Final Fantasy XV has touched the hearts of many with its tragically beautiful story and heartwarming camaraderie you feel between Noctis and his friends, but it is a game with some hiccups in the road.  Here are my thoughts on the base original game.  

The Final Fantasy franchise are a series of epically beautiful games with sweeping scores and characters you can’t help but fall in love with.  I have always been interested in playing a Final Fantasy all the way through, but have never quite done that due to 1.) time and 2.) not having a PS anything until I was much older.  I was first introduced to the franchise through the iconic Final Fantasy VII when my roommate was playing it, but I never got around to playing any of them (sadly including FFVII) all the way through.

Then a few things happened that prompted me to spend the money and get a PS4: 1.) Final Fantasy VII remake was announced at E3 in 2015, and 2.) I saw all these cosplayers who were cosplaying all the characters from FFXV.  Suffice to say I was intrigued and, when the PS4 went on sale, this newbie gamer got it.  Why this long explanation for this review?  Well I wanted to give those reading this an idea of my gaming experience (which is basically nothing).  I will say that I have played the beginning of FFXII because (long ago in a galaxy far far away…oh wait) I did once have a PS2.  But I had limited games for it and no time to play it.  So I basically got to see the long, pretty intro to FFXII and some game play in and that is it.  And my experience with FFVII is even less.

So, long story short, to date I have not fully played one video game all the way through to the end credit screen until FFXV.  This was the first gaming experience for me and boy what an experience it was.  Here are my thoughts and tips that really helped me on several aspects of the game.  On my first play through I was a level 48 and had put 50+ hours into the game when I beat the game, but I have seen players reach level 99 and could easily see this game being 100+ hours long.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Overall Rating

I really enjoyed the game play with this, and I have to say that the graphics and the world set up was absolutely beautiful.  I loved going on this road trip with the boys and the doing all the quests.   Some may say that they didn’t really cry in this, but I was not one of those people.  I definitely cried when Lunafreya died and, in the end, when Noctis had to sacrifice himself to bring back the dawn and save the world.  It was heartbreaking to see Regis have to be the one to watch as his son absorbs the power of all the Kings and Queens of Lucis (i.e. being stabbed by their weapons) and then have to do the same thing to his son.

Now one of the biggest criticisms for this game is about the story.  Final Fantasies are known for their epic, dramatic, and fantastical stories.  Final Fantasy XV did have a story and is was epic.   I don’t think the biggest issue with this game is the story more in the storytelling.   Most Final Fantasy fans are used to a huge opening with a dump of story content.  Usually the whole story and character back stories are all there in the game and not subtle in the storytelling.

Once I got all the nitty gritty of the story I loved the story, but you do have to do some research on it.  The first bit of advice I would give is to watch the Kingsglaive movie that details the events which led to the downfall of the crown city of Insomnia and the death of Regis.  It is also advised to watch the free anime called Brotherhood which details how each of Noctis’s retinue (Ignis, Prompto and Gladiolus) all met Noctis.  It’s best to watch Kingsglaive and Brotherhood before starting the game.  I watched them in the middle of my first play through and I still could understand what was going on, but many people did find the story vague on the details.  These pieces will definitely help with understanding the context better.  There is also a lore guide that you can look into in the tutorial.  There are also small little hints that help flesh out the story hidden throughout the game in either Cosmogony guide, research notes and even the archictecture. Explore everything and read everything.  That may be too much to do since the open world is so massive. There are definitely people out there who have compiled lore on this game (check out Final Fantasy Peasant on youtube).  The lore and the whole story is massive and I do think they could have been more in your face with the details or fleshed this world and its lore out.   I just hope that the lore and stories will be further fleshed out in upcoming DLC, most notably Ardyn’s DLC.

What makes FFXV different?

First, if you are new to the series, but know something of the development of this game, you will know that this game as had a rough development process.  Final Fantasy XV was once going to be called Final Fantasy Versus XIII and it was going to be a darker spinoff from the FFXIII universe.  It was announced in 2006.  Quite a few years later, this spinoff lost its original director.  A new director was chosen and it was changed from a spinoff game to its own entity.  Final Fantasy XV that we know, though conceptually has been in production since 2006, has only had a few years to make the physical game.

