FINAL FANTASY XV WINDOWS EDITION

FINAL FANTASY XV WINDOWS EDITION
N/A
Metacritic
83
Steam
80.433
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$34.99
Release date
6 March 2018
Developers
Publishers
Steam reviews score
Total
83 (37 303 votes)
Recent
83 (404 votes)

Take the journey, now in ultimate quality. Boasting a wealth of bonus content and supporting ultra high-resolution graphical options and HDR 10, you can now enjoy the beautiful and carefully-crafted experience of FINAL FANTASY XV like never before.

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FINAL FANTASY XV WINDOWS EDITION system requirements

Minimum:

  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS: Windows® 7 SP1/ Windows® 8.1 / Windows® 10 64-bit
  • Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-2500(3.3GHz and above)/ AMD FX™-6100 (3.3GHz and above)
  • Memory: 8 GB RAM
  • Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 760 / NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1050 / AMD Radeon™ R9 280
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Storage: 100 GB available space
  • Sound Card: DirectSound® compatible sound card, Windows Sonic and Dolby Atmos support
  • Additional Notes: 720p 30fps
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Eternal Hunter
Eternal Hunter

This is my personal favourite Final Fantasy but it is not without its flaws.

On a first playthrough, most of it is incredible and I wanted nothing more than to just explore every inch of the map but after a first run and replaying it years later on PC, I come to realise that it is kinda one of those games where what makes the first run good, can sour a second run, know what I mean? Example, finding all the Royal Arms for the first time was fun as I usually got to see and explore a new location. On a second run, it's a chore that has to be done. Or perhaps a car ride with an extra passenger for the first time allows more ample chances to see more of the word, whereas on a second run, it seems fit to say it just pads out a single quest.

The heart of the story is nothing new, it's sorta like Lion King meets Stand By Me. But the real meat of it comes from the bond between the main characters, you get to learn about them, listen to them banter and grow as characters, it's quite endearing to them all.

The gameplay mixed in however can be hit or miss for you. A lot of stuff is automated for you, combat for example mostly involves you just holding left click and using WASD to slightly alter your attacks, it's not very engaging. Driving is basically on rails, if you want to drive where and how you want, then you better invest in a long chain of side quests and fetch quests too. Which leads me nicely into that subject, the side quests in this game are honestly pretty poor. Talk to someone, go to location, maybe fight someone or something, collect item, take it back. Now do this about 50 more times with minimal variety. I pretty much overlooked this on my first run as the gorgeous visuals and sound design distracted me but now, I can't unsee it and it puts me off doing a lot of them now.

It really is the characters that drive this game and they shine well in their respective DLC. Getting to see a point of view at various key moments in the story from characters really helps expand the story and fill in a lot of gaps. One could even argue the gameplay is better in some of these expansions as you are not bogged down with some of the things that bog down the main campaign. Episode Prompto and Ardyen are the highlights for me. I've never played the multiplayer expansion and I cannot comment on whether it still has an active player base, sorry.

While the game has flaws and likes to restrict you at times, it is well worth playing to experience the characters, sound design and beautiful visuals that still hold up very well.

WornOutLife
WornOutLife

AWE-INSPIRING GAME!
I'm a fan of FF saga and FFXV does a great work continuing FF's legacy.
It's a game about friends who fight together in order to defeat DARKNESS.
Now, here's my specific rate for each factor:

GAMEPLAY: 9/10
FF is no longer a classic TURNED-BASED RPG but ACTION RPG.
However, the fighting system is very well-developed and its flow is just amazing.
I didn't know what the hell to do at first, though lol and remember: DON'T WALK AROUND DURING THE NIGHTTIME WHILE YOUR LEVEL IS STILL LOW!!
Also, it has the "WAIT MODE" which I wasn't able to master yet and some players say it's very useful so, I think that's kinda original too.

GRAPHICS: 10/10

I think we can all agree that this FF has the best graphics of all the saga by far!!!!!

STORY: 10/10

I laughed, cried, got angry and experienced every single human emotion with this game.
Its story and character devolpment is just magnificent.

MUSIC: 8.5/10

I really love the OST of this game but I think it's not at the level of the old school FF like FFVIII, FFIX and of course, FFVII.
My favourite song here is when STAND BY ME is played; I just love that version!
What's more, you can buy more songs at the car shop so, don't forget that!!!

VOICE ACTORS: 10/10

I played the game with english audio and I don't regret it.
The actors did a wonderful and perfect job playing the role of all the characters, especially Ignis, who in my opinion, has the best voice and accent ever! (crazy thing is that I prefer american english rather than british but I guess Ignisis is just GOD LEVEL lol)

Thus, buy and play this game! You'll be pleased.

I'm planning to play it again and unlock the 100% some day.

Hugs and love,

WornOutLife

Colton Stirling
Colton Stirling

op game massive world with so many things to do full money value many side quests best game for completionists who want to play a large game

HanSL
HanSL

The game is still not working without finding a fix after all those years (windows 11 and no problem with any other of my games). I bought it recently and my game crash right after the launch with a black screen.

Tip if you have the problem, found thanks to windows logs : rename CTHID.dll by CTHID1.dll.

Durabol
Durabol

I am a 52 year old father, probably one of the oldest people playing. I am a single father to my son, who is now 14. My son recently started playing and in less than a week, he had already played for over 20 hours. This was terrible for me because it was already hard enough for me to spend time with my son, as he is always out with his friends or just watching videos on Youtube. So I decided to make a Steam account and get this game to see if I could maybe play alongside him. I loaded into the game and started playing but I was stuck on what you where supposed to do. I asked my son for help, and together we spent hours playing . I loved it as it was the best time I had spent with my son since my wife had died. Steam has ever since brought me and my son closer again, and now we actually spend time together outside the house as well. reminded me that there's fun to be had in everything, and it has brought both my son and I many happy memories.

Offsidekiller42
Offsidekiller42

Glitch with New game+ where you can't really save in the last chapters manually, and if you can, CONSIDER THIS YOUR REMINDER TO DO SO, unless you want to redo....probably a lot (without too many spoilers, ending starts sooner than you expect in a strange way, but lasts a loooooong time). All the same, love the game to bits, have not even started the DLC yet and, thought I left my game open a couple times, I'd say I spent between a solid 35-40 hours playing this game, no regret either. A lot like starting a really good book you can't stop reading or wanting to read. Some annoying animations after each battle that take about 5 seconds, which add up to a while considering the amount of total battles in the game....however, those are my only complaints for almost 50 hours in the game :)

sammieworkitout
sammieworkitout

Nah, forgettable game. Why ? No nude mod for men. If you are observant enough there's reason why Skyrim is still alive and kicking years and years after its release date. I bought Resident evil, Monster Hunter etc, simply because there's nude mod.

gregory
gregory

A different take on FF games, this one took me a while to get into, but right around 5 hours in it clicked. A likely progression from FFXII Zodiac Age with a modern spin is where it fits in my mind. Easier in some ways than other FF games and RPGs in general, but some of that simplification comes off as confusing if you are looking for elements that you might be used to otherwise. It's short on story and perhaps bloated on "stuff to do" but you likely won't run out of stuff to do if that's your thing.

ralh
ralh

This game has dungeons that can take over an hour and you cannot save in them. If you die or the game crashes... You're screwed, need to restart the whole thing.
It also has many other problems, which would perhaps be forgivable... But not this.

Toughity Tough
Toughity Tough

NOT FOR PC. Loved it on PS, about to break something because the controls are worthless on PC, and the camera views are fucked.

ShadowsGhost_Jo
ShadowsGhost_Jo

personally really loved the game, it does have some flaws like every other, but I think it's underrated.

10/10 would recommend Cup Noodle XV

Greyfer
Greyfer

Amazing game, for anyone who likes the FF universe or wants to start out his new adventure in this world. Besides that also insane cute-scene graphic! But i wished the photo's from prompto would also look so crispy as the cut-scenzes ^^''

thatguytheycallmohammed
thatguytheycal…

I'm gonna make this very CLEAR here:

IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN NOCTIS WHO HAVE DIED AGAINST LEVIATHAN !

I'm DONE with this game.

Eshman
Eshman

If you're a fan of other Final Fantasy/RPG-style games or you like games with a great storyline then you should enjoy this game. Of course this is also a great title for anyone new to the genre and willing to give it a chance as it does start out kind of slow but gains a much faster pace. This is especially true in the later chapters. So I highly recommend having a saved game at the end/beginning of chapters in case you decide you need to go back and complete anything you may have missed.

Klutzi
Klutzi

Love this game so damn much, wish people still played the online.
the story is fire, the DLCs are immaculate, the world you play in is gorgeous.

pinkpinnn
pinkpinnn

Out of a franchise that promises an epic RPG adventure, I expected more.

Starting with the good: beautiful landscapes, amazing OST and best of all, the food, were the highlights of the game. The most enjoyment I got from the game was basically travelling around the beautiful regions to collect recipes and photograph the most gorgeously rendered dishes.

Despite the intro flashing the words "A Final Fantasy Game for Fans and First Time Players" - FFXV is definitely not it. I really struggled to see this and find the good.

Story : It expects you to have background knowledge + seen other media content to fully understand what's going on, however the game fails to utilize side quests as a way to continue the world building and story-telling.
Progression : Whilst the first 7-8 chapters were well paced and encouraged players to do world exploration, everything after that felt like a rush to move everything into the final scene. Non-stop battles and mini boss-fights (5 mini boss fights before the final boss,with no rest points). Oh and don't forget the notorious Chapter 13, where the game suddenly decides to go Resident Evil junior for 2.5 hours.
Combat : Most of the time it's repetitive button presses to zip in and out of battles and make linked-hits. Sure it looks flashy, but having the same pattern continue well into the boss fights made things super tedious.
Side Quests : 100% fetch quests
Characters : Perhaps this felt the most out of place for me in a fantasy land. Men in all- black street fashion slotted into 4 stereotypical personalities.

After 2 hours of non-stop boss fights and completing the story, an epic end-scene cues accompanied by an absolutely amazing OST. And honestly, if not for the music, I would have barely felt anything.

A great game to play if you're locked down and want to travel to Italy + taking those IG food snaps.

Vitlök
Vitlök

FFXV claims to be a "Final Fantasy for Fans and First-timers". If you ask me, it's not for the first timers, and it's definitely not for the fans. I myself am a longtime fan of FF (started with 4), and hoo boy... to me, FFXV was a trainwreck of cosmic proportions. A black hole of money, developer talent and artists' tears. The blinding glory of this "magnum nopus" is what led me all the way to the end; and even though there were definitely moments I had fun, at a certain point the game just becomes a downward spiral.

I don't think it's practical to list all the problems I had, so I'll just sum up the most prominent ones. In short, there's the battle system, the story, and the world structure. But before that, let me say what I actually liked about the game.

Credit Where it's Due

I really liked how the game manages night/day cycles, the need to find lodgings and the food system. Basically, travelling at night is a bad idea because you can get ambushed by very strong mobs which can block the road. Also, the EXP you gained from fights and quests only gets applied when you rest. And the fancier the lodgings, the better the EXP multiplier. It's getting dark; do we stay at a campsite, or push onwards to a motel? That really makes it feel like a road trip.

On top of that, food gives you stat bonuses for a given period - so stopping by at a not-McDonald's is a good idea if you haven't eaten. Eating at fancier places teaches your cook, Ignis, how to prepare the given dish at camp - so it's also fun to try different delicacies from different places. They're lovingly rendered, too.

Oh, and during your car trips, the world looks really huge. The draw distance of terrain is very long; honestly, this game has one of the best looking open worlds I've ever seen. Oh, and the fishing! That's pretty cool too, even if I never fully understood how it works.

Okay, I'm done with the positives. Let's get to the main part.

