• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Is Final Fantasy XV good and worth buying like the other big FF releases?

I was there for versus XIII, I was there for the bad E3 demos, and I've paid attention to the game, it's expansions, and DLC since it released, but I have never actually brought the game.

The reason is because to me, it looks stupid. I'm not going to sugar coat it. Most gifs, clips, and videos I've skimmed make the open world of FFXV look very boring and barren, the heroes are from a kingdom with the main protagonist being a Prince, but they travel the world in a sports car. Making matters worse you have very dry NPC characters like the lady mechanic who fixes up your car or the farmer, and the combat doesn't look engaging.

But as I said, I never actually played the game, and it has sold a crazy amount of copies making it one of the best selling games in the series, so there is a chance I may be missing something. Is it worth playing like other big FF games like 8, 10, 12, or 13? How's the story, world, and gameplay? Am I wrong with my jumpy assumptions?
 

DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
D.Final reading this thread as a guest:

9e348a98f940aafeeff4937966a4c19a
 
I loved my playthrough of FF15. Was glued to the screen in that world. For me it just clicked. The music, the world, the 4 bros going on an adventure together and i like that it plays like a proper action rpg and not some over complicated archaic mechanical gameplay.

Id recommend to first watch Kingsglaive as the ending of that directly continues next in ff15 like literally. Also the 4 anime episodes about the characters are great too. Those that didn't do this, were confused what was going on and called the game rushed and unfinished. Such a god damn beautiful world...and the ending was boss too plus some heavy feels. Wish i could experience it all over again for the first time.
 

01011001

Banned
big FF releases are worth buying? that's a concept thats new to me lol.

Final Fantasy is so hit or miss...

but no, ino it's not. the game's main story is 89% spectacle, 10% traveling and 1% actually ok gameplay. fights are braindead and super easy. after a certain point the game becomes extremely linear and the controls are beyond shit.
I once fell down to another hallway in a dungeon, which meant I then needed to walk back up for 3min, because of an attack animation that, without anything I could do about it, made my character jump in the air and directly into the fucking abyss

I stopped playing not long after, because it was just so fucking bad
 
Last edited:

Three

Member
I'm currently playing it. It starts kind of boring and the long car journeys can get a bit boring and repetitive but I'm still enjoying my time with it.
 

JoeBudden

Member
Id recommend to first watch Kingsglaive as the ending of that directly continues next in ff15 like literally. Also the 4 anime episodes about the characters are great too. Those that didn't do this, were confused what was going on and called the game rushed and unfinished. Such a god damn beautiful world...and the ending was boss too plus some heavy feels. Wish i could experience it all over again for the first time.

You absolutely need to watch all that content before playing the game due to how it starts so abruptly with zero context of whats going on in the world.
 

shoegaze

Member
Loved VII, VIII, IX and X;
XII fell flat,
XIII and XV is unbearable.

Seems like most developers with long-standing franchises grew up together with the players and became interested in more complex storytelling while Squeenix is still run by little boys.
 

JaksGhost

Member
It might have been a slight case of escapism during the pandemic, and mandatory quarantine times, but I enjoyed the game even though the story is a mess. It was one of the main games I decided to finally commit to finally playing after having it in my backlog for quite some time. It should be noted that I played the Royal Edition during my initial playthrough so I didn't see a lot of the problems that originally plagued the game like the final dungeon being incomplete. The additional solo DLC campaigns also helped in stretching out my time with the game.
Was it my favorite FF? No.
Are some of the mechanics broken (i.e. easy XP farming, etc.)? Yes.
Did I enjoy my time driving around a fictional world with 3 friends along? Yes.
 
Last edited:
It was okay. Odd stylistic choices, but word is the Royal Edition redressed a number of issues with the battle system and gave the content catalog some juice.
 

Silvawuff

Member
FFXV is extremely polarizing for good reason. I think the early to mid game is okay, then toward the end it's eh. The story really falls off the boat after a big climax, and the fact you have to consume other media in the form of anime/movies/dlc whatever to have any inkling of what's going on is just poor narrative design imo. I think it was an important game because it created a lot of systems/technology/game design elements that became a part of FFVIIR, which I think is a fantastic game.

