VideoGame There are tutorials in the final boss sequence.
If there's one thing that, to me, really exemplifies what went wrong with this game, that is it. In the final series of bosses that you fight, the game makes you take control of each of your other party members for each sub-boss. And because these characters fight differently, you get a tutorial. For many people (especially without the DLC) this is the first time they've ever directly controlled these characters.
Final Fantasy XV is a game that, at every point, shows glimpses of what could have been great. But it isn't. Using the above example, each character's gameplay style could be fun and interesting in and of itself... if I had more than 15 seconds with each. And if I had a chance to see them BEFORE THE FINAL BOSS.
This problem is everywhere throughout the game (and series). There are glimpses of greatness, hampered by being rushed and underdeveloped. The DLC does expand on the above, but it's DLC. It's optional and extra. It should have been part of the game from the very beginning.
Same with the Kingsglaive movie. It should have been directly incorporated into the game, not a separate release. We didn't have any time to get attached to the city, the king, or all that stuff in general. So when the city falls early in the game, I didn't really care that much.
Same with other characters. Who's this dude? Oh, he's dead now? Why do I care? I only saw him for 10 seconds.
Everywhere throughout the game, there are SO MANY times where I feel like the situation/plot/event/dialogue could be poignant, but it just falls flat, because it was rushed, and I never had a chance to actually get to know the characters/situation involved. For example, Noctis has a chance to visit the city his fiancee is from. I suppose it should have been a touching and emotional moment, but I totally forgot why he hadn't been there before or the background circumstances. They barely mentioned it in the main storyline until you get there. And when you do, you don't even see the city, you just talk to an old lady and be on your way.
The DLC should have been incorporated into the main game. The movie should have been incorporated into the main game. And even then, I still feel like there should have been more story content that developed the main characters of the game, especially Luna, King Regis, the city of Insomnia itself, etc.
The open-world part is, well, like any open-world game. Nothing exceptional. Repeated kill monster quests, fetch quests, talk to NPC quest, etc. The battle gameplay has a unique style, but feels very un-strategic to me. You can basically button spam your way through most fights as long as you know the attack button and warp-strike button.
All in all, the game itself is fun as a time-waster, but it just failed to draw me in with an epic story the way a Final Fantasy game should. I keep seeing glimpses of amazing lore and character moments, but I keep being let down by just not being enough opportunity to care.
6/10, enjoyable but undercooked.
VideoGame Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition
I am one of (probably) many tropers who no longer has time to sit down in front of a console for 60 hours. And I haven't been for a while; the last full-length FF title I bought was 12. So the idea of a slimmed-down portable edition appealed to me — especially since you can play the first chapter (up to Galdin Quay and the night before Insomnia falls) for free. But, of course, it's hard to play games on a cell phone. How well would the experience hold up?
The answer is, Astonishingly well.
Pocket Edition is a slimmed-down FF15 in every sense of the word. The graphics are low-poly — they didn't even animate Mouth Flaps — and the entirety of the Wide-Open Sandbox has been stripped out. Elemancy is gone, leaving you instead with an oversimplifed Draw system from FF8 where you can only hold one spell at a time. No camping, no fishing, no photography (you don't get to choose the photo Noct brings at the end◊), no driving, no Item Crafting.
What's left is: all the original Cut Scenes, music and voice-acting; the entire plot; and a surprisingly robust battle engine. Instead of Button Mashing, battle is dependent on positioning, as Noctis will auto-attack anyone he's near. This leaves the player (and the screen!) free to focus on Quick Time Events for dodging, parrying and special attacks. Battles are fun and challenging without being overwhelming, and the game stands as a bastion of excellent Mobile Phone Game play control. And, of course, you get the whole story, though without the DLC add-ons.
I would love to see Square Enix do more Reformulated Games like this, particularly of my own favorite FF8. But in terms of FF15 itself, Pocket Edition is a strange testament. It validates the strength of the basic story and battle engine by removing everything that distracts from those elements; however, it also proves, by its own existence, that $40 of the original game's $60 sticker price went to filler, not to mention highlighting the game's Troubled Production. It's brave — perhaps foolhardy — for Square to undermine their own game this way. But the resulting product is a slim, elegant gaming adventure that I hope we see a lot of copycats of. Insofar as Triple-A gaming can exist on smartphones, Pocket Edition is the Ur-Example.
VideoGame A beautiful mess
Are there better sandbox games than Final Fantasy XV? Yes, but this is still a game that is well worth playing.
