Final Fantasy XV

 PlayStation 4
User Score
7.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 5428 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3,797 out of 5428
  2. Mixed: 821 out of 5428
  3. Negative: 810 out of 5428
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  1. Nitroade24
    Jul 17, 2020
    7
    Great game, but there are better out there. The open world section and the linear section are like 2 vastly different games glued together. However, the story isn't as satisfying as the beginning hyped it up to be.
  2. OppaiSamurai
    Apr 22, 2020
    7
    First FF game I played through to the end so I'm not to invested in the franchise but for what it's worth in a JRPG setting the game is really good! The beginning starts off great and kinda falls apart and is severely rushed through the middle to end! Characters are likeable and scenery is gorgeous! First half again was more polished. I will be trying other entries in the series now but IFirst FF game I played through to the end so I'm not to invested in the franchise but for what it's worth in a JRPG setting the game is really good! The beginning starts off great and kinda falls apart and is severely rushed through the middle to end! Characters are likeable and scenery is gorgeous! First half again was more polished. I will be trying other entries in the series now but I personally enjoy turn based more so will probably get a thrill of it… Expand
  3. chatrabbita
    Apr 24, 2020
    7
    It is just another "hack and slash" game, which can never be on par with other final fantasy game standard. Sure the open-world aspect is great, but the world felt so empty. The storyline is not so impressive. The combat mechanic requires no strategy. It is just another fun game with beautiful graphics and music.
  4. Casualcryptic
    May 2, 2020
    7
    I try to keep reviews relatively spoiler free, but YMMV on what constitutes a spoiler, so consider this a light spoiler warning:

    FFXV is a frustrating game. There are positive aspects of it for sure, and I suspect most gamers will enjoy their time with it, but the things that weigh it down, really weigh it down. The game is about 80% atmosphere and combat, 20% story. You get hit with    I try to keep reviews relatively spoiler free, but YMMV on what constitutes a spoiler, so consider this a light spoiler warning:

    FFXV is a frustrating game. There are positive aspects of it for sure, and I suspect most gamers will enjoy their time with it, but the things that weigh it down, really weigh it down.

    The game is about 80% atmosphere and combat, 20% story. You get hit with a big exposition dump at the beginning of the game and then it's more or less open road until near the end. In other words, this very much isn't the typical FF formula. It's much more open world. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it doesn't mesh well with telling a deep and compelling story.

    Story
    Story is one of the biggest weaknesses in FFX. There are major story beats that fall short. Characters who are supposed to be major characters who you get one or two scenes with over the whole game. The villain's backstory is an exposition dump during his final fight with essentially no lead in. The game expects you to watch a companion film to understand part of the early plot, and it doesn't come with all versions of the game. Four major events from the story are taken out of the game so that Square Enix can sell them as DLC and they weren't even available at launch. These sections are not smooth in any way shape or form. In other words, the story is a trainwreck from start to finish, which is sad, because there are some interesting premises in it. The villain is, or seems like he would be, interesting. You don't get to know him, but he seems like the kind of villain you would like to get to know. Same thing with the love interest, and the mentor character. They all would have benefited from more screen time. There's also a lot of worldbuilding in this game, some of which actually comes through well, but most of which isn't super relevant to the game itself. The worldbuilding focusses on cities and politics and such, but most of the game takes place in barren wilderness, which is a bit of an odd back and forth. Of all the FF titles I've played, and I've played a lot, this is the one that probably needed the least complicated of a backstory to shape its overall premise, so the fact that they tried to go extremely complicated, and failed to come through, is a dissapointment.

    Combat
    Combat is actually decent and is one of the highlights of the game. It looks amazing, but it feels only okay. Attacks aren't as weighty as I would like, and the later into the game you get the more you realize just how button mashy the core mechanics really are. There isn't as much complexity or strategy as you would generally expect from an FF title but it can still be enjoyable enough. The major combat hook is that you can teleport from location to location by throwing your weapons. It looks great and it's decently useful. I've heard complaints about the boss fights but I think most of them are about as good as you could hope given the simple combat mechanics. I enjoyed my time fighting Aeons in particular.

    Atmosphere
    This is where the game lives, and is the main reason that the game isn't just a dumpster fire. You have three companions which you start the game with, and you'll never get more. Each has a compelling personality and defining features. Only one has much of a meaningful backstory, but that's back to the story issues. The group chats amongst itself as you play, commenting on everything. They all have useful skills related to being in the great outdoors, photography, and cooking, and you are generally just roaming from town to town, camping in the wilderness, fishing, and hanging out. It's got a good feel to it. Whereas most FF games are entirely combat based, this one almost feels like it has a separate thing going for it in addition to the combat. This is the one aspect of the game that I think really just works. There's a general Southern America vibe to the whole worldspace that really just resonates with what you are doing. It's portrayed in the NPCS, the music, and the architecture, and it all just generally works.

    Of course, then you get into the cities and it's back to typical JRPG high fantasy, and honestly, it's a bit of a dissapointment because the cities are so much less innovative or interesting than the outlands.

    So that's what you end up with, a game with an inconsistently good worldspace / atmosphere, decent combat, and the makings of a decent story but rough pacing and storytelling and some questionable marketing decisions surrounding locking parts of the main plot behind DLC and the Collector's Edition.    … Expand
  5. Sitheral
    Jun 14, 2020
    7
    An interesting entry to the series. Its just as good at it is bad at times and much of it is related to the fact that it is an open world game. The world is beautiful, but often feels empty. You will spend a lot of time riding in car and just looking at it and the alternative (long loading) is even worse. Optional quests don't even try to be interesting and even the bazilions of dlcs can'tAn interesting entry to the series. Its just as good at it is bad at times and much of it is related to the fact that it is an open world game. The world is beautiful, but often feels empty. You will spend a lot of time riding in car and just looking at it and the alternative (long loading) is even worse. Optional quests don't even try to be interesting and even the bazilions of dlcs can't help save the story, which is a mess.… Expand
  6. explorerbay
    Jul 22, 2020
    7
    It's a good game but far from perfect, the story is cool but have some cliches, the open world is amazing but in the second half starts being linear, the characters are really cool but to know more about then you have to buy the dlcs. Overwall it's a cool game and a good final fantasy, an improvement from XIII
  7. NxtDoc
    Apr 1, 2021
    7
    In the opening Final Fantasy XV claims that it is a Final Fantasy for both old fans and new ones. This is an odd statement. But once the combat starts you begin to know why it is said.

    Final Fantasy XV is a solid game. However, it has some glaring issues. The combat is clunky, and very chaotic. There is no strategy in the combat system, as with older FF games. It is inferior and    In the opening Final Fantasy XV claims that it is a Final Fantasy for both old fans and new ones. This is an odd statement. But once the combat starts you begin to know why it is said.

    Final Fantasy XV is a solid game. However, it has some glaring issues. The combat is clunky, and very chaotic. There is no strategy in the combat system, as with older FF games. It is inferior and takes away a very enjoyable element of FF of old. And the summoning is awful. You must meet a oddly specific set of scenarios for you to summon. Very lame, and bad idea.

    The Regalia is more of a nuisance than anything else. Driving is boring, and cumbersome. Noctis is a enjoyable character, and his supporting cast is decent. But fairly forgettable.

    All in all, FF XV is solid but left me yearning for FF of old. If FF continues in this hack and slash direction, I'll sadly have to leave the franchise for good    … Expand
  8. bohalaa
    Dec 21, 2020
    7
    I'm a big fan of final fantasy series but this one disappointed me, i expected something better.
  9. AleGemini
    Aug 6, 2020
    7
    Gameplay carino, originale rispetto ai suoi predecessori ma con tagli su magie e invocazioni che proprio non mi vanno giù.
    Trama sufficiente, piena di buchi riempiti da dlc, non capisco perché il tizio che l'ha preso da Nonura non abbia voluto tenere l'idea originale.
  10. rainyday2
    Oct 28, 2020
    7
    Here comes a game that could have been legendary with an 11/10 potential but it got ruined by so many things that it would take me ages to describe . The unfinished nature at launch , the world of Final Fantasy XV stupidity where you had to watch not only movies and anime but freaking trailers to understand everything about the world and last but not least the devs spending time on theHere comes a game that could have been legendary with an 11/10 potential but it got ruined by so many things that it would take me ages to describe . The unfinished nature at launch , the world of Final Fantasy XV stupidity where you had to watch not only movies and anime but freaking trailers to understand everything about the world and last but not least the devs spending time on the dumbest things you could possibly imagine instead of fixing what was truly broken ...

    Want the long dull ass rides with the car to be shortened? Want better side quests? More cutscenes? More Luna scenes? A new city? Nah get some fishing , some VR crap , a monster truck , an FPS perspective among other things you will never use ..

    To their credit they tried to fix this game what with them adding the ability to change characters and such but they also spend time working on a playable Luna and entire DLC's that amounted to NOTHING . Countless things they worked on amounted to **** nothing because their vision constantly changed ever since 2006 ...What a mess    … Expand
  11. taki12982
    Nov 8, 2020
    7
    Having to watch the movie to understand the beginning already was a bad sign. The story is mehh lots of stuff missing even after playing the DLC's and royal edition with an extra story. All this the fact Tetsuya Nomura was pretty bad and that Square Enix made us wait a decade for this.

    Also rip episode Noctis, Freya (a character we barely know about), and that other **** I forgot about
  12. T_leaf
    Jan 4, 2021
    7
    An overall positive experience with some fundamental issues. I really enjoyed the story, characters, visuals, and overall gameplay. The controls are lacking and take away from the experience at times. Some features especially around the driving mechanic were frustrating and hard to get used to. The EXP system and hotel integration was really strange and unfortunately left me intentionallyAn overall positive experience with some fundamental issues. I really enjoyed the story, characters, visuals, and overall gameplay. The controls are lacking and take away from the experience at times. Some features especially around the driving mechanic were frustrating and hard to get used to. The EXP system and hotel integration was really strange and unfortunately left me intentionally skipping certain things I would have liked to try in order to maximize EXP gains. The characters were very well made, and very reliable - no complaints on this. The basic combat system was fun but some of the finer details like Summons, special weapons, etc felt rushed and poorly implemented.… Expand
  13. Jplays_07
    Jan 9, 2021
    7
    Pretty good game. A vast open world, good combat system, graphics and textures are nice, the characters’ interactions are interesting and funny lol. The downsides are, its story is kinda lacking. Which is sad, cause it had a lot of potential. Only if they kept the original story of FF Versus XIII, that would’ve been awesome. Second, is the camera controls during battle. its pretty clunkyPretty good game. A vast open world, good combat system, graphics and textures are nice, the characters’ interactions are interesting and funny lol. The downsides are, its story is kinda lacking. Which is sad, cause it had a lot of potential. Only if they kept the original story of FF Versus XIII, that would’ve been awesome. Second, is the camera controls during battle. its pretty clunky as hell especially when you’re surrounded by HUGE mobs of enemies at the same time. Camera goes into a damn seizure and its annoying af. And the face animations look kinda bad too. But hey, its soundtrack is SUPER EPIC tho. It kinda compensates for it. Overall, the game is still really well made. Good Job Square.… Expand
  14. Solidwisdom
    Feb 6, 2021
    7
    This game was prety good but definitely not the top 3 of my fav ff. Some parts are really epic espically when it plays the real boss theme and your fighting a boss but everything else was just average and couldev been much better. I don’t really like the 4 male characters only. Open world was mostly empty with not much to do. Just overall I recommend it as a rent but now you can get it forThis game was prety good but definitely not the top 3 of my fav ff. Some parts are really epic espically when it plays the real boss theme and your fighting a boss but everything else was just average and couldev been much better. I don’t really like the 4 male characters only. Open world was mostly empty with not much to do. Just overall I recommend it as a rent but now you can get it for very cheap so for its price its worth playing once.… Expand
  15. felipelucktt
    Aug 17, 2021
    7
    Um bom jogo, nada além disso. Mundo e personagens que parecem instigantes, mas que são incrivelmente desperdiçados.
  16. gotas
    Jul 16, 2021
    7
    this game had the potential to become a masterpiece. Some aspects of the game are fantastic, like the relation between the characters, the music, the beauty of the word. But the story is so badly told because of the struggles in the development of the game. Some elements appear just one time or some characters just desapear from the story. After all i can say that i really recomend it, itthis game had the potential to become a masterpiece. Some aspects of the game are fantastic, like the relation between the characters, the music, the beauty of the word. But the story is so badly told because of the struggles in the development of the game. Some elements appear just one time or some characters just desapear from the story. After all i can say that i really recomend it, it never gets boring and it has some amazing moments.… Expand
  17. Avid_StoryLover
    Nov 19, 2021
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. So I've played almost every game in the series and have been a long time fan. This is my least favorite in the series, though I still enjoyed it. But yeah let's get into my issues with the game. Keep in mind this will review the game pre dlc
    First the combat between not being able to see what I'm doing when fighting hordes of enemies to magic being a joke it's already mostly autopilot. And not being able to switch between characters is a huge negative. Now the summons while they look awesome the requirements to trigger some of them are ridiculous and too specific. Another thing the side missions in this game are a joke and mostly boring fetch quests. As far as the gameplay ff7 remake took everything this game tried to do and did it leagues better.
    Now for the story... The game was not finished there are sections of the game missing. They remedied this in the dlcs but for a game series known for its story this is a sin. I even missed main elements of the story because I didn't do a specific thing in it's too large too empty open world. Open world does not mean key elements of the story should be missable mgsv made this mistake too. Also they didn't show noctis's homeland being destroyed no pre rendered or anything it just kind of happens. They could have used scenes from the movie. But anyway what I got from the story I did like.
    So on a final note I enjoyed the game but they really needed more time with and it needed a more stable direction.    … Expand
  18. JackPlack
    Oct 19, 2022
    7
    It would be much more fun with better dialogue/cutscene system or just PL localization. Fallout4/Skyrim were fine with english, but this game is too much jRPG style. When u're loosing with story its pointless to play next hours. Maybe next time give option - minimalistic english or native english. For players who are lost there maybe should been some logs, guide, good storyIt would be much more fun with better dialogue/cutscene system or just PL localization. Fallout4/Skyrim were fine with english, but this game is too much jRPG style. When u're loosing with story its pointless to play next hours. Maybe next time give option - minimalistic english or native english. For players who are lost there maybe should been some logs, guide, good story explanation/short manga with summary.

    About gameplay - fighting is satisfying but teamwork isnt. Companions are fine when u're not steering companions. Perks/synergy system is little bad, when u're limited. I think Mount And Blade system is 10 more satysfying when u doesnt care too much which perk and perk tree isnt strange. Just use bow to increese its level than same speed increese blade skill - just for using it. Also loot is too much jRpg gun+1, blade+2 - no immersion (visualisation isnt as much important as stats like in ERing)

    Main character - could been more customizable or more neutral like Witcher or Spiderman.    … Expand
  19. Zivante
    Sep 19, 2022
    7
    It's a very good game, gameplay it's fun, intuitive interface and story line. Something negative Is that the perfomance on PS4 Is bad, low dificculty and plot hole in the story line.
  20. Pietro2023
    Jul 8, 2023
    7
    Joguei Cerca de 40 horas platinei o jogo história incrível mas achei muito repetitivo e tem muita missão secundária tipo mais de 150 missões isso que e ruim quantidade não e qualidade mas fora isso jogo ótimo
  21. aaaskeptic
    Feb 12, 2023
    7
    FFXV is a weird game, but it worked for me.

    There are a lot of flaws, but above all, I enjoyed most of it. It really felt like a road trip with some funny dudes you can bond with. Cons: - Pacing is bad. There is a sense of urgency, yet you just chill with some funny dudes until things go downhill and then it's suddenly a linear game - Story is told in a weird way. Some important    FFXV is a weird game, but it worked for me.

    There are a lot of flaws, but above all, I enjoyed most of it. It really felt like a road trip with some funny dudes you can bond with.

    Cons:
    - Pacing is bad. There is a sense of urgency, yet you just chill with some funny dudes until things go downhill and then it's suddenly a linear game
    - Story is told in a weird way. Some important plot points are told in radio comms, which you might totally miss. I couldn't grasp the whole story from playing it. Reading up on it, it might have been a pretty good story though.
    - Not really that immersive considering you run around with the most attention-grabbing clothes and have retainers who wear normal shorts and 3/4 bermuda trousers.
    - Some of the quests are really stupid, but at least I got a good laugh out of some.
    - Filler open world content to pad out the game
    - Some of the music tracks are really grinding my ears
    - Some passages of the game are really bad towards the end

    In my opinion this is the best single player FF since FFIX, albeit it being completely different. However, you can clearly see this was a game in development hell, since a lot of things feel very disconnected.    … Expand
  22. robinzvak
    Mar 10, 2017
    6
    Start is not bad, vizuals looks good , combat cool, but when i player more and more game ale worse and worse. I stopped played at XIII. chapter. FF XV is crazy mix open word game with bored corridor missions (chapters) ..
  23. Stuvok
    Oct 18, 2018
    6
    Great and terrible
    exciting but boring
    realistic but nonsensical
    great characters but awful story
    It just goes on and on. There is nothing this game truly gets right, but there maybe enough buried under the half baked ideas for you to truly like the game. Even if you do love it... you'll probably say "I love it, but I know it's terrible"
  24. ShlaQ
    Nov 30, 2016
    6
    Not a bad game, but still a bad Final Fantasy. Combat system is boring, characters are so flat that I have absolutley no connection with them and I don't care about what happening with them.
    8/10 as a game
    4/10 as Final Fantasy
    Overall 6/10
  25. Carlitoxic
    Feb 17, 2017
    6
    I`m extremely disappointed with FFXV and Square- enix. I am not going to expect for anything from the next Final Fantasy. A good game (beautiful world, dungeons, long and great combat) but the story is very badly counted and it is very short. I feel defrauded after seeing all the trailers that I saw from FFXV not Versus.
  26. paddystudmuffin
    Dec 8, 2016
    6
    Not great tbh. Played for 40hrs waiting for it the get exciting but in vain. The so called side quests are awful. Lack decent fast travel, average graphics and really boring simplistic combat. Also the music when ur riding the bird is so annoying. It's an average game so it deserves a big dirty 6/10
  27. Clessy
    Dec 14, 2016
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I just don't get where everyones coming from. I've beat every numbered ff game sans 11, 12 and 14.
    FF15 isnt a bad game but man is it medicore. Its probably one of the most disopointing meh games in the series.

