Final Fantasy XV is a conundrum for me and I am struggling to put the right sequence of words together to properly describe my thoughts and feelings about this game. The reason I say this is because the first time I played the game I got bored of it after 5-10 hours and dropped it. The second time I played it I can honestly say that on at least 5 occasions I really didn't want to keep playing it and had to essentially force myself to continue through sheer determination and stubbornness. This sounds like the beginning of a scathing review but on the contrary, after completing the game all the development decisions that while playing through seemed rushed, tacked on, or unpolished now all suddenly came together thematically and form a very emotionally compelling coming of age story told not just with the narrative but with the level design itself.
The most common complaint I hear about FFXV is the pacing of the story and how after brief introduction period you are thrust forth into this massive open world full of possibilities only to have the game totally bottleneck on you for the last third of the runtime finishing up with essentially a series of extremely linear hallways. This complaint is totally valid and I felt the same disjointed feeling when hitting said bottleneck. However once completing the game It all began making sense thematically. At the beginning of the story Noctis is a reluctant hero with big shoes to fill though he is clearly not ready or eager to fill them. This section of the game has really strong road trip vibes, Noctis and the gang hitting the road stopping along the way to hunt down some goblins, go on a few fishing trips, and snap some selfies at all the landmarks. There is no sense of urgency here which is probably what led me to dropping the game on my first attempt. While playing through this section, which took me roughly 20 hours or so, it felt quite aimless and unfocused. Sure some quests involve finding a few ancestral weapon or fighting the Nifs but for the most part this large chunk of the game is delaying the inevitable and essentially shirking your responsibilities or as Joseph Campbell would put it, the refusal of the call to adventure.
Once you finally go to see the Hydrean (the bottleneck) the game tightens up and becomes extremely linear. Again, during my playthrough I really disliked this as it was totally jarring, I kept waiting for another large open area to take a break and go on some hunts. It felt like two separate puzzle pieces that didn't fit together forced into place crudely with duct tape and chewing gum. However after completion I understand that confronting the Hydrean and all the events that transpire during this section is essentially where the rubber meets the road. To quote Campbell again, to me this is the belly of the whale (interesting how this section also involves a large sea creature wink wink), Noctis is now committed to grow up and carry out his duty and the game thematically mirrors this by tightening and becoming linear. No more fishing, no more bumbling around a pretty open world like you are on vacation, peoples lives are at stake and your choices have serious consequences as we have already seen a number of characters pay a heavy price.
The final chapter of the story is without a doubt one of the best few hours of an RPG I've played in recent memory. Everything here is laid out almost perfectly in line with the rest of the standard hero's journey and executed exquisitely. After Noctis reaches the crystal he meets with Bahamut and goes through his metamorphosis, then returns home to see it in ruins overcome by the darkness. Shocked by the state of the world but resolved to do whatever needs to be done to save it he reunites with his friends one last time before the final showdown. During the climax each member of the group goes through their own trial in which they show they are willing to sacrifice their own life in pursuit of Noctis' goal which really cements just how strong their bond is. The final showdown with Ardyn is epic, after fighting through hordes of demons, a Cerberus, and a gauntlet of guardians of old with your group you are suddenly left alone to battle with Ardyn one on one for the fate of the world. Everything about this chapter just works, the cinematics are great, there are tons of genuinely emotionally compelling moments throughout, and the Astrals lending us a hand when in need gives such a sense of scale of the sheer gravity of this showdown... I simply cannot say enough how well this final chapter brings the whole game together.
This isn't to say the game is without it's flaws though, there are definitely quite a few. At times I felt like the world and associated lore was not explained well enough until hours after an event had transpired. This made me feel like I was always on the back foot trying to catch up to the story, though that has been a common problem in pretty much every Final Fantasy game since FFXII to be honest so maybe it's intentional, who knows. I also felt that besides the 4 main characters and Ardyn, pretty much every other character was underdeveloped or not given enough screen time for the player to develop an emotional connection. The chief culprit here is Luna, besides flashbacks of their childhood and knowledge of the fact that her and Noctis are to be wed there is barely any time spent developing their bond. The events during the Hydrean section should have been a flying dragon kick in the feels but it simply didn't live up to it's potential. I logically understand that it is sad, and I empathize with Noctis as he grieves his lost love, but the player doesn't feel what Noctis is feeling, not even close... How could they, literally the first time we see her in person she is killed. To me this is one of the biggest failures of the game and represents a massive missed opportunity to sprinkle the world with weeb tears. Another element that is lacking is the combat. Nothing egregious here, it is just a little simplistic but it seems like that is by design. Not every game has to be Dark Souls and there are plenty of flashy maneuvers and combos you can pull off to break up the monotony of holding down the attack button so not too big of a deal here. I do wish that there was more diversity of gameplay though, maybe by having enemies that required using different tactics because honestly what is the point of having all these cool ancestral weapons, spell crafting system, and ability to switch to other characters when in practice 99% of the time simply charging an enemy with Noctis and then holding the attack button will kill them faster?
Overall Final Fantasy XV is definitely not a perfect game... How could it be? It is designed in a way that feels disjointed and unfocussed until after you finish it. The game is akin to one of those claw machine games where you keep pushing in quarters hoping to eventually get the reward even though your brain is telling you to cut your losses and bail. I can say for certain that the reward is there and you will eventually get it if you keep going, the juice is worth the squeeze! But some people (myself included) didn't like pumping in those quarters on my way to the climax and I imagine many people dropped it before getting to the epic conclusion that brings it all together, though I'm not sure how you would fix this without effecting the level design thematically reflecting Noctis' current state of mind. I guess that's why I don't write games... I just write about them.
