Merilly

I know that after KH1 the series has gotten a little hand holdy. Though to be fair KH1 was overally difficult in parts for a supposed child friendly game. But I do agree that the shiny walls are a bit much. Hopefully there is a setting that allows you to at least turn it down a little.

To some degree, I don't even mind it if it doesn't disturb the overall experience. I agree that KH1 wasn't the most child-friendly, considering 8 year-old me put it on hold for a while after I couldn't get through Wonderland well enough.

But the newer games are rated a bit differently and nowadays, there're so many guides available everywhere that it's done a little bit extremely. Of course KH isn't the only game which does it, but it makes a difference if the game tells me I need to go this way or that, or explicitly makes everything glow to show me the way. Though the glow doesn't even do that. It just tells you that you can run up that wall. Which should be known at some point since it feels like you can run up almost any flat surface.

I'm just bothered they have to indicate something that seems to pertain to anything with such an outageously noticeable effect since it's anything but subtle and really disturbing with all the sparkly effects which are already present.

This type of hand-holding is an abomination, like people can't figure out on their own anymore what to do. That's like telling you how to solve a puzzle without letting you try on your own. And it's such a simple mechanic too. I know Flow Motion also had objects stand out to show where you could hang onto at times because it wouldn't have been that clear, and even then it was subtle and mostly present ahen you used it, but otherwise people knew what they could use after the introduction.

I know I'm ranting but this type of flashing really aggravates my eye migraines. My eyes can't deal with such an overwhelming information very well if it's a constant factor.

That's true. The story is a major factor for me personally but also for the genre and while it's subjective ahether you like one, there's no denying that FFXV omkted too much. Not only Ravus lacked presence but also Lunafreya, considering how deeply her death should have impacted the player but simply didn't. Their relationship was not believable. Had she just been an unknown fiancée it may have been fine but the way she was meant to be ssen did not work out.

But I truly hope that they learn from that. Fans don't want a game to release incompletely and then buy the rest of the game in small packages that are meant to patch holes. They want the full story when it's a full game release and not episodic like FFVIIR. For example, I don't want to finish KH3 in tiny snippets for the next two years or more. Then I'd rather wait.  (Although I still believe there are too many mini games.)

It also prevents them from moving to a possibly more successful title. Yeah, they wanted and needed FFXV to work since it was their biggest title. But after all the problems with FFVIIR, it may have been better to focus on that a little more. This way they wouldn't have lost so much time by depending on companies to which it was outsourced to.

I think Final Fantasy can still survive. After all, the franchise is not limited to anything. Though Square really needs to overthink their development decisions, I also believe the fans need to stop their demands. It's this kind of double morale that they're unhappy with faulty games coming out every year but they're also not patient enough to wait any longer than that. 3-5 years for a big game are the norm, but many can't see that quality needs time. Even a movie can need 1-2 years at the very least, how should a long and compelling game be thrown out in the same time without reusing assets, etc?

I'm not defending SE but I also see the problem for content creators, especially looking at the competition. Indie developers are successful because they put a lot of effort into beautiful games without just relying on graphics and recycling ideas. Of course not all games do that, but Assassin's Creed is a good example of using an IP for promotion rather than the games being what AC was actually about in the beginning. Taking a chance is good but being too afraid to create new franchises isn't.

Which isn't to say the new AC is shabby. It looks good and all, but its story doesn't have much resemblence to the original plot anymore or even the title.

But some games like God of War showed that they implemented change and were auccessful with a simple but compelling game. No paid DLCs, no planned story add-ons but instead, they're working on what comes next. 

Yep, and sadly, this is something that developers are leaning into too much these days when it comes to DLC. Yes, DLC is good when it adds to a complete experience, like Marvel's recent Spider-Man game made by Insomniac! They delivered a complete story that was an amazing experience, and now they are adding DLC content that is post game. That's how you do DLC, ya know? Not have chunks of story be excluded from the base game!

I know that video games aren't easy to make, because they aren't, especially with how modern games are getting nowadays, but patience, hard work and attention to detail are what make the efforts worth it, ya know? Fans and developers have to reach a compromise so as to not sacrifice quality, ya know? But yeah, XV is where its at now, and let's hope that Square learns their lesson. 

And not just Square, but other gaming companies too, ya know?

Yeah, though to be honest, I find every DLC pertaining to story questionable. It would really make me angry for KH3 for example. Not because I don't recognize the work that went into it but rather that I fins it inexcusable to cut content in the form of story to include even more mini games. Apart from my fundamental dislike for them as a whole, they serve little to no purpose except for prolonging the game. I'm fine with a few since they're also common practice but KH3 has so many that I'm beginning to wonder if they didn't focus too much on those and running out of space lead to them cutting actual content.

Just for a brief overview, we have 100 Acre Woods as a whole world dedicated to them, then there's probably at least one more in each of the Disney worlds at the very least, the gumi ship can also be considered a mini game and to top it all off, there are an abundance of Classic Kingdom mini games. I feel that's a little too much, especially those which are mandatory, because they cheaply prolong a game. If there's some understandable context I can overlook them, I just don't know why we need an entire world then. I'd rather trade them for some cutscenes showing the characters bonding or little spars between them.

Though to come back to the main issue, I think it's balance that matters for DLCs. It's better if there aren't any at all but I can also understand the need since game development has become more costly and not any easier. It just depends on what is offered. For example, I wouldn't mind a multiplayer mode being added as a DLC since one of the directions always suffer. Either the multiplayer or singleplayer campaigns. But with a DLC, they have enough time to work on this once the game is done.