Final Fantasy XV Review Thread: 81 OC (83 Reviews) 81 MC (107 Reviews)

[ethomaz]

• 81 based on 107 Critics for PlayStation 4 - Metacritic
• 84 based on 12 Critics for Xbox One - Metacritic
• 81 based on 83 Critics for PS4 and XB1 - OpenCritic

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[ethomaz]

IGN:

The verdict:

When I'm riding chocobos across the beach at dusk with my three friends and hunting iconic Final Fantasy monsters in a huge, picturesque open world, Final Fantasy XV feels like nearly everything I could want from a modern Final Fantasy. But when it funnels me into linear scenarios and drab, constricted spaces that plunge the simplistic combat into chaos, my blood boils a bit. There is so much good here, so much heart - especially in the relationships between Noctis and his sworn brothers. It just comes with some changes and compromises that were, at times, difficult for this long-time Final Fantasy fan to come to grips with.

8.2- Great

Polygon:

Final Fantasy 15's own opening text describes it as "a Final Fantasy for fans and newcomers alike." The game contains pieces sure to disappoint players in both camps, but it also provides a refreshingly human take on the classic RPG journey that I hope will inspire future games in the franchise. Final Fantasy 15 can be baffling in some of its questionable choices, but across the board, it hits more than it misses. It hums with an energy and compassion that I loved, a sense of camaraderie, friendship and adventure that fills an old and struggling formula with new relevance.

9/10

Kotaku:



GameSpot:

One of the first things you see when you boot up the game is this claim "A Final Fantasy for fans and first-timers." It's a strange statement; fans can't agree on what makes a good Final Fantasy game, and who knows why newcomers shied away from the series in the past. It's been a long ten years since Final Fantasy XV was first revealed, and tastes have changed in the meantime. While it's safe to assume fans and outsiders will find some aspect of Final Fantasy XV disappointing--be it the shallow story or finnicky Astrals--it would be hard for anyone to deny that Final Fantasy XV is a fascinating game after giving it a chance. Where its characters fail to impress, Final Fantasy XV's beautiful world and exciting challenges save the day.

8/10 - Great

Eurogamer:

This troubled history is one of the reasons Final Fantasy 15 is so difficult to pin down. For a series universally known and loved for its emphasis on storytelling, can I recommend a Final Fantasy game despite its unsatisfying story? Instinctively I'd say no, but even as someone who prized the narratives of previous games I still found myself going back to 15's early stages to seek out new challenges after I'd concluded the main campaign. And it's clear that Final Fantasy 15 benefits from a vision, one that emboldened its developers to try new things and reinvent a series while reclaiming the scale that its most ardent fans are used to. In chasing that scale the bigger picture can sometimes get a little obscured, but importantly Final Fantasy 15 retains that love of smaller stories, the ones that often prove to be so much more memorable.

No score (?)

Game Informer:

Final Fantasy XV is unlike any RPG or open-world experience I've played before. It succeeds and struggles in finding its unique stance, but a few problematic designs don't hold it back from being a hell of a journey. Just days after playing it, I find myself reflecting on it fondly. The thoughts of that dang car are recessed and blanketed by Noctis' journey and some of the stunning moments that unfolded within it. I wasn't a fan of Final Fantasy XIII's sequels, but I hope Square returns with another XV or a similarly designed sequel to iron out the rough spots. There's a solid foundation here that begs to be explored further.

8.5

Destructoid:

As I'm typing this up now, I'm seeing a future where people buy Final Fantasy XV due to some of the more positive assessments (like this one), and walk away disappointed. Because if you loathe JRPGs, XV is not going to make you a believer. In a way it's silly that Square spent 10 years making this, and it feels like a really shiny version of something it would have actually made 10 years ago. While a complete overhaul of the genre would certainly suit someone's needs, XV suits mine just fine.

9 - Superb

Games Radar:

Then again, the story behind the making of Final Fantasy 15 is kind of a mess too, and it's impossible to know how much of this mish-mash of ideas is the result of its tumultuous history as a spin-off that entered development hell a decade ago or whether this was always what it was meant to be. It's a beautiful mess, though; a fascinating, wonderful, exciting, bold, and often inscrutable mess with endless ambition and the fearlessness to at least try something new with staid genre conventions. Even when it falters, it's never dull, the humanity of its heroes and the warmth of its world shining through even when its story leaves you cold. And if that's not Final Fantasy, I don't know what is.

4.5/5

The Verge:

Final Fantasy XV was worth the wait

No score

Video Gamer:

Final Fantasy XV is about adventure and excitement. There are oddities, and it's not the FF you're used to, but it's a good time with some good boys, and has an unexpected emotional resonance to it. Sometimes it seems like it shouldn't work, but it does.

8/10

Gearnuke.com:

Final Fantasy XV is a breath of fresh air for the series which was starting to lose its significance after the release of Final Fantasy XIII. It is one of the best open world games on the current generation consoles and a return to form for the franchise.

9/10

Jeux Video:

Final Fantasy XV is a very different title from what the series has offered us so far. Opting for a more compact narrative lasting about twenty hours, it leaves us spectator of a story much deeper than it seems, sort of desperate initiatory quest. But it also offers a gigantic and magnificent open world with panoramas that make drool. Shielded with ancillary contents to extend the lifetime to a hundred hours, Final Fantasy XV succeeds its bet and proves to be a must-have hit of this end of year, and this despite some finishing worries.