The Battle System

FFXV's main sin is that it's a pretty bad game that's made from pieces of an excellent game that doesn't exist. And the battle system is perhaps the best example of that. Most of the fighting literally boils down to the following:

Hold B -> Press X when prompted -> Press B when prompted -> Hold B -> Press Y to warp to the next enemy

I'm not even kidding. You attack by holding B. Not by tapping it; by holding it. There are other things you can (and should) do - switching weapons, circling around enemies, ordering your guys around, and using magic; but the magic system is stock-limited, cooldown-locked and causes friendly fire, so for the most part you'll just be attacking. So holding B. Or maybe warping around by pressing Y. That's it. It looks cool, but you're watching Noctis do cool stuff while you hold a button.

The game is also very weird when it comes to healing. For the most part, you can only heal using potions, one character at a time. When you die, you just use Elixir or Phoenix Down on yourself. Yes, using Phoenix Down on yourself. While dead. This is a thing. And Elixirs aren't this rare wonder anymore; they cost 400 gil a bottle at the gas station. There was a fight where I was constantly getting one-shot, so I spent some 30 minutes of my life attacking, getting hit, using Elixir, repeat.

The combat difficulty of this game is generally all over the place. Enemies are either fodder of damage sponges, pretty much no in-between. Not that I really ever had any trouble, bar that fiasco described earlier. And after a certain point in the story if the fight goes on for too long, you get an option to summon a friendly deity to annihilate anything that's left.

The Story

I believe FFXV should be taught in writing schools as an example of what not to do and why. In general, the story feels very disjointed, many things are unexplained unless you read the in-game notes, and some even require you to watch a tie-in movie, anime or play the DLCs. In other words, sometimes it's very difficult to tell what's happening even if you're paying REALLY close attention.

On a more technical level, the story has the following:
- setups with no payoff
- twists with zero foreshadowing
- twists which change nothing
- important stuff happening off-screen
- copious amounts of deus ex machina (sudden protagonist power-up for no reason)
- one case of diabolus ex machina (ditto, but with the antagonist)
- flat, predictable characters with little to no development
- story threads that don't go anywhere
- insufficient exposition
- exposition dumps (yes, both)
- single-use characters
- huge thematic inconsistency

And a lot of stuff that simply doesn't make sense. But hey, all of that can be forgiven if the story is cool and engaging, yeah? Well, I found it mediocre. After a while I just couldn't be bothered to care about anything, and moments that were clearly meant to be heart-wrenching or epic got no reaction from me - beautiful CGI and orchestral music weren't enough. Shame.

The World

If there's one thing you know about this game, it's that it's a "boyband on a road trip". And while the boyband part is definitely true (the way they pose for photos... immaculate), the road trip is... well...

FFXV is split into 15 chapters. Out of these, only 2 really give you freedom to drive around, and one lets you sail around a new area in a motorboat. In the remaining chapters you either can't control the car or are in a completely different situation. While I honestly appreciate the variety, I also felt fooled into thinking the game's world is bigger than it actually is.

Still, don't get me wrong: good 50-60% of my playtime happened during those two chapters, and I enjoyed driving the car around, doing (pretty mediocre) sidequests. The game gives you an option to fast travel, but I feel like using it completely ruins the entire experience. And even if you do drive the car... well, driving from one end to the other would take maybe 8 minutes tops. So even then, it's not THAT big - although as far as video game worlds go, it sure is spacious, if a bit empty.

Miscellaneous and Conclusion

There are many other issues related to pacing, level design, mechanical design... but I'll just write about one more. The product placement. You thought DEATH STRANDING was bad with Monster(TM) Energy drink? Here, you have logos on your camping equipment, one character often says how amazing a certain brand of coffee is... and there's a whole sidequest that's essentially a huge ad which ends with one of your guys looking straight into a camera and telling you about how fantastic a certain food product is. I couldn't look - that's how embarrassing that was. At least his love for that product is previously established, so it's not completely random.

So I obviously had a lot of problems with the game, and yet I beat it. Mostly out of curiosity, but I still did. And many others did as well; roughly 23% of players got the end boss achievement. That's a lot of people. Surely, many of them have enjoyed the game. So perhaps I'm just oversensitive to flaws?

To me, Final Fantasy games will always hold a special place in my heart. But perhaps it's time to face the truth; they will never shine bright for me like they once did. And you know what? That's okay. I'll move on. Join me, or stay and watch where this old beat up car of a series will go next. Whatever you do: May you ever walk in the light of the Crystal, my friend.

Curator page

Exself
Exself

One of the ugliest games i've played in a long time. The graphics look PS2 era even with high settings.
-Game mechanics are SO bad and annoying. Combat is the only thing that kinda works but even that is meh.
-Voice acting/casting is the worst I've ever seen in my life.
-There's barely ANY sound design. Sometimes cars that drive by are completely quiet. Also no proper ambient sounds! It's like they just left sound design completely unfinished.
-Same with textures. The world is filled with beginner tutorial style tiling and extremely ugly models.
-Suprise suprise, same goes with lighting. It's messy and feels completely like left on default settings. Look absolutely terrible.
There's a lot of good as well of course, but nothing that could save the game from being an ugly mess. Somehow people like this game, but I get a feeling they either love janky unfinished games or they're just fans of the series and like anything that comes out of the series.

XY_Zinzan
XY_Zinzan

Hands down one of the best FFs i have played, I haven't enjoyed one this much my first time through since FFX, if you are a fan or curious if you will like it, you will love this game. It has everything you could ask for and more to make this a complete feeling. The worst part of the game is when you finish the campaign cause this was a game I wish would never have ended.

_askmeu_
_askmeu_

Combat in this feels really stiff and terrible, especially if you played FF7 Remake, definitely a stepping stone for that games combat

color
color

The only thing I don't recommend is that to not rush the game like at all. The game can get boring really fast and is really hard to play on pc so I recommend you take your time and learn how to play.

Eberle999
Eberle999

The Battle mechanics are very fun, and the open world is perfectly designed. If you are one of those RPG amateurs you'll enjoy every side quest of this map.
The graphics of this game are second to none.
One of the better points of this game, are the DLC, definitely the apex of this game developing.

Really I'm enyoing this game and I want to complete it 100%

Hafian RPG
Hafian RPG

The Gameplay is very good, but story is meh. I recomended you to play in high end PC to feel the beatufil graphic of this game. It is worth price if discount, dont buy full price :)

Lemonocle
Lemonocle

Things I liked:

    • I LOVE the move to an action combat system
    • Excellent story and dialogue
    • Character design and world design

Things I didn't like:

    • cooking - if I don't do it I'm missing out on buffs but I really don't want to do it
    • multiplayer was just really lame with no level diversity

firstky_
firstky_

First time playing Final Fantasy series

Definetly wholesome game with great graphics even in 2022!
The battle is very rewarding and every boss is tough enough, not too easy and doesn't make the game too hard to play.

dragonsfire77
dragonsfire77

This is actually the last Final Fantasy game that I had not played when it came out. Just recently bought it and definitely am enjoying it. The camaraderie between the main characters makes this almost like buddy movie at points. You will spend a lot of time on road trips in the Regalia, but even I find this fun as the environment is beautiful to look at. Combat is easy enough and by doing the side quests you can level fairly easily. My one minor complaint is that when roaming through the world it seems as if you can't go less than three minutes at time without an imperial dropship dropping down troops, in this case I think I have decimated the imperial army. Lol. All in all thoroughly enjoying this Final Fantasy.

kc
kc

first like 3/4 is really good but pretty much everything after time skipfalls apart. narrative doesn't make much sense. the very last part of the game is paced poorly with 5 bosses in a row with upwards of and possibly more than 5 whole levels difference between each one with no save points or access to the past areas. you have to know how much to grind and level up before you can begin to think about the marathon of getting to the final boss. honestly its serviceable game but playing past time skip is not worth imo.

SquallWhatever
SquallWhatever

I hated this game when it first came out however after playing it again recently its a much better game then I remember I really enjoy the gameplay and the open world is beautiful

The Potato King
The Potato King

I am convinced that Square Enix knows how to make a perfect game, but they refuse to because they hate you. There's a lot of great stuff in this game, but it's buried underneath so much inane garbage that no one of sound mind could possibly have thought was a good idea. Things like your car being stuck on a rail (until you unlock off-roading toward the end of the story), not being able to fast travel except to seemingly random points of interest, and Chapter 13.

KingOfLibraTTV
KingOfLibraTTV

Very Beautiful my Twitch Viewers are very into it. Once I Beaten the game my Discord Hosted a Final Fantasy XV Movie Night

Anonymous
Anonymous

If you always wanted to experience the story of a Final Fantasy game, but just can't play turn based combat, this is the game for you

Nooby McNoSkill
Nooby McNoSkill

Empty world, messy plot, boring combat, useless sidequests...
Really don't want to waste any more time on this game

MrSmiley186
MrSmiley186

Its weird how a game can bring you to tears just by its main menu music, but FFXV is like that. Its journey is an emotional one, as I find with most Final Fantasy titles. I truly believe its not a Final Fantasy game unless you are bawling your eyes out at least once throughout, and this game is no different. Over the course of Noctis' lifetime you will meet wonderful people, make many bonds, hunt crazy creatures, and fight badass flying women. It is amazing to see Noctis go from a careless child to a respected and capable King, and this game nails that incredibly.

The combat, different to most FF games, is real time action. And while at the start I will admit I feared it would lose the tactical depth FF games are known for, I was quickly relieved to see the combat system have plenty of depth to allow for tactical planning. And the brilliance of this system would be proven once again, considering it is an evolved, albeit similar system that they used in FF7 Remake.

Though this games incredibly breathtaking world may feel empty at times, it never for once loses its charm due to its stunning artstyle, creatures to fight and environmental variety.

The writing feels fantastic; with each character and their relationships with each other going through changes with every event. The character developments are excellent, and the villain is incredible.

And lastly, I want to mention the soundtrack. Yoko Shimomura is just out of this world. Final Fantasy games are known for their industry-famous soundtracks, and this one manages to stand out on its own next to masterpiece OSTs like FF7, FF8 and FF10. It is breathtaking.

I truly believe FFXV to be one of the best Final Fantasy titles, if not one of the best JRPGs ever, from the bottom of my heart.

The Spud Lord
The Spud Lord

A great Final Fantasy game
Battle controls are live action, unlike many of the other games of the series, however it doesn't take away from the experience
Please feel free to enjoy this game as I have, which is very greatly

Killian Stone
Killian Stone

So much to say, but I'll try to keep it short-ish.

I played this game on and off for years, restarting every time because I didn't remember anything...and I wasn't going to pick it up again at all, until I got the urge to just play something that looked good and ate up time. So I decided I'd give it another go, and this time I stuck with it.

That was one of the most rewarding choices I've ever made. I've played every Final Fantasy, but I wasn't too enticed by this one at first. It's definitely more than meets the eye though, and the journey these guys take with each other is all of entertaining, wholesome, and somber all wrapped into one.

The in-between play of exploring and doing side-quests is very chill and flows well, offering that time-killing, but smooth and enjoyable experience I was looking for. The real amazing parts of the game (in my opinion) though, are the major moments that are so beautiful and stunning I couldn't stop taking screenshots and I literally felt like I was lucky to be part of the experience.

It's definitely worth a shot and whether you've played Final Fantasy or not doesn't matter. If you haven't, you'll be introduced to a beautiful world with crazy fantasy aspects you'll grow to love. If you HAVE, then you'll see a lot of familiar faces, re-imagined as always, for a unique experience. Try it out, and pay attention. It's worth it.

