OmegaBeamOfficial

They should still have the 30th anniversary edition of Transformers: The Movie if you know where to look. The animation will surprise you since it is over thirty years old but the action is still pretty good. They even had celebrities--at the time--voice many of the new characters just to make it extra special.

Yeah, I've seen it around, It's pretty easy to find, I just gotta scrape together the money for it is all. I personally think even the original show's animation is still just as great as it was back then but that's just a matter of opinion.

You heard me correctly. I'd go into further details but you should watch the movie for yourself. I know that it's been available now for just over thirty years now but I don't want to spoil too much. The guidelines have changed in recent years though Transformers Prime was also intended for an older audience so the rating was increased to around Y7 or PG--I'm not sure which one it is.

 

​The characters killed in the movie were among the most popular in the series.

Thanks for the consideration, much appreciated. On the subject of ratings though, I wouldn't really know how old those would suggest, or what they'd convert to considering my country doesn't have ratings for cartoons at all, as a result of that shows are constantly censored here in a desperate bid to keep all cartoons appealing to kids of all ages, It's kind of sad. Oh, sorry, I got off topic again.

It's what Hasbro did back in the 1980s and the Transformers fandom made them pay for it. The show had to refrain from being too violent because of U.S. guidelines though the movie was able to break those shackles and go absolutely crazy by killing off so many characters within the first ten minutes due to said guidelines not being applicable. I suggest you watch the movie for yourself to see what they ended up doing. I'd say about a dozen characters were killed off who fans recognize and countless extras who were there just to be used as fodder.

Did... Did I READ that correctly? A DOZEN characters? TEN MINUTES in? And considering these special guidelines with TV shows I have to wonder how Hasbro gets around those now, as I hear Transformers Prime featured a surprising amount of onscreen death. And you know what, I can live with them killing off a few characters for dramatic effect, yeah it sucks, but sometimes killing off a character is a good way to show the impact of the situation, but that only really has that effect when characters people actually like are killed. I can't believe I'm actually saying this but maybe if they toned down the death dial just slightly it wouldn't be a problem. Have those new characters there if you want to, but there's no reason there Isn't room for both the old and new toys.

They have to reboot their franchises in order to attract a new, young audience and get them to buy their toys--or have the audience's parents do that for them--otherwise they don't earn any money. MLP will eventually have a fifth generation sometime in the future--it's an inevitability--but for now Hasbro is keen on letting it continue for as long as possible. No matter what the fandom thinks, Hasbro can and will reboot MLP to appeal to the next generation of children resulting in the toy sales continuing.

 

With Optimus Prime, the catch with him now is that if he dies in a Transformers iteration, he has to come back to life later on and in a more powerful form or just be stronger than he was before.

Again, I simply don't agree with them doing that considering they can just create new characters and buildings and such, put them in the show, sell their toys and that's it. But companies are companies and companies will never change as much as some would like. I always thought Transformers was aimed at a young audience anyway. It's like if someone gave their kid a brown teddy bear, then a few decades later they had another kid and bought them a teddy bear except now It's blue or something. They like the blue bear but that doesn't mean they wouldn't like the brown bear. People seem to have this odd confused way of thinking that kids today don't like the same thing as kids years ago did, and there's no proof that's actually true because no-one's ever tried to keep a series running for longer than a few years to test it. And now I'm just even more nervous about when G5 inevitably rolls into town because if I know Hasbro well enough, their next iteration will be nothing like the last one, and without Lauren Faust there since she doesn't work on the shows anymore, they'll fall into the same mediocre stereotypical shovelware TV that they did for three generations.

Unfortunately, the fans at the time didn't feel the same way. Ratings dropped and Hasbro were desperate to bring it back up to a reasonable level, and they were still getting complaints about Optimus' death. In the end, they decided to bring him back to life although you could tell that it was a rushed effort since they had to ret-con a previous episode's event as well as having numerous animation errors. Transformers will be rebooted again but the question isn't a matter of if but when.

Wow, for once I actually feel bad for Hasbro. I totally get the rage though, don't get me wrong. I remember situations where they killed off main characters in some of my favourite shows, and that royally pissed me off. And on the reboot situation, this still continues to make me wonder why most cartoons can't just stick to one iteration before scrapping it all away for another show, It's irritating, and I find It's ALWAYS the kids cartoons. Family Guy is still going and people still love it, South Park is still going and people still love it, why the hell do kids cartoon creators, especially Hasbro feel the need to reboot their franchises every few years (though MLP seems to be an exception since FIM's been going since 2010, probably because they know that they'll never end up with a version better than this one.). And It's not like "in order to make new toys to sell" is an excuse, just introduce new characters in the later seasons. Oh, but don't kill them off, that was a terrible mistake... Phew, sorry. I got a little raged there, It's just stuff like this that really cheeses me off...

