Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory (PS4)

Last year, the Kingdom Hearts series concluded the long-running Dark Seeker Saga with Kingdom Hearts III Re Mind, which also included a glimpse at the series’ future. Although no one knew how the series would continue from there, it’s safe to say that few expected the announcement of a rhythm game, Melody of Memory (MoM), as the first post-Kingdom Hearts III (KHIII) title. Upon its announcement, Tetsuya Nomura also revealed that it went into development at the same time as KHIII and would serve primarily as a celebration of the series’ iconic music. Admittedly, I wasn’t sure about actually playing the game right away after playing the demo, but the knowledge that it also contained new story content intrigued me enough that I picked it up during a sale. Suffice to say, while the gameplay felt fresh, I made the right decision not buying MoM at full price.

FF7R Episode INTERmission (DLC)

Note: This review contains spoilers for Final Fantasy VII Remake.

Over a year after the release of Final Fantasy VII Remake, with no word yet on the second full installment, Square Enix released an updated version, Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, for the PS5. Square Enix not only offered this upgrade for free for existing PS4 owners, sans those who downloaded the free PS+ version, they also released a piece of DLC exclusively for PS5 owners (as of this writing). This DLC, FF7R Episode INTERmission, would explore Yuffie’s role in Remake and release as a separate $20 purchase for those who didn’t purchase Intergrade. This was how I played it, as I didn’t want to buy the same game again at full price, though the process involved in getting to that point ensured that I couldn’t actually play it on launch day. As soon as I could play it, however, I explored just about everything it had to offer and found it worth the asking price. Mostly.

Tomb Raider (Film)

While Tomb Raider has existed since 1996, I didn’t really play any of the games until the 2013 reboot, Tomb Raider (2013), and its sequels, Rise of the Tomb Raider and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Though they had flaws, I evidently enjoyed them enough to keep up with the series and felt interested in watching the 2018 film, Tomb Raider (2018). As with the games, I didn’t watch the other two Tomb Raider films with Angelina Jolie, so I didn’t have any expectations when I finally watched this film through Vudu. As both a video game adaptation and an action-adventure film, it’s not the worst but definitely needed some improvement.

Hitman: Absolution (PS3)

As much as I’ve come to like the Hitman games, my journey didn’t start with any of the more celebrated entries like Silent Assassin, Blood Money or Hitman (2016), but rather the black sheep of the franchise, Hitman: Absolution. Not only was this the first Hitman game I played, it also has the honor as the series’ first installment released exclusively for seventh-gen consoles and the first entry published by Square Enix after they acquired Eidos Interactive. Making my way through the older Hitman titles naturally brought me back to where I had started, which evoked a sense of nostalgia during my most recent playthrough, which, through total happenstance, occurred exactly five years to the day from my first playthrough. That said, revisiting it in the context of everything else got me to reevaluate my opinion and how it stands as a game in a vacuum versus how it stands as a Hitman game.

Hitman (2016)

Though the Hitman franchise has existed since 2000, I didn’t actually play any of the games until 2012’s Hitman: Absolution, which, while flawed, got me interested in playing the World of Assassination Trilogy, starting with Hitman in 2016. Due to the game’s episodic release, however, I waited until the Steelbook Edition, which collected all six episodes onto one disc, before I actually played it. However, I never reviewed any of the Hitman games, so with the release of Hitman 3, I’m going to rectify that starting with Hitman, a highly enjoyable, if flawed, start to the World of Assassination Trilogy.

Second Look - Final Fantasy VII Remake

Note: This review contains spoilers for Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII Remake and Compilation of Final Fantasy VII.

Back in April, when Final Fantasy VII Remake first came out, I played and enjoyed it in spite of my lack of context with the original game. However, as I thought about the story more, I realized that even though the game was billed as a jumping-on point, it still made several references to both the original Final Fantasy VII and the contents of Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. After I subsequently immersed myself in all the major titles, Final Fantasy VII, Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus and Crisis Core, I decided to go back and replay Final Fantasy VII Remake with the full context in mind. This second playthrough gave me a different opinion on the story and changes, some for the better, and helped me better appreciate the improvements the game made over the 1997 original.

Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII

Note: This review contains spoilers for Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII

As part of my journey through Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, the next stop after Advent Children was Dirge of Cerberus, a sequel/spinoff game that puts Vincent Valentine directly into the spotlight. Oddly enough, this also happened to be the only piece of Final Fantasy VII media I didn’t own, likely due to its negative reception, so I borrowed a copy to reduce the investment. Now that I’ve played it for myself, it seems that its bad reputation wasn’t unearned.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (+ Complete)

Note: This review contains spoilers for Final Fantasy VII and Compilation of Final Fantasy VII.

I’ll admit that against my better judgment, the original 2006 US DVD release of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children was the first piece of Final Fantasy VII media I really consumed. Not the best choice, I know, but it did still get me into the series, so I guess it wasn’t all bad. I would also view the Complete version when it released in 2009, but now that I’ve actually played Final Fantasy VII, I figured there was no better opportunity to revisit this first part of Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. Since I’ve re-watched both cuts, I thought it best to review both of them at once, with my raw thoughts written down immediately after each viewing. What I’ll say now is that it’s obvious why another cut was necessary.

