XV is notable for being one of the most polarizing entries in the Final Fantasy series, based almost entirely on the subject of its development issues. There are arguments all over the place concerning the quality of the game and many others, that talking about it in a forum is grounds for a flame war.
- For many fans it's a tie between who got the worse end of the deal, Stella or Luna. With Stella, many lament that her story as an anti-villain counterpart to Noctis was lost and felt that she had greater chemistry with Noctis in the one released scene of the two of them together (which was basically a prototype scene) than Luna does. Meanwhile Luna's time in development had her in the shadow of her predecessor, with many feeling that she was an unfortunate victim of an impossible situation with unreal expectations. She remains a divisive character, but now has many equally lament at how underutilized she is.
- The "Stella vs Luna" argument re-ignited when the Dawn Of The Future novel finally released. On one hand, many appreciated that Luna was finally given a bigger role within the story, as well more agency where she decides to Screw Destiny after it becomes clear what Bahamut's true motives are. It also addressed the common criticism that Luna "only cares about Noctis" by having her go out of her way help other characters more often than she had a chance to in-game. On the other hand, fans were very quick to point out how many of these changes seemed to be taken from Stella, including an image where Luna was dressed in an outfit that heavily referenced Stella along with her signature rapier, as well as Luna having to fight against Noctis. To these fans, it gives justice to their arguments that replacing Stella with Luna was pointless all along if they were just going to reuse elements exclusive to her, especially with Tabata and his team unintentionally throwing the former under the bus for the latter during the lead up to XV's initial launch.
- Overlapping with Fandom Rivalry, fans of the lore for Versus XIII and what was known about it vs. fans of the lore for XV as it is now. The former are very bitter that many of the original ideas for Versus XIII were changed or dropped in XV, consider the replacements far inferior (see the Stella vs. Luna debate above), and point to the incomplete nature of the game as proof of XV being mismanaged bastardization of what Versus XIII could've been. The latter argues that XV introduced a lot of good ideas in its own right, and point out that given the game's Troubled Production it probably wouldn't have lived up to their expectations anyway, and that a lot of their anger is sour grapes. This was made even worse once Nomura's Kingdom Hearts III DLC Re:Mind came and it turned out to contain Nomura's own version of Versus XIII, which sparked a new schism between his fans and Tabata's due to the untimely cancellation of the last DLC for FFXV and leaving KHIII's detractors with the idea that Nomura got away with making a strong jab at his bosses.
- After Chapter 9's Wham Episode, opinions are split regarding Chapter 10 over Noctis and Gladio's argument on the train. Was Noctis valid for still being wrapped up in grieving Luna (and everything else that's happened to them so far), or was Gladio right to call him out for not stepping up and behaving like a king? Were Gladio's outbursts towards Noctis the completely justified outrage of the only one in the room with proper priorities at the moment? Or is it nothing more than a bully throwing a temper tantrum and having no sympathy nor empathy towards others' grief? Those who agreed with Gladio were getting tired of angsty protagonists (and angsty characters as a whole), particularly from this franchise, saw Gladio's What the Hell, Hero? speech as a breath of fresh air, and point out how Gladio went through the same losses as Noctis without wallowing in self-pity. Those who agreed with Noctis, however, saw Gladio's comments and behavior throughout this chapter as being insensitive and cruel towards a man who's meant to be one of his closest friends, arguing that Noctis hasn't actually done any of the things Gladio cited to justify his anger, and that he never implied he would give up on Ignis or his duties nor did he use Luna's death as a justification to become a whiny jerk, ultimately believing what Gladio is demanding of Noctis is a completely unreasonable Angst? What Angst? reaction. Then there is the more neutral opinion, whereby neither Gladio or Noctis were really wrong or right: it came as a natural conclusion from all the stress, that Noctis and the group would process through grief in entirely different ways and at their own pace, and the role Gladio was born and raised into led him to have a certain rigidity regarding what a king should be. The game itself tries to strike a middle ground: Ignis stands up at the end of the chapter and says that Gladio is being too aggressive with pushing Noctis forward, saying that Noctis is conscious of his duty and will fulfill it but only when he's ready, he also tells Noctis that as a king, he needs to accept the consequences and move on. Noctis himself follows by saying they're going to proceed on their journey but not at Ignis's expense, showing that he's not only thinking of his own losses while Gladio calms down after Ignis's intervention and respect Noctis's decision to still make a stop to Tenebrae, showing that he's now more considerate towards the latter's feelings. Nevertheless, fans are sharply divided over who was more "right", to the point it's often the deciding factor in one’s opinion towards Gladio.