    First lets address the ps4 version.

    The ps4 version offers a crisper picture coming in at a locked 1080p. The game hits and stays at 30fps. There is sometimes a oddity in jerky animations but i'd say this is unnnoticable to most normal peoples eyes. The ps4 version has less issues with texture pop in than the xbox one version.

    The xbox version runs a 720p to 900p. When the games running at 900p things look pretty much as solid as the ps4 version however, its running in 720p the vast majority of the time and honestly the picture looks soft and blurry as hell. The xbox version suffers from textures pop in and not loading fast enough a lot. This happens when theres not enough free space on the HDD. It has to load so much data that if the ff15 data isnt on the outer quicker part of the HDD then it cant load fast enough to keep up with the textures.

    I've got 67 hours on the xbox one version and my friend has 200 hours on the ps4 version with everything complete. I myself on xbox only have 90% of the achivements and tons of pointless bland quest to do. He has literally every single quest, hunt, etc to include the bonus dugeons.

    It shys away from the strong story telling of previous games to have a paper thin, poorly wrote, awfully explained and pretty much flaws flat on its face with its lack of depth. You build absolutely no emotion connection with luna.

    Its a technical mess, glitches amass. Popin, textures loading awfully, the game having load times that make the neogeo cd look like lighting comparitly. Aimless pointless traveling thats early to mask loading issues. Games crashed on me 3 times my friends have all had it at least crash once. Im talking about just serious bugs everywhere. This isnt being repoarted from someone whos put 6 to 30 hours into the game.

    The battle system lacks any depth. Its mostly just hold b. The magic system is junk feels like a after thought. The skill tree is **** Things costing 333 and above will simply almost never get bought. You'll be max level and no where near the ap you need for anything. Most of the skills you will soon realize are useless and not thought out. Especially all the ones to enhance the ammount of AP you get. They cost so much that they negate anything wasted into them.

    The graphics are all over the place. Some times looking like a last gen game and not even a good one to the next minute blowing your mind.

    Hallow gameplay. Most of the game is the same damn quest over and over an over. If I wanted that i'd play a western rpg. I want my quest to have real uniqueness with a story to drive them. I've literally fixed the same guys car like 3 times. The hunts have no meaning except exp. This game is literally Fetchquest Fantasy 15.

    Dialog repeatition. They're trying to build up your emotional bond and people seem so captivated by this hallow experience. You're out of unique dialog or any building of bonds by around 7 hours into the game.

    If you dont want a story and you want questing and you dont even want a final fantasy or anything that resembles a final fantasy maybe you'll enjoy this. This is clearly the mind of western rpg or mmo mentality spilling into a single player game.

    To each his own but, the over whelming positivity and hype for this game is baffling. I've yet to meet a single person who likes the game in person and it seems to just be an online presence of this over hyping.    … Expand
  28. miszbreesz54
    Dec 21, 2016
    6
    I finished this game the other night with 70+hrs in and all I could wonder is why it took the creators 10yrs to complete this game. I am honestly disappointed with it. I didn't feel any connection with any of the characters, the story didn't draw me in, and the side quests (aka "fetch" quests) aren't rewarding at all. Compared to older FF games do a quest and you'll receive a well neededI finished this game the other night with 70+hrs in and all I could wonder is why it took the creators 10yrs to complete this game. I am honestly disappointed with it. I didn't feel any connection with any of the characters, the story didn't draw me in, and the side quests (aka "fetch" quests) aren't rewarding at all. Compared to older FF games do a quest and you'll receive a well needed accessory or weapon. In FF XV you'll receive like a hi-potion or a megalixir for example. I'm not fighting a level 99 monster (and I really like to fight optional bosses) just to be rewarded some BS. I did not like the ending boss fight at all. It didn't feel like a boss fight whatsoever. There was just no challenge to it. There are summons called Astrals that, unlike other FF games, you cannot summon whenever you want. They only appear for you when they, the Astrals, deem it necessary. Now to level up you have to rest at a hotel, motel, or camp site to accumulate all of your EXP which i hate! If you don't do any of those things you will not level up. The openworld didn't feel like an openworld to me either. I couldn't just go anywhere I wanted like you can in GTA. When I hear "openworld" GTA comes to mind. Those are my personal issues with this game. So in the end this game is great, good, or bad. It's just an "ok" game. My opinion is to wait for a price drop.… Expand
  29. neozora
    Feb 20, 2017
    6
    Despite the advertising, this is a Final Fantasy for firt-timers maybe, but definetly not for fans.
    The scenario and graphics are beautiful and it's hard to argue with that. But the story is really shallow and the combat system most of the time way too simple and at other times confusing, specially with the weird camera angles.
    The game tries to compensate mistakes from FFXIII and give    Despite the advertising, this is a Final Fantasy for firt-timers maybe, but definetly not for fans.
    The scenario and graphics are beautiful and it's hard to argue with that. But the story is really shallow and the combat system most of the time way too simple and at other times confusing, specially with the weird camera angles.
    The game tries to compensate mistakes from FFXIII and give us a wide open-world at the begining, but then it decides to take a linear path for the second half which just setences the player for some long boring sequences (yes, chapter 13, i'm mentioning you!)
    It just looks like a half-made game, which is proved by the amount of huge updates square already released and the plenty of dlcs scheduled.
    It's decent, it's playable, just don't rush to get it.
    And it definetly doesn't live up to the name it carries    … Expand
  30. skillzmcfly
    Dec 31, 2016
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. We all know the best Final Fantasy is [insert the first Final Fantasy you ever played]. Now, this rendition is somewhat of a letdown to me. I have played most Final Fantasys and liked them mostly. Part 15 is among my least favorite. Now, I will try to present my criticism in order.
    Positives: The graphics are gorgeous. The fights are dynamic. And you can ride a chocobo. Sadly, that is about it.
    Negatives: You only get direct control of one of the characters. The fights are confusing and it is hard to stay on one target. The magic system is shallow and I soon started to avoid using magic. Talking about things being shallow: the characters and the story. SPOILER: You are led into a trap for most of the game in what isn't even a real twist. The characters react predictably - you don't get a choice. You get to ride around in a cool car - which takes virtually forever to get anywhere. And you have to do it again and again.
    Throughout the game characters get removed from your party, which I always feel is poor gameplay pacing by producers. At one point all of the weapons you collected get taken away and you have to walk through areas that are made to be a survival horror game. Totally not what I wanted to buy.
    It might be the same case as with FF8 where I only got the hang and the basics of gameplay on my second try, but thus far FF15 is a gorgeous turd. I am almost through - only sidequesting before the endgame - and because I waited so long this game is a major letdown. Boo on you Square.    … Expand
  31. SenshudoTV
    Dec 8, 2016
    6
    You were close, so very close to being good..

    Ultimately, the game is pretty fun in places but drops off when it's away from it's high spots. When it's good, it's fantastic, for the other 80% of the time, it's mediocre at best.
  32. Tryium
    Jan 3, 2017
    6
    Oh boy, where to start... Almost a very good game, but a bad Final Fantasy.

    It's been a long time (not 10 years, but...) that i've been waiting for this game. The promises of an open world final fantasy was good. The story was looking good at that time, mysterious, with a lot of cutscene, implication between Noctis and his father, good combat ect. The combat are very nervous, but    Oh boy, where to start... Almost a very good game, but a bad Final Fantasy.

    It's been a long time (not 10 years, but...) that i've been waiting for this game. The promises of an open world final fantasy was good. The story was looking good at that time, mysterious, with a lot of cutscene, implication between Noctis and his father, good combat ect.

    The combat are very nervous, but took a long time to master it perfectly. It's not casual friendly so it's hard to master. The summons are few, but still massively impressive to watch and a pleasure for the eye every time they appear.

    The graphics are just... beautiful. The artistic direction have never been this close to perfection in a Final Fantasy as i remember. The world feel like everything that surround you is alive, the landscape are beautiful and so on.

    The music, oh god the music, they are candy for the ear. Perfect.

    BUT. the story is... confuse, not good, not well taled, well not a final fantasy story after all... Too many scenes have been cut from what you can see in the trailer. You're not attached AT ALL to any characters, except your band mates, the bad guy isnt really one, his motivations unclear and the final battle is laughable in any way (i dint get how to fight to be honest). The conclusion is... not that interesting and the final chapter try to bring some good but again, fail to tell a story.

    The side quest are basic, but we were hoping for more "story telled" side quest, instead of boring fetch quest, and not quiet rewarding after all.

    In conclusion,it's a good way to start the final fantasy franchise, the game IS good and the story is better than FFXIII, but god, never again, please, stop screwing the final fantasy stories...    … Expand
  33. SeanAnderton
    Nov 30, 2016
    6
    I've been a fan the the FF series for quite a while now, however many fans have found the last few entries to be disappointing. With this new game trying to restore the once good name of Final Fantasy, and overcome the troubled development, and also create an experience for old fans and newcomers, Final Fantasy XV has a titanic task ahead of it. Does it live up to the hype? Short answer,I've been a fan the the FF series for quite a while now, however many fans have found the last few entries to be disappointing. With this new game trying to restore the once good name of Final Fantasy, and overcome the troubled development, and also create an experience for old fans and newcomers, Final Fantasy XV has a titanic task ahead of it. Does it live up to the hype? Short answer, not really.

    FF15 isn't a bad game (although I'm going to rail on it and you're going to get really mad at me, but hear me out). It's just such a mixed bag throughout. The characters aren't bad, but compared to previous FF games, they're pretty bland. They look like four near identical emo boys who just got gift cards to Hot Topic The only way to tell them apart is their hair. When I think back to the diverse casts that had men, women, white, black, old, young, human, non-human, I remember how much I loved those old characters. These four dudes are fairly dull by comparison. Throughout your game you don't recruit new party members or get to choose from a list. It's just the same four boys all day every day.

    The story is nonsense. It starts off fairly simple and I understood what was happening, even if it was pretty bland. But as the story ramps up, it quickly becomes incoherent, mainly because the game doesn't give you the information to understand what's going on. There is a supplemental anime and movie, but I didn't watch them, and from what I've heard they're pretty confusing as well, so I don't know that they would help. All I can say is, if I buy a game, it should have a coherent story without requiring me to watching 5 hours of other junk.

    The gameplay consists of traveling and fighting. The traveling is mainly on foot or by car. The car drives itself, leaving you to just stare at the scenery for long stretches. You can manually drive, but the car is on rails, so you don't even steer. And since the car is limited to about 40 MPH, don't expect to get anywhere fast. Once you reach your destination with your car, you're frequently asked to run around for long distances to reach your goal. This often means spending several minutes running through open, empty landscape after you just spent several minutes driving through open, empty road. You can go long stretches of time (10+ minutes) with literally nothing happening.

    Battles aren't much better. On the positive side, the battles are action packed. However, you don't really control much going on. You mainly hold down the circle button the entire time, occasionally blocking or warping. You can switch between different weapons on the fly, but they don't make much of a difference, except for sometimes dealing bonus damage on certain enemies. I was able to use the same strategy on nearly every fight in the game, because the game doesn't really ask you to use any strategy. Also, the camera likes to freak out a lot, and can become especially cumbersome when fighting large groups of enemies in narrow corridors.

    Between missions you can visit various towns and pit-stops, but most have only a half dozen people in them and only a couple can interact with you. Open world games only work if you fill them up with people to see and things to do. The world of FF15 feels sparse and lonely.

    The graphics are really nice, something that FF games are known for. However, most modern AAA games look great, so having good graphics doesn't really make you stand out from the crowd. The animations and character models are a mixed bag. During main story cutscenes, the graphics and animations look great, but during the side quest stuff, it looks like something from last gen or even older. Sometimes animations can look downright stiff and archaic.

    The sound design is also a mixed bag. Sometimes the voice acting is quite good, other times it's laughable bad. Sometimes the music is good, sometimes it sounds like a 90's golfing game. Sometimes the ambient noise is immersive, and other times it's flat or absent. There's a "home theater" option in the audio menu, but I couldn't tell the difference between that and the default setting. I have Sony 7.1 surround sound headphones, which make most modern games sound incredible, but I found the sound mix in FF15 to be rather flat overall.

    Really, at the end of the day, there are better open world games and better RPGs. FF15 isn't a terrible game, and I did get some enjoyment out of it, but overall the package feels lackluster. This is about as mediocre a FF game you can get. Not terrible, but not great either.    … Expand
  34. FogCityRoller
    Mar 7, 2017
    6
    FFXV is a much better game than most of the detractors here are implying, but it does have some glaring issues. I think normally this game would have been a 7 or 8, but I'm docking it for a major issue that I cover at the end of this review. They have released updates that at least hint at the fact that they are interested in improving the game, but I don't know if my primary concern isFFXV is a much better game than most of the detractors here are implying, but it does have some glaring issues. I think normally this game would have been a 7 or 8, but I'm docking it for a major issue that I cover at the end of this review. They have released updates that at least hint at the fact that they are interested in improving the game, but I don't know if my primary concern is fixable.

    I think the story is fairly straight forward, but it is a bit weak. There isn't anything particularly gripping about it, which makes it easy to go off doing side quests. I think this is a testament to how lackluster the story is, because a good story should make you WANT to find out what happens next. With FFXV, I kinda feel like I'll get around to it whenever I run out of side quests that are level appropriate.

    The graphics are stunning and the cities are beautiful. The voice acting is well done but the main problem is they have a limited amount of lines, so in a relatively short time frame you will find yourself becoming annoyed by them. I don't think these are aspects of the game that are much debated, so I'll leave it at that.

    The soundtrack could have used a more vast arrangement of original music, but I think adding all the old FF soundtracks to the car radio is amazing (and NieR: Automata) so by that merit alone I consider the music to be a great success. The environmental music when it comes to encountering and exiting battles follows a simple formula that has been familiar to FF fans for two decades and I'm glad they didn't mess with it.

    The Ascension system is very cool and has the right balance of complication without being overly confusing. Elemancy, gearing, upgrading methods, car customization, and professions are either sufficient or great.

    The main problem I have with the game after ~30 hours played is that their attempts at implementing QoL features is hindered by horrible loading times. Yes, in theory it is great to finish a measly side quest and zip back to the car and then zip back to the quest NPC. BUT, a fast travel feature is diminished when you have to face two loading screens with the loading screens for longer distance traveling taking upwards of an entire minute. In a 30 minute time span I can spend upwards of 10 minutes on loading screens alone. That's absolutely absurd. This is the single greatest factor making me struggle to play the game for extended periods of time. Quest hubs really don't exist, because a quest hub is supposed to offer a number of quests that can be completed in a given area and turned in at another area. Lestallum will give you a bunch of quests but every damn one is 10 minutes away from each other, and it's usually some banal task like "go pick a single bean sprout from this farm in the middle of nowhere" WHAT THE SH*T IS THIS?!

    I really don't care about the way the characters look, as a lifelong FF player that is the least of my concerns at this point. The loading times and insane amounts of wild goose chases are unbelievably bad.    … Expand
  35. Zero_Tactics
    Feb 28, 2017
    6
    C'est vraiment comme un biscuit pas cuit. Ça aurait du rester au four encore un peu. Pleins de bonnes idées incomplètes, une histoire confuse, une réalisation inégale.
  36. porcino
    Jun 6, 2017
    6
    Gostei parcialmente do jogo, comprei por ele representar um fóssil vivo de FF versus 13, pelos anos de desenvolvimento acreditei que o jogo seria grande.

    Mas não é bem assim, ele é pequeno com um mundo grande. Pontos positivos: Trilha Sonora, realismo gráfico, IA incrível, animação e comportamento dos seus amigos são realistas demais, mundo vasto para explorar e bastante monstros para    Gostei parcialmente do jogo, comprei por ele representar um fóssil vivo de FF versus 13, pelos anos de desenvolvimento acreditei que o jogo seria grande.

    Mas não é bem assim, ele é pequeno com um mundo grande.
    Pontos positivos: Trilha Sonora, realismo gráfico, IA incrível, animação e comportamento dos seus amigos são realistas demais, mundo vasto para explorar e bastante monstros para caçar.

    Pontos negativos: Sistema de batalha quase não usa estratégias, sistema de magia muito repetido e sem graça, nada a ver com o que foi mostrado no Platinum Demo, o mapa tem poucas cidades para explorar, o jogo é curto, só dá pra pegar o Regalia Type F no final e isto não é importante para o jogo, o jogo é difícil, mas se torna ridiculamente fácil por não deixar morrer até que use todos os Phoenix Down no inventário. Até o momento a SE não tem ampliado o jogo como deveria o que me leva a crer que o Jogo está finalizado e nada vai ficar diferente, temos que engolir seco. Muitos personagens temporários são inúteis e que fazem muita falta no decorrer do jogo. A luta final é ridiculamente fácil enquanto as caçadas tem criaturas mais poderosas que o chefe final, isso é bastante incoerente.    … Expand
  37. RpgLover1
    Dec 3, 2016
    6
    Game needed another 10 years in development to come up with decent sidequests.

    Combat is almost automatic with the hold square to avoid all damage and if you're using a shield it's even more overpowered. A move where you take no damage at all can get even stronger. The way the hunts can only be done one at a time, sidequests don't show up on the map and the fast travel mechanic is    Game needed another 10 years in development to come up with decent sidequests.

    Combat is almost automatic with the hold square to avoid all damage and if you're using a shield it's even more overpowered. A move where you take no damage at all can get even stronger.

    The way the hunts can only be done one at a time, sidequests don't show up on the map and the fast travel mechanic is designed is completely and utterly retarded. Do yourself a favor and do only the red missions up to the end of chapter 3 and you'll live a happier life. The occasional hunt to afford potions and weapons and the chocobo sidequest ONLY.

    The camera in combat is of course gonna be bad in a game where you warp around everywhere, but it's made even worse when trees and rocks block your view completely.

