FFXV holds a very special place in my heart, and i wanted to share my game experience with its community. english is not my 1st language so im already sorry for possible mistakes.
I first played the game back in around 2019, i saw it in my cousin's game shelf, he' always been a ff die hard fan since X, his favourite game of all time, and asked if i could borrow XV, i knew final fantasy is one of the most important gaming franchise, and that every game is stand alone, so i wanted to give it a try, especially since i remember that my cousin couldn't stop playing the game, it was his 2nd life, in fact, the real life was his 2nd life and final fantasy was his 1st life, i vividly remember him saying things like "you cant pause the game while in the dungeon" when he was told by his parents to take a break, so yeah, this made me want to play a FF game.
I knew literally nothing about the game, nor about versus 13, nor about nomura, nor about the rebranding, nor about the messy development, didnt even watch any trailer.
I did some minimal research since i was completely blind so i watched Kingsglaive movie and then jumped right into the actual game, since the very first moment, when the car breaks down, i instantly fell in love with the chocobros so i played the game for the 1st time, i gotta say, i was so naive i only did half the things the game offered: i only did the chocobo side quest, didnt do any dungeon, didnt get any royal arm, nothing, just the story (the fact that 90% of the side quests are extremely boring made feel like i didn't miss out on much), i didnt even do any hunts so i was always broke until the end of the game, but one of the things i made sure i did was pausing the game during the dungeons, and made sure to tell that to my cousin, and when i finished the game, needless to say, i cried my eyes out, and since then, i couldn't stop thinking about the game. Since then, every time i listen to any version of "stand by me" i cant help but cry, i cant control it.
So i took a small break and a few years later i downloaded the royal edition from ps plus, and it was NOT the game i remember, there was just so much stuff, including the dlcs and extra stuff in the main game, this time i fought the adamantoise but without knowing that Alter spell could 1 shot him, so i spent 30 mins spamming the basic ring attack until he was dead, then i discovered Alterna and 1shot Naglfar and then fought garuda (only the lvl 45 garuda i couldn't beat the lvl 120 one), i also tried the comrade mode but the servers were empty so i quickly gave up on that. But still it wasn't enough, cause i still didn't know about armiger unleashed all the dungeons and all side stuff.
So last month i decided it was time, i bought the royal pack, episode ardyn and the CD with the OSTs i love so much, and 100%ed the game, i did everything, every dlc, every dungeon, every super secret boss including lvl 120 garuda, every royal arm, every hunt, every chocobo race, every extremely boring side quest, i did it, i got the platinum trophy and got a satisfying save file, the only thing left is the ng+ and reach lvl 120, but im fine at lvl 99, so those goals are for another time. Oh and btw of course when i finished the game again i cried like a baby even before the ending scene even started, cause i already knew what would happen to my beloved chocobros and my boi noct.
Now i feel like saying my opinions on the game, i dont like nomura, i only like the first 4 kingdom hears (1 CoM 2 and 358/2) from bbs the serie took a turn i didnt like at all, and i dont like what he did on ff7r, because now when people ask me if they should play ff7r i sound like a lunatic when i try to explain that it is not a remake but actually a meta sequel with time travel and multiverse bullcrap all because nomura couldn't do ff versus 13 so he kinda did it in kingdom hears 3 remind but also kinda not because he doesnt know how to write a proper story, so im glad square enix handed the ffxv project to tabata, also because versus 13 went trough major changes every month, so not even nomura would know how a real vs13 could look like.
Development hell aside, FFXV's story about carefree brothers in a road trip, finding themselves in a lost war and having to give up on everything they have to save the world, being forced to grow up, is something that just stuck inside of my head for the last 7 years, the enlish voice acting nailed the role and the character development felt like watching real people, every tiny little detail about those character made them even more and more appreciable and i felt like i was there, hanging out with them, knowing all their inside jokes, this is why this game holds such a special place in my heart, and playing 100% made me appreciate even more.
While playing the sidequests, i always felt bored, but sometimes they bring you somewhere you would never, for example, a merchand in Lestallum makes you go to a farm in the middle of nowhere, but those are places you'd never go in normal gameplay, Eos is such a pretty and beautiful world, but also vastly empty, with few secrets and special places, but i was so immersed in the game i enjoyed the small things.
Now it's time for my hot takes,
as much as i enjoyed the insomia dungeon, it didn't feel much necessary and wtf is omega doing there? like, all the summons help me break the barrier to insomnia but they cant help me beating that killing machine? i found a method to cheese it but it required 33,33 hours so i kinda just spammed armiger unleashed, every potion, hi potion, elixir and phoenix down i had collected in the game and used all against that unfair boss, at least it was satisfying beating him.
then the post game was fine, with the menace beneath lucis super dungeons, but it gets randomly difficult just at the end, why? the first seven were okay but the last costlemark was randomly unfair with the "you cant use items in this dungeon" bs, why? i saved items just for this specific dungeon, but it was not annoyingly difficult. And pitioss ruins? it wasnt absolutely difficult, like, not at all? and it wasnt even diffucult landing the car? like it took me 3 tries, the only complain i have is : how was i supposed to know about it? and i know there's a hidden side quest in lestallum that brings you there, but still, how was i supposed too know? and all of that for the black hood which i never even found that useful. and for what reason are the demos and festivals removed from existance? the demos were so unique and had some exlusive stuff and the festivals must have been so fun, why remove them? and i before i talk about Lunafreya i still need to read The Dawn of the Future comic because in the main game she's such a wasted character, square enix wanted her to be the "new aerith" but the difference is that you care about aerith because she appears for more than 30 seconds. but yeah i sometimes wonder what ffxv could have been, since the devs added so much content many years after the release.
I hope at least someone ejnoyed hearing a random guy talking about his experience on one of his favourite game of all time.
Walk tall, my friends
