FFXV has just come to Game Pass so I thought why not let’s give it a shot, especially since I remember playing the demo and finding the combat kind of intriguing.

This is probably a long game where you can spend hours making mistakes early on or get bogged down in a chapter when you should be pushing forward to greener pastures.

So for those that played the game what should I know? I’ve already read that I should get the skills for gaining AP for Chocobo riding and car trips and that I should generally mainline the quests until I get to chapter 3.

I don’t think I quite have a handle on the combat. Should I switch over to the Wait mode or is the game supposed to be played in real-time? Cause when fighting larger packs of quick animals I’m having a hard time dodging or even seeing where the attacks are coming from.

So any cool tips that you only learn in retrospect would be greatly appreciated.

Honestly, as far as the combat goes... that's kind of just how it is. You should be able to get away with holding dodge when you see stuff moving around you, and then continuing to hold attack/get behind enemies for blindsides until they're dead. Buy lots of potions and a few phoenix downs and you'll never die. This isn't combat you can get particularly good at, you just get used to how automated/unresponsive it is.

As far as actual tips go:

• Try to stay at hotels as often as you can, as the game only tallies up your EXP when you sleep and hotels multiply that tally up to 3x.
• Most of the sidequests become available in chapter 3, and you can go off and explore all of that and then be overlevelled for everything else. I think I spent most of my overall playtime in chapter 3, and I wouldn't recommend it. I'd beeline to the chocobo stuff when they mention it, and pick up any quest you come across, but don't go out of your way for them unless you need money.
• Buy Cup Noodle™.
• Check every gas station, most of them have upgrades for your car, and music you will absolutely want.
• Turn on the stamina bar, and if you release and then hold the sprint button again as it's about to run out, it'll refill and let you sprint infinitely. As far as I know the game never mentions this, so you might need to look at a video for the timing if you're not getting it.
• The chocobo/car AP bonuses aren't super worthwhile, beyond the initial few hours. You probably won't get more than a couple hundred AP total from these in a regular playthrough, so if other things sound more appealing then go for it. I'd recommend the AP from eating upgrade over the chocobo one, at the very least.

Get dat music. I have a love hate relationship with FF15 but I will say having my favorite FF tunes to jam to while helped a lot. For whatever reason FF13s soundtrack really fit in that game for me as well.

Know that sometimes that game is just going to randomly body slam you. You will run into stuff you aren't expecting and it is designed to beat the crap out of you. Why? I have no idea.

Let me know if you finish it. I believe the Game Pass version has all the DLC and the "fixed" later chapter, (I cant remember which one at the moment...7?) and I would be curious to know what you thought.

@nikana: Shout out to FFXIII music! As bad as the game may be, the music was some of my favorite.

I haven't played FFXV in a long time, and I never beat it. From what I can remember, combat was fairly simple. Hold a button down and you attack. Then you can do that teleport dash attack for really good damage or to escape. Magic is super limited and not that satisfying feeling, I disliked how you had to mine minerals to get magic stock. But it was cool how you could mix those materials together and make stronger magic attacks.

@casepb: I remember dumping about 10 hours into the open world and really enjoying it. It felt like a monster hunter lite and was super into it. But when it came time to actually platy the game I was less into it. Lot of good stuff in there but just not put together in a way I loved.

Some of this stuff might be kind of obvious but i'll say it anyway, scan enemies for weaknesses (i'd advise using wait mode) attack enemies from behind, use team attacks frequently, play the DLC after beating the game, (even if much of it takes place at various points throughout the game) last and most certainly least have some engine parts on you at all times. (no big deal if you dont)

The Royal Edition doesnt have the final piece of DLC but you can skip that without missing much. I enjoyed FFXV quite a bit but the story is a damn mess and not in the usual JRPG sense. In order to really understand all of it you will have to watch the Kingsglaive movie and the anime but even then some of the character motivations arent made clear until you play all of the DLC. It's very clear this is a game that went through developement hell. (thanks in no small part to Tetsuya Nomura)

Going to echo what @teddie suggested:

- When Prompto suggests going to check out the Chocobos, do that. The quest leads to a unique battle, and it's what unlocks the Chocobo rentals, which make getting around on foot much quicker. Get used to that music tho. There's also a side quest just outside the Chocobo farm, that will trigger a side quest with Ignis, then another with Gladio. The Ignis / Gladio sidequests here aren't significant, and you can do them later, but they're meant to be played at this point in the story.

- The stamina bar refill also works when you click in the left stick, if you're running that way.

- If you want, there are some accessories that give you extra AP when getting an A+ in Offence and Time in battle. Those categories are pretty easy to get A+ in (like a battle with a single enemy that takes one hit. That's an A+ in Time and Offence, but like a D in finesse). I didn't worry about AP too much. There's a couple of good ones (extra MP, extra potent spells, and your friends healing themselves), the rest is dependant on your playstyle.

- Talk to everyone working in diners to fill out your map.

- Hunting quests are a good way of getting money.

- There's side quests in Lestallum that involve taking pictures that give a bunch of exp / money for very little effort.

