Nine years. That's how long this game has been in development. It's kind of crazy to think that I was bright eyed sophomore back when this game was announced as Final Fantasy Versus XIII along with the rest of the Fabula Crystalis nonsense, but here I am in the year of our lord 2015 writing my thoughts on the demo I played through over about 3 hours last night. So without further ado, here is another overly long analysis that nobody asked for!
The Good
Production Values
Okay, lets get this out of the way first - Great Googley Moogley this game is pretty. Then again, you probably already knew that. The draw distance is... Well, there really is no draw distance. You can see everything across the map. The character models, even npcs, are incredibly detailed and fluidly animated. Enemies run the gamut from mundane to impossibly huge, but all of them are imbued with enough fine detail that they are as intriguing as they are threatening. And that summon, dear God. It really sets a new bar for eye candy in Final Fantasy and really gaming in general.
And the music, it is f**king fantastic. Just listen to the music during the summon. The demo alone is full of tracks of that caliber, and the somber tune that plays at the title screen is still rolling around in my head. The Characters
From left to Right - Gladio, Noctis, Ignis and Prompto
The four main characters of Final Fantasy XV have so far been called the "Boy Band of Final Fantasy," and while I'm not sure I like that label, I have to admit that they really do kind of look like one. Thankfully, they don't act like one (Though I'm sure One Direction or someone of their ilk will conspire to make an RPG someday). The names are kind of silly, but just from the demo I can tell that the characters are well fleshed out with complicated personalities. Noctis, for example, looks like a stereotypical goth/emo teenager, but he's actually kind of goofy and has a good rapport with the other three. The demo has me intrigued about the history, relationships and complexities of the characters and that, to me, is the mark of good design in a demo.
The Experience System
Final Fantasy XV has a new experience system that is akin to Dark Souls of all things. You still gain experience after battles, but this experience needs to be "cashed in" by finding a campsite and setting up camp. While this obviously gets rid of some of the instant gratification of old Final Fantasy games I feel like it will lead to a more concrete feeling of progression, especially since I'm guessing camping is going to be the method of saving in this game.
Varied Gameplay I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of gameplay experiences available in the demo. While regular combat was obviously the bulk of the experience, there were a few sections that really broke the mold. In particular, there is a stealth section where you have to track a behemoth to it's lair. This proves incredibly tense, and creepy music and heavy fog serve to bolster the atmosphere; it's almost something out of a Silent Hill game. If this is a sign that the development team is willing to take risks with sequences far removed from just walking around and battling (something FFXIII sorely lacked) it increases my anticipation for the full game even more.
The Mixed
Combat
Okay, here's the big one. Definitely the greatest departure from Final Fantasy norms and perhaps the biggest risk the developers are taking is in the combat system. Combat in Final Fantasy XV is completely in realtime, with no ATB bars to speak of. Noctis is the only playable character, and attacks with his phantom arsenal via a preset melee combo. Weapons can be switched around to add variety in things like speed and range, but the nature of the combo remains largely the same - swing your opening weapon to get the first hit, do a flurry of hits with the second weapon, finish with the third. Noctis' warp strike ability, which allows him to instantly teleport to a targeted enemy, is invaluable, as many enemies are quite mobile and difficult to hit with the first clunky hit of the melee combo otherwise. Each weapon also has a skill attached that operates separately from the combo (think FF9), that vary in usefulness. Combine the clunky combo with warp strike, mobile enemies and environmental things like trees, rocks, etc. and battles can get really messy really quickly.
That said, when things flow like they presumably should - Warp strike, combo, maybe an AoE skill for crowd control, kill enemy, warp strike or full thrust to the next; it does look and feel really cool and satisfying. The hits themselves have a good feeling of weight to them, and taking down a huge group of enemies gives a great feeling of accomplishment.