TLDR; Beautiful game. Well made, and a wonderful story and both thrilling/chill adventure. Good for newcomers to the series and/or veterans. Try it out. Highly recommend. 20-24 hours for a quick run-through. 80+ for all the rest, depending.

kat1066
kat1066

I love everything about this game except the ending. I felt that the final chapters were rushed and I personally did not like the ending. First time experience with any Final Fantasy and I will continue to play earlier chapters before it becomes too tragic to me.

myrovvay
myrovvay

Almost all of the games features worked fine for me, prompto, ignis and gladio episodes, the main game itself. But ive only had problems with Final Fantasy Comrades and episode Ardyn. When i play episode Ardyn everything is fine at first , but when i reach the moment where i have to fight the Guardians, things go wrong. No matter how much i fight them, even when they reach 0 hp,theyre still alive, even if i demonize them. And about Final Fantasy Comrades, when i open it the screen is just balck and nothing else happens. Ive tried reenteing the game and even restart my pc but nothing worked. If anyone knows how to fix this please comment on my review. i really want to play apisone ardyn and the comrades :(

R̶̩̐͒ǔ̵̙͈n̵̞̬͋̕e̴
R̶̩̐͒ǔ̵̙͈n̵̞̬͋̕e̴

As a longtime Final Fantasy fan, I can't recommend this one. Multiple facets of the game are good; namely, the art, the animations, the combat, and the little interactions between Noctis and his boy band camping crew.

But the story - which tends to be Final Fantasy's strongpoint - lacks coherency and pathos. As you move through the story, it's clear that the player is missing vital pieces to the puzzle. After a certain point, I just stopped caring about the plot and simply wanted to get back to driving around the countryside with the boys, but even that can get stale after a while. If the developers had written a coherent and interesting story to go along with the rest of the game, this game could have been good, but as it stands, I'm sad to say that it's not good.

buffjape
buffjape

Final Fantasy VII was one of the greatest games of all time. XV is not.

The old turn-based battle system is gone, replaced by a chaotic hack-and-slash where you often cannot see what is being attacked because the camera is in the wrong position. You never get to learn about/enjoy the monsters - a major feature of Final Fantasy.

A deep varied story was one of Final Fantasy's strengths, this is almost gone. There are videos which flesh the basic "kill the boss" story out, but they turned up the music so loud you cannot hear the words.

Mini-games are gone. There are missions but they are mindless - go to a specific place, pick something off the ground, then return. Chocobos are just a means of transportation, rather than fun.

All the things which made Final Fantasy great are gone.
Don't think I will buy another one.

dunkyfresh
dunkyfresh

Super duper fun Final Fantasy. Beloved characters, great battle system, beautiful graphics, but so many other disappointments. The soggiest of story lines, the first half of the game is amazing but everything from Altissia on is pretty lack luster. I may be biased because I rushed through the game just to try to finish it.

AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs
AllYourBaseAre…

Graphics are amazing. A little weird getting used to PC controls as is obviously designed for controller. Running into a few crashing issues but fairly certain that is more fault on my PC than the game.

Verdic
Verdic

Criminally underrated. The game runs well, has excellent fidelity, and offers an open world with plenty to collect and see. Forspoken is essentially the same game with a different protagonist. This game offers at least some AI party to bounce off of and utilize group maneuvers and a decent grid leveling system to take advantage of. I actually enjoyed the whole, son disappointing the father but then in the end had to prove himself story arc. It might be meme worthy to many, but when it comes to dealing with family you can't get along with everyone know's someone right?

SolidOberon
SolidOberon

This is proof that graphics are not everything.
Combat is hot garbage: you keep one button pressed for 80% of the time to win.
Story makes no sense, has major plotholes (to make way for DLC).
World may seem like a sandbox, but your actions are very limited.

DrunkenQrow1995
DrunkenQrow1995

With the advent of the Windows/Royal editions the ending was significantly better, the overall story was great, graphics are amazing, gameplay is great and I wouldn't have it any other game!! 10/10

naturalgoth
naturalgoth

This game made me cry at the end. Yes, I'm a white woman.

This was my first Final Fantasy, as I was reluctant to play previous games that mostly used the turn-based JRPG style. The game felt very touching from the start. Though it's true that the story may not be as well told as it could've been, and it does feel rushed after the halfway point, the Chocobros are an unforgettable quartet, each with their own distinct personalities and tones. I am a Gladio stan myself, though I do like Noctis, especially at the latter part of the game, when he gets to mature as a person and realizes the path that he chooses to take. There are a lot of emotional cutscenes, and these cutscenes, and the brotherly friendship among them made me feel very nostalgic of my teen years. God, do I miss my old group of friends.

Putting the emotional stuff aside, the combat itself, though fun, can feel very monotonous, since you essentially do everything with a few commands, and it can feel awkward trying to switch and play as other characters; the mechanic never felt to work properly with me, so I just kept on using Noctis. They could've used a switch system like in Xenoblade Chronicles and it would've made things feel less complicated.

The visual for this version are damn pretty. The world can be pretty stunning to look at, and using the photo mode is fun (just watch out for Lara Croft). And if you use a NVidia graphics card, there's a bunch of features that you can use for this game, though I don't use most of them since my graphics card is a pretty average one.

I can see how veterans of the series may not like the game, but for newcomers like me, you will likely have a better time. I recommend it regardless, especially when it's on sale, and be sure to get the Ardyn DLC, it's worth it.

Blakes
Blakes

If youve never played Final Fantasy before, buy this game you will not be disappointed. Yeah the story can be a little bland at some times but the combat is out of this world and truly has endless combinations in terms of fighting styles and leveling. This game is an RPG which means youll actually have to do hunts to get items and gil in between the story. Make sure you equip ragnarok and point warp every kill so you can get massive amounts of AP

ChrisArchitect
ChrisArchitect

When Final Fantasy XV launched back in 2015 - after waiting for nearly 10 years - it was a masterclass in the franchise that felt unfinished in its story elements. With revamped ideology - FFXV became an experience unlike any of its previous iterations. The first singleplayer Final Fantasy to be open-world, fully real-time combat, monster hunting contracts, side missions, dungeons, choice dialogue, driving, enormous ingame creatures, camping and more. An ambition with the cost of care.

After several patches, additions, DLCs even the use of mods - FFXV is at its peak. It doesn't redefine JRPGs, but it solidifies itself in being just a great experience.

ghijoon
ghijoon

when them magitek boys jump outta the ship, I just hop on my chocobo and race Prompto to the end of the road

Shakur130
Shakur130

So i had this game in my library for nearly two years now, and i just started playing it this week (9/6/22). I must say it's a very good game..Now i'm an old FF fan. i haven't played a FF game since FF8 back when it was on PlayStation. (Noticed i said PlayStation not ps1 as that's what it was called back then.)

I love this games combat system as it's easy and very visually appealing. I love the teamwork dynamic between the 4 characters and it makes combat very fun and interactive. The synergies between the 4 charterers in combat make for some very epic battles. Not to mention all the hostiles mobs that join in the fights sometimes while i'm already fighting a daemons or beasts. Now i can't speak on the main story just yet as i'm only on charter 3 and i mostly just do side quests and play it as an adventure game. i'm very OP for my lvl due to it as I'm only lvl 20 but have an Ultima blade and can beat mobs up to level 35 with relative easy on normal difficulty.

I also love the fact that i can stop myself from leveling up and hold on for the best moments to catch in all my exp. That's a very good feature as i don't like it when i greatly above the levels of my quests.

Oh and the Chocobo, i love riding around on them.. they're very convenient in exploring this open world. especially at night when you can't drive on the roads cause daemons are constantly interrupting you.

Last but not least i even like skills in this game, mainly the fishing and cooking skills. the fishing kinda makes me feel like i'm playing bass pro fishing (lol). The cooking is very convenient and helps save me gil while getting very good buffs.

Overall i'm very impressed with this game as it's a big improvement since the last time i delved into a FF game and it's very fun and refreshing.

スタク
スタク

A different take on one of my favorite franchises, one that I really enjoy. Im big on completionist game play and this game definitely satisfies that with am abundance of things to do. Even if you are more into traditional RPG mechanics and style, I think everyone should give this a shot. (Don't Mind my hours)

RyIn
RyIn

After an extensive 72+ hour play through spanning a several month break I can conclusively say that I have immensely enjoyed this installment. While I personally have some minor issues with the ending stretch of the story, mostly it being a slight linear slog around chapter 13, the rest of the game is absolutely breathtaking. Visuals, soundtrack are stunning, the story and character development, despite some issue with missing plot points that require either the movie, or novels to fully understand, is extremely captivating. I found myself very much attached to the cast of this games story the further in I got, seeing the struggle and resolve until the final cutscene. This game very much pushes away from original titles, but is something I've come to embrace and love, and I believe with enough time its a world other will enjoy as well.

LviXx
LviXx

Just a great game, still in early chapter 3 when I wrote this but I already satisfy with the gameplay, so I grind so hard just to get high level in early game and it's very fun to play even tho fighting 100 cactuar is so annoying.

fuad030310
fuad030310

i love this game, this game great for new player

IzzyLeBlanc
IzzyLeBlanc

The game's atmosphere is the best of all I've played so far. The storytelling, character dynamics, character development, all have been fantastic.

Also items are way too broken. Beat the story severely underleveled by spamming items, which kinda ruined the cool story fights.

Sanders D. Rain
Sanders D. Rain

Played for 13 hours with constant crashes. Then tried to find some solution for crashing problem. Set TRAM to low, v-sync off, caped to 30 fps, nvidia features off, set my PC to no paging etc. NOTHING worked! Now it wont even load my save files. In the end uninstalled the game in frustration.
It is a shame that so many owners of FFXV including me has this many problems simply installing and playing the game.
Overall great graphics, good story, flashy gameplay, memorable characters but abysmal optimization for PC users.

DullMouse
DullMouse

Fun, pretty, good story, immersive.

JetN
JetN

I know there are people out there that like this game, but there are so many flaws with this game that i just cant ignore them. the people who really like this game have to overlook a massive amount of problems.

That's not to say that there is nothing worth seeing in this game, but just.. expect a tedius confusing mess of a game in between the few moments that are kinda decent.

Evan
Evan

My only real complaints are that the second half of the main story felt rushed, and the final boss fight was VERY underwhelming. Other than that, this is a great game and now one of my favourites. Usually I don't spend this much on games (nearly $50 CAD), but this was well worth the investment.

Fredster
Fredster

This game is legitness! From the graphics to the fighting style I'm in love lol

Zero
Zero

In the very first video the very first thing they show is the car your characters use in game to get around has the capability of flying, pretty cool and well worth getting the game right? It's like a more advanced airship that you actually get to pilot, awesome right? Well guess what, you can't unlock the flying mode of the car until after you COMPLETE THE GAME.
Combine this with the completely linear paths of what is supposed to be an open world game plus only three magic spells fire, ice and thunder and item only healing and you have a reason to never buy a Final Fantasy game again. I started with Final Fantasy for the Nintendo, the series peaked at 7, started going downhill fast and has dropped off a cliff on this one.

Shadow Slayer
Shadow Slayer

despite being more than a few years old at this point this game is still as fun as ever and i hope and future entries in the series take a note of how well this game utilizes its systems.

(edit: dont initially play this game offline if cloud storage is on, or turn cloud storage on after playing for a while, it will delete your save data)

DavidRuedaL
DavidRuedaL

FFXV is a long, clunky and overall unentertaining game with some VERY GOOD set pieces spread about its runtime that, despite being magnific (the fights with the astrals, their summon animations, QT battles with awesome animations) do little to carry the overbearing weight of the mediocrity of the game.

One thing that excels, though, is the party's dynamic and the relationship between the characters. I swear if this were just a life sim were you go day to day on zany low-stake adventures with the four main guys it'd be an incredible game, but alas this was conceived as an "action game" where the developers clearly did not know how to provide good action mechanics and feels.

I can't recommend this game unless you're a die-hard FF fan and want to play every game in the franchise. The "Final Fantasy elements" here are very good! The aesthetics, music, themes, characters, even the dialogue (most of the time), but in my opinion it's not enough to carry the weight of a clunky and boring gameplay.

chobysan
chobysan

10/10 a masterpiece of a game, it has a very tragic story and I recommend to absorb all of its content. It has a lot of flaws but this is what makes it special, you have little time and make the most out of it while you still can.

Nomnom2g
Nomnom2g

A game worth of being played !

