I can't remember the last time I've felt this conflicted about a video game. There's a number of things that I grew really attached to, but there's so many other parts that utterly baffled me throughout. I can't really say for certain if I love or hate it, but I'm definitely not apathetic towards, it which was my biggest concern for a good amount of my time with the game.

To start off on a positive note, I love the main cast. Square Enix games in general are really good at character writing and dynamics, and the main party is absolutely no exception. Noctis is really compelling to see grow alongside his friends in the endgame made me incredibly happy consistently. The other party members aren't far behind, they're consistently entertaining and have a good amount going on in terms of growth. I do wish that they made their heart to hearts easier to come across, though. I randomly encountered one with Prompto, and he talked about his relationship with the gang and how he feels about his place in a way that sort of hit close to home. I wasn't able to encounter the ones for Ignis or Gladiolus, which was a shame since I wanted to see more about how they got to know Noctis or how they feel about themselves. I'm not trying to say that they're underdeveloped, but I just wanted more out of them.

Even outside of the main story or these heart to hearts, they're just a genuinely fun and believable friend group. I'm really fond of all the banter between them as we explore the land or drive around in the Regalia. I think the scope of the game makes it so that lines repeat a bit too much, but it never really went to the point where they got stuck in my head in a bad way. The strength of these characters alone is what gives me some motivation to check out the DLC.

However, I think problems arise when zooming out, since I didn't really get much out of the non-party characters. (Except for Ardyn, he's a funny guy) It puts way more emphasis on the main cast than anyone else to the point where it almost succeeds, but most of the wider cast were characters where the only sort of investment I got from them was how they tied into the party's development.

The two characters tied specifically to Noctis get this the worst by far. Lucius gets one conversation with Noctis before he heads out on his road trip(where he has "Fire Emblem dad" written all over him), before getting killed later in the first chapter. I guess he gets more in the movie that's all about what happened in the attack on the crown city, but I don't really feel like going on a tangent about how leaving the job of lore development mostly to outside material is bad storytelling. He's the more tolerable instance of this, since his legacy is what's the most important aspect on him and he's not lingered on too long.

For a significantly less tolerable case, Lunafreya might be one of the worst characters I've experienced in an RPG. She's the most nothing archetypical female love interest of all time, and exclusively exists as a carrot on the stick leading Noctis through the plot. The entirety of her character in the whole game is "She wants to see Noctis", "She's determined towards her job as Oracle" (In cutscenes that apparently weren't even IN the game at launch), "She gives a generic speech about hope beating despair or whatever", "She summons and tries to talk with the Leviathan(and fails)", and "She gets stabbed by the funny villain". She might be one of the blandest characters I've ever seen in a video game, and unlike the King, she IS lingered on super long as she's Noctis's main motivation throughout the game, and the chapters immediately after her death REALLY push how important and significant she was as a person.

Like I said, this leads me to a situation where I only care about these two in the ways that they have an impact on Noctis. Of course, our main protagonist should be the one to get the most out of, but most other RPGs I play, ESPECIALLY Square games do a pretty solid job of making memorable side characters with less importance than these two.

The pacing of the story in general is really strange. The plot doesn't really progress at all for a vast chunk of the game, and then immediately after the fight with Leviathan it starts moving way too fast with its plot beats, to the point where it introduces a 10 year timeskip at the very last chapter of the game. It's very inconsistent with parts of the world that get room to breathe and get very little room at all. It made for a really sharp contrast as I got increasingly tired of the pre-Altissia part of the game.

Speaking of which, I suppose it's about time to talk about the gameplay and exploration. The main hook of XV is its vast open world. (Before it's completely abandoned for a completely linear structure after Altissa, but that's beside the point) To get this out of the way, the environments in the game are absolutely gorgeous, it's one of the most technically beautiful games I've ever experienced. That being said, after running around it for extended periods of time, especially in segments outside of the Regalia, the environments don't really stick out to me all that much, especially due to the fact that the open areas rarely ever have overworld music. This increased my general feeling that the main way you're supposed to get the most out of the world is through having it as scenery when you're driving around in the Regalia.

When trying to compare it to other games in the genre, the one that immediately came to mind was Xenoblade Chronicles, and I think its feeling of exploration trounces XV's in every regard. Every environment in Xenoblade is so incredibly distinct that I'd only need to get exposed to a piece of it like some art or the area's theme to vividly picture the various areas throughout the game. XV's world doesn't really do that for me aside from a few towns and outposts. I plan on going over this in a certain review in the future, but artistic direction in environments is something I've come to deeply value and it's made me more critical of ones that have very little personality to them.

Speaking of having very little personality to it, let's move on to the combat. I think when it's at its best, it's a pretty average combat system. These are usually moments when you're up against a single strong enemy and are looking out for tells and moments to parry. The moment groups of enemies come into play, especially ones with projectiles, are where it becomes the absolute worst. You don't really have strong sources of crowd control, and there's generally poor feedback to when you're getting hit so it's easy to have your health bar melt and not notice. These type of encounters are fairly frequent too, especially in the overworld. Even when it all works out, I'd probably say to just go to a Kingdom Hearts title if you want an action-RPG experience that feels good to play.

I've done a lot of ranting on elements I really don't like about the game, and I wouldn't consider it that good as a game, but I feel like the core of its party is so strong that I can say I generally had a good experience in spite of it all. It's a pretty baffling game in a lot of ways, but I don't think it's one I'll forget anytime soon.

EDIT: Something I forgot to say is that I'm fully aware that playing it now is near-completely divorced from the mess that was its launch and tons of patches which included whole waves of cutscenes that just weren't in the game, definitely looking more into this in the future.