*Hi everyone*- as I mentioned, I've prepared a special version of the script for this video exclusively for Patrons and RUclips sponsors. You can become a Patron here (www.patreon.com/skillupyt/posts) or you can sponsor my channel directly by clicking the 'Sponsor' button next to 'Subscribe'. The script will be available on Patreon, or in the 'Community' tab of my RUclips page depending on which way you go. Thanks everyone and see you soon for the FarCry 5 review :)
Skill Up Ummm final fantasy 6 actually has the 1st female protagonist and final fantasy 12 was great. Personally I liked the 13 trilogy while it wasn't perfect. A lot of your views on 12 and 13 are more opinions than fact 13 split up the fanbase between love and hate more than Being considered a disappointment by all. I do agree 15 sucked unfortunately.
So, FF6 is a weird game in that it has _multiple_ main characters. You can easily argue that Terra, Locke, Celes, and/or Sabin and Edgar are main characters. Personally, I think that Celes is more 'main' than the rest, but there's serious caveats with that.
Your lengthy review was insightful. However, I feel you should have given more credit to the game's impressive visuals. As far as "world building" goes, the main reason FF10 and 13 (and their sequels) were so linear was because of the detailed visuals. To make a more open-world game with that level of detail would have been a tremendous undertaking at the time. The fact that they did it for XV (with a 10+ year development cycle) was in itself an impressive feat. Where I think Square needs to improve is the character development of the main protagonists in its games. I remember Tidus was a bit cringeworthy and annoying back in the day. I didn't find Zidane or Vaan particularly likeable either. Cloud, Squall and Lightning were all kind of dull and brooding characters. I feel like the supporting characters have had more depth than the main characters ever since FF7. Sure Cloud has received a lot more development with all the various spin-off games since his original appearance, but I think Barret and Red XIII were much more interesting than Cloud in the original game. I'll grant you, FF7 did give a lot of attention to Cloud's background and the origin of the SOLDIER program, etc. That kind of explains his lack of personality and overall emotional detachment from people. It was still a great game, but in a way it felt awkward at times when it was left to Tifa to play the psychologist and figure out what Cloud's mental problems are about, with very little input from Cloud himself.
Skill Up i agree with everything u say but the combat system, i think it was intentionally made in such A way that ppl who wants to just play it for fun or ppl who wants learn the game..if put a bit more time into to learn the proper combat system its deep n helluva fun, sadly u need to master them for the endgame dungeons n stuffs..
It's definitely the best worst game I've ever played. I love the general beauty of it byt the story sucked and the game play was almost irrelevant. I didn't realise till half way through that I could choose to hold down attack... Seriously what a pathetic function... It wasn't even needed.
This is your best work to date mate... Don't let anyone ever convince you to shorten your reviews, it's only because of the depth of this review that I can really FEEL why you love it despite it's glaring problems and failures.
@@lowang9708 she is the first female main protagonist in a numbered final fantasy game, Yuna, aerith, tifa, rinoa, garnet all don't count because they aren't controllable main characters and nothing before 7 counts either because there's not a "main" character in any of those besides maybe 3 and 4 and they aren't female.
I just finished watching this video, and I felt compelled to tell my story. It's currently 2:49 AM, and I just felt like my voice should be heard. I don't know if anyone is going to read this or not, but I want my thoughts and feelings out there. First off, I was scared of watching this video, because I absolutely love this game! I was scared that you would do nothing but bash this game, tear it up, rip it all to shreds and leave the pieces behind you. In a way you did, but I'm so glad I finally watched this. Final Fantasy XV has a special place in my heart, because it is actually the first ever Final Fantasy game I have ever played (not including Kingdom Hearts), so, in a way, I am the "First-Timer" that the game says it's for. I was always familiar with the series, but I never felt the want or need to ever play any game in the series. That is, until E3 2014, when I witnessed my first trailer for FFXV. Watching that trailer, seeing that it was going to be on Xbox One and not a Playstation exclusive, I got pumped! A game about a road trip with your buddies all while saving the world? That sounded like a blast to me! I started consuming all media I could for the game immediately; I purchased Final Fantasy: Type-0 so I could play the Episode Duscae demo, I watched everything on RUclips I could find, I pre-ordered the game as soon as it was available. I was so ready and excited for this game that it completely annoyed my girlfriend who has been into Final Fantasy since she was six! Then the game came. I took a vacation from work, picked up my deluxe copy and collector's guide, played through the whole game in a week, and something happened to me that has never happened while I played a video game: I cried. I cried because I was happy. I cried because I was sad. I cried because I loved Noctis and his brothers. I cried because the ending was beautiful. I cried because I had my Final Fantasy. Everyone I've talked to who loves the Final Fantasy series always say that there is a game in the series that is "their" Final Fantasy, and I never understood until I finished Final Fantasy XV. I can admit, this game is nowhere near perfect, but my experience with it is one that I doubt I could ever come close to replicating with another game. Since then, I have played all the DLC, purchased the "Royal Edition" upgrade, and I still am in love with this game. I don't know if this long comment will mean anything to you, I don't even know if you read all the way through. But I just want to say that I'm glad I watched your video. I'm glad there are others out there that love this game. And I'm glad that this game has introduced me to one of the greatest and most legendary game series in the history of games. I am currently playing Final Fantasy X, and I'm loving my journey through that so far. But Final Fantasy XV will always be special to me. It was a fun ride.
So Relatable. I absolutely loved this game and I play a lot of RPGs its inexplicable why I love it it was just one of the best rides in a video game that I went through and I see people usually bash it and call a horrible game and I keep thinking if only you could go through it the way I went through it. It would be in your favorites but i guess that makes no sense at all😂😂 so i just avoid the negativity and just remember it for what it was, a hell of a ride
iezari garrard x and x2 was the best of the series, they are what i think when i think ff. every game since has been either garbage or weak. i cant comprehend how anyone can call them bad. you dont have to like them, i hate 15's style, but technically i can admit 15 is a decent game with looks and game play wise. but you cant think x and x 2 are trash and still have control of your entire brain, because its just not accurate. gameplay wise x and x2 are the best ff's, and story wise x2 is great, everything with antag gave me chills, while x is a masterpiece. you ppl need to think before you say stupid things.
The Rogue Empire X-2 was trash everything about it sucked except the battle system, graphics and mini games/side quest content. It's my 2nd least favorite ff game next to FF2.
The harshest thing about this game is that fans themselves are to blame for it not being able to reach its full potential. The final DLCs, that would have fixed some of the biggest issues with the game, were canned partially because of its cold reception by the fans.
@@emanuelepolloni4002 I doubt it, I think this game is just fundamentally flawed. The story, the gameplay, the crappy side quests. Some bonus content couldn't fix the main game
Honestly I think with Tetsuya Nomura being the initial lead for the game it was never going to reach it's full potential. Nomura seems incapable of truly laying out a story and following it through. It's like he thinks of new concepts and constantly wants to add more or change something and it just makes it impossible to have cohesion.
That's usually what FF has always excels at. It's guaranteed that at least one song or all of the soundtrack will be good despite the story and gameplay sucking.
man sometime i think SE is actually a music company, not a game company, hell their games are sometimes overpriced AF but their soundtrack album worth every-single-penny.
@Darrow Au Andromedus I hear your points but I'm going to have to hit you with a hard disagree. Mind you I played ffxv at release and didn't enjoy it enough to buy the dlc I look at ffxv and I think of the things I like about the game. I like freedom to go where I want, eventually, and it's world was pretty. I liked prompto taking pictures, I sometimes liked how the bros interacted with one another, I liked the music and how I could listen to different ff music in the car. Thunder plains and blinded by light were my go tos. And I liked how grand some of the set pieces felt. The cinematics transitioning into these larger than life battles felt amazing and awesome Then after the awe factor wore off, I can not say with good conscience that it was anything but trash. Touching on some of the points you brought up the story and multimedia. I felt a large disconnect from the story because so much was left to the movies. I didn't care about Noctis' city at all (I don't remember the name) because I never visited it, or knew anything about it. People can say that's my fault for not watching the movie, but I don't like watching a lot of movies, and I'm pretty sure I had to pay for it or bootleg it but I could be wrong about that. The game didn't even bother to include it in the game (I did watch the anime tho). The characters for the most part I didn't care for because we barely knew about them. We know that Noctis and lunafreya are in an arranged marriage from the start of the game and we're traveling to go get married. Ok. Noctis hasn't seen lunafreya in years and despite having cellphones they communicate via magic pupper. Cryptic but cool I guess. We finally get to lunafreya and maybe we can see her and noctis actually talking and interacting. It's an arranged marriage so they don't have to show that much affection but it was made clear that they had some type of feelings for each other. We finally meet her and boop she dies. There goes my motivation since the start of the game, other than ya know my city that I don't care about getting blown up. So she's dead and I'm supposed to be angry? Sad? Oh no I'm supposed to be sad because noctis is sad? Ok I'll be sad for this girl's death that I didn't care about. And this ardyn guy, I hate him because he killed my girlfriend that I didn't care about and betrayed us when I gave him my trust after knowing him for 5 seconds and him already being shady af. I could go on, and on about how shit the story is because it was the most forgettable part of the adventure. Almost everything about this story is forgettable, there are barely any moments that stand out except the set pieces like the one I described and one part where some guy I didn't know (but the protagonists did) became a zombie or something and the game makes it seem like oh I'm supposed to be really mad at ardyn because he turned this dude that I barely knew into a zombie guy. Idgaf. The other reason I remember that boss was because it was where one of my biggest problems with game was. The combat system was shit, straight trash I know I've gone on very long about the story well I'm not gonna bore you with the other problems I have with the game like average english voice acting, and the abysmal end game that they tried to trick me into thinking it was an actual endgame. I'm going to skip straight to the big boy. The press O to deal damage and square to avoid damage (I played ps4 so I'm using ps4 terminology) I play a lot of games, I love rpgs to death I really do I like creative turn based combat, or generic TBC that does it really well and fun. I love action games like dmc and my most llayed game of all time is tekken 7. Dude when I played ffxv I turned my brain off. There was not a single challenging fight in the game, there were no choices to be made in combat (I could only control noctis) other than O to attack square to dodge, warp strike for ap or to get out of combat and regenerate. And spam magic, because they cost nothing and making the broken chaos spells in the game was way to fuckin easy. Oh and PRESS SQUARE TO PARRY, I wrote that in all caps because when an "unphasable attack" comes the games blares all it's sirens and tells you to hold square because if you don't bad things will happen. I didn't get hit by a single one of these attacks the entire game, idek why tf they added them. Phasing costs mp which is also used for warp strikes, cool what else is it used for absolutely fuckin nothing. By the end of the game you have abilities that allow you to mash square for a perfect dodge that costs almost no mp and your mp regenerates. Tf? Ok so I'm nigh invincible now how on earth could they possibly balance this along with the mountain of potions I've stock piled because I'm rich. Well since you can't wear me down with many attcks because of perfect dodge mash square, we're going to instakill you. I swear to fuck in the end game dundgeons the amount of times I got instakilled was ridiculous, there was no complex ai or cool moves, the cinematics had came and gone now I was left with this shit, every enemy is spongebob squarepants and they have instakills. Is the game hard yet, do I have to think anymore than I did when I turned this game on. NO. Because items have s and I have 99 pheonix downs and 99 mega pheonix'. This game's "endgame" at level 99 I shit you not was me spamming tf outta pheonix downs and wearing down enormous health pools like how they ruined the adamantite turtle or whatever. This games combat was so fucking brain dead and unenjoyable that it belongs in the garbage. This is the abridged version of my rant I could snap about this game for hours, but the thing that hurt the most was that when people were criticizing the game before release for being active combat and not no menus, no spellcasting. I was saying hey give it a chance it might not be that bad. It was trash. Now I'm going to tell you why FF7R is better in every way. Probably in a shorter post cuz you most likely won't read this whole thing
@Darrow Au Andromedus I was born in 97 same year as ff7. I did not play it for the first time until like 2 years ago then I played some again before remake release. I never beat it. People harolded this game as the god of rpgs and their entire childhoods. I thought it was overrated. For it's time I understand it was incredibly, but there was something about it that didn't draw me in to finish it like 6, or 10. I even enjoyed X-2 more. I have absolutely no nostalgia for this game, but as I game I can say it was pretty good not gonna go into detail about that. Now the remake comes out and I have no intention on buying it on release because square had betrayed me with kh3 and ffxv I couldn't trust them anymore. Then I saw gameplay of the game, the bombing run, and I saw combat and options in combat. Options that mattered that could make your fight, easier or more difficult. I heard the remixed music (one of my favorite parts of the original) and it was incredibly the graphics were amazing. And the english voice actors actually sounded FUCKING GOOD. Cloud in this game was leagues better than the one in the original, because of the writing, the voice acting and the graphics. On to your points specifically. The dancing in a dress I fuckin loved that shit, in the original you blast through that part in a half an hour. I fuckin love the idea of this serious ass mercenary dancing in a dress because he has to if he wants to save his friend from don corneo. Cloud doesn't enjoy it like at all. If you watch the dance cloud tries to attack andrea for getting to close to him, it's hilarious. Aerith is in the crowd and they're loving this shit they're going crazy and I'm loving this shit too because it's not everyday you see cloud doing anything but being a serious, smart mouth merc dude. And what does he say when he meets tifa? He says that he FUCKING NAILED IT with still not even a crack of a smile on his face. That shit was hype. That shit was hyper than me flying over an ocean, battling an ocea-uh-Leviathan, and holding O to win to epic music. And then getting sad that my gf died. There are so many moments in the remake that are memorable because I loved them and I want to play them again to experience it again. Only thing I want to experience in ffxv again is letting ignis drive me across the country while listening to music from a different game lol. You can say this game is a hallway simulator, and that's an almost valid critique. The only problem with it is that games don't have to be open world to be good. My favorite ff is X and that shit is way more linear than 7R. The reason the linearity didn't make me feel limited was because there were enough nooks and cranies to explore unlike ff13, and because customization was so freeform again unlike the beginning portions of 13. I'm not even going to talk about the combat. Because I love it, you like it apparently, and it is leagues better than 15 objectively. The customization goes hand in hand. I could make any character I wanted into a tank, a healer, damage dealer, a buffer, a debuffer. Close minded people saw aerith and thought oh she's the healer support mage. People who saw the possibilities put all their support magic on cloud because he didn't have a good magic weapon yet and turned aerith into a fucking nuke. Some textures are bad yeah, the skybox distracts me everytime I look up. Without a doubt. But saying that the remake overall has bad graphics is some laughable shit lmao I don't even have to argue about that, the game looks beautiful for the most part. Especially given that they were working on it for ps4 lmao Like I said dialogue was one of my favorite parts of the remake. Cringe? Dude I come to youtube and rewatch cutscenes from the game just to hear the voice actors again. But of course nothing is perfect, I don't like the writing of aerith's speech at the end, in fact after aerith gave her speech and barrot said like 2 sentences his 2 sentences were delivered with the tone that made me feel like it eclipsed that speech entirely. I love the characters in 7r I love the world, the battles, the music. I see the flaws just like everything else, but saying that this game is trash and ff15 isn't is ludicrous. Congrats for making it to the end of my short rant, I'd appreciate any response even as simple as "I didn't read it loser", or "ff7r sucks kid". Cya
I've always loved the way you structure your reviews. The way that you give a lengthy and filled to the brim opening, that opens like an academic essay, laying the groundwork for what you will say, why you will say it, and how you say it with such confidence. You truly are an amazing reviewer because you are a gamer and the journalistic industry could stand to learn something from you.
