The Final Fantasy XV Experience
After 13 years of what many would call development hell, FFXV is now complete…almost.
There will be PLENTY OF SPOILERS throughout this blog. I really don’t suggest reading this blog if you haven’t finished, at the very least, vanilla ‘Final Fantasy XV’. Consider this your warning folks!
Introduction
I got a PS4 in 2017, which was both a wonderful and bad time to be playing games on my choice of eighth generation console.
- Wonderful because 2017 was a bloody brilliant year for video games and I had a lot of catching up to do.
- Bad because was in the middle of pretty important assessments during my first year at university.
Anyway, one of the MANY PS4 games that fueled me during one’s time during uni was ‘Final Fantasy XV’, the latest main-entry instalment to one of my favourite franchises. I didn’t watch any reviews or have any real awareness of the game, but I bought it and the accompanying collector's edition complete official guide, with no idea what to expect. I would get a little taster some minutes later when I reached the front of an oddly long queue and handed my items to be purchased. The cute but frightfully skinny woman at the till took my items and looked at them as she scanned them.
“Have you seen Kingsglaive?” She asked casually, which confused me, as British people, especially those who are storefronts, generally don’t make conversations with strangers. I (probably) pulled a face and said no.
“Well, you need to watch that film to understand what’s going on in the game. It’s kinda a prequel to the rest of the game.”
I definitely pulled a face here and responded with ‘thanks’ as I received my game and guide. “Oh, and you need to watch Brotherhood.” She added quickly. “It’s an anime about the guys in your party. And there’s a game called ‘A King’s Tale’ that takes place 30 years before-”
“Hold on.” I interrupted. “So in order to enjoy the £40 game and £20 walkthrough guide I just bought, I have to buy a film, anime and another game?”
“Yeah.” She went. “Well, you can watch the anime on YouTube and ‘A King’s Tale’ is free.”
I wonder what most people would have done there. I imagine some may have handed their game back. As I am a ‘Final Fantasy’ addict, I went to the local HMV and bought the film and spent the afternoon watching that and the anime.
VERY Brief Film and Anime Review
‘Kingslgiave’ runs parallel with the events of Final Fantasy XV, focusing on Regis Lucis Caelum, (the kingly father of the main character of the game, called Noctis), and a small group of the Kingsglaive, an elite corps made up of immigrants from beyond the city limits with whom Crystal’s power are shared by Regis.
On my first viewing of the film, I thought it was a fairly average film with some stunning CGI and enticing music, the most notable I thought was the cue ‘Somnus’, which would act as the main theme for ‘Final Fantasy XV’, and was composed by the legendary Yoko Shimomura, who would be the main composer for the game. It was no surprise that despite being a tragic moment, it did not surprise me that Regis was going to be killed in the film, for his voice actor was Sean Bean, who is always killed in his films. It was great seeing Aaron Paul in a role where he is not shouting bitch at people and just being the good guy for a change. Finally, Lunafreya Nox Fleuret, former princess of Tenebrae and now a hostage of Niflheim, the bad guys, was incredibly annoying.
‘Brotherhood’ is a five-part anime set within the events of ‘Final Fantasy XV’, and details the backstories of main protagonist Noctis Lucis Caelum (the one in the forefront of the picture) and those closest to him, who form the party in FFXV. They are Gladiolus Amicitia (the one in the picture with the incredible muscles), Prompto Argentum (the blonde one with the handgun), and Ignis Scientia (the handsome fellow with the glasses and daggers).
Each episode focuses on a different character, with the last and first episodes on Noctis specifically. Like the film, they were alright during my initial viewing, with the episode that focused on Prompto being the most intriguing.
Since playing ‘Final Fantasy XV’ I have further appreciated the film and anime and vice versa. I forgot about ‘A King’s Tale’ until recently and would go straight to FFXV and loved it, warts and all. I wish to elaborate this for you.
