Game Review: Final Fantasy XV

"A Final Fantasy for fans and first-timers"

Turn back the clock with me and head into May of 2006. The current generation of gaming is slowly making way as the PS3 and Nintendo Wii are shaping up to release this holiday alongside the already intact Xbox 360. Going into more depth, Final Fantasy announces its next installment in the form of three games. Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy Agito XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII. All of which would be heading to the PS3 under the Fabula Nova Crystallis banner/universe. Though it most certainly wasn't an easy journey for any of them. FF13 ended up being released to both the PS3 and Xbox 360 in March of 2010 for the US and has seen two sequels afterwards. FF Agito XIII was rebranded as Type-0 which got an HD port to the PS4 and Xbox One for March of last year, after having been on the PSP in Japan for several years prior. The remaining title had undergone an incredibly long development, with rumors that it had been cancelled. Though that all changed when at E3 2013, it was announced and rebranded as the 15th installment.

I really didn't believe I'd get to play it until I held the Deluxe Edition in my hands on its release day of November 29th 2016. Now with that little history lesson out of the way, some may wonder: "Can a game live up to hype that's been generated over the last decade?" Trust me when I say that happily, it does. Final Fantasy XV didn't succumb to Duke Nukem Forever syndrome, and one thing stuck with me on top of everything else that I experienced. It was the little things that made me smile wide and adore the game more and more. FFXV and the world of Eos has a lot to offer and I more than likely see myself playing this a ton up until the next game on my docket releases.

FFXV puts you in control of Noctis Lucis Caellum, son of the reigning king Regis. You set out on a journey to meet up with your childhood friend and apparent Oracle, Lunafreya. The motive behind this meeting is to eventually be wed to help bring peace to the kingdoms. You're not alone though, accompanying you are three other men who share a connection to Noctis. Ignis is a caretaker and pro chef who helped Noct in his studies, Gladiolus is part of a family line sworn to protect the Lucis household, and Prompto is your best friend from school. Not that far into your journey do you learn that your home city and capital Isomnia falls as does the King from an attack by the neighboring city of Niffelheim (during a supposed peace treaty signing, Niffs are jerks). From that point on, it's become clear that you have to get stronger and realize your duty to reclaim the throne.

The game intros itself before the title screen with that exact line I opened up with, and the cutscene ends with the four dudes having car trouble and needing to push the car to Hammerhead for a refill. Florence and the Machine plays a cover of "Stand By Me" and by now tears are near coming down my face. OK think that wraps up the exposition, we all good now? Final Fantasy XV is an action RPG that melds in the combat of Kingdom Hearts with traditional Final Fantasy themes. You're only in control of Noctis and the others are left to the AI but you have to handle the healing using items. You attack and fly around as you can switch between four weapons at a time, which is key for exposing enemy weaknesses. Your comrades are restricted to one of these weapons alongside a secondary specialty. Prompto for example can handle guns and machinery such as a crossbow and a circular saw.

During combat, you have what's called blindside links that happen should you meet certain requirements. These lead to team attacks with your buddies, and you can even call on them to use special techniques which deplete a Tech Bar by a certain amount. Some of which give you a button command to provide an additional attack. Noctis being the heir to the throne also comes with some special perks. One of which is Warp Strike, a way for you to close in on enemies and deliver a vicious attack. You can even use this on certain landmarks, hang and lock on another enemy to go after. Warp strikes also use up MP which is crucial so you can't really go use it like crazy. Magic is one thing that's changed a little bit here as well. When I heard that it had similarities to the Junction system from FF8, I kinda winced a bit since that didn't leave a good taste in my mind from my playthrough of 8. However it's not as bad as it seems, you can hold up 99 of the three main elements. You then can use a varying amount and combine it with healing items and other stuff in your inventory.

