Game Info Platform PS4, Xbox One Publisher Square Enix Developer Square Enix Product Development Division 1 Release Date Nov 29, 2016

Final Fantasy 15 is bombastic, strange, surprising and, often, brilliant. It is voluminous; it is cacophonous. It's the only type of result that would feel fitting for a game with such a lengthy and tumultuous history. Originally announced a whopping 10 years ago under the name Final Fantasy Versus 13, FF15 was intended to be a spinoff featuring the same world and lore as Final Fantasy 13. In the decade since then, the game has seen switch-ups in its scale, its platforms, most of its development team and its very core design philosophy. It's hard to imagine a project coming out of all these changes, all this time passed, unscathed. And sure enough, Final Fantasy 15 wears some warts. And yet, it's also dazzling. Square Enix has created a spectacle of the sort that Final Fantasy stopped being well over a decade ago — an incredible journey that's ambitious in ways most games never try, even if it's not always successful in that ambition. Final Fantasy 15 is ambitious in ways most games never try

Final Fantasy 15 places you into its world with little fanfare or prologue. You take on the role of Noctis, the prince of a kingdom called Lucis. At the game's outset, Noctis is sent from his home city to take part in a political marriage that's meant to bring peace between the warring factions of Lucis and the Niflheim Empire. He's accompanied by three of his best friends from childhood — four warriors on a journey of world-changing significance, just like the old days. Noctis' friends act as the beating heart of Final Fantasy 15. From Prompto's awkwardness and bad jokes to Ignis' calm knowledgeability to Gladio's strength and straightforwardness, the group is a believable band of buddies who care about each other and enjoy the time they spend together. Though their quest has huge stakes, they often treat it as a road trip slash bachelor party, a last chance for the group to be together as guys before Noctis is married. Final Fantasy 15's strongest moments are found in these more mundane elements, the bits that are about just hanging out. As they drive across the countryside, Noctis and crew share charming, everyday banter that's all about building up their friendship rather than relaying plot beats. Prompto takes dozens of pictures documenting the trip. When they turn in for the night, the group sets up camp, and Ignis cooks. Each in-game day's end is punctuated by the friends gathered around a fire, eating, enjoying each other's company. These slower elements transformed each of these characters from forgettable anime prettyboys into the virtual equivalent of best friends whom I felt like I'd known all my life. By the end, Noctis' gang are three of the most well-drawn, fully-developed characters in Final Fantasy history, because the game lets you just spend time with them, as much in the boring moments as the epic ones. These bits of character building tie into mechanics in some clever ways as well. Part of what makes the end-of-day camping sequences possible, for example, is that you don't level up until you rest. That also smartly gives you an opportunity to cook meals, which gives you stat buffs for the day ahead. In a nod to some more recent hit franchises like the Monster Hunter games and The Witcher series, cooking the proper meals is all but necessary preparation for taking on some of the harder enemies in the game. Those stat buffs, in turn, provide a concrete reason for combing the game's massive open-world map for vegetables, fruit and other cooking ingredients. All of these side systems connect and interlock in a way that feels clever and satisfying. Each of the side systems is supported by a real-time combat system. Final Fantasy 15 finds a medium between the strategic turn-based combat the series was raised on and a faster, action-game style that has become more popular in modern RPGs. Players only control Noctis, but unlike his allies, he can swap between any of the game's half-dozen or so weapon types. The core of combat is simple: You can hold a single button to continue a series of attacks on your target, modifying the angle and style of each swing by holding the left stick in different directions. Another button blocks and dodges, and another allows you to stylishly throw your weapon and warp toward an enemy, or warp out of battle if things get tough. While combat in Final Fantasy 15 doesn't provide the same level of control as in a full-fledged action title, it's approachable, and it's also flashy as hell. There's depth there, and I felt more comfortable and better able to fend off harder enemies the more time I spent with the system. But it's also set up in such a way that if you're not good at fast-paced games, you shouldn't have any trouble getting through at least the main story.

The only problem with Final Fantasy 15's combat is the terrible camera