Since I'm sure the new releases for XV brought in a lot of first timers like myself I thought it would be cool to get a discussion going. Our experience with the game is going to be pretty different from those who played it when it first came out and that is a rare and interesting thing in gaming. Having beaten the main story the other day I find myself really eager to discuss it which is rare for me. Note that there will more than likely be spoilers at some point so if you haven't beaten the game yet you should of course do that first.

When the game first came out the general impression I got was that there was a lot to like about it but a lot to dislike as well. Several of my friends would tell me just how much they liked the characters and the world but hated the story beats. One of them even drunkenly presented some insane power point like presentation she made on it during New Years. Most reviews reflected those sentiments as well. In my time with the game however I am finding little to dislike. So little I can list them: Gladio's ridiculously aggressive attitude towards Noctis in Chapter 10, the Assassin's Festival might never come back and the fact that Prompto isn't very fun to play as. Those are really the only problems I have with the game. There are some oddities with the story at first, like why doesn't the Empire just go after Noctis right away since they seem to always know where he is and why do they wait until he makes a pact with the Gods to kill them. Once Ardyn's identity and plan are fully revealed (in Episode Ignis) it all falls into place. I also felt the ending was just fine and the fact that people clamored for a different one is absurd.

Ultimately I am really enjoying my time in XV. Over 50 hours in and there is still plenty to do, not even taking Comrades into account. At this moment I don't know what all the additions and changes are to the story so I don't know how they effected my enjoyment of this game but as a first timer to the game I love it. It might even be my new favorite FF game, it's too soon to tell though. I certainly would like to go more in-depth with my discussion but I am currently strapped for time.

So let me know what the rest of you first timers (or even second playthrough with all the new stuff) thought about the game.

I'm not that far in (maybe 3 or 4 hours) but so far I'm iffy on FFXV but definitely enjoying it more than not. Before playing it I watched the movie and the anime the former of which is bad and those resources would have been better spent on the game. The latter I enjoyed more than I thought I would but still think all that information should be in the game and having to watch a separate thing to get seemingly crucial details on these characters back stories really rubs me the wrong way.

The game itself though shows a lot of promise early on however, I am really struggling with the combat. It might be something I get a feel for as I put more time into it but I find it impossible to know when to dodge attacks. With how hectic everything is I can never see when an enemy is going to attack me so I'm constantly getting hit. I haven't actually died yet because the recovery system is rather generous but that doesn't make the combat any less frustrating. I also have a hard time with the parry prompts. Sometimes it's really obvious when I miss it other times I feel like I'm hitting it dead on and it just doesn't register? Also, whoever decided you have to hold the button rather than tap it to parry should be fired... It just doesn't feel good to me even if I nail it. I don't know I'm hoping to just get a feel for it as I go.

Other than that I love the way the game looks. Everything from the art design to the technical aspect of the visuals it just looks fantastic. Especially at 60fps. The controls are a bit wonky but I'm getting used to them. The moment to moment game design I really like. Hunting seems like a decent pass time, fishing is frustrating but doesn't seem that crucial, I actually like driving around with my buds. A lot of nothing happens but in a game that can be overwhelming at times with its story and especially in the combat I appreciate the downtime. Though I can see it maybe being a drag later on, I find the design choice of just driving around listening to music and soaking in the scenery to be ballsy in a way I appreciate.

So yeah, I'm enjoying it mostly and hope it gets better as it goes.

@fatalbanana: I had completely forgotten to mention the movie and the anime. A friend of mine told me they weren't really necessary to enjoy the game fully so I skipped them and I don't feel like I missed out on anything, though I understand how you feel. I felt the same way with the combat at first but I definitely got a feel for it and really enjoy it despite how simple it is. The combat really evolves too once you get Armiger mode, Armiger unleashed and once you unlock the ability to switch characters, though you do need to play their episodes to fully unlock their potential. It does feel like you get stuck in animations longer than you should which makes parrying difficult but you'll get a feel for that as well. And driving around while listening to music is enjoyable but they left out the two best songs from the X soundtrack which makes me very sad. Driving is even better once you get the off road version of the Regalia, the controls aren't half bad which really surprised me.

I can keep the game at a fairly stable 60 but as I only have a GTX 960 I have to turn a lot of options down. The game still looks great though and 60fps is a must for me so I don't mind so much. Even though I have it disabled the AA options are really disappointing, though I suppose playing in 4K or with a high resolution scale is the best solution for aliasing. Thanks for sharing!

@abysswalker: It's good to know the movie and anime aren't crucial to the actual game though I still think the game would be better if it had that stuff in it instead of separating it out. For instance, Knowing Prompto's relationship with the Noctis and Luna really colors that character for me in a way the game just doesn't even hint at early on. That information isn't crucial but really helps connect me to that story in a way the game doesn't seem interested in doing in the little I've seen so far.

Man, that Armiger and character switching stuff sounds cool. How long would you say it takes to unlock all that stuff?

