A King's Tale: Final Fantasy XV Now Available For Free on PS4

Might be worth downloading just for the summons since they totally screwed that up in FFXV. Over 80 hours and I managed to summon Ramah about 5x and the other 3 exactly 1x each. That's not how FF games are supposed to work.

@rjejr I played 50 hours and I summoned ramuh way more than that. Probably like 15-20 times at least. Titan like 2 times and shiva like 6 times. Couldn't get the other one to work.

@rjejr Much like the magic system, the summons feel like they were just kind of nailed on. They look incredible and the sense of scale is immense, but the system itself makes little sense. Definitely smells of afterthought.

@rjejr @ztpayne7 to summon in FFXV you had to fulfill certain conditions and these are

Titan may grant you the ability to summon when your allies start to fall in battle. The more of your friends who are struck down, the better chance you can summon Titan. He will appear in, but not limited to, the large open plains around Duscae that circle the Cauthess Disc, as well as Pallareth Pass and Ravatogh in Cliegne, and the wide open plains of Leide. He can also be summoned in the final locations of the game.

Ramuh may grant you a summon during battle, with the likelihood increasing the longer you have survived in a battle. Unlike other Astral deities, Ramuh can appear in any area.

Leviathan will only grant Noctis the ability to summon her when Noctis is in the "Danger" state. The longer Noctis remains in this state, the better the chance she will offer her summon. Leviathan will more likely appear in areas that contain water - like the large river in Cleigne that empties into Cape Caem, the Vesperpool area to the North, and the area around Galdin Quay in Leide. However, any wide open area, such as the flatlands of Leide, are eligible.

Shiva's chance of granting you a summon can be a combination of any of the other triggers that the other Astrals use - like surviving in battle for an extended period, and Noctis or his friends falling in battle. Like Ramuh, Shiva will appear in almost any location as long as there is sufficient room.

Bahamut will only appear in the boss battle during Chapter 14 as part of the main story, and cannot be summoned anywhere else.

additionally Your Carbuncle (or whatever you may have named it) from the Platinum Demo can come to the rescue and revive your team, but this is only available on Easy.

@FullbringIchigo yes I knew all of that.

To throw out a funny point - in what is maybe my favorite final fantasy game - FFVI, I used the magicite on each of the characters to learn magic, but I don't think I figured out how to summon them as a kid, or even knew you could. So my first few playthroughs of that game = 0 summons.

@ztpayne7 honestly i did the same, i just thought they were a way to learn Magic, i found out how to summon by accident when i pressed the wrong button

@FullbringIchigo Yeah, that's way too much info for what has always a signature move in FF games.

I was thinking more along the lines of:
While holding L2 +
D-pad up Ramah
D-pad right Titan
D-pad down Leviathan
D-pad left Shiva

Carbuncle can come whenever and Bahamut can just be cut scene driven. 4 summons, 4 D-pad buttons, just too simple too ignore.

Thanks for all of that though, didn't know any of it. Someday I really need to read my guide book.

@ShogunRok @rjejr I actually quite like the summoning system, although I know I'm in the minority. Yes, you can't do it as you please but it does make sense from the story point of view (and they are OP). They should've made a more controlled summoning make sense in the context but we have what we have. A suggestion for improvement would be to actually get a list of summons who 'offer' their help rather than just a button to press, and choose which one you want to come.

@rjejr really? That's how most of them have worked for me so far, with X and XIII being the few prominent exceptions among the flagship games (and both made summons temporarily controllable units).

@ShogunRok I didn't really think the magic system was nailed on as much as it wasn't a magic system, it was a metallurgy or alchemy system or something like that. Nothing about throwing hand grenades says "magic" to me. Fire, ice and thunder aren't magic, they're elements. There is no magic in Pokemon. Well maybe there is, but it's mostly not magic.

Free stuff is free stuff looks like a couple of hours of fun. Is this multiplayer?

@finalstan To be honest, I quite liked it too, but like I say, it does feel a bit tacked on, almost like they didn't quite know how to fit it into the battle system.

@Feena Not as far as I know, sadly.

@nhSnork Maybe I'm just imagining it, but I always recall summons being much more a part of the gameplay. These were actually a very big part of the story, even if I'm not exactly sure how or what the frak was going on w/ them or what even the Astral War was, but it seemed like they were talked about a lot more than they were in the game. The really game needed a Star Wars "Long time ago..." intro to explain just what was going on w/ them, as after 80 hours I still really don't know. I know Titan caught meteor all this time and never thought to put it down, though after he died the area around him didn't seem any worse for wear. Nipleheim killed a bunch before we met them, they were sort of worshipped as gods, sort of.

It really seemed like the FF story was written as a princely buddy road trip and the summons were forced in after.

@finalstan It makes absolute sense from the story how the summons works. Gods can't really be summoned, they just offer their help on a whim, and even the locations makes sense. But we aren't reading a book or watching a movie, we are playing a game, and for me I'd rather have my game be fun than make sense. And I got bored w/ almost always seeing Ramah, the most boring of the bunch. I would have always chosen any of the other 3 over Ramah if I had a choice.

@ztpayne7 I had more opportunities to summon them than I did, but usually the foe was so close to defeated it didn't seem worth the effort to just likely see Ramah again. Had I been given the option to choose which one I summoned I probably would have summoned them a lot more.

@ShogunRok aww bummer, thanks for the reply though.

@ShogunRok they should have kept the System from Episode Duscae i reckon but still it's a fun system and creating your own magic combos is pretty cool

It's free so it's worth trying, the game does look fun though.

@FullbringIchigo I had no idea carbuncle could come to your aid in the game. Good knowledge I didnt really have a problem with the summons as when I was completing hunts they appeared relatively frequently.

Looking forward to giving kings tale a spin later. Refreshing that Square opted not to charge for this, and vindicates my decision not to buy from game.

Looks good fun, I'll give it a download!

@Rob_230 it's a fun beat em up and well worth playing but i DID get it from GAME i just wish Square had told us they was doing this and NOT let GAME make everyone think it was exclusive to them, i would never have dealt with that P.O.S chain otherwise

Finally watched the video. Not sure how the summons work in this game but the magic looks more like magic that just springs out of his hand than the hand grenade lob in FFXV. Probably give it a whirl tonight. Review seems like an hour to kill.

https://www.destructoid.com/review-a-king-s-tale-final-fantasy-xv-401543.phtml

Back on topic - I'm definitely going to download this, and if it came out 4 days earlier I probably would have given it a go now. Unfortunately, every gaming moment is going to be spent with horizon for the time being.

Please let us know when this comes on the US PS Store 😀

Downloaded it and its really good, definitely going for all endings and trophies.

downloaded had a quick blast seems pretty solid tbf