Nine years. That's how long this game has been in development. It's kind of crazy to think that I was bright eyed sophomore back when this game was announced as Final Fantasy Versus XIII along with the rest of the Fabula Crystalis nonsense, but here I am in the year of our lord 2015 writing my thoughts on the demo I played through over about 3 hours last night. So without further ado, here is another overly long analysis that nobody asked for!
The Good
Production Values
Okay, lets get this out of the way first - Great Googley Moogley this game is pretty. Then again, you probably already knew that. The draw distance is... Well, there really is no draw distance. You can see everything across the map. The character models, even npcs, are incredibly detailed and fluidly animated. Enemies run the gamut from mundane to impossibly huge, but all of them are imbued with enough fine detail that they are as intriguing as they are threatening. And that summon, dear God. It really sets a new bar for eye candy in Final Fantasy and really gaming in general.
And the music, it is f**king fantastic. Just listen to the music during the summon. The demo alone is full of tracks of that caliber, and the somber tune that plays at the title screen is still rolling around in my head.
The Characters
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| From left to Right - Gladio, Noctis, Ignis and Prompto |
The four main characters of Final Fantasy XV have so far been called the "Boy Band of Final Fantasy," and while I'm not sure I like that label, I have to admit that they really do kind of look like one. Thankfully, they don't act like one (Though I'm sure One Direction or someone of their ilk will conspire to make an RPG someday). The names are kind of silly, but just from the demo I can tell that the characters are well fleshed out with complicated personalities. Noctis, for example, looks like a stereotypical goth/emo teenager, but he's actually kind of goofy and has a good rapport with the other three. The demo has me intrigued about the history, relationships and complexities of the characters and that, to me, is the mark of good design in a demo.
The Experience System
Final Fantasy XV has a new experience system that is akin to Dark Souls of all things. You still gain experience after battles, but this experience needs to be "cashed in" by finding a campsite and setting up camp. While this obviously gets rid of some of the instant gratification of old Final Fantasy games I feel like it will lead to a more concrete feeling of progression, especially since I'm guessing camping is going to be the method of saving in this game.
Varied Gameplay
I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of gameplay experiences available in the demo. While regular combat was obviously the bulk of the experience, there were a few sections that really broke the mold. In particular, there is a stealth section where you have to track a behemoth to it's lair. This proves incredibly tense, and creepy music and heavy fog serve to bolster the atmosphere; it's almost something out of a Silent Hill game. If this is a sign that the development team is willing to take risks with sequences far removed from just walking around and battling (something FFXIII sorely lacked) it increases my anticipation for the full game even more.
The Mixed
Combat
Okay, here's the big one. Definitely the greatest departure from Final Fantasy norms and perhaps the biggest risk the developers are taking is in the combat system. Combat in Final Fantasy XV is completely in realtime, with no ATB bars to speak of. Noctis is the only playable character, and attacks with his phantom arsenal via a preset melee combo. Weapons can be switched around to add variety in things like speed and range, but the nature of the combo remains largely the same - swing your opening weapon to get the first hit, do a flurry of hits with the second weapon, finish with the third. Noctis' warp strike ability, which allows him to instantly teleport to a targeted enemy, is invaluable, as many enemies are quite mobile and difficult to hit with the first clunky hit of the melee combo otherwise. Each weapon also has a skill attached that operates separately from the combo (think FF9), that vary in usefulness. Combine the clunky combo with warp strike, mobile enemies and environmental things like trees, rocks, etc. and battles can get really messy really quickly.
That said, when things flow like they presumably should - Warp strike, combo, maybe an AoE skill for crowd control, kill enemy, warp strike or full thrust to the next; it does look and feel really cool and satisfying. The hits themselves have a good feeling of weight to them, and taking down a huge group of enemies gives a great feeling of accomplishment.
The AI of your teammates is definitely serviceable, and I rarely found them getting into too much trouble on their own, but there was one thing that kind of frustrated me. When Noctis' HP hits zero, the game pulls a Gears of War - you enter a critical state where are unable to do anything, get knocked down by a slight breeze, and any damage you take is subtracted from your total health which, if it hits zero, is game over. In order to return to the land of competency, Noctis needs to be infused with a dose of Bro Love via a pat on the back from one of his party members. Problem is, sometimes they seem utterly uninterested in doing so. Once I hobbled directly in front of an idle Ignis for about 10 seconds, before Gladio decided to travel the entire length of the battle field to reach me and pat me on the back.
The Map System
There is no active mini map while traveling the overworld. This is definitely a minor complaint, as the map is easily accessible and the waypoint system is servicable, but I also have one other minor complaint - when you enter a dungeon, there is no indicator. While this is sometimes obvious (the cave) it sometimes isn't (Deadeye's Den), and I spent more time than I'm proud of wondering why my map looked drastically different than before. Also, once I figured it out, I couldn't find any option to switch the dungeon map to the world map to see where the dungeon was located in relation to everything else. A minor gripe to be sure and easily fixable, but that's why it's in this section
The Bad
Performance Issues
Many of you reading this have probably already heard about the performance issues that plague the demo, and I am sad to report that all of the reports are true. The game engine frequently has trouble keeping up with itself, leading to frame drops, blurriness, screen tearing, weird glitches (all the I's in all my menus disappeared for a while) and a somewhat entertaining bug where battle AI occasionally doesn't trigger and you just beat up docile enemies.
Squeenix definitely has their work cut out for them if they want to have a smooth experience while maintaining the same degree of graphical fidelity, but I remain cautiously optimistic that all of this will be ironed out by the release date of who knows 20xx.
