It's been 6 years since the release of Final Fantasy XV. There are talks about a Final Fantasy XVI and frankly I'm not really pumped for it. Unlike other players, I'm not a veteran in the FF series. FFXV was my first FF game and I plunged into it with no knowledge of the lore whatsoever. While I was aware of the many criticisms and flaws of the game, I was one of those people that were able to enjoy the game regardless mainly due to the fact I had little knowledge of the universe to begin with and I played it 3 years after its release. By then the Royal Edition was already out with the Ardyn DLC and a lot of patches had been released. But I had also missed the limited time Assassin's Festival event.
Completing the game had taken me a long time. It wasn't really the difficulty level that kept me from finishing it, but rather my interest in it. I had gotten past the Altissia chapter and then – stopped playing. I simply stopped playing and dropped the game completely for 2 years. Like what many players had said, the pacing of the story was very faulty. Some events happened too suddenly for me to take it in and process. Had the pacing been better fine tuned, some events would have more impact in the story and it's a real shame that a lot of characters got sidelined.
My biggest disappointment was in Lunafreya, not because she was a bad character, but how much missed potential there could be. I grieved hard for her death, but I really wished she had gotten more screen time. Having her as simply Noctis' betrothed and childhood friend just doesn't cut it for me. There was little to no interaction between the both of them making it hard for players and fans to really root for them. It's already been noted that Sarah from the Terra Wars side quest had more chemistry with Noctis than Lunafreya and she's from an entirely different FF game. Lunafreya or Luna as Noctis affectionately calls her is known as the Oracle. She has the favor of the gods of Eos, but she isn't exactly the strongest. So while Luna has some healing ability, she's not all powerful and with her death, I see her as very vulnerable. But I don't hate her. In fact I feel very bad for her predicament. She spent all her life accepting her duty as the Oracle, supports Noctis and company by awakening the Astrals, truly loves Noctis with all her heart, only to be fatally stabbed.
Other characters like Aranea and Ravus had a lot of missed potential. Ravus fortunately gets his shine in the spotlight in the Ignis DLC and Ravus is my favorite character. Aranea could have very easily had an entire chapter dedicated to her story which would probably be the canceled Episode Aranea DLC. My point is that so much attention was put on the 4 main characters, the Chocobros, that the story ignored the other characters. Apart from Ardyn as the main villain, FFXV could very easily have introduced more minor villains and antagonists. We only get a glimpse of them in the Ignis and Prompto DLCs and they get killed off pretty quickly.
This brings me to the DLCs. As I write this review, I still haven't touched the Episode Ardyn DLC, but from what I've read from external sources is that it does interrupt the story, fiddles with the lore in a negative way, and introduces contradictions. One of my gripes with FFXV is the need to absorb a lot of supplementary material; the Final Fantasy XV Brotherhood anime, the Kingsglaive movie, and the novel, in order to get the full story. I prefer to everything contained within the game and have the supplementary material be an enhancement, not a stand-in for missing information. Out of all the DLCs that came with the Royal Edition, Episode Ignis was my favorite with Episode Prompto coming second and Episode Gladiolus coming last. These DLCs were each very enjoyable in their own right and I really wished that it was incorporated into the base game somehow. If we were able to switch characters, that would have made the game much more enjoyable. Not to mention with each Chocobro, you get introduced to different weapons and playing styles. I really liked playing as Prompto and if only Noctis was able to be FPS ... if only.
Gameplay for me was relatively ok, but it would get boring. As someone who is somewhat use to brawling games with combos, FFXV is not the best when it comes to the combat aspect. I'm not joking when I say you simply need to hold down the O button on the PS4 controller to execute a "combo". What made the fighting tolerable for me was Noctis' warping ability. I didn't use magic as much as I thought I would and crafting magic spells didn't really benefit that much in fights. Dungeons aren't that fun to revisit after you complete them and level up. The only one that's probably challenging enough to revisit would be Costlemark Tower in my opinion. Other than that, I would recommend obtaining the Sealbreaker's Key to access more difficult levels post-game. Obtaining all the Royal Arms was more symbolic than helpful. They aren't particularly useful and I find myself not using them most of the time. Can we talk about the blasted summoning? You can't pick and choose which Astral to summon and like many people, I didn't know you had to hold the L2 button to summon. Bad UX design. Plus when you obtain Garuda, that's when the summoning system get broken.
In the later release of FFXV, we would get Cerberus and the Rulers of Yore. While we only get to fight 4 of them in the final chapter, I would have really preferred to fight all of the past kings and queens. It would have made the fights more epic and further test the bonds of the brotherhood. It would also tie in with the themes of the story. Noctis has to fight the past (old rulers) in order to fulfill his destiny as the True King and surpass each of them to defeat Ardyn.
