First Impressions of Final Fantasy XV

Like Power Rangers before it, I can't understate how important the Final Fantasy series has been in my development as the person I am today. I vividly remember the first time I saw one of my friends play Final Fantasy VII back in 1998 - this was my first encounter with any Role Playing Game, so I had literally never seen anything like it. The world was expansive, the story was epic and cinematic in scope, the music was unbelievable, and the graphics, silly as they may look today, completely blew me away.

Yeah, that's about right.

I could honestly write an entire post just about my history with the Final Fantasy series, and perhaps someday I would. But in the interest of keeping this simple, right now I'm just going to talk about my first impressions playing the newest entry in the series, Final Fantasy XV, which was released last Tuesday. I wanted to have this out a few days ago, but I've been playing it so much that I haven't had the time to write. Let that be an early indication as to how I feel about the game at this moment.

In the game, you play as Noctis, crown prince of the Kingdom of Lucis, and candidate for the worst haircut in the history of the human race. I refer to it as emo bitch boy hair.

Lucis is for lovers.

Anyway, Noctis and his entourage are on their way to Altissia, where he will marry Lady Lunafreya, Oracle and princess of the kingdom of Tenebrae. Things don't quite go as planned - the EVIL EMPIRE of Niflheim breaks their pact of nonaggression with Lucis and destroys the capital city of Insomnia, killing Noctis' father, king Regis. In the aftermath, Noctis and Lunafreya are pronounced dead by the empire. As the sole heir to the throne of Lucis, Noctis and his friends must both find Lunafreya and somehow restore peace to their homeland.That's the basic story in a nutshell.

Of course, since this is a role-playing game, there's a lot more going on than just the main plot. There are an incredible amount of side quests in this game, with many of them requiring detailed exploration of the game's world of Eos. This is not a bad thing - Eos is an incredibly detailed, beautifully designed world that, more than any other Final Fantasy world (VIII is probably the only other comparable one), feels like our own. Sure, there's kingdoms run by magic and giants sleeping in caves of fire, but there's also quaint forest villages and outposts settled in the middle of open fields, complete with colorful locals you can talk to. In a way, exploring Eos feels as though you're taking a road trip through the United States.

I saw road trip purposefully - one of the main things people talked about before this game even launched is the fact that you spend a lot of time driving around, in a very 21st Century looking car. I think some were turned off by that, which I found really dumb. First of all, you drove cars, and trains, in Final Fantasy VIII, and I've never heard anybody complain about that. And unlike Final Fantasy VIII, driving in this game is fun, if for no other reason than you can admire the architecture of the game's world.

Let's not talk anymore about the driving - let's discuss the characters instead. Noctis is the most fleshed out so far (of course) - he's a good guy, but being the prince of Lucis, he can come across as very privileged, especially when wandering around what may as well be Eos' version of southern Illinois. His privilege doesn't make him annoying, though, which I feel is hard to pull off. Now that his father is dead and he's effectively king of Lucis, he has to do a lot of growing up, very very quickly. Thankfully, he has his advisors, Ignis (the soft spoken smart guy) and Gladiolus (the tough talking bodyguard) and his friend Prompto, who reminds me of both Tidus and Zell from Final Fantasy X and VIII, to back him up. The four characters are built on fairly reliable character archetypes, but they work well and are effective when played against one another. We haven't gone too far in depth with the other three party members yet, and I'm looking forward to seeing where they come from.

Combat-wise, it's actually fairly similar to Kingdom Hearts, in that everything is in real time, you can only directly control one party member (Noctis, in this case) and it's chaotic as hell. Unlike Kingdom Hearts, thankfully, enemies don't fucking hit you a half a second before you heal yourself and kill you and make you have to fucking watch that cutscene with Riku for the five-hundredth time and...oh, maybe I'm getting off track. But anyway, it's a lot more manageable than Kingdom Hearts, and it gives you plenty of opportunities to retreat if you happen to walk into something that's too far above you.

Honestly, I don't really have too much to complain about (not that I feel bad about that). If anything, Final Fantasy XV has the same problem that similar modern RPGs, like Skyrim or Xenoblade Chronicles, has in their structure. There are so many side quests that the main story can be left by the wayside for hours upon hours - this can drastically reduce the tension provided by that main story. To be honest, I don't know how to fix that - though I will say that I found it more tolerable than Skyrim, since unlike that game, the main character isn't a complete blank slate.

I do have to take away some points for Noctis' hair, though. Anyone who thinks styling yourself like that is a good idea must be insane.

So yes, maybe this blog went on a bit longer than I wanted (it's a recurring trend), but that's what I feel about Final Fantasy XV. Honestly, it's my favorite entry in the series since X was released in 2001. I don't know if I'm alone in that - I don't read reviews for Final Fantasy games anymore, because ever since IX was released, the fanbase has been impossible to please completely, with every game getting mixed reviews. So just do yourself a favor and play it.