Final Fantasy XV Review (above 85% on Metacritic) Hype met?

I finally bought it yesterday and finished watching Kingsglaive while it was downloading. Once I watch the anime I'll be fully ready to jump into the FF15 universe, I can't wait.

I'm loving it so far, just the nearing of the end seems abrupt. I'm just going back and finishing most of the quests.

Yeah, when I think back...I got to a certain point and then just gave up. The story made no sense to me at all. The made-up names for the various entities were utterly ridiculous (almost as ridiculous as the character in FFX called "Seymour"...ugh) - I can't quite describe it, but it sort of felt like the developers were trying so damn hard to make me want to like the story, but there was nothing there - it was this vacuum of ideas. It just felt so generic and awful.

I'm starting to wonder if I should re-try XIII once I've finished XV. But either way, XV is miles ahead already, even though it's far from perfect.

@silversix_: Only 7 pages because this game is extremely forgettable. People wont be talking about this FF for years to come like FF6,7, 8, 9, 10.

Opinions are like *** holes, everyone has one and yours smells like ****. The moment I got to the "my favorite in the series is 8 and 10", I was like ok this guy already has shit taste and is bashing a game for being bad, but likes FF8 and FF10 LOOOOOOL. Also I love how you bashed the grid in this game cause you wanted to make a mage character, ****, you haven't been able to do that since the early FF games and ironically the two FF games you liked didn't have that ability at all, so all I see from you're pointless bull **** QQ post is just pointless whining and nitpicking and some shit you're QQing about I'm wondering if you're just bad at the game or haven't played it all cause right off the bat

"The Ascension grid in this is a disaster for me and my hopes of being able to turn my protagonist into a mage have been dashed. Yes I can concoct a magical grenade but I don't want to, I want to be a mage. In previous titles I've progressed through the skill tree, excited that that skill or power I really want will be attained as I get to the higher tiers. In this, the best I can hope for is "get a bit more HP". Then, "get a little bit more than the last one". Lazy."

You do realize the grid offers more than HP right? like it actually gives you + dmg, new abilities for your team, AP gain during activities, MP cost reduction. That alone makes me question if you even actually spent time in the game for a few hours.

I've played a lot of the game now and don't know what to think of it. I like it a lot but there are quite a few 'buts'. I'm playing it as a hack and slash because the magic system is just so fucking awful which I thought wouldn't bother me once I accepted it but actually, it does. I am actually amazed reviewers haven't slaughtered this part of the game. Instead they just explain how it works and then probably play the game completely avoiding it. Incompetent asshats, no change there then.

The car is annoying me now. I wish it wasn't such a core part of the gameplay. Sometimes you can fast travel and sometimes you can't and trust me those car rides get old 20 hours into the game.

Okay, things I like. The hunts are great, they are a real challenge specially if you take them on when they're quite a few levels above you. In fact combat in general is excellent. It's tactical and it's exciting. Needless to say it's light years ahead of W3 and yeah I know that's not saying much.

I really like the Ascension skill system. You can completely change your approach not just to combat but to the whole game depending on what you invest in here, particularly in the early hours of the game. It feels not just like a proper RPG but a proper Final Fantasy.

I think my initial feeling that the game is a solid 8 is pretty much spot on. There's one area though where I feel this Final Fantasy falls short and I'd be really interested to hear opinions on this from anyone who is playing it. The graphics look to me like a PS3 game remastered for PS4. This is on a PS4 Pro.

I know what 4K graphics look like, I play in 4K on a PC. I know what checkerboard rendering looks like, I've played Uncharted 4. To me, even TLOU (Pro version) looks light years better than this. Textures that look really ugly and pixellated close up, characters with great looking armour but the polish doesn't extend to facial features etc (that whole 'remastered' look) I don't know.... I'm used to Final Fantasy games looking f***ing amazing, this is one of the least impressive games I've seen not just on PS4 Pro but on PS4.

I know it's not my TV. Is anyone else thinking WTF at the graphics? Apparently there is a Pro patch coming in December which may or may not introduce 4K resolution but I don't see what that's going to do for low quality textures across the board.

Anyway, it's a really good game. Not GOTY material (in my opinion, obviously) but I suppose considering it's gone through dev hell it could have been a lot worse. It's better than I thought it would be, and not as good as I hoped. Money well spent though, so far at least.

