Final Fantasy XV is going to go down as a milestone in Final Fantasy history no matter what I think of it. Part of that is simply due to its lengthy development cycle. Ten years. That’s how long ago the game was originally announced in its first incarnation as Final Fantasy Versus XIII. From the PS3 to PS4. From Tetsuya Nomura to Hajime Tabata. From Stella to Luna. From Versus XIII to XV. It has been a long wait.
I remember telling myself that when the game comes out, I am going to buy a PS3 just to play this, which of course never happened. When the game was finally released end of November this year, I bought a PS4 just to play this. So you can imagine how high my expectations were for the game.
A little background. I used to play a lot of console games when I was younger, and RPGs were the bulk of them. Final Fantasy series alone; VII, VIII, IX, X, X-2, XII, and VII: Dirge of Cerberus. So I guess you could consider me somewhat a fan?
At the start of Final Fantasy XV, the game starts by telling us that this is a Final Fantasy for fans and first-timers. Ambitious goal. Fans are notoriously hard to please especially when you over-simplify things for first-timers. This makes for a somewhat polarising view on the game. On one hand I think most people find the game enjoyable, and on the other hand you have hardcore fans who are not going to be happy with the rather drastic changes made to the series.
Me? I like it. For the most part.
Let’s start with the good stuff.
The graphics, and the design of the open world is stupendously good. Jaw-dropping even. At times I find myself just panning the camera around while travelling in the car, looking at the scenery. They are incredibly detailed, and has a diverse range of terrain that keeps the whole world really interesting. The car is mostly how you would be traversing between towns, but for anything in between you have the Chocobos, or your own two feet. Talking about Chocobos, the monster design in the game are fantastic as well. Their movement, and the details in their design are just astounding. The dungeons are some of the best I have seen as well, providing not just challenging environments to fight in, but also puzzles to solve in some instances.
You have four lovable main protagonists, with believable motivations to stick with each other, and “save the world”. Their interactions with each other, quips and conversations, are genuinely interesting at times (until you start to hear it repeat). Each character adds their own value to the team, and I believe holds the game together quite nicely. While it isn’t like some older Final Fantasy games with tons of playable characters, I think the focus on less characters makes them easier to connect with, and works in favour of the gameplay.
The story, the motivations for the protagonists, and in general the way most of the story is told to us are pretty great. In some older Final Fantasy games, you get the story from dialogues, or from cutscenes mostly. Final Fantasy XV actually utilises the gameplay to tell parts of the story. Even the infamous Chapter 13 (which I shall not spoil), I felt was quite nicely done, and adds to the dramatic effect of the story telling.
The story to “save the world” is only as good as the antagonist’s motivations to “destroy it”, and Final Fantasy XV has a great antagonist in my opinion. One of the best in my books even. He has a believable motivation to do the things he did in game, he has a genuinely menacing presence, and he has a somewhat interesting back story.
The english voice acting for the game is so good, and portrays the emotions of the characters superbly. Especially towards the climactic end of the game.
The action oriented battle system is probably the most contentious part of the game. Most main Final Fantasy games has been turn-based. That in itself provided a unique, and sometimes challenging fighting experience in the game that requires more prep work. It was a love hate relationship though because in reality, who fights like that. Would you stand there and just wait for someone to hit you?
The move to a more realistic settings, better graphics warrants a change in the battle system too into something more life-like. I think it has worked well for the game, and it provided hours of entertainment for me warping around, figuring out how to craft spells, and choosing the right weapon for the right enemies. At times I do wish for a slightly more in-depth system, but I think it’s good enough for the most part.
(A good reason to keep those items that enemies drop)
(Using Royal Arms comes with a cost, which balances out so that they are not over-powered)
I even love how spells could potentially hurt your own party members too, and even affect the environment for a brief period. Just try casting Blizzaga on an enemy that is standing on top of a puddle of water and you’ll see what I mean. A simpler magic casting system unfortunately means that you no longer get classic spells like Ultima, Flare, or Gravija, but you do get a more realistic approach when it comes to magic, and it fits the lore of the game well in my opinion.