Moon knight
Moon knight

"One man's trash is another man's treasure"

I bought this game a week early before release on ps4, so I completely beat it without day 1 patch, my impression was that they tried something new, came up with a final fantasy story that fits a main installment with pretty ambitious design, but it was missing content, so i felt it kinda lacking and short, then recently i replayed the windows version and beat it, and i have to say they really upped the ante, they fixed lots of missing content, they did a pretty damn well job porting it to pc, they added more bosses, i havent done a lot of sidequests just early game as i did them the first playthrough, but i feel like they also enriched the sidequests, the gameplay got more diverse with playing the rest of the party.

My main complaint however is that they never really used the world of ruin, whats the point of having pretty strong monsters that need grinding in an empty world, some monsters only appear in the world of ruin and the variety of them is huge, maybe they did have side quests now i havent tried but no story events, i kinda strongly wished for another half the first time i played 15 and saw the title "World of Ruin" i got goosebumps for nothing, the game ended there, oh well it could've been development issues with the game changing directors and trying to quickly push it out as 15, but I hope in they future they dont set it aside like this game.

7.5-8/10, worth playing

kgbarret
kgbarret

It's not a perfect game, but I love it! It's nice to use the mods in the PC version.

Shinpoku
Shinpoku

I like the boyfriends I made along the way.

brightreddragon
brightreddragon

The most developed graphic FF but
the most boring , wasted FF, cant stand more than 1hour play.

babe
babe

For what this game turned out to be, it's very good in its own right. Certainly a departure from previous entries, but there's nothing wrong with that. If you go into this game with an open mind, you'll probably enjoy it. Probably.

A big focus of this game is on its four-member party and open world exploration, both of which FFXV excels at. A smaller party feels a lot more manageable than the larger parties of prior entries, and you get a ton of different character interactions that really flesh out the chocobros to a degree that other games can't quite reach due to a larger cast. This game thrives on the relationships between the main boy band, and listening to their banter throughout the game never gets dull; it's especially fantastic to listen to in the dungeons. The open world is also a huge plus, and always fun to dive into. There's some genuinely gorgeous scenery to find, and there are dungeons littered throughout the world to crawl into. There are also a lot of sidequests to keep you busy... like, a lot of them. A majority of your time playing this game can quickly devolve into sidequesting.

With that said, and this may sound surprising, FFXV shares a surprising amount of similarities to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Stamina (which isn't as bad as it sounds; there's an accessory you can equip from the start in this edition that gives you infinite stamina), clothing with different effects, different weapon classes to play around with (don't worry, weapon durability doesn't exist in this game... sort of; there are special weapons Noctis can use that drain his health, but are extremely powerful in return), the aforementioned sidequests and dungeons, cooking food, and (of course) the open world. BotW generally does most of these things better since it doesn't have as complex of a story and a world of characters to juggle, not to mention it came out after FFXV, but FFXV still does a decent enough job with these elements despite the stiff competition. However, some of the dungeons in this game (and pretty much all of the postgame dungeons) can get really tedious and borderline masochistic, and in the case of the postgame stuff, don't bother with them unless you like endurance challenges or want really good weapons and items.

Combat can be as simple or complex as you want it to be, but the latter is a lot more fun. Switching between weapons to gain the advantage on certain enemies, or switching to another party member to try a different playstyle/approach is always a great time. Unfortunately, a staple of Final Fantasy combat, magic, is pretty much useless in this game. It's there if you want to use it, but you're better off using a weapon slot for something else.

The story could certainly have been better, but it's still pretty good for what it is. The ending also could have been better, but one of the DLC episodes sort of fixes that. Speaking of the DLC (which this edition comes packed in with), wait until you beat the game to play them, otherwise you'll meet a hearty dose of spoilers. There's also multiplayer, but I never bothered with it. Oh, and it's really not that important, but this game does have quite a bit of product placement. It's never too egregious, though... except for one instance, and if you play the game and reach that quest, you'll know what I'm talking about. It's honestly hilarious(ly bad) and i don't know where tf my Gordon Freeman costume is

I feel I'd be remiss if I didn't mention this game's original identity as Final Fantasy Versus XIII, which was set to be Tetsuya Nomura's Romeo and Juliet magnum opus (supposedly), but it fell so hard into development hell that he was booted off to go work on Kingdom Hearts or something while competent developers tried to bring this game back from the brink, and probably one of the only surviving ideas they really wanted to keep was the Leviathan fight. I'm slightly exaggerating, but FFXV ended up with better character designs, phenomenal music (even if you don't play this game, listen to any of the Apocalypsis songs, PLEASE) and everything else I mentioned above, so whether we ended up getting a better game than what we could have gotten, all I can say is that I'm glad we got a game at all. And a greatly good game it is.

Blind Gull
Blind Gull

This game ate so much of my time. The whole trip was a blast. It is a shame Episode Arydn was the last DLC we got, especially when 3 other episodes and a dungeon builder were scrapped due to the creative director leaving. Easily recommend playing this game.

magus
magus

I tried, it's just a worse kingdom hearts

Cpt.Badger
Cpt.Badger

"It's finally over" said Prince Noctis when the game ended. Sums my feelings perfectly.

It reminded me why I stopped playing single-player games.

This was like a Michael Bay movie. Or worse.

A game that never knows when to stop its pompous borefest.
I guess you have to be 12 to enjoy this sort of over the top mess, filled with QTE's, terrible gameplay systems (what's the point of fishing, camping, cooking, and those strategies?) with a story that makes you disconnect after a couple of hours.

Boring in every single aspect except the visuals and a semi-interesting world.

The combat is atrocious. It makes very little sense. The boss fights were the worst I ever experienced. Seizure inducing borefests that take very little skill to accomplish.

Until there's a massive difficulty spike, at which point at Chapter 14 I just switched to easy mode to somehow force myself to make it to the end credits. When I did, I just couldn't even make myself watch the final cutscenes with attention - it's how disconnected I got from those final boss fights that seem to drag forever.

The sidequests? The worst I've ever seen. You are a king, a mythical "chosen one" (really...) and all you do is fetch quests. Way to go your majesty!

The skills, the "builds", the character progression - the game feels exactly the same if you are a level 1 or a level 40. Literally exactly the same due to the aforementioned, horrible combat system.

Had my hopes up after watching the movie and the anime, but I don't think I will ever touch another Final Fantasy game after this mess.

It's just ridicilously full of itself and thinks its the best thing since sliced bread.
It's not.

5/10 because the visuals are cool and I kind of enjoyed the bromance.

tyrannic
tyrannic

If there was a thumbs-middle option I would pick that, but in its absence, thumbs down. The game looks great. The voice acting is good, at least for the scripts they were given. There are quests. It is technically a Final Fantasy game. But in the 7 - 15 stable of FF games it's easily the lowest for me.

This is my second playthrough, first one was on PS and had the odd impulse to replay out of nostalgia that turned out to be through some very rose-coloured glasses.

Firstly, the game is remarkably disjointed. Unless you want to sit and watch people drive (or drive manually for some reason which is only hitting accelerate on predetermined paths) you're going to fast travel everywhere. Which means that while the world is huge and gorgeous, it won't feel cohesive. It feels like a patchwork of environments strung together with loading screens, even though you could technically drive from one end of the map to the other without a single transition - but why would you? It takes 10 whole minutes, 10 minutes of watching a car drive.

There is very little exposition. You are dropped into the middle of a political conflict and expected to keep up with what's going on. Watching the Kingsglaive movie that came out just before the game helps make sense of this, but not in terms of the broader history and mythos of the world.

The main character has virtually no personal development. I'm 70+ hours into this playthrough and he is still a stranger to me. He is a conflicted Shinji type and has known his friends for a long time and that's basically it. He is almost entirely inexpressive outside his Shinji grunt-and-gasp episodes that are supposed to indicate internal conflict, presumably, but it just sounds like he caught his toe on the coffee table.

Some of the dungeons are needlessly gruelling. Not in terms of a fun challenge that's satisfying when you finally complete it, but in an "oh god can this just be over already" kind of way. Every dungeon is dark and only uses a handful of textures which means you're looking at the minimap constantly to keep your bearings, which pulled me right out of the tense exploration mood you want from a dungeon. Not only that but the dark and drab choice feels very much like it's to try and brute force a feeling of tension rather than creating one through better level design.

Hearing Ignis say "I've discovered a new recipaaaah" is my favourite part of this game. If you want politics, go buy XII instead. If you want action, buy XIII. If you want interpersonal relationships, buy X or VII. But skip this one.

Yassina
Yassina

Still one of the best single players games out there.

Mikassama
Mikassama

It's a decent game. Combat is way to simple, have few cool interactions and lack variety of special moves, the world is boring and just in some cases you can actually fight some interesting enemies like through the story and some hunts. The only thing that has some potential to keep you hooked on this game is the story, it's not like a super cool narrative with well developed characters (they try to develop the characters on the DLCs though), but still manage to get your interest. The ending is fine but it would be way better if the ending of Episode Ignis was the canon one.

Cereal Killά
Cereal Killά

still the best game ever for final fantasy

Natascha2
Natascha2

There are three things this game plagues me with ever since its release back in 2016:

- Loving Cor Leonis. A minor character who does: Not Much. Thank the fandom for that one.
- A tendency to bawl my eyes out mid soup aisle, because "Stand By Me" is playing via the store speakers.
- And realizing that being torn away from home and friends when I was a kid, was more PTSD inducing than I originally thought.

10/10 life-changing experience for depressed me. It's not a great game but if you have a weak spot for friendships, hardships and boys being boys, FFXV might be just for you.

SenpaiWaifuu
SenpaiWaifuu

Its a good game, but i hate that it keeps changing controller input randomly. i have an xbox controller, and it keeps giving me nintendo buttons? and none of my controlls are the same

SomeGuyWhoLikesFilms
SomeGuyWhoLikesFilms

Only for FF fans willing to put up with a UX designer's nightmare.

Saepora
Saepora

What a beautiful fucking ride. Great details for immersion, great action mechanics, breathtaking story and incredible character development in a natural way that doesn't rip you out of the game. All the standard FF praise - music, art, character design, ect. Characters interacting naturally in combat and idle talk makes you feel so connected to them. Actually chuckled a few times at the banter. 37 hours to casually beat it, very excited to 100% it.

Gorast
Gorast

What struck me the most about Final Fantasy XV was the sheer ambition evident in it, both in the story and the gameplay. This is a highly-flawed game - supremely unbalanced in terms of gameplay, full of jarring tonal shifts, an absolute slog of a second half, and a plot that feels at once overcooked and underdeveloped. And yet, playing through it was an incredible ride. The camaraderie the game manages to portray between the four main characters is exquisite, and exactly hits the mark that the developers appeared to be going for - bullshitting around Eos, ignoring the main story for hours at a time to track down side quests was great, and the natural dialogue really endeared me to the characters - sure, plenty of the side characters are pretty thin in terms of characterization, and Cindy's accent (and weirdly Americanized name) grated on me, but I was impressed by the ways in which Eos feels lived in, particularly for an open-world game that feels very Ubisoft in its construction. As with every aspect of the game, there are annoyances - the auto-driving segments can be exhausting when literally no dialogue is occurring for the entire five real-time minute drive to a side quest - but the gameplay, and the story, are at their best in this first half, when you can take the game at your own pace, dipping in and out of the main story.

The second half, then, where the game narrows to a linear path, is an altogether different beast. Losing access to the open world until you unlock a mechanic that allows you to roll back and check out what you leave uncompleted was a pretty big shift in how I engaged with the game and its story, especially the opening of the second half, where the jovial, adventurous tone of the game is traded in for something extremely dour instead, a tone that somehow never really relents, all the way through the end of the game. The tonal shifts here are mostly going from dark to grimdark and back, and it was a hard thing to reconcile with the first half.

You can say that about the story in general - it feels painted in broad strokes, with grand ideas that, in the developers' view, required additional media to fully understand, though the game itself does a good job of conveying its core concept, dour and fatalist as it is. The base game's bittersweet ending affected me mainly by virtue of the work it had done in endearing the characters to me, though I was still left feeling like "man, that was brutal," without being sure if I'd actually enjoyed the story by the end. The DLC...well, the severely-truncated second DLC set having to be completed by a book is disappointing, particularly as it teases out an alternate ending where maybe, just maybe, not everything has to end up so miserable for the characters that matter most, as compared to the world at large. That story wasn't finished here, though, so it loses points for that.

