Prompto: Horrible Photos We All Take

I've really enjoyed Prompto taking photographs on my journey through Final Fantasy 15. It's a great way to keep record of some great moments, but Prompto isn't always the expert photographer he makes himself out to be. 

Sometimes he takes terrible photos just like any of us. Below are a few examples from my time with the game, do you have any funny photo moments? Feel free to describe them in the comments or email them to Mulukh@nicheonline.co.uk

Overexposed

Relying On All The Wrong Filters

Thinking We Are Arty

I took this for a reason but I can't remember what it was...


Who is that guy?

Is that your thumb/pocket/handbag/belly button?


Did you take the lens cover off?


Expert Framing

Bad Timing

Look Who's Back

Backs again

I think I'm in this one

Or this one?

Selphie Selfie Time



#SquadGoals

Forever out of context

Final Fantasy XV is property of Square Enix, images captured through PS4 Share feature.

Final Fantasy XV: Review Follow-Up

Niche: Treat Your Geek Issue 15 is out now and includes our Final Fantasy special. You may have read our Final Fantasy XV review. After 10 years of development I had a lot to say about the game so here's a few extra thoughts that didn't make it into the review.

Remake

The Final Fantasy VII remake is still in development and I can see it picking up a lot of cues from FFXV, I'm imagining a playable version of FF7: Advent Children! I'd be ok with that, I'd expect more control over your party and can you imagine the work needed to create the entire world in one map? I'm not sure how this would fit with the episodic release schedule, but it would give Square Enix time to work on the much more open later stages of the game.

Photo Time

One standout feature of this new roadtrip sub-genre that FFXV has created: Prompto and his camera. He basically takes automatic screenshots for you and lets you review them each time you camp or rest. You can then save these to the album as a record of your journey; your first hunt, that girl you like, that time you accidentally set fire to a bunch of giraffe like creatures... He can take some memorable, beautiful and epic photo's but he's also a master of terrible photos we all take... although usually by accident (see the related blog post for examples!). It's important to save the best ones so you can flick back through them and remember your journey. You can also use the console's screenshot feature to save any other amusing shots but you can only save 150 ingame.

The Infamous Chapter 13

No story spoilers but this is the section that a few players are unhappy with, the game has become more linear, cut off from the open world, for the last few chapters and then hits you with a stealth section, swaps up the combat and replaces rolling hills with grey corridor- attempting and failing at survival horror in the process. You might find the story skips and jumps a little here but the details are there if you look for them, it might mean finding radios and newspapers hidden in the environment or it might mean watching the tie in movie and anime. Either way there are plans to patch in more story to this chapter. Oh and if you have enough ethers you can cut out some of the frustration of trying to stealth your way through and just destroy everything. The darker tone is important but it does drag out a little more than I'd have liked, the ending chapters make up for it with plenty of atmosphere,  impressive graphics and some pulse racing battles so hang in there.

The Regalia

It’s shiny that you can customise the regalia but I’m reluctant to spend my hard-earned on cosmetics when other items  are rather expensive, saying that I’ve probably spent more on ingredients and fishing gear than I have on weapons so it’s completely your choice.

Honourable Mention

Final Fantasy playing to it's strengths, anti-hero dragoon by the name of Highwind. Aranea was my favourite supporting character.

Niche Game Club: Final Fantasy

A bit different this week, it won't require PS Plus and maybe no purchase at all. I don't have much choice given the time I'm sinking into Final Fantasy XV.

While cruising the world of Eos in your very fine car you can listen to soundtracks of previous Final Fantasy's (Fantasies?). So my question for this months game club is this, which Final Fantasy had the best soundtrack and why?

Niche Plays: World of Final Fantasy (Demo)

In case you missed it you can now try out a demo for World of Final Fantasy on either PS4 or the PS Vita.

I gave it a quick run through so thought I'd add a few of my first impressions.

First off, you'll notice the super-cute chibi style; throughout the demo you'll meet famous final fantasy characters recreated in this style but still with their usual voices, they somehow end up being both adorable and hilarious, although you wont get much conversation out of them during the demo. Your own characters can switch between being these tiny "lilikins" or grow into Kingdom Hearts style characters called "Jiants" (see what they did there?)

