It probably doesn't come as a surprise, but we here at Push Square are divided on Final Fantasy XV and the story that it tries to tell. Some of us think it's done well enough to at least be enjoyable, while others reckon that it's a shambles. We could go on and on about the game's flaws and its inability to please everyone, but instead, we'll just relay some quotes from director Hajime Tabata.
In a recent interview with Game Informer, the ambitious boss basically says that the title's story was purposefully left unfinished. "It was for the players to experience the story through Noctis' eyes," he says. "The world and the events that Noctis sees are merely things that are seen through his eyes. We didn't want to create a comprehensive and perfectly balanced story in this game. Instead, we placed importance on the main characters and for the player and Noctis to share the same experience when we tell the story."
That's a rather unorthodox approach to storytelling, isn't it? The words "we didn't want to create a comprehensive and balanced story" say it all. Of course, with quotes like that, it's very easy to be cynical, but we suppose that the developer did actually accomplish what it set out to do.
That said, it also set out to sell some downloadable content - and that's where these upcoming character episodes come in. Episode Gladiolus, which launches next week, fills in a reasonable chunk of the story which is left frustratingly vague in the main game. Ultimately, we're just not sure how we feel about purposefully making a plot seem so disjointed - especially in a Final Fantasy title. Gap-filling DLC or not, it's questionable.
What do you think of all this? Did you enjoy Final Fantasy XV and its story, or were you left disappointed? Explain yourself in the comments section below.
[source novacrystallis.com]
Comments 30
Its more complete than if Nomura told it...
The Age of DLC.
I enjoyed the story a lot. The only thing I didn't enjoy about the game was the post story content.
@VotesForCows It's not a huge, game-ruining thing, but the fact that Gladio just reappears and everything carries on like nothing ever happened is pretty ridiculous. I'd say it definitely takes away from the game rather than add to it.
Maybe he just finished reading "The Hunger Games" trilogy of books while making the game, and the DLC fills in the rest of the story like the movies do. I'm pretty sure Chapter 13 in the game takes place in District 13 in the books/movies.
I did watch the Kingsglaive movie and Brotherhood anime before playing the game, so it seemed like a complete story to me, but I would also imagine anybody who just played the game without watching those 2 first would have no idea what is going on, and would care about the characters even less. Hopefully for the complete 4k PS5 version they'll include both of those in the box.
@NathanUC
I'm still confused about the story, So many characters but for some reason i dont see any connection with the character. For example Ravus Nox (Lunafreya's brother). How was he connected to all this, but in chapter 14 it seems that he played a big role in the story. but that role was never explained.
I had no problem understanding what was going on, and I liked the fact it was set up for you to feel his sense of isolation. I think it's good to not have everything spelt out for you, the planned idea to show what happens to the other characters will ruin that.
@VotesForCows That's fair. For the record I did enjoy the latter stages of FFXV and its story. I certainly don't think it's near perfect or anything but I thought it was memorable and even quite touching.
Imagine the problems he would've caused saying "We ran out of time and had to break chunks off of the main game in order to meet the deadline"
I'd believe that over his clearly well rehearsed response for an interview.
The story certainly had its flaws. It felt like there was a lot missing and events just "happened" (Ravus, the Emperor, Prompto etc etc). Kingsglaive is practically required viewing to get a handle on the background of the game. I didn't care enough for Lunafreya because she wasn't in it enough for me to get particularly attached. The ending on the other hand was stunning and one of the things that I really liked about the game. It was extremely well done.
Cynicism aside, I can appreciate what they were going for, and it's a nice concept - to plod along as a young guy with his friends while all this huge stuff is going on in the background. Sadly the execution just wasn't on point.. the personal moments weren't really told with any finesse, and when the occasional bigger things did happen it was just confusing and disjointed.
Not a bad game, mind.
Noctis seemed to have known what he was doing at the later stages of the game, and yet none of that was explained, he was just doing it like he had a plan we knew nothing about. Well, a general idea yes, but not any specifics. I thought going in that the whole cosmology would be explained and apart from a few books you can find that's it. The idea of and Oracle is not explained at all to my knowledge. And what happened to the villains? Yes, there's one in the end but what about the rest? So many questions, it made me think I've missed out on a few chapters I should've uncovered but failed somehow. I like it when a game gives you dots to connect yourself, that's clever and gets me thinking. With so few dots here I was struggling, I would need to make up my own dots, and that's not good storytelling.
