'Final Fantasy 15': Five Things We Love (And Hate) About 'FFXV'

Final Fantasy XV ’s been out for a few weeks now, and we’ve logged an embarrassing number of hours into the game. While we really enjoyed the experience overall, that doesn’t mean Square Enix’s latest is without flaw. On the contrary, the game has some pretty glaring weak points. Here’s some of the things we loved -- and hated -- about the game.

Be warned: there are major story spoilers below. If you haven’t finished FFXV, we don’t want to ruin the story for you. We’ll leave that to the good people of YouTube and reddit. If you've finished the game and want a more detailed discussion, check out our FFXV review.

Five Things we love about FFXV:

We’ve been cautiously optimistic about FFXV, but some of the things we enjoyed most about the game were the features we were most concerned about in the lead up to its release.

1. The Regalia

We weren’t quite sure what to make of the Regalia, Noctis’ slick luxury drop-top, in the months prior to FFXV’s release. Was it a troubling sign the Final Fantasy franchise was going all GTA on us? When you’re struggling to afford Potions in the early game, having a car that probably costs about 500K seems a bit excessive.

Turns out, driving the Regalia (or letting Ignis chauffeur the party around) is a great way to see all the cool sights of Lucis, stumble across new areas you might want to explore, and get a bit more info about the main story. The driving scenes will also allow you to get a bit more insight into the character’s personalities: Gladio often pulls out a book, Prompto fusses with his hair for a selfie, and Ignis sips a can of coffee while keeping his eyes (sniff) glued to the road. It’s fun to listen to some of the old FF music while you drive, too.

2. The combat system

The new, action-oriented battle system in FFXV is fast, fun, and allows for a variety of strategies and playstyles. Want to clobber everything in sight with a giant sword as quickly as possible? Would you prefer to hang back and blast some magic spells or toss projectile weapons at your foes? You can do either. The lack of random encounters (well, mostly) also means that you’ll enjoy battles more when you seek them out.

3. Exploring all over Lucis

It’s possible to spend dozens of hours spelunking throughout game’s first three regions (Leide, Cleigne and Duscae); we know because we’ve done it. The terrain is beautiful and diverse, from lava rock shoals near the sea, to arid plains to damp, verdant forests. It’s even more fun once you’re tough enough to stay out at night and you have a nimble chocobo by your side. Consider us won over by the open world.

4. There’s chocobo racing and a battle arena, but neither are mandatory

Neither chocobo racing or the Totomostro battle arena game are missable (nothing in the game really is), but it's notable that both are 100% optional, and you can beat the game without ever doing either. Hooray! If you’ve played a few JRPGs, you’ve definitely come across a situation where you enter a new town, but you can’t talk to the king (or the water priestess, or the chieftain, or whomever) until you proved your mettle by going a few rounds at the battle arena. FFXV certainly doesn’t avoid all the tried-and-true JRPG cliches, but we’re grateful it dodged this one. It's great to have optional minigames, but there's no need to force them down the player's throat.

5. The Bromance

The biggest Final Fantasy nerds of the iDigi staff happen to be ladies, so at first we were kinda bummed to hear none of the playable characters in FFXV would be women, even of the stereotypical staff-wielding healer or winsome sorceress variety. Early footage of Cindy wasn’t terribly encouraging either.

Also, beyond the feminist axes to grind, a lot of the fun of previous FF games came from seeing who joins the party, which of them sticks around permanently, and then getting to choose your favorites for the home stretch of the game. (And, of course, the joy of benching the losers you can’t stand; get outta here, Gau and Cait Sith!)

Yet, despite those initial doubts, after a few hours with FFXV, the relationships between Noctis, Gladio, Ignis and Prompto really sneak up on you. Sure, when you’re first setting out in the game you’ll probably be irked by some of Prompto’s photoshoot demands or constant complaints about being hungry. You’ll bristle when Ignis cautions you not to drive at night (until you get your ass handed to you by an Iron Giant). But soon you'll discover these four oddly-dressed doofs really are the heart of the game. For us, it really started to become all too clear in Chapter 10, after the shit hits the fan with Leviathan. Gladio’s pissy comments throughout the mine dungeon -- “Haven’t you hurt Iggy enough?” -- and the paltry canned meal or Cup Noodle option at the campfire manage to tug at your emotions more than you might expect. Don’t get us started on Chapter 14, either. Our hearts just can’t take it. That campfire scene… you know the one… who’s cutting onions in here?!