- Use the Return to Car / Return to Last Rest Point options in the map if you're stuck in the middle of nowhere at night / far from the car and just trying to quickly do some quests.

Thanks for the tips! Good to know about the stamina bar and also that the combat is.. just the way it is.

Also I have to confess a really dark secret: the last FF game I played was FF13.. and I kinda liked it. To be fair, at the time I had not touched a JRPG in years and the way that 13 was so streamlined and corridor driven for the first half before you got to the open plains made it really accessible for someone like me that hasn't been keeping up with these sort of games in a while. It was actually really relaxing for me to be funneled forward like that as I could simply concentrate on the combat which I found really weird but fun in it's own right.

So far I must say I am not loving this whole car situation mostly because it's all so very slow. Even when I fast traveled to a point on the map the car parked like a mile away from where I left the marker so I had to get in it and ride back up anyway. The combat is weird but I kind of like how frenetic it can get but everything around this is in weird contrast like molasses. Even choosing dialog options has this unnatural delay that is just long enough to be annoying but not long enough to be a real issue.

Lastly - on an XB1X and a nice LG OLED.. the HDR in this game makes all the characters look like black voids when you're out in sunny areas. There is no HDR brightness slider to adjust and I don't feel like turning off HDR on the TV level just for this game so I guess I'll live with it.

I don't remember enough about the game to give you any meaningful tips but it's worth watching Kingsglaive and Brotherhood if you care/want to care at all about the story and characters. Kingsglaive you'll probably have to rent and Brotherhood is free on Youtube.

Love your boys and take some time to sift through photos at the end of the day to keep the good ones. The game makes good use of this feature.

Other than that just enjoy cruising and listening to tunes. There are a lot of great tracks (like some boppers from FFXI). I wish I could give even more suggestions, but the game seemingly doubled in size from the base game I played at launch thanks to all the DLC. Just go at your own pace and take it in.

In total, it was about 150 GB download. That surprised me. I have some version on PS4 I haven't gotten to yet.

@ginormous76:holy moly. Thats a lot of DLC. I believe the One X version has higher res textures tho too.

The later chapters go much quicker than the open ones, so don't be afraid to screw around in early chapters for a dozen hours and freak out to learn how many there are in the game.

And watch Kingsglaive, even before you start the main game to get a feel for the world. It's a lot better than I expected with some damn fine action. The anime shorts around various characters are worth watching, too.

The gameplay is what it is. It is a lot flashier than it needs to be, there is a few basic you should pay attention to typically around different class of weapons and how they behaves with their animation and what attacks are available. Some Royals arms also behave very differently and unique in their own ways.

Money grinding is a huge hassle, sometimes you just need to start popping elixirs left and right. Weapons aren't exactly cheap and you have to stock pile different weapons that hit different weaknesses. Remember you can pause and change equipment in the middle of a fight, it let you pump specific stats, do specific combo and damage type for what you need in a fight...at times it gets tedious.

The story is...a pain to "fully experience," it is insane honestly. My memory is a bit hazy, but I think it goes somewhat like this:

Kingsglaive should go before the last section of chapter 1. Although if you are just rushing through I guess you can watch it before starting the game. Brotherhood episode 3 should go at the start of Chapter 3, episode 4 should go slightly into Chapter 3. Episode 1, 2, and 5 can go in almost anywhere between chapter 3 to 6.

Gladiolus DLC should go between end of chapter 6/start of 7 to 8, there's a pretty obvious cue when it is a good time to start.

Prompto DLC timing is strange. If I recall correctly it could start around the end of chapter 11/beginning of chapter 12, there is also a pretty obvious cue. However the ending of it should not be seen until middle-late part of chapter 13.

Ignis' is the weirdest one of all. The early part of the DLC should start in between later/end of chapter 9 and beginning of 10. However the later part of the DLC should not be seen until end of the game!

The most sane fix for this is take your time with the game from chapter 1 to beginning of chapter 9, but as chapter 9 comes to a close, mad dash to finish the game.

Well I’m in chapter 3 and unlocked the Chocobos then fell into a pit of getting car upgrades until the level gating cut me off. I feel like I take down enemies fairly quickly but everything is taking off huge chunks from my health bar with a single attack. Like those lanky dog things are the worst as they swarm in a way that makes just acquiring targets awkward and the prompt for block comes up every other second - the parry is very satisfying though. I bumbled my way through he Deadeye mini boss and I had thought that I’m finally getting a hang of the combat.

I have not watched Kingsglaive but I think I might check it out since a movie isn’t that big of an investment time-wise - probably will skip out on the show. With the quality of some of these early side quests I’m thinking maybe I should start mainlining the story quests until I hit a wall and then grinding a bit when needed. I don’t want to get bogged down in a beginner area doing fetch quests for 20 hours when the actual story doesn’t start much later.

I have two special arms things and I’m not sure how they work. The axe hits hard but the sword I dunno what pre-emotive warp strike is???

So far pretty fun all in all. I’m wearing a puffy white parka fit for a prince.