Final Fantasy XV

• Genre: RPG
• Time Played: 77 Hours
• Too Short/Long: I think because of how the game progresses, it's somehow both too short and too long. Main Story is too short, extra content in the earlier part of the game is too long?
• Pleased/Disappointed: I really enjoyed it, and would put it in the upper half of rankings for Final Fantasy games.
• Why I played: I don't feel like I need a reason for a Final Fantasy game, but I recently picked it back up, wanting to actually finish more of my unfinished games.
• Recommend to others: I would, generally speaking, but I feel like most people who would actually have any vested interested in it have already played it or already plan to. I might be willing to try to convince people who didn't give the game a fair enough shot.

Final Fantasy 15 is a mess of a game. A game that started off as a spin-off and took so long to develop, several other Final Fantasy games - main line - spin offs - and sequels to the one it was supposed to be a sequel to, started and finished development within it's cycle. I'm sure there are a number of other games out there that start off as spin-off but become their own thing, but it's notable when it happens. There are probably more examples of the opposite - you know, needing to attach an existing IP to something, to get the attention. The game had to insert blatant advertisements for existing companies, to sponsor it's development. It had weird cross-overs that I'm not sure were wholly in earnest and not just another way to get a few extra bucks.

I mean, it might have helped if they didn't try to make this a whole multi-media project from the start. I think they thought this would be the new FF7. They were gonna have movies, ova's, spin off titles, etc, etc, from the start. And they did. But not because of the legacy the game left, like in FF7's case. They kicked it all off from the start, assured that this next Final Fantasy game would be so beloved the cash would never stop flowing.

Instead, you get a divisive mess of a game and franchise that's all over the place. Regardless, I don't think it all turned out too bad.

I can't deny the pacing is a bit all over the place, it's not exactly consistent and it tries to subvert that but allowing you to "go back in time" to the places you were before if you wanna mix it up and go back to do some of the additional content you may have missed out on just because you were trying to progress, and honestly, it kind of makes sense for some of the dramatic beats of the story. I think some modern RPGs struggle with handling things that would be out of character for it's cast to do. Even within the Final Fantasy franchise. As much as I loved FF16 and enjoyed FF13, these are games that neglect some of the extra content that Final Fantasy XV has, such as mini-games, and some of the more sillier takes on side-quests. The characters doing things to just hang-out and socialize. FF7 Remake/Rebirth doesn't fail this, but... it just wouldn't be fair to compare it to what some people may call the best game of all time.

That said, I'm interested to see how the next in the FF7 remake lineup handles things. Does it play pretend so its plethora of content doesn't seem out of place or does it drop pretense and focus on a more linear arc of the story?

I was probably discouraged and took so long to finish FF15 for so long because so many people seemed disappointed by the ending chapters of the game, but after finally getting through it, I can't say I share the sentiment. I don't think it was mind blowing, but it was fine. I think the pacing of the whole game is off, and I understand people not liking the open content kind of separate from the later chapters of the game, but I don't think that makes the later chapters bad at all. I think what they suffer from is all the skips over content so they could get to wrap it up, production wise.

The DLCs should have been part of the main game, the end game should have been... bigger. When you get to some of the last areas of the game, it's almost like you can tell they wanted to do more with that. They created this big beautiful area in multiple states and yet there isn't much to do except go from point a to point b in it. So I can't help but feel like Insomnia was supposed to be a place you would have gotten to explore more of, find it's own sidequests, and more, but instead you just end up in a city in disarray with a lot more areas to kinda see where nothing is. It could have made for a great way to mirror a game like FF7. You start your journey in a big sprawling world with a vehicle to travel across it, and then end the journey in the massive city, resolving things one by one for the downtrodden citizens, before your final raid on this industrial source of power/plot device.

All the elements are there. But a decade of development time - before that was closer to an expectation in the industry and hemorrhaging funds changes things I suppose. I would love to have seen the game FFXV would have been had it had more focus and a more or less normal development cycle. That said, I don't dislike the game I got. The story, while a little overwhelming, having to track it through multiple sources, and obscure with some of the connections, is good enough once you grasp it, but the game shines more in the character interactions and the characters are... mostly cool. Prompto can be annoying, but he's still one of the bros. Combat is fun, Noctis, as OP as he may be as a character via endgame, has the very cool default ability of throwing teleport swords, very fun in theory AND in practice. Making some of the abilities that some of us ignore due to their lack of utility in many Final Fantasy's a core mechanic, mandatory for a section, was also pretty cool.

By far the positives outweigh the negatives of this game, even with as many negatives as you could argue the game, and that's saying something. Many "better games" don't have this many great aspects. You just have to be willing to make some concessions.