    The movement in areas where you can't fast travel or use your chocobo you're forced to walk really slowly with animations that interrupt what you're doing. It also disables your warp ability to get around faster for some reason. The slow ass ladder climbing and rock climbing makes no sense when Noctis can just teleport where ever the **** he wants.

    Those are all the issues I had whilst playing through this game if you can live with those then you'll enjoy it.    … Expand
  38. Jafenhar
    Jan 17, 2017
    6
    It's not FFXIII bad, but it's also not far behind it. This, this is just not a good FF title. It's as if it's a FF game developed by a Western developer studio. The story feels rushed and is weak, the combat is atrocious and nothing like what you expect from a FF game (spells are consumables, really Square?), and the characters lack any depth whatsoever. It's a game that, even though itIt's not FFXIII bad, but it's also not far behind it. This, this is just not a good FF title. It's as if it's a FF game developed by a Western developer studio. The story feels rushed and is weak, the combat is atrocious and nothing like what you expect from a FF game (spells are consumables, really Square?), and the characters lack any depth whatsoever. It's a game that, even though it had a nearly 10 year development cycle, still feels very rushed. Square would have been better off postponing it another year to fine tune everything and finish the story. I'll stick to FFXIV and the PS1 FFVII port on my PS4 for my FF fixes. This game is a pass at full price, but worth it if you can find it for $30 or so.… Expand
  39. HayvenMoses
    Sep 6, 2019
    6
    I never thought id like a Final Fantasy game but I do like this one.The last time I tried one out was on 5th e PS1 it was FF7 And I hated it. This games a blast,the story is great,the combat is a little wonky and I wish I could drive the car but other than that all I can say is its fun and thats all that matters. I picked this up for $10 and Im glad I did.
  40. TsukasaHiiragi
    Dec 13, 2016
    6
    Currently 6/10 due to sheer tons of bugs, glitches and some plot/story line issues. The biggest problem with FF15 is that, it was released too early again and the the Day 1 purchasers as always are the beta testers, its sad really because the game could have easily been an 8 or 9 rating if some more time and quality control so some of the really glaring and obvious issues was fixedCurrently 6/10 due to sheer tons of bugs, glitches and some plot/story line issues. The biggest problem with FF15 is that, it was released too early again and the the Day 1 purchasers as always are the beta testers, its sad really because the game could have easily been an 8 or 9 rating if some more time and quality control so some of the really glaring and obvious issues was fixed before launch.

    Another problem is that this game is barely a final fantasy game, its like a proverbial wolf in sheeps clothing, alot of the classic and core elements to any final fantasy game are 'kind' of there, but only skin deep. The 'open world' really isn't that open, and the impression that its huge...it really isn't that big at all considering thats really the only major play area in the game, Altissia is fairly small, and serves very limited purpose except for a couple of hunt quests and obviously, to slightly further the story along and the Gralia sections is just one linear route, in fairness Chapter 13 isn't nearly as bad as people make it out to be though, but the fact you have two extra islands that are practically wasted with limited things to do doesn't help.

    The best parts of FF15 are its graphics and sound, these are exceptionally well created and honestly, the eye candy is so good that for alot of people reviewing the game, I'm honestly guessing they are just basing alot of the reviews on looks alone, and not gameplay.....ah...gameplay, thats where some of the major problems which hurt FF15 sadly, from nearly gamebreaking or quest breaking bugs like with the notorious Castlemark Tower bug, through to frustrating combat mechanics - the prime example here is Noctis spends most of his time knocked on his ass, it doesn't matter the monsters but almost 99% of the time, one hit will knock Noctis over unless you learn to dodge every single damn attack, and during fights against multiple foes, its nearly impossible to dodge everything.

    Another major problem, and it was to be expected - the camera has problems, especially in dungeons or narrow areas, I've had the camera spin around uncontrollable, through to fighting in bushes with the bushes blocking all view of the battle. Another example of poor mechanics is how summoning works, basically the only summon you'll really ever see is Ramuh, since each summon has a very specific and core set of rules in order to summon, most of the time you'll only ever 'qualify' to summon Ramuh, and even then - its very inconsistent and a missed opportunity.

    Another problem is how grindy post-game, SE..whats with putting break limits at 999AP? each, seriously? Whilst, its actually not hard at all to reach the current level cap -- its a very lengthy and boring process to gain large amounts of AP.

    I could go on and on here, nitpicking every problem - but I'll close with this, FF15 isn't a bad game, its got moments where it shines, but its also got moments that will cause untold frustration - its obvious that more time was needed to craft a proper Final Fantasy game, whilst this is better than FF13, this still isn't up to the golden standard that the fans have come to expect. Whilst I still say FF15 is worth checking out for fans and newcomers, it doesn't live up to the hype.    … Expand
  41. Pnx725
    Jan 7, 2018
    6
    Great graphics with a bad idea of a story that did not even finish as I was expecting. Id like to rate it higher but I had to much loading time writing this review and killing my protagonists is a bad way of getting a good score. Gameplay is good but not great.
  42. squeezo828
    May 31, 2018
    6
    This story is a convoluted mess and the gameplay is generic and glitchy. I encountered many bugs in the game, such as floating npcs, invisible walls, missing textures, and one bug that completely broke the game and wouldn’t load the next area until I restarted from my previous save, which was about 30 mins back, so I had to replay it all again. The combat is too simple for my taste. JustThis story is a convoluted mess and the gameplay is generic and glitchy. I encountered many bugs in the game, such as floating npcs, invisible walls, missing textures, and one bug that completely broke the game and wouldn’t load the next area until I restarted from my previous save, which was about 30 mins back, so I had to replay it all again. The combat is too simple for my taste. Just hold circle and dodge with square. The story was soo boring that half way through the game I just started skipping the cutscenes and dialogue because I was soo disinterested. The main characters are also pretty unlikable, especially gladiolus. He becomes a complete douchebag out of nowhere and repeats the same line of dialogue (“why don’t you try caring about others.”) for a solid hour and a half!!! I don’t get why this game is soo praised. I have played pretty much every triple a game that has come out for the past few years, and I will say, that final fantasy xv is the worst game out of that large list… Expand
  43. Revadarius
    Apr 21, 2017
    6
    Just to clarify. This is a great game, at first I thought it was brilliant. Amazing, even. It's certainly original, and ground breaking. The graphics are smooth, immersive and even overwhelming at times. The world is vast and plentiful. The story has major highs, but also a lot of pitiful lows. And the characters are overflowing with personality and, well...character.Just to clarify. This is a great game, at first I thought it was brilliant. Amazing, even. It's certainly original, and ground breaking. The graphics are smooth, immersive and even overwhelming at times. The world is vast and plentiful. The story has major highs, but also a lot of pitiful lows. And the characters are overflowing with personality and, well...character.

    Unfortunately, the combat is a bit of a flustercuck (to be polite). It works, it's fun, it's simple yet expansive. But it has a lot of issues (usually with larger enemies, certain small/tight terrains and dungeons, and the camera angling is atrocious at times). And the story, as great as it could be (and after basically theorizing what the hell happened with the rest of the community) did have some impressive twists, turns. Hell, they were emotional.

    The major downside is that there's evidently huge chunks of this game just missing, and the story is short. The MCs are all the place in their chemistry and goals, as well as the fact the main Antagonist(s) aren't either shown, or their intentions or backstory fully explained. Well, to be truthful... their's just little to no air time for the important things that matter. The story evidently seemed an after thought, but the open world experience and it's major details are spot on.

    All-in-all this game is phenomenal, but it's let down by poor narrative structure. And time-wasting mechanics. There's fast travelling, but it's limited. So far after near 60hrs of gameplay, more than half of that has been in travelling time and other 'mechanics' that impede your pace of playing, forcing you to play at this game's pace. (There's an infamous section of the game SE themselves are going to address because it got so much hate over how pitiful and pointless it was, as well as the end-game portion).

    The 7/10 is the best I can give it, and that's being generous. For how grand it is at one end of the scale, it's let down by major issues at the opposite end. Hopefully SE rectify this, or atleast learn from this. But the story is short, sorta sweet... but extremely confusing because, hey!, there are entire portions missing.

    *EDIT* I've replayed this game recently. And I was disappointed. My opinion didn't improve, and it seems that without the hype keeping my love for the franchise alive... and already having prior experience with the flaws of this game. They were more evident. Unsure if the trauma was too fresh for me to play this game again so soon. But my non-existent love, though I did give it "reasonable" praise prior, was still not there for this game. Honestly, FFXV is a stain on this franchise.

    I have also replayed FFIII, IX and X recently and the nostalgia glasses weren't dirty enough for my views of these games to be jaded. I'm starting believe that outside certain FF titles, in the main series atleast, not all are amazing and that the name itself isn't as prestigious as I original thought it to be. I seemed to have left on a tangent there, but my point is that... this is Final Fantasy. And I've been, like many others, holding it to a certain regard. A high regard. Higher then what I expect of the main stream AAA franchises, or titles, that with all that man-power, time and money should be on an appropriate standard. That FF, sometimes, doesn't hit that aforementioned standard. Nevermind the standard I falsely hold in my mind. And FFXV is another game in the series that doesn't hit that standard, off AAA games in general.

    Sure, I praised it for various achievements. Even stating it was ground breaking. But looking back... it wasn't *THAT* good, nor groundbreaking. And it hurts me to say that because I am a delusional fanboy of SE... or I was. Until their recent run of bad games (even developed by, or published by SE). I know WoFF and Nier:Automata were some amazing titles they brought to us. But FFXV should be on a pedestal higher and it isn't, it's unfinished. Plain and simple. A rushed, incomplete mess that I've been critical of many other titles for, and even verbally punished. And FFXV deserves no less.

    It's not exactly a bad game, it's also not exactly good either. But it does have some strong areas, things I would love to see in future FF games - or other games in general - the open world aspect, a stunningly beautiful world that wasn't just immersive it FELT immersive. Grand monsters, and an improvement on the battle mechanics in some way or another. Honestly, I appreciate the 'hack and slash' gameplay that was intuitive due to the fact it was responsive, it automated chains depending on limited inputs... and no button spamming was necessary. This is revolutionary and should be a must in future beat'em ups and hack and slash games. It saves on needless stress, so you can game longer, and preserves the life of your controller as well as makes for smoother gameplay. So maybe it was intuitive afterall. But still only 6/10.    … Expand
  44. TK4EVA47
    Aug 24, 2022
    6
    I played Final Fantasy XV in 2018 and thought it was an above average game that I liked.
    However, I dislike the DLC microtransactions in this game.
  45. PotterMetal
    Dec 5, 2016
    6
    The time that the FF saga dictated the rhythm of the RPG is over, after playing other games with a lot of quality and dedication of the developers, it is clear the neglect with the game, dead scenarios, no life, no feeling, could be MUCH better.
  46. nhand42
    Dec 29, 2016
    6
    Major disappointment. Game starts strongly - open world, road trip - but falls apart after the first island. The game feels like it was rushed to completion on a shoestring budget. The subsequent areas are incomplete; walled off so you can "look but don't touch". The areas you can walk through are empty - no NPCs, no side quests... just nothing. The story stops making sense. It's veryMajor disappointment. Game starts strongly - open world, road trip - but falls apart after the first island. The game feels like it was rushed to completion on a shoestring budget. The subsequent areas are incomplete; walled off so you can "look but don't touch". The areas you can walk through are empty - no NPCs, no side quests... just nothing. The story stops making sense. It's very obvious entire side-stories were cut.

    You can see the vision of what might have been. An ice and snow area. A castle on fire. A city metropolis. A night version of the world. But the vision was never realised. Several areas clearly built for a boss battle, but the boss never materialises. The final boss battle is cut short - you never see the villain's final form, as you'd expect from a FF game - instead a QTE event against a staggering human form.

    The story is a mess. Not enough cutscenes - only 5 hours, when a typical FF game you expect 20-30 hours cutscenes - and it was obviously butchered. The missing story is partly explained through notes, but it's still underdeveloped. Character development is ignored - there are major character who you learn nothing about, because their scenes got cut to make a deadline.

    The new battle system is a total failure The tactical planning and strategic resource management in other FF games, reduced to quicktime events and button mashing. It's just shameful.

    Giving it 6/10 because the first island is so good and shows what could have been. But can't rate it any higher because it's an incomplete game. It's not even half a game. It's more like 25%.This should have been a multi-part game, with FFXV only covering the first island.    … Expand
  47. njja02
    May 15, 2018
    6
    Many elements of this game are great, such as the combat, graphics, music, and world. But the game has a messy story and writing. Plus the game has one of the worst sections in a video game ever. It has many other problems, but it's still a fun game overall.
  48. Rockboss
    May 21, 2020
    6
    After 13 I thought it can't get any worse. Well, then came 15. I loved the graphics, fighting was kind of fun. Unfortunately the sidequests and characters rather annoying. BUT the core of the game, the core of what FF is about: the story was a disaster. When you spend tenth of Millions in production why not one million in a first class book or story writer? FF deserves it.
  49. kwstas
    Dec 13, 2016
    6
    i honestly think that it is a pretty nice game but i also believe that is kind of overrated . i could give it a ten for the work they have done on the design of the world of the game , the graphics are really amazing . the cities and the landscapes are leaving you breathless all the colors probably even the monsters are all made so perfectly . but thinking of all this and still i get myi honestly think that it is a pretty nice game but i also believe that is kind of overrated . i could give it a ten for the work they have done on the design of the world of the game , the graphics are really amazing . the cities and the landscapes are leaving you breathless all the colors probably even the monsters are all made so perfectly . but thinking of all this and still i get my self really bored playing this game . i mean you spend hours just waiting in the car , travelling from place to place on feet or with the chocobo , too many conversations endless cinematics and action absolutely nothing . as well the whole thing in the game is kind of cheesy for me.. i mean you cant travel 4 mins with the car just to collect some plants and then back again.. probably it could seem better if someone is 10 years old or something..… Expand
  50. Metayerju
    Aug 30, 2019
    6
    Alternate good - especially at begnining - and bad - especially at the end. Feeling of unfinished game. At some moment some totally empty enviromement. The second part of the game is a coridor.
  51. chillaxer
    Feb 25, 2018
    6
    I played about 3 hours of this game and about 5 minutes of it were entertaining. Half the time was spent "driving" (you don't really have control of the car, just where it is going) and walking. The reviews on here in the 5-7 range are spot on -- the game is mediocre at best.
  52. NihiRagnarK
    Jun 16, 2017
    6
    This game is a collection of so many great elements but fail so hard to assemble them into one whole game.
    + Decent combat mechanism with BEST ever RPG combat animation
    + Top Tier BGM + Excellent mazes (however most of them are "hidden" and unrelated to the main story) + Ecological environment + Food and fishing + Touching ending - INCOMPLETE game - The story except for the ending    This game is a collection of so many great elements but fail so hard to assemble them into one whole game.
    + Decent combat mechanism with BEST ever RPG combat animation
    + Top Tier BGM
    + Excellent mazes (however most of them are "hidden" and unrelated to the main story)
    + Ecological environment
    + Food and fishing
    + Touching ending
    - INCOMPLETE game
    - The story except for the ending is totally DISASTER (not even match their own movie)
    - Meaningless and redundant side quests
    ============
    It looks like their ideal game contains part A-B-C-D-E-F and so on. However, they have only finished part A and a little bit of part B. So basically after part B you are rushing towards the end with lots of unanswered questions and confusing story development.

    However I still enjoy this game. But for those who are considering, maybe you should avoid this current version and save your time.    … Expand
  53. peropify
    Jan 29, 2017
    6
    I gave this game a 10 before to offset the horrible ratings I thought the game didn't deserve. But the more I played the game, the more disappointed I got. After a certain point, you can tell the development team either didn't care about the game/story - basically anything other than it looking cool. It was to be expected with the bumps and hurdles it had to go over during its decade longI gave this game a 10 before to offset the horrible ratings I thought the game didn't deserve. But the more I played the game, the more disappointed I got. After a certain point, you can tell the development team either didn't care about the game/story - basically anything other than it looking cool. It was to be expected with the bumps and hurdles it had to go over during its decade long development, but other than the pretty visuals and the sheer number of things available to do - things just aren't done very well. Some parts of the game just feel empty.… Expand
  54. AbOUt_rIght
    Mar 1, 2021
    6
    Originally I gave it an 8/10 when I first played it back in 2016 and I remembered that I enjoyed the main story.

    Yesterday I finished the game a second time, and I completed all the side quests, all the dungeons and all the hunts, I have to give a 6. The story is incomplete and lazy. From the start, the game tries to make you care about Noctis and his fiancee and their wedding. But    Originally I gave it an 8/10 when I first played it back in 2016 and I remembered that I enjoyed the main story.

    Yesterday I finished the game a second time, and I completed all the side quests, all the dungeons and all the hunts, I have to give a 6.

    The story is incomplete and lazy. From the start, the game tries to make you care about Noctis and his fiancee and their wedding. But there is no context, no backstory (I'm not talking about all the external materials like the comics, novels, anime and Kingsglaive movie. Because I paid for a full price for a game, if I have to also consume all the external media to fully understand the story, F you). I never felt for both even though I really liked Luna as a character. Later in the game, the story is all over the place, and everything happens outside of your acknowledgement, you are just told that something happened but you are never involved, so how should I as a player care for any outcome?

    The combat is the only positive thing I have to say about the game. It is really fun and engaging and there are so many different styles you can try.

    Then the dungeons, the f-ing dungeons. Whoever designed those dungeons are basically saying "F you" while laughing their arse off. Those dungeon designs are some of the worst I've ever expüerienced in all the video games I've played. They are dull, lazy, repetitive and atrocious:
    - there are so many long and linear corridors, they are so long, why? long and without anything happening, they just feel like fillers to make the dungeon longer and your backtracking process more boring
    - there is no shortcut to the sealed door dungeons, so you have to go through the normal dungeon all the way, why?
    - Noctis's movement is so imprecise, he always moves a few steps after he jumps, this makes some platforming sections even more atrocious. Did the devs already test the game? If so, then they designed this piece of **** on purpose. So much time wasted just because Noctis couldn't land on the spot he was supposed to and he falls.

