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Game Title: Final Fantasy XV
Platform: PlayStation 4
Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
Genre: Role Playing
Age Rating: PEGI: 16+
Release Date: 29th November 2016
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Game Score: 6.0/10
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Summery:
Dispute some new things that XV does right this long awaited RPG fails to live up to the hype thanks to the poor storyline and gameplay issues that hold so much back.
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In recent years Square Enix's beloved RPG franchise has had it's big share of downfalls and big disappoints. The original ten games with the exception of FFII and FFVIII are still regarded as masterpiece RPG classics but when it got to FFXI and X-2 it marked the beginning of the franchise's downfall but when it got to XIII trilogy the series despite strong sales really brought the series to it's knees. In between the development of Final Fantasy XIII was another Final Fantasy game which has had a very rough development cycle which rivals Duke Nukem Forever and Aliens Colonial Marines. With rumours of cancellation followed by a name change and plenty of demos showcasing it's gameplay and openworld design it started to become more sceptical when the release date got close. Now we finally see the eventual release of Final Fantasy XV after a long and painful wait after the unlucky sequel that is Final Fantasy XIII and XIV we would have the Final Fantasy game we waited ten long years for. I never checked out the Episode Duscae nor did I watch the movie or anime based off on them but I can say that after playing through this game for myself that the game tries way too hard to try some things new but however doesn't execute them all that well. Why do you ask? Well let's find out.
So the game takes place in Locius where the main characters Prince Noctis, Gladiolus, Ignis and Prompto are travelling around on a road trip in their car. In the game's beginning chapter Noctis gets word that his homeland has been taken over by the Imperials and his father is killed. The empire's aim is to gain the power of the throne mainly because royalty is a pain and one thinks that one worthy enough should take the throne instead of the next in line. The Imperial's goal in some of the chapters is never all that clear because they either seem to want something with either Noctis or something else because some of the character's motivations and decisions seem to change like every single chapter. I honestly found the story to be very confusing and difficult to follow but some of the character dialogue is humorous to listen to. The main characters are decent for the most part, Noctis goes a lot of emotions dealing with the dangers that are out to get him while Ignis is a sharp and cunning strategist. Gladiolus is okay until the later chapters where he starts to become a bit strict and ends up not caring about Noctis' issues which makes him annoying. I am also not impressed with game's main antagonist as well because his actions with the imperials are often questionable. The voice acting is actually good in both English and Japanese audio so at least it's got that going for it but the storyline is honestly the worst thing about the game because of the poor pacing and the story and character build up and motivation.
What I really have to say about Final Fantasy XV is how just incredible the game actually looks. From the environments to the character models are off superb quality and hold a real attention to detail. I like all the various home towns and rest areas that you visit throughout the game with each of them having a very unique modern look to them. The outside areas have some forest areas which look rather neat as well as some of the cool dessert areas you'll come across. The game goes under a day and night cycle and also shows some brilliant weather effects like having sunny days, dull cloudy days and also rainy days. I also like how the characters can actually get soaked or how they can get dusty and dirty from landing in the dust which is incredible detail. Your main method of transportation that you go through the game with is Noctis' car which is helpful for going through various areas of the game. You can either drive the car yourself or give the car control to Ignis who will drive the party to where you want to go. You can also use fast travel using the car which helps cut down back tracking but be warned it's not always an option. If you chose not to use fast travel and let Ignis drive you can take in the landscapes that the game has to offer and each of them are just simply breath taking. You can also ride on a Chocobo and controlling one is still easy to handle giving you a sense of weight and also those creatures look really more detailed then in past games and you can customize each of them as you wish. You can also see plenty of people around each of the towns as they get on their daily lives and also they use cars as their method of transport as well. All that makes the game world very believable to live in and the character and monster animations are also well detailed especially the attack and magic animations as well.
The game also pays homage to the old Final Fantasy games as well. The shop menus uses sprites of the four main characters in 16bit pixel form just like in Final Fantasy VI, you can listen to the soundtracks from the old games while driving in the car and of course the remix tunes of the main Final Fantasy theme tune and the victory music are cool except that you only hear that tune when you rest in the Inns. Speaking of the soundtrack can I just say that it's possibly one of the franchise's best music composed yet. Many of the tracks seriously fit the tension and combat situations in the game and are also both relaxing and depressing as well. My favourite tracks in the game are the battle music that plays in Cleigne and also Omnis Lacrima which plays during the big boss fights in the wilderness, those tracks just extra tense as the tracks go on and they are brilliant to listen to.
