Final Fantasy XV: 6 Ups & 8 Downs

Downs

8. The Story Is Disappointingly Minimal

One of the hallmarks of any Final Fantasy game is a dense narrative filled with exposition, plot twists and character-driven drama.

While FFXV has all of those things, they're in much smaller measure than most fans will be both expecting and probably hoping for.

Much like last year's Metal Gear Solid V, the game throws you out into an open world and relies on a lot of "emergent storytelling" rather than reams of cut-scenes and dialogues.

A bit part of the problem is that, in order to fully understand the story, you really need to watch the Kingsglaive movie and Brotherhood anime, which at best feels like a lot of effort just to get the full story, and at worst feels like a cynical attempt to take even more money from fans' pockets just to know what the hell is going on.

It helps that the core story is actually one of the simplest and most coherent of the entire series, but it ultimately doesn't prove that interesting because it's just "there" and doesn't give much reason to get particularly invested in it.