Final Fantasy VII Remake

If you’ve been in the video game community long enough, you’ve likely heard of Final Fantasy VII and its impact on the perception of RPGs. While I wasn’t really around for the initial hype, I wasn’t even five years old when it released, I had always been fascinated by the lore of the game and the subsequent Compilation of Final Fantasy VII media. When I did try to play it on PS1, I didn’t get very far into Disc 1, so I saw Final Fantasy VII Remake as a chance to experience the full story and jumped at the opportunity, even with the hard sell of its episodic release plan. I enjoyed playing this first game, which covers and expands on the Midgar portion of the original game, but I have to admit that it wasn’t quite what I expected.

Kingdom Hearts III Re Mind + Concert Video (DLC)

Note: The following review contains spoilers for Kingdom Hearts III.

When I played Kingdom Hearts III last year, I liked it overall, but thought it had something missing within the comparatively weak storytelling and mishandled gameplay. A free Critical Mode patch fixed this, but the idea of paid DLC was still officially on the table. This came to fruition with Re Mind, a $30 expansion ($40 if you want exclusive concert footage) that promised additional story content related to the ending of the game, along with some additional bonuses. Naturally, I pre-ordered the $40 version and played it as soon as I could to see if it could fill in that part of game that felt incomplete. While it did accomplish that to some extent, it felt overpriced for the amount of content I got.

Kingdom Hearts III

Thirteen years after the US release of Kingdom Hearts II and over five years after its surprise announcement at E3 2013, Kingdom Hearts III, the twelfth game in the Kingdom Hearts franchise, has finally been released to the world. Within that time, wild fan speculation turned into hype that grew with each new trailer released, though an early leak did cause some to initiate a media blackout for a month as opposed to only four days (the game launched in Japan on January 25, 2019, with a release in the US on January 29, 2019). I played for as long as I possibly could at every opportunity as soon as I picked up my copy of the Deluxe Edition, though once I finally finished, I took some time to process my thoughts before writing this review. As someone who had been genuinely waiting thirteen years for this game, I generally enjoyed my time and don’t regret it, but the experience was ultimately not completely satisfying.

The Quiet Man - Silence Rings Dullest

During the underwhelming Square Enix press conference at E3 2018, one title which stood out to me was The Quiet Man, a game where you play as a deaf protagonist in a setting that illustrates this by forcing the player to play with no sound. I found the concept very intriguing and looked forward to playing it, especially once I found out it would be released only a few months later. Not even the fact that it was designed to be played in one sitting or the fact that it was digital-only (I prefer to buy a physical copy of a game whenever possible) stopped me from buying it on PSN shortly after the actual release. Unfortunately, for a game with such an intriguing concept, it manages to fail at nearly every possible level.

The premise is rather simple. Over the course of a single night in New York City, a deaf man named Dane embarks on a quest to find and learn the motives of the mysterious Bird Man, who has kidnapped a songstress. The way this story is presented, however, is the first chink in the game’s armor.

I’ll preface my criticism by saying that I absolutely love the concept behind the game. The idea of playing as a deaf protagonist through a soundless experience that forces the player to interpret what’s going on is actually very fascinating, seeing as it hasn’t been done before. I also loved the idea presented in the reveal trailer where the game blends live-action and CG cutscenes into a unique hybrid experience, since the last time I saw live action cutscenes, I had played Twisted Metal (2012) and Quantum Break and felt that the idea could be further perfected.

With that out of the way, I have to say that the very thing that got me interested in the game was ultimately the story’s downfall. The first transition between live-action and CG is near seamless, but every other time it happens it’s painfully obvious and a bit jarring, mainly in part to the quality of the graphics. At first, I didn’t think they were necessarily bad and kind of accepted them. As I played further into the roughly three-hour experience, however, I couldn’t shake the general lack of polish that permeated throughout. Hair has no semblance of movement during the actual gameplay and Dane seemed uglier and less emotive than in the live-action segments. The same can unfortunately be said for the other characters and enemies, mainly during combat.

Only the first transition to CG is even remotely effective.

The live-action cutscenes are shot well enough and presented in a non-linear order that at least presents some semblance of a mystery involving Dane’s past and the death of his mother, which also fuels him in his search for the songstress. However, the pacing is a little rushed and some twists within the last chapter, from what I could determine, come out of left field and make little sense, including an event I won’t spoil that involves a supernatural element that is never hinted before or seen after it happens.

Additionally, the line in the game’s description that mentions a “motion picture like experience” isn’t kidding, since the game is mostly live-action and CG cutscenes, with gameplay nearly non-existent to the point where I wonder why Square Enix and Human Head Studios didn’t just film and release a live-action arthouse film. At least a “silent” film with a deaf protagonist would make more sense based on the story they were trying to tell, I think (more on that in a bit).

Speaking of the nearly non-existent gameplay, it’s very unpolished and completely unsatisfying. Gameplay is divided into two segments: brawler-inspired combat and running through excruciatingly linear hallways. The combat segments are dull and repetitive, with nothing but fighting multiple waves of the same enemy types before going into another room with yet more waves of enemies or fading into another cutscene. Worse yet, the controls are never explained to you unless you go into the very minimalist and wordless menus, where everything is presented as neon signs. The game seems to otherwise rely on trial-and-error and from what I could tell, the player can perform simple jabs, kicks and holds, all of which are boring to perform due to a general lack of depth. There is also a dedicated run button and another combat-based action (R1 on the PS4 version) that I still have no idea how it actually works.

