Final Fantasy XV is back in 2018 with a return to the adventures of Noctis and friends in a Royal edition

With a mobile version of the game already out, it’s clear that Square Enix is not giving up on Final Fantasy XV any time soon. A game that had a rocky launch in 2016 has been patched and improved over the years, as the team listened to feedback. They’ve sculpted their fantasy sci-fi hybrid of a game into a definitive edition that has been repackaged on consoles as The Royal Edition. PC gamers are also getting the love in the form of a Windows Edition with extra content, and a whole lot of magic going on under the hood. Let’s see if this definitive edition brings to life the final vision of Final Fantasy XV.

Final Fantasy XV Developer: Square Enix

Publisher: Square Enix

Price: ₹2,499 for the Royal Edition for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, Windows Edition for PC

What’s it about?

Eos is a world very much like today. With smartphones, cars, gas stations, ferries and even selfies, except it’s all drenched in a layer of high fantasy, with gigantic monsters that roam the lands. Magic is predominant and harnessed in every facet of technology, from powering massive airships to cars and cities. An interesting world, where you play as Prince Noctis Lucis Caelum, the heir to the throne of Lucis, set to wed the beautiful Lunafreya Nox Fleuret, a princess and an oracle whose land, Tenebrae, is under the control of the Niflheim empire. Noctis, along with his entourage, sets out on a roadtrip across Eos to fulfil his duty in marrying Lunafreya. Except that Niflheim has invaded Lucis on his departure, murdering his father and taking control of the crystal. Final Fantasy XV is still very thick with lore, and even with a free animated feature film called Kingsglaive, it’s still a massive tome to digest.

At its core, Final Fantasy XV is quintessentially ‘bro’. Where Noctis travels with his friends Ignus, Prompto and Gladiolus across Eos, like a big boyband with hairdos that defy gravity, even in combat. The fun of the game is in the personalities of your friends that stay consistent throughout, always entertaining and surprising, making you wish you had friends like them in real life. Gladiolus, for instance, loves the great outdoors, and can set up an entire campsite from thin air. In combat, he’s the designated tank. Ignus is the prim and proper driver of the team, who also doubles as the cook. Lithe Prompto is the photographer who chronicles the entire journey with fun pictures of your exploits. The AI that governs this band of brothers is fantastic and so is their writing, which gives you those warm and fuzzy bro-feels. Not to be left out is Luna, beautiful, confident, strong.

With these, and a supporting cast of quirky characters, you will quickly gag and dump lore into the back seat of the Regalia and appreciate the game for what it really is: an engaging RPG with a vast, open world filled with things to do; a heartfelt game with many a warm moment to balance its flaws. Both editions contain all the DLCs, including the Episode Gladiolus, Prompto and Ignis, as well as a Companions Multiplayer. Though the PC version gets a first-person mode and a new dungeon, and you also get to roam around in a boat.

How does it play?

Final Fantasy XV starts off with our four heroes pushing a busted Regalia, their magnificent car, slowly towards a repair station. It gets off to a slow and grating start, as you have to soldier on through the flashy but boring intros, as well as the gnawing training tutorial. Once things kick off, and you’ve gotten your hand of the mechanics, the fun starts creeping up on you. Before you know it, it will already be morning and you’re rushing to get ready for the day. In the first half, you’re thrown into the large open world of Eos to drive around and explore, which is by far the best part of the game. In the second half, things tend to get serious and linear, as you hurtle towards the endgame. What’s changed in the Royal Edition is the addition of a new scene towards the end, among other things.

The game is about roaming around doing sidequests, progressing through the story, and taking up some fun bounty hunts, which have you hunt down creatures or saving people. Exploring is superb and the game world has a sense of vastness to it, which has its upsides and downsides, especially when you have to trudge a long way back to turn in a bounty. The most fun you will have in the game are the camping spots at the end of the day, where your friends take a breather from killing, with Ignus cooking up a rejuvenating meal, Prompto sharing his pictures with you while you level up.

The combat is a lot of fun, with each character having its own special moves and a very competent and fun AI. Battle is a combination of the trademark menu-based battle you commonly see in Japanese RPGs, along with a hack-n-slash freedom to it. You aren’t rooted to the spot taking damage, forcing you to juggle menus to get the right attack; in Final Fantasy XV, you get to dodge attacks. The menus in Final Fantasy XV come into play only when you want to lob magic, heal or launch into a combination strike. All your buddies complement you well, and for the most part of the game, you fight with them. You fight primarily as Noctis, and you get to use a whole bunch of very cool weapons in teleportatic ways, as you zip around the battlefield slashing and warping out.

Square Enix has been getting a lot of flak with their atrocious port of their classic game Chrono Trigger on PC. Thankfully, Final Fantasy XV looks fantastic on the PC. Nvidia puts those raven locks of Noctis, Prompto’s blonde tresses or even that spear-like precipice that Ignus calls hair, through a rigorous graphical shampoo that is called Hairworks, making everything look shiny and magical, with an incredible level of detail. The Windows edition definitely ups the polish factor, but if you own a PSPro or an XBox One X, the Royal edition looks pretty good too.

Should you get it?

If you’re dying to play Final Fantasy XV on a PC, there’s nothing to hold you back in getting the Windows edition. For those who have not yet played this game, now’s the best time. If you do own the base game on console, you can upgrade it to the Royal edition for a smaller price. If you have played the game, then there’s really not much to come back to, but if you haven’t, then you’re in for a visual treat.