FINAL FANTASY XV WINDOWS EDITION

The one game that always makes me feel EVERYTHING no matter how many times I replay it. I fell in love with all the characters and their relationships the first time I played it and never really fell out of it, despite half a decade having passed since my first playthrough. Truly one of my favourite games with my favourite cast of characters. That said, the pacing of the game is horrendous and the way most of the lore is revealed is a MESS. The open world, while enjoyable and varied enough to rarely get boring, hinders the plot more than it helps in my opinion. Mostt of the REALLY really good story beats only happen in the back half of the game, when you're forced into a more linear plot and the events have time to breathe and hit you and the characters. The first half mostly lives through the interactions between characters and their relationships, so if that's not your thing, this is most likely not the game for you. It does have one of my fav fishing mini games though, if that's your thing. Now excuse me, I have just finished my 4th? 5th? complete playthrough and will need to lie down and cry some more. 10/10 game for me, personally, for that reason alone.

It’s surprising I haven’t reviewed Final Fantasy XV until now, considering how much I thoroughly enjoyed it and finished it back when it launched. This game delivered a powerful mix of nostalgia and emotional storytelling, anchored by the heartfelt bond between Noctis, Ignis, Prompto, and Gladiolus. Their journey felt genuine—both epic and personal—and the emotional weight of their brotherhood stuck with me long after the credits rolled. The switch to real-time combat was a bold move for the franchise, and while it brought flashy, cinematic flair, my experience boiled down to relying heavily on Warp Striking with Noctis, which made combat feel more repetitive than refined. Still, the spectacle and world design kept things engaging. Visually, the Windows Edition shines with high-res textures and smooth performance, making it the definitive way to experience the game. Playing it when it launched was incredibly satisfying. It’s bittersweet knowing I probably won’t return for a second playthrough, but the memories—of battles, brotherhood, and digital entrées—are still strong.

It's easy to say that Final Fantasy XV is my top three Final Fantasy series. The main spotlight of this game is the story, exploration, and the characters. The story? made me cry, because the relationship between Noctis and his friends, Gladio, Prompto, and Ignis (and with Lunafreya too ofc) is so well developed until at one point there's a cut scene on the last chapter that made me burst into tears. The exploration? you basically went into a road trip with your friends, and it's an open world map that offers a lot of quests whether you prefer to dive in before or after finishing the main story. And even after you finished the main story, there's still plenty things that you can do. So, is Final Fantasy 15 still worth to play in 2025? Absolutely.

One of my all time favourite games love the way the build the prince's character from a helpless guy to the one who was ready to take on the weight of the crown. Pros: > Really good sound track. > Great combat mechanism. > Stunning visuals. > Plenty of side missions. Cons: > Lore kind of unravels at a fast pace. > The Last DLC is not playable (its launched as a Novel).

This is easily the worst FF game I have ever played. The new combat system would make the game feel fresh, if it weren't so clunky. The blocking and dodge mechanic works and registers when it wants to. The characters are all fine, but they don't feel unique, and memorable like other characters in the FF series. Gladio and Ignis are easily the best of the 4 main characters, while Noctis, the protagonist, is dull, and Prompto just gets very annoying early on, and stays annoying until 2/3 through the game. The game features an abundance of side quests, which get overwhelming, and redundant quickly. The AI is dumb, and almost useless. The game starts off slow, and unfortunately that was the best part of the game. The world itself would be more interesting, if it didn't feel so empty, with copy/paste enemies, boring side quests, and uninteresting side characters. The story seems to drag for the first 8 chapters, with little going on, then the last 6 chapters are bloated with too much story being thrown at you, all at once. The main story quests become so aggressively forced that it becomes difficult to even manually save, or do a single side quest. The final chapter is just boss fight, after boss fight, which is super redundant. There is also a crucial incident that happens to 1 of the 4 characters about 2/3 through the game that is lazily stated, but only fully explained, and seen if you have the DLC. Locking crucial info and development on a main character is real ballsy for a developer to do, it's also super shitty.