Loved FF15. Played the day 1 edition. Platinumed it. It is certainly flawed, but I really enjoyed it. The music was terrific. I never played the DLCs as I moved on to new games. Definitely going to go back and play them. Glad I finally watched a full review of yours. Truly great job. Your enjoyment and pride of what you do is very evident in your work. Will be watching more.
The laugh is done the same in all languages. It isn't a bad dub or bad VAing, it's supposed to sound bad and forced. That isn't hard to understand when you actually have the context, lmao. Tbh, I think Tidus' laugh being "bad VAing" is more of a meme than anything.
Omg Omg OMG man.... i bneat this game like 5 fuckin times and i wonder if people understoodd the point of that scene... he was trying to laugh like that on purpose to get everyones mind off their seemingly impossible task and he was really trying to create that awkward moment on purpose to lighten the whole mood.
People are too mentally challenged to understand it was supposed to be deliberately cringey, hence why Tidus and Yuna burst out laughing right afterwards (a stilted attempt at forcing laughter in a dreary moment).
Came here to say the exact same thing. I wonder if people know this and say it anyway because so many have said it before or if they really didn’t get the scene.
Jesus Christ people. Obviously everybody got the scene, it's hard not to, as this scene is as deep as the puddle of piss one ejects after a long night of drinking. And while it is a great scene, the laughter sequence is hilariously bad with or without context (100% on purpose tho, I give you that), hence it being a meme for a really long time. But leave it to people on the internet to have a circlejerk, because of them understanding a cutscene, for which you'd have to be literally mentally challenged not to do so.
Well they make movies so their cg is always top tier but I don’t like how you see an epic cutscene then cuts to complete dog poo poo. The cutscenes are so much better looking that it creates a huge contrast with the actual game graphics and it’s hard to ignore
@Darrow Au Andromedus a game doesnt have to deliver brainless fetch quests over an open world to feel alive. yes id love to have the remake not as linear but ill also get why, because the original was very linear in midgar because it was the start of the game, comparing graphics doesnt give jackshit about the game itself. i highly prefer a ps1game that is awesome over any graphics out there. Sidequests arent good indeed but neither are they in ffxv u just dont notice the fetch quest nr83 that much because there more open world elements covering it, yet every quest in ff15 is a glorified fetch quest, while they use some in the remake to lenghten the game but not to a borderliner insane amount like ff15 does. ff15 has 0 storytelling, so many changes since its release including the endboss multiple movies etc to even get a feel for 1 single character. ff7remake makes you understand why every character acts the way he does, because it evolves the characters pretty well. ff15 has 0.0% of evolving characters, no challenge or whatsoever, even pausing the game for you when you somehow during spamming triangle and spamming triangle even more
So CDProject fucks up one time. and they are shit now? and I might add IF the Community didnt drag them by the balls everytime they postponed the game. they would have put more time.
I LOVE your reviews. Context is everything and after every single one of your reviews I not only take away a sense of the game (which alone is pretty hard to do and most reviewers fail to do so), but I also take away a piece of gaming history. A glimpse behind the scenes at the story behind the game. Well done.
There are bits and pieces of this review that I can't agree with - the VA, Noctis's character, the combat. But, on some level, that might just be because I don't know how to untangle loving something and knowing it's flawed. The voice acting might be terrible, but I honestly couldn't tell you, because I grew to love it and the people it represented. Noctis might be an angsty teen, but my tears during the ending were real and connected to the story they presented. This was a great review, and, even if it was cheating a bit, ending it with Apocalyptus Aquarius was the perfect choice.
I love the voice acting, it's better than the Japanese. And the four boys' relationship and their love for eachother is the highlight of the game. Gameplay and story sucked though.
I know this is old, but I dont even understand how you could like the voice acting. 24:20. Nothing about that is good. The tone doesn't match, they aren't breathing heavy like you'd assume, their voices are so loud its overpowering all the background noise, and the character models look extremely angry in the middle of a boss fight, while the line sounds like they're sitting on the couch fighting over a remote. Sometimes its good, usually prompto, but it was a majority stuff like 24:20.
@@TheTinyTimmyTimTim The *vast* majority of the time it's not like that line, and there's a reason that he chose that out of the entire game's VA - it's the worst line delivery in the game. It makes sense that you'd go with the best example of a problem, but I generally think that the voice acting is fine-to-great. It's obviously going for a far less naturalistic style than something like The Last of Us, but that doesn't mean that it's bad, it's the difference between a theater performance and a filmic dramatic performance.
I liked them from the beginning and their jokes make chuckle and laugh. What I hated is that the best parts of them were chopped to the dlc and movies. I was sadly not aware of that until i finished the game. There was a beautiful scene in the after credits that should have been in the last scene before the boss
I know this is years late, but Ignis is a character that truly affected me emotionally on a very deep level and he instantly became one of my favorite (maybe even my straight up favorite) FF characters ever. The Episode Ignis DLC was truly a masterclass in adding depth to a character and pretty much everyone came away from that loving him a lot more. They did such a great job in conveying the emotions they wanted to convey in that DLC. I'm glad that most people buying the game now would buy the Royal Edition and get to see Ep Ignis because that means lots of others love him too.
Just finished the game fully... totally agree... but it wasn't just Ignis... the chocobro's and Ardyn were all great characters. It's such a shame as all of the components were there for this to have been the best FF game since VII but unfortunately terrible business decisions screwed it up.
For the record, the reboot of FF14 (A realm reborn) turned out to be a damn good MMO, and is now 2nd to WoW in terms of subscribers. Regardless, another great review from Skillup. Love your Laymen channel too, but so glad to see you adding new content to this channel. You’re the most in depth, articulate reviewer on the interwebs, and your observations are so often spot on!
Playing my first FF game on release was mind blowing for me. I never even thought of the quality of combat or really cared about the weak story. The brotherhood I felt carried me through one of the most beautiful games I've ever experienced and made the end game one of the most satisfying. If you didn't experience the massive cube dungeon, battle the super bosses, or experience the pitch black platforming maze that you can only access by flying car, you really did yourself a disservice. I know this video is a year old, but if you play this game again, play the post game
@@funkrobot9762The first FF I actually played and not just watched somebody else play, was FF7 remake, now I think Inser the bar too high lol I do wanna finally try OG FF7 on steam though
What an amazing and throughly satisfying review. Exceptional editing and a deeply thoughtful script - for me you have a way with words that truly resonates (you got me choked up a few times along the way). :)
This is one of the best videos SkillUp has ever done. He perfectly describes the conflict that everyone goes through when playing this game. This game has major flaws, but I ended up loving the things that it did right. I played every mainline Final Fantasy in the last 2 years for the first time, and I put FFXV in my Top 5, which for me is a really respectable accomplishment considering the high quality of every release.
The Official Skill Up™ Drinking Game: Take a shot for every minute that passes before you hear "ladies and gentlemen, I present to you my review of X."
I just found myself watching this review - in full again - for the 3rd time in 48hrs and not really understanding why. Until your final remark made it click. The experience you provide is even greater than the sum of it's already magnificently produced parts. You sir, have the makings of a master storyteller!
I genuinely feel moved by this video, and I’m not even fully through it, I bought this game based solely off the hype, I had never played a Final Fantasy game. This was supposed to be my first, and I played it for quite a while. The open world open combat style of Final Fantasy 15 was a lot more to my liking then most games in the Final Fantasy franchise as a lot of those were based off of turn based combat, a game type that I’m not a huge fan of. I never quite made it through game, making it about halfway through the Main story, and I wish I had gone back to finish it. This video leaves me thinking that I should absolutely go back and finish it with the included extra content, I still have the steel book copy, and what I did experience of that game was fantastic even if I never made it through, I think I was missing the connection to the characters that this extra media could provide, plus seeing as I already own the entire set I can do this at zero cost. On another note, I found you this week and your video game opinions have lined up greatly with mine, a lot of what you see in the games is stuff that I see, but could never put to words, a lot of the times I would quit a game that wasn’t necessarily good and not think “man that game was really bad” but instead think “man I’m really bad at playing games” or “man, my attention span is bad”, never letting the blame fall on the games even when they clearly deserved it. your reviews have allowed me to look at games I play with a much more critical eyes than I used to, games that I enjoyed the gameplay, but just never finished because they felt super repetitive and long like far cry six or games that I felt had potential that just never panned out like destiny two, your reviews put thoughts I have into words I couldn’t think of and I appreciate being able to hash those parts out in this strange, one-sided video game discussions that I have with my phone screen.
That's my biggest problem with it as well. Sure the game in general is a departure from other games, but I enjoyed it a lot. The second half felt like it was a different game. It was okay, but especially in the endless corridors, I just wanted it to be over. After that section it was over way to quick lol.
Shaidon7 literally my only problem with the game now is that exact thing. It makes complete sense tho, once your in the heat of the story it would be kinda weird for you to just walk off and be like “fuck it I’d rather grind”. Nowadays FF15 is one of the better in the entire series imo, after all the fixing I truly love the game.
The main problem isn't that it's literally on rails. The main problem is that the first half is not on rails AT ALL. While the latter half is too much on rails. Think about the structure of FF7, 8, 9 and 10, it's very much on rails. It's just camouflaged as not being on rails. I have no problem with games on rails, but it requires great writing. Take Uncharted series and Last of us as a great example. Uncharted 4 was one of the best games I've ever played and it managed to NAIL the balance between on rails and not on rails. It just told a great story.
MrKennyBones idk, I feel like those games are a little different in the sense that progression isn’t based on stats, like in FF15 there may (I swear to god I didn’t even have to do it once) be times when you have to grind, rail locked portions of the game kinda screw you if your in that situation. But imo the real problem isn’t that one portion of the game is rail locked it’s more that the portion of the game that is rail locked doesn’t feel engrossing enough to warrant being rail locked. Most railocked games (last of us included) have an amazing story that has you on the edge of your seat and with that you find yourself constantly wanting to progress through said story. So, the rail lock doesn’t just seem warranted but also necessary, nobody wants to wait any amount of time in between a great plot. If FF15 had that plot then nobody would be complaining about having to sit through it like it was a chore. And the weirdest thing is, the progression system makes complete sense, in basically every story ever told it starts out pretty care free, light hearted, open for interpretation and the like, the beginning of most stories are generally designed to ease you into the situation and they did that pretty well, I never felt rushed to get the story done and felt like I could enjoy everything at my own pace. Later into the story is supposed to be the time when you’ve already become invested and when the game narrows down into a story driven journey. This game just failed to tell a good enough story
Titus' laugh was one of the best scenes. He's deliberately being ridiculous to make Yuna feel better. And he's so silly she breaks her steadfastness long enough to enjoy a moment of silliness. It was a turning point in their relationship.
He is using that scene to make a point on the general quality of voice acting in FF titles. It is cartoonish and over acted to a cringeworthty degree. I personally LOVED with all my heart FF7 and 8 and 9, until they started using voice actors. I was so stoked to find out they would be being used, like Metal Gear Solid I thought. But no way, I couldn't even make it more than 10 hours into FF10, It was just that voice acting. The characters from FF7 and 8 sounded so cool in my head, and it was nothing like my imagination when it was brought to life. I have also played FF12 and it was better but I didn't finish it, and I also played FF13 and finished it, and the acting was still pretty cheesy in places and immersion breaking but not from all characters. The first voice acted FFX was not executed well, on top of being indicative of the clear cultural differences in how square wants their characters portrayed in english dubs (seeing as this trend carries on right throughout the series), more like an anime than a serious story. Don't get me wrong I like Anime, and I watch dubs, but I usually shy away and cringe at the more cheesy choices, and I just don't think that auditory aesthetic of anime fits the worlds of FF. Not to my taste anyway. The only exception to this IMO is the FF7R, which I finished and very much enjoyed. I am so glad they went for the vibe that they did. It still has that JRPG vibe, sometimes a little cheesy, but it comes over endearing instead of cringe. I so hope they continue in this vein.