Five things we hate about FFXV:

Don't get us wrong - we really enjoy this game. Most of our complaints actually come from wanting MORE of it -- additional locations to explore, a more detailed story, etc. (Though, on second thought, maybe we could do with less of Chapter 13...)

1. New continents you don’t get to explore

Our jaws were on the floor when Noctis’ royal boat arrived in Altissa, and we were really excited by the prospect of bringing the Regalia all the way across the sea with us to explore the continent of Accordo. Sadly, the game doesn’t give you a chance to do this. After hearing so much about Niflheim and Tenebrae, it was also very disappointing not to see more of these places. (Tenebrae is little more than a campsite!) So basically, you take the Regalia with you to two new continents, but all you get to do is destroy it for the privilege of entering the most boring snooze of a dungeon in the game.

In Chapter 14, it also would have been great fun to explore more of the World of Ruin. Even just a short monster hunt right around Hammerhead, or cameos from future Cindy and Iris, would have added heightened the impact of the 10-year time skip. Are denim hotpants still in fashion in a world of perpetual darkness? We're curious, dammit! And getting a glimpse of demon-hunter Iris could have been fun, too.

2. “Main characters” left underdeveloped - Luna, Ravus and Ardyn

Which brings us to perhaps the biggest problem of all with FFXV. If you haven’t watched all the secondary media of the so-called “FFXV universe” (Kingsglaive and the Brotherhood anime) -- and even if you have -- you’re probably going to be confused by the central storyline. It’s hard to form a real attachment with Noctis’ flaxen-haired lady love, because we spend more time with Cindy, Iris and Aranea than we do with Luna. Ravus is missing an arm but still has chip on his shoulder, because… reasons, ostensibly? Ardyn has a lot of promise: essentially the love child of Sephiroth and Kefka, he hates the Lucis line and... the Crystal was a jerk to him a few millenia back, is that it? Sarcasm aside, he’s a compelling villain with a sadistic streak, but his story needed a bit more fleshing out in the context of the actual game.

3. “Fast travel” and Noctis’ walking often feel slow

These might seem like pretty minor quibbles, until you realize just how much time you spend doing both of these things, especially during sidequests and hunts. If you’re going a considerable distance across Lucis, it can easily take a full minute or two to load your destination via “Fast Travel.” While Noctis’ stamina bar adds a degree of realism to the game, it’s often more annoying than immersive. (The guy can somehow hide 12 legendary weapons up his butt at all times, but gets winded after running 30 feet?) Fair enough you can’t just sprint through every dungeon, but by the third or fourth time you traverse that endless pier at Galdin Quay, no amount of lovely sea views will keep you from wishing for an always-on run function. And you shouldn’t have to spend AP to unlock it, either!

4. The battle camera

As much as we enjoyed fighting in FFXV, we often found ourselves grumbling about the camera. It’s incredibly frustrating to be stuck behind a bush in the middle of a frantic fight, unable to see your target or any possible warp points. At times, activating Wait Mode becomes more about addressing the quirks of the camera than actual strategy. While we're at it, the ability to look around a bit more while in Wait Mode, especially allowing for more zooming out and looking up, would go a long way toward resolving these issues in a future patch or update.

5. Chapter 13

We’re not the only ones who think this way; plenty of people on the FFXV subreddit agree Chapter 13 is a tedious heap of not-fun that drags on interminably. Not having weapons isn't necessarily so awful, but the Ring of the Lucii doesn’t feel all that useful or easy to master in very close quarters. The insta-kill Death spell seems to be almost completely useless after about one floor in Gralea, and not being able to open a door and advance through the dungeon until every enemy is killed just drags out the pointless drudgery. (BTW, did you notice fighting the Emperor in Chapter 13? Well, you did, it’s just signposted incredibly poorly by the game.)

Then again, every great Squaresoft / Square Enix game seems to have some parts that are just an annoying chore to get through. (Remember the totally X-treme snowboarding sequence in FFVII after Aerith dies? Or the cave where you can’t use metal weapons in FFIV with that a-hole advancing wall boss?) We also know Square Enix plans to address some issues with Chapter 13 and the Ring of the Lucii in future DLC, which is encouraging.

What aspects of Final Fantasy XV did you enjoy most? What parts of the game were you dissatisfied with? Do you think some of the game’s shortcomings will be addressed in future DLC? Feel free to talk all things FFXV in the comments.

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