You know, I kinda wish we got the rest of this game's DLC and it didn't get ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, because there's the bones of something truly special buried within Final Fantasy XV that I can't quite describe but I'm going to attempt to here anyway. Most of the people who would want to purchase this game probably already have, but since FFXVI is out and Clive is in Tekken 8, I'm sure people will probably have some mild interest in this and at that I think some explanation is warranted as to what this is, and what it is not.

This game is not a good story, but it is a story with good characters. It's not a good action game, but it is a game with good action. This game is not an open world adventure, but it does have a world that is open to have adventures in. This game is not a dungeon crawler, but it does have dungeons you can crawl through, sometimes literally. It's a simulacrum of many different types of games, coming together to create something that is greater than the sum of its parts, but probably in a bad way with how heavy it gets.

For example, this game has a LOT of side-missions and sidequests. Maybe I don't wanna do a solid 50-60 hunt quests where I go to a random place, kill a random monster and return for money I won't spend and materials I won't use. But the process of doing those quests, and going to those random locations and beating those random monsters, reveals something I might actually want to use, like a gathering point for materials I will use or a fishing spot for fish I will catch or a campsite for resting and eating food that is useful to continuing the game.

These missions aren't difficult. Nothing in this game is difficult, even its hardest challenges and most in-depth setpieces. It's an easy game, made even easier by how cracked out leveling up is even though they try to restrict you by only tallying experience when you rest. But since you can easily double the amount of experience you gain within the first hour of the game, and then in its second half find a way to triple it and go even further, it's not like leveling will actually be difficult. Same goes for equipment -- the materials you find are plentiful and the weapons and gear you can discover or that drop from enemies or bosses keep you going with minimal effort.

Shoot, you can even turn the game on an easier mode so you're just kinda rolling around steamrolling everything. Even the deadly monsters that appear at night that you're supposed to be afraid of (and probably are at first since they're three times your level) are actually pretty surmountable and later trivial because of the sheer number of recovery items and combat options you have for dealing with stuff like this. That doesn't even cover your ability to swap to any of your other bros and change what game you're playing (Dark Souls for Gladio, a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ DMC for Ignis and a surprisingly competent third person shooter for Prompto) when you don't feel like dealing with Noctis's busted-ass auto-fighting and teleporting powers.

So where IS the effort in this game? I suppose it's in riding chocobos over the sweeping landscapes, or admiring the scenery while you're doing the speed limit on the highway in your Mercedes-Benz, or the dopamine hit you get from doing an impromptu dual tech with your one-to-three best friends in the whole wide world or the cute little interactions the Backstreet Anime Boys have when they're chilling in the car or at camp. They play cards, they swipe their phones to help each other in gacha game raids, they hoist up and sit on the top of the seats in the convertible when the sun's out, they banter and laugh and give you a front-row seat to everything they do, every photo they take, every meal they eat. In that sense, this game is... Amazing. This journey is amazing, something truly wonderful to spectate and bring to its conclusion.

But that's the problem: You're spectating it. You're watching it unfold, but not really being an active participant in doing so. The plot is a series of checkpoints and serious conversations held by people who are far away from the moments that have ruined their lives and emotionally unimpactful developments that you know you're supposed to care about, but that you don't really understand. There's a few reasons why. The translation is one of them. If you pick up the English Subtitles For Japanese Voice-Over mod that uses yu_eriyama's retranslation of the story, you get a much stronger understanding of how the characters are feeling than in the original.

The other is probably the game's budgetary limitations and development hell. FFXV started life in 2009 as a side-game to Final Fantasy XIII, and we all know the story of how Squeenix handled that, including the disastrous launch of FFXIV and its later extremely popular revival and the general loss of brand power of Final Fantasy compared to the 90s and early 2000s. So when this game launched on the PS4, it was a complete mess; the story was barely complete (they had to add cutscenes that were just footage from the movie to make it make more sense), they had to expand and revise the final areas in a post-game patch, they only got to release four DLCs for the game out of a planned seven (most of the story's main heroines were supposed to get a DLC), and even the multiplayer was tacked-on but also unusually important for understanding the state of the world at the end of the game, which is never something you want to do.

Most FF fans know this already. This game is fraught. But you can see where decisions Squeenix made during this game's development showed up later. Kingdom Hearts 3's combat probably wouldn't be so loose and full of spectacle and ridiculous particle effects if this game didn't have them. Same goes for FFXVI. This game also sold well enough to give the developers the breathing room to make FFXIV something truly special, to make more, better Final Fantasy games and to release a bunch of remakes and updates of games that people loved in the past, like Trials of Mana or Saga Frontier Remastered. It saved the franchise, and it really tries to push the envelope of what an RPG actually is.

An RPG isn't necessarily just a set of numbers and statistics, or a narrative that you shape and participate through your actions. If we want to talk about roles, FFXV's role for you is pretty clear: You're here to enjoy the show. The anime boys are here to put it on for you, and be your guides through it, and maybe remind you that there's more fun to be had in the journey than just in its conclusion.

