FINAL FANTASY XV WINDOWS EDITION

FFXV seems confused about what it wants to be. It starts as a somewhat directionless open-world game about roadtripping with your three best friends, but then confuses itself with a dead serious storyline about the murder of your father and king, the fall of your capital, and the occupation of your country by a foreign invader. The first 8 chapters of the game, which take roughly 15 hours to get through, follow this pattern; the story and the gameplay remain severely disconnected, with nobody seeming to care one way or another that the king is dead and they are at war. I suspect this is due to Square Enix wanting the game to remain open-world for as long as possible.

That's not to say FFXV has a horrible story. The story is fine, but presented in the most confusing way possible. The writers intended Kingsglaive (the FFXV film) to be watched prior to playing the game. It fleshes out the world and gives a lot of important background information on the city Insomnia and the world of Eos. The movie is absolutely mandatory to watch before playing if you want to understand the story, but it's pretty good. My only complaint is that it wasn't included with the game and that I had to watch it elsewhere.

Even with the movie, however, there's multiple spots in the game where the cast attains knowledge offscreen, or a plot point is explained to you via text on a loading screen, or everyone except the player understands why they have to visit dead kings' tombs and slay gods. A few extra lines of dialogue could have cleared up why you found yourself sidetracked from fighting the empire so often. There's also a tacked on dialogue system that destroys the pacing of some important encounters.

The game suffers because of its open world. Music starts and stops at odd places, dialogue lines are often cut short when you walk into a quest area, procedural lipsync looks awkward, the fullscreen "Quest Completed" UI flies across the screen at the most inapropriate times, and NPC's sometimes stand in the way of the camera.

Chapter 1-8 comprise of the open-world. The story doesn't have much of a focus, and you mostly stumble upon a couple gods and tombs while trying to figure out how to reach Altissa. During this section, they really should have forced you to acquire all of the Royal Arms for story reasons. Once you do reach Altissa, however, the game feels much more focused and polished. Chapter 13 features solo gameplay that heavily departs from the rest of the game. The game should have been hitting its stride at about this point, but instead it strips away your party and your abilities for a few hours. I disliked this, but the game more than makes up for it with its final chapter. It's flashy, challenging, and brings both the gameplay and story to a crescendo. At some point there is a timeskip to a wartorn world, but you're unable to explore it in any capacity which feels like a missed opportunity.

The cast is what carries this game. Gladio, Prompto, Ignis, and Noctis all have stellar voice actors and great chemistry. Banter while on the road, during and after battle, and in the downtime at camp helps give the game character. The animation and models of each character are also well done. These only get better from Chapter 8 onwards.

From a technical standpoint, the game looks great and runs surprisingly well on my dated hardware. 7.1 surround audio works and sounds greata. There were some lighting issues where things would be way too dark, especially in Prompto's photographs. He snaps these regularly during your travels for scrapbooking, and they are mostly procedural.

From a gameplay perspective, its flashy but ultimately unsatisfying. You get very little control over Noctis' actions, with only three buttons used for combat: "B" for attack, "X" for defend, and "Y" for Warp. If you don't worry too much about the lack of depth, you can still enjoy warping around and hitting link-attacks with your bros. Equipment, skills, and skill trees are even less satisfying, but Magic is the worst offender. You craft your spells by combining three elements (Lightning, Fire, Ice). I expected to be able to mix elements together to make new spells, but Thunder, Fire, and Blizzard are the only things you can make.

If gameplay footage and trailers seem appealing to you, you'll probably enjoy FFXV. It does an excellent job of capturing the "road trip with the boys" feeling as advertised. I'd recommend skipping most sidequests and focusing on the story. It helps keep the pacing of the story on track, and you'll never feel overpowered during story quests. Definitely watch Kingsglaive before playing, and don't expect super deep gameplay.

