Final Fantasy XV #HO

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=225423353&postcount=2252

So I have played around 27 hours, currently at Chapter 9 in Altissia to meet Luna and here are my impressions from what I have played of the game.

Malik's Fantasy - Part 1
Malik's Fantasy - Part 2

Ascension Grid

So the last time I posted, I talked about the combat being great, right? Well there is way to make it even better by upgrading to unlock new skills in the Ascension grid. The ascension grid revolves around a set of categories so we have the 'combat' grid which unlocks new abilities for combos or skills for Noctis. We have the team work grid which works by letting the Party AI learn new abilities or techniques that can come real handy in battle. Then we have the Armiger grid and the Stats grid, the latter of which is important if we want to gain more stats after leveling up. We can basically unlock nodes in that grid to improve our stats like Strength or HP. There are more grids to look into and honestly there is a lot to customize our playthough, depending on our play style. In my case, I focused mostly on Noctis which means I didn't learn new techniques for the party members until after quite a while.

It is easy to have one look at the grid and consider it disappointment and lacking any details but if we play the game, we can soon figure out that it won't be possible to max it out as easily, because it requires a lot of AP. So please keep this in mind and carefully focus on the grid that tailors to your play style. I prefer going all solo with Noctis hence I focused on his grid but I highly recommend to learn some of the better techniques as well have important stat boosting grids unlocked.

Party AI

The party members have a great AI and they do kick ass in battle, however they can also easily get obliterated during some of the tougher boss fights. It is not easy to kill them though and if they do die, we have items like Phoenix Down or Mega Phoenix (for all members) that can review them with full health. But these items are expensive and since there are no monsters that drop gil unlike in the past FFs, money will mostly come through doing sidequests and hunts. We can also sell some of the rare treasure that we pick up during our journey throughout the world.

If you are tired of the Party getting their ass owned in tougher battles, I urge to focus on the Ascension grid related to the party members. First of all, make sure to utilize their technique in battle, as they can be quite handy at times. Secondly, the Ascension grid can add slight tweaks to their AI like if they are close to death, they can use a first aid kit to save their ass. There are more advanced options that are unlocked later but they all require a lot of AP, and as I have said, they don't come easy. So good luck in trying to attempt a balance between your own skills and the Party on the Ascension grid.

Sidequests

Since I have spent a considerable amount of time in the world now, I feel confident in talking in detail about the quests. People said they were mostly fetch quests, which might rub the wrong way, but having spent a considerable amount of time with them, I can safely say that not all of them are simply 'fetch' quests. These quests actually urge us to explore the world map, discover its lore, even if they are simple fetch quests. Attempting more of the quests, I discovered 2 secret dungeons which completely surprised me as I had no idea of their location until I attempted the quests corresponding to them. I also uncovered more of the map and discovered some of the hidden monsters during my exploration. So even if they sound like simple fetch quests, they reward the player with exploration. They are also tied to the narrative it is not like every single one of them has some dumb reason to get the X item and get back.

There are quests to upgrade weapons done by Cid. Quests to upgrade the Regalia so it travels at a faster speed (YES!!!!) and also to make it travel at night without having to bump into enemies on road (YESSSS!!!). The weapon upgrades are all neat and they are done by Cid. I recommend to attempt them as soon as you can because Cid will take his sweet time to complete these quests but the reward is a much better weapon than what we can get at that point.

Aside from the side quests, we have the option to fish and as far as I can tell, it is a fun distraction. We can buy the bait and fishing line from outposts or shops all around the world map and we need a specific bait to catch a certain type of fish, so it is not completely barebone mini game. There is a good amount of work put in it which will please the people who love these type of things in an RPG. There is also racing with the chocobos, which is another thing that I didn't attempt much. I mean I have already played an insane amount of the game and yet there is just so much to do. So yeh, I did skip around some of these side content but I am just pointing it out that it is available in case you want to attempt it.

Talking more about the quests, there are some quests given by people at certain locations and then they change their location. There are also quests that are given by people that maintain their location and this results in a quest loop that can be addicting. MMO players might be familiar this feeling of the quest loop. We just keep doing the quests while getting new ones from the person and it honestly feels like there is no end in sight. So I did drop some of them midway even though I was enjoying my time in attempting them.

