![]() ![]() My next main objective is to check out a waterfall and the weapon that might be behind it, to give you an idea of where I am, story wise. But in terms of this playthrough, it's just the 10, which means I'm a long way from seeing the full picture that Square Enix has painted here. I've played longer than that, technically-four hours at private Square Enix event for the press, plus the two demos that preceded this full release. (I stuck a lot of time into Duscae). FFXV, in contrast, really makes us work to care for the fate of Insomnia. It's fascinating to me how the older game better harnesses what's available to it, on the platform of the time (the original PlayStation), to best tell the story it wants to. And Dagger's just a more endearing character than Noctis is. It just feels like there's so much more at stake, even when you're not playing as a character with all that much personally, obviously, on the line. Honestly, the latter approach has grabbed me a lot quicker-I'm more invested in what's happening in that tale of warring states than the slower-unfolding events of FFXV, after about the same play time. Final Fantasy XV is keen to promote visual spectacle, with the wide vistas and sumptuous cutscenes (although the ones taken from Kingsglaive feel out of place), and generally revel in the aesthetics made possible by the hardware. Playing Final Fantasy IX at the same time as FFXV, as I am, is really interesting, to see how the two games-separated by several years and console generations-approach their early hours. ![]() That's not to suggest other games, or even past Final Fantasy games, weren't made by passionate teams with similar aims, but in FFXV, you can feel it. The passion and energy from the developers, a desire to do right by history, is apparent. There's a naked, nervous exploration that's apparent in every corner of the game, where the game's simultaneously trying to honor the nearly 30-year history of Final Fantasy without turning it into a crutch. I don't know what's happening in the story, but that hasn't diminished the 15 hours I've spent exploring the world, one that's surprisingly vibrant, and most importantly, full of character. The reason I keep watching television shows that jump the narrative shark-I'm looking at you, Prison Break-or joyfully watch the eighth entry in a horror series, the one where they must eventually head to space, is because I can't help but experience trainwrecks for myself.įFXV is a mess, one that shows a development team straining to figure out what Final Fantasy means in 2016, but it's certainly not a trainwreck. What reason was there to think this latest entry, developed over the course of 10 years, would be any different? If anything, it suggested Square Enix didn't know what it was doing with it.Īnd yet, even I couldn't avoid the hype machine, and my curiosity eventually got the better of me. My dozens of hours in each Final Fantasy were not empty gaming calories but an investment in their journey.įor all these reasons, I'd mostly ignored anything and everything about FFXV. The characters I remember most from my childhood were pixelated adventurers trying to save the world from darkness, and by holding the controller, I fought alongside them. ![]() You could do stuff like that when you had three months off school.īut more importantly, Final Fantasy is where I fell in love with games as a storytelling medium. Not only did I spend countless hours breeding chocobos in Final Fantasy VII to unlock knights of the round table, but it's the only game where I maxed out the in-game clock at 99 hours, 99 minutes, and 99 seconds. In the years after I discovered the series with Final Fantasy VI-aka Final Fantasy III in the US and the best Final Fantasy-nothing cleared my schedule (or got my homework done) faster than Final Fantasy. It used to be the release of a new Final Fantasy was an event. Before we talk any further about Final Fantasy, I just want to make sure my cards are on the table, okay? I want to be clear up front: Final Fantasy VIII is better than Final Fantasy VII.
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