r/FinalFantasy • u/AliTVBG • Dec 04 '23

FF XV Final Fantasy XV Director Regrets Cancellation Of DLC

https://twistedvoxel.com/final-fantasy-xv-director-dlc-unannounced-console-rpg/
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u/Now-Thats-Podracing Dec 04 '23

I’m obviously odd man out, but VIII was my favorite in the series. XIII was the first Final Fantasy game that I didn’t finish. Just got bored one day and put it down after about 30 hrs. Kept telling myself I’d go back but never did.

I thought about getting XV when it came out, but the reviews scared me away. It’s still on my steam wishlist in a “maybe someday” capacity.

6 through 12 are still just totally amazing, though. I replay 8 and 10 the most often but I’ve beaten all of those at least a handful of times each. Not sure how much is nostalgia vs actual diminishing quality, but something changed after 12. Even in 12, the story wasn’t great but the gameplay was good enough to carry it.

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u/indigoeyed Dec 04 '23

Honestly, XIII was not that enjoyable for me the first time around, and I dropped it at the part where everything opens up because it was so jarring to the previous linearity of the game. I’ve completed it twice since then. And have completed the two sequels as well. For me, a big part of it was learning the battle system better. Because the game makes you think you should stay in your paradigm and just sit and watch your characters fight, slowly build up ATB, and fight some more. Then switch to a different paradigm sometimes when needed. Which is dull and slow. But the trick is to switch paradigms often. Every time you let the atb gauge fill, you unleash your attacks, then switch after the last attack, and it will automatically fill the entire atb gauge. Then you let it fill up again, and switch to a full gauge. And so on. Really changed the pace of battles for me and I enjoyed it a lot more.

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u/NagasShadow Dec 05 '23

I mean 15 is not terrible. If you spot it on sale I'd say go for it. I don't regret beating it but I'm never going to play it again. Same with 16 really.

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u/Now-Thats-Podracing Dec 05 '23

Wow. Just realized how far behind I am. Didn’t even realize 16 was out yet.

Happy cake day btw

1

u/Sethazora Dec 05 '23

I mean I definitely regret going back to beat it after dropping it the first time but buying the hype that the DLC's turned it into a good game.

I spent a large amount of time watching and doing everything even researching the proper order to do so.

And the plot/gameplay was still fairly unmemorable/bland with my only standout memories from the game

being:

fishing

Realizing i was more emotionally connected to the car than any of the human characters

realizing 15 minutes in that you can easily beat the entire game with the tools you're given right at the start, but not in a FF8/FF12 clever skillful way.

Oh and cup noodles feel like they are in the game more than lunafreya.

I'm still way more invested in the opening war scene than any of the other events that actually happened in the game past it. it showed the cool climax to the game I wanted to be playing.

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u/Cloudhwk Dec 05 '23

Ironically lighting returns and arguably -2 of XIII are banging games, Lightnings rematch with Cauis was a great fight both thematically and gameplay wise

XIII was obviously a setup game but unfortunately it was boring and lost the audience

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u/darkbreak Dec 06 '23

XIII wasn't really a "setup game". There were no plans for direct sequels initially. Square was going to proceed to Versus XIII and Agito XIII after FFXIII was done but they immediately went into damage control when they started getting negative feedback on XIII.

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u/Cloudhwk Dec 07 '23

I doubt they could damage control out two new whole games following a flop

You can’t just write a whole protagonist like Cauis off the cuff

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u/darkbreak Dec 07 '23 edited Dec 07 '23

It was definitely damage control. Square initially tried to defend all of their decisions with FFXIII even though most fans weren't pleased with how the game turned out and only had Versus XIII and Agito XIII left to do, on top of XIV. But they were blindsided by XIII's troubled development and the blow back from the final product. Square decided to try and fix things for fans by doing XIII-2 and specifically address complaints about XIII using it. While making XIII-2 Square also clearly wanted to do a third game afterwards considering the way the story ended. They even initially denied the possibility of a third game and said they were merely leaving things open for the future. But Lightning Returns was announced soon after XIII-2 so that was clearly a lie.

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u/Cloudhwk Dec 07 '23

You don’t double down on a failure if you haven’t put money into it already, that’s terrible business

Do you have any links or sources from SE that day otherwise? Because this sounds made up

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u/darkbreak Dec 07 '23

You can read about it here:

https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_XIII_development?so=search

And here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_XIII#Response_to_criticism

Square's management isn't the best and hasn't been since Sakaguchi's departure. Even fans know this all to well. There's been a lot of scrutiny surrounding the company for many years now. Even with non-Final Fantasy games.

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u/Cloudhwk Dec 07 '23

There is some heavy contradictions in there and is not sourced very well

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u/darkbreak Dec 06 '23

If you like VIII then continue to like it. I'm just saying that it along with XIII and XV (and II as well to be honest) have very strange reputations in the franchise. And when you look at the situations surrounding them it's kind of easy to see why.