    I could go on for another 5k words but I don't want to waste any more of my time on this game. it's a 6. F the dungeons.    … Expand
  55. Dattwood7
    Nov 29, 2016
    6
    The series has veered so far off course from what made it great in the first place, it's essentially UNRECOGNIZABLE. This is not Final Fantasy. I'm not sure what this is.

    Nevertheless, I'm not going to hate for the sake of hate. (notice I didn't give the game a zero.) Here are some pros and cons: Pros: --Cut-scene graphics are very impressive. --Clearly a lot of time was put into    The series has veered so far off course from what made it great in the first place, it's essentially UNRECOGNIZABLE. This is not Final Fantasy. I'm not sure what this is.

    Nevertheless, I'm not going to hate for the sake of hate. (notice I didn't give the game a zero.) Here are some pros and cons:

    Pros:
    --Cut-scene graphics are very impressive.
    --Clearly a lot of time was put into the game.
    --Combat can be exhilarating at times.
    --Enemy/Boss design is fantastic.
    --Characters/Story/World may appeal to certain people.
    --I hear things later in the game get better, but personally I don't want to wait for that.

    Cons:
    --Story is preposterous, even for this genre.
    --Main cast's looks and personalities are uninspired (this one is the most disappointing because that used to be the series' strong suit.)
    --Main cast never. shuts. up.
    --Combat can be very repetitive (you can literally just hold circle for much of it.)
    --Traveling, at least at first, is excruciatingly dull (in your car, you're unable to even veer off the road!)
    --Side quests are often boring (think typical "fetch" quests.)
    --It doesn't feel like Final Fantasy, at least not to me.

    Again, there may be people who will enjoy it. Judging by the other reviews, there are already quite a few.    … Expand
  56. Pendrodamus
    Nov 29, 2016
    6
    This is a tough one. I've always had a soft spot for Final Fantasy, and I can't say I hate any installment, bar the 13 series (if only because it's soooo boring). Having said that, I think FF XV is an okay installment. It's got some pretty graphics, there's plenty of cute girls AND guys (for the people who enjoy looking at models straight out of victoria's secret). The combat is decentThis is a tough one. I've always had a soft spot for Final Fantasy, and I can't say I hate any installment, bar the 13 series (if only because it's soooo boring). Having said that, I think FF XV is an okay installment. It's got some pretty graphics, there's plenty of cute girls AND guys (for the people who enjoy looking at models straight out of victoria's secret). The combat is decent enough, you got option. You got summons. The movement is okay, nothing wrong with it. Unfortunately that's really all I can say positive about it.

    Now for the negatives. The car, which I was excited for, is nothing more than a glorified waypoint traveling device.You barely have any control in it, I find it impossible to use off roads, and if I'm being honest, the game would've been better if you just instantly teleported to your next destination. It lacks the punch and pizazz of a cool airship, and I don't think you get the flying car anywhere near when it would be useful. Too little, too late i'm afraid.

    The story is even more out there and nonsensical, especially by Final Fantasy standards.There's a war and some magical curse and the moon is evil (Majora's Mask anyone?) and Noctis has to do something. I couldn't be bothered to pay attention.

    The lands you travel over are so devoid of life. And when you finally do find some generic mob to beat up, they die almost instantly. It once again falls prey to the Final Fantasy formula of enemy mobs being weak enough to not warrant wasting status effects on, but at the same time they're not strong enough to warrant investment in any fight. You just mash the button and the game plays for you once you really understand how combat works.

    After 10 years in development, this wasn't worth the weight. There's redeeming factors, like the music and the occasional pretty setpiece, but at the end of the day it didn't grab my attention.    … Expand
  57. evilghost666
    Feb 9, 2017
    6
    The high praise for this game is justified... but only for the first half or so. After that, as I am sure you have probably read elsewhere, everything falls apart. My first moment of "what the **** is going on!" was the Leviathan fight. The camera is completely uncontrollable. The boss fight makes no sense. The story is completely babbling and incoherent. I shut the game off and have foundThe high praise for this game is justified... but only for the first half or so. After that, as I am sure you have probably read elsewhere, everything falls apart. My first moment of "what the **** is going on!" was the Leviathan fight. The camera is completely uncontrollable. The boss fight makes no sense. The story is completely babbling and incoherent. I shut the game off and have found little motivation to return, especially when reviewers are stating that what lies ahead only gets worse. Dont get me wrong, the first half and the open world are so, so great! It felt limitless. But once you turn the corner on the second half, if youre like me, you may not have the patience to deal with the absolute train wreck that unfolds. I doubt I will finish this game. I am just so pissed off at Square for killing the momentum established by the beginning of the game.… Expand
  58. SOLIDSNAKEN64
    Jan 12, 2017
    6
    Finished the game in about 40 hours at lvl 48 on normal. first half of the game is fun open world experience with very little story. Second half of the game is a boring linear experience with a lot of story. FF15 is a fun game but becomes repetitive, side quest are dull and boring, usually in a FF game side quest have story elements behind them but in FF15 they are simple fetch quests.Finished the game in about 40 hours at lvl 48 on normal. first half of the game is fun open world experience with very little story. Second half of the game is a boring linear experience with a lot of story. FF15 is a fun game but becomes repetitive, side quest are dull and boring, usually in a FF game side quest have story elements behind them but in FF15 they are simple fetch quests. I did enjoy the main characters and their story/adventure but that is about it the rest of the world doesn't really have rememberable NPC's. The worst part of this game for me is the Camera. To many times during battle was ruined by **** camera angles usually my view was from behind a bush or rock. The battle system was cool at first but becomes very easy once you figure out you basically attack and parry by mashing two buttons. Graphics at times are beautiful and other time I feel like I'm looking at ps3 graphics. Driving is slow and monotonous, once you get the parking fast travels it becomes a little easier but annoying trying to find your parking destination in a list full of them. The open world could have used more to do in it, but I admit crossing planes riding chocobos is a good time. Weapons are cool but so few of them to choose from left me wanting more. I feel after a 10 year development FF should have been a more polished game, definitely could of been on Witcher 3 level. If you are a FF fan pick it up when its on sale, which shouldn't be difficult to find right now.… Expand
  59. here_and_there
    Aug 31, 2017
    6
    I wish I could rate this game better. I am a long time Final Fantasy fan, I have played every Final Fantasy except I, II and III and tons of other RPGs and JRPGs and action/adventure games. And sadly this game doesn't succeed in being good at none of these categories.
    First, the good things: the gameplay is good, if you are into action RPGs it is one of the best battle systems out there.    I wish I could rate this game better. I am a long time Final Fantasy fan, I have played every Final Fantasy except I, II and III and tons of other RPGs and JRPGs and action/adventure games. And sadly this game doesn't succeed in being good at none of these categories.
    First, the good things: the gameplay is good, if you are into action RPGs it is one of the best battle systems out there. Even if I prefer more classical systems in RPGs I really enjoyed every fight of my 50 hours of gameplay. Graphics are beautiful. The cities are unique, inventive and beautifully rendered, even if sometimes they lack inspiration, the natural wilderness is vast, diverse and incredibly beautiful, the dungeons are surprisingly interesting and clever.
    But unfortunately that's it. The open world of FFXV may be visually amazing and vast but it is empty and boring. RPG open worlds need content, background story, good, interesting and diverse NPC dialogues, sidequests that expand on the story and the lore. FFXV has nothing of this.
    Story: this is the worst part. It is by far the most boring and worst written story of every Final Fantasy and of most modern RPGs. There is almost no story progression. Few and useless dialogues. Useless and boring NPC chatter which never helps expanding on the world and the story. At no time in the game there is a sense of purpose, an epic turn of events, a tragic worldchanging moment (and the actual ones all happen offscreen). The characters are bland and irritating.    … Expand
  60. Jamesshen
    Dec 8, 2016
    6
    Well just played into 67th hours in the game. Planning to change my score so far
    Well im a long term final fantasy fan, don't get me wrong that i'm bias or something.
    Initially i gave this series a 10/10 but after long hours of gaming, i decided to change my score Pros - beautifully drawn characters and nice animations - superb combat gameplay (something refreshing) - good music    Well just played into 67th hours in the game. Planning to change my score so far
    Well im a long term final fantasy fan, don't get me wrong that i'm bias or something.
    Initially i gave this series a 10/10 but after long hours of gaming, i decided to change my score

    Pros
    - beautifully drawn characters and nice animations
    - superb combat gameplay (something refreshing)
    - good music

    cons
    - very poorly written story
    - no female permanent character
    - so many pointless side quest- fetch quest
    - so few summons and magics
    - no romance in the show
    - very long loading time

    Well i think the precious final fantasy series such as X, VII, VIII, IX, XII are a lot better than this series. What made them better than final fantasy XV?

    - As i said before, the story. The story had no depth at all. Developer had been so focused on combat and animation but forgets to write a good story. What is the point? I would rather had good story and average animation in final fantasy
    - There are very little to no love story in this game. Look at lunarfreya, im not even sad after she had died. Because she had such a low screen time. Im sadder if iris died.
    - Love story is very important in every final fantasy series. Those without it tends to have poorer performances
    - And the side quest are so annoying. I freaked out doing side quest. Its one of the worst i have ever seen
    - One more thing is that no female supporting characters to control. I wished they could let iris stay longer in the group. This is so frustrating. Come on, most of the gamers for final fantasy are guys. Why are you showing me a group of nice looking males. Are we gay or what? At least show us some likable female characters that we can control in our main game play.
    - and look at the summons, the animation is very good but i can't use it whenever i want. It just came out randomly. And there are so few summons. And i hate the design of ifrit and bahamut. They are drawn so ugly
    - One more is the loading time. There are at one point where i would just want to throw the controller on the floor because of the freaking long loading time

    Ok enough of my ranting, personally final fantasy is such a wasted potential. It had very good animation but very bad story. For square enix to take so long just to make such games, i can say that they are very unprofessional. Please square enix, make a better final fantasy game next time. Don't dissapoint us again with this bad storytelling.    … Expand
  61. goomshill
    Nov 29, 2016
    6
    Too much of this game was advertised manipulatively. Areas and events shown in ads didn't occur in game. Areas like tenebrae were just skyboxes in the background. Instead of being fully open world, it was a very small explorable section at the start quite empty and last 2/3 was linear corridors on rails. I don't mind the game going KH/DMC combat instead of classic jrpg, but it wasToo much of this game was advertised manipulatively. Areas and events shown in ads didn't occur in game. Areas like tenebrae were just skyboxes in the background. Instead of being fully open world, it was a very small explorable section at the start quite empty and last 2/3 was linear corridors on rails. I don't mind the game going KH/DMC combat instead of classic jrpg, but it was extremely shallow. I want to forgive the game as being largely an interactive movie except that unlike the uncharted series, it wasn't well written enough to be a movie, full of plot holes and bizarre choices that make no sense. At one point the same set of characters are shown 10 years apart, looking exactly the same down to the clothes. Its still a playable game, but its flaws are heavily displayed and theres nothing special to redeem it. Its also incredibly short for a game that took this long to make.… Expand
  62. smegmaravioli
    Dec 1, 2016
    6
    I am going to take an approach on this game that I don't think many will do. I am not going to review this game based upon what I expected of it, but instead how it compares to the video games as a whole. I will then compare it to past final fantasies as a fan.

    Overall, this is game comes across as a fancy, convoluted version of a beat-em-up like Devil May Cry. The story is less cheesy,    I am going to take an approach on this game that I don't think many will do. I am not going to review this game based upon what I expected of it, but instead how it compares to the video games as a whole. I will then compare it to past final fantasies as a fan.

    Overall, this is game comes across as a fancy, convoluted version of a beat-em-up like Devil May Cry. The story is less cheesy, and the characters are less annoying, but actually somehow have less personality than characters in those games. The combat is absolutely ridiculous like most average games now, it plays most efficiently (like you can do other things, but why exactly?) when played as a total button masher. There is even a combo meter to your left, and slow motion so you can look as Keanu Reeves as possible.

    It really plays like your average action or action RPG game. Sort of like Fable or something. That's, uh, fine I guess. The monsters are cool and creative looking, it sort of captures the final fantasy look.

    One thing I will give this game is that it looks great compared to most other games, despite the fact that it looks less stunning as advertised.

    It's not really this true open world that it was claimed to be. At least not like Skyrim It's about as open world as having a loading screen that is a car that goes from point A to point B simply for the sake of visuals. It's rather empty and definitely lacks things to do that aren't literally the same exact sort of task with a different skin.

    The story is dumb and nearly non-sensicle, but so are most video game stories that attempt to go beyond the realm of simplicity of a game like Zelda or Mario, so this is fine.

    The music is very average. Pretty-much could be stock music from another video game and I wouldn't really know the difference. And I know a lot about music, composition, etc. Most of it is extremely simplistic harmonically and melodically, basically a skeleton chord progression with an oft-used melody the majority of the time. Completely different animal than the extremely creative tunes of which the industry has been bare for some time now. More along the lines of the safe stuff you're taught when you begin college for music and are taught "everyone likes." Doesn't really reek of expertise and weathered artisanship like a lot of older games did. There is too much downtime in a genre like RPGs to not have good music. It is extremely important for that reason, and probably a big reason why the old final fantasies had a step up over other RPGs (and I'm exploring why music is important to RPGs right now, not comparing the music of this game to other FFs).

    So in terms of comparing this to other video games, I give it a 6, because of the more creative enemies than your average game now (average is a 5 by definition), and great graphics, downsided by the musical score which is necessary for a game with so much downtime to work.

    Compared to other Final Fantasies:

    This game is total trash. It is like buying Blue Label only to take a sip and discover it is Piper's Clan. Of course, this is after this has already happened once (FFXIII I'm looking at you), so we all must be pretty god damn dumb.

    Where do I start? Combat has never been FF's strong point, but it has at least always remained interesting through 3/4s of the game only for your character to become too strong if you had any sense of work ethic and din't always run (and then heavy reliance upon status resistance on the games part for harder enemies). There used to be strategy, careful equipment selection, wide variety of character types. You now control one enemy and press one button. Garbage. Moving on.

    Graphics: I mean, yea they're good so points here.

    Music: Like **** you guys. Seriously, **** you. You give us 10 games of Nobuo and then this **** for the past 3 titles? Like I said it is incredibly important that this music is good because most of our time will be spent running around and talking. Get the **** out of here with this beat box electronica **** and symphonic orchestra playing I-V-I stuff. Bring back the risky, modal, impressionist, colored type tunes that really have a soul to them.

    Story: Holy **** I don't have enough characters but all you have to know is that it's garbage, and makes no sense even when compared to the worst of pre-enix final fantasies.

    Characters: **** All overly stoic or autistic. Prompto is more autistic than Titus, which was made better by the fact that the game was totally self aware of it.

    Immersion: There is no immersion in this world. The environments are all similar enough that it's just hard to imagine there existing such a place where is no contrast with itself. The world is totally empty compared to past final fantasies that are totally ridden with things to discover on every screen and every corner.

    Overall I give it a 1/10 on the final fantasy scale. This is like buying a corvette and receiving a SmartCar.

    Do not buy unless you are expecting a Fable type game.    … Expand
  63. neblo
    Dec 2, 2016
    6
    Okay, so the game itself is not bad and I found many of the new systems a lot of fun. I am sure many will like it. I respect the Square for trying something new. Game design must always be looking to innovate and grow. However, this is a Final Fantasy title that was 10 years in the making and in the end, as much as I wanted to love this game, I got bored of it quickly and felt noOkay, so the game itself is not bad and I found many of the new systems a lot of fun. I am sure many will like it. I respect the Square for trying something new. Game design must always be looking to innovate and grow. However, this is a Final Fantasy title that was 10 years in the making and in the end, as much as I wanted to love this game, I got bored of it quickly and felt no nostalgia.

    Previous Final Fantasy titles did many things right, however the series won my heart because it did two things better than most. 1. Had unique, quirky, emotional, tragic stories with unique and interesting characters that kept you playing. 2. Deep and strategic combat systems that gave you many options and strategies to choose from. Unfortunately this title misses the mark on both of these points. Thus it doesn't feel like a FF title for me. This is the ONLY main FF title I have felt this way about. Sure there were some better or worse than others, but this isn't a FF to me. That doesn't mean it isn't a good game, but it means that Square may not value what I do anymore.

    Long time fans will likely be disappointed. The game tries too hard to appeal to everyone and in doing so loses its identity that made me fall in love with it. I am guessing most will beat it and then forget it as there are better arpgs out there.

    Pros:
    - Music is amazing as always
    - Combat is passable. It gives me hope that Square can pull off transitioning from turned based/ATB combat to action combat in the future, but as I ilst in my cons it has many flaws.
    - Many fan favorite monsters are back bigger and cooler than ever
    - Summons felt epic, but you are unable to choose when you get to use them
    - Running around the world on a chocobo is awesome

    Cons:
    - Combat is fairly mindless, the camera sucks, fighting in narrow corridors is frustrating, and team AI is bad. There is no deep strategy to combat compared to previous titles (excluding 13. that was mindless too). As a person who loves arpgs and turned bsed/ATB systems I am sad seeing turned based combat go, but okay with action replacing it as long as it is just as fun and engaging. Unfortunately it isn't right now. The real problem is that other arpg titles have much more interesting and fun systems. If I wanted to play a story rich arpg with great combat mechanics I would just play the Witcher (and i do). It is funny that FF10, which got a fairly mixed reception among fans, has a higher user metacritic ratings than 12, 13, and 15. All games that have tried to diverge from the turned based/ATB system. Is that an indication that their game quality has gone down?
    - Terrain and scenery is generic... One thing I loved about previous titles is that feeling of being in a world that you could tell was a fantasy world. It made me want to explore to find new and interesting things. Instead it felt like you were just exploring california. FF14 had more beautiful landscapes and scenery and it is a MMO.
    - MMO style fetch quests and go to the marker and kill this quests are everywhere. Why? Sure a few to break up the story is fine, but the problem is this is half the content. These activities do not advance a narrative or develop characters.
    - you only get a few spells to cast and your party AI casts them at the worst times or they run into the spell you just cast. Where are all the interesting spells that were in virtually every previous title?
    - Only having 4 party members that you begin the game with and only one of them playable. I can respect the ambition and trying something new that could have worked, but it is a huge con because....
    - Story is boring. I know this is subjective, but the game does a horrible job of explaining what is going on and there are little to no cut scenes (a staple of previous games). Without any spoilers, a horrible life changing event happens to the main character that you would expect him to have a difficult time with. However, he goes on running fetch quests and killing monsters for bounties like nothing happened. There is no urgency or life to the story. Something about magic crystals and warring nations. FF14 had neither of those things... wait..
    - The party members are boring stereotypes that hardly develop or make me care about them. The game is clearly a bro-trip with lots of bonding... The problem is all the characters were already best friends and seemed to be established before the game even starts. Thus leaving no room for growth. The creators said they did not add any female characters because the characters would act differently and they wanted the ability to write in bro bonding moments and guys being guys... However, the lack of diversity only detracted.