This is also where great monster design comes into play, because you do have to pay extra attention to the way they behave. Some enemies could kill you instantly if you attack them at the wrong time, even if you're at a higher level than they are.
Another point of much debate would be the summons/espers/guardian forces/astrals, or whatever you like to call it. Instead of being able to summon them at will, for Final Fantasy XV, criteria has to be fulfilled in order to summon them. Most of the time, it’s only when you are in danger or losing a fight, and even then it would be location-based. Like you can’t summon Leviathan (huge fish) when you’re in the desert right? Because there’s no water for the summon to appear from. So again you get the theme of a fantasy world based on reality, and it’s a theme I enjoy.
One thing I really enjoyed was how the battle system was used to tell the story. Especially when it comes to major boss battles. Traditionally, you get a tougher fight with dialogues to learn about the story, or sometimes it’s cutscenes. In Final Fantasy XV, the battles are actually part of the cinematic experience in telling the story, and it’s damn cool. The difficulty level is no doubt not as high as past Final Fantasy games, but in terms of the experience, I think it does a great job. Not going to spoil too much, but just look at this screenshot of the battle against Leviathan. It’s epic, and reminiscent of the fight scenes in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.
A hallmark of the Final Fantasy games would be its music, and Final Fantasy XV gets the top score as per usual. The choice of using a rendition of Stand By Me by Florence + The Machine felt a little off to me at first. But the way it was worked into the game was brilliant. The soundtrack for the towns, the battles, were all amazing too, and helped to enhance the world that Square Enix is trying to immerse you in. Not forgetting this track too.
If I were to sum up my experience playing the game, it would be that it’s a more cinematic experience than ever before on a Final Fantasy game. In fact a lot of the storyline plays out that way. I feel like if you put together just the major plot lines without the extras in between, you’ll probably end up having a typical movie’s worth of content. Which nicely segues into the second half of this post.
The not so great.
My only major complaint would be its relatively short content. It feels like a lot of the story was glossed over. I am not sure if it was just the lack of time, or other reasons, but it feels like the story was missing a lot of meat. A lot of scenes in the game would have been more emotional and impactful if more content were given to develop some of the characters. Keeping in mind, this is despite having the Brotherhood anime series, and the Kingsglaive film to supplement the story. Both of which are kind of a prerequisite to get a better sense of the story.
Don’t even get me started about keeping part of the story an additional purchase as DLCs (downloadable contents) in the future. Maybe I am just used to playing “complete” Final Fantasy games rather than ones that can be patched or updated thereafter.
It’s a real shame because there are all these great locations in the game that serves as nothing more than a pitstop, or for a ton of irrelevant side quests. These locations could have been used to tell us more about the backstory of the game, instead they just serve as means to get weapons, items, or simply to challenge yourself.
The feeling of time constraint is a recurring theme with the game. While the world is largely open, there are parts of the world especially towards the end where the game becomes almost completely linear, and there are locations in which I would have loved to be able to roam and explore. The restriction isn’t one that is particularly crucial to the plot, but feels more like the lack of time to complete that portion of the game.
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After completing the game, I actually went back to play Final Fantasy VI for the first time on Android just for comparison. While I think it’s a fantastic game, I think Final Fantasy XV took the right steps to move the series forward. It has it flaws, but I think those are mainly down to the lack of development time rather than poor decisions.
Maybe there was a contract stipulating that the game must be release by the end of the year, maybe they just didn’t want to delay the game any further. Either way, what’s done is done. The tweaks and upcoming updates may help improve the game for players who are more patient than I am, but it doesn’t matter to me anymore. There is nothing quite like completing a Final Fantasy game for the first time.
In the end, Final Fantasy XV is still an epic journey worth undertaking. Some may not agree with the changes made to the series, but I think it has worked out well for the game. You simply can’t please everyone since different people love Final Fantasy series for different reasons. But if you’re like me, and keep an open mind while playing the game, I think you’ll find yourself enjoying this imperfect masterpiece too.
Now where is that Final Fantasy VII Remake?
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