There are a fair number of issues with the game; the story borders on nonsensical and is hard to follow at times, seemingly important characters come and go with little ceremony, the camera does not do well in crowded areas, there are bugs and glitches that sometimes threaten to crash the game, and the less said about the Cup Noodles quest, the better. Nonetheless, exploring the country of Eos is a treat, with tons of secrets hidden in the nooks and crannies of the world, monsters to fight, treasures to unearth, and quests to undertake. The chemistry between the heroes helps to make the journey all the more enjoyable; Noctis may be a prince and his companions may be his bodyguards, but hearing and seeing them interact, you'd be forgiven for thinking they were college buddies on a road trip. The combat system is slick and empowering with very few hiccups, and taking down tough enemies leaves one with a feeling of accomplishment.
While the story of the game is a little on the short side, this is a game that rewards players committed to exploring the world. There is also plenty of post game dungeons and content to explore, so you will never be want for adventures to undertake on your magical road trip.
Overall, I have enjoyed this game immensely, and I recommend it both to Final Fantasy fans and newcomers who enjoy open world games.
VideoGame Army of Four
Final Fantasy 15 had a really long development cycle. Square Enix had a number of designs that they made and remade repeatedly over the years. I'm sure everyone remembers the first somewhat unofficial trailer where Noctus cuts down an army of soldiers with his Armatus power. My point is the game had gigantic hype on its shoulders and there was no way it could live up to expectations.
That's not to say it didn't surprise me. Final Fantasy 15 clears away whatever hybrid mechanics were involved in Lightning Returns in favor of straight forward Hack and Slash mechanics and its pretty solid. The game does an impressive job of incorporating Noctus's Warp techniques into game mechanics. Noctus can use warp to specifically target far away enemies, flee dangerous AOE attacks, or outmaneuver larger enemies. This mechanic is outright encouraged against very high level enemies as they do high amounts of damage even at the max level. Some dismiss the dodge mechanic as "holding to win" but the dodge mechanic has all the flaws of blocking in Dark Souls and punishes the player for spamming the dodge mechanic as it drains MP, a stat that replenishes very slowly.
FF 15 experiments characterization differently from its predecessors by developing its characters through interaction. Rather than having some tragic past that must be overcome, the character's display their traits through their conversations and events they share with Noctis. FF 15 has the most active party interaction I've Final Fantasy game. In every chapter, the party always has something to say or do. Whether it be Ignis suggesting a logical solution, Gladious speaking honestly, if not brutally, or Prompto trying to defuse tension through humor, they never feel like hang-ons or gimmick characters. Rather than introduce a large cast filling certain battle archetypes, instead each character has a wide variety of Team Tech attacks, which add versatility to combat. These can range from crowd control to debuffs, augmenting Noctus wide variety of combat abilities.
The plot is extensive, if a little overwhelming. The story should have done a better job of characterizing Niflehiem beyond being the empire. The game displays their power and the danger they pose to the Kingdom of Lucii, but the audience doesn't know much about them beyond being the bad guys. The game also does a hard shift from a political war to dark fantasy in the final quarter of the game. The pacing during this arc feels too fast and seems to lack some build up. The story has a good outline, but falls short on details.
Final Fantasy 15 is a strong entry in the franchise, even if it isn't the best in terms of plot line. I hope future entries remember the effectiveness of focusing on a small but important party cast and the appeal of good character interaction, as these aspects were what really defined the game's identity.
VideoGame Mixed bag
Final Fantasy seems to have gotten into a pendulum state where the way to correct one problem is to go super-hard in the other direction. The main complaint of 13 was that it was too linear and focused on cutscenes which naturally means the answer, Final Fantasy XV, should have a sprawling open world with a significantly trimmed down story. Along with the Development Hell this game went through between tight budget, swapping directors, pushed back release dates, tie-in merchandise... well, I'd like to think they did the best they could.
The good news is that the game IS gorgeous, the main four are likable, and combat is fun. It's more in line with Kingdom Hearts than previous F Fs and in this case, it works. To balance out the long stretches of walking around, when you're in trouble a potion will generally help you out. And there is a lot of area to explore. The only major downside is that magic took a huge hit as it relies entirely on farming to make limited-use spells. (Think the draw system from 8, but having to be done with much smaller rewards.) There also isn't much variation in spells that you can cast either. Given that your main attack is with weapons, this isn't the end of the world but it is a change.
The bad news is... the game sacrifices a - lot - because of said openness. The plot isn't intricate nor really fully explained, as the creators assume a player will either watch the tie-in movie or the Anime episodes to fill in blanks. The gameplay becomes linear in later chapters to force the feeling of everything going to crap but some of the so-called tragedies aren't that tragic as the game itself has never built up WHY you should feel sad over some of the sacrifices. Some villains are completely shelved or forgotten about in a distant "oh they're dead now sorry." That's right - you won't even get to fight a lot of the antagonists along the way or even see them being all that antagonistic.
