Sunday, April 9, 2017 6:13 AM
"All I wanted was to save you, even if it meant my life. "
I've been bumming around for more than 6 months and never bothered to blog even once throughout the entire period but now that I've (finally) started working, I decided to write/type again. Yup, that sounds like me alright. I have a thousand and one rants about my entire job situation but since it's dangerous to bitch about work, I have decided to talk about Final Fantasy XV because I just finished it last week before my induction started and it's also much easier talking about a game than it is talking about my feelings. And goodness knows when we'll be getting another major Final Fantasy title, they spent 10 years on XV, might be another 10 or more before XVI comes out.
Spoilers abound, naturally.
The game has been on a mind a lot because the ending was so (unnecessarily) tragic. Throughout the whole game, I, as Noctis, was motivated by the desire to destroy my bitter and vengeful ancestor Ardyn as well as all the daemons and restore light to my awesome kingdom of Lucis. Seriously, pre-daemon infestation Lucis is such a beautiful place, if it were a real country the main industry would be tourism and and it would beat Switzerland in terms of annual number of tourists. Just look at the scenery!
To be fair, Altissa is really gorgeous too, it's like Venice but even better. Except it's still a rip-off of Venice so Lucis is better.
(Looted from ulric-nyx's tumblr)
Really big kudos to the design team for designing such a beautiful world. Anyway back to the issue at hand. I was so pumped up because I thought in the end Noctis would be able to save his people, reclaim his throne (that's one of the game's taglines isn't it?) and marry the girl of his dreams, Luna. But I completely forgot that the FF team luuuuuurves tragic endings now not only does dream girl Luna die before Noct gets to meet her (And they haven't met for 12 years goddamit!), Noct had to sacrifice himself to bring down Ardyn so guess what? No more Oracle and Lucis Caelum bloodline. Great. So Lucis is gonna be a republic now? I was mad enough because I was shipping Noct and Luna so hard and not only do they kill her, they kill her OFFSCREEN ("Oh, her body just disappeared in the waves!" or some nonsense) after so little screentime. Romance in real life is frustrating enough, can we not have the star-crossed lovers theme for once? You know, at least in Westworld even though Dolores and Will were star-crossed lovers they were still together for a short period of time, but we're not even given that small satisfaction in this game. Noct and Luna just... never properly meet, unless you count looking at each other through a crowd of people as meeting. Sigh, they just wanted to get into each other's pants, but Square Enix is cold and heartless. It's also a lot of wasted potential, because Luna was such a strong female character. She went through a lot just to make sure Noctis became king and without her Noctis couldn't have defeated Leviathan. Seriously, taking down a boss monster together? #relationshipgoals enough said. I was quite upset when Luna died and the scene with the blue flowers was heart-breaking, but there are people on Reddit saying that they felt more emotional when Ignis went blind because they didn't really know Luna. So, Square Enix, Episode Luna as DLC please, if you would be so kind.
Omg Luna whyyyy *dries eyes* (Looted from mistress-light's tumblr)
Ok, if you want to kill Luna off, fine, did you have to kill Noctis too? Why couldn't he have survived and gotten together with Iris and have beautiful Lucis Caelum babies who continue to rule over Lucis? Joanne calls Iris a homewrecker because she's constantly fangirling over Noctis even though he's engaged to Luna and all but honestly, what girl wouldn't go crazy over him? If I were Iris I would pick up sewing and stitch moogle plushies for Noct-oniichan too. Heck, my ovaries would never be calm in his company. I say cut Iris some slack. Speaking of Iris, we never actually get to see her after the 10 years time skip, nor Cindy nor Aranea nor Cid. Hey Square, how about cutting some budget from the Cindy car washing scenes and channeling them into a few minutes of screentime for post-time skip Iris and Cindy? It sucks to hear Talcott (who's totally legal now, ladies) speak of how they have become strong, successful women but never actually get to see them in person. Oh it's not only the good guys who get shafted, besides Ardyn all the "bad guys" combined get even less screentime than Iris. I didn't know that this ugly bat-like daemon was the emperor Iedolas until I read Reddit:
I think a lot of people must have been clueless too, because the developers added a sidestory where you play as Gladiolus and finally showed Iedolas becoming a daemon in the latest patch. Ravus's downfall was really disappointing too. When Gladiolus got his ass handed to him by Ravus early on in the game, I was so certain that Ravus would be a major baddie, like the second-in-command to Ardyn, and that I would have to face him again in the future. Well, face him again I did, but he was weakened by Ardyn already (something they only revealed in the patch, not in the original game) and I defeated him so easily, the battle was kinda anticlimactic. It could be because I was like more than 15 levels above the recommended level at that point though haha. Still, I really don't know anything about Ravus other than he's Luna's brother and is actually a good guy? And I'm not even sure about the latter.