It's cheap enough to check out, just don't expect to be blown away. It has a lot to show you if you want to give it the time, and it has plenty of satisfying and emotionally neat moments when you get to them. I'd say go in with cautious optimism.
 

zeorhymer

Member
15 has good combat mechancis. It should be cheap now and worth the 20 bucks. Story was a snoozefest tho. Was more convoluted that it needed to because Nomura and his infinite wisdom wanted a million tie ins.
 
Been a huge Final Fantasy fan for 20 years now. As a reference point:

Required: VI, VII, IX, X
Really Good: I, IV, VIII, X-2, FF: Lightning Returns
Meh: II, III, V, XII, XIII

I would say XV fits in the "really good" section. Go into it knowing it is a different, unfinished product but is a fun adventure. If you enjoyed the calming, cinematic horse rides in RDR2, then you'll love the road trip aspect of this game. You grow to love the characters, and the world is great to look at, but you can see the points where development was rushed. Not the best, but different and great in it's own ways.
 

Aion002

Member
If you like FF it is worth.

At launch it was kinda bad, today with all the patches and expansion it's...

Light Up The Sky Ok GIF by The Swoon


The graphics are pretty though... And I actually enjoyed exploring the world of it, there are some cool things and the characters banter is entertaining.

The combat is fun, but the camera is atrocious and the game is quite easy if you want (infinite phoenix down and potions).

Also, getting the Platinum Trophy is easy.

The story is just bad.
 
Last edited:

YukiOnna

Member
You can get it for pretty cheap now, but it's a chore to play and not good. The story is also butchered and not what you expect if you're familiar with anything of the Versus XIII days and it feels like an obvious unfinished product that got hit with too many production issues and I couldn't see past that. I really wish Tabata didn't lie about keeping the story, characters, and setting in tact when he first took on this project because that's not what happened at all.
 

TheAssist

Member
Thats what we call a loaded question.

FF15 has incredible potential, but stumbles at every possible stop of the way. Its incredible how they build a world with so much interesting background lore and then go on creating characters with interesting developments, then dress all that in some really beautiful art design just to say: You know what, we should totally make all of that an incoherent mess and stitch it together in an anime, a movie, as well as several paid DLC's.

Its a shame. Honestly I cant hate the game completely, but after 13 its the worst FF I have played. When it comes to modern FF's I think FF7 Remake is the only really good one. You might like or dislike certain aspects of it, but its a well crafted, polished (apart from some texture streaming issues) and complete game (yes its complete for what it is, stop saying you can 1 to 1 translate a 23 year old game into modern game design).

The next best one would be FF10. Some people like FF12 but I'd only recommend that if you dont care about characters in your stories and grinding at 4 times play speed sound like a lot of fun to you.

Honestly, FF IX might be the best one if you never played it. Its basically the most middle of the road, all encompassing Final Fantasy thats the least offensive of them all.
 
Last edited:

Fbh

Member
I'd say if you can get the complete edition for $15 or less it's at least worth playing through once.

It's not a very good game though. The story and story telling are terrible, the open world is rather boring with little to explore and mostly very basic MMO style sidequests (aside from a few optional dungeons which are nice), the bosses are easily the worst out of all mainline entries in the franchise, it has one of the worst magic system in the franchise too, also some of the worst summoning mechanics. The combat is engaging at first until 10 or so hours into the game you realize it's shallow as hell.

It has nice visuals though (specially with HDR), nice music, a few cool locations and it sort of gives you glimpses of what a great game it could have been from time to time.

Best part of the game is some late (or post game? don't remember) optional dungeons where it turns into a surprisingly great puzzle game for a couple of hours.
 
Last edited:

Kilau

Gold Member
I loved 15 for so much of my playthrough. Ultimately it's just a bad story told badly and the whole thing kind of disgusts me at this point. I guess troubled development is putting it lightly but it feels like a mess especially toward the end.
 

kinjx11

Banned
To get into the game you should watch the movie which is a prequel to the game, very important actually


the main problem with the story is having a muddy mumbling always pissed off protagonist, the villain Ardyn is actually very good character but he needs a dancing partner to shine correctly, Noctis is just a cunt
 
XV has the best Final Fantasy villain in YEARS and worth to play it for that alone. But, as has been said, it's a deeply flawed game in many other areas. Still better than XIII, though.
 