As I was playing it, FFXV has had many updates, DLC and ‘events’ that have further expanded the universe that took place during the first year of its release. I completed the main story, with the release of ‘Episode Ignis’ around the corner and decided I would return to the game once that and any further updates and expansions were done, and for a time I thought they were. Then Square Enix (the developers and publishers) announced that they were releasing a second season pass that got me in the mood for revisiting the world of Eos and the cast in the recently(ish) added NG+ mode with my overpowered party, ready relive the magic all over again, hopefully with a fuller story.
Then as I was coming to the end of my NG+ playthrough, it was announced that the second season pass was cancelled, with the exception of ‘Episode Ardyn’, which was released 26th March 2019, which should be five days prior the publication of this blog, which I had to play ASAP.
This what I intend to cover in this blog:
- My general thoughts and opinions on the game since I began playing it 27th May 2017, exploring memories of my first and my subsequent playthroughs
- It’s episodic DLCs and events
- ‘The Royal Edition’ expansion
There are some elements I won’t be covering in this blog.
- The multiplayer expansion ‘Final Fantasy XV: Comrades’ won’t be mentioned all that much, as that is is a 50hr+ game and will be getting a separate blog all on its own, with its own praises and complaints.
- I refuse to play ‘Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire’ for a number of reasons. Square Enix never mention it, despite it technically being canon, featuring FFXV’s characters and soundtrack. It is a freemium massively multiplayer online strategy game developed by Machine Zone under the guise of Epic Action. If you want to know a good reason why you shouldn’t play this pigstye of a game, you can watch this video, as that explains my reasons just as accurately as I would type them.
- ‘Monster of the Deep: Final Fantasy XV’ won’t be explored at all during this blog. It is a VR fishing game set in the ‘Final Fantasy XV’ world of Eos. It may well have scored surprisingly well on Metacritic, but I think it was utter garbage and nothing is gained or lost by (not) playing this game.
- I also won’t be including ‘Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition’ as that is an abridged version of FFXV proper for mobiles with odd graphics and that is played from a fixed camera angle, similar to other touch screen role-playing games. It is also available for consoles as well, which I find rather baffling
- Finally, ‘A King’s Tale’ won’t be talked about that also doesn’t add much to the main game. I was also a tad disappointed with it, as a lot of opportunities presented in this game were missed with this game.
Discussing ‘Final Fantasy XV’ amongst the fans is a rather dangerous subject and I am fully aware of the can of worms I have opened, to which I say ‘fuck safety, I have a blog to write and write it I shall’!
The Blog Proper
A Bit on Gameplay and Relationships
When you boot up the game and wait for it’s rather long loading screen to take its own time, you are greeted to the following message:
A FINAL FANTASY for Fans and First-Timers
I thought it was a strangely pleasing message as I can’t recall any game greeting me like this before. Keep this in mind as this will be a recurring theme in this blog.
What was also strange that once I booted up the game, after waiting an hour for it to install, I had to wait a further hour for the game to install again, so the game wasn’t doing very well for me at that point. I have never fully understood why that happened.
After completing the optional tutorial with Carbuncle and an opening that would feature the penultimate boss fight with Ifrit and party, the game proper begins with the four of you pushing a broken down Regalia, which is the car you will spend a lot of your time in. Accompanying this slow and strange car pushing opening is followed by another seemingly strange decision. A cover of ‘Stand By Me’ by Ben E. King, performed by Florence and The Machine, began to play, that was recorded especially for the game. It also plays during the games’ credits where it’s existence makes far more sense for the reasons I will explain.
At the game’s beginning, an armistice is declared between the two nations of Lucis and Niflheim due to the king Regis’ failing health. As part of the peace agreements, Niflheim will gain control of all Lucian territories outside Insomnia, and a marriage is arranged between the heirs apparent of the royal families of Lucis and Tenebrae, who are Noctis and Luna respectively. The game does next-to-no job explaining this to you, so in order to understand the first two-five hours (depending on what you do when you play) of the game, it is advised that you watch ‘Kingsglaive’ which is a bit shit, especially when the false advertising from Square Enix says that you can have one without the other.
