Spiky haired protagonist wielding impossibly heavy weapons? Check.
Giant bird like creatures that come in (almost) every color? Check.
Amazing Musical Score with one random off putting song thrown in at the wrong moment? Check.
Effeminate main antagonist that leads you by the nose up until the final confrontation? Check.
Yep, It’s a Final Fantasy.
Final Fantasy XV is a game that I have personally waited for since it’s original announcement back in 2006, a game that I have been patiently (i.e. Impatiently) watching and waiting for. And given the huge amount of personal hype I had for this game, my initial fear was that I would be disappointed. While I’ll admit that this game is NOT the product of 10 years of development that many people would have liked (It’s shifted much since it’s original conception and has had countless re-writes and staff changes) It stands as an introduction of a new era of Final Fantasy games. And on it’s own is a very good title.
CHARACTERS:
A Final Fantasy is only as good as it’s characters allow it to be. And FFXV does an amazing job at creating characters that feel.... Human... for lack of a better word. Over the span of the story, the Four main characters continuously grow and change as a result of the events that happen. The dialog is natural and makes sense, even at times you see the characters quarrel over misunderstandings that feel realistic and meaningful to those characters.
Prompto, the “Comic relief character” probably has one of the deepest backgrounds of any of the characters on the roster and his whole personality is based off of experiences in his backstory, giving his comments an added weight and strength given the dark substance of the main story. Gladiolus, the Muscular bodyguard is often seen reading and his harsh way of dealing with things is usually seated with a good hearted attempt to push the young prince in the right direction, and Ignis, The final character of your entourage is set up to make sure that Noctis is prepared to take his place as the King when it is his time. These lines eventually blur, causing their initial purpose to blend into a group of friends rather then people merely there to assist Noctis. A group of people whose main intent is to take care of each other. The development of these characters as a whole is nothing short of amazing and I only wished that it would have been fleshed out even more.
It should also be noted that to fully appreciate the characters and even some of the story of the game it is recommended to watch the CGI Movie Kingsglaive as well as the Anime Brotherhood: Final Fantasy.
While not required, it certainly adds to the appreciation of the game.
WORLDBUILDING:
The World of Eos that FFXV takes place in is absolutely beautiful to behold. Blending modern realism with stylized fantasy works to the games credit. The few cities that you visit throughout your time in the game are bustling with people and makes you feel as though this world is alive.
Special note has been given to make long time fans feel a sense of nostalgia, whether it be in the form of full FF soundtracks that can be listened to while in the field or in the car, the presence of FF staples such as Cactaurs, Tonberries, Behemoths, to the constant references to days of FF past. Even more subtle cues such as A Meteor burning in the world that sits upon the back of a Titan that the world summoned to protect it, A Thermal Plant that suspiciously resembles the Mako Reactors of FFVII etc. etc. the world is full of those nods, which hit me directly in the feels.
During the daylight hours early on, you have free reign to do what you would like. While there are obstacles in place that keep you limited in where you can go initially the world is yours to explore.
Nighttime is a different story, Very powerful creatures called Daemons roam the landscape at night and any would be adventurer caught out past dusk is placed in peril. To overcome this, campsites are spread generously throughout the world for your party to wait out the night (This also allows you to level up and eat stat boosting meals for the next day provided you have the ingredients. More on that later.)
The world feels real, Vehicles drive the long strips of highway during the day, Weather happens in real time and people react to it accordingly for the most part. The numerous nooks and crannies offer hidden caches of loot waiting to be uncovered or secrets to be found. The beasts of the world react as real animals would and can be observed or killed for their unique drops (Generally in the form of various steaks for consumption).
While initially limited to the car or foot, you also have other means of traversal at your disposal including fast travel, Chocobos, an upgrade that allows your vehicle to fly, and a time traveling mechanic that comes into play late in the story (While not fully explained it makes more sense then you’d think.) Speaking of the car, it should be noted that the driving system is not like what you would expect as the driving in FFXV is a very “On Rails” experience. You can swerve the car slightly when in direct control but the car remains on the road at all times with only limited input being available to you (Forward, reverse, turn if there’s the option of a split path, park.) leaving me personally to just pick a map point and let one of my companions do the driving for me which felt like the appropriate thing to do.
While exploring the sprawling open world is one thing, exploring the depths of the games many dungeons can be a headache, close quarters battles in enclosed spaces make the camera phase through walls, enemies, anything and everything, the layout can be confusing and the map does little to nothing to help matters. Rather then intricate most dungeons feel like an attempt to make exploration as difficult as possible to pad the total length of time that it takes to clear them with little payoff most of the time.
THE STORY:
FFXV has an incredible story with even more potential, The only problem comes in the way that the story is told. This is a story about Noctis and his friends, and the developers treat it as such. In this regard, you may come across a character that is integral to the story in some shape or form only to have them completely disappear from the narrative entirely, only resurfacing through radio reports or your party overhearing citizens talking about the characters fate.
This creates a very divisive feeling in me. On one hand that is an incredibly realistic way of dealing with things. A person going on their way never to be seen or heard from again happens all the time in reality, leaving those who knew them to wonder what became of them. In video games however, us as the player generally want to see the payoff of getting to know these characters regardless of their fate, This makes you feel like there are events going on in the game that we as the player are being excluded from.
