Final Fantasy 15 is the 15th mainline entry in Square Enix’s acclaimed series featuring its first shift to real-time combat and open-world exploration. Read on to see what it did well, where it fell short, and our full review of the game.
Overview
What is Final Fantasy 15?
Final Fantasy 15 is the 15th mainline entry in Square Enix’s acclaimed series. After almost a decade in development hell, the game was finally released on November 29, 2016, featuring the same Noctis from the Versus XIII project but taking his story in a completely different direction.
For the first time in the series, the game features real-time action RPG combat, marking a significant departure from the turn-based gameplay of its predecessors. Noctis can use the Ring of the Lucii to warp from enemy to enemy across the game’s sprawling open world, all while navigating the political turmoil engulfing the kingdom of Eos.
Final Fantasy 15 features:
⚫︎ The First Title in Series With Real-Time Combat
⚫︎ Classic Final Fantasy Story with a Modern Twist
⚫︎ Massive Open World With Linear Levels
⚫︎ Freely Swap Between Four Charcters (as of December 2017)
⚫︎ Drive (or Fly) Across Eos With the Regalia
⚫︎ Explore Ancient Ruins and Hidden Dungeons
⚫︎ Online Multiplayer Through the Comrades Expansion
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$34.99 |
Final Fantasy 15 Review: Still Walked Tall Despite Its Royal Fumbles
The Promise of Versus XIII
The year was 2006. Square Enix had just dropped the first teaser for Final Fantasy Versus XIII, one of the most highly anticipated entries in its ambitious Fabula Nova Crystallis saga. It showed Noctis Lucis Caelum sitting comfortably in his luxury car before heading off to fight an army of soldiers with his arsenal of spectral weapons. It was cool. It was flashy. And it sent Final Fantasy fans into a frenzy over where the series would go next.
Unfortunately, that project didn’t last long, as it was eventually cancelled and rebuilt from the ground up six years later. Tetsuya Nomura’s dream of Versus XIII was unfortunately over, and when Hajime Tabata stepped in to fill the big, gaping hole it left behind, the project became something very different. Much of Versus XIII’s original identity was heavily reworked for Final Fantasy 15.
Long story short, after four years of development, Final Fantasy 15 finally emerged from its development hell. Many were surprised to see how Noctis’ renewed journey was met with generally positive reviews, earning an average score of 81 on Metacritic for its PlayStation 4 release. Critics praised the game’s new vision for the series, as well as Tabata’s ability to piece together a cohesive experience from the remains of Versus XIII.
Square Enix clearly tried its best to salvage the project and turn it into something worth remembering. After replaying the game nearly a decade later, it felt good to return to an entry I deeply enjoyed, but it also felt weird considering I’ve spent years ruminating over it because of its clear potential that never really took off.
The Longest Road Trip with the Boys
Noctis’ story is, for lack of a better term, a “road trip with the boys.” Square Enix takes that simple premise and makes it the focal point of Final Fantasy 15’s overall story. Noctis, alongside his backstreet boys Prompto, Ignis, and Gladio, gets caught up in a vast political conspiracy that takes them on a wild ride across the continent, complete with Florence + The Machine blaring through the Regalia’s speakers.
It’s a memorable journey made even better by the bond between these four men, which I find to be the strongest aspect of its storytelling. Each character complements the others so well that you’d think they were brothers from another mother. Even during its quieter moments, the game never stops showcasing their personalities, with Prompto snapping pictures in the background, Gladio doing the grunt work, and Ignis cooking meals and setting up camp. These little moments make their bond feel genuine and gradually pull you closer to the game’s inevitable climax, giving you a gut punch the moment the credits roll.
Then again, not everything about the gang’s tale deserves praise. The plot should feel urgent, with Noctis racing against time to find his betrothed, Lunafreya, amid a political war that seems to happen exclusively in the background. This is one of my biggest issues with XV’s story because the world is supposedly crumbling around them, with kings being usurped and assassinated. You’d think that would make Noctis rush toward his objective, but no. Instead, the gang takes their sweet time going fishing.
I love that this is the first FF game to go open-world, but it just doesn’t fit its story format considering the grand stakes at play. This dilutes the tension as the game constantly shifts the focus away from the conflict in the background and more toward Noctis and his friends’ side gigs, killing Flans and riding Chocobos all day. It’s nice that I get to spend time with these characters without constantly worrying about their imminent deaths, but it’s just so jarring to see them all giddy and carefree when the world around them is falling apart.
Where the Open-World Steals the Show
One of my favorite things to do in a Final Fantasy game is to immerse myself in its world fully. Safe to say, XV delivered one of the best open worlds I’ve experienced in an RPG, blending high technology with the classic trappings of traditional fantasy, all wrapped around the remnants of ancient civilizations. Kind of poetic of its Versus XIII origins.