The AI of your teammates is definitely serviceable, and I rarely found them getting into too much trouble on their own, but there was one thing that kind of frustrated me. When Noctis' HP hits zero, the game pulls a Gears of War - you enter a critical state where are unable to do anything, get knocked down by a slight breeze, and any damage you take is subtracted from your total health which, if it hits zero, is game over. In order to return to the land of competency, Noctis needs to be infused with a dose of Bro Love via a pat on the back from one of his party members. Problem is, sometimes they seem utterly uninterested in doing so. Once I hobbled directly in front of an idle Ignis for about 10 seconds, before Gladio decided to travel the entire length of the battle field to reach me and pat me on the back.
The Map System
There is no active mini map while traveling the overworld. This is definitely a minor complaint, as the map is easily accessible and the waypoint system is servicable, but I also have one other minor complaint - when you enter a dungeon, there is no indicator. While this is sometimes obvious (the cave) it sometimes isn't (Deadeye's Den), and I spent more time than I'm proud of wondering why my map looked drastically different than before. Also, once I figured it out, I couldn't find any option to switch the dungeon map to the world map to see where the dungeon was located in relation to everything else. A minor gripe to be sure and easily fixable, but that's why it's in this section
The Bad
Performance Issues
Many of you reading this have probably already heard about the performance issues that plague the demo, and I am sad to report that all of the reports are true. The game engine frequently has trouble keeping up with itself, leading to frame drops, blurriness, screen tearing, weird glitches (all the I's in all my menus disappeared for a while) and a somewhat entertaining bug where battle AI occasionally doesn't trigger and you just beat up docile enemies.
Squeenix definitely has their work cut out for them if they want to have a smooth experience while maintaining the same degree of graphical fidelity, but I remain cautiously optimistic that all of this will be ironed out by the release date of who knows 20xx.
Gamer Notes - A great example of a hybrid genre game, and an odd combination at that. In Actraiser you take on the role of "The Master" (God) and it is your mission to eradicate the evil forces of Tanzra (Satan) along with repopulating the world. The Action Platforming part takes place during the aptly named action phase, whereupon you jump around and slash the crap out of things to badass music. In between action phases is the simulation phase, where you fly around as a little angel baby shooting things with arrows and encouraging the townsfolk to develop the town. You also have access to miracles/disasters that can clear otherwise uninhabitable areas, adding an element of puzzle solving to the mix. The real interesting thing about how the game works is how the two phases affect each other - your score in the action phase determines the max possible population of the towns, and the population of the towns affects the player's max health. I may write about this one later, so I'll end it there.
Bloodpool remains to this day one of my favorite video game tracks of all time.
Collector Notes - Actraiser is a classic in every sense of the word, so the physical copy retains its value despite it being available digitally. It is really on the cusp of being uncommon, but still relatively readily available to those who seek it out.
Speedrun Notes - Unfortunately, Actraiser is not a very good speed running game due to the simulation phases, and the people that do run it usually do so in the game's Professional Mode that omits them. However, this requires that the game has been completed at least once, and the speed running community tends to frown on runs with gameplay related prerequisites.
Actraiser 2
Condition - Complete in Box /w inserts
Genre - Action Platformer
Developed by Quintet, Published by Enix
Released in North America in November 1993
Price Point
Amazon - $50 Ebay - $50
Gamer Notes - Oh dear, this game is a bit of a tragedy. While Actraiser certainly wasn't a smash hit, it was popular enough to merit a sequel. Problem was someone high up either wanted to broaden the appeal to the simpler action adventure crowd or didn't understand what made the game unique in the first place and decided to remove the simulation phases. In their place they added a whole bunch of movement and attack options, as well as an expanded magic system. Don't get me wrong, Actraiser 2 is by no means a bad game, it's just a lot more, well, generic than its predecessor. Also, this game is hard, like, super hard, so those movement and attack options are much appreciated.
Collector Notes - While Actraiser 2 is only an okayish game when compared to its the first, it has the advantage of having the Actraiser name attached to it and is a pretty solid action platformer, so it's value tends to stay somewhat high.