@@Glen0cide Him using that scene to point out the general quality was a HORRIBLE scene to use due to the context. Him pointing that scene out to point out the quality, or lack-there-of in the voice acting is meaningless because that scene was supposed to be ridiculous. Citing that scene just ruins his credibility.
Man, I'm not used to comment in videos on youtube, but this review made me break that wall and say it to you. I wish I could like your reviews over and over and over because they don't deserve one simple thumbs up for each person. I mean, I have 10 fingers, why can't I put all of them up when I'm watching such a masterpiece? You make the word "sponsor" have meaning and I trully hope that people see your talent and reward you for that. Thanks skill up.
I just picked up this game (day one edition, it was only 9.00), and started searching for reviews and tips. I came across this channel an am blown away by how much passion, effort and time was put into your videos. Your reviews are thoroughly immersive. Very impressed. I will be keeping an eye out for new reviews
I know this video came out so long ago but I just wanna say that you perfectly explained why I love this game so much. Yes it's hold B/Circle the game but the music pulls it together. It pulls everything the game does well into one moment. This video is so well paced that I felt like I was watching a full movie and I was rooting for the main protagonist and by the end they have a realization and triumph at the end. How you understood why there are so many fans of this game gave me so many emotions through out. You found it, you found the magic. This games magic hides from you in many ways. The music hides in plain sight and you don't notice how impactful and memorable it is until you listen to it outside of the game. The DLC, and web series hide from you but you sought them out and you were rewarded. Thank you, after watching this, you're my favourite game reviewer now. Cheers from Canada
Loved this game at launch and still love it to this day. This was my first Final Fantasy and it was a magical playthrough. 200+ hours and my game of the year 2016
To be honest, I read so many bad reviews that I was hesitant to get the game. I just got it and this game (for me) is beautiful. They did a good job on characters, I really care about what is happening to them.
I really loved this game, even through its numerous flaws, the experience is great, and I would argue that’s what makes a GOOD game. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna boot up this game again after a while.
I have a feeling that wont even be the last DLC. Its pretty stunning that there are now 2 Season Passes for this single player game, on top of the fact that the story was cut off and put into a movie and an anime.
I come back to this review it seems like every few months. Because it's so thought provoking, and emotional. It's seriously one of the best reviews I've ever watched.
When you said that you sound like a schizophrenic I know exactly how you feel about Final Fantasy. I grew up on amazing Square games in general and Final Fantasy in particular. There was a time when Square logo was everything you needed to pick a game and you immediately knew it will be something special... CDPR comparison is not a fair one as Square was producing one hit after another at an almost unbelievable pace. In like 5 or 6 years they managed to release such cult classics as Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, FFVI, VII, VIII, IX, X and Tactics, Xenogears, Vagrant Story, Parasite Eve. And that is not even all. And that is why I will always have a soft spot for Final Fantasy and Square Enix. I will always want to love a Final Fantasy game despite all the odds and I will always be hyped for the next RPG by Square Enix.
That awkward moment when you become the number one spot on your own top 10 best youtubers you should subscribe to list (talking about your video). SkillUp my guy you have come a long way! When mainstream television wakes up from its weird coma and realizes that video games are actually a big deal I can see you being properly professionalized in game reviews and news. Until then... Keep doing this shit
Jan Christian Frodahl I don't disagree with you if that's what you're thinking :S Mainstream television will always exist even if it's "dead" tho. One day they're gonna have to pull the fish fingers out of their asses and realize that gaming isn't some weird nerd-culture phenomenon and is actually the future of entertainment
Hi Skill Up, I dont think you'll probably read this but I admire your honesty and your reviews, specially on this game, a game that is an absolute paramore to me. I agree that it is extremely flawed and streamlined for the new fans of final fantasy, the gaps in writing and even the shallow gameplay, but despite all that you highlighted the very reason I came to love this game. A Story of friendship set, in a fantasy world, basic but fun combat, a game that just takes me to a fun stroll where I can turn off my brain and just soak everything in and enjoy the small things about it while being coated as a Final Fantasy game. I enjoy pretty much all RPGs, difficult and complex as the next game but there is just something about this flawed gem that kept me going back to it I've clocked in 1175+ hours from last I checked and have been playing this game on and off for the past 2 and a half year it's been released and I'm happy you gave this game a review. Thank you skill up! P.S. (addicted to using the ring of the Lucii, ultimate power fantasy right there)
A very good review. I especially liked the focus on the transmedia aspect of this instance of the gaming series. Those could be some valuable inputs for game developers in the future: How to focus on the important categories of the aspects of the novel as foundation of the world building: Story, character and plot etc. (see Forster, Aspects of the Novel) and then building around it. As you pointed out, this is the basis for every IP and is generally the hallmark of this series. From a hindsight perspective it seems so trivial, however we expect so much of game developing and I can see how difficult it can be to orchestrate those very complex systems: Story and world building, technical infrastructure, programming, gameplay (loops), coherence within the series and IP, music etc. I applaud your effort to dig through this and encourage you to continue your thorough analysis of video games!
Ok, I completely disagree with the statement that the english voice acting is bad .Other than that ( rather subjective ) thing, I can't but comment you on an amazing review that hit most ( if not all ) nails on the head. I started the video just wanting to get the jist of it from the first few sentences but ended up watching the entire 45 min thing and that says a lot about the writing and pace of your work. It's so nice to see you review more games that are not online focused ( although I wish you said a couple things about the COMRADES DLC that does add some story elements ) Keep up the great work .
I understand that you have your opinion and I respect it but the game is based on a western setting and there is NOTHING in the world that gives off an eastern vibe so having people speak japaneese is kinda silly IMO. I'm a purist and play most of my jrpgs in japaneese as well (mainly " the tales of "series ) but in this game japaneese just takes me out of the experience.
But srsly tho, you have to agree that the English voice acting counterpart seems detached from how the characters present it. I mean, you see how the characters portray their emotions and body language... but then you hear them speak with the English dub and it becomes somewhat confusing and conflicted. I end up wondering, "so is he angry? or not angry?" that kinda feel.
hmm, it isnt that bad indeed but I can't say it is good especially if you compare it to the japanese one and I'm talking about the quality of the voice acting objectively and not about the type of language or subjective preference the emotion is just lacking, especially on minor dialogue that you will find in the side quest, the subtlety isn't there, often it felt out of place and sometimes I feel like the voice actor just doesn't fit the character image for one reason or another (gladio voice in the english dub made me cringe so hard I dont think it suits the character at all), the dialogue and the choice of word is just bad and is worse than the japanese one (yes I knew a little bit of japanese and I tried to compare it to the english dialogue for the choice of words etc and it is surprisingly different, like for example in 23:25 Gladio sounds way, like waaaaay more natural in japanese dub version, and when Prompto asked Noctis for the picture, in japanese Noct's refusal sounds more natural and less of a dick, sigh, seriously who the fuck translate this game) so yea I agree that the English VA isn't bad but it is only mediocre at best, especially since this is not a small niche Japanese game, it could and should have been better, the fact that I find FFXIII English voice acting to be much better than this is just... ugh
Just played this as my first FF game ever. And have to say I really enjoyed it, even bought all the DLC episodes. Cant say I understand the “hate” this game is getting. It sure made me want to play more FF games. Next up: 7 Remake or 13.
@@JessieBlackheart they would have a better time playing IX, after playing like IV-VIII tho. But yeah IX is an S tier FF. VI, VII, IX, X, XIV all S tier imo
..It is getting hate because it is a terrible game. Play X and you will understand just how awful this game is. Saying this is your first says alot. Bad story, even worse combat.
That's one hell of a script you got there. I just keep agreeing with every point and you also made me realized why I love the Final Fantasy series the way I do. Also that open world part as an MMO definitely rings true to me. I had so much blast with the DLCs that when I came back playing New Game+ to have better grasp of the story, I just couldn't finish it. Last but not least, your choice of using the music throughout the video is excellent. This is certainly one of your best works.
I played this as my first FF and I agree wholeheartedly with your conclusion, it's not like I was blind to its flaws but looking back I only have good memories from the experience that really stuck with me rather than disappointment or frustration
haha same here. im happy everyone had no idea what they where doing in that fight also! hahaha it did feel cool but i literally never knew if i was playing the game correctly
@@bigbuffguy9589 well the first half of the first game, the lock is... at points. And Celes is for the second half... sort of. Until they get the air ship at least. Hmmmm. Maybe there really isn't a main protagonist in 6, but it is instead a team.
This review is amazing. I agreed with most points you made, but the thing that made me love it is how you present Ideas and develop them. And THAT ENDING THO. I always thought you were a great reviewer, and after seeing this video this feeling is even stronger and I can safely admit that your reviews carry out the most importance to me and are probably the best ones I have seen in almos every aspect
Half a million subs?? I subbed when you had 5k subs and foresaw your greatness back then. Now look at you? You deserve that and many many more ma man. Greatness awaits. Thank you for great content and for you always been honest!
I felt like Episode Prompto and Episode Ignis were great though. The two DLCs oddly enough made me wish our main character wasn't Noctis, or at least Noctis had a different role or personality.
I think the ending summarizes what happened to Final Fantasy over the past twenty years: Square Enix no longer gives a shit about substance; they're just all pretty blinky lights, shiny things, and spectacle without any actual substance.
I enjoyed the game. Liked the world, the characters and the boss battles. The story was fine I think... But what I truly loved was the credits scene, "Stand By Me" is such a great song. But once you finish the game you barely remember anything of importance. Thats when you realise the game is not a bad game, but an awful Final Fantasy game. FF games are all about story and plot, the only thing this game had in common with the other FF's games was the title
If nothing else, a Reddit AMA with Ray Chase (Noctis's VA) confirmed that they did a serious take for the advertising bits and a deadpan take. They went with deadpan in the final product.
Woah... did not think I was going to understand why you invested so much in explaining this game. Totally enjoyed your analysis and the context, but 1/2 way through I am thinking, “yup, glad I passed on this one.” Even though you pointed out much of the brilliance, those shortcomings just killed any incentive for me to play, even 3/4 of the way through your review. I actually thought, dang I am so sorry Ralph spent all that time on a game that just isn’t worthy of the scrutiny (even though their history and ambition might be). But then, your ending... that music... and the simple way you summed it all up: unbeknownst to me, you had brought me through a similar journey to what you had taken investigating the game. And as it did for you, in those few seconds, it clicked for me. As with your other reviews, i love how the structure of your review (you describe it as schizophrenic at one point) is adapted to and beautifully mirrors your subject matter. So I’m not just hearing about the back and forth brilliant/awful elements of the game, I’m experiencing it a bit, struggling to piece together how I felt about it, a condensed version of what you did.
You wouldn't know if it clicks for you if you haven't played it. I mean, people can convince you that any game is good by their sheer passion and ability with words, but it doesn't mean you'll think it's good when you play it. The fact that it seems so hard to like is a big red flag.
@@wizagab yup agreed with you. I actually quite enjoyed the game and managed to get platinum. Sure it could be better with the story telling side but still quite enjoyable in my opinion.
The storytelling is a mess for sure because of how unfinished it is (and make no mistake - this game was far from finished. Even the Royal Edition didn't do much to finish it, instead giving us more interesting side stories to make up for it). If you can trick yourself into enjoying the game that it was SUPPOSED to be, then you can definitely get into it. More than anything, getting invested enough so you can feel the emotion behind the ending is worthwhile in my opinion. I waited the full ten and a half years for this game, and I was disappointed by quite a few things when I played, but the end had me thinking about the game for like two weeks non-stop. There are games of far superior quality that have not evoked such a response for me. If they had pulled off the storytelling properly, the ending of the game would have gone down in game history, rather than being seen as the best part of an otherwise flawed story.
The argument closer to end, the one about music, is exactly what eventually made me stop burning over Kingdom Hearts III and actually accept what happened to that game. It is probably an important sign that the music in both FFXV and KH is the same genius of Yoko Shimomura.
Also, the game is heavy on lore. That story about the crystal and the God's and the dawn of the world is actually still in the game. It is hidden in interactions. You can read books and signs to find parts of the lore. There is also a hidden dungeon that is just full of lore, and it has that original story they wanted to tell in it. A lot of the dialog that was added to the royal edition about the gods is actually found in the hidden dungeon. Stuff like Iffret originally loving humans. It was in that dungeon since the release of the game, but so many people only heard it 2 years later in the royal edition and it is sad because all of the lore was there people just needed to look!
The thing that keeps me playing FFXV is being with your friends. After the sad ending, you just want to go back and cherish being with your friends and explore this beautiful world together.
BRUH legit, this game is so good at emulating what friendship is. I remember how, after the post-credits scene, I immediately messaged my buddies and arranged plans to hang out because you don't know how much time you'll have left with them. FFXV is stronk
Not sure how you found the game almost entirely un-challening - I actually found numerous instances where the game gets extremely challenging, with the Night-time battles against the Red Giants being brutally hard until you're really high level. Heck, when you wake up in the World of Night, there's a Wall enemy that Noctis fights that literally took me 45 minutes to beat, where I had to charge in, do as much damage as possible, and then warp away when seconds from death. I'm not necessarily arguing that the game requires a strong degree of strategy or that you can't mindlessly go through 90% of combat Dynasty Warriors style, but you make it sound like there are no challenging battles, to which I will very strongly have to disagree. Not to sound negative - your review is quite good and I just subscribed to you today.
@@TheLastWanderingBard I am sorry to say that I did not. I wanted to. I have a problem, there are so many games and little time. Let's say it is really hard for me to stick with a game now a days.
@@TheLastWanderingBard also have to say, I am not the biggest fan of ffxv. I prefer the older ones more because of their story. Like ff ix. Still I think ffxv is fun and love the world. The episodes are a great addition imo.
