mogshop items that were released in the final patches of heavnsward. Please be consistent show! Back to the plot Akio is rather happy that his plan will work smoothly where comically the players are typical final fantasy players and blow the smallest things out the water when his father takes on a monster to high level for him. In some rather nice editing and general goofing that I know that both myself and many of my friends in game have done we get the first scene of Akio’s character meeting his fathers. And his farther speaks no words and leaves. Akio realises his father has no way to communicate in game and the episode ends with Akio giving his father a keyboard and his voice. I look forward to seeing where this show is going the opening gave me a few nostalgia moments and i’m curious to see if some current issues in japan might also be touched on. Also beautifully planned out scenes both in and out of game with some real interesting choices. A great representation of player base but lack of more up to date content in the eyes of the story but randomly show up in the back ground when they do shots outside there guild house. Which leaves me to question the lack of Au ra in Akio’s guild. Are they racist against dragon people and new classes? Who knows maybe there token aura was sleeping. so far 8/10

#FFXIV #ffxiv dad of light #review #I ramble to much #Where the Au ra at?

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