So after a little Delay follows my Review of Final Fantasy XV. In doing So, I have finished inGame's main Story including all Chara DLCs, almost all Side Quest And Mob Orders. I have to say that I played FF15 for Release on PS4 already at that TIME. I would have liked (hindsight) that I never played it on the PS4 Before: Not only that the PC Version is clear from the Point of view of technology that is better Version. But Compared to the Release Version (PS4) you just get more Content and above all more Story content! When I played through FF15 on the PS4 at the TIME, I was badly disappointed. One noticed the Game's long and complicated Development to which it had. There was just missing important Story sections where you wondered: Huh I was here and suddenly somewhere else? Also missing Were some Lvls. eg Tenebrae. There is also in the current Version but you can only see it very briefly from the outside. Not even more so, even though the Developers offered how big Tenebrae Would become. You can also see the construction Sites of FF15 here in the "Windows Edition" (What a funny Addition name ...) but through the DLC and some Story Extensions (Which were submitted free via update) FF15 is simply rounder In its current Form. Just the Chara DLC of Prompto, Gladius, Ignes wiggle couple good fill. But Trz unfortunately leaves the Story with a lot of Potential. For example, I would very much have liked to get to know some of Chara more closely, Z.B Luna. Is portrayed in the Game as an important Person but unfortunately gets too little ScreenTime for me. Like the First time, you Tot left me cold ... Or other "Evil" Weats come up short and so quickly they are gone again ... Add to this the Fact that the whole "FF15" Story runs through to multiple Media. There is one of the Movie "kingsglaive" The Series and the Game here. Although the Film is important and not mega important, it rounds off the Story around FF15 even more. But what I like very much .. After all, doie 4 main Chara Are almost closed to the Heart. One often reads "Tokyo Hotel" "Schwull" Ect. And admitted ... Their Clothes are in Need of Initial Habituation; o But I just like the Development. At the Beginning of the Journey, the 4 Friends are young, jokes blow out + let themselves on a (Not Naking) adventure and with further Story progress these 4 become more serious due to some strokes of Fate + the Story Becomes more generally serious and gloomy towards the End A great Final will also be completed. Playful, FF15 is rather simple. So really hard Moments or Opponents there are rather more nimble ones. Going Game Over here is almost impossible because you always have enough Time to heal yourself. The Fighting is fast and fun if you "get involved" with the simple Game mechanics "who are looking for tactical Gameplay Here is rather wrong. The World "EOS" looks partly beautiful and harmonious from the Setting (Forest, Desert, City, mini sea; o) The Sidequest Are unfortunately partly 0815. Often this is an "Errand A and bring it to B" or "Eredige Monster A" Yes are not necessarily bad now but one from the Stool don't blow them. The many "Car Driving" is ... Yes hmm can be chilly and quite practical if you have to look quickly on the Smartphone or something; o But the many Car Journeys can also annoy. Skipping Can be done by places already visited, but the Loading Times are sometimes very nasty (Lang) The Soundtrack, on the other hand, is like FF Tybisch terrific. If a big Fight starts and out of the Speakers at once "Omnis Lacrima https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41SM9fQJZm0 then that's simply ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ing Epic; o But the other Songs are also often coherent and fit. But now I Come directly to PC Version: For me the best Version of all and here the "longer" Wait has definitely paid off. Bugs I haven't had any so far. Unfortunately here and there, a few Crashes which came mainly in Connection with the "Nvidia" Graphic Effects. The Game was Played on an I5 7600K & GTX 1080 with 16GB of DDR4 Ram. The Game itself is very demanding for my Feeling, especially if it is supposed to be High Settings. You should already have a reasonably up-to-date PC. Especially in THE WQHD (My Resolution) or completely in the 4K it becomes very borderline, Conclusion: The Spirits argue about FF15 ... That applies to the whole Series. FOR me, FFXV is NOT the best FF let alone it does not approach FF7.9,9.10 in the Approach. But compared to the "newer" FF games, XV Is definitely the best Part for me. I don't regret paying the full Price the Second time. Rather that I didn't wait for the PC Version at that time ... Unfortunately, my Glass Ball didn't work at the time ...