Never played a FF game before, and finished FFXV last night. I really really liked this game and I can't explain why this dull, confusing, cringy, uninspired, repetitive smashfest won my heart. 6/10 Would totally play again.
Currently playing it, and I was looking to find a good review who can express what I feel about FF XV and boomm find this. Yes my feelings are mixed for this game but I think I'm going to platinum it because I love it too
Wow man! I love your stuff. This was so well done! I can now really respect your talent on review and very well done background and details on when reviewing games.
@Kostas Spirou He has the charm of a football player so none to me lol He's a bit too energic and silly for my taste, not saying he's not good or anything
Wow. Just fkn wow my man. I’ve played thru this game once, was prepping to play a second time through, and came upon this review. You are a talented individual man. No joke. This review somehow just blew me away and the way you present things is second to none in video game reviews. I don’t even have the extensive vocabulary to express my all out, full feelings you gave me watching this. God damn man...well done. Just flat out genius material. Man...I could go on n on but you laid everything out so damn perfect. Genius!!
He said magic is useless .... Honestly to easy one shot finish mostly Goblin, Hobgoblin, Flan etc in menace costle mark, steylif magic is my main EQUIPMENT ... and i like the way that the game visualized the Magic Effect ...how we have to craft it ...
This is such a great review! in your newest video you were saying how you cringe when you watch your older videos but i think that you should take pride in your earlier works.
I absolutely loved Final Fantasy XV at launch, flaws and all. I had a great time with it, mostly because I think I didn’t know how to pick apart games back then and see elements for what they were. I had fun, so I liked. Now is different. I remember the hydra fight sucked, the Titan fight sucked, and the actual final boss was a mess. But the fight with Aranea fight was so awesome and I loved Chapter 13. Those kept me going before I knew any better. Your conclusion sums up exactly what I think of the game. This game is a mess on every front. For every good thing, there’s a thing that drags it down. The best content the game has is DLC. At the end of the day, I’m still fond of Final Fantasy XV, but that’s because it was my first and I dove into the other media before and while I played the game. I played Final Fantasy VII after I played XV, and even though I played it 20 years after it released and after a game that is technically better in every way, I love VII more. VII is so well made that I can’t help but to see that game as better. The soundtrack of XV, along with Ardyn and the lore of the game (that you really have to dig admittedly too deep to fully appreciate, look at Final Fantasy Peasants many FFXV videos) are the truly excellent parts of XV. I love this game, but I agree, it’s a disaster. But hey, I had fun with it (Seriously, I stopped the video when I saw that comment and I finally saw, in words, exactly how I feel). I honestly went into this video apprehensive, because I loved Final Fantasy XV, but I completely agree with you... minus the voice acting. Check out VakyrieAurora’s video “Noctis Lost In Translation” (or something like that). She does talk about how he was misrepresented in the game. I personally blame script writing and voice directing, mostly because I dig Ray Chase and Robbie Daymond (Noctis and Prompto respectively). I say this because Ray Chase was Eve in NieR:Automata and he was excellent there and Robbie Daymond voiced Sorey from Tales of Zestiria, which was one of the few great things about that game. I don’t have an excuse for Gladio, except that the cup noodle scene was hilarious. That’s my defense, but then again, I liked Final Fantasy XV from the start lol. Great review, Skill Up! I really appreciate the work you put into these videos. You’ve gotten me to appreciate games that you talk about on this channel that I wouldn’t otherwise care about. Thank you.
Awesome, in depth review! It really is an amazing game despite all it's flaws. I loved it and I still do. I honestly love flying/driving around the open world and fishing and doing side quests. And the story, whilst it was messy and had so many plot holes, was still enjoyable. Honestly it's like Death Stranding in that its a very polarising game. You either love it or hate it.
You're right at the end when you say you have to let the game in and have the patience to wade through the myriad game-related media and expansions. And I know FFXV is an achievement considering the depths of development hell from which it arose. But just as valid is the decision to not give the game a second chance. I played through vanilla FFXV upon release and the visuals/music aside, I was utterly disappointed. Especially after learning about their projected DLC plans to 'fix' the game at extra player cost. The crappy narrative and gameplay soiled FFXV for me and in a time where there are plenty of other great releases and experiences, it's all just too late, too bad. Great review though. But I do disagree that Final Fantasy shouldn't revisit worlds in sequels. It's just been poorly done. I think one issue SE has is long protracted messy development that is partly required because of world-building from scratch.
It's a complete mess of a game but one I find myself being drawn back to again and again. There's something about it that makes it hard for me not to love despite its issues.
I come back to this review every few months. It is one of the greatest reviews I’ve ever seen and it stated my thoughts perfectly. Anytime you try to defend final fantasy 15 to someone it’s so hard to articulate just why it’s great. Because yes… it’s sucks. But Skillup has found an amazing way to show just how great the game is, even when it’s doing SO much wrong. Given that this game is now on GamePass and playstation plus, I just feel that everyone even thinking about trying the game. Should I’ve it a shot.
I really love FF 15, until now is my favorite FF game (I never liked FF series, with the exception of 6, 8, 10 part 1 and Type 0). Of couse is flawed, but I really enjoyed it.
In anticipation of FF7 remake, I went back and played XV for the first time. You nailed the review. By the end of it I loved the characters and the soundtrack is excellent. But I was done with the combat. The DLCs are absolutely vital to the experience as well.
Dr. 2006 at the time of development yes. Before FF6, there was no way at all to switch characters or anything. They developed FF6 to be able to have anyone in your party that you want. However, the main story centers around Terra and Celes. This is why Terra was chosen as the Dissidia character and the assumption of her as the main character. The narrative of FF6 definitely does revolve around those two female characters.
@@DOC_951 I mean, the main characters aren't quite as dominant narratively in FFVI as they are in the other games in the series. But Terra is the protagonist of the World of Balance, and Celes is the protagonist of the World of Ruin.
Yeah look, I'd buy this man a stubby if I met him, these bloody reviews are one of the things I look forward to the most when it comes to the RUclipsrs I am subscribed to, and I'd personally like to say that's saying something seeing as I am subscribed to quite a lot of them nowadays. But for real though, these reviews are so amusing yet informative that I just can't help but agree with the points being made (Not all of them of course, I'm not a lemming), the depth of which the reviews delve is in my opinion simply one of the more amazing things about this channel and more to the point SkillUp himself.
That you listened to the soundtrack before playing it and realizing that this is to some degree the essence of what the creators try to communicate, made me respect you
The year is 2021 me: I can finally watch this skill up video I've had saved up. Re-Edit: I beat the game last week, little did I know how prophetic I was.
Tom Loach Agreed! ACG is pretty decent too...if you prefer a more structured and shorter review (but still long as reviews go). He structures them all the same, graphics, sound, fun factor then a buy, sale, rent, never touch rating system.
Not a typical poster of comments on RUclips, but my two cents: I was hyped when the game was announced, I pre-ordered and eagerly waited for it to finish downloading before playing. The night of release I stayed up all night playing. At the end of my first vanilla playthrough, I cried too. To me, it was beautiful. I didn't focus on the gameplay aspect or necessarily how well written everything was, but I just focused on my pure excitement and allowed myself to enjoy it for the experience it was. Since that first playthrough, I hadn't touched it since the Royal Edition came out, and played it fresh at that point, about a month ago. For me, I play RPGs or JRPGs like a movie, to experience the story and immersive myself in it. Honestly, I did everything I wanted to do for my first playthrough, and then made a NG+ with my OP stats and played on easy. No HUD, hints, tips, nothing of the sort, except subtitles (because I believe Japanese VA is the best iteration for this game). I focused and played only through the story and DLC and after that second playthrough, I cried again, and I enjoyed that second experience so much more. I can't say how exactly, but it's not hard to enjoy a game if you're truly wanting to enjoy it. Just my perspective on this video game. I loved FFX and I love FFXV and I can't wait to play FFVIIRemake to enjoy every moment of it.
You enjoying it in your second play through shows exactly what Ralph was getting at about the gaming feeling like it’s on rails. playing on ng+ with max stats and without the hud (whos sole purpose is to make navigating the games mechanics easier) is basically playing a movie at that point and just succumbing to however the game wants to be played which kind of defeats the purpose of gaming. And yes you can like a game if you want to but having to eat a 1 hour long video to find out how exactly to do that makes the enjoyablity redundant
*Hi everyone*- as I mentioned, I've prepared a special version of the script for this video exclusively for Patrons and RUclips sponsors. You can become a Patron here (www.patreon.com/skillupyt/posts) or you can sponsor my channel directly by clicking the 'Sponsor' button next to 'Subscribe'. The script will be available on Patreon, or in the 'Community' tab of my RUclips page depending on which way you go.
Thanks everyone and see you soon for the FarCry 5 review :)
Skill Up Ummm final fantasy 6 actually has the 1st female protagonist and final fantasy 12 was great. Personally I liked the 13 trilogy while it wasn't perfect. A lot of your views on 12 and 13 are more opinions than fact 13 split up the fanbase between love and hate more than Being considered a disappointment by all. I do agree 15 sucked unfortunately.
So, FF6 is a weird game in that it has _multiple_ main characters. You can easily argue that Terra, Locke, Celes, and/or Sabin and Edgar are main characters. Personally, I think that Celes is more 'main' than the rest, but there's serious caveats with that.
Your lengthy review was insightful. However, I feel you should have given more credit to the game's impressive visuals. As far as "world building" goes, the main reason FF10 and 13 (and their sequels) were so linear was because of the detailed visuals. To make a more open-world game with that level of detail would have been a tremendous undertaking at the time. The fact that they did it for XV (with a 10+ year development cycle) was in itself an impressive feat.
Where I think Square needs to improve is the character development of the main protagonists in its games. I remember Tidus was a bit cringeworthy and annoying back in the day. I didn't find Zidane or Vaan particularly likeable either. Cloud, Squall and Lightning were all kind of dull and brooding characters. I feel like the supporting characters have had more depth than the main characters ever since FF7. Sure Cloud has received a lot more development with all the various spin-off games since his original appearance, but I think Barret and Red XIII were much more interesting than Cloud in the original game. I'll grant you, FF7 did give a lot of attention to Cloud's background and the origin of the SOLDIER program, etc. That kind of explains his lack of personality and overall emotional detachment from people. It was still a great game, but in a way it felt awkward at times when it was left to Tifa to play the psychologist and figure out what Cloud's mental problems are about, with very little input from Cloud himself.
As soon as i played a few hours of this game on release, i could tell it was just a ff7 remake beta test.
Skill Up i agree with everything u say but the combat system, i think it was intentionally made in such A way that ppl who wants to just play it for fun or ppl who wants learn the game..if put a bit more time into to learn the proper combat system its deep n helluva fun, sadly u need to master them for the endgame dungeons n stuffs..
"the way we talk about CD Project Red" this hurts to hear watching this in 2021 😂
I was looking for this comment. Thank you. xD
That comment certainly didn’t age well 😂
A well the writing in cyberpunk and questing is still top notch in cyberpunk2077
@@TheCivildecay is okay is genetic at best with bad voice acting and a forgettable cast
@Coonje Raynor no cyberpunk is a bad story in my opinion sorry to say it fanboy
“FFXV...one of the worst games I’ve ever loved.” That line encapsulates my feelings precisely.
That was beautifully said.
Exactly this
It's definitely the best worst game I've ever played.
I love the general beauty of it byt the story sucked and the game play was almost irrelevant.
I didn't realise till half way through that I could choose to hold down attack... Seriously what a pathetic function... It wasn't even needed.
Except when he's talked about the game since, he talks about how much he hates the game. Lol
Is not a bad game you dick
“We used to talk about Square the same way we talk about CD projekt red now”
That’s a big oof
now it's true because they have both gone to shit due to poor management and money hungry executives
2024
one bad game dude
This is your best work to date mate... Don't let anyone ever convince you to shorten your reviews, it's only because of the depth of this review that I can really FEEL why you love it despite it's glaring problems and failures.
His best work is the Nier review, but this is very good as well, like all his other reviews.
What depth ? He probably didn't play every ff since he said lightning is the first ff female protagonist
@@lowang9708 she is the first female main protagonist in a numbered final fantasy game, Yuna, aerith, tifa, rinoa, garnet all don't count because they aren't controllable main characters and nothing before 7 counts either because there's not a "main" character in any of those besides maybe 3 and 4 and they aren't female.
Skill ups the name, 10 minute intros are the game
its not like you do know that if you follow the channel. Its been stock in trade for, like, forever.
Main Mang FACTS!!! I honestly put the game down for 3 weeks cause there was no intro... I'm tryin again square has been letting me down
lol
I hit the thumbs up just for the intro
Lol. Thought you were kidding. Review starts at 12:30. That's when he literally says "here's my review of FFXV". 🤣
This game's soundtrack is GLORIOUS. Nuff said.
Except for the soundtrack in towns which is so annoying to listen to I muted it.
For all their shortcomings, Square Enix never misses with their OSTs
I just finished watching this video, and I felt compelled to tell my story. It's currently 2:49 AM, and I just felt like my voice should be heard. I don't know if anyone is going to read this or not, but I want my thoughts and feelings out there.
First off, I was scared of watching this video, because I absolutely love this game! I was scared that you would do nothing but bash this game, tear it up, rip it all to shreds and leave the pieces behind you. In a way you did, but I'm so glad I finally watched this.
Final Fantasy XV has a special place in my heart, because it is actually the first ever Final Fantasy game I have ever played (not including Kingdom Hearts), so, in a way, I am the "First-Timer" that the game says it's for. I was always familiar with the series, but I never felt the want or need to ever play any game in the series. That is, until E3 2014, when I witnessed my first trailer for FFXV.