This is not just relegated to side characters unfortunately either as many of the main characters (including the main four) have events that leave them mentally and physically changed, events that the player does not get to partake in. (Episodic DLC in the season pass anyone?) Even the main story gets hit with major gaps that simply should not be there, leaving you, the player to piece together the overarching events into an understanding to move forward. This has led many people to feel that the story is convoluted, it really isn’t, you just have to understand that you are witnessing these events as an individual, as Noctis, rather then being fed the world’s exposition that we as gamers are generally accustomed to.
While touting a vast open world, you should also be aware that this game also narrows exponentially in the final five chapters (The game is fifteen chapters long) moving away from the open world and focusing solely on climaxing the story and bringing it to a close. I have seen many reviews bash this fact but having played it myself I feel that it makes sense. The game wants you to focus on the narrative, to limit the distractions and feel invested as the game pushes headfirst towards it’s closing moments in spectacular fashion. If this isn’t your thing, the game does give you the ability to “Shift” back to an earlier point in the timeline to continue your open world adventuring. The only thing that hampers this for me is in the fact that these “chapters” feel severely rushed, with an occasion or two where a single event is used to fill a “chapter”. I feel that if the game is going to narrow to focus on narrative, it should really flesh out that narrative if it’s taking so much away.
If you can understand and accept that this is a character driven story told ONLY from the viewpoint of a single character and that there are going to be events that you do not fully understand (A great deal is explained in the late game and exposition is given through books/sidequests if you take the time to seek them out) then it should not pose a problem as the overall story, despite it’s pacing and gaps, is one of the best the company has given us in years.
COMBAT/LEVELING:
Combat in FFXV is fast paced and performs in real time, trying it’s best to emulate the cinematic elements of Final Fantasy Advent Children and Kingsglaive appropriately, for the most part, this is very successful, and while some QTEs are present, a majority of the action that happens on screen is a direct result of your input. Combat falls into the “Easy to Learn, hard to master” field of logic, with A single button dedicated to blocking/evading and another to attacking. Holding the Evade button will cause Noctis to “Phase” through attacks, receiving no damage with the cost of MP, this can be held to block consecutive attacks as long as there is enough MP remaining. The attack button works in kind, rather then falling into the habit of button mashing, the game is programmed for you to hold down the attack button, causing Noctis to fire off into a continuous attack chain.
While this fast paced execution of gameplay is generally amazing, the game also suffers from “Sonic Syndrome” in the fact that the action on the screen is sometimes a bit much for the in game camera to keep up with, causing it to spin around and glitch on a far too frequent basis. But when it can keep up it (Locking on to enemies helps if there’s not a large number on screen) it works incredibly well.
And while this game excels in giving some amazing moments of battle, a couple of nitpicks hamper the experience. Button presses are not as intuitive as they should be, I feel like I have pretty decent reflexes, given that fact I found it frustrating to find my character thrown across the field even when my finger was firmly pressed to the evade button. This made me pay more attention and realize that in battle, the game is ruled by it’s animations. If you are in the middle of an elaborate attack animation, you cannot evade or defend until the animation finishes, leaving moments where your fingers were fast enough to block that attack, but your character insists on finishing his backflip first. this in itself forces you to pay more attention to the enemy (Which is not a bad thing in itself but can lead to some frustrating moments when you come across a swarms of enemies with quick attack patterns) and act accordingly.
Leveling up is another matter. During your adventures you accumulate EXP and AP, EXP will cause you to level up, raising your base stats to make you more adept at fighting. AP, or Ascension Points, allow you to purchase abilities and upgrades on a grid based system (Similar to Final Fantasy X’s Sphere Grid) but feel inconsequential until multiple upgrades are added with too many “filler” nodes. Levels are also hit and miss since you rarely feel like you have become more powerful with levels. Power primarily enhances through gear and food buffs. EXP is put towards your character whenever you enter camp or rest in a lodging, at this time you also can choose to cook any food that you have a recipe for if you have the ingredients to do so, Food gives you beneficial and substantial boosts for the coming day including HP, Attack, and status resistances.
OVERSIGHTS:
As a Final Fantasy fan, a couple of things stood out to me that I wish could have been more fleshed out or features that should have been integrated that simply weren’t. First, Chocobos. While the Chocobos are included and actually have a decent chunk of content given to them, I still wish that the they weren’t simply relegated to using for Racing or General mounts. I wish a breeding system could have been implemented. I mean, The overworld can obviously sustain having a flying car, Why can’t we raise some chocobos to traverse the world the way that they used to?
Speaking of Flying Cars, the Regalia, Your vehicle for the heft of the game, eventually gets an upgrade to allow flight of the world map, however this, (As well as ultimate weapons) does not unlock until after the base game has been completed. While this makes sense given the storyline, it still greatly limits the enjoyment of having the experience as many people will already be starting the think about their “next game” after the credits roll. Pushing off big features that are unlocked during the story for most games in the genre and placing an “End game content” label on them is not a good way to pad a game’s end game when the only true thing to do after the credits roll is the optional Admantoise boss battle and a few after game questlines (Mostly for ultimate weapons/accessories)
In Conclusion, FFXV is not a perfect game, It’s not the BEST Final Fantasy even, and it’s not without it’s flaws. But it is a great game, with a great story, and great characters that will stick with you if you can look past the fact that it’s called Final Fantasy and see through your expectations.
Story: Amazing but glaring plot holes and some rushed events hinder the experience.
Characters: If you take the time to invest in them, this cast of 4 will come to life.
Gameplay: Limited growth/leveling system leaves you feeling lacking.
Length: Main Storyline runs about 30-40 hours.
Replayability: Determinant on your enjoyment.
-Ryan Smith