The style may look like it's aimed at kids but Square Enix seem to have hit a balance where the game will appeal to long term fans too. If you enjoyed Final Fantasy 9 then you won't find the character style off-putting anyway, personally I'm loving it. There's also two command modes for battle, simple button presses for kids and casuals or a classic menu style. There's a new stacking mechanic that I haven't discovered the finer points of, but a stack of characters share health and are more powerful... it also looks so cute and rather funny if you manage to topple a stack of enemies. It's classic turn based combat and some long animations can't be skipped... however if things are moving too slowly for you there is a fast forward button.

As you go you'll figure out how to “imprism” enemies, that is trapping them in a crystal or prism. There are obvious parallels to Pokemon even down to the spherical prism traps giving 3 wobbles/dings on a successful capture. There's even skill trees for each monster you collect and they can evolve into new forms. Monsters come in 3 sizes with the smaller ones forming the top of your stack. You can even ride some of them around the world (something I've heard Pokemon Sun&Moon is also doing).

It remains to be seen how much Sun&Moon will push the Pokemon franchise forward but WOFF (not sure about that acronym) is doing some things the Pokemon games should have done years ago; voice acting, top end graphics, big cinematics, tweaks to gameplay, being able to play on a home console AND a handheld!

World of Final Fantasy is out nearly a whole month before Pokemon S&M (possible a worse acronym) so there's time to try it out, at least check the demo. The full game hits 28th October. Pokemon may have an edge with its mainstream appeal but Final Fantasy might just have a solid contender, even if it is a bit more Niche.

Niche Plays: Mobile Medley

Hey, it's Mulukh back again for this week and despite a crazy backlog on actual console I seem to have spent my time on free-to-play mobile games this week. I only usually have time to focus on one mobile game at a time, this week I have 3 to tell you about...

Avengers Academy

Check out the brand new and minty fresh Niche: Treat Your Geek Issue 12 for my full review, but suffice to say I am STILL playing this game. Currently there's a Spider-man themed event going on. It adds a little bit of new gameplay and missions to complete plus plenty more opportunities to empty your wallet with in-game purchases. If you want to get involved there is enough time for you to level up to qualify for the event and attempt to unlock Spider-man and premium character, Spider-Ham. There's also the chance to unlock Black Cat and Mary Jane. Later you'll have a shot at Doc Oc and if you do well with the event and you'll earn Green Goblin, however "doing well" tends to require spending some real life money.

Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle

Turns out this game has been out for a year and I never knew. This one year anniversary plus a total of 7.777 million downloads means there's a tonne of celebratory freebies right now, there's never been a better time to join in. The screenshots on the app store make it look like some kind of rhythm game but the core gameplay is actually a twist on colour matching games, you pick from the first row of power orbs and any adjacent orbs of the same colour will also "pop". The more orbs you gather the more your characters power up, dealing more damage, power up enough and unleash a devastating  special attack. The gameplay does get more tactical and challenging as each class has strengths and weaknesses, choosing the right team member to guard against an impending target is crucial to your survival.

The game does a great job of capturing the spirit of the anime, battles play out in a frenetic exciting fashion, special attacks are suitably epic and iconic, they even power up even further once the Dokkan gauge is full. All the patient powering up feels really appropriate to the universe. Upgrading and levelling your cards ties in nicely with the constant training and evolving power levels of the show. All of this plus familiar characters and locations and being able to collect capsules and the ever rewarding dragon balls.

Somehow most of the characters I started with felt really powerful, pick up some super rare characters (maybe a Super Saiyan God?) and they feel just as overpowered as you'd hope. If you're worried about this making the game too easy, have no fear, 3 levels of difficulty are here.
Story missions follow an original plot but borrow elements from the anime, the writing isn't an amazing adaptation but it does a fair job of summarising plot points. There's a host of daily, weekly and special events to keep you going.

Final Fantasy Brave Exvius

Brand new this week I haven't been able to sink a lot of time on this one, but I wanted to share what I have found so far. This game seems to build on Final Fantasy Record Keeper. Exvius has taken the concept of recruiting heroes from other games in the franchise, but returned to FF's roots with RPG gameplay and a full story mode (featuring elemental crystals being destroyed).

The graphics and sound are another step up, inspired by the 16bit graphics of yore but much more refined, the opening cutscene was not something I expected from a mobile game and some graphical elements look to be high quality HD.

At first the turn based battle mechanism seemed super simple, but actually appears to be an ingenious solution to fitting RPG battle menus onto a mobile device. At first it is as simple as clicking on a character's tag to attack, but then you learn that swiping in different directions brings you to magic and other skills. It'll be a while before I can get a full review together but I thought I'd give a heads up in case you have an interest in playing a new classic Final Fantasy on mobile, go give it a go!