Final Fantasy 15 Review
The long awaited Final Fantasy 15. The game for long time fans and new comers. I for one am a new comer. I’ve never played a Final Fantasy game before, and what lured me to play this game was how unique and charming this game looked.
What I love about Final Fantasy 15 is that it’s an RPG that mimics the fantasy themes of traditional RPG’s but then creates this modern open world with RPG mechanics wrapped around everyday relevant things today in real life.
What I love about Final Fantasy 15 is that it’s an RPG that mimics the fantasy themes of traditional RPG’s but then creates this modern open world with RPG mechanics wrapped around everyday relevant things today in real life.
Final Fantasy 15 presents you with four characters traveling around in this big open world, all together as pals with individual skills and personalities. You have Gladiolus who is the survivalist, Ignis the cook and Prompto the photographer.
Prompto has the most interesting skill, He takes pictures throughout your day. Once you all go to sleep, you get a collection of his photos of the day, and you get to pick the best captures of your moments in gameplay.
Then we have Noctis, the character you play as, who is the royal prince who wields several royal powers. Oh and he also likes to fish.
All of the characters are very different from one another. Gladiolus is the big guy, the hardman of the group. Ignis is the serious notepad and pen sort of guy. Prompto is the loud geeky excitable one. At first he’s annoying, but he does grow on you and does become the life of the group.
The character you play as is chilled out, down to earth but confident and his personality isn’t in your face. Some people think that he is a weak character, I don’t feel that way and I like his personality.
The characters are relatable and all feel genuine. They are all very different to one another and yet they are all great friends. The whole relationship between them all felt real and believable and I loved all of them for that.
Prompto has the most interesting skill, He takes pictures throughout your day. Once you all go to sleep, you get a collection of his photos of the day, and you get to pick the best captures of your moments in gameplay.
Then we have Noctis, the character you play as, who is the royal prince who wields several royal powers. Oh and he also likes to fish.
All of the characters are very different from one another. Gladiolus is the big guy, the hardman of the group. Ignis is the serious notepad and pen sort of guy. Prompto is the loud geeky excitable one. At first he’s annoying, but he does grow on you and does become the life of the group.
The character you play as is chilled out, down to earth but confident and his personality isn’t in your face. Some people think that he is a weak character, I don’t feel that way and I like his personality.
The characters are relatable and all feel genuine. They are all very different to one another and yet they are all great friends. The whole relationship between them all felt real and believable and I loved all of them for that.
Something I quite like is that you earn XP that is banked. The XP is only applied to the characters until you go to sleep. You can camp, you can stay at various hotels and caravans, and based on the quality of place, you will get an XP multiplier. You can really use that to your advantage if you have the coin.
The combat caters to the modern RPG real time action gameplay style that I like. The combat is action packed. It is heavily button mashing orientated though, which some would see that as cheap. However it’s incredibly fun in my opinion. The combat is quite basic in comparison to other RPG’s but I liked it and the most important thing for me was that is was fun.
Enemies have weaknesses and resistances to different types of weapons and elements such as fire, electric and ice. Using different weapons for different situations was interesting. Seeing huge packs of enemies drop from using spells that are weak to that type of element was very satisfying.
The driving parts in this game, which is essentially what you will be doing 60% of the time, is awful. It’s for one a really odd game design choice and something that feels like it wasn’t really tested to see if it would actually be fun.
So in this big open world, you need to get to places. The main form of transport is your car. Now you do get to ride this charming fantasy animal called Chocobos. They are your secondary form of transport. They are useful for shorter distances and covering areas that don’t have road.
For longer distances, it’s the car that will be used, and you will often spend more time in the car than you will actually playing the game. The car is driven by Ignis, which is essentially the car automatically driving and you doing nothing.
Or you can “drive” the car, except you’re not really driving. The car is merely just on rails, you don’t have any freedom to actually drive around or mess around with the car.
You’re just merely a car that is glued to the road as if it’s on rails and all you can do is go forward. You can turn left or right if a turning in the road comes up. On top of that, you can’t even go that fast, and you’re stuck to a granny like speed limit. In a nutshell, the driving is incredibly boring.