Combat-wise, it's consistent throughout - I can see why the system is unpopular and derided, but I found it manageable, if not necessarily all that engaging. It's not 100% braindead, and you can do some cool things with warping and having your boys pile on the last remaining enemy in a fight, but overall the system feels like it lacks depth and can be pretty passive. The lack of magic in any meaningful sense was disappointing, though this combat system feels like it would have trivialized magic anyway, so it was probably for the best that it was left out. The spells you get access to towards the endgame were fun to use, though, and in conjunction with the high-level weapons you have by that point, it makes the combat more engaging.

Despite the myriad flaws in this game, it felt worth playing to me, and felt worthy of the standard Final Fantasy has set in previous games. It's ambitious and grand in scale, and it feels like the developers, the writers, everyone involved had a point they wanted to make, a story to tell, and I think on the whole, they at least put together an interesting, engaging game worth exploring in-depth. Needed more Aranea though.

kngdumbs
kngdumbs

Yes and no on the recommending part.

Yes, because I did like the story and game play. I don't really play FF games, so this is the first one I've played through completely. I liked the battle system as free roam is always a favorite of mine. The characters felt real and overall I had a great time... playing it on the playstation 4.

The no part is because the game consistently crashed on me. Sometimes it took an hour and sometimes all I had to do was go to my options menu and poof--- transparent white screen. I am literally trying my best to get through the PC ver. but I'm starting to feel defeated, mate.

Anyway, good luck and I hope the game runs well for everyone else.

Huey
Huey

This is my favorite triple A title with a memory leak. It really great how the game makes me take a break every 2 hours to make sure I touch some grass. 16 year old me would have dirty sex with noctis. 10/10 game thanks nomura.

BrumStarr
BrumStarr

Having played FF7 back in the day ive always been fond of these games. XV is a great story. Plenty to do and challenging battles. The grind of levelling up still has its charm. Visually awesome.

Vo1d_Vision
Vo1d_Vision

Love the game only a few weird things have happened to me and got very fustrated due to me being stupid and not saving but love it all the same would definitly recommend the game to anyone who likes open world games, you don't have to play any other final fantasy to play this one.

DrawsPastTense
DrawsPastTense

Just didn't click with the combat style, thought the story was disjointed and had a hard time caring about most of it, and Prompto annoyed the hell out of me. Then the game crashed the moment I beat it... that felt fitting.

HUT_316
HUT_316

I just can't with this one. I really wanted to like it but the ridiculous travel system and oddly laid out menus killed it for me. Battle could be fun but the rest just isn't my style.

CelestialDefence
CelestialDefence

From what i played it just seemed like hot garbage. The gameplay felt like just flashy button mashing and the road trip theme really took me out of the fantastical feeling i got from other entries. As for performance my old GTX 970 just couldn't really play it well enough besides. I also despise how much walking you need to do to do stuff like yikes most of your game time will be moving to A to B.

I'd rate like 2/10 - I hope FF16 is better.

SkyKingGoose
SkyKingGoose

Doesn't work as an action game because of extremely shallow combat, mostly consisting of holding down one button and watching things die. Less engaging than the traditional turn-based systems.
Doesn't work as an RPG because the world struggles to maintain any internal consistency, the charm of the main cast wears thin incredibly fast, and the story metes out important plot beats in the clumsiest possible manner. The Fall of Insomnia in particular is one of the worst executions of a critical emotional moment I can remember in any game.
And most importantly, it barely even functions as a completed video game. The main story bugged out during Chapter 10 for me and deleted an event flag, locking me out of any further main story progress. I gave up around 5 hours of attempting to fix it using the scarce amount of information I could find on it. The Playstation versions run much better and as far as I know don't have as many game-breaking issues, but the experience itself isn't worth bothering with.
tl;dr, if you're a hardcore Final Fantasy/JRPG fan, you're better off playing older entries in the series, and if you're a newcomer/action game fan, you're better off playing NieR instead. Maybe this is one of those games that gets really good in the endgame, but the road trip there just isn't as fun as it seems like it'd be.

Sternenblut^
Sternenblut^

Gameplay is fun, graphics rly good, Story is good stuff, but i really hate this boyband bullshit. Final Fantasy always was about having multiple characters to choose from

Unknown77
Unknown77

Con's:
1.) huge resource big time, to point it take over windows and lock you out! try get to desktop nightmare to do!
2.) battles vs waste time doing other things in the game like camping, buying food and other things, total waste of time!
3.) load new maps or mission can take 5-20min!
4) maps are so large i mean walking one end to other can 5hrs! not count waste of time to do!
5.) you be wasting hours doing none battles in this game!
6.) if you on bad guys air ship you may find your being block from escaping ship before it blows up! i mean it block you from exiting it totally!

likes 2%, hate 98

must had a Karn add-in nonce item to this game. marker marks products all over this game, none windows, Sony, maker of this game ether 3rd party products in this game! they must have milk it everything they can cut out the fun time make a buck!

btw lot of mission you can't even save in-battles exit out! if you do you lose your place what you left off doing basic start over from no were there no save anytime!

joshyawesome
joshyawesome

this is my crack and man am i overdosing

SherlockHomeboy
SherlockHomeboy

The last few chapters were a miss for me, but the early - mid game is great. Driving around the world with your friends in the backseat is so much fun.

Mr. Prax
Mr. Prax

I was enjoying this until I got hit with denovo for some random reason. Now I am locked out of the game, so fuck this and fuck denovo.

phrog
phrog

episode prompto time trials can suck my non-existent nuts

megafuneral
megafuneral

one of the weirdest games I've ever played, but also one of the coziest

highly recommended

Ruderalis
Ruderalis

FF 10 and 10x2 was the girl band. Now it's time for the boy band bromance

Cmdr Shaide
Cmdr Shaide

The game is broken without any discernable reason. With a high-powered computer, the game still periodically crashes the whole computer with the "Internal Memory Error" Blue Screen of Death. Even using the utilities to fix said issues, like "Special K", the game is still nearly unplayable due to frequent BSOD without warning.

i7-12700KF
MSI RTX 3080 12gb
32gb DDR5 RAM
12TB SSD Space
Windows 10 Home

Vault Smeller
Vault Smeller

i love how they tried to speed up the combat by making it real time but everything else takes fuggin forever from loading into options, dialouge, etc. i have maxed settings in 4k and it still looks sub par and feels like one of the worst final fantasies i ever played.

yung struggle
yung struggle

it's pretty fun until you get put on rails

Pronounce
Pronounce

Came for the waifus
Came to the waifus
Stayed for the bros
Cried for the bros

Nicknic
Nicknic

I love Final Fantasy it is my favorite video game series and includes my favorite game of all time Final Fantasy 7. As much as it pains me to say this is the worst game in the series and not a very good game overall. The game play drags and is boring, the exploration is dull and it has by far the worst story in the series. I played the game when it launched on Ps4 and I thought I would give it another try with all the new new Windows Editions upgrades but i simply cannot recommend this game.

IAMBIG
IAMBIG

One of the worst games i have ever played
i love final fantasy but this is sooo bloody terrible
drags on and on witht he worst ui i have ever seen
wtf no mouse cursor windows edition more like console edition
the game is just boring as hell on top of all that
dont be fooled by the screenshots those good parts come after hours of a to b dull exploration

Zulox
Zulox

Did not like this game at all. Characters were really bad, story was even worse. But for some reason, I played it all the way through. This may be the FINAL Final Fantasy game that I play

Menarndi
Menarndi

Roadtrip with the boy's can't save you from the bad combat and empty world.

Irisius van Norvandus
Irisius van No…

Really love this game. The friendship between the 4 main characters is so wholesome. One of my fav FF games so far.

Ephrem
Ephrem

Game is legit, the open world section is really fun, the narrative is strong in the linear sections, and the ending is one of the strongest I've ever played. Other than a few gripes like a few performance hangups and one specific chapter near the end of the game, it's really good.

Walk tall, my friends

InsaneFFnut
InsaneFFnut

I know that there are a lot of people who love or hate this game. I love it. It is one of the few games that I can see well enough to complete most of the achievement trophies. The open world dynamic is awesome. I just wish that Square Enix would have made all the DLC content episodes that they planned for instead of making a book in place of Episodes Noctis, Luna, and Arenea.

Jesse Aidyn
Jesse Aidyn

TL;DR: A bit of a disappointment as a AAA game within the Final Fantasy franchise, but it has its moments. It's expansive and beautiful, and has tons of content. Sadly, most of the optional stuff within the main game is simply boring and unoriginal, giving away a "quantity over quality" feel. As for the four "episodes", "Gladiolus" and "Prompto" aren't much to talk about, while "Ignis" and "Ardyn" fare much, much better in my opinion.

The main game has its strong moments, mostly during the main quest either during the more original feeling dungeons (Rock of Ravatogh is definitely one that striked me as more engaging than others) or when it truly takes the time to flesh out the main characters through impactful events (some of the later chapters do this well). However, in general, the troubled development kinda shows.
- A story that is not always easy to follow without external references and other side medias. In particular, the main antagonist's motivations comes out as plain weird or contradictory throughout the game, a problem that is only partially resolved by his own DLC episode.
- More and less interesting and developed characters. Notably, I find it hard to engage or even sympathise at all with Noctis, the main character.
- Controls that have potential but that tends to favour very few strategies during combats, making them repetitive and sometimes dragged out way too long.
- A world that, albeit its enormous explorable size, remains somewhat empty in the end, in an almost uncanny way (especially when you get to those weirdly small outposts all around the world). And frankly, it doesn't help that almost everything that moves outside the outposts and cities is meant to be hunted and killed by the group. The "kill or be killed" mentality referenced by the four guys during their exploration of the "wild" also feels either entirely forced or absurd, seeing as nothing about it really threatens you outside of some daemons at night.

For all its (sometimes obvious) faults, it gets points for trying some new stuff with the franchise. The much more action-oriented nature of combats, than even FFXIII, as well as the "closer to our reality" feeling we get at times can be seen as refreshing. The nice blend of cinematic action and gameplay, for instance during the fights against the Astrals, isn't half bad. And there is certainly a lot of available content, including tons of post-game stuff.

The latter, however, is a double edged knife, seeing as the side quests are in vast majority drab and repetitive. Many consist of barely introduced fetch-quests, backtracking in more or less far away areas, and fights that don't bring much to the table... There are exceptions (Pitioss dungeon being in my opinion one of the best and most distinguishable parts of the game) but they simply are few and far between. Optional dungeons are in general less interesting than the main ones: in particular, the Menace Dungeons, which I haven't played on this version, but completed a few years back on PS4, are nothing short of minimally contextualised grinding. For sure, some will like the corresponding challenge, but in the end, it's a tad mindless and forcefully dragged on without much care or inventiveness.

When it comes to the episodes, I feel the quality varies wildly.
- Episode Gladiolus is basically just one more dungeon without much to mention. I guess it's nice to see a version of Gilgamesh in FFXV, and it sometimes look good? It's all very basic and unoriginal though, including gameplay wise.
- Episode Prompto is my least favourite of the bunch. I get the attempt at making a more emotional and interesting narrative than with Episode Gladiolus, but the character's extreme lack of self-esteem seemed to me a bit out of nowhere, just like his very quick emotional progression (maybe it'd be different if the main game had shown this a bit more?). More importantly, the gameplay is quite terrible: it simply fails as a shooter and, here again, combats often stretch out too long (and the AI is remarkably stupid in this episode). At least you get to see a new area...
- Episode Ignis might be my favorite part of the whole game and solidifies the titular character as my uncontested favourite of the main four. In a way, it shows what FFXV could have been if more care had been given to shorter sequences rather than making tons and tons of insignificant grinding quests. Both the story and controls are engaging, and the idea of alternate endings is an interesting one.
- Episode Ardyn gets points for giving important, otherwise lacking information about the lore and the world. It's also nice to finally have the chance to go about within Insomnia (at least a good portion of it) during daytime. Controls feel mostly alright, albeit the repetitiveness. The optional elements during the episode (taking control of city sectors) is sadly a trivial drag.

