Dive right in. I think the game is enjoyable as it is right now.

I didn't watch Kingsglaive or Brotherhood and the story beats are followable enough. I'm not lost or bewildered, maybe there's some more backstory but I don't think it's super necessary?

I'm on chapter 6, maybe it gets worsr

I watched Kingsglaive and Brotherhood before hand so the beginning stuff I had no trouble with. I would say to watch at least Kingsglaive at some point while playing though, it does help flesh out the story and while not a wonderful movie in the classic sense it is pretty damn cool.

The game certainly has some plot issues in the latter end but I still say to go ahead and play it. Are there some plots holes or unexplained things, yeah but I didn't find them that detrimental to my experience. I do think the overall plot of most FF games is dumb and not very good in general though and that the story enjoyment more comes from the character interactions and set pieces so the plot issues in XV felt similar to the same issues I see in many of the 3d FF games.

I haven't played it yet, so take this with a grain of salt. But my stance is pretty much always, if you want to play it, then just play it. At most all they can add is some minor character beats, and worst case scenario if you play it now, you can go back later, or just look them up.

If they're so drastic that the story doesn't make sense as it is, it might be actually be a fun twist to be able to fan-theory it up until you get the proper reveal. Much the same way that Metal Gear games have a habit of total nonsense exposition dumps at the end that make for a fun (theoretically, haha) subversion of expectations.

I was about 5 hours in and the open world had just opened up and the news about the patches and stuff they're gonna add pretty much killed any desire I had to continue. I definitely want to play more despite not caring about any other FF game but Im gonna wait until its dirt cheap with all the dlc next year

Are you coming to the game for the story? From the sound of things, these patches aren't going to magically fix it's numerous inconsistencies and plotholes, but if it's important to you, then might as well wait

If the story isn't the main draw for you, the sure, jump right in.

Frankly, who knows when those additional story patches are going to show up. If you really want the "full" experience, then you would probably need to wait until all of the DLC is out and they've finished whatever plan for patches they have...which could be a long time.

As for Kingsglaive and Brotherhood, they just provide additional context for some scenes and characters. There's a cutscene early on that makes way more sense if you've seen Kingsglaive, but isn't impossible to understand without it. Brotherhood is really there just to flesh out the main four's background and character to make you like and understand them better. Not required reading for plot comprehension.

@babychoochoo: I agree no amount of fixes will make the terrible story any good. So just dive right in, but do make sure you're 20 or so levels above the recommended level requirement for chapter 13 as it'll be a much easier experience before it is "patched".

The story is perfectly serviceable as far as execution goes, whether it's good or not seems to be up to debate (I like it). Go ahead and start now, depending on what kind of player you are, you might take a while to get to the points where additional scenes will be coming.

I watched both Kingsglaive and Brotherhood; Kingsglaive is probably a good thing to watch before you play or when you're in the early chapters. Brotherhood gives you backstory on the main team, but you don't need to watch it if you don't want to. For what it's worth, I thought Kingsglaive was pretty enjoyable on its own and Brotherhood was good enough for what it was.

From the sound of it, that stuff really comes into play around the time you lose the open world. I'm around the same spot as you probably, and other than some backstory on Ardyn and Ravus there hasn't been too much that needed Brotherhood/Kingsglaive.

That said, I'd at least recommend Brotherhood. It gives each main cast member their own episode showing how they relate to Noctis, and if you enjoy their road trip banter and stuff there's some of that. It even gives a little for Iris. It's short and fun.

Kingsglaive gives a lot more context to the state of the world, the ring, and the events leading up to the start of the game(the last shot of Kingsglaive is the car breaking down). I didn't think it was very good. Some all right moments, but kind of boring. Maybe put it on while you're doing hunts or something just to pick up the context.

play it twice (as i may not end up playing through it once at the rate i'm going, sigh...)

I just played Ch. 13 and once you get past Altissia the story goes off the rails, but the gameplay literally goes on rails.

I'd say play it just to see how weird it is, and keep a save on a prior chapter if you want to go back and see the changes.

There's no telling when those story patches will come. Producing fully voiced, animated cutscenes takes time. If you're aching to play FFXV, waiting an unknown period of time in order to see some new, likely inconsequential scenes seems unwise.

The actual story is kind of a mess. As it is it's directionless, circular, has more holes than swiss cheese and characters that are supposedly central to the story are seen less than the people you get side quests from. I don't see how Squeenix fixes that short of redoing the entire story of the game.

That's why you should ignore the story and play the game for what it is - Roadtrip: The MMO.

@mems1224: This is pretty much how I am. I like the game but am not super invested or far enough in to mind about setting it to one side for a few months.

Start now. I have zero confidence that what they'll add will be of any substance as they essentially need to add a whole games worth of story between now and whenever they're releasing this patch.

I'm playing it at the moment and I was planning on doing the same (keeping a save) have they said whether this will work or will you need to start a new game?

Also I just fixed the boat, once I leave will I be able to return shortly or should do most the side quests / hunts now?

As for the movie and the anime I say watch both, the story will be a mess regardless but you'll at least have some extra context. And if you're willing to commit to a long JRPG then sparing a few hours to enhance the experience is worth it in my opinion.

No, once you leave that's it for the open world portion of the game. They give you something that lets you go back to previous chapters or something with all your stats/items or whatever. But once you're on the path, you're on the path.

I spent 55 hours or so before I even got to that point so you're probably safe. As far as the story at the very end I was fairly content with it (though I had my doubts during that part), it's not amazing or anything it's just an alright JRPG storyline; you'll care about the 4 main characters, can't necessarily say the same about anyone else in the main story.

Great gameplay, okay story just like every other mainline FF. This story doesn't have that much potential I suppose and some of the other ones that are ruined by God awful main characters at least have strong themes; but hey the main character's actually a pretty chill dude this time.

The poll wound up being a lot closer than I was expecting, based on the comments. I was leaning toward starting, anyway, I guess I'll watch the movie/anime first, too. Can't hurt considering the time investment of the game.