There are secret boss fights and dungeons to explore. I discovered two of them thanks to side quests but I am sure there is atleast one more. I saw that dungeon in one of the videos but I haven't come across yet, although it had the Samurai with the mine and Goblins. I discovered the Sewer dungeon and another dungeon that had similarity to Chapter 7 dungeon. Keep in mind these are extremely challenging dungeons that require you to be atleast Level 50 before you can attempt them. Otherwise be ready to get your ass kicked.

We have seen the Niflheim base infiltration and it will be a story mission in the game, but there are even optional bases that are scattered throughout the world map. For starters, each of the base is designed in its own way. I played through 3 bases 2 of them are required for story and each of them had a different design. We can go full stealth in the base or all guns blazing, which won't be easy if we have a low level. The base infilration ends with boss fights with magitek armors over level 50, so make sure you are prepared for the final fight as it won't be easy.

Loot

I feel that this is very important point to highlight here as there is plenty of loot to collect in the world of Final Fantasy XV. I highly recommend to have atleast one of each type of item from the shops across the world map because some of the side quests will require these items, if we already have them, it makes the job easier. Also don't sell every loot that you collect as mentioned above, they can be given in some of the side quests. We can also use the loot to craft magic and some of the more powerful and rare loot can craft a very powerful magic spell. I was able to craft a powerful firga spell having potency of 200+ but sadly there is a damage cap of 9999 and to unlock it, we need an insane amount of AP points (999!!!).

The loot is also unique with each enemy. The larger and harder monster variety drops loot that can be sold for a good amount of gil, or used for weapon upgrade by Cid. They can also be used to craft powerful spells. The smaller enemies also drop loot but of course the rare monsters are the bigger draw here. We can also kill monsters to get some of the food items that can be used by Ignis to cook food, which in turn can give stat buffs. As I played through the game, I learned the importance of these buffs and since some of the bigger buffs can be expensive (there is one in Altissia that can cost 300,000 gil!!!), Ignis' cooking can come handy as he cook them free of cost. Sadly he can only cook at camps which means we will have to look around for camping spots if we want to buff up without having to spend money at a restaurant.

Altissia and Coliseum

So our entry to Altissia is a breathtaking visual spectacle. It is like seeing the city of Midgar for the first time. It is easy to get overwhelmed as we enter the city of the first time as it looks like there is a lot to do and discover. The city is huge and full of NPCs and the best part is that we can just stay next to them to hear their conversation. This removes the need to talk to every NPC manually and adds more realism to the exploration aspect. This is nothing new of course, I just wanted to point out that I really like the implementation here in FFXV.

Altissia will offer the players plenty of new things to try. New weapons, sidequests, new items and new hunts. The hunts that are offered in Altissia are all set during the night and I was able to unlock some very powerful hunts including some secret bosses that will please the old FF fans . They require a higher level of course but no one is stopping you from attempting them. One thing I should mention here is that Altissia hunts somehow allow the option to wait until Nighttime, since every hunt is set at night. This should have been an option with the other hunts dealer as well, so I hope it is added with a patch.

I will conclude this post with the Coliseum impressions. It is basically an arena where we witness the monsters killing each other for sport. We can wager and bet on the monsters by purchasing medals. Our only participation in these battle is through the use of horns that we can blow during the battle. These horns can either boost their attack or provide stat buffs. We start with a default horn which improves the attack, I think. I didn't really look much into it but there was a vendor right outside the Coliseum which was selling horns with different types of buffs/advantages in arena. They were expensive AF though so unless you have a shit load of money, you won't be able to buy them. Watching the battle unfold is actually quite fun and the prizes that we can win in Coliseum range from powerful weapons to new type of Skins for Regalia. Speaking of which, the Big Bang amano artwork is an unlockable skin in the Coliseum but good luck in getting it, as it requires a lot of medals. We initially purchase them through money but we can get more with bets.

To Be Continued

So this concludes my impressions for the second part and I will now post my final part of impressions once I am done with the game. I will have one thing to say though, if you are rushing through the game just to beat the story in a short time, you are missing quite a big chunk of what makes FFXV so good.