Final Fantasy XV's gameplay is that it is openworld which allows you explore the world and tackle your objectives how you see fit. Your objectives are either side quests or part of the main story, you can take on the story chapter or explore around and do tasks that NPC's ask you to do. Side quests involve you going to a location and complete the objective which may involve either killing the target monster, fetching an item or doing other objectives they ask you to do. You can also take part in various hunts which involve taking on tough monsters which will test your abilities. Beating these hunts will advance your hunter rank allowing you to take on more difficult hunts. These quests really easy to do and complete since you just go to where the NPC's want you to go but there were rare moments where I had to get a walkthrough guide to figure out what I had to do. The hunts are also a vast improvement because when you select one of them you don't have to talk to a stupid partitioner to start the quest after looking on the board like in FFXII.
The big change is that the gameplay controls from a third person perspective which follows both exploration and battles without any transition. You primarily control Noctis while his allies are AI controlled and the control is real time action RPG combat which improves from Final Fantasy Type-0 and the terrible Lightning Returns. In the wilderness you find monsters around the area and the battle starts when you approach them. Circle attacks with equipped weapon, X jumps, Square Defends and Triangle allows Noctis to do a Warp Strike where he instantly zooms to the locked on target and deals critical damage based on the distance. Speaking of lock on you can hold down the R1 button which will lock on to a target and you can change targets with the Right Analog Stick. Noctis can switch between four of his equipped weapons on the fly with the D-pad and lastly you can bring up the items menu with the R2 button which will allow you to heal your allies with items. You can give orders to your teammates with the L1 button plus the D-pad which allows them to unleash one of their attacks which uses a portion of the tech bar or with some techs use all of the tech bar. The three other party members like I said are controlled by the game's AI and also they use their own weapon types, Gladiolus uses big swords and Shields, Prompto uses guns and machinery while Ignis uses Daggers and Spears. You can also blind side enemies which if you can get behind an enemy and attack you and another character can deal extreme damage and instantly kill weakest enemies. You can also knock down enemies which will leave them open to heavy damage which is also handy for fighting tougher enemies which have a ton of health. Enemies also have weaknesses against certain weapons and spell but however I never really found it all that useful to be honest. Later on in the game Noctis will gain the power of the Armiger which allows him to do a series of quick attacks on enemies as well as performing the ultimate finishing blow with it if you get the timing right. The Armiger ends up being the best technique for going through the many challenges in Final Fantasy XV but there are other abilities in the game which I will cover later.
Characters can learn new combat skills and abilities in the Ascension Screen which allows you to use up your hard earned AP on. Each skill ranges from combat techniques, recovery, teamwork, stats and many others. All of which are needed in order to make your adventure easier. The characters each have their own skills outside of combat as well. Noctis likes to go fishing and score some big fish and by going to an appropriate area to fish you can engage in a fishing minigame which is reasonbly fun if you know what you are doing. Gladiolus has survival skills which allows him to pick up dropped items after a battle, Ignis can cook for the party when you rest up at camp sites which becomes one of the top important skills. Ignis can come up new recipes as you explore around and each of the food has various effects like either increased damage, defence, health as well giving resistances to elemental attacks but after they are eaten at camp it lasts for a certain amount of time. You can also eat at restaurants which also give you effects for a time as well and Ignis can even learn recipes from eating some of the food there too which is helpful. Lastly Prompto can take pictures of the things that happen in the game from events, other characters and also landscapes that catches Prompto's eye and there some sidequests which involve taking pictures as well. It's not really a useful ability but it does allow you to share your discoveries and also your favorite moments and share them with friends.
So the gameplay and overall presentation is good enough but however as much as it pains me to say it but Final Fantasy XV has a ton of problems holding it back and that is a shame. For starters the battle system isn't really that refined or incredible as others would say, there are abilities that are just pain useless. The game allows you to create magic spells but mostly this is just under the Fire, Thunder and Ice archetypes that RPG fanatics are familiar with. There are no support magic spells I am aware off but they only made up for it by allowing to combine formula with items which will give the spell effects like being able to cast it three times in a row or giving you experience points when you use the spell in combat and win and so on. Spell formula can be found in the areas but the problem is that you can only use a magic spell a set number of times before it disappears from your inventory and you have to make the spell again and absorbing the formula only takes a small percentage. Plus using the magic spells are a little tricky to use, you have to hold down the circle button and then use the left analog stick to aim it and release the circle button to fire the spell. It causes a delay which is dangerous in some fights cause you'll get interrupted easily.
