One of my most anticipated games next year along with Atomic Heart. Xbox has a really solid lineup for 2022 and hopefully they have some surprises left for that year.

So FromSoft is making another PS5 exclusive, you would think that with how big of a fan Phil is of them that he would try to get an exclusive from them as well. The last time they worked with MS on a exclusive game was was Ninja Blade.

I find it kind of amusing that when Kadokawa/Sony/Cyber Agent announced a capital alliance I said that it would lead to Sony getting exclusives from both companies and now it appears that I’m right. I think that there is zero chance Kadokawa gets completely bought out by Sony, they are a public company and do more than just games and anime.

Xbox Series S/X is doing better initially than Xone, that momentum will not last forever and they need to start making big moves in Japan sooner than later. Start throwing blank checks if they need to, I’m pretty sure that there are some independent studios that would like AAA funding with full creative freedom.

Yes there are still some studios that are AAA capable that as far as I know are independent, CyberConnect and Level 5 being the big ones (won’t list Platinum), Ilinx who developed Left Alive, Ganbarion who developed One Piece: World Seeker and Pandoras Tower, Xeen who developed Trials of Mana remake, Shift who made God Eater 1&2, Aquria who made the latest Sword Art Online game.

Here it comes, my little review of Final Fantasy XV: Royal Edition.
(@twintail as promised)

Let's start with the things I enjoyed.
World design is fantastic. Some things look familiar yet others look out of this world. Doubt there's a FF title that doesn't nail world design.

Character design is great as well and all protagonists are very likeable. You really feel for them when something is happening to them and this is mostly due to the constant banter that's happening all the time.
This sounds annoying but it really isn't. It only adds to the immersion and since there are vast landscapes to travel across, it's much appreciated. Though, I would've preferred if one of the four main characters was a female character instead.

On a technical level the game is very impressive. Very high detailed character models and monsters, great lighting and good particle effects. It's no wonder that the X1 could only run it at 30 FPS. I used the lite mode which unlocks the framerate but sadly lowers the image quality as well since it's not optimized for Series X.
The decrease in image quality is rather noticeable even though it's locked at 1080p according to Digital Foundry. It's definitely one of the blurriest 1080p games I've played on my TV. On the plus side the framerate runs pretty much locked at 60FPS on Series X compared to the One X version which runs mostly between 30 and 40 FPS (again according to DF).
With a higher resolution and some better textures, this would easily be current gen worthy.

Let's get to the not so nice stuff.

Battle system is meh. Very chaotic and the camera is not very helpful. You're characters are usually dressed in black and when you fight in the dark, maybe even against multiple enemies, it's really hard to tell your character apart from the enemy. The same is true when there are lots of particle effects.
The AI of your team mates also isn't that helpful. When fighting bosses they won't dodge their AoE attacks. They are almost guaranteed to be downed or die. Also when you're down it's not their top priority to help you get up. You have to actively go to them and hope they won't attack the enemy and help you instead.
For many battles it's just hold B to win. Some bosses on the other hand can down you in one hit.

Magic is pretty much useless in the game. You basically craft and throw flasks that can be filled with elementary shards and other stuff. It's not easy to explain but the system just sucks. Also they cause lasting AoE damage and you and your teammates aren't immune to it. Since bosses obviously have more health than you, you're doing more damage to yourself than the enemy. There's an accessory that you could equip to negate the effects but that is a waste IMO since you could equip much better accessories to increase your stats.

Story isn't that great either. It's not the worst but it feels rushed in some places and in others there are huge gaps. This has been addressed by the devs when they changed some story parts in chapter 13 with the Royal Edition and filled some gaps in the story with the 4 DLCs that were released.
I also mentioned the pacing problem where at half way point you're pretty much forced in doing nothing but main quests. Furthermore I have a huge problem with the motives of some of the antagonists. Some are changing their stance towards you dramatically and help you for no apparent reason.

The open world might be a little too large. Many parts are empty and if you haven't rented a chocobo or use the off-road type Regalia (which I think is only added due to the Royal update and available at a later time) it will take quite some time to get through parts that aren't connected via road.
There is fast travel but only when you're at your car and only when it's daytime. Much later in the story you can do fast travel at night but I would've needed that much earlier.

Some misc stuff:
- For some reason pre-rendered cutscenes are much much more quiet than the regular game.
- There are tons of items to find but only a fraction of them are interesting. There is NO armour to find and weapons are very very rare. Most of the stuff is either regenerative items or components to sell/use with magic.
- action button and jump button is both on A. Can't describe how many times I pressed A to use, talk or activate something and jumped instead.
- the vast majority of side quests suck. Almost nothing but fetch quests. No thanks.
- Main quest being quite short. Completed the game in just over 22 hours which includes 40 side quests. Not that long for a JRPG. Yeah there's more stuff to do at the end of the game but in terms of quality content it's rather limited. I'm no fan of 80 hours games but this one could've been a few hours longer.
- The DLCs are pretty short as well. Between 1 and 2 hours each. Don't get me wrong though, they are fun and worth playing especially for fixing some story stuff.
- Episode Ardyn DLC being the only DLC not included in the Royal Edition. Maybe I will buy it some time but right now it just pisses me off.
- The other 3 DLC being cancelled. There were Episodes planned for Noctis, Luna and Aranea. I don't think the one for Noctis was necessary (unless it explains the events between chapter 13 and 14 - if something happened at all...). Aranea has at least some exposure in the main story and in Episode Prompto so it's unfortunate but not too bad. Luna on the other hand would've been much appreciated. We know very little of her.

Despite all these issues I had a good time with the game... mostly. If it wasn't for the production value I would've given it a 7.5 but instead it receives a
8/10.

i think MSFTs "pro gamer move" would be to take advantage of Sony's censorship drive and snap up all the "naughty" JP devs like Tamsoft, Marvelous and D3's vanilla division (and spit out their otome studio *shudders*) and run with that. However, we already did see MSFT is not so above censorship with the bloody Gal Gun rerelease fiasco. 

Japanese exclusives on xbox is over, just get parity with PS and or put them on game pass. Xbox never going to outsell PS in Japan (or globally). End of story.

Gamepass is all about hitting all niches, don't be surprised if there's a JP deal or two somewhere to push the service (and xcloud). I mean there's already the Kojima rumor for one. Also I think we look at the early 360 era with a bit of rose tinted glasses, I'm taking the support we have now over that, aside from the very few exclusives.

They don’t have to outsell PS in Japan to be successful there, just getting back to 360 era numbers would be good enough to maybe have devs release more of there games on the platform day One instead of giving Sony free exclusives.

If they don’t try to acquire exclusives/studios then there is literally zero point in them trying to launch Gamepass/Xcloud in that market.

@Mike321 Just like E3 right? Doubt Xbox is getting anything at TGS lol. They were there last year and did nothing but talk. Time to let that dream die.