Romance in Final Fantasy XV

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Wazi the pa

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#1
To commemorate 2015's Valentines Day, I thought of an interesting topic to discuss related to FFXV:

Should FFXV should have romance in it's story?

If so, how would it be layed out? Who goes better with who? Will we expect conflict, sadness or other emotions in the romance of the story?

If not, why? Do you think that adding romance to FFXV will be forced? Will it lead to messy sub-plots?

For me, I'd definitely love to see romance in FFXV. So long it ain't forced, I'm all in it. I trust the story writers of FFXV to execute the job exceptionally should the story includes romance.
I'm just saying, the possibility for romance in the story of FFXV is there. We barely know anything about the story of the game at all!
 
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LeonBlade

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#2
Wanting romance for the sake of wanting romance has no substance at all. Why do you think romance would be good for the story? Personally, I don't think romance would do anything for this game's story, and I don't think it should be a focus of the story.

There is a strong sense of brotherly love and friendship between the cast of Final Fantasy XV, something that the series has never had. In the past with Final Fantasy, usually the main character comes from some background of some origin, and through the events of the story falls into the role of stopping whatever is going on and saving the day. Along the way, the main character meets all of their companions they'll get throughout the game that want to join in on their cause and the characterization is built upon these characters meeting for the first time and getting to know one another and their pasts and forging their futures together.

While there's nothing wrong with this type of story telling, it's been done time and time again, and Final Fantasy XV seems to break the mold in this aspect in many ways. While we will be meeting new characters along the way, the core cast of characters are already connected and have grew up with each other for years and years. Their bonds stronger than that of true brothers, and they would die to protect each other from harm.

Now, what does this have to do with romance? Well, my point is that this is a new direction for Final Fantasy in how their characters will grow throughout the game's story, and I feel like throwing a romance on top of this only serves to complicate things. The romance will sure to outshine the rest of the game as being the most important part of the story, and take away from this new side of story telling.

Is it possible that romance could still be in the game? Yes, and I won't be mad if it is, but I wouldn't wish it to be so, personally.
 
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Infest

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#4
I wouldn't mind a good love story, the last FF that had one was IX and that was ~15 years ago. As long as they can deliver an exciting story and believable characters (!!!) , they can do whatever they want.
 

Solid Sora

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#5
Well, the original story was based on "Romeo and Juliet" and the complicated relationship between Noctis and Stella... So...

I'm expecting a great tragic love story.

the last FF that had one was IX and that was ~15 years ago.
You mean X? X had my favorite love story in the series.
 

LeonBlade

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#6
Well, the original story was based on "Romeo and Juliet" and the complicated relationship between Noctis and Stella... So...
No it wasn't, lol... the game was NEVER based on Romeo and Juliet. There is ONE quote from Shakespeare and it's from Hamlet, and it has nothing to do with R&J or Hamlet itself in any way, it's just a quote that's fitting of the game's story.
 

Infest

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#7
You mean X? X had my favorite love story in the series.
I didn't like X's love story but hey everyone to each his own.

No it wasn't, lol... the game was NEVER based on Romeo and Juliet. There is ONE quote from Shakespeare and it's from Hamlet, and it has nothing to do with R&J or Hamlet itself in any way, it's just a quote that's fitting of the game's story.
He meant the relation between Noctis and Stella. Two characters that don't want to fight each other but have to because of their rivalry families.
 

LeonBlade

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#8
Yeah, and the English voice says, "You don't want to keep her waiting, do you?". I think Prompto calls her his date as a joke, but I don't know Japanese well enough to hear what he's saying in the trailer.

He meant the relation between Noctis and Stella. Two characters that don't want to fight each other but have to because of their rivalry families.
He directly said that the game was somehow inspired by R&J saying that Noctis and Stella have a "complicated relationship", which isn't true in any way.
 

Solid Sora

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#10
No it wasn't, lol... the game was NEVER based on Romeo and Juliet. There is ONE quote from Shakespeare and it's from Hamlet, and it has nothing to do with R&J or Hamlet itself in any way, it's just a quote that's fitting of the game's story.
Hmm.. I don't know.. I was pretty sure I read about the inspiration somewhere, but I didn't find any source right now so maybe you're right.

