I think…
I think…
I think…
Yep. This
franchise is dead to me.
Intrepid gamers out there may be well aware of the
fact that Final Fantasy 15 actually
did the impossible and came out. It’s in
the wild. It’s available for
purchase. It’s something that people can
play right now. That’s how it’s been for
-- as of writing -- well over six months.
In the time since, Squeenix has moved on to DLC plans, and has even
asked fans what they might want out of future content. Even if they didn’t, the game has apparently
been a top-seller, with enough money pulled in to justify its long, tumultuous
development cycle.
People are happy with the game. People have finished the game. But I
don’t belong to either camp. And the way
things are looking, I never will.
For the five of you reading this and know me well
(shout outs to mah boi Mortimer), I can already tell what you’re thinking. “Oh, of
course Voltech doesn’t like FF15!
It’s a modern Final Fantasy game! He has to dump on it, because that’s what he
does best! He decided to hate it the
moment it came out!” And yeah, I’ve put
myself into a niche where people probably expect me to open fire on
whatever Squeenix pushes out the door next.
But I don’t go into a game looking to hate it just because it
exists. Do you have any idea how stupid
of a proposal that is? If I’m going to
commit anywhere from eight to 128 hours on a game, then why would I set myself
up for a fall by preemptively making myself miserable?
Innocent until proven guilty. That’s how it should be when you’re analyzing
a work -- and indeed, that’s how it was when I started FF15 about half a year
ago. It signaled the end of the dreaded
Lightning Saga. It buried the
ever-baffling Type-0. It was the fresh start I was looking for, and
the fresh start Squeenix was looking for amidst the ashes of Versus 13. And at first, I was intrigued by the
game. Interested. Impressed, even. I told my brother that I agreed with an
assertion he made: “It’s dumb, but dumb in a good way.”
On paper, the idea isn’t a bad one. The recent, modern FF games have had incredible difficulty
just writing a basic plot, so the best way to sidestep that weakness (which shouldn’t be a weakness at all for a
multimillion-dollar company, but whatever)
is to focus on something else. So
there’s the road trip affect between the four FF bros, Noctis, Ignis, Gladio, and Prompto. Given that people bond with characters in
stories more than anything else, it’s a surefire way to make sure that the fun
people have with the story is tied into the fun with the core quartet.
That was the theory, at least. But for me?
Things went way off track.
So here’s my big confession: I made it about 15
hours into FF15, essentially dropped
it, and haven’t touched it since. It
wasn’t my intention, to be honest. The
plan (if you could call it that) was to play 15 hours of 15, then play 15 hours of the then-recently-released Tales of Berseria to do a
compare-and-contrast post. The problem,
and the unexpected outcome, was that Berseria
ended up being so engrossing that I broke past the 15-hour limit. And I kept going. And going.
And going. So it led to me
putting 77 hours into the game from start to finish, while FF15 sat in its case.
That was a mistake. I shouldn’t have touched Berseria at all, because the only thing FF15 has on it is the graphical quality (and production values, if
you want to be generous and ratchet it up to two). The combat is better. The gameplay is better. The story is better. The characters are better. The themes are better. And sure, you can’t compare 77 hours of
gameplay to 15; that’s unfair, and overshadows the good stuff that might be in Squeenix’s
latest down the line.
Except…since when were you under the impression
that I was comparing all 77 hours to FF’s
15?
In 15 hours of FF15,
I have no grasp of who Noctis is. I can
only see the basic archetypes of his friends.
I don’t know what the plot is besides “Grr, the Empire is a pain in my
backside!” I don’t know who the villains
are besides that Empire; it comes off as so basic in execution at that point
that they feel like placeholders in a rough outline. I don’t know this world -- which is to say, I
have a hard time caring about this
world even with its million-dollar visuals.
The charm of the road trip wore off within three
or four hours of starting the game, and that’s a generous estimate. I need substance, but I didn’t get it. And speaking of which, I’m led to believe
that the game is suffering from a major identity crisis; I don’t know if it
wants to be the road trip or the epic tale of a fallen prince. I don’t know if it wants to be an open-world
sandbox in line with various AAA games, or a linear, straightforward, and
narrative-driven title. Right now FF15 seems content with straddling the
line and earning nothing more than a scraped-up scrotum.