The characters were killed off to promote new toys though Hasbro would pay the price because season three wasn't nearly as successful as the first two were. It also didn't help that changing the show's dynamic in favour of a more futuristic/science fiction theme by casting aside the modern day Earth setting--modern for 1984/1985.

I always thought it would make more sense to have Transformers in a futuristic settings, the giant transforming cars with laser weapons SEEM to fit in better in that kind of place that on modern Earth in all fairness. If Transformers gets rebooted again (and it probably WILL be) I have much more interest in Cybertron than Earth, so It'll never happen probably but I wanna see more of Cybertron or some kind of origin type series set entirely on there before it was destroyed.

They couldn't do it in the actual show itself due to having to follow American broadcasting standards regarding animation, yet such standards don't apply to movies. As such, they got away with killing a lot of Autobots and Decepticons, some died in rather gruesome manners. There was also the swearing incident that came from Spike, the human friend of the Autobots.

"Oh shit what are we gonna do now?"

 

Even as a 23 year old this still makes me laugh

I knew you of all people would remember that line. I'm 34 and still get a chuckle whenever Spike says it.

Unwarranted stupid character deaths? Check...

Unexpected cursing occasion? Check...

The Touch? Check... (No-one mentioned that, but I have a real fondness for the song, had no idea it was from a TF movie til recently)

I need to see this movie!

To promote the season three toy line that was being produced, they decided to kill off characters from the first two season toy lines who had been there since the start. Some were killed in such stupid ways, they border on the line of sheer absurdity. Other characters were killed by being blasted in places where in the show, they got hit in the same places and survived. A few were killed off-screen without any explanation. Optimus' death was the worst case in that fans/parents sent Hasbro tons of letters--some addressed to Optimus directly--complaining that he was killed.

Wow, talk about a case of fictional death drama. And here I was thinking Hasbro were too kid friendly and stuff to even consider killing off characters in their shows.

I used to like Transformers, both the old cartoon and Beast Wars, and parts of the newer cartoons. The movies, I feel, focus far too much on the humans and I never liked the designs for the Transformers themselves in them either. Coupled with the exceptionally stupid jokes in some of the movies ("I'm directly beneath the enemy scrotum", anyone?) I think the Transformers IP needs a reboot.

You talked mainly about the movies is where you seemed to have your problems, so maybe It's just the movies that need a reboot, but I don't feel like that would really do much. I don't think rebooting the IP would sort any problems you have either, in fact it has been. Multiple times. Counting every cartoon I've heard about in this thread plus the other ones I remember, possibly more too, we have Beast Wars, Animated, 2 different shows subtitled Robots In Disguise, Prime, the Unicron trilogy etc. That's 8 different reboots! I don't count the movies as a reboot because if I recall, different TF shows came and went during 2007-present's ongoing sequels, I like to consider them a sub entity separate from the cartoons.

Optimus is the face of Transformers. As soon as anyone mentions the word "Transformers" in that context, Optimus is the first character people will think of. The reason I say Hasbro follows this rule has to do with the controversy surrounding the 1986 movie.

I don't see how there could be controversy there but OK, I'll roll with it.

Ummm I'm referring TO the "historia" with all of this. The Binder of Revelation is the name of the overall Aligned Story Bible. In-universe it's The Covenant of Primus, written by Alpha Trion.

 

Think of it like the Star Wars EU. There's the official canon and all the previously made expanded universe material that detailed post movie events is in the "legends" canon. All the myriad timelines and mythos of the Transformers saga across different properties with different creators have all been kicked to the curb with broad strokes taken from many of them and being consolidated into the new aligned canon.

 

I'm pretty sure the OP is referring to our feelings on the franchise as a whole, not just the live action films.

 

 

 

They did almost do that though with Robots in Disguise (2015). Which picked up a couple years after Prime's death and followed Bumblebee as the leader of a small team of Autobots on Earth. Sure Optimus showed up briefly in a kind of vision but still, him being dead and STAYING dead ( http://tfwiki.net/wiki/The_many_deaths_of_Optimus_Prime) was looking like a breath of fresh air for the franchise.

 

. . . Until he comes back at the END OF THE FIRST EPISODE! Not even in spirit form or the like, he's just there, with no explanation as to his recovery!

 

"I don't know how I am able to be here. I do know this though, it is time for you to lead, my friend. But I will be here only when I'm needed."

 

Yeah, allow me to translate.

 

"I am now a deus ex machina the writers can pull out of their tail pipes whenever they want. Giving you, Bumblebee and thus the audience, the illusion of having matured beyond a parental figure being able to help you when really I'll pull you out of bad situations and render your mistakes void of consequence." ~Fades back into the aether of plot convenience

That all sounds pretty neat.

