The good:
- I loved the chocobros
- The music <3
- Noctis' story
- The fighting
- Not fleshing out any other character
- Execution of the overall story (beyond just Noctis)
- Quests were pretty meh
- Open-world is too empty - only a few interesting towns
As you can see, there is an equal number of good and bad points, but I'll say this right now - I loved Final Fantasy XV. It's not a perfect game, not at all, but when I say that I loved the Chocobros and Noctis' story and growth in this game, I really mean it. Do I wish they had managed to flesh out the story even more - absolutely! But let me break things down. (WARNING: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS)
The Good (in detail):
I'm a huge sucker for friendship stories. Like. A huge sucker. And FFXV was all about the friendship. So I loved it. I loved the banter, and the characters of all the bros and how they all fit into their circle of friends. I loved how despite Noctis being the Prince, Ignis and Gladio were never afraid to tease him, pick on him, etc. even if they followed their duties to a fault. I looooved the friendship between Noctis and Prompto and how (if you're nice) Noctis is willing to go along with everything Prompto wants - indulging in his photo hobby. They're just such great bros. Seriously - the game did such a good job of selling this friendship and making it seem natural and real.
Moving on - I personally really loved the tonal shift of the story before chapter 9 and after. I know a lot of people hated how it seemed to "railroad" but I felt it really fit the sort of story Noctis was going through. I felt like the rail-roading made sense because how can you go back to those days after what happened? How can you expect the same carefree banter, freedom, and feeling that they have all the time in the world when reality has literally slapped them in the face and told them "no - you have no more time".
I felt like the relative carefree feeling of the earlier chapters kind of fit what it's like to be 20 (speaking as someone who is still in their early 20s). Hell, I know that I have responsibilities and life, and jobs, and a career and so many things I need to prepare for, but it's also so easy to just get... lost in things. To feel like I have all the time in the world to dick around and play video games, and drink BBT, and just waste my days away fangirling over a Japanese boyband. I know I have things I need to work towards, but you see the open world ahead of you, and you have your buddies, and you just get a bit lost. Hopefully, nothing as tragic as chapter 9 will happen to me, but I'm sure there will be that moment eventually. Probably when I finish grad school and have to actually start looking for a job.
Which brings me to chapter 9 and Luna's death. I've heard people say they didn't care about her death because they didn't know anything about Luna. How are you supposed to care about a character that was barely developed? And it's true - I didn't really care about Luna dying because of Luna herself, but I cared because of Noctis. The one thing this game manages to do well in terms of story execution is tell us Noctis's story from Noctis's point of view. Unfortunately they kind of forgot to develop anyone else, but I felt for Noctis. When Luna died I gasped in shock and hurt because Noctis!! While it's true that Luna's death could have had so much more impact if we knew a bit more about Luna, I think just the pain you feel by empathizing for Noctis is enough.
In fact the entire bit of the game after chapter 9 hung heavy in my heart because of the change that Noctis had to go through. You see this quiet, gentle, and relatively carefree guy suddenly see someone he loved* (I'll explain more about what I feel about the NoctLuna dynamic later) die, one of his best friends go blind, and this is after his dads death. You see him suddenly realize that oh - he has shit to do. In the words of Roxas from Kingdom Hearts - his summer vacation is over. He needs to get serious, and get stuff done. It's heartbreaking in a way because you can tell a kid to grow the fuck up, and throw them around (much like Gladio did), but it won't help. It doesn't help. People will grow at their own pace and deal with struggles in their own way, and for Noctis the burden is heavy. I honestly loved the scene in the mines when Ignis gives his little speech.
This scene is pretty much why I love Ignis. He's Noctis' advisor, helper, supporter etc. He understands Noctis - he knows that Noctis needs to be king, but he also understands that Noctis will reach that stage when he is ready. Unlike Gladio, who is obviously releasing his stress in his own way and trying to push Noctis in to action, Ignis knows that Noctis is ready but is simply saying: I know you can do it, we all know you can, but come out when you're ready".Noct, you are king. One cannot lead by standing still. A king pushes onward, always, accepting the consequences and never looking back. Gladio, Noct will take his rightful place, but only once he's ready.
And Noctis does become ready. Albeit 10 years later and after floating in a crystal, but I was honestly impressed and moved by bearded, 30y.o Noctis. You can feel the weight of his burden, but you also see how he shoulders it and stands tall. He doesn't try to skirt around it. He isn't like in his 20s where he does his duty but is still struggling, no - Noctis at the end after the 10year skip is truly deserving of the title "Your Majesty", and that scene when he says farewell to the Chocobros and walks up the stairs... that really got me. To see Noctis become that was a sight to behold.
