How did this game get such high review scores?

[Chubzdoomer]

I've put about 15 hours into it now and while I don't hate it, I just don't think it's a very good game.

The combat is lackluster at best and hindered by a clumsy camera that's all too often obscured by obstacles/foliage and utterly breaks in indoor environments (like dungeons). The side quests are among the worst and most uninspired I've seen in any modern RPG. The characters are as mundane and paper-thin as they come (even 15 hours in, I don't care about a single person or event in this game; for an RPG, that's incredible). The controls are clunky and unintuitive, from the gameplay itself to the incredibly cumbersome menus and interface (love how you "pan" the map using IJKL and zoom in/out using Page Up/Down; just brilliant).

Ultimately, Final Fantasy XV just doesn't seem to have much going for it. The graphics are pretty good besides the blurry filtering, and the world is impressive. Go beyond that, however, and you have yourself an open-world JRPG that's just plain bad.

Does anyone else feel the same way?

I'm going to push on in hopes that the game will eventually improve, but the more I play, the more I'm tempted to just uninstall and be done with it. This has to be one of the most overrated RPGs I've played in quite some time.

[Emmagination]

It's hard to relate to characters you have no clue about...the game seems to expect you to watch Kingsglaive and Brotherhood before you play.....I did and it helped immensely (although I still wish I could be in control of Nyx rather than prince emo...)

[ZedameX]

Not sure why peiple say it's blurry, seems plenty sharp enough on my machine.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1329879918

I mean, stuff blurrs out a bit in the distance directing your focus on what is close like a real camera at a relatively low f-stop but it's clear enough. Up close is sharp.

I uploaded a whole hour (unlocking and using chocobo) less than 12 hours ago which demonstrates some of the epicness that the game offers too.

https://youtu.be/fE5Y0ghLw1s
No need to intently watch, just skim around as it features rain, fog, night, and sunshine.

Above video is all stock (no edits, no outside tweaks)
Is your game blurrier than that or the same?

I'm thinking either:
I am utterly blind or don't mind the distance blur (old games like UT2K4 have sharp edges all the way to infinity)

Or your system or settings isn't pushing this (possibly unreasonably high) demanding game.

Play with filters, resolution scaling, and AA options outside the game perhaps?

Edit: fixed typos.

[Chubzdoomer]

Originally posted by ZedameX:

Not sure why peiple say it's blurry, seems plenty sharp enough on my machine.

I was playing at 1080p with Filtering to Low, and TAA anti-aliasing. As soon as TAA is turned off completely, there's no blurriness at all, so it seems to be related to the AA.

I also attempted resolution scaling, but even 125% sent me below 60 FPS far more than usual so I had to dial back to 100%.

Honestly though, the blurriness was the least of my worries. I was able to look past it and just focus on the game (for better or worse).

[kurosov]

Originally posted by ZedameX:

Not sure why peiple say it's blurry, seems plenty sharp enough on my machine.

I'm thinking either:
I am utterly blind or don't mind the distance blur (old games like UT2K4 have sharp edges all the way to infinity)

Or your system or settings isn't pushing this (possibly unreasonably high) demanding game.

Play with filters, resolution.scaling, and AA options outside the game perhaps?

Because it's really bloody blurry, Assuming you want AA which you should with all the regular and temporal aliasing in the game without. Even at 200% resolution scale it's blurry.

It's foreground stuff not depth blur. ReShade for some form of sharpening is pretty much a must to make full use of the high res textures.

[SenMithrarin85]

the game is like a victoria's secret model; beautiful to look at, but very shallow underneath.

the gameplay is nothing to write home about. magic is relegated to grenades (which can also hurt your party...) curative magic is gone, the summon system is stupidly complicated, side quests are pointless and give WAY too much exp. story is a minefield that makes advent children look well directed by comparison. its full of technical issues (most notably the memory leak and stuttering caused by the steamapi)

as for why its "very positive", steam reviews are pointless drivel written by fanboys most of the time.

[ZedameX]

Originally posted by Chubzdoomer:

Originally posted by ZedameX:

Not sure why peiple say it's blurry, seems plenty sharp enough on my machine.

I was playing at 1080p with Filtering to Low, and TAA anti-aliasing. As soon as TAA is turned off completely, there's no blurriness at all, so it seems to be related to the AA.

I also attempted resolution scaling, but even 125% sent me below 60 FPS far more than usual so I had to dial back to 100%.

Honestly though, the blurriness was the least of my worries. I was able to look past it and just focus on the game (for better or worse).