But that is the stupidest way to bring back a character possible. I mean, I get them bringing him back, he's an icon to the Transformers brand, and I'm not very fluent in TF lore as you know by now, but if it is as you say and they literally resurrected his character without ANY indication or reasoning for his survival, that's pretty damn dumb.

That is does though some of it changes from iteration to iteration while other parts remain consistent. One of the golden rules that Hasbro now follows regarding Transformers is if Optimus Prime were to die, he needs to be brought back to life shortly afterwards or not killed at all. Otherwise, the fandom would have a reaction of epic proportions.

Well, that is understandable. He is pretty much one of the biggest icons of the brand, if you've heard of Transformers, you've probably at least heard Prime's name.

Oh are you kidding me? Especially with the new aligned universe which is an attempt to bridge the convoluted bits and pieces of scattered world building of the previous iterations into a more or less cohesive whole. Now Cybertron has a pre-war history and a reason for the Deceptions to try and take over. "Proletariat revolution" are the magic words, and like so many Earth examples of such, their lofty aims of equality and fairness are quickly forgotten in favor of violence for violence's sake and conquest. Even Optimus' long forgotten backstory before he took his new name and the rank of Prime has now been re-canonized.

 

Believe it or not, the least problem I had with the human characters, at least some of them, was in the first live action movie with Lennox and crew. See if you're going to have the human characters HAVE THEM DO SHIT! I mean other than shout from the sidelines, "you can do it Perceptor!" And preferably they should be adult characters or at least mature enough to realize the stakes of what is going on around them.

Oh christ... I feel like there's enough lore there to fill the first chapter of a Transformers Historia or something... but that's a fair point on the humans part.

To answer the questions regarding our feelings toward the franchise as a whole rather than anything business related: I love Transformers. The funny thing is, I didn't even know Beast Wars was a part of a greater continuity until Robots in Disguise (the anime) came out and then later found out about G1. I loved the original Transformers movie and was my first introduction to Unicron. Pretty sure that's also where he debuted entirely but it was a really good movie.

 

My best experiences with the franchise though have been the War for/Fall of Cybertron games. If you ask me, they had the right idea in multiple ways but a big one was how they treated the human element. That being "SCREW THEM!" If I want to watch giant, sentient war machines, that can transform into vehicles, weapons, and animals I don't want the central protagonist to be some scrawny little reminder of my own weakness in comparison to them! But yeah, focus on the Autobots and Decepticons and how they differ in personality, tactics, etc. fighting for the planet that's way more interesting than Earth as a setting at least for this scenario and these characters.

 

"You want to know . . . why they keep coming here?" Mr. Hopkins, I've heard several reasons in multiple continuities why and none of them have ever satisfied, I doubt that this one is going to.

 

But I don't mean to just complain about my problems because as I said I AM a fan of the franchise. Mainly because I like its mythology. How all of the components are machine and metal but so much about Cybertron is steeped in the mystical. The Allspark, the Thirteen original Primes, the Covenant of Primus. Such cosmic and maybe even divine context actually makes the struggles of the Autobots against the Decpticons seem like they mean something in the grand scheme of things outside of "Megatron is a dick, the Autobots are protecting themselves and others from his dickery." Given that grandiose lore, it just makes the punch ups, shoot outs, destruction derby awesomeness the icing on a good cake.

 

Of course it also helps that the heart of the franchise, Optimus Prime is one of the single most heroic and noble characters in fiction. He is the embodiment of every fundamental heroic virtue, courage, wisdom, kindness, and strength. He inspires such loyalty and devotion and for a good reason. It goes beyond treating those under his command with dignity to contrast him with Megatron's abusive leadership style, Optimus is simply a good man who has the world on his shoulders. You want to follow him out of a sense of gratitude as much as respect.

Regarding the second paragraph I could totally agree with you. Transformers to me, was clearly designed to be an IP about watching giant robots beat the ever living crap out of each other in a battle to defend/ruin the planet and gain more power/stop them from gaining power etc. The humans were never really a problem for me in G1, maybe I'm just lucky and haven't seen the more human oriented episodes or something, but in the movies? Oh god... It's seriously to the point where I think maybe sometimes the humans get more screen time than what we actually wanted to see. Not that having them there is a bad thing of course, it adds danger to the situation, gives the Autobots a reason to defend the planet. In short, I'm fine with them being there, they just shouldn't really get the spotlight to me.

OK, maybe Transformers has a lot more lore to it than I thought...