That being said, Final Fantasy XV attempted to do all sorts of new things that has never been done in a Final Fantasy.  First, it is one of the only games that uses the Luminous Studio engine for its graphics.  This engine is an internal engine used only by Square Enix, and has only ever been used for Final Fantasy XV as well as some demos.  It is still considerably new.  Despite how new it is, this engine made astounding, cutting edge graphics for FFXV.   I have played other newer games and they can’t even stand in comparison with FFXV’s graphics.  This game is the first to use this newer engine, and I hope not the last because the graphics were insanely good.

The next biggest change was the introduction of an open world much like Skyrim.  This has never fully been realized in other Final Fantasies.  Sure your character can leave the city and go out into the world in the other ones, but only if it was tied to the main story.  FFXV allowed you to explore the world of Eos at your own pace.  You could take on hunts, collect treasures, tackle dungeons, and do side quests.  Heck you could even drive around in circles on the road and listen to music in the car with your bros if that was what you wanted to do.  Most people liked the open world, but some did not like that it seemed too open and too big with too much to do.  And there were times where one could forget the urgency of the main quest because you are too busy monster hunting, camping, fishing, doing side quests and taking on dungeons.  It gets to a point where the game basically forces you to continue on just the main story quest by taking away access to the open world.  Some people really hate how it went from being able to do whatever you like to a more linear story line that you can’t really deviate from.

I think they should have had more balance in this like maybe they could have had main story quests unlock more of the open world and have used the side quests to flesh out more of the story.  Why couldn’t we have had more cutscenes with Lunafreya doing the rites for the Astrals?  I still absolutely loved the open world in this game and I didn’t like the linear parts as much. Whereas others had the opposite reaction.  I guess it is all a matter of taste.

And some people really hated the driving in this. I didn’t mind it.  You will be doing a lot of driving in the beginning, and I suggest you do it because once you visit and park at a place the game puts that place in your fast travel.  That means you can go one place to another quickly without the driving for 10 gil and from what I surmise, you won’t use up gas to do it.  Yes, the car does need to be filled up on gas so it is always best to find an outpost and keep a full tank.  I would also suggest that you visit all the outposts and check in on the local tipster who can usually be found where food is sold (restaurant or food stall).  If you go by car, the game will put the outpost in your fast travel and the tipster will alert you to other outposts, camping sites (which are really useful when low on elementals or knowing where a place is when night comes), food and treasure spots.  One thing I often did when driving was seeing if there was treasure spots near the road and jumping out of the car to get them.  Often times I would also be confronted by Imperial Armies when I jumped out of the car mid-trip which could be a good way to get AP and level up.  Certain areas definitely had a higher amount of Imperial Troops attacking you.

Now back to what made FFXV different, lets get into combat.  Up until FFXV, most Final Fantasies use some form of the turn based combat system.  If you have ever played Persona 5 or an older Final Fantasy then you have played turn based combat.  Essentially, each character is given a turn to make their move and then the enemy gets their turn to strike back.  FFXV does not use the classic turn based style of combat.  Instead, they used real time combat which is much faster paced and decisions have to be made much faster.

And the last really big difference with this Final Fantasy is that now everyone can enjoy it.  While this is not entirely new for the Final Fantasy franchise (as FFXIII came out for Xbox 360), it is a newer trend for the franchise as it used to be exclusive to the Playstation.  To some hardcore fans, this also rubbed them the wrong way, but I don’t think this is a bad thing.  This means that now everyone can enjoy this wonderful game.  And I also understand why it was done.  Square Enix had to spend a massive amount of money making this game with the Luminous Studio engine and it needed to make back the cost and make a profit.

So overall did I like this game?  I definitely did.  I love going on this adventure with these boys.  Do I think they could have done a better job in the storytelling and certain characters development?  Definitely.  That was what made it such a shame because I really do think this has a phenomenal story that wasn’t fully realized.  Will we get more story building in the upcoming DLC’s?  Probably, but fans really shouldn’t have to pay extra for DLC’s that have critical story elements in it.  Will this game stick with me and still move me to tears?  Absolutely.  Even if the story can be more scant than a typical Final Fantasy, it still pulled at my heart strings.  And finally, is this game worth a play through? I think it definitely is.  I think new players and old fans of the franchise can still have fun playing this as they go on this adventure with Noctis and his friends.