And that wouldn’t be so bad -- well, no, I’m not
even going to finish that thought. A
JRPG with a bad story is an automatic fail-state, and no amount of good
gameplay can save it. But at least good
gameplay would help. You know, ease the sting. Bandage up those gaping wounds. But the gameplay isn’t there. It wasn’t there in the Duscae demo, it wasn’t
there in the Platinum demo, and it’s not there in the final game. The combat is unsatisfying, some of the
mechanics are truly baffling, there’s too much downtime that comes off as
filler, and the difficulty is nonexistent.
The frustration most certainly exists, though. I can guarantee that.
I tried with this game. I really did.
But the more I tried to like it, the more it pushed back. After a certain point, it seemed like every
time I tried to give it the benefit of the doubt, FF15 would do something to deflate itself but act as if it did
something good. Like it was worthy of
praise. But it wasn’t. Again, and again, and again it let me down
and turned me away. Berseria, in contrast, left the door wide open. In 15 hours with Noctis, I’m struggling to
come up with anything substantial to say about him. Comparatively, it took me less
than three to know who Velvet
was, what she’s about, what she wants to do, who her enemies are, who she
loves, what she thinks, how she conducts herself, and where her character might
go plot-wise and arc-wise.
All things considered, it’s a wonder I didn’t give
the FF15 disc the old Office Space special.
The way I see it, FF15’s underlying problems -- at least those outside its universe
and inside ours -- are twofold. First
off, it’s showing its age in the worst way possible with every additional hour,
and every new game released. Second, and
maybe more importantly, it’s proof that Squeenix hasn’t learned a goddamn thing
about how to make a good HD-era JRPG.
It’s reached a point where I’m about ready to rescind earlier claims
that this is the best modern-day FF game
and give it back to Type-0. So in other words, they’ve actually managed
to regress instead of evolve. I don’t know how you accomplish that, but
clearly I’m in the habit of underestimating Squeenix’s penchant for fucking up.
I don’t understand what’s so hard about this basic
concept: one button press should, on average, lead to one attack executed. Press a button, swing a sword, hit once. Is it flashy?
Not particularly. But it is
responsive -- an audiovisual signal that’s true to the player’s button
press. If you buy into the Dissidia or Kingdom Hearts philosophy (as Squeenix once did), then one button
press = half a dozen sword hits in one go, with all of the flying around their
animators can muster. Flashy, sure, but
it makes for a nebulous combat system full of imprecision and unresponsiveness. I can’t feel my attacks if I can’t perceive
where and when my input matters -- and that goes double when I can’t make heads
or tails of what’s going on mid-battle.
Luckily, Squeenix grew out of that phase. Unluckily, they grew into something even
worse.
So FF13 and
13-2 banked hard on its Paradigm
battle system. In theory, it was a way
to make combat more strategic, while giving the player more control over AI
partners and simplifying the Gambit system of FF12. In practice? The only thing that mattered 90% of the time
was mashing X to choose the auto-battle option -- i.e. a way to save time on
picking options from menus and fight more efficiently. Basically, the game played itself until it
was time to heal or turtle up. Maybe not
even then, if you had a full-time healer on deck. I know that there were complaints for
previous FF games, where it seemed
like all you had to do in most cases was mash X to speed through melee attacks,
but A) 13 didn’t bother to fix that
problem and B) actually made it worse by slowing down the process.
Then you get to 15, and it’s got the worst of multiple worlds. Noctis will keep attacking on a
seemingly-endless loop if you just hold down a button, which means you don’t
even get the “luxury” of mashing out a stream of attacks. So from a tactile standpoint, you can’t feel
your attacks being executed -- and when you’re looking at the screen, you can’t
see them being executed, either. It’s just a stream of blows that blend into
one another with no sense of weight.