    FF15 has currently an 84 metacritc rating and FF13 has an 83 score... that is essentially the same thing yet it has been panned by the community as being an awful game..Clearly they are either going in the wrong direction or not capable of creating anything better than their old systems.    … Expand
  64. langtu20
    Dec 3, 2016
    6
    This game is a missed opportunity. It would have been a lot better if directed by Nomura which has more emphasis on interesting plot with characters building. Tabata on the other hand puts more emphasis on boring things like cooking/fishing. He completely turns the game around and stripped away nostagic FF elements, such as using magic and good plot. To me, Tabata is not known forThis game is a missed opportunity. It would have been a lot better if directed by Nomura which has more emphasis on interesting plot with characters building. Tabata on the other hand puts more emphasis on boring things like cooking/fishing. He completely turns the game around and stripped away nostagic FF elements, such as using magic and good plot. To me, Tabata is not known for storytelling and putting together cohesive story. Tabata is good at creating a powerful team, but he IS NOT a creative director. Let him be in charge of putting together a team and do marketing, but let Nomura direct the game pls!!!!… Expand
  65. poopiebum
    Dec 4, 2016
    6
    Gameplay is kinda buggy and confusing. Lots of stuff going on and not much explanation. Story is crap. Characters are okay. Slow game.

    Driving car is booorning why they do this. So many missions and side-quests I lose track of story. What is story anyway lol.
  66. gross1187
    Dec 5, 2016
    6
    I had a lot of fun playing, (gameplay isolated from other factors is great) however I'm pretty disappointed in the plot. I really felt like the writers disregarded any sense of rational choice when it comes to the actions of the enemy-- there were too many times when the Imperials seem to have an incredible chance to bring the whole story to an end, and choose not to for a silly reason.I had a lot of fun playing, (gameplay isolated from other factors is great) however I'm pretty disappointed in the plot. I really felt like the writers disregarded any sense of rational choice when it comes to the actions of the enemy-- there were too many times when the Imperials seem to have an incredible chance to bring the whole story to an end, and choose not to for a silly reason. Overall, the story felt overwhelmingly man-made unlike some other Final Fantasy titles. I truly hope a sequel is developed that tightens up the plot.… Expand
  67. jcolin
    Dec 6, 2016
    6
    Summary (tl:dr): Terrible and sometimes baffling design choices hold this game back from being a truly enjoyable experience. Many of the flaws are minor, but get bit by one mosquito and you'll swat the air around you, get bit by a hundred and you're likely to pack up and go back inside.
    -The Open World: This game is technically an open-world game, however it was designed without any of    Summary (tl:dr): Terrible and sometimes baffling design choices hold this game back from being a truly enjoyable experience. Many of the flaws are minor, but get bit by one mosquito and you'll swat the air around you, get bit by a hundred and you're likely to pack up and go back inside.
    -The Open World: This game is technically an open-world game, however it was designed without any of the freedoms that make the open-world format so much fun. Invisible walls are everywhere (one of my biggest pet-peaves in open-world games). One of these walls was a small railing that seperated a road and an accessable area. It would not let me jump over the railing. I had to find an exit. Ultimately, this is the biggest problem with how the developers handled the open-world design. They wanted to give you freedom but they couldn't give up the control. They control where you go, where you can't go and how you get there. This goes against the spirit of open-world games.
    -Magic: Here is one of the baffling design choices, magic is a consumable "item" with a cooldown in this game. It is also wildly overpowered, allowing me to take down the level 54 boss Midgarsormr at level 28. You also cannot really "be" a black or white mage because of the cooldown and limited spell selection. Magic should have been drastically different to allow you to progress as one of those traditional final fantasy staples..
    -Difficulty: Way too easy (played on normal mode). You literally cannot die unless you either choose to, or you run out of healing items, which will probably never happen because they give you a ton and you rarely even need them.
    -Customization: There is no meaningful customization options. You have several skill trees to spend ability points in, however the design of this tree makes it to where you simply cannot specialize in any one style of play. There are no skills that boost your performance with a particular weapon, spell or ability for example. Every stat buff you get applies to every member if your party, so you can't give them any distinguishable rolls either. As a pro, I did like that they added skills that modify wait time mode and the exploration tree let you earn more AP based on the things you did most often.
    Minor Complaints: You get an MP3 player that doesn't work when you would want it to most. In battle, on chocobos and while fishing. (Minor Spoiler) The capstone bonus you get for leveling your chocobo skill is a useless assist in combat, instead of what should have been a speed/stamina/jump/glide increase or something useful and unique. They give you the option to manually drive the car, then immediately take it away for 3 chapters for no real reason (another example of the developer pointlessly dictating how you should play a game marketed as "open-world"). Sexism, the first main female character you meet is designed in an objectified way. Heteronormativity, all the characters are cis and straight.    … Expand
  68. livein
    Dec 7, 2016
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Divisive game

    Final Fantasy XV is a game that lies to you from the very first moments you start it. To have even basic grasp on convoluted, very badly told story you MUST watch Kingsglaive movie and Brotherhood anime series. It’s impossible entry point for an average Joe and in light of that “Game for Final Fantasy fans and first timers” screen seems like adding insult to injury.

    “Eyes that can see beautiful graphics and music”

    Even with severe lip-synching problem game looks great. True - roughly half of the world map consist of deserts, but other half – beautiful wetlands and later - Venice inspired city more than makes up for it. Yoko Shinomura music is most likely the best part of this game. Just listen to “Somnus” and you’ll understand why.

    “Eyes that can see open world full of fetch quests”

    This is first time Final Fantasy went open world. After linear corridors of FFXIII we needed something different – but what we have here isn’t doing the job. This is 2016 not 2008, we have few open world titles every single year, and those games execute open world formula with much greater success.

    World of FFXV is huge, you can spent countless hours there. Problem is – majority of activities consist of boring fetch quests. There are few quest lines that will lead you to interesting places, but those are few and far between. After few hours of side-questing I’ve decided to skip it completely, as they felt like chore.

    “Eyes that can see terrible world design”

    Who the hell though it’s a good idea to merry demons and magic with diners and camping in Nevada? FFXV is forcing bro-roadtrip theme, but it just doesn’t work. FF was always about saving the world, not the bachelor trip. At some point I was wondering when we will reach some strip clubs and hookers.

    “Eyes that can see uninspiring combat”

    At first glance combat seems great. Gone are the days of turn based encounters – now we’re going real time. It’s very impressive spectacle – watching Noctis warp from enemy to enemy. Unfortunately novelty wears off pretty quickly and we’re left with combat system that requires zero skill.

    Forget about dodging or any other advanced tactics. What you can do (and what game kind of asks you to do) is to overpower your enemies with series of short range Warp Strikes. Just juggle potions and elixirs – and you can down even very high level bosses.

    Magic system is so lame I didn’t use it at all. It’s like they took all the worst parts of FFVIII (tedious draw) and discarded all the good stuff (augmenting stats, elemental resistances and attacks). There is no healing magic, only 3 offensive types. You can be damaged by your own spell. Most definitely the worst magic system in any FF to date.

    “Eyes that can see badly told story”

    FFXV story is all over the place. I mean, when you think about it – its premise is so easy (empire is bad – we’re the good guys – go reclaim the throne young prince) – there is no way SE could mess it up. SPOILERS – they can, and they do.

    In concept this is dark, tragic game about sacrifices and hard choices. There are some events that (I presume) were made to make you weep. I remember crying like a baby when FFX ended (and by all account that game was way brighter and upbeat than FFXV). Here I felt nothing, nothing at all.

    That’s because story is very poorly told. There are key scenes missing. So many events happen off screen. Even if you watched Kingsglaive you will be left wondering – what the hell is going on. And that applies to villains, world state – and even some main cast. It’s really hard to care for Luna when she and Noctis has ZERO dialog lines together. Can you even believe it? After all this build up.

    Game is short. Main story missions will take you up to 15, maybe 20 hours. Second part – when game forces you into closed corridors feels rushed.

    “Eyes that can see the light of expiring souls”

    Unfortunately the only soul I see expiring is the one of FF of old – great, epic adventures full of mysteries and excellent storytelling. What does it even mean to be a Final Fantasy game now? Do we give SE card blanche to put FF coat of paint on just any title?

    Final Fantasy XV is a game tormented by long and rocky development cycle. There are just so many ambitious ideas that clash here – most of them don’t mesh together. Story – most important component of any Final Fantasy is nearly nonexistent here. Instead we’re left with fetch quest extravaganza in bland, lifeless open world.

    What we’ve got here is a decent title, but I would argue it would be better this game never happen, and we were left with the vision, ideal, dream of FFXIII versus with its beautiful dark themes and Shakespeare quotes to live on.

    FFXV is way better than disastrous FFXIII, but it’s hardly step in the right direction. FFXV came ten years too late to be relevant. In terms of design – it’s light years behind The Witcher 3. Overall - disappointing experience.    … Expand
  69. RichterBelmonte
    Dec 7, 2016
    6
    Everyone knows Final Fantasy XV was a flawed venture from the start. Originally a sequel to the XIII series, then hastily transformed into the next major installment in the series after a ridiculous 10 year development time. Leaping from one bad director (though wonderful character designer) to another (Tabata is a terrible game director, for reference, he has only ever worked on FinalEveryone knows Final Fantasy XV was a flawed venture from the start. Originally a sequel to the XIII series, then hastily transformed into the next major installment in the series after a ridiculous 10 year development time. Leaping from one bad director (though wonderful character designer) to another (Tabata is a terrible game director, for reference, he has only ever worked on Final Fantasy VII sequels and XIII sequels and almost all of their stories are terrible – he also seems to have a sort of irreverent attitude toward the rest of the series), where will it fit in in the pantheon of Final Fantasy titans? Somewhere between ‘Better than XIII’ and ‘Worse than most of the rest’.

    Let’s go ahead and do bad news first, shall we? XV’s story is not only incoherent, but tiresome and under developed. It still feels like a sequel to something. It’s not a fully fleshed out narrative in even the most naïve sense. Most of the ‘big moments’ in the story take place off screen, with nameless (though obviously meticulously designed) characters popping in and out of existence with no explanation or reasoning. For instance, the Emperor of the opposing nation ‘Ledolas Eldercapt’ though frequently seen in advertising and Kingsglaive, has one speaking line and appearance in the entire game and then disappears. The only characters that receive any kind of background or laughably ‘development’ are the four main characters Noctis, Prompto, Ignis, and Gladiolus. And by background I mean things like ‘Ignis likes Coffee’, ‘Prompto dislikes bugs’, ‘Noctis likes to fish’, ‘Gladio likes ramen’; incredibly superficial personality traits that really have absolutely no impact on the characters or their lives. At no point in the roughly 50+ hours I’ve spent playing the game did I feel like I had a good grasp of what was happening in the ‘story’, what the land of Eos was about, or what any of the characters had at stake personally. I want to say that the strong relationship between the four main characters is touching, but it has absolutely no depth.

    Ignis, Prompto, and Gladio have no dialogue about why they’re travelling with the prince, what personal reasons they might have, what reservations they may keep, ideas, motivations, emotions – none of it. There is no bestiary, no glossary of terms, no journal, nothing to help you build the world of Eos and gain a fuller picture of what’s happening. To that point, NPCs are plentiful, but you can only passively ‘listen’ to their inane conversations, (i.e. boy this sure tastes good) they don’t give you hints, talk about current events, or help paint the dull and hollow picture that XV is. It was, and still is, very disenfranchising for such a lauded entry in a story-driven franchise to release and be so barren of purpose, reason, or depth. When ‘Kingsglaive’ and ‘Brotherhood’ were announced, my first initial reaction was ‘Oh **** they’re supplementing poor storytelling in the main game with extra pieces of media’ and I was unfortunately and regrettably correct. To make things more obvious, the ‘main story’ of XV can be completed in less than 20 hours. 20 HOURS. I have a hard time completing Final Fantasy IX in less than 60 hours. The majority of the game is an open world full of fetch quests, hunts, and infuriating load times while waiting for the car to drive you from point A to point B to point A to point B.

    It’s a lot of bad news, I know. The good news isn’t nearly as meaty. The combat is pretty fun. Noctis is very responsive, dodging is easy, and big bosses and daemons are wonderful to look at and fun to bring down. It’s a lot like Kingdom Hearts and a lot not. You can technically ‘auto attack’ by just holding ‘o’, but you can also just mash ‘o’ to attach and perform combos, which I prefer. The downside to the combat is that Noctis doesn’t have abilities or skills like in the demos. No ‘tempest slash’, no ‘jump’, no nothing. It’s just plain attacking for the whole game. The ‘armiger’ ability is okay, and your companions can each have one skill out of a possible three assigned to a hot button for you to command them to do. It gets old quickly. ONLY THREE SKILLS EACH! The **** The ‘ascension’ tree (a poor cousin to X’s sphere grid} is more or less barren of anything worthwhile besides bulk stat upgrades. It’s not 10 strength here, 5 magic there it’s one node that ‘doubles strength based on how manly levels gained’. Only one of those nodes. That’s it.

    The soundtrack is expertly composed by Yoko Shimomura– and honestly any music she ever touches turns to gold, so that’s a big plus. Huge orchestral tracks with bass, violin, opera, and catchy tunes – it’s pretty amazing.

    TL;DR, XV is a half-baked disappointment. It should have remained FF XIII Versus or just disappeared. They shouldn’t have tried to save it like this. The story is asinine, the combat is just okay, and the world is very big, beautiful, and boring.    … Expand
  70. Devastinglane
    Dec 13, 2016
    6
    It's not a FF game... the history is SOOOOO FLAT. The gameplay is fun, but is not a good jrpg.

    + Music is excelent
    + Graphics is excelent
    + Gameplay is fine

    - History Flat
    - Secundary Quest is repetitive and bored
    - Ui problems
  71. Trip_Kiddo
    Dec 18, 2016
    6
    I wanted to like this game. In fact, I wanted this game to be my favorite game of all time, but it comes nowhere near that and I can barely call it a good game. All of the leaders of the Empire are used once or twice and then entirely tossed aside. They're even lesser characters than those that give fetch quests.

    The story lacks so much that it seems to be barely strung together. So    I wanted to like this game. In fact, I wanted this game to be my favorite game of all time, but it comes nowhere near that and I can barely call it a good game. All of the leaders of the Empire are used once or twice and then entirely tossed aside. They're even lesser characters than those that give fetch quests.

    The story lacks so much that it seems to be barely strung together. So much content is tossed aside for their tie-in material. They kept saying that Kingsglaive and Brotherhood were optional and meant to be simply companion experiences, but they're not. They are entirely necessary for the overarching plot.

    Every character besides the 4 main characters is so underdeveloped that they're irrelevant and unnecessary. And while I loved the 4 main bros, I really wished they made other characters more interesting. Luna was marketed as the stories female lead, but she really isn't. All of here development happens in the Kingsglaive movie. Regis (and this isn't a spoiler, it was heavily marketed) who dies early in the beginning doesn't even get any flashback scenes from when Noctis was a child for us to care about his death. Honestly, although I love the 4 main bros i'd argue even they got shafted when it comes to their background (which is is in the guide book but not in the game) stories because I only know them for how they interact during the adventure.

    The Open world is beautiful but entirely empty and filled with boring fetch quests. In fact, I'd say the Open world is this game's biggest problem. Because they focused so much on making a sparse open world you can tell that this is what caused them to forget the story entirely. Many people complain about pacing issues (the first half of the game takes a long time and the last half goes by quickly) and that's because of the open world. If you just try and get through the main story then I doubt the game lasts more than 10 hours. It only feels long because in the open sections you might go do the boring side quests which ALL revolve around "go kill this" or "go fetch that". I wish they had focused on the story and just made multiple small but open enough explore-able zones for major areas. Tenebrae, an area they showed as late as the Uncovered trailer, was completely cut. And Altissia is minuscule. And the reason for the bad loading screens, is because so much unnecessary space needs to load.

    The truth is, as much as I give Tabata s**t (some of which he rightfully deserves) I'm mostly pissed at Square Enix upper management. The reason Versus XIII took so damn long was because they would move his team to fix the issues with their awful in house engine, the main XIII game which had it's own development problems, and their disastrous original launch of XIV. So f**k you Square Enix for not being able to get your s**t together, and f**k you Tabata for gutting what Nomura had for a trilogy and craning it into a mediocre game.    … Expand
  72. vontesse
    Dec 22, 2016
    6
    Fun new game mechanics evolve the franchise to a more active frenetic combat approach that will keep you engaged. However, it severely limits your options as you have no control of the rest your party other than directing them to perform an occasional special and working toward triggering team attacks. Spells are also severely lacking here, consisting of various versions of fire, ice,Fun new game mechanics evolve the franchise to a more active frenetic combat approach that will keep you engaged. However, it severely limits your options as you have no control of the rest your party other than directing them to perform an occasional special and working toward triggering team attacks. Spells are also severely lacking here, consisting of various versions of fire, ice, and lightning. That's right, no Gravity, Demi, Flare, Ultima, etc. In fact, there are no spell casters in your team. Spells are crafted by combining elements with items, and then equipped to one of your active weapon slots. When "cast" they work like grenades, tossed into an area of effect. Then, a cooldown timer restricts you from using another spell for a time.