Two additional mechanics are either poorly explained or are never alluded to at all. One of these is a Focus mechanic where a blue light seems to creep up the side of the screen with each successful hit on an enemy until it hits the top, at which point you can activate it with a dedicated button. When activated, Dane can basically whale on an enemy and guarantee a victory unless the enemy is strong enough to break through it. Unfortunately, I have absolutely no clue how to activate it consistently, made worse by the near-lack of any real control over which enemy Dane targets with this power, a must in some of the larger enemy waves towards the end of the game. The other poorly-explained mechanic is the ability to perform an environmental takedown, a feature that I only knew about from looking at the game’s trophy list and which I had absolutely no clue how to perform.

You can apparently do this, but you're never told how.

What doesn’t help the repetitive nature of the combat is that, outside of specific fights, the enemies are nearly indistinguishable from each other, even after a patch which added additional costumes to help give the illusion of visual diversity. In reality, they’re still either hand-to-hand combatants or wield simple weapons like a baseball bat and a machete. The fights can also get very frustrating, as the encounters are made more difficult than they really need to be, even on the supposedly lower difficulty setting, since the difficulty ramps up not from enemies with more unique power sets, but from spamming them within the same confined space and hoping the player can endure it. Confounding this is the fact that, as part of the presentation of the story, the screen will occasionally flash with images representing Dane’s thoughts during combat, temporarily affecting the visibility of the stage.

Outside of combat, the player is merely running through hallways in segments so short and linear that you wonder why they didn’t just make them into short cutscenes, especially since at least once these segments exist solely to transition between cutscenes. I guess they were trying to provide some illusion of player agency, but if that’s the case then they really dropped the ball, since it makes the game feel a bit more lifeless than it already does.

The biggest downfall of the game, however, lies in the very thing that drew me in, that being the idea of playing as a deaf protagonist in a silent game. The silence permeates everything, from cutscenes to the “gameplay” between them. I didn’t mind the idea of trying to interpret what’s going on, however the story seems to rely so much on dialogue that thanks to the muffled noise, combined with some odd camera angles during some cutscenes, it becomes nearly incomprehensible and I stopped caring after about halfway through the game. The silence also makes the world feel very empty during the “gameplay” segments, including during the combat, which manages to feel even more hollow.

While the game is meant to played silent, the game tells you that there are still subtitles and sound is still there, but only when something is meant to be understood. A good idea in theory, but in practice it only applies to the very beginning of the game before Dane gets into a fistfight with gang members and the very end where you hear the songstress sing for the first time (it’s also here that you realize that all of the titles and descriptions for the game’s Trophies are song lyrics). In other words, it’s a near-useless feature that makes you question whether or not you actually turned the subtitles on in the options menu.

If the above issues weren’t enough, The Quiet Man is marred by a number of technical issues that provide both frustration and unintentional humor. Combat animations are so abrupt that it often seems like Dane and/or the enemies are teleporting during a beatdown or when the player can whale on an enemy as they’re getting up for another round. The hit detection is also a bit hit-and-miss, since Dane is able to hit enemies when they’re several feet away while in Focus Mode. During a beatdown, it’s also completely possible for enemies to clip through objects or Dane’s torso.

Outside of combat, but also in combat at least once, I noticed that thanks to the game’s hit detection, it’s possible that while the player is running, Dane can go into super slow motion or outright freeze completely in places when attempting to run against a wall or when running into two enemies who are directly next to each other. Another technical note is that while the game’s physics aren’t broken, there are a few instances that seem to come out of The Matrix and in at least a couple cutscenes, enemies are thrown around with no real sense of weight to the motion.

A more general note is that Dane seems to be really good at parkour, since he uses it a lot when chasing someone, even laughably and unnecessarily vaulting off of a random bald man’s head.

With all of the above said, around the time I bought The Quiet Man, about a week after release, a patch was sent out that allowed players to experience the game with full sound on a second playthrough. This mode, called The Quiet Man – Answered, is supposed to allow players the ability to determine whether or not they had succeeded at interpreting the story. Seeing as how the story was already nearly incomprehensible, I played it anyway to see how the experience differed. The short answer is that it does marginally improve the combat, but only highlights just how terrible the story really is.

To elaborate, the most obvious change during an Answer playthrough was that fights now have sound effects and background music. The sound effects help to actually sell every punch and kick that Dane lands and reveals that not only does one boss fight actually have audio cues, but that same boss and another actually have casual dialogue aimed at Dane that reveals more about their motivations. The music behind the fights is serviceable, but nothing to really write home about, since I’d already forgotten it before I sat down to write this portion of the review. I also somehow found the combat easier during this playthrough, including more consistent activations of Focus Mode, though I’m not sure if I’d attribute this to being able to actually hear the enemies or if I just got better at overcoming/exploiting the broken combat mechanics.

As for the actual story, I felt that it turned out more ridiculous than anything I could’ve come up with based on the “deaf” playthrough. Without spoiling anything, in case you want to willingly subject yourself to this game, it seemed like a story that had a short, simple arc, but was at the same time unnecessarily convoluted. There are so many moving parts in the story that fit together out of contrivance, not helped by the shaky motivations and almost literal Deus ex Machina towards the end of the story. Around that time, I got the impression that the story was written by an edgy teen trying desperately to be taken seriously. This playthrough also contains new content in the form of a post-credits sequence, though how well it resolves the story is anyone’s guess.