The end result can be a simple amped up spell, or stuff like Tricast: Fira which casts the spell in rapid succession. Others can even give the enemy status ailments and debuffs. You gain more elements by deposits that are placed on certain areas throughout the game. As the story progressed, I found myself relying on magic a little too much since often I'd open a fight by casting a crazy spell...which would then instantly kill the enemy XD. Another piece of magic is summoning, which are insane AOE effects that are situational. If certain unknown requirements are met during a fight, you can request the aid of Astrals that you acquire during the story. The music kicks in and literal gods like Ramuh and Titan come in and wreck the field. Magic can also harm you and your parties if you're not careful in its execution. Lightning over water? Yea get ready to be electrocuted!

Character growth and leveling is handled differently as well. You gain what's called Ascension points in the game which is used in the Ascension system. Think of it like the Sphere Grid from FFX split up into certain categories. These range from the side specialties your party has to Exploration, and learning new Teamwork abilities. Leveling up is handled whenever you rest at an Inn or make camp. Each way has its own perks so you have to decide on how you want to call it for a day. Camping involves Ignis using his cooking skills to provide some damn tasty dishes which provide the team with temporary buffs, while Inns give an EXP bonus to your established total.

Getting back to what I mentioned about cooking, each character has a side hobby/specialty that can be upgraded in the Ascension system as well as utilized throughout your adventure. Cooking as mentioned provides status buffs when camping and new recipes can be found from gathering ingredients in the field, reading signs and purchasing cookbooks! Gladio is a Survival expert which allows him to find items in the field after fights and that levels up as you simply walk around. Prompto takes snapshots which can lead to some hilarious shots you can share on Social Media, they're shown after every inn/camp stay. Noctis loves to fish so that leads to supplying yourself with more ingredients for new dishes. Out of all of these, I spent less time on Fishing cause honestly, it's boring in any game XD.

The world of Eos is pretty freaking huge and you've got two main modes of transportation aside from walking. Chocobo riding (cause duh) and driving around in the Regalia. The latter of which can be customized with parts and installed by Cindy over at Hammerhead. Driving at night becomes a cautious thing as that's when the daemons come out which can be formidable foes capable of depleting your Max HP along with your initial HP bar with each attack! What's personally my favorite though is the radio, because that's where the memory lane trip kicks in. As you drive (or Ignis which is essentially auto pilot) you can cycle through tracks from past games in the franchise. I mentioned early on how it was the little things that made me love this game so much. The radio is one of them, there's something badass about driving through this new entry with tracks like "The Man With the Machine Gun" coming out of the car. Other things include the banter between everyone in and out of fights. Prompto would sing the Victory Fanfare at points after the fight along with the Chocobo Theme while running around. Questing involves mainly side quests, progressing the story and hunts which are acquired/handled much like what RPG's like Skyrim and Fallout do. 

Other things included are dungeons (which can be confusing at points), mini games like Justice Monsters Five, and other quests that open up for the more high level players once the main story is completed. Music wise, I loved every track in the game (dang right I pre-ordered the soundtrack!). Kingdom Hearts composer Yoko Shinomura handled the composition and the piano just sounds so beautifully in majority of the tracks. The story was very touching and really grew on me, in both the mythos and characters. Graphically it's as good as it can get on the PS4, I mentioned to myself after Uncharted 4, this was probably the only other game which would have graphics just as good. Can faithfully say that I was right about that. Director Hajime Tabata took on a lot when he gained the role from Tetsuya Nomura (who left to currently work on KH3) and I could tell in articles/interviews with him that he was passionate about this game. Hoping that it'd leave a mark in Final Fantasy fans new and old. My only gripe has to deal with certain characters that made appearances in the game early but are given no screen-time afterwards.

Walk tall Noct

Should you Play this Game?

Absolutely! The long and tiresome development Final Fantasy XV underwent was well worth the wait. A beautiful story with likable characters and a thrilling combat system drive this game to be for fans and newcomers. The music is engaging as are the environments.

Note: Final Fantasy XV has itself a universe of other media to further expand the story. Most notably are the 5-episode series Brotherhood and the full length movie Kingsglaive. In my honest opinion watching Brotherhood adds much more to the characters you travel with and Kingsglaive provides further behind the scenes story. Viewing the former is more encouraged than the latter unless you really want to full story. Early in the game, scenes directly from the movie are directly intertwined in the game to give you some context but it can be jarring.