Watching that trailer, seeing that it was going to be on Xbox One and not a Playstation exclusive, I got pumped! A game about a road trip with your buddies all while saving the world? That sounded like a blast to me!
I started consuming all media I could for the game immediately; I purchased Final Fantasy: Type-0 so I could play the Episode Duscae demo, I watched everything on RUclips I could find, I pre-ordered the game as soon as it was available. I was so ready and excited for this game that it completely annoyed my girlfriend who has been into Final Fantasy since she was six!
Then the game came. I took a vacation from work, picked up my deluxe copy and collector's guide, played through the whole game in a week, and something happened to me that has never happened while I played a video game: I cried.
I cried because I was happy.
I cried because I was sad.
I cried because I loved Noctis and his brothers.
I cried because the ending was beautiful.
I cried because I had my Final Fantasy.
Everyone I've talked to who loves the Final Fantasy series always say that there is a game in the series that is "their" Final Fantasy, and I never understood until I finished Final Fantasy XV. I can admit, this game is nowhere near perfect, but my experience with it is one that I doubt I could ever come close to replicating with another game.
Since then, I have played all the DLC, purchased the "Royal Edition" upgrade, and I still am in love with this game.
I don't know if this long comment will mean anything to you, I don't even know if you read all the way through. But I just want to say that I'm glad I watched your video. I'm glad there are others out there that love this game. And I'm glad that this game has introduced me to one of the greatest and most legendary game series in the history of games. I am currently playing Final Fantasy X, and I'm loving my journey through that so far. But Final Fantasy XV will always be special to me.
It was a fun ride.
Well said.
Retaliation032 thank you.
So Relatable. I absolutely loved this game and I play a lot of RPGs its inexplicable why I love it it was just one of the best rides in a video game that I went through and I see people usually bash it and call a horrible game and I keep thinking if only you could go through it the way I went through it. It would be in your favorites but i guess that makes no sense at all😂😂 so i just avoid the negativity and just remember it for what it was, a hell of a ride
Feel ya ''my'' ff game is tactics war of the lions.
Still don't see how this messy excuse of a story can make people emotional.
"Final Fantasy 13, the first Final Fantasy game with a female protagonist", except FF6 did it first.
x-2 anyone?
X2 was utter trash and a supreme disrespect to 10
iezari garrard x and x2 was the best of the series, they are what i think when i think ff. every game since has been either garbage or weak. i cant comprehend how anyone can call them bad. you dont have to like them, i hate 15's style, but technically i can admit 15 is a decent game with looks and game play wise. but you cant think x and x 2 are trash and still have control of your entire brain, because its just not accurate. gameplay wise x and x2 are the best ff's, and story wise x2 is great, everything with antag gave me chills, while x is a masterpiece. you ppl need to think before you say stupid things.
The Rogue Empire I said 10-2 is trash. Not 10. Ten is in the top 3 FF
The Rogue Empire X-2 was trash everything about it sucked except the battle system, graphics and mini games/side quest content. It's my 2nd least favorite ff game next to FF2.
I think most fans are just sad that there are clearly so much unrealized potential in ff15
The harshest thing about this game is that fans themselves are to blame for it not being able to reach its full potential. The final DLCs, that would have fixed some of the biggest issues with the game, were canned partially because of its cold reception by the fans.
This game had the potential to be one of the best FF ever if not directly the best of all, but as you said there was a lot of waste here, so sad…
@@XxXDaLoXxX znnn . ......... oz ,
@@emanuelepolloni4002 I doubt it, I think this game is just fundamentally flawed. The story, the gameplay, the crappy side quests. Some bonus content couldn't fix the main game
Honestly I think with Tetsuya Nomura being the initial lead for the game it was never going to reach it's full potential. Nomura seems incapable of truly laying out a story and following it through. It's like he thinks of new concepts and constantly wants to add more or change something and it just makes it impossible to have cohesion.
One of the best aspects of FFXV is by far its music & soundtrack. I LOVE the music in this game!
That's usually what FF has always excels at. It's guaranteed that at least one song or all of the soundtrack will be good despite the story and gameplay sucking.
man sometime i think SE is actually a music company, not a game company, hell their games are sometimes overpriced AF but their soundtrack album worth every-single-penny.
Lightning isn't the first FF female protagonist. Terra is.
FF4 right? Its been a bit lol
it's actally Lara Croft
@@ax4232 what
@@saltyscrublyfe9862 Lara came b4 Lightning
@@ax4232 she's never been a final fantasy protagonist
Final Fantasy XV for me is the adventure of four brothers. That alone makes it worthy of existing.
Anxious Neck Games directly inspired by the original Final Fantasy and the film “Stand by Me”. Really cool mashup
I didn't have a problem with a broventure, but ffxv was trash for a lot of other reasons
@Darrow Au Andromedus I hear your points but I'm going to have to hit you with a hard disagree. Mind you I played ffxv at release and didn't enjoy it enough to buy the dlc
I look at ffxv and I think of the things I like about the game. I like freedom to go where I want, eventually, and it's world was pretty. I liked prompto taking pictures, I sometimes liked how the bros interacted with one another, I liked the music and how I could listen to different ff music in the car. Thunder plains and blinded by light were my go tos. And I liked how grand some of the set pieces felt. The cinematics transitioning into these larger than life battles felt amazing and awesome
Then after the awe factor wore off, I can not say with good conscience that it was anything but trash. Touching on some of the points you brought up the story and multimedia. I felt a large disconnect from the story because so much was left to the movies. I didn't care about Noctis' city at all (I don't remember the name) because I never visited it, or knew anything about it. People can say that's my fault for not watching the movie, but I don't like watching a lot of movies, and I'm pretty sure I had to pay for it or bootleg it but I could be wrong about that. The game didn't even bother to include it in the game (I did watch the anime tho). The characters for the most part I didn't care for because we barely knew about them. We know that Noctis and lunafreya are in an arranged marriage from the start of the game and we're traveling to go get married. Ok. Noctis hasn't seen lunafreya in years and despite having cellphones they communicate via magic pupper. Cryptic but cool I guess. We finally get to lunafreya and maybe we can see her and noctis actually talking and interacting. It's an arranged marriage so they don't have to show that much affection but it was made clear that they had some type of feelings for each other. We finally meet her and boop she dies. There goes my motivation since the start of the game, other than ya know my city that I don't care about getting blown up. So she's dead and I'm supposed to be angry? Sad? Oh no I'm supposed to be sad because noctis is sad? Ok I'll be sad for this girl's death that I didn't care about. And this ardyn guy, I hate him because he killed my girlfriend that I didn't care about and betrayed us when I gave him my trust after knowing him for 5 seconds and him already being shady af. I could go on, and on about how shit the story is because it was the most forgettable part of the adventure. Almost everything about this story is forgettable, there are barely any moments that stand out except the set pieces like the one I described and one part where some guy I didn't know (but the protagonists did) became a zombie or something and the game makes it seem like oh I'm supposed to be really mad at ardyn because he turned this dude that I barely knew into a zombie guy. Idgaf. The other reason I remember that boss was because it was where one of my biggest problems with game was. The combat system was shit, straight trash
I know I've gone on very long about the story well I'm not gonna bore you with the other problems I have with the game like average english voice acting, and the abysmal end game that they tried to trick me into thinking it was an actual endgame. I'm going to skip straight to the big boy. The press O to deal damage and square to avoid damage (I played ps4 so I'm using ps4 terminology) I play a lot of games, I love rpgs to death I really do I like creative turn based combat, or generic TBC that does it really well and fun. I love action games like dmc and my most llayed game of all time is tekken 7. Dude when I played ffxv I turned my brain off. There was not a single challenging fight in the game, there were no choices to be made in combat (I could only control noctis) other than O to attack square to dodge, warp strike for ap or to get out of combat and regenerate. And spam magic, because they cost nothing and making the broken chaos spells in the game was way to fuckin easy. Oh and PRESS SQUARE TO PARRY, I wrote that in all caps because when an "unphasable attack" comes the games blares all it's sirens and tells you to hold square because if you don't bad things will happen. I didn't get hit by a single one of these attacks the entire game, idek why tf they added them. Phasing costs mp which is also used for warp strikes, cool what else is it used for absolutely fuckin nothing. By the end of the game you have abilities that allow you to mash square for a perfect dodge that costs almost no mp and your mp regenerates. Tf? Ok so I'm nigh invincible now how on earth could they possibly balance this along with the mountain of potions I've stock piled because I'm rich. Well since you can't wear me down with many attcks because of perfect dodge mash square, we're going to instakill you. I swear to fuck in the end game dundgeons the amount of times I got instakilled was ridiculous, there was no complex ai or cool moves, the cinematics had came and gone now I was left with this shit, every enemy is spongebob squarepants and they have instakills. Is the game hard yet, do I have to think anymore than I did when I turned this game on. NO. Because items have s and I have 99 pheonix downs and 99 mega pheonix'. This game's "endgame" at level 99 I shit you not was me spamming tf outta pheonix downs and wearing down enormous health pools like how they ruined the adamantite turtle or whatever. This games combat was so fucking brain dead and unenjoyable that it belongs in the garbage. This is the abridged version of my rant I could snap about this game for hours, but the thing that hurt the most was that when people were criticizing the game before release for being active combat and not no menus, no spellcasting. I was saying hey give it a chance it might not be that bad. It was trash. Now I'm going to tell you why FF7R is better in every way. Probably in a shorter post cuz you most likely won't read this whole thing
@Darrow Au Andromedus I was born in 97 same year as ff7. I did not play it for the first time until like 2 years ago then I played some again before remake release. I never beat it. People harolded this game as the god of rpgs and their entire childhoods. I thought it was overrated. For it's time I understand it was incredibly, but there was something about it that didn't draw me in to finish it like 6, or 10. I even enjoyed X-2 more. I have absolutely no nostalgia for this game, but as I game I can say it was pretty good not gonna go into detail about that. Now the remake comes out and I have no intention on buying it on release because square had betrayed me with kh3 and ffxv I couldn't trust them anymore. Then I saw gameplay of the game, the bombing run, and I saw combat and options in combat. Options that mattered that could make your fight, easier or more difficult. I heard the remixed music (one of my favorite parts of the original) and it was incredibly the graphics were amazing. And the english voice actors actually sounded FUCKING GOOD. Cloud in this game was leagues better than the one in the original, because of the writing, the voice acting and the graphics. On to your points specifically. The dancing in a dress I fuckin loved that shit, in the original you blast through that part in a half an hour. I fuckin love the idea of this serious ass mercenary dancing in a dress because he has to if he wants to save his friend from don corneo. Cloud doesn't enjoy it like at all. If you watch the dance cloud tries to attack andrea for getting to close to him, it's hilarious. Aerith is in the crowd and they're loving this shit they're going crazy and I'm loving this shit too because it's not everyday you see cloud doing anything but being a serious, smart mouth merc dude. And what does he say when he meets tifa? He says that he FUCKING NAILED IT with still not even a crack of a smile on his face. That shit was hype. That shit was hyper than me flying over an ocean, battling an ocea-uh-Leviathan, and holding O to win to epic music. And then getting sad that my gf died. There are so many moments in the remake that are memorable because I loved them and I want to play them again to experience it again. Only thing I want to experience in ffxv again is letting ignis drive me across the country while listening to music from a different game lol. You can say this game is a hallway simulator, and that's an almost valid critique. The only problem with it is that games don't have to be open world to be good. My favorite ff is X and that shit is way more linear than 7R. The reason the linearity didn't make me feel limited was because there were enough nooks and cranies to explore unlike ff13, and because customization was so freeform again unlike the beginning portions of 13. I'm not even going to talk about the combat. Because I love it, you like it apparently, and it is leagues better than 15 objectively. The customization goes hand in hand. I could make any character I wanted into a tank, a healer, damage dealer, a buffer, a debuffer. Close minded people saw aerith and thought oh she's the healer support mage. People who saw the possibilities put all their support magic on cloud because he didn't have a good magic weapon yet and turned aerith into a fucking nuke.
Some textures are bad yeah, the skybox distracts me everytime I look up. Without a doubt. But saying that the remake overall has bad graphics is some laughable shit lmao I don't even have to argue about that, the game looks beautiful for the most part. Especially given that they were working on it for ps4 lmao
Like I said dialogue was one of my favorite parts of the remake. Cringe? Dude I come to youtube and rewatch cutscenes from the game just to hear the voice actors again. But of course nothing is perfect, I don't like the writing of aerith's speech at the end, in fact after aerith gave her speech and barrot said like 2 sentences his 2 sentences were delivered with the tone that made me feel like it eclipsed that speech entirely. I love the characters in 7r I love the world, the battles, the music. I see the flaws just like everything else, but saying that this game is trash and ff15 isn't is ludicrous. Congrats for making it to the end of my short rant, I'd appreciate any response even as simple as "I didn't read it loser", or "ff7r sucks kid". Cya
@Darrow Au Andromedus and FF XV its still TRASH
I've always loved the way you structure your reviews. The way that you give a lengthy and filled to the brim opening, that opens like an academic essay, laying the groundwork for what you will say, why you will say it, and how you say it with such confidence. You truly are an amazing reviewer because you are a gamer and the journalistic industry could stand to learn something from you.
Thanks mate
😳 Papa Skill has replied.
Loved FF15. Played the day 1 edition. Platinumed it. It is certainly flawed, but I really enjoyed it. The music was terrific. I never played the DLCs as I moved on to new games. Definitely going to go back and play them. Glad I finally watched a full review of yours. Truly great job. Your enjoyment and pride of what you do is very evident in your work. Will be watching more.
