A deeply flawed mess, but what a game. The main story is so weird. It's really good and has so many problems at the same time. The characters are amazing, the tone is good, the environment is really fun. The gameplay is ok, like the battles are ok but not really fun. There are so many boring sidequests that you can do. There are a lot of things to do in this game, and then the game just locks all that midway through the game. It becomes really cool and focused, but it's gone (except if you use a vision dog?). Anyway. The DLC episodes that are with the main story are amazing. Ok the Gladio one was so dumb. But Prompto was really fun, and Ignis was soooo good. Like, it's so so so good. Really better than the main story. This thing is a mess, and it could have been one of the best FF ever.

Final Fantasy 15 was a wholesome ride from start to finish. The main cast of Noctis, Gladiolus, Prompto, and Ignis were all exceptional characters that were written and cast to perfection. You really become close with these characters as they journey with you throughout Lucis, which is the large open world that the game offers you. The world itself is big and diverse with plenty of wacky monsters to track and hunt to your heart's content, and it helps that the combat is incredibly fun and fluid to really make encounters memorable.

The areas that bring down FFXV are the side quests and the endgame, both of which feel like chores to do. Most side quests are either hunt or fetch quests which get repetitive really quick, and I really only did them depending upon if I liked the character or not. The endgame strips away the freedom you had throughout the open-world for un-inspired corridors that overstay their welcome, but once you eventually get past it the game picks right but up again in its finale.

The game is carried by its characters and combat which certainly isn't a bad thing at all. The memories I shared with the crew are some I will definitely cherish and without them, this game would be a blank husk of overused assets of AAA game design. It's a game I recommend to people looking for a chill experience as it delivers on that end. FFXV is a good game to experience as most Final Fantasies are, but to die-hard fans, I can see it falling short. But for my first Final Fantasy, I can say I enjoyed it until the credits rolled.

I will tell my story with this game so that you know the type of relationship I have with it, even if nobody cares.
When this game came out for the first time in 2016 I bought it, as a big fan of this franchise I was very happy because for me I was going to play another game. This franchise is very special to me, so much so that I have played literally every game. I really felt very happy, but when I started playing it I dropped it fast. I could not believe it, this game was full of problems, both with the content and in general.

Those problems are (in my opinion)

Missions:
The previous point links perfectly with this one. In an artificial world where people have no concerns or needs, missions can only be equally artificial. We have three types of missions:

Go to this site and come back.
Go to this site, grab an item, and come back.
Go to this site, kill something and come back.
That's it, that's all. You, prince and heir to the crown, are a simple errand boy in this world. How difficult would it have been to put some variety in the missions? It shows that they have been very tight on time, and have opted for these missions because they are the easiest to copy and paste.

Exploration.
Walking through this world is a delight. It is a beautiful setting, but it is a shame that there is very little motivation to explore the world as it is mostly empty. Most of the points of interest are discovered throughout the story and side quests, and then there is little else to explore. You are not going to explore a new area and be amazed at what you find at the end, there is no such sense of discovery.

Battle system.
Another point that could have been improved with more development time is the battle system. The idea of the system is good, and it could have worked, but they have been left half. The magic system is ineffective, and I have hardly used the special weapons that he tries so hard to find. In the end I have only used normal weapons, looking for them to be effective against the current enemy. When there are many enemies the battles are chaotic and cumbersome. When fighting flying enemies the combat is incredibly frustrating. My favorite battles have been when fighting a single medium or large enemy, as this is where you can plan and execute some kind of strategy.
i can go on.... but when this version came out everything changed. Although I haven't finished it since it came out, I started playing this version of the game and finished it today. I have to say that I love this game, and many of the bugs that it had in the first version were fixed and that makes me very happy. It is literally one of the most beautiful games I have ever played in my life.

THE ENDING IS ONE OF THE BEST IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY, AND IT IS PERFECT, BEAUTIFUL AND IMMACULATE.

I absolutely LOVE this game and have ever since I first played it in 2016-17. It was just as good, if not better, on the second playthrough (which I decided to do to tide me over until FF7R). While the story and world admittedly have their problems, their strong points, great moments, the game's really fun and sometimes pretty challenging combat and the overall feeling of "four close friends on a grand adventure" make it a game I'll always find comfort in and a world that I'll always feel like I'm coming home to. This was my first time playing the DLCs, and they all are great, adding context to important moments in the companions' tale as well as shedding some light on the main villain.

FFXV Royal Edition lives up to is subtitle as it is the definitive way to experience the story of FFXV. I originally fell in love with the game back on release but with this re-release I only love the game more, but this most recent playthrough has definitely showed some issues I have with this title. The story follows Noctis, a young prince of a kingdom called Insomnia who begrudgingly accepts his duty to one day be king. The narrative starts with Noctis and his best friends Gladio, Prompto, and Ignis going on a road trip to meet Noctis' fiance Lady Lunafreya. Things are quickly derailed however as back home Noctis' dad is murdered during a peace treaty signing with the kingdom of Nifilheim. Now Noctis is thrust into the shoes of Kinghood as he must fight an enemy nation, and an ancient advisory to emancipate his people and his nation. Most of your playtime will be dedicated to driving around the open world with your buddies as you forge memories, and fight various monsters, and daemons. Open world is something I would use loosely however because if you spend more than a couple minutes exploring the areas off the beaten path you'll be greeted with countless fences and impassible mountains, and what little area you are able to explore off the road rarely has any content worth exploring outside of the occasional dungeon or hunt, and herein lies my main issue with XV and that is that the game came out in a time where every game had to be an open world adventure, and this game tried to do that. The world is very pretty to look at from the road but venture off the beaten path and you will notice things fall apart rather quickly. Despite this the content that is present is really good and engaging and should keep you entertained for hours on end. The combat sees Noctis use his various weapons to deliver devastating damage to his foes in a character action style which is a first for the Final Fantasy mainline series. While many fans bemoan the change in gameplay style I think it is a vast improvement over the nauseatingly mid tier combat styles Square had come up with in the last couple installments as they attempted to reinvent the wheel. As an action game XV isn't the most in depth but it delivers enough variety to take you over the finish line without it all feeling too repetitive which is more than what I can ask for. Royal Edition also adds many new cutscenes not present in the original release to further flesh out the story, and think they are all welcome additions as it helps flesh out certain characters who didn't get much screen time before. Also included with the Royal Edition are all the original DLC for the game excluding Episode Ardyn, and all the DLC help expand the world and story of XV in great ways. I have reviewed the DLC separately so I won't go over them here but they are all worth your time to get the most out of this game's story. Also included is a completely reworked final dungeon, which previously was just 2 hallways. Now the final dungeon is it's own open world area that has it's own side objectives and really helps drive home the devastation that the Nifilheim have caused. Overall while many people deemed XV as the downfall of the main series due to it's combat change, and its tumultuous development history, I think it is a step in the right direction and is a great new beginning for the series, as it seems at the time of writing this review that XVI will take many concepts and ideas explored in this game and expand upon them for the better with the awesome development team behind FFXIV working on it. FFXV is a game that has greatly impacted me on release, and I am glad to say that it still hits as hard if not harder with the new content that has come out since it's initial release and is a must play for any JRPG or gaming fans in general.