2-5-2007		11-30-2006
	6-29-2007		6-29-2007

After countless hours of slaying countless monsters, traveling hundreds of miles, and bonding with a tight-knit group of friends....a strange feeling came over me. Here we are in a spot looking over a great valley. Prompto setting the camera up for a picture of the ages....the one I ended up taking with me to the end. Something struck me. I am going to miss these guys. And I certainly did.
Something was very different about Final Fantasy XV. Like the beginning of the series (I - IX) I have easily gone back to XV easily every year since I got it.....unlike the latest in the series. (XII being a somewhat exception) And this was something I had been longing for since the time of Squaresofts "GOLDEN AGE". It would seem, looking back now in 2020 with the release of Kingdom Hearts III, and then the smash release of VII Remake...they are taking notice of that decade or more slump. And finally we are getting some great AAA games again. That is not to say Final Fantasy XV has not got some MAJOR issues, but the enjoyment of the game as a whole I think makes up for some of the massive short-comings.
Thankfully, and this was something I worried about, the core of Final Fantasy didn’t get lost in this transition. On the contrary, the new additions and elements actually heightened the experience, making for perhaps the most enjoying fun time spent crossing a world since Final Fantasy V. It was just so much fun. The exploration was fun. Traversing the open landscape....oh how I missed that. But the best part they nailed perfectly were those more personal moments between four friends who truly love and have each others backs...no matter the cost. After nearly...I dunno...40 - 50 hours of gameplay, the part that hit hard was when at the end, there was that photo I took from the beginning. How far we 4 friends had come.

In this title you are playing as Noctis, a more sullen, moody kind of character that even Cloud is jealous of. He is a compentent weilder of both weapons and the magic of old, and yet is not ready for the burden of his line and adulthood. He is set out with his four closest companions on a mission to marry his childhood friend Lady Showing results for lady Lunafreya of Tenebrae. When introduced to the group, you are immediately taken back to the 90's boy bands of old. Everything is in black, and all look on point. Even when camping out in the middle of the vast wilderness...they still sport clean clothes and perfect hair.
All joking aside, this game felt different. The heart of the game was not so much save the world from the evil doer as was the case so many times before. It is a road trip story about best friends, a car, and the wide open road that just happens to be inside a Final Fantasy game.
In some respects, Final Fantasy XV had me think a lot of Final Fantasy VII, a game which marked the series’ ascent to world wide recognition and fandom. Like that game, XV feels like a collection of contradictions that, despite themselves, actually work as a whole. It’s a lavish spectacle that loves to focus on the mundane. It has this real deep message of love, family, friends, and loss. And then bam there are the things that are just silly at times. (Noctus does not have to dawn a dress, but I digress) This is certainly the most modern Final Fantasy to exist. The Steam punk is more sidelined in favor of real places and vehicles. They certainly push the traditional JRPG character stereo-type past the boundries, yet the core cast grows beyond their tropes into personalities that feel like real people to the player.
I am going on about how good your core characters are done, and rightly so. One of the troubling aspects of this though....other members in the game. Folks you should feel for in times of distress, sadness, or even joy are kind of eh. I found myself often times saying "I know I should feel something here....I just don't." That was the hard part. Aside from perhaps Cindy and Cid, no one got much interraction or development. (For some characters that was done in other media presentations for the game. Bad move Square)
The battle system was definitely a step in the right direction. Fast action, fresh new innovations, and just absolute fun. You are solely in control of Noctus, while the other 3 fight primarily on their own. However there are battle prompts and even commands that allow for some great tag team actions. (Be prepared to hear "Oh! Hello there openning!" about a million times) But it is certainly leaps above what was brought before in terms of mechanics. Noctus can swap through 4 different types of weapons you equip, use magic, and warp strike in battle, and remove himself from battle. It is real time fighting in Final Fantasy too. No bars to fill, or waiting for commands to happen. It adds a new kind of strategy fighting I had yet to witness. (I do not play MMORPG games, and honestly the last title to hit my home was XIII) It was engaging and fun to say the very leasst
I will say that though the changes are largely a massive breath of fresh air, the battle mechanics come with rough edges and inconsistent rules. While combat is faster and more satisfying, it can also get confusing and messy. Like seriously it can get real messy. Certainly when you’re fighting huge groups of enemies, in the worlds flora, or DEFINITELY the massive bosses. When Noctus is warping in battle, attacking enemies all over the palce, the camera rarely tracks you properly or quickly. The best thing I found to remotely combat this was hitting Lock On. But there are times where even that does not make it well. And one of the most misunderstood mechanics is when the prompt appears to Parry or block an attack from an enemy. It is never explained properly to

