Ever eaten a BBQ Pork Bun? "A man who never eats a pork bun is never a whole man" - hats off to anyone who knows what game that is from. Pork buns sound nice & look appealed, so whether you have had them before or it is your first time your likely to approach them with the same gusto. However on occasion when you bite into a pork bun you think, 'this is nice & fluffy but where is all the meat?' This game made me ask that question on more than one occasion, is there enough meat in the middle to make this tasty or is there too much fluffy dough?
I remember seeing gameplay of Final Fantasy XV & thought to myself that the game looked awesome. I am not the world's biggest RPG fan, despite the fact that three of my favorite games of all time are RPGs. Final Fantasy X, Panzer Dragoon Saga & Persona 4 Golden (technically the last one is a JRPG but let's not split hairs). What attracted me to the game is the same thing that seemed to attract a lot of others; open world & beautiful free flowing combat. Square Enix made sure the game appealed not only to newcomers but also to fans of the series.
The game is set in the world of Eos, there are two main continents; Lucis & Nilflheim. The kingdom of Lucis is at war with the vastly more powerful & militarised Nilflheim. Lucis's capital Insomnia so far has been unconquerable due to a protective barrier surrounding the city that is powered by a crystal & the life force of the King. Naturally how to you create peace between two warring nations? Nukes! No, they decided to go with marriage to help bond the two sides. Enter Prince Noctis & Lady Lunafreya, they are childhood friends that have not seen each other in sometime. That being said neither seems unhappy about the prospect of getting married. Naturally Prince Noctis has to go off with some of his loyal buddies for a road trip/bachelor party before getting married.
Your group is comprised of:
Prince Noctis - group leader, part time cry baby & future King.
Gladiolus - the groups muscle & all round tough guy, you know he is tough as he has tribal tattoos & always has his arms on show.
Ignis - the smart guy in the group, as you know all smart guys wear glasses & are well spoken.
Prompto - the comic relief of the group, part kid brother & pain in the ass not just because he gets downed easily during battle.
The groups dynamic is fantastic & feels like they are all really friends rather than just sidekicks. There is character development & meaningful bonds between them all. However three quarters of the way through some of this is soured for me. I won't give away any spoilers but I'm pretty sure I am not the only one that felt this way. There are some truly amazing & entertaining characters you meet along the way & as always I won't give details but you will know them when you meet them. As a whole the main story is not bad but from time to time I had an issue with the pacing and if it were not for some of the side quests I think I would have felt a little unsatisfied with the story overall.
Does anyone else get excited watching E3, TGS, PAX & the many other games showcase conventions? Well I do, so many cool new games to see & look forward to. Unfortunately when some of these games are released they are not as visually impressive as they were shown to be.
Final Fantasy XV is not one of these games. It truly is a visual delight & roaming the open world feels fantastic. I really don't want to spoil it for you but some of the enemies in the game look amazing. One thing I will say is that summoning one of the astral's is jaw dropping, for those of you who have played it you know what I mean. There are many great places to visit, two of my favorite were; Lestallum, which feels like a small Cuban town & the music reminded me of that performed by Buena Vista Social Club. There is Altissia, which is a city surrounded by water & is definitely inspired by the city of Venice right down to the use of gondola's. As always there are no short cuts with Final Fantasy cut sequences & the ones featured in the game look truly magnificent. When it comes to visuals it really is hard to fault the game.
The music is composed by Yoko Shimomura who is famous for her work, most notably for the Kingdom Hearts series. The score features some really nice pieces that are heavy on both piano & strings which I really loved. Some of my favorite pieces were; 'Valse Di Fantastica', 'Omnis Lacrima', 'Apocalypsis Noctis', & 'Veiled in Black'. Honorable mentions included; 'Relax & Reflect', 'Chocobo Theme', 'Veiled Aggression' & least we forget Prompto's humming of the classic victory song after some battles.