Now, although I've been a bit harsh in this critique, it's not necessarily that the game is all bad, on the contrary. The main quest line is overall decent, visuals are generally quite pretty, and similarly, I don't have any serious complaints with the sound work. Only, for a fan of the franchise, it's difficult not to be disappointed in many occasions, and there is, especially with all the optional elements in the main game, an undeniable sense of "quantity over quality".
7/10

Malfy_
Malfy_

seronok hempuk2 pew pew minato shit

Nolife Gaming
Nolife Gaming

Seemed like it would be a great game... I even watched a lets play (as usual before I buy). Well... Keyboard gets deactivated after a random amount of time playing it. Tried using my game pad, even though I hate using controllers... Wouldnt even register. This is very unacceptable from a game that has been out for years. Refunded

Lunaharu
Lunaharu

It is amazing and I love the graphics and scenery

Cobalia
Cobalia

Final Fantasy XV is a great game personally, it is not by any means a masterpiece or perfect in my opinion. However, if you just go in without watching Kingsglaive and Brotherhood Anime, the story is not good and vague, but the characters and bonds between these main four characters hold it up well and make it special for me. Previous Final Fantasy gameplay is normally turn-based combat, which is fine, but for myself as a person who never really gets into those turn-based games i really enjoy this gameplay much more. The action combat JRPG feel more like Kingdom Hearts imo i will say the pacing is quite off in term story and there is one chapter which isn't fun and overall dull. But regardless i thought this game was great and i really enjoyed it myself even back when i play back on PS4 i still think it is great with DLC added 

AlkamistNZ [SDTF2]
AlkamistNZ [SDTF2]

Its a cool idea, but watching 4 effeminate dudes drive around all day and talk about topics that don't interest me is sadly what i would consider to not be very fun.

Bryandemiurgos
Bryandemiurgos

Good graphics back in 2015, the open world is superior, you will mostly spent your time to explore and enjoy the kingdom of lucis.

EvilHound
EvilHound

This is one of my favorite games of all time.

Lots of reviews from mainstream sources are stupidly harsh on it.
But their wrong.

If you're looking for a fun, chill, expansive, and layered, RPG with hidden depths in it's systems and characters.
This is for you.

You will chill, laugh, cry, and above all have fun.

I would recommend the "Rebalanced Ascension" mod to more easily experience everything this game has to offer.

I played on PS4 and PC.

dfejus
dfejus

So many things just pisses me off

Omnis Lacrima
Omnis Lacrima

It's the most amazing mess you'll ever play.

Story 3/10
Graphics 9/10
Gameplay 7/10
Audio 9/10
Difficulty 4/10

This is a review coming from a massive lover of the FF franchise. Even my IGN is the name of an OST in this game. I waited for it 7 years. And when it was released I was dissapointed. With the releases of the Royal Edition and other DLC, it has now become a game worth playing.

Disclaimer: This game has been through production hell and you can tell. The end result is 7 game genres mixed... and badly. There's no direction. Mechanics feel absolutely alienated from one another. The Square Enix level of polish and quality is not here.

Pros :
>> After plenty of thought, this reason will be top one. It's this UNIQUE feeling of 4 dudes roaming around the world and just.. having some damn fun. It's the way they interact with eachother, the jokes they make, the way they cover each other's backs, the combination moves they share in combat, how they chill together in the car and gossip on their long rides. I cannot put enough words to describe how amazing is is to explore the world with your bros. No game has ever come close to giving me this feeling. It's what brings me back every time.
>> The combat takes 10-30 hours to get used to but once get a feel for it, it's insanely fun.
>> The sheer amount of weapons, styles and techniques you can use.
>> 40-60 hours of meaningful end game content to explore all over the maps
>> Mods. Yes. Plenty of them. Also a lot of customization already included in general.
>> The world and graphics are stunning. I strongly recommend using ReShade or NVIDIA filters.
>> Calling summons and destroying the world around you is hella fun.
>> Soundtracks. The damn soundtracks are SO good. Unparalleled.
>> Chocobooooooos. The best chocobo implementation of any SQ game.
>> 30 hours of gameplay to rush story, 100 hours for full complition.
>> You don't have Roach from Witcher 3 to help you explore the world. Yes I hate that ** horse and his AI.

Cons
>> Opimization is bad and it makes sense. 4 characters fighting 20 enemies in a massive open world with this level of quality and detail is hard to accomplish.
>> End game evolves around using a horrlbly implemented time travel mechanic.
>> Cutscenes are emotionless and acting is painful to watch. Worst part however is the inconsistancy between the quality of scinematics. Some cutscenes are a 10/10 quality wise and some are a 1/10. This massive gap feels so disorienting and weird.
>> The magic system in this game is the worst magic system I've seen in my life. Impressive.
>> Worst side quests I've seen in my life by a whole mile. Time consuming too. Absolutely worthless.
>> Optional diologues shouldn't exist but do. Not to mention they are clunky and interupt the flow pretty badly. If you think Cyberpunk 2077 has bad optional dialogue... wait till you see this.
>> You can't control when to summon.
>> Leveling system is unbalanced.
>> You level when you sleep which promotes the use of some really bad and not fun leveling tricks.

I hate this game. But I love this game. It's that toxic relationship you have where you love and hate your partner. Thankfully it's not a partner but a game.

I strongly recommend you put up with all the mess in this game and pull through to experience everything it has to offer. It's an amazing experience and you won't regret it.

joviet
joviet

A bachelor party goes horribly horribly wrong. Shenanigans ensue.

Code Slicer
Code Slicer

I REALLY tried, but this wasn't for me. Combat sucks, story sucks, camera sucks, Noctis hair aliasing sucks, world building sucks.

The first and only FF I've ever disliked so far. Even FVIII (my favorite one due to the "Succession" transcript mod and the broken af Junction system) and FFXIII (surprisingly even MORE linear than everyone says, but the game mechanics/combat was really cool and the graphics still look better than XV) gave me *MUCH* more fun than this one.

The brotherhood thing was cool though.

Smugdear
Smugdear

A great gateway series for the beloved Final Fantasy franchise and a testament for past players that this is the "new era" of Final Fantasy. The story (even though it's not as long as I thought it would be) was very rich and each main characters and villains have their own struggle. Graphics were top notch with fluid combat animation and reasonable difficulty to play. Overall it's a solid JRPG game that defines the genre's maturity in this modern era of gaming.

PS: Ignis daddy material

sparklebymoose
sparklebymoose

ffxv is basically a greek tragedy which means it's right up my alley.

something something cycle of familial violence. something something am i my brothers keeper. something something the throne seats only one meaning only one of us is getting out alive meaning no one is getting out alive we passed that point a long time ago something something what is a legacy worth when it leads to your death? something something (character) has been dead since the beginning.

Alfredo The Pasta
Alfredo The Pasta

It does some good things. The good things do not outweigh that the story is lacking, the gameplay is meh, and the experience is either fantastic or extremely frustrating with no inbetween.

PolarisPrime
PolarisPrime

Going to preface this by saying I played this game on PS4 originally and have a lot more time on it there than here. I'll also say that this is probably my favorite Final Fantasy game and love every part of it.

Pros

-Has some of the best visuals in a final fantasy to date, both in the world itself and in fights

-Lovable characters that you can really get attached to and you see grow

-A fantastic soundtrack, but of course it is. Yoko Shimomura is a musical goddess and anything she composes is absolute gold.

-All but one DLC is enjoyable to play (Looking at you episode prompto) and has some fantastic story, and the fact that it's included in the base game on PC is great.

-On the same topic, the changes to Insomnia were fun. The multi-summon scene towards the end and facing the old wall on your way to the final boss made the end of the game seem way less empty.

Cons

-Most of the sidequests were pretty lackluster, being complicated fetch quests that I really only did for the XP.

-The dungeons were my least favorite part. Most of them were Hallways with a few branching dead ends filled with the same repeat Daemons again and again, with no unique music for the most part. If not for the Royal arms I would happily skip each and every one of them. Costlemark tower is absolutely the worst.

-Obviously, the game's story has some flaws. Most of which can be solved with the Movie and Attached Animations. But you should never have to consume non-game media to understand the full story of a game.

-Least favorite version of Bahamut.

I love this game, flaws and all. It's the first Final Fantasy game I finished all the way through, and I enjoyed pretty much the whole thing save for THAT boss and the expanded Dungeons. A solid 7/10 and a great entry to the series.

TotallyImmortal
TotallyImmortal

Intro/Summary of Thoughts
Even after playing for 69 hours (nice), I cannot fully recommend this game. Personally I enjoyed this game but it is definitely not for everyone, and I think funnily enough I least recommend it to fans of other Final Fantasy games.

Story
I think that looking at the story retrospectively, I can say that the overall arc and idea of the story is pretty good, but the way that it was executed in this game is a little bit less amazing. With just the base game, I think that the story is honestly just a bit of a mess. With the 4 DLCs, the 5 episode anime series, and the movie, I think that it is kind of difficult to say that the game's story on its own is truly any good. Even with the DLC's included, the fact that the game doesn't tell you when to play those DLC's is kind of annoying, like you don't know until after the event has already happened to play the DLC. I get that they wanted you to play them after the game was already over but I think that kind of ruins the flow of the story, suddenly going back in time after the story ended to find out what happened to the individual characters. The exception for this would be the DLC for Ardyn, as I think it does make sense to play that one after you compete the main story. There are some parts in the main story where the decisions the characters make or how the characters act don't really feel correct. And also, I think that almost all the characters besides the main four and Ardyn are not really fleshed out. I do believe that there was supposed to be a Lunafreya DLC but even so, the game should not rely on DLC to flesh out characters.

Combat
As of writing this review, I have only played this one, like 15 hours of FFX, and 1.5 hours on FFVII Remake and honestly I enjoyed FFX the least because of the way the combat works. Speaking of the combat, the combat in this game is also pretty bad but I do enjoy it more than the term based combat because at the very least it is real time. But even so, holding down one button and occasionally dodging is not my ideal way of playing a game. I don't really feel like I've gotten any better at the combat system when I was like 5 hours in compared to when I was 50 hours in, just my gear got better and I leveled up.

Music
Absolutely amazing, nothing else to say.

Final Thoughts (Ha)
I forgot to mention this in the story section and it's already messy enough without me slotting this in there so I'll just say it here first, the main story is way shorter than expected. I think I finished the main story of the game around 50 hours in, with like 35-40 hours spent doing side quests/other quests mostly unrelated to the main story. But overall I think that the game is like a beautiful mess (I forgot to mention but this game does look very good). But like I said in the opening paragraph, I did enjoy this game but I don't think everyone would. Probably a 6/10 with just the game but after consuming all the additional content it's like an 8/10.

JeremyBeezy
JeremyBeezy

Ok so I'm an old school ff fan. All my series favorites are snes and ps1 games so I wasn't going into this game expecting much. I'm glad to say I was pleasantly surprised how much I actually liked this weird final fantasy themed road trip simulator.

The gameplay is unique, it has some issues (I found magic next to useless all game) but it is mostly fun. The characters are a lot more likeable than I expected and they grow on you throughout the game. While the car mechanics are fairly bare bones it was still enjoyable to explore in it.

There was a definite difficulty spike for me at the beginning of chapter 3, which led to me doing a long string of the most boring sidequest in the world for 8 to 10 hours, which almost killed the experience for me, but I never had to do it again and I gained plenty of experience and money to comfortably complete the game afterwards.

