What content was added post-release (+rant)

[VillainFan42]

Final Fantasy XV, as you know, was released incomplete. Because game developers are the worst. I didn't actually get around to playing XV until I got a PS4 for my birthday and got the Royal Edition right as it came out. Based solely on the Royal Edition, I can safely say I really, really like this game. Despite its glaring flaws (of which there are many) I thoroughly enjoyed it, got completely invested in the story, and had an absolute blast through the entire game (except for a couple of late-game chapters, which, if you've beaten FFXV before, you know what I'm talking about) and just so I'm understanding this properly, which game content was added in updates? I ask because I go back and watch old reviews of XV where they say that there are things barely explained in the story, such as the reason why Ifrit hates humanity... despite the fact it was clearly laid out in the Royal Edition. So again, I ask- what story bits were added in updates?

P.S. I hate, hate, hate, HATE, HATE, HATE the new bosses they added to Insomnia. Everybody talks about how awesome they are, but Cerberus adds NOTHING to the game, Gladio's controls glitched out when I was fighting the first Lucii, the game barely explained how Prompto's controls worked, and all 3 of the Lucii bosses kept reducing me from full health to zero with one attack no matter what I did. The new lore was cool, but the bosses themselves were garbage and padded out the endgame way longer than it needed to be.

 

[ZaXo Ken'Ichi]

A looooooot was added to the game, though very little of it besides the DLC chapters and some realistically minor scenes were story related. They altered some items, added the ability to play as the characters besides Noctis, added the monster truck, other items like the Nixperience Band, the timed hunts, the exosuits, the alternate Armiger system, the 'combo system' thing, the ability to change the music while on Chocobos, etc. Honestly, the way the game presents the story now is more or less how it did at launch. And the gameplay is 95% the same too, with the biggest changes being the monster truck (since you can drive it freely anywhere) and the ability to play as the bros. Again, not including the DLC, which feels completely tertiary anyway. The real reasons the game felt unfinished at launch was the semi-empty nature of the open world, the fairly poor combat balancing, the bland quest design, and the tons and tons of mechanics/design that offer not much more than a taster (like Chocobo stuff only being like four races, there only really being a handful of core spells, there only being a few fishing quests, etc.). All of these sections of the game start, but never really expand much before they're over. Many people say the story was unfinished. It certainly feels that way, though I think it's less because it's actually unfinished, and more because Tabata tried to 'only show things from the perspective of the bros', and therefore left a lot of stuff unexplained that should've been explained for coherency... especially because he breaks that rule a few times anyway...

People also felt the railroading done for the last five or so hours of the game was because it was rushed. But anyone who knows anything about design workflow would immediately understand that you can't 'rush' to build so many vastly different areas and such like we see in the linear section, nor could you 'rush' to close them off and successfully make them that linear if you had open world versions of them started that you couldn't finish in time. They were intentionally designed that way. The hatred of this section often seems to stem more from the 'valiant martyrdom' of anything linear, in response to FFXIII, and less from a place of game design knowledge. At least in my experience, it's usually about making a statement that these people hate linearity for linearity's sake. Most people who reflect on it more realize it's not the linearity, but rather the poor pacing, chaotic writing, and gaping plot inconsistencies that weaken the section.

With that in mind, it's still totally fair to criticize the game for these decisions. But I don't think they're really great arguments for the game being 'unfinished'; they're better arguments for the game having rocky direction and too broad of a vision. Mechanics and design are better arguments for the game being unfinished, because it feels like they wanted to add so many things to do in the open world that they spread themselves way too thin.

As for your other point... yeah... most of the end-game bosses are balanced to be 'difficult' through huge health pools and one-shot kill attacks. It's very, very rarely about anything more than spamming your stock of items every time someone goes down, spamming Techniques for invincibility, and spamming Armiger for huge damage. The super bosses are all a perfect example of the weaknesses in XV's combat design, and how poorly they balanced the stats with the action-oriented combat.