Final Fantasy XV is the latest installment in one of Square Enix’s most prestigious franchises, with a very long line of games before them on multiple platforms, it has truly been one hell of a ride from the beginning, from the amazing teasers and trailers and then suddenly rumors got out that the game was in a state of “Development Hell”. As part of the “Fabula Nova Crystallis” trilogy (together with Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Agito and then titled, Final Fantasy Versus XIII was just a spin-off that the developers would like to do in order to create and explore a “darker” story compared to previous Final Fantasy games.
PREMISE/S
The story revolves around multiple story-lines, the ongoing war between the kingdom of Lucis and Niflheim, with the latter’s main goal of acquiring the Crystal that Lucis uses to protect itself and harness powerful magic. The increasing rate of “Daemons” that continue to spawn and the ongoing threat of a worldwide catastrophe that only the “Oracle” can stop. With so many other stories going on, we are placed in the shoes of Noctis Lucis Caelum, the prince of Lucis, starting his journey with the goal of meeting the Oracle, Lunefreya Nox Fleuret. Together with your companions, Gladiolus Amicita (The Bodyguard), Ignis Scientia (The Advisor) and Prompto Argentum (The Joker), you will hear the the kingdom of Lucis has fallen and you will have to reclaim your throne, with the help of some key characters and events that will take place over the years in-game.
GAMEPLAY
The combat has been changed, from the traditional turn-based combat, it is now more like an action game that fuses Kingdom Hearts and maybe some Devil May Cry elements. You hold a button to continuously attack, another one for dodging and as Noctis can equip all weapons and spells, pressing the D-pad will make you switch up to 4 weapons/spells seamlessly (Companions have a equipment restrictions and may only equip up to 2), the disappointment here is the lack of outfits to wear (currently up to 5 + 1 more from a pre-order DLC), outfits give bonuses whether to boost HP, Strength, Status Ailments, I hope they at least included more as it does get a little boring looking at the characters wearing the same things through their adventures.
The combat does translate well in-game despite the fact that you only control Noctis, especially when characters team-up to land a strike on enemies with Gladio catapulting Noctis into the air so he can strike the enemy from above, striking enemies behind also provide bonuses and Noctis may freely “phase/teleport” through the map to either find an opening or regenerate hp/mp and can unleash his “Armiger”, his own special skill that boost his stats while delivering a quick flurry of blows to the enemy, or deliver one big blow to the enemy as it can be switched.
Characters do earn experience and “Ability Points” (Skill Points) through completing quests, killing monsters and random activities, however, you are required to either find a place to set up camp or an inn for the experience to be distributed and level up your character. Ability Points are used in the Ascension system, relatively similar to Final Fantasy XII’s Sphere Grid, there are multiple paths of powering up your character and selecting which ones to prioritize over will help you further unlock more perks or more powerful versions of some abilities.
Camping also allows Ignis, to prepare food for extra buffs which is a perfect thing to do before you start hunting or doing missions in game, there are also multiple restaurants or cafes in-game that provide the same buffs however they do cost gil. Summons also appear in the game however, unleashing them can be quite confusing as you are not allowed to summon them at will anymore, instead they are activated when certain “requirements” are met (ie. Party HP is low, etc.), these summons are obtained through playing the main story.
Each of our protagonists also offer their own special skills, Noctis can go fishing, Prompto can take pictures of your journey, Ignis cooks for the group and Gladio can pick up items after battles.
Since roaming on the open-world by walking is going to be a pain, the developers implemented different modes in traveling all over the map, with the Regalia (a vehicle that you can customize), renting Chocobos (you can also race them, however there is no breeding option), fast travel (which costs a small amount of gil and only to specific areas). You will also be able to find useful items all throughout the maps so be sure to check every corner. There are some invisible walls that may destroy immersion and the inability of the characters to “Swim” seem pretty anti-thematic as “road trips” usually involve some sort of at least swimming but this has been since relegated to walking on shorelines. The open-world also suffers from being “empty” except for some areas, which I assume would be random re-spawn areas for enemies, there are many buildings and houses but none of them really do anything except being looked at.
VISUALS
Visually, the game’s graphics are pretty great, with some minor low-res textures especially on the reflections. The game usually holds its 30fps stability on my first generation PS4 with very rare instances of frame rate drops. Minor details such as the characters getting dirty while fighting (or burnt if they get hit by spells, bombs, etc), the Regalia also suffers damage and can be serviced to restore it to its “eye-candy” condition. I have to praise Square Enix though as this may be one of those games in which they use the alphabet as you can read the menu, billboards, posters in the game. Another drawback is the very low resolution of the in-game map, it feels counter-intuitive as the series usually aims for a visually appealing product.
TECHNICAL HICCUPS
For some reason, I have a ton of complaints for this game, while I do get that the development of this game has been very troublesome with personnel switches here and there, cancellation rumors, and only glimpses of what the game would be back then, but as we are all just fans, we just put our trust in Square Enix to do the game justice. So when they announced a September 2016 release date, everyone just celebrated as much as everyone likes to have bacon for food, unfortunately though they did delay the release date to November 29, 2016, with director Hajime Tabata stating that they do not want to release a product that isn’t “complete” since that would be bad for the fans. Then a few weeks before the release they hit us with this colossal “Crown Update” patch, a 9.4GB (on my system), that adds a ton of features, scenes from the movies/trailers and bug fixes. I get that some features will be added as time goes on but I do believe that when you delay something because you want to improve/polish it, things like having some parts of the screen being “cut-off” shouldn’t happen.
Upon closer reading this issue has something to do with how the game interprets the data and in order to fix it, your TV must have the option like turning off the “Overscan” feature or having the “Auto” setting. Regardless, I hope Square Enix can fix this with a patch. Another bug that I have encountered was that some NPC’s don’t load up and I would either need to re-load the game or just travel far away and run back just to let the game “refresh” the area. Saving the game may also cause the interface to “freeze” for a few second but so far it has not crashed or corrupted my saves so far (tip: look at the counter on the bottom left, if its running, just wait and you should be fine).
Another issue I had with the game was the number of pre-order or special DLCs (apart from the Season Pass) that it has, from Amazon to eBay to Digital Editions, etc. while I do understand that it is part of the marketing, it doesn’t seem that excluding something like the “King’s Tale”, a side-scrolling beat-em-up game that is exclusive to people who pre-order through GameStop. I do hope that either way, we could get our hands on the other DLCs in the future separately.
Overall, Final Fantasy XV tries a lot of new things that’s sure to not be up to the liking of both its target audience but in this world where open-world has been embraced by many gamers, Final Fantasy XV sets its sight in its dreams of fulfilling a modern feel to the Final Fantasy series. Its story maybe non-descript for both casual and die-hard fans of the series but its amazing ensemble makes up for this, weaving a story filled with a fun air of friendship lined with a new take on combat for the new series. Its Final Fantasy for the new world and you may or may not like it, but its an enjoyable game once you get past the nuances of open-world exploration.