But I think the similarities are pretty obvious.. A boy and a girl from rivalry families connected by destiny, don't want to fight each other but they have to. Also, Nomura-san said that his biggest cinematic inspiration is Baz Lurhman, the visionary Australian director behind Romeo + Juliet.. So I guess the inspiration here is pretty clear don't you think?
 

LeonBlade

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#11
Hmm.. I don't know.. I was pretty sure I read about the inspiration somewhere, but I didn't find any source right now so maybe you're right.

But I think the similarities are pretty obvious.. A boy and a girl from rivalry families connected by destiny, don't want to fight each other but they have to. Also, Nomura-san said that his biggest cinematic inspiration is Baz Lurhman, the visionary Australian director behind Romeo + Juliet.. So I guess the inspiration here is pretty clear don't you think?
Not really, Romeo and Juliet fell in love at first sight, Romeo was a complete baby whose girlfriend broke up with him and he moped and cried in his room for days on end only to be dragged outside to then immediately fall in love with another girl almost instantly and swear to be with her. But, Juliet was from the Capulets, and the Montagues and the Capulets hated each other, and so their love was never meant to be in the eyes of their families.

Noctis may be a Prince, and Stella may belong to a different royal line... but in no way have they ever been portrayed to be enemies of one another. Nor have they ever been portrayed to be lovers of any kind, certainly not at first sight... and neither is Noctis a complete baby like Romeo.

The connections are very loose if there at all, and I don't think you can really associate them with one another.
 

Solid Sora

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#12
but in no way have they ever been portrayed to be enemies of one another


Nor have they ever been portrayed to be lovers of any kind, certainly not at first sight

"A meeting predestined by the divine"

I don't know, I see a lot of similarities, it's not a full re-telling by any meaning, but the core concept is here. Rivalry royal families, A boy and a girl who had "A meeting predestined by the divine", and don't look so happy about having to fight each other..

Maybe I'm wrong, nobody knows since the game is not released yet, but I can see a clear inspiration here.
 
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Tornak

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#13
As long as it's well done, developed and meaningful, sure, I like a good romance story (provided it is too not cheesy or intrusive). If I had to bet, I'd say there'll be some romantic element, even if it's just a small one.

I could totally see Noctis having some kind of romantic/quasi-romantic relationship with Stella or Luna, especially because the political frame that the story supposedly has could lend for some good conflicts (countries (and therefore families) in war, arranged marriages...)

So, regarding how the series has handled romance, well... I really liked the whole Locke/Celes thing, (especially how tragic it was) and I also enjoyed some of the undertones of the relationship between Cloud with Aeris and Tifa. As for VIII's, yeah, the game has lots of flaws (despite being in my top 3) and the story/characters might be one of them, but I found it charming. Cheesy, and maybe could have been better developed, but charming.

And of course, Zidane and Garnet, which is by far the best romantic relationship in the series and one of the best in gaming at that, imo. Incredibly charming without being annoying/cheesy, well developed, essential to the story but not annoying or invasive and with lots of memorable moments (the ending, Zidane constantly hitting on her, Zidane getting drunk in the pub during the beginning of CD3...)

Regarding the last big love story of the series (Tidus and Yuna) I'm not the biggest fan of (well, neither am I the biggest fan of the game xD). I found it to be rather cheesy (although that just may be the shitty character designs and Tidus' annoying personality), but I guess it was alright, and I'd be lying if I said that the ending wasn't really good and emotional.

So yeah, you could say I'd like XV to have a love story because I think they can work really well in the series and because it adds to the characters and their relationship. That doesn't mean they're necessary or essential, far from it, and it could actually be detrimental. So, let's just hope for the best if it includes one, although I remember Nomura saying (ages ago) that he preferred friendship stories than romantic ones when asked about Versus. Who knows!
 
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LeonBlade

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#14
I don't know, I see a lot of similarities, it's not a full re-telling by any meaning, but the core concept is here. Rivalry royal families, A boy and a girl who had "A meeting predestined by the divine", and don't look so happy about having to fight each other..

Maybe I'm wrong, nobody knows since the game is not released yet, but I can see a clear inspiration here.
How was Romeo and Juliet's meeting "predestined by the divine", I know that's the line from XV, but my point is how is there a connection with that and R&J? They both met by chance, not by actual divine intervention, but I guess this could be just a physical extension of that if you want to look at it that way...