If there’s one thing XV got right, it’s worldbuilding, but you have to pay close attention to really dig into its nitty-gritty details. It was immersive even 10 years ago, and it’s just as fantastic now. That magic still resonates with me deeply to this day. It was a joy to see the capital city of Insomnia again and wonder what had happened since my last visit, or make my way into the grand city of Altissia to finally meet Lady Lunafreya.
It was a fascinating world that I grew to love. I distinctly remember during launch day that I spent a couple of hours just vibing at Galdin Quay, listening to the beachside music while Noctis went fishing while the rest of the world burned around him. Even riding the Regalia while taking on monster hunts was so relaxing that I almost forgot my videogame bride-to-be was in danger. Yoko Shimomura’s fantastic soundtrack also helped elevate the bittersweet tale of this world, with “Apocalyptis Noctis” still giving me goosebumps to this day, alongside Florence + The Machine’s cover of Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me.”
It also goes without saying that Final Fantasy 15’s visuals still hold up to this day. The Luminous Engine, may it rest in peace, was the perfect engine for Noctis’ adventures. It brought an impressive level of detail to everything from character animations and facial expressions to something as simple as Noctis and the gang strolling across wide-open fields. Then again, that attention to detail also slows down its combat, with tag-team moves feeling so nauseatingly sluggish because their cutscenes have to play out in full before they can perform their moves. It was definitely frustrating, considering the enemies don’t have that kind of windup time in their animations.
The world of XV also wouldn’t feel complete without its cast of side characters who really draw you into its world. While these side characters weren’t nearly as fleshed out as the four main boys, strong performances from characters like Iris and Cor, and even villains like Aranea, help add more weight to the journey. They give us brief updates on the fate of the world while Lucis’ heir apparent poses for another photo for the hundredth time.
With more expanded content, including explorable areas added through DLCs, Eos has since grown into a fully realized continent. Unfortunately, not many players have that kind of time to invest in additional XV content, considering these content drops happened months and even years after its initial release.
Too Much Story, So Little Time
The story in Final Fantasy 15 is all over the place, which is a pain point that should’ve been obvious given how much of the game was kitbashed from Versus XIII. It feels incomplete. Uneven. The biggest disappointment is that several major characters, particularly Lunafreya, are sidelined, making the emotional catharsis less dramatic when the two star-crossed lovers finally reunite. Ardyn, who is undoubtedly one of my favorite Final Fantasy villains thanks in large part to Darin De Paul’s fantastic voice acting, also feels like an afterthought because of how unclear his motivations can be.
The overall result is a bizarre third act that feels incredibly rushed, capped off by a final battle that fails to answer the game’s lingering questions unless you’ve played through the huge library of downloadable content tied to each of its characters.
Now here’s the kicker: much of Final Fantasy 15’s more important plot beats are baked into its full-length CGI movie, Final Fantasy 15: Kingsglaive. It’s a neat companion piece that helps you understand what caused the war between the Kingdom of Lucis and Niflheim, but it’s a cheap way to handle the game’s narrative. Not every Final Fantasy 15 player wants to watch a two-hour movie before playing the game, and not everyone who watches Kingsglaive is going to shell out $35 for the game afterward. This cross-media approach weakens what should have been a focused narrative, turning it into a jumbled mess of multiple projects the average fan may not even know about. Don’t even get me started on its five-part anime series and novel, which gives away the game’s true canonical ending.
This ambitious prospect really stretched the entire XV story too thin, with so many bases to cover and so little time to make everything click into one cohesive journey. None of that happens in the base game, as what was available at launch felt like a product with obvious cuts made between its chapters, especially from Chapter 10 onward with its dumbed-down linearity.
Don’t get me wrong, it was still a complete story with a clear beginning and end, but that’s such a low bar for a series that has mastered storytelling, with epic final encounters that deserved to be talked about in the annals of FF history. Sure, there was a payoff after all that road-tripping, but it wasn’t the grand finale I expected from a game that pushed me to go above and beyond, even grinding for all the Royal Arms.
A New Recipe for Final Fantasy Combat
Final Fantasy 15 didn’t get everything wrong, though. In fact, it was the first Final Fantasy game to break away from so many of the series’ established formulas since 1997. This meant abandoning the series’ traditional turn-based combat in favor of a real-time action RPG system.
Combat in XV is pure, unadulterated real-time action. No more waiting for your turn or deciding whether to spend a round casting Firaga or healing your teammates. Everything moves at a frantic pace, with constantly dodging attacks and chaining Warp Strikes becoming the core of the gameplay loop.
The first time I used Warp Strike on an enemy, I felt like I was that version of Noctis from the first Versus XIII trailer: full of that early-2000s YouTube AMV aura I used to adore, complete with Linkin Park playing in the background.
