2016 | PlayStation 4/Xbox One | Brotherhood on the Open Road
Final Fantasy XV (2016) had a troubled development - 10 years from announcement (as "Versus XIII") to release. Director changes, engine changes, platform changes - it was development hell.
What emerged: An open-world road trip with four bros in a car (the Regalia), full action combat (goodbye turn-based!), and a heartfelt story about brotherhood, duty, and sacrifice.
Visually stunning, emotionally resonant, but narratively messy - key plot points were in DLC, movies, and anime. Still, the bond between Noctis and his friends made Final Fantasy XV special.
→ Open-world exploration in fantasy/modern hybrid setting
→ Action combat - Final Fantasy's full departure from turn-based
→ "Stand By Me" (Florence + The Machine cover)
→ Noctis + bros bromance
Noctis Lucis Caelum - prince of Lucis - embarks on a road trip with his three best friends before his wedding to Lunafreya. Then his home city (Insomnia) is invaded, his father killed, and everything goes to hell.
The Four Bros:
The game is about their friendship. Camping, taking photos, banter, loyalty. You care about these guys.
Final Fantasy XV fully commits to action combat:
Combat is fast, flashy, and chaotic. Hold button to auto-attack, time blocks/parries, warp away to recover.
Some loved the action. Purists mourned the death of turn-based. Either way, this is FF's new direction.
The world of Eros blends fantasy and modern technology:
You drive the Regalia (a convertible car) across deserts, forests, and coastlines. Stop at diners (Cup Noodles product placement!), camp, fish, hunt monsters.
The open-world exploration captures the feeling of a real road trip with friends.
Lunafreya Nox Fleuret - Noctis's fiancée, Oracle who communes with gods - is criminally underused. She appears in cutscenes, then dies off-screen (mostly).
The ending: Noctis must sacrifice himself to purge the Starscourge (a plague of eternal night). After a 10-year time skip, he reunites with his friends one last time before dying to save the world.
The campfire scene - "Walk tall, my friends" - destroys you emotionally.
The final logo screen changes from the road trip photo to the wedding photo of Noctis and Lunafreya in the afterlife.
FF15's theme is a cover of "Stand by Me" by Florence + The Machine. It plays during the ending, and it wrecks you.
The song perfectly encapsulates the game's message: standing by your friends through darkness.
FF15's story was fragmented across media:
Critics rightfully slammed this. A game's story should be in the game.
Director Hajime Tabata left Square Enix, and support for FF15 ended prematurely.
Final Fantasy XV is flawed. The story is incomplete, Lunafreya deserved better, and requiring a movie/anime to understand the plot is inexcusable.
But the feeling of Final Fantasy XV - cruising with your friends, Ignis cooking meals, Prompto taking selfies, camping under the stars - that's magical.
The ending destroyed me. Watching those four friends take their final stand together, knowing Noctis won't make it back... "Walk tall, my friends."
Final Fantasy XV is about brotherhood. In that regard, it succeeds beautifully.
A flawed masterpiece. Bros before everything.