Them having to fight does not make them enemies, Tenebrae is not in alliance with Nifelheim from what I can gather considering Nifelheim waged war inside Tenebrae for their crystal. The only thing I could think of is that Tenebrae is under the control of Nifelheim and Stella would then at that point be told to fight back against Noctis in the streets.

There's an issue with this though... We haven't seen Stella actually confront Noctis since the early Versus trailers, after that Stella has only been seen meeting with Noctis, but never drawing her weapon, because of this, I don't think she will actually ever fight Noctis.

I don't believe Tenebrae and Lucis have any reason to be against each other unless for some reason Nifelheim has taken control over these city states, but that's another topic for another time.

Anyways, you can see why I don't really attribute R&J to Noctis and Stella because of these reasons, I could go into more detail, but I don't think that's really staying on topic, I apologize for derailing the conversation.
 

Infest

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#15
We know that Romeo and Juliet had a huge impact on Nomura ( see several interviews with him) and it definitely influenced his work on the project. Nobody says that it's an exact copy of Shakespeare's story but you can clearly see some similarities.
 
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Solid Sora

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#16
Them having to fight does not make them enemies, Tenebrae is not in alliance with Nifelheim from what I can gather considering Nifelheim waged war inside Tenebrae for their crystal. The only thing I could think of is that Tenebrae is under the control of Nifelheim and Stella would then at that point be told to fight back against Noctis in the streets.
This is a great video made by @Arcana speculating about summons and nations, one intersting point in the video is the identity of the White-hooded person, as you can see the emblem on his shoulder resemble a wolf, which is different from Niflheim, Solheim, Lucis and Accordo's emblems, that leaves Tenebrae as the only suspect.

The white-hooded person seems like a main antagonist in the game, fighting Noctis in one scene. And it's hinted that he's the one who've got the Lucis crystal, not Niflheim regardless of thier invading of Lucis.

So my theory is, While Niflheim moving armies and conquering nations, they're not the real enemies in the game, the real enemy is Tenebrae and the white-hooded man, moving in shadows and trying to acquire the crystals before Niflheim to restore their glory. In this scenario, there's a good reason for Stella to be an enemy of Noctis.

It's just a theory and I don't have a lot of evidences for it (aside for the emblem and Stella's attacking Noctis), but it's how I think the plot of the game will play out. I also know that's hardly related to the main topic, but I always wanted to share it and this was a good chance lol.

And I know that wasn't an easy read thanks to my bad English, but I hope the main idea has reached out XD.
 

LeonBlade

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#17
We know that Romeo and Juliet had a huge impact on Nomura ( see several interviews with him) and it definitely influenced his work on the project. Nobody says that it's an exact copy of Shakespeare's story but you can clearly see some similarities.
I do see that there are similarities with certain cinematic approaches, but the core story itself doesn't match up. Stella herself is driven by her focus; that of an l'Cie to fulfill some duty or task set out by her. She questions this herself wondering why she can see the light, while Noctis doesn't care, Stella acknowledges that there must be some reason, and so she wants to meet this focus. Her focus is not at all tasked by anyone but Etro, and so any Family vs Family "never meant to be" R&J relationship comparisons should just thrown out the window.

The similarities may be there, but I honestly find them to be more of nods to the adaptation of R&J by Lurhman for their cinematography, and not that of the story itself, or that indicating some relationship that may never flourish without consent of the families... They're very loose connections of they do exist, and might as well be ignored entirely.

This is a great video made by @Arcana speculating about summons and nations, one intersting point in the video is the identity of the White-hooded person, as you can see the emblem on his shoulder resemble a wolf, which is different from Niflheim, Solheim, Lucis and Accordo's emblems, that leaves Tenebrae as the only suspect.

The white-hooded person seems like a main antagonist in the game, fighting Noctis in one scene. And it's hinted that he's the one who've got the Lucis crystal, not Niflheim regardless of thier invading of Lucis.

So my theory is, While Niflheim moving armies and conquering nations, they're not the real enemies in the game, the real enemy is Tenebrae and the white-hooded man, moving in shadows and trying to acquire the crystals before Niflheim to restore their glory. In this scenario, there's a good reason for Stella to be an enemy of Noctis.