Speedrun Notes - Actraiser 2 is a much better speed running game than Actraiser, but its infamous difficulty drives many potential runners away. PJ is the only person I know off the top of my head that runs it because he is crazy.
Aladdin
Condition - Complete in Box
Genre - Platformer
Developed by Capcom, Published by Capcom
Released in North America on November 21, 1993
Price Point
Amazon - $35 Ebay - $27
Gamer Notes - I have very fond memories of this game from my childhood. A rare aversion of the "bad movie game" rule, both this and the Genesis version (never ask which one is better unless you want to start a flame war) are both games of high quality. In this case, it's largely because of its pedigree - Capcom was arguably at their best during the 16 bit era. While it certainly didn't follow the movie terribly closely, the platforming gameplay was tight, the tunes were recognizable, and the level design was significantly better than expected from a movie based game.
Collector Notes - Being a movie game automatically makes this game common, but being a good movie game means it can still fetch decent prices. A very nostalgic game, most current adults have memories of playing this or the Genesis version, and will debate that the one they played is better until the grave. Sadly, the box and manual aren't in the greatest shape, but the game isn't terribly valuable anyway...
Speedrun Notes - This is a good speed running game - a simple platformer, tight controls and little randomness. I can't recall a runner off the top of my head, but I'm pretty sure somebody ran it at SGDQ 2014.
Brandish
Condition - Complete in Box (may be New)
Genre - Action Role Playing
Developed by Koei, Published by Koei
Released in North America in February 1995
Price Point
Amazon - $90 Ebay - $80
Gamer Notes - VERY OLD SCHOOL. I had no idea what this game was until I played it for the project. It drops you into ruins, no explanations, no plot, no nothing. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing. The game plays well, gives you just enough hints to figure it out and can be rather addicting (I played it for about an hour without even realizing it), but I can definitely see it turning people off, especially gamers that grew up in the current generation.
Collector Notes - It's certainly a unique experience, and that's probably why the price is kinda high. My copy is really beautiful, the box, cart and manual are all perfect :)
Speedrun Notes - While it doesn't seem particularly good for a speed run game, I suppose it could be possible. I would have to do some tests to see if there is any RNG in terms of dungeon generation.
Breath of Fire
Condition - Complete in Box /w Map
Genre - Role Playing Game
Developed by Capcom, Published by Capcom
Released in North America on August 10, 1994
Price Point
Amazon - $40 Ebay - $75
Gamer Notes - The first entry in Capcom's RPG series. As expected, it's a pretty basic RPG, but has some pretty nice animations and enemy designs from what I've played. Have never actually finished it, so I can't really comment on the plot, but BoF 3 and 4 have pretty good plots, so I have faith in this one.
Collector Notes - Box is a bit dinged up, but I have the map so that adds a bit to the value. A relatively fondly remembered series, even if 5 jumped the shark and 6 is going to be a mobile game. If six is ill received it might actually boost the value of 1-4.
Speedrun Notes - I don't think any runners exist for this game. Most of them opt for the superior Breath of Fire 2, 3 or 4 for PSX, or one of the more interesting/shorter RPG's on the SNES.
Castlevania: Dracula X
Condition - Complete in Box
Genre - Action Platformer
Developed by Konami, Published by Konami
Released in North America in Septermber 1995
Price Point
Amazon - >$300 (no listing for this condition) Ebay - $440
Gamer Notes - A solid playing game, with a very solid soundtrack. It has much more of that "Classicvania" feel, sort of like Bloodlines for Genesis. I really haven't played Rondo of Blood, the game it's based on, so I can't really comment on how it stands up against that game.
Collector Notes - This game is a bit curious from a collector's standpoint. It is a port of Rondo of Blood for TGFX 16, but is generally considered inferior from a gameplay and graphics standpoint, and a remastered release was made for the PSP in the early 2000's. Still, this game retains it's price simply due to it's rarity, along with the fact that this is the only "true" way to experience the game in English on a 16 bit system.