Having sound also allows the player to hear the various characters speak for the first time. Among other things, we learn that the name of the songstress is Lala, which sounds very lazy and on-the-nose given her occupation. Apart from this, the dialogue gets pretty corny at times and it turns out that not only is Dane a man of few words, but he also perfectly understood everything that was going on, which sort of undermines the idea of a deaf protagonist, and by extension player, who can’t tell exactly what’s going on and is forced to interpret. The game occasionally reminds players of Dane’s deafness with quick bursts of sign language and gestures of Dane pointing to his ears.

No matter how you choose to play the game, however, the story is overall pretty boring and pretentious. There is an attempt at symbolism in the form of red string to represent the red string in the Bird Man’s “beak”, but it’s poorly implemented and doesn’t really have much of a payoff, meaning that sightings such as a voodoo doll, a dead bird and a pair of sneakers, not to mention a few words written on a wall in red, come off as a giant red herring. As for the game’s ability to act as a cure for insomnia, it should say something that on both playthroughs, I ended up taking a nap at about the halfway point.

Edgy or spoopy? You decide.

As mentioned earlier, the player gets to hear Lala sing at the very end of the game. Here, it’s an original composition by Imogen Heap called “The Quiet”. On its own, it’s actually a pretty good song, but in the context of The Quiet Man, it comes off as pretentious and doesn’t do any favors towards my opinion of the overall experience.

Overall, The Quiet Man is not only a bad game, it’s one of the worst ones I’ve played in a while. The story is awful and convoluted with sound and nearly incomprehensible without, the gameplay is nearly non-existent and when it’s there it’s incredibly dull and broken, the acting is only serviceable at best and, to top it all off, the game makes no real attempt to adequately explore the experience of a deaf person. It amazes me how a game with one of the most original and intriguing concepts I’ve heard in some time could be executed so poorly, with so little actual gameplay that I wonder why they even bothered to make a game and didn’t instead just release a pretentious arthouse film about a deaf person. If they did so and kept the same story, however, I’d still consider it a complete waste of $15, let alone the $13.50 I paid for the game's Limited Edition, available only during the first two weeks of its existence. Don’t bother playing this game unless you really want to subject yourself to one of the worst games of 2018 or if you desperately need content for a YouTube or Twitch channel dedicated to bad games and, if you do, only do so if you can get it for a rock bottom price so you don’t feel completely ripped off.

Trust me, the extras aren't worth it.

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue

In the interest of holding fans over until the inevitable release of Kingdom Hearts III, Square Enix has released HD Remix compilations of already existing games in the series on PS3. Both of these Remixes, HD 1.5 and HD 2.5, collect two full games and a cutscene version of a third. Recently, in the interest of hyping up the end of the Dark Seeker Saga, they have released a third compilation, this time released on PS4, known as HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue. Unlike the other compilations, this one features an HD remaster of Dream Drop Distance, previously only playable on the Nintendo 3DS, as well as an original short game and an original CG movie which covers the events of an otherwise nonessential smartphone game. Essentially, this particular collection is meant to fully prepare players for the events of Kingdom Hearts III.

The first item in the collection is Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance HD. While it may seem a challenge to port a game from a system with two screens to a system which only allows for one, the team definitely pulled it off. Immediately noticeable is the increased graphical capability, which better takes advantage of the screen size and allows every detail to be seen with better clarity. Beyond this are a number of gameplay tweaks to make the game more controller-friendly, mainly by assigning Dream Eater functions from the second screen to a sub-menu menu system not unlike Kingdom Hearts II. To explain, there is a sub-menu menu for activating special Dream Eater attacks and another for switching out an active Dream Eater with the one in reserve, though these can also thankfully be accessed like a shortcut menu from previous games.

There are a number of additional changes made to the HD version of Dream Drop Distance, including, but not limited to, extended Drop times, three Command Deck commands instead of two, gameplay in 60 FPS and the ability to view a map of the area by pressing the DualShock 4’s touchpad. There are also three exclusive Dream Eaters, Catanuki, Tubguin Ace and Beatalike, for players to create and bond with. While the Dream Eater mini-games have been reworked pretty well to fit with a DualShock 4 layout, the only complaint I have is that a mini-game where you pop balloons involves precision control with the touchpad, which feels awkward at first and takes a while to get used to, since you otherwise have no frame of reference for where your finger is in relation to the position of the balloons on the screen.

Weighing both the good and bad, Dream Drop Distance HD seems like the ideal way to play such an important game in the story. Its improvements are enough to feel right at home on PS4 and provide an ultimately smoother experience.

Next up is an original short game under the, rather lengthy, name Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage-. This game tells the story of Aqua’s journey through the Realm of Darkness after the events of the Secret Episode from Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix. Since the story can be completed in about three hours or less, the story isn’t very deep. However, what we see from Aqua’s point of view does give her some semblance of closure and fairly neatly ties together the points from when we see her at the end of Birth by Sleep to when we see her in subsequent appearances. In addition, the framing device for the story, Yen Sid explaining Aqua’s past to Sora and Riku, serves nicely as both an epilogue to Birth by Sleep and the prologue of Kingdom Hearts III. In other words, this alone makes the game a must-play.