In short, you play as Noctis who is accompanied by his friends Ignis, Prompto and Gladiolus, who accompany on your grand quest to meet Luna in Altissia, the capital of Accordo, to get married and bring peace the kingdoms.
From what I remember of my initial playthrough, I didn’t touch the main quest for a while as I was having too much fun driving around and hunting monsters in the Hunt sidequests, which is the easiest way to obtain lots of money and level up. FFXV abandons the previous instalment’s turn-based shenanigans in favour of real-time battle approach, which is where that opening message begins to make sense, as many modern RPGs feature more streamlined combat.
For the most part, you explore an open world with monsters that can just appear if you explore off the main roads of Lucis, which is very similar to pretty much every western take on world design. The combat is incredibly simple to the point that some may call insulting. Not I, as I have never been a fan of complicated attack systems and I really liked this combat. Holding the circle button allows Noctis to unleash combos to whatever is in front of him, which can be annoying as it is also the same button that allows you to run, meaning you can attack an enemy you did not want to start a fight with. Square allows you to dodge via a roll if pressed or to phase through an attack if held at the right point. Square also allows you to block if you press the button prompt at the right time as well. Triangle performs a warp-strike, which is basically a fancy teleportation attack.
Because of the design of combat implemented here, fights are very simple and often don’t require much thinking. As fights progress, you build up a tech meter which allows Noctis to call upon his bros to perform a special skill, all of which can be really useful, but lacking any real strategy. Some weapon types deal more damage (greatswords are stronger than daggers for example) and most enemies are usually weak to some sort of weapon and/or magical element, but using magic is not really encouraged in FFXV, despite being incredibly OP in some scenarios.
Early on in the game, you obtain the Armiger power, which can be described as almost god mode as you fly around (in battle only) with any of the 13 Royal Arms, which are weapons of 13 of your ancestors, you have collected and obliterate your foes. I heard it described recently as ‘Panic Mode’ which makes a lot of sense, as I tend to employ it whenever there is a particularly big monster or a group of smaller enemies to deal with that are either too strong or I’m just pushed for time and need to get a move on. A lot of people did not like it’s implementation here, but I really liked it. It certainly beats getting the same two summons over and over and fighting with the camera!
What works really well during fights is the constant exchanges the four bros have, praising and teasing each other as they fall, deal damage and defeat their enemies. Having spent over 100 hours on the game, I’m fairly certain I have heard every exchange they give each other at least 50 times and I have never felt that any of it sounds old or repetitive, as there is a lot of variety to how they deliver their lines and who says what.
This is one of many ways the game makes you care and love the relationship and banter the bros have with each other. Gladiolus is strong and firm, occasionally being a bit of a dick towards Noctis, but does so because he cares for him, as well as it being his job as Shield to protect and strengthen his king. Prompto is carefree and often jolly wanting nothing but to see happiness in his friends. You feel sorry for him because you learn from ‘Brotherhood’ he is the only one of the party who does not have a legitimate reason to be with Noctis, other than the fact he is a friend from school. You also learn late into the game that he is technically a demon clone and feels like an outsider for most of the game. Ignis is cool, calm and collected, acting as a mother hen and general brains for the group whilst showing really heroic moments (most notably in his DLC). Finally, Noctis isn’t your stereotypical hero that just can’t wait to be king. The responsibility of becoming a monarch worries him and he is emotional and sometimes rash. So when ‘Stand By Me’ played for a second time, combined with one of the best endings in video games, I cried a little, as it told that story really well.
What the game does terribly across its 50-hour campaign is establishing a decent relationship between lovers Noctis and Luna. The base game, with all of its updates, only hints that these two could potentially like each other. In fact, the only time they speak to each other is once, and that is during a dream sequence when the spirit of a dead Luna visits an unconscious Noctis once he was claimed Leviathan’s power. Even then, she is giving him one of her many monologues because the game constantly tries to make her an important character, which she is for lore reasons, but it is not communicated very well otherwise. Therefore, I am hardly convinced they actually properly speak at all as grown-ups!