Yes, anticlimactic is the perfect word to describe FFXV's story, especially the ending. At the end I was just like "Is that it? I worked so hard and Noctis died?". It makes it hard to finish all the side quests and to play the upcoming DLCs because I already know that in the end Noctis is going to die. The rest of my boyband Ignis, Prompto and Gladiolus might all be dead too, for all I know, it's never explicitly stated in the game so it's all speculation. I really loved the boys' interactions, it was probably one of the best things about the game. Not much backstory nor character development was given to any of them except Noctis (No I did not watch the anime), but I still ended up liking all of them through their banters and quirks ("I came up with a new recipe!"). Which brings me to another gripe of mine. So Noctis disappears for 10 years before returning, and none of his friends are mad at him for being ditched? I would get mad if my good friend didn't reply to my Facebook message within a few days and the remaining 3 are so chill when Noctis finally turns up. I was expecting more drama, like some "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!!?" and tears and abandonment issues, but everyone acts like they've been expecting me. Did they manage to find another Oracle while Noct was gone that predicted his return? As consolation, there was a campfire scene before the final boss fight that was really poignant. I think Noctis' seiyuu and the animators did a pretty good job capturing the emotions of the character in that situation.
It's more than I can take too,
Noct :'(
At the end, when Noctis said "俺 …お前らのこと好きだわ!", ahhh it was like being hit by a truc... eh not really, maybe a car. The truck came with the wedding scene:
Ok, make that 2 trucks. (Looted from kousuisetsu's tumblr)
Noctis is so dreamily handsome here. :') (Looted from kousuisetsu's tumblr)
Sometimes the development team handles emotional scenes so well, and sometimes they suck so bad. I'm so confused.
Anyway so the storytelling in FFXV is flawed, but the plot is actually pretty easy to follow, unlike Type 0, which was so confusing, although the tragic ending worked quite well in that game, and also FFVII, which is the most famous game in the series right? Well I never played the original, but I've read about the plot numerous times and I still find it incredibly difficult to understand. I probably play less than 5 games per year so I don't think I'll be much good at commenting on the gameplay and battle system, I will just say that it was fun enough for me most of the time. The Leviathan boss battle was the most epic (well the second part, because in the first part Noctis was close to useless), especially with Apocalypsis Aquarius playing in the background (My favourite song from the game hands down) and Noctis going all god-mode on Leviathan, I think I was close to spazzing. The only small letdown was that I was just mashing the O button 90% of the time during the fight, unlike in normal fights where I usually warp and defend and do teamwork stuff with my boys Ignis, Prompto and Gladiolus.
Eh, am I done already? Somehow I remembered having crazy lots of things to rant about FFXV. It sounds like I didn't like the game, but I actually really did, despite its flaws especially in the storytelling department. I do think that 10 years of development time is too long though, and with that much time, an even better game should have been produced compared to the one we actually got. The game is depressing enough as it is, so I'll end this post with a happier picture:
Genius! (Screenshot from achromatic-cai's tumblr)
Ok now that I've express all my thoughts and emotions, I hope I can move on and focus on work. I have to move outstation sometime later this month, feeling extremely apprehensive about the whole thing. :(
Spoilers abound, naturally.
