Thanks Final Fantasy: Photo Credit: Jon Hicks The Game of Nerds
I had cup of noodles for lunch at work 2 days in a row. Before yesterday I had cup of noodles exactly one time in my life. Thanks Final Fantasy 15! This picture would have led to 3 stats improvements in the game!
What in the world am I talking about? Read more below!
Final Fantasy 15 isn’t your standard Final Fantasy, it isn’t even my standard Final Fantasy, but it has grown on me in a big way. I have recently played, again, the very first Final Fantasy with the Nintendo Classic that has recently came out, it is one of the 30 titles included. When you see, and started playing from the original to now you see a lot of changes, which is to be expected. Sometimes though old habits take to long to die off, gone are the turn based “dance” of fighting. Where you get a turn, this monster gets a turn, your other fighter gets a turn all while planning your strategy ahead of time on when you should heal or when you should run away.
This game, like Final Fantasy Type-0, doesn’t allow you to have time to plan your next attacks, or check your Twitter account, or stuff your face with food before or during a fight. I can’t tell you how many times so far I have got involved in a fight and waited a few seconds before I got involved thinking I could fight on my own time. If I had to guess it would be 27, but whose counting really? One of the big differences here, and it expanded nicely off of Type-0, is that it is all open ended fighting, while on the mini map it will show an area in red where you can be in and still be involved in the fight. It does allow you time to go and hide and heal up, or try to form some link up attacks, it also shows you how far you have to run for your life if you are pitted against a 3 headed snake that is 30 levels above your characters. Who knew snakes liked waterfalls so much?
It has a learning curve for players not used to that style of game play but it won’t be to difficult of a transition, I can say that it does seem to stop when you are using items so that is a plus for first timers.
Without covering spoilers in regards to story line or anything, I can say that you will be playing the role of one specific character(up to my point of playing at least) with 3 other buddies journeying with you. You can work together (give direction) to your team when the bar is filled to the appropriate length. It is very effective for the most part and like all Final Fantasy games gives you a vast tree that you can customize your roster, which also gives you other options for chaining. The option so far I have found to be pointless, yet I still find the need to power it up is someone taking snapshots and selfies during battle.
The graphics are downright amazing, I had a roommate come in and ask if I was watching a movie at a certain point, the music like all Final Fantasy is top notch, it also has a way to hear old songs from previous games if you have a score that you really miss. You can listen to that with your Regalia, you know a Regalia? Oh wait you don’t? It’s a car, yep it’s just a car, in this game you do a lot of traveling by vehicle.
Cruising down, wait what road is this again? Why isn’t my hair moving? Photo Credit: Final Fantasy/Square Enix
While cruising you might run into some monsters, or monsters might run into you. In a way the landscape reminds me of my vision of Australia. Everything in the wild wants to kill you with some pockets of towns in between.
Not exactly sure what this monster is, but he doesn’t want to take turns that’s for sure. Photo Credit: Final Fantasy/Square Enix
With most Final Fantasy games the story is vast, you have side quests if you so choose to pursue along with stories. The 4 main characters all have special talents, abilities, and a lack of a better term talent. One is your photography king, and continues to level up and get new abilities or filters, you can even share a lot of your pictures on social media, and yes that includes food! Which leads me to another character, who learns recipes from dishes you eat, or books read, or finding ingredients in the wild and he can make dishes for the team at camps. Which is the natural lead in to a third character, whose ability is survival, he can make camps at designated spots so you can rest, regroup, eat some food etc. The last one is sort of off on his own, he is a master at fishing, he has a fishing rod, and you have to pay attention to the reel, and lures, and each lure is liked by different fish. It is quite fun actually, having a struggle with some fish, gathering items for dishes, or other things if you set your tree to that.
Final Fantasy has made it’s way into my regular life, I see myself making little statements from the game, that nobody else seems to understand. I ate some “cup noodles” which the team has had conversations about, but some things never change, I am not going to go camping and fishing anytime soon, you know unless it’s in the comfort of my own home.
Final Fantasy 15 is out now for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and I would recommend picking it up if you are on the fence.