18/20

TIME:

Final Fantasy XV is a glorious return to relevance.

Something wonderful and improbable must have happened towards the end of the topsy-turvy decade it's taken Square Enix to finally produce a Final Fantasy worth crowing about. Thank director Hajime Tabata for somehow righting the ship. How he did so could presumably fill a book. How many games get 10 years to simmer? Change captains mid-journey? Have lord knows how many investment dollars (to say nothing of franchise esteem) on the line? And how often does vaporware materialize, after years of elliptical studio messaging, this lively and focused and fully realized?

4.5/5

Xbox Achievements / PSTropies:

As an RPG, Final Fantasy XV has everything you'd expect: a compelling, emotional story; a tapestry of complimentary mechanics; a significant lifespan; a cast of relatable and well-written characters and a world that's dense enough to be a character in and of itself. As a Final Fantasy game, it lives up to all the tropes, despite the variations it's taken from the more 'classic' games. Final Fantasy XV is a title that's aimed super high, and although maybe it hasn't quite hit the targets it set for itself, it certainly doesn't disappoint, and is a strong enough RPG experience to stand aside The Witcher as one of the best open-world role-playing games of this generation.

9/10

Gamekult.com - 6/10

LaPS4 - 95

Spaziogames.it - 9.0

Gameblog.fr - 9/10

Everyeye.it - 8.5/10

Vandal.net - 8.5/10

Meristation 8/10

3DJuegos 8.5/10

Multiplayer.it 9.0/10

[Legend]

Not a bomba!

[princevenom]

nice reviews

[NeverDies]

I really want this game, so it's awesome that it's getting pretty good reviews.

[ethomaz]

Dropped to 84 on MC e 83 on OC.

[Dr. Pezus]

Doom. Srsly though, you'd expect a game that took over 10 years to make to be near flawless!

[ethomaz]

Doom. Srsly though, you'd expect a game that took over 10 years to make to be near flawless!

Some will argue that that much time shows a clear mess from development and the end game even being good suffer with issues from these 10 years.

[darkknightkryta]

Thing people don't realize is that the game wasn't in development for 10 years.  Nomura was working with a skeleton crew prototyping.  Development pretty much restarted when Tabata took over.  I mean, from what I can tell anyways, a lot of stuff Nomura was working on is pretty much gone.  Combat has been completely simplified compared to what it was before.  The story has been changed drastically.  I think only the engine/world map remained since it was changed to Final Fantasy 15 and the time Tabata took over.  Not necessarily a bad thing mind you.  It's just that this isn't 10 years of work, it's about 3.

[ethomaz]

Thing people don't realize is that the game wasn't in development for 10 years.  Nomura was working with a skeleton crew prototyping.  Development pretty much restarted when Tabata took over.  I mean, from what I can tell anyways, a lot of stuff Nomura was working on is pretty much gone.  Combat has been completely simplified compared to what it was before.  The story has been changed drastically.  I think only the engine/world map remained since it was changed to Final Fantasy 15 and the time Tabata took over.  Not necessarily a bad thing mind you.  It's just that this isn't 10 years of work, it's about 3.

The game engine is indeed being worked for more time.
And the game started development in end of 2011 by Nomura words and 6 months after Tabata replaced him.
Game assets, concept, story, everything else was being worked for 10 years.

This view it is being worked for only 3 years is false because the base of story, concept, characters, etc are all the same... they used everything they have from Versus XIII into FFXV... so the time they worked in Versus XIII is indeed part of the development.

[darkknightkryta]

The game engine is indeed being worked for more time.
And the game started development in end of 2011 by Nomura words and 6 months after Tabata replaced him.
Game assets, concept, story, everything else was being worked for 10 years.

Story and concept was scrapped.  Game assets were most likely scrapped when they switched to PS4.  They might have been able to reuse some stuff, but there's a very different amount of visual fidelity than what they could have gotten out of the PS3.  The entire combat system was scrapped when Tabata took over.  The final result started in 2011.

[Raven]

The game was certainly not in some kind of uninterrupted development cycle for 10 years and it is, by no means, the same game it was when they first started. This game went through hell to get where it is. The fact that FF15 exists even in its now released incarnation is equal parts impressive and disturbing. This game should have died a long time ago but they refused to let it go. In the end, I'm glad they pushed and saw it through. This is one of those games where I can feel the greatness radiating from it but it just never shines through because of all the trouble it went through. I can almost feel how hard they tried.

That makes me happy. Because Final Fantasy 13 and its sequels were, to me, an indication that Square just didn't give a shame. I mean, that's pretty clear when the guy behind FF13-3 more or less admits that one of the biggest reasons he was excited about the project being greenlit was so he could make Lightning's two natural pines bigger. Because he was obsessed with making her his ideal woman. Thanks, jackhole, but we were kind of hoping that instead of jamming another travesty down our throats, and jerking yourself off, you'd actually try to make a good Final Fantasy.

[Legend]

[Raven]

Up to 85 on OC now.

[Cute Pikachu]

Sounds great hopefully it sells well!