The game has been on a mind a lot because the ending was so (unnecessarily) tragic. Throughout the whole game, I, as Noctis, was motivated by the desire to destroy my bitter and vengeful ancestor Ardyn as well as all the daemons and restore light to my awesome kingdom of Lucis. Seriously, pre-daemon infestation Lucis is such a beautiful place, if it were a real country the main industry would be tourism and and it would beat Switzerland in terms of annual number of tourists. Just look at the scenery!
To be fair, Altissa is really gorgeous too, it's like Venice but even better. Except it's still a rip-off of Venice so Lucis is better.
Really big kudos to the design team for designing such a beautiful world. Anyway back to the issue at hand. I was so pumped up because I thought in the end Noctis would be able to save his people, reclaim his throne (that's one of the game's taglines isn't it?) and marry the girl of his dreams, Luna. But I completely forgot that the FF team luuuuuurves tragic endings now not only does dream girl Luna die before Noct gets to meet her (And they haven't met for 12 years goddamit!), Noct had to sacrifice himself to bring down Ardyn so guess what? No more Oracle and Lucis Caelum bloodline. Great. So Lucis is gonna be a republic now? I was mad enough because I was shipping Noct and Luna so hard and not only do they kill her, they kill her OFFSCREEN ("Oh, her body just disappeared in the waves!" or some nonsense) after so little screentime. Romance in real life is frustrating enough, can we not have the star-crossed lovers theme for once? You know, at least in Westworld even though Dolores and Will were star-crossed lovers they were still together for a short period of time, but we're not even given that small satisfaction in this game. Noct and Luna just... never properly meet, unless you count looking at each other through a crowd of people as meeting. Sigh, they just wanted to get into each other's pants, but Square Enix is cold and heartless. It's also a lot of wasted potential, because Luna was such a strong female character. She went through a lot just to make sure Noctis became king and without her Noctis couldn't have defeated Leviathan. Seriously, taking down a boss monster together? #relationshipgoals enough said. I was quite upset when Luna died and the scene with the blue flowers was heart-breaking, but there are people on Reddit saying that they felt more emotional when Ignis went blind because they didn't really know Luna. So, Square Enix, Episode Luna as DLC please, if you would be so kind.
Ok, if you want to kill Luna off, fine, did you have to kill Noctis too? Why couldn't he have survived and gotten together with Iris and have beautiful Lucis Caelum babies who continue to rule over Lucis? Joanne calls Iris a homewrecker because she's constantly fangirling over Noctis even though he's engaged to Luna and all but honestly, what girl wouldn't go crazy over him? If I were Iris I would pick up sewing and stitch moogle plushies for Noct-oniichan too. Heck, my ovaries would never be calm in his company. I say cut Iris some slack. Speaking of Iris, we never actually get to see her after the 10 years time skip, nor Cindy nor Aranea nor Cid. Hey Square, how about cutting some budget from the Cindy car washing scenes and channeling them into a few minutes of screentime for post-time skip Iris and Cindy? It sucks to hear Talcott (who's totally legal now, ladies) speak of how they have become strong, successful women but never actually get to see them in person. Oh it's not only the good guys who get shafted, besides Ardyn all the "bad guys" combined get even less screentime than Iris. I didn't know that this ugly bat-like daemon was the emperor Iedolas until I read Reddit:
I think a lot of people must have been clueless too, because the developers added a sidestory where you play as Gladiolus and finally showed Iedolas becoming a daemon in the latest patch. Ravus's downfall was really disappointing too. When Gladiolus got his ass handed to him by Ravus early on in the game, I was so certain that Ravus would be a major baddie, like the second-in-command to Ardyn, and that I would have to face him again in the future. Well, face him again I did, but he was weakened by Ardyn already (something they only revealed in the patch, not in the original game) and I defeated him so easily, the battle was kinda anticlimactic. It could be because I was like more than 15 levels above the recommended level at that point though haha. Still, I really don't know anything about Ravus other than he's Luna's brother and is actually a good guy? And I'm not even sure about the latter.