My feelings on FFXV are pretty complicated. In the past couple years I’ve done a handful of rewrites of this review that always end up rambling and dragging on, and the reason for that boils down to the game being deeply and unmistakably flawed, but also doing so many little things right. There were plenty of really satisfying and beautiful moments, but also an incredible amount of slog in between. At the end of the day I think I enjoyed the overall experience, but it’s difficult to recommend without tacking on qualifier after qualifier after qualifier. For one, so many meaningful parts of the game are buried within updates, dlc, and other miscellaneous media, that I couldn’t even imagine playing this in the shell of its release state. Between a movie, some anime shorts, a heap of dlc episodes, and even a light novel, it gets increasingly difficult to recommend the game the less interest you have in consuming all the extracurriculars. Without them, so many parts of the story feel incomplete and loosely strung together, more than they do already. The crux of it is this: FFXV is a game that looks good, plays decently well, and feels cozy. But along the way there’s so many glaring defects, some minor and some fundamental, that are just hard to ignore. The game is certainly unique, if only for just how well it captures that whole roadtrip-with-the-bros feeling, but as a complete package your mileage will vary greatly. I have a lot to say about this game, so from here on out it’s going to be incredibly long-winded and potentially off-topic. Probably moderate spoilers ahead, although I’ll do my best to talk in vague terms. [h2]Writing[/h2] It’s hard to talk about FFXV without first talking about the writing. The “main” plot of the game, in terms of grand conflict and fate and whatever, is fine. It has a lot of elements that you would expect, and the escalations don’t feel too unearned. It’s serviceable, although not particularly exciting or new. But the story that really drives the game forward isn’t about that at all. What the player interacts with for most of their playtime is a simple, down-to-earth road trip with their friends. The narrative that emerges from wandering and adventuring with your bros, hearing occasional banter, stopping to take pictures—if nothing else, that is the absolute highlight of the game and the most memorable part of it. The environments aren’t the most diverse in the world, but I’m a sucker for exploration and still had a great time. The friendly banter among the party is very good, and almost carries the open-world parts of the game alone. I also thought the few radio and unique camping scenes were really effective at world-building, but underutilized overall. It’s not a flawless job, but the developers really tried their best on this aspect of the game, and it showed. When you combine these, however, there’s a disconnect. The grandness and scale of the central conflict, and the leisurely pace with which you explore the open world, feel fundamentally at odds. I’d like to believe that this was intentional, to lean into that theme of feeling guilty for delaying your divine calling, or regretful for not bonding more while you still had the chance, but ultimately I still wish that it were blended more convincingly. For much of the game, the central plot progresses by things just happening to you, completely out of your control—maybe thematically consistent, but a quick look at the reviews for this game will show that for most players, that narrative instead came across as loosely-connected and hollow. This isn’t helped at all by the fact that the writing of the game is, to put it generously, understated. Meaningful dialogue is sparse, even for Noctis, leaving a lot of the character development quietly implied, which can feel abrupt and unearned when eventually revealed. World-building is done much the same way, just scattered NPC dialogue and bits and pieces of environmental lore until you get an exposition dump, and it never truly feels complete. I think the characters and setting are truly very good, but the opportunities in which they’re meaningfully explored in the base game are few and far between, maybe due to production issues or whatever. (But surely it wouldn’t have hurt to add some more unvoiced npc dialogue in towns!) It sucks to say, but a really large part of the character writing and exposition isn’t in the base game at all—it was shunted into the supplemental content and materials. Only after the Brotherhood shorts and dlc episodes do your party members feel properly fleshed-out, and heck, they buried a whole alternate [spoiler]True Demon[/spoiler] ending and epilogue into the LN, Dawn of the Future. In its entirety I think the writing was actually pretty good, but it’s unreasonable to ask that players go look for a play order guide and devote an additional 10 hours if they want a complete story. To its credit though, in my opinion FFXV sticks the landing for its ending well regardless, tying all those loose strands together in pretty emotional, albeit sloppy, fashion. Major spoiler zone: [spoiler]Personally, I feel like the LN ending does a better job of utilizing the whole cast (especially Lunafreya) and setting, reaches a much cooler climax (down to the gory details of the QTE boss fight sequence that would have been in the cancelled DLC), and has a more satisfying/optimistic epilogue, but the game itself does a better job of tying up Noctis as a character and carrying the themes of nostalgia and sacrifice forward. Unfortunately, however, the details added in the LN do kind of retroactively cheapen the normal ending of the game as well.[/spoiler] [h2]Gameplay[/h2] As an action rpg, FFXV plays alright. The concept—switching through weapons on the fly and warping around the battlefield—sounds awesome, and I still remember how badass the E3 trailers looked back in the day. In practice, the combat still feels pretty good, but ultimately suffers from a lack of variety and depth. There’s a lot of layers of mechanics, but a lack of difficulty means there’s not really an incentive to switch away from button mashing and occasional dodging besides wanting to look cool, and the combat becomes more of a slog than it is stimulating. Outside of combat, exploration feels consistently interesting, but not mind-blowing. The environments are gorgeous and detailed to be sure, but ultimately limited in openness and variety, probably due to technical limitations. Movement feels pretty good (until a certain [spoiler]godforsaken optional platforming dungeon[/spoiler]), and faster transportation options are obtained pretty early and feel pretty immersive overall. Not a bad foundation, if it weren’t for how the quests turned out. To me, the sidequests are by far the worst, most glaring flaws in all of FFXV. Questlines not tied to specific locations and map design (which were likely designed earlier in the dev process) feel completely pointless and half-baked, devolving to menial and repetitive hunting or downright frustrating scavenger hunt quests, all of which feel tacked-on as a result of rushed development. The scattered minigames (fishing, racing, betting, etc.) were better, but still felt lacking in depth and cohesion. The English VO was perfectly fine, if a little goofy at times, and the music was good. I’m not the biggest Yoko Shimomura fan in the world, and the soundtrack isn’t terribly differentiated from her other works, but her boss OST is unmistakably epic as hell. In the end, I don’t regret playing FFXV one bit. It’s hard for me to describe, but the experience it offers is still incredibly satisfying—despite all of its flaws—and the spectrum of spectacle and natural mundanity it offers feels uniquely immersive and charming. I desperately want it to be better, but only because I enjoyed it that much and wish that it could have met its potential without all of the issues in its development.