Some cinematics were added in after the game’s release that fleshed out Luna’s character slightly, but not enough to make me care for her or the almost non-existent relationship between her and Noctis. What I will praise is that she is somewhat more tolerable in the game than she is in ‘Kingsglaive’ as she is all high and mighty in that film and needed a bloody good slap to bring her back down to Eos.
The World of Eos
In case the quality is lost through the screenshots I have littered throughout this blog, ‘Final Fantasy XV’ is a stunning game. Never did I get bored fighting the monsters and looking at the highly detailed environments and dynamic day and night system.
That being said, it did get very tedious having Ignis drive me from various points, which was betting paying 10 (or was it 100?) Gil to use fast travel, and despite being faster, driving manually was not much engaging either. The towns and settlements themselves were also great to look at, despite the fact that every Crow’s Nest (the diners you visit for food and the Hunt sidequests) was exactly the same…as well many of the NPC models which did leave some funny encounters where people were having dinner with themselves.
Moments like this made does great damage to the many years the developers spent on making the world believable. One thing I have always found baffling is the lack of walls. No, I’m not a Trump supporter, but when a game has huge Behemoths’ wandering around, a massive bird called Zu that could easily snort you, your nan and the resort of Galdin Guay through a nostril and the threat of daemons that make travelling at night fucking suicide, surely you would see the many townsfolk with a lot more protection than what they do? Shouldn’t there be a lot of anxiety in daily life? No one seems all that bothered by it, as anyone and anything can just waltz right into town, say hi, eat the townsfolk, listen to the latest episode of ‘The Archers’ and no one would know what to do.
Take ‘Monster Hunter World’ for example, which addresses a lot of these problems. Everyone is packed to the teeth with armour and weapons (mostly made out of whatever it was they didn’t eat for breakfast) the strongholds are also ready to pummel a monster to depths from which they came. Out in the open, you can see larger monsters engage each other in fights and eating each other, which creates a really frightening and realistic sense of ecosystem and food chain, creating the sense of an immersive world. It is cool to watch, but I would not want to live in its world. With FFXV, it is clear the emphasis was how the player interacted with the monsters and townsfolk, but not how the monsters interact with the townsfolk and vice versa and is a bit more difficult to take seriously as a result.
That is of course excluding that absurd obsession and fucking shameful Cup Noodle quest, it’s various advertising, and the various American Express logos you can find in the world of Eos.
I referred to Lucis as an open world, but a lot of what you can explore is actually blocked off by invisible walls, and weird loading screens, the former is most evident in the Regalia-D & R upgrades. Besides this, vast swats of the land are just barren. As FFXV follows the western open-world model, many of its sidequests fall under the fetch-quest category and are not very memorable or engaging and is actually insulting, given how long the game was in development for. Thirteen years and the best Square Enix could come up with is a series of sidequests where you have to go and collect multicoloured frogs, which are not only difficult to find but are impossible to pick up because the ‘pick-up’ button is the same as the ‘jump’ button, so imagine the fun I had trying to pick up the same frog for five minutes because Noctis decided he wanted to paddle in a pond like an energetic toddler!
Anyway, The hunts took up most of my time and general enjoyment (in terms of gameplay) despite being the same ‘kill X number’ of monsters throughout. I really enjoyed them, especially the more powerful ones. Besides that, these sidequests never really have any decent narrative and that is a missed opportunity. So many of the characters are underplayed and show great narrative potential…but they just don’t pay off.
You can rest at camps known as bonfires, and at some of them, a member of your party will take you on a sidequest called a tour that acts as more bonding time between Noctis and one of the bros. They are a nice addition that once more furthers the player's engagement with that element of the story. I would always choose to sleep at a camp over a lodging or a hotel, which grant you additional exp bonuses, as Ignis cooks you meals at camps which grant you stat bonuses. I also love the cue that plays during these sections. It is one of my favourite cues in the game.
