With the beta test for Comrades behind us, our resident Final Fantasy Nerd starts looking forward to what he wants out of the upcoming multiplayer DLC for Final Fantasy XV.
Comrades Final Fantasy XV recently allowed holders of its Season Pass and Digital Premium Edition entry into beta test and while initially it was broken when attempting to match make with other players, this was patched and paved way to another three days hands on with the title.
What we have seen so far appears to be the culmination of everything that was introduced in the games main campaign, stylish combat, beautiful visuals and drool inducing food.
While I’m sure it hasn’t gone unnoticed here at Respawning, I was in love throughout the 40 hours I put into the main campaign of Final Fantasy XV to complete the main storyline; albeit I will admit that there were gaps within the story which leads us straight into my first major ask for this piece of DLC.
Warning: I am going to mention some of the key story points throughout this article, if you don’t want the story to be spoiled and are waiting for the Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition, don’t read on.
Clarification
Comrades offered us a lot of environmental storytelling while walking around Old Lestallum and throughout the tool tips in the loading screens, we already know that we’re playing as a Kingsglaive as we’re able to summon weapons, teleport and use magic. While wandering around our hub town you will find amenities that you would normally use are all closed town, Inns, petrol pumps and Kennys. Walking up and expecting each of these, we are given flavor text detailing the story at this time.
Caw kids! It’s Kenny and Kelly Crow!
We’ve left town until Mr. Sun is ready to rise and shine.
But don’t worry; we’ll fly back to the Nest real soon.
And we’ll be serving up more mouthfuls of happiness when we do!
The above as the example, we know that this isn’t going to happen for another ten years; not that we know exactly when we’re setting out on our Kingsglaive career. This is Square Enix’s best opportunity to fill in the gaps.
Better Quests / Potential Open World Free Roam
One of my major issues with Final Fantasy XV was the fetch quests we were presented with throughout our journey and while the majority of these were sub quests, they weren’t very fun; with the inclusion of story I might have actually enjoyed these more as increasing my hunter rank wasn’t incentive enough to complete all of these.
Context is key, especially within a franchise as large as Final Fantasy. I want to know why I’m doing something, I want to know how this ties into the bigger picture.
Amazing Customization Expanded
There was so much that was locked off during beta, I wonder if we’re going to get more generic outfits or will there be more unique clothing choices?
What was available in the beta blew me away in terms of character customization, being able to choose your characters heritage and then allowing you to fine tweak the finer details of your character was completely unexpected.
When it was first announced that they would be introducing character customization, I didn’t know what to expect; I’m sure none of us really knew what to expect. The first hour of gameplay for me was fine editing my character to look exactly like I wanted – even though there are so many features which were locked off to us as players.
My main wish here is that we get some awesome looking equipment to wear, so far what was on offer was generic within the world of Eos.
Without a doubt, microtransactions are going to be introduced and we are going to be able to dress up like main characters from the main game and while that’s cool. I want to create a character which is going to become a part of the story, not a fanboy.
Expanded Storyline – World of Ruin
Show me the world on fire. That’s all I ask!
They have already evidenced that the combat system works brilliantly in a multiplayer setting, I would love the ability to free roam around the world, creating my own band of Chocobros made up of my friends.
Through the small snippets we have experienced so far, we are seeing that the world is slowly decaying and transitioning into the world of ruin we saw as Noctis awakens from his slumber. During this ten year period, Ardyn has won. I want to see what he has celebrated this victory.
So much of the cast undergo development during these ten years, including Eos itself. I demand exposure to this content.
Single Player / Multiplayer Crossover
It has been confirmed that there is going to be a single player portion to this upcoming content, what this means is yet to be seen. During the beta, we have seen that we are going to be able undertake quests solo but this option was grayed out.
Does single player mean that we’ll be able to undertake these quests with randomly generated NPCs or are there going to be portions of content where we will play alongside the remaining chocobros? I would love to spent the vast majority of my time watching Prompto grow a beard and swoon over Cindy.
While reading through Comrades website, we can see that the main cast are eventually going to be playable including Noctis himself; surely this means that this piece of content is going to be huge, or it’s going to be released in seasons.
Bonus – Best Waifu
Iris Amicitia, best waifu.
As soon as we found our way back Hammerhead in the late chapters of XV, we are allowed to walk around and talk to various NPCs and this is where we hear about Iris, the daemon slayer. Holy shit I thought, that little girl who would help heal and throw moogle dolls at my enemies is now renowned as demon slayer.
During the ten years of Noctis’s sleep, Iris becomes a daemon hunter and was trained by Cor Leonis, The Immortal.
Comrades appears to start after Noctis is goes into his sleep which means that Iris should still be the same character that we met during our travels. If her transition into the daemon slayer isn’t expanded upon then I will deem this content a failure…
Final Thoughts
Overall I am extremely hyped for this content and I believe that I really need to start dialing back my expectations. While this is going to be available to purchase separately, I begin to wonder how much is going to be included in the price and if this is going to have it’s own season pass too.
If there is one thing I’m expecting it to do, is to fill in some of the gaps in the storyline or more specifically to fill in ten years worth of story and that is a big ask.
There is one thing I can be certain of and that is I am going to purchase this; that being said I already own the season pass so I am definitely going to be putting a lot of hours into this title just to see if it does answer many of my questions.
Look forward to more Comrade Final Fantasy XV content as more becomes available!