Episode Ignis alone is worth the price of admission
Yeah, I've also played day one edition, more than 150hs. And yes you really should play Episode Igniz it's truly epic
It's soulless
funny how people still dont get tidus laughter and bring it up as an example of bad voice acting
The laugh is done the same in all languages. It isn't a bad dub or bad VAing, it's supposed to sound bad and forced.
That isn't hard to understand when you actually have the context, lmao.
Tbh, I think Tidus' laugh being "bad VAing" is more of a meme than anything.
Omg Omg OMG man.... i bneat this game like 5 fuckin times and i wonder if people understoodd the point of that scene... he was trying to laugh like that on purpose to get everyones mind off their seemingly impossible task and he was really trying to create that awkward moment on purpose to lighten the whole mood.
People are too mentally challenged to understand it was supposed to be deliberately cringey, hence why Tidus and Yuna burst out laughing right afterwards (a stilted attempt at forcing laughter in a dreary moment).
Came here to say the exact same thing. I wonder if people know this and say it anyway because so many have said it before or if they really didn’t get the scene.
Jesus Christ people. Obviously everybody got the scene, it's hard not to, as this scene is as deep as the puddle of piss one ejects after a long night of drinking.
And while it is a great scene, the laughter sequence is hilariously bad with or without context (100% on purpose tho, I give you that), hence it being a meme for a really long time.
But leave it to people on the internet to have a circlejerk, because of them understanding a cutscene, for which you'd have to be literally mentally challenged not to do so.
CGI cut scenes in FF were always groundbreaking... FF8 is my fav...
KoTu that’s my number 1 too
Its honestly amaxing how fantastic their cgi scenes are. The almost look like live action in some of the later games imo
Well they make movies so their cg is always top tier but I don’t like how you see an epic cutscene then cuts to complete dog poo poo. The cutscenes are so much better looking that it creates a huge contrast with the actual game graphics and it’s hard to ignore
everyone's favourite final fantasy is the first one they played.
@@NickKrige Not always true, first FF game I played was 7, yet X is my favourite by a large margin.
This review sounds like a college essay. And I mean that in the best of ways.
I love FFXV. But I started with the Royal Edition
Lucky you
I started ff 15 at launch and even today I love this game in its own way
Yeah same here so it's hard for me to understand the hate from some people
@@Agent_Verse play the ff7 remake and tell me ffxv gives u the same feeling as it did to us 20years ago, the remake is a final fantasy, this is not.
@Darrow Au Andromedus a game doesnt have to deliver brainless fetch quests over an open world to feel alive. yes id love to have the remake not as linear but ill also get why, because the original was very linear in midgar because it was the start of the game, comparing graphics doesnt give jackshit about the game itself. i highly prefer a ps1game that is awesome over any graphics out there. Sidequests arent good indeed but neither are they in ffxv u just dont notice the fetch quest nr83 that much because there more open world elements covering it, yet every quest in ff15 is a glorified fetch quest, while they use some in the remake to lenghten the game but not to a borderliner insane amount like ff15 does. ff15 has 0 storytelling, so many changes since its release including the endboss multiple movies etc to even get a feel for 1 single character. ff7remake makes you understand why every character acts the way he does, because it evolves the characters pretty well. ff15 has 0.0% of evolving characters, no challenge or whatsoever, even pausing the game for you when you somehow during spamming triangle and spamming triangle even more
“We used to talk about Square the way we talk about CDProject now”
Yikes...that didn’t age well
Actually it aged like fine wine it shows that all gaming companies will go down the shit hole someday
Somehow square is rising up again
Oh how the turns have tabled!
So CDProject fucks up one time. and they are shit now? and I might add IF the Community didnt drag them by the balls everytime they postponed the game. they would have put more time.
Yeah it aged perfectly actually lolll
I LOVE your reviews. Context is everything and after every single one of your reviews I not only take away a sense of the game (which alone is pretty hard to do and most reviewers fail to do so), but I also take away a piece of gaming history. A glimpse behind the scenes at the story behind the game. Well done.
There are bits and pieces of this review that I can't agree with - the VA, Noctis's character, the combat. But, on some level, that might just be because I don't know how to untangle loving something and knowing it's flawed. The voice acting might be terrible, but I honestly couldn't tell you, because I grew to love it and the people it represented. Noctis might be an angsty teen, but my tears during the ending were real and connected to the story they presented. This was a great review, and, even if it was cheating a bit, ending it with Apocalyptus Aquarius was the perfect choice.
I love the voice acting, it's better than the Japanese. And the four boys' relationship and their love for eachother is the highlight of the game. Gameplay and story sucked though.
I know this is old, but I dont even understand how you could like the voice acting. 24:20. Nothing about that is good. The tone doesn't match, they aren't breathing heavy like you'd assume, their voices are so loud its overpowering all the background noise, and the character models look extremely angry in the middle of a boss fight, while the line sounds like they're sitting on the couch fighting over a remote.
Sometimes its good, usually prompto, but it was a majority stuff like 24:20.
@@TheTinyTimmyTimTim The *vast* majority of the time it's not like that line, and there's a reason that he chose that out of the entire game's VA - it's the worst line delivery in the game. It makes sense that you'd go with the best example of a problem, but I generally think that the voice acting is fine-to-great. It's obviously going for a far less naturalistic style than something like The Last of Us, but that doesn't mean that it's bad, it's the difference between a theater performance and a filmic dramatic performance.
I liked them from the beginning and their jokes make chuckle and laugh. What I hated is that the best parts of them were chopped to the dlc and movies. I was sadly not aware of that until i finished the game. There was a beautiful scene in the after credits that should have been in the last scene before the boss
And Ardyn's VA was just phenomenal
I know this is years late, but Ignis is a character that truly affected me emotionally on a very deep level and he instantly became one of my favorite (maybe even my straight up favorite) FF characters ever. The Episode Ignis DLC was truly a masterclass in adding depth to a character and pretty much everyone came away from that loving him a lot more. They did such a great job in conveying the emotions they wanted to convey in that DLC. I'm glad that most people buying the game now would buy the Royal Edition and get to see Ep Ignis because that means lots of others love him too.
Just finished the game fully... totally agree... but it wasn't just Ignis... the chocobro's and Ardyn were all great characters. It's such a shame as all of the components were there for this to have been the best FF game since VII but unfortunately terrible business decisions screwed it up.
I hereby present to you, my intro.
For the record, the reboot of FF14 (A realm reborn) turned out to be a damn good MMO, and is now 2nd to WoW in terms of subscribers.
Regardless, another great review from Skillup. Love your Laymen channel too, but so glad to see you adding new content to this channel. You’re the most in depth, articulate reviewer on the interwebs, and your observations are so often spot on!
Playing my first FF game on release was mind blowing for me. I never even thought of the quality of combat or really cared about the weak story. The brotherhood I felt carried me through one of the most beautiful games I've ever experienced and made the end game one of the most satisfying. If you didn't experience the massive cube dungeon, battle the super bosses, or experience the pitch black platforming maze that you can only access by flying car, you really did yourself a disservice. I know this video is a year old, but if you play this game again, play the post game
It’s just so sad that this was your first one.
@@funkrobot9762 I've heard similar things but it makes them go back and play older ones. Whatever starts them on the path, I'm fine with.
I "skipped" the pitch black platforming dungeon with a trick jump. Still got the accomplishment and the only good loot lol.
@@funkrobot9762The first FF I actually played and not just watched somebody else play, was FF7 remake, now I think Inser the bar too high lol
I do wanna finally try OG FF7 on steam though
@@DevareayWilliams og FF7 is incredible. That whole run of 6 through 9 was really something.
I love the sheer amount of effort you put in your reviews. It's greatly appreciated. That's all, just thanks man.
What an amazing and throughly satisfying review. Exceptional editing and a deeply thoughtful script - for me you have a way with words that truly resonates (you got me choked up a few times along the way). :)
This is one of the best videos SkillUp has ever done. He perfectly describes the conflict that everyone goes through when playing this game. This game has major flaws, but I ended up loving the things that it did right. I played every mainline Final Fantasy in the last 2 years for the first time, and I put FFXV in my Top 5, which for me is a really respectable accomplishment considering the high quality of every release.
The Official Skill Up™ Drinking Game: Take a shot for every minute that passes before you hear "ladies and gentlemen, I present to you my review of X."
Are you trying to kill people?!
Haha, 12:30 this time. I think it's a record. Love it. I'm drunk now
Steven Castelyn
I doubt you were drunk when you wrote that because I don't think a person can type with that good grammar when they are drunk
Lord Gamer Unless they are used to being drunk ;)
I just found myself watching this review - in full again - for the 3rd time in 48hrs and not really understanding why. Until your final remark made it click. The experience you provide is even greater than the sum of it's already magnificently produced parts. You sir, have the makings of a master storyteller!
I genuinely feel moved by this video, and I’m not even fully through it, I bought this game based solely off the hype, I had never played a Final Fantasy game. This was supposed to be my first, and I played it for quite a while. The open world open combat style of Final Fantasy 15 was a lot more to my liking then most games in the Final Fantasy franchise as a lot of those were based off of turn based combat, a game type that I’m not a huge fan of. I never quite made it through game, making it about halfway through the Main story, and I wish I had gone back to finish it. This video leaves me thinking that I should absolutely go back and finish it with the included extra content, I still have the steel book copy, and what I did experience of that game was fantastic even if I never made it through, I think I was missing the connection to the characters that this extra media could provide, plus seeing as I already own the entire set I can do this at zero cost.
On another note, I found you this week and your video game opinions have lined up greatly with mine, a lot of what you see in the games is stuff that I see, but could never put to words, a lot of the times I would quit a game that wasn’t necessarily good and not think “man that game was really bad” but instead think “man I’m really bad at playing games” or “man, my attention span is bad”, never letting the blame fall on the games even when they clearly deserved it. your reviews have allowed me to look at games I play with a much more critical eyes than I used to, games that I enjoyed the gameplay, but just never finished because they felt super repetitive and long like far cry six or games that I felt had potential that just never panned out like destiny two, your reviews put thoughts I have into words I couldn’t think of and I appreciate being able to hash those parts out in this strange, one-sided video game discussions that I have with my phone screen.
"What do you get if you watch this review and then add in the amazing patreon rewards, *a full review experiance* "
The second half of the game is literally on rails.
Shaidon7 LITERALLY
That's my biggest problem with it as well. Sure the game in general is a departure from other games, but I enjoyed it a lot. The second half felt like it was a different game. It was okay, but especially in the endless corridors, I just wanted it to be over. After that section it was over way to quick lol.
Shaidon7 literally my only problem with the game now is that exact thing. It makes complete sense tho, once your in the heat of the story it would be kinda weird for you to just walk off and be like “fuck it I’d rather grind”. Nowadays FF15 is one of the better in the entire series imo, after all the fixing I truly love the game.
The main problem isn't that it's literally on rails. The main problem is that the first half is not on rails AT ALL. While the latter half is too much on rails. Think about the structure of FF7, 8, 9 and 10, it's very much on rails. It's just camouflaged as not being on rails. I have no problem with games on rails, but it requires great writing. Take Uncharted series and Last of us as a great example. Uncharted 4 was one of the best games I've ever played and it managed to NAIL the balance between on rails and not on rails. It just told a great story.
MrKennyBones idk, I feel like those games are a little different in the sense that progression isn’t based on stats, like in FF15 there may (I swear to god I didn’t even have to do it once) be times when you have to grind, rail locked portions of the game kinda screw you if your in that situation. But imo the real problem isn’t that one portion of the game is rail locked it’s more that the portion of the game that is rail locked doesn’t feel engrossing enough to warrant being rail locked. Most railocked games (last of us included) have an amazing story that has you on the edge of your seat and with that you find yourself constantly wanting to progress through said story. So, the rail lock doesn’t just seem warranted but also necessary, nobody wants to wait any amount of time in between a great plot. If FF15 had that plot then nobody would be complaining about having to sit through it like it was a chore. And the weirdest thing is, the progression system makes complete sense, in basically every story ever told it starts out pretty care free, light hearted, open for interpretation and the like, the beginning of most stories are generally designed to ease you into the situation and they did that pretty well, I never felt rushed to get the story done and felt like I could enjoy everything at my own pace. Later into the story is supposed to be the time when you’ve already become invested and when the game narrows down into a story driven journey. This game just failed to tell a good enough story
Titus' laugh was one of the best scenes. He's deliberately being ridiculous to make Yuna feel better. And he's so silly she breaks her steadfastness long enough to enjoy a moment of silliness. It was a turning point in their relationship.
He ia just jumping on the bandwagon without understanding thw nuance of the scene
He is using that scene to make a point on the general quality of voice acting in FF titles. It is cartoonish and over acted to a cringeworthty degree. I personally LOVED with all my heart FF7 and 8 and 9, until they started using voice actors. I was so stoked to find out they would be being used, like Metal Gear Solid I thought. But no way, I couldn't even make it more than 10 hours into FF10, It was just that voice acting. The characters from FF7 and 8 sounded so cool in my head, and it was nothing like my imagination when it was brought to life.
I have also played FF12 and it was better but I didn't finish it, and I also played FF13 and finished it, and the acting was still pretty cheesy in places and immersion breaking but not from all characters. The first voice acted FFX was not executed well, on top of being indicative of the clear cultural differences in how square wants their characters portrayed in english dubs (seeing as this trend carries on right throughout the series), more like an anime than a serious story. Don't get me wrong I like Anime, and I watch dubs, but I usually shy away and cringe at the more cheesy choices, and I just don't think that auditory aesthetic of anime fits the worlds of FF. Not to my taste anyway.
The only exception to this IMO is the FF7R, which I finished and very much enjoyed. I am so glad they went for the vibe that they did. It still has that JRPG vibe, sometimes a little cheesy, but it comes over endearing instead of cringe. I so hope they continue in this vein.