Once you reach Altissia and Chapter 9, the game becomes very linear which a lot of people didn’t like as it reminded them of their ‘Final Fantasy XIII’ days. I actually preferred these sections as the game suddenly had more focus on the main narrative. That being said, one cannot mention the linearity without briefly talking about the infamous Chapter 13, it’s weird stealth mechanics and stripping you of all your weapons minus The Ring of The Luci. It is not the strongest part of the game by any means, especially when a future update that was released just before the release of Episode Gladiolus allowed you to skip a huge chunk of it to play as Gladiolus instead of Noctis.
DLC and The Lack of Context
Good additional content should add to an already great game. Two examples I can come up with is both the narrative expansions to ‘Skyrim’ and the one DLC found in ‘Dark Souls’. They both offer experiences that expand upon the already rich and brilliant games that are both satisfying without their respective DLC that shine lights on worlds you didn’t know even existed. They don’t fix anything as such.
The bros of FFXV speak with a familiarity that hint they have known each other for years, something that is never really explored in the base game. To further understand that, you have to watch ‘Brotherhood’ which is a tad annoying. This is also a huge fuck up on Square Enix’s part as one of the main themes of the game is bonds with friends. To segregate the game’s narrative in an anime and film means that the game was created with this gaping hole in its narrative, which leads me to the episodic DLC.
In Chapters 7, 9 and 10, Gladiolus, Ignis and Prompto bugger off for one reason or another and something happens to them during the absence that we never see in the main game. By spending £4 on each episodic installation, you get to find out what happened to them. Putting aside my bitter resentment for this monetisation, the content found within the first (and now only) season pass offers the most engaging and interesting moments and boss fights in the game. They offer a much more focused approach as they lack an open world, thus being able to fully develop that portion of the character’s narrative arc. ‘Episode Ignis’ was my most favourite and ‘Episode Prompto’ being the most thematic, whilst also doing a great job of fleshing out everyone’s FFXV waifu, Aranea, who helps him get his shit together. ‘Episode Gladiolus’ is arguably the weakest, but does offer a pretty cool boss fight with the latest incarnation of Gilgamesh.
The bros’ narrative arcs are condensed in a few mere hours that you have to pay for and regardless how good they are, they are hinted at in the main game, deliberately mocking the player, telling them that there is an answer as to why Ignis went blind and the additional scar on Gladiolus’ face. Similarly, snippets from ‘Kingsglaive’ are shown to the player towards the beginning of the game when the party read a newspaper that Regis was killed by The Niflheim Empire that is somewhat jarring, as they are both very different looking and anyone who didn’t see the film will be very confused by the sudden change in artistic approach and why they are seeing characters and places they’ve never seen before, which in turn would make a really serious moment (Regis’ death) not that interesting because the context of the film is not there to that group of players. What should be the equivalent of Aerith’s death in FFVII is just a moody and oddly flat cutscene.
If moments of ‘Kingsglaive’ were interwoven into the story better, such as being able to wander around Insomnia for a few hours, bonding with Regis for example, knowing of Inmonia’s destruction would bare more weight to the player. Final Fantasy has always been about rich and powerful stories where all of its contents are granted to the player, so why is it that Square Enix has become incredibly greedy and segregate important plot points in this manner? Oh, it would appear that I have already answered my question…
I understand that this would cost a fortune and hours of man (and woman) hour of basically reworking the game to adhere a small portion of the fan base and it would seem totally unreasonable for me to suggest that they actually did that…but that is exactly what they did with it anyway.