While there are many great pieces I felt the overall soundtrack was tarnished by some of the poor Country/Cajun/Bluegrass style pieces. I can understand why this style of music was chosen but ended up coming across as a bad attempt at doing it. The end result was a cheesy sound but not the good kind of cheese, however it did really grate on me. Another out of play piece was the rendition of 'Stand By Me', it features twice in the game & although the second time is more poignant it just didn't feel right. Overall what could have been a very epic soundtrack was spoiled by a few bad choices.
Onto the gameplay! The fighting mechanics are unlike any I have seen in an RPG before, they take a little getting used to especially if you are more used to turn based combat. Due to the pace of most battles I found myself sticking with melee weapons rather than magic. While magic is really powerful (especially when you can craft your own spells) it is very easy to damage yourself or others in your party so sometimes it is just not worth the risk using it. Each of your team can pull off special techniques & if performed correctly you will be able to perform a team link with them which can be devastating, in some cases turning the tide of the battle. Taking on enemies big or small is a lot fun, apart from the Malboro who is still terrifying & it still sucks ass when he uses foul breath.
A feature I really loved in the game was camping. It not only gives you the chance to bond with your team & enjoy one of Ignis's tasty meals but actually feels like a real reprieve from all hardships of the day. While it is a great way to level up it is more beneficial if you visit a hotel, that being said I generally camped rather than paying to stay somewhere.
Each character has there own unique skill. Noctis's is fishing which is okay but I did not find it as much fun as the version in the first Nier game. Ignis's skill is cooking, this is quite a lot of fun as by picking up ingredients, eating in restaurants & diners he figures out new recipes. Each of his meals offers some bonus to the team including increased health or extra XP. Prompto's skill is photography which although in itself is not much use it can offer some fun dialogue between the team. Gladiolus's skill is Survival which is very useful, at the end of battle you pick up items - these drops increase the more you walk around the world.
There are a few ways in which to get around in Eos; walking, driving in Regalia & riding Chocobo's. Walking is rather slow, running is much better but make sure to keep an eye on Noctis's stamina as if he loses all of it he will need to catch his breath for a few moments. There is a way round this which you can be found online. Once you get the Regalia all fixed up you can start driving around, at the start this was fun but in a very short time I found myself handing the wheel off to Ignis or fast travelling between town & cities. A friend described this well saying that it felt like you were stuck on a rail moving from point A to point B rather than actually driving, it ended up being my least favorite way to travel. The third form of travel is Chocobo's - need I say more? For those unfamiliar the yellow bird features heavily in the Final Fantasy series & is a fast, fun way to traverse all landscapes, they even have their own theme music. Basically they are awesome, rent one as soon as you can.
The skill tree used to buy new abilities is really interesting & is broken down into different categories; Magic, Stats, Exploration, Combat, Teamwork, Techniques & Armiger. You can buy abilities using AP, AP is gained easily by doing pretty much everything. There are a few abilities that help boost this further. I found exploration & teamwork were two skill trees I focused on heavily but there was nothing I really felt was an outright waste. Leveling in the game was a lot easier than most RPGs & required little grinding, in the end I finished up on about level 63 which is more than enough to finish the game.
The elevator section late in the game really drove me nuts, it was frustrating & out of key with the rest of the game. In all honesty what were the developers thinking? Do you remember the first Assassins Creed? You start with all your weapons & abilities but quickly get them all removed, slowly throughout the game you gain them back. Imagine waiting until a really annoying area near the end of the game & doing that? Yep, that's what they did! As a whole the gameplay was good but fell short of greatness due to a few minor annoyances & one large one.
So after 40+ of playing how did Final Fantasy XV fair? I would say the game was very good & I definitely do not regret playing it. Loved some of the characters, it was visually stunning, the combat was fluid & fun, also Chocobo's! That all being said some of the story pacing along with sprinklings of poor music & one or two tedious areas stopped it from achieving it's full potential.
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