The game was fine until I got to chapter 3. Now it's crashing constantly and I've been reading so many posts of people having the same issues to varying degrees of success. I like the game but it crashes after either five seconds to a minute of gameplay. The fact that so many people are having this issue into 2024-2025 is baffling and genuinely inexcusable. Even if I do fix the problem I can't ignore this struggle of getting the game to work when I've almost spent the same amount of time downloading the game then I have playing it. I'm about to try more fixes, but it's absurd at this point even if I do manage to fix it.

Even though this game never reach it's final form, I have to admit this is far beyond my fantasy (in a positive way) of what XIII Versus to XV would become. It's a fresh air for both first timer and old school out there. The HUGE FLAW is no any explanations regarding combat input to execute combos. It is such a letdown that seeing Noctis and the gang cannot utilize everything they have as smooth as it should be in the story.

Denuvo. Pure singleplayer game that won't run offline. Review gets revised once that malware is removed.

Far from perfect, but pretty fun. Combat can feel mashy when you're getting started but there's some real skill involved in getting through combat unscathed while also earning a lot of EXP. Recommended.

A Poor game with excellent presentation. There's so much potential but it just doesn't work for me.

An easy playable game, full of a variety of challenges which is like a movie or fiction. Game control is balanced , not too easy or hard , immersed in funny story. This is masterpiece in final fantasy series I’ve ever seen.