An Army of Additional Content
Over the two years that FFXV has been available to the public, it has about 40GB of updates from new cutscenes to flesh out the characters of Luna, Ravus and the godly Astrals, to life improvement changes such as being able to wait to a certain time of day at a campsite to partake time specific hunts and catch certain fish. One update allows the player to turn the Regalia into a monster truck that allows you to drive on most of the terrain found in Lucis which is when driving in the game becomes it’s most enjoyable. No journey is ever a simple one however, as two examples of mine will show you.
Whilst many people will complain and moan that some of the many new features should have been in the base game, some of which I can agree with to some extent, but none of these would have been cheap to implement and I admire Square Enix for listening to their fanbase with such improvements. Especially with the cutscenes, as a lot of these have new music that was recorded with a live orchestra, which by the way, is rather expensive!
There was also the inclusion of the weirdly multiplayer styled festival setups focused around Chocobos and the Assassin’s Creed franchise, the latter being a means of promoting ‘Assassin’s Creed: Origins’ which is by far the most broken, clunky gameplay found within the whole game. I found it easier to navigate myself using tank controls than this weird collaboration project.
That is not the only collaboration mind, as the most recent of these being the ‘Final Fantasy XIV’ collaboration, which I really enjoyed despite the annoying platforming sections in a brand new base built into the game The voice acting of the bros are arguably their weakest here, most notably Ignis.
The Neko that is introduced is rather adorable and is strangely happy being teleported to a whole new world and staying there. The ending boss fight with Garuda was really tough, despite being about 20 levels below me and I plan to take on the optional level 120 boss fight of Garuda at some point. This collab also offers new costumes and weapons that are leagues stronger than any of the other weapons found in the main game. The additional summon of another Garuda was pretty cool until you realise that she is the only summon that will appear for you, so if you got annoyed at Ramuh appearing all the time, be prepared for a whole new level of irritation!
Before that was the ‘TERRA Wars’ collab quest that was short and yet really engaging that boots you back to the main menu once it’s done for some reason. What I found most annoying here is that there is more relationship building between Noctis and Sarah than Noctis and Luna! The story and music were pretty cool and I got a slight crush over Sarah which is totally fine(?).
I also wish to point out that these very large patch updates were totally free which I think is amazing. Square Enix could have charged a fortune for these and yet they were given out for free.
On 6th March 2018 ‘The Royal Edition’ was released. It included all previous DLC plus the addition of being able to explore a bombed our Insomnia that I never thought was needed given the context of the party being there to defeat Ardyn and take back the throne…not to take photos for one of the remaining Kingsglaives, which was the most tedious of the three new quests offered to you whilst you are the new Kingsglaive base in Insomnia. I will admit it was really cool hearing music from ‘Comrades’ in this place and seeing the various AI Kingsglaives I fought within that expansion all gathered together in one place still looking like zombies standing around. The highlight for me was finding my avatar for ‘Comrades’ in one of these sidequests, be it a much weaker version to the one I used for when ‘Comrades’ was released as a standalone game and not when it was part of FFXV. I will leave a video to that for you to watch if you so wish.
The additional boss fights that can be found are potentially challenging for new players, but not I as was incredibly over-levelled for them all…minus Omega, who has yet to be beaten by me.
The other notable feature in this expansion was the addition to sail the open waters between Lucis and Accordo which is peaceful and mildly enjoyable…until you realise there is not a lot to do other than fish (which is very useful if you want to get the fishing-related trophies for the game by the way) and listen to the same four lines of dialogue that were recorded for the sailing part. Another lacklustre quest was added in as well which, once again, did not other much interest to the main story.
Finally, there is ‘Episode Ardyn’ and it’s anime prologue that explores the background of one of my favourite video game villains, Ardyn Izunia, who of course is the main antagonist for FFXV. ‘Episode Ardyn’ is the most fun I have had in a DLC in years! Darting around as this overpowered demi-god, summoning Ifrit to slap anyone who so much as looked at me was a really enjoyable experience. It was clear the developers really tried to have fun with this DLC, which is most evident by the fact that you are able to dress Ardyn up in a variety of hats that provide various perks to the True King of Lucis. I grew a little bit tearful when I saw the credits roll as FFXV has finally finished…almost.