Good game over all, and despite it not being like all the final fantasy games I love, I really enjoy ffxv for what it is. Reccomend

bigbilly
bigbilly

I like fighting monsters with the bros and then we go in the car and that one guy is all "oh yeah cheeky banter" and then the smart guy makes a witty remark and that's kind of a special moment for me.

papoyy
papoyy

10/10 - Nocti's and his friends

TH3YV1D
TH3YV1D

I absolutely love this game and despite the fact that I really wanna trash it because I just killed Adamantoise for the first time I can't, it's too good, there is a lot of room for improvement and development hell certainly hurt it a lot, but I'm very happy with the result nonetheless, despite all the drama we got a solid, fun Final Fantasy experience with a lot to offer

DankoBog
DankoBog

This is one of those very personal games that even though it is regarded as a weak entry to the franchise it's my favourite game from this series. Final Fantasy XV culminates everything I've loved about gaming with a decent story a fantastic open world to explore with the greatest party of friends taking this amazing trip across the continent.

The world is diverse with beautiful sights to witness riding the Chocobo is fun and I get an emotional attachment to that fat bird. The characters although flawed encapsulates a lot about what Final Fantasy is about. The combat is amazing and the most fun part about the game the bosses are diverse and have great designs and I've spent more time wandering the open world in this game than in any other. I love this game to death and although it might not be for you. It would be criminal to not give it a go.

Humble Beings
Humble Beings

To start, something that definitely needed to be said about the game right off the bat is that it was definitely rushed and/or went through multiple rewrites all those years ago and it shows in the final product. But with that being said there is a lot of things that I enjoyed about the game which I will attempt to explain further.

The story is quite mangled whereby the prequel to the game is done in a movie format, FFXV Kingsglaive though it does provide you with SOME backstory and idea on what exactly transpired in Insomnia before FFXV starts its nothing that simple line of dialogue in the game could not summarize for you, "king is dead, Insomnia is lost" So, do you need to watch the movie to understand the game? not exactly. But its still disjointed nonetheless, so that's something that needs to be pointed out.

FFXV has one of the most depressing story lines in any FF game ive played to date. Everyone in the world is a plaything for the Gods above including your character Noctis. He is destined to be the King of Light who will rid the world of darkness, but the journey leading up to that particular objective cost him EVERYTHING

The story kept me interested enough from its happy beginnings by being this roadtrip with the boys kind of thing and just kicking ass and taking names, up until the point where the main character has to make that ultimate sacrifice. The final act did feel a bit disconnected slightly for me but that's another one of the clear indications that this game was rushed.

Overall I quite enjoyed the story and it was not your typical "save the world get the girl" kinda narrative. It was all about appreciating your loved ones more essentially and im a sucker for those kind of things.

Gameplay wise they did a couple of things really well, my favorite one was having Prompto take photos during your time in the game and it just helped created this sense of attachment towards the group even more as you look through all the fun times you had! that was pretty nice.

Combat-wise FFXV was one of those games that during its release, had a very polarizing response to players. It was one of the first FFs to ditch Turn Based Combat and for better or worse it seems to have set the trend for future FFs which includes the upcoming FF16. I personally loved the departure from Turn Based Combat and seeing Noctis whizz around while executing cool "link strikes/blindside strikes" with the boys is very satisfying to watch!

There's also the endgame content which was dungeon crawling that i never bothered to do because one puzzle felt superrrrrrrrrrrrr repetitive to do so i never really bothered with the others.

Graphics wise, it looks really great but there's a weird phasing thing going on when its bright outside like the trees popping in and out sometimes like they were given the power of the crystal too and the lighting was flickering horribly at times as well. And afaik the updates for this game has stopped so....yeah...its staying that way guys.

But overall though the game was good enough for me, characters were written well enough. I wish Luna had more screentime and had a moment with Noctis running around Altissa taking photos. (mods can fix that by replacing prompto with her) The experience was definitely worth going through at least once. Get it on 50% off, thats the lowest ive seen it go on Steam, then and only then will it be worth the purchase. 7/10

chlorine, straight preferably
chlorine, stra…

real cool, feels kind of lacking though

Mankomancer
Mankomancer

I wanted to like this game, but it just felt too boring. Didnt manage to beat game, stopped playing after 6h of content.

PROS:
+ Graphics look nice
+ Photos being taken as you progress was a nice move

CONS:
- Story felt shallow
- Characters felt very stereotypical (even though there were couple interesting moments)
- Special weapons drained main characters HP, didnt had need to use them
- Quests felt boring

+/- Combat felt entertaining, but at same time mindless

Summary:
Game looks good but doesnt have substance. The best part about this game is passable combat and some interesting ideas (hero journey - literally is a journey, with car, food and bros) and seeing photos of your adventure. It is not a bad game, but not good either. If you try it, please buy it only on discount.

Will rate:
Weapon draining wielders HP out of 10

thai1689
thai1689

I've never played a final fantasy game as I always believed they were not for me and turns out i might be right.

The concept was decent, (Prince goes on a road trip to find himself) but I found the open world quite bland and boring with very little to do. The world didn't feel living and breathing to me personally.

The mission structure was very repetitive which is often the case but then the Open world should keep you engrossed with characters and side quests to break the monotony in order to continue playing and this did neither for me.
It really did feel like you moved around at a snails pace at times.

I tried and really did want to like this but ultimately you like what you like....

Nefrai
Nefrai

Had been slowly working on this game over years, to find out Square turned their backs on this game, and removed online features, avatara, special loot, etc. If you want a bare-bones game, pick it up cheap. Otherwise, I can't recommend supporting this game with money, when Square turned on it.

MagicMelones
MagicMelones

Like the game, but very sadge cant get past a point in the game where i get interviewed by some old hag and it will just freeze the game... tried getting a better gpu deleting and reinstalling the game validating files, you name it. Just cant get any further. Shame.

Boop the Snoot
Boop the Snoot

This game is a magical fantasy masterpiece. All your real world troubles will temporarily melt away once you hit play. I think it would have even higher reviews, but the combat and leveling system is rather unusual and complex especially for someone not familiar with the series. Also keep in mind the gameplay is real-time rather than a turn-based system like some other Final Fantasy games. But the new system is fun and provides a sense of excitement and danger. Graphically, it is absolutely gorgeous with a great stylized setting. You will forget what universe you are originally from. But even with a powerful rig, this game may still stutter and lag.

Another great feature is the companion system. This game would be excellent for someone who is lonely or doesn't have many friends in real life. Playing this game you will have a buddy system where your companions follow you around and fight right alongside you, and they will even chit chat and keep you company.

In conclusion, this game does everything it is supposed to. You can explore a large open world, fight monsters, go fishing, collect ingredients, drive around, go camping, customize your vehicle, or just chill with your gang. It transports the player to another realm of fantasy as well as any game in any universe to date.

(UMP) Redeyes222
(UMP) Redeyes222

I'll take a game with extreme highs and a fair bit of lows, over a decent overall game any day.

Mr.DuckBoilz
Mr.DuckBoilz

เกมโอเพนเวิร์ลที่จำกัดการโอเพน งงๆป่ะ 555

Makiki
Makiki

There was so much potential in this game, that it's hard to not look at the end result with a tiny bit of regret. I feel like most of the flaws could have been fixed by just performing better Q&A or keep working a little longer on everything: The battle system is fine, but they don't tell you half of what is possible; The music is fantastic, but then the sound mixing is strange with weird cut outs; The characters are great, but then the motivations for some side characters are completely missing; The world is ok, but the size of it seems to mostly exist to waste your time.

The biggest offender, however, is the story and it seems that it was a deliberate choice to not tell half of what is going on in order to get people the watch the anime. That is a real shame, because I think the story is pretty good but it's just not in the game.

All in all, I would recommend this as the sum of its parts makes it a good game. It is, in my opinion, clearly the worst Final Fantasy in the series while it could have been the greatest with just a little more time and, especially, with a story that is only told within the game.

lunchbox>.
lunchbox>.

LITERALLY, the best game ive ever played. hands DOWN. chapter 14 was so intense!

Yeleng4
Yeleng4

Sad & Beautiful emo road trip :,(

Icarrus
Icarrus

The combat is okay, dodging enemies in large groups is hell. Enemy attacks are telegraphed but aren't weighty and nothing feels impactful. The story is disjointed, poorly written, and not very compelling. It's like they had 10 ideas for this game but could not focus it into one. By the time I was 15 hours in I just wanted it to be over with. Buy on sale.

phat_murdock
phat_murdock

Cool game, goofy port.

Ran on two different cards (AMD and NVIDIA) and although I get a solid frame rate there are some goofy issues and you have to exit the game to make the simplest of graphical changes. This is very much a console game.

Good game, get on sale though. Also, who the heck is paying $70 for PC games now???

NAvMan
NAvMan

The combat is fast and fun. The 4 main characters are excellent and their banter/interactions with each other is one of best things about this game. The whole "road trip, hunting monsters, camping, adventuring with the bros" thing is great. Soundtrack is one of the best I've ever heard.

The story is good with some flaws. It felt a bit rushed towards the final few chapters. I didn't expect the game to end the way that it did. It's too sad, man. "Stand By Me" by Florence + the Machine is emotionally dangerous to me now. I mean I do like the ending. It makes sense and it fits the overall narrative but I prefer the alternate ending that was introduced in the DLC cause it's less depressing.

Side quests ranged from okay to good. Nothing extraordinary. Having one of the gang be the photographer who takes photos of your adventures was an excellent addition. 200 slots is not enough bloody space for photos! The DLC's are great (only played 3/5). Each "episode" focuses on a specific member of the MC's group. I enjoyed the different combat styles and getting to explore each character a bit more.

This is my first Final Fantasy game. I went in completely blind and came out 90 hours later. It's pretty good. Part of me wishes there was more "adventuring with the bros". The game definitely left a emotional void in my soul. There's enough good things in this game to keep you hooked till the end. I got this game at a discount, so it'd only be fair to recommend getting this game on sale.

Shadow
Shadow

I didn't love this game at first, but it definitely grew on me - I enjoyed the main storyline, there was good and easy to understand progression systems, and finally the overall world was interesting with some nice varied towns and cities to explore. The side quests and hunts are mostly fun to do (with the caveat that travelling to them at times can be rather painful).

Would recommend to fans of the series, or RPG fans looking to try their first Final Fantasy game.

SilverCrown739
SilverCrown739

The DLCs and the 4 main characters carry this game. Story is garbage, we need a remake that has FFvs13 story.

Episode Ignis is 9/10

Skeletor
Skeletor

fighting and bro time really fun but story i have no idea what was happening. end fight was good tho

[UwU] Vista
[UwU] Vista

If I'm speaking about my first 50 hours in the game it'd be pretty sour. If I'm speaking about the last 20 hours... forget all the bad things I said about the game, FFXV is a work of art.

There's a lot I dislike about the game and part of that is due to expectations (it's an open world that's dry as dirt with a car that goes out of its way to prevent you from crashing it, unlike gta), it being half-baked (on controller the button you use to start talking to an npc makes you jump awkwardy. The japanese button layout doesn't have this issue), and because the game was straight up under-budgeted (all the dlcs they tried making were to fill in missing parts of the plot, and future dlc ended up getting canceled).

To me, all of that is outweighed by the end of the game. It's clear they had a plan for the story (thanks to the royal content that fleshed out the ending) and you could feel the heart in the story. Middle and beginning just needs a little more quality content.

Lt_Maverick
Lt_Maverick

Combat: I still haven't finished the game nor have I played the DLCs. I'm not sure what those gameplay loops entail but the main combat through Chapter 8 is fun. I love the option to wait or to go live action.

Story: The story is actually fun. There is definitely a typical anime teenage angst vibes to one of the characters which initially drowns out the other characters. However, eventually, the personalities of the other characters will shine through. All of their personalities make sense. At this point, I really do like all of the characters. Even the NPCs you come into contact with have value.

Graphics: Very Good Graphics, even in 2022. The Nvidia extras are the most taxing on my current system (5900x/RTX 3080). I play the game in 3440 x 1440 Ultrawide but the game challenges my system. I rarely dip below 60 FPS but I shouldn't have a problem with it. I think if you run it in 4k, the DLSS works well. You can find a workaround to enable it in ultrawide but I do not think it has the desired effect. If it does, then stay away lol.

