Final Fantasy XV

You know, I kinda wish we got the rest of this game's DLC and it didn't get shitcanned, because there's the bones of something truly special buried within Final Fantasy XV that I can't quite describe but I'm going to attempt to here anyway. Most of the people who would want to purchase this game probably already have, but since FFXVI is out and Clive is in Tekken 8, I'm sure people will probably have some mild interest in this and at that I think some explanation is warranted as to what this is, and what it is not.
This game is not a good story, but it is a story with good characters. It's not a good action game, but it is a game with good action. This game is not an open world adventure, but it does have a world that is open to have adventures in. This game is not a dungeon crawler, but it does have dungeons you can crawl through, sometimes literally. It's a simulacrum of many different types of games, coming together to create something that is greater than the sum of its parts, but probably in a bad way with how heavy it gets.
For example, this game has a LOT of side-missions and sidequests. Maybe I don't wanna do a solid 50-60 hunt quests where I go to a random place, kill a random monster and return for money I won't spend and materials I won't use. But the process of doing those quests, and going to those random locations and beating those random monsters, reveals something I might actually want to use, like a gathering point for materials I will use or a fishing spot for fish I will catch or a campsite for resting and eating food that is useful to continuing the game.
These missions aren't difficult. Nothing in this game is difficult, even its hardest challenges and most in-depth setpieces. It's an easy game, made even easier by how cracked out leveling up is even though they try to restrict you by only tallying experience when you rest. But since you can easily double the amount of experience you gain within the first hour of the game, and then in its second half find a way to triple it and go even further, it's not like leveling will actually be difficult. Same goes for equipment -- the materials you find are plentiful and the weapons and gear you can discover or that drop from enemies or bosses keep you going with minimal effort.
Shoot, you can even turn the game on an easier mode so you're just kinda rolling around steamrolling everything. Even the deadly monsters that appear at night that you're supposed to be afraid of (and probably are at first since they're three times your level) are actually pretty surmountable and later trivial because of the sheer number of recovery items and combat options you have for dealing with stuff like this. That doesn't even cover your ability to swap to any of your other bros and change what game you're playing (Dark Souls for Gladio, a shittier DMC for Ignis and a surprisingly competent third person shooter for Prompto) when you don't feel like dealing with Noctis's busted-ass auto-fighting and teleporting powers.
So where IS the effort in this game? I suppose it's in riding chocobos over the sweeping landscapes, or admiring the scenery while you're doing the speed limit on the highway in your Mercedes-Benz, or the dopamine hit you get from doing an impromptu dual tech with your one-to-three best friends in the whole wide world or the cute little interactions the Backstreet Anime Boys have when they're chilling in the car or at camp. They play cards, they swipe their phones to help each other in gacha game raids, they hoist up and sit on the top of the seats in the convertible when the sun's out, they banter and laugh and give you a front-row seat to everything they do, every photo they take, every meal they eat. In that sense, this game is... Amazing. This journey is amazing, something truly wonderful to spectate and bring to its conclusion.
But that's the problem: You're spectating it. You're watching it unfold, but not really being an active participant in doing so. The plot is a series of checkpoints and serious conversations held by people who are far away from the moments that have ruined their lives and emotionally unimpactful developments that you know you're supposed to care about, but that you don't really understand. There's a few reasons why. The translation is one of them. If you pick up the English Subtitles For Japanese Voice-Over mod that uses yu_eriyama's retranslation of the story, you get a much stronger understanding of how the characters are feeling than in the original.
The other is probably the game's budgetary limitations and development hell. FFXV started life in 2009 as a side-game to Final Fantasy XIII, and we all know the story of how Squeenix handled that, including the disastrous launch of FFXIV and its later extremely popular revival and the general loss of brand power of Final Fantasy compared to the 90s and early 2000s. So when this game launched on the PS4, it was a complete mess; the story was barely complete (they had to add cutscenes that were just footage from the movie to make it make more sense), they had to expand and revise the final areas in a post-game patch, they only got to release four DLCs for the game out of a planned seven (most of the story's main heroines were supposed to get a DLC), and even the multiplayer was tacked-on but also unusually important for understanding the state of the world at the end of the game, which is never something you want to do.
Most FF fans know this already. This game is fraught. But you can see where decisions Squeenix made during this game's development showed up later. Kingdom Hearts 3's combat probably wouldn't be so loose and full of spectacle and ridiculous particle effects if this game didn't have them. Same goes for FFXVI. This game also sold well enough to give the developers the breathing room to make FFXIV something truly special, to make more, better Final Fantasy games and to release a bunch of remakes and updates of games that people loved in the past, like Trials of Mana or Saga Frontier Remastered. It saved the franchise, and it really tries to push the envelope of what an RPG actually is.
An RPG isn't necessarily just a set of numbers and statistics, or a narrative that you shape and participate through your actions. If we want to talk about roles, FFXV's role for you is pretty clear: You're here to enjoy the show. The anime boys are here to put it on for you, and be your guides through it, and maybe remind you that there's more fun to be had in the journey than just in its conclusion.

now i can never listen to "stand by me" without violently sobbing. 10/10 would roadtrip with the boys again.

ignore the story and all the sidecharacters, these are the unfinished part of the game. Play the game for the chill roadtrip with the boys.