I love that scene
@@Glen0cide switch to subbed?
@@Glen0cide Him using that scene to point out the general quality was a HORRIBLE scene to use due to the context. Him pointing that scene out to point out the quality, or lack-there-of in the voice acting is meaningless because that scene was supposed to be ridiculous. Citing that scene just ruins his credibility.
Man, I'm not used to comment in videos on youtube, but this review made me break that wall and say it to you. I wish I could like your reviews over and over and over because they don't deserve one simple thumbs up for each person. I mean, I have 10 fingers, why can't I put all of them up when I'm watching such a masterpiece? You make the word "sponsor" have meaning and I trully hope that people see your talent and reward you for that. Thanks skill up.
That CDproject red comment at the beginning REALLY not aging well :P
Not at all lol
Lol
I literally paused to find a comment about this. Oh how the mighty have fallen.
Yeah now FF15 launch is not that bad 😂
Mind you it was all ver unexpected. I really thought they’d knock it out the park. Who’d have thought eh?
I just picked up this game (day one edition, it was only 9.00), and started searching for reviews and tips. I came across this channel an am blown away by how much passion, effort and time was put into your videos. Your reviews are thoroughly immersive. Very impressed. I will be keeping an eye out for new reviews
Damn! Not sure how you make these so fast and in so much depth, great work
I know this video came out so long ago but I just wanna say that you perfectly explained why I love this game so much. Yes it's hold B/Circle the game but the music pulls it together. It pulls everything the game does well into one moment. This video is so well paced that I felt like I was watching a full movie and I was rooting for the main protagonist and by the end they have a realization and triumph at the end. How you understood why there are so many fans of this game gave me so many emotions through out. You found it, you found the magic. This games magic hides from you in many ways. The music hides in plain sight and you don't notice how impactful and memorable it is until you listen to it outside of the game. The DLC, and web series hide from you but you sought them out and you were rewarded. Thank you, after watching this, you're my favourite game reviewer now.
Cheers from Canada
Loved this game at launch and still love it to this day. This was my first Final Fantasy and it was a magical playthrough. 200+ hours and my game of the year 2016
My first ff game was ff7, I really don't care if they say its bad im still gonna get it
To be honest, I read so many bad reviews that I was hesitant to get the game. I just got it and this game (for me) is beautiful. They did a good job on characters, I really care about what is happening to them.
@@carlosdiaz4685 I use this game as an example of why I don't normally use game reviews as a means if I get a game or not.
XV is my all time favourite
I loved this game as well from World building to gameplay and characters I really loved this game on launch I don't get the hate.
I really loved this game, even through its numerous flaws, the experience is great, and I would argue that’s what makes a GOOD game. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna boot up this game again after a while.
I'll wait for the Royal Royal Super Duper Complete Edition
There's another season pass that Royal Edition doesn't even fucking cover
I read some where that they're planning on 3 more episode DLC's
Gotta wait till 2019 or 2020 just in time for the Olympics for them to finish the game
I have a feeling that wont even be the last DLC. Its pretty stunning that there are now 2 Season Passes for this single player game, on top of the fact that the story was cut off and put into a movie and an anime.
Are you implying that only multi-player games should get the same treatment?
Yup it's in 2019
I come back to this review it seems like every few months. Because it's so thought provoking, and emotional. It's seriously one of the best reviews I've ever watched.
@@Agitoxii12 OK bro
Man... your reviews are more like.. journeys.... i find myself coming back to watch them again and again.. keep it up! and make more of those
Happy to be one of your patreons! Keep up the quality work. You're my favourite youtuber.
When you said that you sound like a schizophrenic I know exactly how you feel about Final Fantasy. I grew up on amazing Square games in general and Final Fantasy in particular. There was a time when Square logo was everything you needed to pick a game and you immediately knew it will be something special... CDPR comparison is not a fair one as Square was producing one hit after another at an almost unbelievable pace. In like 5 or 6 years they managed to release such cult classics as Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, FFVI, VII, VIII, IX, X and Tactics, Xenogears, Vagrant Story, Parasite Eve. And that is not even all. And that is why I will always have a soft spot for Final Fantasy and Square Enix. I will always want to love a Final Fantasy game despite all the odds and I will always be hyped for the next RPG by Square Enix.
That awkward moment when you become the number one spot on your own top 10 best youtubers you should subscribe to list (talking about your video). SkillUp my guy you have come a long way! When mainstream television wakes up from its weird coma and realizes that video games are actually a big deal I can see you being properly professionalized in game reviews and news. Until then... Keep doing this shit
Amen.
UltraViolence
lol, "mainstream television"?
Mainstream television is just about dead, or dying at best, this isn`t the 90`s..
Jan Christian Frodahl I don't disagree with you if that's what you're thinking :S
Mainstream television will always exist even if it's "dead" tho. One day they're gonna have to pull the fish fingers out of their asses and realize that gaming isn't some weird nerd-culture phenomenon and is actually the future of entertainment
lol what is a "television"? =D
Hi Skill Up, I dont think you'll probably read this but I admire your honesty and your reviews, specially on this game, a game that is an absolute paramore to me.
I agree that it is extremely flawed and streamlined for the new fans of final fantasy, the gaps in writing and even the shallow gameplay, but despite all that you highlighted the very reason I came to love this game.
A Story of friendship set, in a fantasy world, basic but fun combat, a game that just takes me to a fun stroll where I can turn off my brain and just soak everything in and enjoy the small things about it while being coated as a
Final Fantasy game.
I enjoy pretty much all RPGs, difficult and complex as the next game but there is just something about this flawed gem that kept me going back to it
I've clocked in 1175+ hours from last I checked and have been playing this game on and off for the past 2 and a half year it's been released and I'm happy you gave this game a review.
Thank you skill up!
P.S. (addicted to using the ring of the Lucii, ultimate power fantasy right there)
A very good review. I especially liked the focus on the transmedia aspect of this instance of the gaming series. Those could be some valuable inputs for game developers in the future: How to focus on the important categories of the aspects of the novel as foundation of the world building: Story, character and plot etc. (see Forster, Aspects of the Novel) and then building around it.
As you pointed out, this is the basis for every IP and is generally the hallmark of this series. From a hindsight perspective it seems so trivial, however we expect so much of game developing and I can see how difficult it can be to orchestrate those very complex systems: Story and world building, technical infrastructure, programming, gameplay (loops), coherence within the series and IP, music etc.
I applaud your effort to dig through this and encourage you to continue your thorough analysis of video games!
"The hot-headed Prompto"
Dude what?
More like the scaredy-cat Prompto
Ok, I completely disagree with the statement that the english voice acting is bad .Other than that ( rather subjective ) thing, I can't but comment you on an amazing review that hit most ( if not all ) nails on the head. I started the video just wanting to get the jist of it from the first few sentences but ended up watching the entire 45 min thing and that says a lot about the writing and pace of your work. It's so nice to see you review more games that are not online focused ( although I wish you said a couple things about the COMRADES DLC that does add some story elements ) Keep up the great work .
I understand that you have your opinion and I respect it but the game is based on a western setting and there is NOTHING in the world that gives off an eastern vibe so having people speak japaneese is kinda silly IMO. I'm a purist and play most of my jrpgs in japaneese as well (mainly " the tales of "series ) but in this game japaneese just takes me out of the experience.
hahaha no arguements here. Just an exchange of opinions :) ( and yes it does :p )
But srsly tho, you have to agree that the English voice acting counterpart seems detached from how the characters present it. I mean, you see how the characters portray their emotions and body language... but then you hear them speak with the English dub and it becomes somewhat confusing and conflicted. I end up wondering, "so is he angry? or not angry?" that kinda feel.
Happy Muffin i agree, the English dub is better given the setting.
hmm, it isnt that bad indeed but I can't say it is good especially if you compare it to the japanese one and I'm talking about the quality of the voice acting objectively and not about the type of language or subjective preference
the emotion is just lacking, especially on minor dialogue that you will find in the side quest, the subtlety isn't there, often it felt out of place and sometimes I feel like the voice actor just doesn't fit the character image for one reason or another (gladio voice in the english dub made me cringe so hard I dont think it suits the character at all), the dialogue and the choice of word is just bad and is worse than the japanese one (yes I knew a little bit of japanese and I tried to compare it to the english dialogue for the choice of words etc and it is surprisingly different, like for example in 23:25 Gladio sounds way, like waaaaay more natural in japanese dub version, and when Prompto asked Noctis for the picture, in japanese Noct's refusal sounds more natural and less of a dick, sigh, seriously who the fuck translate this game)
so yea I agree that the English VA isn't bad but it is only mediocre at best, especially since this is not a small niche Japanese game, it could and should have been better, the fact that I find FFXIII English voice acting to be much better than this is just... ugh
Just played this as my first FF game ever. And have to say I really enjoyed it, even bought all the DLC episodes. Cant say I understand the “hate” this game is getting. It sure made me want to play more FF games. Next up: 7 Remake or 13.
9 is the best one
@@JessieBlackheart they would have a better time playing IX, after playing like IV-VIII tho. But yeah IX is an S tier FF.
VI, VII, IX, X, XIV all S tier imo
@@loC2ol I don’t disagree with you
..It is getting hate because it is a terrible game. Play X and you will understand just how awful this game is. Saying this is your first says alot. Bad story, even worse combat.
@@HumorousLOL eh I’ve played other FF since the last 2 years. Doesn’t change my enjoyment of FF15.
That's one hell of a script you got there. I just keep agreeing with every point and you also made me realized why I love the Final Fantasy series the way I do. Also that open world part as an MMO definitely rings true to me. I had so much blast with the DLCs that when I came back playing New Game+ to have better grasp of the story, I just couldn't finish it. Last but not least, your choice of using the music throughout the video is excellent. This is certainly one of your best works.
For me, FF legacy continued in Lost Odyssey. Couldn't praise that game enough.
Lost Odyssey's battle system was not so well made....
AnbenK How
Last Story on the Wii is the real Final Fantasy legacy
@@AnbenK I've had the game for years and just tried to actually get through it. The combat is ok it's not the worse turn based game out there.
I hated how far apart the save crystals were. Though the writing in those memory vignettes was terrific.
I played this as my first FF and I agree wholeheartedly with your conclusion, it's not like I was blind to its flaws but looking back I only have good memories from the experience that really stuck with me rather than disappointment or frustration
Thanks SkillUp! Your reviews have become a must for many of us...
freaking FF15 theme starts playing and a tear swells up and drips down my left eye. Geez louise.
I was screaming and crying the entire Leviathan fight...
Kevin Mitchell I’m still depressed about Ignis’ eyes.
Patetic
@@remuvs ignis is best husbando tho
That was my girlfriend watching me play.
haha same here. im happy everyone had no idea what they where doing in that fight also! hahaha it did feel cool but i literally never knew if i was playing the game correctly
3:59 Ahem... Terra would like to remind everyone that FFVI technically did the female lead first :p Just had to give my girl a shout out.
True. Also, Celes, who is the protagonist of the second half of the game (Terra is the protagonist of the first half).
@@bigbuffguy9589 well the first half of the first game, the lock is... at points.
And Celes is for the second half... sort of. Until they get the air ship at least.
Hmmmm. Maybe there really isn't a main protagonist in 6, but it is instead a team.
This review is amazing. I agreed with most points you made, but the thing that made me love it is how you present Ideas and develop them. And THAT ENDING THO.
I always thought you were a great reviewer, and after seeing this video this feeling is even stronger and I can safely admit that your reviews carry out the most importance to me and are probably the best ones I have seen in almos every aspect
Cheers mate
Half a million subs?? I subbed when you had 5k subs and foresaw your greatness back then. Now look at you? You deserve that and many many more ma man. Greatness awaits. Thank you for great content and for you always been honest!
One of the worst games I have ever loved. Yeah man I love this game so much but you're right hhahaha
I felt like Episode Prompto and Episode Ignis were great though. The two DLCs oddly enough made me wish our main character wasn't Noctis, or at least Noctis had a different role or personality.
Dylan McCollum lol truth.
I think the ending summarizes what happened to Final Fantasy over the past twenty years: Square Enix no longer gives a shit about substance; they're just all pretty blinky lights, shiny things, and spectacle without any actual substance.
Me too bro
I enjoyed the game. Liked the world, the characters and the boss battles. The story was fine I think... But what I truly loved was the credits scene, "Stand By Me" is such a great song. But once you finish the game you barely remember anything of importance. Thats when you realise the game is not a bad game, but an awful Final Fantasy game. FF games are all about story and plot, the only thing this game had in common with the other FF's games was the title
THE ULTIMATE FLAVOR EXPERIENCE
23:24
If nothing else, a Reddit AMA with Ray Chase (Noctis's VA) confirmed that they did a serious take for the advertising bits and a deadpan take. They went with deadpan in the final product.
Ardyn must have a sore back from carrying the entire second half.
More like carrying the whole game narrative
@@dennygunawan208
This
Incredible review, one of your best
FF Tactics was a great world they created too. Ya it's impressive how they kept creating new worlds most all the FF games.
Here in 2019. Didn't know reviews could spur emotions like this, especially as I haven't even played the game itself. Awesome job. Keep it up.
Do you plan to try it at any point in time?
Rex815 om getting it on this january sale actually
@@TrolleLOL currently FFXV (all updates, dlc, etc) is available on Gamepass, great service
alintro I just exchanged my Xbox for a Nintendo switch. Game pass is great though :)
Woah... did not think I was going to understand why you invested so much in explaining this game. Totally enjoyed your analysis and the context, but 1/2 way through I am thinking, “yup, glad I passed on this one.” Even though you pointed out much of the brilliance, those shortcomings just killed any incentive for me to play, even 3/4 of the way through your review. I actually thought, dang I am so sorry Ralph spent all that time on a game that just isn’t worthy of the scrutiny (even though their history and ambition might be). But then, your ending... that music... and the simple way you summed it all up: unbeknownst to me, you had brought me through a similar journey to what you had taken investigating the game. And as it did for you, in those few seconds, it clicked for me.