The most common complaint I hear about FFXV is the pacing of the story and how after brief introduction period you are thrust forth into this massive open world full of possibilities only to have the game totally bottleneck on you for the last third of the runtime finishing up with essentially a series of extremely linear hallways. This complaint is totally valid and I felt the same disjointed feeling when hitting said bottleneck. However once completing the game It all began making sense thematically. At the beginning of the story Noctis is a reluctant hero with big shoes to fill though he is clearly not ready or eager to fill them. This section of the game has really strong road trip vibes, Noctis and the gang hitting the road stopping along the way to hunt down some goblins, go on a few fishing trips, and snap some selfies at all the landmarks. There is no sense of urgency here which is probably what led me to dropping the game on my first attempt. While playing through this section, which took me roughly 20 hours or so, it felt quite aimless and unfocused. Sure some quests involve finding a few ancestral weapon or fighting the Nifs but for the most part this large chunk of the game is delaying the inevitable and essentially shirking your responsibilities or as Joseph Campbell would put it, the refusal of the call to adventure.
Once you finally go to see the Hydrean (the bottleneck) the game tightens up and becomes extremely linear. Again, during my playthrough I really disliked this as it was totally jarring, I kept waiting for another large open area to take a break and go on some hunts. It felt like two separate puzzle pieces that didn't fit together forced into place crudely with duct tape and chewing gum. However after completion I understand that confronting the Hydrean and all the events that transpire during this section is essentially where the rubber meets the road. To quote Campbell again, to me this is the belly of the whale (interesting how this section also involves a large sea creature wink wink), Noctis is now committed to grow up and carry out his duty and the game thematically mirrors this by tightening and becoming linear. No more fishing, no more bumbling around a pretty open world like you are on vacation, peoples lives are at stake and your choices have serious consequences as we have already seen a number of characters pay a heavy price.
The final chapter of the story is without a doubt one of the best few hours of an RPG I've played in recent memory. Everything here is laid out almost perfectly in line with the rest of the standard hero's journey and executed exquisitely. After Noctis reaches the crystal he meets with Bahamut and goes through his metamorphosis, then returns home to see it in ruins overcome by the darkness. Shocked by the state of the world but resolved to do whatever needs to be done to save it he reunites with his friends one last time before the final showdown. During the climax each member of the group goes through their own trial in which they show they are willing to sacrifice their own life in pursuit of Noctis' goal which really cements just how strong their bond is. The final showdown with Ardyn is epic, after fighting through hordes of demons, a Cerberus, and a gauntlet of guardians of old with your group you are suddenly left alone to battle with Ardyn one on one for the fate of the world. Everything about this chapter just works, the cinematics are great, there are tons of genuinely emotionally compelling moments throughout, and the Astrals lending us a hand when in need gives such a sense of scale of the sheer gravity of this showdown... I simply cannot say enough how well this final chapter brings the whole game together.
This isn't to say the game is without it's flaws though, there are definitely quite a few. At times I felt like the world and associated lore was not explained well enough until hours after an event had transpired. This made me feel like I was always on the back foot trying to catch up to the story, though that has been a common problem in pretty much every Final Fantasy game since FFXII to be honest so maybe it's intentional, who knows. I also felt that besides the 4 main characters and Ardyn, pretty much every other character was underdeveloped or not given enough screen time for the player to develop an emotional connection. The chief culprit here is Luna, besides flashbacks of their childhood and knowledge of the fact that her and Noctis are to be wed there is barely any time spent developing their bond. The events during the Hydrean section should have been a flying dragon kick in the feels but it simply didn't live up to it's potential. I logically understand that it is sad, and I empathize with Noctis as he grieves his lost love, but the player doesn't feel what Noctis is feeling, not even close... How could they, literally the first time we see her in person she is killed. To me this is one of the biggest failures of the game and represents a massive missed opportunity to sprinkle the world with weeb tears. Another element that is lacking is the combat. Nothing egregious here, it is just a little simplistic but it seems like that is by design. Not every game has to be Dark Souls and there are plenty of flashy maneuvers and combos you can pull off to break up the monotony of holding down the attack button so not too big of a deal here. I do wish that there was more diversity of gameplay though, maybe by having enemies that required using different tactics because honestly what is the point of having all these cool ancestral weapons, spell crafting system, and ability to switch to other characters when in practice 99% of the time simply charging an enemy with Noctis and then holding the attack button will kill them faster?
Overall Final Fantasy XV is definitely not a perfect game... How could it be? It is designed in a way that feels disjointed and unfocussed until after you finish it. The game is akin to one of those claw machine games where you keep pushing in quarters hoping to eventually get the reward even though your brain is telling you to cut your losses and bail. I can say for certain that the reward is there and you will eventually get it if you keep going, the juice is worth the squeeze! But some people (myself included) didn't like pumping in those quarters on my way to the climax and I imagine many people dropped it before getting to the epic conclusion that brings it all together, though I'm not sure how you would fix this without effecting the level design thematically reflecting Noctis' current state of mind. I guess that's why I don't write games... I just write about them.