- Post-Chapter 9. Chapter 10 not only marks the transition from open world to linear gameplay progression but also the tonal shift from a relatively light-hearted roadtrip to a much darker journey. A lot of fans feel this was rushed and the the most visibly disjointed part of the story, in part due to many events happening off-screen or being underdeveloped. However, a lot of others feel that the story finally finds its feet and delivers some of the most emotional parts of the game, and wish the earlier parts of the game were more like it, believing that the open-world nature of the first half came at the expense of tighter focus on the story and characters.
- The 10-year timeskip is especially contentious. Some fans view it as being a wasted opportunity since Noctis is inside the Crystal for most of it, therefore missing out on 10 whole years of character interaction, and players don't get to explore the World of Ruin much afterwards. However, some fans will argue that making you feel exactly what Noctis would've been feeling was the whole point, and while acknowledging problems with the execution, love the idea overall and consider it a bold and innovative departure from Square Enix's usual formula, as well as a great Shout-Out to Final Fantasy VI, an entry particularly beloved in the West.
- Content has since been added that goes a long way in addressing these problems. These include extra story scenes, another route through a chapter that gives more context to certain background events, a greatly expanded post-timeskip Insomnia ruins map, and DLC episodes for each of the bros taking place during their spent away from the party.
- The 10-year timeskip is especially contentious. Some fans view it as being a wasted opportunity since Noctis is inside the Crystal for most of it, therefore missing out on 10 whole years of character interaction, and players don't get to explore the World of Ruin much afterwards. However, some fans will argue that making you feel exactly what Noctis would've been feeling was the whole point, and while acknowledging problems with the execution, love the idea overall and consider it a bold and innovative departure from Square Enix's usual formula, as well as a great Shout-Out to Final Fantasy VI, an entry particularly beloved in the West.
- The various DLC Episodes and other planned post-release updates announced for the game. Many were happy that they could finally do things such as play as Gladio, Prompto, and Ignis and were looking forward to the story and world being fleshed out, while just as many were disgruntled over the fact that they'd have to pay for something they feel should have been in the game in the first place, a fact not helped by the main story seemingly having deliberate gaps meant to incentivize purchasing the DLC.
- The announcement that XV would be completely removed from the Fabula Nova Crystallis universe. On one side were those who disliked the FNC, and were happy that the mythos would not be used in the game; on the other, fans of the mythos (or who thought it was interesting in general) who were looking forward to seeing how this game did it note were not amused at all. Tabata later clarified
that the mythos' thematic base and design elements were retained for XV, but with original lore being built from the ground up and terminology specific to the FNC being removed. Once the game came out, the side that disliked the FNC was divided into those who felt the game successfully created an engaging mythos of its own and reworked FNC concepts into something more enjoyable, and those who believe its background as a former FNC game placed a stranglehold on the game's ability to develop a more original setting. Reignited with the release of the Dawn of the Future novel, since it does a lot to flesh out the setting and backstory of the XV universe, but lifts quite a few plot elements from the FNC after all, including Bahamut being a Bhunivelze Expy. - Prompto's backstory in Brotherhood is the most controversial of the five episodes. While it did contribute significantly to Rescuing Prompto From The Scrappy Heap, the way it plays out tends to invite accusations of fat-shaming. On the one hand, for people who believe the episode is guilty of this, Prompto decides to lose weight because he doesn't feel like he's cool enough to talk to someone like Noctis, and he doesn't have the confidence to approach him until after he's lost a drastic amount of weight. On the other hand, for people who believe it isn't, Prompto is the only character that think his being fat is even an issue in the first place, and some of his dialogue in-game makes it clear that being thin hasn't actually done much for his underlying insecurities.
- The Final Boss. Some love it for being a Duel Boss because of the atmosphere and how the story builds it up — a battle of Kings, the progenitor of the Lucian bloodline, and its last surviving member, dueling in the streets and skies of Insomnia to bring back the dawn. In gameplay terms, it means you're facing an enemy with powers exactly like your own, a challenge you've never had to deal with elsewhere in the game. Others dislike it precisely for this very reason — Noctis fighting the boss alone goes against the game's core themes of brotherhood and friendship, when you've spent the rest of the game fighting alongside his friends. In gameplay, depriving Noctis of the aid of his friends cuts off a lot of the strategic variety in combat — no Link Strikes, no Techniques, no Cross Chains — making the combat feel less exciting, and the time you've spent powering up the others with equipment and abilities can feel wasted as they aren't here for the final battle.