Okay, good to know.
I feel a lot of people are finding it forgettable as they have played/seen so much that the characters all fall into "generic personality" groups. This can make or break I suppose. Either quick to feel familiar with, or quick to disregard.


Perhaps it's because I've avoided this style (time sink) of game for a while. But I'm enjoying the ability to jump into and explore this world. It has been a while for me to be excited to get home from work to play a game.

I'm only up to where that video shows tho, so haven't had much exposure to the story, but the acting has been decent from what I've seen so far.

Not saying it's omgwtfbbqsauce amazing. But it pulled me back into gaming (I feel like a noob, using potions frequently when it's considered a super easy game tho, I don't seem to have that problem with Neir or Bayonetta, both which have fun fighting mechanics, possibly why I fight so clumbsy in ffxv)

I'll be honest that I wasn't one for story in gaming much (last one that caught my attention for story was Mass Effect 1)
And have been more into pickup playability.

For example, I tried MGSV but have not got far due to the tactical/waiting time required (absolutely loved MGS1 from start to finish)

I guess the time I need to invest to grow into those games puts me off due to lack of free time I've had in the past 1.5 years. Meaning I don't mind if I don't get attached to the characters or story, but just enjoy screwing around in the game.

[Chocolate Boy]

The story goes downhill even more if you don't play the dlcs. Heck, Verstael only appears in one scene until the prompto dlc which means it was rushed when it came out.

I would just beat the game at lvl 45 and do the ignis dlc. It should take 27 hours.

I beat the game twice and did the dlcs and did not find it as good as nier auto in terms of narrative or gameplay. Ifrit was too easy with blizzaga.

[Lestatdelioncort]

Originally posted by Chocolate Mountain Boy:

The story goes downhill even more if you don't play the dlcs. Heck, Verstael only appears in one scene until the prompto dlc which means it was rushed when it came out.

I would just beat the game at lvl 45 and do the ignis dlc. It should take 27 hours.

I beat the game twice and did the dlcs and did not find it as good as nier auto in terms of narrative or gameplay. Ifrit was too easy with blizzaga.

it was rushed because they only had 3 years to make the game. 7 years of "development" with Nomura (who absolutely did nothing and cares more about KH then FF) The fact that this game even came out is short of a miracle. Don't give the excuse that SE made Nomura work on KH games or exc. because the same crap is happening with FFVII Remake. What's there with the story and world building is actually good for the years they had to work on this game. The combat isn't lack luster either, it's more then just holding a button. You can do tempest with noctis with greatsword by pressing the attack buttong wait for his recoil animation to start, then press circle again (use it with a bunch of enemies when your tech bar is empty).

You can charge your spear by pressing back and attack, same with great sword (bessed used when enemie is vulnerable.
Character switching also adds more to it (which was a free update before royal pack came out so don't say you had to "omg by the game for character switching") Prompto is good for flans, enemies above and long range, ignis for aoes and burst damage, gladio for fighting iron giants and hard shelled enemies like the crabs.

Back to noctis you can easily avoid iron giant attacks by letting go of the lock on button and warp striking THROUGH them, behind them, and continuing your combo. If you have rogue royal weapon on you can keep your distance from them when they swing attacks, if you want to stay in the air you can switch back and forth between sword and rogue star royal weapon. It's like people aren't even trying with the battle system and complain "omg why am i being hit all the time i thought this was hold attack buttong to win they can't even get that right.
Armiger unleashed even adds more to the combat. A combo based style type of combat, that feels awesome when you pull them off and does damage. It also has noctis's own specials.

Sounds like you wanted another complicated story, gee i wonder why they didn't do that after the backlash with XIII, and gee i wonder why it was open world with the backlash of XIII as well. Every Final fantasy is going to be different, the faster you realize that the better you are off that maybe, FF has never been the franchise for you. XVI is going to be different, that's why I like FF as franchise, because they aren't afraid to change things up. Not every FF appeals to everyone for that sole reason, it's like you guys can't understand that. Then you gotta go and bash peoples likes and dislikes of the series by saying the game is absolute trash. The combat isn't trash, the story isn't great, but it's not terrible. FF isn't about nostalgia, if you think it is, this is the wrong franchise for you.

Edit: Btw you can climb over enemies (with airdance) switch to spear or if you have spear already and dive down on enemies the bigger the enemies are the more multiple damage you'll do with the spear dive attack. To climb with spear or sword, just keep press forward and attack, switch to spear if you haven't already, and you'll do the spear dive. Does major damage with iron giants and big monsters. but omg the games combat is so awful.... right?