Even attacks with the big boy broadswords end up being bleh in no time at all.
Credit where credit’s due, though: you can give
Noctis a gun. Truly, the weapon of a
noble and courageous warrior.
The nicest thing I can say about the combat is
that it works. It just doesn’t feel good most of the
time. There are moments when it comes
alive; when enemies are actually putting pressure on you and forcing you to
work more effectively with your comrades, it actually made me wake up and feel
some excitement. But those moments are,
to my recollection, few and far between.
Holding an attack button is something I couldn’t stand in Dragon Age: Inquisition, and I can’t
stand it with this game. I think you can
change your attack properties/styles by holding a direction while attacking,
but that doesn’t solve the problem either -- and the fact that I struggle to
know the difference between attacks does NOT say kind things.
I don’t like automated attacks, and I think I hate
automated defense even more. To be fair,
you do have a dodge roll right off the bat, but it’s just as optimal -- maybe
more -- to hold down the defense button to dodge nearly anything that comes
your way (except for random unblockable attacks). There’s a parry system, too, but it generally
pops up as a faux-QTE, or like a Reaction Command from Kingdom Hearts II. It’s not
great, basically. Warpstrikes aren’t
nearly as dynamic as past trailers advertised, so in terms of basic gameplay
it’s little more than a gimmick. I like
the idea of calling in your teammates to use their special techniques, but so
far it seems like the only one that matters is what’s very close to a free heal
from Ignis.
And then there’s the magic system, proving once
again that Squeenix doesn’t want you to use magic.
I don’t understand how you fail to grasp
this. Kingdom Hearts I had it down: equip your spells -- different spells
with different attributes -- and cast them in real time by either selecting
them from a drop-down menu, or using a hotkey function by holding a trigger and
pressing a face button. It’s such a
simple but useful system, and I’m surprised it hasn’t been co-opted by more
games out there. Further, I’m surprised
that it hasn’t been co-opted by more Squeenix games. In FF15,
you can only use magic if you assign it to one of your four weapon slots. Worse yet, you have a limited stock of that
magic -- which was true of FF8, but
in that game you could hold up to 99 of a single spell if you wanted to.
In this game?
Magic is akin to holding onto grenades -- not even a half-dozen in
stock, with the same general AoE/splash damage with different particle
effects. And different status effects --
which I know about extensively, because for whatever reason the devs made it so
that your magic can hurt you and your
teammates. So using it in close
quarters is a bad idea unless you want to electrocute the Backstreet Boys. It's a shame, but I (vaguely) understand the
reasoning behind it; magic is so overpowered in this game that whenever you see
an Empire dropship release a bunch of soldiers, you’re almost guaranteed an
instant victory if you lob a spell -- one with HUGE range -- at them from a
distance.
It’s the sort of thing that makes me go
“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh…” And the sad part about
it is that that’s not the only way it disappoints me.
The customization/upgrade system in RPGs is always
a big draw, because there’s nothing better than seeing your character get
stronger or learn new moves. But then
when you get to FF15, some of the
“better” stuff is hidden behind MASSIVE AP point walls, which means I’ll be
waiting a long time to get “rewards” for my efforts. A ways into the game you unlock the Armiger
ability, which is basically Noctis’ version of the Devil Trigger. So you’d think that that would inject some
life into the game by mixing things up -- appearance, moveset, strategies,
etc. Nope. It just makes it so that Noctis does stupid
boosh-boosh-boosh-flying-with-lots-of-sword-hits moves at an even faster and
more incomprehensible rate…which means all you have to do is hold a button to
watch enemy HP melt away.
Then you get to summons, like Titan -- something
that, near as I can tell, you don’t have full control over at the outset. Basically you get a prompt to summon him with
the press of a button, wherein the big guy throws a rock at the baddies for
monumental damage. I have many issues
with summoning in this game because of the gameplay and story integration (or
lack thereof) it introduces, but I’ll have to save that for later. Consider that another bullet in the chamber.
For now, though?