What were they thinking? Who thought it would be a good idea to just stick you in a car, and make you have to wait the whole car journey at such a slow speed until you can continue playing and continue with your quest?
What’s even more annoying is the fact that a large number of side quests are incredibly lazy and simple. Most of them are just fetch quests where you’re just simply going to a destination and picking something up. A lot of quests are identical to just that but with a different theme and item to pick up.
I wouldn’t mind too much normally, but because of this downright awful way of travelling, it makes it even guiltier having such generic side missions.
Fast travelling does exist in this game. However many times during quests, it doesn’t let you fast travel to places for some reason. I found a way around this though, you can still fast travel to parking spaces provided that you have been there before so I did that. If you haven’t been there though, tough lucky, you’re going to be waiting.
A large number of side quests are incredibly stale, but there are some side quests, particularly the ones that require you to go to dungeons, that are fantastic. At times the game is truly amazing and at other times is dull and bland, it’s a shame that the game isn’t consistently great.
The combat caters to the modern RPG real time action gameplay style that I like. The combat is action packed. It is heavily button mashing orientated though, which some would see that as cheap. However it’s incredibly fun in my opinion. The combat is quite basic in comparison to other RPG’s but I liked it and the most important thing for me was that is was fun.
Enemies have weaknesses and resistances to different types of weapons and elements such as fire, electric and ice. Using different weapons for different situations was interesting. Seeing huge packs of enemies drop from using spells that are weak to that type of element was very satisfying.
The driving parts in this game, which is essentially what you will be doing 60% of the time, is awful. It’s for one a really odd game design choice and something that feels like it wasn’t really tested to see if it would actually be fun.
So in this big open world, you need to get to places. The main form of transport is your car. Now you do get to ride this charming fantasy animal called Chocobos. They are your secondary form of transport. They are useful for shorter distances and covering areas that don’t have road.
For longer distances, it’s the car that will be used, and you will often spend more time in the car than you will actually playing the game. The car is driven by Ignis, which is essentially the car automatically driving and you doing nothing.
Or you can “drive” the car, except you’re not really driving. The car is merely just on rails, you don’t have any freedom to actually drive around or mess around with the car.
You’re just merely a car that is glued to the road as if it’s on rails and all you can do is go forward. You can turn left or right if a turning in the road comes up. On top of that, you can’t even go that fast, and you’re stuck to a granny like speed limit. In a nutshell, the driving is incredibly boring.
What were they thinking? Who thought it would be a good idea to just stick you in a car, and make you have to wait the whole car journey at such a slow speed until you can continue playing and continue with your quest?
What’s even more annoying is the fact that a large number of side quests are incredibly lazy and simple. Most of them are just fetch quests where you’re just simply going to a destination and picking something up. A lot of quests are identical to just that but with a different theme and item to pick up.
I wouldn’t mind too much normally, but because of this downright awful way of travelling, it makes it even guiltier having such generic side missions.
Fast travelling does exist in this game. However many times during quests, it doesn’t let you fast travel to places for some reason. I found a way around this though, you can still fast travel to parking spaces provided that you have been there before so I did that. If you haven’t been there though, tough lucky, you’re going to be waiting.
A large number of side quests are incredibly stale, but there are some side quests, particularly the ones that require you to go to dungeons, that are fantastic. At times the game is truly amazing and at other times is dull and bland, it’s a shame that the game isn’t consistently great.
That really is a theme of the game across the board. Sometimes the game is gorgeous and creative with incredible enemies, elegant environments, and epic boss battles. Other times, places feel copy and pasted from the last area. Certain gas stations look completely identical to the last one. Story missions sometimes are epic, other times they don’t deliver. The story had a lot of potential but in the end became a real mess.
Characters will come out with interesting or quirky things, but then over time, it slowly becomes annoying when you hear the same dialogue a million times. No joke, sometimes they will say the same thing 1-2 times a day.
In FF15’s story, outside of the 4 characters, many characters you meet are pretty shallow. Large portions of the main story doesn’t make sense and you even get a strong feeling with some of the game design in the story later on, that the game wasn’t going to have an open world.
