Final Fantasy XV (previously Versus XIII)

I would honestly trade all the DLC episodes we ended up getting just for a Luna one.

Even with its faults, I consider FFXV to be like an 8/10 for me, but one of the most glaring issues I have with it is the fact that the female lead and a big source of the main character’s motivation... just barely has any presence.

Like, the reason the ending just completely fell flat for me is because I don’t care about Luna.

On the other hand, considering the director's track record, I'm skeptical that any amount of Luna DLC could do anything to make me care about her any more than I do from the base game.

Mind you Tabata was basically just salvaging Nomura's leftovers, and his record track record with female characters is mixed at best.

Ditching Stella, which actually served a role in the game, was not Nomura. That was all Tabata's retool.

Instead we get the galactic doorstop Luna, Ms. Fanservice Cindy, a Stay in the Kitchen Iris and a Faux Action Girl Aranea. woow.

Edited by Memers on Jan 14th 2020 at 3:50:57 AM

I'm not sure we can call Aranea a Faux Action Girl by literally any metric.

We have no idea how Stella was going to be executed because we don't know how Nomura's vision was going to play out. They apparently hadn't even finalized the script by the time Tabata came along because everything else was changing every few months.

I agree her concept sounded better but that's basically all we had to go on and a concept can only take you so far.

Edited by Draghinazzo on Jan 14th 2020 at 8:07:28 AM

Luna is Tabata's attempt to make Aerith and Yuna without realizing what made those two memorable.

Luna is pretty much everything wrong with AC/Comp era Aerith dialed up. apparently having anything that would show her having an iron will cut due to being "uncomfortable"

Luna is just a Doormat booty prize... People mock the fact Noctis has better chemistry with a random DLC Female then he does his own supposed love interest

The alleged leaks of how Stella was dead all along was... not promising

He has better chemistry with a girl from ancrossover event than he does Luna, and said girl has even less screentime when we factor innthe anime shorts, the movie, and the game that all had Luna in them too.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Jan 14th 2020 at 4:15:53 AM

Luna sucks so much it’s incredible.

Yeah, Sarah was great.

Also, I find the comparison of Luna to Rosa from FF IV unfair. Rosa at least was a party member who served a function.

Edited by M84 on Jan 14th 2020 at 10:12:38 PM

The XIV event was actually quite good, it had more character than the rest of the game.

The XV event in XIV though was boring as heck though although the car is cool.

Edited by Memers on Jan 14th 2020 at 6:11:58 AM

The Dawn of the Future novel does give Luna more of a role though. She essentially becomes Bahamut's "plan B" since Ardyn has gone off script. He revives her using the Starscourge, essentially making her a being like Ardyn.

From Doorstop to Fridge to Zombie slave and never gaining even the slightest hint of a personality. Yay.

Edited by Memers on Jan 14th 2020 at 6:16:00 AM

She does manage to free Ifrit from his forced covenant with Ardyn, leading the Infernian to willingly form a covenant with her instead.

Yeah, the game doesn't really need a forced live interest if that is what they have to do in order to salvage a female character. No I'm not saying we need ASTRONGINDEPENDENTWOMAN cliche, but please no loving the main protagonist out of some obligation.

Novel Luna has a lot more agency (and gets a Significant Wardrobe Shift to look more like Stella), but from what I've seen she still manages to avoid receiving any real personality out of it. Most of it is more of the same two beats of "kind healer" and "loves Noctis a lot" that were already the case in the main game, she's just less of a doormat so her supposed Silk Hiding Steel traits are no longer an Informed Attribute now, but it's not something new. They also don't do much to address the Strangled by the Red String problems the game already had, because the falling-in-love part is just treated as a truism and thing of the past, and thus you have to take their word for it that the two are in love.

I feel like Luna turned into a self-made problem at this point. The degree of Character Shilling she got up to this point is rather ludicrous considering how unwilling the creators seemed to actually let her do stuff or even be in the game at all. She does get a decently prominent role is in Kingsglaive, I guess, but she may as well be a different character there. And as Sarah proved it's not like the lack of screentime necessarily even had to be an obstacle to good chemistry.

Edited by AlleyOop on Jan 14th 2020 at 10:08:00 AM

TFW you realize that the best written character in this game is Ardyn. Especially since he wasn't originally written to be the Big Bad.

Edited by M84 on Jan 14th 2020 at 10:35:07 PM

While Ardyn is undoubtably the best character in the game, that is sad.

Edited by slimcoder on Jan 14th 2020 at 6:38:00 AM

I thought they also managed to squeeze a fair amount of depth into Ignis from his DLC onward, actually. Narrative asspulls aside, I found his dark level of devotion and amorality surprising yet still in-character, and even refreshing. Again they didn't require a ton of screentime to establish character depth, they just needed to put in the effort. And it seems their hearts weren't in it when it came to Lunafreya like it was for Ardyn, Ignis, and Sarah.

Edited by AlleyOop on Jan 14th 2020 at 9:53:09 AM

Ardyn also has undoubtedly the coolest gameplay mechanics. Especially his summoning mechanic — instead of a simple Limit Break, he actually summons the Infernian as a party member! The story even justifies the difference — he enslaved the Infernian via the Starscourge.

Prompto got a lot of good devlopment too I feel.

Edited by lycropath on Jan 14th 2020 at 7:15:58 AM

Eh, I like everybody except Luna. Can't say more than that until I finish the game and DLC.

I think it's a good game, albeit they released it with horrible flaws like only being able to take one Hunt at a time apparently. That is just obviously dumb.

I compared it to XIII earlier and one thing it has in common with XIII is the absolute focus on the player characters. Not to such a bad extent as XIII as there are notable side characters and antagonists you care about in XV but it's still very much the Four Bros' game and everyone else is a distant secondary concern.

Edited by Nikkolas on Jan 14th 2020 at 7:57:06 AM

Sadly this game is mainly about the brotherhood with everyone else being secondary players, even the main villain is meant to fully establish their bond as comrades and friends. Hence why Luna's love for Noctis being rather unsatisfying compared to the campfire moment.

Oh I completely agree about that.

Even still, there are likable secondary characters in this game even if they are primarily likable due to their relation with the bros. Like I was just thinking as I wandered around about how this game deserves a XV-2 more than XIII ever did. There's so much to do with the world and the people in it.