Unfortunately, that magic faded almost quickly. XV’s combat lacks the depth that made previous Square Enix titles like Kingdom Hearts II so engaging, where I constantly swapped between magic and melee depending on the situation. You don’t have that kind of luxury in Noctis’ adventures. Every move feels like it has a hidden loading screen before the action, making the combat feel strangely turn-based despite being real-time. I relied heavily on holding the Circle button, leaving little room to put my thinking cap on for more dynamic battles. Unfortunately, that same fluidity didn’t translate well into XV’s combat, leaving much of the system feeling undercooked to the point where little mattered beyond spamming the attack button.
Things took an even sourer turn when I realized that the game has forced stealth sections that barely give me any time to react. It was a bizarre inclusion for a game that’s supposed to revel in fast-paced combat, not pretend it’s the next Metal Gear entry. It was a counterintuitive addition that completely disrupted the pacing of its action, and it’s made even worse by the series of linear levels that follow later on, eventually scrapping its open-world delights in favor of hallway battles.
But 2016 me somehow sucked it all up and enjoyed the stylish flair of its combat. For what it’s worth, it was a great starting point for FF’s evolving combat over the years. It was flawed, sure, but it gave the folks at Square Enix a better idea of what worked and what didn’t, essentially helping them refine the system into what we see in modern FF titles like Final Fantasy 16 and the Final Fantasy 7 Remakes.
On the plus side, most combat complaints have been addressed over the years, with much of the gameplay improved through 27 major updates, including the freedom to switch between the four characters, which should have been an option to begin with. Even with those additions, however, the core gameplay remains largely the same, as you can still mostly mash your way to victory.
Leaving a Flawed Legacy for the Series
No matter how you look at it, it’s clear that Square Enix had bold plans for Final Fantasy 15. It was supposed to be the studio’s successor to its best-selling Final Fantasy 7, but it fell short of many expectations after a decade of buildup, especially with Square Enix ultimately failing to deliver its promised DLC content. While XV did sell more than 10 million copies worldwide, it still couldn’t hold a candle to Cloud’s journey in Final Fantasy 7.
Still, Final Fantasy 15 walked so Square Enix’s next entries could finally run. It became a benchmark for the next generation of the series, with more recent Final Fantasy titles adapting its real-time combat, including both Final Fantasy 7 Remakes and Clive’s adventure in Final Fantasy 16.
If you’re trying to dive back into Final Fantasy 15, you’re already guaranteed hours upon hours of new content through its major DLCs. But when it comes to the base game, it’s still the same story with its fair share of ups and downs, with its rushed conclusion serving as a clear reminder that even a decade of development wasn’t enough to deliver the satisfying ending it deserved.
Is Final Fantasy 15 Worth It?
Best Played With Low Expectations
In a perfect world, Final Fantasy 15 would’ve been a fully realized game that lived up to Tetsuya Nomura’s Versus XIII aspirations, but this isn’t a perfect world. The result may not have been the grand vision Square Enix originally promised, but it became a serviceable Final Fantasy adventure that ultimately grew beyond what was left of their Versus XIII promise.
Its undercooked promises and unnecessary transmedia approach muddled a story that could’ve been a fascinating political thriller set in the modern era, with Romeo and Juliet serving as its foundation for romance. Instead, it became a cautionary tale about the dangers of overhyping and underdelivering, pushing Square Enix to rethink its business strategies ever since.
It wasn’t always a victim of its ambitions, though. XV still left a lasting legacy on the series with its approach to real-time combat. It became a blueprint for future FF titles, paving the way for Cloud Strife’s Remake trilogy as well as the modern Kingdom Hearts titles.
Regardless, Noctis’ long road trip really pulled me into the lives of its four main characters. While the story and combat didn’t really impress me, the tight-knit bond between the four main characters, its lived-in open world, and Yoko Shimomura’s enthralling soundtrack kept the Final Fantasy magic alive.
FAQ
How Many Story DLCs Does Final Fantasy 15 Have?
FFXV has four major story DLC episodes: Gladiolus, Prompto, Ignis, and Ardyn. The first three are included in the Royal Edition, whereas Episode Ardyn is a completely separate purchase.
Is Final Fantasy 15’s Standalone Online Multiplayer Mode Still Active?
Final Fantasy 15: Comrades is still playable online, although its small player base means finding random teammates can be difficult. Fortunately, the standalone version remains available, and the entire experience can also be played solo with AI companions.
Final Fantasy 15 Related Guides
 Main Quest Guides |
 Tips and Strategies |
 Ascension Abilities |
 Bosses |
 Monsters |
 Hunts |
 Summons |
 Characters |
 Skills |
 Maps |
 Items |
 Equipment |
 Sidequests |
 Message Boards |
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