Final Fantasy XV

i like final fantasy and this one is good bc it reminds me of when i had close friends

After playing this game for over 200 hours, acquiring every achievement, grinding the Menace dungeons, and completing several super bosses in hunts, I can honestly say it is extremely difficult to explain why I kept playing this game.
Final Fantasy XV is not a game I would recommend to everyone. As a writer of fanfiction in the past, it's fair to say that I embellish a lot of what many would call sparse or plagued storylines to improve them in my head. I read things into a story that don't actually exist or didn't come from author intention. When I finished playing Star Ocean: the Last Hope, my immediate reaction was 'I could have written this better.'
I only mention this because while I think this is part of what draws me to Final Fantasy XV, I may have been able to write a better story, but I cannot make a better game. The ambition of the game and everything it tries to be stands out far more than a story left wanting.
Like many, when the Final Fantasy XIII announcement hit, I most looked forward to the action title Final Fantasy Versus XIII. More than a decade later, that game never saw the light of day, but its spiritual successor, Final Fantasy XV hit the shelves instead. If you haven't heard the stories of development tragedy plaguing this game, then feel free to look them up. Suffice to say, much of this title saw reconfiguration after reconfiguration and rushed through the door to come out unfinished. Only after the release of 20+ hours of DLC and additional content did the story come to some form of fruition.
Rather than blame the development cycle, the thing that most draws me to finish every additional hour of FFXV content is that the ambition of the project not only remained intact but nearly exploded. The biggest problem with FFXV comes from the fact that it attempts to function as a title that satisfies everyone on every note. The load screen itself tells you that this game should be a title for long time fans and first timers. And audience so broad can only find themselves disappointed.
FFXV's story might be unfinished, but the vision of the gameplay also came to life halfway to what could have been. FFXV boasted the most "polygons" of any game at the time of its release and still satisfies the graphical prowess the FF series demands, but the most compelling thing about FF is also its gameplay innovation. In this game, you can play an FPS, you can play a Batman style puzzle and scare tactics game, you can play a 1v1 action slog, you can play some kind of parkour akin to Assassin's Creed, you can even boot up an MMORPG that no one else will bother to connect to. Unfortunately none of it came out that great.
But I love it anyway. Many times, it's mind-numbing and grindy; it's unimaginative and retreads and rehashes the same enemy models or dungeons. As someone who loves optional dungeons and bosses, it felt insanely disappointing that every Menace dungeon recycled the same floor system and general color palette. One exception exists that I won't spoil, but did you want to play a platformer in your RPG? You're once again in luck, but it, again, might not be up to your expectations.
I don't think I've ever played a game that tries to make a homage to the greats of every genre, but I love to imagine that someone thought it would be possible. It's a terrible idea, really, but it's amazing that someone tried to execute it anyway.
You can blame the development cycle, but no matter what, the ambition remained intact. You can see what this game could have been with each chapter as you play through it. I don't play it to imagine what it could have been, I play it for what it attempted and the ambition encased in every moment. Too soon and too late didn't deter the FFXV vision. Many have hated the direction of the Final Fantasy franchise recently, but I'd much rather play a game that tries to be everything than another pixel remaster rehashing what we already know SquareEnix can do.
If you love -- not imagining what could have been -- but seeing undeterred imagination, even in the face of failure, this game is for you.
If not, then I understand that. But I can also say that I enjoyed most of my 200 hours of Final Fantasy XV. It isn't a great game, but it is an ambitious one. That is worth your time.

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

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.

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.

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.