ZDS'S PROFILE

Super interesting read, Red! I heard very mixed things about the game. I'm glad the heart shone through in the end.

Speaking of games that were mega hyped for the past million years...

Final Fantasy XV.

(this became quite the wall so I will only focus on the story this post)

I went into FFXV with a balanced point of view. I did not expect a masterpiece. I did not expect failure. I just went in and let the game take me for a ride, hoping that Square was not as much as a failure as I feared they were.

The game started strong for me, despite hating how the characters looked with a passion. I could actually move around in a seemingly big world. The world was unique. Lots of fun charming bro trip stuff like camping, pictures at the end of the day, and funny banter between one another. The few times music played it was quite good, as expected from Yoko Shimomura.

I spent the first few hours just enjoying quests and bounties. The battle system seemed promising enough, though I was iffy about it from the start.

Then I started proceeding in the story. I don't think I ever played a game where I felt like the story was a bigger mess. Is the game Road Trip the movie in game form? Damn, I wish it was.

I've seen some other people say this and it is pretty true: The game has no idea what it wants to be. A complex political drama? A bro trip? Certain elements of the plot make little to no sense to me.

First things first, they lazily expect you to get a lot of the story from that damn stupid ass movie they released before the game came out. You get to a certain point early on and it shows a clip show of the movie. It made me feel like I was missing out on something. (based off what I heard it wasn't anything that mattered)

The game constantly feels like it is telling an inside joke that I do not know about. Such as, how the world works, the character's chemistry and backstory, and even the villains. It almost implies that I should know this stuff. Why should I care about Notcis finding his fiancee? Why are the four buddies best friends? Where do these people from the gas stations LIVE? Wait, Notcis went to high school??? These gaps are filled ever so slightly in random moments of the game.

From what I know, the movie nor demo answer any of these. The game feels like a bunch of different teams wrote it at once at random places and never bothered to tie anything together.

The world feels like USA. Yet you are still clearly Japanese. There are empires and kingdoms with monsters and royalty and whatnot. Yet it is modern times with high schools and what not. Sure, at first this seems cool. Creative world with a variety of culture. Yet it all falls terribly short.

It's like a little kid watched a politically complex show. After watching, they proceed to go play with their toys and make their own politically complex story. Yet their minds are underdeveloped and don't quite understand what actually happened. So the kid is playing with toys, making this weird and complex plot that no one understands but them.

It's cute when a kid does it, not so cute when the same company that made the greats like FFVI, Chrono Trigger, etc etc do it.

Square has totally forgotten how to make a good story, or even a coherent story at all. They have literally no sense of scope at all.

I have not beaten the game yet. I still have plenty to go. Yet my motivation is VERY low. Sometime in the future I will ramble about the gameplay and exploration. I didn't touch upon how poorly written the character interaction was.

I mean, I enjoyed the game so far, but as I played it's becoming more and more of a giant disappointment. Hopefully that changes in the last 10 hours or so, but I somehow doubt it. ):

I'm so far behind that RMN is the only place I know of to submit lol.

I'm later than late! But I shall post one for the hell of it that I just made.

This looks REALLY good and professional.