After the Bad News Bears, article on Final Fantasy 15, I stopped playing it. Something about the world didn’t capture me. I just couldn’t force myself to get into the game and play anymore. Not sure why. I mentioned in the previous articles that I really enjoyed the graphics, the story and the unique relationship that all of the characters had with each other in the game.
But now as I am writing this, I think its the fact that it was an open world game. I get easily distracted in those. There were plenty of sidequests in the game. Someone always needed help from us. People had their cars break down, someone would run away, monsters would attack and you had to go clear some areas. So a ton to do for me. I would jump into the game and play it and not feel like I made any progress towards the end, which would feel very frustrating. And eventually forced me to stop playing.
The second part of what kept me away from the game, was the combat system. It is so different from what I am used to in the previous Final Fantasy games. When I would figure it out I did fine, but it was so mechanically heavy, that if I took a break from the game I would forget how to fight in the game, it just added to the barrier of returning. However, once you learn the combat system, it is pretty fun.
The other part I found to be rather annoying is how you would make money in the game. For some reason you had to do these other things, like go on hunts to make money. Which of course added to the scatter brain problem I had initially to begin with.
The magic system I almost never used it. Too complicated with very minimal rewards. By the time I had enough to combine something to make it worthwhile I would out level the area. Having to figure out what the combinations were that mattered, also made very hard to use, and you could just get through the game without the magic anyways. So that’s what I did. Almost no magic, unless absolutely necessary.
Eventually after making a conscious decision to ignore shinies, I started focusing on storyline only quests. By doing that my progress increased dramatically. The story at one point gets on rails and you can’t really deviate from it a whole lot. Which felt great for someone as easily distracted as me.
When you get into the part of the story that feels like you can’t really do the open world thing anymore, Square Enix gives you a mechanic that would let you go back and explore more. It was an optional mechanic and I opted not to do that at all. I just kept going through the story.
Now let’s move on to the story!
HEAVY SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ON!
With all the things that bugged me about the game… the story was not one of them. In fact I absolutely loved it. It was a story that made me feel the feels. I was so upset when Luna was stabbed. I think this is how people must have felt when Aeris was killed by Sephiroth. Which interestingly enough for me did not register on the feelings meter as much as this did. I thought about that actually, and came to the conclusion that in Final Fantasy 7 it happened to soon. I never had a chance to get attached to Aeris. While in Final Fantasy 15, my whole goal was to get to Luna and marry her. I get to the city, I am looking at her wedding dress, and it’s amazing, I have all these plans in my head. And then it just gets torn away from me, violently. It was a tough moment for me, and I loved that fact.
This brings us to the villain: Ardyn Izunia.
Simply wow! So much personality in that character. Not only does he have the coolest outfit, but just the way he handles himself, is so very unique. In the beginning of the game it feels very confusing as to what he is up to. He helps us get to some places, gives advice that actually works. But in the end… Oh boy! Whoever wrote this guy is very very creative.
Whenever the game story starts feeling a little slow or uneventful, you would meet Ardyn and things would change very quickly for you.
When you finally learn the dark secret of Noctis’s family, you start to realize you don’t actually hate Ardyn. And in fact, I felt like I was on his side, once I figure out what was going on. But alas it’s the victors that write history.
So over all, the story was incredible, the conflict starts early on, the villain is absolutely incredible, the ending is definitely worth it.
I also really enjoyed the bro atmosphere in the game, the little jokes the guys would throughout, the jabs they would take at each other, all good fun. My favorite part about it was the nights you would camp out in the world. I don’t know if Coleman the outdoor gear company was a sponsor or something, but they had their logo in the game, or something that look incredibly similar. During those camping moments you would get to learn a little more about your crew, not to mention cook great food. Speaking of food, the options of different meals for you to eat, was so varied and all of it looked incredible! I actually made some of it for myself in the real world and it was delicious!
As far as Square Enix games go, this one to me is an incredible entry, for the story alone. It had other great things, such as a beautiful world, relatable characters, fishing, camping with your bros, romance, success and failures, and most importantly a twist in the story that I didn’t see coming until the very end.
It’s also important to mention that I did not play any of the DLC that came out later for the game. I felt like the story was complete for me and didn’t really need to go the extra mile to find out more. I did hear the DLCs were also great and did add to the clarity of the story a little more.
In conclusion, if you are on the fence about trying this game out, its been out a long time now, and goes on sale quite often, wait until it is and just buy it! It’s a great game.
If you have played it, let me know what you thought of it.
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