How are you guys enjoying it? I'm currently about 32 ours in, level 45 and just started chapter 5. I'm really eager to get me a summon. Over all I love the combat and the sidequests, characters so far. Story is pretty meh, but I'm so early in can't really make a good impression.

I blew through it in like 26 hours. Thought it was pretty good. Waiting for some kind of "Ultimate Edition" in the future with all of the DLC to do my NG+ playthrough.

I'm not usually judgmental about how people play games they bought for themselves but you are a serious fucking weirdo if you're level 45 and only in Chapter 5.

Not really, I honestly think the hunts and some of the side quests are more entertaining than most of the story missions. I'd much rather explore what's on the map than where the "story" takes place. It feels like half the story missions take place in the same old military bases.

Just fyi, 45 is the suggested level for beating the game, so you're probably gonna steamroll the later chapters by the time you get to them, ha. Nothing wrong with that, just be forewarned.

I love it so far. I'm taking my time completing side quests and because of that, I'm already at level 70, possessed like seven or eight Royal weapons, two summons, and achieved like 50% of the ascension abilities. I'm going to start killing weaker enemies to gain AP to get some more though, and it looks similar to Final Fantasy X's sphere grid. It's a lot less linear than FFXIII crystarium, but still a bit linear.

I'm about....nearly 40 hours? And in seventh chapter. I remember the director said in different articles that depending on the number of side quests and how long it takes to do them, and combined with main story, it would be around 200 hours of gameplay. Unless if I'm wrong.

Final Fantasy XV
Main Story = 25½ Hours
Main + Extra = 46½ Hours
Completionist = 84 Hours
Combined = 42½ Hours

https://howlongtobeat.com

^That's a bit more realistic, imo.

Wait, the main story without exploration is short? Final Fantasy XIII is longer than that. It would explain why they said they're working on the updates that would extend the story line as well as adding possible playable character.

Of course, I was fooled into thinking this game would be the longest since they're working on it for ten years (with several breaks/hiatus).

Unless if that chart is just average number depending on play style.

They plan to do a lot more with this game thankfully. At the moment I like it a lot but I can't wait until they patch the story, fix chapter 13 and add in new characters to play as during the story.

The camera can be bothersome in battles. Sometimes it's too far away; sometimes it's too close. I'm getting better at managing it, but since it's yet another game that features AC/Arkham-style combat, where you have to notice enemy attack animations and counter them quickly, it's frustrating when the camera gets obscured by large bushes and plants. Also, I was hoping for a first-person option when roaming the overworld. It's difficult getting the right angles to see what you want to see closeup with the camera as it is.

It's another entry in the current tradition of Japanese series including Western features and putting their own spin on it. I guess FFXII did that too, but (like MGSV and BotW) this is a lot more comprehensive. I'd prefer something distinct from the usual UbiSoft fare, but the features manage to work fairly well at times. I rolled my eyes initially at the food-making (as well as the photo album) - it felt like a shallow feature that had been tacked on - but it's actually nice to have and somehow a strong positive of the game.

I gathered it was going to be a "Final Fantasy Road Trip" game from the trailers, but I was still surprised when it opened up quite like a GTA game. I wasn't looking forward to tedious fetch quests and the like, and they are there. I'm just getting on with the main quest. If at any point the game engages me to the point that I'd want to do side quests as well, I guess I'll do that. Sometimes I'll do things like photo shoots if I'm prompted, because the seamless nature of the journey is appealing. But mostly I'm choosing to rush through its allegedly 30-hour campaign. It doesn't have me completely hooked. Perhaps part of the problem is that loading the game up on a console feels like such a drag (as was installing it for the first time with its lengthy updates), especially when I could start up a PC game I know and love in a matter of seconds instead.

Anyway, when it got to the game's driving, it started to feel like a game that tried to copy GTA but fell short of that game's expensive degree of refinement and execution. It's weird how the game can look so good yet often not quite right. Sometimes the animation can be really good; sometimes it can be downright off-putting and awkward. The graphics ought to be impressive, but it's disappointing next to MGSV and Uncharted 4. There's some sort of flakiness to a few of its environments that feels more than the fault of its frame rate. In terms of controls in the overworld, it feels weird how the driving is like being on train tracks, but riding on a Chocobo is much better, and I like letting another character control the wheel of the car anyway.