Coda
I am deliberately avoiding the infamous ‘Final Fantasy Versus XIII’ project that it once was as I am aware that this already a huge blog and anyone who reads this is likely to know the utter shit fest that was the game’s development cycle which oddly encompasses my thoughts on FFXV’s lack of focus in storytelling, world-building and combat. If you don’t, boy I hope you have tissues ready because things can get pretty emotional once you begin to explore that rabbit hole!
I got the platinum trophy for ‘Final Fantasy XV’ and it is a game I have really enjoyed playing on and off for the last two years, but it is one that is incredibly frustrating because of how it treats its interesting characters, fantastic antagonist and world and lore that is built on (in-game) lies and deceit. It is very strange how Square Enix has treated its most popular franchise like an online multiplayer game and not what was once a franchise of golden prestige. Regardless, the constant stream of updates and cutscenes kept bringing me back time and time again to build up more lore to one of my favourite PS4 games and I cannot but help to love this game.
Despite all of this and the cancelled second season pass one final piece of additional content for you to keep an eye out for is the novel that is supposed to answer the questions of what would have been the second season pass.
It is titled ‘FINAL FANTASY XV The Dawn of The Future’ that has yet to receive a release date in Japan and a book I really hope makes its way outside of Japan so I can get my tiny mitts on it. I hope there is some reason to believe Luna is an important character, what made Aranea turn against the empire and whatever Noctis’ chapter is supposed to be about. Given the front cover, it is a happy ever after scenario which I don’t think is really needed as the bittersweet ending that was provided in the game is one of the best endings I have ever witnessed that still moves makes me shed a tear or two.
Whatever the outcome, hopefully, I can finally put ‘Final Fantasy XV’ to its well-deserved bed.
Through the many ups and downs of FFXV, what remains consistently fantastic is the soundtrack, both the original soundtrack and the ones found in each DLC (which make up volumes 1 & 2). Yoko Shimomura, her team and guest composers for the DLC and ‘Comrades’ have created some of my favourite musical moments in all of gaming and I feel truly honoured to be an owner of the two soundtracks and the Piano Collections arrangement album. I have yet to get a copy of the ‘Kingsglaive’ film soundtrack, but it is on my wish list.
I would also like to remind you that each one included live orchestras, which was not cheap and I am really happy Square Enix didn’t cut corners when it concerned the music.
Here is a REALLY SMALL pool of some of my favourite cues from the game, in no particular order for you to admire.
An Optional Challenge…
If you haven’t played FFXV recently, here’s an interesting way for you to relive the magic. Experience the Final Fantasy XV Universe in the following order, as that should roughly be in chronological order.
- Play ‘A King’s Tale’
- Episode Ardyn
- Watch the film ‘Kingsglaive’
- Final Fantasy XV, stopping at Chapter 3
- Watch the ‘Brotherhood’ anime
- Final Fantasy XV, stopping at the end of Chapter 8
- Episode Gladiolus
- Final Fantasy XV, stopping at the end of Chapter 9
- Episode Ignis
- Final Fantasy XV, stopping at the end of Chapter 13
- Go back and play Chapter 13 Part 2
- Episode Prompto
- Comrades
- Final Fantasy XV stopping when you finish the main quest
The fishing VR game and the TERRA wars collab can slot in any time before Chapter 9, but the FFXIV collab is most certainly a quest you should be a high level for, but if you are playing the game in NG+, then it shouldn’t matter all that much. I don’t recommend doing this challenge on your first playthrough.
If I were to rate this game out of 10, I would rate it WHO THE FUCK IS IZUNIA?!?/10, which is just as helpful as a proper out of 10 score.
What do you think of this game? What is your favourite cue from the game? Who your favourite party member? Mine is Ignis. Who is your FFXV waifu? Which is your favourite DLC?
Let’s start a conversation, people!