[Lestatdelioncort]

Originally posted by SenMithrarin85:

the game is like a victoria's secret model; beautiful to look at, but very shallow underneath.

the gameplay is nothing to write home about. magic is relegated to grenades (which can also hurt your party...) curative magic is gone, the summon system is stupidly complicated, side quests are pointless and give WAY too much exp. story is a minefield that makes advent children look well directed by comparison. its full of technical issues (most notably the memory leak and stuttering caused by the steamapi)

as for why its "very positive", steam reviews are pointless drivel written by fanboys most of the time.

sounds like you don't know how to hold L2 and are just bad at the game. The gameplay is fantastic as i mentioned above, it's more t hen just holding circle.
with greatsword attack, wait for recoil animation, attack as soon as the animation starts is

Noctis's tempest. (great for a lot of enemies and when the techbar is starting to fill up while waiting for Gladio's tempest)

You can climb over big enemies with air dance, and do multiple damage with Noctis's spear dive. Press forward and attack to climb over enemies, and you'll do the dive with the spear.

you can let go of the lock on button and warp through big enemies to avoid attacks and quickly do a blindside. Or to continue doing a combo.

when enemies are vulnerable you can charge your greatsword or spear with back and attack to do major damage.

Prompto is good for flans and long range enemies who are shooting from above, taking out multiple enemies with grenades and crackshot.

Ignis has a nice damag burst can use him for aoes , or if its too dangerous to close in on enemies can dash around with stormdaggers, he also has range with his firedaggers which he can shoot if you jump and press attack if you are far from an enemy.

gladio is good for iron giants, hard shell monsters, mealstorm does huge damage even with dual blades.

You can also use royal arms rogue star to keep your distance with enemies who have long to medium range attacks when doing and airdance combo, If you see its about to attack, warp back, use rogue star, switch back to sword, or spear, continue combo. if you see it's about to attack again, warp back use rogue star. Warp strike to warp point, replenish mp, and health (rogue star royal arm doesn't use that much health unless you warp strike with it which i only suggest if the enemy is almost dead) warp strike with sword, or spear, or greatsword and continue. You can stay in the air with rogue star as long as you keep switching back and forth between weapons as well.

This is agame where you just can't hold one button and win, you have to look for an opening, try to get behind enemies to do more damage, try to isolate enemies by pulling back.

It's okay to admit you are just bad at the game, mic drop, now go back to Era

[Metadragon]

Because its actually good and people enjoy it?

Why the ♥♥♥♥ do you think it got good scores? You think people are lying? Your opinion is yours alone. And when you aggregate every review 85% think its good enough to recommend to other people.

Thats it. Stop complaining, write your own review, positive or negative, and move on. None of us owe you an explanation

[BurningTofu]

If I don't like the graphics, I fix it. I use reshade or other injectors. That's what PC gamers do. We control our game.

[nekii]

Originally posted by Chubzdoomer:

Originally posted by ZedameX:

Not sure why peiple say it's blurry, seems plenty sharp enough on my machine.

I was playing at 1080p with Filtering to Low, and TAA anti-aliasing. As soon as TAA is turned off completely, there's no blurriness at all, so it seems to be related to the AA.

I also attempted resolution scaling, but even 125% sent me below 60 FPS far more than usual so I had to dial back to 100%.

Honestly though, the blurriness was the least of my worries. I was able to look past it and just focus on the game (for better or worse).

It's probably the AA. Digital Foundry on youtube tested it out and TAA at any resolution 1080p or below looks blurry

It's fine you don't enjoy this game. We all have different tastes and expectations. Still, this is a good game, and it's not surprising that most people enjoy it including me.

[Jarazz]

Because we like it thats why

[Socke]

maybe, cos the game is actually pretty good itself.
just don't call it FF and it's way better than most i've played last 8 months.

[Metadragon]

Originally posted by Spawk:

Originally posted by Metadragon:

Because its actually good and people enjoy it?

Why the ♥♥♥♥ do you think it got good scores? You think people are lying? Your opinion is yours alone. And when you aggregate every review 85% think its good enough to recommend to other people.

Thats it. Stop complaining, write your own review, positive or negative, and move on. None of us owe you an explanation

Originally posted by Metadragon:

Welcome to steam forums where subjective opinions mean aboslute fact and disagreeing makes them your mortal enemy...

Maybe practice what you preach.

oh how I missed your wit.

OP isnt my mortal enemy. But that doesnt mean he needs to start another ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of a thread that already exists. BTW you never answered my question on the other thread. Go ahead and answer that while you stalk me if you please.