Know what I really fucking love? And I know you're tempted to say "booze" but, BUT! I also really fucking love RPGs. Squaresoft and, later, Square Enix, games have been central in my gaming life over the pfff ... twentysomething years. I'm not gonna lie or pretend, I haven't played ALL the Final Fantasies. There are a lot I just haven't gotten around to play or feel no interest toward. I'd say Final Fantasy games are kind of ... hit or miss, I guess?
Let's talk about Final Fantasy XV for a spell, shall we?
When it was released, I watched the pieces fall and could just not get into the aesthetics of the game neither did I REALLY want to play. It was one of those games that got me thinking "I'll play it when I can get it on sale." And so I waited, and I waited.
Fast-forward two years and sometimes in 2018 I finally gave it a chance. I spent hours upon hours completing hunts and side quests for characters that made no sense to me and listening to banter between characters that I did not get.
About halfway though the game I just ... stopped wanting to play. When a main story quest tells me to go "check out my wife's wedding dress" I kinda just ... think "What the Hell! I'm already bringing snacks to soldiers in XIV! I WANT TO FEEL LIKE A HERO, DAMN IT!"
And so was Final Fantasy XV shelved. For 2 more years.
Truth be told, my relationship with many Final Fantasy games start off rocky. Sometimes, I just need to give it another try, and another ...
Second time around, knowing what to expect, I decided to share some of my impressions!
The really cool stuff
Fleshed out characters from the get-go
Noctis, Prompto, Ignis, and Gladio all have their own, unique personality and they're consistently written. They have a lot of dialogue lines and their personalities remain even in the most mundane of situations.
Pre-assembled Avengers
It's a trend in RPGs, mostly obvious in JRPGs that the first (sometimes dozens of) hours, you're assembling your team. Complete one chapter, get one character. In FFXV, you get your school from the start. It feels less contrived and you can enjoy their relationship longer.
A bold fantasy
I have to applaud when a studio tries something new rather than just do the same thing over and over and over and over again. It's something Final Fantasy does very well: each game has its own schtick and even when Square Enix has been SEVERELY criticized for games like Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XII, they still tried something. Regardless of faults, something tells me that work on FFXV has had serious influence on FFVIIR that, of course, everyone just looooooves ...
It's technically polished
I'm far from saying Final Fantasy XV is perfect since there are a lot of rough edges when it comes to storytelling and pacing. Still, considering how vast the world is, I ran into very few bugs and I didn't manage to break the game once. That means that whatever portion of the code made it to the final game, it's actually pretty polished.
Elementary Elemancy
It's a small part of the game: After all, magic hits your friends so, you might not want to use it? but the way spells are created? Really cool. Mix energy sources with some items and create spells with a bunch of different effects. My only qualm with it is that there could have been a lot more different effects and elements (there's nothing like Haste, Protect or Ultima)!
The fishing mini-game doesn't suck
Not much more to say there, but seeing trends in JRPGs, I'm not gonna complain about a fishing game I actually enjoy.
The music does what the music does
I've heard people say that the music in this game was "meh" at bet, but while the tracks may not be as memorable as the ones in, say, FFVII, Final Fantasy XV's OST does what it does best: setting the mood. Honestly, I love the smooth music in the menu, the fast-paced battle music gets my blood boiling, and seriously, the boss fight music? It makes me feel fucking epic.
The meh stuff
A vast but empty world
It feels like the game prod was stopped short and that there could have been a whole lot of humpf that never made it into the final game. This shows when trying to learn the lore of the game which exists almost exclusively in menus and books, when exploring that regions that don't feel different from the next, having whole areas inaccessible, locked behind fake, transparent walls ... the whole world feels thought-out but also locked out.
So-called one-button-fighting
I started playing FFXV because my hand has been hurting (too much Hades and Ghost of Tsushima). I wanted a game that I wouldn't need to smash that damn square button all the god damn time.
And I don't!
There may only one button to attack, but you switch your weapons/magics with arrows, order your buddies around with a trigger, block and teleport with shoulder buttons. Criticizing the system for being too simple fails to see the subtleties of a system that works well, and sure you attack with one button.
There are some annoyances though: hitting your allies with magic (which can be negated by equipping an item (sounds like a design flaw to me), being only able to equip one skill per ally, but being able to open the menu and switch them mid-fight, lie, really?), having very little throughout the game (I got most of my gear through DLC!)
It's all about the banter
Characters talking in the background, their lines depending on the quest and location, make the game feel alive! It helps me become more invested in the characters, and that's really cool! Honestly, though there really aren't enough different lines and it feels like the guys are repeating the same 5 sentences all the time. Sure it's funny to hear Ignis go "THAT'S IT!" but it get old to hear them moan about bugs for the 12th time.
The stuff that actually bothers me
The day-to-day limitations
You start and can't drive at night. Then you can drive but get jumped by a ton of enemies. When you no longer get jumped, the days get shorter. Some quests have to be done during the day, others at night. The idea is pretty cool but when the days start getting shorter, the aggravation really starts setting in. It's harder to enjoy a game where you, in effect, get 5-minute-workdays because after finishing one mission, once you get to the next spot, you'll just miss your window of opportunity.
Multimedia nightmare
There's a movie, a short anime, some explanations here and there, the DLC episodes are embedded somewhere in the story for a better experience. Getting the full story (and seeing the worldbuilding) of FFXV is a bit of a nightmare. If you're like me and ...
... then you'll start the game really confused, and while you can play catch up, there are a lot of things that will not be well explained if at all to keep you interested. Maybe that's a product of its time, maybe that's because production was cut short, but either way, it's really annoying to me: I like my gaming experiences to be self-contained.
The hollowness of it all
I said it before, and I'll say it again, the world is big and has interesting lore but it doesn't feel alive. The dialogues with NPCs are too few, even the quest givers, and there are barely any cutscenes to keep us focused and interested. This is probably the most problematic thing that made my first playthrough so arduous: I could not feel invested in such an empty world.
At least, the second time around, I knew what to expect.
Conclusion
Of course, I'm only about halfway in, so maybe my thoughts would change when I finish it, but after 55 hours, I feel like I've seen enough to get a general sense of it.
While FFXV is not a perfect or even great game, it's a good one and if you're in the good mindset, you might just enjoy the ride in that sweet sweet Regalia.
I give Final Fantasy XV ... ... ... 7 🍺 out of 10!
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