![]() ![]() Instead, XP awarded is stocked up, and only applied overnight while characters are resting, either in a paid-for hotel or for free in a campsite. Unlike in previous games, characters aren’t immediately rewarded for their victories in combat. That destination is often one of the “havens” dotted around Lucis, site of one of the game’s more divisive mechanics. In other words, this isn’t a game about the journey: it’s about the destination. For one thing, it’s glued to the roads, and most players will deputise another member of their party to do the actual driving. While the temptation to run up to random cars and try to evict the owner will die hard for most gamers, the Regalia is a more sedate affair. As the story evolves, it plays the role of damsel in distress, provides the motivation for digging around for rare pigments to paint it, and even gains wings.īut don’t mistake Final Fantasy XV for GTA: Lucis. When the game begins, its breakdown has temporarily halted the protagonist Noctis’s journey to his wedding, and must be fixed before you can progress. Much of that joy is to be found in the form of the Regalia, the car that embodies your quest. The Regalia is the car that embodies your quest. You can forgive yourself for forgetting about the main quest entirely at this point, and just get lost in the joy of wondering the land of Lucis. You can pick up side quests almost immediately, taking your characters on a hunt for rare beasts you can wonder through the already huge landscape you can go fishing, learn new dishes to cook, forage for mushrooms, or practice your photography you can even, for your sins, play Justice Monsters V, a weird pinball/pachinko hybrid which is almost certainly the worst Final Fantasy minigame ever.Ī few hours later, you unlock the bulk of the rest of the map, and your horizons expand beyond belief. No other Final Fantasy has given you this much freedom, this early. The civilisation you’re greeted with is the small hamlet of Hammerhead, and it’s enthralling. The opening bars of a Florence and the Machine cover of Stand By Me start, as you begin to push the car toward civilisation. Those same characters are stuck with a broken-down car in the middle of scrubland. ![]() In a flash forward, the four heroes fight a god. Strange fox thing aside, it starts so strong. Maybe Final Fantasy XV could do with being a bit more like other games. Other games don’t feel the need to open, not with a stunning set-piece, or a slow intro to the world, but with a weird combat tutorial/lore guide where a strange fox thing talks to you about how to fight in the game before the game proper gets going. Other games don’t get delayed by three months to ensure that all the content is on disk, before receiving a day-one content patch, and a follow-up content patch a month later. Other games don’t launch with a tie-in movie voiced by Aaron Paul and Lena Headey, or a five-episode anime detailing the lives of the main characters, widening the gap between the fans and the first-timers still further. Other games don’t take a decade from revelation to release, meaning there’s rather more “first-timers” than there ever have been before. Of course, Final Fantasy XV isn’t like other games. But other games generally assume their audience includes fans, first-timers, and everyone in between. After all, what game hasn’t tried to appeal to fans and first-timers? Metal Gear Solid 4, maybe. It isn’t that the goal itself is notable, so much as the fact that Square Enix feels the need to repeat it every time you turn on the console. A tagline greets you every time you start Final Fantasy XV: “A Final Fantasy for Fans and First-Timers”. ![]()
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