Speedrun Notes - Surprisingly enough, there are runners for this game, despite it's rarity. Classic Castlevanias (pre-64) are always good speed run games due to their straightforwardness, and there are plenty of cool tricks and damage boosts contained within.
Donkey Kong Country
Condition - Complete in Box /w inserts (may be New)
Genre - Platformer
Developed by Rare, Published by Nintendo
Released in North America on November 21, 1994
Price Point
Amazon - $40 Ebay - $30
Gamer Notes - One of Nintendo's flagship series and a killer app for the Super Nintendo, Donkey Kong Country was a smash hit when it came out and the series continues to produce titles to this day. While they look crude by today's standards, the graphics were mind blowing at the time, and the gameplay was fast and fluid. Two stage types stick out in my head - the water stages (mostly due to the music) and the mine cart stages, which added an enormous amount of stress to my young self.
Collector Notes - Since it was a noted system seller, it's pretty common. Sadly, not new.
Speedrun Notes - Many, many people speedrun this game. Notable runners include New Age Retro Hippie and Garrison. The general mantra for a DKC speed run is "If you're using Donkey Kong and you're not going for a Donkey Kong specific trick, something went wrong." Diddy Kong is much faster than Donkey and has a smaller hitbox to boot, so it's rare to see him during the run. Also, due to a wrongwarp glich, it is possible to warp from world 1 to world 3, skipping around half of the game.
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
Condition - Complete in Box /w inserts (may be New)
Genre - Platformer
Developed by Rare, Published by Nintendo
Released in North America on November 20, 1995
Price Point
Amazon - $50 Ebay - $40
Gamer Notes - The sequel to Donkey Kong Country, it started the trend of adding things to collect that will eventually spiral out of control. Surprisingly difficult. Birds are jerks. The Roller Coaster stage where you're being chased by the ghost will forever haunt my dreams.
Collector Notes - Arguably the most popular of the DKC's, there is generally a good demand for it, but it was also really popular, so there is a good supply as well. My copy is pristine, and may have been new, there were no save files on it.
Speedrun Notes - Also an extremely popular speed run game with several really weird tricks and wrong warps, so it's fun to watch to. Notable runners include Twig and Garrison.
Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!
Condition - Box, no manual :(
Genre - Platformer
Developed by Rare, Published by Nintendo
Released in North America on November 22, 1996
Price Point
Amazon - $35 Ebay - $40
Gamer Notes - The third entry in the DKC series which introduced even more crap to collect. Great gameplay-wise. Enemy design is kinda weird. Like, some enemies like the rats are hyper-realistic while other enemies remain cartoony. Kremlings look really weird for some reason. Overworld system is interesting.
Collector Notes - No manual *Sadface*
Speedrun Notes - Not nearly as popular as the other 2 on the SNES, but I know it does have runners.
Earthworm Jim 2
Condition - Complete in Box /w inserts
Genre - Action Platformer
Developed by Shiny Entertainment, Published by Playmates Interactive Entertainment
Released in North America on December 25, 1995
Price Point
Amazon - $60 Ebay - $45
Gamer Notes - Very... Err... "Groovy." Has a lot of weird and sometimes infantile humor, so that may turn some people off. Has some cool concepts but levels are waaaay too long (or maybe I'm just spoiled now).
Collector Notes - Sadly, the terrible 64 games were the nail in the coffin for the series, and it was unable to evolve with the time. This sometimes taints the nostalgia, but it has a good enough following due to the cartoon.
Speedrun Notes - There are people who speedrun this game, but I can't remember any off the top of my head. Personally I feel like it wouldn't be a very good game for it, just because of how long and annoying some of the levels can be (particularly the Peter Puppy levels).
