Final Fantasy XV - Review @ Pocket Lint

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Pocket Lint has reviewed Final Fantasy XV, which was recently released for XBox One and PS4:

Final Fantasy XV review: An unmitigated treat for RPG lovers

Dragging a revered games franchise into a 21st century landscape of open-worlds and instant action must be a thankless, even scary task – particularly when that franchise emerged in the late 1980s, hit its peak in the 1990s and had as its centrepiece a turn-based battle system.

But that's precisely what Square Enix has attempted with Final Fantasy XV – generally known as FFXV – and near-miraculously, it has come up with an exemplary reinvention of the role-playing classic.

In common with modern RPG peers like the Witcher and Elder Scrolls games, Final Fantasy XV boasts an open-world (which is huge and packed with activities and side-quests), as well as a real-time battle system (although there's an unnecessary sop to those forever wedded to turn-based systems of yore in the form of Wait Mode, which lets you pause the action and plan your approach).

[…]

Verdict

It's fair to say that Final Fantasy XV had a rather troubled inception. It was first trailed in 2006, as Final Fantasy Versus XIII, and originally mooted for the PlayStation 3. Yep, all that time ago.

Then Square Enix decided FFXV would become the basket into which it would put all its eggs and, a full decade later, it finally emerges as an instalment of the franchise which has the tools, lore and heft to inspire similar devotion to the likes of the classic Final Fantasy VII.

FFXV also leaves Final Fantasy, as a franchise, utterly refreshed and ready to do battle with rival RPGs in the future. For Square Enix, it represents the biggest punt in the company's history. But that punt has paid off. For FFXV is an unmitigated treat for RPG lovers.

Score: 4/5
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I'm playing this now.

Like it a lot, but if you don't like JRPG's it may not be for you.
 
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Eh? All FF ports I bought were good. It's just not all FF games I bought were good.
 
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joxer said:
Eh? All FF ports I bought were good. It's just not all FF games I bought were good.
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You clearly haven't bought Lighting Returns, it doesn't support the mouse, you need to use the keyboard to move the camera.
 
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True I didn't, I wrote before FF13 is IMO an utter garbage of a game thus I didn't want to buy FF13-2 nor FF13-3 (if it exists).
The port of FF13 is good, it's just the game is so boring at start, grindy all the way and becomes unbearably annoying in certain late chapter when it opens some biggish area and introduces those final fantasy oversized chicken that needs to be eradicated from history asap. I know there are people who finished it, but I just couldn't bare the torture.
FF13 is one of worst games I've ever played in my life. It's even worse than The Last Remnant - TLR while grindy and annoying at least has an unique and very interesting turnbased combat model.
 
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azarhal said:
You clearly haven't bought Lighting Returns, it doesn't support the mouse, you need to use the keyboard to move the camera.
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There are a lot of PC RPGs I've played that actually play better with just the keyboard and no mouse. Elminage Gothic is an example as well as most RPGMaker RPGs, etc.
 
And there are a lot that are unplayable with keyboard, mouse or combination being horrendous port that spams mushroom tooltips on your screen insulting you like Neptunia.
 
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I played Neptunia with the keyboard only. It was a bit awkward to learn as the controls are really odd compared to other games, but once you learn them it's fine, IMO.

They could have replaced the mushroom button prompts, though. Just memorize which button is which on the keyboard and you're good. ;)
 
Fluent said:
There are a lot of PC RPGs I've played that actually play better with just the keyboard and no mouse. Elminage Gothic is an example as well as most RPGMaker RPGs, etc.
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Just because you were able to adapt to the controls doesn't mean they played better. Having less options is never better.
 
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Thaurin said:
Tell that to my 100+ games backlog on Steam. :(
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I had 6 hours of free time yesterday and I wasted about 3 hours on deciding which of the 100+ games to play! Having so much options makes me too picky and at the end not really being satisfied with anything. So for some of us, too much choice is not a good thing!
 
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JDR13 said:
Just because you were able to adapt to the controls doesn't mean they played better. Having less options is never better.
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Actually the specific games I mentioned do play better, IMO. The keyboard is much more efficient in these games, faster and easy to use, and games like that that allow 2 handed keyboard control often control great. The mouse just gets in the way in these games.
 
This is the best FF game since XII and my favourite gameplay wise ever....it's pretty damn amazing.

I thought I would HATE Noctis and his boy band but I've grown to really like them all, really well written and even voiced characters (the english is good for once in a FF!).
 
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If anyone is interested, the PS4 version is supposed to come down to £32 (currently £50) on the PSN EU store for 48 hours in few days time. I might pick it up then….
 
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If you want immersion to FF15 watch the movie Kingsglaive first before playing, it really ties in very nicely and I am enjoying the game quite a bit more now.
 
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Fluent said:
Actually the specific games I mentioned do play better, IMO. The keyboard is much more efficient in these games, faster and easy to use, and games like that that allow 2 handed keyboard control often control great. The mouse just gets in the way in these games.
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So there's no mouse controls, but yet you somehow know they wouldn't be better if there was. Ok ;)

I can see that being the case for RPGMaker games because there's nothing in them that would really utilize a mouse to begin with, but not for anything that's in first-person.
 
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I suppose i might have a look at this one day, probably after the RDR and Last of Us sequels come out, and I finally succumb to a PS4.
 
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JDR13 said:
So there's no mouse controls, but yet you somehow know they wouldn't be better if there was. Ok ;)

I can see that being the case for RPGMaker games because there's nothing in them that would really utilize a mouse to begin with, but not for anything that's in first-person.
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There are mouse controls in the games I mentioned. It's just that in certain games - Elminage Gothic, Hyperdimension: Neptunia, RPGMaker games, and more., the mouse actually gets in the way and the games control much better by ignoring the mouse and using strictly the keyboard with 2 hands. Elminage Gothic is in first-person and it controls excellently without the mouse.
 
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