I finished the main game of FF XV. Do here's my thoughts on the game
I'll start with the pros:
1. The game has great voice acting! As I said previously, while i had this game wishlisted, it was seeing Ben Starr talk about voicing Clive in a Clair Obscur interview, which really got me interested in the game. So obviously he does well, but everyone is great too! Joshua, Jill, Cid, Gav, Annabelle (the cunt). Just everyone does so well!
2. Which speaking of, I just really liked the characters themselves! Even when you met characters who told you their history with Clive, though you never witnessed it, it felt true. You wanted to protect Jill, Joshua, Cid felt like a hero. The characters were great! And Annabelle was great at being a cunt!
3. This game does epic moments like nobodies business! Like all the fights with the Eikons/Aeons/gods, whatever you wanna call them. I genuinely was smiling during Bahamut! And Titan was just insane! But even opening on such a great one! And the final boss! This game knows how to absolutely nail an epic moment
4. Some of the sidequests give you such insanely good rewards, like, to the point i can't imagine not doing/getting them. Like the expanded inventory, boosted healing, you got such better armour and swords, and even Ambrosia! I couldn't imagine getting by with none of those!
5. The game is exceptionally beautiful, visually it is just stunning. Day, night, dawn, dusk, dense forest, large city. This game just looks gorgeous! And the few pre-rendered scenes it has just amplifies it like crazy
6. The game runs well! I played on graphics mode on my PS5, yet i never had any lag, glitches, nothing. I love a well made game!
7. Certain sidequests I wanna praise in particular. Like Lostwing, I have no idea what it's like if you do nothing, but the fact that, via the sidequests you do, it changes massively and literally goes to war. Like i loves that they weren't all just minor, one and done things, stories evolved and you saw the changes! Like the Hideaway garden getting nicer
8. While i used my phone to find the hunts, as i got tired if stumbling vaguely around the area. I really liked that i had no real need to use my phone. Everything was in the game, easy to follow, i love it when games don't have me constantly searching shit on Google
9. Going back to the epic moments. I loved how each fight with the Eikons/Dominants was different! Like, you never just fought the Dominant then the Eikon, each one changed up how they were fought, with like Benedikta/Garuda being the Dominant then Eikon, Titan being the Dominant, Eikon, then a fucking mountain, then Odin constantly switching phases. I really appreciated how unique each one was!
1. I know this was the idea, and it isn't necessarily a criticism on the game. But I got so fucking sick of how Bearers were treated, like it was genuinely upsetting. Seeing them get literally fed to monsters, treated like replaceable parts in a machine, not even seen as human. All because they were born with an ability to wield magic, a thing you think would make them superior. And like, L'ubor for instance, the fact he does so much for his community, and they all turned on him like that? I hated it the whole game
2. While some of the sidequests were good, most weren't. It got *REALLY* tiring how every single quest was just talk to this NPC, go to this location, press X, warp back to the NPC, done. They just weren't fun. And while some gave you good rewards, most others gave you such worthless shit
3. So this will be broken into many points, but the combat. I kinda got tired of how repetitive the enemies are. It felt like there were maybe 8 enemy types, if that, but they got reskins, and they didn't even get new abilities, you were just fighting the same few enemies over and over, and it got very tiring
4. The big enemies were so fucking needlessly spongey. Cause I fought them so much, it got to the point they rarely ever hit me, yet I just hit a wall any time we encountered one due to how long they take to kill. So when the game threw multiple encounters in a row like that at you, i felt frustrated as it got so tedious
5. I don't think the combat was great. You essentially just mash square over and over, and while you get different abilities, swordwise they don't do a ton of damage, and I noticed some could be a pain to trigger, like magic burst. And although you get the Eikon abilities, it just wasn't enough to make the gameplay fun, as you just spam those too. So due to all of this, towards the end i just kept skipping encounters as i got sick of the combat
6. The game was not good generally between the epic moments. You get so many sidequests, most are tedious and not rewarding. You fight the same enemies with a not great combat system. While the epic moments are great, yeah. Like, fatigue did slow me down in playing this due to my health. But that was the other issue, on more than one occassion I genuinely almost stopped playing the game, as it turned into such a slow, tedious, repetitive slog between these epic fights. While it picked up at the very end, like, 85% of the rest of the game (outside of those few moments) just wasn't fun for me
7. Actually, kinda forgot but the DLC reminded me. Sorta 2 in one i guess. Firstly, the lock on. I hate that there's no way to switch lock on targets, and sometimes I wanna lock on to a specific enemy due to them healing, shielding, or being annoying. Yet no matter what I try Clive will just keep locking on to other enemies, including ones barely on screen when the enemy i want is in the centre of it. That can be tedious. Which speaking of tedious, mild complaint 2. If you don't equip Phoenix/Garuda, I have no idea how you are meant to hit flying enemies, so when i didn't have a Phoenix/Garuda one on, i would spend ages waiting for the AI to somehow bring them down. Unless i missed something with an ability or move, yeah, that gets tedious too
Also, as i haven't said, thoughts on the end. I was really sad about Joshua, and i was scared this'd happen with Clive. I'm scared that FF games are just about protagonists dying now with the few I've played. And while very bittersweet, I'm glad that Clive seemed to manage to save the world and stop the Blight. But seeing Jill and Torgal at the end, genuinely wanted to cry. Torgal is the bestest boy. It was nice taking down Ultima though, and it was interesting hearing even more about him and his story, and, yeah, those final fights were insane. Whether due to music or design, i got major Seymour and Sephiroth vibes at times. Just, yeah, a sad ending, but a good one
I'll probably look at the first DLC after dinner
Oh also actually. Until the end, like, 30% or so, I never died. And even when i did, it usually was cause I stopped tracking my health, but there were some close calls. So yeah, doing it without the upgrades, i imagine the game us challenging. I'd be curious how tough Final Fantasy mode is, especially if you can't upgrade your stuff again
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