Final Fantasy XV: 10 Essential Tips & Tricks You Need To Know

We've all invested a good few hours into questing across a vast and dangerous world, battling against the odds as we scrape through battles by the skin of our teeth and spend endless hours marching across the enormous landscapes - only to later learn all sorts of useful shortcuts.

Mixing potions will make you stronger, town signs allow you to fast travel, there is such a thing as a block button, to name but three.

Final Fantasy XV is the first entry in the series to throw us into a fully explorable open-world, as well as the first to utilise a real-time battle system. Throw in the latest take on the lore and the new magic system, there is a lot to learn, even for Final Fantasy veterans.

Fortunately, Square Enix have done a great job of making things intuitive, and you'll pick everything up quickly before you get frustrated; but there are still one or two things worth knowing before you fire up your engine and start your road trip with Noctis and his friends.

With some very minor spoilers for the opening chapter, here are our 10 top tips for your first hour in Eos.

The first choice you are presented with when you click 'New Game' is one most of us roll are eyes are.

"Would you like to complete the tutorials?"

Urgh!

Well, whilst I understand your resistance, Final Fantasy XV is a big change from the series we're used to. If nothing else, the battle tutorial will help you get to grips with the new real-time system and covers everything from warping to parrying, and from linking with team-mates to using magic.

Taking place inside one of Insomnia's training rooms, the paintings on the wall also give some brief insight into the lore and politics of the land, especially if you haven't yet seen Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV (the accompanying full-length movie).

Also, the training is lead by furry series regular, Carbuncle, who talks to you through texts in your phone, because video games.