Apart from filling in previously-unseen details of Aqua’s backstory, 0.2 Birth by Sleep is also more or less a demo of the kind of graphics and gameplay players can expect from Kingdom Hearts III. In terms of graphics, it’s a major step up from previous games due to being rendered in Unreal Engine 4 with the new Kingdom Shader applied. While the lighting and environments are impressive, the character models, though well-detailed, end up with a texture resembling plastic, as they are a little too smooth. On the upside, it helps the series finally resemble the pre-rendered FMV sequences seen in previous installments.

Keyblade Master Aqua about to face off against a
Demon Tower enemy made of Shadow Heartless.

As for the gameplay, it feels like a number of gameplay elements from previous games have coalesced into a new whole. The game does away with the Command Deck, instead returning back to the classic Menu system as a base, along with the introduction of a second “page” for the shortcut menu to separate Magic from Items. On top of this base, the gameplay uses the MP system from Kingdom Hearts II, Shotlocks and the Focus gauge from Birth by Sleep and the presence of Flowmotion from Dream Drop Distance, though in a more limited form here. Additionally, the game introduces the ability to teleport between Save Points, Objectives which unlock clothing and color options for Aqua and Situation Commands, which operate as a more upgraded form of Reaction Commands. Magic now also leaves an effect on the environment, allowing for some new effects and interactions in combat.

Controlling all of the gameplay elements during combat felt very smooth and responsive, especially since everything was incorporated in a surprisingly effective way. Knowing that Kingdom Hearts III will introduce more mechanics on top of this, including the return of Summons and Drive Forms, it’s good overall that the developers decided to provide such a glimpse into what’s in store for the future of the franchise. While 0.2 Birth by Sleep is essential to play in more ways than one, it also manages to provide a pretty satisfying experience that may leave long-time fans wanting more.

The last item in HD 2.8 is an 80-minute original feature with the title Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover (read as Kingdom Hearts Chi Back Cover). This film tells the story of a group known as the Foretellers, six apprentices who have been given important tasks to complete in the event that their master, the Master of Masters, disappears. Though it is meant more as a companion to the Kingdom Hearts χ game and its Unchained χ version, it feels like a potential substitute, as it is essentially the events of χ told from a different point of view. Its place as a distant prequel to the rest of the series allows it to explore certain story elements discussed in other entries, mainly the Great Keyblade War, and gives a new context to the Gazing Eye, a blue eye last seen in Xehanort’s Keyblade.

The mysterious Master of Masters.

As much as the feature sheds new light on the events of the series, it unfortunately doesn’t reach a solid conclusion, instead allowing its events to tie into the events of 0.2 Birth by Sleep and, presumably, Kingdom Hearts III. In addition, the narrative is driven by a single question, “Who is the traitor?” On the upside, the rendering is very impressive, as it also uses Unreal Engine 4 and the Kingdom Shader. Though the plastic feeling doesn’t completely go away, the fact that the important characters are all wearing clothing covering their features seems to make the aesthetic more visually appealing. While χ Back Cover isn’t a perfect movie, series fans are pretty much obligated to watch it, if only to feel like they’re staying in the loop.

Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue is an interesting and worthwhile collection. The inclusion of an essential piece of the long-running puzzle and two pieces of original content are more than enough to make this a must-have for Kingdom Hearts fans. Fortunately, the quality of the contents help it to feel less like a mere obligation and the presence of original content in an HD collection for the series also helps justify the price tag. If nothing else, this entry confirms that it is indeed the final stop before the events of Kingdom Hearts III. Now all we have to do is wait just a little bit longer.

Final Fantasy XV

The story of Final Fantasy XV’s development goes all the way back to Final Fantasy XIII, which spawned a compilation called Fabula Nova Crystallis (“new tale of the crystal” in Latin). One of the titles originally announced for this compilation was Final Fantasy Versus XIII, directed by Tetsuya Nomura. However, the game went through a troubled production cycle, including on-and-off pre-production, to the point where the game changed hands to a new director, Hajime Tabata, who changed up a few elements of the game in order to help development move forward. To reflect these changes, the game’s title became Final Fanatsy XV, officially removing itself from the Fabula Nova Crystallis compilation.

The game's logo and title pre-E3 2013.

Details about the production will end here, as I hadn’t followed it until after the announcement of Final Fantasy XV’s release. This review will cover not what could have been, but what became of the final product.

Post-E3 2013, Final Fantasy Versus XIII
officially became Final Fantasy XV.

In the story of Final Fantasy XV, the Kingdom of Lucis is to sign an armistice with the Niflheim to end a long-standing war between the two nations. To formalize the union, the ruler of Lucis, King Regis Lucis Caelum CXIII, sends his son, Prince Noctis, to marry Lady Lunafreya Nox Fleuret of the imperial province of Tenebrae. To help him on this journey, Noctis travels with his three closest companions, Ignis, Gladiolus and Prompto. During Noctis’ journey, however, the Empire of Niflheim takes the crown city and its crystal while the Lucian shield is down. As a result, King Regis, Noctis and Lunafreya are all considered dead, the news of which shocks Noctis. As his world falls apart around him, Noctis must strengthen his resolve and trust in his companions to face the adversity that awaits him to prove himself a worthy King of Lucis.

