Final Fantasy XV Review

FFXV is a bloody good game and I have loved playing it for the last couple of weeks. I mean, truly loved it. Final Fantasy has always been a big part of my life as a gamer and FFXV has not let me down. This has surpassed all of my expectations and has given me hope and perhaps a little insight on what to expect with the FFVII remake. I recently played World of Final Fantasy to help pass the time a little as I have been waiting for this for such a long time.

The only think I didn’t particularly enjoy was Chapter 13 and that’s because it was full of jump scares which did get me gasping…for normal people I’m sure this would be nothing but for me…no, that wasn’t my favourite part of the game but I did admire the darker side of it. In the chapter you’re at a pretty vulnerable position for a good part of it which is tough and the second time I played it through (yes, that’s right, I’ve gone through the story twice…) I found it easier as I had actually taken time to level up a bit – rookie mistake. You need to level grind in Final Fantasy games, it makes the end game easier and saves doing it all in the post game content.

The graphics are just stunning and the world map is absolutely huge, there is so much to discover which is good because the story mode is considerably shorter than previous games. This game relies on the post game content and sidequests to fill it out which I really enjoyed. FFXV was a welcome upgrade and combined the very best of 12 and 13 for me but it went right back to the original type of gameplay I enjoyed in the earlier games. I don’t want to give too much away really but FFXV is so much better than those two games.

The story is well thought out and has plenty of emotion. The story is pretty interactive too as you can make different decisions for the characters. You play as Prince Noctis and throughout the whole game you only control him and his actions however you do have three buddies teaming up with you to help with hunts and to progress the story. I really enjoyed the story, the characters were interesting and relatable. The villians were easy to hate too and the enemies provided plenty of challenges.

Combat is very different but I actually really enjoyed it all. Each character has a set of special moves for extra damage, a bit like limit breaks which I was happy to see return and for them to be easy to use was good. The game stops you relying on summons and magic to power through too which I really liked. Summons come when they want to really after you’ve met a certain amount of criteria in a battle like being low on HP or the battle taking too long but usually their attacks are pretty devastating to whoever you’re fighting. It was great to see the classic summons return for a different interpretation. I have to say I really liked Ifrit and I hope he stays like that from now on! Bahamut did not disappoint either. Magic can have a damaging effect on your allies and react differently depending on your environment however I liked being able to craft spells. There wasn’t a huge amount of boss fights throughout the main story but the ones you come across do provide a bit of a challenge. I didn’t find any too hard though and actually I believe the dungeon bosses are harder.

The environment really impressed me and it just made me excited. If this is what they’ve done now then I can’t wait to see what future Final Fantasy games hold. I can kind of see how they will make FFVII work now I’ve played this or at least how I would like it to play out. It was the first Final Fantasy game that I’ve played where I actually felt like I was in the world. It’s hard to explain but I guess it’s because things were more to scale than they have been before and you could see so much more.

I have just been really impressed and I have loved playing FFXV and I will continue to do so as there are more trophies to get and a pretty tough enemy to slay. You can grab Final Fantasy 15 on Amazon.