Yeah, I'm hoping we'll see some mods for the PC version that lets you do things like custom soundtracks I would really be into that.

@fatalbanana: You get Armiger once you get 3 Royal Arms which doesn't take too long. Character switching is actually something you unlock from the techniques ascendancy tree.

The movie is kinda necessary as an intro to the world and what the hell is going on. I hear it was originally supposed to be the beginning of the game but with all the Versus XIII stuff that got cut they eventually had to just split it off into a two-hour movie (and you even see flashes of it at the end of the first chapter). Aaron Paul voices the protagonist of the movie in the English version so that's cool.

The anime isn't as necessary, but provides some backstory to the main characters that you might find interesting.

Final Fantasy XV is a weird game and one I thoroughly enjoy. The game starts out really strong and builds up some great character moments until it buckles under the weight of chapter 10 and 13. The patch fixes chapter 13 somewhat but it feels largely apparent that these parts were rushed to get the game out. Chapter 10 is much worse for me than Chapter 13 from a story stand-point though as a couple of characters take a hard turn for the worse without any context.

@fatalbanana: Oh I also forgot to mention something, I don't know if you're playing with a mouse and keyboard or a controller but with a controller I found that type 2 is much better than type 1 and I never switch control types in games.

@dochaus: I found that the only really important detail from the movie was that some of the Kingsglaive colluded with the Empire and betrayed the King (I read a synopsis, I really don't want to watch that movie.) I don't think that was mentioned in the main game at all but it is mentioned in Comrades. I just figured the Empire finally overwhelmed the city but traitors works too.

@zirilius: I just hated Gladio's attitude in Chapter 10, I didn't mind that main story didn't explain how Ignis lost his site and Prompto totally works as the guy stuck in the middle of Noctis's and Gladio's headbutting. The only thing I didn't care for about Chapter 13 was the length for Noctis's route but of course I had the benefit of having the buffed version of the Ring from one of the previous patches. If his path was shorter but a bit harder than it was I wouldn't mind that at all.

@abysswalker: I am using a controller and I'll give type 2 a try. Thanks!

@abysswalker: It was a bit of both. From what I remember most of the titular Kingsglaives are refugees from the outskirts of Lucis who swore loyalty to the king when the Empire destroyed their towns during the war, and in return gain some of the Lucis magic power to teleport and such. Though the king planned to sign the peace treaty with Niflheim to preserve Insomnia, several of the group were pissed off that he appeared to be abandoning their homes for good, which led to the betrayal part on top of the rest of the real villain's plan.

Also I hear you can pick up Nyx's kukris somewhere near the end of the game.

As someone who played XV close to when it came out and liked it a lot, maybe people would like to look at the community's thoughts on XV when it came out? I especially remember agreeing with @babychoochoo on their criticisms of the story. A lot of things weren't explained story wise and I'm interested if people feel the Royal edition fixed some of these flaws. I haven't touched the game since I finished it close to release.

@cerberus3dog: Ah thank you, this is something I've been wanting to look for so here goes. They added a lot more scenes with Luna, just about any time the game cuts away from Noctis it's to show a scene with her. It's usually her talking to either Gentiana or Ravus and they do help to build her and the others up a bit more. There are also more scenes in the past with young Luna and Noctis so you do see their relationship built up a bit. It does seem like he hasn't seen her in a very long time and the thought of finally seeing her again is fairly present. Ravus is also expanded upon more so his motivations and sudden change make more sense thanks to Episode Ignus.

Going into the game I knew that the episodes would fill in some of the blanks so that definitely effected my feelings towards those moments. When I saw Gladio got a new scar I just figured "Cool, his episode will probably explain that." Ignis being blinded was a little different, I didn't really care for the details of that so much as how did things deescalate once Noctis fell unconscious. Shit hit the fan in Altissia pretty damn hard so I felt that I didn't really need to know how he was blinded. That leads into Chapter 10 and Gladio being a dick though and that is definitely the shitiest part of the game. It makes you hate all of them for a moment cause Gladio is just being so undeservingly antagonistic and having to fucking wait for Ignis makes that chapter take forever.

After playing Episode Prompto I really got the sense that coming to terms with his origins is really something he had to do. His friends are always going to love him no matter what so them just brushing over it like that in the main game makes sense. Granted the episode definitely could have been longer and really delve into his psyche but I really didn't expect it to. Plus I don't think he's really fun to play as he is so I really wouldn't want that episode to last much longer.

Insomnia and the end of the game were also expanded in this new version and while it's still not as much as I would like it does decent job of tying everything together. You get to see and reconcile with the more important side characters, (and there's a phone call with Iris that's kinda sad when you know how the game ends) for the most part. You get a quest to help Cindy with something but you don't ever see her.

From what I've read they added a ton of documents to the game that weren't in the original version. Every area has some lore for it and there's plenty of things detailing the Six, the Ring, the Lucis line, and the Crystal. They are presented as excerpts from story books which is kinda neat. These definitely should have been in the game from the start as from a story stand point it makes sense that none of this is explained; the characters know this world so there's no reason for them to be there for a exposition dump or two. Something like that works when the info is there to find somewhere but it sounds like it wasn't before.

