Final Fantasy XV has finally made its way to the PC. It is a beast of a game that demands a minimum of 86 gigs worth of room on your system as well as other requirements. Is it worth the install space on your computer? Time to dig deeper and find out. This is our Final Fantasy XV review.
Let's talk tech first and get that out of the way. My system consists of an Nvidia Geforce GTX 1060 GPU with 6 gigs of vram, an Intel I5 4690k 3.5 Ghz and has 8 gigs of of DDR3 RAM. Upon install Final Fantasy set the graphic settings to average. Even on average the game looked good and played ok on my system. Streaming with those setting caused some FPS lag and having this installed on my HD gave long load times. Once installed on an SSD the load times were definitely quicker. It should also be noted that with a fan made mod, several issues I has having with frame rate got better. You can find it on the steam forums here.
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Since we just talked tech, let's talk about how the game looks. Even on my lower setting it still looked gorgeous. The background of the world as you drove by in the Regalia or as you traveled by foot was amazing. Final Fantasy XV on PC is a beauty to behold. The character animations were smooth and the look of the various NPCs were great. It was a world of beauty and destruction and it looked good with either one. The immersion for this world was complemented by its graphics.
Sound is an important thing in any game, but especially so for a Final Fantasy game. Anyone who is a fan of the series has certain memories that are triggered by the music in the various games. The base music here feels good and at times properly epic. You could also listen to music while driving and change to other songs. You could also buy more music in game to listen to that actually came from previous Final Fantasy releases. It was another nice little touch that added to the feel of the road trip theme of the game.
The combat in Final Fantasy XV can either be played in an action style or a stop motion style that waited until you had chosen an action. Going with the action style felt fast paced and not like an older game from the franchise. I was skeptical at first, but once I had gotten the hang of it combat felt engaging and fun. The link system was a nice way to add party cohesion and make it feel like you had control over the party a bit more than just Noctis.
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Multiplayer in Final Fantasy XV consists of making your own character and doing various missions to obtain things. It's suggested that you don't play multiplayer until after you beat the game because it occurs during the game and at the very beginning has story spoilers. The character creator was more in depth than I had expected. With several more options for clothing, hair style, tattoos becoming available as you progressed. The combat was very similar to the main game.
Saving the biggest question for near the end, it's time to look at the story for Final Fantasy XV. I feel like I have barely touched the tip of the story so far. That could be partially due to doing so many hunting missions, fishing, camping and other side quests, but what was experienced of the main story so far felt engaging and worth my time. The story definitely had an epic feel to it even while maintaining that feel of a road trip with a group of friends and so far, felt Final Fantasy worthy. I am definitely looking forward to where this story goes and felt empathy to several characters already. The game could hold a lot of your time considering not only the main story, but all the side quests, hunting quests and DLC available.
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Last but not least you have a lot of clothing options not only for yourself, but for the Regalia. I enjoyed seeing all the full body decals for the car and all the others you could find to make it look the way you wanted, much like your characters. Final Fantasy XV may not feel like an older game from the franchise, but that doesn't mean it's bad. I grew up with the older Final Fantasy game and while XV is different, that doesn't make it a bad game in the franchise. I enjoyed my time spent in game and look forward to doing more.
SCORE: 9/10
Pros
- Beautiful music
- Great story
- Lots to do (side quests, hunting, etc)
- The Regalia
- Multiplayer
Cons
- Install size
- Has some hiccups that a user created mod can help with
This review was made possible through a PC key provided by the publisher.