Now, I said I'd get more into the NoctLuna dynamic and personally, this one is hard for me to place. Clearly Noctis is devastated at her death, Noctis loved her - but what does that mean. I know people say that they are in love with each, implying romantically, but I wonder if that is truly the case. Especially considering they never really got to meet one another again and simply communicated through letters in a notebook. I'm not saying they didn't care for each, I am sure they did, but I also believe that Noct probably didn't know Luna very well. He cared for an image of her he had in his mind - a sweet image, but still just an image (that scene of Little!Noct saying 'I just wanted to save you' nearly broke me). On the other hand, I get the impression Luna had a more realistic impression of what Noct was like. I don't necessarily buy that she was in love with him, but I think that their relationship would have worked out regardless. Why? Because... while they didn't necessarily have what I would call a 'romantic' love - she had a love for him borne out of respect, trust, and belief. In a way, I see the way Luna caring about Noct similar to the way the Chocobros cared about him. A steadfast believe in Noct as a person.
So, I guess what I want to say about NoctLuna is that I don't really ship them. They're not at the top of my list of "most amazing video game couples", because ultimately in the context of the game, her relationship with Noct doesn't stand out above the other relationships he shares with others. If anything, their relationship is right on par with everyone else, but of course they get married at the end because that was what always was supposed to happen. Do I think the marriage scene at the end is out of place? No. After getting to know each other, I'm sure they would've both liked each other a lot and been able to live a life together. I guess I see this relationship like how I see many relationships of my grandparents time - marriages made more out of obligation than love, but they end up working out anyway because the couple grows to respect and trust each other and that turns in to love as time goes on.
Now. Moving on to the final thing I liked about the game. The fighting. I'm not an experienced game so I can't talk about technicalities, but I genuinely just thought fighting was fun. I felt powerful. I like feeling powerful and obliterating people - that is fun to me. Warping around feels great. I suck at using magic, but it's kind of hilarious to throw some magic bomb and see the bros get affected (sorry). I really can't say much besides the fact that I just honestly loved fighting things in this game and I never got tired of it. Whether it was magitek troopers, random beasts, or really difficult mini-bosses and demons... yeah, it was just fun. :) like I said, I'm not a good gamer so I don't care if a fight requires skill, as long as I can bash the hell out of something with a sword without needing to worry too much, I'm good.
The Bad:
So, as I said, this game definitely had some flaws. Major flaws. Flaws big enough that I've actually told a number of people that, to be honest, I wouldn't necessarily recommend the game to them because I know they'd nitpick at them like hell and hate it. Look, I love this game - but a lot of the complaints people have made regarding the story, character depth etc. I can jump right on board with because I agree. Good stories, and good story execution are really important to me. FFXV... it had a good story idea, and you got bits and pieces of how amazing it could be, but it falls flat in actually providing you with something completely solid.
You have a huge diverse cast of super awesome, potentially interesting characters in FFXV.... who you honestly know almost nothing about. And one of these characters is technically a main character--Luna. You get glimpses, you have a rough idea, you can tell that she's all about duty, is very kind-hearted and that she definitely has a lot of inner strength... but besides that it's all kind of up in the air. Why are you supposed to care about Luna? Because Noctis does? That's not enough--I want to care about Luna because I care about her. I know I said that I still felt sad about her death due to Noctis, but there is also a part of me that is like "but... why does (or why should) Noctis care about you? What is it about you that is so great?" You're never really sure. Then - you have characters like Cor, Iris and Aranea who pop up here an there and play quite essential roles in moving the story along... but you never learn anything substantial about them, even though they seem really interesting! Like, what is Cor doing when Noctis is running around? Why does Aranea suddenly switch sides, and why was she working for the empire in the first place if she didn't like it? Iris becomes a freakin' demon hunter. GIVE ME MORE. That also includes information about your enemies as well, such as Emperor Iedolas Aldercapt and the random generals you beat in the beginning of the game, who have names that I can't remember because that is how insignificant they ended up being! The enemy felt so under-developed besides, sort of Ardyn, who is still a huge mystery. Even Ravus' story has a ton of question marks that make you really wonder, what the hell was going on in his mind the whole time?