I had progressed far too quickly for some chapters and also didn't fully take advantage of an open world setting as well. This had me speeding past chapters without taking in sights and scenery of Eos. If you really take the time to explore Eos, you can really appreciate how vast and beautiful it really is. When you're driving and all of a sudden interrupted by these fantastical structures created by the gods, it can be really breathtaking. Much like the Witcher 3 Wild Hunt, the point of exploring is to discover something. Most of my time, I'm looking to hunt something or find an interesting item. Running isn't particularly good in this game so I try to ride chocobos whenever I can. Graphics wise, I'm not a big fan of the engine they used. The saving grace would probably be the renderings of food that Ignis cooks.
You would think that side quests would implore the player to travel more. Unfortunately the side quests can be unbelievably boring, most of the time having the gang fetching a new ingredient or item. They're unlike side quests in Yakuza or Witcher 3 where they're entertaining and add to the main story in some way. Having me travel to two different cities with long loading screens wears down my patience.
Let's talk the good stuff about this game. I did end up returning to the game and completing it after all. While I did complain a lot about its flaws, there are also some good points. First of all, it's very beginner friendly. I find it hard to land yourself in a Game Over situation. This way you don't rage quit like you would in a Soulsborne game. (That's me with Nioh.) While I did say I didn't like the combat system and summoning system, it does feel good to smite some Imperials and low level daemons occasionally with Ramuh. When you charge up your Armiger, you can potentially unleash some heavy damage and depending on which special ability you equip for your Chocobros, it can look pretty cool.
The developers did design a lot of custom animations for different moves. For instance if you are able to perform Link-strikes, you will notice that depending on which weapon you're equipped with and who you're linking with, the animation is different. My favorite is Link-strikes with Ignis and equipping Polearms. But Link-strikes in general I find is a hit or miss. I'm not particularly good at performing them.
In terms of voice acting, I prefer the Japanese dub over the English dub. Now the English dub wasn't terrible, but I simply couldn't get use to it once I started the Japanese dub. I recognized all the voice actors used and a lot of them are my favorites. Suzuki Tatsuhisa (Noctis), Nakamura Yuichi (Ravus), Miyake Kenta (Gladiolus), Miyano Mamoru (Ignis), and Fujiwara Keiji (Ardyn) just to name a few.
When people talk about the good things about Final Fantasy, music is always included. They always manage to compose the most beautiful game soundtracks that you will never get tired of listening to. For non-gamers, these orchestral pieces can be enjoyed alone without knowledge of the game. While gaming, music is tastefully sprinkled while you roam the lands so you can hear birds chirp and running waters. It's hard for me to pick a favorite track as there are a lot of amazing tracks in the entire soundtrack. I do want to point out that the leitmotif for Somnus is profound. It starts off quiet and a little sad, but becomes more triumphant very much like Noctis fulfilling his destiny.
While people complained about the story telling, I was quite accepting of the heart wrenching ending that we get initially in the base game. Typically for FF games, we are accustomed to happier endings, but I think even a sad ending is acceptable for FF15. It does have its own beauty by acknowledging sacrifice and going against the greater powers. There is helplessness in the inability to escape death, but also bravery in confronting death. FF's unique lore is very interesting once you dive into it. The Astrals are very powerful, but not omnipotent. Gods can be killed and they aren't necessarily on your side all the time. I mean we all feel strongly after seeing what the Leviathan has done.
If FFXV had a good editor and made some revisions, we could have gotten a phenomenal story. I still remember the different announcements and trailers we had gotten within the ten year "development hell". To this day I remember when the early trailer for FF Versus XIII first dropped, my friends and I were amazed at the quality of the rendering. How the sky actually looks like a sky and you can see every strand of hair on Noctis' head. Later on there were different trailers featuring what could have been suggested gameplay and it sadly really crushed the fans when we didn't get what we saw. The Omen trailer was what really stuck with me. After finishing the game, re-watching the Omen trailer makes me feel incredibly sad for two reasons. One is that we never got this level of quality in the game and two is that this was originally planned for the game, only to be scrapped due to limitations. Plus Noctis watching himself killing Luna is pure massacre right there in the feels.
Again, I don't hate this game. I still had fun regardless while being aware of its flaws. I won't defend its low points, but I will defend its high points. Music is great. Character design is great. I don't mind it being an all boys group. Fishing mini-game is the only mini-game I don't get bored of. Smiting low level beasts with gods is also something I won't get bored of. I sincerely hope that when Square Enix produces another FF game, they will learn from past mistakes.
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