As with your other reviews, i love how the structure of your review (you describe it as schizophrenic at one point) is adapted to and beautifully mirrors your subject matter. So I’m not just hearing about the back and forth brilliant/awful elements of the game, I’m experiencing it a bit, struggling to piece together how I felt about it, a condensed version of what you did.
You wouldn't know if it clicks for you if you haven't played it. I mean, people can convince you that any game is good by their sheer passion and ability with words, but it doesn't mean you'll think it's good when you play it. The fact that it seems so hard to like is a big red flag.
@@wizagab yup agreed with you. I actually quite enjoyed the game and managed to get platinum. Sure it could be better with the story telling side but still quite enjoyable in my opinion.
The storytelling is a mess for sure because of how unfinished it is (and make no mistake - this game was far from finished. Even the Royal Edition didn't do much to finish it, instead giving us more interesting side stories to make up for it). If you can trick yourself into enjoying the game that it was SUPPOSED to be, then you can definitely get into it. More than anything, getting invested enough so you can feel the emotion behind the ending is worthwhile in my opinion. I waited the full ten and a half years for this game, and I was disappointed by quite a few things when I played, but the end had me thinking about the game for like two weeks non-stop. There are games of far superior quality that have not evoked such a response for me. If they had pulled off the storytelling properly, the ending of the game would have gone down in game history, rather than being seen as the best part of an otherwise flawed story.
The argument closer to end, the one about music, is exactly what eventually made me stop burning over Kingdom Hearts III and actually accept what happened to that game.
It is probably an important sign that the music in both FFXV and KH is the same genius of Yoko Shimomura.
Also, the game is heavy on lore. That story about the crystal and the God's and the dawn of the world is actually still in the game. It is hidden in interactions. You can read books and signs to find parts of the lore. There is also a hidden dungeon that is just full of lore, and it has that original story they wanted to tell in it. A lot of the dialog that was added to the royal edition about the gods is actually found in the hidden dungeon. Stuff like Iffret originally loving humans. It was in that dungeon since the release of the game, but so many people only heard it 2 years later in the royal edition and it is sad because all of the lore was there people just needed to look!
The thing that keeps me playing FFXV is being with your friends. After the sad ending, you just want to go back and cherish being with your friends and explore this beautiful world together.
BRUH legit, this game is so good at emulating what friendship is. I remember how, after the post-credits scene, I immediately messaged my buddies and arranged plans to hang out because you don't know how much time you'll have left with them. FFXV is stronk
Not sure how you found the game almost entirely un-challening - I actually found numerous instances where the game gets extremely challenging, with the Night-time battles against the Red Giants being brutally hard until you're really high level. Heck, when you wake up in the World of Night, there's a Wall enemy that Noctis fights that literally took me 45 minutes to beat, where I had to charge in, do as much damage as possible, and then warp away when seconds from death. I'm not necessarily arguing that the game requires a strong degree of strategy or that you can't mindlessly go through 90% of combat Dynasty Warriors style, but you make it sound like there are no challenging battles, to which I will very strongly have to disagree.
Not to sound negative - your review is quite good and I just subscribed to you today.
Sounds good man, I am playing it off and on since it got released. You made me enthousiast to continue.
@@draveriorain8140 Have you finished it now? I'm curious what you think. It's been quite a while since I spoke to anybody who played the game.
@@TheLastWanderingBard I am sorry to say that I did not. I wanted to. I have a problem, there are so many games and little time. Let's say it is really hard for me to stick with a game now a days.
@@draveriorain8140 That's cool, don't worry about it. I was just curious what the consensus was a few years later.
@@TheLastWanderingBard also have to say, I am not the biggest fan of ffxv. I prefer the older ones more because of their story. Like ff ix. Still I think ffxv is fun and love the world. The episodes are a great addition imo.
Super enjoying going back and watching all your older reviews. You truly are a master of your craft
Never played a FF game before, and finished FFXV last night. I really really liked this game and I can't explain why this dull, confusing, cringy, uninspired, repetitive smashfest won my heart.
6/10
Would totally play again.
Im confused, what
@@ok_listen I think that's his point. It's a six out of ten game that you can recommend.
*Really liked
*Gives a 6/10
Seens legit.
@@neildrunkmaam7040 You can enjoy something but still recognize it's bad ya know.
1/10 it killed my entire family and I love it.
Currently playing it, and I was looking to find a good review who can express what I feel about FF XV and boomm find this. Yes my feelings are mixed for this game but I think I'm going to platinum it because I love it too
Wow man! I love your stuff. This was so well done! I can now really respect your talent on review and very well done background and details on when reviewing games.
Even though I highly disagree with you on this review. You did earn your bell click today. I will now receive notifications
Tidus laugh was intended to sound bad that way (there is even a vídeo of the voice actor explaining that) and the japanese is just as bad.
Well, they managed to make me hate him lol
I don't know if I dislike more him or squall 😂
@Kostas Spirou He has the charm of a football player so none to me lol
He's a bit too energic and silly for my taste, not saying he's not good or anything
Wow. Just fkn wow my man. I’ve played thru this game once, was prepping to play a second time through, and came upon this review. You are a talented individual man. No joke. This review somehow just blew me away and the way you present things is second to none in video game reviews. I don’t even have the extensive vocabulary to express my all out, full feelings you gave me watching this. God damn man...well done. Just flat out genius material. Man...I could go on n on but you laid everything out so damn perfect. Genius!!
Best reviews in the business IMO. Thanks for the time spent making this.
He said magic is useless ....
Honestly to easy one shot finish mostly Goblin, Hobgoblin, Flan etc in menace costle mark, steylif
magic is my main EQUIPMENT ...
and i like the way that the game visualized the Magic Effect ...how we have to craft it ...
This is such a great review! in your newest video you were saying how you cringe when you watch your older videos but i think that you should take pride in your earlier works.
I absolutely loved Final Fantasy XV at launch, flaws and all. I had a great time with it, mostly because I think I didn’t know how to pick apart games back then and see elements for what they were. I had fun, so I liked. Now is different. I remember the hydra fight sucked, the Titan fight sucked, and the actual final boss was a mess. But the fight with Aranea fight was so awesome and I loved Chapter 13. Those kept me going before I knew any better. Your conclusion sums up exactly what I think of the game. This game is a mess on every front. For every good thing, there’s a thing that drags it down. The best content the game has is DLC. At the end of the day, I’m still fond of Final Fantasy XV, but that’s because it was my first and I dove into the other media before and while I played the game.
I played Final Fantasy VII after I played XV, and even though I played it 20 years after it released and after a game that is technically better in every way, I love VII more. VII is so well made that I can’t help but to see that game as better. The soundtrack of XV, along with Ardyn and the lore of the game (that you really have to dig admittedly too deep to fully appreciate, look at Final Fantasy Peasants many FFXV videos) are the truly excellent parts of XV. I love this game, but I agree, it’s a disaster. But hey, I had fun with it (Seriously, I stopped the video when I saw that comment and I finally saw, in words, exactly how I feel).
I honestly went into this video apprehensive, because I loved Final Fantasy XV, but I completely agree with you... minus the voice acting. Check out VakyrieAurora’s video “Noctis Lost In Translation” (or something like that). She does talk about how he was misrepresented in the game. I personally blame script writing and voice directing, mostly because I dig Ray Chase and Robbie Daymond (Noctis and Prompto respectively). I say this because Ray Chase was Eve in NieR:Automata and he was excellent there and Robbie Daymond voiced Sorey from Tales of Zestiria, which was one of the few great things about that game. I don’t have an excuse for Gladio, except that the cup noodle scene was hilarious. That’s my defense, but then again, I liked Final Fantasy XV from the start lol.
Great review, Skill Up! I really appreciate the work you put into these videos. You’ve gotten me to appreciate games that you talk about on this channel that I wouldn’t otherwise care about. Thank you.
Awesome, in depth review! It really is an amazing game despite all it's flaws. I loved it and I still do. I honestly love flying/driving around the open world and fishing and doing side quests. And the story, whilst it was messy and had so many plot holes, was still enjoyable. Honestly it's like Death Stranding in that its a very polarising game. You either love it or hate it.
Going through your whole catalogue of videos dude, I've missed out, you have such passion and love poured into them, genuinely fantastic
You're right at the end when you say you have to let the game in and have the patience to wade through the myriad game-related media and expansions. And I know FFXV is an achievement considering the depths of development hell from which it arose. But just as valid is the decision to not give the game a second chance. I played through vanilla FFXV upon release and the visuals/music aside, I was utterly disappointed. Especially after learning about their projected DLC plans to 'fix' the game at extra player cost. The crappy narrative and gameplay soiled FFXV for me and in a time where there are plenty of other great releases and experiences, it's all just too late, too bad.
Great review though. But I do disagree that Final Fantasy shouldn't revisit worlds in sequels. It's just been poorly done. I think one issue SE has is long protracted messy development that is partly required because of world-building from scratch.
It's a complete mess of a game but one I find myself being drawn back to again and again. There's something about it that makes it hard for me not to love despite its issues.
I come back to this review every few months. It is one of the greatest reviews I’ve ever seen and it stated my thoughts perfectly. Anytime you try to defend final fantasy 15 to someone it’s so hard to articulate just why it’s great. Because yes… it’s sucks. But Skillup has found an amazing way to show just how great the game is, even when it’s doing SO much wrong. Given that this game is now on GamePass and playstation plus, I just feel that everyone even thinking about trying the game. Should I’ve it a shot.
I really love FF 15, until now is my favorite FF game (I never liked FF series, with the exception of 6, 8, 10 part 1 and Type 0). Of couse is flawed, but I really enjoyed it.
I notice FF7 isnt there. So i assume you aint hype for the remake?
RasenRendan dude i have sene the remake video and this made me want to play FF15 so next year i can player FF7 Remake
27:35 The DLC is cut content from the game. They bastardized their own creation for an extra buck.
“We used to talk about Square the way we talk about CD Project Red now.”
Oh, how times have changed…
In anticipation of FF7 remake, I went back and played XV for the first time. You nailed the review. By the end of it I loved the characters and the soundtrack is excellent. But I was done with the combat. The DLCs are absolutely vital to the experience as well.
The only channel on youtube where i've clicked on the notification bell. High quality content
...... That CD Project Red reference hasn't aged well ;) Love this video :)
Terra/Celes say hi.
All these comments thinking Terra was the main character. There really wasn't one in ff6.
Dr. 2006 at the time of development yes. Before FF6, there was no way at all to switch characters or anything. They developed FF6 to be able to have anyone in your party that you want. However, the main story centers around Terra and Celes. This is why Terra was chosen as the Dissidia character and the assumption of her as the main character. The narrative of FF6 definitely does revolve around those two female characters.
@@DOC_951 I mean, the main characters aren't quite as dominant narratively in FFVI as they are in the other games in the series. But Terra is the protagonist of the World of Balance, and Celes is the protagonist of the World of Ruin.
Yeah look, I'd buy this man a stubby if I met him, these bloody reviews are one of the things I look forward to the most when it comes to the RUclipsrs I am subscribed to, and I'd personally like to say that's saying something seeing as I am subscribed to quite a lot of them nowadays. But for real though, these reviews are so amusing yet informative that I just can't help but agree with the points being made (Not all of them of course, I'm not a lemming), the depth of which the reviews delve is in my opinion simply one of the more amazing things about this channel and more to the point SkillUp himself.
That you listened to the soundtrack before playing it and realizing that this is to some degree the essence of what the creators try to communicate, made me respect you
The year is 2021
me: I can finally watch this skill up video I've had saved up.
Re-Edit: I beat the game last week, little did I know how prophetic I was.
Best and most honest reviewer on RUclips. Keep it up😁😁
Tom Loach Agreed! ACG is pretty decent too...if you prefer a more structured and shorter review (but still long as reviews go). He structures them all the same, graphics, sound, fun factor then a buy, sale, rent, never touch rating system.
Not a typical poster of comments on RUclips, but my two cents:
I was hyped when the game was announced, I pre-ordered and eagerly waited for it to finish downloading before playing. The night of release I stayed up all night playing. At the end of my first vanilla playthrough, I cried too. To me, it was beautiful. I didn't focus on the gameplay aspect or necessarily how well written everything was, but I just focused on my pure excitement and allowed myself to enjoy it for the experience it was. Since that first playthrough, I hadn't touched it since the Royal Edition came out, and played it fresh at that point, about a month ago.
For me, I play RPGs or JRPGs like a movie, to experience the story and immersive myself in it. Honestly, I did everything I wanted to do for my first playthrough, and then made a NG+ with my OP stats and played on easy. No HUD, hints, tips, nothing of the sort, except subtitles (because I believe Japanese VA is the best iteration for this game). I focused and played only through the story and DLC and after that second playthrough, I cried again, and I enjoyed that second experience so much more. I can't say how exactly, but it's not hard to enjoy a game if you're truly wanting to enjoy it. Just my perspective on this video game. I loved FFX and I love FFXV and I can't wait to play FFVIIRemake to enjoy every moment of it.
Totally agree.
You enjoying it in your second play through shows exactly what Ralph was getting at about the gaming feeling like it’s on rails. playing on ng+ with max stats and without the hud (whos sole purpose is to make navigating the games mechanics easier) is basically playing a movie at that point and just succumbing to however the game wants to be played which kind of defeats the purpose of gaming. And yes you can like a game if you want to but having to eat a 1 hour long video to find out how exactly to do that makes the enjoyablity redundant