Introduction
Today we are going to look at a Final Fantasy game that Simone has mostly played. Since I could not get myself to like this game, or even try it. I am talking about Final Fantasy 15, Simone played this game while I sat next to her and was mostly wondering, how the heck is this Final Fantasy? Then there is the strange magic system, since Simone played this game and I only observed, I will not have a personal rating in this review.
What did Simone think before playing Final Fantasy?
Both Simone and I were captivated by the idea of a Final Fantasy in our era, where you can even drive a car. We had no idea how the combat system worked, but either turn—based or real time is fine for us. I was mostly wondering to what tier the magic system would go this time, all the way up to firaja or even firajaga? Or maybe just firaga? For more information, we checked out the Steam page.
The Steam Page
https://store.steampowered.com/app/637650/FINAL_FANTASY_XV_WINDOWS_EDITION/
This game seemed a bit, too simplistic for my taste, and I had sincere doubts what the idea was with all the DLC. Especially the character DLC’s, it is low to hide character development behind a pay wall but, nonetheless, we decided to try this game, who knows, the gameplay might be outstanding!
Rating
We rated Final Fantasy 15 with a 5.5 before playing.
This seemed like a huge cash grab instead of real quality!
Story
I can describe the story in one short sentence.
A major wedding gone wrong because of political reasons.
Rating
We rated the story of Final Fantasy 15 with a 4.0
The characters seem shallow, the story makes no sense, the pacing is all off and side characters don’t get enough screen time, or die early on.
Gameplay
Here comes the real kicker that had me saying, damn this game, I quit. There is an awful magic system in this game, there is not even normal magic or mana in this game. To actually use magic, you need to collect nodes, and then you can create a few flasks. Then you have a few magic spells, this is just, weird! While magic might be overpowered, it makes no sense, the enemy balancing is also all over the place, a level thirty monster might be weaker and easier to kill, compared to a level thirteen monster.
Not only that, there are moments where you will look at people driving a car for over five minutes. You can even shop in the car, what kind of bullshit is that? Pardon my French, the open world is empty and is not even explained lore-wise. All side quests are either go fetch this, or kill that. And you will be interrupted non-stop. Instead of all the party members having their own skill tree to customize them, there is one single skill tree for everyone.
The whole experience system is baked as well, at level fifteen, you can even take down level 35 monsters, how, you ask? Just take enough items with you, since you cannot even die! That is right, you are basically immortal! Did your hit points just hit zero? No worry, heal up. There is no fucking possible way you can actually die unless you specifically try to do so. If there is a battle, even a boss battle, you can just stand behind a rock, go take a break and your companions will kill the boss. Then there are the special weapons, they are very strong, but the drawbacks are never mentioned at all, like using health points to attack.
Rating
We rated the gameplay of Final Fantasy 15 with a 1.5.
You call this Final Fantasy? Go back to the drawing board, you know what, start over from scratch and try something like FF 12 or FF 13, you know, when FF was actually, FF?
Sound and Graphics
Graphics
Don’t even get me started on the graphics, the open world feels dead, it is just the same all over. Most of the monsters are reskins or color swaps. While the game does look decent at night, you can barely travel at night due to strong demons coming out to kill you. Even if they are weaker than some of the normal enemies you encounter, it does mean you cannot use the car at night.
Sound
The soundtracks were okay, but the sound effects and voice acting gets annoying after a while. Hearing the same line over and over again after the battle got annoying.
Rating
We rated the sound and graphics of Final Fantasy 15 with a 6.4
While decent, there was a lot of copy and paste work as buildings, NPC’s, and monsters get re-used.
What did Simone think after playing Final Fantasy 15?
While she did find some things to enjoy in this game, as she continued with the plot, she soon got bored. The story lacked quite the luster, while the chemistry between the main characters seemed to be good, it did not feel like an epic story of Final Fantasy proportions. Thus, she started doing side-quests and soon realized, it is just the same quest over and over again, kill this, or fetch that.
The car rides got boring really fast, Simone tried to continue the game, but she soon lost interest, we did not finish the story in this game, but we had seen enough, neither of use could finish this game. To be honest, we were both glad we could play another game.
Rating
We rated Final Fantasy 15 with a 5.0 after playing.
If you are looking for a fun Final Fantasy experience, try some older Final Fantasy games.