HOLD THE BUTTON

I cannot stress this to you all enough. It appears to indicate you rapid-hit the button....NO NO NO NO. You hold the button down when the prompt appears. Once I realized this, I stopped dying so much. This is my personal PSA to you all.

The open world exploration. I cannot tell you, as a fan from the beginning with the original on the NES, how much I welcomed the immediate open - world exploration in this game. Since Final Fantasy IX we did not have such a open world. XII is something different, as the world was divided into sections. Chapters here are the means of opening the entire world, but within a few of those, the entire world is there. And explore the majority of it you can. That being said, there are places you can go, that you would not think you could. On the opposing end there are similar places you think you could go...but you can't. The world is definitely weird in that aspect. Makes me think there was broader plans of more things that were going to come down the pipeline. But overall seeing the open world, and seeing the wildlife/enemies just go on about their life was amazing to me. Being able to stop and fish, camp, take photos, and just explore was beyond what I thought I was going to get.
And within this brings the structural change form previous entires. Most notably Final Fantasy XIII. Rather than a narrow path that opens later, the path narrows in the final sections of the game. What I found very interesting about this is it gave me more of a sense of this is getting urgent. I have to get through this for the sake of that world I was just roaming not 2 chapters ago. It made me feel the need to bring peace and end the villains time, rather than opening the world in the end, and the story losing that sense of urgency. I kind of loved this switch around. (Though would have prefered being open until the end) It brought more emotional responses by doing an eamazing job of zeroing in on the more personal moments with your friends. And these moments will make you truly care all the more about the guys you have been with this whole time. There are ancient kings, powerful gods, and prophecies of a hero of light, but the story shines in smaller, more relatable moments. The true heart of this game.

Thanks to a series of missteps (flat out mistakes. let's be real here) and huge gaps between new games, Final Fantasy lost a lot of fans, and the iconic status it once had. That pressure is a massive burden to hold for one single game, especially with the just beyond ridiculous development time of this game. And yet the game not only manages to deliver exactly what you’d expect from a great FF experience — an epic quest, memorable characters, a beautiful world to explore, stunning visuals, and soundtrack — but goes even beyond all of that.
Final Fantasy XV merges the decades now of progress established by its contemporaries and those coming before in the series’ iconic blend of storytelling, art, amazing graphics, and music. But it shifts the personal of the characters to soaring new heights of which I cannot remember having for a very long time now. I have not played in about a year now. I have forgotten pieces of the story. I have forgotten some of the side missions, and whatnot. But I have certainly not forgotten the moments between Noctus, Prompto, Gladiolus, and Ignis. They were so impactful, they remain in my memory some half a decade after playing the first time. Being I am writing this review in 2020, I can say for certain Square-Enix has become masters of connecting us with characters. Don't believe me? Just look at the afore mentioned Kingdom Hearts III and the recent release of Final Fantasy VII Remake.
Final Fantasy XV to me is the new beginning. The new beginning that I am getting less and less worried that the new title coming might not damage the brand of Final Fantasy beyond repair. Without the success of Final Fantasy XV, I do not think the rest would have been good. But I now honestly look forward to seeing what comes form the future in Final Fantasy XVI, and even VII Remake Part II. I feel they found their footing again. And Final Fantasy XV was the beginning of that stride back to the forefront of JRPG the world over. I love playing this game repeatedly. And that is something not seen since Final Fantasy VIII for me. I am a happy camper with this game. Despite its many, many flaws. It was just a great time.