So, after putting about 22 hours into the game, and finally wrapping up the final story chapter(With optional end-game stuff to come, I'm sure), I think I can safely say two things about this entry into a venerable series.
One, it's probably the furthest from a "Final Fantasy" that the average person thinks of, since at least to me, my mind drifts to the 16-bit/32-bit "Golden Age of RPGs."
And Two: It's kind of a hot mess, but I love it anyway.
That being said, let's get to the good points: The action reminds me a LOT of Dragon's Dogma. Like, parts of it seem whole-cloth stolen from that slept-on Capcom title, and that's a really, really cool thing. Nighttime being super dangerous, accidentally stumbling upon enemies that will fuck your shit sideways and smile the whole time, AI partners who are generally competent, but sometimes make you wonder(Prompto, I'm looking at you!). It really seems like a developer, unused to the open-world archetype that Western developers have bent over their knee, just kind of made an engine that could handle it, and then said, "Well, what now?" The combat is rather simplistic, but I think that helps with the Cool Factor of "Holy shit, I flew ten feet in the air and just wrecked fools!" that's usually reserved for a Devil May Cry, or God of War. And the graphics, my god! This game is gorgeous, and that's on a regular, bog-standard PS4. I can only imagine how it might look on a PS4 Pro on a 4k TV(If it even supports 4k, no idea.), or the future Scorpio. Let's not even mention how it could look on a beefy-as-hell PC, if they port it. There are, of course, some frame jitters and slight slowdown, but for the most part, it was a silky-smooth hi-def experience the whole way through, with some breathtaking vistas and bug-fuck crazy battles, with particle effects and lighting going apeshit, without much slowdown, at least not any that I noticed.
Everything that glitters isn't gold, though, and this game is not without it's faults. Prime suspect #1 is the story. I mean, what kind of drug-assisted fever dream is this story supposed to be? At first glance, it's Road Trip With Your Bros, a Broad Trip(That sounded better in my head), and on the other hand, it's the atypical JRPG "The world is ending also you are the chosen one who can save it also your love interest? Dead as fuckin hell bruh, get you some" that has plagued this, and other games in this genre, for YEARS! Can't a dude just dude it out with his dudes, doin' dude stuff? Why's the world always gotta be ending?
Also, the combat, at times, is super frustrating. Take, for example, the last story chapter. You go to Insomnia, the capital of the Kingdom of Lucis, to ostensibly take out the big baddy. So whose idea was it to put a level 70+ Deathclaw(Not the Fallout kind, but it might as well be) right after the low-level fodder? Storywise, it makes sense, Big Bad would put his heavy hitters on front-line defense, but gameplay wise, it's kind of horseshit. You can, thankfully, go back in "time" to level up more, which I would advise if you mainlined the story and are around the 30-40 level area, because shit will get tense, and not the good kind. Having to babysit 3 idiots who have no qualms about blinding running into battle with enemies that sneeze larger chunks than they do will get on your nerves, as well as your pocketbook. Those Phoenix Downs aint cheap, Ignis!
Overall, I would recommend this game to people who are looking for a gorgeous open-world to explore and look like a badass, while driving in a sweet car listenin' to tunes from a series' bygone Golden Era. If you're a person looking for a tight-knit, cohesive story to draw you in, you might want to skip this one.
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