Final Fantasy XV propels BFFs into fabulously messy epic

“Final Fantasy” may have tumbled from its ivory tower, but that doesn’t mean it can’t fight its way back to the top. “Final Fantasy XV,” in development since the Stone Age, has an ace up its sleeve – it pays tribute to the past, honoring what made the series so memorable, while simultaneously exploiting the various elements that make modern games tick. Games have evolved, and with them the consumers’ tastes; “Final Fantasy XV” participates in that evolution without sacrificing the spirit of the franchise by mashing together the old and the new in a beautiful, if not always coherent package.

Band of brothers

“Final Fantasy XV” opens innocuously enough – Crown Prince Noctis and his fabulous hair are off to Altissia, where he’s to wed Lady Lunefreya as part of a peace treaty between the kingdom of Lucis and the Niflheim empire. But Niflheim doesn’t exactly honor the treaty, and things take a turn for the worse.

Noctis and his Gucci-inspired duds turn back to salvage what’s left of his beloved Lucis, but it’s too late. And so he instead redirects his efforts towards fishing, sightseeing, sampling choice dishes, and oh, taking the throne back from its usurpers and thwarting a world-ending threat.

But Noctis isn’t alone on this quest. Joining him are his best friends: beefcake bodyguard Gladiolus, sophisticated fancypants Ignis, and lovable loser Prompto.

What friends are for

With an opening chapter so slow, I was left wondering why this game was ever made.

“Final Fantasy XV” entails a lot of driving – and not of the “Grand Theft Auto” kind, where you have total control over your car. Square Enix doesn’t want you running over people for giggles, so roads function like a magnet that keeps your ride where it’s supposed to be.

Because of its vast world, traveling between places can mean long, uneventful drives (thankfully, there’s an auto-drive mode, and the occasional fast travel). These trips are punctuated by entertaining banter between the friends. Sometimes, Prompto will want to pull over to photograph an impossible geographical formation. As night falls, Ignis will suggest finding a place to sleep, such as a motel. You can even run out of gas, prompting you to call a mechanic to tow your car back to the garage.

For a fantasy game, there’s a lot that’s mundane in “Final Fantasy XV.”

But as I got into the rhythm of things, I began to appreciate the attention given to these little details. Unlike “Final Fantasy XIII,” which was over-the-top but shallow, this game exercises restraint, allowing you to suspend your disbelief as it gradually eases you into the weirder stuff.

These slower moments also highlight the camaraderie shared by our gaggle of metrosexuals. Their friendship is reflected in every facet of the game, from the worry in your allies’ voices when someone is hurt in battle, to their conversations about girls, to the playful ribbing that’s a natural aspect of male friendships. These bonds of brotherhood serve as the warm, beating heart of “Final Fantasy XV.”

Embracing openness

The first half of “Final Fantasy XV” embraces the open-world design of Western RPGs, and for the most part, it works. The map is dotted with numerous points of interest, such as gas stations, restaurants, tiny settlements, cities, and more. Off the beaten path, you’ll find lush forests, scorching deserts, ancient monuments, monster nests, and dank dungeons. You’ll need to leave your car to explore these more exotic locations; thankfully you can eventually ride chocobos, which are capable of sprinting across any sort of terrain.

NPCs offer hordes of side missions, which can be done in any order. Sadly, most of them are generic fetch quests or monster hunts. As uninspired as many of them are, I tore through them greedily. Each one meant another excursion into one of the most beautiful game worlds ever created – not to mention an opportunity to flex my muscles in “Final Fantasy XV’s” excellent real-time combat system.

At a glance, combat is an uncomplicated affair. One button lets you string attacks together. Another lets you evade enemy strikes; dodge an attack in time, and you can parry for increased damage. A teleport button allows you to warp-attack targets, or blink hastily out of battle.

You control only Noctis, but you can command your friends to unleash special attacks. These range in power and utility and boast the capacity to turn the tide in your favor. Noctis also has the ability to switch weapons, or spells, on the fly during battle.

Magic in “Final Fantasy XV” isn’t what we’re used to. Noctis can harvest elemental energy from resource deposits throughout the world, then store them in flasks you can throw like grenades. You can even combine elements with items to give your “spells” special effects, such as the ability to heal yourself or poison enemies.

“Casting” magic doesn’t cost MP; instead, each flask has a cooldown timer. If you run out of flasks, you’ll have to make more, and you can’t make flasks without elemental energy. So there’s some resource management involved.

While incredibly powerful, magic can hurt your allies, making its use risky. Add to this the fact that enemies often attack in droves – necessitating quick evasive maneuvers and careful positioning – and you’ve got combat that’s as layered as it is fast, frenetic, and fun.

The camera can become quite unruly, however, especially when battle occurs in tight spaces. This includes heavily forested areas, where trees can obstruct your view almost completely.

The Ascension Grid allows you to pick new techniques and stat upgrades for your characters as they grow in experience. Additionally, new abilities are added to your repertoire as the story progresses. And it wouldn’t be a “Final Fantasy” without summons, which in this game take the form of almighty Astrals. Like your car, you don’t have complete control over your Astrals. Certain conditions have to be met for them to appear in battle; unfortunately, what exactly these conditions are are left vague.

Dude where’s my car

“Final Fantasy XV” undergoes a drastic shift in its second half. Not only does it abandon the open world to become more linear, it also experiments with various genres – to sometimes great, sometimes underwhelming effect.

Not one to hold back when it comes to spectacle, it works as an action-adventure game, complete with explosive “Uncharted”-style set pieces, death-defying stunts, and gargantuan bosses. But lacking engaging stealth mechanics, it makes a poor infiltration game. There are other segments that are far more jarring – almost as if they were designed with another game in mind.

It gets so messy you’ll miss the freedom and consistency of the game’s first half. Your fancy car and all those wonderful road trips will seem like artifacts from a distant past. Thankfully, there’s a way to revisit the open world, but it’s seems self-defeating to switch between what has become like several different games in one.

Story-wise, “Final Fantasy XV” grows more disjointed, too, the plot performing gymnastics that’ll leave your brain reeling. It’s good the game’s central themes remain intact to carry you through the chaos, all the way to the big payoff in the end.

And when you’ve finished the story, “Final Fantasy XV” offers excellent endgame content, with scores of additional bosses, dungeons, weapons, and items to discover. It takes 30 to 40 hours to complete said story, and over a hundred to unravel every juicy little secret.

Marvelous mess

“Final Fantasy XV” is oftentimes a confused mess, but it makes up for this with its enthralling open world, fantastic combat, generous content, and sheer spectacle. Noctis and company elevate a nonsensical story with a bromance so authentic you’ll feel you’re part of the gang. Indeed, the emotional impact of their friendship is one of the game’s highlights.

Even when its disparate elements struggle to gel, “Final Fantasy XV” is a marvel. If this is the direction the series is taking, I can’t wait for what Square Enix comes up with next. — TJD, GMA News

Rating – 9/10

Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One