Final Fantasy XV

(spoiler free. might be some hints of things in my screen caps that would come in trailers too)

I finally finished playing the Final Fantasy XV storyline. Wow. What a beautiful mess. Enjoyed it overall, but it could have been so much more...

For those who do not know, FFXV has been hyped for literally 10 years (fka FF XIII Versus in 2006). The final (rushed) product is a combination of a beautiful open world that consumed 5/6 of my playing time, with a messy story told in the short "second half" that felt extremely rushed and disjointed. That last part had so much potential, and after reading some forums, it sounds like a bunch good (and arguably necessary) story/character development and explorable areas got cut in favor of deadlines.

(On a side note, it's interesting to think about how game development and their deadlines parallels my own work environment. Like, the frustrations one feels when a bug goes through, or working with bad engine design, or dealing with new project directors)

Anyway. This game has consumed a ton of my social life in December. So, because I can, here are some of my favorite screen grabs from the game.

Group shot. Just one of many that the game prodded you to take. This was one aspect I rather enjoyed - it really felt like a road trip with your friends

Resting after a long day of riding a chocobo. Aww, now I want one...

The in-game snapshot mechanism grabs some interesting fights too

Altissia - fantasy worlds are rendered quite beautifully. I seriously want to visit this place

Beautiful cut scenes that they could have used a lot more of...

Again, this game was a beautiful mess

So eh, this is actually a glitch in chpt 12 - I fell off the train platform during a fight and couldn't get back up, so I wandered around a bit. Turns out this area was originally designed to be an exploratory area but got cut down to just the train platform fight. Shows how much potential that second half of the story had (especially in chpt 14 - really? no exploring at all??? sadness)

Now the music will be stuck in my head for weeks. Wheeeee this is why I stopped playing video games, because it takes over my life lol. But, I had fun with it. What am I saying, I'm still having fun with it.