After waiting 10 years for this game to be released it has turned out to be a rather big let down. Fortunately the hype for me died down back in 2009 after the initial onslaught of delays. The game had the right ideas in mind, but in practice they just didn't pan out.
The good:
Graphics are smooth, fluid, and crisp. I have seen better, but this game definitely holds one of the best picks for great CGI and game play visuals I've seen over the last few years. There's no denying that, but then SE has always had a nack for delivering on the eye candy, so I can't say I'm really surprised.
Great ideas for a unique spin on combat with how Noctis fights. They certainly had the right idea in mind on how weapon selection should work, and I can see why the warp mechanic Noctis employs can really bring the fun to the table. However it's good on paper only as the execution is a whole other story entirely.
The bad:
Segwaying off the last good point about the game I have to say the execution was very poor. Noctis' method for drawing from his arsenal of weaponry was very iconic and unique. However it's too bad that only 4 possible weapons can be selected at a time. I think this prevents the system from being utilized to its full potential and ends up underachieving. Also considering Noctis has the largest possible cache of weapons to one character I would imagine (if you're like me) most weapons will go virtually unused. As I'm sure many will simply find 4 weapons/magics they prefer, and will stick to those for the majority of the play through. I can't blame them either as it would become rather tedious to have to constantly rotate out various weapons through the 4 possible slots available as you play. I think a full weapon wheel would have been better suited to Noctis when drawing from his royal weapon pool.
Speaking of utilizing optimal potential and underachieving... I think it was extremely dumb to create such an open world like map to only have it go unused and thrown out the window once you reach chapter 9. That's a lot of work and time developing the over-world map only to be funneled into a linear world. What a waste.
While this maybe a subjective point of view I have to say the story is very shallow and uninteresting. It reeks of typical JRPG story that we've all seen before. Crystals act as a magical plot device, high tech empire next door attacks, shadowy background evil was pulling the strings all along, misunderstood hero trying to find himself, and so forth and so on. For a story that was supposed to be, "a fantasy based on reality" you would think they would have created a story that draws direct parallels to real world issues, history, and controversial topics. One would think after 10 years they would have come up with something deeper, but no it's just another cliche tale that we've already heard a dozen times over.
Character depth is essentially non existent. I chalk this up to there being very little in the way of character development. Why should I care about Lunafreya? There is virtually no connection here other than you should like her because the game's background lore says so. Another example of this is just because the game script has a character abruptly leave only to suddenly reappear and go, "Ah ha! See I have this new extra scar!" does not mean there has been any real development of said character. It's simply just the game telling you there has been development because it said so rather than actually immersing the player into a deeper area of a character's story. It's just very lazy story telling. Which is sad as I think the foundational personalities of the characters were well done. Yet more good things that underachieved.
The Ugly:
Coming down to brass tacks concerning game play... It's absolutely horrendous. While I have seen worse it is still really bad. Camera angles are a pain to adjust for proper views, and are constantly being obscured by some random world prop (shrubs, rocks, trees, etc.). This makes it incredibly annoying and frustrating when trying to fight a cluster of mobs in a real time combat platform.
Utilizing simple mechanics like dodging becomes a real hassle as mobs almost always come in clusters which causes so much chaos on the screen that you'll constantly find yourself just randomly spamming the square button after taking a few swings. The game ends up losing any fluidity it was supposed to have and becomes very choppy as you end up defaulting to hit and run type tactics.
Targeting is very shabby. I found myself always having to hold down the r1 trigger throughout the game in order to maintain a solid lock. Yes, there is a way to "hard lock" in on a target but it is ultimately an exercise in futility as it is constantly "unlocking" when ever you or a mob use certain abilities (which happens frequently). For a game that is based in fast paced and real time combat this is a major gripe.
What really compounds the severity of all this (concerning the "ugly" points) is that these were well known and voiced concerns from the April demo. It looks like SE simply decided to flat out ignore those issues that were brought up by the demo players. If it were not for the last few aforementioned points I would have probably scored the game a couple points higher, but leaving known issues like that for release leaves a very negative impression. Though I guess to be fair it's not like they had 10 years to work all of this stuff out... right?
If you like the Final Fantasy series you'll most likely get some enjoyment out of this game, but I would highly recommend that you wait till it comes down in price before you go to purchase it.