7 Reasons To Be Excited About Final Fantasy XV
1. The Battle System
Sorry, classic Final Fantasy fans - XV's battle system is nothing like the active time battles of old.
Instead, Square Enix have opted for a completely new, original battle system which has been around ever since the game was first announced as Final Fantasy Versus XIII.
It's sure to be divisive. XV's combat is more reminiscent of Kingdom Hearts rather than Final Fantasy; you'll take part in realtime battles where you, as protagonist Noctis, can run around and attack as you see fit by using weaponry assigned to various buttons.
As a prince of Insomnia, Noctis has the ability to summon various weapons at will from mid-air. This allows you to chain together combos using axes, swords and loads of other weaponry and you can also use cues from your allies (who fight without you controlling them) to perform stronger combination attacks which will appear on the fly depending on how the fight is going.
Noctis can also throw his weapon at a point away from the battle and briefly hang in the air to regain health, or use this move to attack an enemy from a distance. Magic is also slightly different in XV; instead of MP, you'll get useable items which will perform magical spells (it rather reminds me of Final Fantasy VIII's draw system; you even have to restock these by using 'draw' points throughout the world).
All I'll say is don't knock it until you've tried it. Yes, it may not be 'classic' Final Fantasy turn-based combat, but think about, how many Final Fantasy games have truly had the same battle system? Not many.
VII has its materia system; VIII has the draw system; IX is more traditional; X has an improved ATB system where you can swap out members; X-2 has the dressphere system and XII had a combat system which was more at home in an MMORPG.
XV's combat is new, fresh and exciting. I, for one, am looking forward to smashing a Marlboro in the face with a warp strike before chaining together an epic combo with Noctis' mates and then unleashing a summon of epic proportions.
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Where you on the Final Fantasy XV hype-o-meter? Let us know in the comments!