Being a big fan of the Final Fantasy games I decided a few months ago to get back into them as I haven’t played one since Final Fantasy IX. I went to my local Gamestop and picked up a copy of Final Fantasy Type-0, to say I was underwhelmed is an understatement, I couldn’t engage with the characters like I had previously with the likes of Cloud, Tifa, Squall and Zidane so I quickly traded it in and lost hope in the future of the series until I saw the trailer for Final Fantasy XV.

The game looked stunning, the battle system was still real-time and not turn based like the old games but it looked fluid and easy to pick up. Now I didn’t jump in two footed because of my earlier burn with Type-0 so I waited, read reviews (which were complimentary and mostly positive) and watched some gameplay on Youtube like the youths do these days. In the end I picked it up and man was I not disappointed, I picked up the Day One edition which came with a mini 16bit game called Final Fantasy: A Kings Tale (I will get back to that in a few minutes), bonus downloadable content in the shape of the Masamune sword and Gae Bolg Polearm (those of you up on your Irish Celtic Myths this was the spear used by the Irish legendary hero Cú Chulainn).

Before I jumped into the vast open world of Eos I decided I would watch the accompanying five episode anime shorts called Brotherhood to get a feel for the characters, they are a great way to meet the 4 main characters of the game, Prince Noctis, Ignis, Prompto and Gladiolus. Each episode covers their backstory and how they all came to be friends with the young Prince with the first and last episode focusing on a part of their road trip. So with all that information I got started.

￼

Now here was my first mistake, never start a Final Fantasy game after a few beers, especially if you think changing the language to Japanese is a great idea because it makes it feel more authentic (how hipster of drunken Dec) after three hours of playing the game into the early hours of the morning I woke to realise I couldn’t remember a thing about it, the story, the battle system, what buttons to press and for what, it was a red letter day for stupid me and after playing it for so long I decided that I would need to start again but didn’t until last night, a good few months after purchase.

You see I have another gaming love and that is the Battlefield series and with One being released poor FFXV was put away with all the other games I haven’t got back into playing. That was until I watched Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV movie, now I know the movie isn’t on par with Advent Children but it is way better than Spirits Within and it is based at the same time as the game but in the city of Insomnia and the peace treaty talks with the kingdoms of Lucis and Niflheim, I won’t spoil the film as I think it’s worth a watch so that’s all I’m giving you.

Anyway after watching Kingsglaive I decided it was the time to XV again but first while waiting on the game to update (god I wish we had cartridges again) I played the little 16bit mini game A Kings tale, now this was a fun game, its starts with King Regis telling a small Prince Noctis a bedtime story but this time the Prince wants a new one so the King tells him the tale of him and his friends fighting together to retrieve the magical crystal from evil which is pretty much what Noctis will be doing in the not so distant future. The game was a great throwback to the old side scrolling hack and slash games with a bit of magic thrown in, it wasn’t too long and even if it got a bit repetitive they added in some classic Final Fantasy monsters just to keep you interested.

So the time came to actually play FFXV, after months of huffing and puffing I got straight into it, the starting cinematics were beautiful to watch, from the flash back/forward of Noctis and his friends fighting a demon to the young Prince saying goodbye to his father as he embarks on his trip to the capital of Altissia to marry the Lady Lunafreya, all the way to seeing the four friends at the side of the road with a broken down car and deciding to push it as the opening credits start as “Stand by me” plays out the scene.

After we get introduced to the scantily clad and self-proclaimed “Grease monkey” Cindy whose grandfather is Cid (No not that Cid from FF7 another one that happens to be a mechanic) a friend of the kings and is also in A King’s tale, we do some menial driving quest then find out about the monster hunters and the reward quests in the diners that you can complete for some Gil (FF currency) and maybe a loot drop.

These Monster quests are fun and get harder the higher the Monster Hunter level you are and the higher the monsters level you are, I cleared the first few pretty handy but that changed when I had to fight at night against 5 blobby Flan monsters, my first mistake was running at night to the spot where said monsters could be found, my second mistake was deciding to take a shortcut and ending up fighting 3 bombs (floating fire heads that get larger and explode near you) and an accompanying Iron Giant which killed 2 of my companions and took a good half hour to put down, if all that wasn’t a killer I decided to fast travel and it turned to day which meant I could fight my monsters so I ended up running around for a whole day cycle killing random monsters until it went dark and I could kill and claim my bounty.

After clearing that area I made my way to the next place which was a coastal area where you are travelling to, to get a ferry and I enjoyed a solid hour of fishing there….yes an hour of fishing in a game just because, that’s Final Fantasy for you, more of the story unfolds around this time so I won’t go into too much more detail but I did make it to the next chapter and saved it as it was 4 in the morning and no doubt I would be up in a few hours to do something with the family.

I will continue on in the story and write more about my travels into Eos but for now I will leave it there, if you get a chance pick up this game and give it a go, with FF7 remake coming out and possible other remakes it’s a good time to jump in and just enjoy the experience.

Cheers, Dec