Yes, anticlimactic is the perfect word to describe FFXV's story, especially the ending. At the end I was just like "Is that it? I worked so hard and Noctis died?". It makes it hard to finish all the side quests and to play the upcoming DLCs because I already know that in the end Noctis is going to die. The rest of my boyband Ignis, Prompto and Gladiolus might all be dead too, for all I know, it's never explicitly stated in the game so it's all speculation. I really loved the boys' interactions, it was probably one of the best things about the game. Not much backstory nor character development was given to any of them except Noctis (No I did not watch the anime), but I still ended up liking all of them through their banters and quirks ("I came up with a new recipe!"). Which brings me to another gripe of mine. So Noctis disappears for 10 years before returning, and none of his friends are mad at him for being ditched? I would get mad if my good friend didn't reply to my Facebook message within a few days and the remaining 3 are so chill when Noctis finally turns up. I was expecting more drama, like some "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!!?" and tears and abandonment issues, but everyone acts like they've been expecting me. Did they manage to find another Oracle while Noct was gone that predicted his return? As consolation, there was a campfire scene before the final boss fight that was really poignant. I think Noctis' seiyuu and the animators did a pretty good job capturing the emotions of the character in that situation.
At the end, when Noctis said "俺 …お前らのこと好きだわ!", ahhh it was like being hit by a truc... eh not really, maybe a car. The truck came with the wedding scene:
Sometimes the development team handles emotional scenes so well, and sometimes they suck so bad. I'm so confused.
Anyway so the storytelling in FFXV is flawed, but the plot is actually pretty easy to follow, unlike Type 0, which was so confusing, although the tragic ending worked quite well in that game, and also FFVII, which is the most famous game in the series right? Well I never played the original, but I've read about the plot numerous times and I still find it incredibly difficult to understand. I probably play less than 5 games per year so I don't think I'll be much good at commenting on the gameplay and battle system, I will just say that it was fun enough for me most of the time. The Leviathan boss battle was the most epic (well the second part, because in the first part Noctis was close to useless), especially with Apocalypsis Aquarius playing in the background (My favourite song from the game hands down) and Noctis going all god-mode on Leviathan, I think I was close to spazzing. The only small letdown was that I was just mashing the O button 90% of the time during the fight, unlike in normal fights where I usually warp and defend and do teamwork stuff with my boys Ignis, Prompto and Gladiolus.
Eh, am I done already? Somehow I remembered having crazy lots of things to rant about FFXV. It sounds like I didn't like the game, but I actually really did, despite its flaws especially in the storytelling department. I do think that 10 years of development time is too long though, and with that much time, an even better game should have been produced compared to the one we actually got. The game is depressing enough as it is, so I'll end this post with a happier picture:
Ok now that I've express all my thoughts and emotions, I hope I can move on and focus on work. I have to move outstation sometime later this month, feeling extremely apprehensive about the whole thing. :(
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Overly emotional chemical engineer who once dreamed of making the world a better place but now just wants to live a happy blessed life. What can I say? Life can be so draining sometimes. Retired MMORPGamer who used to play stuff like MapleSEA and AuditionSEA all day long. Ah, those were the chaotic days. Then it was the PSP, PS3 and now the PS4. No Nintendo and Xbox for me, thank you very much. I used to abhor sports and anything remotely physical but since running helps me cope with my anxiety and hiking can take me to beautiful places I do partake when the mood strikes. I'm also a huge fan of the sci-fi and fantasy genre whether it be books or movies. :3 Don't you think going on interstellar adventures on a starship is cool?
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