    The open world is very nice to look at. But that world is sparsely filled. Quests are relegated to standard fetch quests that do nothing to further your understanding of the world you are exploring. An optional hunting quest line is also available, but, like other side quests, only serve to grind for xp. You can also only have one active hunt at a time. A curious design choice that will have you spending alot of time traveling (or loading if you fast travel) back and forth between the world and a questing hub.

    The story...is not really here. The game plays out in two parts. The first half is an open world playground with meaningless sidequests and very little of the main plot. The second half strips the open world from you and shoves you through set piece after set piece in what feels like a highlight reel of a story. The bits in between these events are never touched upon. Oddly enough, it was the first half I enjoyed the most. This is where you get the funny dialogue between you and your "bros," the three traveling companions and your best friends. Even though there is barely any exploration of your relationship or character development, there are genuinely funny moments. This element of humor and camaraderie is entirely lacking in the second half. It moves so quickly and spends so much time on the events, that you never get to care about the characters themselves. Much of the story isn't even in the game. If you don't watch the movie (Kingsglaive) you'll miss out on what happened during the opening parts of the game. The game really doesn't go into this at all, possibly in an attempt to encourage sales of the movie. If you want to know more about the relationship between the four friends, you have to watch the anime (Brotherhood). Again, a possible attempt to increase earnings by piecemealing out the story among various products?

    Customization is also missing here. Previous titles had a plethora of weapons, armor, accessories, spells, skills, items, etc. that could be utilized to your heart's content. Older titles even had optional sidequests that rewarded your tenacity in defeating superbosses or traversing challenging dungeons with some of the most powerful gear and skills in the game. FFXV lacks all of that. There is no armor. There are outfits that change your stats and your physical appearance. However, you pretty much start with all of the outfits you will ever have (a whopping 4 of them per character, 6 for the main character if you pre-ordered). Weapons are very limited. In my journey, I came across maybe five or six of each type of weapon. The gems are the royal arms, weapons only the main character can utilize. These are weapons of the kings of old passed on from generation to generation of successors. They are powerful! But will drain your HP as you use them, so do so sparingly. Accessories, are extremely basic, maybe 10 different kinds, with a host of upgraded versions of them. There barely any active skills and no jobs or classes to speak of. Skills are limited to the specials you can order your team mates to perform when your action bar reaches a certain threshold. You yourself, only get one special attack. That's right, ONE skill. Remember previous entries' skill lists you could learn, or the limit breaks you could unleash? Here, you only get one. It does however, get stronger as you collect more royal arms. You get the idea here, very limited customization. Probably the most restrictive in an any JRPG i've played. JRPGs are known for gear hunting. I get breaking the mold, but breaking the fun ones seems a strange decision.

    In the end, this game felt like an unfinished product pushed out too soon due to a long development period and/or excessive financial strain. As an action romp, this game accomplishes stylish (though limited in options) combat, flashy visuals, and a large open world (in the first half anyway). But as an RPG, it severely lacks for customization and storytelling, forcing you into a relentless series of set pieces during the second half that leaves you feeling like you just played two separate games.    … Expand
  73. DarkSoul7007
    Dec 28, 2016
    6
    Wow—a game that has actually compelled me to take my time to write a review. To users that rated this game on Day 1 of release…thanks for nothing.

    This game is a solid 6. It will entertain you and doesn’t get off to an awful start, but the game continues to collapse after the first ~5 hours in. For brief moments this game feels like it could be an 8 or 9 (i.e. esper summons, certain    Wow—a game that has actually compelled me to take my time to write a review. To users that rated this game on Day 1 of release…thanks for nothing.

    This game is a solid 6. It will entertain you and doesn’t get off to an awful start, but the game continues to collapse after the first ~5 hours in. For brief moments this game feels like it could be an 8 or 9 (i.e. esper summons, certain battle sequences or CGI scenes). However, those moments are fleeting and soon enough you are cast back into the shell of a game which utilizes many half-assed mechanics.

    STORY: 4/10--All reviewers are on the same page with this one--the story is disjointed, it feels like parts are left out, not enough context/background is provided. There is very little reason to empathize with the characters and fight for them. If this game was developed with the idea that people would be watching Kingsglaive or going back and purchasing it, then shame on the devs. This game needs to stand on its own and it doesn't. If story is important to you, then either watch the movie or pass on FFXV (they plan to patch the story--Crazy!!). I can't imagine it even making sense with the movie as many key events happen off-screen or are simply not explained. These were key opportunities to show impactful events (i.e. deaths, permanent injuries, political events).

    Music: 7/10--This could be an 8 if there was more music. I don't find the tracks to be very original, memorable or something that will blow you away. However, the menu music is relaxing and catchy, the combat music is fitting. I found myself getting a little amped up when I heard the specific music that plays when an esper summon becomes available. It's got a very **** is about to go down" feel to it. So, where's the problem? As you travel the world you'll notice almost every place you stop in the open world plays the SAME honky-tonk country song. In almost every FF game you can attach a song to a town or villain and I can't do that with FFXV. There's just not enough here.

    COMBAT: 8/10--Combat is fun. It's not very complicated and with a little bit of effort you can become powerful enough to make most battles a nonthreat. With practice, it's cool to switch between weapons on the fly and to match-up to the enemies weakness by weapon type or element. Blocking and parrying is simple, but feels great nonetheless. Magic is very powerful when crafted properly, but I found the crafting system to be a little annoying and equipping magic takes up one of your weapon slots. Missing from this game (to my knowledge) are classic FF spells like Haste, Berserk, Holy, Ultima, Meteor, and so on. There is only Fire, Thunder and Ice which can be modified to stop, poison and kill enemies (with a few other unmentionable buffs).

    GAMEPLAY: 6/10--FFXV has several minigames and other mechanics such as cooking, but they're not implemented in any meaningful or enjoyable way. Fishing is rather boring as is the pinball game. Cooking can give your party serious stat boosts, but require camping which means you earn 1.0x your exp when resting (as opposed to a cheap hotel which may give 1.5x). So what actually happens before a tough battle is you will go rest at a hotel to cash in your XP at 1.5x or 2.0x, then go rest again at a campsite to cook. It's silly and annoying. Sure, there is chocobo racing, but it just gets you medals. Don't expect to obtain Knights of the Round from this minigame. Some reviewers have raved about the roadtrip feel to this game. It was cool at first, but I shortly found myself using fast travel whenever possible. The relaxing car ride also feels very out of place in terms of the story and some of the prompts you receive before driving at night get old really fast as you cannot skip it. There is so much more to say on all the mechanics in this game, but the short of it is it all feels sort of rushed and there to "check the box".

    WORLD DESIGN: 5/10: The mix of openworld and linear story feels like two different games literally stitched together by a few lines of code to transport you between the modes. There are a couple of cool places in the world, but you don't spend enough time there. Go Google "final fantasy towns" and click the wikia page. Every FF except very early ones) has really unique towns you can remember by name, by site, by the music. FFXV breaks that with a bunch of identical roadstops playing the same music. The towns are not unique or fun to explore. The only reason to explore is to pickup random glowing dots (items) on the ground which actually detracts from looking at the world.

    I could go on, but I'm at the max char limit. This is quite the game to analyze...it really is a frankenstein of development. Even the graphics and voice-acting can be stellar in some areas, and HORRID the next. Supposedly there are great dungeons accessible AFTER the story. Huh? You have to ask, what kind of game were they trying to make???    … Expand
  74. SocioStache
    Jan 10, 2017
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Before I begin, let me tell you how much I PERSONALLY love this game. It is one of my favorite games of the year, if not all time. However, that does not mean that I can give it a high score. In fact, my favorite subtitle for this game is "The Flawed Masterpiece".

    Let me begin by stating everything good about the game. The world looks very nice; they did a good job on the aesthetic appeal of the world. The attention to detail is pretty good (you can see your characters get dirty or wet depending on the area). The voice acting in English and Japanese are pretty good, and most of the characters themselves are fairly likeable. The combat is AMAZING! It's no Dark Souls, Dragon's Dogma, or Witcher 3; but it's well done and feels amazing and fluent, aside from some unresponsive controls at times. Ardyn is one of my personal favorite Final Fantasy villains, even if there was very little character development for him (or anyone else for that matter). And finally, the second half of the story is pretty good. Not great, just pretty good.

    Alright, now here's the fun part...

    This game took a LOOONG time to make; the development was restarted on two separate occasions. Naturally, that means that a lot of content was cut. After Tetsuya Nomura's departure from the development team in 2015, the rest of the crew had to scramble to finish a game without their creative expert. This lead to the gameplay being DRASTICALLY downgraded (look at the 2014 trailers for proof), the world being cut down by almost 90% (the original world map is nonexistent, and most of the original 785 square-miles is condensed into a smaller, 24-ish square-mile map), the story being rewritten, and entire chunks of the game being cut. Originally, the game would be around 3 acts long. The first act would be around 1/6 of the length of the game. It focused on Noctis's childhood, his relationship with his father, and the early lives of his future boy-bandmates. The second chunk was going to be much shorter, and told the part of the story where the tension built between Niflheim and Lucis, eventually leading to the events of Kingsglaive (the movie). The third act is the only part we got to play, and is the game itself. So sadly, rather than getting 50-75 hours of story gameplay that we were PROMISED a couple of years ago, we got a 20-25 hour game, a mediocre movie, and a five-episode anime. While the extra multimedia is not BAD, per se, it certainly doesn't get any points, considering it's basically the developers' laziness to create more game.

    The world, as I said, was supposed to be around 10-15 times the size of Grand Theft Auto V, and would be fully explorable. It would be empty in a lot of areas, but since one of the focuses of the game was "road trip", much of it would be glanced over as you drove past it anyway. Niflheim, Insomnia, Altissia, and Tenebrae were going to be completely open, as well as some other kingdoms now under Niflheim rule. Sadly, near the last six months of development, the team got overwhelmed by the sheer amount of area they still needed to make. They decided to cut out most of the world and condense the main parts, which resulted in the game being delayed by two months.

    The gameplay was originally going to incorporate more cover elements and even some free-running like the Assassin's Creed or Uncharted franchises. While the gameplay we got is still great, it's painful to see all the cut content that they showed just two E3s ago.

    The story is mostly trash. Like previously stated, the story was going to be wider in scope originally, focusing more on the relationship between Noctis, a boy who can foresee the deaths of others due to a near-death accident in his childhood, and his friends, family, and fiancé. As he grew to adulthood, the burden of his responsibilities as prince became too much to bear, and he grew defiant, refusing to accept his place in the world. As the tension between Noctis and his father grew, so did the tension between Niflheim and Lucis, the two largest kingdoms in Eos. Under the stress, King Regis began to crack and lose control of his power, kingdom, and his only son. As a last effort to restore peace, he arranged for Noctis and Lunafreya to be married ahead of schedule, which will hopefully bring peace to the two nations. After Noctis's departure, though, full-scale war broke out against Niflheim (not that skirmish they had in the movie), and Regis was killed. Over Noctis's whole lifetime, however, scientists noticed the length of the days slowly shortening, as well as the mysterious arrival of creatures dubbed "daemons". And as the war began, Niflheim apparently learned to harness these monsters. The mysterious chancellor of Niflheim, Ardyn, was also supposed to have more development up to the reveal in chapter 13 in-game. Almost all of this was cut.

    There are some pathetic nitpicks, like the "airship" you get; but all in all: Final Fantasy XV is not the VII-killer we were promised.    … Expand
  75. KentaTakashi
    Jan 15, 2017
    6
    In some senses square enix has delivered on a game that was better than its most recent predecessor in FFXIII and it's many iterations, (XIII-2 and Lightning Returns). Yet it has failed horribly I feel in the ways that matter most to a diehard Final Fantasy fan. I'm going to break down this review like I have done for many others I did in the past not on this site. STORY, GRAPHICS, SOUND,In some senses square enix has delivered on a game that was better than its most recent predecessor in FFXIII and it's many iterations, (XIII-2 and Lightning Returns). Yet it has failed horribly I feel in the ways that matter most to a diehard Final Fantasy fan. I'm going to break down this review like I have done for many others I did in the past not on this site. STORY, GRAPHICS, SOUND, and GAMEPLAY/REPLAY. Also in lite of the season pass and it's upcoming DLC's this review does not take those into account and is just a review of the base game.

    STORY: This is probably the most insulting story next to FFXIII for fans of the series. The story's main cast of characters (your 3 friends) is likable but utterly bland. They have their motivations and driving forces but none of them is properly fleshed out with either back up lore or clever small interactions within the game.

    The story has no emotional bonding and throughout the many FF series this has been one of the driving factors behind it's longevity and success. You felt for each character as you deeply bonded with them in your travels. This game has some of that but it's lost in a jumble of messy and incomplete storytelling. One instance you're doing something and the next something completely unrelated happens that just derails the transition from one scene into the next. Not to mention you barely experience the story 15 hours into the game slogged down by side quests that dilutes the bare bones story even further. I should have cried when certain character died but I was just like MEH and moved on.

    Past games have achieved unity between side quests and main story by tying them indirectly into the game with lore. (ie the al bhed dictionary in FF10, and the gathering quests in FF7 for Aerith). This does none of that, sure hunting monsters is enjoyable at first but you don't really know why you're doing it other than for hunter progression and or new gear. That alone isn't really enough.

    (SEMI SPOILER) To top it off the ending while fine on its own only really tell an incomplete picture and Square Enix have taken it upon themselves to add insult to injury on starting a NG+ in hope of achieving a better ending (like have been done in past games) by not actually including one.

    Oh and while kingslaive did give plenty of prelude up to the game it doesn't fill in the massive plot holes left during parts of the story.

    STORY receives a bitter 3/10

    GRAPHICS: What can I say I'm more spoiled by computers than I was in GLORY DAYS past for SQUARE.

    While textures look muddy up close on the PS4 I still enjoyed the larger back drop scenery and the beautiful decorum. Especialy the the Throne room of the LUCII they took to creating this vast open world. This is actually one of the saving graces of this entry. Sure it's not as fantasy driven as past games. But that in and of itself is fine the world actually functions well together and you feel like it's all tied to the overarching feel of the title.

    They also did well transitioning the more pixel art/ cartoony monsters of past games into respectable and fearsome creatures. THE GIANT WORLD BOSSES are SUPER impressive although certain areas are bogged down by massive and inconsistent frame drops as a result of the post-rendering.

    GRAPHICS receives a solid and acceptable score of 8/10

    SOUND: GIVE ME MORE... I genuinely enjoyed the sound track as I do almost every FF game this one being no exception SUNSET WALTZ is my To Zanarkand all over again :).

    Sound effects and overall sound design in the game is outstanding. WEAPONS are given the appropriate sound effects to match their size and weight and meaningful attacks and chains click well together and aren't muddled.

    VOICE ACTING in the western version could use some help at times (dear god dave with a southern accent) but was actually fairly acceptable and downright pleasant to listen to at times. Still suffering from TIDUS's cringe laughing in the western port. JP Voice acting was solid although some of the subtitle translations could use some work in my opinion.

    SOUNDS gets a 8/10 ( GODDAMIT DAVE)

    GAMEPLAY:
    Probably the most love hate relationship you'll encounter in more recent games. I genuinely enjoyed the combat while not perfect was acceptable and it told the story properly. Square still has too much of a love affair with QTE events ever since they made them more prominent in FF13 but is still fairly acceptable in this game. Most combat QTE is limited to the small O button interaction as a result and leaves for a weird mix between Kingdom Hearts free chaining combined with some weird strategy factors from past FF games.

    REPLAY: There is none aside from maybe upcoming DLC or if you're into monster hunting. With a lack of a possible better ending there's really no reason to replay the game since it doesn't actually get harder with NG+

    GAMEPLAY/REPLAY gets a 7/10

    OVERALL SCORE IS 6.5/10.    … Expand
  76. bcj919
    Jan 15, 2017
    6
    Like others said - incomplete & rushed.

    The fighting system was a blast, but I wish there were more spells / techniques & opportunities to summon. They did a horrible job with tutorials, & pretty much expected you to sit at the camp sights and learn for yourself. My friend & I each discovered several key gameplay elements 50+ hours in. The story made absolutely no sense til the    Like others said - incomplete & rushed.

    The fighting system was a blast, but I wish there were more spells / techniques & opportunities to summon.

    They did a horrible job with tutorials, & pretty much expected you to sit at the camp sights and learn for yourself. My friend & I each discovered several key gameplay elements 50+ hours in.

    The story made absolutely no sense til the very end...I had to push myself to care to finish it.

    Creature designs were great, & I loved the sense of scale in battle, but there seemed to be only a handful of them

    All the negative posts aside, I had a genuinely fun time playing it, & I hope they build on this for the next entry    … Expand
  77. blue90moon
    Feb 21, 2017
    6
    Okay! Before I get mad, I rated XV 6 out of 10, and that is VERY generious. I love Final Fantasy games and I NEVER had a problem with them. Final Fantasy is my favorite of all games, but when it comes to XV, it is a COMPLETE disappointment. The game has beautiful graphics and cutscenes, but that is it. The worst Final Fantasy I have played in my entire life. Square Enix, what were youOkay! Before I get mad, I rated XV 6 out of 10, and that is VERY generious. I love Final Fantasy games and I NEVER had a problem with them. Final Fantasy is my favorite of all games, but when it comes to XV, it is a COMPLETE disappointment. The game has beautiful graphics and cutscenes, but that is it. The worst Final Fantasy I have played in my entire life. Square Enix, what were you thinking??? This game you made here, is NOT Final Fantasy, period. You know that I know that, anybody who played a real Final Fantasy game knows that. I get it, you were trying to target a new audience, but this game is NOT for Final Fantasy so-called fans at all. Why did you have to deceive us like that? WHY? You know what? FF XIII is a good game, but XV was INCOMPLETE sold at FULL price!!! The main story alone is ONLY 6-10 hours long? ALL your other FFs were 40-60 hours long, for the main story. Also, why does XV play like Metal Gear Solid, Devil May Cry or Resident Evil instead of Final Fantasy? WHY? You were better off naming this gaming something else, but you labeled it FF to TRICK us fans into buying it, for MORE money. I call that GREED. I can't trust you anymore Square Enix and I will not be buying your DLCs to fill in the holes of this XV game that you created on purpose. What's wrong with you people? There are invisible walls everwhere yet you claim this game to be an OPEN WORLD game. It is NOT an open world, that is a complete lie. Almost all of your fetch quests are literally COPY/PASTE. There are bugs everywhere. The button mapping is awful. Barely any magic. There is NO difficulty what-so-ever, but Easy Mode. Where is the Strategy? Boss battles are QTEs, all you have to do is press 'O' to kill the boss. Boss battles are basically cutscenes now. Really? Important pieces of the story were cut out on purpose for you to get people to buy Downloadable Content. Really? Even Tabata says he did this intentionally, in order to make it a trend. MIND BLOWN. This game was under 10 years of development, and you put out false trailers as bait and switch to get me to buy GARBAGE. This game is GARBAGE at best, but I will give you 6 out of 10, because, I am a nice person like that.

