10 Things Nobody Wants To Admit About Final Fantasy XV

Jan 6, 2017 January 6th, 2017

1. The Combat Is Awful

I'm not saying Square should take the franchise back to the turn-based days of yore (though its fans would do backflips if they did), but if this hybrid of 'real-time' hack n' slash mixed with menus and no team-based oversight is the alternative, that might be the only way.

Because to be honest, Square have struggled immensely with their combat system every since FF XI/XII, where they alternately attempted a more 'streamlined' system and a 'pause and continue' setup, neither of which were all that satisfying to play.

In FF XV, you'll spend the vast majority of your time chugging endless potions from the R2 menu as you're constantly blindsided by enemies you can't track. Thanks to Noctis' animations needing to play out before he can switch from attacking to defending (a worthwhile gameplay mechanic if you were afforded the time to plan attacks and think about what was happening), FF XV feels like the epitome of style over substance.

You'll unlock new moves such as warp strike-chains and tons of abilities for your companions, but none of that matters when the base foundation of tracking foes and controlling Noctis is so lacklustre and off-putting. Everything from the abundance of side-content to the idea of replaying for gameplay alone falls apart, resulting in one of the most potentially innovative parts of the game failing to hit home.