From a gameplay perspective, I can’t think of a single reason why I
should prioritize FF15 over releases
from 2017, 2016, 2015, and beyond (forward or back in time, take your
pick). Most of the fights so far have
put me on a snooze cruise, including the boss battles. I’m having trouble remembering one of them
thanks to how easy it was to clear, and I think my brain’s trying to block out
another because of the cheap shots taken by the enemies there -- which wasn’t
helped by the environment/camera, but that’s a complaint you could leverage
with every third encounter in the game.
With that said, I do remember
the Behemoth fight -- and how it made me go “Ohhhhhhhhhh…” harder than I ever
had before.
I remember it from one of the earlier demos. The Behemoth back then seemed like an
extremely powerful enemy, worthy of its moniker as “Dead-Eye”. I don’t know if it was because of adjusted
stats or because of my inexperience with the game, but back then it really put
me on the ropes. I was looking forward
to fighting it for real in the full release, complete with my chosen equipment,
skills, and strategies in hand.
And then it turns out that in the main game, you
win just by detonating the red barrels littered throughout the
battlefield.
How? How? How do you do that? Why would
you do that? Why would deflate one of
your marquis battles with something that’s been a video game constant -- a
tired, hackneyed cliché -- for at least 20 years? Why would you strip away a chance for the
player to put everything he or she has learned to the test? Why would you utterly invalidate and
disrespect them with a battle that A) makes no sense and B) is totally
unrewarding? Why, Squeenix, are you so
obsessed with railroading players toward a single, unsatisfying dominant
strategy of your choosing? I don’t want
to use red barrels. I don’t want to use
stupid gimmicks once in a while. I don’t
want to use limp-wristed, automatic melee attacks. I want to play your games. But
you won’t fucking let me. You never, ever do.
No, wait. I
take that back. You do let me play your games, but only so I can enjoy “gameplay” just
a half-step above Stockholm syndrome. I’m
so tired of doing meaningless hunts across empty environments with 98 Degrees
moving at a snail’s pace outside of their luxury car, and even more meaningless
searches for tiny items for people I couldn’t begin to give a damn about. But if there’s anything I’m going to take
away from the gameplay of FF15, it’s
going to be all the time I spent (and wasted) running to a site, holding a
button to carve through monsters, then running back to the quest giver
because…hey, that shit would’ve been aces
in 2006.
What is it with modern FF games and the abject refusal to use phones? Do you know how many problems could’ve been
solved in 13 if Lightning just rang
up her sister? The answer: ALL OF THEM.
Now, look.
I’m not saying that anyone who likes FF15
is wrong for it. As I’ve said a
dozen times before, I wish I could share that opinion and enjoy the same games
that others do. But as always, what I
write here is my honest opinion -- and right now, at this juncture, my honest
opinion is that the game is not good. Maybe it gets better. Maybe there are nuances I’m missing. But the fact that it takes a minimum of 15
hours for me to find a consistent, decisive level of fun doesn’t say good
things about the game, or bode well
for my future with it.
You know what I think? I think the core problem is that FF15 isn’t adjusted to make the most out
of its creative vision -- its mission statement, of sorts. Xenoblade
Chronicles X was; it downplayed its story (albeit not completely) for the
sake of letting the player indulge in core gameplay and feedback loops, and was
stronger for it. Even if there’s a decent
narrative there (and there is), it’s a game hell-bent on giving players the
chance to explore and research a sprawling alien planet, massive in scope and
teeming with life. That game and its
developers understood what they wanted to do, and pushed toward it from start
to finish. And they not only did that on
a depressingly-unpopular system, but also did it on a system that damn near died trying to run it at times.
So what’s FF15’s
excuse? What’s Squeenix’s
excuse? What was even the point of that
decade-long wait if this is the end result?
How am I supposed to believe that this company and this franchise have a
future when they’ve not only botched multiple modern releases, but have
gleefully declared that their answer for “the next stage of Final Fantasy” is a Hail Mary blast from
the past?
I don’t know.
There may not be a clear answer.
But I’m sure as hell gonna try and give my own -- next time. See you then.
No comments:
Post a Comment