Great Game, Time wise for 100% is quite acceptable as a see all person. Tbh i could feel how the community on the release of this game had high expectactions. but with the mods enhancer and the removed content was a great ride. Only that after finishing it i could feel how much more this game had to offer in true. Hope one day they remaster it and give it is proper care. If you enjoy bros and the long ride of side quests with some grind this could be a try for u. *history wise is like 14h main, but with all the side thing it makes it up*

For a game that is known to be in development hell. I'm surprised the game turns out to be very good and memorable. Though other than having some lore locked to a movie and some DLCs, but either way, those are minor inconvenience Also Valse di fantastica is a banger music.

My favorite FF. Epic music. Combat fun. Lots of monster hunting. The intro is one of the best in all gaming.

I played this game back in 2020 and again now on Steam, and it still holds a special place in my heart. It unmistakably is a Final Fantasy game - one that managed to take artistic risks such as totaling XP at rest points and the time spent on the road - to truly simulate a road trip through the countryside. Although some may not like it these choices, I absolutely love it for them. I think fans of the series will be able to drop into this game and feel right at home with an RPG whose story gives a great emotional payoff.

Fun game. Lots of side content to do do. I ended up being waaaaY overpowered by the the first major story even case I kept doing the side quests.

it's a great though there are some frame rate issues but its a really good game i gave it a try again post ps4 completion and the game has changed a lot from the OG Version worth the shot and time

It's not an AMAZING MINDBLOWING game, but not all games have to be. I think this is a good game that, if you give it the attention it asks for, you'll have a lot of fun. If you're interested in playing the game I recommend looking up the Steam guide "Order of Final Fantasy XV Universe Content" and follow it. If there's a part that you want to skip, do so, not everything is equally important. I watched most of the videos (movies, anime, etc) and played all the DLCs. I understood the story well enough to enjoy it. I also really recommend you watch some videos on FFXV combat. The combat has it's depth but the game does NOTHING to explain it. Watching the videos will help you understand and enjoy it more.

Its got a good story and the gameplay is really easy to follow.

Overall I think this should have been a coop game with broken story elements here and there. Pros: 1. Good graphics textures on most humans and monsters. 2. Night time dangerous monsters mechanic Cons: 1. Textures on land is pretty low 2. Open world is a bit barren 3. I tried playing multiple times but everytime left it. Story is very disjointed

Epic story and a good start for first timers. Watch the movie first. It is called Kingsglaive.

My first Final Fantasy game! I loved my time with it. The music, characters, and gameplay were all very enjoyable. The only thing holding it back is the actual GARBAGE dungeon design. Everything else is fantastic. Currently working on 100% completing the game!

It's fun to play, or even just set the men on an auto drive and go exploring.

good game over all a little glitchy and clunky but i still liked it

fun game, love the story, gameplay is smooth

This game is GOAT because of music, cool visuals and most important - dynamic gameplay. This is action RPG, not turn-based slop like Expedition 33💩💩💩. I wish all AAA RPGs would be like FF15. Once I pirated this game, but it's time to pay for this masterpiece.

Started the game. Enjoyed it. After a couple of chapters, fps drops to 4 for 1 second (doesn't matter which part, exploration, menu, combat, etc) every now and then. Tried to fix, nope. Other games in Library work fine. Accepted it as is. Still a good game. Would still recommend for the story.

not perfect, combat pretty bad a times, but the vision of the game, road trip/friend simulator make this one of my favorite games ever, especially once you get the off road mod for your vehicle, the camping, fishing and dining with friends. An extreme example of passionate game makers being ambitious. 10/10 if your sick of everyone copying the most popular/profitable game formula. I hope the recent obsession with COE33 encourages developers to bet on making a spiritual successor to a game like this.

Just ain't feeling it. I've tried a couple of times and the combat is just hold one button to dodge forever while tapping the other one to attack. Sometimes I hit B and my teammates do something, I guess.

