LogFAQs > #893055022

Final Fantasy XV - PS4

This is another game that I'm really conflicted on, like Gravity Rush 2. There's definitely some moments that made me think this was gonna be one of my favorite games ever, and then there were definitely some moments that kept it from getting near that conversation.

The battle system is really fun, but loses some of its appeal in really tight spaces like some of the dungeons, and sometimes your teammates get their ass kicked way too much way too fast. There's a lot of stuff to do in the gigantic open world, but a lot of it seems like fluff in a game that didn't quite need it, such as fishing or Justice Monsters V. So many areas in the open world are beautiful, memorable, and distinct locations that you want to go explore and enjoy spending time in, but navigating between them is long and boring regardless of whether you do fast travel or use the car/chocobo to get there. The astrals are pretty incredible summons to look at and experience, but you'll be lucky if you ever get to see half of them - Ramuh will show up over and over again while the others will rarely show their face. The side quests allow you to get lost in the world, but some of the side quests are entirely pointless and/or poorly designed (especially those damn frog missions). The lore of the six astrals and the way that various pieces of the world reflect this lore is really quite intriguing, but the game does not explore this enough and ends up leaving a lot of it unexplained within the confines of what's on the disc. The story ends up being incredibly satisfying with what I thought was a fantastic ending, but not before it strips you of that freedom to explore that you came to love in the first half of the game and forces you into a really poorly executed over-linear middle section.

See how this works? Final Fantasy XV has so many strong points, many of which are brought down at least in part by some counterpoint. This game depends on that open world with its memorable locations/hunts/good side quests, that familial bond shared between the main characters, and that strong sense of fantasy in a universe that is still rooted in familiar modern-day things like cars and smartphones. Still, I can't help but think the developers allocated their resources poorly and made some really big mistakes that end up weighing down some really special pieces of this game. It doesn't make sense for there to be so many really pointless side quests, while a pretty big chunk of the middle of the story feels poorly thought out and quickly tossed together relative to the rest of the story.

I think I was able to forgive a number of the mistakes that FFXV made, especially with the entire ending sequence from Angelgard forward and the sheer wonder of exploring the Lucian continent and all the different things that come with that. I also found myself really loving the story behind Ardyn and the astrals and the Lucian kingdom, even if the game seemed a little uninterested in fully explaining it itself. But there is no forgiving the awful chapters 12 and 13 of FFXV, as well as many of the other glaring issues. It's a good game but it is flawed in many, many ways.

7/10. Some sections feel like this game had the capability of being a near-perfect game, but there are simply too many glaring flaws for it to be considered great. It remains good despite these flaws though.
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Got a brand new blues that I can't explain