I would have to take issue with pretty much everything you said here.  You seem to have got the two the wrong way around.  The two franchises have both been around for the about the same length of time, and although MLP comes and goes, Transformers has had almost constant exposure, and unlike MLP it has never faded into obscurity between generations.

 

I have enjoyed Transformers since issue #1 of the comic, and I am far from the only one, Transformers had always had a very strong mainstream following above and beyond its original target audience, the same cannot be said for MLP, which has only picked up an adult cult following of any size with its most recent iteration.  I enjoy FiM, and God knows I've spent enough money on merchandise, but I have only been interested in MLP since about 2013, and only because of FiM.

 

The popularity of Transformers over MLP lies partly in the fact that it is a much more flexible vehicle which lends itself easily to being marketed at a broader age range, as seen by the recent clutch of films which were aimed squarely at young adults but also appealed to groups either side of this.  Such a feat would be much harder for MLP to replicate.  Outside of the Brony fandom (which is not particularly significant from a marketing perspective) any MLP film will struggle to bring in viewers that aren't young girls, and the parents who have to take them to the cinema to see it.

Well, sorry if I offended you over that or something, but thanks for informing me I guess. I suppose maybe It's just me being an idiot, or maybe the reason I wasn't aware of the IP's success is because I don't live in It's country of origin, but that aside, I always thought the films were meant to appeal to an older audience than the cartoons, because hey, if I can't understand what's going on how the hell's a little kid going to, plus the occasions of crude humour, cursing and the like. You sound like you know what you're talking about more than I do, so I'm not gonna fight it. Much respect to you and my apologies.

I was around when transformers started and have been a fan since. I've even sat through the Japanese only series, read all the comic series (including the UK stories) the mangas and spent for more money on the toyline than is honestly healthy at times. The original cartoon was great for its time, although it is horribly dated, but great if you can watch it for what it was and keep in mind the time period it came out in.

 

As for the movies... I did not hate the first one.. I found it pretty good for what it was... I hated the second one... the third one was ok as well.. a bit dumb at points but far better than two... and then ROTF scraped its shoe on the curb and 4 dropped off... good lord... and we have 3 more of these things to go. 5 just looks and sounds dumb to me, and I have virtually no interest in it.... it is just a simple alien robot over the top action flick series now that someone slapped the name Transformers on. I fear what 6 & 7 will be like. They keep making them because they are over the top action flicks, and even bad ones draw a crowd... just like a train wreck, everyone says they don't want to look, and yet they all do.

 

As others above have stated the fandom is huge (probably larger than the MLP one if you really got to counting people and getting opinions) and the movies are not going to kill that no matter how awful they get. It is definitely not just a niche fandom any more than MLP, Star Trek or Star Wars is. It is just in a semi lull right now save for the upcoming film and the ongoing comics. If they got a really good proper series going again you would see a lot more activity. Honestly I don't know how you could miss the fan base.

 

 

 

 

 

Beast Wars. But be prepared. the first season is sort of slow and can take some getting used to. But season 2 and onward the show was incredible. S3 felt pretty rushed though with them trying to get Beast Machines up and running which although i liked it, was a huge let down for the fanbase, and has what is possibly the most infuriating plot line in the entire franchise to have ever been written.

 

 

 

 

Actually, in 1990 Transformers pretty much ended.. at least here in the west. It all but ground to a halt at least as far as the cartoon and toyline went. The comic continued for a couple more years and it pretty much went into hibernation until 93 when they relaunched it.. and it just failed miserably... sales were poor, and most people forget it even happened and that there was an actual G2 (including a pretty good comic that brought some new ideas to the table). It was not until 1996 that they took a gamble and started Beast Wars and gave the franchise the re-energizing it needed. Since then they have done a pretty good job keeping it relevant and releasing product to both the fans of the franchise and to those just getting started.

I don't know how I could miss it either, maybe I'm just an idiot. But as I said to the other guy, it might also be because I live in an area where It's probably nowhere near as popular.

I've been a fan of Transformers since watching the generation one episodes as they aired on television way back in the 1980s though I will admit that the Michael Bay movies haven't appealed to me in any way nor have some of the video games. You could say that specific incarnations of the brand have my seal of approval compared with others I feel shouldn't have existed. Generation one will forever be my favourite because of nostalgia and the fact that it serves as the template that all other incarnations are based on. Beast Wars is another part of Transformers that I enjoy alongside anything related to Transformers Prime.

Beast Wars, everyone keeps bringing that one up. I should probably give it a try, my curiosity's reached It's peak, I'm just nervous because the screenshots I've seen now don't exactly sell it to me...