The execution of Final Fantasy XV’s story is a bit mixed. From Chapters 1-9, the game moves at a generally steady pace and introduces different characters and concepts at a rate that’s rather easy to pick up and understand. Here, the plot is surprisingly straightforward and, although due to this half of the game being more open-world, it’s easy to go for long stretches without advancing the plot. Chapters 10-15, however, take up the linear portion of the game, where the story is given a laser focus. As a result, the story feels a little more rushed and underdeveloped, with no time to truly flesh out a lot of the characters and allowing a few supposedly major events to occur off-screen. In addition, a lot of major twists feel like they had little to no real buildup and came out of nowhere.

This all culminates in an ending that’s somehow pretty emotional, in spite of the exact events feeling muddy, and while it didn’t elicit very strong reactions from me, the climax felt somewhat fitting for the journey that Noctis and his friends embark on. It gave a number of elements somewhat of a real meaning and I still got caught up in what I witnessed.

L-R: Ignis Scientia, Prompto Argentum, Noctis Lucis Caelem, Gladiolus Amicitia.

And yet I must confess that the only real reason I cared about the main quartet, and some of the supporting cast, is because I actually watched/played some of the tie-in material beforehand. Firstly, since I pre-ordered the game at GameStop, I was able to play A King’s Tale: Final Fantasy XV, a game that takes roughly 1 ½ hours to beat, which fleshed out a little bit of the relationship between not only King Regis and Prince Noctis, but also King Regis and some of the supporting cast who later appear in the game. Secondly, I watched the five-episode (totaling roughly one hour) Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV anime on the official YouTube channel, which established the backstories and connections of Noctis, Ignis, Gladiolus and Prompto. Lastly, I watched the two-hour Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV movie, which established much of the backstory of the game and filled in the details of what occurred before and after the fall of Lucis. While the characterization wasn’t perfect in all three pieces of tie-in material, it gave me enough context to actually care about the characters while playing, which in turn gave some events in the actual game more of an emotional weight. As such, I don’t know what it’s like to play with only the knowledge provided by the game, but I can agree it could have done a better job of explaining things without the need to go through around 4 ½ hours of extra material, including the “Omen” trailer, beforehand.

Much of the backstory is contained in
Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV.

Unfortunately, the backstories of the main cast are
contained within Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV
(freely viewable legally on the official YouTube channel).

With that said, the actual gameplay is stronger than the story overall, though still a little uneven. The main aspect of the game is its open world, calculated to take up roughly 780 square miles. The fastest way to traverse the map initially is to drive the Regalia, a car gifted to Noctis by King Regis for his travels. Later on, the player can ride Chocobos, a well-known bird species from the Final Fantasy series, across areas the Regalia can’t normally get to and at a faster rate than walking or running. Should the payer visit enough locations, they can also begin to fast travel to certain destinations as long as they pay 10 gil, the game’s currency, and take the Regalia. Additionally, more power monsters, called Daemons, roam the world during the night, at which point only manual driving as Noctis is allowed until a certain part of the story is reached.

I personally didn’t mind the Regalia all that much, since I gained the ability to earn AP (Ability Points) and EXP (Experience Points) for long drives and Chocobo rides, plus I could do something else while waiting. However, there are certainly long stretches of nothing happening during this time, which can take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes depending on the destination. After a certain point in the game, I also resorted to using fast travel more often and used Chocobos to traverse longer off-road stretches of land. There is also the matter of needing to refuel the Regalia, though I didn’t mind doing this at all, considering it only costs 10 gil no matter what and it forces the player to pay attention to the amount of fuel left (and prevents abuse of earning AP and EXP). In addition, you can do various side quests to upgrade the regalia with parts that make it faster and more fuel efficient, or even drive away Daemons during the night, so there’s eventually even less of a worry of running out of fuel.

The Regalia is the party's main method of
transportation for most of the game.

As for the battle system, dubbed Active X Battle, or AXB (read: Active Cross Battle), it’s simple but at the same time has some depth. To initiate combat, the party can engage monsters in the field, some of which won’t attack until you do and some of which will attack as soon as they detect you. This is determined by a red bar at the top of the screen which starts from the center and slowly grows outward until it hits the edges. Once it hits the edge, combat has begun and an area marked in red on the mini-map, typically a circle, determines how large the marked combat area is. If the monster does not attempt to attack first, then striking one will automatically create a combat zone. It is also possible to attack monsters before combat is formally initiated.

Once combat has begun, be it against monsters or bosses, the primary actions revolve around the use of three of the action buttons on the controller. On the default controller layout, holding circle will have Noctis attack a single target continuously or run toward a target to begin attacking. Holding square has Noctis defend against attacks by phasing away from attacks, but at the cost of MP, or initiating a parry attack with the correct button prompt. Triangle is used for warping, which consumes MP, either to a designated Warp Point by holding the button or striking an enemy from afar by holding down R1 to lock on and then pressing triangle. Noctis can also automatically team up with his friends with link-strikes and attacking an enemy from behind results in a blindside attack or, if performed with teammates, a blindside link.

