Considering the "premium" edition which is on sale for $30 on PSN, but ends soon.

Final Fantasy 7 was the first FF game I've played and I loved it as it was my first exposure to any game like that. I've played every (single player) FF game since then, yet I can't say I really, truly enjoy them. It's almost like I play them out of some weird "academic" fascination with them. For example, I played all three FFXIII games (on PC) and I think they actually all straight up bad games in one way or another, yet I still played each to completion.

I haven't really been fond of JRPGs in general since becoming an adult, I do however love game Skyrim, Witcher 3 and "western" style open world RPGs.

What worries with with FFXV is the MMO-trappings. FFXII was by far my least favorite of the games in terms of gameplay.

I know I'm asking perhaps way too much of an open ended question here, but would you recommend the game for me?

You would hate it. It's somehow worse than XIII and XII actually had MORE gameplay than XV manages.

i definitely wouldn't compare it to skyrim/TW3 at all, FFXV's sidequests are pretty shallow and underdeveloped, a lot like the main story. i say this as a lifelong fan of FF4-10. it looks beautiful and the characters are pretty charming if you can get over not having real characters classes (i couldn't). still it might be worth trying at its new $20 price tag.

Sounds like no but how come you don't want to play XV for academic reasons?

Well, FF15 is certainly the most worthwhile FF to play for academic reasons considering its 10-year development cycle. It's quite fascinating to see what the end product turned into, but if you haven't followed the game for its full 10 years (plus the subsequent year of trying to fix a broken unfinished game) like I did, you're not gonna have any of that context.

So based on what you've said I'm gonna say no, you don't really need to play it. I mean, is the game even done yet? They added new cutscenes just last month.

Sit this one out for a little while longer and go grab yourself a copy of Nier Automata.

I also think you would regret spending that money pretty quickly. Don't spend it (or spend it on something else)!

I want to, hence my considering it, but I'm really trying to break myself of that compulsion. All the time I spent on the XIII games, I cursed myself for spending time on that when I could have been playing something I enjoyed more.

To be fair, there are parts of all the XIII games I liked, but not enough to justify the 50+ hour time investment those games require.

@axersia: Already bought Nier and about to start playing it soon. If I get FFXV, I probably wouldn't get around to playing it for a while, but I'm not sure the next time it will be this cheap.

@sweetz: If you're not going to play it right away, take my word, this game will be heavily discounted, frequently.

Alright thanks everyone, I think I have the psychological push needed to skip it for now if not forever. I've got enough other games in sale anyway (Nier as mentioned, the Horizon DLC, and Uncharted: Lost Legacy) that will already take up more time than I have.