It really is just a money making machine now. Which is sad, but a consequence of how the studio's behind the films have total control over its artistic direction and funding for them. You can see it in a number of forced product placements and sponsorships, Hasbro has refined the machine into being able to spit out cookie cutter movies with plots designed to sell products. Although flawed the first movie attempted to have a coherent story, and wasn't entirely profit orientated, but as soon as the studios got a whiff of the potential profit, they were sold and the machine was set in motion

Wow, talk about dark and meta... I never thought the movies were the worst things ever made of course (Apart from the second one, offensive characters and crude humour, only not the good kind, the completely distasteful kind? No thanks...) but it feels like they REALLY aren't as good as they could be. And you know what's sad? I've seen the machine working on people. I said before that I didn't know that many people who really idolises the franchise, but I remember seeing the 4th movie in theatres with one of my relatives (we go to see movies every so often, It's a bit of a tradition.) and he called it one of the best movies he'd ever seen. I mean, I have respect for his opinion and all, but I really don't understand how someone can look at these movies and call them "classics" or "legendary". It doesn't offend me, It's just a little off putting.

I have just recently become a fan after binge watching Transformers Prime on Netflix, and after finishing that I decided to watch Animated. I am currently on the second season there, and planning on watch Robots in Disguise on Netflix after I finish that series. For someone more experienced in the franchise are there any other series that you would recommend me to check out?

I still have yet to see it myself, but virtually every Transformers fan and their mothers will say Beast Wars. the 1984 cartoon is pretty fun too

Pretty much exactly what Whompy said, but also the other Robots In Disguise cartoon from 2001. I know I'm not that experienced, but I figured I'd throw my tip in the hat.

I've had some experience with the franchise going back to the release of the War For Cybertron video game(since I heard surprisingly great things about it, but I only got really into the franchise recently, but I've been enjoying it a lot, I've seen a few of the shows(I still need to try the supposed best series Beast Wars, and the supposed worst the Unicron Trilogy), but I loved most of the shows I've seen(G1, Animated, Prime, and RiD2015. Right now I'd say Animated is still my absolute favorite). I've even seen a few of the movies(as far as the Bay movies go, the only one I liked was the first one), and I absolutely loved the 1986 movie(despite a few bones to pick). I'd say my favorite bits of Transformers though are some of the video games, War/Fall of Cybertron and Transformers Devastation(Platinum with giant robots, fuck yeah)

 

I still need to read the comics though

 

 

As far as the fandom goes, it's existed since G1, it was really popular when it first hit, and later Beast Wars and the Bay Films sort of revitalized it further. Heck the Transformers fandom(and Pokemon while I'm at it) are the reason the term "Geewunner" exists

I've seen a heck of a lot of G1 which is my favourite of the bunch, I only saw a small portion of Animated when I was just a tyke so I can't really say much about it, and Prime is my second favourite series. As for the others you mentioned, I haven't seen them but I also believe there was an anime style one just subtitled Robots In Disguise that I thought was rather good. I ain't seen the old old movie, I didn't even know there was a cartoon movie until recently. As for the video games? Pal, you read my mind, those 3 games were the games I was thinking about in the first post.

Transformers as a series regardless of review scores and general has always been insanely profitable especially in foreign markets like China. 

Despite being called the worst film in the series, Revenge of the fallen made $836,303,693  from a budget of 200million, this is an insane profit margin, especially since that 51.9% of the income, was from foreign film markets like China. Although the movies aren't making as much as they used to, it's still a very attractive profit margin for investors and the companies behind the movie. The Term you used gold mine would be spot on It's also interesting to see now how many Chinese Distribution logos are in the front of them movies. I know Age of Extinction had least 3. The Foreign market percentage has also increased tenfold, with 68.6% of a dark side of the moon coming from outside the US ( Over Half coming from Asia). For the latest film, that figure has increased even further to 77.8%.

 

Gold Mine For Hasbro Indeed

Wow, those are some rather staggering numbers... Too bad they just don't put as much effort into the movies as people might hope...