F-Zero
Condition - Complete in Box
Genre - Racing
Developed by Nintendo, Published by Nintendo
Released in North America on August 23, 1991
Price Point
Amazon - $10 Ebay - $10
Gamer Notes - A very chill racing game and a showpiece for mode 7, there really isn't a lot to say about the gameplay, and there's not much of a plot. Fun racer that controls well with rubber band AI.
Collector Notes - An early Super Nintendo game, and a racing game on the system not named "Mario Kart," this game is quite common and not very sought after, thus the low price point even for Complete in Box.
Speedrun Notes - I don't think the SNES version has any runners. Most go for the GCN or N64DD games in the series, as they are significantly more fun, interesting and challenging.
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest
Condition - Complete in Box /w inserts (may be New)
Genre - Role Playing Game
Developed by Square , Published by Square
Released in North America on October 5, 1992
Price Point
Amazon - $40 Ebay - $50
Gamer Notes - The only Final Fantasy to ever be released first the in United States, Mystic Quest was intended as a "beginner RPG," sort of a gateway drug into the world of spiky haired protagonists. The overworld is similar to Super Mario Worlds, and battle and inventory are extremely streamlined. Still, it was a pretty solid game, if really easy and incredibly straightforward.
Collector Notes - The game is more often brought up as a punchline than an actual game, and Square made a lot of them because they were confident in their business plan, so the game isn't worth terribly much. Still, there are some RPG fans that seek it out due to pure novelty. Mine is in perfect shape.
Speedrun Notes - Believe it or not, there are some runners for this game. This is probably due to the fact that it is easy, short, and extremely straightforward. I recall there being some cool tricks as well, but there is a boss that is pretty RNG heavy and can cost several minutes due to bad luck.
Final Fight
Condition - Complete in Box
Genre - Sidescrolling Beat em up
Developed by Capcom, Published by Capcom
Released in North America in 1991
Price Point
Amazon - $30 Ebay - $32
Gamer Notes -
Collector Notes -
Speedrun Notes -
King of Dragons
Condition - Box, no Manual :(
Genre - Side Scrolling Beat em up
Developed by Capcom, Published by Capcom
Released in North America in April 1994
Price Point
Amazon - ~$70 (No listing for this condition) Ebay - $60-$90 (No listing for this condition)
Gamer Notes -
Collector Notes -
Speedrun Notes -
Kirby's Avalanche
Condition - Complete in Box
Genre - Puzzle
Developed by HAL Laboratory, Published by Nintendo
Released in North America on April 25, 1995
Price Point
Amazon - $40 Ebay - $25
Gamer Notes -
Collector Notes -
Speedrun Notes -
Kirby's Dream Course
Condition - Complete in Box
Genre - Puzzle
Developed by HAL Laboratory, Published by Nintendo
Released in North America on February 1, 1995
Price Point
Amazon - $65 Ebay - $45
Gamer Notes -
Collector Notes -
Speedrun Notes -
Kirby Super Star
Condition - Box, no Manual :(
Genre - Action Platformer
Developed by HAL Laboratory, Published by Nintendo
Released in North America on September 20, 1996
Price Point
Amazon - $65 Ebay - $40
Gamer Notes -
Collector Notes - I'm really sad I don't have a manual for this guy.
Speedrun Notes -
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Condition - Complete in Box
Genre - Adventure
Developed by Nintendo, Published by Nintendo
Released in North America on November 21, 1991
Price Point
Amazon - $80 Ebay - $100
Gamer Notes -
Collector Notes -
Speedrun Notes -
The Lion King
Condition - Complete in Box
Genre - Platformer
Developed by Virgin, Published by Disney Interactive
Released in North America on December 8, 1994
Price Point
Amazon - $30 Ebay - $25
Gamer Notes -
Collector Notes -
Speedrun Notes -
Updated 8/4 - Completed up to Final Fantasy Mystic Quest.
Updated 8/25 - Added Videos through Kirby's Dream Course