I am glad that the game is open world, because it’s gorgeous, charming and diverse. It’s what attracted me to the game in the first place. The quirky presentation touches and game mechanics all added to the charm too.
The relationship between the 4 is the real highlight of the game. The banter the characters have, and the genuine relationship between the characters feels real as mentioned before. The voice acting can be hit and miss, sometimes it’s annoying, sometimes it’s laughably bad, but when they get it right, it’s spot on and often made me crack a smile. I enjoy the 4 character’s company.
The journey this game took me on was unique and that for me is what makes this game stand out for me. It tries to do something different, even if many ideas didn’t quite make sense in the end.
There is plenty to do outside of the story like most RPG’s. Sometimes it’s great. From fighting in dungeons to collect the royal weapons you need, to growing vegetables in exchange for cash, parts or weapons, these are little things I loved.
I can see why many long time Final Fantasy fans are incredibly disappointed. The foundations that final fantasy built as a franchise didn’t deliver. The combat is basic and has changed from the old school turn based strategy and the story is weak. For me personally though, as a new comer, I loved the combat. The hack and slash and accessible combat system is the best thing about the gameplay in my opinion.
Characters will come out with interesting or quirky things, but then over time, it slowly becomes annoying when you hear the same dialogue a million times. No joke, sometimes they will say the same thing 1-2 times a day.
In FF15’s story, outside of the 4 characters, many characters you meet are pretty shallow. Large portions of the main story doesn’t make sense and you even get a strong feeling with some of the game design in the story later on, that the game wasn’t going to have an open world.
I am glad that the game is open world, because it’s gorgeous, charming and diverse. It’s what attracted me to the game in the first place. The quirky presentation touches and game mechanics all added to the charm too.
The relationship between the 4 is the real highlight of the game. The banter the characters have, and the genuine relationship between the characters feels real as mentioned before. The voice acting can be hit and miss, sometimes it’s annoying, sometimes it’s laughably bad, but when they get it right, it’s spot on and often made me crack a smile. I enjoy the 4 character’s company.
The journey this game took me on was unique and that for me is what makes this game stand out for me. It tries to do something different, even if many ideas didn’t quite make sense in the end.
There is plenty to do outside of the story like most RPG’s. Sometimes it’s great. From fighting in dungeons to collect the royal weapons you need, to growing vegetables in exchange for cash, parts or weapons, these are little things I loved.
I can see why many long time Final Fantasy fans are incredibly disappointed. The foundations that final fantasy built as a franchise didn’t deliver. The combat is basic and has changed from the old school turn based strategy and the story is weak. For me personally though, as a new comer, I loved the combat. The hack and slash and accessible combat system is the best thing about the gameplay in my opinion.
Conclusion
For me, overall what made me still really enjoy this game were three things. The exciting, satisfying and intuitive pick up and play combat. The interesting, varied and beautiful locations it takes you to, and finally the genuine relationship the characters have. I have never played a game where it feels like a truly authentic experience with 4 friends.
The awful and boring driving almost ruined the game for me, but thankfully there is enough about this game that makes it still a very good game. The sheer unique experience this game offers does outweigh the flaws. This is genuinely one of my favourite games of 2016.
This game is such a flawed game but yet is still a great game in my opinion. The game isn’t consistently good and has many shortcomings, but when it does get things right, it is one of the most unique and charming RPG’s out there to date.
For me, overall what made me still really enjoy this game were three things. The exciting, satisfying and intuitive pick up and play combat. The interesting, varied and beautiful locations it takes you to, and finally the genuine relationship the characters have. I have never played a game where it feels like a truly authentic experience with 4 friends.
The awful and boring driving almost ruined the game for me, but thankfully there is enough about this game that makes it still a very good game. The sheer unique experience this game offers does outweigh the flaws. This is genuinely one of my favourite games of 2016.
This game is such a flawed game but yet is still a great game in my opinion. The game isn’t consistently good and has many shortcomings, but when it does get things right, it is one of the most unique and charming RPG’s out there to date.
Pros:
Exciting assessable combat Elegant locations Fantastic 4 main characters Overall 8.5/10 |
Cons:
Many boring side quests Incredibly dull driving parts Messy story |