So to start off on a side note, god damn It's been a long time since I've been active on these forums, glad I finally have something new to talk about, things were getting boring. So, I'm bringing this up because I saw the special Super Bowl Transformers ad thing for the 5th movie, and it left me both excited and rolling my eyes at the same time. Just to quickly gloss over this, my view of the live action movies are pretty meh. The first one's the best, second one's the worst, third and fourth were better but still not as good as the first one, that's all I'll say in detail about the movies right now, but if you wanna talk about those in particular feel free to ask, I just don't want the first post on this topic to be a 3 hour long read. But I digress, that trailer got me thinking about the Transformers IP as a whole, and I started to have questions. How are movies that are so mediocre at best still getting sequels? Is there anyone out there who enjoyed the original cartoon as much as I did, because I really don't hear many people talk about it often, if anything I find more people who hate them, specifically because of the movies usually. I figured there had to be SOME kind of fandom of it out there, because that's the only way I can explain Hasbro giving Transformers way more attention than they ever give MLP. Why is it the niche, kinda cool, but an IP that didn't seem to really catch on the IP that gets 5 blockbuster movies, a gajillion spinoffs and reboots and a sea of video games (Though saying that, I've only seen 3 that are even worth playing...) while MLP, an IP with a massive cult following, has 4 shows, one spinoff of the popular G4 and is only just getting It's first proper movie? It just seems like a strange bias, giving the less popular franchise more attention, I mean, does it make more money for Hasbro? I still don't even recall if Transformers was popular enough to warrant a big budget live action movie... But of course we should remember, Hasbro is a toy company first and tv company second, and frankly, that part Isn't even an issue, both TF and MLP get absurd amounts of toy merch because of course, that's Hasbro's main profession, it makes sense, that's why I don't really wanna focus on the toys, I wanna focus on the franchises that they built around those toys. So do you like Transformers? Is it actually some big financial gold mine for Hasbro with a massive fanbase and I've just been blind? Or did you think it was never good in the first place, or that the movies ruined it?

 

*Lord Necrodeus appears by teleportation*

 

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Oh, sorry for doing that. ^_^"

 

Didn't mean to frighten you. 

 

Anyways, how is it going there so far in Equestria and the rest of the gang?

 

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"Oh, um, hello there... Things are fine here. Twilight's been a shut in all week recently though, I'm honestly kind of worried about her. AJ and Rainbow are arguing as usual, It's not very nice but we've come to expect it by now, Pinkie's... Being Pinkie, I guess. Rarity's been a little busy trying to further branch out with her fashion career, and Spike... Actually, I'm not sure about Spike, we don't talk often."

I wouldn't say It's lost quality over the years, It's a rather rocky road for me. Season 1 wasn't anything spectacular, of course it used to be to me because that was the season that got me into the show in the first place, but Season 2 really doubled the awesomeness. Season 3 wasn't as good as Season 2, but it was still a fair attempt nonetheless, with a well executed finale. Season 4, yes! That is to date my favourite Season of the bunch, heck, it deserves that praise just for the finale ALONE, but Season 4 had a lot more hits than misses. Season 5 & 6 are a mixed bag, the majority of the episodes were at least decent, but there were some horrible ones too. Now of course this has happened since the beginning, but never this frequently, it kind of makes me worry about the future of the show. Will the movie be good enough to get the series back into good graces? Is Hasbro gonna pull the plug if Season 7 is slammed and reboot the series again? So many bad things could happen that we just don't know yet, it scares me... Oh, sorry, I'm rambling about cartoon ponies again aren't I?

Pepperoni, LOTS of cheese, cooked well but not burnt, maybe throw some meat on there, more pepperoni, more cheese, but NO PEPPERS! God help them if I find peppers...

Oh, yeah, almost forgot, make it deep pan...

Its a Final Fantasy game.  I have not played this particular one, but if it works like all the others you can just grind a bit if things get to difficult.  Losing combat and the odd minigame are usually the only failure conditions in Final Fantasy, and the minigames by there very nature usually let you just wing it.

Grinding isn't always the best choice even in a Final Fantasy game. Experience levels are often low or your stat gains are relatively minor and the main reason you want to level up is for the skill points.

 

It's a bad habit to get into to think that you can grind your way through an RPG. Some games will punish you hard for trying to do so or simply laugh at your attempts. Playing smart and learning from mistakes always trumps grinding. Always.

I don't like to resort to grinding in any game where It's possible because I think It'd be boring. Playing the Platinum Demo I've  started to get a better feeling for the game, and technically what Discordian's saying is right, learning from mistakes is a big part of it. But I gotta admit Twilight Dirac kind of has a point as well, maybe It's not always that way with Final Fantasy, but a lot of RPG games are known for making you go through tedious grinding spree's just so that you can get past the next area. I have a friend who owns the 10th game who's told me that.

Depends on the symbol.

 

Mining, treasure and harvesting locations are obtained by talking to the Tipster NPCs (represented by a fork and knife, always within the bounds of outposts like Hammerhead). You can also learn about monster hunts from the Tipster which also have a symbol on the map. These symbols will also "refresh" by turning gold again meaning you can harvest, mine or pick up treasure there again.

 

Quests (question marks) will pop up on the world map as soon as they're available usually though for some you'll have to get to the area they exist in first. If you've done all the ones you can get to then travel to the next Outpost or City until one pops up. Some are found simply by travelling around the world map as well but a majority of them will be in hubs you'll visit regularly.