Quite a few areas have been hacked out entirely (even ones in promotional materials!) and interactions with NP Cs are pretty limited aside from overhearing conversations. Surprisingly, few that you meet seem all that upset or freaked out about their country being invaded and leaders killed.
Perhaps my biggest gripe is that the game itself feels very empty. For all the space you're given to explore, you won't really find rewards or secrets waiting for you... just a lot of scenery. Living, breathing NP Cs are scarce and at no point so far has it felt like a major crisis has occurred. By the point massive tragedy has stuck my initial feeling is "..and why should I care about these guys?" The plot does get DARK but the buildup is very hit and miss.
Don't get me wrong - this is a fun game. But it's a game that, given its creation time, doesn't live up to the hype. But seeing as how it's a Final Fantasy, it will sell fine.
VideoGame Platinum Demo: An Electroplated Elegy of Emptiness
As You Know, I'm not really coming from a good place here to begin with. Final Fantasy and me... well, let's just say, our best days together are gone, daddy, gone. But, hey, I'm not a guy to turn down a free demo! Hell, they may've even learned a thing or two from their copious mistakes over the last decade! Ain't no healer like time and all that... Hell, I'm convinced! Let's go! Let the legend come back to life...!
Nope.
27 minutes later, it was all over. The overused phrase "What the fuck did I just play?" was invented for situations like these. So I spent less than half an hour—less than it took to download the fucker (3.8 GBs for this?)—following a weird power animal dream guide thing communicating via text messages, like Alice through a particularly shiny-looking rabbit hole, with no explanation as to what the hell is going on.
The last thing you do is walk down a literal hallway! Exactly one of the major sticking points of its direct predecessor (as usual, the MMORPGs don't count), mentioned by name, and used literally. Like something out of a snarky Decline of Video Gaming style online parody video. Hell, I'd take it as Square Enix poking fun at themselves... if they didn't have less of a sense of self-irony than Morrissey.
It plays like, and exudes all the firsthand gameplay enjoyment associated with, a proof-of-concept video for a potential Kickstarter campaign, at best. And the visuals aren't even that good. They might've been revolutionary some two-three years ago, but by contemporary standards, they're nothing special. Not a year ago, MGSV did them one better, and at a rock-solid 60fps no less. Oh, and while on the subject, anyone who thinks Ground Zeroes was a short, unsatisfying teaser that had trouble justifying its own existence has got another thing coming. This'll give you perspective, if nothing else (and you know there isn't)!
Actually... you know what's a much better point of comparison? Those fanmade "remake" videos made with some new-fangled high-end graphics engine that make the game look shitloads better, but always fail to capture what made the game unique in the first place. There's always something off about them. In this case, the demo's tepid, clunky and repetitive Kingdom Hearts-ish real-time RPG gameplay doesn't feel like it was made by real game developers.
The final straw are the in-game objects you can use to make time pass faster, or change the weather. Shameless, ostentatious Scenery Porn of the most condescending kind. And at the end, the game has the balls to ask you outright whether you'd like to buy it now. Like, literally, in the game itself. Square Enix and their usual pre-emptive attempts at creating a mini-franchise deserve nothing more to crash and burn if this pointless waste of time is the sum of their efforts.
When will I ever learn? Hell, when will they?!?
VideoGame A great story told extremely badly
Let me start by saying that I like XV. I really do. I like the setting, I like the characters, I like the move away from turn-based combat to action (which would later be perfected by VII Remake). These things are all highly subjective so I won't go on about them too much.
I also like the story as a whole, but...
On the first playthrough of the standard edition (before the DLC came out), the story constantly feels like it's missing something, like there are big chunks in the story that should explain what is happening that just aren't there. Characters disappear from the narrative without any fanfare. Things happen in the background without explanation. Some characters are built up as important but hardly show up. (example - in the late game a character is unceremoniously found dead and the characters act like it's a tragedy despite him hardly getting any screen time.)
As it turns out, it was missing something. About half the god-damn story in fact.
The DLC packs add new chapters to the game, chapters that were sorely needed to provide context for a lot of what is happening. Unfortunately the execution of this content is done extremely badly. The new chapters are completely seperate entities that must be accessed from the main menu, and the game gives you no indication of where they fit in the main story, so the choice is yours: play them early and have no context and possibly spoilers, or play them after the main game, which will feel like a hollow and unfinished affair without them.
(Also, some of the important context is in a film. A totally seperate film which is hurriedly recapped in a confusing cutscene. I shouldn't have to watch a totally seperate piece of media just to understand your game, Square Enix!)
They should have built these DLC chapters into the main game itself, so that the story flows naturally. If they had done that, I'd call it my favourite FF game ever, but as it stands, it feels like such a waste.