The characters haven't been that great. The group of four have a Scooby-Doo feel to them. The dialogue is often trite, and I also don't like how they follow and run into you in the overworld, as well as repeat bits of dialogue multiple times. The most intimate cutscene so far felt like a scene out of a teenage soap opera. I've heard that any other characters are meant to be shallow and one-note, so I guess there's not much else to look forward to there. Apparently the plot suffers from most of it being in a tie-in movie, and I certainly feel a lack of immediacy in the game world. Something huge might happen in the plot, but you don't really get any feel for it, and the overworld seems to have stayed the same. I'm guessing the final parts of the game might take a dramatic turn, even if it will end up a bit short-lived by that point. Also, I expect I'll somehow care about the characters towards the final parts - not because their writing was decent, but just because I've spent a lot of time with them doing odd things in the overworld.

The combat is easy to pick up, but I still ended up failing early on just because I was overlooking something (the same thing happened in FFXII). I did quite a bit of grinding and still died, but once I equipped the powerful swords we were collecting it became very easy. It's just a long-lasting mess of mashing buttons and giving yourself potions. I also rolled my eyes when the first boss battle involved shooting exploding barrels at the boss's feet. Having progressed quite far I still don't feel any satisfaction about levelling up or assigning characters different items. I'm much more in the mood for turn-based combat right now, and I also thought FFXIII's battle system was better with its Paradigm Shifts mechanic.

I'm hoping to see some more spectacular visual designs. Some areas look too much like they've been plucked out of 1950s America. (I also thought including Stand By Me in a fantasy game's soundtrack was awkward.) Although, I like that the world feels lived-in and scruffy, while also retaining a fair amount of beauty, whereas FFXIII's visuals were impressive graphically but too glossy and pristine aesthetically. Some of the enemy designs look interesting, and I've heard the summons and later bosses are meant to look spectacular when they come along; it's just that so far they all end up interacting with you in exactly the same way.

It's a shame that a lot of the photos you can keep aren't framed very well, which might suggest it would be better if the player could take the photos instead, but I think it's important that the game takes them at spontaneous times for you, since it makes for a nice discovery when you find the odd well-taken photo at the end of each day. The fact that you keep only the best ones and delete the others means you only look back on the good moments of the game, which helps build a better impression of your adventure.

I really didn't like Chapter 13. While I was playing the last parts of the game I was wondering whether I might end up playing the game a second time, and then that chapter alone made me think I never would. I guess the whole idea of the chapter was pretty clear: split Noctis from his friends and make him realise how much he cares about and enjoys being in their company. But I really would have thought that the rushed, tacked-on level design was a result of the game's long, troubled development.

Despite all of this, I ended up enjoying the game quite a bit. So, I'd give it an 8/10 - possibly a 9/10. I was too interested to not buy it straightaway, but it turns out I wouldn't recommend it at full price. It's left quite a pleasant impression on me overall, but I wouldn't call it a great Final Fantasy game.

You say all of this, yet you have no issues with The Last Guardian...which is the definition of bad gameplay....

There were a few minor instances of bad design in The Last Guardian, but overall the game was a spectacular demonstration of game design done right.

Not that there's only one way video games ought to be; I wouldn't want a Super Mario game trying to take influence from Team ICO. But the way The Last Guardian played out was crucial in making me believe it's one of the greatest games of all time.

I have faith that the FFVII remake will be a lot better since it's going to be more like Kingdom Hearts which has much better combat than FFXV.

Btw FFXV's combat is very good for the most part but some fights that should be epic end up lacklustre due to bad camera controls

I beat it like a week after it came out. It was a big disappointment for me. The story feels way too chopped up and too much of the story seems to happen off screen. Also, the combat is just bad imo. Most battles boiled down to holding in the attack button and stunlocking enemies until they died. Even in the more difficult battles, you aren't going to die because the way potions are used in the game make it near impossible since using them pauses the action.

Another big gripe was the summons, they seldom activated and literally couldn't choose when to use them. Also, having the magic hurt your teammates made me basically never use magic since the companion AI was so bad that they'd just stand in the area of attack and get status effects on them.

The open world was also poorly used and the sidequests were just straight up bad because they mostly boiled down to copy/paste questlines where you were doing the same sh!t over and over again.

Ultimately, it is an impressive game from a technical standpoint and I did like the characters even though they were stuck in a bad story. Which is why it is a 6/10 game for me.

Someone who loves the awful Final Fantasy XIII is complaining about the combat and battles, the summons and the open world from Final Fantasy XV?!

This can't be serious...

I'm just entering Chapter 7 and I swear to God if I hear "That's it! What's it? I've come up with a new ressipay" one more time I'm going to be begging Titan to show up for the first time and fist me to death.