Played this game years ago on PS4 and loved it. Played it again on PC and love it even more. Amazing game.

Great ride, endings a little basic, but it's one of my fav final fantasy games + RPGS

The quest system is utterly useless once you get more than a couple quests and they span more distance. First of all you can't see all the quests on the map at once. You have to look at them individually. Who thought that was sufficient? It's so frustrating. Second of all it isn't clear if you've completed a quest or not. Specifically the weapon upgrade quests and the professor quests are difficult to tell if you've completed them or not. The weapons quests themselves are so stupid! You get a quest which is basically eternally in your quest log with no indication that you've completed it or not, or how to complete it. Just garbage. Really frustrating that the design doesn't become problematic until you're far enough into the game that you don't want to stop because the rest of it is pretty fun. Don't bother with this game - play something that doesn't punish you for liking it.

🎣 Final Fantasy XV: Bro-trip of the Century 🚗 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5/5) You ever accidentally cry over four anime boyband members eating cup noodles under the stars? No? Then buckle up, because Final Fantasy XV isn’t a game. It’s a lifestyle. A feast of ramen, Regalia, and regret. Let me break it down: 🛻 ROAD TRIP SIMULATOR • Yes, you can manually drive your car. • No, you can’t go off-road at first. • Yes, you can pay your bro Ignis to do it for you. • Yes, there’s gas money. • And yes, you will run out. On foot. In the desert. With a chocobo rental expired. 📸 PHOTO MODE BEFORE PHOTO MODE WAS COOL Prompto took 257 blurry photos of my face mid-battle. 10/10 memories. Would hang on my real-life fridge. 🍳 CULINARY MASTERCLASS Ignis: “I’ve come up with a new recipeh.” Me: absolutely in tears over perfectly rendered pixel toast Gordon Ramsay, you’re obsolete. 🕺 BATTLE SYSTEM? YES. SUMMONS? THUNDEROUS. FISHING MINIGAME? A RELIGION. 🐟 I spent 4 hours trying to catch the “legendary fish” while the world was ending. I have no regrets. Even the fish was crying. 😭 ENDING? Let’s just say… if you play this game and don’t hug your friends after, you’re not human. ⸻ Would I recommend this game? Only if you have: • A beating heart • A love for the absurdly beautiful • And enough emotional strength to handle four dudes camping their way through destiny 🌟 10/10 This game changed me. And then it made me cook virtual lasagna. Award this review or I’ll summon Ramuh to your house.

i tried more than once but dude what square did to this franchise? the gameplay is so boring, confusing and polluted. even mods cant fix it.

Audio sounds like literal gravel in a blender. Apparently this is a bug with some headsets and I've seen complaints since 2018, apparently they just never gave a $hit to fix it.

I want to like this game. But it is just so aimless for so long. Traveling is kinda boring.

This game is a mess. I enjoyed FF on NES decades ago, loved FFIX, then forgot about FF for many years because I'm a PC gamer, not PlayStation. I recently played Forspoken, FFXVI, and Nier Automata at 4K with no problems. FFXV has atrociously poor performance. Even reducing the resolution from 4K to 1080 and reducing graphics settings to average, I get ~80FPS, but animation is still janky as if I'm getting 15FPS. Not that it matters, the goon-running animation of the characters is unbearable. Menu navigation manages to be slower and more frustrating than an 80s NES game. I get a constant headspinning glitch, like all the characters are straight out of The Exorcist. The dialog is... uh... I don't know who it's for. It is very annoying and the voice actors do a very quality job of delivering annoying performances. Combat is anything but fun. Maybe there's a decent story buried somewhere under the rubbish but I'll never know.

Feels weirdly like MGS TPP. I don't know if it's the running animation, the terrain graphics, the momentum of player movement. I don't know. Feels like I'm controlling Venom Snake.