And I know Tabata said some BS like "we wanted to tell the story from Noctis' point of view", but in that case why bother showing us the minimal clips of Luna and adding extra scenes with Ravus? It's clear that wasn't the case and it just gives the game a very half-baked feeling in terms of getting any actual development.
Now, don't get me wrong - I love Dark Souls, which means I don't have a problem with ambiguous story telling. But Final Fantasy is not Dark Souls and it does try to give us answers and present a story to us. DS doesn't even try - it just tells you to figure shit out for yourself. It stays consistent with it's ambiguity, but it's clear FFXV was not meant to be ambiguous. It was meant to have answers and tell a coherent story that didn't end up happening - which is such a shame. There's so much more we could know about Regis, and Gladio's dad etc. It's just makes me think of FFX. You end up learning the backstory of almost all the important characters, you learn about Spira and all the different areas you visit. By the end of the game, you actually feel like you could have lived in that world because you know so much about it, whereas I feel like at the end of FFXV you don't get that same sense. What's Solheim. You travel through all these dungeons and you barely pick up any lore. Who the hell made Pitioss? Costlemark? Angelguard? What was it really like for the people who didn't live in Insomnia and for the people in Gralea. So many questions about a world which you supposedly can spend hours exploring, and yet you get zero answers for any of your exploration. It's honestly such a let down.
Which brings me to the open world aspect of this game. I'll say it right now, open world games are honestly not my thing. I get very overwhelmed by then, so honestly, it kind of helped that FFXV's open world felt ridiculously empty. In other games, a lot of the time I feel so compelled to explore everything and everywhere that I get incredibly burned out, but in FFXV... a lot of the towns look the same, the different areas are cool, but as I said there is no satisfaction in exploring them besides ~pretty~. You barely learn any new info. You just kill some bosses, get some royal arms and then hop on out and that's that. End of story. Now, as a person who doesn't do well with open world games, frankly it worked for me, but this is definitely a minus point in general because it's the one thing that makes me hesitate from sharing it with my friends who love games like Skyrim and Dragon Age: Inquisitions etc. The open world in FFXV just feels so empty in comparison despite being so much larger.
And oh man, the quests that you do. They are just as useless with providing lore! The occasional fetch quest here and there is fine, but when you send me on 6 fetch quests from the same character who I end up recognizing, and I still learn NOTHING--what is the point? What is the reward? The item I get? The money? No - that only works the first couple times, but after that I want a reason to keep returning back to Sonia and Dino, and FFXV isn't giving me a reason. Same with Dave, the dog-tag guy. Here is a quest that has the potential to give you so much lore about the fight between Insomnia and Gralea and you get nothing. It was beyond frustrating and ended up being really discouraging. After a while, it just felt like a huge chore and the only reason I finished a lot of these quests was so I could get the platinum trophy. But from a lore point of view, from a game point of view, so many of the quests just end up being so tedious and dumb and not worth it.
Overall, that's the biggest flaw about FFXV. You can tell that it's a half-baked game. And I think my biggest disappointment with it, is seeing how great it is despite being half-baked and it makes me wonder, if they had the time to really develop the game 100%, add in all the lore and fill the open world with as much information as possble..... how great would this game have been? How mind-blowing? As of now, I don't think FFXV is necessarily "game of the year" material - especially after trying out games like Breath of the Wild or Horizon Zero Dawn, and yet, it's definitely my most favourite game.
Also, as a sort of "reboot" to the Final Fantasy franchise, I think FFXV was a good start. It makes me excited for the potential SE has in the future for new FF games. You can definitely see them testing things out with the open world, the fighting, all the DLC stuff and updates and what not--FFXV seems like Square's "tester" game to get input and data on how to build a better FF game in the future. But I guess that makes me sad because in terms of story - I think FFXV definitely has the type of story that appealed to me to the most. All the juxtaposition with light and dark and "finding yourself" and "growing to become a king", that shit hits me in the feels. So, although I'm excited to see what a potential FF16 would bring in the future... I really do wish that FFXV could've been the ultimate game I definitely want it to be in my mind, but in my heart I know it has so far to go.
Bottom line: While I personally love FFXV to the bottom of my heart, I'm absolutely aware of it's flaws and won't say it's the best game (or even the best final fantasy game) to ever come out. Does it show awesome potential though? Yes, and it makes me excited for what Square can come up with next. (Or even better, they just keep developing FFXV and giving us more stuff until we actually get all the answers - which... might mean spending more $$$, but for me personally - it'd be absolutely worth it).
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