Final Fantasy XV – First Impressions

The Final Fantasy XV demo, ‘Episode Duscae’, is now available from ebay and it’s worth getting because it comes with a free copy of a game called Final Fantasy Type-0. For me the new console generation doesn’t officially get started before the launch of the first great JRPG and, like it or loathe it, the Final Fantasy series has undeniably contributed some of the most impressive early games in terms of scope and graphics on each console. The appearance of the first meteorologically named emo silent protagonist from its burrow is as significant to me as that of the groundhog; a barometer to the quality of the coming season.

And whilst the nostalgic amongst us hold the early entries in unnaturally high esteem, I prefer the later instalments in a series that, despite its ripe old age, seems to be innovating with each release. The ungenerous out there might pass this off as a long in the tooth series, desperately trying to be relevant (kind of like a grandma getting her hair dyed purple), but I feel there is still a good deal of innovation happening under the hood.

As Square Enix here seem to be testing the waters (hardly surprising given the unjustly negative reception of Final Fantasy XIII), then I thought I might oblige by putting forward my positive and negative impressions of the game.

THE GOOD

It’s Big!
Really big! Whilst you had to wait the best part of twenty hours for Final Fantasy XIII to open out and introduce you to Pulse, Duscae gives you that moment after the first short cutscene. With giant prehistoric beasts going about their business, and rugged wilderness stretching off into the distance, it’s a moment of impact worthy of Jurassic Park. And this is just one backwater area where your car broke down. Considering past statements, I can’t wait to see the cities!

Seamless battle transitions
When you near an aggressive creature, a bar fills at the top of the screen, and if it tops out you’re in a fight. That’s it! No frustrating random encounters. No swirling, shattering screens masking load cycles, and whisking you away to a fighting arena abstracted from the main environment. Magitek troopers even drop onto your head from roving space craft. Brilliant!

That combat system
It’s not just the transitions that are delightfully fluid, but the radically new combat system, which is entirely real time, in a move that feels a long time coming. The balance between attack and defence, including timed parries, adds a strong skill based element to combat that was traditionally just a numbers game. In the demo you solely control Noctis, who fights by summoning different weapons from thin air as he strikes. These weapons each possess different attributes as well as dictate your special attacks, and each can be slotted into one of five spots to alter the flow of combat. It’s a potentially deep system that seems informed by the paradigm shifts of Final Fantasy XIII.

Day/night cycle
In order to hear that famous victory fanfare, you’ll have to bed down for the night at one of the area’s camp sites, where your XP gets collated and levels awarded. It’s a bold step from convention (or is it an elaborate return of the ‘tent’ item from earlier games?) that if used well could give an element of risk to your adventures. There’s an impressive looking day/night cycle that encourages you to make use of this system, as the darkness makes it harder and harder to find your way.

Hunting Dead Eye…
Duscae’s main quest revolves around stalking and killing a cranky one eyed monster. The series of events that lead to your confrontation, although scripted, give a tremendous sense of unfurling drama. There’s a dynamism to Duscae’s set pieces that we haven’t really seen in the series before outside of their incredible cinematic cut scenes.

THE BAD

…Killing Dead Eye
However, the first time you encounter Dead Eye you die, because the game doesn’t tell you that he’s simply too hard to beat. Then you reload and you die again (but not before going through the whole lead up to the fight, thanks to some bad checkpointing). By now all of the drama built up prior to the fight has drained away and you’ve likely chucked your controller across the room. I don’t exactly want the game to hold my hand, but a small clue as to what hoops it wanted me to jump through (go to a nearby cave and collect the game’s equivalent of an esper, which completely trivialises the fight) would have been nice.

Framerate
It seemed the game’s frame rate was constantly dropping or snagging in or out of battle. Clearly the game’s graphics and the size of the environments present incredible resource challenges, and a lot of the underlying systems of the game are still being refined and worked on. Hopefully they’ll fix it and this release won’t go the way of AC: Unity.

The camera and locking on
At present the camera is rather unwieldy and very slow to move (there doesn’t seem to be a sensitivity option in the demo), which is an inconvenience whilst travelling, but a serious problem whilst surrounded by enemies. What’s more you’re often fighting against what the game seems to want you to look at, which makes it hard to lock on and is at its worst when using warp strike to teleport away from battle.

You cannae drive the car cap’n!
Speaks for itself really. The ‘Regalia’ looks like it will be one of the more unusual forms of transport in a series that has utilised everything from airships and giant canaries to ‘shoopuffs’. Since there is a ‘drive’ option in the travel menu, one can only hope you get to put it through its paces in the full game.

You only play as Noctis
Given the complexity and uniqueness underlying his combat system, it seems unlikely that you’ll be able to control your fellow party members in the full game, and whilst this might be a tragedy for some, I must admit I prefer to concentrate on one more nuanced character, rather than micromanaging a sprawling party. Still I hope the game takes a leaf out of Final Fantasy XII’s book and allows you to influence the AI of your companions a little more deeply.

Cindy’s zipper is busted…
I honestly couldn’t decide whether to put this in the pros or the cons section. Whilst it’s great to see a woman doing what traditional society might label a ‘man’s job’ (she’s the mechanic who fixes up your car, and is supposedly the game’s take on the legendary ‘Cid’), and she is undoubtedly an attractive lady, Cindy seems to be having a fan-service related wardrobe malfunction. Hopefully there are female characters in the full game as well drawn as Yuna – or male characters for that matter, considering your entire party look like they’ve walked out of a Japanese boy band cover shoot.