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Hammerhead
-We push the car into Hammerhead outpost. Looks like a western town.
-A southern-accented girl appears, and… wow, I instantly hate her design.
It leans hard into a particular brand of fan service that puts me off personally.
“Cindy, Cid’s grease monkey grand-daughter. Cindy Aurum.”
-Cid comes out soon too, a grizzled old mechanic. Both are familiar with Prince Noctis.
-They take the car for servicing and it’s time to wait.
-The music in Hammerhead is - god I’m a broken record – really solid. Very modern-Western.
[Non-rhetorical question: this game feels intensely American at times so far. Is that intentional, or do Cid and Cindy and Hammerhead also fit Japanese archetypes I’m unfamiliar with?]
-Cindy gives me a world map. Thanks!
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Gear Review
-Tipsters at restaurants tell me about the surrounding area, and help fill in the map.
[Non-rhetorical question: Can I increase the text font size? It’s hard to read.]
-The car is the Regalia. Seems like it’ll be an important feature, with different options to tow it, return to it, a garage on the map, and different roads marked.
-The map’s writing is a stylized English. Hard to read, but a nice fantasy element, like in XIV.
-Gladiolus has the most HP, Prompto (the scrawny guy) the least.
-Yay, quests have a recommended level! If I’m wiping, I like knowing whether I’m there too early or whether I’m there at the right time and just need to adapt.
-I have access to some historically powerful weapons, like Ragnarok and Masmune.
[Non-rhetorical question: I just got the Royal Edition, which came with a host of DLC stuff. Is that why I have this gear?
Can y’all help me put together a “restricted list” of gear that came from purchases/DLC? I don’t want to use stuff on this first playthrough that I wouldn’t have gotten in-game, through the base game.]
Engine Blade: “A blade Noctis received from Regis for his sixteenth birthday. It absorbs the elemental powers of defeated foes.” It’s no hunting knife, but still a nice gift. I wonder how the absorption thing will manifest in mechanics.
-Speaking of FFXIII, he’s also got Blazefire Saber XV.
[Non-rhetorical question: the Engine Blade has a plus sign near its icon. What does that mean?]
-Weapons seem to have non-stat quirks often, like the Javelin having higher crit chance against low health foes.
-Two-handers make enemies recoil more easily, and hit hard but slow. This explains why they do more damage the daggers. That attack stat must refer to raw damage, not damage per second.
-Polearms are “best suited for aerial combat.” [Non-rhetorical question: does this mean they do increased damage against flying/floating enemies?]
-Noctis can wield all weapons. The others specialize in a primary and secondary arm.
1) Gladiolus: greatswords // shields + spells
2) Ignis: daggers // polearms + spells
3) Prompto: firearms // machinery + spells (this explains why he has the lowest hp, since he’s ranged)
-Good! I like these IV/IX on-rails systems.
-Techniques can level up. I’ll have to watch for that. Don’t want another VII situation where I never use limit breaks cause I never figure out how they work lol.
“[Spells] are depleted with each use.” BOOO HISSSS!! Hated this in VIII. I’m terrible with using consumables. They make me both stressed and super cautious. “Do I NEED to use this now? What if I need it for the next boss and don’t have it?”
I’ll try to be more aggressive with consumables than usual, and hopefully the game is generous with components. I take comfort also in what y’all told me about normal difficulty being easier here than, say, Lightning Returns.
-I like the more limited magic/resistance system. Fire, ice, lightning, dark, and “shot.” Plenty of strategic complexity there without going up to 8-10 magic schools.
-I LOVE THE ACCESSORIES! Initial accessories show a shift away from raw stat boosts towards gameplay adjustments, such as the Blitzer’s Fanfare giving more AP for high finesse scores.
-LOL – attire gives less HP and more damage when you use the version without a jacket.
-Attire also focuses on playstyle customization, like with a casual outfit’s resistance to some status ailments, or the master assassin’s robes reducing phasing MP cost.
Some just seem flat-out better than others though? Like, the Royal Raiment seems like a straight-up stronger piece than Prince’s Fatigues in every way.
-The other party members wear Crownsguard Fatigues. Sounds like they’re formal bodyguards to the prince as well as buddies.
-Let’s check out some of these techniques:
Gladiolus’ Tempest: Sweeping area attack with a greatsword. [Non-rhetorical question: is this the advantage of a primary weapon set over a secondary? Can you only do techniques with your primary set?]
Ignis’ Mark: Sets Noctis to warp-strike multiple enemies in succession with daggers. A bit confused by the description, but we’ll see how it looks in practice.
Prompto’s Piercer: Hits multiple enemies in a line with a fire arm, reducing their defense. A good opener.
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Ascension Review
-Ability Points (AP) activate nodes on the Astralsphere. to giet new abilities. Just playing the game seems to get AP… including “impressing friends in conversation.” THAT’S SO COOL! Adding little RP puzzles.
-Unlike FFX or XIII, the points I only spend from one pool of AP, not one pool per character. Some abilities on the trees impact just Noctis, others impact other characters.
The strangest tree to me is “Exploration.” Like, one ability lets Prompto take photos in battle. What kind of mechanic could that be? Take photos and turn them into a newspaper for a bounty maybe?
-Early abilities are cheap, ~10 AP. Later ones get much more expensive, 100-500+.
“Expert Item Angler: Triple the items gained from fishing.” FFXV HAS FISHING? That ability costs 555, so it must be incredible.
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Skills
-Each character has a non-combat skill. Noctis fishes, Gladiolus does “survival” (?), Ignis cooks, and Prompto takes photos.
I’m INTENSELY excited for this. Systems like these are part of why I love MMOs.
-There are ten levels of skills currently visible for each character. Survival’s first tier is about potions.
-For elemancy, increasing a spell’s potency above 100 produces a higher tier spell.
-lol, I love the item menu sprites.
-The meals look delicious.
I’ll be shocked if there aren’t blogs and YouTube channels devoted to cooking XV food.
-I have a collection of soundtracks in game from different Square games, like FF and NieR.
-Tons of fishing goods as well. I have the same fear that some of these are not part of the base game, and I don’t know which.
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Archives, Timed Quests
-The XV world is “Eos,” named for the dawn goddess. More of that light/shadow theme.
-Ooh, I LOVE the art on the bestiary! The behemoth is nowhere near the biggest. There’s a big snake thing that looks like the Midgar Zolom and the world’s meanest vulture.
-There are also dossiers, giving background on each character. Let’s see what we haven’t learned yet:
Noctis: 114th heir, chosen as savior by the Crystal (?). Some childhood injury. His betrothed, Lunafreya, is the “Oracle” (?). Oh, and his city is Insomnia. What a crap name lol – who’d want to live there?
Gladiolus Martial artist and outdoorsman. A bit older than Noctis maybe. Son of Clarus.
Ignis: Studious, serious. Caretaker, accountant, driver, chef. The responsible one.
Prompto: Common-born. Became friends with Noctis after some incident with Lunafreya’s dog. “The pauper to Noctis’ prince.” Upbeat. Photographer.
All the buddies are sworn to Noctis’ service from a young age. That’s gotta be hard on them.
Just as with FFXIII, I really dislike how much information these archives give. They should only populate with that information after you get it in game. It’s the difference between dumping lore on you and telling you a story.
Regis: Conjured the Crystal’s power to create a barrier aroudn Insomnia, but maintaining this drains him.
-Last thing I want to check out for now is the Timed Quests menu.
-OH! It’s a daily quest thing. You can complete one per day, and earn “Quest Points” (QP). Looks to open after chapter 3. I can exchange QP for prizes.
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Next time: on with the game!