Thabass

Member
It was fine for what it was. The bro tour was cool, but the overall story isn't anything to write home about. The combat is what you make of it. You either like the style or you don't. I enjoyed it, but it laughably easy. I prefer FFVII REMAKE's style of combat compared to XV.

Overall it's not better than the PS1 / PS2 era games, but it's more enjoyable than XIII's endeavor. Not even close to better than XIV. It's somewhere right in the middle.
 

Calverz

Member
I’m sure u can get it cheap if not next to nothing so I suggest giving it a go to see what you think. It’s not great though. Most battles is just holding down the B button.
 

Bernardougf

Gold Member
I was there for versus XIII, I was there for the bad E3 demos, and I've paid attention to the game, it's expansions, and DLC since it released, but I have never actually brought the game.

The reason is because to me, it looks stupid. I'm not going to sugar coat it. Most gifs, clips, and videos I've skimmed make the open world of FFXV look very boring and barren, the heroes are from a kingdom with the main protagonist being a Prince, but they travel the world in a sports car. Making matters worse you have very dry NPC characters like the lady mechanic who fixes up your car or the farmer, and the combat doesn't look engaging.

But as I said, I never actually played the game, and it has sold a crazy amount of copies making it one of the best selling games in the series, so there is a chance I may be missing something. Is it worth playing like other big FF games like 8, 10, 12, or 13? How's the story, world, and gameplay? Am I wrong with my jumpy assumptions?
FFXV was the worst game i played on ps4( big FF8 and FFX fan here)... the gameplay is atroucious, the story is a mess and the openworld side quests are horrible ...
 
It's hard to recommend this game, as much as I loved it.

Pros: oustanding graphics, unique setting for an RPG, breathtaking sceneries, voice acting, party banter and dynamics, the details in character animations, the villain, the music, a couple of epic boss battles, some legit good story scenes, you can finish it in 30 hours max or even less if you skip side quests (which aren't very engaging).

Cons: combat is so-so, story is still unfinished though the DLCs add a lot of interesting stuff, side quests get boring after a while, does NOT deliver a thorough and satisfying FF/JRPG experience.

I'm starting to understand D.Final D.Final a bit more.
 

Termite

Member
I thought it was shockingly bad and not worth any of the time I spent with it.

It's one of those games that's so obviously hacked together from a disaster development that you can literally see the seams where they hacked it together, in everything from the ridiculous way the story is told to how healing trivializes every fight in the game to the awful open world map which needed another year in the oven at minimum. And bugs. Endless fucking bugs.

Only thing it has going for it is gorgeous animations, cool summons and a surprisingly heartfelt ending.

EDIT: I played it at release and don't give a FUCK if patches and DLC improved it.
 
Last edited:

Bryank75

Banned
I really enjoyed my time with it. Story was good, I watched the cgi film before I played..... the ending had impact, the main characters were likable and the combat was serviceable but I think a turnbased approach would have been better till they really put more into the action oriented style.

Love the theme by Florence and the Machine and the road-trip feel of the game.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
I enjoyed XV quite a bit (I've played through it three times now) but I also really liked XIII along with all the other games in the series as well as the spin offs.

Gun to my head though, I'd say if you're looking for a Final Fantasy game with action-style combat, Final Fantasy VII Remake is the better choice. If you've played through that and you enjoy the combat and you're looking for a more interesting setting, give Final Fantasy XV a try.
 

Amiga

Member
XV is great mixed up with bad, you can find your fun in it. the overall story is actually great and one of the best in the franchise but the narrative is dismembered into several different media and scrambled out of order.

as for gameplay, half the game is open world but with annoying invisible walls. the other half is as liner as FF13. you can walk through the combat in easy mode. the only fun part's of this are some side quest hunts.
 
Top Bottom