HP and MP, or Health and Magic, replenish automatically over time. If Noctis reaches a Warp Point, his MP will fully recover and his HP will recharge at a faster rate. This also occurs when he takes cover either behind an appropriate object or by hanging from a high up Warp Point. However, should a character’s HP hit zero, they enter a Danger state and their maximum HP begins to drop for the duration until either another party member rescues them or a healing item, such as a Potion, is used. Once their maximum HP becomes zero, they are knocked out for the remainder of the fight unless a revival item, such as a Phoenix Down, is used. If Noctis is knocked out, there is a small window of time to revive him, otherwise it’s Game Over. Outside of battle, maximum HP recovers over time, but at a slower rate than recoverable HP.

Each party member can equip various weapons and accessories, all of which can be adjusted for each individual’s playstyle. However, Noctis’ friends each prefer certain weapon types, while Noctis can equip any weapon. Different weapons also have different properties, which can affect how they interact with the strengths and weaknesses of different monsters. While party members can only have two weapons equipped at a time, Noctis can equip four, all of which can be freely cycled through with the d-pad.

Two special weapon types are Royal Arms and Magic, which must be equipped. Royal Arms are found throughout the game by accessing Royal Tombs and represent Noctis’ ancestors. However, each use drains their health, so the player must keep a healthy supply of curatives on-hand to make up for it. Magic, on the other hand, comes in two flavors. There’s magic crafted through Elemancy, which are essentially grenades, and there’s Ring Magic, aka Arcana, which the player cannot use until the late game. The effectiveness of the former can also depend on the weather. While crafted magic comes with no MP cost, Ring magic does, though the ring has immediate access to three powerful spells of its own.

Noctis using Elemancy Magic.

There are also two gauges which fill up during combat. The three-segmented Tech Bar gradually fills up over time and allows Noctis to command his friends to perform specific Techniques, which can damage the enemy or provide a tactical advantage. Different Techniques cost a different number of segments, which the player can view each time they bring up the Tech menu to help keep track of their options. Once the player has acquired enough Royal Arms, they also have access to the Armiger Gauge, which fills up with each blow Noctis deals to an enemy. Activating the Armiger leads to a powerful move where Noctis repeatedly attacks a targeted enemy until the gauge runs out. Noctis is also immune to entering a Danger state over this period, though he can still take damage.

The last aspect of combat is the summoning mechanic, a staple in the series. In Final Fantasy XV, Summons are known as Astrals and are obtained after Noctis has proven himself worthy to them. Under specific conditions, the player can hold down L2 for a few seconds when prompted to summon an Astral and deal a huge amount of damage to enemies in an area, if not outright kill the target(s).

Now that I’ve laid out the battle system, I can say that there are certainly some pros and cons to how it works. The AXB system is fairly easy to pick up, but difficult to master, which is good for the surprising depth that it offers, as button mashing (or rather, holding down circle) the whole time will not win you the fight. It’s more about using the right combination of equipment and skills, as well as creating synergy between all of the party members to best eliminate the monsters which await them. In this way, the system is actually pretty fun. Should someone not like active time combat, however, there is a Wait Mode, which from my understanding is more or less similar to turn-based in that you can see enemy weaknesses and time moves when you take action.

An example of combat in Final Fantasy XV.

However, as I had mentioned, there are some downsides to combat. For one, Prompto is surprisingly frail, as he gets up close to monsters, despite using ranged weapons, and has the least amount of health, resulting in him being the teammate I had to help out the most. As much as I liked the Elemancy mechanic, I didn’t really enjoy needing to be careful about it due to it being both an Area of Effect move, a normally good thing, and involving “friendly fire” (sometimes literally). Because of this, I eventually just used it when I thought the benefit outweighed the potential damage to my teammates or when I wanted to potentially end an encounter in one shot. As for the Astrals, I found them to be pretty cool to use when I could pull it off, but the game doesn’t tell you all of the conditions required to summon one in particular, so one would have to either look it up or guess through trial and error. Then there’s the fact that you have to hold down L2 without getting hit, which can be pretty difficult when up against multiple enemies or just one that’s particularly aggressive. In addition, the camera can sometimes be a little wonky, allowing some environmental objects to occasionally obstruct your view.

What is useful, however, is the Ascension Grid, a system where you can spend AP earned throughout the game, though mainly through combat. These points can be spent in nine different grids, which can enhance a variety of different gameplay aspects, including combat, stat boosts and the rate of AP gain through exploration of the world. It’s definitely worth checking out the rewards you can obtain from each grid, as that may influence your playstyle based on how you prioritize your AP spending.

An example of the Ascension Grid.

Apart from the main quests, the player can take part in a large number of side quests and activities, including monster hunts, a pinball game or gambling on monster fights, the last of which can be done closer to the halfway point. The side quests and monster hunts are generally good to do for the sake of earning extra EXP, but can feel a little repetitive after a while. The, sometimes maze-like, dungeons can also be very difficult to get through depending on the dedication of the player to leveling up, which can lead to the need to grind a little before feeling confident enough to take on these challenges; that or somehow acquire a lot of gil to spend on endless curatives. As for the aforementioned pinball game, Justice Monsters Five, it has an interesting concept, but quickly gets boring due to the seeming impossibility of failure and its seemingly never-ending nature. It may have been better off as a regular themed pinball table.

There are some additional aspects of the game which are either staples of RPGs or little touches which further the idea that Final Fantasy XV is a “fantasy based in reality.” While a little sparse, there are plenty of towns to visit where players can go to shops, ask tipsters for information on the game world or engage in side quests and monster hunts. They can also eat different varieties of food, all of which provide some sort of status buffs at the cost of some gil.