Not enough story , too many quests . typical of an open world game . hope the patch at the end of the month improves things
Haven't played, but I am all for trying different storytelling techniques as long as you don't put the final story points behind a DLC paywall.
If the idea is to patch and reveal the story post live, then that is a cool way to draw users back to the game and give a story based game more of a life. If the plan is to only give users a fully fleshed out story by making them buy more content, then I think people should vote with their wallets.
All depends though on the DLC. If it is more like TLOU: Left Behind (nice but not necessary) then no problems. If it actually changes the base game itself, that has to be free.
Pathetic, seriously pathetic. Just admit that the game was rushed and all will be forgiven.
Mission accomplished, then, I guess.
I loved the story.
Stag do - dad dies - seek revenge - get stronger - set out to still get married - married a fish - friends go mad - get isolated - fight through your fear - overcome the odds - get sucked through time - the king is here - one last beer with the lads - kick some ass - make sure you pick the picture of the fat photographer guy.
That's it. Great story.
I really liked the game, but the story felt flat. It's easy to say that doing side missions take away from the main story, but I don't feel that way about Horizon or the witcher.
I liked the story, but it certainly wasn't my favorite in any form of media. It was just a Hero's Journey but much more fragmented. That being said, I was expecting it to be better than XIII, and it most certainly was.
Well that's an approach... At least we know what is the direction they chose! I found the story enjoyable but it could have been told much better.
Sacrificing greatness for profit, whatever man, it's your company. I just see it as lazy cost cutting.
I loved the story and to me it made perfect sense. The fact that in a way everyone got what they wanted mixed with the true meaning of "Stand By Me" as a song and a theme. Hard for me to explain it but I tried. Loved this game.
So basically they're expanding the experience of FFXIII-2 approach. My condolences to the audience meddlers who thought they had discouraged Squeenix from any more story DLC.
Spend too much time doing side stuff to prevent me from actually getting into the story but I still feel the story is good enough for a game that had so many issues during development. Also, I'm glad this game ended up as a success so my beloved series isn't put to rest yet.
2 things that really irked me throughout the game was that elemancy and summons were horribly executed. Never, in any FF, have I used this little magic. The hassle of farming, making, equipping and using it was to much of a chore. I skipped it completely (after the first try) and only made expericast. Summons, like... come on!!!
I thought when Gladio disappeared it was to help out at the power plant (since that's where his sister was) and we find him there.
I guess he got up to more then.
I always took this particular narrative as this : an artistic choice, a will to focus on a character who is underwhelmed by what's going on around him. Telling the story this way make you miss a lot of the whole plot, but it also make you really care about Noct and his friends.
It's really different of what we're used to, FFXV is a puzzle, really. We have to earn his story. You have to play the platinum demo, the arcade game A king's Tale, but also watching the movie Kingsglaive (which is the introduction cinematic, in a way) and THEN you have to read one or two other things.
Hell, there's even a TRAILER that count in the narrative ("Dawn", showing Regis crying while he's holding Noctis in his arms) and not a single frame of this trailer is in the game.
I really think that they tried something new. They intended to tell a story by pieces, to create a grand ensemble of something... But a lot of people are missing the point (and they have the right to).
I'm pretty sure that XVI will be more traditionnal in its way of telling a story.
Glad I skipped this one. I don't mind unorthodox methods of storytelling that leave aspects of the story purposefully vague, but there needs to be an art to it, a reason for it, and I certainly don't want them to sell me the rest of the story in chunks later on.
Thankfully, Persona 5 looks like it's going to be a complete and fully satisfying JRPG experience.
As somebody who studied PR a little bit this is the stuff that just makes me shake my head. If I working were in SE's PR department I'd be asking 'what are you guys doing to me?' because this is seriously not the kind of quote you need to be giving when you are selling story DLC in pretty big chunks. The best way to handle story DLC is what Capcom is doing by offering RE 7's Not a Hero storyline for free.
Still haven't touched it since stepping away from it when that Chocobo festival thing was quite new. Not even sure where I was in the story. Maybe just after you summon Ramuh to destroy the base. I've already forgotten a lot. Kind of staggering that the last good offline FF was way back in the PS2 era. Same can be said of Star Ocean; it's a shame that SO5 is a lot like SO4 instead of 1&2 or 3.
Oh well, I got Tales of Berseria a few weeks ago and that's actually really good.
I can see what they're trying to do with the story but it's so darn vague and so many characters were underused.
For a game that has been in development for ages it feels like it was rushed and needed another 6-12 months of development.
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