 

In your Quests menu you'll choose which quest you want active and they'll point you to your current objective in that particular quest. Red for story quests, blue for sidequests and yellow for hunts. It should be noted that they don't always point you directly to what you need. Sometimes they'll point you to a general location and you'll have to search for what you need. The search area isn't usually very big though so you shouldn't need to worry about a long and tedious search or anything.

That's all really helpful, thanks.

Be mindful of your money. You'll get equipment usually from quests and treasure spots so you don't always have to buy new stuff and you'll want to save them for disposable items like potions and elixirs which will be your main source of healing.

How expensive are all these different potions and elixirs?

You'll get points for various reasons. Sometimes actions and conversations will get it for you but at the same time you'll gain some at level up as well. There are also skill nodes that allow you to get AP for certain actions as well like long rides on a Chocobo (the big yellow birds, a staple of the Final Fantasy series) or for fishing.

Speaking of fishing, that reminds me, are the different "hobby" skills as I like to call them actually important to the gameplay, or are they just there?

Brotherhood is actually available on Youtube legitimately. When they announced that they were making the anime they specifically said it would be available immediately on Youtube so you could watch it now if you so wished. I don't think it was ever dubbed into English though. You'll have to settle for subtitles.

I've actually found it now on YT, but thanks anyway. And I don't mind, I prefer subbed to dubbed anyway. Are there multi language options in the main game?

Personally I find FFVII lacking compared to the rest of the series but opinions will vary. For a lot of people they played the game when they were so young they didn't have particularly discerning tastes. That's not true of everyone mind you and I don't mean to discredit those who maintain the view that it's one of the best games of all time but just keep an open mind about it.

Sounds interesting, I guess I'll have to wait and see until I play it.

From what I remember they said before the game was even released that your car will only be able to fly at the end of the game. Not unexpected since they obviously don't want you to fly right over a cutscene and into an area that for all intents and purposes you shouldn't be able to get into. I don't know how you would go about getting the flying car though. It's entirely possible they simply give it to you in the story so you don't have to actually work for it. As for riding on Chocobos you should be able to do that near the beginning of chapter 3. There'll be a sidequest that opens the activity up for you. Chocobos are regularly used in the series to traverse long distances quickly and without hassle from monsters. It will definitely make the game world much more tolerable to run around in.

Yeah, I'd imagine they designed  it like that so players can quickly get to any post game content once the story's over, which I've heard there's a lot of, with secret dungeons and the like.

FFXV has several features that will make it easy to not get lost. You'll always have a map available that will point you to where you need to go or to items of interest and if you need to get back somewhere quickly there is a fast travel system. There's a marker for everything from side quests being marked with a question mark to treasure spots being marked with a treasure chest and so on. I'm also certain there's a legend available should you forget what they mean.

 

The combat isn't nearly as complicated as it looks. The combos are pulled off automatically by holding the attack button, all you really have to do as the player is watch for the enemy attacking so you know when to hold the dodge button so your character phases through attacks.

 

And don't worry about the story of previous games. Most are not directly connected to each other and are only linked thematically.

 

As for your skill points, just make sure you look through all of your abilities before spending them so you know which ones you want sooner than later.

 

Magic crafting is actually extremely easy. You simply select an element you want (as long as you have the elemental energy to make that element), then choose a catalyst (or go without) which adds effects to the spell like healing the caster when used or causing a status ailment. You have to recraft the magic once you run out but luckily it keeps a record of the magic you've created before so you don't have to remember all the components.

 

I would recommend watching the Kingsglaive movie before getting into the game though. It's assumed that you've seen it even with scenes of the movie thrown in the game. The context of many of the early chapter cutscenes will be partly lost on you without having seen the movie.

 

As far as RPGs go, Final Fantasy is a good starting series. More often than not it's neither too complicated or hard in comparison to other RPGs but still maintains high quality. Though Final Fantasy XV is quite the departure from the conventions set by the rest of the series so even if you don't end up liking this one don't write off the rest of the series.

 

Quite literally you have to play each main entry (the numbered ones) separately as there is a lot of change between each one. Everything from game mechanics to setting and even art design changes.

 

I'm not particularly far into FFXV myself yet but if this one turns out to be too difficult to wrap your head around try Final Fantasy VII or Final Fantasy IV. Both are very competent entry points into the series and RPGs in general. For many these were their first forays into the series when we were kids. Very accessible.

 

And of course if you have any questions whilst playing I'm always willing to help. RPGs are my favorite genre of all time and I would love to help you explore it if you are of a mind.

That sounds neat and all, but could you elaborate more on how these markers function? Is it like when you get close to the treasures and side quests the markers will be revealed on the map, or are there other methods to obtain these locations?