Later in the game you can also gain the power to summon the mighty powerful beings which the impact to summoning it is incredible don't get me wrong. However you don't have any control as too what summoning you are bound to get plus I think you only get to use one summon per battle I believe. I also think there are some requirements in order for a summoning to come out. At least the summoning beings can help a bit against some of the toughest enemies you'll come across but most of the time they can come at the worst time when it comes when you don't actually need it, plus to summon if prompted you need to hold down the L2 button for a few seconds to commence it.
Now Noctis can use any type of weapon in the game from swords, spears, guns, shields, machinery and so on and they can be assigned to the D-pad for you to change weapons in combat which I mentioned briefly. Noctis can get the power of the Royal Arms which can also be used as weapons and there are 13 of those in the whole game. However when you use a Royal Arm as a regular weapon it drains your health which makes it pointless to use except for when you use the Armiger against tough enemies.
Now I will say that the levelling system they use for this game is weird. You still earn EXP like normal but they don't level up automatically when the characters get enough of them instead you need to spend the night in either Inns or go to a camping spot. I find this odd because shouldn't you level after getting enough EXP anyway? At least with Inns they can actually multiply EXP you've gained by a certain amount which is good for easy level ups. You can also earn EXP from completing quests next to AP as well and AP can also be gained from using abilities that grant AP or from level ups.
I will also say that the combat AI is not all that great to be honest, there are times that your teammates will end up standing around for a few seconds waiting to get hit and also while they can sometimes hold their own against the easier enemies they can often fall against large waves or against tougher enemy types rather easily. Now if anyone in the party gets knocked down to 0 HP they do not actually die instead they do into a danger state they can't fight and their maximum HP starts rapidly dropping down. If an enemy attacks a character in danger state their maximum HP depletes faster and eventually they will die and have to be revived with a phoenix down. Thankfully if Noctis dies you can revive him with a phoenix down before the game over screen pops up. Maximum HP can also go down temporally if enemies use dozens of attacks on the same character and in order to restore their Maximum HP you need to use an elixir to restore the meter to full. You can also use a potion to bring a character out of danger state as well and it ends up being the fastest method for healing. This kind of system is bad for one main reason, even if you revive a character with a regular potion they will have lost a portion of their maximum HP. You can also press the Square button near a party member to revive them as well but that takes to long by then a party member's maximum HP would have depleted a lot and your party members take seconds before they react and help you out of danger state. It's often easier to use recovery items to heal your characters out of danger state instead of relaying on the AI. During boss fights, big enemies and also against large groups of enemies you'll be spending the majority of the fights reviving all your party members then actually fighting cause they tend to get chaotic and also can easily knock your party members down to danger state within 1 or 2 hits after a quick revival. There is also enemies which can inflict status effects and unless your characters are equipped to be protected against them you are more or less screwed.
What doesn't help is that while you can earn EXP from winning battles you do not earn gil from battles. Why is that such a big deal? Well let me explain. You can get materials from killing monsters and Gladiolus' survival skills does allow him to find items after battles but you don't get gil from winning battles. You can only gain gil from selling off materials you don't need or by completing sidequests that will give you some or by completing hunts. This can make purchasing required healing items or getting the best purchasable weapons more difficult cause it forces you to sell of any unwanted stuff unless you think they might be useful later. On top of items, food and weapons you also have to spend gil on fuel for your car to keep it running, gil to customize it to your liking, gil to spend the night at the Inns, gil to fast travel, gil to buy fishing gear. There is just too much that you'll be spending your gil on and it just blows that you have to resort to selling junk that you don't need unless you want to use it for magic crafting to give your spells various bonuses and effects. It's because of this design that you'll end up almost wasting all your items and gil within moments and will have to resort to spend time grinding for recovery items so that you would have a chance in later segments.