Each party member also has a specific attribute that levels up over the course of the game based on certain actions taken. Gladiolus’ Survival attribute goes up the longer he is in the field and increases the chance that he can find certain items after each fight. Prompto’s Photography attribute goes up with each photograph he takes. Ignis’ Cooking attribute goes up each time he cooks a meal, as well as directly proportionate to the difficulty of the food item. Noctis’ Fishing attribute goes up with each fish that he catches at a fishing spot. These attributes help to distinguish each party member in some way and emphasizes the role that they play in the group, as well as their individual hobbies from even before the road trip.

The Main Menu in Final Fantasy XV.

The Photography mechanic is interesting, as Prompto takes a number of photos every day that Noctis can sort through each time the party rests. The player can choose which ones are the best to keep or share on social media, which ties into the realistic elements of the game. However, the player can only save back a total of 150 photos. This limit felt arbitrary, but it forced me eventually to decide which ones were truly worth keeping. Without spoiling, it turns out that there is more or less an actual reason for forcing the player to be selective, but it’s only obvious towards the end of the game.

Cooking is a skill that Ignis can tap into when the party rests at a Haven, a safe resting spot on the map. Cooking requires ingredients the player can acquire either out in the wild or from different vendors. Ignis can unlock more recipes either from acquiring a new ingredient or from eating certain purchased meals. Each cooked meal also provides different status boosts, but these only last for a certain amount of time. While the cooking is good from a gameplay standpoint, it’s also good for taking a load off and seeing more of a social aspect within the main party.

As for fishing, there are once again some pros and cons. Fishing feels more or less like fighting an enemy in the field, except you’re reeling in different fish which can differ in power depending on their location. Noctis can also have different rods, reels, lines and lures equipped to deal with certain fish or last longer during a catching attempt. The fishing mini-game is good for developing concentration as well as increasing Noctis’ skill and obtaining potential cooking ingredients, plus it’s somewhat humorous that catching a fish always feels like an actual battle, complete with appropriate music. However, it can take a while before the player can obtain a stronger rod or reel and it gets annoying when the line is only halfway to breaking and Noctis’ teammates don’t shut up about changing it out. In addition, you lose your lure once the line breaks, so you really have to pick your battles, even when you picked a lure to work on a specific fish. Thankfully, most lures can be purchased again, but it made me consider saving before trying to fish just in case.

Noctis about to fish.

While the game does have its flaws, they certainly nailed the graphics. Everything looks realistic, with beautifully detailed environments and unique and distinct monster designs. Even the Chocobos look real in their feather arrangement and detail. They especially nailed the food, which looked so mouthwateringly real that I wanted to eat it. When Ignis does the cooking, it even looks like someone could’ve made it on a camp stove. A day-to-night cycle is also present, with lighting that accurately reflects how the time of day would affect visibility. The lighting is also good in terms of the reflection of light, including the glare that would be present off of buildings and cars like the Regalia. But the dev team didn’t stop there, even going so far as to render the effects of dirt and weather on the main party members, which affect cloth and hair physics. When it rains, for instance, you can see everyone’s clothes soaked in water and Noctis’ hair flattens.

Noctis' hair during the rain.

The food in Final Fantasy XV looks mouthwateringly real.

Fun fact: The Final Fantasy XV team collaborated with
Epic Meal Time on the Stacked Ham Sandwich.

Another highlight is the music composed by Yoko Shimomura. I’m familiar with her work on the Kingdom Hearts series and she has yet to disappoint. Her score is very memorable and each track feels distinct from one another, with highlights such as the Chocobo theme, the Main Menu theme and the main combat theme, among others. Apart from Shimomura’s score, you can listen to music from current and previous Final Fantasy games through the CD player in the Regalia, as well as an unlockable portable CD player, and Braver by Afrojack. The game also features a cover of “Stand by Me” recorded by Florence and the Machine. Personally, I liked the Florence and the Machine cover and found its usage effective.

One last element is the voice acting. The voice actors did a very good job bringing the characters to life and making them all feel like individuals. The performances from Ray Chase (Noctis), Adam Croasdell (Ignis), Chris Parson (Gladiolus) and Robbie Daymond (Prompto) helped contribute to the relationship dynamic between the main party and brought out their full personalities. I could say the same for Erin Matthews as Cindy Aurum, the mechanic, and Amy Shiels as Lunafreya Nox Flueret. I also have to credit Darin De Paul’s performance as Ardyn Izunia, as he very clearly had a lot of fun in his role.

Although flawed, Final Fantasy XV is quite a ride. The story is pretty straightforward and engaging for the most part, though it admittedly loses steam toward the end as motivations start to get a little muddy. The open world gameplay and combat is also very well done and while the linear half has its moments, Chapter 13 in particular seems to drag on a bit long. The graphics, voice acting and music are all highlights, however, and do well to compliment the surprising touches of realism within a fantasy game, earning the game its tagline, and core concept, of “a fantasy based in reality.” While it is unfortunate that you need to watch a movie and an anime to fully understand what’s going on, I still got into the dynamic of the core cast as they made their journey across the land of Eos toward their ultimate fates. Overall, coming from someone who felt compelled to play and finish a mainline Final Fantasy game for the first time, Final Fantasy XV truly is “A Final Fantasy for Fans and First-Timers.”