    Anybody want to see the truth of the game? Go on YouTube and watch this SHORT story of the game -> https://youtu.be/18_mwsGe72o The story makes no sense, you can't emotionally connect to the characters and most of it is boring anyways.

    Never preorder games from Square Enix and always do research before you buy their games at full price.    … Expand
  78. MAFIAxMaverick
    Mar 19, 2017
    6
    Sunk about 60 hours into FFXV for the platinum. Game looks gorgeous and I even liked the more streamlined gameplay in terms of combat. Hunts are a lot of fun and made me really look forward to the hunts that I'll be reliving in FFXII remaster later this summer.

    It may be unfair to judge this compared to it's predecessors, but I haven't cared less about a Final Fantasy game's story like    Sunk about 60 hours into FFXV for the platinum. Game looks gorgeous and I even liked the more streamlined gameplay in terms of combat. Hunts are a lot of fun and made me really look forward to the hunts that I'll be reliving in FFXII remaster later this summer.

    It may be unfair to judge this compared to it's predecessors, but I haven't cared less about a Final Fantasy game's story like I did for FFXV. I'm hoping DLC will change that, though it's disappointing to need DLC to feel a sense of completion with the story in a series such as this. I hope Square does not continue down the path and, instead, releases a full game next go around. For all the years in development, even though the game was probably scrapped and restarted from step one, I'm disappointed.

    I really enjoyed the gameplay and side quests. If the main story was even half as good as I hoped it was going to be, then this would be a 9 or 10 for me. But the main story was so disjointed and full of holes that I felt virtually no sense of intrinsic reward/happiness/sadness/anything when it finally ended.    … Expand
  79. Uco
    Mar 3, 2017
    6
    Final Fantasy XV is not a bad game. It is quite good, in fact. But I cannot ignore the feeling of incompleteness it transmits.

    Talking about the artistic part, the work is awesome here. Amazing design of characters, enemies, environments. A wonderful soundtrack. The deep message about friendship. FFXV got me there. Unfortunately, it lacks of depth in every other thing that makes it a    Final Fantasy XV is not a bad game. It is quite good, in fact. But I cannot ignore the feeling of incompleteness it transmits.

    Talking about the artistic part, the work is awesome here. Amazing design of characters, enemies, environments. A wonderful soundtrack. The deep message about friendship. FFXV got me there.

    Unfortunately, it lacks of depth in every other thing that makes it a game. In one way or another, you can feel the game is sort of a grouping of bits of ideas and different courses during the development process. Lots of mechanics and new elements are introduced to the player and quickly left behind, too many characters are shooting stars whose past, future, or causes you never get to know more about.

    I haven't enjoyed the fighting system. It becomes too chaotic with more than 3 enemies at a time, and fights are sometimes so easy that you feel ashamed you can keep on just smashing the attack button, or so difficult you feel frustrated not to be able to do anything to avoid being ass-kicked and abuse your inventory's healing items. Also, I missed some plot background for most of the missions that are not part of the main storyline.

    I have to praise, though, Prompto's photography system as a fresh and funny way of keeping memories from any everyday moment, any non important thing you do, not having to be part of the story. Those moments are the really important ones as you take a look back to the journey of the main characters and how their relationship develops; and looking at Prompto's photos you can even feel them as your own trip's. It's kind of emotional.

    In summary, you should play FFXV because it really has value as a game, but, as I, you will probably not forgive it ended up being the shadow of what it could have achieved.    … Expand
  80. raccoondaddy
    Mar 22, 2017
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Being a fan of the series since Final Fantasy II for the SNES (now known as Final Fantasy IV(4)). I knew very little going into this one. Which is really how I like it. I stay away from the hype, the over/under expectations after a release and all of the information sandwiched in between.

    However, I did know about this being a "guy trip" and sort of a care-free adventure. And for the most part, we got that...for about 3 hours of main quest. Then everything changes, things get darker and the story progresses. As to HOW it progresses, is what bothered me. Several parts of the progression was left with obvious story gaps. (Which are, guess what, DLC! Have fun with that Season Pass holders; here's to getting what you payed for!! $80 dollars total to get the FULL STORY!) Besides that, the progression speeds up so fast, that it leaves ALL of the other cool characters you'd met during your journey, being ignored or a swifter end than the "Red Wedding".

    On the lighter side, the world of Final Fantasy XV is astounding; teeming with monsters in their natural state, lively cities and fun little things to see and do. Sadly, those interactions fall flat with an over-saturation of fetch quests and monster hunting. (Although SOME of the hunts are fun!)

    As for the exploration, sometimes it's cool and the rest of the time, it was just F*ckn boring. Especially those damn car rides! Be honest with me! How many people truly enjoy LONG car rides! As for the some the areas; the dungeons were my FAVORITE. Which is different, as most of the time, I kind of loath long dungeons. Yet, FFXV does it right and integrates the monsters into the exploration of the caves, making them more like a haunted house, jumping out when you least expect them! This was kept my score closer to 7 and kept me interested in the game.

    Yet, when I go and look at the rest stops and the terrible Japanese adaptation of 1950s Americana, it kind of makes me gag. Most of it is done with corny mascots, dumb restaurant chains and sleeping in mobile homes. To me, it seemed more like a solid attempt to make Americans into one big-ass cliche. Sure, those years were corny, but they could've been represented in a more tasteful manner.

    It didn't have to be historically accurate, as this was a fantasy world, they could've at least made the road trip part feel less like the developers just read books, took pictures and stayed in a tour bus. (Which is, most likely what they did.) Granted, this is a video game, but if you're going to make a compelling world for a Final Fantasy game, do a better job of it.

    Gameplay wise, battles were exciting to watch, not a challenge to play. Outside of just having the right level and gear, there is no real challenge to any of the fights.

    Overall, Sque-Enix ALWAYS makes a pretty looking and sounding game! Which is where FFXV's strengths are in. The world, monsters, sound effects, summons and anything audio/visual was done right. But the overall experience was like drinking a flat soda. Either you like drinking it or you don't; I like my soda FIZZY.    … Expand
  81. oxitran
    May 4, 2018
    6
    The game felt like an overreaction to the linearity complaints of FFXIII. The game could have been great, but it felt like a mish-mash of ideas that never worked well together.
    Cons:
    -Many graphical issues. Such as fish swimming above water, NPC characters floating in mid-air, etc. -Gladio getting stuck in an infinite falling animation and becoming useless. -A terribly paced story.    The game felt like an overreaction to the linearity complaints of FFXIII. The game could have been great, but it felt like a mish-mash of ideas that never worked well together.
    Cons:
    -Many graphical issues. Such as fish swimming above water, NPC characters floating in mid-air, etc.
    -Gladio getting stuck in an infinite falling animation and becoming useless.
    -A terribly paced story.
    -Poor quest design.
    -The car idea was not as fully realised as it could have been.
    -Characters disappearing from the party for no reason, only to return later without any explanation, to then have their excursions sold as separate DLC.
    -The game gives you a large open world to explore, but then forces you down a number of corridors as if to say "Hey! we have all these cool places in the world. But rather than connect them in a meaningful way, with a satisfying story, and to fully realise them as player spaces, you can have a look at them from the window of a train car or in a tiny little area just of from the platform. enjoy!".
    -Spells!.
    -Combat!.    … Expand
  82. AsrielDreemur
    Feb 14, 2018
    6
    This is the most mediocre game out of all the final fantasy franchise. My major complain is the story, clearly the story is unfinished and it's not as intriguing as I hope for from a final fantasy franchise. The gameplay is just mediocre at best and it could be repetitive at time. Overall it could have been better but this game just scream out mediocre at best.
  83. Vay
    Apr 18, 2017
    6
    This game aims high but very rarely hits the mark.

    I am a long time Final Fantasy fan. Unfortunately XV is quite similar to XIII in that it is not an awful game but is very far from a masterpiece also. What Final Fantasy has always sold itself on is story. This is the number one gripe I have with the game. I can forgive the rough open world idea, the endless fetch quests, the    This game aims high but very rarely hits the mark.

    I am a long time Final Fantasy fan. Unfortunately XV is quite similar to XIII in that it is not an awful game but is very far from a masterpiece also.
    What Final Fantasy has always sold itself on is story. This is the number one gripe I have with the game. I can forgive the rough open world idea, the endless fetch quests, the inconsistent combat, and wonky camera, but I can not forgive the story that was delivered. If your main enjoyment from previous FF's has been story then you are most likely going to be disappointed by this entry.

    The pacing is alarmingly irregular. At the early stages of the game there is none to little story (or motivation) around to drive you forward, but as you come to the end exposition gets thrown at you all at once and you will be pushed towards the end of a story you've only just been starting to understand. In the early chapters you will be told to collect weapons to help your country, only to have this discarded as important by the next chapter where communing with aeons suddenly becomes what it is you have to do. Focus is the main thing this story needed but there is a lack of it at both ends; there is very little clear idea of what it is you're actually working towards at the beginning, and near the end so much is going on all at once that it is hard to pinpoint what the story is trying to tell you. Characters will routinely have things happen to them rather than developing themselves through choices and actions. The four main characters you spend your time with are likable but rarely step out of the sterotypes you are introduced to at the start. New characters will be introduced only to disappear very soon after and become largely irrelevant to the grand scheme of things. A lot of events will happen off screen with little attempt to explain them further to the viewer who might be confused by what exactly has happened.

    The combat is passable. I found myself enjoying it immensely at the beginning but it soon becomes boring and rigid. There isn't much variation to mix things up and battles seem to be either ridiculously easy or unfairly hard with little comfortable middle. Attacking certain parts of enemies is a fun idea but it doesn't add much to the strategy or flow of battle. The best execution in battles is the tactics you can order your friends to make, and the team attacks you can trigger with them. These are gratifying and fun to watch as well as essential to a lot of harder fights, but even with this good addition the combat doesn't do much to entice you to enjoy it for it's own sake. Magic was as much of a dealbreaker for me as it seems it was for most people but more variety would have been nice and it was simply easier just to attack away then throw magic half the time.

    The open world is again passable. Bogged down with meaningless fetch quests and tedious car journeys, the best way to travel is by chocobo but don't expect your exploration to be rewarded. You can come across quest givers with broken down cars, or a person in distress requiring a potion, but what I've just described is the extent of the complexity to these discoveries. These people have nothing new to say or bring to the game as a whole and you will find yourself cursing when finding them after a short while. The world is pretty and the diversity of enemies is good, I will give it that. I did enjoy fishing but the repetitive banter which is a symptom elsewhere is at it's worse when doing so. You will hear the same lines over and over and don't expect to grow to love them- it mars what is otherwise quite a fun minigame. I didn't even bother with the pinball machine game after trying it once so can't talk extensively about that but it certainly didn't win me over.
    The day/night cycle changes up what enemies you will encounter but you will run into a problem I mentioned earlier, in that a lot of these fight are unfairly hard and a chore to get through. In fights like this your winning depends more upon the amount of potions and phoenix downs you've got handy than actual skill.

    The music is something I can applaud, and the soundtrack is one of my favorites of all Final Fantasy games. It's done incredibly well apart from a few town hubs (Lestallum I'm looking at you) being repetitive and annoying. Alongside this the inclusion of being able to buy previous game's soundtracks is inspired. In other positive notes the villain did as well as they could of done considering the story; they were both threatening and entertaining and it is a real shame more backstory couldn't have been discovered on them, as I was very interested. Photography is another inspired move alongside cooking; there's something about looking at photos while eating a dinner you choose yourself that feels cosy and familiar. It is in these moments that the game feels like something more special and worthy of our time.    … Expand
  84. 945
    Jun 10, 2017
    6
    As a hardcore final fantasy fan for nearly a decade and waiting for this game to come out for a half of a decade I feel like I was punished for my devotion to this game. This game takes everything you love about the final fantasy universe and cuts it down to a barebones minimalistic and trendy piece of garbage. Final Fantasy is supposed to be a magical realm of wonder and awe but instead,As a hardcore final fantasy fan for nearly a decade and waiting for this game to come out for a half of a decade I feel like I was punished for my devotion to this game. This game takes everything you love about the final fantasy universe and cuts it down to a barebones minimalistic and trendy piece of garbage. Final Fantasy is supposed to be a magical realm of wonder and awe but instead, we get a boring lifeless world with pointless fetch side quests. zero spells, a 10-hour main storyline filled with plotholes which lead to an incomplete and incoherent storyline with travelling that takes WAY to long to get anywhere and will literally waste your time trying to get from point A to B.

    Pros:
    - Combat animations are good.
    - The soundtrack is wonderfully done.
    - 4 main protagonists are likeable.
    - Day/Night Transitions look nice.

    Cons:
    - The open world is a barren wasteland filled with little to nothing to do.
    - There is a huge amount of downtime in this game when going from point A to B.
    - Exploration offer's zero rewards as items are static and can be bought it stores.
    - Poorly balanced combat, the fights are either way too easy or way too hard.
    - Levelling your characters really does not offer anything significant to your hero's ability.
    - Combat does not evolve whatsoever from the start of the game to the finish.
    - Huge lack of skills for the team that get outclassed by the next unlocked skill, Noctis does not have a single skill other than the armiger and warp striking.
    - Fighting monsters and enemies in the world always will always feel like a one-sided fight/you have all this power and you fight enemies with no magic or ability skills.
    - 2 cities in the entire game. (no this is not a joke)
    - The inability to simply go up to and have a conversation with a single NPC in the game. (FF1 had this and so did every other FF game so why not this one?)
    - The most incoherent storyline that tells you the who, what, where, when but then fails to tell you the why and how in the main storyline. (THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF ANALYZING A STORY!)
    - Kingsglaive, the Brotherhood anime, justice monsters five, and kings knight where a complete waste of resources and could have been just used for FFXV.
    - To understand the entire game world you must buy the official strategy guide for footnotes.
    - All story cutscene options give you the same outcome.
    - Cup Noodle commercial quest... (I really wish I was kidding but I am not)
    - No spell

    The worst part is that hardcore fans of this series which should have been the number one priority in pleasing were punished for being hardcore fans and by watching all the active time reports as soon as they came out should benefit a person not hurt their experience If you where someone like me who watched the ATR's then guess what, you just witnessed literally the first 7 chapters of the game's cutscenes chopped from the game and presented in a random order. I thought I saw maybe 1-3% of what the game had to offer but instead, it was more like 40-45% of what the game had to offer. So instead of trying to make a truly great and genre changing RPG like Tabata claimed, instead we get a generic world full of borrowed outdated and overused mechanics from games like Uncharted, Farcry and Skyrim. I could have forgiven all that if the story was no rushed to death... This is a statement from Hajime Tabata about the complaints about the story in FFXV "We didn't want to create a comprehensive and perfectly balanced story in this game" -HT. So he went with the walking dead style of storyline telling where you don't tell you audience jack and expect them to come up with their own fan theories and outlooks for the game!?!? Because if that is was the intention to make a game with a BS story line then mission accomplished. You could have made an actual RPG game with actual good storytelling but Tabata didn't want to? Absolute total BS excuse... This game had so much potential and how this sold 5 million copies blows my mind...    … Expand
  85. NinjaFujoshi
    Nov 2, 2017
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. FFXV is one of the most painfully average games I've played. This is coming from a person who isn't a hardcore FF fan or a casual player. I have very high expectations for this game to come out. The game trailers showed promise of what the game is like, but sadly, it'll only show like 98% what the game actually is when you play it.

    First off of what the game's strongest downfall is the story. Nothing is wrong with a simple or complex story as long you able to show what is going on and able to understand it. This game has a simple premise of the story but sadly, the game fails when it comes to story-telling. Major conflicts usually have shown either off screen, read through papers, or have an NPC talk to you the situation that has happened. It's even worse that you have to watch the movie, the Brotherhood anime, and the DLCs to understand what is going on. They talk very little of the mythos in the game unless you have access to the internet to understand what is going on. The romance subplot is so forced that Noctis and Luna have zero chemistry; they're more like penpals than an actual couple that are in love. I suspect the game's story to be better than this.

    The four main characters were okay. Except for Noctis, his friends lack backstories of what they have become before the game, even in the anime doesn't talk about their backstories much. They have very little character development that it's easily brushed aside. The boys weren't terrible, just lacking that they're basically cookie-cutter characters. The supporting characters don't have the same treatment of the main four. Luna is basically there to be a plot device that is destined to die and be Noctis' romantic interest that there isn't much to her personality except being a cardboard cut out. Ardyn's evil motives are questionable at best when you have to look up, once again, the internet. I would go on about the other supporting characters but it's going to be a long paragraph. Basically, the majority of the supporting cast are underrepresented.

    The gameplay could've been better. The weapons you acquired are useless when you only use about 3-4 weapons that are to your liking on your weapon slot. The magic is useless that there's barely any difference when you make a damage on the enemy. Also, it hurts you and the members so there's no point of using them since the members are stupid to go through the pain of getting hit. Side quests are mundane chores that you have to go through in order to get some exp, gil, and some items. The car is one of the most annoying uses of transportation because either you (not really) drive to your destination or use quick travel, it doesn't matter, it's a long loading screen.

