What will give me a more involved story experience - XII or XV?

[TheInfomaniac]

Hi all! I'm a big Final Fantasy fan (I've tried almost all of them although I've only beaten I, XIII, and XIII-2). I'm planning on picking up both XII and XV at some point in the future, but now that it sounds like XV's port is pretty good I'm trying to decide which one to get in the very near future. I know there are a lot of "XII vs XV" topics on steam, but they all seem more general or gameplay-focused, and my question is story-focused, so I thought I'd ask.

I'm a very story-focused player, and I tend to like the games that are very story-heavy (for instance, I really liked XIII despite having some issues with the gameplay because I really got into the story. I especially liked the numerous CG cutscenes). I count sidequests among story as well if they are really story-heavy and not just "go get 160 crystal fragments throughout the world" or something like that.

I know that both of these games have been criticised for having an uneven or less-developed story, and that both games' stories are considered to mess up a little in the second half. They also both seem to have that "open-world" feel (which is great, but means that the narrative will often take a back seat). I also know that XV is really reliant on tie-in media, but I'm planning on reading and watching all of the tie in media before playing so that shouldn't be an issue.

Both games' premises sound interesting, and I like the worlds of both games. The gameplay of both games also look good to me, so that doesn't really come into play. (For the record, I played a little bit of XII back in the day, so I know I like that one but I didn't get far enough to judge the story.) I think I'll enjoy both of them, but right now I want to play the one that will give me the most comprehensive story-focused experience.

So what do you think? If I value the story experience highly, should I play XII or XV?

[Soulmancer]

Well I've heard the FF15 story is pretty bad and this has been pretty much the criticism of FF for awhile now.

I personally liked all the FF12 characters and enjoyed the storyline during the first 1/2 - 2/3rds of the game; it's a little more grounded than a typical FF game... but it just kind of drops off towards the end and just kind of ends in what feels like should be the conclusion of a second act not a third act... the finale feels like the most anti-climactic in the entire series in terms of story line and final dungeon.

[Schuetze_Klaus]

Go for XII! XV isnt really good. =(

[AH-1 Cobra]

FF XV's story is one of the worst in the series.

I kinda feel like FF XV was an incomplete game. Something they had to cut short due to time and budget constraints. The last few acts in the game feel incredibly rushed.

[Soulmancer]

Първоначално публикувано от crimsonedge11:

The last few acts in the game feel incredibly rushed.

12 feels this way, after the slog through the 2nd last dungeon and the story starts to pick up steam again the game just railroads you through the final dungeon, to the end boss in like 5 minutes in what should have been a drawn out final act.

[AH-1 Cobra]

The story pacing in 12 is way better than XV.

A lot of the side content in XV isn't that great either. Costlemark dungeon is annoying as hell. And then there is that other dungeon which is basically a platforming puzzle. I didn't even bother attempting the later one. The side content in XII can be very rewarding, whereas most of the side content in XV isn't.

You're better off doing as much as you can in the earlier chapters, because a little later on you start getting ganked by Imperial drop ships offloading troops, and they just get in the way of you exploring and doing hunts and stuff. In later chapters they start dropping out magitek armors, and some of them can be quite OP, depending on how leveled your party is. They seem to drop at the most inconvenient times as well, like while you're in the middle of fighting a big hunt mob, in come the drop ships carrying magiteks.

Another gripe I got with FF XV is they only let you accept 1 hunt at a time. There are frequently hunts within the same general area, but no, they make you to extra back tracking because you can't grab multiple hunts and knock them out in a vicinity, then report back. That's going to add another 10-15+hrs onto the game by itself if you go for full completion. I'm hoping someone mods the game to allow the player to grab multiple hunt quests at once. That's just a basic QOL feature.

[Sobrio]

I'm also story focused gamer when play jrpg. I njoyed a lot FXIII and FFT and FXII are in my top 5 best stories in gaming.
Most of time people say that the story of FFXV is bad and i cant understand why. What make a great story is not the plot himself but charachters and dialogue.
FFXV is more immersive and with better narration, because of more advanced technical aspect.
Maybe the plot of XII is better,idk it's mater of taste. But FFXV will be a more enjoyable experience.
It's hard for me to express my thougths about this topic because of language barrier. But i think your taste is similar to mine, so i suggest to start first with FFXV. You can try demo, and you'll understand.
Recommend to watch Kingslaive and Final Fantasy brothershood, before the sp campaign or the demo, you'll get to know what to aspect from the story.