DrShocktopus
DrShocktopus

Fun but flawed.

Combat is pretty braindead but fun, you can warp to enemies and warp to high ground which restores your mana. Thats about the only mechanic, otherwise its very braindead mashing and switching weapons. You can craft spells though which is pretty cool, and then put them into your weapon slots.

Noctis (the main character) can wield every weapon in the game (including spells) and has 4 slots to equip these weapons, and these 4 that are selected can be changed at will during combat.

Story is probably the most interesting part, but it takes very long for it to actually get going (like most FFs).

The world is very vast, open and beautiful. The modern setting also compliments this. However, the downside is that its kinda empty, other than the towns, Imperial garrions (bases) and dungeons. There really isn't much else to do. Except for the side quests which are all right but can be a bit tedious at times. But it does serve to fill out the lore of the world and the area.

But as the game had a very VERY rough development, being stitched together from the literally corpse of another game. I'd say it turned it okay. Its no the best Final Fantasy, but not the wrost either, its just good fun. I would recommend this game, and for the current price its a bloody steal too! (£25 for full price).

Qlus
Qlus

Flash and flare for days but no substance to this beautifully rendered pile of manure. I spent hours playing this game hoping it would get better because you can see the effort made and I am sure there is a game in there somewhere that someone can enjoy with enough patience. But I dearly wish I hadn't wasted my time.

Itachi
Itachi

Great gameplay, fascinating story, and great combat

Rower
Rower

Amazing game.

The music, story, characters and setting really carry an otherwise average game and make it something truly worth experiencing.

mari
mari

i love the main cast of characters, just wish some of them had more of a role in the game. the way the story is split up between the main game, the dlc and all the other pieces of ff xv media is assinine, i like the story overall but having to jump through hoops for it really sucks. also the combat system is all style with no substance.

jcshannon987
jcshannon987

It has its flaws but I truly have a great time playing this game. Love the story love the characters. and the combat is somewhat lacking but still fun

DuckHeelDad
DuckHeelDad

I hesitated to try FFXV because it seemed to get a lukewarm reaction when initially released. I have no idea what people didn't like about it. Beautiful, immersive experience with complex, well-drawn and acted characters. Fantastic game, ranks up with the top releases of the series.

BillyFromKorea
BillyFromKorea

Good game, bad port.

Game crashes everytime you try to close the game, and freezes the entire PC. The mouse cursor always stays on screen and doesn't go away.

Hades
Hades

Now I know how it feels like to hang out with friends

Zapoc
Zapoc

Completely broken for me. Can't even get to the start menu.

ShadowOleander
ShadowOleander

All the love to the chocobros

lockharts
lockharts

"Fatalistic Brilliance"

One of the most heartbreaking, yet surreal games I've ever played. Although structurally messy, its story made me feel the deepest of emotions. The game might be incomplete and have flaws in story direction and flow, but if you are willing to open your heart to the story Final Fantasy XV is trying to tell you can actually find a story is there all along.

As the narrative unfolds, you wholeheartedly experience the theme of camaraderie, as well as the abstract notions of betrayal, revenge, inevitability, and loyalty. Not to mention, it does a phenomenal job of delving extensively into both the antagonist and main cast (Noctis, Prompto, Gladiolus, and Ignis). Exceptional visual design, stellar music, and tight gameplay are all so beautifully well done.

Final Fantasy XV displays friendship and legacy unlike any other. But altogether... it's a proclamation on how influential one's destiny can be.

TTV_Papa_Mochii_Kaii
TTV_Papa_Mochii_Kaii

its fun the story is nice and its fun to play over again

RoXYo
RoXYo

Well, this confirms Square Enix doesn't know how to create an open world RPG. The map is meaninglessness large with little surprises, all quests are still from point A to B with a car to drive to. The UI is awkward, the graphic doesn't live up to expectations of what the 150G resource should be. But THAT'S OK, SE is not gifted in creating such scale of a game's world, we all know that, but how about the storytelling that they are more than capable of? The game left unfinished, 3 major chapters from aranea, lunafreya and noctis were scraped off, converted into moonrune novels.
Hope they don't make the mistake again in upcoming XVI.

Lilly xoxo
Lilly xoxo

das a fat 10/10 right there the BGM, the story so far, all so beautiful

Giles Kugan
Giles Kugan

it real good unless u got a dumpy shitbox for a brain

Lip X Lip
Lip X Lip

Good game but don't drive manually.
It sucks.
Big time.
I'm in my mums car.
Vroom vroom.
Get out of my car.
Naww ;c.

Apperatus
Apperatus

Recommended with a heavy disclaimer. If you didn't remember that there was a movie and anime paired with this game, a lot of the story is going to lack stakes, and the storytelling decisions in the second half of the game are... questionable (Not the story itself, but the strange way of telling so much off screen).

The gameplay, however, is very fun, and the sidequests are enjoyable, so still would recommend!

i7
i7

Pretty good story, fun battle system but hard to got the point at the beginning, also is sad that the magics are very diminished in this game in comparison with other FF, is worth to mention that this game have a very good post-game content, more challenging than most of the game that in general is pretty easy

Everest
Everest

Decent game. There are many cons in this game mainly some of the content felt like rushed out, story was very fragmented (why do i need to see a movie?) for some god forsaken reason, combat was braindead, but in the end this was a very enjoyable ride. Loved the idea behind it and I think they delivered it. Mostly.

wardman270
wardman270

funny boys doing funny things :)

AuliaRY
AuliaRY

this game is nice. but why this game force close frequently?

Sommek236
Sommek236

Overall fun game with enjoyable side content making up a majority of the playtime. If you love fishing in games as a side-activity, then this is the game for you!

Anonymous
Anonymous

Hmm...I like it, but there's some irritating things too.

First, the story is pretty good. Though it takes a while to really hit the ground running, and when it does, it really runs!

Second, the side quests...there's so many of them! But they're not as boring as some side quests, because at least you can explore some and look for treasures and see the world around you.

Third, the graphics. No complaints! Totally awesome.

Fourth, the characters. Love them! Some of the voices are a bit annoying though...

Fifth, the bugs. I don't mean the ones you kill in-game. This game keeps closing on me for no reason. And when I tried to complete a quest, the game froze in some weird blue cloudy place that I couldn't leave. It was really bizarre! Thankfully, the autosave means I don't lose much. But it's still really annoying.

Sixth, the combat. Combat is pretty good in this game, but I have a pretty hard time getting a hang of it. Mainly because I'm just not that good at this sort of thing. But it feels like you get hurt way too easily...

Seventh, The exploration. My one regret is that you can't swim.

Eighth, the enemies. Nothing special so far. I would say they were far more imaginative in that regard in FF13. But then again, I've only been playing 13 hours.

All in all, it's a really good game that lacks some imagination in a few areas but is a lot of fun and I'm excited to see where it goes further in!

Toby.exe
Toby.exe

Frequent crashes. Can't save in dungeons, making some of them impossible to complete since the game keeps crashing

unknownvariablek
unknownvariablek

your free to go any where you want(:

davidtriune
davidtriune

game is overly sad but once you play Ardyn you totally understand why everything is so sad. if you play it without Ardyn, it's a weak story. If you play it with Ardyn, it's a decent story.

in fact. you need to play Episode Ardyn for it to make any sense at all. If you don't play it, FF15 will completely confuse and frustrate you. I actually recommend playing it before you start FF15.

but the poor presentation of events makes this a overly confusing game for new players (while advertising as the opposite)

Clockyn
Clockyn

u can start 3 different families with 3 extremely different lifestyles across the globe and u still havent loaded in, this is why i love final fantasy

rtj4
rtj4

Fun for like 4 hours. Then you realize the writing is bad, the UI is clunky, combat is neither challenging nor creative, and all side quests are just fetch quests.

mirdones
mirdones

It is a beautiful game, but nothing else.
The game is badly optmized and has slow downs, even with a RTX 3090.
The story is badly written and you are supposed to watch movies not in game and read books to fully understand it.
The side quests are mainly fetch quests or kill monster quests with no story.
The world is mostly empty and makes no sense.
Combat is bad.
It is the worst mainline Final Fantasy.

Asuna
Asuna

What a beautiful mess. After completing this game I feel like a kid watching his best friend move away.

Aposgk
Aposgk

Disclaimer: The only other Final Fantasy game I've played is FF XIV online so essentially FF XV is my introduction to the Final Fantasy franchise and it was a great introduction. I mainly played until I completed the main story and it didn't give much attention to side quests and exploring but keep in mind that even though it says 38.3 hours on record around 9 of these hours are because I forgot it open in the background and I procrastinate during games a lot so it should take around 20 - 25 hours to finish it normally.
So the story was great with an nice premise and although it boils down to good guys save the world from evil I felt that it was executed in an interesting way. However after the Altissia sequence the narrative felt extremely rushed almost like they didn't what else to write and just wanted to wrap the story up as fast as possible. The Altissia climax itself gave me goosebumps and combined with the rushed narrative afterwards feels like it was the true ending of the game. Another underdelivered part was the character relationships, I would have liked if there were a bit more opportunities for character development and the only part that I felt was done well was Noctis and Luna's relationship.
Regarding the gameplay it left a partially sour taste because most enemies don't give you a warning that they are gonna attack so you have to dodge in the last second but half the time dodging doesn't work so you have to take the hit and and drink a potion to restore hp. This is especially bad during the ending when you have a lot of boss fights so unfortunatelty the ending felt more like potion simulator than anything else. I'll say though that the combat style itself felt really good because of it's emphasis on aerial attacks and warps.
Other than that as I said I'm more of a main story player so in general I can't say much about other aspects but it's a beautiful game visually and music-wise. All in all it's a very nice game and I enjoyed my time spent a lot but unfortunately after a point it just feels rushed and that takes away from the experience which is a shame. I will have to give it a 7/10 even though if these issues were polished it could reach 9/10.

meetbhatt53
meetbhatt53

If you put some effort to explore the lore and missing chunks of the story on other media, this is one hell of a game.
You'll end up loving these boys.

anasha
anasha

Terrible experience. Download took 30 hours and half my disk space. Played the tutorial until it crashed, played the tutorial until it crashed again at the same point, asked for a refund and was denied.

Cyonai
Cyonai

thank you prompto, very cool selfie.

jampodevral
jampodevral

TLDR;Game runs fine, graphics are good, story is mediocre and combat is trash.

This game has some issues in its combat. You are forced to play a hit and run, assassin combat style, no matter which weapon you pick, no matter gear you equip. The DLC gives you a bunch of extra weapons at the start that upgrade your party quite a bit, only for enemies 10 levels lower than you to laugh at your attacks, unless it is a warpstrike.
The 'open world' is very limited on you, as the game just drops waves of hostile soldiers on you in the first open world zone if you aren't following the story. I was trying to do a side mission involving hunting down a pack of 9 monsters and had to go through a 40 minute fight because 3 waves of soldiers landed on top of me during the damn quest.
Also, you can't do anything at night because the game spawns giant 'scawy' demons on you, mostly so they can force you to camp so you use the cooking and camping cutscene crap.
Can't forget the hand holding that is done every time you click on something, a.k.a. tutorial pop-ups galore.
Except they are cutscenes. Unskipable cutscenes.

Zimy0
Zimy0

An epic gorgeous awful beautiful mess of a bad game that I highly recommended to those who love wasting their time with friends that aren't real. I don't know if its intentionally gay but it is.

Guess I'm just popo
Guess I'm just popo

Unstable. Buggy. Produced by a director of middling quality. And a massive leap away from the expected formula that is the main line Final Fantasys.

Looking for an open world experience? There are better options.
Looking for a good 3rd person combat game? There are much better options.
Looking for a good jRPG? Don't even get me started.

Will some find it fun? Yes. But I would recommend against it, because no matter who you are, there's going to be better games to fill your time.