I can’t even describe how much this game means to me. I wish I could write paragraphs and paragraphs in this review but… I can’t. I’ve tried. I’ve been trying for months since I finished it, but there’s something so special about this game that’s impossible to put into words.
FFXV is beautiful. It’s captivating. It’s emotional. It takes you on a journey you’ll never forget.
Truly the most incredible experience I’ve ever had with a videogame.

Prompto randomly taking cursed photos that look either deep fried or AI generated will never not be funny.

I pre-ordered this game on the PlayStation 4, and I own it on Steam. I even own and completed the Pocket Edition on Switch multiple times. I also own the CDs, the DLC book... yeah I own a lot of FFXV merchandise. I'm definitely a fan girl. I was really looking forward to Final Fantasy Versus XIII, and I'm glad this game finally came, even if it wasn't the "most complete" vision.
I absolutely love the interaction between all the characters! I always love stories with bromances, and I felt that it was done very well. Prompto, Noctis, Gladio, Ignis.. I truly felt like I was on a camping trip with the boys, we laughed, we argued, we cried (and a lot), we ate around a campfire, and we got permission to enter a girl's only workplace. And the banter between the boys, and there was a ton of banter everywhere! I definitely learned in my first play through on PS4 to rest at more campfires to find some cutscenes. Unfortunately, this game needed DLC (and a book) to just finish the story of the game. I'm saddened by that fact.
The gameplay is great. I always love coming back to this game occasionally. Warping, changing weapons, the Royal Arms, magic, summons, and more warping. I have way too much fun with getting into pointless combats. The beginning is a bit rough on the player and night combat is extremely frustrating. I did feel rewarded as a player when I got powerful enough to overcome my fears of nighttime... although there's way too much AP to grind for everything easily, but that is typical of a Final Fantasy game.
I heard that some people had trouble with Chapter 14 because they were under-leveled.. I did not experience this myself, but that is because Final Fantasy typically meant grinding for hours for levels/abilities... But that isn't so well known to beginners for the FF series, even though this game has a disclaimer of being friendly to new players. My co-worker just recently expressed his dissatisfaction because he was having trouble on this chapter because he was rushing the game since he loved the story, but he himself is a newer Final Fantasy player, so he didn't realize that he would get soft-locked.
Moving on, I heard not many people enjoyed the magic system, but I LOVED it. I enjoyed that it was a "limited" amount... or, well, until a collector like me loves to collect items for infinite magic creation and find me some magic flasks. You eventually get enough magic flasks to hold magic, and I love creating multi-cast spells for maximum chaos. The realism of the magic hurting my companions was a plus, but also annoyed me when- PROMPTO, CAN YOU PLEASE LIVE AND NOT PUT YOURSELF IN HARMS WAY. WHY DO YOU HAVE LOW HEALTH POINTS!??! Besides Prompto dying a lot in the beginning, I really had a lot of fun mixing and matching magic.
The music is my favorite in the entire series. Yoko Shimomura blew me away with the OST. I'm terrible at talking about music, but I recommend looking up some of FFXV's music if you're interested.
I love the graphics. I love the models of all the characters. I love how the summon's look. This version Leviathan and Ramuh are my favorite from the series of Final Fantasy. However, I think FFXV has the ugliest looking carbuncle. That thing gave me nightmares.
I've read a lot of reviews on the negatives of this game. Honestly, most of those negatives really didn't bother me that much. But I do have a few gripes.
I do WISH that the characters received a better completed story upon launch. I love that we have DLC now, and I'm still working on this game slowly, and I'm really sad we got the very last DLC as a book. I'm happy the DLC is really nice in terms of graphics and gameplay and music, but I kinda wish these stories were in from the beginning... These characters deserved a story that was more cohesive and complete upon launch. Also, I feel like it's too convoluted to jump out of your main game to load into DLC... and then it's like "when should I play this I don't wanna get too spoiled." Ugh. I just wish everything was in ONE save. I know it's not probable and not possible to fix, but I dislike it still.
Another con that this game is a typical Final Fantasy game, so you know end-game grinds? Yeah. Dungeons that don't make sense, rainbow frogs that you have to find at the only clue of "water" aka ANYWHERE in the world, 100 floor GREAT THIS IS FUN, and oh, did I mention the puzzle dungeon you have to fly to that took me six hours to complete, well at least the first time... and not to mention no checkpoints for that puzzle......... A truly, frustrating, yet typical Final Fantasy experience. But, even with those cons, I feel most quests had a satisfying feeling when I completed it.
Except the puzzle. I love puzzles, but I am not ashamed to admit I threw the controller quite a few times and wondered if I was too stupid to figure out some parts of the hidden dungeon. This dungeon was way too long. I felt like Hogwarts Legacy's secret puzzles have a better length to a hidden puzzle dungeon. I mean, it's kinda cool, I guess when I think about it, and the reward is worth it (but it's one item), but so much pain...
I hope that one day, maybe a "re-vision" of this game could be done with a completed story.... Also a way better optimized game, because c'mon, it took me years to finally get the funds to build a PC to play this game at awesome high quality experience. This game running on my old 2060 felt worse than my PlayStation 4 launch experience.

600 hours of driving around, fishing, camping and chilling with the boys. I had a great time playing this game. Would do it again.