@blueinheaven I'd say the graphics are one of its strong points, actually. With the exception of how awful some of the NPC character models look. If I had to complain about the visuals, it'd be that the environments can all feel a little stale and same-y sometimes. But, I'm only 13 hours in -- there may be much more to see in that department.

In general, I'm feeling like this is a great game ("solid 8," as you say) that just came too late. It's really not reinventing the wheel with much of anything. Even the combat, though passable, leaves a little to desire. I found Xenoblade's combat more compelling, by comparison.

Just shy of 40 hours in and not even to Chapter 7. I'm literally vacuuming every side quest and trying to uncover every dungeon I can just lost in it. Playing classic FF tracks while cruising around is the best!

I love how they also pay homage to dungeons in past games with classic enemies from the early series. All in all, I just feel like this is an FF that has heart and soul. It's like finding Matoya's Cave in FFXIV =) Somehow, some way, they found an untouched and unspoiled batch of Square's old fashioned Special Sauce and mixed it in with a modern FF.

Lo and behold, like many classic FF fans have been trying to say, if they would just stop acting like the series began with VII then they'd start making megahit games again. XIV is doing very well. XV seems to be hitting the ground running. Happy is me!

Not gonna lie, FFVII tracks have been playing every time I can't fast travel. Fucking nostalgia at it's finest.

FF I, FFIV, and FFIX for me. I also bought the XI soundtrack and might give that a whirl eventually.

@Ballroompirate:

Wo jue de ni bi wo hao ben le...

Just a point or two lower than you.

It is not old school. But I love it nonetheless. It is a good game.

Great post. I've now hit almost 15 hours in, and I'm on Chapter 3. At first I wondered if I was going too slow, but honestly, I still haven't cleared up every side quest that is available at this point in the game. And I haven't done any side dungeons yet (I saw one that I want to explore further shortly).

What I'm enjoying is dipping in and out of the story as I go. I'm finding that aspect to be really enjoyable. There's an open-world freedom to it, but there's also a strong structure sitting behind everything.

When I read the reviews which talked about a lot of fetchy stuff, I was a bit wary...but honestly, the combat is so damn good that it doesn't matter. I also love the way that, fairly early in the game, you start to have random encounters with magitech troops (just last night I was playing, and a whole heap of magitech troops landed right on the road in front of me...all the cars stopped and waited while we had a huge battle, it was so fantastic). :D

And then, just when you think you've seen it all, your friggin' chocobo gets angry and dives in to scratch and kick an enemy before running off again. Haha. Love it!

Also, as a side note, someone earlier mentioned Xenoblade's combat...I must admit, I love the combat in Xenoblade Chronicles X, and I feel that Final Fantasy XV borrows heavily on Xenoblade's design in this area. However, my biggest annoyance in Xenoblade Chronicles X is the healing system (or the lack of one) - the randomness to that is infuriating. For me, it's the single-biggest annoyance in that combat system. I love that Final Fantasy XV blends the action and timing of Xenoblade (as well as the contextual and positional stuff) with the ability to pause combat and trigger item use. In my view, that's an almost flawless combination.

Like some people who have posted here I'm really taking my time so I haven't seen too much of the gameworld. I'm on chapter 6 I think after about 30 hours lol so maybe the visuals step up a notch as the game goes on. I'm not that bothered about it, just wondered how people were taking to the graphics. I know what you mean about the game feels like it should have been released some time ago but that's no doubt due to the stop start nature of the game's development. It's quite remarkable how well the game has turned out all things considered.

@djura Get Regroup for Ignis. It's a group heal that also revives any downed team members. I started using this after I had the brilliant idea of taking on a hunt 10 levels above me and half my team got flattened in the first 10 seconds :)

You beat this in 4 days?!

This looks to be the best FF game since FF12

I pretty much agree with everything here.

Except the Ascension system, but I think my dislking of that boils down to my one BIG gripe about this game "as wide as a lake, as shallow a puddle" especially considering there is no hard mode available at the start, normal is rather easy especially when over leveled from side quests... I was level 50 from side quests by the end of chapter 3 (I thought I was being efficient paying 10k gil to get 2.x exp bonus after saving 140k exp after hitting level 30... turns out I just turned the game into a snoozefest).

I was hoping for at least cure,debuff and more choices of spells and hell even abilities... your companions auto-use abilities when noct does something, but this is rather random and not that clever.

