For the objective listing of how things are ingame so far from what I have seen, I'll list in italics below my subjective opinion about it. If you are just looking for how things are and a factual summary, don't read those.
- You evolve on a huge map from the beginning, with a road layout on top of it. You can move around on foot pretty much freely (witcher 3 style), and you can drive the car (or sit as passenger) on the roads only.
I never liked open worlds in solo games since I'm here for the story and I generally tend to drop from the game or get bored when I'm just thrown in the middle of nowhere with no clear storyline to follow. Fortunately this one seems to follow a Witcher 3 model and you can perfectly just follow the 'road' and the story without doing much of anything else. At least it's nice that you don't feel any invisible walls around, for sure.Â
- The story makes you move around the map progressively, while you also have secondary quests around, or things to explore.
- From what I have heard, the main story is somewhat shorter than usual, but the game tries to balance that by offering more secondary things to do, or explore.
As said above, not my cup of tea, as I think open worlds can pretty fast detract on the story... Except for anomalies like Witcher 3 when done right. Secondary quests seem rather dull though. Lots of kill lists and ping pong basic quests, doesn't seem up to the FF usual standards of secondary quests (quantity vs quality here I guess, they chose quantity, unlike in other titles). You can see some scenery and explore for those who like it though. Overall I feel that this game follows a more western approach to RPGs when it comes to world building, rather than standard classical jRPGs. It blends with a very jRPG feel from the combat system though.
- A lot of the dialog and story actually happens when you drive around. Characters talk between each other a lot like that. They do it too when they fight, although it's not plot oriented when they do, but just combat oriented.
I think this adds a lot of flavor overall. It can get annoying though when they are talking and you suddenly enter an area that triggers a story cutscene or what you have, and it just cuts what people where saying earlier.
- The Combat system is action RPG hack and slash style, where you control the main character and the AI controls the companions. You can momentarily take control or tell companions to execute an action, or a combo. The main character can blink/dash like in the movie as one of his main moves. Some of those moves deplete a MP bar, that regrows over time. Characters can wield several, different weapons. Oh yes, you also meet enemies directly on the map without any transition to combat. It's seamless.
I don't mind that kind of combat but I think this one is rather mediocre. I quite enjoyed the one they offered in most Star Ocean games as they do it quite well there (the AI was okay-ish, you could still take control of mates when needed, and there was a depth of skills and mechanics different for every character). The main issue with that kind of system is how incredibly messy it can get. Well, SO did it well since the pace was slowed down a bit and attacks were made obvious enough so that the player had a feeling to at least know what was happening all around. Here in FFXV, not so much. The first feeling you will get is that its an incredible mess where things are being hack and slashd all around in a frenzy. You eventually start to get used to it a bit but you still have very little clue how some of the enemy attacks, or even worse, your own teamates attacks. They seem not to attack or do stuff very often, especially when you are the one spamming slashes on enemies. Overall, the AI is pretty bad. You constantly feel that you are alone fighting and doing all the work, unless you take control at times of your mates. But then better to play in wait mode... I just think that they fell into all the negative sides of the RPG hack and slash model. A huge mess would describe it perfectly.Â
- You can switch combat mode to a more classical tactical combat closer to old FF titles. It basically freezes time at every action and adds timers.
In part for all the reasons listed above, Wait mode seems better to me at the first glance, and closer to what made FF combat... FF combat. Except... It doesn't work at all to me either because it just freezes the game and turns the screen in black and white while you choose the action to do... again and again. You still don't get any control on the other members like you do with your own and actually do things exactly like in the hack and slash mode, except you have an active pause now. So it's NOT a tactical mode like in all other FFs, but just a stupid pause that cuts the flow of things and allows you to have time to choose your actions but nothing else. It remains a hack and slash game, and not a good one at that. I haven't been that way ahead so maybe it gets more interesting after, but it also feels way dumbed down tactically compared to other FFs, since well... action game.
- There is some skill trees for each character.
I haven't delved into it that much, but it seems pretty standard to me.Â
- Music is composed by Shimomura Yoko (Kingdom Hearts, etc).
I think it's a sign of quality here. Seems very good so far.
- You get four characters, of which one is the hero you control for the most part.Â
I really loathe the look of Noctis (the main character). He looks like shit in my opinion (hello Tokyo Hotel). I quite like the look of the three others though, even if the whole band looks very... edgy yeah, with their haircuts and clothes (but I have seen worse... heh). They all have their quirks and personality, I like that Prompto seems always afraid or nervous about stuff that should scare the shit out of anybody, that kind of stuff. Their overall casual discussions as you move around creates a nice synergy and atmosphere, and that's one of the main strong points of the game: the road trip feel. Noctis himself?... Definitely not the best FF main character so far, but definitely far from the worst too. Guy is pretty composed, but I feel like for now that he seems rather... bland. His personality is hard to see, except that he seems dead serious and a bit taciturn. I like how the team keeps teasing him about everything though.Â
The universe is rather contemporary looking, with a few glimpses here or there of slightly futuristic or at least modern designs.
Totally subjective I guess but the universe and the world overall leave a rather good feel of something with character. It's unique enough, and pretty. Lots of different places with different flavors.