It really does feel like we got the finished game with this version, it does suck for people who picked it up when it first came out. They did announce four more episodes recently with the first being Episode Ardyn, it's a safe bet that one will be about Aranea. So there may be some more blanks for them to fill in with these but as it stands now I'm satisfied with the story. If there is anything else you want to know then let me know.

@abysswalker: When did you play the character DLCs? I just looked it up and they all seem to load up separately. With the Royal Edition, I thought they would just be added into the main story after Noctis and his crew split up. Like after Gladiolus breaks from the group during the game, it would switch to his episode and then cut back to the main story with Noctis afterwards. Was this jarring to you?

The updated improvements to the Luna scenes and the 10 years time break are probably what intrigues me the most. In the original, she has all of 15 minutes of screen time and then she's gone. You don't really have any time to connect with her. Finding Noctis in prison with a beard after 10 years also wasn't explained. Gladio having his awkward conflict with Noctis, Ignis showing up blind (and guiding/having to wait for him) was incredibly confusing because it wasn't explained at all. When Luna's brother (Ravus I think??) dies, they try to make him out to be a tragic figure and the entire thing fell flat because his story was given all of 5 minutes to develop. It was these kind of things I hoped would have been explained and smoothed over in the Royal Edition. It reads like some of it was, some of it wasn't.

Since I only got into Final Fantasy games halfway through last year, I completely missed all of the hubbub and whatnot surrounding 15's initial release. So going in with the Steam version, I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into. Having beaten it yesterday, I'm still not sure what it is. So I'm just gonna dump all this text here while I sort out my thoughts.

I was way into the road trip motif. I had a good time driving around, exploring, taking photos, and camping. All those things coming together made me grow a lot closer to the cast than I ever thought I would (which still isn't saying much) and I quickly found all four of them a lot more tolerable than I had at the outset. But the story, or at least the part where the king dies and Crown City falls, comes up so early and casts a gloom over the whole trip that leaves me conflicted. While I appreciate that the game still acts as if nothing happened and everything you do up to a point is still just four guys on a road trip, there's a weird disconnect where all four of them are snarking at each other and doing stupid poses for photos while the empire is conquering the world and daemons are growing stronger. Combined with my habit of doing all of the sidequests before touching the main story, that caused me to completely lose track of the story very early on. It ended up being more of a series of vignettes with nothing leading from point A to point B; at one point we're making sure the refugees from Crown City are safe, then we're fighting a giant in a crater, then some ghost lady shows up and speaks Shakespearean at me before sending me off to make pacts with the summons now? And it never really turns around for me. As such, I don't care much for the game's story. It was pretty poorly paced and too vague in too many spots. The ten-year time skip was a fun twist, but in the end the fact that it had happened seemed to have no impact on the story whatsoever. Why even have it happen in the first place?

But as for things I liked: quite a lot gameplay-wise.

• Fishing had the perfect level of depth for me, though the later fish taking ten minutes to land was a bit overkill.
• Driving was oddly relaxing and I would often manually drive somewhere rather than fast travel, but the early limitations on night driving frequently left me frustrated and I was kind of disappointed that they locked off-road stuff behind the Type-D. While it was fun to finally drive off-road, I thought the thing just looked ugly and it prevented the game from auto-following the roads when I wasn't feeling like off-roading.
• Combat was simplistic and kind of frustrating at first--maybe having the first enemies be packs of fast-moving small targets was a bad design decision--but once I started filling out the combat tree and I had more options at my disposal during combat, it got considerably more interesting. I still take issue with some attacks that Noctis can't auto-dodge; there's nothing to indicate that they're unblockable so I have to commit them all to memory. Also, the party AI seems real bad. Certain enemies (ronin and coeurls off the top of my head) just wipe out my party while I'm still sitting at full health. And another thing: Only three weapon types can perform links. I love the way daggers and certain Armiger weapons play, but they're just not worth losing the links over, so I instead resign myself to the less-fun lance. This could have been solved by just putting two or three weapons on each D-pad direction; they let you go into the menu and swap weapons during combat anyway, so why not make it more convenient?

But the worst thing about my experience: constant crashing. I've tried so many different things that reportedly prevent crashing to the desktop, but while some of them seem to let me play for longer before the inevitable crash, it always comes for me in the end. I quickly learned to be paranoid and for the most part I never lost more than a couple minutes per crash. But there was one that happened at the very end of a 90 minute dungeon run (thanks, Costlemark) and left me heartbroken. Now that I'm in the post-game and looking at doing these sealed dungeons, I'm terrified of crashing halfway through those monotonous monster corridors.

But I'm still having a good time with it. Looking forward to the DLC episodes and whatever the heck that multiplayer thing is. Until then, I'll be picking away at the post-game.