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Final Fantasy XV is ginormous. Ten long years of development have wrought upon us perhaps one of the most intriguing and storied games in not only the series’ history but in gaming as a whole. And publisher Square Enix have done nothing to slow down the hype train. Final Fantasy XV has perhaps the most comprehensive universe of products and promotions around it that I can think of. A full length, CGI movie. An animated prequel series. Two playable demos. Two mobile games. A huge marketing push evident everywhere you go. Clearly, they are banking significantly on the success of the game, not just for the Final Fantasy franchise, but for the publisher as a whole.

Originally begun in 2006 as Final Fantasy Versus XIII before being rebranded a proper numbered entry years after it was announced, FFXV sometimes stretches at its seams. In some parts, it is all too obvious that it contains within it the vision of two very different creators, a tension that extends to the story, the gameplay and the overall structure of the game. Normally conflating such chasms would be grave cause for concern. The gaming industry is littered with countless examples of where this went wrong. But the genius of director Hajime Tabata is taking these sometimes very loose threads and weaving them into a game that feels cohesive, whole, and most importantly, fun. Coming off the back of the critically disdained Final Fantasy XIII trilogy, Square Enix needed to show that there was life for a single player, offline experience.

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I firmly believe that games should be judged not just on their technical merits, but on whether they have succeeded based on what they have intended to achieve. Beyond ensuring the financial sustainability of the Final Fantasy franchise (and perhaps Square Enix as a whole, given the size of their investment in the game) FFXV needed to show that Square could still bring out the magic and create something memorable. And the good news is they have. Despite some small areas that let me down, Final Fantasy XV is a tour de force, one that leaps into the pantheon of greatest JRPGs of all time.

The game follows the adventures of Prince Noctis, heir to the Lucian throne as he travels to meet his betrothed wife, the Oracle and childhood friend Lunafreya. When the signing of a peace treaty breaks down, his father the King is killed and Noctis must exact revenge, all with the help of his three best friends and protectors, who accompany him everywhere.

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Getting that paragraph together took a long time, including watching a movie, five short animes and playing the game itself. FFXV gets the overarching story muddled and confused; short bursts of proper nouns yelled at you by the usual JRPG stereotypes send you on your way all too quickly (especially for a 50-hour game), but the strength of the story isn’t in what is going on at the geopolitical level. Instead what it gets right are the everyday, small story moments. The camaraderie between the four bros (bros or boy band, you decide) is much more genuine and human than something like the Halo series or Gears of War. The four genuinely care about each other, and stopping to rest at night (which also serves to level you up) can occasionally bring up a conversation that is both revealing and touching all at once.

While the art direction is stunning, the technical implementation sometimes makes obvious that this game began its life as a project for the previous generation of consoles – back when those consoles were brand new no less. Textures can sometimes be muddy and shadow pop-in was routinely annoying. That said, character models look gorgeous – in fact everybody in the land of Eos seems to be vetted for beauty and the motion capture is top notch.

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The clear star of the show is the combat system – which for the first time in a Final Fantasy main game is fully real time. In fact, playing the combat felt far more closely related to action RPGs such as The Witcher 3 than previous Final Fantasies. There are the standard attack, dodge and parry, but you can also both team up with your teammates for linked attacks, as well as “warp strike” into and out of danger. Positioning is key here. Attacks from behind or on a specific part of an enemy (e.g. a mech suit’s legs) can provide extra damage or push them into a vulnerable state.

It sounds complex but after a few hours and after unlocking some core techniques the mechanics all come together for a satisfying system. Even in some of my favourite RPGs the combat has sometimes filled me with a small sense of dread; too often a satisfying but nevertheless boring experience that gets in the way of what’s really drawing me into the game. FFXV’s combat is the opposite of that. I was always excited to see how I could improve and to see the flashy animations play out. It’s hard to express how good it feels when it all comes together, and how fresh it is compared to the boring and staid “press x to win” feel of the FFXIII trilogy. It’s a bold experiment that has paid off, and it’s hard to see how Final Fantasy could go back to a turn-based system.

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The only complaint is the camera; in open worlds it is fine but in tight corridors and dungeons it moves erratically, hiding my character and generally causing confusion. Relatedly, enemy telegraphing could also use an improvement. It was hard to see when enemies were going to attack, and thus when I should get out of the way. Sometimes a big “press square to dodge” button appeared, sometimes it didn’t, seemingly without rhyme or reason.

The combat is such a significant departure for the series that it now is much better to compare Final Fantasy XV with Western open-world RPGs than other entries in the Final Fantasy Series or other JRPGs. It is much more of an analogue to the Witcher 3, for example, than to FFXIII. And up against that standard some elements of the game fall short – sidequests for example are fairly boring in comparison, full of fetch quests and “kill x of y monsters.” But putting any game up against the Witcher 3’s sidequests is difficult, and there are a couple of great sidequests that do go beyond finding six eggshells for an NPC. The world is also full of random loot and other activities, as well as hidden and marked out optional dungeons for you to explore. There’s so much to do here, and most of it worthwhile, that you can keep coming back to this game for a long time to come. On top of that, there is a whole range of post-game content to really stretch yourself with. Finally, Square Enix has indicated future DLC that will expand the game even further, though we don’t know exactly what that will be at the moment.

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The game has PS4 Pro support built in, with options for “High” (i.e. 1800p with a couple of extra small enhancements) or “Lite” (1080p). I found that running Lite on my 1080p TV was a much smoother experience overall, and on a full HD screen made almost no difference to the visual quality. Moreover, Square Enix have indicated that a patch will bring unlocked frame cap, making the PS4 Pro potentially the best way to play the game at the moment.

I also appreciated the choice of the original Japanese audio with subtitles or the English dub. For all its Western influences FFXV remains firmly Japanese in nature, and the original audio did seem to fit in a bit better overall.

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Final Fantasy XV could have gone so wrong. Ten long years of development could have led to a messy, incoherent result that jeopardised not only its own artistic vision but the series as a whole. Instead, director Tabata has seemingly taken the best of the leftovers from the game’s disaster development years and wrought them into something better than the sum of its parts. Sure, the stitches show in some areas, but this is the best Final Fantasy for a long time – putting aside Final Fantasy XIV, as I believe the core audiences between the MMO and single-player are vastly different.

It’s also one of the most accessible, and thoroughly pulls through on its stated intention of appeasing long-time fans of the series while being open for newcomers. Square Enix are to be congratulated for pulling this all together, for FFXV is an easy, unconditional recommendation for everyone.

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Final Fantasy XV (PlayStation 4) Review

Released: November 2016
Rating: M
Platforms: PlayStation 4 (Pro), Xbox One
Genre: RPG, Action, Adventure
Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix

4.5Overall Score
Gameplay
Graphics
Audio
Replayability
Reader Rating 1 Vote