It's just a theory and I don't have a lot of evidences for it (aside for the emblem and Stella's attacking Noctis), but it's how I think the plot of the game will play out. I also know that's hardly related to the main topic, but I always wanted to share it and this was a good chance lol.

And I know that wasn't an easy read thanks to my bad English, but I hope the main idea has reached out XD.
I consent with this theory pretty much, but as you can see it drifts away largely from any sort of R&J involvement.
 

Infest

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#18
I do see that there are similarities with certain cinematic approaches, but the core story itself doesn't match up. Stella herself is driven by her focus; that of an l'Cie to fulfill some duty or task set out by her. She questions this herself wondering why she can see the light, while Noctis doesn't care, Stella acknowledges that there must be some reason, and so she wants to meet this focus. Her focus is not at all tasked by anyone but Etro, and so any Family vs Family "never meant to be" R&J relationship comparisons should just thrown out the window.

The similarities may be there, but I honestly find them to be more of nods to the adaptation of R&J by Lurhman for their cinematography, and not that of the story itself, or that indicating some relationship that may never flourish without consent of the families... They're very loose connections of they do exist, and might as well be ignored entirely.
A "kind of adaption" nails it probably the best.

Btw. the chances for Tenebrae beeing hostile torwards Lucis are extremely high ( personally I would take it as already confirmed).
Lucis (~lat.) = Light <- > Tenebrae (~lat.) = Darkness
 

LeonBlade

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#19
A "kind of adaption" nails it probably the best.

Btw. the chances for Tenebrae beeing hostile torwards Lucis are extremely high ( personally I would take it as already confirmed).
Lucis (~lat.) = Light <- > Tenebrae (~lat.) = Darkness
I could be wrong about a possible relationship with Noctis and Stella for all I know. I'm okay with being wrong, just wanted to have some discussion with you guys. I hope you both know that, I know I'm sometimes misinterpreted, so I hope you don't take what I've been saying the wrong way.

Light vs Dark, I should have known!
 
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#20
No it wasn't, lol... the game was NEVER based on Romeo and Juliet. There is ONE quote from Shakespeare and it's from Hamlet, and it has nothing to do with R&J or Hamlet itself in any way, it's just a quote that's fitting of the game's story.
I feel it's a little too early to say. If Hamlet played a part in inspiring the course of XV's story, then themes of betrayal and conflict would be commonplace, which is likely what Mr. Nomura referred to when he said the game would be depicted in a darker form than your typical Final Fantasy game.

In Hamlet, King Hamlet's throne was usurped by Prince Hamlet's own uncle Claudius. Realising that his uncle had killed him, Prince Hamlet swore to avenge his father by any means necessary. Hamlet often wore black, and his erratic behaviour concerned Claudius. As such, Claudius employed two of Hamlet's childhood friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to accompany him to England as spies, whereby a death sentence would be awaiting Hamlet.

Ophelia, Hamlet's love interest, was forbidden from meeting with him due to her father's wariness of Hamlet. As they could hardly spend time together, Ophelia would often receive love letters from Hamlet. However, as future events transpired, she became torn between obedience to her father, who supported Claudius, or Hamlet. Choosing to obey her father, Ophelia showed Hamlet's love letters to her father, who in turn showed them to Claudius. Hamlet considered this a betrayal and as such treated her with spite.

This is hardly a synopsis, but as you can see, there are many traits in the story of Hamlet that are similar to XV's story. The most obvious is the premise, in which Lucis' power, their Crystal, gets taken from them. King Regis becomes a victim in some manner to this incident, leaving Noctis to avenge him. Noctis embarks on a journey to get Lucis' crystal back alongside his childhood friends, Prompto, Gladiolus, and Ignis. Meanwhile, Luna (Stella?) would be a love interest of whom he has not met in a long time, as hinted by his words, "My heart won't let go," followed by her saying, "Don't worry about me. Live your own life," in the E3 2013 trailer. But I digress, seeing as we know very little about this relationship.

I would argue that Nomura had decided to start out with a Hamlet set piece when he first conceptualized FFXV, and then decided to steer the story in its own direction from there on. I do hope that this turns out true, because it would keep things interesting yet unpredictable.
 
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