Final Fantasy XV A game story of four friends

For over ten years, Final Fantasy XV had been in development. It channels some of the greatest moments of franchise as well as bringing something new to the ailing Japanese-Role Playing Game(JRPG) genre.

This is a road trip story about a group of four young men trying to avoid a war. But a dive into the game reveals that Final Fantasy XV is modern reincarnation of the series’ old school classics: a party of four men, exploring a vast wilderness, discovering exciting towns, picking up weapons, gear and skills. Along the way the four friends fight scary monsters and try to avoid the apocalypse.

You play the role of Noctis, the prince of a kingdom called Lucis. The game starts with Noctis being sent from his kingdom to take part in a political marriage that’s meant to bring peace between the warring factions of Lucis and the Niflheim Empire. He is accompanied by three of his best friends from childhood.

The game is driven by a real-time combat system. This game is a hybrid between the strategic turn-based action of classic games and a swift action style of modern Role Playing Games. The game player only control Noctis, and he can swap between any of the game’s half-dozen or so weapon types.

Noctis rides a Chocobo which is a classic Final Fantasy creature.

The first half of the game has a main quest and scores of little side quests spread across the map. While most of them are simple fetch this item, kill this monster, but they remain engaging because the setting of Lucis is so interesting and detailed. You can spend tens of hours ignoring the main story for these bonus activities.

The second half of the game carries Noctis and friends out of Lucis and into the wider world of Final Fantasy XV. This section of the game is more linear and restrictive in its design. The best parts of this are when the game borrows from games like Uncharted and Tomb Raider with Hollywood-style set-pieces or classic anime-style monsters. But unfortunately it also gets grating when the game slips into wonky stealth sections or when it tries to experiment with jump scare horror.