The Crystal Room [v2]

[fit][/fit]

...you took her away from me game... I spent the whole damn game just waiting to see my beloved Luna...and now she's dead.

If that wasn't bad enough...you've even gone as far as scarring my brothers in arms...hell, even camping isn't the same anymore... I just... I can't do this anymore...not with how I am currently.

So barring the depressing turn halfway through, I enjoyed XV. Not my favorite in the FF series (that still goes to XII for now), but it's high up in the ranking for now at least (I've played through I, II, X, XII, and XV as of this post).

I liked the character design, especially the main 4, but I hate how a lot of characters were left without much time to truly see them before the story basically shoved them off to the side and/or killed them off...like Luna...for fuck's sake, you literally kill her off as you finally get to see her in person! Other characters also felt like they had a lot more potential to them, like emperor what's his face that ends up just turning into a forgettable monster mini boss.

Oh, and of course, there's Ardyn. I like his visual design, but my god...he has, beyond a doubt, the most confusing role in this story...or any story I've seen...going from random traveler guy you meet at the start, to one of the most helpful bad guys I've ever met in any game I've played, to some manipulative toying bastard who can't stop playing with your mind, to...holy crap, the immortal evil guy who's basically responsible for every bad thing that's happened...ever! I mean, seriously, WTF was with all this!?

And that brings me to the story. While decent, I wasn't too keen on it, but it worked out in the end, so I'm okay with it. One of the issues I have with it with it was (besides the aforementioned flawed handling of many characters) the way it closes off the open world aspect halfway through... Well, you can still access it, but it was offered in a way that, to me, felt pointless in doing since it literally is to just go back in time to do side quests... True, it helped get the story moving a lot faster, but it killed off a huge part of why this game was good...

Something else I found odd about the story: I don't get the whole bit of showing Luna and Noctis "married happily ever after" post-credits since...they're both dead. I don't like the fact that they killed them both off in the first place (Luna dying just to summon a monster, and Noct having to sacrifice himself just to finish off Ardyn...neither of these felt necessary to me), so why throw this in when it's...not real? I mean, I guess it's their afterlife paradise, so yay, but...was it necessary?

That's another thing...was a lot of the things in this story necessary? Going to dangerous tombs just to get weapons I rarely used? Angering and/or killing gods just to have them as summons when I rarely summon them? Having a time jump of 10 whole fucking years with Noct stuck in a crystal the entire time? The whole goddamn world going dark in said 10 years? I could probably add a dozen other bizarre things, but I'll leave it here. I will say I would throw in Ignis going blind, but Episode Ignis offers a fairly good reason behind it.

*sigh* and let me also add the combat to the list. I literally spent most of the game's combat holding R1+Triangle (lock on to an enemy and warp strike). I don't know if it was the DLC Ragnarok weapon that amplified warp strike damage that made things so broken, or if the system itself was broken, but I spammed it so much that it felt unfair at times. True, it drained the MP fairly quickly, but with the warp points in nearly every combat area, all I'd do is just go to one to get it back, then R1+Triangle all over again...
I mean, there were times that it wasn't a great option, but the other options I had were....a bit meh. A couple examples: Spells and summons. Spells were a mess, ranging from underwhelming to wiping out an entire swarm of enemies in one shot (had a DLC(?) item that prevented self damage thankfully), while Summons rarely showed up (so again, what was the point of killing people over them!?), and when the prompt did show up, the battle was basically over already...

So yeah...a lot of stuff that really disappointed me... But! In the end, I still enjoyed the game. Even though I wasn't too keen on a lot of directions the story took, it managed to get to me on an emotional scale (though, in more of a bad way than a good way at times...seriously, this game takes a drastically depressing turn). It could have been done a lot differently, and a lot better, but it was a decent story overall in the end.

I will say that the game stunned me with it's visual. Beautiful landscapes, powerful battles, lifelike characters, a modern setting that I absolutely loved, just delicious eye candy everywhere! The music was also amazing, but it's a Final Fantasy game, so that's not surprising.

And, even though the combat was a bit broken, it was kind of fun. I also liked Prompto's photography, and I wish I had taken advantage of the option to take my own pictures more often. Camping was also fun, deciding what to have Ignis cook for everyone and seeing everyone having a good time around the campfire.

I also liked the driving (or having Ignis drive) while listening to the radio play One Winged Angel or other classic Final Fantasy songs (just wish they had added more since it felt like a lot of songs were missing...). I did fast travel occasionally when I wanted just get somewhere fast, but I tried to go for a drive whenever I could.

And the side quests were pretty good, though there were a crapload of them it seemed...most of which I ignored once I got past the open world part of the story...

Overall final thoughts of the game: An enjoyable adventure that could have used a bit more polish here and there, but it's still decent and fun overall, plus powerful and emotional at times.