- Content was later added in the Royal Pack to address some of this. Right before the final boss, three Rulers of Yore are fought one by one together with all of the friends, with one friend taking center stage in each fight respectively.
- Each of the three endings (the main game's canonical Bittersweet Ending, the alternate Earn Your Happy Ending of Episode Ignis, and the Golden Ending of the Dawn of the Future novel) split the fandom neatly into three camps, each coming with its own set of vehement defenses and corresponding vitriol towards the other two:
- Fans of the main ending consider it one of the most effective Tear Jerkers in the entire Final Fantasy franchise, bringing the themes of friendship to a heartwrenching close. They also believe that it does an excellent job of showcasing Noctis's character growth and revealing Ardyn's depth as a sadistic yet sympathetic antagonist. Those who hate it believe it's needlessly depressing due to relying on a Diabolus ex Machina that is poorly led up to and the the source of the problem (Bahamut) getting away scot-free, and that the original way the events of the finale unfolded ended up undermining the game's theme of the close bond between Noctis and his friends.
- Fans of the Episode Ignis alternate ending love it for being a fanservicey happy ending where Ignis is able to save Noctis and avoid losing his vision by defying fate through The Power of Love, while remaining bittersweet due to Luna's death, without resorting to Fan Disliked Explanations to get there. They also prefer it for giving Ignis a lot of interesting character depth, for going into the theme of brotherhood the hardest, and for fixing the original ending's perceived thematic issues, such as giving Noctis agency in choosing to enter the Crystal, having his friends remain together throughout the timeskip, and letting the four fight Ardyn as a group. Meanwhile its detractors hate it for betraying the tragic tone of the original ending, for Luna remaining dead, for relying on Deus ex Machina (Ignis's secret plan is never detailed, although it also sidesteps DotF's issue of providing an explanation that most of the fanbase wound up hating), or because they personally find Ignis's expanded and morally grayer characterization unsavory.
- The ending of Dawn of the Future is loved by its defenders for being an unambiguously happy ending that provides Luna with more depth and agency, as well as things such as allowing Ardyn to be redeemed, all the heroes surviving, and defying fate to take revenge on Bahamut who was not only the ultimate source of the story's tragedy but also a Karma Houdini in the game's ending. At the same time, just as many hate it for those very same reasons, perceiving it as overly saccharine and Pandering to the Base at the expense of telling a mature story, and thus reading like an officially licensed fanfic. Other reasons for its divisive reception are that it makes quite a few controversial storytelling decisions, including a great deal of Fan Disliked Explanations which seemingly contradict the base game's story, rehashing Fabula Nova Crystallis plot beats, still doing little to make Noctis and Luna's romance any more believable, and reducing all of Noctis's friends to footnotes in favour of Luna and Ardyn, which detractors see as flying against the story's brotherhood theme and much of what endeared them to the game in the first place.
- Whether or not you played the game on release versus after all of the updates and DLC were released versus the Royal Edition (or Windows Edition if you are playing on PC) has greatly impacted perceptions of the quality of this game. As is easily apparent throughout the entire main page, the game went through several updates and patches that added new content to the main story, provided more in-game insight into what was actually going on in terms of the plot (a lot of which is not shown on-screen/relegated to accompanying content like the film and the anime or is explained in-game via missable books of lore scattered throughout the world), streamlined some of the buggier aspects of the gameplay, and added quality of life updates (like being able to switch between party members in combat) to directly address some of the major complaints and criticisms players levied at the game at launch.note Then there's the Royal Edition which, among other story expansions via cutscenes and dialogue, expanded the heavily criticized Chapter 14 by making the city of Insomnia an actual playable dungeon, rather than a short setpiece to fight through to get to the final boss. As stated above, some readily welcomed these changes and updates as Square Enix actively listening to the community and trying to fix issues. Others considered this to be too little too late and as Square Enix trying to cover its own ass for releasing an unfinished game.
- Even worse, many at launch players gave up on the game entirely, never picked it back up after the updates, and avoided the Royal Edition completely. Given the amount of changes made to the game post-launch, the game that is playable now is quite a bit different from the game as it was released. This has created further division in the fan base between "at-launch" players, who condemn the game for issues and bugs that may no longer exist at this point, and "post-launch" players, who discount and ignore points made by the detractors as being unfounded, because they never experienced the game at launch and have thus avoided the worst of those issues. In neither camp are those detractors who played the game at launch and post updates who still don't think the updates go far enough in rectifying the plot, pacing, characterization (especially those surrounding Lunafreya), and gameplay issues.