Last Words
Pros
- There is good chemistry between the main characters
- You have a car that you can customize
Cons
- You can never die as you can just heal up if your health hits zero
- Extremely long car rides
- A tedious story that makes no sense
- Very stale combat with the same victory lines over and over
- Many interruptions while exploring a bleak and empty open world
- Unbalanced fights and experience gain
- All the side quests are, kill this, or fetch that quests
- There are no mana points or actual magic in this game
- The special weapons are not properly explained
- You can win battles by doing nothing
- Be lazy and buy items from your car
- One skill tree for all characters, allowing minimal customization
- Many re-used assets throughout the game
I am at a loss for words, so, go play another Final Fantasy game.
Final Rating
4.5
Please let me know what you think of Final Fantasy 15 in the comments!
I hope you enjoyed reading this review, I hope to see you in the next review!
If you liked reading this review, maybe you would like to share this review with your friends.
Jaromir Krzyszczak
not the rating I was expected... good to know that it is not so good as I thought
supersven
I think this game was a huge disappointment.
rezonono
Damn, I stopped at XII and I wanted to do the sequel but this one seems less attractive. Thanks for the review.
supersven
You should try Final Fantasy 13, that one is better, but I liked Final Fantasy ten the most.
Pent
Not agreed with this rating, good game
supersven
Everyone has their own opinions. 🙂
twigalucie
I expected a higher rating on this. And I still really wanna play it. But not bc it's a FF game, I barely played any of them, just bc I saw some streams and they got me really interested.
supersven
If you have not played Final Fantasy, like ever, then this can be fun.
Kris
Wow, damnnn Sven! That's one of the harshest reviews I've seen in a while. As someone who's never played any FF game, the review pretty much confirms that it's not going to be my kind of game.
supersven
You know I am usually very nice lol. If this were a spin-off, things would have been different. Don't mess with the formula in main stream games, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Just choose Real-time combat or turn based and create a good story around it.
Silentrets
I liked the graphic. It's really good to playing and it has rich story too.
MonteCheveaux
Someone here really doesn't like car rides!
One has to wonder what Sven would think about the mobile port...
Alamar
I guess we prefer portal travel 🙂
supersven
Like Alamar said, portal travel! But honestly, car rides make me sleepy, very sleepy.
EMPERORU
i thought this game is good
Alamar
Good to see concerning the substance review. Interesting that this game on steam has a very positive reviews rating. But I'm always wary with jrpgs, most often they are not for me. Crpg I prefer 🙂 or wrpg you could name it as well.
supersven
If you are completely new to Final Fantasy, this could be fun.
DonCarlos
This game is deeply flawed. I think too that the open world is empty and boring and the side quests are absolutely horrendous.
supersven
I am glad you agree with me.
abuzir
very informative review - will be something to think about before buying
Delicious Bacon
Oh, wow. Someone trashed this one real bad!
I wouldn't say it's that bad to drop it this low. They moved away from the usual FF play style, but it's nothing radical to revolt against it.
FFXVI is gonna be a whole another story... Completely new play style.
supersven
I get what you are saying, but you are right, if it were a spin-off, this would be fine. Only play this if you are new.
fano23
Looks like a cool game, but they should have done many changes to make it better
long shade
lol Final Fantasy 15 gameplay is 1.5.
supersven
Oh, I had not seen that, lol.
metalhead8489
haven't played the game yet but only 4,5? i think you are too harsh here, the game has good metacritic score and i haven't heard anything too bad like ff13.
supersven
It all depends on whether you are new to Final Fantasy or not, most of the veterans like me share this point of view, they should have made this a spin-off.
Wonder
Clearly, the lapse in quality of the Final Fantasy series should be self-evident, as they have neglected to be "Final". XD
jon doe
say it ain't so
Twigas_Hobbes
wow... last one I played was FF6 O:-)
supersven
That's a good one!
JesusDamianN7
Para Mi, ojo para Mi el juego no es tan bueno como dicen en los comentarios.
marte720
Not such a bad game for me, but not a good Final Fantasy
eFe
I still have it pending so I can't talk about the experience, but from what I saw it really doesn't seem like such a bad game, maybe it wasn't what was expected and what was advertised, but maybe it was because they had many ideas and they didn't know how to manage the project well or they didn't give them enough time to implement and polish them.