FFXV isn't what I imagined..

As a long time FF fan starting from 7 and having played 8, 10, 10-2, 12, 13, 13-2, Lightning Returns, XV is ranked the lowest for me, next being Lighting Returns. Like I don't get what the heck happened. XV and LR are the first FFs that I didn't max out or 100% complete/platinum. Well, actually I haven't finished XV yet (currently on chapter 9), but at this point I just want to finish it to see what the story's all about. And I really don't give a crap about the characters. FFs generally gave me some sense of emotion, but not this time around. Anyway, here's the things that really irritate me.

• The sidequests are nothing but damn fetch quests, and some are so dumb that I'm just running around in the highlighted area combing for 5 frogs or gems that I can barely see.

• And the open world is so barren, and soooo much walking, and driving...takes forever to get anywhere. And the invisible walls, invisible walls everywhere. And I actually feel bad killing the animals that just mind their own business, demons not so much.

-Speaking of demons, I find it so annoying that before you get the special headlights on the Regalia, you abruptly stop while driving during night to fight the demon that spawns, and when you try to go back to the car, the soldiers get airdropped where you're at and spawn another fight.

• And speaking of driving at night, I was so sick and tired of not being able to skip the dialogue of Iggy telling Noct how bad it is to drive at night. The voice acting doesn't seem to be varied either, so many phrases get repeated over and over while trekking through the map, seems very bare bones on that department.

-Battles are pretty dull. Not much strategy involved. Just attack and block and parry. Targeting system is a pain to work with too. Magic definitely takes a back seat, and a very limited repertoire of spells.

-Hard to tell what the heck is going on in battle, and the camera angle sucks during battle, at least have the trees or bushes go transparent when it gets in front of the camera to let the player actually try and see what's going on.

-Weapon selection is super minimal too. I'm literally still using like the second set of weapons I bought after about 40 hours of gameplay.

-The editing of the story elements and cutscenes seem very choppy and unnatural. Like a poorly edited movie. Doesn't have smooth transitions. Noticed that in Kingsglave too.

-Bugs. Especially the "X" button prompt for action. Like if I want to ride the chocobo or just talk to someone, when I hit X noctis jumps and it's not until the second button that it registers. And another is w/ the Regalia Type D. Getting stuck on terrain, or camera angle goes wack when going offroading on terrain.

-Main characters lack personality, except for Prompto. I actually enjoy listening to what he has to say. Funny character.

-Seems like they spent most of their budget rendering plates of food than the characters or using that budget to improve other aspects of the game. When plates of food look more realistic than the main characters....I think that says a lot about priorities.

I think that's all for now. At this point, I just want to see how the story plays out. Not really interested in the sidequests anymore, not worth the return of investment IMO. I'm definitely disappointed with XV, seemed like it had alot of potential, but went into developmental hell. Alot of things are poorly executed. I can't believe I ordered the Ultimate collectors edition too...facepalm

It does seem to be using elements from previous FFs to try and evoke the nostalgia effect IMO. Such as mentioning the meteor (FF7), Previous FF bosses depicted in Kingsglave, The dude holding up that one thing in the center like how Fang and Vanille was holding up Cocoon. And of the musics of previous FFs to remind you of better times...or to associate XV to older FFs that were the glory days.

Anyway, that's my rant. Flame on.

Edit:

-and the opening sequence of the game has to have been the lamest one ever.

just rewatched Conan’s clueless gamer on Ffxv. His reaction is basically like mines. “No sense of satisfaction” and “epic Blueballs waste of time.”

Now I’m at the start of the infamous chapter 13. All the stuff leading to it has me going “meh”. I think the reason is that story and characters weren’t fleshed out enough and had enough screen time to actually make me give a damn.

Oh and one more pet peeve unrelated is that for hunts, you can only run one at a time. I want to be efficient and have multiple running so when I’m out and about on the map, I can hunt more monsters in the same general area at once. Ridiculous how you hunt one stuff, run back to report and repeat.

Edit (after beating the game): Full of spoilers...so ***SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS ***

So basically things that peeve me or I don't get. -Why the hell did Ravus decide to become good? No explanation at all.

-When Noctis was being taken into the Crystal, all his moaning and groaning was so loud that I couldn't hear what the hell Ardyn was saying. It's like..STFU Noctis. No option to put subtitles on during cutscenes either.

-Why was Noctis in some stone prison for 10 years? WTF, makes no sense. Like I guess I get why, but why just say there, wtf has he been doing for 10 years? Just brooding in prison?

-Man, that ending scene where it shows Luna turn into the XV logo. That's peeved me so bad because that is obviously Etro, the goddess of light, during that one Versus scene they showed when Noctis was talking to Stella. Or whatever the goddess' name is in XV now.

-I expected to see more of Tenebrae and other places the train stopped at. So basically they're saying you can't visit Luna's home in Tenebrae just some dark ass grass covered area.

It had potential to be a good game. Story wasn’t bad, but really could have been fleshed out a lot more, same with the characters. Too many plot holes. The antagonist design was an odd choice..some lame ass fedora wearing purple haired creep. At the end of everything, really didn’t give a shit about the characters. Again mainly because the main story was short AF and had minimal character development. And wtf is gladios problem getting all pissy about Noctis not maning up after Luna dies. Like the fuck, Noctis didn’t say or do anything wrong and gladio just went from 0-100 out of nowhere. That’s shits not good character development.

I think what peeves me the most is the state of the game it was released. An unfinished clusterfuck. And SQEX has the audacity to do think about doing a second season pass in 2018 to fill in more story elements? Never thought it would come to such a point that a main FF title is so dead to me.