Now, then, please keep in mind that I haven't been very far into the game.
- You evolve on a huge map from the beginning, with a road layout on top of it. You can move around on foot pretty much freely (witcher 3 style), and you can drive the car (or sit as passenger) on the roads only.
I never liked open worlds in solo games since I'm here for the story and I generally tend to drop from the game or get bored when I'm just thrown in the middle of nowhere with no clear storyline to follow. Fortunately this one seems to follow a Witcher 3 model and you can perfectly just follow the 'road' and the story without doing much of anything else. At least it's nice that you don't feel any invisible walls around, for sure.Â
- The story makes you move around the map progressively, while you also have secondary quests around, or things to explore.
- From what I have heard, the main story is somewhat shorter than usual, but the game tries to balance that by offering more secondary things to do, or explore.
As said above, not my cup of tea, as I think open worlds can pretty fast detract on the story... Except for anomalies like Witcher 3 when done right. Secondary quests seem rather dull though. Lots of kill lists and ping pong basic quests, doesn't seem up to the FF usual standards of secondary quests (quantity vs quality here I guess, they chose quantity, unlike in other titles). You can see some scenery and explore for those who like it though. Overall I feel that this game follows a more western approach to RPGs when it comes to world building, rather than standard classical jRPGs. It blends with a very jRPG feel from the combat system though.
- A lot of the dialog and story actually happens when you drive around. Characters talk between each other a lot like that. They do it too when they fight, although it's not plot oriented when they do, but just combat oriented.
I think this adds a lot of flavor overall. It can get annoying though when they are talking and you suddenly enter an area that triggers a story cutscene or what you have, and it just cuts what people where saying earlier.
- The Combat system is action RPG hack and slash style, where you control the main character and the AI controls the companions. You can momentarily take control or tell companions to execute an action, or a combo. The main character can blink/dash like in the movie as one of his main moves. Some of those moves deplete a MP bar, that regrows over time. Characters can wield several, different weapons. Oh yes, you also meet enemies directly on the map without any transition to combat. It's seamless.
I don't mind that kind of combat but I think this one is rather mediocre. I quite enjoyed the one they offered in most Star Ocean games as they do it quite well there (the AI was okay-ish, you could still take control of mates when needed, and there was a depth of skills and mechanics different for every character). The main issue with that kind of system is how incredibly messy it can get. Well, SO did it well since the pace was slowed down a bit and attacks were made obvious enough so that the player had a feeling to at least know what was happening all around. Here in FFXV, not so much. The first feeling you will get is that its an incredible mess where things are being hack and slashd all around in a frenzy. You eventually start to get used to it a bit but you still have very little clue how some of the enemy attacks, or even worse, your own teamates attacks. They seem not to attack or do stuff very often, especially when you are the one spamming slashes on enemies. Overall, the AI is pretty bad. You constantly feel that you are alone fighting and doing all the work, unless you take control at times of your mates. But then better to play in wait mode... I just think that they fell into all the negative sides of the RPG hack and slash model. A huge mess would describe it perfectly.Â
- You can switch combat mode to a more classical tactical combat closer to old FF titles. It basically freezes time at every action and adds timers.
In part for all the reasons listed above, Wait mode seems better to me at the first glance, and closer to what made FF combat... FF combat. Except... It doesn't work at all to me either because it just freezes the game and turns the screen in black and white while you choose the action to do... again and again. You still don't get any control on the other members like you do with your own and actually do things exactly like in the hack and slash mode, except you have an active pause now. So it's NOT a tactical mode like in all other FFs, but just a stupid pause that cuts the flow of things and allows you to have time to choose your actions but nothing else. It remains a hack and slash game, and not a good one at that. I haven't been that way ahead so maybe it gets more interesting after, but it also feels way dumbed down tactically compared to other FFs, since well... action game.
- There is some skill trees for each character.
I haven't delved into it that much, but it seems pretty standard to me.Â
- Music is composed by Shimomura Yoko (Kingdom Hearts, etc).
I think it's a sign of quality here. Seems very good so far.
- You get four characters, of which one is the hero you control for the most part.Â
I really loathe the look of Noctis (the main character). He looks like shit in my opinion (hello Tokyo Hotel). I quite like the look of the three others though, even if the whole band looks very... edgy yeah, with their haircuts and clothes (but I have seen worse... heh). They all have their quirks and personality, I like that Prompto seems always afraid or nervous about stuff that should scare the shit out of anybody, that kind of stuff. Their overall casual discussions as you move around creates a nice synergy and atmosphere, and that's one of the main strong points of the game: the road trip feel. Noctis himself?... Definitely not the best FF main character so far, but definitely far from the worst too. Guy is pretty composed, but I feel like for now that he seems rather... bland. His personality is hard to see, except that he seems dead serious and a bit taciturn. I like how the team keeps teasing him about everything though.Â
The universe is rather contemporary looking, with a few glimpses here or there of slightly futuristic or at least modern designs.
Totally subjective I guess but the universe and the world overall leave a rather good feel of something with character. It's unique enough, and pretty. Lots of different places with different flavors.
Now, then, please keep in mind that I haven't been very far into the game.
Balmung:Â Suen Shyu