There is a Wait Mode where the game stops for a couple of seconds to see where the game points out to what is going to happen and also point you to the nearest enemy attack or something along those lines but it feels unreliable, mainly because it makes the controls a little more stiff plus it also makes it hard to react to other things going around in the battle. You're better off playing the game with normal combat controls and on the easiest difficulty but you're bound to still bump into the gil and item problems that I just talked about.
Since the game is openworld and the game is on a day to night cycle you have to keep an eye out on the timer otherwise if you travel at night you will encounter daemons which will attack you and fighting them is suicidal unless you are highly levelled. They can deal tons of damage, steal your recovery items or one such enemy has an ability to kill one of your party members instantly. You also have to frequently deal with the Imperial soldiers who appear out of nowhere even when you are busy doing side objectives and these guys like the daemons at night can be a real nuisance to fight if you are underleveled. Also because the game is openworld you will also encounter other enemies and big monsters that are high leveled then you are and it can be annoying that they can get involved in some of the fights. What also makes the game's battles harder is the camera. Now okay sure it can keep up with the action some of the time but against big monsters and if fighting in forest areas it makes it harder to see what is going on.
I know I mentioned about how powerful some of the enemies but their AI is also a pain as well. They tend to bounce all over the battle arena. Before you ask yes I get it, the enemies are supposed to be dynamic in a way that makes them react to your combat behaviour but it makes them an issue that they keep hopping all over making them a chore to kill.
Now look not everything with Final Fantasy XV's combat is bad there are a few sections that are actually decent. Travelling through some of the dungeons are cool since they are dark and you can't see a thing, thankfully your characters always have flashlights on them when needed. There's cool section where you are fighting off waves of Imperials while defending the train and you get to wrap strike into the Imperial drops ships to disable them and lastly a section where you get to invade the Imperial base and attack them on sight. My favourite moment in the game is the boss fight with Ifrit near the end of the game cause the impactful it has when you wrap strike upwards to attack him and also finish it off with a summon is very satisfying.
Then there are the bad sections in the game which also let the game down. There are a couple of segments in which Final Fantasy XV tries to do differently but ends up felling unwelcome. There are moments where you infiltrate the Imperial bases and the game tries to throw a stealth section in there but it's sloppily designed. It's just only the basics of creating a stealth section where if you stay out of their view you're hidden but if you move into their field of vision you are detected and everybody in the base comes after you. It's much easier just to go in and attack head on, however there is a similar section later on where you have to relay on stealth and sneak past the guards otherwise getting spotted will resort in a checkpoint restart and it can be a bit tricky.
The first 8 chapters allow you to explore the world at your free will but however while you do get some quick hunts in chapter 9, chapter 10 is where the game shows it's linear side. You can travel back to the openworld gameplay by asking Umbra to warp you back to the past once you get the option. Aside from the train sequence I talked about the linear areas near towards the game are not all that enjoyable. The boss fight with Leviathan is extremely underwhelming and so is the game's final boss and chapter 10's boss fight. Chapter 12 is mostly just straight forward and uninspired and I think we can all agree that chapter 13 is no doubt the worst in the entire game. In that chapter you are stripped of all your weapons and magic and have to resort to using the ring to kill enemies with which takes long to happen and drains your MP within moments. You are then thrown into a series of tedious stealth sections and you also have to navigate a series of endless hallways which have you running all over the place and that sequence goes on for too long.
On top of the summoning and magic systems I don't seem to bother with much and also the linear sections there is the car customization which I do not bother with entirely. Okay sure it gives you options to change it's appearance and also tweak it's performance but you can go through the whole game without either changing or tweaking it's performance which ruins your relationship that you could have with it. It just ends up being more of a tool that is just there for getting you from one destination to the next.
You can tell that Final Fantasy XV has a lot of issues holding the game and okay not all the bad stuff outright ruins the game but they can just be tedious especially if you want to play the game the way it is meant to be played. I am also disappointed with the boss fight with the Behemoth especially since the way the fight went in the Duscae demo. The build up and tension that was made in the demo is now replaced with a wimpy version of that boss fight that does down easily without following instructions to take it down and with a forced stealth section included before the fight as well. Sure there are one or two harder versions of the boss fight which come later on but by then you would be higher enough level with new abilities and you would be able to defeat it just as easily as the previous time you fought one. It's these issues that don't make the challenge in Final Fantasy XV and that you'll spend some of the battles actually healing all your party members then actually fighting. Battle systems in action J-RPGs are enjoyable when they are done right, you shouldn't need to constantly spend time worrying about your allies and keeping them on their toes you should be worrying about yourself. Say what you will about a game like Akiba's Trip or any of the Tales of games but I think the developers did really well in making their combat systems enjoyable and importantly consistently challenging.