You know, I kinda wish we got the rest of this game's DLC and it didn't get shitcanned, because there's the bones of something truly special buried within Final Fantasy XV that I can't quite describe but I'm going to attempt to here anyway. Most of the people who would want to purchase this game probably already have, but since FFXVI is out and Clive is in Tekken 8, I'm sure people will probably have some mild interest in this and at that I think some explanation is warranted as to what this is, and what it is not. This game is not a good story, but it is a story with good characters. It's not a good action game, but it is a game with good action. This game is not an open world adventure, but it does have a world that is open to have adventures in. This game is not a dungeon crawler, but it does have dungeons you can crawl through, sometimes literally. It's a simulacrum of many different types of games, coming together to create something that is greater than the sum of its parts, but probably in a bad way with how heavy it gets. For example, this game has a LOT of side-missions and sidequests. Maybe I don't wanna do a solid 50-60 hunt quests where I go to a random place, kill a random monster and return for money I won't spend and materials I won't use. But the process of doing those quests, and going to those random locations and beating those random monsters, reveals something I might actually want to use, like a gathering point for materials I will use or a fishing spot for fish I will catch or a campsite for resting and eating food that is useful to continuing the game. These missions aren't difficult. Nothing in this game is difficult, even its hardest challenges and most in-depth setpieces. It's an easy game, made even easier by how cracked out leveling up is even though they try to restrict you by only tallying experience when you rest. But since you can easily double the amount of experience you gain within the first hour of the game, and then in its second half find a way to triple it and go even further, it's not like leveling will actually be difficult. Same goes for equipment -- the materials you find are plentiful and the weapons and gear you can discover or that drop from enemies or bosses keep you going with minimal effort. Shoot, you can even turn the game on an easier mode so you're just kinda rolling around steamrolling everything. Even the deadly monsters that appear at night that you're supposed to be afraid of (and probably are at first since they're three times your level) are actually pretty surmountable and later trivial because of the sheer number of recovery items and combat options you have for dealing with stuff like this. That doesn't even cover your ability to swap to any of your other bros and change what game you're playing (Dark Souls for Gladio, a shittier DMC for Ignis and a surprisingly competent third person shooter for Prompto) when you don't feel like dealing with Noctis's busted-ass auto-fighting and teleporting powers. So where IS the effort in this game? I suppose it's in riding chocobos over the sweeping landscapes, or admiring the scenery while you're doing the speed limit on the highway in your Mercedes-Benz, or the dopamine hit you get from doing an impromptu dual tech with your one-to-three best friends in the whole wide world or the cute little interactions the Backstreet Anime Boys have when they're chilling in the car or at camp. They play cards, they swipe their phones to help each other in gacha game raids, they hoist up and sit on the top of the seats in the convertible when the sun's out, they banter and laugh and give you a front-row seat to everything they do, every photo they take, every meal they eat. In that sense, this game is... Amazing. This journey is amazing, something truly wonderful to spectate and bring to its conclusion. But that's the problem: You're spectating it. You're watching it unfold, but not really being an active participant in doing so. The plot is a series of checkpoints and serious conversations held by people who are far away from the moments that have ruined their lives and emotionally unimpactful developments that you know you're supposed to care about, but that you don't really understand. There's a few reasons why. The translation is one of them. If you pick up the English Subtitles For Japanese Voice-Over mod that uses yu_eriyama's retranslation of the story, you get a much stronger understanding of how the characters are feeling than in the original. The other is probably the game's budgetary limitations and development hell. FFXV started life in 2009 as a side-game to Final Fantasy XIII, and we all know the story of how Squeenix handled that, including the disastrous launch of FFXIV and its later extremely popular revival and the general loss of brand power of Final Fantasy compared to the 90s and early 2000s. So when this game launched on the PS4, it was a complete mess; the story was barely complete (they had to add cutscenes that were just footage from the movie to make it make more sense), they had to expand and revise the final areas in a post-game patch, they only got to release four DLCs for the game out of a planned seven (most of the story's main heroines were supposed to get a DLC), and even the multiplayer was tacked-on but also unusually important for understanding the state of the world at the end of the game, which is never something you want to do. Most FF fans know this already. This game is fraught. But you can see where decisions Squeenix made during this game's development showed up later. Kingdom Hearts 3's combat probably wouldn't be so loose and full of spectacle and ridiculous particle effects if this game didn't have them. Same goes for FFXVI. This game also sold well enough to give the developers the breathing room to make FFXIV something truly special, to make more, better Final Fantasy games and to release a bunch of remakes and updates of games that people loved in the past, like Trials of Mana or Saga Frontier Remastered. It saved the franchise, and it really tries to push the envelope of what an RPG actually is. An RPG isn't necessarily just a set of numbers and statistics, or a narrative that you shape and participate through your actions. If we want to talk about roles, FFXV's role for you is pretty clear: You're here to enjoy the show. The anime boys are here to put it on for you, and be your guides through it, and maybe remind you that there's more fun to be had in the journey than just in its conclusion.