[Sekoku]

Първоначално публикувано от Soulmancer:

Първоначално публикувано от crimsonedge11:

The last few acts in the game feel incredibly rushed.

12 feels this way, after the slog through the 2nd last dungeon and the story starts to pick up steam again the game just railroads you through the final dungeon, to the end boss in like 5 minutes in what should have been a drawn out final act.

Well, I mean Matsuno left due to illness/burnout...

Shame that Matsuno wasn't on-board through the whole process and having to fight Square every-inch of the game's development (Basch was originally the main character, Square mandated a "pretty-boy" to be the lead, hence Vaan). I feel his original idea of Ivalice would've been great (coming from Tactics Ogre and FFT) with the whole political plot instead of "sorry Princess, your stone is in another castle" sort of design that came about. :/

[Kyle G]

FF15's plot has flaws, but FF12's story is just boring.

[Trehek]

FFXII's story has some politics which can make it boring or interesting depending on the player. Overall it's ok.

FFXV's story is the most atrocious piece of garbage I've ever seen in an FF game. FFXIII's had big flaws, but at least the world the Fal'Cie made it somewhat interesting. FFXV's plot doesn't make sense unless you've watched Kingsglaive, it's cut and incomplete, it leaves most NPC's uninteresting to the point that I gave zero F's about what happens to them. And the writing is... ugh!

[Slippery When Dead]

Honestly, i haven't played FF15 and i probably won't ever do so. But know FF12 pretty well and its story is awesome in my opinion, and many characters contribute to it.

All i hear from various people who've played part 15 is that it totally sucks - story, characters, gameplay, literally everything except the graphics.

[SenMithrarin85]

Първоначално публикувано от Slippery When Dead:

Honestly, i haven't played FF15 and i probably won't ever do so. But know FF12 pretty well and its story is awesome in my opinion, and many characters contribute to it.

All i hear from various people who've played part 15 is that it totally sucks - story, characters, gameplay, literally everything except the graphics.

pretty much sums up ff13 too. the modern ffs are all style and no substance.

[TheInfomaniac]

Hey everyone! Thanks for all of your responses! It's helped me a lot, although I'm still thinking it over.

I happen to really like political stories, and from what I remember of XII's intro the struggle for power between the kingdoms was really interesting to me. It sounds like the backstory of XV also has this stuff going on, but it sounds like the main plot of the game is more focused on the main characters.

I've definitly heard mostly negative things about XV's story, although I hear mostly negative things about XIII's story and I thought XIII was very interesting story-wise (it just had execution problems). I'm wondering if it's the actual plot of XV that's bad or if it's like XIII where it's just that the execution is off a lot of the time. If it's the latter, I might really enjoy it.

Having said that, I definitly am drawn more to the variety of locations/characters in XII vs the fairly similar-looking characters of XV, amd I really like XII's part-fantasy-part-Star-Wars-prequel design sense, so I'm gravitating towards that. The cities in XV really look cool but I am less interested in the "road trip" aesthetic of what I've seen of the game.

Of course, there's a chance I'll just buy both hahaha.

[TheInfomaniac]

I have a pretty high end PC (i7-7700k and 1080ti with 32gb of RAM) so I think I'll be ok since I'm still playing in 1080p. The question is just deciding which one I want to do first.

On one hand, FFXV is new, I've never played it before, and more graphically impressive. (Also I can finally watch my copy of Kingsglaive which I've had on my shelf for like a year). On the other hand, FFXII is more my style visually and I know I like it already. I might also want to wait for FFXV to get some patches, so I guess it will all come down to what I'm in the mood for.

[BigCountryBL]

Първоначално публикувано от crimsonedge11:

Another gripe I got with FF XV is they only let you accept 1 hunt at a time. There are frequently hunts within the same general area, but no, they make you to extra back tracking because you can't grab multiple hunts and knock them out in a vicinity, then report back. That's going to add another 10-15+hrs onto the game by itself if you go for full completion. I'm hoping someone mods the game to allow the player to grab multiple hunt quests at once. That's just a basic QOL feature.

What do you mean you can only accept 1 hunt at a time on XV? I think the number you can do at once is 12. Accept however many, click a hunt in quests. kill the target, select different hunt in your quest menu. Turn them in all at once

[jenovaschild]

Both games are pretty good and better then anything out there, save for other final fantasy games. For just a strong story some of the great renasciance of CRPGs are hard to beat that have come out in the last few years, Divinity, torment, wastelands, and many many more.
Still though if you have not tried either you will more then get your money's worth out of either title. I my self would play 12 first and save the ff15 eye candy for later.