To me Final Fantasy XV has some really good moments I already stated and at times the combat can be enjoyable when everything clicks but Final Fantasy XV has so many issues with the storyline, linear sections and the combat and AI that it holds so much potential back. Now I am not really trying to talk nothing but hate about this game I'm really not there is some things I liked about the game like the character dialogue, the references to other Final Fantasy games and I also think the presentation is the best in the series so far. I seem to always give praise Final Fantasy games for their presentation but like I said with the FFXIII games it seems to be one of those games that ends up being more style then substance. Yes I enjoy taking in the sights of the games various landscapes but it's a shame that the rest of it doesn't make the game live up to the long ten year hype that I think we all had and it's sad because deep inside me I really wanted to give this game a chance. At least when you finish the main story you can go back to exploring the open world as you please cause you can get post game content like access to even harder bosses which show off that Square Enix frustrating hard boss difficulty and also gaining the ability to make your car fly. That's right you can unlock the fly ability for your car after you complete a quest after beating through the game. Why can't you unlock that in the story chapters? It just makes it entirely pointless to have unless you just want the trophy, plus if you are not careful flying around hitting anything will cause you to get an instant game over.
If you love funny bugs and glitches and then I swear you will find plenty of those throughout the game and I saw a ton of laugh out loud funny glitches. While the majority of them are fixed It's a shame I can't find them myself so that I could have seen. I did find one glitch where one giant monster while on the ground wouldn't play it's death animation and one bug where I can through the boss while fighting one of the game's optional bosses with caused the frame rate to drop.
Lastly Square Enix is also planning to release separate character episodes as DLC, a patch to fix chapter 13 and even online multiplayer for the main game I believe. There is also the holiday themed stuff and a theme park area that is downloadable. I honestly couldn't care less for the DLC episodes cause it's like you pay for more content that probably should have shipped with the game in the first place and the game could have allowed the option to play as other characters from the get go anyway. Plus by the time people actually go through the game it's likely too late and won't care about the updates and changes. Sure critics are likely to just give this game high reviews like they do with some other games in the series but just because a game got high reviews doesn't mean it's going to impress everyone. It ends up being one of those love it or hate games where it might not be for everyone like this game isn't for me. It's disappointing and like I said it fails to live to the hype that it created all those years ago and it feels like Duke Nukem Forever and Aliens Colonial Marines all over again. Just cause a game created the hype those years ago should not be excused to disappoint when a release date for it comes close. I don't think it's right to call Final Fantasy XV a good game nor a bad game just a very disappointing game and what a shame that it is. Honestly if you want a good action J-RPG then may I strongly suggest Tales of Berseria and in fact how about playing through the Tales franchise in general. Tales of games allowed you to cook for your party members, Tales of games always had great combat systems which gets better with each game, Tales of games allowed you to play as other characters as you please and also allowed you to have three other players play locally with you without needing DLC or online play. As it is Final Fantasy XV tries so hard to do some new things but doesn't do it right. We can hope that in the next Final Fantasy game we won't have to wait another ten or so years for it to come and we can hope that Square Enix will take the franchise back to it's proper roots instead of trying to move the series onward. It just sadly wasn't worth the long ten year wait and you could have played better J-RPGs with that time like I did with one particular series.
When you boot the game it says “A Final Fantasy game for newcomers and fans.” To be honest I completely disagree a this is a Final Fantasy game that isn't for newcomers but only for the die hard and hardcore of fans who will go ahead and give the game large praise no matter problems it has. What a big shame too.
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The Good Points:
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1. Humorous character dialogue
2. Some of the sidequests, hunts and minigames are good
3. Excellent Presentation, best in the series yet and has plenty of homages to other Final Fantasy games
The Bad Points:
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1. Poor storyline and inconstant segments in the main story and some sidequests
2. Summoning and Magic mechanics are not handled well nor enjoyable to use
3. Battle camera in some battles can be a pain and inconsistent challenge in some places
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Reviewed by: Anthony Hayball (AQWBlaZer91)
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