Additionally only having control over 1 move at a time for each character was annoying... why did that exist? in Kingdom Hearts you could command ANY ABILITY Goofy or Donald had in that same L2 menu... with no real battle flow problems.

I think, as stated the game could of used longer in the oven, and a little less dumbding down/shallow elements, but its great first step in modernising final fantasy imo.... just give more companion control, far more variety and you have a great system. FF7 remake is their chance to go above and beyond with this.... I think people will be pretty p*ssed off if everyone can't use what materia/abilities they want....

@Netret0120: Yes, met it and suprassed it by a long shot. i'v never seen a game being hated that much before it was even released, either by whinny fans complaing over not being old school enough, or regular gamers complaining about the charcater design. Glad it turned out great in the end. The collective hype felt like 4-6 on this one... -_-

Many people are sad this game reviewed and sold well which is mind boggling. When has more great games EVER been a bad thing?

Man, I'm really hating these long car rides

@Chutebox: I love them. That's when I play classic FF songs and take in the world the most.

Its not a great game. And it only sold well early because its the first simultaneous release for both region and consoles in franchise history.

Not surprising at all. A LP Only had 9 episodes, and it was done from start to finish.

5 mill sold to retailers is still impressive regardless of whether the game is good or not. I think it will crack 7-9 mill in its lifetime sales with the inevitable PC release and the DLC packages and the COMPLETE edition.

However, its an asterisk, its worth pointing out. It sold quickly because of its launch availability.

83% MC now. 7.9 user average. (compare that to Xenoblade X at 84 MC and 8.9 user average) I think we can tell that FFXV is not all that great. Best part is Xenoblade had (I bet) 1/10th of the budget. Fanboys blindly act as if FF XV is such an amazing game, yet in 6 months or so it will not even be seen as top 5 in the series. You can take that to the bank.

I think FFXV will end up being the third best-selling game in the series, behind only FFVII and FFX.

Xenoblade Chronicles X is without a doubt a better game. It had its weaknesses, but it seems like what XCX does bad, FF15 does even worse.

I've played a bit more now.

So far, I'm thinking that the plot is weak, the storytelling is weak, the quests are weak, the characters are two-dimensional, the environments are nice, the combat is chaotic, tbe music is fine, and it's the glitchiest game in the series.

I think I like it, but...I really don't see how people love it.

@Jag85: Agreed. The marketing and worldwide release will see to that.

The true test is to see how fun the game is 50+ hours into it and whether the game sticks with me the way FFX did for example. It will take a mighty effort for any FF to dethrone that (On a personal note)

@Ballroompirate said:

@Craig1181uk said:

@Ballroompirate:

Fags like you should be shot at birth. 'nuff said. Go f*** the hole in the game disk - should be 'bout the right size!

Keyboard warrior.

LMAO now that's a meltdown....what an idiot.

It is back to 84 on metacritic. And the user score is pretty much worthless since there are tons of trolls giving it 0/10 scores for the lulz. And yes, it is certainly not a masterpiece. The game has plenty of flaws but overall I think its a solid game.

maybe a good game, or another sociological manifestation of The Emperor's New Clothes, like MGS4 or Deus Ex HR

"The Emperor's New Clothes" (Danish: Kejserens nye Klæder) is a short tale by Hans Christian Andersen about two weavers who promise an emperor a new suit of clothes that they say is invisible to those who are unfit for their positions, stupid, or incompetent. When the Emperor parades before his subjects in his new clothes, no one dares to say that they don't see any suit of clothes on him for fear that they will be seen as "unfit for their positions, stupid, or incompetent". Finally, a child cries out, "But he isn't wearing anything at all!" The tale has been translated into over 100 languages.

@BigShotSmoov007:

Shove it up your arse you bellend

LMAO

What are moron.

This is true. Most of those reviews are from people who haven't even played the game.

A major reason why critics often hold back criticism of major AAA games from major franchises is because they fear backlash from the fanbase. That's where "The Emperor's New Clothes" analogy comes in.

This is not the case for FFXV. Final Fantasy is no longer viewed as the "Emperor" of RPGs. Much of FFXV's pre-release reception was very mixed at best, even among its core FF fanbase, from things like the real-time combat, Squenix's poor recent track record, development hell, and unimpressive demos, to things like the "boy band", "sausage fest", and road trips. If much of the FF fanbase themselves didn't have faith in the game, there's no reason for critics to hold back criticism, since there's no fear of backlash. And so far, most of the reviews have been quite open about the game's flaws.