[h1] A roadtrip to remember for years to come [/h1] I've played this game with no experience to the other Final Fantasy game. It was my first introduction into the series and the first to step away from the turn based combat system. At the time it was facing a lot of backlash regarding a disjointed story and harsh critics for the withdrawal of the turn based system. The game is centered around 4 friends on a (camping) road trip while Noctis's world falls apart due to circumstances with the kingdom of his father and the opposing faction at war. The banter between the bro's is one of the main selling points and it feels like a group of genuine friends. [h2] Getting started [/h2] The new combat system takes time to get used to but it is what drew me in and gets very rewarding. Immediately when starting the game I loved the fluid transitions between combat and regular gameplay. The open world sparked my imagination and is a sort of mix between American and Japanese culture. The first area you will start in the game reminds me of the Mojave Desert, route 66 vibes. And the second major area is probably inspired by the state of Montana with lush forests and green scenery. The engine really brings out the beauty of these landscapes. The game makes you feel you are on a roadtrip with your buddies and generally have a good time. You will camp, make dinner, fish, screw around and make stupid jokes. Eventually some story elements pick up, reality kicks in and the roadtrip gets sidetracked into a much bigger plot. The music is amazing and well composed, you will often stop to just stand still and listen to the great soundtrack. [h2] Story & progression (no spoilers) [/h2] The story starts out good. You get a sense of urgency and many things seem to be happening on a grander scale. The world building is pretty good and after an initial big shock you are left to pick up the pieces. Final Fantasy is always big on destiny and having to accept your faith, sort of walk the path that has been prophesied. And this task is what the main character, Noctis is faced with throughout the chapters. Slowly he begins to realise the stakes at play, the consequences of his actions and what it will take to turn the tide around. However if you have not seen the movie Kingsglaive or seen the 4 prelude anime episodes called FFXV brotherhood. You will miss out on a lot of extra details. [h3] Middle chapters to ending [/h3] There comes a point in the story you will travel to another continent and after that chapter the game really skips a lot of details. The game will give you a warning at this point that you will not be able to return once you proceed. From that point on and including the last chapters you will feel it lacking. The game moves too fast and there is not enough exposition to guide you through the events. Some special enemies that were meant to be bosses don't have any weight to them since you don't know their backstory. Reading the novel that expands the story and follows an alternate ending, later revealed to me they played a much bigger part to the story and were supposed to get more exposition. In the Royal edition they did try to amend this problem and include some more missions and a new area, which is a good thing. But if you like the setting and are interested by the lore then you should definitely give it a chance. [h3] Skills, weapons & side quests [/h3] There is a big skill tree and a couple of different weapon types to try out. In general you won't buy new weapons a lot. While going through the chapters you will find that at certain points of time it will be possible to buy weapons with more damage. Some quests also have weapon rewards attached to them and they are usually a bit better. In the end game the most powerful weapons will be that of quests and dungeon rewards. Your companions will also be able to upgrade their skills and unlock new ones. All the clothing will also have stats attached to them. So changing into a certain fit will buff for example magic or HP. To get everything to max rank you will need to play quite a lot. Which is a good thing. The things you unlock actually make a difference and can in some ways change the way you play. The side quests do mostly consist of fetch or kill quests, but there are a number of more story driven side quests. And these are amazing. The quests will have you explore the country side and there are several dungeons you can explore too. [h2] Final verdict [/h2] I really enjoyed the sights, the soundtrack, the banter between the 4 bro's and was moved by the ending. After it was over I felt something had changed inside me. Like you would go on a big trip in real life, I felt like I went on a journey and came back a different man. Due to the roller coaster of events leading up to the climax I needed some time to process everything I experienced. No other game has moved me since then. Maybe it was the freedom I experienced while driving through the landscape, or the moments the bro's set up camp and Ignis made a beautiful meal for everyone. Or because the main characters had depth and a deep personality. I would recommend this game If you can see past it's flaws and enjoy the beautiful mess it is. For me it was a one of kind of experience.

came for the fishing, stayed for the homoeroticism. and also the fishing.

