Knowing what you know now, how would you recommend a new player play the game?

Hey gang,

I recently picked up FFXV, and I've been playing it for the last 2 days. I'm really enjoying it. I like the characters, I like the banter on the road, it looks brilliant, and for the most part, the combat is that sort of faceroll style that makes you feel pretty strong.

Now, I'm worried about how I'm playing. On my first day, I played for 4 and a half hours, mixing up hunts, sidequests and main story progression. Today I played it for 5 hours, and did NO main story quest stuff. I literally just arsed about doing sidequests and hunts. It was only at the end of my session did I go and meet up with Glad's sister and pushed the story along a little bit. I'm currently just about to go look for the royal weapon behind the waterfall.

Now, I'm not sure if I'm going to burn myself out really quick. Like someone else mentioned on this board, a lot of the sidequests are basically "Go here, collect X after walking half a mile and bring it back". Hunts are marginally better, but I still overlevel for most of them to an insane degree. To put it into perspective, I was level 25, and the story quest recommended level 10.

Will I enjoy the game if I keep playing this way? Or should I just focus on story stuff. Open to all opinions!

Just do what feels right to you. There's no wrong way to play.

So I did ALL the side stuff before I really tackled the main quest. I don't think that's necessarily a bad way to play because the open world part of it is honestly the best part of that game. By the time you hit Chapter 10 you're pretty much on rails and the game really takes a nosedive. For perspective, I think I was in the 50s by the time I did that waterfall quest.

A certain amount of overleveling is inevitable in this game. Unless they've patched it since I played, the XP-to-effort ratio is really out of whack on a lot of quests. Some of the really easy fetch ones give you ridiculous amounts of XP while some really hard hunts or dungeons give you next to nothing. That, combined with the XP multiplier from inns means you can easily hit high levels relatively early.

I think what you're doing, being in the world, taking in the vibes and enjoying the game at your own pace is when I liked the game most. You have to get what you can out of it 'cause as soon as you expect the game to provide something, that's when you'll come away super disappointed.

You're doing it right. The best thing about FFXV is the questing, hunts, and post-game dungeons. Hunts really take the place of boss battles, there are literally 4-5 total in the story. The story is unsatisfying and feels unfinished like Metal Gear Solid 5, so take your time as much as possible because it really forces you to finish it once you decide to go to Altissia. There's no shame in over-leveling, once you beat the game you get access to post-game dungeons (those locked doors in regular dungeons that you can't open) that are incredibly difficult. Take advantage of eating the double XP meals (chocobo ranch guy) and avoid camping in favor of the trip to the Golden Quay. XP multipliers from meals is a mechanic that isn't emphasized enough in the all of the tutorializing.

I completely agree with what others have said here. Over leveling is a bit inevitable if you try to build up as much XP before going to a hotel and leveling up like me, but most encounters I found to be pretty hard if I wasn't at least around 10 levels higher than the enemy. I think I hit that same quest around level 30 and still found it to be enjoyable and relatively challenging. The game does a pretty good job of making even easy fights engaging and giving out higher level hunts as you go along; there are even some enemies that are above the level cap.

While I did actually enjoy the main story for the most part (besides the last 3 or so chapters), the time I spent roaming from quest to quest in the car was the most enjoyable part of the game for me. I felt that meandering around the world had an addicting quality that made me unable to put it down until I had finished everything but that post-game 100 floor dungeon.

Overall, found the game to be very relaxing despite most of the quests being similar so just do what gives you the most enjoyment when playing!

Don't worry about HOW you play it.

I spent near 30 hours with the fishing mini-game. I love a good fishing mini-game in JRPGs.

What I would tell new players is more of setting expectations. It's partially spoiler, so read my next tidbit at your own volition:

Play it for the combat and exploration for exploration's sake; not for the story. If you played the Episode Duscae demo way back when, go in expecting 100 hours of that and you won't leave unsatisfied. Get through the story solely so that you can tackle the postgame "dungeons", which are really just a TON of monster rooms. Only sleep in hotels.