    I think the only things that I like in the game are the graphics and the soundtrack. It's a beautiful looking game. The music is good. I do like the hunts too. But that's all I have very little positive things about this game, unfortunately.

    I tried to be optimistic and wanted to like this game, but it's hard now. All this game is giving me negative feelings of depression, confusion, and anger. If people like this game, that's fine. I just wish that I could enjoy what they have. I feel like people will enjoy for the gameplay. If people want to play the game for the story, I suggest looking away as it's not really much of a story to be told.    … Expand
  86. adamako666
    Oct 11, 2017
    6
    The most upsetting thing about this game is the wasted potential. It clearly needs a couple more years of work on it. I think when they actually finish this game it will be one of the classics. As a broken game it is still pretty good. The graphics are stunning and the game play mechanics are superb. There are aspects of the story that work such as how you come to feel for your threeThe most upsetting thing about this game is the wasted potential. It clearly needs a couple more years of work on it. I think when they actually finish this game it will be one of the classics. As a broken game it is still pretty good. The graphics are stunning and the game play mechanics are superb. There are aspects of the story that work such as how you come to feel for your three compatriots through the game. Unfortunately it is clearly obvious many aspects of the games story is not in the game. There are chapters missing and ultimately the story does not really make any sense whatsoever. I look forward to playing again in a couple of years when they finish it.… Expand
  87. Zannath
    Oct 14, 2017
    6
    I'm extremely disappointed in the story of this game. Through the game I did not feel anything for the character nor did the scene int he game made me feel anything. Through the whole game there were no emotion that was worth mentioning at all.

    The Combat System was bad as well. The upgrade tree really was costly with points and not really much of a customization of your characters.    I'm extremely disappointed in the story of this game. Through the game I did not feel anything for the character nor did the scene int he game made me feel anything. Through the whole game there were no emotion that was worth mentioning at all.

    The Combat System was bad as well. The upgrade tree really was costly with points and not really much of a customization of your characters. Magic was pretty useless in the game for it hurt not only the enemy but allies as well. Summon were ridicules because it requirement to summon depends on the battle and not when you want to. The only thing that I like about the combat system was the fighting style they have. It more fun to swing around the sword instead of taking turn base.    … Expand
  88. LouieV103
    Nov 17, 2017
    6
    The story of this Final Fantasy, as is with any other Final Fantasy story, is confusing and ultimately dissapointing, so you've been warned.

    But the gameplay is the main reason this game shines and makes you go back to it, if you want an expansive action RPG with tons of content and fun side quests, with character development and a few elements of nostalgia thrown in from previous    The story of this Final Fantasy, as is with any other Final Fantasy story, is confusing and ultimately dissapointing, so you've been warned.

    But the gameplay is the main reason this game shines and makes you go back to it, if you want an expansive action RPG with tons of content and fun side quests, with character development and a few elements of nostalgia thrown in from previous games.

    I recommend this game, although if I may suggest you should wait for a sale of the FULL game which has the season pass, because that "extra" DLC (which should've been sold in the base game anyway) does give more coherence and interesting content, if any, to the story and game in general.    … Expand
  89. balding
    Aug 5, 2018
    6
    La acción en tiempo real es un acierto para los tiempos que corren. La división entre mundo abierto y linealidad en función de la urgencia que marca la historia es algo de lo que otros deberían tomar nota. El mundo lleva tras de sí una dirección artística magnífica y la banda sonora es memorable. Sin embargo, nada de eso salva un guión roto cuyo problema no es que haya cabos sueltos sinoLa acción en tiempo real es un acierto para los tiempos que corren. La división entre mundo abierto y linealidad en función de la urgencia que marca la historia es algo de lo que otros deberían tomar nota. El mundo lleva tras de sí una dirección artística magnífica y la banda sonora es memorable. Sin embargo, nada de eso salva un guión roto cuyo problema no es que haya cabos sueltos sino directamente falla en sus cimientos o un sistema de progresión sin ajustar, o ciertas decisiones en el planteamiento de los niveles que hacen que el juego no tenga ritmo. Un juego que te da una de cal y otra de arena y cuyo resultado final es mediocre.… Expand
  90. TriangleDragon
    Mar 10, 2018
    6
    I'm a long time fan of the FF series, but this one feels empty and without charm. Clearly the perfect 10 star reviews are from fanboys and weeaboos who are unable to look at content objectively.
  91. Henriquez94
    Oct 26, 2018
    6
    Debo aceptarlo, es mi primer FF (Final Fantasy), no era lo que esperaba.
    Esa historia increible que me contaba mi compañero de juegos, mi calificacion es como un juego de mundo abierto mas de esta generacion, porque si pedis una calificacion como FF tiene un 3.
    Graficamente es muy bueno, excelentes paisajes, muy bien optimizado, pocos bugs. Probe la version Windows Edition y han hehco un    Debo aceptarlo, es mi primer FF (Final Fantasy), no era lo que esperaba.
    Esa historia increible que me contaba mi compañero de juegos, mi calificacion es como un juego de mundo abierto mas de esta generacion, porque si pedis una calificacion como FF tiene un 3.
    Graficamente es muy bueno, excelentes paisajes, muy bien optimizado, pocos bugs. Probe la version Windows Edition y han hehco un buen trabajo, me va de maravilla, mas de 60 Fps, y Nvidia tiene muchos mods graficos que favorecen al titulo.
    Banda sonora muy buena, nada destacable.
    El combate y habilidades, el poder intercambiar golpes con tu equipo es una excelente mecanica.
    Hay muchas misiones secundarias, muy repetetivas. Aburridas.
    El juego es disfrutable hasta la recta final, esque hay unas (Fumadas) cosas absurdas que pasan, que en un instante tienes un arma capaz de derrotar mounstruos de alto nivel, en mi caso era nivel 41 y podia derrotar mounstruos de nivel 72, de un golpe un movimiento, absurdo como comento.
    La recta final no es disfrutable, la batalla con el jefe final, se torna tediosa, para nada me parecio espectacular, el juego lo termine porque no me gustan dejar las cosas a medio camino, pero de mi parte no lo recomiendo, compre el juego por $23 con un amigo ($12 C/U)    … Expand
  92. SplitMind
    Sep 30, 2019
    6
    This was a game I dearly wanted to love. I played it right through to the end when I'd have happily given up and moved on had it been any other game than a Final Fantasy instalment. So what are the problems?

    The graphics are actually quite nice. I really enjoyed observing the environments and the photo mode brought this to the forefront. The downside is that it takes too long to    This was a game I dearly wanted to love. I played it right through to the end when I'd have happily given up and moved on had it been any other game than a Final Fantasy instalment. So what are the problems?

    The graphics are actually quite nice. I really enjoyed observing the environments and the photo mode brought this to the forefront. The downside is that it takes too long to traverse the environments without fast travel, which undermines them quite a bit.

    The gameplay is also going to divide fans, old and new. No longer turn-based, the game borders on action-oriented more than RPG, however it fails to achieve either of these. You can simply hold the attack button and have fights progress basically on autopilot. There are block and parry options, however these are rather inconsistent and in busier battles you will lose track of what's happening. Also, magic has been reduced to just a 'weapon' wielded by any character rather than encouraging the development of a mage. Maybe they wanted to simplify the game, but all they achieved here was encouraging people to ignore magic completely; at least, that's how I reacted.

    Finally, the story. I kept this to last as it will contain SPOILERS and is my biggest gripe. It seems since FFX they just cannot capture a good story. It starts off quite well, however by the midway point it becomes muddled, uninteresting and left me completely unsatisfied. How have they not learned from FFX and FF13 that killing off protagonists is never well received? Other than the Tidus issue, FFX had it perfect - we learned the story gradually and developed feelings and attachments alongside Tidus. The later chapters leave the impression that the game was created in chunks and thrown together none too cohesively.

    Overall, I struggle to recommend this game. FF aficionados will want to find out what they are missing, much like myself. However my fears were realised about 10 hours into the game when hunts and fetch-quests became the central formula, and the open-world wasn't always open or accessible - in the later chapters you can't traverse it at all! Still, the current cheap price makes it worth a bash, and if you don't mind the repetitiveness then you could clock up some serious hours in this. I just think there are much better offerings out there.    … Expand
  93. Sjoerdt9
    Aug 20, 2018
    6
    Graphics are great. Story was quite shallow when compared to other RPG's, e.g. barely know anything about the Empire which is supposed to be the big bad faction. The first mech boss you face has a pilot who is introduced with his name appearing on screen. After the fight he is just dead. Like, why introduce him as a character then? This sums up quite a lot of the story imo: probablyGraphics are great. Story was quite shallow when compared to other RPG's, e.g. barely know anything about the Empire which is supposed to be the big bad faction. The first mech boss you face has a pilot who is introduced with his name appearing on screen. After the fight he is just dead. Like, why introduce him as a character then? This sums up quite a lot of the story imo: probably dropped somewhere in development, leaving the story a bit bland...
    Gameplay was so-so
    Worst sidequests I've seen in a game tbh.
    Roadtrip feels were fun tho.
    Enjoyed it, but moderately    … Expand
  94. juss
    Sep 23, 2018
    6
    The combat system is weak, and is the biggest flaw of the game. It doesn't take a great amount of variation to beat this game, and it's sometimes difficult to keep track of exactly what's going on.
    Usually repetitive combat is fine for a FF game, but in this situation the story doesn't make up for it at all. You just don't care for the characters, and they lack the likability and emotion    The combat system is weak, and is the biggest flaw of the game. It doesn't take a great amount of variation to beat this game, and it's sometimes difficult to keep track of exactly what's going on.
    Usually repetitive combat is fine for a FF game, but in this situation the story doesn't make up for it at all. You just don't care for the characters, and they lack the likability and emotion that previous FF games have had.    … Expand
  95. SamComedian
    Feb 16, 2019
    6
    Mi puntuación a Final Fantasy 15 es de 6, me explico;
    Duración correcta a mi parecer, rozando las 30 horas, de haber durado más se hubiera echo un poco insufrible. Un juego en mi opinión, correcto, con muchas incoherencias argumentales que el propio título da por entendidas pero que el jugador desconoce. Una trama que cuenta la historia de Noctis, un príncipe, que tiene que emprender una    Mi puntuación a Final Fantasy 15 es de 6, me explico;
    Duración correcta a mi parecer, rozando las 30 horas, de haber durado más se hubiera echo un poco insufrible. Un juego en mi opinión, correcto, con muchas incoherencias argumentales que el propio título da por entendidas pero que el jugador desconoce. Una trama que cuenta la historia de Noctis, un príncipe, que tiene que emprender una "aventura" con tal de "recuperar" el trono. Contiene una muy buena banda sonora que este juego no merece. En los compases finales se hace muy cansado y tedioso, con ganas de acabarlo de prisa y corriendo. Protagonistas vacíos, con falta de carisma. Cuenta con un mundo abierto muy desaprovechado, mucho campo y desierto, pocas ciudades. En conclusión, un poco decepcionado con este Final Fantasy XV, le doy un 6 sobre 10 ( comparándolo con juegos de su plataforma, PS4, XboxOne y PC ). Mi decimonovena crítica u/o review,    … Expand
  96. ZXSth
    Feb 4, 2023
    6
    For all the praise that Final Fantasy XV received upon its release, I was sorely disappointed with this game's flat combat and less-than-compelling narrative elements.

    Much to my chagrin, the way that Noctis, Gladiolus, Prompto and Ignis interacted did not feel much different from other games in the franchise. While there was much less dialogue between characters than in previous    For all the praise that Final Fantasy XV received upon its release, I was sorely disappointed with this game's flat combat and less-than-compelling narrative elements.

    Much to my chagrin, the way that Noctis, Gladiolus, Prompto and Ignis interacted did not feel much different from other games in the franchise. While there was much less dialogue between characters than in previous entries, I did not think that the decrease in quantity equated to a proportional increase in quality.

    Perhaps most surprisingly of all, FFXV's combat felt lacklustre. I was deeply disappointed that I ended u feeling this way, as I believe that more enjoyable combat, in tandem with the solid graphics and overall skeleton of the game, might have gotten me to push past the elements I didn't find enjoyable. I recall making it about halfway through the game before becoming frustrated and abandoning my playthrough.

    Much better than FFXIII, but that is an extremely low bar. If you have never enjoyed a Final Fantasy game (especially a modern one), I do not think this will change your mind.    … Expand
  97. Unthugged
    Jun 12, 2019
    6
    I didn't love the game,but wouldn't say I particularly hated it either. Didn't really find any of the characters that like-able or compelling. And the random overhead drop ship encounters with enemies can get really tedious. On completion I still had a lot left in the world to discover,but didn't really feel interested enough to bother. All in all quite a forgettable experience.
  98. Sephiroth89
    Jun 13, 2019
    6
    I'm a hardcore FF fan and I'm always getting excited about new instalment and will always play it. I got to say FFXV got me reaaaaly excited ahead of it's premiere with a few mini games and beautiful CGI movie. I though damn this game will be huge and will be a masterpiece and I wish....
    Unfortunately the game was really rushed through and missed a lot of story and character to be    I'm a hardcore FF fan and I'm always getting excited about new instalment and will always play it. I got to say FFXV got me reaaaaly excited ahead of it's premiere with a few mini games and beautiful CGI movie. I though damn this game will be huge and will be a masterpiece and I wish....
    Unfortunately the game was really rushed through and missed a lot of story and character to be considered a full game. Square tried to fix it with some additional DLCs but there were too late and too little. The game had a great concept and potential but it failed on the story content as there just wasn't enough for it be considered a great game.
    Another thing that was flawed was the combat system. While it was flashy and beautiful, it lacked any real challenge. I felt immortal which took away the challenging fun side of gaming as you could beat anyone if you only fought them long enough.
    The game could be one of my favourite but instead I was left not recommending the game to my friends.. 6/10
    I hope they will take their time with VII remake because oh boy we don't want the reapeat    … Expand
  99. Ambimunch
    Nov 29, 2019
    6
    While the basics of the game are fun (running around, doing hunts, exploring dungeons), the actual story is very light and disjointed. All the selling points from Versus13 have been cut out, a lot of CG scenes and trailer locations have been cut out, and the post launch support is very disjointed - making it impossible to experience the whole story without resorting to external sources ofWhile the basics of the game are fun (running around, doing hunts, exploring dungeons), the actual story is very light and disjointed. All the selling points from Versus13 have been cut out, a lot of CG scenes and trailer locations have been cut out, and the post launch support is very disjointed - making it impossible to experience the whole story without resorting to external sources of media (movie, anime, comics, light novels, mobile games, demos, VR games etc). The other issue is that characters outside the main four lack development or motivation explanations. The second half of the game was also meant to be open world, but tight development deadlines resulted in lots of cut content. Lastly the visuals, while great in some parts, have been downgraded from the build of the game we saw in trailers and demos. So despite the mindless grind being kinda fun for a while, the rushed and weak story, cut content, and inability to have the entire lore of this world confined to the game disc makes this game a below average experience as far as other video games and especially other Final Fantasies go. 6/10… Expand
  100. Ruyaka
    Feb 5, 2020
    6
    my view is this game is a very unbalance game.it has expansive open world,bunch of side quest and mini cutscene that can be trigger when we camp.looks like square enix put a lot of attention to gameplay (i don't have any complain about summoning system,it;s unique not like any other ff titles so it's fine for me) but failed miserably about the story.and it's not only about main plot,butmy view is this game is a very unbalance game.it has expansive open world,bunch of side quest and mini cutscene that can be trigger when we camp.looks like square enix put a lot of attention to gameplay (i don't have any complain about summoning system,it;s unique not like any other ff titles so it's fine for me) but failed miserably about the story.and it's not only about main plot,but small detail to the story that if executed right,could add more to FF XV universe.

    what really concerns me is from the way story told,it gave me a vibe:

    1. that there's only 2 country in the whole planet(i know there's more but they didn;t tell much about it and they didn't state their stand in this war between nifflheim and noctis' country)

    2.they have modern technology,they even have smartphone,camera and radio...how come the news didn't spread around the world and another country condemned Nifflheim?

    3.how come there's no United Nation-like organization?

    4. there's no history about civilization of these country in FF 15 (don;t tell me something like " play the DLC" i'm talking about the main game,if it need dlc just to explain the plot holes,then it's a failed game (story-wise at least),no doubt)

    5.they sacfrice the story for the expansive open world and "other stuff",please,it's far better if you limit the open world stuff and add more to the story,if i want to play "Wasteland Open world game" i'll play fallout instead.

    6.they should take example on FF XII or Trails Series on how to make more real Political problem as the main story.

    7.FF XV Story is too shallow,it's really lacking in depth. they don't really put attention to the small detail of the story.as i said in the beginning,if a smal detail executed rightly,it could add more to the universe of FF XV and people can more relate to the story

    to balance things out,FF XV is actually enjoyable.if it were another game,not FF i would definitely score it higher    … Expand
Page:

Awards & Rankings

58
#58 Best PS4 Game of 2016
3
#3 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2016
6
#6 Most Shared PS4 Game of 2016

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
81

Generally favorable reviews - based on 109 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 89 out of 109
  2. Mixed: 20 out of 109
  3. Negative: 0 out of 109
  1. BaziCenter
    Feb 14, 2017
    70
    After so many years of development, Final Fantasy XV is not what I expected it to be. The universe is immense and beautiful and the characters are just fine. But the story is short and disappointing and the gameplay suffers from lack of depth. FFXV is a good game, but it can never bring the former glories back to the series.
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  2. Edge Magazine
    Feb 14, 2017
    70
    Even as you reflect on the rarity of a blockbuster that's willing to take real risks, you'll be left with the uncomfortable realisation that ten years wasn't quite long enough, after all. Those jagged edges are, in the end, just a little too sharp. [Feb 2017, p.110]
  3. New Game Network
    Feb 7, 2017
    83
    Despite a divided feel, torn between what it was and what it plans to be, Final Fantasy XV has a lot to offer. If you're a diehard JRPG fan, then it's a positive sign that the series can cross over to a new format. And if you're just looking for an open world adventure, Final Fantasy XV certainly has that in spades, while doing just enough things differently to separate it from the likes of Dragon Age and Elder Scrolls.
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