[h1]Final Fantasy XV – 10/10 The Game Is a Disaster, and I Love Every Bit of It[/h1] Listen. This game is a mess. The story makes about as much sense as a chocobo in a tuxedo. Characters disappear, motivations evaporate, pacing gets thrown out of a moving Regalia halfway through the second act—and somehow, it's [b]amazing[/b]. [b]You play as a moody prince on a road trip with his three emotionally repressed boyband besties.[/b] You take photos. You fish. You cook. You occasionally fight demons. But mostly, you vibe. It’s like The Hangover meets Final Fantasy, but with more crying and giant swords. The combat? Chaotic. The plot? A jigsaw puzzle where someone ate half the pieces. The emotional payoff? Somehow real. You’ll spend half the game asking, “What is happening?” and the other half screaming, “WHY AM I FEELING THIS?” And the food. [i]The food![/i] This is the only game where I paused a boss fight because Ignis learned a new recipe and I [u]needed[/u] to see what it was. I don’t even cook in real life, but in this game? I will travel 400 miles on foot for ingredients to make a pixelated croque monsieur. Yes, it’s broken. Yes, the second half of the game feels like it was duct-taped together in a hotel room hours before release. But I wouldn’t change a thing. [b]Final Fantasy XV is a hot, beautiful, confusing mess—and I would die for all four of these emotionally damaged road trip boys.[/b] [hr] [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/637650/FINAL_FANTASY_XV_WINDOWS_EDITION/]Get in the Regalia. We’re going crying.[/url]

Very good (except the part when your playing as Noctis in Zegnautus Keep).

besides the usual issues that have plagued XV its a good time

the most flawed masterpiece of all time, still a satisfying ending tho

The scale of this game is unbelievable, the first couple hours are rough but once you get into the meat and potatoes this game is fantastic, the combat is fun and the world in itself is amazing.

I tried to finish this game twice prior to finally finishing it on PC, and while I'm glad to have finally seen it all the way through, the areas of this game that suffered the most from development hell are apparent to see the deeper in you go. Before I say this, I need to preface that I think this game is worthwhile and a really fun first playthrough. The interactions between the four bros sell the road trip vibe HARD and easily carry the game for me, cruising around Eos with the guys doing quests, clearing dungeons, and exploring towns make FFXV almost a cozy game for me and I sometimes forget I'm playing a FF game. With that said, after Chapter 8 that whole big open map becomes inaccessible as the game railroads you through its story at breakneck speeds, barely stopping to explain what the hell is going on and why certain characters are disappearing for a chapter without explaining a thing about their absence (gotta play each of their DLC episodes if you wanna know what they were up to). It became hard enough to follow that I sorta checked out until Ardyn came back around. Ardyn is both a high point and a low point of this game, for me. He begins as this charismatic stranger who helps the bros out but clearly has nefarious intent, and by the end he's revealed to be [spoiler] a 2000 year old brother of the founder king hell-bent on killing off the kings of Lucis forever. [/spoiler] This is an interesting setup for the main villain, but most of his key motivations are in his DLC episode, with hardly a mention of any of this in the main game. Likewise the other DLC episodes were okay at best, in my opinion, but they really should have just been extra chapters in the main game. Final Fantasy XV is a mixed bag of ideas, many that work and some that don't. Admittedly this was the first Final Fantasy game I've ever finished. so I don't have a reference point for the rest of the series, but if you go in without the expectations the game unfortunately set for itself over its 10 year development period, then I think you'll have a good time.

This truly is a Final Fantasy for first timers and long-time fans. I was hit with wave after wave of nostalgia- but at the same time, it feels like its own game.

playing the game after buying it 3 years ago. Now, I'm sad. :')

Amazing game. The travel is a bit tedious. A more linear and complete story would have been better rather than the chopped up and scattered pieces.