The combat sounds simple and fine, I'm sure I'll get used to it. Organising my team to have the best weapons and abilities for battle is probably going to be top priority for me, as I'm sure the enemies will only get tougher as the game progresses.

So, basically like how the skill tree in Borderlands games works? Do you earn the skill points through gameplay, or do you get them another way?

Thank god I learned about catalysts in school, otherwise that wouldn't have made much sense to me XD

With my current situation I'll probably end up watching the movie after the game, It's not for a special reason, It's just I'll probably have to do it like that with my current circumstances. I'll also be looking to pick up that Brotherhood anime series they did for it if it gets a release outside of Japan.

I'll keep that in mind. FF7 I'm particularly interested in because for so long I've been seeing that game get praised to high heaven as one of the biggest classics in early 3D gaming. I'll probably try that one in particular at some point just to see if It's all It's cracked up to be.

There's other stuff I'll probably invest in while playing, I've been hearing about stuff like getting your car to fly and riding on weird yellow bird things, so that's cool.

Thanks for your help.

I never really had much interest in the RPG side of games as a genre until very recently, I have played some in my lifetime but I always remember sucking at them (Well, apart from Pokemon if that counts) so I tended to avoid them, but with Final Fantasy XV coming out recently, I saw some trailers, reviews and gameplay and I think it looks like something I could really get into if I put in the effort, but I'm worried I'll suck hard at it and it won't be as fun as It's supposed to be, It's my first Final Fantasy so I don't really know the story of the older games, and I'm aware this one uses real time combat, some parts look complicated and confusing though, like the skill points stuff and the magic crafting, and with how big the map is I might get lost or end up missing secret weapons and stuff. Does anyone have any tips and tricks for FFXV or really any RPG's in general I guess?

I'm just glad to be getting Gravity Rush 2 at all. It almost seemed like that cliffhanger was gonna be left completely untouched.

 

I'm used to a series going from one console to the next. Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts and Mega Man have always jumped from one console to the next.

 

But as someone who eventually gets every console in a generation it matters little. I see it as an opportunity to get a console I don't have and then I start looking at other games I want for that console. That's the logic anyway. I already have all of the current consoles and handhelds.

 

And you know that might be part of the logic too. They're drawing any potential fans from a dead handheld to the console that actually sells. A lot of Vita games are also on PC because the Vita itself has been left to the wolves. Sony doesn't likely want to sell the game at a loss. Gravity Rush was one of their more popular Vita games but didn't make up for the lack of interest in the handheld in general.

 

Bringing the original to PS4 was a two-fold thing as well. Old fans can replay it on PS4 and people who've never touched it can play the first before the sequel. In spite of Gravity Rush's popularity it still wasn't played by a majority of gamers because of being on the Vita. People didn't want to buy the Vita because of its high price and very limited library. If you aren't into anime or RPGs you have almost nothing worth playing on the Vita.

I suppose It's better than nothing, but it still doesn't make it hurt any less. And to be honest... Final Fantasy's older releases have been ported to both newer Nintendo and Sony systems, I believe Nintendo has up to 6 and Sony has both that and all the rest after they switched to Sony. Plus Nintendo got to use Cloud in Smash, so I'd say both companies are at least giving us something FF related.

That's a tactic I might end up trying next generation, it saves a lot of hassle of having to choose which console you want because of all the stuff you miss out on.

Sony has essentially abandoned the Vita everywhere that isn't Japan these days. The system had a great start but quickly fell into obscurity thanks to Sony's terrible marketing and lack of support from developers, which is really odd considering huge support from devs was something they were touting before the system launched.

 

So I see this being a move that makes sense, put the game on the far more successful system, although at the same time it pains me to see Sony basically saying "Yeah, we have zero confidence in the Vita." All it takes is that one single spark to make it a success again, seems Sony have nearly pushed the system to the grave before that can happen.

Well, I wouldn't say It's totally abandoned anyway. Those Japanese games are getting English releases at least, the Attack On Titan game and Hatsune Miku Project Diva X being good recent examples, though I wish they would get games out from other areas.

Vita is nowhere near the same level of popularity especially when is something as small as one game

I guess... It'll take a miracle to save the thing... Or maybe It's already dead and buried...

Looks like you feel how I felt when Resident Evil Revelations 2 was announced for consoles and not 3DS when I didn't have any consoles that played it at tje time

But yeah, that kind of thing can feel sucky lol. But a majority of devs just go where most of the money is if they can, sequels being on consistent platforms be damned(though that is hardly the usual case, there's a precedent for it this gen in some situations).

I heard Revelations 2 was released on 3DS eventually, wasn't it?

I think It's a pretty sucky thing to do, It's kinda sad that the Vita is so poor in sales Sony won't bother to program for it. I still like the 3DS better, but the Vita had potential.